Creative Juice Advertising

Your business needs Facebook

2010-09-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Just how big is Facebook and why should you use social media to help brand your business? Facebook now reaches over 500,000,000 users per month!

More and more people comment about their experiences via social media. The ever important 'word of mouth’ has now become ‘world of mouth".

The popularity and ease of use of social media sites such as Facebook has translated from personal to business, allowing companies to start their own Facebook ‘Fan’ pages. When a user ‘likes’ a particular business, they now receive updates each time the company changes their status, just like you would from the friends on your Facebook page.

In a recent Nielson poll the study found that Americans spend nearly ¼ of their time online on social networking sites, up from 15.8% just a year ago (a 43% increase). To put this into perspective, here are some amazing facts:

If Facebook were a nation it would be the third largest in the world after China and India. It took radio 38 years to reach 50,000,000 listeners and it took Television over 13 years to reach that mark; Facebook added 100,000,000 users in 9 months. 96% of all Gen Y have joined a social network. Not too concerned because your consumer is ‘older’? Take note of the fact that the fastest growing demographic segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females.

Recent studies have been trying to quantify the value of a ‘fan’, in terms of real dollars. The results range from $1.60 to $3.60. These results do show that a ‘fan’ of your business will be more likely to purchase from you, and more importantly, has a greater likelihood of referring you to someone else.

If you're not convinced yet that Facebook, which is free, can help your business. Consider this: An average Facebook user has 130 friends – so do the math. If you reach 1,000 fans you actually have the potential to reach 130,000 people each time you send an update.

If you still aren’t sure how to leverage this technology, Creative Juice social media experts can help. Be a fan on Facebook and win new business!

Country Fair TV Commercial

2009-12-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

Creative Juice produced this spot for Long Island's entertainment park - Country Fair in Medford.

My Gold Mailer TV Commercial

2009-12-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

Here's one of many TV commercials Creative Juice produced for MyGoldMailer.com---a nationwide gold buying company.

Your Advertising: Juice it up!

2009-12-27T06:29:00.000-08:00

Let's look at some marketing fundamentals to help you better market your business. From now on, I'll assign a number to them for easy reference. Let's "juice up" your market share! This time, we'll examine JUICE TIPS 1 and 2.

JUICE TIP 1: Why People Buy

When you sell a product it's not only important to know who bought it, but also why they bought. What motivated them to buy your product, what motivated them to buy your product over your competitor's product, and what you can do to motivate them to into a repeat purchase in the future. Almost every significant purchase made involves either saving money or time. If you can include one, or better yet, both of these powerful motivators in your offer, you're success rate will likely increase. When people feel like they are saving money they are more inclined to make a purchase immediately rather than put it off and eventually forget about it. This is especially effective with limited time offers that initiate action within a certain time frame. Demonstrate that your product or service can save them time, make them more efficient, and allow them to get more business done during the day and you have a winner. Integrate these two buying motivators in the same offer and watch your direct marketing campaign soar.

JUICE TIP 2: What's the deal?

You should always present the offer as something of value and something of importance. Free is the key. Many people believe that "free" is the most important word in advertising and direct marketing. It's certainly the most important word when it comes to describing your offer. If you are offering something for free-shout it! Especially in this economy, every ad should offer some type of deal or benefit.

Improve your marketing. Get out!

2009-12-27T06:01:00.000-08:00

If you're trying to improve some aspect of your marketing, get out. That's right, get out of your house and go to the mall or a local store. And don't focus on you, focus on consumers. It's easy to do research when you have a big enough sample size. By viewing other consumers in action, you'll notice some interesting behaviors.

The other great thing about getting out is that you can learn from promotions that others are running. From a retail perspective, you'd be amazed at simple marketing tips that go a long way. Putting the milk in the back of the store, offering a coupon, or a loyalty card. By visiting retailers you can even learn about integrated marketing promotions as consumers redeem coupons they received through email or online.

Into coffee? Stop by Starbucks. From the warm feeling inside to the consistent product, Starbucks does it right. There's a reason people drop $4 for a cup of coffee. Stop in and analyze why.

Make it a habit of trying new marketing concepts. For example, you may have noticed a type of merchandising that might work well for your products or services. Can you change a display? Use what you've learned. The more you do this, the more you'll see results. Over time, these results can add up significantly. If you want to improve your marketing, get out, get informed, and get learning!

TV Energy

2009-05-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at the making of the Jo Jo Energy drink TV commercial. Creative Juice advertising was part of the creative process. We had this video produced by Vispol TV to ad content to Jo Jo's site. "On Point Productions" handled the commercial shoot . See it here.

Does your website have video?

2009-05-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

I’ve often noted here that great content doesn’t have to be written - it can be images, animation, audio, video or even live content.

Case in point: The online video company Vzaar, just released results of a recent straw poll of Vzaar users. Some of the results included:

Diamond Jewellery United based in Antwerp Belgium, saw their sales increase by 65% four months after implementing product videos.
Industry Recycles who sell second hand equipment, saw an increase in sales over 12 months by over 307%,
Yesil, an online furniture website, saw a 50% increase in web
traffic transferring to a rise of 30% in sales over the same period.

Admittedly the evidence is anecdotal but it does make sense. Creating great content is often simply about giving the prospective customer what they want - and in these cases they wanted a better way to experience the products before they bought.

How could you use video - or any other content - to better demonstrate to your prospects what you do? Call us at Creative Juice. 631.371.1287. We can help you creative content for your website - and drive sales up.

Critical Steps of Website Development

2009-04-09T04:13:00.000-07:00

There are four critical steps or phases of website development, and each is totally interdependent upon the others for the overall success of this business marketing tool:

1. Domain name: selecting your company name is often dependent upon available URLs. Consider with care the way prospects will find you online (it’s your internet address). Make it easy to remember, and hard to misspell.

2. Design: the architecture, features, and look of your website. This is directly linked to you goals for the site, your customer base, your available time, and your budget. A professional website designer can create a site that not only looks good, but is easy to navigate, and converts visitors.

3. Hosting: where your website files are “served up from”. It’s the servers that store your documents and feed them to the internet browsers all over the world. This step is as important as any other as speed, reliability and available features, are all dependent upon your host.

4. Marketing: once you have a website, how will you get people there? Search engine optimization is critical if you want to be found. Search engine marketing is a key component.

A professional team of design and developers, with a solid background in marketing and advertising AND a proven track record of building successful business websites, (a team like creative juice advertising), is just what you need if you’re considering a new website for your business, if you’re revisiting your current website, or if your current website is not pulling in the visitor counts and conversions you need to grow. Creative Juice can do as much, or as little, as you need to get your website up and running in top form.

These days, if you don’t have a business website that meets all four criteria above, you’re playing a dangerous game with the life expectancy of your company or group.

5 Bitter Pills: The Truth About Your Website

2009-03-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some honest web thoughts from our SEO web guru Mike Tekula.

Sometimes the bitter pill is the one you most need to swallow.

If you’re about to launch a new website or a campaign to build your business online, there are some inconvenient truths you’d better accept right now.

1) Nobody cares

Seriously. So stop writing about the features of what you’re offering and how you do business. You’re not out to lunch with a new friend.

Seem harsh? That’s the reality.

Your users aren’t interested in hearing about your company and the features of what you’re offering. They’re interested in how sticking around and using your site is going to benefit them.

There are no “hard feelings” if someone hits the back button and leaves your site. And most of the time, they don’t come back.

So the question you need to answer quickly is: why should they stay?

2) There is no such thing as “foot traffic” on the web

For the local ice cream parlor, foot traffic matters. People who happen to walk by will make up a good portion of this business.

There’s no such thing on the web. Your site can, and will, exist in a void if you let it.

The only avenues on the web are built through relationships.

Search engines won’t rank your pages if nobody links to your website. Likewise, if nobody links to or talks about your website, no other websites are going to refer users your way.

If you’ve got a nice site, that’s a good start - now you’ve got to build relationships.

3) There is no one “right” metric to measure

I’m often asked what metrics people should be looking at to determine whether their blog/website is a success.

I almost always answer this question with another question: “what is the goal of your website?”

Metrics are pretty meaningless on their own. Yes, we all look at the number of unique visits to a site, but that isn’t a metric that you’ll be able to tie to success or failure. That’s only part of the picture.

Your website needs a plan with specific goals. Once you’ve set those goals, you’ll find that the metrics you need to measure become obvious - or at least easier to identify.

4) There are no “easy and quick tricks” to gain high-value traffic

You know that old general tip people give you about investing in the stock market - the one that tells you, “when the cabby is recommending buying a stock, it’s time to sell?”

It’s pretty basic: by the time a “hot tip” spreads widely enough that everyone talks about it, it’s dead.

The same goes for building traffic on the web.

By the time a new method of gaining traffic/links/whatever becomes common knowledge, it’s basically useless.

What still works?

Getting editorial links by creating and marketing great content
Building tools/resources that satisfy a real need of your market - and that people can’t help talking about
Establish relationships with influential bloggers and other webmasters and finding ways you can help each other

But none of these is easy or quick.

5) You get what you pay for

People who charge a high hourly rate are usually worth the extra cost.

For example, I’ve repeatedly seen this happen: 2-3 people are spending hours trying to figure out a problem they don’t understand. They’re beating their heads against the wall, ready to throw expensive equipment out the window, etc. Then, they suck it up and begrudgingly call in an expert to take a look. The expert solves the problem in 15 minutes.

How much is that expert’s time worth?

This general formula applies to just about everything: Time x Skill = Value.

Apply this formula to the web: you’re about to launch a new web marketing campaign (or build a new website). Who do you hire? The kid down the block who took a class on web marketing and will work for $15/hr, or the expert who charges $85/hr, but who will work faster and more effectively and will bring in a better return on investment?

I may be biased, but having once been the kid down the block myself I can say from experience: you almost always get what you pay for.

Consider this before you start comparing web marketing services on price alone.

Is your site optimized for searches?

2009-03-19T05:22:00.001-07:00

"I want to show up in a search". That statement is one I hear often. And I find a lot of people think the only way to do that is by paying for "ad words". We've been optimizing sites for years "organically". Buying ad words will certainly help web visibility but there are other techniques that are more cost effective and should be the first steps in web optimization.

Today, let's look at "link building"

Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to your website. This can be done by reciprocal links, press releases, newsletters, directories, search engines, amongst other things. Link building is one of the best ways to have your site gain publicity. There are a few ways to link, one of which is link exchange.

Link exchanges is the process where two website owners agree to show the other's link on their website. After link building when the number of sites which link to a particular site is known as link popularity which helps in the search engine ranking of a website.

Another way of link building is called one way links. These links are by far the most valuable links to have. One way links are obtained in many ways, for example if you know someone who has a website you can ask them to post for your website on theirs. (Voila) you have just acquired a One-Way link.

The advantages of link building are as follows:

* When there are high quality incoming links the site will also be seen as a valuable resource (authority site).

* Link building helps in creating pagerank, visibility and credibility of your site.

* The site also obtains wider search engine exposure.

* It is also very essential in order to get your website indexed by search engines.

What is a brand

2009-03-04T03:32:00.000-08:00

We often stress how important branding is in marketing. Advertising is not instant results. Building a brand is crucial for survival.

A brand is not merely a logo, a package or a sign on a wall. A brand it not what you want it to be or what your ad says it is. A brand is not even the definition you give to it.

Quite simply, a brand is how your audience feels about you. It’s what they say about you after paid advertising. So when your “friend” on Facebook, says they just found the best hot dog in town, you believe them. Much more so than a TV spot. It all happens with branding. How is your brand?

In this economy you can win

2009-02-22T04:47:00.000-08:00

"Has it affected you?" That question now always comes up when talking to anyone about business because the conversation always turns to the economy. In business you often find yourself in three stages of life, you are in a recession or depression, going into a recession or depression, or coming out of a recession or depression. The key is learning how to weather the storm from, of, and during a recession or depression. The most important thing to remember is that attitude often controls the mood to be successful or not. The theory “keep your head up” holds true. Continue to communicate with your target audience, find out what they need and want. At this point in time, many are looking for comfort and value. Comfort in knowing they can trust uou. Show that you do care by offering solutions that will help the situation. Come up with resources that add-value to what your target audience needs and implement plans of actions.

The battle of a recession is won by preparation, communication, and persistence. Those who survive build sustainability for continued growth. Remember they can’t forget you if you don’t let them and they will if you don’t keep reminding them not to.

Keep Contact

2009-02-19T03:45:00.000-08:00

We all have contacts to keep track of. May you're using outlook. Maybe it's an address book. Maybe it's a forest of post it notes. One of my favorite online contact solutions is Batchbook.com. It's easy to use and is free for up to 200 contacts. And since it's online, you an access it from anywhere!

It's all about WOM

2009-02-13T03:42:00.000-08:00

What is the holy grail of marketing? WOM!

WOM (word of mouth) is the ultimate goal of anyone who wants to grow their business. It’s a simple fact, we as humans trust other humans more than we do advertising and marketing. Even if those people are "strangers" they have more influence over our purchases than any other factor. But how do you get that moving and growing?

Here's a great example. And it's a true one. A local restaurant owner wanted to boost his sales so he set about figuring out who else his customers patronize. He soon discovered that he had some customers who went to beauty salons fairly regularly so he sent gift certificates to local beauty salon owners for 2 free dinners. The owners ate, loved it, talked about it, and as a result the restaurant owners reservation list was completely full all for the price of a couple free meals.

How can you get that same result using social media? Spread the word about your business on Facebook and other sites. Warning: They key is not to advertise. It's to get WOM!

Track your website visits and more

2009-02-11T03:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a great way to track who visits your site, for how long, what pages were viewed and so much more. It's easier and usually more graphical than the tracker most web hosts provide. But that's not the best part. I'll tell you what that is in a moment.

This analytic tool comes from Google. It will even provide info on what city or country your visits came from as well as what search words were used to find you. Simply go to http://www.google.com/analytics/ to sign up. You'll need to paste some code onto every page on your site. Creative Juice can do that for you. Get this great tool and get a great look into who is looking at your website. The best part about Google Analytics? It's totally free!

Look Who I Found On Facebook: Your Business

2009-02-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

Social media is about conversations

Seems like Facebook has exploded in the past few months among the 20- 45 year old demo. This is a perfect spot to connect your business with others. Remember, you're connecting. Not advertising.

The whole point of social media that you can connect and share and discuss - unlike traditional media which is one-way traffic.

Connecting and sharing and discussing takes time and effort. You need to bring something useful to the table and have a sincere interest in what other people have to say.

You can’t do that over hundreds of websites and thousands of conversations.

Having ‘a presence’ just won’t cut it. You need to invest time in creating profiles that engage browsers. You need to spend time creating content worth talking about. You need to spend time finding other people to connect with. You need to spend time fostering those relationships.

If you haven't connected with old friends and collegues on sites like Facebook, do it now. Nothing beats WOM marketing. Word Of Mouth. You'll get it on Facebook.

Marketing Check List

2009-02-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some basic key points to consider when setting up your marketing plan.

When speaking with a new client, these are all important items we discuss first. Each one will help maximize your marketing.

Your Target Market – know who you’re serving and be fanatical about serving them.

People tend to do things for a reason – to fix a problem, fill a need or simply find a better way of doing things.

Your biggest competitor is not likely to be another company but rather the ‘status quo’ – which may include doing nothing.

Create a detailed persona of your ideal customer – include demographic data and ‘day in the life’ info to develop a rounded image of to whom you are marketing.

'Everybody’ is not a market – the more tightly you define your market the better you can speak to it.

Your marketing message – get a strong message and stick to it.

Your message is more than what goes in your ads – it should permeate everything about your business AND be consistent throughout

It should:

Speak directly to your target market (think of the persona you created)
Answer their needs (what is the customer’s biggest pain, how can you solve it?)
Be unique (if someone else can say it too, then it’s not unique)
If it doesn’t match up on one of these fronts, refine it until it does
With a good guiding principle in place, use it to create detailed taglines, website content, press releases or anything else you might need. Working from one concept will help keep it all consistent.

Your marketing methods – results are key, be logical and test everything

How well does this method target my market?

How well can I communicate my message? (And is this method in line with my image?)

The final consideration is price, how easy will it be to break even?

A marketing mix is key. You’re looking for a ‘mix’ of methods not to put all your eggs in one basket.

Finally: Evaluate your marketing and refine if needed.

Easy back up system on your computer

2009-01-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of sharing ideas...even tech ideas to make life easier.

We're all guilty of not backing up important data. Here's a quick and easy free way to do it. Get SYNCBACK. Once set up, it will compare files between the source and the destination (it can be a flash drive, hard drive, or CD) and update automatically. Now there's no excuse for losing important files! Get it here

2009-01-29T08:32:00.003-08:00

Google Grabs Almost All Search Growth; Others Flatline

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Then I present to you the growth charts for US search trends for 2008:

By the way, have you tried Google analytics on your site? Amazing information on who is viewing your site, from where and for how long. And it's free!

Advertising in a recession

2009-01-29T08:16:00.001-08:00

A great presentation from the sales department at The Economist about why marketers should be increasing their budgets during a recession instead of doing otherwise. No arguments we haven't really seen before, but very well laid out.

Ads on Edge

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: branding recession)

Marketing Your Way Through a Recession

2008-12-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

We're all concerned about the economy and the future. A business owner's first reaction is to cutback on advertising. This can often be the kiss of death. A recent study published in Long Island Business week cites a study done right after 9-11, when we suffered a major economic downturn. The study found that businesses who advertised in that period saw a 382% increase in sales in the following 5 years. Business who did not advertise during the questionable economic time saw only an 11% increase in new sales. At creative juice we believe it's essential to stay "top of mind" to your potential and exiting customers. We also believe this should be done with a very specific marketing strategy to make every ad dollar count.

Here's a great article written by Harvard Business School professor John Quelch on marketing in this economy. Here's the amazing part and a testament to his knowledge. This article was published in February of 2008---well before the economy took a major downturn:

The signs of an imminent recession are all around us. The spillover from the subprime mortgage crisis is weakening both consumer confidence and the consumer spending—much of it on credit—that has been buoying the U.S. economy.

Companies should bear eight factors in mind when making their marketing plans for 2009:

1. Research the customer. Instead of cutting the market research budget, you need to know more than ever how consumers are redefining value and responding to the recession. Price elasticity curves are changing. Consumers take more time searching for durable goods and negotiate harder at the point of sale. They are more willing to postpone purchases, trade down, or buy less. Must-have features of yesterday are today's can-live-withouts. Trusted brands are especially valued and they can still launch new products successfully, but interest in new brands and new categories fades. Conspicuous consumption becomes less prevalent.

2. Focus on family values. When economic hard times loom, we tend to retreat to our village. Look for cozy hearth-and-home family scenes in advertising to replace images of extreme sports, adventure, and rugged individualism. Zany humor and appeals on the basis of fear are out. Greeting card sales, telephone use, and discretionary spending on home furnishings and home entertainment will hold up well, as uncertainty prompts us to stay at home but also stay connected with family and friends.

3. Maintain marketing spending. This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain consumers need the reassurance of known brands, and more consumers at home watching television can deliver higher than expected audiences at lower cost-per-thousand impressions. Brands with deep pockets may be able to negotiate favorable advertising rates and lock them in for several years. If you have to cut marketing spending, try to maintain the frequency of advertisements by shifting from 30-second to 15-second advertisements, substituting radio for television advertising, or increasing the use of direct marketing, which gives more immediate sales impact.

4. Adjust pricing tactics. Customers will be shopping around for the best deals. You do not necessarily have to cut list prices, but you may need to offer more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts, extend credit to long-standing customers, and price smaller pack sizes more aggressively. In tough times, price cuts attract more consumer support than promotions such as sweepstakes and mail-in offers.

5. Stress market share. In all but a few technology categories where growth prospects are strong, companies are in a battle for market share and, in some cases, survival. Knowing your cost structure can ensure that any cuts or consolidation initiatives will save the most money with minimum customer impact. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Southwest Airlines, with strong positions and the most productive cost structures in their industries, can expect to gain market share. Other companies with healthy balance sheets can do so by acquiring weak competitors.

6. Emphasize core values. Although most companies are making employees redundant, chief executives can cement the loyalty of those who remain by assuring employees that the company has survived difficult times before, maintaining quality rather than cutting corners, and servicing existing customers rather than trying to be all things to all people. CEOs must spend more time with customers and employees. Economic recession can elevate the importance of the finance director's balance sheet over the marketing manager's income statement. Managing working capital can easily dominate managing customer relationships. CEOs must counter this. Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.

So what the heck is "Social Media" anyway?

2008-11-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

Well the short answer is that "Social Media" is the fastest growing way to reach your target audience. It is the use of various internet based marketing tools geared toward saving your conventional advertising dollars while introducing a new level of of exposure and convenience to your consumers.

Wikipedia says:

Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives.Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to interact. A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Gather.com (social networking),YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip (game sharing).

Brian Solis of WEbProNews gives 2 definitions:

"I took the current description and offered some suggestions based on my beliefs as well as points from other thought leaders. I tried to keep it simple as not to overwhelm, but embrace those who read it".

1 - social media describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, and vlogs.

A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace and Facebook (social networking), Twitter and Jaikue (presence apps), YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Upcoming (Events), Digg and Reddit (news aggregation), Flickr and Zooomr (photo sharing), Blogtv, Justin.tv, and Ustream (livecasting), Stickham, YourTrumanShow (episodic online video), Izimi and Pownce (media sharing), del.icio.us (bookmarking) and World of Warcraft (online gaming).