Small Business are Profiting with Socia Media.

According to recent research compiled by Melbourne IT, small businesses using social media to leverage online business, are likely to achieve greater revenue.

eBiz Review polled 3,404 Australian small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with an online presence, from a broad cross section of over 26 industry sectors.

The data showed that SMBs generating 20 per cent or more of their revenues from their website were more likely to use social media.

With Comscore estimating that 90% of Australian Internet users visited social media sites in February 2010. It is no surprise that social media has become a hot area of marketing investment from large enterprises as they try to access such a large pool of potential customers. But what about small businesses?

A third of eSMBs have dived in and established a social media presence, with the social media tools of choice being used by the 34% of social media believers being Facebook (75%), Twitter (47%) and LinkedIn (42%).

Among social media users, 85% cite benefits to their business, with 57% saying they are attracting new customers via social media. Just under half (49%) said it helped them explain their products and services in new ways and just over half (51%) said it helped put a ‘human face’ to their business.

The success of social media using SMBs in attracting new customers must be an eye opener for those companies which are not; these results also demonstrate that the “softer” perception building elements of social media tools are not lost on savvy eSMBs.

SMBs need to think about how social media fits into their online strategy and seek advice where necessary to integrate social media tools with their existing online investments to ensure success.

With Facebook in Australia now the third largest online brand behind Google and Ninemsn, the results are not that surprising. Businesses that ignore the growing trend of social media should do so at their own peril. But ask yourself... “Are my competitors also ignoring social media?” Not likely.

Engagement with consumers has to give a business a return on investment at some point.

Thirty four per cent of SMBs online use social media, and a further 15 per cent said in the survey they planned to include it in their online strategy in future.

Advertising 101: Everyone Needs to Know the Basics.

To succeed, entrepreneurs must develop a base of satisfied customers. Advertising programs are the key to attracting customers and this article explains some advertising basics that will get you started.

Wondering how to start advertising a business? Before you start advertising, be sure you understand the fundamentals of advertising.

Interestingly, some small business owners never tap into the power of advertising to grow their business.

At the same time, other business owners assume that advertising will solve all of their customer acquisition challenges.

Here, explained in simple terms, we discuss what advertising can and cannot do for your business.

What Advertising Can Do For Your Business:

•   Remind customers and prospects about the benefits of your product or service
•   Establish and maintain your distinct identity
•   Enhance your reputation
•   Encourage existing customers to buy more of what you sell
•   Attract new customers and replace lost ones
•   Slowly build sales to boost your bottom line
•   Promote your business to customers, investors and others

What Advertising Cannot Do For Your Business:

•   Create an instant customer base
•   Cause an immediate sharp increase in sales
•   Solve cash flow or profit problems
•   Substitute for poor or indifferent customer service
•   Sell useless or unwanted products or services

Now that you understand how advertising can affect your business, it's time to take the next step and develop an advertising plan.

Remember to experiment when you advertise. If an advertisement works, do more of it. If it doesn't, tweak the advertising plan and try again.

What is Shared Marketing?

Ok, what is Shared Marketing? We can summarise this to the simple mission statement that defines why we are here. 

Our mission is to provide organisations of every size with their own professional “marketing team” by allowing businesses to share marketing resources for mutual benefit.

Its a simple concept really, we understand through speaking to many small to medium enterprises that affording your own marketing team is just not possible. Certainly in this climate, but also even when the financial climate is good.

You might have a marketing person, but then they don't have graphics ability, so you have to outsource to a graphic designer at an extra cost.

The other thing is, does your marketing person have the depth of experience that we offer as a group?

This is what you get when you join Shared marketing. For a monthly membership, we bring proven experts in graphic design, senior business management, marketing, advertising and branding.

It works... we know it does. Come and check us out at www.sharedmarketing.com.au.

Marketing Against the Major Chains

So how do you compete with a major pizza juggernaut like Pizza Hut or Domino’s?

Hit them right between their eyes...
That's what Anthony's Pizza and Pasta did in Denver, Colorada recently for a transit and outdoor campaign.

Like Lowe’s and Home Depot squeezing out the local hardware stores, Domino’s and Pizza Hut have been moving in on the local pizza establishments for years.

Unless you have a few stores in your chain, good luck trying to compete without cutting prices.

 The message you promote is the key.

Marketing Campaign Using Humour

One major retail chain, released a video recently of a man who gives his wife a vacuum for an anniversary gift. Not pleased, she promptly escorts him to a doghouse where . . . well you do have to go watch it, very funny but the message from the company is there but subtle

But this video, which was forwarded and Twittered across the nation, is so entertaining that when you learn that it was produced by JCPenney, only the most hard-hearted consumer could care that they have basically been watching a commercial

Twitter Users Most Influential

Your Grandma might be a brand influencer. Scary...

Consumers who are active on Twitter are three times more likely to influence a brand’s online reputation, according to a study by email marketing firm, ExactTarget. 

Consumer's Twitter activities influencing brands involves 'syndicated tweets' (retweets) about the brand and posting blog articles and product reviews online. 

From the 1,500 consumers surveyed, the top reason emerging for consumers following a brand online is to get updates on future products (38%). 32% followed a brand to stay informed about company activities, while 31% wanted to receive information on discounts and promotions.

When investigating daily Twitter user’s activities against general internet users, Twitter users were nearly three times more likely to comment on photos or videos daily, twice more likely to upload photos, post on forms and blog daily than general internet users.

Morgan Stewart, principal of ExactTarget's research and education group said, "What happens on Twitter doesn't stay on Twitter... the number of active Twitter users is less than Facebook or email... but the concentration of highly engaged and influential content creators is unrivalled – it's the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every corner of the internet.”

Six Lessons from the Best Job in the World Campaign

Respected blogger and author Rohit Bhargava has written a great piece summing up the success of the Best Job in the World campaign run by Queensland Tourism.

The campaign cleaned up at Cannes Advertising Festival, taking home an unprecedented 3 categories. Rohit says, “a big part of the reason for the amazing success of this campaign was not what they were marketing, but how they used social media to do it.”

Here are the six lessons Rohit identified from the Best Job in the World Campaign:

1. Make it believable. 

Many marketing groups would never make a claim if they can’t provide substantial evidence. How might Tourism Queensland prove that their job is the best in the world? They can’t. But it is believable because it is a beautiful place and fits what many people’s definition of a dream job might be. 

2. It’s not about how much you spend.

One of the major benefits of smart public relations and social media is that it scales in a way that advertising typically doesn’t. In other words, you don’t have to pay more to get more. The real trick is to have something worthwhile to say that people can’t help talking about. You need a good story. 

3. Focus on content, not traffic. 

The typical marketing campaign focuses on traffic to some kind of site. For Tourism Queensland, the biggest payoff of this campaign was having over 34,000 videos on YouTube from people around the world talking about how much they love Queensland. Aggregate the views of all those videos, and multiply them over the long term and you’ll start to understand the true impact of their campaign. 

4. Create an inherent reason for people to share. 

Another element of this campaign that worked extremely well was the fact that there was voting enabled on the videos. What this meant was that after someone submitted their video, they had an incentive to share it with everyone in their social network online to try and get more votes. 

5. Don’t underestimate the power of content creators.

Most recent statistics point to some number between 1% and 10% of the user base of any social network are the active content creators. Though these percentages may seem small, the potential impact of some of these individuals are vast online. It could easily become the secret weapon for your next marketing campaign. 

6. Give your promotion a shelf life. 

The best thing about this campaign may just be the content yet to come. Ben, the winner, just started blogging and sharing videos and photos, but the content was already engaging, high quality and inspires you to dream of making it to Queensland yourself. Over the next six months, his itinerary took him across the state of Queensland and unlocked many other unique opportunities. Best of all, this content will live on far beyond the time span of the campaign.

How the IPAD is Impacting Entertainment

According to eMarketer studies are starting to emerge around how the iPad is becoming a part of everyday life.

eMarketer detailed a UK-based study from Cooper Murphy Webb, a copywriting firm, which found that more than two in five respondents said that they use the iPad at least 10 hours per week.

The laptop/computer is still considered by most (33%) as their primary entertainment device, with the iPad coming in at second with 24%. This was followed by 22% indicating that their mobile phone was their primary entertainment device and 19% indicating that they still held TV in high regard.

Further results showed that the iPad is considered as the top delivery method for reading newspapers and magazines – with 31% respondents preferring it, compared to 26% using laptop/computers, 24% using print, 12% using mobile phones and 7% using ereaders.

Portability was singled out as a problem with the iPad, with 60% of the respondents stating that they rarely or never took their iPad with when they left the house.

Guerrilla Advertising at its Best.

Durex Ribbed Condoms Guerrilla Ads.

Vacuum Cleaner Billboard. Not really Guerrilla marketing but clever.

Mr Kleen Guerrilla Advertising. 

Seafood Restaurant Guerrilla Marketing.

Super Glue Guerrilla Marketing.

Beer Guerrilla Advertising on a Public Bus.