Friday, February 18, 2011

Break Through All The White Noise To Capture Prospects Attention With Interactive Marketing

It’s the dawn of a new era in interactive marketing and there’s no one left who will deny that and hope to make a real go of things selling goods and services in the handheld marketplace. Ten years ago no one could even envision a world where you could receive and interact using data without a modem, but the technologically advanced landscape has made that view as outdated as the Yellow Pages and dial-up internet.

Looking at the new mobile landscape that includes mobile smartphones and tablets makes it easy to see why there’s a revolution in how people get and respond to information. Consider the statistic that says by 2012 (that’s right, next year) people will get 50% of their digital content on mobile phones rather than computers. Add in the interactive elements of social media like Facebook and Twitter and you’ll see right away why the term interactive marketing is much more than a catch phrase.

It goes without saying that breaking through the barrage of content is the new challenge for the modern marketer. However, there are new methods that can help any business be heard above the din of all the white noise that both consumers and marketers need to sort through.

As flexible as wireless

Interactive marketing is as smart and flexible as the wireless technology that supports it. This growing medium is already blazing a new trial with the latest techniques like geo-targeting and digital signing as well as more familiar and traditional techniques like mobile coupons.

The purpose to all these interactive marketing techniques is quite clear. They give the modern marketer and business the ability to morph continually and change not only the scope but the messages themselves so that they are suited to an ever changing client base that has tastes and preferences that can be different on any given day.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Mobile Apps Is The Boat Your Business Needs To Sail On

It doesn’t really matter what business you’re in, success means staying on top of the latest developments and there’s no other spot where it’s critical to spend you advertising dollar wisely than online.

More specifically, you need to reach out to the mobile apps market if you’ve haven’t already done so because getting involved there will mean that people will soon be viewing your message right in the palm of their hands on the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or even tablet of their choice in the not too distant future. Advertising will move forward and the mainstream will be with the mobile apps. It’s the boat your business needs to sail on.

Industry Trends

Consider the following industry trends. According to a report in The Korea Times, Samsung and its suppliers have agreed to quadruple the number of mobile application processor chips it ships to Apple, making that company a bigger consumer of that particular product than Samsung itself. Even a quick glance at the iPhone website clearly shows a marketing strategy which includes business and entertainment users with each group looking for something specialized in the mobile apps department.

It should be clear when the Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans get involved with a Wi-Fi partnership, that the regular market for mobile apps as well as smart phones and tablets is opening up quickly and that's not something that the average business can afford to be left behind on. Here's another case in point.

An American firm, Ruckus Wireless, recently announced a collaboration with Chongqing Telecom, a unit of China Telecom to develop Smart Wi-Fi products and technology for a large-scale deployment in China. For the uninitiated Wi-Fi means mobility and mobility is the cornerstone of the smart phones and tablets that have been mentioned previously in this article. It all leads to mobile apps possibilities and business opportunities that are expanded every time someone somewhere in the world buys a mobile device. It’s a call to use your advertising dollar wisely.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Why You Need A Clearly Defined Content Strategy

Considering the fact that the BBC has recently split it’s technology and online content strategy divisions into two so that they can get the most from the social media platforms available, it’s worth the time to take a good look at content strategy and it’s implications.

Content, in all its forms, is the engine that runs sales and investment for business on the Internet. It doesn’t matter what route you take on the Web to that end goal of profitability, you need to be sure that you know how to tailor all the avenues that your content takes. In short, it doesn’t matter whether you want to use blogs, articles or social media, you need to be sure that you’ve a got a clear content strategy that works and puts your best foot forward for the goods and services that you’ve got to sell.

The weight of the online advertising dollar is falling squarely on the shoulders of social media today. Take a look at the trends involved and when you see things like Facebook credits that will be required on July 1 for social game developers to make real world payments, it’s clear that social media is an advertising tool that’s only about to expand and not contract in the future.

That’s means it’s necessary to understand that social media marketing and a good content strategy need to walk hand in hand. New reports are suggesting that business needs to get a lot more specific about the content they will need for their efforts and look at both the advantages and disadvantages of all that social media has to offer.

So, in the end, these reports and the experts behind them are asking business to decide between YouTube and Facebook or maybe a combination of Twitter and Digg and others. A well thought out content strategy will work together to prevent one avenue becoming stale and overused and provide a blanket coverage that takes all mediums into account.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Five Key Elements For A Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

There’s no doubt about it anymore. You need to take full advantage of social media marketing if you want to get all that you can from marketing on the Internet. It doesn’t matter whether you want to look at Facebook, Twitter or any of the other options as your preferred way to get your message across, you need to have someone working with you that can help you get all the exposure you can from this latest medium.

That said, there are already a few conventions that industry insiders have seen as the best ways to get the most from any social media marketing advertising campaign and following are five areas that you need to pay close attention to so you’ll get the best results.

• All of your tweets and updates need to reflect your brand. Punchy and hip are often the way to go here and since you only have 140 characters max for tweets, you need to make sure that every word counts and mirrors the look and feel of what you’re selling.
• Be funny, entertaining and human. There’s no room for stodgy people selling things in the social media world. Hard sell doesn’t sell here.
• Make sure that you’ve got the team assembled and hand picked to solve problems quickly and efficiently. Be selective with the firm that you use to put it all together.
• Know your audience. Set the tone based on research that narrows down your target demographic.
• Remember that timing is everything. Be relevant to the time of year and current situations for any of your posts or tweets. Social media marketing is all about the Internet and you can’t afford not to be timely.

Recent studies from Big4 members like Deloitte and KPMG have taken notice of the upward trending that social media marketing finds itself on. There’s no room to ignore this latest technique and still be successful.