George Clooney

EOnline.com, Sept. 13, 2009

"I'd rather have a rectal examination on live TV by a fellow with cold hands than have a Facebook page."

Having just read a book (Robopocalypse) about computers and machines ganging up on humanity and wreaking havoc, I have to say I can relate to the growing chasm between technology lovers and technology haters.  I'm not sure if the anger/hatred is really about what Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, Google Maps, etc. stand for.  I mean, people still talked, liked what other people said, stuck pins on a map 100 years ago, right?

Basically, I think some people simply prefer old tools to new ones.  Fair enough.  Being an integrated marketing agency, our job is to effectively communicate using many different methods. The communications channels keep changing, as do the people who fall in love with this channel or that channel.  While the essence of the message remains very much the same, each channel (and their fanboys/girls) likes it customized.  Also, each channel has inherent strengths and weaknesses.

Example

Ballistic Beach Balls Inc. wants to promote their balls.

On your website, you'd create a banner on the homepage which links to your product page(s).  You'd also write a blog post that talks about the Beach Ball Sales Event - what it's all about, what makes Ballistic balls so great, and what's up for grabs with your contests, etc.  Think of your website as your digital homebase.  Your other marketing channels should somehow point back home.

In the Newspaper, you'd run a Ballistic Ball Sales Event (including a "signup at www.ballistic.com" or something)

On the Radio, you'd announce your Ballistic Balls Sales Event (including a "learn more at www.ballistic.com" or something)

On Facebook, you'd run a contest for fans to submit there funniest "beach ball" photos.  Winner gets a new Ballistic Beach Ball. (Easy/fun contests get talked about can really take off on Facebook.)

On Twitter, you'd post a link to a crazy YouTube video showing Ernie the sealion playing with 3 beach balls.  Your little button or promo appears at the end. (Funny videos get passed or "Retweeted" pretty often, which is great word of mouth)

In an email, you'd briefly mention all of the above, and provide links so people can follow-up with their preferred communications channels.

In person, you'd tell people about the crazy sealion video and have a laugh, or "Hey, you (or your kids) should enter our Facebook contest!" People don't need a strategy with their friends, they simply share stuff they like.  It's that simple.

On the phone with a reseller, you'd share the awesome stuff you're doing to promote Ballistic Beach Balls which should drive demand - aka, better order a 1000 cuz they'll be popular this summer.

At an event, you'd get your friend George Clooney (or an Okanagan Sun player) to endorse your beach balls, while announcing that your company is donating 100 to Kelowna General Hospital children's ward.

In the local press, you'd submit a story using content from all of the above.  Maybe you'd get free newspaper, radio, or TV coverage... who knows?

On the internet, you'd share your knowledge on other sites, and online communities, promoting your product while being genuine and not a selfish spammer.

Okay, okay... enough!  This is way oversimplified, but you get the idea.  Each channel is treated differently, but they all integrate with each other.

Moral of the Story: Do your customers hate Facebook (or whatever channel) as much as you do?  Lucky! Stick with what works, but it could change pretty fast so keep your eyes peeled. Do your customers love a communications channel that you hate?  Your business is going to suffer, unless you adapt.  Find someone that "gets it" and let them run that part of your business.

Other Famous Technophobes & Haters

President Barack Obama
_{Hampton University commencement speech, May 10, 2010}

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and Playstations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."

Keira Knightley
_{Daily Telegraph, Apr 13, 2009}

"I hate the Internet. I find it dehumanizing to constantly check e-mails or social sites which have become so fashionable."

Prince
_{Daily Mirror, May 7, 2010}

"All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers, and that can't be good for you."

Ray Bradbury
_{Los Angeles Times, Aug. 16, 2010}

"We have too many cell phones. We've got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.

Edward Albee
_{Vice, Dec. 2010}

"I walk along the streets of New York and I find people bumping into each other, bumping into things, and they have these things in their ears or in their face. They're not seeing anything of the real world."

Jack White
_{NME.com, Apr. 6, 2010}

"In my head, I'm still living and working as if there is no Internet and treat it as a nuisance."

Drew Barrymore
_{Nylon, Aug. 2010}

"Ironically, with all this 'We're now more connected than ever with technology,' I don't think we've ever been farther apart."

Social Media is a hot marketing topic this year in Kelowna! The number of inquiries we get about using social media for marketing has quadrupled in 2011. We have seen some media coverage in the traditional press too (see Face to Face is a click away). In the past year, we've had a chance to leverage social media as a marketing tactic for a number of businesses in Kelowna have witnessed very positive results in general. This article digs into some stats about social media's effectiveness vs. other forms of online marketing. It's interesting to see how the different tactics stack up, as well as the shifts over the last year.

In a recent survey by eMarketer.com, small to medium businesses (SMB) in the U.S. were asked several questions about their online marketing efforts and their effectiveness.

Small Business Still Prefer "Traditional" Online Marketing Tactics

From the survey, SMBs are still more likely to say they found new customers by using websites (85.8%), over email (74.3%), and search marketing (74%). Web sites are considered a more “traditional” online marketing tactic and are well entrenched in the marketing programs of most companies whether a site operates as an online brochure, order system or supports the full sales cycle.

Is Satisfaction in Online Marketing Decreasing?

Despite the rise in use of online marketing, SMBs surveyed indicate that satisfaction with many of these channels is decreasing.

Specifically, large decreases in satisfaction were seen in audio podcasts (-53%), webcasts/webinars (-44%), Twitter (-38%), Linked In (-36%), Banner/display ads (-34%) and Blog (-32%).

Are Internet Users Changing Their Behaviour?

While new online marketing programs by inexperienced marketers are going to be less effective, this doesn’t account for such a huge decrease in so many of the online marketing tactics.  Instead these decreases suggest a change in behaviour by Internet users in obtaining information. This change in behaviour is both a reflection on the increased maturity of the average Internet user, the amount of time users are willing to spend looking for something, as well as the ever increasing use of mobile Internet devices.

• Users are more aware of paid advertising including banner/display ads and search marketing (PPC);
• Users are less tolerant of lengthy sales pitches such as podcasts and webinars however informative. Instead users are turning to quicker ways to obtain the information they need, often on a “just-in-time” basis.
• Use of mobile Internet devices has increased to the point where users aren’t looking for information until they actually arrive at their destination, often using tools like Gowalla and Foursquare which alert you to sales and deals near your current location.  This focus on location based marketing is also seen in the popularity of coupons like Groupon and Twongo, as well as the increased use of Google Places.

In fact, the survey statistics show that new channels made up for these decreases, including emailing offers, Google Places, Groupon and other coupon sites, mobile marketing, and location services like Foursquare. These are all new entries on the list for 2011 and yet they all have between a 25% and 50% effectiveness rate according to the SMBs surveyed.

A Key Advantage When Marketing Online: (Nearly) Everything Measurable!

Many of these new marketing tactics are more measurable than some of the earlier tactics. It is far easier to measure the number of Groupon coupons sold or Foursquare discount coupons used over the number of sales resulting from Blog and Podcast consumption. Similarly, savvy Kelowna businesses are taking more interesting email open rates, click-through rates to gauge newsletter performance.  Perhaps this is why small businesses are jumping on these new tactics in such large numbers.

Popular email management tools like Constant Contact have great tracking and measure the number of email opens and internal link clicks on each email campaign. Website analytics software like Google Analytics enables business to see the number of visitors, clicks, time spent, and online purchases.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

The move away from less measurable and out-of-vogue methods of communication towards new and often more measurable methods of communication will help businesses track the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts.  It's easier to justify spending $ on marketing when you can measure the results!

It's Free, right?

Since many of the new digital marketing channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and so on are seemingly cheap, small and medium sized businesses in Kelowna should certainly consider them.  Beware that "cheap" and "free" are not really good descriptions of these tools.  Your time is worth money!

Here's a few pointers to get started...

• Create clearly defined goals for your online marketing plan
• Identify your audience (Hint: Use the marketing channels, tools, and websites that your customers are ALREADY using)
• Understand that social media is a 2-way communications channel... it's a party line, not a megaphone
• Do a batch process (eg. write a whole week's worth of content for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn on Monday morning and schedule the release using a tool like Hootsuite)
• Measure the results (Who is clicking on your links in the updates? Do people ask more questions? Do they call for an appointment?  Do they walk in the door?)
• Integrate social media efforts with things like blogs posts, email blasts, in-store contests, special events, radio, print, and video
• Consider hiring a company if your time is better spent elsewhere!

We'd like to take the opportunity to say CONGRATULATIONS to a few of our clients that recently won awards in the Best of the Okanagan Reader's Choice Awards put on by Okanagan Life magazine.  Way to go guys!

	Voted #1 in Home Furniture (North) Voted #2 in Home Furniture (Central) Voted #2 Home Accessories Store (Central)
	Voted #3 in Garden Centre (Central)
	Voted #1 in Hair Salon (Central) Voted #3 in Day Spa (Central)

It's been a very busy Q2 and Q3 at Twin Creek Media.

As a Kelowna marketing agency with a special focus on internet marketing and web design, we never seem to be able to breathe long enough to update our portfolio with new launches and interesting case studies.  In this project update, we'll give a taste of what the team at Twin Creek Media has been doing over the last 6 months.  (We can't tell you all the goodies though... our clients don't want us to spill the beans about their new competitive advantages and we have trade secrets to keep!)  You'll just have to hire us to reap the rewards of an integrated marketing campaign.

We have been creating new brand identities, database-driven websites, corporate brochures, direct mail pieces, running radio campaigns, shooting videos, building blogs, and driving web traffic through email marketing, search engine optimization and pay per click tactics like Google Adwords and Facebook Ads.  Just one item in that list is powerful, but done together, business goals are targeted with a type of marketing synergy that is amazing to watch.

A Sample of Completed Projects

Okanagan Regional Library

Completely redesigned website, photography, animation, print materials, and Facebook and Twitter efforts lead to many people to rediscover the library's relevance in the 21st century | Name the Marmot Contest big hit with 3000+ kids (and their parents!)

Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors

Promotional videos and unique email marketing campaigns draw people to national conference at the Delta Grand Okanagan

Case Furniture Gallery

Online contests builds brand awareness & drives retail store walk ins | Local media get VIP treatment at private event

Quantech Software

Online industry survey reveals what customers really want | Targeted email marketing campaign generates many new leads

SJF Sports

Internet marketing strategy leads to blog and intense social media campaign using Facebook and Twitter | Web traffic increased by 109.4% in 2 months

Our Okanagan

New Okanagan business networking website attracts 800+ new business/association sign ups | Employment, investment, and collaboration opportunities excite valley residents Watch the recent by Global/CHBC here.

The Greenery Garden Centre

Massive online photo contest creates a fun customer experience | web traffic soars with 600+ submissions & 3000+ votes

A Sample of Current Projects

Best Western Inn Kelowna

Search Engine Marketing Analysis reveals what Google thinks |Internet marketing campaign begins to take a leading brand higher than ever

Quantech Software

SEO and Website Usability Score Cards uncover the missing ingredients that will turn "tire kickers" into buyers | Web development focuses on amazing user friendly site which supports Sales & Marketing Dept's goals

Impact Radio Accessories

Continued magazine ad design, catalogue, and eCommerce website improvements assist in great sales performance for 2010 | Work done over the last 4 years spur on international expansion

Clement Turf Farms

Strategic research and industry surveys get to the heart of exactly how where the new revenue opportunities lie | Integrated marketing campaign underway involving both digital and traditional marketing tactics

Okanagan College - Green Business Awards

Easy to use Wordpress blog-style website will help students organize and promote the local Green Business Awards competition

by James Shaw and Amelia Penner

Newsletters are an extremely common form of communication between companies and their customers.  Email marketing is a great way to advertise special offers, grow your audience, and communicate with your customers.

Key Benefits of Email Marketing

• Maintains top of mind awareness through regular contact
• Drives traffic to your website
• Gives your reader something valuable (promotions, information, communication)
• Continues the relationship that began when they visited your website, store, or social media
• Integrates with social media (promotes your YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts)
• Highly interactive (You can't click play video on a postcard!)
• It’s trackable and measurable

Why Not Direct Mail?
Are you still using direct mail as a form of advertisement?  Direct mail is only as measurable as you want it to be.  For a truly trackable direct mail campaign you need to ensure that every customer brings in their mailout to redeem for the promotion.  This way you can count how many came in.  Plus, on top of that you have the cost of sending out the actual campaign.  Direct Mail has it's place, and can be effective to drive a brand new group of people to a website or to a store.  (After all, you are only supposed to email to list of people that have given you permission first!)

Email marketing requires only your time to type the newsletter and then simply click ‘Send!’.  Then you can monitor how many people opened the email, clicked on links in your newsletter (and which ones!), and if your newsletter was forwarded on to anyone.  Now isn’t that handy?  Email Marketing software either comes with a monthly subscription fee based on list size or pay-per-use payment plan - either way, it's WAY cheaper than direct mail.

Couldn’t I Just Use Outlook?
The problem with using an email program like Outlook or Hotmail is that you have a limited amount of email addresses that you can send to.  This can also be time consuming of ensuring that you have all of your customer’s email addresses in Outlook to send to.  You also cannot automatically personalize your emails to the person.  Finally, the biggest problem is that you cannot track how effective your newsletter was.

And just in case you’re still not convinced:

• Email's ROI index is 55 percent higher than any other direct-response marketing vehicle. - Direct Marketing Association (2008)
• For every dollar spent on email marketing in 2008, marketers can expect an estimated $43.52 ROI. - Direct Marketing Association (2008)

It all starts with your Customer List
Well, you can’t send out a newsletter without a list of email addresses.  Constant Contact allows you to import CSV’s of your customer’s email addresses.  You can also divide up your customer’s email addresses into separate lists.  For example, if you have multiple locations you can divide up your emails based on what location is nearest them.  This way you can better target your promotions to your customers.  For more information on how to build your email list click here: http://www.twincreekmedia.com/blog/2010/06/got-a-store-build-your-email-list/

Remember to only use email addresses that you obtained through your company.  Also, do not spam your customers or email out unsolicited emails.

Newsletter Basics
Help your audience solve a unique issue, find good information, and provide something of real value.  Don't SELL with an overtly spammy message!  Each time you send your customers a newsletter you need to be sure that it’s worth them opening the newsletter.  You want to make sure that your email list will not unsubscribe from receiving your newsletters as that defeats the purpose.

Some basic tips to follow are: use the right tone, you don’t have to always offer a sale, make them want to connect with you, and encourage them to share.

Always remember to proofread and test the newsletter before you send it out to your client list!

The Subject Line
This is one of the most important parts of your email newsletter.  When it comes to the subject line of the email - keep it short and simple!  You have 3 seconds or less for your customer to decide if they want to open your newsletter.  Using 30 - 40 characters including spaces (5 - 8 words) is usually a good guideline to follow.

Don’t use words like: free, guarantee, spam, credit card, etc.  Also, do not write in all capital letters and use excessive punctuation like “!!!” or “???”.  Finally, make sure that it connects with the content inside your newsletter.

Leading Email Marketing Software: Constant Contact
Constant Contact is really easy to use and manage on your own.  There are a variety of templates to choose from to make your newsletters more effective.  Since all of your contacts are imported into Constant Contact you can choose which email list to send out a newsletter to and each email will be personally addressed to that person.  Finally, you can view all the statistics and tracking for each newsletter that you send out!

Want more ideas to expand your audience and increase engagement?  Contact us today to set up an integrated marketing campaign that is the perfect fit for your business!

by James Shaw and Amelia Penner

Radio Advertising in the Okanagan - Part 2 of 2

Last time we talked about how the basics of using radio in your marketing mix.  In case you missed Part 1, we covered:

• Deciding on the right radio station
• Knowing who your audience is
• Choosing the right time of day
• Comparing Okanagan radio stations

Get Them to Remember
Hearing is not the same as listening. People hear background noise, but listening is focused and active. The average person needs to hear your radio ad 11 times before they will actually listen to it. Once they do listen to it, are your customers remembering what you say? Below are some suggestions to create a winning ad:

• Use humor - people love to laugh
• Create curiosity upfront with an odd intro or sound - a well designed ad interrupts the listeners’ current thought process to switch them from “hearing” to “listening”
• Mention some related facts or “did you knows?”
• Turn part of your ad into a catchy song that is sure to get stuck in someone’s head
• Make your ad a conversation between two people
• Sponsor the news or sports or weather with a quick 10sec sound bite (shorter ads but more repetition for the same dollars)
• Jump on board with a station’s contests or quizzes. You may have to provide prizes which will cost extra money, but the brand awareness and foot traffic may be well worth it.

Most importantly, do not forget to mention the name and important contact information of your business. You do not want them to remember just your ad, you want them to remember you. The average person needs to listen to something at least 3 times before they can remember it. So... repeat repeat repeat.

Get Them to Take Action
What is the goal of your ad? Do you want them to call you, check out your website, or come into your store? If no one is taking action, try some of these tips:

• Say the phone number and email address in a way that they will remember
• Advertise a sale. Yes, people still love sales. Be specific though. Eg. “No tax on all couches and loveseats this Saturday and Sunday only.”
• Make a limited time offer or limited amount available. In the example above, the sale is limited to a certain product and a specific time frame. Interested listeners now have an image of a new couch in their minds AND a deadline. A bit of pressure prompts action.

Whatever you want your listener to do - make it clear and easy.

Measure Your Results!
John Wanamaker, a US department store merchant, once came up with the most famous advertising quote of all time:

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

So inevitably the phone rings (or the web traffic spikes).... do you have any idea if they are calling because of your radio ad or because of your website or yellow pages listing, or billboard, or newspaper ad, or.... or....? Let’s talk for a moment about ways to measure and compare.

Call Tracking
Companies like MongooseMetrics (MongooseMetrics Tracking) allow you to register a separate phone number to use in your radio ad (or wherever you like). When someone calls this number it will still ring on your phone at work, but you will be able to track online how many people called from hearing your radio ad. Tip: you can use unique phone numbers on other ads too, like print and web ads. It’s a great way to measure the effectiveness of each to start to understand what type of marketing is making your phone ring.

Web Traffic Tracking
There are a few different ways you can track who is visiting your site from your radio ad.

1. You can register a new domain that forwards people to your website
2. You can add a subdomain (subdomain.website.com)
3. You can add a section to your website (website.com/section)

All of these unique URL’s can be tracked within your web stats program (we love Google Analytics - it’s good and it’s free!). Using unique URL’s for each piece of your marketing campaign makes it easier to attribute the source of the traffic that results from them. The next step is to change things around in the current ad to boost its effectiveness or dump the losers and boost the winners.... but that’s a topic for another article.

Buying Radio Ads
Here are a few quick tips to remember when buying radio spots...

• Do not pay the standard rate card price - negotiate for a better deal
• Heavy load your ad spots into a short time period if your budget is small - alternate two weeks on and two weeks off to get the better bang for your buck
• Do not run on more than one station at the same time unless you have a large budget - switch between your target market stations to get increased frequency and measure the results
• Do not always buy direct - sometimes buying through an ad agency can get you a better deal

Do you have an opinion on a local radio station? Have good story about an epic radio ad failure or smashing success? Share it! For the good of all humankind and the ears of our children! Don’t not hold back! Okay, that was a bit melodramatic...

by James Shaw and Amelia Penner

Radio Advertising in the Okanagan - Part 1 of 2

For local retailers and service providers that market to the general population, advertising on the radio can be very effective.  Success or failure on the radio can be attributed to factors such as relevance, repetition, brand awareness, call to action, measurement, and creativity.  As with any other media, it’s important to integrate your radio campaign with other online and offline efforts.  An integrated campaign is greater than the sum of its parts.  For a primer on Integrated Marketing see: Engaging Customers: From Bored to Boombastic!

The Basics: What Station?  When?
Below are the basics of what you should already be doing with your radio ads.  If you cannot check off all of the following things, you need to address them before applying the other changes we suggest.

• Are you advertising on the radio station(s) your target audience listens to?
• Are you advertising during the times that your target audience is listening?

Relevance: Know Your Audience
The key to any marketing effort is understanding your audience.  Who are they really?  Are they 46 year old men who like sports, outdoor living, and drive trucks?  Are they 34 year old time-starved females with 2.5 kids, who believe mini-vans should have their own lane?  What radio station is your audience listening to?  Throughout Vernon, Kelowna, and Penticton there are a variety of stations that target different age groups and genders.  Unfortunately, the variety of stations creates overlap which makes it harder to choose between them.

Time of Day
Typically the best times to run your ad are when people are driving to and from work.  These would be 6am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm.  The theory is that there are more listeners during these peak periods.  This is balanced by the fact that these spots may be more expensive and there could be more ads crowded together, making it easier for your ad get lost in the noise.  Eg. if your spot is 6th in a series of 7 spots back to back, has your audience already flipped the station before hearing it?


Kelowna Radio Stations

Penticton Radio Stations

Vernon Radio Stations

About the Charts...

Hopefully the charts above are a helpful resource.  The Okanagan radio scene is quite fragmented and there is a lot of overlap.  This is great for listeners - more choice!  But for advertisers, it means the decision of which station to buy is harder, and often you will need to buy more than one station to be effective.

Most of the data provided in the charts come from the radio stations themselves.   There are a few important exceptions.  First "Core Demographic" means just that: it's the core demo, but of course there are 20 year olds listening to the news on AM1150, and 45 year old men listening to Britney Spears on SunFM (yikes!).  There are always exceptions.  Also, note that "Teens" is not an official demographic in the radio world.  We have just added it in there because it's true.

Relative Popularity

Radio Marketing Bureau is a great source of information for stats and ideas

I'm sure that we may have started a minor war and fans/employees of the various stations all have their opinion on which station is the most popular.  It's important to note that we ranked the stations in relative popularity based on available data from stations (taken with a big grain of salt), a report from CHBC (a TV channel would be less biased supposedly?), BBM Canada's industry rankings (ranked with paper diaries) and by the "seat of our pants" feelings (highly subjective!).  So to sum it up...  Our rankings are not scientific or definitive.   The stations ranked "High" seem to swap first/second/third positions often, and radio reps can tweak the data (with age or time of day bracketing) to boost their station above others.  Another issue with popularity ranking is the source of the data itself.  The Okanagan is still in the stone age when it comes to measuring radio's reach, audience, duration, and listener demographics.  Very literally, we still use paper/pencil and keep "diaries" about what we remember listening to... then mail the journal in.  Bigger metros, like Vancouver and Calgary, use digital gadgets called Portable People Meters (PPM) which "listen" to the radio stations that are on when Jenny or John go about their day.  PPMs are much more accurate.  In Vancouver, PPMs have found to significant adjust male/female listenership vs. paper journals.  Check out Radio Marketing Bureau's PPM Bulletin 8:Vancouver if you're interested.

One final note on popularity... who cares!  Ask your own customers.  Do a phone survey or online poll.  Find out for yourself.  Trust your instincts.  Plus, a small specialty station might offer a great deal over the big boys, better service and good exposure to a specific audience.  If the audience is a match, don't ignore the "less popular" stations.

Coming next week in Part 2....

• Getting creative...
• Do you stand out from “the noise”? Be creative - remember radio is the “theater of the mind”.
• Does your ad prompt action? Don’t forget a call to action. What do you want the listener to do exactly? Call you? Drive by? Visit a website? Be specific.
• Different types of radio ads (eg. sponsorships, contests, etc.)
• How to test and measure your radio campaigns
• Tips for buying radio advertising

Continue on to Okanagan Radio Advertising Part 2

by James Shaw, Creative Director

Are your customers ENGAGED with your message (or bored out of their minds)?

When it comes to engaging your target audience, not all marketing channels are created equal....

You are competing with 1000's of messages everyday. Your "target audience" is being bullseyed with so many random, off-topic, and boring attempts to capture their attention that they've probably tuned out most marketing messages altogether.  Wow, that's a depressing thought for marketing managers and advertisers, right?!  Industry insiders have even gone so far to say proclaim things like, "Death of the Advertising Agency" and other disturbing headlines.

I'm sick of advertising too. [I'm the Creative Director for Twin Creek Media, but since I own the company I'm not worried about being fired for a statement like that! Whew! ]

Aren't we all sick of advertising?  Let's define advertising as: any boring marketing message that we aren't interested in, isn't relevant, and isn't engaging.  No one likes "advertising" in that sense.  So what's the opportunity?  As marketers, business owners, sales reps, and business developers our goal is to communicate our messages so well that they do not come across as ads.  The challenge is to make them the opposite of the definition above:  un-boring, interesting, relevant, and engaging.

The topic of this article is Engagement, so we'll leave the other communication goals alone for now.  Marketing and advertising used to be limited to mostly "push" type messages.  Traditional mediums of print, radio, and TV can be effective if done creatively (and targeted as much as possible) but in general the communication is one way.  Marketers push the message out to sea and hope someone eventually picks up their message-in-a-bottle.  Tradigital mediums are not whole lot better in my opinion, but at least your target audience can find your message whenever they want - it's accessible and searchable on Google for example.  The other advantage of pushing content out online is that it can be interactive.  People can dig, explore, learn and sort of control their experience with your brand, product, or service.

Stop "pushing" and have real conversations on Social Engagement channels. The major advantage of this type of communication is that it's two way.  People talk, and people talk back.  If your marketing message is genuinely interesting and relevant to your audience it won't be treated as an ad.  Instead of being boring and ignored your message becomes a thread in normal conversation.  It's a story worthy of repeating.  This is true marketing success!

Wait! Social Media is not the answer to all your marketing goals. Nothing irks me more than flavour-of-the-day marketing.  It's important to figure out exactly what you're trying to do, and who you're trying to reach.  Social networks are not the obvious answer every time.  Set measurable goals so you'll know if moving in the right direction.  Often it's best to integrate all the marketing channels together.  They each have strengths and weaknesses, and instead of jumping on the band wagon with the latest (untested) web tool, craft balanced campaigns to meet your communication goals.  Use a blend of traditional and digital tactics.  Use one channel to spark awareness and curiosity.  Another to inform.  Another to capture.  Another to have conversations.  Another to sell.  Another to retain.  Another to... well, you get the idea.

Have an opinion on engaging customers?  We'd love to hear them!  Comment below.