A common misconception is that simply by having a website, sales will roll in — and in spades. Regrettably, this is not the case, and some brands, especially those small and new, have learned this the hard way.

 

Launching a website and ignoring online marketing is like opening a business and not telling anyone about it. You wouldn’t launch a new product, retail venture, or even hold a press event without strategic planning. Digital marketing requires the same consideration, and brands are missing incredible opportunities by not implementing strategies for online growth and development. However, many are unsure what they need, what to expect, and whether or not they can afford it.

 

A typical digital marketing campaign involves a combination of email, search, and social marketing, all of which require the collaborative efforts of a team of writers, designers, developers, marketers and analysts. Though positioning, aesthetic, and budgets are diverse — the same rules apply. Marketing initiatives must be cohesive, strategic, and aligned in order to be successful.

 

If you’re a smaller company with a limited marketing budget, social media is an excellent platform to build brand awareness and grow your online community. However, a bona fide social media campaign involves more than merely having a Facebook page or a Twitter account. It takes time and commitment and requires ongoing interaction with your community. It’s essential to provide a dialogue that includes unique, relevant content and not a constant stream of product or sale announcements. This is important not only from an engagement perspective, but also from a branding perspective, because if you continually discount your products in order to drive web sales, you’re at risk of brand erosion.

 

If you’re going to take a DIY approach to social marketing, make sure to avoid these common mistakes:

 

 

Adding a blog to your website is another great and affordable way to expand your online presence and provide customers with a more intimate understanding of your brand. It allows you the opportunity to speak more in depth about products, ingredients, causes, and lifestyle topics that are relevant to your customer and — similar to social media platforms — gives them a chance to interact with your company. Additionally, since blog content is crawled by search engines, it’s likely that your website’s organic search results will improve as you continue to develop your blog.

 

As your brand awareness grows, hopefully your email subscriber list grows along with it. Once you have a fairly robust email list, you might want to consider launching an email marketing campaign to promote new product launches and special offers. However, take the time to familiarize yourself with email regulations before launching a campaign to ensure you are compliant with all regulations, including the CAN-SPAM Act, in order to prevent blacklisting and guarantee deliverability.

 

If budget permits, you might also want to consider launching a paid search campaign, however this tends to be one of the more expensive options and typically requires a fairly significant budget in order to be competitive. However, when used in combination with SEO and targeted landing pages, paid search can be a powerful marketing tool, providing immediate, measurable results.

 

As with any marketing initiative, traditional or digital, it’s important to do your research before embarking on new endeavors — and that includes giving your online marketing plan the consideration it deserves for your business to succeed.

 

 

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Julie Ashkenazi is the co-founder of Medium— a strategic eCommerce and online marketing studio dedicated building unique, compelling and successful brands with cohesive design aesthetics and analytics. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

 

We've got a new obsession that does not involve exceptional shoes, the rise of mini pastries, or exceptional retail experiences... The QR code.

 

In the weeks since we posted statistics on who is currently scanning these funny little codes, it has become more apparent how this trend has potential for greatness once executed flawlessly. And since we're far from experts in this digital space, we decided to turn to our go-to experts: Uzi Askenazi and Julie Askenazi of Medium.

 

What is the future of QR codes?

Uzi: QR codes offer great potential for brands and retailers, but consumers, particularly female consumers, have been slow to embrace them. Unfortunately, a fair percentage of QR integration appears to be initiated for trend purposes more so than retail use, as evident by poor placement or linking to websites that are not mobile-optimized.

 

Uzi and Julie, how can a campaign appeal to a female demographic?

Uzi: Macy's "Backstage Pass" campaign is a great example of integrating QR codes into a retail promotional strategy.

 

Julie: I also really like the Macy’s campaign, because it’s not just making great use of current technology, it’s leveraging their celebrity partnerships and presenting new, unique content to consumers — while complementing the brand identity. By insetting the QR codes into the red stars they’ve made new technology friendlier and as a result, customers are more likely to engage in the campaign.

 

We would love to see more campaigns integrate design and QR codes effectively. Unfortunately, 27% of the QR codes we scanned in the November 2011 issue of InStyle failed. If you see a great example that you would like to share, please tweet it to us or post it our our facebook page.

 

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Uzi Ashkenazi and Julie Ashkenazi are co-founders of Medium— a strategic eCommerce and online marketing studio dedicated building unique, compelling and successful brands with cohesive design aesthetics and analytics.

 

only the tasty bits...

 

CULTURE

 

- New tool calculates how many slaves (forced labor) helped to make your favorite jeans, eyeshadow, and coffee. {Refinery29}

- Facebook has made even more changes to privacy settings. This time they targeted fan and band pages. {Locker Gnome}

- Sometimes A Brand Isn't Worth Saving. {Co. Design}

 

&

FOOD

- $1,250 Lunch for 2: Welcome to the French Laundry pop-up in London. {Business Week}

- The Next Big Restaurant featuring Willows Inn on Lummi Island in WA. {Wall Street Journal}

- Nationwide Surveys Reveal Disconnect Between Americans and their Food. {PRnewswire}

 

+

FASHION 

- Loving the Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington dolls by Andrew Yang. {AnOther}

- Skill and discipline paid off: An interview with superstar fashion blogger/photographer Scott Schuman. {Business of Fashion}

- Best of Cosmoprof 2011: How presentation can make or break a beauty brand. {Medium}

 

 

A quick glimpse at what's rattling our brain...

CULTURE
- Study: 50% of shoppers consult mobile phones for purchases.
- Social & mobile will likely influence at least 80% of consumers' discretionary spending by 2015.

FOOD
- About 21.9% of consumers plan to increase their spending on groceries in upcoming months.
- Watch out Amazon, Wal-Mart said to plan test of online grocery delivery service.

FASHION
- Prada is launching an online "Made to Order" service that will let customers tailor footwear, sunglasses and leather accessories to their liking. The service is already available in stores and will launch on Prada.com at the end of this month. It will let customers add initials to luggage and design handbags in a number of fabrics and colors. Prices start at £2,500 and delivery will take around two months.
- Stack it high and watch it fly... retailers pile stuff in the aisles to increase sales (NYTimes.com)
- Fashism Loves Foursquare - augmented reality map overlay for social commerce.
- Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen to launch digital fashion venture stylemint.com with MySpace founder and here's your invite.