INSIDE:

Reach Out and Inspire
The Holiday Season is upon us: catalogs filled with gift ideas are flooding mailboxes, stores are adorned with ribbons and twinkling lights, and holiday music is playing happily from every speaker. For years these tactics have worked well to fill customers with holiday spirit and inspire them to shop.

But things have changed, and it’s become clear that traditional marketing strategies are no longer enough to draw in consumers. In the face of economic uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to find new ways to reach out to them.

As evidenced by Shop.org’s eHoliday Study, retailers are already putting new methods to use. Recognizing the popularity of social media, many retailers are making improvements to or adding Facebook pages, Twitter pages, and blogs, and increasing their overall usage of these sites. In addition, a large percentage of online retailers are offering free shipping and improving functions on their sites such as shopping carts and search capabilities.

Think like a retailer—know what matters to your customers and how to reach them on their level. Figuring out what’s most important to your clients is the first step in inspiring their interest in your services.

The Cold Shoulder
The innovation of social marketing has opened many doors for communication between companies and customers. Advertisers are able to convey their messages to consumers in a more personable manner, and consumers are able to communicate back—sometimes.

Two-way communication takes place all the time on the social networking sites. Email would appear to be an obvious avenue for consumer response. Unfortunately, many email marketing campaigns are still using the unfriendly “no-reply@” email address. The mere sight of this can leave customers feeling cold, and not only does it deny customers the ability to write back if they feel the need, but it also prevents companies from receiving potentially valuable customer feedback.

Warming the lines of email communication would benefit both customers and marketers. Customers would know that their voices—their opinions, praises, and complaints—are heard, and are important. Good customer service requires listening, not emails that shut the door on response.

Marketers, in turn, could gain some valuable customer insight. And since customers are who we serve, what insight could be better?

Creating an Online Buzz
The concept of using social networking sites for marketing purposes is still fairly new, and many marketers may question the effectiveness of this method. Are consumers really listening to our messages about products and services while they connect with family and friends, or do they see us as an online telemarketing call impinging on their personal life?

If you’ve wondered about the value of a “tweet,” you might want to consider the findings of a recent study conducted by Performics and ROI Research. The study surveyed 3,000 people who actively engage in social networking, and essentially found that a significant percentage of these people are receptive to advertising messages via social networking. Many of the study participants reported going beyond just listening: nearly half have searched for a product online after seeing the brand’s name on Twitter, and many have recommended or discussed a product on Facebook or Twitter. You can read more about the results here.

So, no, those status updates are not going unnoticed. A tweet may sound small, but it has the potential to create a loud buzz.

Thank you for spending a few moments with our newsletter. We appreciate your time and encourage you to contact us to continue the conversation. At Global Marketing Solutions our goal is to offer affordable marketing advice and services. Give us a call or an email - we'd love to hear from you.

On Twitter.     On Blogger.     On MySpace.     On Facebook.

April W. Boone             April@GMStheBest.biz
John Boone                  John@GMStheBest.biz
Laura McGill                Laura@GMStheBest.biz