Self-Education as a Marketing Tool

One of the greatest challenges for me, as a solopreneur, is staying on top of trends and constantly trying to improve my knowledge and skills.

Even if you work in a large company, learning still has to be a conscious decision, but many of us operate alone from a single-person office; and we all know how insular that can become if we don't get outside once in a while!

Obviously education can go way beyond 'no-budget', but there are a huge number of free webinars and tele-seminars out there, and of course the public library is immensely helpful.

I actually learned about the social media marketing course I'm taking from a free webinar. It ended up costing me money when I decided to register for the program, but I'm sure it will be worth it in terms of long-term investment.

The reason I'm really mentioning this now is because I just signed up for two days of free online seminars through International Freelancers Day.

There are talks from lots of incredibly successful business people, and I'm really excited about how much great information should be available.

I hope that's helpful - let's all keep learning!

Writing to Build Relationships

One of the things I'm really finding as I explore the world of social media, is that the tone of your writing will inevitably become the tone of your relationships.

It's probably not so obvious in shorter posts like tweets, but when you're blogging or writing longer facebook entries, for instance, it's important to use the chatty tone that you would use in a face-to-face conversation. That's how you create a conversation where your reader feels like a trusted, respected friend. It's actually a great way to create some rapport and is more likely to result in an audience that is interested and engaged.

As a copywriter that's a very familiar concept to me, because that conversational tone is one of the keys to successful marketing content. In fact, when writing sales copy, I try to find out how the best salesman would speak to his prospects and replicate that tone of voice. If the audience is made up of engineers or techs the tone might be full of technical terms and jargon, but for the most part it will be chatty and informal.

I also had a conversation with a colleague today about dumbing down your copy. She was worried that her prospects would be insulted if she wrote in a tone beneath their level of comprehension. It's actually quite possible to write simple, readable copy without being patronizing, and it makes good sense to use language that can be understood by the least literate members of your potential audience (I guess what I should have said there was 'it makes good sense to write in a way that anyone can understand'!)

So, if you take anything away from this, just remember to write as if you are having a face-to-face conversation, and you won't go far wrong.

Content Strategy for Social Media Marketing

If you're going to make social media part of your marketing mix, it's vital to develop a content strategy, just as you would with your print or web marketing.

In creating that strategy the most important question you need to ask is "what will provide the most value for my target audience?" Because, just like the readers of your print materials and your website, your audience is distractible and unforgiving. Keep them engaged and provide value, or they will zone out, or opt out.

So, what does that content strategy look like? A simple way to start is by developing a formula for the type of posts or articles that will provide the greatest value for your audience. Quick Tips, How To, Top Ten Mistakes - all great starting points to at least get you thinking about what information people may benefit from.

The post ideas can then of course be adapted to become longer blog articles or short, helpful snippets for twitter or facebook. No need to reinvent the wheel every time you post.

The more I get into this social media, though, the more I realize that there is such a thing as too much information. Just as with email marketing, I believe that daily posts are probably too much for an overwhelmed audience. So, consider, before you post anything, whether it really has a value.

I'm finding this strategy fairly simple to implement for Words By Wendy, as I explore this world of social media. Larchwood, who sells trees both to consumers and the landscaping trades, will have updated inventory lists to post on the Notes section of facebook. But for Greentree it is hard to see how building a social media community can work for a company that really has little potential for repeat business. Still working on that one!

So, remember to think value when planning your next posts.

How to Choose an Email Marketing Service Provider

Building a following for our social media efforts is obviously an integral part of our challenge in this project, and a great starting point has been email marketing.

So, my first task has been to evaluate the email marketing service providers and select one that would serve the needs of all three companies - Words By Wendy, Greentree Landscapes and Larchwood Nurseries.

The first thing I did was look for reviews and I found a very comprehensive comparison at Top Ten Reviews. There are several reviews out there, but I found this one helpful because it rated them all on five different criteria, gave pricing details and a full review.

Based on the reviews I tested three services that offer a free trial: Vertical Response, Campaigner and Benchmark.

Here's what I found out...

Benchmark is reasonably priced, but when I uploaded the list it had to be approved before it could be used. I suppose that's quite admirable, but they only approve Monday to Friday, which is not terribly convenient if you sign up over the weekend and want to get a campaign out. In fairness, though, I signed up on a Friday afternoon and had approval by Saturday morning.

Unfortunately I wasn't really excited about any of Benchmark's templates (which is, of course, purely subjective), and it took about 30 seconds for me to learn to hate their editing tool. Now, I am a self-confessed technophobe, and they were given full marks in the review for their ease of use and campaign creation tool. Nonetheless, I didn't get on with it.

Campaigner really has been quite impressive. I started to sign up and clicked off because I didn't want to give a credit card for a free trial. The next day I got an email asking me if there was a problem and offering me a free trial without a credit card.

Again I didn't find a template I really liked, but I created a campaign just to see how easy it was. It was really simple, even for me! Then, because I didn't send out the campaign, I got a phone call and an email the next day from my own personal email marketing coach, offering a one-on-one walk-through. Now that is good service!

I chose Vertical Response partly because I found templates that I liked for Words By Wendy and Larchwood, and also because they offer a pay-as-you-go option which is great if you have a small list that you're emailing infrequently. Because I plan to use the blog as my 'newsletter', that is a great option for Words By Wendy.

I used the service to email my business contacts with an invitation to check out the blog and join me on Facebook and LinkedIn. Whenever I had problems creating it I was able to access an online chat support which was very helpful - and convenient because it was immediate.

The only problem I had with Vertical Response was that the text version they automatically created for me looked like a dog's dinner! I was able to go through and tidy it up a little, but it still looked pretty bad. I'm not sure how many people these days aren't receiving HTML emails, but I just had to hope it wasn't many.

Next I will use either Campaigner or Vertical Response to simplify Larchwood's email marketing, which has been less frequent than it should be because the software we were using made it very complicated and time-consuming.

Finally, I should mention that I didn't test Constant Contact, but I have used them in the past and would totally recommend them for ease of use and service.

So, if you're looking for an email marketing service, I hope that's helpful.

Writing Keyword Optimized Content for Social Media

Did you know that keywords are just as vital for your social media content as they are in your website?

Yes, when you're blogging, tweeting or adding Facebook updates, some strategic use of your keywords will help your audience find you and help improve your search engine rankings.

So, for instance, as a direct response copywriter I would want to try and use phrases such as web writer, online marketing and direct marketing if I want to attract people who are interested in a marketing copywriter (okay, that was rather blatant, and a little over the top!).

As you probably know, your keywords are the words or phrases that your best prospects use when searching for your product or service on the search engines. For some help finding the best keywords for your business you can find several free keyword selection tools available online.

If you're creating a longer piece such as a blog or article, try to make sure your keywords are found in the title, and also in the first 60-80 words of the article. Those are the words that will show up in the description on the search page.

And a word of warning - avoid the temptation to use your keywords too heavily. If you use them more than once or twice in 100 words it can actually make a negative impression on the search engines, which is obviously counterproductive.

So, next time you're updating any of your social media sites, make sure you give some conscious thought to your keywords.

Learning More About Social Media Marketing

I have a confession to make - I'm not learning fast enough, and I think it's time to take the bull by the horns! So I have enrolled in the Social Marketing Specialist Certification program through VA Classroom.
My first course is on fantastic Facebook fanpages, and what I have learned so far is that I set my page up wrong! I am considering removing the existing page and creating a new one. So if you get an invitation to become a fan of my facebook page, even though you already are one, that is why.
Stay tuned for more tips as I learn more about facebook marketing.

Summer is almost over, and I've been away from the computer (and wi-fi!) for a while. Now that I am back, the next challenge is to increase the followings on facebook and the blog.

I'm thinking that participating in discussions and posting comments to related blogs probably has potential. Now it just remains to find the best discussions and blogs to join...