Posted by Evan Fast on November 23, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Many companies claim that they have a very loyal customer base. That’s great, because repeat customers keep most companies in business. However, the customer loyalty of nearly every business pales in comparison to sports teams and their customer (fan) base.
Two of us at Flint Hills Design are serious Kansas University basketball fans. Neither of us went to KU, and our only real association with KU basketball is the fact that we live in Kansas. Living in Kansas doesn’t make us fans of KU though; we could have chosen to be Kansas State, Wichita State, Emporia State, or Fort Hays State basketball fans if that was the case. We’re KU fans because of the experience, the personality and success of the team/coaches, and our belief that KU basketball represents something about us as individuals. Everyone who is a fan of a specific sports team shares similar reasons for associating themselves with the team, whether their team is the New York Yankees, the Manchester United football team, or the Garmin-Transitions cycling team.
This is also the basis for customer loyalty within most companies. However, very few companies reach this level of loyalty. I’ve been happy with the tires on my car and would be glad to buy them again, but because I don’t feel a close association to my tires I may try a different brand or model based on customer reviews, price, or the salesperson. However, I can guarantee I won’t switch my basketball team loyalty if K-State ticket prices are lower, other friends try to persuade me that Duke is a better team, or KU starts performing poorly.
This is the type of loyalty that every business should strive for, but it’s true that hardly any business achieves this level of loyalty. Apple has come close due to their buying experience, customer service, and the fact that Apple customers can associate themselves with a “different” computer company. Even so, Apple still doesn’t match the loyalty that most sports teams generate.
Businesses can begin generating a more loyal customer base by creating a unique buying experience, offering exceptional customer service, or pricing their products/services lower than the competition. However, businesses ultimately won’t reach this level of loyalty unless their customers feel a close attachment to, and want to associate themselves with, the company’s products, services, or experience. While it’s a lofty goal, and one that most businesses will never quite reach, aiming for this level of brand loyalty will help make your business stand head and shoulders above the competition.
Posted by Evan Fast on November 11, 2010 · Leave a Comment
If you are just checking out this blog post, you may want to read the precursor to this post first.
Let’s build our social media presence!
For people who use social media sites on a regular basis (I can think of at least five social media sites that I visit every single day), learning how to use social media to market ones products or services isn’t very hard. However, there are many people who don’t visit social media sites but are then told to create a social media presence for their company or organization. To make it easier for all readers, I will break out the process into four steps.
Become familiar with your options
With so many social media sites on the web today, it can be exhausting trying to determine which one to use. Sites like Wikipedia (hey, that’s a social media site!) have a lot of general information relating to social media. It’s also very helpful to have first-hand experience with the social media site you are interested in, so set up your own personal account and begin learning about the site.
Develop your strategy
This is the most overlooked part of the process. Many companies simply use their traditional marketing tactics when creating a social media presence. Don’t do this! Other companies will completely change their marketing message when using social media marketing. Don’t do this either! Your message must stay consistent through ALL of your marketing outlets. However, you must also recognize that you’re marketing a different audience. Therefore, your tactics, promotions, and audience interaction will likely be much different than your traditional marketing efforts. Make sure you’re also building in ways to track your successes and failures. You’ll want to do this during this upfront, instead of trying to incorporate it once you’ve already built your social media presence.
Implement (and keep implementing!)
Once you have a strategy, put it in place and begin building your social media presence. However, don’t forget to keep updating your social media pages. Just because you have 5 posts and 20 friends/followers doesn’t mean your presence will keep growing without your help. There are many helpful tools out there (like Tweetdeck) that help you organize all your social media sites and keep on top of updates.
Monitor and Assess
How are your social media pages performing? What are you followers saying about you? Have you seen positive benefits from this endeavor? Is your social media marketing still conveying the same message as your traditional marketing? Monitoring your performance will tell you what you need to change, and what tactics are really worth your time. Hopefully you will see positive results and find that the time you’ve put into the process has been worth your while.
We understand that for some people this process is extremely overwhelming and intimidating. If you would like help developing your social media marketing strategy (or any marketing strategy), implementing your social media presence, or assessing your current presence, we would love to help!
Contact us to learn more about how we can work together to build a strong marketing strategy for your business or organization!
Posted by Evan Fast on November 10, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Companies, businesses, and organizations are always looking for new ways to reach people, so it’s no wonder why social media is an extremely popular advertising outlet for many organizations. Obviously, this isn’t anything groundbreaking. For many years, companies have used sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube to market their products and services. Non-profit organizations have also used social media to get in touch with new patrons and volunteers.
To be completely honest, I know this post won’t cover anything that hasn’t already been covered by 100 other people. So why write about this topic, when so many other people and marketing companies are doing the same? Because there are still too many examples of poor social media marketing out there today.
Nearly every time I’m on Facebook or Twitter I find a new example of a company using this new technology with marketing tactics that are wildly out of place. It is very easy to find hundreds of companies that don’t design their marketing strategy to meet the needs and desires of their audience. It’s also relatively easy to tell that many of these companies and organizations don’t put the same time and effort into their social media marketing as they do with their traditional marketing efforts. Even though social media marketing is generally free, like all other marketing you still have to invest time and effort into social media marketing if you expect to see positive returns.
Yes, one can argue that having any marketing presence, regardless of the quality, on social media sites is a good thing. However, if you’re willing to spend time on traditional marketing, why not spend some more time to create a social media marketing strategy that really interests your audience?
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