To some, social media is their primary (and low cost) toolset for gaining, keeping, and keeping in touch with clients - and making more sales. Inbound marketing is taking off. Why?
1. Traditional Advertising Ain't Working Anymore.
Traditional advertising is being zapped, ignored, muted, switched off. Build yourself a list of consumers who *want* your information. Who are more likely to read it, watch it, digest it.
2. Keep The Connection.
We all know that a happy client is the best advertising; so we all work hard to make our clients happy. But in order to really capitalize on the word-of-mouth generated by your hard work, you want your company name on the tip of that satisfied client's lips. Social media marketing is a low cost, highly effective way of staying connected. Sending an newsletter a month is all you need to do and your client will remember both you and your great service.
3. Promote To An Already Warm Market
Got a little time on your hands or a little extra product lying around? Tell your already satisfied clients all about it quickly and easily; give them a deal and make a bit of profit out of unused assets. Send special promotions via email, post them on Facebook, Google walls. Tweet! Once set up, this costs you nothing but a bit of time.
4. Grow Your Community
Simply being out there and active in social media will attract potential clients to your online community. You can build your list of email addresses and followers naturally with various techniques. The more followers you have and the more email addresses you contact legitimately every month, the more sales you will make.
5. Be Known. Build Your Brand.
A solid social media marketing campaign can be like a large billboard at the side of the road. Everybody knows about it. And when the time comes that they need your product or service, they are going to be more likely to think of you.
Inbound marketing is poised to be business' communication platform of the future. And you can have it now. And with a minimum of investment. Really.
Committed to helping Small Business make more money using Social Media.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
14 Steps To A Win For Small Businesses In Social Media
Small Business owners already don't have enough time to go to the bathroom. How the heck can a small business take advantage of the networking afforded by Social Media Marketing? Well, here are fourteen steps that will get you going.
1. Believe. Social Media Marketing is an excellent way to connect in a real, human way directly with your client base. It's a terrific way to get your message out into the community. It's a terrific way to involve yourself in your community and become known. It's a great way to become a source of information about your product or service. It's a great way to connect to clients whom you never would have dreamed of meeting. And, unlike in the past, a quiet introvert can do this just as well as the extrovert.
2. Hire someone to set it all up for you. You will want a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest. All of these sites will need a profile set up. All of them require differences in graphics etcetera and this takes a lot of time. It's tedious. Get someone to do it for you. Should cost around $250 (CDN).
3. Build a nice website. If you don't already have one, build a nice, clean, graphically supported website. You can probably get one for about $250. If you think you will be posting specials or lots of material continuously on your site, consider a Wordpress site so that you can do it yourself. E-commerce enabled sites will cost you more.
4. Get a posting tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck that allows you to post from one central deck to all of your social media and pre-schedule posts to be released throughout the day while you are busy doing what you do best. You can probably get away with the free version of either of these services but if you have someone else working with you, these services cost about $10 a month.
5. Reserve some time for posting. Take about half an hour in the morning to set up and schedule all your posts for the day. Or, if you know that you have a quiet time just after the lunch rush, work then.
6. Be accessible all the time. Well, I know you are already working a twenty-six hour day but I would highly recommend getting a smart phone, internet enabled. A company like Wind (in Canada) will give you unlimited internet access for about $40 a month.
7. Be ready to work anywhere. An internet enabled phone can do this for you but if, like me, your fingers are way too big for those keyboards, consider investing in a Mobile Internet Stick that allows you to access the internet on your PC from anywhere. Cost is about $45 per month.
8. Become a Goto Expert in your field and about your community. Be on the lookout for interesting content all the time. Hear about a festival in your community? File that away for tweeting. Read an interesting blog? See a beautiful picture of your kind of product or service (even from a local competitor?). Tweet and post. Connect people. You can also hire someone to research and come up with content for you for about three hours a week at a cost of about $60.
9. Build followers. Some media, like Twitter, attracts followers simply because you are actively posting every day. Take some time, especially in the early days, to research other pages, individuals, groups, communities that are interested in what you are interested in. Follow them. Many will automatically follow you back.
10. Engage. Answer all queries or comments. Now, the internet is still the Wild, Wild West. If the comments are negative, don't get into a fight. Remain positive and upbeat even thank them for their input, but definitely respond.
11. Advertise. Building 'likes' and 'follows' can be as simple as advertising on the platform in which you have a presence. So, if you have a Facebook Page, buy a Facebook ad designed to boost your 'likes' of that page. You can hire folks to do this for you for about $25 and hour. And you can limit how much you are willing to spend per month.
12. Google Ads. Google Ads are a great way to get your message out to folks right in your area who are searching for your product or service. The proviso, here, is that (as part of how Google Ads work) the businesses bid for position on a results page. If you beat out your competition, your ad is placed at the top - very critical to increase click through rates. If you are a real estate agent, it is probable that you are going to pay A LOT for each click. If you are a local flower shop, however, it's probably that you are not competing with that many folk and the rate will be more reasonable. However, you can cap how much you are willing to spend per month.
13. Analyze your success. As you grow your online presence, make sure you use built-in metrics to see what is working for your business and what is not. Concentrate on what works.
14. Keep at it. The internet does not have a cultural memory. You have to keep at it. Make sure you are in your comfort zone in terms of time and, if you know you have a busy period coming up, plan to hire someone to post for you. Cost for that would be about $20 per hour.
There's a lot more you can do but this is a great start. For example, you could start a blog.... :)
1. Believe. Social Media Marketing is an excellent way to connect in a real, human way directly with your client base. It's a terrific way to get your message out into the community. It's a terrific way to involve yourself in your community and become known. It's a great way to become a source of information about your product or service. It's a great way to connect to clients whom you never would have dreamed of meeting. And, unlike in the past, a quiet introvert can do this just as well as the extrovert.
2. Hire someone to set it all up for you. You will want a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest. All of these sites will need a profile set up. All of them require differences in graphics etcetera and this takes a lot of time. It's tedious. Get someone to do it for you. Should cost around $250 (CDN).
3. Build a nice website. If you don't already have one, build a nice, clean, graphically supported website. You can probably get one for about $250. If you think you will be posting specials or lots of material continuously on your site, consider a Wordpress site so that you can do it yourself. E-commerce enabled sites will cost you more.
4. Get a posting tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck that allows you to post from one central deck to all of your social media and pre-schedule posts to be released throughout the day while you are busy doing what you do best. You can probably get away with the free version of either of these services but if you have someone else working with you, these services cost about $10 a month.
5. Reserve some time for posting. Take about half an hour in the morning to set up and schedule all your posts for the day. Or, if you know that you have a quiet time just after the lunch rush, work then.
6. Be accessible all the time. Well, I know you are already working a twenty-six hour day but I would highly recommend getting a smart phone, internet enabled. A company like Wind (in Canada) will give you unlimited internet access for about $40 a month.
7. Be ready to work anywhere. An internet enabled phone can do this for you but if, like me, your fingers are way too big for those keyboards, consider investing in a Mobile Internet Stick that allows you to access the internet on your PC from anywhere. Cost is about $45 per month.
8. Become a Goto Expert in your field and about your community. Be on the lookout for interesting content all the time. Hear about a festival in your community? File that away for tweeting. Read an interesting blog? See a beautiful picture of your kind of product or service (even from a local competitor?). Tweet and post. Connect people. You can also hire someone to research and come up with content for you for about three hours a week at a cost of about $60.
9. Build followers. Some media, like Twitter, attracts followers simply because you are actively posting every day. Take some time, especially in the early days, to research other pages, individuals, groups, communities that are interested in what you are interested in. Follow them. Many will automatically follow you back.
10. Engage. Answer all queries or comments. Now, the internet is still the Wild, Wild West. If the comments are negative, don't get into a fight. Remain positive and upbeat even thank them for their input, but definitely respond.
11. Advertise. Building 'likes' and 'follows' can be as simple as advertising on the platform in which you have a presence. So, if you have a Facebook Page, buy a Facebook ad designed to boost your 'likes' of that page. You can hire folks to do this for you for about $25 and hour. And you can limit how much you are willing to spend per month.
12. Google Ads. Google Ads are a great way to get your message out to folks right in your area who are searching for your product or service. The proviso, here, is that (as part of how Google Ads work) the businesses bid for position on a results page. If you beat out your competition, your ad is placed at the top - very critical to increase click through rates. If you are a real estate agent, it is probable that you are going to pay A LOT for each click. If you are a local flower shop, however, it's probably that you are not competing with that many folk and the rate will be more reasonable. However, you can cap how much you are willing to spend per month.
13. Analyze your success. As you grow your online presence, make sure you use built-in metrics to see what is working for your business and what is not. Concentrate on what works.
14. Keep at it. The internet does not have a cultural memory. You have to keep at it. Make sure you are in your comfort zone in terms of time and, if you know you have a busy period coming up, plan to hire someone to post for you. Cost for that would be about $20 per hour.
There's a lot more you can do but this is a great start. For example, you could start a blog.... :)
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