Tag: target audience

#AwesomeStorytelling – Share Your Triumphs! What Pain Points Have You Solved?

The trick to telling your brand story lies in understanding that followers are more interested in themselves than they are in your company. You might have an engaging story full of action, compassion or impact but the key is telling it in a way that inspires, motivates or empowers the reader. 

It’s not a new concept in marketing – the idea is to highlight benefits, not features. How does what you provide benefitthe client or consumer? Getting inside the head of your audience means first understanding who your target audience actually is. Once you’ve figured that out, you need to find out how to reach them. One way to do that is to uncover their pain points.
People make purchases for a couple of reasons mainly for either pain or pleasure. Parting with our money means making tough choices. Is it worth the enjoyment I will get out of it? Or will it solve a problem that I need resolved? If you can convince the reader that you are a solution to a problem causing them pain, then the battle is already over. 
When crafting the stories you will share with the world, are you showcasing how your product or service will ease their pain and solve their problems? Don’t assume that putting together these case studies comes off as bragging or tooting your own horn – a well-crafted tale will be about the happy client and not the company. It is also all a business needs to close that next sale. Exercise your storytelling abilities by demonstrating your success and triumphs in your content and social media.
How many ways can you spin this yarn? Post the case studies onto your website for easy access. Be sure to incorporate your willing clients so that followers can get the perspective of your pleased customers. Make a video with your satisfied client, interviewing them or just asking them about their experience with your business. Collect testimonials and post them everywhere, create custom graphics to share these moments in your social. Turn the case studies into blog posts that you can post and share. Create a presentation filled with these stories that you can post on Slideshare or rotate on a screen at your place of business. The opportunities are endless for demonstrating that your company provides solutions!
It’s time to let people know that you exist to fill a need and that you are passionate about the services you provide. You can preach about your products and services, and how wonderful they are, all day long but that doesn’t mean your audience cares. Give them a reason to care by showing them how hiring you will make their lives better. That’s how you elevate your brand and continue to #BeAwesome at what you do!




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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.

#BuildYourTribe – Who Are Your Influencers?


Identifying the influencers that impact your tribe is not a complicated task. It requires interaction, paying attention, focusing on what makes them tick, and what piques their interest. These influencers will automatically be gathering the types of clients and customers you want. The largest benefit to this is that they will have their own large tribe of people that might also be interested in what you have to offer. Building a relationship with both your influencers and the individuals that influence your target audience will open up opportunities for growth that you would find both difficult and time consuming to do on your own.
Here are three steps to help you find and engage with your influencers.
  • You need to understand your community.
    This includes your customer base, clients, power partners, followers and brand advocates. Research your target audience. Educate yourself on their demographic, psychographic, and social media preferences. Be prepared to engage based on their wants and needs in the market they’re interested in (make sure you are completely mobile-friendly, for instance). Get to know your customers. This is part of building your tribe. Once you find them, pay attention to what they are following. Who influences them? Where are they finding support and inspiration? What information are they sharing with their own audiences?
  • Now that you know your tribe and you’ve targeted your audience, you need to where to promote your business, product or service. Your observations should show you where your tribe congregates, so make sure you’re there. Which hashtags are the most popular, what social media shares do they engage in with your posts, etc. are very important. Start building both an online presence and awareness for your signature programs. Before you go courting your influencers, it is vital that you have a handle on your brand and what you bring to the table.
  •  Find your influencers and the people that influence your audience. Follow them. Pay attention to what content they are posting and actively engage with it and make your existence known. This can be a slippery slope since you don’t want to come off as spammy or appear to be poaching from their client base. This works best when you locate an influencer that has a similar audience to you but offers a non-competing product or service. This would be an excellent potential power partner for you and allow you both to refer to one another. Share their content, engage with them, and make your brand stand out. Ask to do a guest post or interview them for your blog/podcast/YouTube channel. This is a nice reciprocal move as you will both gain more online presence and expand your reach.

 

Keep in mind that any influencer you cold contact will need to benefit from having a business relationship with you. Any influencer is an essential member of your tribe. If you abuse the connection, their influence could swing in the other direction, so keep that in mind.
Follow these three steps and you’ll find your influencers are just waiting for you to connect with them. Be patient, listen, and most of all learn what makes your tribe tick so you can utilize that information to #BeAwesome at what you do and continue to grow your own list and funnel.

 

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.

 

#GiftYourBusiness – The Gift of Clients

This week we are going to talk about another way you can #GiftYourBusiness for the holidays. This is, traditionally, a pretty slow time of year for a lot of businesses. Retail aside, many consumers are more focused on the hustle and bustle of the holiday season than they are about anything else. Here are some tips to help you keep filling that funnel anyway. Give your company the gift of new clients!
Find Your Audience
When you just begin to generally market your business, you are hitting a lot of people that simply are not the right audience for you. That’s just a waste of time, money and effort. In order to maximize the potential of generating quality leads and winning new work, you have to spend time narrowing down your focus.
With online marketing, the goal is to figure out who your target audience is and where they are most likely to spend their time. There are a lot of social media platforms and online communities out there. However, just because one of them is a big name doesn’t mean they are going to be a hot ticket venue for what you do.  The key is to understand what each site excels at and then determine if that is a good fit for your business. Don’t dilute your efforts by trying to be everything to everyone. You’ll just get overwhelmed and that’s not productive.
Become Your Client
Take some time to really consider your ideal lead. What do they search for online? What hashtags would they use on Twitter? What groups would they join on Facebook or LinkedIn? What influencers would they follow? What type of events would they sign up for?
These questions will help lead you to places where people are already in the right frame of mind to listen to what you have to offer.  It will also give you a much better insight on the keywords that will work best so you can incorporate SEO into everything you do online.
Now Engage
Once you now where to find your prospects it’s time to start engaging. However, don’t just go in there guns blazing. Promoting yourself too heavily or coming off too strong is the best way to push leads away. Start small. Start liking posts, sharing, or re-tweeting. Leave a comment on something they’ve posted to start a conversation. Team up with some influencers and collaborate. This will establish your expertise in the field and give you more credibility.  Do some prospecting and make some connections.
Then, once you’ve dipped your toes in the water, start sending a few messages. Don’t overdo it. If you work this process well, interested potential clients will reach out to you.  This is not only more effective, it saves you time.
Track Your Progress
There are plenty of different tools available to track your effectiveness. Most of them are free. Use them. Just because your gut says Facebook is the place to be doesn’t mean that the numbers will agree. This will allow you to continually fine tune and adjust your plan. There is no point wasting effort on a site that just isn’t producing results.
Follow Up
Often, this is where many businesses drop the ball. Yes, it is time consuming to input all of these leads into your CRM database. Developing a landing page or an email newsletter list involves investing up front. However, all of the progress you’ve made to this point is a complete waste if there isn’t adequate follow through. If you don’t have time to make it happen, hire someone who does.
Yes, it seems like a lot of work. However, if you are doing the preparation on your own it could not cost you a thing. Unlike traditional methods of marketing and advertising, there is no budget required. Just time. And if you effectively utilize some of the time management techniques from our last blog post, you could free up the time to really go out there and sign up new work! 
It can be easy to get buried in the day-to-day tasks and projects of running your business. Take some time this month to really think about how you can best #GiftYourBusiness and make next year the best one yet! And remember to #BeAwesome.
~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

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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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