Qualified Leads From Twitter?

By now you know that Twitter has taken on a life of its own. What was once considered a micro-blogging site is now the topic of most online conversations. You might be asking yourself what that may mean to your business and more importantly what it means to you.

After some time I opened up my own account on Twitter. This was mainly due to curiosity and the fact that Twitter like discussions are happening throughout the internet. I quickly found out that Twitter operates like many other social media sites and web tool in that it is a communication vehicle that helps you communicate to your niche in real time.

One of the best things about this social media tool is the ability to follow like minded individuals. Said another way, you can access what people are saying within a given industry or niche. This is vital to staying on top of things and continually learning about your trade. In the past, you had to sign up for RSS feeds or continually read online articles, reports, and posts. With Twitter you simply follow others who provide valuable information and access valuable content through posts and links.

You may be thinking that Twitter sounds great for learning about a particular but what other value does it provide. After you've identified those you want to follow for work related reasons, you should also consider adding some individuals to your list that are aligned with hobbies you may have, goals, or aspirations. Twitter is shaped by you the user so consider what content would add value to your life.

Once you've gotten comfortable with Twitter, its time to start building a following. Just you follow others, others may want to follow you. The best place to begin is by adding quality posts on a regular basis. What are you reading that may be of interest to others? What type of tools are you using to accomplish a specific goal? Share those things that provide value to others and you will quickly create a large list of followers. Once you have a list, you can begin to utilize your list of followers much like you would a direct marketing house list.

Once you've established a list and provide a good deal of value through your thoughts and ideas that are shared on a regular basis, you can begin offering information on affiliate products or your own products and services. When done correctly, others will learn more about these offers and even make a purchase. This is direct marketing at its best. One must be careful though as you don't want to abuse your list.

If you haven't already reached this conclusion, using Twitter is like have a direct dialog with prospects. Begin by offering something of value, gaining their trust and following. Once you've proven yourself as an expert or having authority in a given area, it's time to promote products or services that help to solve a problem. Twitter is a great tool for building your online business and targeting prospective customers.

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Posted in: twitter

Getting Past Go

So many times we feel like our job in marketing is to simply make the phone ring or get a prospect to reply to our email.  The reality is that marketing goes way beyond the initial buying signals.  In fact, good marketing know that they need to manage the entire purchase and renewal process effectively to show lasting results.

Getting Past Go

Instead of thinking about lead generation, think about the entire customer experience.  Not only will you attract users to your product or service, but you will maintain them, communicate with them, and leverage them to continue buying from you long into the future.  

Focus on creating happy customers.  Many companies simply market on the front end, not after the sale.  If you focus on building strong relationships with your existing customers, they will often do the selling for you and become some of your greatest marketing assets.  Consider the type of communication you provide to your existing customers.  Are you simply contacting them to buy more?

What Annoys Me

I recently bought a product that I was really excited about.  It was a video training program that offered daily information.  No less than a week went buy until the videos, which were supposed to be delivering value (and something I paid for) started asking me to "upgrade" ad pitch the video to others to start earning affiliate revenue.  I don't know about you but it certainly made me unhappy with my initial purchase.

After about a week of this I cancelled the subscription and was glad a I did.  As marketers we need to be concerned with our messaging before, during, and after purchase.  If you're not, you'll find your job getting more and more difficult each and every year as customers become harder to attract and retain.

Focus on your marketing communications throughout the customer life cycle.  By thinking beyond the initial purchase, you'll develop a customer base that sustains and grows your business over time.

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Posted in: customer retention

Good Marketing Tip #229: Start a Blog

Today's good marketing tip is: Start a Blog.  By doing so you can quickly and easily improve search engine rankings, expand your reach and build a following.  There are many free and inexpensive ways to start a blog and it doesn't require a great deal of internet marketing knowledge.

Free services like Blogger and WordPress are well known in blogging circles. These two programs are used to create free blogs that essential work as content management systems allowing you to make posts, updates, control web pages, and come with tons of additional features.

There are many benefits to blogging.  The first is that by adding a blog to your website, you're creating additional exposure to your products, services, and information.  As your blog starts showing up in search results, you generate more traffic to your site and can quickly build a list of followers.

Individuals can choose to follow the posts on your blog via an RSS feed or via email. Each time you make a post, they receive a notification and can easily view your content.  This type of system allows you to push out valuable information on a regular basis - essential for building and maintaining customer loyalty.

In addition to building a following, having a blog can actually improve your search engine rankings. Search engines like Yahoo and Bing like to see social media sites related to a particular website.  This means that you are interacting with your audience and creating a great user experience.  Additionally, once you are posting original content on a regular basis, you start to generate inbound links.

In bound links are essential for improvements in your search rankings.  As sites attract more inbound links, Google and other search engines see this as a vote of confidence.  The more sites that are voting for you the more weight your site has and therefore will appear more readily at the top of search engine result lists.

Whether you've been blogging for a long time or are new to the blogging phenomenon, be sure to make blogging an integral part of your overal marketing plan.  Being found online is the first step towards building a successful business either online or offline.

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Posted in: blogging