Social Media In Simple English Part 2
My last email (you can read it here) about how to use social media, specifically Pinterest for your eCommerce sparked a lot of interest. I also kept getting the same question asked over and over again, the question was I get what you are saying, but how do I actually start?
So in this email, I want to give you some basic instructions, and I hope they will help you. If you still wont get it, and would rather hire me to help you put a plan together, I will be more than happy too.
Lets imagine that I currently own a furniture eCommerce website, and I am interested in growing it. I understand that what I am doing today is called direct sales, and if I continue to do this, I will stay on the same spot forever. I need to create a sales funnel where I engage customers three months before they even start shopping for furniture.
First I need to identify my best customer. I googled for Furniture and found a website called Havertys to be in the top five positions. I looked up Havertys on Quantcast, and found that the majority of their visitors are women between 25-44, who have a household income of $100,000 and No Kids. Hmm NEWLYWEDS sound like they would fit the criteria, so that is the group I am going to target. I believe that many Newlyweds would probably look for new furniture. Even if they dont, at least I have a relevant target market that accurately fits the visitors that shop at Havertys who happens to be my competitor.
I am trying to get more customers locally in NYC, and most Newlyweds will probably be living in a two bedroom apartment or townhouse that is less than 1200 SQ FT. So to recap, I am officially targeting 30 year old women from New York City who just got married and ready to renovate her house. My whole theme will target these specific women. So now that I know who I am targeting, how do I actually do it?
I can target vertical markets such as a bridal email list from another ecommerce store with an endorsement from them, in exchange for a onetime payment plus commission. I can advertise on bridal related websites, or local bridal events, etc.
Now the question is do I send visitors to my website or elsewhere?
Since my actual furniture website targets everyone, this new project will have to be separate from my business. I need to come up with a name that will work for all accounts. I am not going to call it my business name because I am not promoting my website. My goal is to engage a 30 year old woman looking to renovate her house with inspirational material. How do I find a name for what I am doing? I will go to http://www.namevine.com to get suggestions. I am going to use some clever words and translate them into French or Spanish if the English words are not available.
I am going to establish all the social media accounts that I will use for my promotion.
Ok now what is the game plan? The first board I will start on Pinterest for the Newlyweds is inspirational photos of a townhouse apartment with different furniture sets. I will call the board, Beautiful Townhouse Furniture Sets. I will try to complete the whole board throughout the week.
Then I will connect Twitter and Facebook to Pinterest, so whenever I add a new picture to my board it will be announced everywhere. Each picture that I will post will have the sources of where you can buy all the pieces from the furniture set. I would not only promote my website, but my competitors website, as well. Each post will have a call to action for visitors to sign up to my email list.
I will use my blog to announce my board from Pinterest once it is complete. My blog post will include teaser photos and summary of the board highlights. Before posting anything on my blog, I will make sure to do Keyword Research, and make sure I have keywords in my title that will rank, and I can gain some visitors via SEO. I will use Mailchimp to announce that blog post which will have links to Pinterest. Mailchimp allows your emails to auto post to Facebook and Twitter, and if you use Tumblr or Posterous for your blog it will also automatically post to your Facebook and Twitter. The purpose of Facebook and Twitter for me will be to engage my visitors on another communication channel. I wont be really doing anything else with Facebook or Twitter besides that for this project.
I will use YouTube to find videos reviews about the furniture sets I blog about, and add links to those videos on my Pinterest board. Again the purpose of this is to make an inspirational content rich website that will engage my visitor.
I will make sure that all email subscribers that sign upthrough Mailchimp or my eCommerce website are imported into Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. This will make sure that I am always in touch with my customers on those social media services.
As you gain trust from your visitors, you can start adding soft sales by promoting your eCommerce store and endorsing it. You can have your eCommerce store advertise on your own blog.
I would grow one Pinterest board at a time and keep loading new content for at least three months before starting to promote it through paid marketing channels. This whole process can be repeated to focus on a different target market with another vertical.
I hope you can see how this will become huge if you can successfully execute everything. This is how companies become big and successful. If you will rely on tactical wins, where your only source of revenue is from customers who are ready to buy now, then you will probably never grow your company.
If you would like to hire me as your business consultant to help you promote your business or product, please read my GRO Project Pitchdeck for Small Businesses, and I would be happy to give you a one hour free consultation which will be priceless for you and your business.
FILL OUT THIS FORM TO GET AN HOUR CONSULTATION FOR YOUR BUSINESS