marketing

by Nathan Greenberg, CEO

We begin our celebration with words of thanks.

Those that have invested in our company have given us the financial security to make necessary decisions.
Those that have trusted us with their marketing have given us the relationships we value and seek to build in a unique and dynamic way.
Those who have referred their friends, family, and associates to us have given us the trust and support to grow.
Those in the media who have partnered with us and delivered amazing results to our clients have given us the tools to make marketing and advertising exciting and profitable.
Those friends and family who have supported our decisions, helped us avoid pitfalls, and let us toil away at odd hours and miss other moments.

To all of you I give a personal “thank you”.

Four years is only our beginning. This year, in particular, has been so radically and positively different from the first three. I humbly admit that every decision has not been right. Nevertheless, I remain committed to my foundation of giving the best customer service and building relationships with clients, the media, and our fans who have helped us grow.

I have more exciting plans for this year including new services for our clients, new opportunities for our clients and partners to network with each other, and bringing on new talent to further expand our well of services and abilities.

The years ahead are bright and I look forward to sharing them with all of you.

–Nathan Greenberg, CEO
Arkside Marketing, Inc.

In case you haven’t heard, Twitter plans to go public with an IPO sometime in 2014. Cheekily, they made this announcement in a tweet. Now they are under intense pressure to prove their value. How can Twitter be profitable? Can it grow? Can it help business? How will it attract advertisers? With a recent blog post, Twitter has set out to prove that tweets drive offline sales.

Majority of Sales are Still Offline

Twitter partnered with Datalogix to determine the impact Promoted Tweets (and tweeting in general) had on offline sales. Despite the surging popularity of social media with businesses and their consumers, 94% of purchases in America are still made offline, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

So how can businesses use Twitter to impact their offline sales?

Promoted Tweets, according to Twitter.

How Twitter Impacts Offline Sales

The logic is fairly simple but execution is key. Tweeting is about condensing any idea or action into a message of 140 characters or less. The people that see those messages have just become a branding audience and, in most cases, the goal is to move from branding to action. You want people to act on the information or call-to-action you provide.

When 35 CPG brands were studied, it was determined that Promoted Tweets (one of Twitter’s advertising products) directly correlated to a 12% sales lift offline. Also impressive, organic Tweets helped push an 8% offline sales lift.

Impressed? Wait, there’s more. (We’re not cheerleaders for Twitter. This just happens to be excellent marketing data that we believe can help our clients achieve great success in social media and gaining incremental sales. You want to sell more, right?)

Twitter’s data also showed that customers exposed to Promoted Tweets bought 29% more than customers who were only exposed to organic Tweets.

Measuring Social Media Impact

Twitter has helped advance the measurement metrics of online promotion affecting offline sales. It is a critical tool for any brand who seeks to grow their business with the inclusion of social media in their marketing mix. Verifiable sales are an element of measurement, just like website traffic, online buzz, or media coverage.

Facebook also had a recent announcement about conversion from online ads to offline purchases. This segment continues to grow and should not be ignored.

Summary

It is becoming more difficult for skeptics to deny the importance of social media in marketing. Its importance has been documented for SEO objectives and its genuine dollars-and-cents value is being better quantified every day. If you would like to learn more about effective social media and how it can lift your sales, please contact Arkside today.

“The best time to collect referrals from customers is at the point when they realize and acknowledge a good job was done.” –John Jantsch

That moment when a customer realizes and acknowledges when a good job was done can happen at any time. Your challenge is to solicit referrals at that moment.

The world has changed for every industry. Business models have been modified and adjusted to meet new demands and new opportunities. Most importantly, companies are no longer the most important factor in their own brand – their customers are. The wrong criticism on social media can force a company into “damage control mode” or, in some cases force the company out of business. Average consumers now wield tremendous influence through digital media and the enhanced power of referrals.

It is no longer enough to wait for a client to tell a prospective client how amazing you are. You need referrals on a larger scale. Assume your competitors are always looking for new ways to tap the power of referrals.

Referrals Have Always Worked

And they always will. Word of mouth remains one of the most powerful and trusted methods by which consumers choose a brand. Many businesses -even entire industries- have relied on word of mouth referrals for their existence. Lawyers are an excellent example of this. The traditions and esteem of the legal profession naturally lend themselves to a proclivity for clients to tell their friends, family, or colleagues about the great (or horrible) job their attorney did on their case. At a cost of $100-$500 an hour, people want personal stories of success.

But now referrals can be successfully generated through more than a phone call or a Chamber of Commerce mixer. There are means and methods to incorporate referral solicitations into your current or new marketing strategy.

New Power of Referrals Opportunities

The example you see here was taken directly from the Facebook Page of a celebrity friend of ours. He, unfortunately, recently went through a divorce and when it was done, this was what he said about his attorney. This celebrity has a few thousand social media connections. This simple post (which includes the attorney’s name and phone number) is far more valuable than if he had simply told a friend or family member. He told thousands of people. Instantly. People that value his opinion.

The name before the phone number is more than just a name. It is a link to the attorney’s Facebook Page. A convenient form of contact was just facilitated by a simple Facebook post. According to the Small Business Administration: “At the high-value end of the referral scale is an existing customer who facilitates a sale.”

As you look at your own methods of earning referrals, ask yourself:

• Can your referrals not only sustain your business, but enable it to grow?
• If you are the principal or a senior partner, would the firm continue without your referral network?
• Are your competitors including referral solicitation as part of their marketing?

Making Referrals Part of your Marketing

There are three steps to successful referral marketing and tapping the power of referrals:

1. Earning – As Ted Rubin says in his Return on Relationship™ coaching, “Provide the most value, you’ll get the most business.” Do your job so well that your clients will want to refer you to others.
2. Soliciting – Now that you’ve earned a referral, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Your Arkside Account Manager will give you multiple ways by which you can ask for a referral, review, or testimonial that is convenient for the client.
3. Promoting – Show prospects why they should choose to work with you…why others have chosen to work with you. Include your testimonials and other referral comments on your website, social media, and even presentations. Remember, part of online advertising is showing search engines what you want them to see!

Summary

Your business doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for one friend to tell another friend how great you are. You can not survive and expand by bread alone. You need to initiate activities of scale and develop new means by which referral business (the best kind of business) can be generated. Social media and search engines like Google and Yahoo! offer the tools to achieve a higher level of success with the new power of referrals.

If you feel as though your business could benefit from professional marketing direction, you’re not alone. Most businesses would find extreme rewards if an ad agency were part of their structure. From brand development and protection to the quality of advertising, rare is the organization that can execute a well coordinated ad campaign on it’s own.

But the inevitable question is how to acquire that professional experience and insight. Should you hire someone to work from within or hire an agency? Here are five reasons to choose an ad agency:

Ad Agency = Advertising Specialists

You do what you do best. So do they. Advertising agencies exist because their staff have made careers out of successful marketing research, creative ideas, and timely execution. They revel in the latest consumer behavior studies and watch hours of Photoshop tutorials so they can offer the best products and solutions to your marketing challenges. The combination of education and passion culminates in a team of professionals.

Beyond love for their craft, experience is also vital. You are an expert at your business but could benefit tremendously from an objective viewpoint. Listen to the feedback and ideas offered by your ad agency. It is their job to understand your audience and reach them effectively. Ad agencies offer a breadth of knowledge from a variety of industries. That collection of experience offers unique insights to address your marketing goals with important perspective.

Ad Agency = Time Savings

Whether you are a business owner or a CMO, your daily duties are demanding. Hiring an ad agency allows you to focus on your responsibilities while a team of advertising specialists creates the best marketing elements possible. Developing a brand, launching an ad campaign, or preparing in-house marketing materials are all time consuming endeavors. Agency staff can do these things efficiently and cost-effectively.

You know your business better than anyone else. You need time to run it. Choose an agency that will conveniently work with you and your goals. Your ideas should be part of the marketing process, but marketing shouldn’t be all of your day.

Ad Agency = Cost Savings

Advertising is a substantial investment for most businesses. Do you consider your business cards part of your marketing? What about your press releases? Employee name tags? Office decor? All of these things are elements of marketing because they are part of your reputation. They represent your brand. They are things a customer might remember about you. All of them can be provided at wholesale prices by an ad agency.

An ad agency is like CostCo or BJs Wholesale Club. They can offer tremendous savings because they buy in bulk. And a good agency buys in a lot of bulk. They will offer savings on media rates because they represent more than just you (one client). They should also have good relationships with the media sales teams and leverage those relationships for your benefit.

Now look beyond the cost of media. Personnel costs are only going up and it would be a massive expense for you to create your own team of experienced marketing professionals. Ad agencies are able to attract great talent and those costs are shared – not absorbed solely by you.

Why Hire an Ad Agency?

Advertising is an investment. It is money you lay out in order to receive a positive return. An ad agency should be no different. Find the team that will bring your ideas to life and plans to fruition. A team of advertising specialists should save you both time and money while rewarding you with higher revenue and a stronger brand identity.

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