Social Media: Don't Talk, Just Listen

Social media is a wonderful tool for a person or a business to broadcast their thoughts, feelings, or products to a vast audience. The availability and simplicity of mediums like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging make social media marketing accessible to even the most limited budgets.

However, businesses commonly err by using the available platforms to constantly bombard users with advertising. Continuous harassment of consumers to purchase products or services serves only to create animosity and a general distrust towards social media advertising.

How then, should a business use social media to increase revenue? By listening!

Social media is commonly described as a “conversation”. That implies that there is dialogue between parties discussing multiple sides of an issue. Users connected to social networks love to post their opinions for their network (and the world) to see. They had a good time at the movies? Update on twitter before the credits are finished rolling. Found a great restaurant? Picture and maps are on Google by the end of the night. Finding conversations discussing issues that relate to your business or industry is simply a matter of listening.

Once you have identified where these conversations (good or bad) are taking place, the problem is how best to leverage the information. Instead of jumping in and adding your two cents to every thread, look for patterns in multiple conversations. Are consumers constantly complaining about a certain incompatibility with a similar product? Are users thrilled with the price of a service you offer? By simply listening, the quality of your products and services improve because the consumer is telling you what they want.

Listening and making constant adjustments is not just a short term quality solution. It creates a feedback loop between the consumer and the industry in general. When a customer purchases a product that solves a problem they tweeted about a few months earlier, they realize that they have directly impacted the industry. They are encouraged to continue posting reviews and comments, which generates more research for your business, and as you produce products and services that solve consumer problems, customers continue to post positive reviews for all their friends to see.

Social media connects users all over the globe in a community of conversation, discussion, and sharing. A business has a plethora of information available about the consumer, their likes and dislikes, and their behavioural habits. This information can be utilized to improve products and services, develop deeper customer relationships, and increase profits. And all you have to do is LISTEN.

Author: Mike Hwang

Marketing Intern at FP iMarketing

Tracking Your Online ROI

Coupons and discounting used to be the most common way for companies to track returns on print advertising investments. If a customer came in with a coupon in their hand, the company would know their campaign had worked.

Online advertising like Google AdWords, MSN AdCenter and Facebook Ads have similar ways of showing ads to targeted audiences with the goal to earn their website click. The problem with this type of advertising is that it is hard to gauge if those clicks are becoming sales.

Pay per click campaigns can act like a man in a gorilla costume with a sign reading “Sale!” We can assume that many people are seeing this ad, but there is little way to discern between visitors who did, and did not see the ad. To make things more complex, how can we measure which customers were influenced by the gorilla and which customers were not influenced by the gorilla? This same problem can affect online campaigns that are not setup correctly or if the administrator of the campaign lacks experience.

Here are a few tools you can use to better track your online campaigns:

Landing pages - A landing page is a specialized page separate from the regular pages on the website. The landing page is built to do one thing: to turn a “click” in to a SALE. Design a landing page like a flyer or a catalogue page that the user can buy from immediately. Embed graphics and video to emphasize the value of your product, and make sure it is EXTREMELY easy to purchase your product from that same page. The more clicks a user has to make will make it less likely they will finalize the transaction. The result? All sales from the landing page were directed from advertising campaigns and those metrics can be measured with accurate numbers.

Coupon codes – “Free Shipping with the coupon code BoxingDay2011”, or something similar, is not an uncommon offer to see on eCommerce sites. Just like in the old days of print advertising, these coupon codes can be tracked (as long as your eCommerce system supports it) and work as an additional incentive to make a purchase.

Software – A number of free and paid services/software will track your various campaigns. Integrating Google Analytics is a good first step, as it can integrate with Google AdWords and give you more intelligence on where visitors are coming from, and what they are doing once they get there. More powerful options are also available. Dedicated analytic programs, like ActiveConversion for example, will track and store information about users when they visit landing pages or your website. The details provided by these programs are very useful for designing more targeted campaigns for subsections of your customer base.

Simple steps, like the ones described above, are great ways to track where your customers are being directed from. Once you are able to track your ROI, you can tailor your campaigns to make the most sales, while spending the least amount of money.

Author: Jaron Whittingham

Online Marketing Specialist

FP iMarketing

How Facebook Uses Incentives to Bring Customers Back Again and Again

For businesses to survive in today’s challenging economy, it takes more than just a bargain here and there and a smile with your service.

Companies who offer customers an incentive are likely to have them come back time and time again.

One business who has taken the incentive route is Facebook, which recently unveiled a program that essentially provides consumers with a financial incentive to view advertisements on its site.

The program works wherein Facebook rewards users who view certain advertisements with Facebook Credits, which in turn can be turned in to acquire goods on Facebook Deals. For those not aware, Facebook Deals are the company’s new Groupon-like daily deals service.

Before any business owners think Facebook is going to go into the red over this, note that the company to start will only pass along one credit per advertisement, which is approximately equal to 10 cents.

According to Facebook, the bulk of the ads will be incorporated in games. Presently, Facebook is working with a number of game publishers to further the program. Company officials also note that incentivizing consumers to view ads is one answer for the company’s low banner click-through rates. Just recently, Facebook grew its Credits program in order to allow consumers to use the Credits for purchasing real-world goods promoted in Deals.

In the past, the credits, which were passed along to consumers who subscribed for different programs or purchased out right were only able to acquire virtual goods.

While Facebook’s recent move has great potential for the company given its name recognition, what about lesser-known businesses. What can they do to craft an improved relationship with their customers?

As many consumers continue to battle tough economic times, it should come as no surprise that they are looking for deals wherever they can find them. With that being the case, an incentive program of any size is a great way for you as a business owner to keep current customers and potentially reel in new ones.

If you haven’t thought about implementing a reward program for your customers, why is that? There’s a very good chance the competition is doing it, so don’t fall behind the eight ball.

Rewarding customers for their loyalty is something that just makes sense in today’s challenging economy.

Dave Thomas is an expert writer on business pos systems based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as point of sale systems at Resource Nation.

So You Need a New Web Site...

In this digital age, a web presence is important for the success of a business. A website shows what your company is about: it is the digital face of the company.

Here are our top 4 tips for getting the most out of your new website.


1. Know Your Website Goals

What do you want your new website to accomplish? In order for the new website to perform, you need to define what the site should accomplish. Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Showcase products
• Improve the business' credibility
• Share the great resources you have created for clients
• Drive sales via online forms and customer contact campaigns

2. Know Why to Hire the Professionals


Experience: A professional web design company has usually created hundreds of websites and can draw from that experience to help keep the project running smoothly. This means less delays, better, conversions, and a more usable professional result.


Professional Design: Your website is the virtual face of your company. Make sure it looks as good online as it does in person.

Increase Conversion: Good design companies not only make your site look good, they make it usable as well. A properly designed site will direct users towards the end goal of your site, whether it is a form for more information, online sales, or requesting a demo.

3. Prepare Content
Most design companies will require you to supply the content for your website. This includes text, photos, PDFs, or client resources for every page. The sooner you provide quality content, the more likely your website will be able to launch on time.

4. Review the Design Company's Portfolio
Any design company worth their salt has a portfolio of their past projects. By reviewing their previous work, you can get a idea of what your site would look like. When reviewing a portfolio, try and keep the following things in mind:

• Usability: are the websites easy to navigate?
• Design: Does it look professional?
• Conversion: Does each page suggest logical actions to create deeper engagement? (Contact us, see more, related topics, ect).
• Contact Information: Is it easy to find?

Doing some advance planning for your website will ensure the success of your new website. Just follow these 4 easy steps and maximize your website's potential.


Martha Boulianne
Project Manager at FP iMarketing

Quick Tips for Landing Page Conversion Optimization

Improving a website’s conversion rate is part art and part science. Knowing what works well with your site and its landing pages can drastically improve user experience and, in turn, revenue. Improving your website conversion rate and turning visitors into real customers requires a methodical approach and a creative mind. A typical conversion rate for most e-commerce websites is around 2-5%, meaning that for every 100 visitor, 2 to 5 people will buy something. That conversion rate can mean two things, your traffic isn’t targeted and your website isn’t engaging. However there is good news, you can improve the quality of your website traffic and convert more users into customers with a few key conversion optimization techniques.

Don’t Focus on Traffic
To fully understand how to better your website’s conversion rate, it is important to realize where most businesses go wrong. They focus on the amount of traffic instead of targeted traffic. Whether that means, they are paying to get mass traffic from generic search terms like “clothing,” or have not focused their website to a niche. A website without a focus can typically see conversions under .5%. One of the biggest mistakes in online marketing campaigns is bringing in the wrong types of traffic. Well designed websites will do nothing without targeted traffic and vice versa, targeted traffic will not work as well without a well designed landing page. Great ways to get targeted traffic are engaging in with industry leaders on Twitter, Blogs, and partnerships.

Focus on Niche Conversions
Niche marketing gives you the highest rate of conversions. Whether it is your “call to action” or your website layout, find out what works for a certain niche instead of trying to please everybody. Don’t direct people on a paid search ad to a homepage with 300 different links. Create a focused message targeted to a demographic and then design a landing page for them to land. Make sure your copy is consumer focused, using the word “you”. Keep your landing pages short, simple, and concise with a call to action.

To get a consumer to convert it takes a great deal of trust and rapport. Think about including social commerce plugins and social logins to build that trust. It’s fair to speculate more people are likely to purchase something from your site if they see that one of their friends “Like” an item.

Minimize Clicks
The more clicks a user needs to make, the less your conversion rate. It is quite simple people don’t want to click more than 3 times to be able to find or purchase a product online. “Make each click count” is a phrase that is always thrown around when talking about website optimization because irrelevant clicks dead end the browsing experience. A tip for landing page conversion is to feature a product, and have a series of questions or calls to action, with a one click order button.

The key to high conversion rates are understanding who is visiting your website, who is purchasing and most importantly why people aren’t purchasing. If you can use Google Analytics or any other user tracking tools to understand your CTR, Bounce rate and exit rates you will be able strategically develop your landing pages. Having strategic intent and customer focus will improve all facets of your online marketing planning.

Author: Matt Krautstrunk

Matt Krautstrunk is an expert writer on GPS fleet tracking systems based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as GPS tracking devices at Resource Nation.

An Oil and Gas Service Provider eGuide to Global Marketing

"While SMB products and services are applicable to companies worldwide, their fulfillment is beyond the reach of the typical sales territory and marketing budget. By ensuring they can be ‘sales-ready’ on the Internet, oil and gas companies can cost-effectively reach all potential buyers of their products or services."

This guide details how online marketing and marketing automation can be used to turn global contacts made at trade shows into qualified leads while minimizing cost and maximizing reach.

Download the PDF and learn:

• How to transition from trade shows to online marketing
  
• How to take advantage of marketing automation
• How to streamline the sales cycle to target 'sales-ready' prospects.
  

Related articles

• Online Marketing Best Practices: Generate Sales-Ready Leads (foundpages.com)

Get the help You Need Deciding Which Search Engine Works Best for You

Marketing your business online to other businesses can be tricky. This is because there are so many other businesses out there vying for the same clientele that you are. Looking through the different keywords and making sure that you are using the right content is a great way to get the contact that you need. Of course, it is important to make sure that you are targeting the right search engine. By targeting the wrong search engine, it is possible that you will not be able to get the results that you are looking for.

The first thing you need to look at when deciding which search engines to target for your B2B marketing campaign, is who uses the search engine. It is also important to find out which search engine you have a better shot of getting good results from. Once you have all of this figured out, you will need to figure out how you can make sure that you are using the right content to get the best results. By following all of this information you will be able to get the results that you are looking for so that you will be able to enjoy higher profits.

Looking at the Demographics

Every search engine attracts different kinds of clientele. A look at the numbers will tell you that Google is the massive all-encompassing search engine that everyone uses. Bing has a broad range which eliminates the middle bracket but has the younger and the older crowd using it. Yahoo also has a fair mix, but tends to be favored by the younger crowd. You can look in terms of the purchasing manager you are looking to target or the clientele of the people your clients are targeting.

Which Search Engine Offers the Best Results?

After looking at the demographics, you will likely have a few different kinds of search engines you can identify as good for your company. Next it is time to decide which one will actually provide your company with the opportunity to get the results you are looking for. This includes making sure that you will not have an extreme amount of competition for the keywords that you want to use to get the traffic you are looking for. Doing so will help you to get a higher spot in the search engine results.

How to Target the Search Engine

Once you know which search engine you are looking to target, it is a good idea to find out how to target them. You can look up keywords which relate to your business, like VoIP phone systems, so that you will be able to see what other people are using to get good results. Use this as a jumping off point for formulating your ideas about how you will approach B2B marketing. You can then use trial by error to find the results that you are looking for.

Author:

Resource Nation provides free tools, tips, and purchasing advice for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 100 business categories ranging from phone systems to wireless credit card processing. Whether it's connecting businesses with local and national pre-screened vendors, or offering easy service comparisons on a VoIP service, Resource Nation empowers business decision makers by providing the information they need to make smart choices.