Large brands like the ones we work with typically include social media marketing as part of a much larger marketing mix, as they should. They frequently run TV ads, banner ads, PR programs, pay-per-click, print ads, out of home, event marketing and more.
Repeat after me…
When you try to please everyone, you wind up pleasing no one.
Did you repeat after me?
It is so important that you read that sentence a few times. In fact, I have made it my new mantra. I have posted this sentence on my computer monitor with a post it note. I myself need to remember this as well.
How does this sentence effect you?
I see so many store owners make two common mistakes:
A product is only as “hot” as you make it. When you open a new store. you need to know everything there is to know about the products you sell. You need to be an expert at what you sell. You need to be passionate about what you sell. You are going to be writing, talking, dreaming, and living with this product. Be passionate about the products you are selling and your customers will be passionate about what you sell too.
I want you to pick one thing and do it well. Your customers will tell you what they want from you next.
For the Now What Project, I have opened a quilting store. There are TONS of manufacturers and TONS of brands out there. I could have picked up a little of this or a little of that. Instead, I took my favorite manufacturer and focused on carrying as much as I could from them. Then I added just a sprinkle of a few other manufacturers.
Why did I pick the one manufacturer?
It was because I knew this brand inside and out. I knew all the designers and what collections they had created. I knew what they were working on in the future. I knew what I was talking about when it came to this manufacturer. When customers call and ask questions, I know what I am talking about. When customers talk to me about a collection, I can discuss that collection, the past collection, and why I love what is coming out too. I can also tell them how all 3 are different and unique.
Why? I am passionate about what I do.
When they don’t know what to make with the fabrics they are choosing, I can point them to a book or pattern that uses the fabrics they want to purchase. When they ask questions on how to do something technical in regards to sewing, I can point them to a specific book that has the best directions for what they are trying to learn how to do. Why? I love reading all these books and learning more about this business. Why? I am passionate about what I do.
My passion shows through in everything I do and it DOES effect sales.
Can you say the same about your products?
If not, why?
Are you passionate about your products? Are you passionate about your business?
Here’s a quick marketing tip for you: Did you know that when confronted with a number of purchasing choices, if the potential purchaser is only familiar with one of the options, they are massively more likely to buy it?
Well, it’s true!
Lately it seems like entrepreneurs everywhere have jumped on the online marketing bandwagon. From pay-per-click ads, to social networking, online article submissions, hiring SEO firms and more. Many are also spending a fortune and doing everything under the sun to improve their search engine rankings.
Just about every day I get another email looking for a link exchange with one of my sites. And about every other day I get an email from some SEO firm who wants to guarantee me the first spot on Google’s search results.
I ignore them all. In fact, I don’t even spend much time, money or energy trying to battle my way to the top of the search engine results. You may not want to either. And here’s why…
If you take a look at a list of the oldest businesses in the world, you’ll see the glaringly obvious fact that the majority of the companies listed are Japanese.
Germany makes a good argument for having a fair few, while the U.S. begins a late charge once they broke away from British rule. The rest is a mish-mash of European countries and developing countries (at least in the later part of the list).
So why does Japan have such a strong command of business, and what it takes to survive?
Demystifying better social media marketing often starts with doing a better job of connecting with customers. But how can you connect with customers if you don’t know who they are?
Do you know who your customers are? Do you know what they search for and talk about on social networks? What influences them to buy or to recommend things to others?
You know what you need, or would like, to know about your customers. First, basics, like addresses, correct names and titles, phone numbers, company description, and then much more.
Here is a synopsis of a really great post by Rob Rose, Chief Troublemaker at Big Blue Moose, 5 Marketing Myths The C-Suite Still Believes Because We Let Them. Be sure to check out the complete source article for more!
As much attention as we’re paying to new platforms like Search, Mobile and Social Media, and to conversing more effectively with our customers and prospects – it would seem we’re still not getting through to those who still feel like marketing is “a boat that I pour money into on the hopes that I’ll eventually get to use it” (an actual quote from a CEO).
5 Marketing Myths
Over the last month, I’ve had the pleasure to visit with more than 10 client companies. They range in size from a five-person startup, to a mid-sized non-profit to a billion dollar global corporation. And a fascinating trend emerged during those visits. For all the progress we’ve made as digital marketers, The C-Suite in organizations of all sizes, still has some die-hard beliefs about marketing that need busting.
Here are five of them in no particular order..
1. Sales And Salespeople Should Be Separated From The Marketing Process- In many organizations there is still an “Us vs. Them” mentality – where once the ‘formal hand-off’ of the customer takes place, – neither side pays attention any more.
2. Marketing Results & Budgets Are Linearly Related – We’ve got to start communicating that a 10% reduction in marketing does not necessarily mean a mere 10% reduction in success metrics (leads, customers, page-views etc..). The converse is true as well. Doubling the marketing budget does not mean the number of sales will double. Now, in fact – if we’re really successful they may indeed triple with more money.
3. Marketing = Advertising – There are CEOs and (especially) CFOs out there that still view marketing as “money for media buys”. The reality, as we all know, is that the role of marketing is expanding. It’s not just paid media and managing the agency – it’s creating original, optimized content. Marketing is engaging the customer in conversation and developing deeper relationships with our constituencies.
These are not just new media platforms that marketing will throw money into; they are fundamental changes to the process in our organization. The C-Suite needs to understand that all of these things are changing how we go-to-market – and are not just new line items in our precious budgets.
4. Since Digital Marketing Is So Fast – Results Should Come Just As Fast- These days, we can be so quick with results on experiments ranging from search marketing, optimizing content, polls and other direct feedback – that somehow the expectation has emerged that results should come just as fast.
The reality is that even though the feedback loops of our efforts have become smaller and more tightly coupled – the customer buying process is more complex than ever. The same tools that make it easier for us to reach consumers, give them MANY more inputs for making decisions.
5. If We Can’t Quantify The Results – We Shouldn’t Do It – This is where analytics has the potential to become what I call WMD – or a weapon of mass delusion. In some cases our C-Level managers are expecting every graph to continually go up and to the right. Any deviation from that sets us up for the sideways glance, the uncomfortable meeting, the reduced budget and more questions.
I read a wonderful book recently called “Street-Fighting Mathematics – The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving”. The author summed the myth of relying too much on analytics well when he said: “too much mathematical rigor teaches rigor mortis: the fear of making an unjustified leap even when it lands on a correct result.”
Guess What: We Create Our Own Reality
The key thing we need to remember about all these myths is that, in most cases, they are not perpetrated UPON us; they are perpetuated BY us. We allow them to be. In other words, it’s our actions and our beliefs that allow most of these myths to continue.
As we continually strive to be better marketers for our customers, we’ve got to also strive to be better educators to our management team. It’s up to us to work as hard on our internal communication and marketing strategy as it is on our customer facing one. Otherwise, we’ll perpetuate that most famous of all marketing myths…
Everybody’s got two jobs… theirs… and marketing.
Whether you see Facebook Places as a cool new way to find out where your friends are, another invasion of privacy from a company that builds its empire on the bones of your privacy, or a great way to find out who’s home to rob, with half a billion potential users, it will be hard to ignore.
One of the most important things business owners often fail to do is to make their website remarkable. It really doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or how many other websites you’re competing against, making your site stand out from the pack is absolutely essential.
