Let’s take an organization like Fairfield County Public Relations Association, Inc. You would think that they would know better or have a better understanding of how an organization can hurt their brand considerably by engaging in questionable business and marketing practices (aka: SPAM).  Fairfield County Public Relations Association, Inc., or FCPRA, continues to send me SPAM now on a consistent basis. If I mark their emails as SPAM, it doesn’t stop the next one from landing in my inbox because they use a new email from address each time.

The amazing thing is I’m not even a good target for them. More importantly, I never gave them permission to send me email. This is quite common, but what’s really amazing is they have decided to take SPAM to the next level and use various email addresses to get past the blacklisting. This means they really have no understanding of marketing or building a relationship with a potential prospect.

Ironically, the SPAM they are sending is for a conference about “answers to important questions for PR and corporate communications practitioners.” Classic, isn’t it?

Legitimate companies don’t have to rely on SPAM  or know better.  The best email marketing campaigns are still those that use permission and practice permission-based marketing.

Knowledge
The first thing you really need to understand is how social media works. I’d recommend learning all you can about social media websites that can help you. A few that come to mind are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Digg. Understand that not all social media sites are good for businesses. Likewise, learn about the various tools that surround social media, like blogging, RSS feeds, podcasts, viral video, user-generated news, widgets and wikis, just to name a few. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the lingo and various tools, but remember, you don’t need to use them all. Most importantly, realize that your social media marketing is only as good as your strategy or plan of attack, which we cover below. For example, many social media websites are specific to your industry and are a better resource than the more generic, large ones where you may get lost. A good example of a smaller social-networked website is ImageKind, a community for creating, buying and selling high-end framed artwork.

Time and Effort
Social media marketing isn’t like the old days where you simply buy some ad space and hope for the best. The objective behind social media is getting out there, joining websites that have similar interests with your business and partaking in the conversations. It’s an ongoing commitment that requires time and resources.

Plan of Attack

At the heart of successful social media marketing is strategy. I would offer these four areas to concentrate on:

• Audience:
  Not unlike traditional marketing, your target audience is the key to a successful campaign. What social networks are your clients visiting? Do they read blogs and share in conversations? Are there industry specific websites? How about groups in Facebook or LinkedIn? Go to where your audience is and start a conversation.

• Goals:
  Now that you know who you’re going after and where to market to them, what are your goals? Is it to drive traffic to your website? Or is it simply to get your company’s name out there for brand recognition? Concurrently, you must understand your audience and build goals that are realistic and possible. Knowing what your audience is looking for is fundamental in reaching your goals.

• Tools and Tactics:
  Like we mentioned above, there are many social media tools and ways to engage and communicate with your customers and clients. Choose those that you believe will work best with your goals above. For example, maybe you’re a food company targeting teens. You might consider building a fun Facebook game that allows the audience to have a food fight with their favorite “branded” food products from your company.
• Integration:
  Social media is most likely not your only marketing channel. At least it shouldn’t be. If possible, look at ways to integrate you social media marketing into your broader marketing plan. For us at Digiwize, we created our own Content Management System, called Brightegg, and built a social networked of designers around it to help grow it.

For some great resources on social media marketing, see below:

• The Social Media Marketing Blog
• Social Media Marketing Beginner’s Guide
• Social media marketing strategies: Why and how
• Online Marketing Strategies: Ten Ways To Promote Your Business With Social Media

The bad, lame and just-plan-ugly landing pages:

• Example one:

The main problem is the user is taken to the company’s homepage and supposed to figure out where to go next. There’s no call to action; no form to fill out or even a pricing guide. And while design is not as important, it can have an impact on the brand and say a lot about a company. In this case, the design is old looking and doesn’t represent the company well. Moreover, the messaging is weak and doesn’t effectively provide actionable steps or incentives that could help the user make a better choice.

• Example two

Where do I start? This company doesn’t even take you to a page that looks like it has anything to do with windows, although they mention it in the ad. The main messaging focuses on aluminum products, so users are instantly just confused and left wondering why they were even brought to this page. Like the example above, there is no call to action or focused messaging intended to convert the user. How about at least some images of windows, links to windows and pricing?  The design is not helping their cause either.

The good, effective and attractive landing pages:

• Example one:

This is a landing page, not just a webpage or homepage. Notice how there’s limited navigation or links to click on. The main call to action is a short questionnaire on the right side to help narrow down the visitor’s choices and push him or her to submit a form. The look and feel is inviting and the messaging clean and informative.

All good landing pages have first and foremost, a call to action that is targeted to a specific audience. Often times, the call to action can be a free offering or a free download or something that entices the visitor. If you’re selling a product, that’s your call to action. Good landing pages are streamlined and targeted directly to match the visitors’ expectations. If a user clicks on replacement windows, don’t take them to a page that shows doors and windows and other products. Take them to a customized landing page. Good landing pages look professional, clean and free of links that could potentially take your visitors away from the page. Good landing pages use short, effective copy writing that either asks or answers questions, like: “Are you tired of paying big money for car insurance?” or “Save 50% on these quality shoes – purchase today!”

Well, that’s a nice little synopsis. I could go on but there are already tons of great articles on the subject. See below and good luck.

• Creating effective landing pages – optimization tips
• 10 Tips for Writing the Ultimate Landing Page
• Vocabulary: “Landing page”

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