Making an impact on social media is not an easy task especially if you do not have any social media tips from renowned experts. If you think about it, an average user’s timeline/feed gets updated with thousands of posts in an hour. This number increases drastically when users search for popular keywords. Businesses of all sizes have adopted social media platforms to get noticed. If you’re looking to stand out on social media, here are 12 expert tips to help you out:
Social Media Tips #1: Get inspired from your competitors’ content.
Social media expert and founder of RazorSocial, Ian Cleary, reckons that getting inspiration from your competitors’ content is the key to resonating with your customers. Don’t copy, get inspired and think about different angles. Different unique angles also increases the potential virality of your content.
Social media marketing guru, Jeff Bullas, says that a brand has to be memorable in order to be noticed on social media. All the text and visual content has to be high quality. Constant promotion is also the key. This will help businesses grow their audience as people are more likely to share your content.
Social Media Tips #3: Don’t try to use all platforms
Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi, says that small businesses need to have a clear social media channel. He urges brands to not make the mistake of trying to use as many platforms as possible. By focusing on 2-3 social media platforms, businesses can post better content and keep track of their results more accurately.
Social Media Tips #4: Re-purpose more popular social media posts into blogs.
Ted Rubin is a renowned social media strategist, speaker and author. By using popular social media posts for blog posts, the potential virality of your posts increases greatly and the interest among your audience is peaked.
Social Media Tips #5: Create high quality visual content
Neal Schaffer, a business social media expert, notes that pictures are a prominent part of social media. Brands that use high quality images to supplement their posts, capture their audience’s attention and turns them from random viewers into loyal readers.
Social Media Tips #6: Be consistent at posting your blogs.
Kissmetrics Founder and expert blogger, Neil Patel, has observed that brands do not need to have unique content but consistency is a must. Consistency will help you get more traffic and consequently more leads.
Jay Bear, marketing expert and author, recommends looking into “micro- opportunities.” These opportunities are very small time periods when your audience is most likely to be on social media. For example, if you’re target audience involves businessman then posting between average meeting times will get their attention. Small businesses that are B2B can use this system to get more views.
Social Media Tips #8: Hire content writers who are passionate about your field
Kim Garst, CEO of Boom Social, advises that those in charge of creating content have to be passionate about their field. When a marketer or writer is passionate, it shows in their work and becomes contagious. Users will like and share your content on their own channels and thus your content will reach more people.
Social Media Tips #9: Establish a consistent brand in all your social media images.
Canva founder, Zach Kitschke, says brands have to establish a visual style that is recognizable by their audience. To do this, consistent use of the same fonts, colors, logos etc are required. Every image doesn’t have to be the same but the tone has to remain consistent. When users start to recognize your visual style, they can spot your content more easily in a flood of social media updates.
Social Media Tips #10: Join the discussions on social media.
Mike Volpe, HubSpot CMO, recommends joining communities and taking part in discussions when brands first get on social media. Meaningful discussions will drive people to check out your account and consequently your website.
Social Media Tips #11: Share great advice on social media.
Adam Connell, an expert blogger, asks businesses to lend a helping hand without expecting any returns. By offering solutions to your users’ most common problems for free, you build trust and loyalty. Great advice will turn readers into potential customers.
Marko Saric, founder of HowToMakeMyBlog, advises that rather than randomly following people on social media, businesses should target peers and influential members in the industry to bring attention to their own blog/brand.
Start using these social media tips in your marketing plan today.
Be sure to grab my free printableMARKETING CHECKLIST for SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS OWNERS.
Today’s tips come to you from my friend and top PR expert, Gina Furia Rubel of Furia Rubel Communications. I asked Gina to share with my readers what her 10 tips would be for small business owners like you to generate a buzz to boost your business. So, here are Gina’s tips for you from an award winning PR expert:
There are many public relations tactics you can employ to develop new and grow existing business. Tactics designed to increase awareness among your target customers, create an ongoing buzz and position you as an expert in your industry will inevitably generate business.
1. Issue press releases. Tell the world about your business wins, promotions, awards, community outreach and board appointments. Local newspapers print good news stories.
2. Update your voicemail message. Every time someone calls your office and hears your voicemail message, they should be happy to leave a message. Make it friendly, energetic, informative and compelling. Don’t forget to say your company name and what it is you do.
3. Use your e-mail signature. Restate your company mission, add a favorite quote, place a link to a news article about your company, or just add your LinkedIn profile link. Whatever you do, make sure your contact information is included.
4. Be an expert: speak and write. By speaking at conferences and publishing articles, your peers will identify you as an expert and refer you business.
5. Have a great website. In today’s day and age, if you don’t have a website you’re not considered legitimate.
6. Get social. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile you should (at the very least). Then learn how to use it, Facebook, Twitter and the various other free tools at your fingertips to maximize the value of your relationships.
7. Create video-casts. Since you’re the expert, start creating how-to video-casts.
Post them on YouTube and other free distribution channels then share them via your website, social media profiles, e-mail signature and other communication tools.
8. Identify on and off-line business listing opportunities. Update your company’s business listings yearly. Many online listings are free and the more places your company is listed, the higher your website will rank in search engines.
9. Volunteer. Get active in an organization that you are passionate about. Giving back always leads to a greater good.
10. Blog. Blogs are a great way to demonstrate your expertise. They help to establish you as an authority in your industry.
Ok, so those were Gina’s 10 things you can do to generate a buzz to quickly boost your business. By the way, if you’re interested in getting top notch professional PR services check out Gina’s website at https://www.furiarubel.com. They are a full service firm who can take care of your advertising, branding and website needs as well.
QUESTION: Which of the above 10 tips feel the most challenging for you and why? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.
About Yoon Cannon: Top business coach Yoon Cannon has helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, and SMB’s achieve dramatic results in growing your business. Over the past 25+ years Yoon has started 6 different businesses and sold 3 of them. She offers fresh insights as a seasoned business growth expert. Yoon delivers proven process for your sales, marketing and management development.
To book Yoon to speak at your next event email: YoonCannon(at)ParamountBusinessCoach.com
How do you stand out from the competition? What is your strategy to win new clients? Do you have one? We all know that the best prospects to focus on are the people who are already looking to hire someone like you. But, all too often when I search on the Internet for various professionals – whether I’m searching for a photographer, an electrician or a chiropractor, I see very few businesses (if any) whose message truly stands out. If you managed to land on page one on your prospects’ Google search, you can celebrate getting to first base. But, you still need to get to second base. Before you can win the customer you have to first win the click. The key in winning the click is standing out among the competition. Here are 5 simple steps you can implement today:
1. How to stand out from the competition? Communicate the outcome that your customers or prospects would like to achieve when working with you or buying from you.
It’s not enough to simply tell people your occupation or industry you’re in. If you want to stand out among the sea of sameness go further and tell people what specific problems you solve. For example, one of the members in my Marketing Coaching program is a registered dietician and nutritionist. Understandably, that’s what she wrote on her LinkedIn profile. But, what was much more effective at helping her stand out from the thousands of other nutritionists on the Internet was simply communicating the key problems she solved and who she solves it for. Her tagline now included “weight loss specialist for busy entrepreneurs”. This immediately got the attention from the right people she was looking to reach on LinkedIn. Her specific outcome message distinguished her from thousands of competitors who simply stopped at stating their occupation.
2. Offer a result based guarantee.
Offering a guarantee takes the risk out of doing business with you. At the same time, having a unique guarantee that competitors do not offer is a great way to help you stand out and differentiate. The restaurant chain, Olive Garden, offers the 45-minute pronto lunch guarantee. If your lunch is not served in 45-minutes it’s free. One of my private clients is the leading expert in sports facility construction. In their industry the standard warranties for installing running tracks are one to five years. My client differentiated among his competitors by offering an unprecedented level of protection with their ten and fifteen year warranties. This level of guarantee is truly unheard of in the sports construction industry and is one of the factors that make his business stand out. What are some guarantees you could offer that no one else in your industry would dream of doing?
3. Communicate the difference.
When I work with small business owners to help position them as the go to experts I often hear my clients ask things like, “How do I stand out when we all really do the same thing?” One dentist told me, “Teeth cleaning isn’t rocket science. I’m sure all the other dentists in town are competent at cleaning teeth.” We didn’t focus on the service. Instead, we focused on the experience – specifically, taking the fear out of the experience by making a visit to the dentist fun! He turned one of his storage closets into a small, cozy game room that fit 3 full size arcade games. Kids now loved coming to the dentist since their reward was unlimited free games in the arcade.
4. Leverage your past experience.
One of the members in a mastermind group I lead is an IP attorney. She is also a former competitive cellist. One of the niche markets she serves is the creative community. Musicians, artists and other creatives instantly bond with her because of her past experience as a trained musician herself. Although her market has access to a dozen other IP attorneys she is the clear stand out because of her past experience helps her understand the unique needs of their creative businesses.
5. Make a unique offer.
You want to put yourself in the shoes of your own customers. Imagine them trying to compare and choose between you and five of your competitors. Take a look at what others are offering. (You’ll be surprised some of your competitors aren’t making any offers!) By you making a unique offer you are helping your business stand out among your competition. A memorable unique offer I came across was of a CPA – 100% refund tax guys. Clients receive 100% refund on their tax preparation when they refer 4 new clients to the firm. Once you’ve developed a list of what makes you stand out among the competition you want to articulate that message into short sound bytes that you can use as headlines and sub headlines on your website, print brochures and business cards. For specific tips and tricks to helping you get the click from Google search results, check out this related post on “How to Get More Clicks.”
6. Get Published in a Magazine
Whatever your industry, find a magazine that caters to your businesses niche. For instance, Lawyers have Super Lawyers. These magazines already have a built in audience that you can cater to. Contact a niche magazine and ask about advertising or having an article written about your business.
QUESTION: How do you communicate your difference when you explain what you do? Share your elevator pitch here:
If you want expert help in re-positioning your brand, crafting your wow factor and building a lead generation machine, I invite you to book a complimentary discovery coaching call with me here.
In the digital age, setting up trade show tips, and talking to actual people might seem like a trip back to the stone age, but 99 percent of marketers find unique value in this format, according to the Trade Show News Network. With face-to-face meetings, you can reel in more clients and, because so many of your clients will be in the same place at once, you can build brand awareness with all of them in one fell swoop. Before you set up your next trade show be sure to include these trade show tips to help you generate more leads.
Exhibiting doesn’t need to be expensive and, if you integrate these six trade show tips into your show strategy, you could easily increase your profits without spending an extra dime:
Trade Show Tips #1: Make It Interactive
The more a potential client has to do in your booth, the longer they will stay. The longer you have them in front of you, the more likely they are to become a client. To keep them, your booth needs to engage and captivate. How can you make it interactive?
Inc.com reports that Monster, the career building company, has kept people in its booths by letting them play with interactive touch screens. If that’s out of your budget, bring demos of your products or iPads with interactive tours of your ideas. Even handing someone a clipboard with a form to fill out could be considered interactive.
Trade Show Tip #2: Process Sales on Site
One way to double your success is to collect money at the event itself. If someone’s excited about your product, let them have it then and there. Thanks to mobile credit card processing, you can easily charge someone’s credit card, using just your phone. Most companies offer a free card reader and charge a small percentage per transaction. You can set up this convenience without having to spend a lot of cash upfront.
Trade Show Tip #3: Secure Prime Real Estate
The show producer probably charges the same amount of money for every spot in the show. You can spend extra cash and buy a larger booth, but there are ways to be seen without digging too deeply into your pockets.
Buy your booth early and ask the producer to let you pick out your own spot. Choose a booth near the front doors, on a corner, or at the top of an aisle. The more foot traffic you have coming past, the more opportunities for earning you have. If spots aren’t assigned before the show, arrive as early as possible so you can stake out a prime piece of real estate.
Trade Show Tip #4: Promote! Promote! Promote!
Obviously, the show producer will run a big marketing campaign leading up to the show, but don’t forget to do your own work, as well. Forbes reminds exhibitors to promote the event as if it’s their own, because it is. Invite your network to the event, send email blasts to your contact lists, and even buy extra tickets so you can let your best clients into the show for free.
Trade Show Tip #5: Speak Up!
You are an expert in your field, and the show needs to fill time slots on its stage. Offer to speak. It will bring you, your brand, and your products more attention. Tailor the speech to the show attendees. If it’s a consumer show, stick with how to’s, consumer tips, or product demos. If it’s a show full of industry peers, talk about things that will grab their attention, like shifts in the industry or new product trends.
Trade Show Tip #6: Offer an Irresistible Incentive!
Among all the trade show tips the first objective you should focus on is how you will get more traffic to the table. Your aim here is not necessarily to attract the immediate sales opportunities (although that may sound more intuitive). What is even more valuable to you is to leave with contact information of potential prospects who could be in the market in the future. Featuring an irresistible incentive to motivate attendees to give you their business card or fill out your lead sheet should be on the top of your trade show tips strategy.
QUESTION: What is a creative strategy you’ve used? Share your best trade show tips in the comment box below.
Need help generating more leads from your trade shows? Book a complimentary discovery coaching call with me here.
Sigh! It can be incredibly frustrating to feel like the vision you have for your business is moving excruciatingly slow.
You have zillions of brilliant marketing strategies. The problem is there is never enough time in your day to execute or manage it all, especially without a marketing team.
I have found the biggest cause is from something called the Marketing Strategy Execution Gap. You need more soldiers on the ground to deploy multiple marketing strategies to free you up to shine as Chief Visionary. You need a marketing team.
You probably already tried outsourcing to a marketing agency only to be disappointed with the results. According to digital.com, 76% percent of small business owners report facing marketing challenges.
The core challenges of marketing fall into these 5 areas:
Generating traffic and leads
Training your team to generate traffic and leads
Lack of resources (budget / people / time)
Hiring talented people
Social media
I mean, starting a business is hard enough. Can’t these leads just come to you? You have a great business idea, right? You should be overwhelmed with leads, right?
Wishful thinking.
After All, There are amazing musicians who, based on their genius of talent, should be worldwide superstars. But instead, they starve and struggle for decades because they were never ‘discovered’ by record labels who can market the heck out of them.
Your genius business idea is no different. Doing all the marketing yourself should no longer be an option.
As the visionary, how will you close that ‘Marketing Strategy Execution Gap’?
Option 1: Outsource your marketing to a bunch of freelancers or to a marketing agency.
Option 2: Hire your own in-house marketing team.
Which is better for you? …
Hear From 11 Entrepreneurs On Outsourcing or Hiring In-House Marketing Team
I’ve rounded up 10 small business entrepreneurs to weigh in with their opinion on this decision. Find out the pros and cons they have experienced with outsourcing vs hiring an in house marketing team. At the end I will also share my own experience from everything I have tried over 26 years of being an entrepreneur to help you make a more informed decision for yourself.
Kymberlie Dimoz shares “outsourcing is perfect when your business is making a healthy profit margin but you haven’t quite yet realised your potential..”
Ambroise de La Gorce, CEO/Founder Of Openinno shares, “Outsourcing and in-house marketing both have their pros and cons. Each option can be better than the other in different situations depending on numerous factors, including type of management, marketing tools used, sprints management, business stage.
In my opinion, outsourcing at the very beginning of the business can offer more flexibility. Recruiting in-house is necessary when the product/market fit is validated, to give more stability to the business. Then outsourcing 20% of the team or so when scaling the business can be interesting to gather the resources we can hardly find on-site.”
Kerry Maybank shares, “I mostly do my own marketing, but I have team members that are great at marketing and create more of the significant pitch documents for us. I also have gotten free advertising by doing interviews with the media.
My company does not have employees. We have team members. People come onboard with exceptional talents in particular areas of the business that significant interest at the time. Sometimes we provide equity if the need is that great or we barter and provide their companies something in return based on our expertise. It keeps costs down, and creates mutually beneficial relationships, while increasing the exposure of our firm.”
David Shares, “We keep our marketing in-house because it allows us to harness our own data and learn to understand how our customers interact with our business. Combining marketing customer data, building segments, and then activating those segments in your communication is something that really draws growth.”
Hiring in-house marketing employees is a lot to manage.
Peter Shares, “You need both. You need in house because no matter how much you pay an outside agency or group of freelancers, no one will care about your business or know your products/services better than you and your staff. However, there is so much to manage and oversee that you need outside agencies that specialize in the various verticals.
How we balance both outsourcing and in-house marketing team
Mark Walerysiak Jr. shares, “I’m early stage, and do all the marketing myself (at the moment). I could see the benefit of outsourcing particular tasks related to content / SEO. The more weedy stuff. But when it comes to telling compelling on-brand stories I would prefer to have someone inside the team and as close to the product as I am. When you eat, sleep, and breathe a product (and not worrying about other clients), you can communicate much more passionately about it in just about any form, and I think the audience can pick up on that. So the preference would be in-house if it’s doable.”
Laurie shares, “Our marketing needs are managed with both internal and external resources. Our internal team has a great deal of experience in marketing and PR – so we can typically tap into our own knowledge and experience for basic initiatives like drafting corporate communications and pitches, social media posts, email marketing, etc.
We outsource for marketing tactics outside of our areas of expertise, or if our bandwidth is tight – such as more complex social media campaigns, SEO and digital advertising.
Gary Shares, “I’ve always done my marketing in-house. I’ve only worked in or ran marketing companies, so outsourcing my marketing would be really weird, lol.The one piece of advice I would give entrepreneurs that feel weary about or otherwise unable to fully carry out marketing duties, still be involved. As a consultant, part of my job is to learn as much about my client’s brand as possible because the person or people leading the business know the most about their brand. I can help a client focus. I can help a client develop. However, no one can create someone else’s brand on their own.”
Staci shares, “As a new one-woman consultancy, I’m doing it all right now — marketing and business development as well as everything else involved in the business!
Honestly, while that requires more time and effort from me, I think it actually helps build trust and is part of my business values. With me, it’s personal, and my clients know that they can trust Blue Moss for personal dedication and utmost quality.
We do all the outreach to prospects. Keith Kirkpatrick Principal & Founder of 4K Research & Consulting
Keith shares “I generally do not outsource marketing, as I find it easier to directly reach out to potential clients. Additionally, much of my work comes through referrals, anyway.”
Just because you know how to do marketing, doesn’t mean you should all be done by you..
Yoon Cannon Founder, Paramount Business Coach Host, Biz Growth Doctors Show
I have done all three options throughout my 26 year journey owning 4 different businesses. I once did all the marketing myself. But I quickly found that not to be the best use of my time as the Chief Visionary and Strategist. Just because I know how to do the marketing, doesn’t mean I should be the primary person executing it all. So, then I spent many years outsourcing to freelancers.
While it’s a good choice for one time projects, the danger is you end up spending way too much time vetting and project managing freelancers, which prevents you from acting as the Chief Visionary and Strategist. The other common pitfall with outsourcing is the temptation to hire the lowest priced freelancer. Like with anything else … you get what you pay for.
You risk super sloppy mistakes and oversights that cost you your brand’s reputation. Here’s an example a realtor friend of mine forwarded me. She subscribed to be on an email list from a marketing provider in her industry … to her surprise here’s what the email read:
My realtor friend was so confused! …. Here she thought she was signing up to let this marketing company do her social media posts and email marketing for her. Instead of getting info about the done for you marketing services she was expecting, an email template and an email from a weight loss company came instead. Certainly people do make mistakes. But, when you outsource to the cheapest provider, sloppy mistakes just seem to occur in high frequency.
Marketing is not a mindless task any monkey can do.
When I exhausted my patience for chronic sloppy mistakes from outsourced VA’s and freelancers I decided to let go the reigns and hired a marketing agency to take care of it all A-Z. I hoped outsourcing the majority of my marketing to an agency would remove the project managing off my plate.
I hired Several different agencies, but in each experience I didn’t see the ROI to renew. Instead, I discovered the project managers who were assigned to me were skilled at project managing (which is a good thing), but so many critical details got missed because they weren’t skilled enough in all things marketing. [CONTEXT] There are many great marketing agencies out there who have highly skilled marketers as project managers, but these agencies are often geared to Enterprise size clients, not so much for the SMB community.
What I do now, and my advice to other SMB’s (small-medium business owners) is the 70-20-10 mix.
70% of our core marketing is done in-house
20% is outsourced (one time projects or a specialty area we don’t have in house yet)
10% still is done by me (like recording videos, giving interviews)
I finally found the key to taking project managing off your plate as a small business owner is to make sure the project manager is a well-trained Full Stack Marketer.
Conclusion
Ok … there you have it. You just heard from 11 of us about our experiences and opinions on whether it’s better to outsource your marketing or hire your own in-house marketing team.
Whether you decide to outsource or hire in house, the next set of decisions you’ll need to make are things like:
Who should you hire first?
What’s the going rate for this and that?
What is the best marketing strategy they should be implementing for your business?
Where can you go to find marketers who know what they’re doing?
What should you look for when hiring your marketing person/team?
My answer to all of the above questions is this:
It depends.
I would answer all of these questions differently depending on each unique business owner, bandwidth, budget and brand. If you want to get clarity on best way for you to eliminate the marketing strategy execution gap in your business why not take me up on my free offer? For a limited time, I am offering a FREE 45 Minute Strategy Call to help you work through this.
FREE THE WIZARD
Click the link below and Eliminate Your Marketing Strategy Execution Gap!
QUESTION: What other questions would you add to the list of 5 above? Share your comments and questions below.
Social media expert and founder of RazorSocial, Ian Cleary, reckons that getting inspiration from your competitors’ content is the key to resonating with your customers. Don’t copy, get inspired and think about different angles. Different unique angles also increases the potential virality of your content.
Social media marketing guru, Jeff Bullas, says that a brand has to be memorable in order to be noticed on social media. All the text and visual content has to be high quality. Constant promotion is also the key. This will help businesses grow their audience as people are more likely to share your content.
Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi, says that small businesses need to have a clear social media channel. He urges brands to not make the mistake of trying to use as many platforms as possible. By focusing on 2-3 social media platforms, businesses can post better content and keep track of their results more accurately.
is a renowned social media strategist, speaker and author. By using popular social media posts for blog posts, the potential virality of your posts increases greatly and the interest among your audience is peaked.
Neal Schaffer, a business social media expert, notes that pictures are a prominent part of social media. Brands that use high quality images to supplement their posts, capture their audience’s attention and turns them from random viewers into loyal readers.
Kissmetrics Founder and expert blogger, Neil Patel, has observed that brands do not need to have unique content but consistency is a must. Consistency will help you get more traffic and consequently more leads.
Jay Bear, marketing expert and author, recommends looking into “micro- opportunities.” These opportunities are very small time periods when your audience is most likely to be on social media. For example, if you’re target audience involves businessman then posting between average meeting times will get their attention. Small businesses that are B2B can use this system to get more views.
Kim Garst, CEO of Boom Social, advises that those in charge of creating content have to be passionate about their field. When a marketer or writer is passionate, it shows in their work and becomes contagious. Users will like and share your content on their own channels and thus your content will reach more people.
Canva founder, Zach Kitschke, says brands have to establish a visual style that is recognizable by their audience. To do this, consistent use of the same fonts, colors, logos etc are required. Every image doesn’t have to be the same but the tone has to remain consistent. When users start to recognize your visual style, they can spot your content more easily in a flood of social media updates.
Mike Volpe, HubSpot CMO, recommends joining communities and taking part in discussions when brands first get on social media. Meaningful discussions will drive people to check out your account and consequently your website.
Adam Connell, an expert blogger, asks businesses to lend a helping hand without expecting any returns. By offering solutions to your users’ most common problems for free, you build trust and loyalty. Great advice will turn readers into potential customers.
Marko Saric, founder of HowToMakeMyBlog, advises that rather than randomly following people on social media, businesses should target peers and influential members in the industry to bring attention to their own blog/brand.
