How do you make your content go viral — offline?
Oct 25th
You’re probably stressed.
It’s likely that you (and your customer contacts) are doing the job that used to be done by three people. The information density of our world is overwhelming. Budgets and resources have been slashed.
It seems that everything is working against our ability to connect with customers and share information that could influence a purchasing decision and close a deal!
On the Internet side of the business, a new model for personal power and influence has emerged. Enabled by widespread access to high-speed Internet and free publishing tools like blogging and Facebook, a new generation of influencers has emerged who have created a niche by being able to create compelling content and move it through an engaged network.
So now I want to take this idea a step further and push this thinking a new way. If you have been immersed in the social web for awhile, this idea of influence probably makes sense. But how do we apply this same model to the OFFLINE world?
How do we establish power and influence by creating compelling content and moving it through a HUMAN network instead of a digital one?
For example, success in sales often depends on your ability to tell the story of your company and the benefits of your product. But that task is more difficult than ever. The competition is fierce, and your procurement contacts have less and less time to learn about what you do … let alone understand it.
So how can we use Web 2.0 communication tools to break through the clutter and move our marketing message virally through Procurement, through corporate gatekeepers, and into the hearts and minds of executive decision-makers?
Here are a few lessons from moving content online that might help move it offline too:
Infographics – While we might be weary of infographics, wouldn’t that be an interesting way to cut through the clutter with a busy purchasing manager? Instead of giving them a glossy brochure or power point presentation, why not a one-page, cleverly-designed picture of your business?
Aggregate content – When I interview customers during my market research activities, I always ask them what they hate about their jobs. I look for activities that my client might be able to take on for them to make them indispensable. The answer usually leads back to something about stress and a lack of time to get things done. How can you use Web 2.0 utilities to help customers solve problems and save time? Can you aggregate industry content in a helpful way so that a message from your company cuts through the clutter once a week?
Make ‘em say wow – Let’s face it. Most company corporate communications are bland. They’re little more than glossy, buzz-laden press releases. Yet the communications that really stand out and get shared ENTERTAIN people! Do you remember the day last year when the Google logo was a little PacMan game? If you saw it, I’ll bet you remember it, played it, and probably shared it. It was a little thing that helped them stand out and make people go “wow!” If you have ever seen an example of a corporate marketing communications that makes you go “wow” I’d like to see it. Rare exceptions … but why?
Visual selling — I don’t know what you call this technique, but many magazines are now doing lists where you can feature the “top 10 of something” by flipping through a picture or graphic and a small amount of text. An example from Inc. is here. This is an effective communincation format when you want to summarize the highlights, yet I have never seen it used out side of this magazine format. Sort of a Flipbook/infogrpahic combination.
I don’t have all the answers, but what do you think about the idea? How can we apply online marketing principles and best practices to the offline world to get to decision makers?
The Death of Internet Marketing and the Rise of Social SEO
Sep 14th
By Robert Dempsey, Contributing {grow} Columnist
Internet marketing as we once knew it is dead. Gone are the days when a sales page was enough of a relationship to sell a product. Gone are the days when claims of riches tugged enough at the emotions to persuade a sale. Gone are the days when bloated claims could pass as truth and lies went unpunished. Now is the time of social SEO. And this time has already begun. Are you ready for it? Let’s find out.
The Web Has Always Been Social
From the time the Internet was called the World Wide Web people have been using it to send communications back and forth. There was Arpanet (1969), bulletin board services aka BBS (1978), Usenet (1980) and then the email system Listserve (1986). The Internet was created as a communication medium not only between computers but between the users of those computers – us. And since those early days we’ve been trying to connect with each other more and more.
Then Came SEO
With advances in computing technology came the ability to create and post web pages. As more and more people connected to the Internet the need arose to help people find those websites. You may remember getting in your (physical) inbox an AOL cd, or perhaps 10-20 of them. AOL provided a human-filtered gateway to the Internet. Then came Yahoo! and other search engines and web portals. It was during the mid-1990s that search engine optimization came about.
In the beginning people used to try all sorts of things to get their sites to rank higher – stuffing keywords into a page, hiding keywords using white text on a white background, buying links and more. Today these other assorted tactics will get you banned from Google or at the very least ensure that you never show up in the search results. Then in the late 1990s the next shift came about.
Blogging Hits The Social Scene
What began as a way to tell the rest of the world about what was going on in yours, blogging turned into an SEOs happiest dream. Now it was easy to create a metric ton of pages all optimized for search. But unlike static sites people could comment on blogs. No longer the domain of chat channels, instant messenger and walled gardens, websites became a two-way communication channel. In 1998 Open Diary was the first website where readers could add comments to someone’s blog entry.
And the web was forever changed.
And Then Social Media Hit The Fan
Fast forward to early 2000. Social media came into it’s own and really started to take off. Here’s a brief timeline with a few you may recognize:
- 2002 – Friendster
- 2003 – Myspace
- 2003 – LinkedIn
- 2004 – Facebook
- 2006 – Twitter
- 2011 – Google+
For a time SEO and social media were separate. As I alluded to in the introduction, that time is over.
The Rise Of Social SEO
Social SEO is the combination of social media and search engine optimization. The term itself is an acknowledgment that the two are no longer separate. In a recent post of mine – Google Proves Not Being On Social Media Will Kill Your SEO - I discuss the changes already in progress at Google. In a recent video with Matt Cutts and Othar Hansson of Google mention in a rather off-handed way that Google is working to incorporate social signals into search engine rankings. This isn’t anything new. Google has been personalizing search results for quite some time. Now it’s going to an entirely new level.
In today’s world of social SEO you must be publishing content that is optimized for the search engines AND is shared within social networks such as Twitter and Google+. In Google’s eyes which already measure authority using somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 factors, social shares from others are another indication that you know what you’re talking about. In addition, they are now supporting the rel=“author” and rel=“me” tags which allow you to indicate if a piece of content is authored or about you.
Already in progress, the content you create everywhere is being linked to directly to you. In addition, people’s reactions to that content is also being measured and noted. It has been said that every person is a content producer. Now every person is an authority, or can be.
This is where the death of traditional Internet Marketing comes into play.
The Fall Of Internet Marketing
When I say “traditional Internet Marketing” what I’m talking about is a certain set of tactics used to sell products online, specifically:
- Sales pages with big red headlines that insult our intelligence
- Outrageous claims of instant or close-to-instant riches with very little work
- Hard-sell sales tactics
- Ups-ellathons mixed in with cross-sell-athons
- A bombardment of swiped affiliate emails that are impersonal and arrive by the dozens
On the social web it takes more than well crafted paragraphs to create enough trust and authority to make a sale. Now I’m not hailing the death of e-commerce, far from it. But the way products and services are sold online by non-e-commerce businesses has changed. A relationship built on trust and authority is now what makes the sale.
Embrace The Change
15 years ago businesses were told they needed a website. Many didn’t listen.
10 years ago businesses were told they needed to use SEO. Many didn’t listen.
5 years ago businesses were told they needed to blog. Many didn’t listen.
2 years ago businesses were told they needed to be on social media. Many didn’t listen.
But many did.
The companies that blog, that use SEO, that use social media continue to thrive despite uncertain economies. The businesses that embraced stronger relationships with their customers continue to thrive. The businesses that acknowledge the upward trend of social seo will be the companies that continue into the future.
Will yours be one?
Robert Dempsey specializes in direct response social media and blogs at http://DempseyMarketing.com/journal/.
10 ways to use psychology to lure web customers
Aug 16th
I’ve been researching and thinking about the psychology of the social web and our Internet relationships. There are many common psychological techniques you can use in your every day Internet marketing. Here are a few ideas to ”psych” your visitors into spending more time on your website and your blog.
1) Social proof is king
In real life, “social proof” is the trappings of society that impart influence. A person’s height, a fancy car, a diploma … all help determine influence, subconsciously. Since we don’t have those physical clues in the online world, we look to “badges” like Twitter followers and Klout scores to provide a shortcut assessment.
With the density of information in today’s world, these badges are more important than ever. In fact they may be even more important than your real knowledge, experience and accomplishments. Strange but true. Think about your favorite blogger. I’ll bet you notice some of their badges like followers, AdAge rank, or tweets on a blog post, before you investigate their education or level of professional experience.
We make the same assessments about websites and blogs. If you see a lot of tweets and comments, testimonies and awards, you assume something good is going on there.
Another way to accomplish this on a website is product reviews and ratings. Make sure ratings and reviews are clearly displayed on your site or product pages. Allow users to include information about themselves such as their gender, name, location and occupation. This makes the reviews even more compelling since it can create a connection to the demographics of your site visitors.
2) Give web tourists a reason to become residents
In the first few seconds you have a visitor on your site, are you giving them a reason to stay a little longer to learn about you? This is commonly called a “call to action.” On my website, you can click to see free materials, download an eBook, watch videos, read case studies, listen to a podcast, read my blog … basically I give people lots of reasons to hang around by providing valuable material that would interest my target customer.
On my blog one of the most effective devices I have to help people stick around is the “Linked Within” app at the bottom of each post suggesting further reading. This dramatically increases time on the site and increases page views on my blog by about 8 percent.
3) Put the most important action at the top
When you’re plotting out your call to actions, put your most important one first. The idea behind this is simple: what comes first is unconsciously regarded as the best. I’ve been experimenting with this myself. One other consideration — if you’re stacking your calls to action down the right side of your page, keep in mind that the top right corner of your website is a blind spot. This is spooky but it really is true.
One time I was offering a free download at the upper right corner of my site. I was in a meeting with a web designer and was talking about the problem in front of a huge display screen of my website. I said “Without looking at the screen, can you tell me if I have a free download offer on my landing page?” Although we had been looking at the page all morning, he completely missed this element. So, highlight your best offers first, but watch where you place them!
4) Provide instant gratification
When deciding to make a purchase, we are often influenced by how fast we can have the product. Reduce or eliminate fields required to purchase or engage. The other day I was required to register to comment on a blog. FAIL!
In a famous experiment participants were asked to choose between getting $5 now or $40 at a later date. MRI scans showed that when people thought about getting the money right away, the mid brain, or emotional center of the brain fired up. Even if you’re not selling something, use words like “instantly” or immediately in your content and headlines.
5) Illusion of scarcity
When something has a limited amount to it, its assumed value increases. We will want it even more. Make your product/offering limited by showing a limited stock quantity or limited time frame. This is a common tactic that most Internet marketers and offline/online retailers use. And it works. Because we feel good when we gain objects of value.
6) Build reciprocity
Reciprocity is a big deal on the social web. I’m not sure it created influence, but adding up all these little low-impact “likes” and “tweets” can certainly create leverage over time. This is one of the oldest sales tricks in the book. When you give something away on your web site, it triggers a sensation of indebtedness in your visitor’s mind. You can give away things like free product add-ons, guidebooks, content, downloads, free shipping etc.
Studies show visitors are twice as likely to complete a survey form after they were given access to free useful information.
7. Be sexy
Sex sells. Always has. Always will. Even Zappos the online shoe store is using pictures of naked people in their ads. This is a powerful human motivator but I haven’t quite mastered this on my website! I’m not sure sex is what comes to mind when you read my blog. If it does, please let me know. I’d like to hear about that!
8. Speak to your visitor by using the word ‘You’
Let’s compare this simple website copy:
“This new web service has many built-in features that allow for photos to be uploaded, organized, and stored. Photos can be searched for with only a few steps.”
“You can upload your photos quickly, organize them any way you want to, and then store them so that they are easy to share with your friends. You can find any photo with only a few steps.”
Write as if you’re talking to a person sitting right next to you. She is your prospective customer. She is your blog reader. And she is your friend. Don’t be afraid to use slang or community lingo to connect to their thought processes. Communicate about what she needs, not what you sell. There’s a difference.
9) Get your visitors to make a commitment
Your goal is to drive people to take some action: buy, download, register, etc. And to do that, you need to convert visitors from lurkers to engaged participants. Even the simple act of writing, typing or signing something strengthens commitment to your website/company/brand. The more public the commitment, the stronger it will be.
Getting your visitors to commit to your website can be as easy as getting them to comment on your blog. Polls and surveys work equally well too because they make your visitors interact with you.
10) Use images that demonstrate similarity and attractiveness
Use images of attractive people who are similar to your target market’s demographic profile. People are most influenced by people they deem to be both attractive and similar to them. The brain is unconsciously sizing up people you see and their attractiveness can rub off on your website itself, much like how an attractive person in a cellphone ad makes the cellphone look more enticing.
This doesn’t just apply to images. Most Internet marketers know that in order to appeal to a certain group of people, you need a human face that will be the focal point of their empathy and connection. Hence, the widespread use of marketing personas.
I hope you’ve benefited from these ideas. If the article made you think, please consider sharing it with others and commenting below. Thanks!
The Seven Elements of Smart Content
Jun 22nd
By Robert Dempsey, Contributing {grow} Columnist
Despite the huge growth of eCommerce, most business is done by people, with people and for people … and is therefore built on relationships. You have relatively few options when it comes to building a relationship with new customers:
- Meet them in person
- Meet them over the phone
- Meet them online using proactive contact on social media
- Provide helpful, informative and entertaining content that will bring them to YOU
The first 3 out of 4 items on that list are scalable only by adding people to your team, requires constant personal attention, and are time-intensive.
Now here’s a question for you: how many people can you talk with on the phone in a given day? If a phone call with a potential customer takes one hour, at most you could do perhaps 8 calls a day if you break for lunch and do nothing else. So you can start to form relationships with 8 people a day.
Option four seems like a really good idea, doesn’t it? That’s called inbound marketing. A single blog post, for example, has the potential to reach hundreds, thousands and beyond. And what’s even better, you don’t have to be the one doing all of that sharing.
The bottom line is that inbound marketing through smart content allows you to build relationships with more people than ever before possible. It allows you to possibly connect with people around the world that were unavailable by any other means. And it works to build those relationships for you 24×7 – without adding people. That my friend is awesome.
So what is this “smart content?” A blog post is just a blog post, but smart content can take many forms as long it is a targeted, mindful attempt to connect with the needs and wants of high potential customers.
I think smart content must cover seven different bases to be effective. Let’s see if you agree …
- It must be created for your ideal customer and use their language
- It should be helpful, informative, entertaining, or some combination
- It must be created on a consistent basis
- It should be able to be spread quickly and easily via sharing and syndication
- Every piece of content should be linked to at least one of your products and services
- Direct marketing 101 - always include a call to action
- It must be measurable and produce a return on investment
Well, that’s a lot isn’t it? But it takes a lot to cut through the clutter these days and it’s probably going to be worth it for your sales effort. Do you agree?
Robert Dempsey is the Itinerant Entrepreneur. He combines technology, psychology, and marketing to help his clients build their empires using strategic marketing. You can find him at http://BuildMeAnEmpire.com
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