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People often ask me, “Where do you focus your efforts in marketing your businesses?” Managing and keeping awareness up for four different companies can be a challenge. Wasting efforts on less effective marketing is not something I can afford to do. For me, my strategy comes down to three areas of effort.

 

Mobile First

Know anyone without a smart phone or tablet device? Those folks are in the extreme minority. Web sites and emails are being viewed more and more on mobile devices. A recent 2015 study by Smart Insights reveals that for the first time more time is spent per day on mobile devices than at a desktop computer.

 

From a marketing strategy, I focus on how my website looks on mobile devices. Do visitors have to pinch and squeeze to find something? Is the phone number, hours and location visible? Can event information be found with just a click of the thumb? I also focus on the visual creative used on Facebook and Instagram. These are apps that people are using on mobile devices as well.

 

How does your website look on a smart phone or tablet? Give it a try. If it is not mobile friendly, maybe it is time for a website redesign.

 

Blogging for Business

Blogging takes time, but it is the most effective use of my time to drive customers to our websites as well as to our locations. What do you do when you need information on something? You “Google” it (even if you use Bing or Yahoo). The search engine results bring back content based on the key words you searched for. Even more magical is that Google is smarter than you think and the results are often based on your location, the freshness of content and how popular the content is socially. If someone is looking for the products, services or knowledge you have and you are not part of the search results, your competitors might be. Think of blogging as your own personal press release venue. You get to talk about what you want. You can share your knowledge and expertise, you can talk about your events, products, services and success.

 

When you do blog, make sure you focus on key words that you want to be found for. The best advice I can offer is forget everything you learned about 9th grade English. Your blog is not a 5 paragraph essay paper with a catchy title, thesis, explanation and summary paragraphs. Your blog should be focusing on KEY WORDS that you think people will be searching for.

 

Check out my article Real World Business Cases for Blogging.

 

Social Media Strategy

Strategy for Social Media? If you are like most businesses your “strategy” for social media is A) when you have time and B) all about advertising. With one out of every five page views on the internet being Facebook and people spending more time on their devices and computers than television, a strategy is essential. The basic components of your social media strategy should:

 

• Be Intentional – Give your posts some thought. Plan out your approach.
• Be Consistent – If you are going to commit to a certain platform, be consistent on it. Make a schedule for daily Facebook posts, consistent Instagram pictures, or even creative Snapchat stories.
• Add value – News feeds can get noisy and cluttered. Create value add posts and pictures for your audience and you will see greater success than a promotional driven feed.
• Tell a Story – Don’t just push your marketing agenda. Tell your business story. If you build furniture, show the process. If you make food, share the delicious pictures, if you help people, share the success stories. Subliminal “jabs” as Gary Vaynerchuck would say is far more effective than constantly throwing your right hook.

 

These three areas are where I focus efforts for my businesses as well as the clients we manage social media content for.