Integrating Showcases with Existing Marketing Resources
A showcase is an inexpensive marketing tool that you can easily integrate with other marketing tools that you may currently be using. Each marketing tool will have its strengths and its weaknesses and it's important to use them together effectively.
A showcase has the following strengths:
- focuses on delivering a specific message
- makes it easier for people to find your product or service
- is a simple way to reach a wider audience
- helps to increase your ranking in search engines
- allows you to change your advertising message at any time
- encourages the use of multi-media
- easily allows advertising in multiple languages
- gives people a chance to discuss your product or service on-line
Here are some suggestions on how to use a showcase with other marketing tools based upon the strengths listed above:
Your Showcase and Your Corporate Website
A corporate website is a large, difficult to manage marketing tool. It usually does not allow one to easily and quickly change content. It also has too much information and a viewer might find it difficult to find any new content on the website. A showcase complements your corporate website because it gives you a way to quickly and easily update current information without difficulty and people will be able to quickly see the most recent content. Having both sites will also help with your SEO ranking.
Your Showcase and Your Blog
Blogs are easy to update, but are geared towards opinion rather than product marketing. They also have a history of all previous blog postings which some viewers may start viewing, rather than focusing on the current information. A showcase complements a blog by focusing on a single message, product or service and is designed to be an advertisement rather than an opinion. Having both sites link to your corporate website will also help with your SEO ranking.
Your Showcase and Print Advertising
Print advertising is placed in specific target markets that are easy to define by magazine circulation. Unfortunately print advertising cannot be changed once submitted. A showcase complements print advertising by giving you a venue to quickly and easily update content based upon changing business conditions. When print advertising says little about a campaign, but references your showcase, it ties the two together into a powerful and dynamic tool. You are also able to use the same print advertising for different purposes in this way.
Your Showcase and Banner Ads
Banner ads rely on viewers clicking through to a website. Often the goal is to get a viewer to the corporate website rather than to some specific information. When the viewer gets to the website they may find it difficult to know what to do or where to go next. If the target of the banner ad is, instead, a showcase then it is very clear what message you want the viewer to see and there is no confusion by the viewer themselves.
Your Showcase and Facebook
Facebook gives individuals the opportunity to tell their friends what they are thinking and doing in real time. It also allows them to post links to interesting websites giving an automatic summary and an image for the site listed. Information posted this way on Facebook tends to change very quickly and if you are not constantly checking your facebook page you will miss updates. Showcases can be easily linked to Facebook using the Like button on the showcase. A showcase complements your Facebook page by providing information for a longer time for a more targeted group of people.
Facebook also provides banner advertising and can be used as described earlier.
Your Showcase and Twitter
Twitter tweets are short, instant messages meant to inform others what you are doing in real time. When tweets start following a specific subject it is usually because that subject is already newsworthy and people want to comment on it. A showcase can be listed in twitter to announce a new product or service or to connect it to a current trending topic. This can be done directly from the showcase or through shortened links.
Your Showcase and YouTube
YouTube is a great place to upload and store marketing videos. Your showcase can embed a video from youtube and show it directly on your showcase. By embedding a monthly or weekly video on your showcase and listing all videos in your YouTube account you can effectively show the current information on your showcase and archived videos on YouTube.
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