Marketing Showdown: What startups can learn about marketing from corporations
Last week I attended a webinar from HubSpot titled “Legendary Marketing Showdown.” Hubspot compared large corporations to each other in terms of their marketing efforts; such companies included Pepsi vs. Coke and McDonalds vs. Burger King. Although small businesses and start-ups follow different tactics than corporations, there is still something to learn from these bigger companies in terms of marketing tactics. The following are a list of tactics that I took from the webinar which are applicable to small business and start-ups.
Are you as social as Pepsi? Pepsi uses each of their social media platforms to promote their campaigns and provide their customers with information on how they can get involved. Don’t simply rely on your website as an outlet to promote your campaign. Use Twitter and Facebook to communicate to your audience what you want them to do to get involved in a campaign; for example “Enter your email HERE!”
Does your blog page welcome input from others? Having a blog is a great idea and it’s even better if you’re consistent with your efforts. To take it one step further, start including blogs on your website from some of your partners. By providing content from authors outside your company, you are providing useful information to your readers you may never have before and you are enhancing your link building; if you let someone on your site, there’s a good chance they will return the favour.
Twitter is not for chit chatting. Coca cola is a brand guilty of using Twitter to chat… and only chat. Social media is a great way to communicate with your audience, respond to customer feedback and have discussion around topics relevant to your company, but don’t get caught up in the conversation. Use social media as a tool to promote your brand, become a thought leader and provide useful information and avoid using it solely as a platform to talk.
Are you providing links for your tweets? Burger King is guilty of sending out tweets without a link. Although it is possible to provide useful information in 140 characters or less, you want to ensure that the majority of your tweets (ex. 7 out of 10) include a link that sends readers directly to your website or a 3rd party source of information (another good way to enhance your link building). Sending readers to your website through a link is a great way to enhance your website traffic, providing you with more prospect opportunities. Take a look at our Twitter stream as an example.
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