Last week GoDaddy founder, Bob Parsons, shot and killed an elephant in Zimbabwe and posted the video on his blog. As you may expect there was a huge backlash. Within hours of the posting, a leading competitor, NameCheap.com launched a coupon campaign that provided a large discount to anyone who wanted to “support elephant rights” and transfer to them. This competitive move took only a few hours and while the results of the campaign are still to be determined, the point is that the market responded to an action within hours.
Everything in Marketing Has Changed.
Hours, really? Indeed! On top of that recent studies show more than 82% of all purchases start online, and that percentage for pure B2B sales is well over 50%. This raises the question for you and your business:
Are you using Social Media with your website as the hub of your online and offline marketing?
These two examples show that your market and prospects have changed. And dramatically so. Are you losing ground? Are you using Social Media channels to attract and engage your prospects? Are your website and Social Media campaigns targeting your top 15-20 keyword phrases? Are you becoming overwhelmed and getting left behind?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, here are 7 ways you can start catching up. Things you can start right now to get back in the game:
- Discover the top 15-25 Keyword Phrases that are most important to your business.
- Make sure your website is up-to-date and focuses on/is optimized for these Keyword Phrases. An ongoing series of blog articles is an easy way to accomplish this.
- Provide a way for your website visitors to give you their contact information (lead capture) in exchange for some quality a special report or white paper that solves one of their issues or clarifies their needs.
- Become a part of leading associations and organizations that your prospective clients are a part of AND list those groups on your website. When possible ask these organizations for a link back to your website.
- Develop content that demonstrates your organization’s expertise and strengths.
- Locate and join in the online discussions your clients and prospects are currently engaged. Quick tip: Have you considered using LinkedIn to find these conversations?
- Develop content and host activities that help solve your client’s and prospect’s core issues. Online events like webinars or creating special reports that feature leading experts or showcase new products your prospects are interested in or are required to have are great places to start.
Once you start getting back in the game, you will want to monitor your results by checking your web traffic and tracking what is being said about your company in the conversations on the various Social Media channels. You may even want to snoop on a few of your close competitors to see what is being said to and about them as well. Then you can jump on a current event like NameCheap.com did and leverage the news and emotions surround it.
This isn’t your old school marketing anymore. It’s much quicker and more engaging than ever.
Don’t get left behind. Let us help you.
We have courses that show you how to keep up with the new way of marketing, or if you simply do not have the bandwidth to do anymore yourself, we can do these things for you. The choice is yours.