This video shows that the “lone nut” who starts a trend is important, but if the trend is to get going it takes a few brave souls to join in. These first brave souls are known as first followers. They’re vital if a trend is to become important because they give it credibility and show “the masses” that it’s OK to join in.

If you were one of the first people to sign up to Twitter or use Pinterest to market your business, you can give yourself a pat on the back. You were a first follower. You helped to make them the business tools they are today. You were also one of the first to take advantage of what they could offer your business. But aside from spotting something that will help your business before anyone else catches on to it, where else can we apply the first follower principle in an online context? And how does it help?Let’s take one example. In an environment such as LinkedIn you can be one of the first to answer people’s questions in forums, fill out surveys or offer an opinion. This raises your profile by showing people you’re an industry commentator and a “go to” expert. It also shows the person you’re answering that you’re supportive and interested in what they have to say – and we all love to think that! And you’ll often find that other people who join in after you will often refer back to your comment, raising your profile still further and giving you more credibility.

We might not all be switched on enough to spot the new Twitter or Pinterest. But we can all show our support for smaller things in smaller ways. And doing that can be just as important and give your business results that are just as important.

If you want to get the real story on the behaviour of your customers, readers, etc., don’t rely on self-reported data. While such data can be fine for simple facts, like, “Did you eat breakfast today?” it will rarely answer questions like, “Why do you prefer Grey Goose vodka?” (more…)

I’m not a big watcher of YouTube videos but there are some themes that just captivate me. Well these videos do just that (much to my wife’s annoyance).

“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae or rather the numerous covers found on YouTube, which propelled the original’s success, demonstrate the explosive effect of social media and the awsome creative tools many of us have available – From the geeky Star Wars to my favourite by from the Cookie Monster (above) or even a poorly shot but funny effort from a Harvard Baseball team.

What does all this mean? It just shows how people are driven to do some great (or just plain funny) things when they want to be part of something greater than themselves

Seth writes

‘Smart marketers in this circle acknowledge that their product or service isn’t for everyone, but bend over backwards to be sure that some people will be able to fall in love with it.’

This resonds with me but it’s not easy. He goes on to say.

‘When the thing you sell has communication built in, when it is remarkable and worth talking about, when it changes the game–marketing seems a lot easier. Of course, that’s because you did the marketing when you invented the thing, saving you the expense and trouble of yelling about it.’

If you can do this you have something special.

Seth Godin on Reconsidering decisions

“Jay Levinson used to say that you should keep your ad campaign even after your best customers, your wife and your partner get bored with it. Change it when the accountant says it’s time.”

 

Clients often tell me how they don’t like the design anymore, or it’s time for a change. Sometimes it’s better to just wait and move onto more important things.

In my last post, we looked at how to create a sitemap for your website. Now we’re going to review some of the ways to make the content of the site customer-focused and useful. (more…)

When thinking about your sitemap, there are two things you  need to bear in mind. What do your customers need? and then what do search engines need? Answer both questions with your sitemap and you’ve made a good start on a great site. (more…)

While parking in Chepstow for our team meet-up I was short 30p for the pay and display. I bounded over to the Tourist Information office in the hope they might break a note for me – The kind woman that greeted me was unable to change my note but instead gave me the 30p I needed. Thank you, who ever you were.

To further brighten my day the cafe we had decided to meet in had the best breakfast sandwich I have ever seen. See the picture below, it was the sour dough club if you’re interested. It really was amazing!

Here are the last five suggestions for using internet marketing to promote your business on a budget. (You can read the first five here.) (more…)

The web offers a wealth of tools that can help you market your business on a shoestring. In this post and the next one, I’ll take a look at ten ways the internet can help promote your business. Spend 10% of your marketing time on each one and you can build your business on a budget. Here goes … (more…)

You may have heard of “features and benefits” when talking about marketing your business. Here´s a quick guide to what they are and how they help your business. (more…)

Every one of your customers has individual characteristics  that make them who they are. But those customers will often share certain  characteristics. Understanding what those common characteristics are will make your marketing more effective. And whether you’re marketing on a shoestring or not, that can only be a good thing.

How can understanding your customer make your marketing more effective?

Because you can:

• show that you understand their challenges and –  more importantly – how you can help them to meet them
• know they need what you’re offering – focusing your  marketing on the prospects you know will be interested means a better  conversion rate than if you focus on prospects that might be interested
• choose the medium that suits them best – if you’re  marketing to travelling sales people, local radio might be a good option; if  you’re dealing with marketing professional, email might be a better bet.

In short, you’re making your customers more likely to buy from you.

So how do you understand who your customers are?

You draw up customer profiles for five of your best  customers. Think about:

Who they are

• Name
  • Industry
  • Role
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Interests
  • Education
• What is important to them
  • What are their needs?
  • What keeps them awake?
  • What stops their company growing?
  • What wastes their time?

So for one of our customers you might end up with:

Sally runs her own  accounting practice which has grown quickly over the 2 last years. She is in  her early 30s has a young family and is a West Brom supporter. She has little  time to promote the company and is concerned the website looks outdated but is  worried she wouldn´t find time for any clients she did win.

From this we can understand that Sally is a busy person with  drive and ambition. Marketing to customers like her will need to reflect that  drive but also get straight to the point. Because she´s got so little time we  need to demonstrate that as professionals she can trust us to get on with the  job while she gets on with hers. We also need to remind her that an out-of-date  website reflects badly on a business she´s worked hard to build up so investing  now would protect her business – and even offer the capacity to take it to the  next level.

1. Know your audience/reader Create an email they will want to open and act on.

2. Interesting or challenging subject line A clear and honest subject line that tells the reader exactly what your email contains.

3. Personalise Often personalised content can increase open rates rather than a one size fits all approach.

4. Interesting and useful content Give the benefits to the reader, make it worth their time reading your email.

5. Ask for action Don´t leave them hanging ask the reader to take the next step, read more, or sign up.

6. Provide a quick and easy way to unsubscribe It shows you respect their data and it´s a legal requirement.

7. Recognisable From address If you can use a named email rather than a generic one this can increase open rates.

8. Run campaigns in plain text and HTML Many email programs only use plain text for their email preview. Effective use can improve open rates.

9. Be consistent Choose a frequency of sending that works for you and your readers, then stick to it to build familiarity.

10. Run experiments Don´t be afraid to test out different subject lines or content to find out what works best.