If you’re an A-lister with a massive advertising budget, you can get your marketing message out to any audience you like. Targeted advertising online or on social media makes it easier to bombard your target audience with adverts, post and videos. Visit a web page and you can find the product you viewed following you around the internet. It’s enough to make you feel heartily sick of a product or business you may once have admired. Of course, most of us have the opposite problem. It’s a challenge to get our message in front of the right people. However that doesn’t stop most of us worrying about annoying our followers by sharing too much. The question is, how much marketing is too much? If you’re really worried about getting on everyone’s nerves, here are a few ways to avoid it.
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What confrontation taught me about marketing
Have you ever avoided a confrontation, in business or life generally? Do you feel as if you backed down when you should have stood up or did it teach you something else?
I once had a confrontation that played on my mind for a very long time. I decided to tell you about it because I finally learned something from it and I thought it might help if you were struggling with something similar.
Customer personas: you need to get to the details
If you’ve never heard of customer personas before, don’t panic. It’s basically a fancy way of saying ‘who do you want as your customer?’ I’ve talked about the importance of getting to know your customers before, but this time we need to get down to the nitty gritty. You need to get as much detail as you can into your customer personas or they just won’t get you the results you want.
Let’s get started…
Why you need to track your results
I know that the idea of tracking and analytics is enough to make you want to run and hide. If you’re not technologically minded, the idea of installing tracking and pixels seems like a complete nightmare. However, it is worth it. Knowing your numbers is absolutely vital if you want your business to go anywhere. Here’s why you need to track your results.
Ask your audience: what do your customers need?
Henry Ford once said that he’d never have invented the car if he’d asked people what they wanted. Quite simply because they’d have asked for a faster horse. I’m not sure that’s strictly true. Whilst people are perfectly capable of being daft at times, I imagine that most people knew they couldn’t force their horses to go any faster. They’re more likely to have asked to get from place to place more quickly without needing to go on trains that were probably quite smelly. If you ask your audience what they want they might surprise you.
You might be beavering away quite happily creating products and services that you think people will like. They might sell moderately well, but what if you could create something that really took off? Asking for opinions from your audience could help you to do just that.
How you can come up with new marketing ideas
Whenever I talk about blogging, or marketing in general, I’m asked about ideas. How do you come up with marketing ideas? What should I write in my blog? You get the idea. The truth is that there are lots of ways to come up with new marketing ideas and most of them involve one basic skill; listening.
If you’ve ever struggled for ideas, here’s my guide to conjuring them up.
Who do you have on your team?
Let’s face it, running a business can be lonely sometimes. If you work alone you can start to feel isolated. Even if you have people working for you, it’s tough when the decision making is all on your shoulders. It’s at times like this that it’s important to take a breath, look around and remind yourself of all the people who are there to support you. Who do you have on your team?
My networking group is holding an awards night soon and I’ve been thinking about the different people I could nominate. It’s helped me to realise not just how much support I get from my business network but also the people who help me out every day. Here are just a few…
How to choose the right social media platforms for your business
When it comes to choosing some social media platforms for your business, the possibilities are endless. Where do you start? Should you just post everywhere and hope for the best? Would you get any actual work done if you did?
There isn’t a one size fits all answer, but there are ways to make life easier. Here’s how I approached choosing social media platforms for myself.
How you can diversify your content
I know what you’re thinking. Diversify my content? How many pairs of hands does this woman think I have? I know, you’re already up to your eyeballs and when you’re not it feels as if your business will never come to anything. However, if you want to diversify your content it could be easier than you think.
Let’s start with why it’s a good idea…
Don’t want to tell your business story? Why you should get over yourself
Do you tell people your business story? If not, why not? You might think its unremarkable and well, maybe a bit boring, but it’s not. Self-employment might be getting more popular, but if you’ve started your own business you’ve still taken a leap into the unknown. Even if you’ve still got a day job, adding in extra work takes effort.
You might find that sharing the reasons behind the change could be just what your business needs.