Do Your Customers or Clients view you as a Trusted Source?

September 1, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Reputation to Revenue Blog

I was reminded how important it is for your potential customers to view you as a trusted source of information in re-reading this blog article in my archive from the Reputation-to-Revenue Blog.

Study after study has shown that a large percentage of buying decisions (both for products and services) are being done through web searches. On these web searches, your content, reputation, references, and recommendations all surface.

Are you establishing yourself as one of the top trusted sources of information for your customers/clients?

Are you producing enough content to establish yourself as the “authority” within your niche or marketplace?

Could you honestly say that for the service you provide – you’re one of the most trusted sources of reliable, non-biased, objective information within your industry or niche?

If you’re not in the top 3, you’re leaving money on the table. Social media – places like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and other social networking venues – now give you the opportunity to build your own brand, become your own content publisher, and market precisely to your target audience on a very cost-efficient basis.

Are you taking advantage of these new tools and sites to establish yourself as a leading producer of good quality information about the products or services (which you provide) in your niche or market?

Here’s a good case study: My partner, Brad Remillard, and I have systematically developed our reputation as being one of the top voices in hiring and retaining top talent. We generate an abundance of referrals and leads for our executive search practice, speaking engagements, and hiring process improvement consulting business. We’ve put together one of the best collections of FREE content on the web for hiring and retaining top talent. We’re laser focused in distributing that content to our target audience – CEOs of small-to-medium size businesses. We generate a tremendous number of leads and referrals simply by publishing high quality content related to finding, interviewing, assessing, and keeping great talent.

Anyone can do this. There is no barrier to entry other than the time investment required to write and publish your content. Within a very short period of time, you could become one of the most trusted sources of information for your target audience-niche market. Our blogging and social media activity comprise approximately 1 hour per day of time including writing the blog articles, distributing the articles, projects, responding to our audience/connections, and networking on-line.

The future battle for the attention of the buyers of your services or products will be increasingly fought on the field of establishing yourself as a trusted source of information. This approach applies to Chairs, Consultants, Companies, Speakers, and Sales Professionals. How are you establishing your business as the most trusted within your niche?

To read the entire article, click the link below:

Marketing as media: Are you in the top five?

Barry Deutsch

Filed Under: social media · Tagged: , ,

Is Fear Holding You Back From Business Blogging?

August 30, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Compendium Blog

Have you launched a corporate blog yet?

What’s holding you back?

We have a saying in our basketball program based on one of the most popular quotes ever issued by a coach: “You’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

How many shots (opportunities) are you missing because you’re afraid to shoot (start blogging)?

I’m sure by now you’ve listened to, read, and seen numerous “experts” talk about social media. In all that information, I’ll bet every one of the experts has called on you to start a blog.

I read recently on the Compedium Blog an interesting statistic:

According to a recent study by Experian-Hitwise, an Internet measurement data application provider, searchers’ use of eight-word keyword phrases grew 22% in just one year. In addition, 56% of all keyword queries are now three word phrases or more. So what does this mean for corporate bloggers? The longer the phrase, the more specific the searcher intent. Long tail searchers are hand raisers and know exactly what they’re looking for. It’s up to you to show up and solve their problems. How do you do this? By blogging.

There is no doubt among marketing gurus that blogging is the most effective method to drive search engine queries about your products/services, provide differentiation through thought-leadership, and engage with your community of potential buyers,  prospects, and raving fans that are interested in your products and services.

So, we’ve now established that beyond a shadow of a doubt, blogging is a great low-cost and effective marketing strategy – especially one that can drive sales leads.

What are you waiting for?

What is holding you back from taking the step of establishing a blog targeted at your customer base of individuals who make decisions on whether to purchase your products and services?

Are you waiting for your competitors to take the lead and then you’ll follow – or would you rather be the leader among your competitors?

Common fear factors in setting up a blog include:

  • The fear of running out of blogging ideas
  • The fear of looking/sounding stupid
  • The fear of wasting time with no immediate results
  • The fear of employees/blog writers releasing confidential information
  • The fear of not knowing where to start
  • The fear of the unknown: “I don’t know what to expect”

Are you letting your fears about blogging consume you? Are you over-analyzing whether it makes sense to start a blog? You could have a blog up and running within a few hours. Yes – you will make initial mistakes, errors, and you’ll have a few regrets. What’s new? Doesn’t this sound like every other idea you’ve tried for the first time?

I sometimes have to remind the girls on my basketball team to shoot the ball. Take a risk. Do something different for once. I ask them what’s the worst thing that could happen? Of course, they tell me they might miss. So do all your teammates, but they don’t let that fear of doing something – like shooting – stop them. Remember the old adage: You’ll miss a 100% of the shots you don’t take.

By not trying to blog and testing the social media waters, are you missing the opportunity to engage more fully your customer base, are you leaving sales leads on the table, and are you providing a window for your competitors to dominate your market?

Barry Deutsch

Filed Under: blog information · Tagged: , ,

Can Social Media Help You Improve Relationship Marketing?

May 15, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Blogging Tips Blog

Patti Stafford writing on the Blogging Tips website talked about how social media can improve relationship marketing. However, she made an important observation that you have to connect personally with your audience. Sending “form” emails and broadcasting where you had lunch on Twitter is NOT relationship marketing. Social Media can provide a great platform to improve relationship marketing and interactions on a large scale if done properly. Social Media provides leverage in marketing to many vs. the traditional “call – meeting – follow-up process” which is more direct sales than marketing and touches very few prospects. Relationship Marketing through Social Media is a blend of traditional direct selling and marketing/branding/pr/awareness building – all layered on top of tools that give you the opportunity for continuous conversations from the comfort of your computer chair. with very little time investment.

Obviously, you’ve got to eventually meet in person your best prospects to close them;  however, imagine how much more successful you and your sales team could be by engaging hundreds of perfect prospects every week as compared to just a handful.

Here’s one of the key points Patti made from the blog article:

One key point to remember and the reason for relationship marketing is that people buy from people they like and trust. If you aren’t taking care of people and getting them to like you, they will never buy your product or a product you recommend. It’s that simple. You may get a few initial sales but if you don’t get up close and personal with your audience they won’t spread the word about you, sales and traffic will drop off and your business will die.

To read the full article on relationship marketing, click the link below:

What is Relationship Marketing?

  • Here’s a few questions to get the conversation started:
  • Do you have a specific strategy for executing on a plan for relationship marketing with your key prospects?
  • Where do you stand on leveraging Social Media as part of your relationship marketing plan?
  • Is your sales team still stuck in sales engagement, prospecting, and networking that is stuck in a 1970s sales model?
  • What research, tools, and consultants/coaches have you sought out to begin moving down this path of relationship marketing that leads to more effective lead generation and nurturing?

Barry Deutsch

Filed Under: social media · Tagged: , ,