Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Why the social channel is not stand-alone

The survey report, entitled 'The Collaborative Future', provides insights into how consumers want to engage with brands via email, Facebook and Twitter. "Consumers don't isolate their communications via email, Facebook and Twitter, and they expect brands to communicate consistently across all of these channels," explained Jeff Rohrs, principal for ExactTarget's marketing research and education group.

As a result, marketers should focus on developing and implementing an integrated strategy that combines - not isolates - the strengths of each of these online channels.

Among the key findings of the research:

• 93% of online consumers subscribe to email marketing messages, 38% are fans of brands on Facebook and 5% follow brands on Twitter.
• Of those who interact with brands via email, Facebook and Twitter, 27% of email subscribers, 17% of Facebook fans and 37% of Twitter followers are more likely to purchase from a brand after engaging with the brand via each channel.
• Of those who interact with brands via email, Facebook and Twitter, 24% of email subscribers, 21% of Facebook fans and 33% Twitter followers are more likely to recommend a brand after interacting with the brand via each channel.
• Twitter is most likely to drive increased purchase intent; followed by email and Facebook. However, given the comparatively small percentage of consumers that interact with brands on Twitter and Facebook, email remains the cornerstone of online retention marketing programmes.
• 67% of consumers have subscribed to email marketing messages to receive discounts or promotions, compared to 40% of consumers who have become a fan of a brand on Facebook and 31% who have followed a brand Twitter for the same reason.
• 39% of Facebook users who become fans do so to publicly display their brand affiliation to friends - nearly twice as often as consumers who follow brands on Twitter (22%) and nearly four times more often than consumers who subscribe to email communications (11%) for the same reason.
• 20% of consumers indicate they have followed a brand on Twitter in order to interact with the company - more than become email subscribers (14%) or Facebook fans (13%) for the sake of interaction.

The report provides several recommendations for marketers to help develop a more effective online strategy across all three channels, including:

1. Promote Facebook games, applications and competitions in email and on Twitter.
2. Communicate via Twitter and Facebook about exclusive content only available to email subscribers.
3. Feature winners of Facebook competitions in email marketing newsletters.
4. Post links to web versions of email marketing messages on Twitter and Facebook.
5. Create an email segment containing subscribers active on Twitter and offer them additional insider information via email marketing messages.
6. Encourage email subscribers to post questions on Facebook and Twitter.

The report is the final research brief in ExactTarget's and CoTweet's six-part 'Subscribers, Fans & Followers' research series, which has been made available for purchase directly from Exact Target's web site - click here.

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)