Week 12 by Monday - coupon deal

Think about a coupon deal you could develop. What product or service do you think would be one that would increase traffic to your business?

Promotion is the process of communicating with customers. For marketing purposes, communication of products and services contributes to the persuasion process to encourage consumers to avail themselves of whatever is on offer.

The main thing the company will do is to use the social media, it has Facebook and twitter accounts and through them it will connect with people. If customers give a “like” in Facebook account of GlamHind or follows GlamHind in twitter they will get a 10% discount.

Secondly it has a good website, which is informative and user friendly and attractive at the same time.People would love to browse it.

GlamHind Jewelries Website

Thirdly at selective point it will try to directly connect with the consumers.This way the customers will feel special.

Excellent customer service: There’s no advertising like personal recommendations made between friends and family. The best way to encourage this type of “viral marketing” is to provide excellent customer service. Since it is web based company and customer service can be provided only through email or phone, the company needs to put sincere effort to make its customer(s) happy.

Packaging - presenting the product in a desirable and appropriate way. It will be done in India, so the company might use images of 4 very traditional jewelry (of its product line) in the 4 sizes of the box for more attraction.

Public relations activities and other forms of publicity – It might distribute some flyers to those areas where Indian people gather as a community, for e.g. “Saikat” in San Diego. They can again communicate about GlamHind to their neighbors and friends.  

Special promotions - e.g. buy one get one free. For GlamHind , initially buy one necklace and get the earring (of similar design, but a cheaper one) free. Product Release will be through website, email and social media accounts. Also occasionally it will offer free shipping. 

These are the marketing strategy that GlamHind Jewelries will adopt to make it popular.

Week 12 By Thursday - Additional Online Marketing Tools

What four additional online marketing tools do you believe could be important to the growth of your business? 
How could you integrate them into your current strategy?

I may use these four tools in future for my business:

1. Instagram (Statigram)

Statigram is a website that allows us to access the world’s largest social mobile community. Statigram lets us to view, measure, manage, and promote our Instagram account. Instagram is an essential tool for visual branding and communication. It has 90 million active monthly users, but Instagram lacks in tracking lead conversion, optimization, community and engagement tools and analytics, Statigram makes it up.

I will use Statigram for my business as pictures of my products is most important for spreading my business.

It will help me to do the followings:

·         Promote my Instagram account across other social networks with feed tabs or photo widgets.

·         Manage my community and their comments on a user-friendly platform.

·         Analyze my activity through professional statistics.

·         Engage my community with photo contests.

I can easily introduce the link in my blog or integrate with my Facebook business page.

2. LinkedIn

    It is a more professional network and that’s why great for any business. It is been used for many purposes like - networking, job searching, hiring, company research, and connecting with affiliates, including alumni, industry, and a variety of other business related groups. I already have a personal account in LinkedIn but for my business I need to create a business page. It will help me a lot to do free marketing. It is the best platform for lead generation and making new contacts for any business. Now it has 250 Million accounts.

            In my business page I will talk about my products and ongoing offer. Also I will keep posting news related to my business. It will be great to start a discussion like: “which earring design you prefer? The peacock style or the Ear style? Please explain why!” This is called engagement. Posting needs to be on a regular basis. This way I will be able to promote my business. I will include the link in my website and also link with my Twitter business page. The recommendation feature will help my business to grow.   

3. Yelp

Yelp is built on the ratings that anyone can give a business or service. 

Anybody can comment about a business or service and it is totally one-sided, so it could be good or bad for the business. Yelp users can also add images to our Yelp page.  Business owners are encouraged to manage their Yelp Review site. There is also the option of using Yelp advertising. I would love to use this tool and constantly check the reviews about my business. It is always good to know how many people are talking about my business and what are they talking about. A business owner should monitor this site regularly so that if there is any negative feedback he / she can immediately contact that person or try to resolve the issue and encourage him to write something good. 

4. Google+

In Googlle+ sharing becomes very easy. The circles are group of fans or friends, while posting we can choose a group or many groups. But for business purpose it is advisable to post for everybody.

The features of Google+ are:

Profile, Circles, Communities, Photos, Hangouts and Mobile.

Estimated monthly visitors – 1, 20,000,000,

Since I am working with an imaginary business I have not created any business page in Google + but I have created a personal page and I will join many communities for sharing views, to gain knowledge etc. Hangouts are similar to Skype and helps a lot in business meetings. It is a great marketing tool.

Week 11 By Monday - Free Online Marketing

Write a blog post on how to use marketing on Social Media without spending money.

Till now whatever we have learned in our social media class are all helping us to market for free. But the most important of everything else I feel is a great website. So according to me I feel these can help us a lot:

1.     Create a great website – A great website will draw the attention, a good logo will help in branding, and business email creation will bring the customers closer. We should be very careful about the content, using the unique keywords, give a SEO friendly URL. Always follow the basic structure of a good website like having a great structure with header, logo, footer, content and nicely designed menu. Always highlight the contact information and provide all the useful links in it like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and YouTube and so on. So I feel if people are looking for the product that you are selling and the Google can find your business name easily and you provide all the information they are looking for then half the job is done. It can be developed with so many free tools or with the help of simple html codes and Photoshop. Only expense will be to pay for a server site which is very cheap nowadays because of its competitive market. So I should first focus on creating a good website. My business website is

http://door13design.com/GlamHind_Jewelry/

  

2.     Create a Facebook business page - Setting up a business page on Facebook is free, this way we can interact with our customers and other businesses. Viral marketing is possible if our friends like the page then their friends and then so on so forth. We can think of offering some special to those who are liking, following or sharing us or our activities.

My Facebook business Page is

GlamHind Facebook Page

3.     Build Relationship - Launching an email campaign is another good idea. WE must provide all the information that our customers are looking for.

4.     Instagram - is a free photo and video-sharing program and social network .This site enables users to take a photo or video, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it with other Instagram users they are connected to on the social network. I think my business will be greatly benefited from this as I can post the beautiful pictures of my Jewelries there.

5.     YouTube is another popular media; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. We can take a video and upload it at free of cost, in my website I have used some Indian marriage song, where the women are wearing heavy jewelries similar to my artificial ones. I can also provide links of various festivals of India with women wearing various types of traditional jewelries.

6.     Blogs - Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online. Companies that recognize the need for information, originality, and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique, and ultimately reach out to consumers who are privy to social media.

We are learning so much about Blogs from this class and now we know that Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services. We can even link our website and other important links to it. We should keep the Blogs updated and can adopt a marketing strategy like tell the customers to join a Blog writing competition etc.

7.     Twitter – Nowadays Twitter is very popular, here we can share the images and only limited description about the product or event or any offer. It is great for posting live events and also re-tweeting or sharing its follower’s tweets is also very encouraging to them. We can create many groups and maintain them differently in an organized manner. My business Twitter page is : GlamHind Twitter Page

8.     Yelp – Here businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages. The website is operational in seven different countries, including the United States and Canada. Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles. They may post information such as the business location, contact information, pictures, and service information. The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses and rate them on a five-point scale. 

9.     Finally I came to know about Google Alerts googlealerts, a free service that delivers a list of each instance of your company (or keyword phrase) being mentioned anywhere on the web, and emails it right to our inbox.  We have to put this link on our web site, social media sites and vice versa. These links will provide our social networking visitors with direct links to the high-value content on our web site.

Also we know there are many more free online marketing tools but everything cannot be covered so I think I should stop here for now.

Create several FaceBook and/or Twitter posts that include a call to action to encourage people to visit your website, read your blog, and like your page.   

I have to come up with some ideas to attract more crowds to my website, blog and Twitter sites. I have tried the followings:

1.      Facebook post (automatically will get posted in Twitter also) -Please visit my blog to get a basic idea about my business and provide your valuable comments. Your feedback will help me a lot to improve.

 My Blog About My Business

2. Facebook Post: Please follow the links to get an idea about Indian Earrings, Necklaces and Sets at

Earrings Page

Necklace Page

Sets Page

3.     Facebook Post : Please provide your feed back by filling up this form , It will help us to serve you better

Survey Page

4.     Enjoy the Beautiful marriage song from India by clicking the link below, You can buy similar jewelries from us (artificial only) :

Video Page

Please take a look at my Facebook site where the posts are appearing: GlamHind Facebook Page

Also they are automatically appearing on my Twitter account at

GlamHind Twitter Page

Week 11 By Friday - Comments on others blogs

I made comments to the following blogs :

Mary Bishop

 Mary's Blog

Sonia Begonia

Sonja's Blog

Mathew B

Simplistic Health

Week 11 - By Thursday (Facebook/Twitter Advertisement)

Develop an understanding of the different FaceBook ad options.

How can you design and implement ads for social media using the principals of good design

Using Banner Ads

Twitter Advertising  

With that in mind, what sort of advertising could your business use, and how often should you use ads? Explain the different kinds of FaceBook advertising is available and which ones you might try for your business. Be sure to include your reasoning behind your choice, timing and budget you feel would have the most impact and generate the best results. Create several sample ads following the specific requirements of FaceBook, Twitter or other social media platform you want to utilize. The ads should target the specific market you are interested in pursuing. Make screen shots of your ads and include them into your blog post. Explain why you think they would be effective.

Banner ads, also known as display ads or image ads, are image-based advertisements that are widely popular online. They are so popular because they are cost-effective. The companies can display their products and services in a very attractive manner to the entire World Wide Web. Moreover these images help to create brand recognition.

Let us discuss Banner Ad Best Practices

HAVE A STRONG HEADING- short, captivating

CREATIVE COPY - “Free”, “On Sale”, “Free shipping” etc

DISPLAY PERTINENT CONTENT AND IMAGES- should be relevant

HAVE A STRONG CALL TO ACTION – “Please click here!”

LIMIT ONE OFFER PER AD – too many are confusing

OPTIMIZE FILE SIZE – recommended banner size is between 10k and 40k

Twitter Advertising – The ads are relevant and that they resonate with people. It is best for -

Promotions

Brand awareness

Followers

Tweet means:

Trust-building

Wisdom

Ears open

Establish your brand

Teach the world about what you do

I will use mostly Facebook Advertising for my business. Before using it I have to focus on my target, It will be based on location (At present only USA), demographically this company’s segmenting will be done on several variables, such as:

Age group (between 20-40), Gender (Female), Income (Working group as they do not have much time to shop, but it includes low income group also), Ethnicity (Obviously Asian Indian will be a major segment but the business will target the American women as well), Education (Educated and interested about world history as well as technology savvy) .

Initially I would love to wish people on their Birthday. Target my fans with reminder of new products or promotions.

Based on the above plan, I tried to make the following ads in Facebook:

1.   Page Likes (similar to standard Ads)

2.   Page Post Engagement (will promote my Pages and drive engagement)

3.   Event Responses (target fans with cool events)

I need to first create an event for this AD.

4.   Clicks to Website (Bringing more crowd to my website or blogs)

I liked the Ad features of Facebook as it is easy to use and provides many options to reach to the specific target market. So I believe at the beginning my business will be able to expand by the above ads , by clicking my website they followers will get more information about my business, I can showcase the arrival of new products and I can drive more traffic towards my Facebook page and my website. I will keep on experimenting with many more options like targeting the students of MiraCosta College and may be working women etc. Facebook has provided all the options to be more specific. It is fun to create all the Ads in Facebook and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

week 10 by Friday (Comments and Suggestions On Others Blogs)

I made comments on the blogs of the following students :

Stephen Wilson

Stephen's Blog

Devon Pinto

Devon's Blog

Hannah Jeon

Hannah's Blog

Week 10 by Thursday - Newsletters

What information could your business use for a newsletter, and how often would you send one? Write a list of content ideas you think your customers would enjoy seeing and why. 

The aim of email marketing may include:

·       

·         Building your relationship with existing customers.

·         Encouraging repeat business.

·         Acquiring new customers.

·         Persuading people to buy something.

There are many ways to reach our customers but Newsletters possibly is the most common form of email marketing. It is nothing but sending regular newsletters to the entire customers list. Main goal of Newsletters is relationship building with present, past and future customers without annoying them or forcing them to buy something. 

I will use this in my business as my primary objective is to provide knowledge to my customers about my products and their cultural background. The purpose of a Newsletter is to provide information about the latest company news and also to improve the brand awareness. I like this idea very much, when I sign up for some stores Newsletters specially those where I shop often like Target, Children’s Place, Kohl’s or CVS Pharmacy they update me on a regular basis and I feel they are really useful tips, they let me know when I can get free shipping, send me some great coupons or other offers, update me about some in store special events and many more. It helps a lot, this way they are not forcing me to buy anything but showing that they care for me! I feel like a very valuable customer for them!!

Same way I would like to treat my customers, so that they feel special. I will use the following information in my Newsletters:

·       Useful information about my Jewelries – For e.g. why I have chosen the “Jhumka” (earring) as my brand item. It won’t be too lengthy but attractive. I will always want that my customers should learn something new about the company or our products every time they read our Newsletters.

·         I will select a great image of the topic to attract the customers. Also I will spend quality time on the format of my Newsletters so that they look professional. May be two columns, one Header with company logo, Footer, nice color scheme, fonts etc.

·         Some News related to “how to” features – Sometimes guiding them how to match your necklace with other 3 earrings or so.

 I will provide photographs of Indian movie starts wearing jewelries similar to my products. This may help my customers to choose.

·         Special offers exclusive to subscribers like free shipping, buy one get one free, like us on Facebook to get 10% off etc.

·         Details of a new product that we will launch. This I will do immediately when the product(s) reach my store.

·         I may include something like – Wearing Jeans and Black top? Try these sets… OR Something formal?? Try our gorgeous “Jhumka” and the heavy necklace.

·         Contents like - We have some seasonal Jewelries for you …these earrings will help you look cool in summer!

·         Always we need to include our contact information so that they can get back to us easily.

So I think I can be very creative with the contents of my Newsletters and can make my past, present and future customers happy.

I am thinking of sending the Newsletters on every Thursday of the last week of the Month. This way I can prepare my future customers for the next month.