In 1968, Olympic high-jumper Dick Fosbury stunned the athletic community and the world when he approached the high jump bar at full speed and then did something revolutionary: he jumped backwards. At the time, athletes were still using techniques that allowed you to land on your feet, previously a necessity when landing surfaces had been sand pits. After hard landing surfaces were switched out for foam mats to reduce injury, athletes still continued to use the old techniques. It wasn’t until Fosbury that world of high jump recognized the circumstances had changed, and the approach was reevaluated.
At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Dick Fosbury took home the gold medal, set a new Olympic record of 7ft 4.25in, and set the Fosbury Flop as the new standard high-jump technique.
Dick Fosbury took an age-old problem, evaluated the current conditions surrounding the problem, and found a solution that yielded better results that any existing practice. The Fosbury Flop may not have been his first solution, and perfecting the technique took years of training, but thinking outside the box revolutionized the field.
Looking to the retail marketing industry, it’s plain to see that the circumstances have changed in the last decade. Social media and e-commerce are embedded into the daily lives of many customers, but the techniques used to reach target audiences are not necessarily the most effective. What happened to more traditional marketing methods like giving out promotional Custom Water bottles, and could these still be profitable? Also, think carefully about your company’s online strategy (assuming that you already have one). What does it entail? Is the basis simply setting up an account and sending out a few messages? Could you simplify it by using an automated service like ActiveCampaign? Take a look at this ActiveCampaign review by The Nicheologist to see if it might be a good solution for your business.
The problem arises when businesses view online or mobile sales and marketing as separate from their existing strategies. According to Social Media Strategies Summit, “The game has changed. The world of marketing has evolved alongside new media, and what has resulted is a system which would have been completely unrecognizable to a marketing professional just a few short decades ago. Just as new media has changed the consumer, it’s also changed the professional – and the way those professionals communicate.” This evolution in the strategies that are commonly deployed by businesses is why so many of them turn to established marketing agencies to try and keep their efforts in line with the latest trends and happenings when it comes to marketing. Finding an agency in your specific industry can also be additionally beneficial as they will already have an in-depth understanding of what your business is all about – see more here for an example of this within the cannabis industry.
While there are many tools in the new marketing tool box, one strategy continues to revolutionize the way social media marketing works and is a must-have for any business: syndicating your online marketing content using a social media dashboard.
The marketing team here at RetailBound uses Hootsuite for just this purpose, though there are many other platforms that companies use such as TweetDeck, Sendible, or SproutSocial. Which platform you choose will depend on variables like
- Which social networks your company uses most – is your emphasis on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram? Where are your potential clients most likely to be?
- How many people are managing your social media – do you need to coordinate with many others or are just a few, or even one, running your campaigns?
- How big your budget is – most of these services provide a basic level for free, and then you can opt-in to more sophisticated forms which provide more tools, analytics, etc.
While each of these services vary on what exactly they provide, the benefits are very similar.
- Saves Time – this is the big one for most marketing teams. Your company most likely wants to have a presence on many networks, but because of time you’re left either with a strong presence on one or two, or a very weak presence on many. Dashboards like Hootsuite help you manage all of your social media sites simultaneously, saving you tons of time.
- Schedules Updates – let’s say you’re going out of town for a week or you know you’re going to be very busy in the upcoming days, does your social media presence suddenly fall silent? According to Danny Hall of Posse Social Media, that time can translate into big losses for the average business. For example, a few days dark on Twitter means a loss of engagement, interest, and as a result, a loss of followers. Dashboards help solve this problem by allowing you to schedule posts and updates far in advance so you don’t have to lose out.
- Follow Your Brand – as social networking has grown, so has the importance of word-of-mouth marketing. In today’s online world, every opinion can be broadcast for the world to see, and that means what people are saying about your company or brand is important to track. Hootsuite allows you to follow updates and posts that mention your company right on your main page.
- Track Results – analytical components to dashboard sites like Hootsuite allow you to track how influential your marketing tactics are, which, according to Ford Saeks of Prime Concepts, is crucial to the Test – Track – Repeat cycle. To find out why the use of a business dashboard is important, taking some time to check out sites like https://www.microstrategy.com/us/resources/introductory-guides/business-dashboards may help you identify how to improve workflow management amongst businesses. The more you know, the better, especially when it comes to running a business. You can easily see your impact by time (such as particular days, weeks, months, or even different points in the day which can help you know when to be posting for the most coverage) or by update/post (such as which Tweets were popular and which were flops).
If you’re like most business owners and professionals, one thing you never have enough of is time. Dashboards like Hootsuite revolutionize the way we market and interact on social media, saving us time and allowing us to perfect online marketing strategies.
If you or your company is using a centralized social media dashboard, we want to hear from you! Has it benefitted your marketing campaigns, or are you still searching for that something missing? Reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at info@retailbound.com and give us your feedback!
