Last updated 4 months ago
Do you know how many more reachable friends there are for every Facebook fan you engage?
Do you know the type of post that receive 39% higher than average interaction rates?
Most of the business owners I advise, look at the wrong metrics when it comes to Facebook fans. They all want more fans. Continually I am asked "how can I get more fans" when the real question should be "how can I engage the fans I already have?"
Let's go back to the first question to discuss why you want to engage even 1 of your fans. For every fan that you engage, there are on average 34 more friends you can reach with your content which means you have an opportunity to increase your brand awareness with people who have the potential to do business with you every time one fan engages with you.
Check out the infographic The Simple Science of Facebook Engagement below to see more great reasons to engage your fans and how to do it. Such as posting images to get interaction rates that are 39% higher than your average post.
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Like it or not, Facebook is still the largest social network and high customer engagement is becoming essential to your success. I know you want thousands upon thousands of fans but let me ask you this, will it have more impact on your business to have 100 fans who are actively engaged with your brand online or 200,000 who never even acknowledge your posts?
Now, let's talk about how you can engage those fans whether you have 10, 100 or 100,000.
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Keep posts short. Facebook posts with 80 characters or less get 23% higher engagement rates.
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Posts with images receive conversion rates 39% higher than average. Don't forget to add a photo to your posts to draw more attention and engagement.
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Speaking of photos. Asking fans to caption your photo increases comments by 5.5 times. Try to find a photo that is relevant to your industry but will also receive a lot of attention and fun captions.
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41% of Facebook users check Facebook an average of 1-2 times per day. And the best time to post your most enticing posts are on Wednesdays from 1pm - 4pm.
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Contests work. Odds are, we are following your brand on Facebook because we're hoping we'll get a great deal out of it. But let's not talk a % off type of discount. Go with a giveaway or contest with winners. Reward us for following your brand.
How are you using Facebook to engage your fans?
What types of posts have you found to be the most successful?
Last updated 6 months ago
But before we dive into
how consumers buy, let's talk about how YOU buy. Because like it or not, in addition to being a business owner, you are also a consumer.
Think about how you've changed the way you buy things today compared to 10 years ago? Do you use the same process? Think about the last time you purchased a new car, braces for your kids or even something as simple as a new outfit or a good restaurant for date night.
Did you:
I'm guessing you mentally checked some of these boxes. Probably more than one. And I'm guessing you're starting to see how big an impact the Web and mobile have had on the way you buy and, on a larger scale, consumers overall - including yours!
How does this impact your business?
As Jim Lecinski, Managing Director at Google states, "If you're not visible online when people are doing their homework, believe me, they'll find others who are."
Translated - you need to be visible across the web, not just in one place.
Again, let's review how you research for a new product/service. Do you simply go to the business' website and say "Yup, sounds good" and take out your wallet or do you go to multiple places across the web to learn about a business such as the business' website, review sites, social sites and other sites across the web before making your decision?
In addition to having a website (and not one that hasn't been updated since 1999), you need to have a presence across the web, in places like:
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Social Media Sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ Local)
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Reputation Sites (Yelp, Google+ Local)
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Directory Sites
And, if you're really looking to rank organically to help consumers find more information about you when they are in research mode, a blog would be highly beneficial. As long as you post relevant, useful content regularly.
The buying journey has evolved. How has your business changed to keep up with this change? How has your personal buying process changed over the past ten years?
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Last updated 7 months ago
There is a famous advertising quote by John Wanamaker, "half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
With all the new tracking technologies available, you no longer need to question if your advertising is bringing you viable prospects - what you may want to question is how those qualified prospects are being handled once they contact your office.
Do you know how many perfectly good opportunities your staff lets slip through your fingers every day, week, month?
Let's say every client yields a profit of $100. And let's say your staff "lets go" of 15 viable leads every month that would have turned into a $100 profit. How do you feel about missing out on $1,500 in profit every month?
What's the point of spending tons of money on advertising if your staff allows qualified leads to slip through your fingers?
And that's where call tracking comes in handy. Not only can you see exactly how many leads you receive from each of your marketing endeavors, you can also track those leads directly back to sales to determine an accurate return on investment for your advertising.
Oh, and did I mention you can also see how your staff handles your inbound leads. It's the perfect way to determine where your strengths and weaknesses are. From there you can work on training programs to help close the gap between missed opportunities and closed opportunities for inbound leads.
If you already use call tracking for your advertising campaigns, how have you used it to boost your ROI from each campaign?
Last updated 10 months ago
Too often I still see business owners who simply don't place enough importance on their website. Just because you have one doesn't mean they (customers) will come.
Websites have a very strategic role in terms of your business growth. They are your online salesperson. If you have an e-commerce site, your website needs to convince someone that the product you sell is right for them and that they should proceed through the shopping cart. If you are a local business such as an attorney, restoration company or plumber, your website should convince someone to call you. And if you are a car dealership, furniture store or retail store, your website should entice someone to pay your physical location a visit.
Does your website do this?
Your website needs to sell someone on your business - regardless of what that business is. What's the point of driving someone to your website if it doesn't entice them to action?
While it's important to be listed in directories, engaged in social media and garnering a great reputation on review sites, your website is the one place online where you control the message. Make sure you are pointing out a message that sells your business to someone. You have about 8 seconds to capture their attention - how well is your website doing this? If I came to your website would I want to do business with you?
?But don't just take my word for it. Below are some other great articles that talk about how important your website is to your business.
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Leslie Whittaker is a professional marketing strategist and digital advertising consultant who works with businesses who want to strengthen their online presence, implement a strong brand strategy and develop loyal relationships with their customers while growing their business to the next level. For more information please contact Leslie 407.252.8659 | email leslie.whittaker@reachlocal.com.
Last updated 10 months ago
Have you stalked your website visitors lately?
Yeah, you read that right. Typically when we think about "stalking" we think crazy, psycho with a crush on the latest "hot" celebrity. But stalking doesn't always have to be negative. Some types of stalking can actually be highly beneficial to your company's bottom line. What do I mean? I mean, implement a digital "stalker" program that follows your website visitors around after they have left your website.
Have you ever noticed that after doing some online shopping you seem to see ads for that company all over the Internet. Odds are,if they are a big company they probably are spending tons of ad dollars online; however, what you probably don't realize is that they aren't advertising on all of the websites you seem them on directly. What they are most likely doing is stalking you.
At ReachLocal, we call it remarketing. Basically, it's reminder marketing. And even if you don't do this type of reminder marketing with ReachLocal, you are certainly wasting a LOT of your advertising dollars if you're not. Think of all the money you spend just to get a person to your website. For most businesses, a 10% click to call is a GOOD click to call ratio in terms of percentage of website visitors to those who actually pick up the phone and call you. So for every 100 visitors, 10 (if you have a click to call that is even that good) are actually making a point to contact you. Better hope you have one killer receptionist to secure that business. But what happens to the other 90? Do you really just want to let them leave your website and forget about you? I sincerely hope not. Hence why you need to implement a stalker program - aka reminder marketing or remarketing.
Oh and the best part, compared to the money you are investing in other advertising outlets, an investment in reminder marketing will seem like a steal. It's like a safety net for all of your other marketing endeavors. It costs you a pretty penny just to get them to your website and the average page visits lasts last than a minute. Wouldn't it be great if you could get your message back in front of them while they are surfing online - while they can TAKE ACTION.
To me, this just seems like a no brainer. Why would you NOT want to stalk your website visitors and entice them to come back and do business with you?
So, today's marketing tip of the day: stalk your website visitors. Honestly, it won't make you into some crazed, psycho. It will actually make you a marketing genius!
