Fast Marketing Minute

Everybody loves a story, and it’s important that every brand tells theirs.  Now, thanks to social media, you have the ability to share even more stories to build an audience. Let’s look at Instagram.

Here are 4 tips to create better stories on Instagram that will win attention and gain followers 

Hashtags and geotags are your friend. Find out what hashtags your target audience uses and follows. Try to use them in your stories, but make sure they’re relevant. Just like people click on hashtags to see more posts that are similar, people click on geotags to see what else is going on at that location. Be what’s going on.

Schedule your stories with tools like Later. Take that a step further and maximize your results finding the best times to post, which is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. by the way. With automation, you don’t need to remember or make sure you’re at any one place.  Scheduling also allows you to visually plan and see what story will be posted when, so you can create a flow of fresh and interesting content for your followers.

Use stickers. Stickers are a fun way to make your story stand out. They make your stories seem more light-hearted and playful, which they should be, even if you’re sharing something simple like a blog or business announcement.

Don’t forget to analyze your results. Look at your impressions, reach, replies, tap-throughs and bounces. This will tell you what types of stories your audience is enjoying and what maybe isn’t working. Tweak accordingly. And as I often say to my clients, find out what works and rinse and repeat.

I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. Want marketing and PR tips delivered to your inbo? Sign up for my top 40 small business marketing blog, Robin’s Rainmakers. It’s at RobinSamora.com/blog. Talk tomorrow!

Everyone can benefit from a virtual assistant, especially small business owners and solopreneurs who have just too much to do! VA’s have all kinds of skills, from generalized admin capabilities to marketing and tech, and back end to front end website work.

So how could a Virtual Assistant help you with your marketing?

VA’s can help you filter communication. You probably get 100 emails per day. A VA can filter them for you, prioritize client emails, respond to customer questions, send contracts, delete spam and more. Having someone do these tasks can win you back at least a couple hours of your day. And if you trust your VA, he or she will be one of your greatest team members and assets. 

VA’s can also take care of tedious tasks. A virtual assistant can do research, collect data, create reports - all the things that you need to do but hate doing or don’t have time for. We all know it’s important to look at your website analytics, but you may not have the time, or perhaps don’t know how to even read the reports.

Your super star VA can also help streamline your marketing. A big reason entrepreneurs outsource a VA is to help with digital marketing. They can put together your monthly newsletter, keep up to date with competitors and watch trends.  Some may even manage your social media by creating profiles, posting content, and responding to comments. More tech-savvy VAs can keep your website up-to-date, build landing pages and do your SEO. Again - usually things you know you need to do,  but never have time for.

If you aren’t sold, think of what your time is worth. Is it worth paying someone to handle it? Then take a few things off your plate. Let go of the reins and hire someone to help you. Then you can focus on the more important tasks of running your business.

I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. Ask me about the tasks you can give a VA to help get time back -- and build sales. You can reach me at RobinSamora.com. Talk tomorrow!

A marketer’s job is to get attention. But not only get attention, grow sales, credibility, leadership position, and market share. Essentially, our job in marketing is to build brand awareness and bring in more sales. These are hundreds of ways you can grow a brand and sales, but today, let’s talk about word of mouth strategy. 

Here are 3 Word of Mouth Strategies to Get Attention and Expand Your Outreach 

Use influencer marketing. Find an influencer who has an audience you’d love to reach. You want someone who aligns with your brand values, is in your budget and has lots of engagement on his or her posts. Influencers already have a strong social relationship with your target market, so use them. You can read more about influencer marketing in my Marketing Trends and Insights for 2020 blog at RobinSamora.com.

Run Contests. Ask people to share a post, a review or to enter a contest. Your goal is to create buzz and excitement, and get lots of shares. Pick a prize that people will be excited about, so they’ll take action. The prize doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s human nature for people to be competitive, they want to win! Don’t forget to also have your followers (or prospects) fill out a form with their name and email, so you can put them in your sales funnel.

Have happy employees. A happy customer could generate referral business, but a happy employee becomes a brand ambassador for you. Keep your staff in the loop on new products, company news and other updates. Employees like to be informed on what’s happening with their company, so they don’t get important news, elsewhere. It makes you look bad and has your employees looking elsewhere -- for a job. 

The best practice is to encourage your employees, vendors, partners, and colleagues to follow you on social media, too. If you post relevant content that they like, they’ll probably share it because they like what you’re doing, and what you’re up to. 

I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. Are you looking to up your marketing game and get new business? I’d love to write a customized marketing and PR plans to help you.  Let’s meet on Zoom. Email me at [email protected]  Talk tomorrow!

Listening to what the customer wants has always been important in marketing, but with machine learning, we’re taking that to a whole new level.

Social listening analyzes reactions to a product or service. This includes looking at brand mentions, online reviews and interactions with users on a company’s social media.

Of course, there’s technology you can buy that gathers all of this information, plugs it into an algorithm and tells you where you’re exceeding expectations and where you’re lacking. 

Most social scheduling tools have social monitoring built in. Hootsuite and Buffer both have inboxes that allow you to monitor and respond to brand mentions.  Monitoring your mentions and engaging with your audience is only part of the puzzle for social listening though.

Buffer gives you analytics on engagement and audience behavior. That’s social listening -- looking at the data as a whole to find trends, outliers and abnormalities. It gives you a better understanding of the public’s views of your company as a whole. 

Once you have this intel, you can use this ‘bigger picture’ to tweak your brand strategy. Up your marketing game on what you’re doing well on. Or, scoring well on.  Listening also allows you to see trends in issues with your product or service, so you can fix the problem -- and take care of it right away.

I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I’ve just written a special report on Social PR Trends. Would you like a copy? Download it at RobinSamora.com/SocialPR. Talk tomorrow!

Want to be a social media influencer? First you need to find your niche. This should be a highly targeted audience, not just moms 25-34. You also need to look at their values. What do they believe in? What’s important to them? Zero in on exactly who you’re talking to and why. And, be as specific as possible.

While most people think influencers are only on Instagram, there are plenty of influencers on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest. Instagram definitely has the highest number, but if a different platform suits your brand and your audience, use that channel instead. Just keep your content and target market in mind when you make your final decision.

Next, create your content strategy, remembering your business goals, keywords, and what topics will speak to your audience. Customize your message for each platform and research when and how your target market is using them. It’s a given, for example, that most people use social media on their phones and high-use times are usually lunch time and after dinner. Get deeper into your audience. 

Remember that video content is the most watched. And people love how-to’s, so a short video tutorial that’s not too complicated, may be perfect.

The last step is to engage and keep growing your audience. Always answer your followers’ comments and interact with some of their content, too. One of the best ways I’ve found to grow your following is through blogging. Just be sure that if you share content, it’s what your target market wants to read or watch. Guest blogging or guest video appearances will help you get attention too, plus add important backlinks. 

This is Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. If you like these podcasts, I’d love a review on your Alexa app or at FastMarketingMinute.com/review. Thanks and talk tomorrow!

Over 80% of content on the internet is video and most of it is being watched on YouTube. In fact, over 300 hours of videos are uploaded every minute and 5 billion videos are watched every day. No surprise that YouTube is one of the most popular and effective platforms to gain visibility.

If you want to get better traction on YouTube, here are 4 YouTube Tricks You Need to Know

* Upload your own written transcription to get better search results. If you have subtitles on your videos, it makes them more searchable, plus it makes it easier for people to watch if they’re in a place where they can’t turn on sound. If you’re tech-savvy, you can upload a time-stamped transcript (here’s the specifics).You can do it the simpler way too of pasting your full transcript, and YouTube will automatically upload it.

* To get an extra kick before you even make your video, use Google Trends to research what search terms are popular on YouTube right now. Including some of these keywords in your video and subtitles can help your video get noticed. More eyeballs and clicks to your social and landing pages, add to your overall ROI.

* Design your own end screen to promote additional content you want to feature. Create a simple graphic that highlights other material you want to promote. That might be another video, a new lead magnet, or an ask -- asking viewers to subscribe to your channel, or maybe all three. ‘Howfinity’ has a great video explaining how to do it. Get the link by visiting this podcast at fastmarketingminute.com.

* You can also create a GIF from any video. They get a ton of attention on social media. If you have something that you think is “GIFable,” aka funny or visually interesting in your video, you can make it into a GIF. Here’s how. Go to your video, then in the URL at the top, add the word “gif” in front of “YouTube,” so it reads www.gifyoutube.com and then your video tag. Yes, it actually works.

 

This is Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute.  Looking for more visibility? Download a copy of 52 Marketing and PR Ideas to Get Attention. You can find it at RobinSamora.com/52tips. Talk tomorrow!

 

It’s coming to the point that if you have a business, but don’t have a website, no one will be able to find you or know what you do. Having a website is non-negotiable if you’re in business.

But how often do you need a new one and what should you be paying?

If you have a simple website, think about redesigning it every 3-4 years to keep your business looking fresh and up-to-date. Technology and aesthetics are always changing, and you want to stay current with your products and services.

So how much should a website cost you?

It varies by each website’s needs, but the average, let me repeat the average, is around $6760 according to FreshBooks.This cost includes setup, design, content creation, and ongoing maintenance of a basic website. This may sound like a huge cost for your small business, but you’re paying for a designer’s time and expertise.

If this is out of your budget, there are plenty of designers who will do it for less and I’ve used many of them bringing in a website cost under $2,500 depending of course on how many pages, functionality, shopping carts, forms, and so on. The best thing to do is to check with local designers you know and trust, and companies that have websites that you like. You can also look at online resources like Upwork and Freelancer. Just keep in mind that you typically get what you pay for and if you’re fussy, you’ll always pay more.

Want to do it yourself? That’s fine too. Keep in mind, a recent survey found that 60% of websites take between 11 and 40 hours to build -- for a web designer. Expect that even with a template, it will take you significantly longer since you aren’t an expert. If you think you have time for that, then I suggest using simple drag-and-drop websites like Wordpress, Wix or Weebly. If you have an ecommerce store, Shopify is probably your best, easiest option.

I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. Confused about what to do with your website?  Schedule a complimentary 20-minute Zoom call with me at RobinSamora.com. Talk tomorrow!

Today I wanted to talk about one trend that we have to be aware of, and that’s being more watchful of fake news. Unfortunately, it’s a big problem. Big companies and small companies are putting policies and procedures into place to prevent fake news from affecting their businesses. Some are even enlisting the help of innovative software. Small businesses can protect themselves too, by creating Google Alerts for brand mentions or with social media monitoring tools that are free. Here’s an example from Talkwalker.

Another PR nightmare are deep fake videos. These are videos that face-swap a person in the video. That means you could have a video of a convenience store robbery and put a famous actor’s face on the perpetrator, making it look like he/she did it when in fact it’s a doctored video. Videos can be easily manipulated to discredit a business, a politician, a CEO, or a brand. Some people do it in their spare time and think it’s fun. But it’s no fun, if it’s aimed at you, and there could be a huge reputation, emotional, and possible financial risk.

Social media platforms, tech companies, and the government are all working to filter out fake news, to create a detection tool to see what’s real -- and what’s not. Again, monitoring your brand online and being aware of personal mentions can help avoid a potential nightmare -- or at least put it in front of you so you can act quickly if there’s a problem. You’ve worked hard to create a top-notch brand and image, and you have every right to protect it.

This is Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. If you’re looking for ways to protect your brand, as well as grow your visibility, contact me. I’m at RobinSamora.com.Talk tomorrow!

 

Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. And how can you know everything? You can’t. Especially about marketing. Today, I wanted to talk about four things you may not know that’s affecting your search ranking and SEO.

* Avoid writing content that’s too short. Content for the average page one search result is 1890 words. Don’t freak out! You don’t have to be writing books on every topic. Write until you’ve said what you need to say. Keep a blog or article in-depth enough for it to be worth reading, but don’t add a bunch of fillers to get to 1000 words. Quality over quantity still applies here.

* Have a mobile-friendly website that includes your blog. You want to be sure your website and all of its pages look good on a mobile device and definitely a phone. If your mobile site looks just like your desktop site or it doesn’t look or function as well as the desktop, it can tank your SEO. Mobile traffic now accounts for half of web traffic, so you could be losing conversions of half your visitors -- that’s 50% of your traffic.

* Don’t plagiarize. Part of researching a new blog is reading others, analyzing data from case studies and looking at current trends. But, don’t copy someone else’s work. And if you have someone writing for you, make sure they aren’t plagiarizing your content. It’s bad for SEO and horrible for your reputation. There are tools like Duplichecker and PaperRater that check for plagiarizing content.

* Having too many links. Having internal links to your other content and external links to tools or websites you recommend are great. Don’t have too many though. That gets spammy fast. There’s no magic number, but try to only use them when it seems natural.

This is Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. Want me to check out your website? Get in touch with me at RobinSamora.com for a complimentary evaluation. Talk tomorrow!

Reddit is the number three website in the world with 1.2 million subreddits and 330+ million monthly users. Needless to say, it’s a good place for you to be interacting with your target audience.

Check out Reddit and subscribe to a few subreddits (online communities on specific topics) that your audience would be interested in, or that fits your industry or brand. The best way to start is by interacting on posts. Getting involved with a conversation. Like every platform, just make sure you follow the rules, because each subreddit has its own. Once you feel confident, you can post your own conversation starters and monitor them to gain authority.

Reddit is the perfect place to reach a niche audience for free and to establish yourself as an expert. If you don’t seem to be gaining traction in one subreddit, you can migrate to another. The only investment you’ve lost is time. But, like everything else, there’s a learning curve, so be patient.

On Reddit, you’ll have an opportunity to post product or service information on your personal page, and that includes ads and promotions. But posting about your business on Reddit shouldn’t be your primary goal.  Think about creating genuine interactions and engagement, so people will like, know and trust you -- and believe in you and your services.

If you’re new to Reddit, check out my blog on this topic that’s a little more in-depth. And start out on a personal level to dabble before getting involved for your business. For example, if you love gardening, join a gardening subreddit and start interacting there first.

This is Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. Are you looking for marketing and PR ideas to grow your business? Schedule a free PR Evaluation at RobinSamora.com/contact. Talk tomorrow!