THE INSIDE SECRETS TO DIGITAL MARKETING

Rich Kizer & Georganne Bender Please note: Social Media Marketing sites, especially Facebook, change options frequently. There may be new ways to connect with customers that are not part of this eBook. We will keep you up-to-date via our Facebook page – www.facebook.com/kizer.benderspeaking – and though our monthly video webinar program. Please visit www.kizerandbender.com for more information.

COPYRIGHT KIZER & BENDER 2015 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

All of your marketing efforts need to zero in on what makes you stand out, the things that make you different. Marketing used to be about the 4 Ps: 1. Product 2. Place 3. Price 4. Promotion Today, it’s the 8 Ps… 1. Product: Technology, value, quality, branding 2. Place: Your location and Internet presence 3. Price: Strategies, market competition 4. Promotion: Offers, ads, demos, social medias 5. Persistence: Keeping your brand in front of consumers 6. Positioning: Where you stand in the consumers mind 7. Profitability: Are you making money? 8. People: Valuing and knowing about the customer The goal of all of your marketing is to get the consumers attention; inform them about your business and/or offer, and persuade customer to take action. Let’s begin with the big marketing components every business needs:

Your Website Your website is today’s business card – you have to have a website that is more than an online brochure. Its job is to tell an interactive story about you, your company, and what you do. Every website must do/have the following:

Be easy to navigate Make sure that links are easy to click and that they all work. After that age of 40 Presbyopia kicks in and it makes it hard to focus on small print; we need reading glasses or bi-focals to see clearly. Make it easy by adding a button visitors can click to make the font larger.

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Make it Interactive If you want to attract younger generations, your website must be interactive. Millennials and Generation Z grew up clicking around websites like BuildaBear.com and Webkins.com. So if they come to a site that’s essentially an online brochure they tend to get bored and go somewhere else. Add product information, instruction sheets, how-to information, design and décor ideas, links to your blog and social medias – the ideas are endless. Place important info “above the fold” – in other words, don’t make readers scroll down too far. Add a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. People today would rather read the answer than call you and be placed on hold. Add an “About Us” page. Who you are, what you do, and why that’s important. Add all of your social media icons at the top – so they are easy to find. Add contact information on front page. You will really make customers happy if you add your telephone number at the top. Update your website often and as necessary. The May calendar does you no good when it’s still up on June 5. Check your website on a smart phone and a tablet device. Does it look as good as it does when viewed on a desktop or laptop computer? Stay away from Flash – on Apple products all visitors will see is a black screen.

Email Blasts Customers are only loyal if you make them loyal, and day-to-day loyalty comes from day-to-day contact. You need to send email blasts on a regular basis; at least every 10 – 20 days.

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How to Create Email Blasts that Get Read Send one clear message. We live in a sound bite world. Add too may topics and customers, particularly younger customers, will tune you out. Think more photos, less copy. BIG photos. You want the reader to be able to take it all in in 20 seconds or less. Use big fonts. At the age of 40 Presbyopia kicks in and most of us need reading glasses or bifocals to read. Set your main copy in at least a size 12 font. Headlines, of course, can be larger. Most email blast companies – EmailContact.com, ConstantContact.com; SnapRetail.com – add a link at the top of every email blast. This is important; if the reader can’t see your email they can click to view an online version. Add a link to each photo that takes you to your website. Make sure that the page it takes the reader to – called a Landing Page – is interesting and good looking. Its goal is to entice the reader to want to learn more. You may have just seconds before they move on to something else. Test the URLs – each link – to make sure they work. The subject line must grab attention. Don’t use spam catcher words like “Free”, and avoid using a red type font near the top of your e-mail. Spammers like the color red so your blast may not make it through the readers spam filter. Make your contact information easy-to-find; add it to the bottom of your email blast template. Add a “Call to Action” – This offer expires on ______________”. You want to be able to track the effectiveness of your email blast. Add “Please Forward” at the bottom as well. Encourage your customers to share how great you are with their friends. Be consistent! Send an email blast AT LEAST every 10 to 20 days! And always, always, always check it on a smart phone to make sure it looks as you intend it to look!

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Social Media Marketing Today, social medias MUST be part of your overall marketing plan. They are on-line cocktail parties – all about interaction; interaction that gets them to your website or to your store. Social networking works like this:

Listen, Interact, React, Sell LISTEN: Read what’s being said and liked on your social medias sites. INTERACT: Like comments and add your own to the conversation. REACT: If someone asks a question or comments, respond. If you find a negative comment you must address it ASAP, at least within 24 hours. Say something like, “I’m sorry this happened to you, it’s is not the way we like to do business…” Visit sites like TripAdvisor.com and read how big companies respond to customer complaints. It’s a good lesson in how to react. SELL: You can only sell product about every six to nine posts. People come to your social media sites for fun information, hard selling turns them off. Showing product in use isn’t hard sell. If you want to sell directly from Facebook you can do it directly through them or through companies like Soldsie.com.

7 Rules of Social Media Marketing 1. Plan! How many times a day will you post? What’s your “voice”? Who will manage your social media accounts? Social networking requires the same as planning as any ad campaign. 2. You need a post calendar. When will you post? How often will you post? Keep an eye out for links you want to share – keep them in an email file or set up your post and schedule it for a later date. Don’t leave everything to chance!

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3. Auto-post with caution. If you auto-post make sure and stay on top of current events. We know a ski lodge that was live tweeting about fun upcoming events during a major accident at the site. The lodge was criticized for being insensitive. 4. Have a content strategy. Your content must have some sort of value or it shouldn’t be on your social media sites. It needs to be interesting and relevant to your audience. 5. Understand that it takes work! At first glance, social media seems like an easy and semi-free way to advertise your brand. But social media marketing requires planning, measurement, time, rework, and a lot of effort. Don’t assign to someone to do your social networking just because they’re young! Whoever does your marketing must be able to speak in your brand’s voice, be able to use full sentences, and know how to spell. 6. Embrace hashtags! A hashtag – # – is a word or phrase that’s preceded by a hash or pound sign. It’s used to identify messages on a specific topic.

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7. Use your own e-mail address to set up your social media accounts.

Whoever opens your social media accounts OWNS them.

So, which social medias are important? Let’s take a quick look at the big 3…

Facebook

Let’s start with Facebook: 80% of consumers want to interact with thieir favorite brands/companies via Facebook. This makes it a MUST for you!

This is a Facebook Business page. Note that Facebook “Profiles” are for people, Pages are for business. If you have “friends” you have a personal profile; it needs to be converted to a business page where fans can “like” your business.

If you don’t have a good one visit www.FIVERR.com – here creative talent from all over the world will do or make just about anything for just five bucks!

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Click here to create a custom URL for your business: www.facebook.com.username. A custom URL looks like this: www.facebook.com/nameofyourbusiness. You must have at least 25 fans to set a username for your Page.

Interesting Facebook Facts: Facebook fans are two times more likely to buy from you. Less is more: Try to use 250 characters or less, and three lines or less in your posts. Longer is okay sometimes, but we live in a sound bite world. The best interaction with business Pages is between 9:00 and 10:00 PM. Videos get 100% more interaction than posts with just words. Photos get 120% more interaction than words. Posts with copy and photos/links/video is better than just copy alone.

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Let’s add a link…

Copy and paste a link (URL) into the status box. The link will automatically open, showing the photo used in the article or on the webpage.

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The @ sign in front of a name, brand or business turns it into a clickable link. Removing the actual blue link is important – Facebook’s algorithm prefers this type of post – it will be served to more people. NEVER use photos that you do not have permission to use. Take your own photos or use sites like https://stock.adobe.com/, not Google images. It’s copyright infringement. You could be fined and the fines are not cheap. Give fans access to exclusive content. Train them to look for offers they can only find on Facebook. Think “Tuesday’s Deal of the Day” or something similar.

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Facebook is almost all “Pay to Play” for Pages. It offers several ad options: 1. Boosted Post

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2. Newsfeed Ad

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3. Right Column Ad

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4. Facebook Offer

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Here’s how your offer will look on a fan’s Time Line:

Face book recently announced additional changes that will allow ads to automatically show users offerings tailored to their Web activity and interests. Click to learn more: http://www.retaildive.com/news/facebook-introduces-new-dynamic-product-ads/364932/

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Measure how well you are doing with Facebook Insights.

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Facebook Watch allows you to keep an eye on your competition.

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Pinterest

Pinterest drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined. It’s designed to feel like a scrapbook that’s been custom created just for you because every item has been handpicked by a person you know. Bonus: 70% of Pinterest users are female – retail’s core customer.

Here are the key points you need to know about Pinterest to get started:

Open a Pinterest Business Account, not a personal account!

Write a good profile! Your profile is what tells other Pinners – your customers – who you are and why they should follow you. The one above is a great example. It’s simple, to the point, and explains exactly what the airline does.

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Pins are the photos that you attach – “Pin” – to your pinboards. You give each Pinboard a unique name. The one pictured above, for example, is called “Who wants dinner?!”

Pinning or Pinned means the sharing of content on Pinterest: “I Pinned a trip to Paris and London on Pinterest today.” Or “I’m spending the afternoon catching up with my Pinning.”

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When you get started on Pinterest give yourself at least an hour of time. You may find yourself getting very involved – there’s a lot to look at and Pin. You also need to make time to respond to other Pinners comments and questions.

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Take time to click around www.business.pinterest.com – here you’ll find great ideas and inspiration you can use for your own account. You will also find complete instructions on how to get started using Pinterest for your business.

“Rich Pins” allow you to add additional information right on the Pin itself. Currently, there are five types of Rich Pins: Movie, Recipe, Article, Product , and Place.

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Here’s an example of a recipe Rich Pin. It allows you to add all that you need to know to make this delicious dish.

Rich Pins also give you the opportunity to show your followers where you are located and exactly how to get to your business.

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The Pin It button is the best way for your business to get discovered on Pinterest. Adding a Pin It button to your website’s pages lets your customers save things they like on their own Pinterest account. This means even more people will be able to find you. It’s more visibility! Click on the link below to watch a video on how to add Pin It Buttons to your website. https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/add-pin-it-button-your-browser#Web

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Pinterest now offers Promoted Pins – it’s their version of pay to play. Click here to learn more: https://ads.pinterest.com/

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A few more things: Pins are searchable via search engines, so name your images and Pinboards using keywords that are important to your website and industry

80% of your Pins should come from you, 20% should be Repins

An @ symbol in front of a name or brand makes it a clickable link

The best times to Pin are 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm and 1:00 am – 8:00 pm; the best days to Pin are Thursday and Saturday

Mind your analytics! Analytics show you:

Which Pins and Pinboards people like best

What people save from your website

Who your Pinterest audience is, including gender, location and interests

Which devices – computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet – people are using when they are Pinning

How adding a Pin It Button to your website leads to Pinterest referral traffic

Play around in Search to see what people are Pinning and Repinning about your industry. Another plus? It’s a great online focus group. You can easily see what people are interested in and what they are talking about.

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Instagram

Instagram is a free photo-sharing app that is owned by Facebook. It describes itself as “a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever.” Instagram is an important social media! You want to reach a younger market, right? Well, according to BusinessInsider.com over 90% of the people on Instagram are under the age of 35. Here’s more: Instagram users are neatly divided 50/50 between owners of Android and Apple devices. Like Pinterest, Instagram skews heavily towards women; 68% of its users are female. 17% of U.S. adult residents who live in urban areas use Instagram, 11% of users live in suburban and rural areas. Instagram is about quality not quantity. It accounts for 7% of daily photo uploads among the top four photo-sharing platforms. Read more here: http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-demographics-2013-12#ixzz3S7Irwol6

Instagram does not run on computers; it is only available for use as an app on smart phones and tablets. This means you can instantly upload photos you take anywhere. Or you can save them on your smart phone to upload later.

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Since Instagram is all about photos, we’ve added a photo tutorial to help you get started: The search feature on Instagram allows you to easily find fellow users and hashtags in your industry.

This screen shows hashtags (#) This screen shows users

This is what Travel + Leisure’s landing page looks like. It’s what people see first when they look up your Instagram account (referred to simply as “Your Instagram”). You can add a profile photo, a short paragraph about your business, and a link to your website. The photos you have uploaded will stack below this information – people can click on them for a bigger view.

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Now it’s time to upload a photo. You can choose to take a photo or you can upload one that’s stored on your smartphone.

Instagram is all about the filter. Once you upload a photo you are asked if you want to add a filter that will enhance how the photo looks. You can click through a preview of each one and choose the one you like best. Mayfair is said to be the one that generates the most clicks, however, some studies show that Millennials and Generation Z are not fond of filters.

The “Tools” menu allows you to adjust photo brightness, contrast, etc.

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One of our favorite tools is “Tilt Shift” – it lets you focus in on part of a photo and blur or soften other parts of the photo.

Now, it’s time to add a caption and hashtags – Instagram loves hashtags! – and tag people if you like. You can also click to add your photo to a map, and upload it to Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, and more just by clicking on “Share”.

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Here’s what the finished photo looks like when viewed on an iPhone.

Use Instagram to showcase the products you sell, the services you offer, and the places that you have been – be creative! The Ridgewood, New Jersey Alex and Ani store does a good job of sharing product and showing customers how to wear it.

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Take followers behind the scenes at your store and at the trade shows you attend. Let them see the “inside scoop” on the latest events that affect your industry. Take them behind the scenes on buying trips, in-store events, celebrations, and more. Make it a fun journey! Instagram is all about the hashtag (#). A recent study showed posts by Fortune 500 companies that used five hashtags received the most interaction. That being said, eight or more hashtags causes interaction to go down. A photographer friend uses a lot of hashtags. When we pointed this out he told us one of the major car manufacturers saw his photos because of the hashtags and hired him to photograph their cars at NASCAR races. SCORE! Create a hashtag for your business and use it everywhere. Ours is #kizerandbender – we use our hashtag on all social medias. You should, too.

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The best times to post on Instagram are 7:00 am to 9:00 am and 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. The most posts happen on Thursdays. Know why? Throw Back Thursday (Use hashtags #TBT or #ThrowBackThursday). On Thursdays people like to share old photos. Post videos after school and work hours. People can’t easily watch videos in a closed environment. Plan to post om Instagram one to two times a day. Visit https://business.instagram.com/ for tips and information on how to use Instagram for your business. Here you will find how to engage consumers, case studies, inspiration, information and an informative blog.

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More Social Media 101 So, what else do you need to know? Post your personality! Don’t just post boring links and info – make it your own. Post the cool things you are known for; give your fans and followers a look into your keen insight on your product and your industry. They want to hear what YOU have to say. Comment in your voice – the way you talk! Focus on the audience that you already have. Concentrate on the people who already follow you on your various social medias. Go where your customers go! You may love FB but if your customers love Instagram you need to be there daily as well. Don’t try and do them all – there are too many to choose from! Instead, pick two or three social medias and do them well. It’s okay to post the same photos and/or links on each of your social medias. Different customers look at different social medias at different times of the day, so even when you share on several medias, your posts won’t feel repetitive. Add your social media icons/links to everything: website, front door, business cards, brochures, email blasts, in-store signing, your blog and more. Use a free “dashboard” like Hoot Suite to easily manage, monitor, and schedule posts for each of your social media sites. www.hootsuite.com

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COPYRIGHT KIZER & BENDER 2015 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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