The WordPress marketing blog recently reported that 92 percent of Millennial consumers are more likely to buy products from “ethical companies.“ What exactly is an ethical company? An ethical company is one that makes decisions based on business principles, or whether it will result in a profit, as well as moral principles — whether it’s the right thing to do. For some companies, this can mean buying inputs that are produced in a sustainable way, or giving a percentage of their revenues...

Social media platforms are under scrutiny and receiving more criticism for allowing users’ data to be mined and used for purposes they didn’t agree to. Marketers need to look at their practices to make sure that they’re not crossing the same ethical lines. Ask for phone numbers or addresses Ask your audience’s permission to send them text messages. Just because you have contacts’ cell phone numbers, doesn’t mean you should automatically add them to your text messaging lists. Get...

Marketing requires a careful balance between broad reach and narrow targeting. For your marketing communications campaign to succeed, you have to deliver the right message to the right audience. You need to motivate your market to take the action you want: buy your product, come to your shop, show up for your event. Getting people to take action requires that you know as much as you can about what motivates them. Why should they care about your product, service, business or event? In short,...

Language changes constantly. Words change meaning — sometimes, a word can come to mean the opposite of what it once did. Did you know that “resentment” once meant the same thing as “gratitude”? Now, it means the opposite. And consider “snowflake”: at one time, if you called someone a snowflake, you meant they were unique. Now, it describes someone who’s over-sensitive, whose feelings are as delicate as a snowflake on a sunny day. The same thing happens in text messaging. The...

Each day around the world, people send — and receive — 22 million text messages. Did you know that 60 percent of Google searches are done with a mobile device such as a tablet or smart phone? People are using their mobile devices more than ever before. And that means businesses can use text messaging to reach target markets and build relationships. Even in the workplace, people are starting to use text messaging to communicate instantly, conveniently and efficiently. It makes sense, then,...

You know the importance of the call to action in text messages. When text messaging, you need to spur recipients to action. And since you only have 160 characters, every word has to count. What words should you use? Let’s explore the words that are more likely to make your audience want to respond. Keywords are words that your audience is interested in, and search for on Google and other search engines. But in text messaging, they have an additional meaning: they’re associated with...

Text messaging is a powerful communications medium. Because it reaches people with the communications tool they always have in their hand or pocket — their smart phone — 98 percent of all text messages get read, and most of them immediately. To get the biggest bang for your texting buck, you need to consider both the message and its timing. No one wants to be woken up in the middle of the night by their phone’s chime, so overnight messages will backfire. When scheduling your text...