How to Use and Get Customer Testimonials for the Telecom Agent

Posted on by Cameron Bell

Customer testimonials are sometimes a challenge to pull together. Not that your customers don’t love your business, but do they love it enough to take the time to put it on paper or to record their thoughts on video? It can sometimes take weeks to months to collect a few good testimonials for your website or other marketing needs. With this being said, are customer testimonials worth the time and effort? The short answer is yes.

Many telecom agents are using testimonials in their marketing efforts to promote products, services or solutions. Audiences pay attention and value stories from other users. This is what makes customer testimonials so effective.

Customer testimonials create a positive impression of your company without having to tell everyone yourself why you’re so great. Testimonials create credibility and a sense of security for your customers and prospects. In fact, customer testimonials are often more positively looked upon than the factual product, service, or solution information found on your website.

There are a number of ways to solicit customer testimonials including:

• Add an option on your website contact page for customers to include a testimonial

• Create a regularly distributed customer satisfaction survey

• Offer an incentive to customers to provide a testimonial

After obtaining these testimonials they can be used in various ways, including:

• Add customer testimonials to your website

• Include testimonials in online advertisements

• Incorporate testimonials in your newsletters, social media mediums and print media materials

• Provide testimonials on company profile pages on your partners websites

To make a sale, telecom agents must overcome their prospect’s natural skepticism and create a relationship of trust. Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful tools you can add to your marketing tool box.

How are you using your customer testimonials? Did we miss any tips obtaining a testimonial? Share your comments below.

3 Ways a Telecom Agent Can Maximize LinkedIn Visibility

Posted on by Cameron Bell

LinkedIn is one of the most valued professional social media platforms on the internet for business professionals and Telecom Agents alike. As a result, utilizing it as a network for professional engagement and interaction is almost necessary in today’s competitive business landscape.

Understanding how to navigate LinkedIn and create an optimized profile is easy and can go a long way to promote marketing and branding efforts. Here are three steps to creating a strong profile:

1. Utilize branding keywords

Just as any content marketing specialist would optimize a website, Telecom Agents can optimize their pages. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists suggest determining overall branding goals, then picking keywords and phrases to utilize throughout the profile to drive targeted traffic.

2. Promote your personal achievements

LinkedIn is a social networking platform, but it has a professional twist, so it’s important to subtly, but confidently, include any and all personal business success. Take advantage of LinkedIn recommendations, but also make sure that the basic areas, such as the headline and skills area, promote brand achievements.

3. Write a targeted profile summary

It is important for Telecom Agents to create a profile summary that reads directly to targets, mentioning what services can be offered and how these services can provide quality solutions for companies.

LinkedIn heavily promotes business connections. It is important to optimize it with targeted keywords, promote personal achievements and complete a profile to maximize visibility and drive the right audience to your LinkedIn profile.

What success have you had with LinkedIn? How are you optimizing your LinkedIn profile? Share your comments below.

5 Ways to Drive Lead Generation on LinkedIn for the Telecom Agent

Posted on by Cameron Bell

LinkedIn continues to grow into a robust social network that can be leveraged for lead generation and lead nurturing. LinkedIn is connecting business professionals from all over the world in nearly every industry, and those that take advantage of its potential watch their network grow, increase company awareness and drive leads.

Many telecom agents only see LinkedIn as a way to connect with people they already interact with in their network. They often overlook the true potential found within LinkedIn that can help grow their business, create more leads and position them as an online leader within the telecom industry.

By spending a small amount of time each week in LinkedIn and committing to growing their presence on LinkedIn, telecom agents can do a lot more than simply add people they already know to their professional network.

Here are five tips on how to optimize LinkedIn for lead generation:

Update your personal and company’s statuses with announcements and industry news to attract followers
Add keywords and phrases that represent the telecom industry, products and services to optimize your pages for SEO
Add each of your products and services and ask your network for recommendations for each one on your company page
Create a LinkedIn Group to start discussions around the telecom industry’s hot topics, create polls, and post company career openings
Integrate LinkedIn within everything you do – your website, e-mail newsletters, blog, etc.

By following these five steps, your presence on LinkedIn will grow significantly and can turn followers into brand advocates, which can position your company to appear when a prospective buyer is searching for the products and services your company offers.

What are you doing to increase awareness on LinkedIn? Anything you want to add? Please share your comments below.

Social Media Strategies for the Telecom Agent

Posted on by Cameron Bell

Telecom Agents typically use the standard channels of online and e-mail marketing to increase lead generation. It wasn’t until recently that Telecom Agents began to fully leverage the power of social media to increase their brand awareness and utilize these non-traditional channels for lead generation.

Recent studies have shown an increase in Telecom Agents using Twitter to engage with and generate new prospects from their network and the same is true for Facebook. LinkedIn is also well known for providing high quality leads for Telecom Agents– as much as 4x more than Facebook.

Having a strong and consistent presence across all major social channels is a must with an increasingly mobile workforce. Social media provides an inexpensive and effective way to expand your reach and differentiate your lead generation tactics. Here are a few tips to properly leverage each social media outlet:

Twitter

Use replies, mentions and retweets to communicate with other Twitter users within the telecom industry.
Discuss industry trends – be a thought leader in the telecom space.
#hashtag words common to the telecom industry, such as #voip and #cloud. Twitter users can access your profile when searching for these terms.

Facebook

Be personal – Facebook is less of a professional network and more of a social network, use it as such.
Allow people to contact you through Facebook for sales inquiries.
Create Facebook Events to invite your visitors to open houses, lunch & learns, and product demos.

LinkedIn

Use your page to post updates, blog posts and industry news
Leverage the “Answers” section to ask and answer questions related to the telecom industry – the person asking might be looking for services
Build your network by asking for endorsements and introductions. This adds credibility and can spark introductions.

Across all social media channels it pays to be consistent and genuine in your message. Social media should be viewed the same way you see a real-world networking opportunity. It’s more about your audience; less about you and even more about how you can help each other.

What social media strategies have worked for you? Anything you want to add? Please share your comments below.

4 Steps for Telecom Agents to Leverage Webinars

Posted on by Cameron Bell

Looking to do more with less? Aren’t we all. In an era where time is money and a call lost is a lost opportunity, as telecom agents, you are all looking for ways to capitalize on the here and now. With so many high-tech marketing tools available at our fingertips, what gets you the biggest bang for your buck?

Webinars are one of the greatest marketing tools available to telecom agents today. They are dynamic, engaging, convenient, cost effective and a simple way for you to make a powerful impact on your audience, while also making new connections. Webinars enable you to do more and reach more people at one time. Follow these four steps to leverage webinars and watch your funnel grow:

1. Identify your audience: Before you can begin developing your webinar, you need to identify your target audience. This will allow you to accurately tailor your message and format your webinar to be effective and relevant. In addition, you will have the knowledge to determine what date, time, and communication medium will fit best with this audience when you begin marketing your webinar.

2. Create a dynamic presentation: First, craft the message you would like to convey and decide how you would like to tell it. What information are you looking to deliver to your target audience? Webinars give you the ability to train, educate, and communicate live without being live, connecting people nationwide. In some instances it makes sense to have a guest presenter or expert on the line to answer questions and add commentary.

Webinars are also inherently feature rich, offering tools such as video, audio, white boarding, chat, and desktop sharing to fully engage your audience. Keep it simple and timely, but give them the ability to interact.

3. Develop a marketing strategy: Once you have identified your audience and crafted your message, you are now ready to develop a marketing strategy that will resonate with your target audience, which includes a strong call to action. Many webinar platforms offer customizable email templates that allow you to include a brief summary of the webinar, in addition to other basic meeting details such as date, time and registration link.

Be sure to be concise, give them just enough to entice them to attend and have a strong call to action. If you have a guest speaker highlight them in your marketing communication and possibly include a headshot. In addition to sending out email invitations, this is a great opportunity to utilize social media and your personal network to drive traffic to the webinar.

4. Follow up, touch base, and stay connected: This is probably the most important piece of the equation. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to connect with your audience. In addition to sending an auto-responder after individuals register for the webinar, also send out a communication thanking them for their attendance.

Do this in a timely manner while your presentation is still top of mind. Your follow up communication should include a link to the recording of the webinar, as well as a link to a survey, allowing you to improve on your webinars moving forward. Finally, invite them to connect with you in the future on another webinar, on social media or give them an opportunity to meet with you to discuss your webinar topic in more detail.

Do more with less by leveraging webinars to communicate and present dynamic content to a broad audience. This cost effective tool will make a large impact and with continued follow-up you will begin to see your funnel grow exponentially.

Have you had success with webinars? What features worked for you? Share your comments below.

Back to School Basics: 3 Social Media Tips for the Telecom Agent

Posted on by Cameron Bell

Fall brings with it color changes, cooler weather and new beginnings. Kids everywhere are excited for a fresh start as they head into a new school year full of opportunity. For those of us beyond school years and deep into third quarter numbers it is important to remember that it is never too late for a fresh start, especially when it comes to gearing up our social media efforts.

Social media is no longer a thing of the future; it has emerged as a practical strategy for Telecom Agents to bridge the gap between themselves and their customers. New communication mediums do present new obstacles and Telecom Agents are challenged today to properly use social media to promote products and services and interact with customers using social media. Here are 3 steps to follow when leveraging this medium:

Solicit feedback: By soliciting feedback and suggestions from your customers and prospects via blogs, tweets or updates through Facebook or LinkedIn you have an informal way to collect information on the needs and wants of your network.
Educate: With the ever-evolving technologies in the telecom space, keeping your network current and armed with the latest information is a challenge. Harness the power of social media by educating your customers with the latest trends and products available.
Be open and honest: Social media provides you with a way to communicate honestly about your ideas, successes and on occasion deficiencies. Your network will appreciate the level of intimacy in your communications, which will in turn help build trust and loyalty.

Don’t hesitate to solicit feedback and educate your customers through social media. Your open and honest approach will encourage loyalty, a key to your success. Head into fall with a new outlook and a refreshed social media strategy, it is never too late to get back to basics.

What social media basics are you using? Do you have any other social media tips you would like to contribute? Please share your comments below.