Blogging is a great way to connect with your audience and grow your business. It can help you share your ideas and stories with a wider audience, and it can help you build relationships with potential customers and partners.
A blog is an online journal or publication containing information about a particular topic. It can be used to communicate your company’s message, attract new customers, and showcase your products and services. A blog can also help you stay up-to-date on industry trends, build relationships with potential clients, and learn more about your competition. Therefore, it is important for businesses of all sizes to have a blog presence.
Here are 5 reasons a blog is important for your business.
1. Blogging Can Help You Connect With Your Audience
Blogging can help you build relationships with your audience. You can connect with your readers on a personal level, and you can also engage with them on a more professional level. This can help you create a connection with your audience that is valuable and lasting.
2. Blogging Can Help You Share Your Ideas And Stories With A Wider Audience
Blogging can help you share your ideas and stories with a wider audience. You can write about topics that are relevant to your audience, and you can also write about topics that are of interest to a wider audience. This can help you reach a wider audience and build a stronger relationship with your readers.
3. Blogging Can Help You Build Relationships With Potential Customers And Partners
Blogging can help you build relationships with potential customers and partners. You can connect with your readers on a personal level, and you can also build relationships with potential customers and partners on a more professional level. This can help you build strong relationships with your customers and partners and increase the chances of success for your business.
4. Blogging Can Help with Your Websites SEO
Blogging can be a great way to help improve your website’s SEO. By creating new content on a regular basis, you can help attract new visitors to your site and improve your position in search engine results pages. Additionally, by engaging with your readers and encouraging them to share your content, you can help build links back to your site which can further improve your SEO.
5. Blogging Can Help You Create Content for Social Media
If you’re looking for a way to create content for social media, consider starting a blog. A blog can help you share your thoughts and ideas with a wider audience, and it can also give you something to post on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Plus, if you build up a following for your blog, you may even be able to make some money from it.
Conclusion
Blogging is a great way to connect with your audience, share your ideas and stories with a wider audience, and build relationships with potential customers and partners. So why not start a blog today?
Marketing and psychology go hand in hand. You can’t have a strong marketing plan without understanding how your ideal client thinks. What makes one piece of marketing stand out – while another piece flops?
Here are a 6 hacks when it comes to using psychology in your marketing:
FOMO
The human brain is wired to avoid losses and seek equivalent gains. We are always on the lookout for a better deal, and that includes online. Modern studies show we prefer not to lose out when there’s an opportunity of gaining something else instead – just like in practice! One great example would be how Amazon has these “Deal Of The Day” offers where you can get savings by setting up timing so it happens automatically every day at specific times (and they make us buy faster too).
The Zeigarnik Effect
The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency for tasks which have been interrupted and uncompleted to be better remembered than tasks which have been completed. We all know that feeling of looking away from your desk and realizing you’ve been sitting there for 30 minutes without doing anything. You don’t want to forget about those unfinished tasks, but it’s hard when you constantly need reminders!
E-Commerce platforms use SMS marketing as one way they remind their previous customers about left in cart items soakers get them completed–and this works because we humans treasure our time more than anything else.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way.
Cognitive dissonance strategies that require a consumer to reconcile two conflicting views by buying a product can be effective in marketing, especially if the reconciliation of opposing views protects or enhances the consumer’s self-image.
For instance, you consider yourself a savvy automotive enthusiast. In the course of a visit to a high-end auto dealership, the salesperson emphasizes that “a lot of Americans aren’t sophisticated enough to understand why this car is actually a great buy.” On the one hand, if you resist the sales pitch for this very expensive car, you appear unsophisticated; on the other hand, if you agree, then you’re progressing down the marketing patch toward the purchase of a car you can’t afford.
Faced with this kind of cognitive dissonance, many consumers will go along with the sales pitch to avoid being viewed as an unsophisticated person without the real knowledge required to fully appreciate the car.
Decoy Effect
This Psychology Hack is ruined now as its not just limited to marketers. Viral videos have educated everyone about this but it still works.
In Decoy effect, you use a product with 3 Tiers and the price of 2nd and 3rd product tier has a small difference which makes customer go for the 3rd and most expensive tier.
A common example is Starbucks Pricing strategy A large coffee is $6.5, Medium is $6 and the Small is $5. This pricing makes you go for the large as the difference is small and you think you are actually saving on choosing the large coffee.
Pricing Protocol
Does the way you write a price make it seem higher or lower? Of course! We already know that including a currency symbol can have a negative effect – that’s why you see some restaurants pricing a steak at “29” instead of “$29”. But new research shows that punctuation and decimals can make a difference in how people perceive prices.
According to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, prices that have more syllables when spoken actually seem higher to consumers. Commas (e.g., “$1,699”) and cents after the decimal (e.g., “1699.00”) add to the number of syllables and hence make the price seem to be of higher magnitude. This effect occurs even when the price is written and not spoken – our brains, they say, use the auditory representation in storing the magnitude of the price even when the price is only seen visually.
The effect is due to the way one would express the number verbally: “One thousand six hundred ninety nine,” for the comma version, vs. “sixteen ninety nine” for the unpunctuated version. Visual length may also be a factor.
Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon, popularized by Dr. Robert Cialdini, that describes our tendency to rely on the opinions or actions of others to inform our own. Also known as informational social influence, it validates a shopper’s choice, saying that it’s worth their time, money, or interest by using other people as proof.
Whether you’re familiar with social proof or not, chances are it has influenced decisions, both big and small, throughout your life. Leveraging the appeal of following the “wisdom of the crowd,” social proof captures our attention because we’re naturally curious about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what the correct behavior or response is.
Social proof makes people pause to pay attention to a brand because others are saying that it’s worth paying attention to.
Marketing is a very tricky business. You have to be aware of your audience’s behavior, as well as the underlying motivation that would impact their buying decisions in order for your marketing campaign or plan to work effectively- which can sometimes seem almost too difficult!
Having that foundation in psychology can greatly improve your marketing strategy. I don’t believe there isn’t a marketer out there who doesn’t appreciate the psychology behind their marketing.
If you’re looking to grow your Instagram following and take your branding to the next level, you need to listen to today’s podcast. Natalie Suppes, an Instagram expert with nearly 32,000 followers, is here to share her tips with us. She’ll teach us how to be more consistent on Instagram, let the algorithm work for us, niche down, and more! So whether you’re just starting out on Instagram or you’ve been using it for a while but haven’t seen the results you want, this podcast is for you. Don’t overcomplicate Instagram – it’s really not that difficult to use once you know what you’re doing. So tune in and start elevating your brand today!
Natalie Suppes started using Instagram as a way to document her health journey after learning she had Crohn’s disease. After seeing success with her own account, she began working with businesses that wanted to grow their Instagram following. And she’s here today to share her tips with us!
Here are a few of the things you’ll learn in today’s podcast about how to elevate your brand on Instagram:
– How to be more consistent on Instagram
– Letting the algorithm work for you
– Niche down
– Knowing your five pillars
About Natalie Suppes
First and foremost Natalie is a Mother, a Daughter and a Wife. She is passionate about helping other women in any way she can. In 2007 she was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s) and struggled for many years. She was in and out of the hospital while pushing to fulfil her dreams of finishing university and starting her own business. Over the last few years, Natalie has grown a respected brand online with over 30,000 followers through showing the authentic real-life behind the scenes of her life. She is trusted online as someone who tells it how it is. Natalie is real, honest and heartfelt. Natale has worked in a corporate setting since 2011 for multiple multi-million dollar organizations. She is a highly motivated individual with a strong work ethic and over 15 years of sales and customer service expertise. Holding a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) Degree, with a major in Marketing and International Business. With her love for business and her passion for social media, Natalie was being approached by various companies to help with their business and manage their social media. She quickly realized that this was a way she could help other business owners have their voices heard. When Natalie is passionate about something she pours her whole heart into it and S & S Creative Media was born. My IG: www.instagram.com/for.the.success
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Transcript
Deanna Hinsz Natalie, welcome. I’m so excited to have you on.
Natalie Suppes, thank you so much. I’m so excited. It’s going to be such a fun episode.
Deanna Hinsz You know what? I totally agree. And I can’t wait to learn from you. Because your Instagram account has almost 32,000 followers. So we’re going to get to that and find out how you did that. Because that’s a dream for many people in business, and we’re trying so hard to grow their Instagram. So we’re not talked up
Natalie Suppes to be so
Deanna Hinsz I can’t wait to learn how you did that. But I want to learn a little about you first because you didn’t always do this. This was something that just you kind of fell into the same way I kind of fell into it. Can you share how you ended up here?
Natalie Suppes Yeah, absolutely. It’s, it’s, we could talk about that for 15 hours. But I try to get a quick story. Short, Long story short, I went to university for marketing and international business while doing hair styling while doing all these other things. And then went straight from university into a sales career in the corporate world and climbed the corporate ladder. I always say I made billion-dollar companies millions of dollars; I was great at sales. I love person-to-person connections. And the reason I did hairstyling and did all of these other things in my past was that I love helping people. So I was great at what I did. I was great at sales because I would help my clients get what they needed. And but I always had this dream to be a business owner. And I can remember I remember sitting in my living room like six years ago, just like if someone just told me what to do. I could be successful at it. But I don’t know what to do. Like how do I start? I was thinking about starting a T-Shirt Company, and like all these things like I’m not passionate about that, I don’t know what to do. And so I actually started a health and fitness company, it was called for the health, and I have a chronic illness Crohn’s disease, so it kind of morphed into helping women with the same diseases me to get their fitness on track. But then I got pregnant right before the world shut down in 2019. December 2019. Yeah, and my first trimester was not the greatest, so I was sick and I just stopped all of my side business stuff. And I actually in the time I was in sales, I was selling a lot of health and safety so chemicals masks that kind of stuff, right when the pandemic hit. So I went from, you know, working a pretty cushy sales job to working 12 hour days and not leaving my desk and being pregnant. So my side business stopped. And I worked the corporate job until I had my baby girl in July of 2021, 2020.
Deanna Hinsz
If you got pregnant in 2019 and had her in 2021. That’s Really long.
Natalie Suppes Wait, when did I have her? Yeah. As soon as I had her, obviously, I was on maternity leave. I’m in Canada. So I have 12 to 18 months of maternity leave. And wow. Yeah, no, I know. That is it is we’re very lucky. So about six months in after quite a bout of postpartum anxiety, and it’s quite a blur. I started wanting to do things again. So the whole time I was posting on the Instagram I had already grown my Instagram which we can talk about later. But I was using it as a side hustle doing the mommy blogger-type sponsored posts and just sharing my life. And then I had businesses approach me to run their social media, and it felt like a light bulb moment like oh my gosh, my artistic side, my hairstyling my painting all of that kind of you know my designing the love for online and then my business my marketing my sales can just like be all one business like are you kidding me? And so I started running a few of my friend’s business accounts, and one of my girlfriends has a lash. Well, now it’s an aesthetics bar, but she was doing lashes and things like that. She made an extra four grand in the first week of me taking over her Instagram. Oh yeah. So she got some students in Some other things and it was like her DMs were blowing up her books were full. And I was like, okay, so yeah, I am very good at this. I took a course. And that was in June ish of 2021. And we are now you know, February of 2022. So it hasn’t been that long, but we’ve grown to an agency. We have five people, you know, many, many clients. And it’s, we we do things a little differently than other social media management agencies, because that my experience with the corporate world and stuff like that, so it has been a wild ride to get here. But yeah, I feel like it was you know, the right timing the universe kind of put it at my feet when I was ready to go all in. So yeah, that that’s sorry, short.
Deanna Hinsz Yeah. But it’s funny how, how that happens that, you know, that when the timing is right, just everything falls into place. You’re not fighting anything. It’s not a battle. It’s just almost like, what like, you just put your hand out and it appears, that’s when you know that you’re on the right path.
Natalie Suppes Yeah, it feels amazing. Yeah,
Deanna Hinsz yes, it does. And I can I totally understand what you’re saying, because I’m like, I don’t know how I got here. But it wasn’t my plan. It was somebody else’s, but I’m totally cool with it.
Natalie Suppes Exactly. Nothing. I did work. I tried it all. I did all the MLM I did all of that. I tried to like, hop on the backs of my friends who are starting business, I’m like, let me be your like, you know, whatever. I was the VP of a multimillion dollar company in marketing, but it just never worked. Because it wasn’t my own. Yes, yeah.
Deanna Hinsz It is something different. And even taking on those first clients. Like when you were doing your own and you were posting on your own Instagram. And then you had somebody reach out to you a friend who said, Can you help me with my business? It’s still different, or was it different for you? Because it’s felt different to me. Now you have to step into into their space and their brand. And you
Natalie Suppes know, like, I feel my husband calls me like a Chandler like the chameleon, or was the Chandler Homer Simpson? No, he calls me Homer Simpson. I have so many I’ve had like, I’ve been a party bus host, I’ve been a hairstylist, I’ve been the skincare specialist sales, marketing, like anything you can probably think of I’ve done. I’ve done MLM all of those things. So I feel like I’ve been in so many crazy different roles in my life, that I can chameleon into being that that person that brand. So when I took over her page, it felt so natural, it felt like oh, this is my business. Let me make sure it hits their goals, you know? So it was yeah, it was it was different in the sense that, like, I was home watching my baby. And now I was really having to manage DMS and all the engagement and stuff like that, but it was really exciting. It gave me purpose.
Deanna Hinsz I love that. No, I can’t, I couldn’t help but notice that you are really only on Instagram, you have a Facebook group, right? But you are not actively anywhere else. I didn’t see you on LinkedIn or I
Natalie Suppes didn’t. But you might have looked because I’m officially no longer at my corporate job. So I’ve just been switching everything over recently. I am on LinkedIn. not actively, though. I don’t post anything there. I don’t post anywhere pretty much other than Instagram and my podcast.
Deanna Hinsz So why just out of curiosity, like what led you to that? And my second question is, do you ever feel pool like you shouldn’t be somewhere else? Or? Okay.
Natalie Suppes Yes. So the answer to the why is honestly just time. And I feel like the more that we brought on clients, and that I brought on employees, and that I’m no longer like a creator anymore. I’m now a CEO of a company. And so I’m managing my employees, I’m managing our clients I have I do the overall strategy for all of our clients. So I’m really in there still. And then I make time to record a podcast. And after that, I’m trying to figure out how my team can take over the rest to be honest. And so Instagram has never felt like a job to me or a chore or anything. Even then I don’t post regularly even like I should be you know like I tell my clients to I don’t follow my own advice on my own Instagram page anymore. And when we talk about that, I’ll tell you why a little bit on my personal Instagram, but it always has been a journal to me like a diary. And that’s how I grew to the numbers that I grew to. But I do my goal was to start a YouTube channel in February or March of this year, so that we can take the audio and make it into a podcast and then make it into posts and then hopefully maybe on LinkedIn or something but Instagram just feels like my whole
Deanna Hinsz home. Just like well So let’s talk about how you grew your following. And I know you started as a mommy blogger, actually,
Natalie Suppes I printed my health and fitness journey on Instagram in 2011.
Deanna Hinsz I saw that post and I’m like, when did I start an Instagram, I couldn’t figure it out, I couldn’t find it
Natalie Suppes But you can scroll all the way back to my first like weight loss posts, because I remember finding Instagram back in 2011, looking for memes and like inspiration to lose weight. And that is how it started. And it grew. Over time, I kind of went on and off, but I always was on, you know, looking at other people. And in 2018 is when I got really serious about my health and my chronic illness. And so I started sharing that very authentically in 2018. And this was a different world on Instagram in 2018 You could just grow and grow and grow and grow and I was gaining 1000s a day by sharing my authentic journey and you know, did said tried some different strategies like the follow unfollow thing and some things like that, that did help grow to grow to the numbers I am. But back then it was easy. And you know, the follow unfollow technique worked back then because it was like putting your, your billboard in front of other people. And if I, the way that I did, it was I would follow people who had Crohn’s and then I would share my journey and my you know, real authentic, like, I had an accident today going to work or like this sucks. And I have IV PTSD and things no one else was talking about on Instagram, like I was journaling there, because I don’t like journaling. I don’t like writing my hand hurts on Instagram, and just using, you know, some techniques to gain the proper audience and really niching down and not trying to talk to everybody. And so that’s that is how I grew. And then I continued just sharing my journey. So after that, you know, I kind of moved away from fitness a little bit. And then I got pregnant and shared about that. And then started sharing about my daughter and the mommy bloggers stuff. And because of my following was able to do sponsored posts. And you know, that’s really fun. And now I’m slowly again, transitioning and morphing into posting about my family still and myself and my journal, but still, but incorporating the business side of things, too.
Deanna Hinsz So what has changed since 2018 For those listening that like, well, what’s so different? Why did it change? What well,
Natalie Suppes there was like a algorithm apocalypse, I don’t know what it was 2019, I believe, or 2020, where you just couldn’t grow. Like no matter what you did, no matter what you tried. And hashtags weren’t working, nothing was working. Instagram changed a lot of things. So follow unfollow was absolutely the opposite of working anymore. You could get banned for doing it. Yeah. You know, hashtags could work, but you’d have to go very viral to grow quickly, then now we do have some a technique that works, which is reels. But that means how much time do you have that really fast right now? No problem. But do you have time to batch reels? And my answer right now is no. So yeah,
Deanna Hinsz well, so you do reels? I do. Do you do reels for your clients as well. Or mainly?
Natalie Suppes We’re morphing into it because it’s it is the best way to grow right now. So we’re finding ways because it is very it’s it’s a newer, it’s a newer service, I think that social media managers are providing, we’re finding ways that we can help clients because I always say to them, we don’t have your face. I wish we could, you know, digitally. We don’t. So we’re offering where we give them you know, a list of 10 ideas that go in coincide with their social media content. And then they just need to record it. We’ll put the audio we’ll put the you know, fun little taglines all that because sadly, reels is very glitchy and it takes like I just recorded a reel this week last week about reels and then being glitchy and it glitched like three times I had to re record it. And I was just like, this is like it took me over an hour for one reel who has the time you know, right? It is necessary and it’s fun also. So that’s how I incorporate it into my business myself. I record them when I have inspiration.
Deanna Hinsz Yeah, that’s a great point to do it when you have inspiration. And for me, I like doing them after I have my hair appointment. So tomorrow I have a hair appointment. So I will be taking video clips afterwards. I love that. So let’s talk about if there is somebody listening, which I’m sure there are many people wondering how do I grow my Instagram? How do I get that following? And is that following as It’s important like that big following. Is it the number? Is it the quality? Like, what is it? So how do we elevate our brands on Insta?
Natalie Suppes Yeah, so first of all, having 31,000 followers is a detriment to me versus a positive, I had to start my own a new Instagram page for my business, because at 31,000 followers, they only show your content to a certain small percentage. And if that percentage doesn’t interact, then they’re not going to show it to anyone else. So my engagement just plummeted. Because I am switching and you know, a lot of the followers have like Crohn’s disease, things like that. So, you know, sometimes having a big number is the opposite of, you know, good thing on my brand page, we get way more interaction of our target audience, even though we have 1500 followers. So I always tell my clients like the follower number, unless you’re planning on making an influencer, being an influencer, your full time job, the follower number is not what you should be even looking at. Obviously, you want it to be growing instead of going down, because I’m telling you something. But you should be looking at are you having conversations with the DM with your target audience? Are people answering your stories? Are you creating quality content and giving out information that your audience wants to hear?
Deanna Hinsz That’s That sounds so easy. Right? So how do you? And I agree with you? And I’m sitting here thinking, yeah, conversations in the DM, right? We’re doing that. But how do you get them to do that? Right? How do you how do you make that happen?
Natalie Suppes Yeah, so I think the first part is to have a strategy is to take a little bit of a step back, and a lot of people just post the day of they need to post so they post and they’re like, I have to post five days a week, well, having a strategy kind of takes that pressure off. And if you post three days a week, but you’re consistent, and you post three days a week, all the time, you’re going to get better engagement over time than if you post 505 to one, you know, like, people don’t know what they’re going to get. So then the algorithm doesn’t know what it’s going to get. So it’s not going to show your things to anyone. And the algorithm is smart in the sense that it reads your bio, it reads your type of content, your hashtags, and then it shows it to the people that need to see it, especially when it comes to reels. So once it gets to know your, your pattern, you’re going to get more engagement, but where to start is take a step back and think What are five pillars of information that I like to give. So maybe one is personal stories about yourself, because everyone’s nosy on Instagram. So you need to if you want to start a business, and you don’t think you need photos of yourself, then you probably good luck. I mean, everyone can do things outside of the box. But people want to know about what you’re doing and why. So maybe personal stories, maybe something that’s motivational and gets people to do some kind of action. Maybe it’s educational, that makes you an expert, then you you pick these five pillars, and you’re going to always create content about these five. So when you sit down at the computer, you’re like, Okay, I’m going to create an inspirational one. Now I’m going to do a story one, and then you have those. So you have the strategy behind what types of content and then you have, you could put together a hashtag strategy, which is a whole nother thing and of itself, but essentially, put together five groups of hashtags that work well. And then make sure that your content is at least especially for a brand. So this is different. If you want to be an influencer, if you’re just you know you have you’re posting for fun. But if you’re a brand, if you have a company, aesthetically pleasing is important, in my opinion, you know, make sure you know your hex codes have three or four colors that you pop in everywhere. That looks nice when someone comes to your page. So you have your hex codes, you have your strategy, your pillars, you have your hashtags, and then you just show up on Instagram. So let’s say you’re posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday, when you post your first post, you want to post a time that you can actually be on Instagram for let’s say 15 minutes, 30 minutes. And when you post, go to your competitors pages, and interact with people who have liked their stories, or who have not their stories, sorry, who have liked their posts, because those people like their content, and they’re active on Instagram. So go comment on their last posts, go comment on their story. You know, spend 15 minutes going into hashtags where your audience might live, not the hashtags you use, but the hashtags you think your target audience would use, and go interact with the newest posts and tell them you know, make sure it never sounds like you copy pasted it. So someone has a photo with them in their husband on Valentine’s Day, you know, say, Wow, I love that mushroom soup that you’re eating like, my favorite or whatever, and have real conversations for 15 minutes. And then anyone who said who started following you as long as you’ve so this is a whole nother thing but make sure your bio is optimized as well. So they know right when they come to your page what you do, and then anyone who’s followed you send them an authentic message like a one A message, not something that you are you, you can absolutely copy paste it, but don’t set up an automatic bot. Because the people will know the second they click the Follow button if they get something they’re not going to reply. But if you go and do this three times a week, where you send everyone who’s followed you a little message that says, hey, thank you. I mean, feel free to follow my Instagram page, you’ll get one. But it’s something like, Hey, thank you so much for following it really does mean so much to me. You know, I would love to know, what’s your favorite color of lipstick? Whatever, whatever matches your brand. That’s gonna give them a yes or no answer. So, I mean, even yes or no or something quick, something they don’t have to think about. Don’t ask them like, Have you ever had childhood trauma? Like no one’s gonna reply? Like, you know, we asked like, Have you ever hired a social media manager? Or do you have a business something along those lines, your only goal in doing this welcome message is to get them to reply. Once they reply, Instagram sees that now you’ve had a person a person conversation, and they’re actually going to show your content to them in the top of the stories, your content, your stories will come to the top, and your posts will come to the top. So now that you’ve done that, you want to make sure you have a story every day.
24 hours, you should always have a story. So someone can watch it. Your bio is really great. You have a photo of yourself smiling for your your cover photo, and you have some highlights that people can kind of binge watch who you are and what you do. And then you keep doing that consistently. You will grow your business online. It sounds like a lot. But once you get into the groove of the things, it can be, you know, a little easier.
Deanna Hinsz You drop so many like, I’m like, yes, yes, yes. And in the show notes, I’m gonna give you step by step so that you can look at everything that you’ve just shared, because you shared so many good pieces of information that I agree completely. You were talking and you were talking about the algorithm, and how smart the algorithm is. And in my mind, I’m thinking think of the algorithm is your target client, your ideal your friend, and right think of it that way instead of like, the algorithm, right? Because sometimes we’re like, we want to fight it, we want to have it. Right? Because, but if you think of it as your ideal client and speak to that algorithm, it will learn that and like you said, and do those other pieces as well. And it will work for you. Exactly. And
Natalie Suppes that’s why I really go viral even with you if you don’t use any hashtags, because the algorithm knows who you are. If you I mean, we’re joking ourselves, if we don’t think that our phone knows everything about us, like, you know, you ever thought about something and you got an ad like this happens to me all the time where I’ve never said the words out loud, and I like go to Google to search something and it comes up and I’m like, Do you have a chip in my brain? Like, why do you know that I was gonna search that like, I don’t like that. But they they know exactly, you know, your your habits. So if you can make it clear to them who they need to be showing your content to, then it makes it easier for everyone.
Deanna Hinsz Yeah, yeah, definitely. So if you make it sound really easy, have all these things that you need to do. And we both know that. It’s not that easy, but it can be it can be easier than what a lot of people make it and I think when when even listening to you, and I’m like Yeah, girl, yes. Like you’re dead on your on your like, you’re giving them everything right now, which is so cool. I know, there’s somebody listening, going, Oh, my gosh, I’m so overwhelmed. Like all I heard was Charlie Brown’s teacher, I don’t even know where to begin like, like, right, because it’s, it’s, it can be so overwhelming. So how are some ways that you can make it easier when it comes to getting creating that content? Yeah, there any ways to simplify that.
Natalie Suppes And I think to be honest, that’s why you and I exist, is because when business owners start, they have to do that. Because if you want to grow a business, you don’t have the extra income to hire a social media manager. And you should be focusing on growing your business. And so you can use all that time to create content. But when you get to a level, typically I find around 100k a year, you have you’re really hustling and you’re you’re managing your clients, and whatever it is your business, you don’t have the time to sit down and create for three, four or five posts a week, and do your hashtags strategy and all of that kind of stuff. So what happens is what happens to me even like we’re getting my team to start working on my social but my socials went down to like one post a week or three weeks, you know, because it becomes the backburner. But Instagram has become the Google so when people want to hire you, they’re going to your Instagram. And if your business doesn’t look professional, if you’re not posting content that can lose you that you’re literally like leaving money on the table. So I think there comes it’s like an impasse or You know, a teeter totter where you get to a certain point in business and you need to help you need help. And hiring experts like us that are doing this day in and day out, can really help you grow your business and grow your brand. Money makes money. But if you’re just starting out, and you don’t have that extra funds to find someone that can help you and do it all for you, that’s a cool thing. Right? Like even having my team do it for me, it’s cool to get them to know my brand voice. No, my and just see the stories popping up. I’m like, oh, yeah, I love that great job team. But if you’re not at that point, I would say consistency is the number one thing. So if you think you can only post once a week, start with once a week. And if you hate reels, and you hate, let’s say you hate the News Feed posts, or you hate static posts, then just try to hop on stories and see how consistent you can be on stories. You know, like find a part in Instagram, there’s many parts, live stories, reels, you know, feed posts, whatever it is, find something that you can be consistent at. It’s like, I don’t know if you’ve ever read the book atomic habits. But if you can make one habit,
Deanna Hinsz no, I have it good. I’m like really good. No, I’ve got so many habit books.
Natalie Suppes I know. It’s a great book. But if you couple a habit onto a habit. So like, in the morning, if you have coffee every morning and you add taking your vitamins, then it’s going to be easy, because now you have these two, they go coincide together, you’re already doing one, add the other. So I say start that way, if you feel comfortable posting a story a day or a story once a week, do that every Monday morning when you have coffee. And then once you get used to that maybe every Monday morning, you have coffee, you make a story and you make a post, and then maybe you can sit down and write that strategy. And that can help you. And so just finding even on that list, that all those things that I said look at it, which one sounds easiest to you. And do that first, you don’t have to do everything at once, and then go from there and take small steps at a time. And whatever it is your business is that can kind of dictate which way to go as well. If you’re a brick and mortar, you might be posting a little bit different than you know, if you’re selling online services, whatever it is, and interacting with your clientele, even if it’s just starting the engagement. Maybe you don’t want to be creating content. And maybe you do need help with someone to do that. But you can’t afford it yet. Well then start engaging go start to going other people’s pages and having conversations.
Deanna Hinsz Great advice with all of that? Absolutely. And you know, even if you are creating content, it’s so important to engage it and I say it all the time on social media is social. And so many times I see people just post something and then like they ghost it and maybe they haven’t scheduled I don’t really know. But you pointed that that out earlier saying when it does post make sure that you’ve got that 1530 minute, whatever that is that blocking time available. So then you can start engaging. And I truly believe so many people miss that, that they just assume it’s like a billboard, like here it is, here’s my sign you’re going to drive by and you’re going to see it and that doesn’t quite happen that.
Natalie Suppes Well, I always tell people think about your habits when you’re on Instagram, right? Because it’s funny how business owners different like they can compartmentalize, compartmentalize their their habits on Instagram and their business. So like, during the day, I’m a business owner, I post business posts, but then at night, I’m scrolling and whatever, we’ll take a moment to think like, what are you tagging? What are you tapping? What are you What stops you in your feet to read on Instagram, and then start creating more of that, you know, save those posts. And then when you’re ready to create for your business, use that same tagline or that hook or type of hook? Obviously, don’t copy anyone’s contact, you know, see if those things work for you. And and keep in key always keep in mind what you’re doing on Instagram.
Deanna Hinsz Right. And you know, we talked about this a little bit offline. And we really didn’t talk about it now. But one thing that you can do is also just repurpose the content that you already have. Don’t always try to recreate the wheel. Yeah, because we have a ton of content at our fingertips and we overlook it because it’s common sense to us exactly what we think that, you know, it’s common sense to everybody else, or they’ve seen it or, you know, while I’ve just talked about that, nobody wants to hear about it again. They don’t see.
Natalie Suppes Yeah, I noticed with this with my clients, like sometimes if they’ve been with us for over a year, we start repurposing some of their old content. And a lot of the times they’re like, Oh, I already posted about that. And I’m like you did 12 months ago, and it performed really, really well. So let’s post about it again. And a lot of people are like, well, but everyone’s seen it. Well. I mean, if someone saw a post have yours 12 months ago, I can guarantee you they don’t remember, even if they remember while they’re reading it, they’re not going to comment like, Hey, you posted this 12 months ago. You know what I mean? Like it? Can you Can anyone who’s listening remember a post they read 12 months ago, I know no one can. So even if you posted six months ago, three months ago, take a look at your analytic reports and see what’s performing well and use that content. If you don’t want to copy paste, exact caption, then take some pieces of it and talk about something similar, maybe put a different photo. But like you said, even repurposing it for other platforms. So if you really despise Instagram, but you like podcasting, or you’re good at YouTube, or you’re good at Facebook, have someone or even yourself, just take it and put it over there in a different way. Maybe change it up a little. But you can do that. And I feel like that’s a lot of people feel like, I need to be showing up as a different person on every platform. And it’s just not possible. No,
Creating a successful marketing strategy is vital for your business and brand. Business owners often believe that simply having an online presence is enough. Although having a website, email list, and social media is imperative, it’s only scratching the surface when it comes to what a marketing strategy looks like.
There are three reasons why a marketing strategy will fail:
Lack of planning.
Before you even begin creating a marketing strategy, you need to determine your goals. Just hopping on social media and starting marketing your business is not the right solution. Every post you create and every comment you make on a post reflects your brand and business. How you engage online really matters. People viewing your content will immediately decide about you and your brand. So be strategic. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
Determine what your core objectives are?
Do you want to build brand awareness?
Do you want to build trust?
Do you want to nurture relationships?
Do you want to grow your business?
Do you want to grow your community?
Do you want to optimize your sales funnel?
Are you hiring?
Do you want to build authority?
Do you want to build your email list?
These objectives are unique in their own way, and your marketing strategy should reflect what you ultimately want to achieve.
If you’re not sure what your core objectives are, you need to find out. We do this at CarbonSilk for our clients and have done it for over ten years.
Lack of patience
Sometimes a marketing strategy fails because they quit. More times than not, this is because there was no planning in place. So after running in circles for weeks or months without a strategy in place, it feels like nothing will work, so they quit.
If you take the time to plan for success, then you’ll find success
Random acts of marketing will eat up your ROI, create frustration and lead to quitting.
Not being aligned with your audiences needs
This right here is the step that we most often see being skipped. Not truly understanding who you are marketing to. Sure, we get it, you sell coffee, and everyone is a potential customer. However, you shouldn’t be talking to everyone with your marketing strategy. You should be talking to that one person who is your brand’s biggest cheerleader and the one that hops in every morning to grab that latte and pastry. The one who still stops in on the weekends with friends and gets excited about every seasonal cup of joe that your team creates. That’s the person you’re talking to!
It goes beyond geographic (which is a physical area that you are targeting) and demographics (which is sex, age, income). It also goes into psychographics (behaviors, lifestyle, attitude).
Aligning with your audience means that you know them and put them first. This isn’t about your personal objectives. It’s answering the question, “What’s in it for THEM?”
What are you trying to achieve when you create your content?
Do you want to educate them?
Do you want to solve their problem?
Do you want them to know you, your employees and your brand better?
By understanding your target audience, you’ll also know where to give your attention when it comes to social media. People use LinkedIn differently than they use Twitter, and they use Twitter differently than they use Facebook. Even Facebook and Instagram are used differently! People listen to podcasts for different reasons than they watch YouTube. There’s no one-size-fits-all here. But when you know your target audience, you know where you can find them and why they are there.
It comes down to this when creating a successful marketing strategy…
Are you ready?
Know your audience
Know what they need from you
Provide it to them
It’s that simple—no need to overthink it because that right there is the secret sauce.
When you focus on your buyer’s needs, you will connect with them emotionally. Every decision we make in life is attached to our emotions, and we feel emotionally drawn to people who get us and our problems. When you connect with your buyer emotionally, they will not only become a customer but share your business with others.
I should warn you that this doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s a process of being consistent. Allow your audience time to get to know, like, and trust you. Speak to them directly, and they will come.
2020 was a tough year for many small business owners, and just when you thought that the fog might be lifting, Facebook rolls out another update to its Pages. NPE or New Page Experience has rolled out and this rollout will not be kind to businesses, especially those who have spent years working on doing all of the “right” things.
Before I get ahead of myself, let me explain what happened to me. The other day, I worked with a client who wanted to increase the reviews on her Facebook business page. She wasn’t exactly how to do it, so I brought her over to my page to show her step by step on the Zoom call. Pretty simple, right?
When I started to show her the steps, the options were gone!
Wait! Where did it go? I thought it most likely moved to another area, and I couldn’t find it, so I looked again. Nope, It wasn’t there. So I turned to some others in my industry to get some insight, and this conversation brought up many things that caught me by surprise, so I’m sharing them with you, so you areaware.
Below is a screenshot of what Mari Smith shared in response to my question. Now, if you don’t know Mari Smith, I’m telling you to give her a follow. I have followed her for years, quite possibly 10 at least, to learn about Facebook. She is an expert, and two things about this made my day (despite the frustration of Facebook)
Mari Smith actually responded to me! *Celebration dance*
This also threw off Mari Smith? *Raise the roof celebration dance*
Not only did she find and share what immediately with us (in Mari fashion), but she shared something I didn’t know and am kicking myself now for not knowing it. Ugh!
Here’s what the changes that don’t have a big impact:
Page likes going away isn’t a big deal. For far too long, we have had likes and follows. The most important one being followers, so definitely not a big deal.
Classic Page Roles, such as moderator and editors, will go away
Publishing tools, such as schedule posts, will go away. Again, not a big deal, You’ll still have access to Business Suite or Creator Studio.
Here are the not so great changes that will have a big impact:
Jobs
Appointments
Offers
Reviews
Check-ins
Page Templates
Reviews/Recommendations are going away! Before you get all worked up about seeing reviews (like some of my colleagues did), let me explain. Yes, I know reviews went away in 2018. Yes, I understand that recommendations replaced it. However, the tab on pages shows the word “Reviews” even though they really are recommendations. I want to make sure we’re all still on the same page and didn’t lose someone in 2018 with the confusion. Whew!
Just when I thought I had some clarification, there was more!
Someone from Team Mari reached out to me because when they clicked the link to get to my business page, they got a dead link. *enter panic mode*
I tried and was able to see my page perfectly.
Was it because I’m an admin?
Was he the only one having issues?
Maybe the link was wrong? Yea, I’m sure that was the problem. So I confidently reposted the link!
A few others commented that they were having the same issue, so I grabbed my husband’s phone and checked….I was still there. My friends said they could see it, and then Mari found the issue. It appeared that the link did NOT work inside the group. Was this a glitch? Is this something new?
Personally, I think it’s just a glitch because I can’t find anything about it on Facebook when they share about NPE (New Page Experience).
My Solution:
I went back to the Classic Page and left the NPE. It wasn’t an easy decision because there’s a loss that goes along with that.
I lost all of my posts from the time I switched over.
Any new admins added were removed.
I lost some of the features I really liked about NPE
I lost 11 Recommendations that were given while on NPE! *so disappointed*
The biggest lesson I learned here today? Don’t do the Facebook update when available. Just wait it out until there’s no longer a choice.
Oh, and I’ll be sending my past and current clients over to Google for a review from now on. This is yet another reminder to not put everything into Facebook; use your email list, website, and a platform that Zuckerberg doesn’t own.
What are your thoughts on the NPE? Will you stay on Facebook, or are you feeling pushed out as a small business?
