Blue Dog Marketing wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy Hanukkah!

Custom T-Shirts as Creative Marketing Tools

A relatively inexpensive way to market your company is the use of custom t-shirts. T-shirts with your company name and logo can create greater visibility for your business.

Offering company logo t-shirt to your employees and to your customers is an efficient way to get your name out there. The more people who see your logo the greater your potential for increasing your client base.

Many promotion companies offer customized clothing for professional purposes. Whether you prefer casual t-shirts, polo shirts, or athletic wear for company events, it is easy to find what you need.

For the most sophisticated type of customization, you may opt to purchase custom t-shirts with your embroidered company logo. This type of customization is popular among universities, fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and many other professional organizations. You will have the option of using your specific company logo that has already been established or creating a new design. Using a consistent logo with creative variations will help the public to recognize your company.

The more custom t-shirts that you put into circulation, the greater your advertising potential. Consider t-shirt giveaways and other promotional events. In this way, your company t-shirts will pay for themselves in no time!

Best Times to Post on Social Media

Social media is 24/7. Someone is always tweeting, blogging or posting. For a small business, this can be challenging. You can’t be online all day. So, how do you know the best times to reach your audience? There are a couple of difference ways to determine when your audience is online.

We use a social media tool. There are many great social media monitoring and reporting tools around. I personally like HootSuite. I can use their AutoScheduling functionality to schedule my posts at the best times to reach my audience.

Another great tool is Timing+ on Google+. Timing+ analyzes your historical post data to determine what time of day has the most potential for your posts to have the greatest impact.

The best times to post on social media is definitely a hot topic and has resulted in a lot of fantastic research. Research recommends that you focus on posting during the following times:

• Facebook – between 10 am and 4pm Monday thru Thursday.
• Twitter – between 1pm and 3pm Monday thru Thursday.
• LinkedIn – focus on posting before and after business hours, 7 am to 9 am and 5pm to 6pm Tuesday thru Thursday.
• Google+ – 9am to 11am on workdays.
• Pinterest – This is the one social network you should focus on posting during weekday evenings and on the weekends (specifically 2pm to 4pm and 8pm to 1am on weekdays). The best time to pin items on Pinterest is on Saturday morning.

While this information will give you a great base to build from, it is definitely not the answer for every business. When determining when to post on social media make sure to consider your customers, your product or service, and the types of messages you are posting.

5 Questions to Ask When Creating a Social-Media Marketing Plan

"Failing to plan is planning to fail" is an old but wise adage that often rings true when it comes to social-media marketing. Creating a detailed, goal-oriented social-media strategy is just as important as having a rock solid business plan.

To attract and engage your social-media audience -- and ideally convert them into customers -- you must carefully map out a clear, effective social-media strategy. Here are some questions you should ask when building your social-marketing plan:

1. What should my company aim to achieve with social media?
That depends on the type of business you're in. You may want to use social media to gain exposure for your brand, to directly interact with your customers or to promote specific products and services.

Define how your social-media marketing will provide value to your customers. Specifically, think about how you can use social media to solve your customers' problems.

2. Who should set up and maintain my company's social media accounts?
If you're a small company with few employees, consider hiring a social-media marketing consultant. They will have the time and ability to create and implement effective social-media campaigns.

3. Should my company have a presence on all of the popular social-media networks?
Small businesses should start with a blog and a presence on just one social network, at least for the first few months. Which network? Find out what by surveying your customers about which social media platforms they use the most.

The more your company grows the more social networks you can experiment with.

4. What types of content should I post on which social platforms?
Certain types of content generally work better on certain social-media platforms. Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram are inherently visual, so striking, memorable images of your products, company events and perhaps behind-the-scenes snapshots of employees at work can be effective choices for those particular platforms. But text-only status updates on Facebook without an accompanying link also trend well, especially when asking questions.

On Twitter, aim for a good balance of tweeting about your company and retweeting others' content, including that of your business partners and industry influencers. LinkedIn is popular for sharing company news, productivity tips and thought leadership articles.

A diverse mix of content types (standout photos, short videos, useful links, helpful tips, thoughtful question, etc.) across your social-media platforms will keep things interesting and fresh. When you do this, your followers will come back for more.

5. How can I convert social-media followers into customers?
There aren't any surefire tricks to convert fans and followers into customers, though some tactics seem to work better than others. For example, Facebook ads can be an easy, inexpensive way to grow your fan base, increase engagement and collect sales leads. It's up to you to convert those sales leads.

Blue Dog Marketing is an expert social media marketing firm. We can help you create and implement your social media marketing plan. You should focus on your growing your business and creating new products. Let us handle the marketing for you!

 

6 Great Ways to Promote Your Blog

We just met with a client that is considering starting a blog and linking it to their website. The reasons why you should blog are many, but a couple of the most important are that a blog will establish you as an “expert” in your field. Also, having new content on your website increases your SEO (search engine optimization).

Once you start blogging, how do you promote your blog and acquire readers? 

Here are some tips to have a successful blog:

1.      Be Authentic. Don’t pretend be someone you’re not. Write in your own voice.

2.      Be consistent. If you want to gain readers, pick a frequency that works for you and stick with it. It could be daily, weekly or monthly.

3.      Include pictures. These will make your posts visually appealing. Make sure the pictures are relevant and original.

4.      Optimize keywords.  Include your keywords in your blog posts to increase your SEO.

5.      Share your blogs in your newsletters and in groups or forums you belong to.

6.      Consider guest blogging. Submit your blogs (with a bit of rewriting) to other relevant blogs.

And remember, it’s not about blogging more….it’s about promoting more!

Have You Used Email Marketing to Reach New Customers?

Email marketing is a very cost effective way to prospect for new customers. Marketing through email, when done correctly, can lead to huge benefits for your business. The following are three reasons your small business should consider implementing email marketing.

1.   Cost Effectiveness. Different from other marketing campaigns, email marketing does not cost a lot of money especially since there are no printing costs. And, it delivers huge results.

2.   Results are Easy to Track. Even though email marketing is cost effective, you may want to see what your return on investment (ROI) is from an email campaign. If you send prospects to a landing page created for the specific promotion, tracking your results is easy.

3.   You Can Keep Your Business In Front of People. Email marketing gives you a good way to stay at the forefront of your prospects and customers minds. Giving your target audience emails that offer valuable information and great deals will make you their most likely choice when they are ready to purchase.

Marketing Tips for Creating Your 2014 Plan

During the fourth quarter of each year, many businesses spend time planning their goals for the coming year. And while setting goals is an important exercise, the implementation steps are equally critical. The goal is the benchmark we establish to measure our success.

Before creating your marketing plan, here are some basic rules you should understand first.

Research social media - The latest and greatest social media site may not be for you. Just because everyone is talking about it doesn't mean it's for you. Before taking the plunge, decide how you will use it and how it fits into your plan. Can you devote the time and attention to it?

Make sure your website is robust - When someone is searching for you, they need to find you. And once they do, the more information you provide, the better your chances of being considered. The more information available, the more likely your site will have a greater impact on their decision.

Content is king - Focus on creating content of value. Not everyone will read everything you create nor will everyone be looking for the same thing when they visit your site. Your goal is to have the solution to your visitors’ problem on your home page. In a face to face selling situation, you're going to point out every advantage doing business with you affords. Your website should be as thorough.

Keep your website current – Your website should be updated frequently to reflect the changing landscape of your business.

So before you create your 2014 marketing plan, first look closely at your website and make sure all that traffic you are planning on driving to your site will actual take the action you want them to take.

Use Promotional Business Holiday Gifts to Help Market Your Business

When it comes to the holidays, the best policy for a company is to give the employees a nice present to show them how much the company has appreciated what their efforts during the past year. Your holiday gift can also double as a promotional tool. Incorporate your logo into the gift to help further market your business.

Promotional business holiday gifts are an excellent way to treat your employees to a nice surprise while putting the business first. There are a variety of different promotional gifts that are available for purchase that will help to market your company.

One promotional gift that employees will definitely use is clothing items with your company logo. These clothing items can vary from sweatshirts, hats, t-shirts, or a jacket. The possibilities that come with customizing clothing items to be promotional holiday gifts are numerous. Choosing a variety of clothing items to customize with your business logo will allow the business to appropriately give each employee their holiday gift for the year.

A paperweight engraved with the business logo can also be an excellent promotional holiday gift. Paperweights are not only convenient to have around but they can make a great statement if they are chosen and designed correctly.

Promotional holiday gifts can vary but including gifts that help to market a business can be more effective than mass purchasing an item. Make the gift something unique and one that your employees will appreciate.