The ARTS + VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS

What is ‘The Arts’ ?

1.    The Arts is a group of disciplines, comprising many genres, endeavours or art forms, all united by their employment of the human creative impulse, to express and communicate through various art forms.
2.    New and additional genres are being added daily.
3.    Let us put them all in one box for ease of understanding. This may be contentious to some globally, who have different perceptions of The Arts.
4.    The many forms of expression create an adequate or enormous income for many players, but for others, sadly it must just be perceived as a pastime, due to lack of funds or infrastructures.
5.    The Arts are dying in many countries, which are not getting sufficient financial support from their governments or other and so it is time to seek other means of exposure and marketing platforms.

What do The Arts enable ?

1.    Imparting a message
2.    Telling a true story
3.    Education
4.    Imparting own gifts
5.    Creating mindset shifts
6.    Enabling interactive conversation
7.    Enabling enjoyment, laughter, sadness, joy etc
8.    Self expression
9.    Enabling escape from real life – and so on

Let’s look at some players in ‘The Arts’

MUSICIANS – all genres from jazz to rap
ARTISTS – all mediums, including sculptors, potters, etc
DANCERS – al genres, from ballet to hip hop
COMEDIANS
MAGICIANS
SINGERS – from OPERA to RAP – including producers, choreographers
FILM/THEATRE – actors, directors, writers, producers, choreographers
WRITERS/AUTHORS – all genres, including poets, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc

Players in ‘The Arts’ need to up their marketing game + would do well, by using the Social networking sites + incorporating VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS into their marketing mix

Adding VIDEO CONFERENCING / WEBINARS into the marketing mix :

More and more of The Arts genres are embracing this powerful technology as an adjunct marketing, training, collaboration, communication and exposure platform. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event/training etc..

DISTANCE Training/Workshops

Globally teaching, learning + rehearsing dance routines, orchestral music arrangements + scores, scripts etc in advance before show time
Creating a global environment for creative research across diverse disciplines, where all players can collaborate, experiment and enjoy artistic exchange and learning, exploring the boundaries of synthesizing art and technology
In this global environment, students can actively explore their creativity and develop, using their own creative gifts through active engagement, reflection and collaboration
More and more music teachers world wide are embracing this technology to teach pupils to play various instruments in remote areas

SHOWCASING

Virtual shows can be created in a global Video Meeting Room, where interested parties can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about their particular genre of Art.

BOOK LAUNCHES

o Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour.

o This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS

o Invite reporters or editors to an online web interview.

o These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites and e-commerce sites.

o Online web interviews enable interviewing all relevant journalists at once, with the promotion of their stories on Movie, TV, Radio, Theatre, Music, Dance, Arts etc.

o Webinars enable you to expose large groups of people at once to interviews with actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc..

ART EXHIBITIONS

o Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world.

o They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery.

o Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker to a Webinar, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.

Adding VMail – The new EMAIL – into the marketing mix

What is a Vmail ?

o Video Email is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails.

o Most technology platforms allow 20 minutes of talk time, which is more than adequate to impart your message.

o Additional videos may also be uploaded into the Vmail, e.g. a virtual tour of an Artist’s gallery or studio, a Singer or Dancer’s debut or demo, etc..

o No software downloads are necessary.

o Bandwidth is not compromised, as the VMail opens on the Internet.

o Most Vmail purveyors allow full integration into your social networks to share on Youtube or Facebook, etc..

WHY use VMAIL ?

Video Email is the new Email ! It is a perfect adjunct marketing tool to incorporate into your Video Communications suite –

Why ?

It’s Different
More powerful
More Personal
More Effective
Is Creative
Seeing is Believing
Has more Impact
Grabs the customer’s Attention
Enables you to literally look into your contact’s eyes and develop a relationship with that person, engaging them on a level that is simply not possible with a static text email
Enables your voice to resonate on a subliminal level
Static text emails, are easy to ignore, and at their best, give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business or craft really values

Facts :

– Google loves Video !
– Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
– Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
– People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
– Video is the single, most effective form of communication
– Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
– ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR. She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.

Get in touch with heather :

Facebook
LinkedIn
SKYPE : heather.de.wit
Mobile +27824907143+27824907143
EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

September 11, 2012

Grocery Stores discover Social Media as Communication and Marketing Channel

Increasingly consumers shift from traditional to the digital media. They research about products on search engines, forums, and blogs and in social media to get the best products for their money!

To get found online when future customers are looking for products is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

A recent research from media and marketing services firm Valassis shows that 12% of the surveyed grocery retail executives go from usage of 12% social media in 2012 to a 65% usage in the next five years. They also plan to increasing investments in online marketing in general. The have understood the advantages of facebook for business and other networks to build customer loyalty.

An increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge to attract buyers to their offers.

This problem can be solved with Content marketing which has established as a powerful way to engage customers in social media.

Also an increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers on the web and in social media to their products.

The most popular channel to share content is social media, the advantages of facebook for business and to win customer loyalty are known. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

Successful companies use every possible communication channel to get in touch with their target audience. They are interested in what their recent and future customers are thinking and communicating about them.

Infographic: How Brands Listen in the Digital Age

This communication ability helps them to better understand and to serve their audience, which sets them apart from their competition and gives them wide advantages in their business field.

Businesses which are willing to communicate with their audience in blogs and social media show that they care about the people who spend their money with them.

August 21, 2012August 21, 2012

How to Generate Business through Content Marketing

We live in a customer centric time powered through social media and the rules of marketing and PR has dramatically changed.

The customer chooses by himself through research on search engines like Google, with the help of friends, relatives and his social networks which product to buy and which not.

Then it counts what and if he can find your business on the web.

Marketers need to understand that most people do not go online to buy something. The primarily go online to research for products and services. This is valid for B2C and B2B!

Businesses who publish and share content on the web do not only increase the number of “digital outpost” but moreover increase their visibility and build trust with the future customers. Trust is the main motivation to buy. When your audience trusts you, then you they are willing to do business with you.

Trust can only be build with a long term approach, because what you publish reflects what and who you are.

With great content you position your business and the people of your business who create the content as trusted experts in your field. Content Marketing is great to build your online reputation.

Here are some marketing tips you can use right away.

Give away free content

Give away free content in form of a corporate blog where you write about topics your audience is most interested in. You can get great ideas for blog articles when you go through email and support requests. This will give you a ton of possible blog article topics.

You can also take a camera and explain a task, for example how to use one of your machines and what to take care of. Or you can use photos and testimonials of satisfied customers and publish them too.

You need to invest time/ money to produce content

To find the time to produce remarkable content is the most common problem business face. But as you need to spend time for your business you also need to understand that marketing and content creation is an important part of your lead generation. Therefore you need to set time free to produce remarkable content which will attract new customers to your business.

No matter if you do it by your own or you hire an Inbound Marketing Agency, content marketing is not free. You have the choice, do you want to invest your time or do you want to set a marketing budget and hire a professional Inbound Marketing Agency.

Give away GREAT content

Great content is valuable. It is worth reading and sharing it. Therefore you need to be specific with information which should benefit your future customers. Don’t be afraid to give away “secrets” because this kind of content attracts the most people. And be the end you are the professionals and the future customer will turn to you when he is ready to buy.

Infographic: The Rise of Content Marketing

Six great reasons to consider content marketing to generate more business

Companies who operate a corporate blog on frequent base get …

…up to 55% more Traffic than companies who do not blog
…up to 97% more Inbound Links than companies who do not blog
…up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines than companies who do not blog
…up to 25x times more business leads than companies who do not blog

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

Every businesses which ignores these facts will vanish in the dust of today’s networked and quick economy and that’s good.

August 11, 2012March 24, 2014

Marketing with VIDEO CONFERENCING / WEBINARS

This technology can change the world !

Facts :

· Google loves Video !

· Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video Conferencing/Webinars over the next 5 years

· Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet

· People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see

· Video is the single, most effective form of communication

· Companies continue to look for additional creative marketing platforms

· ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective

What is a Video Conference / Webinar ?

Called by many names a Video Conference, a Video Meeting or a Webinar – all meaning the same thing. It is an highly effective, browser based, simple to use virtual Video Meeting Room, where, at the click of a button with a link, you are able to host large or small online meetings with people locally or globally, to connect, communicate and collaborate.

Access to online meetings is now available on most ‘smart phones’.

Some are saying it is the ‘new’ business card.

Many have not yet fully embraced or grasped the power of this technology, perhaps for fear of losing ‘the personal’ touch or the ‘face to face’ meeting scenario. However, we cannot stop progress and this is where things are headed if you want to see it.

‘Going green’ is what the world is advocating and what better way to save on time, energy, airfares, hotel accommodation, increase productivity and ultimately save money, than by hosting meetings, trainings, launches etc online.

This could be perceived as an adjunct marketing platform, or an additional marketing tool to what you already have in place.

The marketplace has become global and this technology enables you to go global with ease.

General features –

· Attract and drive more people to your business

· Share Powerpoint presentations

· Share ideas

· Share Videos

· Show websites

· Share photos

· Review contracts or documents in a safe and secure environment

· Share your desktop

· Use the white boarding feature, with interactive tools, like drawing and highlighting, to make it simpler for your attendees to collaborate with you.

Creative Uses :

· WEBINAR SERIES

Develop a series of Webinars over a number of weeks, with content relevant to your clients or prospects. In this space, you can educate and demonstrate the value of your products or services. Guest specialist speakers always add value.

· ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEW PRODUCTS or CAMPAIGNS

Invite your media contacts, industry analysts, clients and prospects. Elevate the level of conversation by inviting specialists in your audience to answer questions and provide input.

· GUEST SPEAKERS

People perceive you differently when they know where you are coming from – eg, reducing your carbon footprint. Attract people ‘through the back door’ by hosting a Video Conference, selecting a relevant and current ’green’ subject matter, with the added attraction of a guest speaker, who should be a well-known expert or specialist in that particular field. Your guest speaker will, in their own right, easily attract a large audience – Everyone benefits.

· BOOK LAUNCHES

A book tour can be very costly. Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour. This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.

· The ARTS

For Movie/TV/Radio/Theatre/Music/Dance Promotions, use Webinars to reach large groups of people to interview actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc. These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites, e-commerce sites, TV, newspaper or magazine, radio web sites.

· ART EXHIBITIONS

Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world. They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery. Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.

· MEDIA INTERVIEWS

To better assist journalists with their stories, invite reporters or editors to an online web interview to discuss issues, show products, present information and data.

· MARKET RESEARCH

Focus groups can view and research products through audio, chat or text-based questions. Polls and online surveys are also a popular feature in these focus groups and are available features with this technology.

· SPECIAL EVENTS/TRADE SHOWS/EXHIBITIONS

Create a virtual show in a Video Meeting Room, where different companies can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about your company’s products and services. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event. CUSTOMER SERVICE

Give E-Commerce customers live assistance when choosing products. Invite them to a product knowledge session. The Video Meeting Room can feature a live individual or be a pre-recorded session.

• CUSTOMER SERVICE

Give E-Commerce customers live assistance when choosing products. Invite them to a product knowledge session. The Video Meeting Room can feature a live individual or be a pre-recorded session.

· DEMONSTRATING PRODUCTS

Web conferencing is a great way to demonstrate the uses of products.

· EDITING on the fly

Edit on the fly in a safe and secure environment, with people from different geographic regions. Everyone can view the same document simultaneously, so edits can be made quickly and efficiently, without costly delays.

· Editing WEB SITES

This is a highly efficient way to review web pages with a group of people.

· SKILLING, TRAINING

Webinars are becoming increasingly popular and convenient as a training tool.

· RECRUITMENT

Companies can easily go global and hire the best from anywhere in the world, using Video Conferencing as an interviewing tool, inviting prospective employees to interact and collaborate. Here they can upload their resumes and review same with them, together with others, who are part of the hiring process, but are located in other regions.

· CONTACT US

Video Meeting Rooms can be used as a ‘Contact Us’ feature. People can request an instant meeting to talk with you and learn more about what you do.

· INVESTOR RELATIONS

Invite analysts, media and shareholders to a Web Conference for quarterly reviews, announcements and appointments.

· COMMUNITY

A great tool for Community forums and groups to connect, collaborate and communicate on :

o Community issues, problems

o Neighbourhood watches can have a better handle on crime and policing

· COMPANY STAFF, COMMITTEE, SALES or BOARD MEETINGS

More and more businesses are seeing the value of using this technology to communicate and collaborate with employees and management nationally or globally on a more regular basis, saving time, energy, travel, communication bills, accommodation bills, etc, increasing productivity and ultimately saving money.

· DISTANCE EDUCATION

More and more institutions are embracing this technology for :

o Distance learning

o Extra mural classes moderated by Teachers

o Students can ‘study together’ without ‘being together’

o School board meetings

o Teacher training

o Academic contests e.g. debates, with other institutions

· CHURCHES, NGO’s (Charities), CLUBS

Institutions using Webinars can :

o Interact with members and constituents

o Conduct remote study with exchange groups

o Conduct Church meetings

o Conduct Board or Committee meetings

o Host Fundraising campaigns

o Host Planning sessions

o Host Remote counselling

Infographic: Video Conferencing

Get in touch with heather :

Facebook
LinkedIn
SKYPE : heather.de.wit
Mobile +27824907143+27824907143
EMail: heather@boundless-activities.net

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012

How to Increase Backlinks and Customer Loyalty through Content Marketing

To get found online when future customers are looking for products and services is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

Businesses need to understand that future customers B2B and B2C primarily do not go online to buy something. First they go online for research. They research for products and services and if they found something of interest they research about information about the company. They ask friends, family and their social networks for recommendations and if they know the company the have recently found.

Did you asked yourself what future customers will find when they research your industry for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?

How many people hit your site and how many business leads do generate daily?

Targeted traffic is a result of many tasks which need to be done before you even get the chance to get found by future customers through Google, Yahoo of Bing search.

Actually the best way to increase visibility is content marketing. With content marketing businesses demonstrate thought leadership; prove themselves Trustworthy and Boosts SEO by increase Backlinks to their website.

Remarkable and helpful content is also a great to build customer loyalty. It offers the so called value ad for customers.

The great success of content marketing is the result of giving away valuable information – remarkable content for free to attract people to your business like a magnet.

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

This marketing system works 100% for any business!

Content marketing can also work for you to attract new customers to your business like a magnet.

To empower your content marketing start with a corporate blog!

Blogging companies get…

…up to 55% more Traffic
…up to 97% more Inbound Links
…up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
…up to 25x times more business leads

The next steps of content creation are to craft further buyer persona oriented content like:

– Press releases
– Pictures
– Whitepapers
– How-to’s
– EBooks
– Video

In blurbs buyer personas analysis sheet from inBlurbs

Include a call to action in each of your content pieces. This ensures that the user exactly discovers what to do next.

Each of your content pieces is an outpost of your businesses which increases your visibility and improves trust and directs more future customers to your business.

The more content you publish on the web the more online outposts you get in exchange and your chances to get found increase. Other sites will find your content valuable and link back to it. People will share and comment on your content, which also will increase reach and visibility. You increase Backlinks and customer loyalty through content marketing. As simple as that.

July 6, 2012

How to Wipe Out your Business by Choosing the Wrong Color

A recent study of Marketo brought out that a wrong chosen color for your business and logo can cost you the success in the long run.

The color of a business is the first impression a future customer will discover when he hits your offer. The study found out that the right product color can influence your target audience purchasing decisions by up to 80%. The right color can make or break a business!

To choose the right color is a process where you have to ask yourself how you want your business to be perceived out there?

You can go the quick and dirty way to choose a brand color but this can cost your business the success in the long run. Or you sit down and use the recent information (for example this below in the infographic) to choose your brand colors wisely.

Infographic: True Colors

Further important resources:

June 1, 2012

B2B Marketing Social Networks for more Business Leads

Social Media Marketing has been one of the successful marketing strategies for marketers and companies online in recent years.

There are some major social media communities and emerging social media communities that can help business to improve their marketing strategies online. These social media networks help in providing b2b marketing solutions and generate quality marketing tips for new business online.

This article discusses about using 6 top social media communities for b2b marketing best practices and an eye of b2b marketing data giving a glimpse of the power of these social media communities.

Top 6 social networks for B2B marketing solutions

Social Networks have changed the marketing strategies for businesses online with wide range of advantages and quality leads for their business. There are quite a few social networks that help in providing b2b marketing solutions. This article focuses on top 6 social networks that had a major impact on small business b2b marketing.

Facebook
Google+
Pinterest
Twitter
LinkedIn
Youtube

Infographic: Social Media B2B

Given below are some of the key points on using these social networks for b2b sales strategies.

Using Facebook for b2b Viral Marketing

Social Media is viral and if your business is successfully promoted in social media, you are very much successful in generating quality leads for your business online.

One of the major social media networks that have a huge impact on b2b marketing solutions is facebook. Given below are some of the b2b marketing best practices with facebook

Build your brand presence in facebook

If your brand presence in facebook is successful, you are likely to generate quality leads through facebook. Some of the best ways to generate b2b marketing leads through facebook is by bringing more visibility for your facebook page and generate quality leads using latest facebook apps.

Use Latest features of facebook for optimized lead generation

With the new facebook timeline, you can now share the latest updates regarding your business thus bringing more engagement for your facebook fans. Use the latest features such as pins and stars to bring more visibility for your lead generation pages.

Use the popular features such as open graph to know your visitors approach which is one of the key points for your b2b sales strategies.

Build your business community

It is important to build your own business community to stay ahead of your competitors. For this it is very much necessary to brand your facebook page and update it with the latest happenings. Use your page to provide useful information for your community.

Using Google+ for B2B Lead generation

Google+ is one of the popular social communities which are just started receiving popularity with Google indexing and prioritizing it in search results. Millions of users have already started using Google+

There is huge potential for B2b marketers to generate leads through Google+. Some of the best ways to use Google+ for business are

– Use the feature of Hangout to create live stream of your business hangout. The latest feature allows up to nine people to hangout using the video function of Google+
– Use Circles to share your content. It is very important to generate business specific content that is interested by users in your Google+. The best information that can be shared through your circles are virtual conferences, events, interviews and webinars which are very much useful for B2b marketers
– More is your content in Google+, more is the visibility of your content is search engines especially Google+.

Using twitter for B2b Marketing

Twitter is another top social media community that helps in B2b Viral marketing. Given below are some of the ways b2b marketers can use twitter

– Use B2b Marketing with your blogs and share your blog content in twitter. This increases visibility of your business in twitter.
– Increase reach of your business in twitter by increasing your followers. As your business reach increases, more people know about your business which is one of the key B2b viral marketing strategy.
– Another way of increasing reach and visibility is by asking your employees to tweet your business content. Sharing buttons for your B2b Marketing blogs and allowing your employees to share your business content brings more visibility for your business.

Using LinkedIn for B2b Marketing solutions

LinkedIn is one of the powerful social networks for b2b marketing solutions. As it is professional network, you have major chances for generating b2b marketing leads with LinkedIn.

Some of the best B2b marketing practices of using LinkedIn are

– Index your B2b marketing blog in LinkedIn and share your latest contest in LinkedIn. This brings more approach for your business in LinkedIn.
– Use Applications like Slideshare to share your business presentations in LinkedIn.
– Create your own company page and share business updates through your status updates and group updates. You can also promote your business products through the products tab in LinkedIn. Show your creativity in generating impressive business promotion strategies through LinkedIn.
– Another important feature of LinkedIn is email marketing, one of the important B2b Viral marketing strategies. Mail your LinkedIn members with email marketing feature of LinkedIn.

Using Pinterest for B2b marketing solutions

Pinterest is another powerful social network for generating B2b marketing leads for new business. Given below are some of the best ways to leverage your b2b marketing solution with Pinterest

– One of the best ways to promote b2b marketing through Pinterest in developing quality boards and creating pins in suitable boards. This gives members flexibility to find useful information through boards.
– New product offerings, services can be pinned through suitable boards which increase interest in readers to visit the boards and thereby generating leads.
– Use Pin info graphics, data and charts to know more about your business reach and thereby optimizing your marketing strategies in Pinterest.
– Share useful E-books and content information through your pins.

Using YouTube for B2b Marketing solutions

YouTube is one of the popular social media networks which can be used for quality B2b lead generation. Some of the ways of using YouTube for your b2b marketing are given below

– Share your top level management and interviews in YouTube.
– Share informative videos related to your business products, new launches and reviews of your business products in Youtube.
– How to videos, product tours and optimized YouTube search are some of the ways to generate b2b marketing leads with YouTube.

These are some of the best examples of using social networks for b2b lead generation. Consult the inbound marketing experts in optimizing marketing strategies in these social networks thereby increasing profits.

May 30, 2012

How to reach B2B Executives? Get mobile!

New studies of Google and Compete found out that that 28% of US B2B C-level executives used mobile devices to research business purchases.

By the growing use and demand of mobile apps companies also become more dependent of them. Popular services like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, Groupon and other are using apps to stay in touch with their audience.

A new way of search has emerged where B2B executives to look out to find future business partners the more efficient way. Mobile devices have spread around the world and statistics show that about 260 million devices are in use actually and this number will grow by 2014 to more than one billion.

The peace of mobile use among B2B executives is much higher compared to consumers, as they are always looking for ways to do their purchasing process easier and cost efficient.

When B2B executives are on their mobile device they do not go to the web browser to research for products and services your business also as to offer!

According to research data from Oracle and Endeca, from November 2011 one-quarter of B2B ecommerce professionals worldwide agreed that mobile is one of the most influential to get in touch with their customers.

By taking into account the complete penetration of mobile devices among B2B marketers, it is logic they use these devices for their purchase decision making process. They use these mobile devices during their purchasing process to save time.

The trend shows that search engine search traffic will decrease and companies who are active on mobile devices, social media and location based services will get an increase of traffic as B2B executives use them preferable.

Here is a great opportunity for businesses to get in touch with these B2B executives to establish a relationship which can help to make business together. Companies should establishing a mobile web presence and optimizing their communication to reach those B2B executives.

Infographic: Mobile Marketing

If you are not active in mobile marketing than you miss a large opportunity to make B2B executives aware of your company. Take action before your competitor does.

What can you do to get in touch with B2B executives the mobile way?

1st Register with all important location based services like Yelp, Foursquare, Neer, Loopt and SCVNGR. Engage here with your audience, build and customize these digital outposts.

2nd Be active in social media sites like Facebook, Linked, Twitter and others important to your audience.

3rd Jump start your mobile marketing the smart way. Collect the mobile phone numbers from your customers. Establish a database where you store all important information about them to later have the ability to custom tailor personalized messages to reach them the right and human way. Look out for a two SMS marketing software which enables you to do and to control your messages.

4th Optimize your website be reachable in mobile devices and give those interested B2B executives the opportunity to get with in touch quick.

May 11, 2012May 15, 2012

Who get you more business leads Google+ or Pinterest?

Social Media marketing has influenced the marketing strategies of business organizations online in recent years.

Almost all of the niches are now using social media marketing for their business promotion online. There is heavy competition in these social media sites as well on grabbing advertisers to market through these sites.

Newly emerged social media sites Google+ and Pinterest have been the major social media sites to watch in recent days. Many say Google+ is ideal for business where as there are experts describing Pinterest as one of the major social media competitors for business online. This article gives a glimpse of using these two social media marketing sites for business.

Identifying the right Social Media Sites for business

Everyone in the marketing world online knows about the advantages of social media marketing and how it can cut your marketing budgets if identified correctly. Previously there were very few promising social media sites such as facebook and twitter which are used by businesses for social media promotion.

But as days went by, top Internet organizations such as Google came up with Google+ with wide range of features for business organizations. Companies are now trying to cap their market share from these fast emerging social media statistics. Inbound marketing experts are now planning to use these social media sites for business lead generation.

Not only recent statistics suggest that Pinterest has also been used largely by organizations for their business promotions. All these social media marketing promotions for lead generations are only started after indepth analysis by marketing experts online. But what are these analytics which led to these decisions? Well an overview of the next paragraph will let you know why Google+ and Pinterest are valuable for business online.

Generating business leads with Google+ and Pinterest

Google+ has brought interest of millions of people online with the type of launch that they have made. Google has taken some of the best steps to create interest in users while launching Google+. Likely within the first 3 weeks of the launch 20 million users started using Google+.

Moreover Google+ profiles and stats have been remarkable and Google started indexing Google+ content. Another interesting stat is that 63% of Google+ users are male and sites that use Google+ started getting 3.5 times more traffic than the sites that haven’t used Google+ for their sites.

Google+ has been prominently used by software developers and college students which brings into the fact that Google+ has a wide range of influence on students and working software professionals.

One important stat that is very much useful for businesses is that 40% of marketers suggest Google+ as prominent tool to promote their business as it is expected to reach 400 million users by the end of this year.

Another prominent social media site Pinterest also managed to gather 10.5 million users as on February 2012. This made businesses eye on Pinterest to promote their business.

Not only for the number of users, Pinterest has prominence for re-use as 80% of pins which are done in Pinterest are re-pins. This means if you are successful in bringing interest to a small group of people using Pinterest , your business many go viral.

Also Pinterest has the power of retaining users similar to facebook and twitter which can be observed from the stat that users have increased by 145% from the month of January.

Another stat that is surprising is that 80% of Pinterest users are female and this is one of the successful social media sites that have brought female interest. If your business is a trending topic, then your business is likely to generate quality leads.

Another important stat that will generate interest in advertisers for business lead generation is lead conversion rate. Lead generation conversation rate in Pinterest is 15% compared to 9% from Google+.

Infographic: Pinterest

Infographic: Google Plus

So putting altogether you should be strategic and take expert opinion while promoting your business through Google+ and Pinterest. Take the expert opinion while make social media promotion through these social media sites. Generate quality business leads from these emerging social media sites and stay ahead of your competitors.

May 3, 2012May 4, 2012

What is the most effective SEO Tactic? Creating Content!

A MarketingSherpa research found out that creating content is one of the most effective tactics for improving a website’s SEO.

User-Generated Content encountered for Organic search up to 10%, and lead conversion up 125%.

Companies who create content, operate a corporate blog and update it frequently have 55% more website visitors.

57% of companies which operate a corporate blog report to have acquired new customers through their blog.

Corporate Blogging

Blogging gets companies 55% more Traffic and up to 97% more Inbound Links. Companies who blog get 434% more indexed pages in search engines and up to 25x times more business leads.

Video Content Creation

Business who utilize video content creation, encounter up to 300% more monthly unique visitors, and 100% longer average time-on-site per visitor. The average time spent on pages with videos is 3-minutes. Generating video content increases search engine traffic by 157% and page views by 63% unique visitors by 100%.

User generated reviews on ecommerce sites

Content marketing ways like product ratings and reviews are proven to increase conversion rates on product pages.

Visitors of ecommerce pages should be able to include pictures and videos with their reviews. The way like sited as eBay and Amazon do to provide an overall rating are additional ways to increase website interaction.

The value of reviews increases as they are moderated within a short time period of about 24 hrs.

Also sharing these reviews to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other is a great way to distribute this user generated content.

Infographic: The Rise Of Conten Marketing

All above activities are visible to search engines and can lead to a massive growth in traffic.

Creating content takes time, money and expertise. When you need inspiration on which content your audience is interested in, just ask them and they will tell you.

April 25, 2012

Video and Social Media on the Rise Say 79% of US Marketing Professionals

An eMarketer study found out that 79% of US marketing professionals said they plan to increase spending on social media marketing and 24% of them said that social media will be the most-used tactic in the ad industry this year.

As the number of areas and activities increase marketers are confronted with various platforms and various ways to use and measure those platforms. Marketing tools and automation are the most seen challenges.

“In the Marketing Tools Study 2012 from digital marketing technology and services company PointRoll and Kelton Research, US marketing professionals reported using multiple tools in each campaign they execute. More than half of respondents used more than five tools in a single advertising and marketing campaign, with 33% saying they averaged five to six, 15% saying seven to nine and 13% saying they used an average of 10 or more.”

This results show that marketers come closer to paralysis through analysis! The more tools have been used the more time is spend on them.

Instead of to improving their marketing marketers are bound in tools mess!

Marketers should focus one tool which helps them to get found online and in social media by more qualified visitors, helps them to convert more visitors into leads, to close those leads efficiently and which provides analytics to help make smart marketing investments.

Watch this Video!

April 11, 2012

3 Reasons why to outsource Social Media and Inbound marketing for your Restaurant

All successful businesses have one thing in common, they have great marketing and they care about their customers and restaurants are no exemption.

For a restaurant to get new guests the audience needs to know that you exist and what you have to offer. So you need to get found!

When you operate or just start a restaurant it can make sense to use Groupon for the first six months to help boost your reach so more people learn about your restaurant. But when the first six month are over you need to have a holistic strategy prepared to attract new guests to your restaurant and keep the actual coming back.

But what if you do not have the time and the experience in house to do so? And which strategy should you use, which one brings the big bang for your marketing buck?

Inbound marketing has been the most successful Internet marketing strategies in recent years.

Many businesses from different industries are using inbound marketing since about ten years as it is highly productive for their business. This article will give you a few examples why restaurant businesses should outsource their marketing and advantages in doing so.

Inbound marketing has been the successful and cheapest marketing trends in online world now. Inbound marketing generated leads have a proven 62% lesser Cost per Lead (CPL) and an up to 55% higher conversion rate! It simply outperforms any other way of marketing like TV, Radio, Print Media, Mass mail, Trade shows, Pay per click, Cold calling, etc.

All major brands and thousands of small and mid size businesses have switched to these powerful marketing strategies. Inbound marketing needs expertise, dedication and commitment and companies can benefit by hiring a professional inbound marketing agency. It is beneficial for companies to outsource their marketing in order to concentrate more on their business and leave their marketing strategies for the experts in the field.

Infographic: Dining and Restaurant Reservation Trends

Advantages of Outsourcing Marketing for Restaurant

Restaurant business is popular though its wide opprotunites it offers. Hundreds of success stories show and prove how money can be made by operating a good restaurant. Chains like Burger Kind, KFC prove this. Also celebrities have discovered the restaurant business as a profitable way to make extra revenue.

With increasing competition, regular restaurants have also started their business online and taking reservations and orders. With many competitors creeping up, it is very much important for the restaurant owners to get themselves updated with the latest marketing trends online to stay out of the crowd.

1. Get found online through inbound marketing

Main requirement of restaurant industry is the word of mouth marketing and getting new customers. So it is important for the businesses in restaurant industry to concentrate on their competence and outsource the marketing it for the inbound marketing experts to lead new guests to their restaurant.

Main advantage of inbound marketing is to get found online at the start to the customers. By hiring marketing experts who use the latest social media marketing and analytical tools for analysis, companies need not worry about the fast changing marketing trends and strategies.

2. Marketing Experts help you in Social Media and Content Marketing

Social Media and content marketing through blogging have increased in popularity as consumers are increasingly looking online for reputable sources to spend their money. Content marketing is increasingly used by companies to get new customers to their business.

If we take an example, companies that blog get 55% more visitors to their business website. So it is very much important to use these types of marketing strategies to gain new customers for your restaurant as well.

Another important strategy that has been successful is the social media branding for business and being active in social media. It is very much important to update your social media profiles regularly as search engines have started indexing your business social media content. This brings more prominence for your business in search engine marketing.

Not only search engines, your customers are also very much interested with the latest news, promotions and deals that are updated in your blog and social media.

To get potential leads and increase their prominence in market place, it is therefore useful to hire the marketing experts to do this job for restaurant industry.

3. Less Marketing Budgets and risk free business marketing strategy

Inbound marketing is the cheapest marketing strategy in the long term. It is easy to outsource your marketing by hiring an inbound marketing agency and build prominence on the web for your restaurant business.

By using various effective and creative marketing, inbound marketing agencies help to stay ahead of your competitors and get found online easily to potential customers.

Not only do the inbound marketing agencies help to do your marketing, they also help you to minimize your budgets on the long term.

Summary of what you get by executing a professional marketing strategy?

A. Save up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Stand out of your competition
C. Generate a massive amount of leads
D. Get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increase your customers and sales

These are some of examples on how you can benefit by outsourcing your restaurants marketing to a professional inbound marketing agency. Start your inbound marketing today and stay ahead of your competitors

Read also:

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When you feel you need help to execute this combined marketing strategy just let us know. Request a free custom quote today!

March 15, 2012March 15, 2012

An Easy Way to Reach One Fifth of the World with your Brand Message

Simply become active in Facebook!

Facebook has about 830 million users worldwide which means it reaches one fifth of the global population.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted there will be 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, 63.2% of internet users will visit a social network at least once a month, rising to 67.6% in 2013 and 70.7% in 2014.

The top ten largest countries are:

1. United States 155,886,800
2. India 45,018,540
3. Indonesia 43,521,320
4. Brazil 42,199,700
5. Mexico 33,599,040
6. Turkey 31,526,380
7. United Kingdom 30,484,380
8. Philippines 27,718,720
9. France 24,100,240
10. Germany 23,251,880

The search volume on Facebook has overtaken Google. And there are not only consumers who research there. B2B is also using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks to research for products, services, industry related information and new business partners.

Social media is a great way to showcase a business and to offer a more personal insight view. A company has great opportunities to show personality to attract the right buyer persona and to get in touch with the right new future customer when this one is looking out for products and services.

Social media has proved in the past years that it can bring positive ROI when it’s done right.

Some successful business examples are Intrepid Travel, Easy Lunch Boxes, and SnapRetail just only to name some of them.

As businesses understand that social media is no short term sprint than more something like a marathon they engage with more diligence to plan their steps to reach a long term ROI.

A study from Wildfire Interactive shows that social media helps grow brand awareness, increase sales and partnerships and helped to reduce marketing costs.

Infographic: Small Business + Social Media Use

Engaging in dialogue with customers via social media has become an important part of successful companies.

Smart marketers measure the value of social media channels as well. They want to know which one has the best results for their business. One of the most popular channels is Facebook. About 44% of surveyed marketers say that “Facebook is valuable because they help with new customer recruitment”.

A proven working strategy is to add lead capture pages to your in social published articles and to track the traffic, leads, lead to customer rate and revenue per generated lead. So you get a good picture of your cost per lead and adjust activities to increase your profits.

Studies show that companies which relying on online lead generation is two times more profitable than those who do not. Those companies achieve up to 62% lower costs per lead.

Get active and establish your outpost in social media today!

Seven steps to establish your brands social media outpost:

1. Start a social media presence. Complete your profile there.
2. Research for industry related B2B groups and people. Become a member and invite those people to your network.
3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening.
4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your B2B audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in social media and ask for feedback for your publication.
5. Build landing pages and offer exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related B2B leads.
6. Measure your activities.
7. Improve your activities and repeat.

What do you think? How do you use social media?

Further Resources:

Facebook Helps Get One in Five People Worldwide Socializing on Online Networks

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March 14, 2012

Get Up to 40% Revenue Boost through Content Marketing

Strategic content marketing has proven as one of the best ways to create brand awareness. Content marketing has proven to be the best and most cost effective way to drive traffic to a company website and convert this traffic to leads and customers.

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report n up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

The most popular ways of content marketing are blogging, social media and video.

Publish buyer persona oriented remarkable content. This can be achieved with a corporate blog very quick.

Here are some facts about the power of blogging:

1. Blogging companies get up to 55% more Traffic
2. Blogging companies get up to 97% more Inbound Links
3. Blogging companies get up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
4. Blogging companies get up to 25x times more business leads

In the next stages you should craft buyer persona oriented…

Press releases
Pictures
Whitepapers
EBooks
Video

These pieces of content you can distribute on sites like Prweb.com, Flickr.com, Pinterest.com, Slideshare.net and YouTube.com.

Infographic: The Rise Of Content Marketing

Case Study: Overall Content Marketing Strategy Leads to 2,000% Lift in Blog Traffic, 40% Boost in Revenue

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Free report: Get found and get leads the smart way.

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March 1, 2012November 2, 2022

How Private Air Charter can profit from Inbound Marketing

Private Air Charter — Like market leading airlines, private air charter is in a very competitive business.

Private air charter companies need to be in front of their audience when they are looking if they want to increase business and revenue.

Private air charter companies need their audience to talk about them to spread the word about their brand.

As long their recent and future clients are talking about them, they have realistic chances to get seen, visited and to increase their business.

Private Air Charter — The challenge:

When a Google search is carried out for the search term “Private air charter” there is about 2,740,000 results.

private air charter search results on google

Under these circumstances it is difficult for a private air charter company to get seen and noticed from their future customer amid of this massive amount of search results.

The solution is that a private air charter company has to stand out of their competition to attract clients like a magnet.

With the proven inbound marketing strategy a private air charter company can place them self in an unrivaled position against their competition!

When interested audience is looking for private air charter services and they go on the internet to Google, Yahoo and Bing for research. Customers also rely on recommendations from friends and business partners when they choose private air charter services. Customers go to their favorite social networks as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to do their research there as well.

Three important questions you should ask yourself:

• Can your private air charter business be found on Google from potential customer when they are looking?
• Do you know what’s been talked about you or your competition online?
• Why should a customer fly with your private air charter company?
• Is your private air charter website an asset or a liability?

Marketing has changed and Private air charter business’ need to be where their audience is on the internet. The market leading airlines are!

Private air charter business’ need to utilize the Inbound Marketing strategy for their business to get found, to get leads and to increase their customers and revenue!

Inbound marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services a business offers.

With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful and remarkable information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes Content Creation like Blogging, Social Media Communication, Lead Generation, Nurturing, Conversion and Closed-Loop Analysis.

Content marketing social media copywriting, Private Air Charter

Private Air Charter — Content creation

Content marketing has become a significant part of online marketing strategy. Content marketing has proven to be the best and most cost effective way to drive traffic to a company website and convert this traffic to leads and customers.

The most popular ways of content marketing are blogging, social media and video. Studies show that 57% of companies which operate a corporate blog get customers through their blogging effort.

We suggest to publish buyer persona oriented remarkable content. This can be achieved with a corporate blog.

• Studies show that companies who blog receives up to 55% more target traffic than companies who do not blog.
• Studies also show, the higher the volume of published blog posts the more the traffic increases.

Private Air Charter — Social Media Marketing

A company should also be active in social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and hand picked niche networks Social media marketing has become a powerful tool to spread remarkable content to reach a wide audience.

For companies who engage in social media and show presence in these channels get in the position to open wide opportunities to get in touch with their audience. This leads to an increase of credibility and unfiltered feedback of the target audience and can lead to an improvement of products and services.

New studies show that up to 65 percent of today’s customers expect a brand to listen and to respond on questions, comments and complaints in social media. Studies also show that companies which use social media actively to communicate with their audience are more successful than companies who do not.

Infographic: How Airlines Have Taken Flight With Social Media

Private air charter business in social media

Private Air Charter — Lead Generation

Inbound marketing has a 62% lower cost per lead than traditional marketing strategies. Inbound marketing way generated leads have a 55% higher lead conversion rate than lead generated through traditional marketing strategies.

• Studies show that companies with 17+ landing pages increase their lead count disproportionately.

Private Air Charter — Lead Nurturing – Lead Conversion

Effective lead nurturing increases lead conversion by up to 55%. Which does not mean that lead nurturing consist of sales pitches. Moreover effective lead nurturing is also a communication process with the future customer in which the lead receives helpful and valuable information too.

This grows the trust and increases the chances that a customer flies with your private air charter when he is ready to do so, because he knows the source as a trusted and reputable one.

Private Air Charter — Closed-Loop Analysis

All marketing tasks need to be measured to ensure you are walking the right way. During this closed loop analysis you increase successful tasks measure, improve and repeat. This ensures a step by step quality increase and a gradually decrease of marketing costs up to 62%.

In a nutshell, inbound marketing:

A. saves your business up to 62% of the marketing budget
B. makes your private air charter business stand out of the competition
C. increase brand value and recognition
D. generate a massive amount of leads
E. gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
F. increase customers and sales

Whitepaper: Inbound Marketing for Private Air Charter Companies von inBlurbs

Let me know what you think, did I miss anything?