Part 4 – How do I convert visitors to sales leads?


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This is Part 4  – How do I convert visitors to sales leads?

A step by step approach to converting visitors to money!

 

Part 1 – How do I get more sales leads from my website

Part 2 – How does Social Media work in getting sales leads?

Part 3 – What is content and why is content important for lead generation?

 

Well spring chickens this is the ultimate question!! “How do I convert visitors to sales leads?”HiRes

 

I’m chucking this in here now, even though I’m not done with ‘content marketing’ – the subject of content marketing is huge and you need to carefully work your way through it, in order to get all the bits and pieces right! So my reasoning for posting about converting visitors to sales leads is; I’ve had some questions about ‘conversion’ of visitors to sales (or sessions as they are known on Google Analytics) so I’m jumping ahead slightly. So make sure you continue reading the ‘content’ stuff as this is what will help you get your sales leads in the first place!!

 

Ok, so you have managed to attract lots of juicy visitors to your website through great ‘electrifying’ content.  (I will write a blog about electrifying content shortly!)

  1. Your visitors are hooked on what you write and await for the next piece of content to keep the fuel in their belly’s! You know this because….
  2. Your visitor numbers are up month on month, which you have been monitoring! Note my note on ‘monitoring’ people!   You have seen steady progress in the numbers from 100 per month to 150 to 450 to 1000 so on…..
  3. Time on your website has also shifted from 1minute 5secs to over 4mintures indicating people are reading your stuff!
  4. You know which pages are getting monitored and which are most popular

 

 

BONUS! So, are you converting these visitors (sessions in Google Analytics)? My guess is “sort of”, “maybe” or “don’t know!”.

 

My next question is; do you have Call-to-Action buttons on your pages? Like this:  See our Superheroes Campaign NOW (10)

 

 

Call-to-Action (CTA) is ‘something’ that tells ‘someone’ to do something!

 

A link on your website to drive people to become ‘leads’. It’s the carrot on the stick! Something that entices your audience to ‘take’ (note ‘take’) ACTION. A critical step in converting visitors (sessions in Google Analytics) to sales! You have to take them to the next stage!

 

A CTA can be as follows:

  • Call Elaine today on +447825517850
  • Download our exclusive ebook on gaining more sales leads now
  • Start our free trial
  • Get a free consultation
  • Join our webinar on 14th April 2016 at 2pm GMT
  • Sign up for our newsletter

 

Taking action, what it means

People come to your site for several reasons

 

  1. To noisy at what you are doing (these could be your competition, your friends and that noisy neighbour)
  2. To educate themselves on the latest product or how to do something better! So you need to be talking about their problems here, not trying to tell them the latest bells and whistles!
  3. To enquire about your services/ products

 

Your website is one part of your marketing mix or marketing tool kit (that’s better, “tool kit”), its an amazing brand awareness / SEO (Search engine optimization) tool! Social Media is the dudes that help ‘spread’ the word. The more interaction, the more your name gets sent around the web! See my post on Social Media.

 

So, my advice with the website.

 

Have a range of different CTAs in order to work on different parts of the buying cycle! New people will be after information, repeat visitors (sessions in Google Analytics) will be more interested in noising or are longer down the buying cycle.

 

Use the website as a mechanism to help keep your sales pipeline filled up! You will have groups of ‘different’ customers with ‘different’ needs and who will buy at different times. For example, most of our retainers take up to 12 months to convert. People want to be educated in what we do, think about it, maybe read and lean some more etc etc. You can speed up this process by listening to the ‘needs’ and offering different ‘less risky’ alternatives like our 2hr consultancy, were people can ask us as much as they like on a specific subject or review a niggling problem. No risk, one off payment, easy peasy! You have to test different ideas to see if they will work for you or not.

 

So, getting back to conversation.

 

After you have managed to

  • Sign up someone for a webinar
  • Attend a seminar
  • Download an ebook
  • Call Elaine for further information

 

This takes you to the traditional face to face (B2B) or people to people part of the buying process. This part is what your sales dudes are used to!

 

So, let me know if you have a specific question and I can drop it into a blog post. Happy visitor conversation people

 

Ask me a question?

 


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This is Part 3 of Lead Generation

What is content and why is content important for lead generation?

Part 1 – How do I get more sales leads from my website

Part 2 – How does Social Media work in getting sales leads?

 

Overviewcan of worms saying cartoon

Wow… this is like opening a can of worms! Big fat juicy worms!

Firstly Geospatial Marketers, Content Marketing is nothing new! We have been producing content for many many years! You could call it publishing, the difference is you are doing your own content generation in house and reaping the benefits of sales leads, I hope?

 

Content Marketing is about focusing not on your products, but on the informational “needs” of your target customer first!

 

What is Content?

Content is written information that satisfies your target audiences cravings! In other words its information that your audience finds of use, of interest, of importance to them, which they can use at an advantage.

 

Content is a big deal! If you don’t get this part right, nothing else will matter! Not even your social media strategy! Nope, nadda!

 

7 Top Tips to take away

So, lets start at the beginning and give you some tips to take away.

 

  1. GROW MY AUDIENCE!

Firstly, you have to set a goal and that goal should be to ‘GROW MY AUDIENCE’. An audience that LOVES your content! They love it so much they sign up or better still; call you! They keep coming back! This is why content is so important to a business! But… she says, it has to be the right content……

 

  1. FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS PROBLEMS

So, you want to GROW your audience. What does your target audience want to know more about? What? Write this down. What are their problems? They want to know how to fix them? Correct? Like you are reading this now because you want to know the secret sauce to getting more sales leads? And this piece of content is all about ‘why’ content is so important to gaining more sales leads. So, focus and I mean focus, on the problems, not on what you sell! The client doesn’t give a toss about what that widget does, they care if its going to make them money by saving them time (for example)

 

“Your customers are exposed to over 5,000 marketing messages per day. Are your messages cutting through the clutter and making impact?” Joe Pulizzi

 

By focusing on the problem you are answering a valid question. Just think about yourself and how you find something out! That potential customer does the same!

 

  1. MOBILE IS TOP OF YOUR AGENDA

Yes Sir, its going to go more and more down the mobile route! So if you are not mobile friendly, again, you will miss out and your competitors will pass you by with flying colours. So to help your content get out there, make it easy to be found via mobile devices!

 

Read more about the trends in 2016 here The Drum highlight the trends in 2016 

 

  1. RE-USE ALL YOUR CONTENT

Everything you have ever written, re-use it! Re-publish all of it! Yes Sir! You might not necessary have time to create new fresh content every day, so re-use what you have used before. Great piece from Penny here 

 

Remember for new content, answer peoples questions!

 

  1. RENT TO OWN CONTENT STRATEGIES

You want more audience but how can you find them? Pair up with others who have a similar audience. Do this through webinars, sponsored content opportunities and blogs. You are automatically putting your brand in front of a potentially large target audience. These could be with LiDAR News, Laser Scanning Forum, Groups on LinkedIn, Other people’s blogs etc etc. (I’m calling it advertising rehashed but its another way to do something differently!) Read more here

 

Again if the content you are sponsoring is great for your target audience, your own content will get noticed (ps: remember to measure it!)

 

  1. ASSIGN AN EDITOR

Sign someone who can tweak the content your team write. The team may not be good storytellers or just need the grammar checking. So having a go-to person to finalise the content, is worth its weight in gold! While we at EBTM implement peoples content, we like to have a go-to person in house in order to finalise anything and sign off content planners. Just ask us what to do click here

 

  1. FOCUS ON THE READER

When you have written something, re-read it like you are the ‘visitor’. Even ask your close customers to read over some of your content. Get their perspective. You don’t have to do it with everything, just a few pieces. See what they think! If the content is ‘ok’ than its going to be a waste of your time and not valuable in attracting you more sales leads!

 

Ask me a question

 

 


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This is Part 2 of Lead Generation | how does social media work in getting sales leads?

Click here for part 1 How do I get more sales leads from my website?

Social Media 

Ok dudes and dudets, you can’t just launch your website and hope people will find you! You can’t just rely on Google. You have to tell people about your website in order for google to be your friend and send people to your website.

 

Today I’m talking about Social Media and how Social Media for Geospatial Marketing can increase your sales leads! This blog is about improving traffic from Social Media platforms to your website in order to improve the amount of traffic and therefore sales leads.

 

First things first, as Mark Schaefer explains in his amazing little book “Social Media Explained”

 

“No amount of work, time or dedication to marketing and social media networking will work if you haven’t surrounded yourself with people who might be interested in you and what you have to say!”

 

Step 1 Network Geospatial Marketers

So, surround yourself with people in your circles; such as clients, suppliers, and your own industry contacts, and of course your market (your potential customers)! You want to network online with people who may buy your ‘thing’ you need to follow them, like them, share their stuff and mingle!

 

Step 2 Be Social Geospatial MarketersSloth

I want to point out that Social Media is all about being “Social”! Yep….. you heard me… being ‘social’ people! Interaction with others online! Social Media is a two way street! Receiving re-tweets and likes are just the start (the lazy sloth start), while a consistent flow of content is good for generating traffic and of course getting them closer to purchasing your ‘thing’, these people are also difficult to ‘take action, and its all about the action, right?

 

You want connections to do something!! Like share, ask a question, pick up the phone, download a white paper, attend a webinar or seminar. So going back to Step 1 and 2, you want to build followers who might want your ‘thing’ and you have to build trust and loyalty when posting on any social media platform.

 

Step 3 Content

It’s all about the content. I get asked by many Geospatial folk “but who writes it Elaine?” or “I don’t have time to write it!”.

 

Ok, what happens when someone calls you or enquires about what you do? You answer them with some details? Correct? Ok…… how many times do you repeat yourself? I bet a lot! So…. Wasting your time?

 

Start by writing 1 or 2 answers down per week, if you get all your team to do this, you will soon build up a rather large bucket full of content! All yummy stuff for search engines and ‘attracting’ people to your website! So you may repeat yourself but your answers are now helping make you money!

 

On Tuesday 12th April 2016 I will post a blog on Content and how to write great electric content that will get you more sales leads!

 

Step 4 Give it away

Is Elaine going mad here! Nope!! Give your content away! Why? By giving content away, you are showing that you are the guys to go to! You are the people who are the experts and know their stuff! You are that ‘knowledge hub’, where people know to go to and trust! Business relationships are built on trust!

 

If you are still unconvinced, read Mark Schaefer’s blog post “If I give away my content, don’t I give away my business? 

 

If you are really into this, read Joes Blog on “Give Content Away to Get” 

 

Step 5 Measure

This is where most Geospatial Marketers go wrong. You want to find out how well your social platforms are doing and the only way to do this is to ‘see’ how many visitors (sessions) are coming from a social media platform to your website! This is step 1.

 

Step 2, you want to know if they are ‘reading’ your content, so time on your website is important to know. By understanding how many visitors (and if they are going up) and how long they are staying on your site, you will have a pretty good idea which platform is working for you. The next step is, do you have Call to Actions (CTA) on your website to ‘get people’ doing something (there will be another blog on this soon)

 

Which Social Media Platforms are best for Geospatial?

Beth

In the Geospatial Market Place, the two main platforms are LinkedIn and Twitter. I’m seeing this with both ‘sellers’ of survey equipment to ‘service’ providers such as surveyors delivering a service. A couple of great people to follow on Twitter are:

Claire Fenwick of Spatial Dimensions, UK

Mike Hopkins and Team of Storm Geomatics, UK

Kelli Guidry and team at NEI, USA

Claire, Mike and Kelli are regular contributors to their social media platforms (picking on Twitter today) and post some fascinating and fun posts, keeping their brands in front of people minds! Follow them to see what they are doing! Even ask them some questions!

Further links to see how your website is performing!

Want to check your website, like Google does? Read this

 

Ask me a question:

 

Part 3 coming up on 12th April at 7:30am

 


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Part 1 How do I get more sales leads from my website?

How to generate more visitors, which should lead to sales leads……

 

Ok Geospatial Marketers, let’s take a step back! First things first, what are you currently doing that brings in sales leads now (that works?) and what doesn’t work for you?

This is usually my first question. Most geospatial marketing departments don’t actually measure anything, they guess! They carry on as they have always done. I’ll let you into a little secret, most companies don’t measure (so you are not alone my friend J and a major issue when it comes to cutting back, as Marketing is usually the first to be axed if times are hard! So, shame on the marketing people for not measuring even the basics.

Ok, getting back to lead generation. So it’s a complicated subject, so let me make it simple: Simple is my friend!

 

This is Part 1 of Lead Generation | the beginning | an overview

 

The beginning

The marketing subject is vast and incorporates lots of things. Lead generation is not actually done on its own; it’s a combination of multiple things all integrated to send out messages to the ‘target’ audience. So, lets take this one step at a time.

Firstly write out what works for you and what doesn’t. This is important to actually SEE “visually” where you might be going wrong and what you need to change.

 

Example:

What works What doesn’t work
Sales dudes following up on leads from our website We don’t get enough leads from our website
Sales follow up after a show We have no ‘consistent’ plan for our sales team at shows. So its add-hoc and could be better!
Promotions with huge discount L Which we are not happy to do as it eats into profits Social Media at the moment, its more hassle and time than its worth
Direct Mail campaigns are pulling in 12% leads (not sure if this is good or bad?) Our database need cleaning up
Our brand is consistent so people recognise us in logo, people, how we do business (relationships) we think! We miss out on all those other leads who don’t know who we are or where to find us! How do we find them?
Relationships but they take years to develop and build trust Keeping our pipeline filled up with new people who are profitable. How?

 

When you have listed what works and what doesn’t work in your Geospatial Marketing, start at the top. Keep it simple, there is no rule of thumb except simplicity. If its more than that, you won’t do it!

 

Meet Isabel, a slim, gorgeous land & building surveyor who runs a team of 10 surveyors. The company is growing and her task is to increase sales leads through her website.

 

Isabel’s Pain Points are:

  • Traffic is currently low (You can find out through Google Analytics)
  • Time on website is poor (not much time to read what they are doing)
  • Sales leads are 1 per week from website

Isabel

So, Isabel wants more sales leads from her website. She also wants quality sales leads!

 

Firstly, some questions to answer:

Is your website mobile friendly? Lets get this out the way! ‘One’ many miss!! If it isn’t mobile friendly, Google will punish you. Click here and read this for further info: . If you don’t know, do a test by clicking here

If the website isn’t mobile friendly, this is your starting point as you will be missing out on hundreds if not thousands of searches. Just think how you search at the moment, from your mobile device!

Is your website appealing to your customers? Is it nice on the eye? It does matter!

Is the content of interest?

So, our friend Isabel has some metrics she would like to share with you.

  • Visitors to her website are 150 per month
  • Visitors to her website are staying on there for 1minute 5secs

You may think this is good however it ‘depends’

  1. Traffic flow is low, but is it quality? From the sales leads I would guess not
  2. The time on site isn’t enough for the visitor to ‘read’ the content then take action meaning she is not capturing the leads!

So something has to be done about this.

One of EBTM’s customers NEI in Louisiana, USA focuses its content on specific problems and categorises the problems by product or application. Every question a sales person or service engineer receives at NEI gets turned into a blog post. Thus increasing the content on ‘their’ website plus helping ‘searchers’ find them! We know it works because of the number of folk coming to site and staying on site (time on site)!

Next:

Do you tell anyone about your website and do you share the content?

I mean this! Do you share links to your pages? Share via emails or via socials? Do you inform current clients of posts? Do you reply to social media posts? Do you interact? All helping with attracting people to your website.

Google also loves this as its fresh and continuous!

 

Fresh Content by MOZ

Do you have links on your content?

My point here is a website on its on is like opening a shop and not telling anyone about it, hoping the passes by will see you and come in! So, you have to tell people you are there by ‘inviting’ them in and in web terms this means ‘sharing’ and providing ‘links’ to other content thus increasing the changes of being found! See article by Steve Rayson

 

Now, content is a huge subject on its own but if you can’t wait until my blog posts on ‘content’ then here are some books and conferences you should look at. They are simple to understand and don’t blow your mind with jargon. Remember “keep it simple”

This is the beginning of building your ‘presence’ in the market. It has to follow this rule though

 

consistent, interesting and focused

If it isn’t any of these you will not have a strong following!  Part 2 How does social media work in getting sales leads? will be up 7th April at 8am

Ask me a question

 

 


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Who’s doing what at Geobusiness 2016?

  1. Attending Geobusiness 2016?
  2. Want to see what everyone is doing on Twitter?  The latest information?
  3. Follow the exhibitors by following the icon below

“I love to see how everyone is getting on, latest news etc… I really hate having to find people or missing some important information.  So i decided to create a list to make it easier for you all (including mow!) If you get stuck or want to know more, drop me a note”  Elaine

elaine@elaineball.co.uk or +447825517850

 

 

1. Go to Twitter

2. Go to @EBTMarketing

EBTM Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Click on LISTS

4. Click on Geobusiness 2016

Lists on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Click ‘SUBSCRIBE’

6. Now follow.  You can then just watch this list without scrolling through or typing in people’s Twitter Handles.  Easy peasy!

 

Subscribe Twitter List

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Need Advice (1) Need Advice

Need advice on your Geospatial Marketing?

Want to discuss some of your issues or how to do something specific?

Just need to review what you are doing in your Marketing?

EBTM’s latest package is focused to ‘get you going’ and give you support without any commitment of retainers.  If you have people in house but need some advice on the next steps, email Amanda today and find out how we can help!

We are offering our Geospatial Friends a 2hr consultancy, which includes anything you like. Initial 10min call to get some details then the clock can start.

PRICES

UK Companies

2hrs: £300 GBP + Vat

Outside UK/ Overseas Companies

2hrs:  $450

Over Skype or similar to keep costs out

These work really well for clients that just want the ideas. We can help you with any area of your business from the launch of a product or service, generation of leads, website development or planning an exhibition or a road show.

Calls can be split up into sessions and clients come away with key actions in the form of an activity planner, budget and key objectives. 

Email Amanda here or call +44 7968 585 824


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Elaine Ball Technical Marketing (EBTM) Ltd, England, 21st March – EBTM a leading consultancy in technical marketing for the global Geospatial Industry, has been awarded a Social Media contract with Navigation Electronics, Inc (NEI) Louisiana, USA, a complete solutions provider that sells, rents, leases and services mapping, GIS and survey, construction equipment from Trimble and other leading suppliers.

Bolt on Marketing Team

EBTM managed by Elaine Ball and Amanda Bradshaw are a unique consultancy, favouring being classed as your ‘bolt on marketing team’ over traditional consultancy.  The company of four won the contract with NEI after completing a social media workshop back in December 2015.

Organising the content process

Navigation Electronics Inc

NEI is a fantastic business that offers so much to the industry, from free workshops right through to the selling and training of equipment. Lots going on which needs shouting about.  The team at EBTM will inject structure and process into the vast amount of activities going on at NEI.  The key is to manage the content process, which most companies find difficult and organise the content, which will be delivered to the market via the different social media channels.  The goal is to double the sales leads!

Amanda Bradshaw, EBTM’s Marketing Communications Director and Key Implementer comments:

“When you get the process right, the reward is seeing the stats and proving that social really does have a part to play within clients integrated marketing communications. “The key for any social media plan is to measure the results and feed this back in an easy to understand way.

Kelli Guidry, VP and Director of Operations comments:

“We are already starting to see the results of the new plans. We invested heavily in ensuring we have top quality information and courses available for the industry to attend. We are happy knowing that a wider audience is seeing our great initiatives”

If you want to find out more about EBTM helping you with Social Media,

Call Amanda today on +44 7968 585 824

About NEI

Navigation Electronics, Inc. (NEI) was formed in 1984 as a division of John Chance & Assoc., performing instrument sales and service to the offshore oil and related industries. In 1988, Charlie Poche acquired NEI and began expanding its service to land, hydrographic, geodetic surveyors, as well as GIS & Mapping professionals. In 1989, NEI was one of the first Trimble GPS distributors and soon after, it grew to become one of the largest distributors of GPS surveying and mapping equipment. NEI is also an authorized ESRI and TDS & GeoSpatial Innovations business partner, as well as Laser Craft, LTI, Seco, Odom and Pacific Crest distributor. NEI’s corporate headquarters is located in Lafayette, LA with satellite offices in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Arkansas. NEI maintains their service center and sales office at their headquarters in Lafayette, LA, and a sales office & GIS training center in  Norcross,GA. NEI is a women-owned and operated business, with Barbara Poche serving as President & CEO.


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Fly high with a UAV?

Should I invest in a UAV?

 

At University I learnt about ‘Porters 5 Forces’, we have all been there and bought the management t-shirt! Blah blah blah My eyes glaze over!

However……..

5 Forces Analysis_Porter

Porters 5 Forces Analysis

 

reading Valerie King’s latest news piece on UAVs in geodatapoint (February 2016) the subject is a great topic to use due to the competitive intensity of the industry and therefore the overall industry profitability? We all see the number of so called competitors entering the industry at record levels, jumping on to the band wagon, to get a slice of the action! But how attractive is the industry? And do we actually know who competes with who? Apples with apples!

So lets sit back with a hot cup of chocolate and digest ideas to invest or not in UAVs.

 

Lets talk surveying from the sky’s not taking pretty pictures

Firstly, we are talking about UAVs that are related to Geospatial, not photography or photogrammetry; survey! Actually doing a survey from the sky. Using data points to accurately measure distances to build a profile of the land.

 

Should you invest in a UAV?

Yes, no and maybe! You need to start with your homework my friend! Why? I hear this every time I work with a client who is either trying to sell a UAV or providing a flying service to a market. So, lets start at the beginning and as simply and quickly as I can make this:

 

From a business perspective, what should you first consider?

Several things…

 

Keeping the government happy

Owning or flying a UAV will expose you to the lovely fun world of regulations, and an ever-changing world of regulation! Why? Because the government are still figuring out the whole commercial unmanned flying thing! Plus, if the ‘thing’ falls out of the sky, you are in big trouble!

Product Adoption Curve

Product Adoption Curve

So, when you are looking for an amount of money to invest, make sure your pockets are deep! We are still in ‘early adopter’ stage on the good old product adoption curve!

 

Keeping the sky’s safe

FAA, CAA, you name it, every country has a ‘body’ who looks after the sky’s. Anything to do with aircraft, manned or not manned. So, you must be savvy when it comes to understanding the regulations; buying or selling! A rather large force to be up against! This is not market or customer related, its more the drone itself. Is it safe, is it inspected regularly, how much does it weigh (Max 20kg in UK, 25kg parts of EU and 35kg in parts of USA) ie are you legal!! As the manufacturers will know, the technology is rapidly developing, so not a cheap investment if you are thinking of getting into it seriously!

 

Anyone can be a pilot!

I was speaking to a client the other day and one of his dear friends said they would have a go at surveying their own patch, lucky they knew the UAV manufacture but they ended up crashing on the take off. Unfortunately even the most competent pilots will find it hard. So don’t think you can pick up a survey drone and fly it around your back yard as easily as a kite! However some UAVs do have full auto capability, making it easier to train and fly.

These things are heavy, consisting of the dry weight (ie. the bare frame aircraft) and wet weight (ie the airframe, payload and battery pack!). (Payload consists of the sensors ie. laser and IMU).

 

How much to insure?

I dread to think about insuring the damn thing! Blimey! Mind you, if you are smart, you will focus your sales/ service efforts on areas that are lacking in people. Note my note on ‘focus’!

An interesting point; Valarie identifies in her piece, is security of your drone. This never crossed my mind at all. But think about it, our world is changing and changing fast! What is stopping hackers actually hacking into your drone and taking control! Scary thought! Read how the ‘bad guys’ are spoofing and jamming GPS systems in small UAVs!

 

Then there is the housework to do

Yes, you have to get your ducks in a row! Selling or buying, you will need a process on exactly and I mean exactly “how” you do the job, who looks after the legal stuff, how you fly, what insurance covers, what the client sees and understands as well as how you handle your own reputation! A lot to think about ah! It’s not easy nor should it be. The winners of this super technology will have to have some amazingly tough skin and continue to develop process in house.

You have all been there at an exhibition, showcasing your latest product and the damn computer won’t switch on! Yep, now think about doing a survey of a quarry or race track, what happens if the system goes down or the wind is up? You have all these little things you have to think about. Therefore a check list and thorough process will need to be in place! If you are not a process person, don’t even go there! It will drive you insane! And finally…….

 

Geek

Data Geek

How do you handle all that data?

Yes there will be a lot of points to understand and manipulate, so you will need a very good software package and some geeky person to handle it! If you don’t understand the data, then your client will certainly not! Remember, the client doesn’t care how its done or what you are using, they care about the end result and is it solving a problem!!

 

So, you are a surveyor and you want to buy one of these cool machines… so who is your market? Where are you going to make a difference and make money?

The market can be anything you like that involves flying over an area and surveying it from above. I’m talking survey here, actually gaining data points of the land from above using a drone.

From a ‘survey’ perspective what should you consider in your target audience? Firstly, answer these questions;

  1. Who will benefit from a topographic survey from the air? For example;
    • Clients who own a vast amounts of land
    • Hard to reach area
    • Numerous amounts of assets
  2. What are ‘their’ pain points? For example;
    • Identifying drainage
    • Areas of damage like land slips (deformation survey’s)
    • Boundary lines
    • Mapping historic properties
  3. What are the benefits to the client?  The real benefits?
  4.  Where do they hang out? For example;
    • Newspapers, journals
    • Clubs, exhibitions? (you need to know in order to ‘target’ your audience easily and with little cost

With an ‘ideal customer’ in mind, what are the ‘key words’ you need to use to attract potential customers? Remember the pain points!

So you have an ideas customer, market segment and of course where they hang out. Now the hard work starts. You must begin ‘building’ a brand!

Why build a brand? The number one element is to be ‘seen’ in the targeted market. If you are not seen or heard, you will be forgotten about.

Brand awareness also builds ‘trust’ and for a survey team to purchase a high cost item like a UAV, it must have trust in its supplier. No trust, no sale and the client will go elsewhere! From a surveyor point of view who is selling his ‘services’ to a potential market segment like ‘asset tracking’ or ‘water way inspection’ – again, trust is important that you will deliver a good quality service especially since the cost of the service may be slightly more money to the client. Your direct selling approach needs to be ‘open’ and ‘clean’ and why you are charging more to do the service. Remember, the client will have a problem and they will want that problem to disappear! So make sure you inform them of the benefits of why!!

 

So, apart form all the barriers of entry (I’ve made this article a little bleak haven’t I), owning and using such equipment on the right market segment will give you a great return (more data, quicker to process therefore more profit and consistency of surveying…….hopefully). However, my point here is to do your homework before committing to something expensive that has lots of barriers! Good Luck!

Interested to know your thoughts on this, so get in touch elaine@elaineball.co.uk


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Can you imagine shouting about something controversial in the Survey Community to get the attention of your target audience?

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Rachel Barnes, editor of Marketing talks about “Is fear of offending stifling your creativity?” Click here to read her article.

 

So, the question is, could you use this technique to get your name out there? Get seen or heard or are you afraid of the back lash? Or the reversal affect of what it could do to you and your business?

 

While I’m all for doing things differently, I doubt the survey community would have the balls to try, or would they? Has anyone tried?

 

Let me give you an example, imagine this…. A mobile mapper that picks out ISIS bombers and blows them up! Mmmmm a little scary to write! Now imagine this as an image! I’m now sounding like a journalist off ‘private eye’! Eek!

 

What am I getting at here? I see many companies; from surveyors to manufactures to resellers of survey equipment. I see what’s working in companies and what isn’t.

 

There is a pattern forming in the Geospatial community and its global, not just in one location. Getting you to actually be slightly creative in your marketing communications is like getting a dog to talk! So getting you thinking controversially is more like raising the dead!

 

My point, could us geospatial folk actually be disturbing or imaginative to get our brand to stand out? Who is daring enough to do so?

 

Funny enough I wrote about good old Dougy back in November where he talked about generating content that stands out! Maybe being controversial isn’t so bad.


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LinkedIn Home Page – Geospatial (Part 1) and LinkedIn Profile Page (Part 2)

I get asked all the time about quick and easy tips on using all types of Social Media Tools for the Geospatial Industry Globally.  So, I’m putting ‘sound-to-video’ and creating through Camtasia (My fabo new application! Whoop!) a series of clips dedicated to the Geospatial Industry Globally.

The tips, tricks and comments are to make life easier.  My goal however, is to help you sell more without the added burden of reading, digesting, and spending hours trying to understand specific applications such as LinkedIn.  The clips last no longer than a few minutes but give you little tips on how to do things in LinkedIn.  Over the next month, I will post several clips related to LinkedIn including:

  1. How to make your profile look a million dollars and WHY its important to attract potential clients
  2. How to ‘tag’ people so you have specific market segments and can focus links and content towards these segments
  3. How to use groups and help develop a stronger pipeline of content

I welcome tons of cool comments and questions, so please feel free to ask away!

If there is anything specific you wish to know, please let me know

All the best and ‘here’s’ to an easy life! 😉

Elaine