Ever wonder why your tweet was never retweeted? You spent time on creating content or an article your brand and you thought it would drive traffic, awareness, and build engagement but it did not work.  You ask yourself what else can I do to build engagement on twitter?  There are some specific strategies that have been made based on research and analyzation of the world’s biggest brands.  We can take these strategies from those who specialize in brand building as well as those Twitter gurus who know the ins and outs of the Twitter world and know what works to increase engagement and exposure.  I suggest you pay attention to these strategies and insights if you want to build your brand through the simplicity of the Twitter world.

• Saturdays and Sundays – Studies have shown that engagement rates are about 17% higher on Saturdays and Sundays as compared to weekdays.  This strategy is specific for B2C brands that are consumer-facing.
• Tweet during “Busy Hours” – 8 AM – 7 PM are the busy hours of work for most people, and believe it or not this is when they are most likely to access and check Twitter.  Even if they are supposed to be working, they still check because it is so convenient.  When people return home they don’t take time to check Twitter.  No, Twitter is right at their fingertips for sporadic “breaks” during their workday.
• Hashtags – Use hashtags and your tweets will be engaged twice as much.  More people that don’t already follow you are more likely to see your tweet, especially if your brand topic is being discussed.
• Images and Call to Action – A tweet with an image is more likely to be engaged then one without because it is more intriguing, especially if the image resonates with the brand.  Asking people to “Please ReTweet” actually works, and it works well.  You will be surprised.
• Shorten Tweets – The shorter the better.  If your tweets are shorter people will read them and as a result they are more likely to retweet them.

Author: Michael Whartnaby, Prospectr Marketing

Over the years sales deals have been closing at a lower and lower rate, and what is worse is that a higher percentage of these are seeing the prospect make no decision at all.  Losing a deal to a competitor is something that businesses can get over because it is all part of the game, you win some and you lose some.  However, losing a deal because the prospect could not make a decision reflects poorly on your sales team, and it should bother you because it means your time and resources were wasted dramatically.  The best solution to these “no decisions” is a broken sales cycle.  A good sales cycle should know the prospect’s buying cycle and it should be able to figure out if their solutions fit the prospect’s needs or not.  You should ideally know early on if the prospect is worth the time, you shouldn’t be finding out at the end of the cycle.  Here are some steps that will help eliminate the “no decisions” and find “no’s and yes’s” easier:

• Interview Prospects – Get to know your prospects, and ask questions that will help you figure out what they are looking for and what they need.  Ask them what their business challenges are and their buying decisions.
• Examine Sales Processes – It is important that sales tactics align with customer perceptions.  If customers don’t understand, then it is harder for them to make a decision.
• Analyze – Pay attention to wins and losses.  You should analyze your results to see which sales tactics worked the best so that you can repeat those tactics.

Author: Michael Whartnaby, Prospectr Marketing

New employees, specifically new sales partners, are brought in by organizations that want their services and skills to increase productivity and make them money.  In order for this to happen it is very important that they have a smooth, but quick transition into their new role within the company.  Similar to when a sports team signs a free agent they expect results immediately.  Hiring an outsider to come in and improve business processes is an action that expects to see immediate results.  Two main goals for the onboarding process are: To make new employees feel welcome and comfortable in their new surroundings, and to minimize the time before new employees are productive members of their new organization.  Onboarding is the initial phase of making a new employee, like an outside sales partner, productive and effective.  If you get this process right, then it will make the person responsible for the hiring look like a genius.  The result of failing in this process can  result in missing sales targets, loss of revenue, and an increase in pressure.  An area to focus on to make this process successful must be the business process:

• The business process is a large area that includes everything about how the organization is run.  Which makes sense to why it should have the most focus for new sales partners.  They should know how to answer questions like: How are leads managed? How is reporting handled? What type of service levels exist? etc.  Onboarding the business process effectively includes articulating on how the sales and marketing functions and systems connect, interact, and communicate.
• Product Selling is the next big area of focus when making the onboarding process successful. Focussing on product selling provides the roadmap for the new sales partner, which answers questions like: What problem does the product answer for a customer? What sales tools already exist? Who are the buyers at the target companies? and etc.

Author: Michael Whartnaby, Prospectr Marketing

Sometimes businesses focus so much on their current clients and trying to find new prospects that they don’t pay nearly enough attention to converting the prospects they have already acclaimed into clients.  The list of prospects that your company grows and labels as prospective clients should be treated as the biggest asset, because without prospects, you wouldn’t have any clients, and without clients, well, you wouldn’t have your business, to say the least.  Yes, obtaining prospects can be a challenge and it is important.  However, converting your current prospects to clients is the most important aspect of business development.  Some businesses struggle more than others when it comes to this vital process.  Here are some techniques that will help converting your best assets into clients, and then have them coming back for more.

• Build Relationships – Understand your audience so you know how to fill your content, and add the correct relevancy.  Also, build value and respect with your list.  Provide great material, most importantly, appreciate the person behind the company you are proposing to.
• Choose a Promotion – Once you determine a target niche, you should know what benefits them the most.  Figure this out (surveys, email, and phone are useful in this stage), and then you can promote a service or a product towards the solution that they are looking for.  Remember, don’t promote every single thing you have to offer, it will cause them to feel like any other prospect.  We want them to feel special.
• Subject Lines – Build an interest with your subject line.  Be creative but don’t exaggerate.  We want them to open the email, not put in the trash.  With tons of emails coming in, the subject line shouldn’t be boring and dull.
• Provide Links – It is very important to provide links to your products and services within your email.  Make it easy and convenient for your prospects to see your services.
• Consistency and Patience is Key – Remember that these prospects could turn into long-term clients that provide you with big business.  So why rush it? Be patient and consistent with your prospect list, and put the effort into your prospects.

Author: Michael Whartnaby, Prospectr Marketing

“Good” SEO has two halves.  One half is the obvious one that most people understand as content, consisting of high quality and relevancy.  The other half that usually takes a back seat to the content side is accessibility.  A website that  easily accessible will, as a result, have an easier usability this makes your website more attractive to a wider range of users.  In the end, having a more accessible website will drive more people to your website and ultimately increase revenue.  How do you improve your websites accessibility?

1. Improve Index Rates – An index is all the data stored by a web program from URL’s all over the web.  This data and information is stored by relevancy and is available for quick retrieval by search engines.  If you own your own business you want all your relevant pages from your site to be included in the index.  Google and other search engines are selective when indexing because it can’t hold all searches, so it is important to improve your chances where you can.  One way is to have good and relevant content because the sites with great content get indexed more quickly.  Another way to improve your index rate is to submit a sitemap.  A sitemap is a document that lists your web pages in a hierarchical order.  Doing this makes indexing your pages easier and quicker for the web crawlers.
2. Have Simple Navigation – Your URL structure should be simple and user friendly.  Do not try to get fancy and complex with your URL.  The simpler and shorter the URL the easier it is to access and be indexed by web crawlers.  I suggest that you use simple keywords in URL’s.  This way users will not be frustrated when visiting your site
3. Regulate Site Speed – there are a few things more frustrating to users and searchers then waiting for a page to load.  You do not want searchers frustrated or angry when visiting your site, if they don’t give up before it loads that is.  To make sure your speed is good enough determine if your hosting service is appropriate for fast speeds with little downtime.  Also, flash content and plugins can make your site slow, so be sure to monitor the amount of those.  It is harder for your site to be indexed if it is slower and this will affect their ranking in search engines.

Take these suggestions into account and you will find more traffic being driven to your website, and therefore more consumers being targeted to maximize potential revenue.

Author: Michael Whartnaby