#5 DIGITAL MARKETING - Marketing Strategy

• Strategies for creating a social media marketing plan, including setting goals, knowing your brand, analyzing competition, and measuring success. Iwa asked how to stay in front of ideal customers when competing with bigger businesses, and Consistently create and improve content to
• Consistently posting fresh content on a website to improve Google rankings is important. Emphasis on the value of personal connections and asking for support and referrals in growing a business. - PLAY @12:04
• The importance of customer journey and outlined various channels for awareness, conversations, purchase, and retention. The significance of setting annual and daily goals, planning monthly sprints, and reviewing previous content to improve future promotions. - PLAY @23:49
• Strategies for improving online content creation, including researching social trends, creating graphics and captions, and sending out weekly emails. Te importance of maintaining a consistent visual brand across all social media platforms and celebrating successes while staying connected to customers through handwritten notes and personalized messages. - PLAY @35:40
• Various strategies for social media management, including the importance of personalization, consistency, and email marketing. The need to research and analyze competition to improve one's own business. - PLAY @48:00
• Social media management. Use AI to improve content creation and for instance - provided tips for organizing healthy meal prep. - PLAY @1:00:34
• The importance of setting clear goals for creating and repurposing blog content.
• She also assigned the task of creating an about page and three blog topics, and mentioned upcoming workshops on content creation, brand strategy, SEO, and social strategy. - PLAY @1:12:58

PRESENTATION - Download here.

Business Branding List: Get it here.

ABOUT PAGE TIPS:

How To Write Your About Page

Here are some ideas to think about:

Why you are doing this, and what is your motivation?

What your passions are, e.g., reading, swimming, traveling - think about how your customers will identify with you.

Tell mini-stories!  Do you make the product? What inspired the creation of the product? How was the product tested? What obstacles did you overcome to develop the products?

Some ideas for content on your ‘About Us’ page:

1. Mission Statement - TAGLINE 
2. What Are Your Values and Goals? 
3. Outline Your Journey
4. What Was Your 'AHA' Moment?
5. Describe Your Customer
6. What Are They Going To Get (Zappos is a great example)?
7. Brag A LOT
8. Who Are You and Your Team?
9. CTA - Give your customer the next step without them having to leave the page. Link them to the main product (the one you started with), the featured product that you are very proud of, or the one that sells well!

TIPS: 

• Use real people, instead of stock photos, on your website.
• When you shoot videos, look directly into the camera and adopt a friendly and open approach.
• Try to have a photo of employees or customers, and/or a video of employees or customers, on every page of your website.
• A photo or, even better, a video of you would be a fantastic addition to your page and is probably one of the most important things you can add to your page. 
• Think of your environment - where you work and what it looks like? Add those images to your page - for Lynne Bearhardt, the owner of Hugpatrol.com, we showed her in front of her sewing machine working.
• Make sure to write it in the first person, using “I” and “We,” to build more of a personal connection. 
• Authentic stories - real - transparent with connecting with the customers

We are in the social visual age....it is all about images and videos!

The story is just the start. The ‘About Us’ page shouldn’t just tell the story, and that’s it. It should show it. Add some great photos of you with family or friends or your team. Again, this is part of connecting visually with your customers.

If people do business with people and not brands, then what better way to show that there are real people behind your business than to put your team’s picture on your store’s ‘About Us’ page? Even if you only highlight yourself and not your team, it’s a chance to build your personal brand.

Step 2. Formatting your page.

This step is a very essential and important part of your page layout. There are a lot of boring pages that have no images and are not formatted for easy consumption by a website visitor. If something is hard to read and digest, visitors will not linger and identify with you. I mean, you worked hard to get somebody to your page, let them have the best esperience with your information.

Make sure that your story is in a suitable format. I have seen too many ‘About Us’ pages that really look boring and the information is not formatted properly.

• You need to add headers with each section of your story. Make it easy for your customers to skim your information if they want to. Nobody wants to or is inclined to read a LONG paragraph of words. Would you?
• Make your sentences short and readable.
• Do not use complicated language, but make sure a 10-year-old can read it. Make your language easy to read.
• Use a lot of white space.
• Check for grammar mistakes and use appropriate software. There are a few that are really good. Mistakes will still creep in but ask somebody to check for you.

4.1.1

Step 3. Add Appropriate Media

I mention images and videos again for your page. This has to be a great experience for a visitor and content with just text is boring. So add images of the family (they are part of your business journey), add your team and videos are even better.

Then there are those bragging rights. Have you been mentioned in magazines, where have you been featured, any awards, do you contribute as a guest speaker/blogger/writer, etc.? I know for most people this is counterintuitive but it is necessary. Most people are followers. If you seem to be a leader, they will follow you because you are interesting as well as an authority.

Add logos of the magazines and awards. 

Here is the Word Document: Get it here.