Leave the Driving to Us!

A number of years ago, a well known North American passenger bus company used the slogan “Leave the driving to us”.  The idea was that a traveler could sit back and enjoy the ride without worrying about the traffic or tedium of a long distance drive.

When it comes to Digital Advertising and Social Media Marketing, that slogan could be well used as an admonishment as much as an encouragement to business owners who have a “hands-on”, micro management attitude with regard to their businesses.  This is often the case with small and medium sized business, where owners cannot see that they must entrust some aspects of their operations to professionals.  Although it is important to have input and oversight, these owners will never achieve anything but mediocrity due to their overzealous insistence on having a direct hand in everything.

Imagine, if you can, a surgeon in the middle of an operation who is faced with a patient who takes the scalpel from his hands and insists on completing the procedure himself!  The result could be fatal if not severely damaging.

Such is the case with regard to implementing and managing a Social Media Ad Campaign.  A business owner who insists on interfering with a marketer’s methods on a day-to-day basis is no more useful than a troll.

Certainly, it is vital that a business owner have the final say in the overall message and tone of an ad campaign, but the mechanics and administration of the actual platforms and software must be in full and exclusive control of the professional Digital Marketing Professional.

RoamBusiness has the experience and expertise to successfully execute a profitable and effective Social Media advertising campaign.  Bring us your best ideas and the pride you have in your product or service, but please, “Leave the driving to us”!

Contact us for a free consultation www.roambusiness.com

Do You Really Need a Rash?

What if, tomorrow, a new fashion trend was wearing itchy burlap clothing?  Would you rush out to buy the latest pair of uncomfortable pants or ugly shirts, guaranteed to make you break out in a rash, just because fashion dictated it or some celebrity was wearing it?  Should you be expected to pay good money for something that fits poorly, looks ugly and make you uncomfortable?

In a multimedia world of constantly changing applications and massive data crunching there seems to be a "new" way of getting your message across on almost a daily basis.  Yesterday's application is "dead" and tomorrow's platform is waiting for you to use before it gets old in a week!  Social Media Gurus will gladly spout endless emails and blogs describing the strengths and weaknesses of the latest interface with your clientele, faster than you can say "download this app".

One of the biggest questions that often goes unasked by Social Media Marketing consultants is "what is your business comfortable with?".  The need to reach the best target market cannot be secondary to a company's ability to manage the vehicle that will deliver the message.  If a business is saddled with an application that is too unwieldy or complicated to use, it is as useless and can be as poor a fit as a burlap sweater!

Here are just a few points to consider when choosing the platforms your business can best use when deciding how to reach your customers and potential customers.

     1)  Are we using this platform because that's where our clients are, or are we using it because it's the    latest craze and our huge competitor XYZ Inc. is using it?

     2)  Do the people in our organization have sufficient knowledge of the application's use to avoid costly mistakes and wasted time?  Will they have to devote hours to learning a process that will be obsolete in a few months?

     3)  If we are outsourcing the digital management of our marketing and/or advertising effort, is the company that is handling the account selling us the latest fashion (burlap sweater) or is it utilizing the best tools to effectively and cost efficiently get our message out to the right segment of the population?

     4) Are we buying an uncomfortable rash in order to look good?

Roam Business always strives to find digital marketing solutions that our clients are comfortable with.  No geek speak or techno babble, we use plain language to discuss options and offer solutions to our clients.  Our goal is to find a fitting way to fulfill your online advertising needs that will suit your budget and give your business its best possible look, in a style that makes you feel most comfortable.  Contact us today for a free consultation.  www.RoamBusiness.com

What a Beautiful Baby!

Many magazines and newspapers feature an annual section entitled “Babies of the Year” in which proud parents are compelled to pay for space featuring a photo of their newborn along with some brief description of the little one’s vital stats and a list of his/her newly acquired relatives.  Parents are proud of their babies and rightfully so.  No matter how butt-ugly the little screamers are, parents will pony up the cash to have a picture of their new acquisition appear in the local press.  While most babies are cute little creatures, some do bear more than a passing resemblance to ET. Given that they don’t have a resume to post along with the pic, that’s not the best first impression they can make on the world!  But the world be damned, proud parents will stop at nothing to assure that their newborn gets its fifteen minutes of fame straight out of the womb.

          Many small business owners are very much like those parents when it comes to their businesses.  Unable to see the weaknesses in their enterprise, they spend their advertising dollars on a snapshot of their going concern, without giving a second thought to the substance of their ad or its value to the targeted consumer.  Essentially, their pride in their small accomplishment overwhelms the efficiency of their advertising dollar.

          Every parent should rightfully be proud of their newborn and every business owner should justifiably be proud of their successful small or medium sized business, but when it comes to getting the most out of an advertising expense, especially in the digital age, the business owner would be well rewarded by consulting with marketing and advertising professionals before baring all before the public.  A dispassionate outsider, with knowledge of the most efficient tools to get a message to a business’s target consumer has a better chance of getting a return on advertising investment than a proud papa handing out cigars!  

          Roam Business has been helping entrepreneurs get an effective message across via online marketing for over 15 years.  Whether it’s simply optimizing your website or designing and implementing a strategic ad campaign, Roam Business has the experience to help you grow.  Contact us today for a free initial consultation and an unbiased evaluation of your marketing strategy.   RoamBusiness.com   

Are You Ready to Move Out of the Cave?

What would happen if you tried to build house without a blueprint, using inferior or broken tools, and without the help of professionals?  Chances are you would end up sleeping in a cave!  

            One of the oldest online marketing mantras is “strategy first, execution second.” Without establishing the goals of your web marketing campaign, outlining a course of action, and using the right platforms to get your message across; your online marketing campaign will simply be an expense and not an investment.

            There are some key questions you should be asking yourself about your business and with whom you are desirous of building online relationships, before you even begin to enter the world of the “Wild, Wild, Web”.  Only a professional with experience and the time available to monitor your chosen platforms should be entrusted with the task of handling an online marketing campaign.  You have a business to run and unless that business is Social Media or Digital Marketing, then you do not have the time nor the expertise to embark on the journey down the road to online marketing success.

            Think of how much money you spend each month on flyers, print ads and other advertising platforms.  For a fraction of that cost, and with the right strategy in place, you can reach the people who  are most likely to use your product or service directly, and establish a relationship with existing clients that will only serve to increase your business by word of mouth recommendations through Social Media Marketing.

            Roam Business has been helping businesses grow and succeed in the online marketing world for the past 12 years. From building an effective website to promoting your business via the right channels, Roam Business has the experience to help you grow.

            For a free, confidential consultation and evaluation, contact us today at roambusiness@gmail.com or visit our website at www.roambusiness.com and use the contact page to easily send us a detailed message.

            RKN 

The false impression that page ranking is is any of importance whatsoever, is a commonly held believe by many businesses.

The importance of content is far more important than the days when the SEO was still being peddled as the last word in Web Optimization. In fact, the scam is still out there, with firms pitching SEO as the last word in exposure.

What a business must concentrate on today is in interconnection with clients and potential clients. People are far more sophisticated about Social Media than ever before. They don't want to visit your site unless you have something interesting to say!

You must engage you or audience or they won't give a shit about your site!

Caveat Emptor, Don't get sucked by firms pitching SEO!

Change for the Sake of Change?

Change for the sake of change, or change when it is necessary?    Even the biggest brands often make the mistake of changing their image or product because they feel an apprehended need to adapt to fickle customers’ wants.  There is an old saw that goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” but this seems lost on some companies who get overheated by the rush of Social Media Marketing.

A good example is Geico, a US based insurance company.  They have been using the insightful and comedic ads from the Martin Agency for quite some time, with a great deal of success.  The Geico Camel, the Gecko, and a host of other animal inspired ads were their hallmark and their inspiration was the Martin Agency based in New York.  Just for the sake of change, they decided to launch a campaign with a different firm the  IQ Agency of Atlanta, Georgia.  The resulting ads which you can see here (http://tinyurl.com/ok5kf2b) are funny, but not quite the ticket for selling insurance to the common person.  The animals (Camel,  Gecko, etc.) were right on the mark for their product, but “change for the sake of change” will yield them little or no advantage in their market.

McDonalds is an excellent example of change for the sake of ???.  They constantly come up with alterations to the menu based on exhaustive and costly consumer studies and focus groups, which often miss the mark entirely.  Their latest  concoction the ”CBO  burger” is a mystery.  Most people want to go with a brand they know, the product they like, and the service that they are willing to pay for, but the mad dash for Social Media novelty drives even the biggest brands to spend money and risk the loss of clients for the sake of change and often times motivated  by sheer stupidity.

All of this nonsense is not so much the fault of advertisers as it is the fault of the agencies.  In a world of overwhelming analytics and data crunching, they often lose touch with reality.  The desire to be innovative becomes the creation of the just plain weird or fickle.

Every business, large or small, has an innate knowledge of what their customers want or like about their brand.  The trick is in exploiting that in an innovative way, not in rebranding or drastically realigning the pitch.  What must be kept in mind is that the Ad Agencies, particularly in the field of Social Media, are highly competitive and often miss the mark themselves.  In their zeal to sell a new idea to a client, they often forget the truism “Steady as she goes”!  

Roam Business has always worked closely with our clients to determine who and where the potential markets are and how to reach them without a major overhaul of the product or service.   Talking “with”, and not “at”, our clients, is the key to any successful Social Media Marketing campaign.  Contact us for a free consultation www.roambusiness.com .   

Are You Selling Product or Image?

 Any given customer will purchase any given product or service because it provides satisfaction. Sounds simple right? But the secret to providing that satisfaction is in providing that”want” or that satisfaction with the product's utility.

There are many forms of utility,in the language of marketing, but the magic of the successful Social Media Marketer is to provide something called “image” utility. It is the emotional or psychological value that a person relates to a brand or product because of its reputation or social standing.

The beauty of Social Media Marketing is in the way a brand's reputation can be enhanced by friends sharing their perceptions of a product or service with other friends.

Let me give you an example that has to do with a service, rather than a product. A guy, let's call him Joe, has 50 Facebook friends. Joe needs to have his hair cut every two weeks just because that's what Joe likes to do with his hair. A new barber or “hair stylist” has just opened up and Joe has been targeted by a skillful Social Media Marketer who has done his research as someone who should see an ad or two on his Facebook page about the new barber. Remember you aren't selling Joe a haircut, you're selling him an image that will fit the image he wants satisfied. So Joe tries the place out, loves the cut and posts a picture of himself on Facebook with the new look. Most of Joe's 50 friends see the pic and the next thing you know, the barber has two dozen new clients and they're telling their friends about the place.

Now there's a lot more that goes into it from the Social Media Marketers job than it appears in my brief description here. But if the new barber had spent twice as much money on fliers about his new shop as he did on a few well targeted Social Media ads, he would still be looking at an empty chair half the day. Now, he has 50 new clients who are telling their friends about the shop and the Marketer is using his well targeted, image selling ads to draw in even more.

To find out more about image utility, as well as information utility, time utility and form utility you can always contact us at www.roambusiness.com and we will gladly give you a free consultation along with a game plan that includes the most important utility of all “possession utility” where the rubber meets the road and the sale takes place. Knowing how to properly utilize social media platforms to reach your target market is our specialty. Roam Business is a professional Social Media Marketing firm, we don't paper billboards!