Creative Ways To Get Your Business Noticed

In today’s digitally charged world, people are exposed to thousands of ads- potentially 10,000. In the early days of Facebook and Twitter, it was unique and exciting to interact with brands on social media. Now it’s expected. The same goes for traditional media/advertising, just having a presence isn’t enough. In order to compete for a consumer’s valuable time – you have to be memorable.

Think about some of your favorite commercials. What attracts you to them probably isn’t how much money they spent or how far-reaching their campaign was – it was something special that stood out from all the other commercials you saw that today. You don’t have to spend money to be creative.

Small businesses should be focused on implementing marketing strategies that will increase brand awareness and revenue. But, many small businesses make the mistake of thinking they won’t be able to do much marketing because of their limited budgets. Fortunately, businesses of all sizes can benefit from SEO, which just so happens to be the most cost-effective type of marketing. Here are some of the reasons why your small business should be investing in SEO:

How Negotiations Can Power Your Content Marketing

Most digital marketers are used to negotiating while closing a deal with a client or bringing on a new hire. But what you might not know is that the same skills you use to be a good negotiator can transfer to fueling your content marketing. When you post a piece of web content, you are basically negotiating for the consumer’s time.

This is what makes content marketing so important. You are convincing the reader that something about your content is compelling and worth the investment in time and energy. With the proliferation of content shock, people’s attentions are pulled towards consuming content from a million sources. Mastering negotiations as it applies to content marketing is a powerful way to win the battle for attention.

Developing Buyer Personas for Higher Education

Higher education is more competitive than it has ever been. With public and private colleges and universities, online colleges and universities, trade and vocational schools, community colleges and everything in between vying for the attention of today’s students, it is increasingly difficult to attract and enroll the best students for your school.

In Marketing, Timing Is Everything

These days, messages move at the speed of light. During the presidential debates, memes and hashtags of the candidates’ comments become trending topics before they even have time to take a breath at the end of their sentence. A few hours later, those same statements have been analyzed, Twitter streams sorted through, and the morning news programs have built an entire segment around the topic. Twelve hours later, we’ve all moved onto the next story, as this has already become old news. Any regular viewer of ABC’s Shark Tank knows that the key to success for a featured entrepreneur is having a website and production system capable of handling the massive amounts of traffic they will receive during the one-hour airing of the program, regardless of whether they land a deal with the investors or not. The point is, for businesses that are able to move on a dime and capitalize on real-time conversations, there is a tremendous opportunity to be had. But if you miss that window, you’ll miss the opportunity.

Last week, news came out that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, America’s answer to royalty, had filed for divorce. News of the breakup hit every news station and Facebook and Twitter feed – Brad was soon to be eligible again! Within a couple days, Norwegian Airlines placed a print ad in the newspaper: Brad is single. Los Angeles. From/one way, incl. taxes £169*

No fanfare, no need for an explanation. The message was simple, the timing was perfect, and when you saw it, you got the point. In fact, I didn’t even see it in print. I saw it on a friend’s Facebook profile because someone else who saw it in print thought it was so amusing that she took a photo of it and shared it on social media. And the power of social media has now taken a PRINT AD viral on social media. Think of the millions of unpaid views this message has now seen. Brilliant.

So how do you do it if you’re not Norwegian Airlines? Can you position your business to take advantage of timely marketing opportunities? Absolutely, the key is to be ready and able to move on a dime.