How Business Owners Can Save Time on Social Media

If you own your own business, a strong social media presence is a must. Too often, however, small business owners find themselves spending so much time managing their social media sites, they begin to wonder if it is really worth the effort.

Social media has become complex. Each social platform has more features and the learning curve is steeper. There are hundreds of ways to use social media for business, but not all of those ways will work for every business.

Here are some tips for saving time on social media:
  • Target and master a couple of platforms, rather than dabbling in many. Social media has become complex. Each social platform has more features and the learning curve is steeper.
  • Focus on the platforms your customers spend the most time on or that fit your industry. The 80/20 rule applies here. By focusing on just two or three, you use your time efficiently and you’ll have a bigger impact on the platforms because you can learn more about how to use them.
  • Measure results – but only those that count. Pick a few metrics that directly impact your business. For example, track which types of posts get the most click-throughs to your product pages or lead capture form. When deciding which metrics to track, ask yourself: how does this benefit my business?
  • Schedule posts, set up brand alerts, and continue to try out new approaches.
  • Consider outsourcing social media management.
At GoLeads, we help businesses manage their social media sites every day. This allows our clients to concentrate on their core businesses while we make sure their business has an active and engaging presence on social media.

While many business owners are leery of handing off their social media management, it is important to remember that they still have ultimate control. The key is to pick an experienced firm that will be able to quickly get up to speed on your business and will require the least amount of hand-holding.

The Advantages of Outsourcing Your Content Curation

Now, more than ever, the key to getting your website noticed by the search engines is high quality content. And this content must be so engaging that people want to comment on it and share it with others.

If you are a small business owner, chances are that even if you could write such quality content, it is unlikely that you could find the time to produce the amount necessary to gain significant traction. The kind of traction that results in things like increased sales leads.

Many business owners, however, have a difficult time turning over the reins of their content writing tasks. If you fall into that category, here are some things to keep in mind:

  1. Professional writers have a keen understanding of grammar and style. Therefore, they are able to produce copy at a much faster clip than someone who does not write full time.
  2. Professional writers know how to write. It may seem obvious but well-written content that flows well and speaks to readers will help to establish you as a thought leader in your industry. Poorly written content will do just the opposite. It can take years to become a great writer and chances are you have spent your time building a business, not perfecting your writing skills.
  3. Professional writers know when to say when. When it comes to writing their own content, small business owners can struggle with wanting to document every detail about their product or service. This is almost never a good idea, however, and such writing turns readers off (if it doesn’t bore them to death first). A professional writer is able to look at the message you are trying to convey and make sure that you don’t overload your readers with minutia that won’t matter to them.
  4. Professional writers get to know their audience. It can be tough for an engineering firm, for example, to write in a way that a layperson will understand. Often times, business owners use too much industry lingo that is hard for its customers to decipher.
  5. Professional writers are trained to meet deadlines. When you hire a reputable writer to complete your content writing tasks, you can be sure it will get done on time. That’s because they won’t get sidetracked by the many responsibilities of running a business.

Many business owners see hiring a professional writer or content curation firm as an unnecessary expense. The truth is, not hiring one can cost a business a great deal more.

Retargeting the Right Way

Big data allows businesses to do some amazing things. One of these things is to retarget customers. Research tells us that retargeting helps turn shoppers who are just looking into buyers. Approximately two percent of shoppers will convert on their first visit to an online store and retargeting brings back the remaining 98 percent.

Through the use of retargeting, visitors to a website or online store are tracked and ads are then placed for that website or online store on other online sites they visit.

Retargeting can be achieved in a variety of ways. Here are some of the most common:

  • Email retargeting allows a customer to be targeted based on how they have responded to one of your emails.
  • Site retargeting allows you to show ads to visitors to your website.
  • Facebook retargeting displays banners on Facebook to visitors to your Facebook page.
  • Search retargeting involves pursuing consumer leads who have searched for particular keywords or phrases.

Another advantage of retargeting is that you are able to tell when to stop pursuing customers who are unlikely to purchase from you. The best marketers are able to analyze how many times a consumer needs to be exposed to your product or service before they make a purchase. If a prospect has received that specific number of ads or touches and still is not interested, it’s time to stop pursuing that prospect.

It is no secret, however, that when consumers are retargeted by a company, some of them have a tough time shaking the feeling that they are somehow being spied on. Therefore, it is important that you retarget in a way that doesn’t make prospects uncomfortable. Here are some ways to do just that:

  1. Don’t place your ad on so many of the websites a prospect visits that it becomes annoying. When customers get annoyed with a company, even if they need its product or service, they most likely won’t buy it.
  2. Always offer an opt-out. There is no reason to make a customer who doesn’t want to see your ad see it.
  3. Avoid static banners. The best banner ads are animated ones. It also is a good idea to change up your ad on a regular basis.

Retargeting is an effective tool for increasing your sales. However, if not done correctly, retargeting can definitely backfire.

 

Successful Marketing Efforts Employ Multiple Techniques

Content marketing and social media are the hottest trends in marketing these days. This is no surprise given the success businesses have found using these channels to market their products and services as well as to promote their brand.

What may come as a surprise, however, is that most marketing experts will advise against relying solely on content marketing and social media. That is because adding other forms of marketing to the mix – especially tried and true methods – can help businesses reach new customers while retaining current ones.

So what marketing strategies are still worth your time and marketing dollars?

  1. Pay per click (PPC). Perhaps due to a change in how Google is now displaying ads, PPC spending is on the rise after a period of decline. Display ads are now more difficult to distinguish from organic results so PPC is worth exploring again.
  2. Link building. It was in 2011 that link building’s popularity began to decline as more businesses started to focus on content marketing. But link building is still an important part of luring search engine traffic. What is important to keep in mind is that today’s link building should encourage people to click on links from relevant sites. Links should not be used merely to compile clicks for the sake of getting a higher ranking on search engines.
  3. Telemarketing. Recent studies show that when it comes to leads, telemarketing leads rank in the top 10 for return on investment. The personal connection of telemarketing is what experts say keeps it so relevant.
  4. Postcards. Postcard marketing has taken a hit because of rising postage costs and less expensive online advertising techniques. What many people are not aware of, though, is that direct mail still has a lower cost per lead than even most online methods of advertising. And of all the direct mail options, postcards remain the most affordable.
  5. Tradeshows. While tradeshows can be expensive due to cost, they are still a very popular and effective marketing channel for new business and sales leads. That’s because tradeshows, like telemarketing, offer a type of personal interaction that online marketing cannot achieve. While the popularity of tradeshows has been on the decline, it is still one of the top five marketing channels.

Content marketing and social media are great ways to market your business. However, that doesn’t mean that you should rely exclusively on those two methods in your quest to attract new customers and retain current ones.

Are You Marketing to the Wrong People?

No matter how big or small the business, marketing is essential to its success. And no matter how large its marketing budget, no business wants to waste its time or money on pursuing dead-end leads.

In his article, 7 Ways to Avoid Marketing to the Wrong People, AJ Agrawal tells us that if you are marketing to the wrong people, your business is unlikely to succeed. Of course, figuring out who exactly you should be marketing to can be a difficult task. Especially when you are just getting your business up and running.

Thankfully, Agrawal has some helpful tips to help. His first tip is to avoid casting your marketing net too wide.

 It’s tempting to go for the biggest audience, but working in a niche is more effective. Defining your target market will provide a solid foundation, as well as strict parameters that will focus your efforts. Try not to think of it as exclusion, but a way to simplify and streamline campaigns.

He also encourages businesses to – among other things – align content strictly to personas, segment marketing databases, and look at reconverting existing customers.

Agrawal cites ProOpinion, a professional network that promotes success in business, which says that 39 percent of small business owners don’t invest in any type of marketing.

That’s despite the fact that effective marketing is their main profit driver. These businesses need to look at ways to allocate a small budget to marketing, and use that budget with laser-guided precision to achieve high ROI.

At GoLeads, we help businesses of all sizes get the most out of every one of their marketing dollars. We do this by helping these businesses identify their target audience and develop the strategies to get noticed by that audience. We’d love to do the same for you.