Feed: Marketing for Small Business Driving Your Customer Stampede - AggScore: 18.4

How to Cultivate Trust in Your Business Online Part 1

You have probably heard that ‘being everywhere your customers are’ is the secret to building a good relationship with your customers. This will most likely have lead you to sign up for every kind of social network you can think of, and now you are wondering where the relationships are.

The truth is, turning up just isn’t enough  if you want to actually build relationships with your clients. And online, just like in the real world, the key to building relationships is trust. If you don’t trust someone, it is unlikely that you will want anything to do with them, and you certainly won’t want to purchase a product of service from them.

So, how on earth do you build trust online? All it takes is reacting and responding to your customers in the correct way, do that and you will earn their trust and business, and start to build your working relationship with them, to make them a long term customer.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

Acknowledge their Problems with Empathy

Earning trust is about how you answer  a customer’s concerns. You must empathise and engage with how your customer must be feeling about their problem, and respond with an appropriate attitude. Here is an example:

If your customer posts a query on your Facebook wall about password concerns, be sure that your response contains with an ‘that must be frustrating for you’ or ‘I’m sorry about that’. This builds trust and lets your customer know that you are on their  side.

Make Sure You Enable the Right Communication Channels 
Customers need to know you will not only hear their concerns but also resolve them  before they will trust you. This means that you need to set up numerous ways for your customers to effectively communicate with you, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, your website, or wherever else you can think of. This is important, because customers are more likely to communicate with you if they can use their preferred method of communication.

Look out for our next blog post : ‘How to Cultivate Trust in Your Business Online Part 2’ for more tips on how to build trust in your business online!

LinkedIn: A Fountain of Knowledge at Your Finger Tips

Everyone knows how remarkably helpful LinkedIn is when it comes to career transitions, networking and keeping up to date with your favourite companies, although many don’t place much value on these features.

If this is you, I have another feature that is sure to prove that LinkedIn is a great tool to have in your business toolbox!

The feature that I am talking about, that most people seem to overlook is the ‘Q&A’ part of the website which is actually incredibly useful. Select ‘More’ from the tool bar, and then select ‘Answers’ from the drop down menu that appears and you will be taken to the fountain of knowledge!

The ‘Q&A’ section of the website really is a wealth of information, and paying it a visit every so often will give you hints and tips to improve yourself and your business. Make sure that when you are browsing the different categories, that if you can provide an answer to someone’s question you do so – pay it forward  as it were, not only is it helpful to the asker, but it also improves your visibility and presence on LinkedIn.

You also have the opportunity to ask your own questions, and trust me, if you ask you will get an answer, often with additional tips to boot! Professionals from all over the world use LinkedIn to network and build relationships, so it is likely that your responses will be quick, after all it is working hours somewhere, and you could well develop some working relationships in the process!

LinkedIn is a tremendous resource allowing professionals from all kinds of industries to come together and share their expert knowledge, all for no charge.

So if you have a question, or a nugget of knowledge you are willing to share, get onto LinkedIn and network with other professionals to get answers, share tips and improve you and your business’ visibility.

Have You Ever Donated You Twitter Characters to Charity?

Many of us will have donated money to charity. For example, we may submit a monthly fee to our chosen cause, or help fund specific campaigns at specific times, as we do with Comic Relief.

Many of us will also have donated clothes or books to our local charity shops. You might even donate your time and effort volunteering at one of them.

But have you ever donated your Twitter characters to charity?

More importantly, how does it work?

You can donate your Twitter characters by sending a tweet through a special app. Any characters you have left unused (out of your limit of 140) are filled up with a kind of public service announcement including a relevant link to help gain support for your chosen charity.

One example of this is the application called Hashtags4Heroes, which uses up the free characters in your tweets to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). This organisation wants to help soldiers wounded after 9/11.

Another example was the Japan Up relief campaign. As Twitter characters were donated, a graphic of a tattered Japanese flag was slowly repaired.

The idea behind these social campaigns is to:

1. Raise awareness
2. Donate influence
3. and increase funding

So if you are a socially aware business  and want to share some worthwhile causes with your customers, then search the web for your charity of choice which participates in donating tweets – and download the app to your phone or PC to start spreading awareness.

What Makes A Video Go Viral?

That was a video of Jorge Narvaez and his daughter, Alexa, doing a cover of “Home” by Edward Sharpe. On YouTube it has gathered just under 21 million views – an astonishing feat!

But what makes a video go viral?

Videos creating negative publicity  for a company can reach a record number of views in no time at all, as United Airlines learned from United Breaks Guitars. This was a video made by a musician who was upset that the airline company didn’t replace his guitar which was broken by baggage handlers throwing it carelessly. He made a song about it and it reached millions, and brought him more compensation than he could have imagined.

A viral video could be one that is so bad it is good . Take, for example, Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” which you will surely have heard of. A daughter’s vanity video dragged in a ton of viewers who loved to the hate young singer – or, at least, her music.

Or it might be something as simple as a Husky called Mishka saying I love you.

Whatever it is, all viral videos seem to share a few particular qualities:

1. They are instantly attention-grabbing.
2. They resonate or hit a nerve with the audience.
3. They are a unique and fond experience  for the viewer, which makes them want to share it with others on Facebook and Twitter, and by email.
4. Lastly, they are short and focused.

So if you’re trying to make a video go viral for your business for advertising purposes, try and bear these things in mind. If you happen to witness something extraordinarily entertaining or unique, chances are someone else will find it to be just as amazing . So record it and upload it to YouTube!

20 Awesome Social Media Facts

Here at Marketing For Small Business, we think social media is brilliant , so here’s a list of interesting facts about our favourite social networking sites (PS – our favourite is YouTube fact #4):

1. One hour of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every single second .
2. There are 4 billion video views throughout the entire world, every day.
3. The first ever YouTube video uploaded was filmed at the zoo.
4. There are many hidden secrets  within YouTube (Tip: go to a YouTube video, pause it, and press the up and left arrow simultaneously, and enjoy a game of Snake).
5. One needs over 1000 years of time to watch all videos on YouTube – though, of course, this number will keep on growing!

1. If Facebook were a country, it’d be the world’s 3^rd largest, as well as 2x the size of the U.S. population (845 million users).
2. 425 million active monthly users of Facebook (half of their user base) mainly go on Facebook with their mobile phones.
3. 250 million photos uploaded each day.
4. In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2011, there were 2.7 billion likes and comments  per day.
5. Facebook is available in more than 70 different languages.

1. There are more than 465 million Twitter accounts.
2. The most active country of tweeters is the Netherlands. Japan is a close second.
3. The original name of Twitter was Twttr. Seriously.
4. When Twitter first started, there was no 140 character limit.
5. In January 2008 there were only 8 employers at Twitter. By 2011 this figure had skyrocketed to 400.

1. There are 161 million members in over 200 countries – the largest professional network online.
2. At the end of LinkedIn’s first month in operation, the social media network had a total of 4,500 members.
3. Roughly 40% of LinkedIn members are Managers, Directors, Owners, Chief Officers or Vice Presidents.
4. There are more than 34 million LinkedIn Members in Europe as of Febuary 17, 2012.
5. LinkedIn counts executives from all 2011 Fortune 500  companies as members.

Did you find out anything you didn’t know already?

A Summary of the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report

In their 4^th annual study*, Social Media Marketing revealed how marketers are currently using social media, as well as working to discover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing.

Here is a summary of their most important findings:

Social media is important to marketers

As many as 83% of marketers suggested that social media plays an integral role  in their marketing campaigns…

…so we need to be utilising the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube.

Video marketing is where the next big push will be

76% of marketers intend to invest more time and money in Youtube and ‘video advertising’…

…so if you don’t want to get left behind online, start brainstorming a video that will go viral!

The top 5 social media networks are…

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and blogging, according to marketers. Only 40% of marketers are using Google+, although more are planning to sometime in the future…

…this means that, for now, you should be focusing your social media marketing strategy on the first four networks, as well as blogging (take a look at why you should blog).

The 3 greatest benefits of social media are…

1. Generating more business exposure (85% of marketers)

2.  Bringing about increased traffic (in other words, driving your client stampede, totalled at 69%)

2. Gathering information on your target market (65%)

Social media marketing is time consuming

Most marketers use social media for 6 hours or more per week, and over a third are putting in as many as 11 hours  into their social media strategy…

…this is strange when you consider that…

…hardly anybody outsources their social media campaigns!

Only 30% of companies outsource some parts of their social media work. This is a tiny 2% increase from 2011.

This is understandable given the state of the economy. However, if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, and you can manage the strain on your businesses’ cash flow, it’s a good idea to invest in marketing now.

Especially something as affordable and effective as social media marketing.

Why? Because if your competitors are not doing it, then you have a clear field to capture your target market.

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*More than 3,800 marketers took part in the study.

You can find a link to download the full 42-page report here.

How Should You Use Twitter? 5 Quick Tips

Twitter is a great way of connecting with your customers – and everyone knows it. Even taking a short glance online will show you that most of the biggest companies are utilising the micro-blogging platform, such as Starbucks, Skittles, Honda, and Dell.

But there are a number of questions about how you should use Twitter. For example, how often should I tweet? What should I tweet? Should my tweets be auto-generated?

This is a guide to answer these questions and more. Use the following 5 tips to optimise  your Twitter account:

1. Form a Strategy

Many companies use Twitter differently. For Example, Dell uses Twitter to sell products and share information related to the company.

Starbucks UK respond to customer queries or offer suggestions to customers in their store as to what they should buy.

Often, I see small businesses using Twitter to connect with and form stronger relationships  with their customers.

Whatever your goal, make sure there is an over-arching strategy behind your tweets, or they might not be as effective.

2. Edit Your Twitter

The only scenario where you can risk having an incomplete Twitter profile is if you are the owner of a worldwide brand like Coca Cola or Amazon.

But it only takes two minutes to create an online profile with Twitter, so why not edit yours? Without a profile your credibility will lessen and you will not be worth following. So add a description of who you are and what you do, and make sure you have your website attached as well (better yet, make sure your site is mobile-optimised for those using Twitter on their smartphones).

People will usually look at such information to determine whether or not you are a ‘fake’ or ‘spam’ account.

3. Only Use So Many Automated Tweets

If you are looking to interact with your customers, automated tweets won’t do the trick. For instance, most Twitter users can tell if a tweet is automated and usually find them quite annoying. Therefore you shouldn’t use too many automated tweets, although they can be fine if kept to a minimum.

4. Be Original

Try to make your tweets unique to attract the interest of your follows and to generate positive real-time interaction . This can improve the image of your brand and, if people favourite or retweet your posts, even get you more followers and, by extension, revenue.

A good example of this is Skittles. Their twitter feed is full of random, thoughtful and amusing observations that a lot of their fans enjoy – myself included!

5. Lastly, Be Useful

If you are a restaurant owner and a follower has mentioned your company in a tweet, and they’re not sure what to buy from your menu, message them back on Twitter with a suggestion or even with a special deal.

Even better, let them know you have noticed them mentioning you on Twitter by giving them drinks on the house.

Such actions can produce upbeat online publicity  for your company and provide you with lifetime customers who appreciate your kindness and consideration – as well as more followers.

What Happens When Your Business Passes On The ‘Latest Fad’?

The internet boomed in the 90′s and the dotcom bubble finally burst in March 2000. Almost overnight young start up businesses were wiped out – completely!

Many traditional, long standing business’ sat back, relived they had not jumped on to the ‘technology bandwagon’. The internet was simply a passing fad and life could now go on…

BUT it wasn’t and many of these traditional businesses got left behind. The internet was merely the foundation of what is happening now. Change happens regardless of what you do and the methods we are using to communicate, like it or not, are changing – rapidly!

In a 1995 article in Newsweek an author writes…

But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney.

Just about everything he mentions as baloney has come about…

in less than 20 years .

Change is happening faster and faster…

The Industrial Revolution took around 150 years and ended approximately 1914. During that time great leaps forward were made in agriculture, industry and transportation with the invention of the tractor, the cotton gin and the steam engine. Roughly 50 years later in 1969 we landed on the moon.

How’s that for fast progress!

The internet is no longer considered a ‘passing fad‘. The likes of social media and  mobile marketing have taken on that title – but beware , they are no more a fad than the internet of the 90′s.

So what happens if you decide that social media and mobile marketing are simply not for you?

Remember what happened to Borders?

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but, at the rate of change we are currently experiencing,

soon you may not have a business to worry about!

Put Your Business In Your Customers Hands

If you are considering where to spend your marketing budget to make best use of your cash you really do need to start looking at mobile devices.

Most people do not leave home with out their smart phones so why not put your product or service into the palm of the consumers hand?

Like Pavlovs dogs at the first noise or vibration from our smart phone we are conditioned to check and see who is trying to get in touch.

The vast majority of people will open a text – we are curious (nosey?) that way, so why are SME’s so reluctant to embrace this almost captive audience?

Patrick Moorhead, senior vice president of mobile at Draftfcb Chicago says…
 

“Brands that have a mobile presence no longer have a first-mover advantage. Instead, brands that do not have mobile initiatives will eventually be left in the dust as marketing switches to a mobile-first mentality.”

All small and medium sized businesses need to use the most popular medium to get their goods, products and services in front of the most people.
 

Newspaper circulation is down, leaflet drops simply don’t work and people put their ‘snail’ mail to one side and read it later BUT…

almost 95% of people WILL open a text message.

Most businesses have quite periods whether is be the middle of winter for garden centres or most Tuesday night’s for a restaurant, these are the times to initiate your mobile advertising.

‘FREE SCONE WITH EVERY HOT CHOCOLATE DRINK BEFORE 4PM – GREENFINGER GARDEN CENTER’

’15% DISCOUNT FOR NEXT TEN CUSTOMERS THAT ORDER A MEAL FOR TWO OR MORE PEOPLE – FOOD 4 U RESTAURANT ‘

Short texts to previous customers can be the answer to less than full garden centres and restaurants alike.

Why not call us today, take us up on our free consultation and let’s see if we can bring you profitability where you thought there was none.

MFSB where technology meets outstanding customer service…

How To Go Out Of Business, The Easy Way

Strange title for a blog post by a marketing company but it is very easy for small and medium sized businesses to lose customers and fall by the wayside if they stick to traditional marketing methods and fail to embrace new, emerging technologies.

It can be a scary new world of Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Twitter etc. and many business owners feel its just for the young ones -WRONG!

Lets talk the language of business, lets talk ROI, lets find out just what your cash will get you if you embrace online marketing and online customer service because that is what social media is all about.

The ROI of social media is that you will still be in business in 5 years…

It really is a simple as that. Embrace social media or be prepared to not be in business. The young ones are your next generation of customers and they are lazy…

They want it to be as easy as possible to find the goods, services and products that they need. They will go online using tablets and mobile phones, they will ask friends for recommendations, they will read reviews before deciding and they cant find your business, they wont buy from you.

You have to meet them online in a way that makes it easy for them to buy, you have to provide customer service online because that is what the next generation of your customers are doing and you have to let go of all your traditional ideas about how to promote your business.

Don’t be one of the businesses that will fall by the wayside in the next 5 years…if you want to know more about how to promote your business online call MFSB today.