Category Archives: Marketing

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Online Search: Every Generation Does It Different

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Eye openers:

  • 71% of Generation Z prefer mobile when shopping online.
  • 21% of 18-to 24-year-olds start informational quests with TikTok, while 5% start on YouTube.
  • Gen Z (62.7%) and Millennials (64.6%) are twice as likely as Baby Boomers (32.9%) to use multiple channels in their purchase journey.
  • On average, GenZ uses Google for searches 25% less than Generation X.
  • 30% of internet users aged 16-64 use voice assistants weekly.
  • 94% of GenZ trusts influencers over traditional ads for product recommendations.

Business directories are good business. Way back in the 19th century, the groundbreaking publication that became the Yellow Pages began in Cheyenne, WY and eventually became a national, then global, business resource. The Yellow Pages was available free of charge and was delivered to your door. Everyone in the US had access to the Yellow Pages, either combined with the (residential) white pages, or available separately. The original Yellow Pages still exists and remains a leading business directory, but how business customers search for information to start their buyer’s journey has undergone a radical reset. The Yellow Pages has joined the other global search platforms and has gone digital; the print version is now delivered to your door by request only.

Because you are a business owner or leader, you are intensely interested in the buyer’s journey that your prospective customers launch and experience. You know that the platform used when prospects search for information about your products, services and/or company can potentially impact how they discover and interact with your company. It’s likely you also know that the appeal of social media platforms and other digital resources is influenced by the age of the user and the appeal and influence carries over to shopping—i.e., buyer’s journey searches.

In other words, you can add another dimension to how you use customer demographic info and incorporate the age range/ generational cohort of target customers when creating your buyer’s journey. Do that and you’ll give yourself an important competitive advantage because every generation’s idiosyncratic search habits show you how to win them over. By aligning your marketing strategies and tactics to synch with generational preferences, you can enhance company visibility, promote customer engagement, build trust and, ultimately, generate sales revenue. Ignoring the search trend preferences of your target audience means you could be losing opportunities to cultivate potential customers.

Generational search trends and business strategies

A comprehensive understanding of how the generational groups prefer to search will enhance the power of your marketing strategies and ensure that your content reaches and resonates with the intended audience. Business owners and leaders can then, for example, create detailed content for Baby Boomers, showcase social media for GenZ and optimize mobile for Millennials. Below are insights that describe the search tendencies of different generations search and suggestions of tactics likely to appeal to them. The info was provided by Azira, a data intelligence platform that focuses on marketing and operations, in its consumer behavior report The Great Generational Shopping Divide, that surveyed 2,048 respondents in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia in July 2023.

Generation Z (Born 1997-2012, age 12-27 years)

According to Hubspot, the inbound marketing and customer relations management platform, GenZ uses mobile phones more than any other device for online shopping and searching for information online. Optimizing the shopping experience for mobile is a must; and as noted above, 74% of GenZ shoppers use a mobile phone to do business, while just 16% use a computer. Of Gen Z, 28% have found new products by searching the web in the past few months.

Search Preferences: Short, fragmented queries on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Typical Search: GenZ users looking for pasta recipes might search “best easy Italian pasta recipes” on TikTok and watch influencer videos.
Preferred Content: Favors audiovisual, especially short videos.
Strategy: Utilize social media platforms and influencers. Create engaging, brief and visually appealing content to capture their attention.

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Millennials (Born 1981-1996, age 28-43 years)

Azira data found that 52% of Millennial customers engage in omnichannel shopping, meaning they use two or more online channels to conduct their buyer’s journey. GenZ and Millennial buyers are nearly twice as likely to engage in omnichannel shopping than Baby Boomers (63% and 65% vs. 33%, respectively). 70% use their mobile phones most often, compared to just 20% who prefer to use a computer, highlighting the importance of optimizing your site to be mobile-first. Millennials’ preferred channels for discovering new products are YouTube, Instagram and Facebook and 32% say they discover new products most often by searching the internet.

Search Preferences: Short, conversational queries; mobile devices and voice search integrated with social media are prominently used.
Typical Search: Millennials searching for a travel destination might use voice search to ask, “What are the top travel destinations for 2024?” and look for recommendations on Instagram.
Preferred Content: Prefer visual and audiovisual content; they trust peer reviews/opinions and want social proof.
Strategy: Optimize for mobile and voice search. Leverage visual content and social proof to build authenticity and trust.

Generation X (Born 1965-1980, age 59-44 years)

One in three GenX’ers say they prefer to discover new products through social media and 28% say that social media is how they discover new products most often. Additionally, 35% of GenX have discovered new products through online search in the past three months, placing it among the top discovery channels. Two-thirds of GenXers say they use their mobile phones most for online shopping, while 16% are on a computer and 11% use a tablet most frequently.

Search Preferences: Mix of specific and general queries using both search engines and social media.
Typical Search: A GenX consumer looking for a fitness tracker might search “best fitness trackers 2024 comparison” on Google and check reviews on Yelp.
Preferred Content: Seek quick access to practical information, relying on review sites.
Business Strategy: Provide efficient, practical insights and reviews. Balance traditional and modern search methods to cater to their adaptable nature.

Baby Boomers (Born 1946-1964, age 60-78 years)

Baby Boomer shopping habits stand out the most of any generation. For example, more than half of Baby Boomers have discovered new products through television advertisements in the past three months and 40% say their TV set is where they discover products most often. Baby Boomers are comfortable searching the internet, with 46% of them having discovered a new product through online search in the past three months. Additionally, 33% of Baby Boomers prefer discovering new products in online stores over any other channel. When asked about their preferred way to discover new products, just 17% say through social media; in fact, social media and ranks behind all the channels mentioned in the Hubspot survey, as well as word of mouth and direct mail (snail mail). Moreover, just 20% of Boomers have discovered a product on social media in the past three months and only 8% have purchased a product on a social media platform.

Search Preferences: Prefer detailed, specific queries on traditional search engines like Google and Bing.
Typical Search: A Baby Boomer looking to buy a new refrigerator might search “best energy-efficient refrigerators 2024 reviews” on Google.
Preferred Content: Favor comprehensive, well-researched articles from trusted sources.
Strategy: Create detailed, authoritative content that addresses their specific needs and concerns. Focus on building trust through thoroughness and reliability.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Kyonntra for Getty Images

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Design Social Media Content to Fit Your Goals

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News flash—creating social media content that advances your company marketing goals may demand more attention than you might’ve guessed. Checking social media accounts might be something you do while having lunch—why not log into Facebook to see what’s up?—but the “free” resource known as social media works best when you are strategic when using it. Effective marketing in any format demands precise planning.

Keeping a strategy in mind as you develop social media marketing content means that all posts—text, images, audio, video—will be designed to work in concert. That’s your recipe for social media that clearly communicates talking points, tells the story, follows the strategy and delivers the desired return on investment. So whether the plan is to promote brand awareness, cultivate customer relationships, or facilitate customer service, for example, there is documented evidence that well-executed social media campaigns are able to deliver the results you want. Your job is to create the right content and post on platforms your audience trusts and follows.

If your company maintains a presence on more than one site, keep in mind that content posted on multiple channels may be tailored to fit the unique strengths of each platform used, but content will be most effective when aligned across channels. You want to ensure that you communicate a unified message to the audience on all platforms used. Unaligned, inconsistent messaging can confuse audiences and undermine brand credibility.

Budget

Let’s start with money, the ultimate commitment. A financial investment is worthwhile for companies that are serious about social media marketing because a well-developed strategy that has the potential to achieve marketing (think revenue) goals can be realized only if all aspects of the content match your aspirations. If your marketing goals require a high-performing social media campaign, the strategies that get you there must be enabled by the right budget. Can you strike a balance between the funding needed to support the campaign you want and a financial commitment you can tolerate?

If the money is there, you might decide to hire a social media specialist to produce all text and image content. If your budget is modest, or you prefer to copywrite the text yourself, you could focus your spend on audiovisual elements and invite a pro to shoot and edit the visual elements.

Authentic

Today, “raw,” unscripted content sets the standard for what’s considered authentic and credible—i.e., trustworthy. Cinema verite is where it’s at and conversations and actions that feel scripted and rehearsed are a turn-off. Your followers want to see a slice of life—tear off the band aid, peek behind the curtain, get the view from backstage.

So, if you’re scheduled give a talk at a business association program, your social media audience may find it interesting to watch you getting ready to take the stage. Recruit a friend or ask your social media specialist, if you’ve hired one, to video you en route to the venue. Your commute to the venue can be filmed and you can supply background info about the organization during the ride. If the sponsoring organization allows, you can also be shown meeting the host, being introduced and walking to the podium to launch your presentation. If allowed, your talk can be filmed in its entirety and short clips can be edited to use in future marketing collaterals.

Interactive

Rather than waiting for your social media audience to make the first move, recognize that they will probably need a compelling invitation from you as motivation to engage with your content. The good news is that invitations to interact with your audience are not difficult to design.

For example, some of your viewers may agree to take a quick survey or poll that gauges their feelings about a particular topic (which may not directly involve your products or services). Social media users often enjoy opportunities to connect with the brands they follow. From time to time, just be sure to include a question or two about what they’d like to see added to your line, or what might make a useful upgrade for your product or service. Your audience will feel more connected to your brand if they feel as if they’ve contributed to your company’s product development.

Soft sell

The hard sell no longer works. The soft sell, like soft skills, is the new champion of today’s marketplace. Instead of coming on like a carnival barker on the midway and shouting “Step right up, folks!” the preferred approach employs social media platforms as a conduit to current and prospective customers who would like information about your products, services and you and your company. Customers, prospects (and influencers, if you’ve caught the eye of one) would like to get to know you. They often don’t trust or respond to aggressive sales tactics. A smart sales strategy is designed to cultivate a steady stream of customers and prospects who engage with your content and then make purchases and referrals, give testimonials and become brand cheerleaders, too.

Avoid over-sharing

It is true that being reliable and predictable—consistent—is reassuring and you should keep that in mind as you post content to your chosen platforms. But how do you know how often to post? Two posts a month is probably too little; two posts every day of the week is definitely overkill. You want site visitors to see worthwhile information—not always serious, sometimes amusing, always interesting and never a waste of time.

You don’t want your content (and company) to be perceived as annoying and irrelevant, a burden that clogs their feed with filler. Working with a good social media professional can help you determine how often you should post and how you might diversify your content to enhance interest and keep viewers coming back.

Call-to-Action

Remember to include a call-to-action in your social media content. It’s a feel-good to see great numbers when reading the statistics of your site’s impressions and views, but you won’t get your full reward unless followers are asked to do something—take an action—so you’ll receive a tangible result of some sort.

Your CTA completes the social media experience by inviting your audience to click a link and—-watch a video, request a free 30-minute consultation, register for a webinar or course. The CTA allows you to both collect and measure the ROI of your social media marketing campaign. You’ll be certain that your campaign goal is reached—brand awareness and brand loyalty enhanced, customer relationships nurtured, names added to your customer list (through the sign-up), warm leads created.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Rex Features. British actor Sean Connery (August 1930 – October 2020) with Anthony Sinclair of Anthony Sinclair Suits, his Savile Row tailor in London, during the 1960s James Bond movie era.

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Marketing Enters the Echoverse

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In the 21st century, savvy business owners and leaders must be aware of developing trends and determine which behave like a passing fad and which seem capable of delivering value that make it worthwhile to get on board. One such trend— that looks more like an inflection point than a trend—was documented in 2016 by researchers from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, the University of Tennessee and the University of New Zealand and it’s a must-do. It’s been impacting your business for five years or more, but you may not have figured out the big picture and didn’t know that it has a name.

Introducing the echoverse, a communications phenomenon that describes where digital communication is now and will be for the yet-to-be-determined future. The echoverse was born of cross-channel marketing messages that are initiated by brands, customers, influencers, media outlets, investors and anyone else with a keyboard and bounce and reverberate in feedback loops. These simultaneously independent and co-dependent parties continually add their responses to posted content, chattering on as they follow and listen to each other across all available digital platforms. The outcome of the call and response is the echoverse, a communications environment that enables content to circulate, amplify, morph and echo.

Understanding the echoverse

As you continue adjusting to early 21st century marketing communication practices, keep in mind that the echoverse is controlled by a hyperconnected, 24/7 environment that’s touched by many players—brands, customers, media, AI-powered artificial agents—who contribute to and echo each other’s messages, as summarized below:

  • Communication is omnidirectional. Messages flow in all directions, they may originate from any source and they are subject to reinterpretation through interaction with multiple participants.
  • Influence is communal. Traditional roles of message sender and receiver are waning. Any interested party may initiate conversations and modify, contradict, or reinforce whatever messages are sent in response. Every participant is both a creator and a consumer of content and empowered to impact, contradict, or verify fellow participants.
  • Messages evolve. Messages are impacted, influenced, or amplified by feedback loops and participants whose participation is continually and simultaneously changing.
  • Value creation is shared. What is considered valuable is not necessarily created by a single, all-powerful taste-making source. What’s accepted as worthwhile is co-created and co-owned by all participants, with each one adding unique context, interpretation and/or resources.

Marketing in the echoverse

In traditional marketing communication, the brand drove the bus—defined marketing goals, created all content and chose how messages were sent to customers and prospects. Echoverse marketing has introduced a new playbook. The influence once held by brands has diminished because that entity is now just one agent in a cast of characters who develop and disseminate their own spin as they follow, listen and act upon the official brand messages. Meaning, successful navigation of the echoverse requires brands to pivot from leading to guiding, persuading and encouraging self-appointed and vocal stakeholders through (ideally) well thought-out and presented opportunities to contribute to a process of value co-creation and strategies for promotional communications.

  • Echoverse marketing for Freelancers and SMB

No doubt you understand that both challenges and opportunities are associated with the echoverse. To develop effective and responsive marketing strategies and tactics, marketing managers in companies of every size must embrace its omnidirectional, feedback loop reverberations and prepare for the possible influence of self-appointed stakeholders who thrive in the echoverse.

Like their counterparts in enterprise companies, Freelancers and SMB owners must adopt big-picture thinking and manage all marketing communication channels as an integrated, holistic, interdependent system—a compartmentalized, silo approach will not achieve goals. A cohesive strategy that considers the interactions between various media is essential—an integration of traditional media outlets, social media, your company website, email marketing and other brand promotional activities to create a unified brand message that is consistent and compelling at every touch point.

  • Proactive Customer Engagement

Social media is ideal for allowing brands to engage with customers and curious prospects in a personal and immediate manner. Engaging with customers on social media allows you to hear and quickly respond to compliments, comments, suggestions and complaints. It is the best defense against negative talk that may be expressed by competitors and haters whose agenda is to attack and subject your brand to reverberating echoverse slander.  Brands should focus on consistent, authentic communication that addresses customer concerns and other feedback promptly and effectively.

  • Leveraging Predictive Analytics

If you can budget the expense, investing in social media listening can provide valuable insights into emerging trends and potential problem (or helpful) issues or developments. Being proactive enables brands to anticipate and respond to changes in customer priorities, preferences, or concerns before things get ugly. Tools that analyze data generated by various platforms can help brands identify patterns and adjust their marketing /branding strategies accordingly.

  • Utilizing AI and Internet Technologies

AI tools and other internet based technologies are transforming marketing communications within our complex, interactive communication landscape. In this environment, a diverse network of human and nonhuman participants—including customers, brands, AI agents, traditional and digital media outlets and platforms—continually interact, influence and reshape messages across platforms. Traditional one-way and two-way communication models have given way to omnidirectional communication for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Swiss Yodeling Association. Alpshorn players create echoes in the Swiss Alps.

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Thoughts on B2B Pricing

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The prices assigned to a company’s products and services are an important element of the company’s marketing strategy. Pricing strategy plays a key role in determining a company’s revenue and overall financial picture and cannot be treated as an afterthought. Those of you operating in the B2B sector especially will note the codependent relationship between product and service pricing and the ability to attract and retain customers. B2B purchases are complex, involving multiple stakeholders, an extended sales cycle and high-value contracts. According to Marketing Chart, 63% of B2B buying committees consist of at least three decision-makers.

Identifying the optimal price range is critical business intel. If prices are too low, it becomes difficult to attain the sales revenue goal; there will be extra work and worry caused by the need to fill the sales pipeline with evermore prospects and hope to convert enough of them into paying customers. Price at a level that prospects find excessive may alienate them and possibly drive them instead to do business with a lower priced competitor. So your mission here is to find a sweet spot price range that prospects will tolerate and become your loyal paying customers.

Evaluate your industry and competition

As you contemplate pricing you will benefit by first identifying benchmarks by investigating pricing norms, in particular, standard mark-ups and the typical profit margin range in your industry. Next, check out the prices of a few competitors. Evaluating these numbers will also reveal whether or not your product and/or service production or acquisition costs are reasonable relative to the typical selling price range found in your industry and used by competitors.

Be advised that while knowledge of competitive pricing will help you determine an acceptable price range for your products and services, it would be ill-advised to merely apply a competitors’ prices for similar items to your line. Let factors that are unique to your situation guide your finalized pricing strategy.

Determine your pricing potential

It’s critical to identify a price range for your products and/or services that aligns with your brand and market position and is also accepted by your target customers. Knowing where on the value spectrum customers classify your products and services is essential information for every business and that knowledge is particularly important for pricing. You’ll confirm pricing potential when you understand customer perceptions of your company value and brand position. You may decide against pricing at either the upper or lower extremes of customer price tolerance but by considering key factors, including acquisition or production costs, competitive pricing intel and knowing the price tolerance of target customers, you can determine which end of the pricing spectrum will be most advantageous for your line.

Remember also that Freelancers and business owners in nearly every industry continue to grapple with the unfortunate effects of depressed wages, which for many have not kept pace with inflated prices that were declared “over” in 2022 but that we can’t seem to outrun. Customers remain cautious with their spending and most companies realize that pricing competitively to attract and retain customers is a must. Here are some common B2B pricing strategies that may help you find your sweet spot.

Cost-plus pricing

This strategy employs an uncomplicated mark-up formula. The business owner calculates the acquisition or production costs of the product or service, adds a certain sum for overhead expenses such as rent, payroll and utilities and arrives, tacks on the desired profit margin and arrives at a price that will cover all costs and deliver the margin. Also called mark-up pricing, this strategy focuses on internal factors like production or acquisition costs rather than external factors like brand reputation and competitive prices. 

Premium pricing

A premium pricing strategy aims for the maximum amount a customer is willing to pay for a product or service, rather than focusing on production/acquisition costs, competitive pricing, or other factors. Selling your product or service at a premium can mean deliberately pricing higher than competitors, as a way of demonstrating to your target market that your product or service is of a higher quality and more desirable than what’s sold by competitors and is therefore worth the additional cost. If marketing and branding activities convey high-end status and particularly when customers and influencers provide good word of mouth, a premium pricing strategy will be a brand-building asset and fulfill customer expectations.

Loss leader pricing

AKA penetration pricing, this strategy is enacted when a business assigns an irresistibly low price to a high-volume product or service with the intent of enticing customers to abandon competitors who sell a similar product or service at a noticeably higher price. The hope is that customers drawn to the loss leader will be motivated by the availability of other desirable items, and already happy with their bargain-priced item, will purchase those products or services that bring in a higher profit margin and make up for the low, or nonexistent, profit margin of the loss leader. Some B2B companies use a “freemium” version of loss leader pricing and allow new users to access a limited version of a product or service at no cost in the hope they’ll convert to paying customers. The strategy can also be effective for lead generation.

Trader Joe’s customers will be familiar with the chain’s quite successful use of loss leader pricing. For 20+ years, bananas at Trader Joe’s were priced at 19 cents each (increased in March 2024 to 23 cents each, as a result of rising transportation and farming expenses). The price of an organic banana was returned to 29 cents each, after being priced at 25 cents each for a few years. Trader Joe’s Markets is a privately held company and does not publicly report income, but it is believed that annual earnings are about 13 billion annually—so loss leader pricing appears to work for them.

Competitive pricing

Monitoring competitive pricing is time-honored business strategy. When the pricing strategy is influenced by a close competitor, prices are set relative to rivals and follow the going market rate for similar products and services. Prices may be set slightly lower or higher depending on factors such as product quality, target market and the marketing strategy. Proprietors of relatively new B2B companies often benefit from using this strategy because existing brands have already determined what customers will pay for similar products and services.

Tiered pricing

Most businesses serve a wide range of customers who have different business needs and operate under different financial conditions. Tiered pricing addresses the diversity of customers by offering price points for products and services that reflect the addition of features included at each level. Lowest cost versions include only basic features and highest price versions offer the most, and most desirable, features. Tiered pricing can increase revenue by enabling the business to sell to a wider range of customers.

Tiered pricing can also support the pricing strategy known as price anchoring. By offering three or more pricing tiers, the business can position its premium option as a psychological reference point as the best value for the money and use this story to encourage customers to accept up-sells.

Subscription pricing

With a product or service that requires repeated sales, e.g., access to software as a service (SaaS) or attending a monthly networking meeting, Freelancers and other business owners will turn to the subscription pricing model. Subscription pricing is usually a win-win for both customer and business owner because monthly costs are locked in with (typically) an annual contract. Both parties know the amount of money that will be paid or received each month or quarter. Subscription pricing delivers the advantage of expense (the customer) and revenue (the business) predictability that will encompass a predetermined length of time that also supports business planning for both the customer and the Freelancer or business owner.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©TK Kurikawa for Shutterstock 1457812421

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Social Media Marketing: Hacks that Help

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There are now more than 5 billion social media users worldwide who participate on several platforms, making the practice a marketing juggernaut that provides countless opportunities for B2B and B2C businesses in every industry to connect with customers and prospects. Once limited to developing brand awareness primarily in B2C industries, the influence of social media on businesses global and local now impacts customer experience, sales strategy, product development, content marketing strategy, competitive intelligence and more.

Because time means money where business is concerned it should come as no surprise that the timing of social media posting is sufficiently consequential to have piqued the interest of marketing researchers. Think about it—when planning to contact a customer or prospect, do you not consider what might be the best time to reach out? You probably avoid making important phone calls, or perhaps even sending an email, on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons. It’s a guessing game, but you aim to reach out when you expect your customer or prospect to be in a receptive mood, so your message will receive the consideration you feel it deserves. A similar approach to timing applies to social media posting. I first reported the best times to post on five platforms in June 2020. https://freelancetheconsultantsdiary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=20744&action=edit

When posting content on social media, the most important goal of marketers is to maximize the number of viewers who see their content. Platform algorithms prioritize engagement and posts that quickly attract attention are typically shown to more users, giving high engagement content an algorithmic boost that helps it to be seen by even more viewers.

A study of the Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2024 conducted by the social media marketing entity Sprout Social examined six platforms—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok and X (Twitter)—to measure the influence of time on the potential reach of posts. Posting content on days and times shown to be popular with viewers may help increase the audience for that content and amplify the clout of your social media marketing campaigns.

But a word of caution—before scheduling posts to reflect your platform’s peak engagement times as identified below, compare Sprout Social results with your company’s social media data analyses. You may discover that your target audience is not uniformly aligned with the data presented here.

Best Times to Post on Facebook

  • Mondays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., also at 5 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., also at 5 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., also at 5 p.m.
  • Fridays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Best days to post on Facebook: Mondays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Facebook: Sundays

With 3.05 billion active members per month, Facebook is the most widely used social media platform in the world and utilized by 89% of marketers worldwide. Facebook ties with Instagram for the distinction of social media platform that generates the highest marketing ROI, at 29%. The platform is an excellent showcase for online content of every type, from images and videos to live streams and audio content.

Best Times to Post on Instagram

  • Mondays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., also at 2 p.m.
  • Fridays at 11 a.m.
  • Best days to post on Instagram: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Instagram: Sundays

Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing app and social media platform that now has 2 billion monthly active users. Owned by Facebook (Meta) since 2012, Instagram is the place to share images, videos, reels and live streams. Instagram ties with Facebook for the distinction of social media platform that generates the highest marketing ROI at 29%.

The key to Instagram is that it is based on visual content. The photos and videos you upload will appear in your followers’ feeds, where they can like, comment, or share your visual post. The more likes or comments you get, the more “relevant” your post becomes and the higher it is placed in followers’ feeds.

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn

  • Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon
  • Thursdays at 10 a.m.
  • Fridays 9 a.m. to 12 noon
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn: Weekends

With over 1 billion members in 200 countries and regions, LinkedIn is the Mount Olympus of B2B communication for both the 1099 and W2 sets, who can share their expertise as they generate warm leads, announce new products and services, find co-marketing partners, investigate new employment opportunities, or attract talent to hire. Furthermore, users have found an ideal environment for professional storytelling, facilitated by LinkedIn Videos, and professional development at LinkedIn Learning.

Best Times to Post on Pinterest

  • Mondays: 2 p.m to 4:00 p.m and 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
  • Tuesdays: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
  • Thursdays at 3 a.m.
  • Fridays: 3:00 p.m.
  • Best days to post on Pinterest: Weekdays
  • Worst days to post on Pinterest: Weekends

As of April 2024,  Pinterest has 89 million users in the United States and generated a a 7.5 % growth in users between 2022 and 2023, putting its growth rate ahead of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Pinterest is known as the platform where users research and discover DIY projects and inspiration products often focused around lifestyle ideas, home décor and recipes.

Women aged 25 to 34 years comprise the largest share of Pinterest’s global audience and the platform presents companies with creative opportunities to expand their community and build brand awareness. Brands that use the platform appreciate Pinterest’s benefits, in particular spotting emerging trends, building brand recognition and authority and driving website traffic. Pinners, as platform users are called, search for inspiration on this virtual mood board and curate their space.

Best Times to Post on TikTok

  • Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., noon, and 2 to 6 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 2 to 6 p.m.
  • Fridays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok: Wednesdays and Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok: Sundays

With TikTok comes a whole new playbook for B2B social media marketing. Today, you can’t develop a social media strategy without considering TikTok. B2C brands led the way but as the platform has matured, it’s been recognized as a desirable resource for B2B marketers as well. Keep the following suggestions in mind when formulating your TikTok B2B marketing campaigns:

  1. Be authentic: Authenticity matters on TikTok. B2B brands will do well to showcase their unique personality, culture, guiding values and expertise. Share behind-the-scenes peeks, stories of the company founder(s) and employees and other relatable content.
  2. Find your niche: Identify your target audience and create content that resonates with them. Whether it’s tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, or industry professionals, tailor your content to their interests.
  3. Interact with the community: Engage with other TikTok users by participating in challenges, responding to comments and collaborating with influencers. Building a community around your brand is essential.
  4. Educational content: B2B companies can benefit from posting educational content. Share product demos, explain complex concepts, or provide industry insights. Remember that authenticity matters more than polished video production values.

Best Times to Post on X (Twitter)

  • Mondays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon
  • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Fridays 10 a.m. to 12 noon
  • Best days to post on X: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on X: Sundays

X (Twitter) is the platform to monitor breaking news and trending topics and voice your opinions in up-to-the-minute conversations that align with your brand values and show customers and prospects what matters to you. X doesn’t offer the array of posting options that build engagement as do Instagram or Facebook. Rather, X focuses on conversation threads, replies, mentions, microblogging and enticing readers with eye-catching results from a survey you’ve conducted.

Twitter has a new name, but it’s still the place to express uncensored opinions. To increase audience engagement consider Twitter polls, which allow you to pose a question in a tweet, invite respondents to choose one of four possible answers to the question and will send the poll results to you, to announce and invite discussion. Polls are a great way to stimulate audience engagement because they’re quick and fun.

Polls are also a mechanism to invite uncensored feedback from customers about their preferences and therefore augmenting the validity of your market research—in the development phase of new products and services or customer service protocols for example. Polls are not a substitute for traditional market research, but they’ll provide quick and useful insights.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation. The Persistence of Memory “Melting Clocks” (1931) Salvador Dali, courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Dali portrait by Lies Wiegman (1961), retroactively colorized, courtesy of The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL © Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation

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SEO 2024 and the Core Update

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On April 19, 2024, Google went live with its March 2024 core update, a process the company calls “more complex” than what was done previously and brought changes to numerous core systems. Google also rolled out its spam update, completed on March 20.  An approximately 45% reduction in low quality and spam content was the primary outcome of the updates, as confirmed by a Google spokesperson, “The updates led to larger quality improvements than we originally thought – you’ll now see 45% less low quality, unoriginal content in search results, versus the 40% improvement we expected across this work.”

It is popular in America to say that change is good but unfortunately, the core update has left many small business owners grappling with declining search rankings and softening website traffic and uncertain of how to respond. Google says the remedy is to create higher-quality content, with a company spokesperson explaining, “As the web and spam tactics continue to evolve, we’ll continue to work to reduce low quality, unoriginal content in Search. As always, we appreciate and encourage feedback from users and site owners alike.”

Well, what did you think they’d say? Look at it this way—if you haven’t examined your SEO strategy lately, you now have motivation to take a comprehensive look at how you’ve managed this essential business function so far and decide how you can effectively respond to the search engine update. SEO is about maximizing your company’s online visibility, the gateway to appearing more credible and receiving more website traffic. Below are suggestions of SEO tactics that are mostly DIY and free—and most of all, deliver an effective response to updates made by the search engine that according to StatCounter GlobalStats as of February 2024 controls 91.62 % of the global search queries market.

The purpose of SEO

It’s not an option, but a given and the purpose is straightforward. Effective Search Engine Optimization requires an holistic approach that combines multiple strategies that work in tandem to improve your website’s visibility in search engines, chiefly Bing, Google and Yahoo.

  • Improve online visibility: to power-up your website ranking on search engines and enable more prospective customers to learn about your brand.
  • Drive organic traffic: to attract prospective customers to your website, those genuinely interested in your content, products, or services.
  • Establish authority: through your website and overall online presence—social media, published articles, your published quotes in media outlets—present yourself as a trustworthy and authoritative source of valuable information.

SEO impact is typically organized into segments—on-page SEO, off-page SEO and technical SEO—that describe how the process influences your website to amplify its visibility to search engines. As you contemplate your SEO strategy, which is a component of your inbound marketing success, be certain to develop and implement strategies and action plans designed to address each SEO category.

ON-PAGE STRATEGY

Google and other search engines look for sites that are trustworthy places for visitors and also provide content that’s useful to those in need of information. On-page SEO is the process of tailoring your website to maximize its visibility to search engines by demonstrating the availability of worthwhile content that can be found in a trusted source. Effective on-page SEO positions your website to attract new visitors who are potentially prospective customers. By taking specific actions, such as including certain keywords in your content and by adding internal links and optimizing URLs within your content, you might boost the assigned ranking of your website in the list of search results.

1. Post relevant long-form content

Posting relevant long-form content is a pathway to increased search visibility and Google’s core update has just made the presence of good content still more impactful. The process starts by writing about topics for which there is an audience—discover the topics that people want to learn more about. To enhance the authority of your posts, keep the following in mind:

  • E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): The 2024 core update reinforces Google’s commitment to the E-E-A-T principles introduced in 2018. Websites that feature expertise and experience in the chosen field, authoritative content and trustworthiness will receive higher search ranking
  • Use of credible data, statistics and case studies to support your points and provide evidence for your claims
  • Include your byline in all articles that you’ve authored and also identify your guest posters. Industry experts should be credited with a brief bio, to highlight their credentials, expertise and authority
  • Use headings and subheadings to present content in an organized fashion, to improve readability
  • Include engaging and relevant visual content, including videos, photos, charts and/or graphs
  • Address all aspects of the topic thoroughly to create a comprehensive resource on the subject
  • Regularly update your articles to reflect new research, perspectives and information

2. Keyword research

Keywords are the words or phrases typed or spoken into search engines by visitors looking for information. By using keywords in your content, search engines will include that content or website in a list of sources that include the cited key words, therefore making it possible that you’ll receive a high page rank in results for those search terms. It makes sense to identify as many keywords as possible, including long-tail phrases, so that you’ll maximize your options when creating content that will capture the attention of search engines.

Be aware that simply packing posts with keywords in every sentence is not effective. Search engines seek out content that’s well-written. Place keywords naturally in target areas, including your headers, intro and metadata.

3. Keywords locations

While keyword density is not a viable strategy for improving search ranking, placing keywords strategically throughout your content is important for SEO. The trick is to use keywords organically and in the right places to show search engines that your content is relevant. Drop keywords here:

  • Introduction: to set the context for readers and search engines
  • URL: to help search engines understand the topic
  • Title: to improve your click-through rates and rankings
  • Body: copy to support topical relevance
  • Headers: to structure your content and signal importance to search engines
  • Metadata: description to improve click-through rates

4. Interlink your pages and blogs

Internal linking means creating hyperlinks in your content, so that website and blog readers can click as they read and check out your other posts or website pages. Internal linking supports on-page SEO because the availability of internal links invites readers to other pages within your website, or to other blog posts, and keeps visitors around longer, demonstrating to search engines that your website is valuable and useful. Also, the longer visitors are on your website, the more time search engines have to crawl and index website pages, helping Google et al. to obtain more information about your site and potentially rank it higher in search engine results. If you’ve got the techie gene you may want to take this on as a DIY project. Click to understand how internal linking is done (most may want to contact a professional). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-practices-internal-linking-structure-2024-m-a-mamun-bhk0c

OFF-PAGE SEO STRATEGY

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken to impact your search engine ranking that are outside of your website. In other words, off-page SEO is how you manage external factors, for example, guest posting, social media activity and the presence of online reviews. While off-page activities do not directly involve your website, their effects can potentially increase website traffic and support your inbound marketing in the process.

  1. Social Media Presence

Active engagement: Consistently post relevant content and engage with your audience platforms such as Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn. An engaged social media audience that regularly interacts with your brand demonstrates brand authority and trust and therefore gives a vote of confidence to search engines.

2. Content marketing

  • Content: Create and share high-quality, relevant and valuable content that includes backlinks to credible websites
  • Infographics and visuals: Appealing visual content increases viewer engagement and content sharing
  • Document Sharing: Share presentations, webinars, or documents such as white papers, brochures that showcase your products and/or services, or training materials on platforms like SlideShare and Scribd to expand your audience

3. Press releases

When you have a newsworthy announcement to make, e.g., to broadcast a talk you’ll give at a business association or chamber of commerce, or your participation in a popular local charity or community event, write a press release and post it on distribution sites such as EIN Presswire or eReleases . Not only will you take an important step to get your story out to your audience and your local community, online press release distribution is a great way to generate organic backlinks, since many online publications will automatically pick up relevant press releases. Within each press release, be sure to include one to two links to your website.

4. HARO requests

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a website that connects journalists and bloggers with expert sources—you!—for articles they’re writing. Journalists submit a query for expert quotes and will choose the top responses to include in their content. Oftentimes, the journalist will provide a backlink to your website as attribution for the quote. To increase the chance of being quoted, respond quickly and provide a complete and soundbite punchy answer.

5. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is an effective way to increase brand mentions and social media interactions, both of which are positive off-page ranking signals for search engines. If you can get onto the radar screen of a social media influencer who has a relevant audience for your brand, you can partner with that person to create an influencer marketing campaign that promotes your brand and its value proposition along with providing links to your website or social media profiles where applicable.

6. Backlinks

Building backlinks is important for SEO because it signals to search engines that your content is trustworthy and valuable. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your chances of ranking higher in search results.

While backlinks remain crucial for SEO, recent algorithm updates have shifted towards needing fewer but higher-quality backlinks. Earned links, in which editorial publishers or consumers mention your brand organically, are most highly favored. Built links, however, require some effort on your end, such as reaching out to content publishers for link attribution or mention. You can acquire backlinks through these common link-building strategies:

  • Guest posting
  • Link insertions
  • Creating link-worthy content
  • Building relationships with bloggers and website owners
  • Using social media

7. Online Reviews

Online reviews provide a strong signal that’s taken into account when ranking your content online. They can build a lot of credibility and trust since they’re submitted by third parties who’ve interacted with your brand. Focusing on generating positive five-star reviews from legitimate customers can help your off-page SEO tremendously. You can generate these reviews on third-party review sites such as G2 as well as your local Yelp page.

TECHNICAL SEO

Technical SEO refers to how you can best optimize the technical elements of your website—primarily speed, security, user-friendliness and site structure. Technical SEO is about improving your website to make it easier for search engines to find, understand and store your content. Technical SEO focuses on user experience factors, such as making your website faster and fully visible and navigable on mobile devices. Do it right and technical SEO can enhance visibility in search results.

  1. User experience (UX)

The UX provided by your website is a concern to search engines. If your website offers an intuitive browsing experience, quick loading times and is mobile-friendly, you will be positioned to receive higher page rankings. Google now uses mobile-first indexing to determine search rankings. Ensure that every page of your site is mobile optimized, ideally using responsive design, and that all content is the same between the desktop and mobile versions.

2. Site security
Security plays a huge role in how people experience your website. When people feel that your website is secure, they interact more freely (and longer) with it. Google penalizes sites that do not secure their traffic with an SSL certificate and modern browsers mark them with an insecure site warning. SSL certificates are obtained through site your hosting provider. Click here for more information: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-top-ssl-certificate-providers-2024-digital-expert-online-aezde

3. Index site

Indexing means adding a website and its pages to search engine databases so that the site can appear in search results. Indexing is pivotal in how Google and all search engines work. The presence of a “noindex” tag on your website or blog pages will cause search engines to ignore your content and prevent your site from being recognized and ranked—a situation that you want to avoid.

Noindex tags can be removed and this is another DIY project that I relegate to those born with the techie gene; I recommend that everyone else would be wise to consult a professional to do the work. FYI, here are remedies: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-fix-google-indexing-issues-2024-md-belal-hossain-0cszc

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © diki_pt at Freepik

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Content That Captivates

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It is said that content is king—agree? I’ll bet you do. But are you aware that not all content is equally able to move viewers to respond to its verbal or visual messages? Most content does its job, which is to increase awareness of the brand within the target audience. But certain marketing content has a heightened impact on viewers; that content is perceived as uniquely relatable, credible, or even inspiring— it captivates. Captivating content has been known to persuade some who experience it to step into the buyer’s journey of the product or service it promotes. Content that captivates can motivate your prospects to actively explore the possibility of doing business with you.

Content strategy

Are you motivated to actively explore how to create content that captivates your customers and prospects? Then devise a content strategy, a plan that functions as a road map to guide the creation, delivery and management of marketing content that promotes your company’s sales and branding goals. A content strategy is the most important element of your content marketing campaigns. Without a strategy, you’re vulnerable to losing your way and becoming overwhelmed by the dizzying array of content possibilities that are available. While almost any form of content may be persuasive and also captivating, but not every format will effectively advance your sales and branding goals.

A content strategy is essential to the process of defining basic who, what, when, where and why questions that refine your understanding of marketing activities and distribution channels that your customers and prospects will gravitate toward. A well thought-out strategy will provide focus and direction to your content marketing activities and how and where you deliver your message. The questions below will help you identify content that will resonate with your target audience.

  • Who will view your content?
  • What solutions do content readers/viewers need, what goals must they achieve?
  • What types of content and which channels can be expected to attract readers/viewers?
  • What brand voice (tone and personality) can be expected to facilitate communication with your audience?
  • What goals do you want to achieve with your content?

Email marketing

Email marketing continues its reign as one of the most effective marketing tools available to transmit marketing messages and build trust in your products, services and brand. Moreover, email marketing campaigns are excellent generators of qualified leads and enable ongoing communication with customers, existing and lapsed, allowing you to nurture relationships and encourage repeat business.

Marketing emails are more likely to be read than other types of content and their average return on investment triumphs over other types of content. According to the Cambridge, MA inbound marketing giant HubSpot, email marketing communications are more likely to be read than all other types of content and have an average open rate of 46-50% and click-through rate of 2.6-3% — metrics that surpass the appeal of social media and all other forms of digital content.

Furthermore, because email marketing lists are opt-in and consist of those who want to hear from you, the email list itself is a valuable marketing tool that you can use to distribute additional communications, such as your blog or newsletter. For that reason, email list-building is an ongoing activity practiced by savvy marketers. Make a plan to grow your email list with these tactics:

  • Create a premium library: Promote your expertise and build your email list with a special offer that’s available only to those who sign up to receive a link—to a webinar or podcast you’ve participated in, a case study or e-book you’ve written, for example—sent in exchange for a name and email address.
  • Online subscriber forms: Your blog, website and social media accounts have a mechanism for visitors to add contact info and receive your published content or follow you.
  • Invite subscribers in-person: Whether you are on a sales call or, as discussed in the previous post, you attend a trade show or other in-person event, as you meet and greet you may find colleagues who would appreciate being added to your email list—subject to an opt-in, because you want their permission. If you teach or speak somewhere, make an attendee sign-up sheet available so that you can collect more contact info to grow your list.
  • Call-to-action: Invite those on your inbound marketing buyer’s journey to receive a free 30-minute consultation with you, to discuss their needs and goals and your company’s solutions. Invite those who would like to attend a workshop you’re scheduled to teach or panel you’ll moderate to RSVP by way of your CTA. When you decide to hold your own MeetUp, also discussed in the previous post, ask those who plan to attend to sign-up. All CTA responses can deliver contact info.

Webinars and podcasts

More than simply marketing content, these formats can be classified as professional development. With an engaging topic and a skilled presenter or host, these formats can generate a substantial audience. When the webinar or podcast topic relates to solutions your company offers, you can create a seamless transition into how viewers/listeners can solve their most pressing problems.

Webinars and podcasts can be even more effective when cross-promoted with other content, such as an e-book. Furthermore, webinar registrations are an excellent method of collecting email addresses and other information from qualified leads who are genuinely interested in not only the topic, but potentially your category of products or services. Webinars continue to be a popular digital content option and when promoted to the right audience, they can become far more engaging and attractive to qualified leads than a blog post covering the same topic would be.

Social media

By adding relevant, authoritative content, including videos, surveys, blogs and user-generated content such as customer reviews and testimonials to this very personalized content resource, you can effectively leverage social media to attract qualified leads.

According to a March 2024 report released by Forbes Magazine Advisor, 78% of prospects and customers research social media platforms first when seeking information about brands, a trend that demonstrates social media’s pivotal role as a leading source of brand-related content. Social media’s interactive nature allows prospective customers to get behind the scenes and learn backstories that provide an informative and intimate experience that can foster a deep connection with a brand.

Social media promotes community-building, a bonding among customer peer groups whose members participate in discussions, post product reviews and happily share their brand experiences. Social media platforms are where brands can interact with customers in real time, to foster a sense of community around their products or services with a goal of building and nurturing relationships.

Marketers join in and participate in groups and conversations, responding to comments and messages they receive and facilitating meaningful communication with their target audience. By enhancing the influence of this highly personalized format by posting content that engages and captivates, you can leverage your brand’s social media presence to deliver qualified leads.

Video

Video has emerged as a leader among content marketing formats. The power of video marketing reflects a growing customer preference for visual and auditory storytelling that gives the format great influence in capturing audience engagement. When marketing video is used in tandem with other digital marketing formats—marketing emails and social media posts, for example—their sales conversion rate is substantively enhanced. Product demos and explainer videos, case studios, testimonials and videos of your previous podcasts and webinars provide opportunities to enhance the inbound marketing power of your company website.

Video marketing has proven to be highly effective and 95% of marketers observed an increase in brand awareness when using the format. As a result, 90% of marketers credit their successful lead generation campaigns to video content and 87% link the format to sales revenue growth. The viewer engagement rate for marketing videos posted to YouTube in 2024 is 5.91%.

In particular, short-form video content is especially adept at gaining audience attention—attention spans are brief and viewers don’t always have the time or patience needed to watch longer videos. It’s been shown that marketers have 2.7 seconds to capture audience attention with your video. While engagement is valued and viewers want to learn about your company, they want to learn fast. BTW, 75% of video views occur on mobile devices, so optimizing for mobile viewing is crucial.

Within its abbreviated time frame, video content can deliver enticing visual options that captivate your audience and keep them coming back for more. You can record yourself in an explainer video or product demo discussing how your solution solves problems and supports the achievement of customer objectives. Or you may want to record customer testimonials or even record a case study, podcast or webinar—content you can upload to your website and social media accounts or invite browsers to request in exchange for contact info that builds your email list. You can also film a live event.

Live videos are in-the-moment exciting and authentic and especially well-suited for generating engagement in the viewing audience, creating relationships and building the brand. You can use the live video tool available on your social media apps to announce a new product or service or show viewers new items from your product line. Because there is little to no editing done, live videos often have a raw and edgy look; however, you’ll need a space that you can keep quiet and private as you record your live video. Furthermore, if live streaming is your intention, you’ll also need the right technology.

Now here’s a surprise—the arrival of silent videos. When you think about it, you’ll realize that many people watch videos in public spaces: waiting in line at the bank or grocery store, taking public transportation, or even while in a company meeting. Earbuds may not be handy or politically correct; it’s been reported that 92% of users watch videos with the sound off. Silent videos solve the problem so you can communicate your message without audio and make the visual component of the video the main focus. Close caption text (subtitles) allows you to make the most of the visuals and incorporate on-screen captions for necessary text info.

If your budget allows, speak with a marketing company to discuss your goals and the type of video that can be expected to deliver your desired ROI. Remember that your video can be posted to multiple platforms, from your website to email marketing communications, your newsletter, blog and social media accounts. If budget is an issue, or if you’re confident of your creativity, by all means grab your smartphone or tablet and experiment with making a video in-house. Taking an online tutorial is sure to be helpful and there are dozens to choose from. Here’s one you might like.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © The Richard Avedon Foundation. Model Stephanie Seymour wears Chanel in a 1990 photo by Richard Avedon (1923-2004)

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The Return of In-Person Networking

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As the COVID-19 pandemic era continues to recede, we’re revisiting many of the activities that circumstances compelled us to (temporarily) reconfigure, as we transformed our homes into mission control—work from home, school at home, online orders for all manner of items delivered to our home. City council meetings, business conferences, museum exhibits, music performances and other events were accessed by videoconferencing because attending public in-person events was for many months out of the question.

While everyone greatly appreciated the convenience of Zoom and other video platforms that allowed us to maintain some semblance of normal life, we’ve collectively breathed a sigh of relief and we’re mostly done with staring at a computer in order to experience so much of life. It’s time to resume face2face In Real Life interaction. Those who sponsor professional development and other business meetings have noted that attendance at in-person events is now robust, while attendance at virtual events is waning, with the exception of webinars.

Hosts of in-person events report that networking and developing relationships now tops the list of priorities driving the renewed interested in such events in 2024. Previously, the primary reason to attend business events, in-person or virtual, was the professional development info obtained in the presentations. Today, however, YouTube et al. overflows with online tutorials, many of them free and delivered by well-respected presenters, making skills-building knowledge available at your convenience. As a result, meeting content has taken a back seat and the value of attending meetings and conferences has shifted to the opportunities you’ll have to meet and greet colleagues in-person and forge beneficial connections. Can we agree that it’s time to revitalize your face2face networking chops?

Refresh your networking pitch

There are many potential success factors to consider when launching and nurturing a business venture and developing relationships with the right people is one that you would be wise to address. Relationships you establish with colleagues might open doors to opportunities that advance business growth in ways that otherwise may not occur. Taking a proactive stance to meet people in professional and personal sectors will enable you to expand your circle of relationships and increase the possibility of encountering those who can help you in some way.

In other words, networking is central to your marketing strategy. Freelancers and other business owners can always be in networking mode, whether at a chamber of commerce event or when having drinks al fresco with friends on a warm summer evening.

  • Re-examine your elevator pitch in all formats, from the 30 second self-introduction to the long form that’s rolled out when someone asks questions that signal genuine interest. Learn to articulate your brand and value proposition in two or three succinct and meaningful sentences, so you can fluently convey basic information about your venture when asked. You may find it helpful to use this formula to shape your elevator pitch:
    • The product/service you offer
    • For whom you work (your typical clients)
    • The benefit derived (the problem you solve, your solution)
  • Devise a networking agenda. It’s useful to have a purpose to remind yourself that you’re in the room to do more than eat, drink and talk sports. You don’t want to leave the event empty-handed; you invested time and money to be there, so to the best of your ability, make the experience worth the investment. This is my go-to agenda, because I find it easy to remember and carry out, but you can always create another that feels more natural to you, if you prefer:
    • Get a client (a long-shot, for sure)
    • Get a referral (you never know)
    • Get information (useful, possibly actionable)

Conversation starters

Networking starts with a conversation and the proceedings are greatly enhanced by the participants’ Emotional Intelligence (E.Q.). A key ingredient of successful networking is a willingness to share part of yourself with someone you’ve not interacted with before, so that the two of you can begin to build a relationship. Networking in motion is about exchanging ideas, information, stories and active listening. What you don’t want to do is walk around the room flashing a big plastic smile as you give your elevator pitch and foist your business card on all whom you encounter. “Show interest in others, and others will show interest in you.” (Dale Carnegie [1888-1955, author of self-improvement, salesmanship and public speaking books)

To find the value of relationships at your next networking event, use your E.Q. to start conversations that just might create business opportunities for yourself and maybe a new colleague as well. Keep in mind also that the favor of making a referral may start with you and that an immediate return on networking conversation is unlikely. Your expectations will not be met if you think you’ll be introduced to a new client sometime in the immediate future. Another hint—avoid trying to strike up a conversation with a large group of people. Instead of trying to chat with five people standing in a circle by the bar, keep an eye out for someone who’s alone; you’ll feel more comfortable approaching these people and they’ll probably be very happy to meet you and talk.

But back to getting conversations rolling—Preston Ni, communication coach and instructor in communication studies at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA, has identified easy-to-remember, open-ended follow-up phrases that function as icebreakers that make almost any conversation feel organic and will keep the momentum moving forward.

1. “How did you get involved in …?”

The question may follow-up to the other person’s mention of a current project, his/her job or company, or the very event that the two of you find yourselves in now. Depending on the situation, you could ask what brought him/her there that day, or what has sparked his/her involvement with the topic at hand. 

The idea is to ask a generic question, without resorting to some variation of “How are you?” which tends to be answered with a reflexive, “Fine, how are you?” With a slightly more specific question that is still open-ended, you capture the other person’s attention and invite him/her to give you a thoughtful answer, one that invites him/her to take the reply in any direction and also enables a story that can be shared.

2. “That’s interesting. Tell me more!”

After the introductions, ask a question that starts with the phrase tell me and then actively listen as your new acquaintance does what s/he likes best—talking about themselves! You will make a friend. The phrase tell me communicates to the person you’ve just met that you are interested in what s/he has to say and that you value his/her opinion, which is affirming. Tell me is a powerful invitation to your newest acquaintance to speak his/her mind or share a story, Who doesn’t love to talk about themselves?

“It has the multiple benefits of saving speech and energy, maintaining engagement, and being attentive to your partner,” Ni says. “A good conversational partner will reciprocate the attention by asking questions about you in return, which will also facilitate the discussion.”

3. “If you were the event organizer, what topic(s) would you ask the speaker to address?”

Talking about the event is an engrossing way to start and sustain a rewarding conversation and give insight into a colleague’s perspective—and that is sure to be enlightening. A question that explores what your new acquaintance sees as an “ideal” event also expands the common ground between you. It’s a thoughtful conversation starter for those who want to get down to business quickly. It’s also easier to have a lengthy back-and-forth discussion about such a meaty topic, so you won’t encounter any awkward silences.

4. “What subject has your attention right now?”

When you’ve just met someone and you’re searching for ways to connect, this question can open the door to a discussion about business, family, extracurricular activities, a much-anticipated vacation—or even home renovations! The person to whom you put this question is certain to light up and be happy to talk and you’ll be on your way to building a relationship.

Host your meet-up

If you’re able, find the budget to attend an in-person conference in 2024. On the other hand, why not be truly adventurous and host an in-person networking event yourself? You may be able to host a networking event in your local library—a great place to meet and keep costs down as well. Your in-person MeetUp guest list can consist of your LinkedIn connections who live locally, plus other business contacts to round out your invitations. How cool is that?

Reserve a room at your venue of choice and order up a few light nibbles and drinks—beer and wine if the venue allows, or sparkling cider and water. Your job as event host is to introduce people and facilitate conversations and relationship-building. The options are many and the rewards are exponential and endless.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © NDABCREATIVITY

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Survey Finds that Marketing Matters to Freelancers and SMB Owners

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An insightful survey of 1000 small business owners and independently employed Freelance professionals sponsored by printing powerhouse VistaPrint and website builder Wix and conducted in March 2024 conclusively confirmed that effective marketing is as important to small business entities as it is to enterprise companies like Apple and General Motors. Despite the enormous difference in the size of marketing teams and budgets as compared to multinational corporations, Freelancers and SMB owners value the impact of marketing and they’re enthusiastic about leveraging its impact to benefit their companies. The survey findings deliver a persuasive vote of confidence for the power of marketing.

Reaching new customers drives the motivation to market for 46% of survey respondents. It was found that 71% of Freelancers and SMB owners do their own marketing, that 79% feel confident in their ability to function in the role of marketing manager for their company and 77% are satisfied with the results of their marketing strategies and campaigns. However, the majority of Freelancers and SMB owners are realistic about their marketing expertise and survey results indicated that the majority of respondents either have or plan to upskill and learn to market more effectively; 63% reported that they took steps to hone their marketing abilities in 2023; and 76% reported that they plan to do so in 2024.

Though Freelancer and SMBs are happy with the results they’ve achieved as marketers, they are aware that they face challenges. Standing out in a crowded marketplace is perceived as their biggest threat, with 53% worried about standing out vs. competitors. Furthermore, 47% of respondents are concerned about choosing effective marketing tactics to promote their business and 49% wonder if their budget can cover their marketing aspirations. Freelancers and SMBs see their greatest marketing opportunities in expanding their online presence (24%), increasing brand awareness (23%) and launching new products or services (22%).

Experimenting

The inevitability of digital marketing is understood by survey respondents but surprisingly, social media outreach and search engine optimization do not completely dominate their choices of marketing strategies and tactics. Survey results showed that while 78% of respondents experimented with “new” marketing tactics in 2023, achieving a balance between digital and traditional marketing tactics and identifying a mix of strategies and activities that work best for their business is the goal.

The importance of social media and search engines is obvious to them, but traditional marketing continues to resonate most likely because customers still value real-life and face2face interactions and physical touch points, as well as digital experiences. In 2024, 48% of Freelancers and SMB owners plan to increase their spend on newer (digital) marketing, while 30% will likewise increase marketing spend, but will continue with the same marketing mix. 

Balancing

Word-of-mouth will always be an asset to Freelancers and SMBs for promoting brand awareness, but a range of marketing touch points is often needed to raise awareness and persuade prospects to do business. For those reasons, achieving a balance between digital and traditional marketing activities is a goal for survey respondents: 28% allocated their marketing budgets 50-50 traditional and digital, while 40% invested more heavily in digital marketing activities and 32% chose to invest more in traditional marketing. The leading digital 
marketing tactics chosen in 2023 were an upgrade of the company website (60%), social media paid ads (60%), search engine optimization (50%) and email marketing (46%).

Traditional marketing continues to play a key role for Freelancers and SMB owners, with 71% reporting that physical marketing tactics are important because customers still value the experience. Regarding traditional marketing activities, 50% of respondents invested in business cards, attended trade shows and similar conferences, 31% invested in paid print ads and 29% used promotional items.

Locavore

It can feel intimidating to compete with major retailers and corporate giants when doing business, however small entities have one huge advantage—many customers want to feel connected to their local neighborhood when doing business and 78% of customers surveyed reported that it’s important to them to “shop local.” Marketing that emphasizes location, loyalty and community can help keep customers coming back, as reported by 1000 small business customers who also participated in the VistaPrint – Wix marketing survey.

Customers of SMB and Freelancers surveyed reported that marketing tactics that help them find SMBs and Freelancers to do business with include social media (54%), search engines (44%) and print ads (26%). Furthermore, 41% of small business customers reported that a primary reason they choose to shop small business over big is to support local business and 46% say they actively seek out such companies. These customers value knowing the owner and staff where they do business and those relationships are a motivation for shopping local. Click to read the full report. https://smb.vistaprint.com/_files/ugd/3121be_d99794458cee45079ba421dbb61ed1d2.pdf

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Santulan Architecture Denver, CO

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Make Sure the Price is Right

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If your goal is to build a thriving and sustainable business entity (and I know that it is), it’s imperative that you determine the right price point for the goods and services you sell. Establishing the most advantageous price range is an element of your marketing strategy. That means your pricing strategy must align with both the brand identity and market position occupied by your products and services and also be acceptable to target customers. Understand where your company is—and where you want it to be—in terms of perceived brand value. Do you consider your company to be a discount option, middle-road, or a luxury option?

Pricing is integral to business profitability and a cornerstone of business success. Experienced business owners and leaders agree that a pricing strategy can make or break a company—set prices higher than what customers care to spend and sales are lost; set prices too low and revenue potential is not achieved.

Surely, you’ve noticed that pricing has been a sensitive topic over the past few years, as inflation that (allegedly) topped out in 2022 caused the prices of numerous goods and services to rise as business owners sought to protect their profit margins from increases their organizations faced for the raw materials, acquisition costs, transportation and other expenses associated with bringing goods and services to market.

Unfortunately, readers of this post—mostly, Freelance consultants and SMB owners—often lack the financial cushion to withstand all but the briefest periods of economic adversity. Enterprise companies and other well-capitalized entities are better equipped to absorb both the rising costs of product production or acquisition and customer push-back associated with higher retail prices. Instead, the “little fish” are squeezed between inflated business costs and customer reluctance to accept price increases. Their reluctance may stem from budget cuts that inhibit B2B sales and in the B2C sector, the problem can stem from wages that may not have kept pace with inflation. Both scenarios can lead to prospects who second guess their need to spend and result in shrinking sales revenue.

As was discussed in last week’s post, being in business is all about solving problems, is it not? In order to survive, companies large and small must at least generate enough revenue to cover operating costs. Increasing the price of your goods and services might make you nervous; it may appear that you’ll lose a customer or two and that is worrisome. Keep in mind that customers are aware of inflation. They also understand that you are in business to make a profit. Optimizing your pricing strategy is the best defense. Offering a simplified version of your products or services can perhaps be an attractive option that may allow you to retain price-sensitive customers.

Calculate production/ acquisition costs

Let’s start with the math: (Price – cost) x quantity = profit. Before pricing your products or services, you must calculate the time and money you spend to obtain or create them. Tally the costs of each item purchased and each hour spent to produce, acquire, or create each product or service that you sell. So, if you purchase at wholesale products that you resell, calculate the costs of buying and shipping those items. If you manufacture the products yourself, or outsource the production/manufacturing, calculate the costs of the materials, manufacturing expenses, employee wages and the time you devote to production tasks.

Likewise, if your business is based in the knowledge economy—maybe you customize business strategies, or you create sales training workshops that you present in video classes—to the best of your ability, calculate the number of hours spent designing your intellectual property and assign an hourly rate to yourself so that you can determine the wholesale cost of your work (keep in mind that you’ll bill your clients at retail).

Once you’ve confirmed the amount spent on obtaining or creating your products or services, you will have discovered a vital piece of financial info—the break-even point, which represents the minimum selling price required to cover the costs you’ve invested to obtain your products and services. For info on pricing tools that might be useful for your business entity, click: https://www.symson.com/blog/best-competitive-pricing-tools

Benchmark against key competitors

Both industry statistics and the pricing habits of key competitors can provide guidance when evaluating potential pricing strategies. Within each industry, there are typical standard mark-ups and profit margins that are recognized as normal ranges. This info can help Freelancers and SMB owners to first, understand if their product/ service acquisition or development costs are too high or low relative to the typical selling price range and also where, or if, their selling prices fall within the typical price range for that product or service.

Further confirmation can be gained by investigating the pricing of two or three direct competitors, to discover an upper and lower price tolerance for your customers and identify a pricing sweet spot. In other words, for products similar to what you offer, if you discover that the most expensive competitive price in your market is $300 and the lowest is $100, that’s a convincing indication of the price range your customers accept and you can therefore confidently price your offerings somewhere between those values, guided by your production or acquisition costs and your company’s brand identity.

Emphasize value, not price

Benchmarking the pricing of certain competitors can be instructive but you should avoid copying what your competitors do. Competitive pricing intel is best utilized as guardrails that help you discover a price range that your customers can be expected to accept. Believe that your products and services can stand on their own merits—that is, the value your brand delivers. Your company and its products and/or services are more than just a price tag, more than a commodity.

Too many Freelancers and SMB owners attempt to win customers by being the cheapest game in town. This mindset nearly always leads to underpricing—undervaluing— your products and services and your company as well. When you choose to primarily compete on price, it is unlikely you’ll ever preside over a thriving entity. It’s much more likely that you’ll be trapped in a race to the bottom as you compete with those who are willing to undercut your price whenever necessary. According to spellbrand.com, “by being the cheapest or lower priced, you attract the wrong customers. You attract customers who make decisions based on price and not value.” Leave the price wars to Walmart and focus instead on how much customers might be willing to pay once they understand the value associated with your organization.

When you compete on value, you will attract and interact with prospects who respect you, your professionalism and abilities, and your company. The moment you decide to emphasize the value, you will attract those ready to invest at the level of service or product you can deliver. 

On that note, along with a thrifty vision of your product or service to attract price-sensitive prospects, develop also a VIP up-sell category in each product or service that you provide because there are always customers willing to invest in the very best you offer. Including a premium option of your products and services is a quick way to add even more revenue to your business income streams. When you are playing the long-term game as an entrepreneur, you want the best.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: LazingBee