7/29/2010
Show Off: 3 Effective Ways to Have Your Buyers Experience Your Product Before They Buy
I understand we talk a lot about not talking about your product - shift from product-centric messaging to buyer centric. Well, here is the exception. Proof/Demonstration is the third stage of the Purchase Decision Process. In this stage buyers are seeking to experience the product or service to make sure it will solve their problem before they make the decision to invest heavily. They are looking to you to give them the in’s and out’s of the product or service.
 Here are three effective ways to do this:
- Product demonstrations: If you have a tangible product, video is a great way to demonstrate your product.
- Free trial: Give your buyers a chance to try your product for free.
- Low-risk offer: For professional service firms who don’t necessarily have a tangible product or service, offer a low-risk, discounted or free initial planning session.
To learn how to integrate product experiences into a complete program that will help expedite a lead to sales-ready; download our free eBook,
Five Steps That Will Help You Increase Revenue From New Customers.
7/27/2010
George Kerwin, President and CEO of Bellin Health, explains the value of research received from The ROM Group.
The buyer centric insight into retail health care that The ROM Group delivered allowed Bellin to not only enter into a new market successfully, but grow its existing primary care practice. Buyer centric research is not about asking customers their opinions or what they think of your product. These questions are separate from the product and the brand; they focus on the customer’s lives and explore their experiences. These questions will reveal struggles and frustrations customers have.
In Bellin’s case, buyer centric research defined the customer’s problem with the current system. The traditional health care model at the time provided patients two points of entry into the system: primary care and the emergency room. With primary care, patients would have to wait a day or in some cases days before getting an appointment. In the physician’s office, at the appointment, patients would then have to wait further for simple, common treatments. On the other hand, if patients utilized the emergency services, the waiting time grew significantly along with financial costs. Customers were growing frustrated with the existing system.
Bellin’s customers wanted a solution that was both quick and easy for basic treatments, and Bellin was able to deliver.
“I would use ROM for other research projects,” said Kerwin.
View the videos here>>>
7/22/2010
Win A Free, Custom eBook
 Win a free eBook exclusively written and produced for you by The ROM Group.
What’s included:
• Interviews with your subject matter expert
• Secondary and Qualitative Research
• Copy writing
• Graphic design
• A digital, ready-to-post eBook
• A guide on how to use the eBook to drive leads and revenue
The first twenty-five to enter are eligible to win. The winner will be posted on our blog.
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7/19/2010
5 Ways to Give Buyers the Information They are Seeking
Buyers are hungry for information before they make a decision to buy. They want to have all the answers to their questions. They want to know how to solve their problems and how to accomplish tasks in the most efficient manner. By providing this information to them, when the time comes, they will buy from you.
 Here’s how to give buyers the information they are looking for:
1. Listen in social media: Use Web 2.0 tools such as: Social Mention, Google Alerts, Google Blog Search, Google search on specific content topics, forums, and targeted LinkedIn and Facebook groups. Be alert and document their complaints, concerns, what they see as valuable and what they need.
2. Read industry articles: In industry publications, pay close attention to your buyer’s quotes. From the mouths of your buyers, you will be able to deduce exactly what information they are seeking.
3. Track trade association activity: These groups often provide conferences with speakers on various topics they know are very important to the majority of members.
4. Web analytics: Web site add-ons and search tools, such as Google AdWords, will allow you to get a gauge on what content is popular.
5. Customer surveys: Instead of asking buyers what they think of your product or service, ask buyers what problem they have with a task involving your product or service.
To find out how to turn this raw material into a powerful eMarketing tool, download our free eBook: How to Create eBooks That Drive Leads and Increase Revenue.
7/15/2010
Don’t Play Hide and Seek With Your Buyers: Discover How to Increase Your Find-ability
At one point or another when experiencing a problem, you went online or attended a conference to search for a solution. You needed to increase your monthly widget production or needed to learn the best way to make a 3/4 inch hole in a one-inch thick steel panel. You wanted to find information about a solution available. The keyword is “find.”
Your buyers are trying to find a solution that you offer. You help buyers find you by being where they are and providing the information they seek– web visibility and location visibility.
Web visibility
Optimizing your find-ability online is critical when nearly 80 percent of buyers seek information online first. Here are a few ways to increase your Web visibility:
- Generate deep, authentic content: Google relies on Web site content for the most relevant match between the search phrase and your Web site’s content.
- Leverage social media: Both Google and Bing have incorporated social media feed content from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into search results and algorithms.
- Utilize content sharing sites: Like social media sites, search engines pay a lot of attention to content sharing sites, such as YouTube, Flickr and SlideShare.
- Keep an updated blog: Search engines pay more attention to a frequently updated blog than to Web pages.
Location visibility
Location visibility is all about being where the buyers are: where they spend time and where they go for information.
- Tradeshows: Tradeshows are excellent places for B2B companies to capture leads.
- Trade associations: Trade associations are hungry for informational content and will work with vendors who strive to do purely that.
- Webinars: The key to a successful webinar is to partner with a highly visible partner.
- Speaking events: Where there is an audience of buyers, you will have to present highly-valuable content and capture leads.
How do you create web visibility? Continue this conversation with us on Twitter using the hashtag #findme.
7/13/2010
Win More Sales by Discovering How Buyers Make the Decision to Buy
Every buyer goes through a series of steps before they decide they are ready to buy. At every stage, they are looking for content that gives them the information they need to make a decision to buy:
o Answers to their questions
o Solutions to their problems
o “How-to’s” that show them how to accomplish a task
While there is a time for sales people and sell sheets, during this process, buyers want to find the information themselves. And if you don’t provide them the content they need online, they will go somewhere else, leaving you behind. On the flip-side, if you do provide the information buyers are seeking, you will guide them through the steps to purchase-ready and win the sale.
These steps are called the Purchase Decision Process. When you know these steps and help fulfill buyers’ needs at each step, you will drive leads closer to purchase-ready and stay in front of the buyer throughout the process:
1. Discovery: buyers realize they have a problem and begin seeking someone or something to help solve their problem.
2. Information: buyers are actively finding information that answers their questions, solves their problems or shows them how to accomplish a task.
3. Endorsement: buyers read and see what their peers are saying about a product or service.
4. Proof/Demo: buyers want to make sure the solution accomplishes what they need it to do.
5. Conversion: buyers want to purchase the product or service in a way that is easy for them.
In the following blogs, we will discuss how to fulfill buyers’ needs in each step. Or if you can’t wait, download our free eBook: 5 Steps to Increase Sales From New Customers.
7/12/2010
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 From the Desk of Rick Pedersen: The New Way to Capture Buyers
Like me, most of you can remember a time when the Internet did not exist. We all relied heavily on newspapers and magazines for content and reviews and always sought a sales person to give us the information we needed to make a decision to buy something. I distinctly remember waiting for my Consumer Report in order to get the product reviews I needed.
Today, however, we have the Internet. When trying to buy car seats for my grandchildren, my wife and I went online and searched for car seats. Not having been in the child rearing stage for quite some time, I needed to learn what car seats were available, what types we needed for the kids and then compare prices and features. We found all this information online when we wanted it. Then we made our decision, went to the retail store and bought the car seats we chose.
Now, I know my purchase decision experience is not unlike most of your purchasing experiences, either personally or in your business. I didn’t want or need to talk to a sales person, or wait for someone to review car seats for me. I took it into my own hands to get the information I needed to make a decision.
 This is why we must become buyer centric– give buyers what they want instead of what we want to sell. Buyers want content that fulfills their Purchase Decision Process needs. In my situation, I needed to discover what car seats were available, what features they had, how much they were, where to find them and the list goes on. When buyers get all the information they need, they will make a decision to buy. If you are in front of them the entire time and are very helpful, they will buy from you.
In our next blog, we will explain the Purchase Decision Process every buyer goes through and provide several ways for you to help buyers fulfill their content needs at each step.
Also, follow us on Twitter for content similar to this.
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7/7/2010
5 Ways to Efficiently Keep All Your Leads Moving Towards Purchase-Ready Today
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Research shows that only 2 percent of leads generated today are purchase-ready. And as it turns out, the remaining 98 percent are not just tire kickers; they will buy within the next 12 months. So how can you efficiently cultivate those leads and continually stay in front of them until they are ready to buy?
For business owners on a tight budget looking to increase the percent of new leads that close, this eBook will present 5 actionable steps that will dramatically increase:
- Sales from new customers by 20 percent
- Web site visits and engagement by 100 percent +
- The number of registered leads by 100 percent +
Download the eBook HERE>>>
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6/30/2010
Sales? Economic Recovery? Offshore Competition? What Are Your Biggest Marketing Challenges for 2011?
What is your biggest marketing challenge for 2011? Take the survey and see the results of those who took it before you.
Take the survey now>>>
In addition to this, we use the survey results to provide you the best information to help you solve your problems, answer your questions and show you how to do the tasks you want to learn how to accomplish to increase your success.
Follow this blog for more surveys and survey results throughout the year.
6/22/2010
More than 80 percent of buyers are online and making decisions online. They aren’t making decisions because you tell them you are the best and they should buy from you, but simply because you give the information they need to make a decision on their own.
Wisconsin’s local grocer, Festival Foods, was recently interviewed by the Green Bay Press Gazette about their use of social media. They are currently on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Festival Foods posts videos of Wisconsin’s Mad Dog & Merrill, grilling experts, to discuss recipes and cooking tips. The grocer also has a blog with cooking tips and recipes.
Now you may be wondering how often you or anyone else goes online to find information about a grocery store. Have you ever had to make dinner and can’t think of anything to cook? Chances are you went online to find a recipe and did a search using Google or Bing. Since the social sphere (blogs, social media sites, content sharing sites, etc…) is more frequently scanned by search engines, these sites rank high on result pages. In using social media, Festival Foods is increasing their chances of being found and is nurturing their buyers to buy from them.
Magic!
In the same article, Dana VanDen Heuvel, President of MarketingSavant, said that companies that are successful in social media have been doing it for a while and ‘really understand where people are in their audience.’ The take-away here: Know who and where your buyers are.
We can’t be sure if Festival Foods knows exactly where their buyers are or if they just selected three big-time social media tools, which is a great start. But in order to be most efficient in the social sphere, you need to know who your buyers are and where your buyers are.
Check out our latest post, 9 Steps to Increase Leads With Social Media, to learn how to create a social media strategy that gives you the biggest bang for your buck.
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