Content Marketing – know your customers first

Getting started with Content Marketing can be intimidating.  How do you know what to write? What is the right tone?  How do I know if people are interested?

Here are some tips to help make getting started a bit easier. 

1.  Create customer segments.  Segmenting your customer base will help you to better understand who they are, what they are interested in and what motivates them to buy.  You should definitely have more than one segment.  I’d recommend no more than 6 as it becomes hard to manage.  3 segments is a good place to start.  Determine how you want to segment your customers.  You can segment them by profitability, loyalty, influencers, frequent buyers, etc.  The more you know the easier it will be to create segments.  You should be able to describe each segment in detail.  Create a profile that helps you visualize who they are so you can write your content to them.

2. Find real differences in your segments.  Many of us still recognize the advertising slogan from Miller Lite – “Tastes Great – Less Filling.”  It is a good example of distinct segments.  While both groups drink beer, the motivation is different and therefore the messaging that would appeal to them would also be different.  The more you dig into your customer segments, the more you will find differences that you can use to drive your content marketing program.

3.  Listen, Listen, Listen.  You need to listen to your customers from each segment to understand what motivates them.  You can also listen to your market via social media.  Follow your customers, follow your competitors and follow your industry influencers.  You’ll begin to see what conversation is trending in the social media that you can use to drive your own content.  Finally, use surveys on your website and customer service surveys to keep track of the pulse of your customers over time.

4. Let your content have personality.  Marketing used to be all about selling products with stiff, corporate marketing copy.  Now your customers are looking at their friends photos, reading your content and updating their status all at the same time.  Corporate and brand content will seem out of place.  Visualize your customers and write to them as people.  It makes it much easier to write to them and engage with them through your content. 

Most importantly, get started.  Write down topics for each of your customer segments.  Then put the topics on the calendar so you have a plan to develop and build your content throughout the year.  Once you have the content that engages your audience, you can then use it to build marketing programs.

Make the most of your email campaigns

As email becomes a more dominant part of your marketing strategy for your small business, it is important to make the most of each campaign.  Here are a few tips on how to make the most of this channel. 

1.  Always remember to give your customers an easy way to opt-in to your email marketing list.  When you ask for their email, make sure to include the value statement that will result in the opt-in.  Offer special discounts, educational materials, reminder emails, etc.  Give them a reason to give you their email address.

2. Determine the right frequency for your email campaigns.  Here’s a way to determine what the right frequency is.  As you set up your email process, you’ll receive opt-out or unsubscribe reports.  Watch your unsubscribe rates closely.  Determine what your average unsubscribe rate is.  Then as you add in additional emails and increase the frequency, monitor the unsubscribe rate.  If you see it increasing then you are at your max and should not increase from there.   Now there can be other factors that influence the unsubscribe rate, but it is a way for you to measure the right cadence for your email contacts with your customers.

3. Learn from the social networks — less is more.  Who would have thought that we could effectively communicate in 140 characters or less?  But we’ve all been conditioned to get to the point of the message and move on.  Don’t get too detailed in your emails.  Keep them short and relevant.  Give links to places where more detail can be found for those that are interested. 

4. Don’t forget the call to action.  The call to action should be specific and very clear.  Click here, like us, follow us, use this coupon code, etc.  Don’t make the customer look for a way to reach out to you – make it simple.  Drive all of your links to the item or page you are referencing.  Don’t land them on your homepage and expect them to navigate through to the item they want.

Email is a great tool but along with it comes a need to increase your relevancy.  Be action oriented and specific in your communications.  Your customers will appreciate it.

Small Business Saturday – kickoff the holiday shopping season right

Small Business Saturday is this weekend.  Now is the time to put the finishing touches on your campaign for the weekend.  Send out a reminder to your loyal customers in your email newsletter list and remind them to come by and shop local this weekend. 

Now is also the time to plan for your follow-up holiday campaign.  Make sure to capture email addresses from new customers in your store this weekend so you can send them special offers throughout the holiday season.  If you have a blog or are active on social media, get ready for your post-event posts.  Thank your customers for their business this weekend, announce winners of any giveaways, and invite your followers to stop by during the holidays for more special events and offers.

What I like most about Small Business Saturday is that it creates awareness and momentum for shopping small.  And, even more so, it reminds us as small business marketers to build our campaigns and enthusiasm now so we make the most of the holiday shopping season.

Marketing Planning – time to reflect, time to kick-start

It’s that time of year – time to reflect back on the accomplishments from the year and time to create the plans for the coming year.  As a type A personality – this is the best time of the year.  It is a time when everyone has to pull out their inner Type A personality and join together to create plans and detail out schedules.  Marketing planning though should not be something that happens once a year but instead is an iterative process of planning, implementing, learning and adjusting.  A process that keeps us on target and on message.  Though for many small businesses it is hard to dedicate the time throughout the year to a good marketing process. 

I like to break it down into planning, executing, and refining.  On an annual basis take time to really reflect as part of the building out of your plan.  What is the status of your products?  Are you still differentiated?  How are your customer needs evolving?  What changes are happening in the market that will impact your future?   These are questions that you consider all the time, but that need a time when you really spend some time thinking, researching and evaluating where you are.    The planning phase concentrates on makeing sure you know where you are and where you are going. 

The executing phase is where you get down to business.  While I still like to create a tactical marketing plan with activities and timing outlined.  I now use the tactical plan as a guide to keep us moving forward.  The plan though needs to be continually refined as you learn more about your performance, as your market shifts around you, as your customers needs evolve.   The marketing plan then becomes the agenda for the marketing team meetings to make sure that we are all aligned on the deliverables of today and kick start the activities for the future. 

So it is that time of year – time to build out your marketing plan!

 

 

The best social interactions create a dialogue that isn’t forced

When it comes to social media it isn’t about what you want to say but instead it is what your social network wants to hear. Listening is key. The dialogue has to be real and not forced. Here’s a great example. I was out to dinner with my husband (@deanhopkins) at Ztejas when he checked in on Foursquare and posted to his twitter account this message “Ztejas – if you blend & pour them we will come.” Within minutes he got a RT from Ztejas saying “That’s all it takes to get you back?” The quick response and the quirky interaction definitely made an impression on him (and I guess on me since I’m blogging on it now.) This interaction could only take place because they were listening and interacting with the customers. It wasn’t about a canned message or a sales pitch and the impact was much greater.
Key tips to make your social media more effective:
– know your customers – who are they and what do they want to hear
– listen to your customers
– be natural and interactive in your communications
– be timely and relevant. Don’t let your social channels go stale

How much Facebook is enough and how much is too much?

How often do you check Facebook?  There are people who could go forever without checking in on their friends and then there are those who seem to be on Facebook all the time.  But as a small business who is looking to build a relationship with your fans and capture meaningful “likes”, what is the right mix?   

In this article from USA Today, Emily White the director of Local at Facebook recommends a small business should post 3 times a week.   http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2011-05-24-facebook-small-business_n.htm

When you plan what to post, think about your audience as the content needs to be meaningful.  As with all marketing channels, relevency is critical.  As quickly as your customers can “like” you they can also hide your posts or unfriend you if the content isn’t interesting and relevant to them.  Make every post count!

If optimism is so important, why do we dwell so much on the negative?

Runing a small business takes determination, confidence, persistence, and motivation.  I wonder though how our positive outlook and optimism impact our success?  And how does our optimism impact the world around us?

The NFIB trends and publishes a report on small business optimism.  The most recent report shows a dip for the third consecutive month.  http://www.nfib.com/research-foundation/surveys/small-business-economic-trends  We know that small businesses employ the vast majority of workers, so optimism and the ability of the small business to expand and grow impacts our economy.  Therefore we watch the optimism indexes closely for clues on what the future may hold.  As a consumer, I consider what I’m going to buy based upon how confident I am in my future, my job, etc.  And whether I spend as a consumer impacts how well small businesses are doing and growing.   And so the circle goes on.

But beyond the optimism index, do the messages that we hear everyday both positive and negative impact our reality more than we realize?  Have you ever had one of those days where you’re feeling great and then someone says to you, “wow, you don’t look good” and all of a sudden you are feeling quite as great?  I know I get out of bed with a positive outlook for the day and then turn on the news while I’m getting ready and by the time I hit the door, I’m not quite as chipper.   So if optimism is so important to our future, why do we dwell so much on the negative?   Let’s talk about the businesses that are growing, or those that have been able to sustain throughout the economic turmoil.  Let’s highlight the businesses that are making a positive impact on our world everyday.  

I’m not suggesting we walk around with rose colored glasses – maybe just pink colored glasses  at least for today.