Inner Circle Media

How many times have you checked out your competitors on social media, looked at their Google ranking for key terms or check out the promotions they are running?  We’ve all done it.  Now that you’ve learned more about Mocial Marketing from our previous posts you know that it is more about what YOU are doing for your audience rather than “keeping up with the Jones” . That brings us to one-liner #10: “Marketing in the Mocial mindset is not one-size fits all; don’t compare your success and failure to others”

We know it is tempting to make those comparisons and say, “We finally beat company X”, but so often we lose sight of what our goals really were for a particular campaign or marketing change.  Think about these three things.  These are all things that you know; it is just that everyday life gets in the way of remembering them.

• Don’t try to imitate others, you have a different audience:  You have to remember, yes your competitors are essentially selling to the same people but there are differences.  Using mocial marketing allows you to work to find those differences and really pinpoint how your customers want to interact with you.

• Set goals and use those to measure success:  Just like the last post, make S.M.A.R.T Goals for your marketing efforts.  Make goals that are specific to your efforts and ones that you will really be able to track and measure.  Just like marathoners have a training plan, you and your team have to have a plan for success – with an end goal in mind.

• Sometimes things won’t work, speed up your failure rate and get to what really works:  You are going to fail, it is inevitable.  Get it over with and move on to the next try.  You can’t get stuck on “it should work so we should try it again.” Consider making a little tweak and then trying again.  If you’re shooting but missing the target, don’t just keep shooting. Make changes, then try again.

This may seem pretty simple but we all need a reminder sometimes.  No need to thank us, we’re here to help you create YOUR best marketing strategy.

Another post in our ‘Mocial’ Marketing one liners.  Today’s one-liner is #9 “Have goals for new campaigns, mocial isn’t a plug n’ play kind of marketing approach”.  We are all used to setting goals for our marketing efforts, so thinking about Mocial Marketing should be no different.

Just as promised here is 1 of 10 of the mini posts based on our “Mocial Marketing- The new face of Marketing” post.

One important thing to understand about ‘mocial’ marketing is that different messages are best shared using different methods.  Let us give you an example..

If you are frequent customer at a clothing store you may want to:

• Receive coupons via email but be able to redeem them in the store using your mobile device
• Enter a contest to win store merchandise using your social network
• Receive rewards for ‘checking-in’ while shopping at your local store

Each of these promotions for the clothing store are messages and seek customer engagement.  It is how they are delivered that change the way that users respond to the message.  Think about how you are interacting with your customers, or potential customers, over each channel that you use to spread messages.

Here at Inner Circle Media, we use both email and social media to communicate with customers and prospects.  We like to use our social networks to share articles and posts that we think our followers and friends might find interesting and useful.  Our newsletters, on the other hand, which are sent only to our email list subscribers – include all sorts of marketing tips, and useful information that is not shared with our entire social network.

Think about how you and your organization are using mobile, social, local and social to share your message.  If you don’t receive a lot of interaction by posting your coupons on twitter, maybe you should try sending them via email.

To catch up on what ‘mocial marketing’ is visit our last post and then keep checking back for the remaining nine mini posts.

If you don’t yet use Google Analytics for your website, then this post is for you.  Or, maybe you do have a Google Analytics (GA) account, but you’re not sure which metrics you should be checking regularly?

Well you are not alone, so we’ve compiled a list for you of the most helpful metrics provided by Google Analytics!  These are metrics that you should be tracking on a consistent basis (we suggest once a month to start).  They will help keep you familiar with who’s visiting, what they’re checking out, and a few other important things.

Each of the sections below (audience, traffic sources, content) are sections of the left hand navigation menu in GA.  You can use this as a guide.  We’ll explain each one.

 Audience Tab

-Pages / Visit:  The more pages people visit the more interested they are (usually).  A good number is somewhere between 3 and 4 pages per visit but the more the better.

- Avg. Visit Duration: The time people spend on your site. Hopefully your visitors are taking time to read through the pages they are visiting.  A good average is, again, between 3 and 4 minutes.

- Bounce Rate:  A bounce occurs when a visitor comes to your site and clicks nothing, they leave the site without registering any action. The lower the bounce rate the better, but shoot for under 65%.

Also under the Audience Tab (for the visual learners) check out the Visitor Flow chart.  This is an awesome new feature that shows  you: Where your visitors come from, what pages they view, where they drop off, and lots more.

 Traffic Sources Tab

-Traffic Percentages:  This separates Search, Referral and Direct traffic to your site. These percentages are especially helpful if 1) you start receiving links from other sites, and 2) when increasing your search engine optimization efforts.

- Keywords: The search terms that people are using to find your site online.  You want keywords that relate to your industry or company listed.  For example, we like to see any combination of ‘web design’ and ‘Ann Arbor, MI’ listed in our top 10 keywords.

Content Tab

-Page Report:  This lists pages that people are visiting.  Most commonly your home page and contact page will be in the top 10, but it is good to know what pages attract and hold people’s attention.

-In- Page Analytics:  This is an AWESOME tool! It shows you your homepage with the percentages of clicks that each area receives.  You can see if that flashy “Contact Us” button is really getting people to click.

 Remember, these are things that you should be checking consistently.  These basic metrics will help you create a picture of what works, what doesn’t, what your site users like, what their behaviors are, and what changes you might want to consider. There are also many more in-depth metrics that Google Analytics can provide you, but these basic metrics will help you maintain a good 10,000 foot view of your website traffic and performance.  Be sure to check out Google Conversion University for lots of in-depth tutorials about Google Analytics.

Social media is a complex animal, so we have eliminated the guess-work and have broken Social Media down letter by letter – eleven letters, to be exact. Each letter stands for an important aspect of making social media successful for your organization no matter the size, resources, or goals. Think of all these tips as working together, like a circle that is only complete and successful if all the parts are present.

S is for SHARE: Sharing is the primary principle that created Social Media, a platform for individuals to share information with each other. Give people something that will illicit a response. It’s hard to get attention if you don’t say anything.

O is for Optimism: You’ve got to stay positive when working with Social Media. It takes times to establish a following. Don’t get down in the dumps if you don’t have 500 followers in the first week, your time will come.

C is for Character: Character in this case means personality. Each organization has a unique culture/personality, so try to highlight your uniqueness through your social media. Have fun with it, it’s not all serious all the time.

I is for Innovative: You’ve got to set yourself, or your organization, apart. Don’t just post the usual information about client meetings or questions about products. Strive to create content that people can’t get anywhere else.

A is for Appropriate: While keeping your personality, make sure the information you’re sharing with your Social Media audience is appropriate. That means something different to everyone, but if your mother would be embarrassed by it maybe you should pass.

L is for Length: Most people don’t want to read a novel on their computer screen in the middle of the work day. Keep your sharing short, sweet, and to the point.

M is for More than Advertising: Your Social Media platforms should not be just one big advertisement for your product or service. You want to create a community, and just advertising certainly won’t do that.

D is for Diversity: Variety is the spice of (Social Media) life. In this case diversity and variety are the same thing. Make sure you’re not always posting similar content. Consider allowing several people in the office to post on the account to ensure that content doesn’t get monotonous.

I is for Images: People love photos and photos often get more interactions than just regular status updates or tweets. Most of us have smart phones so get to snapping and uploading, shoot for 1-2 picture per week to start with.(This blog has a good explanation of why photos are good)

A is for Analyze: If you put all these tips into practice you should start seeing some positive results but you need to keep an eye out for what’s working and what isn’t. Facebook Insights is a great tool to check quickly during the week. Figure out what the people like and give them more of it.

Now that we’ve spelled it out for you, we wish you good luck.  We won’t deny that you’ll have to work diligently with the tools we’ve laid out.  These tools and ideas will help you get on track to have a positive and useful relationship with Social Media.  Don’t doubt that Social Media can be powerful for business. When used correctly, it can add value and help take your organization to the next level.

From small business to Wall Street, there have been cutbacks or efforts to get by with the talent currently in place, but some companies are doing things a little differently. Companies are hiring (yes hiring) interns. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter- interns are available all the time.

There are a projected 19.7 million students (as reported by the US Census Bureau) enrolled in colleges and universities across the US.  Now certainly not all are interested in interning for your company and you can’t sift through that many resumes.  You can, however, set your mind on getting a qualified intern or two from colleges or universities that are in your area, or even contact your college alma mater.

For each company the process and expectations of an intern are different but the benefits are the same.  Here are just a few to get you thinking

Lower Cost Labor:

Interns are typically students and students are usually looking for two things:  A way to make some money and a chance to gain experience.  An internship can do just that.  Students are not expecting salary and benefits; paying $10-$13/ hour and allowing the student to have a valuable experience is often what students are looking for.

Test Drive Talent:

So often we hire someone for a full-time position and it works out splendidly for the first few months but there is always that possibility of complacency.  Interns allow you to get to know them, put them to the test, try out new things and really give them a test drive.

You might love two people on paper and hire them both for an internship. Two months later you discover that the intern who impressed you the most on paper actually isn’t the right fit.  On the other hand the intern that was less impressive on paper might end up being a great fit for your organization, culture, and current needs.

New Ideas:

You know what you’re talking about when it comes to your business, but interns can offer new perspectives on a lots of different things.  Depending on their expertise they might breathe new life into your online presence or offer a  fresh perspective on a project that your team has been hammering out for months.  Heck, interns are often the best people to take hold of that project that you’ve wanted to get done for years.  It’s a value-add for you business and a good experience for the intern.

Giving Back:

By hiring an intern you are essentially paying it forward. Chances are, someone during your career gave you a chance, introduced you to someone who knew someone or pushed you to be a better professional.  As an internship supervisor or if your company hosts interns you are doing just the same.

A company of any size can hire interns (and by all means go ahead), but the most valuable experiences, for both the company and the intern, arise from the day to day interactions that occur in smaller organizations. Small business settings allow interns to develop transferable skills and develop confidence as they make the transition from student to professional.

If you already have interns, work to take their experience to the next level.  Give them a project that they can see through from beginning to end, take them along to meetings, and ask them to accompany you to networking events. Stop asking them to get you coffee or make you copies, that is not nearly as valuable as the hands on, nitty gritty, dig deep, kind of work.  You never know what might become of that intern, to whom you gave a chance way back when.

Internet marketing and web design firms like ours often follow different processes and employ various methods to complete web development, search engine optimization, and marketing projects. Our team, for example, is extremely thorough in the planning and architecture phase of each project. This means we try our darndest at the beginning of the project to account for and balance all users’ needs and stakeholders’ goals and aspirations. That way, once we’re actually designing and coding your website, no one has to guess at how people will navigate and use the site.

While companies like ours may vary in our approach (as well as our size, target market, team structure, and rapport with clients), we can agree that we’re all looking for clients who work with us collaboratively and trust our judgment and expertise.

We asked each member of our team what qualities they looked for in an “ideal” client. Here are our thoughts on the top 6 characteristics of a GREAT client …

1. You trust our expertise: You know your stuff – you provide a stellar service or you sell a unique product. We trust that you understand your business, and when we work with you, we promise to ask you many probing questions to help you explain how you stand out in a crowded marketplace. We hope that you’ll trust us in the same way that we trust you. We know our business too. We know marketing and design. We understand content strategy and messaging. We’ve developed websites and marketing campaigns since Y2K. And we are paid to research, analyze, and interpret the ever-changing world of advertising and interactive media. You hired an experienced marketing team for a reason – most likely because you want someone to advise you on the best possible way to promote your organization, service and/or product. Trust us to do that.

2. You’re open-minded and flexible about your ideas: Bring us your ideas – no matter how many you have, and even if you think they are the wildest things we’ll ever hear. We’ll add our own ideas and questions to the mix, and then we’ll work with you to figure out what will work best for your target audience, and what works with your own budget, timeline, and business goals. Our best clients understand that we are here to help assess and prioritize ideas, and then implement those ideas that help them get the most “bang for their buck.”

3. You can clearly state your mission and strategic business goals: Our ideal client can readily articulate their organization’s mission (in simple words that are meaningful to all). They can tell us what their company does, why they do it so well, and how they hope to grow and evolve in their offerings. When our client can do this, then it provides a great starting point for the key marketing and communications messages we develop to help them attract new customers and retain current ones.

4. You know your audience: Integrated marketing campaigns (including websites, print materials, online ads, social media efforts, etc.) are designed to specifically appeal to your target audience. When you know who your customers are and what they want/need, then your marketing efforts can more efficiently be tailored to these folks. We will ask you, “Who are the primary users of your website?” If you answer, “Oh you know, the general public,” then we will insist that you be more specific. We’ll be happy when you can eventually tell us, “The primary users of our website are college-educated women between the ages of 38 and 60, with incomes of X to Y, and an average of 2 children. They use iPhones, iPads, and home computers with moderate technical ability. When they come to our website, they are feeling stressed out about all they have to do to take care of their families. These are the top 3 tasks they’ll likely want to perform on our site…”

5. Deadlines: When we say “deadlines,” we aren’t just talking about the final launch date for a marketing campaign or website. We are talking about each step and deliverable on the way to the final product. As your marketing team, we will do our best to stick to deadlines, and we appreciate when you do too. Complications and delays may arise (as they often do.) Our best clients know how to stay on track, answer questions in a timely manner, and provide feedback within allotted timeframes. Alaine (our trusty project manager) will make sure that lines of communication stay open, and the project stays on course!

6. Dog Treats and Chocolate: Other web and marketing firms may not agree with this one, but we need dog treats and chocolate to properly complete our work! Wait, let us clarify –our canine team members, Dr. Norman, Ms. Melody, and Princess Agnes need dog treats.

Our human team members love chocolate in all forms – for future reference, our current favorite candy bar is Chocolove’s Almond & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate

How a Michigan-based “widget maker” learned to stand out in the marketplace

 THE BACKGROUND:

Fitzpatrick Manufacturing makes parts for a wide variety of customer sectors. In industry jargon, they’re a “CNC machine shop” – among hundreds of similar shops in Michigan, the Midwest, the US, and the world. Prior to 2008, they grew year after year with plenty of clients in the automotive, military, mold components, and mining industries. Then came the crash of 2008! (Insert crack of thunder here.)

 THE MARKETING SOLUTION:

When Fitzpatrick Manufacturing called Inner Circle Media in late 2009, they knew that they had to make some major changes if they wanted to find new customers and adapt to a new economic climate. They believed our company could help them do just that. We started the process with questions like …

• How are you different than all of the other CNC manufacturing companies?
• What do your customers care about most when making buying decisions?
• And how do your unique strengths make you the best choice for those customers?

Initially, they said the things that most manufacturing companies say like, “We’re less expensive, and we’ll produce your machined parts quicker.”

So we asked, “If every CNC machine shop says that, then how can it be true for all of you? Are you really cheaper and quicker than your competitors?” 

 They said, “Well, not entirely, but our customers want to hear it.”

We said, “What?! How do you know that’s what they want to hear? What if you stop saying it? How are you TRULY different and better than your competitors?”

 They said, “Hmm. We’ll have to show you how we’re different …”

When we visited Fitzpatrick’s “shop,” we realized just how different they were. This was no “mom and pop shop.” These guys were CNC manufacturing gurus! They practiced Kaizen, a system where all employees are focused on” continuous improvement.” Kaizen comes from the Japanese words “kai” which means “change” or “to correct” and “zen” which means “good”.

What exactly did Kaizen mean for Fitzpatrick? It meant that they thought nonstop about MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY and how to improve their processes and people. Now if you think those are boastful words, consider the fact that the blueprints for their building went through OVER 300 ITERATIONS before the company was satisfied.  Each and every step in their process was considered – from the way their manufacturing floor was organized to the color-coded drawer handles in their cafeteria (so employees would know where to find silverware, napkins, and tin foil). They even built a high tech classroom right next to their manufacturing floor, so their employees could get hundreds of hours of training to help them stay on top of industry trends and advancements.

Fitzpatrick Manufacturing is meticulous about the way it manufactures metal parts, and even the most intricate parts are produced with ease and without flaws. With that message as our battle cry, we designed a cohesive set of marketing materials – including a website, four videos, and printed materials. In May 2010, we launched their new website. Starting in the summer of 2011, we helped them with search engine optimization, content strategy, Google Adwords, and social media marketing.

THE REAL RESULTS:

How has it all worked? Was marketing the answer for this “widget maker”? Here are the results… 

• From June 2011 to June 2012, unique visitors to the website have DOUBLED.

• Fitzpatrick says they receive, “On average 5-7 qualified sales leads per month through the website and have acquired three new and very large customers.”

• One of their latest clients (from Texas) says they narrowed their list of potential vendors to Fitzpatrick Manufacturing and another company. When the client showed the websites for both vendors to their leadership team, the leadership team immediately chose Fitzpatrick because “their website looks so much better than the other guy’s.”

• Fitzpatrick is currently in contact negotiations with a major automotive player!  Guess how they got this lead….through their Twitter feed! Yes, it’s true, your social media presence can be a very effective marketing tool when it’s part of integrated marketing approach.

There are so many social media websites out there these days that business people often say to us, “Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Digg, Vimeo, YouTube… aaaahhh, I’m overwhelmed with all the possibilities!”

Then they ask, “Truly, what should I do with social media? What’s most important? I don’t want to ignore it, but I also don’t want to spin my wheels posting on those sites every day. How can I use it to really help my business?”

When considering the social media landscape, there are a plethora of things to consider when determining where your company should invest time and effort. Here are just a few of our most important questions and tips:

1. Where are your customers? Evaluate your target market. Go where your current and prospective customers go! Where do they spend their time online? Do they use social networking sites for business or personal reasons? And here’s an even more obvious question – are your target customers actually spending their time on social media sites? If your customers’ are older than 70, they might not bother with Facebook. If they’re 52 year old executives, will they really bother to watch all those videos you created for your YouTube channel?
2. What are they seeking? Consider how your target audience might respond to your presence on their favorite social networking sites. What types of posts, comments, videos, photos, and other online content will be MOST engaging, thought-provoking, and useful to your target market? Don’t post on social media sites for your sake – post for their sake! Your goal is to engage with folks (prospective and current customers, other business people, journalists and media representatives) on those social media sites in AUTHENTIC and PERSONAL WAYS, so you build trust and relationships.
3. What can you actually manage? Don’t try to do it all! There are hundreds of social media sites (check out this infographic if you don’t believe me!). Quality matters much more than quantity when using social media for customer engagement. Once you’ve figured out where most of your customers are then use that outlet really well. Unless you have a team in place to manage your presence in so many places, then decide on a manageable number of sites that will work best for you and stick to it. We’d suggest you start with 2-4 social media outlets. Moreover, your customers don’t really want you to bombard them with the same information in ten different places.
4. How can you ensure updates and consistency? Once you’ve chosen your primary social media outlets, don’t just create an account, put a badge on your website, and call it a day.  Make an effort to post meaningful content on a timely basis, and comment on others’ posts. Monitor what’s happening on your various “walls” and “channels.” Provide updates and respond to questions and comments. And be sure to remember – “social media karma” means that your effort (to generate good content and share others’ good content) will come back to you in all kinds of good ways.

Ask yourself these questions and then put these social media tips to work for you and your business.

If you have a website or you sell your own software, you are probably familiar with the terms “usability testing” or “user testing.” But there’s a good chance that you haven’t embarked on testing your website or software in a meaningful way with actual users because user testing seems like such a complex and overwhelming task.

When you think about doing user testing, do you cringe? Do you imagine all the hours and effort, it would take to design the test? And then you’d have to carry out the test with so many participants who will likely feel uncomfortable about performing the test in front of you! Plus, then you’d have to spend time compiling the results and trying to draw conclusions about what to change on the site or software.

And oh gosh, what about all the time it will take to find the right software? And how much does that software cost anyway?

So many questions and worries! Well fret no longer – we assure you, it is not Rocket Surgery!

In his book “Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems,” Steve Krug calms the fears of all those who are intimidated by user testing. If you aren’t much into reading or just need a quick overview to convince you it’s worthwhile, here you go. Krug’s 6 “maxims” included in his book are…

1. “A morning a month, that’s all we ask.” User testing doesn’t have to take up oodles of time. There is no need to test with 10 people and then spend an entire day analyzing the results of those tests and deciding what you’re going to change. In one single morning you can do 3 user tests and then debrief with your team over lunch. Don’t spend more time that you actually have to!

2. “Start earlier than you think makes sense.” You don’t have to wait until the website is completely finished to start testing. In fact, it’s best to start testing in the beginning design stages because it’s often easier to make changes then. If users don’t respond well to the use of hot pink as your background color, it’s good to know sooner rather than later because you can more easily change a Photoshop file than a coded website. Those initial design tests can be ever easier with resources such as Krug’s “Five Second Test.”

3. “Recruit loosely and grade on a curve.” Don’t get so caught up with finding the “right” users to test your site or designs. Be flexible on the type of user you’re recruiting. If your target audience is familiar with technical terms required for understanding some of the content on your site, but a test participant doesn’t know that jargon, it’s okay. You can note that the test subject doesn’t understand some of the words, but you don’t have to change all of the terminology. You are just making sure that the user can navigate the site, understands where to go and what to do.

4. “Make it a spectator sport.” You should not be doing all of this alone! Get others in your organization involved. Invite anyone and everyone in your organization to be observers for the test. The more eyes watching what users are doing, the more diverse and comprehensive your observations will be. The requirements for participation as an observer are as follows: attend all user tests, attend the debrief meeting, enjoy the snacks in the observation room during the test and submit your lunch order for the debrief meeting in a timely fashion. That doesn’t sound so bad, right?!

5. “Focus ruthlessly on a small number of the most important problems.” The odds are that your users are going to be perturbed by lots of different things on the website, but the truth is, you can’t fix everything. So, focus on fixing the top 3 most important items, as decided on at the debrief meeting. These things should give you the most bang for your buck in improvements, and also not take up the most time. After you make those 3 most important improvements, you can test the site again to see if any other big complaints come up.

6. “When fixing problems, always do the least you can do.” Make the smallest change possible that will make a difference in the user experience. If a user was having trouble spotting the “Sign up for our e-newsletter” button, you don’t necessarily have to move the button and recode the template. Instead, change the color, add a graphic, and/or make the font larger. Often little changes make a huge difference.

So there you have it, a quick and easy overview of User Testing and the book “Rocket Surgery Made Easy”. User testing will help you as a web designer/developer/ project manager create better websites for clients. And if you’re a potential client thinking about a new website project, talk with your project manager about a possible user test or two. It will only help create a better website for you. Now… get to testing!