One of the objectives of using social media for business is to capture the email address of those people who have an interest in your product or service.  You’ll notice many websites featuring a form which asks you to enter your name and email address to receive their free newsletter.

If your email box is anything like mine it’s already chock-a-block and takes some good time management to keep it under control.  So unless it’s a company I already know really well I’m highly unlikely to enter my details in the hope of getting an interesting newsletter every week or month.

However, if I come across a website or Facebook Page that asks me to enter my details in return for a compelling free report, video or ebook that has some information that will solve a problem for me or will be extremely helpful to me, then I wouldn’t hesitate in handing my details over.  It’s a no-brainer.  I’m happy and the company has my email address enabling them to keep in touch and build a relationship with me … and ultimately sell to me.

If you want to build a targeted list of prospects then think about what you could give away as your Compelling Free Offer.  If you’ve spent some time researching your target market you should know what things interest them in regard to your product or service.  Set up a sign-up form on your website or Facebook Welcome Page, feature your Compelling Free Offer and see if you get more people giving you their details.

Take a look at these 12 Most Compelling Free eBooks by Business Bloggers to get some inspiration.

Incidentally I will be practising what I preach very soon on my own blog, but you can see my compelling free offer over on my Facebook Page.

Next week on The A to Z of Social Media Marketing … D is for Discovering

A blog is a platform where you can publish an ongoing supply of short articles that gives your customers and prospective customers some interesting, useful information to do with the products or services you offer.  The blog post is written on a blog page (like this one), preferably housed within your website.  There’s some great free blogging software around that’s fairly easy to use – this one being WordPress

If your business wants to include social media in their marketing mix then a blog page, in my opinion, is essential.  It’s essential because it helps you do the following:

• You can use it to attract visitors to your website – Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn are good platforms to use to post links directing people back to your blog posts, which creates traffic to your website.
• Well written blog posts that include relevant keywords people would use to search for your type of product/service can boost your search engine optimisation efforts.  River Pools & Spas are an excellent example of how effective blogging can be for this.
• An informative blog post can help showcase your expertise.  Writing regular posts that are helpful to your target market can help you become the person they think of first when they’re ready to buy.
• A consistent blogging strategy that focuses on your customers’ needs goes a long way to building that know,like and trust factor.

If you’re not sure what to write or you’ve run out of ideas to blog about, take a look at Nikki Pilkington’s 30 Day Blogging Challenge.  It’s packed full of creative ideas, inspiration and tips, so you never have to worry about writer’s block again!

Next week, continuing the A-Z of Social Media … C is for Compelling Offer.

A 

is for Autoresponder

If you’ve ever signed up for a discount coupon, free report or ebook download on a Facebook Page or a website you would have entered your email address into an ‘opt-in’ form.  This means that you give permission for that company to send you further emails.  The emails you receive after you’ve downloaded the free report are a way for that company to start building a better relationship with you.  They might send you more free information, ask you if you enjoyed the report or if you have any questions about it.  Eventually the company will email you details of products or services they think you will be interested in buying in the hope that by this time you’ve grown to know, like and trust in them and what they do.

This series of emails you receive have likely been set up in advance and are called Autoresponders which means that every time someone enters their email address into the opt-in form those details are put into a database list on email marketing software such as Aweber or Mailchimp.  This then triggers the autoresponders.  The emails you recieve will have an unsubscribe button at the bottom for you to click on if you want to stop receiving them.

The company who set the autoresponders up are able to see which people on their list are opening each email and what links within the email they are clicking on.  This enable the company to tweak their subject line or email content if they find not many people are taking action.  The opt-in form and autoresponder are excellent social media marketing tools to help a company build a list of people interested in their product or service and they work best with an initial compelling free offer.

Next week - B is for Blogging