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Using Infographics To Your Advantage

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Using Infographics To Your Advantage

Infographics are a great way to involve your customers in the information you’re trying to present. Why? Because instead of just telling people info about your company, or a long string of boring data, you’re giving them a visual representation of the facts they need to know.

Because, let’s face it, reading info can be boring, overwhelming, and time consuming. Wouldn’t it be better if there was a way to conceptualize this data in a fun graphic?

There are a lot of ways to use infographics, so check out these tips on this handy tool!

Data

One of the most common uses of infographics is to take data from your company — whether it be sales numbers, profits, or anything that has to do with numbers — and transform it into an easily understandable graphic.

It’s sometimes hard for others to understand the big picture with the numbers you’re presenting to them, especially if they’re not mathematically-minded (raises hand). So, take all that data you’ve entered into a spreadsheet, and get your graphics team to turn it into a fun graphic. It’ll make your company look more modern, and will help out your audience a ton.

Education

Infographics aren’t just for big data; they can also be used to educate and inform. For a lot of people, learning happens in different ways than just reading info in an article. There are those that learn best through visualization. In fact, there are three main ways people learn: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

In this way, infographics can be used to educate your customers about new products, what your brand is about, or goals you look to accomplish through your company.

They can also be used to educate your employees. For example, if some of your employees are visual learners rather than auditory, then explaining rules vocally will do absolutely no good. These employees need to see the information, and infographics are a great way to do that.

Brand Awareness

If you’re trying to get customers interested in your product through a marketing campaign, but don’t have the money to shell out on paid advertisements, then infographics are your best friend.

Rather than spending a ton of money paying advertising companies to promote your brand, why not just do it yourself?

Social media is a wonderful way to do this, but you have to be cautious about what you promote. Facebook is more strict than other sites, like Twitter and Instagram, so make sure your read through their terms of use before promoting your product.

But there’s no rule that says you can’t get customers interested in your product through a visually appealing infographic. Just make sure you promote it as an educational graphic, rather than an advertisement.

Don’t be afraid to use infographics to your advantage! They can be great tools to add, and are simple and fun to make!

If you’re looking for more on how infographics can help, check out this infographic made by CustomerMagnetism.com.

What is an Infographic?

Created by Customer Magnetism.

How To Create A Great Marketing Plan

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Every business needs a marketing plan. It’s necessary for success and growth in a company, and chances are, every business has one, whether they know it or not.

In plain words, a marketing plan is a blueprint of ideas that outline a company’s long term goals for productivity and progression. It’s a way for a company to know exactly what they need to do to accomplish a goal, and how they’re going to do it.

So, where do you start when you decide that your company needs a clearly defined marketing plan? Check out these great tips!

Pre-Planning

Before you even start planning your marketing plan, you need to pre-plan the planning of your plan. Have I confused you yet? It’s actually a lot simpler than you think.

  • First, outline a completion date for your marketing plan. This will be the date or time frame in which you’d like to complete your goals. It can be anywhere from a few months, to a few years, depending on the scope of the goals you have in mind.

  • Next, figure out your budget for the plan. Money is always a factor when coming up with a rebranding strategy or the launching of a new product, and the same goes for a marketing plan. You don’t want to get halfway through the implementation of your new plan and then realize you’re out of money!

  • Finally, designate the responsibilities of each team member involved with your marketing plan. That means deciding who’s in charge of the finances, who should be keeping people on task, and any other positions on the project.

Set Objectives

Once you’ve gotten the pre-planning out of the way, it’s time to get down to the meat of your marketing plan.

The first step is to set clear objectives for your plan. Once you know your objectives, you’ll know what you need to do to accomplish goals.

For example, if your marketing plan is to increase your company’s revenue, then your objective could be to add more customers. Or, it could be to keep current customers coming back for more. Whatever your marketing plan is, objectives help you define clearly what you need to do.

Research

Remember when you had to write research papers in grade school and college? You were usually given a topic by your teacher, and were required to research your topic to fully analyze the writing prompt.

Most of us wouldn’t just jump into writing about the subject without doing research first (hopefully).

In the same vein, you need to research your market, and customers wants, to understand how to get your plan to succeed once you start putting it into practice. Utilizing market research and market analysis tools are great ways to conduct necessary research.

Strategize

Every plan needs a strategy in order to succeed. The greatest generals and wartime leaders didn’t just charge into battle, weapons drawn, without first adopting a cunning strategy in order to conquer their goals.

Running a business isn’t quite like leading an army to battle (although at times it can feel like it), but a good strategy is still necessary.

The strategy is basically the “how” of your marketing plan, and can include “building brand awareness” or “delivering unmatched customer service.” Think about what strategies would work best with your plan’s goals, and then implement them.

Stick To the Plan

What’s the point of a plan if you bail halfway through it? Once you figure out your objectives, research your market, and strategize a plan, make sure you stick to that plan.

There’s nothing more defeatist than jumping ship halfway through because something’s not working out the way you imagined.

But, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to fix a problem. If something isn’t working out the way you expected, there are ways to steer your business back in a positive direction. The best way to do this is to be flexible, and realize that sometimes a certain strategy that you and your team come up with isn’t going to work perfectly as planned.

Just remember, don’t completely give up on it and toss it in the garbage. Learn to be flexible in your marketing plan.

Following these simple steps can help you and your team create the best marketing plan. Marketing plans take a lot of thought, but the time spent coming up with an idea will ultimately optimize your business and save time in the long run!

Tips For Optimizing Your YouTube Page

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Since 2005, YouTube has been allowing people to create content, share user made videos, and build a community around amateur and professional filmmakers alike.

And if your company isn’t already using this wonderful tool to make videos of your own, let me take a moment to give you some stats that might help sway your opinion

  • YouTube currently has more than 1 billion (that’s billion with a B) registered users.

  • 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute to the site.

  • Every day, there are billions of views on user created videos, along with hundreds of millions of hours of video watched.

Those are astounding numbers for a company that’s only been around for 10 years. So if you’re thinking about utilizing YouTube for your company, check out these tips that should make the process much easier and more stress free.

Appearance

Appearance is almost everything in the business world, and the same is true for social pages. With YouTube, there are quite a few options to customize your pages appearance. The most important one, is your YouTube channel’s art. This is the first thing visitors to your channel will see, and so having a custom banner for your channel is key to a good first impression. Remember, your channel art needs to be 2560 x 1440 pixels, and at least 2 Megabytes for it to look perfect!

Info

It’s also important to make sure you fill out your channel description section with important info, like how your company got started, your goals, and of course, your business hours and contact info.

And while you’re at it, make sure to include descriptions for every video that you upload. Not only does this give viewers a glimpse of what your video is about, you can also optimize your videos SEO. Since YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet, this is vastly important to get consumers to actually FIND your videos. What good is a video if nobody watches it?

Lastly, you can add a link to your website in the video descriptions, creating a great call to action for your videos.

Entertain, Don’t Advertise

Here’s one of the key ideas to remember about YouTube: People don’t go there to watch a commercial, they go to there to be entertained. So, when you’re thinking about what kind of video content to create, remember to make it entertaining. Something that people will enjoy, and not get bored of watching.

But that’s not to say advertising can’t be done through YouTube videos. You can still promote your product while being entertaining. Think of it this way: No matter what, if somebody watches your video or visits your channel, they’re being exposed to your product. It’s like free advertising!

Share

The beautiful thing about the Internet is that you aren’t confined to one little corner of it. Sharing content across multiple social platforms is how information is spread these days, especially videos.

If you already have a Facebook or Twitter account set up, then you can use those accounts to share your videos easily and effectively. Not only does YouTube include share buttons for multiple social sites underneath your videos, but you can also grab the videos URL to share in a post, and you can even embed your videos into other sites you manage.

Don’t be afraid of YouTube! It’s a great tool for marketing your business, and by following these steps you’ll be making great, shareable content in no time!

How To Get Your Blog Post Shared 3,567 Times (Approximately)

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How To Get Your Blog Post Shared

If you have a blog for your business, one of the most important aspects of managing it is trying to reach the most people with what you have to say.

With millions of articles shared through social media and email each day, it might seem difficult to get your blog noticed. But here are some tips that can help you get the most shares out of your posts and increase your reach exponentially!

Titles Are Key

When creating a blog post, you want it to convey the main message behind the post, but you also want it to grab the attention of people who are casually skimming through your site. There are two main elements of a compelling title.

  1. Include a number in your headline. Numbers grab people’s’ attentions, and no site does that better than Buzzfeed. Just check out any article on their website, and you’re guaranteed to see hundreds of posts with numbers in the title, such as “14 Ways To Increase Your Likes on Instagram” or “26 Pictures of Cats Wearing Tiny Hats.” Numbers, especially odd numbers, draw in customers, and make them want to read more of what your have to say.

  2. Power words are great attention grabbers. Words such as “Hot,” “Fresh,” or “Amazing” are great words to use in headlines, because customers will want to read to find out why something is “hot” or “amazing.”

Add Share Buttons

Before the invention of Facebook or Twitter share buttons, articles were shared by grabbing the URL of the current page of the website, pasting that URL in an email, and then sending it to a friend or colleague. These days, social share buttons make it easier than ever for customers to share an article they like with others. Be sure to get these buttons set up on your site, and place them at the top of the article for maximum exposure.

Meta Information

Your posts meta information is highly important to getting info out on search engines. For example, using the correct meta information and tags on a post will help your post to show up much more frequently on search engines like Google. It essentially tells search engines to show your post whenever someone searches keywords related to your blog post. If meta information is somewhat foreign to you, don’t fret! There are thousands of websites out there that can help to explain how this info works for your benefit.

Share, Share, Share!

With so much info out there on the Internet, sometimes your post can get lost if you share it during a busy time of the day. So make sure to share your post more than once during the week that it’s published. You can use the acronym ICYMI (which stands for In Case You Missed It) in front of posts to let others know it’s a previous post, and not a new one. Just don’t share too often; you don’t want to overload people.

There are so many different ways to share your posts in order to get the most views, so it’s best to experiment with different strategies to see which one works best for your business!

Rebranding Your Business Re-Energizes It

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Rebranding Your Business

Have you ever thought about rebranding your business? Admittedly, it’s a scary thought. You’re essentially thinking about changing parts of your business that made it who it is today.

So why should you rebrand, and what’s the best way to approach it? Check out these tips!

Your Audience Is Constantly Changing

The audience you were targeting 20 years ago is most likely not the same audience you’re trying to target today. People change, and so do the trends that they’re interested in following. In order to stay relevant in an ever changing world, your company needs to stay up to date with the world outside its four walls.

Millennials are the up and coming generation of consumers today, and if you’re active on social media, you know that their tastes are very different than people’s tastes in the generations before them. Millennials want quick information, huge discounts and great deals. So, branding yourself through social media is the best way to connect with them. You don’t want to be perceived as “old-fashioned,” so following trends is a must.

New Products Help

A key reason for rebranding could also be that your company is launching a brand new product, and you want to show consumers that this product will be a complete game changer for your company.

When Amazon became much more than just an online bookstore, they chose to rebrand in order to reflect this new status quo of the company. That’s why, in the early 2000’s, their logo changed to their name with a curved arrow leading from A to Z, to reflect that the company now carries every product customers could want, from A to Z. Amazon.com is now known around the world for its vast selection of products and services, and has expanded its offerings to TV streaming, and even tablets and smartphones.

Giving Your Brand A Story

Every business has a story, whether it’s a crazy, amazing one or just a basic story with a lot of heart, figure out what yours is and capitalize on it.

Subway’s “Jared” campaign is a good example of a successful rebranding story. In 1998, when Subway started telling the story of Jared — an overweight man who ate a mostly Subway sandwich diet and lost a significant amount of weight — they had an annual revenue of $3 billion. Since then, Subway’s revenue has gone up to $11 billion, due mostly to Jared’s inspiring story. It caused a national movement of people wanting to eat healthier foods in smaller portions, and the effects of that campaign are still felt today.

Rebranding is a great way to re-energize your company, and make it appear more relevant to newer audiences! So don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith, and rebrand your company for a more successful future.

What’s Trending For April

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Marketing Tip of the Week: Grammar for Business

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Grammar for Business
Good grammar is important to the success of a business. Schoolhouse Rock knows it. Sesame Street knows it. Your 3rd grade English teacher knew it as well. Just check out the video below and you’ll see.

But why is it so important? I mean, if you’re writing an English paper for a class, or your job consists of writing for a living (such as an author or journalism job), of course it’s important. But how can the everyday business man/woman use grammar to succeed in their field?

Below are a few tips for optimizing your grammar and how it can help your business in the long run.

Common Grammatical Flubs

Their are tons of examples of words out there that are completely misused by the average person. From homophones, to using the wrong form of “your” or “you’re,” it’s easy to make an embarrassing grammatical mistake. Most of this is probably due to the fact that many words in the English language sound the same when spoken, but are completely different when written out.

As I mentioned before, misusing “your” and “you’re” is one of the most common mistakes, but “their,” “there,” and “they’re” is also a very common mistake. Always make sure you know which words fit together with the sentence you’re constructing.

Other words, such “affect” and “effect,” are homonyms (words that sound the same but have completely different meanings). If you’re unsure of the correct spelling to use, always look it up in the dictionary or search on the Internet to find the correct spelling and usage.

Proper Grammar Can Make You More Professional

Which one of these sentences sounds more professional to you?

  • “During an recent claims adjusting proces, we discovered some concerns with you’re property that must be adressed.”
  • “During a recent claims adjusting process, we discovered some concerns with your property that must be addressed.”

Hopefully, you selected the second sentence. When you have to write up a report for your superior, or present to your team, you need to write with correct and proper grammar. It will be very hard to convince others that you know what your’e doing when your grammar is poor; no matter how much research you’ve done or how much knowledge you have about the project.

Proper grammar lets others see that you are passionate about your business, and presents yourself as a professional in your field. Even when you’re interacting with customers, your grammar needs to be top notch. A lot of people, myself included, will turn their nose up at businesses that have spelling or grammar mistakes on their marketing materials (such as advertisements). These so called “grammar nazis” can make or break your business, so make sure you’re always presenting yourself, and your business, in an intelligent, professional light.

Here are some more tips on how to increase your professionalism in your writing:

  • Use synonyms to spice up your writing. Ex. use “excellent” or “outstanding” instead of “good.” 
  • Try to avoid lame cliches like “we think outside of the box” or “we’re focused on making synergistic decisions.” People get tired of hearing these cliches, and they end up sounding insincere when repeated too often.
  • Work on correct usage of punctuation. For example, the ellipses is a fun punctuation tool to use…but it consists of three periods, not 5 to infinity. And you don’t need multiple exclamation points to bring home the idea that you’re excited about something!!!! One is plenty!
  • Capitalize only important and necessary words. Usually, these are proper nouns and the first word of a sentence. And avoid capitalizing every letter in a word. THIS MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU’RE YELLING, and that’s rude.

But, hey, even celebrities make grammar errors (quite frequently, actually) so you’re not alone in this. But it’s good to know that school kids are keeping their grammar straight on Twitter.

 

 

What’s Trending For March

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Marketing Tip of the Week: How to Design the Perfect Business Card

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The Perfect Business Card Infographic
What’s one of the first things you do (or should do) when you meet a new client who’s interested in starting a partnership with your business or startup?

Shake hands? Yes. Introduce yourself? Yes. Try to remember the other person’s name for when you get to the end of the conversation? Double yes.

But one of the most important things to do in any business exchange is to present your business card to the other person. Why? Because business cards are the perfect way for someone to easily get in touch with you again, and, depending on how your card looks, will leave a lasting impression on the person.

If your business card looks like it was drawn with a crayon on top of a 2″ x 2″ corner of last night’s pizza box, then here are some tips to update it, and get people interested in the services you have to offer them.

Include the Most Vital Info

Your business card is like a mini bio of who you are and what your business is about, but you don’t have to write the next great American novel on it. Sure, you need to include enough info that your business isn’t wildly ambiguous, but typically you only need 4 -5 bits of info. The most important info to include are your name, title (CEO, writer, manager), your company name, and your contact information (which can include phone number, email, and maybe even your mailing address).

Fonts Make a Difference

When selecting the typography for your business card, always make sure it’s easily readable and font is large enough to make an impact. Most of the time, sans serif fonts are the best to use because they’re simple, clear, and easy to read. Use sans serif fonts like Helvetica or Swiss for your contact info. But your company name needs to be a little flashier, so feel free to use any font that’s both flashy, and easy to read. But whatever you do, avoid using Comic Sans. If you’re struggling with Comic Sans addiction, consider visiting this site: www.comicsanscriminal.com.

Colors Grab Attention

Colors can be just as important as your typography. Make sure if you use a solid color background that it’s a color that works well with the font style and font color that you choose. Using a yellow background with a white font is typically bad news, but a black background with white font helps to make your font standout much better. And it’s a good idea to stick with CMYK colors when designing, since these colors are better for printing projects. RGB colors are better for websites and screens.

Different Materials Can Impress

Most of the time, business cards are printed on cardstock, with varying thicknesses and quality. But now there are so many options for different materials that you can use to make your business cards pop.

You want the material you use to reflect the business you’re in. For example, a carpenter, woodworker, or construction company owner might get his business info printed on different types of wood. If you’re in the fashion or clothing industry, you might want to get your cards made out of leather or wool. Or, if you’re a DJ, record store owner, or music producer, you can even get your cards printed on vinyl record material. There are so many options out there, but the traditional paper business card is the most reliable and cost efficient if you’re just starting out with your business.

Business cards are great tools, but you gotta know how to use them properly in order to make an impact on your next business partner or customer. I’m gonna say it again: don’t use Comic Sans. Please. I’ll come find you if you do.

 

 

Marketing Tip of the Week: Social Media & Customer Service

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Social media can be one of the greatest assets for any business to utilize. The Internet has the awesome capability of connecting millions of people from all cultures, backgrounds, and languages, in one place; something that no other form of technology can do!

Learning to use your business’s social media accounts can be advantageous on so many levels. But most importantly, it’s a great customer service tool. Here are just a few ways that you can improve your social media presence and help you connect with your customers on a more personal and direct level.

Designate A Social Media Customer Service Rep

Having a team of customer service reps to answer the phones when a customer has a problem or is upset with their services is a great thing to have. But often times, those phone lines can get tied up with hundreds of calls coming in to your office, and customers can be left waiting one the line for extended periods of time, growing more impatient with every second that ticks by. These days, people are more likely to complain about their service on social media accounts, especially on sites where they are able to address your business directly, such as Twitter. It’s important to have somebody managing your accounts at all times to help mitigate problems that arise, and answer customers’ questions.

Respond Quickly

The beauty of social media is that it’s a very personal piece of tech. Whereas emails, and sometimes phone calls, are a one-way form of communication, social media is very much a two-way form. Customers know that when they tweet at you with your handle tagged, or make a Facebook post with your business page tagged in the message, you see it. So they expect you to respond as quickly as you can. That’s why it’s important to address complaints and questions as soon as they pop up in your notifications. This shows customers you really care about their business and want to help solve their problems.

Deal With Unruly Customers Privately

Undoubtedly, you’re going to encounter customers that are fed up with poor service they’ve received, or frustrations over miscommunication with the company. And they’re going to let you know they’re upset. When a customer tweets at you, or speaks unkindly about your business on Facebook, it can potentially make your company look really bad. When other customers see those angry posts, they might have a different viewpoint of your business. You may lose a lot of potential customers because of one bad post. In these situations, it’s best to send a private direct message to them, to deal with the issue out of the public’s eye.

Respond With Intent To Resolve

This is one of the most important tips I can give about social media customer service. Always make sure you’re responding to complaints with the intent to solve the customer’s problem. This can help cool off a hot-headed customer that’s upset, and also shows your maturity and confidence in your business. A good example of a tweet back to an unruly customer would be “@JohnDoe – we’re sorry that happened to you, John. Is there anyway we can work with you to resolve this issue?”

Social media isn’t just for promoting your business; it’s also a wonderful tool for helping your customers with their problems. When customers see you’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep their business, they’ll remember it, and they’re more likely to recommend you to other potential customers.