An overview of marketing to local customers in your area My - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
An overview of marketing to local customers in your area My - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
An overview of marketing to local customers in your area My objective is to discuss some of the methods that all successful companies use to acquire new customers I want you to be able to leave here today with knowledge and insights that
My objective is to discuss some of the methods that
all successful companies use to acquire new customers
I want you to be able to leave here today with
knowledge and insights that you can apply to help your business develop
Take what you feel you can use and test which ideas
work for you
Talk is about 45 mins plus 45 mins Q & A afterwards
Google Places/Google plus Social Marketing Google Adwords (Pay per click) Landing pages Email marketing Mobile devices & tablets Your website Inbound marketing Offline to online advertising – A case study QR codes
Any successful marketing material must address the key question in your prospective customer’s mind. That question is:- “what’s in it for me?” Break your marketing material down to address this issue by answering the following questions.
Why should I read this or listen to you? Why should I believe what you say? Why should I respond to it now?
Express the benefits of your services to the customer because benefits sell.
A – Attention
Often the headline or opening text
I – Interest
Explain what’s on offer (head)
D – desire
Set up the reasons why it’s a “must have” (heart)
A – Action
Explain/encourage what action to take NOW!
Google have a couple of “local” services that you should be exploiting. They are free and can be great for good search result listings. First up is Google Places
It puts your business on the map – Literally! It verifies you as the business owner and allows you
to enter correct information
If you don’t verify, Google will take a best estimate
- f who, what & where you are from other sources
Google want you to use your places listing
Most people think of Facebook as the main social network available, followed by Twitter. While these are important networks without doubt, Google have their own social network called Google plus. Content on Google plus is becoming more important as a ranking factor so it makes sense to use Google’s own social tool to rank better
Google search is now less reliant on poor
quality links & more reliant on social share
Google wants you to use/update your Google
plus account
Google would “prefer” you to use Plus than
Facebook!
Get involved with Google plus if you can
The concept of a social network is not limited to just Facebook or Google plus. Social networks can include business groups like Linked In, forums, chat rooms, local interest groups, town websites, mums net, community blogs, local interest groups (e.g. Gardening) etc. Next we look at ways to promote socially.
Define your goals Social alone is not enough Produce good shareable
content
Have a clear call to action
in social media
Add value where you are
able
Test competitions or offers
and see what works
Social is ALL about 2-way
- traffic. Invite conversation
and sharing in peer groups
It’s NOT for everyone so
don’t feel you MUST!
Next – Google Ad Words
Years ago the only way to get the public’s attention was to buy advertising space. Space was sold in newspapers & magazines, on radio & TV at prices controlled by the media. Now there’s a hugely powerful and (potentially) cheap way of reaching customers Google Adwords
You can place your adverts in front of your audience
in minutes
You can rigidly control your costs You can define the areas where your ads are shown
(so it can be truly local)
You can schedule ads to turn on & off You can test, monitor and change campaigns very
quickly
Sadly, no they won’t!
Adwords is a system that needs setting up properly, testing and optimising. Adwords campaigns will mature and flourish with some careful strategic planning and properly targeted messages. This is where landing pages are so important as they work in tandem with your ads to encourage visitors to take ACTION.
These are where the links from PPC ads or HTML emails take you after clicking on them.
Are they relevant to the ad the person just saw? More relevancy = More response More response = More customers Are the landing pages mobile friendly? You can check with your own phone Test functionality so you know it works e.g. forms
One simple action you can try for is to have a form that gathers email addresses. Once you have an email list, you can then send them emails with useful information. People don’t mind receiving useful, relevant and entertaining emails from you. It’s not spam and they can always unsubscribe from your mailing list.
You are best using a system like Mailchimp They offer great templates and resources You can segment your list(s) You will comply with the can-spam protocols Your list is automatically managed for you You can integrate forms from websites/blogs You can personalise e-mails for a better response You get good stats & can A/B test
Cheap and easy to use Schedule deliveries –Times and dates You can segment your list(s) for more relevancy Use Auto responder emails Generate important metrics to target people better Automate your whole sales & communication
processes via email
Digital marketing now needs to consider screen size – i.e. Mobile phones & tablet devices. It’s always a shame when a well written and designed email that looks good on a phone screen then takes you to a webpage that looks awful. Use responsive design layouts that resize to the screen resolution.
Google stated in June 2012 that over 900,000 new
Android devices being activated every day! That excludes Apple products & Blackberry devices
Mobile use is only going to increase from now on –
especially when 4G is fully available
Mobile is here to stay – like the internet Google’s preferred web display system for multi
device browsing is “responsive design”
Is your website mobile/tablet display screen friendly? This is important because of the rise of mobile devices used to
access the internet daily
Half of all Internet users have accessed the Internet via a mobile
phone or device
Does your website offer valuable, interesting, relevant information? Do you express the benefits of your service on your website? Do you set yourself apart from your competitor?
If you’re paying for website traffic – you should be answering YES to all of the above.
Offer the best content that you can on your subject
The best rated (SEO ranked) website content is also the most
shared on social networks.
This is not causal, so it’s NOT the sharing that makes it rank better,
it’s just because it’s good, valuable content that makes people want to share it.
Good content will start to get shared more than once. More shared content means better social signals. These give you
better rankings in search results.
It’s that principle that underpins the principle of inbound
marketing.
Supply free, highly informative information on your site This positions you as an expert Highly sharable (social, local, verbal) Search engines index content Use as lead generation tool in conjuction with email
packages such as Mailchimp
Link to Google analytics & use intelligence gathered to
produce further content
All media space you buy should be use for response
driven marketing
By directing people online you get the chance to
automate the sales process
People commonly have multiple points of interaction
before buying including: Adverts, website, forum discussion, third party verification etc.
This highlights the value of “socially shareable” and
relevant content in all your marketing material
You are THE “go to guy” for help
Local campaign linking street advertising (cut out cows) to leaflets & online form on temporary website. Methods employed to promote a response
- Use of limited time
- Win a substantial reward
- Play on local nature of the
campaign
- Novelty value (cut outs)
- Sharable on social media
- Backed up with flyer
distribution
Once a new series of reliable and profitable methods are established, keep doing them while they are profitable. DO NOT STOP! Test a new Marketing idea Use good marketing material that promotes the benefits Monitor results Add new marketing ideas and do the same. Try social media, Ad Words and email marketing Roll out the ones that work on a larger scale Once your system is established, you can automate much of the marketing and have guaranteed income