It seems that every time I read a news report at the moment that there is a link to Twitter, Instagram or some other social media app. Celebrities, politicians, even the New York Stock Exchange are using it to either vent their anger, make an announcement or to publicise a product.
As we are using tablets, smartphones and laptops all day now and are connecting via a whole plethora of communication methods, I am sure that those of you who are involved in promoting your own business are becoming a little confused about how you should tackle the whole subject of marketing.
It is very easy to become distracted by all of the latest buzz words, marketing methods and that great conundrum called ‘cross channel marketing’ which makes me think of some guy covered in goose fat, with a handful of leaflets trying to swim out to France!
Over the past three years, here at Mole Towers we have tried most things. We have a Facebook page which during one memorable week in 2013 had an influx of 158,000 (and no, that’s not a typo!) visitors and an increase in the all-important ‘Likes’ of 300%. ROI = zero, as we couldn’t connect any following business with those that had been onto our Facebook page.
We had a little run at Twitter, pushing out our tweets each and every day for a few months and working hard to build our following. Now, I’m not expecting as many as Piers Morgan but we ended up with the grand total of 548 and again, no tangible return on our efforts.
Our trusty website has a consistent number of visitors each month of around 6,000, although I have always been intrigued by the fact that nearly 90% are always first timers. Retention is a problem! We receive lots business directly from the website and it is a great way of providing potential clients with information, examples and an easy way to make contact with us. So, that one works.
However, for some reason I hark back to the good old days again when we would print 10,000 glossy leaflets, carefully put address labels on them, run them through the franking machine and then run off down to the local post office to make sure they went out that night. We’d sit back and wait a few days before getting an increase in phone calls and enquiries which would normally result in lots of quoting and an increase in sales the following month.
It was a clearly defined way to promote your business that worked! It was tangible, we could monitor it and quickly understand whether it was worth doing again.
Nowdays, I’m not sure if my tweets are sending visitors to my website or my Flickr page is providing visual delight and an increase in sales. And I’ve not even mentioned Pheed yet!
Marketing used to be so simple…..
Comments please to industrymole@imagereportsmag.co.uk