Whether you love them, hate them, or even understand them – they’re everywhere. Since their creation in 2007, hashtags have taken the internet by storm, and now appear on all forms of social media – even making their way into blogs and magazines geared towards millennials. One thing is for sure, it’s a marketing platform that has to be part of every company’s marketing mix.
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Technology development has changed the game for marketers. Given that 84% of American adults own some type of web-enabled device, the level of influence is not surprising. More ways to get online means greater marketing opportunities, and your business needs to be present. However, it’s not as simple as just having a website or an online advertising campaign. You need to consider how your content appears on different devices, how your systems identify potential customers, and how to keep your marketing consistent across all platforms. Done correctly, this can really enhance the impact of your marketing efforts, as well as improve customer experience.
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Labor Day weekend represents taking a break from the work a day world, and that includes talk about direct mail marketing, email marketing, social media marketing and all the rest! We are doing just that at promark, so our blog this week is changing “flavors”. This is the last weekend of summer before kids go back to school. There will be lots of outdoor cooking for sure. If you are making BBQ, try making this awesome sauce!! It’s easy, and you’ll never go back to buying it again!
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A successful direct mail campaign requires time and attention to detail. The end of summer, kids back to school and several major holidays on the horizon means a fertile ground of sales opportunities for every business. While there is endless advice about how to use direct mail successfully, it’s equally important to consider common mistakes that many companies make. As you plan your direct marketing efforts for the fall, make sure you prepare effectively to make the most of your campaign. Here are some tips:
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SEO. You’ve probably heard the popular acronym tossed around when talking about online marketing. But what exactly does it mean? SEO – or Search Engine Optimization, is defined by The Beginner’s Guide to SEO as “the practice of improving and promoting a website in order to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines.” SEO encompasses everything from picking keywords, to links for other sites. Sometimes it is simply a matter of structuring your website in a way that search engines can understand.
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Not sure if email is effective as a marketing tool? A recent Target Marketing Media Usage Survey1 shows that 42.7% of marketers use direct mail and email to acquire customers, and 58.6% use these channels to retain them. In addition, according to research conducted by The Relevancy Group and MessageGears2, email is shown to outperform social media when calculating revenue it generates, and from a customer perspective 75% of technically-savvy social media users prefer receiving marketing material via email.
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When it comes to direct marketing, using Facebook as a marketing channel is a powerful addition to direct mail and email marketing. 72% of online adult Americans use Facebook and odds are you are one of them. It’s a wildly popular social media platform that helps people stay in touch or reconnect with old friends. People nowadays assume that you’re on Facebook in the same way that they assume you have an email address – it’s a staple of being an active Internet user. So understandably, Facebook has been able to build a huge collection of consumer data from its over 1.23 billion active online profiles.
Social media and direct mail/email marketing go more hand-in-hand than you might think. Mail and email help a business deliver content directly to potential customers. When augmenting direct mail and email with social media marketing, you can waste a lot of time, money and effort if you don’t have a pinpointed target market. Social media users voluntarily release endless information (such as interests, hobbies, preferences, travel patterns and personal demographics) in order to build an online profile to connect with others. Because of this, data collected from social networks provides customer personas, and thus can define a carefully selected audience for your marketing messages. You can then specifically select who to direct your social media marketing towards, and can take measures to ensure that your business is promoting relevant content to them. Additionally, this information can make your direct mail and email marketing not only more efficient, but more likely to convert to sales by ensuring that your recipients will already have some interest in your business.
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When you begin a direct mail campaign utilizing in-house data, or data at rest, it is critical to consider the integrity of the database. Without regular data hygiene, and data appending where necessary, your mailing list will miss key segmented target marketing opportunities as well as waste valuable marketing dollars. In addition, your campaign will be based upon a foundation that does not give you the full picture of your prospect pool. HOWEVER! There are easy steps to follow to make sure your data is providing you with a full picture of your marketing prospect and customer pool. Following these steps allow you to:
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It goes without saying, it is more important than ever to have an integrated marketing strategy that is developed with engagement and timeliness as the priority in order to get optimal results. Consumers are bombarded every day with so many messages coming from all directions – text ads, popup ads, social media, direct mail, email, even TV ads in line at the grocery store; and yet they have less time than ever to pay attention, much less read them. You not only have to pique your customer or prospect’s interest with your message, you have to do it at exactly the right time. In addition your integrated marketing strategy has to be practical, a plan that your time allows for executing and that fits into your budget. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you roll out your marketing efforts for 2016.
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