Social Media for Small Businesses
Social media has become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. Businesses of all size and shapes have started making the most of available mediums. Today we will try to anatomize tips on social media for small businesses. There are a plethora of small businesses eyeing social medium to promote their business/services. However, majorly these small businesses are failing or not being able to make optimum use of social media for their business growth. There are many theories and strategies on how to effectively use social media for established brands, but the topic social media for small businesses is seldom addressed. According to Digital state of eMarketing India 2017 Octane Research:60% small businesses promote their business on social media. 50% focus on SEO and 35% use multichannel marketing funnel.
70% small businesses consider content strategy as their primary marketing activity.
52% business owners are using social media as to efficiently address customer engagement.
More than 20% of business owners said that they are making 50% plus profit using social media.The primary reasons for the low turnout are uncertainty on an application of social media, calculating return on investment and persuade employees/stakeholders to clinch social media. Hence it is important to address the elephant in the room and analyze how beneficial is Social media for small businesses.Social media for small businesses is a great way for emerging businesses to generate lead and build a reputation. If regularly updated, social media can deliver more results as compared to traditional mediums. Social media for small businesses gives brands an edge of control over the content that they want to post. Also, since social media is a two-way dialogue process, it helps businesses to instantly identify what is benefitting them. Social media for small businesses also helps generate Word of Mouth, which is one of the best tools for emerging businesses.Social Media for small businesses | 10 Tips to effectively use Social MediaDefine your Target Audience
The first and foremost important part that small businesses should focus on is to define their target audience. This helps small businesses to device their social media strategy accordingly. The target audience should be defined basis age group, sex, location, users’ online behaviors, their likes, interests, and preferences. For niche products, business owners can even target users based on their birthdays, anniversaries and important milestone. Audience targeting plays a very crucial role in the outcome of the results. For e.g.: a local shop selling footwear should not target users with interest in entertainment. The shop definitely won’t get the desired results.Set achievable goals
Overnight success is a myth. Small businesses must understand this basic fact. Generally, when a new business starts selling on social media, there is palpable excitement is achieving more than set targeted sales. Businesses need to set goals which are upwards and forward. To achieve enormous goals, small businesses start updating social feed with multiple updates in shorter duration. This leads to user’s disinterest in the product/service. The set goals should be in sync with brand’s core capabilities and expertise. For e.g.: if a business is into selling shoes, they shouldn’t set a goal to repair maximum shoes in their area.Choose the right medium
By now everyone knows, social media is for free. Even paid campaigns can be conducted at a relatively low cost as compared to traditional mediums. It is in this scenario, that we often see small businesses jumping the bandwagon and creating profiles on all the available platforms. Creating social profile doesn’t hamper brand image, but aggressively promoting a brand on wrong platforms can lead to brand losing its potential customers. Hence it is advisable for SME’s to first identify the right platform through which they can maximize their business. For e.g.: If a shoe selling brand tries to aggressively sell on LinkedIn, they won’t get a plausible response as compared to promotions on Facebook/Instagram.Promote your core product/services
Since each and every business is riding in the social media wave, it is important for a them to promote their core product/services. Nowadays, we see a lot of businesses promoting their services as well as promoting peripheral products/services, which revolves around their core product/services. Majority of the times, this SME’s doesn’t have capabilities to fulfill a requirement, which can lead to a bad word of mouth for their business on social media platforms. Let us go back to our example; if a shoe seller is trying to aggressively promote socks instead of shoes, it is not going to benefit the business in the long run.Create quality content
Now that we have covered the topics of identifying the target audience, setting achievable goals, choosing the right medium and promoting the right product/services let us now take a look at the type of content a business should promote on their social pages. A business should always focus on creating good quality content rather than not-good quantity content. Even if the business updates their page once in a day as long as it is relevant to their business, advocates about its core products send across a clear message it is considered as a good quality content. Antagonistically, if a business posts multiple updates which aren’t even relevant to the business’s products and services leads to users considering the business as fake/spam. Also, new businesses should try and refrain from promoting other businesses on their social platforms initially.Create a content calendar
Making a small business successful on social platforms is no small task. It takes a lot of efforts for the businesses to keep up their conversion ratio. One such effort is to create a content calendar. Small businesses must anticipate important events and create a content calendar accordingly. Ideally, a content calendar must be planned a month in advance but an even weekly content calendar is highly recommended. This helps businesses to avoid any last minute hassles, strategize much more effectively and it also helps in creating curiosity amongst its loyal fans/customers.Test and re-test
Social media is highly unpredictable. The content a business posts today, might not work for tomorrow. Hence, small businesses must always test their content before publishing it on their pages. Testing content also applies to the platform a small business chooses to promote. Small business owners must always don the consumer’s hat before posting about any product feature, updates, schemes or offers. A consumer’s perspective is the key when testing the content that has to be uploaded.Look for inspiration
Small businesses must always look for inspiration from a competitor who is successful in the same category. Copy pasting competitors idea or content is not the answer. Small businesses must look for the kind of content its competitors are putting up and derive their own strategies subsequently. Inspiring content/stories always make a business to strive to create their own content that is appreciated by one and all. It helps in increasing brand consideration, brand visibility thereby increasing conversions for the business.Calculate ROI
Even a small promotional budget is not justifiable if there is no mechanism to calculate its return on investment. It is more important in case of small businesses. It is very important for a small business to keep a tab on the budgets allocated to any promotions and the subsequent ROI related to it. If a certain promotion is not doing well or the business is not getting desired results, the brand custodian can always look for other platforms to generate quality conversions.Analyze and Re-strategize
There can be umpteen instances where a particular campaign/promotion might not work for a business. That doesn’t mean that the promotion is wrong or the product/service is not good. Doing an analysis of the campaign is as important as setting the objective. This helps the business to formulate their upcoming strategies in more effective ways. At the end of every campaign, brands must note down the learning’s from that campaign and identify if the content/idea was appreciated by their fans or not. This helps businesses to skip the non-performing updates from future communications.Final Thoughts
Social media for small businesses is definitely beneficial and fruitful. If followed correctly, small businesses can benefit tremendously from the power of social media promotions.
Develop A Marketing And Marketing Communications Strategy And Plan For Small Or Midsized Companies
Planning for the year ahead is never an easy task. Lack of resources (people, time, budget), keeping up to date on what’s going on in your market, obtaining quality leads and improving brand awareness and reputation have become increasingly difficult for all organizations – for profit companies as well as nonprofits. This has become especially true among US CEO’s who are concerned with not just domestic but also international uncertainties.Developing A Marketing And Marketing Communications Strategy Is CriticalThis should be your priority. Without a strategy for a plan there are way too many opportunities to get off track and chew up your investment. Your ROI will suffer. Consider the following to focus your efforts when developing your strategy and plan:1. Determining, understanding and verifying your target customers and prospects should be at the top of your agenda. To improve profitability and ROI you must know what your audience wants and needs, how they perceive your brand and how it stands up to competition.Be sure to avoid industry and company “myths” and internal “opinions”. Employ primary and secondary research to understand your audience. With so much information available about companies and brands, it is truly the Age Of The Consumer and will be for a very long time.2. Additionally, as part of your knowledge of your audience, determine the size and scope of various sub-segments that exist today and will tomorrow. For example, does your audience include women, or Asians, or Hispanics? If so, look at the dramatic growth of these segments of the populations and determine if your brand needs to pay particular attention to them.Also, recognize that millennials (23% of the US population) are not a homogenous group. At the younger end (20 – 28 years), 40 percent t are currently living rent free with family, while at the older end (29 – 35 years), 43 percent have already purchased a home. With that in mind, how should your strategy differ if you’re targeting adults 55 years and older (21% of US population)?3. Once you clearly understand your audience, develop your unique brand position. To do this, create a brand positioning statement. The statement is a succinct description of the core target audience to whom the brand is directed and a compelling picture of how you want your audience to view the brand. Sound simple? Take a few minutes and try to answer the four components of your positioning:· The target audience, in very specific detail· The category in which you complete and its relevance to customers· The brand’s benefit and point of difference· A reason for the customer to believe – the most compelling proofAll marketing and marketing communications should flow from this positioning, and it should be fully understood and embraced by all employees, sales reps, partners and management.4. Improving brand awareness is very important but only the first step. You also need to create great customer experiences with each touch point of your brand. And that means creating brand advocacy at all levels of contact. Develop brand champions at every level of purchase and repurchase to improve ROI.Be sure these influencers completely understand, believe and can articulate your brand premise. And provide them with the training and tools to convey their trust-worthiness in a believable manner.Developing A Focused Marketing And Marketing Communications Plan And BudgetAfter the hard work of developing a meaningful strategy, recognize it’s equally important to develop a specific plan and budget. The following should be taken into consideration:1. You must be media neutral and open minded in developing your plan and budget. It is extremely important to understand the difference between “efficiency” and “effectiveness”, and not get caught up with the latest trendy new tactic.Regardless of the specific marketing tactic, or type of digital or traditional media, you’re evaluating, keep in mind that cost efficiency does not necessarily lead to effective results. Also, and most importantly, the best source of marketing communications leverage is the quality of the message, not the marketing tactic.2. The scope and diversity of marketing and marketing communications tactics has grown faster than the ability to measure some of them. Marketers now are actually spending money without knowing how it impacts their profitability and ROI! Consider the variety of ways in which nearly $450 billion is expected to be spent in the US in 2018:· Sales promotion ($83 billion), telemarketing ($60 billion), direct mail (($46 billion) and events ($40 billion) highlight projected 2018 US Marketing Services expenditures;· The internet ($78 billion), television ($68 billion) and the combination of radio, newspapers and magazines ($47 billion) are projected to be at the top of the 2018 US Major Media spending categories.Source: Zenith Total US SpendingAnd while it may surprise you, 90 percent of consumers (and 94 percent of millennials) still use coupons. The coupons come from a variety of on-line and traditional mediums, but mail is most popular. Why do marketers still use coupons? The simple answer is because they’re effective in guiding purchase. In developing your own plan and budget, determine and recognize the effectiveness of all marketing tactics, not just their efficiency.ROI Focused Marketing And Marketing Communications ConsultantsIf you’re like most small and midsized companies, you and your team may not have the expertise or time to develop an ROI focused marketing and marketing communications strategy, plan or budget.Even major global brands are seeking outside advisors. In my May article, I discussed the dramatic growth of management and accounting consulting practices (33% increase in US revenue) at the expense of traditional global advertising agencies (0.3% increase in US revenue). One reason for this 2017 growth of consultants is their focus – not on trends or what’s in the news – but on marketing and marketing communications effectiveness, profitably and ROI.While you may not be able to afford the large global consultants, you should consider hiring a marketing and/or marketing communications consultant. The type of people you should hire should:· Have a focus on ROI, with significant experience across industries, b2b and b2c brands, both large and small, as well as for profit and nonprofit organizations· Be media neutral, apolitical, down to earth, be willing to be part of a team and “tell it like it is” so candor will flourish· Have flexibility to bring in other professional specialists when and as needed so that overhead isn’t an ongoing expense· Have strong convictions to measure what has been done and measure what will be done to improve ROI, perhaps including a marketing communications auditIn today’s challenging environment, a greater focus on strategy, planning and budgeting can go a long way toward leapfrogging competition and improving brand profitability. And the fresh eyes of a consultant can go a long way to building a meaningful future for your brand.
How to Build a Brand, the Right Way
What branding means
When you think of branding, what do you think about? For the longest time, and even in my early agency days, I felt that branding was some magic corporate thing that didn’t have anything to do with small business. But branding is really everything about business. If you are the owner of a small business, you are the brand. Everything you do and say, the way you look, the way you talk, your people, your premises, everything has a bearing on that brand and goes into making your brand. The good, the bad and the ugly. And it shows up right down on the bottom line.Category of One
Category of One branding refers to an overcrowded market, which is very hard to break into. So what a Category of One company does is create a new category by being very unique and different from the current category competition. So now, the new brand is the only one in its category. As a rule, companies that reach a Category of One status are very successful. Today, Google is a great example. There are many search engines, but nothing like Google. Achieving a Category of One status isn’t accomplished just because you are a business owner. And, even though you are one doesn’t mean you have a Category of One brand.3 customer rules
If you want to be a Category of One company, you need to follow three rules:
You have to know your customer like the back of your hand and better
than anybody.
You have to be closer to that customer than anybody in the market.
You have to be emotionally connected to that customer more than
anyone.From Purple Cow
This phrase is right from the book by author, Seth Godin. This is what you need to consider if you wish to become a Category of One. Brown cows are boring. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. But, according to Godin, a purple cow would be different. He defines a purple cow as counterintuitive, phenomenal, exciting and remarkable. People ignore brown cows all day long. But, be assured, they won’t ignore a purple cow. Of course, you can’t just paint your widget purple. Your cow has to be born that way to get any attention. Godin recommends that you follow the lead of companies that are outstanding with everything they do, because that explodes your word of mouth.But does it matter that I’m a small business owner?
If you are the owner of a small business, you may not think that branding has any impact on your business. But how about the other small business owners that you know? What is your image of them? Whatever it is that you think of your small business friends is their brand. You may not have realized it, but you do have a brand. So it would behoove you to manage that brand, rather than ignoring the fact that it exists.Key issues
Branding is critical. Remember, your brand is you and
everything you do and say is part of that brand. Good, bad or otherwise.
A Category of One brand creates its own category. You are the only
choice in that category. Do what you need to do to become a Category of One company.You can always look at it like the Purple Cow. Brown cows are boring.
Purple cows are a sight to behold.
The brand is you
Branding isn’t…
Your logo.
Your advertising.
Your product.
You are the brand. Think about that for a minute. Your business has a brand image, whether you had anything to do with it or not. This applies to all businesses. You have a unique brand whether you tried to create it or not. Even though branding is kind of abstract, it is still critical for the overall success of your business. Branding isn’t a simple concept and sometimes takes a little explaining. The thing is, branding is going to happen whether we have anything to do with it, or not. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense to take as big a role in your brand’s development as possible?Branding rules
Your solo business has rules, whether you have them written down or not. If your rule is “I don’t have rules”, you still do. For example, if you are a karate instructor, here are your brand rules:Don’t talk poorly about your competition.
Don’t talk like a salesman.
Have self-control and respect.
Be professional.Numbers one and three apply to every business owner. Remember that customers don’t want to hear about how awesome you are and how bad the competition is. And people don’t like sales people. Never sound like a sales pitch. Number three and number four are about reputation. So, if you are a karate instructor, your job is all about self-control and discipline. And if I’m going to instruct kids about respect on Saturday morning, then I shouldn’t go out drinking at the corner bar on Friday night. If a parent saw me dancing on tables, she wouldn’t think too highly of my Saturday morning respect lesson, now would she? This doesn’t mean you can’t visit the bar. Just stay off the tables! This illustration is a perfect example of how powerful branding can be. In “Karate Kid” there was a good instructor and a bad instructor. The good instructor taught respect and discipline, while the bad instructor stood for “winning, regardless of the costs” and bad sportsmanship. And then there’s our local guy here. Which one do you want to teach your child?Image enhancers
Remember the age-old expression: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. This applies to all businesses and all industries. Here are some image enhancers that apply to all businesses. As you design your brand, keep these in mind. Project professionalism at all costs:Be on time.
Be courteous.
Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.
Take responsibility for any issues.
Have outstanding customer service.
Be trustworthy, credible and professional with your customers and potential customers. Because you want their future business.
But how about my company name and logo?
They are important. But only as part of the overall picture. Don’t confuse the tangible tools with the intangible concept. Branding is the intangible that has to be considered from a different level. Both are part of your overall marketing strategy. But don’t confuse tangible marketing tools, with an intangible concept. Branding is an intangible concept that must be understood and used on a different level.
Branding is abstract and is all about reputation and perception. You can’t design trustworthy and credible. So, your brand is all about you.Key issues
You are your brand, not your logo, products or advertising.
Have rules.
Remember these image enhancers when creating your brand. What do
you want to represent?