3 Simple Steps for Generating Leads with Social Media

3 Simple Steps for Generating Leads with Social Media

When business owners think of social media, they usually think of the process of building a brand image, and not so much of generating leads. But that’s where they are wrong. Social media can be a huge addition to your overall lead generation strategy, that is if you know how to use it to its fullest potential.

However, before you begin generating leads through social media, it is important to position yourself as an authority figure in your line of work. You can achieve this through your website, blog, your newsletter and by establishing good rapport with your customers. That means being responsive and attentive to your customers’ needs.

Once you’ve mastered that, it’s time to harness the power of social media for lead generation. Below are three basic ways to get started:

---

#1: Join relevant Twitter conversations
Twitter can be a great source of new leads once you start searching. There are thousands of people who are interested in what you have to offer, you just have to find them. Luckily for you, Twitter has made it easy to explore conversation threads already in progress. Here’s how you can search Twitter conversation threads and dive deeper into your search for leads. In addition, you can also create your own threads and generate leads that way.

#2: Follow brand mentions and maintain a positive image
Maintaining a positive brand image is crucial when it comes to generating leads through social media. Brand tracking is important, especially across social media. With this method, utilizing special monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite, Mention, Social Mention, Topsy, Talkwalker, etc., is key.

Monitoring what others are saying about you on social media is important so you can respond to critics when necessary, and engage in relevant conversations. By doing this you’ll be able to keep your brand image positive and (relatively) untainted. This is crucial, as when potential prospects start researching about you, they can see negative comments which can discourage them from doing business with you.

#3: Create Facebook contests
Contests are huge on Facebook, and they tend to attract a lot of people. A Facebook contest is a great way to get tons of likes and comments, and collects email signups by offering a prize in return. The downside is that not all leads will be ideal, but at least you will gather emails which you can use later on for targeting.

---

Don't forget to maintain and track your clients and leads within Client Relationship Management (CRM) software, such as AddressTwo's simple CRM and Email Marketing solution. Staying in contact with your prospects and on top of your sales efforts is crucial to generating sales. Don't allow follow-ups to slip through the cracks and miss out on potential business. Sign up for a Free Trial of AddressTwo, and see what the power of Two, can do for you!

Holiday Email Marketing Tips

Have you started sending holiday emails yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Holidays are that time of year when people shop the most, and chances are that your small biz can benefit greatly from that. Successful email marketing is an amazing tool to reach out to your target audience and turn them into buying customers.

If done right, that is.

If you’re sending emails just to send them, it won’t yield the results you need.

If you really want to impress them, stick to these holiday email marketing tips:

Plan in advance

A good marketing strategy is the first (and perhaps the only) thing you need to generate sales. A large number of marketers who know how to make a killer email holiday campaign start planning as early as August. But it’s not late now either.

Email marketing should be at your to-do list if you want results. There is no excuse – make a plan and stick to it. Let’s take a look at some of the tips on how to grab the attention of your target audience through holiday emails:

Focus on mobile

The first practical advice is to focus on mobile, and for a good reason. More and more people are checking on their mail and viewing it from the mobile devices. To put things into perspective, it has been reported that in 2014 that more that 50% traffic was mobile during holiday seasons. Below are a few tips on how to make sure that your emails are mobile-friendly:

Use an email template that is mobile-optimized

With the AddressTwo Email Marketing tools you will be able to preview what your email will look like on mobile and on desktops.

Keep it short and snappy

Three sentences on your computer may look like 6 sentences on your mobile device. So, make sure there isn’t too much text, otherwise people won’t even bother to read it. You emails need to be catchy and a bit personal, something people can relate to. Something short but powerful that will make them want to know more.

Make it simple

The best email promotions are simple with a clear layout. If you have too many colors or use 5 different types of front people may get distracted from the main goal. And that is – to take some kind of action. 

Run a social media promotion

Prior to actually creating an email campaign, run a promotion on Facebook, Instagram etc. If you want your customers to respond to your holiday emails, first you have to remind them of who you are. Just to get their attention. So that when they receive an email from you, they’ll know who you are and they will be more likely to take action.  

Make them engage with you on social media. Engagement is the best way to get closer to you customers and stay on top of their mind. Run a holiday photo contest to make your followers engage. Alternatively, offer buy-one-get-one-free promotions to spur engagement.

Use proper CTA

A call-to-action is supposed to make people buy something, so you need to make it catchy and simple. For an eye-catching call-to-action you can visually emphasize it. Also, you don’t have to use CTA just once – use it several time throughout your email.

The paradox of choice – stick to one

If you want to lead your potential customers to one single action, make sure you lead them with one single thought in mind. Even though you may have several products you’d like to offer, stick to just one, or to several relatable ones. You need to hack into the psychology of a buyer’s mind. Sometimes less is more, and in this case it seems to be truer than ever. People get easily confused if they need to choose between several things.

Pay attention to the subject line

Last but not the least – make a killer subject line. Since the subject line is the first thing people see when they get a new email it’s worth investing some thought into it. How many times did you not open an email because of a crappy boring headline? Probably more often than you can remember. The same goes for your subscribers. If it doesn’t spark their interest, they won’t open it. There will be so many emails anyway, why would they waste time on reading yours? Because you have to offer them something others can’t. So express that in your subject line. You can do that by asking a question – questions resonate well with customers. And, of course, add some holiday spirit to it!

Lastly don’t forget that for your best clients or that next big prospect it’s also a great idea to follow your email campaign up with a hand written holiday card. – “Why the Direct Mail Touch Should Not Be Lost”

Holiday Cards - Why the Direct Mail Touch Should Not be Lost

Tis the season!  

Well, tis almost the season, and you need to start thinking about…Holiday Cards! (Insert rolling eyes and sighs.) October is a few days away, so now is the time to begin thinking about your Holiday plan of action.

For many businesses, sending Holiday Cards can be a time demanding and fund draining activity. Because of this, more and more companies are opting to forgo the card sent via snail mail, and reach for the convenience of the computer instead. An e-greeting can be pretty and send a caring message, but more often than not, gets lost within the Holiday email shuffle or sent directly to spam. And let’s face it, opening an email is far more impersonal and leave many reaching for the delete button as soon as they begin rolling in.

Holiday Cards should be seen as an investment, and spending that time and funds to invest in your clients and prospects speaks more than flashy animation and sparkly graphics. Think of your clientele as family. They help keep your business home up and running, and if you’re doing your job right, they will have your back when the opportunity arises. Would you send your loved ones a birthday card via email if a CVS is not far around the corner? I’m guessing your answer is, “no”.

Printed Holiday Cards are a great way to thank your clients and partners for their support and loyalty over the past year, and to let them know how much you value their relationship. Most Holiday Cards are opened and displayed throughout the busy holiday season, keeping you at the forefront of your clients’ mind. If you keep up the tradition, those on your list will look forward to receiving your card year after year. There’s power in that; knowing you are important enough to make it on THE LIST.

---

When you take that step to send out Holiday Cards via direct mail, make sure you do it right:

Personalize it. If you can’t afford to write a unique note in each card, create and print different messages per recipient. In other words, categorize your list into three or four different groups. A message to a client vs. a vendor or business partner should be different.

Leave sales at the door. This is a time of thanks for past and current business, not a time to generate more sales. Greedy Holiday givers who create expectations in return show poor taste.

Be sincere. If you send flowery words full of caring sentiments to a client you typically butt heads with, the message could come across as sarcastic. Always use kind words of course, but if you are generally a playful person, have fun with your messages. If you are a sentimental bird, allow your thanks to flow plentifully.

Design smartly. Catchy, yet simple, designs will stand out from the crowd. Incorporate your market niche within your design. For example, if your business is centered around fresh produce, use an image of a broccoli Christmas tree within the design. Remember to keep your logo small, perhaps even on the back of the card. This is about them, not you. (No business cards within either…)

Be a friend, don’t offend. Avoid including content, including words or images, that could come across as offensive or is inappropriate for the workplace. One would think this is common sense, but you would be surprised.

Time your sending. The first or second week in December is the best time to get your cards in the mail and in their hands. Any time after that, you are risking your investments to be caught in the mail rush, or lost in vacation pile for your recipients to shuffle through following the Holidays (embarrassing).

So, now that you have all of your contacts organized and in one location...take this opportunity to get them into a Simple CRM (Client Relationship Management) software, such as AddressTwo. AddressTwo was built for small-medium sized businesses who need a smart and cost effective solution for contact management, setting follow-up tasks, email marketing (drip campaigns), and pipeline tracking, to name a few features. Your clients are important around the Holiday Season, don't let the rest of the year stay quiet! Register for a free trial of AddressTwo CRM to see how it can streamline your sales and communication processes year round. Better yet, email your client list to A2, and have a trial created for you with your contact list imported and ready to go!

---

Allow PostTwo to do your Holiday cards for you! Simple and easy solution for printing, stuffing, and mailing. Part of your friendly neighborhood, simple CRM, AddressTwo.

Discover what the power of Two can do for you! 

Make sure you don't miss us on Facebook

99% of you are not doing this and it's very important.  We are challenging ourselves here at AddressTwo CRM to do a better job at getting you more small business tips this month on our Facebook page.  But to do this and for you to see it and take advantage of some great content we need you to change your Facebook settings to "See First."

Here's how to do it:
For Desktop

Step 1
Go to our Facebook page and make sure to like us.

Step 2
Scroll over 'Liked' and turn your 'notifications' to 'All On'

Step 3
Suggest to a friend or co-worker to like us next then your done.

To Change via Mobile

Step 1
Click on the More tab from our page

Step 2
Click on Notifications

Step 3
Turn Get Notifications on (and make sure it's green.)

Building Customer Relationships through Communication

Customer relationships are the foundation of every business’s success. However, relationships aren’t built from chance encounters at networking events, drop-in lookie-loos who visit your business once and leave, or even one-time purchases of your products or services. You have to nurture customer relationships over time.

In today’s competitive business world, it’s now more important than ever to build customer Why? When your customers are happy and satisfied, they’re more likely to refer your business or your products and services to their friends, family and colleagues. Strong customer relationships can create brand ambassadors – people who believe in and are excited about your products or services and want to tell others about you. The benefits of word-of-mouth marketing can be priceless for your business, because word-of-mouth recommendations are often more influential than advertising or other types of recommendations.

relationships.

Therefore, when you take the time to build customer relationship, you can create loyal customers. And loyal customers can become your best salespeople – helping you to increase your company’s bottom line.

“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. The quality of your business is no different.” – Harvey Mackay

How do you build customer relationships?

Communication is a vital tactic to building customer relationships. Think about it. Every relationship you have in life revolves around communication – and it’s no different when running your business. Therefore, here are some key points you need to remember when communicating with your customers:

1. Use every customer interaction as an opportunity to build a relationship.

2. Talk to customers like you do to friends. Be polite, but personable. You’re not a sales robot after all. Make sure you use your customers’ names. Remember: Your customers are people – not just business deals.

3. Treat your customers like you want to be treated. Put yourself in their shoes. Give them the same respect and level of service that you would want.

4. Provide each customer with individualized attention. Every customer is different with different needs – so cater to them individually.

5. Get to know your customers. Learn the little details (e.g., family members’ names, pets, hobbies, etc.) about them and their lives. Use these tidbits in conversation. It can make a huge impact in building a relationship.  

6. Take the time to listen to your customers’ needs and concerns. Sumesh Nair says, “Many relationship problems are rooted in a communication breakdown. These can be as simple as not really hearing what the other person is saying, because we get caught up in our own fixed perspective.” Practice patience and understanding. Look at concerns from the customer’s perspective.

7. When customers complain, offer a heartfelt apology. Work through the problem together to find a solution. However, be realistic and don’t promise more than you can deliver. Otherwise, you may disappoint your customer again.

8. Honesty is always the best policy. Don’t stretch the truth about your products or services. If you can’t provide a service, simply tell your customer. They’ll appreciate your honesty.

9. Communicate with your customers regularly. Ways you can stay in contact include: Meetings, phone calls, emails, social media posts, newsletters, videos, blog posts and more. It may take 7 or more “touches” before you build a loyal relationship with someone and turn them into a customer.  

When you commit to making the effort to develop long-lasting, meaningful relationships with your customers through more effective communications, your business will grow and become more successful in the long run.

To Your Success!

Jack Klemeyer, Grow Your Business Coaching

Certified John Maxwell Coach, Trainer andSpeaker

Why CEOs Never Win the Lottery

Have you ever noticed that people who have achieved great success never win the lottery?

There is a very simple reason for that – they never buy lottery tickets. They do not leave their success, and its spoils, to chance. Playing the lottery is taking a blind chance, hoping for the big win. And that is not something big achievers ever really do; they plan and prepare.

There is a saying “Luck is preparedness meeting opportunity” and Jeff Olson, author of The Slight Edge basically decries that as hogwash. He says that “luck is preparedness. Period.” I would tend to agree with him – we make our own luck. We pave the way for success to come marching toward us. We PREPARE FOR SUCCESS. 

How do we do that?

3 Steps to Prepare for Success

1) First, we have to, as Stephen Covey of the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame says, “Have the end in mind.” Know what the end-goal is, how it looks, and what it feels like when we successfully attain it. It might be greater sales, more profits, happier life, more free time, and financial freedom. Whatever it is for you, you have to know it, see it, and feel it. 

2) Next, we have to gather the tools and resources necessary to achieve the task(s). Perhaps that means an online program to collect names on a list, keep track of contacts and touches, or an email distribution system. AddressTwo works if that is your need. You might need processes to systematize the touches and communications with potential clients. You might need suppliers or manufacturers lined up and at the ready for increased production. 

3) Last, we must track our progress and measure outcomes. There has to be a yardstick – a ruler with benchmarks – to let us know two things: that we are staying focused, and that we are making progress toward our goal.

When a small business owner knows what he wants, puts all the pieces in place, and then measures progress, he can’t help but find success. That may be taking a risk, believing in what he can offer and do, but it’s not leaving it to chance and hope. There is no lottery involved, but there is preparedness.

To Your Success!

 

Jack Klemeyer, founder

Grow Your Business Coaching

Low-Cost Marketing for Small Businesses

So you’ve taken the leap and started your own business, congratulations! You know how fantastic your product or service is, your business partners and close friends know too, but how on earth do you spread the word to your target audience? We’ve developed this guide just for you so read on and start building your marketing game plan!

Why Choose You?

What you’re offering is special and unique, so let everyone know! The first step in setting up your first marketing campaign is to pinpoint exactly what makes your business stand out from all the others.

Are you creating a stir with a new twist in an established field?

Or blazing a brand new trail with your product?

Whatever it is, find it, label it, and shout it from the rooftops! Maybe not shout, but plaster it on your website, social media, business cards, and essentially anywhere your business is in the public eye. Whether it’s online or physical.

Assemble Your Tools

Once you have your professional schtick, it’s time to assemble your marketing tool belt, and your list of choices is ever increasing. This allows you to pick the cream of the crop for your business and most of these tools are very low-cost or completely free!

Social Media

*Image Credit via Flickr Creative Commons Sean M. TR Online Marketing

A go to marketing technique for many new businesses is to take to social media. Create an engaging Facebook page, up to date Twitter account, Instagram feed, and  keep your current or potential customers in the loop with the latest and greatest developments for your business. Remember to link your business website to these accounts!

Email List

A helpful tie-in to your online theater of operations is to create an email list. This will allow you to continually communicate with potential customers who are already interested in your offerings, without requiring them to visit your website directly. We won’t go into the nitty-gritty details of how to set up an email list here, but check out how I was able to add 500 subscribers to an email list in a week.

Quality Over Quantity

Remember! For an indestructible marketing campaign, quality over quantity are words to live by! It’s easy to create a fistfull of social media accounts and smother the web with news of your products, but if these small pokes about your company aren’t backed up with quality content then your target audience will slip right through your fingers.

Take the time to develop and publish in-depth articles about your new business. Remember that professional schtick you created earlier? Elaborate and explain what makes you unique!

●     Who are you?

●     What are you trying to achieve?

●     What what makes you different?

This is also the time and place to incorporate a little SEO (Search Engine Optimization) into your marketing campaign as most consumers will actively search for your product as opposed to stumbling into it on social media. For a few more tips and advice on balancing in-depth marketing with social media, take a look at this article from American Express Open Forum.

Shake Hands (In Real Life Networking)  

While it’s easy to be swept into the power and outreach that virtual marketing offers, don’t ignore the real-world theater of operations!

Attending networking events or conferences is an excellent tool to get your business brand out in the open.

Whether it’s investors or potential customers, they’re already interested in the field and that’s a foot in the door for you! So don’t ignore it!

When attending these events, keep your eyes on the ball and remember that you’re the first impression for your entire business, and you want to build lasting professional relationships.

Scribbling your business email or phone number on a napkin at a luncheon hardly screams ‘professional business owner’ to your target. So plan ahead!

Think about how you’d like to introduce your company, and stock up on business cards. 

Conclusion

We hope the options presented here set you on your way to developing a top-notch marketing strategy! While marketing is an important aspect to developing your business, there are several more levels to creating a well-rounded company, and becoming a successful business owner. You have the tools, now go out there and strengthen and grow your business!

Doug Cunnington is a small business owner and writes at Business Credit Workshop. He’s passionate about helping people make smart decisions on the path to get business credit.