Okay, so how do I suggest that you go about doing this? First and foremost, we begin by monitoring those who already know about your brand and using this as a way to get them to continue purchasing your product/service. Brainstorm a few keywords or phrases that you believe people would use when mentioning your brand or product. This can include your brand name, some variations people may mistakenly use, any abbreviations for your company name, and/or the names of your core products. Now that you have that set in place, go ahead and plug them into your monitoring tools (I will give a list of some free tools at the end) and utilize them for results. I do recommend setting up email alerts or creating a RSS feed for these results so that you can stay on top of each mention as they occur in real time.

After collecting all of the data, it is now time to start your research by asking yourself the following questions:

• What are people saying about you?
• Do they like specific products over other ones?
• Are there improvements that they are suggesting that you can implement?
• Did he/she have a bad experience with your product or service?

These questions allow you to assess where you are in the market as a brand. You can reach out to your customers and show your appreciation for their loyalty, their positive feedback, or as a customer service platform. This is where you keep happy customers wanting to buy from you and give unhappy customers a reason to give you another chance.

After conducting your own due diligence, you now need to work on obtaining the market that is unaware of your product/service. These are the individuals who have never heard of your company or have never really thought about trying out your product/services. This somewhat requires you to think like a search engine optimizer. Which key search terms and phrases do you believe will bring the most sales? For example, let’s say you are a clothing company. You would want to monitor the main types of product that you offer, for example jeans, flip flops, halter tops, etc. Obviously the more specific in product type that you can get, the better the chance of creating a prospective customer. So now that you have a list of words and phrases that could help you find new customers, you once again plug those into your monitoring tools. You will begin to come across many tweets and posts that you can convert into sales and many others that are just useless. Pick and choose the results you believe would be beneficial to respond to and create a connection with. Remember that it is not always about going in straight for the sale. Begin by asking questions or trying to find out more about the situation and then figure out whether your product or service is the right fit for that person.

Finally, it is always fun to spy on your competitors. Use competitor brand and product names to see what people are saying about them. Use this information to improve your own products and service as well as trying to convert those unhappy customers into new potential customers for yourself! Don’t consider this stealing but rather doing what is right for the greater good. J

Here are some monitoring tools that you can use, but there are many out there so pick what works best for you (listed in no particular order):

search.twitter.com (You can also set up search queries in Hootsuite or any other 3^rd party tool)

www.google.com/alerts

http://addictomatic.com/

http://socialmention.com/

http://www.twazzup.com/

http://www.blogpulse.com/

You could also use paid services such as Radian6, Alterian SM2, Engage 121, Argyle Social, plus many more.

So there we have it, monitoring is very important for you and your company. Use it wisely to build your customer base as well as keeping current customers wanting more. If you have any specific suggestions for monitoring tools please feel free to share in the comments below!

This short video infographic video highlights the importance of social media to your business. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation the rules apply equally:

Relying on conventional methodologies and process standards can be detrimental to an organization. I came across an article featured in Business Week ‘The Problems With Obama’s Innovation Strategy’. This article is informative and enlightening by constructively pointing out the flaws within the innovation strategy. Jeneanne Rae stated “The current state of government contracting laws supports convention, not innovation. Currently, government awards tend to go to the typical “Beltway Bandit”-type firms that have little to no track record for innovation.” With all things considered it is very difficult to turn an old process standard and methodology into innovative strategy that will build an organization to endure the test of time. With that noted, I believe that this is a great foundation for the purpose of spearheading such efforts.

1. Forget Routine

It is not as easy for companies to shift focus from a conventional routine especially when formal job description is in full force. It is important to have an organization chart and flow-process, but it is vital that different departments work together to ensure that your work is unique and representative of the brand that you are marketing for your client.

This transparency allows other department individuals to solve the problem. Crispin Porter + Bogusky implemented a level of transparency when developing an advertising campaign for the Mini Cooper. Traditional wisdom dictated that Art Directors and Copywriters concept ideas for an advertising campaign. However, at CP+B they involved the Media department, and their role is to place the advertising within different types of media groups. By utilizing the Media Department, CP+B was able to develop a creative product placement strategy by providing the Mini Cooper with the exposure necessary to market it well.

Full transparency creates a dialogue between departments in any organization. This leads to a high performance team and healthy work environment. Forget the routine of a job description and allow departments to solve problems together.

2. Create A Innovation Department

Recently, more and more organizations have created a position known as a Chief Innovation Officer’ (CIO). The role of a CIO is to successfully implement an innovation strategy, establish a culture of creativity, and research/implement practices that best suit the organizations goals to move forward in the industry. This strategy has shifted the paradigm of the corporate approach, by empowering creative talent. If large organizations such as Proctor & Gamble, Target Corporation, and SC Johnson have realized such needs, it also further proves the importance of innovation in your organization. Companies that continuously innovate with the change of time are the ones that lead the industry and are naturally one step ahead of the game. Don’t you think it’s time that you start investing in innovation?

3. Implement Standards

As with any organization it is necessary to have a set of rules that follow compliance. You don’t want to have an organization that does not have policies and structure in place. Of course, if you are a traditional organization you will have the benefits of standardized methods and compliance but you will also need to revitalize it with innovative strategies.

Standardized methods and compliance have many unique advantages within an organization. Creativity and innovation extends to any magnitude and without rules, regulations, and other compliance methodologies your team has no parameters for implementation. Parameters best shape creative solutions as it allows the team to think strategically and constructively. For demonstration purposes, if we place five artists with the same blank canvas and paint and ask them to paint a sunset, they will all have varying looks. However, if we now ask the artists that the sunset must have one mountain with rocks, a water fall, birds, and trees we will have varying solutions within the same requirements. Requirements equalize the playing field and spawn original creative ideas.

4. Research Trends & Forecast

Companies do not make it big overnight. They research and conduct trend forecasting so that when the opportunity arises they are ready for the take. Have you noticed that many cosmetic companies have always managed to bring trends back from the past? I see it time and time again, and masses of women from around the globe still indulge in these noteworthy brands. MAC Cosmetics does a phenomenal job of taking a basic concept and turning it into a seasonal line for the year. Amazing. This is not just limited to cosmetics this can be for any industry. Your organization should have a team in place to conduct research and forecast so that you can take that opportunity and move forward. After all it is research that spawns great ideas.

5. Creativity Is A Necessity Not An Option

Why is it that organizations today are so focused on rules that they deem creativity an option? I am a firm believer in creativity – it helps to solve problems and even take an organization to a whole new level. Any techniques that will allow for management and subordinates to work together to come up with a leading product/solution should be in place. Whether it is brainstorming or even a whiteboard of ideas – anything can be used as long as everyone is allowed the opportunity to utilize their creativity. Remember, there is no such thing as a bad idea – it is the implementation and solution that can take that idea home.

We like to think of it as 40% Concept, 60% Execution. Great ideas often fail because of poor implementation.

This is where you will need to gain some web analytical skills if you do not already have a background, or maybe you have someone in your company who specializes in it (even better!). Before I jump into how you can track your social media success on your website, it is important to understand that some of your social media efforts could result in in-person sales, especially if you are a physical store. If this is the case, run coupons or specials that have specials codes or are directed only to specific social network audience. This is a great way to figure out if your efforts are being utilized by your audience…plus who doesn’t enjoy a nice discount coupon J

When it comes to discovering your social media ROI that is restricted to the web, you have to really analyze your website. First of all, if it’s an e-commerce site then that is awesome, this will make things a little easier. But for non e-commerce sites, and maybe even some e-commerce sites, you have to really dig in deep and figure out what you want your audience to do on the website. What is the end result that you are looking for? Do you want them to contact you to find out about your product or pricing? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter or blog RSS so that you can keep them in the loop with information? There are many purposes of a website so you really need to figure out the purpose of yours.

After analyzing your website and figure out what end results you want (aka conversions), it is time to set up goals on your analytics tool. There are many different tools such as Google Analytics, Yahoo Analytics, Omniture, etc., but they should all allow for you to set up goals. For e-commerce sites, you’re end goal is to sell product so set up goal that gets counted every time a user checkouts and buys some product (you can even go and create values for the goals and products, allowing you to really see how much income is being created). For the non e-commerce conversions, such as contacting you or signing up for a newsletter, create thank you pages and set up goals to track when users do either of those and land on the specific thank you page (after some time you can start analyzing how many of those conversions have lead to sales and calculate an estimated value for each goal).

Once you have these goals set up and running, you can begin segmenting your data with the analytics software in order to see which social media sources had the highest goal conversion rates (and if available, the goal value per visit from that social network).

*Side note: ROI is return on investment so it would also be beneficial to compare and analyze the income that you believe social media has accounted for with the money and time invested on your social media efforts.

I also like to note down the number of new leads and total revenue per month and analyze the trends for these values. Discover when and where you were bringing in the most leads and income. You should also document, when you are not bringing in leads and income. Compare this to your social media metrics for those same time periods. For example, let’s say you have a huge jump in monthly income in October and you look at your social media metrics and notice that your engagement rates for Facebook were at a high point, it’s a no brainer, start to analyze those metrics! See what you were doing and what type of content you were sharing during that time period on Facebook. It could be that you were running a campaign that worked wonders for your organization!

If you put your thinking caps on, you can discover your social media performance, as well as the best tactics for your organization. This process is by no means an easy one. It will take time, and you may even have to discover other efficient ways to calculate financial ROI. So I ask that you please share with our readers through the comment section! We also understand that these concepts are sometimes confusing so feel free to leave us questions or contact us if you would like us to explain something in more detail.

I am going to give you tips on how to measure your metrics, but with the caveat that currently there is no real ‘formula’ to calculate ROI on social media. This post will provide you with ideas to create metrics that you can implement and modify for your organization.

After conducting thorough due diligence on how to effectively measure and evaluate ROI, I came across a very reputable expert in the market, Avinash Kaushik. He has had the most influence on the way I think about analytics and ROI.

Let’s start with the basics. Always keep an eye on the general metrics such as Facebook page likes, Twitter followers and total interactions. Evaluate the amount of interaction you have on your social media network per users (follows, likes, subscribers, etc.). This helps to determine the significance of your social network community. There is no point in having well over 10,000 followers on Twitter when you only have interaction with about 5 users. It is great to build both a strong fan base and following but it is just as important to ensure that you are consistent in engagement.

Total interactions are easy to calculate for Facebook through their ‘Insights’, however, it will take time when you are collecting data for other social networks. For example, Twitter will require that you add up the total number of times you were re-tweeted, mentioned, included in a hashtag, and added as a favorite tweet within the time period that you want to analyze the data (daily, weekly or monthly). For other social networks you may have to consider the number of shares, comments and likes, so make sure to take the time to determine what you truly consider an interaction for each network, respectively.

After you are done with the steps outlined above, you want to now break down the ‘interactions’ of your social networks. Focus on how users are interacting with the content that is presented. Here is where I will use some of Avinash’s terminology and ideas, while introducing new ones as well. According to my own analysis, consider focusing on the following factors: conversation rate, amplification rate, attraction rate, view ability rate and click-through rate. Let’s get started!

Conversation Rate

This is the true engagement for conversations in your social media communities. Conversations will be different depending on the network. For example, Facebook, Youtube, and blogs are focused on comments; however, Twitter is measured with mentions and hashtags. Calculate the figures for each network, and calculate how many conversations took place per post, tweet, or video submission.

Amplification Rate

This is the total number of times that your content was either shared or re-tweeted. Calculate the number of times that your posts or tweets were shared and determine the rate per post. You can take this one step further, and determine the reach of your content. Every time your post or tweet is shared, it is available for an entirely new audience, expanding the number of eyes that could potentially see it. You can also investigate and see what type of content is being amplified the most. This will go a long way in helping you understand your community a little better, and the type of content that interests them.

Attraction Rate

Ensure that your content is attractive to your market. Calculate the total number of likes or +1’s per post or the number or tweets that were added as a favorite per total tweets. The more that people like what you have to say or share, the more that people will care.

Viewability Rate

This stat is a little harder to find on Twitter, however, for other networks and mediums such as Facebook, Youtube and your blog, it is the total number of views or impressions per post. This is not as important as the other metrics listed above, but it is always nice to see how often your content is being looked at and if no one is seeing it, then you better find a way to get users to view it!

Click-Through Rate

Everyone shares links, whether it is a blog post, a highlighted product or content that you found on the web. However, there is no sense in sending and receiving links, especially in hopes that the end user will click on it. Efficiency is the name of the game; so I recommend using bit.ly, to help you keep a track of your outbound links. After you set that up, use this as a tool to figure out how many clicks you are receiving per link, measuring which content and times are best for content distribution.

Now that you know what metrics to follow, create an excel spreadsheet that will allow you to keep track of your social media networks. You will notice that some of the numbers will pose as a challenge, as you will be calculating them manually. Consider searching for tools that will allow you to calculate statistics that show your analytics. If you are a large brand, this is not a request it’s a requirement. If you have any suggestions on which tools work well for you, please leave a comment. We are all about collaboration.

Now that you have a method to organize your social media metrics, it is now time to determine the true financial impact for your brand. Check back for the second part of this post to find out how these numbers and conversion rates can help you determine your actualized ROI. You can be ambitious and contact our team; we can help you with your social media needs! Contact us!

Brand strategy promotes more than just your product/service, it also stands for your organization, company moral, and its personality.

A thorough branding strategy helps your organization discover meaningful ways to approach business with the following factors for consideration: competitive positioning, pricing model, website(s), sales material & tools, messaging, corporate identity, customer relationship management, trademarks, copyrights, and company holdings.

In the initial phases of your branding strategy, it is important to allow yourself some level of creative direction to position your company in the marketplace.

Here is why!

In order to capture market share, your target audience must be able to identify with your company. Consider the following such as your competitors marketing/advertising presentation, sales materials, messaging, corporate identity…etc.

You should ask yourself the following questions:

How have they creatively positioned the brand?
Are they visually demonstrating their capabilities and core competencies?
Is there a visual meaning you can find within their corporate identity?
What about the color scheme, how does it relate to color theory?

Step 1: Developing your brand with emotional impact

It is human nature that drives much of our decision making, especially when it comes to selecting a brand name. For example, Apple’s innovative approach with the release of the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. They single handedly designed a unique selling proposition, and conveyed advertising messages that created an emotional impact and benefit. How many people do you know that get excited about Apple’s latest product innovation?

Kick Start Questions: Why would my target market purchase our product/services? What is the emotional response I want them to have upon purchase?

Step 2: Define Your Brand

Your brand should consider the qualities that can define an individual. Such qualities include but are not limited to the following: personality, voice, character. traits, and mannerism. It is important to outline a positioning statement that can be utilized in various mediums for your company. Select colors, fonts, and visual elements that match the personality of your brand. Finally, decide how your employees will interact with prospects or customers to convey the personality of your brand. Depending on the business, brand personalities can be conveyed with uniforms, dress code, code of conduct, and training.

Kick Start Question: What are the personal qualities of my brand and how can I best convey these qualities to my customer?

Step 3: Create Unique Marketing Messages

Use steps 1 and 2 to craft unique marketing messages for your brand. The focus should convey messages that not only create an emotional responses but also portray the more human-like qualities.

At this stage, it is important to write a brand stylization manual. Take the time to document the requirements of voice, tone, style, and vocabulary – such that the marketing messages are consistent. Consider providing a few examples for reference.

Marketing messages include but are not limited to your elevator pitch, market positioning statement, tag-line/slogan, mission statement, as well as various marketing materials.

Kick Start Question: What tone, voice, style, and vocabulary are best suited for presenting your brand?

Step 4: Sales Process

In order to stay in business, you need to have sales to ensure both stability and growth. This measure should be evaluated in greater depths, than what is addressed in this post. This step serves as an introduction for your potential sales process.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, consider how your customer will find your product/service. A sales process is defined as a series of steps that need to be followed from initial contact to the point of purchase.

This process maybe as simple as the following example:
1. Prospect responds to campaign and requests more information about your product/service
2. A sales rep calls the prospect and furthers the discussion
3. An in-person meeting is scheduled
4. Your team submits a proposal
5. Your prospect agrees to your bid and and signs the contract

Kick Start Questions: How does your prospect go about a purchase? How do you want the shopping experience to be for your prospect? What are the touch-points that the prospect will interact with? What is your sales process? How can you innovate or improve your sales process to maximize revenue?

Step 5: Corporate Identity & Visual Demonstration

Your corporate identity is an extension of your brand, in addition to your logo, business cards, envelopes, letterheads, mailing labels, email templates, fax covers, proposal templates, invoice/statements, memos, signage, and promotional items. You get the idea.

Each of the aforementioned is a touch-point with your core market and should be carefully developed to address the company’s personal qualities that are to be carried out through a centralized message.

Kick Start Question: How can you effectively design each medium to communicate with your market, while simultaneously building brand equity?

Building a brand strategy can take weeks, because it must be planned carefully placing creative strategies as a priority. Companies often hire design firms or advertising agencies because of the creative nature that is involved. Contact Creative Intellects should you be interested in a proposal from our firm. We would be happy to discover new and creative possibilities for your business.

If you follow marketing then you likely have seen brands make the sometimes fatal mistakes of branding an entirely wrong message. It happens more often than not, and even the most established brands have made a few blunders when it comes to branded messages in another language. If you are considering global expansion, then consider the following case studies before making that leap of fate.

Language & Cultural Differences:

Coca-Cola a brand that is recognized by many cross-cultural consumers, which ran into trouble with their brand name in its initial debut in China. Coca-Cola was rendered as ‘Ke-kou-ke-la.’ Unfortunately, this company didn’t make this discovery until thousands of signs has been printed, with the phrase “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax”, depending on the Chinese dialect. Coca-Cola then went on to research over 40,000 Chinese characters and found the closest phonetic equivalent “ko-kou-ko-le”, which can be translated loosely to mean “happiness in the mouth.”

Going along with the lines of carbonated soft drinks, in Taiwan, the Pepsi slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” was written as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors from the dead.” (Yikes!)

The most infamous of case studies, is when GM introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, they were clearly unaware that “no va” really means “it won’t go.” After GM figured out why they were not selling any of their vehicles, they went on to rename the car ‘Caribe’ in the various Spanish markets.

Ford also had a similiar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company discovered that Pinto was the Brazilian form of slang for “tiny male genitals.” Ford pried all of the nameplates off the cards, and substituted Corcel, which means ‘horse.’

Branding

Whether you are a large brand or a start-up when you are going to take the leap for global markets consider the translation and its meanings. Here are a few tips to help you as you grow your business:

1. Make sure that you research every market and possible language translation meanings. You want to ensure that your market will give you a positive response versus a negative one. These types of mistakes can be really costly, and for a smaller enterprise it can be crippling.

2. Test your ‘slogan’ or ‘branded message’ in a focus group if possible in the proposed markets. When you come up with the messages consider testing them in markets that speak the same language, or in that particular country. Don’t just go in blindly.

3. Don’t just consider your slogan think about imagery, and the over all branded message. The simple asthetics such as color, the people in the background, or even the spokesperson should be taken into consideration. There are rules of engagements for each international country, the last thing you want to do is offend someone with a creative color scheme that works in the United States, but would offend others in another market.

These tips are simple and straight-forward, but there is more than what meets the eye. We take measures in working with our clients especially as it relates to marketing and branding. Before you begin your expansion into the global market, consider what we have outlined above. Happy Marketing!!

Today I am going to cover a few general concepts that you could implement into your social media plan, but with this caveat, that there is no general template for you to utilize. Every company, brand and organization is unique in its own right, and the social media plan should be designed according to its business goals.

Audience

If you happened to have stumbled across any social media blogs, you know the importance of market research and competitive analysis. Take the time to research your target market and take notice of their habits online. Consider the demographic and brainstorm ideas as to how to reach your audience on a non-intrusive level. It is important to convey this research in your social media plan, for your team to review on a consistent basis.

Goals

Before you get your feet wet with social media, be sure to brainstorm with some of the company’s decision makers, and pinpoint what goals you have in mind when it comes to financial impact, customer relations and branding. These will be key points that your brands should follow with regards to goal setting. For example, on a financial impact you will consider specific numbers for revenues and expenses, as well as leads. However, when it comes to customer relations you will be looking at impacts on customer experience and satisfaction as well as customer service. Finally, when it relates to the over-all branding, consider these very important factors: brand awareness and thought leadership. You will have to come up with your own metrics that take into account the # of re-tweets you receive, positive and negative sentiments, and the # of Facebook likes, etc.

Strategy and Tactics

After completing your market research and goal setting, you now have to figure out a method that will allow you to follow your social media plan. This means that you have to have a plan for each network for proper execution. Don’t forget that each network works differently, so you have to have a specific strategy for each one. Figure out how you plan to approach each network and what tactics you will use with the following methods that you should consider: content, keyword monitoring, photo sharing, etc.

Metrics

After you have completed all of the steps that I have mentioned above, the challenging step is analyzing the metrics and assessing whether your social media plan is meeting the organizations expectations. It goes without saying, that there is no point in creating goals if you have no way of measuring them. Create an assessment of your specific goals and how you plan to measure the company’s goals accordingly.

Like I said, every company should have a unique social media plan that is specific to their audience. These are just 4 common issues or topics that each plan should entail, however, that does not mean that we are limited to them either. You should take the time to consider why your company is utilizing social media and what purpose it really serves for the short and long-term growth.

In a previous post we covered, Three effective steps to link building for your SEO strategy. This article serves as a continuation as you learn to develop a greater list of websites and pages for your desired links. Often times web-masters run into difficulty in locating contact information and opening the opportunity for a conversation.

At this stage, you will have to hunt for ways to reach the owner. Often (not always) there maybe a contact page that results with potentially a phone number (very lucky), e-mail address (lucky), contact form (let’s hope they read it), or even a physical address (don’t bother – last resort). And if all else fails, then you will have to search deeper and look through domain records. For record locator’s, we recommend and utilize WHO.IS (http://who.is). This information uncovers data on the name, address, and email of the domain owner. This data is publicly available and we advise that it be utilized with proper and professional intentions.

If the aforementioned fail, then you may have to become the borderline ‘investigator.’ Search through the website to find all possible links to the websites Twitter, Facebook, or other relevant social networks. This method may establish a connection and open the opportunity for a relevant link.

Formulate a Sales Pitch

Why should the website owner give you the link? Unfortunately, there is no ‘one-pitch-fits-all’ template. Each pitch must be customized to the website and written on a personal level. Otherwise, please don’t expect a response.

For Blogs: Most Bloggers are happy with content submission. A well-written, thoughtful article that is related to the industry and blog may be accepted. Within the article, you may include anchor-text links to your website. Bingo!

Direct Pitch: Webmasters are constantly working to improve their personal web presence. That is why it can be beneficial to be very straightforward with your request.

“Hi I was reading an article on jxw.com website that was discussing Nike Air Shoes. I was wondering if you could link to my website page so your visitors know where to purchase them?”

Product Trade: Often providing the product to the website owner (outreach program) is a benefit in itself of achieving links from the proposed website. At this juncture, many factors must be considered prior to making such a decision. The product value ($10, $100, $1,000) and the authority of the website and its following. The data uncovered within the initial search is important to calculate if the give-away will provide a positive ROI from the links.

Refine & Conduct a Post-Mortem

Most digital strategist and Internet marketers overlook the post-mortem concept. Spend the extra time to calculate the number of website owners that respond, and the numbers of those who accept your deal. Determine which pitch strategy based on the type of website (i.e. forums, blogs, general websites, etc.) has the highest conversion rate. Repeat, rinse, and re-use the most effective strategy.

There you have it, five effective steps to expanding your link building strategy for SEO. Contact us for your search marketing campaign. We have the experience to build your web presence.

Why Create a Call to Action?

Advertising has two primary components. One is to get the marketing message in front of your audience, and the second is to get them to act upon it. Both of these elements can allow for a return on investment. We have outlined a few techniques to create your own ‘call to action’ that will have your telephones ringing, web conversations increasing, and finally your ability to innovate your profit margins with real time sales graphs.

Trial/Introductory Period:

Persuasive techniques indicate that allowing a user to try a service or product throughout an introductory time period can build loyalty quickly and help to establish credibility without the feeling of the classic buyer’s remorse.

No ‘Risk’ Purchase:

Various audiences seek out opportunities for the ‘no risk’ purchase in the event that he/she tries your product/service. Inform your audience about the simple cancellation policy within the first 15 or 30 days of initial purchase.

Price Increase:

Large enterprise organizations have been utilizing this technique to lure in more customers. Let’s face it, everyone is searching for a great deal on purchases. Let’s think ‘Black Friday’, as it is one of the retailer’s largest marketing ploy to lure mass consumers into their stores. This applies to both your brick and mortar and online stores. Consider this principle to bring in increased sales in a short period of time.

Upgrade Offers:

The automotive and consumer electronics industry are notorious for this simple call to action. Upgrades can boost sales performances with greater added-value. Upgrades can occur as a free incentive or can be furnished with paid options. After-all who doesn’t want a top of the line product/service?

Free Giveaway:

This technique is common and can be spotted in numerous marketing campaigns. Buy a computer and get the printer for ‘free.’ Buy this acne cream and we will throw in a second bottle for ‘free.’ These offers can drive high volume of sales in a short period of time.

These techniques can be combined with creative and meaningful copy that attracts your buyer. Provide a simple marketing message that will allow for your market to really hone in and listen.

Examples:

• Contact us today for a free white paper on Wealth Management
• Get a free market analysis on your home
• Sign-up now and learn how to protect yourself from identity theft
• Learn how to choose the perfect engagement ring and avoid costly mistakes
• Purchase a season pass to avoid long lines
• Read how to fall asleep if you suffer from insomnia
• Call today and find out what the IRS looks for in your tax returns
• See how we are helping small businesses manage cash flow and become profitable

A simple call to action can demonstrate a unique capability for the business and position itself for growth. Provide a solution and phrase your ‘call to action’ with the intent to attract your intended audience.