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Taking the Wind Out of the Sales of Marketing

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!

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Social Media: Not as Effective Without a Targeted Marketing Strategy

writeminded • August 30, 2017

Here at WriteMinded, LLC we’ve changed our marketing tactics with the packages we present to clients to represent the changes in marketing, namely the increases in mobile usage by target clients and the resurgence of email marketing. We’ve developed a full-scale marketing strategy that includes some of the old, some of the new and a little of the off the wall to reach out to target segments wherever they may live online. Ultimately, it’s about getting your website found, getting customers to increase sales. Social Media Marketing tools like Facebook, Linked In and Twitter, as well as niche sites like Active Rain or Plaxo are valuable and powerful tools for any company to put to work in their marketing strategy. Unfortunately, in the last few years, the rumors have circled around social media as a stand-alone tool that can boost sales and guarantee traffic increases. This is simply not the case. Just like there is no magic pill for weight loss, there is no single marketing tactic that can stand alone to continually launch a company’s business forward, to get more leads and increase sales. There are fluctuations in site usage and marketing stipulations that must be monitored with any marketing strategy that can hinder organic growth and responses. Therefore, the one key factor to remember when employing a social media marketing strategy to the benefit of your business is that it performs best in tandem with other more traditional marketing tactics. Consider a Facebook account where you use a promotion to build brand awareness and expand your target reach. A strong tactic in its own right, consider that the promotion can be set up to farm contact emails from the promotional registrants that can then be turned into an opt-in email marketing list for follow up communications from your business. Think of the lead nurturing you can effect with a biweekly email blast. Mobile marketing continues to drive changes in the web marketing world as executives become more attached to their smart phones and the applications become more business oriented. That email marketing you set up with the Facebook contacts can be formatted to fit and function in a mobile environment, so your target market gets your updates even on the go. To keep it simple, absolutely employ social media into your web marketing strategy. However, don’t expect it to be a magic bullet and don’t rely on it as a standalone marketing tactic. Regular social media networking and content sharing builds brand trust and awareness. It’s up to you to leverage those initial connections to get more leads and increase sales, and that’s where a blend of traditional web marketing and social media can really make a difference for your business.