The Landscape of SMS Marketing

Short-message service (SMS) refers to what is commonly known as text messaging. These messages can be sent cell phone to cell phone, or from Web-based services to cell phones. When it comes to marketing, SMS marketing is a growing trend that is still being explored and understood. Here are some of the highlights of the landscape.

A variety of industries are using SMS marketing in their strategies. This includes leisure (venue based), recruitment, retailers, software, marketing, financial services, beauty and hair salons, fast food, education, estate agencies, legal and dental and health offices, and travel agents. The industries at the top of this list use SMS marketing more frequently than those at the end, but you can see the wide variety of applications for SMS marketing.

The popularity of SMS marketing is built on the popularity of mobile devices, which grow in numbers every year. Recent statistics show that nearly 90 percent of the world’s population has a mobile device, which means around 6 billion people can be reached through SMS. Mobile marketing budgets are increasing to meet this area of opportunity. In the United States, mobile ad revenue is expected to exceed $20 billion annually by the year 2015. More than 60 percent of businesses are considering mobile marketing more than traditional methods.

SMS marketing helps reach mobile device users who do not use their device to connect to the internet — or about 76 percent of all mobile users. The number of SMS messages sent in 2013 approached 10 trillion, and more than 45 percent of mobile device users report being aware of mobile advertising. Application to Person (A2P) messaging is whenever businesses contact customers, and A2P messaging is predicted to surpass person-to-person messaging by 2016. 

For more about these statistics and the landscape of SMS marketing, click here for a graphic from socialmediadd.com. SMS offers a great window into the lives of customers, regardless of their online activity, and the future shows potential for increased growth in SMS marketing. For more information about how to use SMS marketing for your business, contact us today!

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4 Important Email Marketing Strategies

Email newsletters are an important part of any marketing campaign, particularly as people spend increasing amounts of time online. E-newsletters go directly to customers’ inbox, giving them an advantage over other forms of social media. Like other digital media, e-newsletters are inexpensive to produce and send to customers. And fortunately, there are some simple tips for writing an email-newsletter that customers will be likely to read!

1) Start with a captivating subject line. Many readers use an email subject line to determine whether they will open the email, and it is crucial that your e-newsletter stand out among the many other emails a customer receives. Including the word ‘you’ gives the email a personal touch. Make your subject line timely and short, to catch the reader’s eye. 

2) Use visual means to convey your message. Video sites, like YouTube, and applications, like Vine, are rapidly rising in popularity. Often, readers are more likely to watch a short video than they are to read lines of text. Capitalize on this tendency by creating video (or even photo) content for your readers, whether your intent is to engage the customer, sell products, or tell a story.

3) Entice customers with a special offer. Including a special offer in your e-newsletter is one of the best ways to retain customers and keep them interested in future promotions. You will strengthen brand loyalty when you help customers feel as if they are important to your business. (They are!)

4) Utilize other forms of social media. Include social media links (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in your e-newsletter, as these digital marketing tools go hand in hand. A great way to involve customers and increase your market exposure is by rewarding customers when they share your e-newsletter (or other content) on social media. 

With these tips, you can improve your email newsletters to make the most of the opportunity you have to communicate with your customers. For the best ways to include email in your marketing strategy, contact us today!

PR Effectiveness: Gauging the Many Elements Beyond Sales for Your Campaign

PR effectiveness is a wide picture to be analyzed through different avenues and not strictly by how much money is made. While making money shows a campaign was successful, it may not sustain in the ever-changing social environment. Looking at exactly what prompted those sales can help decide whether it was the result of something unexpected.

Analytics on Social Media

With Google Analytics being such a useful tool in determining web traffic, a firm can discover plenty of evidence in how people reacted to something online. If it was determined the sales were from social media influence, then the main demographics can be known. And despite social media being the place where you’d expect most of the activity to be, there may be a chance sales came significantly from somewhere else.

Analyzing Other Media

Television continues to play just as strong an impact in sales as social media. Most of the time, they work in tandem though mentions from a client on a national TV show or cable news can take sales into the stratosphere. A mention like this (or in a national newspaper) can be the result of an earlier promotion on social media without having spent a dime on a television or a newspaper ad. These interconnections tell a PR firm how the inter-connectivity of today’s media can effectively disseminate enough free information to cut costs of promotion.

Study the Advantages of Small Media

Sometimes sales can be the result of a simple word-of-mouth grassroots campaign or write-ups in small publications. While these might be graded as minor promotional places, it’s worth doing some investigation into these arenas and why they potentially do better than expected. Smaller and more peripheral avenues also typically conjoin with social media for easier methods of passing on information.

Survey the Consumers

Gauging information directly from those who bought a promoted product can help determine where those consumers heard about the product or client. There may be a surprise in store for where they heard about the product through the earlier examples. This may prove the underestimation in the power of fan campaigns by simple word-of-mouth. Determining it can be done through online surveys, telephone, or traditional mail.

Talk to the Client

PR firms need to think of their client and the effectiveness of the PR campaign. Does the client understand what the PR firm is doing and the procedures in how it’s being done? A happy client is a client that understands the entire process of an effective PR plan with a comprehensive understanding of why it was effective.

Contact us if you’re a company needing an effective local or national marketing campaign. Two Girls Consulting (2GC) is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. We also work on a national level. With a decade of experience, plus long-standing relationships with media and other venues, let us effectively take your company message to the masses.

Marketing Strategies: What Draws the Eye?

Content marketing is a powerful tool for increasing your company’s visibility and authority in a field.  If your company is investing in content marketing, you are likely producing a valuable body of work you hope will be accessible to clients.   However, if you want to draw an audience to your work, keep in mind the way information is organized is almost as important as the information itself.  Here are a few tips for keeping information user-friendly:

1. People Love Lists.  Use lists if you want to engage site visitors from beginning to end. Lists are easy to conceptualize, and they encourage people to read an entire post from start to finish.

2. Keep Your Content Fresh.  Humans crave newness and will invariably be drawn to novel information.  If the material you present isn’t engaging, people will navigate away from your site in the click of a mouse.  Satisfy your audiences’ need for originality by keeping information new.

3. Make it Pithy.  Many people have short attention spans, especially online.  Don’t overwhelm your audience with lengthy posts.  Break up your information and keep it short so people will remember it better.

4. Pictures Draw the Eye.  Don’t hesitate to incorporate pictures and color into your content.  Too many images can make a page overwhelming, but a few images will attract attention.  In addition, make sure that your company logo is attractive and prominently displayed.

5. Ask Questions.  People are interested in themselves, which means they will be interested in hearing their own input.  Use this to your advantage by posing questions and giving people a chance to interact with your content.

Want to learn more about content marketing and other marketing strategies? Please contact us with any questions.  We would love to hear from you!

You Should Be Actively Involved In Your Online Reputation Management

Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “Why do I need to manage something I don’t even have?”  If you’ve ever searched for your business online and only found results pointing to your website or social media pages, you’re ahead of the game.  At this point, your online reputation is managed.

It’s important to remember your squeaky clean online presence can be tarnished or even badly damaged in a short period by a disgruntled customer or an ex-employee deciding to start posting negative comments online about you and/or your company, and you may soon find those comments are receiving a higher ranking than your web page.

This is why you need to actively monitor and manage what is being said about you and your company online.  If you’re not taking proactive measures now, you may find yourself needing to take action to repair your reputation after the damage is already done.

You may not even realize how many searches are being performed each day on you or your company.  These are some of the more typical:

• Potential customers
• Potential investors
• Business partners and/or colleagues
• Journalists
• Coworkers and/or employees
• Personal contacts

You want to be sure you are showing up in the best possible light should any of these people decide to look you up.  The type of issues that could cause problems if not effectively managed include:

• Negative comments and perceptions
• Inaccurate information
• False information
• Copyright or Trademark infringement
• Postings on review or complaint websites

A negative online reputation can be highly damaging if it leads to a boycott of your products or services.  You could also be dealing with legal issues as you try and figure who is responsible and how to negate the damage. Having consistent monitoring of your online presence can head off those possibly negative consequences before it gets out of control.  An online reputation management team will serve as the perfect “buffer” for the possible attack on you or your business.  

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you support a positive online reputation! 

 

PR Effectiveness in a Virtual World

June is Effective Communication Month—as if we could ignore effectively communicating the other eleven months of the year! However, it is an excellent opportunity to get back to the communications basics and discuss how some of the time-tested tools and strategies for PR effectiveness  might be applied to successfully communicate in the virtual world of the Internet.

According to Clifford N. Lazarus, PhD, there are a number of tools used in establishing and maintaining effective communication.

• Make Sure You Have the Other Person’s Attention. On the Internet, getting a visitor to read, or at least browse, your web page or email message is the objective. Unfortunately as early as 2007, the average person visited over 130 web pages per day, and in 2011 (according to the Nielsen Norman Group), “the average stay on those pages was just 10-20 seconds,” which means visitors are usually reading less than one-quarter of the text on any particular page.
  
• Maintain Eye Contact. In the world of the Internet, this means keeping the visitor on your page long enough to make them a potential customer. Once you have crossed that 10-20 second threshold they are more likely to stay longer and explore your site.
  
• Be Direct and Honest. Remember you have a small amount of time to capture and hold a visitor’s attention.
  
• Good Communication Involves Clear And Concise Messaging. Content and design should complement each other. People are as easily turned off by dissimilar messages. And the sheer volume of options available on the Internet, will make sure visitors move on if they do not feel comfortable on your website.
  
• Ask For Feedback and Listen To Ensure The Intended Message Was Received. There needs to be an electronic equivalent to the phrase “are you following me?” Comment opportunities on web pages and visitor/customer feedback options, will provide ways for your company to receive crucial responses and amend or clarify your content and tone.

Is your company having a hard time crafting an effective content strategy? We can help. Contact 2GC today.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Businesses: Reputation Management

You have developed your business so it delivers what people want when they want it. Not only have you established your product and services, you have also advertised and promoted your company effectively through traditional media like newspapers, radio, and television, as well the Internet. As a result your business is growing and prospering.

However, the unexpected happens. It can be a natural disaster such as a flash flood or having a defective product slip out the doors to the public. Or perhaps, an irate customer or group of customers threatening to sue your company.  Challenges to the health of your business can take a variety of forms. Nevertheless, you will need to be ready to deal with them.

When bad things happen, the media might be coming to you. They will come at a time that will not be convenient and will ask questions. This will be a time when all the good work you have done in creating and developing your business can be threatened.

It is at those times you need to be ready to deal effectively with both the media and the public. TwoGirlsConsulting can be a crucial asset for you during those times. From effective executive media training, to handling and advising on how best to deal with media and the public, 2GC can help you weather the storm intact. Reputation management during times of crisis is one of the many things we can do for you.

TwoGirlsConsulting is committed to helping you grow your business and make it successful, while helping you avoid the misfortunes a business can face. Contact 2GC for more information on how we can accomplish this for you.