Hi, im Kay

Hey,

Thanks for taking the time for visiting my blog.

Im a Marketing Consultant and Social Media Specialist living in the beautiful county that is Devon.

I'll be writing about all things digital, social, business and a few random bits here and there - whatever takes my fancy on that particular day :)

Im a bit of a geek when it comes to social media and i love to learn and develop my skills whenever possible.

If you want to take a look at my website, clickety click here www.marketing-geeks.co.uk

And if you need help/advice or a management service for your social media platforms then give me a call.

Kay

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is all about focusing on building good relationships with customers. It is key to developing a successful service where the customers are loyal to you and the organisation.

It involves all types of communication – it can be managing the sales, offering technical support to build good relationships or using marketing skills to get your messages across.

When you put the effort in to get to know your target market and customers on another level (and I don’t mean in a naughty way, but friendly yet professional) it enables you to develop strategies which will target their specific needs and requirements. By building a good working relationship with them will help you understand what your customer likes and dislikes, what kind of spending patterns they have – where they shop online, how much they purchase per month, their favourite items etc – so basically their buying habits!!!

Once you’ve established what type of customer they are, you can market specially to them – target them with offers and promotion designed specifically for them. Hopefully they’ll bite your hand off and sales will increase – This is how CRM supports marketing.

Here is an example of a business using a CRM system.

Local Florist

A husband uses a local florist to buy his wife flowers every year for her birthday. 

The local florist could use their CRM software to remind him a couple weeks before her birthday THAT HER BIRTHDAY IS COMING UP woohoo, either by an email or a phone call (preferably a phone call).

They could ask if he’s planning on buying some flowers again for his beloved wife and if so would he like the same bouquet as previously bought. Whether he would like them delivered or if he’d like to collect? Would he like to include a card and some choccys?

Happy customers, happy business

Services like this make a customer feel valued and important, why would they possibly go elsewhere? It’s like having their own personal assistant to remind them of the most important day of the year, THIS WIFES BIRTHDAY, but not forgetting anniversaries, mother’s day, valentine’s day and well…you know random days just to show her that’s she’s so so special and that she’s appreciated for everything she does like working, taking care of the kids, keeping the house clean etc etc etc (I MUST send this blog to my husband)

Tweet Me Tweet You

Twitter: This social media site is all about Tweeting. A Tweet is an expression of a moment or idea which can contain text, photos, and videos which can be shared in real time, anywhere in the world, on any device. 

The whole aim of Twitter is to follow people, and when you do so their tweets show up in your timeline where you can reply, retweet, share or favourite them. You can follow those you are interested in, whether celebs, foodies, friends, news, businesses or just anyone who you find enjoyable to hear about. Used by 15 million people, 80% uses the site on their mobile devices.

This site is huge for supporting marketing, if you take a new start up business for instance.

• They create a Twitter account, start following people/their target audience (who in turn will probably follow them as it’s good for networking).
• The new company will start tweeting, maybe they have a special offer they’d like to promote to draw attention, and those who follow them will retweet to their followers.
• Those who have seen the retweet may then like what the new business is saying, follow them and so on and so on, this is how information is transferred from tweet to tweet and your community will grow, hopefully resulting in new customers.

The famous Facebook

Facebook: ‘To give you the power to share and to make the work more open and connected’ Facebook is all about keeping you up to date with the latest news, product announcements, events and stories. Used by 31 million users in the UK alone and 802 million around the world.

The largest demographic remains with the 25-34 year olds, most think it’s the teens who are spending hours upon hours on the site each day, where in fact it’s us ‘late 20’s early 30’s’ that need to put the phone down and get out in the sunshine more often..…or rain if you live in the UK ;)

It’s one of the biggest tools for marketing in this current time, millions of people all over the world publicise themselves or their businesses all over social media and it’s having amazing effects.

Each day you can post comments/information, images or videos about your businesses and gradually it’ll be liked, shared and commented on which will had a knock on effect throughout your community, giving your business more exposure.

A business can also create an ad. They choose the type of audience they'd like to reach. If you're in that audience, Facebook shows you the ad.

Another option is to become a sponsor where your ad will appear down the right hand side of a profile. By doing this you can increase the reach of your audience but you have to boost your most recent activity (obviously at a cost) and Facebook will distribute it to your target audience. 

Social Media - Or is it more like 'Unsociable Media'?

Ahhhh social media, the one I look at before I go to sleep and the first one I see when I first wake up!!!

What is Social Media? Silly question? Yes, even my 2 year old knows about Facebook and snapchat!!! (Maybe I need to get out more)

‘Social media is the social interaction among people where they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities. Communities are built in Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat, Pinterest and many many more.

All of the above websites have had a massive effect on the world – they are imperative for getting information seen or heard virally. To market to social networking sites correctly you need to
1) choose which site you feel would benefit your business the most
2) research your target audience carefully
3) create campaigns and monitor the outcomes – whos viewing, buying habits, from which area etc

These sites are used as a marketing tool for many different reasons, some use them for gain information of their target market and gather feedback about their service or products. Some research their competition and some just to promote their business.
These sites allow millions of people to come together to network, meet others that may have a positive effect of their business and also meet those who may want to purchase or use their service.

The most important thing to remember about social networking is that it allows organisations and people to market their service free of charge. It’s a no brainer!

The Importance of Digital Marketing

It is undeniable that the world is shifting towards the digital age in every way, all around people are using digital devices each day of their lives, whether with phones, tablets, or computers, either at home or at work.

So why is digital marketing so important you ask? Well, its not only growing rapidly in the marketing industry but soon it will set out to take over the old school ways of marketing. Would you rather request a brochure or go online? I know what i'd do!!

Digital is definitely more affordable than traditional marketing methods, for example creating a social media campaign can transmit messages to people at a fraction of the cost of a large print run and potentially can hit a much larger audience, it makes sense for any business to use this form of marketing. Why wouldnt you!

There are lots of different ways to use digital marketing:

• Websites and SEO content
• Digital screens
• Blogs
• Videos
• Internet banner ads
• Email marketing
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Mobile marketing (SMS, MMS, etc.)

Planning a digital strategy is major for helping a business to be successful online.

Im not saying the old methods of marketing are dieing of death, there are some businesses out there that swear by their folded leaflets and full colour brochures, buts it just so much easier to pick up your ipad and google what you want to look at. We live in a world of speed and convenience, and whats great now is that you can measure responses so effectively through technology.

However, its not to say that there arent negative factors when it comes to digital marketing, because although its great for direct contact, product development, monitoring campaigns as well as being cost effective with great viral exposure, you could bump into some really negative people whos comments will spread like wild fire, there is A LOT of competition out there and also some consumers may not be ofay with using tecnhnical devices - if you're willing to accept these weaknesses then go for it.