Improve Sales Results From Social Media Efforts

Cynthia Clark over at 1to1 Media provides some key points to follow for businesses trying to increase the number of sales derived from their investment of time and money in social media.

Don't believe the social media purists that say places like Twitter and Facebook (and now Pinterest) aren't places for you to make a sale -- it's not true!

While you certainly don't want to bust in an interrupt people by being overly "salesy" it is definitely a place where you can demonstrate and deliver value, interest, service, and support in a very big and public way. This strategy wins over prospects and keeps current customers happy and coming back (and saying great things about you to their social media followers) -- all of which leads to more people choosing to do business with you.

Click through to the article for more detail on the four most important areas on which they recommend you focus:

• Capturing prospects
• Establishing trust
• Assessing customer needs
• Follow-up

As expressed in the article:

"If used properly, social media can help spur current and future sales. Since companies cannot control what customers say about them on social networks, they should embrace social media as part of the sales process by providing relevant information, responding quickly to inquiries and issues, and staying in touch with both prospects and customers."

Read more here:

http://www.1to1media.com/view.aspx?DocID=33378

Better Results from Social Media Photo Sharing

Fantastic story about a haunted house that attracted a bigger audience seeking a scare NOT by showig how spooky their monsters were, but by instead capturing the sheer terror of the people going through the house.

Read the article here:
How to Be a Frighteningly Brilliant Content Marketer

This is quite simply a brilliant example of sharing content via social media.

• Imagine doing this when handing a new car owner their keys
• A new homeowner the keys to the house
• The first time a new mommy and daddy see their baby
• A child when they get their first puppy
• ...their first bike
• ...the first time they walk through the gates at Disney World

The point is to share the sheer emotion of the experience.  Anything you could possibly say about your product or service pales in comparision to the expression on the face of your clients.

Who would have guessed it?
A picture is worth a thousand words... 

Improve Your Landing Page Results

Google is putting more focus on delivering quality and relevant landing page results.
Will your business benefit or be hurt by the changes?

Learn why sending people to the homepage of your company website is NOT the best way to get results from your online advertising.

http://technorati.com/business/advertising/article/google-tweaks-adwords-what-is-the/

Improve Your Message - Improve Your Results

Powerful illustration of how choosing the right words in your campaign to relate a compelling story to your audience can increase your results dramatically.

Increase Results from Email Signatures

Getting more mileage from your email signature (you know...... those extra lines that you can automatically add to the bottom of every email you send.)

Be sure to include the basics:

• Your contact info: name, company, address, phone, fax, email
• LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook links along with an overt invitation to connect with you
• Website address (and separate blog link if appropriate)

Try the following creative ideas to stand out from the crowd (and your competition):

• Include a logo or graphic image
• "Deal of the week" with a special link for tracking results
• An invitation (and link) to subscribe to your newsletter
• Include customer testimonials (the recipients see endorsements from their peers and the quoted clients get a little link-love)
• Inspirational or humorous quotations -- change them often (people notice!)

Want some more ideas?

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/04/the-art-and-science-of-the-email-s...
• http://themarketingguy.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/marketing-with-your-email-sig...
• http://www.webtrafficbasics.com/sig-lines.htm
• http://coolsig.com

Improve Your Landing Page Results

Whether you call them microsite, landing pages, or bridge pages -- these kinds of websites can do a phenomenal job of converting links into customers (if they're executed correctly.)

In my experience the hands-down, most-made, single mistake preventing you from getting the best results possible from your landing pages comes from wanting to make the landing page do too much. Frustrated by your inability to get the guy in charge of your "regular" website to update and post the content you wish to see, you begin to throw superfluous content onto a site whose sole purpose is to deliver a crystal clear singular message.

If you focus on just one thing to increase your landing page conversions, force yourself to keep the clarity of message of paramount importance. 

Think you have the goal of a single-message nailed?  Then you're ready to review seven more valuable pieces of advice for creating more effective landing pages via Tim Ash's blog at mThink Revenue Performance.

Good Cop/Bad Cop: Social/Traditional Media

A great video from Gary Vaynerchuk about the roles of Social Media and Traditional Media: http://bit.ly/bDwhtA.  The message isn't new (I've been saying this for at least 5 years), but leave it to a guy who has sold a bazillion books to say it in a way that will reach more people.  Love it -- wish I'd thought of it.

PS: If you haven't purchased Gary's first book -- go do it now!

Better Results from Ad Copy

In media, we read (and write) a lot of copy... a LOT of copy.

Radio scripts, television scripts, print ads, email ads, banner ads, landing page, microsites, email newsletters, promotional spots, :10s, :15s, :30s, and :60s galore.  With so many ads and so many messages, it's easy for professional and amateur marketers alike to fall into the trap of letting one ad sound like the next which sounds like the last. Tight production dealines and unclear campaign goals just add to the problem.

I ran across the site below and felt it highlighted a distinct problem in a humorous and effective way (plus, I'm just a big George Carlin fan.)

The Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator

Do your ads sound like ads?
Do your ads boast about your superior service, your wide selection, or name the number of years you’ve been in business?

If so, you may be guilty of Ad-Speak.
Ad-Speak is language filled with polished words and clichéd phrases that deliver no relevant information. Ambiguous claims give Ad-Speak a hollow sound. And your customers turn a doubtful eye towards such claims.

The Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator is named in honor of George Carlin’s comedy bit, “Advertising Lullaby,” which runs through a laundry list of bland and colorless advertising terms. Watch the video below, and then visit the link to run YOUR ad copy through the calculator.

Buttons Get Better Results

AddMe.com features an article from email marketing company Vertical Response presenting information on how to increase clicks on your website and within your emails by using buttons as your vehicle for click-to-action rather than the traditional text link.

If you're marketing to businesses and you offer a white paper you might use the text "Download Now" or if you've got a tutorial for your viewers to watch it might be "View the Demo." At any rate, an "actionable" word will usually work better than a passive one on your button. Instead of saying "Free Trial" you might try something like "Start Your Free Trial." All of these things might seem subtle, but they also might get your readers doing what you want them to do.

Click here to read the entire article (though I suppose this link would have been more effective if I'd used a button...)

80 Ways to Get Better Business Results with Twitter

Here's an extensive list of 80 ideas (80...!!!) from Lisa Barone at SmallBizTrends.com on how small business owners can realize better results from their social media efforts with Twitter.  Running across this article today was perfect timing for me, as I'd just met with a client yesterday who shared some recent successes in using Facebook, but confessed she simply hasn't seen the point in investing much more of her already limited time into a concerted push using Twitter.

Twitter certainly isn't for everyone, and as with all things like this -- "your mileage may vary" -- but I've found Twitter to be a very useful tool for making business (and personal) connections and for researching industry news as well as business prospects and competitors.  Lisa Barone's compilation encompasses all these uses and more. Click the link and get ready to scribble down a bunch of new ideas!

http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/01/how-to-use-twitter-as-a-smb-owner.html

Which are more valuable... Facebook fans or Twitter followers?

Forbes recently posted results from a Forrester study that found Twitter followers are more likely to buy from brands they follow than Facebook fan (37% vs. 21%), and Twitter followers are also more likely to recommend brands to friends (33% vs. 21%), but that's not the entire story. 

http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/12/facebook-twitter-nike-followers-fans-social-media-marketing-zynga-cmo-network.html