Every day you get get emails about using various internet tools to enhance your business communications. 12 ways to better use Linkedin, 10 steps to making Facebook work for you.
These are good programs. If you have an interest in the tool, go for it.
But once you learn how to use the tool, what are you going to say?
Think about the questions that your customers and prospects are asking. Today, you can take out a sheet of paper and start writing them down. At the end of two weeks write down the answers.
Are these questions and answers on your website? Have you reviewed them with your sales and customer support team?
You can use them in any of your social media. Tweet a questions, link to an answer. Put a question and answer up on Linkedin or Facebook.
I was the first business planner for the cell phone business at Motorola. Been in the middle of the wireless experience for almost 30 years. When cell phones first came out, you didn’t have anyone’s number unless they gave it to you (they were not printed on business cards) and you didn’t call someone unless you had to get an input right away.
Now, people make their cell phone number available on their voice mail, business card, or even tell tell the operator to ask them if they want to call you on your phone.
But how do I know if I should call you? Are you on holiday, and don’t want to be disturbed? Are you working remotely and would be pleased to take the call? or maybe you are in the middle of a meeting.
A solution? If you are open to getting calls on your cell phone, let us know. Otherwise, a message is likely on company voice mail. May not be what you want, but probably what you will get.
I run across sales and marketing managers who comment on the inability to access and utilize the internet in their efforts to grow their business. Often they comment on the difficulty to get their IT people on board.
How many times have you run across a person who can’t get access to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc on their company system? For many employees, the solution is to just forward an email to their “gmail” account and read / view the content on their smartphone. I’ve even heard it be said, “if it’s really important, send it to me on my iPhone”.
Your IT manager is unlikely to be measured on your ability to connect with your customers and prospects. Most IT managers are measured on connectivity, costs, and confidentiality. But, if you invite them to lunch, ask them to attend a sales meeting, forward them links about your competition, you would be surprised.
Challenged to be part of the business, IT can be a resource, instead of an impediment.
Do you have a website that has not been updated in a year or two? Does your web master charge you every time you want to update your site. Some companies are now using Facebook as a way to create an internet presence without having to update their site.
How well does using Facebook as a way to reach out to customers and prospects?
If you have a business to consumer business, it can work pretty well. You need to go out and build a set of “likers”. Also, think about what kind of content you are creating to draw in your customers. Think about a contest, quiz or interactive content.
For a business to business site, I am not sure. How many of your customers and prospects are looking on Facebook. How are you using your e-content?
If you are using your website as a reference for searchers or email marketing, you may want to consider a blog instead. A blog will give you links that you can include in an email or other social media posting.
If you are on Groupon or other “couponing” sites, you get an offer almost every day for a 50% off deal. Are your customers going to start expecting that every business has a deal? Think about what kind of 50% offer fits your business.
But, how much off is too much off. I saw a golf swing offer that was 72% off. A personal training offer that was 92% off. With discounts that high, how real can “list” pricing really be? As long as offers can be referenced against a menu or price list, discounts will work. But sometimes with personal services, it can get silly.
If you are considering an on line coupon, think about how it fits your marketing strategy. Who do you want to attract? What will you do with them, once they have redeemed the offer? Will you really attract new customers, or are you just giving a discount to current customers? How can you condition the offer keep your business in control?
If you are not sure if you should do the deal, run some numbers. What will happen if you sell more “coupons” than you expect? Can you afford it? If you have concerns, think twice.
QR codes are becoming more popular. You can see them everywhere. They are in magazines, newspapers, billboards, we even saw them on an ice cream “give away” trailer. So, how big should your code be? It depends on how the viewer is going to access the code. If you are doing a simple paper code, in print or on a business card, it can be as small as 2 cm square. That’s about three quarters of an inch. Obviously, if you are putting your code on a door or a trailer, it should be bigger.
Once you get the code, try it out. Test the code in various lighting scenarios. Think about the conditions that your viewer will be accessing the code.
Next, look at what you are linking to! Are you linking to a site with flash? iPhone users will not be able to see it. If you are linking to your regular website, how mobile friendly is your home page? Consider creating at least a mobile friendly landing page. We like to link to YouTube videos because they work and tell a story.
If possible, try your QR code link on different smartphones. A website will look different in different browsers.
Lastly, how will this link integrate into your total customer acquisition plan. After accessing the site, what do you want your viewer to do.
For examples of QR codes, please check out other blog postings in this blog, or our home page
Many corporations are limiting access to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other community sites. Some companies don’t allow employees to use text messaging. When asked about information security, the CIO can state, “we don’t allow access on our company provided devices!”
So, what actually happens. Employees text people on their own smartphones. They tell colleagues, customers, prospects, to just send them the links or the information to their home emails. How many times have you heard an employee say… “just send that to me on my gmail account”.
Instead of saying no, companies need to create a social media policy that says yes.
When discussing social media, sometimes we hear “my company won’t allow me to access Twitter, YouTube, text messages etc” For many companies, their social media policy is just saying no. This harkens back to the mid-1990′s when companies would not allow access to the internet.
A few things a company should think about.
1. Just because you don’t allow access on the company devices, it does not mean people aren’t using the tools with company information. If you cut it off on the company Blackberry, employees just tell their collaborators to send it to them on their iPhones.
2. Employees want to do a good job. They generally don’t access information that they don’t need.
3. Employees know that you monitor their internet usage.
The solution is to create a social media policy and e-Content creation plan that empowers employees. Outline what kind of use is acceptable. Provide the content tools that will allow them to participate effectively.
When working with prospective clients, we sometimes get asked about using YouTube as opposed to keeping videos on your website. If you don’t use YouTube, you are likely to miss out on two opportunities to reach searchers. First, you will not be getting traffic from people who start watching one video, then move to yours. On the channels, that we have created, the average user watches two videos per visit. While your video or channel may not be the first, effectively positioned, it can be the second.
Here is an example of a piece on 100% Bonus Depreciation.
Associated Equipment Distributors put up this video
The good news is that this whole campaign is driving traffic to the video that we produced.
A good channel should get between a quarter and a third of all traffic from “Related Videos”.
Also, don’t forget YouTube Search. For some searchers, YouTube is the first place they go for content. If you are not there, you will not be found. A good channel should get between and 10% and 20% of traffic from YouTube Search.
There is a school of thought among webmasters that once you get someone to your website; you should not let them off. First, if you construct a channel effectively, you should be able to keep the searcher on your channel, and ultimately lead them to your site. Also, if you set up your video embed so that it opens to another page, as opposed to view in the same page, your website will still be available.
Lastly, if you are really concerned about traffic in your website, put the video in both YouTube and your website.
I did a series of workshops for MB Financial Bank over the last few weeks. In the workshop, QR codes are discussed. It was interesting that over a two week period, more attendees asked questions about QR codes.
Our suggestion is to learn about what they are, and think about how you can link your e-Content to your print content. Download the readers, and check out codes that are available to you. If you are not sure where to find QR codes to scan, go to the auto section of the Sunday newspaper.
Lastly, a short Motorola story. Back in the mid 1990′s, I approached one of the marketing communications people . I wanted to add URL’s to the brochures that we were printing. The marcom person said “what a great idea! however, we really don’t have room for a URL on the brochure. It is hard enough finding space for a phone number” Then she continued, “none of our customers are really going to dial up on the internet and use it to find out about our products, they really just prefer to call us.”
Most businesses are looking to lower their cost of selling, or expand their reach. How are you different from your competition? Yes, everyone does not have a smartphone, but how about your target customer?
More information on QR codes is available from other postings in this blog.
