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The Burger King Syndrome

Nancy McCord a Google Partner and Bing Partner
Nancy McCord a Google Partner and Bing Partner

The Burger King Syndrome? Yes, that is what I call it when a customer wants everything their way right away. Now, mind you, that is not necessarily a bad thing to want something your way – sometimes.

It’s great to want things your own way. I want them my own way too. But it’s not a good thing if a client is not willing to pay for that level of customization.

In some cases, where you are working with an ecommerce store theme that is a template-driven application, you may not be able to get your product images in a different position than the theme template allows – no matter how much you might be willing to pay to make that change. It is important to understand, there are simply some things that simply cannot be customized to your personal specifications.

Here is where addressing customer expectations in advance is very important as well as having a contract for a project. If, as part of a project, a customer expresses needs that you know will not be workable, you can always shift the customer to a different item before work even starts. And before the contract is enacted.

Taking time to evaluate needs and clarify what is supplied, what can be customized, and what additional options can be purchased, is all a part of taking good care of a customer and providing excellent customer service. I personally never rush the early part of a project before contract.

No one likes to hear – no we can’t do that, but sometimes you may simply not be able to have it your own way.

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Social Media? Not Using It – Lose It

Not Using It? Lose It!
Not Using It? Lose It!

Social media is about connecting. One of my pet peeves is for business websites to have social media icons to various platforms, but they have not updated them for months or sometimes years.

My rule is, if you are not using it – lose it!

We all have our favorite social media accounts to use and some of us will use more than others, but if you are going to have the icon on your website, you should try to do one update a week and at the minimum of once a month. If you cannot keep on top of that consider farming out your social media updates to an employee or contactor.

When you are operating in a competitive market, social media interaction may be the one thing that helps differentiate you from your competitors. Especially if you are providing value to users in the things you are doing on social media.

It does not have to be difficult to keep your platforms updated. You can use an application like Hootsuite or Sendible to schedule, repeat, and save updates to reuse. In fact with Hootsuite, you can even send the same update to multiple profiles with one click.

Don’t make things hard for yourself, boost traffic and engage clients with the smart use of social media.

 

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Is there Still a Place for Social Media in Your Marketing Program?

Solutions for your business that make sense.
Solutions for your business that make sense.

As more businesses work to tighten where they are spending their advertising budgets, some are dropping social media out of their marketing mix.

Advertising your website and services using Pay per Click is great, as it generates immediate traffic and increases the potential of sales, but social media also should have a place in every business’ marketing plan.

Not all businesses will need Twitter or Google+ status updates, but most businesses should be posting to Facebook and working to engage prospects in that arena.

For many clients, Facebook is the strongest and most important social media platform. Add Facebook pay per click advertising to the mix and your Facebook activity and comments on ads can really skyrocket. It is not unusual for a client who is really working Facebook to have over 5,000+ active users.

I have personally found that for some businesses, Facebook user’s will post comments on their ads which will need moderation to protect your reputation and to shape your message. Even though I never drive traffic to a Facebook page with their pay per click advertising, we always will get adjunct likes and follows just by the nature of advertising there.

I have one client who is getting great leads from Facebook at a third or even less, than the lead cost they spend at AdWords. Tie in Facebook remarketing and I have seen leads at under $5 a conversion.

But, it all starts with great Facebook status updates, integration with your website and blog, and at least 200 followers to make sense.