In the past, the traditional narrative suggested that to be taken seriously as a business leader, you needed to be at the helm of a successful business. The credibility of a leader was often tied to their personal credentials such as a title and tangible success of their company.
However, the digital age has flipped the script. Today, it’s not just about leading a business; it’s about leading a personal brand. Prolific leaders who create prolific content are now the ones who are taken more seriously. Not because their degree or college education. They’re respected based on their followers. 🤔
Does your business have a face? Should it have one?
The short answer: it should.
The rise of social media and content marketing has democratized the business landscape. It has given individuals the power to build their own platforms, share their ideas, and connect with audiences on a global scale. This shift has led to the emergence of a new kind of business leader: the personal brand leader.
Personal branding is about more than just self-promotion. It’s about establishing a reputation and building trust with your audience. It’s about sharing your unique perspective and insights, and providing value through your content. When done right, personal branding can elevate a business leader from being just another executive to a thought leader in their industry.
Examples of successful personal brands
Tesla and Elon Musk: Elon Musk is arguably one of the most well-known examples of a business leader with a strong personal brand. His innovative ideas, outspoken nature, and active social media presence have made him a household name. Musk’s personal brand is so strong that it’s often hard to separate him from his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. His vision for a sustainable future and space exploration resonates with many people, and his personal brand has undoubtedly contributed to the success of his companies.
Virgin Group and Richard Branson: Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, is another business leader with a strong personal brand. Known for his adventurous spirit and customer-first approach to business, Branson’s personal brand is closely tied to the Virgin brand. His charismatic personality and commitment to innovation have helped Virgin Group become a leading brand in multiple industries, from music to aviation to space travel.
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg: Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook, has a personal brand that is intrinsically linked with his company. His story of creating Facebook in his Harvard dorm room and growing it into one of the world’s biggest social media platforms is well-known. Despite facing criticism and controversy, Zuckerberg’s vision for connecting the world and his commitment to innovation have helped shape Facebook into a multi-billion dollar company. His personal brand, like it or not, has played a significant role in the success of Facebook.
In this new paradigm, content is king. Prolific leaders understand this. They leverage platforms like blogs, podcasts, and social media to share their insights and experiences. They create valuable, engaging content that resonates with their audience. They don’t just talk about their company’s products or services; they talk about their vision, their values, and their journey. They share their successes and failures, their insights and lessons learned. They show their audience not just what they do, but who they are.
This shift towards personal branding and content creation has several implications for business leaders.
First, it means that authenticity is more important than ever. In a world where everyone has a platform, those who are genuine and authentic stand out.
Second, it means that business leaders need to be not just business savvy, but also media savvy. They need to understand how to create engaging content, how to build an online presence, and how to connect with their audience.
Finally, it means that business leaders need to be constantly learning and evolving. They need to stay ahead of trends, adapt to changes, and continually find new ways to provide value to their audience.
Interestingly, companies are now recognizing the value of personal branding and are investing in personal brand marketing for their executives. They understand that a strong personal brand can enhance the company’s brand, build trust with customers, and drive business growth.
The script has indeed flipped. Business leaders no longer need a successful business to be taken seriously; they need a successful personal brand. They need to be prolific leaders who create prolific content. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities. But for those who can navigate this new landscape, the rewards can be immense. They can build a loyal following, establish themselves as thought leaders, and create a lasting impact.
In the digital age, personal branding is not just an option for business leaders; it’s a necessity.
Ready to elevate your brand and accelerate your success? Let’s talk! Schedule a Branding Strategy Call with us today. Together, we’ll explore your vision, define your unique brand identity, and create a powerful strategy to make your brand unforgettable. Don’t wait to make your mark. Click the link to book your call now and take the first step towards transforming your brand!
What’s A Healthy Bootstrapping Marketing Budget? Marketing Experts Answer
No matter how many times you’ve found yourself trying to figure out what your marketing budget should be, so you can sell your products or services, it’s never an easy answer. Read about the best ways to market your business in 2023.
No matter how many times you’ve found yourself trying to figure out what your marketing budget should be, so you can sell your products or services, it’s never an easy answer.
Most of the marketing conversations we’re having in our marketing agency are with business owners who aspire to build a brand, long-term, but need a plan to combine both: their short-term and long-term goals. If this is you, then, bootstrapping might be on your radar.
What do you mean by bootstrapping?
Bootstrapping your business is a lot like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It means you are using your own resources to get your business started. This can be done by using your own money, getting help from family and friends, or finding creative ways to barter for goods and services. Bootstrapping can be a slow process, but it can also be very rewarding.
Most U.S. businesses are self-funded and don’t raise outside capital. Statistics are sketchy, but experts generally agree that about 6 million new businesses start up in the U.S. in an average year. Of those, only about 70,000 startups get angel investment, and fewer than 5,000 get venture capital.
Some Bootstrap Marketing Ideas
Bootstrapping means that you have to be extra careful with how you spend your money. Marketing can be one of the first areas to get slashed when bootstrapping, but it doesn’t have to be. With a little bit of planning, you can set up a bootstrap marketing strategy that won’t break the bank.
The first thing you need to do when setting up your bootstrapped marketing budget is figuring out what you can realistically afford to spend. Make a list of all your current business expenses and then see what you can cut back on or eliminate entirely. This may include items like dining out, cable TV, and weekends away. Once you’ve determined what you can reasonably afford to spend on marketing, you can start thinking about where to allocate those funds.
One of the most important things to remember when bootstrapping is that you need to focus on ROI (return on investment). This means that every dollar you spend on marketing should bring in more than a dollar in revenue.
But How Do You Create A Boostrap Marketing Plan?
Since you want to make sure you’re not wasting resources, your bootstrap marketing strategy needs to be thoughtful. Your first factor to consider is which marketing channels you will be growing. Gone are the days where you could hire a PR firm to run a powerful marketing campaign and see amazing results.
You want to keep your advertising costs low, but effective at the same time, so you can see an influx of cash to keep your business running. You might also want to consider getting capital for your marketing projects. In this way, you’ll secure your investment and your business success. In case you need a trusted lender, we highly recommend One Park Financial.
How Much Do Digital Marketing Services For Small Businesses Cost?
Generally speaking, the size of your marketing budget generally depends on factors like the type of business you’re running, the size of your audience, and how competitive your industry is.
While digital channels are a top priority for business owners, there are other marketing costs that should be factored, in addition of your digital marketing budget. Examples of marketing costs outside of digital marketing are:
Advertising
Customer surveys
Gifts to customers
Printed materials and displays
Community Outreach
Sponsorships
Marketers can’t predict or guarantee results. No matter how good they are. So, be realistic about your expectations and be prepared to give your marketing efforts at least 6 months.
As a ballpark, anywhere from 5-10% of your desired revenue may be considered a reasonable amount for businesses that take a B2B approach. And if you are marketing to consumers, in a highly competitive industry, you’ll need between 15-20% of your desired revenue.
Now that you have an idea of the marketing budget for your small business, the next thing is: how will you invest it? Notice that we say “invest”, not spend. Your marketing is an investment. Not an expense. Especially when you’re in the startup phase.
The Top Three Marketing Strategies for Bootstrapping
The landscape of digital marketing has changed drastically. So, no matter what you heard about what works and what’s working for your competitors, you can’t ignore the fact that you’re starting under many different conditions than they had. In other words: what worked for them won’t work for you.
Any bootstrapping marketing expert will tell you this: you can’t grow what you can’t measure. So, before making any decisions about your social media platforms, Adwords, or considering using online advertising services, your marketing analytics need to be set up. We’re living in unprecedented times. And without access to your own data, taking a guess on how to market so you can drive sales is a risky practice.
When business owners come to us for bootstrapping marketing services, we start with analytics. We take a Forensic Marketing approach to marketing, which sets us apart from any other digital marketing agencies. We’re also practitioners with expert-level knowledge of digital marketing, which allows us to make decisions and execute quickly.
Where are small business owners seeing a great ROI from marketing?
Our top three marketing strategies are Content Marketing SEO, Social Media, and Paid Media. But to see a higher ROI from marketing, we recommend combining different marketing strategies based on what you need.
It can be 70% SEO, 20% Social, 10% Paid (Google Adwords or Facebook Ads) or 90% SEO, 5% Social, and 5% Paid or any combination, depending on what we gather from the data.
Another factor that’s helping small business owners is to keep advertising costs at the bare minimum. We see that organic marketing practices drive higher conversions than paid channels. That doesn’t mean you won’t use paid channels. You will.
We have saved our clients up to 90% of their advertising budget by integrating their ad campaigns with SEO best practices.
Now let’s take a deep dive into the top three marketing services for bootstrapping and the budget.
Content Marketing Budget: What Does This Include and How Much?
This includes things like blog posts, infographics, eBooks, and whitepapers. Content marketing is a great way to attract leads without spending a lot of money. Just make sure that your content is high-quality and relevant to your target audience. Because you want to gain the right visibility AND the right reputation so you can gain trust from true potential buyers.
You can hire a content marketing specialist on a project-based payment and this allows you to get high-quality work without committing to a monthly payment.
A healthy content marketing budget should consider:
New pages for your website or optimize the existing ones using top-notch SEO strategies so you can see conversions
Long-form content that positions your brand as a leader and helps you gain authority and build trust
Content to generate leads
Mistakes to avoid when hiring a content marketing specialist:
Be sure they have a track record of creating high-converting content. If they can show you tracked links, even better.
Here’s an example of a home page that our team optimized 10 months ago. Using Google Search Console we can filter a single page and see the impact of the optimizations that were performed. Each page or article can be tracked inside Google Search Console or Google Analytics using UTM codes.
If your content writer doesn’t have those digital marketing skills, you won’t have access to the full benefits of content marketing.
If you hire content marketing services, be sure they include SEO optimization and tracking. How else could you calculate the ROI of your marketing?
Don’t create educational content without a plan to turn them into paying customers.
Most content writers understand the tactics to drive website traffic. However, there’s a difference between driving traffic and driving conversions. And your content should be able to assist in your conversion flow.
Lastly, be sure they have your branding guidelines.
Your content marketing should represent your brand. Don’t assume that your content marketing specialist will pick your brand voice. Instead, provide them with your branding guidelines which should have guidance to persuade your future buyers.
“Your content should be informative, relevant, and persuasive at the same time.”
Social Media Marketing Budget: What Does This Include and How Much?
Promoting your content on social media is a great way to reach new people without spending any money. Just make sure you’re strategic about which platforms you use and how often you post.
You don’t need to hire a social media manager to take over. You can always start by outsourcing content creation and graphic creation. This will free up your calendar and will allow you to get more clients.
A healthy social marketing budget should consider:
Social media strategy, crafted on a monthly basis
Videos that assist your long-form content so you can generate traffic and conversions
Time to engage with your audience so you can expand your network by “socializing” with the right people
Bootstrapping Your SEO Marketing Strategies
Unlike many SEO agencies will want you to believe, you don’t actually need SEO all the time. You can get SEO in a project base and optimize a few website pages at a time. This will help you grow your online presence consistently, without breaking the bank. SEO takes about 6-9 months to kick in. But the good news is that once your pages are ranking, you’ll start to see the compound effect of SEO.
Advertising Budget: What Does This Include and How Much?
If you do have some money to spend on marketing, paid advertising can be an effective way to reach new people quickly. Just make sure you’re clear about your goals and target audience before investing any money in paid ads.
Save Time and Money by Hiring Expert Marketers
It’s no secret that marketing a business can be extremely time-consuming and expensive. If you’re bootstrapping your business, you might be tempted to try to do it all yourself or hire inexpensive freelancers on Fiverr to save money.
However, this is often a mistake. The truth is unless you have previous experience in marketing, you’re likely to end up spending more time and money than if you had just hired experts from the beginning. Here’s why:
It Takes Time to Learn Marketing
Even if you’re naturally good at marketing and have some experience with it, there’s still a lot to learn if you want to do it well. There are always new trends and techniques to keep up with, not to mention the fact that what works in one industry might not work in another. If you try to keep up with everything yourself, you’ll quickly become overwhelmed. This will lead to either subpar results or complete burnout. Neither of which is good for your business.
You Need an Experienced Team
Trying to do everything yourself also means that you won’t have a team of experienced professionals to collaborate with. A good marketing team will have a variety of skills and experience levels. This way, they can cover more ground and come up with better ideas than if you were working alone. Having a team also allows you to delegate tasks so that you can focus on running your business.
Marketing Teams Have Become Very Agile After The Pandemic
There’s no secret that marketing agencies suffered during the pandemic. As businesses shuttered their doors and consumers hunkered down at home, many marketers found themselves out of work or facing reduced hours and budgets. However, the pandemic also presented an opportunity for marketers to step up and show their value.
In our MFG Agency, we had to minimize our team and pivot with tools and efficient workflows so we could offer high-quality services to our clients while fitting into their budgets. This allowed us to become more agile. Because we had to!
In the end, we haven’t gone back to the old ways. We’ve found new ways to reach consumers and adapt to the ever-changing digital marketing landscape.
“It’s been fun seeing how a simple 15-second video reaches hundreds of thousands of people and boosts a brand! The power of short videos is still untouched by most business owners. This won’t last for too long.”
Jessica Campos, Founder of MFG
But How Much Does It Cost To Hire Expert Marketers?
The answer, unfortunately, is not a simple one. The cost of hiring a marketing expert depends on many factors, including the size of your business, the scope of the project, and the expert’s level of experience.
As for the price of individual services, here’s a ballpark amount of expert-level marketing services:
– Social media marketing: $500-$3,000+ per month
– Search engine optimization (SEO): $1,000-$5,000+ per month
– Pay-per-click (PPC) management: $500-$10,000+ per month
– Email marketing: $500-$2,000+ per month
– Content marketing: $500-$5,000+ per month
– Market research: $5,000-$20,000+
– Advertising campaign management: 10% of total ad spend
-Fractional CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization): $350- $600 per hour
How Do We Price Our Expert Marketing Packages At MFG Agency?
In our MFG Agency, we start by identifying quick wins. And sometimes those quick wins will need light adjustments to their branding, website, or social media.
A solid marketing plan takes between 20-40 hours per month to execute. Even though the hourly rate of a fractional CRO or CMO is $350, you won’t pay that. We’ve managed to create growth packages that start at $3,000 per month and that give you access to our team:
2 Digital Marketing Experts
Expert-level SEO & Content Marketing
Expert-level Social Media
A team of graphic designers
Copywriters
Website developer
Influencer marketing
In addition to our well-nurtured resources that can assist with branding, photography, video marketing, event marketing, funding, etc.
And we’ve managed to structure performance-based plans and help you find capital. We see ourselves as your success partners.
Final Thoughts
Everything has a price. Even the things you’re getting for free. And when it comes to receiving marketing services, what you’re truly getting is PEACE. How much would you pay for peace of mind? Some might say “it’s priceless.”
For some of you, your peace of mind comes from seeing a healthy banking account. You want to see short-term gains. And want to actually see it in the banking account.
We also speak to business owners that their peace of mind comes from having certainty about their long-term success. They don’t look for immediate sales. They want to build a brand and have long-term goals.
In which group are you? Knowing what success looks like for you is important when you’re considering hiring a marketing team.
Let’s Have A Conversation
We help businesses like yours to create and implement effective bootstrapping marketing strategies. It all starts by getting to know your business and your goals. Then, conduct market research and develop a personalized plan of action.
What’s the Best Way to Market a Small Business in 2023
Marketing your business correctly is essential to its success. Read about the best ways to market your business in 2023.
As we move into 2023, it’s time to start thinking about how to market your small business most effectively. While there are many different marketing channels you can use to reach your target audience, some are more effective than others.
Here are our top recommendations for digital marketing activities that will help you grow your business fast.
How Will Small Businesses Grow In 2023?
In 2023, the big thing for small businesses will be content marketing SEO to boost traffic on their websites. Paid advertising is getting challenging, as users are on multiple platforms and it’s hard to attribute the ROI from paid efforts. By focusing on creating engaging content that is optimized for search engines, small businesses can attract more organic traffic and get ahead of their competitors. Additionally, content marketing can help to build brand awareness and create loyalty among customers. With so many benefits, it’s no wonder that content marketing SEO is predicted to be one of the biggest trends for small businesses in 2023.
When it comes to online marketing, we’re recommending 3 essential best practices: 1) content marketing and SEO 2) email marketing and 3) social media. These are essential in order to effectively market your business online and connect with your target audience. Building brand authority means creating high-quality, informative articles that position you as an expert in your field. Email marketing helps you to stay in touch with your customers and build relationships with them. Social media is a great way to connect with potential and current customers and promote your brand.
Wondering why these three areas make the essential aspects of your business’s marketing plan? Here are the stats:
Vital Statistics That Small Business Owners Need To Know.
According to 92 percent of entrepreneurs, a website is one of the most successful digital marketing tactics.
Within 24 hours, 75 percent of local mobile searches result in visits to offline stores.
Long-term spending by customers who interact with a company on social media might increase by up to 40 percent.
Email is the most popular marketing technique for small firms, with a 54 percent usage rate.
The typical ROI for email marketing is 122 percent.
The stats show the significance of incorporating comprehensive and advanced digital marketing strategies to boost your newly established or existing venture.
Let’s delve into details to take a closer look at these digital marketing strategies.
Digital Marketing Strategies 2023 #1: Content
Marketing SEO
In this day and age, it’s not enough to have a website- you need to have a website that people can find. This is where SEO comes in. Search Engine Optimization is the practice of making sure your website comes up as the number one result for relevant searches. However, simply stuffing your website with keywords is not enough. You also need interesting and engaging content, or no one will bother to visit your site. This is where content marketing comes in. Content marketing is a strategy for creating and distributing content that is relevant to your target audience.
Content Marketing Tips to Grow a Business:
1.Segmentation
If you’re like most businesses, you probably want to reach as many people as possible with your marketing efforts. After all, more customers means more sales and more growth, right? Well, not necessarily. In fact, one of the most common mistakes businesses make is failing to segment their audience. Your audience isn’t everyone – it’s specific groups of people with specific needs and interests. Trying to appeal to everyone will just result in a generic, uninteresting message that doesn’t resonate with anyone.
Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, focus your content marketing efforts on specific segments of your audience. This will allow you to create targeted, relevant content that resonates with each group. As a result, you’ll be more likely to generate leads and convert them into customers.
2. Create Content Considering Micro Niches
As any marketer knows, casting a wide net is not always the most effective way to attract customers. Sometimes, it is more effective to focus on a smaller, more specific group of people. This is known as a micro niche. By definition, a micro niche is a subset of a larger market niche that has already been segmented.
For example, if you are selling bicycles, your micro niche might be children’s bicycles. The advantage of targeting a micro niche is that you can pre-qualify your potential customers and buyers in the initial phase of the marketing funnel. This saves you time and energy in the long run because you are not wasting your resources trying to reach people who are not interested in what you have to offer. To determine your micro niche, start by creating a buyer’s persona. This will help you to summarize the target audience’s demographics, needs, and wants. Once you have a clear picture of who your ideal customer is, you can start creating content that appeals to them directly. By considering micro niches, you can make your marketing more effective and save yourself time and money in the long run.
3. Mobile Design: A Website Is Not Enough Anymore
A responsive website provides a better user experience overall, especially for mobile and tablet visitors. Since designing for mobile is the most challenging, it is typically done for that platform first; after those issues are resolved, designing for the desktop is considerably easier.
A mobile-responsive strategy focuses on adaptive design to ensure that content looks beautiful regardless of the device used to view it.
4. Customer Experience
Over the past few years, customer expectations have steadily increased. With the rise of online shopping, customers have come to expect a certain level of convenience and accessibility. And rightly so – why should they have to settle for anything less? With so many options available at their fingertips, why would they put up with poor customer service or a lack of transparency?
COVID-19 has only served to heighten these expectations. With in-person shopping coming to a complete halt, customers were left with no choice but to turn to online options. And while in-person shopping has resumed, the pandemic has forced many businesses to reevaluate their approach to customer experience. In order to stay competitive, it’s more important than ever for businesses to take a customer-centered approach.
What does that mean, exactly? It means putting the needs of your customers first, constantly striving to exceed their expectations, and always being transparent. It’s about building trust and creating loyalty – something that will be invaluable as we continue to navigate these uncertain times.
If you want your marketing to really hit the mark, take a customer-centered approach. Instead of creating content to promote your business, do it the other way around. Start by identifying what your customers need and want, and then create content that meets those needs. Not only will this make your marketing more effective, but it will also foster a stronger sense of loyalty and trust between you and your customers. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what marketing is all about?
5- Ai Technology Is Here To Stay
In the future years, artificial intelligence will completely dominate digital marketing. You might be surprised to learn that AI can assess customer behavior in addition to search patterns by using information from multiple social media platforms.
Wait. Does this mean that a machine can actually write your articles and captions for your social media posts? Yes.
The following are the AI apps that our digital marketing agency is actively using:
AI Content Writing-A program that employs artificial intelligence to generate original, high-quality material from user-entertained keywords or phrases
AI Image Design- Due to AI’s increased speed and efficiency, designers can produce designs more quickly and affordably.
AI-Based Captions for Social Media- After understanding each image based on its various components, the AI-based Captioning tool produces captions or textual descriptions accessible by humans.
AI-Based Ecommerce- By gathering information about your consumers, automating follow-up queries about abandoned carts, and more, AI can help establish a more effective sales process.
Our digital marketing agency is already using AI-powered tools to be more efficient and cost-effective, and we’re seeing great results. So if you’re not already on board with AI, now is the time to get on board!
6- Establishing Clear KPIs for Your Content Marketing SEO Efforts
Before you start writing content for your website, it’s important to establish some clear KPIs (key performance indicators). These are the metrics that you’ll use to measure progress and performance toward your goals over time. We recommend setting up tracking plugins so you can attribute any changes in traffic or rankings to your content marketing efforts. Some common KPIs for content marketing include pageviews, unique visitors, bounce rate, time on site, and conversion rate. By monitoring these metrics, you’ll be able to see how your content is performing and make necessary adjustments to improve your results.
Marketing analytics can be a daunting task. There’s so much data out there, and it can be hard to know where to start. That’s where our Forensic Marketing Services come in. We’ll help you track down the data that matters, and then we’ll help you make sense of it all. We’ll show you what’s working, what’s not, and how you can improve your marketing strategy. With our help, you’ll be able to make smarter, more informed decisions about your marketing campaigns. So if you’re feeling lost in the world of marketing analytics, you’re at the right place today!
7- Measure Your Future Buyers Journey
Big data is great. It can tell you all sorts of things about your customers and their behavior. But if you want to create a truly effective marketing strategy, you need to go beyond the numbers. You need to understand the customer journey.
The customer journey is the path that your customers take from awareness to purchase. It includes all the touchpoints that they have with your brand, from first becoming aware of your product or service to making a final purchase.
Data can give you a lot of information about each individual touchpoint. But it can be difficult to see the big picture. That’s where expert analysis comes in. By understanding the customer journey, analysts can help you identify areas where you can improve your marketing strategy and drive more conversions.
If you want to create a successful marketing strategy, you need to start by measuring the customer journey. Only then can you get the insights you need to make informed decisions about your marketing efforts.
Use Google Analytics for Marketing. Here’s how:
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can provide insights into how users are interacting with your website. However, it can be tricky to know which data is most important to look at. Here’s a breakdown of the most important data you can use to discover how users are navigating your site:
Bounce rate: This measures the percentage of users who leave your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate can indicate that users are not finding what they’re looking for on your site.
Time on site: This measures how long users are spending on your site. A low time on site can indicate that users are not engaged with your content.
Pages per session: This measures how many pages users are viewing during each session. A low pages per session can indicate that users are not finding enough content of interest on your site.
By understanding these key metrics, you can get a better idea of how users are interacting with your website and make changes accordingly.
8- Optimize Your Website For Conversions
When you’re running a business, it’s important to make sure that your website is optimized for conversions. This means making sure that your site is attractive to potential customers and easy to navigate. It also means ensuring that your site is keyword-rich and full of valuable content. By taking the time to optimize your website for conversions, you’ll be able to attract more organic traffic and generate more leads. And, in the end, that means more sales and more profits. So if you’re serious about growing your business, make sure that you take the time to optimize your website for conversions. It’s one of the best investments you can make.
You can collect the contact information of your prospects interested in goods and services using a lead capture form. However, you should focus on making lead capture forms that can add to your marketing plan. For instance, you can:
Create quizzes to gather information to segment your consumer base for personalization.
Make your lead-collecting forms interactive.
Gamify your holiday advertising strategies.
Digital Marketing Strategies 2023 #2:Social Media Marketing
In 2023, social media marketing will continue to be an important part of any digital marketing strategy. Customers are increasingly spending time on social media platforms, and they are more likely to trust a brand that has a strong social media presence. A recent study found that 62% of customers are more likely to trust a brand if it is active on social media. Additionally, social media provides an opportunity to connect with customers on a personal level and build relationships.
There’s just one issue: social media marketing can be time consuming. Creating one post can take up to 45 minutes and that’s not considering filming videos or editing.
In order to maximize the benefits of social media marketing, it is important to integrate it into your content promotion strategy holistically.
Social Media Marketing Tips To Grow Your Business:
1- Branding
As a small business owner, you know that branding is important to help your business stand out from the competition. But did you know that your social media channels are also a great place to reinforce your brand? Make sure your profile photos and cover images reflect your company’s logo and colors, and that your content is consistent with your brand messaging. By takes these simple steps, you can ensure that your social media presence reinforces, rather than detracts from, your brand.
2- Humanize Your Brand
In today’s competitive marketplace, customers are looking for brands that they can connect with on a personal level. So make sure your social media content humanizes your brand by featuring photos and stories of your employees, customers, and company culture. This will help potential customers see that there’s a real team behind your business, and that you’re committed to delivering a great experience.
3- Use Targeted Content
Not all of your social media followers will be interested in every aspect of your business. That’s why it’s important to use targeted content to reach different segments of your audience. For example, if you sell both B2C and B2B products, you might create separate social media channels or target different types of content to each group. By using targeted content, you can ensure that you’re sharing the most relevant information with each segment of your audience, increasing the chances that they’ll engage with your brand.
4- Boost Your Engagement With Videos
Videos are a particularly effective format for social media marketing, since they’re easy to consume and share. But how do you get started with video marketing? Here are a few tips:
Keep it short and sweet. People’s attention spans are shorter than ever, so it’s important to make your videos as concise as possible. Aim for under two minutes if possible.
Make it visually appealing. Use high-quality visuals and engaging editing to keep viewers’ attention focused on your video.
Use calls to action. Include calls to action throughout your video, so viewers know what they can do next (such as follow your brand on social media or visit your website).
Promote across all channels. Once you’ve created your video, be sure to promote it on all of your social media channels for maximum reach.
By following these tips, you can create social media marketing videos that will help grow your business.
5- Monitor Your Progress
Once you’ve implemented these tips, it’s important to monitor your progress and adjust your strategy as needed. Look at metrics like follower growth rate, engagement rate, and click-through rate to get an idea of how well your content is performing. If you see a dip in any of these metrics, take a closer look at what might have caused it and make changes accordingly. By monitoring your progress and being willing to adapt as needed, you can ensure that your social media marketing strategy is always working to grow your business.
Pay attention to your users! They know what they want!
Digital Marketing Strategies in 2023 #3: Email Marketing
Email marketing has been around for a while, but it’s still an effective tool for reaching customers. In 2023, email marketing will continue to be a key part of digital marketing strategies. Here are three reasons why:
Email is personal. You can address your subscribers by name and build a relationship with them through your messages. This helps you stand out in the inbox and creates loyalty among your subscribers.
Email is targeted. You can segment your list and send highly targeted messages to different groups of people. This allows you to tailor your message to each group and increases the likelihood that they’ll engage with your email.
Email is profitable. Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your audience. It has a high ROI and can help you achieve your business goals while staying within your budget.
Email marketing is a powerful tool that should be part of every marketer’s toolkit.
Email Marketing Tips That Will Boost Your Business in 2023
Email marketing can be a great way to connect with your audience and promote your product or service – but only if it’s done right. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your email marketing campaign:
1- Segment Your Audience
Not everyone is interested in the same thing, so it’s important to segment your list so you can send more targeted, relevant emails. This will also help you avoid having your emails marked as spam.
2- Keep It Short, Sweet, and Relevant
No one wants to read a novel in their inbox, so make sure your emails are concise and to the point. And always make sure the content is relevant to your audience – otherwise, they’ll tune out pretty quickly.
3- Be Creative With Your Topics
If you’re constantly sending emails about the same thing, people are going to get bored pretty fast. Mix it up and keep things fresh by coming up with new and interesting topics for your emails.
4- Set Expectations From The Start
Let your subscribers know how often you’re going to be sending emails – once a week, once a month, etc. That way they won’t be caught off guard when they start getting more frequent messages from you.
5- Incorporate Email And Social Media
Take advantage of both platforms by promoting your email campaign on social media and including social media buttons in your emails. This will help encourage people to use both channels and gets more eyes on your marketing efforts.
Now that you’ve gotten the best tips to boost your business in 2023, it’s time to talk about execution. How do we get there?
Outsourcing your marketing vs in-house marketing? What’s the best option?
There are pros and cons to both outsourcing and in-house marketing.
In-house marketing may be a better option if you have the budget to hire multiple people to handle different aspects of marketing such as content, web design, social media, and email. This way, you can be sure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.
However, outsourcing may be a better option if you don’t have the budget to hire multiple people or if you’re not sure how to get started with marketing. Outsourcing allows you to tap into a wealth of experience and expertise that you may not have in-house. It can also be more cost-effective than hiring multiple people, since you’ll only be paying for the services you need.
Ultimately, the best option for your business will depends on your specific needs and resources.
So, Where Should You Start Your Marketing Plan For 2023?
Marketing is a lot like baking a cake; you need to have all the right ingredients in order to create a delicious and successful final product. And just like with baking, the quality of your marketing efforts will only be as good as the quality of your strategy. That’s why it’s so important to have a well-oiled marketing strategy in place before you start implementing any tactics. By taking the time to plan and map out your goals, target audience, and key channels, you’ll set yourself up for success in the coming year. So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your marketing strategy for 2023 today!
Steal our social media marketing process so you can start attracting clients for your life coaching business.
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 process that will end with the struggle of how to grow your coaching business using social media.
Let’s roll!
How do I market my coaching business on social media?
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 their future buyers and their journey first.
What should a life coach post on social media?
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.
Your account should have a variation of:
Content that resonates with your audience at a personal level.
Content that builds your trust.
Content that builds your authority.
Our process to create a social media calendar for life coaches:
Step 1: Channel audit. We start by analyzing which channel is performing best by checking the website analytics. Why this step matters? Because our goal with social media marketing isn’t about getting likes. We measure success based on conversions. We identify which topics are driving users to the site, so we can capture leads and initiate the sales process.
We’re finding that Facebook and Instagram are still at the top of the platforms for life coaches. We recommend to use both channels.
Is it good to post to Facebook and Instagram at the same time?
The short answer: no. It’s important to understand that your users are in both platforms, but they use them for different reasons. We recommend to combine Instagram and Facebook strategically.
Instead of repeating the same post on Instagram and Facebook, for example, you can share a clickable article on Facebook, then, since Instagram posts cannot be clicked, you will share that article in Stories. Simultaneously, you can post a Reels with a recap of the article and share the it in stories, with a link to a freebie. Notice how just one topic is giving you a chance to create multiple posts in multiple formats.
Pro tip: always pick the shortest journey. For example: sharing a video, then asking them to click so you can grab their email will be better than sharing a video, inviting them to a Facebook Group, and expecting the group to help you generate leads and sales. Pick the shortest route!
Step 2: Campaigns. Once we define the topics, we then create our editorial calendar considering campaigns. 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.
Step 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.
A typical monthly social media calendar for a life coach has:
4 long-form articles (turned into posts and Reels)
2-3 days to observe based on the campaigns
2-3 testimonials
2-3 promotions
Step 4: 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 show you how to use the planner. It’s available in Amazon, by the way!
You should be able to build your editorial calendar in about 2 hours. If you want to learn practical tips to save time, I cover it all in Social Greatness- a FREE series where you’ll get a year of content, written for you. This social media tool will save you dozens of hours!
Step 5: Social media graphics order. 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
Step 6: Create captions for your social media posts. Once your graphics are ready, it’s time to write captions. If you love creative writing, great! But if you want to save some time and test Ai, we recommend using Jarvis (a software that writes professional content for you). It has saved us hundreds of hours! Click here to check them out.
In our social media marketing agency, one account is managed by 3 marketers. This allows us to deliver high-quality social media content.
Step 7: Scheduling. Once the graphics and captions are ready, the next step is scheduling. Use a scheduling platform instead of posting manually. Facebook has enhanced their scheduling platform and it’s free! Use it!
Be sure to schedule content in multiple formats: posts, videos, and stories.
You can add polls and stickers to your stories to generate more engagements.
Use hashtags that are relevant to the content you are talking about.
Do scheduled posts get less views?
You might be wondering if scheduling posts get less views than manual posts. This is a myth. Scheduled posts have the same chance to gain reach and engagement than manual posts.
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.
How do I advertise myself as a life coach?
Since we’re talking about how to market your life coaching business in social media, we need to consider advertising.
Advertising and marketing are often misunderstood. Advertising is all about direct response. Content marketing, on the other hand, is about engaging with the future buyer and use a seductive method to drive them closer to your brand. You won’t pitch your services before you’re further engaged with the user and know that they are interested in what you have to offer.
But let’s be totally candid: self promotion is totally accepted.
I know that sometimes it’s not easy to “brag” about yourself.
But… if you don’t share how amazing you are, who will?
Get on the spotlight as much as possible! Don’t be shy.
Get featured in publications
Get interviewed
Win an award
Join a conference
Play team with other industry leaders
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.
How do coaches grow on Instagram?
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.
If you’re on the fence about whether or not to start a TikTok channel for your business, let me tell you why you should just go for it.
A little over a month ago, I decided to start a TikTok channel so I could test a new strategy for my business. Within a month, I had amassed over 10,000 followers and over 1M views. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to start a TikTok channel for your business, let me tell you why you should just go for it.
The Before:
Although I had a TikTok account for over a year, the account wasn’t really growing. Even when I was consistently sharing content, using trending sounds, finding the best times to post, etc.
Ironically enough, I shared my frustration with my kids and they told me that my account wasn’t growing because my content was not relatable. They told me “Mom, people don’t like to see a teacher.” So I asked them to put together a list of videos from creators that looked like my age that they considered relatable. That’s when I understood the assignment.
I thought that funny videos were relatable. But it turns out that funny videos are not what my audience wanted from me. So if you’re taking notes, please write down this one: your audience might need substance more than a good laugh.
What does relatable content mean?
Relatable content means content that creates an emotional connection with the user. In simple words: it’s content that triggers a reaction, beyond a like.
Tips to create relatable content:
Use words that your audience would use.
Practice vulnerability. People are inclined to adopt the emotional perspective of powerless (versus powerful).
Make your audience feel something.
Create thought-provoking statements, instead of common facts.
Use commonalities. These are things that people commonly like.
The results:
My team was totally right. I did a “story time” sharing a very personal story when I was dealing with my rebellious-teenage-daughter, while growing a business. Oh my!
I freaked out
My story time was taken the WRONG way. Many women criticized me for prioritizing my business over my daughter’s needs. But the algorithm did its thing and found me the other group of women who actually came to the story and left me supporting comments. My friend, I felt like I was on Judge Judy’s show.
That’s when I learned how TikTok’s algorithm works, firsthand! I was amazed to see that story going “viral for me” and attracting women who were going through what I went through. Keep in mind, “viral for me” means that generated more reactions than any other video.
When the one viral video turns into a whole niche
That very first “viral for me” video gave me a sense of community. I was able to connect with powerful women, right away!
People kept asking me for more parts of the “story time” video. And that into a whole series of videos where I was sharing my experience, my lessons, and every bit of resource I had on my toolbox that could help other women who are going through the same situation.
That natural progression gave my TikTok channel over 1M video views!
And, of course, the forensic marketing strategist in me forced me to come up with a clear goal for this channel, which is, for now, my very own case study. I want to be able to show step-by-step, how to grow from zero, build a community, and monetize it.
If you know the MFG-SEO story, then you know that I built Austin Networking Group from zero by leveraging event marketing and a Facebook Group. The group has been fundamental to the success of our marketing agency. The best part? It has been 100% organic, using attraction marketing. We don’t need to “sell” anything. We lead with value. So I’m taking the same approach with this new TikTok channel. I know that if I create high-valuable content, the audience will come for more. In fact, I just launched a Podcast a few weeks ago, so I can answer questions and create longer talks, based on the TikTok topics. And following a TikTok marketing strategy, the little podcast is growing organically!
Can TikTok help with sales?
You might not think that an app full of 15-second videos is the place to sell your product or service, you’d be surprised. TikTok can actually be a great place to market your business—if you do it right.
First, let’s dispel a common misconception: TikTok is not a direct sales platform. You’re not going to make a sale by posting a video of yourself holding up your product and saying, “Buy this now!” And that’s okay. Not every social media platform is conducive to making an immediate sale. That’s not what TikTok is for.
Instead, TikTok should be used as a way to build relationships with potential customers and create an emotional connection with your brand. If you can get people to like and trust your brand on TikTok, they’re more likely to buy from you. And this is where a marketing funnel comes in handy.
A social media marketing funnel is a path that your customers move through at each point of the user journey. You should have a social media marketing funnel as part of your TikTok strategy. If you need help with coming up with your strategic marketing funnel, this is an area where our MFG-SEO team can help tremendously.
Tiktok Tips for Business–My Secrets to Take TikTok Account from 0 – 10K in a month
TikTok Growth Secret Number One: Conduct Research
Create a personal account and use the search bar to explore topics. TikTok uses SEO tools to facilitate users. You can use long-tail keywords, which are great for specific questions. You will get suggestions as you type, and the “people also asked” section. Notice that I am recommending starting with a personal account first. The main reason is that you want to create a solid content strategy before starting your channel.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Two: Search for Specific Problems Within Your Niche
You can niche your content according to problems faced by the target audience. For instance, if you are a money coach, search for a relevant keyword such as “money problems in relationships.” Then, you can find questions you think potential customers want an answer to and make content accordingly.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Three: Choose a Video Style
After choosing your “winning” topics, you can select a video style. In my opinion, this is the most crucial step to drastically increase your growth. Many business owners mistake relying on sounds and trends and mimicking their niche. Avoid this mistake. Study accounts that talk about the problems you solve. But now, don’t just pay attention to the topics. Identify which videos generated the most comments and the video style they used. Here are a few questions you could use when trying to choose your video style:
Is the creator showing their face?
What kind of background do they have?
What kind of setting do they use? Are they inside their car?
Notice if they mix serious content with humor and how they do it
Do they answer questions from the audience?
Do they seem like they produce their videos, or are they casual?
Do they use editing effects or transitions? Which ones?
These lengthy steps might sound daunting to you, but believe me, I managed to boost my followers from 0 to 10K by following these steps in only a month. Plus, remember that you don’t have to do any of this. You can totally delegate it to an amazing team (hello MFG-SEO!).
TikTok Growth Secret Number Four: Editing
I’ve noticed that the quality of the video impacts the performance. Especially lightning. Also, add both, open captions and closed captions.
Do trending sounds make a TikTok video viral?
While audio might play a role in your video views, I’ve not seen consistency. In my channel, the videos that have generated the most views have been the ones with higher watch time.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Five: Thumbnail
Having a powerful thumbnail is essential. It’s quite interesting seeing how TikTokers love “clickbait” practices, especially when you push emotional boundaries.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Six: Caption and Hashtags
TikTok’s search engine is very powerful. Not only takes the content of your video by what your audio is about, but also using the text in your caption. I try to write down short lists.
Hashtags are also helpful. Pick your hashtags according to the customers’ problems you want to discuss. For instance, an author should use #booktok, #authorsoftiktok, etc. Keep in mind that viral hashtags such as #fyp won’t work.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Seven: Posting 4x Per Day
Growing your TikTok account requires consistent posting and engaging with the target audience. You must post 3-4 times a day for positive results. Here is the cadence I use on my channel:
8 am
1 pm
6 pm
8 pm
Remember that once you have questions from your audience, those will become your content. There are days when I have 20 questions that are worth an answer.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Eight: Avoid Follow for Follow
This strategy might work on Instagram, but TikTok is different. You should avoid “follow for follow” as you are not using Instagram. Search topics, engage with creators, and pay attention to your FYP. These actions will help you to make new and relatable content.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Nine: Respond to your Audience
Never ignore questions from users in the comment. When you respond to your users, they will feel valued and engaged with your content.
TikTok Growth Secret Number Ten: Advertise
TikTok’s algorithm suggests posts for boosting. I highly recommend following those suggestions as the algorithm understands which content has the potential to reach more. The healthy budget to start with post-boost is around $5 to $10 per day.
Why do you need 10,000 TikTok Followers?
The short answer: monetization.
TikTok has created a virtual gift economy for influencers that allows them to monetize their videos. Creators can earn money by streaming, tipping viewers with imaginary cash or coins (which are converted into real-world currency when gifted), and offering subscriptions where fans send payment in exchange for badges that you can customize with your brand.
TikTok requires that creators have a certain number of followers and views to access these features:
To join TikTok’s creator fund: a creator must be 18 years or older, have at least 10,000 followers, and have achieved at least 100,000 video views in a 30-day period.
To receive virtual “gifts” during a livestream: a creator must be 18 years or older and have at least 1,000 followers.
To receive “gifts” on other videos: a creator must be at least 18 years old and have at least 100,000 followers.
To receive “tips”: a creator must be at least 18 years old and have at least 100,000 followers.
No wonder you see so many creators doing livestreams with neon backgrounds!
In Conclusion
Starting a TikTok channel for your business is a great way to reach out to new audiences, promote your products or services, humanize your brand, and have some creative fun. And you don’t need any fancy equipment or editing skills—all you need is a smartphone and a willingness to have a good time. And of course, if you want to secure your TikTok marketing success, consider hiring MFG as your social media team.
The Ultimate Guide to TikTok Marketing Your Business
The case of why businesses need to be on TikTok and how to do it the right way.
With a significant hold on popular culture, TikTok is no longer an adolescent dance app. The popularity of the video-sharing site, which celebrities, Millennials, Gen Xers, and major corporations endorse, is astounding.
In just five years, TikTok has amassed an estimated 1 billion active users, rivaling some of the biggest names in social media. The post includes useful information about using TikTok and its capabilities, so you can determine why the app is so well-liked.
What Is TikTok & How Did it Get Started?
TikTok is a social media site where users can make, share, and find brief videos. The software gives content creators a platform to express themselves through lip-syncing, dancing, comedy, and singing. It also lets users make movies and share them with their social networks.
You might think that TikTok is just for people who want to dance, but that’s not the case at all!
The Algorithm
Which content will show up on your For You page is determined by the TikTok algorithm, which is a recommendation system that doesn’t need you to follow or befriend anyone. In my opinion, this is what makes TikTok unique.
Instead of having a newsfeed, TikTok has the FYP. On their For You page, no two users will watch identical videos, and the videos you see may change according to viewers’ choices and emotional conditions.
Besides the FYP, TikTok has the Discover page. This will appear by tapping the magnifying glass at the bottom of the screen. Users can navigate the Discover page and check the app’s hot videos. You’ll find some of the most recent trends on TikTok right here. “Example” videos are the initial group of videos to appear under a hashtag.
The Engagement
TikTok offers various tools for engagement, such as like, share, comment and follow options. Moreover, users can favorite the videos they like, share them, and even create content side-by-side (using the Duet feature) or grab a piece of the video (using the Stitch) feature.
Since users don’t need to be your friend or even follow you to find your content in their FYP, you’ll notice that engagement on TikTok is much higher than on other social media platforms.
How to Get More Views on TikTok
On TikTok, views are the name of the game. The time has come for you to increase your app’s visibility if you are new to this app. But it will require more than just capitalizing on the newest fads or hoping one of your videos miraculously becomes popular. You can take these steps to increase TikTok views:
Use the hashtag to reach the right people
Keep content short and engaging
Add trending sounds
Reach out to the specific audience
Try a how-to video
Collaborate with influencers
Identify the right time to post a content
Why Your Business Should Leverage TikTok Marketing
The beauty of the TikTok algorithm as a platform for people to create and express themselves, especially entertainingly, is that engagement promotes high-quality content that connects with viewers and doesn’t care how many followers you have.
Benefits of TikTok & Businesses
TikTok, in contrast to other significant social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, allows users to produce 15, 60, and most recently, up to 3-minute videos, allowing users and businesses to create content catered to a range of demographics.
TikTok is special because it focuses on sharing relatable, interesting, and authentic bite-sized videos where users can add commentary and distinctive overlays to current popular music. Additionally, it can instantly interact with other social networking platforms, facilitating the sharing of material.
This alone creates an entire level of connection with the audience your company is trying to reach.
‘I don’t need another social networking platform,’ you might be thinking. Depending on your industry, target market, and specialty, this might sound true, but remember that it might be a long-term investment worth making for your brand.
Many businesses have found success on TikTok simply by providing access to an audience that other platforms don’t have because of the increased creativity and exposure it affords.
TikTok Marketing Benefit #2: Build Community
With an engaging and active community on TikTok, you can build a positive reputation, increase brand awareness, and achieve business growth. A community of audiences with the same interest gives a better understanding of their customers’ persona. Marketing teams can identify customers’ behavior and make crucial decisions. Moreover, you can address customer complaints, nurture advocates, and gather product feedback.
TikTok Marketing Benefit #3: Sell Products and Services
The main purpose of the social networking app TikTok is to make quick videos. It can be utilized as a marketing tactic because it makes it simple for customers to interact with brands. It is simple to post information, gain followers, and make money by leveraging your link in BIO.
The use of hashtagging, commenting, liking, and sharing features aids in brand promotion, much like any other social media platform. And there is absolutely no expense involved!
How to Use TikTok Analytics for Business
You can track viewers, followers, and other significant data to check insights about your account’s performance with the TikTok Analytics tool. You can better understand your content by seeing the precise amount of followers you have on TikTok and detailed information about the demographics of your audience. By doing so, you can make sure that your content speaks to the intended audience and encourage the growth of your following.
To use this function, you must upgrade your account to a TikTok Pro account. By doing this, you can create a profile for yourself as a creative or a business for free. Once your profile is set up for it, checking your TikTok analytics is simple.
Understanding the Value of Your TikTok Marketing
In a way, TikTok and TikTok for Business resemble the Wild West of social media. Since it is such a new medium, nobody knows how to use it effectively.
However, it also means that your company has many fantastic opportunities to set the bar high. If you make a breakthrough, you can end up creating brand-new paradigms for content and advertising.
Overall, there is no substitute for getting your hands dirty and experimenting with TikTok marketing. If you haven’t already, download the app, watch a few videos, and determine whether it works for your company’s marketing plan.
If you are considering using TikTok marketing for business, consider consulting experts. At MFG, we help businesses to promote their brand with TikTok marketing. Want to learn more? Let’s schedule a call.
Wondering what works better: social media or SEO? Let’s see the numbers.
The ongoing debate of social media vs SEO is one that has raged on for years. And, as someone who works in digital marketing, I can tell you that it’s one that I deal with on a daily basis, as we are constantly comparing the performance of our social media campaigns with our SEO efforts, to see which marketing channel is bringing the most ROI for our clients.
So, which one should you focus on?
Of course, as with most things in life, the best way to achieve both goals is to use a combination of both SEO and Social Media. But it’s still important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each so that you can create a strategy that makes the most sense for your business.
So what’s the big difference between SEO and Social Media?
The biggest difference between internet users and social media users is how they use those mediums. So it’s not like one marketing channel is better than the other. They serve different purposes.
For example: let’s say you want to plan a trip to Alaska. You probably will start on Google, searching things like “Best places to visit in Alaska”, “Traveling tips Alaska”, etc. You might discover a particular hotel and get curious and check them out on social media.
The above example is called a “future buyers journey”. Successful brands leverage their online presence by amplifying each channel. They want to be at the top of their future buyers’ minds, to the point that you’ll see them everywhere. And if you pay close attention, you might have noticed a promotional email about a product that you were mentioning in a private conversation with a friend. How does that happen? That’s called remarketing.
The more you know about their journey, the better you will be able to use both, your internet real estate (your website) and social media real estate (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, etc.) to get them to buy from you.
If you’re not sure how your buyers are finding you, a good place to start is by configuring your Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These free tools from Google will give you insights into how people are finding your website and what they’re doing once they get there. Armed with this information, you can work with an online marketing strategist to create a more targeted marketing strategy that will help you reach your target audience more effectively.
How do SEO and social media work together?
SEO and social media are two of the most important aspects of online marketing. When used together, they can be incredibly effective in driving traffic and conversions.
Google Analytics is a great way to see how SEO and social media are working together. By looking at the top visited pages, you can get a good idea of which keywords and phrases are driving traffic. You can then use this information to create targeted campaigns that attract buyers in the consideration phase.
When done correctly, SEO and social media can be a powerful combination that helps you drive traffic and conversions.
The graphic below is a snapshot of Google Analytics from one of our e-commerce clients. They hired us with the specific goal of increasing their conversions. We knew that focusing on one area of online marketing wasn’t enough.
We took the top visited pages and conducted a behavior analysis, to come up with a refined conversion path. This gave us the chance to outline campaigns to promote their winning products across social media and Google, both organic and paid.
The results of combining SEO and Social Media?
Powerful.
How did we help our client increase purchase conversions by 323% in just 5 months?
I wish I could tell you it was just ONE thing that helped our client increase purchase conversions by 323% in just 5 months. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was data-driven decision-making, a team effort, brand integration, and enhanced ROAS reporting that did the trick.
By focusing only on activities with a higher ROI and setting up a multi-disciplinary team to handle creative, design, copywriting, and SEO, we were able to produce results that far surpassed the client’s expectations. And by working closely with the client’s dedicated team, we were able to ensure that all of our content was on brand.
Finally, by enhancing our ROAS reporting using Google Data Studio, enhanced with Super Metrics API, we were able to provide the client with even greater insights into our performance.
All of these factors came together to produce truly impressive results. While we noticed that social media drove sales, conversions from Google searches (both organic and paid) generated the vast majority of the conversions.
See the graphic below where it shows a Multi-Channel Conversion Visualizer.
In this particular case, we advised our client to shift their marketing budget to allocate less for their social media marketing and push further their SEO projects.
And this takes us to discuss the scarcest resource: TIME!
How much time you’ll need for your social media vs SEO?
Social media can help you reach a target audience who will feel a connection with your brand and will become your advocators. But in order to do that successfully, you’ll need to be “sociable”, which means:
Generate highly valuable content, tailored for the platform
Post frequently
Engage with your followers
Get vulnerable
Collaborate with other creators
Build a funnel so you can turn your followers into customers
A plan to grow a social channel such as TikTok takes about 2 hours per day (60 hrs per month), and this includes:
Watch trends to come up with content ideas
Create the videos
Edit the videos
Come up with catchy titles
Monitor analytics to find the best times to post
Post your videos
Monitor comments
Reply comments
This process is for each post
Expect to post 3-4 times per day
Social media channels bring a great opportunity for business owners, especially when we consider the increase in online and digital activities caused by The Pandemic. Therefore, even if you don’t have the 60 hours per month to keep up with your social media, outsourcing those activities can be a game changer for your business.
When it comes to time invested by business owners in their SEO efforts, is very minimal in comparison to social media. SEO tasks can be done by your SEO team, with very little effort from your end as a business owner. And this is a BIG PLUS for SEO services versus social media services.
For instance, in the example where we increased purchase conversions by 323% in just 5 months, we haven’t needed our client in order to do our SEO work. And this is possible when you hire the right talent for your marketing and sales needs.
Local SEO vs Social Media for local business owners
For local businesses, generating foot traffic from people nearby is key. So how do local business owners get more traffic?
The following is an example of a local business that was using only social media to promote its food. The business owner had a website with 3 pages: The home page, menu page, and contact us page, but no additional content. However, their social channels were active and they hit close to 5,000 followers. Because of that word of mouth, all their website traffic was from people who knew their business name. Although this is good, it’s not enough.
We combined SEO and Content Marketing SEO to drive website traffic from people who were looking for their food. We wrote blog articles around topics like “10 Best Places to Eat in [city]” and then optimized those pages for the city they’re in. So when someone Googled that query, our client’s website would show up. Because our client’s restaurant was one of the best in the city, people would click through and come to their website. From there, some would decide to visit the restaurant or order takeout/delivery.
This is just one example of how you can use SEO and Social Media together to grow your business. By creating great content and promoting it on social media and through other channels (like email marketing), you can attract new customers and grow your business. And if you track your progress with Google Search Console, you can see exactly how well your efforts are performing over time!
Does posting on social media help SEO?
If you’re wondering whether posting on social media will help your SEO, the answer is a little complicated. Technically speaking, social channels are separate from Google, so your activity on the site won’t directly impact your ranking in search results. However, that doesn’t mean that there’s no connection between the two, as we’ve discussed earlier.
In Conclusion
Social media and SEO are two of the most important tools in a marketer’s toolkit. When used together, they can provide an incredible boost to your visibility and reach. However, it’s important to remember that they are just tools – you’ll still need a comprehensive strategy to get the best results.
If you’re not sure where to start, the best thing you can do is to hire a team of experts who can help you develop a comprehensive marketing strategy.
I might be biased, but I personally think that here at MFG Agency, we have one of the most amazing resources! You’ll be able to make the most of social media and SEO, and you’ll see a real difference in your bottom line.
7 Applications That Will Help You Create Content For Social Media
Learn how to create a content strategy and 7 applications that will make your content creation process faster.
When it comes to social media, one of the most important things is to be seen. In order to be seen and build trust with an audience, you need speed. And that can be the hardest part.
What does content mean in social media?
Content on social media can be anything from a blog post, to an Instagram caption, to a Facebook status update. In order to be successful on social media, you need to be creating content regularly.
If you want to grow on social media, you’ll need a content marketing strategy for your social media, to achieve results without wasting time.
Steps to create a content marketing strategy:
1. Know your audience: you can’t create content that appeals to everyone, so you need to know who you’re trying to reach with your content.
2. Set goals: what do you want to achieve with your content? Is it to generate leads, or to build brand awareness?
3. Research. Competitor research is the process of investigating your competitor’s online presence, in order to understand what they’re doing well and where there are opportunities for you to do better.
This is important because it allows you to learn from your competitor’s successes and avoid their mistakes. It also helps you keep up with the latest trends in your industry so that you can stay ahead of the curve.
There are a few different ways to do competitor research for social media. One way is to simply look at their social media accounts and see what kind of content they’re posting, how often they’re posting it, and what kind of engagement they’re getting.
4. Create a calendar. A social media editorial calendar is a document that outlines the content you’ll be posting on each social media platform for a specific period of time. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
This is important because it helps you stay organized and prevents you from forgetting to post or running out of ideas.
Pro tip: avoid confusing tactics with strategy. A tactic is a specific action or activity that you undertake in order to achieve your desired outcome. A strategy is a high-level plan that outlines the overall approach you’ll take to achieve your desired outcome. What you post should be related to your overarching goal
How often to post on social media?
The answer to this question varies depending on the platform you’re using and the goals you’re trying to achieve.
If you’re trying to build brand awareness, for example, you’ll want to post more frequently than if you’re trying to generate leads. And if you’re just getting started on social media, you may want to post more often at first in order to gain traction and grow your audience.
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to post at least once a day on each platform you’re using. But if you can’t commit to that, don’t worry. Just do the best you can and try to be consistent.
The more people who see your content, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.
Understanding the Engagement Algorithm:
The Instagram algorithm is always changing, but the one constant is that engagement is key. The more people who engage with your content (likes, comments, shares), the more likely it is to be seen by others.
There are a few things you can do to encourage engagement on your posts:
Use hashtags. Hashtags are a great way to reach new people who are interested in the same thing as you. When you use relevant hashtags, your content is more likely to be seen by people who are searching for that hashtag.
Use calls to action. Asking your followers to do something (like comment or tag a friend) is a great way to encourage engagement.
Be interactive or engaging: this means that your content should encourage comments, likes, or shares.
Be timely. Posting about trends or current events is a great way to get people talking.
Be personal. Showing your personality and sharing your story is a great way to connect with your audience. Connect people or maintain connections: this means that your content should be interesting and valuable to your audience, and help them connect with each other.
Provide value to all parties included in this social exchange: this means that your content should not only be valuable to you, but also to your audience.
Now that we’ve gone over what content is and how to create a content strategy, let’s talk about the applications.
7 Applications That Will Make Your Content Creation Process Faster.
1. Etsy – This popular platform is full of designers who offer ready-to-plug templates. For example, if you are marketing your lashes business, finding Instagram templates for lashes studios will help you speed up the process.
2. Canva – This online design platform offers a wide variety of easy-to-use tools for creating visuals. Canva pro features are affordable and will allow you to create your brand assets, save templates, create folders, and much more! Your ultimate goal is to create high-quality content without spending too much time.
3. Jasper – This AI-powered tool can help pump out captions for your content. AI content is here to stay!
4. Fiverr.com – This is a platform where you can find freelancers. You can get a full month’s worth of content with captions and graphics from this freelancing platform. Expect to pay between $200 and $250 for 20 posts.
5. Google Search Console – This free tool from Google can help you research and optimize your content for better visibility. Knowing what content has attracted traffic to your website will help you refine your content.
6. Loom – This screen recording tool can be helpful for creating quick how-to videos or other types of content. The best part? It will generate a translation so you can turn audio into text easily.
7. Monday – This project management tool has templates where you can create your social media calendar with a few clicks. Again, the goal is to save time!
How does a person working with social media for the first time keep up with it?
That’s a good question because social media can move very fast. Most people are posting daily, if not multiple times a day. It’s even harder to keep up when you’re juggling your business, family life, and other obligations.
So, how can you keep up without losing your mind?
I have some tips that might help.
5 Tips for Keeping Up with Your Social Media Strategy
Keeping up with social media is hard unless you have some tools to help you do it. These are my top tips:
1. Set Up Tangible Goals
First, set up goals based on what you can handle.
Are you looking to engage with future users of your product or services? Are you looking to establish relationships with professionals that could be partners? How many new contacts would you like to have per week?
It all depends on what can you handle. Once you know that, we can reverse-engineer.
2. Eliminate Chaos by Organizing Your Time
Social media can easily be a distraction unless you organize your time to work as a social media marketer.
Plan out when you will post and what you will post in advance. Create a calendar that lays it all out, then follow it.
Learn the basics of social media marketing (SMM) so you’re not going in blind.
Did you know that SMM is a degree? It’s a very complex world. That’s why you need to set up expectations and allow yourself to be a student!
Personally, I love when entrepreneurs are willing to learn by shadowing a marketing expert. It’s actually the main purpose why I started my online school.
4. Choose a Posting Frequency
How many updates you should share? If you’re not so active, then 3 updates a week is okay. Pick 3 themes and run with them the entire month. Here’s my suggested posting schedule:
Expert tips: 1 every Wednesday
Success stories: 1 every Friday
Sharing industry news: 1 every Sunday
5. Collect a Bank of Content Ideas
Producing consistent content WILL be a pain (it is for most of us). For this reason, we recommend our clients collect a bank of content ideas and produce them during the month.
6. Allow Time for Direct Conversations
Learn how to FIND prospects by engaging and talking to them directly.
Get yourself a script.
Track your connections.
My book goes into more detail on how to talk to prospects.
My favorite class that teaches on this topic is a good start if you’re new to social media.
Ready to Conquer Social Media?
Using social media consistently is a great way to boost your brand and build your online presence.
Instagram is a great platform for spreading brand awareness and building a community around your business.
You might be posting great photos, using the right hashtags, and engaging with some followers (mostly friends), but did you know there’s more you can do to get more build your audience, get more followers, and turn them into real leads?
Specifically, I’m going to share some tips on how to craft an Instagram geotagging strategy that’s sure to bring more attention, followers, engagement, and leads your way.
What Is Geotagging?
Geotagging is how you add location and geographical information to media like photos and videos. A few examples of geotags include:
The latitude and longitude of a place
The location name
The state or country where the photo/video was taken
5 Tips for Your Instagram Geotagging Strategy
To show up in location searches on IG, geotagging is essential. Here are 5 tips to get it right.
1. Make Sure Geotagging is Enabled
To make geotagging super easy, make sure Location Services are ON for Instagram. This will let the app find your location automatically and suggest nearby geotags to use when you’re creating posts.
To make sure geotagging is enabled on an iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
Make sure Location Services are on, then go to Instagram in the list of apps below.
Under the Instagram location options, select “While Using the App” to let the app automatically find relevant geotags of your location when you’re posting photos.
2. Tag Yourself in Different Locations (Even When You’re Not There)
To help increase your reach on Instagram, tag your photos in different locations – even when you’re not physically at those places.
For example, if you mention a place in your caption, you can tag that place so your photo will show up in the feed for that tag.
Don’t just tag random places, though. Keep your tags relevant, useful, and related to your photo or caption in some way.
3. Follow a “Location” Tag and See What People are Posting
One of Instagram’s most recent features is the ability to follow hashtags and geotags. Following relevant locations will help you see what people are posting and what’s getting engagement.
That will allow you to create relevant content and relevant hashtags for that particular market.
4. Make Sure Your Location is on the Map
Local business owners very often DONT have their location on the map! This is a mistake because you’re missing opportunities for people to geotag you in their photos.
If your business geotag doesn’t exist, create it. According to Instagram, you have to create your location on Facebook before you can add it to your IG posts. To learn how to do that, read this guide.
5. Tag Locations Via Stories
Did you know you can geotag your IG Stories, too? This is another great way to extend your brand’s reach and get in front of more leads.
If you have over 10,000 followers, you can then add a link to giveaway freebies and collect emails on these same Stories posts.
Use Instagram Geotagging to Help More People Find You
To get more targeted followers and turn them into leads, geotagging is perfect to use as part of your Instagram strategy. Follow these tips to maximize how and when you show up in relevant location tags, and let more local people find you!
What’s next?
You can keep learning tactics from blogs and videos, hoping you get clients, or you can take a guaranteed path to get clients by working with us. Check out my Instagram Course!
Having a social media account without content is like having a microphone without power. Your social media channels are amplifiers of your message and your content is your message.
Content marketing can be confusing, especially when you consider the dynamics that take place when you combine your social media marketing, your new followers, engagement, video… It’s a lot!
If you have been looking for a formula to generate content for your social media accounts that brings in revenue, keep reading!
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is a marketing type, which entails the creation and distribution of online items to a clearly defined audience. Content marketers do this to arouse interest in various services or products.
The online material (mentioned above) includes material such as e-books, educational articles, entertainment, webinars (these answer specific queries individuals have about the marketed products/services), and videos. By creating and sharing this content, you can turn the product that you are selling into something unique that is not available elsewhere.
You should bear in mind though that Content Marketing is not a strategy that you employ once, and it is completed. On the contrary, content marketing is a process that requires a series of steps, which you have to repeat to achieve results over the passage of time.
Why do People Favor Content Marketing for Their Business?
Content marketing is a preferred tool for several businesses worldwide. Some of the many prime benefits of content marketing include:
Cost-Effective Means of Bringing in Fresh Leads
There is no denying that content marketing aids your business in gathering fresh leads. Small businesses that depend on constant traffic to boost their sales rely heavily on lead generation. Content marketing is not only an ideal solution for lead generation, but it is a very economical marketing strategy as well.
Content marketing generates around 2.5 times more leads than conventional marketing strategies and costs about 60 percent less as well. Content marketing’s ‘easy to afford’ factor makes it a useful tactic for small organizations that wish to maximize their revenue on a limited budget.
Enables you to Highlight your Expertise in your Field
All your followers want to know that they are interacting with experts who know sound knowledge of their industry. With the help of content marketing, you can demonstrate your know-how in your subject matter and facilitate your readers/followers to make an informed buying decision.
Let’s assume that either the consumer has the option to buy a product/service from a business that frequently publishes quality informative content or from one that does not provide any content. In this scenario, the customer is likely to buy from the company that has showcased their knowledge via their content. In this manner, the consumer can rest assured knowing that he/she is well taken care of by industry professionals who will competently answer any future questions he/she about the purchased product.
Why do Social Media and Content Marketing Complement Each Other?
Think about social media as the all-important automobile that takes your content to the ideal destination.
There are a plethora of platforms that you may use on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and many more. What this means is that you do not have to confine your content marketing motor vehicle to a single street! With the help of social media, you can connect with your targeted clientele and reach out to a diverse customer base when building your brand awareness.
Many entrepreneurs and marketers make the mistake of pursuing tactics on social media, such as how to get more likes, how to get more followers for free, how to write captions that get more likes. While those tactics are important, it’s important to have a big-picture strategy first. The last thing you want is to chase vanity metrics. You can’t deposit likes or followers in your banking account.
To ensure that your content marketing strategies are an unmitigated success, you must align these with social media. This alignment requires planning.
However, before we dive into the strategies to align content marketing for social media, it is important to know the chief components of a content marketing strategy:
-Business objectives: Your goals for content marketing and the Key Performance Indicators you will assess to measure the level of success.
-Mission Statement: What will you accomplish via your content?
-Distribution Strategies: What social media channels will you make use to distribute your content to your audience?
-Target clientele: Who do you plan to reach out to distribute your content?
-Measurement: Which metrics will you use to measure your success in social media content marketing?
These content marketing components will also serve as the crux of your social media plan. Here are some useful tips to assist you in aligning content marketing with social media.
What Should a Great Social Media Content Plan Have?
When you look for an efficient content marketing and social media plan, you should ask yourself some important questions:
-What do your social media followers require? Keep in mind that each platform will connect you with different followers. Treat each platform independently. For example, I won’t share on LinkedIn the same posts that I share on my Instagram. My content for Instagram is more personal than my content for LinkedIn.
-What do your social media followers need to know regarding your brand? Branded content is a must, if you want to use your social media channels to attract qualified leads.
Make sure your content includes the following:
What makes you unique?
What’s your story?
Who do you help?
What do your clients say about you?
–What online content/material piques your followers’ interest?Facebook Audience Insights is a great tool to find inspiration for your content. You will be able to find similar pages your audience have an idea of the content that drives their attention.
-Which social media platform you ought to leverage? Less is more. If you won’t be actively engaging in a platform, it’s better just to have a minimal presence. Review your leads and clients and see if you can track how did they find you. You should be able to find a pattern and see which social media platform is generating the best ROI.
–What are your objectives for social media? Set up the right expectations from your social media channels. While there are industries that have burst their sales using just social media, for the most part, especially for B2B businesses, social media serves as a place to raise awareness and build authority. However, they won’t expect to close deals from social media.
How many updates will you be sharing per week? Brands need to find the balance between staying in touch versus staying on your face. A general rule: if you don’t have great content to share, then don’t share. Your audience will appreciate you for respecting their time. Make it easy for them to follow you!
–How would you go about measuring your results on social media to know your progress? As a forensic marketer, this is my favorite part! Most marketers and entrepreneurs miss to track their content, especially content they share via social media. Don’t make the same mistake. Build your UTM codes so you can track your content using Google Analytics.
Importance of Understanding your Clientele
It is of paramount importance to know clearly who your targeted audience is and how these individuals make use of various social media platforms to look for information. You need to create and tailor your content in a way that your social media followers like it. By utilizing this approach, you will be the first choice for your audience when they look up for information online.
Make sure that you create the perfect blend of image and content. To that end, you need to keep your followers’ needs and interests in mind at all times. Put yourself in their shoes!
Stay Abreast of Trending Subjects
Staying abreast of trending topics is a great way to flourish when it comes to integrating content marketing with social media for your line of business. This enables you to become an important part of the conversations that interest your followers.
Just make sure you post your content at the correct time to maximize reader engagement as much as possible.
Hook Your Reader Base
When it comes to content marketing for social media, effectively engaging your readers is very important. You have to make sure that you connect with all your readers with the right content at the correct time. This will keep them hooked, and they will look you up frequently to check for new content. This also why it is necessary to post content frequently on social media.
However, posting too regularly in a single day might backfire as well. If you have quality content for your audience, limit yourself to post a couple of times per day. In this manner, you do not overload your readers with information and keep your followers engaged by providing them with useful content from time to time.
By using social media analytics, check out which type of content gives you the best reader engagement. Get a better understanding by studying the likes, shares, and comments received on the content. A thorough analysis of this kind will go a long way to help you to learn what best strikes your readers’ fancy. You will be able to efficiently boost reader engagement once you find out what your readers and followers like.
Ask the Audience
If you have no clue as to how, to begin with the marketing and require a sense of direction, you should take advantage of social media to find out the content type your followers/readers are actually looking for.
When it comes to content material, your targeted clientele will provide you valuable insights and point you in the right direction. Conducting a poll is the best way to get these insights. In this way, you will get assistance from your social media followers to promote and market your particular product/brand.
What Do You Use For Social Media Planning?
As a social media marketing with senior-level experience, I get to plan social media marketing calendars in no time. But it’s because at this point we use a strategy to design marketing campaigns.
If you’re starting, come up with a list of possible topics to post. Try to keep that list handy, so that can be your bank of ideas.
The infographic below outlines the social media content ideas that can be included in your content calendar.
Inspirational Quote
Feature a partner (or a vendor)
Share A Tip Or Trick
Share an article from your blog (showcase your expertise)
Share A Free Resource
Invite them to an event (or webinar)
Share an Interesting Story (be vulnerable)
Free trial
Highlight testimonial
Create a Poll
Highlight a cause
Show your audience behind the scenes
Infographic
Quick Video Training
Promo / Coupon
Ask me anything post!
Tips:
Perform an audit of your existing content
Make an overview of the major events that garner the interest of your audience
Think of the interests of your audience
Conduct research on the best content to post and share nothing but the best!
What did you plan to achieve by incorporating content marketing with your social media strategy? Are you using social media as your main channel to get discoverable? Do you have a website with existing traffic? Do you have an email list?
Knowing your starting point is crucial in order to set up your social media strategy.
Social media marketing can get you leads and sales, especially if you are incorporating content marketing into your social media marketing.
Your content marketing should help you communicate with your audience, in particular, with those who need your product or services TODAY. That will be key in order to see conversions from your social media marketing.
Mix Awareness, Consideration, and Promotions
A great way to simplify what to say in social media is by creating weekly campaigns, for example:
Motivational Mondays
Testimonial Tuesdays
Winning in Life Wednesday
Tips Thursdays
Fun Fridays
These are campaigns can help you craft a very simple content calendar.
Every brand is different and that’s why I don’t believe in the one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy for your social media.
Bottom Line
Needless to say, content marketing tactics should be a critical element of every social media strategy. In this way, you can expand your clientele reach, boost your brand awareness, and generate revenue, and leads by influencing potential customers at all phases of the sales funnel.
Similar to most things in life, a successful content marketing social media strategy takes time to perfect. To that end, be sure to experiment with new tactics and amend your strategy accordingly frequently.
Someone from my audience recently asked me a great question:
“How can I maximize my social media accounts?”
It made me think about where most people fail at taking advantage of all the free tools at their fingertips.
With that in mind, I have compiled a list of the 4 most underrated, underused, and FREE social media strategies and tools.
4 Free Social Media Tools and Strategies You’re Forgetting to Use
Sometimes, the best tools for social media are the ones right under your nose. Have you forgotten about any of these amazing features?
1. Direct Messages (DMs)
Social media is great for making new connections, and yet, people still choose to connect solely with people they have met in person.
Hello!? Grow your network online!
Facebook gives you the opportunity to make thousands of friends. Meanwhile, the average user has less than 500.
To find more connections, learn how to approach people via direct message without spamming them. Don’t be afraid to network, either. Ask them to go grab a coffee – you never know what might come out of it.
2. Facebook Albums
What’s another major tool people forget about on social media?
Albums.
Facebook, in particular, gives you the option to categorize your pictures and create albums. Look at how Weight Watchers uses Albums to feature their members in the Member Spotlight.
That’s brilliant!
And free!
3. Profile Pictures
Your profile picture is your first impression on social media.
That’s powerful!
Luckily, you can jazz up your picture to make it more memorable and get people interested in checking out your profile.
For instance, try adding a description (tag line) to your profile picture. I also recommend Photofeeler for real feedback and data about your images, which you can use to choose the best one.
4. The Community Around You
Social media brings people together. It’s great to create, collaborate, and engage in conversations.
It’s also a learning tool!
If more people used it for positivity, we could reduce depression and anxiety associated with social media.
To use your social media community to your advantage, try to engage more. Leave thoughtful comments on posts, join live feeds and chats, and share content.
Spread positivity and it will come back to you!
Want More Tips to Maximize Your Social Media Accounts?
Social media can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.
You don’t have to rely on hacks or secrets to get the most out of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Remember to use the tools at your fingertips to engage with your community.
I share many more tips and tricks in my free ebook, The 6 Golden Rules of Social Media. Download it today!
Gone are the days of cold calling and hard selling. In fact, 98% of sales professionals believe that building relationships is the most important part of selling. I agree.
Social media should facilitate the process of building relationships, but it turns into a distraction very often. You get bombarded by advertising. You feel spammed by your “friends”. You even get added to groups and communities without your permission. Yikes! Something needs to change.
Let’s talk about the basics of relationship building
Relationship building requires a two-way conversation. With social media, if all you do is sharing, sharing, and more sharing, you are missing the entire point.
Social media is not about you. It’s about them. Your target. Some experts call them “your ideal buyer profile”. Others call them “your future buyer persona”. For the most part, I find that business owners have a clear understanding of who they want to target. The most common mistake is that they don’t know how to attract their attention. Therefore, they feel like they are talking to ghosts and they can’t see the ROI.
Shift your social media approach by adopting this principle: It’s not about me. It’s about them. In fact, my book, The 6 Golden Rules of Social Media, has this as one of the Golden Rules. Perhaps you already have my book but just in case, you can grab a copy here.
Struggling to find ways to more effectively or authentically market to your consumers? Feeling like social media brings more distractions than profits? You just landed to the right place!
Let us first define what is outreach marketing. Outreach marketing is the practice of seeking out individuals or organizations that have a shared interest in what you or your company has to offer. Sometimes, it is used in conjunction with direct sales, but often times it is used for more larger goals such as branding. If you want more traffic, more leads, more visibility, you will want to leverage an existing channel to build your audience faster.
While social media is an amazing tool, we believe that for 2017, companies will need a stronger plan to reach their audience.
One of the most essential purposes of social media is to be SEEN. This is the reason why visibility is such a big deal in the social media industry. Being seen not only allows new people to discover you but it also allows you to discover new people as well, for prospective connections. Whether or not you realize it, there is a whole community of people that are in need and searching for the exact set of services, skills, products and/or knowledge that you offer.
Your goal with social media is to make you and your business visible enough for that community to find you.
The Marketing for Greatness team always has your best interests at heart and we are always excited to share with you our trade secrets so that you can apply the law of duplication to create your own success. Many of you who are familiar with me, will notice that in most of my communication to you, they always end in “To your Success.” Continue reading “3 Social Media Secrets to Hack Visibility”
