April 28, 2020 6 min read
The opinions expressed by the entrepreneur’s contributors are their own.
The following excerpt is from Dan S. Kennedy and Kim Walsh Phillips’ No BS Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing, Second Edition. Buy it now on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound or click here to buy it directly from us and SAVE 60% in this book if you use code MARKET2021 by 04/03/21.
There are only a few simple direct marketing rules that need to be followed. By making a commitment, you will get the long-term benefits you seek and develop a lasting business foundation.
These basics are skipped by most companies using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as their primary communication sources. Realize that a choice is yours, and you can make your marketing dollars work harder for you by giving people more than one reason and more than one way to respond to you.
No matter how many channels you market to, there are six basic rules you need to understand in order to be successful. These basic concepts must be fully understood, practiced, managed, and enforced.
Related: How to Reveal Hidden Sales
1. There will always be an offer
There is a popular saying that content is king. I would disagree. Selling is king. Without it, you have no market share and no kingdom to rule over. Your social media marketing needs to have a proposition that tells your ideal prospect exactly what to do and why they want to do it now. It should be irresistible, time sensitive, and transformative in value when they take action.
Ideally, it is a sponsorship offer that the interested party or customer cannot refuse.
2. There will be a reason to respond immediately
The hidden costs and failures in any advertising and marketing are almost convinced. You were tempted to answer. They almost answered. They got to the edge of the answer, but then put it aside to do later, or to think about it, or to check more the next time they were at their computers. When they get to that edge, we have to reach over and pull them past it. There has to be a good reason for them not to pause or delay or think. There has to be an urgency.
3. There will be clear instructions
Most people do pretty well following the directions. For the most part, they stop red and go green, stand on the lines where they’re supposed to be, fill out the forms they’re supposed to fill out, and applaud when the applause sign comes on. Most people are well conditioned from childhood in any setting to do what they are told to do.
Most marketers’ mistakes and disappointments result from confusing or no instructions at all. Confused or insecure consumers do nothing, and people rarely buy anything of importance without being asked. Sharing content alone won’t bring measurable results from your social media. You need to walk your prospect through the steps they should take to close the sale.
4. It is tracked and measured
If you want real profits from your marketing, you can no longer make any advertising, marketing or sales investments without direct and accurate tracking, measurement and accountability. You get all sorts of arguments against such a tough position from media salespeople, from online media champions who speak a “new” language with “new metrics” from employees and colleagues. You’ll hear terms like “engagement” and “reach” and “virality” with no data to back up the results. You will smile and politely say, “Bullshit.” Every dollar sent to the fodder has to come back with more and / or meet predetermined goals. There will be no freeloaders; There will be no slackers.
Related: Here’s Why You Should Stop Being Nice To Your Customers
5. There will be follow-up
I often find business owners with more holes in their buckets than they have. People read your ad, get your letter, see your sign, find you online, call or visit your place of business, ask questions at your front desk or staff, and that’s it. There is no registration of the prospect’s name, physical address, email address, and no offer to immediately send an information pack, free report, and coupons. This is criminal waste.
I was poor, so I detest and condemn waste. How much rubbish are you allowed to sneak around your company? Probably a lot. When you invest in advertising and marketing, you don’t just pay for the customers you get. You pay a price for every call, every walk-in. Anyone. Nothing to do with you is like flushing money down the toilet.
If you invested $ 1,000 in an ad campaign and received 50 calls, you bought each call for $ 20. If you want to waste one, grab a nice, crunchy $ 20 bill, go to the bathroom, tear the bill into pieces, flutter the pieces in the toilet, and flush. Stand there and watch it go away. If you don’t want to do anything with 30 of those 50 calls, stand there and do it 30 times. Feel it.
You probably won’t like the way it feels. Well.
Remember, every time you don’t really follow up on a lead or customer, you feel like it.
6. Result rule
Result rule. Period. Consider the simple arrangement: you want your car to be hand washed and waxed on the outside and vacuumed on the inside, which is what you pay $ 20 to your neighbor’s teen for. If he doesn’t want to wash, wax, or vacuum the car but still want the $ 20, what possible “story” could he offer in lieu of the result of a clean car that would satisfy you? I wouldn’t hope any. You didn’t offer to pay for a story. They offered to pay for a clean car. The same applies to advertising and marketing investments in social media. Do not let anyone confuse, bomber or convince you. Also, opinions don’t count – not even yours.
Only the results are important.
Did you like your book preview? Click here to get a copy today – now 60% off if you use code MARKET2021 by 4/3/21.
Comments are closed.