Category: Small Business Marketing

You hear all the time that people don’t want to be sold, that traditional advertising is dead and you need to approach clients in a different way.
But how do you do that?
Here is a small list that will help you attract clients and sell more.
1. Use the word YOU often. People want to know what your product or service can do for them.
2. Answer these questions: What is this about? Why should I care? What’s in it for me and what do I have to do? People might not word these questions, but they will be thinking about it.
3. Increase your credibility by showing passion, expressiveness and accessibility.
4. Generate emotion. Have in mind that people tend to buy with the heart and justify with the mind. Go for emotion first, features later.
5. Vary the way you present. Remember that some people are visual, some auditory, some kinesthetic. Use text, pictures, props.
6. Become a storyteller. People love stories, stories are engaging and can generate powerful emotions. You can tell stories with pictures, analogies and words.
7. Don’t use too much information. People only want the amount of information they can use. Less is more. Too much information will only overwhelm people and the confused mind doesn’t take action. More words do not equal more impact.
8. Be transparent. Let your personality show.
9. Don’t be boring. Boring is really bad for business.
10. Be honest and be someone people can trust.

Sales will follow.

by Shahar Boyayan
We had a great labor day weekend! We attended a storytelling festival here in Utah. It was an amazing event attended by thousands of people. Families would be together some times with members of 4 generations, all laughing or crying with the same stories.

The power of stories in our lives is greater than we think.
Stories put the audience in a world of sensory impressions where it combines reality with the story. We feel like we lived trough the experience even if we only heard it.
When we listen to the storyteller, we get a subliminal message that he/she cares for the audience. One can say that stories equal caring.

We as business owners and leaders need to master storytelling and we need to acquire the ability to tell stories and motivate people to act.

You can tell stories with your voice, picture, packages etc.

Here are a few points to consider:

You may use stories from any source as long as you can tie them into the world of your prospect.

* Your story needs to have a point or it will be a waste of time.

* Make the story personal and add passion to it.

*Contrast what your prospect’s life was like before your service and their life after.

* Present specific, tangible benefits.

* Diagnose the pain

* Highlight the gain.

One simple way to tell a story with pictures is the before and after pictures you see in weight loss programs.

By looking at the contrast of the before and after, the story is told, it is personal, since you see the picture of the person, it shows the pain before and the gain after the product was used.

I always like to give the example of a great story told in a package using the packages of Vosges Chocolates.

In every package the company call you to use your 5 senses when trying their chocolate. You should take a look at one, because it is a very good example of business storytelling and how it can engage consumers.

Twitter forecasts that by December 09 it will have over 50 million users. Google took 10 years to have 50 million people a day using its search engine and Facebook took 19 months.
Why people adopt tools like Twitter in such a fast and passionate way?

Many reasons there but one main reason is that tools like Twitter allow people to have a mass 2 way communication and this is very powerful for people and for businesses.
It is the one to many and many to one era.
Instant feedback is another powerful reason.
We can also say that many people look for leaders to help them live a better life and Twitter allows them to listen and meet other people.

The possibility to meet people is another big reason. Kind of the same reason you would go to a party. To have fun, meet people and learn more about them.
Here is where most businesses fail not only when using Twitter but other social media tools.
They meet someone and the next second they are either trying to sell you something or offering something for fre@.
People are not interested at this moment in getting things from you, they just want to know you better and maybe start a new relationship.

Do you invite friends to a barbecue and right when they get there you try to sell them Tupperware?
Same common sense goes here.
Sales will happen later when they get to know you better and the trust level is higher.
All you really have to do is let people know you better. At least a little better than they know your competition.
Did you know that 63% of people on Twitter follow people that have a nice smile?

Do you approach a guy with a sad face at a barbecue?
One frequent question we get is: But what do I do there on Twitter?
Perry Belcher, a heavy Twitter user says that 30% of the time, you should tweet about things that would make people’s life better, 10% you would compliment people. (that is something we all need more of), 20% try to make people laugh and 40% of the time you would provide good content. When you provide content you can add some soft sales calls.
I believe that is a good mix.
You should try Twitter. Twitter can be a great marketing tool in your business.

We all feel comfortable doing the things we are used to do but you need to remember that in this new economy, just trying to do more of what you have been doing thinking that will do the trick is not an option. It is like running faster on the same path trying to get to a destination when the destination is in a different place.

Did you know?
•Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser
•More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
• Only 14% trust advertisements
•Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth

The 3 stages of consumer engagement.

Imagine a world when you could start a business and have people engaged with your company, talking about you to others and not buying anywhere else.
Wouldn’t that be great?
Unfortunatelly that is not usually what happens.
Most companies need to go through three basic stages before they can say they have people really engaged with their brand.

Stage 1- Listen to your market

We cannot engage people if we don’t listen to what they are saying, their wants and needs. We need to understand to which topics they react to, what they expect from us and how they want us to approach them.
Remember, the way we do business has changed a lot in the last few years and the way people buy has also changed.
Today, more than ever, it is very easy to listen to your target market. It is one reason why you should use social media tools.
You can listen and get more information about your target market than you ever dreamt possible.Twitter comes to mind as one of the best tools to listen what your target market is saying.

Stage 2
Build an audience.

We all want and need an audience.This is the moment in your business where you want to create awareness, you want attention. Attention is not easy to get today. People have a lot of options to where to look and I dare to say that the search for attention is the new gold rush.
When you build an audience, you have people that want to get together to listen to you.
This can be done with events, teleseminars, videos etc.
When you do this right, you get people participating with you on an ongoing basis.
The level of trust will increase which in today’s economy is a crucial point for your business.
At this stage is where consumer engagement really happens and it is where word-of-mouth really starts.

Stage 3- Build Your Tribe

Seth Godin was the first to tell us we need to build a tribe, a community that you lead.
The first thing you need in order to build your tribe is to have a cause, a reason why people would follow you, where they feel they can contribute and feel affinity with one another and empowered.
Yes, you can build a tribe around companies and products.
Your position here is different because you help the community with the ideas and concepts and showing where to go, but you don’t lecture.
This is as far as you could think from a one way conversation and it is an important part of this new economy. Social media tought us that our voice matters and that as consumer we have a say and we can be part. Business owners need to embrace this mindset.

On the first 2 stages, you have a lot of control and it is up to you to do it well.
The third stage will follow if you do the first 2 right and if your cause, purpose is really clear to your audience.

When you watch this video, you will see how Pizza Hut combined consumer engagement with sales. This app they have developed has all.