Papa Advertising ~ General

You Botched That Email Campaign: Now What? ~

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0700

We all make mistakes...many at the click of a mouse. Here’s a great article with some very practical advice on how to "save" the day on email marketing efforts that go awry.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/6861/you-botched-that-marketing-email-now-what

How To Establish An Online Newsroom ~

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0700

With journalists and the media relying heavily on web-based resources, it is essential for organization’s to place relevant news, information and digital assets in a central, organized and easily accessed online newsroom. If you haven’t established one already, here are key steps to get your online newsroom up and running.

Consider Your Audience
Before establishing an online newsroom, you need to determine your target audience. Consider who will be looking at the content: journalists, consumers, business partners. Tailoring content specific to your audiences needs is critical; if it’s not relevant they won’t be back.

Post Relevant Content
Once your audience has been established, determine what content fits their needs best. As a general rule, photos, press releases, employee biographies and the option to subscribe to email or RSS alerts are standard in an online newsroom. Other sharing options, such as news clips, company history pieces and links to social media outlets, should be considered as well.

Optimize For Search
Making sure that your content is loaded with keywords is critical for search engine optimization (SEO). Certain amounts of restraint will need to be applied; too many keywords can trigger spam filters that can block your content from being displayed publically, rendering your content almost useless. Creating URLs with keywords rather than general web jargon can drive SEO with less threat of spam filters. Using commercial distribution websites, such as PR Newswire or Cision also increases SEO.

Remember Contact Information
Including contact information for marketing or public relations staff is equally important. Journalists work to short and specific deadlines; they want the name, email address and telephone number of a person that can help them on their schedule, not yours. Don’t bury this information on an obscure page; include it in a dedicated link or at the end of each piece of content. Creating a search function within your newsroom will help users find what they need.

Be Prepared For A Crisis
As an administrator of your newsroom, you should be prepared for a crisis and the communications it will require. A crisis can happen at any time and you need to be available to respond quickly, regardless of what day or time it happens. Make sure that you can access your newsroom from anywhere in the world, not just a specific computer in the office. In addition, make sure your site servers can handle the increased traffic that a crisis will attract. This is not the time to have to worry about a server crashing.

Remember, your online newsroom may be the first experience the media has with your company. It’s your responsibility to make sure it’s the right first impression.

Social Media and Manufacturing ~

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0700

So how does a low-profile manufacturing business benefit from social media? You’re probably thinking, “It’s manufacturing. We don’t manufacture anything ground breaking” or “we don’t have anything to talk about.” Wrong. Manufacturing companies can benefit from social media. Here’s how:

Relationship building
Most customers, whether it be direct customers or other businesses typically do not know much about a company other than what they can read on a company’s website. Nor do they have the ability to get to know the company staff beyond a phone call to the sales department to place an order. While a website is vital to establishing a company’s online presence, there’s much more that can be utilized.

Through social media, a company can post pictures of company events, products or services they offer or issues and trends that relate to the companies target audience. Posting pictures and products that your company offers illustrates that there is more to the company than just the name or the sales staff. It is good public day-to-day routines. For example, posting a few (tasteful) pictures from the company Christmas party shows that there are real people with personalities working to serve your audience. Posting biographies of the executive leadership gives audiences more information about the leadership in the company. Overall, posting this type of information shows that your company is transparent and is proud of your staff and what they do at your company.

Showing interest in your audiences industries
Cultivating conversations with your audiences about trends, ideas and thoughts about the industries they’re involved in gives a sense that your company genuinely wants to interact with its audience and establish a relationship beyond another order number. For example, a company that manufactures ovens could post interesting trends, topics and news from the baking, pizza and restaurant industries. Asking questions and starting conversations about topics like this bring audience members into the conversation; that’s exactly the two-way style of communication that makes social media so unique.

Utilizing social media also gives the impression that the company is staying with current trends and is up to date on offering the most cutting edge ways of communicating with their customers. More importantly, it shows that your company encourages feedback from its audience. Opening the doors to two-way communication can lead to product discussion, customer service…the possibilities are numerous.

It’s free!
The vast majority of social media platforms are completely free to use. Facebook and Twitter are free to use entirely, while LinkedIn is free to use, but offers different memberships that offer more services for an annual fee. Social media management software, such as TweetDeck or HootSuite, allows users to manage their accounts on multiple platforms from one home screen and post to multiple platforms at once. They also offer the option to schedule posts for the future. This software is also free, but HootSuite offers analytical services for a small monthly fee.

Drives SEO
Social media can be considered a low-risk project that has the potential to gain a lot of interest in your company from audiences that may not have interacted with your company if it wasn’t active in social media. Raising brand awareness is all about reaching to more people. When a person searches a company on a search engine, usually the first result will be their company website, along with a bunch of unrelated results that have nothing to do with their original search. By using social media, your presences show up on search engine search results, augmenting the website as another source of information.

Your manufacturing company can reap the benefits of social media just the same as any other company that uses this popular technology. The huge reach that social media has, paired with the little to no cost to operate makes it an obvious choice for any company that wants to expand their potential for new customers or potential partners.

Six Social Trends For 2012 ~

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:00:00 -0700

What can we expect in 2012 in a world that seems to grow ever connected by the hour? Here are six predictions to ponder, in no particular order:

Convergence Emergence. For a glimpse into how social will further integrate with "real life," we can look at what Coca Cola experimented with all the way back in 2010. Coke created an amusement park where participants could "swipe" their RFID-equipped wristbands at kiosks, which posted to their Facebook account what they were doing and where. Also, as part of a marketing campaign, Domino's Pizza posted feedback — unfiltered feedback — on a large billboard in Times Square, bringing together real opinions from real people pulled from a digital source and displayed in the real world. These types of "trans-media" experiences are likely to define "social" in the year to come.

The Cult of Influence. In much the same way that Google has defined a system that rewards those who produce findable content, there is a race on to develop a system that will reward those who wield the most social influence. One particular player has emerged, Klout, determined to establish their platform as the authority of digital influence. Klout's attempt to convert digital influence into business value underscores a much bigger movement which we'll continue to see play out in the next year. To some degree everyone now has some digital influence (not just celebrities, academics, policy makers or those who sway public opinion). But for the next year, the cult of influence becomes less about consumer plays like Klout and more about the tools and techniques professionals use to "score" digital influence and actually harness, scale and measure the results of it.

Gamification Nation. No we're not taking about video games. Rather, game-like qualities are emerging within a number of social apps in your browser or mobile device. From levels, to leaderboards, to badges or points, rewards for participation abound. It's likely that the trend will have to evolve given how competition for our time and attention this gaming creates. Primarily, gamification has been used in consumer settings, but look for it in other areas from HR, to government, healthcare and even business management. Perhaps negotiating your next raise will be tied to your position on the company's digital leaderboard.

Social Sharing. Ideas, opinions, media, status updates are all part of what makes social media a powerful and often disruptive force. The media industry was one of the first to understand this, adding sharing options to content, which led to more page views and better status in search results. What comes next in social sharing is more closely aligned with e-commerce or web transactions. For example, Sears allows a user to share a product or review with their networks directly from the site. Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next. We probably don't know what we are willing to share until we see the option to do it.

Social Television. For many of us, watching television is already a social act, whether it's talking to the person next to you, or texting, tweeting, and calling friends about what you're watching. But television is about to become a social experience in a bigger and broader sense. The X Factor now allows voting via Twitter and highlights other social promotions, which encourages viewers to tap social networks while they watch. Another way media consumption is becoming social comes from a network called Get Glue which acts as something of a Foursquare for media. Participants can "check-in" to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programs they love. Watch for more of this this year as ratings rise for socially integrated shows.

The Micro Economy. Lastly as we roll into 2012, watch for a more social approach to solving business problems through a sort of micro-economy. Kickstarter gives anyone with a project, the opportunity to get that initiative funded by those who choose to (and patrons receive something in return). A crowdsourcing platform for would be inventors called Quirky lets the best product ideas rise to the top and then helps them get produced and sold while the "inventor" takes a cut. Air BnB turns homes into hotels and travelers into guests, providing both parties with an opportunity to make and save money. These examples may point to a new future reality where economic value is directly negotiated and exchanged between individuals over institutions.

These are a few emerging trends which come to mind. As with anything, looking to the past often gives us clues for what may come in the future.

– HBR BLOG NETWORK

PR Lessons from Occupy Wall Street ~

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:00:00 -0700

Communications power has shifted, perhaps permanently. Those who master the tricky task of harnessing and unleashing the power of the social web can become truly influential.

Grassroots movements attract the powerful. Today, traditional sources of power scramble to associate themselves with grassroots movements – or to respond to them. It’s only a matter of time before this agenda finds its way onto an even bigger stage.

Rush to understand, but don’t rush to judge. Thoughtful observes should seek to understand what is happening – not just the news but also the strategies, tactics and sources of power that shape today’s headlines. People shouldn’t make claims without scrutinizing them. It’s worth thinking critically before tweeting, retweeting or forming an opinion that you may have to change later.

- PR TACTICS

Streaming Your Brand in a Real-Time World ~

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:00 -0700

Remember when public relations campaigns had a beginning, a middle and an end? How far we’ve come. Now “brandstreaming” – real-time, always-on, multi-directional, multi-format communications – is the order of the day. Read more in this PR Newswire white paper.

Content Marketing Yields Leads, Customers and Brand Development ~

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:00:00 -0700

Lead Generation a Top Priority
Among B2B companies using content marketing (and 82% do, according to a new study from content curation firm HiveFire), lead generation tops the list of objectives. Sixty percent of B2B marketers name leads as their top priority. Running a close second (57%) is converting those leads into paying customers. Branding, reputation and awareness are third at 45 percent, according to a July 2011 survey by Marketing Sherpa.

Content includes white papers, fact sheets, case studies, webinars and email newsletter campaigns, all aimed at fattening the sales funnel with new leads, and convincing those leads to buy. As one might expect, the benefits and effectiveness of each type of content differs for B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) firms.

Some Content Is More Effective
According to Focus Research, blog posts and webinars/virtual events are about equally valuable for North American B2B and B2C marketing efforts; these were the top two choices for both categories for 35-39% of survey respondents. Both categories also listed videos (20-23%) and podcasts (6-9%). But B2B companies like the results from publishing industry white papers (31%), while just 14% of B2C companies deem these “most valuable.” And 10% of B2B companies also identify vendor-sponsored white papers as useful; B2C firms don’t use these at all.

One surprise: B2C companies find more value in data-driven research reports (29% compared to 20% for B2B firms). User/peer-generated content is also deemed valuable by both business categories (23% B2C and 17% B2B).

A bonus to content marketing: fresh, authoritative content keeps company websites high in organic search rankings. And as more people read company content, those rankings remain high, and more people (leads) find the content.

Email Marketing Drives Content “Push”
A new report from eMarketer, “B2B Lead Generation: Using Content to Acquire Customers,” affirms that companies are finding they can attract early-stage buyers with content and draw them into the sales pipeline, as well as foster longer-term relationships with established customers. Companies are mingling published content options with competitive comparisons, specific company information and interactive elements. Email marketing is a key tactic for sharing much of this content.

SOURCE: Second Wind

What to Consider Before Launching Employee-Focused Channels ~

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Don’t assume you have a captive audience when communicating internally. Consider this advice from PR News and experts Steve Halsey and Ken Gedaka:

It’s a crowded world out there. Hundreds of e-mails, thousands of news feeds and millions of Web sites—not to mention text messages from family and friends—compete for our attention every day. When evaluating how to integrate digital media into an internal communications campaign, some things to consider include:

Are They Plugged In?
Where are employees located and how do they access information? Are they mostly at headquarters, branch offices or remote locations? What kind of devices do employees use for business? What percentage of workers is based in manufacturing locations?

Culture
How does the internal environment affect access to technology, transparency and receptiveness to the channel?

Intent
What is the overall goal of the campaign and what action do you want employees to take? Which digital communications vehicles and channels best align with the given intent?

Intranet: Library vs. Channel
What does the company intranet look like? How is it built? Is it a place to simply download forms and files? Can it be an information hub of the company? How does its set up impact your options?

Multimedia and Dynamic Content
What do you want the experience to be? Can you effectively integrate audio and video to make things more dynamic? Is there a role for internal webcasts and multimedia presentations? Will your message be helped, or hurt, based on how dynamic it is?

Momentum
What is the frequency you need to publish digital content to keep your internal audience tuned in? How will you source that content…today, tomorrow, next week, next month? Can you maintain the momentum of whatever you create?

Metrics
How and what will you measure? Are you open to what that data says and adjusting your campaign in concert?

Leadership Appetite
Are internal communications valued? How willing are your executives to being more transparent? Will they support making internal communications more social? Answers to questions like these will help you determine whether or not you will be able to unleash an external digital mind-set on internal communications.

PAPA Advertising Named Agency of Record for WNY Health System ~

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Erie agency to develop branding, advertising and web marketing programs for Lake Erie Regional Health System of Western New York

Lake Erie Regional Health System of Western New York (LERHS) has engaged PAPA Advertising to launch a comprehensive, integrated marketing plan. Initial assignments include market research, brand development, interactive marketing and service line advertising.

Brooks Memorial Hospital, Lake Shore Health Care Center and Gowanda Urgent Care & Medical Center are all a part of the system’s continuum of services that includes acute care, diagnostic imaging, rehabilitation, behavioral health and skilled nursing.

“The health system’s executive leadership indicated that our 30 years of health care marketing experience got their attention,” noted Mike Smiley, vice president at PAPA. “PAPA’s health care team has worked with more than two dozen health care organizations, including Ashtabula County Health System, EmergyCare, Hamot Health Foundation, Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Shriners Hospitals for Children and Saint Vincent Health Center.”

Smiley added that the agency’s work in health care has been nationally recognized for strategic and creative excellence in health care advertising and public relations, reflected by more than three dozen national awards.

Turn Waiting Time Into Idea Time ~

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Here’s some great advice from Howdesign.com: when you feel you don’t have time to sit and think, try using dead time to generate ideas and insights.

Checkout Lines. Look at people and what’s in their carts. Notice impulse items. Try to understand buying habits.
Restaurants. Scrutinize menus and displays. Decide how color, lighting and music affect the business.
Cars. Capture ideas while stuck in traffic with apps like Voice Memos.
Airports and Parks. Notice how people dress, eat and drink...what they read. Watch how they connect with others.
Trains and Planes. Use flight time to brainstorm; generate random lists or ideas for projects.

A New Brand Emerges ~

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Nearly 30 years ago, three hospitals in Erie, Pa., developed EmergyCare, a centralized medical transportation service designed to better meet all types of emergency and non-emergency needs in the region. In recent years, EmergyCare evolved to be an independent and dynamic mobile medical organization, but its fleet of 68 vehicles and the uniforms of more than 300 employees still bore its outdated identity.

"To strengthen awareness and position EmergyCare as a regional asset for philanthropy, our leadership team decided it was imperative to update our brand," explained Jennifer Farrar, EmergyCare's director of development. "We felt that PAPA's extensive brand experience, particularly in health care, would enable us to achieve our objectives."

EmergyCare challenged PAPA to create a new brand identity and positioning theme that would work across the organization's broad scope of services and reflect their team's commitment to timely, compassionate medical response.

"We had to determine how EmergyCare's new brand identity would work with all their ambulances and medical taxis, even their helicopter," said Toni Malena, PAPA graphic designer. "Just as important, we had to consider its application to uniforms and equipment bags as well as stationery and signage."

Following input from EmergyCare's internal team, PAPA developed initial design concepts and themes to test with an external focus group. With that input, the new brand image and positioning theme - When your health is on the line - were finalized. A few weeks later, Bill Hagerty, EmergyCare's executive director, introduced both to the staff and community.

"EmergyCare is robust organization that offers many levels of medical transportation services, often providing life-saving care," Hagerty remarked. "Our new brand conveys that in a very strong way. The response has been overwhelmingly positive."

What to Do When a Customer Isn't Ready to Buy Today ~

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Many clients say their customers complain that every time they try to do web research, they are immediately bombarded by salespeople looking to close a deal. It does not matter if you are investigating an accounting package, marketing automation, health insurance or just a copier — lots of people wanting to get your requirements and send you quotes.

According to online experts, this is because many lead-management programs make the mistake of treating all prospects as if they're ready to make a purchase right away. So how can you set your company apart from the rest—and prove a valuable resource in a prospect's research process? Here’s some great advice:

Give as much—if not more—than you take. Prospects need a reason and benefit to share their goals and needs with you. They also need some assurance that their information will not be used 'for evil.'"

Tailor your communications for each prospect. Make it clear that you're responding to a specific question or action. Look at Amazon recommendations as a best practice, where each recommendation can be traced back to a specific past behavior of that customer.

Establish yourself as an impartial intermediary. You're here to help the prospect make the best possible purchase. And sharing third party feedback on your product or service—even if it isn't entirely positive—might actually enhance your credibility.

The Point: You'll earn the most goodwill (and, potentially, close the biggest sales) if you give a prospect exactly what she wants during the research process.

Source: B2Bbloggers

Is Google+ the Ultimate Content Marketing Platform? ~

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0600

As we’ve said around here a few hundred times, smart social media marketing is actually content marketing.

Why?

Because people love to share content on social networks.

If that content is yours, you’re being introduced to new people with every share … to people who now have an opportunity to know, like, and trust you enough to buy from you.

People on Facebook and Twitter have been providing free exposure via sharing to smart marketers who build their businesses with online content. But there’s a new player in the game that may just become the content marketing platform of choice.

Let’s talk about Google+ (since everyone else is).

In case you’ve been incarcerated in a Turkish prison for the last few weeks, Google+ is the new social networking platform from the search engine giant.

It’s been more accurately called a “sharing” platform, and I think that distinction alone means everyone producing online content needs to take a serious look at Google+.

Here are 3 things to think about when considering whether to hop on Google+ to drive traffic back to your site:

1. People

Based on initial reports, Google+ is the fastest-growing social network ever, despite a limited-access, invitation-only launch.

Google confirmed 10 million users after only two weeks, and that number may have reached 20 million as you read this.

That’s in part to its better design and functionality, but also because of the integration of Google+ across the Google network. Google already has hundreds of millions of users in general, which gives Google+ an “unfair” advantage that Facebook and Twitter didn’t have at this stage.

Takeaway: Social networks are powered by people, and it looks like Google+ is off to a great start. If the growth rate continues, there’s a good chance the people you’re trying to reach will be on Google+, which means you should be on Google+.

2. Sharing

As noted above, Google+ has been built from the ground-up as a content sharing platform.

It takes the good things about Facebook and Twitter and makes them better. More importantly, Google had the luxury of watching what Facebook and Twitter have done wrong, and made it right.

There are plenty of other articles that explain why Google+ is shaping up to be an excellent content sharing platform. Down to brass tacks, Google has solved the inherent privacy and “over-sharing” issues that make Facebook problematic, while providing a rich multimedia and discussion environment that Twitter simply can’t match.

Takeaway: Google+ has been put together in a way that encourages, rewards, and protects content sharing. Content marketers have every incentive to participate since Google knows that content sharing drives social networks.

3. SEO

Google’s search engine was built on the premise that content with links pointing to it deserves to be ranked higher than content with fewer links.

With the emergence of social media, the Google algorithm has evolved to include sharing as an additional indicator of content quality for ranking purposes.

Google has been effectively locked out of the walled garden of Facebook.

Twitter tweets and retweets have been shown to influence Google rankings, and my bet is they still will going forward.

But now, Google has its own content sharing platform that provides direct access to “the voice of the people” when it comes to quality content.

Takeaway: This is the big one. Building an audience on Google+ may be the smartest thing you do as a content marketer when it comes to improved search rankings. You still need to understand the language of your audience and reflect it back in your content, but Google will now have direct indications that you’re putting out quality stuff.

It’s Still Early …

Despite the early fascination and impressive growth rate, this thing is barely out of the gate.

If you want to get your feet wet, sign up for Google+ and add me to one of your circles. I’ll be sharing content and observations from my own use of Google+ to help you out.

And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t clearly state that Google+ is not a replacement for your website or blog. You share content that resides on your property, where you make the rules.

Being a digital sharecropper is never cool, no matter who owns the plantation.

— Copyblogger

Is your organization “age-ready?” ~

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0600

In 2009, at the age of 60, Bruce Springsteen earned more revenue from his concert tour than did Coldplay and the Jonas Brothers combined. Really.

It’s apparent we live in a new world where the 50+ consumer is fast becoming the major driver of the U.S. Economy. Is your organization ready to claim your fair share of the $3.5 trillion spent annually by boomers and older adults on consumer goods and services (by the way, younger adults spend around $2.3 trillion, or about a third less according to the latest Consumer Expenditure Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics)?

It is time for all organizations -- from Fortune 500 corporations to non-profits to government entities to local retailers -- to get up-to-speed on what is happening to the demographics in the U.S. and what to do about it. Over the next two decades America and most of the world will undergo a profound, transformative, industry-changing, revolutionary and permanent change: there will be fewer younger people and greater numbers of older people than ever before. This change will be as dramatic and all encompassing as the change that happened between Aug. 6, 1991, and today, some 20 years later.

That's right, on that day Tim Berners-Lee announced to the online world that he had created the worldwide web (sorry, Al Gore was not in the room at the time). If you could go back to that day, knowing what you know now about the impact of the web on literally everything, what would you do differently? Not just in 1991, but in '92, '93, '94 and so on? How would you have capitalized on the change, as it happened? (

Our belief is that the inevitable age shift is as profound, transformative, industry-changing, revolutionary and permanent. Knowing that, what should your organization start doing differently? Now, in 2011, and in '12, '13, '14 and so on. We see three courses of action:

Become "Age Aware." The simple facts about the size and spending of the 50+ consumer segment ought to be well known by anyone running an organization today. Here's another demographic time bomb few seem to grasp: between now and 2031, the 18-to-49 age segment is expected to grow in size by 12 percent, reaching about 153 million. The 50+ segment will expand by 34 percent, reaching 135 million, almost as large. Focusing only on young adults -- about half the market -- is a fast way to ruin your business.

Get "Age Ready." Once your organization has a grasp on the demographic realities, it is time to plan for the future. The longer-trend, permanent shift in the age composition in America will impact every industry and every organization, but not all at the same time in the same way. Does your organization have any game plan for capitalizing on this future?

Plan to become "ageless." Few organizations can afford separate marketing programs for different generational or age segments. The ultimate goal is to change how you approach marketing so it is truly "ageless." A good place to start is by reading David Wolfe's Ageless Marketing. Finding a path forward that enables you to effectively market to both young and old is not difficult. It starts, though, with your organization coming to grips with the reality that such a move is demographically necessary.

Source: Matt Thornhill

Summer Interns Bring Fresh Ideas to PAPA Advertising ~

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Students Meghan Fagley of University of Akron, Carla Robertson of Penn State University and Ryan Nguyen a graduate of Duquesne University, recently joined PAPA Advertising, in Erie, PA for summer internships.

Each intern has developed their own niche on the PAPA team – Fagley, the young creative designer, Robertson, a burgeoning social media expert and Nguyen, a savvy researcher.

Fagley is actively involved in several different projects one of them being the creating a background for the PAPA Twitter page. Fagley said she also was involved with designing a direct mail brochure that was sent out to different universities for PAPA Advertising.

“It was very cool feeling to see my work being sent out to all these schools. I am proud of it,” remarked Fagley.

Robertson is working on the PAPA Facebook and PAPA Twitter sites. Robertson said that when she began her internship she wanted to implement a Twitter account for PAPA Advertising.

“Of all the projects I have done so far, my first one was the hardest,” Robertson noted. I had to develop a Power Point presentation that involved creating one slide to display across on four different screens.

Nguyen currently, is working on research for George Junior Republic and that Indiana program. Another project he is working on is researching clubs and organizations at Edinboro University for upcoming brochures.

“I just really want to get involved in as many different projects as I can,” said Nguyen.

Together Fagley, Robertson and Nguyen are recruiting friends, family members and students of Edinboro University to participate in photo shoot for Edinboro University. Recently, Fagley and Robertson went to Edinboro University with Elizabeth Papa, PAPA Art Director, to recruit more students for two upcoming photo shoots.

Now that you know a little bit about PAPA Advertising and what these interns bring to the PAPA team, why don’t you “Like Us” on Facebook, “Follow Us” on Twitter @PAPAadvertising and read more of the blog.

5 Great Reasons to Start Your Facebook Page Right Now ~

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0600

With all the chatter over the weekend about the debut of Google Plus, you’d think this article would be about the newest and shiniest social network from the search giant.

But for now, we’ll let the tech types and early adopters play with Google Plus and go ahead and make sure your business is being seen where the people are.

We’re talking 700 million people — that’s the estimated number of Facebook accounts. With those kinds of numbers, even Copyblogger couldn’t resist creating a Facebook Page.

You may have been avoiding Facebook due to lack of privacy, lack of time, or an overflow of confusion (all valid reasons). But it still pays to take advantage of the benefits.

The obvious thing Facebook has going for it is numbers.

Facebook has surpassed Google as the most trafficked site in the world. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook, and at least a little of that time isn’t Farmville.

That’s 700 billion, with a ‘B’. Your business needs to go where the people are hanging out.

But getting on Facebook isn’t just about the fact that there are a lot of people there.

If you are one of the last holdouts, here are five great reasons to go kicking and screaming onto Facebook.

1. Connection

Facebook allows you to contact your community every day and remind them of your presence.

Your post shows up in the News Feed of your “Likers” and they are given the opportunity to interact with you. You are inviting your target audience into your business every day.

Hint: when I say every day, that’s how often I recommend you post to your Page.

Facebook also allows you to connect with people so they get to know you and your business better.

With those daily connections you build that “know-like-trust” factor which is critical.

2. Authority

Facebook helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field.

You become the funnel of helpful information related to your niche that your community needs.

You hand-feed your community tips, tidbits, newsworthy items, and hot happenings so that when they need your services, you are the first person they think about.

3. Branding

Facebook helps your branding.

The more places you are seen on the web with your consistent brand message, the more you will be remembered. The playing field has been leveled.

The small guys can now look big. Have a professional logo done or professional headshot if you are branding yourself.

Everything about your Facebook Page can add to your brand philosophy. Even the links to other sites that you choose to share will help you brand yourself.

Be mindful of where you are sending your audience.

4. Visibility

With some recent Facebook Page changes, you can now comment on other Pages as your Page and Like other Page’s posts.

If you have no idea what that sentence is about, don’t worry. Just know that this feature will give your Facebook Page much more visibility then it had before and make it easier to participate on Facebook as your business.

As with any online posting, use this new feature wisely.

Make sure you aren’t just spamming other pages — always add value to the discussion.

5. Share-ability

Facebook makes it very easy to pass good content around.

People can share your links, your videos and your pictures. So if you post quality content from your site on your Facebook Page, your community will provide you with valuable digital word-of-mouth advertising.

Some people worry about where to get all this good content to share.

Pull it in from other blogs, Google alerts in your niche, and mix it in with your own content. It doesn’t even have to be directly related to your business.

For a whole lot of tips on how to get the most out of Facebook, see my Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing.

Got any more (or better) reasons to jump on Facebook now?

Let’s get at them in the comments.

— Copyblogger

12 Ways To Make Tradeshow Marketing Deliver ~

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Many have pronounced tradeshow marketing dead. But with the right strategy, hard work and flawless execution, tradeshows can still be a productive part of your marketing plan. Here are 12 ways to breathe new life into your tradeshows.

1. Start planning early

Getting into a tradeshow at the last minute because of a promoter’s great deal is almost never a good idea. It shows you are being reactive with a major investment of time and money. If you start planning well in advance, however, you have the opportunity to obtain a quality booth space, get on the speaking agenda, secure adequate sales engagement, and plan appropriate pre- and post-show promotion. Your chances of having a positive experience are much higher.

Remember that most of the tradeshow cost is T&E (travel and entertainment), collateral and sign production, drayage, labor, rentals, etc.—so a last-minute deal on the exhibit cost is not really much of a deal.

2. Make sure the audience is a good fit

Most shows will publish a web page for attendees that includes a "who should attend" description. Read it to determine whether the show is a good match for your target market.

Ask for the last year’s attendee list so you can fact-check the salesperson's claim about last year's attendance number, and also to gauge wheat-to-chaff ratio. Don't expect every registrant to be from your target audience, but determine whether the ratio is acceptable.

3. Get on the presentation agenda

It is much more likely to be worth attending a show if you can get on the agenda; it is validation that your message is on target for the audience. Conversely, it might not be worth doing a show if you are not on the presentation agenda. Exhibiting alone might not be a large enough value proposition to warrant the investment in tradeshow marketing.

A speaker slot ensures your message will be delivered to a large audience and gives your speaker a chance to mention your booth number for follow-up discussions.

4. Establish a service level agreement with sales

Tradeshows should be a shared effort between sales and marketing. Work with your sales manager to establish a service-level agreement for sales to work hard to promote your participation before and after the show, engage attendees during the show, and follow up aggressively and systematically after the show. If you can't get sales to agree, you are better off just renting the list of attendees and focusing on marketing for lead generation.

5. Negotiate for the full list of registrants

A one-time blast or a pre- and post-show blast will probably be offered as part of the exhibitor package. That might be good enough, but negotiate for unlimited use of the full list, if possible.

6. Promote your participation to customers and prospects prior to the show

All tradeshows are local, so the saying goes. Promote your presence at the show within a 100-mile radius via marketing and sales. Mandate a sales call campaign in that territory as part of the service-level agreement mentioned above. Promote it at least two weeks in advance to give members of your audience time to arrange their attendance if they so desire. Promote a relevant offer they can collect by visiting your booth. Get free exhibitor passes from tradeshow management, if possible.

7. Demand aggressive and professional performance from booth staff

Again, this is part of the service-level agreement with sales. Mandate uniform attire so visitors know who is working. Prohibit any phone or BlackBerry use in the booth area; it interferes with engagement. Have a practiced elevator pitch and engagement question ready. Get out into the aisle and engage with everyone who walks by.

8. Capture detailed lead information

Rent a badge scanner. Also, preprint a stack of 8.5" x 5.5" cards that have qualifying questions on them and room to take notes. Salespeople should put their own names on the cards and take notes on every conversation. Staple business cards or badge scan printouts to these note cards, and deposit the cards in some sort of basket or box.

9. Provide giveaways and raffles

I consider it a sad reflection on humanity, but such gimmicks do work to drive booth traffic! Give away something small (a blinking pen), and raffle off something bigger (an iPad). Have collateral, printed analyst reports, or free trials on hand for serious visitors who aren't into the gimmicks.

10. Enter all leads into a CRM system for Sales follow-up

No exceptions. Add notes from the note cards (see above) to the customer relationship management (CRM) record (there is nothing more annoying to a sales prospect than having a long conversation with the sales rep at the booth that is completely forgotten when the follow-up call is made).

Measure lead conversion carefully, and report back to sales. Sales follow-up should include a relevant offer (analyst report, free trial) for leads who require further nurturing before they are ready to buy.

11. Continue post-show marketing with an appropriate offer

Send "thanks for joining us" emails to leads captured at the booth, and "sorry we missed you" emails to customers and prospects within a 100-mile radius. Even if they did not attend the show, prospects will perceive you as being active in their locality. Include a valuable business offer (analyst report, free trial) to encourage further engagement.

12. Hold a post-mortem review with sales and marketing

One week after the show, conduct a post-mortem meeting with all marketing and sales participants to determine whether the show was of good quality and should be considered again next year. Evaluate the performance of sales and marketing vs. the service-level agreement. Identify areas for improvement. Track CRM performance of the leads; it would be premature after only one week, but schedule follow-up meetings for ongoing tracking. Tabulate all costs.

Document the post-mortem discussion so you don't forget your analysis when you are considering next year's show.

The End of the 'Average American?' ~

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Fifty years ago, the concept of John Doe, an average American in a relatively even society where vast numbers of people had similar consumer needs, was real. But results from the 2010 census—due to be released this summer—will show just how much that picture has changed. For marketers, the message is simple: There's no such thing as an "average American" anymore.

No racial or ethnic segment is a majority in our two most populous states—California and Texas—or in our ten largest cities. Households headed by married couples are now a minority, down from a two-thirds majority 25 years ago.
Life expectancy is up, and elders often live with children and grandchildren.

One-size-fits-all messaging won’t cut it anymore. It will seem wildly off-base and irrelevant, especially if you attempt it in your email and social media marketing—avenues in which instantaneous feedback and listening is expected.

So here’s some advice for your online, mobile and social media strategies:

Segment, segment, segment. The more you know about individual customers, the more relevant your messaging can be. Age, gender, location, household composition, marital/family status and ethnicity all matter. But don't forget about life stages like new parents, families with children and empty nesters.

Trust, but verify. As the population diversifies, customers might find themselves in multiple segments, making hard-to-predict decisions. Solicit their preferences with frequent surveys, but compare their responses to demonstrated behavior.

The Point: Until you dig deep into your customer data—demographics, offer responses, media preferences, survey answers, and more—you may have assumptions about your customers that are entirely untrue.

Source: MarketingProfs.

Is Yahoo! no longer a search engine? Yes…and no. ~

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Jason Keller - Director of Interactive Media at PAPA Advertising

For the past year Bing has had control over Yahoo! search results. So yes, you can still use Yahoo! as a search engine, however your results are controlled by Bing.

Who cares? Well, unless you are a big searcher like me and like to use multiple search engines to see different or more accurate results, then you probably will not care. But on the Pay Per Click or "PPC" side of things, you have now lost the control to target only Yahoo! search users. For marketers, this is disappointing.

Beginning this month, Yahoo! has given all control of PPC over to Bing, so now you have to use Bing to run PPC on Yahoo!. The problem is, to run PPC on Yahoo! you are also paying to run it on Bing with no way of separating the two. This to me is a big deal; two different users in my mind.

Is there a benefit to this? Yes, the benefit is that as of March 2011 Bing controlled 30 percent of the search market and growing, projections say 35 percent as of this month. So you can now reach a larger audience with PPC and most likely it will be cheaper than using Google, the now shrinking giant of searches.

The wrap-up! As I said, yes and no. Yahoo! alone isn't a search engine anymore, but they do have search within their website. So if you are a dedicated Yahoo! user, have liked the search results for the past many years and haven't noticed a difference, then you probably don't care.

As for the people using or wanting to use PPC, this does effect things. You can now manage a larger PPC campaign more efficiently using only Bing and Google and still reach most of the search users on the internet.

A Blogger Sleepover? ~

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Since January, PAPA Advertising has been assisting Chautauqua Institution with a converged social media and paid search marketing campaign. The focused initiative has engaged existing supporters while introducing several thousand new fans to the lakeside summer community. A month ago PAPA began looking for ways to enhance the online conversations and an idea surfaced...why not invite bloggers for an overnight visit to experience all that Chautauqua has to offer.

"Our strategy was to reach out to bloggers who were writing about topics that will be a part of Chautauqua's summer season," said Jennifer Smith, PAPA public relations specialist. "Health care issues, the Civil War, American spies and much more are all on the schedule. Each week has a theme and associated speakers, events and performances. In the online community, we found passionate talkers who welcomed our invitation to learn what Chautauqua had in store."

Smith explained that during the Chautauqua event, the bloggers will be able to enjoy the institution's unique atmosphere, meet with program directors and participate in activities related to their interests. According to Smith, bloggers are coming from several markets, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Rochester, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo and Erie.

“We developed this event to enable the bloggers to experience Chautauqua for themselves and help us spread the word about the community's unique schedule of programming. Through their online word-of-mouth sharing, the bloggers can influence thousands of people,” added Smith.