Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category
More Helpfullness – 5 Ways To Turn Your Marketing Around
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.”
Is Customer Acquisition Your Focus? If So – You’re Making A Mistake
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.
Are You Listening Or Just Waiting To Talk While Marketing?
I was picking up
some lunch at Subway, inspired by Jared, when the exchange between the customer and employee in front of me caught my attention. It was proof of a listening issue – Get this:
Customer: “…club with no ham, lettuce and tomato”
Employee: *Starts putting ham on sandwich*
Customer: “no… no ham.”
Employee: *correct the ham, moves down* “Do you want lettuce?”
This issue with an employee who isn’t really listening is a lot more common than individuals and organizations care to admit when they’re marketing online – especially within social media. What’s worse is that consumers are so used to this kind of behavior that they barely flinch. It’s becoming social accepted. “Accepted” in the sense that we often walk away annoyed but tend to forget about the incident.
But what about other situations that we may find ourselves in while marketing. We might actually be listening, but are we REALLY listening? Are we hanging on the words of the customer to the point that – if polled like a teacher asking a daydreaming student for an answer – we can snap to attention and provide a relevant solution?
Like the exchange in Pulp Fiction between Travolta and Thurman:
Mia to Vincent: “Do you listen…. Or do you just wait to talk?”
You’d be surprised just how many businesses feel that their listening is up to par, but what they’re actually doing is waiting for a chance to talk; an opportunity to break into the conversation with a hook, solution or pre-sell. A way to build credibility by leveraging the current topic. They’re listening enough to find a way to flip the topic in their favor.
Very few people are actually good listeners. Dale Carnegie writes about one in his killer book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”:
He said:
“It struck me so forcibly that I shall never forget him. He had qualities which I had never seen in any other man. Never had I seen such concentrated attention. There was none of that piercing ‘soul penetrating gaze’ business. His eyes were mild and genial. His voice was low and kind. His gestures were few. But the attention he gave me, his appreciation of what I said, even when I said it badly, was extraordinary. You’ve no idea what it meant to be listened to like that.”
So, when you’re out there beating the virtual streets with your social media marketing – are you listening, or just waiting to talk?
Marketing To Thousands Of Followers… One At A Time
It’s relatively easy to put up a Facebook “like” page for a business. Just about everyone can do it. The same amount of effort is required whether you’re a major brand or a local business. However few of the brands that actually do so are pulling off their social media marketing effectively.
Stop Marketing Products, Start Marketing Life Changes
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.
3 Tips For Growing Your Social Media Strategy
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.
Your Social Kung-Fu Is Weak & You’re About To Get Sacked
These are not kid gloves. This is not your sister’s tea party. This is a situation that every person and organization with an ear for marketing should have foreseen. With the way technology advances, it’s no surprise that we’ve come into a new age where things absolutely have to change.
Is Your Social Media Marketing UNselling Your Business?
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.
Finding The Nucleus Of Your Social Media Marketing
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?
Are You Killing Your Marketing Efforts With Shortcuts?
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.
