maine self storage assn seminar june 2012
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to Maine Self Storage Association for their workshop on online marketing at their annual conference by Shannon Kinney of Dream Local DigitalTRANSCRIPT
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
- 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!
• 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
• 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: 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
