Nadine Mullings, Author at Nadine Mullings - Page 37 of 43Nadine Mullings

July

21 2015

5 Easy Ways to Use Social Listening to Grow Your Business

Listening is an important skill to master in both your personal and professional life. Being able to listen carefully can improve your personal relationships, and being able to listen carefully to the needs and wants of your customers, clients, and prospects can improve your business. However, many independent business owners, coaches, and consultants have not mastered the art of social listening.

A great way to listen to your customers, clients, and prospects is to conduct surveys and polls to gain valuable insight, but one way to listen that most companies are not taking advantage of is listening on social media, so how can listening on social media grow your business?

Here are five ways social listening can grow your business:

[Tweet “Five ways social listening can grow your business! #SocialMedia #MarketingEssentials”]

Listen to the posts people are making in your community (i.e. posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) Sometimes you can find your next customer right in your own backyard just by listening within your community. I have gotten more business listening to people in my community on social media over any other social media marketing method. When someone posts a question or concerns that you are able to answer, be sure to reach out to the individual and let them know that you can help. The key is to take the conversation offline. The post may start in a public arena such as a public post on Facebook, but you should move the conversation to a direct or private message, and then move to a meeting either on the phone or in-person. The reason why this technique works so well, is because when someone expresses a need on social media, and you have a solution, it’s almost guaranteed business for you as long as you handle it correctly by taking the conversation offline to learn more and offer your services as a solution.
Listen to the posts people are making in online groups. This could be LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, etc. I have found more success listening to comments people make in various Facebook groups, especially if you belong to groups that have your ideal target audience, every once in a while someone may post about being in need of someone who offers your services. Seeing those posts and responding, can be a great way to get new business. Similar to listening in your own community, the key here is to take the conversation offline to close the deal.
Listen to the comments people make on your platforms. This could be comments made on your social media posts, or your blog posts. If someone takes the time to comment, be sure to listen to their comment and even respond to their comment. Taking the time to do this nurtures that relationship you have with your fans and followers, and if your response if valuable and helpful sometimes that same person who commented could become a customer.
Create online polls and poll your fans and followers. Another great way to listen to your audience is to ask questions. Social media is a great place to conduct market research. You can create a simple poll and ask questions that will help you understand your target audience better. For example, a good poll for me would be “What social network do you use the most for marketing your business?”
1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Pinterest
4. Google+
5. Other

By asking this simple question and getting responses, I will then better understand what social networks my audience is using, and I could create blog posts about that particular network, or even create a program or course that talks all about that particular network, but I would never know what my audience uses unless I polled my fans and followers and listened to their responses, and then took some type of action based on their responses.

5. Create online surveys and survey your fans and followers. Similar to an online poll, an online survey can provide you with invaluable information regarding your fans and followers, so why not create an online survey and post it on your social media channels and encourage your fans and followers to complete the short survey. The insight you gain from that survey can help you in so many ways. You can use the information to:

Find out how you are perceived
Learn what your audience struggles with
Create new products, programs, courses with the information you receive
Create your next promotion
And so much more…

Are you using social listening to grow your business? If not, be sure to schedule a FREE strategy session so you can learn how to use social listening in your business. Click Here to contact us and schedule your session today!

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

July

14 2015

How to Decide What Content to Post on Social Media

As an independent business owner, coach or consultant, you know the importance of using social media in your business, but do you know what type of content to post to encourage engagement with your fans and followers?

In this blog post, I am going to review five steps to posting engaging content for your fans and followers that will also help to grow your business:

[Tweet “Five steps to posting engaging content for your fans and followers that will also help to grow your business. #MarketingEssentials”]

The first and most important step is to know your target audience. Before you will ever be able to post content that your fans and followers engage with, you must first understand your audience. Understand what their needs, desires and frustrations may be, and tailor your content around those topics. It helps to know your target audience’s demographics (age, gender, income level, etc.), but more important for social media is to understand their psychographics (dreams, desires, attitudes, tastes, etc. ). Once you understand your target audience’s demographics and psychographics, you will be better able to select content that will resonate with your audience, which will increase engagement.
Always remember that social media is “social”, so your goal, no matter what social media platform you decide to use, is to be social with the content that you post. Think about your posts as talking to a friend. If you were talking to a friend about a particular topic or subject what would that conversation sound like? Create conversational posts. Starting a post with a question can help to be more conversational. Another way to be social is to be entertaining. After all people are on social media to be social, not to hear you pitch your business, so think of ways that you can create entertaining posts. Some examples of conversational/entertaining posts can include:
1. Funny posts from Someecards
2. Inspirational Quotes
3. Videos
4. Questions that spark nostalgia or just a really good feeling
5. Filling in the blank statements
Individuals are very visual, so regardless of what platform you choose, pictures and videos tend to get the most engagement, so if you create pictures and videos that will resonate with your target audience, you will receive more engagement. Even if you do not create the pictures and video yourself, but you share it with your audience and it resonates with them, that is also a great way to create engagement.
[Tweet ” regardless of what platform you choose, pictures and videos tend to get the most engagement. #MarketingEssentials #SocialMedida”]
As an expert in your field, you also want to post content that educates your audience, and showcases your expertise. This type of content can include:
1. Blog Posts
2. Tips
3. Recommended Tools
4. Articles
5. Infographics
6. Statistics
Lastly, one of your goals on social media should be to get new business. If this is the case, you also need to post promotional content. This type of content can encourage people to get to know you better or work with you. This can include:
1. Special deals or promotions
2. Join your e-mail list
3. Attend your event

Are you using social media marketing in your marketing mix? Are you posting engaging content for your fans and followers? Be sure to download the 21 Top Social Media Marketing Tips and start using social media effectively today!

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Business, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Social Media

June

23 2015

How to Create a Simple and Effective Email Marketing Plan

If you plan to grow or promote your business online, then email marketing should be an essential part of your marketing activity.

One of the best ways to be successful with your email marketing effort is to create an effective email marketing plan.

Your email marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective, in fact, in this post I will walk you through the outline for a simple and effective email marketing plan.

Step 1- Define the purpose of your email marketing campaigns

[Tweet “[Successful Email Marketing Plan] Step 1- Define the purpose of your email marketing campaigns! #MarketingEssentials #EmailMarketing”]

In this part of your plan, you should:

Identify who you are trying to reach (customers, prospects, partners, etc.)
Define why you are trying to reach them (to stay top of mind, to provide education, to create brand awareness, to get sales, etc.)
What are you trying to achieve from reaching this group of people via email?

Step 2- Define your email marketing goals

[Tweet “[Successful Email Marketing Plan] Step 2 – Define your email marketing goals! #MarketingEssentials #EmailMarketing”]

This part of your plan should cover your email marketing goals:

Start by listing your overall goals: more sales, relationship building, stay top of mind, communicate special promotions, get referrals, etc.
Then list the more specific goals you would you like to achieve through email marketing (i.e. get two new clients per month, get three referrals per month, etc.)

Step 3– Select Your Email Marketing Strategy

[Tweet “[Successful Email Marketing Plan] Step 3- Select Your Email Marketing Strategy”]

When it comes to email marketing you have several options on types of email marketing campaigns you can create. Pick the strategies that make sense for your business.

Your strategy could include the following types of email campaigns:

E-Newsletters- An informative e-mail that goes out to your contacts periodically. This could be monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, etc.
Autoresponders– A series of e-mails that automatically go out over a period of time based on someone joining your e-mail list or being added to your email list.
Drip Campaigns– A series of e-mails that automatically go out over a period of time for a specific promotion, or a specific event, etc.

The difference between an autoresponder and a drip campaign is that an autoresponder is a response from an action someone has taken (downloading an eBook, White Paper, Checklist, etc.). While a drip campaign is a series of promotional campaign emails sent to your list not based on an action they have taken, but solely based on a specific promotional campaign.

The most successful email marketing plans have a combination of types of email marketing strategies. The e-newsletters work well to stay top of mind because they are consistently going out over a period of time, but the auto responders and drip campaigns work well too because they are usually tied to a specific product, promotion, or services that you would like to generate some business for, so decide what types of campaigns will work well for you business.

Step 4: Create an Email Marketing Calendar

[Tweet “[Successful Email Marketing Plan] Step 4- Create an Email Marketing Calendar! #MarketingEssentials #EmailMarketing”]

The next step in your email marketing plan is to create a calendar that maps out all of your emails over an extended period of time. The time period could be the next 60 days, 90 days, 6 months or even a year. Your calendar should include the following:

Month/Send Date– What month and date will this specific email be published to your list?
Email Topic– What is this specific email about
Type of Email– Is it a newsletter, or part of a series of emails for an autoresponder or drip campaign.
Email List– Who will this email be sent to (prospect list, customer list, partner list, combination of lists, etc.)

Taking the time to strategically think through your email marketing effort will help you to create successful email marketing campaigns.

Are you currently using email marketing in your business? Do you have an email marketing plan? If you need assistance creating an successful email marketing plan, contact us to schedule your FREE Email Marketing Success Strategy Session.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Small Business, Uncategorized

June

09 2015

The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing

I recently sent out a survey to my audience, which included the question, “If you are using email marketing in your marketing mix, what do you struggle with the most when it comes to your email marketing?” The responses varied, but the #1 thing that most business owners, coaches, and consultants said they struggle with was staying consistent.

It’s easy to start sending emails to your list, but it’s hard to stay consistent, and only when you are consistent with your email marketing will you get results, so I decided to put some tips together on how you can stay consistent with your email marketing.

Create an email marketing plan– in your email marketing plan you will outline your email marketing goals, types of emails you will be sending (e-newsletter, autoresponders, drip campaigns, etc.), how often you will send your emails, when you will send your emails, your email flow, specific topics, etc.When you have a plan, you are better able to execute and to stay on task with getting your emails out.Many business owners, coaches, and consultants, skip the step of creating the email marketing plan, and then they don’t have anything to refer back to and therefore, they become very inconsistent with their efforts.
Select a specific day and time that you would like your emails to go out– this can be really helpful in staying consistent with sending out your emails. For example, my monthly e-newsletter goes out the second Wednesday of every month, because I know that it goes out the second Wednesday of every month, I plan my activities around that time frame to make sure that the e-newsletter goes out.In addition, after a couple of years of testing days and times, I figured out that on average I get the best open rates on Wednesdays after 3:00 pm, so now I schedule my e-newsletter to go out the second Wednesday of every month at 3:30 pm.Knowing the time and date my email needs to go out, helps me to stay consistent.
Put it on your calendar– if you put your publishing dates on your marketing calendar you will be forced to make sure you get your emails out, because you now have a deadline that you have to send out your emails. If it’s not on your calendar, you will tend to forget to send it out, or because you don’t have a deadline, you will continuously put it off, so place it on your calendar so you can stay consistent.
Plan your topics- included in your email marketing plan should be what topics you plan to write about and promote in your e-newsletter. The information you will be sending in the series of emails for your autoresponders, and/or drip campaigns should also be included in the plan. When you’ve planned out your topics and information, it makes it much easier to create your emails and to stay consistent.

So, if you create an email marketing plan, set a day and time to publish your emails, put it on your calendar, and plan out your topics in advance, these four things can help you to stay consistent with your email marketing.

Do you have an email marketing plan? Do you need help with creating your email marketing plan? We can help, contact us for a FREE email marketing success strategy session.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized

May

26 2015

8 Mistakes to Avoid when Blogging for Business

As an independent business owner, coach, or consultant, you already know the importance of creating a platform, and being known as an authority or expert in your field. When people view you as an expert in your field, you start to attract more clients, instead of having to find clients, clients are finding you.

One of the best ways to become known in your field is to consistently create or curate awesome content, and the best platform to do that is on your own blog.

However, starting, maintaining, and keeping up with a business blog can be difficult. In this blog post I cover the 8 mistakes to avoid when blogging for business:

Mistake #1- Not creating a blogging plan

I know I say this all the time, but no matter what type of marketing activity you choose to participate in, you must create a plan for that activity, so if you decide you are going to start a business blog, you have to have a plan for your blog. The plan should include answers to the following questions:

Who is your target audience?
What topics do you want to cover?
How often will you blog?
What will your calls to action be?
What are your blog goals?

Mistake #2- Not having a specific audience in mind

If your blog is for everyone, then it really is for no one. You have to be specific in who you are talking to, and who you are trying to reach with your blog posts, that is why selecting your target audience is the first thing in your blog plan.

Mistake #3- Not choosing specific topics

Random blogs aren’t successful unless maybe you’re a celebrity blogger, but even celebrity bloggers keep their blog topics around what they are known for or what they enjoy.

When creating a business blog, select up to five main topics that you want to be known for. All of the topics should fall under or supplement your business. For example, I blog about Marketing. There are 1001 ways you can market your business, but I mainly focus on my four key topics, blogging, social media, texting, and email marketing. If I blog about something outside of these topics, it always falls under my main topic of marketing.

Mistake #4- Not being consistent with how often you publish your blog

This is something that a lot of independent business owners, coaches, and consultants struggle with. They decide to start a blog, and at first they are pretty consistent with blogging, but as the weeks and months go on, and things get busy, their blogging becomes inconsistent. The weekly blogging turns into monthly blogging, the monthly blogging, turns into every other month.

When you decide on how often you are going to blog (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.), you must stick to that schedule. Figure out what works best for your business and stick with it. Blogging daily is a difficult task for the average coach or consultant, weekly is a little more realistic, but can still be hard to keep up with, bi-weekly is a good schedule for starting out or if you feel that’s the most amount of time that you can dedicate to blogging for your business. Once a month is the least amount of time that you should commit to blogging for your business.

Mistake #5- Not having strong call to actions

I have been guilty of mistake #5 for the first few years of blogging. One of the goals of your blog should be to have your readers not only view you as an expert in your field, but to also have them take some type of action. Having strong call to actions with each blog post helps you to achieve your goal. If your goal is to build your email list, then you should have strong call to actions within your blog post and/or on your page about joining your email list. If your goal is to promote an upcoming event, then you should have strong call to actions throughout your blog post about the event (the event should also relate to the blog post topic). If your goal is to promote a product or service that relates to the blog post, then you should have strong call to actions throughout you post about the product or service.

Mistake #6- Not having goals for your blog

Having a blog is great for many reasons as already mentioned, but not having a goal for your blog is a big mistake. Is the goal of your blog to create brand awareness, if so, how do you measure brand awareness? Do you measure brand awareness by the amount of views on your blog posts? Is your blog to showcase you as an authority or an expert? If so, how do you measure becoming known as an authority or expert? Establishing and setting goals will help you to achieve the results you are aiming for with your blog.

Mistake #7- Having someone else write your blog who doesn’t understand your company voice, story, or goals

We are all busy, so it is okay to have someone write or contribute to your business blog, but if that person doesn’t understand the tone or voice of your brand, this could be a huge mistake. You want the feel of your blog to stay consistent, so if someone is writing or contributing to your blog, they have to understand the tone of your blog, the voice of your brand, and the goals of your blog. Otherwise they could do more harm than help in your business.

Mistake #8- Not promoting your blog posts

Just because you write it, doesn’t mean they will read it! You have to promote your blog posts on your other platforms. If you have an email list, you should promote your blog posts to your email list. If you are on social media, you should promote your blog posts on social media. You need to promote your post several times to get the exposure you need, and for people to actually read your posts, so be sure to promote, promote, promote!

Are you blogging for business? Have you made any of the mistakes listed above? Be sure to comment below and share your blog with us, by listing it in the comments below.

If you need help with coming up with a Blogging Plan, we can help! Be sure to contact us for a FREE Blogging Success Strategy Session

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized

May

12 2015

The Secret to a Successful Business Blog

I have seen it over, and over, and over again. Independent business owners, coaches, or consultants who decide to start a business blog because they have heard that it is important to have a blog for your business. They usually have all intention to keep up with the blog, but after a few weeks or months, the blog ends up in the blog grave yard. Why does this happen so often? Because most people start blogging without a plan.

It’s true that there are many benefits of blogging, I wrote a blog post about how blogging can help you gain the know, like, and trust factor, which is so important when growing your business, but other factors include helping to identify you as an authority or expert in your field, or making it easier for people to find you and your business due to the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits that occur from blogging.

However, without a real blogging plan, you can easily be doomed to head to the blog grave yard. Here are 5 things for you to consider when starting a business blog: [Tweet “Without a real blogging plan, you can easily be doomed to head to the blog grave yard. #Blogging #MarketingEssentials”]

Why do you want to start a business blog? Basically, what is the goal of your blog, this could vary from:
1. Building your expertise in your field
2. Becoming known as a thought leader in your field
3. Becoming known as an authority in your field
4. Providing valuable information to your current customers/clients
5. Attracting new customers/clients
6. Building your SEO so you can be found in online searches
Who is your target audience? Who are you trying to reach with your blog posts? You can answer this question by deciding the following:
1. Are you talking to your peers in your industry?
2. Are you talking to your current customers/clients?
3. Are you talking to potential customers/clients?
What do you want to talk about? Pick a particular topic or several topics that will be relevant to your business and your target audience, and decide to consistently blog about that topic or topics. When you have a business blog, you want to stay on topic and not venture off on to topics that do not relate to your business or can’t tie back to your business in some way. You also want to make sure that the information that you are sharing is relevant and will resonate with your target audience. What do they want to hear about? What are their struggles or concerns?
How often do you want to publish your blog posts? Decide how often you are going to publish your blog posts and stick with it. The biggest problem I see when it comes to business blogs, is a company will decide to blog, but then they don’t stay consistent in publishing to the blog, because they get busy and the blog is secondary. If you decide to select a day and time to publish your blog posts then stick with it. If you decide the frequency to publish (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.), then stick with it.
How will you measure success? Now this is a touchy subject, because you could be blogging for months, even years and have no way to really measure the success of your blog. Some people measure success by traffic, how many people have visited the blog posts. Some people measure by shares, how many people have shared the post on social media. Others measure by blog comments, how many people actually comment on a blog post. Others measure based how many individuals have taken action based on the blog post (i.e. visited a sales page, visited a landing page, signed up for their email list, etc.). Depending on what your goal is from #1, that will determine how you need to decide what you will use to measure the success of your business blog.

Do you have a business blog? Do you feel like your business blog is successful? Share your comments and/or links to your blog below.

If you have a business blog and you would like to take it to the next level, or you are thinking about starting a business blog, we can help, contact us to schedule a free blogging success strategy session.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | 2 Comments | in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants

April

28 2015

6 Super Quick Ways to Grow Your Business Using Text Marketing

As an independent business owner, coach or consultant, you know the importance of staying in contact with your customers and prospects, and having a plan to consistently stay connected can help you grow your business.

There are several ways that you can stay in contact with your customers and prospects, (i.e. social media, email marketing, phone calls, etc.). However, Text Message Marketing is one of the only methods that allows you to effectively, efficiently, and easily reach your customers wherever they are, and whenever you need to.

[Tweet “Text Message Marketing is one of the only methods that allows you to effectively, efficiently, and easily reach your customers”]

Here are 6 Super Quick Ways you can use Text Message Marketing to help you grow your business:

Appointment Reminders– If you set appointments for your consultations or sessions, then using text messaging to remind your clients of their appointments is a great way to confirm the appointment and remind your client at the same time. Texting clients the day before an appointment not only reminds them, but also gives them a chance to adjust their appointment if they need to. You can even send text messages about appointments that haven’t been made but need to be scheduled.
Mobile Coupons– We all like to know that we are getting a good deal, so why not use text message marketing as a way to send out good deals to your loyal customers. Mobile coupons generate an immediate response when you create a call to action with a time limit. You can use a push campaign to send out text messages to your list with a unique mobile coupon code. The customers can then show this code at your office or enter it on your website to obtain the discount.You can also do a pull campaign in which individuals send a text to a short code and they are then added to your mobile coupon list. Types of discounts you could offer include:
1. Bonus offers
2. Percentage off
3. Flash sales
4. Not sure what discount to offer? Use technique #5 “Text to Vote” to run a poll and find out what offer is more attract to your audience.
Promotion Announcements– Running a special promotion for customers or prospects? Create a text message that you can send out to your mobile list. You can create special promotions around:
1. Holidays
2. Seasons
3. Exclusive Deals
4. VIP Promotion
5. Rewards/Loyalty Programs
Text to Join– is a great way to build both your mobile phone number list and your email list. You can have someone text a word to your short code and then respond with their email address. This kills two birds with one stone by having them join your text list and your email list with one transaction.
Text to Win– People love contests, so why not offer a text to win contest. Allowing people to actually enter the contest via text message. Be sure you have the contest rules available online for people to be able to refer to the contest rules.
Text to Vote– This method became popular from talent shows like American Idol and The Voice, which allows the audience to participate in the results of the show by texting their vote for their favorite artist. You can run similar promotions by having people vote for their favorite product, service, coupon idea, etc.

Are you using text message marketing in your business? If so, what methods are you using, and has it helped you to grow your business?

Do you need help with creating a text message marketing plan, getting started with text message marketing, or taking your text message marketing to the next level? Contact Us and let us help you!

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Business, Business Development, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Text Marketing, Uncategorized

April

14 2015

How to Use Text Marketing to Grow Your Business

Texting has grown to become a part of everyday life for most people, and when most people are using a tool consistently to communicate, businesses will always look for ways to use that tool as a way to market their businesses.

The first time I was exposed to using text to communicate with a company was in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. After seeing a telethon and the requests for donations to help the victims, I felt moved to make a donation, so I pulled out my cell phone and texted whatever word we were supposed to, responded with my donation amount, and confirmed my donation amount, all in a matters of minutes (maybe even seconds), I had made my donation to the American Red Cross.

Since that time, companies are starting to realize how powerful text marketing can be, and we are seeing more and more companies jump on board with text marketing. The great thing about text marketing is that it is affordable for the small business owner and 95% of text messages are opened and read within minutes of receipt, so as an independent business owner, coach or consultant, it can be a great way for you to reach out to your customers or prospects. [Tweet “The great thing about text marketing is that it is affordable for the small business owner.”] [Tweet “95% of text messages are opened and read within minutes of receipt”]

So with that said, how does text marketing work for independent business owners, coaches and consultants? The first step is to select a mobile marketing service provider. Once you have signed up with a mobile marketing service provider, you will need to:

Build your opt-in mobile phone list– this is important because the goal of any successful marketing is to have your customer or prospect opt-in to receive your information, so it is important that the individuals on your mobile phone list have given you permission to text them. You don’t want to be a spammer!
1. Have your customers or prospects text a keyword to a short code/number that is provided by your mobile marketing service provider. A keyword is one single word that your customer or client can text to your short code number (i.e. FREE, JOIN, SPECIAL, etc.). A short code number is a number (typically 5-6 digits long) that is provided by your mobile marketing service provider in which your customers or prospects can text the keyword (i.e. 72404, 54465, 33031), so a request could be Text “FREE” to “72404”.
2. It’s always good to provide something of value for joining your list (i.e. special discount coupon, free eBook, etc.)
3. Once the prospect or customer has gone through the process, they have opted in to your mobile phone list and you now have permission to communicate with him or her via text message.
Send text campaigns to your customers and prospects. This can include:
1. Special offers and coupons
2. Announcements
3. Messages
4. You can get as creative as you would like as to what you can send your customers and prospects via text.

Are you using text marketing in your business? Are you thinking about using text marketing in your business? Share your comments below.

If you need help with getting started with text marketing or taking your text marketing to the next level, click here to contact us.

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Business, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Text Marketing

March

24 2015

The Secret to Successful Social Media Marketing

Most business owners, coaches and consultants know that social media marketing has become an important part of a company’s marketing mix. However, it can be difficult to successfully market your business on social media with all the noise and clutter on the various social media networks, so how can you successfully market your business on social media?

In this blog post, I will reveal the secret to successful social media marketing for business owners, coaches and consultants.

The secret to successfully marketing your business on social media is…….. to know your audience and to have a social media marketing plan.

You have to think of social media as a tool that you can use to help serve your target audience by publishing amazing content that resonates with your audience, and less about promoting your business on the platform.

The first step to any successful social media marketing effort is to create a social media marketing plan. Your plan should include the following key elements:

A definition of your ideal target audience
The purpose of your social media marketing campaigns
Your social media marketing goals
The best social media platforms for your business
Your content and engagement strategy
Your content calendar.

Once you have created your social media marketing plan, then the secret is to consistently publish content that resonates with your target audience. The rule of thumb is to make sure that your content is 80% Entertaining/Conversational/Educational, and only 20% Promotional.

Entertaining post can be humorous posts that your audience can relate to. A great website for humorous posts is somecards.com. On this website you can find humorous cards that may resonate with your target audience and post it on social media. For example, now that spring has officially started, a humorous post would be something like the one listed below:

Humorous posts like this can spark engagement from your audience.

Conversational posts are a really great way to connect with your audience. Asking questions that your audience would be interested in answering can spark conversation and engagement for your post.

Filling in the blank statements are also a great was to initiate conversation with your audience. If the filling in the blank is interesting enough for your audience, they would be interested in filling in the sentence.

As a business owner, coach of consultant, you are very knowledgeable about your field so having Educational posts not only helps to educate your audience on your topic, but also helps to showcase your expertise. Publishing posts of your blog, and relevant articles, tips, tools and techniques on social media works really well. Statistics and Infographics that provide good useful information to your audience also work really well.

However, one of the reasons for being on social media is to get business, so you don’t want to neglect posting some promotional items on social media.

These items can include special deals and promotions you may have going on, but one of the best things you can do on social media is to promote joining your email list.

Although social media is a great tool to build relationships and make connections, it is important to have your social media work hand in hand with your email marketing so encouraging your social media followers to join your email list should be an important part of your social media marketing strategy.

Have you found success on social media? If so, what do you feel has been the secret to your success on social media?

Need help with your social media marketing? Be sure to get your copy of the Top 21 Social Media Marketing Tips

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Social Media, Uncategorized

March

09 2015

What’s The Best Social Media Platform For Your Business?

When it comes to Social Media Marketing, as a small business owner, coach or consultant, it can be confusing as to what social media platform you should be on. In this post, I will cover the two main things you need to consider when deciding on a social media platform for your business.

1. Your Target Market

The first and one of the most important things you need to consider is your target market. In order to decide the appropriate social media platform that you should be on, you need to decide what social media platform your target market is on in large quantities.

Each platform attracts a different type of demographic and can also attract a different pyscographic, so it is important for you to truly know your target market including their demographics and pyschographics before selecting the right platform for your business.

A great resource to use to find out the demographics of the most popular social media platforms is the Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms by Pew Research Center. This article explains in detail the demographics and usage of key social networking platforms.

The following chart from the article shows the percentage of online adults who use Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, from 2012-2014.

Although Facebook has the highest percentage of use by online adults, it may not be the best social network to be on to reach your specific target market.

For example, if you are targeting women between the ages of 40-50 who make over $50,000. Your chances of connecting to that target market is stronger on Pinterest than Facebook, so you may want to consider Pinterest as a part of your overall Social Media Marketing Plan.

However, there is something else that you must consider when deciding on the right social media platform for your business.

2. Your Business

Some platforms showcase certain types of businesses better than others. For example, Pinterest and Instagram are visual platforms, therefore they lend themselves well to companies that have very visual products.

Companies in the home decor, wedding, fashion, beauty, or food industries can do well on Pinterest because than can visually inspire their followers with the pins they create for their products.

On the other hand, companies who are more service oriented and their products are less visual have to be more creative on Pinterest to attract their target audience because their products are less visual, so creating visuals such as picture quotes or infographics would be an option for service-based businesses on Pinterest.

If your business is very content and news driven, then a great platform would be Twitter. As a micro-blogging site, Twitter is really great for companies that have a lot of content, articles, blog posts, etc. It can help drive traffic back to that content on your website or blog.

Of course Twitter is also great for starting conversations with people in your industry or your clients and customers, so if content and conversations are good for your business, Twitter is a platform you should consider in your Social Media Marketing plan.

So when deciding the best social media platform for your business, be sure to pick a social media platform that your target audience is on in large quantities, and one that will help you to do a good job of showcasing your business.

What social media platforms are you? How did you decide what social media platforms are right for your business? Be sure to leave a comment below and let us know.

Also, be sure to download our checklist 21 Things You MUST Do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Social Media Marketing!

Posted by Nadine Mullings | Comments Off | in Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Social Media, Uncategorized

Author Archives Nadine Mullings

1. Your Target Market

2. Your Business