Influencer marketing is having a high card nowadays as people are indulging more into the Virtual World. As per a survey, there are more than 2.3 Billion active users online and on average active internet users have at least 5 Social Media accounts. So just imagine how much time people actually spend Online. And if the statistics are to be believed an average US citizen spends 1 hour and 18 minutes watching a video online on the Social Media Daily! And other statistics are like this, the Snapchat users watch over 6 Billion videos in a day and the figure on Facebook is around 8 Billion. It is enough stats for any marketer to understand that no matter what niche their Product falls in, their potential buyers are waiting for them online. So the question that remains is How and When to make the approach for the purchase? The best answer for a local brand who wishes to expand their business globally is Influencer Marketing. It is the fastest and most effective way to promote business amongst the Brand’s Global leads. But there are certain things and options that are to be kept in mind for a successful promotion of a brand via Influencer Marketing.
Selena Gomez tops the chart where each social media post can be worth around $5,50,000. Isn’t that huge? But think of the business people who are paying her would be making from the marketing she does. That’s out of my mind at least. These were enough proof for how effective influencer marketing is, let’s see how a local brand can expand their business via Influencer marketing:
There are three options for Influencer Marketing Approach a local brand can make to take the leap from Local to Global:
1. Work as per the Target area and make a progressive approach:
This option is for those who don’t want to take a big risk and are a little less willing to spend much in Digital Marketing in the Initial level and then increase once they start getting returns on their investment. It is completely normal for any brand to think like that and for them, the approach towards Influencer can be like this, first make a target area where you want to expand your business. After that find a local Influencer of that area and approach with a mutual win-win situation for both. You make a proposal that they will develop a special scheme and Discounts only for their followers and in return, they do the marketing with a fair compensation paid of course. Once that is done and a brand starts getting a response, move out to other areas with the same strategy and spread the market. This is a long term approach but it has minimal risk and you ought to spend less. The best benefit is the brand won’t be dependent only on one Influencer and if they think the influencer of one specific region is not worth the investment, they can stop doing marketing for that area. So the only loss of business you suffer is from one area and others are still productive.
2. Difficult and Creative Approach to hit a nation or globe:
This approach is unique and is totally based on how well you execute the strategy of marketing the approach. The thing is all a brand needs to do is come up with a cause that is sweeping the nation or the globe and start to think creatively in that area. Develop a challenge and form a campaign for the same, now hire a single influencer and ask them to pitch the challenge to other influencers and all you got to do is somehow link your brand with the challenge. This way the influencer will promote your challenge and then all you got to do is sit and enjoy the word spreading across the nation or across the world. The cherry on the cake could be if you are able to profit from the campaign. That can be done by making an announcement that if people who support the cause buy their product, the company will donate some part of the profit to the Government for the eradication or betterment of the cause. The best example is the Ice Bucket challenge, think of one viral challenge and you are done.
3. Third is traditional approach:
This is the option where a brand does the traditional approach and contacts an influencer to do the marketing, but there are certain things that need to be taken care of in the campaign. Make sure the campaign is backed with a unique and relative hashtag and the influencer specifically pitches the brand, not just a few tags and messages. Nowadays in platforms, like Instagram people are not concerned about who the Influencer tags but, the effect will be prominent if the Influencer is seen with the product or the person associated with the brand and pitches the brand for sales purpose. Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is the approach to an Influencer is much different than that of a normal sales and promotion approach. Many influencers don’t care about the money much but about fame and image more. Make sure to present with something that is beneficial for both the parties. And it is not the sole responsibility of the Influencer to do the marketing of the product. Brand marketers also must put in some efforts and share information on their own social media accounts both personal and professional. Make sure Influencer knows these efforts as it will give a positive boost to the campaign and Influencer’s moral.
Thus, above were some statistics and options that are available for a brand to take a leap from Local to Global market with the help of Influencer Marketing.
It is just a simple concept of making all kinds of communication and messages linked together. This is just to ensure that there is no lack of information. This lack of information can have a negative result on the work. Do you know what is integrated marketing communication?
At the basic level of IMC i.e., Integrated Marketing Communication, all the promoting tools are linked together for smooth communication. You surely must have heard of the marketing mix. Yes, that 4Ps of the marketing mix. This promotion is one of that marketing mixes
To make all the tools work smoothly, all the tools must work together in harmony. This can be advanced when regular communication is integrated into several levels, such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External, and Data integration.
Let’s go through various components of IMC:
1. The Foundation:
In this, a detailed analysis of the product and the target market is required. For the marketers it is essential to understand the nature of the brand, what are its USP (unique selling proposition) and the requirements of the end-user. It is important to have a close eye on your competitor’s behaviors. Every need of the customers is of the utmost importance.
2. The corporate culture:
There must need to be relevant in the product and the producing company. Every organization has its own vision, so while planning marketers need that to keep in mind.
For example, there is an organization whose vision is to train teenagers in the field of their interest. If they start training the middle-aged man they are deviating from the vision.
3. Brand focus:
Every organization is known by the brand they are producing or facilitating. So, it’s important to have plans which are always focused on the brand. Making their brand the center of attention.
4. Consumer experiences:
You must not forget about the consumer and how they feel about the product. Nowadays customers are more attracted to the product which looks good, has good packing, and of course, the product itself needs to be one of the best.
5. Communication tools:
It is a way via which the brand communicates with the customers. The ways can be direct selling, advertising, social media, advertisements, etc.
6. Integration tools:
Selling the product is one part of communication but also getting feedback from the customer is also part communication.
Plans for Integrated marketing communication
It integrates all aspects of the marketing mix to promote the products and services to the customers at the right place and at the right time. It is a proven fact that if you use different IMC tools at the same time it can improve the customer experience of the product.
If done correctly. IMC can improve the visibility of the brand. Whenever a customer goes to the market for shopping, they will be reminded of your brand. The impact of integrated marketing communication increases if the end-user sees the brand simultaneously multiple numbers of times.
A marketer should be well versed in time management. Because doing many things like budgeting, allocating the right resources at the right for the promotion of the product is of utmost importance.
Gathering information about your company and its product and the audience who buy this product is very important for planning.
While planning some points are needed to keep in mind:
A detailed summary needs to be made on the brand is going to reach its targeted audience.
Everything about the organization needs to be crystal clear.
Good knowledge of the product is required.
Choosing the right market is very important, and hoe you are going to promote it into the market needs to be mentioned clearly.
Competitors’ analysis is very important. And how the competitors are active in the target market.
Knowing your brand weakness as well as your strong points can be a good start to promote your brands.
Implementing integrated marketing communication
Integrated marketing communication is a way of promoting the brand through various methods like advertising, social media awareness, direct selling, public relation, etc. It focuses on using all the available ideas together to get the most desired result. Instead of using one integrated tool at a time, it brings all the possible tool under one umbrella and uses any viable option which is used in an effective way.
The success of integrating marketing communication relies totally on understanding the customers, their needs and expectations. Just remember one thing the customer will be loyal towards you only when you outperform their expectations. And to do so you need to be well versed in the marketing mix and need to apply that knowledge in the fields.
Just promoting your product once or twice does not make you gainer. You need to keep doing that. So that whenever they think of buying a product, your brand needs to be the first to come in their mind. This can be done only after promoting the same product several times a day to the same audience. This makes their subconscious mind active and your product makes space in their second mind.
Let’s take Colgate for example, no matter where you are, whenever you think about a toothpaste product the first name that comes into mind is “Colgate”. Why? Because it was their integrated marketing communication skills that have made you think this way. This what an integrated marketing communication does if done correctly.
What are the components of successful integrated marketing communication?
It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.
This can be done only by using the components effectively:
Customer focus
No matter how good your product is, no matter how good is your service is, until and unless you make a customer happy all is worthless.
Do you believe in God?
No, then start believing in the god named “Customers”. If you are a marketer then you need to have faith in this god. Only this god has the power to make your brand, organization what you hope for.
So, if you think ignoring their needs and doing and coming up with the best plan will work for you then you need to go back a little bit and have a fresh start.
Everything about the customer is very important. Their appraisal, as well as their, complains both hold the same value. But for me complain matters the most. That shows where we are lacking and where we need to improve ourselves.
Make sure whatever you are planning customer needs to be at the center of that.
Co operation
Cooperation among the marketing team is important, but it is essential that every member of the organization work as a whole, to promote the product.
Other members who are outside of the department are needed to be allowed to give their thoughts on the matter. This can help in unboxing new ideas, which can really accelerate the promotion.
Database communication
The sharing of information is one of the important aspects of good planning. This helps in formulating the best course of action. Every employee needed to be filled in on every relevant detail that they need to do their job.
Leverage
Analyze every channel on which the promotion is done. Calculate their cost estimation. See that if the ROI on that cost is relevant or not. This helps your brand’s promoting efficiency.
Profitability
At the end of the day, we have to gain revenue. So, making a plan, formulating the strategies are only helpful when they can bring in profits.
So, we have to market in such a way that it really brings in the audience to invest in our brand and stay loyal to the brand. This will help to bring in higher revenue.
Importance of integrated marketing communication
Nobody can deny the fact that integrated marketing communication is an important aspect of the promotion of the brand.
Let’s go much deeper:
It acts as a messenger between the brand and the audience
It recognizes the need of the customers, it gets the data of the competitors, locate an important place for marketing the brand and send this back to the organization for the analysis.
Brand awareness at a low cost
It is a long-term process where you gain audience trust, and convince them to invest in your brand. Integrated marketing communication is the best way to promote your values.
Think like this, if brand A is already communicating with you properly, and delivering its USP on a regular basis. Why would you go for the brand B. you will subconsciously choose brand A
Integrating marketing communication over traditional ways
IMC is taking over traditional ways because it not only focuses on getting new customers but also tries to retain the older on as well. Gaining a new customer does not mean that you forget about the older customer who has already avail of your services. Gaining new customers is very good but losing the older one is not accepted. Because once the trust is broken, it cannot be restored. The customer will never trust you again. So, doing both is of utmost importance.
It reduces the time required for the planning
If not for this IMC, strategizing the plan would take lots of time. It is due to the IMC that the time is reduced to none.
IMC tools
It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.
Let us go through the tools which are used in IMC:
Advertising
It is the best way of promoting the brand. It can reach a huge amount of audience in the shortest time frame. Advertisements on the television, newspaper, radio can reach many audiences in a small frame of time. This also increases the authenticity of the brand. Now it is the marketer’s job to make sure that the right messages are sent to the audience.
Self-promotion
The promotion which the brands do with the promotional code, discounts, attractive offers, etc. brands itself can pay for advertisements to the newspaper, distribute leaflets for the promotions.
Direct selling
There are various tools like mailing, text messages, brochures, which the brands use to promote themselves.
Personal selling
Personal selling here is referred to the selling of the products from their showrooms, via their agents and making sales call.
Public relation activities
Well, have you seen brands presenting themselves in the community meetup, in fairs, in public events? If yes, then you can understand what public relations mean.
It’s all about communication with the public by going in between them. This makes them feel closure to you. This creates a friendship bond with potential customers. Even if they had never thought of investing in your brand, but due to your public appearance. They may think at least once of buying your services.
Managing IMC
It is essential for organizations to have a well-integrated marketing communication team, who can work hard for the organization. And make the customer satisfied so that the customer can invest in the product. This can only happen if the brand can provide services that can make the customer loyal to the brand.
Just making the strategies and implementing those can be said that only half work is done. The rest half is managing and maintain those plans.
There are different modes of communication, so it needs to be managed effectively so that all work in the same synchronization to deliver the same message to all the audience. This can be done with the help of proper managing plans.
The first step is to identify the right audience
Finding the right audience is the best way to make your promotion fruitful. You need to understand who is your audience. what can be done to find the relevant audience for providing services, and who are willing to invest in you. After you find out the answer to these questions, only then you can move on with the second phase of the IMC.
The second step is to think of what to communicate
The kind of message you send to the customer is very crucial for gaining their trust. You need to have a proper crystal-clear message for audiences. This makes your brand much more authentic.
The third step is to plan your message in a way that convinces them
Having clear messages will not do, you need to present them in such a way that the audience likes it and get the meaning of it.
Make sure that your messages are all properly formatted.
The fourth step is to identify the various channel via which you can communicate with them
Choosing the best course of action is very helpful in making a promotional platform. It needs to be efficient that it reaches the right person at the right time.
The fifth step is to allocate the right source at the right time
Investment is needed to be done properly so that ROI gains a profit rather than a loss. So investment needs to be done after analyzing ever aspects of the promotional platforms.
Lastly, it’s important to measure the reach of Integrated marketing communication
You need to monitor constantly that the promotion is reaching the people or not, doing a blind job is just like walking on the edge of the mountain blindfolded.
Conclusion
As a whole, integrated marketing communication lays down a bridge between the organization and the audience. Without the IMC informational gap is created which can lead to malfunctioning of the whole organization.
There are many strategies that can be implemented to overcome any possible crisis faced by the organization.
Each and every detail on integrated marketing communication is given in this article.
Image source
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If you have a live performance coming up, you probably have tons of tasks on your to-do list. Even if you have managers or vendors lining things up, you need to be there throughout the process. One aspect you should definitely focus on is marketing. That will really help you get as many attendees as you want. While promotion takes place across multiple mediums, the internet is where you’ll really get the results.
Online marketing has numerous elements, so you have a lot of opportunities to promote your upcoming performance. However, before you start the promotion process, make sure you have a decent website, a functioning ticketing system, and your social media pages up and running. Then, you can start off with the following online marketing ideas.
Create Live Music Posters For Social Media
Adding a multimedia element to your online promotion strategy is quite useful. So, you should make a live music poster, with audio, visuals, and text regarding your next performance. You can do this on PosterMyWall by choosing one of the many templates there, and then customizing it accordingly.
If you have a musical act, add snippets from it to this poster. In addition, make sure you keep a similar aesthetic and color scheme running throughout your online marketing collateral. When you have this poster, share it on your website, and across all your social media platforms to announce your performance.
Share A Schedule & Teasers
Periodically release information about your performance on your online platforms. You can start with a teaser announcement, then announce the date/time/venue, and then you can create a schedule and post that.
This will help you generate hype in your audience, and pique their interest. However, do share the important details before anything, otherwise, they will get frustrated at the lack of information.
Utilize Video Marketing
Videos are the top-trending medium for online marketing these days. Short-form video platforms like TikTok have changed the game with video marketing, so you need to get your information across in a short time, and in a visually appealing manner.
So, share live rehearsal snippets, behind-the-scenes videos, and communicate face-to-face with your audience with these short clips. Make sure these are filmed and edited well, and then share them on your social media pages, with a special focus on Reels and TikTok.
Build Up Hype Across Platforms
Often, companies tend to focus on only one or two online platforms. However, you need to make sure you cover all your bases. Whether it is social media, email, blogs, online forums, or your own website, have a cohesive promotion plan for all these online platforms.
Customize your posts according to the dimensions and specifications of these platforms, and then you can implement your campaigns. Of course, you’ll put a bit more effort and resources into platforms that have proven to be successful for you, but you should also not ignore all the other online promotion opportunities out there.
Work With Businesses For Cross-Promotion
If you have a sponsor, then you can ask them to share your online promotion materials on their platforms as well. Usually, they’ll want to be mentioned on your platforms in return, so fulfill your end of the deal with a few special sponsor announcement posts and logo placements as well.
You can also contact local businesses near your venue for services like food, transport, and others. Then, offer to promote these services on your platforms for your audiences to use. In return, these businesses can promote your event on their online platforms. You can even work out agreements with promo codes and discounts for patrons of both your performance and the businesses.
Utilize Influencer Marketing
These days, influencer marketing is a major tool for online promotion. Do your research into popular influencers in the area and contact them for shoutouts for your performance. Send out a few free tickets or comped services to the bigger names, so that they announce that they’ll be attending your performance to their followers.
You need to make sure you contact these influencers well in advance and figure out exactly what you want from them, and get it in writing. A proper agreement means that there will be no confusion or misunderstanding later.
Make Custom Band Email Newsletters
Email marketing is still one of the best online promotion tools you can work on. So, you should send out monthly updates in an email newsletter to your mailing list of fans and potential attendees. Use the band email templates on PosterMyWall to make these emails, and use the platform’s email marketing tool to keep track of everything in one place.
This will help you develop an email list for future performances as well. So, make these newsletters to keep people updated, and to hype up your performances.
To sum up, there are countless ways to promote your live performance online. Utilize a mixture of mediums and methods to optimize your results and get the audience of your dreams.
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Marketing – What’s Right For Your Business?
By now, most people are aware of the value that a content marketing campaign brings to your business. Given the reach and convenience of the internet, most brands are bound to hop onto the content marketing bandwagon.
The only problem here is that not everyone who hops onto trends completely understands them. Before you fully commit to a content marketing campaign, it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into so you can avoid making catastrophic errors.
Why Should I Consider Investing in Content Marketing?
The first reason that content marketing is beneficial is that it significantly contributes to your return of investment (ROI).
ROI can come in different forms, such as a customer subscription, better brand visibility, improved brand reputation, increased inbound traffic, and customer loyalty.
Content marketing also helps establish your brand as an authority, so long as your content is of good quality. You can even become your niche’s primary source of information. When this happens, customers are more likely to remember your brand whenever they need a product or service that you offer.
Finally, content marketing is a potent means to interact with your target audience (and your target demographic). Sharing content helps you build trust with your audience and it also acts as a means to extend your reach even further whenever your audience shares your content.
Furthermore, frequent followers and readers eventually become actual customers.
Content marketing is a useful method to bolster your business’ performance, but only if you utilize it properly. It’s not a silver bullet that’s going to solve all your marketing problems.
Generally, your best course of action is to hire a content marketing agency to launch and implement your campaign properly, but for those who want to try their hand at doing their own content marketing, there are some mistakes that you need to avoid.
Publishing Content Without a Goal in Mind:
Whenever we publish content, it’s important to always have a goal in mind. You have to determine whether the goal of your content is to sell, generate leads, inform, or engage with your audience.
Your goal will determine things about your content such as your call to action and tone (whether conversational, informative, or imperative). For example, if your content is meant to sell a product, it needs to sound friendly yet informative. A post that’s meant to engage with your audience is best written in a sincere, genuine tone.
Failing to Utilize Paid Content Amplification:
The internet is currently oversaturated and highly-competitive. Content brands are constantly vying to get their message on the feeds of prospective customers.
The brand that gets relegated to the background is sure to lose out on customers, even if their product is superior to that of their competitor. Paid amplification helps your content reach your intended audience and they almost always produce quality leads. Consider the fact that even industry giants make use of paid content amplification.
This means that you should do so as well if you want to stay relevant in your chosen industry.
Forgoing the Use of Social Media Stories:
Social media stories are mobile-viewed vertical videos and images that appear outside a user’s regular feed and last only 24 hours. Storytelling will be the key to distributing your content successfully. Stories are perfect for building emotional connections with your audience because they are more casual and are mostly used as a medium for real-time engagement.
Stories also have a natural progression. This means that users can arrange their content to be more cohesive to viewers. Stories also allow users to enable their viewers to react to the story, while also helps users determine the type of content that viewers want.
Limiting Your Content Form:
In today’s market, text and image content alone will not differentiate you from your competitors especially when you consider that users are gradually shifting away from written content because of the increasing popularity of video content, podcasts, and infographics. This is especially true considering how these types of content are also searchable on major search engines.
It’s important to invest in other content channels in order to maximize your reach. This also allows your users to choose how they consume your content. The best part about this is that you don’t necessarily have to generate new content in order to fill these channels.
In fact, you can repurpose written content and simply change the channel they’re published on. An old blog post can serve as your framework for your video and audio content. Your users will appreciate the variety of your content and this variation will also help improve your website’s SEO ranking.
Ignoring Data Analysis:
Successful content marketing is not just based on artistic taste and content popularity. It is also heavily influenced by data. Running an analysis of your campaign’s performance grants brands the insight needed to make informed decisions regarding content.
The numbers will help you determine which approach is better for a particular demographic. This also allows users to correct a wrong approach.
For example, if you’ve discovered that most of your users are active at a certain time, then use that data to determine the best time to publish your content. Simply ignoring the data will not only rob you of the traffic you would have gotten otherwise, but it will also convey that you’re indifferent to your audience, which will eventually spell the failure of your campaign.
Content marketing is a boon to business owners because it grants them the ability to grow their businesses quickly. It requires a lot of work and experience to get it right the first time, but since you’re posting your content on the internet, it essentially means that as long as your website is up, your content will continue to do its job. Whether your content becomes effective or not depends on whether you do things correctly.
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