How to Prioritize Your Social Media Marketing

February 10, 2010 – 4:15 am

It’s no secret that social media is here to stay. Many, if not most, companies are grappling with how to incorporate it into their marketing strategy. I’m frequently asked for my thoughts on prioritizing various social media avenues. And while there’s no “one size fits all” answer, here are my general thoughts on the subject.

First, let me make clear that I’m assuming your main goal is to make sales. There are other perfectly valid reasons to use social media, such as streamlining customer service or gathering market feedback. But, from the point of view of making sales, here’s where I think most companies get the biggest bang for the buck:

1. Customer Reviews. A site that’s well populated with customer reviews offers prospective buyers an invaluable decision-making tool. It helps them sort through the options and buy with confidence. It increases your sales and reduces your returns. By highlighting your top-rated products in emails and other advertising, you can build your sales further. And once a review and rating system is set up, little additional work is required on your part.

2. YouTube. As the second largest search engine after Google, YouTube is hard to ignore. Plenty of people turn to YouTube as a source of how-to information, giving you the opportunity to educate them at the same time you introduce them to your company and products. Videos don’t need to be slick, high-production affairs. And considering that you can use the same video on your website and in your emails, you can get a lot of mileage from two or three minutes of informative video footage.

3. Blogs. I’d consider it a close race between blogging and YouTube. Both establish you as an expert, provide helpful information and allow for a soft sell introduction to your company. Both can boost your search engine rankings and open the door to more publicity. I rank blogging after YouTube simply because updating a blog regularly seems to take a more effort for most people.

4. Facebook. The enormous size of Facebook certainly makes it attractive to marketers. And while it does offer a convenient way to strengthen relationships with and garner feedback from your “fans,” it doesn’t seem to be the ideal way to foster immediate sales. Part of the problem, of course, is that people aren’t necessarily in “buying mode” when they’re on Facebook. I believe the marketing potential from Facebook and similar sites will evolve over time, but for immediate sales, I wouldn’t put it at the top of the list yet.

There in a nutshell are my broad generalizations, subject to change depending on the nature of the business in question … and certain to shift as social media evolves over time. I fully expect that many of you will have different ideas on the subject. How would you rank the options, and why?

By Val Gosset | Posted in Blogs, Marketing goals, Social media, Video | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment

Staying Current With Social Media Trends

February 8, 2010 – 4:15 am

Between the rate of change in social media and the vast amount written about its impact on business, it’s hard to know where to turn for reliable, useful information on the subject. Here’s one starting point:

Erik Qualman, author of the best-selling Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, recently published his list of “Social Media All-Stars.” It lists his choices for the top leaders in social media — the people he follows for new ideas and insights – and his reasons for selecting them.

Erik publishes an informative blog on social media trends at http://socialnomics.net/.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Resources, Social media | Comments (2)

How a Single YouTube Video Rocked the Customer Service World

February 5, 2010 – 4:15 am

If you have anything to do with customer service and/or have ever been stonewalled by bureaucratic runaround from an inept corporation (I guess that should cover everyone), here’s a story you’ll love. Besides being a terrific example of an exasperated customer fighting back with humor and imagination, it illustrates just how much the tables have turned in the customer service world. Hats off to Denny Hatch for his column in the January 2010 issue of Target Marketing for bringing this story to our attention.

On March 31, 2008, singer-songwriter-guitar player Dave Carroll was flying with his band from Halifax, Canada to Omaha, Nebraska. On landing, the passenger behind Dave looked out the window towards the unloading baggage and exclaimed, “My God, they’re throwing guitars out there.”

You guessed it: Dave turned to watch his $3,500 Taylor guitar being hurled through the air, along with his fellow band members’ instruments. And yes, his guitar needed $1,200 in repairs as a result.

Whether or not Dave should have bought a seat for his instrument, as Yo Yo Ma does for his cello, is not the point. The real outrage came in the “customer service” followup. The ensuing horror story spanned the next nine months, involved countless phone calls to three countries, and required more than one trip to an airline customer service counter.

And, you guessed it again: United ultimately denied Dave’s request for $1,200 in airline vouchers. You can read the details here. It’s a case study in passing the buck and frustrating all but the most determined customers into abandoning their claims.

Here’s where it gets sweet. In his final conversation with United, the creative Mr. Carroll promised United he’d write three songs about the experience, post them on YouTube, and invite viewers to vote on their favorite.

The first video, United Breaks Guitars, was posted in the Summer of 2009. So far, it’s received 7,601,657 views and received 25,310 comments. In July, it was YouTube’s #1 Most Viewed Music Video, the #6 Most Viewed Video in all categories, and the #18 Top Rated Music Video of All Time. Its viral popularity has brought press coverage on CNN, the LA Times, Rolling Stone Magazine and the BBC, among others.

Indeed, Dave Carroll’s saga has literally becoming a textbook example. The impact of his social media campaign is due to be published as a case study by the Harvard School of Business. He’s also spoken at the Right Now Technologies North American Summit on the repercussion of unresolved bad customer service, and before the US Congressional Passenger’s Bill of Rights Hearing in Washington, DC.

Besides being a wonderful story of the underdog having the last word, there are three takeaways:

1. Customer service is more important than ever. The old adage that an unhappy customer will tell 11 friends is clearly outmoded – in this case, by a factor of 688,000.

2. The power of social media is growing exponentially. If one disgruntled customer without a marketing budget can reach millions of people so easily, just think what social media can do for your company, if you harness its power with a little creativity.

3. If you’re flying with a $3,500 instrument, you might want to buy a seat for it.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Customer service, Social media | Tagged | Leave a Comment

A Nifty Secret for Boosting Your Average Sale

February 3, 2010 – 4:15 am

We’re entering the season when plant companies take a lot of orders that will be shipped a few months from now. If that’s your case, consider this little-used income-booster:

Send customers an email a week or two before shipment. Remind them when to expect their order, and invite them to add to it. You might offer a special on items which you have in abundance, or a free gift or discount for orders that meet a certain price threshold. Include a deadline for taking advantage of the add-on offer.

Not only will the pre-shipping email boost your average order, but it will probably cut down on the “when are my plants coming?” emails and phone calls, too.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Email marketing, Marketing, Online marketing | Leave a Comment

See You At New England Grows?

February 1, 2010 – 4:15 am

If you’re planning to attend New England Grows, the popular Boston horticultural trade show, this week, let me know. I’ll be there on Thursday, Feb. 4 only. I’d love to meet you for a cup of coffee!

By Val Gosset | Posted in Events | Leave a Comment

Blogs Growing as Purchasing Influence

January 29, 2010 – 4:15 am

No longer the new kid on the block, blogs are growing exponentially as an influence on purchasing behavior. For instance:

• 101 million people in the US now read blogs, according to comScore – up 300% over the past three years.

• 50% of occasional blog readers, and 62% of regular blog readers say that blogs have influenced their purchases, reports one Forrester Research study.

• This past holiday season, 28% of consumers in another survey said their purchases were influenced by blogs, forums or social networks.

Clearly, blogging isn’t a passing fad, but rather a strong and growing influence in buying behavior. Add in the search engine and PR benefits, and you have a pretty compelling case for starting and maintaining an active company blog.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Blogs, Ecommerce, Online marketing | Leave a Comment

Is Your Blog Helping Or Hurting?

January 27, 2010 – 4:15 am

There are instances when doing something less than perfectly can be more beneficial than doing nothing at all. That’s often the case with social media, where things change rapidly and we’re all on a learning curve.

But depending on how you define “less than perfect,” you may be better off with no blog at all. Let me explain.

The benefits of business blogs are many. They help establish you as an authority. They provide an easy means of two-way communication with your customers and prospects. They boost your search engine rankings with fresh, targeted content. They can generate publicity from journalists looking for story material on the blogosphere.

But unless you keep your blog up to date, none of these will happen. Not a week goes by that I don’t see several blogs that were set up two, three or more years ago and have no more than 10 outdated posts. They leave the impression that the company isn’t on top of things. Rather than increasing the reader’s comfort level, the lack of current information leaves the visitor to wonder how buttoned down the company is … or perhaps if they’re in business at all.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Blogs | Comments (2)

A Clever New Way to Boost Online Sales

January 25, 2010 – 4:15 am

At the latest Mailorder Gardening Association conference, speaker Sundeep Kapur offered this interesting suggestion for boosting online sales: Have your customer service reps send a personalized email to the people they speak with. (Note I said personalized, not a form letter.) Sundeep reports that in his experience, 35% of the people who receive such an email purchase within the next 6 weeks.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Customer service, Email marketing | Leave a Comment

New Online Opportunities in B-to-B Marketing

January 22, 2010 – 4:15 am

This week I’ve been researching online opportunities – other than banner ads – for a client who sells high-end outdoor shade umbrellas. I’m discovering that more and more possibilities are available. For instance:

Dedicated Emails.  Well, that’s what I call them anyway. There’s no uniform terminology, but the concept is that an advertiser creates an HTML email and gives it to the owner of an email list (usually, but not always, a magazine) to deploy on their behalf. In other words, the email is dedicated to a single advertiser. After it’s sent, the list owner provides the advertiser with the email addresses of recipients who clicked on links, so the advertiser can follow up.

Product Showcase Emails. Some publications are adapting their Product Showcase or Buyers Guide magazine sections to an email format. Advertisers provide an image and brief product description, and the publication creates an email featuring several companies’ products, each in a standard format. Advertisers receive email addresses of recipients who click on their links.

Links to Content. A few publishers are joining with their advertisers to provide links to content, such as webinars, podcasts or white papers that the advertiser creates.

Finding these new programs can take some digging, but more and more are popping up all the time.

And by the way, if you’re wondering why we’re excluding banner ads from our research, click here.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Ecommerce, Email marketing | Leave a Comment

How Catering to Gen X Can Pay Off

January 20, 2010 – 4:15 am

In 2008, California-based Armstrong Garden Centers closed their 20-year-old Thousand Oaks store and opened a new one catering to Gen X customers on the same site. The first year results are impressive:

While sales at other Armstrong Garden Centers declined 7%, the Gen X store boosted sales by a hefty 33%. That’s roughly double the results from other reworked stores that Armstrong has opened in the past.

You can read about some of the changes that accounted for the lift in this Garden Chic article. While they’re specific to a retail store setting, many of the same concepts could be adapted for a catalog or online format. I have yet to see a direct marketer of plants do a really superb job of marketing to the Gen X customer, but there’s clearly a lot of potential there for the company that gets it right.

By Val Gosset | Posted in Garden industry trends, Marketing | Tagged | Leave a Comment