Response Social Media Marketing, business
coach and consultant Dan S. Kennedy and
marketing strategist Kim Walsh-Phillips show
you how to use direct response marketing
principles on a variety of social media platforms
to drive real results and profit. In this edited
excerpt, the authors offer some on-point advice
about how to best use social media to create
effective marketing campaigns.
Many direct response marketers think social
media is complete fluff -- and for a lot
companies, it is. That’s because most marketers
do not apply any direct marketing tactics to their
strategic approach (if they are even strategic at
all).
Anyone who either doesn’t know if their
marketing is working and/or thinks the focus
should be awareness building and not revenue
generation could make some small but
significant tweaks to their efforts and drive huge
results.
Let’s cover a few key business principles as
applied to social media: 1. Have a plan to sell
from the very beginning.
In social media, you never want to come across
as the used car salesman pouncing on his next
kill, but you do need to ensure you give your
prospects a consistent opportunity to connect
and do business with you. If you don’t, you won't
realize a return of your marketing dollars and
staff resources spent online.
There are two types of offers:
_Lead generation._This is an incentive for your
recipient to provide contact information. This is
done through offering something of inherent value
that's so good your recipient would pay for it,
except they won’t have to because you'll be
giving it away for free. This can include such
incentives as a report, white paper, gift
certificate, or ticket to a live event.
Sale. It is possible to sell directly to cold traffic
on social media. We do it every day for many of
our clients using Twitter, LinkedIn, and
Facebook, but there are a few key things to
remember. There should be something special
about your offer, such as it is being sold online
first, or it should be offered at a special price, or
at least it's positioned as though it's something
special.
If in contrast, you sell the same thing at the
same price on social media as you do
everywhere else, then you're most likely not
going to realize great results. Social media is a
cocktail party, not a shopping mall, and the only
way to get people to pay attention to something
being sold is to make sure it's a really good deal.
Do that, and everyone pays attention and wants
in first.
One example of someone who does this right is
financial expert Pamela Yellen, who offers a free
chapter of her book, The Bank on Yourself
Revolution: Fire Your Banker, Bypass Wall Street,
and Take Control of Your Own Financial Future .
Prospects are then put into a nurture sequence
that encourages them to talk to a financial
planner. This campaign drives leads for $18
each. 2. Don’t make delaying a desirable option.
While automation is possible in social media,
setting up your offers and just letting them run
forever isn't effective in the least. Your offers
should be fresh, new, and ever-changing with
clear deadlines. Offer weekly perks to purchase,
opt-in, comment, or share. Always give a
deadline and incentive for taking action now. 3.
Give very clear instructions on what you want
them to do right now.
Want your audience to click over to your
website? Tell them to do it, clearly. In posts, be
sure to put your link on its own line. 4. There will
be tracking and measurement.
How will you ever know the ROI on your social
media marketing efforts unless you track it? Use
the tracking options available in each social
media network profile and advertising platform.
They all have conversion tracking, analytics, and
insights. Use them! On your end, you should also
track unique forms, landing pages, and URLs. All
of this is hard or easy depending on your back-
end program -- not all adapt well to intense
measurement. This is why most of our private
clients use Infusionsoft and why we got certified
as one of its partners.) 5. Branding should be a
by-product of effective direct response
marketing, not the other way around.
In social media, all of your posts, promotions,
photos, and posturing should have a goal of
sales, not branding. This may seem in conflict
with the strategic approach to present valuable
content 85% of the time and only sell 15% of the
time, but the opposite is true. All of your content
should be developed with a goal of selling 15% of
the time, meaning your posts should be
cultivating interest and need in whatever pain
your product will relieve when you make your
pitch. In addition, this means money should only
be spent on driving leads and sales, not on post
engagement or building “likes.” Your page will not
end up with 1 million engaged posting fans. Your
goal should be ROI instead of popularity. 6.
Results rule. Period.
There's an endless supply of conjecture by social
media “experts.” Be very cautious whenever you
hear a universal truth about any type of social
media marketing. Nothing can be deemed a
universal truth, not even within the same
industry. The only thing you should use to
determine your spend and marketing direction
are the results of your ads and posts. Any other
information is fluff and should be ignored. This is
why everything needs to be tracked and checked
every day. Yup, every day.
Posted by: Philip Ochika