While it’s tempting to write about the upcoming Super Bowl commercials, which are always fun to analyze, I’d rather give you some concrete ideas you can use before next week’s kickoff.
So, let me ask you, have you put all of your marketing eggs in the social media basket yet? Waiting for all of the hundreds of thousands of LinkedIn members in your network to beat a path to your Web site with credit card in hand? Are your Twitter followers and Facebook fans actually bona fide prospects?
In many cases they are, so beware of this cynic. I do, of course, urge you to examine how these technologies apply to your business... but I have seen too many companies abandon the less sexy, tried-and-true marketing methods.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is very important - maybe not high on the list for most smaller businesses, and it’s more strategic for certain industries.
Small businesses should dabble carefully but be cautious not to forget the marketing fundamentals. While you are waiting for your social media efforts to strike gold for your business, study the power of geographic-driven online marketing strategies such as organic local search, the use of videos, photographs for image searches and keywords.
Kudos to Scott Brown for using social media to its maximum potential. His social media team stimulated a grass-roots movement that mobilized supporters statewide and beyond to donate, to get involved and to vote. I digress only to point out the example.
(This columnist remains politically neutral. Note that I did not mention the tremendous impact of his campaign, did I? And all without one negative advertisement. If you need another example, look at the success of the Amber Lee Ettinger’s Obama Girl video.)
Brown’s campaign is a great study in the use of Google’s Content Network, as Google remarked after the campaign. They also masterfully used cell phone SMS group texting (www.tatango.com) to communicate instantly with supporters. Can’t you do the same with your customers who ask to be on your text list?
I’ll bet you expected some tips to fine-tune your social media campaigns, right? Not enough space in this column and you still need to have that solid marketing foundation anyway. So, here are seven building blocks that will help you position the perceived value your company delivers:
1. Have you developed that set of questions that position your firm as the experts in your industry? Are you using these questions to knock the competitors out of the box and left scratching their heads wondering why they lost the opportunity? You can use these questions as a sales tool with the prospect as a survey or audit.
2. Are you using whitepapers or free reports to educate potential prospects and fill the top of your sales funnel? Social media can be used to promote the report, and your lead nurturing system will take them to the purchasing phase eventually, if you are doing it right.
3. Are you tuned in to the major complaints people have about doing business with your industry? Easy to do. Read your own trade publications or journals, talk to your customers and use your social media to stimulate comments at your blog.
4. Do you know why your own best customers are loyal to your company, in their own words? There is one very powerful secret to finding out what makes them keep coming back. Ask them! Pay attention to their language and you will begin to tap into the emotional reasons they buy from you, and why others should do so as well.
5. Are you using these social proof points (testimonials) to make it safe for your prospect to take a risk? You need to know something here about "people" and how we make purchase decisions. We like to make smart and easy decisions. We buy on emotion and rationalize our purchase logically after the fact. Testimonials are so powerful that the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) published new laws to control their use in advertising.
6. Have you developed an elevator pitch that actually compels people to take notice, get all tingly inside and ask for more information? Nobody talks in the elevator but you still need to be ready to articulate what you do in a concise manner that attracts interest and desire.
Large corporations and small businesses both struggle to craft a strong and compelling unique selling proposition. I have prepared a guide to assist you. Send an e-mail with "usp help" in the subject line. Then use social media to subtly spread the good word about your value proposition.
7. Are you making a good first impression with inbound phone calls? All the social media success in the world means nothing if the person who answers the phone for your company fails to execute well. We all prefer a "live answer" when we call a business and that person needs to be well trained, well paid, valued and treated as part of the company’s sales and marketing team. Prospects and even your best customers want to feel like that made the right decision in dialing up your company and they want courteous, helpful professional treatment.
Don’t overlook this very basic opportunity to improve the performance of your marketing efforts. After all, you are spending a fortune to make the phone ring.
Oh, one more thing. Valentine’s Day is less than two weeks away. Don’t forget to show your best customers how much you love them, too. After all, it’s your customer relationships and their lifetime value (revenue stream) that makes it possible for you to shower your Valentine with platinum, gold, diamonds and rubies. In other words, what are you doing to show your best customers how much you appreciate their patronage? They have choices, and your fiercest competitors are trying to woo them away.
Bob Martel is a Marlborough-based marketing consultant, direct marketing copywriter and author of the book "How to Create All of the Business You Can Handle." He can be reached at 508-481-8383 or by e-mail at bobmartel@jmbmarketing.com.
