New Year Strategy, A New Start For Social Media Marketing

by Karen Petrauskas | Jan 13, 2020

Another year gives new opportunities to reach new goals, set new targets and create even more success in your business than you ever have imagined before.

It’s the perfect time to revisit your business plan and the marketing strategy that you have been following over the past 12 months and to see what new strategies you can put into place for the next 12 months ahead.

If you take a step back and think about where you were this time last year, how much have you progressed or achieved in those 12 months? You may even surprise yourself, not realising that you completed so much, evaluating can be a great process to go through in order to set new goals and achieve even more in a given timeframe.

Start with business goals and objectives

If you have one long term objective for your business, what would that be? Now break that down into achievable goals that you can work towards in smaller bite-sized periods.

What steps do you need to make in order to reach each goal?
How can marketing help you get there?

SMART goals

The most essential ingredient in making sure your marketing will have a positive effect in your business goals and objectives is to ensure that you are making your goals SMART.

SPECIFIC – Focus on one clearly defined metric. Set concise goals that sum up what you want to achieve, how you will get there and by when.
MEASURABLE – Have a way to measure the outcome of your actions.
ACHIEVABLE – Make the goal achievable, attainable and realistic.
RELEVANT – Ensure the goal is going to benefit your business, relevant to your overall plan.
TIME-BOUND – Set a time that the goal should be achieved by, in line with business objectives.

When you’re setting out your marketing goals, filter them through the SMART process and direct them through each of the key points in order to create a goal that is in line with your business’s overall plan, it has benefit and purpose, it can be measured and it will maximise the impact when it is achieved. The more specific you are with your goals and how you’re going to action them, the bigger the impact will be when you get there.

When we break down each goal and step, we can give it proper recognition and attention. Our marketing efforts can then be broken down even further to match our goals and ensure we give each point its own marketing funnel.

Make social media marketing fun!

The clue is in the name “social”. Your online marketing should be enjoyable, not a chore, and play a part in showcasing and allowing potential customers to discover who you are, along with getting to know more about you.

What do you love about your business? Shout about it!
What do you want customers to know about you? Share it!

When you put real life emotion and authenticity into your voice, people get to know the person behind the brand, giving them opportunity to love what you’re about – eventually getting into your sales/lead funnel that will help you grow your business.

Make social media engaging

When you’re having fun and sharing what’s important to you and the business, entice people to engage with your content. And this often needs to be spelled out – they don’t necessarily know to take action, unless you ask them to.

Ask them to click through to your website, to drop a comment, to give feedback, to give opinion. People are more likely to engage when they’re invited to do so. And think about what you want them to do when they do engage, where do you want them to end up and what expectation do you have from them seeing your post?

Social media is all about the engagement. You could have 100 likes on a Facebook post just because an image looks pretty but are they actually engaging with the message you’re giving and are they ready to take action from that piece of content? How can you change the way you say something or the look / feel of your content to catch their attention for the better, and reach your ‘ideal’ audience?

Create a social media strategy

In everything you do or produce within your marketing remit, there has to be a plan or strategy behind it. A marketing strategy will help you pull everything together, give you direction and clarity on who you’re targeting, who you want to reach, why you’re doing it and how you’re going to perform the actions. A strategy guides and keeps you on track and gives you the opportunity to measure results, whether successful or not and steers the path to a better result by a given time frame.

The idea behind a strategy means that you get to know, understand, love and add value to your audience. It means that you’re not wasting time doing something that has no goodness for your business but gives you the steppingstones to really dig deep into your audience, your target market and can give them exactly what they are looking for. You can provide solutions to their pain points and provide value into their situations, even when they don’t know they need it!

So, if you’re looking to start this year with a plan, purpose and a mission, how are you going to get there? Can you put strategy into your social media marketing and give this year the opportunity to take you to new heights? Yes! We love to help you get there. Contact us and let’s talk about making this year, YOUR year for business success.

And as a free gift to you, we’d like to offer our free downloadable social media checklist, just in case you’re happy to go it alone. We’d rather give you a little step up than send you away with not knowing where to get started. Enjoy 😊

6 Top Tips Small Business Owners Can End This Year On A High

by Karen Petrauskas | Dec 28, 2019

We’ve come to the end of the year and there is so much to celebrate – sometimes we do not even think things have been that great – but just take a step back and look at where you were this time last year and realise how much you have accomplished. You’ll be surprised at the growth and success you have managed to achieve – give yourself a ‘well done’ pat on the back!

And as we move into a new year, a blank canvas of opportunities and experiences, how can we ensure that we finish 2019 on a high?

Positive Thinking

This is the very first step to take in order to see self-worth and achievement. When you’re thinking clearly and positively, you are much more likely to see things in a clear and positive light. Self-confidence comes from positive thinking and when you believe in yourself and your abilities, you will achieve a great deal more! Let’s face it, if you don’t believe in yourself, who else will?

How do you feel at the end of each day? Are you stressed, anxious, happy, thankful? Working to end each day on a positive note will leave you refreshed, able to leave your business at the office while you enjoy some personal time aside from it. When you are positive, this can be an easy thing to do, if you’re stressed about something within the business, this could be a harder step to follow.

Find the balance on how to stay positive, change your mindset to allow yourself to be confident in your abilities and achievements. And know that you can do it.

Motivation

We all need a little motivation once in a while, so how can we stay motivated in order to know that we’re on the right track and have the power inside of yourself to want to push forward in the new year? It can be as easy as finding an accountability partner or business coach or finding inspiration in someone or something else to enable you to know you can keep striving. Getting and staying motivated is vital, no matter if you’re at the end of the year and wondering whether to carry on, or mid-way through striving to meet a business goal or target, without motivation we lose focus, faith and confidence in the ability of success.

If you’re not feeling the motivation at the end of this year, but know that you love what you’re doing and you’re definitely in the right place – try a new approach, network with other like-minded business people and give yourself new (achievable) goals to etch you back in. By the time the new year comes, you’ll be wondering what all the doubt was about!

Harness the power of social media

This goes without saying, for a small business owner you must be harnessing the power of social media to showcase your brand, raise your brand identity and awareness and allow people to get to know, love and trust you. YOU are what the business is about and social media is a place where people can get to know who you are, what you’re about and the behind the scenes of your business. Show off what’s happening in the office, who you’re meeting, your networking events, your team and your clients. People buy from people, word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and even if that talking is done online, people will shout about your business if they love what they see… and more importantly people will listen to those voices of opinion – make sure they’re giving a good impression!

What social platform will you find your ideal audience? That’s where you need to be visible. Get to know people, engage and start conversations and allow people to know that you’re passionate about what you do.

Have a plan for the new year

It’s all well and good just scraping through this year, but you need to know where next year will take you before it’s too late. Setting business goals, gaining momentum, having focus and creating a strategy will save a lot of wasted time and energy in the new year and will also allow you to know that you’ve got to the end of December with a clear vision of what’s next to come.

How can you create that plan for your small business? Break down the steps and plan each section:

What goals do you want to achieve by this time next year?
What do I need to do get there?
How can my marketing play a part in those goals?
How do I ensure my marketing efforts meet my business goals?

These are just a few steps that you can work through, and if you’re interested in learning more about business focus and social media strategy, ask us about our next workshop or 1-2-1 coaching. Planning is important, yes you may be able to get by without strategy, but how much more effective will you be if you plan out where you want to be and how you’re going to get there – before the time comes – so you’re ready to finish this year with a positive and motivating mindset.

Reward yourself

When you win a race, you’re given a medal. When you win a game, you receive a prize. It’s the same in business; when you do something good or if you achieve a goal, reward yourself! It doesn’t have to be something big; it doesn’t have to be something noticeable with the people around you but it’s great to feel good when something is going right. The end of the year is the perfect time to celebrate all the good things that have happened in your business. The end of the year is an ideal opportunity to recognise all the achievements you have made. Finish this year on a high, go out with bang as we head through to another twelve months and more challenges and opportunities to face. Smile, be happy, give yourself a prize for all the hard work you’ve accomplished.

Balance and Perspective

At the end of the day, there is never enough hours or manpower to get through everything you need to do, so don’t beat yourself up about it! If you stay on track and keep focused, plan out your work and reward yourself when you achieve, you’ll keep a balanced perspective. Balance and perspective are precious words as a small business owner as it can be hard to juggle life, manage work and home, knowing that you’re doing good or are on the right path. Keep these words in mind through all that you do, keep the balance through work, personal life, mindset, actions and achievements. And in all you do keep perspective on what’s right for you and your business and what makes you happy and inspired. When you’ve got balance, you’ll find peace, when you’ve got peace, you can focus on what you love to do.

Here’s to the end of 2019 – well done for all that you have achieved and have accomplished this year.

And happy new year! – Here’s to what is to come in 2020 – may you be blessed, full of joy and find happiness in all that you do.

If you’d like to discuss your marketing goals and strategy for 2020, we’d love to talk, contact us today!

New Year, New Goals To Grow Your Business

by Karen Petrauskas | Jan 23, 2019

We’re well into January now, a new year and are you ready to grab it by the horns and get stuck into goals and targets for the year ahead?

There are many things that go through your mind as the year begins but planning and getting organised is key to ensuring that your year goes to plan. What do you need to do to get your business headed in the right direction and geared towards your core values, reaching the audience that have grown to love and adding value every step of the way?

Get started with the basics and make sure that your online presence is how it should be right from the outset. When people see you online, this is often the first impression they get of your business, of your brand, and what they see will have an impact on their first impression of you. Will they like what they see? Will they be able to relate to you? Are you offering value or solutions to their questions? Are you easily contactable or easy to find on social media?

What can you do to ensure that your online presence is ready?

Website content

Make sure that your website content is the very best that it can be. This is your shopfront and the place where people come when they want to purchase your services. If you walked into a shop and found spelling mistakes on signposts or offers that didn’t match what being shouted about, or the branding was wrong, you wouldn’t trust them. The same goes for your website. Everything that is on your site needs to shout ‘your brand’, it needs to speak your voice and portray the message that you speak about on your social channels. Try not to give mixed signals or conflicting advice.

Take a step back from your website and visit it as if you were a customer. Do you like what you see? Does it make sense? Do you have good SEO in there? If you search for your business name in Google, what appears? Would you trust and buy from your site?

Check all your copy, check grammar and spelling. Ask a friend to check also if it gives you peace of mind, a second pair of eyes is always a great idea!

Grow your business in 2019 with our top 7 tips. New year and a new start - easy steps to follow to see success

Social media channels

Social media marketing is here to stay – fact. It’s not going anywhere and it’s only going to grow moving forward. A business needs to be using social media to market their business. By all means use other forms of advertising too if you are confident that the ROI is worth it, but social media needs to be your first choice.

Have you got social channels in place? Are you using them? Do you have a strategy in place to ensure that it’s all reaching towards goals and targets?

Make sure that all your social channels are branded and are linked to your website – make the customer journey as easy as possible to jump from one place to another. Customers are looking for answers and instant fixes – can they get that from your channels?

Also, the message that comes across from your social channels needs to be inviting and informative and consistent with the content on your website. If you’ve got offers coming up on your website – share them on social! Tell a story with your social channels, use them to show behind the scenes of your business and how everything comes together. Understand your customers and what they are looking for – and give them value on your social media.

Blog for business

If you don’t already have a blog on your website, now is the time to start. People are hungry for information. There is an influx of content available online and yes this does cause competition but it’s a way to really engage and reach your audience in a way that’s relevant to their needs. This is a chance to stand out from the crowd and offer more than your competitors. It’s the easiest way to keep fresh content flowing from your website and a way for search engines to know that you’re active and engaging. Be sure to incorporate SEO keywords into your content and posts. Do your own research: If you were searching for a particular topic, what keywords would you search for on Google? Use these keywords in your blog post and add them to titles and tags.

Marketing In Your Car – Listen Now!

You may not be great at writing, and as with anything, writing comes with practice. You may even find you enjoy it after a while! Set time aside on a weekly basis to write. In this new year, schedule time in your calendar specifically for this. It’s often a task that gets put on the back burner but it is so important to raise brand awareness and great for your business.

You can even outsource this task if you think it’s too much for you to commit to, just to ensure that it gets done.

Define goals

As you start the year, you may have in your mind where you want your business to go but putting everything down into a business / marketing plan that you can action and measure results against will benefit you much more. This enables you to set goals that you know you have complete. This helps you when you hit a brick wall and are stuck on where to go next. It helps you stick to schedule and complete tasks that may otherwise be forgotten. Your marketing strategy needs to be a big part of this. Clearly mapping out a strategy and plan on where you want your business to be this time next year and how you’re going to achieve that within your marketing will give you direction and clarity. Plans can be adapted along the journey and goals tweaked or extended but direction is key. Schedule goal updates on a quarterly basis to align all that’s taken place and what’s next. Plan and map out your social media marketing along with any paid advertising or content creation that needs to take place.

If you need help with social media management, just ask! Learn how to maximise your business to see growth this year. Top tips to growing a small business

Optimise your customer experience

The journey that your customer goes on when they’re interacting with your business needs to be smooth, exciting and helpful for them. They need to feel their worth and know that they’re getting value from you. If they feel they’re just another number, they’ll go elsewhere. Take time to create great customer service plans and procedures should you need them. This year make it about creating outstanding customer service and smart solutions that drive business values. Provide reliability being on hand to customer when they need to, responding to all enquiries in a timely manner. Social media is a great tool for this and gives instant access to any potential customer – make your impression count.

Build a community

When your brand is known, you’ll gain trust and loyalty. You can build an online community with your customers by engaging and encouraging them on a regular basis. Ensure that you’ve got a sign-up list on your website or social channels, so you have an email address to be able to get in touch with them. This is so important for growing your business, providing snippets of value at the simple drop of an email. Email marketing will grow your business – is that what you’re looking in 2019? Great content speaks volumes. It’s not just what they can see from your website or social, it’s about adding a little extra after they’ve experienced that.

Build a Facebook group where you can provide even more content and value than you already offer from your Facebook Page. This can be in the form of a closed group where people can come and ask questions that they may not want to do publicly, it can be a place where you can closer with your customers, engaging with them on a higher level providing expert knowledge and advice – all of which will set you apart from competition. If people like what they see and hear, they will recommend your business, and you’ll experience business growth.

This year, build community into your marketing plan and make it a goal to grow your business through community.

Stay up to date

Trends and marketing tactics develop and grow year on year. It’s important to stay up to date and keep in line with what is happening online. What was working 2 or 3 years ago may not be the best plan of action for 2019. It’s even more important for small businesses to stay up to date so they can stay in line with larger businesses who have more resources. Small businesses can grow too! And 2019 is your year to grow. Make sure you research. Perform social listening. Set yourself up for Google alerts. Listen to podcasts. Watch the trends on Twitter. Read, read, read. There is so much you can do to learn and understand what’s going in the digital world around us. Tap into this and use it with your targets for the year. Adapt your marketing strategies as trends change, social channels appear and tactics shift.

What are you going to this year to make your business grow and stand out from the crowd? Are you going to make 2019 your year for success and business growth? You may have been holding back in years’ past, you may have been focusing on other things, on growing yourself and ensuring that your mindset is right, you may have other commitments that are surrounding you.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, it’s time work out what you want for your business, to set your goals for how to achieve them and to give 100% to your business plan. Only you have the power to make it happen. Only you have the motivation to make the shift and put in the effort. If you’re ready to see results, you’re ready to stand up and been seen.

If you’re looking for help in social media marketing for the new year, we’d love to chat with you. Feel free to get in touch and let’s start a conversation. Grow your business in 2019 with these top 7 tips. New year and a new start - easy tips to follow to see success

You can also download our FREE social media awareness days calendar – to get you organised throughout 2020. Enjoy!

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New Year, New Start – Be Successful in 2018

by Karen Petrauskas | Jan 3, 2018

With the new year just starting out and a new chance to make a difference – now is the perfect time to make some adjustments and make some fresh and exciting decisions for your business.

January is usually about new year’s resolutions and making a choice to do something differently. But how often does this end up falling flat after a short period of time? So, this year, why not decide on something that has been on your heart for a long time and you know that you will achieve?

What can you do this year that will make it your best year ever? What one thing will ensure that you achieve your goals and make your dreams come true that you haven’t tried before?

We’d like to inspire you to get out of bed and make this year YOUR SUCCESS year!

1) Expand your knowledge.

Do something new. Over the next month (use January as an ideal time) try something new – something that you’ve not done before. And then try to do something new every day. This could be something small like going for a walk, or reading an interesting article each day. Or perhaps it could be something like planning your week’s diary or setting yourself to-do lists. Small things that you can keep up every day for a month – and really commit to doing them every day for the whole month of January. You’ll be surprised at what this will accomplish. It will expand your knowledge in so many ways and open up your eyes to new ideas and fresh inspiration.

2) Push yourself.

You know what you can and can’t do, you know what is within your comfort zone and the things that you’ve stayed away from to stay ‘comfortable’. This year it’s time to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. Life is easy if it’s comfortable but how much more will you get out of life and the things that you want to achieve by pushing that little bit harder? Think of something that perhaps you’ve wanted to do for some time but it’s been just out of reach or not an easy thing to do. Why not try to accomplish this task and surprise yourself at what you can achieve. Once you’ve done one thing that you thought you couldn’t achieve it will be easier to do more. Keep this up throughout the year, use January as the starting point but don’t stop next month… Keep pushing on towards your goals and you will accomplish bigger and better things for both you and your business.

3) Believe in yourself.

Easier said than done, right? Believing in yourself and pushing yourself to go further, reaching for the goals that you’ve only dreamed of will build your confidence and allow you to do more – and achieve more. Believing that you can do something is the first step in actually achieving it. Self doubt and worry will only delay success which is easier to say than to actually put into practice but is worth the effort. Love what you do, love the dreams that you want to achieve and believe that what you set your mind to do – you will achieve!

4) Focus on your goals.

Know what you want and go for it. Daily chores and tasks have to be done but always set aside time to focus on your targets. Make lists, write them down, stick post it notes where you can see them every day and really allow yourself to focus on your goals. Seeing them written down whether that’s on your mobile device, in your diary or on the fridge – seeing the physical target words written down will allow your mind to keep them at the forefront of your thoughts. If you lose focus on your goals, your business will lose its competitive edge.

5) Commit to success.

Many businesses fail after a very short period of starting up. 70% of business fail within 10 years. A lot of these could have been prevented if the business owner committed more to making a success rather than accepting the way things went or pushing through on their goals. Commit to delivering real value to your customers. There are probably a large number of businesses providing the same service as you, so with this in mind, you need to commit to providing real value in order to compete and beat competition. And knowing your ideal audience is a good place to start. Commit to finding out more about your customers, your ideal target audience, your demographics, consumer’s needs… only then will you have a true idea of what is real value and then be able to provide that professional, outstanding service.

Looking ahead into the new year of 2018, spend some time working out what it is you really want to achieve this year and create a plan of how you’re going to achieve it. Plan, preparation and action is the best way to create success and be heading in the direction of your heart and your dreams.

We’d love to hear from you if you’ve got a clear vision on how 2018 is going to be successful for your business. Comment below. And if we can help or advise in any way, get in touch!

New Year, New Start – Be Successful in 2018

1) Expand your knowledge.

2) Push yourself.

3) Believe in yourself.

4) Focus on your goals.

5) Commit to success.

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