Mad 4 Blog

It’s a long-held joke that when a realtor is telling you that a house you’re about to view is “quaint and charming” it really means you’re about to see a space way smaller than the one you’re dreaming about. When they talk about how it’s “affordable” you might be wondering if it’s even within your price range. This kind of consumer wariness may come to mind when you’re meeting with marketing agencies. Although we have our own cache of catchphrases that are apt to get tossed around, you don’t have to be suspicious; but you can come in prepared to speak our lingo. So what are some of the common catchphrases to keep an ear out for? And what do they really mean?

Marketing-Interactive.com published an interview with the marketing director of an information technology agency wherein he states that some verbiage businesses need to be aware of is “integrated marketing” and “return on investment.” This doesn’t mean that these buzzwords should be immediate red flags to business owners or reps meeting with advertising agencies; however, these professionals should go into any meeting with a handle on what the words actually mean to them.

For example, the interviewee stated that “integrated” options often fall short of their optimal capacity, because this word can be applied to many media plans with minimal integration methodology. Similarly, multi-level or tiered marketing can mean touching on just two strata (like mediums of print and radio, or demographics of females 18-25 and males 35-50) when a dozen options are available to further diversify and target your goal.

And ROI language can connote loftier ambitions and quicker returns than is actually reasonable. Often, significant profit takes quite a good dealing of spending to achieve, and the results may not be immediately measurable. However, marketers that can help you understand and anticipate realistic goals for ROI can be a major boon for your investment strategy. When you’re able to directly track and analyze how your campaigns are paying out over time – not just monetarily but also in terms of brand awareness and business model growth – then you can successfully achieve return on investment.

At Mad 4 Marketing, one of our favorites is “relationship marketing” simply because it seems like a redundant phrase; how can you work with a company and promote it to potential customers without building relationships on either side? What next, “food eating”? Seems like a no-brainer to us, don’t you agree?

Never hesitate to ask us about our phraseology for your upcoming campaigns; we’re happy to explain our favorite phrases and educate existing and potential clients so that everyone can communicate openly and be on the same page about how you’ll achieve all of your marketing goals.

At Mad 4 Marketing, we’ve always been strong proponents of the 360-degree campaign. This means approaching your target audience from all angles to create a balanced, interwoven appeal. For example, you might want to have a strong website launching at the same time you put up local billboards and take out a well-placed radio ad. These diverse tactics all work together to strengthen brand recognition and drive your messages home. But the challenge isn’t necessarily choosing your marketing mediums or negotiating ad space. It’s about making these efforts communicate with a consistent voice in a way that gets your demographic to respond. So how do you bring together your various advertising campaigns with one solid message and successful calls to action?

In the example given, you’ve got a website, billboard and radio ad. The first option is interactive, while the last two appeal to the eyes and ears, respectively. And somehow, you’ve got to tie it all together to entice your prospective customers to reach out.

How do you ask a driver on the highway to respond? One thing you might want to do is eschew the typical contact information. It may feel counterintuitive not to list your phone number on your billboard, but is the driver really going to memorize those digits or stop to punch them into the phone? One thing you can do is tell the viewer to tune in to the local radio station when your ad is playing to get even more information. Since they’re already in their car on their way to a destination, those who view your billboard might either tune in immediately or at least recognize the brand and remember the ad when they’re listening to the radio commercial at a later time. You’ve already got them considering, remembering and reacting to your message.

The repetition of a radio message, perhaps along with a catchy jingle, means that this spot can potentially convey more information to your audience than the billboard. But instead of trying to cram every ounce of information into 30 seconds, you can choose to just focus on getting the listener to visit your website. Once there, they can find all of the rest of your information and contact you through a variety of formats (contact form, phone number, fax, e-mail, etc.). With the correct calls to action, it’s easy to get someone who willingly went to your website to follow supplied links and travel through pages of attractive, exciting information about your business. You might be able to ask them for their information to follow up or even complete a sale without leaving the page. It’s also easy for them to share links about your services with friends, or bookmark them for later.

By simplifying your calls to action and understanding how multimedia can interrelate, you can avoid harassing your audience or hitting them over the head with what you’re offering – but still build a strong presence for your brand through various channels and efforts that are in conversation with each other.

Labor Day just passed, which means we’re about to tumble through the holidays and wind down the remaining months of 2011. And although you may not be picking out place settings for your Thanksgiving dinner just yet, it’s impossible to ignore these upcoming occasions – especially since retailers are only too happy to move their next-soonest-holiday merchandise to the front windows as soon as the last one passes. It’s just the start of September, but any day now you’ll be surrounded by bright orange pumpkins. The reason this occurs is because these businesses are trying to make the most money possible with each bankable holiday.

Here are just a few things to think about if you’re seeking the smartest ways to capitalize on the upcoming fall/winter seasons:

1. Individual consumers and corporations tend to spend more in this fiscal quarter (Oct. 1 – Dec. 31) than in other quarters.
2. With the holidays approaching, people are already planning to purchase certain gifts and necessities. If you’re marketing one of these products, or a service that relates to them, the trick is to remind shoppers that they’re already probably going to buy it, and then gear your advertising toward why it should be you rather than your competition. Now is the time to market yourself as a necessity, not a novelty.
3. The holidays bring a lot of pressure. People need to buy suitable gifts, make travel arrangements, etc. Make what you’re selling something that can ease the buyer’s burden, whether you demonstrate multiple ways your product can be used or multiple people in their circle (husband, father, boss) who might like it. Even a promotional discount that’s too good to pass up can alleviate time and money concerns for the prospective customer.
4. This is the correct time of year to appeal to sentiment, but don’t go overboard.
5. Plan ahead! If you haven’t solidified your end-of-the-year marketing plans yet, it’s not too late. Although you don’t want to start talking about New Year’s Eve in October, you do want to get started soon to succeed this season. Because it takes time for your marketing message to saturate your intended audience, you want to put your ads out there with enough time to have buyers come around to the idea of choosing you, while understanding all of the reasons why they should.

Just because South Florida only seems to have two seasons – Hurricane Season and Not Hurricane Season – doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of these upcoming fall and winter holidays, trends and sales slants. If it suits your message and brand, go for the snowy landscapes, sleigh bells and families by the fireplace. After all, it’s the snow birds coming home to roost that will help drive your ROI; and in the end, even Floridians dream of a White Christmas.

When managing a blog, whether it’s independently operated or hosted on your company’s website, one of the responsibilities is handling the comments that visitors leave. As a casual blog reader, you probably didn’t think too much about the behind-the-scenes process when you browsed comments or left your own. But when it comes time for you to be in charge of your own blog, knowing the consequences of your comment management choices can actually do a world of good for your website marketing.

The first decision you need to make is whether or not you’ll allow comments. Most blog servers offer this option (along with a few others covered below). If you decide not to let visitors comment, the responsibility is taken off your shoulders. But it can be a downfall for two primary reasons:

• First, it dissuades activity. Your blog’s readers may not feel as engaged with your content. They might not form an attachment with your website that makes them want to come back. On the other hand, if they’re able to read comments and leave their own, they might return to follow a conversation or simply because they feel involved and like you want to hear their feedback.

• Second, you’ll wind up with a static webpage that only generates new material whenever you post a blog (let’s say once a week). But when you let readers leave comments, new text is often added to the site. This not only entreats visitors to come back to the same blog post more than once, but also boosts your ranking with search engines that give credit to sites that are often updated. (This is why you also want to ask questions and invite guests to leave comments in your post.)

If you do want to allow comments, the biggest downfall is that you then have to moderate them. You can set up some flags so that sexually explicit or otherwise offensive comments are automatically taken down. But you may also have to read through and manually delete certain comments. You can have the blog set up so that it asks your permission to approve or deny every single comment that’s submitted before it goes live on your site. But some visitors don’t like to wait to see their comment posted, and it’s also more labor-intensive for you.

There are other quality control options that you can choose from most standard comment settings. One choice is to only let members of the website leave comments. Sometimes this means joining your site by creating a specific ID, but other times this can mean logging in via Gmail or Facebook. In this case, anonymous commenting is often not allowed and people may feel more restricted to voice opinions. Another option is asking potential commentators to pass a word verification check, which is designed to deter spambots (computer-generated spam robots) and confirm that you’re a human visitor.

Need advice on how to set up a blog – and then make it work hard to promote your business? Mad 4 Marketing knows the tips and tricks to boost your traffic and search engine rankings. Don’t hesitate to Contact Us.