Date & Time: March 5, 2024, 12:00pm MST Online
Cost: $0.00
Duration: 90 minutes
You don’t need to be an expert in marketing to know that social media isn’t the only way to get your message out there. Whether you’re a marketing veteran or just starting out, this workshop will help you find new ways to spread your brand without ever having to tweet or do a bunch of scrolling on your newsfeeds.
So, get ready to turn away from those pesky notifications and start getting creative! In this webinar you will be learning the “90 Ways to Market Your Business without Social Media”. You heard me right. No matter the industry or profession, this event will spice up your marketing efforts in a jiffy. Whether you’re a retailer, consultant, trades person or in the foodservice industry–there are going to be countless new strategies for you to explore.
Are you ready? If so, prepare to flex your brain muscles while having fun with other like-minded people while learning something new. Another bonus, you get to network with the other attendees. Listen, we can only fit so many people into this interactive workshop so don’t delay because we don’t want you to feel FOMO (the fear of missing out)!
EXCLUSIVE MARKETING RETREAT
for the Savvy Woman
Business Owner!
Join us on Friday, March the 29th
At the Tubac Golf Resort & Spa
A one of a kind luxury resort
Sadly, this feature will be discontinued in the Spring of 2023.
The alternative will be the SMS feature.
With Constant Contacts Text-to-Join, you can quickly and easily grow your email list without having to sign people up manually. What a time saver! It’s a great way to increase leads and subscribers at events or in your place of business!
With this feature your new subscribers can text the keyword to an auto-generated SMS short code and submit their email address to automatically join a mailing list that you select.
Place it at your restaurant or store entrance or on your marketing materials. Coaches and speakers can use it while they are presenting and have people sign up immediately so you can stay in touch.
Watch the video as I saw you how.
Don’t have a Constant Contact account? As a Certified Solutions Partner I can offer you discounts and even a trial account. Have questions? Reach out to me through our contact page.
To get updates about marketing and business growth strategies text-to-join my contact list at MarketCoach at 22828.
With Constant Contacts Email Marketing Platform, you can schedule and post to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with just a few clicks. In addition, you can respond to Facebook and Instagram messages, mentions, and comments.
Watch this quick tutorial video as I explain how you too can use this email platform to schedule and post your social media updates.
Don’t have a Constant Contact account? As a Certified Solutions Partner I can offer you discounts and even a trial account. Have questions? Reach out to me through our contact page.
To get updates about marketing and business growth strategies text-to-join my contact list at MarketCoach at 22828.
Consistency is a key element in a business’ success. Of course, there are other important factors but consistency is what will create name recognition. Consistency is what will build your online community so you can develop a trusting relationship with your audience, and it will showcase your expertise to new followers.
Here’s an example: You go out to dinner at your favorite restaurant and you fall in love with your entrée. A few weeks later you take a friend to the same restaurant, order the same meal, but it tastes different and you send it back to the kitchen. Their lack of consistency in how your meal was prepared will now leave doubt in your head about that particular dish and possibly about the whole restaurant in general. Can you relate?
Doubt in a customer’s mind generally means you must rebuild that trust again to show that they should continue to do business with you. It’s not impossible to earn their trust again but you’re basically starting from square one. Working your business consistently and focusing on superb content and excellent customer service will help to keep your clients happy and trusting in you.
Have you ever had this occur: You opt-in to an email list which resonates with you and your interest, you receive a few weekly emails and then nothing? Crickets. Then a month or two later you receive an email from that same person, making an offer to you to purchase their product. How does that lack of consistency make you feel? I’m guessing your first reaction would be, “Who the heck is this person?” Their lack of consistency will cause you to forget who they are and why you signed up for their list in the first place. Lack of name recognition generally leads to, “I don’t know who you are so why would I give you my money?” or “ I don’t remember you at all and you unsubscribe from their mailings.” Again, this business owner just made it much harder to win your trust, right?
Consistency with Your Brand
Have you noticed how many gurus there are, each proclaiming to have the answers to earning 6 or 7-figure incomes? Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of great coaches and programs out there but if you tried implementing all of their different strategies, you’d be exhausted from keeping up with it all and your audience would be very confused about your overall message. Your messaging is part of your branding. Don’t borrow someone else’s. Learn from others, embrace what works for you and your ideal audience and use your voice, personality, and idiosyncrasies.
When it comes to branding, consistency and repetition will help develop name recognition. Make sure you are consistent with your branding across all channels online and your website. It confuses people when they go to one of your online profiles and it doesn’t look at all like your website or the email you sent them. Be consistent with your brand image, colors, and message, both online and offline so you’re always recognized.
4 Places Your Brand Identity Should Be Consistent
Your brand identity is the image your company portrays to the world at large, to your audience or clients. When people look at your online presence, they should know what you do and that you bring value to the market. Your brand identity should be appealing to your target market and should be consistent in every printed piece you produce and across every online platform.
Consistency is important because it helps your brand standout. If people see your logo and/or your brand colors online, they will recognize your mailed brochure when it arrives, and vice versa. When people recognize your identity, your name is always top of mind, which is helpful when they receive your email or see your social media posts.
Let’s examine the four most important places to perfect your brand identity:
1. Your Website
Very often your company website is the first element a potential client will see, and most people will make a 10-second decision (more or less) whether to explore further than the home page. Your identity should be strongly represented on that home page so your potential clients will explore further or contact you.
On your website brand colors, fonts, and your logo are vitally important and should reflect your brand identity. If your message is sobering and you handle tough problems, using whimsical fonts and cutesy graphics doesn’t mesh with the serious issues your company handles. The opposite is also true; if your identity and mission are more light-hearted, using deep, dark colors and traditional fonts might turn people away after they visit your site.
2. Your Social Media Platforms
Not everyone in your target audience will use the same social media platform and those reasons vary widely, so it would be appropriate for you to post across multiple platforms to reach more of your audience (If of course, that makes sense for your marketing efforts). However, if your name, colors, and logo are different on all these platforms, when someone jumps from Facebook to LinkedIn, they may not think yours is the same company because the profiles look different. Or if they receive an email that looks different than the social media profile, they may also be confused. Consistency brings recognition and helps to build trust between you and your clients.
3. All Company Communications
Business cards, invoices, printed marketing pieces; these should all have the same colors, fonts, and logo as your website and your social media platforms. Just one more way to show your professionalism and attention to detail and your clients will certainly notice.
4. Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is still one of the best ways to keep in touch with clients and to keep your company name in their memory. The key is to be relevant with your messages and offer valuable and engaging content. On top of these, create a template that incorporates your brand colors, fonts, and logo. Don’t miss a chance to build that trust between you and your audience.
Well we have covered a lot in this post so let’s review some best practices. Building trust with your audience is easier if you have consistency with your logo, images, messaging, and your personal vibe. When we market, we are marketing to other humans who expect a certain experience. Let’s not disappoint them. Keep true to you and your brand. Don’t imitate others but instead find what works for you and your community of followers. Do this and you will gain new business.
Part of your marketing effort is sharing your philosophy and style with your followers in the hopes that they will get to know, like, and trust you enough to become a client or purchase your product or service (marketing in a nutshell). As with any comprehensive marketing plan, it needs to be in constant motion, continuously bringing prospects into your sales funnel with the hope of turning them into customers or clients.
What do you suppose happens to those prospects when you go silent, either on social media, your blog, or your email list?
Do you think they will search you out
to be sure you’re OK?
Do you think they will just patiently
wait for your next email explaining why you were absent for so long? Will they
even remember your name after a long absence?
Or will they find another expert who
is more consistent with their communication and offers to help?
Your marketing goal is to collect followers on social media, readers of your blog, and those interested in your emails. Sometimes those groups will overlap but essentially, you are gathering your ideal clients across numerous platforms. You’re growing your tribe and they deserve to be treated like gold, especially if they are giving up their email addresses and investing their time with you.
Avoid Silence; Schedule Daily Interactions
The only way to prevent your followers from forgetting your name is to consistently put your name in front of them. Don’t spam them with offers but post on social media daily; send regular emails; and write a blog post. The emails and blog posts can easily alternate, but the social media needs to be daily. Enlist the help of a social media manager or a virtual assistant if these tasks take too much time away from your paying clients.
Outsourcing is a wonderful thing but your interactions with your tribe still need your personal touch. One way to do this is by answering questions and leaving comments on social media. This engagement with your tribe is always welcome, especially if a good discussion is happening. Cross promote your social media links to your email list and vice versa. Always have your social links on your blog so your readers can find you on other platforms. Promote your blog posts via email and on social media but mix those posts with fun, education, and be engaging so people will comment. Share snippets of your real life to show your tribe that you have the same issues they do or to just link a human face with your company name.
Mix Things Up and Use Different Media to Communicate
I’m a big believer in stick to what works but that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment in the hopes of attracting new people. Examine your media outlets on a regular basis and try mixing it up a little. Search for podcasts where you can be a guest (or even a guest host, if you’re bold!); hold a webinar, do Facebook Lives, or start recording videos for those who prefer the live video connection. You might just be surprised at how well-received these are from your audience. If one or all of these rocket your number of followers, consider adding them into your regular marketing plan.
Another Way to Connect with Your Tribe
A very profitable way to connect with your tribe is to create an online course or webinar. What better way to showcase your expertise and increase your credibility among this very savvy group of followers. Need help with creating your online course or webinar reach out to us. We’ve been creating online education since 2005.
As a marketer I am always on the lookout for new and creative ways to get opt-ins for my clients and my own business. Quizzes are one way to get to people to answer questions about themselves because it shows that we are interested in their opinions and needs. And we as humans, are all genuinely curious, too. That is another reason I think that platforms like BuzzFeed are so popular.
It’s Interactive!
So why does that matter? Well let’s look at some of the stats and information around this.
Merryl Goffin, suggests that Consumers are looking for three things from content: Education, entertainment and/or social currency. Quizzes, games, polls and calculators are shareable and give you user information based on responses. Also, Interactive content can be the first point of conversation with users. – Forbes
The average quiz is shared nearly 2,000 times – Buzzsumo
88% of marketers said that interactive content is effective in differentiating their brand from their competitors – Ion Interactive
Interactive content converts 2x more than passive content – Kapost
Online quizzes are, in a way, still considered a hidden gem of lead generation. Due to their ever-increasing popularity on social media, however, we believe quizzes are destined to be the next big thing in the modern marketer’s mission of capturing leads and increasing revenue. – Lead Quizzes
Interactive quizzes can be a powerful tool in the hands of digital marketers looking to collect information and convert online visitors into leads. By delivering entertaining, interactive, relevant content instead of simply asking website visitors to fill out a form, brands forge stronger relationships with their prospects and customers and deliver something of value before asking for information in return. – Qualtrics
With all these facts we know it’s a powerful way to interact.
So how do you get started?
Recently, I found a platform that takes the heavy lifting away and makes it simple to get started on creating quizzes. It’s called Interact Quiz Maker. I tried this myself and I will tell you it was very interesting to see how it all works. Before using this app, I had never created one before.
Once I did that I was able to go in and pick what type of quiz I wanted to create. I could pick from doing one from scratch or using a template. I chose the template route since I was new to the platform.
The great thing about choosing the templates is that there are categories that are industry specific and all the hard work is done for you. I chose to go with one that was under the marketing category, but you can choose to look at all of them if you like. Once you have selected your categories you can then go to selecting your quiz type.
Here you can select quiz types from assessment, personality or scored. You can even select all of them. That is the option I chose.
That took me to all the different quiz templates available under Marketing. One of the features I really liked is that when I chose the “select all” feature of quiz types it brought up all the quizzes for my category and all the different types which show up below the description.
You can also preview the quiz before selecting it and take it yourself to see if you like the questions and results. Keep in mind you can change pretty much anything on these quizzes which is also pretty cool.
I selected Find Your Social Media “Secret Sauce” because I liked the catchy title and I thought it would pique people’s curiosity.
The next step takes you to the cover page. You will have choices on where you want to go from here.
You can select to go to the Quick Menu section where you will find Branding and Styling, Questions and Results. Integration and Share & Embed.
I started with Integration to set up my lead capture and data collection opt in. I also connected the opt-in form to my Constant Contact account.
In this section you will also choose what information you want people to provide on your opt in form and you can select whether you want to use GDPR and your own privacy policy.
I chose to go with using GDPR since I have international followers and I included a link to my privacy policy. That is where I ran into a little snag. Everything worked fine once I published except for one thing. My hyperlink to my privacy policy wouldn’t publish. I tried it several times.
After contacting the awesome people at Interact I found out that when copying and pasting my policy that I need to go to the front of that box and make sure to backspace in front of the URL so there are no spaces. Once that happens you will see a green checkmark letting you know it worked.
Once my Integration was set up I moved on to Branding and Styling. I selected button colors that matched my business and initially I chose the feature to add my logo. After running my first test I decided to take it off. Why? I felt the logo was too small and it resides on all the quiz pages. I felt that it was more of a distraction to the quiz takers.
One of the great features is that you can change the images on your quiz by uploading your own, an image URL or you can use the ones that are provided on the platform thru Pixabay. These are royalty free images with CO0 licensing, so they can be used in commercial projects.
Note though if you upload your own you will need to make sure the image is sized to fit and that you have the licensing for the image. As you can see from the screen shot this one says 250 x 150 (it depends on which image on the sizing) and it should be formatted as a: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF image with a maximum image size of 2 megabytes.
You can also edit the content to add your personality to the questions and results. And best of all on the results pages you may add a call-to-action button to take your quiz takers to more information via an offer, product or a blog post. I didn’t do it on my first one, but I will be taking advantage of this on another quiz I’m currently working on.
Honestly, my initial testing only ran for two days so my results aren’t anything to write home about right now but I’m excited about the possibilities. I promoted it on a few of my social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and I got some traction. The best part is even if people don’t finish the quiz you can still see where their pain points are because you can see how they responded. This can help you craft your future quizzes and products.
This is a great app that does require a little testing to see what works best for you and your individual business. It’s also a great marketing tool to add to your marketing mix that you can use on your site and social media. It’s certainly a change of pace from the traditional eBook giveaway. Give it a go and try the FREE account.
Visit Interact and check out these resource pages:
If you ever worked on creating a business you know one of the essential elements needed is to identify your ideal avatar, aka your one perfect customer.
This vision of your ideal client guides everything you do. From pricing, to pain points and even the color of your logo.
My business and yours may be alike but when we peel back that onion my clients may pay different price points for my services verses yours because our background, business model, geography and/or experience may constitute different rates.
You may work specifically with Mompreneurs that are just starting their own businesses where I may work with emerging businesses that are making over $100,000 a year.
As you can see figuring out this part of your business is essential to moving forward on your business planning because you need to know who you’re marketing to.
So, take some time to consider your ideal avatars by pondering:
Age group
Income
Family status
Education
Lifestyle goals
Location
Maybe you could even come up with a story about your ideal client? You could give her a name, a couple of kids, a husband who just doesn’t get it, and a load of student loans and so forth.
But you don’t want to stop there, you may be missing a huge piece of the puzzle—and losing out on the best clients because of it.
Personality Matters
Here’s something that’s rarely considered in the “ideal client” equation, and it’s arguably the most important part: personality.
If you’re snarky, sarcastic, fun-loving and loud as a coach, then a quiet, shy, person who is easily insulted will probably not be a good fit for you. Sure, she might need your help, and she might love your products, but for one-on-one coaching, this match-up could turn up disastrous. Either she will be uncomfortable with your style, or you’ll be miserable trying to reign in your natural exuberance.
Better to pass this personality type to a coach who is a better suited to her and can be more sensitive and patient.
Success is a Collaborative Process
This one can be difficult to calculate from the start, but once you recognize it (or the lack thereof) it’s worth paying attention to. The client without the drive to succeed will—more often than not—only end up frustrating you both.
Better to end your relationship as soon as you see the signs of this than to waste your time going over the same material and exercises again and again with someone who simply won’t do the work.
Coaching needs to be a collaborative process. Two people working together towards the same goal. Making your client successful!
If you look at your current and past clients, you’ll begin to see patterns. You can easily look back and see what made some clients a joy to work with, while others were a struggle. Think about what those differences are and add them to your ideal client profile. Then compare any new potential clients to this ideal profile, and you’ll never again sign on with a less-than-perfect client.
If you are new and you don’t have that history to glean from then maybe adding an assessment tool or personality profile test to your intake process could be beneficial.
Finding Your Ideal Avatar
So once this information is compiled and you have a really good idea of who to market to we need to find out where they hang out.
Let’s look at some potential places:
Social Media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Don’t forget the groups on these platforms answering questions and showing your expertise might get you business.
Meetups – Hosting one of these yourself can be beneficial.
Conferences or Expo – Find out whose attending before you go and make sure to connect in-person once you arrive.
Radio Show or Podcasting – Being an expert or an expert guest can be another resource.
Networking Groups – Chambers, Clubs and Associations might be another goldmine for your business.
Your own webinars or Livestreams – Have a show or educate your potential clients.
Your own business events or presenting at someone else’s – When you’re on the stage you are the expert.
In this post, we looked at how to define your ideal client, what to look for in an ideal client and places that they may be hanging out at. Hopefully, you can see why this process is necessary for you to grow your business and save yourself some time.
If you’re still having challenges with this, please reach out to me. I offer coaching and consulting to help you to define your ideal audience and create a successful business.
Are you busy? Of course, you are and that is another reason that you need landing pages that convert because your readers have short attention spans because they are busy, too.
I’m sure that’s no big surprise to you. In fact, you probably browse the Internet at light speed, too, scanning titles and subheads, skipping to the bottoms of sales pages, and fast-forwarding through videos just so you can get to the next thing. You’re probably doing it on this blog post (caught you). We all do it.
The same is true for your readers, and if you want to capture their attention long enough to entice them to opt-in to your mailing list, then you must keep that in mind.
Newspaper Publishing Tip
Have you ever noticed that everything you need to know about a news story is in the first paragraph? Journalists are trained to answer all the questions—who, what, where, when, why and how—in the first few sentences. Why is that? They do it just in case the story gets cut off when the paper goes to print.
In today’s online world, where column inches no longer matter, this type of story formatting isn’t quite so critical any more, but it’s still a useful tip to use when you’re writing an opt-in page.
Think about it: If your readers are skimmers (as most of us are) then making sure you include the most important information right at the top of the page is going to greatly improve your conversion rates, right?
For opt-in pages, that means putting the biggest benefits in your subject line, and following it up with two or three sentences that build on your headline. That’s it. Keep it short, sweet, and benefit driven, and you’ll have greater success than you would with longer content.
Graphics Matter
Whether your opt-in incentive is an eBook, a video, or even a simple checklist, having a graphic representation of your offer is an important component of your landing page.
Typically, you’ll create (or have created) a digital book or CD cover. You can easily outsource this, but be sure you follow these strategies:
Bold fonts and short titles make your cover more readable.
Use high-contrast colors for more visibility.
Be true to your brand. Stick with colors and fonts your readers expect.
Crafting a Compelling Call to Action
While it seems as if you can expect readers to know what to do when they land on your opt-in page, it’s just not true. You must invite them to take the next step. Give them specific instructions and you’ll have higher conversion rates than if you just leave it to chance.
Your call to action should tell a reader exactly what to do, like this:
Click here to download
Enter your name and email for instant access
Watch the text on your form buttons, too. After all, “Subscribe” or “Sign Up” doesn’t exactly make you feel excited, does it? Consider using a phrase that matches your call to action instead, such as:
Get the Checklist!
Send the Video!
Be Sure to Offer Value
If you are offering a free gift on your landing page make sure it has value, provides a solution to a problem and highlights your expertise.
I’m not saying give away all your techniques and special formulas for success but perhaps you can offer a solution to a pain point that you see in the market and provide a step-by-step way to approach it. Show examples, do an over-the-shoulder training and/or provide resources to some of your favorite apps.
Take a look at your opt-in pages. Do they follow these strategies? If not, consider making some changes to your copy, your images, and your calls to action, and the value you offer. Then watch your results. You’ll more than likely see a boost in conversion rates if you do.
Need some help with this? Let me share a wonderful resource. Check out our friends over at LeadPages. They offer templates that can be customized to create beautiful landing pages (and other pages, too) and save you time and designer costs if creating landing pages is not for you. I use them myself and have since they started. Check them out.
So you have decided to use live stream broadcating in your marketing mix. Wise decision since this form of connecting with your audience it SUPER HOT! But once it’s over what do you do next? Remember video is content too so be sure to use it.
Giving away free information has always been a great way to attract customers into your sales funnel. People still do it because it works if you have the right formula. What is important when giving away information is to make sure it is over-the-top quality and delivers value. Otherwise, people are not going to watch it or read it and it will collect digital dust.
Live stream broadcasts by contrast, present a higher level of interactivity. Of course, it needs to be said that if your broadcast is boring or does not offer great information, you will lessen the chance of achieving your intended results of getting eyes and ears on your broadcast. Your message will be lost.
Memberships
An effective idea on what to use your broadcasts for, is to set up a membership for the broadcasts. Facebook groups or a website membership site are good ways to share your streaming broadcasts. Keep in mind though Facebook terms of service will not allow you to charge members to join your group but your group can be a benefit to an online membership. So decide whether you want to charge members, or keep the membership free and monetize in other ways, like affiliate marketing or advertising.
The broadcasts can be the foundation of the membership but you are certainly free to add more to it. In fact, you could set up a hybrid membership that allows free members to view the broadcasts but the premium members will get extra content. There are various WordPress plugins that can provide you with membership options like Woo Commerce, WP eMember or Easy Digital Downloads.
YouTube
Another possibility is to set up a YouTube channel where you will add each broadcast after they are complete. Then, it’s simply a matter of getting people to your broadcasts and asking them to subscribe to your channel. Again, it all must do with quality so if you keep your broadcasts at high quality, people will gladly subscribe. Keep in mind, that you can also livestream from YouTube. As a matter of fact, YouTube is working on enhancing their platform to work better on mobile, too.
Mashups
A third possibility is to network with other broadcasters and put together a mashup of related broadcasts. Mashups are fun and take the pressure off just one person providing all the content. This can be done via Joint Venture (JV) relationship. And it can be sold as a larger package and all the JV partners will send traffic to this mega-product but this is a more advanced process that is not for the newbie.
These are several ways that you can reuse the broadcasts that you create. The one thing you should not do is let your broadcasts sit idle. Always find methods to put them to use so that they can keep working for you. Think outside the box!
Be sure to connect with us on social media so you can see our live streaming broadcasts.
