When You Just Want More Customers

Oct 05

Getting new clients is a BIG deal.

The first reason is cash flow. I mean, let's face it--new business keeps the lights on.

The second reason is new business fuels our passion. I like to make money in my business, but there's nothing I love more than to have a new challenge. If you're passionate about what you do, I'm sure you're the same way.

But, you know what I've noticed? People tend to do business with people they know, like OR trust. Let's break that down:

People do business with people they KNOW. I read somewhere (although I can't remember where--if you know, please comment and tell me) that by using social media, people can get to know you and your business five times faster than they would via other means (like having lunch, coffee or meeting at networking events).

People do business with people they LIKE. Ditto here. In order for people to like you, they have to know you. And the more you show them who you are, what you're about and what motivates you to do what you do, the more they can like you. Remember, people like you and become attached to your brand in incremental degrees. Social media allows you to show more of your brand's personality and individual flair so your potential clients can really start to like you.

People do business with people they TRUST. Here again, in order to trust you, they have to know you exist; and then people have to like you. Think about it: Have you ever trusted someone you didn't like? Nope. Using social media helps people to trust you in two ways:

1. If you consistently and regularly use social media, people feel that you're not trying to "run a scam." It would ruin your whole reputation to "trick" them, and because you use social media often, you're easy to find and you won't really be "hiding" from them. All of these accessibility factors lead to trust. It's like having an office smack in the middle of downtown--chances are you aren't going anywhere.

2.  When you show people that you can be consistent doing one thing, chances are they'll believe you'll be consistent in your activities elsewhere. How you do anything is how you do everything. For example, when I hired my first assistant, she couldn't send my newsletter out on time. It made me feel that I couldn't trust her to do anything else on time.

And, lastly, people do business with PEOPLE, not businesses. If you are already an open, friendly person, social media allows you to be even more so . . . effectively magnetizing people who resonate with your personality to you. If you find it hard to be personable (that used to be me!), social media will open up new channels and means for you to connect with people in ways that feel authentic and right for you.

BUT....

These things can happen only if you take the right steps, in the right order to:

get more visibility,

SO YOU CAN

become the go-to person in your industry,

SO YOU CAN

get more clients.

And more clients means more money and more passion about what you're doing!

People will know, like and trust you, if you let them. Will you?

Originally posted by Lena West


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5 Signs Your Call-to-Action Needs a Makeover

Sep 23

A call-to-action (CTA) is an image or text that tells your readers what action they should be taking next on your site. Hopefully your calls-to-action lead to landing pages where you will collect your visitors’ contact information in exchange for some sort of offer that will benefit them. So an effective CTA equals more leads and conversions for you!

Unfortunately, there are many wrong ways to create a CTA (including a complete lack of an actual CTA). Here are a few ways you can tell that you need to makeover your site’s CTAs.

1. Your Landing Pages Aren't Getting Traffic

One of the most obvious signs that you need to rethink your CTAs is that you’re not getting traffic to your landing pages even though your site overall is getting decent traffic. This may be because your offer and corresponding CTA don’t answer the crucial question your visitors want to know: “What’s in it for me?” One of the weakest calls to action is “Contact Us.” You want to be sure that you’re offering something that visitors are willing to exchange their contact info for.

Some ideas for lead generation offers include:

•Free eBooks
•Free whitepapers
•Free webinars
•FAQs
•Kits
Also make sure that your CTA is clickable. Many times I’ve seen a great offer on the page that either isn’t a link or is a broken link.

2. You’re Not Getting Leads

A lack of leads is another obvious sign that your CTAs need an overhaul, and is also tied to the fact that you need a compelling offer. But you also want to be sure that your CTA accurately matches the offer. Don’t overpromise on the CTA in hopes of increasing your click-through rate!  If your readers click the CTA and reach a landing page where the offer doesn’t match up, they’ll navigate away from the page instead of filling out the form. So it’s also important that you follow landing page best practices to ensure that your landing page matches the CTA and offer

3.  Your visitors have to dig to find a CTA

I often see the only CTA hidden away on a single child page that takes three clicks to get to. That means that if your site gets 300 visitors per day, that’s 300 lost opportunities to get leads (minus however many actually navigated or Google-searched to that exact page the CTA lives on).  There’s nothing wrong with having your primary call to action right on your homepage. In fact, there should be a primary and secondary CTA on nearly every one of your website pages.  

4. Your CTA Is Below the Fold

People are lazy. It’s the truth. Just like most people don’t go past page #2 in Google, people don’t like scrolling down if their eyes don’t find something interesting in less than 5 seconds. Place your CTAs above the fold so the user can see them without scrolling down.

5. Your CTA doesn't stand out

A bit of text in the sidebar isn’t going to be enough to grab your visitors’ attention. Make your CTAs bold, with graphics and colors that they can’t miss. Contrasting colors can help draw a visitor’s eye to the action you want them to take.

If your website isn't getting you the results you need, reevaluate your website's Calls To Action. For a free consultation with one of our online conversion specialists, contact NetGains Marketing today.

Original article posted by Diana Freedman (Hubspot)


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Facebook changes meet privacy laws: watchdog

Sep 22

Facebook's changes in response to an investigation last year meet the expectations of Canadian privacy law, the federal privacy commissioner says, but there is still room for improvement.

Last year's investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada resulted in "many significant changes," said Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart in a statement Wednesday.

In particular, the probe raised concerns about the way users' private information was being shared with third-party developers who create games, quizzes and other applications on the social networking site.

"Facebook has since rolled out a permissions model that is a vast improvement," Stoddart said.

As of last June, applications must inform users what kind of personal information they require in order to run and must ask for consent to use that data. In addition, by default, applications can only access the public parts of a user's profile unless they have been given explicit permission from the user to access private sections of the account.

Stoddart said the commission is also pleased that Facebook has developed "simplified privacy settings" and now allows users to choose different privacy levels for each photo or comment they post. That feature was launched in December.

However, she cautioned that the office is satisfied only with the changes made in response to the 2009 investigation, and "there is still room for improvement in some areas."

In particular, the office:

  • Has asked Facebook to keep improving its oversight of application developers and to better educate them about their privacy responsibilities.
  • Warned Facebook against expanding the categories of user information made available to everyone on the Internet and which users cannot control through privacy settings.
  • Recommended that Facebook make its default privacy settings for photo albums more restrictive.

In addition, the office launched a new investigation in January in response to a complaint about Facebook's invitation feature and its "like" buttons on other websites.

Stoddart's comments outlined the findings of a review of changes made by Facebook following a complaint made against the social networking site in 2008.

In July 2009, after an investigation, the privacy commissioner's office announced that Facebook continued to breach Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act in four areas. A month later, it announced it would give Facebook one year to comply with privacy laws.

Stoddart thanked the Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic for bringing the original concerns forward and Facebook for its co-operation.

She reiterated, however, that Facebook users also need to take responsibility.

"The investigation has led to more privacy information and improved privacy tools," she said. "Facebook users should take advantage of those changes."

Original Article appeared on cbc.ca September 22, 2010

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Paid Celebrity Endorsements On Facebook: They're He-e-r-r-re

Sep 22

Will celebrities like Heidi Montag be able to move the sales needle when they make transparently commercial posts for a company on their Facebook pages? Evidently, Ad.ly has already convinced a handful of big brands that people such as Montag - with a large number of Facebook "likers" - will do just that.

The Beverley Hills, CA-based advertising platform announced Wednesday that it offers marketers the opportunity to pitch products through so-called influencers on the social site. The company began offering the same service on Twitter one year ago and on MySpace in June.

"Basically, the advertisers want more reach," said Sean Rad, president of Ad.ly. "No brand has done all three [social sites simultaneously] yet. But, we have some very, very large brands that are going to launch with all three very soon…We actually have signed deals. We cannot name them. Though, they are some of the very largest brands in the world."

One small retail brand, PetFlow, has leveraged Ad.ly's automated platform via Montag's Facebook page. The reality TV star's account posted the following message on Wednesday: "Just found Petflow.com, they deliver pet food right to my door for free! No more lugging heavy bags! And the same copy appeared on Montag's Twitter page. The "Ad" copy seen at the end of Montag's message is required by the Federal Trade Commission for the sake of transparency, said Krista Thomas, VP of marketing for Ad.ly.

Indeed, her company's platform lets celebrities, athletes, or other popular personalities place ads into their social activity streams. In addition to Montag, she said, participants include skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, NBA basketball player Paul Pierce, comedic talk show host Stephen Colbert, and TV personality Dr. Drew Pinsky, among others.

Thomas said celebrities get compensated for the commercial posts/tweets on a pay-per-message model. More specifically, she said that payments are based on an equation that includes: their number of followers/fans/friends on a social site; how often they tweet or post, and engagement achieved (number of replies, re-tweets, click-throughs, etc.). And the company's platform - called "Influencer Network" - charges brands on a CPM model, Thomas said.

She said some of those celebrities have recently authored promotional tweets on Twitter and posts on MySpace on behalf of brands like Toyota, CNN, Sony, NBC, Microsoft, and Universal. A Toyota "Swagger Wagon" campaign effort, she said, helped garner 2.7 million YouTube views.

Meanwhile, Rad said Facebook has signed off on the endorsement posts appearing on official brand pages. "It is within Facebook's guidelines," he said. "A fan page has the permission for a fee to promote a brand…but a user page does not."

Endorsements for major brands will begin appearing on Facebook within the next three or four weeks, Thomas said. "It's very similar to the [traditional] endorsement marketplace, but at a micro-level, obviously," she said. "So it's much more affordable to a far larger group of marketers. We have proven out that model in the past year on Twitter, and the company is growing quickly. We have a price point that marketers can afford, up and down the full range."


Original article by Christopher Heine  (Clickz)


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