The Engaging Brand

The Truth about Selling in a Social Marketing World

With social marketing, it can be difficult to understand how to sell in a world when you are told NOT to.....

Don't sell just create great social marketing; you understand the advice but reasons don't pay the bills!

So how do we reconcile -  'marketing great reasons' with actually 'selling' to keep your business going?

Here is how I like to think about it....

In years gone by, we had two functions...marketing and selling. One gave the reasons and one built the relationships so those reasons were heard.

Now we have the web and the web replaces the miles of driving up and down the motorway delivering those messages.

We don't need a car, we need a content strategy  to define the right road to the right customer!

So does that mean that sales is dead? Should we put all of our resources behind marketing? No.

BUT we do need a mindset change. 

• We need to think about teams of people, rather than functions, teams who create the ideas and the reasons why your are different and why people should buy from you.
• We then need to 'sell' these ideas and reasons to our internal teams so they understand, and buy in to, the real difference your product or service makes to the market. The best way to do this is to communicate in person, have honest open discussions that link the concepts to your business mission, your business plan and the goals of those individiuals.
• We then create content that travels up and down the motorway!
• Each time a potential customer interacts with us they sense our passion, they sense our message, they sense a unified brand. So

1. IT creates a website that reflects the message.
2. HR recruits talent that buy into the message.
3. Finance develops reports to show not just the numbers but the measurement of the objectives.
4. Production search for ways to improve the efficiency, quality and speed of the core elements of the service or production.
5. Credit control act as problem solvers. They highlight issues which are causing issues to the customer, they don't accept credits as part of the business they work tirelessly with the business to remove excuses not to pay.
6. Choose your department - they don't do a "job" they are on a mission to use the skills of their department to help strengthen the reason to buy.

• You then leave the selling element to the customer. The customer WANTS to buy - it is just that their inner mind is looking for reasons not to! The more you remove the problems, the more you give reasons why they SHOULD buy, then you remove their inner resistance and get them to convert their own mind.
• You follow up, you make every transaction the same so that the customer then acts as a referral engine to their friends. They are not the sales people for your brand as some would say....they are your marketers. They give reasons why their friends should convert THEIR inner mind to buy.

We must get away from marketing and sales as functions and start thinking about marketing internally and externally, leaving the customer to convert themselves!

Watch out for an upcoming interview with John Jantsch when we explore this idea further on The Engaging Brand podcast.

Top Secret of Entrepreneurs who Succeed in Social Media

You know what to do, it is just how to do it. You read. You listen. You learn. You know the mechanics behind the success of other brands....yet, you are still frustrated about how to power your brand forward.

Often the difference between success and failure in business is belief. True, honest belief. Belief based on strong ideas, clarity of thought and knowing that you will have failures but failure will be a gate to improvement not a barrier to progress.

However, there is a problem with the word 'belief'? Anyone spot it?

There are two different vowels and three in total and yet it is spelt without the most important one...U!

1. U need to believe in your brand - no compromise, only checks to ensure that it remains relevant and fresh. A brand without belief is not a brand, it is a dream.
2. U need to believe before your customer will believe. Belief is contagious.
3. U need to create the reasons - and believe in them - of why you are different and why a customer should choose you. Belief comes from knowing and understanding your work.
4. U need to believe that social marketing will work IF you keep doing the right things for the right reasons to the right people....over the medium term. This is not a short term fix; it is an ongoing philosophy of putting the customer first.
5. U need to believe that social is not a digital revolution but a mindset revolution. Belief comes from persuading your mind first, before turning to the minds of others.
6. U need to believe in your customer or potential customers. The more you believe in their voice, the more they will believe in your brand.

Without belief you will not succeed. Others may doubt and that is good! They can act as a check on your thinking. Blind belief is as bad as no belief!

Belief is the missing ingredient between how social megastars feel about their brand which makes them want to be social....and how the ordinary folks who create because they feel they have to ....

Belief is the glue between your business and your social content. Without belief you write without passion, without belief you think about product and service .....with belief you talk passionately about reasons rather than mundane specifications.

Belief is free - however it is expensive.

Expensive because you have to invest your time to truly understand why you do believe, how to explain your passion and remove the blocks that prevent your belief running through all that you do.

Those blocks act like a dam, holding back that belief from becoming flowing down to customers. Those dams need your attention. Now. Today. Not tomorrow. Those dams need to be removed quickly because their removal frustration will posion your belief over time.

So ask yourself - do I really, really, truly believe in what I do?

If I don't why? Deal with anything on the list.

If I do, how do I find ways of spreading my enthusiasm. Whats holding me back from enthusing about my brand?

We may all operate in different markets but one product connect us all - we all market 'enthusiasm', our customers all make their purchasing decisions based on the enthusiasm thermometer!

You need to be the warm sahara wind causing the enthusiasm temperature to rise in your market.  

What Social Media is NOT!

You look around where you work. You look at all the webinar success stories. You then look at your business and at your success.

You feel that as much as you work hard, do the right things.....you don't seem to be as successful as everyone else. Why do you bother? Social doesn't work for you, like it works for everyone else.....

Now imagine a comparison that is actually work making...a comparison that shows whether you are doing the right things, whether you are making progress and whether your company is succeeding in both earning attention and converting attention to sales.

The latter comparison is what you should be concentrating on....it is reality...it is tangible evidence that you are living social rather than being social and it is simply this...

You see people hold webinars to convince you there is a secret sauce...a trick that you are missing.....a trick that could turn your struggling world into one of financial plenty. They make success sound so easy BUT they are distorting the truth...why?

Well, because the truth is much harder to hear.

Social success is created by doing the right thing, each day to the right people for the right reasons. (Tweet this)

It is hard graft. It can be lonely. It can feel like one step forward and two steps back. It can feel frustrating. It can be exhausting....just like the rest of business!

Social does not remove the pitfalls of business, it merely increases the opportunities for business (Tweet this)

That is why I believe in measurement.

Not because I am a trained Chartered Accountant. Not because numbers tell the whole story. But because it gives you a trendline. It gives you the only comparison that is worth making...

Data allows you to compare the "brand you" of today to the "brand you" of yesterday, of yesteryear....and allows you to assess this important question

"Am I living social, demonstrating social and making a difference in other people's lives?" (Tweet this)

If you, are the trendline will be up.

If you are being rather than living social, the trendline will be down.

Social marketing at it's core is about connection. Not in the sense of collecting followers BUT in the sense of connecting TO someone's mind.

Data is an expression of how well you are connecting to the mind of your intended audience.

It is not about quantity, it is about quality.

It is not about likes, it is about moving your audience from passive followers to active customers. (Tweet this)

It is not about followers of your brand, it is about engaged fans of your brand.(Tweet this)

It is not about connectionS, it is about connectING. (Tweet this)

It is not about comparing your data to others, it is about comparing your data to who you were yesterday.

Show 486 - How to Be More Productive

The Engaging Brand podcast covers social marketing, business ideas and brand marketing tips.

Anna Farmery talks to Chandler Bolt about being a Productive Person.

Chandler who you can contact via email - chandler@theproductiveperson.com

".. began early (age 11) by selling his personal snacks at scout camp and, by age 17 he hired his friends to help him operate his landscaping business that earned him $10,000 for college. All in all, by age 20 he started and ran over $320,000 in businesses and received the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award from Young Entrepreneurs Across America."

We covered:

• What created his entrepreneurial spirit?
• How to work hard but create a balance with freedom today..
• Why working longer hours is not the answer to career success.
• The concept of mind refreshing which can help you do more work in less time.
• How to stop your mind from wandering when working.
• The 3 things that you need to decide to become a more Productive Person.
• How to keep on track without getting sidetracked during the day.
• How to deal with loneliness as an entrepreneur and how a buddy can help you achieve greater business success.
• How to be a productive seller on social marketing.

The Listener of the Week is Harry Luther - chosen from anyone who shared about last weeks podcast.

For your chance to win next week just share this post! (Tweet this)

Remember as a listener you can download 30 Lessons on Social Leadership Powers - Anna's new ebook  is now available on Kindle. 

1) You can listen now

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Let Rip - Social is About Being You!

You can hold back. Your worries can stop you from acting on your gut instinct, that same gut instinct that got you this far.

Our desire to get it right, gets in the way of releasing our passion. Yet we know passion sells. How do we balance our gut instinct with the desire to get it right?

Risk is a natural part of business and if we are close enough to our customers, close enough to our market then risk should be part of our gut instinct.

We can destroy any idea by overthinking. Yes, we need to think and reflect before a decision however we also need to learn to trust ourselves.

Patti LaBelle is renowned for her performance on stage...of what she calls just "letting go". She argues that "If you hold back, you lose it and your audience knows it"

What if we just let go and let us be the social animal that we naturally are?

What if we released ourselves to be ourselves? 

What if we released others around us to be themselves?

What if we let rip and just tried things.....we can always stop, reinvent or change if it doesn't work out?

What if we forgot about branding and let our voice be the brand? (Tweet this)

What if we concentrated on getting the right people, with the right values and holding them to those values...and then said " I trust you all. Go, let rip...be yourselves?"

Many entrepreneurs that I work with, know WHAT to do. Many entrepreneurs don't back their own judgement. Many entrepreneurs start their company and then start playing it safe. 

I understand why, of course I do.....BUT remember playing it safe is risky. Playing it safe was not the reason you started the business; playing it safe is not the same as playing the percentages.

You are the soul of your brand. You are the main reason why people chose to work with you.....

Business needs freedom but freedom with boundaries. The boundaries are the market that you serve, the values that you live by, the services that you offer. Within those boundaries should lie the freedom to express the HOW.

Here is a challenge.....when was the last time you just let rip? When was the last time you backed your own judgement? When was the last time you tried even though it might fail? When was the last time you released yourself from being a business person and being the person who helped build this business?

You know how to be you better than anyone else. Social is about being you. (Tweet this)

You know your market better than anyone else. Demonstrate it. (Tweet this)

You know your limits but there is plenty of space to play up to those limits! (Tweet this)

Back yourself. Let rip. Start passionately loving your work. Passion sells. (Tweet this) 

 

How to Know You Are Doing The Right Job

When you close the lid on your computer tonight, there is only one question to ask

Success comes from hard work; hard work on doing something you love towards your goal. (Tweet this)

We spend a lot of time wondering what the customer wants, delighting the customer...quite rightly. But the easiest way to do that is to be the most loyal customer of what you do. 

When you are proud of what you do, when you sit down with you coffee at night if you are proud of your work rather than exhausted from merely doing work, then you will be on the right path to convince others.

Here is a little checklist to ask yourself to see whether you are proud of your work

P = Purpose. You can look at all you did and achieved today and know, really know that you have made a step towards your life's purpose.

R = Rewarding. How many times did your work make you smile today and even more importantly, how many times did your work make others smile today? Smiles are a wonderful yardstick for being proud of what you do.

O = Own. Did you own your decisions and actions. Hiding behind others does not increase happiness, it decreases your feeling of control.

U = Understand. Do you and your team how today's work contributes to the larger goal?

D = Dignity. Dignity is such an underused word and yet when people show diginity, they show respect for others. The social media world loves dignity - both in success and in defeat. So were you dignified in all that you did and all that you said today?

We may not all be billionaires in terms of money but then I don't strive to be.....that does not guarantee happiness.

Strive to be a smile billionaire and allow the world to reward you back! (Tweet this)

Here is something that I am proud of

The 30 Day of other challenging questions is now available on Kindle!

Warning! Antidote Required For The Failure Virus

WARNING! There is an illness that spreads quickly across your business.

It can be devastating. It can ruin your plans for success. It is awful. And the worst part.....it happens when you are not looking...It is called the Failure Virus.

It invades your brain and changes the definition of one of the words that you have learned. Now don't worry you can spot the symptons early and provide the ideal remedy....but let us identify the word that is affected

ACT

We learned that to act, within a business context, means to take action BUT the failure virus rewires your brain and when you see the word action it replaces action with acting.

What this means is that we talk through action points. We talk about what action we will take. We create action lists. We say we are taking action.

However, what actually happens is that we pretend...we act as though we are but the reality is that we are putting on a great performance that Dame Judi Dench would be proud of...rather than actually taking action.

You see acting like you are being social, acting like you believe in social marketing, is NOT taking action. It is ultimately 'doing' without the commitment that will deliver customer engagement.

Consumers can see through acting. They see through automation. They see through sales pitches. They see acting...not action.

And internally, we may appear busy but it doesn't generate leads, increase revenue or customer engagement. Why? Because it is acting as if we are doing something, rather than taking action to create success.

And this failure leads to disillusionment. It leads to a sense of powerlessness. It leads to people thinking that no matter how hard they try, they ever achieve success.

However there is an antedote to this business disease. There is a way of protecting your business from this failure virus....there is the action antidote!

The antidote is the realisation that you are deciding 'what' needs to be done without

• Really understanding the 'why'...and it is the why that creates the motivation to do it.
• Really understanding the best 'how'....and this renders the action a dream rather than a goal....and dreams rarely come true!
• Really understanding the right measurements to ensure action does not slip into acting.

And by NOT adding these ingredients the failure virus creates busy-ness without results rather than results for your business.