Time to read: 3 minutes. Which answer would you rather have?  “How to measure the true value of a Facebook fan” or “How retailers are actually selling on Facebook.”  The answer seems obvious.   But if everyone wants to learn how to sell on Facebook why are so many retailers obsessed with the “value of a friend/fan?”  Here are 3 tips on how to get back on track — sell off-the-hook with Facebook.

Step #1: Admit we’ve lost track of the goal

Welcome to Retailers Anonymous.  Step one: Admit we lost track of the goal.

Now I’m not belittling anyone who seeks to understand “value of Facebook friends or fans.”  But I wonder if selling on Facebook starts with understanding the value of a fan or friend.  Or if it starts with designing behaviors that help guide empowered customers toward sales. Actually I don’t wonder.  I think it does.

But I’m crazier.  I think Web retailers want to know how to sell on Facebook.  We just got distracted.  We DO want to know — stuff like how to design conversations with fans in ways that generate customer behaviors.   I believe most Web retailers are yearning to help customers find answers to questions — via the products and services they sell.  They’ve just lost track of the goal.

Step #1(b): Admit we’ve been following the wrong leaders

Surprising research tells us most retailers are focusing on the value of fans.  And with good reason.  I’ll admit.  No, they’re not crazy either.  They’re being told that “value of fans” matters by every social media guru under the sun.  We’ve been following the wrong leaders — people who have answers to sell.

But the quest to understand “value of fans” doesn’t help retailers understand how to sell on Facebook.   It serves gurus.

Speaking of selfish interests, my forthcoming book features the best retail examples — explaining how to sell with Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  And without mentioning Dell or Zappos!  But the truth is you don’t need my book to start making sales.  To make more sales on Facebook tomorrow, just stop chasing “value of fans” and start asking better questions, today.

Step #2: Ask better questions

Again.. which answer would you rather have as a Web retailer?

“How many people who become fans are existing customers vs. new customers?”

or

“How do retailers (making sales on Facebook) know which fans to engage with — and how are they conversing in ways that buyers value… that ultimately results in sales?”

The answer seem obvious.  There are retailers making sales using Facebook.  But they’re making use of Facebook (and all social media) differently.  They’re using it to sell — not measure brand funk.  And to achieve this they’re asking better questions.

Step #3: Shepherd customers

Retailers I’m interviewing for my book are finding ways to start conversations worth having.  And then shepherding customers — helping solve problems in ways that connect with their products.  Companies like gardening and small-farm goods retailer, Tractor Supply Company (TSC) are using content marketing and video to drive Web sales.  Their Chicken Whisperer partnership is a remarkable example of compelling, useful content mixing with direct response calls-to-action.

Quirky?  Yes.  But I assure you laughs and novelty are not what’s driving sales.  TSC is becoming an indispensable part of its customers lives through content marketing.

Winning retailers like TSC are helping customers guide themselves toward destinations they (customers) have all but chosen –- TSC’s products and services!

Facebook plays a central role in distribution of useful information that’s designed to prompt engagement and ultimately sales.

Conclusion: Facebook is a sales (not discounting) tool

For TSC, Facebook is not about fans.  Nor their value.  Nor who they are nor the percentage of traffic they send to their ecommerce site.  Facebook is a functional tool far beyond broadcasting coupons.  It’s useful to customers and TSC.

Yet everywhere I go retailers are asking questions — but those that likely don’t serve their best interests.  Rather than seeking out the best way to sell on Facebook they’re focused on the value of fans, for instance.

Action item: Let’s think… more

Retailers seem to be giving up.  Shop.org’s Larry Joseloff is reporting the news this way:

“After many years of retailers hearing that Facebook will change how consumers shop, is it really driving direct business and customers for retailers?  Are the results measurable or is there a lot of ‘faith’ involved with calculating the retailer value of Facebook?”

I really respect Larry.  And his Think Tank is a really, really smart, accomplished group of folks including Kirthi Kalyanam of Santa Clara University; Jeanie Bunker, Alibris; Catherine Davis, The Container Store; Fiona Dias, GSI Commerce; Lauren Freedman, the e-tailing group; Jeremy Liebowitz, Jarden; Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research; retail consultant Jim Okamura, of Okamura Consulting; Elaine Rubin, Digital Prophets Network; Matthew Siegel, Ann Taylor Corporation; Adam Silverman, Musician’s Friend; and Paul Zaengle of Columbia Sportswear.  I bow to their collective wisdom.

But I’m asking for a favor in the best interest of all retailers.  Let’s consider asking better questions.  New questions that lead to more practical answers.  Ways that help retailers sell on Facebook.  What do you think?

Photo credit:
daveknapik

The post Make Facebook sell, starting tomorrowin 3 steps appeared first on Sales Prospecting Tips & Methods | Jeff Molander.

Time to read: 7 minutes. Experts say “building community,”  “buzz” or “engagement in the conversation” is joy.  But crazy people like me still like to SELL things.  And so do a few remaining Ben Franklin stores.  Today I’ll show you how a Ben Franklin store in rural Washington accidentally discovered how to create a winning social media strategy that drives more buyers into the store.  I’ll also share a shortcut with you: Stop looking for “what works” from agencies and consultants.  Start asking yourself, “what works in our stores?”  Then use tools like mobile texting to supercharge it.

More and more I’m agreeing to do 30-minute “power consulting” sessions as part of my keynote speaking.  I recently spoke at a large gathering of crafters — 10,000 strong!  I ended up coming home with a few remarkable success stories and useful insights.  Here’s a quick one that blew me away.

But first, here’s my big “ah-HA.”  Every retail segment has the ability to create meaningful outcomes using social media — that produce profits (for the business) and value (for customers).  Not Facebook friends nor Twitter followers.  Not buzz.  Not conversation.  Not engagement.  Sales.   How?  By looking at what already works — in the “dirt world” (offline) — and finding ways to apply new digital tools to multiply business (not marketing!) results.

While most of us are busy using Facebook, Twitter et al for the sake of using them (building some 20-something’s business!) some small store owners are quick to learn, execute and profit.  Now the story…

Cut-to-the-chase in 60 seconds

I greeted Adrian Taylor Jr. and Adrian Sr., owners of 2 Ben Franklin craft stores.  We quickly sat down in our cozy trade show “office booth.”  The Taylors jumped at the opportunity to book time with someone they were told was an expert (heh, that’s me) in application of social media.  As it turns out the Taylors were the experts.

The father-son duo had no agenda nor had attended my morning lecture.  They just wanted the goods.  Within 60 seconds they told me about their many-decades old Ben Franklin store and how they just finished up with their biggest holiday season ever.  Ever.  Ever?  Ever… in the worst retail economy — EVER!

So at this point I’m all ears.   I ask, “uh… how’d ya do that, gentlemen?”

A simple but effective charity promotion.  A “giving tree” was set up in the storefront window adorned with ornaments.  Each featured a child in need — a child of an incarcerated parent at the nearby prison.  Children offered up their wish lists.  Their gift requests to Santa included underwear.  Socks.  Hats.  Jackets.  Few toys.

The kids’ requests were just too much for the heart to bear — and they were all within arm’s reach.  Local children.

News of the promotion spread like wildfire across the village (word of mouth).  The store became a focal point of the community.  Giving went wild — from minimum wage employees of the store to others in the community who were struggling themselves.  The store was a-buzz all “season” long.

Oh, and by the way… people bought stuff.

They were in Ben Franklin after all — an affordable place to shop for a variety of gifts and crafts (during a severe recession).  The Taylors designed many-a-good promotion for them to take advantage of.  They prompted purchase behavior as best they could.  And being in business for a few decades, they’re pretty good!

The secret sauce: A qualitative experience

In essence what worked?  That’s right — what has worked for hundreds if not thousands of years.  The store offered a genuine, authentic, remarkably relevant qualitative experience to children who needed help AND customers who wanted to authenticate themselves in a meaningful way.  Customers always want to achieve larger meaning — they’re human!

And the store made sales.  By happenstance?  No.  By design.  Customers who appreciate the opportunity to authenticate themselves in meaningful ways are more willing to SPEND with brands that do the same — especially when prompted by a promotion or call to action.

The secret sauce here isn’t what countless brands seem to think it is:  Giving to a charity or acting a certain way and then talking about it in “social media” and hoping that “buzz” generates positive sentiment about the brand that somehow result in preference… that somehow (the ghost that is “branding”)  result in sales.

Digitize it — complete the experience

I quickly related to the Taylors that they missed nothing in my lecture.  They already understand the “social secret sauce” and simply need to put it into action… which was the foundation of my lecture.

They simply needed to do the same thing — but using digital tools to improve the results for the store and customers.

Adrean Jr. was quick.  He’s a Web savvy guy who, I soon discovered, has a LOT going on at their Web site.  He quickly grasped the concept of using a variety of digital tools to help foster a wider array of qualitative experiences and outcomes — to customers and the business.

He related how days earlier he sent money to a Haiti earthquake relief effort.  The organization he donated to used a simple SMS text to a specified number.  That day he had received a text message BACK.

“The ship has pulled into doc and is offloading the food.”

The charity had just “closed the loop” or completed the INTERACTION with Adrean Jr.  Rather than blast a Tweet and risk missing Adrean Jr. completely they chose the appropriate form of message delivery.  They created a complete experience.

Adrean said, “Hey, we could do that.”

Nuf said.  And so they shall in months ahead.

You are the expert

Adrean Jr. and Sr. put people into their stores using a tool they knew would work:  Remarkably relevant, charitable donations during the holidays.  Their store became relevant and useful to customers — in ways beyond products.

The Taylors developed and implemented a strategy.  They didn’t “do the charity thing at the Holiday season” for the sake of “doing the charity thing.”  Did it make them feel good?  You bet.  Did it help feed their families via sales?  Yes again.

You already have the answers you’re seeking in consultants

In our rush to understand and make use of social media many of us fall into a trap.  We believe we cannot possibly have the answers ourselves.  It’s too technical.

We sometimes believe that the application of new tools like Facebook and social networks are more important than the outcome.  Somehow if we broadcast stuff (our promotions, coupons, employee’s favorite nightclubs, what we’re having for lunch) customers will come.

We sometimes believe that just telling the boss “we’re on Facebook” is enough.  Ok… but that’s not enough.  A strategy is needed beyond “let’s do it.”

Might you already have the “social media secret sauce hokus pokus answer?”  Might you be looking past what you already know you should be doing with social media marketing?

Results by design

In the online world we’re often told by the “experts” that the sales part doesn’t matter.  “Participating transparently in the conversation” does.  In other words, the way people feel about the Ben Franklin brand would have somehow been enough to be a good example of social media in action.  The positive sentiment, the brand lift, the impressions, the sheer number of people buzzing or the gosh-darn “coolness” of it all.  THAT makes it worth the time investment.

I say hooey.  Show me the sales. Others will disagree and say “I don’t get it.”  Those sales will somehow come to brands for being good corporate citizens.  A “humanized brand” and one that is “transparent and honest” with customers.  “We must have that too” they’ll say.

I do “get” one thing.  The need for people to put bread on the table.  And that demands taking marketing from an annual expense to a strategic investment.  PROVE that social media marketing works.  So bring it on “experts!”

And count on me to continue developing case studies with the Taylors — so long as they allow me to!

Oh — and do you all remember Ben Franklin stores?!  I grew up with one — Estes rocket kits, individual candies for a nickle or dime.  Remember?  I had almost forgotten.

The post How a Ben Franklin craft store is using social media to sell appeared first on Sales Prospecting Tips & Methods | Jeff Molander.

The U.S. specialty tea market is exploding with growth.  Adagio is winning because it follows key Web marketing success principles.  Adagio publishes with purpose.

Their marketing-focused blogs and tea-lover tools (like a Tea Timer that prevents over or under-steeping) are highly useful to customers.   Full stop.  This is critical to appreciate (and act on!).

Second, they’re organizing around driving customer behaviors that create marketing opportunities.  They’re allowing customers to do what they’ve already expressed an interest in doing — or ARE (already) doing.

Remarkably successful companies are creating qualitative online experiences that create more frequent customer behaviors.

“The engine of your social efforts is what your business does, not what you hire smart people to declare,” says international speaker, author and branding consultant, Jonathan Salem Baskin.  “The creative part comes in deciding how this reality can become real for everyone else.”

“Consumption of messages isn’t an action, taking an action is an action… the real challenge is to invent ways for consumer behaviors to track with your corporate actions,” says Baskin.

Adagio’s “ethical bribes” are appreciated by customers and profitable to the company — they’re designed that way.  That’s the key.  It didn’t just “happen” because they Tweeted it or blogged about it.  It was highly premeditated based on their target customer’s KNOWN behavior — their NEED.

Useful tools for customers

“When you create a utility you’re creating something that gives people time back.  It becomes less about information as pollution and more about information to help people get through life.”

Nick Law, CEO, R/GA North America

Case in point — Adagio’s Tea Timer is designed to help computer-usin’ tea-lovers by putting a customizable timer (based on tea type) right on their desktop.  Pre-loaded with their favorite teas.  Convenient?  Useful?  You bet but also to Adagio.

Adagio benefits big-time from this non-monetary transaction.   It gathers email address, first name and favorite tea types from customers and prospective customers.  Sure enough, they use that information to market and re-market to customers. 

They use the act of providing value to customers to create marketing opportunities.

Twitter

If you read me you know how critical I am of Twitter use.  Adagio makes me proud.  Featured prominently on their front page they offer a sizable $5 discount on an order just for following them. That’s right.  They provide an incentive to follow them.  Sounds simple but few brands do it.  They’re too busy “humanizing” themselves and having interns tweet gibberish.

Don’t like what they Tweet?  No worries, you still get the $5 — with which you can actually buy a sampler tea product (in fact 2!).  The process was as easy as clicking the offer, providing my Twitter name, checking for a direct message from Adagio and jotting down the discount code.

And here’s where Adagio scores a negative.  They’re tweets are enormously self-centered and pompous.  This week they’re asking Twitter followers to assist them in reviewing and improving their new mobile e-commerce Web site.  Sorry, guys, but I’m not interested in building your business — and nor are a majority of your followers I’d wager.  I’m not interested (let alone willing to) act as a free consultant to improve their mobile e-commerce business.   What action did followers display that gives Adagio this impression?

Blogs & newsletters: Publishing

Adagio is the hands-down winner with their use of blogs and newsletters.  The real story here is how useful its blogs are for customers.  Adagio’s e-commerce business rather quietly — until you start peeking at how they’ve penetrated Google’s search results.  Their blogs are beautiful, useful (to customers), adored by Google and drive remarkable customer acquisition.

Adagio is achieving “page one” Google search placement on high volume queries like “black tea” and niche teas like “golden monkey tea.”  The latter query demonstrates Adagio’s true prowess — it’s ability to use content-focused blogs to generate page one Google listings for its e-commerce site AND its blogs.

Adagio is relying less on search marketing ads (Google AdWords) and more on high quality content.  Simply stated, they’re investing in publishing useful information and making it discoverable.  Not using advertisements.  Using the “natural” search results (where most searchers click!).  Note:  the content is not merely entertaining, fun or “engaging.”  It’s honestly useful and relevant.

Adagio is keen on WHERE searchers click more often — and also WHY they click.  Namely, searchers like discovering useful information, community and tools.  They’re focused on bringing them into the sales funnel using content!  They’re providing customers with “ethical bribes” — a stream (example: e-mail newsletters) of useful content.  Eventually, yes, customers/prospects purchase.

Bigelow struggles with its blog although they’re really trying.  Unfortunately its linking is extremely gratuitous, overdone, haphazard and not well-organized.  But it’s typical.  And this is why it’s simply not creating results.

Bigelow, like so many brands who blog, believes that celebrity gossip is how it will attract readers — a totally different approach from Adagio which blogs to a more sophisticated customer.  Adagio is also more technically expert in executing inbound (to its blog) linking strategies that create better search results on Google for its e-commerce and blog sites.

Video

Here Adagio earns a D (and I’m being generous) with its TeaV featuring Zack Luye.  They’re very busy trying to be cute, funny and entertaining — just like most brands.  Adagio fails to leverage video to provide useful information or prompt customers to take actions.  Adagio is too busy enjoying itself and laughing at itself.

Bigelow mostly falls into the same trap.  But I give CEO Cindi Bigelow props for putting herself on the front burner.  And honestly?  She carries it better than Adagio’s Zack.  While most of what Bigelow is putting out there is rather typical (“branded entertainment” drivel) it is occasionally useful. Ms. Bigelow actually prompts customers repeatedly and she occasionally provides useful information.  The videos are designed to get customers/viewers to DO something.  I give them a C.  They could earn a B if they prompted customers to take more action.

Marketers are publishers

In the past, you used a budget to buy audience.  Now you have to invest in ideas to attract an audience.

Adagio has a bevy of newborn community sites that aim to do just that.  Each will likely blossom based on what we see at their ridiculously innovative TeaChef.com.  Think “cool uses of tea for cooks of all kinds.”  But don’t forget — the real story here is how they’re dominating natural (“organic”) Google search results using publishing platforms that they own and operate.

In my own words

Bigelow and Adagio share similarities — they’re selling products in stores and online.  They also have differences — like Adagio not using a telephone or Bigelow’s discontinuing lower-demand tea flavors because they, “cannot make those passionate fans happy” and turn a profit.  Adagio is ‘co-creating’ specialty teas for literally everyone while Bigelow is busy apologizing.  Very interesting.

When it comes to online Adagio gets it.  Bigelow gets it too but their audience doesn’t demand the high-brow approach — in fairness to them.  Bigelow’s investment in e-commerce (the channel opportunity) is likely far lower as well.  In the end, Bigelow is likely “2.0’ing” (sexing up) itself and not yet taking e-commerce very seriously.  It’s certainly not taking e-marketing very seriously when compared to Adagio nor is it chasing a discerning specialty tea customer.  Ok, I get that

I also need to mention that Adagio pairs its marketing with superior user experience — a better e-commerce machine.   But that’s another story!

What do you think?

The post How Adagio is beating Bigelow Teato the social media punch appeared first on Sales Prospecting Tips & Methods | Jeff Molander.