SHAUN NESTOR

Thank you to everyone who joined me last week for “Generating Sales Leads Using Social Media” workshop. We had a lively question and answer session at the end and I want to publish some of the questions that we covered. [Tweet “Don’t forget about your past customers; they have valuable insights that they will happily share with you.”] I will be hosting an encore presentation, you can register here:   Without further ado, here are some questions asked during the last social media workshop: Recommended Tools for Social Media Scheduling Debbie asked, “What tools do you recommend for social media scheduling?” Great question! Scheduling your social media posts is one…

Have you ever struggled to generate new sales leads using social media? Or maybe you feel like social is a massive time suck that takes you away from running your business? In today’s free, online-based workshop, I will be covering how to combat these feelings and how to use social media to generate qualified sales leads. You can register here. For many business owners, there is a fear of using social media. For some, it is the fear of running out of things to say, for others it is the fear of “always selling” to long-time supporters like friends and family. While these are real fears, there are also real…

The average person receives 85 emails per day. And we only spend 15-20 seconds reading each one. With numbers like these, sending a cold email to prospects seems frightening. How do you make sure your email doesn’t get lost in a sea of newsletters, personal correspondence, spam, and other sales pitches? [Tweet “Instead of introducing yourself or explaining why you’re reaching out, start your email with the focus on the prospect.”] Luckily, by spending some extra time carefully choosing your words, cutting the fluff, and crafting a clear call to action, you can greatly increase your odds of getting a prospect to respond to your email. Here’s how to get…

If you could say anything to a potential customer, what would it be? Now, what would it be in 140 characters? [Tweet “The distance between a prospect and a business can be crossed with a simple “@” sign. #socialselling”] Today, the distance between a prospect and a business can be crossed with a simple “@” sign. Thanks to Twitter, there has been no easier way to directly communicate with our target audience, for free. For consumers, it means 24/7 access to information and knowledge. For businesses, it means limitless interactions with the people that matter most. Social selling, the act of using social media to interact with prospects, has become a powerful…

Sometimes it is hard to keep the creative juices flowing. With all the tasks vying for our attention, plus fighting social sharing overload, it is difficult to maintain “freshness” in our marketing. Here are 30 ideas that you can use in your next marketing campaign to mix things up. Remember to track the results; if we can track it, we can improve it! Here are 30 inspirational marketing ideas for the modern marketer Pick a quote from an older blog post and link to it on Twitter / Facebook Make a previous quote into an inspirational graphic and share Combine 4-5 blog posts into an ebook to make a downloadable offer Create…

“How do I squeeze more business out of an existing customer?” “I am preparing an email blast to my list…” These two words: squeeze and blast are prohibited in my office. When talking about our customers, we should not use words that invoke some sort of adversarial separation between us and them. This is not a battle to “squeeze” more dollars out of our customer by “blasting” them with interruptive advertising. [Tweet “When talking about our customers, we should not use words that invoke some sort of adversarial separation between us and them.”] Our Language Creates Culture How we speak to one another broadcasts underlying characteristics — both positively and negatively. When we are preparing…

There is a fundamental shift in sales today; and your competitor knows it. Old marketing methods are producing old results. It obviously isn’t working the way it used to. There is a gold rush for education as companies scramble to sell to a more knowledgeable buyer. Smart marketing and inbound marketing principles are  beginning to move into traditional markets. This leaves a narrowing window of opportunity for brands to get onboard. [Tweet “Effective use of social media shortens sales cycles and wins more deals.”] Socially-Adept Websites Smart companies are changing their websites from simple online brochures to complex marketing platforms that display contextual content based on the individual visitor. Yes,…

Who are you? And who do you want to be? This is no ordinary existential crisis. This is a 21st century question we should all ask ourselves. Who do you want to be on social media? What is your brand? What do you want to broadcast to millions of people over the Internet? With social media, we truly have the power to impact how we are perceived. And, like it wasn’t difficult enough, we now have to answer these questions for our two identities: personal and professional. [Tweet “Professionals must be intentional about separating work and personal social media profiles”] Whether you are a freelancer, agency owner, or entrepreneur, you…

We all crave social validation. When we want to try a new restaurant, we instantly turn to Yelp and read the reviews. If a restaurant doesn’t have any reviews, we probably won’t go there. The same goes with clothes, technology, outdoor equipment and more. Basically, if an item is sold on Amazon, we take the time to read the reviews. And those reviews can have a real impact on our purchasing decisions. The same goes with your agency’s services. Your potential clients want to read testimonials from your other clients and see validation for their choice to hire you. It’s one thing to see a portfolio of your work,  but it’s…

Raise your hand if you hate filling out forms. I’ll bet a lot of hands are up right now, heck, I am even typing this one-handed… In sales and marketing, collecting data online is incredibly important. When the web was first introduced and became a primary pillar of marketing, we developed online forms to help collect that information from our website visitors. It was basic, it was effective, and it accomplished the goal. No one particularly liked filling out forms, but it was all we had. Fast forward to 2015 and marketing has evolved, the web has evolved, and consumers have evolved. But most forms have not. Why Use Dumb…