#wang xing

Wang Xing, Blind, 1996

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing/Lucerne

In a month where Fairfax announces 1,900 redundancies and News Ltd announces restructures and right sizes (read redundancies) James Tuckerman (founder of anthillonline.com) hosted a seminar on conquering the Web with a guest list of Giant Spider Killer entrepreneurs.  Here are their 7 secret steps of web marketing I learned in a day:

1)       Remember the Commanders Intent! (Your Mission Statement)

Just like when a platoon tries to take an enemy position your business needs a mission statement to guide you when you hit the marketplace and bullets fly in all directions?  In the internet the commander’s intent in the top right box of your mind must always be:

Make it Measurable (if it can’t be measured don’t do it, it’s that simple)

Findable (otherwise your wasting your time)

Shareable (maximise the value of word of mouth and social media)

Manageable (use tools and systems to reduce the workload and focus on value creating activity vs. ‘rinse and repeat’ tasks that can be outsourced)

2)       What’s your Pitch and does it make sense to your 15 year old nephew?

Anthony Gaddie shared his wisdom on breaking down your business value proposition into simple, easy to understand language your 15 year old nephew understands and your target market.

Who is your target market?

What we do...

Benefits (to target market)

Feelings

Problems

When you verbalised your ‘elevator pitch’ it should come across like:

You know how...target market & problem

What we do...benefits & feeling

In fact...evidence from past work or client experience (NB: In 30 seconds or less – jargon removed)

Then, Part 2: Set Measurable Goals e.g.

1) Get qualified sales leads

2) Sign up for my blog

3) Click and download a shareable piece of knowledge (Product for Prospects) e.g. YouTube video

3)       Who is Wang Xing? He’s China’s Mark Zuckenberg and here is what he wants to tell us?

Xing says, “Too many entrepreneurs sell vitamins instead of selling headaches. “  What does he mean? Put simply, what is your customers’ pain point? It’s no good selling them benefits when they are healthy.  Be there when they have a migraine with your aspirin (value proposition).  Be top of mind when they type '"help me” into Google.  Do this by giving them relevant small doses of business information in advance of the migraine.  For example which of the following two offers is more effective?

1)       20% off Folate Web Ad or,

2)       Ten Things a Pregnant Mother should not eat with a tear off coupon on the bottom (for 20% off Folate)

Market to the 'headaches' of your target market and remember the 7 deadly sins or Maslow hierarchy of needs in understanding their migraine points.

4)       Your Website is Your Home Planet – bring them home!

What is your website purpose? If it’s not one of the four below you are wasting your resources:

I.        Sales

II.        Pre-qualified leads

III.        Coupons

IV.        Out-going clicks (advertising)

Use Measurement tools to measure your website effectiveness, for example.  They are widely available and many are FREE! Examples include:

Google analytics

Crazy Egg

Unbounce

5)       Don’t try and bed your customer on the first date.  Charm him/her slowly, Barry White style.  It’s a funnel not a tunnel on the Internet.

1000 visits =>

100 email registrations =>

40 surveys =>

10 sales

6)       Even Dummies can do Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Hire the celebrity chefs and not the lawyers of SEO and by that, they mean do not be fooled by the mystery and mastery of the 142 secret steps you need to get a Google #1 ranking.  Hire the celebrity chefs and pay for their implementation.  Understand how search engines work. 

It’s the number of links and the quality of links on your website.

Understand how 'spiders' & 'bots' work and how they like the size of the site and ease of navigation, plus SPEED & RECENCY count.  Don’t forget Keywords.   Update 'title tags' on your page

Home page

Permanent pages

Posts

Use "about 60 characters", and lead with the Noun for title tags and if you use a Content Management Systems utilise the headings under the paragraph drop down to maximum effect.  Last but not least, create measurable shareable content i.e. 'retweetable' headlines that are interesting and sharable.

7)       Facebook: Like us like Lorna Jane and play by the rules.

  It’s a virtuous cycle and it goes like this: Acquire => Engage => Convert => Engage => Acquire...

Some Facebook tips for newbies from Sam Zivot @ Lorna Jane that will help you on your way include:

Learn by doing (there are no experts out there, we are all learning social media)

One thought per post (reduce redundancy & duplicated links, etc.)

Aim for >1% engagement ratings (comments over likes over fans)

 People don’t read Facebook posts, they skim, make your post clear, simple and stand-out from the crowd

Only 11-23% of your fans on Facebook will actually see your post

Use authorised 3rd party apps for competitions or risk being banned from Facebook

 Use simple multi-choice options e.g. like A or B or like or dislike this prototype.  Do not ask open ended questions

Follow the leaders to learn e.g. George Takei

Bonus Step & Guiding Principle: Consumers only care about themselves and content relevant to them self

Marketing has changed...from... rent the eyeballs...to....own the eyeballs e.g. twitter

How often do we spend all our time trying to convince other people and our customers what we have is of value to them?  When if we step back and think what they care about, what is relevant to them and how can our knowledge and the freely and widely available tools and systems at our disposal enable us to put that aspirin within reach so when their migraine hits and they stay calm and Google it, our business comes up trumps!  Thanks James, Anthony, Sam and Pete for sharing your 7 secrets to personal mastery of the tinternet!  This Luddite is convinced it’s time to start practising what I’ve learned.

Dermott Dowling

Creatovate ‘helping business to create, innovate & grow’