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social media marketing for small business

Social Media Marketing for Small Business: Half Are Losing Out

I was surprised when I read a recent research report done by Clutch. They surveyed small businesses about their usage of Social Media marketing. The data indicate that around half of them are ignoring prospective customers by not using Social Media marketing for small business. And more than half are not investing in work on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

According to the Clutch study of small businesses:

  • <20% of marketing budgets are spent on Digital Marketing
  • only 53% do some work on Social Media
  • only 45% do some work on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • only 25% do work on online advertising

Small businesses are slow to invest in digital marketing to acquire new customers and expand relationships with existing ones. But Social Media marketing is about inviting people to get to know your business and for you to get to know them.

Why are many small businesses reluctant to do Social Media marketing?

I have heard various reasons from small business people I have spoken with, including:

  • I tried Facebook or Twitter a little while, but I didn’t get any sales from them.
  • I asked my customers if they use Social Media and they said no or not much.
  • I don’t know where to start – there are so many social networks and I can’t cover all of them.
  • I think I have to have a website, but I don’t have time or money to spend on Social Media.
  • Isn’t Social Media primarily for young people?
  • If I were to advertise on Social Media, wouldn’t Pay Per Click (PPC) ads be very expensive?

Why is Social Media marketing for your business important?

  • Increase your brand awareness
  • Drive more traffic to your website
  • Get new leads
  • Leverage the trust that Social Media users have in their friends, family, and people they follow
  • Extend your message with Likes, Comments, and Shares faster and cheaper than word of mouth
  • Reach new prospects for your products and services that may not otherwise find you
  • Provide additional differentiating information about your company, products, and services
  • Put a human face on your business and let people get to know your people
  • Find new connections of suppliers and partners in addition to reaching new prospective customers
  • Target very specific audiences in ads based on interests, behaviors, job titles, locations, etc.
  • Try out marketing ideas fast and with very low cost to see what works or doesn’t work
  • Contribute to your search ranking with strong social signals that you are a valuable brand (this is likely to increase in weight over time)

As I’ve blogged before, the way people are making their purchase decisions is changing. They rely much more on online reviews and referrals. When was the last time you booked travel without looking at online reviews? They often research products and services online before they have any contact with your company. They may interact with your online information multiple times during their purchase decision as they advance through their process.

Some small businesses drop social media marketing if they don’t see any immediate increase in sales. But social media marketing is not a short-term investment. You are building a timeless presence on the Internet. You are increasing awareness and starting to build relationships that will likely pay off sometime in the future. Short-term promotions on social media with contests, coupons, and specials can drive a short-term uptick in sales depending on your organic reach or ad budget.

You may not realize that half of the world’s population has grown up with the Internet and Social Media. Yes, that’s right! 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old. They are connected, they use less and less of traditional media, and they are technology savvy. They are not kids anymore. And those in their 20s and 30s have tremendous purchasing power.

Social media ads are still an under-utilized marketing element by the majority of small businesses. With traditional advertising you are broadcasting to a very wide audience in order to reach the subset that is your target audience. Social media advertising enables you to specifically target individuals in your target audience and to only pay when the target clicks through your ad for more information. Since there is no publication or broadcasting overhead, the cost of social media ads is way less than traditional advertising. It’s also less costly than Google Adwords ads that are only based on keywords on search result pages. And how many people are like me who ignore the display ads in newspapers and on web pages. What better place to get attention on your ad than in someone’s News Feed between photos and videos of their friends and families?

How can you get started economically?

  • Focus on one or two Social Media platforms that have members of your target market. You don’t need to boil the ocean and get onto every Social Media platform. As I’ve blogged before each one has a slightly different audience with different interests and demographics.
  • Set your marketing objectives and strategy. Are your top objectives to increase awareness, generate leads, cross-sell existing customers, or ….? For each of the top 2-3 objectives, outline your strategy to use social media to support that objective.
  • Engage a Marketing agency, consultant, or coach. If you can’t train and dedicate an employee to Digital Marketing or Social Media Marketing, then look at hiring a marketing agency or consultant to be an adviser, a doer, and an extension of your staff part-time. Depending on how much staff time you can dedicate to Social Media marketing, you might only want a consultant to be on retainer to be your coach one or more times per month. An agency, consultant, or coach will also keep you up to date on the latest trends and where to invest time and effort for your business objectives.
  • Get Marketing training for yourself or your staff. If you allocate an internal staff person for social media marketing, make sure they are trained on Marketing. While almost any younger person knows how to post on some Social Media platforms, they don’t necessarily know how to do that effectively for business marketing purposes.
  • Look at your Digital Marketing mix holistically. Determine how much to invest in Web Design, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Blogs, Podcasts, video channels, eBooks, Social Media marketing, and traditional marketing. Speak with an agency or consultant if you need assistance.
  • Augment with Social Media advertising. Social Media organic reach is shrinking. Your posts will only reach 2-6% of your followers. Social Media is now pay to play for businesses. Different platforms will enable you to boost posts or insert ads into the News Feeds of the types of people and interests that you specify.

Let me know your thoughts and experience. Have you seen other obstacles to overcome? Are there other tips you would suggest for Social Media marketing for small business?

If you find my blog posts helpful, please subscribe at my Blog page. Our newsletter goes out about once per week.

Or please follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kauaidigitalmarketing or Twitter at www.twitter.com/kauaidigitalmkt or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/tfaigle.

 

 

blog ideas

Your Blog Drives More Business Than Social Media

Website+Blog+Search Engine Optimization+Social Media+Email=Business Growth from Digital Marketing

Does that equation surprise you? Of course, it is a gross simplification. But it illustrates a point. When I speak with other small business owners like myself, I hear them talk about a website and social media posts, but a blog and email marketing are usually missing ingredients.

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is also usually missing, but you may be able to rely on your website platform (e.g., Wix, WordPress) or web designer to assist with some basic techniques. However, depending on your website provider, they may not counsel you on the importance of content. A blog is a key way to deliver content that drives business growth from online, digital marketing.

Why Should You Care About a Blog?

In 2015 search engines such as Google are focused on creating the best possible user experience.  They are continuing to increase their analysis of your web site to ensure it has the information your target audience needs.  This and other factors drive your ranking in search results.  If the keywords and content being searched for are not well represented and highlighted to search engines in they way they expect, your target audience may not find you online. (Or maybe you will spend a lot of money on ads.)

There is more to SEO than content that can be delivered via a blog. But a key component is content written in the language of your target customer and that hits their keywords for searching.

There are other reasons besides search engine ranking for why you should seriously consider a blog with your web site:

  • Establish your brand
  • Differentiate from competitors
  • Demonstrate expertise
  • Build an audience of potential and existing customers, partners, and vendors
  • Make your company more personal
  • Control your content as social media networks continue to change
  • Provide customer support for common questions
  • Collect email addresses

Let me emphasize that last one again – collect email addresses. In these days of social media marketing the data show that email marketing is still more effective for actually getting someone to buy your goods or services. Providing interesting, expert content and getting people to subscribe with their email address is even more effective in driving business results than all your posts on social media.

A McKinsey study found that e-mail is nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined for acquiring customers.  A Gallup survey found that 62% of consumers say that social media has no impact on purchase decisions. 90% of U.S. consumers use email daily. Also, the average order value driven by email is 17% higher than purchases that are attributed to social media.

I know you’re thinking:

  • Wait! I’m a small business owner, not a blogger!
  • I don’t have time for that!
  • I’m not a good writer!
  • How often would I do this and would I run out of ideas?

There are resources that can help and that don’t cost too much:

  • Blogs on best practices for writing a blog post
  • Google keyword planner for most searched keywords related to your business and geography
  • Online tips on where to find ideas for blog posts
  • Freelance writers and writing services that can research and write a blog post for $10-15 depending on the number of words
  • Marketing consultants and agencies that can assist to generate ideas and produce content on your behalf

Do you have a company blog?  What tools and techniques have been helpful?  What results have you seen?

 

Web Design Top 10 Trends

Web Design Top 10 Trends for 2015

Why should you care about web design trends for 2015 if you are not a web designer?  If you have a website that has not been updated for a few years, you not only may look stodgy and out of date but also may be poorly positioned by Google in search results.

If you don’t already have a website, you have a couple of options.  You can use a service for a “free” website (see There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Website) or a website generator and be locked into their design choices for you.  Or if you are considering a custom web design these are important items to discuss with your web designer.

Good design is a reflection of your business.  A well designed website can help to differentiate you and engage your audience on an emotional level as well as based on content.  A poorly designed site can cause your prospective customers to move on to your competitor.

I have looked at a lot of web sites and predictions of trends by people in the web design business.  In this blog I boil it down to the top ten that you as a business owner should pay attention to in 2015.

1. Responsive, Mobile First – More than half of all email is now read on mobile devices.  Your mobile web traffic may be a lower percentage for now, but I bet it is increasing every month.  It won’t be long before mobile web access exceeds desktop web access.  If your site is not already using responsive web design to appear on mobile devices, you need to make that a priority now.  In addition, some web sites are now adopting mobile techniques such as hidden or sliding side menus across all devices including desktops.  Mobile will drive more design trends in the future as that becomes the majority of web views.

2. Performance and Speed – If your site takes too long to load on a mobile or desktop device you may lose a prospective customer or annoy an existing one.  Even more importantly performance and speed is part of how Google ranks your site for display in search results.  If your site has not been optimized for performance and speed your page rank may be slipping relative to competitors.  Make sure your web design pays attention to performance and speed.

3. Larger images and less text – We are bombarded with information.  We skim most of the emails we receive and the web sites we visit.  We are scanning for the important points and maybe stopping to read when something catches our eye.  Large images are one way to communicate and to cause the eye to stop.  It really is true that a picture is worth a thousand words!  An image with text or information overplayed may give you a big bang impact.  At a minimum it may draw the readers’ attention to read more.  Less text in your web design, more bullets and lists, and more graphics and infographics are ways to capture attention and transfer information quickly.

4. Video – Video is a powerful medium that is becoming more prevalent on web sites.  Videos can be very effective to tell a story or evoke an emotion.  They are very useful for instructions and training.  They are a way to show a product in three dimensions or a way to provide a demonstration of a product or service.  Think about how a video may be able to communicate more effectively than words or pictures.

5. Flat design and material design – Flat design has been around for a long time in general, but became important in the digital world in the past several years.  Apple’s IOS 7 release in 2013 prompted a lot of attention to flat design.  Flat design is simple web design.  It doesn’t try to make things three dimensional.  It is easy to scale across devices.  It uses simple elements, typography and flat colors.  Material design was announced by Google in 2014.  It is widely used in Android and other Google applications.  It includes increased use of grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and depth effects such as lighting and shadows.

6. Big typography – Along with simplicity, flat design, and larger images is also the trend toward big typography.  It’s another way to stop the reader’s eye and grab attention.  It screams out “look at me” and “this is important.”  It’s like the old days of skimming a newspaper for the headlines.  It’s simple, clear, to the point, and attention grabbing.

7. Pinterest style cards – Another key trend in web design is a way of making it easy to scan a lot of information quickly primarily using images and “cards.”  Your eye can quickly scan across the cards and titles to see if something catches your eye to stop, click, and drill down.  This is the format on the growing Pinterest social media site.  The blog page on our site is also an example of this trend.

8. Scrolling, not clicking – Users on mobile devices prefer to scroll rather than click to find more information.  As a result websites are increasingly using long pages with scrolling rather than menus and navigation to click through.  Apple’s web page for the iPad Air 2 is an example of this trend (plus others).  Lots of navigation and clicking in web design is out.  Minimal navigation and scrolling are in.

9. Storytelling and emotion – One way to differentiate your company to prospects and to encourage ongoing customer relationships is to tell stories and to create emotional connections.  The testimonial or reference account has always been an important part of the traditional marketing mix.  Customer reviews are another important part of many commerce and travel sites.  Telling stories related to your company helps to create an emotional response in the reader of your site.  The story may be executed with images and text or may be most effective with video in your web design.

10. Modular instead of pages – Related to trend 7, modern web design is also shifting to be more modular rather than going through pages.  Cards are an example of this.  Masonry or tiled layouts are examples of modular web design.  Instead of navigation you are scanning through tiles of images with text overlays to determine where you want to stop and drill down further.  Line25.com compiled a useful post of 25 Web Designs with Modular Content Block Layouts.  My personal blog at kauaiguys.com is another example that uses the Booklet theme for WordPress and is designed to be modular.

Wondering if your site is up to date and effective for your target audience?  When was the last time you updated the format?  Updated the content?  

For a free web site review click here to contact us.

Aulii Luau dancers at Kauai Chamber of Commerce

Kauai Chamber of Commerce Case Study

I was honored last evening to be featured as a new member at the Kauai Chamber of Commerce Annual General Membership Meeting.  I am so pleased to be a part of these talented business professionals, to get acquainted, and to become part of the community.  There is so much entrepreneurial spirit here across a number of industries.

As a new member I had a display table to do some traditional event marketing with other local businesses.  It was great to meet new people and to learn about their business ventures.  I was in between the dancers from ‘Auli’i Lu’au and the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas.  While I focus now on digital, online marketing, I have also done a lot of traditional marketing in my prior roles in technology and consulting companies.  You may have a business where you can rely solely on digital marketing, but many businesses still need a mix of both.  As a business and marketing professional, I would not hesitate to recommend a mix if it were the right fit.  There is still a huge value to connect with others in your own industry as well as in others and to form those relationships both in person and online.

One of the things that I love about being located on the island of Kauai is the common view that we are all in this canoe together.  The canoe is such an important part of Hawaiian history and culture.  It is such a powerful symbol to me that when we row and steer in a common direction we all reach our destination faster and safer.  This is part of the culture and values of Kauai that drew me to locate here.  For the canoe to move forward, we need to work together.  All as one.  One canoe, one ohana, one community. And I believe it is a strong value to guide our business interactions.

KaiKini Case Study of Traditional and Digital Marketing

In learning about the business ventures of others based here, I was especially struck by the story of the founder and CEO of KaiKini Bikinis.  She shared with me how she started with an idea and vision and acquired the skills she needed along the way.  She envisioned designing and making bikinis in her unique style and optimized for wear while being active.  She did not know how to sew, but she bought some commercial sewing machines, experimented, and taught herself to not only design but also to manufacture the pieces.  She used traditional marketing and selling to get some local stores to carry her pieces as part of starting her business.  She also focused on digital marketing and began social media marketing to engage her customers and to gain further visibility.  She got additional retailers on other islands to stock her products.  As the business started to grow, she hired others to train to sew.  And she taught herself to set up a website.  She now has several employees and continues to grow her business as a manufacturer and wholesaler while also selling directly worldwide via her ecommerce website at kaikini.com.  She uses blogs and social media marketing as well as Google Adwords PPC ads in her digital marketing mix.  A consultant manages her PPC ads for her so she can devote her time to other business initiatives.  She uses BigCommerce as her web hosting and tools provider.  What an inspiration that she has built a business to market and sell Hawaiian-made products all over the world.  And the digital marketing and sales are a key growth area of her business!

What a great evening with the Kauai Chamber of Commerce!

mobile first

Mobile First!

Today it is about being mobile first!  If people cannot access your content easily and clearly on mobile devices, you are missing the boat!  This is true all over, but on the island of Kauai, this can be a literal statement.  I was recently chatting with the owner of a rental shop near the port where cruise ships come in.  He was telling me that he had developed a web site, but he had not thought about it being mobile first.  But his target customers all arrive with mobile devices.  He said, “I see them coming off the ship all looking at their smartphone or tablets.”  The same is true of nearby hotel and timeshare visitors.

Nielson reports that over the past year, the average consumer spent nearly seven hours more per month with their mobile phones, and more than 70% of mobile users use smartphones.

Mobile first email marketing

According to Movable Ink’s Q1 2014 US Consumer Device Preference Report email opens continue to migrate away from the desktop.  In fact, two thirds of emails are opened on a mobile device.   Within that, the tablet share of email opens continues to grow.

Movable Ink said that 66 percent of emails were opened on either a smartphone (47.2 percent) or tablet (18.5 percent) in Q1 2014. That’s up slightly from the 65 percent in Q4. By contrast PC email opens were down to 34 percent.

What an opportunity for online, digital marketing.  This means that your email reaches your target audience anytime and anyplace.  Think about that.  But also think about how it must be designed for the customer on the go.  If you don’t grab him/her with the title and the first five lines of your email, they will move on to the next one.   It has to be attention grabbing, get quickly to the value for your customer, and then to the call to action.  In a previous role, I wrote many such emails to be used by the salespeople in our company.  Many of them were surprised that they got a quick response from a senior executive.  It was because it was targeted at them, designed to be read on a mobile device, with a clearly stated value proposition and an easy call to action.

Mobile First Blogs

Don’t be surprised if mobile devices are soon the primary way that people read your blog posts.  You can use Google Analytics to see how they are being accessed today and what the trend line is for mobile devices for your particular site.  Have you looked at and thought about how someone will access your blog from a mobile device?  Do your sharing icons work on the mobile device?  Can users comment?  Is there far too much scrolling to the right required?

The best way to find out is to test your site on a variety of devices. But Google also provides a website called Make Your Website Work Across Multiple Devices which helps you test your mobile website for mobile compatibility.  There is also a link to their PageSpeed Insights tool where you can test performance on mobile and desktop devices and get suggestions for improvement.

Mobile First Design

How do you get mobile first design?  If you are designing a new web site, make sure your developer is enabling responsive design.  There are many tools and themes available now to automatically enable web sites to be responsive to mobile devices and to optimize the display and performance.  If you have an existing web site that is not designed for mobile, you have a few choices:

  • Do nothing – your customers will have to enlarge and scroll on a mobile device
  • Re-design to be responsive – if your web site is a few years old, it may be due for a re-design anyway
  • Create a separate mobile site – you could have a separate mobile site, but then you have to maintain two sites

Mobile First Features

The rise in use of mobile devices also opens new opportunities to think about exploiting unique features of those devices.  A common example is being able to link to mobile turn-by-turn directions.  Not only can they find your business online, their device can guide them to you.  They can touch the screen and immediately call or email you.  They can check back in with you during the day and at different locations.  You may also want to make use of location awareness to push certain information or promotions.  And mobile devices are also good for social media integration.  Making it easy to share on social media directly from a mobile device may increase your reach.

So it really is a new world.  I now carry the Internet in my pocket via my smartphone.  When I travel, I stay connected with my tablet to use in the airport, on the plane, and in my hotel room.  I may search for information about a business anytime and anywhere that I have a connection.  If you are not mobile first, you are missing the boat! (maybe literally!)

 

 

10 ways to create compelling content

Want 10 Ideas for Compelling Content?

A lot of people doing online, digital marketing are focused on the tools and channels.  But it’s compelling content that causes someone to look at and engage with you.  As you are faced with hundreds of blogs, Facebook posts, and tweets some catch your eye and some don’t.  Here are 10 ways you can catch the attention of your reader with your marketing content:

  1. Tell a story that is relevant – We all like to know how other people have solved problems successfully.  What was the problem/situation?  What did you do?  What was the result?  We all like to learn from these mini case studies.  They establish your credibility.
  2. Write in the language of your customer – I see a lot of web sites, blogs, and Facebook posts aimed at small and mid-sized businesses that use the jargon of tools and acronyms for compelling content marketing.  But their audience are business people, not necessarily technologists or marketers.  To engage your customer, speak their language, not yours.
  3. Provide compelling content that is timely and relevant – It’s about issues and problems your customers are dealing with now.  It’s current.  It’s up to date.  It’s not information on a web site that you last updated 2-3 years ago.
  4. Help solve a problem or give tips and techniques – You provide compelling content when you educate and supply information that assists your audience to solve a problem.  By teaching, your audience solves the problem on their own and remembers your assistance.  Or they may reach out to you to solve the problem on their behalf.  Or your content may be compelling not because it solves their entire problem, but it aids your audience to improve and increase the return on their investment.
  5. Analyze and summarize data for decision-making – Your target customer has multiple competing priorities.  Helping them with data and insights from that data will assist them to make better decisions.  And that will lead to more sharing of the data and visibility to your expertise in the area.
  6. Be concise – The more senior your target customer, the less time they have to consider your information.  Don’t expect them to read a long white paper to get the key points.  Summarize the conclusions/recommendations first and then give the option to read the longer report.  Make your text easy to read.  Use bullets, lists, and graphics.
  7. Create an emotional connection – People love to read and hear heart-warming stories.  Maybe it’s about one of your employees.  Maybe it is about one of your customers.  Maybe it is about something going on in the community in which your business is involved.  Not only do people love to hear a heart-warming story, they also love to share them with others.
  8. Give a peak behind the scenes with insider information – Part of a strong customer relationship is the customer knowing a lot about your company and the people that make up your company.  We feel more connected when we know more about individuals working in your organization.  We also feel valued if you give us a peak behind the scenes.  Do you have an innovative process or interesting equipment or a new technology that would engage me more by becoming an insider with you?
  9. Be humorous – Poke fun at yourselves, your industry, your employees, your pets, but in a positive way.  Be “punny” about your business.  We all love to laugh and to share things that will make other people laugh.
  10. Provide a picture worth a thousand words – In the crush of online blogs, posts, and tweets, pictures grab our attention and compel us to stop and look.  Many pictures are worth a thousand words.  They communicate concepts and ideas succinctly or they at least stop our eyes to read the text.

What are your thoughts?  Have these 10 ways worked on you?  Can you think of examples of marketing content that caused you to stop and take action?

online marketing

What is Online Marketing? Inbound? Digital? Content?

When I moved from the mainland to Kauai, I needed to find new resources to assist me.  I didn’t listen to broadcast ads or read a newspaper.  I went online and searched for information.  In the process of searching for information, I formed impressions of service providers based on what I was learning from them.  I also was looking for providers who had simple, well laid out web sites, with up to date information.  Not only did I search the worldwide web, I also searched on Facebook for local businesses.  I “liked” some that I found interesting.  I signed up for email newsletters.  I read blogs and learned a great deal that influenced how I planned my move and possible vendors for me to contact that would fit my needs.

It’s a new world for marketing your business. Consumer and business behavior is evolving to be much more like my personal experience above.  Will your potential customers find you and be compelled to engage with you?  Will your online, digital content show up high in their searches?  Will your existing customers feel that they have an ongoing relationship with you, recommend you to others, and do more business with you over time?

If you are presenting no online information or stale, out of date information, I would not probably contact you.  I would look to your competitors who provide me with information and insight and who show they want to have an ongoing relationship.

If you already have a Web site for your business, that’s great.  Is it easy to find information?  Is it regularly updated?  Do you have a blog that provides background, context, information, and insight?  Are you educating your audience, not just selling to them?  It’s a new model of marketing that goes by different names such as online marketing, digital marketing, and inbound marketing.  It’s not just a technology project. It’s a new way of engaging prospects and customers for your unique business.

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