social media
A marketing secret you may be missing
Words make or break your marketing message. As much as power-packed words add to the mix, there’s another key – credibility. It’s the personal element behind those words.
I’m an insatiable reader. I read for mentoring, to sharpen my skills, to gain and keep my professional and personal-performance edge. Occasionally I’ll escape the daily routine through good fiction or thought provoking essays.
I subscribe to nearly a dozen e-zines. Their content occasionally prompts me to part with my money to purchase a resource or two. That’s the power of well-written copy.
I’m reminded of an experience I had with the writer/publisher of resources I frequently read. He taught me something of vital importance about marketing.
RB is among the top professionals in his field. He’s well paid for his expertise – approaching 30 years of experience. I consider him a mentor via his printed resources.
I was facing an interview with a potential client. I needed some insight in order to do the assigned work. I believed RB – with his resume of experience – could help. I sent him a brief email, hopeful he’d reply (in a a day or two) with direction to one of his relevant resources.
Not 5 minutes after clicking –send- my phone rang – “Hello…” “Hi, Eddie this is RB…listen I’ve got a resource you might be interested in…” The conversation continued for a couple of minutes. It led to an offer of assistance (on his part – no charge) and my agreement to reciprocate with some assistance of my own and I soon found a very helpful resource arriving in my in-box.
What’s most valuable about that experience? That I received needed help…promptly? Certainly! But more than that – I’ll unpack it in a moment.
I’ve read countless chapters of RB’s resources. As I said, his words mentor me in my craft as a professional copywriter. Now his words have even greater impact because they’ve moved from the printed page to another level.
Here’s my point…
Say what you will about *customer service* and its effect on your marketing. Sometimes the simplest approaches leave the most lasting impression. I’m a raving fan of RB and his resources. His recent actions increased my sense that I’m a valued “customer,” even though I’m an industry colleague as well.
His actions go beyond mere customer service to what I call *relational-capital*.
Relationships matter! Face to face, in print, online, or through the phone – it matters that you establish them. Diligently work to maintain them and they’ll serve you – even pay you – repeatedly!
Here’s how to improve your relational-capital:
–>Maximize your *marketing moments*
Well-worded resources are the base-line of moment to moment marketing. You’ve created a brochure…launched a website…invested in advertising space in a trade journal…or increased your PPC (pay-per-click) or Google ad-word budget. Those are good, measurable uses of your time and marketing resources.
Remember you earn a massive amount of credibility when you increase your relational-capital in the process. Moments – even methods – come and go – relationships last!
Social media has raised the marketing game to new levels. You can engage your clients and potential ones in the moment via a tweet, a like, page post, blog post, etc. If you’re not using social media, you’re leaving tons of relational-capital to those who recognize it’s value for building relationships with their market. Start engaging!
–>Activate an *act now* approach
A client or potential client requests information about a product or service you provide. Whether they leave a voice mail or send an email, develop the habit of responding via the most relational action (again, social media is free and available).
99.9% of the time it’s the personal touch that makes the greatest impression (face-to-face or phone). Use social media, e-mail, and text-messaging…just don’t hide behind them.
–>Favor frequent *follow-up*
Marketing coach, Ali Brown, says, “The fortune is in the follow-up.” Simply put. Be vigilant about staying on the radar of your clients and prospects. Pick up the phone…make the call…send a brief email…use social media…mail a postcard or another form of direct mail. Frequent follow-up builds the relationship.
Learn from and be inspired by my experience. In marketing as in life…relationships pay! And relational-capital can increase your profits!
3 Fundamentals for Publishing an Enewsletter as a Follow-up Tool
The problem may not be your lack of follow-up but how consistently you lack it.
Think about it! You have good intentions when it comes to following up on prospects and potential leads in your dental marketing.
But how many times can you draft an email or hand-written note and keep doing it over and over. At some point you must somewhat “automate” the marketing follow-up process.
An effective way to “automate” your follow-up is through consistently publishing an enewsletter. And it can be as simple as repurposing a blog post.
In fact, that’s a good place to begin as a I offer a few tips to get started with publishing an enewsletter.
1) Start blogging
Your blog is the blank canvas to explore, explain, and, express your expertise (how do you like that “ex” theme I have going there?). It’s a place to log insights.
Lead with a blog. Many posts will “seed” other ideas and topics. These deeper explorations form the content that can be expanded through a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly enewsletter.
2) Show up regularly
Speaking of follow-up frequency…how often should you publish an enewsletter? Preferences vary. Some say weekly is best, others bi-weekly or monthly. I previously published weekly. Now (as I’m planning the 2.0 version of my enewsletter) I’m leaning toward monthly.
The advantage of monthly is you can use your enewsletter as a way to aggregate the numerous blog posts published over the course of a month into one issue.
You can expand a thought that a blog post simply introduced. You can incorporate the wisdom gained from comments to a particular post. Even social media feedback from retweets, likes and post comments (Facebook page) can improve upon a topic blogged about weeks before.
Bottom-line: consistency. Whether you promote your enewsletter as a weekly or monthly – stay with it. Your subscribers will drift (unsubscribe) if you lack consistency.
3) Open the window
I’m talking about letting people see into your life, practice/company culture, product/service stories, etc. One thing social media has taught us is that getting personal is okay.
If you want your enewsletter read and shared be unafraid to open up the windows a bit. Don’t be a life-voyeur or a verbal flasher. TMI (Too Much Info) applies here too.
If you’ve taken a trip, been on vacation, achieved a milestone, celebrated the milestone of a child or loved one, purchased a new gadget…you get the picture! And that’s what I’m talking about – give your readers a “picture” of who you are in addition to your expertise.
Authenticity opens the door to better business connections. It’s the basis for effective marketing follow-up – what we call “engagement” these days.
An enewsletter is a perfect follow-up companion alongside a blog and any other business communication you share.
A Tool to Jumpstart Your Dental Marketing
“The fortune is in the follow-up.”
That’s what Ali Brown, online entrepreneur and marketing expert says. In fact, it’s how she built her now thriving business and coaching career – one that led to her recent appearance on ABC’s Secret Millionaire spring 2011 finale.
But it’s not just follow-up – it’s the right kind of strategic follow-up that creates the relationships that ultimately lead to a fortune in business.
Brown tells business owners (I’m one who’s listened to her in recent years and used her program to engage my clients and leads, especially using the one approach I’ll get to in a moment) there are three ways – these days – you can effectively engage your list:
1) “Send a quick EMAIL to say “nice to meet you, here’s a link to my website, and let me know if you’d like to discuss further, etc.”
2) “Give them a CALL and try to set up a meeting or initial consultation to find out if it’s a good fit.”
3) “Add them as a friend on FACEBOOK and TWITTER, so they can get to know you and your services/products a little better.”
These approaches hopefully lead to a response. If one, or any of them do not, it can feel like you’ve reached out in vain.
Response is key.
But how do you help assure that you will eventually get a response? We’re accustomed to immediate response these days when we reach-out and engage others through text messaging, a tweet, a comment on someone’s Facebook page/wall, even a sent email.
Brown comments, “But in today’s online environment, it’s crucial that business owners recognize that a RESPONSE is multi-dimensional. A person isn’t ready to buy until they scope out your website, read a few testimonials, find you on Yelp, and check you out on Facebook.”
She adds that one of the most (still) effective tools out there to maintain that responsive relationship is with, what she calls, an ezine. Brown admits (and I had the same thoughts since we’ve been introduced to the power of social media) that it’s easy to dismiss an enewsletter as being so…well…”1999!”
Consider this from Brown’s research and expertise…
“According to a 2010 study by ExactTarget, 56% of U.S. Internet users interact with brands only via marketing emails, compared to 1.3% who interact only via Twitter and 0.7% by Facebook. (This doesn’t dampen my social media fires at all…it just reminds me how slow to adapt many are. And it’s those slow adopters that we’ll reach via other media. Just a thought…)
And business owners are responding… A 2010 StrongMail study found that marketing and business leaders still choose email marketing as the top area of investment growth (65%) in 2011, above social media marketing (57%) and search marketing (41%). Email is still very much a heavy hitter in the online marketing game.”
No doubt, having (or reviving) another tool in your client development toolbox could add dollars to your bottom-line. And in this economy you and I can use all the help we can get!
I’ll cover some of the keys to success that an ezine or enewsletter can bring to your biz in an upcoming post. Until then, check out Ali Brown’s resources. I’m a satisfied user!