Integrated Marketing Solutions For Small Businesses€¦ · INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR...

Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Success

Integrated Marketing SolutionsFor Small Businesses:

Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Success

INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction.................................................................................3Marketing to the Digital Consumer...................................................4How to Use an Integrated Approach...............................................5Is Integration Right For My Business?................................................7How Integrated Marketing Works to Build Your Business......................8The Toolbox................................................................................9 Paid Advertising...................................................................10 Video Marketing...................................................................15 Email Marketing...................................................................16 Blogging.............................................................................17 Search Engine Optimization....................................................18 Social Media.......................................................................19 Reputation Management........................................................20The Strategy..............................................................................21Measurement Plan......................................................................23Final Words..............................................................................25

2


3

SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING:TRADITION MEETS THE MODERN AGEFor some, the term “small business” conjures up sepia-tinged memories of a quiet little store with mom and pop behind the counter, selling their wares to the neighbors, who they knew by name. Marketing the business meant word of mouth, and relying on repeat customers until new folks moved in. It worked, in a quieter, slower time.

Chances are, you don’t fit that image exactly, but you still identify with the spunky, bootstrapping, need-filling, hardworking history of the small business entrepreneur. Your small business is unique, with unique needs and goals. For you, growing your business means expanding your reach. You need marketing solutions to fit the modern age.

The ways to reach today’s communities have changed. The world is bigger than simple word–of–mouth can reach and you can’t afford to wait until consumers come to you. You have to be where they are, even before they know they need you. And to do that, in the mobile, digital, connected, information age, you need to be online. You need an integrat-ed marketing approach.

4

MARKETING TO THE DIGITAL CONSUMERUnderstanding the Consumer’s Decision Making ProcessThe marketplace has changed drastically in the last twenty years. We’ve entered an age with a shorter, faster buying cycle, and consumers have all the information they need right at their fingertips.

It used to be that, when it was time to visit a local business, the consumer would check the phone book or the newspaper for relevant listings and maybe ask friends about the best options. For certain types of business, the choice was whoever’s ad space was the biggest within the yellow pages for that category, or who was the closest in location.

Now the decision process is much more complex. Consumers can reach for their smartphone, tablet, or laptop, which are never out of sight, and do a quick search for businesses in their area. Now, it’s the business with the most visibility that gets the sale.

This change puts a huge premium on being visible online. When consum-ers realize a need, and reach for one of their digital devices, you want them to find you.

Complexity of InfluencersSimply having a website is not effective enough to optimize reach. In addition to having a website and device compatibility, businesses need to build a presence in a variety of different channels.

The answer lies in a new kind of marketing that perfectly fits the ways people do business in the 21st century: integrated marketing, specially targeted to reach your audience.


of smartphone users want adscustomized to their city/zip code

When searchers seek local information

connect with the business if within a 5 mile radius

72%67%

02138

5

HOW TO USE AN INTEGRATED (OR MULTI-CHANNEL) APPROACHIntegrated marketing is defined as using a consistent brand message across multiple platforms and promotional efforts to reach your target audience to drive greater impact.

Integrated goes beyond just having a consistent brand message. It includes developing creative marketing strategies and campaigns with multiple marketing channels such as advertising, social media, content and email marketing that complement each other and work together toward the company’s marketing goals.

While it can be tempting to focus on one method at a time—just doing PPC, or just doing social media marketing, or just focusing on blog-ging—without a wide variety of digital marketing activities, you could be catching people in only one part of a very fast buying cycle and missing everyone else.

Referring back to the consumer’s decision making process: • Consumers move through the process at a rapid pace • Consumers don’t rely on a company for information until late in the process, turning instead to other sources like review sites and peer recommendations • Consumers convert from just about any phase of the process

What this means for your business is that if you aren’t present at every step in the decision making process, you could miss out on valuable conversions.

Be visible to consumers at every step of the way with a multi-channel approach. The more branches of digital marketing you use, the more visible you’ll be.


6

So the main problems for small business owners looking to draw in new customers—and retain current customers—are: • How do I increase my ranking on SERP (search engine result pages)? • How can I increase visibility? • How can I provide solutions for my target audience? • How do I show up in local searches? • How can I optimize my social presence? • How do I provide follow-up communications with email? • How can I make it easier for my audience to reach me? • How do I continue communicating with leads and customers?

An integrated approach ideal for small business contains a mix of the following: • Paid advertising • Video marketing • Email marketing • Blogging + Content marketing • Search engine optimization • Social media marketing

*For locally targeted businesses, your efforts should be focused on local reach.


Tip

You want to make sure you understand who your target audience is and choose the channels that they frequent. Keep in mind that the right marketing mix always includes tactics that attract, convert, and retain.

7

IS INTEGRATED RIGHT FOR MY BUSINESS?How do you know if integrated marketing is right for your business?

Specially tailored integrated marketing services are great for businesses that want to: • Increase online visibility and reach • Increase sales • Reach a new target audience • Build a community around their brand and drive loyalty • Become a leader in their industry • Deliver a brand message to their target audience • Build brand awareness • Capture consumers in every stage of the buying cycle • Reach consumers in different media channels

If you try to market your business like you did ten years ago, you’ll reach the approximately 4% of consumers who don’t use the Internet in their path to a decision...and miss everyone else.

If you use a targeted, strategic, carefully planned integrated marketing plan, you’ll reach exactly who you want to reach, exactly when they’re ready to make a decision.


You + Integrated Marketing+ Consumers Looking For You

Happy Customers +A Growing Business

=

Tip

8

HOW INTEGRATED MARKETING WORKS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESSAccessibility and ReachYour company could have global direct access to your target audience within moments. More importantly, having a strategic integrated marketing approach can allow you to reach your audience at the right time, when they are looking for products or services that you offer.

Control over your brand messageWhen you do reach your audience, you want to have a consistent brand message and control over how they perceive your brand. Imagine that you receive a bad customer review on a very prominent review website. Each time someone searches your brand name, that review site shows up first. Can you imagine if that was the first and only thing each new potential customer saw about your brand? That could be detrimental to your brand’s success. With integrated marketing, you not only want to respond to those reviews, but you’ll want to have your brand message prominent across multiple platforms and channels so people are seeing more than just one bad review. You want to build your customers’ trust over time, and having control over your brand message can help.

Multidirectional communicationGone are the days where a family would sit in front of the T.V. after dinner and be bombarded with T.V. ads as their only source of one-way communi-cation with brands. Now, customers are going out and looking for brands that offer more than just one-way communication. We are now living in a world where people want to connect with a brand, communicate, and engage with them. These multi-directional communications offer so much more for the brands as well. We can gather tons of great information about our customers such as their likes, dislikes, and even gain direct feedback.

Your quick overview of benefits: • Awareness of your brand, what you do, and what you stand for • Engagement with your brand • Grow brand • Build customer loyalty • Become an industry leader • Stand apart from competitors • Increase revenue

In the end, each of these benefits will result in increasing your brand, sales and revenue.


9

THE TOOLBOX:CHANNELS YOU NEED TO INTEGRATE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS


10

PAID ADVERTISINGPaid advertising, also known as PPC, isn’t just for big, international com-panies with million-dollar ad budgets. It’s also for the sole proprietor, small business, or locally targeted business like you, looking to reach your target audience.

Pay per click advertising is an excellent tool for assisting with reaching your goal, whether it is branding or direct response.

Paid Advertising Channel Examples • Google – AdWords • Bing/Yahoo – Microsoft adCenter • Facebook – social media ads

Pay per click advertising from Google may encompasses search or display advertising:

Search: Launching ads through search is the most common form of PPC advertising and should be utilized by small businesses. When using search, your ads become eligible to be displayed on search engine result pages when someone searches on a specific term that matches a keyword you have chosen. This method is effective because you are able to target users who are already searching for what you have to offer. No matter the size of your business, you’ll have the same opportunities as others to reach the most relevant people through search.

Search advertising can also be a powerful tool for local business owners, as they are able to optimize for their location.


Tip

Locally targeted businesses should target the appropriateradius around their businesses to reach local customers.

11

Display: Display networks allow you to show your ads on a variety of websites. Since this is a more visual approach, display is great for show-casing special offers, events, new products and helps with branding.

Display can be utilized to expand reach. Businesses using display are able to reach 90% of Internet users with more than 1 billion users every month. By targeting appropriately, by age, interest, gender, topic, and placement, your ads will be placed on the websites your target audience visits the most.

Remarketing/Retargeting – A display advertising method targeted to users who have visited your site. It works by placing a tag on your website that collects users into lists.You can target those lists with advertising. Remarketing is used to re-engage people and remind these users of the interest they have in your company.

Remarketing may boost conversion rates 300-400% compared tostandard ads (Google)


SALE

Tip

Use display for new products, special offers, seasonal specials, branding, or direct response.

Tip

Use all available creative such as image, text, video in the display network.

Tip

Take advantage of features paid advertising has tooffer such as: ad extensions, site links, location, phone number, callouts, and reviews.

12

Display For Local Business Local businesses may optimize display by targeting for users who are within a specific mile range of their business. By doing so, they are greatly increasing their reach potential, all the while branding and aiding conver-sions.


13

Display Targeting OptionsThere are several different targeting options available though display networks to help you build a strategy that will assist your company’s goals. You can use targeting options separately in each ad group, oryou can use more than one for more precise targeting.Targeting options include:

Placements – You have the option to select specific websites that you think would be most appropriate for your message or strategy. You can show your message on specific pages, videos, RSS feeds, mobile sites and more. You even have the option to add negative placements that would prevent your ads from showing on sites you don’t find relevant.

Contextual Targeting – Contextual targeting is when search engines find the best placements for your ad based on your keywords in each ad group. This will help show your ads to the most relevant audience that is more likely to convert.

Interest Categories – Search engines give you the option to select interest categories so your ads will be shown to people who have expressed interest in products or services similar to yours. Your ads will show them whether or not they are browsing pages that are relevant to your services or not.

Topics – Search engines also let you select topics and will show your ads on pages that are directly related to the topic you choose.


The Display Network reaches 90%of Internet user worldwide (Comscore)

14

Additional Advertising OpportunitiesNative Ads – Native ads are content-based ads that are integrated into editorial feeds. Native ads amplify content to build trust and engagement with target audiences. They also may be used to drive people into your website to take a specific action, or to help increase brand awareness.

Social Media Ads – Adding to the stream of news flowing through your feeds are social media ads. Social media platforms and their ads are great for reaching more people.

Shopping Campaigns – Whether you have an ecommerce site or brick and mortar store, having your product ads display in search engines can fuel traffic to your site, or to your local store. Shopping campaigns neatly show your product image, description, and pricing in search results.

Mobile Marketing – With more and more people shopping online with their smartphones and tablets, small and locally targeted businesses need to make sure their websites are optimized and ready to use on mobile devices.

Goldman Sachs predicts retail mobile commerce sales will jump 45.9% to $298 billion in 2015, increase 39.1% to $415 billion in 2016, rise 24.4% to $516 billion in 2017, and jump 21.3% to $626 billion in 2018.


Tip

An added perk for local businesses:A great feature for mobile advertising is mobile click-to-call. If you are a local acupuncturist it would be easy for potential customers to get in touch with you by just adding a click to call option to your ads. Thus, they will have the option to call you when your ads appear on their smartphones.

90% for pre-shopping activities

use mobile

88%to conduct local searches

use mobile

Tip

15

More importantly, 67% of people start shopping on one device and then continue on another. So now, it’s important that when they are doing their research or shopping online, your ads show to them, no matter what stage of the purchase cycle they are in or what device they are using.

VIDEO MARKETINGVideo marketing has become such a huge part of consumers’ research process that you absolutely need to pay attention. According to Google, after viewing a TV product video online, 72% looked up a store’s location on their mobile phone.

Whether on YouTube, Vine, or Instagram; as part of a blog or part of an advertisement; featuring interviews, product comparisons, or how-to’s, two things are for sure:

1. Video is often the first point of research for customers2. Video drives sales and increases brand awareness


Online video advertising content should be different thanTV advertising content. Online video platforms such asYouTube thrive off of consumer interaction, therefore you’llwant to provide videos that encourage engagement andsharing between viewers.

16

EMAIL MARKETINGEmail marketing can be used as a great way to stay in communication with clients, keep them engaged and give them special offers. Email marketing is beneficial for continuing to grow a relationship withconsumers.

Workflow AutomationOne type of email marketing is workflow automation. Workflows are a series of automated emails that assist with nurturing leads down the path to a decision.

How a workflow might work:You funnel a potential lead from your social media page into your blog from an article link. That article includes a call to action to download a piece of content with additional information. You then follow up with a series of emails to provide them more information on that subject.

Workflow benefitsWorkflow provides more benefits than you might think. When used correctly, they may help to: • Build relationships with consumers • Promote marketing efforts • Reduce a “missed-opportunity” to follow up • Funnel/nurture prospects down the decision making process • Increase sales • Lead consumers to your site, social platforms, and blog • Collect measurable results


82%

44%

of email recipients made at least one purchase last yearbased on a promotional email (Convinceandconvert.com)

of consumers open emails from companies (Litmus)

Tip

Build your company’s newsletter to be more engaging by providingmore information or content resources that your customers will find interestingand informative. Recipients will look forward to finding it in their inboxevery month.

17

BLOGGINGOften underutilized by small businesses is the practice of blogging. Blog-ging is a great way to help increase your presence online.

A potential list of benefits that may be reaped from regular blogging: • Attract potential customers • Boost website traffic • Gain recognition as an industry expert • Build a community • Build trust • Boost SEO • Receive feedback from readers • Collect emails

Blogs are especially important because they house all the content you’ve created (articles, whitepapers, videos, infographics, etc.). The most effec-tive types of content are those that speak to your target audience by addressing their problems and providing tactical solutions.

In addition, content amplifies the effectiveness of the other channels in your marketing strategy. Content can be used in your advertising efforts, posted on social media, and optimized for search.

Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small busi-nesses that do not blog (ThinkCreative)

Among those who use e-mail marketing, businesses that blog get twice as much traffic from their email campaigns than those who do not blog (HubSpot)


Tip

Downloadable content may be used as an effective capture mechanism. Offer free content in a downloadable form that can be used to capture visitors’ contact information. Use this information to follow-up with visitors through workflow.

61%of consumers say they are more likely to buyfrom a company that delivers custom contentthey can trust (Custom Content Council)

18

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)Search engine optimization encompasses the vast array of activitiesthat boost your visibility in search results.

Think search rankings don’t really make a difference to your smallbusiness?

When SEO is done right, importance is placed on using keywords natu-rally, ease of website navigation, connecting links to relevant info, and providing content; all of which combine to create a positive user experi-ence. Therefore, small or local businesses that continue to cater to a user’s experience (over time) will begin to see substantial movement in their search engine rankings.

Here are some ways for small businesses to build natural, trustworthy SEO: • Researching your target audience and carefully selecting relevant keywords for your industry, specialty, and location • Analyzing the online presence of competitors and the industry as a whole • Optimizing your website with your selected keywords • Building out full profiles for all social media sites • Writing and distributing press releases to local and regional media • Building up a blog and using it as a rich digital hub for people to find valuable content on what you do, what your brand stands for, industry news, etc.

Locally targeted businesses may perform the above with the addition of: • Listing your website on high quality sites such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Google Places, local area listings, etc., and keeping up with new quality directories as they emerge • Optimizing for locally targeted keywords can be implemented into your website, blog, PRs, and social media profiles.


TipSetup your site on Webmaster Tools. Webmaster Tools is a free service that helpsyou monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google search results.

67%of searchers choose natural results overpaid listings in the path to purchase

19

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETINGSocial media marketing is a great way to earn attention, make a person-al connection, and build trust from consumers.

Consider social media as the softer side of your marketing efforts. Through social media you present the message of your brand in a helpful, informative way. Think less selling, more educating and inspiring.

Dennis Woodside, a Google VP, says this about how consumers want to be engaged:“People don’t want to be bludgeoned with broadcasts. They want, and expect, something more sophisticated, more considerate.”

That said, social media has influence over a consumer’s buying decision more than ever. Social media is one of the ways consumers are able to interact with brands, therefore you’ll want to use social media in an engaging way.

Social media may be used for: • Communicating with your audience • Representing your company’s passions • Staying connected with past and potential customers • Managing your brand’s reputation (more on that in a bit) • Creating customer loyalty and satisfaction • Building relationships with businesses that complement your own • Directing traffic to your website • Distributing content from your website and blog


Tip

Another source of influence are review sites. When looking for a restaurant, gym, small business, or locally targeted business, many people go straight to a review site like Yelp to simultaneously find a business and check reviews.

#1Twitter is the #1 channel forinfluencing purchasing decisionssurrounding electronics (Mashable)

of consumers rely on socialnetworks to guide purchasedecisions (SproutSocial)

74%

Tip

Instead of being on all social platforms, optimizeyour presence on the ones you know your targetaudience will be using.

20

REPUTATION MANAGEMENTReputation management is more important now than ever before. A negative online review or customer service experience gone wrong will spread from person to person like wildfire, and the longer you wait to attend to the problem, the worse it looks.

We recently conducted a survey of 101 people in and around Boston. Their responses showed that a company’s reputation has a significant impact on purchasing decisions:

Review sites were the #1 resource in respondents’ research and buying process, above ads featuring special offers, and brand websites.

Our study closely mirrored stats from Google on the importance of online reputation, and how a lack of positive online presence can be just as unhealthy to the small business as the presence of a negative online reputation. So, be sure to have a social media strategy in your integrated marketing approach.


64%

of respondents consult 3rd party review sites, likeYelp or Yellow Pages before buying

85%

said finding a bad review online would impacttheir purchasing decision

18%said opinions from friends and family impactwhether they buy from a company

21

THE STRATEGYNow that you have all your tools together, you can build your strategy.

Creating Your Integrated Digital Media Marketing CampaignIntegrated marketing should center on the stages of the buying cycle: Attract, Convert and Retain.

In designing an integrated marketing campaign to target these three stages, you need to employ as many current digital media channels as you can, in ways that are creative, engaging, valuable, and targeted.

It is important to understand each specific channel’s benefits and strengths and use those to leverage the impact that each channel has on the customer’s decision and how it works together with the rest of the chan-nels.

AttractAttract your target audience to your website through the use of blogging, SEO, PPC, and social media. In order to reap the full benefits of each channel, you’ll want to consistently be creating and supplying educational content that provides solutions for the needs of your target audience. Creative content speaks to your audience in a way that gets heard through the noise. It requires an understanding of what consumers think and do at each point in the buying cycle, and a willingness to step out of the box to create messages that set you apart from the crowd.

Engaging content also gets people talking. Tweets that get retweeted and replied to, Facebook posts that start comment conversations, ads that get clicked, videos that go viral—these are all examples of engaging, com-munity-building content that will plant your brand in the minds of the people. Brands that foster community and loyalty gain equity; those that rely solely on price and selection fade.

Lastly, content can be optimized for search, helping to boost existing SEO strategies, and drive people organically.


22

ConvertOnce you’ve caught the attention of viewers, you’ll want to convert these folks into paying customers. We believe that the continued consumption of valuable content over time is the key to conversions.

RetainKeep the relationship with your new customers active. Just because you’ve succeeded in converting a potential prospect into a buyer doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to buy again. You’ve got to continue to gain their trust. The main goal here is to turn first time buyers into loyal custom-ers. These folks come back to purchase and recommend you to family and friends.

Great ways to keep in contact and continue to gain trust is through email marketing and social media. Sending periodic emails can aid in provid-ing more information about your business and affirms that you haven’t forgotten about your customers. Social media serves as a platform to create fun conversations and interactions to further develop a meaningful connection.


23

MEASUREMENT PLANWith the latest diversity of channels and devices consumers use to interact with brands, it is crucial that businesses adapt their measurement plans to accurately assess the effectiveness of their new integrated strategies.

Most businesses make the mistake of not setting up a measurement plan to determine their successes. Measurement is essential for growth; there-fore you’ll need to determine goals for each of your marketing channels. Create realistic, numerical goals, setup KPI (Key Performance Indicators that will allow you to make informed business decisions), and know what is to be expected from each individual channel. For example, PPC may directly influence sales, while blogging may boost your spot in SERPs.

Setting up a measurement plan is simple. Each marketing channel from your strategy will have its own version of self-measurement. Facebookhas Insights, each paid advertising channel will have its own trackingmechanism, etc. One free tool for measurement is Google Analytics. Google Analytics helps businesses track and measure each of their mar-keting methods through their website.

Bird’s Eye ViewThe key to mastering the art of measurement for integrated marketing is to always have a bird’s eye view of all your marketing elements.

Here’s why. When marketers measure by individual channel rather than overall performance, they are not considering the other marketing or media activities that are occurring at the same time and how they affect each other.


Tip

Each of your channels’ goals should tie into your overall business marketing goals.

TipLink TaggingIf you have any external links that you would like to track, you can insert the links into Google’s URL Builder, which places a small piece of code (known as a cookie) at the end of each link. The cookie allows Google Analytics to track the data from external links pointing to your website.

24

For example, let’s say a business solely focuses on the measurement of their social media marketing and they discover their sales haven’t increased. But, this doesn’t mean they should ditch their social media plan. Rather than having a direct influence on sales, social media assists in boosting brand presence, which is beneficial for small or local busi-nesses. Brand awareness is just one piece of the puzzle that social media caters to. Instead of focusing just on social media metrics, the business should analyze the results generated by their other marketing efforts hap-pening at the same time. If their social media metrics had increased brand awareness, maybe their direct website visits or brand engagementhad risen. But, how would they know if they didn’t measure the results of every channel?

Further, when businesses have a clear indication of the effectiveness of each marketing element, they will be able to identify which marketing tools contributed to the success of different paths.

Overall, marketers who adopt a more integrated measurement approach are able to make smarter marketing decisions, find value in customer purchase paths, and optimize the overall performance of their cam-paigns.


62%

17%

83%

of marketers indicate they measure marketing effectivenessbased on each specific channel, not considering other marketingor media activities occurring at the same time (Forrester)

of marketers say integrated measurement is atop priority in their organization (Forrester)

of marketers say measurement of their customer purchasepaths aided in sending more targeted, relevant messages (Forrester)

25

FINAL WORDSAs a small or locally targeted business, you’ve got entrepreneurial spirit, passion, and dedication to succeed, however, the true well-being of your company lies in the hands of reach. You need to get in front of people –the right people- and only focusing on one marketing channel (even if done exceedingly well), isn’t going to cut it. The multi-channeled nature of the modern, digital consumer, needs to be taken into account when crafting an effective marketing plan. The solution lies in an integrated marketing approach. An integrated strategy makes sure your business is active in all the channels your target audience uses, increasing your likelihood of being seen and searched. By saturating the market using all the channels that make sense to your business, you’ll not only attract potential customers, you’ll increase your likelihood of converting them into buyers, and further into loyal customers. The power to do so comes from the role each channel contributes to the overall strategy. All the channels are interconnected, creating the ultimate digital marketing approach for you and your business.

A note: Traditional and offline marketing—like print advertisements, in-store brochures, billboards, commercials on TV and radio—still have a place in the modern marketing mix. But, they can no longer assume a place as the sole source of information for a consumer, and they can no longer stand alone. Traditional marketing needs to be seamlessly integrat-ed with digital marketing for a cohesive, whole user experience.


26

REFERENCES1. http://customerfindermarketing.com/10-benefits-of- autoresponders-for-a-business-marketing-strategy/2. http://www.theguardian.com/media-network-outbrain-partner- zone/native-advertising-quality-scalability 3. http://www.sharethrough.com/portfolio-item/ipg-study/4. http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2343577/Google-Local- Searches-Lead-50-of-Mobile-Users-to-Visit-Stores-Study5. http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/20-stats-about-how-social- media-influences-purchasing-decisions/


27

CONNECT WITH US TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION

[email protected]

PEPPERGANG is a full digital marketing agency offering services in advertising, media buying & planning, search engine optimization, social media marketing, PR, web analytics and marketing consulting to entrepre-neurs, start-ups and Fortune 500 companies.


Integrated Marketing Solutions For Small Businesses€¦ · INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR...

Documents

Transcript of Integrated Marketing Solutions For Small Businesses€¦ · INTEGRATED MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR...