When you ask someone with a successful social media presence how to build your own audience, the answer most often is, "Write a blog post, Tweet it to your following, and share it on Facebook and LinkedIn." But what if you do not have many followers on Twitter or Facebook Fans?
A few weeks ago, we decided to start a process to answer the question: "How can a business that does not have many hits on their website, has no followers on Twitter, and no Fans on Facebook, generate sales leads using inbound marketing in only 30 days?"
We are going to be sharing our personal marketing plan next week on this webinar.
Below is some background reading that should formulate the basis of any marketing plan.
Create a Story
The web is a crowded space and you are in constant competition to earn your target audience's attention. We have come to realize that your competition does not just reside in your industry, but is everywhere. Think about what you read - whether it pertains to your business or not. What stories resonate with you the most? It can be a blog post on how to grow your business, or news relating to your favorite football team, or the heartfelt story of a mother reunited with her child. All content producers are competing for your time, and no matter how you spend it, you only have 24 hours a day.
Before writing a blog post, and before building your social media plan, you first need a story that will resonate with your ideal customer. At Cloud Marketing Labs, we want to be known as the firm who can deliver sales leads in 30 days using Social Media. We feel this is something our audience can wrap their hands around, and will help us stand out from some of our marketing firm competitors.
Focus
Your challenge is to generate sales leads in 30 days. If you work every hour of every day, including weekends, that's only 720 hours. I don't know about you, but I generally enjoy sleeping for at least 6 hours a day. Now you're down to 520, and that's not including family time.
You can't be everywhere online. You just don't have the time. Pick two or three online medias where you can add value to your target customer and grow your audience. Develop a plan and put all of your eggs in 2 or 3 baskets. Diversifying your investment is not the way to go here.
Once you build your systems and develop a rhythm for the platforms that you choose, you can then start to diversify your efforts.
Build your sales funnel
You are going to be spending a lot of time and energy building a loyal audience for your business. You need them to do something once they get to your website.
Here are some options:
• Ask for the sale if it's a lower cost impulsive buy
• Have them sign up for a free trial
• Have them sign up for an ebook or white paper
• Have them sign up for an information packed webinar
• Or simply ask them to call for a free consultation
Set up your landing page before you even start to create content. Analytics software has a way of dehumanizing website traffic. Recognize that every visitor is a potential customer for your business.
I hear many business owners say "I only have 500 people a month visiting my site, how can I get more traffic?" When I ask how many visitors became customers of the business, very often the answer is none. What would happen to you business if 20% of all web traffic turned into a paying customer? You shouldn't be asking: "How do I go from 500 visitors a month to 5000 visitors a month?" You should ask "How do I turn those 500 visitors a month into customers? Treat your website visitors like they are people, not just a statistic?"
Ask for the sale
The final aspect of social media marketing is to ask for the sale. This used to be a faux pas in the online world. Luckily somewhere along the way, people realized that giving away free stuff all the time wasn't a good business practice. They've signed up for your white paper, or your free consultation, now you need to ask them for money. You don't have to be so blunt about it, but you still need to do it.
Giving away 1000 white papers looks good in Google Analytics, but if no one purchases your product or service, it won't mean a thing on your financial sheets.