by Karen Petrauskas | Mar 25, 2020
Social media should always be part of your marketing strategy as a business owner however with the country on lock down, now, more than ever, is the time to get your message out there and to be giving value to everyone you meet ‘online’.
Without the ability to mix in social gatherings, it can become a lonely place and people are finding ways to break the boredom, frustration and changes ahead. Being online will be the first point of call for many who are trying to stay up to date with the world, stay in touch with friends and family and continue as normal as possible.
So where and how does your business fit in to the mix?
Many people are asking the questions, “Should I pull back from social media?” / “I haven’t got the money to put into marketing at the moment” / “There’s no need to promote my business at this time”. All valid questions or thoughts but at the end of the day, you have a business you believe in, the world will go on and come through the Coronavirus at the other end and you want to be in the forefront of people’s minds when that time happens. By disappearing and being unseen through these times, it will make it harder to have an impact when things start to get back to normal.
The best thing your business can do is to keep an active social media presence but perhaps change the tone of what you do. For example, how can you help your audience? How could you provide value to your audience? Could you provide tutorials or how-to’s? Can you inspire or motivate your audience or be a listening ear to the questions or thoughts they have?
There are many ways that you can still communicate with your audience online, it doesn’t have to be about selling your product or getting them to use your services, the above ideas will help to build a relationship with the people around you and to build trust and credibility. You just need to be you – YOU are your brand and the people (eventually) will buy from you when they like and trust what they see and hear.
Tell your story
Relationship building and story telling is so important throughout your marketing ventures, whether that be online or offline, people want to trust who they connect with and love what they see. Tell your story, be honest in what’s happening around you at this time. People are happy to listen and engage when it’s something real – in the long term they will not appreciate you being something you’re not and giving them false hopes of what they will get from you.
Be passionate and positive
Be passionate in everything you do, be inspirational and lift people’s spirits. These are hard time for lots of people and many are seeing their businesses fall around them. How can you be their ray of light? Even if you don’t feel like it’s going great for you, you can still take the positive mindset and believe that if you push through and do all that you are able to do, it will be ok and your business will come through the other end. Mindset has so much to do with outcomes – do you agree? The more positive you are through a situation, the better the result. And that can be applied to your business in these times of lock down, isolation and worrying days. Make the decision to be positive, to be brave, and to try new things as we go through a different way of life for a while. You may try something completely new and it works! You’d never know unless you try.
Bring your audience with you in the journey
Step out of the boat, put your best face on and be there for your audience. Explain to them where you’re at, bring them along with you in your story, make them part of the journey. Allow your audience to help guide the direction of where your business heads, your customers are your lifeline, they are the people that are going to keep your business afloat, so give them what they want and allow their reactions and decision to influence yours.
There is room for everyone online
Social media marketing is a minefield as you may well know by now, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t play the game right and fairly. The internet is a big place and there is room for everyone, you just need to know how and where you fit in. And with many businesses pulling back in their online presence there will be more opportunity for you to be heard, if it’s done correctly and sensitively. Know your audience, know when and where to post, understand them and what their pain points are, get to love them and be in their shoes when writing your copy or creating your images, be that customer and create your content as if it were for you. What would you want to hear? What solutions would help you? What inspiration would help you or guide you?
Make a list of questions that your audience could be asking and write content around these, dig deeper into the mindset of your customers and provide as much value as you can for them and let them think that you are writing directly to them.
Each of us will be going through different struggles in these unprecedented times, the country, the nation, the world is all going through it together, so you are not alone. It’s just going to be a case of what can you do now to keep your business alive and help it to come out the other side?
It’s all in the marketing strategy
Plan your marketing well. Don’t live in the hope that it might work, be strategic in your approach and use your time wisely in creating a plan that will help you achieve all that you need to, while speaking to all those you need to and by providing all the value and solutions that you are able. Be consistent, be persistent and love your audience.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to get your business through these times and showcase what you have to give, we’d love to chat with you. Feel free to get in touch and let’s talk.
Download our FREE social media 2020 awareness days calendar and give your audience something to talk about! …
by Karen Petrauskas | Mar 13, 2020
Online marketing is an extremely important aspect of raising brand awareness and seeing business growth and in this digital age a business should understand the value of using social media to create the best results. If you’re a business looking to increase its social media reach and engagement rates, you can look no further than your own in-house employees. The perfect people to share your enthusiasm and create a buzz around your content, with the inside information and a wider network reach.
People often get frustrated with the difficulty on creating enthusiasm on their social channels and engagement can be hard to achieve but with the help of the very people that also love your business, you can start to build the interaction you need and create a better reach of audience.
Ask your employees
The first step in the process is to get your employees or team members on board with your vision. Share with them your objectives in using social media and ask them to follow your social channels. If they follow your profiles, they are more likely to see your content and in turn, engage with it. If they like what they see, they are more likely to interact and share which means that their audience is then in the running for seeing your content also. In just that small step, you are increasing your audience’s reach.
Make it easy for them to follow, share with them your business @handles so they can easily find you. If you’re using Facebook, they can even choose to ‘see first’ so that your content is the first posts they see when viewing their news feed.
Understand the stats
When it comes to reach, personal profiles have 5x more reach than business accounts. And on average a person has approx. 1,090 connections, it makes sense to use employees to help spread the word of your brand.
Your business profiles are not going to get the same amount of traffic as a personal profile so you have genuine reason to ask your team members to help out – after all they want to see you business grow too, right?
Facebook’s algorithm is looking for meaningful engagement, this means proper comments (not one-word answers!), tags and shares. Therefore try to encourage people to give proper answers or comments and to want to share your content, Facebook will recognise these efforts and award you for it.
With 3.5 billion social media users across the globe, you can’t argue that it’s a great resource to use. And this usage is forever increasing. At the moment that figure represents 45% of the world’s population! Recent stats also suggest that on average people are spending around 3 hours a day on their chosen social channels and messaging. You could say that the people are becoming addicted and obsessed with social media, but that goes in the favour of the business looking to promote and get in touch with their audience.
Incorporate your employees
What better way to get your team to engage with the content than to create videos or images that tell their story or feature them. Social media is all about telling a story, sharing what a brand is about and what value it can offer its customers. Therefore a video that talks about behind the scenes, team member intros, what’s going on in the office etc, is always a great step in the right direction and gives your employees an opportunity to want to share your content. If they see themselves online, they’ll want their friends and family to hear about it and this has a ripple on effect; the more their friends will also start to engage and share the content. The more people interacting with your content, the more people it’s going to reach.
Which social platforms should you use?
We love this example from Buffer which shows the popularity of the social channels for businesses
You can see the top channels and compare that to what you already use in your business. But you also need to ask the question: where will you find your audience and which channels do they use, as this should be the starting block of where you focus your marketing efforts. Be where the people are, find the sweet spot of your audience and then ask your employees to help you raise the profile, create the buzz and help build that relationship of trust and longevity.
Find your internal influencers
For larger organisations it may be easier to accomplish this, however whatever size your business there will be people around you who are good social media and have an influential following on their profiles. When you identify these people, use them! Ask them to promote your products, ask them to do a video review of your brand/products/services, use their influence to help boost your engagement.
Social media is full of influencers, you only have to log in to your favourite platform and you’ll see them, but businesses can use the power of micro-influencers just well as the big guns. These people are more personal, approachable and realistic in their genuine love to help a brand. And by looking internally to your own team members or employees you may just have some connections within reach. Don’t be afraid to ask your employees if they have ideas or suggestions too that will bring your social media to life – the more heads to the table, the more ideas and impact you’re going to achieve.
Social media hacks
There are many things that you can do to increase your social media presence and often we don’t realise that there are a whole range of other ways out there that we may not have considered. Try everything that people offer you; we learn from all trials and experiments that we work on and incorporate in our marketing plans. Here’s a great article from Larry Kim over at Mobile Monkey that will help you with your organic social media hacks.
When it comes to raising the profile of your brand, don’t be afraid to speak to as many people as you need to, to engage and interact in conversations that could lead to influential power or to simply state what you need and hope that your team are on board to help you make that happen. Teamwork is always the best direction, together you can make this happen!
If you’re struggling with raising the profile of your brand or need advice on how to take your social media further, our team of content creators would love to help. Contact us today and let’s talk.
In the meantime, why not download our FREE social media checklist to ensure you’re heading in the right direction – don’t forget the basics!
by Team KJP | Mar 6, 2020
How often do you come to write your content and find yourself hitting a brick wall? You’ve set aside time to put pen to paper but you simply have writer’s block! How do you get around that or how do you make the writing process easier when you’re on a tight schedule?
Find inspiration around you
Start to notice the things going on around you and take note of what other people are doing or share about. Use other people’s experiences to give you ideas and inspiration. All you need is an idea or a seed and you’ve got something to start from.
Plan ahead
Take a few moments every week to make a list of relevant topics or titles which you can use another time. Research what is trending, what other people are writing about and most importantly, what your audience will want to read or hear about. Your content should be relevant to the people who are likely to read it so they can gain the value and insight from what you have to say.
Keep a notebook
One of the best ways to never find yourself with writer’s block is to keep a notebook with you all the time and to jot down ideas as you think of them. Someone may ask you a question which you could later turn into a blog post. You may see something on an advertising board that gives you an idea about a series of ‘how to’s’ or tutorials. You may be in a coffee shop and find inspiration from the conversations that you hear. In all these situations, you don’t need to write a load of content there and then but make a note in your pad so that you have something to write about the next time you sit down to put your content together.
Research
When you hit writer’s block, hit the research button! Spend some time looking at other reputable businesses and industry leaders to see what topics are hot at the moment. Use Twitter to see what questions people are asking or what people are searching for – what’s popular and what subjects need to be addressed.
Research is a good process to go through regularly anyway, whether you have writer’s block or not – it keeps you up to date and in touch with those around you.
Ask your audience
What better way to give your audience the content they want to hear by asking them the question.
Ask them: what do they want to know about \ what would they like to learn \ what would inspire them \ what would help them in their business or life situations?
Gain insight directly from the people who the content is for. If you’re asking them what they need and you’re writing content to accommodate, they will come back for more.
When you hit writer’s block if can be an extremely frustrating time however with planning and keeping your eyes open to what is around you, it becomes easier to overcome. Have processes in place that when you get to a time when you are drawing a blank on content, you’ve already got a backup plan to help you through.
Keeping on top of social media content and regularly posting to a blog takes time and effort. If you’re using a multiple of social channels and are committed to providing valuable content to your audience, it can be a lot of content to write! Try to keep your message from going stale, keep relevant to your audience and be sure to be giving them content that helps them. If you’re providing value, you’ll have loyal followers, you’ll grow your audience and (hopefully) grow your business.
Remember that in everything you do, refer back to your initial marketing strategy and keep to your goals – long and short term – in order to measure what works, what you are achieving and the direction you are heading.
If you still find yourself hitting writer’s block and you know that writing is simply not your thing – talk to us about our content marketing packages.
Why not download our FREE Awareness Days Calendar to see if the day you’re stuck, there is something you could write about – at least you’ll be on trend!
by Team KJP | Feb 27, 2020
Where do you start when marketing your business online? Do you struggle with getting a relevant, interesting and authentic message across? Do you find it difficult to come up with content that doesn’t repeat everything else you say?
Sometimes when a marketing message goes stale, we need to take a step away to refresh, recharge and revisit our mission statement. What we think we are saying, what we really say and the way that message comes across can be completely different things. Do you find yourself in the trap of repetition and regurgitating the same content over and over again? It’s time to freshen up!
Go back to basics
Go back to the drawing board, it’s time to brainstorm.
Start at the very beginning of your mission statement and the values that you hold, the things that are most valuable to you and your business. What is it that drives you forward, that gives you the motivation to do what you do? These are the fundamental elements that glue your business together and make you want to succeed. And these are essential parts that your audience need to know about when getting to know who you are and what your brand about.
Start the storyboard
Moving from your mission and values, start to set the scene and tell the story of where you’ve come from to where you are now. Everyone loves a story and for you to be authentic and unique will set you apart from the competition. Get the story rolling by sharing the heart behind your mission, the thought process of why you do what you do, the emotional angle of what’s precious to you. And then you can move on to the services you offer, why you offer them, what products you have, what value you give, what people can get from you and everything that physically makes up your business. By now your brainstorm should have lots of parts to it, all different aspects relating to the make up of your business.
Now you can start to link them together and begin to pull a common thread through it all. All these things together are what you’re going to share with your audience. You don’t just have one message to share but lots of multifaceted aspects that make up your brand.
Your message will not have a chance to go stale when you constantly go back to the basics, revisit the drawing board and brainstorm regularly to bring new ideas and visions to the table.
New content with new ideas
Once you have the ideas flowing and you’ve got everything that says what your business is about, you’ve got an opportunity to create some new content to go with it.
- Blog posts
- Newsletters
- Ebooks/Books
- Social media content
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Videos/vlogs
How can you put your message into the above types of content? It’s about getting creative and sharing your message in different ways. Jump behind the scenes and share a video about what’s happening/ what’s going on/ your team/ your network/ your office. Interview people or create a podcast, this could give an opportunity to work with industry professionals – it’s not necessarily you doing all the speaking but it’s giving value and a variety to your audience. How much more engaging can a video or podcast be rather than a simple blog post? Both varieties have their merit but by doing both blog and video you automatically have two types of content that you can use across your social media, which you can then re-purpose and use again and again.
Once you’ve written a blog post, how many images or types of posts (i.e. infographics / how tos etc) can you create that share a similar message which you can use across your channels? Re-posting the same blog image could get repetitive but 5 or 6 different images that relate to the same thing will give a variety to your readers and your audience.
Complacency
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of what’s always work should always work – but that’s simply not the case, especially in a fast paced online world where there is so much competition and fight for attention. There is no place for complacency. You may be comfortable, you may love what you do, but are you seeing measurable results from it? If the answer is no, you’re just wasting valuable time that could be better invested in your business. Try not to sit on the fence hoping that something will change ‘soon’, if it’s not working, something needs to give. Go back to the drawing board and figure out what your message is truly about and give your marketing some fresh substance for people to get a hold of.
At the end of the day, your message needs to be fresh, consistent, inline with your values and mission and giving value to your audience. If it doesn’t meet these needs, you’re going to struggle to make it work. Use this opportunity to get creative in your marketing, to relight the fire and passion about what your business is about and to think of new ways of getting the attention of your audience. What is it they want to see, what do they want to hear that will solve their pain points? Be there in the forefront of their minds, show up when no one else does and give purpose to your brand. If you love it and share that zeal, then other’s will catch on and be there with you.
If you’d like to chat over your marketing plans or strategy or simply know that it’s time to outsource your social media marketing to a team that want you get results – and know how to get them!, we’d love to talk. Contact us today for an initial consultation.
In the meantime if you’d like some inspiration on what to talk to your audience about, why not download our FREE 2020 Awareness Days Calendar – and start the conversations today!
by Karen Petrauskas | Feb 20, 2020
When it comes to marketing a brand, business owners are faced with a wide variety of social media platforms to choose from. But how do you know which ones to use or which ones go with your brand?
There are way too many platforms for a small business to be able to use them all and to be effective in their marketing, unless of course, they have a dedicated marketing team working full-time. But this is not usually the case when it comes to smaller businesses or start-up companies.
Always start small
Just like word of mouth marketing, everything has to start somewhere, from that first conversation or first form of communication, the word gets out slowly and reputations are grown. The same goes for your social media marketing. Start small and experiment with different platforms little by little. Don’t go all in the first time you dive in; it will be hard to keep up and to be consistent in your approach
Instead work with your audience and which platforms produce results, which platforms house your ideal audience and demographics. Where is your audience most likely to be found?
If you’re a B2B or a B2C business, you will have different audiences, and these people will want to see and hear different types of content. Which platform would give you the best traction and where (after you’ve tried a little) do you find the best results?
Measure everything
In order to know what is working and what’s not, measuring the results is a must. Constantly watch and monitor what is going on around you. This can be done with a simple spreadsheet or notepad when first starting out. What’s happening in your industry and what can you do to jump on the trends? When you jump onto something that works, you’ll have more measurable results. But take note of everything you do, especially when first starting out. It can be easy to jump from one platform to another without really gauging an idea of whether it is working for your business. It may be a platform that you enjoy personally, but it is a platform that your audience will be found on?
Practice makes perfect
Not everything will work for you the first time around, it doesn’t mean that you’re in the wrong place, but it does mean that you may need to tweak or adjust your approach or even the type of content. If you see results straight away, that’s great! But it doesn’t always happen that way and it’s not a reason to be discouraged. Practice does make perfect and the more you get to know your audience, the content they want to see and the information and type of posts they enjoy the most, the better your results will be.
Stick to what works
When you’ve tried the different platforms and you’ve measured your results, stick with the platform(s) that produce the best results. The worst thing you can do it to spread yourself too thin. By thinking that you need to be on every social platform out there and creating a hundred posts a week will not work! It will cause you disappointment and probably lead to burnout. Focus on what works and leave the other social channels behind. They’ll still be there when your business grows and has the capacity to produce more content but until then it’s better to do one thing well than to do ten things badly. You will lose customers and a good reputation if you do not stick to what your audience is looking for. Give them what they want, produce valuable content and resources and gain their respect and attention for the right reasons. You will grow your audience by building trust. People buy from people they know, like and trust but that must be earned. You will see the most effective results when you do one or two things well and put your efforts into those things.
How often should you post on social media?
This is a big question and one that we are asked a lot! But again, this comes down to the individual business and their owners. It can come down to time, resources, expertise and content.
The average recommended posting schedules can be determined as the below, but remember, you are only going to choose the platforms that perform well for your business, you will not have time for all of them, so don’t panic just yet!
- Facebook pages: 1-2 per day
- Twitter: 3-10 times per day
- Instagram: 1-3 times per day
- Instagram / Facebook Stories: 2-5 times per day
- Pinterest: 3-20 times per day
- LinkedIn Pages: 1-2 times per week
Unless you have a big marketing team behind you, you’ll never keep up with a schedule like this and do it well at the same time. Always focus on where your audience is, what they react to and interact with and the type of content that drives the most engagement.
Your audience knows best and you should try to be where they are to impact their thinking and decisions. Where are they on the buying cycle and which platform would they be benefiting from the most? Where will they be hanging out? What type of messages do you want to give? How can you help them in their pain points and create a solution for what they need? Use the platforms as a springboard to be able to speak to individuals direct.
What does each platform represent?
To name a few of the most popular ones:
Facebook – the largest of all social media platforms, Facebook is a place for people to connect and network with family and friends, and to engage with business groups and apps.
Twitter – this platform is mainly for news, entertainment, sports, politics and a more. It has a strong emphasis on real-time information and the things that are happening right now.
Instagram – this social platform is a photo and video sharing social media app. It allows you to share a wide range of content such as photos, videos, Stories, and live videos.
LinkedIn – this is a professional networking platform, more than just an online CV as many people think. It’s a place where industry professionals can connect and expertise can be sought and found, along with a place for people to establish themselves as a thought leader in the online world.
Pinterest – is a place where you can find inspiration and help on almost any topic and where brands can put ideas in front of buyers, helping them to make decisions about their purchases.
So, with all the platforms out there, where can you see your business fitting in? What audience do you want to reach or attract? What type of content do they want to see or hear from you and where would be the best place to put that content?
The main point to consider is to only focus on what works and to build your online presence around that. Be confident in what you create, be thoughtful in your approach and put a strategy behind every piece of content you create and schedule into your marketing plan. Your business will grow and produce good results when it finds its place in the online market. No ‘one-size fits all’ when it comes to social media marketing, although it is good to keep an eye on what’s going on around you! But your values and goals make your business unique. And you have a duty of care to your audience and your business to be true to who you are and to who you are trying to reach.
If you’re still struggling to work out which social platforms work for your business, maybe it’s time to consider a social media audit or a strategy plan in order to start on the right track. We’d love to talk to you if you’d like to learn more – together we can do this! Contact us today and let’s talk.
In the meantime, if you’re starting out in your social media marketing and often forget where you are or what you’re doing, why not download our FREE social media checklist – Don’t forget the basics! We’re here to help and that’s exactly what we love to do.
Time to get social… have fun and we will hopefully speak soon.
by Team KJP | Feb 13, 2020
In order to understand how content marketing can impact a business, we need to understand what content marketing is and the benefits it can have on business owners.
What is content marketing?
According to the dictionary, content marketing is defined as: A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.
Another way of looking at it, is how the Content Marketing Institute put it: Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
The main thing to remember is that content marketing is about being educational and not all about selling a product.
What is content marketing good for?
The reasons we look to content marketing is not ultimately to promote a product but about building a brand and reputation. Here are some other reasons:
- To build an engaged and interested audience – making sure that you’re taking the people that you want to speak to and not generalising at anyone that will listen.
- To educate customers – teaching your customers or potential customers about your business or industry.
- To increase sales in the long-term.
- To build a loyal customer base and create a brand that people will know, love and trust.
What do people know about your brand?
If you search Google or the search engines for you / your business, what do you find?
This can be a great exercise as you get to see what other people can find out about you.
Do you like what you find? Are you surprised by the results that you find?
By building on your content marketing, you can start to create a base and substance for what people are going to find when they do their due diligence and research your business. You can start to get control over the content people find about you. And the more good content you create, the more reputable your business will become.
Practice – Patience – Persistence
It can be easy to get worked up when you don’t get it right all the time but that’s just part of the process (and a part of life!). Not everyone is good at creating great content, but you will get better if you keep practicing, have patience and are persistent in your approach.
Results will happen when you have patience. But you have to be consistent and persistent. Don’t forget that if you really find that you’re not great after all at content marketing, there are people there ready to help. Outsourcing marketing is a common occurrence and just means that you’re looking after the interests of your business, focusing on what you do best and allowing an expert to take care of the other stuff.
Understand your business goals
Producing content for the sake of it will not get you anywhere fast, it will just increase stress, workload and worry about not producing results. Every piece of content should be created with a business goal in mind. Although this may seem a long process, for everything you produce, ensure that it aligns with a business goal and establish how it is going to benefit your long or short-term goals.
Consider your business goals, where do you ultimately want to get to, and think about how your content can contribute towards achieving them…
- Raising brand awareness
- Build an email list / customer base
- Provide a good customer journey and experience
- Upsell existing customers
- Help customers to be an advocate of your brand
Understand your mission and values
Just as you did with your business goals, each piece of content has got to be in line with your mission and values. There is absolutely no point in creating content that goes against what you believe, or doesn’t sit right with the people you want to reach, or even with the values that you promote. Your content needs to true to what your brand is about.
Consider your values or mission and how your content can contribute towards aligning with these:
- Who can you help the most with your content?
- What type of information can you provide?
- What is the desired outcome with the content that you’re producing?
What type of content can you use?
There are a wide range of resources that you can use to create your content marketing ideas, way to many to list but back to what we said at the beginning, all content must be educational or informational – not selling a product. Therefore the list can begin with:
- Books / ebooks
- Webpages / websites
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Blogs
- How to’s
- Surveys
And the list can go on. There is so much content that you create to build your brand, without directly selling.
But the question may come down to what you love to do, what you enjoy doing, what makes you smile and sits right with you personally. Looking at the list about, what jumps out at you and makes you think “yes I can produce that”? These are the things you need to start with. It doesn’t have to be hard, it just has to be true to your brand.
The more you start to think about writing or creating content that adds value rather than selling, the easier it will become. In all you do, the audience should feel like they’re receiving value, or being looked after.
Implementing the process
Once you’ve established what content marketing is how you can add value to your audience, it comes down to implementing it into your marketing strategy. Social media plays a big part in today’s society in reaching a wide and engaging audience and is often the best way to market to your customers. Build your content ideas into your social media strategy, creating a solid foundation for your business to gain respect, become reputable and trusted within your chosen niche. The more solid and authentic your content is, the more people will become to trust you, in turn becoming loyal and valued customers.
As we mentioned before, great content can increase your brand awareness, it can help build an audience that is interested in what you are about and ultimately it can lead to long-term sales and business growth.
If you’d like to get started with content marketing but are still unsure of how to get off the ground, or would like to look at outsourcing, we’d love to chat with you. Contact us today – let’s talk marketing!
And in the meantime if you’re looking to create engaging content around some of the issues that are important to your audience, why not download our free 2020 Awareness Days Calendar – it’s always good to have new ideas to share!
We look forward to hearing from you.
