by David Andrew Wiebe | May 22, 2023 | Marketing
But it rarely is.
It might be easy for us.
But you can’t assume it will be easy for your customers, clients, students, participants, or subscribers.
What’s obvious to you isn’t always obvious to others.
I know. As marketers, it’s our job to sell everyone on the idea that our tactics, strategies, methods, and approaches are easy. Framing is critical.
But is what we’re selling quantifiably easy?
If someone can confidently write 3,000-word blog posts, they’ve got a part of the process down.
But if you came in and added three steps to the research process that potentially added four weeks to the development of the content, you can’t call that easy. Simple, maybe. But not easy.
You can tell people what to do in no uncertain terms. But if gathering four leaders with two assistants each is not part of their know-how, you should not assume they understand the “how” well enough to deliver on the requirements.
When most people can’t perform the job as expected, it means something is missing in the training. It could be empowerment. It could be the process. It could be examples that illuminate the path. Whatever it is, can you honestly say you’ve set up your people for success? If not, there’s room left for improvement.
Critically, nothing is just that easy. Things become easier over time, as you do them repeatedly. But until then, it’s a lot of banging one’s head against the wall.
by David Andrew Wiebe | May 18, 2023 | Marketing
“We don’t want anyone taking our proprietary, custom-designed images.”
So, the graphical assets are locked up.
That’s how these decisions are typically made. But it’s short-sighted.
Every company needs a media page, a place where people can freely access and download their logos, pictures of their founders, product images, and other relevant assets.
Why?
The alternative is to force the people who want to (and may even be required to) talk about you online to take poorly cropped, bad-quality screenshots and use them on their blogs and websites. What exactly does that do to your online brand and reputation management?
Consider:
How do you want the people that come to your business – customers, bloggers, podcasters, influencers, affiliates, the media – to represent you?
Because know it or not, you are already being represented.
by David Andrew Wiebe | May 5, 2023 | Marketing
Everyone is obsessed with more views and more engagement.
The funny thing is that, as I’ve been saying all along, more views or comments don’t necessarily lead to better marketing or business results.
Check out the James Schramko YouTube channel. You’ll see that the podcast episodes on his channel get, on average, 50 to 100 views.
Yet I happen to know for a fact that his business makes eight figures annually.
To get his results, you would need to obsess over what your target customer is looking for and creating it, not on better ways to get more eyeballs on your content.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Mar 16, 2023 | Marketing
The convenient shorthand “page” has become common parlance to describe any social media URL.
This verbiage is acceptable for common public use, but I would urge you to rethink this terminology if you you’re a creative or entrepreneur.
At the least, there are three distinct types of destinations:
- Profiles. This refers to a personal profile. It’s what you signed up for when you first joined Facebook. You can use your profile to share about anything you want, including your business, but guaranteed it’s one of the first things people will see when googling your name. Make a good impression!
- Pages. This could be a company page (i.e., LinkedIn) or fan page. Technically, there is no such thing as a “fan page” on Facebook, only pages. But a page is distinct from a profile for the primary reason that you can accumulate “likes,” which reflects the size, popularity, and reach of your page. Pages also allow boosting and advertising.
- Groups. A group is like a community discussion forum. It’s a place where people can gather to ask questions, interact with each other, discuss their favorite burger, promote their upcoming performance, and so forth. If you’re a group owner, you’re the facilitator of the community.
Why does this matter?
Because each type of “page” was designed with different functionality. You literally cannot perform the same functions across the board. You may be able to accumulate “followers” for a profile, but you can only accumulate “likes” for a page. Others may be able to post on your “wall” or comment on your posts, but the only place where you can create a sense of belonging and community where others are free to contribute is a group.
If you want to teach social media or digital marketing in any capacity, make this distinction.
If you want to be effective in your own online marketing efforts, make this distinction.
And if you aren’t clear on how these destinations differ, study.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Mar 12, 2023 | Marketing
Knowing whether something is worth marketing is, especially for the solopreneur or independent business owner.
When you’ve created a product or service with resonance, it will almost seem to sell itself. Put it in front of your target audience, and they will respond.
When you’ve created a product or service with zero resonance, it will sit on (virtual) shelves mostly untouched. Put it in front of a larger audience, and the chirping of the crickets will be deafening.
Now, there are many shades of grey in between – products with some resonance, products with a little resonance, and so on.
But we’re usually much too quick to turn to tactics before creating something that’s worth marketing.
I have no tactical issues. I know all the platforms and can share my products to hundreds of channels blunt force trauma on zero budget, and maybe even sell a few.
Will it be worth it? Not if it means pulling myself away from what I’m good at so I can spend all my time and energy doing what anyone could do.
You’ve got to know whether you have something worth marketing. That’s the hard part.
Make things that are worth promoting. Then promote them. The appropriate time to discuss tactics is when your product is the strategy.
