Social Media: Not Even Waiting For Your Turn to Talk

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Digital communications is a crowded environment, that’s no secret. It tends to also be chaotic because most digital marketers are focused exclusively on getting their message heard.  This can make a shared environment like social media seem like a competitive shouting match. Everyone speaking at once is as ineffective digitally as it is in person.  Do you want to differentiate yourself from other digital marketing messages on social media? Make listening key to your strategy.

Social media listening is not about spreading a wide net over as many contacts as you can and then trying to keep up on all those posts and topics.  It means selectively targeting some content or users to interact with on a more one-to-one basis.  You can target content based on insightful subjects for your audience, product or service, or industry news.  You can target individuals based on shared connections, industry influence, or ideal prospects.

Really listen to those finely selected channels.  Chances are that you can glean a lot of insight into their needs and wants which can be leveraged toward your targeted network.

Once you engage with that audience it’s important to continue listening.  As an example, we reviewed a client profile where he had dozens of unanswered comments to his posts.  One comment in particular was from a prominent industry influencer with an insightful comment and a follow-up question. Listening to that question and providing an individualized response would have been a much better strategy than ignoring it and blasting out more content to the masses.

Listening is always important and social media is not an exception.  Most digital marketers don’t even wait for their turn to speak and opt to try and speak over everyone else.  Engage your audience in a more meaningful way and you’ll find that you don’t have to yell nearly as loud as everyone else to get profitable attention.

Social Media

Making a Good Digital First Impression

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Our last post prompted an obvious question from a few readers, “So what makes a good digital first impression?” It’s a good question as external factors dictate how you can present yourself. From a technical perspective there are three areas that drive most previews.   The page title serves as the primary text, the URL is displayed below that, and the page description drives the short depiction of what’s on the page. Good digital first impressions are a result of properly focusing on these elements and customizing them for maximum impact.

There are a few categories that help make a good digital first impression:

Concise

Just like interpersonal interaction, the clock is ticking on a first impression as soon as someone encounters your digital presence. Space is also at a premium for your first impression so it’s critical get to the point.  The page title on your website or social profile is typically only viewable for about the first 60 characters.  Descriptions cut off around 250 – 300.  So you have to concisely convey why someone should want to engage further.  Search engine company profiles offer limited text as well, so make sure to include a professional image and accurate information.

Legible

It’s not uncommon for Search Engine Optimization tactics to negatively impact your digital first impression.  Many times trainers, consultants, and professional coaches want to load their titles and descriptions full of keywords for their products and services in an attempt to drive profitable traffic to their website or social media accounts.  That makes for a convoluted first impression because the preview content is illegible to people.  It’s difficult to make a positive first impression when your preview is spitting out gibberish designed to appeal to computers.

On Topic

First impressions are often unique and tailored to the situation in which you meet someone.  A good first impression at a formal business event is very different than a good first impression when casually meeting a friend of a friend socially. Your previews have the same opportunity.  Make sure that the preview is fitting for the unique page or profile that the user has found in their search.  The preview should be a direct representation of what the user will find on the page or profile.

Consistency

Consistently building your previews is an extension of being on topic.  Many times businesses will settle on a “homepage description” as the face they want to present to the world.  That description is then used across all pages and profiles. However, many pages like blog posts have a specific focus that has little or nothing to do with a general value proposition statement.  Keeping the general description on these targeted pages makes all the previews appear to be a meaningless mission statement rather than confidently presenting the content. We can’t control what preview someone might encounter and many will find their way to your content on a channel other than the website homepage.  Make sure that you are consistently completing preview content so that your pages can match their desired search.

Making a good digital first impression is more of an exercise in diligence rather than any sophisticated formula.  Pay attention to the titles and descriptions on your pages and profiles because any one of those could be your next digital first impression.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Site Conversion, Social Media

What’s Your Digital First Impression?

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You only get one chance to make a first impression and your business is no different.  Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches view that as a strategic advantage because they look and sound polished.  They know how to make a positive first impression and project a perception of professionalism on the business.  But are they equally prepared when they are not personally present? 72% of your buyers will first come into contact with your company via Google (or other search engine). So more often than not, your website, google account, or social media accounts make a first impression before you or anyone at your company gets the opportunity.

It’s important to remember that digital engagement is continuing to encroach on interpersonal engagement. Buyers can find testimonials, product or service offerings, and pricing comparison online.  It’s best to intentionally position yourself to create a positive first impression on these channels.

Remember that first impressions are immediate.  So a first impression from your website is not the site itself, but the Google preview, Google business profile, or social media previews. Review those previews and listings to ensure that the content it contains is accurate and understandable so that first time viewers take the next step of engaging with the actual sites.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Email Marketing Pre-Send Checklist

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A re-send is often considered a cure for an email mistake but it has some nasty side effects, loss of credibility being the worst. Of course, mistakes are going to happen in your email marketing from time to time but it’s important not to default to a re-send as the remedy. Set some simple email release review steps that will help prevent the need for an email re-send.

The first step to prevent email marketing mistakes is to familiarize yourself with your email marketing platform.  While most platforms have similar functions they might have some unique features or idiosyncrasies that you will be alerted to by giving the tool a dry run. For instance, many tools have a reminder or follow up feature. Sometimes that tool is pre-set with default text in the email body.  Other times it is pre-set with instructions for the administrator on how to customize the email body.  Mistaking the tools function could result in a nonsensical email being sent to your users with instructions for setting up a communication in your email marketing tool.

Once you’ve had the chance to get acquainted with the tool it’s a good idea to make a release checklist.  I strongly suggest a physical checklist (on paper or digital) that you can check-off before your send. Since this is a repetitive task there is always a risk of absentmindedly going through the steps but not actively registering what you are reviewing. Physically checking off the list helps to keep you focused and actually reviewing the email.

Checklists will vary a little based on the email platform and type of send but common ones are:

  • The email is set to the correct list and segment
  • The ‘From’ name been checked and is from a recognizable name
  • Working ‘Reply To’ address has been set
  • It looks as expected across email clients
  • It looks as expected on mobile devices
  • Includes a working Unsubscribe link
  • Proofread and spellcheck the subject
  • Proofread and spellcheck the email body
  • Set up any personalization tags or fallbacks
  • Set up a plain text version of the email
  • All links lead to the correct place
  • Images have explanatory Alt text for when images are blocked

Your checklist might have a few more or a few less items than this depending on the platform and what type of template you use.  The importance of the email review process is to avoid an absent-minded review and carefully focus on what you plan to send so that you don’t have to re-send the same message again.

Email Marketing

Behaviorless Content Calendar

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What good is a plan if there is no action taken on it?  Imagine a coach setting up a game plan only to have the players wing it on game day or a cookbook where the chef wants to experiment with other ingredients.  A lack of execution on the plan makes the effort of creating a strategic design pointless. Digital marketing thrives on systematic execution and a content calendar is a great tool to pre-plan topics and set a schedule for its release. Creating a content calendar without the discipline to execute the behaviors to fulfill it, is a creative way of appearing productive while wasting time.

The amount of content that gets released through digital marketing can be overwhelming.  Topics across all the channels need to sync up to make a cohesive campaign.  So setting a content calendar with timelines is a great way to organize and visualize a strategic implementation.

Unfortunately many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches visualize it well but implement it poorly.  This typically happens because planned content doesn’t materialize as expected or other activities take priority over the content calendar.

If you are going to spend the time to make a content calendar, commit to extending the timetable to ensuring the behaviors are in place to execute on the calendar.

For example, don’t include items in your content calendar unless the content is already prepared.  Rather than assuring yourself that you’ll get an article or video ready by a deadline on your content calendar, have it finalized before it’s set on the calendar. Otherwise, distractions and delays will inevitably keep some of the content from being ready when the calendar calls for it. That means that content needs to be worked on weeks or months in advance of its release.

Also, set people or processes in place that automate time sensitive releases so that emergencies don’t derail the digital marketing timeline. A strategic plan remains the plan even if the behaviors to accomplish it are suddenly an inconvenience. This systematic implementation ensures you’ll execute on the strategy despite disruptions.

A content calendar without the behavior to execute on the plan is fruitless intent.  Don’t waste time deluding yourself about what you intended.  Set a solid behavior plan that supports the content calendar so that the true schedule follows your strategic plan.

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media

If You Don’t Like Your Social Media Content, Why Would Anyone Else?

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It’s not uncommon for us to encounter a trainer, consultant, or professional coach that is reluctant to like their own content on social media for fear of being too “self-promotional”. There’s enough hurdles to overcome for effective digital marketing, don’t artificially add self-concept doubts to the list. Promoting your own content on social media is not only acceptable, it’s expected.

The concern over too much self-promotion seems to come from social media’s reputation as encouraging self-involvement.  To some degree that stereotype is deserved, it’s a platform specifically to tell your network (or the world) about yourself or comment on what others have shared.

Approaching social media in a selfish manner is a problem but providing useful content to your network is not selfish, it’s sharing.  That’s especially true if your content is published to a company page because it’s possible that your personal connections won’t see your content if you don’t like or share it yourself.

If you’re not liking or sharing your content it’s likely that others won’t either.  Not necessarily because they don’t find value in it, but rather because they aren’t aware of it. Gushing over yourself or taking on a narcissistic perspective on social media is cause for concern, simply liking or sharing your content is not.

Image Courtesy of flickr.com

Social Media

Digital Marketing: Garbage In, Garbage Out

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Even though most of us know that shortcuts come with a cost, it’s still enticing to try to do more with less.  Unfortunately, after executing on the shortcut, it usually results in doing less with less.  Digital marketing is full of new applications, automations, and strategies to cut time, money, or effort out of your marketing. While some of these can be successfully integrated into your digital marketing campaigns, most of them either downplay the marketer’s involvement or overhype effectiveness.

A client recently provided us with their graphic generating app.  The idea is that you could select an image and a title and it creates a customized graphic to your brand specifications. The obvious advantage of the app is to not only remove the need to create a custom graphic, but eliminate time intensive reviews for brand standards. That’s an offer that’s difficult to pass up . . . until you use the app.

The images had two pre-set sizes. If you needed a different size, the graphic needed customized manually outside of the app.  The images were also published in low resolution, so it was worthless for print or high resolution requirements. In addition, it had a cumbersome interface so general users outside of the graphics or marketing team struggled to get a usable product.

In short, the tool was so rigid that it required significant compromises or fixes outside of the tool.  Valuable tools don’t need other tools to make them work. After a few weeks of struggling with the tool and manually repairing the output, we reverted back to the manual process for graphic creation until the tool could be “better developed”.

This is not an isolated incident.  Carefully select which apps you want to integrate into your digital marketing processes.  Many claim to make a task simple but downgrade the final product rather than making a quality element easier or faster to integrate. Once you start making compromises to your digital marketing campaigns to suit a tool, you’ve proven that it’s garbage and should look for alternative processes.

Internet Marketing

Expiring Calls to Action for Digital Marketing Ads

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Most people have been conditioned to ignore the “limited time offer” pitch in advertising because it’s a common gimmick to create false urgency.  Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for digital marketers to ignore their own limited time offers in their ads even when there is truly a defined expiration to the call to action.

I recently clicked on a LinkedIn ad for an event only to find that it took place two weeks ago. Of course that’s a disappointing experience for the user, but worse, the advertiser is wasting budget dollars on an ad for a product that’s unavailable.

It’s ideal to have a dedicated landing page for the offer in your ads but it’s disastrous if that CTA has expired.  Most paid ad platforms have an active run time calendar that will automatically stop the ad on a certain date.  Be sure to use that end date for your expiring call to action like after an event or a limited time offering. That will ensure you aren’t wasting your ad budget.  But don’t stop there, set a reminder for yourself or establish an ad calendar to cycle in your next time sensitive offer so that your ad campaign results don’t plummet.

The relative low-cost and ease of establishing paid advertising on search engines and social media platforms often leads to a “set it and forget it” complacency.  Keep an active inventory of your ads to make sure that it’s promoting an offer that will actually generate results.

Internet Marketing, Social Media

Reviews to Avoid Breaks at the End of Your Digital Marketing Chain

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Efficient digital marketers have a toolbox of systems and applications to publish their digital marketing campaigns. This toolbox might be a set of applications working together or an all–inclusive platform. No matter what type of setup you employ, change is constant in digital marketing and the technology that drives it.  That change usually improves capabilities and stability, but it also puts stress on your digital marketing processes.  No matter how simplified or refined your digital marketing process is, external updates will cause it to break and a regular review process is necessary to correct those interruptions when they occur.

To quickly identify breaks in your process it’s important to map out your digital marketing procedures.  Think of it as a chain.  The top of the chain is your primary marketing platform or set of platforms. The bottom of the chain is the deployment of individual communications on a particular channel. Problems at the top of the chain will cause the whole process to critically fail. Problems at the bottom of the chain will be isolated.

Critical failures are what digital marketers dread the most but there is a silver lining to a high level problem . . . it’s not going to be overlooked.  Critical failures obviously take priority because marketing activities typically grind to a halt when top of the chain systems fail.

The lower level breaks in the marketing process pose a unique problem, they are often overlooked.  While these less severe breaks won’t have immediate catastrophic effects as a high level problem, they can become a nagging detriment to your digital marketing’s overall effectiveness.

Here’s a simple break in the chain that we recently discovered on a process review:

 

Article Posted to Website

The blog post is set within a social media content manager

The SM content manager publishes to a set of LinkedIn accounts

The content is shared from LinkedIn to Twitter by two individuals

The content arrives into the Twitter feeds

 

On a content review it was discovered that images had stopped appearing on the Twitter posts.  Working backward we discovered that the image was available on every channel except Twitter. A recent Twitter update restricted the image from the blog section of the site from displaying when it was shared from LinkedIn.

So based on the break, the process had to be redefined.  Either the site template needed updated to meet Twitter’s requirements for sharing from LinkedIn, or the content needed published to Twitter in a way other than a LinkedIn share. We decided to go with the latter and publish to Twitter from the social media content manager. This resulted in a simpler solution that eliminated a step in the process.

This is a fairly simple example but even with a complex digital marketing process the prompt is based on an end point review.  Schedule recurring reviews of the endpoint of all your channels.  It doesn’t need to be a daunting effort but rather a quick health check.  Make a list of your channel end points like emails, social media pages, or landing pages and set a schedule to make sure they are still functioning as you’ve designed them.

I suggest a review at least once a quarter (our schedule is monthly). If you find something is out of place at the end of your marketing process, this review will let you backtrack and eliminate the break before it becomes a drag on your digital marketing effectiveness.

 

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media

Develop Toward Best-in-Class Digital Marketing

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The winter Olympics are full of inspiring stories about people discovering an exceptional talent and developing their skills to be world class. For people like me who aren’t familiar with these less covered sports and struggle to comprehend the finer details of their performance, it’s often the most exhilarating part of the games to see someone become the best at their chosen discipline. It’s also insightful to hear about their preparation and sacrifice to be the best because it’s a good illustration of the mindset necessary to be best-in-class. Digital marketing skill and results require the same type of development to reach superior performance.

I always try to provide clients with some benchmarks for their industry or market segment.  Part of that review is showing what top tier results are. It’s not uncommon to find a trainer, consultant, or professional coach that insists they want to be “the best”. Many can even site competitors or colleagues that they’ve envied and would like to emulate their digital marketing.

However, when the steps to achieve best-in-class are laid out, many people find that it’s unrealistic for them to reach that best-in-class level they desire in the short term.

Don’t be frustrated if you are unable to hit the best-in-class numbers that you desire right away.  Like any professional discipline, amateurs don’t start out as professionals. There is a development process to reach your peak performance.

Best-in-class results require best-in-class effort and execution.  If that level of investment in time, money, or resources is outside your means, focus on being best-in-class for your market segment and then progress to more sophisticated marketing.

Image Courtesy of flickr.com

Internet Marketing
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