When the times are tough: get tougher

Complacency has never been a viable approach in the world of marketing. During an economic recession when consumers and businesses alike are spending less it can take more to get noticed. Unfortunately this can be a difficult prospect for many businesses as the inclination is to keep one’s purse strings closed.

One solution: digital. As always, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your competitors to see what approaches they’re taking and where they’re succeeding. The current trend is definitely to stick with the cost-effective marketing options offered by digital technology. The obvious benefit of digital forms of marketing is their cost-per-impression. From websites to newsletters to social network marketing, advertising online generally lets you reach an unlimited audience for a set expenditure, a benefit that print media cannot give.

The flipside of this is that, as many companies are shifting their focus from print to web, the few print pieces that customers receive stand out more. We’ve seen an increased interest in media kits since they allow the best of both worlds. They can be designed as PDFs that can either be emailed or posted online, while also being printed for mail-outs. New advancements in the world of digital printing allow for affordable high quality small print runs. Ask us about the many options available for any print project from stationery to catalogues to trade show materials to unique self-promotional ideas that may never have seen before by you or your customers.

From strategies to the implementation of these strategies, we can steer you towards the highest return on investment solution. However you want to push yourself, be it online or through printed materials, ask us what Starmedia can do for your business today.

Butting Out - The Merits of Not Getting in the Way

Facebook is fast becoming as central to social networking as actual conversation once was. If you are feverishly checking your account every five minutes, then you know of what I speak. As our lives become more and more segmented, it’s good to know that at least you have pictures of that guy who ate paste in the back of class in grade 3, and are privy to his exact thoughts on his new Mitsubishi Gallant

How exactly does Facebook intend to make money off this type of information? Because apparently they intend to make a lot of money.

The recent Microsoft purchase of a 1.6% share of Facebook for $241 million, values the company at a whopping $15 billion!

Facebook has unveiled a new advertising system called Socialads. Facebook founder-cum-Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg, says it will revolutionize advertising by “getting into the conversations” between people. Essentially, what Facebook has is an ever expanding list of potential consumers, and their specific interests, which is invaluable for advertisers.

Although the future of advertising seems to be veering towards social networking sites, media buyers are wary stating results showing that consumer behavior on a communication device is anathema to advertising. Look at the click through rates for the social networking sites. Facebook has a 0.04% click thru rate, that’s 400 hits for every million viewers. Myspace fares a little better at 0.10%, but the figures still seem pretty measly.

Their intention is to enact a word of mouth effect between people. (Often heralded as the Holy Grail of advertising). The problem is that any sort of intrusion into people’s conversation is just that, an intrusion into a conversation. Regard how well you’d receive advertising when you’re in a bar with your friends and a stranger comes up to you trying to sell you a new type of beer. “Hey friends don’t want to bother you but do you know that the beer you’re drinking is not as good as this one.”

A better and far less intrusive option for advertising your company is in the search engines. Search engines are used for everything from local sites to multinational conglomerates. By ranking prominently in the organic search engine results (requiring Search Engine Optimization aka SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising campaign services (Google Adwords etc.), the consumer is actively transported to your company. If one were to use the keywords “advertising advice Montreal”, why they’d be transported to the Starmedia blog in a timely fashion and end up reading this exact post.

Search engine advertising gives you visibility without the intrusion.