Marketing Strategy

5 Facts that Impact Holiday Shopping Advertising

September 29, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

The impending Holiday season is upon us. Is your business ready to compete for your consumers attention? A recent article from Google noted that Holiday shopping, advertising research, and purchasing begins to see more and more upwards momentum beginning in August. Mothers, Fathers, and Brother-in-Laws all alike are searching for “Christmas ideas” and “meaningful gifts.” With this ever changing and growing capitalistic world at our fingertips, how can your business hold your customer’s attention and gain sales?

1. Including Local information in Search can drive Store Visits

Whether your business is a Mom-and-Pop shop or a chain store of equally desired products/services, your store information and details regarding those products and services are crucial. A recent Google Study found that 75% of customers are searching for the prices of your products, 66% are searching for the location of the closest store carrying their item of interest, and 63% are searching for your hours of operation, phone number, etc. These critical elements are high priority to Holiday shopping advertising, and all play a role in a consumer’s readiness to buy and likeliness to choose your company.

2. Over 50% of Shoppers will go to a Brand’s website to look for Coupons

“Best Price Guaranteed”, “Lowest Price around”, “Competitor Coupons Accepted” – all phrases your customers are hearing from your competitors. Keeping up to date coupons readily available for your buyer can change their “I want” ’s to “I need” ’s. This recent infographic by Adweek details more of shopper’s wants. Offering exclusive or custom coupons is also a habit that leaves your shopper feeling special and more likely to come again. These coupons, coupon codes, and premium offers can be advertised around the globe easily by Television, Email, Newspaper(s), Print Mail, on your Website, and more. Don’t let your customer find a better deal while shopping during this holiday season.

3. 90% of users use Screens simultaneously to Accomplish a Task

Your next customer can be on their phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop, searching for your products and services. Can they find you? Can your website fit a tablet, cell phone, or desktop screen quickly and seamlessly? When April’s Mobilegeddon was fast approaching, Mobile-Friendliness was top of mind and high priority. A user’s experience across all devices should be top of mind and crucial to your website’s design. Advertising your products and services within an environment that can be easily compressed and expanded to become compatible with your customer’s screen is highly beneficial when optimizing for the upcoming Holiday shopping advertising season. This Mobile Search study, The New Multi-screen World, details more pertinent facts such as 67% of users use multiple screens for their online shopping needs.

4. Last Year, 40% of Holiday Shopping Occurred Online

Google’s Recent Study “5 Holiday Shopping Trends to Watch in 2015” detailed the differences we’ve seen with shopper’s online presence and intent to stay there. 41% of shoppers purchased from a new retailer, which is a significant jump from 2013. Your company’s online presence should be relevant and engaging to appeal to all shoppers. Creating a marketing strategy to outline your company’s “plan of attack” to grab your future customer’s attention is key.

5. 22% of consumers feel most influenced by Emails sent directly from a Brand

Email marketing has become second nature for advertising and marketing initiatives. Simple online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools such as MyEmma.com and SalesForce.com allow businesses to not only create email marketing initiatives, but also connect to and keep track of prospects and important customer relationships that may otherwise be left behind. Emails sent to customers may detail upcoming events, sales, coupons, etc. that your retail business may be offering. Holiday themed emails, company “Christmas Cards”, and special Holiday savings are key holiday email marketing strategies to plan for.

Holiday Shopping Advertising Recap

In conclusion, digital marketing efforts during the holiday season are essential for Ecommerce/Retail businesses. Assuring that your company’s local information is up-to-date will lead to more in-store purchases. Offering coupons to within your company’s website will in turn create a unique user experience for your customers. Guaranteeing that your business’ website is easily adjustable for various screen resolutions and devices sizes will lead to a better user experience, and in turn, higher ROI. Your company’s plan of attack should address your business’ online presence and how to engage more frequently with consumers. Email marketing utilizing CRM’s allow customers to gain a feel for your brand and offerings with personalized messages that may lead to more inquiries and more purchases. Creating a sound strategy to encompass these Holiday shopping advertising thought-provoking statistics and facts, may lead to a better brand and better customer experience alike.

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Successful Tips for B2B White Papers

August 5, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Pardot states that “86% of B2B marketers are producing content.” Your company may be part of this percentage, but are you creating the RIGHT content specifically for your customers? White papers at times get bypassed by blogs or other social platforms, but using them as a medium to inform clients about relevant information is a fantastic idea. One you will not regret. Forgetting about this form of communication and focusing more on the others can be a gigantic mistake for your company. When a white paper is executed correctly, it can be an incredible attribution to your company and impact it positively. Business can attract new customers and educate followers by writing white papers with these best practices. Before you begin, sit down with your team to create a strategy and set objectives of what your white papers will look like altogether.

Assure each white paper is written to capture attention

The most fascinating topic will be meaningless if the paper is poorly written. It will instantly lose your reader’s attention. Write in a tone that your audience will clearly understand and will want to continue reading. As Pardot says, these papers do not have to be “cut and dry.” Captivate their attention with humor, compelling stories, and quality content. Add personal character to your business’s white paper to allow a distinct uniqueness to set yourself apart from the rest. Other options include adding pictures, quotes, and sidebars. Being visually friendly is just as important as the content itself.

Gain quality content

After choosing a familiar topic that will be useful for your readers to gain additional knowledge, find ways to get reliable information to support what you already know. Content Marketing Institute suggests conducting interviews with other experts in the industry. Ask for the marketing material they are currently using and what their most popular or trusted resources are. Use dependable search engines, such as Google Scholar, and other well-researched white papers to complete your research. It does not matter whether your company writes a five or fifty-page paper as long as the content is entertaining and entirely relevant. Cushion your content with facts and quotes by respected professionals that pertain to the topic.

Educate, Do not sell

Customers, clients, and competitors read your white papers to become educated and to see what exactly does your company know. Your content is to educate and NOT directly sell your product or service. While reading it, they want to be intrigued. Displaying your company’s expertise without pushing a sale may bring in new clients you might not have originally thought of.

White papers can be an essential way to connect with your clients. It can be the first step in signing a new customer for your service. Entice them to contact your company personally. Spark their desire to work with you by writing a successful B2B white paper they will learn from and enjoy.

Check out our white papers! Contact us today or leave us a comment below to share your thoughts or receive additional information on our services.

Expand Your Home and Garden Business With Digital Marketing

July 29, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Digital Marketing comes in all shapes and sizes. For those with businesses in the home and garden field, there lies a recognizable opportunity for your business to grow and bloom with digital marketing. Email marketing, Pay per Click (PPC) advertising, and social media can all positively impact your business if you develop the right niche and utilize the right tools to do so.

How Can Email Marketing Help with Sales?

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing yields an average 4,300% return on investment for businesses in the United States. By implementing email marketing, you can reach all of your current and potential customers while sharing the latest and greatest news and promotions your company is offering. Say you’re a lawn care business and your company is promoting a seasonal special, “20% off Lawn Care Services.” By adequately utilizing email marketing, your current and potential customers will be able to access your promotion all within the click of a button. Along with sharing promotions, emails marketing allows you to successfully measure your campaign and the performance on lead generations or sales.

Are you taking advantage of all Social Media has to offer?

If you are not taking advantage of social media, then you need to get into the game! Social media is the quickest and most cost effective way to share new products and showcase projects or work that you have just completed. Social media allows your business to directly interact and engage with customers, which now goes both ways as well. Your customers are able to reach you with any of their questions in a timely fashion. The personal touch you include in your social media pages will help humanize your brand and allow you to reach a whole new audience.

Can PPC help attract the right audience?

Email marketing and social media are great for showcasing your promotions or new products, but if you want to attract customers searching online for specific products or services you offer, then Pay per Click (PPC) is the way to go. Pay per Click (PPC) allows you to connect with the right customers across all platforms and devices, makes sure your ads are shown in the right place at the right time, and easily tracks and measures how your campaign is performing.

Whether you want to promote a special offer or showcase a finished renovation, having an effective digital marketing strategy can help your business blossom into a marketing producing machine!

Contact us and learn how DaBrian Marketing can help your business flourish.

Project Budgets: An Inside Look

July 22, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Great! You’ve signed the contract, dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s! You’ve gained a new client and your excitement level is through the roof! You’ve been allocated a budget, and should plan accordingly. Let’s take an inside look into how to use your budget wisely.

Develop a Plan

Once you’ve been in your business long enough, you’ve got filing cabinets filled with plans you never use! The best advice I could ever provide, is to stick to it! Develop a plan that is all encompassing, with “if-then” scenarios strategically documented, and with time allocated properly. Discussing your plan with each employee is also key. Assure that the goals within the contract are clear, define roles and responsibilities, confirm the resources needed are accounted for, and guarantee that the time allocated matches any changes made to their processes.

Read more information detailing project plans: How to Create a Clear Project Plan

Match your Plan to your Budget

Once you’ve developed a plan that aligns to your goals, assuring your budget falls in line is a major priority. There are a number of spreadsheets, platforms, and guides to help you align your budget. Smartsheet is one of those platforms that allows team members to collaborate, gain approvals, and report upon budget goals that are being met or exceeded. There are plenty of resources out there to assist in this process, but flushing out this process can only be done once your team is on the same page and your plan is clear. Knowing that in order to build a house, you must start from the ground up, may seem like an easy process to follow, but knowing that the price of insulation has recently skyrocketed might affect your budget and plan.

Stay Up to Date

The key to project plans is tracking progress. Become familiar with your employee’s processes to understand the issues at hand that may affect timelines. Know that the turnaround time for content to become approved by your client’s compliance team is two weeks, but that the company-wide work-retreat may affect this. Even though timelines may never stay on it’s written path, following the path is the objective. Variables outside of your company’s reach are not to be stressed about. Knowing that your team is working diligently to assure these goals are met provides peace of mind. Utilizing tools that allow for easy communication and collaboration can keep you informed and on budget.
Here you can find a blog on 3 Great Messaging Apps for Work!

Don’t be Afraid to Adjust

Adjusting your project’s timeline or budget isn’t the worst thing in the world. The worst outcome would be losing a client due to the inability of being flexible. The continuously gaining cost of ink is far less than the cost of no longer having a paying client. Always maintain a fluid relationship with your clients to notify them of any changes and updates. Keep up the good work and conquer!

For more information about project budgets and how we can help you grow, contact us or leave us a comment below!

Ecommerce Website Platforms That Help Grow Your Business!

July 8, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Make Sure Your Ecommerce Website Platform Is Up To Par

With summer time quickly passing by, the daunting thought of back to school shopping approaches every parents mind. If your Ecommerce platform is not up to par with your competition, parents will be choosing them over you for their back to school needs. Even if your website doesn’t have a shopping cart, you may lose business to competitors who do. Did you know that U.S. eCommerce sales will increase over 11% this year, and over 10% again in 2016 and 2017.

If you’re considering changing or adding an Ecommerce function to keep up with the shopping trends, here are a few platforms that can give your website the shopping power it needs, when it needs it the most!

Volusion

Volusion has a lot of features, simple interface, and good security. It has over 900 features which include store builder, design, built-in marketing, social media tools, inventory management, secure hosting, and 24/7 customer support. It also features a mobile-responsive website and administrative section. If you have a small number of products (100 or less) and still want all the features, then a $15/month Mini Plan, which includes unlimited storage and no transaction fees, is perfect for you. The Premium Plan is $135/month for unlimited products. Could this platform help you with the influx of shoppers online?

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is easy-to-use and has a lot of built-in features which let you create a store that converts interest into sales. It offers mobile responsive themes, flexible product management, inventory control, optimized checkout, analytics and 24/7 support. In addition, a setup wizard and Bigcommerce University offer lessons in online store design and marketing. Standard pricing is $29.95 per month, with a 1.5% transaction fee, in addition to other credit card processing fees. A Plus account is $79.95 per month with no transaction fees. Will bigcommerce be the right platform for your business needs?

3dcart

Opening and running an online store is fast and effortless as 3dcart includes many of the most needed features. The dashboard is easy to navigate and quickly allows you to access the most important store areas. The dashboard includes data on SEO, social media, mobile store templates, product management, statistics, and security. 3dcart also offers an app store with a substantial number of add-ons. Their “Mini” costs $19.99 a month for up to 200 products, while the Power Plan costs $129.99. Both plans offer no transaction fees. Will the 3dcart platform help your business when it needs it the most?

Shopify

Shopify’s features include over 100 themes, mobile commerce capabilities, your own domain name, marketing/SEO, a blogging platform, the ability to host an entire website, and online education. Shopify also has many apps that you can download and install in your store. Pricing starts at $29 per month, with a 2.9% plus 30 cent rate if you use their credit card processor. Higher plan’s have lower per-transaction fees. Does Shopify seem to fit your business needs?

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is a basic platform which targets artists looking for easy solutions to sell their products online. If you are looking to sell a few products online and don’t mind basic features and limited themes, this is for you. A basic Gold Plan allows you to feature five products for free, with no inventory management. The Platinum Plan is $9.99 per month for up to 25 products, while Titanium is $29.99 per month for up to 300 products. The more you pay the more features you unlock. Does the Big Cartel have all the things your shopping platform needs?

With Ecommerce sales on the rise year after year will your platform be able to handle the rush at back to school time or during the Holiday season?

Contact us today or leave us a comment below for more advice and information.

7 Deadly Sins of Social Media for Banks

June 8, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

A recent American Banker article discussed opening up the opportunities for employees to engage with customers. I was surprised that this was the position of the article because financial institutions, in general, tend to be very risk adverse. I understand utilizing social media to communicate with customers, but I think there need to be some controls. With that said, I give you my 7 deadly sins of social media for banks.

Lusting for “Likes” without the Bank’s Strategy

Before opening communication on social media for bank employees and customers, it’s important to recognize the need for a social media strategy and why social media matters. Profitability is a major concern in this competitive market, and social media can help financial service institutions differentiate themselves and communicate with customers on a level they’re accustomed to. For a bank to allow employees and customers to interact via social media, there needs to be a clear strategy and metrics to determine whether or not it’s having an impact on deposit accounts, loan applications, improving customer service, and generating revenues.

Failing to Acknowledge Competition (Pride)

With all the potential mergers and acquisitions banks go through, the market has become increasingly competitive. Not looking into the competitive landscape of how to effectively use social media can lead to disaster. There are a few financial services institutions (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and US Bank) that banks can take a note from on how to implement social media best practices and still remain compliant. Leverage the learning from local credit unions to connect with the local markets is a good place to start.

Not Preparing for the Rage of Employees & Customers

Not all employees or customers will remain happy with the bank so failing to prepare for the wrath of an unhappy employee or an unsatisfied customer may lead to unwanted national media attention. I would highly recommend that banks develop social media policies and procedures to manage employees social media engagement on behalf of the institution. It is also wise to clearly communicate what customers should expect and not expect via social media from the bank. A good example of this is Bank of America which offers guidelines and terms of use specifically for their social media community. These social media guides should help you to limit the risk and plan accordingly for the wrath of unhappy individuals or sensitive information.

Starting with More than Banks can Handle (Gluttony)

With all the social media networks out there, which one makes sense for the business? Opening up every social media platform to employees and customers is simply not a good idea. I would highly recommend that you start with one platform at a time and prioritize which social media platforms make sense based on your strategy. Each social media platform has unique aspects and as an industry that is generally slow to implement change getting a handle on each platform and understanding how customers engage will be critically important, so don’t bite off more than you can chew at one time!

Excessive Promotion of Your Bank and Financial Services

Contrary to popular belief your social media accounts should promote more than your bank, credit union, wealth management, and products or services. I would recommend the social media rule of thirds. ne-third of the social media content should promote the bank, one-third should share industry information and one-third should be based upon interactions and socializing with customers or potential customers. If you’re not following the rule of thirds or something similar you’re simply being greedy and tantalizing your community which will end with customers disengaging.

Being Lazy on the Measurement

The real question is how do you plan to measure the effectiveness that social media is having on growing deposit accounts, loan applications, and improving customer service? For years, I’ve witnessed banks and credit unions being really lazy on measuring the return on investment for their marketing dollars, especially dollars spent on social media marketing! There is a cost associated with having employees engage in this process and there should be a return on that investment. For full visibility into the return on investment, banks need to implement web analytics solutions and track across mobile banking apps, loan or member application process, and customer support tickets. Without doing so, there will be limited visibility into the overall impact that social media is having on the deposit accounts and lending.

Envy of the Competitor’s Social Community without Context

So the competitor has 1 billion likes and a trillion followers but how many members of their social media community interact with the brand, share information, use the specific social network, and are advocates for the company or product/service offerings? Don’t be jealous of the number of metrics without understanding the context of how they were acquired or the level of interaction. You can purchase Twitter followers but are they real followers? For example, you can have 300 followers for with a 50% interaction rate or you can have 1000 with just a 10% interaction rate.

Conclusion

It’s important to the financial service industry to embrace the idea that social media to communicate with customers, members, or investors but it should be aligned with the strategy and add value to the potential customers as well as the organization. The social media strategy and value of social media must be clearly established prior to opening social media communications. The expectations should be clearly defined for customers and employees to put things into perspective and avoid the 7 deadly sins of social media for financial services organizations.