The Cutting Edge of Online Marketing

“Are you having enough SALES CONVERSATIONS? If you don’t have all the business or clients that you want, maybe you simply need to have more sales conversations. That was a challenge I laid down to my Marketing Mastermind group last month, and one couple jumped to action with IMMEDIATE results.”

That bit of advice came to me from Bernadette Doyle of ClientMagnets.com.

Although Bernadette was talking about direct face-to-face selling of services, I couldn’t help but think how it applies to what we do. When a local business posts an update to their blog, comments on Facebook or Twitter or sends an email update to their list, they are having a “sales conversation” with their market even if they aren’t overtly selling.

That’s because all of us like to do business with those we know, like and trust. The process of relationship building is helped along each time we do one of those things.

But to work really well, these things have to be done consistently. Tony Robbins puts it this way: “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” It can shape our lives and it can shape our businesses.

One of the great things about marketing online is that your target audience needs to do something to respond to your message – if you are doing it right. The act of taking action means they will most likely pay closer attention to your message than they will using passive media.

So if you’re not as busy as you’d like to be, or if you’re not making as many sales as you’d like, think about what you can do to have more sales conversions, either face-to-face or using your online marketing strategy.

Start taking advantage of this strategy today and you’ll see results in no time.

There’s a great book named Social Networking for Business that can get you on the right track for using Social Media to start more Sales Conversations.

This post originally appeared on BobStovall.com on Memorial Day 2009.

I live in Danville, Kentucky – a town of about 15,000 that has been named “one of America’s Best Small Towns.” As charming as our little town is, every so often a trip to the “big city” is in order. What this has to do with manufactured, or any factory-built housing will become apparent. This past Sunday was my wife’s birthday. We decided to go for dinner at Sutton’s Italian Restaurant in Lexington, KY. Sutton’s is a client of mine (we did their website) and this was their new location. I really like to keep up with what my client’s are doing as having knowledge of their operations helps me do a better job of marketing for them.

We ordered some wine, recommended by owner Gordon Lewis, a locally produced Merlot from Jean Farris Wineries. Notice how the locally-sourced product was the one recommended. It was a very good wine, the best Merlot I have ever had – and I’m NOT a big Merlot fan normally.

So far, so good. It’s the next succession of events that I wanted to point out. We ordered an appetizer. One of our favorites in Italian restaurants is calamari with marinara sauce, so we decided to go for that. Well, the calamari was super! It mixed in was a special treat. Banana peppers (peperoncini) which had been sliced into rings like the calamari and fried along with them. Exceptional.

So I took out my iPhone and photographed our half-finished plate and posted it on Facebook. Within minutes, a friend who didn’t know of the restaurant’s new location asked me where they were.

He’ll be checking out the new location shortly with his entire family. Now, my question is… how much benefit will Sutton’s receive from a picture, a caption and about a minute that it took me to post it to Facebook? Five people will eat there as a direct result. How many more read the post, now know the new location and will find their way there over the next few weeks?

And what’s it worth if they like it, return and tell their friends?

Even if the restaurant has no idea where those customers originated, they benefit from that small bit of social networking. It happens that Sutton’s has a Facebook page of their own, so those reading my post can easily find them on Facebook. And or course, their Facebook page has a link to their website.

So round and round it goes, a small ripple in the pond of information creates a much larger result. Sutton’s pays their employees who then spend the money in the local economy and the additive value of a dollar spent adds to Lexington’s GDP.

More ripples in our various ponds are what will get the economy moving again on a local, national and global basis. It’s not hard. Go make a ripple today, even a small one. It will will multiply as the circle widens.

And don’t forget to post every new thing your business does on your website, your blog, your Facebook page, your LinkedIn status and tweet it on Twitter to boot. Have a new home on your lot or in your community? Install a new home? Performed some community service? Hire a new sales person, customer service rep or installer. Each of those is a small stone causing a small ripple that grows and grows and…

If you’re using Facebook to promote your business, this video will show you how to add a lead capture form directly into your Facebook profile.

For a free test drive of the AWeber autoresponder and email broadcast application mentioned in the video fill in the form below:

I love it when simple products do a job extraordinarily well. In a recent blog post, Refreshing Your Manufactured Housing website – why?, we covered some of the reasons why now may be the time to update your online information. If you haven’t read it, of have forgotten it, read it again.

In the July issue of MHMSM.com, Maria Cucchiara of All Seasons Communications wrote Six Reasons to Update Your Current MH Website, which explained why an updated website is a necessity. Again, read it or re-read it – there is wisdom in Maria’s words.

All well and good. All commercial websites need to be refreshed every few years or their effectiveness starts to fade. And that is a job for a web design professional. If that’s where you find yourself, call us.

But what about those little changes that need to be made from time to time? You know the ones… a changed price or phone number. Adding a feature to a bullet list. Adding or deleting a dated sentence…

If your’s is a small to medium operation, you may not want to call your web developer every time one of those pops up. If you hired an amateur – or a part-time developer – you may have to wait a long time to get the change made – if ever. They may have simply disappeared or gone out of business.

What if there was a way to make it easy for anyone in your office who can create a simple Word doc to make those little updates for you? Think that could save you some time and money? You bet it could!

If we had built your website, you probably wouldn’t be facing this problem right now because it would be built on a platform that allows you to make simple updates.

But even if your website was built using static pages, the ability to edit sections of your site can be added even now.

And if you can use Microsoft Word®, you can use the simple WYSIWYG interface that can be installed on your website using the files you use now, and keeping the “look and feel” of your current site – the design.

There is more information on this on the Update Your Own Website page at OrangeCat.net. If you are in the position where you or an employee need to make some updates to your website, this may be the answer.

And we’ve been doing this since 1996, so we’ve never vanished on any client.

I was sitting in my office, thumbing through MHMSM’s The Manufactured Housing REVOLUTION for about the 5th time when it suddenly occurred to me: Just how many businesses believe that just having a website is the be-all and end-all of a revolutionary marketing process?

It was revolutionary in 1995, but now it is commonplace. How many of you still have the same website you did 5 years ago? Are TV and movies still marketed the same way they were when you built that website?

Is your marketing keeping up with current trends?

A few years ago, having audio or a video on your website placed you among the “early adopters” of a new form of communication. Now, a website without audio/video is sadly out-of-step. Podcasting and videocasting have made themselves essential elements of the online experience.

How many hours per day do you think your customers spend in front of their TV? Radio? Newspaper or magazine? A few hours at most, I’ll bet. Now how many hours of the day do they have their cell phone with them? Every waking minute for most of us.

What do your company’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages look like? Don’t have them? You need them. How about your employee’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Do they reflect well on your employee and by proxy on your company?

How about new trends? Right now there is a decided move to a service called Tumblr. Sort of a hybrid somewhere between Facebook and Twitter, Fortune 500 companies are starting to reserve their Tumblr presence and many experts believe Tumblr will soon be a force to be reckoned with in the Social Networking arena. Are you ready?

What about your email marketing program? One of the original Internet marketing methods, email still holds it’s own against the newer online marketing methods – IF it is done right. If you’re still using the same old tools and strategies for your email program as you did five years ago, it’s time to take another look.

A new generation of buyers is poised to enter the marketplace. This new generation has never owned a CD or used a VCR or DVR. In a few years, they will be looking for their first homes. Will you be ready?

In the pages of the book, the first steps are outlined for those bold enough to take them. In this Revolution, you don’t need to take to the mountains or jungle and live a life of deprivation to earn your ticket to the promised land.

You just need to read this book, follow the MHMSM.com website and open your mind to change.

The Manufactured Housing REVOLUTION has begun. Will you be a part of it – or will you be on sidelines, watching it unfold?