Your Marketing Toolkit:Low-Cost/No Cost Business Tools That Will Make You More Money!
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Many small businesses and organizations find themselves seeking the right strategies to make their marketing efforts as effective as possible. But with so many different marketing activities that they could focus on, they often miss some of the important marketing concepts! In this workshop we will discuss Top Business Building Tools and Programs that can make your business most profitable and systematic for growth! Take a look as we look at some of the most common tools in today's market! We will compare and determine which sources are right for your business budget and rapid expansion. Our expert Sandra Flores will show you the system and help you with planning to achieve your next 30, 60 & 90 day goals!
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Your Marketing Toolkit:Low-Cost/No Cost Business Tools That Will Make You More Money!
- 1. We Coach The Pros Sandra Flores sandra@wecoachthepros.com facebook.com/wecoachthepros @wecoachthepros www.WeCoachThePros.com
- 6. 6
- 8. -Folders -Documents -Sheets -Slides Here are some of the benefits of using Google Drive:
- 9. 9 Here are some of the benefits using Google Calendar 1. Schedule a Date 2. Connect To Phone/Desktop 3. Set Reminders 4. Repeat Dates 5. Invite People-This puts on their calendar 6. Task List 7. Share Calendars/See Calendars
- 10. 10 Here are some benefits of using Google Analytics 1. It is completely free of charge 2. Able to find out how your visitors locate your website. 3. Able to identify which pages and links your visitors click the most. 5. Visitor segmentation. 6. Able to fine tune your website.
- 11. 11 Benefits of Using Google Voice: 1. Routing power 2. Screening power 3. Voicemail power 4. SMS power 5. Mid-call power
- 12. 1. Powerful Profiles in Your Inbox Contact history, live, mutual contacts, email history 2. See Who Opens and Clicks Your Email Email tracking, live notifications when opens or clicks on one of your emails. Know when,how many times, where,& from what device they opened your email. 3. Easily Schedule Emails for Later Email scheduling. Send reminders to yourself. Benefits Of Using Sidekick Extension:
- 13. Content management system (CMS) is a computer application that supports the collection of managing,publishing, editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as well as maintenance from a central interface. Digital content may take the form of text (such as electronic documents), multimedia (such as audio or video files), or any other file type that follows a content lifecycle requiring management. A contact manager is a software program that enables users to easily store and find contact information, such as names, addresses and telephone numbers. They are contact-centric databases that provide a fully integrated approach to tracking of all information and communication activities linked to contacts. V.S. WHATS THE DIFFRENCE?
- 14. “Our product is known for its ease-of-use. With AWeber, it’s pretty confusing to even choose a template. They ask questions like, ‘choose between a broadcast and a follow-up series,’ and it’s not easy to figure out what they mean.” “We have an award-winning customer support department, including extended phone hours seven days a week, because we know that as a [insert industry], you might be working outside of business hours. If you need marketing, design or technical help, a live person can help you. AWeber has some chat support, and only has phone support on weekdays.“ [If they bring up Autoresponder] “Our Autoresponder is designed for small businesses and nonprofits who want to automatically deliver personal, timely, and relevant messages to their customers. Unlike AWeber, our Autoresponder is built on an easy-to-use editing system so getting started is hassle-free.” “We have tons of free resources like webinars, educational content, our blog and local events to guide you, whatever your level of experience.” “We have online marketing tools that AWeber lacks, because we know it can take more than just an email to reach your customers and grow your business. We let you run offers through your Facebook page, send surveys, host online event registration and event promotions, create trackable coupons you can add right into your email campaign, and more.” • “Difficult to set up a trial” • “Difficult to choose templates and create and email” • “Limited phone support hours (weekday only)” • “No mobile app” Ease-of-Use Marketing Tools AWeber Product/ Offering Weaknesses Award- Winning Customer Support Autoresponder Resources Company Info/ Target Market Founded in 1998; 110 Employees, 120,000 customers. Provides many features for companies with huge lists. We are focused on the SMB/NP, so our product will always be designed to meet your needs. A Weber Product/ Offering Strengths *Date-based Autoresponder with unlimited sends *600+ mobile responsive email templates Pricing Comparison “Priced similarly to CTCT at each level” 0 - 500 501- 2,500 2,501- 5,000 5,001- 10,000 $19/mo $29/mo $49 mo $69/mo Return to TOC “It’s alwayswise to comparison hop. Here’show we’redifferent:” Updated12.15.14
- 15. “If you (or any of your clients) ever need a little help, there’s no one to talk to at MailChimp.For free accounts, they have an FAQ page you can search, and you can send them an email. They don’t promise to reply any sooner than 24 hours. For paid accounts (over 2000 contacts) there is chat support available. That is it! With CTCT,you and your clients get an award- winning customer service department. If you need marketing, design or technical help, a live person can help you.” “With MC, you can only send your email to one of your clients’ list at a time. We make segmenting easy. Send that email to as many lists as you like.” “We’ve been tested! We’ve been around longer and we actually have a larger customer base –we have more paying email marketing customers than anyone else serving small businesses.“ “We don’t make you or your clients subscribers opt in to your list twice – MailChimp does.” “We have tons of free resources like webinars, educational content, our blog and local events to guide you and your clients, whatever your level of experience.” “CTCT has online marketing tools that MailChimp lacks, because we know your clients need more than just an email to reach their customers and grow their business. We let you run offers through a Facebook page, send surveys, host online event registration and event promotions, create trackable coupons you can add right into their email campaign, and more.” • “Need to be tech- savvy to use” • “Double opt-in” • “Can only email one • “No chat or phone support unless you’re a paying customer.” • “No design services” • “Autoresponder not available for Marketing Tools MailChimp Product/ Offering Award- Winning Customer Support Resources Opt-In Once Email Multiple Clients at Once In Business Longest Pricing Comparison “Pay-as-you-go available,relevant tothose who have2000+ contacts and do not sendoften.” 2501-5000 $35/mo up to $50/mo 5001-10,000 $55/mo up to $75/mo MailChimp Product/ Offering Strengths -Free up to 2000 contacts -A/B testing -Clean, trendy design Current Marketing Focus Founded 2001;250 employees; private company. MailChimp creates its product for any size business to use, and in order to make money they need to get customers with large lists. Our focus is on the SMB/NP, so our product will alwaysbe designed to meet your needs. If trialer mentions 7 million users: They claim 7 mm,but they areaprivatecompany so they don’t have to provehow many of these usersareinactive. Sincethey provide afree service,many sign up for accounts and don’t useit. Free to 2000 contacts 2000-2500 $30/mo “It’s alwayswise to comparison shop. Here’show we’redifferent:” Weaknesses list at a time” free users” Return to TOC Updated12.15.14
- 16. “We have an award-winning customer support department, including extended phone hours seven days a week, because we know that as a [insert vertical], your client might be working outside of business hours. We’ve won 6 National Stevie Awards for Best Customer Service AND Sales department since 2012!iContact only has phone support on weekdays.“ “We have tons of free resources like webinars, educational content, our blog and local events to guide you and your clients, whatever your level of experience.” “We have online marketing tools that iContact lacks, because we know your clients need more than just an email to reach their customers and grow their business. We let you create offers through a Facebook page, send surveys, host online event registration and event promotions, and create trackable coupons you can add right into your clients’ email campaigns, and more.” • “No stock images available in image library” • “Social media product is just for scheduling posts, not a driver of business growth” • “Limited phone support” Marketing Tools iContact Product/ Offering Weaknesses Award- Winning Customer Support Resources Company Info/ Target Market Founded 2003; 167 employees; 55,000 customer; owned by Vocus. iContact’s parent company, Vocus, discontinued some of its SMB products (public relations software) in 2013. They create email products for large senders. We are focused on the SMB/NP, so our product will always be designed to meet your needs. iContact Product/Offering Strengths -Easy-to-use Email Marketing tool -Social-scheduling & posting options click segmenting Pricing Comparison “Priced similarly to CTCT at each level” 0 - 250 251- 500 501- 1000 1001- 2500 2501– 5000 5001– 10000 $10/mo $14/mo $19/mo $29/mo $47/mo $74/mo “It’s alwayswise to comparison shop. Here’show we’redifferent:” Updated12.15.14
- 17. “Vertical Response has a limited feature set that doesn’t compare to the Email Service Provider market leaders. The email editor lacks basic things like spell check and a SPAM content check. These are important features that Constant Contact has, that you and your clients don’t want to do without.” “Vertical Response has very few templates. We have 6x as many! And the 50 or so that they have are actually all pretty similar. We have a variety of layouts and styles, and industry-specific ones as well, so you can find the right template that works for your client as well as for the purpose of their email. We also have a team of marketing and design experts available to guide and help you create your clients’ emails or other marketing campaigns.” “We have an award-winning customer support department, including extended phone hours seven days a week, because we know that you might be working outside of ‘normal’ business hours. If you need marketing, design or technical help, a live person can help you. VR only has limited phone support, and it’s only on weekdays.” “Wehave tons of free resources like webinars, educational content, our blog and local events to guide you and your clients, whatever your level of experience.” “CTCT has online marketing tools that VR doesn’t have, because we know your clients’ need more than just an email to reach their customers and grow their business. We let you run offers through a Facebook page, send surveys, host online event registration and event promotions, create trackable coupons you can add right into their email campaign, and more.” “If a 0-10employee company: Vertical Response is focused on getting more mid-sized businesses with 50-100 employees. We’re exclusively focused on SMBs and NPs, so our product, our customer service, our design services and our educational content meet your needs.” • “Generally lacking in features compared to market leading Email Service Providers” • “Only about 50 templates, not industry-specific” • “No stock image library” • “No Autoresponder” • “Has Social Sharing, but no other mktg tools” • “Limited phone support Focusedon SMB & NP Many Features Award- Winning Customer Support Variety of Templates and Layouts Resources Online Marketing Tools Vertical Response Product/ Offering Company Info/ Target Market 100 employees;45,000 customers; owned by Deluxe. Acquired by Deluxe last year,which is acheckprinting company –sotheir focusis divided. We arefocusedon the SMB/NP,soour product will alwaysbe designed to meet your needs. They areafraction of our size. 13xas many SMBs/NPshave entrusted us with their marketing it. VerticalResponse Product/ Offering Strengths -Free up to 1000 contacts -Free for NPs -Automatic resizing of images -Responsive templates Pricing Comparison “ProPlan includes: connect up to6 FB orTwitteraccounts, dedicated contact person, delivery rate improvement review, template with logo.” Basic free free $22/mo $33/mo $55/mo Pro $16/mo $32/mo $48/mo $80/mo $120/mo 0 – 500 501–1000 1001–2500 2501– 4999 5000 – 9999 “It’s alwayswise to comparison shop. Here’show we’redifferent:” Weaknesses • “Templates all look the same” (weekday only) Return to TOC Updated12.15.14
- 18. © Constant Contact 2014 18 Grow with Constant Contact One Toolkit. One Login. All the marketing campaigns you need Together in one place . Offers & Promotions Events & Registrations Feedback & Surveys Newsletters & Announcements
- 19. 19 You are not marketing. If you’re not measuring,
- 28. © Constant Contact 2014 Social Media 101 The Basics of Social Media #ctctsocial @constantcontact
- 29. 29 marketing Types of events At its core, marketing is about eliciting a physical and measureable response
- 30. Pull registrations 30 Types of events What are campaigns? Push invitations
- 31. Facebook LinkedIn InstagramTwitter Pinterest Youtube WHERE ARE YOU TODAY?
- 32. 32 You are not alone of small businesses 54% of nonprofits 57% Source: Constant Contact Nonprofit Pulse Survey Source: Constant Contact Small Business Survey need help with social media marketing. need help with social media marketing.
- 33. 33 Concerns? I’ll never have millions of fans. Social media looks really interesting, BUT… I don’t know what to say on social media. Using new marketing tools sound great, BUT… I’ll never have a dedicated staff to do it right. Reading what’s being said sounds useful, BUT… I just don’t have the time to stay current. I hear about new tools and networks every day, BUT…
- 34. 34 Then vs. now Social media marketing for small businesses source: Constant Contact Small Businesses Then & Now study 10% 2008 % of small businesses using social media marketing
- 35. 35 Then vs. now Social media marketing for small businesses source: Constant Contact Small Businesses Then & Now study 87% 2013 % of small businesses using social media marketing
- 36. Why use social media? It influences decisions 55% Source: Fedelta share purchases on social networks 68% Source: MDG Advertising learn more about a charity if they see a friend posting about it 74% rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions Source: Fedelta
- 37. 37 Why use social media? Engagement is the new word of mouth
- 38. 38 Why use social media? ENTICE to stay in touch ENGAGE People Engagement drives SOCIAL VISIBILITY Provide a “Wow!” EXPERIENCE
- 39. Why use social media? | Top social networks | What do I say?| Get started today
- 40. 40 Top 5 social networks Facebook All Primary Audience Useful, interesting, informative content Looking For Sharing text, photos, videos and reaching a large audience Best For B2B, B2C, nonprofit Used By
- 41. 41 Top 5 social networks Linkedin Business Primary Audience Industry news, tips, solutions Looking For Sharing thought leadership Best For Mostly B2B Used By
- 42. 42 Top 5 social networks Twitter Young adults Primary Audience News, brand updates, trends Looking For Sharing news, and original and curated content Best For B2C, nonprofit Used By
- 43. 43 Top 5 social networks Pinterest Women, foodies, crafters Primary Audience Photos, videos, products, tips Looking For Sharing visual content for products, how-to, e-books Best For B2C Used By
- 44. 44 Top 5 social networks Instagram Young Adults Primary Audience Photos of People & Products Looking For Sharing visual content for products, adding links to website, blog Best For B2C Used By
- 45. 45 Top 5 social networks Google+ Men, students, software developers Primary Audience Links, photos, video, news, blog posts Looking For Increasing your searchability and expertise Best For B2B, B2C, nonprofit Used By
- 46. 46 Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Pinterest Instagram Google+ All Business Focused All Mostly Women Young Adults Mostly Men IT & Mktg Sharing, text, photos & links Sharing news, product info, testimonials Sharing text, news, photos & links “Pinning” photos, videos & images Photos of people & Products Sharing, text, photos & links Engage Increase Visibility Large Audience Thought leadership; Groups and Comments Retweets, Influencers & Reputation Building Sharing products, how-to/tips, e-books, Ideas Link to products or website, Likes & Comments Better SEO & Reputation Building
- 47. What do I say? What do I say? Get likes, shares, comments Entertain, invite conversation, ask questions, images & video 50% Be useful & informative Industry info, hints + tips, curate content 30% About your business Calls to action, not “buy now” 20%
- 48. Know What do I say? 50%-30%-20% Rule 1 What’s something you could share this week that’s entertaining and invites conversation (50%)? 2 What’s something you could share this week that’s about your industry, hints or tips, or is curated (30%)? 3 What’s something you could share this week about your business but is not about “buy now” (20%)?
- 49. © Constant Contact 2014 Grow Your Business with Email Marketing Simple Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses and Nonprofits
- 50. Marketing Engagement marketing new business ~90% Word of mouth ~10% New prospects New business 50 Keep your hands up if more than 75% is referrals/word of mouth-more than 90%? How many of you think 50% of your new business comes from referrals or word of mouth?
- 51. Marketing Engagement marketing ~9% Word of mouth ~1% New prospects ~90% Current customers 51
- 52. 52 2. How to set marketing goals Engage members, advocates, volunteers Increase donations, revenue Nurture leads and relationships Drive repeat business and word-of- mouth referrals Reach new customers, donors Marketing goals are general
- 53. 53 3. Campaigns that drive action The difference between... Email Email marketing and...
- 54. Email is hard to beat. 54 Why Lots of physical, measurable response Easy to brand with colors & logos Low cost with high ROI Connect with your audience Reaches people wherever they are (mobile) Drives business! How Announce your latest new products Send seasonal gift ideas Alert to upcoming events Offer coupons to VIPs Deliver tips to your new clients 3. Campaigns that drive action
- 55. A: Email More than half of all emails are opened on a mobile device Q: What is the #1 app on cell phones? 55 1. Marketing for today More people own a cell phone than own a toothbrush! Source: Litmus
- 56. 56 Avoid using too much text. 80% of users delete email that doesn’t look good on mobile. Source: Blue Hornet 3. Campaigns that drive action 5. Make it mobile
- 58. 58 3. Campaigns that drive action 3. When to send & post Social media • 3-5 times a week is plenty • Use automated tools to help Email • Monthly is most common • When are they likely to take the action you want?
- 59. • Set up “Welcome” & “Update” Emails • You can pre-schedule Email Campaigns • Create a Series using an Autoresponder • Use A Scheduling Tool for social engagement Automate What You Can 59 Make sure you listen and respond! 3 to 5 Times A Week, 20 mins at a time
- 60. 60 Start where you are And where your customers and relationships are. SAVE!
- 62. 62 Small business marketing is... Nurturing relationships. Delivering on your promise. Getting measurable results.
- 64. Make your appointment for your 30 minute marketing consultation before you leave today
- 65. 65 You can do this! Get a Copy Of Today’s Slides and stay connected by joining our community of valuable resources with Sandra’s expertise of quick action tips! Including E-books, coaching audios, weekly networking newsletters and much more! Text WECOACHTHEPROS To 22828 Then reply back with your email Text Or Scan
Editor's Notes
- My name is Julie Niehoff, I’m the Director of Education & Development at Constant Contact. I have been with Constant Contact since 2006, I am based in Austin, Texas and here is my contact information if you want to reach out following this session. Send me an email, find me on facebook or reach out on Twitter.
- We agreed earlier that every business has two things in common, sales and people and that for an organization to grow, one or both of these must grow. There are four factors that impact your sales growth.
- Let me take just a minute to explain what Constant Contact is for those in the room that may not be familiar. Constant Contact is a do-it-yourself online marketing system. You can use it to create and manage campaigns. The company is best known for their email marketing tools. It’s easy to create and send mass email, like newsletters or announcements and updates. You can run special promotions or offers, like a local deal using Constant Contact. You can build online surveys and create feedback forms for your website or for anything, really. And you can promote and manage your events using Constant Contact with registration tools, accepting payments, sending out invitations – all of it in one place. And it is all built on top of a really good contact database, so that you can load all of your contacts, your customers, stakeholders, volunteers, staff, your board – whatever lists you are keeping in various spreadsheets or in your Outlook or Yahoo folders can be loaded and organized easily in Constant Contact so that your people and your marketing campaigns are all together in one spot. Oh, and it’s costs most people between 20 - $75 a month to manage all of it. Raise your hand if you use Constant Contact for me. Those of you that want to know more about it, I encourage you to talk to the people with their hands raised. I do expect that you’ll hear we have really great support – all free, with coaching and everything. And with that, I’ll get on with the rest of our session. Thanks for indulging me.
- stock images will be purchased once approved
- Tony Robbins once said, "Let your prospect determine your presentation." This philosophy is logical and highly impactful, but the actual implementation of that presentation is a challenge. They don't know what to say.
- I want to give you a simple definition, or a framework, for what marketing really is. You already know, generally, what it is – but when I say the word marketing, I mean something very specific and it’s important that we are on the same page. My definition of marketing has three simple parts – you define an audience: a group of people that you want to target. You reach out to them with a message that is specific to that audience. And you seek to elicit a physical and measurable response. A click, a reply, a call, a purchase, a referral – these are all actions that represent a decision made by a human to react to your message. Keep this in mind as we discuss marketing and marketing campaigns and the ways to deliver the most effective campaigns. You’re doing these things because you want people – your customers, your clients, your donors or supporters – to DO SOMETHING. Our topic for today, the campaign type “Surveys and Feedback,” is absolutely about getting a response. [click to next slide]
- In the case of events, what you’re pushing out are invitations (and information about the event), and you’re hoping to pull in registrations. That’s the campaign!
- So, we all know that the world as we know it is changing. I want to get a sense of where you are with online marketing right now so let me just ask how many of you use [click to build] Facebook for business? How many are on Linked In? Twitter? Anyone tweeting right now? (remind them of your twitter handle) OK, hands down. Now [click to build] Who uses Pinterest? Instagram? YouTube? (do these one by one, if you have time you can ask people How they use instagram or pinterest ) [click to build] And how many have checked your email today? (all hands up) …. Anyone checking their email while I was speaking? (laughter) It’s fine, I completely understand. No worries. But it’s important to point out that many of you are on some of these channels. Some of you are on others. ALL of you are using email. Email remains the best way to reach people directly. We’re going to talk a lot about How to reach thru other channels like facebook and linked in and twitter today. But always remember that a At the core of all of it is the relationship you build with your clients, your customers, your followers and having their email address will help you manage and nurture that relationship in a big, big way. (additional notes - Email is hard to beat for real marketing value. And it’s very much a part of social media. Email is how you can monetize your social media activities. And it still has the highest delivery and response, much higher than social media. In addition to the actual email, there are a number of tools you can use to expand the reach of your emails and help you build your lists for the future.) [click to next slide]
- You are not the only one who needs help. We hear from people like you every day – small businesses and nonprofits who want to stand out from the pack, get more fans and followers, and spread the word about what they do on social media. Recent surveys we’ve done show that you are not alone in this [click to build] 54% of small businesses [click to build] and 57% of nonprofits say that they need help with social media marketing
- You probably have concerns about social media marketing. Many small businesses and nonprofit marketers think: [click to build] Social Media Marketing looks interesting, but… I will never have millions of fans …. [click to build] Using new, inbound marketing tools sound great, but… I don’t even know what I would talk about on social media…. [click to build] Paying close attention to what’s being said on social media sounds useful, but… I’ll never have a dedicated staff to do it right… [click to build] I hear about new networks everyday, but… I just don’t have the time to stay current
- Why is social media important for your business or nonprofit? It’s impacted businesses and nonprofits in a big way. It’s how you’re finding new customers or members, and how you’re staying top of mind for your current ones and making them loyal, repeat customers. Five years ago, in 2008, we asked small businesses what kinds of tools they were using for marketing. [click to build] Only 10% were using social media marketing. [click to next slide]
- Five years later – 2013 – that has gone up to 87%. Why? Because social media works. You’re small businesses – you don’t do things that don’t work. That’s quite a statistic, and shows just how integral social media has become as a marketing tool for all organizations.
- The social media impact on your business or organization is huge. It drives people to your door. [click to build] It influences purchasing – 74% of shoppers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. Social media has made it easier for people to buy from you. 2 out of 10 Facebook users have made a purchase by clicking on ads or comments [click to build] They tell your friends about you – 55% of people share information about their purchases on social media. [click to build] It influences people’s connections to nonprofits – 68% of people will go online and learn more about the charities and causes that their friends support when their friends post about it on social media. Purchasing stats: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-commerce_b46141 68% take the time to learn more about a charity if they see a friend posting about it http://mashable.com/2012/12/12/non-profits-social-media-infographic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 Consider how to add… Those referrals are very important to your business: 71% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product based on social media referrals. Every day, people are going online to review or recommend the businesses and nonprofits that they support, and people in their networks trust those referrals because they know the people who write them, or – if they don’t – they trust unbiased reviews from people just like them. Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30239/71-More-Likely-to-Purchase-Based-on-Social-Media-Referrals-Infographic.aspx
- And this influence happens on social media because of audience engagement. We used to tell people things over the back fence, [click to build] now we tell everyone – our family, our friends, our colleagues, our clients, even our BFFs– through social media channels. It’s less about spending all of your time/money and energy finding new customers and more about fully engaging your existing happy customers and making it easy for them to tell others. The changes have leveled the playing field for smaller organizations like yours to compete with the big boys. The point we’re making is that social media is the new word of mouth. Social media helps to kickstart that word-of-mouth marketing. Because your messages have the chance to be amplified and shared, social media marketing will bring you new customers (and donors, supporters and volunteers if you’re a nonprofit, repeat business from your current customers, and referrals from your happy customers. Is this starting to make sense – why social media is important? It’s a part of your entire business. Social media, the social visibility that it gives you, and how your business and customers engage with each other make up what we call the engagement marketing cycle. Let’s look at the engagement marketing cycle, and talk about how social media and engagement work together in the day to day life of your business.
- We’ve been talking about who’s using social media and how it drives behavior. Now let’s think about the experience you provide through your interactions with customers or supporters and where social media fits in. [click to build] If you want social media to work for you, you have to create a WOW experience. Think about all the ways you interact with your customers or supporters. What’s something you can do for them that’s valuable? It doesn’t have to be anything huge an expensive. A WOW experience could be something small and meaningful like For example, the way you process a credit card – could be normal. But the way you wrap the purchase could be the WOW! Another very simple way to rise above the ordinary could be in the way you greet them at the door. If you work with other businesses, consider how you present proposals or project updates – are you thinking about the perception of you as a professional that you leave when you invest the time and care into the report’s presentation. If you’re a nonprofit, the WOW could be the way you show supporters how you carry out your mission by using photos to illustrate that story. Again, you don’t need to go to the extremes or way over the top. You do, however, need to help your business think about the spots where you’re going to do something that really creates a connection…that’s what it’s about…creating a connection. What those connections do is open a window of opportunity, an opportunity to ask them to stay connected with you, which brings us to the next step in the cycle… The reason you want to create a WOW opportunity is to get their attention, create a connection, and then ask them to stay in touch with you. [click to build] Leverage that WOW moment – ask them to connect with you (like you on Facebook) because they know that you’ll then engage them with content and other items of value to them. [click to build] Then engage with them online.! [click to build] As they interact with you, social media allows that engagement to be visible online – it’s seen by their networks and that helps to introduce you to a whole group of new people, who will become your next customers or supporters. That’s called social visibility, and really shows the power of social media. What I want you to take away from this – the engagement marketing cycle – is that social visibility – enhanced by technology – enables you to connect with your customers, get leads or grow supporters. Create that WOW experience – make the connection – encourage your customers or supporters to continue that experience with you by following you on social media, and then keep that cycle going.
- Now that we’ve laid out why you should be considering social media as part of your marketing mix, let’s jump into a reveal of the top 5 social networks.
- Let’s get started with the big one, Facebook. It’s the most popular of the networks, with 1.1 billion users. [click to build] It spans all age groups, class and geography. [click to build] It’s the place where people go to find out what their friends and family are doing, and it’s a primary source of news and information for many – but Facebook is also where people look for interesting and useful content. [click to build] What do people share on Facebook? Just about everything. It’s as simple as a status update with a sentence or two. But many people and businesses also share multimedia – photos and video – and links to helpful information from their blog or from other blogs or websites. Facebook is the best place to go if you want to share engaging content that your Facebook fans interact with and respond to. And it’s the best of the social networks to use if you want reach a large audience because of its population. [click to build] Just about all types of businesses – business to consumer and business to business use Facebook, as well as nonprofits.
- Next we’ll discuss LinkedIn, which has 225 million users, and Primary Audience: has more of a business focus. It started as a network where people could post their resumes and search for jobs – and you can still do that Looking For: it’s become a great source of industry news. Your business or nonprofit can create a LinkedIn page. Share news – either about your organization or other happenings in your industry – or your blog posts, and talk about product information. Share testimonials from satisfied customers. Best for: LinkedIn is the best place to demonstrate your thought leadership as an expert in your industry. Used by: LinkedIn is primarily used by business to business – but B2C and nonprofits do use it in their marketing as well.
- Twitter is a feed of real-time updates and conversations. It has 228 million users. Primary Audience: A majority of them are young adults from late teens through 40s but you will find a bit of everyone on Twitter. In fact, Twitter’s fastest growing age demographic is 55 to 64 year olds, registering an increase in active users of 79%. Looking For: People join Twitter to find out the latest news and information, posts from brands and businesses, and to discover trends. You might know that Twitter has a 140-character limit – that’s all you’re allowed to use in a Twitter post, also known as a tweet. Best for: What do people share on Twitter? Links to news and tips, just plain text updates or comments, and links to information like blog posts or multimedia – photos and video they’ve created. Twitter is another great place to develop thought leadership. You can gain a following by sharing value – your original content and helpful content from others. Used by: Twitter has become a popular tool for B2C and nonprofits, but some B2Bs are starting to explore it too. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook – those are the more established social media networks. They’ve been around for a while, and even if you haven’t used them, you’ve probably heard of them. Let’s now take a look at the 2 newer kids on the block – Pinterest and Google+.
- Pinterest Pinterest – which has 48 million users – is a social channel that relies heavily on visuals. Pinterest users create boards – think of bulletin boards – and pin images of things they like to them. Those images can link to anything – a recipe, a how-to video, or a product that you can purchase online – and they can take many forms of multimedia.Who’s using Pinterest? Women make up the majority – it’s a great tool for foodies to find recipes, and crafters to organize and display projects or provide links to their products on Etsy. Pinterest users pin photos, video and graphics of the things they’re interested in – not just products but tips and useful information. Pinterest is a great way for you to share products, how-to information or tips, and digital assets like e-books. Link those images to your website – make it easy for people to buy from you as soon as they see something they like on Pinterest. A lot of people are now using Pinterest as a way to discover or research things they want to buy – 21% of Pinterest users have purchased something they saw on Used by: There are a lot of B2C – business to customer there – because Pinterest has been a successful way to promote products. But anyone can use Pinterest if they have great visual content they want to share.
- Instagram is an app used on mobile devices. It is accessible for viewing on a desktop but it’s mostly mobile. It is all pictures. Users can add a link to a website or to a specific product with their photo but Intstagram is Mostly known for it’s filters that allow users to enhance their photos for beauty or effect. Example – black and white or sketch pencils Instagram is owned by Facebook. And it is where all the teens that were on Facebook have fled now that we are all there. It’s good for placing PEOPLE into the discussion of your products or services, use it to post pictures of people using or interacting with your brand/products/team. It’s mostly consumers and less about B2B. People can “like” your photo and hashtags do carryover between instagram, facebook as they do on twitter.
- Google+ has 359 million users – most of them are men, and its 2 biggest user groups are college students and software developers, but its audience is growing to include other groups as well. It’s similar to Facebook. You can share text updates, multimedia, and links to your content or content created by others – and that’s what users are looking for on Google+. The reason to think about Google+ is the fact that Google loves Google. Having a page on Google+ gives you a leg up on your competitors who aren’t there. When someone searches on Google, it’s going to look at its own resources first, so having a presence on Google+ can help you get to the top of a Google search. So take that thought leadership – your original content – and make sure to share it through Google+ to establish yourself as an expert. Businesses are still figuring out how to leverage Google+ - there’s not a dominant area yet; B2B, B2C and nonprofits have all jumped in. If you’re looking for even more information on the networks, we’ll cover that in the second session in this series, You’re Social, Now What? Making Social Media Work for You. Stats sources: Google + - men and students http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-stats-2012_b30651 Google + - students and software developers http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-revolution_b30974
- To recap – here’s a chart of the social networks we just talked about. Again – this is a brief overview. You’ll get this chart when you receive today’s worksheet/slides – later on, sit down with this chart and think about where you think your business or nonprofit could start on social media.
- Fortunately, we have a rule of thumb at Constant Contact that will help you come up with the right things to talk about on social media: [click to build] 50% of the content you post should be aimed at getting likes, shares, and comments. This means that it needs to be entertaining and invite conversation. Asking questions, asking for opinions, using images and video, as well as being timely (is there an event or holiday coming up?) [click to build] 30% of your content should be useful/informative. Provide information about your industry that your customers will find interesting. Become known as a source of important information and tips---whether that content is from your own blog or from other blogs you trust. [click to build] If you do that stuff correctly, then you’ve earned the right for 20% of your content to be direct CTAs for your business. This doesn’t necessarily have to be BUY NOW! I want to show you some examples of how Constant Contact has used the 50-30-20 rule – and – by the way – just to keep it simple, all of the examples I’m using today are from Facebook.
- Whenever you’re trying to think about building new content, I want you to do this exercise that will help you with your creation process. I’ll pause here to walk you through it: think about the 50-30-20 rule.[click to build] What’s something you could post for your small business or nonprofit that will get you likes, shares or comments? Is it a fill-in-the-blank post? It could be about your industry. Remember the one that Constant Contact did: I am thankful for ____ as a small business owner. If you’re in a retail business, think about something like When I’m buying a new pair of shoes, they need to be ____ - people could say comfortable, match my clothing, appropriate for work, etc. If you’re a nonprofit, try something about volunteerism: The best thing about volunteering for the United Way is ____.It could also be about something you and your followers are experiencing right now. If it’s a heat wave in the summer, ask them to fill in the blank about how they’re keeping cool. If it’s seasonal, ask them what they like best about the fall.[click to build] Now think about something you could share with your followers that’s useful or informative. One of our examples was a statistic – shoppers spent $5.5 billion at small businesses on Small Business Saturday. Find interesting facts or statistics about your organization or your industry. If you’re a nonprofit – think locally; how many hours have people volunteered this month? [click to build] Finally, think about something you can post that’s directly about your business. Do you have a new product? Are you holding an event? What’s new and different today? What’s something important that’s coming up? Tell your followers they’re the first to know.
- [SPEAKER INSTRUCTIONS: Welcome your audience, thank those that are hosting and let people know about how long your session will be. If you plan to take a break halfway through (suggested for a two hour session) then let them know that as well.]
- Another show of hands – how many of you think 50% of your new business comes from referrals or word of mouth? Keep your hands up if more than 75% is referrals/word of mouth…more than 90%? What we hear from the businesses we talk to is that in a lot of cases as much as [click to build] 90% of their new business comes from Word of Mouth referrals. Which means that [click to build] approximately 10% of their new business comes from brand new prospects. Let’s put this back in the context of your overall efforts. [click to next slide]
- For those keeping track, that means that of the total pie we started with [click to build], 90% is focused on current customers, about [click to build] 9% is focused on those word of mouth referrals and only [click to build] 1% of business is coming from brand new prospects. I also suspect, that if we charted the time, effort and money you spend on those groups, that we’d find that the majority of your focus is on that small group of brand new prospects. Does that seem out of balance to anyone else? What we’re going to talk about today, a solution to that imbalance, will get you focused on the 99%. [click to next slide]
- With all of your pushing and pulling to run campaigns, it’s important to have an idea of your goals. Here, we are looking at some general goals. General goals for your marketing are something that we all have [click to build], and they are fairly standard across the board for all businesses or nonprofit organizations because you’re in business to do something, and at the highest level that’s what these are. Another way to think about these is that they are the “30,000 foot view” of marketing…very much part of your marketing strategy. But what we’re here to do today is come down a bit, and get more specific. [click to next slide]
- To clarify, there is a difference between a regular email from your outlook or gmail/yahoo account And an email service provider, like a Constant Contact. - looks better - gets through the servers - has opt out tools - tracks everything.
- Email is hard to beat for real marketing value. And it’s very much a part of social media. Email is how you can monetize your social media activities. 64% of American adults own a smartphone And it still has the highest delivery and response, much higher than social media. In addition to the actual email, there are a number of tools you can use to expand the reach of your emails and help you build your lists for the future. [click to next slide] http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-1322200-carpentry.php?st=6ca4679
- OK, trivia time. Question: What do you think is the #1 app on cell phones? Let people answer…. The answer is EMAIL. Let’s talk for a minute about the importance of mobile on email. Like I said on the last slide, 64% of adults (AND GROWING) own smartphones and as a result, more than 51% of emails are opened on a mobile device. In some countries, mobile internet usage is even out-pacing desktop internet usage, actually. [click to build] 51% of emails are now opened on mobile (Litmus, January 2014) https://litmus.com/blog/email-client-market-share-where-people-opened-in-2013/litmus-email-client-market-share-2013-infographic And 52% of mobile owners send or receive email with their device (Pew Internet & American Life Project) http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/09/19/cell-phone-activities-2013/ So what does this mean for you? Many people are reading their messages – which include your emails – on a tiny screen.
- We talked earlier about how mobile has become prevalent in the world around us, …now we want to show you 5 tips for what you can do today to start taking advantage of mobile for the holiday season. Tip #1: avoid using too much text Think about it – do you want to read long and complex messages on your phone? When you’re on the go? No. Which means neither do your customers or supporters. Do you want to read a message like the one here? [click to build] Probably not… What you want is to see something more like [click to build] this…the result of some basic considerations as you build your message: Start to re-think your content. Long-form content (think newsletters that have more than a couple of short, to-the-point paragraphs) doesn’t work for mobile readers. So look at the content you’re building and start to re-think it: could it be condensed? Can a picture tell the story better? Can you turn one newsletter into a series by cutting it into pieces? If you have longer, or more complex content or assets you want to share (like a product guide, or new regulations for your clients or a research report that supporters of your non-profit would be interested in), send an email with a clear call-to-action that directs people to where that asset lives (on your website, blog, etc. [click to next slide]
- ***THIS SLIDE IS OPTIONAL*** Quick note while I have your attention. [CLICK TWICE TO SHOW BOTH STATS… allow the audience to take it in] Obviously a lot of people have cell phones. Most of you have them here with you. We cannot forget that it is important for your emails and social media posts – all of the campaigns you send thru any channel – need to look good and function properly on a mobile device. A cell phone or a tablet. [CLICK] This stat is always growing but at last check, it was at more than 50% of email currently is opened on a mobile device. Let’s try and remember that as we talk today. The big message here –[CLICK] Less Is More.
- When to send is another very common question. Both for how often to send and also when in terms of the time of day and the day of the week. For social media, we recommend a baseline frequency of at least 3-5 times a weekly. It’s what they used to tell us for exercise. There are tools and guidelines for what times have the highest traffic and most response but it really depends on your industry, your audience and what you are trying to get them to do. For email marketing frequency, monthly is the most common but it’s also a good idea to add unexpected messages every once in a while [click to build through the steps for testing]
- stock images will be purchased once approved
- Start where you are. This is not something that you have to do all at once. Start with email and maybe one social media site… Next, you might think about [click to build] adding another social network (like Twitter). Then, maybe you add [click to build] a blog and start offering deals and promotions. Next you could think about [click to build] how your communications and marketing work across multiple platforms (mobile, tablets, desktop, etc.). You could add [click to build] events to your marketing mix (they work for all sorts of businesses), and finally you could build [click to build] even more of a social presence. But start small, start where you are, and build in a way that makes sense for your business.
- RELATIONSHIPS. delivering on the promise you make when someone engages with you measurable results: show a screenshot of a results report… This will be the segue point to the next section…because if you’re focused on measurable results, the place to start is with goals and objectives…
- So, what's next?
- Introduce yourself and give them a clear understanding that you are there on behalf of Constant Contact.
- You CAN do this. There are tools out there to make it easier, like Constant Contact, and we are going to go over some simple ways to help you use less time, money and energy running your marketing.