Tag: Customers

#EducationMatters – Educate Your Clients on All Your Services

Are you educating your clients on all of your services? You can’t assume a person will know everything your company offers based on a quick description on your social media pages (if they even read that). You also shouldn’t assume your clients know everything about you. It’s just not realistic.
Don’t rush out and flood your mailing list and social media platforms with a flood of updates, or one long unending message about what you do. That will likely frustrate your clients and make your reputation suffer. So how do you educate your clients without being spammy about it?
Here are some suggestions that will help you educate your clients AND get them intrigued about your services. You don’t have to do all of them, but consider one or two.
  • Update your site. Consolidate all your services into one informative page. Make sure it’s easy to read and understand. Break down each service into a three sentence (or less) description. ProTip: It’s also a good idea to develop a FAQ that covers common regular questions and any you receive about services. If you have one, make sure you link the FAQ on this information page.
  • Each service you provide should have a more detailed explanation. Whether you do this by individual web pages or as expanded tabs on your information page is completely up to you, but it needs to be there.
  • Create a blog postabout your services. Be informative, and explain how you help the client with each service. It can be as detailed as you like, but you can easily keep it as brief as the site update suggestion from above. Then, post your blog post link on all your social media sites. Make sure your title is eye-catching and the first three sentences are intriguing. Future questions can be directed at either this blog post or the information page you make.
  • Do you have two or more services that are normally purchased together? If so, why not combine them into a package that clients can purchase at a discount? This promotion can also be a great way to mention other services you provide. This one is excellent for mailing lists, by the way.
  • Choose a day of the week to inform your clients on all social media accounts about your business. Then, select one aspect of your business and talk about that. It helps to have an image to go with your post. That image should be easy to read and understand. One of my clients uses a definition image where they list a service they provide and then write out that two to three sentence description. Make the background eye catching. You should know that white text with a black outline can go on any background, so you should use that for consistency and viewing ease from mobile devices.
These are just some ways to inform your clients of your services. One thing to keep in mind: your audience for Twitter isn’t the same as Facebook. Nor is your mailing list the same as your Instagram. Expect that your clients aren’t all aware of the same information. Repurpose your content instead of setting up an information page on one social media site (like Facebook) and using that link to give your clients information.
One other thing, and this is important. Don’t just share your own stuff. Talk about other things, places, events, ideas, and more. If you are constantly trying to sell your services, you’ll come off looking cheap and shady. To #BeAwesome in social media you will need to take into consideration the type of content your audience wants and provide that regularly.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

5 Tips on Social Media Marketing

Managing online marketing can be rewarding and provide an increase of financial activity with your business, in addition to increase of communication to your customers and potential customers.

Many statistics have been published about activity of online users. One of the best videos about the potential curve I have found is listed in a previous post:
“Social Media Revolution 2011”

With enhancements in technology, your customers are utilizing the “cloud” through online applications such as Google, eBay, CraigsList, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Applications can be run on a standard computer, smart phone, tablet and the like. With so much access to social information, the last thing you want is to assume your static website is driving business your way. There are many things that need to be done to enhance an active visibility to your customers, but starting with these 5 steps, you will be well on your way to establishing a solid business practice to online marketing.

1. Develop effective SEO

SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Simply put – the things your potential customers type into a search engine to find what they are looking for. These are specific keywords that drive traffic to your website and social pages. Your keywords need to be embedded into the code of your web page so people can find you.

► Come up with a list of 50+ important words that pertain to your business. Type in words you would assume your company should be found under and start there. As you receive contact from new customers, ask them the words they typed in and specifically find out what search engines they used to find you. This will help in developing the right set of words for your code.

► Search out your competitors websites. Determine the words they are using and be sure to include those in your keyword results as well. (View, Source in most browsers works well if the code isn’t hidden from viewers)

2. Find out where your customers play

It doesn’t make sense to develop social profiles on sites that none of your customers use. It also doesn’t make sense for you to create 50+ pages of social sites if you only have the bandwidth to manage a few profiles.

► Pick your top 3 sites – most businesses who market through social media build profiles on Facebook Pages, Twitter and LinkedIn.

► Incorporate a blog into your social efforts to increase visibility and character behind your knowledge

► Ask your customers which sites they frequent and the best way they would like to be communicated with. Some may say they like email, others may frequent Twitter Timeline, LinkedIn or Facebook Status. You will be surprised to find out how many customers read Blog RSS feeds each day on their phones or imported into their Outlook RSS Readers.

► Ask your customers what kind of content they may be interested in receiving. Some may want to hear about promotions as you have them, while others may be interested in reading in industry related articles you recommend, charities you are involved in, events you are attending or educational information about your product or services.

3. Make your brand an extension of your website

It is unappealing and confusing to your audience if your brand doesn’t match the look and feel of your website. Be consistent with use of logos, colors, content and choice of language in your posts.

4. Consistent Content is Key

We teach our clients that it is bad to have too much activity on your social profile, but not having enough is just as challenging. It is better to have an active stream of content than none at all. Think about your audience and tailor your activity to their needs. If you post something every day, that may be too much for your viewers. Try on a few different communication schedules and determine what is best. Here is a schedule that would be good to try on for these specific types of profiles:

LinkedIn – Posting more than once a day can become overwhelming and distracting to your viewers

Twitter – More than 1 post a day is appropriate pending that the same information isn’t shared more than once.

Facebook – consider a rotating schedule: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday. Posting more than 2-3 times a week can be overwhelming for your viewers.

Blog – Once a week to once a month is appropriate communication. Change the topics and provide active information – but be sure not to just “sell” your products and services on each post. Blogs are education and information tools that should be used for that purpose. (include back links and labels in each of your posts to drive traffic to your website & other social pages).

A good rule of thumb – For every 1 “business” post you should have 2-3 non “product” related posts. Examples could be reference to other articles, blogs or videos that explain a topic that you agree with, sharing in events or industry related news.

5. Use Applications and Tools Wisely

There are many applications that can be used on your social profiles to enhance your visitors experience.

There are also wonderful tools of the trade to allow for flexibility in scheduling your content / status posts on a continual basis. For LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, posts can be scheduled in advance via these popular tools. Become familiar with them & choose the one that works best for you.

HootsuiteTweetDeck

Social Media Marketing is fun and rewarding. Be realistic with your goals and don’t sell your self short. It takes time to build a following, maintain activity with your brand and build social relationships with your customers and viewers online. Be creative, have fun and don’t get left behind!

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a social media manager, trainer and author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , Pinterest and the tools to manage them. Click here for her Social Media Links

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Social Media: The Challenge, the Reward, the Victory!

When considering branding & building of social media presence, the thoughts behind it can be daunting for business owners. After talking with multiple businesses over the last few months about the best social media solutions for them, the theme remains the same. Business owners want a presence, the edge of this type of retention for their customers, but don’t know the first place to begin.

The Challenge is taking the plunge in developing a full social media profile, managing, maintaining it and building your corporate character presence.

The Reward is retention for your customers, industry recognition, the opportunity for online prospecting, growth and a solid network of followers interested in what your company has to offer.

The Victory is an industry edge, your visibility will increase far beyond your competitors, successful growth, a network awareness of your brand and services.

The question we ask, are you willing to make a plan, stick to it and watch it bear fruit for your company? Paper marketing is becoming less of a standard and a thing of the past. The possibilities are endless and having “just” a website isn’t enough to get your name out there any longer. What costs are you willing to sacrifice in order to retain relationships with your customers, agents, partners and vendors? Consider the time you have, experience in the social media industry and the bandwidth to maintain your presence successfully.

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Find Your Customers On Social Media

 

So let’s take time to build our profiles on all of the popular Social Media sites & then find our customers? Hmmmm, this actually isn’t the way it should be.

 

 

Let me ask you the following questions & you let me know if you agree with the answers?

• Should your customer have to build a profile on a site where they have no common interest? No.

• Should you take time to build your profile on a site that your customers don’t exist – just because it is popular? No.

• Should you find your customers first, then develop your profile on those particular sites? Yes.

 

This post is straight forward. The purpose of networking online is to connect with others of like business, like interest & like industry.

Don’t waste your time doing something that isn’t worth doing because you will be harder to find & connect to.


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