In modern marketing, with the Power of Social Media, the marketing job is Bigger and if done well, the Sales job is Easier!
“Every Sale has 5 Basic Obstacles: No Need, No Money, No Hurry, No Desire, No Trust.“ – Zig Ziglar
These should not be an issue if Marketing is done right!
Your Great Idea Research must confirm that there is a need and that people are prepared to pay you what you think it is worth.
Marketing done well finds your ideal potential customers and NURTURES them to the point where they WANT to Buy!
Overcoming No Hurry, No Desire, No Trust.“ is effectively done by being in the right place at the right time on Social Media and across other relevant touch points .
I now Show Start-ups, Owners and Managers of any Small Business HOW TO DO MARKETING.
Even if you are NOT going to DO IT YOURSELF, it’s USEFUL to know what matters so the geeks and millions of gurus and plethora of advice out there does not create overwhelm and you end up either doing nothing or focusing on the wrong stuff.
… if you use an Agency they will value the fact that you ‘get it” and can be more helpful in understanding what they need to get the right content to ignite your strategies
Watch my “Unleash the Power of Social Media Marketing” video or read below …
A Digital marketing strategy is as simple as 1….2…..3 and to make it simple for my clients, these are the topics that I focus my coaching and training on:
- How to FIND your IDEAL CUSTOMERS online
- How to ATTRACT & GROW that audience
- How to generate content and have conversations that BUILD Trust
- How & Where to ENGAGE with them
- How to NURTURE leads so that it is easier to CONVERT.
Why the Power of Social Media?
Let’s use some Guru quotes to put this concept in perspective:
“Focus on how to BE social, not on how to DO social.” Jay Baer, Convince & Convert
“Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships.” David Alston
“The most successful marketer becomes part of the lives of their followers. They follow back. They wish happy birthday. They handle problems their customers have with products or service. They grow their businesses and brands by involving themselves in their own communities.” Marsha Collier, speaker and business author
You will note in all these, that The emphasis is on BEING SOCIAL!
How do you feel when you sitting in a pub and your mate is pushing you to buy his network marketing product or try their miracle Herbal Tea? You don’t see too much of them, right?
Social Media is no different!
11 Reasons to UNLEASH The Power of Social Media Marketing
to create profitable growth in your business:
- Cost-effective
- Marketplace Awareness
- Brand Authority
- Your Customers Demand it
- Generate Traffic
- Improved SEO
- Brand Awareness
- Engage with your customers
- Build Relationships
- Reputation Management
- Lead Conversion
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 1: Cost-effective
Rent-free Online space with no hosting or site membership fees.
Free Broadcast platform to put your message out there Free, compared to radio, TV and bill boards for example
Free Networking where you can connect and engage in conversations anywhere in the world with anyone.
Easy DIY Set up when you follow best practices and set your page up for search, to build your brand and attract an audience.
Reach THE biggest single community in one place … that is, Facebook with around 2.2 billion users which is bigger than China with around 1,4 bn people.
Precise Targeting because once you know who and where your Ideal Customer hangs out you can put your message right in front of them.
High ROI in Ads! It is not only cheap but you also have total control of your budget because you only pay for the results you stipulate and you can stop, tweak at any time.
Have YOU INSTALLED YOUR FACEBOOK PIXEL? This powers up your ad capabilities even further! It tracks who responds to your Ads so you can create a LOOKALIKE audience or retarget those that abandoned the process.
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 2: Marketplace Awareness
You must know what is going on in your market place and who, where and what your ideal customers are engaging with. You have got to know IDEAL CUSTOMER better than anyone and this goes beyond demographics, to interests, behaviours and psychographics.
Social media shows you what they like, where they like to go, what makes them happy and what they value. You should also be following their INFLUENCERS to see what gets them motivated. The key is to go where they are and this is not possible until you know them intimately!
The next powerful research you can do in your market place is study your COMPETITORS. When you know how they compete, their pricing, promotions, offers, what to people praise and complain about … there you will definitely find a gap, an opportunity, to serve better than them.
Third, study your INDUSTRY to see how similar products and services are promoted, what new developments you should be aware of … here you will find even more information to position yourself as an authority in your niche.
Finally, social media is a source of BREAKING NEWS and if you can be the “go-to” expert about what is going on, they will not have to look elsewhere plus you will stumble upon the kind of content that people love to share. Thus, creating Brand Awareness.
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 3: Brand Authority
Get noticed – be everywhere they are and get involved in forums, discussions and conversations, join their Groups
Be the trusted Expert with your own Original Content. Even when you Share someone else’s valuable content, you should add your opinion
Consistency – do what you can and stick to it, too much irritates and too little lets them forget you.
Quality! Be on brand with quality posts, graphics and visual content. Share Blogs to attract them to your website from where they can see more.
Use Influencers and brand advocates to recommend your services to those who trust their opinions.
Your communication should be ‘Benefit’ focused to demonstrate you understand who and why you serve, how you help and can create the transformation they crave.
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 4: Your Customers Demand IT!
Are you aware of the 5 Stage of Customer’s Buying Journey created by the Internet? Your customer is Dreaming, Researching, Buying, Experiencing and Sharing online and if you are not where they are to join conversations and nurture them to the next stage with YOU… then guess what? Until you have their undivided attention, they are fickle and can easily be tempted elsewhere.
Your audience is on Mobile! If your website, images and video are not mobile-friendly, they simply do not going to hang around. Studies show that Millennials are x2 as likely to follow a brand on social media but will give a secondary email address to sign up e.g. Gmail.
Their Limited Attention span demands that your content is disruptive and grabs attention. In a study 77% of the respondents said a video convinced them to buy!
Instant Gratification! : According to Google, “Being constantly connected has trained us to expect immediacy and relevance in moments of intent. The I-want-to-KNOW, I-want-to-GO, I-want-to-DO, I-want-to-BUY moments,” are the new battlegrounds for people’s hearts, minds, and dollars.”
Peer recommendation. People trust their peers more than they trust a Brand delivering its own accolades although that should not deter you from shouting your positives from the mountain tops.
Messaging gives on the online 24/7 : 365 opportunity to deliver customer service when they need it. Being quick to respond can make a world of difference and pop you through the winning line ahead of your competitors.
At every one of their 5 stages you must work through where they are in the customer journey and your marketing objective using the AIDA framework. Strategize your message and content for Awareness – Interest – Desire – Action!
The next reasons are all important objectives of your lead conversion strategy
You can use Facebook Ads for specific objectives including attracting new people, creating brand awareness an putting your business in front of as many people as possible, getting people to click on specific links to learn more, go to your website or share their contact information in return for something they value and of course to your shop or eCommerce site to exchange money for value.
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 5: Generate Traffic
Simply using Maths and applying percentages to predict acceptable hit rates demands that you start by building a SIZE AUDIENCE. Make no mistake, with marketing SIZE MATTERS! You need to build a large ideal audience so you increase your odd of success.
Not only does do you increase the Odds but you continuously top-up and introduce new leads which you can work down your Conversion Funnel with social media and other marketing tactics.
There are + 4 billion people on the internet; of which +3 billion use social media and of those around 2.2 bn are on Facebook followed by 1bn on YouTube and 800 million users on Instagram … Remind me how many new lead and customers can you cope with??
Now you thinking “but my audience is not on Facebook “… Well, here is an interesting reality: The Most active users on Facebook are 27 – 47-year-olds. Even if your audience is not on Facebook, these are the people who will tell them what they saw or read. It’s where they spend a lot of time and get the know-how on stuff they like to talk about and Share!
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 6: Improved SEO
40% of mobile search starts on search engines so it figures that setting up profiles on the majors will help search engine ranking performance.
You should research and use keywords your potential customers use to find you or your competitors in your Bio and set up Page up with all the contact info they need to find you.
Having a website or at least a Blog helps so you can use link building to send people back and forth to whichever platform they prefer to be. This is not only customer focused but also a link building strategy which helps your SEO.
Google loves NEW fresh content and while it is difficult to update your website daily, your can do so on social media but you need test and know what content ENGAGES.
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 7: Brand Awareness
Have you bought from a business you have never heard from? You have to work at a strategy to Help them stumble into you with images, video, local marketing etc. all the tactics to get you where they are, when they are there.
Ensure that you do not introduce any inconsistency in type of content, branding, message about what your Brand stands for and how people will benefit from joining your Tribe. Social Media helps you stay in front of them and when you have attracted their attention by being in the right places with the right message … you will get their INTEREST and with continued effort their Desire to know more or Buy.
The image here on the left is a poignant reminder to work at creating brand awareness and a relationship. Most people give up long before the 5th contact!
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 8: Engage with your Audience
There is no quicker way to chase people to your competitor than being over-salesy in this social space.
The rule of thumb is 10-15% of your content is promotional; the rest is about conversations that they enjoy, working on getting to know them and putting yourself and your business out there in a HUMAN way.
This is where you are generous, helpful and they enjoy having you around. Every single one of your posts should have some engagement.
One of My social media marketing coaching DISCIPLINES is that every post should have the core objective of ENGAGING and to do this ask yourself if every post ticks one of these boxes:
3 Es: ENTERTAIN – ENTRICH – EDUCATE
Amuse, Feel good Emotional lift, intrigue, inspire to take action, Educate with tips, animals and causes
Branding online allows companies to be able to gain the majority of the competitive market by creating an emotional connection to their online buying journey
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 9: Build Relationships
People buy from businesses they trust and by building awareness, humanising your business in a way that people get to like, the way you deliver customer service, timely responses, consistency and quality … all these help them go from Interest to Desire and ultimately to take Action.
A bit like dating …. Baby steps and you more likely to be invited in for coffee!
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 10: Reputation Management
84% of people in a study said that they trust Peer Reviews more than anything a brand has to say about its own services.
Note, I call it Reputation Management as opposed to complaint handling … exploit good feedback, be ready to grab a phone and video a happy client or send links to review sites.
And at the same time, the handling of negative feedback is a big opportunity to give your side in a humble, constructive way that impresses those who are watching from the side lines and can be influenced further down your sales funnel
Start to work with Brand Ambassadors and Influencers who are a cheap form of marketing because they often just want some recognition or a little freebie in return.
P0WER OF SOCIAL MEDIA # 11: Lead Conversion
Every marketing strategy or campaign should have a conversion objective and specify A Call-to-Action. Once you are clear on what outcome so you want, then you can go about a strategy to
Attract – Grow – Engage – Convert
And noting this is not just converting ‘sales’, any prospect who completes an action is a conversion. Social Media helps you achieve all your marketing objectives, whether it be to grow your audience, to find new customers, to get them to sign up for freebie trials and offers, to build your subscriber list, to send people to your website to check out an article or read your blog … the process is the same:
- Generate Traffic into the top of the funnel
- Help SEO and Search
- Create Brand Awareness
- Nurture down the funnel with connecting and building trust
- Create Readiness to take your desired action
If you are interested to explore how you can work with me, offer my services in various ways to suit your budget, your time, your passion for marketing and ability to DO THE WORK.
Marketing Implementation Coach, Trainer & Consultant my focus in on SHOW YOU HOW
For Free Tips: join Facebook Suzette Bouwer Marketing
Sign up for my Newsletter on the right column of my website www.redmatchstick .com
Then for more focused attention and support
Weekly Training to HELP YOU DO IT in a closed Facebook group …R797 per month.
One-on-One Coaching on a weekly basis is of course the most effective but also costs money and commitment
Group Training – day workshop
OR we DO IT FOR YOU and in this instance I refer you to Recommended Service Providers who are reading the same play book
Enquiries Email info@redmatchstick.com
