While beginning to do social media and communicating with your customers online, having the right tone of voice online is key! Oddly enough though, it is something that brands rarely think about. Your tone of voice depends on your audience as well as your brand’s personality. For example, if you are writing a blog post for a law firm you would want to make it more formal but if you are a teen’s clothing boutique your tone would be more casual.

Just like deciding on your blogging schedule and guidelines you also need to decide from the very beginning on your tone of voice. The only thing as important as your tone of voice online is keeping it consistent. If you changed back and forth between authoritative and playful, for example, you will only confuse your viewers. Take a look at your online marketing and social media efforts and pay attention to your tone of voice. You wouldn’t want to put so much time and effort into social media only to mess it up with your tone of voice!

QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are similar to a barcode that when scanned, through an application reader on your smartphone or tablet, take you to a video or web page. They are normally on printed advertising and give the viewer another way to connect with your brand.

Two great examples of their use are by many different museums, along with Macy’s department store. In museums, they are enhancing the visitor’s experience by linking to audio tours, videos and supplement information about that specific exhibit. Macy’s has launched an advertising campaign around their Backstage Pass, which includes a QR code that gives advice to shoppers about the latest fashion designs, tips and trends. They also took it to the next level by designing the QR code and incorporate their branding, which you can see from the image below.

So how do you get a QR code? You can easily create your own for free through a generator online like Kaywa. Before you start plastering it everywhere, though, there are some tips to keep in mind.

1. Use for mobile marketing, not online — There is no point to put your QR code online because it requires more effort than a traditional link. Instead, put it in locations where your audience is on the go and has access only to their smartphone.
2. Have a way to analyze your traffic — When creating your code put your landing page url through a url tracking site like Bitly.com so you can actually track the number of times it is used. Otherwise, what’s the point of marketing if you don’t know how effective it is?
3. Don’t link to boring pages — You sparked an interest in the viewer already since they scanned your code so take advantage of that. You can offer them a special discount code, exclusive video or content or some kind of incentive for scanning your code. Have a mobile-ready landing page so the viewer gets the best experience and it doesn’t just link to your website.
4. Test out your code — Just like you proofread and edit copy before publishing, do the same with your code. Test it on different phones, different reader applications and at different sizes so you are guaranteed that it works.

A huge part of marketing is making sure you are hitting your target audience. As technology changes, consumers change, and so should your marketing plan.

eMarketer projects the US will have 73.3 million smartphone users by the end of 2011. Smartphones become an integral part of the users’ daily lives and they use it as they multi-task and consume other media. A study from Google called “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” reports on how people use their smartphone and some of their findings are in the video below.

With so many customers getting information on their phones it is vital to make sure you have a way for these consumers to find and connect with you online.

Retargeting/ remarketing banner ads allow you to advertise to consumers who have expressed an interest in your product. Once a viewer exits your site, a cookie is placed on their computer. So if they are on another site that you are advertising on, your banner ad appears for them again. It’s almost like your banner ads follow your users throughout the Internet to keep them interested and hopefully bring them back to your site.

Image from Retargeter.com

I actually went shopping online once and put an item in my cart but left the site deciding not to buy it. A few days later on another site a banner appeared showcasing the same product I had placed in my cart! It was great because it got me thinking about the product again and actually led to me going back to the original site and purchasing it.

So what does this mean for your business?

• Increase brand visibility/awareness
• Drive more customers back to your site
• Battle shopping cart abandonment

If banner ads are already in your marketing mix, why not try to increase your visitor conversion rate by adding retargeting banner ads?

I have discussed a little about monitoring your brand online on Twitter and how it can be helpful in fixing a problem with a dissatisfied customer. But what about monitoring what your competitors are doing online? Just like you keep up with what your competitor’s are doing with new launches and products, you should also follow their communications online. Through some online research you can keep tabs on your competitors and find out valuable information like:

• How they are marketing. You can find out current marketing campaigns and contests through their blog, website, Facebook, and Twitter. This of course can be helpful in figuring out your next marketing campaign or promotion.

• Customer’s unmet needs. People voice their frustration when they can’t find a solution. Seeing customer’s responses to your competitor’s product either through reviews or social media sites can give you great ideas on how to refine your own product to meet these needs.

• Your competitor’s keywords and traffic.  A very cool online software program called Compete lets you compare multiple competitors’ site performance. Through their reports you can see their unique visitors, page views, time on site and visitor demographics. You can also understand their search marketing strategy by seeing their top keyword traffic and the ratio of paid vs. natural keyword searches. Compete also lets you see your competitor’s referring sites so you can refine your marketing budget and maybe even find a few affiliates in the process.

Start marketing smarter by knowing your audience and your competition.