If you are finally ready to get serious about social media, here are four key steps to help you develop an effective strategy:
Step 1: Assess your findability. Where do your customers go online when they’re looking for your product category? Go there and see if you can find you.
Step 2: Establish credibility. It is of the utmost importance to establish trust and credibility in social media. If you talk about how your company or brand is the best, you’ll fail at both. Just like a real conversation, you should provide value and expertise, be transparent and identify yourself as a representative of the brand. Your goal should be to participate in the conversation and provide a credible viewpoint.
Step 3: Enhance reality. This is your opportunity to be an expert where you are an expert… not in a boastful way… in a knowledgeable way that can truly help others. Being an expert, without coming across as an expert, will go a long way to enhancing the reality of your brand image in social media.
Step 4: Measure Impeccability. Monitor your online reputation. Gauge your online reputation by utilizing website analytics tools to measure visitors’ time on your site, bounce rate and referring traffic data. Be sure to establish a baseline at the beginning of each social media campaign so you can accurately measure results.
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There’s a lot more to social media than merely creating a Facebook page. Social media offers tremendous opportunity. So, are you dating social media or are you ready to get married? Those who get serious with social media will derive serious value from it. It’s that simple.
Perception is reality…Â a direct mail piece is your target customers’ perception of your business.
Your mail piece is competing for the attention of EVERYTHING ELSE that arrives in the mailbox with it.
You need a quality direct mail piece — a mail piece that stands out in this marketing medium. Instead of “how cheap can I send this?” instead ask yourself, “How much do I need to spend to get my mail piece to the top of the stack?”
With the decrease in marketers sending out direct mail, right now is the perfect time to land in mail boxes with your mail piece.
Don’t think that just because you mailed something that it’s necessarily going to be read.
You must ‘make people WANT to read your mail piece.’
So, your most powerful weapon here is a compelling powerful headline. In fact, your headline is one of the most widely read parts of your mailing. It’s the part that keeps your reader reading — or not.
Make the headline about your reader. Your reader wants to know what’s in the offer for them… they don’t care about you until they know that you care about them.
Earlier this year the American Psychological Association reported that 80% of Americans feel stressed by the economy, 60% feel angry about it and 52% are having trouble sleeping.
So, what are you going to do about it?
If you sell bedding, stress balls, meditation, therapy, spa services, video games, financial management, career coaching, fitness training, nutritional supplements, or want to recruit more church members or collect more food donations, this study provides a hook.
The numbers grab attention, and the research findings lend your message timeliness and relevance.
Numbers persuade! And they do not have to be figures your organization gathered. Your ad or news release can focus on the implications of a recent survey, relating it to the problem your product or service solves.
Did you know that what other people say about you and your business is 8 to 11 times more powerful (and believable) than whay YOU say?
That’s right. TESTIMONIALS are believable and credible, and you should be using them in every area of your marketing. It’s virtually impossible to have too many testimonials from your customers and clients.
If you’re not using testimonials, you could be missing a lot of new business. So start acquiring, developing, and utilizing testimonials… today!
Take action: Call three of your best or your favorite customers, and ask them why they use you and your business.
More and more people are relying on the Internet and Wireless Devices for information about products and services.
Cell phone penetration in the world now exceeds that of the internet. In 2009, about 80% of the world’s population had mobile phone coverage. This year, cell phone coverage in the world is expected to hit and 90%.
Over 300 million mobile subscribers in North America in 2009.
75% say ‘text messaging’ is the most important feature.
In 13-44 aged cell phone users, text messaging outnumbers talking.
Over 70% of subscribers use text messaging.
Texting is used 7 times more than mobile web and mobile search.
It’s time to make Mobile Text Marketing a stronger part of your company’s marketing approach.
Mobile text marketing levels the playing field for big business vs. small business.
And best of all…it is paperless!
Check out www.HungerMagnet.com to see how their unique approach to mobile text marketing can help you today. Go Text Yourself!
Wikipedia defines personal branding as “the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands”. Furthermore, the personal branding concept suggests that success comes from self-packaging, leading to an “indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable”.
The good news — and it is largely good news — is that everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.
People know what to expect when they see a personal brand, and oftentimes, the brand is a promise of the value they’ll receive. Therefore, it is critical that you take the time to understand the importance of branding for your business.
Interested in uncovering more benefits of personal branding?
When it comes to the perfect pitch, sometimes less is more. Let’s face it, most of the purchases we make happen because we like the company we’re dealing with (i.e., we know the owner, trust the brand, identify with the company’s values or innovative products, etc.), rather than because we feel sorry for them during a recession. People buy out of their own self-interest or because they respect the brand’s past successes.
Well, the same is true for your clients, too. So, why do you spend countless attempts at bombarding them with desperation marketing? Instead, try taking a few weeks to craft the perfect pitch and use constructive feedback from friends to make it shorter and more powerful.
(This information adapted from David Seaman’s article “Ditch Your Desperation Marketing” on www.entrepreneur.com.)
Sampling is a marketing technique that, when done correctly, can benefit your company. One reason for this is that sampling overcomes fear of the unknown.
In fact, entrepreneur.com recently summed up the value of product sampling by stating that
“when people are uncertain about what something will cost, what the customer-business relationship will be like, or what they’ll get in return for their time and money, they do nothing, or they revert to a familiar solution even if it’s less than ideal”.
They also point out that
“samples lead people past their hesitation. It’s why department stores have dressing rooms, auto dealers offer test drives, software companies give limited-service free access, media outlets offer complementary subscriptions, and museums host free-admission days. ‘Try it’, they’re basically saying, ‘you’ll like it’.”
