Marketing Automation, Web Video and Social Media
Posted: 1/28/2010 11:32:47 AM by
Mike Rogers | with 0 comments
It’s finally here: the new Apple tablet, or iPad. With its 9.7-inch display and multi-touch sensors, the 0.5 inch thin and 1.5 pound iPad is revolutionizing the way we think about handheld devices. The iPad not only has a compass, speaker, microphone, and 10-hour battery life, but also has even more apps than ever. But, how exactly is this relevant to you as a small business? With the increasing influx of information regarding future iPad apps, more specifically the iBook app, this technological innovation can be utilized to benefit the marketing of your business.
One app in particular that has created an enormous amount of buzz is the iBooks app. iBooks is like iTunes, but for books. With full color display, HD resolution, and changeable book fonts, Apple is transforming the way we ingest information. Apple has already created partnerships with major publishers so that the iBook app will have a wide array of content for its built in iBookstore and virtual bookshelf. According to PCMag these include: Penguin, Harper-Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmilllan, and the Hachette Book Group. For small companies the task of finding their way onto the iBook app may seem daunting, however they may just have to go through these major companies to get the job done.
This morning, Apple also released a software development kit (SDK) for the iPad, which provides the tools and software necessary for a universal app creation for the iPhone, iPod touch, and now, the iPad. The enormous amount of interest in this software is overwhelming and not at all unexpected. According to a study conducted by Appcelerator, over 90 percent of developers have taken an interest in creating at least one Apple iPad application after its release. This development software is only available to those who have already purchased Apple's program for the iPhone, so for those of you who are currently enrolled, you're in luck. If you are one of the many who have not enrolled in this iPhone software, you will need to purchase the iPhone developer program for a fee of $99/year (for the standard program) or $299/year (for the enterprise program). After you have done so, you can then download the SDK software for the iPad and begin developing!
What does all this mean for a small/midsized business? Increased competition. So if you are considering creating an app for the iPad, act NOW. To understand this, just think about the 140,000 apps created for the iPhone already. If the same trend goes for iPad apps, the competition in this marketplace will reach new heights. For small business owners, this fact is even more omnipresent because you have to battle against the big guys, along with the already prevalent app world overall. According to the HuffingtonPost, Chad Evans from MLB.com has already displayed an app that streams live video content. It is vital that you have your app developed quickly and creatively. Do you want to get a late start and create an app for the iPad at the beginning of the game or would you rather wait?
With this new SDK software that translates the iPhone apps into iPad ones, the anticipated number of iPad apps is incredible. This calls for especially new and creative ideas for businesses interested in developing an iPad app because now you have all the iPhone apps, plus the new iPad apps with which to compete. The large screen of the iPad does however create opportunities for app development that differs from that of the iPhone. As a small to midsized business owner, use this to your advantage!
Once you have created an app for the iPad, you must advertise it. Do the same for the iPad app that you have done with your website, video content and blogs in terms of increasing your SEO results and traffic to your business. Simply advertise an app for your company through these communication media and you will increase the marketability of your business. Also, as a small business, you probably already have a specific target audience, so gear your app toward them both in price and content. It is not an easy task, but if start quickly you may see valuable results.
According to a survey conducted by vouchercodes, of the 3000 people asked, 54% said they would consider buying an Apple tablet. The main utilities of the device would include: web browsing, downloading books, watching movies and videos, and downloading music. So what does this mean for you as a small business owner? For starters, you can effectively market your business through video content on the Internet and have it show up on consumers’ Apple tablet! Since Apple has announced its negotiations with YouTube to create an app for the iPad, it is important that you try to increase your video-link content in SEO results so that it can show up on the YouTube app or relevant links. If you relate the previous blog “Promote your website for free,” no matter how small your business is, increasing video search results through these various websites could translate into viewings on the new Apple Tablet. Also remember: in your video, always make sure you link back to your main website, blog, and now your new iPad App in order to ensure maximum SEO results.
With all this new technology, the Apple iPad could serve to replace some use of at-home computers. As a small business, this means that you must adapt to the ever-changing times and realize that much of consumer media usage may in fact be on this 9.7-inch handheld device.
Posted: 1/27/2010 12:04:32 PM by
Mike Rogers | with 0 comments
iSlate, iPad, iGuide? Come on Apple; give us a name already! What other names for the new Apple tablet will be underway in the next few months? Apple has just recently unveiled this as-of-now unnamed tablet computer that fuses the technologies of laptops and handheld devices. Although many companies like Toshiba Corp and Hewlett Packard Co. have introduced similar tablets with Windows based operating systems, Apple plans to revolutionize the way in which individuals currently interact with media. With all of the surreptitious information regarding this new product, Apple has created an enormous amount of buzz in the same way that it originally did with the iPhone.
The new Apple tablet is expected to look like a very large version of the iPod touch with multimedia offerings, allowing people to play games, read electronic books and newspapers, go on the web and even watch movies and television shows. With a 10.7” screen and resolution of up to 5 to 6 times more than the iPhone, the tablet will offer superior picture options for wireless access to photos, music, videos, games, and much more.
It has been released that Apple is working to enhance its audio, video gaming, electronic book features. In December, Apple acquired the music-streaming service La La Media Inc. in order to revamp its current audio system, while videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. is one of the target companies with which Apple is looking to negotiate a contract. In terms of magazines, electronic books and newspapers available on the tablet, Apple has also been in talks with HarperCollins Publishers, the New York Times, and Condé Nast Publications Inc.
Video content is a major focus regarding the capabilities of this new product. With a screen size of 720x1280 pixels, the tablet will offer a 720p high-definition resolution that will be incredible for video streaming. But how exactly does Apple plan to provide this for its consumers? So far, Apple has been seen working on deals with various television networks and YouTube for valuable and quick access to video content. It has also been speculated that Apple is consulting with television networks, like Walt Disney Co. and CBS Corp, in order to make it possible for consumers to purchase monthly subscriptions and access on-demand video content.
It is clear that the new Apple tablet will be a revolutionary piece of technological machinery, however information pertaining to its video streaming speeds specifically are still in the woodworks. Although there has been much speculation about the speed at which video streaming will be made possible for the Apple Tablet, it is expected that 3G speeds would be enough to back most video and media communications. According to Matt Hamblen of Computerworld, in order to support a more intricate video feature, talks have been in place with Verizon and AT&T about Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in order to ensure fasters speeds of video streaming. Although it is still unclear as to which service provider, or both, will be supporting this feature for Apple, both plan to launch LTE services between 2010 and 2011. Of course, this multifaceted feature is still speculation and would require Apple to update its product for such LTE connections, however it is clear that the possibilities are limitless with this new piece of technology.
Although Apple desires to be the market leader in this entirely new product category, the introduction of the new tablet serves as an technological archetype that could now begin to revolutionize and revamp the computer and consumer electronics industries. But, with all the buzz being generated about this new product, Apple cannot expect other companies to sit back and stand on the sidelines. According to Bruce Einhorn and Tim Culpan of BusinessWeek, Acer plans to launch a similar product of its own that will have unique modifications and features that vary from the tablet. The new Apple tablet will set the bar high for other companies, thereby increasing the competition and value of video and communications media in this industry.
Apple is strategic in its thinking. Whereas the past introductions of new Apple products were unveiled in ready to ship form, failing to do so with the tablet will undoubtedly create even more hype and anticipation for this products eventual release. Maybe it will generate enough excitement to gain media company and TV network interests in forming contracts with Apple? With all this speculation, it is clear that Apple will serve as a paradigm for new communications and multimedia technology. The new tablet will, if it hasn’t already, begin to transform video and media technology and the way we purchase and process various forms of multimedia as we know it.
Posted: 1/20/2010 2:57:41 PM by
Mike Rogers | with 0 comments
It has been widely reported that Zappos has achieved a 5-30% increase in sales conversion by utilizing video product demos on their website. This makes complete sense since users cannot (yet) touch and feel a product online and they need additional ways to become familiar with something they may never have seen in real life. Video product demos can provide consumers with a better understanding of a product and how it can perform for them.
Even better than the Zappos example is the success of informercials and TV shopping networks. These mediums use video as the primary driver of sales. Video will continue to grow as an effective medium to provide depth of information, not only on e-commerce sites, but on information-driven sites such as news outlets and written entertainment. With the explosion of video-capable smartphones and netbook sized computers, consumers can now access video content just as easily as text, most of the time. If you are not using video, now is the time to start thinking about it.
Producing video instead of written content has a number of advantages. First is the ability to distribute that video content to numerous outlets where people can find you. At this moment, duplicate video content is not heavily penalized by the search engines because it is relatively undetectable. Cross-posting your content, even if it is product-specific, is a great way to potentially leverage the power of sites like youTube, Google Video and other niche sites. YouTube is now the #2 search engine on the planet. If you sell products, you MUST be creating video and distributing it on YouTube with focused attention to SEO.
If you produce video for demonstration purposes, make sure that you do not treat it as a replacement for product art. For example, don't just shoot a picture of the product itself. Rather, demonstrate its actual usage, let the potential customer see how they may use the product. The goal, after viewing the video, would be for a consumer to imagine themselves using the product in their own particular situation.
Watch some infomercials and the home shopping network to gain ideas about the language the pitchmen use. You need to convey a sense of urgency and enthusiasm for the product. However, be genuine; video is very revealing and a viewer will know if you are actually passionate about a project. If you have never done this before, you will want to make many takes to rehearse and get it correct. You are looking for clear speech, good screen presence, conscise product descriptions, and drive the user to add the product to the cart and checkout. Adding a verbal call to action at the end of your pitch is a good idea to consider.
Posted: 1/14/2010 10:41:52 AM by
Mike Rogers | with 0 comments
Think you want to be in the Internet marketing space? The most important thing to remember is to think of it as a "Just Do It" campaign. You want to get ready and just do it. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time, but what we like to say is "Just do it, NOW!"
The reason why we say "NOW" is because we encourage people to always be testing, trying new methods of marketing, trying new ways to connect with customers, and getting to where new customers are, as well existing customers. You want acting in a way where you can evaluate if what you are doing is effective. In your small/mid size business, you have a finite amount of time to be dedicating to your marketing sales efforts in comparison to executing your business. Every minute counts, every hour counts; time is money. So, you want to make sure that the primary marketing tactics you're using are getting you to where you need to be and you're not wasting time, essentially money.
In order to properly understand whether or not something is working for you, you need objectives. In Internet marketing, there are key performance indicators to help you judge whether or not your campaigns are working, regardless of what tactics are executed.
First, you have to worry about your total audience size. The size of the audience that you reach with your campaigns and tactics does make a huge difference. Obviously, the more people you contact, the larger the likelihood that a good percentage of those people will react just naturally. As a result, the more people you talk to, the more people will react - it's just simple math. However, contacting large numbers of people isn't always cost-effective.
Second, you have to worry about targeting, within that large audience, specific people who are going to have a higher likelihood of responding to you. Every dollar spent on a large audience where someone was never going to respond to your messages is a dollar wasted. Profiling is filing the actual key audiences that are most like your current customers, people who are actually spending money. You want to evaluate what makes that customer a customer. This can be done through surveying your customer base, asking them questions, personally, when they're in your store or your establishment, following up with extra questions, or sending a quick survey after they received their order confirmation. Find out why they chose you and begin to look at the demographics of those people. Are your people primarily local? Do they have similar, economic, ethnic, or location-based background where you can focus on a target in a broader sense to narrow down the effectiveness of your campaigns?
Third, you want to measure the conversion of your marketing messages. That can be through requesting more information, asking for a free consultation, or downloading a report. You want to get them to take a small, yet critical step in trading them some value, some kind of incentive in order for them to give you their contact information and tell you more about themselves. Maybe they'll answer a 3-question survey tops giving you their e-mail address, name and phone number and measure the conversion of those people from a targeted list to signing up for more information and responding to your initial, incentive offer.
Fourth, you want to measure 2 things in terms of sales. You want to understand how long someone is typically on your marketing list before they make a purchase and how many people on your marketing list end up making a purchase. Those are the 2 important factors. The first one (how long they're on your list) will tell you how you can better project sales and revenue. Obviously, when they are converted to sale, that's just a number that we get on our mailing list from a good profile is a successful way for us to close a sale. Then, we can look at ways to scale that up to increase the number of people and convert to a sale. Additionally, if you find that you have a lot of repeat customers, you may want to begin looking at the trance and the patterns of buying and how often they re-buy from you. Are they buying the same product over and over? This completely depends on your business, what you're selling and what kind of service you offer. Some services by nature are recurring and people continue to pay for them and some goes off no matter what. So, you want to keep in mind what the recurring pattern is so you can continue to contact people and encourage them.
What are you waiting for? DO IT NOW!
Posted: 1/12/2010 10:29:50 AM by
Mike Rogers | with 1 comments
Social Media conjures images of personal contact, discussion and sharing. Automation typically makes us think of robotic interactions, autoresponse messages and messaging clutter. But companies can benefit from Marketing Automation for routine tasks, while maintaining the personal touch and transparency of social media.
1. Social Media Automation is NOT a replacement for human interaction.
This is vitally important for successful customer attraction, conversion and retention. Social Media Automation cannot replace your human interaction with existing or potential customers. You're not going to turn the switch one day and have a set of automated emails, videos, print pieces, and podcasts that will magically generate your business. Tactically, each of those are things that can provide value through compelling content, but are not a replacement for human interaction. If people feel like they are communicating with a machine, rather than a person who understands them and provides them with a valuable service, they will ignore your message.
Social Media Automation should eliminate time-consuming tasks that do not benefit your personal interactions with your prospects and customers. For example, it needs to take you out of the process of delivering and publishing content and into the world of automated tracking and reporting of analytics of campaign responses. Currently if you want to publicize a blog post, you will need to login to your Facebook, twitter, email marketing and every other social media site you have a presence on. If you want to track results, you must first create a shortened link, then go to each of those sources and post messages. You should not have someone manually tabulating data. It should eliminate the need for a graphic designer to create repetitive revisions of materials; great designers are expensive. Save time with automation and have an experienced designer or writer create new, attractive content, instead. Examples of tasks that are automatable include scheduled content publication, search engine submission, distribution and sharing of your content, automatic delivery of email content and sales prospect follow up by the automatic deliver of messaging designed to move a prospect through your sales funnel.
2. Myths: "Only the big guys need Social Media Automation because they're doing such large volumes"; "only the big guys can understand how to put that together"; "we don't create large campaigns so I don't need it".
We hear these statements often from small and medium-sized business owners and they are NOT true. Social Media Automation can help you get your message out to a wider audience, to more places than you could if you were manually distributing content. Even if you only have one campaign, the management, reporting, and distribution of content within that campaign are all well worth using Social Media Automation to streamline that process. Let the software take care of the repetitive tools.
3. Social Media Automation is difficult to implement/use because of all these variables that need to go into it. That's definitely NOT true.
Quite the opposite, it makes it easier for marketers to understand the messages that they want to communicate. Social Media Automation tools give them the ability, without having to go back through the creative process, to manipulate and test different messages, and to get fresh content out there in a way that's visually pleasing. It gives marketers much more flexibility and the ability to get things out there. The technology is all web-based, easy to use, and easily trainable especially for graphic designers. It's so easy to set up templates and create collateral within these Social Media Automation systems.
4. Social Media Automation is NOT expensive.
There are many "enterprise, large scale, huge systems" out there that are grossly expensive and are targeted at the global marketing companies. The companies that manufacture them, their business plan is to sell 6 or 7 of these systems a year, and that's it. That's why they are so expensive and take years to implement. That's not really an opportunity for true Social Media Automations. Social Media Automation isn't only for the big guys - Social Media Automation doesn't have to be expensive. With software as service plans, nowadays, and web-based software growing, plenty of software has been replaced on the desktop with web-based systems. There's no need to buy expensive software with large upfront costs and long setup time. Social Media Automation is incredibly economical. The beauty of it is, as it's delivered in a software and service model, you can make sure that the package or the tools that you buy fit within your current budget. If you focus on buying the right tool, you're going to know whether that tool is helping you make money or not, and that's hugely valuable.
5. Social Media Automation is NOT purely email. Many companies out there focus on one tactic and call their system a Social Media Automation system.
Email is only one tactic that a Marketing Automating system should be capable of delivering and measuring. But, email is not solely Social Media Automation. Automated follow ups or auto responders is not Social Media Automation - that's just one tactic. Social Media Automation tools are capable of multiple media channels and handles marketing planning, execution, analysis, and optimization tools all at one place. Email is the most cluttered environment to communicate with people these days. People want to be communicated to less. They want to be communicated high value information. Social Media Automation is not email marketing. Email Marketing is a fine discipline, it's a fine tactic, but it's not Social Media Automation in itself.
Tell me more about what you think Social Media Automation IS or IS NOT. I look forward to seeing your answers in the comments below.
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