Build your own GLA

My car, My colour, My style. Yes. Build your own GLA is just about this. A sense of belonging and an emotional factor is tagged to the product by this exclusive feature of Mercedes that enables the user to,

• Form customised versions of cars.
• Pick their prefered colours, wheels, roof and grill options from among various components.
• Seamlessly, navigate from 1 component to the next, on the tap of the mobile screen.
• Build personalised car models on Mercedes’ website.

Mark Aikman, the department manager, digital marketing and CRM at Mercedes-Benz USA states, “Instagram has been a very important platform for Mercedes-Benz and continues to grow in popularity among the younger millennial consumer that we are trying to introduce the brand to. Build Your Own GLA’ allows us to talk to them where they are and provide them with an interactive experience within Instagram.”
Obviously, Mercedes has taken up Instagram as its major social media platform because Instagram is a visual platform and Mercedes’ product is aesthetic to generate that visual appeal.

And with this feature of Build your own GLA in hand, Mercedes can reinvent its past success on Instagram and boost its already-175,000-strong followers on it.

Using Whatsapp as a marketing tool is the most discussed topic among many a marketing professional today. Whatsapp, whose main objective is to connect people from around the world does not sound commercial in any way.

Whatsapp has gained commercial importance among businesses mainly after its acquisition by the Social Networking major Facebook for a whopping $19 billion.

When a brand like Facebook, the most sought after online marketing platform had turned its attention towards an instant messaging app like Whatsapp, we can only expect Whatsapp to have some commercial use for businesses.

Brands big and small have started investigating on the possibility of using Whatsapp in their brand communications. Whatsapp has many advantages and we have listed out a few of them which had made whatsapp a valuable marketing platform.

It’s quicker

It is as simple as that. Whatsapp is an instant messaging application which involves lesser efforts to get the message across.

Marketers had used emails and social networks to communicate with their customers and this simple app let’s them to directly interact with their customers with just a smartphone

We all know that people like to fidget with their smartphones looking for information every now and then and Whatsapp allows you to feed them instantly. Text messaging is not dead yet, the SMS is.

Like the social networks, Whatsapp allows you to do text messaging along with images and videos which is too good to ignore for marketers. Unlike Social networks, efforts for creating content is lesser and much easier with Whatsapp.

Absolut vodka has best used the simplicity of Whatsapp’s features to promote its campaign. It created a conceptual campaign for the young.

The users have to get themselves invited to a party which is for Absolut Vodka reaching a milestone of 4 million uniquely designed bottles. The engagement had been overwhelming with users sharing rich content with images and videos.

Costs you almost nothing

With just $1 a year, Whatsapp costs you absolutely nothing for your marketing efforts and instantly boosts customer conversations around the brand.

With SMS becoming expensive, the wider audience have moved on to Whatsapp for messaging purposes which had already resulted in a huge blow to the telecom service providers.

Whatsapp Marketing has proved to be a boon for small businesses who aim at cutting costs at every step and adopt frugal practices. To run a marketing campaign on Whatsapp, all you have to do is allocate a person exclusively to manage the campaign and respond to the messages promptly just like what the Israeli Chocolate brand Klik did on Whatsapp.

Customer relationship

With the shift in power from the producer to the consumer and with the rise of social media, consumers are habituated to voice their concerns about a brand quite easily. Whatsapp is yet another tool for them.

Be where your customers are: Smartphones have enabled easy access to your customers. To get in touch with your customers, you just need to have their numbers saved in your mobile phone and you will now be able to Whatsapp them. Communication with the customer is not time bound and is open 24/7.

To give you a valid example, in Kazakhstan a rumour had spread that 3 of its top banks are on the verge of bankruptcy and the situation was tensed with customers running around to withdraw money. Whatsapp came in real handy to inform their customers that all is fine. Such is the power of Whatsapp in spreading a message at the right time.

Brand Positioning

With much more personalized interaction, you would know what your customer wants from you and hence will be able to position your marketing communications based on that. Your customers will be delighted that all their queries are answered in real time by real people. As a brand, you can very well show your customers, how much you care.

Homeshop 18 used Whatsapp to change customer’s perception about the brand as a TV shopping network. The campaign, “shopping makes me Happy”, positioned the brand as an all rounder for the consumer’s shopping needs not limiting itself to the television. To add the fun element to its messages, the brand used Billy and Sunny, the father and son duo as the brand’s voice.

Marketing communications through Whatsapp

Whatsapp can be used for a variety of marketing activities. It is the best place to showcase a product’s image, a video explaining the product’s features, discount coupons and festive offers. Whatsapp makes it easy to invite customer feedback and for grievance redressal. One-on-one interaction is helpful in conducting surveys and a Whatsapp group can be used as a focus group to discuss about the brand.

Brands had started using a platform which is as personal as Whatsapp to send marketing messages. Red FM had asked their listeners to engage with them on Whatsapp, the listeners sing a line from any song and send it via Whatsapp for the opportunity to become a “RedFM ka Whatsapp Star”.

The store managers of various brands like Cartier, Armani and Diesel are effectively using Whatsapp to communicate offers and promotions according to an article by Economic Times

Dos and Don’ts of Whatsapp Marketing

Dos

1.Share your Whatsapp Contact details on your website and other social media platforms.
2. Use whatsapp only when you have an established relationship with your customers even though it is not made mandatory.
3. Though whatsapp is an informal platform, always maintain a decorum while speaking to your customer.
4. Respond immediately to queries. Timely communication is essential for any business. Who knows you may even close deals by being prompt.
5. Post images and videos of your product. Visual messages have a greater impact.
6. Include some fun element in your messages- A joke or a meme would be appropriate.
7. If you are not available all the time. Mention that you can be reached on a specific day at a specific time period.
8. Select your prospects carefully.
9.Posting a product offer on FaceBook and follow up on Whatsapp is the key to targeted communication.

Don’ts

1. Do not send messages to all the mobile numbers that you get your hands on. If you send irrelevant messages, you would anyway end up being blocked.
2. Do not send messages too frequently. Overdose of information is not healthy for your brand image.
3. Do not ignore customer feedback or queries. Customers may tend to lose interest on your brand.
4. Keeping your profile inactive may also send a signal that you are not keen on promoting your brand. Update your profile regularly.
5. Avoid creating groups of unknown people. A group must have something in common- it may be the locality or school or interest.

Following the above mentioned points will help you manage hassles in sending out marketing messages to your customers. Text marketing has not lost its charm yet. With a few visuals you are good to go. While Whatsapp does not come in to the category of permission marketing like that of SMS and Email, we may expect the service to adopt the same sooner or later. Until then, anyone with a phone number saved in his mobile phone may do Whatsapp Marketing.

Whatsapp Marketing to us must be a part of a well integrated market plan, ignoring it or fearing the extra effort will only let you lose the reach to those you can otherwise easily influence.

1. Brian Clark

Follow Brianclark

170k followers

He is one of the top 10 social media marketers to follow on Twitter. The sole genius behind Copyblogger Media which is an astounding and important resource site for content marketing. A site that preached people the essentiality of powerful content to flourish as a business. Follow him on Twitter for fantastic and free online marketing strategies, updates on the latest marketing trends and answers to all your marketing questions.

Hot Spots

• The infographic on The Amazingly Simple Anatomy of a Marketing Story. It helps to gain insight on the importance of compelling stories, How to tell the right story? How to structure the story? and 5 Elements of a story. This infographic is smartly designed to look like an old story book.
• Focus on 4 steps to harness the addictive power of Email and turn traffic to your business.
• 4 ways to break the insanity of content marketing competition.

2. Matt Cutts

Follow Mattcutts

384k followers

He is the head of the webspam team at Google. He helps the startups by his articles on gadgets, Google and SEO. His blogs are mostly on how to secure your Google account. He wrote the first version of SafeSearch. He states the decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.

Hot Spots

• Great advice for small business owners
• Video on How To Start A Startup
• Article on iCloud

3.Rand Fishkin

Follow Randfishkin

200k followers

Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of SEOMoz, a successful and popular SEO resource of all time. The fame and reach of SEOMoz compelled him to establish it into a big company named as Moz. Currently, one among the top provider of online marketing tools and internet services. In order to concentrate on his book on startup marketing, he stepped out of the shoe of a CEO. On Twitter, he regularly shares his observations on the state of the online marketing industry and tips on how to use social media marketing to your best advantage.

Hot Spots

• How to be ranked as No. 1 on Google for “best X apps”
• The Landing Page Manifesto- A Slideshare which serves as the guru for landing pages.
• Superb analysis of title tag length & how/when Google might change them for you.
• Is it possible to have good SEO with great content?
• 7 concepts of advances on-page SEO

He retweeted many SEO secrets that a startup can adapt and frame better marketing strategy.

4. Neil Patel

Follow Neilpatel

114K followers

He is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and blogger. He has started 2 SaaS analytics companies, CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics with hnshah. He clearly states what to do and what not to do in social media.

Hot Spots

• The 5 marketing must haves of an online startup- Forbes website.
• How to persuade customers to convert on a high-priced SaaS products
• 4 Techniques That’ll Double Your Landing Page Conversions

5. Michael Hyatt

Follow MichaelHyatt

232k followers

He is the author of New York Times best seller, Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world. He is one among the Forbes list of Top 10 Online Marketing Experts. Most of his blogs are value-based, imparting knowledge on the qualities a entrepreneur should adopt.

Hot Spots

• Changing your perspective goes a long way
• Why keeping your commitments is critical to your influence?
• 7 Apps that help you achieve your goals

6. Danny Sullivan

Follow Dannysullivan

411k followers

He is widely considered as Search Engine guru. He is the founding Editor of MarketingLand and SearchEngineLand. It covers Google, Facebook, Twitter, SEO, SEM and all things about digital marketing, search marketing and search. His expertise helps startups in their online marketing efforts.

Hot Spots

• Analysing social media and optimising SEO’s.
• Retweets from Search Engine Land and Marketing land.

7. Gary Vaynerchuk

Follow Garyvee

1.1million followers

Realizing the importance of e-commerce, he created WineLibrary.com and WineLibrary TV. He became the CEO of Vaynermedia and the most wanted host of AskGaryVee show.

He suggests on strategies that has worked for his business and how you can make social media work for you. He throws tips on social media marketing and insights into the inner workings of the online marketing world.

Hot Spots

•Videos that play the best of his own shows

•A short film on How I do a business?

•How to determine ROI of social media?

Thanks for following the footprints of some great entrepreneurs. These gurus on twitter will enable you to follow their trail and plan a successful marketing strategy. We must have missed a few of them, do take a few minutes to mention them in the comments section below.

Picture this. You visit a travel and tourism website to plan a long awaited trip to the Bahamas. You need a place to stay and the floating kitchen sink on the last picture you saw screamed Photoshop. After furiously clicking through countless links, you come across one that has a devilishly handsome concierge guiding you through a posh villa with a breathtaking view of Bahamian waters, the crystal clear ocean where you can dive to your heart’s content and the five star restaurants that titillate your palate. After watching the last blue sturgeon swim past a pair of goggles you have made your decision. You are hooked.

And that is exactly why most businesses do not consider video marketing an option any longer, especially when their competition has the same idea!

Video Marketing is here to stay

There is a reason why the incredibly popular social media website YouTube has billions of users in its arsenal, and it has more to do with than cat videos. Video marketing is now the fastest growing advertisement medium for businesses. It is easy to see why. Not only is it a convenient way for you to display your products and services to customers it is easier on your finances as well. And no one knows that better than startup owners and would be entrepreneurs looking to make their mark on the economy.

Why Video is needed today and How they help Startups?

It’s simple really, because it works! Technological trends are all about receiving information instantly and video marketing does just that. I mean let’s face it, would you rather go through dull text based content or a video that shows how purchasing a company’s products or services can be beneficial for you.

Take the Coca Cola Company as an example. The immensely popular beverage brand recently shot a series of creative videos that highlighted how their cola bring people from different lifestyles together. Of course, that does not hold a candle to animation, a concept that will help you create your business’s story through a series of compelling animated videos. This is also why even the most popular brands use animated videos especially when it comes to explainer videos that are designed to make an impact.

In short, animation and video is a great way for a startup company to make its products or services stand out from the proverbial crowd. How is it better than text based content? While video might seem more expensive in the making it does have the potential to create IMMEDIATE ROI for a business. The faster the returns the faster will a startup grow. Needless to say, video marketing has been a lucrative investment for the people who have used it to launch their businesses.

Will it Work for you?

Not convinced whether video animation marketing will work for you? Consider these stats –

• The average users spends over 16 minutes watching online videos every month
• 80% of them are likely to recall the video after a few days and talk about it
• Those who like the video are sure to share it through social media websites
• In fact, e-Marketer claims that 65% of US marketers plan to increase their marketing budget to have room for video marketing campaigns.

According to Forbes, 50% of executives would rather watch video than read texts thereby producing prime opportunities for startups to find investors to fund operations. Needless to say, it isn’t surprising why video marketing has become a trending topic amongst startup owners and entrepreneurs.

Bode Animation – Tell your Story

And this is where Bode Animation comes in. How successful is it as a video marketing brand? More than 200 companies owe their success to the company’s custom video campaigns. Bode Animation has successfully created over 320 videos for a variety of businesses and has also increased their ROI considerably. One of the defining aspects of their success has to do with humorous content which also happens to be a preference for 60% of their clientele. Couple that with creative storytelling and you have an animation company that will do its best to ensure that your startup’s message shines through loud and clear.

About Bode Animation

Bode Animation is a team of visual maestros who have the expertise of showcasing your business’s story through inspiring videos and animation. It doesn’t matter how complex your idea is. Bode Animation has the expertise to turn it into an animated video that your audiences will understand and love you for.

      This works as a two way road.Loffles has some ads that it needs feedback on for its advertiser clients. Users go to their site, view those ads, provide feedback and they are awarded points. Loffle provides that feedback to the advertisers. These points can be redeemed for gifts, absolutely free.

Video Review:

      Loffles uses a startup pitch video to introduce their idea to the viewers hiring a startup video production company. The video is short and to the point. Here are some of its notable features.

• Combination of 3D and 2D animation.
• Interesting background music has been used to make the video a fun watch.
• Only 2 colors have been used for the background, a pale purple and Loffles green.
• Idea is explained by voice over rather than using typography.
• The video starts off right away with explaining what Loffles is without wasting any time on anything else.
• Attractive products are shown to excite and interest the customer to watch the whole video and discover how they can win them for free.

      Loffles has used a simple idea combined it with the social media to make a powerful impact. The explainer video tops it off and was the biggest and most successful part of their launch.

URL:http://benchprep.com/

      With Spidvid the video production community can flourish and professionals can get a chance to work and bid on different projects. This social platform is the perfect place for the community to flourish and stay connected.

Video Review:

      Their website’s homepage has an explainer video that provides all the necessary description about their service. The video is slightly on the longer side of around two and a half minutes long. Let’s look at the notable features of their startup video demo:

• The video is based on typography and screencast. Using motion graphics the aspect of animation has been added to it.
• The corporate colors of Spidvid are white, green and orange. The video uses only these colors along with black for typography.
• Background music and voice-over make the video slightly more interesting to watch.
• Takes the viewer through an overview of Spidvid and how to use it.

      This explainer video may just have a little too much information in it. It could have been broken down into two parts: one explaining what Spidvid is and the other explaining how it works. Then a little more graphics could have been added to make it a little more interesting and easier to digest all the information.

URL:http://Spidvid.com

Video Review:

      The private community portal that ActiveBuilding is offering as a solution is something that will not only take the load off the property manager, but will also strengthen the community. People can get to know each other, learn about local deals and help each other out. As an explainer video for their new product they have gotten a startup video production made. It is an interesting to watch demo and here are some of its notable features:

• It is made completely like an animated thriller movie with all the music and the dialogues. It tells the story of how a property manager cannot simply satisfy all residents without the appropriate help.
• Referring to unsatisfied apartment residents as deadly zombies is metaphoric and is probably right on target. As if the community manager’s actual feelings were translated on screen.
• 2D animation has been used to create a cartoon animation movie.
• The ActiveBuilding logo is displayed carefully near the end of the video. Ample attention is paid to describing the main advantages of this product, while keeping the whole thing fun.

      With a fun to watch short animated movie they have created a demo video that will bring a smile to the viewers face as well as deliver all the right messages across. This is a clear example of how creativity can be used in explainer videos.

URL:http://www.activebuilding.com/