We built a new channel for The Consulting Bench.
Also added new videos to Anchor Advisors
Great, they found you online. What next?
September 5th, 2010
Mark Goodman
Congratulations. A searcher found your company online.
It’s what you do with the searcher, once they find you, that counts!
I was having a discussion with a business thought leader last week. She remarked that a business person can choose the e-Conversation Solution of search optimized video (SOV) solution rather than pay per click (PPC). While SOV works very well when coordinated with SEO (multiple use of both content and questions), using it as an alternative to pay per click was intriguing. She noted that either pay per click or using video to get on page one achieves the same result.
But, as a second derivative, I pointed out to her, is that once you are found, it’s what you present that counts. With SOV, you have an opportunity to immediately present your company as an expert. A trusted source. A targeted video both provides information and conveys trust. It differentiates you from the competition, and suggests additional content.
SOV says “how can I help you?” and “Here is a way to solve your problem”. Pay per click says “buy from me”. If you are selling commodities, “buy from me” might work. But, if you are working to establish a long term relationship in today’s world, the best first step is answering a question and solving a problem.
Consider this video, from manufacturing expert Paul Heinze:
So, once a searcher has found Paul, he provides a helpful answer to a question that potential clients must be asking. He doesn’t sell. As a result, he becomes an expert and someone that prospects want to do business with, instead of just another person selling services.
Mark Goodman on Blog Talk Radio
April 22nd, 2010
Check out Mark’s interview with Jason Sander’s on the Get More Business Show.
Mark discusses business plans, but touches on what makes e-Conversation unique, and comes on at 6:30.
Interview with e-Conversation CEO Mark Goodman on Gaebler
April 12th, 2010
e-Conversation CEO Mark Goodman was recently interviewed on Gaebler.com, one of the web’s most popular destinations for entrepreneurs. Be sure to check out the full interview here.
SCORE Chicago Featured in D&B All Business Blog
April 7th, 2010
SCORE Chicago’s social media program, which is designed and managed by e-Conversation CEO Mark Goodman, was featured in the D&B All Business Blog, as an organization that is “Doing Things Right” in sales.
Check out TJ McCue’s article below:
I’ve not seen a lot of social media work from SCORE, the well known small business advisor program. When I received this info from SCORE Chicago, I was impressed. I asked for online sales success and they showed me how they are using Twitter, YouTube, and other tools to drive new traffic and awareness for the Chicago office.
They actually look at their customer/prospect touch program as continual programming. They have built a mailing list of both “in business” and “going into business” individuals. In addition, they have actively built a community of collaborators to get our resources visible. This can be super helpful to getting the word out.
In social media, their content creation begins with a live 25 minute cable access show that they do in collaboration with CAN TV. The interview questions are designed as answer bits and can be reused in several venues.
After the show is aired, it is posted up on BLIP.TV. Then they cut the show into segments, which is a great approach, so that it is easily consumable by people who are busy and don’t have a lot of time. Hats off there. The answer bits address specific issues that are of interest to small business, which are posted on their YouTube Channel. This channel is one of the larger small business channels in the world. I really liked this part: The links to the segments are also made available to various partners within the community for email marketing or embedding in their environments. That’s huge. I love that idea.
Of course, they maintain a blog. Links to video are added to emails that notify clients of upcoming workshops. Adding a link to an email, significantly improves click through. Various members of the Chicago community use the content to tweet and retweet.
The results: They shared that both client visits and workshop attendance is up significantly over last year. Although it was not in the original plan, they get over a thousand views each month from outside the Chicago area, and around the world. In a 3 month period, all 50 states and over 82 countries were reached.
I’d say they are doing online sales right.
Latest from Mark Goodman on Crain’s
April 1st, 2010
Check out the latest from e-Conversation CEO Mark Goodman on Crain Chicago’s new feature, “SCORE Video”:
Mark Goodman on First Business News
March 15th, 2010
e-Conversation CEO Mark Goodman was featured on First Business News today, discussing the circumstances under which an entrepreneur should consider operating a franchise.
Check out the video here.
Interview with e-Conversation CEO Mark Goodman
March 9th, 2010
Mark, you are an expert in attracting and maintaining customers using new Web 2.0 internet tools, before we talk about how to use the tools, tell me how this creates value for a business.
There is a traditional value and a non traditional value to taking advantage of the new tools. First, let’s talk about the traditional one. Using the tools and the processes below, you can dramatically lower your costs of selling and customer support. Customers and users are looking to get answers on line. Below, you will find a process that allows for the creation of answer bits in multiple media. Lower sales and support costs translate into greater profits.
Now, let’s look at the non traditional value. The size of your social media audience can increase the value of your company. If you were supporting hundreds of users through Twitter or YouTube, that would be part of your valuation. Recently, companies have been hiring individuals based on their internet following. Companies like Twitter are totally valued on number of participants. Being a “recognized” expert for Google or YouTube, creates value beyond the ordinary.
How does a company need to change how they are creating content to attract Web 2.0 customers and users?
The content creation plan for a small business used to be pretty simple. When you rolled out a new product, you did a brochure and maybe a press release. Perhaps you ran a small ad. You trained your sales force, then got going. When it came to customer support, your technical people trained phone support.
What has changed in the last 10 years? First, your brochure went on line. Then, you decided rather than running ads, you would have buyers come to you using pay per click and search engine optimization. More and more, your buyers and customers did not want to see a sales person, but wanted to find the answers to their questions on line.
How has that changed how you create content?
When searching on line, your users want to find the answer to their individual question(s). The typical searcher is typing in four or five words. In a “decision engine” perhaps even asking a question. So rather than a brochure, white paper or FAQ list, you need to create an “answer bit”.
Also, realize that your buyers or users looking for service want to find the content in the media that they are comfortable with. Some buyers want to find it in a blog. Others, are YouTube viewers, some are searchers of Google or Bing. You can maximize the reach of your content by representing it in various media, if you plan for it in advance.
Our content creation process is based on the “interview” model. The content creation starts with a TV show. This is a 25 minute show that runs once a week. We have found that with the interview process, subject matter experts are more engaging, and answer length is more manageable.
The show is posted in its entirety on BLIP.TV. The show is then edited into clips and put on YouTube. The clips are also turned into blog postings. You can also reference the content in an email campaign. Content is then embedded on your website in the appropriate portions of the website.
Isn’t that a pretty complex and expensive process?
The key to keeping the costs down is designing the interview up front. The interview questions are created so that they can easily be cut into segments. Additionally, the dialogue during the interview focuses on topical issues that can be reconfigured into a blog posting. Lastly, we watch the length and complexity of the answers to insure that the clip will play well in the YouTube environment. Each question is its own answer bit. An answer has to be complete enough to answer a question, but not so complex as to lose the viewer.
The weekly show allows for the creation of continual content. Both users and search engines like the creation of continual content. The more users and viewers that you have in you channel or blog, the more Web 2.0 referrers will route people to you. When you reach a volume on a YouTube channel, you start to get more people finding you. It is not a linear increase, more of a quantum leap.
Mark, can you cite an example of a company you have worked with that deployed these services and experienced an increase in sales?
Absolutely. One local organization that we worked with recently has seen an increase in two of their offerings. Sales of one product line were up over 50% for the last 6 months, as compared to the 6 months prior. In addition, the volume through their local facility was up 30% in September as compared to September 2008.
This client understood the value of our services and the fact that they are most effective when used as part of a total marketing plan. We worked with the client to develop web content and that became the perfect complement to optimized search and pay per click.
How does someone get started?
The first step is making an inventory of what questions prospects, customers, and users are asking. If you are doing search engine optimization, that’s a good place to start.
You can do a couple of segments to try it out, but, just doing one or two segments, won’t help draw traffic. On the other hand, a regular program can have significant value on your sales, costs and valuation.
