Notes

5 Ways to Leverage Technology in Your Marketing
check here gave a talk to several technology firms about leveraging technology in their marketing efforts. I figured what better group to join the tech bandwagon when compared to a group used to selling technology. My talk went over great. They, exactly like most professional firms, struggle filling the marketing funnel. And even though most were aware of these technologies, a large proportion was not with them to cultivate their business.

My talk was titled, "5 Methods to INCREASE Your Marketing With Technology," and here are the five key points:

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

1. Stop Stressing About Your Marketing Message

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

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

What's the biggest challenge we helped you overcome?
How did that issue manifest itself? or How do you realize it was a real problem?
How can you describe our company to your colleagues and friends?
If you owned a small business like ours, what would 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 like to see you change about your services or offerings. And you've learned where other people like them congregate for future marketing efforts. Not too shabby for a free of charge survey.

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

2. Grow Your Professional Network

Pretty much everyone agrees that networking is really a critical component 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 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 area raises their hands.

But very few actually make use of the built in credibility tools within LinkedIn. Very few people utilize the "Recommend" feature to capture testimonials from clients and colleagues. Very few people also actively take part in the Q&A section LinkedIn. The "Recommendations" are a great way to highlight how you've helped others (in their own words); while the Q&A section is a good platform for you to share your expert knowledge with others. Like worthwhile social marketing platform, LinkedIn shows another members in your network what you're up to.

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

My advice: if you are not already on Facebook and LinkedIn, sign up. 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 have to be careful what you post. No one wants to see your party pics or the drunken lake photos. Skip the items that are too personal and ignore all the silly games on Facebook and you'll be fine.

3. RETAIN IN Touch Consistently

This can be the #1 faux pas in business today-we never keep in regular connection with our past, current and prospective clients. You can find two cycles running constantly in business; your selling cycle and their buying cycle. Chances of those two cycles being in alignment when you initially meet are slim to none. Just how can you easily retain in touch? It's what I'm doing at this time.

Start an email newsletter. If you provide valuable information (at least monthly), when their buying cycle comes around to your service, you will already be in front of them. There's no better way to demonstrate your neighborhood of expertise than writing. Actually, a few of the e-mail marketing tools have a polling feature built-in, so that you can accomplish #1 (client survey) with the same tool.

I recommend you look into these four email marketing sites, Aweber (my favorite), Constant Contact, Exact Target and iContact. Most of these have very reasonable basic level packages (typically ~$20/month) and make it very easy that you should talk to valuable information. But here's the secret, it's very an easy task to come off as a spammer; you need to include valuable quite happy with each email. You cannot simply say "how ya doing? prepared to buy yet...?"

Among the easiest ways to come up with newsletter content is to make a set of all you wish your clients knew; or what could really help them improve their business; or simply inquire further what their top 3 "issues accessible" are (HINT: utilize the survey tool if you don't have time and energy to call or meet). This can offer you enough meaty content to begin with. Once you write 3 or 4 newsletters-and, you start to start to see the positive reactions when done well-it becomes a habit.

At the end of the day, your email list will become among your greatest assets in your organization. Each person has "opted in" to hear from you, which means you know they are thinking about what you need to say. Join among the above tools now and start cultivating that relationship. When they are ready to buy your services, you'll stand head and shoulders above your competition.

4. Measure Progress

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

As for your website, Google Analytics offers amazing reporting to tell you what's working and what's not-and it's free. This tool is indeed powerful that most Fortune 500 businesses utilize it to track their very own corporate website. As soon as you copy a little bit of code to each page on your website, you'll be able to see how lots of people are coming to your site, just how long they stay, what pages they visit, how they navigate, where they live and much more data than you should use. You need to use this to see where you're site is working and where visitors are leaving. There is also a 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 may gauge which performs better. I take advantage of this to check headlines and call to actions on my site. get more info works great.

There's a vintage saying, "everything you focus on, gets improved." If you wish your website and your marketing efforts to work harder for you, start measuring them.

5. Never Forget A Big Idea

Here's a fun little tip. An IT/Business Development consultant friend of mine, Bill Dotson, turned me to this free service; Jott.com. With Jott, you can call the toll free contact number and leave a message that's automatically transcribed and emailed to you or a contact distribution list. I can't count the amount of times I've been on the road or woke up with 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 in the office, I've the full message perfectly transcribed looking forward to me in my Inbox to take action on. I also know of people by using this to notify a higher school baseball team if practice is canceled. The coach has a distribution set of players and parents (all you need is their email) so when the weather turns inclement, he "Jotts" them to tell them practice will undoubtedly be canceled.

Okay, there are the five methods to pump up your marketing efforts with technology. The planet has changed. Obviously, we'll never get away from face-to-face because the best type of communication; however when we start to leverage technology, it can free us up to more of what we do best.

Nick Rice can be an accomplished visionary B2B marketing mentor who works together with the owners of successful professional firms who yearn to create more clients and profits into their business--and do it more often.

Learn more & download his FREE ARTICLE, "The 7 Principles of Attracting More Clients," at http://www.nick-rice.com.
Here's my website: https://500px.com/p/mcclurewgohorowitz