The Heinzeroth Blog

The world is going through an economic earthquake right now. There’s no doubt that the global pandemic has shaken business and personal life at an incredible pace. What just two weeks ago was a strong and fast-moving economy, today has many customers playing it cautious and scrambling to adapt, or even to survive.

Shoppers have always responded favorably to a helpful, personalized buying experience. Online platforms have only increased that expectation. Retail platforms like Amazon and Wayfair, and services like Netflix and Uber have conditioned consumers to get what they want, when they want it, with an even greater expectation of a shopping experience that is personalized just for them.

As modern-day consumers, we come across icons in all aspects of our daily lives. They are the little graphic symbols used to represent an action, feeling or thing, and they seem to be popping up more than ever lately.

Marketing on social media can be daunting for businesses just getting started. Unlike advertising in trade publications and other traditional media, social networks enable a two-way conversation. You post and promote your business’s marketing messages, and your followers can reply, share, and comment on your posts.

What do different customer groups think of your brand or products? How loyal are they? Do they like your brand enough to recommend it to their friends or colleagues? For a marketing/communications manager, these are important things to know about your customer base.

Whether your business involves Consumer or B2B products and services, changes in the digital marketing landscape continue to expand the potential role digital activities can play in your media outreach. Newer tactics such as retargeting campaigns, contextual advertising, programmatic buys, chat bots and other ways of engaging with customers certainly make digital activities as complex as anyone would want to manage. 

To maximize effectiveness of an advertising media plan, one of the basic questions still remains: Should you place greater emphasis on digital initiatives today? Or should you continue to allocate a significant share of your budget for traditional activities such as print advertising that you have used in the past? What is an appropriate mix? The balance of this article provides general thoughts on that central issue.

 

Connecting with website visitors after they have left your pages is certainly a powerful tool in digital marketing. And while consumers today are more aware of "cookie" tactics, and we might say they benefit by receiving reminders that are relevant to their interests, there is always a tipping point at which retargeting ads may be too frequent and annoying. At that point they are doing more harm than good for your brand. Here are some guidelines for keeping your program safely inside that line and not wasting impressions.

 

Illustrating the many marketing advantages of having an active blog on your website, this infographic by WebsiteBuilder provides insightful data that anyone involved with content marketing should find interesting. For example, having an active blog is said to yield 55% more site traffic and 97% more inbound links.

 

When the annual budget process comes around, marketing managers naturally hope to see all key elements of their marketing plan receive funding. Wouldn't it be nice if top management could evaluate your proposed budget along with some supporting evidence of marketing's positive and measurable impact on your business? These 5 metrics may be a bit theoretical and simplistic, certainly not the end-all rationale for setting budgets. For certain types of businesses, they might also be difficult to calculate. Still, knowing things such as your Customer Acquisition Cost may make it possible to explain and verify marketing's impact while establishing some new benchmarks for future tracking.

MORE PLANNING IDEAS FOR SUCCESS IN PRODUCT LINE REVIEWS:

Considering the wide range of point-of-sale tracking tools available to help you prepare for your next Product Line Review (PLR), you may be missing the boat if you aren't equipped to address the metrics your merchant is most concerned about. Chances are, you may otherwise be inclined to go  over things that many buyers consider to be a waste of time. And even if you are bringing loads of information, perhaps it isn't presented in the way your buyer wants to view the figures. To help you plan for your next presentation, here are some thought starters you might keep in mind.