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A number of marketers have been focusing their efforts on the angle of grabbing up customers.  The benefit of that focus is measurability.  In a world of smaller budgets and a focus on ROI for every campaign this is a good idea but actually moving the customer from “Awareness” to “Contemplation” to actual “Conversion” is a small part of the deal as we step into the age of social media dominance.

The mass of the work actually comes after the purchase.  It has to do with the experience that the customer or client had with your company throughout the sales process, and the ongoing relationship that will be established and nurtured with your company over the long term.

It’s just far too easy to lock onto getting the customer and sinking a sale.  Marketers need to focus on another aspect however - customer retention.  While this is certainly true for B2C companies, it’s definitely true for B2B companies that sell proportionately less product than their counterparts and thus need to rely more on keeping those customers they do have.  Repeat business is much easier to acquire than new business.  If a client or customer commits to the tech, software, product, service etc then they will most like be with you for a long time

Unless you do something terribly wrong.

Think on it for a little while when you consider your marketing efforts, whether you’re marketing through social media or general content - even offline marketing.  Where are you putting all your weight, or even most of it?  Are you heavy on acquisition?

It’s not uncommon for businesses to fall heavy into that spectrum, after all we want to make sure that we have new business coming in regularly but if your marketing efforts aren’t doing enough to focus on retention then you’re more likely to lose those customers you do have.  So what do you do about it?

Think about your social media marketing.  Social media is a hot area and it will continue to be.  Consider the number of people within social media and you can guarantee that there is going to be someone discussing your products and services at some point - perhaps even right now.  If it’s an existing customer, find a way to engage them.  If it’s a new customer, find a way to engage them.  If it’s a disgruntled customer, find a way to engage them.  Through that engagement, you will discover better ways to help them and how you can improve your own service.

The role of marketers, both in B2B and B2C, has changed dramatically in the last 10 years but what hasn’t changed at all is the need for a focus on retaining customers.  You fought hard to get those customers in the first place, you certainly don’t want to lose them.

One of the ways we often talk about reaching out to and engaging consumers and potential customers with your online marketing is through being helpful.  Being helpful vs selling can take you a lot farther with a customer, and help you gain more traction, than simply tossing content marketing messages out there trying to snag a lead.

Unfortunately when we talk about this topic with business owners and marketers we frequently hear comments like “We’re not sure what we can provide that would be helpful.”

That’s understandable given the state of marketing to people online and how businesses view it.  Many business owners have never taken the time to sit down and study their target market so that they fully understand their wants and needs, or even their preferences.  Therefore, ways of being helpful don’t often stand out to individuals and it’s rarely something that’s on the forefront of content marketing.

It’s not difficult to figure out what you can do to offer help, you really just need to step into the shoes of your customer for a little while and take a look at the problem from their perspective.  Figure out their questions, confusions, frustrations, etc through various stages of the buying process.

If you need help identifying the bottle-neck points for a customer, consider some of these tips.

1. Ask the people leading the front line of customer interaction - your customer service team.  They are the most in touch with your customers and hear the greatest number of complains, vents, issues, etc.  Turn to this team and make sure they document every concern and complain that comes in.  You can use this information to find patters and then create content to address the issue and make people feel more comfortable in doing business with you.

2. Ask the customer. You can use a number of channels to get feedback from the people that you service or want to service.  Provide polls, surveys on the web, email surveys, inquiries on Facebook, phone call surveys, etc.  You can find out directly from the consumer the types of issues they’re having with your company, products or services.  It will also speak spades about your overall character because you’re willing to ask.

3. Use your own search engine. Most websites have an internal search query setup to make life easier when navigating a site.  You can use the data stored from the search entries to find out where most of your visitors need help the most.

4. Be your own customer. You can’t learn a whole lot if you’re just working within your business or sitting around in your office.  Take the time to shop your own product.  Try to do it from the perspective of someone who needs it, starting with searching through the engines to find a solution.  Contact your customer service department, dig for information about the company, etc.  Try to discover what you can from an outside perspective and unlock the hurdles.

5. Look around and compare. You can’t just shop yourself, you should also go through your competitor sites.  Use their entire process to discover friction points, discover how issues are handled, find areas that outshine you or points that can serve as inspiration for your own business.  Don’t just go to the people you think are your competitors.  Check out who Google says your competition is.

I hate to say it, but cigarette companies had it right when it came to marketing.  Remember way back when we were learning how to create fire and inventing the wheel, cigarette companies were still openly advertising through all media channels.  They were blitzing the world with messages that showed their brand, logo and packaging among scenes of totally hip, cool, popular people - often young and attractive - having a blast doing things that we all wanted to do in our down time.  Shooting pool, roping horses, firing rockets out of, attracting women with machismo and surfing.  I can’t imagine how difficult it was to puff on a wet one.

The point is, through all of their marketing they were never really selling a product.  Those companies were selling the lifestyle attached to the product.  That was what ultimately got them in trouble because the message was so damn effective - everyone was smoking because it was the cool thing to do.  Even 12 year old kids.  Not such a great outcome in the long run but they had a solid marketing message.

Skip forward to our current time where my hair is starting to change colors and we can see the continuation of this.  At least we should.

When you’re selling any kind of product or service online you have to take into consideration that people aren’t wholly interested in what you’re selling so much as what they can do with it.  Along those same lines they want to know the benefit of its use, and need to know how their circumstances will change if they purchase it…or if they don’t.

Take a look at the new Apple Iphone 4.  Their new message is powerful.  It’s less about the shiny curves, or the new features, or everything that the phone can do.  They narrowed their message down to how powerful it is, how strong the emotional impact, of being able to talk someone you care about or love face to face over any distance.

A number of agencies get this wrong.  They get so caught up in the actual “thing” that’s being sold that they completely neglect the reason they are selling it in the first place.  Anyone who wants to stand out from the competition has an easy out to do so.  Think about a customer using your service for the first time.  How will they react?  What will it sounds like?

Probably something like “wow”.

Communicate that message in your marketing… unless of course your product sucks, then their reaction might sound something like “Blargh!”

Then it’s probably a good idea to find a more unique spin, or get a new product.

*social media science does not endorse the use of tobacco products - the placement of the above photo is used only for dynamic effect

Social media isn’t exactly rocket science. The whole concept is rather easy to grab, but the challenge comes in when individuals and organizations have to maintain the outpost they’ve established and foster growth. That maintenance is what will help create traction and help a brand attract the eye of online users.

In short: You need to figure out how to consistently promote your business.

Here are a few tips to focus on so you can generate growth and move forward with your social media strategy:

Does The Market Think You Suck?

We hear words like “caring” and “listening” a lot and frankly they’ve been beaten to death. Coupled with “authenticity” they’ve been used in conferences and content so much that they’re played out. From an operations perspective however, there is still a necessity for what they cover. A business owner needs to setup those search phrases that they’re targeting, as well as the competition – essentially anything that’s relevant to the brand, and listen to what’s being said. Listen for your brand name, competitor names, the names of products and services, etc.

Just remember that you can’t stop here. When alerts pop you need to listen to what people are saying while using those keywords. Is their response positive or negative? Do they need help? Do they absolutely hate you? Do they hate your competitor?

Where can you find the opportunity to shine?

Proactive Vs Reactive

If you want to prove that you’re more than just a logo smacked on a shipping box, you’ve got to step out from behind the curtain, oh great and powerful Oz.

A proactive approach to situations proves to people that there are indeed humans operating your brand, and that you’re not actually a division of Skynet. Use humans wherever you can, people like other people.

It’s great to react to people that post looking for information, and it can generate some leads, but if you’re stuck being reactive then you’re only going to find opportunities when other people are open with their problems. Being proactive gives you the opportunity to bring solutions to people before they even know they have a problem. If you’re having a hard time finding solutions to deliver, or an appropriate angle to use, turn to what other individuals and organizations within your market are saying – then find your own unique spin to make it yours and own it.

Do whatever you can so that you’re not taking that “me too” perspective. Parrots are only adorable for a little while. Eventually the mimicry becomes sour and the novelty wears off.

Start Pushing Limits

Business seem to fear getting involved in social media marketing because they don’t want to open themselves up to inappropriate comments and posts, where ex employees or disgruntled customers can manhandled them verbally.

It might seem like you’re losing control by giving power over to the people in regards to your brand but I’ve got some news for you. They already have it.

You’ve never really had control of your brand, and you’ve certainly never had control of the conversations that are encircling you and your organization. The people who are starting those conversations and talking about you and your organizations are the ones in control. They always have been, and you can’t take that away. Those conversations are going to happen whether you’re there to engage them in social media, or not.

Most customers don’t realize the control that they have over your brand however, and by opening up and letting them perceive that you’re “giving up control”, you can establish more trust and credibility not only with customers but with employees as well. You need to push your limits and actively embrace the words of the people whether they’re positive or not, and you need to engage them despite the attitude.

If you want growth, you have to work for it. Some will come organically, but you have to tend your garden. If you do nothing, the wrong kind of growth will occur and you’ll be left with more weeds than fruit. If you work the garden proactively, dealing with the weed problem before it arises, watering and fostering growth, then the fruits of your labor will shine in the end.

Just don’t expect a lot of growth in a single day. Listen to what’s being said, be proactive, and hug the angry people.

Dr. Glenn Livingston (psychologist) is also a very intelligent marketer, bordering on brilliant. He’s made an uncountable number of worthy points to note, but one stands out for the purpose of this post. He mentioned that despite our best intentions when attempting to get a new customer we inadvertently unsell our products and services – then wonder exactly where we went wrong when business begins to slow.

What does it mean to unsell? Roughly, it’s the act of persuading a potential customer not trust in the worth, value or truth of a particular product or service. In other words, you’re destroying your own credibility through marketing within social media.

You’re actually talking the customer out of buying something.

When you first think about it, it doesn’t really stand out in your mind as something you normally do – especially not intentionally – but it does happen a lot. How many times have you been told by a retailer “we don’t carry that specific item you’re looking for, but if you go to X retail outlet, they probably have it”

It’s more of a subconscious thing that develops out of a desire to be both warm and transparent to customers or clients. In an effort or desire to be helpful, we’ll often do what we feel is immediately appropriate to help a client. It goes beyond that however. That’s just a small taste of the spectrum of things that can quickly unsell you and your brand with prospects.

• Are you more focused on price than on the goals of the client?
• Do you find that you’re typically late for appointments or meetings?
• Do you find that you’re frequently unprepared rush and disorganized?
• Ever had to make excuses for unprofessional actions, words or behavior?
• Have you specialized your niche to the point that you’ve painted yourself into a corner with paint that never dries?

Everything that you do through social media marketing has the potential of sending subtle messages to clients that can be a huge turnoff as they unsell your brand. The unfortunate part of all this is that any negativity tends to have a far greater impact on the position of the customer than the positive things we do. Mainly because customers expect a certain positive outcome, so unless you WOW them with your marketing efforts, it doesn’t stand out. Negative issues however stand out like a sore thumb and create a much deeper imprint.

Dr. Livingston blames our general actions on human nature, stating that “We always want what we do not have. Which means we always have our eye on ’the next level’ where we frequently forget about the people who got us to where we are currently”

We can easily rectify our conditioning to unsell our business by asking ourselves some key questions:

-Why are my regular customers staying with me?

-What have I stopped doing for customers lately within my social media marketing?

-What have I been doing that could potentially unsell me and my business to the consumer – especially the hyper-responsive ones

-Is there anything that I do, say or act that I would personally perceive as annoying, offensive, insulting or bad business if I witnessed another business owner doing it to me.

Honesty breeds integrity, and if you can answer these questions honestly and deeply examine how you’re doing business then you’ll likely find a number of ways that you can improve customer connection and engagement. Focusing on positive improvement will almost always help to improve your brand image and put you in a position to UPsell instead of UNsell.

When it comes to your online marketing within social media, what part does your blog play?

please tell me you have a blog by now, right?

I’m a firm believer that any social media marketing campaign without a blog severely limits the possibilities and reach of that marketing.  The potential is watered down, and the results will leave a lot to be desired.  If you were to look at the whole of social media marketing as if it were an atom, then the blog is the nucleus.

If you’re struggling with results from your own marketing and you don’t have a blog that’s regularly updated, the results aren’t really surprising.  That’s kind of expected.  Some of you might be thinking “c’mon, a blog can’t have that much influence over my marketing results.  It’s just some random content.”

Yeeeaaah.  not so much.

First off the blog is like a big fat all you can eat SEO buffet for the search engines. Google and other search engines love the potential for a bottomless pit of content.  They will continue to consume as long as you continue to feed.  Their goal is serve the most relevant content to the users of the search engines.  That keeps people using their search engine so naturally they want people to see your content.  If your content is good enough, and relevant enough, Google will step back up to that buffet a lot and serve that content right on to the first people up to search.

Blogs are also all about engagement and interactivity.  You’ll hear us talk about that a lot when we get into dialogues about optimizing content so it’s interactive.  This is one more outlet for you to start engaging the people within your niche whether they’re other companies, vendors, customers or prospects.

Of course there’s the added benefit of becoming an authority.  In order for this to happen you need to actually push strong content but couple that great content with consistent content production and you’ll start getting listed in the search engines for what’s important.  The readers don’t care if you’re a couch jockey or NASA engineer - you’re a niche expert and it makes them want to pay attention.

With social media marketing being all about the pre-sell and not the hardsell, the blog gives you one more place to send people you meet in social networks or other venues that keeps them  moving within your sales funnel.  That extra home to send people to will help your build credibility and rapport - and it’s always nice to see your followers posting your stuff, spreading it around so that others find it and get caught up in your social media marketing funnel as well.

There are a lot of great reasons to plunk blogging down at the heart of your social media marketing campaign, a lot more than I could list here without boring people right off the page.  Just remember the power of content and how far it can take you with the right syndication and promotion.

Social media has been through a lot in the last two years. It’s been overly-hyped, under-appreciated, been the brunt of questionable claims regarding its value, had its ROI fondled like a rubix cube, turned-over, pushed, pulled, examined, leveraged, utilized with success and utilized with epic failure.

It’s been a bit of a theme park really.

A lot of good has come out of sound social media strategies for many businesses and while the entire process of getting your business involved in social media isn’t completely free, it can be pretty cheap. Anyone peddling it as an expensive magic potion should be disregarded. It’s a cost-effective tool that nestles snugly into your great big craftsman toolbox out back.

Curious about how social media can help your business, even in the smallest way? Here are a few quick tips on how a small business owner can gain traction with social media marketing.

Engagement

Where traditional marketing tends to be very passive and disconnected, social media marketing allows you to directly engage not only your customers but your vendors and employees as well. You have access to a brand new level of communication where you can get and deliver feedback quickly.

Communication is never a bad thing.

Relationships

Social media is all about relationships. That’s the whole concept behind social networks is establishing relationships to engage people. You can connect to and forms bonds with people and organizations you never knew existed with the potential of gaining insight and information to help your business thrive. From relationship building comes trust and credibility, and your customers like to do business with people they trust.

On Target

You’ll be able to find and directly target the people you want to market to. You can stop wasting a lot of ad budget on marketing campaigns that blanket your local area or the web. That never works. Social media is an opportunity to narrow your focus and increase the return on your investment. Not sure about that? Try selling a hockey stick to someone who doesn’t have any interest in hockey. Then go find a group in Facebook that deals with Hockey enthusiasts and try to sell it. Enough said.

Reputation Management

Every business will inevitably face criticism and be questioned in a public forum. How you respond to criticism can have a very profound impact on future business. Social media allows you to respond quickly so that you can turn a negative situation into one with a positive outcome. Consider the potential of turning an unhappy customer into an evangelist by taking care of their issue.

Education

Increasing your socialization with customers and others within your market helps open your eyes and learn more about what you’re doing. You can learn a lot about who you are and how you operate your business.

This is just scratching the surface of the benefits of social media marketing. When you mingle this with other forms such as content marketing you’re broadening your reach and opening your online presence up to a lot of potential growth.

With that said, the results are different for every business, and not every network should be used by every business. Social media marketing is part of a larger strategic marketing plan and you have to ask yourself some serious questions before moving forward:

-  Which network (or networks) will provide the most engagement for me

- Do I have a strategy for building relationships?

- How much time can I spend on relationship building

-  Who is my consumer? Do I have enough information to make a buyer persona?

- What does my reputation look like now?

- How do I protect my reputation… or fix it?

- What do I want to get from social media marketing

Never be fearful of moving forward even if you don’t know what to expect. That’s where research comes into play, and information gained through trial and error. Remember, it’s better to do something than nothing at all.

Take a moment and go back in time with me.  Think back to just about any test you had in high school (stop cringing, we haven’t even started yet.)  In particular, lets recall the ones where we didn’t do so well.

More often than not, the scores we got on those tests were directly related to the attitude and motivation we had going into them.  I recall numerous occasions back in the day where there was a test coming up for one of my classes and I put off the study.  I remember notes from class, I skimmed the content in the books, I felt confident enough that I could take care of what was important to me first and worry about the test later.

Of course that position changed the night before the test. Every time.  Just about everyone has had that cram session right before an exam to make up for the wasted time throughout the week.  The test results were usually less than appealing.

So if shortcuts didn’t work back when we were in school, what makes us think that our marketing efforts will survive if we start taking shortcuts now?  This isn’t exactly the kind of business where a drive-thru is applicable.  I do understand why people take shortcuts.  The shadow of a looming deadline and the incessant demands from above mean that results are required sooner rather than later.  Even without the suits hovering like vultures, any marketer is going to have their eye on success.

Strategic planning isn’t just done for gits and shiggles.  These are important aspects that have to be covered and understood before you start throwing together content, brochures, direct mail, reports, etc.  It’s you’re the one doing the marketing, and especially if it’s your business, then you have a responsibility - you owe it to yourself - because you’re about to spend a lot of money and you need to make sure that it’s spent properly.

Here are a number of reasons why you should stop what you’re doing and rethink things - because you’re dangerously close to taking shortcuts.

-If you don’t have a marketing plan, either specific or broad reach.
-If you’re not able to describe your ideal consumer or targeted buyer.
-If you can’t explain how you’re relevantly different from your direct competition.
-If you don’t know how to follow up on the leads you receive through marketing.
-If you’re not sure how to communicate what your business is offering.

If you take marketing shortcuts, you’re on the fast track to cripple your company.  While it may seem like an effective way to cut costs, it will cost you more in the end to make shortcuts in your marketing.  If you develop a strong strategy from Go, then those key decisions will actually make your entire operation run more efficiently which will, without a doubt, save you money.

Marketing shortcuts will never bring the results you need for your business to succeed, and somewhere in your school transcript there are some test scores to prove it.

Social media is a new monster, a new addition to the zoo that some brands are afraid to interact with despite the fact that it’s a giant fuzzy bear. It’s understandable to a point, because the bear still has some claws and a mouth big enough to swallow your head.

But really, it’s more fuzz than it is killer Kodiak.

Still, brands can be hesitant to share information and build a following within their social media marketing efforts. That hesitation leads to a complete lack of information being posted or the updates they do make contain language that feels like they’re seeking approval somehow.

In either scenario, the audience is going to be put off because uncertainty will never breed thought leadership in content marketing. Essential, the lack of confidence in deal with the giant fuzzy bear puts it in a position that it sees you as prey – and it eats you. You end up doing more harm to your brand by doing nothing or sending ineffective messages.

Use What You Know To Your Advantage

Content marketing is about thought leadership. It requires that you engage your audience from a position of confidence in serious conversation, in a manner that educates and/or entertains.

Since you are ultimately in charge of your social media marketing, that makes you the brand ambassador. The tone of the emotion of your individual posts directly affects how your brand is perceived in the market and what opinions the audience attaches to the brand as a result of your content marketing strategy.

Want to avoid drab, dull, boring and all around shite content?

Spice it up

Show Some Emotion:

When there is an exciting update within your company, a new change, a press worthy event or even something wacky within the halls of your business then share it. This includes pictures and video of how happy you are. This isn’t about showing off, it’s about putting a positive face on the brand. People will be more likely to do business with you if they believe that the people working there love what they do and enjoy doing that work with the people around them.

Share Inside Info:

Well, not to the point where you’re getting into legal issues. Make a strategy out of it, as this can generate surprising levels of engagement. Any kind of update that can create buzz is a good update: product improvements, pre-launch notifications, testimonials, the attendance of cool events, taking part in charities, etc.

Set Yourself Up As A Resource:

People are always looking for information online, both actively and passively. If you find relevant videos, studies, answers to common questions in your niche, tutorials, etc – provide links for your audience.

When you link to valuable content outside of your own it shows that you’re not just trying to be promotional – it shows that you’re willing to step outside of the box and provide valuable content specifically for the benefit of your audience.

It’s not at all difficult to engage your following. A common thought is that you need to understand your followers – who they are and what they want- in order to engage them. That’s true, but you also need to understand your business so that you have a working knowledge of what you can offer them. Both as a whole and on a deeper, more personal level.

When you can do that, you’ll find that it’s much easier to find something relevant and helpful to say that actually sparks interest and keeps your head out of the bears mouth.

In every business there is competition. I think we’d be pretty hard pressed to find a product or service for which there was none. Off the top of my head I tried to come up with a few businesses that might have little to no competition, but even in browsing through businesses that market themselves within social media I found multiple listings and information for things like road kill removal companies. That just tells me that if there’s something that needs to be done, there are plenty of people willing to do it… and market it within social media

Along those lines, we can expect that more mainstream businesses are going to have a lot of competition. That means that in everything you do, you’re in a constant tug of war to get traffic, customers and increase profits over competitors in your market.

The difficulty of the online world is that in organic search listings, there’s only a single number 1 spot for any given keyword and while there are some large long tail databases, among them there are plenty of key phrases that aren’t worth ranking for.

That means there’s only so much digital real estate to go around making the competition that much fiercer. That kind of competition can put a lot of stress on a business owner to do better, to succeed, to come out on top - to not faceplant.

Painfully Shrinking Real Estate

Because of that limited real estate, every victory coming from someone else feels like a pitchfork in our flanks. Social media is making it that much more difficult to soldier on and keep our chins up because word spreads so readily and so far. The very networking we strive for can leave our successes feeling diminished and our failures magnified – even if they’re only perceived failures on our part.

With all the information available within social media on how others live their lives, enjoy their successes and conduct their businesses it’s easy for a business owner to grow feelings of inadequacy, where you might feel like you just can’t compete.

The Whole World Is Watching You Trip

As business owners, we can also feel heavy pressure to hold fast and demonstrate a specific persona because we feel that eyes are always on us (and they often are). With that ever-standing presence, that Big Brother role reversal, you can succumb to feeling like you’ve traded a real-life rat race for a virtual one.

There’s really no shame in feeling this way, it’s common for any business owner to feel unsure of themselves. When we start holding our candle to the different candles around us we’re likely to find that some are larger, smaller, longer, bigger flames, have better candelabra’s, burn different colors, etc. That doesn’t necessarily mean that ours is bad.

Under no circumstances can we measure the success of our own social media marketing and positions against those of others because not only is each business different but so are the approaches that need to be made for the variable target audiences vs the USP of your brand.

The fact is, if you’re turning a profit and your customers are satisfied while they generate dialogue within your own social networks and communities then it doesn’t matter what the other guy is doing. Their success might make your success feel diminished, but just because they have a following doesn’t make them successful.

Keep your attention on what you’re doing right and know that with each mistake you make, you learn about one more pitfall to avoid.

A mistake is an opportunity for learning. Thomas Edison is the classic example. History tells us that the inventor made more than 1,000 attempts before inventing the first long-lasting electric light bulb. Until then, all his trials and experiments led to durations of no more than a few minutes before air would filter into the glass bulb, supplying the oxygen that led to the combustion of the various filaments he tried.

The story goes that one of Edison’s colleagues asked him, “Mr. Edison, don’t you feel you are a failure?” Lacking any sense of vanity, Edison answered that he did not, and in fact had found a thousand ways how not to make a light bulb.