Beacons - The Future of Marketing

As a small business owner, it is important for you to stay up to date with the latest technology and innovations available to help you with your business.  Today, an emerging technology is the beacon.

Beacons are devices that allow business owners to push messages to customers cell phones when they come within a certain distance of the device. Messages are sent using the bluetooth technology in the customer's phone and messages can be placed onto beacons via the cloud.

One company that is pioneering beacon technology is Piper.  Piper is an app in the iTunes App Store that users can download for free and interact with beacons and also chat with nearby friends who also have the app downloaded. The company has partnered with McDonald's in Columbus, Ga and has placed beacons in all Columbus McDonald's locations. The beacons send out messages to customers in the drive thru and in the restaurant and push out special coupons that can be added to the Passbook app on the iPhone.

Make sure you watch out for beacons and companies like Piper in the coming years. Maybe as early as 2015, you will be able to use this technology in your own business and interact with your customers in a whole new way.

Blogging is Good for Business

After creating several profiles on social media platforms, often times, business owners overlook the benefits of blogging.  Here are three good reasons you should keep up with a blog.

1. Blogging is good for SEO

SEO is short for search engine optimization. It allows you to help your customers find you online. When you blog about different topics that your customers are interested in, your business will show up higher in search results when your customers use online search engines. By using Google Analytics, you can see what keywords your customers use when they go to your website and use those words as topics for your blog posts or you can blog about other things you would like web searchers to visit your website for.

2. Blogging makes you look like an expert

When you blog, you are sharing opinions, research, and information with people who want to consume your content. Blogging allows you to extend your influence. For example, if you owned a small pottery store in a small town in Alabama, you could write blogs about pottery and attract readers from across the world who like pottery. When blogging, make sure that you try not to post things that aren't true. You want to make readers realize that you are trustworthy and an expert when it comes to what you do. Then, when they are in the market to buy whatever you make or do, they will probably visit you first.

3. Blogging allows you to make your website appear up to date

One of the many ways your website is judged by consumers is looking at when it was last updated.  Constantly changing the content for a small company's website can involve a lot of work. Instead, you can link your blog posts to your website and give your customers something more "up to date" to read. A website that isn't updated regularly can cause customers to question whether or not the business is still open. A website that is kept up to date and links to a recent blog post lets the customer know that your business is alive and thriving!

Google+ - Your Secret Weapon

"Google+ is going to be bigger than Facebook!"

That's what everyone was saying in 2011. Unfortunately it didn't take off as fast as people expected, but that doesn't mean that it isn't helpful for your business.  By using Google+ effectively, you can boost your company's search ratings and gain more customers.

Here are three tips to help you use Google+ to your advantage:

1. Fill Out Your Entire Profile

By filling out your entire business profile, you are giving your customers more information about your small business. You want to give your customers more information about what your business does and what it's all about. Complete profiles show up higher in Google searches for keywords relevant to your business.





2. Link Your Page to Your Address on Google Maps
Linking your page to Google Maps helps your business with SEO or search engine optimization, making it easier for your audience to find you when they search online. Plus, what good is your profile if your audience doesn't know where to find you?



3. Ask for Customer Reviews

Many customers like to read reviews about a business before they make a purchase. Customer reviews help people know what they are getting when they make purchases from you. Hopefully the majority of your reviews will be positive, but if you get negative reviews, make sure that you address them and try to resolve the issue. The fact that you replied to the negative review will show your audience that you care about their experience with your business.

How to Use Vine and Instagram

Vine

A picture's worth a thousand words. So what is a 6 second video worth?

Vine is an app that lets users share quick six second videos with each other. These videos are most commonly shared on Twitter, but they can also be seen on the Vine app.  Twitter purchased Vine in 2012 and the app launched in 2013. Since then, it has grown to become very popular with millennials in high school and college.

There are even "Vine Celebrities" that some users like to follow to be entertained. Many of these "celebrities" use humor and collaborate with other users who have a lot of followers to create funny videos. These users are also sometimes sponsored by different companies.

Many companies create Vine videos with special effects and animation such as the Lowe's #FixInSix campaign. This can be hard for small business owners to do with a limited budget.

So how can you connect with your customers on Vine without spending a lot of money?

Try giving your customers a behind the scenes look at your business. For example, if you run a restaurant, create a short video of your cook preparing the special for the night, or if you run a small boutique, create a video of one of your employees opening the box of new dresses that just arrived.

The key to a successful Vine is to make it entertaining and to make sure that it gives the viewers an exclusive look at something they find interesting.

Here is an example of how the Georgia Bulldogs football team used Vine to give fans a view of the team entrance from the sideline.



Instagram

Instagram is an app that allows users to share and edit pictures with each other.  The app is exclusively for pictures...  no wordy status updates.

Instagram is very popular with millennials and even some Gen Xers are starting to sign up.  On Instagram, users post pictures for others to see and like or share with their friends.

Companies use Instagram to show customers pictures of their new products, and even pictures of food.

The key to a successful Instagram account is to only post pictures that you would consider framing and hanging in your home or restaurant. You want to avoid posting pictures with too many words or awkward looking pictures of people.  If you wouldn't hang it in your home or make the photo your next profile picture, you probably shouldn't post it to Instagram. You can also use Instagram as another way of giving your customers a behind the scenes look at a typical day for your business.

Here's an example of a good photo published to Instagram by The Home Depot.

3 More Twitter Tactics

As I promised in my post about a month ago, here are more three more tips for using Twitter to help your small business.


1. Use Pictures

When people are scrolling through their twitter feed, pictures can help catch the attention of your users.  You want to make sure that the picture that you share is attractive and something pleasing to the eye.  Avoid sharing pictures with a lot of text or screenshots of your ads.  In this post, Lowe's does a nice job of grabbing your attention with a beautiful kitchen that makes you think about getting ready for Thanksgiving, when you'll probably have family over in your kitchen.













2. Reply Quickly

Often times, your customers will want to go onto social media platforms and talk about their experiences at your store.  You can use your Twitter account to interact with your customers.  If you reply to their tweet, most of the time the user will be excited that you engaged with them.  For some people, a retweet or a reply can make that user's day.  Although many customers talk about their good experiences, many also talk about their bad experiences.  Either way, make sure you reply quickly to their tweet and never tell your users that they are wrong.  A business account on Twitter should never argue back and forth with a user, no matter how absurd they are.  In this example, Publix does an excellent job engaging with this customer who found an apple at the store that is apparently a big deal to her.











3. Use Humor

The goal of social media is to have meaningful interactions with your customers.  Although your goal
should never be to get a gazillion followers or a ton of re-tweets, you definitely shouldn't toss those statistics to the side.  A re-tweeted branded message is more meaningful and accomplishes a goal of brand awareness, while "re-tweet this if you think cats are better than dogs" is not absolutely worthless.  When you want to drive meaningful retweets, you need to think like an average user.  Most people will re-tweet topics that include stats that prove that I'm right and you're wrong, news, and humor.  For us, humor is the best route to get your name out there.  When using humor, make sure that it isn't offensive!  The best trick for this that I would use is to think of the most sensitive person you know, and if you picture yourself having to explain why the joke is funny and not offensive, then you shouldn't post it.  Yes, your joke is probably hilarious and I would laugh at it, but the easily offended people on Twitter will attack you for making the joke.
'
In this example, Dos Equis plays off of their "Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials and makes another joke that received a lot of re-tweets.  These re-tweets are valuable because it helps build brand awareness.

Why Should You Use YouTube?

Creating and sharing videos with your customers has never been easier than it is today.  You can easily film a video right from your smartphone and then with a few taps of your finger, you can share the video instantly with customers by using YouTube.  Here are three ways why you should use YouTube to help attract and engage customers.

1. Integration

Once you create a video on YouTube, you can share that video across several different platforms including Facebook, Twitter, a blog, and even an email campaign.  Videos give your customers a little variety when it comes to sharing content.  Another way you can use YouTube to help your email campaigns is to create a "Vlog" or a video blog, where you can talk about whatever interests you or you can talk about any updates about your business.

2. Videos Create an Extra Visual

YouTube provides you with an additional way to communicate with your customers and it can provide your customers with more information than a photo.  For example, if you are trying to sell a lawn mower, you can create a video of someone starting the lawn mower, and using the lawn mower so your customers can actually see the product being used.  You can use videos to give customers that 360 degree view of the product and to explain how the product works.  If you run an e-commerce site, consider adding videos to your product descriptions.

3. Growing Consumption

Today, consumers are watching videos online more than ever before. They are watching these videos on their smartphones, and on social media sites.  Videos give your customers something more that they can't get out of a regular Facebook post. If your video is interesting enough, your consumers will even share your video with their friends. This is an easy way to attract more business.




If you choose to use Youtube, remember that your videos don't have to look like high quality movies for them to be effective. You can create simple videos using a webcam or a smartphone and get the desired outcome and you don't have to spend any money.

How to Send E-Mails to Your Customers Without Being Annoying

Let's be honest, one of the main reasons our inboxes can get clogged is because of annoying emails from places we've maybe shopped once, "exclusive member" clubs that, in hindsight, we shouldn't have signed up for, and other companies that make us wonder how the heck they got our email address.  It doesn't matter if we gave these businesses our email address one time long ago, now we consider all these messages as SPAM!  

But just because some companies abuse our inboxes doesn't mean that email marketing is ineffective.  

Remember, there was a time when you wanted the coupon from that online store and you may have even used it!  Chances are, your customers would like to receive news and special offers from you too.  But, before you start sending emails, make sure you don't commit the same sins as those companies that have driven you to the point of unsubscribing.

Here are 5 things you should know about email marketing:

1.  Use an online email marketing platform

Ever wonder how companies create those colorful emails with graphics and buttons you can click?  They use email marketing platforms to make their emails stand out from normal email. Email marketing platforms let you manage your subscribers, create attractive email campaigns, and track data about how your subscribers interact with your email.

From my own experience, I recommend that you use either Constant Contact or MailChimp to send email.  Constant Contact, is easy to use and has tons of templates that you can customize and send out to your customers.  The only downside is that it costs money to use.  However, it is definitely worth it in the end. You can use Constant Contact to manage events as well.  MailChimp is fairly simple and gives you the tools you need to get the job done.  The best thing about MailChimp is that their "Entrepreneur" package is free and let's you send 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers.  MailChimp is perfect for people who are just getting started with their business.  From my experience sharing a MailChimp account with other people, it can sometimes be confusing to use.  But, in the end, it's effective and if you are using the free package, it's a steal.  

2. Link Your Campaign to Social Media

Once you've picked a platform, make sure that you include all of the links that your customers can engage with your company.  After a customer has read your awesome email, they might want to share it with their friends on Facebook, see pictures of your products on Pinterest, or read your blog.  Make sure that you make it easy for your customers to do this!  Both MailChimp and Constant Contact allows users to add logos for these social media sites into their email campaign.  Often times, your subscribers will share your email with other potential customers, and they do it without costing you a dime!

3. Grab their Attention!!

It's an Apple Fest at Brus...

Just Arrived, Fall Patago...

Jacob, See it Live: Ticket...

These are actual email subject lines from my inbox.  All three get cut off on my phone.  Don't forget to think "Mobile First" as most people are using mobile devices to read email, engage with social media, and communicate with each other today.  This is all that your customers can see in the subject line when you send them an email and they look at it in their inbox on a mobile phone.  None of these  subjects grab my attention so I didn't open any of these emails.  Maybe if they were able to catch my attention, I might have opened it.  When coming up with a subject line, remember this and try to come up with something that isn't too long that your subscribers can't see it and make sure it's something that will generate opens.

Use these tips to come up with good subject lines for your email:

1. Don't state your company name!  We can already see who the message is from in the "From:" line. There's no need to tell us your name twice.

2. Avoid useless words.  What's the point of your email in one word?  Maybe it's "Sale" or "New" or "Update".  Make sure that this word is visible in the subject line.

3. Use the subject line to state the biggest point of the email.  For example, if you do a monthly newsletter, consider making the lead story title the subject of your email.  This will do more to grab attention than "September Newsletter" will do.

4. Don't Send Too Many Emails!

This is self explanatory.  Nobody wants to get an email from you twice a day,  or even once a day!  Only send emails if you have something worthwhile to say and try not to send more than one every week or two.  Remember how you hate an inbox full of emails from companies,  your customers don't want to be spammed by you either.  Less is definitely more here.  If you send fewer emails and emails that only have important info, your customers might actually look out and anticipate your email.   

A great example of a company that does this is Cards Against Humanity.  I signed up for their newsletter and I have only received two emails from them this year.  Naturally when I saw the message in my inbox, I immediately clicked on it because I actually wanted to hear what they had to say.  Both emails were used as announcements for a new product that they had developed. 

5. Give 'Em What They Want

Your customers all signed up for your emails for a reason. Maybe it was special deals, maybe it was coupons, whatever it was, make sure you remember it when you create a new email.  If I signed up to receive special offers, I could care less if you have a new product that you are selling for $400.  You shouldn't be trying to shove your emails down your customer's throat.  If you give your customers what they want, chances are they aren't going to click the unsubscribe button the next time you send them an email.

Last tip:  This tip deserves to be law!  

NEVER force your customers to give you their email address at checkout!!!  Ever.  Whichever marketer thought that this was a good idea should be forced to receive spam for eternity.  Forcing your customers to give you their email address at gunpoint is an effective way to engage with them.  you are already getting their money, why do you have to take their inbox too?  I'll be honest, whenever some cashier or someone giving away free koozies at a booth asks for my email address, I just make up a random email address for someone named John Franklin.  I know that I'm not the only person to do this, so what's the use of collecting my email address when it's not accurate?

Don't Be Afraid of Twitter

http://cdn1.tnwcdn.com/files/2010/04/fail-whale-300x225.png

Last week I wrote about Facebook.  Most people are familiar with Facebook and already have a profile for themselves.  But when it comes to Twitter, there are still some people who seem to be scared of the social network or have written it off as not useful.

Now Twitter is 7 years old and you should definitely pay attention to it. According to Twitter's "About" page, the network has 271 million monthly active users and 78% of those users are on a mobile device. So Twitter is absolutely useable because it gives you the ability to reach your customers on their mobile device.  But just because it gives you this ability, doesn't mean that every business owner should be on Twitter.  If your target market probably isn't on Twitter, then you don't need to worry about using it.  For example, if you sell medical equipment to senior citizens, chances are Twitter isn't going to be very effective for you as it would be for an owner of a Top 40 or Country radio station.

So if you do decide to use Twitter here are a few things you need to know about the social network.

Accounts:  On Twitter, all accounts start with "@" or at.  If you want to tweet something to a friend, type "@" and then their account name.

Hashtags:  For some reason hashtags can confuse a lot of new Twitter users.  A hashtag or "#" can be added to different keywords in a tweet or to a general topic that the tweet is about so that people who search for that specific hashtag can read all of the tweets related to that topic.  So if I tweeted about the Georgia Bulldogs and I used the hashtag #CommitToTheG, users would be able to see my tweet when they searched for the hashtag #CommitToTheG.

Retweet: A retweet is similar to sharing someone else's Facebook post.  You can use the retweet function to share someone else's tweet that you like or you can ask your followers to retweet one of your posts.  When a user retweets someone else's tweet, that tweet is then shared with all of that user's followers.

Direct Messages:  A direct message or "DM" is a way for you to send a private message to a follower. Direct messages cannot be seen by anyone other than you and the other party.  Typically, users do not use the direct message feature on Twitter.  However, if you run a special contest with your Twitter account, you can use the DM feature to privately give the contest winner the details about how to claim their prize.






In my last post I wrote about how it was important to engage with your Facebook fans, the same is true for your Twitter followers. You can do this by asking them to use special hashtags that you create.  For example, Coca-Cola ran the #ShareACoke campaign this past summer and asked its followers to tweet pictures using that hashtag.






Now at many events, coordinators ask participants to tweet using a special hashtag about the event.  This is most effective if the event lasts a while or has national attention. For example, if you get on twitter during the next movie or music awards like the Grammys or Oscars, you will see users using specific hashtags to talk about those events.


This is just the basics about Twitter, but it is enough for you to go ahead and get started on using the network.  I will write more about more ways on how to use Twitter later on.

-JS

5 Tips For Your Company's Facebook Page

Facebook is one of the easiest and most effective digital platforms that you can use to help grow your small business.  If you decide to create a Facebook page for your small business, it's important to make sure that you are using it effectively.  Here are 5 quick tips to help you create a valuable Facebook page for your company.

1. Listen

http://www.greaterloveministries.org/tag/listen/

Most people think that in order to have a successful Facebook page, they need to post a lot of   status updates.  This is actually very ineffective.  When managing your company's Facebook page, it is important to use the page as if it was an actual Facebook friend rather than a bullhorn yelling at people to get them to buy a sandwich from you.  You should use your page to listen to what your customers are saying.  Customers may post good and bad comments on the page, make sure you let them know that you hear them and that you appreciate their good comments and that you have fixed their problems if they post a bad comment.  (Sometimes people will post negative things on your page that are untrue or are things that have nothing to do with a customer's experience. It is perfectly fine to delete these comments.)  If you see that a lot of people are talking about a specific topic (such as a sporting event or news story), consider posting about the topic yourself.

2. Engage

http://aoiferigney.ie/5-simple-tips-to-increase-engagement-on-your-facebook-page/

When you make a post, it is important to always ask yourself "Do my customers really want to see this?"  If the answer is no, delete.  Your company's Facebook page isn't for the company's enjoyment, it's for the customer to interact with.  When creating content, try to create posts that the average customer will want to like, share, and comment on.  Getting your customers to engage with you on Facebook is valuable because it keeps your business fresh on their mind.  Some companies understand the value of engagement on Facebook, but they go about it the wrong way.  For example, a post such as "Like this photo if you think dogs are cute" might engage some of your customers, but they aren't thinking about your company, they are thinking about a cute dog.  A good post that encourages engagement might be "Our restaurant is thankful for all of the soldiers fighting for our country overseas.  What are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving?"  or a post that announces a new product.  The goal is to present yourself as one of your customers' friends rather than a business.

3. Grab Attention

In order to get your customers to engage with your posts, you need to grab their attention.  To understand this, go to your personal Facebook profile and look at your news feed.  What catches your attention?  Most of the time users notice bright photos and videos.  What do you skip over?  Most of the time the user skips over long paragraphs and posts that are too wordy.  This is another reason why you should always ask yourself whether or not your customers want to really see your post.  Most people don't want to read an essay about your new product or about what your Monday was like.  Try to keep the post to two short sentences and try to post bright pictures and graphics.  a good example of a post that grabs the user's attention is this post from Coca-Cola.

4. Offer Value

It is important to give your customers a reason to like you on Facebook.  We'd all like to believe that our customers love us so much that they are more than eager to like our page.  In reality, most people will only like your page if it will benefit them.  This doesn't always mean that you have to offer coupons and discounts, you can also provide your customers a benefit by sharing tips for relative problems, ideas, and links to other content that is relevant to your industry.  For example, if you are a garden shop, consider posting gardening tips every week. This will give your customers a reason to go and like your company's page and it will help you get them to engage with your posts and attract more customers.

5. Advertise

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/advertising-ebooks-2/does-advertising-work-for-authors/

If you want to have a more effective Facebook page, it is important for you to advertise on Facebook.  If you made a post today and you aren't advertising with Facebook, only about 4% of your will likely see what you've posted.  You get what you pay for with Facebook.  If you don't advertise, you aren't going to reach many people and Facebook isn't going to help your business grow very much.  If you advertise with Facebook, you are able to target specific routs of people and you increase your likeliness of having a successful Facebook page.  When you advertise on Facebook, you can spend a specific amount of money (whatever your budget allows) and you can target your specific target market.  For example, if I am the owner of a local kayaking outfitter, I can create a Facebook ad campaign that targets people within a 30 mile radius of my store who like kayaking and the outdoors. This can help you save money because you are only paying for advertising to people who are most likely to buy your products.  When advertising it is also more effective to create "sponsored posts" rather than ads on the sidebar as users tend to focus on the news feed rather than the sidebar.

By following these 5 simple tips, you will have a much more effective Facebook page and a better digital presence.

-JS

Why Should I use Social Media for my Small Business?

Five years ago, having an online presence for your small business might have just been an optional way to attract consumers.  Now, in 2014 it is almost mandatory that you have some way of reaching customers on the internet or else you face the risk of losing potential consumers.

In marketing, we use a 5 step process to describe how consumers make purchase decisions.  This process is illustrated below.

The way that consumers navigate through this process today is much different than the way they navigated it twenty years ago.  In 1994, (20 years ago) consumers might recognize a need for your product or service through a commercial on TV or by word of mouth from a friend.  The consumer would then ask friends about the product, go to your store to find out more about your product/service, or they might call other businesses and ask about the product/service.  When evaluating alternatives, the consumer could really only base their decision about what their friends had said about the product, what they learned during their information search, or in some cases what they read in magazines or newspapers. If the consumer ultimately decided to make their purchase from your business, they would have to pay you in person or with a mailed check and after they made the purchase, they would tell their friends about their purchase.

Now in 2014, consumers still use the same 5 step process, but now they have access to an infinite amount of information to use when making a purchase decision.  Today, consumers might recognize a need online from an ad or from something their friend shared on social media.  The consumer can conduct their entire information search online without even getting up from the couch by reading product reviews from total strangers, chatting with friends online, and reading product descriptions online.  They can evaluate alternatives based off of online ratings from past customers. They can choose to purchase the product/service from you or they can can complete the transaction online with a credit card or a Paypal account, and once the purchase is done, they can post about the experience online for other potential consumers to see.

Online reviews for a Callaway Driver

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Callaway-RAZR-Graphite-9-5-Trinity/dp/B009TLZJ48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=callaway+driver#cm_cr_dpwidget

The power has definitely shifted to the consumer. Search the internet for your small business.  What pops up first?  Is it something that you want people to see? Does your business even show up in the results?  

You are not the first person to search for your business online.  Even if you don't have a social media profile or a website, chances are you already have an online presence.  Your customers may have already talked about you and told their friends about their experience with your business.  

Creating an online presence for your small business can help you manage what potential customers see about you when they search for your business online.  It can help you interact with consumers online and maybe give them that extra push they need to purchase from you. But most importantly, it will let you see what people are saying about your business.

Before you start creating a profile on all of the social media platforms, it is important to have a strategy.  You have to decide what goals you want to accomplish before jumping in to social media.  For example, if you are the owner of a local septic tank company, you probably shouldn't create an Instagram account because most people don't want to look at pictures of septic tanks.  Instead, you could manage a website or a profile on another platform where consumers are searching for your service.  

The important thing to remember is that there is more to social media than creating a Facebook page. This blog will discuss various social media strategies and provide you with the tools you need to employ the best way to manage your online presence.

-JS