You are an important part of our business.

Even if you are not yet a private coaching client. Or have invested in using our online program, The Small Business Marketing Plan.

(2020 Marketing Tip #1: the same is true for your stakeholders, too, so be sure to make time to thank them)

Why?

Because you may have attended one of our events in the past three years. Whether it is a day long business accelleration workshop at our home in Sedona, Arizona, or a 90-minute event at your local Chamber of Commerce or speaking to your organization, we are out there speaking and listening to you all the time.

At each of those workshops, including the 6 times a year we hold our Small Business Breakthrough Bootcamps, we pay attention to you. And to the questions you have asked. It did not surprise us that most of those questions had to do with social media and online marketing. From all those questions, we have put together some social media and online marketing tips for you and for entrepreneurs just like you, who will ask them in the future.

Here are some best practice marketing tactics and strategies for you, the small business owner, based on our experiences being in front of you, teaching, a couple of hundred times.

MARKETING TIP #2: BRANDING YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS IN 2020

Step 1. We just read several studies that had to do with remembering who you bought products and services from.  One study of new home buyers done by a famous home builder, showed that 5 years after buying a home, they could not identify who built it. That made me go back through some of our purchases.  I cannot name ONE person who has sold me a car, but I can tell you every car I have bought. I can name all my elementary school teachers, but I cannot tell you the names of each realtor who has helped me buy a home (Although Jim Ezell helped us sell our home in Encino, CA in order to move to Sedona, AZ and he was amazing). This means that to continue to receive and deserve referrals, we must learn how to stay in front of our customers in order to improve our online brand reputation.

Step 2. Determine what you want your brand to be.  Here are two ways to think of it: What you want your reputation to be. What you want people to think of your company and what you stand for.  This is the message you will share.

Step 3. Every time you are sharing a message on line (or offline), stay true to the message you have chosen. If you are known for being able to help your clients with their marketing, human resources, sales, and public speaking, then share lots of information in those business categories.

Step 4. Don’t fight a lucky streak.

One day, I was at a chamber breakfast and a Waste Management person was talking about how people pollute the world and they clean it up. I was a couple of speakers after him, so I said “My name is Hank Yuloff and I pollute the world one t-shirt, calendar and coffee mug at a time.”  Laughter ensued so I tried it a couple of more times without the ‘trashy’ lead in. Laughter again.  I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon a great way to talk about the promotional product part of my business, so I was not going to ‘dump’ using it.

Step 5. Always embrace the power of giving yourself away.  That means your services, but also your brilliance. We give ourselves away to lots of non-profits for their silent auctions. All they have to do is ask.

MARKETING TIP #3: YOUR WEBSITE IS STILL AN IMPORTANT MARKETING TOOL IN 2020

I have heard it said that your marketing plan that we create for you is your solar system and your website is the sun around which all your other tactics circle. I realize here that if we dig down into that analogy, it breaks down because not every marketing tactic evolved from your website.  But if we use that mental picture of our solar system as a moment in time, then we can make the analogy serve us. We will discuss this in greater depth in our upcoming (look for it in 2021) book, E=MC2, What Einstein, Tesla and Galleleo Teach Us About Marketing, but here is a basic premise: All tactics lead back to your website, where your story is told, and your potential clients fall in love with you. What that means for you is that you have to make your website a useful tool for your clients by giving them information they need.

Here are a few website marketing tips:

• • Regular readers of our blogs know that we suggest that you have opt-in forms on your website. They’re in various places, offering some bits of information relating to your industry that your target audience SIMPLY MUST HAVE.
  • Along with that, your blog is not finished until you have a solid call-to-action at the end of the blog post. When a new reader is finished reading your posts, they are ready to learn more. Give them that opportunity by offering them an opt-in at the end of your post. Tell them where to easily consume more information. Our most common CTA is to share with our readers that we will give them a free 30-minute follow up to help them put into action what they just read.  All they need to do is reach out at www.FreeMarketingConsultation.com

  • You don’t have to offer your visitors the whole story, since that allows them to make a decision without them ever having the chance to contact you. Rather, hold some information back, such as what to do after the first steps, or pricing, and test different calls to action to generate email addresses or phone numbers to help you to follow-up with new prospects.

  • For the same reason that we would not have the guy who maintains our pool build our websites, or we don’t change the oil in our own cars (for that we have 360 Automotive), we suggest that if you are not a proficient writer, you may want to hire  a professional writer to write website content. PLEASE NOTE we said proficient, not great. You do NOT have to be a great writer to get your message across. We STRONGLY suggest you allow your prospects to hear your voice in your writing because they are going to look to hear it when you meet, either in person or virtually. You will be using this content for blogs, and all your social media pages, emails and every place you use content to connect with clients, like a flyer you add to a Chamber of Commerce gift bag at their events.

  • Another tactic to use on your blog is to create a solid offer for each post. It would be a simple worksheet or checklist that allows you to capture even more information on a topic your reader has expressed interest.

• • We are a big believer in forms that help clients move forward in the sales process with us. Most of the forms are very short, because the less they fill in, the more likely they are to fill it in. However, sometimes you need a long form. An example is at our Website Building Website, www.ThisWebsiteUnderConstruction.com. Go take a look at that form by clicking the big red button on the site. Potential clients can fill in this form, and a bid is sent to them based on the parameters they set for their website.

• One final note on your blogs:  How often do you revisit your pasts blog posts to link to newer content?

This is an important maintenance project that is also an opportunity. It will help your site visitors garner information they need to make a decision. You get to show your expertise, by linking related posts together.  Here is an example. We wrote another blog on Websites and blogging, and you can get information by going to this blog entitled Santa Time- Shares His Elves with Google. Not only is this a good strategy for keeping potential clients at your website, but it encourages Google’s search engine optimization bots to crawl your site more completely and boosts your rankings for relevant posts.

MARKETING TIP #4: VIDEO IS EVEN MORE YOUR MARKETING FRIEND IN 2020

We have written extensively on the use of video in your business. Here is another blog that shares some more information. It’s called “10 WAYS TO USE VIDEO TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MORE PROFITABLE.“

Do you see what we just did there?  (Happy face and winking emoji!)

The value of using videos is rising. Your viewers are investing 2.5 times more time watching personally relevant short form videos compared with other videos. We add HOW TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS type videos all the time.  Here is an example to go along with this blog. It is named 10 Unusual Marketing Ideas for You and Your Business.  HEY, PLEASE do us a favor and hit the SUBSCRIBE button below the video when you watch it? Thank you.

Here are some of the 2019 YouTube and Video numbers from MERCHDOPE:

• The very first YouTube Video was uploaded on 23 April 2005.
• The total number of people who use YouTube is 1,300,000,000.
• 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!
• Almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube every single day.
• YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day.
• In an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube.
• By 2025, half of the viewers under 32 will not subscribe to a pay-TV service.
• 60% of people prefer online video platforms to live TV.
• The total number of hours of video watched on YouTube each month is 3.25 billion.
• 10,113 Youtube videos generated over 1 billion views.
• 80% of YouTube’s views are from outside of the U.S.
• The average number of mobile YouTube video views per day is 1,000,000,000
• The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes. This is up more than 50% year-over-year.
• Female users are 38% and male users are 62%.
• User Percentage by Age: 18-24 – 11%, 25-34 – 23%, 35-44 – 26%, 45-54 – 16%, 50-64 – 8%, 65+ – 3%, unknown age – 14%.
• More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
• YouTube’s mobile revenue is up 2x year over year.
• YouTube overall and even YouTube on mobile alone reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
• The number of hours people spend watching videos (aka watch time) on YouTube is up 60% year-over-year, the fastest growth we’ve seen in 2 years.
• You can navigate YouTube in a total of 76 different languages (covering 95% of the Internet population).
• YouTube has launched local versions in more than 88 countries.

• 9% of U.S small businesses use Youtube  HEY! THIS IS HUGE! JUST 9% are using YouTube.  THIS GIVES YOU AN AMAZINGLY HUGE OPPORTUNITY.  Want to know how? Give us a call.  Right now!  800-705-4265! Or go to www.FreeMarketingConsultation.com and lock in your time.

• Approximately 20% of the people who start your video will leave after the first 10 seconds. Create a damn good intro.

Sources for the video stats above:

• https://merchdope.com/youtube-stats/
• com/yt/press/statistics.html
• com/youtube-statistics
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com
• https://www.youtube.com/about/press/

We hope that these tips get you started in the right direction, whether you are a new business or your business is established and you were just looking to upgrade your information. We would like to assist you. If you would like a free ticket to our next Small Business Breakthrough Bootcamp, just call us at 800-705-4265 and let us know you read this blog. If you would like a free 30-minute Get Focused Success Call, go to www.FreeMarketingConsultation.com and answer a few easy questions before getting a link to our calendar so you can choose a time that works best foryou.

We look forward to helping you in every way we can!