13 Marketing Monsters

01 Nov 13 Marketing Monsters

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant

For the month of October we fought to help you conquer your fears of the top 13 Marketing Monsters that business owners, like you, face everyday. Here is the full recap of our journey to Halloween:

1. Holiday Marketing – As small business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing managers we tend to think we have more time to get things done than we actually do. If you follow any of our content, you know we consistently suggest planning ahead. By the 4th quarter of the year you should have all of your holiday marketing planned and scheduled. You can read our holiday posting suggestions here.
2. Vanity Metrics – What are vanity metrics? Hollow data for outside viewers that won’t actually help you measure your true performance. Don’t get caught up on follower counts or likes. Tracking follower counts often lack context, so avoid comparing your account to others. Instead, focus on engagement with active users. These are the people that will become your biggest fans. Make sure to show your appreciation for their time by responding to and continuing conversations!
3. Spam – Email, LinkedIn messaging, social media commenting can all be very useful marketing strategies. However we’ve all received those completely unwanted, copy + pasted, impersonal messages. If you’re using one of these strategies, personalize your message where you can. Take the time to research your target customer to make sure you’re reaching out to the right person or business.
   • Don’t send a private message selling your product/service to someone who also provides your product/service.
   • Do know who you’re reaching out to. Start conversations with people who would fit your customer base.
   • Don’t comment out of context of the post you’re interacting with.
   • Do leave thoughtful or helpful comments that’s inline with the post.
4. Auto posting – Reusing the same content across multiple platforms is a great time saver and a smart way to reach all your followers. What you don’t want to do, is hit that tempting auto post button for a few reasons:
   • Tags, locations, and stickers do not carry over. Auto posting from one platform to another creates a broken feature that is not helpful to the reader and can be frustrating to interact with.
   • The amount of hashtags you use on one platform may not be fitting for the other platform.
   • Verbiage and word limits should be tweaked to fit the audience of the platform you’re on.
5. Time – We hear it constantly, “I don’t have enough time for social media”. Our # 1 suggestion to those beginning social media marketing is to PLAN AHEAD.
   • Start with a planning platform like Basecamp2 or Google Docs.
   • Create a “skeleton” of placeholders for events, holidays, etc.
   • Fill in verbiage and visuals.
   • Schedule ahead.
6. Being present in your marketing – As a business owner, you’re used to working in the shadows. In the same way you come out from behind the counter to shake hands with customers in person, it’s good to come out of the shadows to greet them online as well. People love seeing who’s behind their favorite products and services. If you’re uncomfortable being online yourself, highlight the team, but let us be the first to give you a confident push towards showing some face. Your customers will be happy to see you!
7. Algorithm misconceptions – Algorithms are run by learning machines, that are led by your individual interactions and behaviors. With a flood of new content posting every minute, it’s the algorithm’s job to choose content for users by what they enjoy and interact with most. The trick isn’t trying to beat the algorithm, but working with the algorithm! The use of interactive features such as polls, posts that provide value to the reader, conversation starters instead of sales are the types of content that will work best.
8. Marketing from a personal profile – It can easily be confused as spam and it’s also against Facebook and Instagram guidelines. If you haven’t set up business profiles yet, you’re missing out on some great tools that are provided specifically for business owners. Insights and advertising are at the top of the list! These options are not available to personal accounts and can be real game changers. You can find those guidelines here.
9. Inaccurate insights – It’s time for THE PURGE. Don’t worry, we’re only talking about purging your accounts of fake followers or spammy comments that may throw off your data. We suggest blocking and reporting fake accounts to avoid false views of growth. Deleting spam comments will prevent interruption of conversations that will benefit your followers and encourage later conversations. Looking out for these on daily will assure accurate insights at the end of the week.
10. Brand awareness – How do you get your small brand to be known? Don’t be afraid to try something new such as influencer marketing, referral programs, being a guest on a local podcast or blog, and of course merch! Having your unique colors and logos on wearable, usable items creates brand recognition and drives home the personality you’ve crafted for your brand.
11. Trends – In a social media world, trends change too quickly to keep up with them all! To avoid creative exhaustion, find a balance between evergreen content and current trends. Create a base of evergreen content that can be repurposed and shared often. You can do this by using your evergreen content with a new trending social media feature. Trends such as upcoming holidays can be planned for and incorporated easily.
12. Standing out – There are more options and resources available to consumers than ever before! It’s time to stand out so you can be the end choice. Focusing on a niche that positions you as a prime choice for a particular service or product, creating a unique personality for your business with your branding, and offering special experiences or programs outside of industry norms are ways to do that.
13. Marketing funds –  For small business owners, finding additional funds can be difficult. Luckily we have a few options for defeating the green monster challenge:
    • Encourage feedback and reviews. This is where consumers are looking online when making their choices. Positive reviews are a free option to build credibility.
    • Partnerships with non-competitive businesses opens opportunity for cross-promotion.
    • Social media! There are many free platforms that have special features or accounts specifically for businesses.

I hope that your marketing fears are gone now. If you still have a lingering challenge contact me for a one-on-one session at BobbieAnne@Germono.com