Agog in Cyberspace

Source: ExactTarget

Your email marketing list is one of the most valuable assets a business can own.  If you have followed specific guidelines to develop your list, its loaded with a population that has already shown interest in your products and services, or at least has a demonstrated interest in your industry.  Using this list effectively, you can promote your products and services to an already willing participant as well as grow your reach and build brand loyalty.

Why then would you want to jeopardize losing even 1 subscriber? 

8 Tips for Retaining Subscribers:

1. Let them control the frequency of the emails they receive.

2. Let them control which topics they receive emails about.

3. Create multiple, targeted email subscription types, and let subscribers pick and choose among their options.

4. Describe each email subscription option, including the value of the content and the frequency to expect.

5. Remind them why they're getting your emails.

6. Share why you thought they'd enjoy your content/remind them of the email's value.

7. Ask them to confirm they no longer want your emails in a light or humorous way.

8. Give them an option to re-subscribe to other email lists.

We still hear people say - 'I already have a web site, so we don't have a need for your services.'  My response  back is this:  Is your web site working for you?  Is it keeping pace with your changing environment? Is it as compelling and fresh as the day it was launched? When people search for you online, do they find you easily? 

The way people use the Internet to shop, get information, or communicate evolves continuously.  As Internet Presence professionals, it is our job to stay on top of the latest trends and technology.

Influence is defined as 'the action or process of producing effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of another or others'.  As an Internet Presence firm, we deal with helping our clients gain 'Influence' on the web everyday

As a people, we are influenced everyday by other people, events and experiences.  We base many of our choices by the words and and actions of others.  That is where Social Media Marketing comes in.

Your customers are meeting each other and sharing ideas. Don't you want to be involved in the conversation?  Just having a Facebook Page and Twitter account is NOT going to get you the results you expect.  Let us demonstrate to you what we do that makes Social Media work for you.  We will customize a monthly Social Media Marketing program for you which will drive BUZZ and qualified leads to you and your web site.  You'll see results within the first month. 

Our monthly service comes with periodic reports measuring the results against the goals we set.  The key to an effective Social Media Marketing program is Message, Consistency, Follow up, and Measurement.
 

There are a lot of Web design firms out there.  If you're like most people, the task of hiring someone seems like a daunting one, especially in an industry that you may not be very familiar with.

Even though 95% of our Clients are referrals from existing Clients, we still hear the anxiety and stress from them during our initial consultation.  We've learned that there are 5 key areas that you can focus on in your initial discussion with a potential  firm to make the selection process more efficient and palatable. 

1. Experience  You can determine experience by asking for references from Clients they have worked with in the past. Ask the following questions of references:

• Did they meet deadlines?
• Were you satisfied with the end product?
• How effective was their website design?
• Do you still have the same website design today?
• Would you use them again?

Visit the firm’s website and review their portfolio.   You’ll be able to see from their previous work what type of projects they’ve been involved with.  Don’t expect that they have every website published in their portfolio, so be sure to ask them for projects that are similar to yours that are not shown in their portfolio. 

2. Knowledge  They should be able to speak clearly about the key elements of effective website design, including color schemes, themes, use of fonts, content and website structure.  They should be able to give you a good explanation of ‘good content’ verses ‘poor content’.  The key understanding you should get from the discussion is that they are able to translate your ideas into a concrete website design plan.

3.  Price  This is where it gets tricky.  You should go into the discussion with some idea of a budget for your project.  Web Design firms charge a number of different ways: flat rate for the entire project, an hourly rate, or a basic flat rate with additional charges if the project runs over a specific estimated number of hours. You need to choose the firm that best matches your budget and value proposition.  Don’t be misled by lower rates.  This could be an indication of the use of less experienced web designers or a less flexible design process.  Less flexible design process isn’t necessarily bad if you are willing to accept what the firm produces without much input after the fact.  Less flexible can also mean lots of change orders when specifications and design are not clear, detailed, and precise.  The marks you gave the firm on Experience will be a good guide in gauging the value of the firm’s pricing.

4. Flexibility  Custom Web Design is an iterative process.  It’s one that involves a number of changes as the project progresses. When talking to references, ask how the designer handled changes. It is important that you know if changes to the design added to the cost of the project and if they were easy to make.  Get a sense of how the firm reacted to changes.  Were they resistant?  Was the process difficult?  Be sure that you are comfortable with whatever the response is.

5. Communication  You should get a good idea of how well a firm communicates from your very first encounter.  Great Website design firms put a premium on communication.  Can you reach the person you are working with directly on the telephone?  How accessible is the designer to you?  Look for firms that provide you with an outline of their design and communication process.  There should be well defined milestones in the process that involve direct communication with you.  Don’t forget about after launch support.  We’ll they still take your call after the project is completed?

What is Content Marketing?  Content Marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Content Marketing is a way of marketing your products and services without selling.  At the core of Content Marketing is delivering information about your products thru storytelling.  The successful content marketing campaign delivers information that makes their target audience more intelligent.  This blog, as an example, is the cornerstone of our Content Marketing.  Our blog provides information that is relevant to the business owner who has a need to promote their products and services.  Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective.

According to Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.  70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% say that company contests helps them make better product decisions.  These facts are supported by the increasing number of companies who are now Blogging and producing Newsletters.  One of the barriers most small business owners say keeps them from using Content Marketing as one of their marketing tools is TIME.  Clearly, it is much less time consuming to put an ad in the local paper.  An Internet Presence firm, such as ours, can assist in providing Content Marketing Services.  The key is to find the firm that best fits and supports your needs.

Every Internet Presence firm that provides Content Marketing as one of their services has their own philosophy.  Ours is very simple.  We believe in creating a Content Marketing campaign that establishes you as the authority in your field.  We do this by publishing blog posts that provide a mix of informational, humorous, and whimsical blog posts; all anchored in the products and services you wish to promote.  We back these blog posts up with vibrant Social Media activity.  For most clients, including a periodic Newsletter featuring content from the Blog posts completes the circle.  This approach, within a very short period of time, results in a loyal online following and a dramatic increase in website traffic.  Over time, our Clients list high in the search results for the key words and phrases that define their products and services.  The result is a sustainable marketing program that continuously delivers loyal customers to you.

As with all of your marketing programs, you should start with a clear definition of what you hope to achieve.  What do you what to achieve with your Facebook page?  Most of our potential Clients answer that question with ‘I want 500 followers on Facebook’ or ‘I don’t know, but everyone says I should be doing it’.  Today’s small business owner is getting much more sophisticated when it comes to Social Media.  They all know it’s out there and everyone’s talking about it.  Most however don’t appreciate the marketing power it has.  Because Social Media is free, everyone can setup a Facebook or Twitter account, and many business owners do.  Most jump into setting up accounts and start posting without any real training or coaching on Best Practices.  As a result, many become discouraged when the results they expect don’t happen overnight.

For many, success is measured by the number of Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers they have.  I call that ‘Playing the Numbers Game’.  For others, it’s about how many ‘Shares’ or ‘Comments’ they receive.  However you choose to measure your Social Media Success, you need to stay true to the proven business goal – Relationship Building.  Relationship Building is in Social Media’s sweet spot.

We believe that successful social media engagement is focused on quality first.  What do we mean by this, and why is it important for your social media engagement? Well, consider the following:

Is it better to have 500 highly-engaged, motivated, Facebook fans, or 5,000 fans who rarely share or comment on your posts?  Our experience is that meaningless, random or generic ‘inspirational’ quotes get far less interaction than posting selective, personal and meaningful links and photos.

You have to give before you can ask for anything.  The hard lesson to learn is that social media engagement, not direct selling online.  Here are some lessons learned managing Client’s Social Media Marketing over diverse industries and disciplines:

Like attracts like - Remember that your social media contacts all have their own networks, many of which could be beneficial to you. Try tapping into the key influencers within your social media networks, and switch them on with quality content. It will be liked, followed and shared by the simple fact that good social media content is worthy of spreading.

Deliver quality to targeted groups - It’s better to network with less people/groups if those groups have a strong following.  Social Media is today’s ‘Word of Mouth’.  Having a small quality network is better than a large network that is hollow.  Be sure to network and engage with a smaller, committed group of social media contacts and watch the positive results. Going for a quantity approach might look impressive, but it’s unlikely to deliver a quality ROI over time.

Quality will decrease your ability to get quantity -  To deliver a quality message, you need to invest time and effort– this means investing in creating, researching, and sharing the very best to your audience. If you feed your followers with the best, you increase the odds of a quality ROI on social media marketing.  This is not to say you won’t get to that magic number you are shooting for, you just won’t get there as quickly as you would if you ‘troll’ for Fans and Followers.

It will be obvious that you are putting out quality – Your audience will reward you with their actions.  They vote with their mouse.  If you produce quality, you’ll see comments, shares and visits to your website pages.  If the quality isn’t there, they will click elsewhere.

Consistency, Content, and Conversation are the 3 main ingredients of a successful Social Media Marketing program. Many potential clients I speak with don't grasp the impact that managed online marketing can have on their reach.  Typically, the first thing they want to know is why they would need to pay someone for doing something they could be doing themselves for free.  True, Facebook does not charge a fee to create and maintain a Facebook page.  Theoretically, the potential client could create and maintain their social media themselves.

The fact of the matter is that most businesses don't have the expertise or time in-house to create and maintain a Social Media Marketing plan.  Our experience is that on days that things are slow, the potential client posts something to their Facebook page.  It's typically whatever comes to mind at the time, or something that is relevant at the moment. 

Does that sound like YOU?

 The typical person doesn't post or tweet to their social media on a regular basis.  Activity is spastic: multiple posts on one day followed by several days of 'nothingness'.  I have found that the way to consistently increase the number of people you reach with your social media, is to provide timely and meaningful information.  Our typical approach when starting a new program with a Client is to produce an event and activities Story Board.  The Story Board is an outline, in chronological order, of special events or promotions planned in the future.  We then start adding sub levels to the outline below each special event or promotion that talks about or provides information about the item.  We call that - building up the Buzz.   By building up the Buzz slowly over time, we find that people are more apt to engage in conversation.  A recent example was a special class one of our Clients was going to host at one of their retail stores.  The conventional approach for a novice would be to post details of the event a few days prior. 

Our approach was to start posting general information about the topic of the class, in this case Pet Dental Care, a couple of weeks prior to the event.  Topics we posted were statistics on pets infected with dental disease left untreated until the pet became ill and required a visit to the Vet.  We added posts and tweets that linked to helpful webpages that discussed what pet owners can do at home as a preventative measure.  Finally we posted the event information.  By the time the Facebook post for the event came out, people were already sharing and commenting on the subject. 

Using this approach, we build a calendar of Posts and Tweets in our favorite calendar where we can visualize the 'Story Board."  By planning out the posts and tweets in advance, we can delivery relevant content consistently and drive conversation that increases the normal reach of our Facebook audience.     When our audience shares and comments on our posts, their Friends get engaged.  That increases our reach and drives new fans to our page.

The key to a successful Social Media Marketing program is CONSISTENCY CONTENT, and CONVERSATION.

Content Management Systems (CMS) have been around for more than a decade, but really didn’t start getting popular until a few years ago.  Designers and web professionals have been producing websites on CMS platforms because it allows for quick and simple editing.  There isn’t a real need to master special design software, and updates can be made from any browser/internet accessible device.  Up until a few years ago, businesses that had in-house technical support also preferred CMS websites because it allowed them to make updates and edits to their websites without contracting out the work to expensive consultants.

Today’s business owners have become much more tech savvy.  With the proliferation of technology in our lives, almost everyone processes the computer skills necessary to edit and update a CMS website.  If you are reading this, chances are you too fit into that category.  The question is – is your website a CMS website?  Is your website built on a WordPress, Joomla, or Daupal platform?  Maybe you went a bit more high end and commissioned an Adobe Business Catalyst, Rocketship, or Volusion website?  If your website is not built on a CMS platform, you are either paying a web developer to update your website for you, or you are one of the many small business owners who simply launch their website and forget about it.

Updating your website on a regular basis is the single most effective way to ensure you are getting the most out of your online marketing.  If you don’t have the cash flow to hire someone to edit and update your website, then owning a CMS website will save you money.  True, you will need to devote an hour here and there to edit and update content on your website, but it will pay off quickly.  Your website will show up higher in the Search Engine results and attract more potential customers.  Stale and outdated websites get passed over by today’s discerning customers.  Search engines will drop you from the first page if your website hasn’t been updated in a while, or hasn’t kept pace with today’s web standards.

Converting your existing website to a CMS format can save you money in the long run.  If you are in the market for a new website, be sure to consider a CMS website.  Web designers can change upwards of $80/hr to maintain your website.  Instead, contact a professional design firm such as ours, and ask about getting a CMS website developed with the option to retain the firm to be available to maintain your website when you’re busy with running your business.  Don’t be held hostage – take control of your own website.