Monday, June 24, 2013

Social Media and Customer Feedback

Most consumers are connected in social media in at least one way if not more. Your business will get positive and negative feedback from customers so you will need to understand how to respond strategically to their feedback.

When you joined a social media, were you thinking you might be putting your business at risk. Being open to customer feedback on Facebook or Twitter can help your business.

Customers want to interact with you on social media. It is great to get positive feedback for the attention. Keep in mind negative comments still can have value when your response is appropriate.

If a customer has a negative comment to make about your business, let them say it. You should respond to the negative comment appropriately. You might be surprised when you find loyal customers coming to your defense.

The rules for responding to complaints on social media is the same as in person. Review the complaint and then look into the situation. Respond right away if you plan on responding on social media. Handling negative feedback on social media well, could turn into a positive. Customers and prospects may be impressed on how your business handled the comment.

Keep an eye on your business’s social media properties so you can turn a bad customer experience into a sales opportunity.

Visit us on Facebook and check out our website www.austinmmp.com

Monday, June 17, 2013

Streamline all your Marketing Channels

Streamline  all your marketing channels campaigns to help your customers identify your brand.
If your customers are familiar and can identify your business based on your branding, it is a better chance your customers will feel comfortable with your business.

Design all your business materials such as letterhead, envelopes, business cards  to be consistent with your branding.   Before you create your next marketing material, ensure they all match with your brand’s color scheme.   

Take a look at your  in-store signage and other promotional pieces.   Do they have the same look and feel?  Does the in-store signage match what your website or social media accounts are saying?  Point of purchase should match your email marketing too.

When creating your direct mail flyers,  remember to keep these pieces  should connect with the rest of your marketing materials.    When you send out direct mail flyers, you want  your flyer to jog a prospect’s memory of seeing your branding before. 

The two most important elements that need to be streamlined is email and website. The  color scheme in your email message ought to complement your website’s colors.   If you catch a customer’s attention from your website, expect an in person visit.  Thus the in-store theme should match the website.

Streamlining all your marketing channels is important for customer retention and closing a sale.  Link  every element to keep them hooked.

Visit our website for more information, www.austinmmp.com

Monday, June 10, 2013

Copyright Laws with images from the Internet

The Internet and Google search engine is giving people a great amount of information and images or photos.  This blog will hopefully help you understand the copyright laws  for images.  MarketMailPrint will purchase images to use in our graphic files.   We also use the copyright symbol when using an image.  We will not print a job if an image has been obtained illegally or does not have the copyright symbol. 

When searching Google for images or photos, remember that photographs are owned by someone.  Getting an image from Google does not mean it is public access for free pictures.  All images are first owned by the photographer or digital art creator.   This is the person who needs to give permission for you to use their image.   When an image is sold with rights to a company that deals with "stock photography", such as bigstockphoto.com or istockphoto.com, then the image is available for the public use.    The stock photography company can then make the image available for free or for a small fee.   A subscription is sometimes required to use their service.   This is the legal way to obtain images from the internet.  

The Copyright Law and Image Usage Rights are laws that should be followed.  Saying you did not know does not make using it legal if the image was obtained illegally.  

Like us on Facebook and visit our website www.austinmmp.com

Monday, June 3, 2013

Facebook's EdgeRank Algorithm


EdgeRank promotes brand pages based on the number of interactions such as comments, likes, and shares a page or post receives.  Posts with more interactions tend to be ranked high by this algorithm and is then displayed to the people who like the page.  Posts that have less comments, likes or shares might not be ranked high in this algorithm.   EdgeRank algorithm is specific to Facebook users who have their news feed settings set to Sort By Top Stories.   Sort By Top Stories is the default setting of Facebook.  When a Facebook user has their news feed set to Sort By Most Recent, they do not have to worry about the EdgeRank algorithm.   The setting Sort By Most Recent allows users to see all of their friends' and liked brands' posts since they are posted in chronological order.

Here are a couple of ideas on how to get your brand's posts to show up in your fan's news feeds:

- Interaction with your own posts by creating dialogue.  These posts will appear in your fan's news feeds.
- Respond within the first hour of your new post.   Majority of post interactions occur the first hour of a post.
- Mix up your post feeds with videos, photos, link to relevant articles.   Don't use the same posting style.
- Ask a question or encourage opinions on a subject in a post.   This makes it easier for your posts to be viewed and ranked important by EdgeRank.
 - Keep posts short.  Don't post a long paragraph, people will be bored.  

Remember, engage with your Facebook friends' and interact with them online to get your posts visibility and relevant.