You’ve built an innovative business. It’s truly inspired.
Or you’ve got a mature company and you don’t want to lose traction in the marketplace.
Either way, you need to get the word out about your mission and operational objectives. You’re part of the societal movement that increasingly is moving away from land and machinery to software in a disrupted world. Just as Ken Chapman says in his LinkedIn updates, you need to be “sustainable economically, environmentally plus rebuild a skilled 21st-century workforce.”
Is your digital marketing up-to-speed?
Neil Patel lives and breathes tools that measure his marketing activities. He drops names faster than apples falling from a tree during harvest season.
I’m a fan of Neil named by Forbes as one of the top 10 online marketers on the web. He’s driven 800 million visitors to client websites such as Amazon, NBC, and Viacom. So, I listen when he recommends studying Google Analytics to show you how people move from one page of your website to the next or to compare your competitors’ search habits.
Here are my 5 selected takeaways from 20 thought leaders recently recruited by Neil to speak on business marketing.
1. Commit to maintaining high standards for the creation of your content. This means longer blogs, industry insights, and shared wisdom for your posts, infographics, webinars, video, podcasts, and e-guides.
2. Augment with digital advertising, especially Facebook advertising, which offers extensive audience profiles and maintains high standards for images and messaging. It truly is awesome.
3. Take advantage of influencer marketing using social media. Studies show that LinkedIn, Twitter and a company blog is a powerful trifecta in support of sales. Influencer engagement within these networks is a gateway to courting individuals with relevant followers.
4. Frequent and regular publishing outperforms occasional publishing every time.
5. Repurpose your original content a few months later…look up the keywords that performed best…integrate those keywords in an updated version of your blog…republish and repeat.
By the way, here’s a look at the percentage of time to spend on activities:
Content creation – 50%
Promotion and building distribution – 50%
After reaching 10 to 20K in traffic, the formula changes to:
Content creation – 70%
Distribution – 10%
Re-writing – 20%
This certainly has been my experience. An investment of time is required at the front end of your start-up to build a bank of editorial assets. Later, you will have an easier time to deploy this content in whichever way you please.
Steve Rayson from BuzzSumo revealed an analysis of 100 million headlines to show blog titles that ranked the highest for opening rates.
His research said the title for this blog – starting with the phrase “How to…” ranked THE highest in all networks. Steve researched top-performing titles which often differ from LinkedIn to Facebook to myriad other networks. He also identified best headlines for business, consumers, need-to-know subjects, and three-word phrases that were shared the most.
Understand Your Audience
It’s key to understand the nuances of your audience when establishing sales and marketing online. It means there’s a deeper grasp needed than for the old-style demographics showing age, income level, gender, and education.
You want to know their online habits…which websites they favour in your niche (3 or 4 today)…their work habits…their hobbies…what motivates them in their professional arena…what keeps them up at night.
Despite knowing that LinkedIn is a network for professionals, this does not mean that brands should solely focus there. The social platforms your brand focuses on should be the ones your audience prefers. Let them connect with you where THEY want to, not where you want to be.
It’s Not About You 
You’re seeing this mantra regularly these days. Your audience is accustomed to self-education.
They expect to see information, content, and media that is interesting, relevant, and valuable to their search. The consistent delivery of quality content that appeals to your audience will create trust among your visitors and ultimately create opportunities to discuss your products.
Invest in Digital Marketing to Build Your Business
You’ve invested a lot of resources in building your business. Don’t hold back when it’s time to share your story.
It’s a no brainer. Digital marketing is here to stay. Social media is integral today and it’s the long game. You don’t want to lose traction to your competition, so you need to know why and how modern marketing works for your business.
There are no shortcuts. Please invest the time and resources to do it properly and the results will come.
2018 – Here we come!
