Selling "Twitter Marketing" to Offline Businesses

[RyanLeisure]

Anyone out there holding seminars or approaching local businesses about using Twitter as a marketing tool? I heard of someone doing this, and it seemed like he was doing pretty well. Most people out there either don't know what Twitter is, or don't realize how it can be used as a great marketing tool. Seems like a whole lot of potential out there, especially in the offline market.

[Pete Egeler]

Ryan,

For those in the off line market, it's a great tool to add to the mix. If your client doesn't have the time to do it, make it an add-on.

AdAge recently published an article that tracked results from different businesses that tried out Twitter.

1) Pizza Joint saw an increase of 10-15% in sales via "Twitter only" specials.

2) A Chicago yogurt joint gave away several THOUSAND free samples in a one-time-only Twitter test, and STILL had their normal volume of sales for the day.

The power is there, it just has to be put to use.

Pete

[RyanLeisure]

Nice examples Pete. That's what I'm saying, we all know how good Twitter can be, but most small business owners don't even have a clue what it is. Good time to jump in and make a boatload of cash it seems.

[ExtraB]

I was actually considering doing this.

I think with all the attention Twitter is getting most businesses have heard of it but don't have a clue about the basics of using it. And most are not sure how it can help maximize their bottom line.

I've just started putting together a Twitter Marketing Guide. After that is complete I may consider the structure of a seminar that could be taught locally.

This would be a great place to throw around some ideas on that...

If anyone is serious about this I would be happy to start a mastermind group on this. Ryan if you or anyone interested let me know?

Eric Bonnici
Internet Marketing Articles

[Leanne King]

It's certainly a good idea to add it to the offline biz model and Peter has given some great examples.

@Eric - that sounds like a great idea - I'd love to join the mastermind group if you are going to put it together.

[RyanLeisure]

Yeah Eric, I'd get in on that as well.

[RyanLeisure]

I learned everything I know about Twitter from warrior Dana Willhoit. She has a killer product on this too (Twitter Goldrush by Dana Willhoit). I'd highly recommend checking that out.

[Jason Moffatt]

Don't limit it to just Twitter. Companies are desperate for all types of social media presence, and they WILL PAY.

[Ryce]

I cant post url links so go to slideshare and search Twitter for business

[ExtraB]

Ryan and Leanne

Lets exchange email addresses and we can go from there. First, we will have to determine how many people should be in the mastermind group. I believe 5-8 is best. What do you think?

I purchased Dana's report and it is very good. It focuses mainly on following others and them following you back.

Gaining followers is important and there are several ways to do this. For example, sending useful tweets and replying to others. Follow fridays is good too. But there is more you can do.

I haven't tested this yet but apparently twitter giveaways (twiveaways) can do wonders to virally build your followers. Brad Callen has an excellent post on this at:
Internet Marketing Strategies - Learn to make money online!

Be sure to check out his New, Free Twitter Follower and Value Building Tool service

Of course a custom twitter background is important too. I see you design those Ryan.

I'll probably give away some free copies of my Twitter Guide when its done in a couple months. So there'll be a lot more there.

And Jason you are right there's more to social media than Twitter. So a seminar on Twitter / Social media wouldn't be short on topics to cover.

Eric Bonnici

[Doug McIsaac]

I'm doing seminars that include Twitter marketing and am also doing interviews with the businesses that have implemented Twitter marketing successfully on my BlogtalkRadio Show starting next week: Online4Offline on Blog Talk Radio

Doug

[ExtraB]

Hi Doug,

I look forward to hearing about how Naked Pizza increased business with Twitter on your BlogTalkRadio Show. I just tweeted it on Twitter too.

Eric B

[Maria Gudelis]

This is very hot to present to local businesses - I just did a presentation on twitter and social media (how to use a $100 flip video camera to increase sales online) to the Vegas Chamber of Commerce members - a great way to share knowledge and get clients...

The pizza restaurant - tech crunch did cool article about it...here is an image of its billboard - you can google 'naked pizza twitter' to find the article - not sure if I can 'link ' to it from here for forum rules...as my twitter offline gold was closed on how to make $1k per client ...

[Doug McIsaac]

Originally Posted by ExtraB

Hi Doug,

I look forward to hearing about how Naked Pizza increased business with Twitter on your BlogTalkRadio Show. I just tweeted it on Twitter too.

Eric B

Thanks for the Tweet Eric

There was a good article on it here:
Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses - Advertising Age - Digital
Doug

[AndrewCavanagh]

Twitter and many other kinds of social networking can be great tools to ADD to the marketing mix you do for an offline business.

Always remember that with any external site that you don't own your client's account can be closed, suspended or deleted.

So always make sure you're capturing contact details in other ways as well and using other marketing methods.

It doesn't pay to have a businesses marketing reliant on something they can't control and something that can be deleted at any time.



Generally speaking from what I've seen in the offline world so far twitter is most effective at marketing:

# Businesses that have special offers that can be taken up immediately.

# Businesses that can take orders by texting or online more or less immediately.

I'm sure there are other effective uses that people will come up with.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[Jagged]

Originally Posted by Jason Moffatt

Don't limit it to just Twitter. Companies are desperate for all types of social media presence, and they WILL PAY.

They WILL pay...BIG, not only for Twitter, but for FaceBook, Linkedin, Boomj, Myspace too...

Also, don't rule out locating clients through Twitter....
I signed up 6 clients through Twitter in the last 2 months...it's a great tool.
It's only going to get better as time goes on

Ken

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh

Twitter and many other kinds of social networking can be great tools to ADD to the marketing mix you do for an offline business.

Always remember that with any external site that you don't own your client's account can be closed, suspended or deleted.

So always make sure you're capturing contact details in other ways as well and using other marketing methods.

It doesn't pay to have a businesses marketing reliant on something they can't control and something that can be deleted at any time.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Very true. It may sound funny for me to be saying this, since I am always running around being the Twitter cheerleader and going "rah rah Twitter!" - but there can be disadvantages to depending only on Twitter - especially when it comes to having your clients use Twitter. Sometimes Twitter is down for hours, sometimes important functions on Twitter are down for WEEKS or months, like the ability to search for people on Twitter; then what?

I saw a very good article recently pointing out the dangers of depending too much on ANY free service. Here's an example - my mind went blank the other day and I could not remember my Yahoo email password. And I could not figure out how to open my mail. Now, can I call yahoo customer service for help, the way I can when my paid, Mac.com email has a problem? HA.

So for one client I had Ryan Leisure design a custom Twitter background and then we tried to upload it. Well, that function stopped working for almost a week. It was a nightmare. This client had paid me to do something and I COULD NOT do it for him, and it was completely out of my control.

So, while I love Twitter with a passion and thank them for sending me almost $3 grand worth of new clients last week - absolutely make sure that Twitter services are not the ONLY thing that you are promoting to your offline clients! Too risky.

[rapidscc]

Originally Posted by Dana_W

So, while I love Twitter with a passion and thank them for sending me almost $3 grand worth of new clients last week - absolutely make sure that Twitter services are not the ONLY thing that you are promoting to your offline clients! Too risky.

Wow Dana! That's my 4 months target already..How did you do that?

As for using twitter marketing..Go use it while it's hot..Just don't let yourself become too dependent on it. Diversify, use other tools too..

If you've created a network of marketing tools, you'll not be affected when one fails.. There's myspace, facebook, linkedIn, oddle..etc...

Oh, and the most trusted..article marketing..

oMar

[Jillian Slack]

Here is some more proof you can add to your arsenal and show your potential clients.

Foodies flock to Twitter-savvy food trucks - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com

These food trucks are successfully using Twitter to let customers know about their specials that don't appear on their regular daily menus.

Jill

[GarryMSayer]

I wrote this unpublished article a couple of months ago but since then it's been gathering dust on my hard drive.

I figure it to be relevant to this thread and hopefully it may answer a few questions and equally encourage further debate.

A Helping Hand For An Offline Business

Maybe you are not online but have a brick and mortar business. How can online applications help you? First of all, just about everyone is online these days. You can use online tools such as twitter to enhance your offline business.

Marketing for offline businesses is not limited to offline marketing tools. You might think that since your business is stationary, you only have certain resources for growing the business. Not so.

Your business is good but it can always get better.

Let’s say that you are a small business owner. You have done direct marketing, word-of-mouth marketing and used other advertising media like newspaper ads to get the word out about your business.

You have a decent amount of clients but you can have more. You still haven’t tapped into the online world for customers. What a huge untapped market it is too.

It is a fact nowadays that some people don't read newspapers or visit trade shows.

They could be missing your valuable service.

Those same people may stay connected to the world at large with social networking online.

They could connect with you there if you have a twitter account.

As an expert in your field of business, you can provide useful information to other twitterers on your business. More and more business owners are using twitter as a business tool and you can find those people to network and exchange ideas, strategies and techniques.

Improving all these three core elements will ultimately improve your business.

Twitter is also a social network for personal enjoyment. People interact with others from their hometown, people with similar interests and others who post interesting tweets. Any one of these groups could use what your business has to offer.

Those in your hometown, for instance, who don’t know about you, can learn about you. You might not be running an online business but you can create a website or a blog that tells about your business with contact information for anyone looking to use your services.

Just like an online business, twitter can be used to answer customer service questions quickly. Many of your customers are undoubtedly online and twitter is a way to answer their questions without them having to drive to your business location to get answers. Also you don’t have to sit in front of a computer to answer them.

Twitter can be accessed from your mobile phone (with Internet support) so you can work on the go.

It also offers tools that can be used by offline businesses. The most popular applications are customer service and promotional tools but dig deeper inside your imagination and you will find a whole lot more.

Hope this helps.

[RyanLeisure]

Nice article Garry. That's very relevant to what I was talking about in regards to how offline businesses can use Twitter. You even mentioned a few things I never even thought about, like using it for customer service. I would say most local businesses don't know any of those things you mentioned there. I think it's a relatively untapped market. Thanks for the contribution.

[Marcus Paul]

Twitter is perfect for clients that offer a product/service that has repeat buyers or when they want to do exclusive or time-sensitive offers.

Every single client I have signed this year knew NOTHING about Twitter or what it was for. Some of them now have Twitter accounts that I manage, and offering this service has netted me several new clients this month alone in referrals from current clients. All of them have seen new business from Twitter.

I only offer Twitter services as part of a comprehensive online campaign, not standalone. This makes all the marketing sing together quite well.

[AndrewCavanagh]

Originally Posted by Marcus Paul

I only offer Twitter services as part of a comprehensive online campaign, not standalone. This makes all the marketing sing together quite well.

I think that's the most sensible approach.

Also remember that if you're trying to sell Twitter alone you're going to come up against value problems..."Why should I pay you to run a completely FREE service?"

You can obviously get around questions like that but it's a whole lot easier if you're combining different services...some free and some that have a cost element or a higher level of skill (web design, email marketing, video marketing, writing press releases, article marketing etc etc.)

What I think is even more important...selling just a Twitter service seriously reduces the amount of money you can charge a client (and the money you can make them) compared to providing a more comprehensive marketing plan.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[Dave777]

Originally Posted by Jillian Slack

Here is some more proof you can add to your arsenal and show your potential clients.

Foodies flock to Twitter-savvy food trucks - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com

These food trucks are successfully using Twitter to let customers know about their specials that don't appear on their regular daily menus.

Jill

And many other niche marketplaces using Twitter in all sorts of interesting ways...
twitter selling bread - Google Search

Dave

[TyBrown]

My wife handles the Tweeting for several local businesses. It's all been word of mouth, she hasn't approached any businesses to do it.

[MichaelHiles]

A guy named Mike O'Neill is doing Twitter workshops. He built a seminar business mostly with LinkedIn in the corporate area. Since then, he's expanded into doing more social media stuff. Integrated Alliances is his company name.

[TimCastleman]

Twitter is just the begining of what you can offer. Here is a short list.