How to Market Your Business Using the Newest Technologies Available

The Internet has changed the way companies market their business. What some call "old marketing" or "conventional marketing" refers to the use of advertising in bulletins, magazines, newspapers, billboards, and television. 

Any company that wants to survive today needs to embrace the fact that social media, online networks and communities, and the wide use of smartphones play a vital role in how their message will be received by their target market.

They also benefit from the fact that their business message is able to reach a much wider market thanks to the Internet. Gone are the days when only people in the same geographical location could meet for networking and the sharing of ideas. 

Now there are online or virtual communities where people from all different parts of the world can connect and collaborate easily. For example:

• Passionate boaters and expert service providers can interact on sites like https://boatplanet.com/
• Moms who want to share ideas about things like parenting, pregnancy, relationships, home, food, beauty, and style can meet on http://www.cafemom.com/, and 
• Art lovers can get inspired by a huge range of artwork from artists around the world on https://www.deviantart.com/.

Social Media

No marketing plan is complete without taking advantage of the viral nature of social media and by staying up-to-date with the latest techniques and trends. The benefit of using social media as an online communications tools is to help businesses increase their brand awareness, establish new relationships, and enhance current relationships. 



The viral aspect of social media refers to its ability to expand a businesses’ reach instantly to millions of people at the same time. However, it is important to understand how and why social media works. 

It is called "social" for a reason. If you use it only to blast out your message to the world in a one-way conversation, you are missing out on the real purpose. Focus on the relationship building aspect of social media and be sure to make your conversation a two-way street. Social media used effectively will help your business build trust in your brand and position you as the expert in your field.

Video Marketing

Video marketing has been rising in popularity for a few years now because it builds trust, engages its viewers, can explain anything, boosts sales and conversions, and encourages social sharing. 

Advances in technology have made video advertising more affordable resulting in widespread adoption from companies large and small.

Now that so many companies are using video marketing, what can you do to make yours stand out from your competitors? Create videos that are compelling, engaging, entertaining, and funny. 

For example, New Relic is a digital intelligence company with many tutorials and webinars on their channel, but their most popular video is a funny rap video about coding. Taking what could be a rather dry topic and creatively turning it into something fun can be very effective. 

McDonald's ran a video marketing campaign a few years ago to educate consumers as a response to a picture of their chicken McNuggets that went viral. The picture showed a rose-colored poultry paste referred to as "pink goop" causing their customers to question the quality of the ingredients. 

McDonald's in Canada created a video literally walking through the manufacturing facility so viewers could see how their products are made.

Artificial Intelligence Virtual Assistance

This might sound like a science fiction concept, but it actually isn’t. Most people are already using artificial intelligence (AI) without even realizing it. Do you talk to Siri? 

If you do, then you are talking to an artificially intelligent entity. There are many AI personal assistants available to business owners that can handle everyday tasks like scheduling and sending out meeting reminders. x.ai provides AI personal assistants to companies that will automatically schedule meetings for business owners so they can spend their valuable time on ways to increase their bottom line. 

These kinds of tools are extremely helpful to companies with a small staff and a limited budget to help them make the best use of their time.

In order to remain competitive and be successful, business owners should stay on top of the latest and newest technologies available. Do your research to determine which ones are best suited for your business. 

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Event

Whether it’s a fundraiser, an open house, a donation drive, or a patient appreciation party, the key to success for your event is people! The more people who come, linger, and have fun at your event, the more chance it has of achieving its goals.

How can you ensure that you’ll get the numbers you need to make your event a success? Here are some ideas. 

Use Your Cheerleaders

Everyone and every business has a support network. USE this support network when you’re planning out your event. Individually reach out to your employees, your biggest customers, and your affiliates, and make sure that they’re feeling welcome to come, and that you’re mobilizing them to be cheerleaders for your event. 

Help them catch the vision of it, and encourage them to communicate with their network on your behalf. For example, do you have a food truck hired for your event? They usually have a huge social media following, people who are curious where they are from one day to the next. 

Produce an image that they can share about your event ahead of time, with details about where they’ll be and what else will be featured at the event. Most importantly, make sure that they know that everyone is welcome!

Sometimes it’s nice to provide an extra incentive to certain people. For example, your employees will be even more eager to come if they have a task to perform there that they’re excited about (like running the fortune telling booth). 

You might also consider some kind of contest between them leading up to the event. For example, whoever can get the most people to come can decide which charity proceeds will go to. 

Get on Social Media

This is tied to utilizing your support group and cheerleaders, but there are some practicalities of social media that no one should neglect.

• Use pictures from previous events, details about the schedule and main attraction, and even pictures from your preparations for the event to build some hype and remind people to plan for it. 
• Use video and photo content whenever possible. Facebook, particularly, puts a lot more weight on these forms of media, and they’re very shareable. 
• Create a Facebook event and make sure that it’s public. Invite whomever you can think of, and Facebook will do the rest of the work for you, informing people about updates, reminding them about the event on the day of, and popping up in friends’ feeds and sidebars. 
• During and after the event, continue to build the hype. Have a hashtag for the event so that participants can share their own photos, and make sure that everyone who didn’t come wishes that they had! 

Be Conspicuous

Make the most of foot traffic by attracting attention on the day of. Make sure that it’s known that you accept latecomers and looky-loos. 

This can happen with noise, banners, and large focal features. I remember driving by an apartment complex that had an inflatable water slide out front and a booth with music playing. I was automatically curious, but wasn’t about to crash someone else’s party. 

However, if there’d been a banner saying all welcome, I would definitely have explored it. 

Get Your Name Out on Calendars

A lot of cities have calendars of events going on in the area. Most of the time, all that’s necessary to get on there is an email to the administrator, so do a lot of outreach.

Contact local radio stations and newspapers. If there’s something noteworthy going on there (like a charity drive, an attempt to break a world record, or even just a free bounce house and popsicles for all the kids) they’ll be more likely to feature and promote it for free.

Think hard about your focal audience. Do they like outdoor sports? Maybe you need a flier at REI and a booth at a 5K race that occurs a month before your event. Are they families? See if you can get the word out at your local Gymboree or PTA. 

Think hard about who your event will appeal to the most and then link up with related events and venues. 

Have Cool Features at the Event Itself

Every event will be different, but make sure that there are a few things that will draw people to your event, and make it stick in people’s minds. Here are some ideas:

• Limited edition swag
• Games that make people stay (raffles, contests, etc.)
• A feature that attracts attention as soon as you come in (like a mini bungee game or a bounce house.)
• Share information in an interesting way. If you want to promote health, have a fun interactive booth. If you want to familiarize potential tenants with your facilities, make it easy to do a walk-through and explore the features. 

What Sets Business To Business Marketing Apart

Marketing to business customers can shorten the time it takes for a company to reach its sales goals. One business to business (B2B) sale could yield a company $100,000. Those revenues generally come if a company sells products in volume or if a company sells its products at a top dollar price. Yet, just as it is with business to customer (B2C) sales, companies won't generate enough sales to get or keep their bottom line in the black until enough customers become aware of them.

In addition to being aware of a company, customers need to "trust" a company before they purchase a product or service. Door to door sales and other direct sales steps like cold calling are options open to companies that are looking to land more business customers. However, these B2B marketing solutions take time, not exactly what some businesses, particularly small businesses that are led by solopreneurs have lots of. Advanced digital solutions may be these entrepreneurs best choice.

Advantages companies gain with digital B2B marketing solutions include email marketing, event management, website visitor tracking, campaign management, social marketing, including social publishing and social profiles. The challenge comes in when companies have to actually sit down and choose one or more B2B marketing solutions.

Points to consider when reviewing the marketing programs are whether or not companies that sell the programs offer training to companies that buy the software from them. The complexity level of the programs is another factor to consider, as is the potential for businesses to customize the programs. Additionally, some marketing solutions have built-in web forms, forcing businesses to use their forms.

This could turn business prospects off, creating the impression that a company's marketing forms are owned by the firm the software is leased or purchased from. To keep their personal message and logos in front of prospects, companies should look for B2B marketing solutions that let them customize web forms they use. For example, B2B marketing solutions from salesfusion are compatible with a range of web forms.

Other features to measure are lead capture, including Internet lead capture, video hosting and lead routing. Entrepreneurs shouldn't assume that these tools will meet their marketing needs. Instead, they should watch live demos of the marketing solutions. They should also have their in-house marketing managers meet with sales leads at firms that sell B2B marketing solutions so they can ask the firms' sales leads questions about the products.

These steps save companies money and time. They also reduce the risks companies take as they market to other businesses. And reducing these risks is paramount to a company's success. As Wikipedia shares, "One of the characteristics of a B2B product is that in many cases it is bought by a committee of buyers. It is important to understand what a brand means to these buyers."

Furthermore, "Buyers are usually well-versed with costing levels and specifications. Also, due to constant monitoring of the market, these buyers would have excellent knowledge of the products too. In many cases the purchases are specification driven. As a result of this, it is vital that brands are clearly defined and target the appropriate segment." It takes targeted marketing for companies to set themselves apart from the competition.