But, with most complex B2B sales now being sold over extended periods, how can businesses adapt to take advantage of this new situation?
The main challenge for sales teams is working out how and when to position themselves in the long sales cycle and then maintain contact without overloading the prospect during the process.
We've created the following list of things to consider when selling over an extended period of time.
Most people understand a sales cycle to be the time from the first contact to closing the deal including all the marketing and sales team activity along the customer journey.
Ideally, the marketing activity should engage at the earliest possible point though when the client only suspects an issue, way before they start researching possible solutions.
Ever had a sense you've come across something before, a feeling of reassuring familiarity, but not know why? That's what you are aiming for, achieve it and you get the jump on your competitors.
There is no official time to mark this point, but Google did a study in 2011 called the Zero Moment of Truth and identified it as the stimulus point at which a customer becomes aware and if we can identify that and engage that early in the cycle, we become a trusted resource before our competitors get involved in the consideration stage much later.
How to do this? Adjust your strategy to include a new area specifically addressing the symptoms of problems clients experience before they've realised they need your solution. These could be long tail key phrases on Google Ads or pieces of content you created discussing the issues.
Either way, you must ...
Client needs vary at different stages of the process and using a blanket approach to engage does not work well. You need to be present for the entire duration of the process with the right information in hand.
Identifying the right content to deliver at the right time, in the right frequency on the right network is key to being successful over longer periods.
For example, a video designed to simply raise awareness wouldn't be useful to a client in the conversion stage as they are past that point.
Here are some examples of what to provide at each stage;
Thought Leadership, Blogs, Social Media Posts and eBooks discussing problems
How To's and Case Studies on Specific Issues, System Walkthroughs
Product Spec Sheets, Video Testimonials
Onboarding Guides, Welcome Packs, Surveys
By committing to the journey with the right type of helpful content, you are well on your way to...
The primary objective of a long sales cycle is to stay top of mind. You do this using great content - just don't overwhelm people because in the early days, it's all about subtlety.
A long sales cycle needs engagement that goes beyond a simple monthly email, and you should start small with the intention of building up to become the first point of reference if a potential client has a question in your business area.
This is achieved by helping clients deal with their problems (identified in your customer profiles) so you add value - you aren't simply inundating them with advertising.
Consider the tasks the client will need to do over the sales cycle and help them. What things do they need to bear in mind with systems like yours? What are the pitfalls they may not be aware of? Give them tips on how to collect the info they'll need and the especially the steps necessary to deal with you as a provider.
Knowing what content to show prospects at the right time and place is only possible when you...
Before you start paying for Ads to drive traffic, you need to make sure all your websites and landing pages are set up to track who has visited them, and what those people have done whilst they are there.
This means ensuring your Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel codes are not just installed but correctly configured for each stage of your buying process so the right content is shown to the right person at the right time.
There are many ways to remarket and the number of options available to target a specific audience is incredible. For example;
Done correctly Google and Facebook Ads come into their own with Remarketing and it is cheaper - meaning you will get a better ROI - because you are telling the network who to show your ad too instead of asking them to find people.
Remarketing is also a key part of the consideration stage, particularly as …
Even though on the first impression you may think Google Ads are a waste of time because you're a B2B software company with a long sales cycle - just think - when you were last doing research on any new product or service - where did you go? If you're a bit like me, it was Google.
There are some important considerations to bear in mind though.
When you successfully use PPC to show up in Search results, on the Display Network or using Remarketing though, you are well on your way to becoming ...
If you are omnipresent you are widespread - all places at all times - and it is key to keep people moving along your funnel and for you to remain Top of Mind as a helpful resource.
Clients today consume information through a number of sources so it is important that your company makes the most of every opportunity with a varied approach.
As soon as the Customer Journey begins - and Google did an excellent study on this - tools need to be in place to maintain your engagement whichever system or platform they choose to engage on and obviously mobile is key.
Expect every client interaction to be slightly different and ensure your content is available 24/7 so if they want to check how your offering compares to a competitor at 3am whilst Netflixing on their sofa, they can.
And, when you are omnipresent, a clients awareness of you increases to the point where your email inbox recognition skyrockets helping you...
Email is the glue which holds all of these elements together. Whether it's automated follow-ups to client activity, personalized pattern interrupts for people gone cold or simple notifications to the Sales Team when a lead scoring milestone has been hit, email meshes our activities together.
Email shouldn't be overdone though.
Potential clients should be segmented by interest and the stage of the process they are at. Emails should be personalized at some level, be from a real person, not necessarily sent by them on that occasion though and relate to that lead.
Email shouldn't be stale though.
Writing with personality and crafting your messaging so it relates to the audience, with their particular language patterns, is the way to go.
As they near the end when the Sales Team takes over, marketing emails should dial it down. We don't want clients overloaded. They need space to build a personal relationship with their new point of contact inside the business.
Everyone loves it when a big deal drops. Big ticket products and services carry bigger profits but the pay off is the long sales cycles you have to go through to land them.
When you are ready to review your sales cycles, we hope you find these suggestions helpful. A clear understanding of what your client needs and how to best deliver it using the tools and approach above, will certainly help you win the long sales cycles game.
More time, less time, time to start showing ads, time to stop showing ads - there is a range of things to bear in mind when advertising on Facebook, all connected to time in some way, shape or form.
Now, some people might say that I am about to give away a little bit of the secret sauce of successfully marketing on Facebook with these tips.
I don't agree.
Facebook is a fantastic platform to grow your business with the right strategy and I would hope that in its own little way if this post, like our others, can help businesses understand this - it serves us all, agencies included.
Facebook is moving fast enough to warrant professional help.
So let's get started with the first tip.
It takes time to set up a successful advertising campaign on Facebook. On average it takes our team 3 weeks from sign-off to collate the required info, plan the funnel stages, create the audiences, write the copy and design the ads.
Although that, of course, varies on scope and deliverables.
Now, setting up a campaign can obviously be done sooner than 3 weeks, but although you cannot ruin a campaign taking too long during this phase, you certainly can do that by rushing the job.
So take your time.
A surefire way to kill a Facebook Ad Campaign before it has even started is to not test it for long enough at the beginning of its life, or even worse, not test it at all.
Testing allows your team to better understand how the campaign audiences are responding, or not responding, to your creative before you throw big money at it.
This takes at least a week.
Essentially, to use a racing analogy, you need to work out which is the best horse to back and you cannot do that if your horse is still in the stables.
And it's not exactly worth doing that when it's in the home straight nearing the end of the race.
Unlike Google Adwords 'intent' model of Pay Per Click advertising which knows exactly what a buyer is looking for - because they have entered it in the search field - Facebook has to use it's 200 odd data points to guess.
They call it your 'expected action'.
But, it takes time to make the best guess and it measures this not in days, but in interactions. 50 interactions to be exact.
What does this mean for you? It means that you will not see the best results of your campaign until things settle down and you have passed that interaction milestone.
So stick with it and don't make changes until this happens.
We're bombarded with so many adverts these days, we are experts at ignoring them. Our brains tune them out, especially where we have seen them before. It is called 'ad blindness'.
Ignore this, your response rates will drop and costs will increase. Not a great combo!
So after a certain period of time, you need to refresh your ad creative to stop your audience ignoring them. On average, we'd suggest changing it up every month.
I've saved the best for last! Even though Facebook Ads are a paid model, as opposed to an inbound content marketing strategy, results are not immediate.
You still need to allow enough time to crack the funnel and get the best results. It is a process like anything else and needs to be given time to succeed.
As an example, we will not take on a client for anything less than 3 months. 6 months at a push.
Why?
Because it takes a lot of work to get campaigns off the ground and we want to give our clients the absolute best chance of getting results.
It is unrealistic to think real results can be achieved much sooner than that, before even contemplating how to successfully scale your campaigns.
A tip there is, don't scale too fast, but we'll keep the golden nugget of how to scale your facebook campaigns and others like it, for another ...time!
A successful sales funnel is an automated fire and forget marketing process that takes people from one place to another more desirable one within your business - and typically generates revenue - well what is not to like about that?
But how do you construct a successful sales funnel? That is not so easy.
Thanks to companies like Clickfunnels, marketing funnels have seriously taken off over the last three years.
There are sales funnels, onboarding funnels, customer service funnels, training funnels and more, but what separates a good funnel from a bad funnel, a successful one, from an unsuccessful one?
One element is the Value Ladder.
A Value Ladder is a sequence that takes your ideal customers on a journey to your principal product.
You create a Value Ladder when you are strategically mapping out your sales funnel in the very early stages. Before you get into the funnel software; before you start writing copy, assembling assets, creating the ad campaigns.
If you leave it out of your preparation or get it wrong, people will most likely not progress to where you want them to go.
Get it right though, and they most probably will.
Why? This is because the process you go through to do this exercise by creating your Value Ladder will help you appreciate the users' journey. It will help you take a strategic approach and understand why they would move through your sequence, what their considerations would be at each point, and establish what it is you have to do, to help them along the way.
How you create your Value Ladder is a very simple question to answer. As a template, it essentially looks like a series of steps leading up to your most expensive product.
Below is an example.
Start at the bottom with your entry-level product or service, and work your way up. At every stage, consider it's Price Point, Value, (which should both be increasing) and Goals.
Entry level examples could be a free Lead Magnet only requiring someone's email address in return for a checklist, or a guide, free sample or trial. Second stage examples could be an entry-level course, a book or a low ticket product of yours.
It is crucial to consider the following points here;
If not, it probably will not work in a sales funnel and this is one of the errors we see frequently when we take over a funnel that is not performing well.
Identifying a misfiring sales funnel sequence sounds easy then right? Not so.
Here at Mediatasks, we see a lot of funnels in different areas of business so we have a lot of experience diagnosing issues - if your business has one or two funnels in its entirety, then chances are you do not.
Obviously, at this point, we could mention how our funnel experts are on hand to help fix your funnels for you but instead, all I will say is that, even if you only book a free strategy call which takes 20 mins, we should be able to give you enough advice to do the same - if you are that way inclined.
In any case, I hope the next funnel you build will incorporate a Value Ladder as at the very least, it will certainly mean you will get better results than last time around.
In an earlier blog, we featured our top tips on how to boost Facebook Posts and in the article, we touched on this in point 5, calling it "Recognise when it's better to go large" and by that we mean use Facebook Ads Manager.
We're going to expand on that. Here we go.
You can never have enough targeting options, only not enough data, to fill targeting options.
The more we know about our ideal customers and the more we know about our chosen objective, the better we can reach the people we need to reach, with the message we need to give them, to stand the best chance of achieving our goals.
It stands to reason then, that the system with the most targeting options, is the better system, and as an advertising tool Ads Manager is certainly better than Boosting Posts in this case.
When you boost a post, you can target three ways;
In fairness, Options 1 and 2 can provide some value, although people who have liked your page may not be what you consider to be your ideal customers; and the parameters in Option 3 are limited to age, gender, interests, and location.
In comparison, Ads Manager is one of the best tools to get your message in front of the perfect audience for your business with options that go far beyond the above. If you understand those capabilities, you should choose to use them to your advantage and beat the competition in the process.
With Ads Manager, businesses have a greater chance of success because they also have a greater range of campaign goals including;
In comparison, when you boost a post, you have two goal options; page likes or engagement.
In the same way as targeting, scheduling options are greatly expanded in Ads Manager. When you boost a post you can only do so up to 7 days in advance, which limits your ability to show ads within a campaign.
Seven days may sound like a lot, but if you consider special events like the Christmas season which runs for many weeks, sometimes months, this means you would have to replicate your campaign numerous times.
Instead, in Ads Manager you can pinpoint exactly when you want your campaigns to run. This gives you options to target people through every stage of your sales funnel, and for example, vary whether they are shown an ad after clicking on a previous stage within the last 7, 14, 21 or even 28 days.
If you need more control over the look and feel of your ad, then you should be using Ads Manager as boosted posts come with a limited set of options in this area too.
Ads Manager includes creative options for carousels, videos, slideshows and even full-page canvasses that are not present when you boost posts, so if you want those, you must be using Ads Manager. You can add Call to Action buttons too, which you can not when you boost a post.
Placement options for your Ad are increased when you use the full system. So, if you are happy with just being within the News Feed, you could stick with the boosting posts. If though, you want your ads to show on the right-hand column of Facebook or Instagram or both - then the Ads Manager is for you.
Ads Manager also gives you greater control of your bidding strategy by enabling its manual options. Here, you can set what it is exactly you want to pay for, whether that's Ad Impressions, Clicks or Actions. You can also set a Maximum Average Bid or Per Bid Rate.
If you ever want to scale your campaigns these controls are what you will be using - so, if that's a possibility going forward, Ads Manager is for you.
As an aside, within an ad campaign these options may change depending on where it's at in the sales funnel and how it's performing, so having the ability to control them is essential to us as an Agency.
Boosting posts can work, ask yourself the following;
Ultimately, if you need a quick engagement tool to increase the social reach of a post, that is already performing well, that wouldn't upset your marketing plan and you've answered 'No' to the questions above, then boosting your post could be fine.
As an example strategy, we have clients that will monitor the organic reach of the blogs in their News Feed and at the end of the period, boost the ones that are already getting engagement - which is one of our tips on how to best boost your posts by the way.
If you would like further information on how to get that going, book a free 20-minute strategy call and we'll take you through the setup.
At the end of the day, the full-bore feature set of Ads Manager gives you much better options at every level over boosting posts.
Within Ads Manager you have more control over each aspect of the process which will help you succeed with your Facebook Advertising; whether it's creating the ad, setting the goals and objectives, using your budget in the most efficient way or scaling the campaigns.
Both options have their place, just ensure you know where they best fit with what you are trying to achieve to get the absolute best result. After all, we never set out to have an OK "that'll do" type campaign, right?
We understand the attraction of boosting Facebook posts. You've crafted a great piece of content and Facebook is suggesting that for just a few pounds you can get this in front of thousands of people.
How can you lose, this sounds great - thousands of people reading about your product or service. You start picturing riches falling from the sky, as you harness the power of the Facebook marketing juggernaut. Thousands of people! Your finger hovers over the little blue button of dreams, and then, ...click.
You've gone and wasted £20.
The problem is, even though you could have gotten more engagement, more traffic, more sales - like anything else, there are no shortcuts with Facebook marketing.
Now boosting Facebook posts has its place, we won't for a second deny that.
However, there are some key considerations to bear in mind which will help ensure that if and when you choose this approach - it has the best chance of success, and you don't waste your money.
Here we go.
Boosting a post does not take very long, but, that convenience should not mean it does not come as part of a wider plan. Ask yourself, why are you boosting it? Is it to reach more people? To increase engagement? It needs to be tied to a specific goal, a strategy, not vanity metrics.
The Facebook Ad Platform has many goal objectives and although you get a smaller toolset when you are boosting posts, you can still; increase traffic to your website, increase your Facebook Page likes, increase the number of leads into your business or simply raise awareness of your brand.
When you've chosen your objective, you need to ensure that you have the right structure to your ad. Bear in mind the following;
Facebook uses a number of factors to decide which ad to show. The price you pay is not everything when it comes to deciding which advert to display.
Relevance is also key. If Facebook thinks users will have a better experience because they saw one ad over another, it will show that one first.
Part of our work as Facebook advertisers is to help the algorithm understand that our advert is better than the next. One of the ways we do that is to only boost posts that have 'Social Proof' i.e organic reach and engagement.
If your post is not getting any traction, there's probably a good reason for that. As Obama said, you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig.
You must also give your post enough time to get engagement before making a decision on whether or not to boost it. The minimum is 2 hours, we prefer at least half a day, although a set number of engagements is ideal.
Only boosting posts with Social Proof will help move you closer to achieving your objectives.
Chances are, if you are just boosting posts you do not have Business Manager set up because you haven't delved too deeply into advertising on Facebook. And no Business Manager means no Pixel which means no Tracking data.
Having no tracking data will hamper your marketing efforts greatly, it is like trying to win a sprint when you're on crutches, and your competitors are on motorcycles.
Our ability as marketers to track and target customers throughout the entire Sales Funnel is a huge advantage, and Facebook Ad's can do that when used correctly.
So our final tip is, even if you are still simply boosting posts, set up Business Manager and add your Tracking Codes to your web properties. It will not give you full control, but at least it'll get rid of those crutches!
As a Facebook Ad Agency, it can come as no surprise to say that we advise people to use the Facebook Ad Platform instead of simply boosting posts.
Boosting a post is a quick and easy process but - quick and easy is how you make a cake or clean a toilet bowl or shop by mail - it is not, how you best advertise on Facebook.
Yes, I did just use a quote from a Stallone movie to make a marketing point.
There are though some clear advantages to using the full platform over boosting posts, including;
In 99% of cases, it is better to use the full Facebook Ad Platform because of the flexibility it gives you. It makes you think more about your Ad Campaigns, what they are trying to achieve and how you will go about that doing that.
That being said, even with the limitations of boosting posts and the differences above, if you still want to boost your posts and not have anyone craft ad campaigns on your behalf - you can still achieve a good ROI if you use our tips above.
The results will just not ever be as good as the full Ad Platform, but they will still probably be a lot better than you get elsewhere!
Reading time: 3 minutes.
Whether you are shifting boxes or selling services, one of the most prevalent business goals I hear when reviewing a potential new client is - I want to grow.
The trouble is, most businesses aren't.
Like most things, the answer is simple. It's not the product, and it's not the price. The issue occurs way before your potential customer even sees the features or benefits of what you have to offer.
It's at the very beginning. At the very start of the conversation. Have you guessed what it is yet?
Our brains look for problems. They are superb at it. An excellent way to understand this, and the reason behind the title of this piece, is that of dog poop on the pavement.
When we are walking down the street, we have many things to be aware of - especially in London where we are based. Cars passing by, people chatting on their phones, cyclists either on the pavement or not obeying red lights.
So, how are we able to still notice the small pile of dog poop in front of us?
It is because our brains look for problems. They are attracted to them.
Another example (but not nearly as stinky) are news cycles. Have you ever wondered why the main news segments are nearly always bad news topics?
Because bad news often means problems.
Whether it's Brexit slashing the value of the pound (making us poorer), ISIS (making us frightened) or train companies (making us late) the top of the news is almost always full of problems.
Here's the danger. If you don't identify the problem and instead jump straight to stating the solution, your customer will not feel compelled to buy. Why should they? They have no reason too. They don't know they need what you are selling. Because you haven't stated the problem.
Stating solutions in advertising is nothing new. We've been conditioned to do exactly that by having features & benefits rammed down our throats for years. It doesn't make it right, though, and things have changed.
Here's the way to ensure potential customers get the right message. First address the person, then state the problem, next state the solution and don't over do it.
If you overstate the problem, you will scare them off to the competition. Overstating the solution will mean you are telling them how you'd solve the problem, and that's the process.
They aren't ready for the process yet.
Well yes, it is. Otherwise, everyone would be doing it, including yourself most probably and you (and them) wouldn't need to read a blog about it. That doesn't mean it is beyond you, though.
We'll be covering this in greater detail in future newsletters (up first) and then blog. If you'd like to be the first to hear you can do that here for free. Else, if you cannot wait, please get in touch, and we'll help straight away.
Until next time.
Reading time: 3 minutes.
A marketing dinosaur labels themselves as traditional and uses it as a badge of honour to reject any form of modernisation. You will not be surprised to hear I come across them a lot of the time. It's an occupational hazard.
Now, resistance to modernisation can sometimes be no bad thing.
Telephones can be a better method of communication than email. Electric cars still haven't gone mainstream. Trains were better in the old days (Southern - ouch - sorry!).
The same cannot be said in marketing, though.
Last week, I was sitting in a meeting with an SME where the PR & Marketing Manager was trying to justify poor results.
They spend a solid amount on advertising for their size, in the region of £15k per month - but a quick look at their marketing strategy showed the reason why.90% of their budget was in print marketing. 90%!
Now, although I work mainly online, I know print marketing has its place. It is just not 90%. Keep going that way, though, and they'll go the way of the Dodo.
Unfortunately for many SME's they don't realise this until it's too late. So I thought I'd write this blog.
There are many ways to spend your money on marketing these days. Online, offline, print, social, PPC, network marketing, conferences, so on and so on.
We could go all day.
Instead of that, I've included a handy chart below setting out the way the marketing landscape is changing.
The growth areas are of course digital, email marketing is increasing the most, print marketing is going the other way.
The future of my SME above does not look good does it.
Marketing is transitioning from print to online. Companies who adapt to this change will thrive in the opportunity it brings them.
Companies who do not will find it harder and harder.
Their pounds and pence will not stretch as far, and results will dwindle, in some cases, evaporate.
It is survival of the fittest.
At Mediatasks we know your marketing should get results. Whether it's social media, email marketing, pay per click or print - it should be part of a strategy dedicated to bringing the best bang for your buck.
Right now, that's paid social media advertising and email marketing.
In the future, it will undoubtedly be something else. The methods change, the objective remains the same.
Those who resist positive change will get stuck in the mud. And often, especially here, sink very fast indeed.
Until next time.
The money will fall from the sky if you as the business owner would only set yourself up a Twitter account or a Facebook page.
It happens all the time.
Never mind the nagging doubt in the back of your mind that in the nicest way, your marketing kinda stinks. That you as a business, are not actually saying that much. That is cannot really be that easy. Hell no, ignore your gut and listen to the guy selling you a plan for £60 per month. You will be fine with a single post on Instagram a day.
No more, it has to stop. I'm calling it and it's going in CAPS I am that serious...
SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT A MAGIC PILL AND IT WILL NOT WORK ON ITS OWN.
There. I've said it and it cannot be taken back as it's on the internet.
Only last week, I met a business owner trying to make headway with an offering which is going the way of the dinosaur.
He'd been told that social could help his company - which it of course, can - but to do so, he'd also been told (by an 'expert') that it would only take a few posts a day on Twitter, despite no other form of marketing.
No email campaigns to existing customers, no blog, no videos, case studies, white papers, testimonials, not even a features and benefits statement or a PPC account.
Just Twitter. Organic, Twitter.
You can imagine my response - but it was too late, he'd already signed a six-month contract with the company concerned.
As an aside - I should really point out that I wouldn't deal with ANY marketing company who wanted to sign you into contracts like that. It's one thing to talk to people about SM requiring longevity and time to grow, it's another to force people to keep working with you. We never do that here.
I should also say that, before you look, yes we do offer a social media startup plan of £99pm which is not that far from my quoted £60pm comment above. But, the difference is, we don't take any clients on at that level unless it's confirmed to be part of a larger marketing program.
Interestingly - if prospective client spends are totally in that area, we advise a freemium strategy and if that's you, book a call and I'll personally make sure you're sorted too.
So, ...how do I usually position social media to a prospective client?
Easy. I borrow a quote straight out of Gary Vaynerchuk's book The Thank You Economy and describe Social Media as being the Special Forces of your business marketing army.
They cannot win a war on their own, but they can have a tremendously positive effect when they are working as part of a team in the field - especially if you need to turn the tide after a bad result.
Now, enough of the military speak and on to, how, to use social media properly...
By its very definition, 'social' media when-used-correctly is fast, engaging, responsive and flexible.
You don't create content on social media itself, you use it to deliver and engage your audience around content elsewhere, hopefully on your own website. No sharecropping here please!
So, what does an effective small business marketing plan look like when you'd only have £60pm to spend?
Well first up, save your £60 and roll up your sleeves - because you are in prime freemium territory here.
Of course, sometimes the above may look a little daunting. If you'd like some help with all or part of the above, do please get in touch. Even if it's only to hit me up for my best freemium software recommendations to save you time and assist you along the way.
We're putting the finishing touches to a Free SME Marketing Guide, if you'd like a copy sent to your inbox ahead of everyone else, please add your email here.
Now you know the correct way to start using Social Media within your marketing plans you can get to work. If you only do 1 thing after reading this blog you will be far more likely to see it through.
So, what's it going to be; set up your publishing calendar, consider your buying personas or something else? Let us know in the comments below and best of luck.
But writing a blog takes time, effort and to be successful, it also needs to be supported by other forms of marketing. It needs a mate.
So before you even start your first blog, you may want to learn about a blogs best friend, the email autoresponder, which is simply a series of email marketing messages automatically sent out to subscribers in an order and regularity that you determine in advance.
An autoresponder typically delivers a tutorial or sequence of messages to customers that could be swayed into buying your product or using your service. It builds a platform in readiness for a potential sale by nurturing prospects in the reassuring comfort of their own space and a time convenient to them.
And whether your subscriber is the first or the 10,000th, it will create the same great experience.
Which is only one of its’ benefits.
An autoresponder doesn’t shut down when you are sleeping, it does not care that it’s a Bank Holiday or Christmas break. It does not get bored with that same old marketing message and it never ever gets irritated – it just delivers your best content, in good order, with the right frequency, to every new reader who finds you.
It’s a real team player.
It might be that you want to take a break every now and again, perhaps head off on holiday or take a city break somewhere – you need not worry - your autoresponder is always there working its socks off in the background, taking care of business.
Not all autoresponders are all they are cracked up to be, some are all about the marketer, which as we know is, of course, wrong!
An autoresponder should be about the user.
Its main function is to take a curious bystander and turn them into a fanatical advocate of whatever it is that you do.
To accomplish that, it needs your best input, the type of content that makes your fans happy every time they see it. You need to add value, inspire, excite.
You don’t need to be Stephen Fry or Shakespeare!
It does though need to be useful!
The content delivered needs to solve your readers’ problems, ideally without costing you anything. And, if it shows your trustworthiness and likeability in the process, more’s the better!
Well thought out autoresponders help you make a case for people to do business with you, by educating them on why you are so great, before they commit to buy.
It will let help them examine the problem they are facing and how to overcome that by building trust in you, by outlining its core features and benefits whilst painting a picture of what life is going to be like once the problem is solved.
And in most cases, solving the problem includes purchasing your product or service. Funny that.
So, did they buy or call? If not, and they aren’t quite ready, they will at least be keeping warm with your email content until they are.
This could be months or even years – but as long as you keep delivering on your promise of interesting relevant content, you can automagically keep them engaged on the back burner until the time is right.
There is no such thing as free traffic. You have to pay for traffic in some way, either through advertising on something like Pay Per Click or with your own time and creativity using a blog.
Yes, the reality of blogging is that it will take a toll on your time and effort (unless 😉 someone else does it for you) so you need to capture every fan from the very start.
There’s no point intentionally missing leads right?
This is why building your autoresponder first is recommended by professionals like us, and certainly do this before you even begin Social Media Marketing and the like. Otherwise it is like fishing without a net.
And to those of you who are reading this and already have a blog without an autoresponder in place. Don’t delay, build your autoresponder today!
Back in the day, businesses grew by word of mouth and many still do. Then, marketers would talk about the sales funnel, and to some degree that is still true too. Today though, the sales path of a customer does not look like a funnel, it is more likely to resemble a flight path.
In 2011 Google did a study that examined the purchasing process for 3,000 consumers, what they got back were 3,000 unique entries. People were shifting between social media, review sites, word of mouth, online search and then back again, sometimes on more than one device.
Single marketing options will struggle to effectively create sales. Instead, businesses need a range of options across multiple devices to attract new customers and then combat a sky rocketing 70%+ online basket abandonment rate.
Think this does not apply to you because you do not sell anything online?
Think again.
The term abandonment is used to describe the behavior of any visitor to a web page who leaves that page before completing the desired action, including filling out contact forms or signing up for a newsletter.
How do you shop? If you are like me, you search online, read reviews from other people who have bought or ask a friend. I may even check social media for a special offer ... but do I typically pick up a magazine? Typically no. If you do not either, chances are your customers probably will not too.
The good news is that marketing has never been more accessible that it is today. Some options that are highly effective engaging customers, like social media, are free of charge – requiring knowledge instead of cash. Others, like email marketing or pay per click advertising are very low cost.
95% of smartphone users say they've searched for local information. 90% of those users take action within 24 hours.
Source: The Mobile Playbook.
Businesses no longer need to spend thousands of pounds to get a foothold in their market through a single medium like glossy magazine advertisements.
In 2015 the task of meaningfully connecting with your customers is tougher yes, but essentially cheaper and therefore more within reach. One to one marketing is finally possible.
All you have to do is learn a few basics and find solutions that will give you the best value for money. Pick your battles and go on to win.
You know, the kind of person they would like to do business with above all others. Right? Wrong.
The problem is; small businesses owners are so adept at getting on with business that quite often they forget to consider what their perfect customer looks like.
But what’s the problem?
Well if you don’t know who your perfect customer is, how can you hope to attract them?
To craft a successful marketing campaign you need to know who you’re talking too, but too often than not and especially in SME’s, people do not. Sure, they know who they sell too in general, but not who their perfect customer is and that’s what we all want – right?
You need to be able to picture this person, so we are going to get very specific. The reason being, every time you put together a new piece of marketing like an email newsletter or Social Media campaign - you are going to need it to be as if you are sitting across the table from them – getting their feedback, their advice on what resonates and causes them to take action.
The last one is for you though; to be your perfect customer, what traits can they NOT have? (these could be perfectly civil by the way; simply not right for you as your customer)
Now, once you know the answers to the above you will have a great insight into who you should be working with and critically how you can start marketing to them.
A word of caution though, building this kind of knowledge can take time, so please don’t interrogate your clients the very next time you speak to them in the New Year. The next step is to define your business so your perfect customer thinks you’re perfect too. Look out for that marketing tip here very soon.
If you're considering a change in your marketing, why not book a Free Strategy Call to discuss your options?
Building a sustainable business on someone else's property does not work.
Sharecropping didn't work for farmers shortly after the U.S Civil War and it won't work for you. The landlord's decision to up the rent killed the business model overnight.
A modern-day equivalent is a business relying too heavily on social media to bring in all of your new customers, known as digital sharecropping. Here are a few things to consider...
Facebook's priority is growing Facebook's business, not yours. From time to time if those priorities line up, you could benefit too - there are many benefits to using Social Media for your business after all. However, if their priorities change, and say for example, Facebook decide they don't like Groups anymore or Google+ like Hangouts, and your business relies on them, then you could lose out big time.
Remember mySpace? Me neither. Seriously though, small businesses invested their collective millions into their mySpace pages only for them to dwindle and die. Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn may buck that trend, but you are taking a risk hedging your business on the success of their business.
Social media pages, eBay stores etc are still good for business, but to get the most benefit businesses need to realise they are an extension of their marketing activity and treat them as such. Your primary asset is your website and it should always take priority.
Once you make this adjustment in your thinking, the good news is that everything else is within your control. So if something happens to any of your social networks or a third party online store you are using, your business will not automatically be under threat.
So, how do you think you are doing developing your own mix of marketing assets? Have you got a good balance, do you feel in control? Let us know in the comments.
