Social media often provides the purchase tipping point for many consumers. And as with any new marketing opportunity, its usage is misunderstood. Taking advantage of social media does not mean developing separate applications, strategies and marketing efforts for every social media outlet. Instead, view social media as just another source for content and use a micro website marketing platform to aggregate and deliver it to the customers, where ever they are; retail site, blog posting, fan websites, viral distribution, etc.
Consider this; if a potential customer leave a site to view Youtube videos, read blog posts or scan Tweets about the product, then statistically they are unlikely to return. For retailers that translates into a lost sale. However, if social media content is delivered to the customer, then they will be engaged and product interaction will increase. A Marketing 101 lesson says that this will result in higher conversion rates and strengthen brand loyalty. Not to mention a lot more cost effective and easier to manage.
If content is king, then fresh content is the jewel in the crown. No place is that more evident than in Internet marketing. Online consumers are savvy and demanding when it comes to content. They expect and demand up to date information as is evident by their use of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. So, what’s happening to products who have static content at their distribution points, blog posts and other online references? Nothing, and that’s the problem. Stale, out of date content fails to engage customer, increase product interaction or produce sales. How to avoid this? Well, for Celebrate Green! the shamrock provides the opportunity.
Celebrate Green! is a book dedicated to the greening of holidays, celebrations and special occasions. A must have for the eco-friendly host or party planner (purchases can be made using their SmartSymbols™ BUY button in the right sidebar). Celebrate Green! already utilize SmartSymbols™ to deliver fresh content including real time Twitter and blog posts, so their content is always fresh. What makes Celebrate Green!’s SmartSymbols™ special is that they add a holiday icon to match the upcoming holiday. As of this writing that would be St. Patrick’s Day, therefore the shamrock icon. After St. Patrick’s Day the shamrock icon will be replaced with the next holiday icon and so on. In this way Celebrate Green! delivers both fresh content and a fresh SmartSymbols™ icon set. A new SmartSymbols™ for each holiday pushed to all distribution points instantly and consistently. Now that’s fresh!
Check the SmartSymbols™ for Celebrate Green! in the right sidebar for the latest holiday icon.
It really is a nice summary about SmartSymbols (thank you Matt), but what is interesting is that it is nice summary from a different perspective.
Take the article’s tag line for example: “Finally, all of your product research in one place”. Well, yes, thank you! That is exactly the problem SmartSymbols was designed to solve for the shopper.
From the “sales guy” perspective, Matt points out that “the sales team gets to cram all of the positive content about your product in one easy-to-digest place, complete with a “buy” button for instant conversion. ” The is also, as they say, gets straight to the crux of the issue.
Of course, it is great to have a positive review written by someone who grasps the magnitude of the problem and the importance of the solution. The side benefit, however, is another perspective that may make us look at our own product from a different angle. Perhaps a clearer one.
When books receive glowing reviews and win awards it is wonderful news for everyone involved. The only challenge is to figure out how to tell your prospective readers about it when they shop online. And furthermore, it is important to find out if they really pay attention.
This short 90-second video shows how SmartSymbols visual marketing platform can help organize and showcase praise a book has received, as well as how to track the impact of sharing that praise with readers via “Reviews” icon:
What are the most efficient ways of improving the impact of your SmartSymbols? Here are 5 fundamental ways of SmartSymbols work for you more efficiently and give you the information about what people are really interested in, directly from their behavior while they look at your product.
1. Put SmartSymbols into all your online properties
It’s very easy to do (click “Share”, select the format you want, then copy & paste the snippet on the right) and there are two reasons for that: buzz and analytics. Buzz: every time a symbol set is added to a web property (a web page or a blog) it generates more buzz: people will explore the symbol set and will share it with others. Analytics: every instance of SmartSymbols will produce a set of analytics (see more here). By comparing traffic from different installations of SmartSymbols sets you will be able to create your next step in the marketing campaign.
3. Use SmartSymbols Analytics
Analytics will tell you (more here) what people are actually interested in a straight-forward and blunt way : what readers actually spend time on - what they read, which video clips they watch (you have video clips, right?) and so on. This is more than just analytics - this is marketing data that can be used in many ways, such as creating campaigns.
2. Share symbol sets consistently with others
Let people - blogger, journalists, your fans and followers - embed your SmartSymbols into their web pages and blog entries. This will benefit them as well - readers and visitors are more likely to explore something interactive and visual, which is a clear advantage of plain text. Every time you talk to a blogger or a reporter - offer your symbol set. It’s very easy to do - just copy & paste a code snippet under the “Share” button.
Click on the diagram below to see code snippet locations.
5. Use icons creatively
Sky is the limit here - you will run out of content before SmartSymbols runs out of space. Things you did not have space to tell before - you can now. And it will not take much space! For example - show pictures of places where your book is taking place, show some illustrations that a book has, or show a map of where your product is being used. (See more here: Secret of the Compass Icon)
