In the first part of this article, we covered the first four rules of social media engagement: be brand-centric, listen, the rule of thirds and talk naturally. So, here are the remaining five rules.
Want to increase your reach and influence? Then you’ll need to increase your number of followers. And the first thing you need to be thinking about is to make it as easy as possible for your potential audience to find you and then, provided you can prove to be of use, of interest and sometimes of amusement, to follow you.
Sometimes it’s better to get a deep twitter following (think quality over quantity) than a wide following. So you need to be thinking about relevance with consistency. You need to be following persons relevant to your business objectives, and try to engaging them.
Slow and steady wins the race so consistency is a must – which is important anyway. How do you engage your target audience once you’ve found them?
Well, the easiest way of engaging anyone, be it on the street, bus etc, is to ask questions. Everyone likes to talk about themselves, so give them an audience – use good open questions to get the conversation started and continue the dialogue with more questions and answers just like in the real world.
But what if the conversation doesn’t go according to plan or, possibly worse still, there is some very direct criticism aimed at you?
One approach is to use this as an opportunity to learn from your customers, and possibly to attend to the criticism in question so well that reputational damage is neutral or even enhanced by the incident.
But so many people find this aspect of being online difficult – why? Because people are inclined to take things personally and see any criticism as an attack on themselves. So the first thing that one should do is to look at the criticism carefully and dispassionately. Does the person making the criticism have a point? The first objective of any response to criticism is to draw the heat and emotion which is in the complaint. So, you need to show empathy and consider apologising.
Next, you need to address the source of the complaint (assuming that they have a legitimate complaint – sometimes social media can be driven a little too much by trolls so don’t get taken in here), by making amends if the complainant does have a point. Then state what you intend to do to make amends and check with the person that this addresses the issue. Go to Google and have a look at some of the examples from Dominos of how they address things when the screw up – 100% of us will do this at some time or other.
And try and address this tactic as quickly as it appears. Don’t let it fester.
Sharing is caring, and will position you as a person of authority and influence. So put yourself in the shoes of your customers and think ‘what would they find really useful for me to share’.
Then do it – don’t be a hoarder of information – start to use the share button, the like button, retweet and repost and start to build a community of followers which are within your target audience (assuming you are playing to your strengths and sharing stuff which is within your brand or service ecosystem. And over time, this ecosystem will come to sustain you and help to grow your business. And the wider you share, the wider your spheres of influence.
If I do have a summary it’s this – be true to your brand and make sure the personality you create is as you meant it to be. Be as natural as possible, engage person to person. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
So what are you waiting for? Jump in – the water’s lovely!
Our client had already adopted some systems, and whilst using cloud-based technologies, it was still mainly mail, calendar, documents and spreadsheets.
We worked closely with them first putting in place a CRM, then a no-code platform to run their projects and have continued to make them more efficient, paperless and collaborative than ever before.
When we initially worked with Nautilus, they had grown successfully on an inbox and a spreadsheet. For a small business, that makes sense and keeps it simple, but it becomes harder the more conversations, quotes and bookings are managed.
It became clear that they needed to collaborate and track more.
With an envious Tripadvisor rating, their customers expect the perfect experience. Having scoped out their requirements, we helped them choose the right CRM and then helped scope it out to fit their needs perfectly. Now their office team of four can work together, using a range of communication channels to get the job done.
One extensive website with an enormous range of pages and content, where offers adapt every month to the demands of the clients, and capacity changes meaning that conversions never stay the same.
So, we report and analyse every month, understand how the different areas of the website are performing, receive briefings from our client and adapt for the month ahead.
Two websites offering a wide range of services, where quality leads are of high value, but there are large volumes of time-wasters, it is vital to ensure that every lead is accounted for.
Our ‘secret source’ for them tracks from Ads, Organic, Google Analytics 4 and in their CRM to make sure that we know exactly the cost of every good opportunity. In that way, we can flex accordingly.
It’s always a challenge taking an established business, with all the heritage that comes with the old. However, backed by a supportive client, we took them from a ‘WordArt’ style to something that is as flexible as their clamps!
You can see the nod to the product range, but this is such a versatile logo, portrait, landscape, white out of colour. It allows imagery, buttons and offers to pop as it has clarity and style.
Taking on an unexpected full rebrand in thirty days was not necessarily part of the remit, but we’re always up for a challenge.
New iconography in place with a subtle and yet distinct nod to hydraulics and the ‘D’ for Domin. We also founded and formed a proper brand book to ensure that consistency remains in place for cross-media activity.
It’s too easy to be carried away by the lifestyle and adventure of the Nautilus crew, from the Pacific to the Med, they deliver award-winning sailing experiences.
However, we are not helping them sell holidays, they sell skipper courses so that clients can sail their own yachts and catamarans. So the content is geared around this. It’s still beautiful, but it speaks to the right audience.
What is there not to love about kids and garden play? The photos are great, settings wonderful and the structures are pretty awesome. But, to be honest, you can’t have photos of children included and then all the structures are based around the same ‘ingredients’.
So, you need to become storytellers, as tree houses and adventure play is about the joy and fun to be had by small and large adventurers as their ideas spark into life. It’s the story we tell!
The most valuable aspect of Domin’s products is hidden in the ‘secret sauce’ of how they build the most efficient and compact hydraulic systems. The products are well-engineered, but the outcomes
Mergers and acquisitions marketing imagery rife with stock photos of business meetings, office blocks and cityscapes. But Unloq is different. The name is the focus: to unlock opportunities, unpick information and open up value for clients.
So the imagery is simple, clean and relates to the process of unlocking rather than the environment. We recommended striking black and white imagery that nails the brief, engages the viewer and turns attention to messaging and actions, whilst complementing the brand palette.
With a wide range of products, applications and service offerings, HCL could be seen as demanding. Yet, by integrating segmentation techniques on company size, sector and purchase history, we are able to choose the audiences to send emails to, and uncover what works.
Each email is scoped, the audience identified, professionally written, designed and then integrated with tracking from within the email as well as through analytics.
High-value, low-volume email marketing requires a specialised approach. One that speaks the right language to partners, clients and prospects, whilst underpinning the values that make Unloq’s services unique.
With split lists, containing some shared and some unique content, we have created variety without the overhead of coming up with three completely new emails every time. Precise, targeted and confident – just like our client.
When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, clarity of message and presentation is paramount. We worked closely with the client, writing a script, choosing a voice-over artist, stitching together images, video and illustrations.
The two videos were short enough to share on social media, but professional enough to take pride of place on the website – raising the profile and credibility of Unloq and with more to come.
How best to display some of the finest tree houses and climbing frame builds in the UK? We used a combination of close-up and drone footage to showcase Gardenatics’ custom builds.
It makes the website stand out, differentiating from the competition and justifying the quality and value on display. It has helped them continue to win new clients across England and Wales looking for that premium option.
One extensive website with an enormous range of pages and content, where offers adapt every month to the demands of the clients, and capacity changes meaning that conversions never stay the same.
So, we report and analyse every month, understand how the different areas of the website are performing, receive briefings from our client and adapt for the month ahead.
Two websites offering a wide range of services, where quality leads are of high value, but there are large volumes of time-wasters, it is vital to ensure that every lead is accounted for.
Our ‘secret source’ for them tracks from Ads, Organic, Google Analytics 4 and in their CRM to make sure that we know exactly the cost of every good opportunity. In that way, we can flex accordingly.
It’s too easy to be carried away by the lifestyle and adventure of the Nautilus crew, from the Pacific to the Med, they deliver award-winning sailing experiences.
However, we are not helping them sell holidays, they sell skipper courses so that clients can sail their own yachts and catamarans. So the content is geared around this. It’s still beautiful, but it speaks to the right audience.
What is there not to love about kids and garden play? The photos are great, settings wonderful and the structures are pretty awesome. But, to be honest, you can’t have photos of children included and then all the structures are based around the same ‘ingredients’.
So, you need to become storytellers, as tree houses and adventure play is about the joy and fun to be had by small and large adventurers as their ideas spark into life. It’s the story we tell!
An engineering firm wanted to build business but also be equipped to grow. With a new practice manager in place who was committed to digital transformation, we integrated CRM, task management and project tracking systems to create a system that works for them.
It now tracks quotes, commissions business, pushes through deadlines, keeps clients aware of progress and helps them deliver high quality structural engineering projects on time and on brief.
When we first started working with Domin, we introduced them to Airtable and also recommended a CRM to streamline their account management. It was the start of a beautiful relationship.
They now use Airtable effectively as an ERP system for their order management and global supply chain, and the CRM drives the growth in sales and clients across the world as they add to their product lines.
With a number of local teams, we needed to come up with an ad strategy that ensured that the value of the job, and the journey time would make profitable commercial and residential enquiries for Chargebase.
A lightweight, geographically tight, precisely worded set of campaigns was plugged into the business. And the lights went on!
The challenge with Nautilus isn’t the product, it’s amazing! The test is to avoid sailing enthusiasts and drill down to their audience: people who want to learn to skipper.
We have worked closely with Nautilus for over ten years distilling down a range of very precise advertising campaigns to deliver exactly what they wanted. A flow of future skippers looking for adventure.
Working in a high ticket specialist field means that every visit has value. Rather than focusing on volume, this was a more meticulous project which was driven by quality of enquiry as well as volume.
We recognised that there were certain keywords which significantly outperformed and provided the kinds of leads Unloq were looking for. We split the proposition into two websites for different audiences and focused each website for different keyword clusters. Client acquisitions soared.
Having worked with Flexspace on two iterations of their website the biggest challenge has been leveraging their sites and types of property to build a range of keywords to reach business owners.
Whilst the first website was effective in building traffic, we learned so much from that process that round two (six years later) was another step uo. Structure and internal linking was optimised for a wide range of relevant keywords which built a steady flow of converting organic traffic to Flexspace.
Tree houses and climbing frames are really easy to share, every family loves some active play. However, for Gardenatics we needed to make sure that we selected the right strategies for the right platforms.
In particular, the Pinterest channel we created for them gave great scope and leverage for the brand, as photos of builds were pinned far and wide and, given the bespoke nature of the constructions – future customers knew the best brand to help them with their garden was, of course, our client.
Unloq’s aim is to stand out and be different in the M&A world, but at the same time, to give confidence in the services they offer. They have to both be confident and discreet, persuasive but measured.
Our social media strategy is to ensure that we use a combination of videos, stings, dynamic messages and text to continue to reinforce the values and services which make our client the best route to inorganic business growth.
With a wide range of products, applications and service offerings, HCL could be seen as demanding. Yet, by integrating segmentation techniques on company size, sector and purchase history, we are able to choose the audiences to send emails to, and uncover what works.
Each email is scoped, the audience identified, professionally written, designed and then integrated with tracking from within the email as well as through analytics.
High-value, low-volume email marketing requires a specialised approach. One that speaks the right language to partners, clients and prospects, whilst underpinning the values that make Unloq’s services unique.
With split lists, containing some shared and some unique content, we have created variety without the overhead of coming up with three completely new emails every time. Precise, targeted and confident – just like our client.
The ability to persuade visitors and generate leads in a field as challenging as mergers and acquisitions needed a very careful and considered approach. Attention to detail and the use of the right language are crucial to gaining the trust and confidence of the audience.
We worked closely with the client, embedding ourselves in their business so that we could learn more about the M&A marketplace, we mapped their audience and delivered two websites with specific strategic goals for their business. They remain the main lead-drivers for this rapidly growing enterprise.
How to prepare a structural engineering practice for growth? Firstly, make the website have real quality and impact. To communicate the values of the business as well as match the expectations of the target property owner and partners for the business.
The eventual site focuses on the outcome of working with our client, high-end solutions to reinvigorate homes to fit with a luxurious London and Home Counties lifestyle.
It should be simple to find leads for EV charging in the South East of England, but sometimes what looks easy is, in fact, a real technical challenge.
Firstly, whilst there is a lot of searching for EV points, we only want to target those who want an installation. Secondly, we also need to avoid congested areas where there is only on-street parking. Finally, they had a preference for commercial, not residential installations.
Not so simple, but we plugged away and found a steady flow of electric leads.
We’re familiar working for clients with complex audience requirements. For Technical Resources it is a constant balancing act between job candidates and employers. If you don’t have enough flow of each, then the business struggles.
We helped them create specific sections with unique messages for each audience to give them the best chance of generating leads. Each section is then tracked independently so that we can get the client to candidate ratio just right.
Whilst Nautilus is setting the standard for real-life skippering courses, they recognise there is a substantial audience for online learning.
Having established their new website, we integrated their online courses and set up several routes into registering or trying their online masterclasses as well as tracking paid enquiries into the system to measure relative performance.
If you’re challenging an established industry where cost, supply chain and value is a mystery, then what better way to differentiate than do the opposite.
We created transparent pricing, clear discounts, delivery expectations and global dispatch. Each product had about a thousand combinations, so clients could order exactly what they wanted.
With an increasingly global customer base, a broad range of client needs, and a growing internal team overseeing proposals and quotations, HCL were in need of consolidation.
We helped them bring together all their prospects and clients in one place and recommended ways of segmenting the customer base. They are quoting more often, more quickly and closing more business and, by attaching the CRM to their email platform, also being able to build more repeat business.
The practice had just recruited a manager and was looking to bring together all their enquiries and proposals into one place. We recommended, configured and launched a CRM for them that gave them visibility over all their leads.
As they developed their services, and added to their team, we let them adapt and shape the process to remain ahead of the pack.
An engineering firm wanted to build business but also be equipped to grow. With a new practice manager in place who was committed to digital transformation, we integrated CRM, task management and project tracking systems to create a system that works for them.
It now tracks quotes, commissions business, pushes through deadlines, keeps clients aware of progress and helps them deliver high quality structural engineering projects on time and on brief.
When we first started working with Domin, we introduced them to Airtable and also recommended a CRM to streamline their account management. It was the start of a beautiful relationship.
They now use Airtable effectively as an ERP system for their order management and global supply chain, and the CRM drives the growth in sales and clients across the world as they add to their product lines.
Offering short leases and contracts to small and startup businesses leads to challenges for Flexspace. Every unit is up for renewal every year. Furthermore, with standard attrition within small enterprises, there is always space coming available.
Yet, with a building database and a ready list of prospective, as well as existing clients, we have advised them on systems and strategies to convert more of their database and to see problems for fill rate before it becomes a critical problem.
With a growing reputation, but skippering being seen as a one-hit sale, it seemed that repeat business would be a challenge. However, Nautilus had two strategies we were able to support with very effective marketing campaigns.
Firstly, they now have an Alumni network called ‘The Tribe’ who regularly go on flotillas with each other, coordinated by Nautilus. Secondly, they have catamaran deliveries where different teams are assembled to take their boats point to point, often across oceans – another level of experience!
Driving traffic with no clear understanding of revenues or profitability
Intent led, tracked and accounted for profitable marketing spend
An unsteady flow of low-quality enquiries yielding little business
Motivated enquiries, in the buying cycle, who fit your ideal target market
Business critical tasks relying on staff time, subject to user error
Make processes more efficient, thorough, predictable and measurable
I spend most of my development budget fixing errors and bugs
Fast and reliable cash-generative e-commerce and lead generation websites
My organic traffic is not translating to the bottom line
Rankings with purpose, targeting your converting keywords
Dated branding which doesn’t match the quality of your business
Modern, digital, flexible brand, guidelines, messaging and identity
Low resolution homebrew quality with little impact
Short, sharp videos designed specifically for the right media channel
Marketing visuals that fail to engage your audiences
Smart, precise imagery demonstrating design with purpose
Lack of regular contact with previous customers and clients
A clearly segmented customer base with fine-tuned strategies for repeat business
I have analytics, but it doesn’t help with our decision-making
A connected analytics layer providing confidence in tactical and strategic marketing work
Vaguely written aggregated words with little meaning
Refined, considered and targeted persuasive copy with calls to action
Finding it a challenge to come up with quality ideas and engagement
Well-considered, precise, relatable and polished content
Occasional ad-hoc generic email communications
Focused varied marketing content, adapted to suit customer profiles
A store where most of your budget fixing bugs and maintaining
A store where the stock, turnover, margins and yield dwarfs the marketing spend
Leads and customers are mainly in spreadsheets and inboxes
Win and retain more business by selecting the right CRM and systems
Outdated systems with inaccessible or incomplete information
Joined up, cloud-based systems which optimise operations
