It Pays to be Authentic in Your Marketing

As I am sure most of you have seen in the last few years a shift in marketing. The public is beginning to no longer tolerate marketing and branding that is superficial. With the explosion of social media, brands that are authentic and transparent are the ones seeing HUGE success. Is your marketing and branding transparent, does it move people in a positive and genuine way? I don't want to get on my soapbox, but today is one of those days. In recent weeks I have seen a large influx of brands and celebrities taking a stand to be authentic and use their marketing to cause REAL change in our culture and our thinking. These few examples below have seen the way our culture has been affected by superficial marketing and making women feel they are incomplete the way they are.

Stand Against Photoshop

Colbie Caillat cannot stand the way the Photoshop and brands have displayed women in marketing and she is using her brand for change. She is completely transparent and vulnerable for the world to see in her latest song "Try" and this not only has gotten her publicity, but genuinely helps women feel confident in their own skin.

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#LikeAGirl

The Always brand has chosen to not just sell a product, but use their marketing to create change in the mindset of how women are viewed.

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Positive Body Image Stuck in Your Head

Up and coming artist, Meghan Trainor recently released her first single "All About That Bass" and it has gone viral. Through her self-acceptance message in her music she has become a sensation overnight.

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What do these examples mean for YOUR marketing?

• Be Authentic & Transparent

Fans will rally behind brands that show who they are to the public.

• Stand for Something

These brands and artists are taking a stand for what is important to them...do the same in your marketing.

• Realize You Impact Your Customers

Don't get stuck behind selling a product or services, but realize every interaction with your customers is an opportunity to add value to their day. Making their day better will build a stronger tie to you and create brand advocates who will vouch for you.

From these examples you can see how being authentic and making positive changes in the lives of their audience has helped them see results overnight! This is not always the case, but brands that add value and take a stand for authenticity will win in the end.

What are your favorite brands that are transparent and cause positive change in your life and/or business? Comment below and continue this discussion.

The Marketing Dame

Does Your Website Have a Strategic Goal? - A Speakeasy Case Study

Most businesses today know they need to have a presence online and to many it means building a website to drive business. Unlike what most people think, a website should not just be a simple brochure or place to tell prospects what they do, but your website needs to have a strategic goal. Your website should be designed to drive traffic to reach the goals you have set. Let's take a look at website that Speakeasy had the pleasure of creating.

BiosCorp - The Case of Human Resources

When I first became connected to my client, BiosCorp they expressed the main issue they were faced with was human resources and finding qualified candidates to join their team. Let's take a look what what they were working with:

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When looking at their homepage, here were some issues that caught my eye:

• Difficulty reading the font due to size.
• Multiple fonts and colors not branded together.
• Links that were not displaying properly.
• Overall very busy and difficult to navigate.

Since their main objective was employment, here is what their application page looked like:

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From the interior page you can see there was room for improvement. And so I, along with my designers began the process of refreshing their website to reach their goal of increasing applications and making the process of applying for positions seamless. Below is our final product which you can view for yourself at BiosCorp.com.

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So what makes this redesign reach their goals and an improvement from their previous site?

• The branding is consistent throughout the website.

• It is very apparent this site is driving people to apply to work for them.

• The interior pages feature their employees and people they work with, which expresses the culture of the company.

• The site is easy to navigate and viewers can easily get reach their desired area of the site within a few clicks.

• Social media is easily seen and viewers can connect with Bios quickly.

You may be thinking, Kersten that is great you were able to help your client, but what do I need to know when I am building my website. Start with these questions in mind before you begin the process of building a website.

• What is the goal of your website? Are you wanting to increase sales, purchase something online, and/or have prospects call you?

• Who is your target market?

• When people see your branding and marketing materials do they know what you do?

• Does your branding express your company culture?

Taking time to think through and answer these questions is your first step to creating or updating your digital marketing. The following are key points to keep in mind when you do begin updating your digital media.

• Be consistent - Your branding needs to be consistent across ALL platforms, both digital and traditional.

• Keep it simple - Visitors of your website need to be able to easily navigate your website in as few clicks as possible.

• Express yourself - Your company has a culture and brand that needs to be expressed in your marketing. Brands that stand out and are not afraid to show their colors are the ones that will see success, especially in the digital world...it is all about TRANSPARENCY.

If you are ready to begin the process of updating your website and/or branding and would like a consult, simply contact me by sending me an e-mail or message me on your social media platform choice (you know I am on all of them...it's not like social media is my life ;) Also if this post was helpful to you, comment below or share it using the buttons below.

The Marketing Dame

P.S. Send my client BiosCorp some social media love and visit them on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Twitter Account Stale?

So you have created a Twitter account....you are posting all the time.....yet you feel as if you are tweeting into space and/or no one is following you? You are NOT alone. Most small business owners know that social media is important, yet when it comes down to executing a strategy and gaining a following most businesses fall short. Now we can get into the ins and outs of all social media, but today I want to focus on Twitter. No matter how sound your content strategy and your consistency of tweeting....unless you are a large brand or celebrity, the likelihood that you will gain a large following is slim to none unless you have a Twitter follower growth strategy.

Who you follow on Twitter quote

First let's take a look at what NOT to do when trying to grow your Twitter account.

• Do NOT pay for followers.

As you have probably noticed there are many services that claim they can bring you thousands of followers instantly for a few dollars. Do NOT fall for this ploy. Twitter frowns upon those that use this strategy and Twitter can potentially suspend your account for this as it violates Twitter's policies. Also, there are services like Fake Follower Check that have a free service to see what percentage of fake followers accounts possess. You can see from my example below of my account and one of my followers that clearly has many "fake" followers.

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• Do NOT follow large numbers of people at one time.

Twitter has a limit of following more than 2,000 followers until you have at least 2,000 people following you. This prevents people from becoming overly spammy and forces people to grow an actual following. Although this feature can be frustrating to some, it really is for the benefit of Twitter users.

• Do NOT have services autopost content for you.

Now granted...having connected services seems like a HUGE time saver, but most of the time these features can hurt your account more than help it. One classic example of this is connecting your Facebook account with your Twitter account. Although this seems great, most of the time when you post on Facebook to Twitter you are not thinking about 140 characters and your message will almost ALWAYS get cut off. People on Twitter do not want to be navigated back to Facebook....they are on Twitter for a reason and it is not to be directed to Facebook. Also...one of the most annoying features of this is when you upload photos on Facebook, your account will autoposts to Twitter not with a description of the photo but the phrase...."I just posted a photo on fb..." This is not exactly professional. You can see in the example account used earlier that this account is connected to numerous autopost services. When most of your tweets are clearly autoposts, most will think this is not legitimate account but is being run by bots.

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One of the keys of social media success is being transparent and allowing people to communicate directly with you and/or your brand. By paying for followers or using spam tactics you are devaluing your account and you will begin to lose trust with customers and potential prospects. So how do you grow your following without acting like spam?  Here are some keys to success:

• Follow those that follow you (with the exception of spammy accounts).
• Follow users who are in your target market.
• Follow accounts slowly and not in large batches.

These keys will help get you started on the Twitter success train. Don't have time to manually follow people or manage a growth strategy? Read my case study below on how Speakeasy can help!

The Marketing Dame

Speakeasy Market Strategies Twitter Case Study

The following are real results of a few of my clients during a 90 day time period. These clients are in various industries ranging from weddings, food, and business service industries. All of these accounts are being grown by my own Speakeasy Twitter Follow Strategy.

Now unless you are a large celebrity, you will not get a large following overnight as explained earlier. The followers of the examples below have been strategically targeted to meet the needs and goals of each client. It is better to have a smaller following of those dedicated to your brand that will bring in sales, as opposed to a large following that is not your target and will not bring cash in your door.

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 The results above are for clients in various industries and results do vary.

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Now you may be asking....well how do you get these results? Of course if I told you I would have to kill you...just kidding...but obviously this strategy is my own proprietary strategy. What I can tell you is that my company:

• Does NOT pay for followers.
• Our following strategy is done manually and no auto bots are used.
• Our strategy gains you followers who are your target.
• You have control of your content, we will not tweet as you, but will simply grow your following on the back-end.
• Results are a GUARANTEE! On average Speakeasy clients received between 100 to 200 targeted followers each month.

Who's ready to get started today?

For just $75 per month you can get results. Click here to contact me, shoot me a tweet, Facebook message me, or any of the many ways to get ahold of me as you can see below.  

Need help growing you Twitter

You will not get the results you want if you do nothing....so contact me today!

Why Social Media Will Take You to the Next Level

I'm sure you have heard that social media is the hot topic in marketing and that you need to be there, but here are some stats to back up the hype.

The following infographic presents some great evidence from this year's Social Media Examiner's Marketing Industry Report to support the trends of social media this year (download the report here).

From this 43 page report, here are the keys that you need to know to take your company to the next level:

YouTube is the new golden child.

According to the report, 69% of marketers plan to increase their use of the platform, which is no surprise. YouTube is the little known tool to significantly help with SEO.  Marketers are constantly fighting for keywords on Google, pushing up the cost per pick and Google ad pricing, whereas YouTube presents a cost-effective alternative that is relatively untapped. Although your website may not appear at the top for certain terms, your properly uploaded YouTube video might.

Podcasting is exploding.

This is the hottest marketing trend of 2013. This platform is wide open and savvy brands are jumping on the podcast bandwagon. Stats have increased from 5% of marketers podcasting to 24% of marketers increasing their podcasting efforts.

Facebook and LinkedIn is where marketers are investing their time.

In the survey of marketers, when asked which social media platform they would choose it they could only choose one was Facebook (49%), followed by LinkedIn(16%).

#1 benefit of Social Media is increased exposure.

Although we all would like the track every sale with social media to show ROI, the real reason we use social media is for market awareness. These platforms allow brands to interact with their customers cost effectively in a way that was previously not possible.

See the stats for yourself...

Image source: www.topwebdesignschools.org

It is clear from the infographic above that brands are investing in social media and it is becoming more and more important every year to an overall marketing strategy. Will your company be left in the dust or will you make a splash in your market and utilize social media to its greatest potential?

Still not convinced social media can help your business? Let me know why in the comments below.

If this post struck a chord with you and you are ready to increase your exposure online, then look no further. I am here to help you be able to get back to what you do best and I can handle the rest.

Click the “Contact Us Now” button to get started. If you would like a sample of the ideas we could generate to help your business, click here for a free digital marketing report, custom-made for your company. Even if you are not in Tulsa, I also do have consulting available for you to purchase to get one-on-one help from me to kick-start your next project, company, idea…the skies the limit. Click here for more info on those services.

Takeaways and Lessons Learned from #SMMW13

With over 1,000 people in attendance, many lessons and takeaways were learned from hearing the best in the industry.

SMMW13 Marriott

This year I had the pleasure of attending Social Media Examiner's Social Media Marketing World Conference (#SMMW13) in sunny San Diego. With big names like Chris Brogan, John Jantsch, and so many more...it is safe to say that this conference was a time of great learning.

Over the next few weeks I will be going in depth on some of the topics I heard, but for now I will discuss a few takeaways that I learned not just from the speakers, but the attendees as well. Out of a speaker list of 49, it was difficult who to pick and choose who to listen to in person and who to listen to via audio when I came home. But since many of the speakers were ones that I had read their books or admired, I opted to listen to those I had already come to learn so much from.

Lesson #1: Be Authentic.

With social media being an outlet for many people to hide behind a computer, it was refreshing to hear so many of the speakers encourage people to be authentic. It is so easy these days to hide behind a brand and not make close connections with our online audience, but this is a HUGE mistake. Back before newspapers, TV, Radio, and even the web, people bought and sold based on word of mouth, which relied on being "likeable" and providing quality products and service. People buy from those they like and you are far more likely likeable by being genuine and authentic. Relationship building is the key to long term success.

One story I have from the conference is from my interaction with Dave Kerpen, writer of Likeable Social Media and owner of Likeable Media. The first networking event the conference orchestrated was at a museum not far from the hotel, but far enough to bus attendees to the location. On the ride over Dave sat next to me and we had a wonderful discussion about our businesses. He talked about running his company with his wife and how I grew up with small business in my blood from my parents running a company together. He handed me his card and for some reason I did not put 2 and 2 together that this was the author of one of my favorite social media books (and one that I give to many of my clients). Before we had finished our conversation he was already tweeting to me about wishing me luck. Now I am not one that gets starstruck, I simply appreciated his kind words and encouragement regardless of who he was.

Fast forward a day and a half later and I see the same gentleman get up on stage and give one of the best keynotes of the entire conference. Within his keynote he mentioned how important it is to be the same person in public and in private. He also explained how transparent he was and that even though he is extremely busy, when people tweet to him he will almost always respond within 1 to 2 days. Now how many CEO's do you know that have that closeness with their followers?

The principles he was explaining to the crowd is one that every businessman should learn. You must take the time to be genuine to anyone regardless of what they can do for you. I have countless stories on my own of the connections and business I have made from people that I never thought would be so vital to my life and success, but it is because I treat everyone the same. Being one person in your professional and someone different in your personal life will not gain you great success. I can tell you I did have a speaker I wanted to listen to, but after he dismissed me as someone that could not bring him business I have since unsubscribed from all of his digital media. He was someone else in person then when he projected to his digital audience. Those that learn this lesson will not only see success, but will make connections and relationships they never thought possible.

Lesson #2: E-mail Marketing is having a Comeback.

Chris Brogan + Kersten

For me I have spent years LOATHING e-mail marketing, at least the e-mail I get sent from big brands that do not give me any value whatsoever. But according to Chris Brogan and many others, building your e-mail list is the key to profits. Chris mentioned many times that he has never seen social media bring him business, but over and over he has seen his e-mail newsletter bring him money. And let's be honest, we all are attempting to receive paychecks from our social media efforts. So how does one build an e-mail list? Here are a few tips from the experts:

• Make your e-mail sign up visible to your site viewers. You can do this by having a pop-up on your site, asking visitors to sign up before they read your post. I will add that you may want to consider the pros and cons before adding a pop-up box on your homepage.
• Entice them to sign up. You must give your readers value to sign up for your newsletter. This could be a free e-book or whitepaper, something that will push them to want to hear from you more often.
• Tell them what they will get. Most people are not fans of e-mail marketing, which is why you need to be upfront and honest with them about what you will be sending to them.

Lesson #3: Connect, connect, connect!

According to Mark Schaefer of The Tao of Twitter, Born to Blog, and Return on Influence, social media has brought us back to the core of marketing and connecting with customers. When we created the printing press, we took a step away from our customers. With the addition of radio, TV, and other channels, brands have become more and more disconnected from their customers. Social media changes the game and allows brands to directly connect with brands with the push of a button.

There were countless stories told during the conference of people interacting one-on-one with customers and fans and how these interactions build stronger brand loyalty. I have had numerous occasions where I had a bad experience with a brand and the way they handled the issue via social media made me a brand advocate. People crave connection and want to feel as if their opinion matters, which makes social media the perfect solution for brands to better satisfy their customers.

So how do you implement this? Respond back to your followers and fans. Don't rely on automation services, but take the time to personally connect with those that are following and interacting with you. You never know how one kind word can create a customer with a long lifetime value.

SME Museum Group Show 2013

Lesson #4: What's next in Social Media?

All of the "experts" have different opinions on which platforms will survive and which will fade away. To me the platform is not the point, in my opinion being able to connect with your customers is the key to the long-term survival of social media. I do not see it going away any time soon, nor do the experts. What you will see is brands sinking or swimming depending on their management of social media. Years ago many thought social media was just a fad. To that I say, look at the brands that have seen a significant increase or decrease in their bottom line and/or PR because of social media.

As you can see from my pictures the conference was not only a time of great learning, but of making true connections and lasting relationships with a truly remarkable group of professionals. It was a privilege to attend, but now it is time to take all that I learned and apply it to my wonderful clients to help them grow!

Nicole + Kersten

I may not be able to take you out for that drink, but I am here to help get your marketing on the right track. If you are business owner that feels like they are struggling in today’s digital marketing, then look no further. We are here to help you be able to get back to what you do best and we can handle the rest.

Click the “Contact Us Now” button to get started. If you would like a sample of the ideas we could generate for you, click here for a free digital marketing report, custom-made for your company. Even if you are not in Tulsa, I also do have consulting available for you to purchase to get one-on-one help from me to kick-start your next project, company, idea…the skies the limit. Click here for more info on those services.

P.S. Over there on the right is one of my newfound friends from the conference, Nicole aka Cute Culture Chick. She is a seasoned blogger and social media expert and I look forward to continuing the friendship. A perfect example of a real relationship created through the world of social media. Take a look at her #SMMW13 recap!

What is the Future of the Marketing Agency?

Welcome to Speakeasy's Social Sunday!

Each week I will be featuring tips and information on social media. Being that my agency has just started, this week's infographic from Marketo fits this week perfectly. Earlier in the week I explained what brought me to start a new agency, what the name Speakeasy Market Strategies means, and today I will give you some insight into the future. To start, let's take a look at what the experts are saying is the future of the Marketing Agency.

What is the Future of the Marketing Agency?

(Click the Infographic below to see it in its original non-smushed form ;)

Where does Speakeasy range in what the experts are predicting for the future of the agency?

I have always been a proponent of staying ahead of the curve and picking technologies that my needs and those of my clients. But on one hand, you do not want to be constantly moving from one automation company to the next. There is a learning curve on any new technology or service you are using; therefore time and consistency must become a factor in the decision process.

One of the core's of my business is the be able to meet the needs to my customers.

If my customer wants certain services that I am not proficient in, I will find the information to help them make the best decision to help them. In the end, if my customers grow and thrive based on the services and advice I provide, I consider my job well done. It is almost like the philosophy from the movie "Miracle on 34th Street" when the department store promised customers if they did not have the toy they were looking for, they would find it for them. In the end this strategy won them satisfied and loyal customers.

Another aspect of my company is to keep my clients up-to-date and relevant to their customers in today's world.

This means that I choose designers and contractors that understand branding for the current culture; as well as placing my clients on platforms that their customers frequent. Many businesses today have the philosophy that because they have been in business for years that they do not have to market themselves and can continue to utilize the same marketing strategy they have since day 1. This may work for a little while longer, but if companies are to stay in business they must adapt to the times in some form or another.

It is my job to figure out which platforms will work best for each client and then execute the plan.

It is still to be determined what other agencies in Tulsa and in the US will do, but Speakeasy will continue to innovate and meet the needs of our clients.

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I may not be able to take you out for that drink, but I am here to help get your marketing on the right track. If you are business owner that feels like they are struggling in today’s digital marketing, then look no further. We are here to help you be able to get back to what you do best and we can handle the rest.

Click the “Contact Us Now” button to get started. If you would like a sample of the ideas we could generate for you, click here for a free digital marketing report, custom-made for your company. I also do have consulting available for you to purchase to get one-on-one help from me to kickstart your next, project, company, idea…the skies the limit. Click here for more info on those services.