Week 12- Additional Online Marketing Tools

Looking into additional marketing tools that could be employed into our day to day antics would have to be:

Linked In:
I had always looked at LinkedIN as a personal brand builder, helping you connect with other business associates. I was never too informed on the marketing capabilities as well as the reach that you can get from knowing someone who knows someone of importance. Great source for Networking and definitely something I will look to get into. Its still somewhat of a weird concept for me to wrap my head around, But for now I will try to add myself into groups that could have potential personal watch buyers or store buyers.

*If I am able to add into a group that is fashion forward I could use it as somewhat of a group of advisors that I could ask some questions to, such as which picture they might like better or watch styles they may prefer. Using groups as ways to establish some research would be a good use for them as well....

Yelp:
I really love that now a days customers are willing to provide feedback but more importantly new customers are looking into reviews prior to buying. Reviews have now become super important while buying, so to have a Yelp where reviews are posted to could be a great way for customers to see the satisfaction my other previous customers have had. I currently have a customer review platform, Im going to check and see if we can link my current reviews to Yelp because Im sure they are where most go to get reviews from.

Coupon Marketing:
To websites like Group-on and other flash sites Im NOT a fan of. While at time we all may over project inventory levels and have extra on hand I just feel like providing your product to flash sale sights depreciates your brand in a big way. I may be fairly new at running a business but if Im going to cut my margarin and make a deal with Group-on I would rather just hold a sale on my own site and let my current following know about the blow out sale. I get that this could have an alternative effect when customers decide to wait to buy until you go on sale, so you need to be easy on doing this all the time.
*Another way to do these discounts would be to feature your product on membership websites. This allows only people that are signed up to the website, these sale will not be so public so your brand is not so broadcasted amongst the web.

Youtube:
Although not mentioned in the lecture I like how YouTube has begun to have impact on social outreach. Not only can it give the message intended but allowing your company to be visible on YouTube you can create awesome stories and great content that will get customers stoked about your company.

I have been following some other companies on YouTube and I really enjoy the marketing behind there videos. These Vids are usually not just product based but super lifestyle. Sometimes even just highlighting there athlete of the week and showing an awesome video of tricks he does, this doesn't have to make a conversion right away but what it does is give a good light on your company and has the customer walking away from the computer saying"those dudes are dope" and thats exactly what you want them thinking, which will later lead to a sale when your other marketing efforts are put to use.

Cheers,
Andrew Beltran
Originalgrain.com

Week 11- Free Social Media Marketing

The best way I like to use Social Media for its masses of users is allowing my current followers to present our company to their friends/followers. By hosting FB or IG watch Giveaways that require the followers to share the photo or tag 2-3 friends in the photo to win the watch. When we do this it allows our company to be broadcasted all over the internet. They say the average FB user has over 130 friends, during our last giveaway we had over 200 shares thats minimum 26,000 people who were encouraged to come over and check out our page for the watch giveaway. 

Other ways to market yourself on Social Media staying up on current issues, making posts referencing events that your followers relate to and would give your branding a good feel (examples of these would be March Madness, Coachella,  use these events to drive posts and create brand feel).

Obviously announcements of any new products are crucial to make it known throughout your Socials. A great way to generate buzz around something that is new is a press release, email marketing and of a course Social media push. 

Make all announcements and any kind of brand promos, events, make them all live on your social for your followers to learn about. Encourage them to make posts about about your company with chances to be featured on your Fan Friday posts you make weekly, to better encourage the engagement of your active followers.

Online Advertising - Classmate comments

Mary Bishop - Blog

Cindy Rojas - Blog

Brittany Martin - Blog

Week11: Online Advertising

Facebook Marketing is done differently for everyone, for our company its focusing on targeting customer our currently follow and attracting their following as well. The reading tells us if someone is to see his/her friend has liked or shared a specific ad your company has posted he will be more likely to click on it. Targeting your current followings friends is a good technique when gathering a new following.

Knowing your current demographic is essential when trying identify characteristics you should be targeting through your advertising. Knowing your customers average age, profession, location, likes and interests are all good areas to know about. Also know what your current following relates to. By pushing out advertisements to these customers who have similar characteristics that you can target in your advertising you may be able to tap into a larger following.

The best advertising for us has to be ads that show our latest events or deals we have going on. As well as showing our products with 

posts that say something referencing another major company that is featuring our product, this helps generate clicks and exposure through other brand/company testimonies. Building trust for my company when the viewers see another company featuring our products. 

-EX. Original Grain All Natural wood watches as featuring on Mens Fashioner"

The Two screen shots bests represent the two genders I wanted to target along with some simple characteristics that we would potentially target with this ad. For the mens search it is designated to men between the age of 25-34 which is our most frequent age of Men conversions. As well as some common interest that they share were targeted as well. The women's targeted advertising is similar, with age specific and characteristics that our current female shopper relates to. When choosing a keyword pay attention to the sub category words that show below that specific word. The Keywords are the main category the sub components are other forms of that. For example for our women's search I put Glamour Magazine. With It's multiple sub category words had the magazine like Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Shape magazine. The subcomponents may be more specific and help define your search.

Email Marketing classmate comments

3 STUDENTS COMMENTED ON

*Brittany Martin- BLOG LINK

*Khalyoni Ghosh- BLOG LINK

*Mary Bishop- BLOG LINK

Week 10- Email Marketing

We currently have an email list of approximately 5,000 captured emails, Which is relatively small for a company of our size. We are currently working on attaining more emails to start marketing through. As we all know this is a great way to get a targeted audience to see your information that is being blasted. 
What we do is send an email initially just welcoming the new customer to our Original Grain Family. Beyond the initial contact we make we try and send out at least 2 emails per month which we would like to bring to 1 email per week soon.



Content that could be featured *Discounts*New Products*Company Updates*Events*Blog Reviews*Customer testimonies*Social Media Promos & Giveaways




These are all great ways to keep your customers informed of all news related to your company and a great way to get them actively engaged in all the promos you are hosting. We like to post customer reviews from time to time and blogger reviews when we get them. Associating your product with testimonies allows the customers that signed up for your news letter and haven't purchased gather a sense of trust in your company and product and encourages them to make the plunge of making a purchase.

A great way to promote new releases, updates, giveaways is through your email marketing efforts. Announcements that you want all your loyal customers to hear is definitely best done by using the email marketing technique. These customer technically signed up for the email list to hear about these type of events/ announcements so use this to your advantage and let the news get to the people who want to hear it through email marketing.

Week 9- Categorizing your Blog

Yes I think it is pretty important to have a categorized account that can be easily scanned through and clicked upon by your viewers. Having an blog that can be easily read and easy to find the content you may be looking for is a huge part of getting continued traffic. If a Viewer comes to your site to see the sweet shoes you may continually show months or whatever they should be able to come to your site click on the shoes category and there is all the sick shoes you have posted for the last year right on his screen.

Having an organized that keeps track of your last post as well is important not only visually viewers can see how much work you have put into this and how often you post. But when you get new unique visitors it will show them some of the content that is in this subcategory of their interest. Keeps the content you post useful and it can continually be viewed and it makes each post just as valuable as the next one because it will be viewed for a continued time. Im not sure if this will be what you need for continued growth but it will show new visitors some of your previous work which will give you a legitimacy that may keep them coming back.

I think it would be best to have categories but I don't think its a must if you deliver consistent content. if you are continuously posting and feel your viewers have enough content on your present page you may not need to have all your previous posts easily accessible. But if you post on a more rare scale I think it is very important to have subcategories so your audience can look around find old post and new posts that will keep them interested.

Classmates posts I commented on-
*Devon pinto
*Trujillo, Caridad 
*Kalyani ghosh