Notes

5 Methods to Leverage Technology in Your Marketing
I recently gave a speak to several technology firms about leveraging technology within their marketing efforts. I figured what better group to join the tech bandwagon than a group of people used to selling technology. My talk went over great. They, exactly like most professional firms, struggle filling the marketing funnel. And although most were alert to these technologies, a large proportion was not with them to grow their business.

My talk was titled, "5 Ways to Pump Up Your Marketing With Technology," and listed below are the five key points:

Stop stressing about your marketing message
Grow your professional network
Retain in touch consistently
Measure your progress
Never forget a big idea
Let me speak to each one briefly.

1. Stop Stressing About Your Marketing Message

I see lots of clients wringing their hands over what to say to their prospective clients.

Unfortunately, we sit inside our offices thinking about these things we tend to go a little crazy over it. My suggestion was simple; stop stressing over it and ASK. Sign up for a free of charge paid survey tool, like SurveyMonkey or QuestionPro, and distribute the next questions to your last 10 clients:

What's the largest challenge we helped you overcome?
How did that issue manifest itself? or How do you realize it was a genuine problem?
How would you describe our company to your colleagues and friends?
If you owned a business like ours, what can you change?
What groups or associations are you currently a member of?
In five little questions you've determined how they see your firm and the value you bring to the table. You've also tapped into what they would want to see you change about your services or offerings. And you've learned where other folks like them congregate for future marketing efforts. Not too shabby for a free survey.

You can stop fretting about your message because your clients help write it. It generally does not get any better than that.

2. Grow Your Professional Network

Virtually everyone agrees that networking is a critical part of any marketing plan. But once you've gotten to really know everyone in your Chamber or Rotary or Country Club; how to you continue to meet up new prospects?

I've had great success meeting and strengthening relationships with prospects all over the country using LinkedIn and Facebook. When I ask the question, "Who has a LinkedIn profile?", typically one third to half of the room raises their hands.

But very few actually make use of the built-in credibility tools within LinkedIn. Very few people use the "Recommend" feature to fully capture testimonials from clients and colleagues. Hardly any people also actively participate in the Q&A section LinkedIn. The "Recommendations" certainly are a great way to highlight how you've helped others (within their own words); as the Q&A section is a great platform so that you can share your expert knowledge with others. Like any good social marketing platform, LinkedIn shows the other members in your network what you're up to.

Facebook is more "social" than LinkedIn, but don't let that scare you. After all, people work with people, not businesses. And when you still think LinkedIn is for the faculty crowd, then pay attention. The largest-and fastest growing-segment of Facebook users is over 25 yrs . old. Everyone I've helped register with Facebook is amazed at how many of their friends, college buddies, colleagues and relatives are already on there.

My advice: if you're not already on Facebook and LinkedIn, subscribe. In case you are, then begin using the systems more actively. Ask people for introductions, find common ground, strike up a conversation. But fair warning, you do need to be careful everything you post. No one wants to see your party pics or the drunken lake photos. Skip the things that are too personal and ignore all of the silly games on Facebook and you'll be fine.

3. Keep In Touch Consistently

This may be the #1 faux pas running a business today-we never keep in regular contact with our past, current and prospective clients. There are two cycles running constantly in business; your selling cycle and their buying cycle. Likelihood of those two cycles being in alignment when you first meet are slim to none. So how can you easily retain in touch? It's what I'm doing right now.

Start an email newsletter. In the event that you provide valuable information (at the very least monthly), when their buying cycle comes around to your service, you will already maintain front of them. There is no better solution to demonstrate your neighborhood of expertise than writing. In fact, a few of the e-mail marketing tools have a polling feature built-in, in order to accomplish #1 (client survey) with the same tool.

I recommend you consider these four e-mail marketing sites, Aweber (the best), Constant Contact, Exact Target and iContact. Many of these have very reasonable entry level packages (typically ~$20/month) and ensure it is very easy so you might keep in touch with valuable information. But here's the secret, it's very easy to come off as a spammer; you MUST include valuable content with each email. You cannot simply say "how ya doing? ready to buy yet...?"

Among the easiest ways to develop newsletter content would be to make a set of everything you wish your clients knew; or what could really help them enhance their business; or simply ask them what their top 3 "issues accessible" are (HINT: use the survey tool unless you have time and energy to call or meet). This will offer you enough meaty content to begin with. Once you write three or four newsletters-and, you begin to start to see the positive reactions when done well-it becomes a habit.

At get more info of the day, your email list will become among your greatest assets in your business. Each individual has "opted in" to listen to from you, so you know they are thinking about what you need to say. Sign up for one of the above tools now and start cultivating that relationship. If they are ready to purchase your services, you'll stand head and shoulders above your competition.

4. Measure Progress

Business today moves fast. It's easy to forget who you talked to, what they last bought, the method that you met them, their birthday, whom they referred, etc... There are online tools that help you get everything under control. For the client side, I recommend Salesforce.com and PipelineDeals.com (what I use). Salesforce.com is the 800lb gorilla in CRM (Customer Relationship Management). You can find modules to automate all areas of your marketing effort-including email marketing and surveys. It offers a full dashboard to track your progress against business goals. It's a great reminder over the last week of the month to get out there and shake the bushes to bring in just a little business.

As for your site, Google Analytics offers amazing reporting to tell you what's working and what's not-and it's free. This tool is so powerful that most Fortune 500 businesses use it to track their own corporate website. As soon as you copy a small amount of code to each page on your own website, you'll be able to see how many people are coming to your site, how long they stay, what pages they visit, how they navigate, their current address and more data than you can use. You can use this to see where you're site is working and where visitors are leaving. Gleam complimentary service for A/B split testing. Essentially, you design two versions of a given page, Google automatically displays both to various visitors and you will gauge which performs better. I take advantage of this to test headlines and call to actions on my site. It works great.

There's a vintage saying, "what you pay attention to, gets improved." If you would like your website as well as your marketing efforts to work harder for you, start measuring them.

5. Never Forget A LARGE Idea

Here's a fun little tip. An IT/Business Development consultant friend of mine, Bill Dotson, turned me on to this free service; Jott.com. With Jott, it is possible to call the toll free contact number and leave a note that's automatically transcribed and emailed to you or a contact distribution list. I cannot count the number of times I've been on the highway or woke up having an idea I didn't desire to forget-but couldn't write it down. Now, I just hit my speed dial Jott #, leave a note, and when I'm back the office, I have the entire message perfectly transcribed looking forward to me in my Inbox to take action on. I also know of individuals by using this to notify a high school baseball team if practice is canceled. The coach includes a distribution list of players and parents (all you have to is their email) and when the elements turns inclement, he "Jotts" them to tell them practice will be canceled.

Okay, there are the five ways to increase your marketing efforts with technology. The planet has changed. Obviously, we'll never move away from face-to-face as the best form of communication; however when we begin to leverage technology, it can free us around more of what we do best.

Nick Rice is an accomplished visionary B2B marketing mentor who works with the owners of successful professional firms who yearn to bring more clients and profits to their business--and do it more regularly.

Learn more & download his FREE ARTICLE, "The 7 Principles of Attracting More Clients," at http://www.nick-rice.com.
Website: https://www.olcbdfan.com/how-to-operate-two-whatsapp-in-one-mobile-device/