Here at Amplify we are on a constant quest to ensure our clients get the most out of their services. With this in mind, we are happy to announce that our clients will now be able to manage their mobile app via their own mobile phones!
For the first time, business owners will be able to manage their app on the go with out the need to have access to a computer. You will be able to send out push notifications to your social media, check detailed analytics and so much more!
“Manage Your App” will allow you to sync your business’ social media page. You will now be able simultaneously post to Facebook, Twitter and send out push notifications. This means your business can keep your customers well informed through both social media and your app all at once!
So for example, say you want to send out a promotion for Friday night. You can go into “Manage Your App” and send out a message that reads “Come in on Friday night for 10% off your meal!”. By using the app you will be able to update your app users, Facebook fans and Twitter followers all at once. Imagine how much time you can save!
As an Amplify client the app is completely free for you to use right now! So, what are you waiting for download it here or search “Manage Your App” in the iTunes App Store.
And if you aren’t one of our mobile app clients check out our Mobile App services here.
“Every business should be thinking about building mobile apps today. It’s not a fad or a passing trend. It’s customer service.“ – FORBES
As a business we face the reality that not everyone will be happy with our services or products. So, what happens when an unsatisfied customer takes their complaint online or onto social media? How do you react? How do you handle the situation so it doesn’t snowball, hurt your business or cause other potential customers to be put off?
Bad Reviews Affect Small Businesses, too!
As a local small business you have to be twice as protective of your brand. As you know, especially here in the Rio Grande Valley, news travels fast and bad news travels twice as fast. So you need to be sure to handle a negative review online quickly and effectively. As we have seen in the past, one person’s complaint about an issue can quickly turn into an swarm of negative feedback from multiple people if not handle properly.
So, What to Do When You Get a Bad Customer Review?
In the past, a bad experience with your business would result in an angry call or a strongly worded letter, but in today’s digital age we are faced with the possibility of one customer’s bad experience getting out to a mass audience. A bad online review can create distrust and fear from potential customers, especially if you do not address it quickly. So, how should you deal with negative online reviews?
1. Monitor Your Social Media Channels
I know we say this A LOT, but it truly is one of the most important things you can do for your business. You need to monitor all social media channels for any mention of your brand or business, whether it’s good or bad.
2. Respond
Again, whether the comment was good or bad, you need to respond. Be proactive in reaching out to your engaged users, make them feel heard and understood. Be humble and ensure you are solving all their issues and concerns.
3. Keep Doing It
This is something you must continuously be doing. If someone is taking the time out of their day to talk with your business, that means they care. So, make sure you are responding and handling the issue EVERY SINGLE TIME! Did you know that 58% of customers want companies to respond to a complaint on social media and an even more staggering statistic, 42%expect companies to respond to positive comments.
I know this seems like a lot of work to do, but by doing this your business will create positive sentiment from your customers. These small gestures will be the building blocks of creating loyal customers who will recommend you at every opportunity they can.
Although negative online customer reviews can potentially rec havoc on your business, if you handle each complaint correctly you can leverage the situation to benefit your business and create long lasting relationships with your customers.
The Rio Grande Valley, as mentioned before in a previous blog post, is a unique place to be for a business. We adopt trends and innovation at our own rate, despite what is going on in the outside world. So, as someone in the marketing and advertising industry it does not surprise me that local businesses have been slow to adapt digital marketing into their marketing budget and practices.
The thing about digital marketing is that it can be a very cost effective way for local businesses to spread the word about their products and services, if done right. The downside to digital marketing is that everyone that owns a computer thinks they can do it the ‘right way’, when in reality there is a lot more science to it than meets the eye. The online world is rapidly changing and in order to stay ahead of the curve and in contact with your potential customers you need to be aware of the new marketing techniques. Because of this, we want to share some fundamental marketing techniques that local businesses should strive to do right in 2013.
Let’s get things right in 2013:
Email Lists
This can be a huge asset to your business, it’s essentially a direct line to your customers! These people have already frequented your business and have decided they like you enough to want to hear from you.
So how do you do it? Gather emails from people who actually want to be on your list, because in the long run these are the people that want to hear from you and will go back in store to buy from you.
Don’t expect fast results, but if you are consistently sending out useful messages, when the need arises they will think of you first.
Website
Did you know that most 40% of consumers will leave your website within 3 seconds if your content doesn’t load?
People don’t like to wait for information, they will simply click straight off and go to another company’s website (more than likely your competitors website). So what can you do? Simply remove anything that is extraneous to load and leave only the useful stuff.
Think about what you are looking for when looking for information. What kind of information do you like to see on a website? How long do you wait for a site to load? Make sure your website is not only consumer friendly, but mobile friendly. Does it load on a mobile device? Does it require the user to pinch and zoom? If so, you should look at converting your website.
Search Engine Optimization
97% customers will search online for a product they want to buy locally. What does that mean? You NEED to be easy to find! For SEO you need to focus on producing quality content that, others will want to link to and share. Social media plays a big part in SEO, are you taking advantage of both in the correct way?
Blogging
Remember that quality content we talked about earlier, blogging is a prefect way to share unique, high quality information. Not only that, but this is one of best ways to communicate with your customers on a regular basis. Blogging allows you to communicate with your customers and build a long-term relationship with your audience. In addition, your blog can help you draw people in and prompt them to sign up for your email list and increase your SEO!
Social Media
How can you be digital without social media? Social media is a very unique marketing tool, with many unique uses. But it’s important for local businesses to use this as a platform to form relationships with their followers. Here is where you can differentiate yourself from the competition.
See something you think your audience will like? Share it! Make your social media outlets an important part of your audiences life by providing expert advice.
Search Engine Marketing
Approximately 1 in every 5 online searches has a local intent. Will your future customer be able to find your businesses online? Search engine marketing can help increase your visibility when consumers search online, and help drive traffic to your business’ website.
Apps
Mobile apps are a great way to engage with users. They offer you the ability to push notifications, coupons, and constantly be on their screen and hopefully top of mind.
In this day and age, digital marketing is becoming a must do for local businesses. These techniques offer a great way to reach your customers in a way they won’t feel like they are being ‘marketed’ to.
So, here’s to a successful 2013!
Here at Amplify we pride ourselves in our ability to provide cutting edge digital marketing services to our local clients. If you ever feel like you would like to get your business ahead of the game, and into the digital sphere we are here to help!
As a company you should want to know what your customers are saying about you on your social media platforms. Is it good? Is it bad? Or are they just not that into you? But how can you do that you ask. Social media now provides us with a great way to “listen” to what consumers are saying.
Essentially your brand manager (the person in charge of your social media marketing, advertising, etc.) uses your social media outlets to monitor and sift through shared content and engage with the people who are talking about your company or specific keywords that relate to your company, products or services. In a recent study, 58% of customers want companies to respond to a complaint on social media and an even more staggering statistic, 42% expect companies to respond to positive comments.
Just imagine how cool a customer would feel if they post something like, “Only have 45 minutes for lunch today, what should I get?”, on Facebook and you being a local business can reply something like, “We can have your lunch ready for you ASAP, what would you like to order?” and BAM! you probably just got a customer for life because you were able to address their exact need at the exact moment they needed it. Talk about being at the right place, at the right moment!
But social media monitoring is still a relatively new marketing strategy and because of this we must be careful on how we approach it. So if you are seriously considering it, keep this advice in mind:
Fully understand what your customer is saying before you respond.
There is nothing worse then assuming something. So be sure you get the gist of what they want from you, then take action.
Consider the context of the post.
Is it positive, negative or just a shout out? Figure it out and respond accordingly.
Don’t engage just because you can, make sure it benefits your consumer.
Make sure you are giving some type of benefit to your consumer if you choose to engage with them that will make them more open to hearing from you again.
Build a relationship.
The whole purpose of this is to begin to lay a foundation for a long-term relationship with this person. So lay down the building blocks by giving them information they are seeking.
Of course, such a great forward thinking marketing strategy will require someone to manage the effort full-time, and actively engage with people (which is one of the cool things about this type of advertising, is that you get a REAL person communicating with you). Also, you need to make sure that the person who is reaching out on behalf of your business is really knowledgeable about your services and truly understands and encompasses what your company/brand is all about, in addition to having above average social media knowledge.
And of course, if you don’t have the staff, experience or knowledge to deal with a social media monitoring campaign, Amplify has a great staff of knowledgeable social media marketing gurus to help you get started.
In addition to social media monitoring we can help you implement a long-term, fully integrated social media marketing and advertising strategy and build interactive campaigns that can encompass everything from Facebook promotions, contest, sweepstakes, increasing your ‘Likes’ and followers across all your platform to online reputations management but those are topics for another day.
The Rio Grande Valley is one of those special places that seem to always stay the same. As a native RGVer, who left and came back from larger metropolitan cities it is extremely obvious how slow the RGV is to adopt new ideas and concepts. Add the fact that I work in the advertising industry, and the gap is even more apparent.
Businesses here don’t really understand the concept and worth of good integrated advertising. I’m not talking about the flyers that your comadre can print out, or the good deal on a radio spot because your dad’s bother’s wife knows someone at the radio station, but about a completely cohesive and integrated advertising strategy.
I know, I know you’re probably thinking that local businesses cannot afford to do something like this, but in reality it is a lot simpler (and probably a lot more cost effective) then anything your business is currently doing. So, because I’m a true believe that the Valley needs to get educated on this topic, I want to provide you with a couple of pointers on how to get your businesses marketing strategy started (of course, if you don’t have time to do it yourself Amplify would always be happy to lend a helping hand).
Set realistic goals and objectives.
Don’t ever start an advertising/marketing campaign without setting goals! By doing this you are just setting yourself up to fail. Just think about it, it’s like driving somewhere without a destination. Take the time to sit down and truly think about what your business needs. Do you need to increase store traffic/sales/brand awareness? Do you want to increase your like/followers on Facebook and Twitter? Do you want more engagement with your brand online? Or do you want to drive traffic to your website?
Once you decide on what you need your advertising and marketing to do. Be realistic about it. Don’t expect to get 1,000 Like in a week, or increase sales by 50% in a month. Advertising, like everything, takes time and consistency.
Set a budget.
Now days you don’t need to have a huge budget. You’d be surprised what you can do with $500 a month, if you use it wisely. With the rise of social media, and digital channels there are new creative ways to reach your customer for a lot less then you might expect. So set a budget that is realistic and most importantly that will be able to be maintained for an extended amount of time.
Define your customer.
I know you’ve probably heard this a lot, but it is extremely important. Know who your customer is. Once you have identified the type of person that frequents your business, get to know them (or at least some of them). What do they like (hobbies, activities), are they younger, older, around what age? All these details will help you craft a message for them. This way the message will resonate with them and build a connection between your business and your customer.
Look at your media options.
Don’t be stuck in thinking just about traditional media (which is what everyone here in the RGV is all about) unless it truly has worked for your business. Digital advertising is a frontier the RGV has yet to fully explore. If you are a local business, digital can be one of your best options both with reach and price point.
When choosing your media keep in mind that everything needs to integrate together. For example, your print needs to drive people in store or to your website. If you are using SEM it needs to drive customers to the right page. If you are using social media make sure you are engaging with your followers and driving them to think about your business and brand. So basically, everything you do should have a reason.
Track everything!
Whether you are using traditional (which is A LOT harder to track) or digital, you need to implement a way to track what is working or is not working. Include call to actions, unique landing pages on your advertising, social media links, or simply ask customers what drove them in store/online. By doing this you will get a good picture of what is working for your business and what is not, allowing you to adjust accordingly.
Determine an evaluation form.
Before you launch your campaign make sure you establish ways to measure whether your campaign was a success. These should be based on your goal and objectives. Were they accomplished and if not, why not? Look at your results and see what works and what doesn’t work, then modify your approach for next time.
Overall, you can never guarantee that your marketing/advertising program will be 100% successful. But by following the tips above you can guarantee that you are making the best decisions for your business to succeed.
