What Is Digital Marketing? A Guide to Marketing in Today’s Digital World

Digidaze is a digital marketing agency in Maryland that offers digital marketing services to small to medium sized Maryland businesses. We are a full-service digital marketing agency in MD providing a host of in-house digital marketing agency services. In this article – What Is Digital Marketing? A Guide to Marketing in Today’s Digital World – we’ll explain digital marketing mediums and how businesses can take advantage of today’s digital technologies to move business forward.

In the world of business development and branding today, digital marketing and digital advertising rule. So just what is digital marketing and how can we use it to grow our business?

Digital Marketing Defined

Digital marketing is the advertising and promotion of businesses and their brands through digital media channels. Digital media, at the moment, includes websites, social media, radio, television, mobile and even forms of traditionally non-digital media such as billboards and transit signs. Essentially any marketing media that is delivered electronically is considered digital marketing.

This leaves only various forms of person-to-person (P2P) marketing, print advertising and direct marketing outside of the digital marketing umbrella. Even then, print ads, direct mail, print directories, billboards and posters are all starting to connect to their digital counterparts. With items like URL landing pages, QR codes, web banner advertising, online directories and text codes, traditional marketing and advertising almost always has a digital marketing connection.

Why Focus on Digital Marketing?

The shift to all digital marketing is being driven by marketing agencies, business owners and consumers alike. The ever-increasing demand to show quantifiable results makes digital marketing a dream for the digital marketing agency. Most digital media, including websites, social media and mobile advertising is much easier to track than traditional marketing media such as print advertising.

For business owners, many forms of digital advertising are very low cost. Having a web presence, engaging customers in conversations through social media and e-mail marketing are low cost alternatives to print advertising and direct mail. These digital marketing channels are available to businesses of any size, and help to even the playing field for start-ups, small businesses and independent consultants seeking new business.
For consumers, the fast pace of life makes digital advertising a must. When consumers are in need of goods and services, gone are the days of thumbing through a phonebook to find them. Now, we whip out our mobile devices or head to our computers for answers – and we find them fast.

Using Digital Marketing to Build Your Business and Brand

No matter what size your business is – large or small to medium sized business / enterprise (SMB or SME) – you can effectively market your business through low-cost digital channels.

Website

The foundation of your digital marketing efforts will be your website. Invest wisely in your website, and be sure that it does the following:
- Adequately represents your business and brand (look and feel, messaging)
- Adequately speaks to your target audience
- Can be found by searchers on top search engines
- Is up-to-date and easily navigable
- Provides multiple channels for customer communication
- Connects to other marketing efforts

It is recommended that you work with a professional web design firm that is skilled in web development and search engine optimization. Because your website is the foundation to and from which all other digital marketing channels will lead, it should be considered one of your top business investments. The good news is, a good website doesn’t need to cost tens of thousands of dollars. See our previous post:‘What a Good Website Should Cost’.

E-mail and Social Media Marketing

Once you have your website complete, the next steps would be to launch regular monthly or bi-monthly e-mail campaigns, and connect with customers via social media. If you are truly on a shoestring budget, these are efforts that can be done in-house (by someone with the proper knowledge) or for a low cost by an outside digital marketing agency. Be sure that all of your efforts lead customers back to your website where they can fully engage with your business, products and services, and choose they channel through which they contact you.

Search Engine Marketing

If you’re interested in getting aggressive with search marketing, you can set aside some digital marketing dollars for search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. Many businesses today rely heavily on being found online to gain new customers. A common misconception among business owners is that simply having a website means that customers will find it. Not so. Your site must be built with specific key words and phrases, meta data, page content and linking strategies that will help it reach top search rankings.

Because many key words and phrases have stiff competition for top search rankings, you will need to supplement your organic search engine optimization efforts with pay-per-click advertising. Getting established with pay-per-click advertising campaigns can be a little daunting, but with a little time, effort and instruction, that too can be accomplished in-house, or for a reasonable cost through an outside digital marketing agency.

Beyond e-mail, social media marketing and search engine marketing, you can venture into a host of other digital marketing efforts. Mobile advertising, radio, television, electronic billboards and much more are available as digital marketing outlets. Whatever digital marketing efforts you choose, they should all connect and tie into your foundation – your company website.

If you have the means, a wise investment would be to engage the services of a digital marketing agency to assist in your digital marketing efforts. Today, many digital marketing agencies offer multiple levels of service to accommodate businesses large and small.

Digidaze is a digital marketing agency in Maryland that offers digital marketing services to small to medium sized Maryland businesses. As a full-service digital marketing agency in MD we provide a host of in-house digital marketing agency services.
Connect with Digidaze – Your Maryland Digital Marketing Agency – on Facebook at www.facebook.com/digidaze, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/digidaze, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/digidazenow and blogging right here.

What Should a Website Cost? What Small to Mid-Size Businesses Can Expect to Pay for a Good Website

One thing you find when you’re an Internet marketing professional is that there is a huge discrepancy in what business owners think a website should cost. I am often astounded to discover that business owners think they can get a decent website built for a few hundred dollars. Maybe it’s the ‘big box’ Internet service providers of the world advertising that they can get your business up and running with a ‘quality website’ for just a few bucks a month. Or maybe you heard that a friend of a friend got his done for less than $500, and that price is stuck in your head. Whatever it is, I am here to say that it’s not realistic to budget just a few hundred dollars for one of the most important parts of your business. Or wise.

Back in the day, you’d pay thousands – even tens of thousands – of dollars on phone book ads for your business, wouldn’t you? I’ve seen SMALL businesses that were paying upwards of $30K per year or more on phone book advertising. Insane! But that was your primary source of new business, so at the time it made sense. I guess. The good news is, your website has now replaced that medium for gaining new business, and is a hell of a lot less expensive. No printing, no delivery, no ad sales reps to pay – yeah, that’ll save a few bucks. But although we are living in a virtual world, a good website doesn’t come for free.

Having your website built is just like anything else in life. You get what you pay for. The bottom line is that websites – done right – take time. And time is money. Can you go out and get a website for a few hundred bucks? Maybe. But you’d better believe that it will be little more than an online brochure. And probably not a very nice one at that. Or one that works very well to bring in new business. If you own a business that doesn’t rely much on customers viewing your website, that might be OK. But if you’re like most business, your website needs to be your first impression to new customers, a useful tool for existing customers, and it needs to be found when people are searching for what you provide.

So just how much should you expect to pay for a website?

The answer to that depends on your line of work, and the level of technology that you want and need built into your site. I deal with primarily small to medium sized businesses which rely a great deal on their websites for new customer inquiries. These businesses are looking for ways to stand apart from their competitors, and their websites are their primary vehicles for doing so. Most of them don’t require a tremendous amount of deep technology, but they are looking for ways to make the customer experience streamlined and somewhat sophisticated. So let’s take a look at what a small to mid-sized business should expect from their website, and how much they should expect to pay.

3 Items No Website Should Be Without

1. An Attractive Façade. If you own a brick and mortar retail location, the front of your building will make or break foot traffic. A run down building with difficult to read signage in a bad part of town is not likely to get a lot of walk-in traffic. The same rule of thumb applies to your businesses online façade. When customers find you online, they formulate an opinion about your business within the first few seconds of being there. It is therefore imperative that your website represent your business in whatever way necessary to speak to your target audience.

2. Customer Attraction. Having a great façade is imperative, but if nobody can find your site, it’s nothing more than a great façade. Your site should be built with customer attraction in mind, and that comes in the form of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO takes on many forms within a website – page titles, meta data, image tagging, page content, back links, and more – all play their part in helping to ensure that your site will gain high rankings for the key words and phrases that your customers are using to find businesses like yours.

3. Ease of Communication. So you’ve attracted a potential client and your business looks interesting to them. Now what? That customer should quickly and easily be able to get in touch with you in whatever way THEY prefer. Knowing your customers and the ways in which they communicate best is key. Also key is offering several alternative communication methods. Most often this comes in the form of an easy to find phone number and e-mail address, an inquiry or information/estimate request form, and perhaps even an e-mail sign-up form for those customers who are interested, but not quite ready to inquire.

Show Me the Money

Because your website is such an important part of your business, the investment in making it a business-builder is well worth it. Not just from a monetary standpoint, but from a time and energy standpoint as well. When going through the exercise of creating your website (or recreating it), you should expect to spend time with your web designer or design team. They should take the time to get to know you and your customer so that the end result meets your expectations and your customers’.

Having gone through many website builds, I can tell you that for a small to mid-sized business with a website that contains between 10 and 50 pages, your web design and programming team will spend between 40 and 60 hours on your site. Broken down hourly, you can expect to pay the following hourly rates:

Project Management – meetings, coordinating copy writing, design and programming - $25 - $45

Copy Writing – writing specific to web clients, including search-friendly content - $25 - $50

Graphic Design – overall look and feel of your site, including colors, fonts and imaging - $75 - $100

HTML Programming – template creation, style sheets, website build - $100 - $125

Programming – Flash, database programming, inquiry form creation - $100 - $150

To simplify our equation, let’s take an average hourly rate of $85 and apply the 40 – 60 hours. This brings our expected cost to somewhere between $3400 and $5100. Keep in mind that this is for a solid, business-building site, but not necessarily one that contains more in-depth forms or database-driven content. It also will not include hard costs such as photography, domain name registration, hosting and other related costs.

After your site is up and running, to keep it working for you, you should also consider hiring a webmaster or SEO firm to perform regular updates and maintenance. Prices vary greatly for these services depending on the scope of work and should be worked on a customized basis.

Digidaze helps small to medium sized businesses in Maryland and the eastern region of the US create and maintain high quality websites that generate real business results. For more information, visit www.digidaze.com or call 1-855-digidaze.

Marketing Your Maryland Business - 7 Tips for Business Owners to Attract More Maryland Customers

Maryland is rich with a diverse range of consumers. The proximity of Maryland to the nation’s capital and Northern Virginia’s high-tech corridor makes it an ideal place for people in all sectors of government, government contract work and private industry to live. For a relatively small state, Maryland is home to a surprising range of tourist attractions – from historic Gettysburg to Baltimore’s famed Inner Harbor, loads of government agencies including the NSA, cutting edge tech firms like advertising.com, world-renowned sports companies including Under Armor and Fila, and thousands of hotels, restaurants and shops. Maryland even has casino gambling adding fuel to the business economy, albeit in its infancy. Even in today’s economically challenged environment, finding a job at almost any level is not only possible, but probable – a statement that not every state in the country can boast. For those working in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia, MD offers a close and convenient, yet seemingly worlds-away locale for living, shopping and playing. Maryland’s unique combination of government, high-tech and rural areas not only attract consumers but new businesses alike.

If you are a business owner wishing to attract Maryland consumers, listen up. The diversity of those living and spending in Maryland calls for diversity in marketing. Therefore, marketing your MD business should take a multi-pronged approach. If you wish to attract more people in Maryland to your business, here are some helpful tips.

1. Invest in a comprehensive website. As any business owner in any industry knows, a well-executed website is a must. When your focus is on attracting MD consumers, make sure that your website is not only attractive from a design standpoint, but that it contains everything that a Maryland consumer would want. If you own a restaurant, for example, your website should look and sound inviting and delicious. But don’t stop there. Be sure your website contains easy to find, understand and print (Google maps and Mapquest links are ideal). If you offer specials, coupons, themed parties or other items that help make your business stand apart from others, be sure those are included as well.

2. Invest in search engine marketing. A great website is nice but if nobody can find it, it’s a fruitless endeavor. When your website was built, hopefully your web designer had the knowledge and expertise to construct it in a way that is search engine friendly. (See our page on search engine marketing in MD for more information on search engine friendly sites). If you don’t know if your site was constructed with search in mind, or if it’s not being found on searches, hire a professional to evaluate your site and make changes that will boost its rankings. Sometimes even small changes to a site can make a huge difference in rankings. Other search engine marketing to attract MD customers includes pay-per-click campaigns, article writing/posting, and a good linking strategy.

3. Make sure social media marketing is in the mix. Consumers in MD, just like those everywhere, are all over social media. And believe it or not, they are looking for the goods and services you provide there. Whether they are clicking on ads or asking their friends for recommendations, MD consumers should be able to find you in places like Facebook and LinkedIn. And, depending on the nature of your business, perhaps YouTube and Twitter as well. Restaurants, salons and spas, for example, are a must for social media marketing. (See our pages on social media marketing in MD, restaurant marketing in MD and salon and spa marketing in MD for more information.)

4. Pepper Maryland with your brand. These days there is a diminishing direct return on investment when it comes to print advertising, direct mail, broadcast advertising and certainly phone book advertising. But before you toss them out of your marketing mix altogether, consider their branding impact vs. their direct return. Just because someone doesn’t pick up the phone and call you because you ran a radio ad, for example, doesn’t mean that the ad wasn’t effective. Every single impression that your business has on MD consumers – whether it was a radio ad, newspaper ad or mailer – is embedded in that consumers brain somewhere. With enough of those impressions, you can see how a business could become top-of-mind when that MD consumer does have a need for what you provide. And while doing a plethora of activities may sound unrealistic budget wise, doing MD marketing in this way doesn’t have to break the bank. If marketing your MD business comes with a tight budget, seek out less expensive options for branding. Well-place fliers, local papers, neighborhood mailers and local radio stations offer adequate brand impressions without the high price tag. Another option is rotating your budget. Instead of being on the air, sending mailers and placing print ads each month, rotate the ad spend around between mediums.

5. Conduct regular e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing is, by far, your lowest cost marketing effort. While it takes time to build your opt-in e-mail list, it costs you very little to send out an e-mail. Be sure that you are taking full advantage of this cost effective marketing to Maryland consumers one or twice per month. More often if you have a business that will tolerate it. Daily specials e-mails may not be out of the question for a restaurant, for example, but for a home improvement company, that frequency won’t fly. While MD consumers like e-mail marketing, it must be well-balanced with your business.

6. Embrace Maryland’s cultural and ethnic diversity. While not all areas of MD are culturally diverse, many sectors of the state most certainly area. If your business attracts those in Maryland from all walks of life, consider those differences in marketing your MD business. If you’re not in tune with the cultural differences outside of your own, elicit the help of someone who is. Have them critique your business from their perspective. What are the first impressions? What does or does not attract them to your business? What changes could be made to better accommodate those customers? Changes need not be dramatic, but may well make a big difference in attracting more Maryland customers.

7. And finally, your MD marketing efforts need to be consistent. All too often, business owners allow their marketing efforts to happen in waves. When business is slow, their marketing efforts increase. It’s a both a knee-jerk reaction to the here and now, as well as an opportunity to keep those on staff busy when business isn’t. But wave marketing, as I have just decided to coin it, is not effective. Marketing efforts of all types need time to gel. If you wait until business is slow to begin marketing, you will still need to wait for the results. Your best bet is to maintain consistent efforts – both during busy and slow times – to ensure smaller waves and more consistent results.

Maryland is a great place to work, live and own a business. The consumers in MD are financially, culturally and ethnically diverse. Keeping these tips for MD marketing in mind, you’re sure to attract even more Maryland business.

Is Data Killing Marketing & Advertising Success?

Over the past 10 years or so (give or take) marketing decisions are being made more and more by relying solely on numbers. Huge amounts of marketing dollars are spent relentlessly tracking clicks, inquiries, calls and even online consumer behavior. This data, while certainly giving desperate marketers something to cling to when making decisions, may also be killing us. Well, killing good marketing and advertising, anyway. And killing the reason we got into this business in the first place.

As a marketing professional on the creative side of the table, I have always sort of bristled at the idea of going one way or another with a campaign idea simply because the numbers said we should. Or, should I say, our interpretation of the numbers said we should.

It used to be that creative teams hit the streets and talked to people, conducted customer focus groups, had brainstorming sessions and developed the best creative ideas they could to sell the products and services of their clients. Their ideas were based on consumer feedback and just plain old gut instinct. Now, researchers pour over website stats, count online inquiries, track calls and monitor online behavior like a scientist trying to cure a disease. Once the data is mined and interpreted, then the 'creative' process begins.

This laser focus on data and our reluctance to pull the trigger on anything if we don't have numbers to back it up is one reason social media is so perplexing to some marketers. Social media is conversation. It's opinion. It's voyerism (now that's fun!). It's interaction. And try as we might to direct a Facebook user to make an online purchase during her hour of computer time after she puts the kids to bed, she simply may not be in the mood. So what else is new. But in her conversations with friends, her spying on neighbors and her clicking on funny videos, seeds were planted for sure. Trackable? No. Effective. Oh heeeelllll yes.

The most fun thing about marketing and advertising - and the most infuriating - is the unpredictability of consumers. We're simply moody beings. It's as if consumer behavior is this mysterious fog that sways in the breeze, changing direction at random. It's truly like the weather. Sometimes you know what's coming, other times, you don't - no matter what size your Doppler radar is. We will NEVER, no matter how much money we throw into software tracking system, figure it out. So the game plays on.

While data is the best we have to go on in black and white, I am of the belief that true creative marketing, and ultimately truly successful marketing, should rely more on gut instinct and good old fashioned consumer interaction than data alone. I'm not saying screw the data altogether, I'm saying make it just one of the pieces of the puzzle. Get to know your target audience on a deeper level than
is shown on paper. After all, I can write a biography and tell you all about me, but you will never really get to know me until you meet me. And even then, until we're BFF's, you'll only get half the story. So let's use the data for what it's worth, but don't make it the be-all end-all of our campaigns.

Stay creative my friends!

Social Media’s Effect on Brand Transparency

The public’s call for brand transparency is as old as snake oil salesmen. As the most highly-evolved creatures on the planet, we’re none too happy when we allow ourselves to be deceived. And if there’s one industry that has mastered the art of deception since the beginning, it’s advertising. Too-good-to-be-true claims, a low, low price simply too good to pass up and ultra-steamy sex appeal are like the magic fairy dust of ad campaigns. We’re momentarily blinded by that ‘gotta have it!’ feeling that has those purses and wallets open faster than you can say, “ShamWhat?!”

But alas…you get it home and that super cool gadget that the screaming dude was selling – which really worked well on the commercial - doesn’t work nearly as well in my house. Could it be me? Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Or was I…oh crap…duped. Damnit!

Something interesting is happening, though. Social media and an overall higher level of product knowledge made possible by the availability of information is making us all smarter consumers. Or at least it should be.

Now, when someone is dissatisfied with a product, instead of stopping at “Damnit!”, they hit the internet. They write product reviews. They tweet about it. They tell their friends and family on Facebook. Hell, they may even create a blog about it and invite others to chime in. The result? Bad publicity and readily-available information so the next time a savvy consumer goes online to do their research BEFORE opening that wallet, the same mistake won’t be made again. And no matter what your brand or advertising budget, enough of those and you’re out of business.

This phenomenon is forcing companies to re-examine their products and their brands and find the honest attributes that will make them sell. Or at least it should be. Sex may still serve us well to spike sales temporarily (hello Old Spice ads!) but without quality and customer satisfaction to back it up, that spike will be short-lived.

An honest approach to branding and brand advertising is called brand transparency. What you see is what you get. Are agencies ready for it? Are the companies that create the products we use ready for it? They’d better be. Because trying to pull a fast one on the internet-savvy, social media toting consumers of today is dangerous business.

It reminds me of the movie from the 80’s where Dudley Moore was an ad exec and spent some time in a mental hospital after a breakdown. Remember that? It was called Crazy People, I think. He had this epiphany that truth in advertising just may work. “Volvo. They’re Boxy, but They’re Good!”

I recently caught a campaign that is a perfect example of brand transparency. It's a Miracle Whip television spot where people actually said they hated Miracle Whip. What was that agency thinking?! Well, I believe they were thinking pretty clearly. I envision the brainstorming session going something like this… "Ok team, so what is it about Miracle Whip that will sell?" "Well, it’s creamy and tastes good with ham." "Are you kidding me? That stuff is awful!" "Well I like it." "Well I don’t." And so the “Miracle Whip -love or you hate it” campaign was born.

We see Domino’s Pizza doing the same thing. They were getting a bad reputation and sales were slipping. So what did they do? They hit the airwaves with an in-your-face, ‘We suck, but we’re fixing it!’ campaign that is quite refreshing.

Can you imagine if every brand was forced to either make their numbers by being honest, or change their product so they could be?

It’s the Crazy People approach, and personally, I love it.

Will this approach sell? I think the jury is still out on both of the campaigns above. But as consumers, we should appreciate the transparency, and insist on more of it.

Is Inconsistency Killing Your Brand?

If there is one marketing problem that plagues small businesses it’s developing brand awareness on a shoestring budget. The bigger your budget, the easier it is to create brand awareness in a short amount of time. Hitting the airwaves with TV and radio spots, saturating local media with print ads, and dominating the search engines with top-spot pay-per-click ads and web banner advertising can quickly get your brand in front of your target audience. But when trying to build your brand with a small business budget, and a ‘slow and steady wins the race’ approach, you’d better be sure of one thing - consistency.

The Problem

Small business owners trying to save money on marketing often piece out their marketing activities to multiple sources. Some trade out services with friends, or they rely on friends and family members to help out. All fine, if those resources are good at what they do, but all too often, these different activities done by different people result in brand inconsistency. Bob, who does the website, is doing it as a favor, so you kind of let him do what he wants, and you’re afraid to give him much direction - he is doing it for free, sooo… Then there’s the coupon mailer that you were convinced to do by that pesky sales person who offered to handle all of the artwork and creative for you at no charge. And finally there is your client who agreed to do your company brochure as a trade for services. As far as saving money on your stuff, you’re doing great. But here’s what can happen…

Without proper direction on messaging, proper logo usage, standard colors, standard fonts, and a guide to using URLs and phone numbers in your advertising, each of these nice people re likely create your materials in their style and their voice. And none of them will look or sound like the next.

From your customers and potential customers’ perspectives, you may actually end up looking like several different companies. And if that happens, you’re missing the boat on brand awareness altogether.

The Solution

Invest some time and a little money in having your brand sharply defined, and have a formal Marketing Style Guide created. Settle firmly on a logo and your colors. Your Marketing Style Guide will be the branding bible from which each of your vendors (friends, family members, or whoever is doing marketing for you) will live by. Consider it the roots of your brand from which each of your brand activities will grow! Your Style Guide should be available to your providers in a PDF format with links to art files whenever possible. If that is not feasible, create the PDF of the guide, and include it on a flash drive or CD that includes your approved art files.

Your Marketing Style Guide PDF and files/links should include:

Logo - Include vector (EPS), and high resolution jpeg (RGB) and tiff (CMYK) versions that can easily be used for signage, print, and the web. Include the proper PMS, CMYK and RBG colors in the art files so that when your logo is printed, the colors are the same everywhere. Don’t worry if you don’t understand these acronyms - your Marketing Style Guide creator will. (If not…find someone else to do your Style Guide!) Include color, black and white, and reversed versions of your logo also.

Tag Line - If your business uses a consistent tag line, be sure to include this in your Marketing Style Guide. This is generally used in conjunction with your logo, and should be used consistently. Limit yourself to just one tagline. Other messages about your brand or business can be used as Key Marketing Messages, which we will get to in a moment.

Approved Fonts - Outside of proper logo and color usage, one of the most important elements in making sure your marketing materials look similar is choosing one or two approved fonts that can be used for ad/website headlines, sub-headlines and body copy. These fonts should go well with your logo.

Your ‘Who Is’ Statement - Every business owner should be able, in one or two sentences, to quickly and accurately describe his or her business. Sometimes called the ‘30-second elevator speech’, we’re calling this your ‘who is’ statement. For example: Who is Joe’s Landscaping? Joe’s Landscaping provides residential landscape design, water feature design and lawn mowing services to homeowners in Buck’s County. Your ‘who is’ statement sound simple, but you’d be surprised at how difficult it can be for a business own to define his or her business in such a short and concise way. But that’s exactly how it must be defined for marketing purposes. In marketing, we have just a few seconds to tell your story. When used consistently, your ‘who is’ statement can help potential customers get to know you.

Mission / Vision / Philosophy - Most companies have their company mission statement laid out. Whether it’s called your Mission, Vision, or Philosophy, it is helpful for your marketing materials providers to know what’s at the heart of your company. Knowing what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for are all items that should be included in your mission statement and in your Marketing Style Guide. While it may not be used verbatim (or at all) in ad copy, it can help flavor the overall direction.

Key Marketing Messages - Key marketing messages are similar to tag lines, and can be used to define certain segments of your business for individually-targeted marketing items. For instance, if Joe’s Landscaping does an e-mail focused on water features, they may choose a key marketing message such as ‘From small, relaxing Koi ponds to quarter-acre duck ponds and waterfalls, let the experts at Joe’s Landscaping create the water feature of your dreams.’ Key marketing messages are great ways to provide direction to your marketing materials provider, and can be used as the starting point for developing ad or web content.

Contact Information - Each of your marketing items should contain multiple ways for customers to contact us. Your marketing materials providers should be given your website ULR, phone number and an e-mail address to include on all materials.

Licenses, Awards & Certifications - Often businesses are required by law to include license numbers in their advertising. Be sure that your Marketing Style Guide includes any required license numbers. Additionally, many businesses find it useful to promote awards, ratings and certifications. If beneficial to your business, make sure your Marketing Style Guide includes the art files for any logos that should be included in your advertising. A good example of this is the Better Business Bureau logo - many companies who have received an A+ BBB Rating like to use that logo in their advertising.

Images or Image Direction - Your business should have a distinct look and feel. Along with the items above, brand consistency can be achieved through the use of approved photos. If you do not have photos that are used regularly on your materials, be sure that your marketing materials providers have some direction on what types of photos to use. For example, if Joe’s Landscaping targets homeowners with larger homes, it is beneficial for their marketing material provider to know not to use small homes on their materials.

A lack of brand consistency can dramatically slow brand awareness, and even confuse customers and prospects. But with a little bit of leg work, your Marketing Style Guide can save you and your marketing providers time and headaches, and help your business grow.

Groupons, Living Social & Other Group Coupons – Good or Bad for Business?

As consumer’s in today’s tough economy, we are on a constant search for deals. Searching for sales and coupons has become a way of life. So it stands to reason that the companies providing coupon deals are doing well. Some of them very well. Take the most popular one today – Groupon. The concept of group coupons – those that go into effect when a group of people agree to take advantage of them – has revolutionized the way consumers search for and redeem deals. And it has quickly made Groupon worth billions. There is no doubt that for consumers, it’s a huge hit. But for retailers, maybe not so much. It all depends. To determine whether or not to take the group coupon plunge, first you need to make sure you get all the facts.

Group Coupons – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Doing business in this economy is tough no matter how you slice it. Consumer spending is down, and competition is fierce. Retailers in particular are pulling out all the stops to get customers to spend a few of their hard-earned dollars with them instead of their competitor down the street. Group coupons are one way a business can divert business their way – at least momentarily. Here we break down the good, the bad and the ugly sides of group coupon sites like Groupon and Living Social.

The Good

For a business that needs to drive in new traffic – and lots of it – group coupons will most certainly do the trick. A restaurant that normally sees a modest weekday crowd can increase their customers tenfold (or more) by offering a $25 for $50 worth of food and drink coupon Monday through Thursday, for example. A nail salon that normally books 10 appointments a day can literally have thousands of new customers calling to book. If you’re ready for it (and you’d better be ready for it) offering a group coupon will increase your traffic.

Group coupons can also help your business get noticed. Many small businesses don’t have the advertising dollars to tell the world who they are, where they are, and what makes them worth a visit. They also don’t have the benefit of having an opt-in e-mail list thousands strong. Offer a Groupon, though, and suddenly your small business is smack in front of thousands of potential customers. Whether they take advantage of the deal or not, you’ve received tremendous brand exposure. And you have the opportunity to become a regular for customers who may have never found you before.

The Bad

While driving a tremendous amount of traffic to your location may sound like one of those problems that you’d like to have, it may actually backfire if you’re not prepared. Take for example Crystal Nails in Chicago. Their $28 mani pedi deal actually did some harm to their business. It drove so much traffic – over 5,000 Groupons were sold – that some customers were forced to wait for up to 6 months to take advantage of their deal. And on top of that, for every day of those six months it was jam-packed with back-to-back appointments. Customers were forced to wait for long periods of time for their scheduled appointment, and the staff was stressed out to say the least. It’s a classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for!’

Another problem with offering a too-good-to-be-true deal to your patrons is that it makes them question if what they would normally is too much. If you can offer $50 worth of food for $25 today, why not do that all the time? Now, most consumers aren’t really that naïve, but offering over-the-top deals can devalue your products and services. If you do decide to do a group coupon, your best bet is to remind your customers that this is a one-time only deal, and assure them that still-valuable offers will come their way should they become loyal customers.

Finally, the worst part about group coupons is that for all of the traffic and all of the leg work involved in making sure that you’re properly prepared for it, it’s not profitable for most. Unless your margins are very high, or you have the ability to make up the money lost in add-on sales (such as alcohol if you’re a restaurant), you may actually lose money during your group coupon run. You may decide that the gamble, and potential loss is worth it to secure new customers long-term, but your business needs to be prepared to do a whole lot of work for not a whole lot of profit. Most group coupons sites requires that your offer be deeply discounted, and they take 30-50% of that. So, your $25 food gift certificate worth $50 when redeemed could actually yield you a mere $12.50.

The Ugly

Those that argue against the group coupon movement say that this method of devaluation of goods and services is ultimately very bad for business – whether they participate or not. They say that consumers who live their lives via these deals will not be loyal, but will instead be quite the opposite – utterly disloyal, on a never-ending search for the next big deal.

The bottom line is that only you know whether or not taking the group coupon plunge is worth the risk. Our short checklist of questions to ask yourself can help. Also, ask the businesses who you know have done Groupon, Living Social or other group coupon offers about their experience and their return. Ask them during the deal, then again 6 months later and see if their story is the same.

Things to Consider Before Doing Groupon or Living Social

·         Is my business and staff set up to take the sudden increase in traffic?

·         Are my margins substantial enough to sustain a 75% or more cut, or will the add-on sales make up for the loss?

·         Is the potential devaluation of my goods and services worth the immediate return?

·         Do I believe that the effort will generate repeat or long-term customers?

If you answered ‘No’ to one or more of these, only enter into a group coupon eyes wide open, and know that there is a risk of a down side. If you answered ‘Yes’ to all or most, and are ready to take the group coupon plunge, consider working with a marketing firm to help make the most of your effort. A marketing pro can help work with the coupon provider to craft the best offer for your customers and long-term goals, and can help you do other items to make the most of your group coupon experience.

Making Group Coupons Work

In addition to doing some leg work up front to craft your best offer – the one that will not only get you the increase in business you want, but be beneficial long-term – there are things you can do to make the group coupon experience last. For example, for those taking advantage of the offer, keep track of them and do your best to get follow-up contact information (e-mail is best). This way, you can offer them deals directly in the future, and save the hefty fees. Also consider offering a loyalty program to your group coupon redeemers to entice them to return. You can also gain more exposure for your company and help stay connected with customers on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In addition to having the group coupon site send your offer, post it to your own social media sites and get people to pass it along. Bring them back to your Facebook page to ‘Like’ you, for example, and you’re on your way to building a nice following online.

Are You Ready to Do Groupon, Living Social or Another Group Coupon Offer?

Let Digidaze be your guide to group coupon specials. Call us at 1-855-digidaze (344-4329) or visit on the web at www.digidaze.com.