Why chasing "likes" will drive you insane

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Thursday, January 10, 2013

For some, the holy grail of marketing influence seems to be the number of "likes" or "followers" a company has on social media properties. We get questions all the time that go something like this:

• "How can I get more likes on our company Facebook page?"
• "Why aren't more people seeing my social media posts?"
• "Help! Ever since [date of latest Facebook EdgeRank algorithm update] I'm not getting as many comments and likes on my posts!"

It's enough to make even the most rational marketers and CEOs go crazy. So why do we get so worked up over our social media following and how important is it?

Let's take a step back and analyze what happens when something is posted to Facebook. I'm going to use an example from The Book of Business Awesome by Scott Stratten (affiliate link) which, incidentally, is an excellent book and you should go buy it right now. Go ahead... trust me.

In Scott's example, he proposes that if you have 1 million followers and wanted them to buy something, the math would go something like this:

1. One Facebook or Twitter post to 1 million followers
2. 100,000 are online (about 10%)
3. 10,000 will see the post (about 10%)
4. 1,000 will click the link (about 10%)
5. 30 will click to order (about 3%)
6. 20 will complete the purchase (about 66%)

Now these numbers are made-up and will vary depending on a number of factors, but it's a good illustration of the number of steps a post must go through in order to result in a transaction. Even with 1 million followers, the results are pretty measly.

So why do we expect so much from our social networks?

Chasing after more likes and followers is not the answer. Is it good to have lots of likes and followers? Absolutely! The more people you can talk to the better. This expands your reach and influence. However, it's important to think of your social following as a network and not a mailing list.

A network is where you build influence, create trust, and move the needle. A mailing list is where you go deeper with the relationship and ask for a transaction. Some creative activities for your social properties can include:

• Sharing problem-solving articles
• Providing customer service
• Asking questions / answering questions
• Being interesting and/or funny
• Making referrals

Your email list or blog subscription list is where you might have better luck doing things like:

• Making an offer for a download
• Sending a coupon or special
• Inviting a conversion

If you think of your social network as a place for truly networking and treat your marketing database as your lead nurturing system, you won't get so worked up about your social following. Your goal is to move people from your network to your database and Facebook is only one of many ways to do it.

So stop chasing likes and let your social following grow organically by being a resource to others. You'll sleep better and you'll focus on the right metrics.

4 elementary marketing lessons from Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Posted by: Josh Brammer in General on Tuesday, January 8, 2013

As marketers, it is important to remind ourselves of how to keep our customers happy by treating them well. Let's go back to school and learn some lessons from the old Nursery Rhyme: 

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well. 
Wikipedia

Poor Peter Peter. It's an age-old story of a guy who just doesn't get it. Maybe he was boring. Maybe he couldn't cook. We don't get the details from the story, but the end result is there. Peter simply didn't have the chops to keep his wife interested, so she wanted to leave. 

That's when things get a bit tricky. Instead of letting her go, he fashions a larger-than-life Pumpkin Cage and locks her up. Oh boy. Not the best idea on how to improve a relationship. But, there is truth in every story, and this story holds some important business lessons on how to treat your customers. 

Lesson #1: Don't keep customers hostage.

The first lesson Peter Peter can teach is that holding your customer hostage is never a good idea. People know when they are trapped (by poor customer service, a promise in the sales process that you didn't keep, long yearly contracts). Find ways to make it super easy for customers to continue to do business with you. If they decide they need to take their business elsewhere, do your best to help them. 

Lesson #2: Customer churn is natural, plan for it. 

Customers naturally come and go in business. Not every customer will need your products and services, and timing may plan a part in when customer are ready to do business. This turnover is called "Churn" by marketers, which gives the visual of the natural flow of customers and prospects. 

Realizing that churn is a natural part of business will help you with lessons one (Don't keep customers hostage). It will also help you focus energy on finding new ways to connect to the next wave of customers as they grow into your service offerings. Can you find ways to make your products more accessible to people who only need them one time a year, or whatever frequency makes sense for your customers needs?

Lesson #3: Make sure you deliver after the sale. 

Let's face it, Peter broke his promise. Something changed from the wedding day and his wife wanted out. The same thing can happen in a customer relationship. If promises from the sales or marketing teams are not delivered, the customer will notice. They may not say anything, and may skip putting it on a feedback form. Dissatisfaction often builds over time, so make sure you give plenty of opportunity for the customer to raise their hand and say "I need some help here!"

Lesson #4: Learn to market well using high quality content

The final verse of the nursery rhyme is less know, but holds an important key to Peter Peter's fate. 

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had another and didn't love her;
Peter learned to read and spell,
And then he loved her very well.

In the final verse, Peter gets a second wife and almost repeats the same cycle. But then at last! Peter gets smart and changes his tactics. My hunch is that he got some outside perspective on his situation. Maybe he hired a consultant, or a got a coach to help him figure out where to focus his improvement. The same may be helpful in your organization. 

Some marketing teams have not put a finger on why customers don't respond to their marketing efforts. Simply put, if marketing isn't done well, the customer knows. Graphic design, web design, and great copywriting all play a part in building trust and 'showing the love' to your customers. If you respect their time and money, then take the time to craft great messages and images for your products and services. 

Conclusion:

Wherever you are in your marketing, remember to treat your customers well. The more human you can be in your marketing, the more effective it will be long-term. Did we miss anything? What truth do you glean from the story of Peter Peter that could help your organization?

How to resize images for the web

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Thursday, December 13, 2012

In addition to great content, your website should contain great imagery and photography. The right professional photos can make a great design really shine and can add a lot of credibility to your online image.

In order for these images to look good and load quickly, they must be sized correctly. Since our corporate websites are built on a powerful content management system, our clients are able to insert and manage images on their websites very easily.

However, with great power comes great responsibility and it's important to understand how to optimize these images for your website and get them into the correct size. Here are some tips for resizing images correctly for your website.

Use the right software

Since most photos and images you start with will tend to be high-resolution and typically scaled to be as large as possible, you will need to scale them down to fit on your website. Digital cameras and smart phones produce large images to make sure they turn out well if you want to print them. On the web, however, we need to reduce the size of these images. Otherwise they will take a longer time to load, which can actually affect your Google rankings.

Some of our favorite tools for resizing images include:

• Pixelmator
• Pic Resize
• Snipshot
• Dosize
• Picasa

These online tools will give you an easy way to shrink your images down to the right size.

If you would prefer to use software on your computer, you may already have what you need. Microsoft Office can resize your photos, too. Just use the Office Picture Manager application and you're good to go. Mac Users: Preview can resize your images, too.

Note: don't rely on your CMS to resize images. Most content management systems will allow you to "resize" images directly within the web page but this typically does not actually resize the image file. It simply reduces the space allocated to the image on the web but the entire image still has to load.

Maintain aspect ratio

A common problem we see is failure to maintain aspect ratio. You'll see this problem when you look at a photo and the person in it looks "squished" as if they are in a funhouse mirror. Here is example of Katie's photo that has been resized with improper and proper aspect ratio:

The photo on the left looks squished while the one on the right accurately shows what Katie's smiling face looks like.

So why does this happen? Usually, it's a result of sizing an image on one axis while the other axis is not "linked" to it. To make sure you avoid this problem, make sure you resize images with both the X and Y axis linked together. This can often be accomplished by holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard. It will, however, depend on the software you are using so you'll want to look for this setting.

Other effects

Along with resizing, you may also want to consider cropping your images so they look better on your website. The tools listed above will also allow you to crop so you can remove background objects and leave just the person or subject that you want to display. These tools will also allow you to change photos to black and white if this is the style you want to use.

Conclusion

Even thought most content management systems will allow you to do basic image editing and resizing within the system, it's far better to resize and edit images before you upload them into a web page. This will ensure that they look good, load quickly, and are easy to manage.

Best practices for email signatures

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Thursday, December 6, 2012

If you're like most people in the business world, you probably send hundreds of emails a day. Every message has one chunk of text in common: each one contains your email signature with your contact information.

Your email signature serves a specific and important purpose. It gives people more information about you and your company and provides additional contact information.

We've seen lots of different email signature styles over time... some good, some questionable. The right email signature can strengthen your brand and even generate leads. Here are some best practices to think about when setting up your email signature.

Keep it simple.

We've seen email signatures that were so packed with text, images, links, and badges that it makes you want to poke your eyes out. There are a couple of issues with adding to much "bling" to your email signature. One: spam filters may flag it and keep it from getting delivered. Next: offering too many options in your signature can simply be distracting to your recipients. It just plain looks ugly and this can cause subtle damage to your brand.

Keep it plain text.

I'm going to get a lot of disagreement on this one but we are in favor of plain text emails. They are more likely to get past spam filters and they're just more elegant. A plaint text signature will also help you curb the temptation to add 17 different social media badges to the end of your message.

Make sure your signature gets included by default.

It can be very frustrating to try to call someone after receiving an email only to find that you can't find their phone number anywhere within the email. Grrr! Make sure your signature gets automatically added by our email program or smart phone.

Include basic information.

The typical email signature should contain your title, company name, phone number, and a link to your website. Don't include your email address... they already have that since you just emailed them.

You can also think about adding a single call to action like a link to an ebook or other offer but don't get too carried away. When it comes to your email signature, think "less is more" for a more streamlined and user-friendly email signature.

Feel free to ignore your old out-of-date website

Posted by: Christopher Theisen in General on Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Today's post is from one of our awesome clients, Christopher Theisen. Chris is the Director of Digital Communications at FlexPAC.

When it comes to marketing your business on the web, I'll bet you hear all sorts of excuses. It seems like everyone has a reason why they are unique and therefore shouldn't have to worry about a strong web presence.

I hear some form of these excuses in the B2B world quite often:

• "Our target market doesn't research products online"
• "We can't sell our products online"
• "We have done just fine without a new website so far"

There is a good chance you have said these same things, or similar things before. If you have or still think this way, stop now. It's costing you business. 

How do I know this for a fact? It happened to us.

I work for FlexPAC, a distributor of industrial packaging, janitorial and safety supplies. Prior to hiring SpinWeb to build us a new website our digital home didn't equal our physical home. Sure we were a midsize company, a big player in our industry and a possible good fit for an international company with headquarters near our Elkhart location. Do you know who didn't care about any of that? 

Our prospect.

When one of our outside sales reps followed up after stopping by the company what they said took him by surprise. They told him they wouldn't even consider doing business with us because of our website. If we were a reputable company who was big enough and had enough expertise to service them then surely we would have had a better website than we did. Right or wrong this company wouldn't even give us the time of day.

This happens in every walk of life. People judge people by external looks all the time. The proverbial first impression or judging a book by its cover doesn't just go for people though. Surely you have gone to a Facebook page with little to no content and just a few likes or a website then thought to yourself, "This company isn't worth my time or money".

How did I find out about this story? While at lunch with a new employee of 12 Stars Media (the company that handles video editing for FlexPAC) I found out his dad worked for a large company headquartered near our Elkhart location. It just so happened that his dad worked in a department that could use some of our expertise. I passed the name of his father on to our rep in the area. Thinking I was walking our rep into a great opportunity I was surprised when he called to say he had been to the company before and they didn't want anything to do with us. "Why" you ask? Because of our website. It was the same company mentioned above.

Luckily we now have a website that can hold its own in the industry and portray who we are and what we do in a much better light than the one that caused our prospect to give us the cold shoulder.

So while you may not be a B2C company like Lost Golf Balls (a site I do some writing for) that can sell golf balls easily online, or a SaaS company like Evernote (what I'm using to write this post) whose only product is accessed via a web sign in it doesn't give you an excuse to have a poor website.

Your target market will research you and your product online. They will look at your website versus your competitors. Some new player in your market will come along and be ahead of you every step of the way when it comes to tech. Whether you like it or not first impressions count in real life and even more so online.

Feel free to ignore your old out of date website -- the only thing it is costing you is business.

Christopher Theisen is the Director of Digital Communication for FlexPAC, a distributor of industrial packaging supplies, janitorial products, automation equipment and safety products and a SpinWeb client. While they are based in Indianapolis with locations in Elkhart and Quad Cities, Illinois you can also find them on your favorite social outpost. To interact with Chris wherever the internet takes you, visit his online profile.