Category: Online Marketing

Social media is a great tool to communicate with your customers, to generate leads, sales, and to create customer loyalty. In addition, most of social media is free, easy to use, and available to all. Because of all of these reasons, some businesses do not feel the need to measure its effectiveness: it’s free and it’s beneficial, so why bother?

However, finding information to post, preparing the post, replying to customers are all essential steps to creating an online presence. So whether you do your own social media or hire someone to do it, you need to know if it’s increasing your revenue or not.

In a survey by Chief Marketer titled “2011 Social Marketing Survey”, we learn that 52% of marketing of professional survey think it is hard to measure ROI for social media, and 42% say it is difficult to track and see results. Nevertheless, all still continue with their social media campaigns.

Chief Marketer also asked – for those who do measure ROI – how they measure it. The results show us that 60% of marketers use the number of fans or followers. We will see at the end of the article why this is not a good idea.

To help the more than 52% who are having troubles calculating ROI, here are a few tips on measuring your campaign’s effectiveness.

Content being shared

How much your fans share and interact with your contents is one of the easiest way to calculate your ROI. No matter what business you are in, you can share links, posts, news or various information that can be monitored. The more content is shared, the more customers interact with your brand, see your brand and will be more likely to buy your brand rather than your competitor’s.

There are two main ways you can go about to doing this:

1. Have your web developer set up an analytics account for your website. Your analytics account will tell you where visitors on your website come from (Google, Facebook, Twitter, directly from your address) and you will see how many visitors come to your site. You can cross reference the dates on your analytics account to the date of your social media postings, and analyze what pages they visit, how long they stay and conclude which type of posting works best for you.Another, more in-depth technique you can use is URL tagging. This is a little more complicated and time consuming so it’s best suited if you have a web marketing team. By “tagging” the links that you posts on your social sites, you will be able to sort your analytics by type of post, content or campaign, and can even isolate individual posts. For example, if you launch a Christmas campaign, you will be able to differentiate it from your year-round campaign and measure its effectiveness, or compare different ads. Google Analytics is free and available to all.
2. You can use a social media management tool such as HootSuite, or TweetDeck that will automatically record your tweets, posts and links on different sites and provide you with statistics.

Measuring leads

Social media can be a great tool for lead generation… if you measure them. A lead can be a customer filling out a contact form, requesting a demo, visiting your online store, or just accessing your contact information. The best way to measure those leads is once again with a tool like Google Analytics and creating goals; if you have a marketing team, they will be the one responsible for goals. You can refer to our post on measuring your website’s ROI to know more about setting up goals.

To isolate the leads coming from social media, you can either use URL tagging, or you can also create custom segments comprised off all the social media sites you use. Both of these methods will allow you to see the leads generated only by your social media efforts. Tagging takes more time but it also more precise if you want to see results according to different campaigns. Don’t forget to give your lead a dollar value to know if the time and labor you spend on social media is offset by the leads you are receiving.

Measuring sales

Measuring sales works the same way as measuring leads. For some types of business where sales volume is relatively low, measuring lead proves more accurate. However if you have a high sales volume, measuring sales made through your social media campaigns is the ultimate way to know if your efforts are really paying out.

The number of fan/followers/friends

The numbers of followers/fans/friends that you have is not an accurate way of calculating ROI. Some fans can be passive and completely overlook your marketing efforts, while others will be very responsive. For instructions on how to interpret your numbers of fans, read this article:What are Facebook Fans Worth?

QR codes are all the rage right now. Everybody wants one, they appear on business cards, soda cans, brochures, billboards and even your TV. We’re seeing a lot of good uses of QR codes but unfortunately, also a lot of bad ones. Keep on reading for a beginner’s class on QR codes.

What is a QR code?

QR code, which stands for Quick Response code, is a two-dimensional bar code. In this sense it is similar to the traditional barcodes we see on products, except that it can store a lot more information per unit of area.

How does it work?

Users take a picture of the code using an adequate application on their smartphones, which then pulls up information such as a website, pictures, videos, or even contact information.

When users already have the app installed, the process is really easy and doesn’t require many steps. The user opens the app, takes a picture of the code and is directed to the information stored in the QR code.

How do I get a QR code?

There are many QR code generators available for free online. Kaywa easily lets you create codes in one step for websites, phone numbers, text or SMS. It is important to note that this site only allows the creation of QR codes for non-commercial use.

If you are looking for a more custom QR code that would be able to display your contact information (scan Matmon’s goldfish code below for a preview) a location or more,  ask Matmon to program your unique QR code. We create codes for professionals and we can manage and track hundreds or even thousands of them if you like.

Indeed, QR codes can be customized to fit your brand and be less generic. Scanners allow up to a 30% error margin, that is to say you can modify 30% of your QR code and it will still be readable. Change the colors, add text, a logo or anything else you want to do, as long as it stays within the 30% margin. Here is a QR code with Matmon’s contact information, before and after.

Why do I want a QR code?

There are many ways to use QR codes.  It is a simple way to transition your users from your traditional offline world to your online world.

Give your contact information. If your profession relies heavily on contact, put a QR code on your business card and have it display your phone number, name, title, company etc… Your contact will only have to scan the code to enter your information in their phone.

Increase website traffic. Display the code on your promotional material, catalog, or the product itself.

Engage with the customer. QR codes are an easy way to engage with your customers and to create brand loyalty. Once the novelty wears off, users want to gain something out of scanning your code. Have the QR code link to a coupon on your site, a promotion, exclusive product pictures. You can also have it link to your Facebook page where you should be providing the same kind of value.

Provide more information. Attach a small QR code on a magazine ad or billboard to give more information that will not distract from the ad. The agency MGH  conducted a survey and asked 415 smartphone users how likely they would be to remember an advertisement with a QR code. 72% of them said they would be very likely or somewhat likely to remember the ad. (You can see MGH’s entire survey here.)

Things to keep in mind

• Users need an incentive to scan your code. In their survey, MGH also asked users why they would be interested in using a QR code. Here is their answers.
  
  Indeed, most users scan a QR code to get free things, whether it is in the form of a coupon or of a prize. A free drink with a meal, $5 off a haircut or a free online coupon can be a small price to pay to build customer loyalty and engagement.
• Make sure your QR code works. Even though QR readers tolerate a 30% error, test your QR codes on several readers and platforms.
• QR codes are scanned with mobile devices, the information you are giving needs to be mobile friendly. If you are linking to your website, you need may want a mobile version of your site so users can easily browse your site.
• Once a QR code is released, there is no way to get it back and it will always be scannable. Keep a record of all the URL and information you give in a QR code and make sure they will stay available, or alert the user that the promotion/event is over. To facilitate this process, it is a good idea to dedicate one person in your company to the management of QR codes.

To finish, here a some creative QR codes from Help Japan Now, True Blood, M&M’s and NYCresistor.com

Having a pretty website is important, but what makes users want to stick around and read your site is content. Good, rich, valuable content.

Why is writing quality content so important?

You want users to engage with your site. If visitors like reading your blog posts, are interested in the industry news you publish or come to your site for product information; more than likely they will take action. They might click on an ad, buy your product or look up your store address.

Another reason you want good content is to rank higher on search engines result pages. Since early 2011, Google’s new algorithm called Panda has aimed to make the web a better place for content. Panda hates duplicate or irrelevant content, redundant articles, too many ads, old websites and automated content. If you are guilty of any of these, Google will be ranking your site lower, making it harder for visitors to find you.

How do you write good content?

• Original: Your content has to be unique. You cannot reproduce content without being flagged by Google. It may seem obvious, but a lot of content on the web is duplicated. For example, if you have an online store, you likely copied the product description directly from the original catalog. It may seem logical but this will get you ranked lower in search engines. Instead, try to bring value by crafting descriptions your users want to read. Make sure you source anything that you have not written.
• Unique: The original content rule is valid from one site to another (do not steal content from another site), but also don’t copy content within your own website. Do not write your “About Us” on both the About Us page and the Contact Us, even if you content is original, it will not be unique.. You also should not have several pages describing the same service; if it is the same it needs to be on one unique page.
• Recent: Both customers and search engines like sites that are frequently updated. Share your company news, update your product list, post customers testimonials or write a blog. Visitors will like to have something new to read and to be kept informed and search engines will like to see you are still producing original content.
• Lengthy: This one is more important to search engines than to us humans. Panda likes a lot of original content; one hundred words won’t cut it. Ideally, any page should have more than 300 words of original content.

Websites that have not been following these rules have seen their ranking drop dramatically, as well as their visits. It may seem like a lot of trouble, but your site will only be better and your users will thank you for it.

You’ve just decided it was time to get a website – or revamp your old website – and among the many decisions you have to make, one to not overlook is your website address.

Your website’s address is the online equivalent of your business name. It has to represent what you do, be easy to remember, and look good. But there are other things to take into consideration.

Make it easy for visitors to find you

Keep it simple, short, easy to type and to remember.

1. The extension: whenever possible, go with .com. If you do not go with .com, chances are it’s because the address is already in use. Most people automatically type .com and you will lose some precious traffic to your website. There is one exception to this rule: non-profit or charitable organizations might want to go with .org as it was originally restricted to this type of organizations.
2. The length: a short domain name is easier to remember, to type and to market. There is no miracle number, but staying under 15 characters is a good idea.
3. The format: keep it simple, avoid hyphens. The only reason you would use hyphens is because the non hyphen version is already taken. Just like with .com, most visitors will get it wrong and land on the other website, which probably belongs to one of you competitor.
4. Numbers in address: If it is in your business name, use them. However, avoid using ‘4’ in substitution to ‘for’ or ‘2’ for ‘to/too’. This will make it confusing for customers to remember your address and increase the chances of typing the wrong one. If you plan on using a ‘0’ in your address, make sure it will not be mistaken for a ‘O’.
5. Choice of word: Try and use a word that is easy to spell and does not have several spelling. “literature” for example is a commonly misspelled word. Stay clear of it and pick a synonym.
6. Plural or singular: Make sure you get the address that makes the most sense. For most businesses, using singular word is more natural as in “arkansaspestcontrol.com”. However sometimes the plural version will seem more logical; if we take an example of a company selling refurbished iPhones, the plural version makes more sense: “cheapiphones.com”

Pick an address that will increase website traffic

1. Relevancy: If you can, try including keywords relevant to your website in your URL. This will make it easier for search engines to understand what your website is about, and will make you rank higher. A repair shop called “Carter’s” would benefit from including a keyword in the address such as “cartersrepairshop.com”.
2. Use previously owned domain names: They are called dropped domains, and are available because the company went out of business, didn’t pay the registration fee, or simply changed domain. If you are in the same industry, you will benefit from all the previous traffic the site was getting.
3. Use common phrases: Another way to generate unplanned traffic is to have an address that is something users type as a search query. “repairiphone.com” would get a lot of easy traffic from people search for “repair iPhone” on Google.
4. Once you have bought your address, if you are in a highly competitive field, you might want to buy the .net, .org and other common extensions, as well as the plural or hyphenated version of the address. Once you have all of you address, make them all redirect towards your favorite one. This last advice is more targeted towards website such as “healthinsuranceplans.com”, some other domains to buy would be “health-insurance-plans.com” or “healthinsuranceplan.net”. Most small to medium businesses will not generate enough traffic to justify buying so many different domain names, but going to “wallmart.com”,  “wal-mart.com” or “wallmart.info” leads you to walmart.com

The common rules apply

Finally, once you’ve taken all of this into account, the same rules apply as if you were looking for a business or brand name. It should be easily marketable, original, easy to remember, and convey your brand image.

Helpful tools

To verify is a domain name is available: Whois.com, GoDaddy.com
To find a dropped domain name: Justdropped.com
To find synonyms of your services or products: Thesaurus.com

Good luck!

Social media is a great way to generate leads for your business. However, between Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Blogs, Youtube, Flickr… the possibilities are numerous. Marketers need to set goals and create a marketing plan in order to stay focused. A study from MarketingSherpa shows which social media platforms are the most efficient at generating leads for B2B and B2C.

Blogging is the most constantly efficient platform for getting new leads, both for B2B and B2C. This is not surprising since blog posts bring considerable value to their readers.

For B2B, LinkedIn seem to be the most effective lead generating platform. Indeed, LinkedIn users are online to display their experience and services on their topic of expertise. It is also the network the least obstructed by distracting information.

Facebook is the clear winner when it comes to B2C. With more than 700 million users, Facebook as the largest audience out of all the social media platforms. It is also a place where users go to relax, and share in a very informal settings a lot more prone to attracting customers rather than businesses.

Also noteworthy is Twitter, better than Facebook for B2B but better than LinkedIn at B2C. Youtube and other video sharing sites are also worth mentioning, especially if you are marketing complex or highly visual information.