The Importance of Infographics

In a nutshell, what are infographics? I really liked the quick and simple explanation that Mark Smiciklas came up with, which I found whilst reading up on the subject, so I'll share it with you.

source: NeoMam Studios

For brands, or even services, infographics are a brilliant way to communicate data that would normally be pretty hard to digest. And with 65% of us being visual learners (Forbes, 2013), it's such an easy way to take advantage of something that's on a plate for businesses. In the past, companies would have hired graphic designers, or those with a dab-hand for photoshop - but now, it's completely different. For most companies, infographics are perfectly easy to create, and the relevant software is totally accessible. When infographics are done right, they can communicate messages that stick in the minds of your audience - whether that be why you should be buying something, how you should be designing something or where you should be finding something, these infographics are essential to boosting your brand.

According to Arrow (2014), there are a good few reasons why using infographics should be part of your strategy:

• Inbound links to your site - letting others use your infographics means more search engine optimisation.
• Increased following - depending on what you're using platform-wise, infographics increase followers/subscribers, sharing is the new viral.
• Credibility - publishing infographics that are either relevant, useful, educational, or filled with information can boost your rankings within your market.
• Branding - speaks for itself, establish your brand; logos, slogans, taglines, message etc.
• Multi-purpose - can be used as print media within your company, not just for their viral tendencies.

But be aware, infographics can go terribly wrong, be cautious not to mislead your audience, or worse, include too much that it's difficult to even look at. Be clever with the images you use, and be careful not to make silly mistakes (a bad example is shown in the image below published by World Bank).

source: The Guardian

Who knew that just over 3/4 looks like just under 3/4? Rookie mistake. So it's important to get this stuff right, and it's not hard to match images to data, as long as you sit down and plan it out properly. Imagine you're the one looking for the information, how would you want to see it? How would you respond to the image if it was the first time you looked at it? Ask people - test your infographics. 

It has to be said, the benefits that come with the correct use of infographics are great, although it appears to be quite an easy thing to get wrong. It's being careful with the data selection, and choosing what is absolutely relevant and necessary is vital, but above all, it is the image and words that portray the data that is key to a successful infographic.

REFERENCES:

Arrow, S. (2014) Content Marketing: 10 reasons to include infographics in your strategy. SteamFeed [online] <http://www.steamfeed.com/content-marketing-10-reasons-include-infographics-strategy/>

Chalabi, M (2013) 16 Useless Infographics. The Guardian [online] <http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/gallery/2013/aug/01/16-useless-infographics#/?picture=414071380&index=4>

McCue, T. (2013) Why Infographics Rule. Forbes [online] <http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2013/01/08/what-is-an-infographic-and-ways-to-make-it-go-viral/>

Twitter's Language Targeting

Dominguez (1998) said that 'language is a tool or resource of communication, an expression of personality, and a signal of identity'. It's so critical for brands to express themselves through what they write, in terms of marketing language - however the point remains that brands, now, should infact be thinking of the bigger picture. If your markets aren't receiving your message due to language barriers, how long before they find a brand that is catering for them? With social networking platforms still going strong as a marketers dream, Twitter has concocted another way for advertisers to reach their ever-expanding markets.

Twitter has introduced the latest feature to lure advertisers into their social networking hemisphere - language targeting. Advertisers who use the site will be able to target users on their site according to their language. Promoted and Sponsored Tweets can be customised in a language that their audience understands, whilst users are able to see highly relevant ads in their language. Twitter already determines users language through profile settings, and what activity they're participating in. So the introduction of language-specific analytics is a great bonus for brands, who can use the data to identify new audiences, or to further engage in multi-lingual content.

With credit to Emerging Spaces blog on Twitter Language Targeting, there are two main ways in which a brand could use language targeting:

• A brand which has a local market promotion could target in-language ads directly to users in that market.
• The update can also benefit markets with a large population that speak a variety of languages, which in effect means that advertising 'highly relevant ads' may allow for the audience to connect better.

It should be noted that this feature should be carefully put to use, it's important to use it for Promoted Tweets, rather than Promoted Accounts. As those who follow Promoted Accounts will expect the language to be that in the ad, whereas Promoted Tweets will allow for the audience to receive relevant information in a language that suits them. Personally, I think the idea is quite beneficial to all brands, and especially those who use social networking as a strong marketing platform. For some companies, branching out to other markets can be tricky, but with the use of language analytics, brands are able to identify who and where, in terms of displaying information. 

Twitter's potential for organisations is extensive, it is a tool to create electronic word of mouth, a viral marketing mechanism and as a form of online word of mouth branding (Burton & Soboleva, 2011). It is key for external communication with customers, and that's what is so important. Communication. Tailoring your brand to meet language needs of alternative markets suggests adaptation, and versatility. It's hard to fault an advertisement that personally addresses a market which in the past may have been previously neglected.

REFERENCES:

Dominguez, F. (1998) International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Vol. 1998 Iss: 134, p1-13.

Burton, S. & Soboleva, A. (2011) "Interactive or reactive? Marketing with Twitter", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 28 Iss: 7, pp.491-499.

Value The Video

In a time when going viral is seen as an achievement, if your company isn't jumping on videos as a marketing tool - you're slacking. Whilst images offer something for consumers to look at, and text offers an explanation, videos allow you to communicate exactly what you want to your audience. Insivia states that in 2012, video was the fastest growing form of ad format, and not only that, but 90% of users say that seeing a video about a product is helpful in the decision process. Luke (2013) gives a great summary of what kind of benefits video marketing can have for your company, such as:

• Showing your firms personality, without a face-to-face meeting with your prospect.
• A video is searchable content, and can improve SEO.
• People are much more likely to watch a video than read a full page of text.
• Video is easier to consume on mobile devices (my Go Mobile blog touches on how important mobile friendly content is!)

So, are you taking advantage of video marketing?

What's effective?

source: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Released in 2013, the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video has generated nearly 63 million views on YouTube, not including postings of the video on other platforms. Dove make a brilliant campaign, by proving that it's not always about how you directly advertise your product/service, nowadays, consumers are more enticed by the way you portray your industry or culture. It's important to realise that everyday consumers are flooded with ads to buy products, being creative and original can spread a buzz about your company that differentiates it from the rest. Videos help with communicating services to customers during 'high-consideration touchpoints', and can have a positive impact a customers decision during high consideration purchases, such as cars (Sluis, 2014). Some ideas of how to integrate videos into your marketing strategy are highlighted by Luke (2013), these include; company overview videos, video bios, explanatory videos, training/educational videos, video press release, training videos and email videos.

What's not effective?

With credit to Megan O'Neill from her article on 5 Reasons Web Marketers Fail With Viral Video Campaigns, here's a few pointers as to why video's can fail:

• Your video is too much like a commercial - people are less likely to share advertisements, they share shocking, funny, surprising, moving etc.
• Your campaign is unoriginal - people can watch thousands of different videos online, infact if yours doesn't interest them within the first 10 seconds, they've already got 3 more lined up on a new tab.
• You didn't spend enough time on metadata - make it searchable. Tags, description, title, all key things to concern yourself with with creating a video.
• You aren't promoting it right - sharing on social network platforms only works when you have a huge following, contact influential bloggers, bigger companies have the benefit of possibly hiring an expert within the budget.
• Finally, great idea, bad execution - this could be down to anything, production quality, script and acting, non-engaging content. Make sure you're always getting honest feedback and advice.

REFERENCES:

Luke, K. (2013) 12 Ways to Integrate Video into Your Marketing. Journal of Financial Planning. Vol. 26, No. 9, pp18-19.

Sluis, S. (2014) More Brands Invest in Video Marketing. Customer Relationship Management. Vol. 18, No. 3, p13.

Are you LinkedIn?

With over 300 million users, LinkedIn could be said to be the most 'professional' platform of social networking, among the ranks include entrepreneurs, CEO's, MD's and for businesses - CUSTOMERS. There are huge benefits of using the platform, since it's predominantly focused on B2B connections. Hershberger (2012) suggests it enhances your SEO efforts, contributes to brand recognition and perception, and allow for you to become a leader and a resource amongst your online community. There are endless ways to promote your company and it's offerings to a huge audience. So I've compiled a few things to help you get started, and to use the platform effectively as a marketing tool.

source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Content Marketing Score

For businesses, the unveiling of LinkedIn's new Content Marketing Score is something you don't want to miss out on, and should be taking full advantage of. The tool is a recommendation engine that allows for businesses to 'quantify their impact', it measures the engagement between your content and your audience, and allows you to see how you compare to your competitors. Trending Content (click link for interactive infographic) allows for businesses to tailor their content specifically to match which topics resonate most with specific audiences. These two new tools are bound to have a positive impact on the way businesses market their products/services, and if you're not familiar - get familiar!

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups can help generate leads for any business, joining groups within a particular industry or category allows businesses to not only find prospect customers and business leads, but help create a more influential presence for the company. Once part of a group, LinkedIn allows you to filter the membership list to find influencers and prospects based on different criteria. Nemo (2014) swears by personalising invites to connect, not taking the time to do this can make you appear as lazy, or even worse, a spammer.

LinkedIn Polls

This function has many great uses that would be a waste for any marketer using the platform. Conner (2014) lists a couple of the ways you can utilise the function, which I'll briefly sum up for you:

• Obtain quick opinion results for column and blog topics/trends.
• Obtain product/service feedback (an absolute essential, saves time, resources and can be beneficial to hear some new ideas).
• Conduct immediate market research - addressing the information you need quickly and efficiently.
• Link it to other social networking platforms - Tweeting/Facebooking poll results could increase your following and gain interest from additional people.
• Use polls to generate offers - find out what interests your prospects!

As far as I can see, the only drawbacks for the platform may be that for some businesses, their target prospects may not be LinkedIn potential, due to age mainly. Hershberger (2012) suggests one drawback is the time taken to initially build your profile, apart from that, the day to day running doesn't take much effort. Also, the social network isn't actually seen as a marketing platform quite yet, it's still in quite early days and looked upon as a professional Facebook, so to speak. 

REFERENCES:

Conner, C (2013) 'Five LinkedIn Strategies You Haven't Thought of Before' Forbes [Online] <http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2013/10/27/five-linkedin-strategies-you-havent-thought-of-before/> [accessed 8th May 2014]

Hershberger, T (2012) Using LinkedIn as a Marketing Tool. ABA Bank Marketing. Vol. 44, No. 5, p37.

Nemo, J (2014) 'Three ways to generate leads with LinkedIn Groups' Social Media Examiner [Online] <http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/generate-leads-with-linkedin-groups/> [accessed 8th May 2014]

Go Mobile

It's no secret that having a mobile friendly site will infact increase your customer base (and hopefully sales), and whilst companies are still not focused on producing such 'mobile friendly' sites, they're not only losing customers but also causing annoyance to search engines such as Google. Google has continued to push such companies to produce these sites, not only for the company's benefit, but also in the hope that the use of Google to find such sites will continue to be used. According to Google Mobile Ads Blog 61% of people would quickly switch to another site if they couldn't find what they were looking for straight away - and thats a big percentage to consider. Google also say companies without mobile sites are helping their competitors, not only that, but they're ruining their reputation in such a digital friendly age.

source: Google Mobile Ads Blog

Hend (2014) created a study which compromised some of the most important criteria that needed to be met in order to produce a good mobile friendly site. After having a read through, really the list is quite extensive, so I've put together a few bullet points which should summarise some of the key criteria that customers are looking for:

• Easy to learn and navigate the site, including easy return to home/main screen.
• Links that go to other mobile friendly pages!
• Sufficient space between links, to avoid what the author refers to as 'fat finger syndrome'.
• Input of numbers and letters easily (so true, card details!)
• NO under construction pages, NO broken links, NO pages in separate windows!

Although some of these points seem pretty obvious to some of us (especially those who use mobile friendly sites often), it's one of those things that can easily missed, and in actual fact cause such deterrence from a site that it's so easy to lose customers. It's also important to note that creating a mobile friendly site is relatively easy, there's tonnes of templates and tools to help create them, a long with cheap production costs. But they do have their drawbacks, unless done correctly, creating a mobile site can affect search engine visibility. The good news is that Google have actually released a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, and if you scroll to page 24, you'll find a section dedicated to improving SEO especially for mobile sites.

REFERENCES:

Google Mobile Ads Blog (2012) Mobile friendly sites turn visitors into customers [Online] <http://googlemobileads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/mobile-friendly-sites-turn-visitors.html> [Accessed 8th May 2014]

Hend S. Al-Khalifa, (2014) "A framework for evaluating university mobile websites". Online Information Review, Vol. 38 Iss: 2, pp.166 - 185.

The Power of the Blogosphere

Whilst developing my Instagram initiative for my digital marketing module at University, I strolled across some really interesting foodie blogs, and it got me thinking how powerful some of these bloggers are to the food industry. As the current population become even more internet savvy, and rely heavily on peer reviews, a positive blog from an influential 'foodie blogger' could seriously bump up your reputation. I came across a few influential London based ones, a few that travelled the world and blogged about it, and even some who create their own dishes and share the recipes.

source: scramblingeggs

When someone has built up a following after posting such tasteful images, and also a string of good and honest reviews, it's hard for those local to not pop in to the recommendations. One that really caught my eye was the Scrambling Eggs blog (link underneath the picture above), who made a recommendation of a pop up coffee shop by day/bar by night located in Camden. I couldn't help but feel like I wanted to visit! So I got reading around the topic of blogging, especially linked to food and restaurants. It's suggested (and probably quite well known) that blogging could be seen as just a hobby, however there's reports supporting the fact that many food bloggers have actually been successfully incorporated into the food industry. Not only this, but many PR companies now contact bloggers in order to promote food products (Cox & Blake, 2011).

I then went on to read an interesting post from the Social Media Examiner (direct link to the post, click it, it's worth a read) that states five reasons your business should be blogging. I'll just summarise the five points Marcus Sheridan makes, as I have to say, I pretty much agree with all of them.

1. The Power of the Team

Exploring the fact that humans like to be part of team, or essentially a movement. Creating content for your business, whether it be a team of 5 or 500 will have a positive effect on any company.

2. Blogging Sharpens Your Sword

I love the way he worded this, fits it pretty well. And it's true, blogging means that you have to stay up to date with the latest within your industry, Not only that, but you become better at explaining stuff to your consumers, and teamed with all that research, you're prepared for answering any customer queries!

3. You Become the Trust Agent

Quite simply: helpful content - trust, trust - leads, leads - SALES.

4. Content is the Great Qualifier

The more stuff a consumer can look at, and the more information they receive means that they're more likely to make a decision into buying. It's important to integrate blog content into every aspect of your company's sales approach.

5. The Power of the Blog Comment

FEEDBACK FEEDBACK FEEDBACK. Allowing for discussion of your products is essential if you want to stay up to date with your customers. This can allow you to target exactly what customers have expressed they WANT. Not only that, but he makes a great point about those customers who are passionate about your brand, who want to leave positive comments, and who want to share their appreciation for your products/services.

I'm pretty impressed with these points, as they do have relevance to all kinds of businesses, and they're easily applicable to the restaurant and food industry. Finally, I found a little gem of a quote to leave you thinking about the world of blogging for businesses:

"The blogosphere (the collective name applied to the global blogging community) is the home of internet buzz. If something is worth talking about online (and often even if it’s not) it will be written about, commented upon and propagated through the blogosphere" (Damien & Jones, 2009, p164)

REFERENCES:

Cox, A. & Blake, M. (2011) Information and food blogging as serious leisure. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives. Vol. 63, Iss. 2/3, pp.204-220.

Damien, R. & Jones, C. (2009) Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. 1st Ed. London: Kogan Page.

Instagram means business

You're probably extremely aware of Instagram and it's functions, but mainly for personal use. I know I'm a keen 'Instagrammer', I love the accessibility of it, and I love sharing photo's with my friends and documenting all my memories in one place. If anything I feel like Facebook has become somewhat boring for photo sharing, I mean I pretty much use it solely for uploading my photo's (kind of like a back up without a hard drive), I rarely even post statuses anymore. However, I (and many others) use Instagram to showcase the best of the best - our top picks that we choose solely to share with our followers.

Now I'm sure we're all aware of brands using these social media platforms to share their products and services, but Instagram has gone just that little bit further. They have announced the release of 'The Instagram Handbook for Brands', a handbook specially aimed at marketers including tips, tools and examples for brands who are wanting to move into Instagram marketing. Sweet, right?

Source: Instagram Business Tumblr

Now unfortunately for smaller, more unheard of brands, this isn't readily available - meaning Instagram picks and chooses who it will distribute the little book to. The good news? Instagram will be releasing a few hints and tips on their Tumblr blog from the handbook, so marketers can get their hands on some selected content from the series of blog posts.

The even better news? I'm gonna summarise some of the points made from their first blog posting! Instagram have chosen 11 brands that they believe post 'incredibly engaging content' to feature as profiles in the handbook, including the likes of Disney Land, GoPro and Warby Parker.

Instagram's Tips for Brands

1. Be true to your brand

From what I can gather, this means reflecting the brand's true image through such postings. Brands should have a clear vision and voice of what they want to get through to their target market. Creativity is key, but defining your brand through trends within the Instagram community is crucial.

2. Share experiences

Kind of speaks for itself, but who doesn't love scrolling through a brand's Instagram and being inspired. The blog itself uses GoPro as an example, as their profile continues to get people thinking of how they can use a GoPro product and share it with their friends and followers. It's about giving people an insight into how your products can provide new experiences or lifestyles.

3. Find beauty anywhere

I love this tip, mostly due to the fact that if you can't find beauty anywhere you probably should reassess marketing through Instagram. It's about showing your followers how your company sees the world, and the more meaningful these images and messages are, the more effective this kind of posting will be.

4. Inspire action

Trends trends trends! The key to really getting consumer response - 'starting a movement around your brand'. It's something we see so commonly, yet so brilliant for generating a buzz around a brand. Instagram uses the example of Nike's #runfree campaign, which encourages people to capture personal photos linked to the trend, and tag them for the world to see.

5. Know your audience

Again, pretty self explanatory - create something that engages YOUR audience, that creatively captures their interest. You'll be reeling in the followers in no time.

So there we have it, Instagram's first five top tips on how to creatively manage your Instagram account as a marketing tool. The bottom line is, if you're creating something that's aesthetically pleasing to your consumers, they're gonna want to see more. The more a brand provides insight into the business, and the more they expose what consumers wouldn't normally see, creates a 'virtual brand friendship' (in my own words). 

The little handbook promises to gain brands followers, but don't be naive - there's nothing in the small print that guarantees sales will be generated, that's a different story. But we all know that an effective digital marketing presence is key in today's business world - it's how you apply it that counts. 

I've also added a short video that Instagram posted on their blog showing how some of the best brands on Instagram connect with their communities, enjoy!


Instagrams Business Tumblr
http://instagram-business.tumblr.com/post/76235731349/tools-and-tips-to-help-marketers-inspire-and

Back to Basics

I recently found myself trawling through Google, endlessly looking for fresh and innovative means of digital marketing to help with a project I'm working on, when I stumbled across an article written for The Guardian entitled "Digital Marketing - mastering the basics". I actually found it a really interesting and convenient read to be honest, it didn't take me long to scan through the five digital marketing basics that I should 'get to grips with'.

Shelley Seale suggests there is a foundation of five basic tools in which a company should have in place before expanding to new digital realms:

1. Brand identification and consistency
2. Search marketing
3. Content optimisation
4. Social media outreach
5. Sales leads and conversion

When actually reading up on these, the article proves a point, these basics are what should be the main focus of any business looking to increase their digital marketing presence, and are in fact critical to a successfully executed DM strategy. The two that particularly caught my eye, were social media outreach and sales leads and conversion, which I feel also go hand in hand. Seale explains that an interactive nature is key, which also led me to think about my initiatives for the project I'm working on for Bill's restaurant in Brighton. She reinforces that social media is a platform to get your business talked about, and the encouragement of discussion about your products or services continues to help your email marketing grow. These are all basic concepts of course, but she's right, these factors can easily be forgotten about - well maybe in my case. After searching for different digital marketing tools, stumbling across this article really helped to recover knowledge I'd managed to push to the back of my mind.

This all got me thinking, how far could you really go within the digital marketing environment? Which is when I stumbled upon an article about MasterCard, and their Social Media Command Centers. MasterCard now employ people to sit and listen to what people are saying about the company online, who then report back to different areas of the business, such as PR and marketing. It's almost astonishing in itself that this is now an area of expertise, yet it is extremely beneficial to any company that is gearing towards an impact through social media. Through the 'Conversation Suite', MasterCard were able to study 85,000 conversations about mobile payments, and found that many customers found a lack of customer support and acceptance over point of sale. This analysis aided in the creation of MasterCard's MasterPass digital wallet announcement at Mobile World Congress. Not only does this highlight the involvement that the company has within their digital marketing environment, but also integrates this as a business 'culture' - so to speak. This kind of involvement allows for companies to stay on the ball, and the outcome? Innovation.