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Editor's Notes

• #4: Your website and online presence are your first impression with most of your new clients. Most of us Google before we call, before we head to a physical location. And I thought this was an interesting description of how powerful a brand can be. It’s an old school view of marketing and advertising though as we can make it all about the customer rather than about the brand - but more on that later. So how do we take the first steps with our brand online?
• #5: Behind every good brand has a simple easy to understand elevator pitch or summary of what they do. Having a clear understanding of what is unique about you, your business and how you go about it is key to creating an online presence that stands out. It gives you a chance to create a niche - which is great for Search Engine Optimisation and for appealing to an audience on social media. There are a couple of approaches you could take. The first is the Who Why How.
• #6: 1. WHO? If someone were to type your name into a search box, what short but descriptive title would you want to pop up? 2. WHY? What is your motivation? 3. HOW? How will you accomplish this?
• #7: 4. COMBINE THEM. Combine 1, 2, and 3 to create your mission statement.
• #8: The second approach is one I prefer which is user centric. It lets you put customers first. The first step is to select a target market. this could be things like: Young couples. retirees young families downsizers This is not to say they wouldn't sell to another audience but having a speciality allows you to create content online that suits that audience. It gives you focus.
• #9: To be of service to your client you have to solve one of their problems. What are the biggest problems you solve?
• #10: This is the most important part online. Knowing your uniqueness - what sets you apart. Without this you’ll be competing with every other real estate agent or marketer or designer. This give you those long tail search terms – the expert in duplexes or the North Shore apartment specialist for example.
• #11: Picturing the audience you’re writing for or sharing content for on social media is an easy way to evaluate if it’s useful to share or even create in the first place. And the more developed the picture the better. If we know our audience, our uniqueness and what problem we solve it is far easier to evaluate if a marketing, well any activity fits with our business.
• #12: With marketing online, the end game is getting a list of contacts that you can market to. In the old days this was a physical address but now it's the all important email address.
• #13: To get these emails we create an online 'Sales' funnel. The funnel will look like this At the various stages we have things like read magnets or videos or media that draw people to our website lead magnets - extra good content that answers their questions or solves their problems. We ask for their email address marketing automation - we then take those leads and try to qualify them or get them to contact us and ultimately request an appraisal Workflows where we close and ask for the sale We delight them with our promise and maintain a relationship with our loyal customers Now I want to explain read magnets a bit more. A read magnet is really good free content that people consume. It's a gift to potential clients. It should appeal to the clients we want - those that we just defined in our niche. The aim with this content is to make it so good that people feel that they need to reciprocate the gift by doing something in return. They do this through sharing the content or downloading an eBook or booking a webinar. These items are your lead magnets. Valuable content that you may charge small fee for or you might just give away too. Your lead magnet of course requires their email, and maybe some basic details. One you have their email - you have the ability to market to them on a regular basis and take them down a funnel to ultimately buy from you or subscribe to your services. Building an email list is the one thing that you need to make the main thing consistently. With your funnel in place you’ll need a supporting website to convince potential customers of your worth - we then drive traffic to the funnel using social media or paid advertising.
• #14: To understand the best approach to this we need to understand traditional and modern media. Traditional mass media Television, radio and print media are platforms where you need to pay to get your content shared - they provide us with entertainment and education. We watch/listen/read programs or publications that: tell us what the latest news is entertain us and make us feel better educate us on how to be smarter, fitter, richer, etc. In between TV shows (if we don't Tivo or Sky record and jump over them) brands inject ads. We've come to accept its the price we pay for the entertainment they provide. Local business marketing has had some take up for radio and TV but many find it too expensive and untargeted. People that aren't in an area they service see the message and often the leads are uniformed
• #15: Social Media and more specifically Facebook has become mass media We go there for entertainment and to keep up with our community. People only share and interact with content that will: tell us what the latest news is make us feel better make us look better (smarter, fitter, richer etc) in front of their peers. But because these new online mass marketing channels like Facebook don't have ad breaks we are very wary of brands, companies and local businesses putting ads in our news feed.
• #16: Some say the key to success in business is leading with generosity - being of service to your customers. If we share educational content around the local services we offer we will be found online through SEO. People will share our content as the local expert if it is: topical makes them feel better or is useful in making them feel smarter, fitter or richer in that area. To help you create or share content that is topical and entertaining visit Google alerts to create an email that is sent to you as new content is indexed for: topical news in your industry local philanthropic news that could make them feel better This is a fairly clinical description of how to be a relatable person online but sometimes we forget to be relatable and dive straight into selling.
• #17: As an example - In Browns Bay last week project Jonah was practicing saving dolphins and killer whales. If I was a local business in Browns Bay I would share photos of this and how you're proud of the community getting involved. While this won't generate leads, you will be seen as a connector in your community and this topical entertaining content is relatable.
• #18: It's not enough to just produce 'content' - Your Uniqueness your USP and niche has to shine With this persona you can ask each time you blog, create a video, post on social media. Will this resonate with 'Sam ' my ideal customer and does it help them on their journey with my business.
• #19: One of the biggest unseen problems with social media is we’re all fighting for attention on the same platform.
• #20: So now that you’ve seen the importance of defining your audience and how you serve them you have an idea of your niche and what you websie will look lke. You also have an approach for sharing on social networks and Facebook. My next slideshare will be on how to turn up the volume of your online marketing using paid promotion it will include a business plan budget recommendations and a content schedule. Let me know if you have any queries while I produce this.