Are you using mobile technology to market your business?

If not, reconsider – because up to 44% of your competitors may well be.
Right now.

Adobe have released the findings from their Scene 7 2011 survey, entitled “Digital Marketing in the Next Decade”.  1,941 businesses around the world were asked to pinpoint the tactics they currently deploy – or plan to deploy – in a number of areas including web analyitics, digital advertising, mobile, and social media.

Web analytics, social media and online merchandising are currently the most widely used tactics, while the development of mobile applications is among the most widely planned for 2011 and beyond. This is the first time, since 2007 when the survey began, that mobile has topped the list of planned deployments and is most likely a commercial response to the massive growth in the use of smart phones over the past year and a half.

Of course, mobile isn’t just about straight-up, personalised advertising. Of the top six most-effective features for improving customer experience, four were found to be related to mobile. Social media marketing fanatics have been raving for years about the importance of integrating online marketing strategy with offline and in-store promotions. With mobile, this couldn’t be any easier.

If you haven’t already, you should consider some of these strategies:

• Providing downloadable, bar-coded coupons
• Allowing customers to check inventory stock through an app
• Inviting customers to get information by scanning an item’s barcode on their phone
• Product comparisons on mobile devices
• Or, the old fun-favorite: location-based social networking. IE. Foursquare!

International marketing tactics are adapting at a furious rate to meet their audiences on new technological platforms. Where will this ‘digital revolution’ take us next, I wonder?

And where will you take your business with mobile?

Devin Anderson is a Digital Marketing Consultant at our talented branding-expertise affiliate, The Brand Factory.

We Have Been Nominated for the 2011 Sydney Business Awards!

Win $1,500 in cash – by voting for the Cavalletti Communications team.

Vote & Win at http://bit.ly/jbmoe4, or simply SMS “Words” to 0447 447 070.

Thank you for your support,

Daniela
daniela@cavacom.biz

DYI Copywriting: How to Write a Headline

http://tinyurl.com/3v2h32s

 
Until soon,
Daniela
+61 (0)415 273 272
daniela@cavacom.biz
www.cavacom.biz

We Take Care of All Your Business Words

As an entrepreneur, business owner or marketing manager, you all face the same issue: how to create engaging and on-target marketing messages, and truly connect with your audience. How to create leads and convert them into (preferably repeat) customers.

Here are five steps for creating an effective marketing message:

1. Identify your Target Market
2. Understand your Target Audience’s unique Problems, Needs and Wants
3. Offer a Solution to those Problems, and Fulfill Desires
4. Provide Testimonials (customer experiences) as a Proof of your Solutions
5. Differentiate Yourself from your Competitors

And remember: what your prospects and customers really want to know is “what’s in it for them” when they buy your product or engage your services. How you achieve that result for them that (i.e. what you do), is of secondary interest to them. So, your audience mainly wants to know you provide a specific benefit that’s important to them. For example, that what you sell provides security and safety – not so much the details of the insurances you offer or the technical specifications of a security system.

Read more on how to create a strong marketing message here.

Until next time,
Daniela

Are you a soloist, entrepreneur, micro- or small to medium business?  If so, sometimes, as the owner of such a business, it can feel like you are all alone, out there on a big big ocean and only a few islands in sight.  But you are not alone.  And dry, solid land is there for the taking – if you know how to look for it and stake your claim.

In their book The Risk Takers Renee and Don Martin identify ten common traits, challenges and ultimately opportunities for entrepreneurs:

1. Trust your Instinct
2. Challenge Convention
3. Persist
4. Find your Niche
5. Spot Trends and Act
6. Fill the Gaps your Competition’s Left
7. Just Start – there is no Perfect Time
8. Get Creative in Marketing
9. Competitor’s Weakness = Your Strength
10. Never stop Changing
11. I like to add another point here: Be Clear and Consistent about your Brand.
    Ensure you communicate clearly, regularly and in an engaging way with your target audience, i.e. your potential and existing clients.
    Be relevant, give them something for free, don’t just hard-sell. Be professional, yet personal. Put yourself in the client’s shoes and think how you would like to be communicated with and treated.
    There is much you can do yourself towards this aim. Everything else a good copywriter and communications expert can help you with.
    Help is at hand – for all budgets.

Read more on how to get motivated, find your niche and not lose the edge over your competition here.

Until next time,
Daniela

First there was the Website…

You own a business and have set up your website. It’s informative, it looks fab and it gets a lot of hits.
But does it get you customers, clients – and sales? Hmmm….

So, you start spreading the love, trying to find your potential clients elsewhere and keep in touch with your existing clientele.  These days, your next step is entering the world of social media: you get a facebook page, spruce up your LinkedIn account and you are Twitter-ing away.

But what next? How can you use your social media presence to grow your business, spread your ideas and create a following – all while contributing something valuable? Is it only looks that count, to be seen to “do the social media thing”?

Content is King

Potential clients are people, not just an abstract construct. And people want substance, something useful and not just a sales spiel. Getting your product, brand and marketing message across in a way that is valuable to you as well as your target market gives everyone something to be happy about.

Taking without giving or contributing does not work in 2010. Content, value and sharing is what your target audience – your “tribe” – needs and wants. Write a blog, offer some free resources, share your thoughts. Your readers want substance.

Give it to them

Find 10 tips on website content and social media strategy here.

A good freelancer can take care of your one-off or recurring writing project, IT issues, marketing need (or almost anything else), freeing you to attend to your core business.  But how do you choose who is the best fit – and the best value-for-money?

Often, the temptation is to go for the cheapest option, the most easily defined “box-standard” offering.  
But aren’t you, your business and your clients worth more?

Read more about how to stand out from the crowd, and the value a good freelancer can add to your business, here on marketing “guru” Seth Godin’s blog.

Do you know how your company is perceived?  Be fab, not drab:

* It costs 6 to 8 times more to get a new customer than to keep an old one.
* There is a 12% higher profit margin with your existing customers.
* Each customer tells at least ten people about their experience. Via email and internet they may potentially tell thousands.

Know your customers, potential clients and employees – then reap the rewards. Read more here.

Know where to save – and where to spend.
Keep your competitive edge with that extra bit of unexpected service.

Read Seth Godin’s blog “Pennies and Dollars” here.