eSpire Marketing

IMG_0002.JPGTrust and transparency are the key to raising your revenue. I don’t know about the rest of you but I have certainly noticed a huge number of websites, applications, and blogs integrating facebook connect to their sites. Why is that? Well it’s simple really, everyone is finally cayltching on that social media is here to stay.
Whether your marketing department wants to believe it or not it is here to stay and if you don’t embrace it soon you’ll find yourself on the outskirts of your industry and fast. This economy has made it increasingly more difficult to sell things to people because most people, including myself, are buying simply out of neccesity and less and less based on want. On top of that people are researching more and more the products they do decide to buy before they make the final purhase. They need to trust the product and the company they buy it from.
This is always the analogy I use when I’m explaining myself to others; Think of it like this, are you more likely to buy the product that you saw on a billboard on the drive home, or the product that one of your friends can give you a review of and recommend? For me the obvious answer is to buy the product my friend recommends.
Social Media gives your business the opportunity to create that brand and product trust (as well as consumer recommendation) that is so vital to your business’s success. That is why we are all seeing the influx of Facebook and Twitter integration everywhere on the web. It gives your company the power to control (or at least influence) the conversation around your brand and your products and in turn transparency, trust, and inthe end sales.

I’ll leave you with this. My top 3 best practices for creating brand loyalty and trust with social media and that equals sales for you.

1. Ask the consumer – So you want to add a new product to your website? Go to your Twitter or Facebook page and ask your followers which one they like best. They’ll appreciate the fact that you want their opinion and they’ll feel as if they have some ownership in the decisions for your company.
2. Follow your brand mentions- Watching to see who is talking about you and what they are saying is important. That way if a customer has a complaint to make, you can deal with it out in the open and take care of them. That visibility and transparency will create brand loyalty and trust down the road.
3. Give away free stuff – The best way to win people over is to give them something for little or no return on their part. I realize from an ROI standpoint that might be hard to do but they’ll tell their friends and that word of mouth marketing is what you really should strive for.

It’s not hard really. You just have to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. Wake up people, welcome to the new economy. The consumer driven economy.