 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Until last week, Jill Rowley was leading an effort to train about 23,000 Oracle salespeople in "social selling."
... Rowley believes that social selling is "transforming the sleazy, slimy, slicked-back hairdo image of sales" into one where salespeople are there to help companies solve their IT problems.
It's the next big thing in the enterprise tech world because IT professionals lean heavily on social networks to research tech products and to work with vendors, research finds.
It's also really important to selling cloud-computing services. Traditional software contracts tend to be focused on closing a sale and then getting out. The opposite is needed for the cloud: Software-as-a-service is a long-term partnership thing, so sales incentives need to be structured around making customers happy so they stick around and keep paying for the service....
You devour online marketing lessons. You feast on articles, reports, books, and eBooks.
....Perhaps it’s so important to you, you spend some of your precious time attending webinars and conferences and you can’t help but join the conversation on blogs and via social media.Good for you. There’s a ton of information to take in, the rules change daily, and if you’re going to succeed with online marketing, you must master a good many practices, techniques and tools.
The experts keep serving up specialized dishes: content marketing, social media marketing, search marketing, permission-based marketing, inbound marketing and any (fill-in-the-blank-here) marketing. The more these ingredients get heaped onto our plates, the more the meal calls for a bowl and spoon. It’s digital soup, my friend....
Case study: Virgin America is using its Twitter presence to handle everything from seat changes to cocktail requests—even at 35,000 feet.
Steve Jenkins was waiting for takeoff when he noticed it—his boarding pass for Virgin America Flight 753, bound for San Francisco, was missing his frequent flier number. He could have flagged a flight attendant. He could have called customer service. Instead, Jenkins, the CEO of a Seattle-based gaming company, decided to pick up his phone and tweet.
Four minutes later, Virgin America responded:Jenkins messaged @VirginAmerica with his ticket details. He was all set before the plane left the tarmac."It would have taken me longer to call, go through the whole phone tree, find someone, and authenticate myself," he said. "And if I hadn't done it when I thought about it, I might have forgotten about it."...
As of May 2013, almost three quarters (72%) of online U.S. adults use social networking sites, up from 67% in late 2012. When we first started asking about social networking sites in February 2005, just 8% of online adults said they used social networking sites.In addition to asking about general usage of social networking sites in our current survey, we included a stand-alone question about Twitter and found that 18% of online adults are now Twitter users. This is roughly double the 8% of online adults who used Twitter in November 2010, the first time we asked about Twitter as a stand-alone platform.
Today, social networking site use is a major activity for internet users from a wide range of demographic groups. Younger adults are especially avid adopters, but social networking continues to grow in popularity for older adults as well. Six out of ten internet users ages 50-64 are social networking site users, as are 43% of those ages 65 and older....
How are you integrating social media at your workplace? If you are not spending time integrating, you may be headed in the wrong direction....After working with social media platforms, I have really found the key to success is “Integration”.
Integration of social media into other forms of marketing media and business processes is the key to success. At some point, I think the term social media will go away and people will once again refer more to the internet as a whole rather than social media.Here are some great ways to integrate social media into your current marketing media and your business processes...
We have always maintained that digital marketing does not exist in isolation. It is part of the bigger whole that is marketing. But digital has undeniably brought new aspects to that whole. So what if we were to reconstitute marketing as it is today with digital and classic fully fused? What would that look like?
Here follows our Modern Marketing Manifesto with its suggested twelve constituents. Its aim is to outline why we believe marketing is increasingly valuable and to define what it is to be a modern marketer....
UK plumber Charlie Mullins' Pimlico Plumbers which has a reputation for being head-and-shoulders above the rest when it comes to marketing. He explains his tricks to get yourself noticed....
Even those that don't use his firm for their plumbing needs will, in all probability, have watched or read about him on television, online or in newspapers. Here are his top tips on how to make a small business stand out in a crowded marketplace....
A comprehensive study from market research firm Vision Critical indicates just how important social media is (and will continue to be) for brands, especially when considering product sales. Called From Social to Sale: 8 Questions to Ask Your Customers, the report reveals — based on 6,000+ survey respondents — that consumers are often more likely to purchase items after seeing them and/or interacting with posts about them on the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
More specifically, “4 in 10 social media users have purchased an item online or in-store after sharing or favoriting it on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest,” according to the report. Additionally, it found that Pinterest is the site most likely to drive “spontaneous purchasing.”
An article about the report on Cantech Letter summarized some key findings, noting that “social media drives both in-store and online purchases in almost equal numbers. 38% of people who have liked, shared or commented on a product on Facebook have gone on to buy the product. And 43% of people who have favorited or shared a product on any social media platform ultimately purchased it. Facebook is still king in terms of volume, with 75% of respondents logging in daily, compared with 17% for Twitter and Pinterest.”...
It hasn’t been around all that long, many companies both large and small have adopted it but many have also shied away. If you are on the fence or just starting to get your toes wet, here are 20 things about social media marketing that you didn’t know....
Sure, you have a business, but whether you sell a product or a service, you must provide SERVICE. What makes you so much different from your competitor that your prospects are knocking down your door? Or are they?
Solving problems is your real product not your widget or your services. Anyone and everyone does that. It is you, your service and your ability to meet the customer/prospect needs that will drive your business.You already know that people buy from people. You are “people” not just your brand or your company. It is your responsibility to meet needs, solve issues and instill a level of comfort and trust with your audience.
The buying decision occurs in the emotional environment.“Too many business owners and sales people try to sell their product or service, neglecting the fact that their customer is a person. In fact, the customer is a person who has feelings, influences and a mind of their own. They want to be connected with, and to trust and believe the person from which they are buying.” Rebecca Wilson....
While social media has contributed many great things to marketers, all of the good stuff doesn’t come without its own baggage. We have talked about the good side of social media for marketing a lot on this blog, but we have under-reported on the negative aspects that social media has brought to the marketing industry. Stepping back to think about it, these seven negatives are clearly consequences of the growth of social media as a marketing discipline. Here are 7 Reasons Social Media Is Bad for Marketing...
Just when you got your SEO mojo, out comes Penguin 2.0, trippin' up your flow. Here's what to do about it! ... Post-Penguin 2.0, the message is clear: if you want to rank and drive real traffic, you need to build your online brand. By strong branding, I’m not talking exclusively about giants like CNN and Zappos et al. I mean a strong brand in relation to the other sites in your industry fighting over specific SERP territory. Say you're a local dentist trying to rank for your best keywords. You won’t ever have brand recognition equal to that of Apple. But you can have an amazingly strong web brand for your local market. And if you do, you’re much more likely to rank. When you think about branding as a ranking factor, it makes a lot more sense. Google is trying to replicate the logic of the “real world” and apply it to the online world, after all. For instance, if you have a business and you’re trying to build your brand as part of a local marketing blitz, how would you do it? What constitutes a strong brand offline? Well, you might have printed ads in the local magazines and newspapers, or maybe radio and television ads -- you know, the kinds of things that might help create some brand recognition for your target market when they're not at a computer or mobile device....
If you run a small business, one thing that you probably don’t have a lot of- is time. You don’t want to spend a huge amount of time learning how to find and learn how to use the best tools to achieve your goals. Since my business is social media and web development I actually enjoy researching the best tools and have developed a portfolio of great tools and a workflow that works well for me. In this article I list the main tools I would recommend to most small businesses. Of course every situation is unique so I do recommend tailoring a system that works for you...
|
I love case studies, and so do potential customers. In my offline portfolio I have several case studies that I walk prospects through so they can see exactly how I can help businesses with their blogging and social media. Case studies are powerful because they allow the customer to visualise the success you bring easily, and it makes you memorable.
You have a blog and you share content on your Facebook page, Twitter account, and the next step is to convert some of those fans to customers without going all scary-sales on them. That’s where the good ol’ case study on your blog comes in....
Social media marketing is not just a trendy word, it is fast becoming and in some cases already is a viable acquisition channel for most businesses.
In fact, Hubspot reports that 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired a customer through Facebook. If you are still having trouble convincing your boss that social media is worth the investment, here are 28 must see statistics for 2013 to make him/her jump on board....
In 2013, no company can expect to be taken seriously if it’s not on Facebook or Twitter. An endless stream (no pun intended) of advice from marketing consultants warns businesses that they need to “get” social or risk becoming like companies a century ago that didn’t think they needed telephones.
Despite the hype that inevitably clings to the newfangled, however, it’s relatively antique tech that appears to be far more important for selling stuff online. A new report from marketing data outfit Custora found that over the past four years, online retailers have quadrupled the rate of customers acquired through email to nearly 7 percent.
Facebook over that same period barely registers as a way to make a sale, and the tiny percentage of people who do connect and buy over Facebook has stayed flat. Twitter, meanwhile, doesn’t register at all. By far the most popular way to get customers was “organic search,” according to the report, followed by “cost per click” ads (in both cases, read: Google)...
As someone who spends most of his time talking to brands and agencies about content, I see far too many of them keeping content in a silo, rather than using it as part of a holistic marketing plan. Here are a few best practices for using content to supercharge your marketing spend....
Even if you’ve spent countless hours and dedicated resources to developing a thorough social media marketing strategy, you may find that you have overlooked some small, yet critical elements that could end up handicapping your efforts. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to get a second set of eyes to look over your internet marketing strategy, particularly a social media agency (heck, even having a friend look over it may dig up some missing elements).Mashable recently shared some of the most common elements missing from a social media marketing strategy. Check out some of these oversights below to see if your strategy needs some tweaking:...
Corporations are expanding efforts for a breakthrough innovation in social media to beat the heat on the competition mapping. Usage of social media is changing enormously as days pass and so does the marketing gimmicks. So, what’s hot on the table for the second half of 2013?
Some of the TOP social media strategies to look for the rest of 2013...
Social media has a problem and it needs to be addressed now. The truth is that a majority of social media strategies employed by some of the best brands out there aren't linking activity to business ROI...
What are the 7 Success Factors? There's a difference between a social media and social business strategy. Social media are the channels where information and people are connected via two-way platforms. Social media strategy defines programs specific to networks and the corresponding activity within and around each. Altimeter's definition of a successful Social Business Strategy (SBS) is one that aligns with the strategic business goals and has alignment and support throughout the organization.
You don't need to get the book to learn what the most advanced companies learned to prioritize. Following are the 7 aspects each shared to successfully champion and scale social media through the organization and earn executive support along the way...
Your website is the hub of your inbound marketing efforts. Every piece of content you create or campaign you run should be designed to drive traffic to your website and landing pages, giving you the chance to convert visitors into leads and customers. It makes sense, then, to start by looking at insights from your web analytics platform, such as Google’s free Google Analytics, or a paid platform like HubSpot .
Let's review the 8 essential metrics you should be tracking on your website and its landing pages, and how you can use these metrics to optimize and improve your website’s performance....
...It’s the stuff of every content marketer’s nightmares – this never-ending demand for more content. Despite all our best intentions, we never catch up. There is not enough time, resources, or budget to get ahead of the curve. Instead of an inspired chef creating delectable dishes to delight our audience, we become short order cooks, ceaselessly churning out quick-fix meals that the beast swallows whole without so much as a thank-you-very-much.So how do you keep ahead of the “beast” and save yourself from getting trampled or devoured?...
In this age of noise, it’s critical that your message cuts through the static and connects with customers.That’s why persona research is an essential part of your overall content marketing strategy – to ensure your content is speaking to, and connecting with, the right people.
Persona research is as much an art as it is a science. In Raven’s recent post “48 tips for SEO newbies from 48 experienced SEOs,” Sarah Peters says this about content: “Know your audience/customer, first and foremost. What do they need? What are they searching for? How much do they know already? Where do they gather? What do they value? Find out, and then give them that.”That’s awesome advice, and it’s really the core concept behind persona research. In this post, I’d like to walk you through my process of using this research to create targeted content....
A one-size-fits-all content marketing strategy doesn't work. Read on to determine why location, size, and scope are critical to being effective in your unique market. As marketers, we hear a lot about content marketing for all sized businesses. In the midst of the tips and how-to guides from industry experts, there’s a lot of white noise. A sound content marketing strategy is integral to a company’s online success, but a one-size-fits-all approach to content simply doesn’t fly. When it comes to content marketing, there are three major components to consider: - Location: Do you own a brick and mortar business? Do you operate exclusively online? What if your business is a hybrid of both? - Size: How many employees does your company have? Seven? Seven hundred? Is it just you? - Scope: Who’s your business trying to reach? Do you consider yourself B2B? B2C? What exactly does your business do?...
Overall usage on social media platforms is exploding. Millions and millions of consumers are expressing likes on Facebook, tweeting about products on Twitter, and pinning on Pinterest every single day. Retailers and brands are therefore increasingly focusing their attention on social commerce. But, many struggle with the question: how do you convert a "like," a "tweet," or "pin" into a sale? In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at successful examples of businesses and business models for generating commerce via social media-based strategies, analyze Pinterest's success as a social commerce platform, look at Facebook's potential as a social commerce contender, and examine the e-commerce conversion and order value gap. Here's an overview of the converging trends that promise to transform social media into a viable commerce platform....
|
Watch for "social selling" to be the next big trend in sales and marketing. Coaches take note!