Use of Social Media for Marketing, and Other Marketing Activities

Strategy Plan One

May 4, 2012 

Use of Social Media for Marketing

Gone is the traditional method of advertising in the newspaper and radio and in with current social media marketing and advertising platforms.  Or are those methods gone?

For sure social media is in and it continues to grow exponentially.  Just when you thought user bases were leveling out, a new interest in a platform keeps the level of growth consistent.  It seems every week a new wave of more interesting social media platforms emerge.  However, business owners must not forget the other forms of marketing that would add value to the marketing mix.

Social media marketing involves the promotion and attention of your business, and engagement between users of social media platforms and your business’ products and services.  The use of social media for marketing would be the purpose of gaining traffic and attention to your business.

Whether through short bursts of information using Twitter or detailed Facebook or LinkedIn pages, the absolute benefit to businesses using social media, is that information can be shared quickly across massive audiences.  It has been a business to consumer and business to business trend over the past era, but not known if this marketing trend will be long-lasting.  If it will be long-lasting, social media marketing may evolve as fast as the whole social media industry itself is evolving.

Marketing Activities – Considerations other than Social Media

Marketing plans could be chalked full of a mix of marketing activities, new and traditional forms.  An entrepreneur should dig into developing activities that would be applicable to promoting and getting out the appropriate message on their own product and service mix.  Yes, social media may work to a certain extent, but may not be the best avenue for local, personal marketing for example.  Entrepreneurs may have to consider forms of advertising and that promote products and service in person, such as trade shows, and promotional events.  Differing from social media marketing, trade show events give you the ability to showcase products and services to masses of potential customers, with colourful, interactive displays manned by representatives (actual people) promoting the business.

Marketing Plans

When developing detailed business and marketing plans, consider the mix the marketing activities based on your intended audience, and what type of method you will use to effectively engage with your audience and raise attention.  You may find social media works well in junction with other forms of marketing activities.  Carefully weigh your options for marketing activities and measure results from activities.  Best results may occur when revising your marketing activities mix.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Color and Design – Factors Influencing Commerce [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

April 14, 2012 

Color and Design

Many factors influence how, when, where and what we buy in the marketplace.  Marketing plays a key role in tapping into these cues, and utilizing them out front to build a more richer, more powerful message to the consumer.  Making the powerful message resonate with the consumer more will result in a deeper connection, relationship and eventually sales and revenue.

This infographic from KissMetrics digs deep and illustrates color and design, and other factors that influence our purchase decision-making process.

Color and Design Facts

Interesting facts to note from this infographic on color and design influences:

• 93% of consumers place visual appearance as the primary factor in purchasing
• 85% state color as the primary visual factor
• Color influences brand recognition by 80% (confidence factor)
• Online shopping – 42% based an opinion of a website on its overall design
• Webpage load time factor / correlation:  longer load times result in decreased sales
• Different colors have different effects/purposes: Blue – security/business, Red – Sales, Yellow – optimistic/youth

When developing your marketing plan and marketing activities, use the appropriate color and design for maximum impact and benefits.  You may have to complete some market testing with color and design in your products and services.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

How to Find Statistics and Data to Back Your Business Plan

Strategy Plan One

March 25, 2012 

Statistics and Data for your Business Plan

As part of your due diligence as an entrepreneur starting or expanding your business, you will need to develop a detailed business plan.  As you draft up your business plan and the financial documents, you will need to obtain data and statistics that would form and back your financial statements.

If you use to much guess work and estimates, pulling figures out of the sky, your business plan will be weak and subjective.  To make your business plan more objective, you should obtain credible sources of data from multiple sources.

Here are some helpful tips for gathering statistics and data from multiple sources.

Statistics and Data from Experience

If you are going into your business in the same industry you have been working in, you have excellent intelligence on marketing, sales and expenditure data.  Through years of experience in operations and management you will gain the innate ability to draft up projected financial statements from this known data.  Be careful not to steal data or proprietary information, but use your gained skills knowing the industry.

Statistics and Data from Mentors and Advisors

You should always drive and lead the business planning project, but should you need an advisor or mentor, these individuals can provide credible sources of information to you.  Based on their experience and their network of professionals they will help you form more realistic projections.  Once again, a wealth of experience usually reveals a wealth of good statistics and data.

Statistics and Data from Surveying

If you develop some objective methodologies in surveying your potential markets for your products and/or services, you may be able to obtain some useful data for your planning.  This should be done with caution and should not be the only source of data you would use.  Ensure you sample randomly and with large sample sizes to make the data more reliable and valuable.

Statistics and Data from Federal Government Statistics Branches

To support data obtain through your own sources, you can seek out sources of statistics and data from Federal Government sources.

     US Statistics and Data

• The US Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov ) provides an enormous catalogue of statistics and data on the US population, markets and the economy.  General economic indicator information can be found within a few easy steps on their website (http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm ).  Information is also broken down by industry classification, based on 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.  USA.gov website provides additional, relevant business and economic linkages to statistics and data.  Please note that information is presented in general overall industry, summary form and you will need to drill down as far as you can get to what is applicable to you.

     Canada Statistics and Data

• Statistics Canada (http://www.statcan.gc.ca ) is the place to go to obtain statistics and data on the Canadian people, markets and economy.  Statistics Canada promotes their federal responsibility to provide objective statistics and data, with methods and surveying every 5 years.  Statistics Canada also has information broken down into NAICS codes.  Once again, this source can be helpful in analyzing the overall industry statistics and data.

Statistics and Data from Paid Sources

To round off your basket of statistics and data for your business plan, you can pay for very specific data.  There are many marketing companies out there in the private sector that can provide relevant data for your specific industry and target markets.  Companies can also provide customized surveying for you to obtain the most reliable, objective data.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One