Orbis Marketing | Sustainable Marketing

The Buzz.

What is it? How does it work? And more to the point, how can I make it work for me?

There has been a quiet revolution occuring in the land of marketing for sometime now. Seth Godin, the influential American entrepreneur and author has long advocated that the power shift is changing. In a marketplace where customers and consumers have more power than ever before, isn’t it time that businesses showed a little more respect when it comes to talking to their customers? According to Godin, this means no spam, no deceit, and no breaking of promises.

Sounds easy enough. But wait, there’s more. Aside from respecting our customers, the products and services we offer our customers need to be ‘remarkable’ and in order to cut through the plethora of marketing messgages in numerous channels.

One of Godin’s key concepts is that of ‘permission marketing’, where businesses are providing their customers with marketing messages that are “anticipated, personal and relevant”. Those ideas need to be all about the ‘buzz’ in order for them to be impactful.

So the answer is clear. Respect your customers, and provide them with a remarkable product or service, and they will reward you by helping with your chosen buzz, and telling their friends, families, colleagues and peers. Product or service, the essence of the buzz is the same.

And when he’s not focussing on his own particular brand of the buzz, in his spare time Godin also launched the community website Squidoo. Respect to a man who know’s how to buzz.

Twitter. Not just for the birds.

The social media phenomenon that is Twitter celebrated its 7^th birthday earlier this year, boasting 500 million users, and 340 million tweets per day. It’s a platform beloved by celebrities and the media, and it also provides businesses with a lifeline to customers in real-time. And the challenge of communicating your key messages in only 140 characters (with a smidge of personality thrown in for good measure) is not always a simple task. However, the beauty of being forced to distil a key message down ensures that waffle-free messaging abounds. Well, at least in principle!

Like all forays into digital marketing, it’s important to remember that your Twitter marketing campaign should complement the rest of your marketing strategy. And like any other aspect of your marketing, it’s essential that you have objectives in place. What do you want to communicate via Twitter? To whom? How can you best maximise Twitter for your business?

And if you’re not yet convinced that Twitter is for you, here are a few recent stats courtesy of the Touch Agency to help you make up your mind while also providing you with some tidy facts and figures to espouse when the subject of Twitter (inevitably) comes up:

• Twitter has over 500,000,000 registered users
• Nearly 88% of people have awareness of Twitter
• 75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow
• The majority of Twitter users are aged 30-49
• Up to 85% of companies are now using social media as part of their recruitment process.
• 88 of the 100 Fortune Global Companies post daily news and updates

Personally, I love Twitter. Not the least because it’s a dynamic way of communicating with, and reaching out to, your various business communities, whether those communities be customer, supplier, industry, or geographically based. In the (potentially misquoted) words of Alexander Pope, “to err is human, to tweet is divine.”

To blog or not to blog, is that the question?

Business blogging is a great way for you to connect with your customers, potential customers, fellow industry bods, and others in your network. It’s also a key means to developing your personal thought-leadership status within your chosen field. And if you’re a social media newbie, blogging is a great way to start interacting and dipping your toe into the wonderful world of online marketing.

However, despite all the advantages of joining the blogosphere, many of our clients tell us that they find blogging a difficult, onerous, or just downright terrifying task. To this end we’ve put together a short list of ways to enhance your blogging experience, hopefully saving you time and a few headaches along the way.

1) Set Your Objectives

Like anything in business, there is no point in blogging just for the sake of it. Ensure early on that you establish objectives for your blog and set aside time to devote to this aspect of your marketing. Your blog should support your business goals, and should also reinforce the mission and values of your organisation.

2) Create Compelling Content

If the sole purpose is to use your blog as a direct selling tool, hang up your blogging hat now and walk away. Yes your blog is a great platform for you to communicate our company news and special offers, but if your blog content is sales heavy, you’re going to lose readership and bore everyone to death as well. As a rule of thumb, for every blog article that focuses on your products or services (either directly or indirectly), you should be publishing three blog articles that are non-specific, such as focussing on industry developments or best-practice insight.

3) Use Keywords

One of the oft-forgotten about benefits of blogging is the power of the blog to assist with improving web search results. Remember your audience and write about topics that are relevant to them (and thus presumably your business), using key terms in your titles and posts. SEO is a massive topic, so ask for help from an expert if you need it.

4) Post Regularly

It’s recommended that you publish content a minimum of once a month. If you struggle to find yourself in the blogging ‘zone’ on a regular basis, set aside a chunk of time every few months and dedicate this time to researching and writing several pieces of content at once. This way you have a storehouse of material available to publish, especially in busy times when you can’t find the time (or don’t have the inclination) to contribute to your rolling blog.

5) Engage Your Community

Don’t be afraid to open up the discussion and always respond to comments left by your readers. Engage and show your appreciation when a reader takes the time to comment on your posts and acknowledge differing points of view in a positive and non-confrontational manner. Encourage opinions, interaction and knowledge sharing within your blogging community and promote your posts to your social media audiences to expand the reach of your blog.

These are just a few ways to enhance your blogging strategy, and we’ll be announcing dates of our Business Blogging workshop soon. Contact us if you’d like to be kept informed and in the meantime, Happy Posting!