This ends the TwitInterview with @MarketingForYou.
Latest Updates: Raia King RSS
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Kim Beasley
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Raia King
@MarketingForYou It has been delightful speaking with you, Kim! Thank you for this opportunity.
Below is my contact information:
Raia King
Email: marketing@raiaking.net
Website: http://www.raiaking.net
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MarketingForYou
Phone: 610-251-0777 -
Kim Beasley
@MarketingForYou Thanks for letting me interview you. Please share any last words and how you can be contacted.
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Raia King
@MarketingForYou Make sure that navigation on the website is intuitive. If people have to spend too much time looking for products or information, they’ll be less likely to come back. The novelty of technical bells and whistles wears off quickly, and if they slow down a user’s experience because the files are big and slow to load, customers soon grow tired of them. Generally a nice, clean, streamlined site is the best way to go.
The other important feature is regularly adding fresh content that is valuable to visitors. This will give them a reason to visit on a regular basis, especially if you have an opt-in email system that lets them know when you have added new products or content.
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Kim Beasley
@MarketingForYou Last question. Please share some specific things that business owners can do to keep customers coming back to their websites?
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Raia King
@MarketingForYou As you can imagine, journalists, editors, and producers are practically assailed with press releases. Below are tips to improve your chances of getting the press coverage you want:
1) Focus your efforts toward publications and TV/radio programs that appeal to your target audience.
2) Make sure your press releases provide real news and value to media outlets.
3) Journalists, editors, and producers have very tight deadlines, so send them exactly what they ask for when they ask for it.
4) Make sure your press release answers: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
5) Be brief, professional, and friendly in all of your dealings with the media.
6) Pestering the media will not help your cause. While the process can be frustrating, try to remain focused and positive. Building publicity for your business is a process that will take time.
7) Work to build a positive relationship with the media. By providing stories that have value and by being easy to work with, you’ll increase the chances that journalists will remember you the next time they need a quote for a story related to your area of expertise.
In regard to what should be included with the media message, I find that TV producers like to see video clips of the business owner on TV. If you have video clips, include a link with your press release so the producer can see how you perform in front of the camera. If you haven’t been on TV yet, it can be helpful to post a video clip of yourself briefly talking about an aspect of your business.
I try to avoid paid press coverage because it doesn’t give the same impression of objectivity that free press coverage does. Customers are more savvy than ever, and they know an advertorial when they see one.
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@MarketingForYou How can a business owne...
Kim Beasley
@MarketingForYou How can business owners get free press coverage? What are specific things that they should include with their media messages? Do you have details about how to handle paid press coverage?
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Raia King
@MarketingForYou I often hear clients wonder aloud, “What do customers want?” My answer is simply, “Ask them.” Believe me, customers are not shy about giving you their opinions. If you ask, they will tell you the good and the bad points about your business.
Getting new customers is significantly more expensive than retaining existing customers, so time and money spent finding out how to satisfy and even delight your existing customers is certainly well spent. It can pay off tremendously by helping you increase your sales.
Whether you use a traditional written survey or an online survey, the methods of ensuring that you get useful information are the same. Below are tips to ensure that your survey is successful:
1) People are busy, so an effective way to give them a reason to take the time to fill out a survey is to offer some kind of reward for completion. You could offer a coupon for a discount on a future purchase, a gift certificate, or a sweepstakes entry for a bigger prize.
2) Make your survey questions clear and concise because the longer your survey is, the less likely people will take the time to complete it.
3) Make sure you can use the information you get. You not only want to know how your business rates, but why. Knowing about customer approval or disapproval without knowing specifically why customers feel that way won’t help you make the necessary changes.
4) At the end of your survey, have a few blank lines where people can give any comments about issues you may not have asked about in the survey questions. This section of the survey can often be the most revealing because you will learn about unexpected problem areas you can correct.
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Kim Beasley
@MarketingForYou Are there specific ways that a business owner can find out what his or her customers really want?
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Raia King
@MarketingForYou There are a multitude of ways a business owner can market a business, but advertising is a very important component of any successful marketing plan. The best place to advertise is wherever your potential customers are likely to be. You want to get your message in front of them no matter where they are. If they are an affluent demographic that listens to talk radio, then place ads there. If they are a young, hip demographic that spends a lot of time online, you may want to buy banner ads on the music websites they visit. The biggest mistake I see people make when purchasing ads is blasting their message out to a huge, untargeted audience. That is a surefire way to burn through the marketing budget without getting good results. Targeting your advertising as finely as possible is the key to a successful advertising strategy.
