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AI Marketing Strategies: How to Harness Artificial Intelligence for Business Success

AI Marketing Strategies - How to Harness Artificial Intelligence for Business Success

Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the marketing landscape, offering businesses unprecedented opportunities to enhance their strategies and achieve remarkable success. At MFG-SEO, we understand the importance of transparency and delivering exceptional results to our clients. 

Get ready to dive into the fascinating world of AI marketing! 

I want to equip small businesses like yours with invaluable tips and thought-provoking prompts to help you unleash the power of artificial intelligence in your marketing efforts. 

AI Marketing For Small Business Owners And Entrepreneurs

Remember the first time you held an iPhone in your hands? That sleek device packed with cutting-edge technology had the power to change your world. But let’s be honest, it also made you feel a mix of excitement and a little uneasiness. Well, guess what? The world of AI marketing can be just as exhilarating and unfamiliar. 

And that’s why you need to have the right approach; especially if you need to train your team. Some might be very open to your fresh ideas. But some will be “oh heck no”.  

But don’t worry, we’re here to be your tech-savvy companions, leading you through the uncharted territories and making you feel right at home.

In my very personal opinion, AI can create FOMO (fear of missing out). So, if you are easily distracted, I recommend that you approach this new world as if you enrolled in school and you’re getting a brand-new degree. 

Yes, AI is a whole entire degree. So, don’t expect to learn Chat GPT from a few Youtube videos. It’s not gonna happen. We’ve put collectively 100’s of hours into learning AI Marketing, and I still feel behind.

It all seems like I sneeze and 10 new AI Apps are being launched. 

Sounds familiar? Let’s discuss how to best approach this challenge.

Tip #1 to use AI Marketing: Be patient 

When embarking on an AI marketing journey, it’s essential to embrace patience. AI technology continues to evolve rapidly, and realizing its full potential takes time. As a business owner or marketer, it’s crucial to set realistic expectations and allow sufficient time for experimentation, optimization, and learning from the results. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your AI-powered marketing strategy will require refinement and fine-tuning over time.

Tip #2 to use AI Marketing: Bring the experts

Navigating the complex realm of AI marketing can be challenging, but you don’t have to go it alone. By collaborating with AI experts who possess a deep understanding of the technology and its applications, you can ensure that you extract the maximum benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls. These experts can guide you in developing a tailored AI marketing strategy that aligns with your unique business needs and goals.

One of the best solutions we’ve built for our customers is AI personas with GPT4. It’s a done-for-you solution that can save you easily 20 hours of your life! Our personas get installed on your GPT4 and it’s great if you want to give yourself new team members! 

Just imagine for a second… That you can get your AI bookkeeper to analyze your statements. Or AI Paralegal to give you pointers on how to best rephrase your service agreement… Isn’t that amazing? 

And what about project management? Those of you who love Asana or Monday can build AI Boards! 

So yes, there are lots of options and that’s why you might want to leverage AI marketing experts to create solutions tailored to your business.

Tip #3 to use AI Marketing: Create your AI Marketing Strategy 

As you explore AI marketing tools and technologies, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the abundance of options available. To stay focused and make the most of your AI journey, it’s essential to adopt a strategic approach:

*  Define your objectives: Clearly outline your business goals and objectives. What do you aim to achieve with AI marketing? Understanding your objectives will help you create a focused and effective AI marketing strategy.

*  Select a segment of your business: You don’t need to revolutionize everything. Perhaps you want to bring AI just to support your email marketing and that’s perfectly fine. Start there and gain confidence with the tools.

*  Track and measure your ROI: since you will be investing time and resources, it’s important to track your ROI. For example, let’s say you hire a sales specialist. You can use AI to maximize their time, by using AI tools to optimize your sales processes. Your team members will love it and you will maximize their productivity.

Tip #4 to use AI Marketing: Select tools strategically 

Instead of trying to implement every AI marketing tool available, carefully choose the ones that align with your objectives and complement your existing marketing ecosystem. Remember, quality over quantity is key. Pick tools that integrate seamlessly and provide tangible value to your strategy.

Tip #5 to use AI Marketing: Prioritize integration and compatibility 

Ensure that the AI tools you select can seamlessly integrate with your existing systems and processes. Compatibility is crucial for a smooth implementation and to avoid disruptions in your marketing operations. Evaluate how the tools will fit into your workflow and ensure they align with your technology infrastructure.

Tip #6 to use AI Marketing: Foster a culture of learning 

AI marketing is constantly evolving, and it’s important to foster a culture of continuous learning within your organization. Encourage your team members to stay updated on AI advancements and industry trends. This could involve attending webinars, participating in online courses, or joining relevant industry forums. By nurturing a learning mindset, you can stay ahead of the curve and adapt your strategies to the ever-changing AI landscape.

AI Marketing vs Automation

Think of AI marketing as an extension of automation, taking your business to new heights. 

Start by identifying income-generating activities within your marketing process that can be optimized using AI. 

Automation is a game-changer for small business owners, offering a multitude of benefits that can transform the way you operate and drive your business forward. Imagine freeing up your time from repetitive, mundane tasks, and redirecting your energy towards strategic decision-making and growth initiatives. That’s the power of automation.

For small business owners, automation holds the key to improved efficiency, streamlined operations, and increased productivity. By automating repetitive tasks such as data entry, email marketing, inventory management, and customer support, you can save countless hours and reduce the risk of human error. This newfound efficiency allows you to focus on what matters most: serving your customers, refining your products or services, and driving business growth.

In addition to time and cost savings, automation can also enhance the customer experience. By implementing automated processes, you can provide your customers with faster response times, personalized interactions, and seamless transactions. From automated email campaigns that nurture leads to chatbots that provide instant support, automation enables you to deliver a consistent and exceptional customer journey, fostering loyalty and satisfaction.

Best Use Cases Of Chat Gpt For Small Business

Again, we are here to end your FOMO and refine your approach to AI Marketing. So let’s cover how can you use Chat GPT for your business today.  

1) Utilizing AI to create persuasive proposals: 

AI can analyze data and generate tailored proposals that are highly persuasive, taking into account customer preferences, market trends, and business objectives. This saves time and ensures your proposals are highly targeted and compelling.

2) Crafting compelling offers with AI: 

AI can help you develop irresistible offers by analyzing customer data, purchasing patterns, and market trends. By leveraging AI, you can create personalized offers that resonate with your target audience, leading to increased conversions and customer satisfaction.

3) Optimizing sales pages with AI: 

AI can analyze user behavior, preferences, and conversion patterns to optimize your sales pages. It can provide recommendations for layout, content placement, and calls-to-action, resulting in higher engagement and improved conversion rates.

3) Refining email copy using AI: 

AI-powered tools can analyze large sets of data to generate personalized and engaging email copy. By leveraging AI, you can automate the creation of customized email content, ensuring that your messages are highly relevant and impactful.

4) Enhancing customer service interactions with AI: 

Start by creating a super amazing customer success persona so you can ask for ideas on how to best serve your customers. 

For instance, I asked ChatGPT to turn into an amazing customer success advisor and give me ideas to increase customer retention. After a dialogue with the chat, I’ve gotten a list with ideas to celebrate our customers:

Here are five ways to celebrate success with your customers (100% written by ChatGPT):

Personalized Thank You Notes or Emails: Take the time to send personalized thank you notes or emails to express your gratitude and celebrate milestones achieved together. Acknowledge the specific achievements or progress made by the customer and highlight how their partnership has contributed to the success. This personal touch demonstrates your appreciation and strengthens the bond with your customers.

Social Media Shout-outs: Publicly recognize your customers’ achievements on your social media platforms. Share their success stories, tag them in posts, and highlight the positive impact they have made. This not only showcases their accomplishments but also reinforces the collaborative nature of your relationship. It also provides them with additional exposure and recognition within your industry.

Exclusive Loyalty Offers or Discounts: Reward your customers’ loyalty and success by offering exclusive discounts or special offers on your products or services. This gesture shows your appreciation for their ongoing partnership and allows them to enjoy additional benefits as a result of their achievements. It fosters a sense of exclusivity and strengthens the loyalty between you and your customers.

Case Studies or Testimonials: Work with your customers to develop case studies or testimonials that showcase their success and the value they have gained from your partnership. Highlight their specific challenges, the strategies implemented, and the results achieved. This not only celebrates their achievements but also serves as a powerful marketing tool for your agency, showcasing your ability to drive meaningful outcomes for your clients.

Client Appreciation Events or Webinars: Host client appreciation events or webinars to celebrate successes collectively. This can be done in-person or virtually, depending on your circumstances. These events provide an opportunity to reflect on achievements, share insights and industry trends, and foster a sense of community among your customers. It allows for networking and knowledge sharing, strengthening relationships and creating a positive and supportive environment.

As you can see, these are just a few use cases for GPT4. And by the way, it’s only $20 per month.

Given the rapid pace of AI research and development, it is reasonable to expect that OpenAI and other organizations will continue to push the boundaries of language generation with even more advanced models in the future. So start in GPT4 before it gets too late!

These are the AI Marketing Tools We’re using at MFG-SEO Agency today

Our marketing agency is small, on purpose. We are a team of 6 and that is more than enough to give our customers a high-touch service. We have explored several AI marketing tools and so far, here are the ones we are using:

GPT 4: ChatGPT is the biggest AI tool so far. And with their open API, the uses are endless. Each team member has a subscription, and we all share the personas we’ve created, to best serve our clients and manage our agency.

Coded Personas: We have coded our Personas. Creating coded personas can significantly enhance team efficiency. These personas provide a structured framework for understanding customer behavior and preferences, enabling you to deliver tailored marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience.

CustomGPT App: As a work-in-progress, we are using CustomGPT app to develop a chat interface that consolidates all our content. This tool allows our team members to quickly access marketing materials, our knowledge base, and frequently asked questions. Imagine having an AI-powered assistant that can provide instant answers, based on YOUR OWN database! 

Elementor AI: Since we build custom websites with Elementor, we’re using Elementor AI in our SEO projects.

MidJourney: We’re using MidJourney for graphics, to get creative ideas. 

Artificial intelligence has the power to revolutionize your marketing efforts and drive exceptional results for your small business. By embracing patience, seeking expert guidance, approaching AI marketing strategically, leveraging the right tools, and staying focused, you can harness the full potential of AI to create personalized experiences, engage customers, and achieve sustainable growth.

Remember, the journey to AI marketing success is not just about the destination; it’s about the process. Embrace the challenges, experiment with new approaches, and continually refine your strategies based on data-driven insights. By adopting a thoughtful and strategic approach to AI marketing, you can unlock unprecedented opportunities and propel your business to new heights of success.

So, are you ready to embark on your AI marketing journey? Embrace the power of AI, engage with experts, and let your small business thrive in the digital age. Get ready to transform your marketing strategies and unleash the true potential of your business with artificial intelligence.

Remember, the future of marketing is here, and it’s powered by AI. Let’s take that leap together and unlock a world of possibilities!

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How To Sell A Product On Instagram Using Attraction Marketing?

Instagram Trends 2022

Trying to figure out how to sell a product on Instagram in 2022? You’re not alone. There are many ways you could go about this, but one of the best is using attraction marketing. 

In this article, we’ll talk about how to use attraction marketing strategies in order to generate more sales in 2022. We’ll cover how it differs from direct push marketing and what tips can help increase your conversion rates!

New To Attraction Marketing? What Is Attraction Marketing?

Have you ever come across a story on Instagram from your favorite celebrity or influencer, explaining how they use their own brand’s services or products?

You’re probably familiar with this. Maybe your favorite Instagram influencer just posted a video about their date night, with the caption sharing tips about work-life balance, inviting you to learn more about work-life balance techniques in the link in bio.

You get my point!

You can probably recall a recent time when someone you respect praised a product, and your attention was attracted to it. That person has explained how the product benefits their life or makes things simpler, and you’ve been inspired to learn more about what they do. That’s attraction marketing!

Attraction marketing is also called demand generation marketing

The greatest thing about attraction marketing is that you don’t need to sell directly. Your magnetic online presence will get your future buyers come to you, instead of the other way around. Now how does it work?

Attraction marketing works by getting someone who is already interested in your brand to take action. You don’t have to go out there and find potential customers – they are the ones finding you.

How Do I Use Attraction Marketing To Sell A Product On Instagram?

First, you’re going to need an audience. For the purpose of this article, we will use how to sell a course as an example. Think about the following:

  1. Who needs this course today?
  2. What problems or challenges are they experiencing today?
  3. How will your course help them?
  4. What will make them buy from you today?

What should your niche be?

Instagram accounts that have a niche topic tend to grow faster, because they can build a community spirit by connecting with people with similar interests. For this reason, we recommend picking a niche (or one topic) at a time. Keyword here: at a time. This means that you can always change your niche; especially once you are known.

Narrow your solution as much as feasible to make your brand stand out. Narrow it down to “a fitness course for new moms who want to recover their shape and energy naturally,” for example, if it’s a fitness program.

Once you define your audience, make a bio that will resonate with your target audience. For example: “I’m on a quest to help new moms get their bodies, energy, and confidence back in shape the natural way.”

Make your feed catchy, and try to avoid predictability. Create interest by sharing content that connects with your target audience and encourages them to learn more. In other words, don’t spill everything on your Instagram posts.

Once they’re interested in what you do, if you make it easy for them to take action, they will.

Instagram Captions Length 2022

People don’t want to read through long descriptions, so get straight to the point! You can use words and phrases that will make people curious about how it works.

Oprah Winfrey Made $12 Million After One Tweet About Bread

You might remember the famous Tweet. Essentially, she revealed that she eats bread every day — and is still burning calories. “Eat bread. Lose weight. Whaaatttt? #ComeJoinMe,” she captioned the post.

That was a perfect example of attraction marketing. 

Attraction marketing example

Hashtags For Followers In 2022

As Instagram by Facebook is turning 10 years old in 2022, Instagram made headlines (including this one) when product head Adam Mosseri said that the app is “no longer just a square photo-sharing app,” since it’s pivoting its focus to shopping and video.

The platform has modified their Community Guidelines and has added resources to shine light on what are considered Instagram best practices. 

Moving into Instagram Marketing 2022, we see a change in how hashtags are being used by the algorithm. While hashtags are a crucial component of a winning Instagram marketing, the algorithm has been modified to include keywords in order to pick which content lands on their public feeds, known as the Explore Page.

The new approach to Instagram Hashtags 2022

Instead of using hashtags with the intention to gain visibility and followers, if you want to sell on Instagram using attraction marketing, leverage hashtags. Use them to get connected with industry leaders, find trends, and engage with others, more than just adding a code to gain followers. 

Search your industry hashtags to get insights about the featured content for two reasons: those posts have been favored by the algorithm so you can get ideas for aesthetics and captions and you can also read comments from the audience and get content ideas.

If you’re selling online fitness courses for new moms, then use #fitnessmom, #postpartumfitness, and #newmom and get insights from the top posts. You will notice that the top posts have between 2-5 short paragraphs.

Find how-to posts and use the same hashtags. For example, if your how-to post is about how to get rid of stretch marks in a month using natural ingredients, then use #howtogetridofstretchmarks or #getridofstretchmarks.

You can also create a unique hashtag for users who want to follow along with what’s happening in regards to your product.

How many hashtags are recommended in 2022?

Instagram allows you to add up to 30 hashtags. But, should you? 

The consensus is that about 11 hashtags is a good number to start with. But the most common number of hashtags to use on Instagram is between 1 and 3.

How to create a winning hashtags strategy?

Instagram has been enhancing their SEO features. They launched keyword searching features, which means that your content can be found, not only from the hashtags you use, but also from the keywords included on your captions.

Moving into 2022, a winning Instagram strategy needs to factor keywords, in addition to hashtags. 

How many hashtags should you use in 2022?

According to the Guidelines, you can add hashtags in the caption or comments of your post. So, posting hashtags in comments is not a mistake. Do A/B testing! Instagram is enhancing their SEO features as you read this!

How To Sell On Instagram Using Stories In 2022

Stories are a great place to sell for various reasons:

  1. You can develop your list of close friends and acquaintances if Instagram shows your stories to your trusted connections, which are then displayed.
  2. Stories come with features to make your content more enjoyable and engaging for your audience.
  3. You can use stories to build community by hosting fun challenges.
  4. You can build trust by featuring other creators.
  5. By creating a positive environment in your stories, your audience will feel attracted to your brand.
  6. Stories highlights can be turned into call to actions, which will increase your website traffic and conversions.
  7. If you want to sell how-to courses, stories are a great way to tease your course, and drive viewers to your sales page.

Post Often

This will keep your audience engaged and also help showcase how much value you’re adding to the community. It’s important that you post regularly so people don’t forget about what it is that you have to offer!

When posting, keep in mind that your Instagram posts should create curiosity. You will sell, later, via Instagram Stories.

Leverage the power of Reels and ignite curiosity! They are great to drive brand awareness.

Limit Your Instagram Shopping Cart

Since you will be using attraction marketing, we recommend to limit your shopping cart to featured offerings, to build trust by leading with value, not with promotions. Remember, attraction marketing is all about curiosity. Sales will happen, but not like e-commerce. They will happen by leading your future buyer into a journey where they can get inspired- get educated – and make a purchasing decision when they feel like the timing is right.

As you can see, there are many ways to approach the question of “how do I sell a product on Instagram?”. But our advice is to take it back to basics and try attraction marketing. You aren’t selling anything when you use an appeal that attracts people in their feed with your products or services – they just want what you’re offering because they trust in you!

And if one person wants it, then others will too. So let us know how we can help put together a plan for your business today! We have all sorts of ideas about what works well so schedule a call today! 

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New Best Seller Internet Marketing Book, by Jessica Campos

More Greatness Is here!

The coronavirus pandemic is emerging as an existential threat to the nation’s small business owners. This is NOT normal. Even when people try to sugarcoat it. We joke and say “the new normal”, but … the banking account is feeling quite the opposite.

Businesses need 2 C’s:

1) Clients 
2) Cash

The way you get clients is through getting exposed in front of potential buyers, period.

Success is mathematical, not psychological.  

If you don’t go to events, don’t attend conventions, don’t have professional interactions, sooner than later, your pipeline will simply get dry. 

This is a real problem.

The solution to get more leads? Virtual prospecting.

The sooner you can learn how to master the process of prospecting online, the better it will be.  But wait… prospecting online?

How to prospect for new clients online or how to prospect virtually?

In person events are out of your lead generation equation. This means that you now have to hustle online. Well… welcome to my world.

I realized that my decade of experience in internet marketing, developing new markets using social media marketing and personal brand marketing could add value to many professionals and entrepreneurs.

What are the best prospecting techniques?

Social media marketing, especially Facebook, is at the top of the digital marketing strategies to find new clients online.

I host networking events for our community of Austin Networking for Professional & Entrepreneurs. We are now over 5,000+ local business owners and counting. As a social media educator, I decided to host online events to provide connections and discuss resources for those who wanted to accelerate their online networking skills. Those events were the inspiration for my book.

How do you reach prospects online?

Finding, reaching, and discovering sales opportunities online can be intimidating. Add to that the urgency and anxiety from a pandemic and you have the perfect storm!

The key to reach out to prospects online is in your personal brand. Without it, you are at risk to be considered a spammer. … You can’t risk your first impression … especially online!

Personal Brand Marketing

Personal branding refers to the practice of marketing and packaging yourself, your career, and your experience as a brand. 

What’s your personal brand about? It’s about YOU! People buy YOU before they get interested in your products or services.

My Book on Personal Brand Marketing

My book reached #1 best-seller in 2 categories: Web Marketing and Internet Marketing and I’m just amazed!

What’s in the book?

Part 1: The Essentials of Social Media- Solopreneurs spend many hours of the day, working on marketing tasks, that come randomly, and most of the time, as a distraction. Learning the fundamentals of building a social media marketing strategy is the key to growing a business, along with strategies followed by amazing brands like Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and Kendra Scott. You will be inspired to build a community of loyal customers, to stop competing based solely on price, and to grow your business.

Part 2: A Guide to Personal Branding- Here’s where you’ll get the- A 1-page blueprint to building a personal brand that builds a long-lasting first impression and ignites revenue. This is what thriving brands are doing in the digital economy. What if you are a brick and mortar business? Do you need to follow personal branding strategies? Absolutely! Humanizing your brand is the ultimate secret to survive the retail apocalypse.

Part 3: How to Write So They Listen- You will learn the psychology behind crafting content that moves your audience to action and learn why writing is not just about sharing pretty words.

Part 4: A Full Year of Copy For Social Media Marketing- You’ll have everything you need to simply plug n’ play your profitable content marketing plan. These are not just ideas to post. You will get detailed campaigns with strategies and templates.

Part 5: Social Visibility- You’ll get the Social Visibility Blueprint to turn your social media marketing into your salesforce. My promise with Your Visibility Blueprint is to eliminate the overwhelm from social media marketing. I want to provide you with a blueprint to ignite visibility, so you can build the business you love, and have the life you deserve. Most likely, you’re a purpose-driven business owner like me; I take my mission to activate your greatness very seriously!

BONUS: Along with this book, you will unlock access to amazing resources, such as:

* A complimentary Forensic Marketing Audit (Value $500+)

* Editable Visibility Workbook to plan your content like a pro (Value $47)

* Special price in our Marketing For Greatness Courses (save up to 80%)

* The Marketing For Greatness Network. Connect with other solopreneurs and participate in life-changing conversations.

Where can you buy my book?

It’s on Amazon in Kindle and paperback. Click here to buy!

Words from Jessica Campos

If there were a clear, actionable way to boost your personal brand using social media WITHOUT turning yourself into the embarrassing “I am the influencer” style… ⁣
⁣
Or even better … BENCHMARKING your growth so you see where your revenue is at.⁣
⁣
… Would you feel motivated to market your amazing products or services?⁣
⁣
You see: you’re willing to put in the work. ⁣
⁣
If you read my book you’ll find a lot of practical advice to implement personal brand marketing the right way!

We also launched a personal brand marketing course. Click here to learn more.

Let’s get social over Instagram @coachjessicacampos!

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The Holistic Approach To Use Analytics To Craft A Winning Marketing Strategy

Many small businesses struggle with measuring marketing performance. How do you know what you are doing right? What are you doing wrong? Analyzing these issues often requires time and resources that most small businesses simply can’t spare.

Luckily you don’t have to be left out. I’m demystifying the analytics for you!

What is Marketing Analytics Precisely?

The practice of analyzing and measuring marketing performance to improve ROI and overall marketing performance is referred to as marketing analytics. 

It allows you to look at your business’s marketing efforts with an objective lens. Once you gauge the efforts, you get a better idea of utilizing the company’s marketing budget.

From SEO rankings to email marketing metrics, marketing analytics apply to virtually every aspect of your business. For instance, social media marketing can be a distraction without marketing analytics.

There’s a good chance you have a “love and hate” relationship with analytics and perhaps it’s because you see insights from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, your CRM, Google, Website, but you can’t get to sync all of it to understand what’s happening in your business. Let alone the fact that most of those metrics won’t measure the performance you need to measure to grow your business, so they are vanity metrics.

Marketing Strategies Are Only As Good As the Results They Produce

Many business owners I work with tell me flat “if marketing pays on its own, I’m in”.  Whereas it’s a big challenge, I show them exactly where is the profitable zone and how can we get there quicker. 

According to research conducted by LeadPages and Infusionsoft, 47% of the small business owners surveyed handle the marketing efforts on their own, struggling to track their return on investment to understand whether their marketing activities are effective.

This number might be even bigger when we consider that a significant amount of small business owners are solopreneurs. 😰  So it’s not that their marketing efforts are not working; it’s just that they can’t see it.

A successful marketing strategy only needs 2 things: 

  1. A defined path to achieve visibility in front of future buyers and 
  2. Actionable metrics to measure performance. 

It’s that simple.

Part 1: Your Path To Visibility: Customer Journey

Your marketing strategy needs to have a clear path to achieve visibility in front of future buyers. Keep this in mind. You don’t need to reach millions of users; just users that will find value in what you offer.

Start your path by becoming clear about who is your future buyer. Imagine just ONE person and think about as many details as possible about them. Keep in mind, their journey can start in different places:

  • They could search online and find you
  • They could have a conversation with a friend and a friend referred them to you
  • They were scrolling on a social media channel and saw you, and decided to learn more about you

Never assume that all users start at the same marketing channel. That’s the beauty of following the onmichannel marketing approach. We can consolidate information for all the stages of the user in just one place.

For example, on Instagram, you can use story highlights to feature content that you want your future users to watch. This is a great place to organize your content strategically. Think about your categories, reviews, and promotions. Again, think like Amazon! 

Understanding metrics will be your next step!  Marketing analytics play a big role at this stage of your marketing strategy. I believe most business owners go with their gut and this is the beginning of chaos.

Take the time to do market research, meaning your future users. I am a big fan of creating blueprints, in particular, the future buyer’s journey. In this way, you can have a thought path to achieve visibility.

Some of the best practices to utilize marketing analytics in the best possible way to map your future customer’s journey:

1- Establish the void you are trying to fill. For e.g. keyword density, keyword analysis, competition analysis etc. Let’s say for instance, that your client had an excellent month in May, but things have not been going so smooth after that. Try to calculate the gap between the current day and the client’s best month. It should be enough for you to determine the first benchmark.

2- Think about your future users’ emotions during each stage of their decision-making process.

As a forensic marketer, I’ve always been fascinated with blueprints, maps, and algorithms, which is the reason why user webflow is one of the favorite things I do.  

3- I recommend using Empathy Maps to visualize your audience. This is a simple, visual and effective tool for discovering insights about customers. It is great for understanding audiences, including users, customers, and other players in any business ecosystem.

Part 2: Performance Goals: Tracking and Measuring 

Remember what I said above, a successful marketing strategy only needs 2 things: 

  1. A defined path to achieve visibility in front of future buyers and 
  2. Actionable metrics to measure performance. 

Defining each step of the decision-making process is crucial to measure your performance. Especially at the very beginning.

For instance, I just finished a mastermind call with my Business Accelerator members and today the topic was “How do I know that my content is working if I don’t get any subscribers or comments?”.  This is a very valid question that I am sure you might have.

During our session, we discussed the user explorer section from Google Analytics and she was surprised to see that users were actually reading her content and coming back for more!  Below is an example of how the user explorer report looks like. You can open each transaction and will see all the steps each user has taken.

We identified the goals she needed to set up within her Google Analytics to she could see what her users liked and simply do more of it.

According to Google’s research study conducted with Greenberg Strategy, 88% of consumers favor brands that provide helpful information along every stage of their journey, from research to purchase. Despite that clear preference, only 47% of brands customize and serve information across the customer journey.

Google Analytics is like gasoline for your content marketing strategy. But it’s not the only one. We recommend to also set up Google Search Console to make sure your website is always visible.

Monitoring Performance To Define Your Marketing Plan

Many business owners request a “marketing plan” when we start working. I sort of scratch my head because I can’t just spill a plan without walking your future buyers’ journey. Marketing doesn’t start from the seller’s point of view. It starts from the other way around your end-users.

You can’t create a path to visibility using your intuition. I mean, you could, which is what a lot of business owners do. They just follow role models and copy what they are doing (which sometimes it ends not being effective).

1- Review your Google Analytics at least once a week but don’t make decisions on performance before seeing at least a 90-day period. Once you have at least 90 days of data, you can make decisions. But data alone won’t tell you what you need.

2- Dig deeper!

3- A holistic approach is the only way to make marketing analytics work in your favor.  Keep in mind that marketing analytics does not merely constitute of Google analytics. Sure, you should use Google analytics for extracting data and making optimizations but do not solely rely on it.

4- Marketing analytics requires us to gather data from various channels of marketing, including email, social media, online advertising, and SEO.

Unfortunately, I found that not too many business owners have set up data-driven systems. They kind of go by revenue. If sales are happening, they assume that marketing is working.

5- You can delegate! Sure you can learn how to read reports but, is this a profitable task for you?  What takes you 5 hours will take an expert 20 minutes.

Seek advice from experienced professionals. They can help you simplify digital marketing analytics practice with ease. It will make you feel at ease and you prevent the overwhelming feeling that tempts people to abandon ship before they give a holistic analytics approach even a try.

Part 3: Using Insights to Craft a Winning Strategy

As many experienced marketers claim, several marketers limit their data’s potential by using it for supporting decisions they made already, instead of driving action. Most of us are familiar with the plan where we can find stats for backing up virtually every argument that comes in front of us. It is only a matter of what stats you have, how you use them, and your way of presenting them.

The same goes for marketing analytics. If you start searching data to support your decisions, chances are that you will certainly come across some. However, in order to create a strategy that really capitalizes on available insights; you need to allow the data to lead your planning and decision-making.

To form a strategy based around analytics, follow the tips mentioned below:

1. Accept Your Mistakes: A significant part of allowing data to determine your plan is to leave behind the initiatives that do not do the trick anymore.

2. Approaching Data from Various Angles: No one is infallible in the field of marketing. There are several ways of interpreting marketing data, therefore, have a partner or someone to help you make sense of everything. It is useful for ensuring that you do not miss some key perspectives.

3. Test, and Test Again: There is nothing better than marketing analytics to let you determine how things could potentially be just by looking at the current state of things. You will need to put your theories and tactics to the test to succeed.

4. Listening Is Your Best Friend: The biggest mistake that you can make in your analytics efforts is ignoring important information that the analytics are providing you. Keep your eyes and ears open and let the data do the talking.

Allowing Analytics to Steer Your Marketing Strategy

Some marketers do not know how valuable resource analytics are. It would even be fair to say that they are a gold mine to take your business to the next level. If you use them correctly, your business will generate more revenue than you ever imagined.

Try to draw reliable insights and use them for improving your marketing efforts. Using those insights in the right times and places will improve your efforts by tenfold.

Holistic Is the Way to Go

We are lucky to live in an age where we have advanced tools to gauge the performance of our marketing efforts. When you have tons of metrics at your disposal, just looking at one of them simply does not do the trick anymore. You have to approach it holistically. Only then will you be able to attain optimum results.

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Social Media Marketing Plan For Life Coaches

It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to social media marketing.

You could spend hours reading blog posts and watching tutorials, or you could simply get a social media marketing plan for life coaches that considers the needs of your practice.

And that’s what this article is all about. You’re about to get a well-oiled social media marketing plan that will end with the struggle of what to post on social media to grow your coaching business accounts.

Let’s roll!

There’s one thing that separates a life coaching business from other businesses: your clients won’t hire you unless they can trust you. They don’t buy from you because you are the cheapest. Hence the reason why promotions are not really effective for life coaching businesses. You want people to hire you because you are the best and you can help them solve a problem.

For this reason, when we outline content for a life coach, we need to consider first their future buyers and their journey.

Since your clients need to like you, trust you, and believe in you, before they even consider working with you, your social media content needs to have a balance between those goals.

Our process to find content for social media for life coaches:

1. Figure out which social media platform(s) your target audience is using the most. If your website has traffic, check your analytics and find out where are they coming from the most. We’re finding that Facebook and Instagram are still at the top of the platforms for life coaches. For example, you can use Instagram Reels to drive new people to your channel, then, via Instagram Stories, offer them to download a guide, so you can follow up with them via email.

Pro tip: always pick the shortest journey. For example: sharing a video, then asking them to click so you can grab their email versus sharing a video, inviting them to a Facebook Group, and expecting the group to help you generate leads and sales.  Pick the shortest route!

2. Research. Once we define our journey to connect with the ideal client, we research for topics so we can see how the audience has responded. In that way, we don’t need to invent the wheel. Seasonality plays a big role here. Let’s say that you want to help women who are going through life transitions. If the holidays are approaching, create content that considers their struggles during that season.

3. Create long-form content. We love using social media to identify conversations. Then we create long-form articles using SEO tools that give us content ideas that are relevant to the topics. Having a well-oiled content writing system is key. In our social media marketing agency, our life coaching clients get 4 articles per month, plus 15 posts for their social media. This allows us to build a fresh calendar each month, so they never run out of content.

4. Build your editorial calendar. If you haven’t built a social media calendar, having a done-for-you social media planner will help you tremendously. Here’s our social media planner.

If you have a chance, watch this video series where I discuss the process to building a monthly calendar for your social media.

5. Ordering graphics. Your main role in your marketing is to build your network. You’re not a graphic designer. Therefore, delegating this process is crucial to take your business to the next level. I could make graphics; but I won’t. Since you will be ordering graphics after having your editorial calendar ready, your process will flow effortlessly.

Your social media graphic order should look like this:

  • Inspiration: add a link to a style you likes
  • Text to include: clearly write what the text will say
  • Sizes: ask for the graphic in multiple sizes so you can use it for your feed and stories

6. Writing captions for your social media posts. Once your graphics are ready, it’s time to write captions. But, you won’t write them! For this phase, you can use AI to get social media captions. We’ve been using Jarvis (a software that writes professional content for you) and it has saved us hundreds of hours! Click here to check them out.

7. Use a scheduling platform. Facebook has enhanced their scheduling platform and it’s free! Use it!

Should I hire a social media marketing agency?

The short answer is NO.

As a life coach, you need more than a social media marketing agency. You need to grow your online presence, build authority, create content to monetize it, and attract clients. And all of this, while serving your clients. That’s a lot!

Your best hire will be a digital marketing team of experts that can be efficient and give your business what it needs so you can take it to the next level ASAP.

And if that team has a one-stop-shop where you can also create and produce content, even better! For those of you in Austin, Texas, MFG Agency is that one-stop-shop. We offer packages for life coaches, content creators, brands, and e-commerce businesses. Click here to chat about your business.

I know that sometimes it’s not easy to “brag” about yourself.

But… if you don’t share how amazing you are, who will?

Pay attention to conversations and find opportunities to get featured.

Get on the spotlight as much as possible!

  1. Get featured in publications
  2. Get interviewed
  3. Win an award
  4. Join a conference
  5. Play team with other industry leaders
  6. Join networking associations so you can expand your sphere of influence

Pro tip: Use your offline marketing to create content for your online marketing.

Your users are watching you. They want to see that “you are the real deal”.  And this is the kind of influence that will inspire them to work with you.

Coaches grow by growing their reputation. Your reputation, meaning reviews, is currency these days.

Take some time to ask your amazing clients to leave you a review on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Then, use those reviews to create content and share it on Instagram. Not only you will gain followers but you will be able to turn them into clients.

Again, just because you don’t have a fancy social media presence today doesn’t mean you can’t change it. And the best part, you can do it today.

Bottom Line

Follow the tips mentioned above to get your life coaching business going. Focus on being genuine and organic on avoiding roadblocks in your coaching journey. Becoming successful in this field is not an overnight thing. It requires patience, passion, and perseverance. Keep on trying, and after some time, you will have more customers than you could possibly handle.

Who is Jessica Campos

My short bio: ⁣⁣⁣
Jessica Campos, JD, BBA⁣⁣⁣
Forensic Digital Marketing Mentor & MFG Agency Founder with over 15 years of experience. I found my way to escape from my law firm to start my beach life, over a decade ago. I’m a living testimonial that you can truly live from your mastery and talents and work from anywhere in the world while having a life. I have 4 children, a loving husband, and 2 amazing dogs. The word busy is not included in my vocabulary 😁I replaced it with “I am intentionally living a purpose-driven life and business.

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Marketing Strategies We Can Learn From Chipotle’s Success Story

Are you looking for innovative ideas to refresh your marketing plan? What can be a better place than studying lessons from Chipotle’s comeback?

Chipotle is making big news after a series of food quality and safety issues. Named a marketing maven by Inc Magazine, due to its centralized, digital-first campaigns, gives us marketers a great case to study and learn.

For those marketers and small business owners who are preparing for their best year ever, get ready to add some avocado and carne asada to your marketing plan this upcoming season!

Let’s dip in!

Digital Experience Should Be Your Number 1 Priority

Part of the main ingredients of Chipotle’s comeback has been its commitment to go all digital. The company wanted to give its customers a sleek, modern, food-forward experience.  Their app has a proprietary “smarter pickup time” technology that enhances the food experience even more. 

To make sure they fulfill their commitment with great user experience, Chipotle conducts ongoing research into how customers interact with the company. They iterate, test, and learn. 

User experience should be the number one priority in your marketing strategy.  88% of online shoppers say they wouldn’t return to a website after having a bad user experience. 

Chipotle has been playing a very smart move by shifting from the traditional bo-go and coupons that casual food restaurants use to drive traffic, to take the time and design a digital experience for their users. 

Narrow Your Generation And Find Them Where They Are (TikTok)

Chipotle has realized quickly the power of Millennials and Gen Z when their online orders impulsed by their app were happening from their younger consumers. 

In order to conquer those generations, in particular, Gen Z, they have partnered up with TikTok for marketing campaigns like #GuacDance challenge and the #Boorito challenge. 

They launched the #GuacDance challenge and customers submitted a total of 250,000 video submissions, resulting in Chipotle selling 802,000 sides of guacamole. Then, for Halloween, the company encouraged its customers to make a TikTok video in their costume glory using the hashtag #Boorito.

In order to spread the word, Chipotle partnered with several top TikTok stars, including Zach King (25.7 million followers) and Brittany Broski (1.6 million), who posted their own videos.  

In case you didn’t know TikTok has surged in popularity, surpassing the likes of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in monthly App Store installs and Q4 2018 worldwide downloads. While the app doesn’t appear to differ much from other looping, short-form video-sharing apps, TikTok has enticed and captivated consumers with a proclivity for binge-watching video content. Brands are capitalizing on the app’s remarkable success to launch influencer marketing campaigns with top TikTok creators.

But Chipotle isn’t just targeting the younger generations. It seems like they segment their campaigns. They recently launched a brand awareness campaign on their new menu conforming to Keto diet, Paleo and Whole 30 diets. 

A lesson learned here: marketers need to design their campaigns generation-specific. Not all audiences respond the same way, especially digitally. 

Reversing Social Media Marketing With User Generated Content (UGC)  

Chipotle’s massive digital success has been driven by their app downloads and their direct efforts to spread their campaigns strategically.

When you see their social media (Facebook and Instagram) you will notice a different approach from the typical “food porn” marketing.

Chipotle made a u-turn on the traditional social media platforms! No more #foodporn!

Perhaps you imagine the fancy videos showing fresh guac and pico, full or colorful veggies. Well, NO! That’s NOT what their Facebook and Instagram is about.

They have taken a totally different approach: authentic marketing first, aesthetics second. 

Take a look at their accounts and you will notice how raw, real, and authentic their content is. We predict that this is a trend that will grow even more in 2020. 

Users are tired of seeing perfectly curated feeds and Chipotle knows it!

Why user-generated content (SGC) really matters? 

UGC is digital word of mouth.  92% of consumers trust word of mouth more than any kind of advertising. 84 percent of millennials report that user-generated content has some influence on what they buy. These are big numbers that business owners can’t afford to miss.

People trust other people more than they’ll ever trust your marketing alone. Rather than hearing from a brand, they’re getting the genuine opinions of consumers just like them. By showcasing social proof, you’re instantly positioning your brand as more trustworthy.

If you truly want to generate revenue from your digital marketing efforts, your digital marketing strategy needs to prioritize user-generated content, especially Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.  

Chipotle has concentrated its production efforts to enhance its employees’ benefits program and customer loyalty program. The rest of their social media marketing is USG. It’s so simple!

Request Your Forensic Marketing Demo Today.

Centralized Content Marketing Program

Successful businesses are taking the function of enterprise content seriously. They are moving beyond the one or two ad hoc practitioners supporting the whole business – to specialized teams focused on strategic content in marketing and communications.

A centralized content marketing program connects sales and marketing. Topics flow from sales to marketing and content flows from marketing to sales. There’s no need to follow guerilla tactics when you define a clear roadmap to generating content that users want to consume.

Sixty-seven percent of B2B organizations are fully committed to the practice of content marketing, and half these organizations expect budgets to increase over the next year. In B2C, it’s a similar story. Fifty-seven percent are looking at increased budgets, and 64% say their organization is fully committed.

Chipotle’s CMO Chris Brandt spoke at Advertising Week about ignoring conventional turnaround wisdom to achieve a $1.2 billion revenue increase in three months.  

Without a doubt, a centralized content marketing program saved the brand. 

In February, Chipotle worked with documentarian Errol Morris to capture workers’ routines and why those employees remained loyal to the brand despite low points, with footage clipped into TV and digital spots. Employee-driven marketing eventually grew into new experiments on social channels. A video of an employee doing a lid flip trick with one of Chipotle’s bowls was shared to the brand’s official Instagram page, racking up 1 million views. 

What’s the lesson that all brands need to learn? Content is not just about features and benefits. 

Boost Your Organic Traffic With Content SEO 

Organic traffic is traffic that comes to your website when someone types a query into Google and clicks on your organic listing in the search results. Anytime lands on your website from the search engine results pages (aka SERPs), you’re receiving organic search traffic.

Take a look at the website traffic that Chipotle’s website has- ORGANIC. A shy 4.8M searches per month – organic. We see very little paid search (AdWords). 

Organic search traffic brings in highly qualified prospects and it’s because of their search intent. When you produce content that fits the search intent of the users, your website visitors are almost like leads! 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been in the digital marketing space for a long time now. Some marketers believe (wrongly) that SEO is dead. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.  How can SEO be dead?

Leads from search engines have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (ex. cold-calling, direct mail, etc.) have a 1.7% close rate.

Can SEO drive traffic to a restaurant? You bet! 

One of the very first campaigns that hit the search engines was “Behind the Foil,” the most intimate look into the company’s operations in its history. 

The documentary-style digital and TV spots, shot by documentarian Errol Morris, aimed to “pull back the foil” by featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Chipotle restaurants, including its kitchens, equipment and prep routines, and featuring Chipotle employees and the farming partners that grow the brand’s real ingredients. This spot is titled “The Guac Smasher.”

Content SEO is a key part of any SEO strategy. Without content, it’s impossible for your site to rank in search engines. It’s, therefore, crucial to write and structure quality content! 

Need a fresh marketing strategy? Let’s chat today.

Takeaways From Chipotle’s Digital Marketing 

  1. Brand loyalty can be achieved without marketing your products and benefits. The new approach? Marketing that recognized the core values of the company.
  2. Social media marketing needs to make a U-turn and features authentic content. Brands need a centralized plan to execute content distribution.
  3. Your targeted generation is crucial to define what marketing campaign to launch and how will it look.