I was recently asked by the Kansas City Chapter of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) to speak to their group about social media. Instead of just discussing social media, the presentation I delivered addressed the changing nature of business and How the Service Industry can use the Web to drive Leads and Sales. I’m contrary that way.
But I’ve learned that people often think they want to know all about social media – until they learn about all the other stuff that they didn’t know they didn’t know about – like digital marketing – or inbound marketing – and how critical it is for businesses today.
The audience was comprised of HVAC business owners selling heating and air conditioning products and services direct to consumers – as well as some HVAC industry partners who focus on the B2B audience. In short, their customers are the people who own HVAC contracting businesses. So, we had both a B2C and a B2B audience in attendance. My favorite!
The presentation I developed was designed to take an audience who had for years mostly relied on Yellow Pages advertising and other types of traditional advertising through the process of understanding what digital marketing is – and illustrating the financial benefits of shifting business focus to inbound marketing tactics as opposed to limiting marketing efforts strictly to outbound marketing channels.
Some of the things we covered in the presentation are:
Content Marketing: What Is It And Why You Need To Do It
Content Marketing is really pretty simple. There are huge benefits to branding yourself and your business, owning knowledge, creating original content that can be of value to your customers and your prospective customers, and knowing how and where to share it;
The Power of Video
There can be tremendous value realized by integrating Video Marketing and the power of YouTube into your online marketing efforts. The audience was blown away by how many people in their industry are already using video – and I’ll venture a guess that that’s a channel that many of them start exploring very soon.
Local SEO Strategies
Most of us know that SEO in general is important. However, Local SEO is really where businesses should start. Understanding the importance of local search engine optimization – helping local searchers find you and your business more easily – that can be the key to getting leads that you can convert to sales.
Mobile Technology and How It’s Changing the Way We Do Business
There can be no understating the importance of Mobile Technology to businesses today. A vast number of searchers access the web solely through mobile devices (yes, Virginia, that new iPad is a mobile device). Understanding the importance of a mobile-optimized website and/or a mobile website can be part of the key to capturing the attention of those searchers. And integrating a mobile mindset into your overall digital marketing efforts, well, it’s pretty key.
Social Media: Why It Matters for B2B and B2C Businesses
Funny, this is what they asked me to speak about. And I saved it for almost the end. Social media is terrific, and an important part of an overall inbound marketing strategy. But social media can’t stand alone. And, while many understand why social media might be important for B2C businesses, they often overlook the opportunities that exist for B2B businesses. Social media is effective for both B2B and B2C businesses. Trust me on this one! Effective use of social media and social media marketing requires an understanding of where your customers and prospects are, what they are searching for, what problems they have, and one of the most important things that you can do in those channels is to provide resources and information to feed their needs. That’s what gets customers knocking on your door, wanting more.
Your Website: The Home Base of All Your Business Operations
Today, a poorly designed website can lead to the stagnation of your business. Or worse, it can result in your business folding. Unfortunately, it’s our experience that far too many businesses have outdated, poorly functioning, non-SEO optimized websites that are doing absolutely nothing for them. Business owners must understand that business happens today, customers and prospects find them, largely because of one of two things: they search the web for the products and services they need and want to buy or they ask their friends for a recommendation. If your business doesn’t have a robust web presence and is absent in social media channels, how is it that they will find you?
I did my homework before speaking to the group (I’m a nerd, it can’t be helped) and that research indicated that one of the HVAC firms in the chapter was doing all the right things, including having a killer website. A couple were clearly doing some SEO work, but many other important things remained undone, and many of the rest of the group had horribly outdated, poorly optimized websites. Which told me that that the group, collectively, weren’t doing much – if anything, to use the Internet to market their businesses.
And that, my friends, is why I didn’t do what they asked and serve up a presentation focused wholly on social media. Instead, I taught them the things that they showed me they really needed to know – regardless of the fact that that’s not what they thought I was bringing.
The Rewards, Well, They’re Pretty Amazing
And the best thing about the hour and a half that I got to spend with this group? All the heads that began nodding, as they understood not just about social media and how it could help them, but about how the Internet has changed the way that all of us do business, and how they could apply much of what they had learned in that session to their own businesses. Right away.
Being a speaker is a lot like being a teacher and, for me, anyway,there’s no greater reward than seeing eyes light up and heads nod because what you’re saying makes sense. Well, actually, when they reach out and connect with you afterwards and tell you that you’ve made a difference in their lives and/or their businesses – well, that’s pretty splendiferous, too.
Get the Goods Here
The presentation is embedded below. If you’re trying to figure out what to do next to get your business headed in the right direction and maximizing the potential of the Internet, whether you’re a service industry business or any other kind of business, this presentation might help. We hope so! And, if you need help along the way, we’d love to talk with you – this is what we do, all day, every day.
Special props here to my friend Al Bonner of Presentation Transformations, because he is the guy always making sure all of my presentations don’t suck. If you want help making your presentations awesome, check him out at Presentation Transformations or connect with him on LinkedIn.