Tag Archives: online marketing

Social Proof is a Critical Factor of Influencing Buying Decisions

You see examples of social proof everyday… beyond client testimonials, case studies and customer reviews; it’s in the star ratings on Amazon, the number of likes of Facebook, the video views on YouTube and followers on Twitter.

Be recognizing how social proof affects buying behavior, you can look for ways to leverage it to establish trust and credibility for your products and services.

Social Media Marketing Linking Strategy

Are you using the social media sites correctly to send traffic to your website?

Are you linking to your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Youtube or other social media accounts from your website?

With more than 400 million active users on Facebook, 30  million accounts on Twitter, 100 million U.S. viewers on YouTube, 50 million users on LinkedIn, and 200 million blogs, I’ll assume that you are actively participating on some level with at least a few social media sites.

Beyond using this medium to connect with new groups of people in unique ways, you should be making sure they want to learn more about you and what you have to offer so that they’ll either Google your name or just follow a link-back from the social media sites to your website.

One of the ways you can improve your relationship with your clients and customers is to create information based products.  While this is a common method of making money for professional speakers, authors, trainers and consultants, it also can be applied to all types of businesses.

Regardless of YOUR particular type of business or industry there are informational products that you could create and either sell or give away that positions YOU and YOUR business as the expert resource.  The key is to identify the type of information that your target prospects and customers want to know more about and then create a product that answers those questions.  If you think about it, you probably could come up with many different titles and types of products, but if you’re starting out with information products then pay close attention to these basic tips:

If you’ve read the book or watched the movie “The Secret,” you know that the secret is the law of attraction. In a nutshell, what you focus on most, you’ll manifest in your life. Without exception, every human being has the ability to transform any weakness or suffering into strength, power, perfect peace, health, and abundance. The law of attraction works both ways, positively and negatively.

So what does this have to do with marketing and making more money? Plenty. Often clients will tell me that a certain form of marketing, say direct-mail postcards, doesn’t work for them. It’s not the marketing method that doesn’t work, it’s the application of the method combined with a benefit message to a target market. Their expectations and beliefs can influence the results. They focus on their preconceived beliefs.

People see what they want to see.

Don’t believe me? Just check out this short video clip about awareness.

In marketing it’s your job to communicate the value of your products and services. To do that effectively and profitably requires 100% belief and the ability to help your prospects focus on what you want them to see. It’s the same with web design, print design and copywriting. Over the past 25 years I’ve worked with many talented graphic designers. In each case or project, I have to help guide them not to lose the message in the creative design. The message is my focus, the design is their focus. It’s a delicate balance, and when we get it right, everybody wins — including the client and the prospects.