Have you thought about using Pinterest in your marketing? Here is why you should consider it.
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Your customer has a question…
There is no excuse for not engaging with customers on social media | Your customer has a question…
Data Rules the World (but not the way you think it does)
As humans, we are unique beings. We have a brain and a heart. We have emotions and feelings. We use our senses to help us make decisions about a person when we meet them. What do they look like? Are they dressed nicely or are they disheveled? Do they smile? How hard do they shake your hand? Do they look you in the eye? We use past experiences. Do they remind you of someone else that you had a good or bad experience with? Do they work for a company you like or one that you don't? We use other information. In what context are you meeting them? Did someone else give you a heads up about this person? We use all of this data to make a determination about another person. And it is the same with businesses. Our audience uses all of these things to make a determination about whether to do business with companies. What will they think of you? Think of your business 'courting' new customers. What is your appearance? Is your website neat and user-friendly? Or is it sloppy and loud? How do you sound? Do you use colloquialisms in your marketing? Or do you sound like a legal contract? Do you look people in the eye? Do you meet people where they are? Or do you come at them from an angle? How hard do you shake their hand? Are you 'in their face'? Or are you more subtle? Do you smile? Is your marketing light and welcoming? Or dark and off-putting? Did a friend tell your customer target about you? Do you know who your company's advocates are? And are you engaging with them? These are all things you need to think about when you are creating your marketing. And it is ok to get a second opinion. We all get tunnel vision about our own businesses and our own work. If you are looking for that second opinion, contact me to learn how I can help.
5 Ways to make Every Piece of Content Count
These days we are all moving a million miles an hour. For small business owners, you don't have time to worry about creating a ton of content to feed your various marketing channels. Between social media, your website, possible newspaper or magazine ads...it can be a full-time job. And if you don't have a full-time creative team, you need to find ways to make the most of the content you are creating. And how in the heck to find more great content? There are ways to get the most bang for your content so that you can spend more time running your business and less time tracking down and creating valuable content. FOCUS What is the use in creating content that won't resonate with the correct audience? As a small business owner, you should know who your customers are. What do they like? What are their pain points? What makes them happy? How do they get their information? Are they digital savvy or prefer traditional media? Large organizations with full marketing teams often create personas for their target audience. If you don't have the resources to go through this exercise, one good way to know is to just ask your customers. Use this information to help you focus your content - the topics, the channels, and the design. OPTIMIZE You have spent the time to make sure that the content you are sharing will appeal to your audience, that is it on brand, accurate and looks good. Then what do you do with it? Throw it on your website? Create a social media post to promote it? Send it out in an email? You have to think about what surrounds your content. If it is on your website, are you putting alt tags on your images? Are you using keywords to help with SEO? For social media, are you using hashtags that will help your content get seen by more eyeballs? For email, make sure your subject lines make your customers want to open your communication. CHUNK IT The best part of different types of content is the ability to take large amounts of content and chunk it up into smaller...