For the first time, including the internet in your marketing mix, measurement is easy and doesn’t need lots of technical experience.

Here are five easy performance metrics for measuring marketing activity:

1. Use Vanity URLs

These can be short urls used for specific reasons. You can buy short domain names for campaigns or add a short code after your normal name. Eg www.HaveMoreClients.co.uk goes to the Facebook fan page of Have More Clients.

Alternatively there are the subscription based shorten url services where you can assign a URL and the service tracks the number of clicks and where they came from. There are several services and the top three are budurl.com,  cli.gs and bit.ly 

2. Web and Email Analytics

Google offers free web analytics where you can monitor every page as well as campaigns. There are other companies offering paid for analytics and you would be best to review the different offerings.

Also, by using a good email marketing system, you will also know who clicks on links and where they go. This information gives your sales team, whether that’s you or your marketing VA/assistant something very specific to contact that person about.

3. Brand Monitoring

Sign up for Google Alerts and add in the keywords you wish to have information on. It is a good idea to include your company name, the names of key staff members so you can be altered if something is going awry. Of, course then you need to take action – head in the sand is not the appropriate action
Having subscriptions is just the start of the story, its monitoring what happens to these people as a result of your activity that is important. This is linked to Web Analytics by tracking the behaviour of people, your headings improve, the content improves and the calls to action has more action straight to the bottom line.

4. Subscriptions to your Bog Feed, newsletter and downloads

If you have a blog, then linking the feed to Feedburner.com will mean people can subscribe to the blog and receive posts as they are published without ever going to the site.

5. Asking People

This may seem a bit old fashioned and off the wall against the hi-tech solutions. But, the simplest methods can still be very effective. You can add a question to all the engagement points asking where they heard about you. This gives you feedback just which channel is working for you and which needs attention!

Adding a survey to encourage responses is helpful not only for the information gained, but it is an opportunity for your client and prospect list to engage – moving them from the passive to the active.

Once you have the measurements, set aside time to respond to this information; make changes to your marketing campaigns. Re-evaluate what is and isn’t working and improve. These techniques work whether you are tracking your social media, online activities as well as offline.

Their marketing budget has been spent on a new website, logo, stationery, brochures even. They’ve joined networking groups, advertised in local/national press or written a couple of articles. And, are disappointed, hacked off and thinking that marketing is just snake oil!

It usually takes one or two questions to uncover the sticking point(s):

1. Have you asked what your market what they want?
2. Is your marketing tailored to the issues causing problems?

In 99% of cases, the answers to one or both is No. So, that means all the money spent on marketing so far has been wasted.

Marketing is about the market, about your buyers. Give them what they are looking for and the sales will follow.

So, to Have More Clients, it’s a case of matching your offering to the market and, here’s how to do that:

1. At each networking event, book a 121 to find out more about the other people and their businesses. How you may help them with referrals and how they may help you. You may be surprised with what you learn.
2. Set up tweets asking questions or go through the tweets from people in your market to see what they are saying and sharing. Engage with them and see if you can interview them.
3. Set up a discussion thread on other social networking sites and respond to the comments so there is dialogue.
4. Create a short survey and promote that on your social networking sites.
5. Send an email to those people in your CRM and on your newsletter list asking them to complete the survey.
6. Ask other business owners serving your market whether they would promote your survey to their clients and prospects.

Once you have the answers you will be in a better position to:

• Have a website serving your market
• Able to create lead magnets
• Create your content strategy for social media
• Build credibility as an expert in your market

So, it is easy to get the market into your marketing. And, by engaging with your market, you’ll always be offering services that meet their needs.

1. Workhorse Website
2. Email Marketing

And, they are intrinsically linked.

Let me clear, email marketing is the way you keep in touch with prospects, customers/clients, partners and affiliates.

Sure you can send individual emails using your standard email software eg Outlook or gmail etc but this software isn’t designed to be used for marketing.

Email marketing has rules regarding spam and email reputation. It is much easier to use the know how of email marketing software rather than try to do it yourself.

Make sure your chosen email provider offers you website signup forms as part of the service. This makes the link between your website and email marketing stronger and automatic.

The more sophisticated the tracking of unopened emails and bounces will ensure your list remains clean. That means your emails will be more readily delivered!

That’s the basic starter information. Post your questions on email makreitng and over the next few days, posts will provide answers

The opportunities are endless. You can network at any time of the day or night – face to face and online.

The big question is “Have your Social Networking skills and practices kept pace?”

What are the changes?

• Small Business Networking is now one to many and many to many than just one to one.
• Business Networking and your website are intrinsically linked
• Networking effectiveness is boosted by switching from sales oriented messages to content and permission-based marketing.

To make the most of these, here are five networking tips:

1. Online Social Networking Profiles
   Create or update your online profile for all the networking groups to which you belong. Be consistent with what you write and keep them up to date.
2. Join Social Networking Sites
   Choose the ones that best suit your business. The top social networking sites are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Generally, Facebook is great if you have a large following already. Linkedin is a business oriented site. Twitter is good for both business to business and business to consumer providing your market is there too! There are smaller ones, industry specific or geographically based. Still choose the ones best for your business.

3. Create Content
   If you are already glazing over with idea of creating articles and content generally, come back!

   With online networking, posts are like attending an event where the emphasis is on sharing information.

   There’s a bonus for this activity, you can use this content in other areas of your marketing. What’s more, you can create lead magnets from these and the comments received!

4. Comment of what’s being said
   Monitor what others are saying and add your thoughts – just as you would in face to face networking. Remember, nothing is deleted on the internet, so keep your comments in line with your business aims and values.

   People buy from people they trust and the easiest way to build this is through consistency.

5. Have 121s
   It doesn’t matter whether you network face to face or online, you want ways to explore potential. A 121 over the phone is a quick and easy way to decide how to move forward even if that is to arrange an appointment.

These are five networking tips you can do today and over time they increase the effectiveness of your marketing. Tell me which of these are doing now?

Anne:    How do the Lead Magnet get sales?

KP:       You have a follow through service with links.  So your magnet isn’t a stand alone.  It’s part of your whole programme, it’s embedded.  So whatever you want to do, your follow on services flow your lead magnet.

Anne:    In other words don’t just pop it up there and hope for the best, it’s got to be part of the package?

KP:       That’s right.  Marketing only works when it’s integrated.  When one bit works with another bit.. which works with another bit.  Marketing doesn’t work very effectively if you do one bit and you do that really well but it doesn’t go anywhere.

You might be lucky and get sales from it but that’s where it’s hard for small business owners who aren’t trained in marketing to actually realise that it’s a concept.  Think of marketing as an orchestra and every instrument, every tool has a part to play in growing your business.

Mike:    What is the relationship, if any, between what they call squeeze pages, landing pages and a lead magnet?

KP:       A lead magnet isn’t necessarily on a squeeze page.  A squeeze page is where someone lands on a page and they can’t do anything else.  The lead magnet seminar page that you arrived on was a squeeze page because there was nowhere else you could go apart from decide whether to sign up or press the “back” key on your browser.  They were the only two pages where you could have gone.  That’s forcing you to make a decision.

If you go to the the Twitter Report page on my case study, where it’s got all of the recommendations and the graphic and stuff, that’s basically another squeeze page.

I’ve also got the Twitter report lead magnet on HaveMoreClients home page which is nothing like a squeeze page.  People don’t have to sign up to it, but people do.  It depends where the lead magnet fits within all the other bits of your marketing and what is it that you want it to do.  All these things have their place.

Mike:    Thank you.

Post your questions and receive answers on how to use Lead Magnets to attract more clients.

Step one:  Learn what your market wants and how they want to receive it

So who is your market? Be specific! The more specific, the more personal you appear. You want people to think/feel “That’s me!” Creating that understanding goes a long way in the “Know, Like and Trust” of relationships

By creating a profile of your ideal client group, commonalities arise and that makes it easier for you to communicate to the whole group.

Be wary of creating multiple groups as this will increase your marketing effort. Each group requires a specific message for them to feel/think “That’s me!”

On the flip side, you can provide information in different formats and topics to suit sub-groups.

Some of us are auditory, some of us are kinaesthetic, others’ are visionary.  What happens is that when we provide everything through text we limit our marketability.

The easiest way of finding what your market wants is to ask them. You can do this by interviewing them on the phone, face to face or in small groups depending upon your skills, time and resources. Interviews are great when you want to learn the language your market uses as well as more about them. If you have the evidence regarding language, then a questionnaire can be the quickest and easiest way.

And if you really don’t want to contact the market first hand, you can look at what’s been published on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores. By seeing the numbers of books, the words and topics addressed gives you a good indication what’s been done and is popular.

Step Two:  Create the content to suit your market

The basic formats for Lead Magnets are Text, Audio, Video and the combinations.

The most common statement from small business owner clients is “But, I don’t have content. I don’t have enough to say” And, that is usually after they have spoken passionately about their business for thirty minutes.

It doesn’t matter weather you have a product based business or offer services. You have content.

Every business owner is an expert in their area. If not, then they won’t have a business that will last that long!

By concentrating on the themes arising from Step One, you have topics from which to add your perspective and stamp. This is important in the Know, Like and Trust cycle. If you appear to be little more than saying the “same ole”, there will be little to distinguish you from others. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your thought leadership, your perspective. By doing this, you increase your attractiveness and likeability to the market.

Step Three: Add the Lead Magnet to your webpage

This can be to the homepage of your site, your blog, or even create a mini-site that just has your lead magnet. Well, it could be on all – the essential ingredient is to have an email capture mechanism.

People have asked if Lead Magnets only work online. The answer is no – you can hand deliver the lead magnet. But to increase the effectiveness of your marketing, it is much better to have Lead Magnets online so people can get the material when it suits them.

All your offline promotion can direct people to your website/page with your lead magnet.

Too many websites are little more than brochures, they cost money to create and maintain but don’t actually work for your business. Lead Magnets helps you to redress the balance and start to turn your website into a profit centre rather than a drain on resources.

Step Four – Promote your Magnet

What if you just add it to your existing marketing?

Instantly you are open 24/7, 365 days a year.

You are no longer open 9-5 five days a week.

People can consume you whenever they want and what’s so great about this is that you know they are interested in what you have written about or what you recorded because they have downloaded it.

Then it is up to you to build that relationship up over time.

The big emphasis about adding a lead magnet to your marketing mix is that you know what they are interested in, you build up a relationship so that they know they like and trust you.  Once they trust you, they will open their wallet.

Just think about how you buy.  Do you buy from people who you don’t know?  You might if it’s a low cost, low risk transactional purchase. Great, if you are in this market?  But with selling services that can be quite expensive, we need know how we can build that relationship so people trust and are happy to part with their money.

Here are ten ways to promote your Lead Magnet

1. Business cards

   You could have your url on your business card pointing to your lead magnet.  That’s important.  How many business cards do you give away in a week?  What are people going to do?  The first thing they are going to do if they do anything from your business card is look at your website.

2. Articles

   Whether you’ve got online or offline articles or whether you post articles in special groups or directories you have an opportunity to put a link to your lead magnet.

3. Your blog post

   You could put a call to action at the bottom of your blog post that points to your lead magnet.

4. Networking

   Every time you go networking you can tell people that you have a lead magnet, something on your website that you can download.  Not only that but it makes it easier for your vendors and suppliers to be networking for you.  They’re not recommending you as a sale, they can say “Oh, I know Samantha, she does that sort of work and I know she’s got an e-book you can download/a video you can watch”.  That’s going to be worth a lot.  It’s going to have more traffic coming to your lead magnet.

5. Google Ad Words

   These are great but I don’t recommend you do it at the beginning, it’s a more advanced activity.  Do Google Ad Words when you’ve proven that your lead magnet is magnetic otherwise you’ll be spending money and not getting a return.

6. Press releases

   You can do online press releases as well as those to go into magazines and papers of your choice that are read by your market.

7. Public speaking

   You can structure your talk so people can get more information by downloading  your information.

8. You can give testimonials

   People talk about testimonials as getting them from people.  Actually giving testimonials is a great promotional tool.  It means you are seen by people who are not in your usual circle.

   You are able to show people the sort of business you are in the way to give testimonials. Also, you build up links form other sites with testimonials.

   If you give testimonials and you give freely, it will actually increase your promotions, particularly if you then put your web address linking back to the lead magnet.

9. Social networking

   Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and all the other sites that you could be using that reaches your market. Each of these can be regarded as a distinct tool as they appeal to different groups of people and the way you present the material matters to each platform.

10. Inserts in magazines and newsletters

    That’s a bit like Google Ad Words, it will cost money and you want to make sure that your magnet is magnetic before you do that.

You don’t have to spend lots of money to market your business.  You do have to spend money on learning how to do it but not to deliver it.  If you’re spending lots of money, I suggest that you look at different ways of marketing your business.

Now you have the four steps. These are the same steps I use in my own business and with clients. If you would like to learn how to do, go to Lead Magnet Secrets. Training starts on 24th March 2010

I hear this a lot when speaking to business owners, the holy grail of gaining sales with no effort. Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to have business only through referrals. But, and there is a but…

Not all referrals are equal and not all past customers refer at the same rate or with the same calibre of prospect. So, there is a requirement for a system to be in place monitoring this and rewarding those who bring you more business. After all, how much would you have a pay a salesperson to bring in the same business?

Depending upon how your enquiries arrive, the simplest way is to ask the person where they heard about you.

On the internet, the first time you may know of the referral is when they purchase, so make sure you have a field where they can add the name of the referee.

On the phone, you can have a standard form either directly into your CRM system, which could just as easily be a spreadsheet as well as an off the shelf package. Add a field to collect this information making sure you specify how to store client referrals.

The key is to collect the information so that you are able to search the database for the top referees. It is those referees who are effectively doing the job of a salesperson and you can acknowledge your appreciation.

Appreciate your Referees

Appreciation can be shown in a number of ways from simply sending a handwritten note to giving them something that demonstrates your gratitude. For this, contact colleagues, spouse or others to find out what the referring client would really appreciate. This may be a trip to the opera, weekend away or a fabulous meal in a 5 star restaurant. Rewarding your top referees in this way, shows you appreciate their thoughts and efforts. This will result in them continuing their current behaviour.

Level of Appreciation

You may be thinking “how do I decide on the level of gift?” Consider the following:

1. How much business they have brought to you
2. What impact has it had on your business? This may be additional staff, keeping current staff, updating vehicles, computer systems etc
3. How much would it have cost with a salesperson or using another marketing method?

The answers will give you the level of appreciation award.

Reactivate Past Referees

Now, if you find that most clients only refer once or twice and stop. Then this is an opportunity to review and change. First, contact a few referees, reconnect with them and ask them about any referrals they may have. This opens up the conversation to explore what is happening and whether showing appreciation would be helpful. Remember to “read between the lines” with these responses.

Referrals happening as a result of feeling good about the service and/or experience received. Reciprocity, if once there, can be reactivated and maintained.

Next Steps

Follow this guidance and you will be increasing the volume of business arriving effortlessly

Tell me what proportion of your business comes through referrals and how you track your primary referees.

Really, as with all marketing, which platform is best for what you want to achieve.

There is having connections with people on all the sites and that is great to keep in touch but it may not have anything to do with marketing.

I know alot of professional service firms pooh-pooh Facebook and that leaves a great opportunity for the firms who don’t. Facebook Fan Pages will grow in importance as people learn how they are to use them.

Linkedin is a great site for business to business (but not exclusively so) but it does depend on how you use it. Again, goes back to what your goals are. Setting up groups and participating in groups are great ways of gaining credibility and extending your market. But, you need to have something else to follow on too.

What is at your website to capture interest further?

How are you going to convert interest into a client?

How are you going to do that as well as servicing clients?

Great questions that need answers otherwise your ROI will be poor.

If you are using Linkedin as if you would personal networking, then you may be missing opportunities. I have a guide on how to use linkedin here

The fundamental difference between face to face networking and online networking is the scale. Face to face tends to be 1 to 1 and sometimes 1 to many. While, online networking is many to many… that’s new and it means that if you change your approach, your returns will also increase.

With regards to Twitter, it is an interesting tool. And, I think you have think what you want to achieve. Also, is your market on twitter? With twitter, a tweet life expectancy is around 10 minutes. So, if your market isn’t consuming in real time there is less chance that your efforts will be received. Sure, there are tools that collect tweets from people you are particularly interested in but that won’t be for lots of people.

Again, I think you can use twitter in a tactical way to have lots of comments on an event, topic etc.

On a personal note, I like sites where I am able to explore concepts, engage with others in that exploration and make new connections. Connections aren’t always prospects but they are always interesting. Taking that perspective further, it’s about how to create win:win outcomes…

How do you use the different social networking sites?

Marketers bang on about

• Differentiation
• Your USP
• What makes you different

But, how many explain how to do it?

Finding your USP (unique selling proposition), to some, is a dark art, but it needn’t be! Having read this article you will have clarity and steps to sharpen your USP and, keep it sharp.

To differentiate is the something different you offer from the competitors. In a crowded market, you may feel that there isn’t room for another firm. And, you are right, if that firm is a clone of something already there. There is always room in the market for someone delivering their services through a different approach or combination. And, that is the reason for prospects becoming customers or clients.

So, with pen and paper, write down what you offer with regards to each of these:

1. Your approach
   This comes from the people within your business. If there is only you, then its you! It’s about how you interpret your learning and the impact that has on the way you deliver your services.
2. Services & Products
   Whilst you may have clear differences now, it is harder to maintain differentials purely on this level. Even the global brands continually innovate to stay in front and whether that is with the recipe, product placement or being seen with other cool brands, staying on top requires a hefty budget!
3. Experience of the market or your prospects
   If you have detail experience of a particular sector, then you can use this to your advantage by being able to address the market from a position of authority. As a general rule, people will happily buy from someone who is perceived as an expert or an authority in the market and subject area.

   Don’t fall into the trap of many professional service firms that “we work with everybody” Remember: Nobody is everybody! By saying you serve a particular market or subject gives your listener, reader, prospect an understanding of what you are about and whether that is for them.

4. Background
   Where you have come from informs where you are now. It informs your approach and how you process ideas, material, problems and dissolve distress. Even your accent plays a part in how you are perceived by people. And, in an increasingly global market, this isn’t limited to accents relating to class, but regionally too. Consider regionally to be Scottish, Southern States of America, East Coast, West Coast and an Aussie accent. These will all resonate with people differently. Make the most of those cues that increase the attractiveness for your firm.
5. Skills and Education
   Both of these inform your approach. And, these are the easiest ways of ensuring your approach is continually evolving which means your USP and differentiation evolves too. And, isn’t that what you want?

   Your skills and education aren’t limited to your area of expertise. Expanding your skills into other areas helps to sharpen and continually develop your differentiation. For instance, a lawyer with skills in NLP, coaching and marketing will approach clients differently to one without those skills. This can be applied to any professional service provider. And, yes, there is still pressure on maintaining your professional development, this is only part of what makes you the firm to work with.

Sometimes, people feel they have to deal with those who have extensive knowledge and experience in their field. And, this is tough when first starting out or shifting the sort of people you want to work with.

3 Steps to uncover your USP

You need a sure fire way to uncover your uniqueness and this works for start-ups as well as established firms.

1. Go through all the feedback you’ve received. This can be appraisals, testimonials, emails, comments on feedback forms and what your friends say.

1. Pick out the themes. There will be qualities running through and these form the first part of your USP or differentiator. Because you are working from existing feedback, you can ask the authors whether you can use their comments as testimonials. If, for whatever reason, you don’t feel comfortable with this at the moment, start to articulate how these qualities make a difference to a customer’s experience.
2. Practice these at your networking events to gauge reactions and encourage conversation. For, it is through these that more of your uniqueness will show through.

You’ll know when you’ve got a real handle on your USP when you start using the words effortlessly and unconsciously.

You’ll notice your marketing materials starts to sparkle.

You’ll notice more enquiries.

You’ll feel much more attractive with more sales.

But wait, don’t stop there. Marketing is not an event, but something continuous.

So each time you interact with prospects and clients ask for feedback using these questions:

1. What did you want to resolve?
2. How do you feel as a result?
3. What concept or element helps you most?
4. What specific results did you get?

Choose when to ask all or a combination. This means you have a steady stream of new feedback to help you maintain your differentiation. And, if you ask the permission, you can include these as testimonials.

Being  or feeling like a “me too” business will be a thing of the past!

Photo – creative commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgifford/2993595189/