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Build Online Relationships with Your Customers

Guest post by: Michael Farrell

Article Overview: Your customers are online now as over 97% of all business searches start online from a computer or mobile phone, suggests Mike Farrell with aspenIbiz. While Google is the #1 online location, there are over 50 key online directories, called the Influence Engines, where you must be present in order for Google to rank your business for your target audience. Read this short post to learn how to impact your rating for each Influence Engine so your Main Street business can get out there and get found in the New Economy.

Build Online Relationships with Your Customers

In the 1990s, the Internet consisted mainly of banners and brochures. Now, it is dominated by social networks, which enable a much richer two-way interaction. Yet, most businesses lose vast amounts of potential online business. For example, out of 100 visitors to most websites, on average only about 1 - 2 visitors return a second time. However, 97% of consumers use online searches when researching products or services. If a business could change the return rate and increase the number of return visitors to 20% or even 50%, what impact would that have on their business? In order for a business to increase the return rate, an understanding of both the psychology and technology of Influence Engine marketing, is required. This post will introduce the psychology associated with being online, provide a brief overview of Influence Engine technology, and illustrate a way to build relationships online with your leads, prospects, and customers, provide value to them, and earn their trust so you can conduct business with them.

Only 14% of Internet users trust online ads, yet 78% of online consumers trust peer recommendations ... so it is a good idea to establish relevant online relationships. The new "Word of Mouth" marketing is associated with online social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube along with the various online directories like Google Places, Yelp, TripAdvisor, CitySearch, Yahoo! Local, and many more. Universal Business Listing indicates there are close to 150 online directories for various interests and niches. Facebook and Twitter have over 700 Million users combined. The fastest growing demographic among Facebook users is 35 to 65 year old women. These members seek, and make, recommendations for products and services, from friends and followers. They also share their experiences ... the good, the bad, and the ugly ... that they have with products and services.

Youtube is the world's second largest search engine. Youtube gets more than 300 Million visitors a month who watch more than 2 Billion videos. People go to Youtube searching for videos to answer their questions, show them how to do something, or review a product or business. There are more than 200 Million blogs. People are more likely to visit blogs that align with their interests because blogs are generally non-selling environments. Whether you believe it or not, the facts presented above indicate your leads, your prospects, and your customers are using social media. 91% of Americans have mobile phones. More than 20% of them have phones with Internet capability. More than 152 Billion mobile text messages are sent each month. Be sure and read a post previously published on this blog about how advanced generation email systems are becoming multi-channel, mobile marketing systems for your business. The quickest way to start mobile marketing is to follow-up with mobile text messages since 90% of text messages are read within one minute of receipt.

Are you still spending money on Yellow Page ads or newspaper inserts? Why are the Yellow Pages like Nursing Homes? They are shockingly expensive and few people under 70 use them. So, if you are still spending money on old-school media, why are you doing this? According to Yahoo! more than 92% of all business searchers start looking online for goods and services while they are still at home or on their mobile phones enroute to make a purchase. Online is where your leads, prospects, and customers are searching to find businesses, merchants, vendors, and suppliers that they can trust in order to buy products, or services, and get their problems solved.

Marketing online is not an option anymore. It is a mandatory for most businesses, and a high priority, requirement since research points out that 8 out of 10 consumers will research or visit an online store and that 60% of those will end up making a purchase. It is clear that a key part of the psychology of being online is to have a presence in all of the key online locations, have good and relevant online relationships, and provide plenty of valuable information about your product or service.

Influence Engine technology spans the search engines, the social media networks, web 2.0 sites, social bookmarking sites, and the content sites such as blogs, article directories, podcast directories, and video directories (where Youtube is just one of 50 video directories) as well as syndication capabilities and tools. It is important to use the key online social networks to build relationships with individuals, businesses, and your customers. In order to do so, you need to provide them important facts, tips, and news on subjects where they have an interest and value this information as part of making buying decisions.

How do you continue the relationship building process once potential customers are on your web site? Give away tons of information and not just any information ... but your very best information. Yes, give away your best information or content. Over time, and often, drip your material in pieces and always for FREE using an autoresponding multi-channel mobile marketing system. It sounds counter-productive at first. After all, how can your business thrive if you are handing out your most valuable content and not getting a penny in return? It is an extremely important question - one that plays directly into the psychology of Influence Engine marketing. By giving away your best content, you immediately reinforce your creditability as an expert, while also proving yourself to be knowledgeable, likeable, worthy of your customer's respect, and eventually, of their trust.

Handing out great free content allows potential customers to "sample" you, and your brand, risk-free. After experiencing the value of your free content, they then assume that your purchased content, services and products must be really exceptional. Once that trust is established, you can often convert potential customers into repeat paying customers without even having to "sell" them on your products and services. That trust-based relationship may also make it easier for you to charge higher prices, since your free content has so effectively established your customer's trust in you and your brand.

This approach allows you to improve your online visibility, interact with prospects and customers, and build trust with them. By strategically distributing valuable information and guidance, you increase your authority and set your business apart from competitors. Plus, having video content is very important. It is the single most effective media for creating a connection between two remote individuals or entities. When potential customers see you in a video discussing your field of expertise or demonstrating your skills, they easily begin the process of getting to know and like you. After a video is prepared, you can have the audio transcribed (quickly and inexpensively) into an article that is posted on a blog and syndicated to the more than 100 article directories, social media sites and networks. This type of activity, publish once and syndicate to many sites, is very powerful strategy in that it impacts, in a positive way, the psychology of the online consumer.

Having ubiquitous online content, meaning publish once and syndicate to many sites, immediately builds your creditability. Learning how to propagate or syndicate your content across multiple Influence Engines will help build your creditability with potential customers who did not previously know you or your brand. Establishing creditability is essential since potential customers need to believe you are the real thing and they need to be willing to spend time on your site. Following this approach you can establish visibility in major online locations, generate traffic from multiple new online high authority sites (which leads to greater search engine results), enhance your online reputation, credibility, and relationships with many more qualified prospects.

Here is one final point about posting lots of your best content for FREE to your online sites. Since we are living in a relationship, relevancy, and reputation economy ... we learn very quickly that our business presence online is not a one-time put up a website activity. It is a good idea to have access to a capability that provides a diagnostic report, on a monthly basis, that is like an x-ray of your business presence in the online world. The findings in the diagnostic report can be used to understand how you are viewed by the search engines, the social media sites, and the online directories; how to improve the influence you have online; and what you can do to monitor and manage your online reputation.

Influence Engine rankings, Social Media buzz, and Online Directory presence, with good reviews to build your online reputation, are examples of the new "Word of Mouth" marketing for the Internet world. Relationship and Reputation Management are new types of extremely valuable services for businesses in an increasingly online world. If you spend effort to get your business found and expand its presence on the web (through video and article content in online directories and in social media sites), but there is no buzz, or if nobody is talking about your products, your services, or your business, you have to analyze and determine how effective your marketing efforts are? Marketing online is no longer just about having a website where people come to find your business. It is about going to online locations where your target market is hanging out searching for items to buy, learning how to do something, and reading product, service, and company reviews. Marketing online is about connecting with your target market at these online locations and offering them items of value (articles, videos, or product information) in order to actively capture them as leads.

Having a great Page Ranking on Google and in other search engines, is important, but you also need to be present at sites where your leads, prospects, and customers spend their time. And it is more than set it and forget it; you need to stay fresh! The Internet, search engines, social media sites, and online directories are like a big grocery store. There is a sell by date on every message ... and it is today! If you are not delivering something new on a regular basis, other messages are going to replace your message on the shelves.

Once you get found, engage with your prospects on their terms. Get your prospects to follow you on Twitter, friend you on Facebook, and subscribe to your Youtube channel. You can then start offering your prospects and customers more insightful information, expert perspective, recommendations, news, coupons, and membership priviledges. Build relationships, earn their trust, and earn their business. Follow-up, continue to engage, and follow-up some more. Continue to provide valuable information ... respond to their comments and questions. It costs 6 to 7 times less to get a prospect, or existing customer, on your leads list to buy from you than it costs to get a new customer to buy from you. So, get out there, get found, engage, and follow-up!

The good news is that there is still time to get a presence on the Interent before it is too late. So I suggest you to have an Influence Engine Diagnostic Service report prepared for your business and to use the service to improve your online reputation. Influence Engine Diagnostic Services are new. Make a commitment today to improve the return rate of visitors to your site and to increase your sales as a result of the pervasive and positive online presence of your business. Utilize an Influence Engine Diagnostic Service to transform your business into your own success story.

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Article Tags: Influence Engines, Internet Marketing, Main Street Business, Make Money Online, Mike Farrell aspenIbiz, MultiChannel Mobile Marketing, Small Business, WordofMouth Marketing



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