To Social media or not, that is the question.

To Social media or not, that is the question.

May 25, 2016 | Communication, Customers, Social Media

Many of the small and medium sized businesses I interact with still struggle with the notion that they should be investing in social media as a marketing strategy. Creating and sharing content of value to their customers, potential customers, and competitors runs against their grain .

In addition, the operational challenges are technically confronting to many, and the notion of having to write and produce the content necessary is normally a hill too far.

B2B, B2C,  it makes little difference.

The immediate reaction of my B2B clients is that this social media stuff is for consumers, not serious businesses. However, it is the reality that those in businesses who make the purchase decisions  are usually engaging, anonymously at first with potential suppliers during the early phases of the purchase cycle, and coming to the supplier only for the transaction. Not being in on the ‘conversation’ early is clearly a mistake.

vanity metricsIt is becoming pretty clear that social media well used is a remarkably potent marketing tool, but challenging for those with modest resources, as this stuff is time consuming, technically challenging to measure properly as distinct from just measuring what is becoming known as ‘vanity measures’ just thinking they are measuring something useful.

 

 

There are a small number of very sensible strategies you can use.

Use it as a tool.

Social media is a marketing tool,  and like any tool, the effectiveness is best measured by the outcomes rather than the use, so set out to measure the effectiveness by identifying the cause and effect links between the SM and your corporate objectives.

Understand the tool.

When you have a nail to be driven, a screwdriver is of little use. Same with social media, they are tools that can be used very effectively in the right circumstances, but are useless in the wrong place. Understanding how the tool works, and where it’s characteristics are best deployed is a fundamental part of the game.

Identify your key customers, and what they want out of it.

You simply have to  be able to put yourself in the customers shoes, understand the value you can deliver from their perspective, and be prepared to be patient. My favourite  metaphor for social media is to humanise it in a way everyone understands. You walk into a bar, and spot someone who just overwhelms you. If you just walk up and ask them to marry you, your chances are pretty slim. By contrast, introduce yourself, find shared interests, spend some time together, and you never know where it can lead. Social media is no different. To have a chance of the desired outcome, you need to do the spadework up front.

Measure, test & improve.

Be creative but deeply interrogative about the measures. (is interrogative even a word?) continuously test options, so you can continuously improve. Social media and digital generally have absolutely changed the practise of marketing. It has made it measurable and accountable, but there are limits.  ‘Vanity measures’ such as number of friends, and likes  are very poor measures. They are superficial and misleading offering no clue as to which activity is likely to generate a commercial outcome, they just look good on a piece of paper to a boss who does not understand. Understanding the difference between cause and effect and correlation is critical, observing correlation is terrific, but do not make the mistake of thinking it is always cause and effect and therefore measurable. A metaphor used by Gary Vaynerchuk is particularly potent here. He observes that everyone understand the value of good parenting, over time it has great outcomes for both, but trying to measure it in a month  by month basis is stupid, it is a cumulative effect of many small things over a long period. There are some aspects of measuring digitally the return on SM that can really stuff us up.

 

Success with digital marketing, including the leveraging of the potential of social media is not easy, despite all the nonsense and get rich quick promises to the contrary.

Hopefully now you are at least a part way to answering the question.

Selling is still social

Selling is still social

Mar 31, 2016 | Customers, Marketing, Sales, Social Media

Well may you ask, has it not always been so?

Sales has always been at least somewhat social, the old ‘not what you know but who you know ‘ sort of process. However, the last decade or so things have become so competitive that the numbers have taken over, and we often seem to put the social dimensions back into second place.

The numbers however, have hidden the essential truth that people buy from people  not from organisations. The social selling tools that have evolved have put another  layer onto the selling process that enables scaling of effort, but at the end, people still buy from people.

Most of my clients these days are B2B marketers, some have embraced the social platforms around, but most see them as a place to stay in touch with family and friends, and have a point of common dislike of all the cat photos infesting social media.

However, leveraging the social platforms as selling tools that span the numbers and the people aspects of selling can make sales efforts highly effective. The platforms provide leverage to your efforts and when used well can deliver significant results.

Following are a few  commonly asked questions, and my usual response:

Which of the social platforms are best to use?

LinkedIn and Twitter are the most common for B2B, but B2C is a different matter, where Facebook and Pinterest dominate, but the needs change. What is clear is that you  cannot be all things to all people  so it is more about figuring out where your major prospective customers may hang out when in a professional mode rather than a social one, and going there. No different to the old sales techniques where you joined the golf club inhabited by your target prospects.

How to I spend my time productively?

Social sites can be prodigious consumers of that most rare of resources, our time. In my experience if you join platforms based on where your prospects are, you will maximise your time by limiting it to a combination of  two networks. This implies that you have a clear view of the interests, habits and digital behaviour of your primary potential and current customers, which is a whole new topic.

How do I connect?

Connection is a two way process, you need to reach out to them, but they need to be able to see that you might be worthwhile them investing some time, no matter how little in ‘being reached. ‘ Even if you are just asking someone to accept a connection invitation, most people will make the conscious decision, Yes or No, and there are things you need to do swing the numbers to’ yes’.

  • First you need to make the choices well. If you appear to be somebody who just seeks connections at random, and it is apparent that numbers are your objective, the rejection rate will be high. Think of your own behaviour, you are more likely to reject a connection request if it is just a generic request from someone you do not know. If you appear to be discriminating in your connections, that the circles you have a may be of value to the person on the receiving end, and the request is personalised, you will significantly improve your acceptance rate. It also takes more time.
  • Second, your profile needs to be one that is attractive to a potential connection. There is lots of advice on the net about ‘personal branding’ and while much if it is just common sense and tosh, the foundation is right. Imagine you are at a social gathering, you are more likely to be drawn into conversation with someone who appears to share your values and interests than someone who is way outside your normal fields. This is human, so consider it as you fill in your profile.  Ask yourself what it is about you that might interest those with whom you wish to connect, and highlight those characteristics and experiences.
  • Third, answer the question of yourself  “what is the value I can bring to this connection?. If you have nothing, why bother, and why should they bother.
  • Finally, send them a personalised message, something that offers evidence that you have done a bit of homework, and have something of value to offer them. Better still if you have a mutual acquaintance to who might be prepared to offer you the courtesy of using their name as a referrer. Importantly do not try and sell a new connection anything.  Again, think of the social setting. When you are introduced to someone who just talks about themselves, or immediately goes into a sales pitch, most of us just want to get away as fast as possible, and it is no different on social platforms.

Having done all that, the work of sales starts.

The power of “Why” in a sales pitch

The power of “Why” in a sales pitch

Feb 4, 2016 | Customers, Marketing, Social Media

One of the standard problem definition techniques I use is the classic “5 why” process pioneered by Toyota. Just keep on asking “why” to peel back the layers pf the onion to get to the real problem, rather than just being satisfied that addressing the associated and superficial symptoms is enough.

You rarely get past 5 before the guts are on the table, I certainly never have.
It can be a tough and extended process, but it works.

It also works when you are on the receiving end of a sales pitch.

Late last year I sat with a client through a series of pitches by advertising agencies, all heavy on rhetoric and marketing cliché, but mostly a bit light on strategic and creative grunt.

‘Why do you think this idea will deliver the strategy’?

‘Why is it a great idea as you claim’?

‘Why do you recommend this media mix’?

‘Why do you believe these metrics are useful’?

All pretty valid questions I thought.

As one group of hopefuls left, one asked another not realising I had followed them out to offer a final handshake  “Why was he bloody there?”

Had they been able to answer any of the questions satisfactorily, they may have got the gig, but as it stands I suspect they have no idea why they missed out.

I rest my case.  .

5 part headline  template to write killer headlines that always attracts attention.

5 part headline  template to write killer headlines that always attracts attention.

Jan 18, 2016 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media

The ability of a headline to attract attention, then lead the reader deeper into the content is the make or break skill of copywriting, and even in this world of video, the ability to write a headline remains the single most important skill in effective communication.

No matter how good the body-copy, without a great headline, it will not get read.

So here is a headline template that always works.

Use combinations of these elements:

·         Number

·         Trigger word

·         Adjective

·         Keyword

·         Promise

Let’s say the subject is a training seminar about managing cash flow.

Pretty dry stuff but of vital importance to any business,  and make or break for small business.

The easy and obvious headlines may be:

‘How to manage your cash flow’ or

‘Cash flow basics for beginners’

However, if you apply the headline template you might come up with something like:

‘7 simple techniques to apply cash flow to your business to make more profit’

Let’s break it down.

Number: 7. For reasons I do  not fully understand, but rooted in psychology, odd numbers  work best, and lists in headlines work as they promise to deliver instant gratification.

Trigger words: Simple. Words like Free, Secret, Undiscovered, Expert, all offer incentive to open

Adjective: Manage. Adjectives are ‘action ‘ words, they reflect and prompt activity.

Keyword: Cash Flow. Cash flow is the guts of the post, and is the word that will deliver the search engine enquiries that ere relevant to the post.

Promise: ‘Make more profit’ well, who in business does not want more profit?

Alternatively, your  headline might be:

‘Join us to learn the 7 secrets to greater profits through managing cash flow’

I do not know which would be the better headline, I am not a professional copywriter, but I am pretty sure both would work well.

An option if you were about to make an investment, such as in a public a seminar series, and generating a lot of interest rather than just capturing eyeballs on a blog post was financially critical, you could set about testing them by applying an  A/B test which is pretty easy on social media platforms. Then you could use the better one, or perhaps do some more ‘wordsmithing’ to improve one or both for further testing.

As evidence of how the template works, the headline that caught you in the first place is the third iteration of the first one I scratched down, which was :’Killer headline template that always works’. Having written the post to articulate for you a template that really works, I realised I had better take my own advice.

You tell me if it worked.

Social intercourse: A definition.

Oct 30, 2015 | Communication, Social Media

 

social intercourse.

“Self indulgent nonsense that passes as digital marketing strategy”.

That is what it often is, perhaps usually, but it can also be the road to success when leveraged by a truly expert marketer.

But everybody is a marketing expert, it is easy, just common sense, surely?

Why is it then that I see so much crap, so much waste of time and money, often lots of it.

Big businesses are the worst, the marketing people spend money like it is not their own.

Hang on, it isn’t.

By contrast, small business is intimidated by the jargon, the smoke and mirrors that has been so prevalent over the last 100 years, joined recently by the mystery of digital. They shy away and often do not take advantage if the greatest single marketing opportunity that has ever opened up for them .

The ability to not just send a personalised message to an individual, but to see what they do with that message, respond appropriately, and to enter into a ‘conversation’ with them.

I know there are lots of self styled gurus out there blathering on about people becoming engaged with brands, wanting to carry on a conversation with their favourite brand, and promising to deliver such an outcome, when common sense says it is crap.

Look at your own behaviour.

Do you crave the attention of a ‘brand’ do you actively seek a ‘brand experience’ crave digital interaction with your brand?

I thought not.

Most people are  not thinking about interacting with their favourite brand of yogurt except when they are in the supermarket, or their head in in the ‘fridge looking for some brekkie, despite the protestations of digital marketing bag men whose job it is to flog a digital inventory of some sort.

Be careful, and ensure that you build the foundations of great marketing, get the fundamentals in place, then you can go ahead and win.

Re: Social marketing. 3 easy to ask but hard to answer questions.

Oct 23, 2015 | Communication, Marketing, Small business, Social Media

Social marketing is not a miracle

Courtesy: “First dog on the moon”

I am getting pretty annoyed with the enthusiastic panting of the toothy self appointed social media guru brigade extolling the ‘awesomeness’ (my current second most hated word) of social media.

They give the serious advisors amongst us a bad name.

It happened again during the week. At a casual SME meetup, there was one of these types there flogging the line that all you had to do was give him some money, and you would make it back 10X (actual claim) because he was able to focus his specialist and exclusive Social Media expertise on your objective and ‘Abra Cadabra’ money would appear.

The loaves & fish story  have nothing on this lot.

Social media is just a fragment of the challenge of Social Marketing enabled by the technology that not just encourages, but demands that your ‘targets’ (will have to think of another word) have the opportunity and means to communicate with the marketer.

As I have heard it said, ‘it is not communication until the intended message is received, understood and has elicited a response’.

Seems to me there are a few questions you should ask yourself about your message:

  • To what extent does it assist the prospect move along the journey to a transaction?. We do not engage in social marketing for our health, it is for a commercial outcome. Therefore measure it against the progress towards that outcome, recognising there are probably many other things in your message  mix, from deliberate marketing communication aimed at the prospect, to random stuff like how clean was the company  delivery truck was when it passed your prospect at the lights last week.
  • How does the communication add value to the prospect?. If you cannot add value in some way, why should the message assist the journey to a transaction?
  • What do they do next as a result of seeing your message?. If they do nothing, it is just another of the 95 gazillion messages they might see today, if they do something as a result of seeing it, whole new ball-game? It is great to have someone take action as a result of your message, greater if that action not just moves them down the transaction path, but if they also share it with their networks. In effect they are not only acknowledging the value of your message, they are endorsing it to their networks. This is the gold at the end of the social marketing rainbow.

Social marketing is pretty easy to write and talk about in a superficial way, but very hard to put into meaningful practice. It takes careful and creative analysis of your prospects  and your own value proposition, as well as the construction,  content and nature of the messages sent. This is not an exercise conducted with a fairy wand and pixie dust, it takes serious marketing thinking and experience.

If it sounds almost too good to be true, grab your wallet and get out, because it almost certainly is.