3 Pitfalls Hiring a Social Marketing Service Will Help You Avoid

Posted on by

You’ve wanted to tap into the marketing potential of the social media empire for some time, but you don’t know where to begin? Do yourself a favor and hire a social marketing service right out of the gate. Internet marketing is wrought with pitfalls and delving into the social media sphere before you’re ready could do more harm than good. Here are 3 big pitfalls that hiring a social marketing service will help you avoid:

Pitfall #1: Spreading yourself too thin

With hundreds of Web 2.0 properties to choose from and dozens of tantalizing opportunities to make some money by creating a big “buzz”, it’s tempting to try to stick your finger in every pot. A social marketing service will help you lay out a strategy customized for your particular niche. That way, you can focus your efforts on the properties that are best suited for your business, and avoid wasting precious time and energy on sites that act as nothing more than resource sink-holes.

Pitfall #2: Sending the wrong message

The power of social media comes in its ability to open a networking gateway between you and your potential customers. That said, the reverse can be true as well – what little positive reputation you may have garnered can be quickly buried under a flurry of bad PR if you make the wrong comment, have an unsatisfied customer, or say, inadvertently portray yourself as an untrustworthy business due to setting up your brokerage profile on a Web 2.0 site known for hosting scams and spam. A social marketing service will help you avoid these pitfalls, guiding you toward the sites where your target audience resides and ensuring that your reputation stays nice and shiny along the way.

Pitfall #3: Letting your sites stagnate

Nothing kills a social marketing campaign faster than sites that are left to stagnate. Every property on which you build your Web presence must be updated regularly with new content, rich media, follow up commentary, and regular monitoring if it’s going to serve your efforts — an endeavor that no one human can do on their own. A social marketing service lends an army of dedicated professionals to your cause, leaving your with more free time to focus on growing other aspects of your business.

In summary, hiring a social marketing service to aid your marketing endeavors just makes sense. Do yourself a favor, and find a company who will provide you with the customized solutions you’re looking for today!

The Way Forward For Marketing Project Management

Posted on by

Why are other departments such as accounts, fulfillment and operations more organized than marketing?

With today’s standards, the marketing function may represent the greatest opportunity for increasing overall business growth and company innovation.

Your campaign management people feel the pressure – yet lost at sea amongst tantalizing new fads and genuine new opportunities such as affiliate marketing, social media, twitter…

But it’s no one’s fault. Business has to take more responsibility to the point of absorbing marketing as a centre piece of modern strategy, rather than leaving it silo’d. Only then can the marketing function do what it can and must.

Said the great Peter Drucker: “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two-and only two-basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

And what is the most glaringly obvious opportunity to improve right now? Marketing Project Management.

Training in MPM can come from books on project management… or it can extend into formalised academic education, or a comprehensive study and implementation of critical chain PM which is way ahead of standard critical path methodology.

The Way Into Marketing Project Management

Regardless of the approach taken for marketing project management training, or the scale of MPM required in your business, there are 6 components for MPM.

1. Preparation – Customer focus orientation, productivity training

2. Research – Customer insight, product insight, internal capabilities audits, etc.

3. Development – Web site, NPD, teamwork training, etc.

4. Conversion – Campaign management, website management, email marketing, sales pipeline, etc

5. Traffic – Search engine optimisation, affiliates, list procurement, social marketing.

6. Tracking – Web tracking, financial ratios, etc.

These 6 areas of practical marketing project management are guided through the trialectic of management:

1. Outcome – Get clear on the targets that are possible and are required for high marketing results.
2. Process – Understand the constraints and how to mitigate them.
3. Performance – Guiding daily productivity and overall ROI of all marketing campaigns.

With this protocol any marketing manager can construct a unique approach to marketing project management.