The 2011 DJ Expo

Registration for the 2011 DJ Expo in Atlantic City is open! Don't forget that members of the US DJ Network can also attend the 14th annual "Poor DJ's Dinner" on the Wednesday night of the expo for great (cheap) food, networking, and more before we take in the DJ of the Year Awards and hit the big parties!

The 2011 DJ Expo

Twitter....Facebook.....What the !!!!

I cannot tell you how many people have made the following statement to me in the last 3 months...

" I don't get (Twitter, Facebook)!"

It's a pretty universal feeling. I tried to step back and think of the best way to sort of encapsulate what these SM forums are and how they are different from one another.  I have settled on this....

Facebook is the equivalent of being invited into someone's livingroom and having a seat on their couch.  Twitter is the equivalent to booking a hall and offering free admission to anyone who's interested in hearing what you have to say.

So what do I mean?  Well let's look at them separately.

Facebook - If you are invited to a friends house to hang out and offered a seat on their couch...how likely would you be to launch immediately into a sales pitch about your DJ business?  Would you be more likely to ask them how they were and what was going on with them or would you dominate the conversation with info on what was happening in your world?  Most likely it would be a more natural conversation.  A back and forth with each of you showing interest in what the other had to say.  That's Facebook in a very simplified way.  We "friend" people on Facebook.  Our interactions there should be of a more friendly nature.  When you are interacting with potential clients you want to act like you're at a friends house chatting.  Showing genuine interest in what they are saying and what's going on in their world.  Commenting when appropriate on there status updates (wedding and non wedding alike) without acting like a stalker.  When (and if) the conversation comes naturally around to weddings offer your expertise but refrain from selling yourself.  After all if they know you are a DJ and they have need of one they'll be likely to inquire of themselves.  Once they open the discussion then fire up your sales pitch but only after you're invited to.

A couple caveats - Doesn't your Mom, your best friend, and your wife already think you're the Greatest DJ in the world?  Your past customers already benefited from your awesome specials and the current clients are anticipating your service but have paid their deposit and aren't concerned that "DATES ARE FILLING UP FAST!"  These are more than likely the people on your friends list (don't get me started on what value following every DJ in America does for any of us)  So FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP POSTING THIS INFORMATION ON FACEBOOK!  How many times can we read about "Another GREAT event, for another GREAT couple, at another GREAT venue...blah...blah...blah" PUKE!  Instead what made THIS reception unique?  What happened that made this event unlike any other?  What was interesting?  I hate to say it but several of my fellow well respected DJ colleagues are hidden in my news feed for essentially spamming my wall with this type of repetitive posting.  Again consider WHO you are making these statements to. Give em something worth reading!

Twitter - You have information about what makes your business the most unique, best value, most exciting WHATEVER DJ service in your area or perhaps in the whole wide world!  Twitter is a great place to demonstrate this knowledge and these attributes...but hold on!   Before you go racing off to Tweet about your current "promotion" or "latest gear purchase" consider who's listening.  Who are your followers?  What information will they find interesting and how can you communicate it to them in a way that will keep them interested and MOST IMPORTANTLY will encourage them to share that information with their followers!  This is the goal!  RT (ReTweeting) is a MAJOR goal on Twitter.  Getting people with followers different from your own to repeat what you have said to their followers is a powerful way to get the attention of folks you might not otherwise reach.  So twitter is the Hall you book and then you open the doors and invite people in to hear what you have to say.  People will come in at first with their own agendas.  They want YOU to listen to them.  They are looking for you to RT what they have posted.  If you follow other DJ's don't expect to close ANY sales using Twitter.  They aren't going to help you out.  If however you follow all the banquet managers, venues (yes venues have their own Twitter accounts), planners, photographers, florists, cake designers, etc in your area and you find ways to communicate to them useful information you will raise your profile in their consideration.  If you take the opportunity to figure out who in that group is offering great information and RT that info to your followers you will become even more influential to those folks.

A couple caveats....don't RT any blog posts that you didn't read!  The worst thing is to see a DJ RT something from a planner and then to read the article where the planner disses DJ's.  Your reputation is at stake protect it and only promote the vendors that prove their quality.
Don't simply Tweet your own self serving information over and over.  You will find yourself talking to no one.  Instead post interesting articles you read on-line or genuine honest opinions about local wedding resources.  If you blog Tweet your postings, and do it 3 to 4 times in a day.  People access Twitter at different times so if you only post at 10am and someone doesnt sign on till 7pm they aren't likely to scroll back to see that tweet.  Instead try using one of the SM dashboards like HootSuite, Tweetdeck, or Seesmic to schedule the posts to appear at 7:30 am, 12 Noon, 7:30pm and 11pm (these are generally high traffic times on Twitter.  Those who see the posts multiple times will simply ignore them.  They are the most engaged and they will be used to this.

A word about Friends/Followers - This isn't a contest or a race to the most.  I asked this question on Facebook the other day... "Once EVERY person on Facebook has "liked" your fan page...then what?"  Seriously...what is the point of having 1,000,000 friends or followers if none of them are paying attention.  We have all "liked" things on Facebook for little reason other than that it was soooooo easy to do.  Tell me though...do you return to all those pages and participate on them?  Do you stay engaged in the conversation swirling around the funny video on your cousins page or did you watch, hit the like button and move on?  Be honest.  If you are honest you'll soon realize that a "like" is worthless by itself.  A like that is accompanied by engagement...ahhh now that's something else.  On Twitter it's even worse.  I know of a DJ who just celebrated his 100k followers on Twitter.  A close examination of his follower list and you can see he is being followed by about 95,000 twitter bots!!!  Those aren't people just programs...he is talking to software!  His Klout score (one of the metrics used to determine influence on the web) is low meaning he's not a "force to be reckoned with...he's just a dude who collects followers.  If that's what you want I can show you how to get there but you'll be wasting your time 100% guaranteed.

The goal here with all SM is to convert the influence and interactions to $$$ yes?  Then make sure there's ALWAYS some SOCIAL in your Social Media activity!

Work FOREVER! (If you've worked in the past!)

There's a lot of time, money and energy invested in trying to capture new clients in the DJ world. There are an endless array of marketing options, seminars, workshops and videos that promise to show you how you can find clients and then sell them on your services. Many of these are fine strategies and well worth your time and investment. Some...well...not so much. However there is one really easy, highly effective and relatively inexpensive way to have future clients find you and enthusiastically book your services.



 So you wanna know what it is?
Your past clients.

Turn past clients into evangelists for your DJ service!

Yep...it's that simple.  There they are.  The folks who are best positioned to help you locate and sell future customers on your service are the folks who have experienced the value that you provide with your services!
Think about it....provided that you made your previous clients extremely happy...there is no one better positioned to promote your services.  Not even YOU!

Testimonials work.  Don't believe me?  Look at the success that WeddingWire.com has achieved in the heretofore completely Knot.com dominated wedding portal world.  What did WeddingWire do differently to come virtually out of nowhere and capture such a massive online market share?  It focused on reviews from real Brides & Grooms.  It allowed couples to read through reviews from other couples who had already taken the leap of faith with a particular vendor and get a glimpse into what their experience was.  The site has become one of the most dominant marketing placements for wedding services currently available.  Now as fantastic as WeddingWire is there's a more direct way to leverage this type of one on one, word of mouth referral power.

Earn it then Ask for it.

The goal is to exceed...not meet...expectations!

Uh huh.  That's how.  I know that appears to be really simple and honestly there is more to it than that.  It actually starts with something really basic but within the reach of every single DJ.  Actually caring about your clients and their events.  I mean genuinely seeking to understand what it is that your clients want from your services and from their event in general.   It starts by making yourself accessible to the client.  Make sure your clients know that you are ready and willing to work with them at every step along the way as they plan their event.  Be certain they have your email, phone numbers and understand that you WANT them to contact you with any thoughts questions or concerns.  THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!  It gives the clients a sense of ease when they know they can get in touch with you when they need to.  Answer emails and phone calls as quickly as you can (obviously you can't take calls during another event or during a meeting but you can get back to the customer and let them know what the delay was)  I find that offering my cell phone number and an invitation to text me is a quick and easy way to answer many of the simple inquiries that my clients will have.  Talk about a positive customer service experience! When you reply to a customers text message in real time...well service like that is rare...you know it from your own experience!

Exceed the expectations!
The easiest way to accomplish this is by asking a ton of questions.  Information is power and it's also the key to over delivering on every single clients expectations.  By having clients identify what they are trying to achieve through their events you can go point by point through ensuring that you do everything necessary in the planning and then during the event to not only meet those expectations but....and this is important...to exceed them.

The 3 "touches"

One strategy to employ at every event is what I call the 3 touches.  Three separate times during every event I locate the client, physically turn them around to get a view of their entire event (you can do this casually by coming along side them and then just pointing to the center of the room) and ask these specific questions..

So how are things going so far? 


Is this how you expected things to be going at this point?


Is there anything different that I could do to make the event better right now? 


Listen carefully to the answers and look for clues in the body language of the client that indicate the level of honesty that they are giving you with their responses.  Often times clients don't want to be insulting or have a desire to avoid potential confrontation during their events even when they are not satisfied with the way things are going.  You need to be aware that a simple "Everythings great" is not enough unless it is accompanied by a relaxed posture, a big smile and a relative ease that says that they have relaxed into enjoying their event.  If the client gives you feedback on ANY aspect of the party that is not to their liking take immediate steps to gain control of that situation and to turn it to the clients expectation.  Sometimes this has more to do with other services that are being provided on behalf of the client.  It could be ANYTHING.  Remember that the whole is always greater than the sum of the individual parts.  If one part is "broken" it can drag all the others down with it.  Find ways to address any situation to help deliver to your client the experience they were seeking for their event.  Do this at the beginning, toward the middle and about an hour before the end of the event.  Rephrase the questions so as not to become "annoying" and  take any steps necessary as indicated by the clients response to not only meet, but again I say, EXCEED their expectations. I also make sure to take anywhere from 1-3 photos at every event of the client having a good time. (We'll use these later so do not skip this step.  It pays huge dividends.  We're not talking spectacular photos...just snapshots...in fact I most often times just use my phone!)

Now that you're certain that you have a clear understanding of what the client wants to achieve and you've taken the time to confirm that you are making that vision a reality you have positioned yourself to leverage their fantastic experience with your DJ services into referrals by taking some very simple but highly effective steps to turning past clients into evangelists for you company.  In the next blog post I'll discuss the strategies employed to get your past clients to bring lots of  future client to your door!  Subscribe to make sure you don't miss this info!

 

Why you may not need "The top spot" on Google Search

Much energy, thought and effort is put in to securing the TOP spot on Google, Bing and Yahoo search results.  While this was an important consideration for Web 1.0 when customers were new to the web and had not figured out how to use the medium we are now dealing with web savvy consumers.  Todays web researcher is more intuitive and has a more acute BS detector which is set for a very low threshold.  While SEO (search engine optimization) does need to be a part of a effective overall marketing strategy it is becoming less and less a priority to simply capture that top spot as a means to success.  Here's why....

SEO...It's part of a larger picture
Truthfully though I am starting to think (realize) more and more that SEO is less and less effective. SEO for natural placement and discovery is akin to print advertising in years past.  Remember those Yellow pages ads where everyone wanted to add "AAA Disc Jockey Service" in order to get that first phone call?  THAT is todays SEO thinking only the web offers much more opportunity to engage and inform than the Yellow Pages ever did.  That's good and bad. Top organic search placement now feels more like gambling than strategy. You are hoping that you are placing the right "bets" (keyword distribution, reciprocal links, relevant content, etc) and that those bets will pay off in higher natural search placement eventually leading to sales. The problem is that the recent estimates on the number of small to large firms making SEO placement plays for payment put SEO at a $19B industry. We are all getting calls and emails from companies who claim to be able to put us at the top of the natural search results for various keywords. If this can/could be accomplished all your SEO efforts are worthless if a competitors SEO ranking company still gets him/her ahead of you in natural search. Consider this...no matter how much SEO anyone dumps into their website thanks to paid search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo paid advertisers will always come up above them on any keyword relevant search.  If you believe that the results of the Cornell University "Heatmap" research on clicks from 2006 still holds true (which in itself is questionable) those who are paying for placement at the top will still always capture the majority of the clicks.  If you feel this research still holds true then get into the CPC game and save yourself a lot of anxiety.  Just be prepared to shift a large portion of your marketing budget to this end.  

Now add to that the fact that most people still feel that the sales funnel to "conversion" success (getting from click to booking in our case) hangs on the so called "last click" when all other metrics are equal (same service options, similar pricing, equal prior brand awareness) So showing up at the top means the consumer search will start with you, but the consumer will desire at least one comparison and unless they recall your website and or brand as being in some way superior they will go with the last comparable click through as the end to their search. This makes being at the top a less desirable place.  The emphasis on being the first name that a consumer sees has diminished as people have learned to use the internet to research rather than as a simple resource for names, telephone numbers and pricing.  If your website isn't "up to snuff" you will not benefit in anyway from top placement.  Even if your website is entertaining, informative and engaging in all likelihood the customer is going to want to have something to compare it to.  This means they will be clicking on the next listing in their search results regardless.  


I am not suggesting that you ignore SEO entirely but I am saying that you should worry less about getting to that top spot.  Consumers will seek out multiple companies to compare and contrast.  Your goal should be to rank well (first page) and then to provide a dynamic site that makes a lasting impression.


Consider yourself
Think about your own internet search usage. If you are seeking a product or service where do you start? Let's assume for the sake of consideration that you have decided to use the internet to search out a service. You type in your search to your favorite engine and get 1000's of returns. You click on the first organic listing and the company seems qualified and their pricing is within your budget. Do you stop there? I don't. I want to see what else is out there so I go back to the original search results and click on the next link from a different company. I then compare the information on that website with the information I gathered from the first. If the service options are the same and the pricing is better I move them up to top consideration but i begin to wonder if their may yet be a better deal. so back I go to the results for another comparison. I stop when I feel I have a good idea of what the costs should be in comparison to the service offered and the budget I have in mind. If that first click didn't blow me away and the last click offered equal service for the same cost...I place my call to the page I am looking at. No reason to return to the previous sites. If the purchase is one of importance I may seek out personal referrals (posting to Facebook or Twitter "Anyone ever heard of or used __________") or look into online services (similar to Wedding Wire, etc.) that offer testimonials.  Including these type of 3rd party authoritative resources on your website will enhance your credibility and further encourage internet searchers to remember your service as they seek to compare your options and pricing.

So now what?
I think it makes more sense to make sure that what a client sees on our websites is motivating and memorable. Your website needs to out do the competition in every way to remain memorable. The ranking or the order in which it was clicked is far less important than the level of interest and engagement that the customer experiences when they are on the site. Working to make your site engaging and "sticky" (makes people take actions that keep them on your site longer) is a much more effective strategy than simply trying to catch them first.  Including items that are searcher friendly will yield big returns in brand retention.  This can be as simple as a Facebook or Twitter follow or "like" button, a link to your blog that lets people subscribe, or on the extreme a plug in or graphic that compares your offering to the competition.  If you can offer something that no one else is offering you give the consumer a reason to return to your site once they have completed the research phase of their planning.  I HIGHLY encourage opt-in email opportunities that will allow you to reconnect with those who have visited your website.  These can be as simple as a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter sign-up, a Top 10 Tips download, or even an exclusive deal.  Integrating Social Media opportunities into these offerings can further increase your chances to re-engage with a customer in the exploration phase.  For example offering an "Exclusive" deal to those who "Like" your Facebook business page or who follow you on Twitter.  Just make sure that you remain active and engaged in these mediums.  An untended social media outlet can result in your appearing to be absent something no customer wants.  content on social media should NEVER be advertorial (this looks and feels spammy) but rather should contain useful information for the customer.  I have read and agree with using a 60%-40% content strategy where you post 60% of content from outside sources and 40% original content that you create.  This strategy is maintainable without being overly time consuming.  Finally ENGAGE these social media contacts on a PERSONAL level.  Welcome new fans by name and start a conversation with them.  Give them reasons to return and interact (polls, contests, etc) and when the participate RESPOND!  That's powerful marketing that is alive and can grow into a sale or booking.


So how do I get them there?
So if you're not getting discovered through search how are you getting customers to your website?  Well I prefer a higher percentage of return than the gamble of SEO.  That's why my business strategy relies on my past customers becoming EVANGELISTS for my brand.  So how does that work?  Ahhh...I'm glad you asked.  That's the topic of my next post.   Subscribe and you'll know when it's been posted!