Tag: Marketing

How to build an effective content calendar for Twitter

An active Twitter community has the power to drive foot traffic and increase brand awareness for a local business.  The first step is of course to get Twitter followers; the next step and equally important is to create a content calendar that will make it easy for you to Tweet to your community and stay on top of mind.

What is a content calendar: a content calendar is a schedule for when to post content and what to post about.  A content calendar helps you keep organized and consistent when it comes to social media engagement.  Remember, that which is scheduled gets done.

Who should read this post: a local business owner that just doesn’t have the time or energy to Tweet all day

What you will learn: how to create an effective content calendar that will make it easy to stay on schedule and send relevant Tweets to your community

Continue reading How to build an effective content calendar for Twitter

5 Tips to Increase Your Restaurants Profitability

5 Tips to Increase Your Restaurants Profitability

The question that every restaurant owner has on their mind is simple: how can I increase the profitability of my restaurants. While there are some very blatant way to accomplish this such as cutting back on the quality of the food and paying your workers less, these are not ‘ideal’ solutions. Rather, these would be considered cutting corners.

There are many ways for a restaurant to increase their profitability as well as the foot traffic that they get and would like to share 5 tips that we feel every restaurant owners should consider in regards to profitability:

1. Social Media We’ve mentioned it before, but we’ll mention it again. Social Media can be daunting and scary, but at the same time it can be a powerful marketing tool for a business. By using social media as communication tool , you can build relationships that keep your business top of mind with potential customers. By using it as a brand monitoring tool, you can listen to what people are saying, both good and bad. When used effectively as a whole, social media has the potential to help a restaurant increase it’s brand awareness and most importantly, it’s profits. Continue reading 5 Tips to Increase Your Restaurants Profitability

Twitter Tips and Strategies To Jumpstart Your Marketing

Twitter Marketing

It was considered a fad when it started, it turned into a niche network and it’s now become one of the most important marketing tools for marketers, brands and businesses alike. Twitter, the micro-blogging social network which started in 2006, has grown into one of the most effective tools in penetrating new markets and spreading news.

For businesses, Twitter can play an important role in local marketing efforts because of then unique opportunities that it provides. Twitter provides an array of tools that can be used to find potential customers, new trends as well as networking opportunities with other businesses that might help form strategic partnerships.

Advance Search

One feature in particular that every business should utilize is the robust social monitoring tools available today. Through Twitter’s advance search, a business can search for keywords or phrases with specific target searches that include by user, mentions as well as place/location. Continue reading Twitter Tips and Strategies To Jumpstart Your Marketing

How to find the right person to lead your digital marketing efforts

How to find the right person to lead your digital marketing efforts

The perfect marketing plan is only as perfect as those who execute it. As a business owner, having the right individual to lead your digital marketing initiatives can be the difference between creating relevance and creating noise. In today’s current digital climate, where everyone calls themselves a social media expert, this can be an especially difficult task.

While the traditional route in filling a position is to post a job opening on a job board or in some cases a recruiting agency, employers are looking toward social media to find the right talent for their digital positions such as community managers and digital marketing coordinators. From Twitter to blogs, the amount of talent available is abundant; the hard part is finding the quality.

If you are currently in the process of hiring or evaluating your digital marketing team, here are 5 things to consider when choosing an individual to lead your digital marketing efforts:

1. Brand Awareness – Perhaps the most important factor to consider, the individual who leads your brand online should be someone who has a full understanding of your brand, past and present. From knowing how the company started to knowing how the brand has evolved (product, brand message, etc.), having a firm understanding and foundation of the brand will be reflected in their level of engagement and creativity. Continue reading How to find the right person to lead your digital marketing efforts

Leveraging Customer Touchpoints to Increase Sales

What is a Touchpoint?

A touchpoint is a point of contact between a customer and your product, service, or brand. Whether before, during, or after an actual sale has taken place, any interaction a customer has with your business is considered a touchpoint and potential for your business to increase their customer’s perception of your brand. Touchpoints span the whole value chain, but dealing specifically with the franchise industry and the major customer touchpoints franchises have to manage in relation to customers, there are five: direct mail marketing, in-store advertising, point-of-sale advertising, social media marketing, and mobile initiatives.

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail is one of the most heavily used forms of advertisement with multiple coupons for different brands hitting mail boxes every day. The direct marketing association pegs the response rate at “Letter-sized envelopes, for instance, had a response rate this year of 3.42 percent for a house list and 1.38 percent for a prospect list.” This shotgun approach has been a consistent marketer’s tool , but with the low response rate, and even lower conversion rate, marketer’s are seeking other channels and touchpoints to reach customers. Continue reading Leveraging Customer Touchpoints to Increase Sales

Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Me?

Your best customers routinely go to your restaurant chains because it’s part of what they do.  They like the food, they like the service, and have their favorite meals and combos.

But an inherent problem arises from this: they become lazy

  • They become too lazy to try the new items on the menu
  • They become too lazy to post positive feedback on Yelp
  • They become too lazy to tell their friends about their favorite place to eat

The opportunity is there.  The customers that love your food and service are ready to go above and beyond to make sure your business is successful – you just need to make the ask.

Continue reading Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Me?

What A 3X Increase in Check-in Services Means for Your Business

Pew Research Center just released a report on American adults and their use of mobile and social location-based services. The numbers foretell the impending future and here are some of the stats:

– Adult usage of location based check-in services rose from 4% to 12% in one year
– 1 out of 5 18-29 year olds use geosocial services
– 12% of 30-49 year olds use geosocial services
– 5% of cell phone owners use their phone to check-in to locations using apps (ie: Foursquare, Gowalla, etc)

What does this mean for the marketing department? This means that as smartphone penetration in the US increases and as location-based services grow, it is becoming more and more imperative to take notice and take action. Whether you have a Director of Social Media, hire a consulting firm or agency, or start by giving the job to an intern, it’s time to start somewhere. Continue reading What A 3X Increase in Check-in Services Means for Your Business