Alberta Business MarketingJan
28
2012
Jul
24
2010
This post may ruffle a few feathers especially here in our Calgary Social Media consulting world. But what the heck, sometimes I learn from Vladville and gotta upset the apple cart from time to time. I am only writing this because I care enough about Canadian small business to raise a flag on all the “so-called” gurus out there ready to take your money and give you nothing in return. Buyer Beware and do your homework before giving your credit card number or writing a cheque.
How does the average Canadian small business see Social Media? What does your business think of those feverishly running around or continuous tweeting looking to pitch their services? $100 off a strategy session here and promises to manage a company’s social media there. There is still a lot of promises about experts looking to fill the pipelines of Canadian small business with endless referrals become of their social media activities.
Sorry, I have to throw my BS flag here. Just because you have a website and sent out 5 tweets doesn’t make you a marketing expert. Our team at Ulistic are serious and professionally trained consultants and a team who works strategically with business across the globe. We take an exception to those social media gurus out there who think they can save the day with a simple Facebook Page and Twitter account. Sorry, social media success is part of a greater marketing strategy and business plan loaded with KPIs and objectives.
There are some markets our team has a wealth of experience and some we simply have a basic understanding. We know our strengths and appreciate our weaker areas. I can’t promise that we will fill your pipeline with gobs of referrals.
What if no one is looking for what you are offering?
What if your sales team can’t follow-up on leads?
What if…what I can promise if you do things right and follow the new rules of marketing you can position yourself to win new potential opportunities, but I can’t promise you the phone will ring off the wall. Those who promise this, sorry I simply don’t understand it.
With that, more and more social media consultants are popping up on the landscape claiming to save the day. It is almost embarrassing. The social media consulting space here in Calgary and across all of Canada is becoming extremely crowded. Crowded with social media consultants and self-proclaimed experts. Those who have a family businesses to former golf ball and promotional products experts flying in to save the day with Social Media.
Wait a second here!
Here are a few things to watch out for when hiring a social media consultant for your business:
Real business needs real world consulting. Not someone who will tweet your specials and start a fan page on Facebook. Your business is not going to win with social media alone, social media must be integrated into your overall marketing strategy. A strategic marketing coach with specialities in online marketing, social media and search engine optimization can help your business understand this part of the strategy but also have resources outside of the online marketing world to help with the overall marketing strategy and business execution.
That is the end of my rant…here is my last tip to the business owner…Do Your Homework and Buyer Beware!
Jul
8
2010
Social Media and Search Engines are turning the sales world on its head. Is your business attractive bait in the online ocean or is your business just a small fish in a big pond. Businesses today are looking for what you have to offer but how are they finding you?
One of the questions I get asked throughout the course of my day, as a Canadian Social Media Consultant is how small businesses across Canada can actively prospect for new business in our online world. The Internet has opened the kimono when it comes to marketing opportunities.
Is your business leveraging what the Internet has to offer?
I continue to enjoy a strong passion for sales and marketing. This passion was born in my early days as a computer tech and IT Professional in the Calgary market. As a young computer support technician I had a knack for helping those get the right IT solutions for their business and with the right mindset. These core principles I practiced 12 years ago are now very relevant today.
It started with putting service first and the need to provide the client the right solution that allowed them to achieve their crucial business goals. I loved being involved in the sales process and eventually helping build IT Matters through a strong client-first marketing focus.
Like many of you, I had a number of so-called “sales experts” try to educate me on how to sell to my customers. Some strategies worked and some flopped. That was part of the education process. The important component of any experience is that we learn from it.
In a traditional sales environment, we have always taught our sales teams to go out and prospect. Chase down potential opportunity after opportunity and shake things out. Many of us are still taught to “go out and hunt for opportunities”. We do cold calling, warm calling, selling to people in our networking groups and the list goes on from there.
The question is, does it really work in today’s world?
The market is much smarter than just a few years ago. Google, BING and the Internet have helped educate our clients on exactly what they want or need. Social Media and online communities are breeding grounds for those looking for answers. However, many of us continue to turn a blind eye to the power of social media and continue with websites that don’t perform.
Today’s consumer plays the prospector role. Educated consumers lurk amongst us and the Internet allows these knowledgeable consumers to continuous search the information and answers they want. Many will never stop until they get the answer they want. These same consumers once relied on our expertise. Today, that expertise is available with a simple Google search.
I often think in order to fill this need and to be successful in our businesses we need to flip the prospecting model on its head. The roles have to be reversed. Our sales teams and marketing professionals must become the prospect and our future clients…the prospector. I think this is how the model has to look. It is the only way it can work in today’s world where answers are at everyone’s fingertips.
What can we do online and offline that facilitates others to prospect for our services and products? How do sales professionals and business owners become attractive bait for those in need of what we have to offer? I often think about what Jeffrey Gitomer says, “customers love to buy but they hate to be sold”.
How can we become that facilitator who allows people to do what they love…BUY. Can our social media activities play an active role? I think it has to. The reality of today’s world is never before has the opportunity for many of us to become great bait and allow the prospectors out there to find us. After all, isn’t that we all love to buy? The debt crises in North America can attest to that.
The Internet allows us to be searchable. Social media and search engines are the prospector’s tools. The scary part is for many of us is we are nowhere to be found. We have little or no online presence and we wonder why the guy down the street gets all the business. Maybe it is because he is out there, helping and serving those who are looking for what he or she has to offer.
That is the reality, it doesn’t matter what market you are in, you have an opportunity to educate and make yourself the most attractive bait out there. You just need to take the first step and learn how to participate effectively.
May
23
2010
Over the past few weeks on my blog and also on the Ulistic Opinion Blog we have shared some of our discussions with a number of the excellent speakers and panelists lined up for the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference on June 9 through to the 11th in Toronto.
I caught up with one of the speakers this week, Bryan Eisenberg who will be speaking on “21 Secrets to Top Converting Websites“. I caught up with this NYTimes Best Selling Author and discussed topics that he will be sharing at the Toronto Search Engine Optimization event.
You don’t want to miss seeing Bryan and all the great speakers lined up for this Toronto Web Marketing event. You can follow Bryan on Twitter @thegrok.
1. Ulistic understands the importance of conversions with a marketing website, business today are leveraging many different types of web services, all hungry to convert or attract qualified prospects. Can you share an example of trying to hard to convert? What are some of the pitfalls?
I have seen many instances of this occur, but the one that really stands out is when in was doing some research on Eloqua, and I came across an ad for one of their competitors Marketo. They committed one of the biggest blunders on their landing page, by not understanding the searchers buying stage. They only thing I was able to do on the landing page was complete a form to view a demo. I was researching their competitor and was committed to understand anything about one of their competitors. They should have taken then time to explain how they differ from their competitor not just to try to convert me into a lead and give me only one option of filling out a lead form. Meet your visitors with your sales or lead process and align it with their buying process if you want to succeed online.
2. What would you recommend to a small business owner looking to roll out an online marketing strategy?
3. What are some of the key factors associated with success on converting visitors to potential clients?
The number one secret is to developing your corporate metabolism to the point you can execute on a drop of a dime. You need to rely on data driven decisions and foster creativity in testing. The poster child is Amazon.com, who processed around 25% of all Ecommerce transactions in the U.S. last year. Why? At any given time they have around 200 tests running on their website, they execute quickly and intelligently ( within two hours of Michael Jackson’s death they completely reconfigured their who Mp3 store), and they leverage the voice of customer to enable social commerce and move beyond usability to persuadibility ( want to know what I mean then come see my session at SES Toronto)!
May
11
2010
LinkedIn is a wonderful resource to meet new people and keep up to date with what is happening out there. While surfing through LInked, I ran across this awesome article in Robert Cohen’s Trusted Business Advisor LinkedIn Group. After reading some of the points in the group I felt obliged to jump into the conversation on using email as a form of cold calling. I haven’t had a tremendous amount of success with this practice and after reading the feedback in the group…I know why!
I would love to hear from you if you are using email to cold call people and if you are actually having success with it. If you are having success, what are you doing? What is working?
My friend Tibor Shanto wrote recently in a great blogpost on Email as a form of cold calling that you must check out. It got me thinking about all the marketing folks out there who preach about the fact that Cold Calling is dead. I don’t completely agree with the statement that you never have to cold call again. However when your marketing efforts are firing on all cylinders you may have the opportunity to reduce the amount of cold calling you need to do. Or even better, your strong marketing efforts will allow your business cold calling to be highly effective. Why? Because people have heard of you, they know about your business and now a cold call become lukewarm.
I heard a statement a few weeks ago about the difference between marketing and sales that really opened my eyes. Effective marketing gets people to call you, sales has you calling people. In Tibor’s article I guess we are not completely speaking about marketing and now we are focused on more sales related activities. The two activities are always working in a successful business. They can never stop or even slow down. Plus, all members of your team must be engaged.
Tibor offers some great examples of how to use email effectively to create an opportunity for a meeting. Where I believe I made my mistake using email to solicit opportunities is I forget the cardinal rule of the call or email…it is just to get a meeting, not to sell. Thanks Tibor for the reminder.
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