Posted in Facebook Advertising

Marketing Strategy #1

Case Study: How To Market the Energy Biz

I went to lunch with a new friend from a networking group recently. She is a Feng Shui consultant and, like many small biz owners, she’ wondering how best to market herself. She asked me about content marketing in which you pay a content company to write for your biz. The idea here is that you save time or money because you let the company research, write and stay up to date with industry trends.

I told her that for some biz’ this does very well. Given that blogs are now the primary way that people are finding out about a new biz and that businesses that blog more often enjoy a higher lead to conversion ratio, it’s a great idea. Whether it is updates or blogs being written, or even your marketing emails. To take this a step further, your content can be tailored to your biz or general for your industry (which can save you money). Continue reading →

Nurture Your Social Following

The 80/20 ruleIn our last email we emphasized building a following and then making updates constant and consistent to keep yourself and your brand fresh in fans minds. But what sort of content should you be sharing?

The 80/20 Rule

One of the essentials to a successful social strategy is to not promote so much that your followers stop paying attention. Instead you want to give your fans something to look forward to when they click that button to receive your messages.

The 80/20 Rule is a loose guideline to help you determine how much of your content should be fun, informational or interesting versus how much you should self-promote. In a nutshell, you should try to ensure that no more than 20% of your updates are focused on selling or self promotion.

Captivate and Engage

Grow your following organically when your fans want to share and interact with your updates. Stunning photography, inspirational quotes and even quirky jokes can all help keep your brand in the fore of their minds while not promoting a particular product.

You also want to engage your audience. Ask questions, interact with them and, of course, answer their questions in return. If you can, give them a stake in the outcome. It can be as simple an option as what to name a new item, or as complicated as what they would like to see in the future. Either way they feel as if their opinion is being considered..

The True Cost Of Social Media Marketing

90% of Inc. 500 companies use at least one major social media platform. And 62% say social media is either “somewhat” or “very” necessary to their growth. – Heidi Cohen

92% of small businesses say that social media is an effective marketing technology tool. They are evenly split on the effectiveness of social media for attracting new customers vs. engaging existing customers. – e-Strategy Trends

Social media is here to stay.  According to recent data from PEW Internet 73% of online adults use at least one social media service, and businesses large and small attest to the power of it to help maintain ties with existing customers and grow their client base. It allows the public to better connect with your business, and for relationships to be built over time.

While the benefits of using social media are touted, any business that is either establishing their presence or evaluating strategy for the coming year would do well to consider the following:  Continue reading →

The 2 Smartest Social Marketing Techniques

When It Comes To Biz, Are You Taking The Lead?

Ok, you’ll have to pardon the pun, but I couldn’t pass it up. That’s because social media now has the ability to add to your outbound marketing.

What?

Ok, so, in the world of marketing, we say there is inbound and outbound marketing. Traditionally everything before social was outbound because you, as the biz, had to reach out to your market. You had to try to cross their path by showing up in a magazine or newspaper they might pick up or send a mail to their address.

With website, blogs and social media, inbound marketing today means that the customer gets to choose what they see because they get to choose whether to seek your business out or not. Continue reading →

Socialize With Your Fans

following

In last week’s email we discussed how you shouldn’t be selling to potential customers. But, if you’re not selling, then how should you be marketing?

Create A Following

Rather than searching for ‘customers’ you should instead look for followers. A customer may purchase only once, but a follower is somebody who has chosen to receive your message again and again because they like what you offer, whether it’s in terms of products, information of even attitude.

Where can you find your following? Social Media! Every business, from niche brands to major corporations, can find people looking for their specific offerings among the users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Seek them out and interact, or use targeted advertisement to draw them to you, and make sure that you prominently display links on your webpages and emails.

So once you have started to build a following, what next?

Constant and Consistent

It is important that your followers, on any social channel, hear from you on a regular basis. Capture the widest audience for your updates by posting often, and vary the times so that people who are on earlier or later still receive your messages.

Another element of great updates is that they are consistent. Whether you choose to focus on informative posts, humerous anecdotes or share stories about your company, staff and products your followers will appreciate knowing what to expect when they see your message.

But what messages should you send?