Welcome to the NettResults Blog... a few stories on how we see public relations, social media and marketing both in the Middle East and Internationally.
The business landscape has undergone seismic changes since the beginning of the pandemic. Workplace environments are being re-evaluated, with potentially huge implications around the corner. Another area of re-evaluation is the inherent value and logistical challenges posed in hosting a virtual event for your business and industry. Here are five things to consider.
All businesses strive to acquire as many new customers as possible, but is enough effort being made to retain customers already on board? Remember, there’s a significant distinction in costs between finding new customers, as opposed to holding onto the ones you already have. Here are four customer retention marketing tips to keep in mind…
B2C and B2B customers alike turn to case studies for a better sense of how they, too, might benefit from what you have to sell. Frequently, reading a case study is part of the overall research a prospective customer undertakes prior to making the purchasing decision. Find out more…
The FIFA World Cup is unofficially the world's largest sporting event. It's also one of the world's biggest marketing opportunities. Featuring 32 national soccer teams, it captivates billions of people across the globe during its month-long run. And, as we all are aware, the 2018 event is being held in Russia.
Continue reading on our blog for tips for effective marketing & social media during the World Cup.
Social media can be confusing. You know you need to do it, often feel intimidated, sometimes get sucked in so it saps time from other valuable business actions. More worrying, how do you prove that it has an ROI (return on investment)?
There is much advice out there, and it's changing constantly. So, wouldn't it be nice if there was one place where you could stop, take a breath, and really have a clear view on how social media can help your business in today's world? Real help, in a practical manner.
According to the Small Business Association, “All humans feel four basic emotions: happy, sad, afraid/surprised, and angry/disgusted.” Of course, no business wants to spur feelings of disgust or anger with their customers, but as the SBA adds, “creating strong emotions—either positive or negative—can help build a bond between your customers and your business,” which is definitely a goal all businesses share.
If you’re looking for a stronger connection with your target audience, here are tips on emotional marketing that might resonate with your target audience…
When it comes to operating a successful business, nothing’s more important than communicating effectively with your customers. Adopting the wrong tone in your marketing or sales messages, neglecting to reach out in formats where customers generally “live” and failing to reply to inquiries in a timely way can damage your brand now and into the future. Where is the line between marketing and customer service? Read on to find out more...
Just how well do your sales and marketing teams interact? Can you point to tangible achievements as a result of close sales/marketing collaboration? Or is the situation more akin to military platoons advancing with little or no contact with one another?
In fact, many businesses are still chasing the elusive goal of optimum sales and marketing alignment. Even in an era of advanced marketing automation, “marketing technology and processes have yet to turn the sales and marketing boxing ring into a night of candlelit dinners,” observes B2B marketing expert Laura Ramos.
Here are three tips on getting sales and marketing on the same page, thus benefiting both your business and your customers...
Nowhere is the celebrated “buyer’s journey” more relevant than with B2B companies and their customers. With the vast array of digital resources at their command, these customers embark on the journey by conducting extensive research, comparing companies and exploring social media—sometimes well before they make direct contact with the business they’re most interested in.
As a result, B2B companies need to “up” their marketing game, in order to be ready when the buyer’s journey leads to them.
Here are tips for key elements and action steps for a marketing plan that keeps your business “top of mind” for current and prospective customers...
ROI is only achieved and then improved if your marketing:
To achieve a real ROI then, your business can’t rely on only one marketing tactic. OK, sure you can try – go ahead… we’ll hang out here and wait for you – but I’m 100% convinced it’s not going to get you anywhere. We’ve tried. The results are dismal.
It’s all about integration. But when we start integrating multiple marketing tactics, we come across some problems:
We need a clear strategy.
Fear not, my intrepid marketing/boss person. We have a solution that has been working extremely well. It’s rooted in traditional media relations, is all about content creation and will boost your SEO (so I think we hit all the hot buttons). In time, I’m sure you can use AI and Big Data to really excel in this area (2018’s hot buttons).
To make it easy to remember, and even more trendy, we refer to it as POSE. It is the integration of:
Want to know how to implement it? Then read on…
The strategy goes like this:
1 – What are your goals?
This is a conversation for another time, but you need goals. If you do not have goals now, do not pass Go and do not collect $400.
2 – Who is your audience?
You need to know who your prospective customers are. Think closely about your target audience and their personas. Our recent blogs will help you with What is a ‘Buyer Persona’ and How Can It Boost Your Sales? And Buyer Personas to Prequalify Prospects.
3 – Build your content. One of the easiest ways to do this is to first think about the messages:
Once you have your message, you can actually write stories. We define stories as long form writing that reinforces your messages, but isn’t ready for the outside world yet. That’s because it needs to be tweaked depending upon how you’ll use it (POSE).
4 – Paid Media – part 1. Hold that thought – we’ll come back to this…
5 – Owned Media. Now you have the content, you can use your owned media to distribute this. This includes websites, blogs, newsletters, emails, company magazines etc. This is not going to cost you much so long as you have great processes in place.
The secret, of course, is creating and nurturing your own databases. If you can do this, you have plenty of owned media opportunities. Owned media should be the media with the highest ROI for you.
6 - Shared Media. This is social media – you remember… Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and all the other platforms you love.
Once you have a process, then again this is pretty simple, and shouldn’t cost much.
For example, every time you translate a ‘story’ into a blog, you can write the specific social media you need. So, every time a blog goes live, you have related LinkedIn, Facebook, and (let’s say) three Twitter posts ready to be scheduled.
Some of your ‘stories’ can be social media campaigns.
What’s ROI like here? Well, the cost is low, but really your ROI objectives here are getting a direct contact (not getting clients). You can measure exposure, likes, re-postings etc, but what does that really mean in terms of sales?
7 - Earned Media. Aka traditional media relations. The cool thing about having your owned and shared media going, is it is kind of like a test-bed to what will be successful in earned media. Look, you know how to do PR, so we won’t go on about that.
I’m sure you already have ROI measures in place for media relations.
8 - Paid Media – part 2. Revisited. You can view paid media in two ways. Sometimes you need to pay to promote your shared media. Yes, you know that your social media Facebook posts are only hitting 10% of your followers – so the only way to reach them all (and new prospects) is to pay-to-play.
Paid media is also advertising – be that online or in more traditional media. Both have their places in a successful integrated marketing campaign.
Whatever your paid media strategy, you’ll no doubt be measuring that ROI too.
There you have it. You have the content and you’ll use shared media to distribute it, paid media to amplify it, and earned media to rubber-stamp it.
Want more advice on improved marketing strategies for your business? Give us a call to find out how we can help you.
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