You have probably all heard about cold calling in connection with sales. And most of you probably know, that the success rate for warm sales as for instance through referrals from happy customers are much higher than for cold calling. Not talking about the bad feeling many people (including me) have when they have to do cold calling. Recently I…
I recently went to a startup event where there was a lot of talk about „viral marketing“ and creating „buzz“ for whatever you just need the buzz for. I think the term “viral marketing” is often used in a rather dangerous way, which leaves the door more than open for wrong expectations and misunderstandings. So I will stick with the…
Before all marketing interns now hit me: I am not saying you are not doing a good job. That is not what this is about. I have worked with great interns, and they were doing a great job. This is a plea for more acknowledgment of the importance of marketing in (young) companies – and of the good job some…
I recently came across Danny Iny’s new book „The Audience Revolution“. I have not quite finished reading it, but I am a good way in – it is worth your time! Danny writes about his “Audience first” approach to selling: To be successful you should build an audience before you decide on the product you want to sell. Together with…
I recently came across a post by Kristi Hines on Social Media Examiner about tools and use-cases for these tools with automating your social accounts. Now, I guess you are already aware, that we here at The Social Ms are big fans of marketing automation. That we firmly believe that to achieve a lot with Social Media you will one…
We are currently working on a project that involved asking people about their problems and fears when starting out in Social Media Marketing – and one of the most given answers surprised me: “I fear saying something wrong, damaging my company’s profile and bringing long term damage to it. Nothing ever really get’s deleted on the internet.” I’m not surprised…
One widely underestimated task in young companies seems to be marketing. Whether you are building a startup with a new product or are on your way to becoming a freelance superhero utilizing your expertise: You might be the best in your field, provide the ultimate solution to a common problem, or have an innovative product everybody needs – If no-one…
Talking to clients I sometimes get the impression they only want the big numbers which in their eyes represents the huge success of social media marketing. But they most definitely do not want the sweat, the effort and often the multiple frustrations that come for free on your path to social media marketing success. They talk about going „viral“ long…
Working with clients and talking to founders we realized that some of them are missing the essential element for their social media marketing success: They need to be willing to create content and tell stories – the whole time. Many of the people we talk to believe that social media marketing is all about posting updates and being constantly active…
I recently read a guest post by Mark Schaefer on the Convince and Convert blog. Mark wrote about the problem of traffic not being a very meaningful KPI in marketing. Often untargeted traffic would lead to people clicking on a link only to leave again after a few seconds. Instead of going for traffic, marketers should look for trust. And…