Author name: writeminded

content marketing
converting leads to sales

Get More Sales with Actionable Content

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You’ve got a great website with all the bells and whistles in place to draw attention of the search engines. You’ve got a plethora of great back-links to your site. Your company ranks on page 1 of Google. Your page views are increasing exponentially every day. From a digital marketing perspective, you should be making money. Problem is, you’re only seeing a trickle of sales coming in through your website instead of a flood. There is no business that can live on prospects alone. You need a strategy in place for converting leads to sales. No matter how large the company or the market, basic sales still comes down to people selling to people. Web consumers come to your website seeking out your company and/or your specific services. Good SEO practices help get them to your website, but how do you turn site visitors into more customers? Website shoppers have such a vast amount of information and businesses at their fingertips that they can afford to be very, very picky about what they buy and from whom. When viewing a new site, web surfers allow mere seconds to size up a site. How can you increase your potential of converting leads to sales? Site layout and viable, actionable content can make a sale from a fleeting glimpse. It’s about basic sales practices, but in a virtual world. Website shoppers have to include all the warmth and personality of a handshake and a smile, without the benefit of hands or a mouth. Think about the last time you shopped in a new store. When you walked in, did you check out the decoration and the layout? Were your turned off by the color schemes or did you love the lighting? Were the salespeople pleasant and did they make you feel important? Were the products easy to find and nicely displayed? Web consumers want all these same amenities without having to leave their home. Remember the adage – “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”? That first impression is the means to a successful web business. Like any other store, your web company has to have an appealing layout to draw the customers through your door. Keep your page layout easy to navigate and keep the readers eye drawn to your sales copy with strategically placed graphics. The longer a consumer is on your site, the better chance you have of making the sale. Good content can make your would-be buyer feel “right at home” while on your site. The right keywords can show them that you have what they seek and can appeal to their specific needs. Great content can express, in just a few sentences, why your wares are better than rest and move a buyer towards a purchase. Remember, ABC – Always Be Closing. Engaging and easy to navigate website layout helps beckon consumers to come in, sit down and stay awhile while concise, actionable content works on your website, converting leads to sales.

bad marketing pitch
Uncategorized

Taking the Wind Out of the Sales of Marketing

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This was a line I recently alluded to in a blog article for a client. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I can’t get it out of my head, so I thought I’d see if I could write it out and find a little peace. When I wrote this line, I was trying to say that social media marketing, when properly used by businesses to promote their services and products, has added some of the humanity back to sales. It helps marketing be a lot less “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! , radio announcer guy and a lot more “Hey, guess what I just found out” word of mouth advertising. In other words, the focus should be on trust and brand development within your target market, developing relationships that in turn get more leads for your sales team. I like social media for this human quality – I really do. I enjoy connecting with audiences via social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. It can be very effective and not nearly as blatant as email marketing. I recommend a social media aspect to all of my clients marketing plans and the results have been great. However, it’s important that we, as social media marketers, keep these sites friendly, comfortable places where site members can share information without feeling like they’re being constantly bombarded with “deals”, because if we all come off sounding like car salesmen, we’re going to scare off our would-be contacts. I’ve found that a 60/40 rule works to get more leads with social media. 40% obvious promotion of content and company-oriented information, 60% “hi, how ya doin’, look at this cool thing I found.” A few consistent trends I’ve noticed: Sites like LinkedIn allow you to be a lot more business-focused, where you are able to do a lot more sharing of industry-focused content within targeted groups and to your contacts through your profile. You can (and should) market your business from your Facebook page, but if the content is too monotone, the same stuff every day, your losing the potential for likes and shares. Through Twitter, if all you do is try to sell, or push your business, with each 140 character post, you’re going to lose followers. Keep to the 60/40 rule to keep your audience engaged and connected to your brand. Even when you’re making a pitch, be human about it. Don’t ramrod your information down other members’ throats. Take as delicate an approach as you would if you had just met this person, face to face, over cocktails at a networking party. Keep that first impression about who you are, not what you sell. Give them a reason to trust you, and your brand, so when the time comes that they need your services or products, they “know you” well enough to want to come to you. Good business to you!

social media awareness marketing
social media

Why Social Media is NOT a Fast Track to Increase Sales

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I’m compelled by necessity to note this for anyone interested in pursuing a social media marketing strategy for their business, however, let me predate my little rant with a few key points: 1. It is easy to understand the misinterpretation of social media’s marketing capability thanks how inundated we have become with it. It’s on your TV, it’s in our publications, links are noted on every website. It seems like the greatest thing since the wheel, but remember, a wheel doesn’t turn without help.2. The ongoing stressed economic climate has a lot of companies looking for new ways to promote their business, get more lead and increase sales on a leaner budget, and that road often leads to considerations of social media potential.3. This same economic climate has these same companies working under strained budgets and shortened timelines for results. Having made references, I will get to my point. Social media, like any other marketing tool, takes time to get more leads for your business. It is not direct sales. It is not telemarketing. And if you intend to stay on the legal side of the SPAM Act, it is a building process. This isn’t to say that social media isn’t a highly-targeted and powerful tool that businesses should add to their marketing arsenol, but despite the fact that Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages are being promoted in TV commercials, the premise is the same with this marketing vehicle as any other. Some basic marketing tips applied to social media: 1. You must show the WHY of your business to generate leads, let your target market know what makes your company’s services and products DIFFERENT from your competition. Twitter is a good vehicle for this message.2. Start conversations with key executives that can build your business – use LinkedIn for this aspect of your marketing strategy.3. Promote your business to consumers who can start word of mouth advertising about your services and company. There are tons of other niche social media sites that exist to promote your business, and new ones crop up every day. However, there needs to be a dumming down of the expectations of this type of marketing plan. The theories presented by a lot of the “social media” gurus is that this is a FAST way to get signups, increase sales and business, if not the Only Way. The reality is that social media marketing needs to be part of an integrated marketing strategy, but there is no quick and easy way to build business. Regular maintenance and attention to your social media profiles and pages, along with revised focus for new ventures and opportunities are all vital for lead generation. Keep your social media “social” with quality interaction and educational content and it will pay off, in time.

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