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Posts Tagged ‘target market’


5 Common Misconceptions About Social Media – and Why They Are Not True

September 6th, 2012 ::

Lying

Because using social media for marketing is still a relatively young practice, many misconceptions about it continue to float around out there.  Here are 5 that I hear all the time, followed by the truth:

1. Social media cannot be used in my industry

Uh, really? Why not?  Your customers are people, and chances are they are already using Facebook and LinkedIn – and maybe Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest too.  Instead of making broad assumptions, get online and spend 30 minutes searching topics and keywords that are industry-specific. You might be surprised about who is talking about what.

2. My business is too boring to be good at using social media

Yes, it is much easier to come up with fun status updates, contest ideas, photos and videos if you are a salon and spa rather than an industrial metals manufacturer.  So get creative! Ask, “What does my target audience care about? How can I engage them with photos, videos, contests and games?”  For example: your employees could do a spoof on a song, changing the words so they are related to your company or industry.

3. Success is measured by quantity (of blog comments, Twitter followers – you name it)

Measuring the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts by tallying up the number of comments your blog gets, the number of Twitter followers you have, or the number of times a photo is shared is wrong in so many ways.  What you need to be measuring is the number of leads you are generating, the quality of the leads, and how many are converting into customers. Customers, not popularity, are what pay the bills.

4. I must have a presence on every single social media network

This is only true if your target market is active – in large numbers – on every single social media network.  They probably are not.  Find the 2 or 3 networks with the most activity, and focus on those.

5. I don’t have time for social media

You probably do, actually, and that is because being active is not that time-consuming.  Just as you devote time to checking email, answering customer queries and keeping up with industry news, you can carve out some time for social media.  Set aside 30 minutes to plan out an editorial schedule and decide what you will post when.  Once you do that, you will probably only spend 15 or 20 minutes total on your social media accounts every day.

What other misconceptions do you hear about social media?  Share them below!

Image courtesy of brainwormproductions.com

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 9 Comments »

5 Sure-Fire Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

January 24th, 2012 ::

5 social media tips

If you’re struggling with your small business’s social media strategy, turn to these tried-and-true tips for taking your strategy from stalled to stellar in no time at all.  Here are five tips that put your social media activities to work:

1.  Just Be Yourself

Plenty of marketers post multiple updates per day on places like Facebook, offering their followers links to their recent blog posts and tips for succeeding in business.  How can you stand out from the crowd?

Being yourself and allowing your personality to shine through your social media communications can help you get the attention and interaction that will boost marketing success.  Let your followers and fans know there’s a real, live person behind your posts by sprinkling in personal touches.

For example, posting pictures of your latest culinary masterpiece, or other creative endeavors, adds a fun element to an otherwise “just business” profile.  If you’re heading out to cheer on your favorite sports team, or you heard something hilarious (but PG-rated) on the subway that your followers might enjoy as well, share them with your online community.   These personal touches keep things fresh and are excellent conversation starters, so be sure to use them in addition to your regular wall posts.

2.  Find Your Place Online

As a small business, you know you have to prioritize your resources carefully, including which social networks you devote time and energy to.  Having your business on multiple social media profiles, but only giving them partial effort, won’t cut it.  You need to determine where your customers are, and then devote all your effort to that network.

Use Follower Wonk or Facebook’s advertising platform to find out where your target audience is most concentrated.  Then, invest all your resources building a loyal following there, and engage your community by giving it the attention it deserves.  Your good work here will help you build a case for expanding your reach (and the necessary resources) on additional sites as you grow.

3.  Generate Leads With Facebook

Once you’ve begun engaging your Facebook community, why not leverage your page to generate leads?  Facebook offers small businesses new ways of building their lists of qualified leads.  For example, you can offer an opt-in strategy directly on your page by using iFrames to create a custom welcome tab.  This tab should include a two-step process called a “reveal tab.”

Step 1:  Create a call to action to encourage new visitors to Like your page.

Step 2:  After visitors Like your page, offer them a giveaway for providing their name and email.

Following this simple two-step model will help you increase both your fan base and lead list–now, that’s efficient!

4.  Make the Most of Video

Using video is a creative and interactive way to get your small business to the top of search results, and social media can help.  Google and other search engines use video to decide which pages should be displayed first, but you must tag, title and publish your videos correctly to get their full SEO benefits.

One way to add video marketing to your social media strategy is by creating a custom channel on YouTube.  This is super easy to do.  Think about what problem your business solves for its customers, and create a series of short instructional videos related to this problem.  Use the videos to show how your business can help customers, and try adding testimonials from current customers as well.  For the best videos, use humor and graphics to communicate your messages, and keep it under three minutes.

5.  Do The Hard Work

To stand out in a sea of content, sometimes you have to get down and dirty.  What information do your customers really want to know?  If you’re willing to solve your customers’ hardest problems and answer their toughest questions, your content will be linked to and shared.  This activity will get you higher search rankings and more followers/fans on Twitter and Facebook.

Think about the most difficult and interesting customer questions, and create a list.  Every time you sit down to write, use one of these questions as a starting point.  Be honest, do the extra research required, and strive to help customers with their challenges.  Then, publish your content and promote it on all your social media platforms.  Doing this consistently will earn you significant results.

If you follow these five tips, you should start to see the payoff of your efforts rather quickly.  Do you have additional tips that have taken your small business social media strategy from mediocre to outstanding?  Share them with us by leaving a comment below.

Image courtesy of creative design firm Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

How to Write Engaging Website Content That Will Generate Leads Part 1

August 24th, 2011 ::
This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Writing website content that generates leads

Empty notebook

Ever try to write website content for your own business?  It is hard – really hard.  I am a copywriter, and I struggled to write content for my own website even though I write for other companies’ sites all the time without a problem.

I think the problem most people run into when writing their own content is they don’t understand one simple thing: You cannot write about yourself from one page to the next.  No one, but no one, cares about what you do and how you do it (OK, maybe your mom cares). They (really, us) just care what problems you solve for them (us).

In this three-part series, I will walk you through the beginning, middle, and end of writing website content that connects with your target market to the point that they say, Wow, I need to work with/buy from these guys.

Naturally, we will start at the beginning.  Here are the first three things you need to do to write truly spectacular website content:

1. Define your target market.

Most companies think they know who their customer is, but they don’t because they are not specific enough.  You can’t just say, My customers are government contractors or professional services firms.  You need to drill down to specifics: revenue, employee size, geographic location, specialties, gender, age, income level, education level, etc.

Until you know exactly who you are trying to sell to, you can’t write anything.

2. Define your services.

Yes, I know you know what you do.  But do you explain it in the most straightforward way possible?  If your service is on the more complex side (financial advisor, let’s say), or sounds vague when you state what it is you do (management consultant), you need to break down your services and clearly define each one.  What are the problems your clients have?  What are the solutions?  How do you implement those solutions and save the day?

So, instead of saying, “I provide interior design services,” list that you do space planning, staging for home sales, work with contractors during renovations, etc.

3. Write your value proposition.

Your value proposition is what makes you unique.  It is the reason people buy your products and services.  So sit down and brainstorm all the reasons you are different from the competition.  If you want more inspiration, ask your clients why they chose you over everyone else.   (All those quotes can become testimonials for your website.)

When you write your value prop, focus on your clients and the benefits you offer them. First start out by saying what problems you solve, then explain how you do it.  It should be one sentence long, and it should flow nicely, as if you were actually talking to someone.

Your value proposition will go on the home page of your website.  It has to be really good (no pressure!).

In my next post, we’ll cover the “middle” of writing website content: what pages to include, how to lay them out, and what to actually write in them.

Image by Flickr user dtron (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Want to Increase Sales? Give Lead Scoring a Try

March 7th, 2011 ::

Baseball scoreboardIf you’re spending a lot of time nurturing potential customers whether or not they are ready to buy, ranking leads could help you determine who is ready to buy, who is still in the decision-making process, and who is just looking around out of curiosity.

Ranking leads is officially called lead scoring, and though it’s a sales and marketing methodology that is commonly used by large companies to determine the sales-readiness of leads, the basics of lead scoring are applicable to small companies, too.  Lead scoring will help you learn how interested someone is in your business, if they fall within your target market, and what content they need in order to make the decision to become a customer. In other words, it will make your lead nurturing process more organized and targeted so you can spend more time on leads that matter.

Marketo published an excellent and really useful eBook on lead scoring that contains best practices and lots of worksheets to get you started.  Here are the basics, which I adjusted for small businesses that do not have a large sales team:

1. Gather information

Look through your list of potential customers (which should be in a customer relationship management, or CRM, program, and not on a spreadsheet, piece of paper, or, worse, in your head).  Look at:

  • Past deals and current opportunities
  • Online activity log: What pages did prospects visit, and where did they come from (search engines, other websites, etc.)?
  • Previous contact: Have you spoken or emailed in the past?  Did a past marketing or promotional campaign catch their attention?

2. Determine your ideal target

Now you’ll score leads based on the information they share with you and their online behavior.

Explicit scoring is based on the information shared by the potential client, usually in a form they fill out.  It includes demographic and firmographic information like job title, industry, company size, and annual revenue.

Implicit scoring consists of tracking their online behavior, such as downloading white papers or eBooks, subscribing to your blog, filling out a form, etc, to measure their level of interest in your products or solutions.

3. Establish a lead methodology

Assign points to each piece of information and behavior.  You can also just use letter grades or the terms “hot,” “warm,” and “cold”—whatever works best for you.  Then determine the score that will indicate a “sales-ready” lead.

Image by Flickr user BOLTandK2 (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process | No Comments »

Marketing Personas: When Having Multiple Personalities Is a Good Thing

April 5th, 2010 ::

In marketing, having multiple personalities is a very good thing.  It’s something we strive for, in fact.  That’s because in order to properly market your company’s products and/or services, you need to know exactly who your target client is, how to reach them, and how to sell to them.  One of the best ways to figure this out is to create personas.  After all, your ideal clients are people with likes, dislikes, needs, wants, various moods, and different personalities.  The more you know about them, the more you can define and refine your marketing plan and better leverage your outbound and inbound marketing efforts.

Group of people

hermannyin/Flickr

There’s a lot out there on the internet about creating personas.  Google “marketing personas” and you’ll see for yourself.  (Of course, there are articles and blog posts on whether or not you even need to create personas to put together an effective marketing strategy, but that’s a different blog post.)  Putting together personas is a fun exercise, especially when you need a break from doing whatever it is you do.  After a year or two in business, you should have a fairly good idea as to who your ideal clients are.  Like many things in life, it’s better to commit those ideas to paper. 

Seven  Steps to Creating Personas

Because I like examples of things, I am going to use a bike shop owner as an example of how he can create personas.

  1. Segment your personas.  As owner of a bike shop, you have a huge variety of clients.  Serious road cyclists are different from both casual let’s-go-for-a-bike-ride-and-have-a-picnic cyclists and adrenaline-seeking mountain bikers.  The road cyclists can be broken down further: do they compete, or is this just their favorite form of exercise?  Again, they can be broken down further by gender.
  2. Demographics and lifestyle factors.  This part includes education level, white or blue collar, income level, marital status, kids or no kids, other sports they participate in, do they ride their bike to work, do they take their bike with them on vacation, do they read cycling magazines, etc.  You can get really detailed! 
  3. Emotional details.  This is more about the cyclists’ personality: likes, dislikes, goals, disposition, etc.
  4. Relationship to cycling and your shop.  Look at the relationship your personas have with your shop and with competitors’ shops.  How much do they know about your industry, bicycles, bike gear, bike racks, racing and competitions?  Are they long-term customers, or do they buy the bike and disappear?
  5. You are the solution.  Your marketing efforts should consistently focus on how you help your clients. Make a list of what problems your products and services solve for your customers.
  6. The Big Sale.  Now think about how you close a sale with your various personas. Think about the benefits and disadvantages they have to shopping with you.  How are the various products and services you offer going to affect them and, by extension, you?  Figure out the words and phrases your personas use, and use them in your pitch.
  7. Name your personas.  This makes your personas human, prevents confusion, and keeps them distinct from one another.

 Now that you know who you are marketing and selling to, time to update your marketing plan!

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Your Marketing Needs to Have a Target…

December 8th, 2009 ::

I wanted to call this post “Does Your Audience Have a Target on Their Back”, but I didn’t want to get people concerned that I wanted you to cause pain to your intended audience. Today’s piece of Marketing Knowledge Goodness is about the pretty simple, yet often overlooked, concept when you are creating your marketing piece(s)/strategy, the Target Market (Audience).

To get a definition out of the way, Wikipedia defines Target Market as:

“A ‘target market or target Audience is the market segment which a particular product is marketed to. It is often defined by age, gender and/or socio-economic grouping. Market Targeting is the process in which intended actual markets are defined, analyzed and evaluated before the final decision to enter is made.”

It’s a little wordy in saying this, but basically when you create a piece or strategy you should be thinking about who you want to receive and use/buy your product or service. Unless you are buying your own products…you should be the last person you want to draw the attention of. While you may think it’s cool, interesting, pretty, or a laundry list of other things…your intended target, or audience, may not. And at the end of the day, the customer who’s listening, using, and purchasing ultimately matters more than what you think. Harsh to say it, but it’s true.

Now this can be as generic as “I want to reach plumbers in the [insert your city here] area” or as specific as “I want to reach all the housewives between the ages of 24-35 with black hair that have two children between the ages of 1-6 who like lumpy oatmeal for lunch”. Either way, you are defining who the intended target, or audience, is and going to plan your content and design around appealing to that audience. Yes you are going to miss out on a larger number of people who don’t fit that definition, but are they really the people you want? Do you really want to just be able to say, “We printed 5,000 brochures and passed them all out?” Who are you trying to impress and what are you gaining by that? Or, would you rather say, “We printed 500 brochures to [insert specific target audience] and got a greater return on our investment”.

The next thing you need to determine, after you figure out your target audience, is what return on your investment you are satisfied with and how you plan to reach that. But that, dear reader, is a post for another time.

I’ll leave you with this, I was told by a client I was consulting for that you should “ignore coming up with who your target is because if you cast the widest net you’ll catch the most fish”. While the logic in that is kind of sound, sort of, let me ask you this, do you want to catch the most fish or the best quality fish?

For me, even if that means my numbers don’t look so hot on paper, I want the best possible value for my efforts. My rule of thumb is quality over quantity.

As always, you can also reach me on Twitter by sending a message to @wickedjava, or on Facebook at facebook.com/mcdougherty.

If you have been reading this far, thank you and stay wicked.

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Posted in Generational Marketing, Marketing, Resources, Thought Leadership | No Comments »