January 22, 2010

Does Networking Play An Important Role in Getting Clients?

Social Networking should certainly help you and your business obtain new clients. In a recent answer I posted regarding Cold Calling vs. Social Networking I cited the following statistics:

Cold Calling Results
Outbound calls made 325
Meaningful conversations (pitches) and brand touches 80
Meetings made 4
Sales made (as a direct result of cold calling) 0
These are average conversion ratios for time spent but it comes with much overhead.

Social Media Results
Inbound calls generated 8
Meetings as result of inbound calls 3
Sales as a result of inbound calls 2
Brand touches (from site statistics unique views of content) 422
Visitors to sales associate's blog Subscribers (RSS) to sales associate's content 27
People following sales associate's Twitter 12
New contacts 71 (on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeCanDo.BIZ, etc)
Listeners to sales associate's Podcast 83
Opportunities to sell found 21
Online conversations had 39
Warm call list (names generated expecting a call) 11

The cost of the social networking blitz to find new business opportunities, other than time and internet connection are small, if anything at all. Most importantly 2 sales were closed, covering any cost associated with the activity and generating a very healthy return.
...If you are not getting results from social networking, you need to adjust how you network. Here are five tips to help you do just that:
  1. You Should Always Network In The Right Forums. If your networking objective is to get clients, you should network in social networking communities that your potential clients frequent.
  2. Network On A Regular Basis. If you are only networking when you need to get clients, you are wasting your time. Networking is not a one-time action; rather, it is a process of having others get to know you and building relationships with them. You need to use online social networks continuously to raise your online visibility and develop relationships with others.
  3. Network, Don’t Sell. A business owner told me once “I keep posting about my business on every social network every chance I get, but have no takers.” This person is not really networking. Rather, he is selling his products and services instead of building relationships. Networking is about creating awareness for your products, not blatantly advertising them.
  4. Provide Information About Your Business. While some people try to sell their products more then they should, there are others who don’t tell people anything about their business when networking online. Remember, if people you are networking with have no way of learning more about you your business, they will not be able to do business with you. How do you let others know about your business? Use a signature at the end of every message you post when networking online. Make sure your signature contains some information about your business and a link to your web site, so that everyone reading your posts can learn more about you and your business.
  5. Invite Others To Subscribe To Your Newsletter. The best way to continue building relationships with people you meet on social networks is to ask them to subscribe to your newsletter. Use your signature when you are networking online to invite people reading your message to subscribe to your newsletter. When they do, you can continue building relationships even if you or they stop networking on the forum altogether.

January 11, 2010

Video Killed the Print Ad

I just finished reading a broadbandevolved.com blog post that cites statistics predicting enormous growth in online local video revenue by 2012. It also projects that small- and medium-sized businesses will invest nearly 12% of their online advertising budgets in video ads because “people love online videos.”
I agree with broadbandevolved.com which projects online video becoming a huge revenue generator, not only because of it's proven effect on inbound marketing, but also because, one done correctly, it adds a viral component to any integrated marketing plan which has the potential to catapult a brand or message.
Where I can agree there are many traditional consumers who still prefer the written word, I do not feel that online video has, or should, replace written content. I do believe it can compliment this content, present it in a more precise manner, ad tone and authority and offer the opportunity to engage... engagement being an important part of the lasting impression equation.
People love online video. Americans viewed a record 13.5 billion online videos during the month of October - with nearly 40% of them on Google’s YouTube - representing a 45% increase in video watching vs. a year ago.
Source: comScore
The numbers say a lot, but here are a few other reasons to consider doing more than watching online video:
  • Inexpensive tools & software have made producing videos easier than ever
  • Almost all online video services are free
  • Online video is easily measured. Most services provide statistics on views, visitor demographics, and other valuable information
Here are some tips that I have found help escalate online video for inbound marketing purposes:
  1. State Your Objective.  Have a plan and tracking effectiveness
  2. Be Yourself.  Viewers respond to originality, so do what comes natural. Be inspired, make it memorable and capture the viewer's attention. Don't make your message too "salesy". You can increase your brand recognition with a very clever video without ever having to give a sales pitch.
  3. Keep it Short.  Online video should be shorter than 3 minutes to be effective. If you have a ton of ideas - make a series of short videos instead of one long one.
  4. Write A Good Description.  Video-sharing sites let you create "tags," which are words that describe your video. These tags, along with the title and description, are how your video will get searched for and located on video sharing sites. Search engines like Google have recently added video to their search results, so optimizing the metadata around your videos is increasingly important. The more "relevant" metadata you add describing your video, the more likely someone is to find your video.
  5. Increase Your Online Profile.  Now that you've launched the video online. How do you let people know about it? Embracing social media platforms as part of your communications mix is an integral first step.
How are you using video as a marketing tool?