5 Steps to Launch Your International Social Media
Posted on 14. Nov, 2011 by Christian Arno in Blog, guest post, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing
Guest post by Christian Arno, founder of professional translation services provider Lingo24. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 has clients in over sixty countries, and translated over forty million words in the last year.
Even though Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google are American companies, social media doesn’t begin and end at the shores of the USA. If your company operates multi-nationally, creating and perpetuating a social media presence globally will eventually become a consideration – if it’s not already.
The challenge is that your social media efforts need to be localized for each target market, in the same way your websites need to be. It’s tricky, but not as difficult as it may seem. Here are the five steps you need to follow to go international with your social media marketing.
1. Choose the right social networks for the country
In some countries, locally grown social networks hold the majority of users’ attention, so you’ll need to do your research on each foreign market before launching your campaign, to ensure you’re targeting the network(s) with the largest portion of your potential audience. Here’s the low down on a few localized alternatives:
Qzone – the biggest network in China, popular with teens and casual users.
Renren – China’s network for university students.
Kaixin001 – the third major Chinese network, mainly used by office workers.
Orkut – the major player in Brazil, also very popular in India. Owned by Google.
Mixi – the biggest social network in Japan.
VKontakte – a LinkedIn-style networking site for professionals, which dominates all others in Russia.
Friendster – still retains some followers post-Facebook in South East Asia. Based in Malaysia.
2. Find out what people like
People tend to use social media for different purposes in different countries, so it’s useful to have an understanding of what people from different cultures will best respond to before launching.
Asia – sharing and downloading music and videos is the most popular pastime on social networks across much of Asia.
South America – the countries with the highest percentage of Twitter users are in South America. They’re also avid bloggers, and frequently access the Web on mobile devices.
India – social networks based around online gaming and music sharing are popular.
Western Europe – most similar to North America, in that content which is either useful (e.g. potential to win a competition) or entertaining does best.
Develop a strategy
Depending on your budget, you have two options when it comes to your social media content strategy – you can either do it yourself, or hire in-country social media managers.
Doing it yourself has the benefit of being theoretically more affordable: you can get your content translated by a professional service and use free tools like Google Translate to get the gist of comments from followers, etc. However, it has the downside of limiting your responsiveness, and also has a distinct chance of ineffective localization (more on that next).
Hiring in-country copywriters to manage your social media channels is undeniably the best option, if you can afford it – it means your profiles will be effectively localized. You probably will be able to respond more quickly, as well.
Localize your content
There’s more to ‘localization’ than simply translating a tweet or blog post from English into another language. You need to take into account:
Is this content relevant to the target audience? If it’s about a product launch that’s solely in the USA, will your potential buyers in India be interested in this? How can you adjust the content to make it relevant to them?
Does it contain culture-specific references? If an article was written for a French audience, and contains references to minor French celebrities, how can you adjust it so it’s relevant to, say, Brazilians?
Have you taken into account different currencies, measurement systems and local spellings (e.g. the difference between US and UK spelling)?
What about other cultural factors? For example, in China there is a list of keywords which will result in your content being banned by the government – have you checked your content to ensure it’s not potentially offensive and won’t be censored?
Have you taken into account current events? A social media campaign calling for buyers to ‘take advantage of falling prices’ could be construed as insensitive in a post-Earthquake location, for instance.
5. Interact
This is the most important part of any social media plan, and it’s where in-country social media managers can potentially make the biggest difference. Just as in the USA, sending uni-directional, offer-laden messages day after day will curtail your results. But if you can engage followers, you have a better chance of successfully turning your brand into a living, breathing entity.
And that’s a social media success, no matter what country you’re in.
5 Steps to Launch Your International Social Media
Posted on 14. Nov, 2011 by Christian Arno in Blog, guest post, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing
Guest post by Christian Arno, founder of professional translation services provider Lingo24. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 has clients in over sixty countries, and translated over forty million words in the last year.
Even though Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google are American companies, social media doesn’t begin and end at the shores of the USA. If your company operates multi-nationally, creating and perpetuating a social media presence globally will eventually become a consideration – if it’s not already.
The challenge is that your social media efforts need to be localized for each target market, in the same way your websites need to be. It’s tricky, but not as difficult as it may seem. Here are the five steps you need to follow to go international with your social media marketing.
1. Choose the right social networks for the country
In some countries, locally grown social networks hold the majority of users’ attention, so you’ll need to do your research on each foreign market before launching your campaign, to ensure you’re targeting the network(s) with the largest portion of your potential audience. Here’s the low down on a few localized alternatives:
Qzone – the biggest network in China, popular with teens and casual users.
Renren – China’s network for university students.
Kaixin001 – the third major Chinese network, mainly used by office workers.
Orkut – the major player in Brazil, also very popular in India. Owned by Google.
Mixi – the biggest social network in Japan.
VKontakte – a LinkedIn-style networking site for professionals, which dominates all others in Russia.
Friendster – still retains some followers post-Facebook in South East Asia. Based in Malaysia.
2. Find out what people like
People tend to use social media for different purposes in different countries, so it’s useful to have an understanding of what people from different cultures will best respond to before launching.
Asia – sharing and downloading music and videos is the most popular pastime on social networks across much of Asia.
South America – the countries with the highest percentage of Twitter users are in South America. They’re also avid bloggers, and frequently access the Web on mobile devices.
India – social networks based around online gaming and music sharing are popular.
Western Europe – most similar to North America, in that content which is either useful (e.g. potential to win a competition) or entertaining does best.
Develop a strategy
Depending on your budget, you have two options when it comes to your social media content strategy – you can either do it yourself, or hire in-country social media managers.
Doing it yourself has the benefit of being theoretically more affordable: you can get your content translated by a professional service and use free tools like Google Translate to get the gist of comments from followers, etc. However, it has the downside of limiting your responsiveness, and also has a distinct chance of ineffective localization (more on that next).
Hiring in-country copywriters to manage your social media channels is undeniably the best option, if you can afford it – it means your profiles will be effectively localized. You probably will be able to respond more quickly, as well.
Localize your content
There’s more to ‘localization’ than simply translating a tweet or blog post from English into another language. You need to take into account:
Is this content relevant to the target audience? If it’s about a product launch that’s solely in the USA, will your potential buyers in India be interested in this? How can you adjust the content to make it relevant to them?
Does it contain culture-specific references? If an article was written for a French audience, and contains references to minor French celebrities, how can you adjust it so it’s relevant to, say, Brazilians?
Have you taken into account different currencies, measurement systems and local spellings (e.g. the difference between US and UK spelling)?
What about other cultural factors? For example, in China there is a list of keywords which will result in your content being banned by the government – have you checked your content to ensure it’s not potentially offensive and won’t be censored?
Have you taken into account current events? A social media campaign calling for buyers to ‘take advantage of falling prices’ could be construed as insensitive in a post-Earthquake location, for instance.
5. Interact
This is the most important part of any social media plan, and it’s where in-country social media managers can potentially make the biggest difference. Just as in the USA, sending uni-directional, offer-laden messages day after day will curtail your results. But if you can engage followers, you have a better chance of successfully turning your brand into a living, breathing entity.
And that’s a social media success, no matter what country you’re in.
The 3 Building Blocks of Social Business Evolution
Posted on 12. Jul, 2011 by Michael Brito in Blog, corporate culture, guest post, Guest Posts, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social business, Social Business Design, Social Media Book, Social Media Staffing and Operations, social media strategy
Guest post by Michael Brito, Vice President at Edelman Digital. He writes the Britopian blog, and wrote the new social business book, Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization
Building a business is easy. Start with an idea. Find a wicked developer who is willing to work 80 hours a week for small paycheck and equity. Spend some time on Sand Hill Road. Hire smart people and then watch your bank account grow.
Building a social business is not so easy. It requires people to actually communicate — processes and governance models that help shape employee behavior online — and technology to facilitate collaboration across the organization.
3 Building Blocks for Social Business Evolution
A social business is built upon three pillars – people, process and technology. All three need to work independent of each other, yet need to be completely integrated into the DNA of organizational culture.
1.Change Management is the foundation of a Social Business
The foundation of a fully collaborative social business, whether for a small or large firm is the company’s most valuable asset, its people. It addresses the need to drive organizational change in an effort to shift employee behavior, communicate more effectively across job functions and geographies and tear down organizational silos.
All the technology, collaboration software and community applications deployed behind the firewall will not be effective unless there is a fundamental shift in the way employees think, interact with one another and communicate. These change management initiatives have to be driven by organizational leadership and practiced at every level in the organization from senior leadership all the way down to a customer support agent. Otherwise, change will not occur. This means that executives must not only talk about changing the organization but exemplify the behaviors that really do facilitate and practice change.
The end result is an increase in trust among all employees at every level; trust of employees and empowering them to engage externally; an increase in budget investments to social business initiatives, collaboration and more effective social organization models.
2. Creating Processes that Create Organizational Consistency
Process cuts right through the entire fabric of the organization. It ensures that every job function in every business unit and within every geography is consistent when performing certain tasks. For example, when a new employee joins a company and wants to start blogging or Tweeting on behalf of the company, a process should be in place that governs training, certification and social media policies.
Another example is when marketing departments in other countries want to create a Facebook fan page specifically for their geography. A process should be in place that will manage the creation of new social media destination; and escalate these requests to governing body (i.e. Social Media Center of Excellence) to avoid duplicate pages and inconsistent messages.
Processes should help facilitate the chaos that exists from behind the firewall – i.e. employees sharing sensitive material externally, social media ownership, crisis management and product feedback workflows; and ensuring there is one measurement philosophy that the entire organization is bought into and using for reporting. Additionally, training initiatives, social media policies and guidelines, moderation policies, global expansion must be documented, approved and then rolled up into a co-created governance model. This ensures that there is message consistency globally, a legal documentation that protects the organization, empowers employees and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
3. Deploying Technology that Facilitates Collaboration
A social business needs technology in order to facilitate change and collaboration. Organizations need to be smart and think long term before investing in technology applications that facilitate internal collaboration (Jive, Lithium, Yammer), social listening (Radian6, Meltwater), measurement (Rowfeeder, Argyle), social relationship management (Sprinklr, Syncapse Platform) and social CRM (Nimble, JitterJam, Pivotal).
Companies need to first understand what it is they are trying to achieve before thinking about which technology vendor to deploy. Are they trying to streamline communication between business units or geographies? Are they looking to roll out a collaboration application that will eventually replace their intranet? Or, are they planning to use social CRM and weave it into their sales and marketing initiatives? Whatever the case, it’s important to understand the culture of the organization and its leadership. Technology will not change an organization’s culture. However, having a strong understanding of it will have a huge impact on the technical requirements, choice of technology and how to implement and configure it.
The challenge with technology is that there are so many software vendors in the space to choose from. Organizations need to think strategically before making significant investments into technology; and consider scale, integration, support and maintenance costs, and the current suite of applications that are already deployed within the enterprise.
The foundation for social business transformation is culture and leadership. All the technology in the world deployed in the enterprise; and all the process/compliance documents created are useless if organizational behaviors aren’t changed. Change starts from the top and business leaders are the ones responsible for facilitating this change.
The 12 Key Messaging Strategies for Email Lifecycle Marketing
Posted on 27. Jun, 2011 by Chris Sietsema in audience segmentation, Blog, chris sietsema, Email Marketing, Email Marketing Advice, guest post, infographic, lifecycle marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Teach to Fish Digital
Guest post from Chris Sietsema, who teaches and trains small to medium-sized businesses and non-profits in the disciplines of search, social media, email marketing and online analytics. Chris owns Teach to Fish Digital, a one-man consultancy in beautiful Mesa, Arizona. He also created the infographics for The NOW Revolution.
A common challenge for us is to determine what specific messages will resonate with the various segments of our audience throughout the customer lifecycle. What should we be saying to smaller groups of customers based on their interests, individual needs, and history with your brand? If we seek to evade the “one message fits all” approach (as most marketers probably should), how can we ensure that every touchpoint with each customer conveys relevance and builds a solid relationship? The following infographic attempts to solve that quandary specifically for email marketers. However, you may find this logic useful in other modes of marketing communication too.
Please note as you read on that much of this is dependent upon your ability to segment your audience and collect additional information about your customers from surveys or integration with CRM tools. That’s not impossible if you run a smaller business or a pretty lean organization – it just requires a little more elbow grease.
Basics
To start, let’s quickly examine what your email marketing messages should look like with considerations to customer demand and the customer record (i.e. how much you know about that individual customer).
A. Low Demand, Sparse Customer Record: “Welcome” Message
This scenario typically signifies the beginning of a relationship. The contact is a new lead or just purchased a product for the first time. Provide “welcome” messages that inform the customer or prospect all about your offering. Let the individual discover aspects of your offering that are relevant to her, but track behavior accordingly.
B. High Demand, Sparse Customer Record: Quid Pro Quo
After a follow-up inquiry, another purchase or a response to a “welcome” message, you may construe that the customer wants more from you. Take this opportunity to get more data from her. Provide an incentive, special access to premium content, or some other “sleeves off your vest” offering in exchange for more data about that customer.
Here you’ll want to incorporate a short survey that allows you to gather important customer info so you can segment your list further.
C. Low Demand, Better Customer Record: Remarketing
If you have been able to monitor behavior or simply ask for interest data from your recipients, you are in a good spot. In this scenario, you have a decent understanding for what the customer wants. Engage in remarketing efforts to encourage further action from the customer.
D. High Demand, Better Customer Record: Up-Sell or Cross-Sell Opportunities
You know from recent activity that there is demand, and you have also been able to gather some telling info about the customer. At this point, you can begin to segment individuals into specific audience groups, commonly and affectionately referred to as “buckets”. You may decide to create buckets for product/service interest, geographic location, demographics, or other previous purchase behaviors.
Take the opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell your audience in these instances.
The Impact of Time
Now let’s add another crucial element to the equation – time. In the following scenarios, we’ll keep demand low and see how varying levels of customer data and time impact our email marketing messages.
A. Limited Time, Sparse Customer Data: “Thank You” Messaging or Utilize a Survey
After a short period of time, take the opportunity to say “thank you”. The impact of such a simple gesture cannot be overstated. In conjunction, you may find an opportunity to learn more about your new customer or prospect. Include a short survey to build upon your customer data profile.
B. Added Time, Sparse Customer Data: Reactivation Campaign
With extended periods of time and little to no demand from the customer, it may be prudent to create a reactivation campaign. In this instance, you are hoping to learn if the customer is still interested and if so, what will provide the necessary spark to purchase again or resume more frequent contact?
C. Limited Time, Better Customer Data: Remarketing
Where there is limited time or demand, but an abundance of data about the customer, your primary option is to provide relevant marketing messages. Use the response to previous marketing messages to educate and inform subsequent attempts to strengthen ties to your customer segments.
D. Added Time, Better Customer Data: Reactivation Campaign
If there is significant history with the prospect but demand is scarce, engage in a reactivation campaign to win them back. To bluntly paraphrase, the message to your customer with a reactivation or reengagement campaign is this: “$#it or get off the pot.”
Hybrid View: Demand and Time with Great Customer Data Records
Finally, as your email marketing program matures to a point where you have excellent data records for each customer, consider what message types are necessary with regard to demand and time influences.
A. Limited Time, Low Demand: Remarketing
Once again, engage in remarking tactics if your customer has given some indication of what they want from your business.
B. Limited Time, High Demand: Up-Sell or Cross-Sell Opportunities
A healthy customer profile with amazing demand lends itself to up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Monitor response to such messages to determine what the next message should be.
C. Added Time, Low Demand: Loyalty
Beyond remarking and up-sell/cross-sell messages, an extended stretch with an individual customer but limited current demand provides opportunities for us to encourage loyalty. Anyone who has created a loyalty program in the past knows that this is no easy task. What we are really seeking here is to maintain a positive and meaningful relationship with a customer that has shown great promise previously. Develop messaging that keeps these important contacts happy and potentially pushes them into the next stage…
D. Added Time, High Demand: “Share” Messages
This is the scenario for which every lifecycle marketer strives. It is our euphoric state. Develop a meaningful, long-lasting dialogue with happy customers, and provide opportunities for them to share. Suck out the adoration like marrow from a roasted bone. Invite them to tell you and your other customers what makes you great.
Perhaps this act of sharing is done via social media. Maybe you devise mechanisms to collect this consumer generated content via another means for dissemination in other marketing communique. You may seek to develop a more structured relationship with your top customers (e.g. guest blogging, product reviews and concept validation, special promotion involvement, etc.). Think – Jared from Subway, people.
As these customers know your brand best, encourage them to share that knowledge…and the love. Allow them to be your brand evangelists. In a way, let them do your marketing for you.
Here’s the full infographic for downloading and sharing:
Can you apply this to your current lifecycle marketing program? What about this graphic would you change or improve? I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.
Google, Social Media, and the Wisdom of Enigmas
Posted on 22. Jun, 2011 by Daniel Lemin in Blog, content marketing, content strategy, daniel lemin, guest post, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social studio
Guest post by Daniel Lemin of marketing innovation consultancy Social Studio. He provides brands and agencies with the research, insights and good old-fashioned know-how needed to be more effective marketers.
In the early part of my career I was fortunate to land a job on the corporate marketing team at Google. At the time I felt very lucky (pun intended) to be among the 400 employees of a small but well-known and rapidly growing company. Over time it blossomed to one thousand, then several thousand employees but that unconventional spirit remained.
Doug Edwards, one of my early colleagues and head of the corporate marketing efforts, has authored a book about the culture and people behind one of the world’s most unconventional brands. I haven’t read the book yet (it’s not available until July) so I can lay only cursory claim to knowledge of its contents. But there is at least one element of the early Google culture worthy of discussion as it relates to social media.
It starts with Google’s well known idiom of being an unconventional company, a theme reinforced in its filings to go public. The now infamous “don’t be evil” slogan has become something of a lightning rod for criticisms of the company but permeated all of the big decisions. These nuances left the corporate marketing team struggling to support a brand in such a non-conventional culture. After all, how do you drive brand awareness if you don’t do things in conventional ways? I learned one wholly invaluable lesson from those challenges, one that is as relevant to social media as it is to other media: embrace, and never stray from, who you are at that core. Those cultural or product nuances are probably your best asset, and in a noisy social environment will be the thing that allows you to set yourself apart and be relevant to your fans and followers.
A good, albeit not expressly social, example of this principle lies in the first advertising campaign that Google invested in. Those in the Bay Area may remember it well, a cryptic billboard in 2004 along the 101 freeway:
That’s it. Solve the puzzle and you were directed to a landing page with yet another cryptic puzzle and, eventually, to a landing page designed to recruit employees. Only there was it revealed that Google was behind the whole thing. The thinking was like this: if an unconventional company is going to buy advertising, it’s going to do so in a suitably unconventional way. The billboard, as you’ll note, had no branding on it, no multi-colored logo. Just an equation.
Make Your Content Interesting
This is a principle that many companies overlook when plotting out the content for their social channels. In the race to keep up with competitors they will launch a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Foursquare then struggle to fill that gaping void of content with something interesting. They do it because it’s there and, ultimately, many companies fill it their new channels with content that’s not interesting, or hire viral marketing agencies to produce stuff they think will be funny and hope will have some sort of business outcome.
On the other hand, you have the chance to think like Google and use the nuance of your culture as a competitive advantage. What is it that makes your company tick, and what action are you looking to inspire your fans or followers to engage in? Google’s decision was to pique the curiosity of the mathematically-inclined and challenge them, knowing the subtlety of the problem would be noteworthy in itself. That helped fill the recruiter’s inboxes with resumes, a strategic outcome for a non-conventional program. Slam dunk. Of course, advertising pundits had their own opinions about the campaign, but that didn’t surprise anyone.
Google looked within its enigmatic culture and emerged with a quirky idea to fill the recruiting pipeline. That idea broke the convention of the medium but made the most of the opportunity. That was their concept. What will yours be?
100% of Marketing Stats Are Made of Numbers
Posted on 17. Jun, 2011 by Jeff Rohrs in Blog, guest post, Guest Posts, Jeff Rohrs, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Guest post by Jeff Rohrs VP of Marketing Research and Education at ExactTarget. Jeff is also co-author of the ExactTarget/CoTweet SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS Research Series.
Jay Baer has made a terrible mistake. He has gone on vacation and invited me to guest blog again. After my critically-acclaimed & Tony-award nominated post last year—“3 Reasons Email is the Coolest Vampire Today”—I can hardly blame Jay. I set the bar high with an intellectually-stunning metaphor built upon timely cultural references and a numerical headline that made for tasty link bait and maximum tweetability. I also recently coined the term “apptrophy” which, frankly, is my best shot at immortality should it make either Wired’s Jargon Watch or the pages of the Urban Dictionary.
I fear, however, that my past actions have set the bar too high, and now Jay’s expecting blog gold from me every year. Little does he know that in this tough economy, I exchanged my blog gold for cash months ago, which I then promptly used to purchase Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and the Golden Eagle. Yes, blog gold is only worth $3.96—but can one really put a price on the child-like joy derived from crushing hordes of self-important pigs and smarmy marmosets? I didn’t think so.
But I digress. Jay has clearly overestimated my ability to inform and/or entertain the Convince & Convert audience, and for this, I apologize. Jay is usually such a good judge of character, it is frankly surprising that he has let you all down in such a fantastic fashion. I mean, look at the headline for this post. I’m now over 250 words in, and I haven’t provided even a single marketing stat. Not a one! That’s false advertising. Clearly, the FTC should be alerted immediately and investigate Jay Baer thoroughly. Thank God the government has people policing such things.
Whatever you do, do not—I repeat, DO NOT—like, share, tweet, email, comment, bookmark, link to, love or otherwise have intimate, social media relations with this blog post. To do so would only be to encourage me and get Jay to ask me to guest blog again. I am 100% sure of that.
Great. Now you have tricked me into giving you a stat and rendered nearly half of this post erroneous. I sure hope you didn’t contact the FTC to report Jay Baer for false advertising. If so, I’d start gathering your things Gene Hackman/”Enemy of the State”-style. Under the newly-renewed Patriot Act, you are now on the “Do Not Tweet” list, and Johnny Law has the right to come bursting through your door any minute to deactivate your Facebook account. The good news, of course, is that there’s no way to truly deactivate your Facebook account, so don’t sweat it. Thank God Facebook has all of our best interests at heart.
Speaking of Johnny Law, can anyone explain to me why they haven’t taken Jay Baer into custody already? From what I understand, he co-authored a book or PDF or Kindle-ing called “The Now Revolution.” If we’re truly taking security seriously in this country, shouldn’t authors who put “revolution” in the freaking title at least be on the Do Not Fly list? And yet, Jay Baer’s free as a bird, flying coast-to-coast telling marketers there’s a revolution going on RIGHT NOW. That’s like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater of firemen who like to tweet. Someone should alert Roger Ailes immediately. This clearly needs to be in his morning talking points briefing for his FOX News team. Thank God there’s a serious news channel willing to stand-up to such lamestream marketing authors as Jay Baer.
In closing, I’d like to state that none of the opinions or “facts” stated herein are those of my employer (ExactTarget), my wife (Craft Test Dummies), or me, Jeffrey K. Rohrs. These are all the opinions of one individual—Jay Baer. Convince & Convert, after all, is his blog. And he should be ashamed of his porous guest blog filtering mechanisms. After all, he just abused four minutes of your life—minutes that could have been spent over at The Onion or Funny or Die realizing 100% higher humor ROI than this post. (darn, another stat slipped in)
For shame, Mr. Baer. For shame.
(ExactTarget is a Convince & Convert client)
Value + Offer: The 3 Levels of Blended Content
Posted on 25. May, 2011 by russhenneberry in blended content, Blog, content marketing, content strategy, guest post, Guest Posts, russ henneberry, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Guest post from Russ Henneberry, who writes, speaks and executes on content marketing plans for small businesses. He writes a daily blog about how tiny businesses can make mighty profits using a personal computer, a little imagination and a few well placed dollars.
Companies must now create their own attention to promote products and services. To do so in the past, we interrupted interesting content with offers for products and services.
The formula used to look like this:
Content + Offers = Sales
(Think TV, radio, and print ads here)
Over the past decade or so we devious consumers have been chiseling away at this formula. We have invented ways to avoid the offers with DVRs, iPods, satellite radio and more.
We are rewriting the formula to read:
Content – Offers = Nothing, Nada, Zilch
As a result, smart marketers are learning to create content that inherently but craftily contains offers.
Consider American Idol. Product placement such as a Ford commercial wrapped in an American Idol video or a Coca-Cola glass on the same table as Jennifer Lopez has become the norm. The singers (content) are entertaining the consumer, but that content clearly contains an offer that makes Fox, American Idol and Ford and Coca-Cola money (presumably).
Call it “blended content.” Content that has value while making an offer.
But your offer cannot be overt. Try standing in front of a video camera and talking about the features, benefits and pricing of your products and see how many YouTube views you get. You will be able to count them on one hand. As a result, your business must become the singer. By becoming the singer, you are creating the valuable content around which your products and services can be sold.
Good, successful content has two attributes:
1. Provides value
2. Makes an offer
I’m not suggesting that your business be entertaining, necessarily. Entertainment is likely the wrong value proposition for your business. More likely, in place of entertainment the value in your content might be:
- Education
- Protection (of the consumer or something they love)
- Information
Here are three levels of blended content offers (and some examples) that graduate from the subtle to the more overt offer:
Level 1 Offer – Continuing the conversation
One of the most valuable and subtle goals your content can have is to add “permission assets.” Asking for a “like” on Facebook or a follow on Twitter. Or, making an offer to get a free piece of premium content to join an email list. In all of these cases, you are getting permission to continue the conversation. People that start out by connecting with you via social media or email may eventually become customers.
Example: In a blog post by an accounting firm entitled “5 Steps To Reducing IRS Audit Risk” the offer in the article might read:
“In the ‘Legal Loopholes In The Federal Tax System’ free report that we provide to our email community we cover these steps in more depth. You can join the email community here.”
This blended offer indicates that there is additional value to be had by “continuing the conversation.” You gain a permission asset while they receive additional value from your business. In the future, you will be able to make more overt offers to these “permission assets” because you have sustained the conversation.
Level 2 Offer – Educating prospects about your offers
Your content assists in qualifying and disqualifying prospects for your products and services.
Example: In a YouTube video by a divorce attorney entitled “Is Your Divorce Attorney Gambling With Your Children?” the offer in the video might read: “In a recent case, our firm represented a father of three that retained full custody of his children by following this advice…”
This blended offer provides social proof for your business, teaches them your process and provides real value to your prospects or existing customers.
Level 3 Offer – Asking for an order
There’s nothing subtle about this type of blended offer. This is an overt offer.
Example: In a blog post by a veterinary office entitled “5 Signs Of Canine Heart worms” the offer in the article might read:
“Nothing can substitute for a canine heart worm screening by a professional veterinarian. Receive 20% off of all heart worm medications through the end of April by calling 555-555-5555 to schedule an appointment.”
While some business blogging experts will tell you that making an obvious offer like this is a bad idea, I maintain that making these kind of offers is smart if the valuable content provided is relevant to the offer.
Surrounding offers with valuable content is nothing new. Socrates was likely dropping subtle hints about his line of branded togas on the streets of Athens. But it has never been more critical to learn to blend offers into your valuable content.
What are your thoughts? What are some other ways to blend offers into valuable content? How has it worked (or not worked) for you?
Customer Stalking – When Is Your Twitter Response Too Fast?
Posted on 18. May, 2011 by Neicole Crepeau in Blog, Gini Dietrich, guest post, LiveFyre, Mark Schaefer, Neicole Crepeau, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social crm, social media customer service, Twitter
Guest post by Neicole Crepeau, an Online Strategist at Coherent Interactive. She blogs at Coherent Social Media.
The other week, I was participating in Jay’s hashtagsocialmedia.com chat on social media. (It takes place every Tuesday at noon EST.) The exchange is below:
@jaybaer #sm107 BONUS Q4. How important is speed of response on Twitter? And can a company be TOO fast = creepy?
@neicolec: Q4: If support problem, no reply too fast. If I made a comment, a fast reply creeps me out. #sm107
It’s true. I get creeped out when a brand on Twitter replies quickly to a comment I just made. Probably a lot of people do. It may seem inconsistent and fickle, but we don’t always like a fast response to a brand mention on Twitter. In some cases, it might be best not to respond at all.
The key to deciding how fast to respond is to take off your business hat and put on your person hat. Think less about your business and more about appropriate behavior in a social situation.
Eavesdropping With A Purpose
The circumstance where I definitely do want a fast response is when I’m having a problem. I’ve had several companies respond quickly to conversations I was having with others about their products. Livefyre responded when I complained to my friend Mark W. Schaefer that my comment on his blog wasn’t uploading. And just last week, Triberr’s Dan Cristo helped me out when I told Gini Dietrich that I didn’t understand how to use Triberr. I was happy to have them eavesdropping, and happy to have them offer assistance.
In this circumstance, no response is too fast. Presumably, the customer has tried to figure out a solution on their own. By the time they reach out, they’re frustrated and maybe angry. They just want the problem solved now. (in fact, ExactTarget’s research on Twitter found that most customers turn to it as the third option, after they’ve been dissatisfied by a company’s phone and email response).
That’s one of the benefits of real-time monitoring and response—you may be able to intervene before the customer gets to the boiling stage. If someone is complaining about a problem, they are almost never going to be upset that you overheard, stuck your nose in it, and solved the problem.
Business hat: I’m monitoring conversations about my product. Someone just said they’re having a problem with it. I’ll provide good customer support by asking if I can help solve the problem right away.
Person hat: Those two tourists are looking at a map. Oh, I just heard one of them ask how to get to the market. I know just how to get there. Let me go over and help them.
It works in either scenario. If you were lost in the real world and someone offered to help, you’d feel grateful. (Except if you’re a New Yorker, in which case, mind your own business!)
Customer Service vs. Customer Stalking
Most of us who are digitally savvy know that we are being served online ads based on information that Google, Facebook, and others collect about our online activities. Many of us accept it as the price we pay for so much free content.
Still, if you visit Ford’s website, and then every ad you see for the next two days is for Ford, it kind of creeps you out. It’s like you’re being banner ad stalked. Maybe you know in the back of your mind that advertisers are watching you, but you don’t want it to be so obvious!
This effect is even worse on social networks. When you’re on Twitter and someone @’s you, you know that a person is talking to you. Even if it’s a branded account instead of a personal one, with a logo instead of a person’s photo, you are still very aware that it is a person tweeting to you. So, when someone tweets about the great deal on Wii’s at this or that store, just after you’ve made a comment that you’re thinking of buying a Wii, it feels like stalking. It feels like that person was spying on you.
Business hat: I’m monitoring the real-time conversation for opportunities. Someone just mentioned they are thinking of buying a new minivan. That’s a prime sales opportunity—at the point of decision. I’ll tell them we have good prices and give them a link to our site.
Person hat: I’m talking with a friend at a party about buying a new minivan. The sleazy guy at the buffet table behind us leans over and says, “I heard you mention you want to buy a minivan. I have great prices at my dealership. Here’s my card.”
Yuck.
Even something less spammy can be creepy. Let’s say I @ a Twitter friend in response to a question. I tell her that she should try Livefyre for her comment system. And then @Livefyre immediately tweets, “Let us know if you have any questions!”
I’m sorry. That’s asynchronous and icky. Livefyre might just be trying to be helpful, but it feels like they are spying on a private conversation, and are a bit too eager to please. Even though I clearly like the product and am suggesting it, I don’t like them intruding into my private recommendation to a friend.
That’s ridiculous, you might say. The conversation isn’t private. You’re on Twitter, for goodness sake. And it’s hypocritical. You didn’t mind them intruding when you had a problem.
It doesn’t matter if it’s hypocritical, though. People aren’t logical, and social rules are subtle and can seem capricious. Still, when they’re broken, we know. I may have a hard time explaining why that gentleman is standing too close when we’re out here on the street, even though it would be acceptably close in a crowded elevator. Nevertheless, if he’s standing too close, I’m uncomfortable.
So, let’s try our hats on again for this last situation.
Business hat: I’m monitoring the real-time conversation. Someone just recommended our brand of luggage. I’ll make sure they know we can answer any questions, and that they have my contact info.
Person hat: I’m on the subway talking with my friend about her travel plans. I recommend this great travel bag I bought. The guy behind us leans over the seat and says “I’m a sales rep for that luggage. Do you have any questions? Here’s my card.”
Creepy. You want to just brush him off. Chances are my friend is going to throw away that business card, even though she wants the luggage.
The next time you’re wondering how fast to respond to someone’s mention of your brand, take my advice: put your person hat on first.
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