It’s easy to be impatient, but you know you can’t expect to see amazing results from your marketing strategy overnight.

Results take time, but as a small business, you don’t have a lot of time to waste. This creates a dilemma – how long do you wait things out before making changes?

Your success is riding on a steady incline on your income graph. It won’t be too fast, but it can’t be too slow. Changing up your marketing because you aren’t getting immediate results can potentially drive you into debt.

The trick is looking at the numbers, knowing what to expect, and understanding the impacts that small tweaks can make when they’re enacted at the right time.

Keep an inquiring mind

Many businesses use survey questions with their customers. Large businesses tend to offer small rewards for feedback, but that may not be feasible for your small business. Try offering one prize through a feedback based raffle.

There is a core question you want to ask to measure your marketing success, and it’s a simple one: How did you hear about us?

This one is self-explanatory. If your customers are referring to your advertising, you know it’s reaching at least some of your desired market. Get to know this market, and tailor your marketing towards this group for maximum success.

Get smart with analytics

Analytics are useless if you don’t know how to read them. These figures, especially with social media and tracked advertisement, mean the world. It doesn’t matter how many people you’re reaching if you aren’t engaging with them.

Comments and interactions are what actually signify that your marketing plan is working. Hire a reputable digital marketing agency to help you set up your analytics and figure out the reports.

If you aren’t getting an active response, it’s time to change the way you handle your interactive platforms.

A business assessment will help you re-asses what you are doing now and come up with a better plan.

Measure your plans against your goals

You’re going to have no idea whether something is a hit or a miss unless you have a direct goal you intend to use as a measurement of your success. Before you start marketing, know what you’re trying to accomplish.

Maybe you want to see a ten percent revenue increase at the peak of your marketing campaign. Maybe you want to recruit 30 new valuable customers within the first half of your ad outreach.

Keep modest goals, but always know what exactly you’re looking for as an indication that things are going according to plan.

Make sure your demographic matches your platforms

Where are you advertising? How are you advertising? Who are you advertising to? If your advertisement is geared in areas where your target customers aren’t likely to see it, things aren’t going to work out in your favor.

Using web forms to collect your users’ feedback is a great way to find out if you are giving them everything they need. There’s an easy web form builder for you use for those purposes.

Minimal response may not be the result of a slow trickle of new customers, but instead the result of your desired customers missing your advertisement entirely. Know your demographic.

Understand how they want to observe and interact with marketing. If you’re looking for customers in all the wrong places, your return is going to be as small as possible.

If you find yourself in a marketing slump, it’s time to try something different. You need to make sure your new strategy is the right kind of different, instead of merely something else.

Look at your competitors and weigh their success against yours. Marketing success is a game of innovation, so sharpen your wits and get in the game.

Image source: Pixabay

As a small business, growth is what will make or break you. If you don’t adapt to the current economy and maximize your success, the outlook is very bleak. In today’s world, where a terrifying number of SMEs fail within the first five years, it’s imperative to take a proactive approach when it comes to securing the future prospects of your business.

You don’t have to leave the fate of your business up to chance if you’ve implemented a secure strategy that you’ll follow closely. Nothing is foolproof, but careful planning will give you the best shot at success.

Focus on customer retention and brand loyalty

You’re going to need capital to grow. Where is it going to come from? If you’re frivolously advertising, attempting to rope in as many new customers as possible, you may not see the results you’re expecting.

That’s why you need to focus on the customers you already have. Develop a loyalty program. Go above and beyond to service the customers who already recognize and value you. Creating a core set of customers is essential for a predictable profit.

Brand loyalty is equally important. New customers will be more inclined to continue their relationship with you if you incentivize their loyalty.

Those small perks do come at a minor cost, but it isn’t nearly as large as the cost of recruiting new customers. Most people are inclined to shop for value, and making it worth their while can carry you further than the best advertising campaign you could possibly conceive.

Outwit your competitors

There’s always going to be competition – you just have to make sure you’re winning. Businesses that never achieve their desired level of growth (or even worse, businesses that fold) often find themselves in that position because their competitors have an edge. If you’re providing a useful product or service, it’s not that people don’t want it. Chances are, they just like someone else’s better.

This involves a certain level of risk taking. Always keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. Understand what it is that they’re doing better than you are. You need to not only match, but exceed their best qualities.

Use marketing automation tools and innovative AI-based technology to always be ahead of your competition.

Even if it’s merely in customer service, you need to give people a reason to choose you over someone else. Growth requires constant innovation. You can’t fear what lies outside of the box – you need to make it your default to think there.

Watch your numbers closely

If you’re making a profit, that’s excellent. The problem lies in being content with the profit you’re making, and stopping there. Look at all of your numbers. Some aspects of your business can be showing excellent performance while others are subpar. Determine how to maximize everything. Hire a reliable SEO agency to help you set up your analytics and reports.

It can be as simple as replacing something with an upgraded version, or as complicated as dropping something altogether and doing a total restructure. Don’t let things get to rock bottom before you decide to take action. Always stay three steps ahead to prevent a predicament. Every aspect of your business presents you with an opportunity to move forward.

…And remember to keep a level head

As you likely already know, the best plan is one that can be adapted at the last moment. You can still be cautious while being inventive. If you see things aren’t working in a particular area, don’t be afraid to make small adaptations. Always change one thing at a time, investigate the impact the change has had, and rework your plans through fine tuning.

Image source: Pixabay

When something can become a trending topic in a matter of seconds, it is important for social media marketers to always stay up-to-date on the marketing trends affecting social media.

How to succeed in social media? Monitor and adjust your strategy to these trends:

1. Real-Time Marketing is Redefined

Historically, Real-Time Marketing (RTM) has been described as having a clever response to a trending topic at a moment’s notice. But these days the description is shifting to having “the right content to share with the right audience at the right time.”

This means you really have to know your audience, what kind of content gets them engaged, and which posts will get their attention. We have given a lot of advice about RTM – how to newsjack upcoming events, and how to prepare content in advance to really adhere to this shifting trend.

Thanks to marketing automation, personalization is becoming a norm rather than an advantage.

2. Privacy is Your Priority

After all privacy and data security scandals, it’s no wonder privacy regulation has become a huge trend over the years.

Hari Ravichandran, founder of Aura, names data protection one of the biggest business opportunities these days: If you can figure the balance between data protection and data analytics, you will win your niche.

3. Social Media Ad Spending Increases

It’s no secret that Facebook posts have seen organic reach decline in the last year with an updated algorithm. It especially has caused frustration across small businesses due to the limited budget these companies have to work with.

The trick is to provide less sales-related and more industry-related content as organic posts to enhance brand awareness, and save your sales and promotional content for the ads. This way you can balance your Facebook checkbook and keep your content in front of your fans. (Utilizing targeting tools to the social audience that you know will engage can help keep these costs down and return on your investment (ROI) high!)

4. Content Marketing Continues to Grow

While content sharing continues to increase, social media marketers continue to struggle with measuring the ROI of such efforts. The ROI of social media or content marketing is notoriously in murky waters. But remember, there isn’t one formula for all; ROI will be calculated differently for every organization.

It all depends on the goals of your content. Should the result be the download of a whitepaper or a visit to your website? Establishing these goals before you release the content will help you visualize your results with quantifying value.

5. Video Isn’t Just About YouTube Anymore

Facebook topped YouTube in U.S. desktop views by 1 billion views back in August 2014. And the rumor is that Facebook is giving more value to Facebook videos over YouTube videos in organic reach.

According to JSH&A, Vine and Tumblr are also incrementally seeing more video views, suggesting that video is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution across platforms.

6. Facebook is No Longer King of Engagement

Let’s clarify.

The point JSH&A wants to point out here is that “A Facebook-first or Facebook-only approach may no longer make sense for some brands.”

This doesn’t mean that ALL brands should abandon sharing to Facebook and start an account on EVERY platform. You have to make informed decisions about where your audience is engaging with the brands they love, and post effective, visual, and valuable content to those platforms.

While the infographic points out that Pinterst, Tumblr, and Instagram have gained more than 10MM visitors last year, it is likely that those users are already present on Facebook.

So what is the moral of the story?

Stay visual, stay engaged, stay informed, and you will be able to provide valuable content to the audience you have established a loyal relationship with on social media.

Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay

It isn’t always easy to evaluate ourselves and our work. Anyone who has created content in any professional capacity has had the experience many times of people responding strongly to a piece you didn’t think was any good, and then all but ignoring the one you poured your heart and soul into. It is an exasperating experience that reminds us that it isn’t always so easy to determine quality based on perspective alone.

The bad news is that evaluating content performance is a very necessary job. We have to be able to see what is working, and what isn’t, in order to continue to grow. Luckily, there is hard data to assist in the process, as well as a few things to keep in mind.

What Makes Content Successful?

Before looking at how to analyze the success of your content, you need to define something very important: what constitutes success. You might get a lot of views on a blog posts, but be disappointed by its lack of comments. Something could generate a ton of comments, but never get shared once on social media. It could be republished (with permission) on another site, but hardly generate any traffic for your own.

There are several ways that you could define success:

• The content receives a lot of engagement on social media, and brings people to your profile.
• The content drives click-throughs to your actual site.
• The content generates a lot of traffic via SEO and search engine results.
• The content improves your visibility, and attracts an audience you were trying to target.
• The content enriches the authority of yourself and your brand.
• The content assists the steady growth of your site, even if only in part.

Here are only some examples. Really, success is defined entirely by what it is you choose it to be.

Once you have established this criteria, you will know what to look at moving forward.

Further reading: The Comprehensive Guide to Content Marketing Analytics & Metrics

The Need For Analytics

The simplest way to go about evaluating your content is to find patterns within data. That is where analytics come in. Google Analytics is your most basic tool (it is free for most people), and easiest to use. But you can find any number of tools online, including plugins that can be integrated into WordPress to provide the details right in your dashboard, or on individual posts.

Don’t make any decisions based on a couple of months of information. While three to five months can give you a small glance at how certain content is doing, it is a very small sampling. Six months should be your minimum, but a year or more is much better. The more posts you have to analyze, the better the picture as you see what has happened over time.

Analytics will tell you how much organic traffic has been generated, how long people have on average remained on the page (did they immediately click out, skim, or read in detail), and what posts are top performing.

Once you have that data comes the tricky part is deciding what to do with it. It isn’t enough to know what content is doing well. You have to figure out why. Ask yourself:

• What patterns are emerging based on the topic?
• How was the SEO handled on those posts?
• Was there a specific tone within those posts?
• Did it include any kind of visual content that enhanced it?
• Was the style done in a particular way?
• Who created the content?
• Did anything special happen on social media, such as the use of particular hashtags when sharing?
• Were the topics related to something trending at the time?

You want to find the common links with this content, in order to figure out what it is about them that has been working.

Featured tool: Finteza is a comprehensive web analytics solution that allows you to measure your content performance and even A/B test your sales funnel:

Most online form builders come with built-in analytics solutions you can use as well.

When The Same Thing That Always Works Stops Working

One thing you may notice is a surge of popularity based on these patterns, and then a decline. If what you thought was always working isn’t anymore, analytic data will show you that with brutal clarity. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; times change, and you have to adapt with better content for new eras. Otherwise, you will be left behind.

If you find yourself noticing that what used to work is no longer bringing you the results you need, it is time to try something new. That might also be hidden in the data, as you can see the second most popular content that is still rising beyond the decline you’ve noted. It could inspire you to create something new. Take it as an opportunity to grow!

Further reading: talkingAds, a company that “translates data into actionable results”, puts it very well:

Interpreting and acting on the basis of marketing analysis is the key… Aligning marketing analytics with company requirements makes a difference.

Being Honest About Your Content

You are going to be shocked by what you find, from time to time. You are going to want to deny it. No, there is no way your readers have started to avoid your Freaky Fridays theme week, or lost interest in meandering stories about your time working that job only you find interesting!

Further reading: To help you out, here’s a great article on creating great content from startablog123.com: How To Write A Good Blog Post

Well, that is just the way the cookie crumbles. People get bored, they move on, and you have to bring them back. Don’t get so bogged down with what you’re used to. Enjoy this chance to start fresh, and pay attention to what the data tells you. Even if what it tells you makes you a little bit sad.

2021 has seen an explosion in audio content, especially podcasting. A few factors play into this. The technology to produce quality audio from anywhere is available to pretty much anyone. iTunes has ramped up their focus on podcasting with the launch of their podcast app in 2013 and podcast platforms such as Stitcher are moving into automobiles.

The success of podcasters such as John Lee Dumas, Cliff Ravenscraft and Chris Ducker bring positive attention to podcasting, not just as a content option but as a viable revenue stream.

So how can you turn up the audio in your content strategy?

Adding audio content can be done inexpensively and with less stress around the technology than you may realize. Once you decide to add audio, you will find that this is an excellent medium to leverage for not just podcasting, but other areas of your content strategy.

Free tools like Facebook Live provide an easy way to host your own podcast. Australia-based marketing agency gives some great tips on hosting a live event on Facebook:

The live video will stay on your page after the broadcast and will appear in your friends’ and followers’ feeds just like a usual post. There’s a handy rehearsal feature called Test Broadcast that allows you to broadcast live to admins and moderators of the page to test the audio quality and lighting before you go live to everyone else

Internal podcasting

When you think of podcasting, it’s common to have programs come to mind that are designed for an external audience. But what about your internal audience? Developing a podcast or series of podcasts designed for internal audiences can be a great way to engage your team members and provide important information in a consistent, easy to access delivery model.

Getting Started:  Deduct which areas of your organization could benefit from information, updates or education on a regular basis and who can easily download or access audio for listening. Some possible ideas for internal podcasting implementation could be:

• Human Resources hosts a series of interviews showcasing employees in your company.
• Sales Management produces a weekly podcast providing updates, product details, and training for the sales team.
• Employee Benefits uses audio to keep employees up to date on benefit changes, enrollment information and frequently asked questions.
• The C-Suite hosts a regular podcast to update the company on the state of the organization, vision of where the company is headed and allow everyone to better connect to management and culture.

To keep things organized and consolidated, use a hosted contact center for your business.

These are just a few ideas on how an internal podcast could benefit your content strategy. What other ways could audio content be used to increase morale and efficiencies, while decreasing costs and turnover?