Social Media, and especially Facebook, is becoming a MUST for promoting your business on line. On April 1, Facebook made a major change to its look and feel by going to a new timeline format.  If you haven’t implemented it yet, or have not heard about the changes, you owe it to yourself  to check it out.  Call me if  you have any questions and I will be happy to see if I can be of help.

In the interim, I wanted to share this document published recently by SilverPop. It can be found, with additional material, on WWW.SilverPop.com. If you want more information on how to implement any of these tips, please don’t hesitate to call.

Enjoy

Howie Snyder , LocalAdPro New England – Internet Marketing and More.  978-764-1310

Your first choice for Internet Marketing,  Social Media Marketing and Mobile Media Marketing solutions designed to Promote your brand, Acquire more customers and Engage them to do more repeat business with you

8 Tips for Turning Facebook “Likes” into Customers

With the seemingly endless growth of Facebook—more than 800 million users and counting—it’s easy to get caught up in the giddy rush of seeing how many “likes” you can generate. But at the end of the day, the number of fans you have isn’t very important if those “likes” don’t tie into overall strategic goals such as increasing sales, leads, brand awareness and overall revenue.

As you’re racking up those precious “likes,” remember to focus on both turning casual fans into
customers and engaging already-loyal customers so they become even more passionate about your brand.

In this tip sheet, we’ll focus on the 51 percent of people who “like” a brand but don’t classify themselves as “loyal customers.”  Here are eight tips for converting them to the cause:

1 Use Facebook to drive email opt-ins

Facebook offers a golden opportunity for you to boost subscribers to your email program, where nurturing of relationships and conversions is more likely to occur. Yet only about one in 10 companies are leveraging Facebook for this purpose.

Start turning fans into customers by creating a unique tab on your company or brand’s Facebook page that houses an opt-in form, where fans can sign up for emails without leaving Facebook. To maximize your success, make sure it appears in your top three tabs so it’s displayed just below your main image. Give the tab a distinct name such as “Newsletters” or “Email Offers” and use it to describe the contents of your core email program and reinforce specific value propositions, such as being notified of special sales before non-subscribers or receiving invitations to events.

2 Offer coupons for use in your ecommerce store or at physical store locations

According to a CMO Council study, 79 percent of consumers are using social media to take advantage of special offers and discounts, but only 43 percent of companies are offering deals and savings via social media. Give customers what they want by serving up coupons on your Facebook wall for your physical locations or online store. Be creative with your offers, perhaps making the discount amount a surprise until the coupon is redeemed or tying coupon redemption to a loyalty program. Extra perk: This is the type of content your fans will love to share with their social networks.

3 Display customer-centric videos on your Facebook page.

Video can be a powerful tool for nudging a person toward a purchase, so consider embedding videos on your wall or creating a special tab on your Facebook page to house your videos—or both. Imagine the possibilities.  Customer testimonials or product demos can help nurture a prospect through the sales funnel. A how-to guide or online tool can position your company as an industry leader. A humorous ad can encourage a purchase and build loyalty. And as an added bonus, videos are one of the most potentially viral pieces of content you can feature.

4 Run sweepstakes to get fans to engage with you.

Given that 65 percent of social media users connect with brands on Facebook for the games, contests and promotions,  gamification can be a savvy way to give your marketing campaigns some pizzazz and connect more strongly with your followers.

Try offering Facebook-exclusive sweepstakes and awarding cool prizes to build buzz, perhaps providing an extra entry if the user shares the promotion with his or her social network. Consider announcing the winners via your Facebook wall and making the announcement as interactive and share worthy as possible.

5 Offer sign-up tabs for white papers, Webinars, how-to guides and more on your Facebook page.

Those who “like” your brand or business on Facebook could be just about anywhere in the buying cycle. Make sure, then, to prominently feature thought leadership pieces and educational resources on your page, creating sign-up tabs (and related download forms) specifically for the purpose of highlighting these documents.

Remember to embed social-sharing calls to action within these documents—for example, a “Tweet This!” social-sharing button at the top of each page prepopulated with a sample Tweet—to help create more awareness for your content.

6Tease fans with product updates, news and announcements, driving them to your website.

Although you don’t want to get too product-heavy on your Facebook wall, you shouldn’t shy away from sharing exciting product news either. Given that 55 percent of consumers connect via social media for new product news , Facebook can be a fantastic platform for pushing traffic to your website and spreading the word about your big news.

Related tip: When applicable, consider running  Facebook promotions offering fans exclusive sneak peeks at new products—you’ll increase loyalty, build buzz and promote sharing.

7 Share links to your tabs on your Facebook wall.

Putting tabs on your wall is a savvy tactic, but there are challenges: Facebook limits the number you can display at one time, and some visitors aren’t used to them and may not understand their function or importance.

What can you do to drive traffic to these “hidden” or overlooked tabs, then? One suggestion: Try putting them front and center by teasing to them on your wall. Also, you may want to consider putting a “Fan Gate” in front of these pages, requiring visitors to “like” your page in order to complete the form. While this tactic can increase “likes,” use it judiciously as it can also
lead to form or page desertions and may not seem very “social” if overused. 

8 Integrate Facebook with your other marketing channels.

Since your customers and prospects are likely moving in and out of multiple channels throughout the day, cross-pollinating your message across platforms will help you reach more people and maximize your chances of success.

Use your Facebook wall to communicate the value proposition of your other social networks, mobile apps, check-in programs, etc., as well as promotions involving these channels. Whether it’s highlighting your email content in wall posts on the same day you send it to regular subscribers, inviting fans to join your loyalty rewards check-in campaign via Foursquare, or allowing in-store visitors to fill out an on-site iPad form using their Facebook login, the possibilities for cross promotion are many.

What’s the best way to market your company and build your brand?

In today’s world, it needs to be a little bit of everything.  Direct mail , print, TV and Radio still have a place but no longer have the impact they did in the past. While they work in helping to build a brand image,  consumers need to hear and see your brand message at least 6 or 7 times before it registers, and even then, may not remember it when they have a need to buy.  These solutions are fine  for building brand awareness but  the consumers of your message may not be ready to buy now and may never be.  Will they still remember you when they are ready? 

The internet, especially social media,  is another way to build  brand awareness , and for a lot lot less money.  The internet lets you take advantage of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs etc. to build your brand image and promote your expertise.  Every business needs to have a presence on the Internet, if nothing else, so you can be found and define your location and services.

I have had people tell me that they get all their business from ‘word of mouth referrals’ and do not have the time, need  or expertise to make use of an enhanced internet presence.   The reality is that even if somebody refers business to you , the person being referred will often not call you until they check you out on the internet.

If they can’t find your presence on the internet, they will find your competition and call them instead.

And  - and  just like most people check movie reviews and get personal restaurant reviews before they  spend  money after being referred to a place of business,  they will not do business with you unless you have POSITIVE internet reviews and testimonials about your business.

Unlike building a brand on the internet hoping somebody will remember your name and brand when they are ready to buy sometime in the future, people being referred to you are more than likely ready to buy NOW.  The same can be said of people doing a Google/Bing/Yahoo search for a local business like yours in your local area. When they are ready to buy NOW, will they find your business or your competitors?

To see what kind of a presence you have, do a search for your TYPE of business in your local area (e.g. a plumber in Chelmsford, an electrician in Lowell, a web designer in Lawrence etc).

Does your business show up on the first page of a  Google/Yahoo/Bing search ?  If not , we need to talk.

Do you have a CLAIMED Google Place page for your business in the list of  3 to 7 businesses Google lists in the map area at the top of the first page? If not, we need to talk.

Do you have positive reviews showing for your listings? If not, we need to talk.

Do you have a Facebook Fan page for your business with a call to action to get people to LIKE your page and continue to follow you?  If not, we need to talk.

Are you showing up as well in local directories such as Merchant Circle ? If not, we need to talk.

Do you have a LinkedIn profile with positive reviews? If not, we need to talk.

Do your personalize your business with local images and videos so people know what you do and would feel comfortable doing business with you?  If not, we need to talk.

There are now over 250 million cell phones in the USA alone. Over 50 % of these today are smartphones. Over 85% of all phones sold last year were  web enabled. The number of cell phones out numbers laptops and desktops by more than 3 to 1.  The reality is more and more people are now searching for businesses via their cell phones.  If somebody did a mobile search for your business via a smartphone, a) would you show up in the search results, and b) is your website readable?  If you don’t have a mobile website, the odds are they will have extreme difficulty reading your information and contacting you.  If that is the case, we need to talk

Lastly , industry data has shown that it takes 6 to 7 times more effort and cost to acquire a new client than to keep and  service an existing client.  You need to make sure your current clients keep doing business  with you.  A simple way to keep them coming back to is to offer on-going discounts or promotions.  Does this describe your kind of business? Then you maybe a perfect candidate for a mobile application that runs on all the current  smartphones.  Mobile apps are a great way to engage your customers and keep them coming back. If this describes your business, we need to talk

At LocalAdPro New England, we can help you with all your search engine marketing, social media marketing and mobile media marketing needs to help you build your brand, acquire more customers and engage them to do more business with you.  

If you have any of these needs,  we need to talk.  To schedule a free consultation , call me at 978-764-1310 or email me at LocalAdProNE@gmail.com