(Expert Feature) Is Your Business Standing On The Seven Pillars Of Online Marketing? (Part 3)
(*This post is being re-posted, because it was previously, mistakenly, not attributed to it’s author, Michael Neuendorff. NOTE: Our regular morning post will be posted in 30 minutes.)
To say that online marketing is important to small businesses in 2012 is an understatement.
The reason I say specifically small businesses is because medium and large businesses already understand this. They’re online and typically have dedicated staff on the case.
Small businesses are often strapped for resources and time. However, the smart ones are online because they know it’s where attention is increasingly going and buyers are there.
This is the third installment of a 4-part series on how to ensure your business is doing the right things when it comes to establishing an online presence. We covered your website and search engine optimization in part 1, and lead capture and email marketing in part 2.
In this installment in the series we’ll discuss content creation and social media.
Content Matters
The relevance of advertising to buyers has diminished.
This is due to an overwhelming amount of ads bombarding buyers on a daily basis – including in elevators and at ATM machines – and the rise in prominence and accessibility to social proof.
What are business owners to do if their advertising is not working as well as it used to? Turn to content creation.
What’s content?
It’s white papers, blog posts, webinars, instructional videos, infographics and podcasts to name the most popular forms today.
Content works when it’s helpful and informative.
Essentially you’re letting people know without buying anything that you are an expert in your field by helping them first.
Providing good content with no strings attached (except for possibly a name and email address) is today’s advertising model.
Now please don’t think I’m telling you to drop all advertising.
There’s still a place for advertising in your marketing budget and you will get results from it. When you combine advertising with content, you can go even further with your results.
Regardless of what type of business you own there is a content vehicle that will work for you to show off your expertise.
Let’s say you’re an auto body shop. You could have a series of videos that teach a person how to evaluate good work so they can be a smarter shopper.
Own a bakery? Share some of your best recipes in blog posts.
Running a bank? Present webinars that explain to people how best to prepare to qualify for a home loan.
The options are endless once you start thinking about creating content.
The good news on content is that it serves two purposes:
1. To help and inform people
2. To make your website richer and possibly more easily discovered by search engines (especially when it comes to blog content)
If you are not creating content yet, I suggest you draft a strategy and go to it.
Social Media for Business
Now that you have content and email marketing underway, you should add social media to the mix.
To me it’s the glue that holds it all together.
Use social media to drive people to your content, which is hopefully, accessible on your website.
Once visitors are there they’ll hopefully give you permission to market to them in the future via your lead capture process.
What is important for you to know when it comes to social media is that not all the networks are right for all businesses.
I often say that Facebook is the most personal social network.
When people log on they are thinking of their friends, family, co-workers, fellow church members, and so on. Basically they want to know what’s happening in the lives of those people they care about.
What they don’t care about as much is what’s happening with businesses they’ve patronized. It’s not that they don’t care at all, but that’s it’s very much a secondary motive for logging on to Facebook.
Therefore, if your business is going to be on Facebook you need to keep this in mind.
Don’t expect to get lots and lots of attention unless you’re famous. This is a good platform for you if you have a business that isn’t too serious and doesn’t have strict restrictions on content as in the case of financial firms.
You need to be creative, funny, lighthearted and use pictures and video as much as you can as this type of content generally does better and is more often shared.
Facebook can also be a good place to make great offers on doing business with you as long as you don’t just make great offers.
And this applies to all social media by the way.
Don’t just post the same type of content again and again.
Now if you have a very serious business, then LinkedIn is the place for you. You can also post videos to YouTube as this social network is ideal for any type of business.
If you have a visual business, then Pinterest could be just right for you. Check out the post I wrote earlier on Pinterest for more.
They key point here is that you understand that you don’t have to be on all social networks, but should be on at least one of them.
Social media is now the place to make your business accessible to the public and share your content and news about your business.
Without social media you are left without a voice, which isn’t good in 2012.
Smart businesses use their voice to get their message out to the world online.
Use content creation and social media to really add to your online presence and you’ll see improvement in your attraction on the internet.
We’ll wrap up this series in our next post.
Comments Or Questions?
Leave me a comment with any thoughts or questions in relation to content creation and social media.
Photo by Watson Media
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