Results Revolution » New Media

Leveraging the Boom Part TWO: Turning Publicity into Sales

Andy Chapman — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:00:29 +0000

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

10 Steps to Successful Social Networking

Marianna Hayes Chapman — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:00:10 +0000

Editor’s Note: Annie Mueller provides value-filled, relevant content to help small businesses build an effective online presence. In over 6 years of freelance writing, she’s never had an unhappy client.

Networking is about meeting and building relationships with people for a purpose. It’s that last part that counts in the definition, the purposeful part. Otherwise we’re all just socializing, which is what much of it amounts to anyway because if you don’t know your purpose, it’s pretty difficult to achieve it. That’s fine if you just enjoy socializing for the sake of socializing (and, actually, the best social networkers are people like that usually). However, if you’re spending marketing dollars and the prosperity of your business depends on the success of your social networking, you’d better do a bit more than socialize.

1. The Question You’d Better Answer First

Why are you interested in social networking? To build your business? How, exactly?Do you sell online or just promote online? Are you locally, nationally, or internationally focused? Do you want people to talk about your business online, share your links, spread the word about you, learn more about you, recommend you, sign up for a program, get a free sample, get your e-newsletter, read your blog, interact with you, ask questions, get a membership, order a product, pay for a service, refer you to their friends? If social networking works for you just the way you want it to, what will the results be? Get that pinned down first; don’t tweet a single character or start a Facebook page or write a blog post until you know the answer to this question:What do you hope to accomplish from your social networking? What are your ideal results? Be very specific; don’t say, “I want my business to grow.” Say, “I want 75 members in my exclusive coaching clubs,” or “I want to sell 6,000 widgets online next year,” or “I want 100,000 readers so I can sell pricey ads on my site,” or “I want 250+ people in my referral program,” or “I want 100 customers to sign up for my gold-level service club.”

2. Believe in what you have to offer.

Billy Mays. Everybody wished he would be a little bit quieter but nobody doubted he really loved that OxiClean. And he sold it. Bob Ross. He was all calm and light and happy trees and you just knew you could paint that way, too, if you listened to him. He believed it, and he sold it. Tyler Florence. A gourmet chef singing the praises of a packaged salad dressing? Er. Something’s screechy and wrong here. If what you are trying to sell violates the principles you have already defined for yourself and your business, don’t waste your time trying to sell it. You either have to find a new product or service which fits with the way you’ve defined yourself, or you have to redefine yourself and your business. If you can’t convince yourself that what you have to offer is genuinely worthy, then you cannot convince anyone else. Believe in your business, first. If you’re in one of those slog points, revisit the notes you made on top of the mountain. Remember your strengths. Think about your unique offer. Define the value and make sure it’s something you believe in.

3. Find the right people: the ones who actually need and will benefit from what you offer.

Target your online audience as (or more) carefully as you target your target market. Who will be interested in what you have to offer? Don’t waste your time trying to interest “everybody.” NOTHING (except maybe toilet paper) has universal appeal. Focus on the people who will love, adore, and build small shrines to the solution you bring them. They will become your secondary marketers and will talk a whole bunch of other (fringe) people into trying your business, too. They will be passionate, enthusiastic, and committed customers. Get these people. Focus on them. Pour your attention onto them. Quit trying to convince a huge crowd of slightly disinterested folks to get interested in you, and instead, start talking to the people who are already into your field. Your job is half-done.

4. Find a (free) preliminary way to solve problems.

Before you sell, give. This is a basic idea of permission marketing, education-based marketing, and Golden Rule marketing, which are all pretty much the same thing. So pick a name and then apply the concept by giving first. Offer genuine value. Don’t try to cheap out at this point. People will flee and never return.

5. Find and focus on 1 to 3 social outlets.

Even if you have a full-time, salaried social networker plugging away for your business, focusing on a few social outlets rather than trying to have a presence on all of them will get you better results. Of course Facebook and Twitter are the big daddies, but if you know your target audience well (and you should) go where they are, whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, ZombieLandForums.com, or somewhere else entirely. Go to the people you want to reach and focus on a few of the places where they hang out online.

6. Be enthusiastic.

Because if you don’t really care or even like it that much, why should anybody else? Introverts, break out of your personality a bit and show some emotion. If that’s utterly impossible for you, delegate or hire out so you get a voice out there with some enthusiasm in it. Otherwise you waste your time.

7. Offer value, help, and attention.

First, offer free items of value. This could be content (your blog, your resources) or samples (don’t be cheap) or trials or digital products (ebooks, podcasts) or giveaways or clubs or services.Second, offer help when you see a need and, definitely, whenever people ask for it. Don’t hesitate. Don’t count up the loss of billable hours. Help.Third, offer attention when people start interacting with you. Don’t work to get people to notice you and then ignore them when they do. Follow up. Listen, Respond. Interact. Be real. Give your attention.

8. Be consistent.

Give people familiarity and reliability. They tend to like that sort of thing.

Consistent message: say one thing, say it clearly, and repeat it often.
Consistent value: don’t create one great product and then cheap out on the next. Your customers will feel betrayed.
Consistent method: if you blog, post on the same days and follow the same format; if you tweet, offer the same kind of helpful info all the time; whatever you do, set up a format that works for your goal and stick with it. Sure, some variation and creativity is great; just work within some basic boundaries so people know what you offer and aren’t disappointed. It only takes one visit to a blog without a recent post for a visitor to strike you off the “live” list.

9. Be ready to sell what you have to offer.

If you follow the steps as outlined, eventually (maybe much sooner than you think) people will ask, “What else?” You’ve offered value, you’ve been sincere, you’re enthusiastic and likeable, you’ve been helpful, you’ve been consistent. You’ve won them over. They like you. They want to give back. They are eager to invest back in you the way you have invested in them. So give them a way to do just that!

Make it obvious. Obvious doesn’t mean obnoxious. No flashing signs or neon arrows necessary, but a nice big button that says, “Order XYZ Product Here” could do the trick.
Make it easy. Purchasing should be a simple, one or two step process.
Make it sincere. Any sales material you have needs to reflect the heart and vision of your business. Go back to step 1: do you still believe in your business? Put that belief into words. Be real. You can always get an editor.
Make it subordinate. Yes, this is your business; but your first goal must remain – always – to help the people in your network. If you know that they would be better helped by another product or service, or that your product/service will NOT help them, then it is your responsibility to say so. You may lose a sale, but you will gain a reputation that is worth many more sales in the future.

10. Follow up with even more value after the sale.

Repeat steps #7 and #8 with everyone who buys from you. Sound like hard work? It is. That’s the thing with social networking: it isn’t a magic button or an automatic cash cow. There is no keyword strategy that can build a business without any real value any it. So build a good foundation. Put the work in. And here’s the good news: the initial work will pay off exponentially. That’s the magic part of the social networking model, and it does work. Once you put in the work, the time, the belief, the energy, the effort, the attention, and the value, you win over a few people who love you like you love your business: maybe 10, maybe 100, maybe 1000. Then they network for you. The 10 becomes 100, the 100 becomes 1000, the 1000 becomes 10,000. And it keeps growing. You keep giving, of course. So yes: social networking, done right, is 1) hard work which 2) requires time and effort and 3) takes time before it pays off. But it also 4) does pay off and 5) the returns can be quite great and often 6) will take off and continue to grow far beyond the original investment you made.

Photo Credit: Intersection Consulting

How Long Does It Take for Social Media to Move the Needle?

Marianna Hayes Chapman — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:04:01 +0000

On Friday, I had the privilege of meeting with a favorite client of ours who is about one year deep in his social media marketing journey. He gives bold testimonial that new media and social media are his number one marketing tools – and he can say that confidently because his businesses are thriving like never before.

Last week, another client of ours closed a deal that had been in the works through social media channels for nearly four months. But what a doozey of a good deal it was – a key influencer purchased and is telling everyone about his purchase. Gold.

We get asked all the time: How quickly can social media move the needle?

There are a lot of answers to the question. Here are a few thoughts I have in the “how long does it take to move the needle” category.

1. Once you have built an engaged social media community and are providing valuable information to them through other new media channels as well (such as e-mail and website or blog), if you ring the dinner bell on social media (most typically Facebook Pages or Twitter), they’ll come. Sometimes in less than an hour. That’s quick needle-moving.

2. Rome wasn’t built in a day. That community that makes some businesses look like an overnight success – it isn’t. Sure, you can build NUMBERS in a matter of days if you know what you’re doing – but trust and engagement that lead to sales (and isn’t that what we’re after: selling more stuff) – that’s a slower hill to climb. Sales will start increasing or at least stabilize in fairly short order, but the real benefit is gained by building long-term trust and engagement with your community of customers and prospects online. That trust that makes them feel like insiders will have a mushroom effect on your business success – when that level of trust reaches critical mass you are staged for record sales numbers, massive amounts of PR, and recommendations from key influentials in your target market – regardless of the economy. The needle moving sales success that happens at this stage of the game happens after deliberate, strategic, and consistent relationship building over a series of months (but not years).

3. Social media doesn’t move the needle. Solid marketing strategy integrated throughout your business, including a wise understanding of your customers and how to use and market via new media and social media tools is what moves the needle.

4. The needle will never move if you don’t make what’s happening online and off-line cohesive and consistent. Inconsistency will leave you dead in the water. You’ll also be dead in the water if the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

5. The needle will move the wrong direction if you fail to make good on the promises you make online. If the pizza is burned, and you don’t make me happy again – the needle will undoubtedly move the wrong direction for you – probably sooner than later.

6. The needle is moving all the time whether you want it to you or not. We visited with a local restaurant manager last night that had no idea what was happening on Twitter in his area. Just because your head is in the sand, doesn’t mean that the world isn’t going on around you. The majority of brick and mortar buying decisions are made before the customer ever pulls into your parking lot – they’re looking online first. If you aren’t there – they’ll go somewhere else – and you’ll wonder where your sales are going. You will miss opportunities to grow your business.

The needle is moving, people are talking – are you listening, learning and engaging in an effort to move YOUR needle in the profitable direction – even if it takes a few months to hit one out of the park?

Photo Credit: Unhindered by Talent

Where to Find the Low-Hanging Fruit in Your Local Business

Marianna Hayes Chapman — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:00:56 +0000

In case you missed it, local customers are on-line. I believe there is a lot of low-hanging fruit out there still for local small businesses who play it smart when it comes to web-based or on-line marketing – whether it be via web sites, e-mail marketing, social networks/media, or web-based advertising. Here are some places where I often see huge gaps in what local businesses are doing to capture search traffic looking for what they’re selling. Maybe you can close some of these gaps in your own small business’ on-line presence or marketing by the end of today.

Web Sites

Small business owners can make more money by giving customers and prospects more reasons to buy. Being able to update your own web site (content, photos, and links) should be as easy as writing an e-mail to a friend. If it’s not, you have room to improve.
Small business owners should know who is visiting their web site and how they got there. Web site traffic is like a focus group of valuable information – without the expence. If you don’t have this data from your web analytics (which should be basically free to access), then you’ve got room to improve.
Small business owners should be able to understand and implement (or have someone who can) basic search engine optimization techniques for their local web site. If you don’t know what searches are popular in your local market in your category, and how to optimize your site to grab that traffic without breaking the bank, you have room to improve.
If your local business web site isn’t the center of your marketing universe and isn’t well-positioned as an extension of your brick and mortar customer experience, then you’ve got room to improve.
If your web site doesn’t provide a way for customers to sign up automatically for your e-mail communications, then you’ve got room to improve.
If your web site doesn’t provide a way for customers to connect with you via social media (and vice versa), then you’ve got room to improve.

E-mail Marketing

If you aren’t using e-mail marketing to promote your business, you’ve got a huge opportunity awaiting your local business marketing program!
If you aren’t using an e-mail marketing program that allows you to split test, segment lists, trigger an unlimited amount of e-mail communications and measure who opened what when and how often – then you’ve got some serious room to improve – and sell more stuff for your local business!
If you aren’t consistently sending e-mails to your list – you aren’t staying top of mind, and you’ve got room to improve. If you think “regularly” is less than once a week, then you have room to improve.
If you aren’t collecting e-mail addresses aggressively in your business (collecting better than 80% of everyone that walks into your business), then you aren’t doing enough. E-mail addresses are worth gold to your business, and you’ve got room to improve your local marketing!
If you aren’t sending a series of thank-you e-mails to new folks on your list to train them to read your e-mails for the rest of your customer relationship, you’ve got room to improve your local e-mail marketing program.
If you aren’t using your social media, off-line and web site interactions as a way to gather e-mail addresses straight into your database, you’ve got room to improve your local business marketing.
If you aren’t using e-mail to drive traffic to your web site and to learn more about what interests your customers by having multiple options available for their “click,” you’ve got room to improve.

Social Networks or Social Media

If your local business doesn’t have a YouTube channel with a username that matches your other social network usernames, and if you don’t have a way to create video quickly and cheaply to share your customer experience and to educate your customers – you’ve got room to improve your small business marketing.
If you don’t measure video views by posting a link to the same video link (usually on YouTube) across all social media and on your web site to replicate your efforts using video, then you have room to improve.
If you’re not showing not telling by using a social photo sharing site like Flickr to both show your customer experience, give samples of what’s inside the store and to create inbound links to your web site – then you’ve got lots of room to improve.
If you’re not getting a lot of business out of Facebook for your retail business, you’ve got room to improve. Think about how photo albums, video, wall posts, custom tabs, notes and Facebook messages can help you share your customer experience and sell things at full price. Facebook is a powerhouse – if it’s not being one for you, then you’ve got low-hanging fruit to go pick…on Facebook.
Don’t get Twitter? Don’t know how to pick customers up – as easily as you’d hail a cab in the city? It’s just that easy… If you’re not listening on Twitter and using Twitter to drive traffic to your web site, you’ve got serious room to grow your local business.
If you’re a restaurant, coffeeshop, café or local commercial district and aren’t on Foursquare, you’ve got to get with the program and you’ve got room to grab customers for your local business or business district! If you haven’t claimed your business on Foursquare and haven’t posted offers for folks who are nearby or to reward loyalty, you’ve got some low-hanging fruit ready to pick!
If you’ve never heard of Google Buzz – or don’t know how it can help your business strategically get the word out, then you’ve got room to improve.

Ratings & Review Sites

If your pin isn’t on the Google Map, you’ve got room to improve your local business marketing.
If you haven’t claimed your business on Google Places and optimized your Google Place Page with current status updates, coupons and offers, then you’ve got room to improve your local business marketing.
If you haven’t claimed your business on Yelp and if you don’t check it regularly and stay in touch with your customers there and keep your information up-to-date and if you don’t have a system in place to encourage positive reviews on this site, then you’ve got room to improve the image of your locally owned small business online.
If you are a restaurant and you haven’t optimized your business’ presence on Urbanspoon, and if you don’t check it regularly and stay in touch with your customers there and keep your information up-to-date (including menus, food photos, Twitter connections, and comments back to customers), then you’ve got room to improve your small business online reputation.
If you don’t know about CraigsList, Thumbtack, Ebay, Angie’s List, Judy’s Book, Merchant’s Circle – or how they can help you sell more stuff for your business of nearly any sort – then you’ve got some serious room to improve your small business sales.

Maybe the easiest way to close the gap is to engage someone who makes it simple and easy to get help with new media and social media marketing - and grab some easy wins for your local business in the sales department – an expert that really understands locally owned businesses. Get in touch with us directly if you have such a need…

I bet you didn’t know there was so much low-hanging fruit out there, did you? I bet you didn’t know that HOW you did all of these tools mattered so much – but it certainly does. Where will you start today picking low-hanging fruit for your local small business?

Results Revolution » New Media

Leveraging the Boom Part TWO: Turning Publicity into Sales

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