12 Rules for an Effective Social Media Marketing Campaign

When one thinks of social media, sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pops up in one's mind. Many businesses and self-entrepreneurs make the mistake of having a social presence without proper planning on these sites, not realizing the necessity of their ultimate marketing goals and objectives. Creating a social media campaign is not different from any other marketing campaign. It equally requires a solid planning and a winning strategy. But no one can define a winning formula; it is for you to formulate it. However, the following is the list of 12 golden rules that will help you in creating the most effective social media campaign while serving your purpose.

1. Be Patient

Social media in today's era is the most effective marketing medium with which you can monitor the outcome of your marketing campaign on a timely basis. If you have posted or tweeted, gave any comment or posted a sales pitch, you can instantly gauge the number and type (negative, positive or nil) of responses. Realistically, having a social web presence is very easy. But controlling and monitoring the marketing activities or forums while attaining your marketing goals is the challenging task.

If you wish to make it big on social media campaign, you need to be patient. After finalizing the action plan, you need to wait and watch. Observe where your social media campaign is heading. Is it achieving the desired response? Is it drawing the users of the very site towards you? Success is not achieved overnight. It requires investment in terms of effort, time and money. So once the campaign is launched, do not worry about the outcome immediately. Give it some time.

2. Make use of multimedia

Social media is a very interactive medium only if you know how to use it to your advantage. We, humans tend to buy things after looking at them. So to keep the sales rolling in, upload relevant images and videos of your product or include an effective sales pitch to keep your followers engaged, entertained and informed.

3. Offer Value

For others to notice you, you have to offer something valuable, interesting and unique. If you are going to have the same repeated feeds on your page, then nobody is going to get fascinated. You have to maintain an attractive profile with fresh content. You have to feed your followers and fans with useful information and advice.

Nobody likes to listen and take advice from amateurs. Your content must be well versed and informative. It should look like it is coming from a professional but not from a lame person. As far as the posts, feeds and blogs are concerned, find out what information your followers are looking for and add content accordingly. If they come to you for advice then do adequate research before responding. Remember, you have to break the clutter not to become one.

4. Quality over Quantity

Focus on quality rather than quantity. If you keep posting countless irrelevant posts and feeds without concentrating on the quality of the content, then you are not only wasting your time but also of the others. Eventually, your followers will get irritated and annoyed and may block you. Forget numbers and focus on excellence.

5. Stay Updated

Stay abreast with the changing market trends and tweak your social media campaign accordingly. Observe the changing customers' needs and wants, watch out your competitors' moves and overall marketing environment and devise your social media strategy as a result. If you fail to update yourself with passing time then you will soon be forgotten.

6. Listen First

The number one rule for an effective communication is listening. If you do not know what the other person is trying to say then how will you respond?

Listen to your audience first. Make them realize that you are all ears, only then they will start communicating. Have a regular conversation with them and encourage them to participate and contribute to your feeds. You cannot achieve it by force so you have to provide an environment where they can talk their heart out and converse.

7. Value your follower

Treat your followers and fans as special. Make them feel important. If you are going to value your followers then they are going to value your offerings. If you are going to treat them non-seriously, then they are going to treat you in a similar fashion. So treat your followers well, value their response and interact with them often.

8. Be Professional

Social media is a free and impulsive world. So watch out your step. Stay away from negative publicity and PR. Remember every individual has different mindset. Not everyone is going to respond to your feed/post in a positive fashion. If you come across an offensive and unpleasant situation then instead of responding aggressively, you need to cover it up tactfully. On social media, you have to respect your customer/follower comments all the time.

So before responding to such posts and feeds, think twice. Remember, one bad customer could affect your business and your brand.

9. Avoid Repetition

Avoid unnecessary repetition and duplication of sales pitch. Keep it simple, crisp and engaging. If you keep posting the same boring trite sales pitch every time, then it will just annoy your followers and keep them distanced. Surely, do inform and update your followers with the latest marketing gimmicks but do not overdo them.

10. Stay Focused

It is very important to stay focused; if your social media campaign is not generating the required response, then you are not doing it right. All the investment of time and effort is a waste. Plan your posts and feeds. If one fails to attain the desired result then use another one. The bottom line of the business must not go out of focus.

11. Build a Strong Bond with your followers

Building a strong relationship with your followers and fans is the key to a successful social media campaign. Make connection with the favorable people who are likely to boost your business and sales.

12. Confine yourself

Limit your marketing efforts to certain groups and forums. Do not over stretch yourself. Joining a number of groups is not a big thing. What important is how you are performing in these groups. So limit yourself to certain relevant groups, where you can comfortably participate and contribute valuably rather than being an inactive member.

By following the above golden rules, you will surely be able to devise an effective social media campaign. Contact us at www.Kreatepop.com to learn more about how to develop a useful social media campaign.

Fundamentals You Will Need To Successfully Sell Online

Luck has very little to do with online success and income. It is also highly unlikely for anyone to set up a website or blog and start earning immediately whatever the product may be. There are basic fundamentals to setting up an online business without which success would be a far stretch. For instance, do you know that there over 2 billion ebooks were sold online? In fact Amazon sells more ebooks than printed books. But wait! Did you also know that there are more than double those numbers of ebooks being sold online? Also, self-published writers are selling their ebooks without signing any deals with publishers or websites and making hundreds of thousands of dollars on their books. Furthermore, self-published writers, who would routinely get rejected by publishing companies, are now making it on their own to the bestselling lists. The key to their success was having the right fundamentals.

Find Your Niche

The concept of hit anywhere is the worse strategy you could have because it sets no direction for your online business and gives you no guidelines to follow. It may seem like a lot of unnecessary work but you need to put in writing what exactly you want to achieve and how you plan to do it. It will also require you to find your target market with an eye for a general market eventually.

Your niche will also add to your online reputation and set you apart from your competitors. For example, why do you buy one brand over another? The usual answer is because you get more satisfaction with your choice. The same principle should apply to your business - give that extra oomph in your product and service and you will gain loyal followers and customers. In fact, you don't even have to have a unique product; just deliver a highly satisfying buying experience for your online customers.

Follow The Pareto Principle

In business, this means that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers. Not only do you have to take care of those who actually buy from you, you should also avoid getting distracted away from your online business goals. The Internet is so full of new ideas and technology that it is so easy to decide to switch your focus. This kind of flip flopping has become the bane and cause of online businesses failing. While it isn't wrong to try new things, it should be done properly. Plan well any transition so you don't lose the people who believe in your product.

Hire a Professional Marketer

Everything in business ties into marketing. It would be perfect if you know how to work online marketing but if not, then you should allot some of your funds to hiring a professional marketer. At the end of the day, it's how you bond with your customers and visitors and how they remember you that will determine how much you make online. The expert in online marketing can set the tone and guide you with the right marketing methods to use, traditional and over the Internet so you get to enjoy a fine-tuned blend in marketing strategies that would appeal to your target customers.

Lina Stakauskaite works at Click2Sell Affiliate Programs Network. Do your online business with Click2Sell and grow fast. Accept payments via PayPal, Google Checkout or direct credit card payments. Get paid instantly via PayPal, Payoneer, Payza or wire-transfer. With Click2Sell you can provide easy payment options for customers, recruit and manage affiliates effectively and successfully.

What Are Transactional Emails and How to Use Them

Transactional emails are very often associated with eCommerce companies that communicate with their clients every time a transaction is made.

However, transactional e-mails should not be limited to eCommerce and if you run a website (portal, blog) regardless of its size, you should also consider using this resource. Transactional emails are sent as a result of an action caused by the user.

They are automatically sent notifications such as: welcome e-mails, order confirmations, password reminders, etc. By using transactional emails, you will be able to establish a direct communication channel with your customers and readers by sending to them a customized e-mail.

There are different ways of interacting with clients. You can create transactional e-mails and schedule them to be sent each time someone registers on your site, subscribe to receive your newsletters, download a file or a document, make a purchase or even submit a survey or questionnaire.

Some transactional emails may prompt the recipient to take some sort of action, while others simply serve as a confirmation of some sort and require no action. These messages are simply a way of confirming something happened as a result of user action, or sometimes, even communicating additional information related to the action they took.

It's really up to you to use the way you want the transactional e-mails in order to improve your business efficiency.

We have stated before that the transactional emails are mainly related to eCommerce businesses, but they should also be used for small businesses. They can be sent as a result of an action triggered by the user and build long-lasting relationship with your customers.

Bear in mind, that your customers are more likely to open and read transactional emails longer than other forms of communication. Therefore we recommend that you spend some time to optimize the content and its design to reach the readers and encourage them to certain actions.

Upon creating transactional e-mails remember to follow these few steps to hit the target:

• include only relevant information to your readers (news your readers "opted" to receive)
• link to your site (make it possible for your customers to return to your site)
• include their name in the headline (customize your e-mails) -encourage future conversions
• encourage sharing on Social Networks

You do not have to run a big online eCommerce to use transactional e-mails. As a small player on the market, you can also benefit from using them. If you own a contact list and want to create a stronger relationship with your customers, it means that transactional e-mails are for you.

Start sending automated notifications today and you will be surprised how effective they can be for your website.