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13 Feb 2017
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The Real ROI of Social Media Marketing

Sticky Post By On February 13, 2017

Social Media ROI

“How much revenue will it get me?”

For the past few years, the above question has been the most common objection I hear from business owners and decision makers whenever we are discussing marketing their businesses on social media channels. To be realistic, this concern makes much sense. After all, hard earned money is being paid and logic expectations must include a good return for it.

According to hubspot, 92% of marketers in claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. The issue here, is how to realize the importance of social media marketing and in what terms?

Do you agree that a successful business is not about sudden hyip lucky shots, it’s about sustainability in different aspects from sales, to marketing, to customer service, to finance and HR..? If yes, then we have now a good common ground to start our journey to demonstrating the real ROI of social media marketing.

According to my experience, I summarized the 3 most recognized social media powers that supported the sustainable growth of my clients’ business as follows:

1) Building Emotional Ties with Customers: The two-way communication that strongly differentiates social media from other media is a massive opportunity for business who care for building long term relationships with their customers. Using the right tone and context in answering questions, objections and even complaints from angry customers can enhance customer loyalty and keep your market share immune to competition. By sending personalized messages and greetings to your audience can show care that emotionally connects your brand with your audience leaving an impact that is hardly broken. Because we make sure to always use a lovely and humanitarian language when interacting with clients’ audiences, we’ve witnessed so many cases where followers defend the brand when someone posts negative feedback. This turns your audience into loyal sales people who will forgive you when you do something wrong, recommend your products to others and refuse the temptations of competitors.

2) Boost Brand Recognition: A healthy social media activity implies consistent messages being sent to a look-alike audience who share common interests, needs, life-styles etc.. This means that your brand will be viewed, mentioned and talked to by this audience. What does this mean? It’s the glory of FAME! Your brand will become more and more famous and will stay at the top of mind of your customers. YOUR SALES PEOPLE WILL ADMIRE THIS. A sales person for a famous brand has a much easier task to do than the sales people of unknown or new brands. Especially when your social media marketing includes creating content that is going viral!

3) Prospecting and Lead Generation: This is where we move from qualitative results to quantitative ones and it’s where our customers usually start feeling comfortable towards the investment they did. This needs two steps, the first is patience, and the 2nd is even more patience! The hit and run scheme won’t work here, and I believe it works no where except for dealing in drugs and arms. The process of building interest towards your products and services comes only after the awareness stage where we have to take our time smoothly presenting our product as a solution for a need that we have to address in different ways because it’s significant for every individual we are approaching. YES EVERY INDIVIDUAL! 10K followers for your page is 10,000 human beings with different cultures, lifestyles and needs however similar the audience may seem. That’s why reaping leads out of social media is a result that comes at the end of good activity and not an activity by itself. The good news here is that it happens, it happens a lot, and they will keep on coming when served well both online & offline.

Social media have been taking over the marketing industry few years ago, and I believe it has no end because it’s about human to human interaction. The digital platforms are only tempting channels that mainly connect people, and they are doing their homework neatly and nicely. Social media is an opportunity for those looking for a sustainable business growth especially for baby brands who are trying to find their place in a market conquered by big brands with deep roots.

DON’T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant/ Trainer
BrandLift
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28 Jan 2017
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Happy Customers, Your Free Sales Team

Sticky Post By On January 28, 2017

Well, it’s not totally free, and it’s not something that happens by chance. Having a sales team of customers is a result of planning and carefully nurturing the relationship between your business and your customers.

However, carrying the load for the sake of keeping your customers happy is totally worth it. Your happy customers will become the defense line against bad mouth attacking your brand or products. They will testify about their pleasant experience with your business and how you made their life better after using your products. The more satisfied they feel, the more excited they will become when talking about their experience with your business and believe me, it’s contagious. Your customers will create an influence on their friends and relatives and will urge them to become your customers too.

As I mentioned before, reaching the stage where your customers are your brand ambassador is a result of building a lovely relationship with them. And after observing different business and industries throughout my career, the minor part is delivering the promised benefits. It’s mostly about the experience.. and with experience I mean the way they felt when dealing with your business.

I do believe there is no magic formulas, but for this issue I tried a way and it really worked like magic!

LET YOUR CLIENTS FEEL IMPORTANT. Create in them a genuine feeling that you really care. Ask them about their feedback, listen to them when they show objections and do it with care, engage them when planning promotions and new products.. it’s mostly a process of proper communication. You won’t need fancy gifts delivered to them or giveaways whenever you want them to remember you. All you need are good listening skills and authentic emotions of empathy.

maya angelou, happy customer

It was and will always be a matter of human interaction. Your customers need to feel that you care. Your products maybe found elsewhere, your competition may have cheaper prices but when you can give your customers the pleasant experience, everything else is regardless!

Thanks for reading. Keep in touch 🙂

Mohamad Bajouk

Marketing Consultant & Trainer

08 Nov 2016
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NO SIR, YOU DON’T KNOW MARKETING!

Sticky Post By On November 8, 2016
You Don't Know Marketing

 

“Let the baker bake your dough, even if he eats half of the bread” – Arabic Proverb

Over and over again, I get to meet business people who go far with the DIY strategy. Some of them call it cutting costs, other think it’s cleverness. I call it “WASTE”.

Yesterday, I got this call from a respectful business owner asking for help in marketing his business. To be precise, he wanted his business promoted on Social Media.

What I found out, as usual, the gentleman has already underwent the grinder, and invested around $2,800 in 20 days without being able to determine any return! His Facebook page was full of poor visuals irrelevant to the brand, bad copy-writing littered the captions. The page was more like a cemetery with 7,000 dead page fans that aren’t interested in any of the content displayed and it can be seen in the low reach posts are getting with an expected ZERO interaction. Also, unanswered comments and messages added some decoration to the failing marketing canvas.

The poor man spent much of his time and energy trying to figure out ways of running his page, rather than concentrating on running his business. He turned himself into an employee who works for himself.

Fortunately, he was desperate enough to close the deal during our first meeting and I was merciful enough to suggest a monthly budget less than what he spent in those 20 black days.

Marketing is a major part of your business, it’s a specialty that needs accumulating experience to be done effectively and produce results. Doing it right will please you, doing it wrong will leave you broken-hearted!

This was only one of dozens of similar incidents that I face regularly and I hope writing about it can make a difference. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Mohamad Bajouk
Business Developer
BrandLift
m.bajouk@brandlift.me

07 Apr 2016
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Big Data = Mighty Marketing

Sticky Post By On April 7, 2016
data driven marketing

Since long, marketing depended much on insights collected from competitive analysis,market research, customer behaviors, and more. We all heard  companies bragging about the data they own and seducing retailers and marketers to sell them categorized information about markets and individuals. In the past few years, the importance of data boosted after introducing the fancy notion of “Big Data” and it became an era itself that captivated us all.

What is Big Data anyway? Is it really that BIG?
Data was always taken care of and usage of data isn’t really that new, but after introducing digital media and socially connecting the world on a micro level, the concept gained momentum. Consequently, huge data like images, interests, behaviors, clicks, tweets etc.. emerged and needed to be collected and structured in order to become useful in business activities.

“Without data you’re just another person with an opinion” – W. Edwards Deming

The simplest definition I found for Big Data was in an article written by Lisa Arthur posted on Forbes:
“Big data is a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis.” Click here to read the full article.

The availability of this data enabled tracking people’s personal activities like how much time they spend surfing the internet and when they are there, the spending on online shopping, what are people interested in and looking for, and much more. This allowed marketers to tailor the suitable content for the right audience minimizing wasted dollars and efforts and even explained what products can be offered.
I see Big Data as if you’re sitting in your office receiving calls from people clearly telling you about their needs and when they want them. No need to guess or use the “trial and error” approach. Possibilities are infinite!

My Own Experience:
A friend of mine, Ali Rebai – a real Big Data Guru – introduced me to Big Data and I was really inspired and provoked! Few months ago I started educating my clients about Big Data and we started recording activities about their own customers. Activities included the frequency and time of visits, their social media presence and the type of content they share, their lifestyle, brands they endorse, cars they drive, what food they like, where they live and many others depending on the industry of my clients. The information was categorized clearly in simple excel sheets and outputs where AMAZING!

Although these activities aren’t as big as the real big data since they didn’t need any complex software to be analyzed and processed and I totally understand it, but we succeeded in introducing new products, opening new branches, tailoring the right content, improving the attractiveness of offers, defining weak points and planning ahead for the future.

Overall , what I can say from my “primitive” experience is that it’s really exciting. I became more enthusiastic about collecting data and started to taste its sweetness! If the minimal usage of data was that fruitful, what would happen if data was structured and used on a big scale using the suitable technology!

 I can confidently say that Big Data is really BIG!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant& Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon

07 Apr 2016
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Stop the Shout Marketing on Social Media

Sticky Post By On April 7, 2016

You are in a busy street, you head to someone randomly, hand them your business card and start explaining your business to them! How did that sound?
Well, it’s the same when you use your social media pages to promote your services to everyone without connecting and engaging with them first to break the ice and winning their interest!

“Social Media is about the people, not about your business” – Matt Goulart

We always face this dogma with our dear clients. Trying to sell their products and services comes first when we are discussing together their social media content strategy, and this is why we work on changing their priorities:

– People on social media aren’t there to shop, they are there to enjoy their time, learn, connect with people they know and follow topics that interest them.

– In order to attract more subscribers, Social media platforms are always biased to the user’s side and tend to show users what interests them as a content. If your content is always promotional, your users won’t appreciate it and you’ll lose their interest. This will lead to very low visibility for your content.

– As Maya Angelo said, people may forget anything you said or did to them, but they will never forget the way you let them feel!
This is why social media is a perfect place to deliver an experience rather than delivering a product. It’s more about being effective in marketing than directly selling your products.

Social media is a very effective way of marketing, but we shall never forget that it’s about being “Social”. promoting your products can be one of the goals of your presence there, but connecting, engaging and building a strong bond with people stays the major goal!

Ideas, comments, questions? Feel Free!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant & Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon

28 Jan 2016
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Marketing Outsourcing.. Why?

Sticky Post By On January 28, 2016

marketing outsourcing consulting branding

In a merciless world of changing and rapidly evolving business , doing it all by yourself and keeping up with every technology has become an endless marathon.

While big companies are managing it in a way or another depending on long period of experience and high financial capabilities, smaller companies and startups in particular are finding it hard to compete at every business levels. Usually and after several disappointments, the ambitious owners of these baby entities will start to realize that marketing is a major key – I believe it’s the most important – for growing their business and will start seeking alternatives.

“Business has only two functions, marketing & innovation” – Milan Kundera

Because hiring a full time marketing expert could be a dreadful threat to the budget, startups and small business owners resort to outsourcing their marketing activities to marketing companies and below is why:

1. Focus:

The first and most important reason for outsourcing marketing is allowing startups to concentrate on developing their products and services. Being focused will lead businesses to master what they do and go further with innovations without being distracted by other needy tasks.

2. Cost-Saving:

Hiring and training a team of marketers is a heavy financial load especially for fresh startups. On the other hand, a marketing company will charge less than a salary of one marketing person while providing the services of a complete trained and talented team.

3. No Wasted Resources:

Before accepting the reality, many business owners rely on their own powers in marketing at the beginning. They invest their efforts, time & money in trying to expand their business reach by themselves. Being overwhelmed with tasks and operational tactics, many business owners suffer later in shortage of resources and a lot of money will be wasted on trials and errors.

4. Higher Quality:

Due to diversified clientele, marketing companies usually have experience in different industries and one of them may be yours. Business owners discover later the vast amount of useful insights and information a marketing company can offer. Also marketing companies are always updating their technologies in order to keep following up with their own competition. That’s business owners who outsource their marketing never worry about following latest marketing trends or spending time and money in market research.

Getting the best of marketing depends mainly on finding the right company to handle it. Once found, a lot of resources will be saved and expertise will be collected for the sake of business growth.

Outsourcing marketing must not eliminate the role of the own company. Marketing shall always be energized by the passion businessowners and their teams hold towards the company’s vision. Whenever the right marketing company is found, partner together and share the SUCCESS!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant & Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon