4 Web Marketing Tips & Tricks from (The) Rich Brooks: Creating Digital Nectar #aoc2013

The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference is an annual event put on by brilliant entrepreneur, marketer, zombie killer, and my old boss, Rich Brooks in Portland, Maine. You can follow the conversation by searching #aoc2013 on Twitter or Facebook.

Not only did he organize the conference, but Rich Brooks spoke at AOC and offered some amazing advice – per usual – on “digital nectar.” President of flyte new media, you’ll find some great information at the flyte blog and the flyte email newsletter; both of which Rich puts out regularly. He also blogs for Fast Company and Social Media Examiner.

Rich offered a ton of great tips during his presentation, but here are a few that we thought were especially great takeaways!

Tip #1: Dissuade as often as you persuade

For nearly every business out there, you don’t want just any customer; you want the right customer. That means that through your SEO and marketing, you need to dissuade as many people as you persuade to click your links, contact you, and subscribe.

It doesn’t mean that you’re losing out on customers; it simply means that you are creating a more qualified customer.

The catch? You have to do the work to define that ideal customer for your business. What type of customer isn’t going to cost you a lot with administrative tasks? Which customer doesn’t need a lot of hand holding? What does your ideal customer like to do in their personal life and where do they spend their time when they’re online? These answers will lead you to defining your ideal customer, so that you can dissuade those who do not fit this description.

Tip #2: Get these 3 things right

1. Create amazing, valuable content: Whatever type of marketing you want to call it – inbound, content, education, blog, or article marketing – create valuable content. Give your audience the type of content they want and that will interest them.
2. Find the right channels: Where does your audience spend their time online? Start by finding out where they spend their time and only be there. Don’t waste your time on the channels where your customers don’t hang out.
3. Improve your conversions: Doing the first two right but still not converting? Well that’s no good. Take the steps to discover where your customers aren’t converting and test to see what is working and what isn’t.

Tip #3: Get them to subscribe!

If you have a blog and regularly create content, good for you! But do you have a regular readership? In other words, do you have subscribers? As Rich put it:

“Your audience may miss tweets, but they won’t miss an email so easily. Get them to subscribe!”

Rich brooks

How do you get a regular readership? Offer them a “carrot.” Whether it’s regular savings on a retail website or a free whitepaper with great tips, an incentive will get subscribers in no time.

Tip #4: Serve your readers, not yourself

“The more self serving content is, the less effective it is.”

rich brooks

This was a major theme of the conference. It’s not a new rule, but it seems that more and more, businesses are talking about themselves and not their customers, so it’s an important point to be mentioned.

How do you serve your customers without being self-serving? Create valuable and informational content. By doing so, you’re creating lifelong readers and customers.