Archive for the 'Tools' Category

How Is Social Media Working Out For You?

Published on June 11, 2010 by iClick Solutions. View Comments

Measure Social MediaSo how do you determine if the energy you and or your team members are putting into social media are proving to be beneficial to your business bottom line?  Speaking with clients many (all should) want to measure ROI of their social media campaigns but just don’t know where to start.

Businesses need to be able to determine whether or not their focus on social media is generating results and making an impact to business income.  However, when looking at “results” it is critical that the stakeholders in the organization all agree on your social media objectives.

With some businesses the objective might be increasing traffic to the website, where another business it might be to connect with customers to garner feedback about a new product or service.  Understanding the social media goal you are trying to accomplish is critical so you know if what you are measuring social media against is actually meeting or hopefully exceeding company objectives.

Before we get into what to analyze, it is also very important to understand that social media comes in a variety of flavors, each with a very different end result.  As mentioned in one of our favorite posts last year “What Results Can I Expect From My Social Media Campaign?” by Greg Finn, social media campaigns occur on social sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn where users or companies interact with others in the community.  Social media news campaigns push content out onto larger social news networking sites like Digg and Reddit.  While both of these are types of social media marketing, the results are anything but similar.

Keep in mind that if you are not measuring social media today you are not alone.  According to a 2009 study performed by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, 84% of professionals representing a variety of industries reported that they do not measure ROI so don’t be disappointed if you currently fall into that bucket.

Measure Social Media ROI Stats

When analyzing return on investment with social media here are 3 main focus areas around social media metrics to monitor:

  1. Establish Baseline – For each of your social media profiles start out by making note of current statistics such as number of Twitter followers, how many people like your brand on Facebook, referral traffic from social media sites in Google Analytics, what is currently the most popular content on your website and or blog, monitor number of people currently subscribing to your blog, how many views you have had on your YouTube Channel, number of bookmarks on Del.icio.us, etc.
  2. Record Timelines – Keep detailed notes of important dates so when you are analyzing results you can understand why spikes happened.  With Google Analytics you can leverage the annotations feature by clicking on any specific date and noting an activity.
  3. Monitor Sales Revenue – On a month over month basis look at sales performance before you started focusing on social media and ongoing measure sales to determine ROI.  When analyzing sales drill down into individual sales details as well.  If you find that a certain product or certain geographic location is showing improvement after you dedicate more time and resources to social media analyze why so you can further improve upon results.

Now that you know what key metrics to monitor with your social media campaigns sit down with your team to agree on social media objectives and start tracking results today.  We recommend on a monthly basis update each of the key social media metrics and meet with your team to discuss results.

If you are measuring social media ROI today what kind of results are you seeing?  Are their tools you are leveraging you recommend others look into?

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10 Email Marketing Tips That Every Marketer Should Follow

Published on May 28, 2010 by iClick Solutions. View Comments

Email Marketing TipsTired of hearing about this rough economy?  I know we are.  When things are tough the last thing you want to do is cut back on marketing; however, that is the 1st place companies look to save money.

The good news is that marketers continue to find great success with email marketing as a tool to generate positive return on investment, especially since email marketing is very inexpensive.  However, only if done correctly!

For those marketers who are using email marketing or for those businesses about to start emailing customers through email newsletters here are 10 email marketing tips that you should follow:

  1. Email opt-in form on website – Make sure you do have permission to start emailing before you put people on your email distribution list. If you are using an email tool like Constant Contact use their opt-in form on your website to ensure you are properly including your customers in your email database.
  2. Don’t buy or rent your list – Trust us we have tried this a few times in the past and have had HORRIBLE results.  Ask yourself if you enjoy getting unsolicited emails?  Doubtful… so why would your customers be any different?  Build your list in a more natural fashion by collecting business cards and including an opt-in email newsletter form on your website.
  3. Get Past SPAM Filters – If you want people to open your emails, you need to get past their SPAM filters first. We have our SPAM filters set probably too high as our junk box gets quite full with emails we actually want; however, it does help us learn what NOT to do.  Avoid using words such as Free, Make Money, or You’re a Winner that triggers a SPAM filter to toss your email into the lovely junk box.  Check out  Mailigen list of words to avoid for a more complete list.
  4. Email Frequency & Timing – When to send email and how often you send emails are critical to email marketing success.  For email marketing to business recipients start out by sending your email newsletter midday around lunch or early afternoon. Sending email before work can result in your email getting lost as customers get ready for their day. If your business focuses on consumers after work are the best hours. People check their personal email when they get home from work or after dinner. Regarding how often to send email, sending too often may cause the recipients to unsubscribe, but sending too infrequently may cause subscribers to not remember who you are.  Here are 2 great articles to review on email timing – How often should you email your customers? and Email Marketing: How Often is Too Often?
  5. You Need to Have a Privacy Policy -  Email marketers must have a clear and detailed privacy policy.  If you do not have one already, here’s a great Privacy Statement Generator tool to help you get started.  Make sure you post the privacy policy on all emails, as well as, a link on each page of your website.
  6. Branding Consistency – Not only will your email be recognized in a overly stuffed inbox, email recipients prefer and appreciate a familiar look so they instantly know who you are.  Once you decide on a template look and feel stick with it for at least a few months.  If you decide to make changes do it slowly to avoid confusion.  Testing is definitely important when it comes to emailing but don’t do anything drastic such as changing 5 different elements of your template (e.g. background, layout, font size, etc).
  7. Landing Pages – Do you like reading about a great email offer and then being sent to a home page where you have to search for that offer or coupon?  Probably not so don’t do that to your customers.  Make it really easy for them and send them to a landing page that your email is promising or offering.
  8. Don’t Ask Them To Jump Through Hoops – Great tip from AllBusiness.com is not to make readers jump through hoops when asking for them to give up their precious email address. If you want someone to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter or sign up for updates about your product or service, do not make them fill out endless online forms, click through multiple pages, and provide unnecessary information. The more difficult you make it, the less likely they will be to subscribe. All you really need is their permission and their e-mail address.
  9. Leverage Social Media – What is the 1 thing that everyone has on social media networks such as Facebook, Linkedin, etc?  Yes, an email address!  Without an email address you can’t log into these social media platforms so consider including an email newsletter sign up in your social media networking profiles.  You can also suggest to your fans to visit your website opt in form and they will be rewarded with exclusive specials, announcements, and more.  With Facebook you can add Static FBML App and include an email newsletter sign up on your Facebook page.
  10. Analyze Metrics And Make Improvements – This is one of the most important tips.  A few days after each email newsletter you send make sure you look at all key metrics, such as open rates, click through rates, and unsubscribe rates.  You should focus on improving these important metrics after every single email marketing newsletter.  MailChimp (great email service provider) created a chart that outlines average open, click, bounce and abuse complaint rates by industry.

So there you have it – 10 email marketing tips that will help ensure email marketing success.  Of course, you don’t need to follow every email marketing tip above but we sure hope you do.  Are there other email marketing tips you have found to be beneficial in connecting with your current and prospective customers?  If so, please share those below:

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Restaurant Marketing without leveraging Foursquare Is Like Eating Cookies Without Milk

Published on April 28, 2010 by iClick Solutions. View Comments

Restaurant Marketing Needs FoursquareOf course you can eat cookies without milk but is it really as fun or enjoyable without them together?  That is the main concept behind foursquare – connecting people with locations.

Foursquare is a social geo-location tool that you use on your phone (Blackberry, Android and iPhone) which gives you and your friends new ways of exploring your city or where you are traveling to. Earn points and unlock badges for discovering new things.

Foursquare

A common question we hear when we tell restaurant business owners about Foursquare is “why are people using this tool to tell people where they are eating lunch?”

Well let me give you 3 reasons why foursquare is getting so huge:

  1. Foursquare is extremely helpful when looking for something such as nearby coffee, restaurant, etc. Just launch the application and foursquare will show you all the local businesses around you.  You can see tips and even specials nearby.
  2. Becoming the “mayor” of each place that one visits is very addicting. Even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on Foursquare.  Hey Foursquare are you going to up the prize and start offering Governor status?
  3. We all like to (if we are honest) showing what we accomplished.  By checking into locations you start earning badges.  The gaming aspect around foursquare makes trying out new places really fun.  I am amazed at how many of my friends on Foursquare make decisions on where to go to hopefully earn badges.  There are a ton of different badges you can earn.  Here is a good site that lists many Foursquare Badges that look like below:

Foursquare Badges

Now that foursquare just hit 1,000,000 users it is time you learn what foursquare is and how you can leverage it in your restaurant marketing plan.  Start by watching this video to better understand what foursquare is before we get into the details on how you can use foursquare to market your local business:


How To Unlock Your World With Foursquare on Howcast

Any business, especially restaurants, with a physical location immediately needs to pay attention to how Foursquare can help you connect with current and future customers. There are three primary benefits to Foursquare for your business:

  • Brand Awareness
  • Customer and market analysis
  • Customer Retention through loyalty and rewards

Brand Awareness:

Offer promotions, contests and giveaways - One of the most effective ways to create a buzz around your brand is by offering free or discounted products or services through promotions, contests and giveaways.

With Foursquare, implementing these marketing tactics becomes easy. Whether it’s offering a discount to anyone who checks in to your location on a particular day or awarding the first person to check in a free product or service, Foursquare allows companies to attract and reward new and existing customers.  Make sure someone on your team is monitoring this closely so you can act quickly when customers check in.

As shown below don’t forget to increase awareness through other local search options such as Google Maps and show your customers that your business rewards Foursquare users:

Foursquare Local Search

Don’t forget to show extra love to your venue’s Mayor!

Customer and market analysis:

Marketing intelligence - Foursquare recently announced a free analytics tool and dashboard that gives businesses access to valuable customer data on those customers that visit your business location.

Restaurant Marketing without leveraging Foursquare Is Like Eating Cookies Without Milk foursquare stats

Once you are in your Foursquare business dashboard you can review the following and adjust your strategies accordingly:

  • most recent visitors
  • most frequent visitors
  • the time of day people check in
  • total number of unique visitors
  • histogram of check-ins per day
  • gender breakdown of customers
  • portion of foursquare check-ins broadcast to Twitter and Facebook

To sign up visit your foursquare venue page and click on “are you the manager of this business” (see below) to get started.  If you are not sure what your foursquare venue page is or if you even have one check out the Foursquare search tool.

Restaurant Marketing without leveraging Foursquare Is Like Eating Cookies Without Milk foursquare business dasbhoard

Customer Retention through loyalty and rewards:

Create incentives for new customers - For restaurant or retail businesses offering incentives using Foursquare can help to attract new customers to try you out. By offering a discount or special to those who ‘check in’ to your company location, businesses can raise awareness, increase customer traffic and capture new business leads.

Reward Repeat Customer Visits -Make sure you take good care of repeat customers and foursquare is the tool that makes this very easy.  Here are 2 ways you can reward repeat customers:

  1. Check-In Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times. For example, Foursquare says you’ve been here 10 times?  That’s a free drink for you!
  2. Frequency Based Specials: unlocked every X check-ins. For example, Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!

The ultimate award is becoming a mayor of a location.  Businesses can easily take advantage of the obsession with Foursquare with customers becoming the ‘Mayor’ of your location.

I would recommend you consider asking your employees to not be overly aggressive with becoming a mayor of your business. Speaking from experience it is frustrating being in competition with someone that is at your business everyday and they oust me as a mayor.  If you are rolling your eyes now based on what I just wrote I have not done my job because you still see this is as silly game.  It is definitely not and the team behind Foursquare are genius.  Let’s try and guess which company (uh Facebook) is going to buy them out.

To get started with Foursquare for your business check out the Foursquare Business page.  Here are a few tips to get the word out on your Foursquare venue:

  1. Engage with Foursquare customers who check in at your business. Thank them for playing and let them feel noticed and appreciated.
  2. Create materials that advertise your involvement with Foursquare such as window signs and posters for your business.  Maybe have a sign that shows off who the mayor is and give them that celebrity status.
  3. Advertise your Foursquare venue on your website, blog, Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Let us know what you think about Foursquare?  Are you using Foursquare for your business today and what stories or experiences can you share?  If you own a restaurant make sure to check out our Restaurant Marketing Arizona page to see how we can help you.

WordPress Plugin For Facebook Like Button Called WP FB Like

Published on April 26, 2010 by iClick Solutions. View Comments

Facebook Like ButtonYesterday we spent some time reviewing the Facebook new like button code and wrote a blog post on how to manually edit the single.php WordPress blog file to include the new Facebook like button. After checking out some other blog posts we came across a WordPress Plugin For Facebook Like Button that we have been playing with today that was really simple to install and for those that don’t want to mess with the single.php file this plugin is perfect and works great.

The WordPress Facebook plugin is called WP FB Like plugin. To install it either search for the Facebook Like WordPress Plugin called WP FB Like or download the Facebook Like Button WordPress Plugin and then follow these instructions:

  1. Upload the WP FB Like directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Go to Settings/Facebook Like to configure the button

There are options for the WP FB Like plugin that allows you to customize the way the “Like” button shows up to suit your needs or aligned with the themes you use. The options are as follows: Continue reading ‘WordPress Plugin For Facebook Like Button Called WP FB Like’

How To Add Facebook Like Button To Your WordPress Blog

Published on April 25, 2010 by iClick Solutions. View Comments

Facebook WordPress Like Button CodeUnless you are living in a cave you have probably noticed that Facebook announced a brand new way of adding social sharing feature to your blog with the ‘Like’ button.

The “like” button is starting to pop up all over the internet and you can include it in your blog as well and with little hassle due to how easy Facebook has made it.

With the Like button code installed on your webpage, a user logged in to Facebook can easily give your article or site a thumbs up and share it in their Facebook wall.  If you are using WordPress software, open the single.php file and add the following code. You may change the height and width of the IFRAME as per your blog design:

After entering the code the Facebook Like button will show up (check out the beginning of this blog post above) exactly where you placed the code within your single.php file. If you need any help or have questions please let us know in the comment area below. Also, please let us know how above worked out for you and a link to where you placed the Facebook “Like” button.  That way we can check it out and maybe start liking you.  ;-)