Author: cfriedenberg

Crazy, Hectic and No Time for Marketing!

Small business owners know how overwhelming their operations can be.

Perhaps the sales funnel is dry and administrative needs are taking over your  day-to-day functions.  Or clients are in need of a lot of TLC lately and your marketing gets pushed to the wayside.  Is it that your accountant is awaiting your P&L’s to get taxes together?

My advice:  Don’t let your marketing blitz fall apart!

Here are 5 EASY ways to fill your sales funnel this month:

–Send a Quick Email to your clients asking for referrals, testimonials and online reviews.

–Hop Onto LinkedIn and Connect to more friends and professionals as well as local business groups.  Post about what you do for a living every so often to remind others what your business is all about.  Approximately, 10% of your posts may be ‘sales’ related….the remainder should be industry focused.

–Knock on a Few Doors at a local corporate park and hand out fliers (menus, product brochures or your business card).  Follow up with a friendly phone call  and potentially offer a freebie if there is any interest.  If one administrator in the building is a fan of your product or service, the word-of-mouth referrals may start funneling in.

–Call 5-10 Existing Clients with whom you are most comfortable speaking with and ask for referrals. What can you offer them in return?  (It doesn’t necessarily need to be a financial reward..perhaps just a referral for their needs.)

–Keep Up With Your Social Media Accounts with simple posts.  You can post a ‘Quote of the Day’, a ‘Slideshow’ of recent photos or all about an Employee of the month.  Don’t stop the posts to maintain your social media momentum!

For more quick-hit marketing ideas, contact Cheryl Friedenberg at cheryl@highkeyimpact.com, www.highkeyimpact.com

6 Free Ways To Promote Your Small Business

With the opportunity growing daily for small businesses to utilize social media marketing opportunities as a sales tool, many business owners are not taking advantage of the many freebies provided.
As small business owners focus on sales, budgets, daily customer deliveries and P&L’s, social media marketing may take a back seat.
What are the lesser-known easy-to-use tools to help small businesses grow their online presence?  Here are just a few:

Facebook Slideshow
Cheryl FriedenbergGo to your Facebook Business Page, Create a new post and click Share a photo or video.  This drop down menu will show you several options with ‘Create a Slideshow’ towards the bottom.  Click the button and Facebook will walk you through the process.  You may add several photos, text and audio to your slides.  In the end, the slideshow is just as impactful as a video!
Analytics from Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
With a business account, you will have immediate access to your daily, weekly and monthly views, clicks, likes, comments and more.  Analytics are designed to inform the business owner what types of posts, ads and content works best for their pages.
Customer Video Testimonials
Have a happy customer or client?  Have a cell phone or mobile device?  It’s that easy to record their story and experiences utilizing your product or service and share it on your pages and/or platforms.
Google Tools
Sign into your Google My Business account and go to Google Optimize, where you may  now sign up for a Beta test.  From Google’s page:  “Whether it’s a custom-tailored message at checkout or a completely revamped homepage, Optimize shows you which site experiences engage and delight your customers, and gives you the solutions you need to deliver them.”
Google also is providing a Data Studio to take analytics and transform the data into reports, graphs and spreadsheets.  Click here for the Google Data Studio.
Video Marketing Tools
Vimeo, Wistia and You Tube all offer free online versions to create and market video promotions, testimonials and your business story.  If you haven’t heard the news, video is overtaking the social media market by storm and is the ultimate platform to reach the widest audience.  Make a small business video today.
 Family and Friends
Did you know that the simplest way to spread the word about your small business is through your existing network of friends and family.  Post on your personal Facebook and LinkedIn pages all about what your business offers.  Ask family members and friends to like your page and share content.  If you have 500+ friends on Facebook, think about what that means for your reach!
What tools do you already use for your small business?
Use the hashtag #highkeyimpact and tell us what you use…

Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses to do’s

How does a small business owner begin a social media marketing campaign?  What does it take to do it correctly?  

I’ve narrowed this process down to several small steps so that your business can see growth and results within only a few months.  Why not make 2017 the year your business reaches new heights?

Start by doing this…


Hire a Professional.  Freelancer or Part-Time Employee.  Or perhaps a current employee can build their  resume by learning social media marketing from an expert and taking on this project within your organization.

Optimize your Website.  Make sure it is mobile-friendly and has all of the back-end SEO set up correctly.  Your hire from above will help you with this.

Define your Audience. Based upon your audience demographics, you can easily decide (along with your marketing expert) which social media platforms would be the best fit.  For example, a senior citizen audience —and utilizing Snapchat as a tool to reach them— would not be a good fit—Facebook is the ideal choice here.

Start Small. If you delve into too many social media accounts and do not maintain them properly, your brand may take a hit.  Take your time with it.  Build a Facebook page, create content, develop your Likes and build a solid Facebook presence…  Once it’s a well-oiled machine, branch out from there.

Send out Email Newsletters. Whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, sending a company email to your customers on a consistent basis is crucial to keeping your name in front of them.  If you miss out on a buying opportunity versus a competitor, most likely your email campaign is not engaging or content-rich.  Make your newsletters worthwhile; say something important and provocative to grab their attention.

Become a Blogger. You know your products/services inside and out and, most likely, are an expert in your field.  Why not write about it?  If you are not a terrific writer, you have many options for a ghost writer… including your administrator, marketing team or a team member with a writing passion.  Add the blog to your website, and voila!, you have automatic content for social media posts.

Images and Video Rock Social Media. Online content telling your product’s story through video or photos will receive the widest reach of viewership versus just posting text and words.  Even better, a happy customer’s photo using your product or service is one of the most powerful content tools available to reach your prospects.

Paid Ads Blow Away Organic Search. In order to get the most bang for your buck, start with paid ads via Google AdWords Express,  Facebooks post Boosts or Facebook local awareness campaigns.  Organic (or unpaid search) is becoming more difficult to obtain since search algorithms seem to change on a daily or weekly basis.  If your organic results are nil, a paid campaign of only $5/day could do the trick.

Check out the Results. Social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and others have analytics to show you how your page is performing.  Let the numbers speak for themselves and compare your business to online profiles of your competitors.  This will help you seek out where you need to grow your presence online.

 

Feel free to comment below with your small business social media marketing experiences.

 

Cheryl Friedenberg

Marketing Consultant

High Key Impact, LLC

Highkeyimpact.com

Cheryl@highkeyimpact.com

6 Ways to Send Better Small Business Emails

 

Email marketing takes up a lot of time and effort.  Many small businesses either try to do it themselves or hire vendors to help them.  Either way, it’s important for emails to be as effective as possible.

Here are 6 tips for small business email marketing newsletters:

  1.  Use an email marketing platform such as AWeber, MailChimp or Constant Contact.  These online tools allow you build email lists, create unique newsletters or emails and give you reports and feedback helping you improve your next send.
  2. Continue to build your list.  Have an email sign-up landing page on your website, post a text to sign-up icon on social media sites and utilize many of the sign-up tools your email marketing platform provides.
  3. Your Subject line should rock!  ABC company newsletter for March, 2016 does not cut it anymore.  As one who is probably inundated with emails, you should realize that standing out in a subject line is critical to get your email opened.  If you are serious about getting  your mail opened, write a subject line such as the following:   ‘especially for you’, ‘welcome to’, ‘don’t buy…until you read this’, ‘how to….’, ‘what if…’, ‘5 experts share their ……’, ‘avoid these’, ‘am I the only one who…’, ’10 hacks to…’.  There are more— but you probably get the idea.
  4. Keep it short and sweet.  Did you ever receive an email where you scrolled down 5 or 6 (or more?!) pages to see all of the content.  Try to keep your content visible within 2 pages.  Three or four main articles along with small snippets of information is typically an ideal.
  5. Use visuals.   Images speak louder than words.  This is truly the case for any online communication today.  Use high resolution photos or  create your own visual through a platform such as Canva.com.
  6. Timing counts!  Your email program may offer suggested times/days to send your email.  Listen to their ideas.  Especially if you are unsure about your audience, let the email marketing manager do the work for you.  Tuesdays, early morning at about 5:30/6:00am is typically suggested on Constant Contact.

Email marketing is a non-negotiable tool to use when you want to keep your brand in front of customers.  In order to send emails with a professional flair, utilize an expert within your business, hire a marketing consultant or outsource a marketing company.  This will give your business the face it needs to show in front of your most valuable asset, the customer!

Cheryl Friedenberg, Marketing Consultant
High Key Impact LLC
www.highkeyimpact.com
cheryl@highkeyimpact.com

Is September Going To Get Busy?

Are you gearing up for busy season? There are several ways your business should prepare for a Fall marketing blitz!

1.  Video Marketing

By using Facebook Live on your Facebook Business Page or Shooting a short message to your customers on your IPad, there are exponential results seen from Video Marketing versus typical channels.  I recently experimented with several clients and Facebook Live–the results were astounding!

2.  Paid Ads

Facebook Boosts or a Google Adwords Campaign generate a multitude of viewers to your local or nationally based business.  Each paid platform has specific advantages, however, if your presence on Facebook needs a push, I would recommend a $5-10/day ad budget, especially when promoting a local business.  You may customize your audience specific to geography, age, gender and more!

3.  SEO

If your website’s SEO has not been looked into or changed for over a year, it’s time to revisit Search Engine Optimization.  Speak to your website’s manager and discuss how your business has received leads, transitioned it’s focus or what you believe brings customers to your front door.  This will help those keywords, meta descriptions and tags for Search purposes.  SEO takes several weeks to catch up to changes, so start now!
For help & guidance with all of the above, call Cheryl at 215 514 8271, or email cheryl@highkeyimpact.com

4 Ways to Obtain Reviews

 

Google search your business name. Try it now. See what comes up? How often do you do this?
Now Google your business name and the word ‘reviews’. How does it look now? Hopefully all 5-stars? If not, let’s talk about your next steps to make your online review presence top notch.

When a customer is thinking about doing business with you, one of the first things a savvy prospective customer will do is search your online reviews.
I do it all of the time when trying to decide between various retailers, services or anyone with whom I’d like to purchase from.  Do you?

What can your small business can do to help amp up those online reviews?  Several suggestions below, 4 Ways to Obtain Reviews, will do the trick:

1. Ask for reviews via phone calls to happy customers.
Your salespeople are in touch with your customers on a daily or weekly basis.  Their goal should be to call satisfied clients periodically inviting a review.
Request their reviews on a specific site such as Facebook, Yelp, Google + or other popular review platform best for your business.  Most likely, the customer will need to have an account on these platforms.  Provide the URL to your review page.  Make it as simple as possible for them to accomplish this.

2.  Answer all reviews whether good or bad.
Post an apology for a bad review stating that you appreciate the feedback and will use their comments to help better your business.  Offer a discount the next time the reviewer purchases from you.  Additionally, give positive reviews the same attention.  ‘Like’ the post and thank the customer for taking the time out to review your business.  Be sure to have an administrator monitoring online reviews every day.

3.  Testimonials.
Do you have any testimonials on your website or social media pages?  By creating a testimonial page, especially on your website, you can periodically share it to your social media followers.
The most effective way to elicit testimonial responses is to ask customers for a 2-3 sentence summary of their experience with your location or services.  Video testimonials, as you can imagine, are even more powerful.  If a happy customer walks in, use your cell phone or tablet to video a 20-30 second clip of your customer giving rave reviews.  Always ask for permission first!  Use the video clip on your website and social media sites.

4.  Referrals.
We all know ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising is the most enterprising tool to grow your business.  How much do you or your staff ask for referrals?  Make referrals a priority when dealing with every satisfied customer.  If your business is doing a stellar job, customers enjoy spreading positive experiences via the grapevine.

Reviews, testimonials and referrals are a key piece of the marketing puzzle for small businesses. If business owners focus on sales and customer service, 5-star reviews, outstanding testimonials and widespread referrals will be an easy prospect.

 

Small Business Talk: Taking Baby Steps

 

A new client I’ve recently acquired is a self-proclaimed ‘old-fashioned’ marketer. His small business promotes itself via print ads, he never really did much email marketing and the idea of a Facebook page is foreign.  This has become a tremendous challenge for me as a social media marketer and I’m embracing this by taking slow simple steps, knowing his business is on-board with the plan.

Here is my timeline for easing his business into social media marketing:

  1. (Month 1)
    Create and establish a Facebook page.  
    The best way for a non-Facebook user to gain a following on Facebook (besides suggesting the page to his email address book) is to Boost his page for likes.  Additionally, I know he doesn’t mind giving out handouts at his point of sale  retail location, so I will create a flyer with his Facebook page URL and reasons why customers should like the business page.
    In order to get a sense of what types of posts work best on the Facebook page, I’ll test various offers, product information and industry-related news article posts.
  2. (Month 2)
    Work on the website’s SEO.
    Several suppliers to this business operate their own websites with the opportunity to link back to my client’s website.  By digging deeper into the suppliers’ websites, I will confirm his website is linked on their ‘find a location’ pages.   Check Google, Bing and other search engines to optimize each of their free search tools for businesses.
    Build an email list.
    This client used an email marketing tool very sparingly over the past couple of years and ceased to continue utilizing it.  My goal is to convince the business owner that with the right email message, he will generate more awareness of his business and bring in more clientele to shop.
    Boost a popular Facebook post.
    Facebook page insights are helpful to see which posts are reaching the most users.  By boosting this post, the business will reach a wider and targeted audience for more exposure.
  3. (Month 3)
    Begin an email marketing campaign sparingly.
    By using analytics and proving the emails are converting customers, we can catapult into a full-scale email schedule with content including staff profiles, promotions, testimonials and product information.
  4. (Month 4)
    Continue to show results.
    Insights, Analytics and in-store statistics are the best tools for showing a retail business owner how social media marketing is growing his sales numbers.
    Introduce the concept of Blogging, Video Live-streaming and an additional Social Media Platform.
    Choose one of the above with the client’s input and test it out.By taking small, incremental baby steps with this particular client (or any others with the same hesitations), a marketing consultant can showcase their business into a modern, cool, hip and trendy place to buy their products!

Small Business Tips and Tricks When Posting Online

To the small business owner, the social media world may seem like a simple undertaking.  Post on our Business Facebook page here and there, update my LinkedIn profile and try my hand at Instagram.  Do this and that, read an article here and there and BOOM!—-my business will take off… all because I started a social media presence.

You probably realize my point already.  Social Media Marketing is not as easy as it may seem.

In order to have your posts seen and heard, first you need a following.  Then your posts need to be engaging. And finally, a call-to-action is the glue that binds it all together.

When jumping onto social media platforms, here are some tips and tricks to make your time more effective:

  1. Decide Which Platform Will Give You the Biggest Push

Is your business B2C or B2B?  What are you selling; a service or product?  Who is your audience and what is your message? Just because you use Facebook for your personal posts does not necessarily translate into the same for your business posts.  Research each social media platform, see where your competitors have a strong presence and adjust your game accordingly.

2.  Add Links, Photos and Videos

If you post a sentence about your product, service or industry, back up your statement with a link.  Standalone text posts sitting out on the social media world tend to get lost.  Add a link to your website or contact page.  Or link to an article you found on the web.

Photos are even more powerful than links when it comes to social media.  A picture may tell a story about your customers benefiting from your services, feature a staff member profile or simply showcase what your business is all about.

Finally, the icing on the cake is video.  Videos are the most likely post to be liked, shared and viewed.  Use video to showcase your product or service, feature a client testimonial or talk about your business and what makes it unique. There are several high-quality video apps available on your cellphone.  Shop around to see what works best.

3.  Timing is Everything

Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat all have specified times of day and days of week when your post will reach the most views.  Research your social media platforms to find out the ultimate publishing schedule for your business.

4.  Seduce Your Followers
Think about what posts on social media platforms you would personally click before you post about your own business. When you publish on your own business pages, try not to give the entire point of your post away in your text. Build anticipation of what may be in the actual post so that users will click on your link or video.  Ask a question, give a hint and keep them guessing.  Generate suspense so that your followers will keep coming back to your posts for more!

5.  Need Help?
Professional Marketers are tuned-in to what it takes to succeed in digital marketing.  Hiring an expert consultant or an in-house staffer is the most effective path in creating a influential online presence.  Contact cheryl@highkeyimpact.com for a free 1-hour consultation. www.highkeyimpact.com

Top 3 Marketing Headlines This Week

To keep you up-to-date on the latest digital marketing news for small businesses, take a look at the top 3 marketing headlines this week.

New Looks This Week:  The social media world is being changed around forever with 2 very different changes for marketers, businesses and individuals.  First, Instagram changed the design of it’s ever-famous icon to look brighter and bolder.  Second, Twitter is reportedly coming out with new criteria for its 140-character limit, which may exclude links and photos.  Are we saying goodbye to Bit.ly and Google URL shortener?

Video is rocking and rolling into more and more mainstream social media posts every day.  Here is a great article how you can DIY video streaming or snippets to show your best face!  Contact us if you would like to test out You Tube’s Directr For Business as it’s an easy way to create high quality video.

Is Email Marketing Dead?  Especially among Generation Z and Millennials, there has been discussion in the marketing world about how these groups do not embrace email.  Well, it’s wrong.  Not only is email marketing thriving among younger audiences, the mobile-version is growing ever-so-strong!  Make sure your email campaigns are mobile-friendly and adaptable to all screens.
Email marketing is alive and kicking!

Have any news you want to share with us?  Contact cheryl@highkeyimpact.com with your marketing insight and tips!

 

 

10 Marketing Pet Peeves

It’s allergy season and you know what that means.
The itching, sneezing and wheezing associated with little annoyances in the air.  The beauty of spring flowers blooming and green plants budding has an ugly side too.  Do you suffer too?
Let me tell you something.
There are many other frustrations in this world which have the same effect on me as allergies—I’m sure the same for you.   Let’s focus on digital marketing for small business.

I’ve conjured up 10 Marketing-Related Annoyances.  Tell me what you think?

Infographics with small print, too much information on one sheet and no clear-cut format.
I’m not going to show examples of bad infographics as I’m not a hater.  So instead, I’ve found a couple of examples with infographics done right.

The text size and font is easy-to-read, there is a clear message for the readers and the information is simply presented.

Overposting about Me, My Business, Call me, and I can help you.
A general rule of thumb is 80% sharing content about your industry and 20% self-promotion.

Misspelled words
Use spellcheck, please.

Mixing politics or religion with business.
It’s a clear way to turn off clients.  Don’t even get pulled into the conversation on your personal Facebook page.  You never know who it may offend.

Not answering negative comments or reviews.
Allowing negative reviews to fester or bring down your ratings without a response is likened to watching someone get badly hurt and not helping.
All you need to do when negative post appears is to post a response from the management regarding a bad review and say you are sorry for their experience and your business does not take these mistakes lightly.  Offer a freebie to this particular customer as an incentive to come back.

Giving your brand an uneducated ‘voice’.
I have seen many small business Facebook pages where the business owner posts about their work.   Some of these are true epic fails with misspelled words, improper grammar and no punctuation.
If you have any doubts about how your ‘voice’ sounds, it’s best to hire a professional for the job.

Fuzzy or smashed photos.
Only use high-quality, correctly sized images or your brand will suffer.

A Google search which misses the mark.
Sign up for Google My Business so that you always appear on searches.
Additionally, ensure the competition is below you on Google and other rankings.

A website not optimized for Mobile.
Ever read an article on your device which has margins wide enough for 3 words. Mobile-Friendly websites are a necessity in this day and age.

Lack of posting or over posting on social media.
Do you hear crickets on a social media platform or is someone tagging everyone like mad for their 20-second interval posts?  Keep it consistently active within preferred norms.

I’d love to hear your pet peeves too!  Comment below.

Cheryl Friedenberg
President, High Key Impact LLC
cheryl@highkeyimpact.com
Highkeyimpact.com