Reflection Week 5

During the 4th week of class we reviewed how to write a blog correctly and some of the fundamental elements that need to be included. We also reviewed the blogs that we had written about communities with out classmates, which was really interesting since we had each researched and blogged about very different communities. One of our classmates discussed a community called behance.net which allows artists to display and sell their artwork. The artwork on this website has a really unique look to it, which I thought was pretty cool, especially since I am in the market for a couple of paintings! We also review value propositional and the professor made sure that we all understood that this meant and how to write one.

Let’s Make You a Believer

The Road To My Career

When I graduated from college I didn’t really know where I wanted to live, or what I wanted to do. I had graduated with a degree in Communications, which is kind of like saying I like American food. Unspecific and vague to say the least! After living in Australia, working at a multiple restaurants and and insurance brokerage I stumbled into a position at CooperVision as a Digital Marketing Consultant. At first I joked with my friends and family that I got to play on Facebook all day, but was quick to find the depth, complexity and effectiveness that digital marketing provides.

What I Learned 

Although I continue to work in digital marketing, I was excited to take Digital Marketing class because there is sooo much to learn in this field! You may think you have a good grasp on everything one day, and then Google will make an algorithm change and then ya don’t! I don’t have the opportunity to design websites at work, so I thought it was really interesting to look at Google Analytics and learn how to create different campaigns to keep track of each marketing campaign that was setup.

But The Final Presentations! 

Okay, so no one gets excited about creating a final presentation, or a marketing plan and with that point, I will say that I certainly was not excited about this assignment. However, as time consuming and mind boggling and this exercise may be, it is extremely helpful going back to what we learned in 505 and creating a digital marketing plan for a company other than our client. This really helped to solidify the process in my mind and also reminded me of a few things that we had learned in the more fundamental classes. Super super helpful!!

Meet quarter end with a Blog?

Meet quarter end with a Blog?

How many sales managers or marketing managers recall the phone call two weeks before quarter end and the company is 10% short on the revenue budget and the bosses are looking for sales, and from anywhere. All of a sudden you start the aggressive conference calls finding out which region has a full pipeline to tap, what rep has prospects that can take product early, what program can be launched in two weeks, and even yes – team you better hit your objective this quarter or you may not be here for the next one.

If you heard, Johnny from the Allentown market comment he had five registered users on his blog that posted last week they were interested in participating in a pilot program for a 10% discount and a 12 month term, and they said they could sign ASAP. You would kiss Johnny on the forehead then say; what the heck is a blog?

Benefits of blogs or microsites or forums or whatever you want to call them today?

Yes, this technology moves fast and so do the names. A community site using digit marketing can be a match made in heaven for exchanging goods. Providing the proper discussion topics, intellectual feedback and two way conversation to a very targeted market that has similar interests; could there be a better marketplace? In addition, traditional marketing typically told you what to do, however community sites educate you on how to make the best decisions, so listen and learn, then produce the best product for the best price to meet the customer at the right time at the right place to consider your product. By the way, if you educate the customer on something that may not lead to an immediate sale, trust is built, and trust wins deals!

Is traditional marketing that different from digital marketing?

Yes, but just like personal selling was different from newspaper advertising or then direct mail or then telesales and on and on. Digital marketing is very different from traditional marketing, however similar principles apply and if you do not sharpen your skills and add digital marketing to your tool kit, you will be left behind. Hubspot.com helped us.

These leads stink!

That’s the goal, to eliminate non-qualified, non-interested, and non-potential customers from the sales guys list. That’s right, no more mass direct mail, outbound dialing for dollars or blind email. Digital marketing provides the means to create deeper engagement and interaction with a company to form deeper relationships. Sounds similar to the courtship process? It is!

People communicate very differently today, so since the marketing and sales process is a mirror into how people interact and communicate, it’s time to get on the same page. Either a website, or social site, or email distribution, or webinar, or download, or blog, or search engine, you get the point!

The new sales cycle.

..is more challenging, takes longer but lasts longer, involves more steps, takes more contacts, and the more education you provide to a prospect – they may appreciate that, and buy something from you!

NextSteps in Reaching Consumers

NextStep in Reaching Consumers

When we first started this cohort I figured I had a general working knowledge and was fairly savvy in digital marketing but I quickly learned the knowledge I had was not even a fraction of what digital marketing really is. I had an understanding that businesses needed to have a digital marketing strategy which include the basics such as accessible websites, activity on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. I did not realize how much of an effect digital marketing played in the role of driving sales and profit. My three biggest take -a-ways from this class that I will directly use in my integrated marketing plan for our client are, the use of Facebook paid advertisements, direct email marketing and the use of YouTube in an effort to gain brand awareness and show the inner workings of the business.

Facebook

I think utilizing Facebook as means of marketing to potential consumers is very vital because many people in today’s society use Facebook. Facebook provides a means to reach a huge consumer market. For our client, my target market is generally mothers/ parents of high school students and also the student themselves, which a majority are connected on Facebook. Facebook proves to be an affordable tactic to reach these consumers and there are metrics to measure the success of your digital marketing campaign. Facebook allows you to see how well the business activities are doing and you can monitor your effectiveness and make changes as necessary.

Direct Email

Just think, how many times a week or day even do you get emails from businesses offering promotions or directing you to their website? I can honestly say I receive around 10 a day. Do I actually look at them all? No, I typically will delete them. And that is the challenge that email marketers have is trying to find good content and a good subject to put into an email blast so that consumers will open the email in hopes of driving traffic to their business. Email marketing I always thought was “old school” until I learned that it is one of the best ROI’s in the digital marketing world. I will incorporate direct email blasts for our client weekly offering promotions of services and workshops in hopes of increasing consumer traffic and a higher conversion rate.

YouTube

YouTube is my go to when I have a little down time as it is for many people. Actually, almost one billion people per month visit YouTube and watch nearly 6 billion hours of videos. As a business owner I would want my business on YouTube in hopes of raising my brand awareness. YouTube now offers an analytics portion to their advertising so as a marketer can see how well your ad is performing. Also you can control your daily budget, only spending when someone actually interacts with your ad. Another very useful feature is that YouTube allows you to target specific ages, gender, location, and interests so for my client I will make a targeted campaign to the mothers and high school graduates.

The more you know!

No matter how much you think you know, there is always more to learn. That’s what I found out in my time over the past few weeks in this class. In my past few jobs I did dabble in a bit of digital marketing; Facebook promotions, SEO, email marketing, etc. I knew there was more to learn, but I never imagined all that I would.

During the class I got a much greater depth knowledge or Google analytics and Adwords. This has helped so much. In my current job we work with vendor partners who run Adwords campaigns for us. I knew that we would have an ad that was up on Google, but that was the extent of how I knew it worked. Now I know that what we are paying for are the words we are bidding on within the campaigns we are running, as well as setting the time of day and geography. This gives me a lot more knowledge when we are discussing with the vendors new campaigns to run, how to select the words we are bidding on, as well as for our target markets when we want to run these campaigns.

With analytics, we can now track on our website what is working and what isn’t. I knew what was good and what wasn’t on analytics before, however I never really knew how to explain it to others. I just knew what was good and what wasn’t. After our analytics class I was able to cooperate with the girls in my office to make a presentation to explain how analytics work to our management. Since we could explain that we were losing people from the front page with no call to action, and then SHOW that we were losing people. The ability to then show them what was happening off our website because of a lack of call to action was remarkable.

I got to learn more about blogs. I use to blog a lot and we have one that we run as work. The tips and tricks that I have learned to make a better blog are phenomenal. Not only has my personal blogging gotten better, but I have been able to successfully give tips to the engineers at work. When we started the blog at work, the engineers were writing full essays. Multiple pages, no headers, no breaks, just pages of technical writing. Now, they have headers, shorter posts, fun interaction questions, and a readable blog that is growing each day.

From everything that I have learned I’ve got a lot of ideas buzzing around for NextStepU that they are not utilizing. They could do a lot of work with Adwords to boost their brand awareness as well as a lot more with social media that would be helpful to part of the target market. I think with using some of these techniques that were learned, a very strong digital plan could be used with NextStepU that would be far more effective then traditional media plans. I am really excited to move forward and get working on our full marketing plans for NextStepU.

Facebook, Twitter and …….

If you were anything like me, when you heard the term digital marketing, you immediately thought social media. In order to digitally market your company, you need a Facebook and Twitter account. WRONG! Digital marketing is so much more than Facebook and Twitter and this class showed me how to expand my digital marketing skills.

 

 

 

 

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a facet of digital marketing that will help companies appear higher on search results, when done correctly. Most people don’t click to the second page of search results, so SEO is beneficial for several reasons.

• Increase the number of visitors to the webpage
• Gain more clients
• Have an edge over your competition
• Increase brand awareness
• Establish your company as a powerhouse

These are all very beneficial rewards of utilizing SEO, however it has to be done right in order for these results to occur.

Here are some tips to maximize your SEO results:

• Regularly produce original content
• Use headings and tags for content to be found
• Include links to reputable sources
• Have reputable sources include links to your website
• Stay up to date with the current Google Algorithm

Google Analytics

 This is a great way to track and analyze the success of your website and SEO progress. Google Analytics is incredibly user friendly and easily helps to draw up reports providing companies with valuable insights.

You should use Google analytics if you’re looking for metrics on:

• The demographics of your audience (Male V. Female, median age, mobile V. web)
• Time of day you receive the most interaction
• Click through rates
• Campaign measurement
• Key Performance Indicators
• 

Learning all of these factors helps to understand your audience, when you’re getting the most exposure and helps determine what’s working and what isn’t. Ultimately it provides direction on what methods should be used when implementing the next marketing plan.

Blogging

 Blogging is another aspect of digital marketing that helps to increase engagement and interaction with the brand. Blogging shows the human side to the company and gives it a voice. A blog is where company representatives can become approachable to consumers.

This style of writing allows for more engagement and encourages consumers to interact. In every day life a typical consumer would probably not be able to have a conversation on the phone with a CEO, however, with a blog this becomes possible. The CEO can post thoughts, product progress or new ideas on the blog and consumers can read his/her direct thoughts and comment back. In a really good blog, the authors of the articles will respond back to the comments and generate conversation.

Some tips for a successful blog include:

• Use pictures and visuals to aid the writing
• Avoid large blocks of texts, make it easier to scan
• Write in your own voice and show personality
• Use bolded headlines
• Encourage readers to comment and interact
• Provide thoughtful responses to comments

All these different factors contribute to the overall digital marketing toolbox. Much more sophisticated than simply creating a Facebook page and Twitter account!

🎶Hello, Is it leads you’re looking for? 🎶

The wonders of digital marketing – Why I’m a believer

If you’re doubting the relevancy and value of having a digital marketing plan hold your thought and think again. Now-a-days in order for businesses to be successful companies must have a digital marketing strategy included in their marketing plan. Without it out, your missing out on the possibility of impactful revenue generating opportunities and a greater chance of reaching and converting qualified leads. The world is quickly becoming digital and when this train takes off you don’t want to be left behind. There is still a place for good ol’ fashioned traditional marketing methods but digital marketing offers a cheaper, faster, versatile and more practical form of marketing than traditional. This is a form of interacting that should be taken advantage of. Don’t believe me? Check out this article http://singlegrain.com/10-companies-doing-online-marketing-right/ highlighting 10 companies that have successful digital marketing strategies.

   What I’ve learned.

Content truly is king. Robert Rose said, “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world that you are one.” Content is the backbone of communication and is anything that adds value to the consumer during the buying process. It’s about giving consumers an idea of why your product or service will benefit them – and encourages the consumer to buy. Terry Foster said “Content marketing is a way to break through the enormous clutter of messaging that we’re all faced with as consumers every day.” It’s about engaging your audience, building authority, and relaying valuable information that consumers can benefit from. Effective content marketing can lead to increased web traffic, good SEO ranking and increased sales.

I’ve completely underrated the value of blogging.

Interesting content is one of the top reasons why consumers follow companies on social media and subscribe to email communications. One of the best vehicles to deliver that interesting content is through blogging. There are over 500,000 new blog entries posted everyday. Consistently publishing relevant, valuable and interesting content is what positions a company as a thought leader and a trusted resource. Research shows companies that generate 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. And, company blogs increase visitors to their website by 55 percent. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound traffic which means more search engine traffic. Blogging is a great way for companies to sustain an online presence and share the best they have to offer.

Applying the knowledge

I’ve learned that in this digital time – having an effective digital marketing plan is important. Just having a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page isn’t enough. You have to know how to use social media and the other various elements of digital marketing to engage, interact, convince and convert leads into loyal customers. I will definitely use a lot of the information I learned in this class in my presentation for NextStepU. Their target audience is heavily engrossed in this digital era so it’s important for them to meet them where they are.

Are you paying attention?

Business use

With business trying to get the most out of every dollar they are spending, are they watching and knowing what that dollar is really doing? The marketplace that we know of today is very different then yesterday. The current tools and marketing practices allow much greater detail about a single customer. This leads to the question what are the marketers doing about it. It can be fast paced and changed for every customer but it’s not stopping there. It’s important to know what the marketing is trying to drive. With the end goal being sales most of the time it’s easy to just measure sales numbers but measuring something else could lead to greater return.

With the use of Google analytics it now can give you a glimpse into much more than just the end sales numbers. Trying to figure out where or how your customers are coming to you? This powerful tool will show important data for a business to track.

One example of using this data to drive sales is Home Depot. With completion from Lowes taking market share away Home Depot need to react. The way that they did this was to make little changes over time to its website. These little changes were big drivers of the outcome however. One of the things that Home Depot noticed with its data review was that shopper would leave there site to find out how some tools worked, their answer was to include small video clips of the product in action. The other was that most people were using a mobile operating system when viewing its site. Homedepot.com was already mobile friendly but was not as easy to use. The change they made was to the search field making it the center of the mobile site.

It’s all about the proposal!

Haven just gotten married I know this to be very true, the ENGAGEMENT is very important. It takes planning, time, effort and lastly the right people. This is true in marriage and in marketing, divorce is expensive, so it’s best to get it right the first time.

In marketing when talking engagement it’s about the digital marketing efforts and how they are working. The most common is Facebook, and the efforts are to get people talking about your product. This holds true for most digital marketing not just Facebook. When done correctly and well planned with ad buys and maximizing the usage social media can be a great tool. When done poorly, a company could have just created a place for unhappy customers to come together and have a very large voice about a certain product.

One of the last things I learned is that people have to not know they were looking for you as a company but your name comes up when they GOOGLE something. SEO is a big thing and it’s something that companies need to be aware of. This knowledge could point out major short comings or allow an advantage over the competition.

Last, but not least.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”-Benjamin Franklin.

I really enjoyed this digital marketing class. I have learned a lot of valuable information that is not only interesting, but extremely valuable. The reason I have gotten so much out of these past five weeks is because we have gotten deeply involved in every aspect of what we were learning. From creating our own blog posts to presenting a real digital marketing plan to the “board”, I have been able to learn new ideas in a way that has allowed me to really grasp the concepts and fully understand what I need to include in our client project.

Blogging

The first aspect I will take with me into our final client project is blogging. Five weeks ago, I had never written a blog in my life. I have found that I actually enjoy doing it, and even more, I enjoy reading other people’s blogs as well. Not only are blogs full of information that is relevant to a person’s particular interests, but they allow you to engage with people you would never normally interact with in life. I think a NextStepU blog will be very beneficial for the company’s growth. There is a lot that can be said about college prep, financial aid, choosing a major, how to get through dorm life and many, many other topics. This will be a great tool to use to get all kinds of current and potential clients of NextStepU engaged and interested in the company.

Google Analytics

The next area that I found extremely useful and interesting was the lesson on Google Analytics. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I didn’t exactly know what this was until we learned about it in class. However, I am amazed at the enormous amounts of information you can gather about people that visit your webpage. This tool is imperative to measuring the success of your marketing tactics. I’m not sure if NextStepU is currently taking advantage of Google Analytics, but I would be interested to see their results if they are. Regardless of whether this tools is currently being utilized or not, it will certainly be incorporated into my final client project.

Social Media

This is a very important factor to be considered for NextStepU. First of all, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest definitely need to be a part of the final client project marketing plan. These are a few of the top social media sites being utilized by college age kids. Again, until this class, I never knew the ins and outs of paid social media advertising. I knew it existed, of course, but I didn’t know how it worked exactly. Since NextStepU currently has followers on Facebook and Twitter, I think a social media ad campaign would be very beneficial.

Overall, I really enjoyed this digital marketing class and I seriously learned a lot of extremely valuable information. Definitely one of my favorites so far!

Digital marketing and I

It’s All New to Me                     

Working toward my masters in marketing has changed the way I view so many things.  It makes me look at all of the different forms of advertising surrounding me with a more critical eye.  Seeing all the tactics behind the promotions to entice me to buy makes for interesting viewing because I end up comparing the successful to the rather laughable.  While probably annoying the people around me as I pick apart the media.  A commercial which recently makes me wonder what the company was thinking is the new Yoplait commercials.  If you haven’t seen them, they feature a woman who’s a native French speaker talking about how the yogurt has less sugar, while subtitles run at the bottom.  I just wonder about the effectiveness of this execution and the type of responses others have to this campaign.  Entering into digital has added another magnifying glass to my arsenal giving light to new concepts and processes to evaluate.

 

Digital Breadcrumbs

            One of the most interesting aspects for me was the class on analytics.  Being able to see the various effectiveness of the methods of delivering the message is a dream.  Tracking this way allows for previous mistakes not to become habits and evaluation of strategies.  It also provides factual support when presenting any ideas and justification for funding of proposed plans.  Coming from an accounting background, traceability of funds and returns on investments are key factors.  With analytics there’s the ability to pair the creative with the numerical in a very real way, satisfying multiple departments.

 

Changing Habits

One of the earlier blogs done revolved around different segments of the conversation prism.  Each blogger focused on a segment and worked to explain what it is and its impact.  It was fascinating to see the cultural shift we have faced in just the past few years.  My segment focused on the social marketplace, delving into this new way of shopping which places community as its centered and shared idea.  The post on the location segment was intriguing given it is a sensitive topic for some generations and just a way of connection to others.  It’ll be interesting to see future developments in this segment.

And Above All Else…

Content is king!  It is what drives people to you and keeps them coming back.  Which may speak to the reasons why the yogurt commercial bothers me.  It doesn’t drive me to the brand because of the enlightening fact of 25% less sugar.  Instead, it confounds me as to why the message is being delivered this way.  Perhaps it is an attempt at being artistic or even whimsical, but to me it just seems distracting and silly.

Throughout this entire process the objectives of each course have been to apply the lessons to our client.  In terms of my take a ways, the only dim point is the lack of analytics provided to us.  Overall the NextStepU is strong.  The area which needs help is how to reach consumers.