Did you know it takes on average 17 “touches” with a prospect before turning him or her into a client. The point is clear: It takes sustained engagement to bring in business.
So, whether you’re an artist, designer, maker, crafter, a lawyer, an accountant, or any other kind of professional, why would people engage with you?
Simple: People want to buy or use the service of the people they trust and like.
And if you have some influence within your industry, field of expertise or location, they will be all the more likely to trust you.
Accordingly, if “influence” is a reason that potential clients are attracted to your services, it should also serve as a pillar of your online marketing strategy. So plan your marketing strategy well using the 90 days planner:
Five steps
A successful online engagement strategy involves five basic steps.
Although Business to Consumer (B2C) marketers have been increasing the sophistication of their social marketing for years, many in the professions have ignored those methods. They are key components to any business’ digital marketing strategy.
Online profiles update regularly
It might sound odd to say so, but artists, designers and business owners have incomplete and inaccurate social profiles—notably on LinkedIn. Good marketing starts with accuracy.
If you cringe at the thought of handing out your business card with wrong information or submitting a resume with only one of three hard-earned university diplomas, then wrong social media profiles should create the same horrified reaction.
Don’t dismiss how you look. And that includes getting rid of the LinkedIn profile photo from your last party.
Create your content
For years, people have been saying that publishing has been dying. Actually, it’s come to life online. Every subject matter expert should be writing online by publishing blogs and offering content to online publishers
Every business practice should take advantage of online publishing channels to prove they are, indeed, experts in a particular market niche. If writing does not come easily to you, then outsource or work with colleagues or professional writers who can get your content to 97% completion, then polish the final 3% before publishing. Or make videos. Or publish in a Q&A format. You have myriad content options.
Connect and Engage:
Although both points above are crucial to building influence, they won’t attract genuinely interested audiences or warm up future clients unless you get out there and “shake hands” via social channels.
So, no… this is not a careless exercise. Rather, it takes concentrated effort to seek out those within your niche, other consultants, potential clients, journalists, media sites, and industry analysts, for example.
It’s easy to introduce yourself to others by following people on Twitter, adding influential experts to your “circles” on Google+, reaching out to people you know and those you have recently met via LinkedIn, and so forth.
You have to be the change in your business life, and that starts with determining who “out there” is already occupying the target market and niche that concerns you most. With social media, it’s easy to crash the party with a velvet touch. And that includes writing a personal note when you send a LinkedIn request.
Pay attention to others
Now that you’ve got an increasing number of people in your social networks within your target markets, it’s time to make sure you log in to those networks every morning. Take snippets of time out during the day to scroll through your network.
See what people are writing about and the issues that concern them. Make constructive comments on their blogs and via social networks. A simple Like or Share via LinkedIn will remind them that you are there. People will notice and appreciate your attention and interest, and they will, in turn, be more open to reading and sharing your content.
Share your passion and your business
Anyone who has been successful at publishing a book will tell you that the success wasn’t due solely to the content between the covers. It was because they worked tirelessly at publicising their work to predetermined niche markets via radio, TV, online, etc.
The same holds true for your content. And that means “amplifying” your message to your targeted social channels and tapping your online friends on their shoulders.
How? For example, if you have built a relationship with persons A, B, and C about issues X, Y, and Z, then you can “tag” them in your social media posts to make them aware of your published content. It’s easy to do in social networks, but very few business owners do it. Classic example is instagram, you should tag your followers when the image you post is relevant to them.
They just throw out their content (or let their marketers do it) via a tweet or a share, hoping that their content will spread. But the emerging social media universe isn’t mass communications. It’s personal. And that is the beauty of it: real engagement with people who are interested in your message. You learn this by doing.
The better you target your market, the better results you will have amplifying your message. Your contacts will retweet and share your content with their own networks because you are truly engaged with them. It is that online engagement that makes the biggest difference in boosting your ”influence”. And that gets you much closer to convert a contact into a client.
Creative coach, artist coach, designer coach, art licensing coach, art coach, design coach, crafter coach
creative coach, artist coach, designer coach, business coach,
