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A spoonful of measurement helps the marketing show results
It may sound a little “Mary Poppins,” but when I think about my approach to measuring marketing and social media results, I think of it as a “spoonful of measurement.”
Like many sensible options, it’s just enough for what I need to track, not more. I wanted to share my approach because I think it’s a practical one for sole practitioners, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations on a budget. Read the rest of this entry
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Read the 2012 Digital Marketer Benchmark and Trend Report
Experian Marketing Services, a provider of data, analytics and marketing technologies, today announced the release of the 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report. The 128-page report provides data pertinent to consumer and technology trends, as well as insights on email marketing, mobile, and social media.
Not surprisingly, nearly half of marketers (46%) in the study say that coordinating all these channels is their biggest challenge.
Other findings:
• 91% of adults online use social media regularly.
• Revenue per email averages two times higher for “friends and family” campaigns.
• 28% of smartphone owners watch videos on their phones in a typical month.
• Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site, after Facebook and Twitter.
• 92% percent of businesses feel their contact data is inaccurate in some way.
Download the free report here: http://press.experian.com/United-States/Press-Release/experian-marketing-services-releases-2012-digital-marketer.aspx
Related articles
- Experian: Pinterest is third most-visited social site (nextlevelofnews.com)
(May Link Inside) For Your Editorial Calendar: April Events and Content Marketing Ideas PLUS Hashtags
Newsletter readers: LOOKING FOR MAY EVENTS? I accidentally linked you here 
Click here to see May
April
Sunday, April 1 Today is April Fool’s Day. Not kidding, it really is.
Monday, April 2 Today is World Autism Day. Please place a blue light bulb in your workplace today — a lobby lamp will do — to show your support for the millions of families living with autism. We also encourage you to wear blue to work! Blue light bulbs are available for sale at Home Depot, or contact us before April 2 and we will deliver one to your workplace. Follow Autism Speaks @autismspeaks on Twitter and use hashtags #LightItUpBlue or #liub or #autism
April 2 – 6 Spring Break for many schools. Be kind to the tourists. It’s not their fault that they don’t know to stand to the right on Metro escalators
Saturday, April 7 Passover begins this week.
Sunday, April 8 Today is Easter. It is traditional to wear new clothes on Easter; a spring custom that goes back to pre-Christian times. A good excuse to buy a hat! Happy Easter, everyone!
Friday, April 13 Today is opening night for the Washington Nationals, playing the Cinncinati Reds. Follow the home team on Twitter @Nationals
Saturday, April 14 The Cherry Blossom Parade takes place today in downtown Washington, DC. Learn more about the National Cherry Blossom Festival and follow @CherryBlossFest on Twitter. Use hashtag #cherryblossom
Sunday, April 15 Ooh, tax time. Don’t worry; you have until April 17 to file. How much revenue did your business make in 2011? Did you spend enough on marketing? You should be spending between 5% and 10% of your revenues on marketing expenses. If you didn’t spend enough on marketing your business (or nonprofit) in 2011, refine your marketing budget so you don’t make that mistake this year. Fletcher Prince can help.
Sunday, April 22 Today is Earth Day. What are you doing in your business activities to preserve and protect the environment? Talk about your workplace recycling program! This could make an excellent YouTube video or blog topic, or even a press release (with photos, of course). Follow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Twitter @EPAgov and use hashtag #
Tuesday, April 24 Join your Fletcher Prince friends for networking and lunch at Jaleo in Bethesda, Maryland today! Cost of lunch is on your own (about $15-$20, including tip); please register in advance.
Wednesday, April 25 Did you know there are more than 4.1 million secretaries and administrative assistants working in the United States. Admins are the “pulse of the office” and today is the 60th anniversary of Administrative Professionals Day! Follow the International Association of Administration Professionals on Twitter – @IAAP – and use hashtag #APW
Thursday, April 26 Today is the 20th anniversary of Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day (can you say “photo op?”) and is recommended for children between the ages of 8 and 18. How will you educate and motivate young people in your workplace today? Why not promote your efforts? It’s good community relations. Take photos and write a blog post. Or videotape the kids
Friday, April 27 Today is Arbor Day. Follow USDA Forest Service @forestservice on Twitter and use hashtag # Follow the Arbor Day Foundation on Twitter @arborday and use hashtag #arborday
Check back next month for May events and content marketing ideas!
Related articles
- For Your Editorial Calendar: March Engagement Themes PLUS Hashtags (fletcher-prince.com)
For Your Editorial Calendar: March Engagement Themes PLUS Hashtags
Mark these events on your March editorial calendar — there’s lots to tweet here! Folks are already tweeting about this content, so when appropriate, use these themes in your Facebook updates and blogs, tying to your branded content in ways that make sense.
Using popular themes and topics that people are talking about can help increase your Facebook Page’s Edge Rank, get more views for blog posts, and score more retweets. Contact us if you’d like help you with your social media outreach.
Thursday, March 1: The National Park Service makes their highly anticipated Cherry Blossom “Bloom Watch” predictions today. Follow them on Twitter @NatlParkService and use Hashtag: #blossompic or #bloomwatch
Saturday, March 3: The St. Patrick’s Day Parade takes place in Old Town Alexandria, VA today. Lots of dogs, lots of step dancers, and LOTS of bag pipes! King Street will be closed until 12 noon. Follow the parade organizers, the Ballyshaners, on Facebook.
Thanks for following Fletcher Prince on Facebook
Friday, March 9: Today is the first day of the Washington Home and Garden Show, taking place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Follow the organizers @HomeShows
Sunday, March 11: The St. Patrick’s Day Parade takes place in downtown DC today. It’s a hoot!
Sunday, March 11: The 67 games of March Madness begin with Selection Sunday today. Follow the official NCAA basketball Twitter account @marchmadness
Sunday, March 11: Daylight Savings Time begins — “Spring forward.” This is a good time to remind people to change the batteries in their home smoke detectors.
Wednesday, March 15: Elephants, horses, cowboys, and clowns from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will parade through downtown DC near the National Mall this afternoon. Follow @RinglingTweets on Twitter.
Thursday, March 15: The DC Ad Club presents the ADDY Awards tonight. At this event, you’ll see a display of the best advertising examples in DC. This is a good night for networking and maybe even finding an advertising agency for your business or nonprofit organization. Follow @dcadclub – Hashtag: #DCADDYS
Friday, March 16: It’s my birthday! Wish me a happy birthday on Twitter – follow @MaryFletchJones – Hashtag: #HBMaryFletcher (hey, why not? 
)
Saturday, March 17: It’s St. Patrick’s Day and everyone is Irish today. Talk about how your business is going green while wearing green! Video and photo opportunities abound today — post them on your company Facebook Page.
Tuesday, March 20: Today is the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival, a very special time for DC. The festival runs through April 27. Follow the official Twitter account @CherryBlossFest and use Hashtag: #blossompic
Tuesday, March 20: Today is the first day of Spring. Check out Free Digital Photos Net for free spring images for blog posts and Facebook Page updates.
Monday, March 26: College students will be coming home for Spring Break soon. Schedule interviews with potential summer interns to help you with your marketing efforts.
Tuesday, March 27: Network-and-Lunch at Teaism with Fletcher Prince. The March event is sold out but please join us for the April event at Jaleo in Bethesda. Follow @FletcherPrince and use Hashtag: #networkandlunch
Did you like this content? Do me a favor and retweet and Google + it. Thanks!
How much do you know about YouTube and online video?
Image via CrunchBase
Here are some lesser-known recent statistics and research findings…
- Online video viewing increased 43% in the United States last year.
- YouTube views increased 25% last year.
- YouTube videos receive 4 billion views/day.
- More than 500 tweets/minute contain a YouTube link.
- Online video is 141 times more likely than a website to generate a “click-through” in search engine results.
- 72% of small businesses say YouTube is highly effective for marketing.
- 72% of senior congressional staffers think YouTube is somewhat/very important for communicating their members’ views
- YouTube is the second most used social media channel among Federal employees and Federal contractors.
- More than half of CEOs and senior executives watch a work-related YouTube video at least weekly.
- 65% of senior-level executives have visited a vendor’s website after watching an online video.
- 67% of senior-level executives said an online video influenced them to make a business-related purchase.
- 58% of journalists have YouTube accounts.
- 53% of journalists say online video makes a corporate website useful.
- 47% of charities are on YouTube.
- 86% of four-year colleges and universities have a YouTube Channel
Defining your marketing objectives
If you run a business, or help manage a nonprofit organization, you may be considering a number of tactics this year, such as starting a Facebook Page, recording YouTube videos, creating a new brochure, or revamping your website. And these are all good plans.
However, one of the basic, initial tasks you have to tackle is defining your marketing objectives, as well as your target audiences.
Here’s a quick list of some typical marketing objectives. Review this list — or expand it — when you are in the planning stages of your next project.
With this tool, we hope to . . .
- Increase sales or donations (quantify, if possible)
- Obtain more repeat business
- Match or stand apart from our competitors
- Promote our expertise and successes
- Launch a new product or service
- Persuade people to make a lifestyle change
- Win acceptance of a viewpoint
- Replace ineffective or overly expensive marketing approaches
- Report developments or innovations
- Manage crises or repair reputations
- Reduce communications risks and information leaks
- Attract and retain quality employees
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January Events and Marketing Opportunities
In 2012, the Fletcher Prince Blog will publish monthly events and marketing ideas.
January 1: Happy New Year! Resolve to make your 2012 an outstanding and well-planned year of marketing efforts. Contact Fletcher Prince to help you develop a marketing plan for the year.
January 2: Today is the day after New Year’s, but it’s still a Federal holiday. Lots of people will be online. Are you on Twitter yet? Ask Fletcher Prince to help you get started with Twitter so your company can join the conversation.
January 6: Did you create a knock-out advertising campaign in 2011? Today is the last day to submit it for the ADDY Awards.
January 9: It’s Restaurant Week in DC! Treat your favorite clients to lunch, and discuss ways you might work together in 2012. It’s $20.12 for lunch — might be a good investment!
January 10: WWPR Event featuring Stephanie Schierholz, Social Media Manager, NASA
January 12: IABC-DC Chapter Meeting, Trending Social Media
January 12-13: International CES (Las Vegas) will be all over Twitter and Facebook. Even if you can’t be there, you can follow the stories and trends, and retweet, if that works for your brand.
January 13: Is this economy going to turn around, or what? Attend the 20th Annual Economic Conference, $60, at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner.
Today is the last day to submit your small business for the DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award, with a chance to win $10,000.
It’s also Restaurant Week in Alexandria. Take your clients out to lunch!
January 16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Today is a federal holiday, and lots of people will be online. The emphasis on this day is often on community service and volunteerism. How is your business giving back? What message can you send through social media that is in the spirit of the day? Fletcher Prince can help you position your business as a good corporate citizen with public relations support.
January 23: Are you participating in any conferences or meetings this year? Going to network events? Speaking? You might need to order a fresh supply of brochures, business cards, presentation folders, and other marketing materials. Contact Fletcher Prince to design and print these for you.
Today is the Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year. It’s an important observance for all Asian communities.
What’s Next Conference (Marketing, PR & Social Media), $245
January 24: WWPR Annual Meeting and Keynote, $35 members
PRSA-NCC Networking and Committee Sign Up event, free for members
January 26: Have you registered for the Book of Lists Celebration with the Washington Business Journal? The networking event is tonight, business attire, bring your cards! Need new business cards? Fletcher Prince can design those for you.
Looking Back at 2011 – The Fletcher Prince Annual Report
Fletcher Prince celebrates its fourth full year of success in business in a challenging economy. 2011 was a year of delivering marketing and public relations services to clients and contractors, punctuated with community involvement and recognition.
Here’s what we accomplished in 2011…
Client Work in 2011
Graphic design, website design, social media development, and media relations were big project areas for us this year.
David Hyson, Creative Director, Fletcher Prince
We worked with our existing clients Dominion Mechanical, Dirigo, PRofessional Solutions, and Keenan PR. We were also delighted to work with new clients H-D Systems, Reising Communications and Remey Communications.
As was true last year, David and I worked on many subcontracted projects in 2011. We were gratified to be brought on as consultants and partners on fixed fee and hourly projects for clients Rockville Science Center, International Parking Institute, CHS, GuideStar, Deloitte Touche, and CSC. We would like to thank our colleagues for hiring us to work in partnership with them, and welcome more subcontracting opportunities like this in 2012.
Community Involvement and Service
As a service to the Washington, DC area professional communications community, Fletcher Prince continues to produce videos for the YouTube series “Conversations in Public Relations,” featuring interviews with local communicators and association leaders. We produced 11 additional videos in 2011. The 110 videos have received more than 42,450 views on YouTube. Our guests this year included independent public relations practictioners Robert Udowitz, Amanda Miller Littlejohn, Vicki Robb, and Jeff Ghannam.
As a side project, Mary created a new “Living Well With Autism” website for parents in April for Autism Awareness Month.
David and I continued to support area communications groups with professional memberships in the Public Relations Society of America, DC Ad Club, and Washington Women in Public Relations.
Recognition, Engagement, and Fletcher Prince Marketing Efforts in 2011
Fletcher Prince Facebook Page “Likes” Increase 55%
We continue to be grateful to our supporters. Our Facebook Page Likes increased from 76 to 118. Most of our Facebook Page Likes (70%) are comprised of people we don’t know at all or don’t know very well, so our content must be drawing people to the Page.
Mary’s Twitter followers rose from 900 to 1160+, while we created a new, separate Twitter account for Fletcher Prince tweets this year, with 240+ followers.
Fletcher Prince in Top Ten On YouTube for PR and Advertising Firms
This year, we added 17 YouTube videos to our Fletcher Prince YouTube Channel. We continue to produce informative videos highlighting our subject matter expertise. We have more than 100 subscribers (42 coming on this year) and our Fletcher Prince YouTube videos have more than 62,000 views — 21,000 of those achieved this year. This ranks Fletcher Prince in the top 10 for video views among public relations and advertising firms on YouTube for our Fletcher Prince videos alone.
Important to note: 73% of our views result from YouTube recommending and featuring our videos (two separate actions), as well as from YouTube search, while only 1.3% of the traffic originates from our Fletcher Prince Channel. I hope this illustrates the importance of using keywords in the title, tags, and descriptions of your organization’s YouTube videos. Searchability really matters on YouTube.
Fletcher Prince Blog Views Increase 60%
The Fletcher Prince Blog is a big part of how we share our expertise and showcase our work, and our blog views increased by 62% in 2011. In 2010, our blog got 11,691 views and this year our blog was viewed more than 19,000 times. On average, we got 52 views a day in 2011; in 2010 we got 32 views a day.
We also learned that 66% of our blog traffic comes from search engines, 18% of our readers find us through Twitter, and 16% of our views are from Facebook.
Fletcher Prince Ranked in Top 25 Area Public Relations Firms, By Income
In December, we received the exciting news that Fletcher Prince was listed on the 25 Public Relations Agencies (ranked by 2010 metro-area public relations income) in the Washington Business Journal (December 9, 2011 issue), as well as in the Washington Business Journal Book of Lists.
We are thrilled! Mary and David will be attending the Book of Lists Celebration on January 26, 2012, and look forward to seeing our friends and colleagues at recognition and networking events in 2012.
2011 Speaking Engagements
We were involved in a significant (for us) number of speaking engagements. It was a team effort. Although Mary did the presenting, David helped prepare and design the presentations. They included
Marketing with YouTube to a group of consultants in February.- Getting Started with Social Media to UNCF Young Entrepreneurs in April and George Mason University Communications in September.
- How To Get More YouTube Views at the Digital East conference in September.
- Effective Writing for Social Media at RHED Pixel in October (view those videos on our YouTube Channel).
Thank You for Making 2011 a Great Year!
As 2011 draws to a close, David and I would like to thank our clients for their business and look forward to working with them in the new Year.
Special thanks to our blog subscribers, Facebook friends, and colleagues for their support in the past year. David and I look forward to bringing you more original content on creative and affordable marketing strategies.
Happy New Year!
Your Marketing Strategy for 2012: A Calendar Full of Opportunities
2011 is winding down and it’s time to plan for 2012. You can start by identifying important 2012 event dates for your marketing efforts.
Sometimes all you need to create an actionable plan are the right tools. I like to use a large erasable wall calendar that shows the year at a glance, myself.
Marketing Calendar Templates
Here’s a monthly marketing calendar template to download. Here’s another version: marketing_calendar. This marketing calendar is more detailed and in a spreadsheet format.
Fletcher Prince Helpers
Monthly marketing ideas will be featured throughout 2012 on the Fletcher Prince Blog. We’ll publish ideas for creating marketing content that your company can produce and distribute online, via email, and in print.
As you plan now for 2012, be sure to add your company’s milestones, special events, and conferences.
Share your yearly marketing planning strategies in the comments.
Check out These Resources
- Your Marketing Strategy for 2012: Invest in the Basics; Refine What You Have (fletcher-prince.com)
- Your Marketing Strategy for 2012 – Avoid 10 Common Pitfalls in the New Year (fletcher-prince.com)
- Set up an editorial calendar for your website content (marketing.yell.com)
- Step Eight: Plan Your Calendar and Budget (chipmacgregor.typepad.com)
- 3 Steps to Your 2012 Content Strategy (personalbrandingblog.com)
- Top 15 Content Marketing Predictions for 2012 (junta42.com)
Your Marketing Strategy for 2012: Invest in the Basics; Refine What You Have
You ever open your closet and think: oh, god, I hate ALL my clothes!
Yeah, me too.
Who among us couldn’t benefit from updating our look? Or even a makeover? You’d still be the same person inside, but the packaging. Ah. Packaging is powerful.
Wait a minute, are we talking about clothes or marketing? Well, maybe there are similarities. Just like you need to have a fantastic “networking” outfit that makes you feel like you can do anything, you also need to have a website that reflects your success.
You need the basic pieces, but you also need accessories to bring life to those pieces and show your individuality.
Get the idea? Same concepts apply to your business…or nonprofit.
These are the basics you need to have in your marketing closet. Most clients I see who do not have all the basic elements they need in place. That, or they could benefit from refining those vehicles.
We did a lot of “makeovers” in 2011 and expect to do even more in 2012, as clients resume their goals for positioning themselves competitively in the gradually improving economy.
Regardless of company size, most business owners and nonprofit managers should be considering an investment in most or all of these basic marketing elements…
- A marketing audit and plan for your business ($1500).
- A suite of professionally designed logos ($1500) in various sizes for your website, business card, letterhead, and for your business presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Yelp.
- A public relations kit that includes executive bios, company fact sheet, and launch press release (starting at $500).
- For proposals, mailings, and speaking engagements, you may also want to invest in a corporate brochure ($1500) and custom presentation folders ($350).
- Professional headshots and corporate photography ($ call for estimate). At the bare minimum, you will need professionally taken, recent photographs of the principal and top managers, as well as photographs of your company headquarters, signage, products, services in action, staff, and community participation.
- A website that is searchable and easy to update ($850-$1200) that integrates social media features.
- A branded YouTube Channel, and at least three videos ($2500 ) YouTube is the third most visited website on the Internet and there is no better way to tell your story than with video.
- An email marketing plan and calendar of communications. So important, and so easily neglected. Email has been shown to be the most effective form of marketing there is. If you have a B2C business (and even some B2B businesses), it is not optional.
- Some form of strategically scheduled direct mail outreach ($ call for estimates).
And here are some recommended accessories. They’re not right for every single client, but for those who can pull it off, it can make those basics sing…
- A blog ($850 for set-up and training)
- Additional videos throughout the year ($750 to $1200 each)
- Facebook Page ($300) – for some clients
- Twitter Profile ($300) – for most clients
- Flickr Photo Sharing – for all clients
The service fees above are for fixed-fee projects are estimates only, based on 2011 published rates, and are subject to change in the new year. Fees do not include affordable printing fees.
Related articles
- Marketing Lessons We Learned in 2011 (fletcher-prince.com)
- 28 Small Business Marketing Resolutions for the New Year (startupnation.com)
