Sales Training Keyonte Speaker | Jeff Molander

How to Align Social Marketing and Sales to Create More Leads

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:46:07 +0000

Time to Read: 6 Minutes. Is it important to understand the sales process before applying social media? Absolutely. Regardless of the media used, marketing process must tie to sales process to generate leads. If you feel like marketing and sales processes are not aligned in your organization you’re not alone. Let’s discover how to align marketing and sales—blending marketing media to effectively assist prospects through the sales cycle. Understanding the sales cycle helps you determine what medium to use when or where.————————————————————————————————————————————————

This is a guest blog by Dan McDade, CEO of PointClear, a business-to-business sales lead generation company and author of The Truth About Leads. Mr. McDade is a recognized expert in lead generation for complex sales processes.

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I am putting together a presentation for an organization that has its own “university” for marketing folks. My topic is how companies go about defining a lead. For the most part they don’t do a very good job of defining leads and I understand why.

Competing Metrics

In most companies, at least historically, marketing and sales have been measured by, and hence driven by, different metrics. For marketing to be rewarded, they must create a certain number of leads within a budget. That does not necessarily line up well with sales’ expectations, and has exacerbated the age old problem of communication between marketing and sales (sometimes called lack of alignment).

This condition has been simply accepted by or ignored by most senior managers. This has only complicated the task of using social media to create leads and sales. I know this seems harsh, but it is still true today in many organizations.

A Better Habit

To help me understand, and perhaps solve the problem, I researched many articles and reread a number of books, including Stephen Covey’s (remember him?) “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. While I have always agreed with and believed in every habit, I feel one of the “7 Habits” is most applicable: “Begin with the end in mind.”

The end is a sale and selling is based on effectively fulfilling need. Fulfillment of need is based on meeting the goals established by your business. Of course, the most important goal frequently is revenue. To earn revenue, a company has to use a sales process. While there are literally hundreds of sales processes a company might follow, at the highest level the below is the process most sellers and buyers are navigating to win or lose, or choose or reject:

1. Find a pain (or need).
2. Get agreement that there is a pain.
3. Agree to do something about the pain.
4. Agree to a generic solution.
5. Agree to a customized, specific solution.

(The fact that most sales reps start the sales process at Step #5, regardless of the lead source or apparent stage, is the topic for another article.)

The Truth About Leads

Let’s say we run an online marketing campaign. Leads generated that identify people with a pain result in a bunch of Step #1 leads being sent to sales. Marketing may come in on plan and within budget (and begin celebrating—insert your personal vision of success here—mine is a good vodka martini). Meanwhile, sales is not impressed.

Even if the prospect has a pain, and agrees that their company has the pain, this individual may not be able to do anything about the pain (not a decision-maker and no access to power, other priorities, budgets) but they are a fully vetted Step #2 leads. Hence, a lot of these leads go to sales immediately—and fall into a dark hole.

There are tens of thousands of companies (and hundreds of service providers) that are providing Step #1 or Step #2 “leads” to their sales team. That itself is really a problem. In fact, fulfilling the first 3 are not enough to get a prospect to do something about the pain or need.

Unless you can help prospects to agree to a generic solution (which includes asking them to help you create a vision of what success looks like) it is unlikely that you can close business. Only when a prospect has a vision of success can you effectively sell your customized solution—and then only if it is actually a fit.

Setting the Hook

In Jeff Molander’s book, “Off The Hook Marketing”, he states:

“…what separates professional fisherman from the novices? Believe it or not, it’s not the fancy equipment. … Catching more big fish more often means spending less time worrying about attracting them … [and more time] learning how to set the hook…”

In other words, if you don’t know how to properly set the hook you may as well forget about attracting more fish. If you don’t understand the sales process there is no sense in generating more leads. My article, “Why Your Sales Force Needs Fewer Leads!” goes into more detail about this.

Netting Leads with Social

Think through the steps in the sales cycle and how various social media resources might apply. Let’s assume that you are in B2B (business-to-business) and are selling something that is not a highly commoditized. A tweet (or a LinkedIn Update, or Facebook’s “What’s On Your Mind”) can and should be used aggressively for Step #1, identifying pain.

In fact, Jeff makes the point in his book that the best way to engage a reader is to solve their problem. What better content to publish than solutions to problems your target market has? What better way to start a dialog?

Exploiting Social in a Multi-Faceted World

Social media has been called democratic or “like being at a cocktail party.” In reality, social is like any other media. When the 800 telephone number was introduced (free inbound was once a novelty), everyone predicted the end of the post office. Now you hear everyone talking about social, “inbound marketing,” mobile and how “outbound marketing” (sometimes derisively and incorrectly called “interruption marketing”) is dead.

The reality is that a blend of media is required to move prospects through the sales cycle (or, to be politically sensitive, “the buyer’s journey”).

Understanding the sales cycle helps you determine what medium to use when or where.

For example, we believe in what we refer to as multi-touch, multi-media, multi-cycle prospecting to multiply results. They key is multiple. A blend of media is required; and Optimized Prospect Development™ requires multi-cycles to stay in front of the right prospect with the right message at the right time. In addition to knowing how to set the hook, it does not hurt to know where the fish are. So, using social media to identify pain (Step #1) and keep the hook in front of the right fish at the right time, by positioning yourself as a resource instead of a vendor, is essential.

I am going to declare victory and go make a vodka gimlet.

Photo credit: contemplative imaging

Jeff Molander+ is the authority on making social media sell. He's a sought-after corporate trainer to small businesses and global corporations like Brazil's Petrobras. He's an accomplished entrepreneur, having co-founded what is today the Google Affiliate Network. Jeff also serves as adjunct digital marketing faculty at Loyola University’s school of business. His new book, Off The Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You, is first to offer businesses a clear, practical way to create leads and sales with technology platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs.

How to Be Sure Content Marketing Produces Sales

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:04:13 +0000

Time to read: 2 minutes. Most content marketing speakers, social media experts or social selling speakers are proclaiming, “engaging content drives sales.” But in reality even the most engaging blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook updates, LinkedIn discussions and other forms of content marketing fail to produce leads and sales. For most businesses, engaging customers creates profitless prosperity—impressive marketing statistics that don’t ultimately, directly help generate leads and sales. The businesses who DO create leads and sales using social selling know something the rest of us don’t.

Why we’re failing to sell with engagement

Most of us are failing to sell with engaging social media because we’re building our content marketing on an outdated foundation. We’re clinging to mass media advertising ideas and values. Rather, we should be exploiting direct response marketing tactics. This is the secret sauce, the untold truth that top social sellers realize and act on. It’s how they are making social media sell for them.

Why do so many of us pursue getting “Liked” on Facebook or followed on Twitter? Because of this single idea: getting lots of customers’ attention (reach) over and over (frequency) is enough to earn a sale… somehow, sometime. You know… this is how advertising works. Now I’m not saying attention doesn’t matter. It does. I’m simply saying it’s not enough. Stopping at earning customers fleeting attention is a sure-fire losing strategy online.

What to do in order to make the sale

Today’s best social sellers do not believe for a minute that exposure to engaging content will result in a sale. They have no trust that it will produce a lead. Rather, they believe in, and execute on, carefully mixing in calls-to-action. The content they create solves customers problems or vividly demonstrates (proves… think “infomercial”) compelling experiences relating to their service.

The best way to sell on Facebook is to solve customers’ problems (yes “for free”) in ways that earn trust and ultimately help them navigate their way toward your paid products and services.

Flip the paradigm!

Don’t get sucked into the profitless prosperity black hole! When I speak to audiences I encourage them to think (and act!) in terms of direct response marketing when engaging with social media and content marketing. Ron Perlstien says, “Frequency is the benefit of success, not the key to success.” In other words, you can increase frequency when you generate sales revenue!

Photo credit Michael Holden

What Social Media Experts Don’t Want You to Know

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:37:31 +0000

Time to view: 90 seconds. The social media revolution is a lie. Yes, this new phase in marketing is exciting but successful social sellers know something most of us don’t: That social media marketing so over-hyped and so sensationalized that it is what prevents success—blocks us from actually selling with social media like Facebook, blogs and Twitter. Here’s what you can do to overcome this critical, strategic roadblock and make social media sell.

The Amount of Time You Invest in LinkedIn is Irrelevant to Results

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:56 +0000

Time to Read: 2 Minutes. “How much time do I need to devote to LinkedIn per day?” Stop. Behind this question is a lie that is preventing your success. LinkedIn is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It is a better, faster way to get hired or create a sale—not something to react to, feel compelled to start using out of fear or lack. LinkedIn is making a difference to your competitors because they see time as being abundant. They see LinkedIn as a time-saver, not a time suck. And you can too.

“How much time do I need to devote to LinkedIn per day?” is a valid question. But when you ask it you’re invested in lack—what you do not have. Time. But you do have time to invest in saving time, right? That’s what LinkedIn is, after all. I’ll prove it to you. Let’s start by changing your question to…

“How can I determine what LinkedIn’s purpose is for me, how I can best use it to achieve that goal in shorter time?”

See the difference? What if your purpose was to find a faster way to net a sales lead—rather than seeking out a silver bullet amount of time? What if your purpose was to meet the right prospect and pitch them in less time, get hired faster, have your manuscript discovered by a publisher sooner, speed up the conversion to sale process… whatever. This is how I approach it in running my publishing and professional speaking business.

I don’t read trendy “_________ (insert social media platform) An Hour A Day” books. I approach social media with a focus on abundance, not lack. I have all the time in the world to save time! This way the time question works itself out effortlessly.

Put as much time into LinkedIn as is needed to complete the task and generate a better outcome. Period.

For instance, I’m constantly targeting people within a company based on current position, experience background. I’m finding faster ways to increase the relevancy of my entire sales approach by monitoring what my targets are saying or asking for in discussions in groups or on Twitter. I combine this with tools like JigSaw.com (securing contact information) and Google (getting around LinkedIn’s paywall). I invest as much time as I need to achieve my goal.

“It all goes back to attaching value to the time you spend on LinkedIn,” says J.D. Gershbein, one of the top LinkedIn strategists in the world and a pioneer in LinkedIn educational programs.

“Once that trade-off leads to a positive outcome—however that is defined—it makes the difficult pill of logging the minutes or hours easier to swallow.”

Take the stance that LinkedIn ROI is qualitative—that results can be traced to activity, as opposed to actual time on the site—and you have a nice framework within which to work.

Photo credit: Jason A. Samfield

How Much Time You Invest in Social Media Does Not Matter

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:43:27 +0000

Time to Read: 3 Minutes. Wanting to know how much time to give LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogging (etc) per day is a natural desire. But having that answer won’t make social media produce better results. That’s why many of us are putting down “hour a day” books and picking up a new habit: asking, “how can I get clear on what social media’s purpose is for my business—and how I can best use it to achieve that specific goal?” By asking these questions (first) deciding how much time to invest occurs naturally, painlessly and obviously. Use time and pressure to your advantage. The result will be like a fine, balanced Italian espresso.

Stop Worrying About Time

We all want to know how much time things are going to take—everything in our lives. And for good reason: we feel like there isn’t enough of it in our lives! Okay… but if this is true you should NOT be worrying about how much time it will take to make Facebook or whatever produce a result.

You’re not alone in worrying about time. Many of today’s social media gurus are working day-and-night to make sure you needlessly worry about it. They want you to believe in a “social media revolution” rather than discovering how to evolve your habits and business. So far, sex and fear sells books and consulting.

But now you know the truth and can choose a different path—away from reacting to social media and toward evolving your business (each day of your life) in harmony with it.

Make Purpose Primary, Time Secondary

Everyone I interviewed in Off the Hook Marketing said the same thing: If you want to sell with social media start focusing on creating purpose for it before anything else. Time will work itself out. Trust in it, have faith.

Here’s another way of looking at it. Think about how you feel when you ask “how much time is this going to take?” You’re reacting, defensive. The presumption behind the question is that LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging or whatever is somehow “different.” But what if social media could be a better way to achieve a particular set of goals you have—rather than being “so different” and such a pain? It can be if you so choose.

Social media is not rocket science. The more you think it is the more you’ll believe time investment is what makes the difference. It does not. As Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

Why We Chase Tweets, Not Sales

You see, the “social media revolution” is devoid of true, meaningful outputs—business outcomes like sales. Think about what you’ve heard or seen in the sexy, thumping videos on YouTube. Facebook is the size of a country. And? What are we to do with that super-exciting-fantastic knowledge—other than feel exuberant or fearful?

This false, paradigm-shifting revolution amounts to experts telling us, “the rules have changed, your goals must change.” And this is why we often find ourselves chasing re-tweets, friends and followers rather than leads, sales and subscribers.

How to Get Back “On Purpose”

All the hype, smoke-and-mirrors surrounding social media go a long way to help some people feel like it’s not worth their time. Yet others are keeping the faith—they sense social media can help them do great things. And it can.

For instance, you can make social media produce leads and sales by changing the question. Stop asking “how much time…?” and start asking “how can I determine what Facebook’s/blogging’s/YouTube’s purpose is for me/my business and how I can best use it to achieve this goal?” Trust that “how much time is likely required?” will come in time.

It Works for Me

In parting, here’s a quick example. I need to generate leads for myself among large corporate customers who serve small businesses—companies like Intuit, IBM, Cintas and Deluxe. I put as much time into a wide variety of social platforms as is needed to achieve that goal.

I use…

LinkedIn (to find and qualify people within a target company based on current position & experience background, increasing relevancy of my approach via monitoring comments/discussions in groups)
JigSaw.com (to secure actual contact information)
Confession: Google (to get around LinkedIn’s “pay wall” (sorry, LinkedIn!)
Twitter (to increase my relevancy, again based on what’s current to the prospect)

I put as much time into using social media platforms as I need to achieve my goal. Simple! Empowering. Liberating!

photo credit: jonmallard and Junnn

How Energy, Manufacturing and Technical Businesses Sell with Social Media

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:09:08 +0000

Time to read 3 minutes. Is social media relevant to the thermal processing industry? Or how about appliance manufacturing? Pollution engineering? Biotech, biofuels or energy? How about plumbing or pest control? Do Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs matter to technical or industrial businesses? If you are hoping to sell something in these fields then the answer is yes. Yet most marketers of technical products and services are failing to generate business leads with social media marketing. Here’s why and how to avoid being one of them.

Doug Glenn, publisher of Industrial Heating magazine recently asked if social media is relevant. A fair question. But in his article Mr. Glenn seems pro, con and indifferent to social media all at the same time.

Find Purpose

As a professional speaker, I see industrial businesses dipping toes in social media marketing’s waters but not experiencing a clearer, focused understanding of it. They’re enthusiastic about advances like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn but not seeing them in a useful, practical way. They understand that social media provides the ability to instantly observe and react to customer behavior like never before. Industrial technologists can shoot and upload an educational video to YouTube but for what distinct purpose and under what plan to create a sale?

Ignore Popular “Wisdom”

After completing a year’s worth of research on today’s best industrial and technical “social sellers” an exciting opportunity revealed itself. There is a way for energy, manufacturing and engineering businesses to generate tangible business leads and sales using social media platforms. Here’s how.

Today, selling with social media requires ignoring the over-hyped “wisdom” of popular business gurus and returning to basic marketing principles.

Follow the Real Leaders

It took me a while but I found, Amanda Kinsella of Cincinnati-based Logan Services who is selling dozens of heating and air conditioning systems each month on Facebook. Then I met entrepreneur, Marcus Sheridan who is busy selling more in-ground, fiberglass swimming pools than any business in North America using a blog—and who’s being courted by manufacturers clamoring to buy it.

What’s their secret sauce?

Form 3 Simple Habits

I’ve come to learn that fundamental concepts powering effective social marketing programs are rooted in a return to marketing basics. Successful social sellers understand the difference between fooling around on social media and selling with it relies on developing three habits:

Getting back to basics, trusting instincts and solving customers problems
Designing to sell, planning social experiences to induce behavior/response
Translating, discovering customer need and feeding it back into marketing design

Your business can immediately begin selling using social media by applying these 3 success principles. And it’s not as difficult as you may think. Why? Because the social aspects of attracting, nurturing and successfully earning a purchase are already known to your marketing team and sales force.

This isn’t a revolution of how marketing is done. This is simply evolution. Don’t buy into the hype and buy into the easy answers.

Join the Evolution

“What’s working” is what has always worked. Successful social sellers are merely designing digital interactions (“conversations”) in ways that solve customers’ problems. This makes it easier to help guide customers toward technically-oriented products and services. That’s how social media can deliver sales to your business.

It’s true: social media rarely reveals a clearer path forward. For most businesses Facebook, blogs and such are just confusing them more. Even more perplexing, experts keep claiming social media’s arrival represents a revolution. Yet in practice most of us are experiencing the same, mediocre results from social marketing that traditional advertising has produced—customers’ fleeting attention. And that’s why I’ve decided to research, write and speak on this subject and bring needed information into the hands of people like you.

Photo credit: Caveman Chuck Coker

Here’s How I Define Social Media ROI:SALES

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:58:27 +0000

Here’s my definition of ROI: A sale. Period. You can engage with social media or you can sell with it. Which will get you hired, promoted, grow your business or your customers’ accounts? The debate around social media ROI is tired and built on false premises:

1) Defining and measuring ROI is more important than earning a business lead or making a sale.
2) Listening and gaining customers’ attention is the end game.

In theory, nobody will disagree with the above yet in practice nearly everyone does. This is why I took a year off and got to work—researching WHO is selling with social media and HOW they’re doing it. What I found was shocking and exciting: from small businesses to global corporations those who are selling with social media are all using the same basic technique—the same success principles.

I met people like Amanda Kinsella of Logan Services who’s selling dozens of heating and air conditioning systems using Facebook. And people like Laura Messerschmidt of Intuit. By combining a cash grant program with social media training for customers, Intuit is feeding thousands of new leads each month to its Payroll product. The same technique is being used by people like Gunner Branson. He’s helping global corporations like Jones Lang LaSalle get clients interested in signing seven-figure commercial real estate contracts using YouTube.

Each of these very different companies are using the same techniques to make social media sell products and services. The most surprising and empowering part of these stories is how these businesses are getting back to basics. As it turns out, selling with social media involves evolution—not a total revolution of how business is done.

On December 2nd I’ll introduce you to people who are making social sell. When you hear how they’re getting the job done you’ll be empowered with knowledge and inspired, motivated to make change. I’m bringing these remarkably simple simple, world class strategies to Antwerp, Belgium at the Fusion Marketing Experience. Will you be there to hear them?

Content Marketing Cannot Be Outsourced: Here’s Why

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 23:08:24 +0000

Time to read: 2 minutes. Should you outsource your content marketing efforts? Don’t—unless you want your blogs, white papers, videos or magazines blend in with those of your competitors. Good, effective content marketing cannot be outsourced. No matter how much you’re struggling to create a constant stream of content keep it in house. Here’s why.

First, it’s important to realize that having a constant stream of content emanating from your business is not that important. Despite what “the experts” keep saying, the most effective content is not that which gets discovered in search engines and gets people to your Web site. It’s not a numbers game. Nor is it that which has “your voice” or “reflects your culture” or “is authentic.” Nor is effective content a blog or article or video which convinces customers to prefer or choose your brand.

The most effective content produces measurable sales. Period.

If leads and sales are what you’re after with content marketing then you’ve got to come to grips with the truth: Effective content marketing goes beyond providing your target audience with useful information. That’s essential but you’ve got to go the extra mile—you’ve got to provide NEW, previously unknown information that tells customers how to avoid risk or exploit opportunity. Good luck finding someone on the outside that a) understands that and b) understands enough about your competitive environment to know how and where to find what your customers truly need to know and c) can actually research such content—let alone produce it reliably, over time!

Getting to the sale demands that your company’s content create addictions among customers. People need to crave your tips and tricks or educational materials. That means your content must always help them solve problems, generate wealth or avoid risk. If your content isn’t doing these things then it blends right in to the environment. It’s crap.

Want your content to look like your competitors? Just outsource it to people who repackage information your customers already know. They’ll take your money and in return pass off what they create as thought leadership or insightful information. And then you’ll pass that junk on to your customers.

95% of content marketing is crap—information that everyone already knows surrounded by buzzwords.

Want your content to produce leads and sales? Hire people who know how to produce written or multi-media materials that make readers/viewers say, “hmm, I never thought of it THAT way… that’s scary” or “I see the opportunity in that, I better get in touch with these people to take action!”

Because that’s what good social media marketing and content marketing does—induces responses that leads to sales.

photo credit: feck_aRt_post

How Associations Can Recruit Members on Facebook

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:00:17 +0000

If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you? When it comes to acquiring new members using social media most professional associations and non-profit trade groups do just that. The result: most social marketing strategies fail to create new members. The solution: don’t do what everyone else is doing. Case in point, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Facebook campaign earned a lot of industry accolades and member engagement but few if any new members. Here’s how you can avoid making the same mistake and make sure your social media strategy acquires members.

The Idea

ASME paired a new, information-rich member recruitment-focused microsite with Facebook to lure young members. The Facebook page uses YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, to deliver images of energetic, motivated teens and young adults enjoying competition, camaraderie and success.

The Goal

ASME’s goal was to recruit bright young people into the field. This would be done by using Facebook to lure target member toward a Web site with various guidance, job opportunities and advice on careers in mechanical engineering.

The Results

The end result was heralded as a huge success by Web marketing trade media like B2BOnline but it provided little value to the association beyond gaining fleeting attention of young engineers and engineering students. The association failed to discover and nurture demand. It failed to prompt useful behavior that shepherded potential members along — on a journey that could have led to a membership application being filled out.

Facebook “likes” increased 46% in three months, to more than 10,000. Monthly visits to Facebook increased 300%, and Facebook drives 25% of all traffic to the FutureME microsite.

But few memberships were generated.

What ASME Should Have Done to Get Members

What if the trade association had given people a reason to “like” their page? The association chose to force thousands of potential members it to “like” its Facebook page just to see what was on it. Then they walked away. But what if the association used Facebook to give something valuable to potential members in return for being “liked” AND being able to communicate directly with them?

For instance, serious engineering students want access to “real life” experiences in engineering. And that includes accessing engineering firms, discovering the latest “real world” theories and practices being pioneered, and meeting engineers who are at the top of their game. ASME could have given away an all-expenses paid trip to its annual convention where that kind of experience would come to life for a student.

Mechanical engineering students also need cash. In fact, this would be an excellent opportunity for any professional association to make a scholarship or stipend available as part of a “like us and be entered to win” Facebook contest. The ASME could have discovered and qualified new members with a short Web form asking for first name, school and email address (as part of the contest).

This way the association is left with e-mail leads—a way to contact qualified students in the future for direct recruitment purposes.

What You Can Do to Get Members—Right Now

Students also need to find a way toward jobs. An association can step forward on Facebook and literally reward students for asking job-hunting related questions. Sure, many of these questions are answered on association Web sites but students aren’t there. There’s no reason to be there versus being on Facebook. Much like grocery store Harris-Teeter pays customers to ask its dietician health-related questions on Facebook, an association can provide incentive to do the same.

Why would you do that? Because trying to draw potential members away from Facebook to an informational microsite is not as compelling as putting out a fire, right on the spot, for a student. Answering burning questions can open the door to making a call to action — a suggestion to become a member right then and there on Facebook.

What about your association? Could you be letting enthusiasm for social media distract from the real goal? And when investing in Facebook or other social marketing tools shouldn’t you be creating “quality time” with potential members… by helping them solve problems ?

I discuss exactly how to help existing and potential/new members solve problems… in ways that earn memberships… in Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell.

Please be clear: I’m not calling ASAE’s staff or advertising agency stupid or short-sighted. Their team is working hard to make social media serve a purpose just like you are. But in this particular case they could have designed social media to generate more member applications. I’m sure they learned from it. And now you can too!

photo credit: davesandford

How to Sell Home Furnishings and Textiles with Social Media

jeff@molanderassoc.com (Jeffrey G. Molander) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:56:01 +0000

Time to read 3 minutes. Selling home furnishings, kitchens, appliances, sofas, beds, mattresses and textiles using social media can be a snap. But only if you don’t follow the leading examples of best practices. That’s because most social marketing best practices fail to create sales. Case in point, Ikea’s Facebook campaign earned lots of industry buzz and customer engagement but few if any sales. Here’s how you can avoid making the same mistakes and create sales with social media marketing.

The Idea

Ikea had a promotional idea to open its new Malmo, Sweden store. Management would use Facebook to spread product images far and wide across the social network. Ikea’s Malmo store set up a fan page and uploaded product images as photos within. When seeing a product image, any Facebook user could “tag” the image (associate themselves with it) and win it. First come, first served.

The Goal

Through product images, the new store would become more known to Facebook users. This was the store’s first mistake: setting the bar too low. Ikea’s idea was to give away a handful of store items. In return, those products would be seen virally as widely and as often as possible across Facebook.

Ikea’s “big idea” was to spread images of its store’s products far and wide. Ikea’s stated goal was limited to “lots of views.” Plus, the retailer failed to build a useful marketing asset for itself—something the store could use over time to foster sales.

The Results

The end result was heralded as a huge success by Web marketing trade media, bloggers, and gurus, but it it provided little value to Ikea beyond a massive display of product images across Facebook pages. This retail store failed to discover and nurture demand. It failed to prompt useful customer behavior that shepherded customers along — on a journey that could have led to purchase activity.

What Ikea Should Have Done to Create Sales

But what if Ikea took its photo-tagging concept and focused on a market segment important to that particular store, and what if they added an element that discovered more about that segment’s needs? For instance, the store could have traded the chance to win free stuff for a bit of insightful information about a specific customer group as a requirement to participate. That way Ikea would develop a prospecting database for future follow-up.

As an example, incoming or first-year college students are prime targets for Ikea’s contemporary, cost-effective, and lightweight furniture—home furnishings, appliances, sofas, beds, mattresses, textiles. By identifying contest participants who were students, the company could have developed a targeted follow up e-mail campaign or a Facebook communications routine—something geared to prompt store visits through any number of student-focused promotions.

Or Ikea could have offered the chance to win something in exchange for the chance to solve problems or make life easier for students. “How to Design Your Dorm” video programs, articles, or an interactive application could have been provided—preloaded with stylish tips geared for young men or women. Content can be delivered in whatever format the audience chooses—articles, e-newsletters, podcasts, or short video programs. Each piece of content marketing would be designed to foster demand for Ikea’s products. Calls to action, promotions, and so on may be sprinkled in to induce an exchange of information between Ikea and prospects.

Getting this done is as simple as asking contest participants to identify themselves and choose a problem to have Ikea solve. By segmenting male and female students, the tips, tricks, and valuable content can be tailored by typical, gender-driven needs, goals, and interests.

What Your Store Can Do to Create Sales

In addition to giving a customer segment (like students) a chance to win products, your store can improve the lives of future buyers today and nurture relationships toward sales transactions tomorrow. This kind of “quality time thinking” would have given Ikea’s team something to work with long term when courting customers. Instead, the store settled for a flash-in-the-pan Facebook campaign.

What about your business? Could you be letting enthusiasm for social media distract from the real goal? Shouldn’t you be qualifying specific opportunities social media provides before taking action? And when acting, shouldn’t you be creating purposeful quality time with customers?

I discuss how to do this… in more detail in Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell. And wait until you meet Rok Hrastnik of textile purveyor, Dormeo.com and hear of his email and YouTube successes using the same idea.

Please be clear: I’m not calling Ikea stupid or short-sighted. Their team is working hard to make social media serve a purpose just like you are. But in this particular case they could have designed social media to sell. I’m sure they learned from it. And now you can too!

Photo credit: iquene