In the past, brands have spent large amounts of money on commercials, media placements, direct mail, and more.  It is hard to measure these methods of marketing.  These means can only be measured by the results of a campaign.  The campaigns either bring a rise in sales or not.  It is too difficult to measure success or failure.

The exciting fact about social media is when it is done correctly it is a very effective way to get the best of both worlds from a campaign.  No one likes the pushy car salesman, so you need to be very careful at your marketing approach.  Don’t push too many promotions or your consumers will feel spammed.  You need to be a great resource to them and provide exclusive deals or else they will lose interest and stop following you.  Here are 3 easy steps on how to use social media promotions correctly.

1. What Are People Saying About Your Brand?

This is a very important question to ask yourself when you are trying to come up with an effective marketing campaign.  If you know what people are saying about your brand, why they are saying it, and who they are saying it to than you will know what content is driving the most share on which sites.  You can also use social media tracking software to measure what people are saying about your services and products. 

Having the capability to track word of mouth buzz is so important when you are trying the find the right marketing messages and promotions.  You have to deliver relevant social deals that resonate with people’s interests.

2. Create a Social Promotion.

After you use the social media tracking software to find out what people are saying about your services and products, than go out and give it to them.  If the hot topic product you sell is boots than give a 20% discount on boots.  You will also see what consumers are complaining about your product.  Maybe they think the shipping is too expensive, than on the next campaign offer free shipping.  It’s such an incredible way to market!  Now you are able to give the consumers exactly what they want which will increase share and profitability. 

3. Did It Work?

Based on the social tracking software, you will be able to see if the campaign worked or not.  It’s that simple.  With this new technology you are able to reach your targeted audience immediately and have the best results you can imagine.

What social media tools do you use to increase sales and measure your brand’s reach?  Please share them in the comments below. If you want to find out more about using social tracking software for your business than we can help.  Root & Madison will help you find your target audience and write effective campaigns to drive traffic to your site.  Contact us now and we can start driving traffic to you site today.

Now you will be able to Google your business and find out what people across all different social channels are saying about you instantly.  One thing to keep in mind is people have opinions about everything and whether they are publicly advertising their opinion about your company on social platforms or talking with their friends face to face, by being able to capture the good, bad, and the ugly all in one place it makes it possible for you to thank people for the positive comments and find out what you can do to fix the negative ones. 

Before you never knew what people were saying about you because they were discussing it with family and friends face to face, now you will be able appreciate the fans of your business and fix your mistakes from the negative comments instantly by reaching out to them across the web.  What do you think about this new technology?  

Observing individuals during site navigation can be critical to determining the usability of your site. Although according to recent data complied by and sponsored by Autonomy there many barriers that can be attributed to websites failing to engage in multivariate testing. The number one reason at 58.9% is lack of time, specifically the study participants stated that they were "Too Busy with other stuff", followed by "Don't know enough about the technology", and "Don't have the internal expertise."

Taking time to test a website for usability should be obvious, so I will only address the latter response. Multivariate testing includes several technologies. The most common practices are 1) Eye Tracking and, 2) Video Play Back Sessions .

Eye tracking includes hardware and software usually in the form of a sophisticated LCD screen that monitors eye gazes. Our eye tracker of choice is the Tobii T60XL.

Video play back sessions provide site visitor anonymity, and a larger self selected sample of users. Two leading companies providing solutions for video playback are ClickTale and Userfly.

Is your company currently using multivariate testing? If so how? If not why?