How To Set & Achieve Your Marketing Goals

So you are a business owner who is ready to debut your company in the market place. The visions of success that you have for your company has maturated into actualization and now you look forward to the opportunities that lay ahead for your business' future ventures.

However;

Having a vision for your company is a great way to start a business. Although, more importantly, the way in which you market your company to a vast and endless market is pivotal in asserting your company's place in the world market. To achieve mass success, a plan for setting your marketing goals is essential.

You can do so with the following...


Set Realistic Goals

The first and most important step is having marketing goals that are realistic. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses will do wonders for accomplishing the goals you create for your company's marketing. When it comes to marketing, set goals that will help in areas that your company may be struggling in. For example, if your company's social media skills aren't up to par, try setting goals for expanding your company's social media presence. By doing so, your company has explored a marketing venture that will aid in giving your company more exposure.

Another way to realize and understand realistic marketing goals is to apply the S.M.A.R.T method. The S.M.A.R.T method stands for Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based. This method is used to help you further understand the quality of the goals that you are setting. By having specific goals that are not only measurable, attainable and realistic, but also in a timely manner, you are crafting ideal goals for your marketing.

Understanding Your Audience

Knowing who your target audience is will help out tremendously when concerning your company's presence in the market place. Paint a picture of who your customer is, define who they are and what objectives you as a company can aid them with. 

By knowing who your target audience is, such as creating a customer profile, it is easier for your company to figure out the best way to reach them. Understand the problems that your consumers have and then supply the answers. In doing so, you understand the consumer better, if not more on an intimate level, and can therefore appeal to their needs and wants in ways that they did not think possible. By realizing your customer, you can exceed the supply to their demands. 

Strategize

Now that you have your S.M.A.R.T goals and have realized your target audience, having a marketing strategy is your next course of action. Having a strategy helps your company outline how your products or services will be delivered to your target audience. 

 This also creates brand awareness which will largely increase your sales. To create a good strategy, there are a few things to consider such as creating a budget and monitoring your competitors. By having a budget, you can then understand in what way your company can expand or tailor its marketing ventures. Also, strategize what is typically considered standard within your company's industry, but also dare to go a little rouge and try something new. Looking into new and innovative ways to market can also help with your marketing strategy. 

Successfully setting and achieving your marketing goals is easily accomplished if you are organized and motivated to learn how. There are many different ways in which to accomplish your marketing goals and additional research is always recommended. But with the core principles listed above, you now have the skills to maximize your marketing potential.

The following is a helpful video to help expand upon the recommendations listed in the above article.

5 Ways To Maximize Your Marketing Video

By Sarah Parsons

When it comes to the success of engaging your audience with a clean, crisp video for your product or services, the way in which the marketing is handled really can make or break your businesses' success. Along with crafty storytelling and expanding your videos into a series, there are 5 helpful ways to maximize the way in which you can successfully market your videos.

1. Target Your Demographic

Knowing who your target demographic and audience are is key in perfecting the ideal marketing video. What is your brand trying to convey to who or whom? Having a clear goal in mind when considering your audience, specifically core age groups and social-economic background, enables you to be able to better design the content within your video.

For example, if your product is geared towards children, research on media crafted to attract children's attention is pivotal. Another example is if your core demographic is akin to luxury items, incorporate elements that would entice that audience by using sensual imagery and pacing. For additional resources on research for media and demographics, read this helpful article on 2015 media trends. 

2. Maximize Social Media Presence

Social media is currently the most used media platform in the United States and numbers indicate that popularity of social media sites are growing across the world. It is estimated that Americans 18-64, spend an average of 3.2 hours a day on social networks. Creating pages or accounts on these popular sites for your brand's videos will help encourage viewership. 

Creating pages for your brand is extremely easy. On Facebook, you can create a page for your brand to host your promotional videos. In doing so, your page will receive "likes"  and followers, which will in return increase the popularity of the page, especially in search engines. 

With the rise of social media, also creates access to keyword searches for social media users. After you establish a social media page or account for your brand, you can utilize the popularity of the "#hashtag", the symbol used before a typically one-lettered word, which will increase the frequency of those browsing the search engine. The use of the hashtag is particularly effective on Vine, Instagram and Twitter and is becoming increasingly popular on other social media sites by the minute.

Understanding which social media would optimize your marketing depends on research and your target demographic. To learn more, try reviewing this fact sheet.

3. Especially, YouTube

According to research, the debate as to whether YouTube will replace TV is still ongoing. Although the verdict is still out on whether TV will cease to be, there is no denying that YouTube has a following that shouldn't be ignored.  With subscribers in the billions, YouTube offers an opportunity for advertisers to showcase their marketing videos before and between streaming videos. 

There is also the option to create a YouTube account for your marketing videos. By having subscribers to your YouTube account, viewers will be able to be notified and view newly posted videos once they are published. By using YouTube's channel function, posting videos can become a serialized event, thus leading to optimizing user engagement. Also, with the option of the "share" button, viewers can promote your marketing videos with this function, which then becomes a promotional function on its own.

4. Ad Space for Streaming Services

Another factor into the decline of TV, specifically cable TV,  is the rising popularity of streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video as well as many, many other services. Although streaming services such as Netflix and HBOGo typically do not display adds, services like Hulu do. Although ad space for other streaming services cease to exist within TV mode, many internet browsers display some form of ads within the page that is streaming the movie or TV show. 

Though Netflix is currently the most popular streaming device with over 69.17 million subscribes worldwide, other streaming services like Yahoo is still supporting ad revenue by selling out ad space for live streaming of sports games, such as the N.F.L. To reiterate, selling ad space to streaming services can become complicated. With research, you can find the right streaming service that suits your video's marketing needs. 

5. Specify Branding 

The final helpful tip in the maximization of your marketing video is to specify your branding. How are your products or services going to make an impact on viewership? Will your marketing videos be individual clips that are a separate entity from the overall marketing campaign? or will you create an on-going, episodic campaign that builds upon the marketing videos that preceded it? 

By understanding your marketing videos and the way in which they will be implemented, you can assert your brand's presence in the digital age. Other factors to consider are genre, such as whether you want your video to be humorous or dramatic and the length of the videos, either 30 second segments, or longer. 

The possibilities of maximizing your marketing videos exceeds more than the 5 ways listed above, and with intensive research, you too will be able to fully maximize your marketing video's potential in little to no time at all.

Cutting the Umbilical Cord: Cablevision Offers "Cord Cutting" Packages

Cablevision is now giving streaming services a run for their money

Cablevision is an American cable television company that offers cable and internet services to areas surrounding New York City. It is currently the 8th largest cable provider in the United States. Cablevision made headlines by offering first pay-TV providers HBO's new standalone service, HBO Now to its broadband customers. This is pretty nifty, seeing as HBO is making Netflix squirm in their seats. This paves way for potential for cable and internet service providers to compete their services by seeing what people want and giving it to them.

HBO Now itself is very fascinating. The service is standalone, meaning that you don't have to have a cable subscription with HBO in order to stream their shows. This tells me that HBO is really seeing how people view their media and the biggest hurdle they have is piracy. The service itself is an app that you can download from the iTunes, Google Play or via desktop/laptop. Basically, if you have the internet, you can access HBO Now. And HBO struck while the Iron Throne was hot; they released the app DAYS before the season 4 release of Game of Thrones, the most-watched show on HBO, which was no doubt planed to raise awareness for the app, as Game of Thrones is also one of the most pirated shows on torrent sites. Nice move, HBO. That was a pretty smart move to entice downloaders to skip the Pirate Bay and stream it through their app where they will most likely experience optimal audio and video quality.

...But now back to Cablevision. With their new package deal, the company is now offering consumers the ability to bundle internet, a free digital antenna AND HBO Now if they choose. That's definitely a power play on this company's part. Cablevision is trying its hand at inter-connectivity; they understand that all media is essentially full-filling "The Black Box Prophecy" and they want to capitalize on that. This is a brilliant strategy for the "cord-cutters", which are consumers that are ditching pricy cable TV subscriptions and luring in the "cord nevers", which are consumers who never signed up for a cable subscription in the first place. 

I feel this is the new way in which media will be consumed. Customers are tired with the wax and wan of cable companies jacking up prices, as they should be.

Your move, cable companies.

Never-mind The Re-wind: The Effects of Binge-Watching Through Streaming Services

By Sarah Parsons

The cast of AMC's Mad Men. My current binge-watching addiction.

  According to TIME magazine, your binge-watching may have negative effects on your health

Binge-watching; The new vice of global entertainment?

If you have Hulu, Amazon Instant or Netflix, chances are you have perused their selections and happened upon a TV show that you could. not. stop. watching. Binge-watching TV shows on these instant streaming services has become wildly popular with its subscribers. Many users are able to find TV shows which they can finish in a week or a day, depending on how invested you/they are. Although this is seemingly great for the consumers, having all the episodes readily available for them to either finish a series or catch up until more have been released, what kind of impact does it have on our emotional and mental health? According to the TIME article, there are potentially increased risks of diabetes attributed to consuming too many unhealthy snacks and sitting around without getting proper exercise. Of course, anything anyone does that involves inactivity can cause major health issues. It's pretty much a no-brainer when you think about how many people binge-watch their favorite TV shows, obviously they most likely do it sitting or laying down in a comfortable position. What I'm more interested in, is what does it do to entertainment?

The Binge-watcher Killed The TV Star?

And by TV star, I mean specifically network executives. How does binge-watching through these streaming services effect the way in which TV shows are consumed by the general population? Before instant streaming, TV networks would debut shows each week by having new weekly episodes air. By doing this, it would "generally" work in the network's favor; they could decide whether the show was generating enough ratings to continue to air or pull it altogether and put production time and money into another show to generate more ratings and more money. Before instant streaming, this model worked. We as an audience didn't know any better and although it was frustrating having to wait week-by-week for our favorite show to air a new episode, we came back in droves and that is what the network wants; loyalty. Having the consumers tune in each week and generate revenue worked for a successful business model. But now that has all changed. 

Does This Change Entertainment?

Well, yes and no. Binge-watching is a new way in which we consume TV. It is a migration that is adapting to the benefits of new media and having many things on demand. I feel that binge-watching doesn't ruin TV shows for the consumer. Having that catalog available instantly is more enjoyable for the user. Many people, like me, do not have a cable subscription and opt out in favor of services like Hulu and Netflix. This gives me the option to choose when and how I see my favorite TV shows and movies. I do not have the time to record my favorite shows when they premiere, let alone make the time for them when they do premiere. Netflix, the service I have, gives me that option. I feel that I can sit, uninterrupted, and enjoy my shows from start to finish. I also found out that I am able to be more comprehensive of the plot of the shows I am binge-watching, something I am usually not when I have to patiently wait for these shows to premiere. I feel like binge-watching lets the viewer be their own gate-keeper to their chosen media, a powerful option when you are TV/film buff like myself. Does binge-watching spoil the fruits of the laborer? Are we given too much to enjoy it too quickly and then forgotten too soon? I don't feel that way either. Nostalgia is there for that. When we hear about TV shows that we've seen, having that ability to go back and re-watch generates more viewership and word-of-mouth plays a role too, where friends will recommend other friends to watch shows they've selected for them (an option now on Netflix is the ability to connect to your Facebook and recommend other friends TV shows and films, which is a smart move on both parties' end). In essence, what this means to me, is that TV shows or any other media that can be consumed by binge-watching, needs to be more on its toes as far as content. Viewers will have all access to these shows and they need to be engaging. This could ultimately change the way in which content within these shows are being delegated and that is what I am most interested in seeing. The power of binge-watching can potentially shape the way in which we view our media in many ways.

Taking Rides From Strangers: The Learning Curb Of Uber

By Sarah Parsons

                    

                      An Uber User Recently Discussed Her Views On Inflated Rating Systems

                                                                    What is Uber?

Uber is a San Francisco based transportation company that allows crowd-sourcing taxi service to be enabled for mobile app use in most major cities around the USA and 200 cities worldwide. Uber has become increasingly popular with the mobile app dependent generation that is looking for ways to cut the cost of certain services by using cheaper alternatives. Companies such as Lyft and Uber were created to capitalize on this growing market. In essence, users of the app can schedule a pick up from a certified Uber driver. According to Uber, many of the drivers are certified drivers and if Uber users consistently gives an Uber driver a rating below a 5 star rating, that driver is then asked to take remedial driving courses to better their skills and improve the app user's experience.

Uber in the News

Uber has recently been in the news regarding the safety of the passengers who use the app. Many have claimed have had negative experiences with the service, such as the drivers not abiding by the traffic laws, feelings of uneasiness, derogatory comments being made by the driver about the passenger, promptness and rape allegations that are now being hashed out in court. Uber hasn't quite gotten a break in the legal department with taxi drivers, either. Many taxi companies in cities where Uber is popular, are currently suing Uber for allegedly operating illegally in their city (this lawsuit was brought on by the Pennslyvania Public Transport Commission). Legal troubles persist around Uber as the National Federation of the Blind filled a pretty serious lawsuit against Uber's drivers for treating their blind passengers unethically and violating the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 by refusing blind patrons ride and one case detailing a Uber driver putting a seeing-eye dog in the trunk. Uber also was involed in the death of a six-year-old girl when an Uber driver, whom was not carrying a passenger, struck and killed the girl. Uber claimed to not be at fault for the death, but the girl's family is currently filling a wrongful death lawsuit against the company. Outside looking in, Uber doesn't seem to catch a break and is plagued with a lot of misfortunes.

 Fault In Their Stars: Inflated Rating System

 

The rating system on Uber ultimately makes or breaks the way in which driver-passenger relations are played out. I believe it is the job of the consumer to truthfully post how their experience with their driver was. To give a Uber driver a 5 star rating when the ride did not deserve a "perfect" score, does not help the business develop and filter out potential drivers. The responsibilities of whether these incidents are reported or not is on the driver and passenger. It also seems that Uber is puting too much stress on the drivers and passengers to give and recive perfect 5 star ratings. This does no good for the company because of the added presures put on the driver. I would suggest that Uber operates more on a spectrum of their ratings and let drivers recieve a 4 or 3 star rating without penalty and if the 1 or 2 star ratings are persistent with a certain driver, then action must be taken to correct this. But nothing can be adequately done until users are being truthful with their ratings and don't lazily default to 1 or 5 star ratings.

Pratical Pizza; Meals On Wheels With Pizza Hut App

By Sarah Parsons 

Pizza Hut is enabling users of their app to order on the go.

 You had me at pizza

Picture this; you are driving home from work and you get a hankering for some good ole Pizza Hut pizza, breadsticks, etc. But the only problem is, you don't know how to go about placing an order while you are going from work. Or, you have hungry children impatiently waiting at home who are hoping you don't come home again empty handed and sloppily put together frozen fish sticks and Easy-Mac again. Because, let's face it; sometimes you just don't feel like cooking or waiting in a drive-thru with other people possibly in the same predicament that you are in. Pizza Hut is here to help. The good people at Pizza Hut have come up with a solution to this problem by offering users of the app to order as they go.

How can this make things easier for me?

Texas-based company Pizza Hut Inc., San Francisco based company Visa Inc., and Ireland based consultant management firm Accenture PLC know how that feels. Basically, the app offers services like the ability for customers to order while driving, specifically beacon technology, which alerts employees when customers pull in to pick up their order. This means, the customer doesn't have to leave their vehicle when they pull up to a Pizza Hut location. Their order will be brought to them from the comfort of their car. The app also uses Visa Checkout, which is easier for the user to have their card information uploaded and ready to use when they arrive at a Pizza Hut location. A cool new facet for this Pizza Hut app is the ability for the car commerce program. This program enables users to have the inter-connectivity in their car, especially if they have a GPS navigation dashboard, that gives them the ability to download the app and use it in their car. 

How do you think users will respond to it?

I believe this is a smart move for Pizza Hut. The brand has had a torrid history with brand identity, specifically eliminating their buffet-style interior for a more polished and modern feel. Having the ability for delivery on-the-go through beacon technology with build customer loyalty with the brand. They are recognizing the inconveniences their customers face while ordering their food and are helping users navigate their order with ease. The pizza industry seems very cut-throat, especially with Domino's condensing their logo from "pizza" to the singular "Domino's". I'm interested to see how this inter connectivity with the car commerce program will fair with the app's new feature.  Let the pizza battles continue.

Putting Love On The Line: Dating On The Web

By Sarah Parsons

I stumbled across a man's experience in online dating and it sparked my interest...

 Isn't Online Dating for losers who can't get dates?

 Online dating can mean many things to many people. Although once stigmatized by the masses, sites and mobile apps such as OkCupid, Tinder and for those willing to shed some money towards finding true love at eharmony are becoming popular with a the millennial generation. For those of you who aren't up to sped, let me catch you up. These are sites and mobile apps that let you customize your profile, from everything to basic stats (age, sex, location, etc), to what your intentions are for the site (hook-ups, relationships, "just seeing what's out there", etc) and to menial things like how you would respond to certain situations and lifestyles through questionnaires. It's like speed-dating for the virtual world and it is most definitely something to be on the look out for.

So why are kids into this? Why not go to a bar or meet people in public?

Well, in our increasingly digital age that we live in, it is not wonder these dating sites and apps are a hit. Of course, there is a pro and a con to every side. First, let's start with the pros; online dating helps aid the initial social interaction between individuals who fear rejection. Take for instance a situation in which you are in a bar, cruising for either Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now. Wherever your intentions rely, finding a partner is tricky business when you are surrounded by a public in which you deem pretty, smarter, more interesting, etc. Landing a mate is hard to do easily, especially with competition. Online dating helps to eliminate that anxiety. From the comfort of your home or on your mobile, you can lay it all out there in a profile that neatly defines who you want to portray to those perusing the dating app or site you have chosen. This type of digital dating does increase the chances in filtering out potential mates. Of course, there is a con to every pro. The cons to online dating is the authenticity of those who post their information. Many times, the hype created by a profile is often cause for problems when a real life interaction between hopeful mates ends with one, the other or both parties being disappointed. And, of course, there is a matter of safety. Are you meeting up with someone whom is harmless or dangerous? This is a gamble many are willing to take in the online dating world

What does this mean for the world of dating?

Online dating is a chance for people to become more confident in their prospects by designing a representation of themselves for the online community to decipher their worth. Speaking from personal experience, I met my current boyfriend from OkCupid. Through my experiences, I met a plethora of individuals who ranged in what they were looking for. What I thought was particularly interesting, is that many individuals claim to not want their friends, family members and the general public to know that they were using a dating app online. The stigma still persists but with the popularity of the aforementioned dating apps, this may be a thing of the past. The ideal that only "desperate" people use dating apps is phasing out as more and more individuals become curious as to what is out there. Also, the idea of meeting at bars, clubs, through community activities is becoming slightly less ideal as people seem to be wanting to know more information instantly about everyone else, which has been enabled by the wonders of the internet. I am interested in seeing whether this will popularity in digitized dating will stick and in what form it will mutate into. 

#newmedia #onlinedating #futureofdating #okcupid #eharmony #tinder

Another Cloud In The Sky: Box Launches IPO

Box, a new cloud sharing service, is set to take over the market with users and cloud sharing.

 Yeah, Ok. So what does IT mean?

In less fancy talk, this means that this new service aims to make cloud enabled sharing on all devices such as tablets, phones and desktops A. LOT. EASIER. Users can share documents, photos, videos from anywhere, making this concept in the same vein as Google, Microsoft and Apple. Basically, it is a floating hard-drive for all of your storing needs. This service has the possibility to rethink cloud sharing, because if you have any doubts about cloud sharing, you may loosen your grip on that SD card after getting schooled on this service.

You're talking a big talk. So why should I care?

This company has a LOT of potential. So much potential that the company is already worth $1.7 billion smackaroos. That's a lot of green for investors to put into a company that is going against media giants like Google, Amazon and Mircosoft. Their splash is making enough waves to get the conversation started about what this company has the potential to do. And the biggest selling point? You, as the user, can store up to 10GB of storage for FREE. And if you want to go cloud-storing-crazy, you can get 100GB for $10-per-month. And although this service is for the general public, a lot of big businesses are using it as well. Box aims to use it's services towards retail and medical businesses to help with easy consumer-employee transactions. Also, the fact 99% of its consumers are Fortune 500 companies ain't too shabby either. Sounds awesome if you ask me, which you probably didn't, but I answered you anyway.

Started from the bottom now we here; Box founders at their HQ 8 years ago.

So what's the catch?

Although Box is a company with a great start-up, and the first day of trading surpassed expectations, the company still has a couple of kinks to work out and wrinkles to iron. The company IS up against giant media competitors like Google and Apple and it also has some financial woes to tackle. The company currently doesn't make a profit. As of today, the company lost an estimated $483 million since its founding mostly due to marketing and and sales advertising (so, it's safe to say they weren't sparing cost cuts by passing out any flimsy Kinko's copies of flyers around supermarkets, if you know what I mean). Also, it seems Box and co. was too scared to jump into the IPO deep end of the pool and waited a year for conditions to be right in that big open market before making a splash. This, understandably, made investors nervously fiddle with their pearl necklaces.

Uh-huh. So, what do YOU think?

So glad you FINALLY asked! I think this is a neat little business in cloud sharing. I get REALLY frustrated with Apple sharing (mainly because I'm incompetent when admitting defeat toward anything tech related, so I just start smashing and clicking buttons while praying that it will sort itself out). With all the scandalous mishaps with hackers getting into the Apple Cloud and sharing personal and private information of well-known celebrities, Box may have found an optimal time to convert users. Box could use this as an advantage to preach their safety features and offer a way out for those who fear they may be hacked next, especially with the paranoia surrounding a lot of personal information stored where hackers are capable of accessing it. I think it has a shot. I'm interested in seeing how it pans out. Cheers to Box, best of luck and maybe keep the advertising costs to a minimum? Ain't no shame in using social media and MAYBE passing out a flyer here or there. I say this as a friend (aka possible consumer) and with love.

#NewMedia #BoxCompany #CloudSharing #CloudCompetitors