#ReviveYourMarketing – Don’t Put All of Your Eggs in One Marketing Basket

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, the work you are passionate about is your main driving force. However, marketing is an essential element of any successful company and cannot be overlooked. I know, you are busy and don’t have time to focus on marketing. However, the blunt truth is, if you want to grow you can’t afford to not participate in marketing.

So, you dip your toe into the water and you try something. It may or may not be achieving results. That means going back to the drawing board and adapting the technique or trying something new entirely. What I’d like to encourage each of you to do is to try different marketing methods at the same time. Don’t put all your money into the one marketing avenue you think will work. Right now, you aren’t really sure what will work. You have probably done some research and gotten a ton of advice – but the real test is actually trying it and analyzing the results.

Why You Should Diversify

There are many different reasons why diversifying your marketing is a great idea.

• 1.     Your audience doesn’t all hang out in the same place. Everyone gravitates to a different area of the web. By selecting only one method or channel, you eliminate any potential client who doesn’t use it.
• 2.     Websites change, adapt and disappear. If you have invested all of your marketing into the next, great, trendy website – what will you do if that company collapses? What will you do if it is taken over or changes direction? You’ll have to start all over. No one should be dependent on just one approach.
• 3.     The more channels you participate in, the more you build your online web presence and establish credibility. The search engines are more likely to rank you higher if they see your name come up multiple times – from multiple sources. This will also establish your digital marketing equity and increase your brand online.
• 4.     Focusing on more than one source will help keep your content and promotional materials interesting and fresh – for both you and your audience.

Types of Digital Marketing

Here are just some of the more popular options in digital marketing in 2016. There are more marketing methods available than this blog post could possibly cover. The idea is not to try to master them all. No one has time for that. Plus, many of the techniques may not work or connect you with your ideal target audience.

-       Social Media Marketing – SMM covers a lot of territory. This could mean focusing on a single Facebook Business Page, a LinkedIn Profile, a Pinterest account, or keeping up with Twitter. Often the best strategy is picking multiple platforms and cross posting information. Do some trial and error to find out which ones work best for you. Or, better yet, hire an expert to help you narrow down the platforms and teach you the best way to schedule content.

-       SEO – SEO stands for search engine optimization. The Internet is a big place. If you want people to find what you are putting out there, SEO is the method to use. If you optimize your website, social media, and other online content in a way that makes is accessible and appealing to the search engines – you will rise in search ranks in record time! There is both an art and science to SEO but, if you can make it work for you, it’s some of the best free marketing available.

-       Content Marketing – Another way to establish your brand online is by producing content. Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing regular and consistent online content to attract new followers or customers. If you combine content marketing with solid SEO techniques, you will achieve even better results.

-       Influencer Marketing – Becoming an online influencer, or expert, is way to organically grow your following. By regularly producing content, participating in interviews and live streaming, and making your presence known online – you will generate an audience that will become brand ambassadors for you. They will share your content and refer their circles to your online sites.

-       Email Marketing – For many marketers, list building is the first step of marketing. If you aren’t tracking and building a list of people who interact with you, do business with you or are interested in your content – then you are throwing away valuable permission-based marketing opportunities.

Narrow It Down

I’m going to suggest that you pick at least three different methods that will help you reach your ideal client base.  Some of these will appeal to you. Others will appeal to your online followers. Do what is best for your brand and easiest for you to maintain. Consistency is important when it comes to digital marketing. If you get overwhelmed, you will walk away and accomplish nothing. Don’t do that. You need an online presence these days. The focus should be on working smarter, not harder.

As always, if you need help getting starting or advice on which direction to head into – the team at The Social Media Advisor specializes in assisting small businesses with their online branding and presence. Give us a shout so we can help you #BeAwesome.

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don't get left behind ~ 

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a "#BeAwesome" Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them. 

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

Do You Have a Corporate Social Media Policy?

Do you currently have a Corporate Social Media Privacy Policy in place for your employees? Have you ever wanted to ask your employees for their LinkedIn or Facebook login to “control” what is being said about your brand? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have all the logins and passwords for your employee’s social media accounts?

Unfortunately, you cannot ask your team for their social media account information. However, having social media policies in place will protect your company and employees by clearly defining appropriate online behavior for your brand. Promote a positive environment for your corporate online engagement.

The Social Media Advisor team equips our clients with the tools to maintain an active presence in social media, as well as develop policy and etiquette practices to keep your brand above your competition.

Most companies don’t have a social media policy in place for their company. This can hurt your online reputation. Get my list of best practices for your corporate social media policy and we’ll see you on the safe side of your online reputation.

Learn NOW what you can and cannot do with your employees when it comes to social media.

Get YOUR List of Best Practices here: 
► http://thesocialmediaadvisor.com/Corporate_Social_Media.html

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#ReviveYourMarketing - Your Marketing Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect

There is a lot out there about branding, and message and company image. You’ve been preached to about the do’s and don’ts of marketing since you first started your business. Some of it makes perfect sense, some of the advice is contradictory, and all of it is overwhelming. What happens when we get overwhelmed? You got it. We end up doing nothing at all.

This month I’m on a mission to help your revive your marketing. Promoting yourself and what you do is the key to business success. Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways to approach marketing and, even if you have let it slide, it’s easy to pick that ball back up and run with it.

The most important thing I want to emphasize is…. your marketing doesn’t need to be perfect. If you get hung up on the right image, or the right tagline, or utilizing the right social media platform – you will get nowhere at all.

It doesn’t matter what move you make, but it’s vital that you start moving. There isn’t just one way to approach marketing but here is a general outline to get your forward momentum working.

Branding

If you aren’t clear about your brand or your message, you might as well be target shooting in pitch-black darkness. It’s possible you will find a small percentage of people interested in what you do, but it’s so much more effective to develop a brand that does your marketing for you. If you create a clear cut brand and use it to promote yourself in person and online, you will find that people start coming to you instead of you chasing them. Why? Because they already have a feel for you before the first conversation occurs.

Develop a Marketing Strategy

Spend some time figuring out who your target audience is and where they enjoy spending their time. Then create a marketing strategy that focuses on where they already are. Instead of just putting your marketing out there and waiting on your clients to find you – put effort into creating a marketing strategy that showcases your company right where they are.

There are a lot of options to choose from and plenty of advice. Email newsletter? That’s a great way to build a list and funnel. Social media? Get your voice heard and establish an online presence. Advertising? Depends on your market and your budget. Content marketing? It’s a great way to gain traction online. Influencer marketing? That’s the perfect way to establish that you are an expert in your industry or niche.

The point here isn’t to try everything. That kind of thinking is going to keep you stalled. The purpose is to pick the one you think will offer the best results and just dive in! Something is better than nothing when it comes to marketing and you can work on making it better over time.

As you get good at one strategy, you can look into ways to automate or outsource and then bring another technique into the fold. It’s better to do one thing well than several things in a mediocre fashion.

So, cut yourself a bit of slack and give yourself permission to focus on the marketing without worrying about perfection.

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

John Steinbeck

Need some advice or an expert to point you in the right direction? Give The Social Media Advisor team a call and let us help you #BeAwesome at what you do!

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don't get left behind ~ 

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a "#BeAwesome" Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube,Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them. 

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.