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Hello Reader, One of the small business owners I’ve had the opportunity to meet and teach shared their frustrations with social media marketing and paid ads. They didn’t know if what they were doing was effective. In the past, they had hired a social media agency to help with organic social, which didn’t pay off. They’re doing their own paid ads, which is fine, but still not sure about conversions. This business owner was frustrated and asked for guidance. The first step is to outline your marketing strategy plan. How do you know where you’re going, how you’re doing it, what to look for, what to do, and who to bring on? First up is to set up SMART Goals. You’ve heard of them before: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. My suggestion for them is to set up a few because you can work backwards for each one. They were considering reactivating social media accounts. Given that this was a product-based, ecommerce business, I said yes. You have to show off your products. Their products were food-based so you know the recipe folks, foodies, and people who want healthier, cleaner ingredients would jump on these products. They were not willing to try another agency for social media after being burned by two. My suggestion was to look for a social media freelancer in food & beverage or recipe creation. I think that a content creator could do some really amazing videos and photos with their products. (Even if this business owner just wanted to do it themselves, then there’s got to be a plan in place to guide them and keep their time intentional and targeted.) But you cannot hire someone and expect Oscar-worthy content if you don’t give them a roadmap of what your goals are for social media, your rationale, how you’ll measure success, how reasonable those goals are given the time and audience, and how much time you’re going to give freelancer to complete it. Next, how does social media work with their email marketing, on-the-ground sales (farmers markets), and ecommerce? Could they integrate some of that content so that we’re not reinventing the wheel for every channel? I say yes. What about good ol’ SEO – are we using the best keywords and phrases to serve our customers? This is just the first step in working through your marketing plan, assuming you know your customers and your brand voice and your budget. Get to the goals, break them down, outline your game plan, even if it’s in pencil.
Funnily enough, our marriage counselor (normalize therapy and talking about therapy, friends!! even for Asians!) told us that we should set SMART goals for our relationship. Maybe y’all can give me some SMART goals for this. 😀 Bits and Pieces
I’ve got two requests for you. I’m currently in Week 1 of Lex Roman‘s 100 Subs Quest – I’m on a mission to gain 100 more subscribers to this newsletter. Would you please share my newsletter link with your network? Last but not least, I’d love for you to chime in on me. I’m trying out Senja which is a testimonials/review program, and I’ll be swapping out the current Testimonials widget on my website. I have received great feedback on my teaching style, expertise, and even my sad dad joke obsession. BUT I’ve rarely asked for people to send me testimonials to be displayed. (Social proof is real and as you know, it works.) Your testimonial will help me increase my visibility and show that I can teach digital marketing, I can consult and give clarity, and I can write a newsletter of value. This week is our kid’s last week of freedom before she starts school. Did you know that you can spend 4373759239 hours trying to build a ferris wheel of photos with popsicle sticks and still only be halfway done? Thank you again for sticking with me! See you next week. Chris |
