As a business owner, you must not underestimate the power of a good marketing strategy. However, it is important to understand those good marketing ideas can also have a detrimental effect on your brand and your business. There are numerous cases of marketing campaigns going wrong, especially if you did not consult a specialist or a reputable marketing agency.
There are billions of business marketing ideas that we can all simply research ourselves but the trouble comes when we need to implement them and keep track of their impact.
Have you heard of the disaster promotion that happened in Russia with Domino’s pizza? A Domino’s franchisee in Russia wanted to drive customers using social media marketing. He came up with a marketing promotion that offered 100 years of free pizza! People had to tattoo the Domino’s logo on a visible part of their body and then upload a photo of it on social media to be eligible! Believe it or not, it had a real domino effect. The promotion was intended to last for two months, however, it got shut down only after five days! There were so many customers that eventually the promotion would harm their business. A hundred years of pizza sounds like forever and Russians are big fans of Domino’s. This is a brilliant example of how marketing ideas can work for you or against you. And of course, this is not an isolated case, there are plenty of big brands that had amazing ideas backfire in their face.
At a first glance, the idea that customers can go under the needle and have a tattoo in a prominent place does not ring any alarm bells. Domino’s would have potentially thousands of people walking around as if they are moving billboards, the logo is visible at all times – enhancing Domino’s popularity. Another good feature of this promo is having to upload a photo of your tattoo in social media websites, which instantly would enhance customer engagement online – everyone would start talking about the controversial tattoos that friends of friends have, how crazy it is to have a tattoo of a company logo, and how much must a person love pizza to have this done and walk around with it! The fact that so many people fell for this marketing trick proves once more the importance of a good marketing idea. And yet sometimes, the idea is so good, that it is too good! The people behind this marketing idea should have anticipated that 100 years of free pizza is a big enough motivator for customers and applied that knowledge in their favor. Instead, what started as a great marketing approach, turned into a disaster. Just imagine if the promotion had ended after two months? The effect on the business would have been detrimental, to say the least. Should Domino’s have used a proper marketing agency – probably yes, but they would not understand the need for specialists if they hadn’t tried.
In the situation with Domino’s, there are quite a few things that could have been predicted if the right level of expertise was applied. A business owner is not the equivalent of a marketing specialist. It is important to understand this. People from the business world are great, however, they lack the technical knowledge of a marketing specialist that can produce business marketing ideas. This is where we come in, at Yaseo we can provide you with all your business needs in terms of marketing. If you need help with a website, SEO services, social media, branding, strategy, content, or you are a start-up and not sure where to begin – you are at the right place. We can give you all this and bring ideas to life by listening to you. We can create solutions tailored to you and your business.
As we already mentioned before, there are plenty of marketing ideas we can research and apply ourselves. If you already have a business and a website, it might be a good idea to get our free SEO audit. It will provide you with key insights on what needs to change and how. Once you know you can start by looking at social media. From the example with Domino’s pizza promotion, we learned that social media can be a real monster with claws if you do not know how to pet it.
Vines are easy to make 6-second videos that can boost your online presence. They require little time and effort to make and are cost-effective. With a few clicks and content created frequently, you can get a big audience and become a big fish in the small pond of Vines.
Get to know your competitors. As a business owner, we know you are familiar with the competition. Don’t stop there, keep track of their social media profiles to find out more about what they are up to. This can also be a source of inspiration, do not underestimate this. It is very easy to keep track of other businesses, similar to yours by using the Pages To Watch feature on Facebook. You need to have an existing business page to use it though.
The human touch is essential, especially in the digital age we live in. Studies show that however good your online presence is, many people prefer human interaction. To have a truly customer-centric approach, you will need to go out on the streets from time to time. Get some flyers printed, give them out to strangers, have some great conversations, and experience the power of word of mouth. Even if the person you talked to for an hour does not become your client, they will certainly mention the interesting conversation you had and bam, there might be another person interested in your products and services.
Ask the expert is always useful. Interviewing industry-relevant experts and sharing their answers can definitely have a positive impact, especially from an engagement point of view. This is also a way to get valuable insights that you can share with the community and draw only positives from it.
In the online world, there are billions of ways to test your marketing ideas, the key is to remember that every action has its consequences. The lack of action has consequences too, especially considering that the online world is changing every second. Keeping track of this storm of content and trends can surely be overwhelming and confusing, but fear not, Yaseo can help, we only a click away!