by Amber Miller | Nov 14, 2016 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Do you have a social media game plan for 2017?
Are you looking to have a competitive edge when it comes to your business? If you don’t have a written social media game plan then it is easy to allow this part of your marketing to fall to the wayside. You need to figure out the right balance of informative, advertising, and conversational posts when it comes to utilizing this power marketing strategy.
Social media should be used to generate leads and drive traffic to your website and/or offers. It is very clear that businesses achieve greater results and satisfaction when they take a more comprehensive approach to social media. Every action you take on social media needs to be a part of a larger social media strategy. That means every update, tweet, reply and comment should be part of an overall strategy that drives towards a pre-determined goal. This can seem a little complicated and daunting but if you take the time to create a written plan the rest of your social media efforts will fall into place.
Here are a few steps that you can take today to create your social media strategy for the coming year:
Step 1: Conduct an audit of your current social media strategy
Prior to creating your social marketing game plan you need to do an assessment of what your current social media marketing efforts are and how they are performing for you. Are they creating a larger following? Are they achieving your overall goals for your business? Are they helping to get your message out in a way that is cohesive across all platforms?
Step 2: Create or optimize your social media accounts
Once you have done a complete audit of your social media accounts it is time to drill down your online presence. You need to determine which social media platforms best meets your social media goals. If you need to create additional social media profiles on the platforms you are not already on then this is the time to create those profiles. If you do have profiles on your ideal social media platforms then this is the time to optimize your profiles so they best meet your business and audience needs.
Step 3: Create your social media goals and objectives
The first step in any plan is to sit down and establish clear, defined goals for your and your business. When you have these goals this will allow you to determine if your actions are moving you towards the end results you are hoping to achieve. If your efforts aren’t accomplishing your goals you can make tweaks along the way until they are.
A simple way to start your plan is to map out three goals your want for your social media efforts. You need to make sure you ask yourself what your goal will look like when completed and you need to determine what you will use to track your progress.
For example:
For Pinterest, we will share photos to communicate our company culture. We do this by posting three photos a week to achieve 30 shares and at least five comments.
Step 4: Get some inspiration
This step is designed to give you some inspiration that supports your social media goals. You can turn to industry leaders, your competitors, clients, industry publications and blogs. There is a wealth of knowledge already available to you that you can integrate into your social media marketing plan. This is great when trying to find out what type of content and information to share via all social media platforms. You need to determine how to give that information your voice which allows you to stand out and separate yourself from your competitors.
Step 5: Create your social media marketing game plan
Your social media marketing game plan is going to be essential to succeeding at social media. Your game plan should consist of strategies for content creation and content curation as well as a calendar for posting.
Your game plan should answer the following questions:
How often will you post your content?
Who will create or source your content?
How will you promote the content?
Who is your intended target audience for each type of content?
What types of content do you intend to post and promote?
Your editorial calendar will list the dates and times you intend to post content to your blogs and social media platforms. Create the calendar and schedule out your content in advance. Planning can be done on a weekly or monthly basis.
Step 6: Monitor, test and adjust your social media marketing plan
To determine if your social media efforts are obtaining the goals your have set forth in earlier steps you will need to be constantly monitoring and testing. You will need to build testing capabilities into every action you take on your social media platforms. You can track your links by utilizing url shortener’s and track your page visits by utilizing Google Analytics. Record and analyze your successes and failures and adjust your plan accordingly.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to social media marketing is its’ ever-changing nature. Sooner or later, you may realize newer platforms may better suit your needs than the ones you are currently using. Don’t forget that you can add networks if you think they will perform better and remove networks if they are not performing like you thought they would. As you grow you might need to grow your social media efforts as well. This type of marketing plan is meant to change so be flexible and open to new ideas and trends.
The team at Smart to Finish can help you to determine what your social media game plan should look like. We can help assess where your current strategies are, what needs to be optimized, and whether or not your current plan is obtaining the over goals you have set forth for your business. Contact us today to get started.
by Amber Miller | Nov 10, 2016 | Blog, Marketing, Web Design
Have you spent hours working on the perfect website only to find out your conversion rate is kind of lame? You’ve done some A/B testing on layout and content but nothing seems to be working…
Have you tried changing the colors?
Studying and understanding the psychology of color is critical when it comes to maximizing your websites overall design. Getting your color scheme right can help compel customers to take action by grabbing their attention and triggering the right emotions needed complete the sale. But take note… it’s not as simple as changing the color of a button to red or a header to blue. While color can mean something to every person, it’s meaning can vary from person to person depending on their personal preferences and cultural background.
Let’s take a brief look at our STF color chart… it will give you a general understanding of how colors can make us feel:
The color of psychology goes beyond changing the colors on your website. You really need to take your whole brand into account. Below we’ve listed a number of companies who have built their entire brands around specific colors.
Orange (companies that want to express a fun, cheerful, and confident culture) – Nickelodeon, Amazon, Fanta, and Shutterfly
Red (companies that want to express a exciting and bold culture) – Coca Cola, Netflix, Target, and Lego
Blue (companies that want to express a more dependable and trustful culture) – Dell, Lowes, AT&T, and Pfizer
Have you thought about how you want your brand to be expressed? Do you consider your company fun and bright like Nickelodeon, or dependable and strong like Lowes? If your company is actually a luxurious purple company, it doesn’t really make sense for your site to be bright red. Start off with some purple accents and backgrounds then work in some blues and greens to help buttons and other calls-to-action stand out. Don’t go overboard on the color options, keep it simple. Stick with 2-5 colors, tops! If you’ve got a whole rainbow on your site, all you’re going to do is confuse people.
In all reality, figure out what your color palette is and what might attract your niche market the most. If you’re having a hard time trying to figure out what your brand personality is and how you should update your site colors, shoot us a note 🙂 We love helping companies show their true colors to the world!
by Amber Miller | Nov 4, 2016 | Blog, Business Development
What exactly is a brand? It’s a question that has confounded the academics for decades and eluded the most erudite of scholars. So, coming from the trenches of the real world of branding, we’ve defined the term and given it a comprehensive meaning. Something that relates a little more to the real world business owners that we are.
A brand is the greater sum of its parts. It is always more than just the nuts and bolts, the pieces; great brands are always the result of the whole equaling more than the sum of its parts. Basically, a brand consists of eight basic building blocks:
- The Company Name
- The Logo (brand icon) – Is your logo simple and memorable? Think about logos like Amazon, FedEx, and Coca-Cola; world recognized professional brands that are simple and easy to read.
- The Brand’s Colors – The color of psychology is REAL. We will delve more into this during next week’s blog.
- The Slogan and Brand Messaging – Are you getting your vision across to your customers?
- The Sound of the Brand – Are you resonating with the customers you want to resonate with?
- The Overall Look and Feel = The Brand’s Position – How do you compare to your competition?
- Packaging the Brand – You know the saying… Don’t judge a book by its’ cover. Well, that’s simply not gunna happen, you’re going to be judged, so make sure your packaging and branding is clear, concise, and professional.
- The Brand Experience – Are your customers getting the best experience with your brand?
Branding is about making me, the consumer or buyer, more hip, more in the “know,” more cool than anybody else. We are a generation and a nation wanting to be special. We want to be richer, more beautiful, better dressed and more effortlessly gorgeous than any other generation that we know.
We want everything to mean more. We want everything to have meaning. That’s why we flock to the reality shows. We crave authenticity in this age of fabrication and falsehood. We “just want to be real.”
We want to be able to trust what we buy and whom we buy from. That’s why Coke is still the number one brand in the world. The more we know about a brand, the more we trust it. The more we trust it, the more we buy it and continue to experience it. The more we experience it, the more loyal we become.
Loyalty is the currency that cannot be traded for dollars. What is your brand saying about you? Let us know what you think in the comments!
by Amber Miller | Oct 24, 2016 | Blog, Marketing, Training
Word-of-mouth advertising aka referral marketing is one of the best ways to market your services and/or products. Like seriously…. Not only can it give you the highest return on investment (ROI) but it’s easy to get started – and a lot of times CHEAP to get started. Honestly, there’s really no better way to hear about a product than getting an honest opinion from a trusted peer.
Kathleen talks a lot about referral marketing and how it can help spread the word about whatever it is you want to share. In addition, she talks a little bit about Thunderclap – a pretty nifty tool to book the selling power of books. Give it a read! Then let us know what you think in the comments – Have you had any success with word-of-mouth advertising? Have you tried some of Kathleen’s tips and tricks?
by Amber Miller | Oct 12, 2016 | Blog, Marketing
It’s no secret, humans were born to be social creatures. We crave social connection as much as we did thousands of years ago when humans first starting roaming the earth. But… in order to become a part of the group, we need to know what to do in order to be respected by the group. Think about it like this… You feel like you should add an important snippet to a group conversation at work. Either your coworkers will love the idea or they will reject it – therefore embarrassing you in the long run. Is it worth the risk of ridicule to express your thoughts and ideas? Sometimes it is, sometimes… not so much.
This same dynamic rings true in referral marketing. Is it worth it for a customer to refer your company to one of their friends? Below are five ways you can get people to refer your business.
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Be Unique & Reliable (even if you can’t be unique)
Be unique. Do something that set’s you apart from the rest of the players within your industry. Even if you can’t provide a unique product, you can provide a unique customer experience. Set standards and abide by those standards and expectations each and every time you sell a product or talk to a customer. People are going to want to talk about outstanding experiences they have with companies.
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Build and keep relationships with industry partners
If you’re a wedding planner, you’ve probably needed a florist, a DJ, and even a caterer at some point. Build and keep those lasting relationships. These related businesses are in contact with your targeted audience on a daily basis and are a perfect resource for referrals.
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Get out there. Get connected and be visible.
Getting involved in the community is a great way to get referral business. Sponsoring a sports team or an event that helps homeless animals is a great way to get your company name out there and let people know you care about the community you do business in.
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Refer to Get Referred
Going back to #2 and those strong related business relationships. Refer those companies to other people and in return, they will refer business to you. But don’t just refer anyone. Make sure you are only referring other business that you know provide quality and honest work. You don’t want bad referrals to come back to bite you in the butt after all…
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Don’t be afraid to ask. (But make sure to give something of value in return)
A lot of the time, asking for what you want really works. Are you selling some kind of software that helps people to streamline their finances? Do you get a lot of questions about specific cases? Before answering, have your customers post a public review of your business in exchange for a little bit of “free” consulting advice.
There’s a lot more when it comes to getting referrals. We actually recommend reading a great article by Infusionsoft that talks a lot more about referrals and the psychology behind them.
But hey… before we go… Did you know that we offer a referral program here at STF? We offer $50 for every single friend (or foe) that signs up with any of our service programs. (*Also* Offering referral bonuses is just another great way to get people to “refer-a-friend” ;-p)
by Amber Miller | Sep 29, 2016 | Blog, Entrepreneur, Infusionsoft
Hey there fellow entrepreneurs! We recently moved one of our clients from Infusionsoft to Simplero and wanted to give a big shout out to the product. While we still love, Love, LOVE, recommend, and use Infusionsoft…. we have to say we are very impressed with Simplero. The application is built upon the basis of being “simple” compared to a lot of similar products on the market. We’ve found it to be a great solution for those who are not quite ready for all that Infusionsoft has to offer. So let’s jump right into it – here are 10 basic features of Simplero we found to be pretty freakin’ neat.
- Each product also has a “freebie” order form. This is great for testing or for giving this as comp to clients without requiring a credit card.
- You can add a gift email and message on an order form – and it can be purchased for another person.
- You can create an order form that has a donation amount, which means the customer has the ability to add a custom amount to pay. Helpful for fundraising and collecting odd amounts.
- The unsubscribe page allows the customer and prospect to see what lists they are on and opt-out of the lists they want while staying on others they are more interested in such as; product updates on something they purchased from you.
- Terms and Service on order forms.
- Mobile responsive order forms
- You can broadcast to customers in their timezone.
- Mobile responsive emails
- No limit on account users!!
- Month to month subscription plans. No lengthy yearly subscriptions!
*Keep in mind. Infusionsoft does offer many of these features as well… but you do have to purchase additional integrations to make them available.
But hey! We can’t give you all of the good without letting you know some of the bad… here are a couple of features that Simplero does NOT have:
- No phone support. It’s all ticket based (we’ve had good luck with quick response times though!)
- No cart page or view cart page so that customers can add multiple products to their cart /order form.
- Does not include the advanced automation tools found in Infusionsoft Campaign Builder.
- Not as many integrations and plugins available.
- Not a full CRM
- Not as many email marketing features
All in all, it’s a pretty sweet product. If you’re interested in learning more about Simplero and how it could help your business, shoot us a note.
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