Ho-ho-ho, it’s time to put some holiday cheer into your marketing! Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Christmas, the holidays are a great time to put a creative spin on your marketing approach. Use the season as an occasion for a fresh idea, and an opportunity to approach clients with something fun and different. You can choose how large or small you want to make your holiday marketing push. Here are a few thoughts on creating a seasonal marketing campaign, whether it’s simple or more involved: Holiday Marketing Ideas A few starter ideas for basic ways to tie in with the season: Incorporate holiday themes into your website, newsletter or logo. Try Christmas or Hannukah colors on your home page, maybe some glittery ornaments around your logo, etc. Create a holiday-themed email campaign or blog post. Kind of like this one. Don’t forget, your efforts can be as sincere and non-commercial as sending customers personalized thank-you notes! Looking to gain new customers with a more elaborate marketing outreach? Try a Holiday Special! How to Use a Holiday Special Create seasonal hype by offering a Holiday Special. Get people “through the door” (so to speak, we suppose, in the Internet age) [...]

Social media is a key part of running a business these days. Nearly every company has an online component with which their customers can interact. Maybe your social media manager posts updates on LinkedIn or Facebook. Perhaps your CEO has a Twitter account. The role of “social media manager” is becoming more and more important, and with the ever-changing nature of social media technology, we need to be very aware of this unique relationship with our customers. While social media is a great way to interact with customers, it can turn into a spectacular disaster if handled improperly. Mistakes happen in business, but handling the backlash improperly can make things so much worse. Take, for example, the recent flub by chain restaurant Applebee’s. Remember, social media is a two-way relationship! This is a great opportunity to interact with a wider audience. You can gain valuable, honest feedback and take advantage of the free advertising platform inevitably presented by Facebook, LinkedIn and their ilk. You’re opening the door to your audience. Respect them, and welcome real feedback and engagement. Despite your very best intentions to create healthy conversation, sometimes interactive media may spiral out of your control, as we saw in [...]