Advertising — AimFire Marketing

Social Media Marketing: Facebook Fan Page Promotion Tips

October 11, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Many businesses have created Facebook Fan Pages, and perhaps you are one of them. But has your marketing team been having trouble coming up with ideas for content? Here are some suggestions for beefing up your Facebook Fan page in order to increase the number of fans, repeat visitors, interaction and lead generation:

Coupons: Many companies have started offering coupons or discounts via their Facebook fan pages. National brands have been doing this for some time. I will often “Like” certain brand’s Facebook pages in order to print coupons for free samples, foods that I would like to try, or discounts on products that I already buy. The viral marketing effect of this can be exponential. For example, my favorite breakfast food is my ZonePerfect chocolate almond raisin bar, and on their Facebook page recently, you could request a free sample of their newest flavor, Cookie Doughlicious. Nabisco Cookies’ Facebook page also offered a deal where you could print a coupon for free cookies when you purchased cookies and milk. But you don’t have to have a national brand to offer coupons or discounts. The Indianapolis Zoo recently
Indianapolis Zoo's Facebook Fan page

offered a discount admission through its fan page, which actually got me to take my kids to the zoo last month, since I hadn’t done so all summer (beware of the added $6 parking fee Simply paste a graphic or link to a file with your coupon so fans can print and redeem your coupon. Make sure to include a code so that you can track responses. And also make sure that you don’t lose your shirt on coupons or samples, and are able to keep up with the demand that the new business might bring.
Make Important Announcements: Pampers used their Facebook page to announce their new line of designer diapers by Cynthia Rowley. This also allowed them to gain feedback via comments regarding the acceptance of the new line. Your company announcement could be as simple as welcoming a new member to your team, highlighting a recent client win, or promoting your company’s involvement in a local charitable event.
Survey your Customers: Want to know what’s on the mind of your customers, partners or prospects? Create a poll in Facebook and find out! The poll could be a simple one about which flavor of your product they like best, which topics keep your customers up at night, or what they think of a given subject. As long as your survey ties back into your business somehow, you have unlimited options. You can also simply ask a question of your fans to solicit feedback on any topic of concern.
Event Promotion: Companies can announce special events or workshops they are hosting through their Facebook fan pages, and encourage attendance. My sister’s employer, Supranet, a Madison, Wisconsin Internet Service Provider, hosts monthly high-tech happy hours, along with customer appreciation nights, and promotes the events through their Facebook Fan page. They even post pictures of the event to drive traffic back to their fan page following the event. Facebook shouldn’t necessarily be your main source of event promotion, but it can definitely be one good avenue for event promotion.
Photos of Customers Using Your Product / Brand: Supranet also does this with their “Supranet Sightings” – where they encourage people to wear their Supranet T-shirts and post a photo on Facebook, where it may appear on their fan page. This encourages both employees, partners and customers to keep your brand visible, and puts a little fun into the mix too. Both Huggies and Pampers do this by allowing their customers to post photos of their babies wearing their products. Restaurants could have customers post pictures of their dishes, or eating at their restaurant, or posing with their mascot. Domino’s Pizza has done this with its “ShowUsUrPizza” tab, and offers customers $500 if a winning photo is displayed on their fan page. Domino’s promotion also has a goal of educating its customers on its promise not to artificially manipulate the pizzas shown in their advertisements (just “honest to goodness pizzas”). How about showing before and after photos of clients (example: local hair salon or car repair shop)? How can your customers showcase your brand or product/service in use on your Facebook fan page?
Articles or Blog Posts: Facebook is also a good way to promote recent blog posts, as the goal is to share relevant content with your fan base. You can share articles you or your team have written, or link to other reputable articles which might be of interest to your fans. I do this a lot on my AimFire Marketing Facebook Fan Page, which, by the way, you should become a fan of if you haven’t already!
Fan page for 12Stars Media - an Indianapolis media production company

Videos or Advertisements: Online videos are a great way to interact with your fan base. My friends over at 12StarsMedia post a lot of videos for clients as well as for their own promotional efforts (plus, I suspect they have a ton of fun producing them). Your video doesn’t have to be a boring, company overview. You can interview or highlight customers at an event, survey random people on the street about a topic relevant to your industry, or feature a new product or service and show us how it works. 12 Stars does a good job with the Indy Children’s Museum and their Weekly WOW videos. They promote their YouTube feed through their fan page.
Talk about what’s new or relevant: Simply using your Facebook fan page as a conversation starter is a great way to make your fan page more interactive. Simply ask customers what they’re eating for lunch, what their favorite thing is about the Fall season, or some other relevant topic. If it’s something in the news recently, or on people’s minds, they will look to share the information. Just start the conversation and keep it rolling.

I hope I’ve given you some new ways to look at your Facebook fan page. Now you can be on your way to creating more relevant and compelling content for your fans and increasing your fan following. Let me know in the comments below if you have other ideas or examples of good Fan pages.

Filed Under: Advertising, Event Planning, Facebook, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Facebook, Facebook fan page, Facebook fan page promotion, social media indianapolis, social media marketing

Where’s the Brand Loyalty?

October 6, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

While watching a recent episode of AMC’s Mad Men, the advertising agency characters were lamenting over the potential loss of another account: The Lucky Strike people were switching agencies.

This same agency turnover is very common in the advertising industry, and has also occurred locally here in Indianapolis — with one Indianapolis advertising agency — Pearson Partners, Inc., closing its doors this July after 33 years. The Indy ad agency had taken a big hit when local electronics company HHGregg took its multi-million dollar ad budget elsewhere.

This got me thinking — Is there any brand loyalty anymore?

In this age of discounts, coupons and price wars, retailers and businesses everywhere are struggling for a piece of our discretionary income. Consumers are becoming less brand loyal as they think about their household or business budget and how they can best spend it.

So as a business, what are our options? Either we jump on the bandwagon and compete on price, or we work really hard to distinguish ourselves from the pack and encourage loyalty.

Now, I must admit that I’ve become somewhat of a coupon-crazed consumer myself. There are certain products that if they’re on sale, with a coupon, I can’t pass up the deal. For instance, I will buy Huggies, Luvs or Pampers diapers, depending on which store has the best sale. But I may only buy Tostitos chips instead of the generic alternative because I know that those taste the best. And my kids love the Yoplait Go-Gurt for breakfast, so that is the only kind I’ll buy.

What makes a brand more likely to have loyal followers?

We’ll exclude the cigarette category for a moment, for obvious reasons. But here are some characteristics that might help a brand gain more loyal followers:

Nostalgia: Play off of the experience that your customers had growing up, or using your product in the past, with their families, or some other ritual or tradition. This will give the customer a good feeling about continuing use of your product or service, because it’s what they’ve always done.
Years of Existance: Note how long the company or brand has been around. This instills a sense of quality and ensures the customer that you’ve been there for them this long, and plan to be around for them in the future.
Quality: Playing up some factor that makes your brand last longer, work better or some other factor will make your brand look more attractive, even if it costs a little bit more than the nearest competitor.
Industry Leader: If you’re the brand leader in your category, by all means flaunt it. Now is the time to mention your market share and industry prowess. People are always looking to join the bandwagon.

These are just a few examples. As I see it, you have two choices: differentiate your brand to gain (or keep) your customers loyal, or die trying to compete on price alone. It’s up to you which path to take.

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding, Business, Indianapolis advertisting, Marketing Message, USP Tagged With: ad agency turnover, brand building, brand loyalty, customer loyalty, differentiating your brand, Mad Men

How to Avoid the “Do-it-Yourself” Trap in Marketing

September 12, 2010 By Susan Young 1 Comment

As a small business owner, we all know that we must wear many different hats — the from the president to the human resources officer to the salesman to the accountant. When it comes to marketing, however, many business owners fall short of time to do the necessary activities to move their businesess forward. Why?

Here are a few of my theories:

Back Burnered: Marketing is often seen as a “nice to have” – but takes a back seat to other activities which are mandatory (such as payroll or paying taxes).
Overwork: Business owners are so overwhelmed with running the business that they leave no time for marketing their business
No Direction: The business has no marketing plan to know which marketing activities will generate the greatest results, so the business takes little action
Confusion: Rather than take the time to learn new marketing strategies such as SEO or social media, the small business opts to do nothing, leaving them on a long “to-do” list
Expense Myth: With the perception that marketing costs money, the business chooses to focus on seemingly low-cost activities such as cold calling or networking to bring in business.

Of the business owners who spend some time handling the marketing activities, they are acutely aware that they should be spending more time promoting their business, but have no extra time in the day. This is a sure sign that you should be outsourcing some of your activities to a marketing professional.

If marketing is not an activity you enjoy, than by all means, you should delegate this task to someone else.

If you are confused by all of the options out there, it’s time to create a marketing strategy to guide your activities so that you are not shooting in the dark and wasting valuable resources.

Remember: Your time is also a valuable resource, so spend it on the activities that you enjoy or do best, and outsource or delegate the rest.

The bottom line: Ensure you are devoting enough time and resources to marketing your business. Create a strategy if you have one, and if you need help, or are overwhelmed, delegate the task of marketing to a professional, rather than try to do it yourself.

Filed Under: Advertising, Budget Marketing, Business, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Outsourced Marketing

What Dave Ramsey Can Teach Us About Marketing Our Businesses

September 10, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Dave Ramsey Show - Freedom 95.9 Indianapolis One of my favorite financial counselors is radio talk show host Dave Ramsey (listen to his weekday radio show in Indianapolis on Freedom 95.9 FM, or on just about any market in the U.S.) Dave gives great advice for getting people out of debt and on their way to financial freedom. One of his favorite tips is to have a written household budget, so you’ll spend everything ”on paper and on purpose.”

I got to thinking about this piece of advice, and how it can also apply to our business marketing budgets. How many of us have a written marketing budget for the month which outlines exactly what we will spend, and on which activities? This is smart advice, because it allows us to prioritize our expenditures and gets us thinking of how we can allocate our resources across various channels for maximum return.

If you spent all of your household income on a car or house, you’d have nothing left for food, clothing or utilities. Similarly, if you spent too much on one marketing activity, you’d be neglecting the other sources of leads through other methods. If you need a new website, don’t spend money that you don’t have. Instead, save up and put all of your efforts toward achieving that goal, but do so with common sense, and within your means.

Dave also talks a lot about following “baby steps” to get where you want to go, and the sacrifices that you have to make (living frugally, within your means) along the road to success. Unless you get lucky and win the lottery or receive an inheritance or large settlement, you’ll need to manage your money wisely in order to “live like no one else.”Well, the same holds true for our businesses. You do need to invest in activities like marketing and advertising if you expect to see a good return over time. But if we make smart, cost-effective marketing decisions, we can slowly grow our businesses to the successful enterprises that we’ve always dreamed of running.

Filed Under: Advertising, Budget Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy

AimFire Marketing Celebrates Five Years in Business

June 29, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

This month I’m celebrating my 5th year in business. It doesn’t seem like five years ago that I quit my corporate marketing job and ventured out on my own as a new entrepreneur. Who know that five years later I would have a business and two young children. And who knew that I would have the fortune to have worked with so many wonderful clients (you know who you are!) For that, I am very thankful. This post is for you.

Random things I’ve learned from my clients:

That a Winning Community is one that has a clear vision and action plan for achievement
That ImageStream Solutions makes affordable Linux routers that rival Cisco Systems’
Thanks to 2010 tax laws, more individuals are now eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA
The difference between blends, fair trade organic and varietal coffees

I have enjoyed learning about your various businesses and look forward to serving many more of you and helping you build the businesses of your dreams. Thanks again for the learning, fun, friendship and memories.

Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing, Public Relations, Website Development

Put Some Green in Your Marketing to get more Green

April 21, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Help the Earth and your bottom line with these marketing tips

Last year I wrote about some ways you can incorporate green practices into your business (while promoting your business at the same time).

However, since then, I’ve seen more business promotions surrounding Earth day and thought I’d share a few ideas with you:

Retail stores: Order some reusable bags with your logo imprinted on them, and sell them, hand them out to customers, or offer them as giveaways. I know some good promotional products providers, so email me if you need a resource. Here, you saving the environment by not using plastic bags, putting your brand out there for the world to see (over and over), and reminding customers to shop at your store again. Target offered customers who shopped on 4/18 a reusable bag. CVS Pharmacy has a program where you save $1 every 4th trip when you bring in a reusable bag. That’s smart marketing.

Green Giveaway: Offer something to customers in celebration of Earth Day / Week, whether it’s a donation to a green cause, or an environmentally-friendly product of your choice.

Green Advertising: Change up your ad in the local newspaper and give it a green border or green text. The difference might make it stand out and make it more likely to be read, like I did with this sentence (see, it works!:). Advertise your green business practices. Or announce a special you’re offering only this week or for Earth Day.

Hope these ideas got you thinking green, which will in turn make you some more green.

Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing, Marketing Strategy

Painting a Picture: Create More Effective Advertising through Visuals

March 19, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

While driving in my car, I heard two really compelling radio advertisements for Dodge and Buick. The reason they struck me (and I drive a Mazda CX-9) is that they got me to paint a picture in my head of an experience or a feeling of satisfaction from driving the car and/or owning the car.

The mistake people make in their advertising is that they want to come out and say “This is why we’re so great” instead of saying “This is how you’ll feel or what your life will be like if you buy our product.” Which is more compelling?

When you are developing an advertisement, even if it’s a print ad, but especially when creating a radio or TV ad, you need to get them there — to get your prospects to experience your brand. Describe an experience or pain that would compel them to buy your product or service. Describe the feeling they’ll get when they splurge on it. Have one of your customers tell the story for you. The “I’m a PC” ad campaigns for Microsoft come to mind for me here.

Tell a story or paint a picture in your ads and your customers will want to experience your brand and they will feel satisfied for making a smart purchase.

Need an advertising agency to help you develop strategy or creative? We can do that.

Filed Under: Advertising

Why Consistent Marketing is a Key to Success

January 2, 2010 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Have you ever gone to the gym on a Monday and quit going on Friday because you hadn’t seen the results on the scale? You need to give it more time, right? It’s the same with our marketing activities.

PR: If you get one media placement, you might get more. Or, if you haven’t yet landed that front page story, keep on pitching, and someday you will.

Email: People save/read my email newsletters for months and even years sometimes, but may not call me unless they have a specific need. But sending them communication anyway keeps my name top-of-mind when they do have a need.

Web: Links stay online for a long time. The efforts you make now / articles you post on your blog or website now may result in a great web lead months later from a web keyword search. So keep adding content and keeping things fresh.

Ads: The more exposure your brand/name gets in the marketplace, and the more repetition, the more awareness you’ll get and the more likely you’ll get a response.

These were just a few ideas. The bottom line is that the more you do in the way of marketing, the more lasting impact you’ll have for your business. Just because you think one tactic doesn’t work, keep on marketing. You never know what will be in store for you in the future.

Filed Under: Advertising, Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Website Development

Be Memorable: Build Top-of-Mind Awareness with Repetition in Your Advertising

September 23, 2009 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Do you remember hearing the Empire carpet jingle at the end of their television commercial? Come on — sing it with me — “588-2300 — EM-PIRE!! (Today)” (You can listen to the jingle here). Even my 10-month-old has heard it often enough to recognize it and turn her head when she is sitting in her high chair and hears it in the background.

What is the key to this company’s name and advertising staying in our minds? Repetition.

No matter how annoying you think that commercial may be, which company name comes to mind when you need carpet installed next day in your house for less?

What we can learn from this example is not only do our advertisements need to be memorable, but we need to repeat them (run them) often enough for people to catch on, and for us to build a top-of-mind awareness about our brand.

How can we be memorable and create such a following for our brand? Here are some ideas to start:

Build a unique or memorable marketing campaign (one of my favorites is the Absolut vodka ads seen in many magazines over the last decade)
Have a unique phone number (perhaps one that spells out something — like a local plumber in Indianapolis who uses the 867-5309 from the 80′s song)
Be annoying in your ad (although this may backfire, it can work in your favor. Take the monotonous-toned owner of the Shane Co. jewelry store in Indianapolis as an example)
Get a memorable spokesperson/people or character (remember the Bartles & James guys?)
Use a memorable or catchy jingle or song in your ad (such as the Ricola cough drop ads where it sounds like a mountain climber is shouting it and it echoes across the hills)
Have a special tagline, slogan or catch phrase that you associate with your product or service
Use humor in your advertising because if it’s funny enough, people will talk about your ads – and remember them. Just make sure your product/service isn’t overshadowed by the ad and they forget your name!

What can you be known for? How can you be memorable in your advertising? Send me your best examples of memorable ads and brands, and I may use them in a future post.

Filed Under: Advertising

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