4 Reasons Your Customers Are Better Marketers Than You Are?

Let’s face it fellow small business owners: the amount of information available to your customers today has deemed your traditional marketing efforts completely ineffective. When customers want to buy something they are more likely to talk to their peers or ask opinions on social media before they come to you. With this information shift, we as business owners need to take advantage of the power of the consumer. In today’s world, the consumer can be a better marketer that the marketing staff that you employ 9-5.

Here are 5 things that your customers can do for you that your marketing department can’t.

       

1. Fully Understand Your Buyers Needs

Nobody understands the wants and needs of your customers, like your customers. This may seem obvious, but most business owners today forget to ask for the opinion of their loyal customers. Encouraging customers to give their opinions on your products and service not only provides valuable insight as to what you are doing right, what you are doing wrong, and what they want to see next. Encouraging customers will also help them to understand, just how important their opinions are to the success of your business.

2. Truly Connect With Your Potential Customers

      

       90% Of Customers say buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. This statistic is proof that there is no more important source that the voice of the consumers peers!  Before stepping foot into your business, customers trust their peers to give them a full and unbiased opinion of your products or services.  As much as you try and delight your customers, your marketing and sales department can never connect with them on the same level their peers can.

3. Exponentially Boost Your Social Reputation

When you look at the current state of your businesses’ social media accounts, it is likely that you feel your current efforts are not enough. There is nothing you can do to change your social reputation faster that your customers can. Have your heard of the term trending? Well topics don’t trend because

a business posted a tweet. Topics Trend because of the massive amount of consumer interaction that the CONSUMER generates about the topic. Don’t be shy in encouraging your customers to comment and promote your brand on social media.

4. Help To Penetrate New Markets

Are most of your customers from a certain geographic area, or a certain demographic? If you answered yes and still don’t feel your marketing tactics are working,then it is likely that you are not utilizing the reach of your customers on social media. Your customers and thousands of friends and followers that could potentially be getting your message, most of which are of the same demographic. The best way to get your customers reaching out to their friends and followers, is to create great content. Generate great content that your customers can’t help but share with the world!

Thanks For Reading!

Randy Delling

Social Stride

Checkout Our New Website www.socialstride.org

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What Can MLB Teams Teach Us About Inbound Marketing?

As a baseball fan, it is hard to escape the lure of heading to the ballpark to watch my favorite team! The food at baseball parks are basically like going to a sit-down restaurant, the sing-a-long songs allow any shy person to be a fool in public,  and a family just cannot resist a themed night! For Detroiters, how can a Tigers fan resist Star Wars Night at Comerica Park? Simple: You can't!
Not to mention, compared to any other major league sport, baseball is typically the most affordable, so families and friends can attend multiple games a season.

 As a business owner you can take away and apply the principles that MLB teams are using to your advantage. So what is it that makes the MLB teams use of Inbound Marketing so effective?

Behind The Scenes

With the emergence of social media, fans want to be engaged and get a behind-the-scenes look into the lives of their favorite players. MLB teams in 2015 encourage their players to post updates to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Players and Teams use these social media channels to give fans an inside look into what players are doing on their days off, how they are helping in the community, what goes on in the clubhouse before a game, or how they celebrate after a big win. Using social media to engage make fans feel as if they have a more personal connection with their favorite team and promotes interaction between fans and players that they pay their hard earned money to watch and see. Inbound is the same: engage, engage, engage! 

E-Mail Offers

If you are a fan of baseball, I’m sure that you have already subscribed to your favorite teams email list. MLB teams do not use these email lists to spam their subscribers! Instead, teams use these lists to educate readers on the current state of the team, offer specials on new merchandise, and promote ticket offers that make taking your family to the ballpark more affordable. Teams also use images to portray their message in every email. Nobody likes to read a wordy email with no value other that a link to buy. Consumers what to be educated and entertained when they open an email. MLB teams use email effectively and efficiently.

Content Hub

MLB teams use their website as a content hub that draw fans in for much more that just buying tickets. The main reason fans visit their favorite teams website is to learn about the team. Teams provide highlight videos, player interviews, injury updates, promotional schedules, and blogs. Providing this content insures that the first place that fans look for information is on their website. In turn, these visitors will reward the team by purchasing tickets and merchandise directly from the source, rater that visiting a ticket broker or another sporting goods store.

So how can you apply these tactics to your business?

1.            Use social media, not only to promote your current promotions or specials, but to give your customers a behind-the-scenes look at how your business runs and why you’re the best.
2.         Don’t spam your email subscribers with wordy email that provide no value. Use email as a medium to educate your customers and provide valuable information that make them want to buy from you. Also, just a "Hello" or "Happy Birthday" email is much more memorable than a spam email in the trash bin. 
3.             Make sure that your website is a hub of information that has everything that the customer needs to make a buying decision. You do not want you customers visiting other sources to get information about your products.

Thank you for reading!

Please visit our website for more information on how Inbound can help grow your business!

www.socialstride.org

Randy Delling

Social Stride

4 Tips on Using Pinterest for your Business

Pinterest is the 2^nd largest social source of traffic=people love Pinterest.

This means, although Facebook and Twitter are great/amazing/easy/whatever else, you NEED THIS. 

According to research, 50% of business occurs after 3.5 months of posting, which means it’s worthwhile to pin!

You may think your business doesn’t need to pin because you aren’t selling clothes, shoes, or anything tangible. This thinking is very outdated!

Check out these features of Pinterest and great tips to get your business thriving!

1. Make Rich Pins

This means, when you click a pin for information, the Pin includes extra information on the pin itself.

There are 6 types of “rich pins:” app, place, movie, recipe, article, and product.

App Pins: include an install button, so Pinners can download without ever leaving Pinterest.

Place Pins: a map, address, and phone number of business is provided.

Article pins: Include headline, author, and description of article.

Product Pins: Include pricing, availability, and location to buy while providing notifications of price drops.

Recipe Pins: Include the entire synopsis of recipe and cook time!

Movie pins: Include Ratings, cast, and reviews.

For those not very technical (like myself), check out this site on how to create rich pins:

  Click HERE

2. Know Photos

·      Clear, clean product images that are natural are usually pinterest-worthy.

·      Images without faces usually are repinned, 23% more

·      Pins with multiple dominate colors are pinned more, so stay colorful (red-orange hues get about twice as many repins as blue-green)

·      Taller images are more likely to be repinned and images should be close to the maximal image size of 763 pixels

      3. Pin when your Audience pins

Timing is everything. If your customers pin when they are going to bed, as an evening time-waster, pin 6-11pm. That, along with 2-4pm, works well for most pinterest boards. However, if you are a business blogger, you may want your article pins before and after lunch hour, and 3-5pm when business workers are browsing the interest before leaving work.

      4. Sell the Lifestyle

Inspire your audience, don’t just sell to them. This is the whole reason to use pin. Great pinterest boards compliment their product by being subtle that they are selling, while inspiring your audience to feel the need of having your product in their life. Know who you are selling to, what those people want, and be a friend with great pin ideas. The selling will sell itself.

Not every pin should be a product; you want a board of amazing content. Your product pins should shine a little brighter, and you will sell. 

This is just a little PINspiration for you to understand the beauty in this social media platform. It should not be ignored; every type of business can use it.

Thanks for reading,

Lana Sache

Social Stride

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How To Find The Time For Social Media Marketing

As a small business owner, you are always looking for ways to save time. And let’s be honest, marketing through emails, social media, and your website can be very time consuming. For this reason, most business owners will neglect the attention that social media and other online marketing outlets need in order to maximize marketing potential.

Well I’m glad to say that that this problem has been solved.

Enter, Marketing Automation. What is this Marketing Automation?  It refers to software platforms that are made for businesses that more efficiently market and automate repetitive tasks on multiple online outlets including email, social media, and website. Some of these software options include Hubspot, Marketo, and Infusionsoft. Usage of Marketing Automation Technology is expected to Rise 50% by 2015 (via Sirius Decisions).

Unfortunately for your business, traditional marketing just does not work in today’s tech friendly environment and does not produce the ROI that it once did. In 2015, people can easily perform product research on multiple easy-to-navigate websites, skip through commercials through DVR, and do  not accept phone calls from phone numbers they do not recognize.
 It’s time to face the facts, and set up marketing automation for your business to get back the reach that your traditional marketing efforts had in the 1980’s!

Here are 10 Marketing Automation statistics that will have you ready to take your business to the next level.

1.  79% of top-performing companies have been using marketing automation for more than 2 years. (Via Gleanster)

2.       B2B marketers who implement marketing automation increase their sales-pipeline contribution by 10%. (Via Forrester Research)

3.     58% of top-performing companies (defined as those where marketing contributes more than half of the sales pipeline), have adopted marketing automation. (Via Forrester Research)

4.   25% of Fortune 500 B2B companies have adopted marketing automation. (Via ClickZ)

5.       63% of companies that are outgrowing their competitors use marketing automation. (Via The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups)

6.  CMOs at top-performing companies indicate that their most compelling reason for implementing marketing automation is to increase revenue (79%) and get higher quality leads (76%). (Via Gleanster)

7.  Companies using marketing automation see 53% higher conversion rates (initial response-to-MQL) than non-users, and an annualized revenue growth rate 3.1% higher than non-users. (Via Aberdeen Group)

8.  78% of successful marketers cite marketing automation systems as most responsible for improving revenue contribution. (Via The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups)

9.  B2C marketers who take advantage of automation – which includes everything from cart abandonment programs to birthday emails – have seen conversion rates as high as 50%. (Via eMarketer)

10. Companies that use marketing automation are 3 times more likely than companies without automation to track and attribute their content-marketing efforts to multiple touchpoints (36% to 11%). (Via The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups)

Thanks for reading!

Randy Delling

Social Stride



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How to: Easily Convert Followers Into Paying Customers

When you first started on social media, you looked to get as many followers as you could. You probably followed everyone back, reached out and engaged.
As your platform and business grows, it’s harder to sell and manage your accounts, but it’s still the simplest and most useful way to grab loyal customers.

Loyal. This is the keyword.

First, think about what makes a relationship loyal, then translate that into your accounts.

Here’s some simple tips:

1.    Communicate and take their advice

It’s great you got followers and did the work it took to get those. But, the more people=more noise. You may get a ton of complaints and suggestions, but don’t overlook them! If suggestions become redundant, fix it and LET THEM KNOW! Tell your followers you heard them and are making changes.

If you get a great idea from one person, give that person a shout out! If you become their internet friend, they will eventually become a loyal paying friend.

2.    Create exclusive deals for followers

Not only does this help track your sales coming from followers, they will feel the URGENCY to buy your product. Constant specials on social media will actually devalue your company, but when used at the correct time for the right length of time, it will create desire.

How?

1. Coupons and promotions with specific codes
2. Referral program offers for 
1. Shares
2. Likes
3. New Customers
3. Create a #hashtag!

3.    Share Customer Testimonials

Share, share, share! No, also PROMOTE! Nowadays, everyone looks at reviews to decide which restaurant to go to, or brand of vitamin to choose, or any other service they use. Every company should have great customer testimonials highlighted on their sites and updated often!

Another great idea is if you have a blog (if you don’t, go get one!), interview a loyal customer on their experience and your products. Any way you can put a happy face to a happy comment, you’ll generate more happy customers.

As you can see, there are simple steps to amp up your online marketing campaign. I'd love to hear how this article has helped your company! Please comment, shout out, and share :)
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Have an amazing day,

Lana Sache

Why and HOW to Find Your Targeted Audience

When I watched Steve Forbes interview Jessica Simpson about her billion-dollar clothing company, I realized how brilliant this woman really is.  Of course she has her corkiness, but so do I.  I didn’t think I’d watch her interview and have my brain wheels turning, but boy was I wrong!

She says, “We like to see the trends that are coming. We are behind.” She is aware of her targeted audience of “everything beyond New York and L.A.” She knows women take time to see what trend they like, and she understands that. She waits to see what fashion trend women admire and will last beyond one season, and then makes a great color scheme that a wide age range will like, and creates something amazing and affordable. It’s not just affordable clothes, it’s trends that most people admire but couldn’t get their hands on yet.

She dug deep into her targeted audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml2oObyWFmc

This is where I think a lot of companies thrive at or fail at. Every single company will have a low period, but what gets them back or makes them fall off determines if they can rediscover their targeted audience.

Here’s the 2 major factors you’ll need to keep in mind (and keep rechecking) when you are finding your targeted audience:

1.    Demographics

This isn’t just age, gender, and location. You need to think into who you really want to target by answering these demographics also:

• Income
• Occupation
• Education
• Ethnicity
• Marital status
• # of children

Some of these things may not be relevant to your business, like ethnicity, but some of these are something to really think about. If you are a small town farmer, you’ll still want to target families who have mouths to feed and can afford local produce. Reevaluate what you first decided was your demographic, dig deeper, and come up with a campaign to get that specific audience this year.

2.    Psychographics

Psychographics tells you the WHY, not just the WHO. In order to tell you why your targeted audience works (or is failing), you need to closely watch their

• Behaviors
• Values
• Personality
•  Interests
• Lifestyle

For example, you should know when most people view your website, what pages on your site are most clicked (and what factors about it make it so liked), what graphics tend to attract your clients, and what other types of posts your market likes/shares.

Analyzing psychographics can be challenging because there is no clear answer; you have to play psychologist, emphasize with your market, and change accordingly with the way they work.

Just like Jessica Simpson, you need to know how your demographic thinks; which may be completely different than how you think.

No matter what, it’s never a bad idea to look over your targeted audience again and again, since it will continuously change!

Thanks for reading!

Lana Sache

Social Stride

4 Reasons Your Companies Traditional Marketing Is DEAD

If you are a long time owner of any sort of company, you may wonder why your traditional marketing efforts are not working like they did in the past. With usage of internet and mobile applications on the rise, your customers are not responding to broad advertisements that they hear on TV or radio, or read in newspaper or magazines. Consumers today are more informed and want to be engaged and build a relationship with the brands that they love. There are many reasons for the demise of your companies traditional marketing efforts, here are the Top 5

1. Traditional Marketing is not personalized

Traditional marketing is about producing one advertisement that caters to everyone that it reaches (while spending a ton on $). The content of those ads are NOT personalized and when advertisements come on, people tune out. Traditional marketing does not take into consideration the specific needs and wants of each individual customer. Today, we need to market to each individual separately. When customers are engaged with your company, they leave a trail of clues as to what they are most interested. Companies today should be using all of the information there customers give them and implementing it through individualized content in the form of social media posts, videos, e-mails, articles, etc. The days of guessing what your customers want are over, so why is your company still advertising aimlessly, instead of individualizing you marketing?

2. Traditional Marketing does not promote interaction with customers

In the past, your marketing department would come up with an advertising campaign, roll it out to the public, then sit back and wait for customers to call or come in. With the way buyer behavior has recently change, you simply cannot just sit back and expect customers to come to you without interacting with them. Your customers expect you to be there and expect a quick response when they have questions. Marketing in 2015 is a great way to communicate with your customers and gain insight about your customers. Don’t just sit back and expect this generation of consumers to come running to you.

3   

      3. Your customers have more resources

10 years ago, using traditional marketing tactics, your marketing department played the role of the expert. Due to a lack of information back then, the customer usually took your word because that was all the information they had. But in todays changed marketing environment, consumers can easily gain information about your brand through review sites, social media posts, and blogs. Even better, this content is coming from and unbiased source, their peers. So not only do they read what you have to say about your brand, but also read about that other consumers have to say about your brand.  Taking that into consideration, your company not only need to generate great content, but also need to promote the content that your customers are saying about you and insuring that the customer experience is a great one.

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      4. Your traditional marketing is temporary

With traditional marketing, your ads only last as long as you keep paying for them, but the internet has change the lifespan of your marketing to FOREVER. When you use content marketing, whatever you post is a marketing asset that will generate new business FOREVER. I like to think of Traditional marketing as leasing an apartment and content marketing as buying a house. Content marketing is an asset that will last forever. Keeping this in mind, with content marketing, you have to make sure that the message that you are sending is consistent. If your consumer finds a post or article form 2010 and its different from the messaging you are sending in you most recent post or article, your customers will get confused about what your company actually stand for.

Technology has changed the way that your customers shop for products and service. Traditional marketing is dying but your company can use content and context marketing to engage with your customers and create a pleasant buying environment. Worth a try, eh?

For more information please visit our NEW website www.socialstride.org and like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Stride/642974392492344?fref=ts

Randy Delling

Social Stride