Theme 1: Demonstrate Expertise
One of the first questions people will always have about your company is “Do they know what they are doing?”
They need to have ways to confirm that you will do a good job for them.
Social media gives you a lot of opportunities to show off your knowledge in your field.
- On Facebook, you could give a series of short tips relating to your area of expertise.
- One virtual assistant has been doing 2-minute videos with office organization tips and shortcuts.
- I’ve seen SEO consultants give tips about choosing keywords and using alt tags.
- Graphic designers give tips about page layout and optimizing your site.
- Social media consultants give advice about getting better results with Facebook or tips on how to use Google+.
In your blog, you can tell stories about projects you have worked on for clients. You can do mini case studies – with brief outlines of what the client’s problem was, how you solved it, and what results they achieved.
You can upload short videos that answer questions prospects commonly ask.
You can tweet when you close a new deal.
You can forward news from industry sources and explain why it matters.
You can quote a statistic from a recent report and say why you think it’s wrong.
You can quote two statistics from different reports that seem to contradict each other and explain why they are really two different ways of looking at the same thing.
You can blog about trends you’re seeing in the market.
You can forward news from others who are respected in your field.
You can share useful websites.
You can do reviews of tools you find useful.
You can compare methodologies and talk about the strengths and disadvantages of each.
This is usually one of the easiest ways to find content for social media. There are dozens of ways to show off your knowledge – if you have some that aren’t included here, add them as comments. I’d love to hear how you do this.
Create Website Personas
When you are thinking about a website redesign – or even if you are simply tweaking your current site – personas are a very useful tool.
What is a persona?
A persona is a character who represents a group of people who use your site, who have a common purpose for being there and the same goal for the visit.
Personas (or “personae,” if you want to be grammatically correct) are fictitious people, but they stand in for real visitors to the site. For example, you might have a persona for a customer who comes to your site looking for technical support. Or a persona for each major category of prospect.
You can develop personas in a fair bit of detail. You might say that Bob is a director of a Fortune 500 company. He is a decision-maker and will be signing off on the purchase of your company’s software. His major concerns are whether your company is large enough and stable enough to sign a multi-year contract, and how quickly his department will get a return on their investment. Bob is 48 years old, he is married with two children, both of whom play soccer and he surfs the web on his smartphone while at their soccer practice or after they go to bed at night.
You can see how it is now much easier to envision what Bob cares about and how he will be using your site, and you can have discussions with your team about how you can make Bob’s visit to your site a more pleasing and successful experience.
If you decide to use personas for your website, the first place to start is identifying the groups of people who typically visit your site. Here are some questions to ask:
I. What types of people visit the website?
A. Prospects
B. Customers
C. Employees
D. Partners
E. Prospective partners
F. Press
G. Who else?
II. For each type of person who visits the site:
A. Why are they there? What do they need to accomplish?
B. What problem do they have?
C. What information are they looking for?
III. For each type of person, what characterizes them?
A. Demographics: age, gender, etc.
B. Title, occupation
C. Web behavior
- 1. Are they sophisticated web users?
- 2. How much time do they spend online?
- 3. How are they likely to use the web/website to solve their problem?
- 4. How are they likely to find the website?
- 5. What emotional state are they likely to be in when they visit the site?
D. Geography
E. Language/accessibility needs
Put that information together into profiles, then have some fun naming them. If you really want to get into it, find a photo of each person and add that to their description. Then share those profiles with the people who are planning the site. I guarantee you will have some fascinating discussions – and you’ll do a better job of designing your new site.
Ready for PR?
Before you hire a PR agency or public relations consultant to help you get publicity for your company, you’ll want to do a little self-assessment ahead of time to determine what you have to work with.
Spend an hour or two going over these questions with your management team and prepare a short list of answers.
When you come to an initial meeting with this information, you will impress the PR people you talk to and have a much more useful conversation with them.
They’ll be able to give you a much better idea of what they can do for you, what kind of results will be reasonable, and how much it will cost.
I. What do you have to work with?
Company News
1. What new product announcements are planned over the next six months?
2. Any new services (consulting. training, etc.)?
3. Are you changing the way you deliver products or services (such as moving to online training)?
4. Anything new with pricing?
5. Any new hires to the management team?
6. Planning to move to a new location?
7. Any new partnerships?
8. Any new deals?
9. Have you won any awards recently?
Trends
10. What are the current trends in your market? How do you fit in?
11. What current business trends are affecting your business? Are you outsourcing? Feeling the effects of a market recovery or recession?
Experts
12. Is anyone in your company considered an industry expert? What is their area of expertise?
13. Who at your company is blogging?
14. Who is tweeting?
15. Who manages your Facebook page?
16. Who is responsible for your company’s presence on LinkedIn and other social networks?
17. Do you have anyone creating podcasts or videos?
Clients
18. Do you have any relatively new case studies? For what companies? What kind of results did they achieve with your software?
19. Do you have any users at large or well-known companies who are willing to be quoted?
20. Is there anything unusual about any of your users?
21. Is any user doing something different or unusual with your software?
22. Is there anything highly visual about the way people use your software? Or what they do before or after using the software?
23. If you analyzed the purchase patterns of your users, would that show anything interesting?
Education Strategy
24. Is there a topic about which you are trying to educate the market? Do you advocate a particular strategy or point of view?
Personalities
25. Is there anything unusual or quirky about your founder, president, or management team? This could include their background, hobbies, where they live, what kind of car they drive, their work style, etc.
26. Do you have any unusual employees (background, hobbies, etc.)?
27. If you have investors, are any well-known or unusual?
28. Is there anything unusual about the way you run the company? The perks you offer staff?
29. Do you do anything unusual for holidays?
30. Are there any topics (not software or business-related) about which you feel strongly?
Giving Back
31. Do you do anything to support the local community? Contribute to or volunteer at charities?
II. Where do you want to get publicity?
· What websites are most influential in your market?
· What blogs?
· What newspapers?
· What newsletters?
· What e-mail newsletters?
· What magazines?
· What online communities/social networks?
· What columnists?
· What radio or TV shows?
· What analysts?
· Who else matters in your market?
III. What are your goals for your PR effort?
· Are you looking for lead generation?
· Sales?
· Recruiting?
· Impress partners?
· Build a channel?
· Investors?
· Partners?
IV. In what time frame do you need to see results?
- As soon as possible
- 6-12 months
- 12-24 months
- Ongoing
Split Your Search Engine Optimization Efforts
I was talking to an executive the other day who asked why they weren’t getting the search engine ranking boost they had expected when they had invested so much in optimizing their website.
I told him it was because despite all the work that had taken place on the site, that’s only part of what goes into search rankings. They hadn’t done anything off the site.
Here’s the rule…
Half of the SEO work is done on your website; the other half is done off the site.
Actually, right now the greater weight is being given to link popularity, which happens outside your site. So more than half of your results come from what you do off the site.
You need to make sure you cover both sides of the equation when you are trying to improve search engine optimization.
Among the things you can change on your website are:
· Title and meta tags
· Heading tags
· Alt tags
· Keyword density
· Keyword-rich copy
· Page names
· Link wording
· Static vs. dynamic content
· Outbound links
The work you do outside the website involves generating as many links to your website as possible from respected and relevant websites. Tactics here include:
· Distributing press releases
· Getting listed in various directories
· Participating in online communities, forums, listservs, discussion groups and social networks (with a sig file or content that links back to your site)
· Syndicating articles
· Blogging
· Commenting on other people’s blogs
· Contacting companies that offer complementary products or services to exchange links
· Participating in link exchange programs
Make sure your search engine optimization efforts include both on-site and off-site tactics.
Giving Green
Put a fresh spin on your next nurture campaign with these “green ideas”. As with any nurture campaign keep it relevant to your client, keep it simple and your nurturing will be well received.
Sometimes where and how to begin can be more daunting than the actual task. The Green Guide to Greening Your Office can provide that nudge or bit of encouragement to a client or can offer simple reminders for those that do make green living part of their daily routine. Personalize it by marking your favorite tip. This book can be imprinted on the front cover with your logo and contact information for an additional fee.
Okay, I know it’s a little cheesy, but you have to admit, it makes you smile. And if your client is going to smile wouldn’t it be nice if they are looking at your logo at the same time?There are a variety of all-in-one plant kits available; if a smiling pot with feet doesn’t fit, you can definitely find one that does.
Reduce, reuse, 100% recycled lunch tote! Great for promoting healthy living or improved health; what better way to start than by healthy eating! For added personalization include a few easy to make/pack lunch box recipes cards (with your logo on them, of course).
Tree in a Box contains all the materials to plant a tree. These kits are biodegradable, organic, recycled and recyclable. The book and box are printed on high-grade recycled paper with soy inks. Organic biodegradable peat pots are used and everything is packaged in the smallest and tightest possible format to reduce waste. Kits are assembled by hand locally, from their Portland, Oregon location. Boxes can even be customized with your logo. Now that’s some green giving!
My #1 favorite green gift is (drum roll) the Recycled Cardboard Mouse Pad. What a fabulous way to show case your logo. It is understated, nice detail and most important … IT IS EASY TO MAIL!! Love this.
I think most would agree that green living is here to stay. Some people choose to go “bright green,” others prefer a soft hue of green in their life. However you decide make sure your choice is appropriate for your client and something you think they would appreciate.
Have a Green Day!
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