If your online efforts are stuck in a rut, you have spent a lot of time and effort in perfecting the appearance and feel of your website, but your visitor traffic has plateaued, then it is time for a boost and to think outside of the box for a change. We live in great times, where the entire philosophy of marketing has changed and where it is possible to make a significant impression relatively quickly and cost-effectively. Social media marketing is really helping to change the buyer dynamic and we must engage some innovative ideas to help us be competitive in this new marketplace.
If getting your message across to would-be consumers is now somewhat easier, it does not mean that you will be able to land all those new clients without much effort or creativity. Far from it, you need to focus on your social media platforms and establish new ways to reach within an overly crowded market. We all know that we need to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter and many of us do, but still a majority are not proactive and do not attempt to use these platforms to help drive traffic. Remember that social media is all about driving traffic – it is all about making people aware of your existence and what you offer. It is not about cultivating sales, as you do this on your hub sites. Use social media in concert with your vibrant blog to create your position.
Social media platforms should be used to educate yourself as well. After all, you have a two-way communication going on here and should listen to everything that your clients, prospects or other interested parties have to say. To many traditional marketers, social media represents an alien environment, one full of potential minefields from a public relations standpoint. However, if you are able to stand behind your product and overdeliver in everything you do, you have nothing to lose but everything to gain by being fully transparent in social media.
Take it one step further and solicit feedback through a suggestion box, a competition of some kind and really prompt your audience to tell you what they think. If you inject some element of competition into this, then the creative juices flow even faster. Who better to tell you what you should be selling than your clients, after all?
Think about setting up a page within your most prominent social media accounts, dedicated to a special “deal” and make its update a regular occurrence. Consider how you could give away a product or service as part of a great value proposition and how you could change your approach to keep the principal fresh. Go through a process of restructuring your entire service and revenue base if necessary so that you can build in this element, allowing you to be seen as a provider, an over-provider and as the all-around good guy.
Are you in the box, on the edge or outside?
Adam Toren
