by Karen Petrauskas | May 6, 2022
Are you a small business owner looking to engage more in social media? Here are our 8 tips to make social media marketing fun for every small businesses owner.
Social media marketing is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to reach new customers and get them to like your brand. But it can also be a lot of work. If you’re not having fun with it, then it’s going to be hard to keep up with.
We’ve put together 8 ways that can make social media marketing fun for small businesses owners:
#1 – Make Everything Visual
Social media is all about visuals, so use photos and videos whenever possible. Even if you’re posting links or articles, include an image that helps tell the story behind the link or article. It will make your posts more interesting for your followers and increase their engagement with your content.
Visuals are crucial for social media marketing because they have the power to make your posts go viral. If you’re not sure what visuals you should use, try using photos and videos of your products or employees in action.
Even if you don’t have a graphic designer on staff, there are plenty of affordable tools available that make it easy for anyone to create great graphics in minutes. You can use free tools like Canva or Snappa for creating amazing visuals.
#2 – Collaborate With Other Brands
Collaboration is a great way to connect with other businesses and build relationships with them. It’s also a lot of fun! You can collaborate with other brands by doing something like running a contest or giveaway together or by offering discounts or special promotions for customers who shop at both of your stores at once. If you’re interested in collaborating with another brand, reach out to them with a proposal that includes information about what you want from the collaboration and what they can expect in return.
When you have a limited budget and time, collaboration with other brands can be a great way to increase your visibility online and make your own brand better known. Collaboration helps to spread the message of both brands by providing more content for people to see and share. It’s also a great way to build relationships with other brands in the industry that might help grow your business down the line.
#3 – Host Contests and Giveaways
If you’re looking for a fun way to engage your audience, there’s nothing better than hosting a giveaway. There are tons of options available, including:
Photo contests – You can ask your followers to submit images with a certain theme or hashtag. The best photo wins!
Fan polls – You can ask your followers questions and see which answer is more popular. For example, you can ask them what their favourite type of food is or what they want to be when they grow up.
Video contests – Ask participants to create videos around a certain topic or theme. The best video wins!
Quiz games – Quizzes are another fun way to engage your customers by asking them trivia questions about your business and its products or services.
#4 – Tell Stories with Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is an amazing feature from Instagram and it allows users to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. It’s a way to share behind-the-scenes moments from your company, such as office parties or team outings. You can also use stories as an opportunity to interact with customers directly and answer questions they might have about your product or service offerings. These are easy to create, seconds even, so you can create them as you go and just keep posting!
#5 – Go Live on Facebook and Instagram
If you haven’t tried live video yet, now could be the time! You can go live from your phone or desktop, which means you don’t have to schedule anything in advance or worry about having the right equipment. All you need is a smartphone and an internet connection.
Once you’re live, viewers can chat with you and ask questions in real-time. Live video gives people the opportunity to get up close and personal with your brand — and they love it! A scary thought? Just jump on in and give it a go 🙂
#6 – Start a Podcast
A podcast is an audio show which you record and then upload to iTunes, Spotify, Audible, Stitcher or your other favourite podcast platform., for others to listen to. If you already have an idea for a topic you want to talk about, this is an easy way to get started. You can interview experts or people who are involved in the industry you want to target and then share those interviews on your website, blog or social media. Try it out with a friend or colleague and see how it goes, before you go big with someone you don’t know.
#7 – Create a Facebook Group for Your Customers or Fans
Leading a Facebook group is a fun and brilliant way to build your credibility as a market leader. While you share your knowledge, provide guidance, and create opportunities for expansion and growth, it only improves your professional image as a reliable resource. Besides, you will also learn many things about your customers and followers which will help you create better services or products for them.
#8 – Try a New Social Media Platform Out
If you’re using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but are bored with them, try another platform like Pinterest or Snapchat. These platforms might be less popular than the big three right now, but they have unique advantages that could work well for your business – you don’t know unless you try.
Takeaway
Social media marketing can be fun if you come at it from the right angle. After all, your customers are there to connect with you and other people on the platform just as if it were face to face. We understand that not all small business owners have the time to create amazing social media content, but that’s ok. We suggest doing what you can, snapping photos and videos along the way, in whatever you are doing (having a bank of images is so worthwhile) and then setting a pace that works for you. If you’re still struggling to keep up, or you simply don’t enjoy social media, then reach out and let us take the reins. Your brand deserves the best chance possible, so don’t hold back, if you want to grow your business, let your social channels do the hard work for you.
Why not download our FREE social media checklist to help you stay on track – it’s our gift to you.
We look forward to hearing from you – get in touch today!
by Karen Petrauskas | Dec 8, 2021
Do you test and measure marketing results?
What a question. For small business owners on a pretty busy schedule, the thought of going back through everything to see what results actually happened, can not only be a time-consuming task, but a dreaded one.
You’ve put in all the hard work, it’s out there, social media posts have been put across all channels and if it works, great! Does this sound familiar?
So many people we talk to do not actually look at the results of their social media marketing and therefore have no idea of whether it’s beneficial or not. And realistically, if it’s not working, it’s costing you a lot of time.
Gain clear judgement and understanding by regularly measuring your social media efforts.
Don’t stand by and HOPE that something will work – test it!
via GIPHY
When you have a clear understanding of what impact your marketing is having, whether it’s hitting the right audience and above all – achieving your goals – then you’ll know which direction to go in next. A marketing strategy will help map all this out, giving a foundation to work from and a base to be able to grow and improve. Take action on the strategy and create a working plan that you can follow in each and every piece of marketing you do going forward.
- Sound time-consuming?
- Sound difficult?
- Sound not important for your small business?
… well, the truth is, that if you don’t measure and test, you could be doing it all for nothing. Therefore you are already wasting time, making marketing difficult and not helping your small business grow!
Use the metrics and performance measurements as a way to prove value and demonstrate the contribution of marketing to your business.
Here’s WHY you should test and measure your marketing:
Enhance your existing marketing content – improve or tweak
When you can see what is working, or not, you are able to make adjustments to give better results. Just a small tweak in the copy or a change of background in a Paid Facebook Ad could make all the difference to having just one sale, or to having one hundred sales.
Understand tangible metrics that help in costing and performance
When you deep dive into the ins and outs of the performance in each part of your marketing, you can help bring down costs and gain a better return on investment (ROI). You may find that advertising is expensive, or you’re spending too much time creating social media content, but if you can understand exactly what works and focus on this, you’ll spend less time and money in failed attempts.
Map out a customer journey and see what a customer actually wants, rather than what you think they want
Your business wouldn’t survive without customers, they are what keeps your business going. The more customers, the better the revenue and the greater the success. Knowing what makes your customers happy, having an understanding of what they are seeking, will help you create the right marketing content that resonates and has impact.
Hit goals and targets, allowing yourself to reach bigger achievements
Do you know what your targets are? Do you have big goals and ambitions? Your marketing is a tool to help you achieve. Within your strategy, create goals; small goals and big goals, short-term and long, and then map out steps to help you reach each step – targets. With each accomplished marker you’re closer to getting to the end goal.
Customer retention – vital in business growth.
Yes, you want customers to stay with you! It’s much easier to keep customers than to find new ones, right? Think about that for a moment, how much time do you spend acquiring a new customer? Once you’ve got them, you want to keep them. Customer service is a vital part of your marketing, ensuring customers – and potential customers – are happy.
Marketing works, when you know what works. Testing and measuring marketing results is so important in order to grow a business, and putting in the time and effort to structure this so that it works for you, rather than against you, will have a big impact in the future. Get it right now, and save time and money.
What are you waiting for? Are you measuring your results?
If not, we absolutely suggest that you start today. And if you’re not sure where to start, ask us, we’re happy to help.
In the meantime, start off with our FREE downloadable ‘Social media check – don’t forget the basics’, which will help you get an understanding of what you should be doing on a regular basis on your social media channels.
Speak soon!
by Karen Petrauskas | Jun 26, 2021
Do you have a blog on your website?
- Why should you have a blog?
- Not enough time to blog?
- What’s the point of blogging?
- I can’t write blog posts
Which question are you asking right now?
Some small business owners struggle with keeping up with a blog on top of everything else they have to [usually] solely manage.
And larger organisations don’t always use the resources they have to create a blog as their teams are busy doing other things.
BUT having a blog on your website is extremely beneficial for these reasons…
- A blog drives traffic to your website
- Traffic turns into leads
- Provide knowledge and expertise and create authority
- Help solve problems, whilst building trust
- Build relationships with fellow readers
- Boost social media efforts
- Blogging is an amazing way to drive traffic to your website and increase your SEO
Here at KJP Creative we use our blog to help answer questions that people are asking, in order to give them value and help them in their online marketing journey. It ticks more than one box when it comes to engaging with an audience, answering the common questions that customers have, and providing content that can help other business owners in topics that they may be contemplating within their business.
Blogging also helps us to keep up to date with relevant news and trends, and keeps us on our toes in terms on knowledge and expertise. We also love to be able to share how-to’s, advice and tips with our audience, which is a great way to engage with people who are searching for solutions.
Blogging is a must for SEO
Absolutely, search engine optimisation helps to create fresh and exciting new content on a regular basis and will do wonders for Google! It will help to raise your profile, get you appearing in more search results, and help to improve that search listing. Want to be on page 1 of Google… get blogging!
Create fresh blogs / content
When we say ‘fresh’ content, that’s what we mean, not just updating a few lines on a page or swapping out an image, we mean creating regular new pages with lots of juicy content that the search engines can use when people are searching online for your products or services.
Use keywords in your blog posts
Ensure that you’re using keywords within your content and that it is all relevant to what you are writing about, however, the last thing you want to do is create top heavy keywords throughout the whole post, without relevance to the specific content. It will not work! Research your topic, understand the audience and what they might be looking for and typing into Google when they’re searching for a topic. Use free keyword tools to generate ideas to help you incorporate these into your posts.
Always use good blog titles and headlines
Again, a must when it comes to blogs and articles on your website. You want the post to be found and by creating a title that is directly what someone maybe searching for, gives you more of a chance to be found. This is also said for the meta data that goes with title. What people see and read on their search feed will determine whether or not they will click through.
What will entice them, what will make them click, what urgency or interest can you serve them in order for them to choose your post over another?
Having a blog on your website and utilising specific keywords gives so much more opportunity for your business to be discovered and also when it is, providing information-rich content will go a long way in establishing trust and reputation for your brand.
Not sure what to blog about?
If you’d like to blog but not sure where to start, why not make a list of all the questions that people ask you within your business. These questions can be turned into full blown answers, which can be written, structured to incorporate other links and helpful advice, and put onto your website.
If you’ve not got the time to blog, that’s ok. Many businesses don’t create the content themselves but instead they use people have. This is a perfectly normal practice for business owners of all sizes. Content creators are experienced in researching a given topic and finding the best way of putting this down in writing for others to read and act upon. Perhaps you’ve got lots of topic ideas but simply don’t have the time to put it into action – outsourcing your blog is definitely a solution.
There’s always a way if you want to make blogging happen and to give your business the extra credibility it deserves -, and with the added bonus that blogging is such a great way to boost SEO and search result listing, you’d be mad not to take advantage 😆
Get in touch if you’d like to find out more out blog and content marketing services.
In the meantime, why not download our free social media checklist to help ensure you’re ticking all the boxes when it comes to your social media marketing… enjoy!
by Karen Petrauskas | Apr 29, 2021
We all know that marketing is important to any business, but when it comes to social media, are you one that forgets about creating regular posts and engaging with your customers online?
Yes it can be easy to forget, we get that – you’re a busy business owner with lots of plates to spin – but it’s also a vital part of your growth strategy which will help you further down the line.
- Putting off posting because you don’t know WHAT to post?
- Putting off posting because you don’t have the TIME to post?
- Putting off posting because you don’t think it’s RELEVANT?
All of these factors are important things to consider – but when you understand them, it’s a lot easier to put them into practice.
What to post on social media:
So many people have absolutely no idea what to post on their social media channels. We hear things like “I want to grow my business, but what on earth do I put on a Facebook page?”. They watch us take over for a month, and they’re like… “yes, we get it now”.
The first thing to do when you hit a brick wall like this is to get your notepad out and start to write everything down about your business. Split it up into sections, for example, if you’re running an e-commerce store:
- What types of stock do you sell
- Who is the stock for / age range / demographics etc
- What are the prices
- What’s your USP? Unique selling proposition. What makes you stand out from the rest. What makes your product better than anything else?
- Who would benefit from your products.
… you get the idea – everything you can think of in relation to what your business is about.
This then can be thought of in terms of a Facebook or Instagram post. Creating a post that’s showcasing a particular beauty product, list it’s benefits, who it’s for and the amazing price. This of course, would be a post that is targeting for selling.
*Tip: Don’t sell, sell, sell across your channels, you’ll need to mix it up with other engaging content as well.
When to post on social media:
Take some time to research when and where your audience is hanging out and what times of day they are most likely going to see your content. If you’re targeting new parents, during the day probably wouldn’t be best, as they’re busy looking after their newborn. But, how about early in the morning when everyone else is still in bed and they’re up feeding the baby at stupid-o-clock? Or later in the evening when they’ve put the baby to bed and have some time to lounge on the sofa and check their Facebook feed?
Get into the mindset of the reader and consider the most likely times they will be around. This might take a few trial and errors, but you’ll soon discover what times of day gets the most engagements. Then all your content can be scheduled ahead of time, ready to reach the reader when they’re ready.
Is your social media content relevant?
Some people think that their content is just not that relevant to others on social media, they have a ‘boring’ niche, or it’s not your average choice of reading material. Hey, everyone’s got to have what they need at some point in time, and why not while they’re scrolling their news feeds?
We’ve worked with quite a few Accountants in the past, and this is pretty similar to how they think – who’s going to want to hear about accountancy when they’re trying to relax!
Well, let’s switch it up a bit. You’ve got your newbie mum, looking after her baby and has lots of amazing ideas for what she could do instead of going back to work. She is etching to get a new business started when she has some free time. She’s worried that she won’t have the right knowledge in order to get started. Should she be a sole trader, start as a Limited Company… she’s lost. One evening she puts the kids to bed, tidies up the toys, and makes room to stop for the last part of the evening for some ‘me’ time and heads over to her Instagram feed. The first post that pops up is an accountancy company giving their top 5 tips for starting a new business – with tips on choosing the right type of company structure. This post instantly appeals to her and she stops to read, gaining confidence in the content she’s just read and giving her more ideas for her new business venture. Where is she likely to go back to when she wants to learn more?
You’ve got to know who your content is relevant for, how to target them and how to hit their sweet spot.
Your content isn’t going to be relevant if you go and post something about home life, when you’re looking for professionalism. It’s not going to be relevant if you want to target older couples and you use images of teenagers… work out who you’re speaking to and create the content to reach them in their safe zones.
At the end of the day, your competition WILL be online and growing their business through social media, and we don’t want you to get left behind. Your social media channels are a lifeline and can create many opportunities to see bigger and better results.
So get the post-it notes out and leave reminders for yourself to post on Social – every day is possible! Create a reminder on your phone to make time to write the content. When you find something that inspires you, write it on a post-it and keep them to one side ready for when you’re able to sit down and post… just get social! ❤️
Need help getting started? Get in touch today 👆
In the meantime, we’d love to give you a copy of our Social Media Awareness Days Calendar to give you some ideas of what to post about – find the ones that are relevant, get the conversation started and jump on the engagement with lots more relevant and timely content. Have fun!
by Karen Petrauskas | Feb 4, 2021
Don’t you just love a motivational quote that gets you geared up and ready to start something new?
Perhaps you lack a little inspiration and find it hard to get create social media content over and over again, where does new inspiration come from?
Here at KJP Creative, we want to inspire business owners to overcome that struggle and to help you in your online marketing efforts. When it comes to creating top quality social media content, you need to be fully immersed in what you believe in.
- Do your customers know who you are or what your vision is?
- Can your audience learn from you, gain insight or knowledge and take something away when they visit your social profiles?
- Are you full of energy and passion for what it is that you are sharing?
If not, it’s time to get motivated, it’s time to relight the fire from within and learn how to become inspired from the things around you.
Every Monday morning we send out our own #MondayMotivational quotes across our social media channels. These are not only to inspire those who read them, but we’re talking from where we’re at as well, creating a buzz of motivation across our team and beyond.
So, if you’re looking for a motivational or inspirational quote to lift your spirits today, here’s 52 to keep you going. One for every week of the year… enjoy!
52 motivational and inspirational quotes
New year, new start, new goals, new challenges. A new chance to succeed. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Create a strategy that guarantees results. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Mindset and passion enables success and happiness. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Love yourself, love your business, love what you stand for. Then, you will see great results. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Joy is much deeper than happiness. Seek the joy to see you through the year. – Karen J. Petrauskas
A positive attitude will steer you; an ambitious mindset will contribute to success. – Karen J. Petrauskas
It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, as long as you get back up again. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Search deep within your soul for the passion and dreams you have for your business. Find that you’ll have motivation to go all the way. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Be persistent, keep pushing the doors and strive for the dreams you want to achieve. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Goals are set to be worked on, to overcome challenges and to enable you to achieve bigger things. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Let your personality shine through everything you create, say and do. Be the voice behind your brand. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Be kind on yourself, if you don’t success, try and try again. We learn from every experience. – Karen J. Petrauskas
When you truly find something you love doing, everyone will know about it as you won’t stop talking about it! – Karen J. Petrauskas
Passion, pride and persistence – give everything you have through your marketing. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Create a plan that will sustain your business and help with your future self. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Success and happiness are the not always the same thing. Live out your dreams. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Don’t strive to be the best – strive to be the best you. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Finding joy in what you do gives motivation to keep on going. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Practice what you preach – be the example to your audience. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Be the support and help your audience needs. Utilise your social media channels for good. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Peace, patience and smiles – be the positive influence for those you come into contact with. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Understand your audience in order to make a lasting impact on those you’re trying to reach. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Your voice, your tone, your passion make up your brand persona – how does that look to those around you? – Karen J. Petrauskas
Enthusiasm, happiness and authenticity – how creative can you get in the image you want to portray? – Karen J. Petrauskas
Embrace the now, jump on the trends that are going to help your business be visible. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Build momentum, keep going, don’t give up. When something works, run with it! – Karen J. Petrauskas
Be bold in your approach. Impact those around you. Add value at every opportunity. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Create a path where your dreams can grow and your visions will become reality. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Love doesn’t stop when you’ve found a passion. It grows and develops into something beautiful. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Who you are on the inside will show on the outside when you’re true to yourself. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Showcase your passions through every act, word and deed. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Business success when you’re on the correct path. Follow your heart, soul and dreams. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Don’t worry about what people think, be confident in what you believe in. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Take risks once in a while, it’s good for business! – Karen J. Petrauskas
Be the example, show leadership; be the help when people need you. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Take every day as it comes and seize every opportunity as it appears. – Karen J. Petrauskas
You don’t need to be perfect, just confident that you’ve done your best. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Pursue dreams. Joy comes from doing something you truly love. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Revisit your goals often and align where you’re heading to where you want to be. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Success doesn’t happen overnight – 100% dedication and hard work mixed with passion and motivation creates results. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Creative inspiration produces creative results… allow your mind to get creative. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Happiness helps your business flourish – are you happy in what you’re doing? – Karen J. Petrauskas
Are you an achiever or a dreamer? Take action to see your dreams come to fruition. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Spark a flame to ignite the passion you once had. What makes you passionate? Use that motivation to further in business. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Love. Dream. Create. Inspire. There’s always room to discover bigger results. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Goals give you something to aim for, something to hold on to, and something to achieve. Otherwise, where are you heading? – Karen J. Petrauskas
Pursue joy in everything. Your radiance will shine through your business, bringing sunshine to all those you meet. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Are you ready to take bigger steps to achieve bigger dreams? Reach for the stars and don’t look down. – Karen J. Petrauskas
We create our own happiness, we may not know it but our actions are reactions play a part in where we end up. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Take risks, keep going and step out of your comfort zone – how much more will you achieve! – Karen J. Petrauskas
Trust your instincts to take you down the right path, and then keep going. – Karen J. Petrauskas
Follow your heart in all that you set your mind to. Passion produces results.
We hope that you find comfort, discover more of yourself and are motivated within your own social media marketing efforts while reading these posts. Please use them within your own channels if you think they will help and inspire more people. Here’s your chance to make a difference, here’s your chance to find inspiration to make shifts or alignments within yourself to feel more confident or capable in what you’re striving to achieve. We’d love to hear about what you’re doing and the inspiration that you have.
And keep following our social media channels for weekly motivational content.
Enjoy!
PS if you’d like help creating inspiring content for your audience, we’d love to sit down over a (virtual) coffee and talk you through what’s possible for your social media. Get in touch today.
