“Have you seen our web hits since we started doing blogging, email marketing and social media? They’re through the roof! Someone give that marketing person a raise!”
Looking for a quick way to boost your marketing this year? I recommend focusing your business on three things:
1. Blogging
2. Email Marketing
3. Social Media Marketing (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, etc.)
Let me tell you why I think this is a great strategy for most businesses.
1. Let’s start with Blogging: Blogging, as you know, is a content marketing tool. But it’s so much more than that. Blogging is a way to add fresh content to your website on a regular basis. Google loves this, so it’s great for search engine optimization (SEO). Why have a website if people can’t find you on a web search? If you add content to your website through regular blogging on topics related to your business, industry and products or services, you’ll be increasing the popularity of your website as an authority figure. You’ll also increase your own brand’s authority, as people will perceive you as an expert in your field when they read your blog posts. Teach your customers something new. Give them information on industry trends. Or share something cool that your company is doing in the community. Not only will you stay top of mind, but your customers will want to hire you and to buy your products. Blogging also coordinates well with the other two tactics I’m recommending, email marketing and social media marketing.
2. Email marketing: Now some of you may be saying, “Wait, I thought email marketing was declining? We have too much clutter in our inboxes. How can I possibly make an impact doing email marketing? Well, my questions to you are this: Do you still open your inbox and process email every day? Do you find and read valuable content in your inbox each day? Do these emails lead to eventual purchase decisions? Email is still a great way to keep in touch with customers, prospects and partners. You can simply use your blog material with some additional greeter text and have an email sent out in minutes. Do this on a weekly or monthly basis and you’ve got another way to drive people to your website or social media pages and increase your following. Email marketing is not dead. It’s just one piece of the marketing puzzle.
3. Social media marketing: This tactic is the most talked about marketing tactic of late. Many have jumped on the social media marketing bandwagon, only to be disillusioned by a lack of followers or ROI. The key to this strategy is to get engaged. No, not with a sparkling diamond ring. I’m talking about interaction with others. Social media is not about posting your own content and advertising your web page or weekly specials or whatever to get others to clickthrough. Social media is just like the name suggests: SOCIAL. So think of it as a virtual networking event. Talk to others, share others’ content and engage with fans. You can share your own content, drive people to your site by sharing your blog posts, and other promotional things, but 80 percent of the time you should be following, socializing and sharing other’s content. By showing people that you can interact and engage, you’ll come across as approachable and this will help in your sales process. Consider social media as another way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry (much like blogging). I promise that if you do these things on social media, you will enjoy social media a lot more and probably find that you’ve gained more of a following in the process.
Now, if you’re saying, “Who has time for these things?” “It would take me forever to figure out what to write about, what to share, or how to set up an email newsletter schedule!” Really, it’s pretty simple. I’d be happy to help show you how to start. I logged in and wrote this blog post in less than 15 minutes. While you may not be wired to write like that, it will start to come naturally after a while. Don’t use that as an excuse not to get started.
Give it a try: Focus on these three things in your business this year and let me know how it works out for you. Good luck and get started!