Pros and Cons of Marketing on Twitter

Increasing social media fondness has given a boost to social media marketing. Twitter, one of the favored social media channels for business, has seen rapid growth in recent times. But Twitter marketing also comes with a few drawbacks. Marketers many a times do not consider the inefficiencies and focus only on the advantages which result in failure in the promotion strategy. Here we have listed some of the advantages as well as disadvantages of Twitter Marketing for a business.

Pros

Multiplicities of Ads

Twitter lets a business promote its brand in various forms, for example, “promoted tweet”. A promoted tweet lets a particular tweet to be pushed on to the timelines of users that match your target segment, which encourages them to follow the handle and can even click on the links on the tweet landing up to various business pages of your brand. Businesses can also promote trends, which appear in the search box in the app and on the left side of the timeline on browser.

Reach

Reaching millions of twitter users is a benefit for any particular business looking for reach. Thanks to Twitter’s segmented databases it reduces time for companies to narrow down their segment and can hit their targeted section’s timeline in no time.

Shortened URL:

Twitter allows shortening the URL for any target webpage of your brand on which you need users to land up. It also saves the characters being used in a particular tweet giving more space for the message as well. With the recent update on twitter, it shortens the URL as much as it can just by updating the number of characters used in the URL and inserting into the post. Simple huh!

Scheduled Tweets

Businesses now can schedule Tweets to be posted in the future.  Both organic and promoted-only Tweets can be scheduled for future delivery, and as needed, coordinated to go live with new or existing campaigns. Anything that can be planned in advance can be scheduled, such as new product releases or regular updates. In addition, you can use this feature to publish Tweets on the weekend, evenings, or other inconvenient times — to keep your Twitter presence lively around the clock. Tweets can be scheduled up to a year in advance and to 1-minute regularity. Apart from it, several online tools are available such as Hootsuite, Twittimer etc. which allow you to schedule tweets when you are unavailable for tweeting. Very helpful!

Cons

Expensive

Not to forget that the twitter promoted trends cost very high in comparison to other social media ad cost. The high cost of twitter marketing can be one of the major drawbacks for the companies that want to promote their brands on twitter!

Difficult to derive the correct ROI

It becomes a challenging job to derive the ROI for investment made in Twitter Ads. For example, say someone clicked on the ad by mistake and it gets counted in the data as a click for the ad but that’s a wasted click for your business!

Spamming

Promoting on twitter rigorously can prove a business as a spammer too! Once a business is on twitter the behavior of that particular handle is being judged and if that is too disturbing for the people less interested in your product/services they can negate your business’ reputation even without your knowledge. Tough thing!

Marketing on social media is easy and fun but it comes with many disadvantages and hence before stepping up social media activities you must be aware of all the possible consequences. Twitter is one of the most widely used social media platforms and has a user database that can boost any business at any given point of time. But to choose twitter for promotion one must have patience for interacting and engaging with users honestly, which will help the business in the long run.

The Internet has become the primary source of information for the majority of consumers. Keywords and phrases are typed into a search engine on a computer or mobile device, and a vast volume of related content is presented to the consumer.

Studies suggest that when using search engines, most people do not go beyond the listings mentioned on the first couple of pages of the search engine results list. It has been noted that 90 percent of all users do not look past the first thirty results. This means a high-ranking website has a much higher probability of getting traffic from search engines than a lower ranking website.

Search Engine Optimization involves a number of activities and initiatives that businesses can implement to achieve high search engine rankings. Such activities address both on-page and off-page ranking factors that can affect a website’s or web page’s search engine rankings for specific search terms, resulting in a high placement in a search engine’s “organic,” or “natural,” or “unpaid” search results.

Most search engines can be divided into two common groups:

1. Spider- or Crawler-Based Search Engines

This refers to an Internet-based tool that searches the index of documents or web pages for a particular term, phrase, or text specified by the user, and produces results that are collected, sorted, and automatically indexed based on a defined algorithm.

A software program known as a “robot,” “spider,” or “crawler” scans web pages, follows links between pages and sites, collects information about websites, and indexes this information. This index is a large database of all the websites the crawler has scanned. When a search is performed using a spider-based search engine, the results are provided based on the information in the search engine’s index.

To rank high in search engine results, businesses need to optimize their websites and web pages to ensure that they are being properly indexed by the search engines. Several activities can be initiated in order to influence the information gathered and indexed by robots, spiders, or crawlers. There are many crawler- or spider-based search engines available on the Internet. Some of the popular search engines are Google, Baidu, Bing, and Yahoo.

When a search is performed in a spider-based search engine, the results show both unpaid “organic” listings and paid listings, if any, for the keyword searched. Search engine optimization affects only organic search results. Paid or “sponsored” search results are not affected by SEO. Sponsored results are ads purchased through search engine services such as Google AdWords or Bing Ads. These figures show the anatomy of Google and Bing search engine results.

2.  Human-Edited Web Directories

These directories are Internet search tools that search for information by subject categories. Rather than “robots” or “spiders,” which create directories automatically, human editors create these web directories. A short description along with the URL of the website is submitted to the directory for approval. The search directory then assigns the website to a category enabling the URL to display in search results for that category.

With web directories, the HTML page coding and content of the website seldom directly affect the listing. Directories often provide more targeted results than spider-based search engines. Some examples of popular human-edited web directories for businesses include Dmoz, Business.com, Best of the Web Directory, and Starting Point Directory.

For SEO purposes, a website should be optimized to gain high ranking in spider-based search engines. However, listings of the website in human-edited web directories also help in the overall SEO ranking.

Product Portfolio Analysis

The strengths and weaknesses of a company determine its internal capabilities to compete in a market and fulfill customer expectations. One of the tools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a company is a Product Portfolio Analysis. The Product Portfolio Analysis was proposed in 1973 by Peter Drucker as a way to classify current and expected profitability.

The Product Portfolio Analysis classified various offerings of a particular company into seven categories. They are:

• Today`s Breadwinners - These products are most profitable to the company. The company should support these products and maintain current investment levels.
• Tomorrow`s Breadwinners - These products have the potential to contribute to the company`s profit in the future and thus the company should support these products and perhaps increase investments in them.
• Yesterday`s Breadwinners - These were the most profitable products of the past but do not currently contribute significantly to profits. The company needs to maintain a minimum level of support and investment for these products until the time they resume generating substantial profits. After that, the company may decide to discontinue such products.
• Developments - These products are under development and need greater investment to achieve a level on which they start generating profits. A decision on whether to invest more resources needs to be made after a thorough analysis of the market potential and Return on Investment (ROI) for these products.
• Sleepers - These products have been around for some time but have failed to establish themselves.
• Investments in Managerial Ego - These products, backed by influential managers, have little proven demand in the market and typically waste many functional resources.
• Failures - These products have failed in the past and have no future in their current form. They should ideally be discontinued unless there is a way to successfully reposition them.

Products in the first three categories, "Today`s Breadwinners," "Tomorrow`s Breadwinners," and "Yesterday`s Breadwinners," are strengths of the company while those in the last two categories, "Investments in Managerial Ego" and "Failures," are weaknesses. The "Developments" and "Sleepers" need to be analyzed in greater detail to classify them as either strengths or weaknesses.

A product portfolio analysis for a company in the phone manufacturing industry may categorize its entire product as follows:

• Today`s Breadwinners: Touch screen cell phones
• Tomorrow`s Breadwinners: Hybrid tablet-cell phones
• Yesterday`s Breadwinners: Home phone handsets
• Developments: Wearable technology
• Sleepers: Imbedded, bio-technology
• Investments in Managerial Ego: Extendable keyboards
• Failures: In-ear receivers

After the classification exercise, the marketing team is able to pinpoint products that contribute to the company`s strengths and those that do not. Accordingly, the Marketing Strategy to be followed for each product can be decided.

Sales training, not just for sales teams anymore. SMstudy is for everyone.

As companies continue the eternal pursuit of streamlining, a little bit of universal sales training can yield major benefits. Basic understanding of the aspects of the sales process is a benefit for all members of a company regardless of position or department.

Some very real advances in efficiency can be achieved when everyone speaks the same language.

Ever feel important communications get lost in translation from one branch of a company to the other? Since sales is usually a crucial element of any company, it benefits everyone to have an understanding of sales processes and its terminology.  When everyone speaks the same language, everything goes more smoothly.

According to Will Brooks, executive vice president and director of marketing at The Brooks Group, “Communication is enhanced once everyone is fluent in the selling process, when the dialogue around specific accounts and stages in the buyer’s journey becomes more efficient—both within the sales team and across departments. Congruent terminology and standard definitions of each stage in the buying process reduces miscommunication and unifies the sales and marketing departments.”

Continuity of Message = Efficiency

Another important benefit of universal sales training; the continuity of company communication, both internally and externally. A consistent informed message that permeates a company will make a stronger clearer message to potential customers. As customers are brought in to the sales cycle, they will continue to receive a consistent message that in turn leads to a seamless customer experience. 

Brooks notes, “Customer service can better understand the customer’s needs once they have received sales training, and when marketing understands the sales process, they can provide tools and resources that are aligned with how sales is selling. The promises sales makes to customers should mirror the messages that marketing sends out, and alignment between these departments ensures that’s always happening.”

SMstudy works very well for any company considering a company-wide sales training program. It’s convenient and offers flexible training opportunities that work within the timeframe of a staff members’ busy schedule. The SMstudy Guide® and all its resources, including training videos, study guides, test questions and more, is ideally positioned to provide a positive sales training experience for everyone. 

Find more interesting information on sales and marketing at smstudy.com.

Sources:

How Sales Training Can Benefit More Than the Sales Team, Will Brooks. Sept. 21, 2015. https://www.trainingindustry.com/blog/blog-entries/how-sales-training-can-benefit-more-than-the-sales-team.aspx

All About Customer Advisory Boards

A Customer Advisory Board (CAB) or Customer Advisory Council is a representative customer group comprising senior stakeholders who convene periodically to validate product features, the marketing plan, and the strategic direction of the company to ensure these align with customers and the market. The company uses the information gathered at these meetings to realign business priorities and formulate strategy.

CABs meet on a periodic basis, typically two or three times per year. Some companies choose to meet more or less frequently, depending on need. However, it is challenging to have frequent customer councils as participation at these events is often voluntary, and participants are usually constrained by time. Also, the time and resources taken to accomplish and follow through with changes discussed in the customer councils often do not allow for more frequent meetings.

A physical meeting is the most popular format for customer councils. Other formats used by companies include tele-conferences, video conferences, and online CABs. Using these formats can help reduce time and money spent on travel and can result in increased participation levels. However, while they are more convenient, these formats are not always as effective as face-to-face meetings.

Key Functions of CABs

Some of the important uses of CABs are as follows:

• Validating ideas for new features or new products
• Providing valuable insights into how customers are using the products
• Prioritizing features and identifying the most important ones on which to focus
• Assisting in understanding how the products fare against alternatives in the market
• Helping in designing the next generation of products which customers may adopt in future
• Assisting in retaining key customers
• Increasing revenue opportunities within the existing customer base

A key distinction between a CAB and a focus group is that the members of a CAB are carefully chosen senior members of management from client organizations, unlike product users in the case of focus groups.

To read more articles about sales and marketing, visit www.smstudy.com/articles

Happy Customer, Happy Life

Just as every married man can attest to the fact that “a happy wife makes a happy life,” anyone interacting with customers will agree that a happy customer makes a happy life as well.

So, why would a sales team not use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system when it’s been shown to improve customer happiness? The truth is that very few opt out of a CRM system, since there are just too many good, sound reasons to incorporate the tool and in essence create a win-win situation for the sales team AND customer alike.

According to SMstudy, a CRM system is used to track the various stages in the sales process. It also assists in managing a company’s interactions with a customer, thus allowing a company to manage information about customers and customer touch-points in order to maximize customer loyalty.

Based on the information available in most CRM systems, a company is able to provide a high degree of personalized service to the customer in the form of customized products, services and promotions. Personalized services are also key to maintaining and building customer loyalty.

A typical CRM System has four processes:

1. Knowledge Discovery– This is the process of analyzing customer information through contact with a company’s products or services. CRM systems enable the company to analyze the data and draw meaningful insights.
2. Planning– In this process, the output from the knowledge discovery phase is used to develop strategies for personalized marketing and promotional activities.
3. Customer Interaction– This is the process where the actual implementation of the various programs and strategies occurs. These programs and strategies target various customer touch-points and/or company channels.
4. Analysis and Refinement– In this process, customer feedback and responses from the various programs implemented are analyzed as part of the ongoing communication and review process.

In his article, “The five biggest benefits of CRM systems,” Patricio Robles notes, “In today's ultra-competitive markets, the companies that manage customer relationships the best are more likely to win than those that don't.”

Robles goes on to list the top five reasons why a company should incorporate a CRM system. They include:

1. Efficiency – not only does a CRM system clear up any inefficiencies related to manual customer management, but also “the ability of popular CRM platforms to integrate with other systems, such as marketing automation tools can enable companies to interact with customers in ways that they wouldn't have the resources to do otherwise.”
2. Collaboration – Complex customer lifecycles require the ability for many to work together. “The use of cloud-based CRM platforms allows employees in multiple departments to more effectively manage their customer relationships and to see the big picture at any time.”
3. Data – Access to data, the ability to analyze data and present it clearly are all integral to understanding what’s happening with customers. “Popular CRM platforms typically offer a variety of homegrown and third party tools that enable companies to understand their CRM data and learn things about their customers that wouldn't be possible otherwise.”
4. Increased accountability – Consider a CRM system as the safety net catching all who may have “fallen through the cracks.” “A well-implemented CRM system helps employees across departments understand their responsibilities to customers throughout the customer lifecycle and when those responsibilities aren't met, it's easy to identify what went wrong, where, who fell short and how to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
5. Improved customer experience – As we said earlier, this is the ultimate benefit of all. “Customers are more easily and accurately segmented, their needs identified, and because the status of a company's relationship with them is accurately tracked, companies can interact with them meaningfully at the right times, leading to more sales, faster sales and higher customer retention and satisfaction.”

Happy customers make a happy sales and marketing life.

To read more articles about sales and marketing, visit www.smstudy.com/articles

Sources:

“The five biggest benefits of CRM systems,” Patricio Robles, April 10, 2015

https://econsultancy.com/blog/66287-the-five-biggest-benefits-of-crm-systems/

How Low Can You Go? How High Can You Get?

Continually rising prices at the gas pump since the mid-1970s has had us all asking, “How high can these get?!” As 2015 slipped into 2016, with oil by the barrel in free fall, we found ourselves asking, “How low can this go?”

The roller coaster of oil pricing per barrel and sticker surprise at the gas pump has a lot of people wondering, “How in the world do they set those prices?”

Companies set their prices according to their own pricing strategy, which “properly prices products or services so that the company can sustain profitability while maintaining or growing its market share,” according to SMstudy’s Marketing Strategy, book one in the SMstudy® Guide series. Even though it sometimes seems as though companies are grabbing for quick profits and letting the future take care of itself, sustained profitability and growth in market share are part of every sane strategy.

Coming up with that sane strategy isn’t as easy as a few fat cats sitting around in a smoky room saying, “Well, what do we want to charge for this?” That question is likely to be followed with another, “What CAN we get for this?” And now our fat cats are talking strategy. The SMstudy® Guide says, “In order to develop a comprehensive Pricing Strategy, a company must specifically evaluate and understand the trends and dynamics in many areas such as the following:

• the features and pricing of competitive products in the market
• the company’s desired positioning, mapped against that of the competition to identify pricing of similarly positioned products
• the consumer mindset to understand the demand and spending capability for each product
• the cost, projected unit sales, and targeted profitability levels of each product
• the innovativeness of each product
• the capability of the production and operations teams to create high-quality products at reasonable costs
• the knowledge of the current and desired market shares for each product.”

 The SMstudy® Guide details nine inputs and fourteen tools companies can use to understand these trends and dynamics to design a successful pricing strategy. One input is the company’s own positioning statement. This statement is important because “how a company markets a product impacts who buys it and how much consumers are willing to pay to purchase it.” The positioning statement identifies who the company wants to sell to and how much it would like those customers to pay. “A company that caters to a wealthier market segment with relatively high disposable incomes, aims to create a premier positioning for the product focusing on the quality of the goods or services, brand messaging, and packaging.” This market position allows for premium pricing, too.  It is no wonder that there are at least three grades of gasoline at every pump.

Another input is “opportunities and threats.” As the SMstudy® Guide points out, “Identifying and analyzing opportunities and threats help the company consider the external factors that may influence the costs involved in manufacturing a product or service and subsequently impact its pricing.” This is why refinery fires, hostile take overs of oil fields, and sudden growth from emerging markets all over the world affect the price of gasoline at the station on the corner.

So, how in the world do they set those prices? By following a rather elaborate pricing strategy.

For more help understanding pricing and marketing strategies, visit SMstudy.com

The information in this article comes from chapter four of SMstudy’s Marketing Strategy, book one in theSMstudy® Guide series of six books that also include Marketing Research, Digital Marketing, Corporate Sales,Retail Sales and Branding and Advertising.