Golden Nuggets from Toronto's Mesh 12 Conference

Toronto played host to this year’s mesh 12 conference on May 23 - 24, 2012 and, as
usual, offered a plethora of seminars and networking opportunities. Attending was
representatives from many well-known online brands, including Blurb, ecobee,
Ushahidid, Global Voices and IBM Canada. Featured speakers included noted media
lawyer Michael Geist; NPR Icon Andy Carvin and Clay Johnson, co-founder of
Blue State Digital, responsible for Barack Obama’s successful online campaign in 2008.

While a good deal of material was covered, two areas that were of particular interest
are UNDERSTANDING YOUR WHOLE SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIENCE and
INBOUND: THE FUTURE OF MARKETING. In regard to INBOUND
MARKETING, Brian Halligan, founder of HubSpot, shared that INBOUND
MARKETING is just the opposite of traditional OUTBOUND MARKETING -
advertising, cold calls, etc. Since most of us recognize that INBOUND
MARKETING is the wave of the future, it is most important that we understand how
to master it as soon as possible.  According to Halligan, the key to INBOUND
MARKETING is remarkable content. The reason?  GOOGLE has gotten smart
enough to weed out the lousy stuff! To be successful, you should:

• Create good quality that people want to engage with, publishing frequently

• Have calls to action to get your readers to become leads

• Do lead nurturing to get those leads to become customers

• A/B Test everything to increase conversion rates. By continuously improving, you
  can increase conversions by 200% to 300%

• Remember the Power Laws of Inbound Marketing: Top 20% of your content will
  generate 80% of your traffic and leads

Halligan also said that your content needs to be relevant to your business, and it
needs to not to oversell your product or service. Focus on creating value for you
readers, not on selling, and use targeted calls to action to move people through
your marketing funnel.  Obviously, this is a lot to digest and, if your realm of
expertise is not Internet Marketing, it might even be a little overwhelming. A
solution might be to contact an Internet Marketing Firm, such as PATHMAKER
MARKETING LLC. Headed by founder and CEO Randall Mains, they stand
ready to help you with not only these two issues, but the whole of Internet
Marketing. In discussing “Your WHOLE Social Media Audience” a key term
that was bantered around was “lurkers.” In essence, these individuals are your
“invisible online audience,” people who may visit your site but who are not
tweeting, liking or sharing your content. Lurkers may also use Facebook but
don’t post, like, or share, even though they may log on to FB several times a
week.  A comprehensive survey by Andrew Reid and Alexandra Samuel
explains what is different about lurkers, and what you need to now about
reaching them. And, this information is important, because their study showed
that 68% of Canadian Facebook users are lurkers, and that for Twitter 61%
log but are not posting.  Interestingly enough, lurkers do not behave the same
way, nor want the same things, as sharers. As a result, most of the data
available on social media audiences does not apply to the majority of the
audience.  Insights into this group reveal that:

• Lurkers tend to be less influential in terms of their workplace purchasing
  or hiring decisions.

• Attitudes: Lurkers care less about being fashionable; Lurkers are more reluctant
  to engage in shopping.

Information alone is not enough - it is imperative that we are able to draw some
marketing implications from this data. One of the main suggestions is that you
might want to change the way you structure social media initiatives. For example,
if you are an office supply store you may want to create two different feeds: one
targeting workplace influencers (made for sharing) and another for the silent
majority who might be focused on deals for home use.  Another thought is that
you might also change your key metrics. Rather than shares or likes, you might
want to increase your emphasis on measuring clicks and actual online transactions
that are driven by social media.  In summation, the silent social media audience is
value-oriented rather than being driven by trends or being ahead of the technology
and/or fashion curve. They are more likely to quietly click and buy if the deal is right.

Increase your Online Sales through E-mail Marketing

by Randall Mains

Increase your Online Sales through E-mail Marketing. This is one of the strategies that Pathmaker Marketing is doing for its clients and has been proven effective on all kinds of businesses. This is especially true if “coupons” and special offers figure prominently in your Marketing Program. For many businesses, E-Mail Marketing may very well be your ticket to “Marketing Paradise!” Prime examples of those who might benefit from E-Mail Marketing are Restaurants, Sporting Goods Stores and Churches. To begin with, we need to realize that there are two major challenges in implementing an effective E-Mail Marketing Program: The key to building your list is that you have to provide a reason for people to join. In the case of the Restaurant and Sporting Goods Store, you might offer a "2 for 1 coupon,” or a "20% Off” your next order when they sign up. A Church might offer a free White Paper on Prayer or Better Family Life for signing up. You provide patrons the opportunity to enroll while they are in your establishment, and at that time you explain that future coupons will be forthcoming when they "enroll” with you.

Once a Restaurant has a list to work with they can start their E-Mail Marketing Program. They can send out coupons for Karaoke Night, or for Holiday Discounts, or maybe even to join you for Monday Night Football. It is important to remember that an E-Mail Marketing Program is primarily to provide your business with "spikes,” corresponding to the event or holiday. Inasmuch as E-Mails tend to have a short "shelf life,” these are good for “short term” promotions. For the Sporting Goods store it would be very similar, but you might want to offer "how to” classes for members of your contact list. You might also promote a "One Day Sale” or a "Week End Event.” While Restaurants might take advantage of Holidays, the Sporting Goods Store might benefit from the various seasons - Hunting, Fishing, Baseball, etc. An E-Mail inviting your contact list members to attend a class titled "A one day Guide to tying Flies” would serve several purposes: 1) It would help you determine your clients area of interest and 2) it would set the stage for increased sales regarding Fly Fishing!

Another way to Increase your online sales through e-mail marketing is to offer an invitation to a special Holiday Service or even a “Movie Night” or special musical presentation. Again, the idea is to get people in so that you can determine what their needs are and how you can help meet those needs. Regardless of the entity are promoting, there are several important facts you need to keep in mind when building your E-Mail Program. Most importantly, perhaps, is the fact that you will want to design your coupons in HTML. This not only allows you to develop and forward an "attractive” coupon that will render properly, it also provides you with the means to "track” your E-Mails, allowing you to know how many of them are being opened and, perhaps even more importantly, how many recipients are "clicking through.”