Designing a Marketing Strategy: DIY or Hire the Experts?

For many small business owners, developing a well-planned marketing strategy places them firmly ahead of the competition. However, many businesses fail to establish a fully realized strategy, preferring instead to generate a few well-intentioned ideas they hope will magically come together. Unfortunately, hoping to “fake it until you make it” rarely turns out well, especially if your small business has limited marketing resources.

Applying careful consideration and foresight when developing your small business marketing plan can provide a strategic advantage against your less organized competition.  But, even the best initial marketing strategies typically have one thing in common: They’re not very good.

Finishing a first draft never leaves you with a perfected version of what you’re hoping to create. Sherlock Holmes was originally named Sherrinford Hope in the first draft of Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved detective series, who was then accompanied on his adventures by the good Dr. Ormond Sacker. (Hope and Sacker sounds like a real estate law firm, especially when compared to the iconic Holmes and Watson.)

Point is, the first draft of your marketing strategy will rarely be perfect. Creating a successful strategy requires taking a step back, identifying your most glaring mistakes and patching those areas to create a more comprehensive plan that actually meets your small business marketing needs.

Here’s what to keep in mind.

Work From Facts, Not Assumptions

In most cases, your initial small business marketing plan will be based on assumptions. While some of these assumptions may be based on experience or even some data, the vast majority of them will be based on what you believe correct rather than concrete information on what will actually benefit your business or its target audience. For example, you might think your customers will like a certain type of campaign (witty, educational, informative or downright crazy) because YOU like that type of thing.

Step outside your bubble!  Don’t assume your potential customers will like something just because you do.  If you’re basing the majority of your marketing plan on pure speculation, rather than data or intuition based on years of experience, your foundation for success becomes highly questionable.

Stay Open to Change

Staying too ridged to your initial marketing plan is a major hurdle many small businesses need to overcome when creating a successful strategy. It’s easy to fall into the trap of placing too much faith in the work you’ve already done and not fully consider what alternative strategies might offer a better return on investment.

Successful small business marketing strategies require constant testing, and a willingness to make changes and optimize wherever possible. While there will be times where the first draft of your marketing campaign will prove successful, don’t be complacent. There’s always room for improvement.

Accept Your Limitations

If you have no experience in the creation or implementation of a marketing strategy, you’re going to have little idea of whether your strategy is actually working. If you did, you wouldn’t be working off the first draft of a marketing strategy. You’d have previous experience to draw upon and data to work with. How can you minimize failure? You have two options: Learn by trial and error or hire a team like SK Consulting to handle your marketing strategy. We have the knowledge and know-how needed to help create, plan and execute a marketing strategy that will enable your business to better connect with your target audience and increase sales.

However, if you’re ready for the challenge and the steep learning curve that comes with creating your own small business marketing campaign, we can walk you through the steps.

SK Consulting wants you to have control of your marketing.  We teach our clients how to develop and implement a strategic, effective marketing plan.  If you need help conceptualizing and promoting your brand, contact us today!

The Who, What, When, Where and Whys of Social Media

While it can be exciting to have a ton of "likes" on Facebook or see millions of views on a YouTube video, if your business' goal is not solely building brand awareness or driving traffic, a social media following may not be a top priority for you.  If it is, then take the necessary steps to make sure your social media strategy works for you!

1. Choose Your Social Network Wisely

First things first, understand that just because there is a social network, doesn’t mean you need to be marketing on it. You need to understand what the platform really does, how people use it, and determine whether it makes sense for your business to have a presence.

Which social media platforms do your potential customers truly use? Your brand should live where they live so you have a better chance to connect and engage with them. Having great content on Twitter and a highly-active presence means nothing if they aren’t hanging out there.

Facebook

Facebook is still the social media powerhouse with nearly 80% of all internet users (68% of U.S. users) engaging with the platform.  But, the fastest growing demographic on the platform is not the Millennials that started it, but rather their Baby Boomer parents.

Of those aged 65 or older, 62% use Facebook. So, if you’re a wealth management firm marketing to people approaching and starting retirement, Facebook is the place you will want to be.

If your audience is not using Facebook in a work capacity, statistics prove that they are most likely still using the platform -- possibly as a distraction during work.

Creating an ad that speaks directly to your target audience, whether B2C or B2B, will encourage them to click and engage with you.

YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine with more than 3 billion searches a month. With video continuing to surge as a preferred form of content, it’s no surprise that YouTube is the third most-visited site on the web. Do you have “how to” information or tutorials you can show? Create a video and share on YouTube!

YouTube’s popularity has only increased with its inclusion in both Google’s web and video search (the platform is owned by Google). Having an active channel on this platform can only help you acquire followers and traffic to your site.

Twitter

One of the fascinating things about Twitter is its real-time appeal and international reach.

The platform supports 40 languages and more than 2/3 of accounts are based outside of the United States. Global brands can take advantage of this to create excitement about upcoming product or service launches.

LinkedIn

“Social media for professionals.” That’s how most people describe LinkedIn. Talk about a B2B marketer’s dream.

You can connect with people in your target industries (even as specific as to target companies you want to work with) and market to them directly. Or, as you’re looking to grow your business, you can use LinkedIn to recruit quality talent to hire on at your company.

Though these are the four most prominent, there are plenty of other social media platforms you can consider for marketing your business as well, including Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and more. Just make sure to do your research and the ones you use are where your ideal prospects are. Choosing the right social network is the first step to building a strong presence and following there.

2. Complete Your Profiles (...Yes, Your Personal Ones Too!)

Now that you’ve determined where to build your profiles, do so. This seems like a trivial point to make but having complete profiles is necessary when trying to attract a good following.

Every social media platform has a summary area, profile picture, and cover photo where you can enter and showcase information about your business. Give users sneak peeks into what your company provides, but make sure to keep your branding (visuals and voice) consistent with who you are and what you provide.

3. Analyze Your Competitors

Something you should consistently be doing in marketing is analyzing your competitors. What networks are they active on? What kind of content are they sharing? How often are they sharing?

Understanding your competitor's social media engagement will help you establish a roadmap of what you should be doing as well.

4. Connect with Thought Leaders & Influencers

Connecting with industry influencers is a huge tactic in social media strategy. These companies or individuals are the thought leaders in your industry that your customers and target audience are following. Tap into the resource!

Follow industry professionals from content that you read or watch and share with your audience. Chances are, your followers have the same interest as you.

Do you attend annual events or conferences? Look up the speakers and connect with them on LinkedIn and Twitter. Start having virtual conversations about the event or tweet that you’re excited to be learning from them. If the speaker engages with you (which he or she should), then you may be mentioned in a post that reaches all of their followers as well.

5. Share Awesome Content

Sharing quality content for your audience members will help establish your company -- and personal brand -- as a thought leader within your own industry.

What to Share

The obvious thing to share is your own content. However, many companies get in the habit of only sharing their content, which can actually hurt you in the long-run. When it comes to sharing on social media, there are two very important points to make:

1. Be creative with your content:

Add images, gifs, videos and more to your posts to make them more enticing. People want to see more than just text and need something visually appealing to catch their eye. Including images on the following platforms can increase your engagement by up to 200% depending on the platform.

Connect with your audience in real time by utilizing live video.  Take advantage of this emerging trend and speak directly to your followers!

2. Don’t be a content snob:

Follow the 70-20-10 rule. In this practice, the content you are sharing should be adding value and building your brand 70% of the time, should be others’ posts and ideas 20% of the time and should only promote yourself or your business 10% of the time.

Yes, only 10% of your content on social media should be self-promotional. Why? Because this enables you to build trust with your followers and provide them with truly valuable content and information. Would you follow a company that only blasts you with promo offers all the time? Probably not.

When to Share

There are some general rules you can use when first getting started. Research shows that engagement rates are higher 18% of the time when posting to Facebook on Thursdays and Fridays.

Each of your platforms provides you with insights and analytics that you should be measuring over time. Create a sharing schedule for each platform and see when your posts receive the most engagement.

You can determine the day, time, and type of post to share to best reach your audience. The more they engage with your posts, the more your content will appear in other newsfeeds -- expanding your reach.

6. Utilize Paid Advertising

Now that you’re up and running on social networks, it’s time to take things one step further. Organic views in social media are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. Why? Because the platforms are smart and want you to pay to play. Social media advertising is one of the most cost-effective ways to engage with a new, targeted audience.

Facebook Advertising

Because of the number of people using Facebook, you have a good chance of reaching users whether you are trying to target internationally or to a smaller, local region. And you can control who you target.

Facebook’s advertising goes beyond targeting the common factors like gender, location, age, and job titles. You can get as specific as targeting people based on their life events (like those who have children, pets, etc.), finances, politics, purchasing behaviors and more.

Facebook allows you to take into consideration an endless amount of targeting capabilities within a user’s demographics, interests and behaviors.

LinkedIn Advertising

LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform for B2B marketers. Though you don’t have as many factors as Facebook, LinkedIn advertising can get pretty specific when building a target audience.

One feature that LinkedIn recently rolled out is Sponsored InMail. This allows you to send personalized messages to prospects to help reach members when they are most engaged. Your message is delivered to a specified target audience you build and sent only to members that are actively engaged on LinkedIn. Choose to send an introductory message about your business, a recently published resource or offer a free trial to your product or service.

7. Engage With Your Audience

Following the above steps will certainly help you build a strong social media following. Once you build your audience, you need to engage with them. Like posts you’re mentioned in, answer questions when asked and reply to comments made about your content. Social media is meant to be social!

Continue to engage with users and chances are you’ll not only see an increase in followers, but in customers too.

Need help developing a social media brand and plan?  Contact SK Consulting today!