A business needs to be marketed in many different ways to make it as successful as possible. It should have a strong online presence, it might also benefit from some form of print advertising, and it should definitely market itself in situ as well. This means the things like ensuring customers have a great all-round experience, and it is possible to get business from passing footfall by making sure people know the business exists. It is as much a brand awareness exercise as anything else, and it is one of the most important types of marketing activity you can carry out because it helps win those loyal customers who keep coming back due to the excellent experience your business provides.

Have you thought about using commercial umbrellas? They may not be the first thing you think about when marketing your business, but the rewards can be significant. For starters, using commercial umbrellas is an instant way to update and improve the general ambience and make your building look appealing and inviting. This is especially important if you are a business like a restaurant of a cafe, where people are going to be sold on the atmosphere. They may also benefit businesses like shops, hairdressers and any other place where people go to make use of a particular service. The umbrella will add shade and create a pleasant appearance that your customers will enjoy.

Why are commercial umbrellas a useful marketing tool? 

• You can benefit from a better ambience, meaning customers are more likely to enjoy the experience and come back again.
• There will be more shade, making it cooler inside and outside the building. You can save money on your air conditioning costs. Again, this helps customers by creating a better ambience for them.
• You can get the umbrella branded. This shows your business off, making sure people know you are there and lodging your business in their minds. When they see your logo repeatedly, they are more likely to think of you as a viable option.
• You can also use umbrellas branded by product suppliers. For a bar or restaurant, this may be types of drink or food that you sell. If people recognise the brand, they are more likely to think of you as a viable brand because you are associated with them.

It’s a great brand awareness exercise, making sure people know about your business, but in a way that isn’t pushy or too salesy. It just lets people know you are there.

Choosing a commercial umbrella – some key considerations 

A commercial umbrella is a largely bespoke product that can be altered depending on your needs. You should get your patio or outdoor space measured up by a professional supplier and installer, then get them to complete the work as well if you are happy. You shouldn’t fit an umbrella yourself, especially a more complex design where there are lots of moving parts – this could become a health and safety concern in a commercial environment. Choose a company with a good reputation and a wide range of umbrellas to choose.

Twitter is letting loose a lot of new advertising and marketing offerings. Earlier this week, Twitter launched a new Lead Generation card for mareters.

Today, the company announced the availability of TV ad targeting, which has been developed through its acquisition of Bluefin Labs. Twitter says it’s designed to make it easier to extend and enhance TV ad campaigns. The offering is now available for Promoted Tweets in limited beta to select partners running national TV commercials in the U.S.

“TV ad targeting enables marketers to engage directly with people on Twitter who have been exposed to their ads on TV,” says Twitter Revenue Product Manager Michael Fleischman. “Synchronized Twitter and TV ad campaigns make brand messages more engaging, interactive and measurable, while making it easy for marketers to run always-on Twitter campaigns that complement and amplify their TV creative.”

Twitter is giving advertisers a new TV ads dashboard, which shows when a brand’s TV ads have aired.

“This will help digital teams align not only with what’s shown on TV and when, but give insight into how Promoted Tweets can be crafted in the most effective ways to build upon broader marketing themes,” says Fleischman. “TV ad targeting works by using video fingerprinting technology to automatically detect when and where a brand’s commercials are running on TV, without requiring that advertiser to do any manual tracking or upload media plan details. Whenever a commercial airs during a TV show, Twitter not only determines where and when it ran, but can identify users on Twitter who tweeted about the program where the ad aired during that program. We believe a user engaged enough with a TV show to tweet about it very likely saw the commercials as well.”

Twitter also announced a new wave of multi-screen partners today, and named the partnership program Twitter Amplify. New partners (which join BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel) include: A&E, theAudience, Bloomberg TV, Clear Channel, Conde Nast, Discovery, MLB.com, National Cinemedia, New York Magazine, PGA Tour, PMC, Time Inc., VEVO, Warner Music, WWE and VICE.

According to Bloomberg, Twitter plans to release a tool similar to Facebook’s custom-audience feature as well.

Twitter Has Marketers And Advertisers In Mind This Week

Brand management is a massively important part of any comprehensive marketing strategy, and making sure that your brand remains consistent is an essential part of brand management.

For a lot of businesses, all brand consistency means is placing their logo on every product that they create, but there is a lot more that can be done through this area of brand management to enhance your corporate image and make your brand instantly recognisable.

The first part of the process of improving your brand consistency needs to be done across advertising platforms. This means making all of your marketing campaigns consistent, whether that is in print media, digital, or product design.

You also need to reach an understanding of which of the platforms is most important for your business, and then base your designs upon that understanding.

Product design is a lengthy process but it can have a massive impact on the success of one product over another. In many studies, it has shown to be one of the most important factors in determining product success in a competitive market outside of price.

Product design includes a lot of elements but at its most basic level it is a blend of function and form.

Function is the most important part of the process and is mostly based around making sure that the product meets a need in consumers.

Form can be broken down into other parts, and is where making the product marketable, on-brand and user-friendly gets to be part of the process. For products which already have a place in the market with competitors, this can become the most important part of a product design.