Web Savvy Marketers

Social Networking IS Your On-Line Referral

I had a meeting last week with a potential client that sells to consumers. We spoke a little about social networking (ie: FaceBook, Linked-In, etc.) He made it very clear that he had no interest in doing anything in that realm. He then went on to tell me a story about a customer that would only purchase his product once they found someone they knew who was using it and happy with it. They had checked the company’s references, and although they were all very good, it wasn’t until they spoke with someone they knew that they decided the product was good for them.

This is an example of social networking, except that it was done over the phone instead of the computer. Now, imagine you could create this kind of referral that would go out to many people instead of just the person on the other end of the phone. That is what social networking can do for you.

Networking Isn’t a Dirty Word!

I remember when I first started my own business and began attending networking events. I was so overwhelmed by the number of people who would tell me that I needed what they had for sale in spite of the fact that they hadn’t taken the time to find out anything about me and what my needs were. On occasion, I would meet someone who would ask me what I did, tell me about their company and talk about a way we could work together. They are the people who I still work with today after several years because we have a relationship.

The same problem occurs with on-line networking. Some people see it as another place to advertise their business. Too often, people use social networking groups to promote their business when they should be building relationships. It’s like any networking group. If people are genuinely interested in helping each other succeed, everyone wins. However, if everyone is just selling at each other, the group won’t last and no one will benefit.

Remember, no matter how you network, be it on-line or in-person, the important thing to remember is that people want to work with and buy from someone they trust and with whom they have a relationship. Approach it any other way and although you might get the initial sale, the chances of retaining the customer are poor.

I am not a networking cougar!

I’ve been in “leads” groups before and in all honesty I don’t usually like them.  First, many of them meet weekly at 7 a.m. and frankly although I’m usually up at that hour, I prefer not to start my official work day until I’ve showered and had breakfast.  And then there is the pressure of providing leads.  I understand that’s the concept of the whole organization but in reality a forced lead is usually a bad lead.  Leads, a.ka. referrals. need to come from a place of authenticity for it to be a good lead.  I need to know you and your business before I will bet my reputation on you by sending a client or prospect.

But in spite of my dislike of leads groups I chose to join the Breakfast Club recently.  It’s a great group of local business folks dedicated to helping build each others businesses by providing leads and introductions to each other.  I felt confident in joining this group for a few reasons.

  1. They have a strong “marketing” sphere.   This will make it easy for me to collaborate with and provide referrals and introductions to other members of the group.
  2. They meet at 9 a.m every other week instead of 7 a.m. every week.
  3. The group itself is awesome! They seem happy, friendly and optimistic.  That says alot these days. 

This past Tuesday was my second official meeting and I really enjoyed myself.  Later in the  morning  while having my teeth cleaned I had time to contemplate the meeting–who I talked to, who talked to me, who I should talk to, etc.  And an interesting and somewhat disturbing thought occurred to me.  The only people I approached were young men! I spoke with other people, but they had approached me.  OMG they’re going to think I’m a networking cougar!  So just in case anyone noticed, I’d like to go on the record and say “I am not a networking cougar”.  Next time we meet, I’ll make sure to approach folks of all ages and genders.

I’ll take a virtual test drive but I’m not in the market for a new car

I’m not in the market for a new car. But when I heard that the Mitsubishi Outlander was going to be offering the first online virtual test drives–I had to check it out. So I went to their website and signed up and while I was there I checked out the Outlander website and the car I would be test driving in November.

The website and the car have some cool features. On the website you can virtually walk around the car and view it from every angle. When you turn the car so it faces you, the video background behind it is in sync with the car’s direction. As you mouseover the car, little blue bubbles pop up and show feature specific details.

Wow! It has a 40GB Navigation/Music server with a stunning, full-color LCD touchscreen! And a USB port and bluetooth capability. I don’t have that in my 97 Acura. Too bad I’m not in the market for a new car.

It’s shown in a Leguna Blue, but you can easily change the paint color with a click of the mouse. If I were in the market for a new car I think I’d like the Leguna Blue.

The Mitsubishi Outlander virtual test drive campaign is web savvy marketing. The virtual test drive concept intrigued me enough to go to the website and register for a drive even though I’m not in the market for a new car. The website does a good job of presenting the car’s features. I can visualize myself in an Outlander. I just hope the virtual test drive is not too much fun because I’m really not in the market for a new car.
http://www.outlandersport.com/

Iwearyourshirt.com: genius use of social media

I’ve always been fascinated by the Iwearyourshirt.com guy’s business plan.  He’s been around a couple of years now, and, in a nutshell, he wears your company t-shirts for a living.  When he started a couple of years ago, his pricing structure was $1.00 for January 1 and each day the cost to have him wear your shirt was $1 more.   So to have him where your shirt on the 350th day of the year would have been $350 for the day.  For your money, he wears your shirt all day, posts videos of him wearing your shirt on YouTube, uploads photos of him wearing your shirt to Flickr, Tweets, posts on Facebook and sends emails about wearing shirts.

He’s very creative and has become quite successful in the last couple of years.  Last year he added another guy so there were 2 people wearing your shirt and doing the videos and social networks so the price increased to $2.oo on January 1 and increasing $2.00 each day.

This year he’s already sold out through April and that’s at a $5.00 starting rate because this year he plans to have five people wearing your shirt.  He’s currently accepting video applications via his website, so if you’re looking for an interesting job or if you want his team to wear your shirt, head on over to http://iwearyourshirt.com/.

Effective email marketing uses smart click-through links

No Click Here!A couple weeks ago, I wrote about designing an effective email marketing campaign on my cgwebhelp blog.  One of the things I mentioned was not to use unnecessary click-throughs.  I was being subjected to emails with obscure headlines, excessive images and the words “Click here”.  That design strategy offers no incentive to click through to the main offer.   Just the use of the words “CLICK HERE” sends me into a professional frenzy.  The words, while directing the user what to do, fail to give a clue as to why they should do it.   The better strategy is to choose contextual links that describe to the reader what reward awaits upon their click-through.   “See our product selection”, “order now” or “view event details” are better links than “click here” as they tell readers where their click will lead them.

Smart contextual links will improve click-through rates and trackability.But today, I came across an email promotion with the opposite but equally annoying problem.  It had no click-through’s at all.  It was a sales promotion that was offering a  deal on signs.  I just happen to be in the market for some new signs, so I wandered my mouse around the page looking for the click-through to the website.  After all they were offering 50% off!   Not a single click-through to the website selling the signs.   Obviously this is a major oversight.  Without a single click-through, the reader is forced to type the web address into her browser.  Not only does it make it less likely that people will actually go to the website being promoted, but the sender of the email loses all tracking capability for his email campaign.

As you probably know, if you’ve used a commercial email marketing program, links within an email marketing piece are coded so the sender can track who has clicked through on a particular link.  This gives the sender useful information. First, it tells the sender what text or promo generated the most interest.  But more importantly, it tells the sender who clicked through on a link, so if they’re running a smart promotion, they can follow up with the people who clicked through and perhaps close the sale, or at least continue to send the reader information that is targeted to their interests.

Make sure you use smart click-through links and good email design strategies to get the most value from your email marketing campaigns.

The 30-day blog challenge!

Today, I committed to the ultimate blog challenge – blogging every day for 30 days.   This will be a challenge!  And I came late to the game, it started October 1, so I’m not sure how that works.  Do I have to double up on posts in order to complete the challenge?  Or does my 3o days start now?  I’ll deal with that later, for now, it’s time to start blogging.

My friend D’vorah Lansky invited me to participate in this 30-day challenge.  D’vorah is an active blogger and recently wrote the book , Connect, Communicate and Profit.  The book is all about building successful relationships online and I highly recommend it to anyone with questions about using social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or about blogging.

I’m always on the lookout for materials that inspire me with new ideas and one of the perks of signing up for the challenge, is that you get a free booklet, 7 Ways to Get Your Blog In Motion.   In the booklet, the first thing they suggest to fend off the fear that you won’t have anything to write about is to make a list of things you know about–just a quick list of things that pop into your head.  So here’s my quick list:

  • web design
  • image editing
  • SEO
  • E-commerce templates
  • WordPress
  • Google Checkout
  • Google Analytics
  • Website traffic statistics
  • Dad’s 93rd birthday today.  Happy Birthday Dad!
  • 30 day challenges
  • Facebook movie – I gotta see it.
  • Homeaway.com
  • web hosting
  • e-mail marketing
  • the 10 pounds I can’t lose (another 30-day challenge?)

So in the next 30 days I’ll be writing about some of these things and some other things that pop up in my world of web design and internet marketing. I’ll also try to answer any questions that come my way.

My hope is that in the next 3o days, I’ll become more efficient in my blogging practice, and that I’ll provide a valuable resource for readers in the process.

Resources:

Five free things you can do to promote your small business

Times are tough.  Marketing budgets are tight.  Here are five free things you can do to bring traffic to your website and to your business.

  1. Google Places – (used to be called Google Local) it’s a free listing that you can enter by going to www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter.   You enter your web address, physical address, a description of your business, your contact information, hours– you can even enter photos. Your listing will show up on a Google Maps when someone searches for your business type in your area.
  2. Bing Local – Same concept as on Google Places only it’s on Bing.
  3. Facebook and other social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter.  If you’re not there you should be — it’s word of mouth advertising. I’ve seen small business really benefit from communicating with their network (friends, fans…whatever you want to call them).  It’s a great place to promote your business events, specials promotions and communicate with your clients (friends, fans, etc).  Just remember like all networking activities you’ll benefit more from giving then selling.  Provide  information, tips, advice, and special deals, spread good will and your friends and fans will remember you and spread the word about your business.
  4. Update your website regularly.  Install a content management system like WordPress so you can update your website on a regular basis.   Set up a blog that feeds through to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts so you reach out to all neighborhoods of your virtual network.
  5. Google Analytics – You don’t really know if anything is working unless you have a way to track your traffic.  Google analytics provides lots of statistics about traffic to your website.

Best Design Practices for Effective Email Marketing

When I read email, I typically have one finger on the delete key.   Like most people, I get a lot of e-mail.  And like most people, I don’t have time for games.  So when designing an email marketing piece I’d advise you to avoid techniques that may slow down the email scanning processes of your readers.

Avoid over-reliance on images

More and more often I see email marketing in my inbox that is made up entirely of images.  Since my e-mail client is set not to download images until I tell it to, I see a blank white screen with some red x’s where the images should be, until (or unless) I click the “download images” button.  Unfortunately for the email marketer, I’m more likely to click the delete key than the “download images” link.  And once I hit the delete key, the message is gone.  All the effort that was put into choosing the right images to portray the message is lost forever.

Instead of concentrating on “wowing” the reader with the beautiful design that they’ll likely never see, think about using a clever phrase to wow them.  Or just use clear, straightforward language that the reader can quickly scan and comprehend without having to click the download images link.

Avoid unnecessary click through links

If you expect me to click through to something, you had better give me a compelling reason to move my finger from the delete key to the click through link.  Sending an email that is an image with a click here link isn’t very compelling.

However if you provide an interesting sentence or two, with a link to more information, you might get me to  click. If you offer an enticing discount on a product I might click through. If you give me some interesting details to an event you’re promoting, I might click through.

Keep the design simple

Remember that people are using email clients to read your piece.  Not only are there countless email clients that may be in use by your readers, but many people read their email on their phones. What renders well for one reader may unreadable for the next.  Current techniques used to design websites or print pieces simply won’t work consistently for email.   Keep it simple if you want it to get read.

Social Networking – Resistance is Futile

I frequently encounter professionals who are resistant to online social networking. It’s puzzling to me.  They’re often very social in “real life”.

I don’t get it.  Is it really that scary to tap into the network of friends from around the globe? Has the separation between friends, family and business become too blurred?  Is the technology too frightening?  Is it the changing paradigm of communication that freaks them out?

Are they afraid of  becoming the Borg?

Will we all eventually be assimilated into the massive social brain of Facebook?  Controlled by our smartphones as they alert us to tweets and texts?  Well I suppose if you let it control you, but used wisely it allows you to communicate and stay in touch with more people with less effort than ever before. Resistance is futile.

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