LYNDI SCOTT

How to Successully Market/ Sell Online

 

Part Eight

 

Aspirational Customers: Not Today, Maybe Someday

 

If you’re looking to expand business (perhaps you’re more of a novice than a beginner), think about your “aspirational customers.” An aspirational customer is someone who may not buy your product or service today, but perhaps this is the kind of business you’d like to do more of.

Our original example of an HVAC repair company may consider business owners as aspirational customers because they would like to do more commercial business, which is more lucrative than residential.

Perform the same two Q&A sessions above for your aspirational customer. Remember to keep this separate. You might not use this target market in your immediate marketing strategy, but defining it is the first step to achieving your goals!

 

2 Pro Tips For DIY Defining Your Target Market

 

• If you get stumped at any of the above steps, take a look at one of your competitors that performs well. If they are already doing any social media marketing, review their content and strategy to look for clues as to whom they believe their target customer really is.

• Write it all down. Once you’ve outlined your demo and psychographics, you might realize you have several target customers. Give each of them a name and persona. This will help you (or whomever helps with your creative) relate to them and craft effective content.

•  

Step 2: Choose The Right Networks To Reach Them

 

One of my favorite infographics of all time, puts a purr-fectly matched personality to each social network (pun intended).

 

There is a vast menu of social networks at a marketer’s disposal today. Truly knowing your target audience will help you select the proper networks to reach them.

BI Intelligence recently released a report on demographics of social network users. Business Insider reported on the results, including some of the key takeaways:

• Fast-moving consumer goods will perform better on Facebook than luxury goods because the user base skews younger.

• Twitter is primarily a news source for its users.

• Pinterest is the place to be for food and drink related products or content, as well as family or parenting content.

• Instagram’s audience is primarily female (with projections to even out by 2016) and between the ages of 18 and 44. Clothing, accessories and entertainment-related brands find Instagram attractive for this reason.

 

 

Part Seven

 

Social media marketing platforms are constantly evolving, so newcomers are at a disadvantage compared to those who’ve been around the social media block over the last decade. There are more platforms to learn, more features to leverage, and larger audiences to engage.

For small or new businesses venturing into social media marketing for the first time, focusing on the fundamentals is key. In this two-part series, we’ll do just that.  Read on for a guide to getting started, including defining your target market and choosing the right channels to reach them.

 

Step 1: Defining Your Target Market

 

Before diving into anything, start by defining your target consumer.

Demographics are important, but key insights into the what type of person they are, their likes and dislikes, etc., will give you stronger direction later for creating engaging content.

If you’re like most small businesses, you likely don’t have a professionally developed marketing strategy with personas defined for your target consumers. The great news is, these don’t take a rocket scientist (or professional marketer) to create!

 

Start With The Easy Stuff: Demographics

 

Putting pen to paper and defining the more obvious characteristics of your audience is the best place to start. If you’re not familiar with these key characteristics of your target market, you’ll be lost in the long term. For an HVAC repair business, your target customer might be a homeowner. Homeowner: it’s a start, but wouldn’t tell a writer much about how to craft content your audience will appreciate.

To further define the demographics, ask yourself the following questions, thinking of the customers that currently drive most of your business today.

• How expensive is your product or service? Do your customers need to fall into a certain income class to afford you?

• Is your product or service specifically for men or women? If either, think about your typical customer. What is their typical age? Are they married? Do they have a family? Who makes the purchasing decisions?

• Where is your target customer physically located? Are they local to you? In the neighborhood or neighboring town? Do you have an online store and want to appeal to customers across the country? Do you have a storefront or do you travel to your customers to provide service?

• Is your product or service ethnically neutral? Does it appeal to people of a certain ethnicity?

By the end of this Q&A exercise, aim to have the following key demographics outlined: age, gender, location, income level, occupation, marital/family status, ethnicity and education level.

 

Now, What Makes Them Tick? Defining Psychographics

 

Now that you’ve nailed down the basic information about your target market, it’s time to start thinking about who they are as people. This is the key step to crafting appropriate content for your social media marketing, blogging strategy, and even your traditional marketing efforts.

I’ve found that many small business owners can get lost in the idea of psychographically defining their typical consumer. To guide this thought process, collaborate with your front-line employees — those who work most directly with your customers — and ask the following questions:

• What are your customers’ likes and dislikes and what does that tell you about them?

• What types of television shows do they watch? What magazines or website might they read?

• What are their values?

• What kind of lifestyle do they lead? How does your product or service fit into their lifestyle?

In this exercise, you should also look at your product or service. These questions can help you better understand your target customer:

• What features appeal to your current customers the most?

• When do they use the product (or hire you for the service)?

• Do they use it in a certain way?

 

Part Six

 

Humanize your brand and be emotive. People use social media to connect with other people, so show the real YOU behind your business. Be transparent, open and authentic in all your communication.

Post non-promotional content 80% of the time on social networks - leave 20% for overtly promotional content.

Slow and steady wins the race. Friendship and bonds with your audience can take a long time to build, some people take longer to warm to you and convert into paying customers than others. Above all, have fun building relationships. The stronger someone acquaints with your brand, the more likely they'll remember you and pass the positive word on to their friends and family.

 

Humanize your brand and be emotive. People use social media to connect with other people, so show the real you behind your business. Be transparent, open and authentic in all your communications. Post non-promotional content 80% of the time and save the 20% for overtly promotional content. When it comes to Internet marketing, slow and steady wins the race. Friendships and bonds with your audience can take a long time to build, some people take longer to warm to you and convert into paying customers than others. Above all, have fun building relationships. The stronger someone acquaints with your brand, the more likely they'll remember you and pass the positive word onto their friends and family. 

 

WAYS OF GENERATING TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE FOR FREE

 

1. Add 'share bars/ buttons' to your site. Download a popular sharing button plug-in and install it into your blog - this way your visitors can share your content with others.

2. Use the 'Tell a friend'/ 'email a friend' script (bar plug-in).

3. Build an email list, use google RSS feeds.

4. Comment on popular blogs:

- always write long, valuable comments and give more knowledge on the topic.

- never directly promote your website.

- comment on HIGH page-ranked blogs.

- write up to 50-100 comments a day.

- keep up the comments every single day.

5. Guest post on other blogs.

6. Invite others to guest post on your blog. 'Write for this blog' - tell 

people you are giving them the opportunity to write for your blog as a guest blogger. I am allowing you to write for my blog. Write clear specifications as to what type of post you will accept. Tell them you will give them credit for each article submitted and can provide a link to their website/ blog/ twitter at the bottom of the post.

 

TURN CLICKS INTO CUSTOMERS

 

All search marketing efforts revolve around keywords that users type into a search engine - target your efforts to match their requests:

 

1. Keyword Research Projects -

Find the words to use on your site at www.wordtracker.com/ Google's Adwords/ Bing's adCenter

Examine 'failed' searches/ google Insights/ google Trends/ google Suggest (in the search box drop-down)

www.icerocket.com monitors blogs and social media trending

www.scoutlabs.com

www.twitter.com home page lists current trends data

www.seoquake.com toolbar

SEOmoz Linkscape www.seomoz.org/linkscape

 

ONLINE MARKETING WEAPONS

 

1. Name - in cyberspace, most customers will first hear about your business by its name. Choose a name that both explains what your business is and sets your business apart from others.

2. Theme - a sentence or phrase that defines your business.

3. Hours and days of operation - your business should operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Cybernauts expect quick responses to their queries.

4. Access - give customers/ readers access to your product in as many ways as possible.

5. Neatness - neatness conveys a sense of reliability and competence. It helps give customers the confidence to buy from you.

6. Service - customers are gambling on you until you earn their trust through service.

7. Online advertising - increase your visibility online by buying spacing on Web pages, billboards, search engines and sign-off screens.

8. Free information - by offering helpful information related to your business, you enhance your reputation and encourage people to visit your online store or to contact you.

9. Contribute a free article or column to a publication in exchange for including your business name and address.

10. Participate regularly in forums, newsgroups and mailing lists and add expertise to the pool of knowledge.

11. Increase your online marketing skills. Boost your understanding of the online world. 

12. Convey enthusiasm about your products or services in every message and advertisement. Excitement is contagious and leads to sales. 

13. Competitiveness - your drive, your willingness to devote as much time as you can to using these weapons. If you put in twice as much efforts as your competitors, you'll be twice as far ahead in the race to profits.

 

Part Five

 

Fantastic communication doesn't happen by chance - it is planned and built on solid foundations using established business principles. To be different and stand out in the right way is a huge source of competitive advantage. Be curious. Find out what's going on in as many spheres of life as possible, reflect your knowledge as part of an intelligent brand.

 

The irrefutable truth is that we buy what our friends buy or like, or if they recommend something we are more likely to be drawn to it (real or cyber friends). Observe: become a people and world watcher - the more connections you make, the better attuned your message will be. The real reason people make a purchasing decision is based on value. We as the consumer ask - what are we getting in return for what we pay? Understand what really drives people to purchase and your messages will be tailored as a consequence.

 

Good blogs and websites tell stories, provoke discussion and offer opinion in a concise format which avoids rambling or digression. The 'upward spiral' in social media is this - the more followers you have, the greater chance you stand of gathering even more. A buzz starts to be created and outsiders want to know what they're missing out on. Crosspromote from one platform to another to maximize integration. Balance being an entertainer with the necessity to sell.

 

THE SEVEN P's OF MARKETING

product + Place + People + Promotion + Process + Physical evidence divided by PRICE = Value to customer.

Good marketers increase value by ADDING  to the top line (6Ps) not reducing the price.

Eg. product = words/ writing advice/ books

Place = website author Lyndi/ amazon.com/ Lulu.com

People = Twitter, Facebook, linkedIn, Tumblr

Promotion = (promotional offers, where do you add value) helping oaths write better, market books better, I do research for others and add to their knowledge.

Process = the website is easy to browse and buy off

Physical evidence = design of blog/ website/ twitter/ Facebook pages.

 

WHY DO WE BUY?

 

1. UTILITY: is it useful?

2. NARCISSISM: will it make me more beautiful, desired, successful, attractive, famous, rich?

3. DESIRE: aesthetics - is it inherently beautiful or will it present your business in the most attractive way possible?

4. ASPIRATION: spending large amounts on a single item makes it seem more valuable - we aspire to buying the product because it is valuable.

5. TRUST: purchases made on a repeat basis are done because of trust built over time.

6. VALUE: what are you offering over and above the competition?

Building value means valuing yourself, your output and your contribution. Don't sell yourself short. 

 

WEB CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

Part of making messages sticky is to cut through all the noise caused by the sheer volume of communication on the web. 

 

METHODS OF DRIVING TRAFFIC to your products through your website:

1. Use the right domain name - it must be easy to remember.

2. Content is King. Create useful and unique content on your website. Write keyword-rich content to encourage traffic through the search engine.

3. Do not fail to update your website - consistency matters: add a minimum of one article per week, two preferably. Adding an article daily is euphoria, and adding one every six hours, that's the best.

4. Consider doing search engine optimization for your website: make it easy for a search engine to find out the topic of your page; use appropriate keywords or key phrases and use them throughout your titles and articles; pick a primary keyword for each page and place it in the headline and sub-headline.

5. Submit your website to main directories like Yahoo, DMOZ.org, and.bcentral.com, Gimpsy, skaffe, Joeant, GoGuides, business.com, sevenseek, looksmart, wowdirectory (http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php)

 

Educate and offer value; be clear, not clever; maintain consistency.

 

6. Use social network marketing - Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Faces.com, Fetlife.com, filmaffinity.com, fledgewing, Flickr, focus.com, friendica,gather.com, getglue.com, Hi5, Digg, Buffer.

7. Create a blog and a community eg. Rapportive, Meetup, Workflowy, HootSuite, Wunderlist

8. Make your content shareable and social.

 

 

Part Four

 

By human nature, your audience consciously or unconsciously looks for reasons to not buy from you. Your job is to minimize those obstacles by providing the information they need to make an informed decision to buy while at the same time providing an easy buying procedure.

 

To achieve great success in an online or offline platform, two things are important and these are:

1. A great product,

2. An excellent inflow of traffic.

 

The world is a global village - you can now reach people all over the world with just your website. 

 

How do we get people to stay with us and consume our communication, rather than drift off elsewhere? One word - STICKINESS.

 

How do you transform your website sticky?

 

1. Use bullet points rather than block text.

2. Keep sentences short.

3. The more 'white space' there is, the greater the appeal of your text.

4. Avoid garish colours unless you are trying to make a point with them.

5. The best communication is achieved when both outputs and inputs are taken into consideration, its not just what we say, but also what we hear.

6. Maintain excitement in our output.

7. Become a trusted source of information.

8. Golden rule of sales training.

9. Don't forget to ask for the sale.

10. Don't be too pushy but call to action at the right time.

 

MESSAGE TURN-ONS

 

1. Something close to my heart - my hobby, family, work.

2. New

3. Information - what's happening in the world and my world.

4. Opinion - a different take on what is happening.

5. What everyone else is talking about.

6. Personal - beauty, relationships, self-improvement.

7. Scandal - personal, business, political.

8. Difference - cultural oddities, lifestyles, outlooks.

9. Relevance - kites aren't in big demand for most of the year, but on a windy day...

10. Get a message out which comments on a highly topical issue, you will not only make a great connection.

11. Ask: What really is in it for them/ your audience? We all yearn for food, safety, love and inclusion. We're all fearful of loneliness, rejection or not fitting in. Find out what customers want and value or identify their unsatisfied needs.

12. Feelings - great messages that stay in the memory/ provoke an emotional reaction in us - happiness, sadness, regret, sorrow, elation etc.

13. For extra stickiness: use insight, relevance, wit, topicality, sincerity, opinion, interest, brevity, information, novelty (the more you develop any or all of them, the more your messages will stick).

14. Think of the blog as a service to solve a 'problem' for your targeted audience. 

 

Part Three

How to Use E-Mail as a Web Marketing Strategy

Reaching potential customers by e-mail can be a very effective web marketing strategy. An e-mail marketing campaign can be detrimental, however, without some guidelines. Before you send your marketing e-mail, make sure that . . .

• You have explicit permission to send the e-mail.

• Your e-mail is CAN-SPAM-compliant.

• You pinpoint the main objective.

• Your From line clearly identifies your business.

• Your Subject line prompts your audience to open your e-mail.

• Your e-mail content is easy to scan.

• Your headlines are short, clear, and concise.

• Your e-mail contains a strong call to action.

• Your images help tell the story of your e-mail.

• Your e-mail content is relevant and valuable to your audience.

• You've checked all links to make sure they work properly.

• You're prepared to handle inbound responses.

• You're sending at a time when your audience is likely to notice.Tips for Marketing to Mobile UsersA complete web marketing strategy makes use of all electronic media, including mobile phones and other devices.

 

• Some keys to mobile marketing success include these pointers:

  • Don't be blinded by youth. Mobile marketing is applicable to all ages. Provide value, and everyone benefits.

  • Set objectives and success measures. Before you start, know why you're running a program and what you want to accomplish.

  • Plan for every customer lifecycle. Mobile applies to awareness, acquisition, loyalty and retention, customer care, and retirement.

  • Get permission and build trust. Always get permission first from mobile subscribers before engaging them on their mobile phone.

  • Take your time and test it. Give yourself time to test your mobile marketing initiatives and have them certified by the wireless carriers when necessary.

  • Start now; don't wait to learn. Mobile is becoming a primary channel for customer engagement, so learn to use it now!

  • Be creative. Mobile subscribers want value, information, and entertainment. Don't limit yourself to just holding steady.

  • Launch your mobile marketing programs, test them, review the measures, and then do it better next time. Mobile marketing, like any other practice, takes time to learn.Analyze Web Marketing DataAnalytics is the art of, well, analyzing web marketing data and using the results to find ways to improve your marketing. Web data analysis pays off; for example, you can determine who is shopping and when, or which products are hot or not.

   

  • Keep these points in mind to get more bang out of your marketing buck:

    • Reports do not equal analytics! Reports are the data. Analytics is the act of looking at the data and gaining actionable insight.

    • Focus on page views and visits, not hits.

    • Make analytics a part of your daily routine. Don't wait weeks to look at the numbers.

    • Be sure that your traffic-reporting tool ignores visits from your office. You don't want that data messing up your results.

    • Watch your referrers, especially referring search keywords. Referrers can tell you how to get more traffic, where to advertise, and how to tailor your site to visitors' needs.

    • Have a plan for adjusting. If you see a trend in your analytics that changes are needed, how will you act on it? The power of analytics is using it to improve your business.

    • Keep an ear on the noise. If you see fluctuations that don't appear to make sense, consider the entire environment — news reports, unrelated product reviews, and even weather.

    • Set key performance indicators (KPIs) and track them consistently. KPIs may include Contact Us form completions, lead form completions, and sales. Track them for the long term, and commit to it. KPIs are the ultimate measure of success.

 

Part Two

 

Stay hungry, stay foolish. Keep in tune with the way your audience speaks, make it short and give it an edge. Remember, the audience holds the power. Understand the lives, feelings and motivations of your audience.

 

Essential Pay-Per-Click Terms for Web Marketing

Pay per click (PPC) is a popular web marketing tool: You place an ad on a website, pay the site owner for each click-through (that is, every visitor who clicks through to your site), and enjoy the exposure. Like everything else, PPC has its own jargon, which the following list can help you sort through:

• ad group: Where and how your ads and keyword lists are organized.

• campaign: Where your ad groups are organized; budgets for spending are set; and other settings are made, such as geography, frequency, and networks.

• CPC (cost per click): The amount you pay each time your ad is clicked.

• CTR (click-through rate): The percentage of how many times your ad was clicked, divided by how many times it was shown.

• destination URL: The address of the web page that your ads go to.

• display URL: The web address displayed in your PPC ad.

• impressions: How many times your ad was shown.

• keyword: The words and phrases you select to bid on.

• match type: Determines how specifically you want the search engine to match a searcher's query to your keyword list. The types are broad, phrase, exact, negative, and modified broad.

• maximum CPC: The dollar amount you set that you are willing to pay for each time your ad is clicked.

 

Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

Search engine optimization, or SEO, makes the most of web marketing by attracting Internet browsers to your website. By marketing with strong SEO, you expose your product to loads of potential customers. To ensure that shoppers who are looking for what you're selling can actually find your website; consider these search engine optimization tools and techniques:

• Point all homepage links to http://www.siteaddress.com/.

• Make all headings actual headings, enclosed in <H> tags.

• Make sure every page has a relevant title META tag.

• Don't require registration for any content on your site. Search engines can't complete forms, so registration forms hide your site.

• Make sure you can navigate to every page of your site using regular links.

Don't obsess about keywords! You'll get far more mileage from clear, relevant content.

 

 

Part One

CORE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

 

1. Be authentic, open, transparent. Behave in a professional way, but don't be afraid to use your personal voice.

2. Don't go for the hard sell. Don't focus on selling products - provide useful content that your community will value.

3. Build social currency. Establishing a social media presence gives you 'permission' to use it for marketing.

4. It's not all about you - reply to some of your tweets, retweet others.

5. Be patient. Social media needs a long-term approach. A new blog takes a good 6 months of fairly regular updates to establish itself and build a following.

 

Think outside the box. Be bold and daring. Try someone new.

Learn how to recognize opportunities. Jump on board and experiment.

Never give up on a dream. 

Write because you want too. 

 

BE A BLOWFISH

Have a thick skin and a few barbs to warn off predators. What is the law of attracting fans? Image - project an image of success.

Be open to learning.

Observe what works for others and don't be afraid to mimic their techniques.

Fake it until you make it.

Mimic the success you see.

Help others.

Don't be an annoying telemarketer.

Never SPAM anyone.

You should tell people what you're doing but there is a fine line between marketing yourself and spamming. Spam is contacting someone who hasn't given you permission to contact them. Promote with enthusiasm and interact with people.

Use the 3 E's: entertain potential readers; educate them with unknown fun facts and trivia; escapism - allow them to escape into your books and your promotional events.

 

There are 4 ELEMENTS you must have in place to see CONSISTENT SALES:

1. An eye-catching title,

2. An appealing cover design,

3. Gripping description/ back cover text,

4. A competitive price.

 

THINK ABOUT:

Marketing helps people find you - make use of search engine optimization, media channels and pay-per-click.

Content makes people stay and gives them a reason to return.

 

The definition of marketing is giving the right people the right message with the right offer at the right time.

People buy from those they know, like and trust. That is the key - build a relationship with your prospective clients and you will find that they are more willing to buy from you and remain loyal customers.

 

Online marketing lends itself perfectly to this situation. It gives you a tool to reach millions of potential clients (that's the KNOW part) and then the ability to have conversations and interactions with them (that's the LIKE part) and build a relationship with them (the TRUST part).