Most firms will respond to this challenge by stating, “I have been having conversations with my clients for over (fill in the blank) years.” When I challenged a client about his business development process, he told me, “I have been knocking on doors for years.” I responded by telling him that the addresses and doors have changed in the past 10 years and he needed another approach. The same can be said about client conversations.
Are you familiar with outbound and inbound marketing and do you know the differences between the two? Outbound marketing is traditional marketing such as advertising, newsletters, direct mail, and cold calling. Think of it this way: Outbound marketing is you talking at your prospects and clients. The problem with that approach today is the filtering that goes on keeping customers from your message. How many ways are there for people to turn your message off? I use a megaphone in my seminars to illustrate this point. Traditional marketing still works, but it is more difficult.
Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is your clients or audience talking with you. Actually, it is your clients and prospects talking with each other and inviting you into the conversation. Can you see the difference? Social media is the channel that makes this happen. Where is your firm at on the social media spectrum today? Many firms are investing in social media, but most are still searching how to turn the investment into leads. And, beyond generating leads, how do they can use social media to turn clients into advocates.
Many, like mineral prospectors of old, turn away from their search because they believe the investment is more than they can afford. Some simply get tired of coming up empty. Gold prospectors learned how to use the mountain to their advantage and that is the key for prospectors mining for social media gold.
The secret is content creation. Clients and prospects won’t come to you unless you have something that interests them. Content includes blogs, white papers, industry presentations, video, and photos.
The value of the content in the eyes of our clients and prospects is what turns leads into clients.
Although you create the content, only your clients and prospects can put a value on it. They will only put a value on it, if they see it. They can only see it, if you publish it or send it. This is what confuses many firms because it sounds a lot like traditional marketing. Think of traditional marketing as crashing a party and social media as being invited. While you can enjoy yourself whether you crash a party or are invited, the guests are more comfortable with you when you have been invited.
The management at most firms does not have a problem with content but with the cost of developing enough content to make a difference. There are some old school techniques that will ease the burden. When public relations was king of the hill in disseminating information on a firm, we used to figure out ways that the same article or content could be re-worked to fit different markets. We looked at ways for how our message worked in different magazines and made appropriate modifications. This way we could place the content of the article in multiple media and significantly increase its exposure.
Is there any reason you can’t do this with a blog? For example, a podcast can be a series of blogposts. A project video, with simple editing, can fit multiple markets.
To blog or not to blog? I recently consulted with a multiple office engineering firm that did not have blogs published on their website and the website itself was not ranked very high. They changed their attitude toward blogging when they learned that companies that blog generate 55% more visitor traffic to their websites.
Blogging allows you to talk about topics that are more appealing to clients/prospects and allows you to make adjustments that build relationships. You can use long tailed keywords, you can attract more inbound links and you can use the comments section to generate conversations. Your blog helps you become more interesting on social media as well. Take the content that you create on your blog and you share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other networks. You must also include a RTA or respond to action at the end of your blog. Give readers a reason to visit your site or ReTweet your message.
Once you have this worked out, how do you really engage clients/prospects and turn them into advocates, or fanatics as Apple customers are called (see previous blog about Apple)? You need to listen and monitor what is going on because there is already an on-going conversation about your industry.
You can begin to understand the pain points of clients, what they are interested in, what the next big thing is in their industry. In other words, you can use social media to develop real time market research.
You can also search to find out the news coverage of your competitors. Would this be useful?
Have you heard of a tool like Twilert. Social Mention is another free tool that is very helpful. You receive mentions for your brand or certain search terms on Twitter, blogs, even in the news. It also does some light sentiment analysis.
Social Media Engagement Requires Different Tactics
Every firm should consider the following when you are engaging your prospects:
• Respond within 24 hours or less
• Provide complete answers to questions
• Take complaints seriously and respond
If you see somebody who is mentioning your brand in TweetDeck or whatever tool you end up choosing, be responsive.
Be gracious. Thank people who shared your content. Use @ replies. Use ReTweets. Be helpful. It can seem time consuming, but again, the people who ask the questions and seem like they’re nagging you are also the ones who will take the time to be your advocate. So it is actually worth the time invested to engage these people in conversation. Also, be consistent. If you commit to this and if you start, you really need to continue. You can’t just do this consistently for a month and then drop off the face of the earth. If you are going to start in social media, you should jump in with both feet and commit to it.
Social media at its core is about creating friendships. You wouldn’t leave a friend high and dry, so don’t do that to the connections you make in social media. This is a real way to begin building trust and loyalty which is the first step in creating client advocates. Remember to stay in touch with Business Development Professionals when it comes to training your staff in the areas of marketing and business development (www.businessdevelopmentpros.org).
