by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 4, 2014 | Latest, Marketing
For any business, having an integrated marketing plan really is the best way to optimize communications efforts. Without this, you could be missing out on great opportunities to reach your target audiences. Relying only upon traditional advertising outlets like radio, TV or newspaper to generate all the buzz you need, just isn’t as effective a strategy as it once was. In particular, if you have a smaller business, you might even want to skip these costly budget-busting vehicles for a while, depending on your market. Even when it comes to marketing for larger corporations, throwing everything into a splashy ad campaign is not generally the best practice. A more strategic approach is to examine all the marketing tools at hand, and take into account all the ways they might help you reach consumers.
If you are not yet working with social media, this is something that really does need to be incorporated into the mix.
As of December 2013, according to the Pew Research Center, 73% of online adults engage in social networking. Additionally, 42% are utilizing multiple platforms. If you aren’t leveraging Facebook and Twitter, at the very least, you are likely missing out on reaching a significant portion of your target audience. For niche markets, YouTube is another fantastic platform to reach very specific types of consumers.
Other considerations have to include direct marketing campaigns or promotions for consumer contests or giveaways, sponsorship opportunities, such as with local sports teams, and special events to launch new products. All are great ways to effectively get your brand out there.
Something many companies seem to take for granted are the impressions received through public relations. Having the opportunity to showcase products for free on local television programs or in specialty publications, or for the company spokesperson to be positioned as an opinion leader can be invaluable to future business successes.
The ingenuity of your campaign is only limited by the imaginations of your marketing and creative teams. And its effectiveness is not always a matter of budget, but rather of good planning and the ability to utilize a wide range of integrated marketing services that work synergistically together.
by Belinda Lui | Feb 3, 2014 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Communications, Creative, Design, Latest, Marketing, Social Media
We’ve been noticing a trend recently that lends a hand to the celebrities and shows that a lot of us grew up watching. What is the purpose of using these particular stars or shows to appeal to viewers? We think it has something to do with nostalgic value. Retro advertising has been done before but ever since Oikos used the stars from Full House to market their products during the Super Bowl, we’ve seen other brands follow suit. Before we share some of these ads with you, let’s discuss why nostalgic value has any value when it comes to retro advertising:
Much like emotive advertising, retro advertising is successful because we associate certain memories and feelings with that time period in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I associate only good things with the TV shows that I grew up watching. I remember coming home from (what seemed like) a never-ending day at school, plopping myself down on the couch with a tall glass of milk, and watching after-school specials until my mother came home. That small window of alone time never went unappreciated. It was an adolescent’s time to reflect on the lessons being taught through these programs. So, when a legacy brand uses a legacy show to simulate certain emotive associations — it’s actually quite a brilliant strategy; especially if that brand is formerly associated with negative feelings.
Retro Advertising at its finest:
This is Delta’s ’80s-themed safety video: a fun and light-hearted take on a video that so many of us choose to ignore before taking off on a flight. Bet you won’t be able to ignore it now!
This is some of the cast from Full House appearing on Jimmy Fallon — this may not be directly advertising a product or service, but it was the top trending viral video on Facebook on January 20, 2014.
What examples of retro advertising can you share with us?
by Belinda Lui | Jan 31, 2014 | Latest, Marketing
The ongoing debate on what the differences are between B2B and B2C can be endless. Here at 3H Communications, we believe that, fundamentally, there is no difference. Whether you’re marketing a product or service to a business or consumer, the questions are the same — it’s the answers that are different. We still receive each project and analyze their objectives and goals, and create accordingly.
Regardless of whether your business operates B2B or B2C, these are the questions you need to ask:
Objectives What are they? Is it to maximize your profits by a certain percentage? To acquire a certain amount of new customers or clients by a certain time? To acquire more of the market share in your industry? Build a stronger community online for your brand? Target Market Who are you trying to target with your product or service? Are they predominantly males or females? Between a specific age range? Living in a specific region? Which group is most likely to respond to the product or service that you’re offering? Psychographics What do these groups of people enjoy doing? What do they do in their free-time? What is their purchasing behaviour? Their income and lifestyle? Knowing how your target market lives and behaves will significantly help you when deciphering a strategy to market your offerings. Competition Who are you competitors? What are they doing with their marketing initiatives? What is successful and unsuccessful about what they’re doing? How can you improve on the areas that your competitors were less successful? Knowing who your competitors are and what they’re doing will help you figure out a way to do it better. Breakthrough Creative When you’ve established the answers to all of the aforementioned questions, this will assist in developing breakthrough creative that may or may not have been previously explored in your industry. What Sets You Apart Companies can offer similar products or services but what sets each one apart from one another? It could be something as simple (and intricate) as a marketing strategy. Is it your logo? Your customer relationship management? Your intuitive website? Your community-focused social media plan? Figure out what sets you apart from the others, and run with it. What has been your experience in the marketing of B2B or B2C?
by Belinda Lui | Dec 13, 2013 | Latest, Marketing
In today’s society of instant gratification, people have short attention spans: They want the news in 140-character snippets, they want to shop with the click of a button — and they want infinite information accessible at their fingertips via smartphones and tablets. It’s easy for businesses to lose potential customers with a complicated, slow or inefficient mobile website. After all, if your business doesn’t have a viable mobile marketing strategy, chances are that one of your competitors does, and that stiletto-hunting customer will go to them.
In an increasingly mobile world, there’s more than one reason why it’s crucial to keep an eye on your website’s mobile traffic. Below, we take a look at some of the most common reasons why this metric is an important piece of your overall analytics efforts — and
What you can do to optimize your mobile marketing strategy with this knowledge.
There’s a Reason “Responsive” Is the Buzzword of 2013
Responsive design is increasingly becoming the go-to solution for businesses seeking site optimization across the mobile board without entering the daunting world of developing a full-fledged app for each device.
The need for a responsive site depends upon your specific business or website, as well as budget. It may well be worth it to “go responsive” if your site is heavy on visuals, videos, products or “m-commerce” — and mobile traffic analysis can help you make these tough decisions. On which devices are users accessing your site? Which operating systems are the most common among your site traffic? Are more users visiting your site on smartphones, or on tablets? What is the overall ratio of mobile to desktop traffic? You can glean much of this information through analytics software or programs.
“Understanding devices and associated technology features is necessary for design purposes. We determine what our sites and our emails need to be designed for from a size, browser and operating perspective. [Mobile reports] allow us to provide the right experience for our consumers,” says Cathy Gribble, associate director of digital analytics for Team One.
That being said, responsive isn’t always the end all, be all of mobile strategy. In-depth analysis and understanding of customer behavior is another factor to consider.
Consumers behave differently on smartphones and tablets, which have differing functionalities and capabilities. Marketers need to analyze behavior and experiences across the entire purchase funnel to understand the best move for web or app design.”Responsive design doesn’t allow for such deep testing of every single experience within a brand’s website or mobile site,” says Blumenfeld. “That means marketers must be cognizant of the different layouts and circumstances surrounding consumers’ use of websites and mobile sites.”
In summary: Take a multi-faceted approach to responsive design. Perhaps not all businesses need to invest in a site that flawlessly translates across every device on the market — but with 17.4% of all global web traffic coming through mobile (a 6%+ increase since 2012), it’s surely a major consideration.
(information from: Mashable)
What other benefits can you think of in executing an effective mobile marketing strategy?
by Lisa Wedmann | Dec 2, 2013 | Latest, Marketing
As 2013 is ending, budgeting for 2014 is well under way. In fact, for many companies budgets and the business plans for 2014 are already in place. But the piece that is often missing is the marketing plan.
The marketing plan will include a list of actionable items to be implemented throughout the year. This plan will be the “bible” for the year. It should clearly identify:
- Define goals and targets, monthly, quarter and yearly, and how you will measure success;
- Define strategic activities you will undertake that will help to reach goals and targets;
- Define audience for each activity;
- Define who is involved and responsible for each activity
This plan needs to be based on defined objectives and the strategies that will, in effect, achieve the objectives. Without a sound strategic base, the marketing plan will be of little use. So how do you go about creating this?
The best place to start is looking back at the previous year, and also carefully analyzing the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and the competitive landscape. How do you do this?
A solid and must have start is to do a S.W.O.T. analysis. What is a S.W.O.T? It is an examination of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing your business. This analysis will help you to identify key insights on where your brand or business is within the market landscape, competitive arena and also assist in establishing brand tone, persona and voice. It will assist in developing strategic plans to move forward. You will be able to pinpoint what makes you different from your competitors (USP), what the strengths and weaknesses are, and where opportunities lie moving forward.
Next, take a look at what we call, “Lessons Learned”. Review the year, and every program, from beginning to end. This goes beyond just looking at the end results. Yes, meeting goals and targets is important, but there are other key learnings to be taken from the program: 1) were all departments on board? 2) Was there an internal communication breakdown? 3)Was the timing off, to name only a few. Write it all down. Out of this review will come 4 lists:
- What worked – and why!
- What didn’t work – and why!
- Lessons Learned – what did I learn about this?
- Recommendation on moving forward.
Just starting with these 4 lists, S.W.O.T and “Lessons Learned”, you will have a good place to start as you lay out your plans for 2014. These three analyses will help you clearly define a direction, target audience, competitive landscape and media channels that will help you to build a successful and memorable 2014!
Do you have a marketing plan for 2014? How do you begin your plan?
by Miriam Hara | Nov 26, 2013 | Latest, Marketing
Who would have thought? The year 2013 and holiday greeting cards are a thing of the past. Or are they? I believe that sending out holiday greeting cards may be perceived as a blast from the past: I refer to it as retro marketing. I also happen to believe it’s a good thing… on many levels.
We all know that retro is running with a “1960”s style and design and making it contemporary. I like being thought of as retro.
At the risk of being obvious, retro marketing takes that idea and applies it the the principles of marketing.
Making a way of communicating or reaching out to business partners that is so “60’s, and making it contemporary and hip…again! An old fashioned way of saying” hey remember us….see what we can do”.
For as long as I have been in business, this time of year, I have always looked forward to receiving holiday greeting cards. Those of us in the creative, marketing and advertising fields, have always gone the extra mile to show how creative we can be. I always thought that our clients – existing and potential – business partners and contacts enjoyed seeing what we could come up with…. year after year.
A few years ago, we had this great internal debate on whether we should go the digital route, to showcase our digital savvy-ness… Some felt that sending a traditional paper greeting card made us look passé and not keeping up with the times. Others felt that a card went so much further in establishing our relationship with the recipient and showcased our creativity for all to see… There were good points made on both sides.
So what did we do? We did what we do best…we pondered the challenge creatively…. and brainstormed. Why does this have to be an either or scenario? Why couldn’t we do both? So, we sent out our creative Holiday Greeting card… and added a digital components, which was beautifully designed and executed for people to register online… and for each registration received, we donated funds to the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation… another retro marketing initiative!
I believe that this time of year is personal… and having a card to open with a personalized message in that card says a great deal to the person on the receiving end. Let’s admit this…most of us get so many emails that sometimes we miss a few… rushing about to get through them all. Business, in spite of its speed and ever increasing demands, is still very much about the personal. Taking the time of the hectic, and making the time to be personal… is well, retro marketing at it’s best, don’t you think?
Will you go retro marketing or not this holiday season? Do you dare? Let me know!
