“North West Networking is a new way for Business Owners in the north and west of Melbourne to connect and engage with each other whilst supporting sporting teams and community groups. We offer networking functions and social functions online and offline, where you can connect and create new friendships whilst supporting the community.”
Check out this profile for her from ESPN.
Her agency, Digital Royalty, has been trailblazing in how sporting brands and icons interact with and manage Fan Engagement. Do yourself a favour and check out her blog today.
You will learn something.
There’s no use having the best product or service in the world if nobody knows that it exists. If people don’t know about you, if you aren’t making any sales, then you aren’t making any money. If you aren’t making any money then you are soon out of business.
Many new business owners that I speak to think that they only way to get their name out and about is through expensive mainstream media advertising- on TV, on the Radio or in the newspaper. In my opinion, you can avoid these media altogether- (unless you own fast food stores advertising on radio to hungry business people on their way home from work. Who wants to cook dinner anyway?)
Anyway, I digress. Promoting your business need not cost you the world, and there are better ways to assess and test the effectiveness of any campaign you introduce. Here are four ways to promote your business that won’t cost a fortune and that I believe will better enable you to promote your business.
Digital Marketing and PR- The internet has changed everything and, to some extent, it has leveled the playing field between small and large business. Your customers are going to Google in order to search for services and products. You need to work out what keywords, related to your product or service, that your prospective customers are most likely to use in order to seek out your product or service. Optimize your webpage and consider investing in pay per click advertising. Make sure you put some analytical coding on your website so that you can track visitors (Google Analytics is a great free tool.) You need to make sure that you continuously monitor and tweak your site and PPC advertising to keep it at the top of the results and to keep visitors coming to your page.
Create a community with social media- Once you have turned a prospect into a customer it is now time to turn them in to a fan. You can do this by regularly engaging with, and connecting your existing customers with each other through social media and social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. If you can help foster a community then your existing customers will be forever grateful.
Use Guerilla Marketing to create a big splash- Guerilla marketing is a great way to make a name for your business or your product or service. Check out some of these examples from Mashable and see if they can become an inspiration for your business.
Get out there and network-All business owners need to get out there and network with other entrepreneurs in similar and related fields. You never know what opportunities may arise. If you get out there and help someone else grow their business they are going to feel obliged to help you grow your business. It is a win/win situation.
My business, Greenlight Communications, is all about helping you grow your business. Get in touch today and let’s see how we can help you.
This article is aimed at those business owners who are looking for a better way to get new customers. It contains 6 great tips for boosting business through networking and referral marketing. These referral marketing tips can be implemented almost straight away and they can be used both online and offline. Implementing these tips should mean that you see immediate business improvements and lead to you getting more customers.
Get out there and meet people- Networking is an important part of your referral marketing strategy. You need to get out there and meet people. You need to expand your network. You need to help other business owners grow their business. You need to help professionals further their career. By helping others you create goodwill and from there they are going to want to help you grow your own business or further your own career.
First Impressions Count- If you want people to refer business to you, first you have to make them want to refer business to you. You need to create a great first impression. Don’t get out there and burn relationships by just handing out business cards to anyone and everyone. You also aren’t there to be connecting business cards. If you attend an event, why don’t you just concentrate on developing two or three stronger relationships with potential alliance partners? Find people you can work together with and foster these relationships. If you develop these relationships you will be more successful and people will want to refer business to you.
Leverage and harness the power of the internet- Social media hasn’t necessarily changed everything but it has sped up the process when it comes to networking and referral marketing. Social Networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are a great way to reach out and build your network. It makes it easy for people to contact you and it makes it easy for your associates to give information about you and your business to their associates. There is no easier way to build on connections that you have established offline then through social media platforms.
Make sure you are helping people grow their business- If you want people to refer people to you, then you first need to work out how you can help them grow their business. This could be through referring them business, helping them recruit great staff or other opportunities that present themselves. Offer help first. As Ivan Misner, founder of BNI says, “Giver’s Gain.”
Just follow up- If someone refers a potential client to you it is your responsibility to follow up with him or her. If you don’t follow up with them then you won’t get any more referrals. There is also a chance that they will actually start bad mouthing your business.
Set up a referral program for existing customers- You also need to ask all of your existing customers whether they know anyone else that will benefit from your product or service. Ask them if they can refer these people to you and consider offering an incentive. If you have all your staff consistently asking for referrals, and the offer is right, you will find that you no longer need to spend so much time and effort on cold calling techniques.
If you want to learn more about referral marketing and how you can better implement referral marketing strategies in your business, get in touch with the guys at Greenlight Communications.
Social media is a great tool for your business. It can act as a portal connecting your customers to you directly wherever they may be. For businesses such as gyms, social media integration is a must if you want to be noticed. Here are Top 5 tips for gyms using social media:
Connect with clients and interact frequently – Social media makes it easier for you to interact with clients. No matter where you or your customers are, you can easily post a message, send a PM, or simply interact with discussions whenever possible. If you want your gym to get noticed, you should be interacting with clients and prospective clients through various social media sites. You can upload video tips to show clients how they can continue their exercise at home. If you engage with clients and prospective clients at this level, if you show them that you care, then you will keep them coming through the door.
Update your page with relevant data – Creating a profile for your gym should not be confused with your personal profile. Use images that are related to your industry. A picture of the facilities of your gym or the logo for your gym would be a great profile picture. Furthermore, all information regarding the gym should be in your profile- Make sure you have your contact details.
Login and use social media daily – You can’t just sign up for a social media site and leave it unmanaged and not updated. The reason why you set up a social media profile is to interact with your clients and prospective clients. To ensure that this is happening, make sure to keep your profile active and updated. Post short but relevant information on your gym daily. Social media aims to network people with similar interests. You want to encourage and stimulate discussion so that Fans and Connections also create content for you to keep the conversation going. Ask questions, put up polls and then write blog posts based on the results of these questions.
Be careful what you post – Social media sites are in the public domain. This means anyone and everyone gets to see whatever it is that you post on your profile. Get the personal stuff out of the way. Remember that you are using social media to promote your gym and not to air out personal opinions about politics and religion. Stay away from these touchy topics and keep posts related only to your business.
Promote your gym – Connect with people, create groups, join discussions, do everything that can get people to notice you. Social media acts as a free advertising tool and it is quite effective. But remember not to get too involved. People in your list post things on their profile that are not directly related to the business that you are promoting. Avoid wasting hours talking about this stuff which are not related to your gym and talk more about your gym and its services.
Social media opens up a lot of opportunities for your gym to get noticed. Besides easy set-up of your profile, it also does not cost you a thing.
Social media is breaking new grounds and opening more opportunities for businesses all over the world. More and more business people are signing up for Twitter accounts every day. With millions using Twitter as part of their daily routine, you can’t help but spot some opportunities that can really help you in your business. One great use of Twitter is for business customer service. If you’re still skeptical about it, here are 10 reasons why Twitter is great for business customer service.
Reaching out globally – Twitter takes care of geographical barriers that hinders your from serving your customers. With a Twitter account for customer service, you can have your clients post questions and other queries no matter where they are in the world. Any updates that you have for your business can also be seen by whoever is following you.
Provide customer service in real time – With Twitter questions can be asked by your customers any time. And since you can log in to Twitter anywhere you are with your phone, you can provide them the customer service they need in real time. It is also visible customer service
Positive branding – Twitter is viral, so if you have made a customer happy with expert customer service on time they will talk about it. They will tweet about it and other people will see how great your customer service is and it makes for great publicity for your business.
Gets your support team active – By using Twitter as a means of providing customer service you are ensuring that your support staff are doing something proactive rather than being reactive when phone calls or emails come in. This helps them to engage more with your customers and can give you instant feedback on what your customers are saying about your business.
Cut down on support costs – Signing up for a Twitter account is free. This helps you reach out and be active with your customer service with virtually no costs involved.
Real time customer feedback – Twitter presents a way for customers to be heard by you. They can post comments anytime on Twitter so you can track what they are saying about your business and your customer service if you have the right monitoring. You can in turn use this information to make your business better.
Getting your customers informed – Got some freebies to give out? Tweet them. You can announce promotional campaigns to your customer through Twitter. This is both easy to do and cost free.
Promoting brand loyalty online – By providing customer service online, you are making sure that your business is always there to help your customers. This gives them a sense of security that will make them want to stay with your service or your business.
Product news and updates – News and updates about old and new products can spread like wildfire when posted on Twitter. This is a great way of getting the information out for your customers anywhere they might be.
Client – customer interaction – With Twitter, you can interact with customer in a more intimate setting. Occasionally mentioning customers in tweets and thanking them for doing business with your can greatly help your business prosper.
With twitter, professional customer service can be made available to your clients in an easy and cost efficient way.
Ever since the emergence of social media websites and Web 2.0, people have been flocking to them. Nowadays, everybody has a Facebook account. It took Facebook less than 9 months to get to 100 million users. There are a lot of benefits that you can get out of Facebook as a business owner or entrepreneur. The most obvious benefit to you as an individual is for you to stay connected with friends and family all over the world. Facebook is also great for you as a business owner. It’s one great way for you to stay connected and interact with your customers.
You need to really think out of the box if you are planning to market your business online. Here are 5 ways for you to use Facebook as a means of communication with your customers:
Create a Facebook page instead of using a personal profile for business- This should be the first step you should do in optimizing your business for social media. It’s free and it’s customizable. You can create additional tabs that would have relevant information on your business. Plus there’s no limit as to how many people on Facebook can like your page. If you tried to set up a profile for your business instead of a page not only are you breaching Facebook’s terms of service but you have a limit on the number of people you can connect with in a profile. Once your page has been “liked” all the posts and updates on your page will be visible on Facebook walls of the people who liked your page.
Invite new prospects and existing clients to like your page- This is one good strategy to start with. Facebook has no limits as to how many people can be added to your network. This way you can still be in touch with your previous clients while being equally active in finding leads for new ones.
Create groups- By creating groups, you make a more intimate setting for you and your clients and prospects. This way you can post discussion topics where clients can interact with each other and interact with you. These groups may be public, private or by invitation only
Show what you are selling- Facebook allows you to upload pictures individually or by album. This is a great way of showcasing your portfolio or your products. If you sell products, you may want to also add the ability to buy products from your Facebook Page
Add RSS feeds to your profile- You can add blog feeds to your notes. This is one great way of getting new people to read your articles and can even drive them back to your blog bringing more traffic. It can also help for SEO and to build your brand.
Facebook has become an increasingly important tool for any small business both for Search Engine Optimisation and for Customer Service. By carefully studying what Facebook can do for your business, you can create marketing strategies and campaigns that would certainly get you more leads and then you can turn these leads in to more customers.
In the ever evolving world of online marketing and social media, Facebook has proven to be an invaluable asset for small businesses all over the world. With the ability to create pages, to build and foster networks and to find leads for your growing business, the possibilities are endless. This is especially good for real estate agents who would like to use Facebook as a means to market and promote their business. Here’s a list of the top 10 tips for real estate agents using Facebook to promote and grow their business
Create a Facebook page instead of using your personal profile- This gives you more of a professional look that you want your clients to see. Another great reason to create a Facebook page for this purpose is you can customize it and put only relevant information that is directly related to your business. You don’t need to worry about your friends tagging you in a drunken photo and having potential buyers or sellers seeing it.
Customize your page- Put relevant information, pictures, and contact details so your customers can really know what you are all about. Make the Facebook page somewhat of a catalogue for your clients to refer to. You should also look at setting up a dedicated landing page.
Use Analytics to measure traffic- You can add applications to your page like Google analytics to analyze those who frequent your page and where they come from. This is a great way to help you come up with strategies for social media optimization.
Create groups- By creating groups, you are zeroing in on customers and potential customers. This makes it more intimate for you and your prospective clients to communicate. You can create groups about renovating for those who like to flip properties for example. Also look at pages about your area where you can share information about schools, shops and sporting teams.
Create discussion posts – One great way to ensure communication and interaction with your clients is by posting polls or questions. This is great to encourage activity on the page but also for market research. Join in discussions posted and be active.
Use the like it button on your Web page and blog--This is a great way to get more people to your page and seeing your message. Add the like it button in your blogs to drive people back to your Facebook page. There are also some plug ins that you can use that mean any comments made on your blog will appear on your Facebook page and vice versa
Market your Facebook page- You can use your personal profile to post a link of your Facebook page to get the people in your personal profile’s network to like it. You can also post links of your Facebook page in other sites like twitter or your website. You may also want to put your Facebook page on your business card and email signature.
Be active and participate- Your Facebook page will not work by itself. You need to at least have one post a day for you to be noticed. You need to get people to become Fans of your page and then you need to encourage them to participate. Updates and posts in your Facebook page will be visible to the walls of the people who liked your page but only if Facebook’s algorithms deem that your page is important to a particular user. Encourage them to participate and do it regularly.
Keep personal things away from your Facebook page-Do not confuse your Facebook page with your personal one. This page is for business purposes. As much as it can help you in your business, a wrong post can be disastrous as well. Don’t say something stupid and don’t get into a fight!
Know what you are doing- You need to have a plan and you need to dedicate time to your Facebook page. Set goals. If you don’t set goals how will you know if you have been successful with your online activities?
Social media has changed internet marketing but, more importantly, it has changed business networking. It’s easy to make a profile and start making pages. The best part in this all is that it’s free. Don’t forget that you can integrate other social networking sites and your website in to your Facebook page to make it even more effective.
If you are a Real Estate Agent who wants to learn more about how Social Media can help you grow and develop your client base make sure you get in touch.
Check out my website and send me an email or give me a call.
We all know that when you are setting goals that they need to be SMART. They need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. What many people don’t get with Social media is how to make sure that their goals are measurable. How do you measure something as intangible as Social Media?
Perhaps some of the old rules don’t count but there are plenty of indicators that can help you measure and assess social media success. Here are some ways that you can measure ROI from social media activities. They represent only a fraction of the tools available to you but they are some of the easiest ones to implement.
Number of Followers/ Fans- The easiest metric from Facebook and Twitter is the number of Fans or Followers that you have. You can also look at whether these numbers are increasing over time. (Obviously you want them to increase and you need to look at what you are doing wrong if these numbers are decreasing.)
Post Comments and Blog Comments- Another great metric to look at is comments on Facebook posts, comments on blog posts and @ reply comments on Twitter. You can assess these comments numerically and qualitatively. A large number of comments can indicate that you are successfully engaging in conversation but you also need to look at the tone and message of these comments. Are they positive or negative tweets?
Number of mentions on Twitter- A good way to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns is to look at the number of people who are talking about you on Twitter. Who is mentioning you? How often are you, or one of your posts, being mentioned on Twitter? Are the comments being made positive or negative?
Number of readers of a Blog post- The number of visitors to a blog can be tracked, as can the source of the visitors. Measuring the number of visitors can help you assess the relative success or failure of your blog posts.
Social media is something you should do as a business owner but not something that you ‘just do.’ You need to be strategic about your goals, you need to be strategic about what you are trying to achieve and then you need to measure whether your chosen activities are helping you to achieve your goals. If it is not working you need to change what you are doing and try something different.
Good luck!
Talk to many business owners about their marketing budget and their eyes glaze over as they stare back at you. The old school, mainstream media organisations- (television, radio and media) – want everyone to stay confused. They think that if there is confusion in the market place then people will keep spending money there because that is what they have always done. The thing is though, the market place has moved, your consumers have moved, and it is time to move with them.
Don’t keep wasting money on mainstream media advertising, especially because it is impossible to track the results. Look online and start integrating a digital strategy and you will soon see improved success.
Before we look at different digital marketing options (it’s not just social media services!) let’s take a quick look at the customer lifecycle to make sure we are all on the same page.
Now we’ll take a look at some of the options available to you as part of a digital strategy to ensure you are able to tap in to your prospects and customers at the right times to ensure both maximum customer satisfaction and maximum sales.
Search Engine Marketing- Pay per click advertising, or Search Engine Marketing, is the quickest way to get to the top of the search engines. You bid on keywords and keyword phrases and every time somebody clicks on one of your ads you pay a fee to the search engine. The most popular search engine and Pay per Click Advertising Platform is Google Adwords, obviously running in the Google Search Engine. Search Engine Marketing is important for the prospecting stage of the customer lifecycle.
Search Engine Optimisation- You know that everyone uses Google to find information. You’ve probably done it yourself today. The aim of Search Engine optimization is to make your website be the one that appears at the top of the Search Engines naturally and without paying for site visitors. Studies have suggested that people don’t go past the second page of results for a query that they have input and, oftentimes, they will not go past the first page results. Obviously you need to rank highly so you can get more visitors and then turn them in to customers. Search Engine Optimisation is about identifying those keywords that a large enough group of your customers are using but also ensuring that the people searching for those terms are prepared to spend money. Search Engine Optimisation is important for the prospecting stage of the customer lifecycle.
Web Design and Landing Pages- Your company website is also vitally important. You need to make sure that your prospects or customers are clear on what they should do and what information they will find on any page they land on. The internet is the land of the short attention span and there is little time between a prospect getting frustrated and them clicking the dreaded ‘back’ button, going to a different website and spending their money with someone else.
Email Marketing- Email marketing can be used in two ways- as a tool to regularly touch base with prospects until they are ready to purchase and to maintain relationships with existing clients- to make sure they remember you exist when they are looking at re-contracting services. With prospects, you should entice them to give you their email addresses in exchange for something for free. This could be through an offer of a free eBook if they sign up to your newsletter. Prospects may not become customers on the first visit to your website so you need to do everything in your power to ensure that you are free to continue to contact them after their first visit.
Social Media Services- Social media has changed everything. According to Facebook there are over 500 million active accounts. There are millions of Twitter users as well. Most people with social media accounts are active on these accounts every day. A large percentage of social media users also connect with brands that they know and trust online. As a business owner you need to be participating in these conversations because chances are that your customers and prospects are talking about you anyway. The new Polls feature on Facebook is a great way to survey your customers and get some quick feedback. Social media may be more beneficial for existing customers and your brand advocates. You need to do what you can to encourage your brand champions are talking to their friends about your products our services.
Data Analytics and Interpretation- All the steps that I mention above are all very well and good but there’s no point participating if you aren’t going to measure the results of your activities. If you can’t measure results, how will you know whether your efforts have been successful? It’s not just as simple as number of customers.