Blogs are great for all the reasons the one and only Mark Schaefer mentions here. If only more people who should read that post, did!
Trapped in a Time Warp
Now here are some people who would never read that article
- Mr. Leaflet: He’s been successful in fast food retail. A4 flyers have evidently played a central role. Of course, his idea for marketing his new online venture tends to have an unhealthy dependence on flyer distribution. Facebook and Twitter are fads after all.
Maybe leaflets offering bounties is a good strategy in Afghanistan. I’m not sure the same would be applicable in this instance – an online magazine. - Mr. & Mrs. Visceral: ‘We do not do the Facebook and the Twitter’ said the couple expressing a tinge of distaste for the suggestion.
You would think that they would use whatever means to promote the online jewelry site (a highly competitive online niche) they were planning to put together.
For many of us, when faced with potential clients like the above, the choice is often between
Walking away
OR
Investing time in educating the client.
When I chose the latter, apart from extending the sales cycle, the process comes close to being detrimental to my mental well-being. The looming question often is – should I even attempt steer the leaflet to blog transition?
Note that I am using the term ‘blog’ as a synonym for social media as a whole.
‘Broadcast’ frame of mind
A lesson I draw from the CIA leaflet, is to focus businesses to use the media channel their customers are comfortable with, and tend to use more. Once engaged with customers, it is easier to drive them towards other platforms like blog, website etc. To ‘convince and convert’, as Jay Baer would probably say.
I’ve also discovered that not everyone can leverage a ‘blog’ and in some cases a business gains more traction via their channels on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, forums and even Yahoo!answers.
Before we can get there, is still, the issue of getting the leaflet minded to engage customers online.
I have found that this task is especially difficult when businesses are still stuck in an offline ‘broadcast’ frame of mind when it comes to marketing. When the very aspect of social online customer touch point engagement is alien.
These businesses people do see the viability of conducting business online but seem to be trapped in a marketing time warp. The fact that these clients come to me via referrals obliges me to embark on the long educational process. I am often able to find one particular channel the business can thrive on and then build on those successes.
When such folk want you to help them build an online business, what do you do? Your tips to shortening the sales cycle? Challenges like these are begging for innovation after all.