MackCollier.com

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What Are the Top 3-5 Reasons Why I Won’t Do Business With You?

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We are self-selecting buyers.  Thanks to the huge amounts of information, opinions and data available online, we can research any type of purchase decision beforehand, and know whether or not it makes sense for us.  This takes the ability of your brand to ‘sell’ me completely out of the equation.

Or does it?  Last week I spoke at the Bank Operations and Management Summit in Birmingham.  At one point I was discussing how to build blog readership with this room full of smart bankers.  I asked them to think about the reasons why someone chooses not to bank with them.  What are the top objections?  Take these objections or questions that their current and potential customers have, and answer them in a blog post.  When you address customer concerns and questions head on with your blog, you are re-inserting yourself into the sales cycle for that customer.  Your content then becomes a selling tool for your brand.  For example, if I don’t want to do business with your bank because I’ve heard that you charge too many checking fees, if you detail that you offer a ‘Zero Strings Attached’ checking account that charges no fees, that puts my concerns over fees at ease, and could win my business.

I do this as well with my own content.  One of the areas that has confused companies for years about social media marketing is questions about pricing.  Few companies had any idea what they should expect to pay for social media marketing services, so in 2010 I wrote a blog post detailing what companies could expect to pay for social media marketing services.  It has been viewed over 30,000 times.  In 2011 I updated the price list, which has now been viewed over 50,000 times, and which led to the biggest traffic day ever for my blog.  The most recent update to this list came in 2012 with my post ‘How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in 2012?‘.  That post has currently been viewed almost 85,000 times, and is the most popular blog post I’ve ever written.

Another reason why it helps to address questions and concerns head-on is because it saves time for both you, and your customers.  Around 2009 or so I started getting regular emails from companies saying they needed someone to analyze how they were using social media, and tell them if there was anything they needed to be doing that they weren’t.  They’d ask if this was a service I provided, I’d explain that I did indeed offer a social media strategy audit for companies.

What I noticed after doing this a few times is that often, the company either wasn’t interested because they would realize they didn’t need an audit after talking to me, or they did, but didn’t have the budget at that time.  But along the way, we’d likely have multiple emails and schedule phone calls, etc.  Both myself and the company ended up investing a lot of time into trying to decide if we were right to work together, only to discover that it wasn’t a good fit.

To address this, I created a page here detailing my Social Media Strategy Audit.  This page details exactly what is included in the audit, as well as the exact price.  This way I am answering many of the questions that the potential client would have upfront.  As a result, the majority of the emails I now get about my Social Media Strategy Audit are similar to “Hi Mack, I read about the Social Media Strategy Audit you offer on your site, I think this might be a good fit for our company.  When can we talk to discuss the next steps?”  And it also helps me even when the customer doesn’t see that page because I can offer it for them as information.  A few weeks ago a company emailed me asking if I could do a social media strategy audit for them, and that they wanted to know when I could talk to them about it?  I emailed them back and gave them some times I could chat with them in the coming week, but also gave them a link to my Social Media Strategy Audit page and explained to them that it would have all the information on the service, as well as the price.  Within the hour the company emailed back and said they only had $500 to spend on an audit.  By simply listing my price I saved both of us the time we would have wasted on the phone call.

So if you want to apply this same method to your own blog, make a list of the top objections that people have for doing business with you.  And it doesn’t have to be your particular business, it could be for anyone that does your type of work.  For example, I think we can all give you several reasons why we hate going to the dentist.  If you’re a dentist, you could write blog posts that address each of these objections head on, which will put my mind at ease, and increase the chances of my doing business with you.

Plus the added bonus is that you are creating more valuable content for your blog’s readers!  Which means more readers and more exposure for your business!

So the big question: If this works, why don’t more (blogging) businesses do this?

Because addressing your flaws (real or perceived) is viewed by many businesses as a sign of weakness.  That’s why you rarely see businesses that are viewed to be ‘blue chip’ brands doing this.  The few that do are typically lesser known businesses looking to make a name for themselves.

But the reality is that when you address the reasons why a customer might not do business with you, you are helping to build trust with them.  Which means that the lesser known business is addressing the actual concerns of customers, so that makes it easier to trust them, and do business with them.

Which means one day that lesser known business will not only grow its customer base to reach yours, those customers will be more loyal to that business because they trust them.

The reality is that your competition is already doing this.  They are focused on the reasons why customers would NOT want to do business with you.  They are already focused on what they can offer that you cannot.

So figure out your flaws (even flaws that your customers perceive that don’t really exist) and the reasons why customers are reluctant to do business with you, and address them head-on.  Answer their questions for them and solve their problems, and you will win their business!

Pic via Flickr user Sister72

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Tonight’s #Blogchat Topic is ‘Content Shock’ With Special Co-Host @TheSalesLion!

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Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #Blogchat!

Tonight (Feb. 9th, 2014), Marcus Sheridan, AKA @TheSalesLion will join us to discuss the idea of ‘Content Shock’ and whether or not it’s too late to start blogging.  You can read Marcus’ thoughts on ‘Content Shock‘ here.  One of the reasons why I wanted Marcus to co-host on this topic is because his views on supporting new bloggers and new voices dovetails with mine.  We both believe the entire online community is richer and more valuable for all when more people feel empowered to share their thoughts and ideas with the world.

Tonight’s #Blogchat will cover two areas:

From 8:00-8:30 Central we will discuss if it is too late to start blogging.  And if you start a blog today, what do you need to know?

From 8:30-9:00 Central we will discuss the idea of ‘Content Shock’, and how you can make your content stand out from the rest!

 

Please follow @TheSalesLion on Twitter, and check out Marcus’ blog tonight in prep for #Blogchat!

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Why Context Makes Word of Mouth Marketing So Powerful

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Tomorrow I’ll be speaking in Birmingham to the Alabama Banker’s Association, presenting Think Like a Rock Star.  One of the points I’ll be making is the power of your fans utilizing context in their word of mouth.  We all understand the power of word of mouth, and there is a raft of research that proves that a product recommendation from another customer is considered more valuable than a marketing message from a brand.  We know this.

But what we often don’t appreciate is the power of context as it applies to word of mouth marketing.  When customers market to each other, they tailor their message to make it more appealing to others, based on their knowledge of the person they are talking to.  This is incredibly powerful, because your friend likely understands your wants and needs better than the brand that’s trying to win your business.

For example, a bank might be rolling out a new mortgage offering it wants to promote, but you know your friend is looking to buy her daughter her first car, so lower rates for auto loans is more important.  A fan of the bank would promote it to the friend with the daughter based on that context, understanding that the friend isn’t interested in a mortgage or re-financing their home right now.

Here’s another example that I’ve witnessed multiple times on Twitter.  I’ll be chatting with someone and we’ll start talking about my book and I’ll mention they should read it.  They will respond with something like ‘Thanks, I’ll check it out!’  Then a few minutes later, a friend of their’s will tweet them and say something like ‘I’ve read Think Like a Rock Star and it was great!  It would be perfect for your company, you should buy it!’  Then the person will say they are going to buy it.  My recommendation (as the author of the book) wasn’t enough to convince them to buy it.  But when their friend steps in and endorses the book, and adds context to why it would benefit them, that clinches the sale!

The end goal for your brand is to communicate a relevant marketing message to your customers because the more relevant the message is, the greater its chance of converting into a sale.  But sending relevant and customized messages to every customer would have exorbitant costs, which is why brands send a few select marketing messages out designed to reach the mass market.

But your satisfied customers are the link that gives other customers those relevant marketing messages that convert into sales.  This is exactly why word of mouth works.  And when you connect with your satisfied customers, you empower them to better communicate relevant selling points for your brand, to other customers they come in contact with.

Real business benefits from connecting with your biggest fans.  Look back at your own experiences and think about what has worked for you, are you more likely to purchase an item based on seeing a cool commercial, or hearing a recommendation from a friend you trust?

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Your Brand Is the Sum of the Stories We Tell About You

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Facebook has just launched an elegant mobile reader/app called Paper.  Facebook is trying to position the app as less of a reader and more of a way for users to share and create ‘stories’.  Jay has a great write-up on the direction Facebook may be heading with the app.

Over the last few years, our ability to create content and weave multiple medias has increased dramatically.  Our smartphones are becoming computers that are far more powerful that the klunky desktops from just a few years ago.  The ability to create pictures, high-definition video and text has all been fused into a small item no bigger than our hand.

While our ability to tell stories via digital content has greatly increased, many brands are still missing what an opportunity they have in letting customers speak on their behalf.  It’s scary for many brands, I get it.  You spend millions in carefully orchestrated marketing messages designed to communicate specific points to a mass market.

What you miss is that we don’t care about that.  Well we do, but not to the degree you think.  Every customer has their own connection to your brand.  Many customers have complete indifference to your brand.  Some have slight levels of affinity and loyalty, and a select few are raving fans.

We are all telling stories about your brand.  And if you don’t connect with us, we will tell the stories on our own.

But if you do connect with us, two important things begin to happen:

1 – We begin to understand you, and the story you want us to tell

2 – You begin to understand us, and the stories we want to hear

The thing to remember is this:  While most of us have the ability to tell stories about your brand, most of us don’t have any desire to.  Unless we either love you, or hate you.

And again, either way it pays to connect with us.  If you connect with your fans, the customers that love you, those fans will work with you to make sure they tell the story about your brand that you want other customers to hear.  Read that again until you understand just how important that is.

On the other hand, when you connect with your fans, they will come to your defense against customers that are telling negative stories about your brand.  Truly a win-win situation.

Keep in mind that when you empower your customers to tell stories on your brand’s behalf, your customers tell your brand’s story in their own voice.  This is incredibly powerful because customers respond more to a message that’s delivered in a voice they recognize and trust.

Their own.

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Brands, You Have to Build Your ‘Trust’ Muscle

Steve Jobs was probably the greatest business orator and speaker of the last 50 years.  Jobs had a wonderful talent for delivering amazing presentations and captivating an audience.

With that in mind, watch this short video of Jobs prepping for his first on-air appearance in 1978:

Isn’t it interesting to watch a fidgety and obviously very nervous Jobs say “You need to tell me where the restroom is too, because I’m deathly ill, actually, and ready to throw up at any moment.”  Then he adds to someone off camera “I’m not joking!”

Yet 40 years later in 2007, he was delivering the presentation to launch the iPhone, considered to be one of the greatest business presentations of all-time.

Experience is a wonderful teacher, and it molded Jobs from that fidgety computer geek in 1978 to a polished professional that became the gold standard for delivering compelling business presentations.

Today, we’re asking brands to do something equally scary on a scale they’ve never had to before: We are asking brands to trust their most passionate customers.

One of the things that struck me the most while writing Think Like a Rock Star was to delve into the differences between how rock stars approach engaging with their customers versus how brands do.  While many brands are reluctant to connect directly with their customers and give them any control over messaging or promotion, rock stars literally view their customers as marketing partners that they trust to act in the rock stars’ best interest.

This graphic explains why:

InteractionsInteraction leads to Understanding which leads to Trust which leads to Advocacy.  Rock stars are constantly seeking interaction with their fans, because they not only want to better understand their fans, they want their fans to better understand them.  Because rock stars know that when their fans understand them, they can then trust them, and advocate for them.  Also, since rock stars understand and trust their fans, they know that these fans will act in the rock star’s best interests.

Most brands never start on this path because they don’t seek to have those interactions with their customers that are freely available thanks in great part to the rise of social media tools.  If brands would interact more with their fans they would begin to understand them more, which leads to trust, which leads to advocacy.

Which is also a two-way street.  When your brand purposely shuts itself off from your customers, you are also restricting the customers’ ability to interact with you, and then to trust you as well as deadening the chances of having that customer advocate for your brand.

And here’s why it’s an unfounded fear:  Because when you interact with your customers and they understand you they also trust you.  So not only will they advocate for you, they will also spread your message and trust you to spread the message that you give them.  This is what so many brands misunderstand about their fans, they believe their fans will spread a message that’s inconsistent with their ‘messaging’.  Instead, fans will want to work with your brand to make sure they are spreading the message that you want them to.

But it starts with your brand taking the first step to reach out to your customers and trusting them if you want them to trust you.

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How to Expand Your Reach in Social Media When You Have No Budget

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Last night I was thrilled to join Full Sail University for a special Think Like a Rock Star webinar.  It was an amazing turnout, and I wanted to talk about one of the questions that an attendee asked.

Someone wanted to know how you can expand your reach in social media when you have no budget.  The answer is that you reward the behavior you want to encourage.

Years ago when I first started blogging, I had a nice little community reading my blog.  I would only get 50-100 visitors a day (This was 2006) but every post I wrote had comments, sometimes 15-20.  A blogger friend that was writing for a site that at the time got about 10,000 visitors a month (far more than my blog) left a comment saying ‘I just want to know why you get 10 or more comments on every post and I don’t get any’.  I told him ‘because I respond to my comments’.

I didn’t have many readers, but my level of engagement was much higher than blogs with huge readerships.  If you want to build your reach and engagement then start by rewarding the behavior you want to encourage.  If you want to get more comments on your blog, then start by responding to every comment.  Communicate to your readers that if they comment, that you will respond.  This seems like a no-brainer but you wouldn’t believe how many bloggers never respond to comments, then wonder why they get so few.

No matter how ‘small’ your blog or social media presence is, you’ll have some fans.  People that enjoy your content and that follow you because of it.  Cherish these people.  Even if there are only 2 of them, treat them like rock stars.  Because they are.  And these 2 fans will tell their friends to check you out and before you know it you have 5 fans.  Then 10, then 50, then 100.

The two most powerful words in social media are ‘Thank you’.  Whenever you see someone interacting with your content or sharing your content or recommending your content, then thank them, because they just did you a favor.  And since we all like to be appreciated, when you thank them that encourages them to keep sharing and interacting with your content.

Start small, grow big.

Pic via Flickr user aleske

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In Defense of the ‘Silent’ Experts…

I wanted to go slightly off-topic today to discuss ‘experts’.  For the last several years in the social media space there’s been constant hand-wringing over how we vet who the ‘real’ experts are.  One of the common themes is that when people claim to be experts that really aren’t, it makes it more difficult to find and value the true experts.  The ‘fake’ experts are drowning out the voices of the ‘real’ experts, as it were.

Honestly, this is a problem.  And it does dilute the value (or at least the perceived value) of ‘real’ experts.  But it also creates another problem that I don’t feel we spend enough time talking about.

In order to deal with this idea of people promoting themselves as experts when they really aren’t, we’ve come up with a qualifier:  The larger group has to identify you as an expert, you can’t promote yourself as such.  The logic is that the true experts don’t need to promote themselves as being experts, because the larger group recognizes their expertise, and promotes them accordingly.

So by extension, if the group doesn’t call you an expert, then you aren’t one.  This addresses the ‘fake’ experts that promote themselves as being experts while the larger group does not.

But what about the ‘silent’ experts?  The people that have a level of expertise, and aren’t aware of it, or they are, but don’t feel comfortable promoting themselves as being experts?  I see this constantly in the social media space.  Often, these people are smart enough to qualify as being experts on some subject, but don’t feel comfortable speaking out as such or speaking out period, because the ‘group’ has told them that if they aren’t identifying them as experts, then they aren’t.  This leads to some people that truly are experts not voicing and sharing their expertise, because they don’t have the confidence in their own abilities.

A few years ago I was talking to someone in this space about #Blogchat on the phone.  She was telling me how much she loved the chat and I realized that she would make the perfect co-host for #Blogchat.  She was an expert in a certain area of blogging, so it made perfect sense to have her co-host on that particular topic.  She was delighted and we started talking about what her topic could be and how the #Blogchat she would co-host would be structured.  She just kept thanking me for the chance to co-host, and I tried to thank her for agreeing.  She then paused and I’ll never forget what she did next.

She started crying.  She started crying because she was so grateful to be put in a position of being acknowledged as an expert.  She felt this was truly an honor that she didn’t deserve.  But she did.

This period was an expert.  The ‘group’ wasn’t identifying her as such, but it was obvious to anyone that knew her and what she had accomplished, that she was an expert.  But because the ‘group’ didn’t feel she was, by extension she didn’t feel as if she had the ‘right’ to be treated as an expert.  She felt I was doing her a huge favor that she didn’t deserve by letting her co-host #Blogchat, when in fact she absolutely deserved to co-host, and I was thrilled that she would.  She was actually doing the #Blogchat community a big favor by agreeing to share her expertise with us.

It worries me that there are so many people out there, so many smart voices like my friend, that are afraid to share what they know, because we are telling them that their voice is not worth sharing.

Here’s some of the rules we are creating:

There’s a problem with ‘fake’ experts.  You can’t promote yourself as an expert, so if the group doesn’t tell you that you are an expert, then you aren’t.

There’s too much content out there.  So you should ONLY create new content that is original and that creates value for others.  Never never NEVER create content just to be creating content.  If your content isn’t epic, don’t share it.  IOW, don’t share your content unless you are an expert…..but remember that you aren’t an expert unless ‘we’ tell you that you are.

 

I say this is bullshit.  Instead of being worried about how many ‘experts’ are out there (real or claimed), instead we need to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their voice.  Where no one feels that they need permission to share their thoughts and ideas.  No one should feel like their ideas aren’t ‘good enough’ or don’t pass muster with someone that others have identified as being smarter than they are.  There’s no one arbiter of what ideas are and are not worth sharing.

Yes, that means there will be more ‘clutter’ and there will also be more ‘experts’.  There will also be more content and more distractions.

This is ultimately about what we value.  If we push for less ‘clutter’ and less content, by extension we will also get less expertise and less thought leadership.  Less means less of everything.

I say we should strive for a space where everyone feel comfortable sharing their voice and ideas.  When we start to throw up rules and boundaries to idea and information-sharing, then we all lose.

What do you think?

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Stop Chasing Shiny Objects, Invest in the ‘Classics’

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A few years ago an agency approached me and said they had figured out a plan to get ahead.  They were seeing at the time that Twitter was growing like a weed in the South in August, so they were going to hire a ‘Twitter person’.  This person would be an expert at using Twitter, and she would train the entire agency on how to use Twitter, so that they would have an agency full of Twitter experts.

She concluded by asking ‘what do you think?’ with a confident tone that told me that she fully believed she had just cracked the code on successfully propelling her agency into the next decade.

I told her the same thing that day that I will tell you today: Stop trying to understand the tools, and instead invest in learning how your customers are using the tools.  Earlier this month it felt like every marketer in the world was jumping on Jelly.  Marketers were infatuated by a new social tool and more importantly, a new sales opportunity.  These marketers had no clue who was using Jelly or if it would ever be relevant to their customers.  They rushed in at the promise of finding a hot new social channel to sell their wares via.

The true sales opportunity lies in figuring out where the customer is headed and then clearing a path to help them reach their destination.  The customer will eventually reach her destination with or without us, but the value we bring to the equation is to help the customer reach her destination as effortlessly as possible.  Helping the customer do this IS the sales opportunity.

There are two areas you need to focus on in 2014:

1 – Understanding how your customers are using these tools

2 – Understanding how customer behavior is changing because of emerging tools and technology

Over a decade ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto was published, and the work is perhaps best known for presenting the idea of markets as conversations.  The idea that the markets that companies sell to are actually made up of human beings having conversations with each other, and if you wanted to connect with these markets, you needed to understand the conversations they were having, and even participate in those conversations.

Marketers heard the ‘participate’ part, but they missed the ‘understand’ portion.  No matter how many shiny tools you master, none of that will help you if you don’t understand your customers.

BTW anyone notice that all the talk about Jelly died down as soon as it started up?  That’s because marketers got there, spent a few days with it and didn’t see an immediate sales opportunity, and left.  Agency folks camped out there long enough to see if they could sell their clients on ‘Jelly Management’ projects, and left when they realized everyone else was.

Which leads to another classic: There are no silver bullets.  Roll your sleeves up, invest in understanding your customers.  Do the work.

Pic via Flickr user dylan garton

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Is Your Blog Still Your Front Porch? Tonight’s #Blogchat Topic!

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Here’s the transcript for tonight’s #Blogchat

Tonight (Jan 26, 2014) we’ll discuss if your blog is still your front porch.  Recently, I went back through the archives of The Viral Garden, which was my blog before this one.  I started blogging there in 2006, before we all found Twitter or Facebook and years before there was a Google Plus.  In 2006 and 2007 if you wanted to share an interesting blog post or article, you didn’t tweet it or post it to Facebook, you shared it on your blog.  I did this as well, in fact once a week or so I would post a ‘Viral Community News’ that would have a roundup of 4-5 blog posts that readers of The Viral Garden had wrote that I thought were interesting.  It was also a great way to build readership.

But over time, I discovered Twitter, and then Facebook, and my linking behavior changed.  I stopped linking on my blog as much, and moved to sharing content via other social media channels and tools.  I think most other bloggers have done the same thing, but at the same time, it seems that bloggers are more worried today about building readership.  In my opinion, part of the reason why it’s more difficult to build readership is because of that change in linking behavior.  Years ago when linking was primarily confined to blogs, that meant traffic bounced back and forth among those blogs.  Today, linking has moved off blogs, and additionally a lot of our thoughts that years ago would have been shared as a blog post, are now shared as a Facebook update.

I wanted to talk about this tonight at #Blogchat, and specifically three areas:

1 – Has the way you use your blog changed in the last few years as Twitter and Facebook have become more popular?

2 – Are the things such as linking and content sharing that make social media as a whole more valuable to you, actually making blogging less valuable?

3 –  What can we do to make sure that blogging stays the centerpiece of our social media presence?  Should it be?

Hope to see y’all tonight at 8pm Central on Twitter!  If you are new to #Blogchat you can learn more here.

Pic via Flickr user YellowstoneNPS

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The Power of Integrating Customer Service Across Your Organization

While many companies are struggling to use social media as a channel to drive sales, some companies have discovered the power of using social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to provide effective and efficient customer service. For example, look at this recent exchange on Twitter between Ekaterina Walter and Nikon:

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EkaterinaNikon2While the end result might be a customer service ‘win’ for Nikon, it also raises some glaring issues for the brand.  For example, if there’s consistently a disconnect between the level of customer service that Nikon offers via phone and Twitter, what happens when customers try the phone and don’t know to contact Nikon on Twitter?  In that case, Nikon likely doesn’t have a chance to redeem itself as they did here with Ekaterina.

Another byproduct of this is that by providing better customer service via one channel, you are training your customers to go to that channel first for customer service.  Which can be a plus assuming you have the bandwidth to support additional customers.  But if not, that likely means that the level of customer service provided by one channel (Twitter in this case) may fall lower and more in line with what customers are seeing via other channels (such as the phone).

So what’s the answer?  Try comparing notes.

Think about all the channels customers can use to contact you with support issues.  Email, social media, website, phone, even snail mail, maybe even in-person.  It’s important to remember that different customers prefer to use different tools.  So it’s entirely possible that each customer service channel you use is seeing complaints and questions from a completely different segment of your customer base.

For each customer service channel you use, you should have your employees that man these channels regularly provide every area of your customer service team with the following information:

1 – What is the nature of customer contact?

2 – Are customers inquiring about a particular product or service?

3 – Did the customer mention attempting to contact your company via another channel first?  If so, which one?

4 – Who was the customer?  Share any information you can about who they were, their age, location, how they used you product or service, etc.

If you can better communicate and integrate your customer service experience then the total quality of customer service you provide will increase.  That means more satisfied customers, and it increases the likelihood of creating more fans of your brand.  Most brands don’t understand this, but one of the easiest ways to create new fans is to give a frustrated customer excellent customer service.  That will often convert an upset customer into an advocate for your brand.

Share your successes, and your failures

No matter how many touchpoints your company offers customers to contact you with a service issue, the employees manning the frontlines should be in constant contact.  If your support team on Twitter, for example, is having success providing customer service, you want to share with other areas of CS what’s working.  Reverse-engineer why the CS experience on Twitter is better for customers so you can share what’s working with the rest of your organization.  That way your team that handles the call center may be able to apply some of the lessons learned from the Twitter support team to improve the experience callers see with customer support.

It’s equally important to share your failures.  Let other members of your customer support team diagnosis your efforts and give you insight into how to improve, based on what’s worked for them.  A fresh set of eyes are often necessary to spot shortcomings that can be corrected.  Another good idea is to have a private message board or forum just for your customer support team so they can bounce ideas off each other and share thoughts.

The bottom line is that just as communication with your customers facilitates understanding, the same process works internally.  The more communication between all areas of your customer service department, the greater the chance to improve the experience for your customers.