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."

Here are some quick facts about Blogging. More stats on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube by clicking the links.

• 77% of Internet users read blogs.
• There are currently 133 million blogs listed on leading blog directory Technorati.
• 60% of bloggers are between the age of 18-44.
• One in five bloggers update their blogs daily.
• Two thirds of bloggers are male.
• Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs.
• 15% of bloggers spend 10 hours a week blogging.
• More than half of bloggers are married and/or parents.
• More than 50% of bloggers have more than one blog.
• Bloggers use an average of five different social sites to drive traffic to their blog.

Statistics from Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2009.

Here are some more quick facts, this time on YouTube.  You can find the previous posts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn by clicking on the links.

• The very first video uploaded was called "Me at the Zoo", on 23rd April 2005.
• By June 2006, more than 5,000 videos were being uploaded every day.
• YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day.
• Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
• The U.S. accounts for 70% of YouTube users.
• Over half of YouTube's users are under 20 years old.
• You would need to live for around 1,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube.
• YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages.
• Music videos account for 20% of uploads.
• YouTube uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire Internet used in 2000.

Statistics from YouTube press centre.

Here are some of the latest social media and social networking stats for 2011. Read similar posts on Twitter and Facebook.

• LinkedIn is older than both Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, being created on 5 May, 2003.
• There are  more than 70 million users worldwide.
• Members of LinkedIn come from more than 200 countries from every continent.
• LinkedIn is available in six native languages - English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
• Oracle's Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Epstein, was headhunted for the position via his LinkedIn profile.
• 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool
• A new member joins LinkedIn every second.
• LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day.
• Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn.
• Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles.

Statistics from LinkedIn press centre and SysComm International.

by James Shaw

If you are dappling into email marketing for the first time, let us save you from making any mistakes.  Here’s your chance to learn from some common mistakes before experiencing them yourself!

It can be so easy to hit that big “Send” button only to realize seconds later that you it was not ready to be sent at all!  Below are things to ensure that you check before blasting out your campaign to your email database.

From Line
Make sure that the from line uses both your company name and your company email address.  If your company has multiple email addresses be sure that you use an email address that will be checked in the event that you receive replies from your customers.

Subject Line
Your subject line should be short and to the point using around 5 to 8 words.  Be sure that your subject pertains to the content inside the newsletter and isn’t too vague or disconnected like “Sale!”.  Give your reader some sense of urgency to open your newsletter and read it.  On the note of urgency, try not to use overly used words like free, guarantee, etc or excessive punctuation like “!!!”.  You do not want people to mistake your newsletter for spam.

Email Copy
First things first, make sure to address the email specifically to the person rather than a generic “Hello”.  Constant Contact allows for you to use this functionality in their newsletters.

No one knows your customers better than you so keep them in mind when writing the content for the newsletter.  What tone of voice do they use?  What would interest them and make them want to come into your store?

Are you offering a promotion or contest in your newsletter?  If so, make sure that it is easy for the person to understand.  How do they participate in the contest?  When does the sale start and end?  Do they need to print off a coupon or mention a promo code?  Make sure that you give them all of the information that they will need so there is no confusion.

If you have a length email newsletter you should divide up the content in sections.  Many of Constant Contact’s newsletter templates allows you to layout your content into a variety of text areas that will make sense for the reader.  Most templates use a sidebar and this is a perfect area to showcase contact information or the company’s social media accounts.

Finally, if the newsletter is text heavy you can easily add in images that fit around the text to make it easier on the eyes.

Final Checks
Through Constant Contact you can send a preview of the newsletter to yourself or fellow coworkers.  Make sure you do this before you send out the newsletter to your customers!

When you receive the preview check the From field and the Subject field.  Are you happy with it?  Is it spelled correctly?

When you open the newsletter spellcheck the newsletter.  Does the newsletter look good?  Does everything make sense?

Finally, if you used any links in the newsletter test each one to make sure they go where they are supposed to.

If you need to make any changes go ahead and do that.

And Voila!  Send out your newsletter to your contact list!

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!

Twin Creek Media uses Constant Contact to manage client email campaigns and was recently named one of Constant Contact's 2010 All Stars.

Here are some of the latest social networking and social media stats for 2011, this time for Twitter. Click here if you missed our Facebook stats post.

• Twitter's web platform only accounts for a quarter of its users - 75% use third-party apps.
• Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.
• There are currently 100 million users of Twitter's services.
• Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.
• There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day.
• Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.
• Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.
• There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.
• Twitter has donated access to all of its tweets to the Library of Congress for research and preservation.
• More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone.

Statistics from Twitter and the Chirp Conference.

The Okanagan's Quickest Mobile Phone Survey is active... CAST YOUR VOTE!

The Twin Creek Media team were curious to find out (A) the most popular smart phone and (B) the favourite service provider in the Okanagan and area.  We thought others might be interested too, so the results are public.  So place your votes and share these polls with your friends!

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.

Social Media Marketing is complex, ever-changing beastly nightmare. Right?

It's time to push fear aside and meet the beauty underneath the beast. Social Media doesn't have to be scary. With a little learning, the right partners to help along the way, and a genuine desire to connect with others, you'll be one of the "elite" in no time.

Our Social Media 101 Reference Card covers many common questions such as...

• What is social media all about?
• How can social media tools be used for business?
• Where do I start?
• What is a social media footprint, and why is it important?
• What should I say on Facebook, Twitter, etc.? I'm stuck!
• What tools are the best to get my brand out there?
• What tools are the best to drive traffic to my website?
• How can social media help rank our site higher on Google?
• Includes software/application comparison chart from CMO.com!

Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, has a great primer on Integrated Marketing.  See the original article here.  Below is the main section of their entry:

Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing communication. It aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media. The concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and television. A company develops its integrated marketing communication programme using all the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion).

Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools, approaches, and resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results into maximum profit at minimum cost. Generally marketing starts from "Marketing Mix". Promotion is one element of Marketing Mix. Promotional activities include Advertising(by using different medium), sales promotion (sales and trades promotion), and personal selling activities. It also includes internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. And integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitor is called Integrated Marketing Communication.

Reasons for the Growing Importance of Integrated Marketing

Several shifts in the advertising and media industry have caused IMC to develop into a primary strategy for marketers:

1. From media advertising to multiple forms of communication.
2. From mass media to more specialized (niche) media, which are centered around specific target audiences.
3. From a manufacturer-dominated market to a retailer-dominated, consumer-controlled market.
4. From general-focus advertising and marketing to data-based marketing.
5. From low agency accountability to greater agency accountability, particularly in advertising.
6. From traditional compensation to performance-based compensation (increased sales or benefits to the company).
7. From limited Internet access to 24/7 Internet availability and access to goods and services.

Selecting the Most Effective Communications Elements

The goal of selecting the elements of proposed integrated marketing communications is to create a campaign that is effective and consistent across media platforms. Some marketers may want only ads with the greatest breadth of appeal: the executions that, when combined, provide the greatest number of attention-getting, branded, and motivational moments. Others may only want ads with the greatest depth of appeal: the ads with the greatest number of attention-getting, branded, and motivational points within each.

Although integrated marketing communications is more than just an advertising campaign, the bulk of marketing dollars is spent on the creation and distribution of advertisements. Hence, the bulk of the research budget is also spent on these elements of the campaign. Once the key marketing pieces have been tested, the researched elements can then be applied to other contact points: letterhead, packaging, logistics, customer service training, and more, to complete the IMC cycle.

So if you're not integrating your marketing, what are you doing?

If you're wondering what an integrated marketing plan could do for your business, please call 250-762-4001 or email us.  The couches in our studio are pretty comfortable and the Cherry Hill coffee is always fresh...