7 Steps for Marketing Success

Developing A Total On Line Presence

By marketsimplicity on June 20, 2013

Developing a “Total Online Presence” –Why your business needs this to survive
By Brad Tornberg, E3 Consulting Partners, LLC.

It seems like developing a Total online presence is like eating Elephant – where do you start? For a startup it makes sense to first develop a strategy that defines your differentiation – your unique advantage and you ideal client. Once you have this then you can begin the process of tactical marketing to get your message across.

The most important thing you can do is to try to get people to know you. Like you, trust you, try what you’re offering, buy what you’re selling and then repeat the process and refer you to others. This is the new paradigm in today’s sales cycle or what John Jantsch calls the Seven Steps to Small Business Marketing Success.

The issues I typically hear are how much time and how much money will this take and I don’t have a lot of either. So the advice is always the same –do something, do it now and do it often. Keep a calendar and stick to it! Remember that small victories are still victories.
Simple tools such as Mailchimp and Unbounce will allow any level user to create a landing pages and create an email campaign that can collect names that opt in from the call to action generated. This content can be reused in ads for Facebook and Linked in and other sites. Simply create the landing page, go to bitly.com to create a shortcut link to your email and now you can create an email and put the link in the email to create a call to action. Remember the call to action needs ot be compelling (something for free – a free book, whitepaper, site visit, consultation, etc.) This is how they get to try out your special service or product – the try portion of the cycle.

Blogs are easy and free. WordPress makes it very simple to sign up and create a blog. The blog is crucial because the search engines reward content and if it’s original and pertinent you will rise naturally in the search engines. The blog is something that can be opted into with your above campaign and gives people a place to land to learn more about you and your business products and services. Blogging is something that needs to happen on a calendar like other marketing activities. You don’t have to be a writer. Use Google alerts and other listening tools to monitor or listen for certain key words and each day you will receive a summary of those pertinent articles or posts. You can repost, retweet or even comment on subjects that are in your sweet spot which makes you relevant and the search engines reward relevance by providing visibility in the rankings so you will be found by those who are looking for you.

My next post will be other tactical ideas to use in helping develop a total on line presence. Feel free to send me your thoughts and Ideas!

The 4 M’s of Social Media

By marketsimplicity on March 1, 2012

Success in Social Media is having a well-defined tactical plan of attack but rarely can you succeed based on this alone. Strategy is the tip of the sword and without it your tactics will probably fail. With that being said there are four important areas you should focus on when implementing any social media tactical campaign.

First – What is your Message? What is the purpose of the message? What is the reader supposed to do once they see your message? Is it simple and easy to understand? Does it take a long time to figure out what to do once the reader decides they want to act on it? Does it further your current marketing or sales cycle? What part of the overall cycle does this message address and satisfy? It needs to be clear and concise and to the point. It needs to cause an emotional response that gets the reader to perform an action. What is the response you are looking for from the message?

Second – What are the mediums you intend to use to convey the message? Social Media Geography is growing larger every day with new places and spaces to claim your real estate. My advice is to be careful here. Choose wisely. Realistically you can’t dedicate too many resources when starting out. You can always expand to other sites and places once the Monetize (# 4) portion is in place and giving you the expected return. Stick with the basics and those that may be specific to the types of customers you serve. The idea is to use the same message and spread it out across multiple mediums for maximum exposure and hopefully inbound capture and conversion. People will buy when they are ready to buy and having them know, like and trust you is how they try, buy, repeat and refer you. This is the goal of marketing and the hourglass philosophy of John Jantsch and Duct Tape Marketing.

Third – The importance of measurement. Measure everything. Social media is another tactic and should be measured and analyzed constantly. Use tools and analytics available from your vendors and providers or services like web trends, Google analytics. Etc. (some are pay others are free). Split your message and test it and don’t forget that just because its social media you shouldn’t ignore traditional marketing methods that have been successful since marketing became a discipline.

Fourth – Monetize. What is your definition of how it monetizes? For some it may be the sale for others it may be a goal like contributions or a certain level of social awareness. At the end of the day how does the message eventually convert to a sale? If not does it increase transaction velocity (quicker sales close cycle) or improve your social following and reputation? The definition of the sale has also changed with social media. It can now be defined as any transaction that creates a ripple economic effect for the institution involved in the message.

The 4 M’s of Social Media

By writeminded on March 1, 2012

Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Frontier

By marketsimplicity on February 17, 2012

Innovation in Customer Service is the next frontier. Yes products evolve and get easier to use, more efficient and streamlined but what do they do to make the customer experience better?

People will use anything that makes life more efficient and are willing to pay for ease, convenience and offerings that cater to their needs, work to fit their lifestyle or circumstances and looks and feels like a personalized experience.

Some hotels for example now let you check in and out on a 24 hour rolling basis making it an innovation that directly impacts the customer experience. If the customer can change their buying patterns to make things easier for themselves then any service offering like this will be successful.

A supermarket chain allows you to call ahead with your list so that when you arrive your order is ready and you can just pick up the items you forgot saving you the long time you spend in the supermarket but still allow for the experience of shopping. They also provide home delivery which is an old model but felt that many of their customers still like the shopping experience to be able to select key items such as fruit, meats and other personal choice items. They are growing at an amazing rate because they offer services that bring innovation to the customer experience and meet multiple needs depending on their customer’s circumstances.

In the mobile world now that the platforms are becoming more widespread and used as everyday tools (iPhones, Droids, Tablets) the success of the appliance will be judged going forward not just based upon the applications that are utilized on the device and for what purpose. The device themselves will gain or lose market share depending on the ergonomic likes and dislikes (style, size, color, ease of use, availability of applications, etc.). However the devices that can bring consistent innovation to the customer experience by changing the way the consumer behaves will rise to the top. Users of these devices will see the utility as something that improves customer service and is a must for their lifestyle.

The monetization of Customer Innovation can be quite large. It will come from repetitive use and mass adoption from consumers which originates from social media acceptance and approval. After all how they bring innovation to the customer experience is always a great story to tell!

Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Fronteir

By brad on February 17, 2012

Innovation in Customer Service is the next frontier. Yes products evolve and get easier to use, more efficient and streamlined but what do they do to make the customer experience better?

Social Media as part of a Marketing System

By marketsimplicity on January 6, 2012

By Brad Tornberg

Now that we all understand the importance of business participation in Social Media the next obvious question becomes now that they know you how do you covert them to eventually become a customer?

A prospect who knows you somehow found you – a job well done! Now once they see your fresh content that adds value they will begin to like you and your message follow you or even give you permission to email them important information.

Once they begin to see your core differentiator (what makes you different form the competition) and follow your message and marketing cycle they will begin to see how you stand out as the expert and look to you for answers because they trust you. They read the testimonials and recommendations that position you as the expert who can solve their problem. This is why you need to continually educate your customers and position your business as the authority by offering valuable usable content.

The next step is for them to get a taste of what it’s like to do business with you. They want to try what you are offering before they buy your product or service. An offer of a free assessment, a free consultation or giving an opportunity to participate in a webinar, seminar or other venue where you educate them and provide valuable tips and information gives them a taste of things to come.

Social Media is a marketing tactic like many others including traditional methods (direct mail, networking, etc.) that helps generate leads. Once generated the lead needs to be nurtured and put into a systematic method for follow up and eventual conversion to a customer.

Social media like traditional media must continually put the message in front of the prospect so that when they are ready to buy you will be who they buy for. The key here is being in front just enough times to become the brand of choice but not too much that they feel overwhelmed and are being sold to. For social media to be successful you still need a “call to action”. It can be as simple as gaining a follower to an offer for a free whitepaper or webinar or even a drawing for a free Ipad.

Social media is one spoke tactic that should echo the message of what makes us different and why people buy from us and like us. Duct Tape Marketing Teaches to us to first build a marketing strategy and then build a marketing system. People need to know you, like you and trust you before they try what you have to offer, buy from you, repeat the cycle and refer you to others. Do you have a marketing strategy? Do you have a systematic approach to marketing? If not how’s the social media thing going?