Most companies have noticed that although they spend time promoting their products and services on Social Media - it can be hard to establish a network of appreciative, paying customers. So here's a list of things that can help bridge that disconnect between your reach and your revenue.
1. Offer something for free If you want to develop a community and create a conversation with potential customers, offering free products, services or exclusive content really works. Typically, conversion rates are much higher when you give something away. For example a project we worked on recently gave away self-development content for free in a series of videos, articles and downloads. Of the 1000 people that signed up (with their email addresses) 82 people converted to buying products generating over £9,000 in revenue - that's an 8% conversion rate! Platforms such as Aweber are ideal for this kind of sales funnel system - that delivers great, free content to your audience in an easy to manage, automated way. 2. Develop your email list An email list is an essential part of any marketing strategy and it pays to keep this up to date - always asking any contacts or enquiries your receive if they want to be added. Always incentivise this, so in other words tell them why they should sign up - for example future discounts or content that may be pertinent to their industry. 3. Do promotional events Live events are magic. A low cost or even free event creates the kinds of connections that matter. Events don't normally cost much to put on, but really pay back in terms of networking and educating people about what you do. Plus they can be huge fun. Recently we put on a free social media clinic - working with a partner organisation. We pooled our resources and combined our marketing reach. It worked - and we made some great contacts in the process. This then led to a paid for workshop which was also really well attended. 4. Run competitions Ok, so people love comps, that's obvious. But how do you maximise this? Giveaways and competitions do really well on Twitter. The good side of this is that you can add to your following relatively easily. The down side is that whilst it's great to get more followers, typically only 10% will actually see your tweets. The best way to run comps is to ask the entrants to sign up for your email list at the same time. Email broadcasts (good ones!) are typically opened by 30-60% of subscribers - thus magnifying your marketing and sales potential. We recently ran a series of giveaways for a leading artisan crisp brand - boosting their followers but crucially giving them thousands of email subscribers from scratch. Platforms such as Pagemodo can really help with this. The other thing to remember is to incentivise winners to talk about what they one, send you a photo for example or tweet you when it arrives and to offer something great to all the entrants e.g. a discount code. Hope this list helps, any questions please leave them in the comments below.
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Many business owners and community page owners have complained vehemently about Facebook's audience reach policy and how organic reach is now throttled. This represents a key challenge in how you use and optimise your Facebook posts. In fact, for some this has been a great source of frustration after many hours and dollars spent on audience building. Although it's understandable why this has business owners pulling their hair out, let's look at some positive steps you can take to leverage your reach without spending very much or anything at all:
1. Post More Often. This will increase your daily reach and also get you to stretch your creative muscles - challenging you to create even more engaging, relevant content. 2. Share From Other Pages. Sharing creates rapport and importantly shows your audience what values or causes your brand aligns with. It also gives your people more reasons to engage. This is one of the causes of clear, brand led, social positioning. 3. Use Great Images. Finding the right images that portray your brand skilfully will enhance perception and help people 'get' what you are about. Consider a really good stock image or better still use your own photography and graphic design person. 4. Boost Posts. This needn't cost much and Facebook has recently added an "invite to like page" aspect to paid campaigns. This means you can invite any "Post likers" to like your page - increasing your following and helping you get more value from every penny spent. You can boost in several ways: i) to likes and friends ii) to people like those who like your page and iii) geographically and according to interests (usually more expensive). It's worth noting that the 2nd time you boost the same post (adding budget) you get better value in terms of the reach. For just a few $'s you can reach thousands of targeted people. 5. Encourage Email Sign Up. Consider adding an email sign up tab (available from all the email list services such as Mail Chimp, Vertical Response and many others). Then give people reasons to join your list. As sending an email to your list is either free or relatively low cost - it's worth using it as a means of reaching out. Note: Tabs do not appear on mobiles so also make sure you have a sign up page on your website or create one on your email list service domain. To summarise, whatever challenge Facebook presents you with, there's always a way you can respond creatively and imaginatively that will enable you to reach those people who matter to you. |
AuthorMatthew Rochford Archives
December 2015
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