Tag: Marketing

Celebrate Your Marketing Goals

As a small business owner with an eye on success, you sat down late last year or at the beginning of the year and decided on some goals for your business. A good portion of these were probably marketing goals. Midway through the year is the perfect time to evaluate those goals, make any necessary shifts or changes, and celebrate your wins!

Share Your Successes

Every time you hit a marketing milestone, it’s a big deal! We encourage you to pause, take a moment, and really celebrate that accomplishment. And don’t just pat yourself on the back in the dark, share your success with your audience! They want to honor you and celebrate with you. Your milestones will not only keep you motivated to do more, be better as a business but they can also inspire others who respect and admire the good you are doing in the world. Use your social media channels to share your successes and what they mean for the future of your business and your community.

Share Your Testimonials

Always ask for feedback. After every completed project, sale, or class – reach out and ask for feedback from your customers. Not only will this help you tweak your offerings and make them better, they are a great way to share with the world the impact of what you do. Every time you collect a testimonial – whether it’s via email, Google, Facebook, Yelp, or another platform – you can repurpose that copy by adding it to a testimonial page on your website AND by creating graphics to share on social media. Testimonials are usually evergreen as well, which means you can share them whenever and wherever you like.

Share Your Case Studies

Case studies can be truly impactful for small businesses. One of the hang-ups with getting new customers as a small business is that, typically, your brand isn’t as well-known. Putting together a case study that explores a real-world problem and your approach to solving it gives your audience and potential customers information they can use to determine whether or not you are the solution to their problem. Case studies are also great for exploring the myriad of benefits that come from working with you, your style or individual approach, and gives readers that inside look into how things work behind the scenes. If you haven’t been putting together case studies after the completion of a project or service, this is an excellent way to explore the impact you are making and to share that success with the world.

What accomplishments have you had so far this year? Taking time to jot down our achievements, our completed projects, and our passed milestones helps small business owners take much-needed time for both to acknowledge our successes, express gratitude, and make celebrating our wins a priority.

There’s still time to make waves this year with your business. Did you know that every social media platform is searchable? Each channel is its own search engine and also appears in the results of popular web browsers (like Google). Every word matters. Have you completely filled out your social media profiles? Is your messaging current? Have you optimized your opportunities to be found in search using your social media accounts? If not, now is the time to get your channels revamped! You’ll be amazed at the results. Book a discovery session here and ask us about Robust Profile Optimizations.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Setting Goals with Your Marketing

It’s a new year and that means you have a brand new chance to make an impact with your small business! You’ve gone through another year of trial and error with an even better idea of what does, and doesn’t work, when it comes to marketing your business. Now it’s time to take that information and create a plan for going even bigger this year!

First, let’s start with identifying your marketing goals.

Types of Marketing Goals

What sort of goals should you be aiming for with your marketing this year? The truth is always that this will vary based on loads of factors including type of business, industry, location, audience, and more. However, there are some tried and true recommendations for marketing goals that you can start with.

  • Online vs Offline – What percentage of the time will you dedicate to marketing yourself online? What percentage of time will you market yourself offline, such as events, networking, trade shows, speaking, and business functions?
  • Target Audience – Do you know your target audience and ideal client? If not, it’s time to figure that out. If you do, will that stay the same this year? What goals can you set to connect more with your audience?
  • SEO – What goals can you jot down that will help you be FOUND online?
  • Conversion – If you are at all interested in growing your business online, what conversion tools and goals will you set this year? (This could include websites, landing pages, social ads, or online courses.)
  • Authority – What goals will you set to increase your credibility and authority this year? Will you collect more online reviews and testimonials? Will you create original content? Will you pitch to be a guest on other blogs, podcasts, or videos?
  • Social Media Marketing – Last, but never least, what’s your goals for building your social media presence and audience?

Setting Your Goals with S.M.A.R.T. Way

Too often do I see small business owners setting goals based on what they wished would happen with no thought or data to back up whether or not their goals are even plausible. The S.M.A.R.T goals method ensures that you are selecting goals that are well thought out and built for you to be successful.

Specific – Your goals are not dreams. They need to be specific so you know what you are aiming for and can create a step-by-step for achieving it.

Measurable – If you can’t quantify the goal, how will you know whether or not you achieved it. A goal should be measurable. Once achieved, you should be able to prove that you’ve completed it so you can move on to something bigger and better.

Achievable – Goal setting only works if you are actually able to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. Becoming a million-dollar business is an admirable goal but if you don’t even have clients yet, aiming for something lower that you can build on is a better plan.

Relevant – Does your goal relate to what you are trying to build this year? Can you tie the goal into a specific result you are targeting by year-end. Why is this goal relevant to where your business is at and going this year?

This should give you plenty to think about so that you can create a marketing strategy for 2020 that works for your business.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

#AwesomeConsistency – How Consistency Makes Your Brand Stand Out

In our last post, we talked about why consistency is essential to your social media strategy. The focus was mostly on what your audience expects in terms of presence. However, there are many reasons why posting consistently is a game changer for your social and one of them is brand impact. Not only are you vying every day for your target audience’s attention, you are competing against other brands to earn influence and credibility as well.
With our shortened attention spans and the flood of content being directed at us daily, standing out as a brand on social media is no walk in the park. Without consistency, it is difficult to adequately get your vision across to your viewers.  If you haven’t managed to deliver this in social, you can bet someone offering something similar has cracked the code. 
The businesses that are doing this will be instantly recognized – at a glance. You don’t have to read an ad to know if it’s coming from Nike or Apple or Disney. Your peripheral vision, and this instant recognition of their brand, is enough for an audience to immediately pinpoint whose marketing it is. 
How can you switch up your social postings to make them more consistent – and instantly recognizable? 
Schedule
The first step is putting together a solid editorial calendar. Having a set schedule for your posts will help you when creating content but also helps your audience know what to expect from you. Brands can also post above and beyond what their calendar entails as long as they stick to the consistent schedule. 
Style Guide
Having an overall idea of what your brand will look like online is a good idea but having it all put together into a branding style guide is even better. If you are investing any amount of time into developing your brand, then a style guide is necessary for maintaining consistency. Here are some examples of what a style guide looks like to give you an idea of what you will need to pull together.
Tone/Voice
Writers (and copywriters) fully understand how essential developing the right tone for copy can be. Having a brand “voice” will remind you how to remain consistent. Are you sassy? Professional? Informative? If you could describe your brand in three words – what would they be? 
First you have to define your voice and then you have to ensure that you are using the same tone in all your branding. Here is an article to help you get started.
Graphics/Images
Last, but certainly not least, is developing visual content for your online presence, marketing, and social media. 
“Visual content has become so prevalent that it’s no longer just a piece of the marketing industry, but its core.”
Kimberlee Morrison
To get attention today, you have to invest in visual content. Videos, graphics, memes, infographics, slide shows – all of these are visuals. Our attention spans are ridiculously short and a brand needs high-quality, stunning, eye-catching graphics in order to grab attention and get noticed. Consistency comes into play when developing these because you want your audience to instantly recognize you, and your brand, when they glance at content you’ve created. 

If you follow these guidelines, you will find that you are already ahead of the curve when compared to much of your competition. Creating your social media strategy, so you can #BeAwesome at what you do, should involve a plan ensuring your branding is consistent across all channels. 

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!
Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

#AuthenticallyAwesome – An Authentic Branding Strategy

As a small business owner, you already understand the value of branding. If you’ve been following my blog, you’re also aware of the importance of personal branding. Now that you have the fundamentals, let’s talk about where many people go wrong with branding. We spend so much time putting together our strategy and our content that occasionally authenticity gets lost.
Have you ever come across any of the following?
  •      A brand that didn’t ring true to its own messaging?
  •      A business owner whose message felt forced?
  •      Content that didn’t seem to match up with the projected brand?
  •      Inconsistency or lack of clarity in a brand’s content?
  •      Drastic swings in message without a proper re-branding strategy?
I’m sure at some point, you’ve witnessed at least one of the above scenarios. It happens. Just because you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, doesn’t mean that you are a branding expert.
Authenticity
The path to authenticity lies in taking the time to discover who you really are. What does your company provide, what pain points does it solve, and how do you provide solutions to problems? What is your message? How do you want to present it to the world? These are the questions that have to be answered because, without this knowledge, you are not able to be authentic in your marketing.
“Authentic companies don’t try to be something they’re not, but instead recognize what they are, what they do best, and what customers value most about them.” 
Vision Critical

Consistency  
Where many businesses miss the boat is failing to remain consistent. Consistency is a vital aspect of branding. Your company, and your team, must live your brand story every day. It needs to be shared, in a variety of ways, as often as possible with your target audience. A clear, concise, consistent message will make a bigger impact than just throwing whatever out there and hoping for the best result. Understand your brand, understand your message and then develop a process where you are sharing high-quality, authentic contentwith your followers.
Brand Loyalty
Authenticity has a powerful return on investment. Honesty, integrity, and candor are highly sought after and valued. Opening up a window, allowing yourself to be a bit exposed and vulnerable, breeds trust within your audience. That trust converts into brand loyalty. Loyal brand ambassadors are the best, FREE, marketing strategy a company can have. Your tribe will not only follow and engage with you – those who trust your message will share it, whenever and wherever they can. This is the real return on being authentic in your marketing.

Don’t be afraid to shine. You have to put yourself out there. Toss aside the masks you tend to use for protection when you face the world and have faith that your authentic message will draw the right clients to your doorstep. This is a fundamental foundation to #BeAwesome with your branding.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!
Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

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