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10 ways to boost your marketing efforts today

Kylie Fennell
This week I wanted to keep things nice and simple.
Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes the simple solutions are the best solutions. So here it is. My top 10 ways you can enhance your business’s marketing.
1.     Have a goal and plan that contributes to your business’s vision – any marketing activities need to directly relate back to your business’s strategic vision, goals and priorities. What are you trying to achieve as a business? How to you envisage your company in the future? Will your marketing goals achieve this?
Create a marketing strategy that supports your business plan and strategic objectives. Your can refer to our previous post to develop your own DIY marketing strategy that maps back to business goals. 
2.     Know your target market and point of difference inside out – get to know your target market and its segments. Think about them as actual people not just demographical facts and figures. Create customer personas or profiles of your most sought after and profitable customers and speak directly to them in your marketing activities.
Know what your point of difference is; know your brand story and make sure it resonates with your target market. Have you analysed your competitors and know what you offer that they don’t? If you haven’t articulated your point of difference or brand story yet, you can do it now with these tips. And once you know your point of difference make sure it forms the foundation of all of your marketing and communication messages.
3.     Be online and social – modern day businesses can’t afford not to have an online and social presence. If a potential customer can’t find you online and/or via social media, they may be hesitant in doing business with you at best and suspicious of your credentials at worst. Websites don’t have to be terribly sophisticated or expensive.
Here are my tips on creating free/low cost websites.  You also want to be easily found via search engines like Google, so refer here for some simple search engine optimisation tips.
When it comes to social media, you should only aim to have a presence on the platforms most relevant to your target markets and on as many sites that you can reasonably stay active on. There is no point in having a social media presence if you aren’t active and don’t engage with your audience. Find out here what social media to use.
Approach social media as if you are a publisher of information valuable to your target market. Avoid pushy sales talk as much as possible. Here are some tips on writing great social media content. Be prepared to some extent to give away your secret sauce.
You can maximise your online and social media presence by creating a blog and listing your business on reputable online business directories such as TrueLocal, that allow for user reviews.   
Sending an e-newsletter to your key contacts is also a great idea. If you have a blog you can use the most popular content for your newsletter. You can create templates and send e-newsletters for free (on basic packages) using services like mailchimp. Just make sure people have agreed to receive information from you and you include an unsubscribe option. You will need to comply with relevant spam and privacy laws.
4.     Make the most out of your advertising – let’s face it, advertising dollars can come few and far between. If you are planning on placing advertisements with any media, online or traditional, make sure your money works for you. Include a clear call to action or an offer in your ads.
Before you commit to advertising dollars, ask the publication for as much information as possible about their audience. Who reads/listens/watches what? What are their demographics? What pages/features/editions are they most engaged in? Get as much information as possible to make sure the ad will reach your target audience. If they can’t give you information on their audience, consider spending your money elsewhere.
Bigger is not always better, it is more important that your ad is targeted to your audience. You can purchase low-cost ads on Facebook and you will get immediate feedback on whether people are engaging or not. You can also test different types of ads to see which has a better response.
If your ad produces little results, reassess and consider another approach. Also make sure the language in your ads is active and uses strong action words such as ‘get’, ‘call’. Here are some further tips on writing for business.
5.     Make it personal and share the love – add a personal touch when dealing with your customers and reward good clients, especially those who refer others to you.
I order clothes from an online business that always includes a personal handwritten thank you note in their package. It always puts a smile on my face.
I also use a tradesman who once he has completed a job for us, he always puts a personalised and handwritten thank you card in our mailbox. He also often follows up with a phone call to check whether everything was satisfactory with his work, and he uses it as an opportunity to upsell an additional service if needed, without being pushy. Smart guy!
Consider sending good clients exclusive offers or discounts to say thank you. Offer loyalty programs. Send them a Happy Holidays card. Put an ad on a postcard and write a personal note before sending it.
Offer and publicise incentives for referrals. Put them in a draw for a prize, or offer a giveaway.
6.     Join forces – look for opportunities to cross-promote with other businesses by offering discounts/deals for each other’s clients. Choose likeminded businesses, those located near to your business or complementary businesses, eg. hairdresser and a make-up artist, butcher and a fruit and vegetable shop, an accountant and a solicitor. You can put business cards or flyers in each other’s shops.
Even if you don’t have a shopfront you can develop mutually beneficial relationships with other businesses and share each others details, promotional material and perhaps promote links to each other’s websites.
Also join forces with other staff in your organisation. Eg. if you are publicising something on your business Facebook page, ask staff if they will also put it on their personal Facebook pages and share with all of their contacts.
7.     Make friends with the media and other influencers – develop and maintain an up-to-date media list specific to your business and industry. Think to yourself, what publications would I most like to be featured in?
Consider local newspapers/radio/TV, online media, metropolitan media, mainstream magazines, trade and industry magazines. Read/watch/listen to these programs and identify key journalists.
Then research popular bloggers, online forums and influencers relevant to your field. Subscribe and participate in online discussions where you can add something of value without a blatant sales plug.
Reach out to key journalists and bloggers, when you have something newsworthy to say. It isn’t hard to develop a relationship with journalists and bloggers, as long as you have something newsworthy/of interest to their audience to offer them. Just don’t hassle them, stalk them or waste their time and don’t call them when they are on deadline. Often an email is the best form of communication.
Even better, offer them a well written media release and they will really appreciate it.
Not sure what’s newsworthy? Check out this list of news story prompts. Not sure how to write a media release? Here are my tips and a template.
If you do have a media release, make sure you put it in your website and put a link to it on all of your social media. Consider sending the link out to key contacts. These days media releases are not just for media, you would be surprised who may come across your media release and want to publish it for you on their blog or publication, or are just interested in what you are saying in the news.
Also don’t overlook the opportunity to become a commentator in your industry. Often there is a current issue or topic that you could add value to. You can contact journalists and bloggers and offer comments about a current issue. They are always after a different point of view or industry expert they can call on, and will often call you first once you have established yourself as an expert in your field.
For example, let’s say there are changes in the training sector and you run a registered training organisation. You could write up a few comments with links to the relevant changes and email journalists/bloggers who you think may be interested in it.
8.     Don’t be scared to ask – ask your customers, staff (especially frontline staff) and stakeholders for feedback and suggestions, all of the time
Ask them for marketing ideas. You might be surprised where good ideas can come from. I have got some of the best ideas talking to friends over a coffee. You can do this informally or formally using surveys such as Survey Monkey.
9.     Monitor and evaluate – constantly – it is critical you monitor and measure you marketing activities against your original goal(s). Track your progress. Stop doing things if they aren’t working. Try new things. Here are some simple tips for monitoring and evaluation.
10.  Reach out for the right professional help when you need it – certainly many businesses do all of their own marketing, whether they have internal expertise or not. Often this is driven by budgetary limits, which is understandable.
There are definitely areas of marketing suited to DIY, but sometimes it is worth engaging a professional. It’s not just about capability, it is also about the time marketing activities can take. Sometimes you can’t do it all yourself, or do as much as you would like to do yourself.
Marketing is a recognised profession. A good marketing professional will have a relevant university degree and/or vast experience specifically in marketing.
If you are considering hiring a professional, make sure you engage the right one. Ask people for referrals. Check their credentials. Meet with them and determine if you can work with them and be clear about your expectations.

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Giving away the secret sauce – why you should create free and valuable content for your customers

Kylie Fennell
If you have been diligently trying to stay current in the rapidly changing world of marketing and social media, you would have noticed a recurring theme.
You would have heard the term content marketing. You would have read that to maintain a competitive edge and convince people to engage with you on social media, you need to provide valuable content.
This is absolutely true. You can’t expect funny cat pictures alone to help you achieve your marketing goals. Don’t misunderstand me, funny cat pictures do have their place when used occasionally (I for one have a fondness for them). This may get you some ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ but it may not get you long-term engagement and sales.
You have to provide value to your customers and stakeholders. More than value, you should be prepared to give away your ‘secret sauce’. The secret sauce is the premium ingredient when it comes to content marketing.
The secret sauce 
Previously I have highlighted that giving away your secret sauce meant providing value but not asking for anything in return.
Why give away the secret sauce? Remember you are in the business of solving problems. Your potential customer has a problem and your content may help solve it, at no cost to them. When they need more help, hopefully they will come to you and/or share their great experience with everyone they know.
Giving away the secret sauce is not a terribly new concept. McDonald’s ran a highly successful campaign where they encouraged customers to ask ANY question and they answered them publicly. As part of this they literally revealed their secret sauce for a Big Mac.
You don’t have to be McDonald’s to enjoy similar success.
Don’t be afraid
Many businesses, especially those that rely on selling services and knowledge rather than goods, fear giving away their intellectual property.
Forgive the analogy, but businesses fear that if they give away their precious milk, their customers may not buy the cow. Further they worry their competitors will learn their secrets.
There are compelling reasons not to focus on these fears.
The competitors most likely know what you are doing already and your customers often do want to try before they buy. Think about it as tasting a wine sample before buying a whole bottle. You are not giving away the whole bottle, just a sample to entice potential prospects.
What is even more important to realise is that future prospects are not necessarily your current customers. They may not even be in the market for your products or services at this point in time. What they are looking for is some easy-to-find, relevant information to solve their immediate problem.
Let’s use this blog as an example of giving away the secret sauce. Maybe someone is planning on setting up a small business and they need some initial marketing tips. They may not have the marketing dollars they need to engage a marketing expert. They come across this blog and glean enough tips to get started. If a few months down the track they do want to hire a marketing specialist they may recall where they found some useful free information and come calling. Sure they may not call either, but what have I lost in the process? Not much, just the time and effort to compile and share my ideas, which frankly I enjoy doing.
Am I worried that I am giving away so much for free that customers won’t need me, that they can do everything themselves? The short answer is no. At the end of the day customers know they are getting a taster only for free, not the whole wine bottle. Even if customers think they can do it all themselves, they may not have the capacity or the confidence to proceed. They also want the sommelier’s expertise that comes with the wine bottle.
Still not convinced? So far I have talked about the incentives for giving away your secret sauce but here’s the consequence if you don’t.
If you don’t give away valuable content for free, you are already behind the eight ball. These days customers don’t just want content for free, they expect it. Smart companies have been doing it for a while and already set the benchmark.
How to give away the secret sauce
When it comes to giving away the secret sauce, it does have to come from a good place. What I mean by this is that you have to authentic and well meaning. You are giving away something and should be expecting nothing in return. Any benefits you receive should be a bonus. There shouldn’t be any catches, or obligations. You should not be using free content to soften up prospects for an aggressive sales pitch.
If you are someone who genuinely likes to help people, solve problems and share knowledge you already have a head-start.
Ways to give away the secret sauce
  • Start a blog like this one, focused on your business and industry
  • Have free downloads and templates available on your website
  • Include free tips and insights in a newsletter or e-newsletter
  • Create instructional videos and upload them to Youtube
  • Include summaries or short tips and links to any of your online content on your social media pages and website
  • Print out hard copy flyers or brochures with tips and display them in your shop.
“That sounds fine for you, but it wouldn’t work for my business”
Some organisations may find it easier than others to come up with secret sauce ideas.
However any business or industry should be able to identify valuable content they can share, it just may take some lateral thinking.
Here are just a few ideas:
  • Hairdresser – how to do our perfect blowdry
  • Plumber – how to replace a washer
  • Real estate – how to present your property for sale
  • Recruitment company – how do create the perfect Resume
  • Accountant – here is a free spreadsheet template to download and track your business budget.

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How are you tracking (your marketing)?

Kylie Fennell

When it comes to marketing, you can be the most brilliant and creative strategist but it may all come to naught if you don’t evaluate your results.

Monitoring and evaluation of marketing campaigns and tactics is one of the most overlooked components of any marketing and communication strategy.
It is also one of the most important aspects. You need to know your money is well spent, especially when marketing dollars are hard to come by. You need to know what works, what doesn’t work and what can be improved?
The thing is that sometimes it can be hard to prove a direct link between marketing activities and results. You may have implemented a fantastic new advertisement in your local paper and sales around the same time increased by 10 per cent. Can you argue there is a direct link between the two? Yes and no.
There are definitely sophisticated marketing metrics and tools available that can help you determine cause and effect. Larger companies have the resources to put facts and figures to what are often intangible results.
However smaller businesses should not despair. Here are 10 free or low cost ways you can monitor and evaluate the success of your marketing activities.

1.     Know before you start

I have previously talked about how important it is for any marketing activities to have marketing objectives that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely/timeframes) and directly link back to your overarching strategic goal or aim as an organisation. Then you know what you are trying to measure.
If your marketing activity is not going to contribute to the organisation’s overarching goal and doesn’t support your vision and values, it may not be worth proceeding with it.
Sample objectives may include: Inspire 20% more calls-to-action (calls/likes/share/views/comments) or opt-in to your mailing list; Generate 20% more sales leads; Increase customer enquiries by 10%.
2.     Have baseline or benchmark data
Before you start your marketing activity it is a great idea to find out what existing benchmark or baseline data you already have, so you can easily compare before and after performance. This data does not need to be that sophisticated if you don’t have it already. It can be anecdotal even. For example if you are hoping to increase customer enquiries by 20% over six weeks by implementing a particular marketing activity, you need to know what the level of customer enquiries were before you implemented the activity.
If you don’t have hard data from statistics collected or ‘Contact Us’ emails, speak to people who do have a clear idea. Frontline staff and sales reps can give you informed opinions and anecdotal evidence. If you have time before you start your marketing, ask them to collect some data over a period of time, even if it is just a week.

3.     Sales

Even if your marketing objective isn’t specifically to increase sales, it is still an indicator of whether a marketing activity might be having an effect. Your marketing objective might be to increase awareness of your organisation, but certainly sales could be a flow-on benefit.
Sales can be measured by new leads generated and converted sales, number of customer enquiries and bookings, customer referrals and billable hours. Be aware though of any peaks and troughs in your business and any other promotions underway, as well as your sales life cycle when measuring sales. You don’t want to be misled into thinking your sales have increased suddenly by 20% in one month, when historical sales data says it always increases at that time of year.

4.     Ask!

Ask your customers, staff (especially frontline staff) and stakeholders if they heard/saw/responded to your promotion. Ask them for feedback and suggestions, all of the time.
Do this formally via a questionnaire or survey. Free on-line survey tools such as Survey Monkey are really useful and can collate data for you. Use the same questions in your survey and repeat it at another time so you can have baseline data.
Use ‘How did you hear about us?’ questions in Contact Us forms on your website and a drop down list of options such as ‘local newspaper, Google, a friend (please specify your friends name so we can thank them)’. Keep the drop down options up-to-date as you introduce new promotions. If you don’t have one of these on your website yet, get one.
Also get your staff to ask the question ‘How did you hear about us?’ verbally whenever they hear from a new customer. They should also keep a record of the customers’ responses.

5.     Measure Return on Investment

Know how much you have spent on your marketing activities. You need to consider all costs, such as advertisement rates, printing and design costs, but also consider labour costs (hourly rates), additional resources and equipment required to make your marketing activity happen.

Compare your costs to how much money (sales revenue and profits) you think can be attributed to your marketing activity and present it in a dollar term to see if it is worth it.

6.     Check you’re reaching your target market

Let’s say your target market is 30 to 40-year-old mums, but the majority of people engaging with your marketing activity are 21-year-old university students.
With this information you need to reevaluate how to reach your target market and whether it may be worthwhile targeting a new market segment or not.

7.     Measure your digital and social media performance

Use free analytics and other built-in tools such as Facebook Insights, Twitter analytics and Google Analytics. You can gain valuable profiles of the people engaging with your site and how they are interacting. If people are liking it, viewing it, sharing it or commenting, you also know your social media efforts are working.
Track website hits/click-throughs, (your website provider should be able to provide this type of data), e-newsletter subscriptions, number of people engaging in your social media platforms (notice I use the word engaging rather than number of followers, which sometimes can be overrated if those followers aren’t actually engaging with content). 
8.     Track and monitor mentions
It is very useful to monitor mentions of your brand name, and reproduction of your key messages across all media including social media.
You can set up free Google Alerts to track mentions on the internet.
You can check for reviews about your company on on-line directories, and review sites such as Yelp.
Monitor media such as your local newspaper and radio for mentions and record whether it was positive or negative.
9.     Competitor Response
It’s always a good idea to monitor what your competition is up to and if all of a sudden they start mimicking your marketing activities, you could reasonably deduce you may be making some serious cut-through.
Remember imitation is the highest form of flattery.
10.  Learn and evolve

Take on board what you have learnt from your monitoring and evaluation. What is working? What’s not? How can we improve? And remember it is an evolving process. The same thing won’t necessarily produce the same results forever. Stay innovative, don’t be scared to try something new, but make informed and calculated risks when it comes to marketing. Finally you can engage an expert if you do need extra help.

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Choose your words carefully ­– picking the right words for marketing

Kylie Fennell 2 comments
A recent blog by business and marketing blogger Seth Godin about the power of positive words in marketing and customer relations, reminded me of one of my favourite topics – word choice.
I am a passionate believer in the power of words: not just any words – the right words. And the most powerful words are positive ones. I am talking about the art form of turning negative words, phrases or ideas into positively framed language.
Some may call it ‘spin’, and in a previous life, I have been referred to as a spin doctor. Actually I’m a persuasive content specialist or a wordsmith.
I don’t believe putting a positive spin on things is about lying or being untruthful. I don’t condone the use of deceptive language in marketing.
I do advocate framing communication in a positive light wherever possible, as long as what you are saying has a basis in truth and is believable. 
Using positive language in marketing is a powerful tool, whether you are trying to manage a difficult issue, crisis or topic, or you are trying to make the most of a marketing opportunity and want to influence consumer behaviour.
It is particularly useful to use positive language when addressing a negative situation. I have found that customers will forgive almost anything. I say ‘almost’ anything, if they feel they are being heard and you react to their problem in a positive way.
In our previous blog we talked a lot about how to give exceptional customer service, but none of it means agreeing to impossible customer demands. It means, instead of saying ‘no I can’t’, you focus on ‘what I can do’. Whether your business is at fault or not is irrelevant it is about leaving the customer with the feeling they have been heard and you are responding on a positive level. It can be as simple as saying ‘I’m sorry (customer’s name) you feel that way. What I can do is….’.
Seth Godin says it perfectly in his blog: ‘when you speak clearly and with respect, you not only communicate more effectively, but people are less likely to blame you when something goes wrong’.
Here are the examples Seth gives of how to turn negatives into positives.
 
‘ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIT CARDS vs To keep our prices as low as possible, we only accept cash. The good news is that there’s an ATM next door.
NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST OR STOLEN ITEMS vs Careful! We’d like to watch your stuff for you, but we’re busy making coffee.
BATHROOMS FOR PATRONS ONLY vs Our spotlessly clean restrooms are for our beloved customers only, so come on in and buy something! Also, there’s a public bathroom in the library down the street.’
Where there is an obvious negative you can use humour to turn it into an opportunity, as long as it is done carefully.
A few years ago a budget hostel in Amsterdam embraced its reputation for poor facilities by embarking on a marketing campaign of the best ‘worst hotel in the world’. They didn’t pretend to be anything other than a budget hostel for backpackers and used clever ads and signage including one that encouraged those who want to shower to dry off using the curtains to save on washing and in turn ‘save the planet’.
Positive marketing language tips
Here are some of my tips for powerful marketing language based on positive words:
  • Avoid the word ‘no’ or ‘not’
  • If you can’t do something, instead focus on ‘what we can do is…’
  • Instead of communicate and tell, try engage or consult
  • Instead of educate, try train, coach, mentor
  • Try saying challenges or opportunities instead of issues or problems
  • Instead of ‘we can’t until…’, try ‘we will as soon as…’
  • Instead of ‘Entry will not be accepted without a ticket’ try ‘Present your ticket to gain entry’
  • Check everything you write for ‘negative’ connotations or associations. Ask how do I feel when I hear/read this? What is my reaction? Ask someone else to check it before you finalise the communication and ask them the same questions.
  • It is incredibly important to check the written word for possible negative associations as it is difficult to convey tone in written language. This is even more critical now that so much is written and published almost immediately via social media, online and mobile.
If you still don’t believe me about the power of positive language, read this article at Psychology Today that explains why ‘no’ is the most dangerous word in the world.
The article refers to several studies and research that demonstrates that the use of the word ‘no’ can release dozens of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters, interrupting the normal functioning of your brain, impairing logic, reason, language processing and communication.
It goes on to say that just seeing a list of negative words for a few seconds will make a highly anxious or depressed person feel worse. It says negative language can damage key structures that regulate your memory, feelings, and emotions, disrupt sleep and appetite, as well as the ability to experience long-term happiness and satisfaction.
Goes to show you that every word counts in marketing!
 
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What’s your story? Getting your brand story right

Kylie Fennell
In many of my posts I have talked about the importance of establishing a marketing strategy before embarking on individual marketing activities. When developing your marketing strategy you will identify goals and objectives, target markets and how you will reach your key stakeholders.
A marketing strategy is without a question a critical tool for your business. It will ensure you get the right messages to the right people; but what are the right messages?
Your messages will depend on your audience and why you are communicating with them, but they must link back to your overarching messages and be relevant to your brand.
Essentially you need a brand or ‘positioning’ story.
What is brand?
Often when people think of their brand they immediately think of their ‘logo’ or visual identity. This is only one part of your brand. Brand actually encompasses much much more.
Marketing and business blogger Seth Godin defines brand as the following:
‘A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.’
When people purchase goods or services, they are first connecting with your brand and what it promises. People make purchasing decisions based on emotional connection with brands, what feeling and memories they elicit and what purchasing that brand says about them. Brands must promise an emotional connection and to get people to connect with your brand, you need to articulate it in a story: a story that can be embraced by all of your staff and stakeholders.
You need to create a clear brand or ‘positioning’ story.
The brand or positioning story
Creating a positive positioning is an essential branding tool used for building and managing reputation and awareness of your business.
Positioning tells your business’s story. It gives meaning to your business’s vision purpose, values, strategic plans, priorities and point-of-difference. It secures a position in stakeholders’ and customers’ minds and should speak to their expectations.
The positioning forms the foundation of all communication, providing common direction, meaning and focus. It ensures that internal and external messages are aligned and consistent.
It is important that everyone tells the same story about your business and your messages are consistent. This will build your reputation with your target market, stakeholders or people who are important to your success.
Essentially positioning is your ‘story’ and can be used for presentations, web text, fact sheets, media releases or any other communication. It can be tailored and changed slightly to meet each situation, but the core is always the same story and messages.
An effective positioning is a ‘one page’ story about your business, what it does, what it offers. It should clearly articulate your point-of-difference and ‘what’s in it for me’ for your customers.
Key messages
Once you have written your one-page positioning story, you need to distil or summarise your story into three key messages.
Key messages are the core messages you want your target market and audience to hear and remember. Key messages allow you to control communication and enhance relationships with your target audiences.
When you develop your key messages keep in mind the critical messages you want to communicate?
Key messages should be limited to three (this makes it easier to remember), with each overarching message supported by facts and examples.
How do we use key messages?
In day-to-day conversation, meetings and written material, you should use your key messages and relevant supporting facts.
All communication tools and touch points, such as media releases, presentations and displays, give you the opportunity to tell your positioning story and use your key messages.
Developing your story
A great way to create an effective brand or positioning story is to get key staff together and hold a brainstorming workshop over a few hours. You can approach the exercise in a similar way to creating a customer persona.
Imagine your brand as a persona and look for overlaps between your brand and customer persona or target market. Use the commonalities to better connect to your persona.
You can ask yourself questions such as:
  • What is our strategic vision and purpose, overarching goals and objectives?
  • What is our point-of-difference, unique selling point?
  • What makes us different or better than our competitors?
  • What problems do our customers have that we can help solve?
  • What is in it for them (our customers)?
Extend this to develop a real personality for your brand with questions like:
  • What is the culture in our organisation? Are we strictly professional? Casual and fun? Driven by innovation?
  • If our organisation was a car, what kind of car would we be?
  • When people think about our organisation what feelings and associations do we want them to have?
  • What are the benefits (tangible and not tangible including emotional benefits) we offer customers?
  • How would we like customers to describe us?
  • What is our history and credentials?
Once you have answered these questions you can start building your one page positioning story and key messages.
After you have finalised your story and messages, share it with all of your key internal stakeholders so they can embrace the story too.
The test of your brand story
A brand story above all must be realistic. You must be able to deliver the customer experience you claim to deliver. The brand or positioning story must be authentic and embraced by all key stakeholders.
It needs to be implemented right across the business. It will be experienced through visual identity and logos, customer service and experience, marketing and communication materials, stakeholder engagement and employees.
You will know your story is making an impact if your key messages are being reproduced and customer feedback supports your brand interpretation.
Ask yourself whether you can put your hand on your heart and swear that every customer experience and communication touch point is true to your brand story? If not do you need to revise your brand story or address some issues in your business?
Finally consider whether you would like a professional to facilitate your positioning process, create your brand story or edit it. Professional branding and marketing services can take your brand story from good to amazing. They can translate and wordsmith your ideas into persuasive content and sharp messages. Remember, the foundation of successful marketing is getting the right messages to the right people.
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DIY marketing for small business

Kylie Fennell

“I need a brochure.”
As the saying goes: if I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I would be a millionaire by now.
Often when businesses think of marketing, the first thing they reach for are marketing tactics or tools. They immediately ask for familiar marketing items like a brochure, an advertisement or a website.
Certainly businesses need these marketing tools, but I always urge businesses to take a few steps back. I ask them to first consider their marketing strategy, objectives and goals before jumping to tactics.
The most confusing thing for businesses though is what exactly is a marketing strategy and why is it so important? 
Kylie Fennell
It’s time to start brainstorming your marketing strategy
Image courtesy of nongpimmy/freedigitalimages.net

A marketing strategy is crucial for any successful business. It forms the bones of all communication and marketing activities.
If marketing was represented by a house, the strategy is the initial building plan, foundations and framework. Skipping straight to marketing tactics or activities is like installing the fixtures in your new bathroom, before the framework of the bathroom or even the whole house is in place. It is a back to front approach.
Sure, you can try building this way. It may work, but it is more likely you will go to a lot of time, effort and expense and realise that it didn’t really achieve what you needed.
A marketing strategy can vary in terms of complexity and resource requirements, but here I will outline the basics of a DIY marketing strategy for small businesses.
Marketing strategy framework
For simplicity I like to create a marketing framework in one or two pages.
This can be done in a Microsoft Word table or Excel worksheet.
These are the key headings I like to incorporate:
(OVERARCHING) GOAL
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES (SWOT)
PRIMARY STAKEHOLDER(S)
SECONDARY STAKEHOLDER(S)
CUSTOMER PERSONA(S)
CUSTOMER PERSONA(S)
CUSTOMER PERSONA(S)
CUSTOMER PERSONA(S)
APPROACH AND KEY MESSAGES
APPROACH AND KEY MESSAGES
APPROACH AND KEY MESSAGES
APPROACH AND KEY MESSAGES
TACTICS
TACTICS
TACTICS
TACTICS
EVALUATION
Overarching goal
What is the overarching goal or strategic vision of your organisation?  It should come from your business or strategic plan.
Also what is the overarching goal of your marketing activities? Your marketing goal should help achieve your organisation’s overarching goal or strategic vision and be clearly linked. Some marketing goals may include: drive more sales; increase awareness; increase store traffic.
Marketing objectives
Specify objectives that will help achieve your marketing goal. These objectives should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely/timeframes).
Sample objectives include: Eg. Inspire 20% more calls-to-action (likes/share/views/comments) or opt-in to your mailing list; Generate 20% more sales leads; Increase customer enquiries by 10%.
Challenges and opportunities (SWOT)
Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of what may impact you achieving your marketing goal. This will give you an idea of where you may need to concentrate your efforts.
Primary and secondary stakeholders
Identify the stakeholders or stakeholder groups for your business and categorise them as primary and secondary. Your primary stakeholders are the ones that have the most influence on the success of your business.
Do not limit your stakeholders to just customers. Stakeholders are anyone who has an interest in your business and can impact it negatively or positively. They may include media, community, neighbours, regulatory authorities, government, business partners, industry associations. Try and be specific and break down broad stakeholder groups where possible.
Among your primary stakeholders, include your target market and break it down into market segments and relevant demographics (age, gender, location, education etc).
Next you will drill down into more detail on your customers, but keep in mind all of your stakeholders later when identifying specific marketing approaches and tactics.
Customer personas
Here delve deeper into the persona of each market segment. You want to develop fictional customer persona stories.
Personas are examples of the real buyers who influence or make decisions about the products, services or solutions you market.
They should reveal how, when and why your buyer makes the decisions you want to influence and readily inform your marketing strategies.
The idea behind buyer personas is that you create fictional people who represent your major customer groups and develop a story about that persona.
Give your persona a name. Consider their aspirations, communication style, lifestyle, interests, challenges, why they would want to engage with you, what social media platforms and media they are likely to use.
You should have one main persona who represents your ideal/most profitable customer, plus a few secondary customer groups if needed. You should try and limit your personas to a maximum of five so you can focus your marketing efforts.
Refer to our previous blog post for tips on how to develop a persona and why it’s important.
Approach and key messages
Consider the specific communication approach will you use to target each of the above personas. Are you appealing to their sense of social justice, appealing to their need to keep up with the ‘Joneses’, offering them a new experience, saving them time and money.
Determine if there are any specific key messages you need for each of these personas.
Also don’t forget you may also need to engage/communicate with the other key stakeholders you identified earlier. Consider what specific approaches and key messages may be required for them.
Tactics
This is when you actually start identifying what marketing and communication activities or actions you require.
This may include collateral such as that brochure, website or advertisement you initially thought you needed. However now you should have a clearer picture of whether those tools will help achieve your overall goals and objectives and are the right tools for your personas and target audience.
You may also now have a clearer idea for any specific messages that need to be included in your marketing materials.
Tactics may include, but are certainly not limited to: media releases, flyers, FAQs, hotlines, stakeholder meetings, community meetings, focus groups, key messages, Q and A forums, information sessions, public displays, signage, market stands, sponsorship.
Think as broadly as possible but ensure any tools you identify are relevant to your target market, segments and personas as well as other stakeholder groups. Before proceeding with advertising or paying for any membership or events, ask for demographical information about their audience and members.
Additionally some of the tactics you identify may require separate or more detailed strategies, such as a social media strategy, or crisis management plan. Capture this action in your overarching marketing strategy to ensure it is completed.
Evaluation
One of the components of a successful marketing strategy that is often overlooked is the evaluation activities.
It is important to evaluate the success of any marketing tactics or tools to understand better if they have achieved your objectives and what, if anything, needs to be refined.
Where possible try and calculate your marketing return on investment, though it is difficult a lot of the time to see a direct correlation between marketing activities and sales.
Other ways to evaluate success include: asking all customers ‘Where did you hear about us?’, include this on any contact us forms especially on the website. Media coverage and reproduction of key messages are also important measures. You can refer to website hits/click-throughs, subscriptions, number of people engaging in your social media platforms (notice I use the word engaging rather than number of followers, which sometimes can be overrated if those followers aren’t actually engaging with content).
You can also measure success via anecdotal and formal feedback and customer surveys.
Try to link your evaluation measures and mechanisms back to your original objectives.
How to develop your marketing strategy
One of the best ways to develop a successful marketing strategy is to bring together your key employees and internal stakeholders and hold a brainstorming session.
Work your way through the components listed above in order. Map it out on a whiteboard or butcher’s paper. Give yourself a few hours or half a day if possible to nut out the ideas. Consider what you are already doing marketing-wise, what’s working and what’s not.
Review your plan formally after three months, then at six months (the first time around), then every 12 months.
Putting your strategy into action
You will need an action plan to support your marketing strategy.
I personally favour a simple work-in-progress or WIP sheet.
To create your action plan or WIP sheet, transfer all of your ‘Tactics’ from your strategy into a table (I use an Excel Worksheet). You can then use it to easily monitor and track progress of your strategy.
For each tactic, identify what action is required, who is responsible for it, the deadline and status. It’s also a good idea to specify the evaluation mechanism for each item ­– how will you know if each activity has been achieved.
Review all of the ‘live’ items on your WIP sheet with key staff at a weekly or fortnightly meeting and update as needed
You can also include colour coding to highlight live items. You can use a traffic light system with green meaning the item is on track, orange if there are some obstacles that may impact delivery and red if the item is unlikely to be completed on time or as expected. Once an item is completed or if it is shelved, transfer it to an archived Worksheet. The archived sheet is a great record of what you have achieved and when. It is an especially good reference point for any reporting activities.
Using the above guidelines you should be able to create your DIY marketing strategy and start putting it in place. For more help from an expert contact us at Kylie Fennell .

How to decide which social media network to use

Kylie Fennell 1 comment
Many businesses are understandably overwhelmed by which social media networks to use.
We’ve talked in the past about how to use social media and that it’s most important to just focus on the best social media network for your target audience.
Here to help you decide which social media network to use, is an overview of the main social media networks and the demographics of social media users for each network.
There is quite a bit of information here on each network, but it’s designed to give you enough information about each platform, so you can make an informed decision about where to focus your efforts. 
Firstly here are some interesting facts about Australian social media users from the Yellow Pages Social Media Report.
  • Younger age groups have a stronger preference for networks such as Instagram and Snapchat, especially as older age groups and parents become active on other networks such as Facebook
  • 37% of social media users check networks first thing in the morning and 42% just before bed, particularly women
  • Men are most likely to check social media during work (mainly during breaks) and in the evening
  • 16% use social media while commuting
  • 67% check social media on a smartphone, 64% on a laptop, 46% on a desktop, 35% on a tablet
  • 6% check social media while on the toilet!
  • 66% check social media in the loungeroom
  • >40% use social media while watching TV, particularly women and younger age groups and mainly while watching reality TV. Many of them also comment on social media about the the TV they are watching at the same time.
  • The primary reason for using social media is to catch up with friends and family
  • Only 25% of users use social media to follow brands or business or to get discounts or giveaways
  • >50% claim they take no notice of ads on social media
  • 84% ignore sponsored posts from businesses they don’t follow
  • 74% of users have or do read reviews to help make a purchase decision. These people read an average of four reviews before making a purchase decision.

So here is an overview of the networks and who is using each of them. We have also provided 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*
  • 99% of 20-39-year-old social media users, use Facebook*
  • Lowest user age groups are 14-19 year-olds and 65+*
  • While young users have Facebook accounts they are becoming less active on this site
  • 18% of social media users stopped using Facebook in the last year. Only Twitter had more users turn away (45%)*
  • Users are spread almost equally across metropolitan and regional areas*
  • Users check their account on average 24 times a week (increased from 21 in 2012).*
Industry/business types
Facebook suits pretty much every type of industry and business, though fashion/clothing and sporting clubs represent a total of 65% of the 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
  • 15.5% of users of social media use Twitter*
  • Preferred by males*
  • Majority of users aged 20-64 (40-49 is the largest user group)*
  • Predominately used in metropolitan areas*
  • A whopping 45% of people, who stopped using some social media in past year, stopped using Twitter*
  • Users check their Twitter on average 13 times a week (down from 23 in 2012)*
Industry/business types
Twitter is very popular with celebrities, politicians and big brands. The most followed brands/businesses on Twitter are sporting clubs and electronics/technology. However it can suit most businesses and industries as long as you 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
  • 20% of users of social media use LinkedIn*
  • Preferred by males*
  • Largely higher educated and higher income users
  • Majority of users aged 20-64 (40-49 is the largest user group)*
  • Predominately used in metropolitan areas*
  • Users check their LinkedIn on average 8 times a week (up from 5 in 2012)*
Industry/business types
Predominately used by white-collar professionals. It is an important tool for any business that relies heavily on networking 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.  In 2013, Instagram grew by 23%, while Facebook, as the mother company, only grew by 3%.

 
User demographics
  • 16% of users of social media use Instagram*
  • Used almost equally by males and females*
  • 90% of users are under 30
  • By far the majority of users are aged 14-29 (14-19 is the largest user group)*
  • 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 a 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.
It has been credited with having much higher conversion rates than other social media traffic.
User demographics
  • 6% of users of social media use Pinterest*. Usage is growing rapidly.
  • Especially popular among women and mums (11% of female social media users compared to 1% of males*)
  • The majority of users are aged 20-64 (40-49 is the largest user group)*
  • 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 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
  • 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.
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
  • The main demographic is 13-23 years of age, followed by 24-30-years-old. 
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. 
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* Yellow Pages Social Media Report 

Marketing vs advertising vs public relations ­– what’s the difference?

Kylie Fennell
When I first set-up this business I needed to create a name that represented exactly what we offered to small businesses. I chose mypr+
There is the ‘pr’ component that focuses on connecting small businesses to their key stakeholders and influencers (mainly through non-paid or low cost means). Then there is the ‘+’ that offers marketing and targeted communication to further engage your audience.
Why did I focus on pr? There is an outdated perception that PR (public relations) is just about publicity and promotion; that it is all swanning about at publicity events, sipping champagne, and schmoozing the right people ‘dahhhling’….I wish.
Well, actually I don’t wish for that. PR represents much much more and I love how PR has evolved over the years. PR is about identifying the people and organisations most important to your business and connecting with them in meaningful ways.
Public relations activities will help you build and maintain your relationships and profile with the media, your customers and stakeholders. These activities are often low or no cost and can boost the effectiveness of traditional marketing activities, such as advertising.
I believe PR represents the best and most underrated opportunity for small businesses, as long as it is used correctly, authentically and part of an overall marketing strategy.
To make the most of it though, you will need to know the difference between marketing, advertising and PR. There are literally thousands of definitions for all of the following terms but here is my take on it.
Marketing
Marketing involves strategic planning and implementing a mix of business activities to facilitate the transfer or exchange of products or services between an organisation and the customer or consumer.
The mix of business activities can involve everything from research, sales and advertising to public relations and evaluation.
It can be easier to picture marketing as an overall pie and the business activities or elements such as advertising and public relations as pieces of that pie.
Other pieces of the pie can include research, sales, evaluation, media planning, product pricing, distribution and customer service and satisfaction. They are all individual components that must complement each other and together contribute to the overall marketing goal.
Advertising
Advertising is the process of making existing or potential customers aware of the product or service you are selling. This is achieved through advertisement placement in mediums such as newspapers, magazines, billboards, TV, radio, social media and the internet.
Advertisements are designed to reach as large a part of your target audience, in one hit, as possible. For this reason it is often the largest expense of most marketing plans.  It is critical that the most appropriate advertising medium and delivery are used to reach your target market.  
You need to fully understand what demographics will see your advertisement and understand what kinds of messages and delivery will best resonate with your audience. If you don’t understand this, your advertising dollars could be wasted.
Public Relations
PR is about communicating, networking and engaging with people and organisations that can influence the success of your business.
This may involve direct engagement with customers, stakeholders or the community. It may involve engaging with your audience via social media. It can also involve engaging with the media and attempting to secure positive media coverage.
PR can be any business activity to build, maintain or protect your profile or reputation. Effective PR enables you to share your story in a positive light without paying for advertising.
Tools that can achieve this include but are not limited to:
  • Stakeholder meetings and engagement
  • Community events
  • Industry networking and engagement
  • Donations and sponsorships
  • Media releases, interviews and engagement
  • Publicity and media events
  • Social media presence.
The basis of good PR is understanding your key stakeholders and engaging with them through targeted and tailored communication; understanding what all of your stakeholders want and need from you and trying to give it to them.
You can start by identifying all of your stakeholders or stakeholder groups and prioritising them. For each key stakeholder or group you may like to create a customer persona. This will get you in the head space of understanding how you should communicate and engage with that particular stakeholder.
Then you should identify key messages and Q&As for each of the key stakeholders. Ask what problem do they have and how can you fix it?
Identify specific engagement activities for each key stakeholder and allocate responsibility to someone in your organisation to manage those activities or relationship.
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Making SEO work for your business – Website optimisation tips

Kylie Fennell 2 comments
S–E–O. Three little letters that can land a really BIG punch. SEO (search engine optimisation) is the holy grail when it comes to online marketing – every business wants it, even if they don’t fully understand it or know how to make it possible.
Large businesses will often have their own in-house IT and SEO experts or have the budget to hire one. Small businesses don’t have this luxury, but the great news is there are plenty of cost-effective ways small business can boost their SEO.
I spoke to SEO expert and web strategist Jared Smith to demystify SEO and get some tips to give your website an edge.
Jared explains first what SEO means and why it’s so important to businesses.
“SEO is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining high ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (such as Google, Bing and Yahoo),” he said.
“It is the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page via natural, unpaid or organic search results.”
While there are other forms of search engine marketing such as paid listings, we will focus mainly on organic search results.
Why is SEO important?
“In general, the earlier (or higher a page), or more frequently a site appears in search results lists, the more visitors it will receive via the search engine.”
The aim is to attract more visitors to your site, which will hopefully result in more business or customers.
Higher search results also tend to give credibility and standing to a business.
Don’t search engines use complicated algorithms?
It is no secret that search engines such as Google are constantly updating their algorithms to maintain the credibility of their search results. SEO experts are always looking for technical ways to beat or work around the algorithms. Algorithm updates aim to shut down any unethical SEO tricks and may penalise websites that use ‘blackhat’ techniques.
A good SEO expert will keep up-to-date with the latest algorithm developments and ensure the SEO techniques they use will help not hinder your website.
This all sounds too hard
Don’t be put off by the technology and algorithms behind SEO. There are still plenty of ways you can make the most of your SEO without getting too technical. And despite the fact algorithms will always change, there are some SEO basics that remain constant.
Here are Jared’s and our top 10 tips for mastering SEO basics.
 
1.  Have a goal in mind
Like any marketing activity, you need to have a clear goal in mind and that goal needs to tie back to your business’s overarching vision and objectives. While appearing on page one search engine results is a great outcome, it shouldn’t be your primary goal of SEO or online marketing. Neither should increased website traffic.
Both of these should be your supporting objectives, but at the end of the day you want people to do something once they reach your website. That may be to make a purchase, visit your physical store or get information for a later buying decision. Any SEO activities you do need to support this ultimate goal. And your goal should also be referred to for evaluating the success of your SEO activities.
 
2. Content and keywords are king
Search engines will always reward websites with relevant content and keywords.
Content must be well written, concise and tailored to your target audience. Ensure you use correct spelling and grammar and messaging is consistent across all of your online platforms.
Focus on providing content that your target audience will consider valuable.
Ensure your content features relevant keywords that users are most likely to use when they are searching for your type of products or services.
Keep in mind, what you think is a keyword and what words people are actually searching for can be completely different. There are several ways you can verify what the most popular keywords are.
Free information on hot keywords and trends can be found at Google Trends and Insights, Wordtracker and Ubersuggest. You can also type a search term straight into Google and see what predictive search options come up, choose a suggested search term and then directly below you can see how many search results there are. For more detailed keyword information you can use Google’s Keyword Planner but it may require you to set up a free Google Adwords account and campaign (though you don’t have to proceed with campaign and payment if you don’t want to).
Also keep in mind that they way people are searching for keywords these days is changing.
People are not so much searching for ‘red leather compendium’. They are more likely to type ‘where can I find a red leather compendium in Brisbane?’.
Also keep in mind what keywords your target market may use. Keywords may differ depending on your demographic. If there are hundreds of businesses all using the keyword ‘disposable coffee cups’, but your niche is ‘recyclable coffee cups’, your target audience is more likely to use a phrase like ‘recyclable or sustainable coffee cups’.
Another interesting thing to note from above is that depending on your business it may not always the best option to use the most popular keywords. There may be less competition for a niche phrase, meaning you can increase you chances of appearing higher on search results. As long as the niche phrase is relevant.
Once you have identified our keywords, make sure they are incorporated into your website copy where relevant, but do not ‘keyword stuff’. Keyword stuffing means overusing keywords and using them out of context or on pages that are not relevant to the keyword. Search engines will penalise you for keyword stuffing.
Some people may be tempted to copy and paste web content and duplicate it on their own web pages or submit it to other sites or blogs. Don’t ever just copy and paste text search engines will penalise you for duplication. You need to tailor text for each site and audience.
 
3. Create credible backlinks to your website
Search engines also look for credible backlinks to your website. It is good practice to have as many links back to your website from other websites or directories as possible.
This can mean submitting your website link to credible online and industry directories. You can also have links back to your website from your blog or other people’s blogs. If you are commenting/engaging in social media or blogs you can provide a link back to your website (just make sure the comments you are making are relevant and not just a blatant promotion of your website).
You may also ask business and industry partners to include links on their websites and you can offer to do the same for them.
You may like to pay for an entry on credible directories (such as Yellow Pages online), especially if they are directories commonly used by your target audience.
Constantly seek new opportunities for backlinks as search engines are looking for new links where possible. A good balance is 30 per cent new links and 70 per cent static or older links.
A word of warning though. Make sure your links are appearing on credible websites. You don’t want to be associated with spammy type sites.
If you believe your website has been listed on an inappropriate or blacklisted site and you are being penalised, you can check by obtaining a backlink report via each search engine’s Webmaster Tools and if required follow a disavow links process.
 
4. Leverage built-in tools on your platform
Most website platforms have built-in SEO tools and functionality that you should familiarise yourself with and leverage.
Speak to your website provider/watch tutorials/read FAQs to obtain a handle on what SEO functionality they offer.
This may involve the opportunity to specify keywords and phrases that will appear in your site’s metadata.
They may offer analytics or statistics on keywords people are using to find your site, as well as who is viewing your site, from where and how long they are spending on particular pages.
Free blogging and website platforms such as Blogger (a google product) and WordPress are already optimised in many ways. They are also automatically optimised for mobile devices and tablets and are search engine friendly. They also have built-in social media buttons for sharing your content. For some businesses it may be worthwhile considering moving their website to one of these platforms to take advantage of the SEO capabilities. Both platforms allow businesses to customise their domain names as well.
 
5. Use images, visuals and attachments but keep it simple
Using graphics, illustrations, photos or videos will boost engagement and search engine optimisation. When you do include visual elements, also include a relevant description, caption, tag or comments featuring keywords.
Photos and video should be compressed or resized, to minimise loading time, and be reasonably professional looking. You can compress or resize images with simple programs such as MS Paint.
If you don’t have the budget for your own professional photographs you can purchase royalty free images quite cheaply from photo libraries such as GettyImages or Shutterstock. You can also use free services such as www.pexels.com 
Video content is also highly regarded by search engines.
Other types of downloadable items such as relevant infographics, podcasts and pdfs also will help with SEO.
While visual elements are a great idea, keep it simple. Avoid flash, music, pop-ups, scrolling screens and animation. If these items must be used, use them minimally.
 
6. Submit your site to search engines
You should submit or suggest your site to Google, Yahooand Bing so they can verify
your URL and include it in their directories.
You will be asked to identify a particular category for your industry. The category you choose will also inform SEO results.
 
7. Embrace social media
Having an active social media presence can boost SEO. This means having social media accounts that are kept up-to-date and engage people. As a general rule, the more engagement you have on your social media site, the higher you will rank.
Only create social media accounts on platforms relevant to your audience and you can sustain, in terms of keeping them up-to-date. Generally speaking search engines regard blogs, LinkedIn, Youtube and Facebook quite well. Depending on the industry Pinterest may also be a good option.
On all of your social media sites include a backlink to your website.
Listings or links on other reputable sites such as ebay and Gumtree are also useful if you have an e-commerce presence.
 
8. Keep your web-site up-to-date
Up-to-date web content not only looks professional and better connects with users, but will also help with SEO.
Make sure your content is always up-to-date, regularly renewed and accurate. Regularly check links and remove any that no longer work.
 
9. Evaluate
Evaluate the success of your website on an ongoing basis. Compare your results against your initial goals and objectives.
Google Analytics is a free tool that gives an overview of how people are finding and engaging with your site.
If you use your website for e-commerce you may also consider purchasing conversion software to track links between web traffic and sales.
 
10. Paid options and experts
Above we have outlined nine free (or mostly free) ways to boost your SEO.
However sometimes it is worthwhile to invest a little money to really give your SEO an edge.
Simple options such as using Google Adwords for paid or sponsored links may benefit your business. It is relatively easy to measure the effectiveness of any Adwords campaigns and refine your keywords.
You can also consult an SEO expert such as Jared and his company Website Software Solutions. Experts like this will take technical SEO to the next level and keep on top of any SEO developments. They will use coding and IT techniques to maximise your SEO.

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DIY Media release template and writing tips

Kylie Fennell
As a former journalist I often get asked about the best way to gain media coverage.
Beyond having a good story or ‘yarn’ in the first place, the biggest favour you can do yourself is to have a well-written media release.
Journalists have always been time poor, but they are more busy than ever these days. As a result they are likely to give precedence over a well written media release, than a poorly written one. The easier you can make their job, the better the outcome is likely to be for you.
While different news outlets and countries have slightly different preferences in terms of format and presentation, the basics are usually the same. Here are some tips and a media release template based primarily on Australian news style.
Before you write your media release
Consider the following:
§  Why are you writing the release – what is your aim? 
§  Who will read your release – who is the audience?
§  What is your story – what is your newsworthy angle?
§  What does the audience think/know already about this topic? 
§  What do you want them to think/know?
§  What key messages must you include?
 
Let’s write
§  Ask yourself, “How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?”
§  Avoid excessive use of adjectives and complex language – the simpler the better.
§  Spell out the numeral one to nine and use figures for 10 and above (unless used in association with $. For example ‘$3 million’ is okay, but ‘3 participants’ is not okay)
§  No numbers at the beginning of paragraphs (unless spelt out)
§  USE “million”, NOT “m” or “M”
§  Check consistent figures, facts and titles are used throughout the release
§  Use “per cent”, NOT percent, %, pc or p.c.
§  Check spelling and grammar, especially spelling of names
§  Check all other important details such as phone numbers and email addresses
§  Don’t use ampersands “&”, USE the word “and”. Unless it is bad of a brand or company name.
§  Don’t use exclamation marks
§  Watch apostrophe placement (singular/plural/possessive) and be careful of ‘it’s vs its’. It’s is short for ‘It is’. Its is possessive eg. The company held its annual general meeting
§  Do not mix past/present tense in the same sentence
§  Use ‘more than’ not ‘over’ with figures. Eg. ‘more than 700 jobs’
Review your media release
§  Watch your segues – this refers to the flow of the information. Make sure the paragraphs connecting and flow logically.
§  Use active voice not passive – passive speech uses words such as ‘being, been and be’, followed by a past tense verb. Often the word ‘by’ is in sentences with passive speech. The words ‘has’ and ‘have’ followed by a past tense word is not passive speech. Another alert can be that the person/organisation you are talking about is at the end of the sentence, or is not mentioned at all. In active speech the person/organisation is upfront at the beginning of the sentence and is doing something rather than having something done to them.
§  Negative Language – use positive language wherever possible, even if the subject is negative. Eg. ‘Entry will not be accepted without a ticket’ vs ‘Present your ticket to gain entry’
§  Key messages ­– key messages are one of the most important tools we use in all communication. They provide common direction, meaning and focus and ensures internal and external messages are consistent. These messages should be developed in advance for specific projects, initiatives and contentious topics or issues. Have no more than three key messages you want to get across and make sure you include them in your media release.
§  Read your media release thoroughly – identify any clumsy or long paragraphs. Re-phrase these, or break them into smaller, easier to read sentences. It sounds strange, but it’s great to read a media release out-loud and identify any sections you stumble on. These are the sections which need more work
§  A second pair of eyes – always get someone to read your media release before finalisation. Preferably someone unfamiliar with the content so they can pick up on anything that doesn’t make sense.
§  Approvals – finally, make sure anyone quoted or organisation mentioned in the media release has an opportunity to review and approve the content. Always ensure you get appropriate internal (your organisation) approvals as well.
Still not sure where to start?
If you’ve never written a media release before, you may like to use the below media release template.
The below template is a fictional media release, about how to write a media release.
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<use your own company letterhead, font and layout as appropriate>
MEDIA RELEASE                                                                                                                   
For immediate use
X Month Year
EXPERT SHARES SECRETS TO WRITING A WINNING MEDIA RELEASE
A world-renowned writing expert shared his secrets for writing a winning media release at the Australasian Writing Conference in Brisbane today (X Month).
The Writing Company, Chief Executive Officer, John Smith said anyone could write an effective media release.
“The good news is that you don’t need to be a journalist or a brilliant writer to create a good media release,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith said the headline and first paragraph were the most important parts of the release.
“The headline should be active, short and punchy – 10 words or less.
“Your first sentence must catch the reader’s attention, inform them what the story is about, and make them want to read the rest of the article. This sentence should not exceed 25-30 words.”
Mr Smith said another important component was having quotes from a reliable source.
“Quotes should be used for less factual, more personable information or subjective statements,” he said.
“The speaker must always be introduced with an indirect quote first, with their company name, job title, first name then surname, used in the first instance. They can then be referred to as Mr/Ms surname after that (as shown above).”
Mr Smith said indirect quotes should always be in past tense and be used to introduce a new ideas.
“A subject in a direct quote should be introduced first in an indirect quote and the punctuation must be clear.
“The first direct quote ends in a comma, then quotation marks, then Mr/Ms surname said, and then a fullstop, as shown above.
“Running quotes end only in a fullstop but the final running quote ends with a fullstop and quotation mark as shown above and here.” 
Factual information does not need to be included in direct or indirect quotes. After breaking up quotes with a block of text like this, you need to recognise the speaker again at the end of their quote, as per below.
“You must include the five Ws and H – what, where, when, who, why and how in order of importance, but try not to exceed one page in total,” Mr Smith said.
ends
For more information contact first name surname, on phone number or email.
Photo/interview opportunities are available (Include this only if they are available).
Also include details of your website and any social media sites.

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