Use Your Digital Marketing Resources Wisely

Time, money, and energy are the finite resources that you need to distribute across your digital marketing strategically to get the most effective campaign.  This is easily forgotten as different people come together to work on a campaign with distinct perspectives. 

Typically, these perspectives can be broken up into 3 categories.

  1. Content
  2. Design
  3. Technical

Technical resources tend to be used the most effectively because they are often pricy to establish and are fairly objective (either it works or it doesn’t).  Content and design are the categories that see the most wasted resources largely due to their subjectivity.

Every stakeholder in the digital marketing campaigns must hold themselves and other accountable to staying focused and not wasting resources.  This can be uncomfortable if you have an element that you personally want to change or if you have to hold others accountable to moving forward even if they are preoccupied with a particular detail.

Set expectations up front on timelines, budgets, and bandwidth.  If you or any person working on the digital marketing process is addressing trivial details that likely won’t impact the campaign’s goal, then it needs to be tabled as a future improvement, not a current need.

As an example, I was on a conference call recently where half a dozen people were analyzing whether text on a graphic was a very light blue or white.  Obviously it was not a glaring problem since a consensus could not be immediately attained.  I ended up making a suggestion to leave the color as it was and it could be updated on the next communication.  No matter what decision we came to, this subtle difference was not going to have a tangible affect on our marketing campaign’s effectiveness. It simply wasn’t important enough to prevent someone from converting to a lead.

Similar issues can arise with content. I’ve witnessed long email chains debating sentence structure in an article or implied demeanor in a video.

Spending resources to revise a design or content should only take place if there’s a clear impact to the marketing campaigns effectiveness. If a design element is off brand or clearly an error, then it needs fixed.  If the content is unclear or unprofessional, then that should be corrected.  Any other subtle or preference related changes should be noted and updated in future communications rather than wasting resources on retroactive fixes or campaign rework.  

Is Your Content Becoming Redundant?

That’s funny . . . I don’t remember being absent minded!?

Meeting the demands of a consistent digital marketing campaign can lead content creators into becoming repetitive. This is especially true for trainers, consultants, and professional coaches that have been producing long term content from a limited amount of topics. To combat absent-mindedness or redundancy in your content, set content categories or refresh cycles to keep it innovative.

There are several ways to prevent redundancy from creeping into your digital marketing content:

Modernize Old Content

Do you have a fresh perspective on a topic you’ve already covered. Expand on your thoughts while linking to the previous content. This prevents your content from appearing repetitive while building on the topic you’ve previously addressed. This can be especially useful for technology or digital related content that evolves quickly

Set a Category calendar

Redundancy is never as glaring as when duplicate content is delivered in quick succession. Divide your topics into categories and rotate between those categories to ensure that any redundancy at least has the benefit of a break between them.

Reduce the Amount of Content

If your videos are running over 5 minutes or you have thousands of words in an article to cover a topic in depth, break that down into a series of content. The total amount is the same but you can deliver it bite size chunks that will fill your content calendar.

Reduce Frequency

This isn’t always possible depending on the goals of a digital marketing campaign. But give your frequency a hard look. If you’re not getting tangible benefits from an aggressive content calendar, scale it back.

Create Something New

Maybe you’ve leveraged a particular topic or concept as far as you can. Find related content about your area of expertise and create new tools and techniques that can serve as a fresh perspective on your product or service.

Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches can fall into content ruts in their digital marketing. It’s important to reinvigorate that content because if you aren’t genuinely passionate about sharing your expertise, others won’t be inspired to pay attention or want to learn more.

Is Marketing Automation Worth the Effort For Your Company?

Almost every company, large or small, aspires to achieve a systematic process for marketing automation.  Marketing automation promises pre-defined triggers and communications that will minimize time and effort while maximizing sales and leads. However, most companies run through an endless cycle of false starts and rebuilds that never really fulfills that promise.  So if marketing automation is a high risk / high reward aspiration, why do a majority of companies feel that they will overcome past failures to finally achieve this holy grail?

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches are aware of marketing automation on a conceptual level but a lack of understanding the specific function or lacking a clear vision for the end solution leads most of them to fail or settle for a subset of what marketing automation can provide.

Some of the blame for this falls on digital marketers.  In our enthusiasm to describe the merits of marketing automation, we often gloss over whether it’s a realistic goal for a company.  Working with varied firms, we tend to find that only about one in five have true marketing automation.  The others tend to:

  • Have a system that used to be adequate but a knowledge gap from losing staff, partners, or subject matter experts has led a previously functional system into ruin.
  • Be working with some isolated marketing automation functionality that is stitched together with a series of manual processes.
  • Believe they have marketing automation in place but one or more marketers are working frantically to make the marketing process seem more turn-key than it is.

Marketing automation is a admirable goal but one that the majority of companies will not achieve. Remember that marketing automation will require more expensive tools, more expensive expertise, and longer implementation process to become productively functional. You can count on costs be exponentially higher so the projected return needs to be well defined to justify the endeavor. Based on size and type of business, it’s really not a justifiable venture for some firms.

Be realistic with how sophisticated your marketing automation needs to be.  We tend to suggest starting off with automation basics that are easier to implement and gauge the return on that process improvement.  In this way, you can gradually build processes that save time and effort while maintaining or increasing leads or sales.

Is Marketing Targeting Sales Now or Sales in the Future?

During the pandemic, there has been a fairly prevalent sentiment that now is not the time to sell.  The rationale is that people and businesses are experiencing unprecedented hardships and do not want to be sold or marketed to. Like most advice with a broad scope, there are certainly situations where that is a sound suggestion but it is untrue for many businesses.  Rather than halting your marketing that has sales aspirations, it might be better to refocus on providing free value immediately that positions you for a sale in the future.

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have modified their digital marketing to feature online content and programs.  However, depending on their client base, they might experience significantly reduced demand.  So through the pandemic and into the recovery, each firm needs to consciously identify a strategy that is suitable for their target market.

If you find that your clients and prospects are suddenly struggling during the pandemic then focusing on a sale now is unrealistic.  There are many industries that simply don’t have the budget to buy or the time to purchase.  If you find your target market is in that unfortunate position, adjust your marketing to relationship building for a future sale rather than a sale now.

How? Any free offer that you can provide will illustrate the value you bring without requiring money or other resources immediately.  Provide content to your target market especially if it helps them navigate these troubled times.

Providing helpful offers now without a request for an immediate sale helps build good will. You’ll be ideally positioned once your target market starts recovering and again have the time and budgets to buy your paid services.

The Right Offer During The COVID -19 Downturn

Business as usual is not business as usual. While some training, consulting, and coaching firms are slow to react, others are rapidly cycling through a multitude of options hoping that one will stick. Whether overreacting or underreacting, almost all of these firms are finding that their digital marketing calls-to-action need to be shifted to appeal to their audience who are unexpectedly dealing with new problems and concerns than they had before the pandemic.

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have needed to adjust their business model during quarantines and lockdowns. That adjustment has been extreme for some that did no online learning or more of a slight shift for those that already had digital delivery capability.  Regardless of your situation here are a few calls-to-action that can be leveraged during the downturn.

Webinars

Free Webinar – This seems to be the most popular option that trainers, consultants, and professional coaches are turning to.  These free events tend to work well for gaining attention, especially if they focus on problems that your audience is suddenly confronting given COVID-19 restrictions.  However, you should go into a free webinar expecting sales conversions will be slim to none.  If the goal is to get your firm in front of a wider audience and position yourself as an expert as the recovery begins, this is a great option.  If the goal is to generate immediate leads and revenue, it will likely be lacking.

Paid Webinar Series – Effective online delivery is difficult to sustain for much more than two hours. One hour is the typical suggestion.  Therefore, firms are finding that more robust training or coaching options need to be broken into a series of events.  These more robust programs will not draw as many registration but can create valuable immediate revenue. If you are offering multiple series, it’s important to clearly differentiate them as well as to space them appropriately so that you are not competing against your own offers or confusing your audience.

Recorded Training

Offering a small library of recorded training can be a low cost option if your audience is experiencing short-term budget constraints.  If you already have online learning platforms or digitally delivered content, leverage it as an on-demand training at a lower price point.

Reports or Whitepapers

Reports or whitepapers, especially those targeted at the pandemic, lockdowns, or downturn are a frequently overlooked resource the last few months.  The natural inclination for trainers, coaches and consultants is to speak to their audience because that is what they are accustomed to doing.  A document often has as much or more of a draw and requires no resources for delivery after it’s been created. Reports are often better suited as a free offer but if you have robust content, it can also serve as a low cost option for people to purchase.

There are many different delivery methods for these calls to action.  Rather than “optimizing” for the best platform, we suggest using what you already have available or are most comfortable with.  Trainers, consultants and professional coaches that are striving for perfection through the lockdown tend to be producing little usable content as they get lost in a cycle of improvements or shifting focus. In an effort to “pivot” many firms are failing to pick a direction but instead are chasing their tails. Pick a call-to-action that makes sense for your audience, professionally produce that call to action, and then start adjusting accordingly as we move into a recovery.

Over Communicate In a Crisis . . . With Purpose

During these turbulent times digital marketing has become more about company communication on processes and intention, rather than  promotional.  As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts business-as-usual in many markets, it makes sense to scale back on advertising which might appear self-centered.  Clearly relaying what your audience needs to know takes focus. Effective communication requires discipline in stating needed information specific to your organization without regurgitating notices that are widely available or running on with unessential content.

Nothing is worse in a crisis than sending a lot of content that is confusing or unnecessary. Over communicating is only helpful when it stays focused.

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have pivoted to an online version of their business. We’ve been busy helping clients relay the tools and updates required to make those changes known to the appropriate audiences.  These types of communications should be hierarchical. A short personal note wishing your audience well is appropriate but beyond that the content should focus on logistic matters for how clients can access training, coaching, and/or consulting.

Many initial emails as the pandemic grew were unnecessarily packed with the companies feelings and intended response.  That’s productive for a team conversation but becomes a cluttered message to work through via digital marketing channels.  Most people were getting bombarded with COVID19 information and really only needed to know how they can move forward with you during the crisis. Expounding on the situation comes later.

Along those same lines, hyperlinks are your ally in keeping you communications focused and helpful.  If a government notice or recent news item is prompting a change, briefly mention that information and link to it.  Everyone is aware of COVID-19 at this point and there’s no reason to re-state public notices, only how they might be prompting a change for your company.

At this point, most companies have taken steps to respond  to COVID-19 and made adjustments to logistic concerns.  Some focus can now return to marketing but in a sensitive manner.  There won’t be much receptivity to hard sells or physical interaction.

If you have content that can be delivered virtually and genuinely help your audience through this crisis, now is the time to offer it.  We suggest offering at least some portion of it as a free promotion. A lot of people are struggling through financial and professional uncertainty. Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches are often uniquely qualified to alleviate some of that stress. 

Of course, it’s not practical to provide all the content, time, or services that a paying client would receive. But any information that specifically helps people through the pandemic strengthens your community as well as builds healthy relationships with your audience that might result in future business after the crisis abates.

When What You Know, Isn’t Accurate

We’re living in the age of Know-it-allism. And why not?  Any person with access to the internet can literally find information on any topic known to man. We are only limited by how quickly we can consume that information.

At least that’s how some people look at it.  But there’s a difference between “knowing” something and experiencing it.  That’s especially true when what is “known” is built on a lot of subjective variables and viewpoints.

Tom Nichol’s book The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters walks through a multitude of reasons that most people aren’t consuming reliable information. However, they take action on the information regardless of its validity. 

Digital marketers should be concerned with established knowledge for two reasons. 

The first is that we leverage the same social media and content publishing platforms that are so prevalent in assisting bad actors to disseminate unreliable information.  That means we have to keep our content compelling and accurate to credibly garner attention and build an engaged audience.

The second reason is that digital marketers need to critically review the content and best practices that they want to adopt for their marketing campaigns. There’s no shortage of people striving to establish themselves as a “thought leader” who will dole out advice just because they think it sounds right.

Speaking for myself, I must see dozens of affiliate or link-building “experts” on YouTube every day.  Each one claims to have the secret sauce to help me get rich . . . and quick.  For all I know, one of them might have a fool proof plan.  But I also know I’d have to wade through ninety-nine frauds before I found something legitimate.  And the legitimate one still might not work for me because of timing or my personal style.

Best practices always need to be reviewed for individual suitability. What doesn’t work well for one company or industry, might be a valuable strategy in another.  Think critically as you consume digital marketing ideas and participate in a social or online platforms that can set ignorance and inspiration on equal ground. It can be difficult to challenge our own digital marketing biases without having ill-advised outside influences guide us toward ineffective ideas.

Sometimes Simple Digital Marketing Analytics . . . Are Too Simple

Do you get overwhelmed by your digital marketing analytics?  Many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches do.  There are a lot of channels to account for: email, social, SEO, SEM, referral links, etc. Trying to make sense of data from all the platforms that drive these channels can be daunting.  Trying to consolidate all the metrics into one tool like Google Analytics sounds ideal but can get very complicated and time consuming to implement and verify. 

This leads many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches to seek out simplified versions of the data through reports or dashboards.  While the motive is understandable, and even admirable, it requires a dedicated process of compiling the complicated data into a comprehensive and informative dashboard.  Anything less will oversimplify your data rather than clarify it.

Need an example of how oversimplification causes problems?   Recently a group of trainers were interested in how their personal social media posts compared to the posts to the company social media pages.  Compiling the data from the social media platforms data was going to take time and money that the trainers did not want to spend.

As a shortcut, the trainers requested monthly analytic data from their established marketing dashboard, Google Analytics, to get a high level view of their digital marketing efforts.  Since Google Analytics was set up to track traffic from social media and could be segmented to identify the source, the assumption was that it would be a solid data set to see what profiles were generating the best results, personal vs. company.  The data clearly showed that the company profiles were generating more traffic, about 3 clicks to one.

The decision was made that personal social media accounts were not generating as many clicks, so the trainers would scale back their activity on social media and invest their time elsewhere. A month later, leads had dropped by twenty percent.

What happened?  Oversimplifying the data meant that interactions on social media platform like comments or requests were overlooked.  Google Analytics was only compiling data from people that visited the site from social media links. It was completely ignoring any leads that were generated directly on the social media platform.

These lead sources were a rich channel of opportunity that suddenly was cut off because incomplete data was used to evaluate personal profiles. Upon re-instating personal profile activity and doing a more comprehensive review, we found that the trainer’s personal profile activity was producing slightly better results than the company profiles.

If you are going to evaluate an element in your digital marketing process, make sure you have a reliable and understandable data set to work with.  It’s almost impossible to get a comprehensive set of data from all your channels to account for all your marketing interactions. Be aware of your data’s blind spots and at least incorporate anecdotal for the channels where your data is not centralized. Simplifying complex sets of data is helpful to get digestible metrics. However, simplifying metrics often leads to oversimplifying the information which results in lazy and unproductive digital marketing decisions.

Review your Digital Marketing for Outdated Information

A company’s digital marketing assets can grow to a sizeable number of properties that are easy to lose track of.  That’s especially true for assets that are rarely used. It’s important to keep a list of your active digital marketing assets and review them periodically for content updates and administrative access.

Digital marketing assets that are commonly used, like the company website or social media channels, won’t be forgotten but should undergo a regular review and refresh process. That’s especially true if any company contact information or major shifts in products or services happen.

Ancillary assets that are not commonly used in digital marketing processes run a greater risk of not being updated or forgotten all together. Examples of these assets are search engine business listings or company profiles on association lists.

Google business listings are an important ancillary aspect that can be very problematic if forgotten.  Since business listings are often featured above a website listing, even if it’s well optimized for search, it can negate refreshed data from the site. It’s also becoming a common avenue for initial contact with a client or prospect.

A client recently asked us to review their search positions and we realized that they had an outdated google listing for a location that had since closed, and no listing for their other locations.  To make matters more confusing, the owner of the outdated account had moved on to a different company without transferring administrative rights to anyone at the company. 

This is a worst case scenario where information is almost completely wrong and ownership to correct it has been lost.  We were able to claim the business from Google but it took a solid two weeks before the profile was fully claimed and updated.

Keep a record of your digital marketing assets and administrative details. Changes to  your business, staff, and partners is inevitable and that record will serve as a checklist to make sure that your digital marketing assets aren’t left behind.

Leverage Your Personal Style for Improved Digital Marketing Content

Every trainer, consultant, and professional coach has their own style.  That style can run the gamut from academic to entertaining and anything in between.  Unfortunately, when digital marketing material is being compiled, much of the personality is sterilized to make communications sound “professional”. Personal style can and should co-exist with professional communications to make them more authentic and engaging.

Personal style can come across in any media but none are as obvious as video. The default presentation seems to be a talking head offering a tactic or strategy on a watered down topic in a very serious manner.  If that’s the presenter’s natural style, it can be pulled off but that’s often not a genuine delivery.

It’s advantageous to be yourself in digital marketing messages. Sit down or insert your own brand of humor in a video if that’s your natural style.  It’s OK to use your own sayings or analogies in your writing as long as it’s clearly described in an article.  Even the images that you use can help reflect and reinforce you or your firm’s style.

Leveraging your own style in digital marketing communications will be interpreted as more genuine and allows the audience to get a glimpse of who they could potentially work with.  While your style won’t sync up with everyone, at least it will attract the type of person more likely to buy from you.  And it will help differentiate your messages from the sterilized content that seems to be so prevalent.

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