As we start to move into the fall and winter months, we are also approaching the season of ‘fad diets’. These are normally meal plans or exercise regimens that focus on limiting certain types of food, imposing schedules that are impossible to keep up with, and often do not result in whatever the dieter was hoping to achieve.
Many people are constantly on the lookout for quick fixes: how to lose 15 pounds in two weeks, gain rock-hard abs in 5 days, or fit into those jeans from high school by following a twenty-step diet.
The problem is, these processes that “cheat the system” hardly ever pan out. And if they do, they are rarely maintainable because of their extremities or can cause larger health issues down the road. So many give up, or end up right where we started.
Marketing = Diets?!
Hold tight, we promise there’s a correlation!
In our work, we regularly see the same type of thought process shared above with the small to medium-sized businesses that we serve. They are looking for the quick fix – the one marketing diet that will perfect their digital presence, grow their influence, and gain leads overnight.
But just like fad diets, these “overnight successes” are unrealistic, unsustainable, and leave you feeling hungry, exhausted, and defeated.
So why did we choose a diet analogy?
Industry Knowledge + Marketing Expertise
As digital marketers that work with a variety of industries, we have the opportunity to learn a lot from our clients about their services and their industries. This allows us to properly create content and give advice for promotion & communications.
Something we’ve learned from one of our medical clients is the importance of a well-rounded diet. She has experienced many of her clients get hung up on fad diets. Similarly, we experience many small businesses getting hung up on one type of marketing.
One of the main takeaways from both of these scenarios: You can have too much of a good thing and not enough of what you actually need.
For example, putting all your eggs into the basket of one social media channel. Facebook is a great tool to connect with many different audiences. But you can’t live in a world where you think Facebook will be around forever.
Imagine if you had spent all your marketing budget on Yellow Pages or MySpace while other opportunities like Instagram and Google ads were starting to track?
Or, what if you are continuing to put off building a website for your business when more than 80% of consumers shopped online in 2020?
Just like a plate needs to have a good mix of vegetables, protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, etc., your digital marketing strategy needs to have a mix of approaches and channels. And, just like your body will require a unique plan for optimal health, your digital marketing strategy will require a specifically built plan just for your business.
Helpful Hint: Just because something worked for someone else does not mean it will automatically work for you.
How To Build a Healthy Marketing Diet
When starting the journey of building a sustainable and fulfilling marketing diet, here are a few key nutrients we recommend considering:
Website (Protein)
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again! Your website is truly the home base of your online presence. Your social media, email marketing, digital advertising, public relations, and even your offline marketing (print, networking, etc.) will ultimately point back to your website. Even if your business model relies heavily on physical salespeople, keep in mind that in B2B sales, 57% of buyer decisions are already made before they even speak to a rep.
Where do they get their information? Either your website and online presence…or your competitor’s.
So, we’ve established the importance of a website – but what should your website say? This question will be a little more specific to each organization, but a good rule of thumb is that at the core, every website should answer these questions:
- Who are you?
- Who do you serve?
- What do you do?
- Why do you do it?
Your website is also where you will house reputation-building content like blogs and articles, case studies, links to social media, testimonials and more.
Speaking of testimonials, this leads us into the next important portion of your “digital marketing plate,” Online Reputation Management and Local Search.
Online Reputation Management/Local Search (Carbohydrates)
Normally when we start to share this service with clients, it is something they know they need, but don’t know where or how to start. At the core, this part of your digital marketing is building strong connections between different digital sources, your current customers and your potential customers to share a clearer (and hopefully unbiased) picture of your organization.
So first things first: your Online Reputation Management (ORM). This may include:
- Asking your customers for feedback on your product or service.
- Asking for them to share their experience on key websites like Google, Facebook and Yelp.
- Responding to their feedback privately and on those public channels.
- Sharing testimonials, with your customer’s consent, on your website, social media, email marketing etc.
- Maintaining a strong and constant communication channel with your current and potential customers.
Next, we move onto Local Search (LS). One thing to keep in mind: even if your business is not location-dependent, Local Search is still important when playing the legitimacy game for ORM/LS giants like Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.
Also, when potential customers are researching the legitimacy of your business, it could make or break the relationship if your listings or presence is inconsistent across channels.
Local Search may include:
- Optimizing Google My Business and posting regularly
- Optimizing key social media channels
- Ensuring consistent listings of your business address and other contact information across multiple channels
These two tools combined ensure consistency and strong communication between you and your audience. It allows you to be in-the-know of the conversation around your business online and gives you the opportunity to be as much in control of your online presence as possible.
That being said, a key portion to ORM and LS succeeding is continually pushing out relevant content to support your online presence. This is where content creation comes into play.
Content Creation (Vegetables)
Just like each person has their own preference when it comes to vegetables, each business will naturally gravitate toward certain types of content based on their business model, funds available and overall strategy.
Helpful Hint: Some content is better than no content at all. Even if you can only focus on one type of content, you can ensure you do it to the very best of your ability. Quality over quantity is KEY.
There are many different types of content that an organization can create to share relevant and thought-provoking information with their audience. Instead of diving into the different types, it is more beneficial for us to share common threads with you to keep in mind when creating.
Here are a few tips to build strong content:
- Offer Value.
- The internet is FULL of content creators these days. Many of them are not really creating anything new but rather just gleaning information that already exists on the internet and regurgitating it. While it is helpful (and recommended) to link out to valuable sources, you should always strive to share something new or unique. This is what will set you apart as a helpful resource to your audience.
- Go all in.
- Weak content will result in weak engagement. If you are going to invest in a channel, make sure that you are either able to do it best in-house, or you are going to partner with an expert in that content creation process. As stated above, quality is key.
- Understand what type of quality matters.
- To clarify: when we speak of “quality” we are referring to the best information and delivery that will connect with YOUR audience. For example, if your audience is teenagers that like to read, then an ideal piece of content may be a selfie TikTok sharing what you like and dislike about a book you just read. In contrast, if your audience is a quality assurance manager at a multi-million dollar firm, then a heavily-researched and expertly edited whitepaper with a professionally shot highlight video to pair may be your best approach.
Now that you have decided what type of content you’re going to create, it is time to share it with the world! A great avenue for this is social media, which happens to be the next portion of your “marketing plate” we would like to discuss!
Social Media (Fruit)
Social media is where most minds go when they think about digital marketing. With many businesses, social media has recently been branded as a “necessary evil”. But, with the right approach, it can be an awesome way to connect directly with your audience, keep a pulse on the active conversation and give energy to your brand.
Social media is most likely here to stay for the foreseeable future, but the actual channels themselves may continue to shift and change. For example, back in the day, Friendster, AIM, MySpace, Club Penguin and Vine ruled the digital conversation. Today, most social media strategies focus on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, LinkedIn and Clubhouse. No matter the social channel, here are a few key tips to keep in mind:
- Have a clear strategy that is ready to adapt.
- As we’ve established, the social media landscape is always changing. So the goal here is to accept that what worked today may not work tomorrow. Your strategy must change when necessary.
- Set up a quick approval process.
- Especially on platforms like TikTok and Reels, the window of opportunity for trends is usually a few days, but sometimes just a few hours before the platform is flooded and your audience is already “over it”. While approval processes are good to ensure brand consistency, it must be streamlined and quick, or you will miss out on key opportunities to be a part of the conversation.
- Regularly post.
- One of the most detrimental strategies to a social media channel is to “ghost post.” These are the organizations you will see that post once every few months with inconsistent messaging and no clear plan for connecting with their followers. We recommend having at least a month of scheduled posts prepared in advance with a mix of content types. While this is a good place to start, we also recommend some intermittent organic posts that come up throughout the month. These may be completed projects, capitalizing on one of the trends we mentioned earlier, or a more personal milestone that you would like to share.
Instead of viewing social media as something you have to do, we recommend reframing this channel as a unique opportunity to connect with the people that have raised their hand to hear from you by giving your brand a like or a follow. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect!
An Overall Strategy (Meal Planning)
This is where the full plate comes together. While each part listed above is important, too much or too little of each could be detrimental to your overall progress. In addition, we have only discussed some of the possible parts of your strategy. You may also choose to include different workout regimens or other nutrients like digital ads, public relations, search engine optimization and more.
Creating this overall strategy is almost like planning out your grocery list before you walk into the store. It will help guide you through…
- how to budget,
- what purchases you need to make,
- how different parts of the strategy will work together,
- prepare in advance,
- what you will consider a success,
- and more.
The overall digital marketing strategy is really where the individual personality of your brand will shine. You will determine what will work best for you, your organization, your budget and your goals.
And just like many people partner with a physician or trainer for this step, we recommend partnering with an expert in building digital marketing strategies for this as well.
Think of it this way: you are an expert when it comes to your business. You should have the freedom to focus on that business and serving your customers.
By partnering with a digital marketing strategist, this gives you the freedom to be the expert in your industry while leaning on them for guidance on how to build your “digital marketing plate”. Through working together, you optimize your chances of success.
Get Started Today!
So, what are you waiting for? Now is the perfect time to start strategizing for your 2022 digital marketing strategy, and Shout It Out Design is ready to spring into action! Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you build the perfect digital marketing diet for your business.
