Hint: Nothing to do with having an article go viral online.
Whether you are an old timer or a young un, the world of marketing is ever changing, especially since “this internet thing”.
Many small businesses have not actively poured time/money/energy into marketing, so when they want to, don’t know where to begin.
Right now, many of our clients mostly focus on LinkedIn.
But this may not be where the pot of gold is forever or may not be relevant to where your audience is, so apply our examples to other platforms and even offline, too.
Firstly, lets clarify some common buzzwords:
Outbound marketing or Interruption marketing is promoting a brand/service/product through continued advertising, promotions or public relations. When most non-marketers think of the word "marketing" it’s this classic definition that they refer to. Whether a marketer places an advertisement on the television or the newspaper, these traditional methods do still have their place.
However, the internet stole a lot of the attention traditional media monopolized, so things like social media can be more effective for many businesses and campaigns. Many Internet users find forms of “outbound marketing” like banners and embedded videos to be more annoying than engaging. This is because these are all examples of content the user doesn't choose.
Inbound marketing is a little less bombarding. Instead of interrupting a user's content with advertising, an inbound approach turns the ad into the content itself. Inbound Marketing is a technique for drawing customers to products and services via content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization and branding. The mix for each business is different. Audiences like this type of marketing because it allows them to curate information according to their interest, instead of being attacked with ads.
Did you see the bit about content marketing?
Content marketing is when you make articles or videos or diagrams or podcasts (etc) and put them on social media and websites etc. The aim is to teach, entertain, or inspire your ideal client, so that they see your brand as something of a trusted advisor with the only real solution, meaning that once they are reached out to or made an offer to, they are so warmed up they move out of the “cold market” and may even close the sale themselves!
While offline and outbound marketing should be incorporated into your marketing activities, that is the stuff that most business owners already understand. What we don’t see as often is an appreciation or understanding for more modern tactics and mediums.
So, we are going to share some of the fundamentals.
1. Always be testing. Google's rules and social media algorithms are always changing, so what works today may not work as well tomorrow. Also, being consistent versus having enough novelty is always a fine balance, so sometimes you have to shake up your own rules to not be too predictable to your audience. Therefore, never look at the way you do content as settled; always compare the rates to previous content to see which gets the most eyeballs, conversions, and potential leads. Make a tweak and see if it impacts those rates. Try to tweak one variable at a time or you won’t know what caused the spike/drop. It is important for teams to understand what an attitude of ‘testing’ requires. It means you can’t have a manager who panics at a search result drop or rests on their laurels when one article goes viral. You just research what caused it and keep adapting.
2. Care what the one thinks, not the many. In every marketer’s heart is a secret desire to have something go viral because people loved it, but the truth is, virality is no guarantee of sales made! Instead, you need to know who you are trying to attract and be prepared not to be loved by the rest. If you try to be too generic or all-encompassing, your marketing will be weak and passive. Which attracts nobody. Yes, you want attention, but only from your ideal clients. So, use language, images and tones that they relate to. Use your brand/voice guidelines as just that – guidelines, not a prison in which to lock potential results. You need to be able to test things to see what resonates with ideal buyers, and that is going to require a little risk sometimes. Don’t panic if you get some not-so-pleasant reactions from the people that are not your ideal audience. Don’t fret if people don’t agree with your every word.
3. You will run! But first, crawl. First, you need to decide what the goal is. New in biz? Sales. Trying to scale a small biz? Audience growth. Established? Brand Loyalty. Change in direction? Credibility. Truth is, the time of deciding to create content is an ideal time to do some strategizing with someone outside of your business. Content is not supposed to be promotional in nature yet that is the common default if you are too close to the details. Well, that, and screeching on about your product/service “features”. It is too easy to see your client as someone who should buy your thing, rather than as a human with interests beyond your product. So we highly recommend you figure out a strategy, KPIs, and audience interests from day one so you have a clear head going in. Need an example? We are a fairly new biz, so although we have been focusing on sales and some basic marketing, our goal for social media is to help us scale, which means we are primarily focused on growing our audience. The KPIs we are measuring include things like LinkedIn followers, engagement, and email subscribers. We are constantly testing to see what resonates, what polarizes, and what results in new names seeing our content.
One of the biggest diseases to look out for as you get more proactive in your marketing is Shiny Object Syndrome. This condition is very subtle, and the first symptom is denial. It happens to entrepreneurs and marketers alike and can lead to gambling your business away. The main cure is a realization that there are no shortcuts to success and stability. The other thing small businesses need to look out for is niching down. This is when you breath in deeply and decide “to heck with it, we are going to focus on attracting this particular kind of person with this particular problem instead of trying to get sales from all types of people with all types of problems”.
Why is this so hard to do? Well because you might have one product that could potentially solve four types of people’s different problems. Why can’t you serve them all?
You can.
We are not saying you have to deny a transaction. It just means your marketing costs quadruple in order to attract them all. Your processes and human resources get stretched trying to serve them all.
It can feel very scary to niche down as a small business, and to be fair, some do it too early, before they have even tested different types of clients/problems.
But after a year or two in biz, if you do niche down, the big breath you took will become a relieved exhale.
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