You will have seen how LinkedIn has become an important tool in business marketing. There are millions of business people using it every day. There are thousands of companies, with a plethora of employees all interconnected.
You can advertise on LinkedIn and I have tried this for certain offers. But unless you have a big budget I suggest the free tactics that I have given here; I know that they work. So how do you get your offer to the people that matter and the people you want to sell to? I'll tell you in a moment but first... ...Before I answer that question I think it best to mention that when you are looking to engage with others you must consider how they will view you. So before you set out looking for clients and contacts on LinkedIn make sure your profile is up to date and full. Top 6 LinkedIn Profile Tips: 1. A professional photo 2. Be individual and distinct – stand out 3. Don’t be all things to everyone – use your mission statement to filter out people as much as attract new prospects 4. KISS – keep it simple and to the point – don’t ramble on 5. Show clear and measured achievements – “increased sales by 220% in 2013” 6. Get referrals – not just people endorsing you but real detailed referrals from clients and colleagues Once you have a great profile you can start some marketing…. Here are 2 main strategies that I recommend: 1. The Mass Approach 2. The Select Approach 1. The Mass Approach is a great way to create interest in your offer and bring people to your website. The basics are simple and can be laid out in simple steps: a. Join groups in your niche or market. b. Post useful information on their forum and take part in the discussions that are there. Be sure to lead people to your website to find out more valuable information. c. Post teaser articles leading to your blog posts and thus to your website As with most strategies that involve social media, you need to give value first. Give as much helpful information as you can. Lead people to your website to find out more. Get them to join your newsletter to get even greater value. If you maintain a presence in the key groups you will be seen as a person (or business) that gives value. In this way you are also in the forefront of people’s minds; you are visible. So when people have a need they will come to you as first choice. I regularly post articles in the groups I am a member of. I try and give helpful information and in doing so I build my brand and stature in that community. Then my prospects will look to me for more advice and services when the need arises. 2. The Select Approach is a little more involved and more subtle. First you need to identify 10 companies (or people) that you want to sell to. Follow them and see who they are connected to and what groups they are in. Join groups that you think fit your business. Next you need to look for people who have recently departed the company; recent ex-employees. Search the company and then look for people that have worked there in the past. You can do this on the searches if you do a detailed search. Then connect with them… […At this point I should say that I only have a standard LinkedIn account, not premium (paid) account. You can get more features, approach people directly and see more information with a premium account but I tried it and am happy enough not paying now. So how to connect with someone you don’t know? Well you can join a group that they are in or look to connect with a middle man. I wanted to connect with a CEO one time and I found that his PA was my second connection. So I connected with her and then I was second connection to half the company. If you give value and are respected, people will want to connect with you. Connections on LinkedIn work like network marketing. If I know 100 people and they all know 100 people then I have a loose connection with 10,000 people, level 2. Personally I have around 600 connections and on average they have 100 connections each so I have direct access to 60,000 people on LinkedIn. You can see that by knowing more people I am connected to 100 times that number. If I then add in the Level 3, which I can get to, even without premium membership, via my level 2 connections, I am connected to 6,000,000 people. So one of them probably works at the company I am targeting, or used to; and if not someone will be connected enough for me to find a connection. the other great way to connect is through gropus. Some comapnies make it easy and have groups of their own. A lot of the employees ill be members. So you can join the group and get connected in that way. ] So now you have access to ex-employees of a company its time to use that. Write to them and say that you are researching the company that they used to work at. Ask them some questions relevant to your offer. In my case I would look for someone who worked in the marketing department. I would ask them what challenges they faced and how they dealt with them. I would also ask what challenges the company was working on for the future. Gather as much information as you can. The reason for talking to ex-employees is that they will be more willing to engage with you about a company they used to work at. They are also more likely to be frank and tell you about real problems faced by that company. Now you know what problems the company faces make sure you place prominently on your profile examples of how you have solved these problems in the past for clients. Give exact examples with measured results for the best effect. Make sure these appear on your website too. Then when you go to the next stage and engage with people who currently work at the company they will see that you can help. Engage these people in conversation and find out if they are still dealing with the same issues. If so let them know how you or your product or company can help. In this way you are tailoring your offer to meet the exact needs of a business before you initially engage with them. Once you do engage with them your offer will speak right to their needs. You will be half way to the sale already. This is a very powerful tactic and you can use it on 1 or 10 companies at a time. More would dilute your efforts so I suggest starting with a maximum of 10. LinkedIn is a great way to engage with people, speak directly to their needs and show how you can be of service. Remember to give value first in all social media activities (if not everything you do!). For more information on social media and to get free downloads about marketing see http://www.cr4l.com/self-marketing-download.html
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What are the 7 key things every start-up company should be doing to market their business?
1. Build a website 2. Get traffic to that website 3. Build a list of prospects 4. Build relationships with prospects 5. Get feedback 6. Sell product 7. Get feedback – the second cup You’ll notice that all the way down in 6th is the selling, and get feedback is before and after the sale. Feedback and customer opinion is important in any business. In a startup business feedback is essential in developing the offer and product. You may be aware that many startup businesses have a great product or service and then proceed to fail in taking it to market. One of the main problems is that as an entrepreneur or business developer you can get so involved in your amazing new product that you lose sight of what the real world will thinks of it. I am sure that you will agree this is one of the reasons that market testing is essential before committing to a big launch. If you have ever seen Dragons Den on TV you are sure to have seen entrepreneurs that are very enthusiastic about their product. But the sum total of their testing is often just asking their friends what they think. Dragons want to see sales to the public and public feedback; not mates telling you your widget is great. So you can see the advantage of a soft launch before committing a lot of money to a big launch: See if you can get a few early adopters. Then get feedback from them and develop your offer so that you can get to the next stage and on to the mass market. Let’s assume that you have some product to sell or your beta system is ready to trial, then the steps are simple: 1. Build a website You’ll probably remember that a few years ago websites were very expensive things built by geeks. Now ... well actually if you go to a web developer you will be told you need the latest bits, bobs and features to make your site cutting edge. Suddenly we are back to expensive again. But you know it doesn’t have to be like that. 99% of businesses do not need a fancy state of the art website. 90% of developers know little about making money with a website. So I suggest starting with a simple site. Don’t go mad because you will have to make changes. If you are building an online shop, try a template, if you want an app do the same to start with. Most things have been done and unless you are in software or web development the chances are you can find something similar and have it adapted rather than pay for development from scratch. KISS – do the KISS test – Keep It Simple Stupid! Pick a launch date and stick to it. Don’t over develop. I know of startup businesses that kept adding to or adjusting websites before launch and never launched. Just get it out there and start. Add features and usability as you go along. The early adopters will not mind if the offer is good enough. 2. Get traffic to that website I am sure you know that this is a big subject. How do you get traffic to you website as a new business? Well one way is to employ a marketing company. The other is to do it yourself. Do you or one of your team have the time? If so you can get a book like The Results Marketing Workbook and set up multiple marketing systems yourself. If not then you will need to spend some money: but don’t blow the budget before you have tested and got feedback from the early adopters. Far better to go in slow and see what works. A little at a time. Here you can use a service like CR4L.com offer to drive traffic to your site and move you up the rankings. Get your fist customers and learn. The key first steps must include: SEO, great content on the site; PR, back links, a blog, guest blogging, video, social media and above all else data catchment... 3. Build a list of prospects You will see here that data catchment is essential to success. After all, it’s hard enough getting visitors to your website in the first place, so whilst they are there you want to get their data so that you can engage with them. Data catchment is as simple as asking for visitor’s email address in return for a free product or offer. There are several companies out there that offer data catchment on websites. Personally I use Aweber but Mail Chimp is another option. Your web developer can help you with that and install the widget on your site. If you develop yourself it couldn’t be easier. Just like adding a PayPal purchase button you get some code from the service provider and pop it on the page where you want it. Use Java script so that any changes you make to the widget later will come through to the site automatically without having to change the code. How do you get people to share their email with you? In the old days that was easy but now people are weary of giving out their email, they wonder what they will get in return. So you need a really great offer, or fantastic news that they will want every week/month from your newsletter. There are some great new widgets available too; such as from Rafflecopter which allows you to offer your product in a raffle. People enter through the widget and their data goes to your Aweber list (if that’s who you use). 2 negatives with this offer: $59,99 a month and the biggest one; just because someone wants something for free does not mean they will pay for it. However, because it costs you no more to service 10 people as 100 people with automated emails what does that matter? There are lots more ways to build a list and once again, if you are doing this yourself I suggest referring to something like the Results Marketing Workbook for ideas. Your list of potential purchasers is gold. Build the list, build relationships and build profits... 4. Build relationships with prospects #1 Rule – give value first. There aren’t any other rules to speak of; that is the be all and end all of selling to your list. Form the free offer or product they get to join the list to every email they subsequently receive: send them value and lots of it. That value might be useful information or it may be ideas or ways to make their life better in ways related to your offer. In my case I am a marketer so I give people help marketing their products and businesses. I give as much away as I can so that people get incredible value and can see the quality of what I offer. The idea is that if you like what I do for free you should try being a client and then you will get amazing value! 5. Get feedback This is also a time for you to engage with people. Get them to comment on your blog or Facebook page. Get some feedback. Answer questions that are important to your business development. There may be something stopping people from buying from you that the public can see and you can’t. It may be simple and easy to change but make all the difference to your conversions. 6. Sell product You will know that in sales people buy from people, or more accurately; personalities. People would rather pay more and buy from someone they know and trust than pay less from a stranger. In mass retail people buy from brands that they identify with and associate themselves and their values with. Think of Apple and Nike. People buy from Apple because that is the kind of people they are, or want to be seen to be. People put on Nike because they are the people who Just Do It! During the relationship building phase you should have got your message out about who you are; your company’s personality. You should have built trust through giving value first. Then people will be willing to give you a try and buy from you. Hopefully your prospects are aligned with your company’s ethos and that will make the selling stage all the easier. It will also help you to retain customers. 7. Get feedback – The Second Cup I am sure that you can see a pattern building here. You will understand how important feedback is. However many companies just move on to the next prospect once someone has bought. Don’t do it! It cost you a lot of effort and money to get that sale. So now you will want to nurture your new customer and reinforce your relationship. You may ask them what they think of their purchase. Get some ideas of how you can make it and the sales process better. If people buy in to the company in this way and feel involved then you will have a customer for life. As we used to say at CR4L; Customers are for Life, not just for Christmas. The Second Cup: There is a wonderful little book by Mark Joiner called The Irresistible Offer. In that he talks about how to build an irresistible offer; an offer so good that people will just have to buy. You get your offer before a thirsty crowd and they will buy, then you sell them the second cup. The Second Cup is where the profit is. This is the ongoing relationship and where a business makes most of its profit. Getting customers is expensive, keep them and keep selling them more great value. 8. Do more of what works – Turn it up! You will have seen by now that I preach a system of marketing that uses multiple systems of marketing all working in concert to maximum effect: PR, PPC, SEO, article marketing, blogs, data catchment, social media, video and many more. You can start with a few key systems and trying a few others such as social media and video. Test and do analytics and monitor closely what results you get. Then drop what is not working and do more of what is. It’s that simple. Don’t keep on putting money in to systems that don’t work; too many people do. You can see the benefits of continually trying new ideas out. A lot of them will not work so stop them immediately as soon as you see that. If you find one that does work then do more of that. You probably know that most start-up companies lack marketing skills in their team. As someone once said; having a great product but bad marketing is like making love in the dark: you know what you are doing but no one else does. So you now have the key 7 Marketing Essentials For Startup Business. You will have seen how important testing is. You know that value first is the best way to build relationships. And you also know that is how I work. So if you need more exposure and clients, call or email me for help and advice; you know that I love giving value to people and if you like what I do for your business maybe you will become my customer for life. PS. October sees the launch of my Irresistible offer – see what it is at http://www.cr4l.com/special-offer.html Self Marketers should be using video more than anyone else - it is HUGELY powerful and FREE
Video On Your Website - the statistics...
Whichever way you look at it – Video is a powerful marketing tool. If you are not using video on your website you are missing out. Don't think that it costs money either; just watch my YouTube video to see how to make professional looking videos for NO money... Top Tips: 1. Use a short video clips to move fans from your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites, to your landing page. a. Make a short video clip with a clear call to action and incentivise their action 2. Plan a mini campaign with a theme – this can be ongoing. 3. Leverage your clips over several media a. First things first: upload your video to YouTube and optimize it with a URL (in the description), a great title and a clear call to action. Also, consider adding a video overlay that links to your landing page for extra traction. These are basically clickable banner ads. b. Share your video in a status update on Facebook with a clear call to action. Then you can push additional traffic to it using Promoted Posts (set these up right on your post) and Page Post Ads (which also appear in the right-hand column and can be targeted to non-fans too). c. Twitter is a platform we don’t associate strongly with video yet. So tweet your YouTube link (along with a link to your opt-in page) and stand out from the crowd! d. Adding YouTube videos to Pinterest is a great way to spark shares. Whenever someone comes across your pinned video, the PLAY button is featured over the image, so it stands apart from all of the static images around it. 4. Armed with a quarterly strategic plan and premium content (your video, your giveaway, plus all the indirect content that supports both), you can convert fans into quality leads and eventually, loyal customers. a. And you can continue to do so all year by focusing on new campaigns, themes and content, giving structure (and measurability) to your editorial calendar. I have just started a mini campaign with the theme of tips on making marketing videos work for your business. Each one will go with a blog post and I will add some short clips to Vine and Instagram for extra coverage. If you are not sure how to make a short video clip check out my YouTube Channel and this particular video. It shows how I make all my videos. Shot on HD with great looking lighting and background you might think that they cost a lot to make.... ...But take a look at this video where I reveal the secret of how I made all my videos with my iPhone and some free software I downloaded. YouTube Link: http://youtu.be/cgSkkSmh4aw Now it’s your turn... What’s one video tip that should be part of every “mini-campaign”? Share your experience in the comment box below.
Newspaper Advert or Magazine Advert – which is better for your business?
The question that many of our clients have been asking us is whether a magazine advert or a newspaper advert is better for their business? Well in most cases we say neither. Local businesses traditionally advertised in local papers and magazines - a lot still do. Perhaps for some tradesmen this still reaps rewards. But for most it is a waste of money. Magazines are expensive and what do you get? Newspapers are not much better. And do you know what people say when we ask why they advertise there? Top 2 answers: Because we always have done Because our competitors do Are they rational reasons for spending good money? Next we ask what returns these adverts provide. Top answer: We don't know At best it’s hard to track results and at worst they are not even trying to see what their return on investment is. They have a budget and they spend it on what they always have done and hope for the best. Again this is not good business practice. I am sure this is not how you run your marketing but I know from personal experience that when a paper rings up and makes an offer, discounted naturally, it is hard to say no; you decide to just give it a go. I used to until I discovered the systems and techniques that lead me to build Results Marketing. I started my first business in 1988. Since then I have learnt a lot. The biggest contributing factor to the success of a business is the marketing. That may be location in the high street, or it may be a clever advertising. More increasingly it is a complex strategy involving many different streams of marketing. These multiple streams all work together to create a continuous flow of new customers to your business. This is what Results Marketing is based on; a system of marketing systems all working together. I wrote an article in 2009 on the 7 streams of marketing. I said that modern businesses needed to have multiple streams all running at the same time in order to be effective. The Results Marketing Workbook now has around 25 different systems for generating business. Now not all of these will be effective for every business but I recommend choosing a few and starting there. One of the problems with traditional advertising is that the results and returns can be hard to track. That is why working with these systems is so effective. You get clear results and can see what is working and what is not. You do more of what works and stop the unproductive; replacing it with a different system. In the past an advert would bring unqualified prospects to your door. Modern marketing techniques and systems qualify the prospect and pre-sell them. That means you don’t waste time selling to people who don’t want to buy, but instead you can spend your time taking orders. Now more than ever people search online for what they want when they want it. That means that you need to have your business highly visible all the time. 40,000 people may read your newspaper advert but how many are ready to buy now? When people search online they are ready to buy now. So it is far better to be visible to them than to the newspaper readers and hope that one or two may be in need at that particular moment. So before you spend hundreds on an advert, try implementing some of the systems and techniques we use to get results. They are tried, tested and trackable. They include social media, local SEO, blogs and content marketing, PPC and many others. For a sneak preview of the system workbook visit http://www.cr4l.com/self-marketing-download.html If you want to get a steady stream of new clients and business, that is predisposed to buy from you, then you need Results Marketing. Home Local SEO – How to get up the listings for free
SEO – or Search Engine Optimisation, is key to the visibility of your website on the internet. Without it you will rank low in the searches and may never be found by potential customers. I have written a free report on local SEO and how to get your website up the rankings. The material is taken from the Results Marketing Workbook which I have developed with CR4L. This report is short and to the point. If you follow the steps in here you will boost your visibility to the public and search engines. People search online ahead of a purchase. Often people will find a product at one business and then search online to see if they can get a better deal or offer. At that point of searching the prospect is ready to buy; the perfect time to attract them to your offer. If you are not on the front page of Google searches it is unlikely that you will be found and considered. The front page of Google may seem a lofty target given the number of businesses out there but for any local independent business there is hope. Results Marketing is a system of marketing systems that is guaranteed to work and get results. This report is about one part of one of those systems: Local SEO. This is a powerful tool on its own so we suggest implementing right away… Read this report; take the steps that are suggested to move up the rankings. If you want guaranteed success in marketing get CR4L’s Results Marketing System for your business – see http://www.cr4l.com for details of how to get it on a free trial. How to Get Ahead of the Competition Independent businesses in general can play a smart game of marketing against big brands. No more so than local companies catering to a local audience. SEO for big business is expensive, time consuming, difficult to track results and can take a long time to have an effect. Most SEO companies will tell clients that they have to work for 6 months before any discernible results will appear. For a small business this is not a viable option. However there are ways to get fantastic results with little investment or time. AND you will see the effects in a lot less time. In 2010 Microsoft did a study that showed smartphone users are much more likely to convert from searches. This year a Nielsen study shows that 64% of Smartphone searches for restaurants converted inside of one hour. That is an amazing statistic. In the 80’s we had no mobile phones. Now there are 4 billion smartphones in the world and current estimates say that by 2016 there will be 8 billion smartphones in use globally. If we have a question we ask our smartphone. Everything from a pub quiz conundrum to where to stay, eat, shop or buy industrial cabling. How do you get your business to the top of the list in your area? Well one thing to consider is that chains mostly market the brand nationally and not so much the individual locations. So be sure and make your business known as the place to go in your town and your street. For example: people looking for Italian restaurants may get Jamie’s as top of the list. However if they search for Italian Restaurants in Bristol (or BS1) you have a great chance to beat Jamie’s to the top (if you are in Bristol). So be sure and use your location in your website. Post your address in the top margin and make sure it is easily found in the text of the site. Next make sure that your Meta Tags in each page have some location information… “Widgets in Birmingham” or “discount widgets in south Birmingham” Be Specific If you are in a niche market be sure and play that ace card. If you are in a large market then look for a niche that you can fit and market to that. It is far easier to market an Italian Restaurant than a Restaurant of no particular description. Pick 2 search terms that you want to lead to you. DO NOT go for more than 2 because that will dilute your efforts: Far better to be front page for 2 searches than on page 2 of 10. Once you pick them use them in the website SEO, in the body of text and the Meta Tags. If you don’t know how to do that ask us at CR4L, we will often help people via live Skype chats with live screen shots to help walk you through the process. If you have a webmaster that does all the web changes for you share this document with them. Get them to change the Meta Tags to include your 2 main targeted search terms. Do the first 2 steps in the report and considerably boost you website’s visibility. Use these together to move up the rankings and get your business seen by hot prospects. Add in bonus steps 3 and 4 to get way up the rankings. Note: You can pay for listings on these sites and the sites listed below. This will mean you will get back links to your website and thus boost your rating more then a standard link. However for most businesses this may not be a good idea. It costs around £20 a month per site and is not well targeted. When deciding if you should pay look at the traffic you are likely to get and monitor to make sure you get the results sites promise. I just paid to be on Yahoo and City.Visitor with premium listings (top of the page featured) in 2 geographical areas at a cost of £20 a month for both. If I get 100 clicks from each listing I will be paying 10p per visitor to my website. Anymore than 10p a click and I think I can do better elsewhere. However it does have the bonus of live links on very powerful websites so that makes it worthwhile. Step 1… Get Free Listings Citation sites play a huge part in your search engine visibility. To get a list of the top 11 free sites to get your business listed follow the link below and download a complete free report on Local SEO for small business. This is the first step. These 11 are not in order of importance so be sure and get a listing on all of the 11. It is easy to do but before you start use a Word document to write out your chosen search terms (2 only), some key words, a short description of your business and a longer description of your business. When you come to each site you will have to fill in similar forms to complete your listing. Just copy and paste from your prepared document and you will speed the process up considerably. In addition to the list of the top 11 free sites to get listed on, the free report also has a list of the top 50 citation sites in the UK. And it shows how to use these and other techniques to move your website and business up the search listings. If you want new customers you need to be seen when people are searching for an offer like yours. To be seen you need great visability. The first step is to get this free report and get your 11 free listings. Go to the home page of this website and fill in the form to get your Local SEO report with a list of free s Home Marketing should take the client right to the purchasing stage; there should be almost or no, need for a sales person – just an order taker.
This is the fundamental difference between someone who comes to your business to buy and someone who comes that you need to sell to. These days people research every purchase online before they even go in to a store or business. Clients can be, and often are, more informed than sales people. As Seth Godin says in his book “All Marketers are Liars” ; buyer beware “caveat emptor” is now “seller beware” as often the client is more informed about a product than the sales person. There is so much information about our products and services available on the web that it may be impossible to keep fully up to date. None more so than with cars: Clients come to dealers with printouts of web pages that have far more information than a sales person can hope to remember about every model in the range. This is actually a good thing because they should know just what they want so all the sales person has to do is match that and take the order. Then a good sales person may find a little cross or up-sell to add to the package if that suits the purchaser. What Story Does Your Marketing Tell About You? The internet lets people make informed decisions. They can find the best price through comparison websites and they can find the best service through review sites. Then they find their closest dealer with Google. Businesses can do the same for what they buy. Personally I don’t think that price is as important as service. I would rather pay more to stay in a hotel with a 5 star review than a similar one with only 2 stars. People like to be served and treated well, that has not changed with the web. So our message as marketers needs to do the job of selling. So that clients are primed and ready to order. You don’t want tire kickers you want order makers. This is where a coordinated effort is essential. Your webpage, all the articles online, the review sites and press statements should all tell the same story. Get Everyone “On Story” You need to decide what that story is and be sure it is the same across all media right down to the staff you have. Your staff need to know what the story is so that their actions can tell it too. It used to be about a company mission, and being “on mission”. Things have changed and I think it is more about being “on story”. If you decide you are the caring company and all your media says so, it’s no use having staff who are not on story. If you are the “technical” people then make sure everyone knows that so they harmonize with all your other efforts. I have seen cases where a receptionist who was not on story with the rest of the team put people off who had been ready to buy. This goes from the CEO all the way to the janitor and the guy who makes the coffee. This story is then told across all the social media, advertising, webpages, brochures and media that you produce. People need this to set you apart from the competition. There are very few companies who are alone in their niche. Social media allows us to tell our story to get our brand to stand out and convince people to buy before they walk through our door. This is our job as marketers: target, qualify and pre-sell. Get people hot for our offer so that the sales team just has to write the order up. Happy days You Are Not in Total Control We can’t control the story but we can shape it and lead it in directions. Social media and review sites give us the tools to do this. But remember people have preconceived ideas so the same message may be interpreted differently by individuals. People have frames that allow them to chunk data and make rationalisations. In this way they jump to conclusions after ready just a little of our story, or just from our logo or website. All the more reason to have all our messages working together to tell the same story. Stories sell and if people can identify with our story they will buy from us. The more they align themselves with our brand story the more loyal they will become. You can see this with brands that come out with new models that sell without promotion. Sometimes they will sell even with bad reviews. Its like going to see “Titanic” because you like Leonardo; you know its 3 hours long and probably overly sentimental rubbish — but you liked him in all his other movies so off you go. Marketing That Sells So You Don’t Have To At first websites used to have a lot “About Us” stuff on the landing page. Marketers thought that this was important. Now that is relegated to a back page and we focus on the client and about how they feel. How will this purchase make them feel? What will their life feel like after they own our product? Don’t focus on the product. The chances are that people can get something similar elsewhere cheaper. Focus on the story. If they buy from you they will be part of your story. What will that mean to them? Think how Nike can sell shoes made in Vietnam in some obscure factory and charge the price that they do. That is because you are putting on a story not just a shoe. People who wear Nike are the sort of people who “Just Do It”. If you are a person who identifies with that story you will buy their shoes above any other similar brand even at a much higher price. That is why people walk in to stores and ask for and buy Nike. They don’t need selling because the marketing already did that. When are you going to get new customers today?
As a small business owner it is easy to get caught up in the day to day running of your business. I know from owning restaurants that there is always something to do. I used to be busy from morning into the night. In fact, I was so busy that I didn’t have time to run the business properly. Sometimes you have to stand back from the day to day work and think about the big picture. The most important thing to a business is its customers. You need to focus some of your time each and every day on getting new ones. In the morning it is too easy to come in to work and open the emails and react to what we see; do these new important tasks. But I think it even more important to do the other tasks that we have to do, emails can wait. So I suggest that you put aside an hour of each morning solely for the purpose of getting new customers. This is marketing time… For many years now I have been an advocate of multiple streams of marketing: having a system of systems running in harmony. These might include your website and SEO, local SEO, blogging, article marketing, press releases, magazine adverts and features, newspaper adverts and features, cold calling, networking, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, mass mailing, events, shows, referral programs and many more. What I do as a consultant is set up and run these systems for businesses. Each business is different and needs its own system, however most have a lot in common and anyone can set up their own system. I heartily recommend this because once the system is set up you should be able to run it with an hour a day. So I suggest setting aside one hour of each morning specifically for getting new customers. This is vital for the future of your business. If you don’t have the time, get someone to do it for you. You may think that you don’t have the money to afford that but you can’t afford not to get new customers so ask yourself a few questions such as the ones below… What does it cost you to get a new customer? Up until now how much have you paid to get new customers? If you have run a newspaper advert what did it cost and how many new customers did you get from it. What other advertising or promotion have you done and what was the ROI? What is a customer worth to your business? Over the lifetime of a customer what are they worth to you? How much income and profit do they provide the business? Once you have a clear picture of that number you know that your business will be successful if in order to get new customers you spend less than they net you over time. Now, it may be wiser to calculate this with the profit in the first 6 months from each new customer; this depends on your business model and cashflow. So now you know what a new customer is worth. As long as you are paying less than that amount to get new customers you will be making money. How Many New Customers Do You Want? Some businesses only need a few others need many. To get a basic marketing/sales budget all you need to do is multiply the amount of profit from each customer by the number of customers you would like to get. So now you know that you can spend this amount to get that many customers and your business will grow and increase profits. But the trouble is, if you spend this on advertising or traditional marketing you do not know what results you will get. That is why experts are needed to build a marketing plan that best uses your budget to get the number of sales you need, or more. But now you have increased costs and still don’t know if it’s all going to work; it may seem like a bit of a gamble… Alex Joll takes the gamble out of the equation by getting paid on results and not big fees upfront. So if you are looking for more customers to grow your business get in touch through http://www.alexjoll.biz Home Local SEO – Restaurant Marketing in 2013
I used to be in the restaurant business and in 2009 I wrote an eBook on restaurant marketing. It was an overview with on and offline advice and systems: Now it’s time to get an update… Independent businesses in general can play a smart game of marketing against big brands. No more so than independent restaurants. SEO for big business is expensive, time consuming, difficult to track results and can take a long time to have an effect. Most SEO companies will tell clients that they have to work for 6 months before any discernible results will appear. For a small business this is not a viable option. However there are ways to get fantastic results with little investment or time. AND you will see the effects in a lot less time. In 2010 Microsoft did a study that showed smartphone users are much more likely to convert from searches. This year a Nielsen study shows that 64% of Smartphone searches for restaurants converted inside of one hour. That is an amazing statistic. In the 80’s we had no mobile phones. Now there are 4 billion smartphones in the world and current estimates say that by 2016 there will be 8 billion smartphones in use globally. If we have a question we ask our smartphone. Everything from a pub quiz conundrum to where to stay or eat. How do you get your restaurant to the top of the list in your area? Well one thing to consider is that restaurant chains mostly market the brand and not so much the locations. So be sure and make your restaurant known as the place to eat in your town and your street. People looking for Italian restaurants may get Jamie’s as top of the list. However if they search for Italian Restaurants in Bristol (or BS1) you have a great chance to beat Jamie’s to the top (if you are in Bristol). Step 1… Be sure and get a full listing with the following sites:
These reviews and citations don’t even need to have a link to your site in them (although that helps). A diner reviewing your restaurant would not include a link normally anyway. Google is very smart and can read citations and review counts. The more reviews the more chance of showing up on top. Remember that this is all for local searches so be sure and have your address, with post code, on every page of your website, clearly visible. Add a map (Google for example). Make it really easy to find your business. Be street specific in some of the text. “bijou Italian restaurant in Park Street, Bristol…” Now the icing on the cake… Since 2009 social media has changed dramatically. The latest 2 major changes are video on Instagram and Bing Search on Facebook. Both can work to your advantage. Bing on Facebook means that people don’t have to leave Facebook to look for your business. So be sure to have a good Facebook page for your restaurant. Share recipes and tips for cooking. Let people know about menu changes and updates and keep people engaged. If you can afford PPC then very specific search terms with Bing will be low cost and high converters. Adwords.Google.com has some search term tools to help. Be sure and include your location as much as you can (area, town or postcode). Next you add video to get to page 1… Why Video?
So how do you go about it? What medium do you use (I am assuming you don’t have the time to do them all) Vine, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube ???
Create and use a business YouTube account. Post longer videos here, perhaps a few minutes on how to cook recipes or other useful restaurant or cooking related facts. Try to brand these as much as possible. Include your physical address. Use Instagram and Facebook to engage people. Short clips of the perfect Cappuccino being made. What spaghetti Alfredo really should look like. Be imaginative, be fun and be engaging. Have a personality and let that come through in the videos. Then engage with your clients and encourage them to post video of their experience in your restaurant. Some businesses go as far as having branded social media booths but this is more for events and bigger restaurants. But you can do a lot to get your branding in photos and video. If you have a themed restaurant you can create a background for video or photos. Like the old Wild West photo places that still exist in tourist resorts (i.e. Troccadero Piccadilly) A final note… Have you ever noticed that more and more people go out for meals and spend half their time on their smartphones? Conversation sometimes takes place between diners via their phones. It is easy for some of us old-timers to get annoyed about this. However don’t get mad get engaged. Get your Instagram/ Facebook/Website QR code printed on your napkins. Have it stuck to the salt or the table or on the menu. Let people see it as they sit there and the chances are they will have a look. Then they may engage with you online and if you are lucky post a video of their lovely meal. Page 1 Google here you come. I have read a number of books on story selling. Not just selling to the person or public on an individual level but as a company or cooperation.
Seth Godin changed his book title from “All marketers are liars” to “All marketers are storytellers” – and I can see why. He has a great angle on the art of telling a good story in business: If you make it believable, even if it isn’t strictly true, people will believe your story… If they believe your story becomes true. In politics we are sold stories to sway our vote. “Story telling for financial advisors” is essential reading if you want to sell investments to the public. What better example of using this successfully than the master storyteller himself Warren Buffett. He illustrates his points with great stories so that everyone can understand complex ideas. So what will your story be? Perhaps it is better to ask “what would you like it to be?” What would you like people to think about your business, product or services? How would you like the story to be told forwards? If you can think of this you can start to create a story based on the now but with the idea of what the future will bring. In the case of a car stories are told of the feeling of ownership. If you have a Toyota Prius then you are telling everyone that you are a caring person who values the environment. Having a Ford Mustang Shelby you are telling the world a different story. In both those cases your views or behaviour may not completely match the statement but it is all part of the story you are telling others. If you would like to be like that and aspire to become more environmental or macho; then the car may be part of getting there. However if not it is just a lie that others will see through. This is the same for the story your business tells. Make it the truth, or what you would like the truth to be, or people will see through the story and you will do harm to your brand. For some great examples see Seth Godin’s book. One of my favourites is the wine glasses that we are told make the wine taste better. After testing they actually do; but only if we think that they do. If we are not told they have an effect there is no effect. It’s a self fulfilling story, and it works. The same goes for countless restaurants that enhance their average food with the pomp of great service and wonderful ambience. And the point is that story telling is a great way to get people to buy in and believe. It’s a way to enhance experience and value. It’s also a fantastic way to keep your customers and get new ones. Notar bene: If you are telling a bad story then this will also be told forwards, and perhaps more often. This also applies to restaurants; good food can be overshadowed by the poor service or dirty bathrooms. Be sure your whole business is “on story”. Consistency is key and to get that everyone needs to have their story straight. So it’s better to plan it in advance. Write it out and give all concerned a copy. Once you have a story to tell there are so many places to go out and tell it… I can hardly begin to list them. Your own business or industry will have specific publications and places. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are also key and the biggest way to tell everyone your story. Make sure your story leads your niche. If you are in an area (geographical or industrial) a story can pull you way ahead in local SEO – which I am a big advocate of. It’s also an excuse to talk to people, to engage and post on blogs and sites all over the web. |
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