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Selling - It's All About Relationships. Sounds Like Social Media?
Last week I had the pleasure of teaching a class on sales at the Perry School of Banking for the Michigan Bankers Association. The class, entitled " Sales: It's Not A Four Letter Word" introduces bankers to the world of sales and a process that I personally have been following now for the last several years. Among other themes that run through the class, one of the things that I have always been a strong proponent of is the fact that to be good at "sales" you really need to be good at " building relationships". I've referred to this in past discussions and presentations when talking about social media as the "Know Me, Like Me, Trust Me" process. I listened to a social media podcast this weekend and it featured sales guru, Jeffrey Gitomer. In the podcast it was interesting how his sales strategies are closely aligned with proper social media strategies and are all about building relationships, establishing yourself as an expert and when you "try" to sell, that's when you get yourself in trouble. Check out my recent blog post for more thoughts on this concept. You might just be surprised how close social media and relationship selling are (even though we say that social networking is not for sales, but relationship building). Still think "sales" is a four-letter word? Think again... Check out my blog to read more... |
Whitepaper: Surf And Turf With Search And Social
Do you know whether your business is getting the right exposure in the search engines when someone goes online looking for the types of products you sell or the services you offer? Or, is your site kicked to the "turf" by your competitors and finding you online is like looking for a needle in a haystack?
 That's the question posed in this month's complimentary white paper called Surf and Turf with Search and Social. You'll learn how both search strategies like SEO and paid search can be complimented by a social strategy (leveraging web 2.0 sites in the social networking world) to get your business found online.
For those of you still using conventional advertising methods, keep in mind that when people go online to search, they are ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER. Unlike newspaper, radio, television and even to a certain extent direct mail, you are interrupting consumers and trying to steal attention. If someone goes online looking for "mortgage loan marshall mi" there's a pretty good chance the person lives in the Marshall area and is looking to get a home loan. Can that be said for everyone reading a newspaper with the same advertisement? NO!
Download this month's whitepaper today and when you are ready to figure out how search and social strategies can get your name found in the search process, give me a call (269) 841-5007. I'll work with you to make sure that your site isn't kicked to the "turf".
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YouTube Alternative - Ever Heard Of Vimeo?
While YouTube certainly is the 100-pound gorilla in the online video space, maintaining its rank as the #2 search engine in the world (second only to Google and responsible for over 6 hours of video uploaded every minute), one of the drawbacks is you can only upload videos that are 10 minutes or less. What if you've got a webinar or something that needs more time? The good news is there are options for video distribution that allow you to host videos longer than 10 minutes and can still be used for free.
 One of these services is a video site called Vimeo. Recently, I have been experimenting with the service to host the video archives for the weekly webinar series that I have with my friend, Jeff Simpkins from Community Bank Consulting, Inc. Every Wednesday at 1 pm we host Free Webinar Wednesdays and archive the sessions with GoToMeeting (which gives us the ability to record the presentations). The past couple of episodes I have done a bit of "video conversion" and posted them to my Vimeo account and embedded them on the FWW site. It works pretty slick and these are "way longer" than 10 minutes.
YouTube still is a great choice for videos under 10 minutes (and we see search rankings happen very quickly), but if you have longer videos give Vimeo a try. Incidentally, I have a Google Alert set up for "eric cook" and discovered the Vimeo site was crawled by Google within 24-hours of me posting my last video! So if your business has information it wants to get out to customers (and found by the search engines) video is a powerful tool! Give me a call and I'd love to brainstorm how video can benefit your business.
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Step In Front Of Customers - Paid Search Special Offer
 Unlike all other forms of advertising that are interruptions to consumers, search marketing consists of people going online and actually LOOKING for what you have to offer. Yet, so many businesses are missing the boat and not stepping in front of these customers when they go online searching for their products and services.
With a paid search strategy from WSI, we work to identify the right keywords that people are typing into the popular search engines and get YOU in front of them. The best part about paid search marketing is the only time your ad dollars are spent is when someone actually clicks on your ad - making this truly the only "performance-based" advertising system in the world.
People are looking for what you do, what you offer and what you sell - so why let them find your competitors? Let WSI put together a search strategy that fits your budget and help get you more customers. Chances are we can identify areas in your current marketing budget that may be under performing and simply shift some of your spending so the net cost to the organization may be $0!
Check out the special offer below and see how you can get preferred customer pricing and save $250 on setup of your next paid search marketing campaign. Simply reply to this message or call (269) 841-5007 to get started today!
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