Thank you for attending The SPEO Training presentation at ALCOSAN!
Didn't take notes? No worries, we've got you covered.
Here are the key takeaways:
Build connections and good content
Take the time to build relationships the old fashioned way. Plan lunches, dinners, board meetings and discussions around topics that matter in your industry. Putting yourself and your company out there in the public is how you start to build brand awareness and legitimacy for your company.
What do you do after you get in front of someone? The best way to start a positive connection is to acknowledge another professional's success or growth. Do your homework before meeting someone by researching their company. See what accolades they have or what they've done in the past to get to where they are now, especially if it relates to your products or services.
But before you do any of this...make sure your digital profile online is accurate and up-to-date. Once you make the connection, they'll likely searching your name and company online afterwards. If you haven't updated your LinkedIn profile or listed your company's phone number on Google, how will they get a chance to contact you if they really wanted to?
Lastly, you’ll want to take all the knowledge you gained from that interaction and share it. People will engage and relate to REAL experiences, and REAL interactions. Nothing fabricated or hypothetical. So after you sit in on a presentation, or listen in on a podcast, attend a conference, or have coffee with a colleague or industry professional try to find a way to share that experience and what you learned from it. The content you create could be an educational blog on your takeaways, a testimonial from a recent client, a monthly newsletter highlighting a new business partner and their company that gets shared with your list of contacts. These are just a few ideas. Once you build your content, share it via email marketing, though your various social media channels, and on your website.
Tips to get started:
- Research local business meet up groups in your area and surrounding cities and fill that calendar
- Become a member in several leading industry professional organizations who host events
- Once you schedule them, do your homework on who is hosting and attending as RSVP's come through
- If you feel comfortable enough; offer to be an educator at an event and put your company in the spotlight
- Update your online profiles in social media, Google listings and any website that lists your company information - you can use a free SEO tool to help find all your listings
- Build content as soon as possible with real life experiences and share it with the world!
Want help managing your online profile and building content? |
Grow the relationships online that you've built in person
Post event follow-up is one of the most crucial steps in building a long lasting relationship. After all the cookies are eaten and the projector turns off, what do you do? If you've planned accordingly, you'll already have the email copy written to send out to the people you've met.
Here are the next steps we suggest:
- IMMEDIATELY take all the business cards you've collected and transfer the information (accurately) into a digital document to organize those contacts - Excel, Google Sheets, or preferably a CRM.
- Send personalized emails to each contact referencing your conversation as well as your knowledge of their company and how it relates to your product and services
- Connect with each person on LinkedIn - send them a personal message and reference your interaction at X event so they don't think you're a stranger!
- If you have any newsletters or blogs, add these emails to your distribution list
- If they have any newsletters or blogs, sign yourself up to receive their updates
- Set a reminder to follow-up with those contacts monthly so that you and your company are always 'top of mind' when it comes to your industry, your brand and your expertise
Need help with setting up that plan? |
You're website is a tool... Use it wisely
So your website looks awesome. You've put all your blood, sweat and tears into building it and making it look better than the local competitor, (who used to have a nicer website than you until now!) You're all set, right? Unfortunately, no! That's just the first step into using your website wisely to grow your relationships.
The next step is to take that tool, and use it to your advantage. Think of your website as though it's a printed flyer. If used properly it would be placed in the right building, on a bulletin board in front of a lot of foot traffic with your target audience. Like a flyer, your website placement requires the same amount of attention spent on where it goes to serve it's purpose.
Make a list of where you can (digitally) display your website in front of the largest amount of quality leads that will be interested in what you have to offer. Where do you start? Don't worry, we know and are happy to share:
- Social Media - use your social channels to easily share pages on your website including blogs that you write, whitepapers to download, case studies and more
- Email Marketing - remember that list of contacts you started building from all of the networking events? Send weekly or monthly emails to them showcasing various content displayed on your website. You can still make it personal and targeted but make sure to include those links to your website!
- Partnerships - Referrals are the best form of advertising, right? You can get referral traffic to your website the same way! Find out which companies, organizations and groups who can list your website on their website to piggy back on visitors that are already online
- Search Engine Listings - Everyone knows Google. Did you know that Google my business is Google's favorite product to display business information? If Google likes it, that means you should too. Make sure that if someone is searching your products online you will show up in the top search results. If you aren't paying for advertising make sure to have your listing filled out 100% with pictures, videos and reviews. That's the next best thing, and it's free.
Need help getting your website out there? |
You've done it all up until this point and you're getting calls and emails! Now let's find out from where....
You're answer is found within data analytics tracking. The last step we'll be covering is how to set up, track and use the data on your website to make smarter decisions about your next plan of attack on topics for your content. Besides, who wants to do guess work anymore and still be wrong? We certainly don't and neither should you.
What is Google Analytics and where do you start? We can help with that, but first, here is a story to put your mind in the right direction for when we do...
Dave owns a local bank and is trying to get new customers. He opened the bank 10 years ago, grew very quickly by word of mouth, handled all of his customers the right way and flourished for years without having to invest in much advertising or focus on marketing. Now he's seeing a drop in new customers and has tried to use word of mouth but it's just not working like it used to. Dave has a website and it has all of the various offers on it, each having their own landing page (since he heard that helps with his SEO...or something like that.) He knows people are visiting the website because he hears compliments about it throughout his day and with existing customers. How can he help grow his new customer base and use all the tools he has without reinventing the wheel? You're absolutely right, Google Analytics.
To find out more on how to get started with Google Analytics, well... here's a good start!
These are all examples of how analytics will help you make smart decisions about marketing and how to leverage that marketing to grow long lasting relationships. These tools were created to help you every step of your journey with new and existing customers. We are happy to help get you set up as well as our services to help you grow.
What is Google Analytics and where do you start? We can help with that, but first, here is a story to put your mind in the right direction for when we do...
Dave owns a local bank and is trying to get new customers. He opened the bank 10 years ago, grew very quickly by word of mouth, handled all of his customers the right way and flourished for years without having to invest in much advertising or focus on marketing. Now he's seeing a drop in new customers and has tried to use word of mouth but it's just not working like it used to. Dave has a website and it has all of the various offers on it, each having their own landing page (since he heard that helps with his SEO...or something like that.) He knows people are visiting the website because he hears compliments about it throughout his day and with existing customers. How can he help grow his new customer base and use all the tools he has without reinventing the wheel? You're absolutely right, Google Analytics.
- If Dave had tracking set up on his website, he'd be able to see which pages specifically were getting visited the most. He would know which offers do his visitors find more interesting than others. Then he would know which offers to mention when promoting the bank, over offers that no one is really interested in.
- Dave would also be able to see where those visitors are coming from and which websites are they visiting before they went to his website. That would give Dave direction on what topics and categories that his visitors like to read such as blog articles they like, certain life moments they are experiencing and even demographic information which is all helpful for him to decide who to talk to and reach to be new customers.
- If Dave had analytics, he would also find out that during the month of December when he thought his customers wanted to read more about loans and credit cards, the data actually showed they were more interested in smart investments and money market accounts prior to the new year! If he would've went off of his gut, he would've been wrong.
To find out more on how to get started with Google Analytics, well... here's a good start!
These are all examples of how analytics will help you make smart decisions about marketing and how to leverage that marketing to grow long lasting relationships. These tools were created to help you every step of your journey with new and existing customers. We are happy to help get you set up as well as our services to help you grow.
Want to really 'accelerate' your growth? |