How to Drive Long Term Engagement with Readers

How to Drive Long Term Engagement with Readers
10 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Sales Robot
The Gen Y Handbook: Talking Business With Millennials

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT

drive engagement

Blogging and social media marketing are absolutely essential for any company – especially a small business. Small businesses start blogs or publishing content and are often able to attract a lot of initial buzz. But this initial enthusiasm wanes quickly because they are unable to convert first time visitors to their websites and blogs into loyal readers and struggle to drive engagement.

This can be frustrating for small businesses and their content marketers as they have no clue how they can re-create the original response or get back those readers again. Below are some tips that can help you convert casual visitors into loyal readers and drive engagement with readers over a long length of time.

Drive Engagement With Readers

Publish Content Regularly

Often times, small businesses publish very interesting articles on their websites and other content marketing channels, which get a lot of reader engagement. But they are unable to follow up these articles with more interesting content. When readers go back to them to find new content and are unable to find any, most of them do not return the next time.

You need to make sure that your company is publishing content on a regular basis so that readers always have something to read when they come back. Also, if you are regular, readers can anticipate when the next article or post is going to be published and return to your website on time. This ensures that you have a ready audience for future posts that you are publishing.

However, creating new content on a regular basis can be difficult for small businesses as they may not find new things to write about. In such cases, small business can re-purpose their existing content in new and exciting ways.

For example, you can convert your old articles into an ebook or a video series. You can also hire a content writing firm to manage content creation and publishing for you. They can come up with fresh content on a regular basis.

Engage Readers on Many Platforms

Small businesses are advised not to use only their blogs to attract and retain readers. Social media platforms are excellent for retaining and engaging with readers and customers.

Use your blog to get readers to connect with you on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You can remind your social media followers every time you publish a new blog post, allowing you to get your readers back to your blogs and websites.

Almost every social media platform offers social media plug-ins for a variety of blogging platforms and websites. By installing these plug-ins on your website, your readers can connect with your brand directly from your blog or website.

Always Respond to Comments

Many small businesses make the grave mistake of not replying to their readers' comments on their blogs. This can make readers feel like their opinions are not being valued and the company is unwilling to listen to them.

Make sure to reply to comments on your blog posts as quickly as you can. You can get readers to come back to your blog if you enable notifications for comments so that they get an email when you reply. It also helps if you have a new blog post up when you reply to comments so that when the readers come back to check the comments, they will notice the new blog post and read it.

Sometimes comments can be spammy, silly or just plain negative. You can ignore or disable the spammy or silly ones but you must reply to the negative comments. Be as objective and diplomatic as possible and genuinely address the problems stated in the negative comments.

Develop a Writing Personality

This is where being consistent pays off. Polish your writing and grammar skills or make sure that experienced writers are writing for your brand. People love reading articles, even if they are on boring topics, if they are aware of the writer and have enjoyed his/her writing style before. The casual writing style and tone works best for blogs and social media platforms.

Think of the kind of blogs you enjoy and the brands and authors whose blogs you like following. This can help you figure out the tone and style that will work for your company blog.

Online Engagment Photo via Shutterstock

The post How to Drive Long Term Engagement with Readers appeared first on Small Business Trends.

10 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Sales Robot

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 09:00 AM PDT

sales robot

“Hi, this is Ted and I’m from X Corporation. Do you have a few minutes?”

I’m immediately up in arms. I know he wants to sell me something that I am 99% sure I do not want to buy (for the record, I’ve never made a purchase from someone cold calling me).

Can you relate? What is it about sales that puts us on guard? Why do salespeople do such a bad job of connecting with customers and of making us feel like they’re helping us?

If you’re in sales (and as a small business owner, you probably are in one way or another), take these tips to heart, and see if you get better results.

Here’s How to Avoid Becoming a Sales Robot

1. Know Your Lead

This is a mantra rarely actually heeded. I don’t mean “take a quick look at your lead’s website.” I mean actually dig down and find out what each individual lead’s pain points are.

Big data means we’ve got big access to information about buyers’ behaviors online, so use it to your advantage.

2. Find a Way Around the Cold Call

In my opening example, I showed that many people (including me) don’t respond well to cold calls. How better could a salesperson reach me?

He could comment on my blog posts. Tweet me. Show he’s paying attention to my world. Then at least he’d start with a warm call.

3. Don’t Assume You Know What Your Customer Wants

I once had someone call me to sell me a copier. Keep in mind: I’m pretty much a one-woman show, working out of my home. Why on earth would I buy a $10,000 copier?

This also goes back to #1.

4. Pull, Don’t Push

This is where the lines between marketing and sales blur. If marketing does an excellent job of luring in leads with great content online and through social media, sales will be easier.

Consumers have changed. They are tired of having sales messages beaten into their heads. They want to make their own decisions.

5. Never Tweet Salesy Stuff

In general, what you learn on my “10 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Social Media Robot” post are good rules to follow. No one will read your tweet, “Our product is amazing! Buy it now!” and take action. No one.

Focus instead on building trust with the right audience. Do that by delivering useful content and interacting.

6. Use Your CRM

As a salesperson, your game has to be top-notch. No mistakes. That means you need to know everything about a lead and you need to know if this lead has been contacted before. I’ve been contacted by two different people in the same organization within a week. I wasn’t interested the first time, but the second time, I was livid.

A simple look at your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform can tell you if someone else on your team has already reached out.

7. Get Off The Script

Just like cold calls are a turnoff, so are scripts. I’m human and so are you. Let’s talk like it. You’ll find that by having a real conversation — even if it’s not directly about your product — you’ll always find something out about your lead that can help you form a bond and close the sale.

I wish they’d ban sales scripts entirely.

8. Know What the Left Hand is Doing

Again, sales and marketing are closely tied. But if sales doesn’t know what marketing is doing, results can be disastrous. Historically, there’s been a disconnect between sales and marketing, but these days, that leaves you vulnerable.

Hold regular meetings with the two departments and work together toward common goals.

9. Focus on Benefits, Not Features

This is sales mistake #1. Salespeople think the features of their products are what sells them. Customers want benefits. They want solutions to their problems.

If you can’t speak on how your product can solve those problems, you’re in the wrong profession.

10. Listen

I’ve never known a salesperson at a loss for words. Yet, listening is probably the best sales tool ever.

Like I said in #7, simply having a conversation — and actually listening to the person you’re conversing with — will get you further than any slick sales talk ever could.

Robot Photo via Shutterstock

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The Gen Y Handbook: Talking Business With Millennials

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT

gen y handbook In the latest Star Trek movies, the brashness of the character Captain James Kirk is called into question as part of the character's arc. Kirk jumps into action, sometimes being reasonably insightful, other times questioning long established protocols.

For a character that was invented in the 1960s, Kirk's character, particularly in "new millennium" form, could very easily represent the personality of the American population born after 1980 – called Generation Y or Millennials. This generation has experienced a convergence of unprecedented social and economic influences.

While the "Greatest Generation" has been galvanized by the world at war, millennials are coming of age as computer-savvy enablers. They have witnessed perceived failures in government and organizations, and are imbued with more opportunity to share their viewpoint to the world.

That viewpoint – 75 million examples, roughly a third of the US population – was enough to influence a presidential election. As Rieva Lesonsky wrote in “Managing Different Generations in the Workplace“, it is more than enough to influence your business.

I share these observations to frame the purpose behind the book, The Gen Y Handbook: Applying Relationship Leadership to Engage Millennials by Diane E. Spiegel.

Spiegel is a 25 year corporate training veteran who is a founding partner of The End Result Partnership, a consultation firm. I gained a review copy from the publisher and after reading it I felt more empowered in my working style especially if I were working with adults slightly younger than me. I now felt I understood them better.

Talkin' ‘Bout My Generation (And Unlike The Who, Other Generations, Too)

Spiegel explains how a confluence of influences has created some misconceptions – that Millennials are "entitled," for example. Harboring those misconceptions can overlook opportunities to connect and misunderstand why millennials "come to the workplace with different ideas." She writes, “Every generation brings its collective experiences, complexities and expectation to the workplace.”

Immediately Siegel jumps into set-the-record-straight mode from her experiences:

“During workshops I hear from many participants who, although they agree that Millennials are smart, think they lack common sense and sometimes need assistance connecting the dots. Part of this challenge is that they have been educated to collaborate and work on teams – a good attribute, but challenging if they are asked to work independently. In a significant shift in values, they also do not identify with the concept that you first need to ‘pay your dues’ before you can advance at work, and this can cause conflict with the values of their Baby Boomer and Generation X managers.”

The book delves into specific instances in which Millennial values can influence the workplace. Millennials are ethnically diverse, less likely to hold a religious affiliation, and entrepreneurial aspirational as they have sought early careers during the global recession.

Learn How Social Media Has Influenced How We Communicate

The writing style is straightforward. I really like the metaphors that brought messages to life. "Helicopter Parents" are millennial guardians who fly low and hover over their children with respect to coaching, while "Trophy Kids" evokes pride in accomplishments. But the terms, like the suggestions, are not meant to be pejorative. They elaborate on the complexity of Generation Y with respect and add clarity to the recommendations.

For example, Millennials value trust. This is not new in Spiegel's view. In using social media, they rely on transparency to decide their expressions and communication style. Spiegel suggests how to establish trust:

“When many Baby Boomers began their careers, the concept was that you have a "zero" until you demonstrated what you can do, what skills you possess, and you begin to accumulate contributions….Millennials believe, as they have been told, that they are smart, competent, and that they can get results. When you start a new relation strive for an ‘A’, 100 percent, or a perfect score. This sends the message that I believe in you, your skills, and what you bring to the job or team. Sharing this intent with others, especially your Millennial talent, will provide you an approach that is consistent with the paradigm of this generation”

This approach can help in discussing controversial personal choices, such as a Millennial's tattoos. The topic can seem too esoteric an instance, but Spiegel uses it and others to explain links to business-relevant observations.

A study-noted the penchant to delay adulthood rites like marriage and home buying becomes understood against ideas such as aforementioned immediacy of contributing. Millennium Minutes provide thought-provoking asides in each chapter, reminders of what takeaways can aid your business.

Ultimately the text in The Gen Y Handbook initiates a valued discussion of generational workplace values and the shifts that are significant to the bottom line. I can imagine the book aiding budding HR resources at a startup with a few years under its belt. It is also useful for small business owners who have young employees or interns.

For the best blend in developing teams, add this book to your library of resources to make a difference to the people who matter most in your business.

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Monday, July 22, 2013