LinkedIn's New Showcase Pages Will Improve The Ability To Sell On LinkedIn

Newly Arrived

Most if not all businesses are perennially searching for better ways to promote their products and services via the world's preeminent, professional  networking site LinkedIn. The release of the new LinkedIn showcase pages is providing exactly that possibility.

Precise Targeting

These new LinkedIn showcase pages enable you to promote certain products or services to specific customer segments.

How Do Showcase Pages Differ From Company Pages

Showcase pages are an advance on the better known Linked company pages that many of you will already have in place and they now make it possible for a business to focus on a specific product or service that they would like to feature.

Starting with a traditional company page, you can now build a Showcase Page which is a separate entity with its own unique criteria, followers, updates and functions.  The way it works is that all your showcase pages are listed in the right column of your company page.

How To Set Up A Showcase Page

1.  Choose a Page Name

Select your page name. At this point you will want to take full advantage of SEO and include any keywords into that page name. For example for Deep Earth Gemstones you may want a page on diamonds so the URL would be: https://www.linkedIn.com/DeepEarthGemstones/Diamonds.

2. Build a Showcase Page

To build a showcase page, go to your company page and simply click on the down-pointing arrow next to Edit and press Create a Showcase Page from the drop-down menu.

Each LinkedIn company page can have as many as ten Showcase pages linked to that company page. claim up to ten showcase pages for your company.

3. Optimize the Page for Search

As is the case with everything on the internet it is vital to optimise the page for SEO purposes to help Google rank your page as high as possible on their search engine.
Apart from the page title there is an allocation of up to two hundred characters where again you can use the appropriate key words that will help position the page for your target audience.

AS well you should always include live back links to the on the website portion of your page and ensure to upload a logo and header imagewhich can be either a PNG, JPEG or GIF format. The maximum file size for the image is 2MB, and it must be 974 x 330 pixels or larger.

As always LinkedIn are coming up with new and exciting ways to provide additional value and functionality for businesses to better position, promote and commercialise their products to the right audience and in Showcases pages we see another way that smart businesses will do just that.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Facebook Introducing Topic Data To Help With More Targeted And Personalised Communication

A More Complete Fit

In recent days Facebook has announced through its news pages that it will be introducing a new communication product called Topic Data that will allow Facebook marketers the ability to gain a deeper understanding of their audiences' psychographic aspects such as attitudes, opinions and beliefs around the key issues and aspects that pertain to their business, with the view of being able to formulate ever more precisely matching products and services that more fully and completely meet those customer needs.

 

 

 

Historical Approach

Typically up until now by observation an online marketer could deduce by the activity about what was being shared, commented on and generally spoken about, what the respective care factor was for any given issue, topic or challenge. Certainly behaviorally based and useful but at best this represented an incomplete picture about what people thought.

Subsequently Facebook have now communicated that the new Topic Data product will be available to a specified group of pre-selected Facebook partners which one would assume would be a first phase in a plan to eventually roll it out universally to the full 1.35billion globally users at a future time when the trial phase has concluded.

How Does Topic Data Work

Essentially Topic Data will provide greater clarity and therefore insight into what your target audiences are talking about online with respect to you, your product, competitors, upcoming and launch events, matters of importance and other general activities that may all provide your marketing team with addition information on what is needed, how it should be couched to best resonate with that group of potential customers.

 

Deidentified

Perhaps most pleasing is the fact that this information will be provided in a deidentified way where the identity and personal information of the person making the comments is kept secret thereby protecting their privacy and anonymity. Of course as marketers the key for our market research regardless of whether its online or using more traditional offline methodologies of focus groups and surveys, needs to rely on the accuracy of the data but not necessarily on who is saying it.

 

Decision Making

The end result of this being that product and brand managers will again have access to another useful data source that will help them to formulate better positioning, strategy and tactical implementation.

 

As a provided example fro the news source with Topic Data:

• A business selling a hair de-frizzing product can see demographics on the people talking about humidity’s effects on their hair to better understand their target audience.
• A fashion retailer can see the clothing items its target audience is talking about to decide which products to stock.
• A brand can see how people are talking about their brand or industry to measure brand sentiment.

Ref: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/topic-data

 

Although such data has of course been available before, it may have been in numbers that were not statistically significant enough to  make meaningful business decisions.  Now utilising Topic Data, Facebook have amalgamated raw and unidentified data  from Facebook activity to provide insights on all the activity around any given topic or discussion area, which in turn provides a much more quantified perspective of what the target market is thinking. Facebook have made it clear also that the topic data provides guidance for marketers but it cannot be used to target ads directly as personal information is at no stage available.

In Partnership With Datasift

Facebook has announced also that it will partner with the Datasift organisation who operate within the data industry and will leverage their experience and technology to further develop and refine the Topic Data model and data accuracy and reliablity. 

Access

Facebook have also declared that for the time being at least, The Topic Data will only be available to a small number of Datasift’s partners in the USA and the United Kingdom. As well the resulting data will be limited to those countries as well. In time it is reasonable to expect a more refined product be made universally available to all.

If you would like to know more about any aspect of Facebook or social media, don't forget to register for any of the seven free, two hour Digital Enterprise Program workshops by signing up at this link:  http://www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program/workshops

By attending any of these workshops, all Australian SME's will qualify for a free four hour coaching session for their own business at a time and location of their choice.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

 

 

Why Do I Need Social Media When I Already Have A Quality Website

Background

A question that comes up a lot during my discussions with clients that have worked for years to design, build, populate, test, refine and measure their website is understandably, 'why do I even need all these social media platforms when I finally have a good looking, modern, fully functional website that is as good or better than most of my rivals in my chosen market space? Frankly it's a great question. The answer to the question is yes do need the other social media platforms as well as a current, functional and fully responsive website. Let me try to explain why.

                                                               https://verticalmarketingnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/traffic-website-brands-lead-photo.jpg

Attitudes

To fully understand the reasons why you need both a modern website as well as a strategic array of relevant and mutually supportive social media platforms as part of a combined digital media system, you need to fully appreciate the prevailing attitudes people have. Basically they view websites as corporate which they are. They are owned, run and populated by the business and there function is largely if not in some cases, exclusively to sell products and services.
That's actually not an issue. People know this and they are becoming increasingly more comfortable to go there to make their various purchases at the right time. Social media on the other hand is largely seen as the opposite to a website. People don't want to be sold on social media and in fact a recent report showed that over 80% of people on Facebook resented being sold to by businesses. It's simply not about business or selling. It's all about engagement, discussion, community building, problem sharing, insight generation and so on. As the name says: Social Media. Both very valid reasons for being but both very different. Now over time things may change but for now at least as marketers, we need to be aware of this and respect these views.

Behaviours

So how does this translate into action when the average person on the web is concerned? Put simply individuals get their information from social media and discuss it with and through their respective networks (with the average internet user belongs to three separate networks with around 140 to 170 users per network), until they have made a decision about what they are going to do with respect to that issue, challenge, required purchase or necessary action in general. Once they have made that decision they will then go to the website of the business they have identified as the best option for their needs. It is now believed that around 85% of consumers adhere to this principle.

Final Analysis

In the final analysis what all this really means is that the majority of people will make their minds up away from corporate website and only when they are confident that they have made the right decision will they then approach the site and transact online. I am sure that in some case some individuals may even go the website earlier to pull off some key information that they will use as part of their decision making process but it will rarely be a case of show me something on the site with a 20% off tag on it that will get the job done anymore. Customers and prospects alike are becoming much savvier, well informed and equipped to find and leverage the best deals online and with the ongoing success of aggregator, are perfectly placed to find and receive the best value with each purchase. As marketers it is a simple matter then of setting up these external social media sites and engaging with people there to ultimately have them come to your site to buy. That is why you need both a good website and social media to succeed in today's multimedia market space.

As always if you'd like to learn more about any aspect of social media just sign up for  a free Digital Enterprise Workshop here on:  www.vecci.org.au/dep/workshops
and sign up for any of the seven free workshops which will also qualify you for a free four hour coaching session specifically focused on your business needs. 

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Segmentation: Another Great Example From A Budding Young Business

Through my ongoing association with the Digital Enterprise Program I have this week found another wonderful example of a clever and strategic example of SME segmentation , in the form of an impressive young business in: Leaf, Root & Fruit.

 Now you may be hard pressed to think of any markets that are more saturated, operating in a highly competitive  market space with a fairly homogeneous product offering with little perceived difference between players and the existence of key major players in Bunnings and others.

Despite this careful market mapping and segmentation has lead the Leaf, Root and Fruit brand to differentiate, position and target a highly significant and yet largely untapped segment of the market.

In broad terms, Leaf, Root & Fruit is a Gardening Business recently set up by forward thinking principal, Duncan Cocking with the expressed purpose of assisting people to grow their own food. Committed to reducing the impact of modern living on the environment, Duncan actively promotes a sustainable and organic approach to gardening.

His core belief is that having your own edible garden provides you with fruit, veggies and herbs that are tastier, healthier and better quality than what’s on offer at your local supermarket.

Leaf, Root & Fruit offers gardening services to support food production in front and backyards, veggie patches, balconies and courtyard gardens all over Melbourne.

One of the brilliant insights through careful market segmentation Duncan has made is to provide support to anyone with mobility issues, enabling them to get back into the garden and rediscover their passion for gardening through the use of raised garden beds. In this way he is able to tailor make  individually designed, elevated cypress sleeper veggie garden beds that allow comfortable gardening, whilst standing or sitting as required for people of ages.  

With no need for chemical treatment, cypress is the safest and most sustainable option to use in the veggie patch, whilst combining this offering with a wide range of allied services such as workshops, vegetable patch planting and garden maintenance services.

The name Leaf, Root & Fruit came directly from the Philosophy of Edible Gardening that Duncan has developed. The philosophy is simple. Leafy greens are the easiest to grow and anyone can do it. Fruits are more of a commitment, they take a long time to get to harvest and have more complex growing requirements. Roots are somewhere in the middle, in terms of complexity and commitment.
 

The company logo is cleverly colour coded with a traffic light system to reinforce the message. In keeping with his belief, that everyone should be able to grow their own food, Duncan provides ongoing support and has set up an impressive array of complimentary value adding social media platforms  including his blog as well as Facebook and Pinterest.

He encourages the Leaf, Root & Fruit gardening community to take an active role within the group:  by clicking on:http://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/edible-gardening-philosophy/

and ask questions about gardening, as well as sharing  ideas, discoveries and experiences through the social media platforms. To get more information on the numerous exciting products and services offered by Duncan and Leaf, Root and Fruit, simply click on: http://www.leafrootfruit.com.au/about

A wonderful example of an SME that has put the hard yards in early and has laid the strategic groundwork for great future success. And until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Yet Another Wonderful Example of Exemplary Customer Service and Selling Skills

It’s fair to say that few of us these days expect exemplary customer service and salesmanship from any particular business because frankly despite the fact that everyone certainly deserves it, it simply so often so far from that level that we just get used to the bar being set so much lower.

With this in mind I’m delighted to be able to pass on and discuss with you an example of a young man who has truly understood what selling should be and how every sales person should approach the role each day.

To set the scene like many others I was looking to upgrade my car last week as we came to the end of the financial year and after much analysis decided the new VF Calais was the ideal car for me in Prussian Steel. With this I went into a local dealership and am grateful to have met an honest and genuine broker in the form of Sam Innes at Booran Holden, in Nepean Highway Cheltenham.

Sam basically makes a mockery of the long standing stereotypical behaviours many people attribute to car salespeople. Quite the opposite he understood from the outset that the greatest attribute of any salesperson is the ability to actively listen to what I was saying to him. Hear it, understand it and ultimately act on it in a way that supported my needs and desires and accounted also for any concerns or issues that I was facing in the decision of buying my new car whilst concurrently selling the old one.

As an interesting footnote to this story the word selling itself is a word from the Scandinavian region which means ‘To Serve’ and when I look back at Sam’s approach it is not surprising that every element of my time with him did just that.

His openness, transparency, fairness and desire to want to help me get what I wanted stood out strongly and coupled with his professionalism and attitude, made it a very simple choice for me in the end.

AS a little icing on the cake after buying the car and awaiting delivery I realised that one item that had always come standard with this make of car was now an optional extra. Sensing my disappointment at this, Sam negotiated to get it for me at no cost despite the fact the deal had already been done, ensuring that as well as my overall level of satisfaction, there was also a little Wow factor thrown in for good measure.

I suspect Sam Innes will go a long way in both his current role at Booran Holden and where ever the trail leads him because he has as his central focus the customers and their needs not just those of the business, and so any success based on this approach will be well earned.  As a final question how much does your approach to dealing with customers mirror Sam’s. A little or a lot?

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.