maine self storage assn seminar june 2012

Top Strategies

for marketing your self-storage

business online

brought to you by:

June 14, 2012

Bangor, Maine

For the times, they are a changin’

New marketing tactics

What to expect today:

- General tips and tricks

- Answers to your questions

- Tactics for Twitter, LinkedIn,

FourSquare

- Facebook

- Q&A

Social media has changed

our lives

our language

our behavior

our shopping habits…

our businesses

People are relying more heavily on

interactive online media for their

information via….

The question used to be:

how do your customers find you?

Now is:

where do your

current and future customers

find what they need?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo

Facebook now has more than

901 million ACTIVE

users

Questions get answered.Recommendations are made.

Conversations happen.Are you there?

What we’ll cover today

• Social Media

• Search & Reputation

Management

• Content Marketing

• Email Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Win at social media

• Professionally designed page

• Thoughtful content strategy that incorporates

the personal touch, sales and marketing, and

outbound marketing strategy

• Listen and respond, stimulate conversation

• Utilize the new feature of outbound

commenting as your page

• WOW your fans!

Facebook• Do I need to use it? If you

are able to, you should. If

you’re responsible for

marketing your business,

absolutely.

• Does my business need to

be there now? Yes. There

are no ifs, ands, or buts.

Regardless of your business,

you need to be represented

here. We can help!

• Top benefit: You stay top of

mind with people as they

browse – you’re part of the

conversation

Facebook: Statistics

• More than 50% of active users log in each day

• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

• 2.7 billion posts are “liked” or commented on each day

• 250 million photos are shared each day

• 1 million business page “likes” are happening each day – and that is shared with all of their friends

Source: Facebook

Facebook: Timeline for Business Pages

29 29

30 30

31

Facebook: What you should do

Understanding NFO and EdgeRank

• Affinity – how close you are to the person creating the

content

• Weight – the more likes, comments, tags, the stronger

the weight

• Time – how recent is it? Time your posts!

Post tips

• Know your audience

• Timing is important

• Clarity

• Mix it up and create balance

• Encourage conversation

• Encourage sharing / tagging

• LISTEN! Respond!

• Utilize photos and videos regularly

Pull in blogs or feeds

- Apps to use: RSS Graffiti, Dlvr.it, NetworkedBlogs

Outbound Marketing

• Posts

• Comments

• “Likes”, Featured Likes

• Grow your audience, business outreach

Fan Base Growth: Promote your page

• On your web site https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like

-box/

• Email signatures

• Signs in location, on vehicles

• Stationary

• All marketing – when in doubt of what to

promote, promote Facebook

Fan Base Growth

• Turn buyers into fans at time of purchase

• In store – promote on receipts or verbally

• Online – add Facebook like box to thank you/conf

page

• Incentives – add a reward to incent

people to like page

• Facebook ads

• Word of mouth contests

Facebook Ads

• Powerful targeting

• Like search marketing but different

• Search = keywords, demand fulfillment

• Facebook = interests, demand generation

Facebook Ads

• Target your Fan’s Friends

Facebook Contests

• Define goals and details

• Get legal – use an app

• Prepare, promote and converse

• Fangate, use existing lists, shareable, content

submissions

• Encourage viral sharing (voting, getting likes)

• Manage and analyze

• Begin the REAL work – engage!

Twitter

• Do I need to use it? It is

powerful but not for

everyone

• Does my business need

to be there now?

Depends on your

business. If you create

and write a lot of

content, Twitter is a

fantastic tool. It works

extremely well for

searching, listening and

communicating quickly

with your customers

Twitter: What you should do

LinkedIn

• Do I need to use it? If you

would benefit from

sharing your background,

establishing your

expertise, and showing

who you are connected

to professionally, yes.

• Does my business need

to be there now? It’s

much more important for

companies interested in

hiring, and/or conducting

b2b business, but can be

a very powerful tool for

establishing expertise as

well

LinkedIn: What you should do

• Over 41% of LinkedIn users have generated

business from it

• 70% of Americans use it for job searches

• 85% of US Companies use it for recruiting

How can you use LinkedIn?

In the business world…

• Quality more important than quantity

• Start with your existing network

• Export them from your Outlook or CRM system

• Leverage free email account address books (yahoo!

Gmail, hotmail)

Building your networks

LinkedIn’s Guide to Small Business

Success Series

http://smb.linkedincreatives.com/

Foursquare• Do I need to use it? If you

enjoy showing businesses

that you frequent them, and

if you’re just a wee bit

competitive, it is a fun tool to

use. Great for deals or

visiting new areas

• Does my business need to be

there now? If your business

is retail, hospitality-oriented,

a restaurant or bar, we highly

recommend leveraging

Foursquare. It is a powerful

tool to offer deals, recognize

your best customers, and

monitor what customers are

saying about you on the

Web.

Foursquare: What you should do

Pinterest

Pinterest: What you should do

Google+ (G+)

• Do I need to use it? If you

enjoy Facebook for the

social aspect, or Twitter

for the opportunity to see

the news and content you

should be reading, you’ll

enjoy G+

• Does my business need to

be there now? We

recommend businesses to

strongly consider it

because it dramatically

increases search engine

rankings, but can

repurpose content

Google+ : What you should do

YouTube: 2nd largest search engine

Professionally designed page

YouTube: What you should do

Search & Reputation Management

The Web & Mobile have gone LOCAL

• 1 out of every 5

searches has local

intent

• 1 out of every 3

mobile searches

has local intent and

mobile is up 40%

from last year

- For Bing, 53% of mobile searches have local intent

- On average, 50% of users interested in local mobile

coupons

Source: Gregg Stuart 15miles

Search Engine Optimization

• SEO = search engine optimization

• Search engines are the primary way

people find Web sites (and they primarily

rely on first page of results)

• Nearly 70% of people that research

online pre-purchase use search*

*Harris Interactive

On page SEO

Page Title:

Important to

tell search

engines what

the page is

about

Headings:

Search

engines

understand

they are more

important

than other

copy

Site Copy:

Is also

important to

establish

relevance,

particularly

bold

URL

Can contain

keywords that

search

engines will

pick up

Measure your page rank with Google toolbar http://toolbar.google.com/T4/index_pack_xp.html

The key is Reputation Management…

And you need it now more than EVER!

Listing Management

• The backbone of search are a series of directories throughout the web

What matters?• Accuracy: Ensure that business

listings contain the correct information

• Distribution: Disperse listings to multiple distribution channels

• Signal Strength: Business listing is accurate and identical across multiple channels

• Enrichment: Add additional information/features to listings

Source: Gregg Stuart 15miles

What can it do for my business?• Connect you directly with the BDN’s engaged and

affluent audience with your message

• Allows you to post your stories, events, and coupons

whenever you want to!

• Saves you time – schedule your posts in advance and

also send them to your Facebook or Twitter pages, can

also be used as blog on your web site

• Helps you rank higher on Google and other search

engines

SEM / PPC marketing

Content & Email Marketing

Content is king

• One of the largest determining factors in how

well your site performs on search is the quality,

relevancy, amount of and freshness of your

content – and keywords!!

• Carefully consider your site content and how it

incorporates words people will search for you by

• Can you / should you blog? Try BDN Maine

Marketplace

Content is king

• Can you establish yourself as an expert and/or

resource?

• Blog suggestions:

• Top 10 FAQ about your business

• Overcome objections

• Consider – what do people type in to search engines

that you can answer?

• PLAN!

E-mail marketing

• When done well (the right message, the right

frequency), e-mail marketing can be an

extremely effective tool to communicate with

customers and prospects

• Two main types of e-mail marketing: e-

newsletters and e-offers

• How can you be PERSONAL (birthdays?)

• With either, content must be compelling, with

calls to action

E-mail marketing

• Tips:

• Have a well-designed template: look professional

• Keep it short & sweet: let people find what they

want quickly

• Build and cultivate your lists & relationships

• Allow for opt-out WITH options

• Several tools exist to make this simple – two

we recommend:• Mailchimp.com

• Constantcontact.com

Content & Email Marketing: What

you should do

Remember: New marketing tactics

Utilizing social media to drive traffic

to your web site:

How do they relate?

What content goes where?

What address do I promote?

How do I increase traffic to my site?

How is communicating via social

media different?

Best way to learn how to master

social media sites?

USE THEM

Watch peers

or bring in some help

The impact of blogging:

Search engine optimization

Ability to engage customers

Content can be leveraged on

social media

Needs to be done well, can be

time consuming

One of the most common

questions:

HOW do I find the time?

Tools you can use

• Sprout Social

• Postling

• Hootsuite

• There are MANY others available - visit

hubspot.com and search “99 tools to generate

leads with social media”

Biggest tip for today:

Have a clear content plan

What we do

Packages for:

- online marketing strategy

development

- content plan development

- social media and blog management

Full service digital marketing agency

Marketing online can be very effective

and affordable

and social media needs

only a moderate financial investment

However, it is not free…

…it does cost time and skilled people

Or,

let us do it for you

while you run

your business!

shannon@dreamlocal.com

www.facebook.com/dreamlocal