Digital Marketing Archives

November 25, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Feeling Stuffed? Try a Digital Marketing Diet!

Are we feeling a little bloated, tired and stressed out — and not because of the holidays? Many of us who live and breathe online marketing have a tendency to try to eat everything at the daily digital buffet and walk away feeling exhausted. We’ve talked about the digital diet trend here at Brandsplat before, but we think the holidays are a perfect time to revisit and revise our digital marketing diets.

Diets, by their very nature, are the act of cutting out stuff that isn’t good for us. So our digital marketing diets should eliminate the efforts that aren’t working. If, for example, like one of my clients, you have better luck on LinkedIn than with Facebook, by all means play to your strengths. This doesn’t mean you have dump Facebook altogether, but budget your time and effort so it makes sense.

Next on our diet and exercise list is make your blog start working out. If your blog is just sitting there eating Fritos and doing nothing, make it get up and get busy. In other words, if you have a blog that features all of your excellent advice and industry expertise, spread the word! Tweet links to your blog. Post it on LinkedIn and Facebook. Your custom content may be brilliant, but if nobody sees it, then what’s the point?

Once you’ve dumped the digital junk food, it’s time to introduce some healthy habits into your diet. The holidays are a fabulous time to get on the email marketing bandwagon. Why? Well, it’s inexpensive to implement and it’s a great tool to help keep your clients in the know during the season. Brands like Barnes & Noble and The Home Depot use it to tell folks about specials and new merchandise — and, thanks to smartphones, emails are read and received anywhere.

Lastly, get in the habit of saying “no” and saying “I need help.” Say no to marketing techniques that you don’t have time for or you instinctively know aren’t right for your company. And say “I need help” to blogging, social media and digital marketing experts who can help you with the areas that are mysterious or difficult.

Happy dieting and healthy marketing!

August 10, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Big Brand Marketing Ideas to Steal and Claim as Your Own

It gets a tad tiresome seeing marketing and advertising watchers reward the same big companies for their amazing digital marketing and online branding. Each time we read those articles, you can almost hear the collective chorus of small business owners say, “Yeah, well, if I had that big advertising budget, I could do the same thing.” Buck up little campers — you can play the marketing game just like the big boys, and for next to nothing. We’ve rounded up some of the best marketing ideas from heavy-hitting brands and came up with ways to copy their campaigns on the cheap.

Get Liked like Corona Light: Last year, the lower-calorie version of everybody’s favorite chips and salsa beer launched a campaign to become America’s most “Liked” light beer. The company bribed beer drinkers and Facebookers alike with free merchandise and fancy trips — and it worked. The company has garnered nearly 300,000 Facebook likes under its belt. So while you might not be able to give away trips to get likes for your Facebook page, we’re sure you have something to entice FBers to like your page. From free cocktails to free tickets, every business has something to give away and we’ve seen small businesses thrive using the bribes for Likes model Corona popularized.

Tap into Radio Shack’s Superpowers: The electronics retailer made headlines with its campaign last year that turned Twitter followers into superheros with a sponsored hashtag — #ifihadsuperpowers. Followers sent in photos on Twitter and lucky winners were featured in a Radio Shack video and even got goodies. While sponsored hashtags ain’t cheap (about $15,000 and up), hosting interactive photo contests on Twitter is nearly free. A catering friend of ours had a Twitter photo contest with her followers where users sent in pics of their favorite dishes and the winners won free meals. She had over 100 entries! Not bad for a one-woman operation.

Give Old Spice the Rinse Off: Almost no small business owner I know can replicate the viral success of the Old Spice commercials. After all, that’s a pricey, carefully-orchestrated campaign. But everybody can make eye-catching videos if they have good ideas and a tiny budget. Hint to video success: Craigslist an ad for free or cheap filmmaker to help make your ad and you’ll be surprised how many young artists will work on campaigns just to help their portfolio grow. Plus, budding film auteurs know that a good viral project can put them on the map.

Mega-brand Marketing Synergy: Pepsi, Levis and the like all have these incredible digital presences that seem to cover YouTube, Facebook, email marketing and every other base imaginable. And this wide-reaching digital dominance is something your brand can definitely do! The big boys put links to their social media pages in the email newsletters and links to their blog on their YouTube channel while their websites have ways to reach all of the channels. Become your own Oprah and have your videos, social media and email marketing all working for your brand and website. All this requires is time spent, creativity, and a no-stone-left-unturned attitude.

Now get out there and start marketing like the big boys!

April 12, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Eliminating the Marketing Middle Man

We’re always on the lookout for a good do-it-yourself marketing tale originating from unlikely sources. So when we discovered the unconventional marketing of Creature, an independently-produced horror film, we just had to share it with our lovely readers.

Creature is one of those standard low-budget horror films that studios churn out so they make easy money off of horror-hungry teen audiences… Except Creature doesn’t have a big studio behind it. Produced by the former president of MCA Sidney J. Sheinberg, Creature is relying on marketing techniques and tricks that many small businesses outside of Hollywood use. Sheinberg has shunned the traditional route of big print campaigns or television ads in favor of a digital campaign. According to Sheinberg, who spoke to The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog last week, he chose social media and other digital marketing platforms after he was turned down for distribution by a major studio. His son, Jon Sheinberg, who has and success marketing other horror films to Fandango.com and other websites, believes Creature can sell tickets without relying on print ads and television commercials.

Sheinberg and his team have cut out studio distribution, too. The filmmakers are working directly with theater chains and negotiating to get the film on at least 2,000 screens by September. Will Creature walk away with Academy Awards next spring? No, but that isn’t the film’s goal. Creature is a small movie that can use the powers of social media, blog marketing and digital branding to become successful in the horror circle. The film will likely find its desired audience — even if that audience isn’t gigantic.

And really when it comes to independent ventures, creative or otherwise, that’s all any DIY entrepreneur can ask for.

July 8, 2009 By Brandsplat 1 Comment

Digital or traditional marketing? It’s my strategy in a box.

I just came across an interesting debate between web advertising vs. traditional forms on Search Engine Journal Clients will always want to measure results and pin-point what exactly is driving sales and who exactly is responsible for poor sales. It”™s human nature to dissect and put things in nice, neat little boxes. I mean, look at us: we live in boxes, we drive boxes around and we work in boxes that contain boxes within them that we call cubicles. So it”™s no wonder that we have the urge to put “traditional” advertising in one box and “digital” advertising in another. The problem is that we really don”™t know why traditional forms of advertising (like television commercials and billboards) work, but they do. If they didn”™t work you wouldn”™t see it everywhere you look. The act of putting things in nice neat little boxes extends far beyond analytics in some agencies. For example, if you walk into many of the larger, slower to move agencies you will find the “digitals” separated from the “traditionals” . Some agencies section off cubical space for interactive workers almost like they”™re cattle of a different breed. The opposite is true when you walk into many “digital” shops where they may section off some old-timers that have a background in traditional advertising just in case a client asks for a print ad or billboard. What I don”™t understand is why agencies can”™t make digital part of the everyday repertoire. Why can”™t we all make an effort to understand and utilize mediums like SEO and PPC campaigns just like we need to understand utilize the print, outdoor, radio and Super Bowl commercials. Why can”™t we all just get along?