You may have previously read our blog post on Internet Marketing Strategies TODO List: Allocating time in your schedule to be a part of your online presence or even our SMO Closing Flow Checklist: An Internet Marketing SOP You MUST Incorporate Now.
But times, they are a changing, and we wanted to give you a newer and improved version of this checklist…
Whether you’re trying to master the art of website marketing and social media marketing on your own, or trying to supplement with the guidance of an Internet marketing specialist, you SHOULD be allocating time to your website nearly every day (or at least making it look that way.)
- YOU are the zen master of your own industry and business.
- YOU know best the industry updates, company news & specials and promos.
- YOU know best the tips, tricks & tools of the trade.
- YOU should be a part of getting this info to the world, to your target market. – We no longer look for the news, the news finds us! Be a part of getting your news out!
So, just what should you be doing?
As You Get a New Professional Contact (Power Partner) or Client:
(For businesses just staring on their social media, this would include past clients as well. Referrals and upsells are easier than converting new leads!)
- Send a welcome email including links & options to/for the following:
(Note: If you draft up the welcome email, I can add in the custom icons, etc if needed.)- Follow you on Twitter
- Like your business page on Facebook (or friend your personal page
- Connect with you on LinkedIn (especially for professional connections!)
- Subscribe to your newsletter or blog
- Friend us on Youtube
- Review us Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, BBB, etc.
- Add VALUE. Be sure to offer a promo for this work. This small gesture will keep people engaged in actively serving as your salesman. By constantly getting updates about what you offer, your followers may become regular customers or be able to refer their friends and followers as well…if they see value in it. We cant take action with that we don’t know of.And unless it’s in front of us, we cant take action. Offer incentive to get it in front of them. Have them do the work of adding you and subscribing to your updates!
- Add Professional To Database
You may use an existing or preferred CMS like Constant Contact or Campaigner, but if you are looking to save costs right now, you may keep them organized in your email contacts or an excel file like “Professional Members” at https://docs.google.comYou will want to save all those recommended variables on file so you know who to market to according to their categories.
This will also make for easy import into a database in the future if done through an excel file like the one referenced above.
- Follow to be Followed:
- Look them up and connect with them on
- Yelp
- Youtube
- Look them up and connect with them on
- Also engage with them on these platforms:
- Tweet them directly or retweet something of theirs
- Comment on or share something from their Facebook wall.
- Connect (and even recommend) on LinkedIn
- Leave a review or Friend on Yelp
- Friend, Subscribe, or add video to playlist on Youtube
Daily:
- Include Social Candy In Your Signature
Every email you send out should have links to your social profile sin your signature.
Use an automatic tool like WiseStamp to do this automatically for you if you’re using webmail. Or just use your template for offline options like Outlook. - 15 Min on Facebook & Twitter
For one, you may have some questions or conversations waiting for you to reply.
You also want to see whats happened in your stream or wall since the lst time. Who can you help, who can you share info for & with? If you don’t have new info of your own to share, retweet or repost something of value someone else posted. - Blog Posts
Each of your categories should be getting weekly updates, so you need to be blogging to keep up.
Use your keywords in your title, categories, tags, and more. - Calendar Updates
Add events and keep content fresh.
Weekly:
- Get Some Friends
Use Twitter’s Advanced Search to find people who are talking about keywords that may reflect a need for your help. Look for your target market and then connect with them!
You may also find industry experts here who can help you see what they are doing so you can get some ideas for your own campaign. They are also giving you great content that you can retweet giving you relevant content and contributing to the community. Having these experts updating you so you can update your followers means you look more and more like the expert, the specialist, the trustworthy advisor they go to!- Follow to be followed.
If you follow a potential client on Twitter, they get an email that you are following them. Then they can look at your profile with the link and decide if they want to follow you back. How else were you going to get in front of them so easily? Be sure you have some valuable content on your page before you do this or else you wont be followed back.- Be sure to follow your leads and existing clients as well. This is just more opportunity to close the deal faster or get referrals!
- Friend on Facebook.
- Suggest friends like your Facebook Business page.
- Find new friends that are your leads and existing clients.
- Engage In The Community
Once you have friends, engage with them! Talk to people. Answer their questions. Share their information (scratch my back, ill scratch yours.) Help be the expert so that they come to you when ready to buy or refer you when a friend is looking!- Join a LinkedIn group and start a discussion or contribute to another.
- Search for and Answer some questions on Yahoo Answers.
- Follow to be followed.
Monthly:
- Review your Analytics.
Login with Google account.
See where people are coming from.
What are they typing in? Can you maximize on that?
Where are they coming from? Which referring sites do you need to spend more time on? Or which do you need to cancel advertising on? - Send Blog Post Concepts to Copywriter
If you’re not doing you own blogging, you should be providing news, opinions, potential promos & deals and more to your copywriter or marketing coordinator to help facilitate. (Yes, that means to Cal Coast.)- Industry News – Find anything online? In a newspaper? Link out to this news with your opinion so that you appear to be the leading expert and trusted adviser.
- Company News / Branding – New employee? New department? New brochure you want feedback on? New location?
- Promotions, Coupons, Discounts – Holiday deals? Weekend promos? Seasonal options? Don’t have a fully booked weekend? Start a sales for just this weekend! Offer a promo for reviewing your company on Google, Yahoo or Yelp!
- Product / Service Update – New treatment? New upgrade? New anything? This should be added to your site AND featured in a blog post, Twitter, Facebook and more!
- Events – Grand Opening? Sale? Seminar? Open House?
- Photos – Events, New Arrivals, Etc.
- Contests & Drawings – Give people a reason to interact with you. Make them connect. Keep them coming back. Offer a free session or promotional item to the 1st 10 people who post on your Facebook. Or random drawing if you follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook, post a comment on our blog, or retweet this call to action. LET them serve as free salespeople getting you referrals by sharing your info through a contest worth sharing! You don’t have to be a beautiful writer. Just include some topics and some notes with opinions when applicable.
- Schedule Tweets
Using an application like Hootsuite, you can schedule your tweets for the month at once! Know you’re going to be an event, have the details? Schedule a post to meet you there on the day before (and of) that the event is held. That’s right, you don’t have to go on Twitter EVERY day. But we still encourage it. 🙂 - Video
If you aren’t doing it weekly, you should be creating and posting a video to YouTube monthly. (Ok. ok, even quarterly is better than NOTHING.)
Why? – CLICK HERE for “7 Reasons to Use Online Video to Promote Your Business.”
This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A web cam is acceptable in today’s professional world. How about a “Saturday Coffee With InsertNameHere” where you talk about anything and everything form the above list.As soon as you upload a video to YouTube, be sure to use the YouTube Bulletin feature to let all your subscribers know you have a new video ready for them to view! A Bulletin is similar to a status update on other social networks, such as Facebook.
Posting a Bulletin after uploading your video will help increase the visibility of your new video to subscribers who have opted out of notification emails alerting them when a new video is posted.
- Add SMO Candy to Your Offline Marketing
Be sure your twitter, facebook, linkedin & other profiles are easily accessible on any new marketing materials like banners, business cards, brochures, INVOICES and more. - Local – Site, Google, Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook
How to add your company review options & social media connections to your daily operating procedures… - Get Testimonials
Whether its for your website itself, or a review in Google, Yahoo or Yelp, it will HELP!A review on an outside site will help you rank better in the local results.
A positive review or testimonial will help users make a decision about trusting you and choosing you!
If a client has not offered one on their own, ask them about their experience. Transcribe as they talk and ask them if you can type that up to get approved and add it to your site.
- Get Referrals
While you have them on the site getting feedback about their experience, be sure to see if there is anyone else who would benefit from your help! Offering an incentive for closed referrals can also help! - Share Examples on Site & Other Online Profiles like FB, twitter, etc.
These simple tasks can easily be integrated into your closing flow.
Heck, even train an intern to do it!
