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How to Mine Social Networking Sites for Sales OpportunitiesBy Brody Dorland — August 12th, 2009Preface: If you were to execute the strategies discussed in this post, you could significantly reduce the amount of time spent on each social networking site. But remember that the social media space is built on engagement and interaction. If you aren’t engaging with your community at least once in a while, your community may not be very receptive to your pitch if/when a new sales opportunity is staring you in the face. Not Enough Hours in a Day If you’ve been dabbling with social media for a while, you understand the time-consuming nature of the space. For many companies, their commitment to social media has forced them to either add dedicated staff or outsource the effort. But we, as small businesses, don’t typically have the resources to do either of those, so we’re relegated to spending the time ourselves, or we just don’t. The main thing we all need to realize is that your friends/followers/connections are constantly throwing out sales opportunities. In fact, I’d argue that most status updates or tweets are sales opportunities for someone or some company. Here’s a Twitter screen shot I just pulled straight from my stream to help explain my point (in red)…
Bottom line, sales opportunities are there for those who are listening. But listening takes time and most of us can’t afford to sit there and wait for something relevant to appear. But we’re in luck… There are ways in which we can leverage the built-in technology of these social sites to do the listening for us and deliver those opportunities to our front door. Read the rest of this entry » Will He with the Most Followers Win…the Job?By Brody Dorland — July 22nd, 2009
But let’s look at the other side of the social coin… Say you’re a small business owner trying to find a new marketing or sales professional. Should an applicant’s number of followers (Twitter), friends (Facebook/MySpace), connections (LinkedIn) or the overall size of their social graph come into play as an evaluation category? Read the rest of this entry » 2009 Online Marketing Trends for Small Business – Part 5: Got Video?By Brody Dorland — April 5th, 2009Quick Series Recap – 2009 Online Marketing Trends for Small Business:
Video is the fastest-growing form of marketing on the Web. eMarketer estimates that in the next four years marketers’ spending on online video advertising will reach $4.6 billion, more than seven times the amount spent in 2008. And no wonder. Video lets you demonstrate your idea — with action, with humor, with the credibility of a great presenter. Ask yourself: Which would you rather do? Read 5-6 more paragraphs? Or watch a 90-second video that visually explains the topic? Just in the last two months, I’ve engaged in six video projects with my clients. When you take a minute to think about your business from a video perspective, there is so much sitting right under your noses. For instance, I encouraged a real estate client to do a quick YouTube search on “olathe real estate”. From the quality of the resulting videos, my client was quickly encouraged to undertake his own video effort. Are Your Marketing Strategies and Your Website on the Same Page?By Brody Dorland — July 1st, 2008
His sales presentation was actually very good and I imagine that he does a great job of new business development for his company. As I walked him out the door, he handed me his card and some cool branded notepads and I told him that I’d keep him in mind on future print jobs. Upon sitting back down at my computer, I grabbed his card and typed in their website address. This is where things went down hill. The Not-So-Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Now let me preface this by saying that I’m a marketing consultant/website developer by trade. So my critical eye for proper website design and usability is a bit more sensitive than the next guy. But wow, this company’s website was REALLY bad. Their design looked remedial, severely dated and unorganized. Their logo looked completely different than the logo on their business card and notepads. The content was poorly written. There were very few images of printing samples. And upon scanning their printing capabilities page, several of the services that the sales person had mentioned were nowhere to be found. I threw his card in the circular file (the trash). I kept the notepads. This situation serves as a good example of the vital role that a website plays in your company’s overall sales and marketing strategies. It is critical that your website convey a consistent brand image, perceived value and sales message for those soft-selling opportunities that happen when you’re not present. A Quick Test for Your Website
I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. If you answered “NO” to any of the questions above, your website probably needs some work. A Marketing Strategy Lesson Back to the printing company with the horrid website. Let’s say they’ve come to their senses and hired me to revamp their website. In our initial meeting, I would do a quick audit to learn about the different strategies and tactics they use to develop new business. Next, I would find that they execute a nice mix of advertising, sales and local tradeshows, and since they are a printer, they have very nice brochures. They even do educational sessions on the latest printing techniques through their local Chamber of Commerce. When I ask about their website, they say, “It’s a low priority and we’ve always worried about the cost.” With so many opportunities to utilize the online tools to market your business and sell your wares, it’s a shame that so many companies view the web as their last priority. And some don’t even realize the amount of clients and dollars that are going to their competitors who have made an appropriate investment. 5 Ways to Get Your Website on the Same Page
The Bottom Line How many clients has that printing company lost over the years because of their poor, neglected website? Who knows? The bottom line is: they lost my business, and as a marketing consultant, the amount of stuff that my clients print alone could probably pay for a website in a matter of years. Run A Referral-Based Business? 4 Reasons Why You Still Need a Solid WebsiteBy Brody Dorland — June 1st, 2008
As the owner of a referral-based small business myself, I certainly understand the notion that making a significant investment in something that may not bring a return might not be a smart move. But as a website developer, I have also seen first hand how a solid website can be the soft-selling opportunity that gives prospects the confidence to pick up the phone and call you. Sales & Marketing Are a Lot Like Dating I find it funny how sales and marketing can be a lot like dating. As a confident guy, you feel like you have a lot to offer a girl and most of the time, when in social situations, you can get her digits, which may or may not lead to something. But she hears good things about you from her friends, so she decides to take the next step and try out your goods (bare with me here people). But what happens when a nice girl, who has just moved into the area and doesn’t know a lot of people, starts her search on the web? She’s busy with her new job and doesn’t really make it out to the social scene. Other than the web, she really has no way of knowing you exist and might just be her soul mate. So she starts her search and finds a lot to choose from. There are big guys, little guys, and cute guys with lots of flash, but not much substance. She’s determined to find the right guy that “completes her”, but since you didn’t make a proper investment in your website, this match made in heaven may never happen. There are a few key points within this analogy that I’d like to drive home…
All Alone on a Saturday Night Bottom line, it doesn’t necessarily take a big investment to build a solid website that can be found on search engines. The key here is to make an appropriate investment to build a site that can help you reach your goals for business growth. Not investing enough may leave you sitting at home alone on a Saturday night waiting for the phone to ring. |
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It’s no secret that for years HR professionals have been checking up on job applicants’ reputations via such social networking sites as MySpace and Facebook. Ask any hiring manager and I’m sure they’ll be able to share a story about an applicant’s questionable photos or conversations that unknowingly killed their chance of being considered.
Part 5: Got Video?
Last week a sales rep from a local printing company walked in to my office to pimp his company’s “superior” printing services. I gave him a few minutes and he proceeded to give me his pitch, walk me through his large list of printing capabilities, and show me a smattering of past print jobs that included an impressive mix of brochures, folders and binders with fancy die cuts, foil stamping and intricate embossing.
