Hiring A Marketing Consultant: What To Consider

In today’s competitive marketplace, business owners can no longer expect to be able to manage every aspect of their business themselves. Indeed, it’s considered intelligent to outsource particularly important functions to experts. Marketing is a case in point: every company today needs a solid marketing strategy in place, but this is by no means as easy to develop as you might think. There are now so many different techniques for marketing a business that it often requires a specialist in the field to do it properly. But what do you need to consider if you’re looking for a marketing consultant to get your company noticed by your target audience?

Identify Your Goals: Before you start interviewing any potential marketing consultants to hire, you need to decide exactly what you want to achieve. This way you will be able to communicate your needs effectively. For example, do you want to increase your visibility online; are you looking to break into new market sectors or do you want to expand your sales network further afield. As with any kind of service, different consultants will have different specialist skills so your needs will help to dictate who you choose.

Get Referrals: You will be able to find plenty of consultants in your area if you do an online search, but how do you know which are worth your time? The best thing to do, once you have a list of possibilities, is ask around your professional network to find out which ones people have used and which brought them real results. Word of mouth really means something in this field, so you should use it. You can try looking at online reviews as well, although it’s always best, when possible, to get the opinion of someone you know and trust.

Interviewing: Once you’ve completed the above steps you should have been able to compile a shortlist of at least three consultants. At this point you can make an appointment with each one to discuss your ideas for your business and find out how they could help you.

There are several points you should remember to bring up during these talks: what experience do they have in your particular field; what kind of strategy might they employ for you; and do they have any contacts with business networks that could be useful to you? You should ask them to describe their processes in a way that you can understand, and ask to see examples of previous projects they have worked on. They should be able to show you some concrete results that prove they have enhanced a company’s reputation or visibility.

Be Aware: Finally, you should know when it’s best to avoid a certain consultant. Anyone who makes you unrealistic promises or offers you a ‘foolproof’ strategy is not to be trusted. Any good consultant knows that successful marketing takes time to implement and not everything will work every time. You should also make sure that you discuss and confirm costs before you sign anything so you can be sure you are not going to be charged for any undisclosed ‘extras’ further down the line.

6 Hassle-Free Ways to Unearth More Sparkling Blog Content

Ever started a blog and deserted it after six weeks because you ran out of topics to write about? This is far from an unusual situation. In fact a recent study found that 64% of small businesses featured cited ‘a lack of content ideas’ as a major problem they faced on a weekly basis.

And for the visitor, there’s nothing as underwhelming as clicking onto a blog only to find there hasn’t been any postings for the past three months (unless it’s a competitor’s blog of course!)

Content marketing can be incredibly daunting and time-consuming and it is worth considering outsourcing your requirements to local marketing companies or freelance creatives.

Meantime, here are 6 hassle-free resources and ideas you can use to find relevant content topics for your website or blog:

1.Bottlenose

Want to know what’s trending in your industry across all the major networks in real time? Bottlenose is a free resource that will keep you in the loop, so you can write about the latest developments on your blog. And definitely check out the handy ‘Sonar’ tab as a way of finding sub-topics in your niche too.

2.Customer Questions

If you’re selling online I’ll bet you get lots of questions from customers your other customers could benefit from too. Keep a list of the best ones and answer them once a month on your blog.

3.TweetChats

Imagine a giant online chat room where people hold scheduled get togethers to discuss particular topics. In this case we’re talking Tweetchats on Twitter – why not drop by and join in the conversation?

4.Quora

If you’re searching for facts, opinions and humorous content on a particular subject, Quora is the place to hang out. You can even republish material from the site providing you include a link back to Quora.

5.Topsy

Another interesting platform which allows you to search by theme across the various social networks and you can also set up email or RRS alerts for topics which interest you.

6.Industry Blogs

Subscribing to blogs within your industry is a must, firstly for keeping up to date and getting different perspectives on what is occurring and secondly for giving you lots of ideas for topics for your own blog.

And don’t forget to set up Google Alerts for your company, main competitors, industry and product ranges, so you’ll know what people are saying about you online!

For help with generating relevant and engaging blog posts for your target audience, marketing companies have their finger on the pulse when it comes content creation.

SlideShare Marketing . . . Better Than LinkedIn For Bringing In New Business?

Yes you did read that headline correctly.

It seems that the under-utilised and underrated SlideShare is proving a more effective option for getting products and services in front of key decision makers, than the much revered professional networking site, LinkedIn.

According to ComScore – SlideShare – dubbed the ‘quiet giant’ of content marketing, attracts around five times the traffic of other social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and indeed – LinkedIn.

SlideShare offers a convenient way of syndicating your blog and website content, (in fact any content your company produces), for wider audience engagement and better SEO results.

What’s more, syndicating content through SlideShare is really easy to do and your preferred marketing consultant will be pleased to assist you.

6 Tips For Marketing Content With SlideShare:

Your Title Must Entice

Bland, boring and genetic titles are out! Your SlideShare titles need to be bold, exciting, intriguing or controversial to ensure they get attention.

Use Teaser Content and a Call To Action

Who says you have to tell the whole story all at once? Try providing a flavour of the content in your SlideShare – a taster of what your prospects will get if they go to your landing page or website and sign up to your list. (This works well if you provide say the first 25 slides of a 100-slide document, but isn’t so effective for shorter works).

Leverage Other Audiences To Build Your Own

Let’s say your company’s blog has just launched and you are looking for increased exposure to get more potential clients on board. The solution: guest blogging. Blog owners are always on the lookout for exceptional content and your SlideShare content could be just the thing to get your business noticed.

Data-Driven Content is the Key to Engagement

SlideShare’s fans are professionals seeking quality information and helpful solutions for their businesses. As such, they are seeking informed content and statistics (think: charts, graphs, infographics) – and plenty of them!

HubSpot’s Dan Zarella found that contrary to other types of social media, the longer the SlideShare presentation the better it performed (60+ pages ideally).

Design Matters (a lot)

Whilst it could be misleading to suggest that design is more important that content it is certainly of equal importance when it comes to persuading browsers to click on your SlideShare over other people’s. An impressive design coupled with well-crafted content adds up to an irresistible SlideShare.

Get More Sign Ups on the Spot!

Because you are able to embed links into your SlideShare presentations, SlideShare allows you the potential to get more followers on board right away. (SlideShare Pro users can even embed a contact form into their document). And because SlideShare is a multimedia production there are no concerns about incurring penalties for duplicate content as with the written medium.

So now you’ve had a flavour of what online marketing’s ‘quiet giant’ could do for your business, it’s time to get to work. If you would like expert help and guidance to kickstart your SlideShare marketing campaign, your friendly online marketing consultant is just a phone call (or email) away.

It’s no exaggeration to say that using SlideShare to ‘buzz your business’ and connect with more potential clients could be a very smart business decision indeed. What’s the betting your competitors haven’t discovered it yet?

How To Achieve More Through Facebook For Business

Has your social media marketing strategy been letting you down? Are you beginning to feel sceptical about whether or not Facebook can even do anything for your business? Do you feel as though you are wasting valuable resources on social networking for very little gain, or have you taken bad advice from poor SEO strategists in the past?

If so, you may feel like giving up on Facebook – but don’t. Go back to the beginning, and if you put the right strategy in place it really can help you take your small business to the next level. Social media marketing is all about sticking with it and building up follower base.  After all, Facebook currently has over 400 million members and chances are a large number of those are amongst your target customer groups. 

Here’s how you can make Facebook work for you:

Home Page: The first and most important thing to do, if you’re going back to basics, is to create a unique home page that really sells your business as soon as a person looks at it. Your profile picture should be bold and include your company logo. The text next to your image should be kept short, snappy and to the point for those reading it on mobiles: try to sum up what your company is about in a couple of short sentences. Then further on down the page you can go into more detail about the background of your company, what you do and what makes you unique. Make sure you include an obvious link to your website to increase traffic, and if you have offline shops then it’s vital you let visitors know where to find you.

Maintain a Presence: You need to make the most of your Facebook page as, if you do it right, it can help you create a solid brand identity. Make sure you regularly share images, links, useful blog posts or videos that will be relevant or interesting to your followers. Also, don’t be afraid to be funny or a little irreverent with your posts: social media platforms such as Facebook are a chance for you to be a little more informal with customers – something you may not be able to do in day-to-day business transactions. 

Special Offers or Competitions: A great way to keep other Facebook users interested in your business is to offer regular incentives. Hosting competitions is a fun promotional exercise and there are plenty of tools to help you do this easily, such as Shortstack. Your Facebook page is also the place to advertise any special offers you may have on, with links to your e-commerce site so users can buy straight away before they lose interest.

Advertising and Promoted Posts: If you have some of your advertising budget set aside then Facebook, with is many millions of users, is a good place to invest this. With promoted posts, for example, you will pay a flat rate in order for a single post to reach a certain number of users. If you want to guarantee that your followers will see an important post, even if they are not on Facebook very often, this is the way to do it. If you want to boost your visitor numbers significantly, you also have the option of a standard ad in the side column of the Facebook site which include an image, copy and click-through link to the destination of your choice.

Common Mistakes in Small Business Marketing

Running in a small business in today's competitive marketplace is challenging, and marketing is a particularly big priority if you want to stay visible to potential customers.But it's not always easy and if done badly can sometimes actually have a negative effect, as this list below of common small business marketing mistakes shows.

Advertising and marketing are key to growing your business, particularly if you are a small or start-up enterprise. But small business marketing is not always straightforward: With the right advert or marketing campaign you can attract many new clients and increase your profits hugely, but if you employ the wrong strategy it can have disastrous effects.

If you want to use your marketing budget to the best effect, here are some of the most common marketing mistakes to avoid:

Confusing advertising: So many businesses spend a lot on advertising but don't take the time to make sure they have the wording correct. How many adverts have you listened to or seen and then away none the wiser about what the company actually does? If you are a small business then you probably won't have a huge budget for this anyway, so you have to make it count. Make sure that your spoken or written advertisement begins with a short, pithy message (no more than 10 words) describing exactly what you do and for which target market.

Lack of frequency: Not every potential customer will buy from you the first time they see your advert or read a promotional email. Building up a customer base takes time, so make sure your marketing efforts are regular and frequent (although don't constantly bombard people with emails, as this can put them off).

No motivation to buy: Some companies are successful at directing traffic to their websites, but their website itself is not set out so as to encourage sales. Your site needs to be clear and easy to use, and the organisation - links, structure etc - needs to move visitors towards the action you want them to take, which is to buy your products. For example, your web page navigation bars should include a second link to your product catalogue so there is plenty of opportunity for sales.

Failure to track: Many companies forget the all-important task of tracking their ad campaigns to find out which of their marketing techniques contributed most to sales. Omitting this is a major small business marketing mistake: if you have a small advertising budget then you need to be certain that your money is being spent effectively. Tracking, by finding out where customers heard of you or by analysing the sales of each campaign, will help you work out where to make outlays in the future.

No feedback: Lastly, it's vital that you listen to feedback from your customers. If you don't, you will lose touch with their priorities and then it's a slippery slope to losing your client base altogether. Carrying out market research and inviting comments via your website are two of the most effective ways of avoiding this pitfall.

3 Free Twitter Tools

As business owners, we are only too well aware that to do social media effectively can eat up a fair bit of our time. But if you don’t have the budget to outsource your social media requirements to a competent freelancer or marketing company, then I can recommend these 3 free time-saving Twitter tools that could help your business gain an edge over the competition.

Commun.it

Commun.it is a relationship management tool endorsed by the likes of Social Media Examiner and The Next Web. It is currently used by high profile global companies such as Dell, Nike and Sony. The beauty of Commun.it is that it allows you to build relationships, manage followers and monitor engagement from one simple dashboard. The Commun.it platform provides suggestions as to who you might follow on Twitter and you can see at a glance who your top influencers are – and reward them accordingly.

The Next Web says: "Commun.it turns the status-oriented world of Twitter into a relationship dashboard, enabling marketers to effectively analyse relationships and gain insights.”

InboxQ

InboxQ is a great little tool which enables you to engage with more Twitter users using the power of questions. InboxQ’s research identified that around 100,000 questions are asked every day on Twitter. In addition, 59% of Twitter users are likely to follow a business or organisation which takes the time to answer their questions online.

InboxQ allows you to set up a campaign using industry-related keywords, so that when somebody poses a question relating to your chosen keywords, you will be alerted in real time. Not only that, but you can use InboxQ as a networking tool.

Let’s say you run a PR consultancy. You can set up campaigns for each of your clients using their specific industry keywords. When you are notified of a question that one of clients might like to answer you can simply retweet them the information. Which means it’s great news for you and for your client too. Smart, eh? You can download InboxQ via your Chrome or Firefox browser.

Buffer

Want to give the impression that you are always online, without overwhelming your Twitter followers? Then you need Buffer. Buffer allows you to create a pre-written stream of tweets into a queuing system which you can auto-schedule for delivery, so that they are fed to your Twitter community at regular intervals. Last September, Commun.it announced a collaboration with Buffer, so you can now integrate both tools from one interface promoting added functionality (and creativity).

Many businesses shy away from social media because they believe they don’t have the time or financial resources to do it effectively. But to keep pace with your competitors, if your customers or clients use Twitter, then perhaps you should learn to love it too.

Instagram Is Perfect For Brands . . . Get The Picture?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and as if to prove the point, the Facebook-owned mobile photo sharing app that is Instagram, announced at the end of February (2013) that their active users have topped the 100 million mark.

Now under any circumstances this would be considered something of a major achievement, but the fact is, Instagram only announced in January that users had topped the 90m mark. That’s like – an extra 10m users in one month – wow, that’s not just a big deal, that’s an explosion!

So what does all this mean for you as a business owner?

“Uh-oh, not another blooming social media site I need to keep tabs on . . .”

Hmm. Something like that.

But much, much more than that, Instagram is a tremendous opportunity for savvy brand owners to explode their marketing output to a visually tuned-in audience.

As a platform for businesses, Instagram is a little different from Facebook and Twitter in that it doesn’t currently offer business-specific profiles or paid advertising options. That’s what makes it such a level playing field in terms of business users – it’s an invitation to get creative with your marketing. And this is something your local or online marketing consultants can help with.

While other social media platforms may be scrambling to deliver additional functionality to their users, its inherent simplicity is what’s makes Instagram’s premise ‘social networking genius in action.’

Indeed, Instagram may be first and foremost a social network, but it is also a photo editing tool too. Which means almost anyone can use Instagram’s technology to create stunning images which you can then share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Flickr and in your emails too.

If you don’t consider yourself much of a copywriter, then Instagram is definitely one marketing tool that will demand a closer look. And even if commercial writing is your bag, I’m sure you will still appreciate the impact stunning image effects can give to your branding.

3 Tips for marketing success with Instagram:

• Make sure the focus of your images is on telling a story, rather than delivering a series of product placement ads. Your story can be emotional, motivational, aspirational, or downright hilarious – but don’t, whatever you do, let it scream: “buy me now!”

• Don’t post at less than three-hourly intervals else you run the risk of clogging up your users’ feed. It’s worth spending time getting really creative with your content so that your followers look forward to your next offering, rather than having people tutting: “not them again!”

• Use a tool such as Statigram to help you use, measure and promote your Instagram activity. You can also use it to create a brilliant collage-type cover for your Facebook page.

So if you are in business – and particularly if you sell products or services relating to the design, fashion, or creative industries – then you’ll hardly need any further convincing that Instagram is for you. For assistance with creating some dynamic Instagram marketing, you need look no further than your helpful marketing consultant.

Bet I can guess where you’re headed to next . . .