May 11, 2014

The Top 3 Ways to Create a Personal Brand

By JaneFrankland | Marketing, Sales, Selling, social media | No Comments

Here’s an undisputed fact. The Internet has changed everything. Studies repeatedly show that right now more people are starting businesses than ever before. In fact some argue that there’s even an entrepreneur revolution going on.

So when you start a business one of the first things you have to decide upon is whether you create a personal brand or not. Once you’ve made that decision, the next is how to create your brand so it supports your sales activity.

Today's post is to help you understand how to build a powerful personal brand and it covers:

Packaging and positioning
How to be constantly in front of your target audience
Converting prospects into long term clients

April 26, 2014

How to Sell: 9 Stupidly Simple Steps to Boost Sales

By JaneFrankland | business start ups, Established business, Marketing, Sales, Selling, social media | No Comments

How to sell without a hefty marketing spend to most could seem impossible. However, in today's world it’s not just sales that has got harder – marketing has too. B2B buyers and decision-makers are highly educated on the products and services they require. They’re hungry for information. Their appetite demands 24×7 consumption, whenever and wherever they can.

Forbes recently reported that 80% of B2B purchasing cycles are completed before the buyer considers contacting the vendor. You’re feeling this and know this to be the case.

So in order to get your prospects’ attention and differentiate yourself from your competitors, you need to satisfy them like never before. And that means that if you’re in sales or marketing you’ve got to pull together. You need to form a united front both in terms of knowledge and understanding when engaging, nurturing, and interacting with your prospects. In essence you need to become a team of superheroes who join forces for the greater good of your prospects and your company.

This blog has been written to help address these challenges. It has been broken down into the following 9-steps:

1. Calling a truce
2. Researching and creating an ideal client avatar or persona
3. Defining a sales-qualified lead and processes
4. Developing the most appropriate messaging strategies
5. Creating engaging content to attract and nurture prospects
6. Meeting prospects where they’re hanging out
7. Using the internal sales team for qualification
8. Obtaining more information from marketing
9. Measuring, assessing and reporting

Now, before we get started, I just want to stress that this blog is targeted at sales and marketing professionals, sales and marketing managers, and business owners. The aim of it is to help you get ahead in business, to get you thinking about sales and marketing integration and to help you get buy in if needed.

Now, let’s get started and go through how to sell!

April 13, 2014

5 Lies about social media and social selling

By JaneFrankland | Marketing, Selling, social media | One Comment

Whether you're using social media for social selling, marketing, reputation management, customer service, recruitment or even business continuity there’s no denying this fact:

Social media is a force to be reckoned with. It is going on with or without your buy in.

And that’s a fact!

Now whilst many do get it, there are still many who don't. And the challenge of getting others to buy into it is often a struggle. So, to help you out I've compiled a list of the 5 common challenges faced when trying to get buy-in for both social selling and social media marketing.

March 22, 2014

Social media for C-levels: A threat or an opportunity?

By JaneFrankland | business start ups, Established business, Marketing, Sales, social media | No Comments

Time and tide wait for no man. And, when it comes to social media for C-levels it is now no different. Social media is maturing. Gone are the hype days when it was simply a case of not understanding but having to join in if you happened to be in marketing. Today it’s in a production phase and revolutionizing brands. It’s empowering people, including staff, to have a voice and communicate their message.

And, whether you like it or not, social media is rapidly evolving into an essential leadership tool. With an expectation for company leaders to embrace it, which is being silently communicated, the pressure is now on for C-levels and ambitious executives to get involved and leverage off it. However, with so much at stake, the question that’s troubling everyone is…

…how to do this the right way!

And, it’s this lack of understanding that’s tending to make C-levels sceptical and reluctant participants, unrealistically fearful of making mistakes and in an uncomfortable position of learning whilst leading.

This e-Book (which you can get by sending me an email) has been written to help you, as a C-level, or aspiring one, understand how you can build a powerful C-level social media presence.

It covers:

Positioning
Messaging
Exposure

Before you delve into it, I’ll be setting the scene and looking at the challenges and opportunities. For example, how information can be deliberately leaked or unintentionally gleaned, how deals can be done and reputations built or ruined, all through social media portals.

The content contained within this e-Book will provide you with insight and help you get you started with creating a strong social media for C-levels presence. It’s here to help you get ahead in terms of your career and learn that when an effective social media presence is created, opportunities abound.

Now, before we get started, I just want to stress that this e-Book is meant for those who are fairly new to social media. If you’re an executive, Manager or Director, or a business owner, the content contained here will provide you with insight.

Now, let’s get started!

March 2, 2014

Sales promotion: Do this & be seen as a rookie

By JaneFrankland | business start ups, Established business, Marketing, Sales, Selling, social media | No Comments

Tired of not having enough sales?

When it comes to sales promotion, tell me…. How great would you feel if you could see an immediate result i.e. an increase in sales by applying 1 simple tweak to your business?

I know it's a silly question but humour me.

It'd feel great, wouldn't it?

Well If you want to see an increase in sales from your sales promotion you've got to get an edge on your competition. And, to create a truly competitive advantage you've got to understand 3 things inside out, namely:

Your market
Your competition
Your offerings

But, there's 1 more thing you need in addition to these 3 things AND it's vital. This is what I'm going to be going through today.

Story time

Now just to warn you, this is a video I was going to use for the How to Succeed in Business blog. However, I decided against it as I knew that there was too much to say and that's why it refers to business as usual. 😉

Moving on to the next stage

So you've watched the video and now you're shaping up quite well. You're saying, “We‘ve got a great service portfolio, fair prices, flexible lead times, superb customer service, and an informative website with up-to-date research and thought leadership.”

Right?

And, you're wondering whether you're now going to be inundated with calls or emails from ready buyers.

Yes?

The answer, in a word, is….

No!

Why? Sadly they won’t believe you.

Without proof, you're only going to sound like a lame marketer or rookie sales person.

Being the best isn’t enough. Being perceived as being the best isn't enough. Your buyers need to believe you’re the best option for them.

If you don’t prove your claims, your buyers are unlikely to really believe them. And, as a consequence your value proposition, which is essential for your sales promotion becomes about as useful as a chocolate fire guard.

So what's to be done?

Several things. For starters, you can use social proof. This will go a long way to substantiate your claims.

Basecamp uses social proof to validate their main claim of being the “World’s #1 Project Management App.” They use an image (as we all think and remember in pictures), plus 2 specific numbers to make the claim believable (“285,000 companies” and “2,000 projects”).

Now I'm sure you'll admit that this looks good, but if you want to see an increase in sales I've got to tell you that impressive numbers don’t always work.

Numbers can prove how popular you are, but when you’re positioning yourself as a “trusted advisor and expert,” saying, “1,000 people consider me an expert” won’t work.

You need something else.

And, this is where testimonials and case studies (or success stories) come in. A few well placed testimonials and case studies (on your website and social platforms) from those with influence in your market make the claim credible. They can even take away the need for you to make any claims yourself.

For example, instead of me telling you how wonderful my company is, I get others (my clients) to do this for me.

Here's an example of what I did for my last company. I used one of our clients – a sought after FTSE 100, William Hill, to make the claim alongside mine. The claim had added weight as testimonials in this particular sector were almost as rare for obtaining as finding a needle in a haystack.

Finally, there's one more thing you can do with testimonials.

You can craft them so that they take away the last doubt people might feel about your promises. Just include a statement that answers the doubt. I teach you how to do all of this in the courses and consulting I offer.

Now I want to hear from you…

Tell me what your thoughts are on sales promotion. Do you have any great tips? Please share your stories and experience here, and if you've got a question, just pop it down here.

Thanks for being a sport and participating!

With love and gratitude – as always,

P.S.

Finally, if you know someone who'd LOVE the insight from this sales promotion post, please send them a link. You’ll find solo entrepreneurs, consultants and yes, even sales and marketing managers who manage people who'll be interested to hear about this.

Ways to increase your Facebook LIKES on a budget

By JaneFrankland | Marketing, Sales, social media | No Comments

Why your suitcase breaks my heart!

I know I'm quirky (that's my creative streak) but as many of you know suitcases break my heart. It's not because I long to travel, and can't. Well, actually I lie – I do long to travel! Seriously folks, I LOVE to travel!!! Anyway, back to the point – before I get distracted – it's because I know Facebook, and I care about your promotion, online visibility and sales success.

So, I'm on a mission…again! This time it's to help you get rid of your suitcases on Facebook, and instead get you promoting your businesses and gaining LIKES and sales. And, this is a very simple thing to do.

So firstly, let me assure you of something. You are not alone in working for a suitcase! I see so many people i.e. Personal Profiles on Facebook doing this. Secondly, I want you to understand why it's important for you not to promote yourself working for a suitcase!

Whenever anyone has the suitcase icon or default community page as their ‘place of work' it’s a missed marketing opportunity. It means you’re losing traffic to your Business Page – or worse still, you're giving it away to your competitor. Urgh! Sorry, as a commercial person, this makes me feel sick! Anyway, this tiny oversight is a BIG missed opportunity! Trust me on this!

If users are searching and finding your Personal Profile on Facebook, you want to make it as easy as possible for users to find your Business Page as well. You see savvy Facebook users will automatically LIKE your Business Page if you're connected. They'll expect it to be there as a link! They're interested in what you do. So put it on a plate for them. Make it easy for them as they're time poor. If you don't, within seconds they'll lose interest and hop onto another page!

Changing your Facebook suitcase icon to your Page

Go to your Facebook Profile and check whether you have any “Employers” listed. If you do, check to see whether they're linking to your Facebook Business Page or whether they're directed to a default Facebook Community Page? If they're linking to the Community Page (suitcase icon), see below, it’s best to delete the current listing i.e. the Community Page from your Work and Education section in your About area (click Edit in the About section), then add in the correct Facebook Page and recreate it.

Remember, when you're typing in your business name, type it EXACTLY as your Business Page is named. In some cases a drop down menu appears (you can then select the proper entry), but this may not happen in all cases. Once saved, your Business Page’s thumbnail image should appear in place of the default suitcase/briefcase icon.

Here's how to do it all via video.

So I wish you well with this. Please let me know how you get on with changing your suitcase icon to your Business Page and please share your experiences and feedback in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Come say hello if you haven't done on my Facebook Page too. Finally, thank you, as always for reading, watching and contributing here. If you've found this useful, please just go ahead and share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

November 27, 2012

5 ways to solve the ‘no time for social media’ challenge

By JaneFrankland | business start ups, Established business, Marketing, New business, Sales, social media | 4 Comments

Social media for sales and business growth

I rarely make a bet, but now I’m going to. How many of you at first glance, thought that using social media wouldn’t take up much of your time? I bet the vast majority. Most people start with either Facebook or Twitter, so I'd wager that at some point you thought, ‘surely sending a few Tweets can't take long can it? The posts are limited to just 140 characters, right?' WRONG!!!

Social media is a very time intensive process if you don’t handle it in the right way. The main problem with it is that social media happens in real time, like a conversation. Individual items might not take much time, but they happen all the time. As much as multitasking is applauded (especially by women, who use it the most), continuously going back to social media throughout the day can seriously hamper your overall productivity. Check out my post on multi-tasking for the low down!

So what’s the solution? Well it’s actually quite simple, and I genuinely speak from experience. You see, I too have suffered from social media overwhelm. And in order to get a grip on it, I've had to look at it in a very strategic and process orientated way. I know those words may sound too formal for many of you, but it's true. In order to avoid social media overwhelm and maintain productivity, the solution I found was to automate my social media marketing as much as possible. By taking care of my postings all at once, I freed up the rest of my day to work on other things. Then all I had to do was to check in at scheduled times so I could engage and respond to my prospects and customers, in other words – YOU!

So here's my advice. In order to ensure that you’re not spending all your time on your social media marketing, there are a few steps you should take:

1. Decide on your objective. Agree upfront what you want to achieve by using your chosen social media platforms. Only by setting the objective, can you measure the results and determine whether the campaign has been effective.

2. Develop a strategy. Start by determining which social media platforms to use, and how to use them. Each social media network has its own personality and its own function and you’ll need to decide which is the best for your market. You’ll want to focus your efforts on the social media platforms that will deliver the best return on your time investment. Sadly you can’t just copy the same content to every social media site without being penalized. You'll need to understand the merits of each platform and what makes them unique. Once you’ve got this sussed you can then decide when to post.

3. When to post. You’ll be scheduling your social media posts in advance, so you’ll need to set them for times when they’ll be most effective. You’ll therefore need to research when your followers are most likely to be online and engaging with your social media.

4. Choose the right automation tools. There are a number of tools that allow you to automate your social media marketing. Many are free, or at least offer basic functions for free with the option of adding more features through a paid account. Hootsuite is by far my favourite and you can use it to manage multiple social media platforms.

5. Consider your ability to engage and respond. Social media is a social platform and so you really don’t want your social media efforts to look automated or robotic. Social media is still about interacting with people so make sure you only schedule posts when you’re available to respond. Set up notifications to let you know when someone does reply to an automatic post so you can respond in a timely manner. This will set you apart from the crowd and enhance your relationships.

I know that by following these steps you can manage your social media marketing to full effect without suffering from social media marketing overwhelm.

As many of you know, I'm experienced in start-ups without capital, but please tell me about your experiences with social media marketing, as every business is unique. I'm so interested to hear how well you're doing with your social media. Please share your experiences and feedback on ways to solve this issue as so many face it in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Finally thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends and check out another blog I have on ways to build your authority for your brand using social media including how to generate a lead.

With love and gratitude – as always,

November 23, 2012

How much does it cost to generate a lead?

By JaneFrankland | Marketing, Sales, social media | 2 Comments

The secret of effective lead generation

How much does it cost to generate a lead is a question that is so often NOT asked. When someone asked me recently, I felt embarrassed to say I didn’t actually know how much it was costing me to generate a lead. Oops! And, I’ve been in business a long time – and sales! I'm used to tracking all costs, including cost of sale, but like I said, I was embarrassed to say I didn’t know what it cost to generate a lead. When I asked my peers though, many of whom work for large global brands in sales and marketing departments (as Directors) they too were unable to answer the question. Quite frankly I was horrified as this really is, in my opinion business basics 101. Why then are so many business owners not tracking this statistic and metric for lead generation?

Well one of the reasons could be because many business owners buy in leads or data and are not proactively working to generate a lead. The other reason could be because they already have a database to work from. Despite these possibilities, in my opinion it doesn’t explain why so few are tracking, monitoring and analysing the costs to generate a lead.

These days there are many ways to generate a lead for your business. For example you can use traditional ways such as telemarketing, direct mail, PR, blogging, and trade shows, or go down the social media and online route. Having built businesses and sales teams for 18 years, I know from first hand experience that the costs for these channels have continued to increase year-after-year. And, for starts-up without investment and capital or small creatives these costs are just not fathomable.

In the case of direct mail, the cost for printing and postage continues to increase and because of this so few can actually afford to do it. Whilst email marketing is far from dead, many are still not opened or are binned before being opened. Likewise, telemarketing and PR are time-intensive and sometimes equally expensive processes that can be ineffective if not done strategically. Trade shows have been getting more expensive to participate in for years and when you calculate the cost of travel, elaborate exhibition booths, and branded promotional materials it often works out as a no brainer in terms of not doing it.

What are the best lead generation techniques?

As a result of this, many creative businesses and start-ups have turned to the Internet as a means to generate a lead in a more cost-effective and productive way. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Google + and Linkedin have proved very viable methods for obtaining clean data from an authentic audience that’s engaged and interested. To me that’s exciting as many business owners and marketers have yet to experience the online marketing benefit of their blog and social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).

When done right, these social media platforms can play vital roles in enhancing your company’s search engine rankings, brand positioning and for generating a lead. It’s easy to position your company as an expert within your industry and also to convert website visitors into qualified leads and prospects who are interested in learning more about your product or service! And, once you’ve identified your cost to generate a lead, you’ll then be able to lower your cost per lead.

As many of you know, I'm experienced in start-ups without capital, but please tell me about your experiences with this, as every business is unique. I'm so interested to hear how well your marketing efforts are performing and how you're leveraging the lead generation power of your blog and social media. Please share your experiences and feedback on ways to generate a lead in the comments below as I’d love to hear. Finally thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends and check out another blog I have on ways to build your authority for your brand using social media including how to generate a lead.

With love and gratitude – as always,