Media Marketers has developed a marketing strategy process called G.E.A.R. It’s our way of analyzing your current marketing efforts, then brainstorming and implementing an effective plan for taking your efforts to the next level.

In our last post, we talked about the first step in that process, Generating your brand strategy and identity.

The next step in your marketing strategy is to EDUCATE your audience.

I remember watching cartoons on TV when I was growing up. There was a string of cartoons I was loyal to. Transformers. Smurfs. G.I. Joe. If they were on, I was watching them. Especially G.I. Joe.

At the end of every episode, there was a public-service announcement that would feature one or more of the cartoon characters. They’d educate me about how to deal with little life issues: bullying, strangers, drugs, etc. They’d tell me what to do in a situation, or why to avoid something. Each time, they’d end with the same phrase.

“Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.”

When it comes to getting your audience to choose your service or product, knowing is half the battle.

When you use your marketing—especially your web site—to share information, it can make a huge difference in how your audience perceives you. If they feel like they’ve been informed by you, their level of trust in you goes up. Trust in a business or organization leads to engagement—sales.

At Media Marketers, we believe educating your audience is a key step in forming a solid message and marketing strategy. When you become a “thought leader,” your trust level jumps. It puts you in a different league among your competition.

There are a number of steps that you can take to become your industry’s “thought leader.” To find out some of those tools, and how you can work your G.E.A.R. strategy, contact one of our marketing consultants today

As we said last week, Media Marketers has developed a marketing strategy process called G.E.A.R. It’s our way of analyzing your current marketing efforts, then brainstorming and implementing an effective plan for taking your efforts to the next level.

The first step in your marketing strategy is to GENERATE a plan and a brand.

I love road trips. Getting out on the open road and just driving for hours, visiting destinations on the way; seeing nature, people, and enjoying the conversation of a good travel buddy. It’s a blast.

Before I even set out on the road, I need a plan. I need to know what I’m doing and where I want to head. I’ll map it out all the places I’m interested in visiting. I’ll print out maps, send maps to my smartphone, and go over the possible stops along the way.

When it comes to GEARing up your marketing, you need to do the same. It’s not as easy as picking a destination and printing some maps, but it is still vital in your success.

As a business, you need to determine where you want to be in a year, in five years, in ten. Your marketing strategy is dependant on the destination you want to get to. If your goal is to double your customer base in five years, your marketing and branding strategy needs to be directed toward that eventual destination.  This is your marketing strategy.

You also need to know who you are, what you offer, and how to concisely share that message with people you meet along the way.  This is your brand identity. You need things like an “elevator pitch”—the 30-second or less statement that sums up what your company does, why it’s better than the rest, and why they need to use your services or products.

Identity is important. A good logo, good color scheme, and a top-notch website are all parts of a good brand Generation strategy. In today’s Internet-dependant society, people are going to the web to find solutions to their problems. When they do, will they find you? And when they find you, will they like what they see?

Statistics show that your web site has about six seconds to capture a visitor’s attention and engage them. Look at yours. Does it grab your attention and encourage you to engage? If not, how do you think your potential audience feels?

To GENERATE an effective brand, you need a brand strategy. Media Marketers can help you do that. We’ll work with you to understand your service, your audience, and the issues you face in sharing your message with them. Then, we’ll help you GENERATE a strategy that will put your marketing in G.E.A.R.

G.E.A.R. is a Media Marketers’ original. It’s a marketing strategy that we’ve worked hard to develop, and implement in our own marketing and to share with our clients. It represents the four-stage method to drive your marketing engine.

Generate. Educate. Acculturate. Reactivate.  G.E.A.R.

The world isn’t short on ideas. Creative individuals are all over, and most likely, you or one of your co-workers is known for having some great ideas.  Great ideas serve as the genesis for a good marketing plan. The problem is not having good ideas. The problem is knowing which ideas will fit into an effective marketing strategy. Taking those valid ideas, then harnessing them into something that will truly benefit your business, drive new customers, and build loyalty to your brand is what you strive for.

With Media Marketers’ G.E.A.R. strategy marketing, we can help you mine through all the ideas to find the true gems. When you sign up for G.E.A.R. strategy consulting, a marketing consultant will work with you and set your G.E.A.R. score—a way to know how you currently stand in marketing—and then determine next steps for taking your marketing and brand awareness to the next level.

Over the next few posts, we’ll share more about each aspect of the G.E.A.R. strategy, and provide some simple insight you should be considering.

To learn more about our G.E.A.R. strategy from one of our marketing consultants, contact us today.

Facebook just introduced a new sharing method. Just like the Like button, we now have Recommend and Send both utilizing different ways to share socially. Until now, the only way to share a link was to Like it and it posts to your news feed. Users now can Recommend an article or blog post that still posts to your news feed but rather than Liking it, you have Recommended it.

Facebook’s newest feature is the Send button. Previously the only way to share a page or blog is to Like it or now Recommend it which adds the link to your news feed. Now the Send button allows you to message it privately to another Facebook user, group or email.

With so many choices, how do you know which one is best for you? Should you use them all, should you use them side by side? Depending on your business, it may greatly increase your traffic by using one or more methods. Contact MediaMarketers.com for a social media analysis today.