Bringing Technology into Your Marketing Plan
Integrating technology into your marketing plan can have positive and significant effects on your business. With the right tool and the right message, you can easily become globally competitive.
We are at a very dynamic moment in business. The economy is weak, consumer confidence is low, and a record amount of people are unemployed. Budgets are being cut and businesses are being forced to do more with less. But how? One way is to find new ways to reach out to customers. As technology continues to evolve, business and marketing change along with it. Using social media is just one way you can use a different perspective to become globally competitive.
Whether it is because of competition, or because of a need in the international markets, many companies are finding it necessary to start expanding their businesses internationally. By using the Internet, and specifically, social media, companies can break out of their regional box and find success internationally.
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Three Instantly Effective Social Media Ideas
Why it is Important: Want to stay connected with your customers, but don't have the time to roll out an entire social media strategy? You can now easily stay connected, get their input, and offer special content to them by using tools you may already have.
If you want your business to get into social media, you do not have to start with generic Facebook and Twitter pages. You can build your web presence to manage cost and risk by using tools like suggestion boxes, widgets, and Deals-of-the-Day pages. This article will give you tips on who your target audience is with each tool, how you can implement it, how to allocate your budget, and where to get help. It even gives examples of marketing strategies already in use.
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5 Ways Companies Used News Trends for Business Success
Why it is important: As people pay increasingly less attention to traditional forms of marketing, companies are looking for different ways to reach people. Some have found success by relating their products to news trends.
This article gives some examples of how companies have used news trends to bring attention to their business. This new form of marketing is very interesting, especially because it is becoming easier for consumers to ignore traditional marketing. Recent strategies include creating a game somewhat like Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and a family resort spot promoting a "stimulus package" of $200 off in coupons.
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Leaders Should Strive for Clarity, Not Transparency
Why it is important: This article reminds us that transparency and clarity are two different things, and that leaders should focus more on complete clarity than complete transparency. What do you focus on as a leader?
The article states that full transparency is when you give someone access to all the facts regarding a subject, however, when you offer up all the facts, people can question your credibility, or the topics may be too complex to understand. Instead, leaders should focus on full clarity, as then the audience can completely understand the topic. One way to achieve full clarity may be through social media.
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7 Tips to Get Media Coverage for Your Business
Why it is important: How can you get coverage and create demand for your business? For free? Try attracting local or national media.
Attempt to create demand for your products or services by getting media coverage for your business. To do this, it is important to pay attention to the news, to be prepared to interact with a reporter right away, and how to build a relationship and work with reporters.
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How to Build a Multilingual, Multicultural Customer Experience
Why it is important: Customer service is a critical factor in every industry. Now, businesses with international customers are taking a look at a customer's experience and are tailoring the customer service experience to local markets with the language and culture of the customer. Now and in the future, sales outside of a business' region will be very important.
This article gives some helpful tips on how businesses can build a multilingual, multicultural customer experience into their customer service processes. The tips include assessing the importance of customer service, assessing the target market, assessing the scope of customer queries, training agents, and adopting culturally-nuanced policies and practices.
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Managing an Online Reputation
Why it is important: As technology becomes more and more ingrained in our daily lives, it will be more and more important for businesses to manage their online reputation. Customers can easily post reviews - positive and negative - about a company's products or services. Are you managing your online reputation?
Type your company's name into a Google search. Do you see any reviews? Is your online reputation good or bad? A businesses' online reputation is very important - one recent study found that local search for businesses, products and services grew 58 percent last year and reached 15.7 billion searches, more than a tenth of overall search traffic. This article will give you tips on how you can monitor, manage, and promote your businesses' online reputation.
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Hire People Who Disagree with You
Why it is important: Differing opinions are essential. No one has all of the answers. With different voices you are able to see the different sides of a situation.
When hiring, think of looking for someone that may have opinions different from your own. The different opinions can clarify situations, or provide answers that you alone may not have. Tips include looking for character, the strength of a person's ideas, ambition, and track record.
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Rivals Band Together to Boost Business
Why it is important: Because of the recession, some former competitors have come together to create synergy and stay in business. Are there any businesses in your region you could collaborate with?
This article has some examples of small business owners who have joined forces with their competitors to survive the recession. Some examples of partnership include shared distribution channels, referral agreements, subcontracting, and joint ventures. With the partnerships, both businesses are stronger. If you plan on doing this, make sure you both sign a non-disclosure agreement and put payment deadlines and payment agreements in writing.
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Your Marketing ADD Fix: That Smaller Budget
Why it is important: Everyone is always trying to do more with less. But sometimes the results suffer. Can you cut your budget and be more effective?
When taking a look at budgets, sometimes companies determine that sometimes the marketing budgets are the first to be cut. That may not be a bad thing. This article is an excerpt of an instant messaging conversation with a marketing manager who has managed to generate one half of the inquiries and responses, but is getting the same amount or more opportunities for the sales team with just 30% of last year's budget. One of his discoveries is that a big budget make you lazy - focus on fewer, but larger projects to get more focused results.
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Number of Social Networking Users Has Doubled Since 2007
Why it is important: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are experiencing tremendous growth among adults. Is your business taking advantage of this?
Nearly one third of all US adults visit social networks at least monthly, nearly doubling the same figure from 2 years ago. Could your business be targeting advertising on these social networking sites? Could you be building your own network? Many adults also research and purchase products online. Is your website up to date, and do you have an ecommerce strategy?
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Why the Starbucks "15th Ave" Store Is Doomed to Fail
Why it is important: Even Starbucks is trying to find a way to reinvent itself. The company is focusing its efforts on an "independent" line of neighborhood coffeehouses. But will it be successful?
Starbucks is planning to open a line of coffeehouses named 15th Ave. Coffee & Tea aimed to compete with neighborhood coffeehouses, but some seem to think that this experiment will be unsuccessful. Why? One reason is because it won't be as unique as the quirky coffee houses already in neighbors. Another reason is because it is dishonest - everyone knows that it will be managed by Starbucks. The author states that Strabucks should focus on improving its core business.
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Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter
Why it is important: Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media sites, and it is projected to grow to 18.1 million users in 2010. If you decide that Twitter is right for your business, read this article to build your company's or your own personal brand on Twitter.
Twitter is becoming one of the many ways businesses quickly and effectively connect with their customers. How should your business start using Twitter? Suggestions from this article include claiming your Twitter handel, deciding how you want to brand yourself, become known as an expert in the or resource, and establishing a Twitter marketing plan.
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Rebalancing the Economy
Why it is important: Learn where the American economy has been, and some theories of where it is going. Too much spending and not enough saving led America to a mess. But it wasn’t always that way.
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Pathfinder Scorecard
What scares business leaders are the blind spots inside and around their companies. Do you know "what you don't know?" Once you know... what are you doing about it? What is your gameplan? How will you execute it?
The Pathfinder Scorecard
evaluates 8 key areas to sustaining
your reginal business in this global, Internet economy.
IntellaCore has a unique point of view because we are positioned at the critical crossroads where very few are... that place where the global economy meets the Internet and Communications Technology (ICT)
• Market Awarness
• Market Strategy
• Internet Presence and Activities
• Product/Service Readiness
• Operational Readiness
• Technology Readiness
• Personnel Readiness
• Collaboration
Click here to learn more about the Pathfinder Scorecard
IntellaCore has launched a webinar series to help small and mid-sized businesses. Top 10 Tips will be a twice a month series of 30 minute webinars with specific tips on how to compete and to win in today’s marketplace. Participants can download a whitepaper after the webinar dedicated to the topic of the day.
The first Top Ten Tips webinar will be held on Tuesday, August 4, at 2:00 PM EST. The topic will be Top 10 Tips for Deciding if Your Business is Ready to Export. Click here to register.
For each webinar IntellaCore will provide 10 Top Tips relating to a wide range of specific topics that will fall into the following categories: increasing sales and distribution, strengthening the supply chain and reducing costs, aligning technology and Internet activity to the business plan, and creating a sustainable business in today’s market environment.
The Top 10 Tips series, is a short, high-impact webinar series that offers specific recommendations and Q&A in 30 minutes.
We all hear a lot about exporting. Today it is just not that hard, and the use of the Internet makes it easier than ever. Even thought the US economy is in shambles, other economies are growing and have a need for a variety of products and services. With 95% of world economic growth occurring outside of the USA every business most determine if it can diversify its distribution and sales efforts. Can your business benefit from exporting? Attend this webinar and you will gain valuable insight into your business, and how you can make your company sustainable, no matter what industry you are in.
The Top 10 Tips you will learn more about in the webinar are:
1. Determine why your company should export
2. Review your company's finances
3. Determine your company's scope for expansion
4. Make sure you have the staff, premises, and equipment to handle the increase in demand
5. Assemble a team to develop the exporting process
6. Set goals for the export project
7. Select the product that would sell best in an international marketplace
8. Make sure your management has expressed long-term commitment to the new business plan
9. Use your website to explore international opportunities
10. Gather initial market intelligence
Ask Our Experts
At IntellaCore we are available to answer any question you may have about the global internet economy. We assist companies to compete and win in today's globalized, Internet economy.
- Is there something that is stumping you about an international aspect of your current marketplace?
- Is there an obstacle that is preventing you from expanding your business into new markets?
- Are you having trouble determining how to use the Internet practically for your business?
Frequently Stated Challenges
- I can't find good, actionable market intelligence to know what is really going on in my marketplace, let alone new markets.
- I need to find a partner in a new market to help me export my product.
I am trying to find new suppliers to diversify my supply chain or reduce costs.
- My website is not right and is just not executing my business plan for visibility and revenue growth.
- We are overwhelmed trying to manage all of our external distribution, sourcing, and partnering relationships. The relationships are not achieving the goals we set for them.
- We are not a truly collaborative organization where people are working together, sharing information, and propelling the company forward in the best manner possible.
Ask us your question, and we will get you an answer by clicking here.
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