Archives for February 2017

Common eCommerce Mistakes | Don't talk to real buyers – Part #4

February 6, 2017 by Christine

Hopefully by now you've researched your customer from a demographic basis and created your ultimate buyer persona. Afterall, creating a buyer persona has been used by marketing firms for decades and has been an effective digital marketing tactic for many years. A customer avatar helps you develop products and services your targeted market needs, which sites you compete with and the technologies they use among many other factors.
In our Viral solutions digital marketing blog we've written many articles about how to design and create content that is tailored to your target audience and in your ecommerce platform write product descriptions that appeal to the same. We hope you have at least three such buyer persona's on file – but not more 😉 .
However, we must remember that a buyer persona is a fictional character that is mostly used for segmentation advertising and website user experience during key touchpoints. This fictitious character is of little value if we do not understand their decisions and choices.

A common mistake we see within businesses, with an ecommerce presence make, is not talking to actual buyers so that we understand that buyer's decision.

Knowing what a buyer persona is and how to build a buyer persona is a task worthy of your time. Do not stop there! Buyers are not just a list of attributes, demographics and statistics. They make decisions and choices based upon emotion and other behaviors.

You must determine what causes that fake person to make real decisions, to take action. What criteria do they use? What defines and determines their attitude? How can we anticipate their response to a given solution to their problem? What’s their lifestyle like? What are their daily habits or hobbies? What kind of values and opinions do they have?

Here are the most common mistakes ecommerce websites make with buyer personas.

buyer persona data

You simply describe the buyer data you bought!

Often times a buyer persona is obvious.
Profiling a persona is only part of the process. You need actionable information. You must be able to change the perceptions of real people. Change minds and present your solution in a orderly manner that makes sense. Your offer must be in alignment with their values, their budget and most importantly makes them feel good about their choice. Afterall, they do have alternatives and you have to let them know what you think of those alternatives and how your offer better appeals to them. You cannot know that with just a piece of paper that list their common statistics!
“There should be clear differentiators between each persona — the whole idea of creating personas is to create an experience that resonates with each of them.” ~ HubSpot

You inject your personal opinion and belief over fact.

Most buyer personas are derived from discussions with the top sales representative, the customer service goddess or the product design experts. They are actually a list of who they personally enjoy working with and not necessarily who the buyers are and how they made decisions. Name a sales person that will exclude themselves from the brilliant close made that obtained a new customer? Exactly!
True buyer personas are built by talking to real buyers. What you learn in that interview is critical. Great interviews with buyers result in understanding their thought process and perceived choices – not just a list of age ranges and occupations. More importantly, your salespeople will not hear the truth from your buyer if they perform the interview. The buyer fears the information they share will be manipulated.
You need information that cannot be gathered from within your company.

You have a dozen buyer personas.

Marketers often think they are smarter than others because they design over a dozen buyer personas, when in fact you do not need a crowded house. Attitudes, beliefs, actions, choices and personality are more important to understand than census data. Your buyer persona needs to be manageable.
When was the last time you sold anything to a company building without a human being making a decision? Yes, demographics are important, They are important for segmentation. But they do not make buying decisions.
What you want and need to know is how many ways do your buyers make decisions. Then you need to know what it takes to persuade them to buy. Do you have different versions of your story? Often times too many layers of company size, age, geographic region – only muddy the message. Example, all companies must be competitive and efficient to survive, no matter what industry, no matter where their physical plant is. What they have in common is that they worry about implementation cost!
customer survey

You deflect their questions.

Buyers are people and people love to talk. You need to listen more. You do this by asking questions before you offer a solution. Even in the online e-commerce world you can gain insight into your buyers feelings, THEN present your offer that fits them best.
Too many ecommerce businesses spend too much time and money talking and pitching rather than asking questions. You will impress more buyers and retain more customers if you answer their questions which in turn will persuade them to do business with you.
Bring your fake buyer persona to life. Ask them questions before they ask you.

You didn't create a negative buyer persona.

More than likely your buyer persona is used for targeting advertising. However, within that persona you worked so hard to create are prospective customers that may click on your expensive link but will not do business with you. To help limit this type of activity you need to create a negative buyer persona. These are people who you won’t want to target. They may fit your wonderful demographic but they may not have a need for your service. It may appear counterproductive to spend time getting to know people who will never be your customers, but, it will save you and your team time and money in the long run.

How do you get started?

First dig into your customer database (CRM) and find the contact information on both new buyers and long-term customers. Present that list to a team of outsiders who may even know very little, if anything about your business. Contact your customer and present them with the names of the people and purpose for a survey. Yes you will get rejected and that is fine, you really do not need very many to accept. You want one answer to one question. Why did you buy from this organization? That is it. Believe me, the conversation will expand especially if they trust the questioner and know they can remain anonymously tied to a set of answers.
Knowing your buyer persona is critical when it comes to delivering leads that are qualified. Knowing how they make decisions, the resources they use and why they chose you is even more important. Once you utilize this process you will find it much easier to design an ecommerce business because you will know the customer journey path. That is the key moment where business design takes over for guessing.
Next week we will discuss your value proposition and unique differentiator.
Copyright 2017 Viral Solutions LLC

We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords.

Filed Under: E-Commerce & Sales Tagged With: avatar, buyer persona, facebook targeting, marketing strategy

Common eCommerce Mistakes | Don’t talk to real buyers – Part #4

February 6, 2017 by Christine

In our Viral solutions digital marketing blog we've written many articles about how to design and create content that is tailored to your target audience and in your ecommerce platform write product descriptions that appeal to the same. We hope you have at least three such buyer persona's on file – but not more 😉 .

However, we must remember that a buyer persona is a fictional character that is mostly used for segmentation advertising and website user experience during key touchpoints. This fictitious character is of little value if we do not understand their decisions and choices.

A common mistake we see within businesses, with an ecommerce presence make, is not talking to actual buyers so that we understand that buyer's decision.

You must determine what causes that fake person to make real decisions, to take action. What criteria do they use? What defines and determines their attitude? How can we anticipate their response to a given solution to their problem? What’s their lifestyle like? What are their daily habits or hobbies? What kind of values and opinions do they have?

Here are the most common mistakes ecommerce websites make with buyer personas.

buyer persona data

You simply describe the buyer data you bought!

Often times a buyer persona is obvious.

Profiling a persona is only part of the process. You need actionable information. You must be able to change the perceptions of real people. Change minds and present your solution in a orderly manner that makes sense. Your offer must be in alignment with their values, their budget and most importantly makes them feel good about their choice. Afterall, they do have alternatives and you have to let them know what you think of those alternatives and how your offer better appeals to them. You cannot know that with just a piece of paper that list their common statistics!

“There should be clear differentiators between each persona — the whole idea of creating personas is to create an experience that resonates with each of them.” ~ HubSpot

You inject your personal opinion and belief over fact.

True buyer personas are built by talking to real buyers. What you learn in that interview is critical. Great interviews with buyers result in understanding their thought process and perceived choices – not just a list of age ranges and occupations. More importantly, your salespeople will not hear the truth from your buyer if they perform the interview. The buyer fears the information they share will be manipulated.

You need information that cannot be gathered from within your company.

You have a dozen buyer personas.

When was the last time you sold anything to a company building without a human being making a decision? Yes, demographics are important, They are important for segmentation. But they do not make buying decisions.

What you want and need to know is how many ways do your buyers make decisions. Then you need to know what it takes to persuade them to buy. Do you have different versions of your story? Often times too many layers of company size, age, geographic region – only muddy the message. Example, all companies must be competitive and efficient to survive, no matter what industry, no matter where their physical plant is. What they have in common is that they worry about implementation cost!

customer survey

You deflect their questions.

Too many ecommerce businesses spend too much time and money talking and pitching rather than asking questions. You will impress more buyers and retain more customers if you answer their questions which in turn will persuade them to do business with you.

Bring your fake buyer persona to life. Ask them questions before they ask you.

You didn't create a negative buyer persona.

How do you get started?

Knowing your buyer persona is critical when it comes to delivering leads that are qualified. Knowing how they make decisions, the resources they use and why they chose you is even more important. Once you utilize this process you will find it much easier to design an ecommerce business because you will know the customer journey path. That is the key moment where business design takes over for guessing.

Next week we will discuss your value proposition and unique differentiator.

We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords.

Filed Under: E-Commerce & Sales Tagged With: avatar, buyer persona, facebook targeting, marketing strategy

Voice Search is the Next Big Thing

February 3, 2017 by Lindsey Perron

When you think of optimizing your 2017 digital marketing strategy, going mobile-first might come to mind. Or maybe adding more video content to your site.

While these tactics are certainly important, there’s a new game in town. Voice search has been an ongoing project in the tech industry for a while. Now that voice recognition technology makes fewer errors, it’s becoming one of the fastest-growing search options. For users, it’s appeal is undeniable. It’s hands-free, fast, and futuristic.

In recent years, voice search has doubled, with 65% of mobile phone users reporting they use a virtual assistant. Everyone’s getting in it — Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa represent how the big players are going for voice search. It’s becoming a technology everyday consumers are using over traditional search techniques.

voice search seo

Voice is changing the SEO game

If there’s one thing we know about SEO, it’s that it’s always changing. Those keyword-rich blogs and websites became ancient history when Google changed its algorithms. Now voice recognition technology is shifting how things work again.

For businesses, this means you have to craft content based on how people speak rather than how they type. Voice technology often encourages users to ask questions in complete sentences with responses in complete sentences too. So instead of a user typing in: “best pizza chicago il,” they might ask, “What’s the best pizza place in Chicago?” Note that users are likely to ask who, what, where, and when questions, like “When is the Super Bowl?”

Pair with mobile device upgrading

You might have spent a lot of time getting the details right on mobile-friendly service. Here’s the good news: That’s not going to waste. While at-home voice search products exist, mobile is still the main player in the game. Building a website designed for mobile use is essential for doing business in 2017.

You should also consider which search engines you’re optimizing voice search for. Up until now, Google has been king. But the default option on Apple’s iO7 and Windows use Microsoft Bing. However, currently 83% of the market uses Android products, which default to Google. In the future, Bing could play a larger role in voice search.

The bottom line with getting voice search right is like all marketing — keep testing it out and readjusting as you go to find the mix that works. Listen to how people talk about your business and keep your content fresh. In the long run, this strategy will bring in more customers and help your business grow.

Copyright Viral Solutions 2017

Marisa Fritzemeier

marisa-fritzmeier

Angel of Innovative Artistry and Design for Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Tools & Technology Tagged With: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, seo

Authority Content Series: Taking it to Social Media

February 2, 2017 by Lindsey Perron

So far in our series about authority content marketing, we have talked about what authority content is, how to develop high-quality content, and how to use a robust content curation strategy to enhance your authority. Today we will focus more on getting the word out and positioning yourself as an authority on digital platforms with your content.

Social media has become an incredibly influential tool for businesses of all types. At this point, companies that are not already using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and various other social networks are behind the game.

When trying to establish yourself as a trusted authority in your field, it is not enough to simply create and share high-quality content. You must be able to spread your message across the internet. The best, easiest method of doing this is to use social media.

Here are five steps to building a social media presence that helps you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

social media content

Build up your following across your social media platforms.

This step is, by far, the hardest part of social media marketing. How exactly do you get people to follow you and get engaged with what you are posting and sharing?

Simply put, it takes time and commitment to build up a large social media following. There are no shortcuts. Sure, you could go out and purchase 10,000 followers, but none of them are going to be particularly engaged with what you are sharing. To create a truly receptive and engaged audience, you have to focus on building relationships and interacting with other people and thought leaders in your field.

By becoming a valuable part of the discussions already happening on social media about topics relating to your business, people will be naturally more interested in hearing what you have to say, which will in turn make them more likely to follow you. The hardest part is that first thousand followers. As you continue to build your audience, more people will share your content, which will snowball into getting more followers.

But again, you have to be committed. If you are going to succeed in positioning yourself as a leader on social media, there are no shortcuts.

Stay active on your social media channels

It’s going to be impossible to establish any sort of following on social media if you do not stay consistent with your updates. Commit yourself to following a schedule of posts, and even plan them out ahead of time if you need to. The frequency with which you post depends largely on the platform in question. It’s much more acceptable to post frequently (multiple times per day) on Twitter than it is on Facebook, for example.

If you’re not regularly publishing content or sharing your opinions, then you’re not going to have people getting their eyes on your brand’s accounts.

Use paid advertising platforms available on the various social media channels.

Several of the most popular social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, have paid advertising options that allow you to boost your content so it is viewed by more people. On Facebook, for example, there are different payment levels to be able to push your content out to certain numbers of people. While you cannot guarantee that everyone who sees your content is going to be interested in it, it’s certainly a good way to gain some exposure.

Bottom Line? Almost all social media channels are publicly held companies looking for profits, they have the leads, to gain their traffic it is pay-to-play!

Typically these sponsored post features are also not extremely expensive. So if you need help getting the ball rolling with developing a following on your social media networks, this is a good way to do it.

Target other thought leaders in your conversations.

See what other thought leaders in your industry are saying on social media, and get involved in conversations. If people see you getting regularly retweeted or mentioned in these thought leaders’ posts because you’re contributing high-quality content to the discussion, then they are going to be more likely to follow you. Being associated with some of these established thought leaders is great publicity for your brand.

Don’t focus too much on self-promotion.

While your end goal is certainly to increase your brand’s following and create more sales, your sole focus on social media should be building relationships and goodwill among your followers, not promoting your company. Social media is a great place to share content you have created and to tell your followers about promotions you have going on, but this should only be one aspect of your social media activities. You should focus on genuine interactions with your followers and taking part in interesting, valuable discussions.

Social media is the best tool you have to spread your authority content and become seen as an authority figure yourself in your field. Use it wisely!

Lindsey Perron

Lindsey Perron

Queen of the Machine for Viral Solutions LLC

“If a brand genuinely wants to make a social contribution, it should start with who they are, not what they do. For only when a brand has defined itself and its core values can it identify causes or social responsibility initiatives that are in alignment with its authentic brand story.” ~ Simon Mainwaring

Filed Under: Content Creation Tagged With: content marketing, Conversion rate optimization, facebook, social media

Archives for February 2017

Common eCommerce Mistakes | Don't talk to real buyers – Part #4

A common mistake we see within businesses, with an ecommerce presence make, is not talking to actual buyers so that we understand that buyer's decision.

Here are the most common mistakes ecommerce websites make with buyer personas.

You simply describe the buyer data you bought!

You inject your personal opinion and belief over fact.

You have a dozen buyer personas.

You deflect their questions.

You didn't create a negative buyer persona.

How do you get started?

We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords.

Common eCommerce Mistakes | Don’t talk to real buyers – Part #4

A common mistake we see within businesses, with an ecommerce presence make, is not talking to actual buyers so that we understand that buyer's decision.

Here are the most common mistakes ecommerce websites make with buyer personas.

You simply describe the buyer data you bought!

You inject your personal opinion and belief over fact.

You have a dozen buyer personas.

You deflect their questions.

You didn't create a negative buyer persona.

How do you get started?

We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords.

Voice Search is the Next Big Thing

Voice is changing the SEO game

Pair with mobile device upgrading

Authority Content Series: Taking it to Social Media

Here are five steps to building a social media presence that helps you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Build up your following across your social media platforms.

Stay active on your social media channels

Use paid advertising platforms available on the various social media channels.

Target other thought leaders in your conversations.

Don’t focus too much on self-promotion.