CLIPSED

How To Ethically Brainwash Your Clients Like Apple Does With Social Media

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 12:00:00 +1100

Do you know of those companies out there who seem to have mind control over their customers? Don’t you hate how resolutely loyal they seem to their brands? You might be thinking, “oh well, my company will never be another Apple”, but believe it or not, this sort of behaviour can be replicated, if you condition it in a certain way in your target market. No, you might not have the reach that Apple does, but if you can do it with your target market, what does it matter?

Do your customers trust you?

This is a key question that doesn’t get asked enough when it comes to sales and marketing. When you make claims, what sort of response do you get? If you’re finding that people just don’t believe you, then this is a great opportunity to utilise social media to break through that barrier of distrust and to forge some iron-cast relationships that can support your brand and your organisation. Social media can help you achieve this, not only through it’s inherent support desk functionality, but because it allows you to bring a human aspect to an otherwise cold, listless, boring appearance.

Trust me…

There are so many cases of lonely, love-starved people who are for all intents and purposes quite intelligent, who get the wool pulled over their eyes and have thousands of their hard earned dollars fleeced by contacts they’ve met over the Internet on an online dating site.

While we here at CLIPSED in no way condone trusting strangers online, the fact that this can happen does show you a few things: you can build relationships with people you haven’t met before, you can ask them to give you things in return for something else and you can make them fall in love with you (to some extent).

Have something to like

The final step to make this all possible is of course to create the ultimate Unique Selling Proposition, the irresistible offer that will make your target market respond and establish a relationship with you. This does take a considerable amount of time to accomplish, so please don’t rush it. When you do identify something that does work really well for your organisation, be sure to test it too and improve on it.

Apple didn’t build their empire in a day. They are only the way they are now through a lot of testing, many failures and a lot of money being sunk into what’s now a unique company that delights its target market on a regular basis. If you want people to rave about your upcoming products, your service offerings and your brand, what you have to do is create something they will love and engage with them on a human level. CLIPSED can help you do this. Check out our current social media campaign to understand to a better level just what we do and how we can help you dominate your market.

3 Things You Have To Do With Your Facebook Likes To Profit From Social Media

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:01:08 +1100

There is no doubt that social media is one of the key trends to bring online marketing to the next level. From a company’s perspective, one of the main metrics that defines social media success are the number of likes and shares that a company page can get. This is a great way to increase brand awareness and to appear like you are bigger than you actually are but there is an opportunity that many businesses and organisations are missing out on.

1. Try to get their contact details

Even though you acquire their email address by getting the “like” from a fan, it’s always a good idea also to try and get them to explicitly provide their contact email to you as well. This is because they will be expecting something by email if they fill in their details for you.

While you can simply contact them by their Facebook email, most people don’t realise that they do give their email to the page that they like, so this makes them feel like they are being spammed. It’s a better way to establish a relationship by asking for it.

2. Set up a communication sequence

This is where most organisations fall flat on their face. Many people are simply not ready to purchase from you when they initiate contact. This is why it’s important to drip-feed them information that allows them to slowly get to know you and take their own time to decide whether your product is right for them or not.

The best way to do this and automate it is by email. This means that you don’t just simply send them a one off email and wait for the sales to roll in. Like I said in the first paragraph, it’s about cultivating a relationship.

3. Tighten up your processes

Marketing is not for flair or awareness in the long run. Everything has to be trackable and you have to know whether what you’re doing is effectively driving more business to your organisation. This is why you have to track the response rates from the emails you’re sending out, the open rates for the emails in the first place, as well as how you can increase the conversion rate of people who are giving you their email in exchange for your free offer.

These three things are what turn your social media into a true marketing campaign that gives a solid, definable ROI. It might seem difficult to start off with, but you’re going to be light-years ahead of your competition if you’re able to do this while they’re still paying for doctored likes.

We here at CLIPSED have a combined 30 years experience in marketing and technology and we have developed a platform that can help you turn likes into revenue. Call us on 1300 885 772 to find out more how you can do this properly and cost-effectively.

The Secret To Social Media Success: Don’t Follow Convention

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:01:39 +1100

There are a lot of people who are trying to make social media work. Most of the people focus on “getting their name out there”, trying to get as many likes, shares and retweets as possible. This approach is flawed and will never work out well. That’s because you’re not leveraging the way that social media is meant to work. In this article, I will explain to you just what social media is for (it’s not what you think) and how you can approach it so that it is a viable business building tool.

1. Social. Media.

It consists of two words, “social” and “media”. Stay with me here. How do you socialise? If you are like any normal, healthy human being, then you will know that socialising entails doing things like: being friendly, getting to know someone, sharing interests, etc. Media here of course implies the method in which you are being social, notably online.

Just like you can make some believe you, you can’t make someone like you. There has to be something inherently likeable about you that makes them click that little thumbs up button.

2. Build relationships not customer databases

Facebook is not like LinkedIn. It’s a social network for everyday people who want to use the media to look at pictures of friends, catch up with people who they haven’t seen in a long time and so on and so forth. That’s why when you bring your organisation online, the main thing that you have to do is be human.

Granted this is somewhat difficult for an organisation who chooses to be “professional”, this is an important aspect if you want to make it work. The key here is to choose someone to be the face of the company and to be consistent with them.

3. Stay in touch

Some people think that getting the “like” or the “share” is enough and that that means the social media campaign has been deemed a success. That could not be any further away from the truth. You have to cultivate the relationship, like I mentioned in the previous point.

This means continually giving them freebies, informative articles, sessions where they can ask you questions personally, that sort of thing. By doing this properly, you will be able to forge a relationship with complete strangers you’ve never met even better than in person.

Social media is being done completely backwards by most companies. They simply see it as a platform to get their brand up and out there. Forget about acquiring likes. Be human. Share and you will get people who want to receive. Give out more than you take in and your page will be popular in no time.

CLIPSED is a social media marketing agency that helps organisations with their social media campaigns. Click here to check out of their most recent campaigns to see what their platform is all about and how you can use it profitably.

How To Promote Your Events On Facebook And Get People To Come

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:00:57 +1100

One of the biggest fears of people who run events is to pour a lot of money into promotions and find that on the day, there is a sub par response. It is especially depressing when you find out that you could have gotten a better response if you put in a bit more effort into the right factors that truly swing response in social media. Perry Marshall, a renowned marketing consultant based out of Chicago, has a great saying to illustrate this, “tiny hinges swing huge doors”. Here’s how to get a great turnout to your event through the tiniest “hinge”, the Facebook like.

1. Have a great offer of something there on the day

This might seem rather basic, but people come to events because there are things there to be seen. The Melbourne Motor Show for 2013 will not happen because there is falling attendance. People are going online to shop instead of turning up in person to do so. This was a great offer back 10 years ago, but not now. Have a great offer that resonates with your audience and is in line with current trends.

2. Continually promote the event with ongoing communications

There are a lot of people who think that when they sell a ticket, that’s all they need to do with regards to getting people to come. What about the people who were thinking of coming but weren’t given a good enough reason to take the plunge? These people represent a big section of the market that cost very little to turn into customers. The key here is to reach out to them, whether by email or snail mail, build a relationship and turn them into customers.

3. Give people who are coming incentives to bring other people

Referrals from other people are some of the easiest new customers to get. They are low-hanging fruit that don’t get targeted enough. Social media is a great way to share an event and make sure that people who aren’t actively within the circle of promotion of the event organiser are actually reached due to the virtue of the fact that they are accessible through the newly acquired customer. Simply get them to mention this in their Facebook/Twitter feed and to share it with friends.

People often think that getting massive numbers is an overnight thing. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to actually get big numbers. Incremental efforts will get the big numbers in and social media can be used to build these incremental efforts one upon the other.

CLIPSED is a digital marketing agency that helps people get numbers towards their events. Call us for a no obligation, free consultation about how we can help drive people towards your event and to make sure that there is a great turn out. We can help you discuss offer creation, promotion and management. Check out our current campaign here.

How To Use The Power Of Stories to Supercharge Your Brand On Twitter

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:01:00 +1100

How To Use The Power Of Stories to Supercharge Your Brand On Twitter

Stories are the oldest form of communication. There are records from ancient Egypt in the form of hieroglyphics that detail the history of what happened thousands of years ago. To this day, if you tell someone a story, it is infinitely more engaging than writing a traditional sales piece. So just how do you tell the story in 140 characters or less? Plus, how do you tell a story that is engaging about your company that will resonate with your clients and make them stay loyal to you and only you?

1. Hardship

People love a good story that starts off with someone who has been through several trials and tribulations. What do Batman and Spiderman have in common? They are orphans. Do you think it’s any coincidence that even to this day, in the 21^st century, they are still beloved heroes for young and old who want to relate to the hardship they have been through?

What is appealing about hardship is the triumph. It also means that you’re humbler. Humility allows you to engage with your fans better and in a world with so little trust, that’s what consumers crave.

2. Curiosity

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it cultivated the interest. It has been proven that curiosity is a far more powerful emotion to incite action than actual desire to purchase. That’s why on game shows, you will find that people, time and time again, will choose the “mystery box” over the certain cold, hard cash.

In the Twittersphere, this is a lot easier to do. In 140 characters or less, write powerful headlines that make your readers want to click and find out more. Get to know them intimately, their deepest and darkest fears and desires and they will take action.

3. The Evil Villain

With every good story there is always a bad guy. This might seem rather childish, but by including some sort of “evil” that you’re fighting against, you will make yourself and your brand appear more relatable to your clients and customers. If you can somehow make the villain of your brand the same villain as your target clients, this will draw your client base even closer to you.

So there you have it. Story telling can be done through Twitter, it just takes some skill to pull it off in 140 characters. Just remember that if you focus on hardship (build on writing better headlines that get clicks), curiosity (the secret “X Factor” that will make people forgo certainty for something potentially more) and the evil villain (the people who you love to hate), you will be able to harness the power of stories to supercharge your brand on Twitter.

CLIPSED can help you do this. Simply give us a call on 1300 885 772 and we can help you create your organisation’s story and market it through Twitter.

10 Steps To Supercharge Gym Membership Numbers With CLIPSED

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:00:50 +1100

10 Steps To Supercharge Gym Membership Numbers With CLIPSED

CLIPSED has been helping gyms boost the new customer numbers with its innovative approach to getting referrals. Individual gyms to large, franchised fitness networks have all used CLIPSED with great success getting a positive return on investment. CLIPSED has provided a brief guide on how its current clients are using it effectively.

Make regular updates to your Facebook page

It all starts with a powerful offer. You get referrals through CLIPSED by promoting this to your current clients. You do so by keeping them updated through Facebook. You can also try paid Facebook ads for increased exposure.

If you have a Twitter account…

Put this offer on Twitter as well. Some people prefer communicating on Twitter. It takes seconds to Tweet about your new offer. If this Tweet gets you one new customer, then it would be the best time you’ve ever spent on your business.

If you have a Facebook banner, point it towards the competition

The Facebook banner at the top of your page is prime real estate to advertise current offers you’ve got going. For professional design to make the Facebook banner more prominent, contact info@CLIPSED.com to see how we can help.

If you have a website…

You should make a new post/page promoting this offer so that people who are visiting your website are aware of it as well. You could also use banners as well.

If you have staff, make them share it and learn how to use it

Your staff should become your promotional ambassadors and should be able to use the software, including knowing how to respond to people who come through as new leads.

Tell your customers about the platform…

Want more word of mouth referrals? Start talking about it yourself! This is one of the first things you should do. It’s also a great way to establish a real relationship with your clients face to face. To systemise this, use a script.

…And encourage them to take part in it

Telling your customers about the promotion/powerful offer is half of the task done. The other thing that you have to do is to ask them to take action.

Print posters, cards and flyers and display it at the front

To keep the promotion top of mind, let all your customers know by printing out posters, cards and flyers and displaying them around the gym.

Encourage it at the point of sale

Customers have to be told multiple times about a promotion if you want them to take action. If you encourage them when they pay you for something, they will be more receptive and more likely to take action.

Turn sales staff into helpful teachers

No one likes being told what to do, however, people like being kept in the know. If you let people know that they can use CLIPSED to gift free passes to their friends, they’re going to feel like you’re doing this to help them.

If you would like assistance in putting these 10 steps into play to get an ROI for your business, don’t hesitate to contact CLIPSED today.

The Social Media Confession – It’s OK If You Can’t Turn “Likes” Into Customers

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:01:09 +1100

We here at CLIPSED talk a lot about ROI and getting the bang for your buck when it comes to social media marketing. There is another side of this argument that we haven’t begun to address yet and that’s the opinion that social media doesn’t necessarily have to be for pure monetary profit.

Too often do “likes”, “shares” and “retweets” get compared to clicks through Google AdWords or impressions from banner ads. The simple truth of the matter is that it’s not. They’re not even called the same thing, so why should we treat them the same way? Social media is social for a reason: it’s used to engage with people and to turn them into friends.

Now, granted this isn’t possible to the fullest extent, especially when you’re online, but there are several advantages of social media that you will never be able to garner through online advertising platforms:

1. Turn Public Opinion

On the fourth of February, 2012, there was an article published on financialstandard.com.au about the increasing relevance of social media for financial planners. From a marketer’s point of view, social media and financial planning are as perfect a fit as oil and water, but if you look a bit deeper, there is logic that suggests otherwise.

The Reader’s Digest for 2012 published a list of the most trusted professions, narrowing it down to a list of 40. Paramedics were #1 and telemarketers were #40. Can you guess where financial planners were? #28. Not terrible but not good enough, especially for a discipline that’s actually very beneficial to most families.

Baz Gardner, who gave the opening address at Summit for advisers said that social media gives an unprecedented opportunity for advisers to turn this public opinion around, which is crucial. It can be used to dispel the myths surrounding the industry and make people more receptive to attempts to engage with them.

2. It’s Used For Communicating

Again, it’s called social media for a reason. It’s used to socialise. What is a key tenet of socialising? Communicating! There are so many businesses, companies and organisations out there that would kill to be in the position that so many other brands are in where they have a substantial fan base that attempts to make contact with them often.

Social media has a sense of immediacy and has been adopted by companies like Virgin Australia who are using it for their support over more traditional online mediums. In a day and age where it’s increasingly important to retain all customers, addressing problems quickly is going to be the key factor in who is the last man standing in your industry. Will you use social media to keep you floating?

3. It’s Part Of A Broader Funnel

There are very few things that can be sold by social media directly. Few companies have utilised it effectively but for the majority of companies out there, it’s more of a peripheral add-on as opposed to a crucial component of their overall marketing strategy.

One of the key ways of using social media profitably is to forget about getting more “likes” and to try and turn your existing ones into email leads that you can get into contact with directly.

If you want some help with your social media strategy to build your followers or to turn your existing followers into customers by establishing a sales funnel, email CLIPSED or check out our current campaign now.

This is a case study of our most recent success stories, GoVita....

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:12:00 +1100

This is a case study of our most recent success stories, GoVita. You can’t argue with numbers and we are proud to say that CLIPSED and GoVita’s success is proven here.

How To Run Facebook Competitions That Turn Fans Into Customers

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:01:21 +1100

There are a lot of people who are really good at turning Facebook visitors into followers. These people know what online visitors are looking for. However, there is one thing that they might have trouble with and that’s turning these visitors into customers. This is partially due to the fact that a lot of people who like things on Facebook are simply after freebies. A page may have thousands of people who like a page, but when you try to engage them, the response may be abysmal. Here’s how to boost your response to turn followers into customers.

1. Always Start Small

This is a great way to qualify the people who are on your page and to find out if they have any ability to spend. There’s no point rolling out a big campaign only to find out that most of the people who have liked your page are teenagers who only get a couple hundred dollars a fortnight.

Even if you just publish a short report and try and sell that for $10, offering advice from a consultant (i.e. yourself), it’s a great way to learn more about the people who have actually liked your page and to see whether they have capacity to spend any money whatsoever.

2. If They Will Buy, They Will Share

From here, it’s a good idea to try and expand this out a little bit further to see if there is a possibility that your offer can be shared to bring in new people who weren’t followers. With the cost of customer acquisition being so high nowadays, it’s quite hard to get new customers through traditional online media, such as banner advertising or even Google AdWords.

To give them an incentive to share the offer with their friends, what you have to do make it easy for this to occur. Make the link attractive and make what they get in return for referring their friends to you something that will make them put in the effort to find someone to send your link to.

3. Snowball

Steps One and Two should always be used for new followers, but for people who have proven their worth by buying into your preliminary offer and by referring you to their friends, you can now upsell and cross-sell them to additional products. Ramp up your efforts to create something that is appealing to this more value section of your customers and you’ve got yourself a very reliable way to bring revenue into your business.

It’s definitely difficult to find offers you can create to turn fans into customers. CLIPSED has a sample campaign up you can use to learn about how you can engage your followers and turn them into loyal customers. Click here to check it out now.

How To Use Social Media To Boost The ROI Of Your Existing Online Marketing

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:01:12 +1100

One of the most important things about online marketing that actually makes it an attractive prospect to people who want to try to find new customers online is the fact that it’s easy to measure. Unlike offline marketing that might use brochures, word-of-mouth, billboards, etc, you can measure impressions, clicks, even time spent on a page if you’d like. Pay Per Click Advertising has really spurred on the notion that online marketing now has to be measurable before the marketing manager can spend his advertising budget on it.

One of the hardest things about making social media work is the fact that it’s somewhat hard to track. Sure, there are “likes”, “shares” and “retweets”, but one of the hardest things is attaching financial value to each of these so-called metrics. There is a way that it can be implemented to be profitable immediately and that is by tying it in with existing marketing campaigns. In this article, I’ll show you how social media can be used to boost existing online marketing.

1. Linking To An Opt In vs. Linking To A “Brochure” Page

There are a lot of people right now who are utilising Facebook or Google Pay-Per-Click to drive online visitors to their company Facebook Page. That’s all very well and good, getting a lot of exposure for your brand, but it’s terribly ineffective when it comes to looking at whether the dollars you’re investing into advertising are bringing friends back to you.

This is because there are usually a lot of things to do on your company page. There are posts, pictures, things you can like, comment on, etc. Some company pages do a little bit better by having a “like us” before the visitors get to see the rest of company page. There is one more thing you can do that’s even better than that and that’s to capture name and email.

This is an age-old practice that has been implemented since the start of the Internet with forms you fill in online for information about a certain product or service. Now, it’s better used as a information capturing tool that gets the ever-important email and name after giving a freebie away. Linking to an opt-in form allows you to calculate metrics like opt-ins per ad click through and cost per opt-in.

2. Offer A Preliminary “Nibble” Through Email

Now that you have the prospect’s name and email, you can send through correspondence. Establish the relationship with them that way by sending them through articles and links to your website or Facebook page. This is where another metric is introduced: clicks per email sent. Another relevant metric is percentage of clicks to email opens.

You obviously want to try and get these figures as high as possible because it shows you how well you’re tapping into the needs and desires of your audience. This “nibble” can be in any form: it can simply be a link to an article you’ve written (or that someone else has written), or a link to a report you’re giving away, etc.

3. See If They Bite

This is where the final metric is introduced: downloads/purchases per click. If you are getting a high clicks per email sent but a very poor downloads/purchases per click, this means that you’ve got to look at your value proposition. People aren’t buying whatever is on the other end of that click for some reason.

Drill down to just what your audience is after, so much so going to the extent that you might give them a call (if you have their phone number) if not at the very least emailing them a survey to fill out.

So there you have it. This is how online marketing can support existing marketing. It might seem somewhat convoluted, but if you really want to identify an ROI with your social media efforts, this is what you have to start off with.

Do you want to try and boost your existing online marketing’s ROI with some savvy social media marketing? Click here to check out CLIPSED and its sample campaign now.

How To Become A Key Person Of Influence In Your Industry With Social Media

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:01:16 +1100

More and more of the world’s leaders are taking to the social media digital landscape to garner support from their followers by engaging them where they are. Did you know that as of February 2013, there is at least one influential, political leader from a country in each of the six “power” continents (every continent bar Antarctica) who uses social media in some form? Some of these leaders are even circumventing their government’s own firewall in an effort to bond with their people.

You may not be such a hot shot in your industry yet, but if you can see the value of connecting with your audience on one extra medium, then that’s one way that you are establishing a relationship with them that your competitors are not doing. This article will run through a specialised strategy you could use to firstly grow your influence in your chosen industry and then secondarily, how to capitalise on that influence by turning your followers into advocates.

1. Appear As A Guest On Important Media In Your Industry

This is unfortunately the hardest part. However, if you do this part well, then this is going to pay off extremely well when it comes time to utilising social media to make it all work.

You’ve got to make an effort to “get yourself out there”. People have to respect your opinion and what that means is that you have to say some strategically divisive things. If you don’t stand up for anything, you stand don’t stand out at all.

The Justin Bieber Effect

A great example of this is the Canadian pop star, Justin Bieber. In 2011, to mark his 17^th birthday, started a campaign on mycharitywater.org to raise $17,000 USD to help those in need who needed fresh drinking water. He raised the amount within hours and smashed his goal, raising $47,148 all together, with people still cramming through the website four months afterwards to donate money.

Now, it’s safe to say that he isn’t everyone’s favourite vocalist, but with every delirious fan, there is at least one to two haters. He has had bottles thrown at him while being on stage. Granted you don’t have to have bodyguards protecting you from people who want to slice off your fingers joint by joint, but you can’t have intensely loyal fans without having people at the opposite end of the spectrum as well.

2. Align Your Values With Your Fans

Mr Bieber did this well. Any well-meaning person wants to think that they are a decent, charitable individual, so when there is an opportunity to directly align themselves with their most favourite pop idol, they jumped at the chance.

Many businesses do not use charities well enough to springboard their business into the hearts of their customers and loyal followers. Major companies do this under the umbrella of Corporate Social Responsibility. If the big guys do it, why shouldn’t you?

3. Blend In With Commercial Initiatives

This is where you can start bringing in your own goods and services. This is contrarian, but it’s why it works so well. So many companies are rushing to try and promote themselves first that consumers are tuning them out before their first tweet. Earn the trust of your customers, fans and followers first and they will proudly beat your brand’s drum for you.

Even when you do start doing this, be careful that you do balance out value-based social media communications with commercial interests. It’s better to err on the safe side and use social media more to connect with your followers instead of blatant promotion.

If you would like some direction in helping you strike the perfect balance between values-based, engaging content and commercially effective social media communications, visit the CLIPSED social media campaign to see our approach.

How To Bring Apple's Cool Factor To Your Social Media Marketing

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:01:14 +1100

Apple has nearly twice the brand penetration as the next most common products in Hollywood – Dell, Chevy and Ford. And the latest Mission: Impossible movie has over eight minutes of screen time for Apple worth $23 million. Yet – Apple says they have never paid for product placement. Instead, it’s a combination of Apple’s ‘cool factor’ and the fact they hand out a lot of free merchandise on set.

With Apple products appearing in more than 890 TV shows in 2011, and 40% of box-office hits – the power of a ‘cool brand’ and free merchandise is undeniable.

Adam Hodge, strategy director for entertainment specialist Octagon, argues that while product placement infiltrating James Bond draws criticism (Heineken footing nearly 1/3rd of the total production cost of Skyfall) - the placement makes 007 more relatable. Apparently the product placement humanises Bond while generating brand awareness.

Apple blogger Steven Sande argues that “When the products are included as part of the scenery of even as part of the story, viewers tend to talk about them on social networking sites, which in turn influences purchasing decisions.” But your brand can save the millions of dollars required for product placement by being seen on the most popular screens of all - Facebook and Twitter feeds on phones, tablets and computers. By providing social networkers with an incentive to share your brand with their friends - you will learn that when a consumer sees your product associated with a friend - they are four times more likely to buy it. Even if that friend isn’t James Bond. Click here for a demo of the social media campaigns CLIPSED is running for leading brands.

Sources:

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=148ff9d02b&view=att&th=13b204695484d6f7&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_h9roud490&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P9Fr_C6Jc5-zAymw_Ihwv4_&sadet=1355204141844&sads=4YwRmYC4E13cVCwwmcofswcxJ18

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/05/14/apple-increasingly-using-product-placement-as-advertising/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/apple-the-other-cult-in-hollywood

http://mumbrella.com.au/brands-the-supporting-cast-of-skyfall-129285

3 Steps To Turn Online Customers Into Evangelists

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:01:21 +1100

Ask any marketing manager and they’ll tell you that the greatest source of additional business for them is their current database of customers. If you were to attach a real, monetary value to all the different tangible and intangible assets of your business, your existing and past customer database would be at the very top, in most cases even ahead of your brand equity.

Why? Because current and past customers are proven sources of income and revenue. You’ve spent the time and money to acquire them. They have already overcome the trust barrier and assuming you don’t do anything silly to jeopardise the client relationship, you will have a relationship that can actually allow you to build your business and increase your revenue quite cost effectively.

If you run some sort of online or e-commerce business and a lot of your customers come through the Internet, there are ways that you can leverage them and turn them into your evangelists that will go out and spread the word about your business. You need to be able to answer these three questions first though before you can do it.

Q1. Do you have a well-cultivated customer database with your current customers’ emails, as well as inactive customers’ emails?

This is crucial. Not only is sending emails to people who aren’t your existing customers spam (if they didn’t ask for direct mail), it’s unprofessional as well. However, if they are your current customers, this isn’t an issue.

What you have to do is create an offer that is attractive to the market, something that hasn’t been seen before and send it out to your current customers. Assuming that this offer resonates with them and that you have limited the offer to increase its perceived value, people will buy into this new offering of yours.

This is the first step. The second step is that instead of having them buy or subscribe now as a call to action, you actually ask them to share the offer. The more they share, the greater chance they get of winning something, say. Track who shares the most and they win.

Q2. Do you have software you can use to monitor and track who is responding best to these offerings?

This is one of the most important things and is especially true if you have a business with a database in the thousands. You can’t go around asking which customer has been referring the most.

A software that can track who has been referring the most will not find who is the eventual winner, but to find who you should reward the most for their evangelical behaviour. There is no better client than a referral from an existing, happy client, which is why you’ve got to track who is referring you the most.

Q3. Do you have the resources to handle the sudden increase in leads, enquiries and customers?

If you ever have to turn away customers because you can’t accommodate them, then you’ve got a problem on your hands. You want to make sure that you can capture all data (especially the data of new customers) and keep marketing towards them. If you can’t, you are shooting yourself in the foot and making it harder for yourself to gain new customers in the future.

If you can answer all three of these questions, you are in a prime position to turn your existing customers into referrers who can bring you extra business. This is how you market on a tight budget and turn online customers into evangelists.

CLIPSED can help you turn your current customers into loyal referrers. To view one of our sample campaigns, click here.

How To Increase Your Monthly Membership Base By 25% Within 14 Days

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:01:09 +1100

Business models that revolve around having monthly members are some of the most stable in any industry. You can accurately predict what your revenue, profit and expense figures are going to be by simply having a look at whom you’ve got signed up and how long they are going to be members for. From there, you’ve got a monthly marketing budget to work with, as well as goals you can set that adjusts with volume.

A strategy that a lot of these membership businesses within these industries are not aware of is that the idea of upselling and cross-selling for additional profits. The beautiful thing about memberships is that they are a great qualifying tool that is used to find people who have the capacity to spend and then from there, there are heaps of ways you can use that idea to increase your overall profitability. I will focus on one way, which is using them to find more monthly members cost-effectively.

One of the best examples of the monthly membership model that works is a gym membership. They usually lock you in for a certain number of months and regardless of whether you go or not, you pay. That’s why I’ll be using a gym for my example. Note that you can apply this strategy to any other industry, as long as it has a monthly membership structure.

1. Have A Decent Offer You Can Create To Get New Members To Join

If you want people to join, you’ve got to offer them value. With a gym, a lot of people need gym gear. The first step would be to send them a promotion for discounted gym gear if they get in before a particular time. With clothes as well, sizes are limited so the faster you respond the better.

2. Send Out An Email To Your Current Customers

Most gyms now have a card that has all their data on file, including email and maybe address as well. This promotion should be coded and sent out to these current customers with the instructions that it should be forwarded to their friends. Of course, there’s got to be incentive for them to do this, so make sure you have some sort of software that will allow you to track all this.

3. Monitor Which Emails Get Scanned The Most

From here on, it’s just a matter of looking at which pocket of customers is doing the most referring and to reward them with the best prize. While there may be an upfront cost of the reward, if you factor that into the cost per qualified referral who actually signs up, assuming you’ve done this correctly, should be quite reasonable.

So there you have it. It’s very easy to increase your monthly membership base by 25% within a fortnight if you craft a good offer that can attract new customers that will be spread around by your current customers after they have been incentivised.

If you’re interested in building your monthly membership, check out the current CLIPSED campaign to learn more about how we can help you do this.

3 Different Ways To More Facebook Supporters For Your Charitable Cause

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +1100

There are hundreds, if not thousands of charities out there. Many of them are quite well known, with volunteers coming out in droves to raise awareness. In Melbourne, we are exposed to a variety of initiatives every year online, in person Daffodil Day, World’s Greatest Shave, Jane McGrath Day, Movember… the list goes on.

These all have massive media exposure and when it comes time to donate, the exponents of these charities will be out in full force. But what about if you want to raise awareness for a cause that’s close to your heart that you’re passionate about that is not well-known?

Social media is a great tool to do this. There are several seemingly insignificant or minor causes that had virtually no exposure that blew up in a matter of days due to some key principles that you can use in your charitable causes.

1. Outrage

It’s no secret that when we receive terrible customer service, we tell more people than if we receive good customer service. This principle becomes magnified when you’re talking about a personal value of yours that gets violated.

Kony was a great example of this in 2012. The warlord in Africa was using child orphans as soldiers and sending them off to their deaths in his mad terrorist attacks.

When knowledge of this made it to Facebook, there was a tidal wave of outrage and news about Kony and how he must be stopped spread like wildfire all over the Internet.

If there is a story as powerful as this one, it should be used in your social media campaigns. It’s an edgy strategy and if done correctly, it can propel your cause to unprecedented heights.

2. The Enemy/Villian

This is related to the Outrage Principle in the sense that people are spurred on more by negative energy than something positive. Social media has empowered many people by giving them a mask that they can hide behind to rile against an enemy.

The “hacktivist” group Anonymous, characterised by individuals wearing Guy Fawkes masks, does this extremely well, hacking into organisations whom they deem to be an enemy to society that should be targeted.

While targeting a person may not be the best possible scenario, a great technique is to personify a concept and turn it into an enemy. For example, with the recent flooding going on in Queensland, campaigns to raise funds to help our fellow Australians could highlight the enemy of mother nature.

A follow on technique to make this work even better is to show the end result of the enemy and the pain it causes. As humans, we are programmed to empathise and if the pain is real enough, people will respond.

3. The Hero

This concept is the final piece of the puzzle that fits in with the above two ideas. When there is an enemy, we want to defeat him. Social Media allows us to band together against a common evil. This concept has been utilised by plenty of websites in different formats.

Change.org is a site that utilises an online petition format whereby people simply put down their full name and other details if required by the organisation that started the petition to turn regular civilians into heroes (at least in their minds). If they can see the end result of their support, that gives them more incentive to help out again next time.

A similar website is IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding website. This website allows people to raise money for their causes and have a page up within hours. To appeal to people who want to contribute different levels of support.

If you can create a situation that makes people feel outraged, define an enemy and turn your prospects into heroes in some way, it’s a very easy method to make your charitable cause grow virally.

CLIPSED is a social media marketing agency that has helped charities generate more followers and likes on their Facebook profiles. To see how we can help build your charity’s awareness, call us on 1300 885 772.

The Power Of A Share

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:49:00 +1100

Why Facebook Sharing Supports Traditional Word-Of-Mouth?

Word-Of-Mouth Marketing has been around for centuries and is one of, if not the oldest forms of marketing. It’s worked well for a long time and continues to be a highly effective way to build businesses. Why does it work so well?

A recommendation from a friend circumvents the trust barrier and allows marketing messages to be framed in a positive light,
If the marketing message is truly compelling, Word-Of-Mouth Marketing can spread quickly (even without the Internet),
It’s cheap and often free!

The only problem is that there are so many marketing messages out there now that word-of-mouth gets lost in the noise.

Then along comes social media with Facebook and Twitter. Word-of-mouth marketing isn’t superseded by social media, it’s actually boosted by it. If your marketing message is already razor sharp, it will be a diamond-tipped blade with the power of social media referrals. Here are three reasons why.

1.The Trust Barrier Is Higher Than Ever

As was alluded in the first paragraph, it’s getting harder and harder to find a new customer due to the high level of competition. It has been said that it can be up to 8 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to market to an existing one.

Trust is the scarcest resource now in this day and age. If you don’t have some sort of marketing strategy that utilises your existing customers to act as evangelists for your brand, then it’s going to be a steeper uphill slog than it is already.

2. Online Virality

The whole reason that people were so excited about social media in the first place was because it acts as an enzyme to speed up the how fast your marketing message spreads. With the simple click of a mouse, something you like or support can be shown to your hundreds of friends.

Compare this with meeting up with friends and telling them about this, or calling them up. People are not going to pick up the phone to call people any more really unless something is really urgent. Online sharing is easier and it’s not the trend, it’s already the norm.

3. It Defines People

If you’re into anthropology or psychology, then Facebook must be fascinating to you for reasons other than looking at cat pictures. It’s a constantly evolving social experiment. Some people seemingly can’t live without it and are literally logged in 24/7.

One of these reasons is that people are narcissists and love to define themselves and show this off to everyone else. By sharing stuff that they like, they are letting people know what sort of person they are and want to be. Your brand should strive to help people reach a higher level. That’s when they’ll be more than happy to share your brand on Facebook.

If you have the marketing message that you think will be shared liked crazy, CLIPSED can help you out. See our sample campaign here. We specialise in social media marketing and running and managing Facebook competitions. Call us on 1300 885 772 to see how we can help you.

3 Steps To Turn 1 Facebook “Like” Into $1

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:14:00 +1100

One of the most important things to do is to hold on to your current customers. Cost of Google clicks is increasing, there is more clutter in general and people just aren’t paying any attention to marketing messages any more.

What this means for you is that there are more and more chances for your money to be lost when you don’t offer more ways for your own clients to make money.

If there is anything keeping you up at night, it’s this. That’s why you’ve got to have your finger on the pulse to find out new ways to keep bringing customers in for your clients.

Social media is one of those things that has been trumpeted as the next best thing since sliced bread but let’s face it: we all know that there is more hype than substance in that fact.

It’s typically very hard to sell this sort of service to your existing clients. They’ve got to be presold on the benefits of using the service, otherwise it’s like pushing a concrete slab up a hill.

One of the things that make social media so hard to sell is that it’s hard to equate a “like” or a “share” with real monetary value. Unlike a Google click or impression which actually costs you something.

If the “like” or “share” actually leads to a sale, then that’s another story. You won’t be able to stop the client from paying you money out of sheer gratefulness.

Of course, this is easier said than done, but it is possible to turn a Facebook Like or Twitter tweet into actual monetary value. This is one strategy to do that.

Step #1: Use Social Media As The Start Of The Sales Funnel

One of the best things about social media is anyone can be social on it. There are a lot of people who may not be so open and need a bit of “massaging” before they’ll even be comfortable to talk with you.

You’ve got to go back to Marketing 101 for this. The first step is to create a strong marketing offer, something that really resonates with them, is irresistible and is unique from any other offering that’s currently out there.

In exchange for this, you request some basic information. At the very least, you should get the prospect’s first name and primary email, but the secret sauce here is completely in the offer. If your offer has the “wow” factor, then they would be more than willing to part with more details. This is crucial if you work in B2B and want to gain access to data like how many employees are in their firm, descriptions of their projects, etc.

One other great way that your offer can ooze with persuasiveness is to limit it in some way, shape or form. For example, if you use time to limit it, quantity or the number of people who can actually fill in their details (and make it believable), then you’re going to get a lot more subscriptions as well.

Step #2: Familiarise Yourself To The Prospect

The next part of this process is to make yourself familiar to the prospect. Drip-feed them with a collection of articles, case studies, videos, white papers and anything else that supports your case.

The idea here is that little by little, they see that there is a compelling case for how you can solve their problem. In each piece that you publish, it’s important that you put a Call To Action that encourages people to actually reach out and contact you. Done correctly and this can allow you to have people calling you up for assistance, feeling like you’re significantly more approachable.

Step #3: Initiate Contact (If You’re Not Contacted First)

Of course, for the majority of businesses, you have to be the one who initiates contact first. Your salespeople will be adequately more equipped to dealing with these leads for the reason that they now have something to refer to: all the detailed information that you’ve been sending them!

There are going to be those companies where the mail gets lost and you’re basically back at square 1, but that can’t be helped. The fact of the matter is, it’s going to be a lot easier to build a connection with people when you’ve established a no-pressure connection with them first by providing high value information to them.

As you can see, social media doesn’t simply work by itself. It’s a tool that initiates the process but allows for more traditional marketing mediums to function more effectively. Done correctly, you can find that the leads you find through social media channels that start off as “likes” may actually end up being worth $1 or more.

At CLIPSED we run Facebook Campaigns see our sample campaign over here CLIPSED Sample Competition or please give us a call on 1300 885 772 to see how we can help you build your social media sales funnel entrance today.

FOOD-FEED

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:16:00 +1100

It’s not enough for food brands on social media to feed information to users (pardon the pun). Food brands need to have an authentic relationship with diners via social sharing, and no cuisine is more suited to bonding than the Mexican dining craze hitting Australia.

Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez (GYG) are asking diners to take a photo of themselves and an ‘amigo’ eating at one of their restaurants before uploading it to Facebook to be voted on. Prizes up for grabs in the Re-Gifted competition include GYG’s newly-introduced gift cards, electric scooters and promo packs. Founder Steven Marks said: “In Mexican culture, enjoying food is a social and shared experience and GYG has always had that same philosophy. We therefore felt that the concepts of giving and re-gifting were a great way to engage our market to promote the introduction of our gift cards.”

Also hopping on the social-media bandwagon, or truck – is Taco Truck. They’re sharing tacos throughout Melbourne by leading followers to a new location every day via Facebook and Twitter:

Taco Truck’s website reveals little, instead the brand is relying on Melbournians to check Facebook and Twitter to find out where their next feed is coming from. And because they need to check it at least once a day, Taco Truck is keeping their social-media audience constantly engaged.

Fonda Mexican in Richmond are taking feedback (sorry), to an easy and accessible platform with an app on their Facebook page for those taking their quesadillas home. The survey’s questions range from how long your meal took to whether you prefer Prince Harry or Kate Middleton, and gaging how worthwhile a smartphone app would be for the restaurant to launch.

With social media engagement being embraced by Mexican restaurants (and trucks), there’s no need to munch on Mexican alone. CLIPSED can help any cuisine or brand have a conversation with users on social media to keep them coming back for more. Then again you could just upload a filtered snap of that lonely burrito to Instagram…

The Perfect Gift for the Metrosexual Hipster Dude?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:20:00 +1100

Social media is taking the mystery out of Christmas shopping by harnessing popular opinion to guide present buying this season.

A Consumersearch.com survey reveals Christmas shopping isn’t slowing down – just changing. Eighty percent of respondents to the survey will spend the same or more on Christmas gifts this year, and more prefer to research and shop for presents online than in stores. And whilst online shopping is nothing new – making it social to allow consumers to share ideas and wish lists is gaining momentum.

From Instagram to InstaKringle, PayPal are curing the indecisive office Secret-Santa ritual by partnering with online stores including eBay, Kogan and the charity Unicef. You can even print your own wrapping paper – meaning you don’t even have to leave the office (unless you really want to).

Once you’ve told the gift selector who you’re buying for, it narrows down your choices and of course lets you share your gift idea on social media.

Shoppers who hopped onto eBay in London over the weekend were greeted with what the nation really wants this Christmas by detecting trending product recommendations from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The smartphone technology offered consumers product demonstrations and virtual personal shoppers. Head of Buyer Experience Carrie Bienkowski explains that “By pairing views of social communities with eBay’s own vast selection of top Christmas gifts and mobile expertise we hope to give shoppers lots of inspiration and put a little bit of fun into Christmas shopping…Consumers now carry a global showroom in their pocket and are increasingly as inclined to seek recommendations online and shop mobile as visit the high street.”

eBay’s Tweet Barometer proves Bieber, Apple and clothing are the most sought-after gifts this season.

Bricks-and-mortar businesses needn’t feel left out of online marketing with the City of Melbourne decorating the city with giant Christmas presents. Each Christmas present contains a QR code, when the code is scanned the shopper is shown the top five shopping offers relevant to the consumer’s location.

So don’t leave your Christmas shopping at the last-minute mercy of whatever is left in store – listen to your friends and give gifts that have the collective suggestion of social media behind them. And contact CLIPSED to give your online store maximum exposure all-year round.

Sources:

http://www.sitepronews.com/2012/11/19/social-media-sites-great-for-christmas-shopping-ideas-survey/

https://www.paypal.com.au/pages/instakringle/index.html

http://internetretailing.net/2012/11/ebay-launches-a-mobile-social-shopping-experience-as-it-predicts-the-busiest-online-shopping-day-on-sunday-2-december/

http://tamebay.com/2012/11/visit-ebays-social-shopping-this-weekend.html

http://www.melbournebusinessprecincts.org.au/christmas-campaign-get-involved/

http://techau.tv/blog/images/f236feb7897c_12E48/QR-Code-Xmas-cards.jpg

WORD-OF-MO

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:15:55 +1100

Move beyond word-of-mouth to word-of-mo with the marketing acumen behind Movember

With Australians counting down the days until summer – just as many are eagerly anticipating the end of itchy Movember. Or are they?

Movember was founded to start conversations – conversations about mustaches, prostate cancer and men’s health. Co-founder and CEO Adam Garone explains that back in ’03, Movember relied heavily on word-of-mouth – but with the rise of social media “the personal amplification these guys have is just accelerated exponentially”.

Since its inception, Movember has raised more than $300 million and had nearly 2 million registrants from around the world. It should come as no surprise that the founders of Movember come from marketing backgrounds with a keen interest in user engagement. The competitions tab on the Movember website reveals no less than 18 competitions to engage purveyors of mustaches.

This weekend men all over the world will be deciding whether to, as Nivea for Men phrase it – Shave it or Save it. With an iPad up for grabs, Nivea are inviting users to upload photos of their facial hair to let the public make that choice. There are also hampers being given away for those who are just happy to vote on their fellow man’s facial hair.

Nick Charles from Gibe Digital offers this advice before marketing your brand alongside a charity, “Choose to get involved because you believe in the cause, not just because you think it will bring good exposure, and then be prepared to push the message to your communities like never before in order to get maximum traction.”

Cool Ridge have been donating 5c for every bottle of water sold during Movember, with the brand offering consumers a tailored barbershop quartet tune to help them raise money from their friends via social media.

Google Chrome have been engaging users via gamifying with online face-tracking mustache games to keep participants motivated during Movmber.

Partnering skincare, water and a search engine with Movember to raise awareness for men’s health is a conversation all good marketers should be having. Click here to find out how CLIPSED helped Movember partner beyondblue raise awareness using the power of social media.

Sources:

http://www.brandingpersonality.com/movember-and-the-social-media-mustache/

http://mashable.com/2012/05/01/movember-adam-garone-video/

http://coolridgequartet.com/

http://www.movembergames.com/

https://www.shaveitorsaveit.com.au/