Social Media : Not Replacement but another way to reach your Customers!

Day by day Social media becomes stronger as its follower increases in many fold per day. Companies can not neglect this social media presence further more, as you have more benefits than normal advertisement and formal way of communication.

Following are the benefits for Business:

1) Cheaper

2) Easy, accessible, user friendly for customers.

3) Customers/user already their, you don't have to take effort to add them.

4) Word of Mouth is more stronger & Faster in Social Media

5) Its providing an additional channel for customer support

6) Broadcasting updates, announcements, news, e.g. additional PR resource

7) Promotions

8) Behind the scenes look at the organization

9) Advertising

10) Reach to your internal customers i.e. employee without any barrier.

11) Allows the organization to measure and monitor the effects on their customers.

12) Organizations are able to target individuals based upon specific interests shared on social media.

Social Media helps your other integrated marketing efforts. It Should act in parallel way. Suppose you are launching new product -you gave its TV commercial, Advertisement in print media, Radio jingles, or other marketing ways so to boost its overall effectiveness if you add it in Youtube, Facebook wall, Twitter etc. You can able to create unison, one directional, clutter free promotion for your product.

Social Media Challenges:

1) Regular updation is necessary

2) Content should be relevant to customers

3) If you are using it for complaint forum then you have to solve as much as complaint else it acts like a Boomrang.

4) Keeping Fan following

5) Everyone want new, unique, true information.

Also remember just like with other marketing initiatives—social media efforts can succeed or fail. So be sure & clear what is your goal & how you will going to perform.

So if you till away from it......then its time to have presence on Social Media.

5 Tips to Become Successful Social Media Marketer (SMM).

How good would it be to overhear customers talking to each other and saying nice things about your company? Or how important is it to know when dissatisfied customers are telling others about a poor experience? If you’re monitoring social media, you’re gathering exactly that information.

Customers and prospects are increasingly turning to social communities, networks and blogs for opinions about various brands, businesses and services. In 2009, the average time spent on social sites increased 82 percent globally compared to 2008 and the number of Twitter users spiked more than 500 percent, reaching 75 million by the end of 2009. Because recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted online are trusted most, monitoring and managing social media is a key focus among marketers. As with increase email marketing, measuring your performance in social is key to success, enabling you to monitor the impact of promotions, identify brand ambassadors and adjust future campaigns based on past results, among numerous other benefits

Here are some tips for to do it right:

1)    Identify your market.

What is your market? It is very important as in social media you can focus on part of your target market. Also it decides which social media is useful in selected market. As Like in India you can use Orkut over facebook (but rapidly user of Facebook increases and it will cross Orkut in short time.)

2)    What is your goal for SMM?

It decides your course of use of social media. Whether you are going to use twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Orkut, Netlog etc. or combination of all or some of it. Goal helps you in remain focus & measure the path of success. Everywhere goal is very important as it boost your confident, it help to focus on limited/selective targets.

Also in B2B and B2C different media are more useful like for B2B Social media like Linkedin, Blogs, slideshare, Twitter is more important while in B2C Youtube, Facebook, twitter etc. are more favorable.

3)    How you going to measure/monitor its impact?

This is most important step in social media marketing because it helps to remain focus, consistent & remain on designed path. It is very much possible in case of Social media as you can count no. of hits, most favorite tweet, and direct customer feedback/suggestions using various tools/applications. Which is why social media is become favorite among marketers!. By measuring impact of social media you can make necessary corrections.

4)    Engage customers/prospect in discussion.

This step is actually part of implementation phase of social media marketing. Engage your prospect/customer in various discussions. Sometimes if you contradict or giving some super nominal result or fact, force customer to take part in discussion but it should be use carefully or else it affect other way to your social media campaigning.

5)    Consistency / focus.

This step is more important as you are using more ways to reach your customer/prospect so there is possibility of difference, inconsistency in your message. Also this is case when different marketing channel handled by different people/departments. Also social media reach directly to the doorstep of customer and in case SMM, customer gets enough time to evaluate, accept the message. So message should be clear and consistent to other mediums of communication.

So if you follow all this steps in SMM, nobody keeps you away from becoming successful Social Media Marketer. So when you starting/using your Social media marketing (SMM)?

What Makes Indian Premier League (IPL) so Hot?

In this sales2marketing article we will try to see the Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL) in marketing point of view. Why it so successful in so short of time? IPL is a Twenty20 cricket competition initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and supervised by BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, Chairman  and Commissioner for IPL. It presently includes 10 teams called "franchises" consisting of players from different countries. It was started after altercation between the BCCI and the newly-created Indian Cricket League.The IPL works on franchise system based on the American style of hiring players and transfers.

Whats makes it so popular in India and abroad?

Here are some reasons for IPL success in India.

1) Its format: 20-20 overs which requires only 3 to 4 hours time to finish match. 

2) Indian viewers interest in Cricket- great fan following (eat, drink, sleep & digested cricket attitude).

3) Glamourous look to IPL (Cheergirls, strategic breaks, filmi Celebrity association, presence on ground).

4) Marketing Buzz (Association of Brand, their unique way to promote their brands).

5) Vision (Man behind the show Mr. Lalit Modi, he knows where, what & How).

6) It attach International players almost all test cricket playing countries which gives result in their fan following and vice-versa.

7) Fair and quality Play - Spirit of game(Till date)

8) Given different regional representation to teams which covers entire India.

9) Ownership of Franchisee given to Professional business tycoons like Ambanis, Vijay Mallya, Nes Wadia and latest Mr Subrato Roy and many more. 

10)Match timings in Afternoon & evening time as concern with India(Prime-time)

Commercial Aspect of IPL.
1) It was the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on the popular video sharing website Youtube.
2) Sony/World Sport Group -Broadcast Rights 10 years at Rs 8700 crores.
2) Brand value was estimated to be around $4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crore) in 2010.
3) According to global sports salaries review IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first-team salaries on a pro-rata basis, only second to NBA league. It is calculated that average salary of IPL over a year is £2.5 million.
4) DLF Group paid US$50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013
5) In 2010, the IPL expects to have 80 official merchandising deals.
6) five-year sponsorship agreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one with PepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million.
7) There are disputed figures for the profitability of the teams, but in season one profit remains more over flat, in season 2, four teams out of the eight made a profit and IPL season 3 is going on...lets see.
8) Many other deals which are not disclosed.

So from this figures we can imagine what type of commercial interest involved in IPL. Which combine with viewers interest gives IPL grand success, more eyeballs.
As per Mr Lalit Modi, he wants to make IPL most successful sporting event than any other sport format in the World(NBA, Wimbledon, Grandprix etc.). Also if IPL want more professional approach, nothing can stop them from come with IPO for listing in stock exchange similar like Manchester United was listed in the London Stock Exchange (1992) at GBP 47 million.

Hope you will like this sales2marketing article....Enjoy IPL....Enjoy Cricket.... keep watching!!!                                   (Source:Wikipedia)

Are you just producing Product or "Brand"?

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel"                                                               -- Maya Angelou

Brand

Cococola, Adidas, Pepsi, Puma, Sony, Apple, Cadburry, India...what you think they are mere words or more? Yes they are not just words, they are "Brands". So what you think Brand is? As per American Marketing Association "Brand is a  "name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition.” But is it so only differentiating element make some word to Brand? Brand is much more than that. In simple words Brand is something which acquires unique space in consumers mind and which makes selling price of 1$ product to 10$ or more.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product--and customers will pay that higher price.

What is Branding?

In simpllified lanuguage Branding means process of converting "word"(Coco cola) into Brand (). Branding is entire process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product (good or service) in the consumers' mind, through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

Why Branding is necessary?

1) To familiarize target customers with the symbol or logo, the brand's concept and making them knowledgeable enough to expect a certain set of benefits.

2) A rational claim of superiority isn’t possible. So the brand positioning is the primary differentiator.

3) By positioning, marketers try to occupy a portion of the mindspace of customer and create the brand image and brand personality in the long run

4) Brand Communication(BC) aids in achieving “intangible” positioning. The BC and the style of BC both contribute to articulating and embodying these differences

5) Consumers are becoming increasingly fickle and savvy. For organizations this implies placing more emphasis on consumer needs and expectations as well as heavily investing in advertising.

6) Volatile markets and increasing product parity.

Some Branding Examples.

1) "Amul - Taste of India" having Single theme for 42 years, More than 3 generations, Highest brand recall ever, Recognized and appreciated for consistency , wits and innovation, Always focus on “Common man”, Consistent through its advertisement on all contemporary issues like sports, society, politics, entertainment.

2)Cadbury in India - Some initivatives/Campaigns for Branding are "Snacking ka meetha funda", Real Taste of Life' campaign, shifting the focus from `just for kids' to the `kid in all of us','Khanewalon Ko Khane Ka Bahana Chahiye' campaign', Celebratory occasions- “Pappu Pass Ho Gaya” from all Cadbury India establish itself as a Brand.

3) Is there any another company in the world that works harder to build genuine relationships with their customers than the Harley-Davidson Motor Company? Harley-Davidson is an outstanding example of a company that has created loyalty through a pattern of steadfast interactions with its customers. How easy is it for your customers to interact with you? Could you reinvent the customer experience in ways that would strengthen the sense of affiliation that the customer has with the products and services of your company? The sponsorship of a "Harley Owners' Group" has been one of the most creative and innovative strategies that has helped create the experience of this product.(Source: Case study: Harley Davidson by Josef Schinwald)

4) There are many Good Branding examples like Apple, Dell, Incredible India, Cococola, Sony, Tata, Airtel, Vodafone.........

So What you want your company be simply word or Brand?.

Viral Marketing - Marketing Gimmick or Strategy?

"Viral" Word itself so Communicable that it must create a buzz. In marketing we called it "Buzz" marketing or "Viral Marketing" or "Word of mouth Marketing".

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing or viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. Other way some define it as "any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. "

The goal behind creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being taken by another competitor.

Why Viral Marketing?

1) Ease of executing the marketing campaign, relative low-cost (compared to direct mail), good targeting, 

2) Viral marketing is a technique that avoids the annoyance of spam mail; it encourages users of a specific         product or service to tell a friend. 

3) The high and rapid response rate. The main strength of viral marketing is its ability to obtain a large number of interested people at a low cost.

Few Types of Viral Marketing:

1) Pass-along: A message which encourages the user to send the message to others. The crudest form of this is chain letters where a message at the bottom of the e-mail prompts the reader to forward the message

2) Incentivised viral: A reward is offered for either passing a message along or providing someone else's address. This can dramatically increase referrals. However, this is most effective when the offer requires another person to take action.

3) Undercover: A viral message presented as a cool or unusual page, activity, or piece of news, without obvious incitements to link or pass along. In Undercover Marketing, it is not immediately apparent that anything is being marketed

4)"Edgy Gossip/Buzz marketing" ads or messages that create controversy by challenging the borders of taste or appropriateness. Discussion of the resulting controversy can be considered to generate buzz and word of mouth advertising. Prior to releasing a movie, some Hollywood movie stars get married, get divorced, or get arrested, or become involved in some controversy that directs conversational attention to them.

5) User-managed database: Users create and manage their own lists of contacts using a database provided by an online service provider. By inviting other members to participate in their community, users create a viral, self-propagating chain of contacts that naturally grows and encourages others to sign up as well.

Some examples of Viral Marketing:

1) Cadbury's Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla advertising campaign was heavily popularised on YouTube and Facebook.

2) In 2007, Portuguese football club Sporting Portugal integrated a viral feature in their campaign for season seats. In their website, a video required the user to input his name and phone number before playback started, which then featured the coach Paulo Bento and the players waiting at the locker room while he makes a phone call to the user telling him that they just can't start the season until the user buys his season ticket. Flawless video and phone call synchronization and the fact that it was a totally new experience for the user led to nearly 200,000 pageviews phone calls in less than 24 hours.

Viral expansion loop

A viral expansion loop is similar to viral marketing with one notable difference: viral marketing can't be replicated indefinitely, while a viral expansion loop must be in order for it to exist. When properly conceived and implemented, a viral loop almost guarantees self-replicating growth. Companies that have attempted to utilize viral loops to their advantage include social networking engine Ning, and viral loops power many Web 2.0 icons, including Twitter, 4chan ,Orkut, PayPal, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Flickr.

Green Marketing : Fashion, need or Compulsion?

Today everybody going towards green why it is need, compulsion or fashion(Trend)?

Product, advertisements, manufacturing processes are going green - more nature friendly, it all due to need or some places we can say compulsion to move toward more nature friendly products. Remain with the flow or for long time sustainance of company and its products.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. As per Mr. J. Polonsky, Green marketing can be defined as, "All activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that satisfying of these needs and wants occur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment". Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.

Why Green Marketing?

Due to limited resources and unlimited human wants, it is unavoidable for marketers to use more efficient, more nature friendly processes, raw materials to produce products which keep balance of nature & resources also. So green marketing is inevitable now a days.

Also other reason is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about the environment and are changing their behavior. As a result of this, green marketing has emerged which speaks for growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services.

Challenges in front of Green Marketers:

• Green products require renewable and recyclable material, which is costly
• Green products requires a high end technology, which requires huge investment in R and D
• Consumer aware about green products but not willing to pay extra bucks.
• In some cases we can not made product 100% nature friendly. 

Case Study:

1)McDonald's restaurant's napkins, bags are made of recycled paper.

2)Coca-Cola pumped syrup directly from tank instead of plastic which saved 68 million pound/year.

3) Introduction of CNG in New Delhi, capital of India, was being polluted at a very fast pace until Supreme Court of India forced a change to alternative fuels. In 2002, a directive was issued to completely adopt CNG in all public transport systems to curb pollution.

Cold calling: More strategic way!

Cold calling typically refers to the first telephone call made to a prospective customer. More unusually these days, cold calling can also refer to calling face-to-face for the first time without an appointment at commercial premises or households. Cold calling is also known as canvassing, telephone canvassing, prospecting, telephone prospecting, and more traditionally in the case of consumer door-to-door selling as 'door-knocking'.

Good cold calling - performed properly and not as merely an indiscriminate 'numbers game' - is a fundamental and highly transferable capability, whose basic principles are found in the behaviours and techniques of all great entrepreneurs and leaders.

In essence cold calling is the art of approaching someone, professionally, openly and meaningfully, with a sensible proposition.

Cold calling therefore enables success, chiefly because cold calling is strongly focused on initiative and action.

Viewed positively and creatively , cold-calling is empowering and potent.

Cold calling actually enables the sales person to follwing:

• Supersede existing suppliers
• Pre-empt the competition
• Identify and create huge new business possibilities
• Become indispensable as someone who can make things happen and create new business
• Build (your) personal reputation beyond job title and grade
• Establish relationships and a respect (for you) beyond normal sales responsibilities
• And be an entrepreneur.

So, do you want to be the human equivalent of junk-mail, or do you want to achieve entrepreneurial reputation and success that will take you anywhere you want to go?

Steps in Cold calling:

1.Preparation - self, environment, knowledge, and who you represent

2.Introduction - key phrases explaining and positioning yourself and your purpose

3.Questioning - help, facilitate and enable rather than assume, sell and push

4.Objectivity - the mark of an advisor - do not sell

5.Listen and interpret - do not sell

6.Inform and educate - do not sell

7.Involve and coordinate - do not sell

8.Keep in touch - keep notes and keep informed - keep ultimate ownership (by now you will probably be selling)

In next few blogs we will discuss one by one it's steps in more details.......So till keep calling.

                                                                                               (Source: Mr.Alan Chapman BusinessBalls)

Welcome to Sales 2 marketing Blog

Hi,

Welcome to all in sales to marketing Blog.

I am very happy to get started with this. I can share more my views on different aspect of sales &  marketing.

I welcome you all in this new venture of mine. Your suggestion, comments are welcome.

With best wishes.

Sales to Marketing Team.

Why Blogging is essential for Business?

With reference to Business Blogging means write blog on relavant topics on product, service offering, pricing etc. Why it is necessary for any business to create Blog? Is it really gives result? What we loose if we dont? Check following fact about blooging.

 The article "Blog Benefits: Traffic, Links, and Indexed Pages" summerises the power of blogging in search Engine.

• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages

From above we conclude that we not keep separate from blogging else your competitor will eat your business. So When you starting Blogging? 

Cold calling........unavoidable task in sales?

A famous Professor at Harvard Business School Once asked his students to name the number one reason that business do not succeed. He got all kinds of answers, ranging from bad management and bad programs to bad products, poor concepts, and lack of capital. After reading all their answers he stood before his class and told them that the number one reason businesses fail is ...."Lack of sales"

That's it. Its lack of real sales-the work you and I do on front lines. And if I can't get in the door to see people, I'm not going to sell. In most selling environments, nothing can happen unless you're able to get that first appointment. No matter how well you sell, if you can't get in door, if you cannot get an appointment to see somebody, you're nor going to sell.

To become a successful salesperson, you have to develop a solid base of prospects. This base will only remain solid if you continue to prsopect successfully prospecting. Cold calling is the best and most economical way for you to develop prospects on an ongoing basis.

So are you want to know more about cold calling techniques.........

So what is cold calling? Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction. The word "cold" is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person (Source: Wikipedia).

So keep reading this blog to know more about cold calling...........!!!!.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Go beyond status messages.......Google Buzz.

Share updates, photos, videos, and more.  Start conversations about the things you find interesting. With over 100 million gmail users, the backing of Google and over 9 million posts in the first two days I think Google Buzz is here to stay. I’m sure that over time functionality will be enhanced and like with Twitter a plethora of third party applications will be developed. Today I am not writing to debate the pros and cons of Buzz but rather to provide you with the resources to more fully utilize the tool.

Share publicly or privately

Publish your ideas to the world or just to your closest friends.  

Inbox integration

Comments get sent right to your inbox so it's easy to keep the conversation going.

Photo friendly

See thumbnails with each post, and browse full-screen photos from popular sites.

Connect sites you already use

Import your stuff from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader.

See updates in real time

New posts and comments pop in as they happen. No refresh required.

Just the good stuff

Buzz recommends interesting posts and weeds out ones you're likely to skip.

Buzz from your phone

See buzz around you and tag posts with your location. Point your phone's browser to: buzz.google.com

So when are you starting to use it?    

                                                                              Source : http://www.google.com/buzz

Facebook as a Marketing Tool......

Yes, we can use facebook as a marketing tool. How read following different features provided by facebook.Business can use it all or some for their marketing actvities. Also day by day Facebook users are increasing so you just can't ignore it.

Facebook Public Profile

A Facebook Public Profile is an ideal place for businesses to establish a beachhead within the social network. It is, also, one of the most overlooked.Businesses can set up a Public Profile at no cost.You can send regular updates to fans, and, unlike personal profiles, which are limited to 5,000 members, the number of fans you can have on a Public Profile is unlimited. In addition, you can set up a business page without having to provide a personal profile.

Facebook Events

Another useful Facebook feature, one that can be launched directly from your Facebook Public Profile, is Facebook Events. With it, you can let fans and others know about upcoming events and activities your business will be hosting.

Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups allow you to create or participate in as many as 200 affinity- or geography-based groups. Each can serve as a viral channel for extending your presence within Facebook, and each can be used as "fishing pools" to help you find prospects and build relationships. Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads resemble Google AdSense ads in that they are primarily text based, but they do allow inclusion of a small graphic.

Facebook Apps

One of the first things you'll notice when you begin participating in Facebook is the bevy of widgets (what Facebook refers to as "applications," or "apps" for short). The apps, created by third-party developers, number into the scores of thousands and cover every conceivable category, from games to music to travel to just plain fun (and just plain stupid).

Facebook Lexicon

Lexicon is Facebook's answer to Google's Zeitgeist. It is a tool you can use to spot and compare trends inside the network. In Lexicon, you input single words or two-word combinations and compare as many as five strings per query to mine and analyze millions of Facebook Wall posts.

Facebook Share

Facebook Share is a small button or hyperlink you can add to your website that lets visitors share the site with their friends on Facebook. Essentially, it's a way to drive traffic.

Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect is the next evolution of the Facebook platform. It provides a way for members to log in to other websites using their Facebook account and "connect" their Facebook identity, friends, and privacy settings to those sites.

Personal Profile

In social media, people relate better to other people than to brands. Face(book) it: We like to do business with people we know and trust.An ideal scenario is to have a brand or company presence via the means outlined above, and to supplement and extend that business presence with a personal one.

What benefits can be accrued?

Quite a few: brand awareness, personal engagement with your customers and prospects, a network that allows fans to easily and quickly share your message, and inexpensive advertising to boot. What's not to like?

Reference : "Yes, Facebook Is a Business Tool", by Paul Chaney

What is this Blog about.......????

Hi all,
Sales to marketing is not about how to switch from sales to marketing or sales function is important or Marketing function is more important.
Here I share about changing trends in sales & Marketing i.e from sales to marketing we discuss all here.
Keep following me & suggest new topics where I can share some information, fact or just small talk with you.
You also keep track on twitter for same. Pls. updated thro' http://twitter.com/sales2marketing.
I will bring you many more subjects in this. It is just shearing of knowledge. It is not necessarily all is right or you agree for all my views. So if you think you can improve this blog, pls. suggest same.
All your feedbacks are welcome. you can write me on alternatively on my email gsagar1982@gmail.com ........................Till then stay tune........