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Why you need to be the most awesome version of yourself

Kylie Fennell
Every time I read something by Seth Godin I become inspired all over again.
Seth is a marketing genius known for his incredibly popular blog and books such as Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable.
An associate I work with recently loaned me Seth’s book ‘What to do When it’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your turn)’. It was remarkable to say the least.
Now I’m not here to give Seth a blatant plug or review his books – though I kind of am and am happy to do so without any recompense – I love the guy! 
I do want to share with you one of the common themes throughout Seth’s work that really resonates with me as a marketer and business owner.
He urges, no implores, business owners to be ‘remarkable’ particularly when it comes to marketing their business.
Business Owners as ‘creators’ need to be worth remarking upon. They need to make the choice to put themselves out there in a big way. They need to embrace the fear and exhilaration that success but also possible failure can bring.
Honestly you need to read his books and blog to appreciate his philosophy fully, but I’d like to take the theme of being remarkable and apply it to what I ask small business to do.
For many small businesses, it’s hard to reconciliate the idea of being remarkable, or having BIG ideas, with what they see themselves – a small business.
But why can’t small business be SMALL business? Why can’t small businesses have BIG ideas and be remarkable?
The answer is of course you can. You can be remarkable!
You can be outstanding, extraordinary, exceptional in what you choose to pursue.
The starting point is creating an authentic brand and positioning story about not just your business, but yourself.
As the creator of your business, you ARE the business.
You might think your business is about selling widgets, but they are YOUR widgets. You’re selling the way YOU sell those widgets, the customer service YOU provide, the feeling people get when they buy from YOU and use YOUR widgets.
The experience of buying widgets should be completely different to the next person’s widgets and you need to let people know HOW you’re different and why they should buy specifically from YOU.
You need to create a story about you and your business. You need to share part of your personal story, be authentic and genuine.
If the best part about buying widgets from you is that you have been collecting widgets since you’re 8-years-old and can tell the difference between the model Y and model Z widget – then tell people about it.
If you left a high paid corporate career and risked everything to pursue your dream of selling widgets – tell people about it.
If you pride yourself on the fact you just love talking to customers one on one about their passion for widgets – you guessed it, you should tell people about it.
You may not think you’re ‘remarkable’ when you compare yourself to the multi-national widget corporations – but you are.
Remember the multi-national widget corporation started out just like you – and how did they get to where they got to – by being extraordinary 
You might think I’m just an ordinary old widget guy, but you’re not. You pursued your dream, you took the leap, you created something that is beyond the usual or ordinary. You are EXTRAORDINARY.
Being extraordinary isn’t about having the most charisma, or being the loudest, or even having the most money – you can be extraordinary by being yourself, just being the most AWESOME version of yourself.
You are in the business of you, and it’s time you started telling people your story.
I might need widgets, but I don’t want any old widgets. I want to buy from you, the widget guy or gal, who makes me feel great about my purchase.
I want to feel like I made the right choice buying from you, because you are extraordinary – not the usual widget experience.
Now the choice is over to you, are you ready to embrace your awesomeness and be EXTRAORDINARY?
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Why you don’t want people to go to your website

Kylie Fennell
 
 
When it comes to online marketing many of us spend a lot of time trying to drive traffic to our website, but I’m here to tell you how to stop people going to your website.
Now that’s just crazy talk right?
What I want to talk about today is the world of landing pages.
From an online marketing perspective when we say landing pages we are talking about stand alone web pages that have no relation to your main website.
They don’t have global menus for you to get back to your home page, they are simple, single pages with one simple objective – get your target market to do something.
Let’s call it for a moment a ‘call to action’ page.
Say you want people to download an e-book, book an appointment or sign-up to a webinar, free trial, or notify them of a launch  (just choose the one objective), then that’s the ONLY thing you want them to do.
You want them to input their email details and sign-up or purchase, nothing else. You don’t want them being distracted by any shiny new objects or be drawn off to a social media link or back to your home page.
If this is you, and you need higher conversion rates, then you should consider landing pages.
The clever folks over at Unbounce have some great articles on landing pages and how to create effective pages. They explain that the main reason for using landing pages is “to limit the options available to your visitors, helping to guide them toward your intended conversion goal”.
Unbounce describe two different landing pages, Click Through and Lead Generation.
Click through landing pages “can be used to describe a product or offer in sufficient detail so as to ‘warm up’ a visitor to the point where they are closer to making a purchasing decision”.
Lead generation pages are used to capture information such as a name and email address so you can market directly to them later. It may include a form – perhaps with just an ‘email address’ field (the less the fields the better) and details of what they will get for providing their details. Do however make sure you are adhering to your local privacy and anti-spam laws when you do go ahead and use the details provided.
There are heaps of services that provide landing pages, some are heavily optimised to increase conversion rates and SEO, some are more simple.
Leadpages is one paid option service that offers highly customisable templates and integration with other platforms such as CRMs and social media.
WordPress also has plugins allowing you to create landing pages by yourself on your WordPress site.
If you are interested in setting up landing pages, speak to your web developer or do some online research on your options. WordPress has loads of landing page plugins ranging from free to premium ones.
And make sure the content on your landing page has a clear call to action and is persuasive.
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How to master your social media in 2015

Kylie Fennell
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net


Any blog post I have written about social media has always been popular. This popularity is for good reason – it’s a highly effective tool for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) but it also can seem a little overwhelming.
I have written previous posts on the importance of having a social media presence and what social media platforms are best for your target market, as well as how to create valuable content.
Here I wanted to give you updates on some of the latest research on social media in Australia coming from the Yellow Pages Social Media Report 2014.
Here is my latest overview of the main social media networks and the demographics of social media users for each network.
The most interesting finding in this report was that 38% of SMEs that used social media reported increased sales, compared to 28% of those that didn’t.
Additionally SMEs with social media were also more likely to report increases in
profitability (35% compared to 22%) and increasing employment (13% compared to 7%).
The highlights from the latest report are as follows:
  • 71% of social media users are accessing it via a smartphone
  • 49% of people are researching clothing or fashion
  • 43% are researching electrical goods
  • 29% are researching furniture homewares
  • 46% of internet users access social media every day
  • 71% of 20-29-year-old internet users access social media every day
  • 45% of social media users turned off Twitter over the last 12 months
  • 19% dropped Facebook
  • 58% of social media users are accessing it after work (around 6.30pm)
  • More than four in 10 social media users reported using social media while watching television
  • News and current affairs was most popular genre for social networking while watching TV, followed by dramas
  • Almost three in 10 of those that used social media while watching television reported discussing the programs on social media while they were on
  • 63% of social media users researching a product or service on social media led to a purchase
  • With 47% of the resultant purchases made online
  • 33% of social media users follow brands or businesses
  • The majority of those following brands or businesses wants discounts or giveways followed by product info
  • Overall 30% of social media users have provided online ratings in the past year
  • Online reviews are mainly for accommodation, restaurants/bars, holiday destinations, stores, movies and mobile apps
  • On average, social media users read three reviews/blogs before making a purchase decision.
So here is an updated overview of the networks and who is using each of them, as well as post ideas for a sample cat grooming and breeding business to illustrate how to use each network.
Facebook
Facebook can be likened to a journal. If you only want to be active on one social media network, Facebook is the best choice for most businesses (though this can change for some businesses depending on their industry and target market).
Users create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages and photographs and receive automatic notifications when their friends update their profiles. Businesses can create company ‘pages’ that Facebook users can ‘like’, which means they will receive notifications of any updates to the company page. Updates appear on users’ newsfeed. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organised by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics.
User demographics
  • 95% of users of social media use Facebook
  • Slightly preferred by females
  • 100% of 65+ social media users, use Facebook (they were the lowest user group in 2013)
  • Lowest user age groups are 40-49 year-olds at 92%
  • Used in metropolitan and regional areas but slightly preferred by regional.
Industry/business types
Facebook suits pretty much every type of industry and business, though fashion/clothing and sporting clubs represent the most brands/businesses followed on Facebook. It suits fast moving consumer goods.
How to use it
Businesses need to create a Facebook ‘page’. They need to be careful they are not creating a ‘personal’ profile, as this will limit functionality and ability of any users wanting to like your page.
Aim to update it around once a day. Frequency will depend on how engaged your audience is and when they are most likely to check Facebook. You can get a feel for the best times to post by checking your engagement statistics available via Facebook’s built-in analytics (it appears on the Admin panel on Facebook Pages).
The cat post
Here is a happy snap of my cat; Here is a picture of a cat groomed for cat show; Here is a touching story about a cat who saved his owner from a house fire; Here is a link to a funny cat video; Here is a funny cat picture; One day only 50% off voucher on cat products at our store
Twitter
Twitter users share ‘tweets’ or updates/comments/insights or links to other web content in 140 characters or less. You can also upload photos. It is immediate, real time news and opinions.
Users can follow other users if they want to be notified of updates in their Twitter feed. Users can ‘retweet’ content they like.
Hashtags are used to categorise content using keywords or trending topics.
User demographics
  • 19.5% of users of social media use Twitter
  • Preferred by males (25% males vs 14% females)
  • Majority of users aged 20-64 (20-29 is the largest user group followed by 30-39)
  • Predominately used in metropolitan areas
  • Twitter is very popular with celebrities, politicians and big brands. It can suit most businesses and industries as long as they are prepared to stay active on it.
How to use it
Due to the immediacy of twitter, prolific users may update several times a day or several times an hour. Brands that want to appear at the top of a newsfeed may re-post the same content over and over again. It is much better to tweak any content before re-posting. Try and establish when the best time of day for your business is to tweet. Do this by checking when people are engaging the most with your content.
Use hashtags for popular topics or trends but don’t overuse them.
The cat post
#my cat; link to newstory about cat that saves owner from burning house; funny quote about cats; short comment and/or link to laws requiring cats to be registered with local council; comment on cat story on #Bondi Vet TV show
LinkedIn
In many ways LinkedIn can be likened to an online resume. Users create a personal profile listing their current and past jobs, experience, skills and achievements. You ‘connect’ with other users and can endorse users for particular skills. You can also recommend or give a testimonial for users. Businesses can create company pages that other users can follow. You can also join groups where topics can be posted and you can join the discussion. Many jobs are posted on LinkedIn and companies have been known to recruit via LinkedIn by searching for users with particular experience or skills sets.
User demographics
  • 24.5% of users of social media use LinkedIn
  • Preferred by males (28% vs 21%)
  • Largely higher educated and higher income users
  • Majority of users aged 20-64 (30-39 is the largest user group)
  • Predominately used in metropolitan areas.
Industry/business types
Predominately used by white-collar professionals. It is an important tool for any business that relies heavily on networking, business-to-business and cross-industry contacts.
How to use it
Ensure your personal profile and company page are kept up-to-date at all times. Endorse the skills of ‘connections’ with the hope they will endorse you back. Post updates such as links to relevant industry news, reposts to other people’s content or you own comments. Nominate topics for discussion and participate in discussion where you can add value. You want to be perceived as being an expert in your field.
Post updates on average 1-3 times a week. Don’t overdo your posts as you don’t want to clog up your connections inbox; many of your connections are likely to be very, very busy people.
Only make connections with people who you genuinely want to connect with. It should be a mutually beneficial connection. Don’t just connect with strangers to boost your connection number.
The cat post
My skills include: grooming cats, animal welfare, breeding cats; Join a cat breeding association group and participate in discussions; Follow relevant industry company pages; Here is a link to a story on requirements for cat registration.
Instagram
Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras. Users are also able to record and share short videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.
The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012. 
User demographics
  • 21% of users of social media use Instagram
  • Preferred by females (30% vs 12%)
  • Most heavily used by under 30s
  • By far the majority of users are aged 14-29 (14-19 is the largest user group at 53%)
  • Use is spread almost equally across metropolitan and regional areas.
Industry/business types
As a visually based tool it is best used for creative industries or businesses that can provide interesting visuals. If your target market is 29 or under, particularly under 20 but you are not in a creative industry, you would benefit from creating visual opportunities in your work to engage this audience.
How to use it
The beauty of Instagram is that you don’t need brilliant, or professional images to make an impact, as you can use one of its many filters to spruce up an image. Take photos of visually interesting or entertaining items or people; showcase your products, clients, business or items related to your industry or interests.
If your industry is suited to this visual platform, aim to post images to your Instagram account or share on other platforms around once a day. However take your cues from your followers, as to how often they are engaging with the images. If your Instagram account is not your primary social media account you may like to use it less often, even once a week.
The cat post
Here is an arty vintage-style pic of me and my cat.
Pinterest
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests and hobbies. Users can browse or follow other pinboards for images, ‘re-pin’ images to their own pinboards, or like photos.
User demographics
  • 11.5% of users of social media use Pinterest. Usage is growing rapidly (it was only 6% in 2013).
  • Especially popular among women and mums (17% of female social media users compared to 6% of males)
  • The majority of users are aged 20-64 (20-29 is the largest user group followed by 30-49)*
  • Used two times more in metropolitan areas compared to regional.
Industry/business types
As a visually based tool it is best used for creative industries or businesses that can provide interesting visuals. If your target market is women but you are not in a creative industry, you would benefit from creating visual opportunities in your work to engage this audience.
The most popular categories are food and drink, DIY and crafts, women’s apparel and fashion, home décor and travel. Where possible it’s a great idea to include price on any products you feature.
How to use it
The focus is on beautiful images (mainly of things. People are not usually the focus of the images). Take photos of visually interesting or entertaining items; showcase your products or items related to your industry or interests.
If your industry is suited to this visual platform, aim to post images to your Pinterest account or share on other platforms around once a day. However take your cues from your followers, as to how often they are engaging with the images. If your Pinterest account is not your primary social media account you may like to use it less often, even once a week.
The cat post
A collection of my favourite cat images and cat products.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view and share videos. Video content includes video clips, TV clips, and music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, instructional and educational videos. There are also dedicated YouTube channels, which can be free to access or available via online subscriptions.
User demographics
  • 48.7 million users as at February 2013
  • >880 million users globally, >10 million Australian users (as at 2012)
  • Usage is spread almost equally across males and females (a slight preference by men)
  • The majority of users are aged under 18 or 45-54-years-old.
Industry/business types
YouTube can suit every business/industry. Due to the popularity and viral nature of YouTube, as well as search engine optimisation benefits, every business should look for opportunities to engage in YouTube.
How to use it
Create instructional, educational or entertaining videos and upload to YouTube. You can film Q&As with a staff member or industry expert. You can film a presentation from a staff member or industry expert. You can provide video on how to use your product. Provide links on social media accounts and on your website.  Depending on your resources, aim to create a new video anywhere between once a week and once a month.
The cat post
Cat playing a piano; An instructional video on how to groom a cat.
Google+
Google+ is a social networking service from Google. The idea is pretty similar to other social networking services, though Google+ aims to allow more transparency in who you share with and how you interact. It also integrates all Google services and displays a new Google+ menu bar on other Google services when you’re logged into a Google account.
Google+ also incorporates components such as Circles and Hangouts. Circles are personalised social circles based on work or personal interests. You can choose more easily what you want to share with who. Google+ users can also make public feeds visible to everyone (even those without accounts) and open to comments from other Google+ users. Hangouts allows you to signal availability for video chat and instant messaging. It also allows for group chats.
User demographics
  • 20% of users of social media have a Google+ account
  • Almost equal use by males and females
  • Growing in popularity in younger age groups. The majority of users are 14-19
  • Use is spread almost equally across metropolitan and regional areas.
Industry/business types
It can be used effectively by any industry or business type. While many businesses don’t use all of the features and post that regularly on this platform, it’s worth the effort from a search engine optimisation point of view.
How to use it
Post and share interesting content, join communities, create circles and host hangouts. Aim to update it around once a day. Frequency will depend on how engaged your audience is.
The cat post
Host a hangout with other cat breeders; Join a cat breeders community.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a photo messaging application where users take photographs or video ‘snaps’ and set a time limit for how long recipient or group of recipients can view their snaps. After the time limit, the snap will be deleted from the recipient’s device and Snapchat’s servers.
It has received some bad press for it association with users sending inappropriate pictures. However many businesses are embracing it as a valid social media tool, especially for younger demographics.
User demographics
  • 16% of social media users have a Snapchat account
  • The main demographic is 14-19 years of age, followed by 20-29-years-old
  • 0% of 50+ social media users had a Snapchat account
  • Preferred by females
  • Slight preference in regional areas.
Industry/business types
This is most suited to industries or businesses that have a teenager or young adult target market. It is extremely popular with younger audiences wanting to share pics and videos with family and friends and not have those images come back to haunt them later.
How to use it
Snapchat offers a sense of urgency, which is appealing to brands and marketers. It can be used to announce contests, offer exclusive or immediate giveaways or discounts, offer a sneak peek at a product or behind the scenes images.
The cat post
Limited time offer to get 50% off cat grooming services.
Other social networks
There are literally hundreds of different social networks to choose from that may be appropriate for your business. Some are industry specific or for niche interests. Some of them may be industry or business directories, such as TrueLocal, that allow for user reviews.
Here are some other popular networks or sites.
  • Tumblr is a microblogging platform particularly popular with teenagers and young adults wanting to express themselves.
  • Myspace has a heavy focus on music and other creative industries.
  • Foursquare uses geolocation to share information on where you are. You can check into places and get offers from business for checking in. Popular with 35-54 year olds. Most appropriate for retail stores, bars, cafes and restaurants.
  • Yelp is a business review site with social networking features, discounts, and mobile applications. It is particularly good for bars, cafes and restaurants and other services
  • TripAdvisor is a travel website providing directory information and reviews of travel-related content. It also includes interactive travel forums. 

Find out more on how to use social media and get help to manage your social media presence from Kylie Fennell .

Why less is sometimes more

Kylie Fennell

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a marketer, you’d probably be familiar with the 4Ps of Product, Price, Placement and Promotion (which sometimes are 5Ps or even 6Ps – just to confuse things).

That is exactly what I want to talk about today. One of the Ps – Product and specifically product range and how it needs to be as least confusing as possible.

When it comes to your products, confusion is your enemy.

Choice, or too much choice, creates confusion and less choice can be more when it comes to the bottom line.

Have you ever sat down at a Chinese restaurant and pored through pages and pages of options in a state of confusion?

I don’t know about you, but it all gets a little overwhelming. The variety of choice is crippling.

Why are there so many options? What if I choose the wrong dish? How do I know what’s what? What if the person next to me chooses something better? I might miss out on something better…and so on.

In a restaurant situation, while you may be tempted to get up and walk out in fear of making the wrong choice, you usually end up staying and picking the easiest choice or something you’re already familiar with. The experience does usually fall a little flat though because you always wonder ‘what if’ and you end up with a serious case of food envy.

In retail, the customer often does walk away confused and disappointed due to too much choice.

The facts are you can’t be everything to everyone. You have a target market for a reason. Trying to please everyone inevitably pleases no one.

You don’t believe me?

Marketing guru and bestselling author, Martin Lindstrom in his book, Brandwashed, explains the phenomenon. He writes:

“When it comes to shopping, less is always more…we are paralysed by the fear of making a wrong, and expensive choice.”

In an experiment Lindstrom gave a dozen people two options: they could choose a chocolate from a box that contained 30 different types of chocolates, or they could pick one from a box that contained only six varieties.

The vast majority of people chose to select from the box containing only six choices. “The fewer choices and selections we face, the more likely we are to pick up, and buy, something.”

At a bookstore he convinced management to remove all but one of its 7-8 display tables that usually have up to 40 different titles on them. Instead they only displayed a dozen or so book titles, yet overall sales revenue increased within a week.

Lindstrom attributed the increase in sales to the fact that when buyers didn’t need to deal with all of those choices, they were more likely to make a purchase.

The enemy is choice but sometimes it can also be the feeling of non-exclusivity.

Imagine you’re in your favourite fashion store and there is a shirt you really like, but there are 10 of them in your size on display.

You start thinking: “well maybe that shirt isn’t that special? How many people will be walking around in the same shirt as me? There’s plenty there, I’ll go away and have a think about it first, it’s not like they’re going to sell out.”

Now imagine if instead there is only one shirt in your size on display. All of a sudden there is a feeling of exclusivity, a fear you may miss out, pressure and a deadline to buy.

You can see where I’m going. Less choice and limited availability are your friends.

Whether you’re selling products or services, if you’re a small to medium business keep your product range as simple and streamlined as possible. Test and identify what the sweet spot is when it comes to display stock and product range – how much works best for you? Can you create a feeling of exclusivity and a limited time offer for your buyers?

Hopefully less choice and time will result in more sales. There may even be the added benefits of bigger profit margins if you can reduce your inventory and avoid overstocking.

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Turn Your Marketing Around Today with 5 Questions

Kylie Fennell
Here’s how to turn your whole marketing strategy around with 5 simple questions.
  1. What’s your point of difference? Call it your unique or best selling point or point of difference, it doesn’t really matter, as long as you know exactly why people should buy your products, services or ideas instead of someone else’s. If you can summarise your offering in three key messages, even better. If you can’t do that yet, it’s time to working on your brand and positioning story.
  2. Who is your ideal customer(s)? What are they like? How well do you know them? Can you really describe them? You need to identify a a customer persona that best fits your ideal customer profile. I’m talking about the kind of customer you want to target. The one that wants your product or services, the way you offer them. The ones that pay on time and are great to do business with.
  3. What marketing activities have worked? ongoing monitoring and evaluation is critical to marketing success. What worked last year, or last week even, may not necessarily work today. Never embark on new activities though without knowing how you will determine your success.
  4. What marketing activities haven’t worked? If after monitoring and evaluation, you find something is still working, keep doing it. However if it’s stopped working, find out why, and change it or stop doing it.
  5. What marketing activities do you want to try? Don’t be scared to try out new ideas. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up-to-date with all the different marketing options and advancements such as digital marketing. So sign up to blogs like this one. Read magazines and articles about marketing. Keep abreast of what your competition is doing. Most importantly, never go into a marketing activity without understanding what you are trying to achieve and who you are targeting.

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Get your marketing off to a great start in 2015

Kylie Fennell
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net
The new year is a great time to refocus your marketing efforts. 
To help you along I have trawled through some of my favourite blogs and popular sites for marketing in 2015.
Here are my top 5 tips to help your business and marketing along in 2015. 
1. Nail your online presence and digital marketing
In my last post I outlined 12 steps to sort out your digital marketing and I’m not the only one saying how important digital is.
Digital marketing is not going away. This blog post from EnMast explains that more clients will come to you through your website in 2015
“If you aren’t using your website to strategically capture new business, you need to get started. 2015 has the makings of a perfect storm that will drive buyers to the web for purchasing decisions. If the economy does grow significantly in 2015, your prospects are going to need your help — but they are going to be time starved. They are going to want to do most of the purchasing research themselves. These buyers are getting younger every year; they are more comfortable with using the web to support their purchasing decisions, and they rely on search engines to guide them along the way.”
Check out my previous posts on websitesand SEOto get the most out of your online presence.

2. Get focused
You will need to get yourself a marketing strategy and make the strategy actually happen. A great tip here from zenhabits.net is to create habits, not goals or resolutions in 2015.
“Resolutions are like wishful thinking, that fade away inevitably as the year’s newness wears off. Goals are great, but it’s hard to juggle 5-10 new goals when you have a lot of other things always going on. Instead, focus on one new habit at a time, and give it your full attention, until it becomes automatic. Then do another new habit.”
In terms of getting things done on a daily basis, set yourself three top tasks for the day and get onto them first thing each day.
3. Don’t be scared of uncertainty
Seth Godin has to be one of my all time favourite marketing and business experts.
Godin advocates being open to uncertain outcomes, which is very different from large risks.
“The question to ask every organisation, manager, artist or yourself is, ‘are you hesitating because you’re not sure the future will match your specific vision, or is there truly a project-endangering risk here?’”
4. Really, I mean REALLY, get to know your customers
If you have been following my blog for a while, you would already know I strongly believe in the marketing value of developing customer personas.
This blog post found at blog.visual.lyreiterates the importance of micro-targeting.
“If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you won’t know what to say. Committing to buyer persona development lets you deep dive into needs, lifestyle, and motivations of your buyers. The work is well worth the ability to construct more relevant content strategies throughout the buying cycle, post-purchase efforts, and account-based marketing activities.”
5. Know what to stop doing
This marketing blog post from blog.hubspot.comhas some detailed tips on what to cut from your marketing activities in 2015.
Some of these include:
  • Over-Fixating on Real-Time Marketing and ineffective or insensitive newsjacking of popular stories/trends/hashtags
  • Engaging on Social Networks That Aren’t Working
  • Expecting People to Discover Your Content Just Because It’s Great – the post recommends devoting time to building an email list and regularly notifying them of new and updated content as well as pitching relevant stories to reporters, influencers, and other trade media writers.
  • Reporting on Data That Doesn’t Matter – does the CEO really care about how many ‘re-tweets’ you have?

For expert marketing advice find us at www.kyliefennell.com

12 days of digital – the best marketing present ever

Kylie Fennell
On the 12th day of…digital…I had a strategy.
We’re officially on the countdown to Christmas and I’m in a particularly giving mood.
I’m giving you 12 steps for putting together a digital marketing strategy. If you tick off a step a day (depending on what you already have in place) you can have the direction of that strategy ready by Christmas, and implement in 2015. It will be the best marketing present you have ever given yourself.
Digital marketing by far is one of the biggest pain points for small to medium enterprises. It seems so vast, daunting and different from all the old school and traditional marketing strategies that have worked so well in the past.
The worst part is that there are savvy young people out there, that have grown up with the internet, and they have many of us convinced that anyone born pre-Google without a smart device permanently attached to their arm, couldn’t possible master digital marketing.
Understandably overwhelmed, many smaller businesses don’t venture down the digital path at all, while others hand over hard earned cash to those savvy young entrepreneurs billing themselves as digital marketers.
Businesses in the modern world can’t afford not to have a digital marketing strategy. This is because digital marketing by definition is the use of electronic devices, digital technologies and platforms to engage with stakeholders, and the majority of said stakeholders engage in these digital channels. The infographic below explains this in more detail.
So while digital marketing is critical it also has several benefits, such as the ability to reach a wider customer base at a time and place convenient to them and in an interactive way.
Fortunately there are plenty of credible young and not so young digital marketing experts who can assist and if you can afford it, by all means go for it – just make sure they are reputable. It’s usually a case of you’ll get what you pay for.
However if you want to develop your own digital marketing strategy, I am here to demystify it for you and give you some simple steps to make it happen.
Before I get into the spirit of my 12 days of digital, I want to give you my take on Digital Marketing.
Digital Marketing is not (or doesn’t need to be) vastly different from traditional marketing.
It is simply using traditional marketing and communication methods that have stood the test of time, but applying them to digital channels.
To give you a Christmas inspired analogy, where in the past many people may have sent out hard copy Christmas cards to their loves ones, they may now send an email, e-card or post a social media update, but they all serve the same purpose. The purpose is to share news of the year with your loved ones.
The purpose and messaging essentially don’t change, it’s just the delivery methods that have evolved.
What we’re really talking about when it comes to digital marketing strategy is your marketing and communication strategy that incorporates digital channels.
The core part of this strategy was, and still remains, valuable content that engages and boosts the customer experience.
It’s no coincidence that another jargony term ‘content marketing’ popped up around the same time as digital marketing.
So let’s forget the jargon and remind ourselves that if we know how to market and communicate effectively with our stakeholders, we now just need to incorporate digital channels and make the most of them.
On the first day of digital…
  1. Brand and positioning – before you dive into the digital deep end, take a moment to revisit your brand and positioning messages. As I said digital marketing is about content and you can’t create valuable content unless you understand and can effectively communicate your brand and point of difference. 
  2. Customer personas – similarly you should take a look at your ideal customers and their profiles, to make sure you use the right digital marketing channels for your target market. 
  3. Website – review your website and whether it’s up to scratch in terms of functionality and site structure. You should be looking at it from the view of your customer and making it as easy as possible for them to engage with you/purchase from you. Look at design and speed as well as search engine optimisation (SEO). The great news is that you don’t need to be a website developer or have technical expertise in coding to create an effective website. 
  4. Social media – having a social media presence and keeping it up-to-date is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy. The most important thing to consider here is what social media platforms are best for your target market and how to create valuable content
  5. Blog – a blog is a great way to maximise your digital marketing presence and improve SEO. If you go to the trouble though of creating a blog be sure to post regularly and leverage your content as much as possible
  6. E-newsletter – there are some fantastic tools out there (including free options with http://mailchimp.com/ ) that provide ready-made optimised e-newsletter templates that you can send to your database. They also provide great analytics, database and subscription management. You can create sign-up forms on your website and social media pages. If you write a blog you can provide highlights in your e-newsletter
  7. Visual content – visual content such as videos, images and infographics are great digital tools that promote SEO and encourage engagement. Videos can be loaded on YouTube and on your website. You could also create memes or reaction gifs. Think broadly about different types of videos you could create: testimonials, Q&As, events, instructional videos.
  8. Advertising – advertising may be a traditional marketing tool, but it still holds a valid space in digital marketing. Pay per click Google Ads and Facebook particularly can be very affordable advertising options, and you can gauge effectiveness very quickly. You can be very specific about what types of pages you want your ad to appear on and really zero in on your target audience. Twitter and Instagram also have popular advertising options. 
  9. Mobile marketing – marketing messages via mobiles and SMS can be extremely effective particularly for some industries. Special and limited time offers, reminders for events and appointments and competitions work well on mobile. Texts are reported to have a very high open rate as well (as a general rule).
  10. Other written content and tools – depending on your customer personas and their stage of the sales cycle, you may need specialist written content and tools that can be uploaded to a digital space, particularly your website. These may include ebooks, data sheets, white papers, calculators, testimonials, media releases, reports, submissions, testimonials, games, apps, quizzes, resources. Whatever written content you’re producing, ensure it meets its purpose and is tailored to your target audience.
  11. Integrated strategy – now that you have identified what digital tools you may need, go back and incorporate them into your broader marketing and communication strategy. 
  12. Monitor and evaluate – like any good marketing activities, monitoring and evaluation is very important. There are some really good digital marketing evaluation tools that are very accessible such as google analytics. 
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I’ve got a business blog – now what?!

Kylie Fennell
Businesses are pretty well versed these days in digital marketing and social media. Many of them have branched out and created a blog.Painstaking hours are spent trying to come up with engaging content that is highly relevant to target markets.

It features great useful content and looks fantastic, and you’re confident of getting hundreds of subscribers, thousands of hits and hopefully lots of promising leads.
You built it, so by all rights, they should come…right?…but they don’t.
The first thing you need to do is congratulate yourself. 
The next thing is to figure out how to best leverage your blog to help achieve your marketing and business objectives.
It’s important first to have realistic objectives for your blog.
If you expect a hundred new leads to come from your blog each month, it may not be achievable (this of course depends on your industry and the content itself).
Sometimes having a blog isn’t just about leads, but about search engine optimisation and building credibility for yourself and your brand.
That being said, you shouldn’t despair. Here are my six top tips on how to leverage your blog.
  1. Use your content in multiple ways – if you are going to the trouble of creating great content, make the most out of it. Post excerpts on social media, create mini ebooks, create a video and post to YouTube, write a White Paper, paid search, website links, banner ads, create a media release or compile content into an e-newsletter. Also don’t forget to leverage your other marketing activities on your blog. For example, if you have a great media story appear in the local paper, promote it across on your blog.
  2. Make it easy to subscribe – a subscription list is a valuable database of potential leads (as long as you adhere to relevant privacy and anti-spam laws). The key is having a call to action message such as: “Subscribe here and never miss our updates”. The sidebar is a great place for a sign-up form, but don’t ask for more than three fields. Research has shown that any more than three fields discourages readers from signing up. A pop-up subscription form is an option but can annoy people. Use these only for important messages or exclusive offers such as, “today only, sign-up and receive a free copy of our e-book on…”
  3. Promote yourself (within reason) – link back to other relevant blog posts (your’s and others) and your website page. You can also include an advertisement for yourself in the sidebar. Test it though. If you don’t experience significant click throughs via your ad, you may need to reassess. Make sure you include a great About Me page if your blog is hosted on a separate site to your business website. If not, include a great profile and image with your blog post.
  4. Don’t wait for everything to be perfect – sometimes you may be working on a tool or resource that would be greatly useful and interesting to your target audience. It’s a great idea to share it as a work-in-progress or Version One. Then ask your readers for feedback and ideas, which encourages engagement but also gives you an opportunity to improve your product or service, as well as a chance to publish another blog post with Version 2. There’s a great blog post here on how deliberately making content that becomes obsolete, is a great idea. 
  5. Offer variety.Provide lots of different types of posts. Mix it up with guest bloggers, Q and As, infographics, podcasts.
  6. Promote your clients – use your blog to create stories about your customers. These serve the purpose of a testimonial, without necessarily reading like a case study.

So yes you built it, you just need to nurture it now. 
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Get your infographic on – why you need one and how to get it

Kylie Fennell

Infographics have been around for a while now, but many businesses have mistakenly overlooked this marketing tool.
An infographic can be reasonably simple to make but have a big impact.
What is an infographic? 
An infographic is a way of combining information, data and text to convey knowledge in a visual manner.
Infographics can be highly effective in conveying otherwise complex data and information via a visual medium, with the potential to go viral.
See (and click on) the infographic on infographics to the right as an example.
Since it’s a visual medium, it makes great fodder for social media and can enhance search engine optimisation (SEO).
A good infographic encourages social sharing, and promotes natural link building (this means Google likes it).
Infographics are also great at building brand awareness and delivering concise and engaging messages.
They are particularly good for delivering complex information or big data in a format that is easily consumed. You can use them to position yourself as an expert in a particular subject and build personal and brand credibility.
Smart businesses are using them to engage their target markets and drive traffic to their websites.
Anyone can make an infographic. There are some great free/low cost DIY tools out there such as http://www.easel.ly/ and http://visual.ly/
However the key is having a GREAT infographic. Here are my top six tips for creating an effective infographic:
1. Try to stand out – if you use a pre-existing template or are trying to replicate the look of an existing infographic, tweak it enough so it is unique and you stand out. Take a look at the unique Batman infographic below. This is sure to catch the eye.
Source: theorange.co
2. Keep to the (design) script – your business has a brand and a visual identity that should resonate with your target audience. So make sure your infographic reflects this. Don’t go for fonts, colours or design that don’t speak to your brand promise. I deliberately went for a reliable retro style for my first infographic,which suited my brand promise. Second time around though I will be stepping up my game in terms of design.
3. Be visual – sounds obvious but use as little text as possible to maintain the audience’s interest
4. Make it easy to share – if possible include widgets or social media sharing buttons with your infographic and encourage people to “Share it”.
Some infographic platforms or websites will give you the html code needed for others to embed your infographic on their websites, which is great at building links back to your website and improving SEO. 
5. Brand it – include your logo and/or website details in the infographic itself, so if anyone does share it, it is clear who created it. This will also enhance brand awareness
6. Go professional – if you can afford it, engage a professional to create one for you. If not, use one of the free tools readily available but get someone with a good eye to critique your work.

Now all that’s left to do is get your infographic on! Contact us at Kylie Fennell for more great marketing ideas now.

Marketing Strategy on a Napkin

Kylie Fennell

I’ve always been fascinated by stories about million dollar ideas and business strategies being formed on the back of a napkin.

It got me thinking about whether a simple marketing strategy could be formulated in the same way.

I had the opportunity to try it out this week when I was evacuated from our office for a fire drill.

Armed with a cup of coffee and a napkin, I gave it a go. So here’s my marketing strategy on a napkin.

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