Creative Marketing Ideas for Halloween!

This year Halloween is expected to be on of the biggest Halloweens for business in a long time according to the National Retail Foundation.  With approximately 70% of consumers indicating they plan to celebrate Halloween this year. Halloween is quickly becoming one of the most popular holidays in the US, second only to the jolly fat man who comes around once a year on the 25th of December.  So don’t miss out on this great opportunity to market your business this Halloween. Here are a couple of great Halloween marketing ideas from small businesses which are gaining huge success.

1. Hold a Halloween-Themed Contest-

Maybe this year you should think about hosting a Online Halloween-Themed contest. Themed contests have been increasing in popularity through out the years and there’s no end to the possibilities online.  For example one company had the idea of having hidden monsters throughout the Internet and their system for users to find. The prize they received came from each monster a person would find.  Their purpose of this contest was to drive brand recognition, as well as membership subscriptions/renewals.

2. Sell Halloween-Themed Products-

We thought this was hilarious but at the same time brilliant in some way. One company took it upon themselves to really think outside the box this year for Halloween. They took the theme to the extreme this year by selling products to help consumers “zombie-proof” their homes. But that’s not all, they went even further as to set up a  “Zombie Preparedness Center” on their company website. Which has created such a buzz in the media giving them a lot of attention this year for Halloween.

3. Charity Photo Costume Event-

A professional Photography company has been giving people free photos of their child in their Halloween costume in exchange for a food donation.

4.Turn Your Business into  a Trick-or-Treat Stop or even a Haunted House-

Looking to build your email database for newsletters? Many small businesses that can invite the public to visit on Halloween should offer special “treats” and even have employees dress up in costumes to take pictures with the customer. Then send them the photos via e-mail, which will help you build your email database to send them newsletters throughout the year.

5. Have a “Green” Halloween Event-

Instead of giving away the usual candy, why not offer healthy treats and invite people to trick or treat at your place of business? Show some support towards all the healthy nuts out there this Halloween with a “Green” event.

6. Hold a Contest for best Pumpkin Online!-

We took this idea from a company who took it upon themselves to purchase pumpkins in bulk from a local market and host their very own pumpkin festival for best pumpkin.  Sounds expensive, but if you don’t have a retail location for a good venue, then why not have a virtual pumpkin festival online straight from the company site or on Twitter or Facebook? Everyone can post their best pumpkin online and compete against each other for prizes. Plus, with the help of social media you’ll definitely gain a lot of attention this year for Halloween.

7. Give Away Halloween-Related Freebies-

Looking to gain a lot more traffic this year for your business website? Halloween themed freebies are a great way to gain attention. Spooky Halloween Design Templates for visitors to download, costume ideas or party planning tips are good examples of freebies to give out to the public.  Companies like Disney even host 31 days of Halloween, which provide free craft ideas, recipes and pumpkin carving stencils and more on one of their websites. As long as your freebies are appropriate for your target audience and it’s Halloween related of course then your business would benefit from it. Doesn’t even have to stop at Halloween, acquire emails from your visitors so they can receive more newsletters after for more valuable freebies.

Miami web design pro knows the value of good customer relations and thinking outside the box like them when it comes to marketing. This year for Halloween be sure to focus on new creative ideas to increase sales for your business by doing something fun & different. Who knows? Maybe you’ll have huge success this year. Happy Halloween!

Is Social Media a Security Threat?

With social media being such an important tool for businesses today. Many I.T professionals would consider it a security threat. A recent study showed that only 29 percent of I.T professionals believe their companies have adequate protection against security breaches from social media interfering. I.T specialists have been able to find the source of these security breaches and tracking them back to end users downloading apps associated with sites like Facebook. Many of these users aren’t aware that some of these apps actually download malicious software to their work PC’s along with spyware and viruses. Leaving the poor I.T department to clean up the mess logging endless hours fixing the damage caused by these supposed “harmful” apps.

Another cause of malware has come from users clicking on third-party links on social media sites. Facebook has taken safety measure to prevent these. One was partnering with Websense to detect malicious links and warn users about them. Employers could also take their own precautions using an app called MyPageKeeper, which searches for malicious links and notifies users if they appear on a person’s news feed or wall. But for many businesses another security concern comes from their inability to control user postings on social media platforms. With many users keeping their user profiles private from the public view, businesses have the inability to monitor postings and the I.T department fear that confidential information could be leaked via status updates.

With social media today small businesses are faced with a serious issue. Can businesses afford to ban their employees from accessing there profiles? Not to mention the importance of social media as a beneficial tool for marketing. Companies are eliminating Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare and even corporate networking sites like LinkedIn and ignoring the value social media has in the business world. These have so much potential and can be an essential tool for viral networking as small businesses have found. But security threats are only part of the problem. Major businesses have come to the conclusion that using these social networking platforms are a liability and counter productive. While small businesses have taken a more subtle approach by resorting to Time Doctor to monitor workers’ actual productivity, rather than blocking these sites altogether. A solution like Time Doctor can help your employees meet business goals and get the best out of social media marketing.

I.T. professionals urge the importance of having a company-wide security policy signed by each user to avoid security breaches. This policy protects the company, as well as stressing the importance of responsible use of office equipment to all employees. But with all the fingers pointed to social media as a security threat, the idea that social networking can be productive and business efficient is still a questionable debate for many businesses and that needs to change.

Measuring ROI for your Social Media Campaign

Here at Miami Web Design Pro many clients that walk through our doors are uneducated on the idea that Social Media is beneficial to their business. They sit down and complain that all the time and money they invested led up to a spiraling downfall for their marketing campaign. Well today we will give you some tips on how you can strategically measure your return of investment and analyze certain factors like participation, involvement, engagement, customer loyalty and satisfaction that will increase your marketing efforts on social media networks. Social media endeavors are directly related to your business’s performance. So understanding the gain your business profits from when you suddenly have an increase in followers, subscribers, fans and traffic is key to a successful Social Media Marketing Campaign.

Each year social media platforms are used by countless of small and medium sized businesses as a great marketing tool to advertise and promote to a wider audience. But many businesses find it more difficult to analyze and track there rate of investment from their social media efforts then tracking PPC advertising. Its a little bit more complicated then tracking PPC campaigns. For starters as a business owner you should try and define certain goals you would like to achieve from using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google +. Keeping tabs on number of comments your receive or the number of followers you have on Facebook/Twitter and tracking whether they visit your site or product pages after are important. Did your sales increase because of the increase in traffic to your site? Tracking all this data is imperative, with out it you wouldn’t be able to calculate the ROI from your social media campaign. Set goals to increase communication with customers or potential ones. Engaging in conversation by replying to comments on Facebook or tweet’ing back to them on Twitter will go a long way for your social media campaign.

Keeping track of the data and your business goals with the help of some online solutions will help you optimize and maximize your marketing campaign. Using Google Analytics will allow you to track incoming links to your site and the activities of visitors on your site. Tracking Social Media Metrics using tools like PostRank, Omniture and Hootsuite will help you measure your rate of investment. You can then analyze all this data to see if your goals are met and you can easily see if the traffic to your website increased after you advertised using a social media platform like Facebook. Looking for trends and tracing their origin will help you track your ROI a lot easier as well.

If your rate of investment is small from using social media site then this means you need to evaluate your campaign to see what you did wrong and how you can do it differently. Since you kept track of all your data and social media metrics it will be less of a headache to see what exactly is doing well and what isn’t working for your marketing campaign and improve on it. Evaluate the impact of social media on your business and you can fine-tune your strategy to engage with a wider audience to increase brand awareness with Social Media!

Targeting Your Perfect Matches on the Web

Miami Web Design Pro knows it would be perfect if you knew exactly who your ideal prospects were before sending e-mails, newsletters, tweets, invites, and Facebook messages. While your information may be relevant and interesting, not everyone wants to hear what you have to say. That is why you need to know exactly who you’re targeting.
Read more…

Five Lies About the Youngsters

OK, so we’ve know how important it is to know your market, and know what appeals to them, what attracts them. In other words, know your age groups, genders, and races. There are a lot of stereotypes about ages, especially marketing to the youth. So which ones are true and which ones are not? Miami Web Design Pro is about to let you guys know.
Read more…

B2B Genius – The IBM Challenge

Nearly 10 million Americans tuned in on Valentine’s Day, all the way until the following Wednesday, to witness the IBM Challenge. Although this feeds our fears of computers taking over the world, Miami Web Design has to admit – it was pretty cool. Watson, the IBM computer dominated the game, going against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. These two contestants have been the greatest players the game had ever seen, until Watson came into the picture.
Read more…

Trends in the Business to Business Market

We here at Miami Web Design Pro hold a special place in our hearts for small businesses. That is why we write our blogs and share the information, so that you can improve your business in whatever way possible. Recently we’ve been conducting research on the new business to business trends, and we came across 5 important new moves occurring in the market.
Read more…

When do you know enough?

Miami Web Design is constantly researching to see what’s new in the business, and we’re constantly seeking more information about the industry. While we do our research, you also have to be doing your own homework. Many customers ask us when, and if, they have enough data?” There isn’t an exact answer to that because you should always be learning new things about your business, but there can be an information excess, and in that case you are no longer proactive, but counteractive.
Read more…

Your Next Secret Weapon – The Teenage Girl

And you thought your annoying little sister was just a brat, but she can be so much more than that. Web Design Miami wants to show you guys how to utilize all your connections, even your underage ones. Teen girls today are influential social connectors who seek out information about brands from a wide range of sources, and share that information frequently in their social circles.

We were all teenagers once and know that friendship was number one on the list of priorities. 77% of surveyed teen girls say they are influenced by the purchases of their friends and 73% of girls who like a brand will recommend it to their friends. So if they like your brand, then you’re in luck. Teenage girls are always talking, and brands and products usually come up as topics of conversation.
Read more…

Don’t Believe All the Branding Myths

Many small business owners believe that branding is too difficult, and that they will never achieve the “effective” branding of Apple or Virgin. Contrary to popular belief branding can easily be done with a little bit of elbow grease and effort. Below are many popular myths that stop business owners from tackling the branding monster.

Myth No. 1: Branding Is Too Hard To Do

You do not need to understand Nuclear Physics to understand branding; you just simply need to know how to focus. You need to focus on what you want your business to represent, and who you want your audience to be. Once you have thought that through you need to work towards communicating that message in everything you do, both visually and verbally. You will never stop branding. You have to always make sure that every single aspect of your company, from your materials to your customer service and messaging, embodies your message. Miami Web Design Pro believes that branding can be made simple, as long as you know what you are doing.

Myth No. 2: You Need A Huge Budget To Brand

You do not need to refinance your home to brand effectively, what you need to do is make sure that you have set apart your ideal audience and that the message you are trying to sell comes across loud and clear. After your audience receives your message and you are satisfying their needs you can focus on the expensive aspects of branding, like your logo and website. Always remember that if you are consistent it will not matter how much money you spend, because you will still be successful.  You may not be able to afford expensive and extravagant ad campaigns, but you can carry your message through your policies, presentations, logos, signature, etc. The most important things to remember in branding are: clarity, consistency, and strength in your message.

Read more…