Posted on Mon, Jul 12, 2010
By: Gayle Davies
We use social media tools and inbound marketing techniques because we have to! And because we would be doing a great disservice to our clients if we ignored the growing social media landscape.
It seems like just yesterday that a new business client would come in and request the standard business advertising and ID package. Brochure, business cards, stationery, logo, direct mail postcard and maybe a magazine and newspaper print ad. Of course, radio and TV ads for the larger companies. Website development requests started popping up now and then and soon enough they were a corporate identity package staple.
Zoom to the present and we are also discussing Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Linkedin profiles and blogs. Very often clients save on their advertising expenses when we suggest they allocate a larger percentage of their budget to inbound marketing techniques. This is because once we set up the social media map, their employees can participate in creating authentic content relatively inexpensively. They can also monitor their own progress using the proper social media tracking tools.
We have found that the key to success is integrating both the old, proven methods of outbound marketing into the newer inbound marketing methods.
Download this pdf to read some interesting statistics on social media. For example did you know that there are about 126 million blogs on the internet? Are you there yet?
Oh, and one more thing. Please take a small portion of that money you have saved on media buys and use it on professional, high- quality copy and graphics. The more informal social media tools you will be using still have to present your company in an impressive manner.
(Thank you HubSpot for compiling this information.)
Posted on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
Every business needs a blog now, right? It's key to in
tegrating inbound marketing with your overall marketing strategy, the next rung up the evolution ladder for good old-fashioned Word-of-Mouth. And, whether you're Fortune 500 or fortunate enough to have 500 bucks, if your blog is well-written, remarkable content, it will help your business get found and generate leads.
A few boot-camp basics of "writing right" will help you look more like the expert you already are. And, isn't that why you are blogging in the first place?
You can be a brilliant blogger, a miracle-working e-marketer and a sales superhero, but if you don't write better than a fifth grader, grammar-wise, your content is worth the paper it's printed on. (That's a joke.)
What difference does it make? Any writer will tell you they use good grammar for ONE reason: to keep the reader reading.
We do whatever it takes to make a reader/potential customer turn the page, click through, scroll down and read on. We don't want their eye to get caught on a dumb error and screech to a halt...
You know what I'm talking about: the misspelled word, the exclamation point overload, bad comma, missing periods and wrong quotation marks.
"Wait a minute," a flashback from English Class says, "Wait a minute. Isn't that supposed to be...?"
Let us help you be just as impressive and inspiring on the page as you are in person. Hafner Creative Communications presents a series of posts about some of the most common grammatical errors - and how to avoid them.
Look smart online. Sound like you know what you're talking about. Write right.
Posted on Fri, Oct 09, 2009
by Cristine Hafner
The team at Hafner Creative Communications has been busy these last few months, re-evaluating how we might bring more value to our clie
nts by offering products that can be measured and improved over time. We are really excited about the new ways to monitor and measure integrated offline and online marketing efforts that we are implementing in our own business, as well as our clients’.
Small and medium sized businesses that are looking to grow, regardless of what the media says about the economy, can benefit from these integrated services. Businesses that see this time as an opportunity to pull ahead of the competition. Maybe you have a bit more time to devote to marketing. With strategic planning and gradual incremental steps you can make substantial changes over the next 6 to 12 months.
There are so many new social media messages coming at us every day that it’s difficult to sort through and figure out what the right fit is for your business. That’s where we can help. By measuring marketing results we can see what’s working and what’s not. Make timely changes and test again.
Most companies also don’t know which part of their advertising is working and which part isn’t. Our goal is to show you what works through measuring marketing performance and ultimately generate qualified leads.
We’ll be posting tips and ideas to help you focus on improving your Web site, blogs, advertising and marketing materials.