The Enigma of “Irrelevant Leads”​

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Online Marketers and Online Business people will relate to this title closely. Almost all of us have received phone calls, emails or messages requesting information on our service/product that don’t match our offerings, value proposition (pricing included) or business vision. Right?

Try to relate with some of these situations:

a. “Nothing to do with our product, lost 25 min trying to explain our product to him only to find out he was seeking something completely different :(”

b. “Totally generic talk – he would/could not understand that I work on specialty products but kept harping on his general needs. Didn’t help him or me either…Had to cut the conversation short …”

c. “I receive at least 10 email inquiries everyday in my mailbox that has nothing to do with my business offerings. I have to respond to them politely indicating looking for other options but leads to loss of my/my team’s time and energy. I spend more energy writing to such emails rather than to genuine inquiries.”

In our online marketing business at ZoomYourTraffic.com, we have experienced lead enquiries like these in the past –

·       “Develop my website in WordPress with SEO”

·       “Need to generate business from website inside 60 days”

·       “I have an annual budget of 50K. I need to generate business through my website.”

·       “SEO my website for #1 Google Ranking”

·       “Start Social Posting for my online business to build traffic and sales”

At a glance, these enquiries look absolutely relevant and objective driven.

With experience – we mark such requests as either “Irrelevant” or “Level 2 Exploration Needed” (Will explain this later in the article).

The question is what would you give, if we could address requirements and inquiries from prospective customers that:

A.  Matched your product/service offering to the Tee – so that all you needed to explain/present your VALUE PROPOSITION to enable to a buying decision?

B.  Don’t match the exact need but are ready to hear about SOLUTIONS TO UPGRADE/UPSCALE their systems with your offerings

C.  Looking to EXPLORE opportunities for growth through my business without PRICING being the only decision factor

Life would be better right! Then, what stops it? What hampers businesses from receiving irrelevant calls/leads to targeted ones?

Three important aspects:

AUDIENCE DEFINITION
VALUE PROPOSITION
FOCUS or INTENT IDENTIFICATION
AUDIENCE DEFINITION

Most businesses start their online journey to “be seen by everyone”.

Be visible and business will follow – is the simple mantra. Fair enough.

This in itself is starting on the wrong foot.

If you build your visibility for the mass, the mass will come.

What follows is “irrelevance…”

People from all walks have different requirements, perspectives, value ideas and spending power.

e.g. If you are selling “cell phone back covers for feature phones” on your website – who would be your potential buyers?

Vis a vis .. if you are selling “iphone back covers” on your website – who would be your potential buyers?

Conceptually, the product is same, offering is similar and delivery ecosystem is the same. What is the difference?

THE AUDIENCE … the buyer !!

I can’t promote my feature phone website to an iPhone audience and vice versa.

The dynamics change. The thinking changes. The buying changes. The game changes ….

Getting your audience definition right, is therefore the key.

Invest time in profiling the right audience for your online business.

Reach out to the right people if you intend to avoid irrelevant questions, queries and hence leads.

It will save you a ton of time, effort and increase business bottom-line in the long term.

VALUE PROPOSITION

You have a super product (e.g. a cutting edge 3d printer) to sell.

Needless to say – it will have quality, durability and high price point.

All these are values – and yes – this needs to be visible to the customer/potential buyer.

Unless you show this VALUE to the customer – he will not “value” your effort of developing that product.

Why is iPhone an icon? – not because it’s the best smartphone ever but it has presented its value the best amongst its peers.

Why is Lamborghini everyone’s dream? – not because it has the best engine or performance – but because its value has been presented in such a way that every one yearns to own one (LOL … did you check its latest Huracan model priced at $320,000=00? … No wonder it’s called a DREAM car! but you want to own it right? VALUE PROPOSITION for you).

The idea here is to not sell dreams, but give your customers the true picture of what they stand to gain using your product.

Leave scope for their imagination when using your product. Do they feel stylish and uber cool OR feel embarrassed?

Why do some products feel just awesome for customers (e.g. personal items like Ray Ban shades, Nike shoes, Levis denims that makes a person feel special or aspire to have in his/her wardrobe). There are a ton of other labels selling these same items and probably are better on quality, durability and price point but the ASPIRATION value takes over the customer to long for specific brands.

So, create VALUEs (beyond the obvious) that people will want to own your product. Not just that – they will tell others to buy it too. Your customers become your marketing team.

Ultimate BRANDING is all about your VALUE PROPOSITION.

Do it the right way and you are well on your way to hit the right audience and growing sales.

INTENT IDENTIFICATION

All said and done, “WHY” remains the biggest question when a prospective buyer looks at your business proposition.

You could meet up with the right AUDIENCE, deliver the right VALUE PROPOSITION and the customer may fit both aspects perfectly, but does he/she have the INTENT to buy? Or just research and buy later? Or just surf around?

Establishing user intent is probably the biggest success or failure of business that make it big or implode.

E.g. A user logs onto your website with an intent to just browse about the products and not make any immediate purchase.

How would you establish this intent?

Place two buttons below the product namely “Tell me more” and “Buy Now”

If he clicks “Tell me more” – you have established his intent of browsing through the product information before buying.

On the subsequent page you can have calls to action like – “Connect For More Information” (to establish if he is really interested in knowing the product further? Since he will be sharing his details to do so) or “Buy Now” (to establish he is happy with the information and ready to make a purchase) or He doesn’t click anything and moves away from that page (to establish that either he is not interested to continue further – a look at Google Analytics data of your website will help establish this behavior)

Every action of the user is telling a story of his thought process.

Your goal is to join the dots and establish his intent of visiting your website.

If the dots are correctly joined … you will have indeed completed the customer journey !!!

ZoomYourTraffic Web Solutions

http://www.zoomyourbusiness.online

http://www.zoomyourtraffic.com

Why Managing Your Business’ Online Media Getting Tougher By The Day?

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In the early 2000s, as early birds, all businesses that went online enjoyed benefits of positioning online through keywords on Google search. As new social media came in, it was easy to create and test various media in those early years.

Then 2012 came … and everything changed forever, for good.

Focus from volume moved to value… search engines started rating and ranking sites based on website content rather than keywords, social media introduced interactions to judge visitor reactions and with eCommerce – buying intent became real value. Things got REAL from the virtual days gone by. AI bots replaced linear software programs.

To add to that specialty websites, portals, online services started creating their own space in the markets e.g. Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Quora, etc..

With all this, businesses needed to adapt to this expanding (options) yet shrinking (value) marketplace. True value began to get counted.

Businesses spread their wings around and created their presence all over the web (whatever they could get their hands on or heard about). This was to opportunities weren’t missed. No one really knew who the next big winner was? least realizing that their business was suffering because of it? How?

• Businesses created content for all platforms – from websites to social to blogs to articles to videos to everything available.

• Every new avenue was scouted. New profiles created and content was distributed, shared or created.

• With multiple team members working on same business goals, ton of profiles were made for the same platform by all these individuals and kept managing them separately.

• As they traded jobs, these profiles were either lost in the oblivion or not attended too.

• As new media arrived, new skills were required. These included designers, developers, written content generators, social media managers, website managers and strategic SEO consultants.

• As a business, handling all these skilled resources meant extra time, extra money and extra effort. Many businesses didn’t bother and either scaled down their efforts or just dropped it altogether. Years of online value created by them was eroded.

• Reason – Instead of focusing on their core business, they needed to manage their online admin teams and work. All those investments and tireless effort devalued…

ARE YOU ONE SUCH ONLINE BUSINESS?

If yes, there are some quick tips for you:

a. Take stock and assemble data

• Find all your online profiles (can be simply done by searching in Google or using sophisticated online tools) and record in a spreadsheet.

• Log into the profile (if you have access information too)

• Evaluate the property and decide whether you need to keep it or toss it? Make a decision. Don’t hold it back for another day. It will make things even more complex.

• Try to restrict one official profile for one business per media. e.g. one FB official page (I remember a business that had 4 FB business pages created by different business team members. This dilutes your brand). Keep the best ones. Try to merge multiple into one (if possible or as per the media’s policies).

• Build your final list of all online entities (with full access) that you want to focus for the next 2 years. I.e. your entire strategy will revolve around this list.

Note: 2 years is a massive timeline in the online world. There will be new platforms coming in, old ones may get disrupted or closed, technology changes will come in. Hence, periodic review of this list needs to done and updated accordingly but in line with a longer term vision for your online business.

b. Manage It The Right Way

• Assign one manager or management firm to administer this list. Define strategy and goals with them and set accountability.

Note: Use this person/firm as administrators – not as all skill experts. Their job is to strategize the online promotion and ensure upkeep of this media list in line with set goals and objectives. This will reduce your load immensely.

• Jointly hire the right skills for various online goals. E.g. hire specialist writers for press releases and blogs, technical writers for SEO and copywriters for Ad copy and Web copy. Let the manager/firm administer them.

Remember – you need to build value and consistency for long term online success.

c. Measure And Grow

• Setup evaluation mechanism for all platforms and the management of your online activity. Ensure goals are being met or progress is happening. Dont shy away from taking tough decisions if needed (with correct safeguards ofcourse)

• Monthly review and Quarterly re-strategize would be a good approach. We don’t want to change too fast nor we want to wait too long.

• Invest the right money. This is why strategy is important. By trying everything and in generic manner, we tend to lose more money, effort and valuable time. An organized way may seem expensive but will more than pay for itself in the long run.

Hope this helps you put in you in control on your online business management? This is extremely important because we always say:

Your brand is not just online, it’s on the line….

Get My Online Marketing Going … Bappa

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I was in office working with my team on strategy for various customers for the upcoming festival season.

Just then, my phone rang.

“Hi Amod, How are you doing?”, I immediately realized the voice of Mr. T (we had met in Lonavala 4 weeks ago)

“Doing great Mr. T. How are you doing?” I greeted.

“Doing good but need your help with my online business considering the festival season is round the corner”, he said.

“Sure, since yours is an online B2C business (Home Decor and Improvement) – this is indeed THE season for you.” I confirmed.

“Yes, but with this complex, crowded and competitive marketplace – its becoming difficult to position and market effectively. The last two years, our online campaigns actually lost money.” he wailed.

“I understand your concern. This is a general feeling all around the market and that’s why we need to be smarter with our promotions (applies to your offline marketing too)” I started, “did you check my article 5 Bits to Get Your Business Going Online This Festival Season?”

“Not really. Whats it about?” he questioned.

“I suggest you read it and then we can talk again.” I continued, “In the meanwhile, I’d like to review some of your marketing efforts from earlier. Do you some handy stats?”

“Can you send me an email with what you are looking for?” he questioned.

“Mr. T – sorry to say – but this question tells me your online tracking and measurement system is either not in place or unorganized” I raised my concern.

“What do you mean?” he retorted

“You have your sales and accounting stats on your finger tips? You have your inventory numbers at the click of a button? You can talk me through your balance sheet at 2:00 am in the morning when half asleep?”

(Laughter) “Yes, I breathe these … “ he said confidently.

“We’ll need to create the same culture and understanding when it comes to online business marketing. We need to have a system where we get answers to key questions at one place, at any given time. Make sense”, I stated.

“Certainly does. Actually, since I am not very sure how to look up these stats is where I feel uncomfortable or uncertain when marketing online… “ he mentioned his concern.

“Absolutely, this is the case with 80% SMBs. Once we build the right system to track, measure, evaluate and project goals – this would be an effective business system. You can take innovative and intelligent decisions based on the numbers and feel more in control…” I explained.

“So, lets build it.”

“Three areas – where there has to be readiness to build this system” I emphasized

  • Believe that this thing works
  • Know what works/doesn’t work for you
  • Understand the long term game

Believe that this thing works

Online is generally looked upon as “just another channel” or “also rans” activity for most businesses.

This perception needs a change. Business owners need to believe that (if done the right way) online is the way forward for the industry.

If you don’t do it, some else will and disrupt your market big time. E.g. Amazon/Flipkart disrupted retail, Jio disrupted telecom through innovation and power of online.

If you do the same, you can lead your marketplace big time. Dont follow the herd mentality (60% businesses fall to this trap and suffer).

The beauty is that Online is the same for everyone. There is no bias between brands and start-ups here.

Take advantage of online to build your business online.

Know what works/doesn’t work for you

Another aspect that is grossly misunderstood that everything under the online sun is our playground for marketing.

Every business wants to have a website, blogs, social media, apps, forums, listings, etc.

Two problems with this approach:

  1. Positioning your brand incorrectly will lead to junk traffic, leads and sales disappointments
  2. Management of online profiles on a day-to-day basis is no mean task – let alone tracking and evaluating performance.

Question: How do you know your social or online management is problematic?

Hint: Check for the last published article/content piece date on your social media/blog, etc. You will get your answers.

Hence, understand and establish what is working for you online. Take the right path.

Don’t throw your weight everywhere. Throw where it counts. It will save you a fortune.

Understand the long term game

Just like you, we are receiving many requests for online campaigns/promotions for the coming festival season.

However, unless there is a sound footing, the results will be unsatisfactory and overburdening.

Therefore plan for the long term and you will see results.

Belief, Patience and Strategy are keywords here.” I concluded with a bang.

“Can we meet up to discuss this further?

I see value in your thoughts but would definitely need to know a few more things to plan this out for my business” Mr. T inquired.

“Yes of course, Mr. T, lets meetup this weekend at the Snooker Club? A few of our other business friends would be joining us too.” I suggested.

“Great. See you then.” Mr. T was happy

“You have some homework to do – watch the article and my FAQ videos on LinkedIn/YouTube plus get me stats from your campaign. I am going to ask you some questions there”, I made my point.

“Yes, Master ji .. will be ready” Mr. T with a hearty laugh….

“And the Ganesh Festival begins this week – so let’s take his blessings and get started.”

“Ganpati Bappa Moraya ….” both of us jointly chanted to seek the Lord’s blessings