Evolution occurs in all areas of life, including technology. As shifting factors merge, we begin to see an evolution in communication patterns. In order to follow the growth and evolution of communication, Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory must be factored in. In the simplest of terms, which of the following forms of communication is the fittest for today’s world: newspapers or social media? The answer is quite obvious.

Now that most of us have converted some—if not all—of our marketing strategies from print media to online platforms, we can delve deeper into the evolution of communication and discover key strategies for surviving in the social media marketing world.

Most companies and social media users only skim the surface of social media marketing. We know how to post a tweet, post on Facebook, write on our friends’ walls, and bookmark a post we love. But these activities are merely skimming the surface of social media. The average posts and tweets aren’t going to cut it; there needs to be a level of value and intelligence in your posts.

As more and more new forms of social media arise and older platforms continue to grow and change, it’s difficult to understand each and every one in its entirety—especially when you have a business to run.

For this reason, many businesses seem to be following one specific generic formula: post a video, post a picture, post company updates, and interact with others. That’s great and all, but what does that even mean?

There needs to be a deeper analysis of these elements in order for you to survive and stand out above your competition (who is most likely following the same generic formula).

What makes an engaging photo? What inspires consumers to watch your videos and take that extra step to contact you? And what’s the point in interacting with others, and how can you build a relationship from this interaction? The answer is simple. Use your brand message in all that you do as a way to connect to your target audience’s needs and desires. The implementation of broadcasting your brand message, on the other hand, is not as simple.

Below are two steps required to break free from the generic social media marketing formula, evolve with communication, and rise above the competition:

1. Don’t chase the crowd—stay on top of it: Imagine running in a race. Those with more endurance and strength are going to lead the pack. The stragglers are holding onto the end of the line with dear life, but will eventually get tired and fall. Anyone can stay at the top of the race—you just have to have the right strength and the endurance to continue to succeed.

• Your strength in social media marketing: Knowledge. Understand how social media works and how social media users behave. Specifically, understand how your target audience behaves on social media sites, and engage your prospects with your unique brand message. When you stop learning about new social media sites and the capabilities that all social media sites have, you’ll move further and further back on the chain.

• Your endurance in social media marketing: The right attitude and the ability to believe in the power of your brand message. Never stop.

2. Refine your brand message and tactfully embed it in all you do on social media: You have two options: continue to market your business on social media based on a generic formula, or break outside of the box and showcase your unique brand message. Option two is the way to go if you want to succeed in today’s world of communication.

If you’re not projecting an accurate brand message on social media platforms because you are unclear about what your brand message is, it’s nearly impossible to connect with your target audience and engage them. The key to engaging your target audience is understanding your brand message and incorporating this messaging into everything you do and say online.

Our conclusion: The people who are looking deeper into the capabilities of social media are the ones who are going to survive in the world of online communication and marketing. The ones who continue to skim the surface of these complex communication realms are the ones who will vanish along with the outdated forms of media.

Will you take the stand to survive?

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As website copywriters, our team scours the Internet on a daily basis. We see all sorts of websites in a variety of industries. While we each have our personal preferences on what we like, one thing we can all agree on is a poorly written website.

Unfortunately, there are too many of them out there.

Before I continue, let me make one distinction: by poorly written, I don’t mean to say that they aren’t well written. Most business websites I see are written in coherent sentences and are free of grammatical errors. But flowery language and great spelling will only take you so far.

What constitutes inadequately written website copy is the diluted and often hidden message. And if you cannot clearly show what your business offers and to whom, visitors will leave your site and never return.

Your website copy (and all your marketing copy, for that matter) has the power to bring you new customers and retain current ones. It connects you with your clients. Entices them to buy. Drives them to call you. Website copy makes or breaks the sale.

It’s often difficult to look at our own marketing message and see what’s really being communicated. When you’re too close to a project, it’s easy to get caught up in what you think needs to be said, rather than what prospects want to hear.

You may think you’ve clearly described what products / services you offer, but how clear are you? Businesses evolve. Services change. And so does the market. Often, what happens is companies add information to their websites over a period of time. The result is a smorgasbord of information that can easily confuse prospects.

If you aren’t specific about the product / services you offer and how they benefit your target market, it is extremely difficult for you to convert prospects into customers. Similarly, if you don’t follow shifting markets, how can you expect to sell products to a customer you no longer know?

While many businesses have the intention of trying to stand out from the competition, all they end up doing is stringing together a bunch of fancy words that have no meaning. It’s nearly impossible to express your uniqueness when you say that your “creative services are unique.” (What does that even mean?)

The key is not about saying you’re different in your website copy, but rather, it’s about showing your prospective clients that you offer something different from the competition. This is expressed in a clear brand message. When you become clear on your brand message and exactly what you offer your customers, your target audience becomes clear on what you sell.

Go back over your website copy, and answer these two questions:

• Do prospects understand what you offer?
• Do prospects understand how your company will help them fill a need and solve their problems?

Be honest with yourself. If you can, ask a third party to read your website copy, and listen to how they answer these questions. Of course, the smart choice is to hire a website copywriter who understands SEO, the changes in search, and understands the website copy must drive people to take action.

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Tweeting away today, I came across a post that caught my eye. The tweet was from a lawyer who wrote: “Called opposing lawyer yesterday and the firm was closed from 12/24 – 1/4 and you couldn’t leave a message…I’d hate to be a client.” Eek . . .

It came to my attention that there are tons of businesses out there that believe cutting off communication with clients for several days is acceptable. It’s not.

Sure, there are some businesses that can close for a few days and leave their voicemail on without causing client chaos. But, there are also businesses that can’t shut down for longer than a few days—especially if they don’t even have their answering machine on.

If you provide a highly-personalized and valuable service to clients, such as personal advising, you can’t cut all forms of communication for a whole 10 days. You’ll send your clients into a tail-spin if they desperately need you. And you’ll tick them off.

You get clients for a reason. They trust you and feel confident that you will provide them a valuable service—one that’s worth their money. Once they feel you’ve done them a disservice, it will be extremely difficult to keep their business. You can bet the lawyer referred to in the above tweet now has a handful of clients who feel neglected, scared, and betrayed, and who probably will be finding themselves a new lawyer.

Follow me on Twitter.  @sailorgurl8.

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What do you represent to your clients? The answer has been sitting right under your nose, but perhaps you have been too busy trying to sell to actually see it or think about it. For many business owners who haven’t been seeing the results they desire, they have not truly discovered how their clients and prospective clients perceive them.

For example, if you own a travel company that specializes in family vacations, you may think that your clients view you as simply a family vacation provider. Au contraire.

When people are looking for a family vacation, they don’t view a travel company as simply a vacation provider. They view the travel company as a facilitator. In the clients’ mind, a travel company has the ability to provide their family with a time and place to spend quality time together, on a safe and fun vacation, as well as a great price for their trip. See the difference?

Your target audience isn’t coming to you because you provide family vacations—they’re coming to you because they believe you will fulfill their family bonding needs, provide them with a happy and stress-free experience, and meet their vacation standards and criteria. The more specific you are with what you are actually providing for your clients, the easier it will be to connect with them.

Here’s a challenge for you:

1. Analyze your website copy, social media site profiles, past press releases, blog posts, and print marketing materials. Are you speaking to the needs and desires of your target audience? Are you reaching deep down into what you are truly providing them? Remember that you may perceive yourself as a travel company, but that’s not necessarily how you want your prospective clients to see your company—if this is how you’re projecting your company to your target audience, you may find you have no clients.

2. If it appears you’re simply trying to make the sale and not hitting your target market’s sweet spot with your marketing materials, you may be spending tons of precious time with no results—running yourself into the ground.

3. Step back, take a deep breath, and start brainstorming. What exactly do you provide to your audience? How do you satisfy their needs?

4. Now, the trick is to touch your prospective clients with the right marketing strategies and materials. Once you’ve hit the sweet spot, you’ll start to attract more clients, build online exposure, and have a clear brand message that speaks volumes to prospective clients.

Did you like this post? Feel free to share it with your friends on Digg or Stumbleupon.

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Marketers now have the opportunity to analyze customer relationships and promote their business in real-time to prospective clients. Will you take advantage of real-time marketing?

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I’m sure clients, colleagues, and you, Dear Reader, are sick of hearing me harp on how critical it is for companies to really understand their target market.

Call me a broken record. I don’t mind.

Before I take on a new copywriting project, one of the first questions I ask a prospective client is, “Who is your target market and how do you serve them?”

Not having a clear idea of whom you’re selling to or who your prospective clients are is the number one marketing mistake you can make—online or offline. If you don’t know whom you are speaking to, you won’t know the right message to communicate.

Identifying and knowing your target market—inside and out—requires you to look at yourself, at your company, and look into whom you serve and why. Too many companies have a general idea. Some have no idea at all.

Stating a target as “anybody who needs my product” won’t cut it (believe it or not, I hear this answer all the time). Defining your target as “people in the medical field” won’t help much either. Trying to be everything to everyone isn’t going to get you the sales you want.

If you want more customers, you have to know whom you are selling to. And you should know as much about them as you can.

Let’s say you own a high-end clothing boutique. You sell products to women, but identifying your target as “all women” is much too vague because most of your inventory is designed for a younger crowd. Look closely at your clientele, and you may find most of your patrons are between 32 and 45. Look even closer, and you may uncover a majority of your clients are young professionals who make over $80,000 a year.

Keeping with this example, now that you’ve identified your target, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and brainstorm. Make a list of questions you’d like to know about your target, then answer the questions to the best of your ability. You want to define their lifestyle, hobbies, profession, anything you can that will help you speak to their needs and wants.

Be specific. Where do they shop, dine, drink? What do they read? Did they graduate from college, have a bachelor or master’s? Are they active in their community? Do they bike on weekends, or do they spend time with family? Don’t limit yourself. Keep asking questions until you feel you know these people.

It’s important to note that it doesn’t matter if this is business to consumer or business to business, you are still dealing with people at the end of the day. So, if you are business to business and your target is a CEO, you need to know everything about who that CEO is so you can connect.

The more you know, the better you can target the group, speak their language, and give them what they want. And if you know all the above, it will help you further define the business message you want—a message that will attract your target audience to you.

Once you start mining to find out who your target market is, it has been my experience that many businesses find that their message isn’t clear, effective, or targeted to the correct market. It can be extremely difficult for businesses to project an accurate message, one that encompasses a combination of their company’s products, beliefs, mission, and goals if they don’t have a clear vision of their target market.

If you’re uncomfortable with the message you’re sending potential customers online, it’s time to change this message and solidify a strong brand image.

Just remember, speak to everyone, and you’re likely to get no one.

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Yesterday, I was messing around with my blog, checking the stats, adding a new widget, and answering comments. Something prompted me (or perhaps it was plain old procrastination) to click on page three and four of my comments.

I was happily reading through comments that were months old until I discovered six comments that I had not approved.

I didn’t even know they were there.

I make it a point to reply back when people leave comments because I like bloggers to write back when I comment on their blogs. Also, we market blogs for clients on a regular basis and actively market our blog as well. My number one rule is: leave comments and comment back. It’s the polite thing to do and it helps build relationships.

So, you can image my shock when I stumbled upon these unattended blog comments. To make matters worse, someone had left a message asking to expand on the topic. And another person left me a message on a post that was about how communication is the key to business success. Talk about embarrassing.

How these comments managed to slip past me isn’t important. What matters is that not only did I miss an opportunity to connect with other bloggers, but I may have also lost readership as a result of my neglect.

Let this be a lesson to those of you who blog: stay current with your incoming comments. Reply back in a prompt manner. And it wouldn’t hut you to check comments from months ago. You never know what you might have missed.

I’d love for you to leave a comment. Oh, come on, you know you want to. Or share it on Digg or StumbleUpon.

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In an exclusive interview with Shannon Chitayat, graphic designer and owner of inkportfolio, Shannon discusses the importance of sending the right message through effective marketing materials. inkportfolio, a full service graphic design and print management company, prides itself on its ability to portray an accurate business message for each client through effective design and business materials. inkportfolio thoroughly examines each business’s primary visions, target market, and competition before creating effective marketing materials and designs.  

S?mèr: How do inkportfolio’s services benefit businesses?

inkportfolio: As a full service graphic design and print management company, our services are powerful tools for businesses—not only in helping businesses look great, but also in the success of a business. Our team has specialized design skills, techniques, and experiences that are used for the purpose of attracting people and increasing business activity.

It’s vital that the marketing materials used to promote a business look professional and send the right message. Every logo, brochure, advertisement, and business card that is seen plays an important role in establishing a company’s image.

It may not seem obvious, but design adds credibility. Think of the products you buy or the stores you shop at. Have you ever made a purchase choice because of the way something looked? I know I have.

inkportfolio’s services are not just about making a business look great. It’s also about consumers choosing one business over the other—we play a crucial role in that.

S?mèr: What’s the number one thing you see businesses struggle with in regards to their graphic design?

inkportfolio: I think a lot of businesses consider graphic design as an expense rather than an investment in the potential growth of their company. This is a major problem since some of these businesses don’t invest the proper amount of research and time into the identity / brand of their company. When businesses neglect the brand image of their company, it often creates an unprofessional, inconsistent look on their website, sending the wrong message to perspective clients about their business.

S?mèr: What are the top three benefits inkportfolio brings to companies?

inkportfolio:

1. Improves businesses’ images and strengthens their brands.
2. Makes their business stand out from their competitors.
3. Sells businesses’ messages to customers more convincingly.

S?mèr: What steps go into creating graphics for companies?

inkportfolio: We first conduct an interview / questionnaire with the client to get a better feel for the project and their goals. We then research the company, the industry as a whole, and the competition in greater detail.

With the interview / questionnaire and research information in mind, we go to work on the design concept (or concepts depending on the project size and scope). Once we have a concept, we ask for feedback to ensure the idea is on target with the client’s vision.

After completion of the concept, inkportfolio presents it to the client and receives feedback. At this point we make final changes if needed and the files are off to final production!

S?mèr: What makes inkportfolio unique to other graphic design companies?

inkportfolio: I have had the great fortune to experience all aspects of the design and print industries. From client services—as an art department manager—to a graphic designer to a business owner, I’ve seen it all. Having these experiences helps me approach design from many different perspectives.

Also, my years in the print industry, have shown me the ins and outs of the printing process—something many designers aren’t familiar with. I feel that for a designer to have this knowledge is priceless. This knowledge helps me make better choices for our clients, helps streamline the process, can help make more cost effective design decisions, and in the end, we create a result that everyone is happy with.

Visit inkportfolio’s website at http://inkportfolio.carbonmade.com/ and contact them via phone at 843.324.0931 or via email at shannon@inkportfolio.com.

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Watch the video below for an informative insight into Google’s upcoming invention: Google Voice.

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