Purple Diamond Marketing Blog

OK, so that is probably a strange title for today’s Purple Diamond Marketing Blog, but as I listened to the news talk about Groundhog Day and if the Groundhog will see his shadow to help us know if winter will soon be over I laughed and realized it is much like the trends in marketing.  In the past couple of years, small business owners have scrambled to keep up with ALL the latest and greatest marketing tools to promote their business.  My clients and many business owners continue to struggle to know what works and what doesn’t and how to spend their time and money.  The questions are constant…“What is social media, have you heard about Facebook, do I really have to “tweet”, why do I have to have a listing on Linkedin?  How about Blogging, will it really help my business? I just heard about Google+ and what is that new thing on Facebook? Should I be doing video and posting on YouTube? By the way, how many sites on the internet do I need to list my website? Hey, my web designer said my site is not coming up on searches so he suggested I use some Word Press format and add content daily so I guess I now need to sink more money in to doing a new website? By the way, do you really think that QR Codes are the latest and greatest and helping my print marketing?” These are just a handful of the barrage of questions I get from small business owners who have no time to research the trends in marketing, but really just want to know if they sink time and money in to these that it will result in sales.

Much like Groundhog Day and the old belief that if the little critter sees his shadow there will be 6 more weeks of winter, business owners are trying these new marketing trends hoping they will lead to more clients.  But, for a small business or sole proprietor testing these new trends can exhaust resources quickly.  Ten minutes on Facebook leads to hours and the cost to maintain Blogs and other social media sites with creative content that supports your brand and brings customers closer can be challenging.  So, do you refuse to participate and hope that the reports about companies growing their business with the help of these trends is all a crazy superstition like Groundhog Day? Or, do you join in the fun and get some help from professionals who can help you to decide the best way for YOUR business to use the tools without wasting time or additional money?

Well, I just heard on the news that the Groundhog saw his shadow and we will now have 6 more weeks of winter.  Hard to believe with the mild weather we have had in Massachusetts this year, but that is what they predict.  And, the prediction about the latest and greatest marketing trends is also that this is how businesses will continue to gain customer loyalty and sales.  So, if you are reading this Blog and you still haven’t created a strategy for how to work all of this in to your marketing portfolio, please contact Purple Diamond or another marketing/social media specialist.  Purple Diamond specializes with small businesses and helping them make some sense of all the new things that come their way.

All my best to your success!~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Your company has embraced social media marketing and you now have leads coming in from your efforts and from your website, but you are not making sales….why? Most likely it is because you haven’t developed a process for handling the leads.  Businesses continue to struggle with how to convert internet leads and what is the “correct” way of approaching the contacts you have on social media sites because they fear the backlash of coming across as “too sales focused” and not “social” enough.  But, this has also kept them from doing what they have done naturally for years with leads that they have cultivated from networking events and referrals….RESPOND!

If you want to get sales from your efforts on the internet go back to the basic 4:

1.) Respond QUICKLY to requests for info & make a genuine connection!

2.) Create TIME each day to interact and develop a relationship with the people who follow you on social media or visit your website.

[ Consider adding a "LIVE HELP" feature as part of your website to attract questions from visitors to your site . Also, use the features on the social media sites to email directly to at least 5-10 followers/contacts a day with a personal message thanking them for connecting with you and offer to meet with them one-on-one or promote a phone meeting. It helps to have a message developed by your marketing team that will get attention and a response.]

3.) Develop creative content to post to your on-line sites that will increase your followers so that you are seen as an expert in your field.

[Selling to someone who is already “SOLD” on your expertise and has chosen to “follow” you is almost as great as having a client refer their friend for your services. The key is for you to RESPOND to them in a personal way.]

4.) Ask for the sale!

[Close…close…close…..if you are lacking skills in sales consider working with a coach or hiring a salesman to help your business, but the BEST way to get a sale is to ASK for one!]

All my best to your success ~ Charlene.

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Social Media Marketing is a key concern for most businesses today.  As social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and many others continue to grow, businesses scramble to use these sites to gain the eyes of their target audience.  But, what happens to the small business who has under 5 employees or no resources [time or money] to devote to this form of marketing?  Or, maybe they lack a strategy for their campaign or content to post each day, what happens then?  Their social media marketing ends up being less “social” and often falls to the bottom of the list of “To Do’s” which is the pitfall of social media marketing and why many businesses are not getting the results they had hoped for.

Should a business ditch the social media marketing campaign because they are not getting the results they had hoped for?  Not if they want to attract the next generation of consumers! The solution isn’t to ignore the problem, but to get the help you need to handle your social media marketing.  If your company does not have the resources to outsource your a social media marketing to a marketing specialist or to hire a person to handle your campaign in-house, consider hiring a marketing consultant to come in and brainstorm with you about a strategy and content that will work for your business. You can also attend seminars and training on how to use social media for your business. Research what is available in your area and take action. The more time you delay on adopting a sound plan for your business, the less chance you have to reach your desired marketing goals.

All my best to your success ~ Charlene.

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Purple Diamond Marketing Blog took a 4 month break from BLOGGING.  What prompted this action and did it have a negative impact on my business? Curiosity prompted my decision since I am often asked if people really need to BLOG and if BLOGGING is helping my business in the local market.  Guess what….the short answer to if taking 4 months off from BLOGGING  directly impacted the bottom line to my business is “no”.  New marketing projects and annual coaching client contracts continued and Purple Diamond was hired for 2 new social media campaigns and 2 paid speaking engagements! The time usually spent on BLOGGING was strategically used to work on client projects and creating new ways for my clients to increase their own profits which resulted in numerous new recommendations posted on my Linkedin profile about my work.

So, if everything still went forward in a positive way without BLOGGING why am I BLOGGING right now?  Well, the one area that did drop off was where my company is listed on search results on-line.  With a website that was created with FLASH for a more visual appeal, I knew that my site would not come up high on searches by itself.  So, my BLOGGING and my time spent on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and now Google+ and listing a link on many free sites is my way of helping Purple Diamond to be found by local businesses via the internet.  So, to enhance my website with fresh new content which helps with searches I will continue to BLOG!

What is your reason for BLOGGING or not BLOGGING?

All my best to your success!

Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond”

Website, Google Ad Words, SEO Campaigns, Email Marketing, Video Messages,  Social Media Sites, Blogs, QR Codes, Smartphone Marketing & Apps, Cloud Computing, On-line Malls and the list goes on and on! If your business is at least 20 years old there is a good chance that you never used any of the marketing technology that businesses are being asked to consider as essential today when you started your business.  Are you embracing the new tools you have to promote your business and see it as a marketing dream or headache for your business?

Chances are the answer to that question is a little of both and as a marketing coach I think that is a wise answer.  Though we all want to help our businesses succeed and gain strong market share, the “doing something because everyone else is doing it” is not a sound marketing strategy for your small or mid size business.  Consider the cost and weigh out the effectiveness of the various on-line marketing trends to see what makes the most sense to capture your target audience.  If you are busy writing a blog each day and your stats are low for readership and it doesn’t seem to be getting your website noticed or phone ringing, then this time might be better used in a more productive way.  However, if you are in a technical field that draws your targeted audience with quality content on a blog or by publishing white papers, then using time to write on-line could be essential for your business. The key is to measure results and analyze what is working and what you can afford.  To spend heavily to come up high in rankings on search engines without closing sales or to over burden your staff with phone calls that are “tire kickers” and not real prospects is not helping your bottom line.  But, if you are a small store and you lack walk-in traffic on a rainy day and you find that an on-line presence using Facebook and Twitter has helped drive prospects to your shopping cart on your website, then this new on-line marketing strategy is a “dream”!

Dream or headache or maybe it is both! Technology in marketing continues to move at a rapid pace and often we want to jump in and use it before we have even questioned if it is something that will help our business.  Attend seminars, talk with other business owners in your area, research on-line and consult with marketing and advertising professionals to help you decide what is “hot” and what is “not” for your business.  Technology will help you in your marketing, but be sure you know what technology tools are the best for your business and avoid the urge to use something just because others are and it is new!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Charlene St. Jean, Purple Diamond LLC

Many businesses have added a blog feature to their company website as a way to help with their on-line rankings with Google and other search engine sites.  Blogging is an excellent way to enhance  your on-line marketing, but the comments that are received from people who visit your blog might be hurting your rankings if they are from sites that have a reputation of spamming.  There are automatic spam solutions that are built in to many blog formats, but often there is still a small percentage of creative spammers who get passed these filters.  For this reason you should always make sure that you have turned on the comment moderation option so that you actually review the posters’ comment before accepting and adding it to your site.  Another way to cut down on SPAM is to not allow any hyperlinks in the comments left or have only people who actually are listed as approved followers be able to leave comments.

When the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was first launched I had a limited understanding of what were true comments or SPAM and I quickly got excited by the volume of comments being left on the site. Thankfully, I am surrounded by technical expertise and I quickly learned that what I was accepting for comments to my earliest articles were clear examples of SPAM and that I was hurting my site in rankings.  My technical team added the SPAM filters and instructed me on the importance of only accepting quality comments.  How do you know if a comment is a quality comment or SPAM? Well, if the comment is a random comment that is not specific to the content of your blog article or it is an advertisement for a product it is safe to say that this is a spam comment and should not be allowed on your site.  Some SPAMMERS use more sophisticated programs and offer comments that might be linked to keywords in your article or on your blog so be sure that the comment has direct meaning to the posted article they have commented on.  An example recently that I received that was clear SPAM started off with this message: ” I always read jewellry related blogs, but your blog contains nice information about jewellry”. Beyond the spelling error of the word “jewelry” within this comment, anyone who reads my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog articles know that it has nothing to do with jewelry.  “Purple Diamond” is  the name of my advertising agency/marketing coaching business, but my messages are geared towards offering helpful information about marketing.

The key to successful blogging as a marketing tool is to build interest in your company and the readership to your blog while offering a platform to interact with existing and potential customers.  Comments that are posted that will pull down your rankings because search engine sites identify them as sources that are sending bulk junk messages to numerous blogging sites will detract from your sites ability to come up higher in searches.  Be sure to have SPAM filters in place and delete any SPAM comments that get passed the filters that do not directly relate to your article!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

For years I wrote and helped produce TV commercial campaigns and enjoyed the success that my clients got from using video for advertising that offered sight, sound and motion.  TV advertising offers an emotional impact for the viewer that radio and print advertising is not able to match.  Today, with the help of sites like YouTube and Blogs, small businesses are able to harness that same emotional message in their marketing campaigns with on-line videos! Companies  can generate trust, emotion, excitement and create images that powerfully brand your business to a targeted audience by sharing out their video on various internet sites at a fraction of the price to do a TV Ad campaign.  Viewership may be lower than what a popular TV show offers, but with on-line videos you can still reach a targeted group and measure exactly how often your video marketing message is viewed.

If your business is looking to create video for the internet be sure to work with a marketing professional who will help you to secure a qualified production company. You do not want your relative or friend who likes to shoot home movies or take pictures creating your marketing video message. This is not the time to hire an amateur for an important job.  You worked hard on building a business and one poorly produced video could ruin that quickly.  Look for a marketing professional that has worked in TV advertising or corporate videos because they will know most of the  producers in the area and can often negotiate a better rate so that you are always getting the best value for your money.

Since you will be uploading this video to  the internet make sure the video includes your URL , has your logo included for branding purposes, has a description added to sites that offer this as an option, has a strong title with keywords that are searched so that people notice the video and want to watch it,  and don’t leave out a “call to action” in the message and try to keep the video to be no more than 2 minutes in length.  The shorter and more concise your message the better. Consider the average TV commercial is 30 seconds long because studies have shown that this is the ideal length of time in which most viewers will sit and watch a message. Obviously, if you have a truly entertaining video or one with exceptional information, then you will be able to hold the viewer’s attention longer than 2 minutes.

Marketing your business today requires businesses to be more creative in delivering a message.  The days of displaying your products in a store window or showing a picture of the product on a website are over.  It is essential for you to actively engage your audience and leave them with a lasting impression of your business and your brand!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

The Northeast got hit with a major snowstorm this past week that impacted travel and the ability for businesses to remain open as snow emergency declarations and road condition warnings kept people in their homes and off the streets.  During the 2 days of this winter storm and long list of cancellations some businesses thrived while others suffered from their slow to adopt approach to how they utilize the internet and position their businesses for success with e-commerce optimized websites, active blogs and effective social media marketing with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

Still not convinced that your business needs to have a page on Facebook and the other social media sites? According to a recent report, as of 2011,  there were 500,000,000 active Facebook users and at least half of them are logged in on any given day and that includes snow days as I discovered this week.  Wednesday morning, at the height of the storm,  I logged in to my Facebook page as  I do every morning before I even have coffee and I saw numerous posts from family and friends who were without power, but still found their way to post and be on Facebook via their smart phones.  As I quickly made my coffee before I lost power, I was thankful for making sure that all my marketing clients used social media and were actively posting during this high volume day on-line. If you own a business and you are still struggling with social media please get the assistance you need.  Had you included a social media marketing plan in 2009 and 2010 as part of your marketing strategy you would not have been frustrated and suffering from cabin fever, but thrilled with how easy it was to connect with key people and potential clients.  Though I am an advocate for traditional advertising like TV, radio and billboards, many of my clients have seen profits from being early adopters to Facebook and other sites.  And this past December one of my TV advertising clients who has always spent significant money with traditional advertising was thrilled that I helped them with their Facebook and Twitter accounts in 2010 since they ended December with the best sales they have had in years and they directly attribute this to their social media marketing campaign and email newsletters.

This winter is just beginning and 2011 has great opportunity for business owners who want to be successful.  The key to success with social media marketing is “doing it” and “doing it well”.  If you are not sure if your business is getting the most from the sites you currently have set-up or you still do not know how to create a profile for these sites, be sure to contact a specialist in this field or call in a consultant like Purple Diamond.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Blog Blog Blog is it Blah Blah Blah? Do you really need to blog? If your company  does, are you blogging consistently or do you find yourself with limited time and no staff to help you market your business with blogging?  And, if you do blog consistently is your target market finding your blog? With businesses scrambling to end 2010 with as many sales as possible and looking ahead to 2011 to see what marketing efforts worked and what needs to be added for the New Year, I look at the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog to see if this was a productive use of my time.

My objective when starting my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was to learn more about the process of blogging and see where it would benefit my clients.  This objective was successful in that I not only learned how to set-up a blog, maintain and improve my site, collect data and analyze  stats to determine the best times of day to post blogs,  but it also gave me insights to the number of hours necessary to produce and promote a blog.  All of this information I was able to pass on to my clients, use it to assist them with their own blogging, and also use as a revenue source with speaking engagements for Purple Diamond.

This is all great for my company, but can YOUR business benefit with blogging consistently? I answer this question with a question……do you have something of value to offer a targeted audience?  If you say no and do not believe you have a message to share about your business or product, then the New Year might be the year to contact a professional to help you determine if your business is viable in today’s market.  Beyond the obvious mechanical plus to blogging that you will be noticed more by search engines with a site that is constantly updating and adding new content,  blogging is a powerful way to reach your potential targeted market with a message they are choosing to hear over being bombarded with cold calls, email blasts, advertisements and other attempts to get them to notice your company or product.  If you consistently write and promote your blog to your targeted audience, the process of selling prospects your services or products gets easier.  Even if you call on a potential prospect that has never followed your blog, referring them to the blog and having them see a site that has numerous articles and positive comments about the content will increase your chances of landing the account.  You are able to offer detailed information as to why your product or service is the best choice.

New technology offers new ways to market your business.  As you plan the New Year and your marketing strategy for 2011 and beyond, it is really important that your business considers the new ways to market your message using this technology and what may have worked in the past.  So, my New Year’s advice to businesses that are not having the sales they wished they had, look closely at what is working and what you still need to add to your marketing mix!

The Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was launched a year ago, Oct. 6, 2009.   It started as my own experiment to see how time intensive blogging would be for a small business with limited staff and if it actually generates new business.  Ninety-six articles published in a year on this Blog and our stats were strong with a significant following for a small business that goes after a local market.  Purple Diamond’s blog  started off with 5 marketing posts per  week last October, but dropped off to once a week as business grew tremendously as a result of my own marketing efforts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and attending local business networking groups and being a speaker at several events.  The average time for writing the blog post and then promoting it on other sites directly after was estimated at 35 minutes to one hour with most articles being a couple paragraphs in length.  And, posting the blog articles on weekdays in the morning seemed to get more attention.  So, what can I offer about Blogging for Business to someone reading this and considering launching a Blog for their own business right now? Create a Marketing Blog Plan and understand that you need patience and willingness for the process to work!

Today there are over 144 million blogs and many Bloggers quit within 2 years.  Why is a Blog important for your business today even if you are a small business in a local market? Well, it will definitely help to generate exposure for your business if you are also using other social media tools in which you promote it from and it will increase traffic to your website and business and increased search rankings.  You will generate qualified leads because they will know more about your business by your Blog posts and you will stand out in your field if you are the only one who is Blogging.  Business partnerships and connecting with other Bloggers is also a helpful plus for why you might want to have a business Blog.  Finally, my own Blog helped me to recognize what were the hot marketing topics that Business owners were interested in by watching the higher traffic to those articles.  I then used this information to adapt my services and product offering and marketing collateral to include this so that I gained more clients instantly.

It is important to have a strategy for your Blog and a business goal and metrics to measure if you are meeting these goals.  Other key points to consider before you launch your Blog: know your Blog topic or industry well, enjoy writing or have someone on your staff who is a decent writer, keep your Blog active even if it means having shorter Blog posts, use key words that support your marketing strategy and PROOF READ! Finally, be sure to thank those who read your Blog and ask them to share it with others.

Thanks for reading the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”