Tuesday, November 19, 2013

8 Steps to Social Media Sales


Like any social experience or business interaction, engaging prospects and customers with social media is a process.



Unfortunately, most fail at this with inauthentic, boring messaging.



Worse, they don’t have a system to follow that consistently produces profitable results.



I wanted to give you a simple 8-part, step-by-step a template you can use right now that will greatly support the sales process and increase and improve the level of connection and value you provide to the social media experience to both your prospects and customers.



I think it also boosts long-term brand equity – the thing that makes you and your products really valuable.



There are eight basic steps to this system.



 



 



Watch the video for a complete step-by-step description of how it works and if you’d like to see a real-life example, visit Top Gun Toolkit and check out the social sharing that’s taking place.



Here are the eight steps:





  1. Acknowledge your visitor’s action and participation





  2. Engage with a question and broaden the scope of the comment or question to engage the entire viewing audience





  3. Reinforce the question, challenge or pain to the audience with examples that are designed to speak to the individual, but also to everyone reading





  4. Connect – with feelings and heart – this is ultimately WHY YOUR PROSPECTS and CUSTOMERS BUY because they feel that you actually care about them. Other engaged readers are going to say to themselves, “man, if they give this kind of information and attention away during a free promotion or launch, imagine what it must be like to own one of their products!”





  5. Pre-frame – that is where you reveal that something else is coming up in another video, post or content element. The message to an engaged prospect is essentially “NEW, COMING SOON” – but it a way that pre-seeds the sale of your product or service. Again, this must be done by providing value with training and examples





  6. Curiosity Cliffhanger – add curiosity and an “open loop” – create a reason to make your audience want to return because something is MISSING from your story. You do this by asking questions that help them arrive at a conclusion that there is more to this story and you’re going to provide in the next post or episode.





  7. Request – your engaged socialites to implement. Acknowledge their participation and thank them again, asking them to come back after taking some sort of action – showing that you’re all about IMPLEMENTING and giving them the power to take matters into their own hands to get results. Let them know you’re here to provide the tools, resources and services to get the results they want and need quickly and easily.





  8. Invite – every one of your readers to comment and request to ask them to like and share the post, page or conversation with their friends and people who could benefit from your content, resources and tools. Going viral is a very good thing. Free traffic and leads keep your costs down and your sales high!





 



When you respond and engage with your audience, make your best effort to think about how you can reuse this information and content for training, education, presentation or marketing purposes.



 



Read the full blog at:  http://mikekoenigs.com/social-media-sales/


Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Four Rules for Telling an Effective Video Story



Video content is a crucial part of your brand’s strategy. In addition to the search benefits (YouTube is the world’s #2 search engine), the medium offers a powerful way to tell your story and drive action.


To ensure your video content sticks in prospects’ minds and drives action, follow these four key rules.






1


Make It Emotional


People engage most with video stories that connect emotionally. For example, Dove has garnered upwards of 54 million views on YouTube with its now-famous “Real Beauty Sketches” - a great example of a brand story with a valid emotional angle.


Need to showcase a feature-heavy product? You can still create a video that delights.



2


Kid-Proof Your Message


Your script should be simple and clear enough for a six-year-old to understand. Play to video’s strength and rely on visuals – not fancy words – to get your point across. For product videos especially, use simple, short voiceover whenever possible.



3


Instruct Action


Effective videos incite the viewer to take action. Your video should include a single, clear call to action. Invite viewers to do one thing – it could be sharing via email, tweeting, posting to Facebook or visiting your website. Clear action should be the overarching goal of your video content. Viewbix lets you add interactive apps to your videos that engage viewers and drive calls to action.



4


Pick Something and Stick With It


Pick one message and stick with it. When script revisions and edits pass through the hands of multiple stakeholders, you face the danger of additional “bonus” messaging appearing. Don’t let this happen. Watered down, rambling messages are a video killer.




Telling great stories over video really boils down to simplicity and authenticity. Maintain a clear goal of delivering content that entertains and helps, and keep your message and calls to action straightforward.