by kitzmillermedia | Jun 5, 2020 | Business, Social Media
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]The more a potential buyer interacts with a company, the more likely that person will actually become a customer. Client engagement is one of the most important business metrics to master in order to grow your business. Here are a few simple steps you can take today to make your customer interactions as productive as possible.
Utilize Social Media
No business can ever have too much social engagement, and it can always be improved upon. The more responsive your audience, the closer you’ll be to reaching your goals for social media.
In order to improve your engagement, it is important to first measure your current level of interaction. with social media Then, utilize strategies in every post to encourage customer responsiveness.
Incorporating images in your posts is a great way to increase engagement as are videos and context-rich posts. However, taking your social media a step further can make a real difference. Get creative and even a little funny with your posts. Let your personality shine so that your customers feel like there is a real person behind those posts. Also, creating events, such as giveaways or live broadcasts, can be a great catalyst in elevating customer interaction.
Keep Them Informed
Reminding your customers of how important they are should consistently be a priority in your business. This should be addressed in every marketing campaign and communication. One of the best ways to make your customers feel important is to keep them informed. Utilizing newsletters, blog posts and other communications to increase awareness and let your customers know what is happening with your company from time to time will help to encourage client interaction. Try increasing the frequency of your most impactful campaigns in order to keep your customers more engaged.
Focus on More Than Sales
Putting the time into creating an overall great customer experience can absolutely change your business. In order to do that, you also have to put time into understanding who your customer is and what they want. Marketing and customer interaction should always center around your core demographic. Study your current business model and try to find ways to bring exceptional service to your clients. Amazing customer service creates trust, and trust encourages sales.
Your customers need to know that you are hearing them and paying attention to what they want and need in your business. If you can provide a product or service your clients are looking for packaged with great customer engagement, you will likely keep your customers for the life of your business.
Still having problems? Read What to Know About the Effects of Social Media on Your Business and see if your social media isn’t helping you as much as you thought![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
by kitzmillermedia | Jan 27, 2020 | B2B, Content Marketing, SEO, Social Media
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]The sales process hasn’t changed much over the years. There are specific tactics all members of the sales team perform each and every day to get closer to the deal. They interrupt, engage, educate and offer. That’s it in a nutshell of course, but what about online leads? The online sales strategy is called inbound marketing and it unfolds much the same way but with one glaring exception.
Cold calling, direct mail, outdoor and online advertising are no longer working. Organizations cannot interrupt audiences with advertising like they used to. People have far more control over media for that to be effective. Now the consumer comes to you, not the other way around. So how can you get their attention? That’s where inbound marketing comes into play. Keep reading for a super simple introduction to inbound marketing.
Why is inbound marketing so important?
The reason organizations implement inbound marketing is to help them grow. Not only can it help grow their revenue but it can also help extend the reach of their brand. It helps organizations communicate their story more effectively. It gives them a voice online. It is one of the only marketing strategies that operates 24 hours a day and never calls in sick. Think of inbound marketing as a member of the sales team that never sleeps.
- Attract qualified traffic to your website
- Encourage discussion and social sharing
- Available 24/7/365
- Far more affordable than outbound marketing. (i.e., cold calling and direct mail)
“Businesses that blog at least 20x per month generate 5x more internet traffic and 4x more qualified leads.” – Hubspot
The inbound marketing sales team.
The email address is at the top of every inbound marketing sales funnel. Whether you are offering a free whitepaper or encouraging blog subscriptions, the email address is critical to nurturing leads. Here are several ways organizations use remarkable content to earn an email address.
The Newsletter
Email newsletters are a must have component of every inbound marketing strategy. Newsletters are the next best thing to a getting a direct quote request from a visitor. It’s a safe way for your audiences to learn more about your organization. Start with an attractive and informative monthly newsletter and you’ll be way ahead of the game.
- Send industry related news
- Deliver your blog content
- Send special offers and promotions
- Encourage social media engagement
The Whitepaper
Visitors to your site are thirsty for knowledge. Chances are they are in the early phases of the buying process. By offering whitepapers on topics your visitors care about, you give them a chance to further their knowledge. The great thing about whitepapers is that they are often readily available from a manufacturer or trade partner. All you need to do is rebrand it and offer it as a download on your website.
- Offer whitepapers in exchange for an email address
- Automate the follow-up process with an email autoresponder
The eBook
Similar to Whitepapers, eBooks are a great way to educate your audiences while obtaining leads. eBooks are much more substantial than whitepapers with more than 20 or 30 pages of helpful content. As I mentioned earlier, your visitors are craving information. If you can offer them a comprehensive guide that tells a compelling story, the dividends will be worthwhile. Here’s an example of a fantastic eBook from Freshbooks.
- Ask for an email address before delivering the eBook
- Follow up with a series of automated emails to nurture the relationship
Premium Content
Premium content is just what it sounds like; exclusive content produced for a unique audience. While some organizations offer premium content for a small fee, you could potentially offer it for free. People love to feel special. That’s exactly why brands like American Express, Costco and Mercedes do so well. There is perceived value in being a member of an exclusive club. You could potentially create an exclusive members area on your site where you offer content not found anywhere else such as podcasts or videos.
- Create an exclusive content club for members
- Use videos and podcasts
- Sweeten the membership deal with special offers
The Blog
Blogs are a powerful business development tool for organizations. Blog posts create a permanent record of authentic thought leadership, opinion and authority. Blogs are also an excellent way to nurture leads by reaching prospects during the early phases of the buying process. Encourage visitors to stick around by listing related content at the bottom of the blog post.
- Use blogs to build authority and gain trust
- Place a call to action at the bottom of every blog post
- Keep them on your site by linking them to related content
The Infographic
Since about 2010 Infographics have been an increasing trend. An infographic is data that has been summarized in a visual manner. It typically involves complex information that has been reinterpreted with graphical elements such as graphs and charts. Perhaps this is best explained using an example. Here’s an infographic about productivity. Infographics can help educate and entertain your audiences with a branded, visual story. The last thing I will say about infographics is that they are incredible shareable. If they are designed well and contains great information, your infographic can easily go viral.
- People are visual learners
- Use infographics to visually convey meaning
- Infographics are easily shared across the web
So now what?
The best part about the leads generated from inbound marketing is that they are already qualified. You’ve gained their trust and they want to know more. Once a fresh lead hits your inbox you need to reply as soon as possible! Use autoresponders to send a daily or weekly drip email to keep the relationship going. Here are a few examples of what you could tie into your autoresponder.
- Thank them for visiting and interacting with your website.
- Let them know how to reach you on social media.
- Send case studies or examples of your work
- Send them a link to your blog
- Share an infographic with them
- Send them a special offer
It’s extremely helpful to have an automated system in place to nurture leads. Once you have an email address you should continue to communicate with them on a regular basis. One word of warning, never, ever send email to someone who has not asked to receive it. You also need to give them a way to opt-out when they want to. Always include an unsubscribe link in your email campaigns.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” enable_gradient=”true” color_overlay=”rgba(30,115,190,0.11)” color_overlay_2=”rgba(238,238,34,0.11)” gradient_direction=”left_t_to_right_b” overlay_strength=”0.8″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”padding-4-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]
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Our business marketing review is comprehensive, informative and provides you with actionable advice to improve your marketing mix. Schedule a review today![/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text]
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by kitzmillermedia | Dec 26, 2019 | Business, SEO, Social Media
About three million people worldwide are active social media users. Businesses can take advantage of these people to grow their brand awareness, connect with customers, and grow sales. 90% of businesses agree that social media can have both positive and negative impacts on a business. Businesses that are not yet leveraging the power of social media in their marketing strategy will find it hard to survive the competition. So, let’s find out how social media can impact your business positively.
SEO
Any business that has been active on social media knows that there is a significant connection between search engine optimization and social media. While social media shares may not likely result in higher Google ranking, your profile may help you create a stronger presence. A strong social media profile can get its way and rank on the first page on Google. What this does to your business is to make it easy for people to find you online and connect with your brand. If you always share valuable content on social media, potential clients will easily notice and search your website. You will no doubt increase traffic to your website and rank better on SEO.
Brand Awareness
Social media is a powerful tool for businesses that want to boost their brand awareness. To leverage this power of social media on your business, you should find out the exact platform where your target audience is using. If they are on Facebook, most of your marketing efforts should be focused there. Once you know where to find them, ensure you attract their attention so that they become aware of your brand. You can do this by sharing valuable content with them, using eye-catching visuals, creating a conversation, and building authority. If you do all this right, it will be impossible for your business not to gain the brand awareness it desires.
Word of Mouth
Social media is the new word of mouth for your business. Businesses no longer go out there to try to spread the word about their business to the target audience but rather leverage the power of social media shares. There are booming online communities that help with this. Many people now depend on social media to give them reviews about a product or service they intend to buy. According to research, 71% of people take those online reviews as personal recommendations and are likely to make a purchase following a positive product review.
Customer Retention
Social media is not just a tool for attracting new customers; it is also a good platform for retaining the existing ones. Businesses thrive on building long-lasting relationships with customers and gaining their loyalty and trust. You can achieve this by engaging and connecting with your customers through appropriate communication funnels. Statistics show that if a customer reaches an answering machine, roughly 35% will never call that business again, so creating multiple funnels which allow communication between your business and your customers can be helpful.
Generate Leads
Social media is a fun way to generate leads to your business. Through the use of social media, a business gets access to different social networks that offer advertising formats to collect leads. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are lucrative platforms for getting lead generation ads. Businesses use both organic and paid social media platforms to promote their content and get desirable leads. When businesses follow lead generation best practices, they will benefit from the power of social media lead generation.
Customer Connection
Attracting new customers, using them to generate leads, and building loyalty is a long process. Social media is a good platform to create a business to customer connection and making all three possible. Social media enables a business to connect with their customers, monitor their needs, and address their problems. Through these connections, businesses interact easily with customers and get their feedback on various products and services they offer. Through social media, businesses provide personalized services and respond to their customer queries without delay.
Boost Sales
Social media is now a good platform where businesses can boost their sales. Social media sites create a good sales funnel where businesses can easily turn their page visitors into customers. All the new leads that social media pages attract every day; some percentage turn out to be buyers. Even if they don’t buy immediately, just having them around seeing your products/services every day slowly incites their interests, and they end up buying in the long run.
With the power of social media on business growing every day, it is evident that these social networking sites are not going anywhere soon. They are instead continuing to grow, and the earlier businesses make use of them, the more they’ll gain a competitive edge. Businesses should, therefore, recognize that social media is a powerful tool for engaging with their customers, increasing traffic to their websites, and making sales.
Here’s another article you might like: Two Free Social Media Tools to Help you Keep Up
by kitzmillermedia | Nov 4, 2019 | Business, Shop, Social Media, WordPress
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]We’re sharing this article for shop owners and designers who are using the Facebook for WooCommerce WordPress plugin and ran into some issues with the Check Out on Website button. By default, the button takes customers to the cart page. Not a bad solution considering how easy it is to connect WordPress to Facebook, but for us, the link skipped important configuration options each of the products require before checkout.
Kitzmiller Media recently designed and launched a wonderful new WooCommerce WordPress website for Dave Samuel with Samuel Pen Co. Dave sells gorgrous hand-turned custom pens. We were able to incorporate product addons that allowed visitors to select unique pen configurations including pen materials, pen tips, engraving, packaging options and more.
One goal of the online shop was to integrate the website catalog of products with Facebook and Instagram. Fortunately there is a plugin from Facebook that makes it reletively easy. While it doesn’t allow for much customization, it was able to integrate our entire product catalog into the Facebook shop page.
Unfortunately, the checkout button took customers to the cart. As we mentioned earlier, these products required customization before getting to the cart.
It wasn’t immediately obvious where we could adjust this link. The solution turned out to be incredibly easy and prevented us from rethinking our Facebook and Instagram marketing stategy.
To change the Facebook for WooCommerce check out button destination from the Cart to the Product Page follow these instructions.
- log into your Facebook Page as an admin
- Click settings
- Scroll down and click Shop
- Turn off Use Checkout URLS
That’s it. The button will now take customers directly to the WooCommerce Product Detail page on your website. Screenshots are below to help you find the correct setting. Let us know if it worked out for you!
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by kitzmillermedia | Oct 24, 2017 | Productivity, Social Media
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Social Media is still a major sore spot for many businesses. Just getting started seems to be the tricky part.
While there are month-long seminars about understanding the power and influence of social media, I would like to introduce two simple tools that make it much easier to get out of the gate. After you find a rhythm you can begin to get strategic. For now, let’s look in the toolbox.
Tools of the trade
Feedly and Buffer are social media tools that I use every day to manage all of my social media accounts and the profiles of my clients. These two apps are my secret weapons for keeping audiences up to date on my work, marketing trends, news, local tidbits and other related content.
There are literally dozens and dozens of applications available that help you manage your social media profiles. These two, however, have stood the test of time and continue to release new features that make sharing just a little bit easier. Let’s begin with Feedly.
Feedly
www.feedly.com
Cost: Free with a $5.41 pro version
Feedly is an application that allows you to organize, share and read what matters to you. Feedly serves as my ongoing newsfeed on topics I choose. I follow marketing blogs, design inspiration, tech trends and local and national news. If the website has a blog, you can add it to your Feedly dashboard.
I find Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms way too cluttered and a bit unpredictable as my news feed. Feedly allows me to create targeted news feeds where I can see headlines and snippets at a glance without distraction. If I’m interested in the article I can click a button to read the entire article on the website where it’s published. If I like it enough to share it, I can do that right from within Feedly.
As a standalone news feed, it’s perfect, but where it really gets good is its sharing feature. Built into Feedly is a robust sharing tool that allows you to share articles and blog posts on all your social media profiles. You can also save it for later or email it to a friend. You can also add it to Buffer, which is where the magic happens.
A quick look at my Feedly dashboard
Buffer
www.buffer.com
Cost: free up to 1 social media profile on each platform.
While Feedly does have some nice sharing tools, Buffer has way more features. One of the most notable is the ability to schedule posts in advance. Each connected social media profile has a unique calendar where I can set the perfect date and time I want updates to go out to my audience. You can even schedule posts to deliver multiple times per day. Each social media profile can have its own unique schedule because what works for Facebook doesn’t always work for Twitter or Instagram.
Every time you add something to Buffer it drops it into the next available timeslot. You could easily create a month’s worth of updates in just a couple hours of surfing your news feed in Feedly.
Another great feature of Buffer is the analytics dashboard. I can view all kinds of data including likes, comments, and shares. This allows me to see which posts were successful and compare them to other previous posts.
Buffer’s sharing popup window.
Using Feedly and Buffer together
The idea behind using Feedly and Buffer together is to simplify and streamline the content you share on all of your social media profiles. My typical strategy is to open the Feedly app in the morning and read through the headlines. If I see an article that I think my audience would enjoy, I add it to Buffer. Rinse and repeat.
I’ve been using these social media tools for well over 5 years now and it has served me well. There are a dozen other ways to share and organize your news feed, but the Feedly/Buffer combo seems to work pretty well for my needs.
Let me know how it goes. They both offer free accounts to get started so now there are no excuses to start growing your brand on social media. If you have any questions contact me directly or leave a comment below. Thanks for reading![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
by kitzmillermedia | Jun 21, 2014 | Social Media
[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]ROI on social media marketing is hard to prove, but not impossible. The hard part is actually convincing businesses to use it. In most cases it’s free and gives businesses like yours an opportunity to get in front of targeted audiences. ROI can be demonstrated by carefully reviewing website metrics and it can easily help increase a business’s authority online.
Many business owners misunderstand the benefits of social media marketing.
To help explain the benefits I will draw a comparison to a classic marketing medium… The refrigerator magnet. I’m guessing most, if not all of us, have a refrigerator door covered in children’s artwork, recipes, photos and random other stuff.
You might have a refrigerator magnet with your sprinkler company or real estate agent on it. You probably picked it up at a street fair or got it in the mail and just slapped it on the fridge without even thinking twice about it. Now, will it trigger you to call for a sprinkler blow-out when reaching for the milk? Probably not.
Refrigerator magnets don’t compel people to act. It’s just a magnet with a logo on it. However, after months of seeing it on the fridge they become memorable. The next time you run into a friend who mentions they want to move, guess what your brain does – It recalls the last time you saw your refrigerator magnet.
This is exactly how social media works. It’s modern top-of-mind marketing at its best.
If used correctly, social media can drive sales and make you more profitable. It can also help you become more memorable. This is especially true for service providers such as attorneys, mechanics, heating and cooling companies… you name it. The power of social media is awareness. Once you build your audience, all you need to do is show up with memorable content.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1450209384449{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #f5f5f5 !important;}”]
[icon color=”Accent-Color” animation_speed=”Slow” size=”small” icon_size=”” animation_delay=”” image=”fa-check-square-o”] Are you a little behind the times?
Don’t sweat it. It’s never too late to catch-up. Contact me and we can get your business setup on social media. Get a for a FREE social media marketing profile review.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
