2013 Marketing Blueprint: 3 Must-Haves for Success
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Struggling with completing your 2013 marketing plan all the while successfully running your small business? We know you wear several hats, so in this Small Business Marketing 101 webinar, we’ll break it all down for you in bite-sized pieces. You’ll come away with the three essential components you need to have in your marketing plan and a template for incorporating it all together. Plus, you’ll get tips on increasing your online presence and which social media networks you should be hanging out at.
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2013 Marketing Blueprint: 3 Must-Haves for Success
- 1. 2013 Marketing Plan Blueprint 1
- 2. Session Framework •Talk about the critical questions you should be asking when coming up with your marketing plan. •The three areas of focus, what to consider and how to engage with your customers. •Close with five action points to start on today.
- 3. Then & Now •Cole Directory •1947 published. •Crisscross directory of addresses & phone numbers. •Invaluable information for: •Telemarketing Jack Cole •Debt collection •Law enforcement •Today •Web-based lead generation for small business.
- 5. Why a Blueprint? •Helps : •Map out where you’d like to be. •Keep you accountable. •Identifies areas of improvement.
- 6. Critical Questions •Ask yourself: •Who’s my target? •What makes me stand out among the competition? •Pricing and promotion strategy?
- 7. Critical Questions •Ask yourself: •Budget? •How do I generate leads? •How’s that working? •What else can I do to find new customers? •Hubspot’s Smart Template
- 8. 2013 Marketing Plan Blueprint 8
- 9. Website Critical Look 1. Relevant lead capture opportunities. 2. Current & fresh information. 3. Answer the most-asked questions. 4. Easy to navigate and clear action directives. Flickr.com via aussiegall 5. Optimized for mobile.
- 11. Answer Questions Answer Questions: • What are top customer recurring topics of interest? •Consider answering them via a blog. •Keeps your website fresh & relevant.
- 12. Answer Questions
- 13. Find Your Voice •What’s interesting about my product/service? •Why did I start my business? Inspiration? •What challenge/problem am I trying to solve? •“Aha” moment? Result?
- 15. Mobile Website Keep in mind: •Small screen size •Simple design •Easy check-out •Browsers
- 16. Social Media Engagement is key: •Listen •Respond •Communicate Don’t: •Overly Self-Promote •Hard Sell •badger
- 17. Post Quality Content Pictures: •Representative of your brand •Creative •Updated frequently Videos: •1-3 minutes in length •How-tos, testimonials, promotions Questions, blog articles: •Relate to your service/industry •Relevant •Interesting
- 18. Tap Brand Evangelists •Rethink the customer testimonial. •Ask for permission. •Promote on website.
- 19. More Tips Consider: •Schedule Facebook posts. •Ideally once/twice a day. •Create conversations/build relationships/hold contests. •Give stuff away! •Schedule other social media updates with free tools. •Hootsuite •Keep tabs on the competition. •See how your favorite stores, brands & companies are engaging with their friends.
- 20. Give Thanks “When I first started tweeting, I had no brand recognition; no one knew who I was. To build my brand I started creating conversations about what I cared passionately about: wine.” ~Gary Vaynerchuk
- 22. 22
- 23. 2013 Marketing Plan Blueprint 23
- 24. You’ve got mail! •Despite: •Social media craze •Cell phone explosion •Email marketing campaigns •Mail is big business: •171 billion pieces of mail processed by USPS in 2010 •80% scan direct mail •4.7% growth in 2012
- 25. 3 Benefits Framework Session of Direct Mail •Smaller areas are more effective. •Use an event to draw new customers in to your store. • Remember the rule of seven.
- 26. Define your Community List builders: • Free •Accurate •Easy to use
- 27. Compelling Offer
- 28. Don’t Provide an Offer… •The offer is the biggest driver of success. •Tie events to time of year/holiday. •Make it personal to your customer base. Create an Event…
- 29. Rule of 7 Research Proves 7 impressions Make a Sale: •More brand impressions=higher brand response. •Builds trust. •Creates buy-in. •Establishes a relationship. •Keeps you top of mind.
- 30. 2013 Marketing Plan Blueprint 30
- 31. Target Prospects • Pull your 10 best customers. Look at who they are, what their ages are, average incomes, types of neighborhoods they are. • Depending on your Cole Information product, use the tools to reach out to more. • Based on the customer profile information, figure out the offering, event, etc. to reach out to them when they’re most receptive to you. 31
- 32. Say The Right Thing Building Effective Scripts • Introduction • Customer Benefit • The Close 32
- 33. Map Your Message •Twitter friendly headline: •Who you are in 140 characters or less •Add three supporting key benefits: •Critical to your message •Very short.—bullet points •More time? Reinforce the message •Add statistics or examples for each of your benefits 33
- 34. Map Your Message Cole Information helps business find new customers. Information for Customer direct mail & Support and telemarketing regular customer that’s industry learning specific. opportunities. Accurate •Focus on small business, information that’s •Customer care available through insurance agents and real affordable regular business hours. estate agents. •Free monthly product, refresher and small business marketing •Monthly information updates. webinars. •Subscription based. •Unlimited leads & downloads. 34
- 35. Sample Script Hi is Joe Smith there? Hi Joe, my name if Lora Ullerich with Cole Information . We help small businesses find new customers through accurate & affordable direct mail and telemarketing solutions. Plus, we have free regular product training and customer care advisors who work one-on-one with clients to ensure their using the product efficiently and effectively. In addition, we have worked with (competitor) to improve their communications with their client base, which has resulting in new sales and higher customer retention. I’d like to schedule (timeframe) with you to talk about how we helped improve (Competitor’s) customer retention and new sales methods. I’m thinking it would be a fit for you too. How does (date sound)?
- 36. Leave a Message! B2B message: “Hi this is (name ) with (Company name) calling in regards to (a competitor). Please call me at 314.555.5555 when you get a chance . Thanks.” Sample: “Hi this is Lora Ullerich with Cole Information. I was calling in regards to (Competitor). Please call me at 855.282.7297 when you get a chance. Thanks.” “Hi. thanks for getting back to me. I was calling because we were able to help (competitor) improve their customers results by making it easier for them to find new customers. Are you interested in improving the number and quality of customers you reach out to?”
- 37. Leave a Message! B2C message “Hi this is (name ) with (Company name) and I was calling to (your service or benefit). Please call me at…Thank you.” Sample: “Hi this is Lora Ullerich with XYZ Insurance and I was calling to see if we could save you some money on your homeowner’s insurance. Please call me at 314.555.5555.”
- 38. 2013 Marketing Plan Blueprint 38
- 39. Articulate Your Value •Being local is a huge asset! •You live and work in the community. •You understand the needs of your neighbors. •Harness your power. •Customers’ needs come first!
- 40. Location! Location! Location! TM Drive traffic using location-based applications What is foursquare: •Location based marketing using a cell phone Why it’s important: • Both foursquare use, and smart-phone use are on the rise • More buzz = More traffic = More sales • Foster customer loyalty How: • foursquare.com/add_venue • Choose appropriate “badge” • Implement loyalty rewards program
- 42. Reward Reviews ws e vie rR me sto Cu
- 43. Don’t Be Everywhere. •Focus on your strengths. •What social media spaces best represent that. •Cross-promote •Email signature •Direct mail •eNewsletters •Social media spaces. •Automate sparingly. •Be consistent.
- 44. Drive Online Reviews Via DM •Offer a Discount for rate user experience. •Make sure you can track the response.
- 45. Five Action Points • Sit down and create/update your marketing plan. • What’s your competition doing? • Engage your consumers. • Start slowly. • Track to see what’s working and do more of that.
- 46. 8
Notes de l'éditeur
- Good afternoon. My name is Lora Ullerich, I’m the digital media specialist for Cole Information and today’s Small Business Marketing 101 is looking at 2013 marketing plan blueprint –3 must haves for success. Struggling with completing your 2013 marketing plan all the while successfully running your small business? We know you wear several hats, so in this Small Business Marketing 101 webinar, we’ll break it all down for you in bite-sized pieces. You’ll come away with the three essential components you need to have in your marketing plan and a template for incorporating it all together. Plus, you’ll get tips on increasing your online presence and which social media networks you should be hanging out at. Even if you think you know the answers, you may just learn something new. Plus, one lucky attendee will walk away with a $50 Amazon gift card.
- Discuss today's session:
- Before we get started, just a little background on Cole Information. In 1947, Jack Cole created Cole Directory, a directory of people by their address and phone number. Jack’s considered the father of direct mail. While companies had dabbled in this type of directory in the past, what made Cole Directory revolutionary was that he used IBM punch cards to streamline the process and thus created a searchable database. This type of crisscross directory was groundbreaking & invaluable to a number of industries including telemarketing, debt collection and law enforcement. Today, through a number of our products, including Cole X-Dates & Cole Lists, we have continued to provide small business owners this searchable database of addresses and phone numbers that allows them to target consumers and businesses in their own neighborhood. We also want to provide small businesses with the necessary tools and information they need to grow their business. We do that through Cole community.com and also these small business 101 webinars.
- We also have a an online community called Cole Community, where with articles, a blog & other content including past webinars we think is interesting & is beneficial to small business owners like yourself. We invite you to take a look around, check out the site & use it as a resource for your needs.
- From a visual standpoint it helps map out where you’d like to be and the steps you need to get there. For instance, if you want to grow your business by 5%, then you need to break that down. How many prospects do you need to reach out to, how many quotes does that translate into, how many sales does that trickle down to. Helps keep you accountable—some people spend half their time either day, week, year whatever—figuring out what they should be doing. Creating a mkgt plan helps take that guesswork out of it—you’ve already created a map, so you just follow it. Also, by visually creating a document of where you’d want to be, so you stay productive, you’re also able to visually see your weak spots, where you need to improve and then you can spend your time improving those areas rather than figuring out where you need to be.
- Let’s say you don’t have a blueprint or it needs to be updated. Here are some questions to get you started: Ask yourself: How does my small biz generate leads? Is it from my website? Social media? My Blog? The networking events I’m involved with? Word of mouth? Direct mail? Telemarketing Other medias—like newspaper ads, radio, sponsorships, etc. A mixture of the above. What leads? How is your lead generation working for you. Is it effective? Break it down for each of your lead gen areas. Small biz marketing playbook there’s the ROI calculations to figure out your close ratio, ROI & whether your meeting your goals. What else could you be in doing. Here’s a hint: what’s your competition doing? What about other industries either similar or completely different from you…what are they doing? Is it working? Just call them up & ask? Hubspot—a company who has some great information has a SMART template you can download for free—however, you have to put your contact info in there, so expect a phone call. Smart stands for: Specific—real numbers & real deadlines Measurable—be able to track your goals. Attainable– do work towards a goal that’s challenging but also possible. Realistic—be honest with yourself & your team. Include hurdles & challenges Trimebound—give yourself some deadlines. Don’t put on there “someday”.
- Let’s say you don’t have a blueprint or it needs to be updated. Here are some questions to get you started: Also, you need to be realistic about how much money you can spend to find new customers. what’s your budget? What’s your current approach to finding new customers & generating leads. Do you need to make it changes? Be honest….is it working for you? If not, what can be done to find new customers? Hubspot—a company who has some great information has a SMART template you can download for free—however, you have to put your contact info in there, so expect a phone call. Smart stands for: Specific—real numbers & real deadlines Measurable—be able to track your goals. Attainable– do work towards a goal that’s challenging but also possible. Realistic—be honest with yourself & your team. Include hurdles & challenges Trimebound—give yourself some deadlines. Don’t put on there “someday”.
- Okay, so we’ve talked about the need for a blueprint & also the critical questions you need to ask. Now let’s take a look at our must-haves in our marketing blueprint: Online presence— This includes your website, social media presence & blog
- Okay, so now that we’ve got our goals, let’s figure out must-haves in our blueprint. That includes your online presence…seems like a no-brainer, right…yet. When was the last time you: Took a critical look at your website: Do you have Is the information current and fresh? –contact information, the store hours, etc. Does it answer your customers’ most frequent questions? /is there a way to contact them ASAP? Take for example—what something costs, how they can order it, etc. Is it easy to navigate? Is it fresh & keep people coming back to it? One way to do that is to consider a blog Consider some examples: PB (information isn’t current) Live chat
- Let’s consider some real examples of what I’m talking about: Take a national chain for example since many of you may have this same issue being part of a national carrier, a franchise, work under a national real estate agency, etc. As you can see this is Pottery Barn’s website & it gives the accurate information on the location, it’s got a phone number & the hours of operation, but it’s actually wrong. And you might not think this is an issue, but let me tell you a story of why this can cause issues: the store actually closes at 8 pm on Saturday nights. And recently the staff were closing up around 8:45 & all of a sudden they get a guy at the door, who’s like, can I pick up my stuff—he had bought a book shelf. He said, well, I checked your website & it said you were open. Obviously, the staff had to accommodate his needs, but that put their “out” time off by 15 minutes: it caused issues with the customer, the employees & also affected payroll. Bottom line, it affects business. So make sure your website’s information is completely accurate. Live chat
- Here’s another example regarding answering customer questions. Consider River pool and spa dot com. The owner answered the question everyone was asking & look where he ranks on Google—3 rd . Consider your own industry—with insurance, what should people look for in a policy, what their policy should include. Why they should consider life insurance policy in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s—if real estate, what to look for in a home, why an inspection is important, etc. Remember—you’re the subject matter expert—answer those same questions you do day in & day out and that will keep not only your website current, but also solve the SEO issue & make you higher on the list.
- Keeping with River Pools & spas, they also have clear active directives—in other words their “buttons” say “click here now” “download now” “free articles” etc. One more thing…consider live chat to be an immediate subject matter expert to your prospects & customers. Most people say, I can’t take on one more thing in my day—but for any of you who’ve come to our website & clicked on the “live chat” button, you reach me…I turn it on when I’ve available & answer questions to you. I triage your questoin
- But I’m You don’t have to hire an advertising agency to figure out your voice…rather do some homework and ask yourself these questions to be able to articulate your company story. This isn’t a hard sell or promoting yourself, rather it’s about relationship building. Every company has a story. If you tell yours compellingly on your website, in your brochures, and in other strategic places, you can enjoy some significant benefits. Potential customers will discover that you are the kind of company they would like to do business with because of your innovations, honesty, work ethic, past history, or other positive traits. Yet how can you write a story that conveys those central values in an engaging and interesting way? According to a post written by Veronica Maria Jarski for Marketing Profs., here are some questions to ask before you start to write: What is interesting about how your business was founded? And about your founder? What big problem or challenge is your company trying to solve? What inspired your business? What “aha” moments have you had? How has your business evolved as a result? What’s an unobvious way to tell your story? What do you consider normal and boring that other people would think is cool? To those suggestions, let me add a suggestion that after you have written your story, let a lot of people review it before you use it on your website or elsewhere. Your employees, customers, and even your vendors can offer suggestions that will help your story become not just good, but great. be a subject matter expert in your field. You can do this by posting interesting content, be interested in others’ content & repost if applicable and offer tips, ideas, suggestions for your industry or service.
- Now let’s look at an old-school tactic that is your website. I’m going to hilghlight Bill’s website & it’s great—it has his picture, contact information and links to his social networks including his facebook page, linked in account & blog. Bill, I’m sure that people use it to get a first look at who you are as a real estate agent, what your site looks like & what property listings are for sale. So what’s the 2.0 twist? Bill, you created a mobile website that I’ve found by scanning your QR code from your flier & it’s got this same look. Tell me why you thought it was important to create a mobile site. How much traffic you’ve received?
- This is the management page, as you can see, I created an articles page, a blog page, webinars & events and news section. There are some things you want to keep in mind when creating a mobile website however. And here are some This is how you manage your pages and here’s some tips on making your mobile website user-friendly. Tip #1: It’s true: size matters. In other words, the screen size is key. Keep in mind the typical screen size of most mobile phones is usually less than 4 inches, so when it comes to building your retail app, you must maximize the limited screen area by removing the clutter. Tip #2: Simplicity reigns supreme. A simplified approach will give users the best overall experience, reduce content bottlenecks and keep everything running smoothly. For example, if you’re a clothing retailer, you’ll want to solely focus the user experience on single items without excessive images or descriptions. Keep product information concise; when customers are accessing the mobile site they are looking to browse quickly, so it is not necessary to include the full catalog description. Tip #3: Don’t be dense: streamline the process. Heavy, dense pages with too much data can drag down your speed and discourage users from continuing onto other pages. Lightweight pages will speed up the load time and boost performance. Another common culprit for data-laden slow pages is Flash. Your mobile website should be free of flash and rely on icons and images instead. Keep in mind that iPhone and iPad users won’t even see that Flash anyway. Lastly, keep the search ‘breadcrumb trail’ short—ideally only display the last part of the string from the search. Tip #4: Seal the deal. Developers should always optimize their checkout process to be as short as possible in order to facilitate a transaction once the decision to make a purchase has been made. Every nonessential step in your mobile checkout process adds friction while likely resulting in lost sales. In mobile commerce as in ecommerce the same rules apply: the method of presentation can make or break a sale and sites that are slow to load — even by just a second or two — can often lead users to abandon the transaction altogether. Mobile users are always in a hurry. Make the sale or be sorry! Tip #5: Browsers matter, too! It is easy to forget about browsers when you are making your site mobile-friendly, but overlooking the role they play can cause serious performance lags. While web applications are built to deliver content for all kinds of browsers at once, with mobile the opposite is true. It is important to build your mobile site to send content in a way specifically tailored to each individual mobile browser; this will help to avoid weighing down the browser with page data it can’t use. You may even want to consider using a mobile-only multi-part stylesheet to keep these pages lightweight — one style for each contingency, depending on browser type, version, device, and device OS, etc. http://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/3089-5-tips-for-optimizing-ecommerce-sites-for-mobile-access.htmlor your marketing needs.
- Social media is all about engagement—to me it’s like word of mouth on steroids—when done right people are talking about you, your company, the service you provide all over the place. It’s also an opportunity for you to spy on the competition, your customers & also prospects to see what they’re talking about…what’s important to them. Think surveys they don’t even know they’re taking. You can also easily communicate with hundreds of people at one time—and unlike a mass email where everyone gets annoyed that you keep hitting the “reply all” button, you’re in a sense communicating more one-on-one with these people. Here’s where people go wrong & when people on social media stop listening: When you overly promote yourself, your business or service. You do hard sells and you badger people. They tune out, they unlike you & will probably not buy from you.
- So now that you’re clued in on what to say, what’s relevant to your audience & The number one question Once you get your visual Post interesting content – Articles videos Pictures Blog content Questions Quotes Now sprinkle in some Highlights and milestones When was your company founded What products or services have you launched What else can you pin for 7 days Be Vague, yet Timely in responses & posts Most interesting posts are vague It’s not about you! Like other company’s updates, posts, likes Share other people’s content on your wall When you see a person/company doing a good deed in your industry—talk about it.
- Once you get your visual Post interesting content – Articles videos Pictures Blog content Questions Quotes Now sprinkle in some Highlights and milestones When was your company founded What products or services have you launched What else can you pin for 7 days Be Vague, yet Timely in responses & posts Most interesting posts are vague It’s not about you! Like other company’s updates, posts, likes Share other people’s content on your wall When you see a person/company doing a good deed in your industry—talk about it.
- Gary Vaynerchuk is an serial entrepreneur who’s built his social/online brand by creating relationships. his company wine library or winelibrary.com . He always had a sales spirit & grew up working in his family’s liquor store and he realized he could do it better. He harnessed the power of social media—twitter & Youtube to talk about his passion: wine. His business is now national industry leader and he’s done it by following some simple rules that he outlines in his book “The Thank You Economy” Namely-that developing strong consumer relationships in pivotal to a brand or company’s success. In other words, he didn’t shamelessly self-promote…he answered questions, he talked about wine—he infused himself into conversations happening online about wine & answered them. Here’s an example of how he
- Make sure your page represents who you are as a company—so you get that branding recognition. Here’s a great example of an insurance agent—as you can see his cover image is representative of his brand—he’s got his profile picture so people can see who he is. Your profile picture you either want your picture, your logo or something that’s representative of you/your brand. It’s 180x180 pixels and should look good when it’s a thumbnail size of 32x32 pixels.
- Here’s our FB Timeline—as you can see we’ve got our “about” section a little different. Obviously we’re not a brick & mortar store, so it’s more important to call out what we do & give prospects/customers an opportunity to visit our website for more information. A third way to engage facebook friends is to utilize your apps section. You can organize which app is where so it’s important to have events, likes, Youtube Blog, etc. there are a total of 12 apps that can be shown there. While you can’t change the location of “photos app” you can re-arrange the others.
- Okay, so we’ve talked about the need for a blueprint & also the critical questions you need to ask. Besides an online presence, you also need to invest in direct mail and a robust direct mail campaign: Online presence— This includes your website, social media presence & blog
- Despite the fact that there are 1 billion active users on FB and actually spend most of their online time on the site, and when they’re not doing that they’re on pintrest, tweeting or updating their linked in profile. Facebook: 1 billion users; 600 million mobile users; more than 42 million pages and 9 million apps (Tweet this stat) Youtube: 4 billion views per day (Tweet this stat) QQ: 700 million monthly users (Tweet this stat) Qzone: 500 million users (Tweet this stat) Twitter: 500 million total users (Tweet this stat) Google+: 400 million registered users (Tweet this stat) Pew Internet Project released some new survey data (n=2,253) this morning that indicates 53 percent of US mobile phone owners now have smartphones And over 33 Billion SPAM emails zapped world wide each and every day, direct mail may be your best option to get your message out—especially if you’re a local small business owner. Direct mail continues to be a viable tradition form of advertising. According to the United States Postal Service in 2010 they process 171 billion pieces of mail and on average 80% of Americans scan their direct mail. It continues to work because it’s intimate, active, easy to track & cost effective. Also, the direct marketing association predicts that this year, direct marketing driven sales will grow nearly 5 %. So as a small business owner, how can you clear through all the clutter & get your message read? Kurt, this is your area of expertise, so I’m going to turn it over to you.
- The 3 tips I’m going to cover to attracting new customers in your community with direct mail include: Smaller the trade area, the more effective direct mail is Provide an offer, but also an event. The number of impressions or times a prospect/customer must see your brand to be effective
- Postcardbuilder & Cole Information have tools that are designed to make it easy a certain part of town.
- A compelling offer is great, but…
- Second to an effective mailing list, the offer is the biggest driver of direct mail success. However, while you want a great offer to get the customer to respond, you don’t want to look like a chronic discounter. Ocerall discounting lessens the perceived quality of your product/service. So try to wrap your offer into an event. These can tie into the time of the year—Memorial Day, 4 th of July, etc. Wine stores do this great. They offer wine tastings and tie it into a bottle off a purchase or tie it to a cause, etc.
- The Rule of Seven is an old marketing adage. It says that a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you. More brand impressions equal a higher brand response Builds trust Creates buy in Establishes a relationship Keeps you top of mind. Here’s the thing, you can’t just engage in a marketing activity and then be done. Marketing must be an on-going process in order for it to be successful.
- Okay, so we’ve talked about the need for a blueprint & also the critical questions you need to ask. Besides an online presence, you also need to invest in direct mail: Online presence— This includes your website, social media presence & blog
- Lora, would you like to assist here?
- The goal with your script is for your prospect to hear you and get hooked. So what makes a good script? Write your script the way you talk, and get to the point. Practice it so it sounds conversational not read, In the first 10 seconds you are selling the rest of the call. On the rest of the call you are trying to sell the next step. (say this twice) This next step will be different for everyone out there based on product and sales cycle. Intro – you want to state who you are and exactly what you do and how you can be a benefit to the prospect. Customer benefit– go into more detail about exactly what you do and how you can be a benefit. Use success stories of similar organizations, mentioning pain points and solutions. If you can ask leading questions that they can only answer in a manner that points to your solution. Map your message- Forbes Magazine & contributor Carmine Gallo has a great article & an excellent video clip that you can access at the end of this presentation that may help you develop a succinct message. Message mapping can also be helpful for customers that integrate online marketing tactics. Close the Deal Ask for what you want…specifically to this phone call. Remember you are not trying to close a sale over the phone on a first call, that’s not realistic. You are just trying to get to the next step in your sales cycle. It could be scheduling an appointment? Plan a meeting? Inviting to a webinar? Gathering info for a quote etc. Expect objections and be ready for them– these will be the key points and solutions that you provide and that you have sorted out when mapping your message. Keep coming back to the close
- Okay, so some of your are struggling with a short, concise elevator pitch or intro. Well, it may be helpful for you to map your message. I was reading Forbes Magazine & contributor Carmine Gallo has a great article & an excellent video clip that we’ll include at the end of this presentation for exactly how to do this. Here’s the jist of the article…think short & sweet like twitter. That's why you might want to check out the 15-second pitch strategy advocated by Forbes contributor Carmine Gallo. His article -- and the excellent video clip -- briefly shows how to craft an "elevator" pitch that you can deliver in a mere 15 seconds. If you have a little more time, or need more details, he also shows how to blow that out to a still-trim 30 seconds. Gallo explains how to tell a simple, clear and concise story by building a message map. Start by crafting what he calls a "Twitter-friendly headline" -- what you want your audience to know, told short and sweet in a way that will fit in Twitter's 140-character format. From there, expand on the Twitter headline by adding three supporting key benefits. They should be critical to your message and very short. They're not stories, they're just bullet points. If you did it right, you now have a narrative you can tell in 15 seconds. If you have more time, you can further expand your story by reinforcing each of the three benefits with statistics or examples. Watch the 5-minute video to see how to do this yourself.
- So, let’s take a look at my company. If we created a twitter friendly headline of my main paint, here’s what it is: Citalink Corp helps make cold calling more efficient & effective for customers through automation. Now my three supporting points: (some of you may have 4) User friendly Technology advanced Helps increase sales That needs to be in your 10 seconds…and if I have more time, I can flesh out those supporting points with statistics or examples—customer testimonials?
- This is me making a call about my company Citalinkcorp to Joe Smith who works for a company similar to Cole information. You will see me use Cole information as a reference.
- Some of you have asked, should I leave a message? YES! Here’s what you should say: The competitor should be someone that you have helped or worked with in the past. For example if I were leaving a message for Lora at Cole Information I would say something like the following:
- B2C message: If the consumer is interested in your product or service there is a chance they will call you back, however, at least you are starting to create brand awareness about you and your company. This will help to eliminate the “Cold” in your next call. In both messages you want to be short and to the point. Again, no sale will ever be made from a voicemail message. You are just trying to set yourself up for the next contact you make with the prospect.
- Okay, so we’ve talked about the need for a blueprint & also the critical questions you need to ask. Besides an online presence, you also need to invest in direct mail: Online presence— This includes your website, social media presence & blog
- In building your brand, recognize you have a genuine interest in your customer. They come first—and you know them. You may see them at the grocery store, they live in your neighborhood, your kids go to school together, you see them at church on Sunday. With Local customers—you can easily identify your existing customers by neighborhood. When prospecting, don’t forget to remind the prospect of all their neighbors who buy from you! When talking to customers, remind them also of their neighbor customers. Reinforce their buying decision. Ask your customers if they would provide you with a recommendation.
- Own your local market and communicate with them by using location based applications to stay top of mind with customers & prospects. Foursquare is one place to do this. The application allows consumers to “check in” via their cell phones at various venues and leave a peer review. Restaurants, coffee shops and businesses are taking advantage of this mobile app to connect with their frequent customers and give them incentives for being loyal customers. And it’s popular. In just two years, the company now has 10 million people who are using it. They just announced local updates & promoted updates http://blog.foursquare.com/2012/07/18/introducing-local-updates-from-businesses-keeping-up-with-the-places-you-love-has-never-been-easier/
- Here’s one example of a local coffee shop who’s making foursqure work for them. Give the location, add the contact information, menu & photos & also the Go to foursquare.com and click on “add venue”. Choose an appropriate “badge” and utilize the loyalty rewards program to create buzz about what agents are doing. Something to consider: incentivize your clients to stop by through specialty coffee or gas gift cards if they stop in and say “hi” twice in a month or a quarter. That’s a way to drive traffic—or even a referral. Have a friend stop in/say hi and you get a gift card.
- You can’t be everywhere and be good at it. So, if you are committed to Facebook, then stick to posting content. And let’s face it, that’s where the majority of folks are right now.
- Here’s an example of how local companies are driving customers to rate customer experience. This sign sent this postcard out to users offering a 10% coupon for going online & giving their review. As you can see it’s a 10% discount off an order They tell you exactly where to go—and track the response—in this case it’s a bit.ly link—which is free & allows you to see how many people clicked on the link. It’s also free.
- Sit down & take a critical look at our marketing plan. Make sure you update it and include those critical elements of Online presence Direct mail Telemarketing Take a look at your competition. What are they doing that’s working? Is there a way you can add that to your mix? Engage your consumers. With social media, reward them for checking in, responding to your posts & tweets. start slowly. You’re not going to see results in a day/week even a month. But by making regular tweeks online, regular posts to your FB page, regular direct mail sends & follow-up calls—you can be sure to stay top of mind.