Yes today’s world is digital, social & always connected but that’s no reason to feel that it’s all too much & your traditional skills & years of experience aren’t relevant anymore. In fact I would argue they have never been more relevant!

Customer’s needs are generally the same whether they are online or not. You still need the same marketing techniques to turn an interest into an action – Attention, Interest, Desire & Action (AIDA) is still relevant even if the final action is now different.

The Process may be quicker, customer able to harness greater knowledge but if you can sell a widget in a shop or a service at a meeting, you can sell the very same online. The other P’s remain whether you use 4, 7, 9 or 12 of them.

BTW here’s the full 12 although I bet there will be more– Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Permission, Partnerships, Personalisation, Purpose, People, Processes, Philosophy & Packaging

So don’t believe you are old fashioned, find someone who can translate all those years of experience into digital & results. Also start dipping your own business toe in the digital water. Search out some answers online, in forums, whitepapers & expert groups.

Digital isn’t going away but your business might.

Yes I know that sounds the wrong way around but it’s worthwhile to stop & consider just how new ideas happen.  In my experience the best ideas rarely just appear perfectly formed.

Novelists for example naturally draw from their life experiences. Businesses on the other hand can often overlook the benefits that experience can bring to creativity.

By ‘doing’ the standard way of thinking can be broken & greater empathy achieved with the subject. Often it’s only by getting your hands dirty can you really begin to feel what it’s like to experience a product or service. From experience springs ideas & creativity.

So next time you are looking for some specialist outside help to grow your business, ask if they would like to spend some time making your product or serving your customers. The good ones will jump at the chance!

You’ve added a blog & maybe some social feeds. You’ve ensured the search engines can easily find your site, however there will inevitably come a time when you will need a redesign.

There is little doubt that the redesign cycle is shortening, so when that time comes around don’t just focus on how it will look.

This is a great opportunity to place your website at the very centre of your business, right next to your customers. An opportunity to design how will it support your marketing activities such as email, social media, lead generation, brand awareness & sales conversion?

A quick search for website development check list or similar will return plenty of tactical advice e.g. this great list has over 400 specific items! 

Our list is a more manageable 10 points & has been designed specifically by inbound marketing specialists, Hubspot so your new site integrates with other key marketing functions;

1. Audit

Create a record of what your site currently delivers e.g. number of visits/visitors/unique visitors, bounce rate, time on site, current SEO rankings for important keywords, number of new leads/form submissions, total amount of sales generate.

2. Set Goals based on the Audit

‘Our site is looking a bit old’ or ‘it’s been a while since the last design’ or ‘such & such has a new site so we need one now’ are less valid reasons. Yes there is merit in how your site looks & answers your customers needs but if you are going to invest both time & money in a new site, make sure you have specific & measurable targets for 6 months, 12 months & 24 months.

3. Don’t throw away the good stuff!

Your existing site will have some content & links that perform well, so make sure your review the whole site inventory & brief the design team thoroughly on those you wish to keep.

4. Know the competition

A day or two researching your key competitors & noting likes & dislikes will identify where you can improve & offer your customers a better service.

5. State your Unique Value Proposition

This is vital. Immediately answer in plain, simple language if what you do is right for your site visitors, and why they should buy/convert/stay on your website. See my previous post on  What is it you actually do?

6. Know your visitors & build your site around them

Segment the your key targets in personas & understand all you can about each e.g.

• demographics including job title, role, company information & industry
• needs such as what information they are searching for or what trends are influencing their business decisions
• online behaviour e.g. are they active on Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks? what search terms do they use? what kind of online information do they tend to consume? which of your products or services do they spend the most time researching?

7. SEO

Ask the experts as this is tricky, time consuming & requires constant attention. Start by taking our quick 7 point SEO health check developed in partnership with the springboard to see where your SEO can be improved.

8. Calls to action

Once you have a visitor, your site must prompt practical further engagement . Think about;

eBooks, whitepapers, contests, promotions, product purchases, email newsletter subscription, free trial, contact us,  consultations & demonstrations.

9. Create a content strategy

There is no getting away from the fact that in general more relevant content generates more visitors. Build a plan to continue adding content to your site. Some suggestions to follow in a future post.

10. Consider the extras

Blog, Landing Pages, RSS subscription, shareability & analytics are all well worth including within your redesign brief.

So next time you are considering a website redesign, prepare a list similar to the above (& check off the 400+ tactical list!) or ask us, we would love to help.

Following up from my last post that social media drives purchase & recommendation. The key word in that post was interaction. Customers who engage with your business online are actively looking for interaction.

Unfortunately many are not finding it according to the latest poll from Marketing Week.

Of the 800 UK adults polled that had uploaded opinions about goods & services, some 85% did not receive a reply! Half of these stated they would have been ‘happy’ to hear back & a third would ‘love’ this kind of response!

The clue is in the name, be social, customers really do want to hear from you.

After all if they walked into your shop or office with a question or an issue or just to say thanks, you wouldn’t ignore them.

It’s great when a robust piece of research backs up your instinct.

We wouldn’t spend so much time on the likes of Twitter, email or Facebook if we didn’t  believe there was a business value & return but now email marketing services provider, ExactTarget, has quantified that value by surveying over 1,400 UK web users.

The results that count are;

• 24% of respondents who had ‘liked’ a company on Facebook were more likely to do business with the brand & 28% more likely to offer a recommendation
• Twitter followers scored higher at 32% potential to buy & 40% recommendation
• 46% had gone on to purchase goods or services as a result of receiving a requested marketing email, although there was no indication at what frequency of emails purchase was triggered  – my guess would be > 3 but < 7

As ExactTarget’s CMO commented “UK consumers expect more from brands than ever before as they turn to email, Facebook and Twitter for exclusive content, special offers and unique experiences.

“Agile marketers who can drive interaction across online channels and build consumer engagement have a clear advantage.” 

I would only add ‘a 25% to 30% clear advantage’!

It’s a common situation. You are finally in front of that ideal potential new business prospect, you’ve researched their business & competitors as per my previous post& you are keen to start firing questions. After all you want to impress them with your knowledge, years of experience & show them how keen you are to work with them! At the first opportunity or slight pause you are off.

Unfortunately you have confused questioning with listening as the most powerful communication tool.

BTW I’m not taking about just hearing or even worse just waiting for a gap to speak but hard, focussed listening. If done correctly it can;

• help solve problems & disagreements – not just at work!
• help us learn by seeing opinions through other people’s eye
• improve our empathy & understanding

If you achieve these 3 in your meetings then you are well on the way to exploring potentials where you can add some value & hopefully win some business.

The question is, how do you become a good listener? There are lots of descriptors about the right type of listening & the attributes you should display but I found this pretty good checklist to run through whilst in reception;

• Look for other person’s point-of-view & feelings
• Involve yourself in the conversation
• Summarise to confirm your understanding
• Takes notes
• Evaluate what’s being said
• Neutral about your own views

And yes it spells LISTEN!

Often we can find ourselves starting to form opinions & judgements as we walk in the door or after the first introductions. I’ve found a good tip is to use the simple act of opening my note book or more recently launching Word on my tablet as a prompt to clear my mind ready to begin listening.

We know ourselves how good it feels when someone else understands what we are saying. We finish the meeting with a real sense of purpose & knowing we can now get on with some positive actions – all because someone took the time to really listen!

In talking with clients & colleagues I’ve picked up a general sense that being green & environmentally friendly  have slipped down the criteria list during the recession. Focusing on quality, price & customer referrals are seen as much more important in shaping purchase habits.

However there wasn’t a sense of scale between these criteria – what was their relative importance to help guide marketing communications?

Research giant Euromonitor have just released their Global Green Buying Behaviour research & in it is this chart;

Of course this is an amalgamation of various sectors & countries but look where strong brand name appears!

By re-profiling the top 4 attributes we can build a benchmark against which we can compare our MarComs;

So next time you are deciding on what to include within that email campaign or PR piece, allow some space for your sustainability credentials.

Being green is still not as important as superb quality, great value & recommendations but they are perhaps more important than you would have thought!

We hear all the time about Google’s spiders crawling over the internet. In fact they are really more like bats when it comes to images!

Google can’t ‘see’ your image or logo but you can help it understand what it represents by ensuring you have good, descriptive ‘alt text’ attached to your images i.e. a good description of the image & what it is aiming to portray.

Obviously you don’t want to start stuffing every image with hundreds of keywords but if you match the textual content of the image (or banner ad) to the alt tag content you will be fine as regards compliance.

Like many SEO techniques, it is the sum of the parts over time that generates the results rather than any one activity.

New customer + right product + trusted recommendation = sale

Today with millions of brand conversations happening every day, I would estimate 8 out of every 10 purchases have been influenced by a trusted recommendation, whether from family, friends or a respected person.

Are you helping your brand advocates refer you business? Here are 5 tips on becoming their best friend; 

 1. Know your customers

Somewhat of a recurring theme of mine but once you have an acute understanding of your customers you can offer relevant advice that solves their problems

 2.    Legal, decent, honest & truthful

The Advertising Standards Authority mantra is a good one to chant at every customer touch point.

Those brands that consistently deliver customers expectations & as such are seen as reliable, will gain trust. In hard economic times, trust will support your business through recommendations.

 3.    Predict what your customers need

The vast majority of customer decision-making is subconscious. If you have & continue to work on that deep knowledge of your customer’s personalities, motives & needs you will soon be able to offer solutions before your customers really know they needed them!

 4.    Listen & ask questions

Find out what your customers thought of your service. Respond to queries & answer problems quickly with the Advertising Standards Authorities mantra in your ears.

Happy customers are advocates who will come back & bring their friends with them!

 5.    Core customers are king

This was a theme from an earlier post but I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to keep this group well informed. Reward their loyalty, remembering to be consistent & you should in turn be rewarded with positive comments & referrals. 

Every time you are about to ‘market’ your business, be that at a networking event, an email, a Tweet, a sales pitch, a post or call, remember to act like the friend you would want to have. Your advocates will buy your services AND help to sell your business for you just because you understood & treated them well.

Do you sometimes find yourself in awkward sales positions having to negotiate your way round a problem or a misunderstanding?

Does price become the issue rather than value?

Perhaps you are relying on negotiation skills too heavily & should reconsider the client’s priorities & needs & how you can help them achieve results.

Here’s a number of customer reactions & what I think is the correct response – sell or negotiate;

But what to sell & what to negotiate on?

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