Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Social Media Or Phone Book?

Social Media Or Phone Book?

Old habits die hard! Despite the rapid fall in percentage of people
looking for services through the yellow pages, business owners are
still bowing to the traditions and spending substantial amounts of
money on phone book advertising.

As you are reviewing your advertising budget I am sure you always have
in mind what's in it for you, and there is a time where you must make
an educated choice.

In a recent national radio interview one of the speakers was asked how
they did their searching for services like plumbers, or products like
restaurants in their neighborhood. One answered "I go online" and the
other one said "Word of Mouth".

In fact he revealed that he had expressively asked yellow pages NOT to
deliver the phone book to their place...But that request was declined
because the only credibility left to the phone book is its distribution!

Is it a better idea to rely on your website and your social media
marketing for your lead generation? Here are 5 reasons why the answer is
more and more overwhelmingly YES:

1.Unlimited Brand awareness
Using the web and in particular social media, there is no end to how much
information your can give about your brand. This is free, renewable
advertising real estate, with a unique chance to showcase your point of
difference. Buying this amount of space would be totally prohibitive in
print advertising

2.Interactive advertising
Online you are able to get instant feed back from clients about their
experience but also from people who haven't used your business yet. You
get to create a relationship before purchase

3. Instant Word Of Mouth
Social media marketing creates a conversation that may never happen at
the pub or around the dinner table. It also allows word of mouth to spread
between strangers. You can easily do your market research by surfing a business's
facebook wall

4. Standing Out Of The Crowd At No Extra Cost
Custom designed facebook fan pages are a key to initial interaction. As more
people use Facebook to do their research, many more businesses use custom
design to improve visitors' first impression. Check this tool to give a great
reason for visitors to "like" your page. Why buy a big expensive ad on the
phone book?

5. Controlling Brand Reputation
The Conversation you are having with your clients and prospects is a much more
credible way to control first impressions than dominating pages of print
advertising. This is where small to medium businesses have the opportunity to
compete on a level playing field, even with big companies

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Your Call To Action On Facebook

As more business owners recognise the value of facebook as an integral part of their marketing mix, I am pleased to observe that more fan pages are adopting a professional and attractive look.

However, when you get your custom designed facebook page you can still leave your competitors in the dust just by using a well underrated trick.

Have you ever been to a marketing seminar and heard time and time again how important a call to action is for any kind of advertising? Yet if you open the advertising pages of a newspaper you will notice that very few advertisers actually use it...in other words they are wasting precious marketing resources on ineffective, non measurable advertising.

The same applies to your facebook page. There are 2 main calls to action that you can use on your fan page to grow your fan base as well as your email list, plus get more clients through the door. Here they are:

1) A strong call to action for your page visitors to "like" your page. But you cannot expect them to like your page if you are not serving their self interest, the famous "what's in it for me".
"Like our page and get fresh updates on our exclusive facebook fans restaurant offers" or
"Like our page and automatically become part of our VIP customer club to receive regular added bonuses and free offers". This works for beauty therapy, retail, gyms , cafes or any high repeat purchase businesses where customer loyalty is key.

2) Instantly start growing your email list by using an auto-responder "opt in" form. Have something of value to give away in exchange for their email address: "Receive our free report on 7 ways to alleviate back pain in 5 minute per day" could work very well for a chiropractor or a physiotherapist.
If you keep in mind that across all industries, only 5% of browsers are ready to buy now, you have to do something to keep your chances alive in the future. The point of the opt-in form is to increase your chance of initiating a relationship with the non committed visitors.

To help you remember how to structure your welcome page, just go back to the well known "A.I.D.A" advertising formula. It works for fan pages:

A for Attention, by having a well designed custom page with a good headline

I for Interest, tell your visitors what they will find interesting on your page

D for Desire. Create desire for them to like you page or sign up on your "opt in" form

A for Action. Strong call to action " Like our page" with arrows to the "like" button, or "Register to receive our free report or Free Gift voucher"

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Are Your Facebook Posts Attractive?

You would be forgiven for thinking that Facebook is all about you. Indeed the latest changes with the "timeline concept" have reaffirmed the idea that facebook is all about who you are. You can even keep adding posts and photos about events in your life that happened way before Facebook existed...that's if you have the time and inclination. Online scrap booking is at its best here.

However if you are using facebook for marketing purposes it's not all about you, it's about your readers, particularly when you are using facebook as a fan page. To make your posts more compelling for your account and page visitors, keep a few very simple things in mind and your popularity will go up. Check these 7 tips to make your posts attractive and popular:

Firstly getting your readers' attention

1. Short posts, up to 80 characters, are statistically the most read and "liked". Inspirational quotes are still among the most popular posts!

2. Attach a photo: 95% your readers are primarily visual people so make the most of it!Your photo does not have to be 100% contextual, but it helps. Eye Catching is the key though

3. Even better, attach a video to your post. It's preferable if the video is yours but you can also use something of interest from youtube and share it

Secondly knowing what's in your readers' minds

4. Facebook is all about you, but marketing is all about showing your readers "what's is in it for them". Do you have really good info for them, an exciting event or a new offer from your business?

5. If you are not sure what's on their minds use Facebook to conduct a customer survey

Thirdly, ask them to take action

6. Facebook is all about spontaneity, you are in the land of "Right there, Right now!". Make the most of it with " facebook specific", limited time offers

7. Facebook is also the land of referrals, the function to use is the new "Make a Recommendation" tab. And what is the first way to get recommendations? Simply ask your friend and fans to recommend you to their friends, just like you should ask for referrals on your invoices, sales voucher and thank you cards...

Keep your facebook involvement simple and non time consuming. 20 minutes a day is sufficient to show consistency and get results.