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Visionary Marketing: Research, Strategy & Campaigns
Integrated Marketing for the Digital Economy
"Visionary works with client companies to help achieve integrated marketing, streamlined ebusiness solutions and delivers outstanding events."
Visionary marketing represents a new era in business services – we can offer your business a range of integrated solutions that harness traditional marketing such as print, radio and TV with new media marketing technologies such as websites, social media and You Tube.
Furthermore, we deliver a holistic or integrated philosophy – thereby utilising all appropriate communication channels and reaching out to your target market! We firmly believe in planning and strategy in order to deliver the best result and return on your marketing investment!
Marketing Workshops 2013
Visionary will be presenting the following marketing workshops in 2013:
Integrating Your Marketing: May 8th (9am to 12 noon):
Integrated Marketing: More than just clever marketing...
The era of mass media to dominate the marketplace has ended, business owners and managers need to engage individual consumers while blending traditional and digital marketing seamlessly.
In this workshop we look at the challenges to modern business in the digital era, how to operate your marketing in this new world and how it needs to permeate your organisational culture.
Cost: $44.00
Multi-Workshop Discounts Apply - BOOK NOW!
SOLOMO - Social, Local, Mobile: July 17th (9am to 12 noon):
Aussies have one of the highest smartphone ownership levels in the world... is your business ready for this?
The development of powerful mobile devices, geographic searching and social media have all created a unique marketplace - SOLOMO encapulates this phenomenon and we discuss how businesses need to respond to it
In this workshop discover each aspect of SOLOMO, how this is important to businesses and why you need to secure your brand in this new digital environment.
Cost: $44.00
Multi-Workshop Discounts Apply - BOOK NOW!
Introduction to Pay Per Click Internet Advertising: October 9th (9am to 12 noon):
Google AdWords: Your digital advertising platform to the world... or just to your region!
80% of all online searches in Australia are conducted via Google, AdWords alows your business to advertise in this space!
Pay Per Click advertising is cost effective and targetted, but it also can be a steep learning curve and possibly a costly exercise if not managed properly - we walk through the many features and benefits of AdWords, what to loook for and how to get started.
Cost: $44.00
Multi-Workshop Discounts Apply - BOOK NOW!
Internet Marketing Strategy and Campaigns: Ballarat, Western Victoria & Globally
"As the foremost Internet marketing specialist in Western Victoria, Visionary marketing can take your company website and transform it into a specialised sales platform, optimised for high ranking and easily found by your favorite search engine."
Almost every day we are contacted by business owners who have realised the importance of Internet marketing for their website, however many don't know where to start - Visionary marketing has partnered with many firms to provide the most effective Internet marketing Ballarat has to offer.
We understand that each business has their own culture and approach to selling their products and/or services; with this in mind we work closely with business owners to deliver a completely customised Internet marketing campaign solution - focusing on returning positive return on your marketing investment.
Typically, we start with an analysis of your business online presence and use this as our benchmark for future results; we then select a number of priority measures to gain the maximum benefit at the earliest opportunity - thus kick-starting the campaign off to a great start.
Most campaigns last at least 6 month, with initial setup fees and then a monthly maintenance program to continually refine and enhance the ranking of your site; during this time frame you will receive a monthly up-to-the-minute strategic report indicating just how well the campaign is running, with activities to be implemented during the following month.
Internet marketing cannot be beneficial if a 'one size fits all' approach is taken by Internet marketers; our approach is unique and totally customised to match the business culture of your firm; furthermore we explain why certain activities are made and why they benefit your business for long-term and sustainable searchability of your site.
We have over 10 years of experience in online marketing and communications, not just in Australia but also within North America, Asia and Europe - we can make a difference to your online business!
"Start your online presence and stand heads and shoulders above your competition, or boost your current website into a fully fledged sales channel and represent your compay as an expert in your field!"
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet Marketing is a highly specialised skill that has been long established in regions such as North America and Europe, however Australian businesses are quickly recognising that they also need to promote their brand online.
We partner with you to become deeply absorbed in your business culture and how you communicate to your clients, we then develop and manage highly targeted campaigns to increase your brand and attract visitors to your site, thus delivering increased traffic and conversion into sales.
A typical campaign would utilise some or all of the following activities:
- Development of targeted keywords to accurately describe your product and services; continual review of keywords and development of new keywords as new markets are targeted, your competition’s activities move, or new online analysis data becomes available.
- Implementation of keyword descriptors within backend of website and other areas of website pages, but also within the website copy – increasing ranking results of your site in search engine result pages naturally.
- Integrate Social Media into the core structure of the site, wenabling comment and engagement.
- Development and maintenance of Pay-Per-Click (Google AdWords, Microsoft Bing and others) online advertising campaigns for new and/or existing products and services – driving website traffic to your site or specific landing pages with quick results.
- Development and maintenance of external Internet marketing activities, such as directory listings, review sites, industry promotional sites and promotional campaigns such as banner/link advertising and online magazine advertorials.
- Analysis of website traffic and/or online advertising reports to explain trends and impacts of campaigns, but also to formulate strategies for further optimisation and Internet marketing activities.
Related Links:
- Website functionality and analysis: Make your site enjoyable
- Online Advertising: Pay Per Click and Google AdWords
- Search Engine Optimisation: Getting on the first page
Traditional Marketing
Visionary events & marketing
Opportunities to market and promote your products and services are expanding, as are the way that people respond to promotions. Sifting through all of the options can be confusing and overwhelming – not helped by the numerous advertising consultants making contact with you, almost daily!
Traditional marketing methods are fast being forgotten about or left behind, to be replaced by more cost effective and direct methods of promotion. The web and technological advances has seen the growth in these new methods as a very effective marketing tool for business.
Good marketing – is about utilising a variety of appropriate methods in order to put your message and brand in front of your target market. To help you work this out talk to a marketing company, Visionary events & marketing provides excellent value packages that may assist you or we can work on a project basis or for more commitment to your organisation our retainers are excellent value!
Traditional marketing methods including print (newspapers and magazines); television and radio all still have a place in the world of promoting your business, but do not rely on only these mediums. With print (especially newspaper) you need to remember that a paper will only get read once by a person and it will be discarded 1-2 days later. When it comes to TV and radio you have your 15 or 30 second slot to be able to capture people.
The design of your ad is therefore very important and it is usually worthwhile to look at a graphic designer to do the work for you. You will need to have the following in your ad:
1.Headline that will attract the viewers attention
2. Short descriptive piece that will give a solution to a problem that your key target market may have.
3. Call to action – with a way of recording the responses from the ad, this could be a separate number, e-mail address, or sub-domain.
4. Consistent branding is critical. The way you present your logo, images you use, colours and fonts all need to be the same across all of your promotion and advertising.
This is where the traditional marketing will blend and work succinctly with newer methods of marketing. You can now use technology to measure and monitor your advertising, this may reveal things that will surprise you about consumer behaviour and also your target market.
So next time that consultant rings you and tells you that you absolutely ‘must’ advertise in their publication, what will your answer be? How will you be proactive about where and how you place your advertising? You need to be the person making the decision where and when to advertise and not being pushed into it. At the same time special publications or television premieres maybe worth investigating if they reach your target market.
You need to remember that advertising consultants are simply trying to meet their quota, after all it is the advertising that is paying for the publication or shows you watch on television. Next time you think of placing an advert in traditional media ask yourself some simple questions:
1. Is it part of your plan?
2. Are you placing it when and where you want or has the consultant talked you into it?
3. Is this simply to raise brand awareness of your product or service, or will it have the potential to convert to sales?
4. Can you accurately measure the success of your advertising and ROI?
If you answered no to either of these questions then you really should consider how you are advertising.
Ad hoc advertising also does not work and is not an effective use of your marketing dollars. Try considering the following:
· Smaller ads over a period of time rather than 1 big advertisement
· Multiple ads in the same publication
· Shorter ads over a shorter period of time (for radio & television)
· Leverage off events / activities / sponsorship that you are already committed to maximise exposure to your brand
· Be consistent in the way you present your brand / product / service
Social Media Marketing
'FaceBook has over 800 million active monthly users (Dec 2011) across the globe, if it was a country in it's own right it would be the 3rd largest in the world! Social Media sites have become an effective way of businesses to communicate with their customers in a time effective way.'
New Article: Challenges for Business in a Facebook World - Read Here
Facebook and other Social Media sites are quickly becoming a valid and effective communication channel for businesses of all sizes, giving customers to opportunity to involve themselves in policy development, offer consumer insights to firms and also to be the first to hear about special deals on offer.
Social Media can serve as an additional channel to use as part of your existing marketing communications; press releases, newsletters, blogs, FaceBook posts and Twitter tweets will reinforce your message, but also deliver your message to additional listeners using various mediums.
FaceBook, for example, caters for business organisations very well with groups and actual organisation pages; key personnel within the organisation can continue a discussion topic by supplementing additional views on the same subject. Additionally Facebook has a relatively new, yet cost effective advertising offering that can increase a businesses reach.
According to global research company Nielsen, FaceBook, YouTube and Wikipedia are the top 3 social media sites around, with 22% of all time spent on the Internet visiting these and other similar sites - more than double than 12 months ago!
More than 50% of the Australian adult population are active Facebook users, making this and other Social Media platforms an ideal medium to engage with new and existing customers - the challenge to businesses is to adapt to this new communication with a shift in how to relate to the public.
Google+ has also demonstrated remarkable growth, with experts tipping 400+ million users by the end of 2012... another platform that needs serious consideration as a marketing tool.
With these staggering trends in mind, it's imperative that businesses of all sizes develop their marketing communications around social media... your customers are waiting for you!
Want to know how Visionary marketing can assist? Contact us now to discuss how we can help in developing your communications strategy - here!
Challenges for Business in a Facebook World
By Craig Allan, Visionary Group
When I sat down to write this article I recalled numerous conversations about Social Media, and Facebook in particular. We’ve reviewed some of the finer issues that consistently emerge in talks with our client partners... most of the ‘burning questions’ are responded to in the issues described below, but also at our Masterclasses and Workshops (more details here).
Do I really need to get involved in Facebook?
The main challenge for business owners is how to best use their time to best serve the business – we often hear “just because it’s the latest thing doesn’t make it right for my business”, or “... my customers are not on Facebook”.
A few points of fact may help if you find yourself in this dilemma - with over 800 million people across the world using Facebook and over 60% of Australians being regular users, your customers are already there. Age breakdown of Facebook users is also evenly split between Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y, making Facebook one of the most broadly adopted communication channels.
Facebook as a marketing vehicle:
Many sole traders, micro businesses and consultancies are finding that Facebook is all they need for promoting their business and attracting clients. Marketing and promotion costs have always been a headache for small business and Facebook has been a saviour... however this strategy may not be appropriate for many operators. Great for micro-businesses, but is the corporate world using Facebook?
It’s been reported that 54% of Global 100 companies use Facebook, however in Australia only 30% have indicated use of Social media. It seems that while more small to medium Aussie businesses are promoting their Facbook presence, many boards of top companies are hesitant to embrace social media... possibly due to lack of understanding as well as the age and gender of board members?
For all other businesses, Facebook has a competitive advantage that is cost effective and relatively easy to manage, both as a promotional and relationship platform, but it is also a support network for customer feedback, product/service development and to ‘keep your finger on the pulse’.
Protecting your company brand and reputation:
For businesses willing to invest in Facebook there are a great deal of benefits, however there are a few issues regarding security and privacy that need to be considered. The level of exposure that a company places itself within social media is a genuine concern, for example how do you stop negative comments from trashing the good name of your company?
Business page owners can always remove content and (as a last resort) report users to Facebook, however sometimes a negative comment (if constructive) can be a blessing in disguise... an opportunity to showcase your customer service skills and how you care.
Every now and then we hear of Facebook users having their accounts or pages hacked, invariably we find that simple passwords are the root cause. Use solid passwords and change on a regular basis, also if you’re not sure it might pay to get some support in setting up the security settings of the business page, however it’s been streamlined and with a little time and effort most business owners will be able to get the settings right.
More now than ever, the distinction between our personal and professional lives are blurred and operators of smaller businesses will find this a big challenge. Consultants and professionals need to market themselves as the business. To combat this some people will either have a private profile (for friends and family) and also a public profile to run the business page with.
Best use of time and return on investment:
As with almost anything online or technology based, time tends to get away from us all, time management is essential to attain a balance between maintaining communications on Facebook and not letting it take over... we use and recommend setting up a schedule within your diary when you are going to work on Facebook... and trying to stick with it!
Facebook can be a great way of receiving referrals and positioning yourself or your business as an expert in your field; it does take time and consistent effort... the main key word is ‘consistency’.
How do I keep up-to-date with all the changes?
There have been a number of significant changes to Facebook over the last 12 months, including new layouts such as timelines, new pages such as business pages and also changes to privacy and security – keeping up to date with these changes and how they impact end users is difficult. Business owners can subscribe to a number of newsletters, blogs etc to be kept informed, however sometimes it’s more effective to seek professional advice.
Develop a Digital Strategy now!
Internet technologies (especially Social Media) have changed the landscape of how companies speak and relate to consumers... the Internet also furnishes the consumer with knowledge and choice never seen in the past – with this in mind companies require development of a digital strategy of how they operate online.
Business operators require a paradigm shift in their thinking regarding how they communicate to consumers, social media technologies are the vehicle that allow relationships to develop with virtually 1 on 1 communications with each consumer – relationship marketing is the norm in social media for business.
Other areas to consider when developing a digital strategy for your firm is to how to integrate social media activities with other marketing channels, this includes the need to co-ordinate campaigns across all channels and the frequency of communications within each channel... very few firms have mastered this successfully without concerted effort and planning with support from professionals.
Want to know how we can help? Contact us how we can partner with you to reach your goals!
References:
Global 100 Social Media Study (32/2/2010): http://www.burson-marsteller.com/Innovation_and_insights/blogs_and_podcasts/BM_Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=160
Sensis Social Media Report (May 2011): http://about.sensis.com.au/ignitionsuite/uploads/docs/sensis%20social%20media%20report.pdf
The Time has come to talk directly to your customers
The Time Has Come to Talk Directly to your Customers
By Rachel Kinscher, Visionary events marketing ebusiness
Do you want to find, attract and win new clients? Nurture and retain existing clients? Entice former clients back? You can do all of this while reducing your marketing and client service costs.....it is called relationship marketing!
The time has come to talk directly to your customers, build long term relationships and provide personalised communications.
Relationship marketing is derived from direct response marketing campaigns focusing on customer retention and satisfaction, rather than on sales transactions. It recognises the long term value of customer relationships and extended communication beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages.
Technology is evolving and relationship marketing opens up more collaborative and social communication channels. Internet and mobile platforms are the prime drivers in the future of relationship marketing.
There is plenty of evidence that websites that are fully optimised and functional do work and are a essential item for any business. Mobile ready websites are also rapidly becoming a must. There is also plenty of literature that talks about the benefits of social networking as a tool to build relationships with clients – Facebook, Twitter and Linked In amongst the most popular and effective platforms.
Effective relationship marketing utilises all of the new methods with the old traditional forms of marketing, blending them to create cost effective strategies that strengthen your customer base. In many cases the strategy that you undertake will cost you no more than just your time, once you have the system in place.
Here are some simple effective methods Visionary uses to create and strengthen our client relationships:
Newsletters: Produced regular and distributed to an updated and opt-in database of previous, current and potential clients, supporters and suppliers. Links are placed on our website for archival viewing and also on our Facebook page. Once we have the template for the newsletter and the database it is time to write relevant articles and update the database.
Social networking: Visionary has a Facebook page which we post a status update on at least 3-4 times per week. We keep our fans updated on activities in the business; new clients; events coming up and at times we even ask for referrals to potential clients or suppliers to help us deliver projects and events. This Facebook page is linked to our Twitter account and also Linked In and some industry blog sites. We also have a Weddings fan page and also pages and groups for events and projects that we are involved in.
Websites: Visionary has a main web page – www.visionary-group.com.au covering all aspects of our business, plus individual URL’s for each of our business areas. These sites are all intertwined with clear navigation through the various sites. The websites are all optimised and made functional, with elements including shopping carts and event booking systems that ease the administration time on staff.
Networking: Visionary and its team are active members of a number of networking organisations and industry based associations. We attend networking events and we participate in activities that the groups are undertaking.
Media Releases: When Visionary is involved in something that is newsworthy we produce and distribute media releases to local and regional media and also through numerous online sources.
Blogs: Visionary actively participates in relevant blogs, most commonly in the weddings industry. Blogs help to place team members and the company in a position of expert status and therefore creates trust in potential new clients.
Cards: Personalised cards are sent to clients to promote new products or services, to thank people or to celebrate. We use a cost effective system and can send cards for about $1 per card.
Relationship marketing attempts to transcend the simple purchase-exchange process with a customer to make more meaningful and richer contact by providing a more holistic, personalised purchase, and uses the experience to create stronger ties.
Visionary can help develop a strategy that will work for your business; create the systems to implement the strategy and we can even undertake the tasks for you.
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to see how we can help you build strong, long lasting customer relationships.
Creating Strong Customer Relationships
The strength of any business relies on the loyalty of its customers. Strong relationships with your customers is critical to a businesses long-term success and profitability. You need to stay connected with your customers to be able to create strong relationships, to help you here are some ideas:
Newsletters. Newsletters are a great way to communicate with your customers since there are an endless number of pieces of information that you can put into the newsletter.
Remember to provide information that is relevant and factual. Studies show that when companies send out newsletters that contain nothing more than sales pitches for the products or services that they are selling, customers tune out these sales pitches and discard the newsletter.
Postcards. If you have a budget that allows it, consider sending out postcards to reach your customers to communicate with them on a personal level. Ensure that the message that you send is timely and relevant.
Visionary marketing can show you a really cool system that will allow you to send postcards for under $1 each follow this link for a look!
Fulfil all your promises. It's important that you do what you say you're going to do. When you or your products fail to deliver on their promises, you lose credibility, which is crucial to establishing a trusting relationship with your customers.
Return all e-mail and phone calls. When a customer makes an effort to contact you, make sure that you return the communication as soon as you can. This is the perfect opportunity for you to open up lines of communication.
Greeting cards. Are a great way to say thank-you to your clients and customers, a birthday card is also a nice gesture, for repeat customers you can also send business anniversary cards. It's important to let your customers know that you appreciate their business.
Visionary marketing has a cool system that allows you to send personalised cards for a little over $1 each follow this link for a look!
Information about new products. Whenever you have a new product or service, make sure that you let your customers know.
The more communication that you have with your customers, the stronger your relationship will be. You want to ensure that your customers trust you, listen to what you have to say, and return to buy more of your products and services.
There are so many tools that you can build into your business that assists in automating these communication processes – Visionary marketing has affordable relationship marketing packages that you may be interested in – or we can give you a no-obligation quote on your individual needs.
Internet Marketing Strategy
"Start your online presence and stand heads and shoulders above your competition, or boost your current website into a fully fledged sales channel and represent your compay as an expert in your field!"
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet Marketing is a highly specialised skill that has been long established in regions such as North America and Europe, however Australian businesses are quickly recognising that they also need to promote their brand online.
We partner with you to become deeply absorbed in your business culture and how you communicate to your clients, we then develop and manage highly targeted campaigns to increase your brand and attract visitors to your site, thus delivering increased traffic and conversion into sales.
Interested in more? Contact us now to start your campaign!
Related Links:
- Website functionality and analysis: Make your site enjoyable
- Online Advertising: Pay Per Click and Google AdWords
- Search Engine Optimisation: Getting on the first page