Maybe you just made the newspaper or a local magazine – or better – you just got interviewed for a major trade publication, the Wall Street Journal or a mainstream lifestyle slick. Maybe a prominent blogger is going to blog about you – or feature you in an upcoming e-newsletter. Maybe you think you’ve thought of something so smart that an influential person tweets about your article, stuff or activities…

These days, publicity comes in all shapes and sizes – but one thing is the same. It will give you a boom. The boom will be short-lived if you’re not prepared to leverage it into long-term sales for your small business. Here are a couple of tips that will help you leverage publicity into long-term growth for your local business.

Get ready for the traffic on your web site.

This seems obvious, but you really should actively prepare to capture customers as a result of the publicity, especially on your small business web site.

1. Make sure an e-mail list signup form (that is short and simple) is strategically located at the top right hand side of all of your web site pages or posts. This will help you grow your e-mail list.

2. Make sure your social media profiles are apparent at the top and bottom of each page or post on your web site, so that folks can connect with you there.

3. Make sure there is fresh and relevant content and that all contact information, forms, store hours, and directions are up to date.

4. Make sure that your web site has the ability to be SHARED so that when people get to your site, they can – with a single click – share your business with 1300 of their closest *cough* *ahem* Facebook friends…. or Twitter followers or other social media connections. We recommend the ShareThis button at the top and bottom of each page or post on your web site.

5. Similarly, install the Facebook LIKE button at the top of each page or post on your web site, so that with a single click and half a thought, your web content or article can be posted to their Facebook Wall and their friends’ newsfeeds. This exposes you to their friends.

6. Finally, install the TweetMeme’s Retweet button at the top of each page or post on your web site. This button not only allows the sharing feature on Twitter, but it allows YOU the measurement to see who shared your content – so you can thank them and otherwise engage them via Twitter.

Prepare to leverage the publicity on social media.

Social media is where you will turn the publicity into a boom for yourself. Often media in and of themselves are not a direct connector. But the power of your network mixing with theirs can really work magic. Here are a few things you can do to stir that pot:

1. Tweet with the news writers and folks in the media on a regular basis (that means, ideally, BEFORE the story hits). When they post a story about your business or referencing you or your business in any way, use all available methods to THANK them for their kind words. Tag them on Facebook, and tweet out a thanks to them.

2. Do the equivalent of the “reprint.” Re-publish the news at least twice – maybe three times after it happens. Facebook and Twitter news cycles are short these days, so posting an article Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon are likely to expose your story to a different group of folks. If you have over 1500 fans or followers, you should also post the story again later at night (between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.) as well.

3. When you post, drive the traffic to the story via your web site.

How does this all turn readers or viewers or listeners into sales? Again, as in the first edition of Leveraging the Boom: Turn Events into Sales the goal is to make new connections – to capture contacts that you can turn into relationships and then keep as customers for a long and profitable lifetime value of the customer. It’s about short-term tactics that lead to marathon relationships and long-term growth and profitability.

What say you? How have you turned publicity into sales?

Photo Credit: Eivind Z. Molvær

Dear Traditional Advertising Agency:

Reference: See my previous post about the three key elements of a brand.

Leaving your client’s web site URL off of their print advertising does the following harm to your client and it wastes all of their money:

1. This mistake gives you nor your client any way to measure the value of the print advertising by tracking incoming traffic to the web site.

2. This mistake leaves the reader (and potential business prospect) with no real actionable place to go to learn more without making a phone call. (In 2010, we just need a URL. Period.)

3. Worst of all, this mistake leaves the impression that your client is behind the times and isn’t worth considering for important business.

Instead of allowing this sort of image torture to happen for your client, I would recommend that if you insist on pushing print advertising into your client’s budget that you at least implement the following strategies to give the ad spending the best shot at giving a return on investment:

1. Build a vanity URL (www.clientname.com/magazinename).

2. On this specific web page (within your main web site), put valuable, advertisement specific copy, images and links to a wealth of business information, testimonials, and include another call to action to the prospect into your sales funnel deeper. (How about asking them some information about them or providing them with a valuable tool for free to grow their loyalty towards your client’s business?)

3. Put a call to action in the print ad that answers the “What’s in it for me?” question for the prospect and lures them to the vanity URL you created earlier.

4. Collect the data about who visits the page including geography, what else they look at on the site, what information is working and not working and conversion to next step or other actions within your sales funnel.

5. Help your client make adjustments in their process based on this new business intelligence.

Sound simple? Well, it really is pretty simple. No matter how complex the business model, a simple strategy like this followed through to the end (with measurement and continuous improvement) will show your value to your customer as an advertising professional.

There are a million ways to kick that idea up another notch, but for now, let’s start with getting that URL onto the advertisement in the first place and having a web site that’s ready to accept traffic. That’s the first step to building credibility and brand legitimacy in 2010.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Marianna

Just had an interesting conversation at lunch about web site statistics for small local businesses. I thought you might find the key takeaways from that conversation interesting when you consider your own local business or small business web site traffic statistics:

1. Google Analytics and other widely used script-based analytics services typically do not capture true page load and unique visitor numbers. Why? Because if someone views your site via a smartphone or in a browser with cookies and scripts cut off, then that view won’t register.

2. The true number (for unique visitors and for page loads) is the one that your server can provide you. This is a great reason to host with a local but robust web hosting provider with whom you can have a personal relationship to give you and explain to you the true server traffic numbers for your small business. I happen to know someone who can help you with that sort of thing (link to a company we own).

3. If Google Analytics and other analytics packages aren’t capturing all the traffic numbers, what good are they? They are extremely valuable to you as a business because they give you customer and potential customer intelligence. Here are some areas of intelligence that might interest you:

a. See what content, products, etc. are creating a lot of interest among visitors overall or within a specific geographical area.

b. Test headlines and navigation titles to see which get clicked more often.

c. Measure the success and behaviors of customers during campaigns like e-mail, social media, online and off-line advertising campaigns.

d. Learn geographical data about your web customers.

e. Measure conversion rates from visitor to customer ratios.

f. Learn how long visitors stay on your site.

g. Learn what search terms are bringing folks to your site – and if they’re not relevant, change your content. If they are relevant, produce more content along those same keywords.

There is a LOT more to discuss in this conversation, but the bottom line is that for those of you who are selling advertising or competing in some way on traffic – the true server numbers are where you want to be looking. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water – those Analytics numbers tell you things about your customers that you never would have known otherwise. Get to know that information, track it, make changes, measure some more and take action to improve your small business based on this free intelligence. Your success depends on it.

Have you taken action in your business based on information you learned from web site analytics? Why or why not?

Photo Credit: edkohler

Why do you, as a local small business owner need help with your local marketing? Because you want some cars to pull up in front of your business. That’s why.

Because as of last April, 63% of all American consumers across all demographics, looked on-line before making a brick and mortar buying decision. (via USA Today/Neilson poll, April 2009). The same data showed that while America was shopping or making decisions WHERE to shop online, less than 80% of American small business owners were spending less than 10% of their marketing budgets online.

Here we are 18 months later, and Citibank has released data. The statistics show there’s still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to local business marketing:

• 40% of small businesses don’t have a web site
• 81% of entrepreneurs still don’t take advantage of social media
• 47% don’t think that Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn are beneficial to their business
• 84% don’t provide for e-commerce
• 62% don’t use email marketing

Local customers are online doing research and making buying decisions. If you aren’t there – or aren’t there to your full potential – you are leaving money on the table. Period.

For those of you that are defying the odds and actually spending on-line, how do you know that you’re doing it best? Or even good enough? I wonder how you can be an expert at all things about your business, your inventory, your payroll, your employee policies, your customer care, your brick and mortar store maintenance, insurance, and payments while making sure you comply with IRS policies and paying your other bills and making sure your windows and every other aspect of your brick and mortar customer experience is great……… all while being a marketing expert in a world where marketing has changed so fast that even the heads of the brightest experts are spinning and it takes the lion’s share of an expert’s professional life just to read and experiment enough to keep up with the pace so when we recommend something – it works and it works well? Can you know confidently that what you know about the world of web-based marketing is even “good enough” to not be leaving the money on the table that would send your child to college or pay off your mortgage five years early? What is “good enough” for you?

As for me, I don’t try to do everything in my business – I pay the bookkeeper and CPA to do their thing that they do well and a WordPress expert to do her thing and a graphic artist to do her thing. I can’t do it all in my business – and if I tried, my business would be mediocre at best – close at worst. But I do know social media and on-line marketing. And I know that your customers are there, and they’re asking for your stuff – where are you? Maybe we can help each other out.

Is this an eye opener for you? What’s your next move?

Photo Credit: dave_mcmt

Chatting with my BFF the other day about how best to convince small business owners and restaurateurs that online marketing was worth paying money for. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Well, I dunno… perhaps that over a year ago 63% of all American consumers across every demographic looked online first before making a brick and mortar buying decision. Most of the folks we’re talking to are targeting a higher end demographic, and it’s a year later, so that number has to be much higher………

BFF: I didn’t ask you why they should be online. I’m talking about how to convince them within their existing worldview why this is worth spending money on.

Me: The money is online.

BFF: But are they going to see value in spending money online?

Me: (insert scream of frustration)

It’s seriously this bad. In small businesses and restaurants and boutique hotels across America, folks have their heads stuck in the proverbial sand.

I hear things like the following:

“I know we’ve got to do it, but I just don’t have time.”

“I just don’t see the value in it.”

“Well, I just spent $90,000 on new merchandise, so that website upgrade to allow me to make my own frequent updates to my website…that sounds good, but it will have to wait until next year… I just don’t have the money for that right now.”

“Well, I’m in a contract with the local lifestyle magazine, and I’m running some cable advertisements and sales have been really down lately, so I just don’t have the money to invest in online. I know it would work, but I just can’t afford it right now.”

How about this, Mr. small business owner? What if you could spend half per month what you spend for an ad in the local lifestyle magazine, and you could track feedback, gain market intelligence – and oh yeah, sell more stuff and know that it was a direct result of this marketing effort? Would you do it?

Would you spend the same amount if you could get that kind of measurable results?

If you wouldn’t – then why are you in business? Because it seems like you’re only there to support the dinosaurs. As for me, I’m going to stay in business by selling more stuff. Online.

Photo Credit: blakeimeson

If you do social media right for your small business, your customers will become more loyal. If you do social media wrong, you will lose customers. But how do you know which category you fit into for certain?

We’ve been seeing a lot of situations where business owners are blasting their Facebook connections too frequently on Facebook with a pushy sales message, and it’s turning off customers. How do we know? Facebook provides outstanding Insights for Page administrators now, and one of the metrics you can monitor is the number of fans who have chosen to hide your posts from their News Feed. This means that you didn’t LOSE the fan, per se, except that you really did because they have hidden you from their view by removing you from their News Feed. This is bad…very bad.

Unsubscribes indicate that you were saying worthless stuff or being too annoying or in their face with your small business Facebook messages. Your business was basically spamming it’s Facebook connections. Think whatever you like about them, but their opinion matters and on Facebook they can do something about it – they click the “hide” button, and you’re outta there. Never to market directly to them again via their News Feed. Not cool.

So, what I recommend is taking  a closer look at your Facebook Insights.

1. Go to the Insights, click on your Page name on the left hand side of the screen (it may default to your Page if you only administer one Page).

2. Then, right under your Page name on the left hand side two words will appear: Users and Interactions.

3. Click on “Interactions” and the top graph they show will be for “Daily Story Feedback.”

4. This graph shows the number of “likes,” “comments” and “unsubscribes” for each day.

5. If you see a spike in “unsubscribes” on a certain day, look to see what you posted on that day or around that day. And don’t do it anymore. If you see a steady stream of “unsubscribes,” that also is an unhealthy sign because you might need to re-think your Facebook strategy and messages overall.

However, if you only get a rare unsubscribe, congratulations, that is an indicator that you’re doing Facebook well, and is a sign of Facebook health – that can only lead to increased customer loyalty since they hear from you more often and in a more valuable and meaningful way.

If you do Facebook the right way, lukewarm customers will become fans. And existing fans become super fans as they follow – evangelists that spread the word and point new customers to your business through social media in droves. The personal relationship, access and frequent top-of-mind provided by Facebook and social media usage in general secures customer loyalty like nothing else can. Check those Facebook Insights and measure your own Facebook marketing health.

What are your Facebook Insights telling you? What other Insights do you find important for your business? Share with us in the comments section below.

This week, I spoke to a lot of downtown redevelopment types at the National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City. We talked about how to tell your story in this modern world (whether community, business district or small business). Social media plays a big part in that. But it’s not the central element…

In my presentation, I pointed out that to tell your story well, you must play by four basic rules. Without repeating my speech here, I do want to share the first rule and most important rule with you, because strategically, everything else will crumble if this rule isn’t followed:

Rule #1: You Must Have a Strong Home Base for Your Business or Community

That home base should most likely be your web site. In nearly all marketing models, it works for the web site to be the epicenter of the marketing universe. (It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, and I’m more than open to creative thinking on this subject depending on goals and budgets. But in most cases, it works for it to be the web site.)

Is your web site working as the epicenter? Are all roads leading back to your domain name…to your web site?

How can you make your HOMEBASE stronger?

1. Make sure it’s easy and quick to update. If you can’t update your own web site, you’ve got a big problem in today’s fast paced world. We love the WordPress platform because it takes me moments to make major updates to my own web site. It’s as simple as sending an e-mail.

2. If it’s easy to update…are you updating it? Are you adding new and interesting photos, educational content, employee and owner profiles, product and vendor information, demonstration videos and how-to lists… Are you making your web site and interesting and valuable resource for your customers and prospects?

3. Is your domain name appearing everywhere, even if your logo can’t? This includes audio communications (like radio, word of mouth, etc.), store signage (yes, including the front door and front window of your store), shopping bags (you never can tell where those bags will go), t-shirts, postcards, advertisements of every sort and at every opportunity.

4. Are you actively seeking to create traffic TO your web site through interesting posts on social media, links from vendor or organizational web sites, etc.? Remember that valuable content you created? Now it’s time to tell folks about it through Facebook wall posts, encouraging folks to share that information on Facebook, Facebook advertising, Twitter posts, LinkedIn posts, e-mail marketing and many more new media traffic drivers.

5. How does your site appear on search engine results? Does it even appear at all? Keep an eye on this, and ask your web guy for help if necessary.

6. Do you have Google Analytics and other robust web site analytics packages installed on your web site that are set to send you daily or weekly reports? Are those reports summarizing how much web traffic you are getting and from where (both geographically and by keyword topics)? Do you know who and why your customers are visiting your web site (keywords, inbound links, etc.)? Are they finding what they’re looking for – and so much more (bounce rate, number of actions per visit, time per visit). You might be surprised at what you learn, but you certainly need to know. And you need to correct course with the web site if it’s not delivering the desired results.

P.S. Interestingly enough, on my trip home, I was catching up on some reading and found that Chris Brogan had an interesting post on this same subject. His post has cool screen shots demonstrating how confusing it can be to customers if you do NOT have a strong home base. I hope you’ll enjoy his post as well.

Also, if you’re also just home from the National Main Streets Conference, you might enjoy our conference wrap-up of conference tweeters to follow and other good resources.

What say you? What results is your home base providing for your business?