We’ve seen it all: businesses who overload their customers with long wordy emails. Businesses who post funny pictures and comedy videos on their social media every single day. Facebook post after Facebook post of coupons, discounts, and promotional pictures of products.
Owning a small business is an exciting venture, but many owners are listening to the wrong advice when it comes to planning their marketing. There are three pieces are the worst advice about marketing we hear and see being implemented too often. For the sake of your business, stop this madness now!
The More the Better
This piece of advice has been swirling around the small business marketing community from the beginning. The belief that it is best to publish large amounts of content and social posts is far from the truth. Posting too much content is more likely to make your audience unsubscribe, unlike, or unfollow. Rather than overloading on content, spacing out your posts and outreach helps to ensure that it will actually get read. If your dentist is posting informational materials five times a day, you are more likely to get annoyed and remove them from your feed. By choosing smart content at smaller increments, you will draw in your audience and convert readers into leads and future customers.
It’s All Promotional
Another marketing woe is posting content that is strictly promotional. Yes, the objective of marketing is to generate customers and sales, but posting only promotional materials will result in a disengaged audience. A simple rule to follow: keep 80% of your content fun, engaging and interactive and the remaining 20% promotional. Why do you choose to engage with companies on social media? Yes, to see their sales information, but they are likely posting other original content that caught your eye first.
One of our favorite pages to follow is The Ellen Show’s Facebook. Not only does Ellen promote her show, but she has weekly posts such as #You’reWelcomeWednesday and #RiddleMeTuesday. Straying from the expected posts creates audience involvement and keeps people coming back to her page.
You Don’t Need a Strategy
Posting willy-nilly content may get a level of involvement with your audience, but having a plan for your content and a schedule for when you will post will help to get the most out of your efforts. Having a strategy and a posting plan will help to publish content at the best time, and also will ensure that you are following the 80/20 rule. Rather than waiting until something worth talking about happens in your business, planning your content ahead of time will motivate an interested and engaged audience.
Making sure that you are avoiding these marketing blunders will keep your business on the right track for marketing success. Social media and other marketing endeavors such as email, if used correctly, can transform your small business and elevate your sales to the next level.
We have created a free daily checklist for your business to use to track your social media postings and involvement. Not only does it make it easy for you to keep track of each platform, it also streamlines the process, so you only spend 15 minutes a day on social media marketing! We love seeing businesses succeed, and hopefully we can help you reach your marketing goals.
For more tips on small business marketing: 7 Things About Small Business Marketing You Need to Know