Marketing 101 Archives

What is Social Media Management?

Stephanie Mayberry on February 14, 2022

I know what you’re thinking. What is social media management? And why is social media management critical? It’s why you’re here, right?

Maybe you’re a new business owner wondering what the heck Tick Tack, or is it Tik Tok even is, and if social media is a non-negotiable for your business.

Or maybe you’re an aspiring social media manager crafting the perfect cover letter to land your dream job. That was me once. *Cue looking into the distance with a tear rolling down my cheek.*

No matter why you’re here, welcome, friend. Your speedy crash course begins right meow.

Why is Social Media Management Important?

Let’s get down to the basics, shall we?

Social media management is more than just creating and publishing content. It’s monitoring engagement, reach, growth, and analyzing what is and isn’t working.

It’s organically growing a community of loyal customers and followers by showing them the value your business and account bring. And usually, it’s creating, monitoring, analyzing, and growing multiple channels at once.

And honestly, the most significant value of social media management is that it takes you from stagnancy to strategic growth.

Marketing has changed a lot since the days of magazine and newspaper ads. However, I appreciate the pure charisma of a salesman like Don Draper.

Social media alone allows you to communicate directly with your consumers and audience in a personal way. It allows you to potentially reach millions of people and earn their trust and their business.

While posting online and responding to comments is a good start, you need an effective social media strategy to grow by building brand awareness that generates leads and sales. Whether it’s someone who’s creative, loves analytics, and is motivated to build a solid foundation that will allow you to soar. Or through scheduling/management apps which we’ll get into below.

In the meantime, curious how a social media scheduling app could help? Read this case study by Brandy Mercredi, the entrepreneur behind FRANC, an online store that sells ethically-made women’s clothing. Brandy shares how Tailwind App increased her Pinterest reach by 44% and generated 2.8x more traffic to her store within a year!

Social Media Management Tools

In a nutshell, social media management tools should take the headache out of creating, scheduling, managing, and tracking the analytics of multiple channels, allowing you to do it all in one place. Essentially making it a lot easier to be consistent, see what works, and track your account’s growth.

What is social media screenshot, Tailwind website

A social media management tool should, in itself, be like your marketing team. (Wait… isn’t that Tailwind’s moto?)

Speaking of Tailwind, let’s go over all the tools in our social media management toolbox, err, I mean, app that makes Tailwind one of the most unique and best social media management tools in the market.

Tailwind’s Social Media Management

Tailwind Create

“Before Tailwind, I took my photos, went to a photo editor, created graphics in Canva, and then went to a scheduler. I didn’t have to sit there and pretend to be a graphic designer. All I had to do was plug in the style that I wanted, the colors, the things that were distinctive to my brand, and upload my photo.”
Kenna McCall, Terradore Jewelery

First up, we have Tailwind’s newest baby, Create.

This feature takes the place of a graphic designer, allowing you to make beautiful custom posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Tailwind Create allows you to personalize the options by creating a brand profile to add your brand’s colors, logo, and typography, which will then customize the hundreds of designs to your specific brand.

With Create, you can have professional-looking posts and pins that will immediately set you apart from the competition in just a few clicks.

“I love Tailwind Create. It’s a cool thing that doesn’t exist elsewhere. Tailwind was mainly known for Pinterest at the beginning. And now, there are a lot of apps adding Pinterest scheduling to their features, but no one else has Create. If you do not have a graphic designer, just use Create for your posts, that’s why Tailwind is a part of my team.”
Sandy Dedeian, Rectified Co

Tailwind Hashtag Finder

Ever heard of hashtags? #Hashtags take your post and put it into a group with all the other posts that also used it. Hashtags allow people to search on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for specific things like #femalebusinessowners.

Hashtags are a great way to get more exposure, but many have millions of posts making it easy to get lost in the sea of hashtags.

However, our hashtag finder does the hard work for you. Based on your caption, the hashtag finder generates suggested hashtags to use and tells you how competitive each one is. It also allows you to choose which ones you’d like – but you can also opt to have your hashtags in a comment instead of the caption.

Like, excuse me, where was Tailwind when I was an aspiring fashion blogger spending an hour searching for hashtags and then wasting all that space in my caption with hashtags that already had 2 million posts?!

C’est la vie. At least I can spread the good news to you friends now.

“I love that they give you hashtag recommendations, too. And that you can flip through and look at the different hashtags. Because sometimes hashtag research in and of itself can get heavy, and it’s a lot.”
-Courtney Peterson, Duo Collective

Tailwind Scheduler

One of the biggest perks of social media scheduling apps is having a scheduler. Nothing is more annoying than logging into multiple accounts during specific times throughout the day to post during peak engagement hours.

Tailwind scheduler allows you to c r eate a post, find your hashtags, and then schedule it during the best customized times depending on your followers.

Tailwind will then post for you on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest when you choose. If the recommended time is 2 AM then there’s no need to set an alarm to post. Tailwind will do it for you! You also don’t need to make a Google Doc and track the analytics of specific times you’ve posted to determine the best time frame.

“I like that once I fill up the schedule pins, it will keep pinning, and I don’t have to stay focused. It will just carry out the schedule for me as long as I can keep that scheduler full. It gives me a lot of leeway and creative freedom to mess around with my schedule doing other things. It’s one ball I don’t have to worry about dropping.”
Jane Caldwell, The Rowdy Ladybug

Tailwind App is not only your marketing team, but it’s the best team you could have.

Tailwind Planner

This nifty feature allows you to plan your posts and shows you what your feed will look like—allowing you to tweak or rearrange your posts for the best visuals possible.

“I’m a freak about what our feed looks like, and with Tailwind, I can see what it looks like a month in advance.”
Courtney Peterson, Duo Collective

Smart Bio

If you have multiple links or products, then Smart Bio allows you to create a landing page with the colors and pictures of your brand.

Not only that, Smart Bio tracks the number of clicks and analytics of each link, giving you all that great data so you can see what’s working.

What is social media management tailwind smart bio screenshot

Communities

We can’t forget about Communities, the feature that absolutely no other scheduling app has and significantly sets Tailwind apart. These Tailwind Communities allow you to connect with other Pinterest creators to be inspired and network within your industry.

With over 20,000 Pinterest Communities, whatever your niche is, we have a Community for it.

“One of the things I couldn’t figure out was why I couldn’t get any of the other crochet pattern designers to follow me on Pinterest. My Pinterest account was growing, but it was usually individual people, three, five, ten followers here and there. I kept wondering where all the crochet pattern designers were? None were following me, and they don’t pin any of my stuff. Well, it’s because they were all in Tailwind Communities, and they would only pin from Tailwind. So if you weren’t in Tailwind, they didn’t see your stuff, and it was like you didn’t exist to them because your pins weren’t where they were looking.”
Tonya Bush, Nana’s Crafty Home

Try Tailwind today and get your first-month F-R-E-E!

Social Media Management – Business Tips

So, how exactly can social media management for business help you reach new heights?

While social media platforms can give your business personality and exposure, social media management apps can help you reach your goals.

Curious how an app can benefit your business? Let’s take go ahead and take a looksy at how a social media management app can help your business:

Tracking social media campaigns via:
1. Google Analytics
2. Social Media
3. And measuring ROI
Optimizing social media content
Ability to manage social media across multiple accounts
Cross-posting on social media platforms to make repurposing content easier than ever
It can be a great opportunity to get creative

Now that we’ve gone over all the benefits of social media and having a management app let’s discuss how YOU *cue finger guns* can get started.

Getting Started with Social Media Management

It may feel overwhelming at first; however, managing multiple accounts can be easy-peasy. You just have to get started first.

Let’s go over how to establish a reputable social media presence whether you have a small business or large business:

Establish your branding.
1. Consistency and predictability goes a long way! Pick your brand’s colors, typography, and aesthetic. Then stick to it.
Pick which platforms you’d like to start out with.
1. Some options include: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. If setting up and managing all of them at once sounds like too much, just pick one or two, then slowly add on.
Anyalyze your audience.
1. Determine who your ideal customers are and what content they enjoy the most based on your analytics.
Keep creating content and posting.
1. If you’re not a natural graphic designer then take advantage of Tailwind Create, and make professional looking posts and pin!

The only way to be successful is by getting started and trying in the first place. And thankfully, there are social media management apps that help track your analytics and take away the more menial tasks, so social media doesn’t need to be a full-time job on top of your full-time job.

Until next time, friends!

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Does managing multiple social media accounts for your business feel overwhelming? Read this post on what social media management is and how to do it effortlessly.

11 Pro Marketers Share Their Top Tips for Small Business Marketing

Tailwind Team on July 21, 2021

As a small business owner, you’re probably really great at your craft. You’re a baker who makes amazing cinnamon rolls. Or you’re a designer who can knock out an ebook without breaking a sweat. Or you’re an influencer who slays at social media.

But if you’re like most small business owners, when it comes to running and growing your business, you’re probably making things up as you go along.

That’s pretty common.

It’s called the E-Myth Principle: “the mistaken belief that most businesses are started by people with tangible business skills, when in fact most are started by ‘technicians’ who know nothing about running a business.”

But it’s also a waste of time waiting until you “know everything” about running a business or earn some fancy business degree.

Sometimes, you’ve got to learn as you go. There’s nothing wrong with that.

To help you improve your marketing (arguably one of the most important elements of building a successful small business), we’ve compiled a list of top marketing tips from pro-level marketers below.

These quick pieces of advice from experts (who are as good at marketing as you are at baking, or designing, or Instagramming) have graciously offered their top tips for succeeding at small business marketing this year.

Let’s see what they have to say:

Chelsea Baldwin: “Have a Solid Attention-Getting Message”

Chelsea Baldwin is a powerhouse marketing copywriter and entrepreneur. Her business Copy Power helps businesses develop powerful sales-driven copywriting.

“My #1 tip is to make sure you have a solid, attention-getting message.
“This doesn’t mean being click-bait-y, but you do HAVE to stand out online to even have a sliver of hope that someone will pay attention to you. People see thousands of messages online each day, but remember less than 20.
When you have solid copy in your marketing and on your website that gets and keeps attention, your chances of being remembered go up significantly, and you can more effectively build your base of future clients.”
Chelsea Baldwin

Ryan Robinson: “Invest in actually talking to real customers”

Ryan Robinson is a professional marketer, blogger, podcaster, and (recovering) side project addict that teaches 500,000 monthly readers how to start a blog and grow a profitable side business at ryrob.com.

“One of the most underrated ways to garner insights about who your target customers are (and thus strengthen your ability to effectively market to them), is meeting up with your customers—or would be customers who are on your email list, reading your blog or responding to social media ads.
“Whether meeting up in-person, over the phone or via Zoom, getting out of the office and meeting real customers, is a powerful way to get to know your audience on a much deeper level than usual.

You can find your target customers in places like conventions, seminars, local hobby groups, meetups and anywhere else enthusiasts for your industry get together.
“Strike up conversations, network and find out what really motivates them. Then, you can get back to the office and start translating your insights into actionable marketing campaigns that meet their needs on a more intimate level—and you’ll be that much more successful in showing your audience that you really understand them.”
Ryan Robinson

Preston Lee: “It’s not enough to make content anymore—you have to be great at it.”

Preston Lee has been a marketer all his life (from the first time he won an advertising contest in 3rd grade) and has built several successful businesses. Now, he and his team help freelancers get more clients by becoming better marketers and building their businesses the right way.

“Ten years ago (maybe even more) everyone was talking about content. ‘You have to create content.’ or ‘You should have a blog.’
Well, in today’s marketing landscape, it’s not enough to just make content anymore. Your content has to be the absolute best in order to make a meaningful impact on your business.

Sure, it’ll always be easier to write a half-hearted blog post or phone in the copy for your Facebook ad, or post that ‘just okay’ picture to your Instagram account because you feel like you have to.
Instead, take the road less traveled and make every single piece of content you publish WORTH publishing. The time and energy you invest will come back to you in spades in the form of attention and sales.
Soon you’ll be spinning your wheel less and crushing your sales goals more often.”
Preston Lee

Clay Mosley: “Double down on marketing all together”

Clay Mosley is a marketing expert and the founder of Dripify, The #1 online marketing training platform for service-based entrepreneurs. Clay and his team help entrepreneurs take control of their marketing and get real results. Everything they teach is 100% proven with positive ROI results.

“My #1 tip for 2021 is to double down on marketing altogether. That means effort and budget.
I believe that a lot of businesses will still be living in fear [following Covid] and will cut budgets, including their marketing budget. This is an opportunity for others to double down.
I think consumer spending is going to substantially increase to play “catch up” as a result of reduced spending during Covid.”
Clay Mosley

Bobby Macey: “Video is a must for 2021”

Bobby Macey is a social media expert and the founder of Macey Media, a content marketing agency creating impactful content at scale for their clients.

“If you aren’t taking video seriously, you ought to. According to Social Media Week, viewers claim they retain 95% of a message when obtained via video.
Start with simple opportunities like explainer videos or FAQs and turn them into one or multiple videos. Video will help you connect with your customers on an entirely new level.
Even if you don’t want to be in front of the camera, there are myriad ways to still tell your story, showcase your product, or provide value about your services via video.
Oh, and don’t tell me it’s too expensive, we live in a world where Fiverr and Canva can help you create videos for next to nothing… or you can work with a company like mine that specializes in brand storytelling.
The options are endless, but the principle remains — you need video in 2021!”
Bobby Macey

Morgan Nield: “Keep it Simple!”

Morgan Nield is a six-figure Etsy seller turned marketing and business coach who helps her clients turn their part-time hustle into a full-time dream (WITHOUT the full-time hours).

“Keeping it simple is the fastest way to grow your business (and, likewise, your revenue!).
Instead of trying to do #allthethings #allatonce, become known for that ONE thing that you sell to that ONE type of customer on that ONE marketing channel– and build your entire business around that simple business model.
Perfect that ONE product. Connect with that ONE customer type. Master that ONE marketing platform.
Stay laser-focused on keeping things simple and your sales will flourish. Add too much, too soon to your business and you’ll hit the burnout fan before you make that first sale (and confuse your customers along the way).
Diversifying your business before you’re ready is THE most detrimental (+ costly!) business decision you can make– so start simple and stay focused in those early days and beyond– your business (and your bank account!) will thank you.”
Morgan Nield

Eduard Klein: “Don’t get overwhelmed by the number of marketing tools”

Eduard Klein is a certified Digital Growth Marketer and Entrepreneur with a global mindset, who spends his time blogging and driving traffic for his businesses and his clients.

“Don’t get overwhelmed by the number of marketing tools and channels. You need to focus and concentrate on the channels that work for you.
Learn from startup growth hackers that built million-dollar companies out of small budgets. Do rapid experimentation with a small budget and test incrementally if there’s demand for your product or service. This is how you identify the most efficient way of growing your business without overspending”
-Eduard Klein

Vikas Kalwani: Perform & Track Experiments

Vikas Kalwani is a marketing consultant at the VC fund, 500 Startups and manages partnerships at uSERP where he and his team help their clients scale organic traffic through SEO & digital PR.

“As a small business, your most valuable resource is time and money. Spend your resources wisely on activities that generate results.
To identify these activities, perform experiments. Note that the result of the experiment should be measurable, and should have one variable parameter to further optimize the result.”
Vikas Kalwani

Erkki Muuga: Experiment with Webinars

Erkki is a professional marketer and founder of WebinarSoftware where he helps entrepreneurs generate sales by tapping into the power of webinars.

“With so much noise going on nowadays, it’s harder than ever to stand out from the sea of blogs, social media posts and apps. Attention is becoming such a fleeting and scarce resource, that companies and brands are bending over backwards and paying large sums to get just a slice of user attention.
One proven way to engage your visitors, prospects and users is by hosting webinars and offering upfront value. Hosting an industry-specific webinar attracts professionals from the same industry. They are most probably facing the same type of problem that your webinar is about. Hence, they come to you with a problem at mind already.
If you can prove yourself as an authority during a webinar session, and you can establish a trustworthy connection with your live audience, it becomes a lot easier to suggest a solution.
That solution can be your service, software or course. Engage with your visitors and users, offer upfront value and naturally suggest your solution, without appearing pushy.”
-Erkki Muuga

Alicja Olko: Leverage Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Alicja Olko works on the marketing team for ReferralCandy where she specializes in partnerships, link-building, on-page and off-page SEO and content marketing.

“Your existing clients are your biggest marketing asset. They can market your product, spreading a good word about it, advertising it basically for free.
It’s called the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Personal recommendations are one of the strongest forces driving sales for online businesses, especially considering the speed with which they can be shared via social media.”
-Alicja Olko

Cya Nam: “Incorporate Influencer marketing”

Cya Nam works on the marketing team at SocialPros, where they help you get more Instagram followers and drive organic engagement and traffic on your Instagram account.

“Make sure to incorporate Influencer Marketing into your digital marketing strategy. Working with influencers and using them to market your services and products is the most organic and effective method of generating traffic, leads, and sales.”
-Cya Nam

Next: Take action!

Of course, it’s not enough to simply read this advice from these marketing veterans. You have to put it into practice.

So start with something simple. One gem of an idea you’ve had as you’ve reviewed this list. And start small to test it out. Keep experimenting, tracking, learning and improving.

Over time, you’ll become a better marketer, build your customer base, and grow your sales!

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Wish you had a marketer in your back pocket to give you advice on small business marketing? Now you do. Read the 11 expert tips in our latest guide.

A 30-Minute Marketing Plan for Busy Small Business Owners

Tailwind Team on July 7, 2021

For many small business owners, marketing can feel overwhelming. You’re so busy delivering for your customers and clients or working with your employees that adding “marketing” as a regular task feels overwhelming.

That may be why some studies report almost “half of small businesses spend less than two hours per week on marketing efforts.”

There’s just never enough time in the day when you’re running your own small business!

But developing a marketing plan and executing effective marketing strategies doesn’t have to be a huge time or effort commitment. With the help of technology, you can literally

schedule your social media posts,
scale your email outreach,
and even have a smart AI bot write your marketing copy.

The tools are at your fingertips; all you need is a solid plan.

So today, I’m going to outline a 30-minute framework in which you can easily and simply create a marketing plan. This 30-minute plan should act as a spark to light the fuse that will ultimately take your business to the next level.

It’s not magic. It won’t solve all your problems on its own.

But it WILL get you over the hurdle of developing a marketing strategy in your small business. From there, you can add, adapt, improve, and leverage your plan to make the most of your marketing efforts.

Let’s dive in!

Why a marketing plan?

“Hold on just a minute,” you might be thinking. “Why do I even need an official marketing plan?”

Maybe you’ve been posting on Instagram or generating word-of-mouth customers for a while now and don’t think you need a marketing plan.

And I guess you might be right.

Sort of.

But what you’re missing out on if you don’t develop a marketing plan—even a simple one like I’ll lay out today—is the opportunity to predictably grow your business.

If you’re not 100% sure where your sales are coming from but you just know your current marketing activities are “working,” then what happens when an algorithm changes, or your audience changes, or your advertising channels get saturated?

Any of those changes could be catastrophic if you don’t know what’s working and what’s not when it comes to your marketing.

Not to mention all the time you’re spending on marketing when, according to the Pareto principle, probably about 20% of your actual efforts account for 80% of your sales.

When you build a plan, test what works, and identify what’s not working, you can easily cut out marketing activities that just aren’t delivering.

But if you don’t have a plan to brainstorm, test, analyze, and adapt, you’ll never get to the point that you can grow predictably.

Rethinking “marketing”

Before we get to the framework, I’d like to suggest a paradigm shift in how you think about marketing.

When we think of the word “marketing” most of us tend to think about tasks that are actually classified under “advertising.”

These tasks include: posting on social media, putting an ad on the radio or TV, printing flyers, or sending out text messages.

In reality, these actions are just one small part of “marketing” and are most effective when considered together with the other portions of what marketing is in reality.

So what is marketing then? To put it simply, marketing consists of three important phases:

Research & Audience Identification
Advertising & Promotion
Customer Experience & Satisfaction

Why am I telling you this?

The truth is: you’re probably spending more time on “marketing” than you think. For example, you’re doing marketing anytime you give a customer a positive experience with your company (increasing chances of high ratings or referrals and further business).

So as we go through the marketing plan today, keep in mind: there’s way more to marketing than just advertising your product to people who may want to buy it.

It’s much deeper than that.

In reality it’s about finding a “market” fit with your product or service and then providing the best possible solution to your target audience.

The 30-minute marketing plan

Okay, without any more lead-in, let’s get into the actual 30-minute marketing plan. If you follow this framework, you should be able to build a basic, yet impactful marketing plan in 30 minutes or less.

10 Minutes: Audience

You don’t even need a full-length, fancy audience breakdown – you just need an actionable marketing persona. To begin, take around 3 minutes each to provide 1-2 sentences answering all of the following questions:

1. Who is my target audience?

Think demographics like age, gender and income, but also psychographics like why they buy things, what they’re interested in, or daily behaviors.

2. What problem will I solve for my target audience?

Author Chris Guillebeau explains a good business idea lies in the convergence of things you’re interested in AND things people are willing to pay for.

3. Where does my target audience spend their time?

For example, are they heavy smartphone users? Or do they listen to the radio in their car more? Are they on Instagram or Pinterest? Etc. This will be extremely helpful in the next section.

10 Minutes: Sales

Next, take about 5 minutes each to answer the following questions in 1-2 sentences. The key here is not to get too far into the weeds.

4. How will I get my audience’s attention?

It helps to consider how you stand out from your competition and which media you can leverage to get your company in front of the right customers (see #3 above).

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5. How will I convert attention to lead generation or sales?

Attention is one thing, but actually getting someone to give their contact information or purchase what you’re selling is an entirely different matter.

5 Minutes: Advertising & Promotion

Then take 5 minutes to brainstorm some advertising promotion ideas. Focus on high-level ideas here and save the nitty-gritty for later. Remember, this is a foundation, not a to-do list.

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5 Minutes: Customer Experience

Finally take 2-3 minutes each to answer the following questions. Remember that some of your most important marketing has to do with the experience you give your customers since they can often lead to future business in the form of repeat sales or customer referrals and ratings.

6. How will I surprise & delight my customers?

As marketer Clay Mosley put it, simply offering good customer service isn’t enough anymore. That comes standard. Instead, identify how you can go above and beyond for your customers or clients.
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7. How will I generate referrals & encourage repeat business?

According to The Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. That’s why focusing on repeat business and generating referrals are critical to the future growth of your business.
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Repeat the process often

What’s great about having such a quick framework for your marketing is you don’t have to dread the idea of drafting up a new marketing plan for you or your team to follow.

Since it only takes 30 minutes, this is something you can revisit over and over again as your business grows, your product evolves, or your audience changes.

As you learn new things about your product or process, add them to the next iteration of your marketing plan.

Answering some common questions…

Because this was such a quick framework, you’re probably left asking a few questions. Below, allow me to answer some that I think you might have.

What about the tactics?

First, you might be asking: what about all the tactics? The day-to-day marketing “stuff” I have to do?

You’ve got a point. This marketing plan won’t work at all without a similar brainstorming session to address, in more detail, all the little things that need to happen in order to actually DO marketing.

But remember, this 30-minute plan isn’t about DOING, it’s about PLANNING. And far too many small business owners get caught up in the PLANNING too often and never actually get to the DOING.

By limiting the planning to 30 minutes (repeated every few weeks or months) you can spend more time actually executing on your marketing plan.

You may also want to subscribe to our blog for frequent marketing ideas for small businesses.

What if I don’t know all the answers?

Depending on where you are in your business, you may not have all the answers to the questions above.

In that case, your first time through it may take you more than 30 minutes.

If you don’t have a quick answer to a question, I suggest you not get hung up on it. Answer it the best you can and then revisit with any time you have left over. Some questions may help dislodge answers to previously difficult questions.

Some answers may require further investigation: such as where your audience spends their time or which technology you’ll use to capture leads.

You’ve got this!

The whole point of this marketing plan is to get some traction. Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You don’t have to spend half your working hours on it (unless you want to) and you don’t necessarily have to hire for it.

With this quick plan, you’ll have a framework in place to move forward and make real progress in your small business.

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Short on time but need to get a marketing plan down on paper? Complete these exercises in 30 minutes to build a foundation for your marketing strategy!

Getting to Know You: Creating Actionable Marketing Personas

Sheila on July 6, 2021

Let’s face it. When was the last time you really looked at your company marketing personas and actually used the information contained in them to create content from a different angle than the one you were going to take anyway? Never? Rarely?

Then why do we keep creating the same personas over and over again?

The answer is both simple and complex. Marketing personas are widely used and considered a staple for marketing. However, rarely are they referred to in day-to-day marketing practices. So what’s the disconnect – and what makes creating a marketing persona actionable?

The Persona Problem(s)

The issue with the way most marketers, especially small businesses, create personas is that they follow a template, one that has been passed on since the Tea Party in Boston was targeting who to invite. These template origins, of course, are lost in time.

We often start with demographics, and the data we gather is not bad. It might be great to know that Remote Working Rachel is 35, single, a digital nomad who often works on her tablet, shops at Whole Foods, and likes to test software with a free trial before she decides to make a purchase.

However, once she’s made a decision, she tends to be a loyal customer almost to a fault.

So what’s the problem? This data can often be too narrow and even potentially stereotyping.

Worse, it can even create bias about who you think your customers are, and in turn who your marketing is overwhelmingly geared to. And it may cause you to unintentionally exclude groups of people or demographics. We’ve seen this cause issues for large companies in the public eye.

That is the heart of the issue with personas as we know them. The information about them is certainly interesting, often well researched, but doesn’t lead to actions you can take as a company to improve your marketing. Even worse, the data may suggest actions that are not a priority and won’t really improve your bottom line.

Does this mean we should not develop marketing personas at all? Not in the least.

Instead, it means we need to do better. How do we do that? By starting with a different approach.

The Data We Need to Solve Problems

Rather than starting with a template of your customer base and working from there to solve their problems, instead ask yourself, “What marketing problems do we have that could be solved with more data about our potential customer?”

By starting this way, you are intentionally looking for actionable data. This might look like this:

Determining the problems that data about our customers can solve for our team or our clients
Deciding how to structure that data
Determining what elements of a persona are needed to assist in a solution to the problem we are trying to solve

Ask yourself about the data you’re collecting, and what impact it makes on your marketing. How important is the age of your target persona? Does it matter if they are male or female? What about income level, social media profiles, and other data? Does it matter that you target persona is imaginative, organized, and prefers easy-to-use software that is intuitive and simple to learn?

This information may be really helpful, and you should consider it. However, you should also question what problem you are really solving.

Was your company planning to make hard-to-use, less-than-intuitive software before you read this?

Does this give you a better idea of how to market your software to Remote Working Rachel?

Maybe it does, but your personas can, and should be better. So how do you take the simple steps listed above and put them into action?

The Revised Persona Process

First, what we are really talking about here is doing less, but more meaningful work when it comes to personas. It’s not that we want less data, we just want better data! How do we get started?

Determine the data you, your team, or your client needs to solve a particular problem.

Example: You are selling B2B software that helps remote workers track their time and stay on task. Your ideal target customer is a freelancer or contractor, not an employee who uses their company-provided software.

What do you need to know about this customer? Some thought-starters: Where do these customers find information about new software, and what motivates them to buy?

Your persona might be simpler than you think. If you look at your target group, you may find they do more idea discovery on Instagram, only use Facebook for personal enjoyment, not work, and trust their peers and certain key websites in their niche when it comes to software recommendations.

Going deeper, you can look at what hashtags and topics they follow, what groups they are members of, and what key influencers they admire.

You might find interesting information. For example, you will learn that 59% of freelancers are male, and that most specialize in either web or app development or SEO and content writing tasks.

This leads us to the next important question though: how do you know this data is accurate?

Document the Source and the Accuracy of the Data You Have Gathered

No one is looking for your WAG when it comes to potential customers. Untargeted or mistargeted marketing is perhaps the largest source of waste in the industry, which likely motivated your boss to commission the persona creation in the first place.

So make sure your data is accurate. Whether you gather data from census and government data, industry or academic studies, or through original research, document where and how you got it. When you narrow your focus to more meaningful data, this is especially important, because then your organization (and you) can have confidence in the information you provided. Not to mention that it is also more actionable, and in many cases less specific.

And trust me, there is a reason it likely shouldn’t be.

Be Sure Your Data is Wide-Reaching Enough to Represent the Range of Customers Contained in the Persona

The problem with Remote Worker Rachel is that some things we may discover about her not only don’t matter but might limit our marketing efforts by creating a bias or an unconscious exclusion of groups who may actually purchase your product.

Instead, a persona with a wider breadth but more meaningful detail gives you actionable target audiences, something you can use to influence your ad campaigns.

Don’t Segment Data Unless You Need To

Unless you need to market to a particular group or demographic don’t segment your persona. Do you need to market differently to female freelancers? Are your current efforts not attracting those buyers? Do you need to segment by age, or simply by platform?

The point is to only segment when the data you need to solve a particular problem dictates it.

It may be enough to know that freelancers are primarily between the ages of 24-40, have an average income of $40-60K per year, and spend $1500 a year on average on software. Knowing where and how they buy should complete the data you need.

Of course, this will vary by industry, but as a general rule, segments should only be created when the needs of that segment are different enough for you to run campaigns only aimed at that group of potential customers.

Creating the Ultimate Persona

So if the old templates are out of date, if we shouldn’t use them, what should we use? The answer is as individual as the personas you create for your company. Once you determine the data you need, you can use almost any tool to create a persona template. From Google Docs to Word, Google Sheets, or excel, you can use whatever tools you are comfortable with.

You may also find some online templates that are editable enough for you to create a format that will work for you.

Hubspot has one that some industries may find useful, and you can delete categories, create new ones, and add the attributes that matter to you.

These can also give you a baseline of data and questions to answer. Developing your own template really involves the steps we have already talked about.

Determine the data you need.
Establish a format for that data.
Set up a mechanism to document the source or sources of your data.
Gather that data and fill in your persona template.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle you will face is creating buy-in for a new method of developing a marketing persona. Entrenched in the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality, it can be hard to break your supervisor and even your peers out of that way of thinking.

However, you may be able to approach it like this: if you are using more effective and efficient methods of creating an actionable persona, and your competition is doing it the way it has always been done, you will have an edge. And that edge, once you can prove the difference it makes, is the proof you need to change the mind of the doubters.

Once you are ready to take your digital marketing to the next level, check out the Tailwind app. It’s the social media scheduler that takes your digital marketing to the next level, keeping you in touch with the persona you have so carefully developed and cultivated, even when you are away from your phone or your computer.

Get started with your FREE trial today and see what Tailwind can do for you!

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Hundreds of marketing persona templates are out there - but are they actionable? Learn the data to collect, and what you can leave out in our guide.

Which Social Media Platform is Best for My Business?

Tara Jacobsen on July 2, 2021

The same image of a woman in sunglasses smiling in the sun on a rooftop in a Facebook post, Pinterest post and Instagram post

In today’s super-connected world, social media is a necessary part of any good marketing plan. However, trying to maintain a presence on all of the available platforms is a recipe for failure. Not only is this sure to leave you feeling overwhelmed, but if you spread yourself too thin, you’ll miss the opportunity to make true connections with your followers.

Instead of trying to be everywhere at once, it pays to be strategic with your social media strategy. To get the best results, it’s important to understand where your target audience spends their time and make sure you have a presence there.

Ideally, you’ll want to choose one or two platforms and commit to going all-in on them. The right social media platforms for your business will depend on a number of factors, including the type of content you produce and the demographics of your ideal audience. Here’s a closer look at the pros and cons of some of the most popular social media platforms!

Facebook

As the largest and most popular social media platform in the world, Facebook currently has more than 2.85 billion monthly active users. Not only does this platform have a huge following, but their audience is also very active. In fact, 66% of users log in at least once a day.

Due to the amount of traffic alone, being active on Facebook is a good idea for most businesses. It will allow you to connect with a diverse audience and interact with your followers in a way that builds trust.

Even if you choose to spend the bulk of your time on another platform, you’ll want to ensure you have a fully completed Facebook profile.

The About Me section of Create & Cultivate's Facebook Page

When vetting companies, users often turn to Facebook after Google, so it’s important to make sure your “about” section is completed and your contact information and business hours are accurate.

Also be sure to respond to reviews (both positive and negative), as this is an indication of how your company interacts with its customers.

Facebook is also an excellent platform for paid advertising. The ability to target a super-specific audience allows you to optimize your advertising dollars. Many companies also take advantage of Facebook Messenger, as this allows for easy, private communication with followers and potential customers.

Despite the many benefits, however, there are some potential drawbacks. For example, Facebook has strict advertising rules and uses algorithms to flag posts and ads that may be in violation. This can result in you having your account temporarily suspended or shut down – even if you haven’t done anything wrong.

In addition, Facebook’s algorithm changes have made it very difficult to reach new followers organically. This means you’ll need to be willing to commit at least a portion of your budget to paid ads if you want to grow your audience here.

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Instagram

With over 1.2 billion active users, Instagram is another popular social media platform for business owners.

This platform is a great option for those looking to reach a younger demographic. More than half of Instagram users around the globe are age 34 or younger.

It’s also the third most popular platform among teens – after Snapchat and TikTok.

Instagram users are quite active, with 62% logging on daily. Commercial posts are common on this platform and users often use Instagram to follow companies they love or find new products and services.

Instagram is an excellent option for businesses that are comfortable telling their stories on a visual platform and those who want to appeal to a young, “hip” crowd. If your target audience is older, this might not be the right platform for you. Only 14% of Instagram’s users are over the age of 45, and 14% of U.S. adults say they have never heard of it.

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Part social media platform and part search engine, Pinterest has over 478 million actively monthly users.

This platform is often used by those who are looking for ideas and inspiration.

Pinterest users used to be predominately female. However, today, it’s about a 60/40 split. User demographics are also getting younger.

Currently, 35% of users are millennials while 40% fall into the Gen Z age range. In addition, 45% of people in the United States with a household income of over $100k are Pinterest users.

If this fits your target demographic, creating a presence on this platform may be well worth your time. A third of users on Pinterest say they follow companies on the platform and 77% of users have used the platform to discover new products.

To be successful on Pinterest, you’ll need to consistently create content that is both visually appealing and highly sharable. Some of the most popular things to pin include how-to tutorials, inspirational quotes, recipes, and similar content. If you’re in an industry like fitness, travel, design, or photography, you’ll want to consider including Pinterest in your marketing strategy.

Twitter

Known for content that’s short and to the point, Twitter is popular among younger adults.

Approximately 38% of users are between the ages of 18 and 29 and another 26% are in the 30 to 49 age range. This platform has 340 million users worldwide and 186 million daily active users.

Affluent individuals tend to be attracted to this platform – 77% of Americans who earn $75k or more per year are active Twitter users.

Some business owners prefer this platform because they don’t have to spend a lot of time creating visually appealing graphics.

Instead, you can focus on crafting sharp, concise messages that get your point across in an interesting way. However, studies also show that Twitter users get 10-times more engagement on Tweets that include video.

In addition, Tweets with GIFs get 55% more engagement than those without.

If you’re going to have a presence on Twitter, it’s critical to remain active and respond quickly. Since 85% of small and medium-sized businesses use Twitter to provide customer service, it’s common for users to take to the platform to vent about poor user experiences. Statistics also show that Twitter users are 38% more likely to share their opinions about products and brands than other social media users.

Long known as the platform for professionals, LinkedIn has 310 million monthly active users and over 171 million users in the United States. While this is a significantly smaller platform, some businesses find that this is an advantage. Since there’s not as much competition, it’s easier to have your content show up in newsfeeds without having to invest in paid ads.

Most of the users on this platform are focused on business and employment. This makes LinkedIn a good option for users who want to connect with decision-makers in the B2B space. While it’s rarely used for online shopping or entertainment, if you’re looking for a platform to network or connect with potential business partners, then LinkedIn could be a good option for you.

YouTube

YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users and 30 million daily active users. A whopping 73% of adults in the United States use this platform and 62% of businesses have a presence here. It’s also the second-most visited site, behind Google, and is the world’s second-largest search engine.

Maintaining a YouTube presence will allow you to reach a large and broad audience. Since video is the preferred format for most online users, you may feel like this platform is a necessity for your business.

However, it’s important to note that while being on YouTube can bring many benefits, consistently creating high-quality videos requires both financial and time commitments.

A screenshot of Create & Cultivate's Youtube video

Snapchat

Popular among the younger crowd, Snapchat reaches 75% of the millennial and Gen Z population in the United States. It’s also the second most popular mobile app, and users typically open it 30 times or more each day.

Businesses can advertise on Snapchat in several ways, including traditional ads, geotags, and branded lenses or filters. Before you invest any time or money into this platform, though, you’ll want to make sure it’s right for your target audience. Approximately 48% of users are between the ages of 15 and 25, 30% are between 26 and 35, and only 18% are between 36 and 45. If you’re focusing on an older demographic, this likely won’t be the right platform for you.

TikTok

One of the newest players in the field, TikTok has approximately 80 million monthly active users in the United States. Of them, 60% are between the ages of 16 and 24 and 26% are between 25 and 44.

If this is your target demographic and you’re interested in creating fun and unique video content, you may want to experiment with this platform. For the right business, TikTok can be an excellent way to increase engagement, grow your audience, and drive traffic to your site.

Creating videos on TikTok allows you to represent your brand in an authentic, hip, and creative way. However, it’s easy to go too far. Remember that it only takes one small misstep to damage your brand’s reputation, so keep this in mind as you brainstorm your content.

Simplify Your Social Media

Using the information above, you should be able to choose one or two primary platforms for your business. Once you’ve made your decision, spend some time getting to know your audience and crafting a message that truly speaks to them.

Then, begin planning and scheduling your posts in blocks, so you’re always at least a few days ahead. Not only will this help ensure you’re posting consistently, but it will also save you time so you can focus on engaging with your followers.

Are you ready to simplify your social media marketing? Let us show you all the ways Tailwind can help!

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5 Must-Know Basics for Marketing Your Business Online

Morgan Day on June 24, 2021

Let’s face it. You can no longer be truly competitive in business if you are not found online in some way, shape, or form. According to Lyfe Marketing, a good 77.6% of small biz owners today are marketing their brands using social media.

Plus, with the accessibility of so many helpful and easy-to-use tools right at your fingertips, there’s really no reason not to be going digital with your marketing strategies.

Yes, there’s an argument to be made that digital marketing can seem impersonal. But as with anything, it’s all about what you make of it. Plenty of brands are connecting with their customers on a human level and using social media and digital marketing tools with massive success, without sacrificing authenticity or that personal touch.

However, we get it. If you’re new to digital marketing, you might be feeling somewhat overwhelmed, and may be wondering where to start. The good news is that you don’t need much! You just need to have a willingness to do the work involved––or hire someone savvy to help you––and be consistent. When you do, only good things will follow!

You Need a Mobile-Friendly Website

Honestly, if you don’t yet have a website, your business is probably suffering and you may not even know it.

The first place people go to look nowadays when searching for a product or service is not the phone book, but Google.

You can’t come up in Google search results without a website.

Sure, you can create profiles on third-party sites and hope you’ll be found that way, but the reality is that though people might find you, if they don’t also find your own website, they may not bother reaching out to do business with you. It’s a trust thing.

In many ways a website ‘legitimizes’ your company. It’s sort of like your face when you first meet someone.

It’s an opportunity to give a great first impression to people who are looking for something only you can provide. It also serves as a home base for all of your inbound marketing campaigns you will eventually begin to engage in.

It’s the place where people will land and click to learn more about your business, put a face to the brand, contact you with questions, and find out important information about your products or services.

It’s also key to have a website that’s attractive, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly, because the majority of people who will be looking for a brand like yours, will probably be looking on a mobile device. Websites that aren’t optimized for mobile are often ugly and clunky and end up turning away visitors instead of drawing them in. That’s obviously counter-productive, so… don’t do that!

There are multiple website builder options that are relatively easy to master that allow you to create a simple, professional looking site with comparatively little time and effort required, that are both attractive and mobile-friendly. If you’re truly struggling, ask your favorite techie friend to help you out. It’s a sure bet they probably know them all!

You Need to Be On Social Media––Somewhere!

Don’t feel like you need to be ‘everywhere’ when first starting out. With that said, you should in fact be somewhere. There are many social media sites, but not all are created equal. Spend your time wisely and choose the platforms that will be most beneficial to your business.

It’s a great idea to choose two or three platforms to start with, and then from there, you can spread out as you get more comfortable marketing yourself online.

If you want to create place holders on other platforms, create well-rounded profiles on them that all point back to your website, but don’t worry about being active on them. Focus your activity on your top three until you’ve established yourself and gained some traction.

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest are some of the most well-known platforms to start with, but there are others as well that may work better for your business.

Research before you dive in and then select the ones that offer the most promise in helping you grow your brand.

You Need an Email Newsletter

This one is sort of like the difference between renting a home and owning a home. Third-party platforms can be great for connecting with your target market, and they do serve their purpose.

However, just like owning your own website, there’s nothing better than also owning your own email list. When you can funnel your leads into your email list, you then have the opportunity to build a relationship with them that is consistent and long-term––at least for as long as they remain subscribed. Offer valuable content and don’t SPAM them and they’ll probably stick around longer than you might think.

The beauty of an email list is you then have more opportunities to market to them instead of just one shot. It’s also more personal, allowing you to connect with someone directly if you choose to reply to emails personally.

With social media platforms and other third-party sites, you’re essentially like the proverbial renter, and you do not own that real estate. That means it can be taken from you at any time.

If you go through all that effort to build a large platform and connect with a lot of people, don’t you think it’s much better to have full control of that platform? Otherwise you could lose all you’ve built without warning, with little to no say-so, and have zero ability to recover from it.

You Need a Modest Marketing Budget

This doesn’t have to be huge and scary. You can start small. You’ll need to pay for hosting for your website, and hosting for your email newsletter.

Beyond that you’ll also want to spend a little on targeted ads via your chosen social media platforms, to build awareness of your brand and content and to start funneling people back to your website. Ideally when they land on your website, you’ll prompt them to sign up for your email list so you can continue to market to them.

You Need Content

Speaking of content, it’s what makes the inter-webs world go round, so you can’t succeed online without it. It can either be carefully curated content that others create or your own content that you create. Alternatively, it can be content that you hire someone to create for you.

Keep in mind that if you choose to hire it out, you’ll want to factor that into your marketing budget. If you opt to curate content from others, that can be helpful to a degree, but eventually you’ll have to graduate into creating your own content to really reap the rewards of effective content marketing.

Types of Content

Content can be anything, really. You can share written content like blog posts and articles––much like this one––or white papers, product reviews, case studies, ebooks, and more.

Some business owners don’t like to write but opt to hire writers to help produce content. Again, any freelance fees you pay to have content written or produced for you should be factored into your marketing budget.

If you’re not a fan of the written word, you might discover that creating audio content in the form of podcasts is more your speed. The beauty of podcasts is that not only can you publish them on your site, you can also publish them on podcasting platforms like iTunes Podcast and Spotify, and leverage those platforms for your benefit.

Tied along with creating audio content is creating video content. Videos can be turned into podcasts, but they aren’t limited to just that. You can use video in a variety of ways, both in long-form and short-form clips that you can share across social platforms like YouTube, Instagram, BitChute, Tik Tok, Facebook, and more.

Photos and memes are also popular forms of content that have their place in business and marketing. It’s all about how you use them.

There’s an old saying in the internet marketing world that ‘content is king’. This saying is still true even today. There’s a lot more noise these days, but cream always rises to the top.

Always strive to produce content that is the greatest you’re capable of and put your best foot forward. Excellent content can position you strategically as an expert in your industry and as a result, people will seek you out to work with them, instead of you chasing people down and asking them to work with you.

Of course, content isn’t just limited to shop talk. It’s also a great way to reveal more about you, the person behind the brand. That might be in the form of content related to something you’re passionate about, or content you find funny or relatable. Not everything has to be all biz all the time.

That’s the true beauty of digital marketing. Your job is to offer something they want or need and share kick butt, insanely useful content.

Soon, people will begin to feel as though they know you through your content. And when people come to know you, like you, and trust you, they then naturally want to do business with you.

And there you have it. Marketing online in a nutshell. Now go be great!

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If you're just getting started with marketing your business online, it helps to know the basics. Here are five things to know to shape your strategy!

How to Market Your Small Business on Social Media

Stephen Siu on June 18, 2021

The same image of a couch and bookshelf styled for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook

More often than not, you probably find yourself wasting hours scrolling through your social media feeds. You’re definitely not alone in this!

In fact, there are over 3.8 billion people who spend 2 hours daily doing the exact same thing. And if you draw back and think about how many brands and businesses you are exposed to while you are scrolling mindlessly, you’ll realize that you have an opportunity as a small business or brand to be getting in front of all those people doing the same thing, too!

Although that doesn’t sound like much, those 2 hours offer the perfect opportunity to build brand awareness and connect with customers.

And luckily for you, this guide will drop some neat tips on how to properly harness social media for marketing. Let’s go!

Establishing an Online Presence

At its core, marketing is all about building a potential customer’s trust in both you and your products. Without establishing a presence online, it will be difficult to invoke that kind of trust right off the bat. The best thing you can do is establishing a concrete online presence, and continually build it up.

1. Use a Variety of Platforms

With so many different social media platforms out there, why limit yourself to one? Not only will doing so hinder your ability to use many different mediums, but it can also reduce your reach.

Moreover, social media plays a key role in search engines. Often these platforms have incredibly high page ranks and thus they are invaluable for SEO. As a result, using multiple platforms will greatly increase your discoverability.

However, having noted that, it’s still important to keep your target audience in mind when choosing which platform to use. If your business focuses on B2B marketing, then a Gen Z dominated platform like Snapchat is most likely not the best option.

Instead, something like LinkedIn would be the more suitable platform for your material. After all, you don’t want to spend lots of time and money on content that your target audience won’t even see!

Creating great social content for multiple platforms is easier than you think; especially when you use Tailwind Create! In one click, you’ll have hundreds of unique designs personalized to your brand color palette, font choices and logo to choose from for all of your favorite platforms. And when you find the perfect design, you can schedule and publish it just as quickly. Take a look!

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2. Ensure Your Profiles Are Properly Filled In

At this point, you should now have chosen your social media platforms. Great! But now you need to attract people to them.

Nothing attracts people more than a well-crafted profile. To make sure you’re keeping your profiles up to date and filled out in entirely, regularly audit your social media.

During every check, ensure that you’ve filled out all sections with the relevant information. Make sure that all of your links are functional and serve a clear purpose.

As small as these things may seem, doing them can be an absolute game-changer. Before people even learn about your products, they’ll want to know about you. So, make it easy for them!

For some potential customers, your profile will be the first form of contact they’ll make with you. Ultimately, making a good first impression with your profile could secure you many future sales.

3. Utilize Cross-Platform Promoting

Now, you’ll want to cross promote your different profiles.

Each post you make will only have a certain amount of time before it’s drowned in the stream of incoming content. In that timeframe, you want the maximum number of people to see it!

Unfortunately, any followers you have on a different platform, will likely miss it. As such, drawing your followers across platforms is imperative.

To cross promote your different platforms, include links to your other profiles in all of your bios. Wherever possible, you should also add these links to your posts or even briefly mention them in any videos you make.

For a more direct reminder, a call to action reminding your followers of your other pages can be great.

On profiles you only have one link on, like Instagram, use a link in bio tool like Smart.bio! You can add links to all your social media profiles in buttons at the top, and display the links from your Instagram feed below!

Encouraging Social Engagement

Once you’ve established a presence online, it’s time to start engaging with potential customers online. Below, we’ll show you how.

1. Implement an Editorial Calendar

It goes without saying, but you should be proud of the posts you put up. After all, they serve as an extension of your business’ brand. In your followers’ minds, the quality of your posts is a direct reflection of the quality of your services!

With that in mind, you want your content to be of the highest possible quality. For example, remember, your followers will only retweet posts on Twitter they find engaging. And these retweets can act as a recommendation to other potential customers. As such, scrambling at the last minute to create posts is a definite no-no.

One easy way to avoid this is by implementing a content marketing plan, that you can organize into an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar will give you room to plan and evaluate your post ideas. As a result, you can be sure you’re only putting out the best.

Editorial calendars can also help you post just the right amount. Should you post too little, people will quickly lose interest in your brand. Conversely, posting too often can be perceived as spam by your followers. With the calendar, you’ll be sure to hit the sweet spot each time using the analytics and insights from your social media platforms.

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2. Make Use of Hashtags

Hashtags are another social engagement wonder. On social media, hashtags are your best friends.

By plugging you right into the internet’s hive mind, they can be an invaluable tool for both visibility and follower engagement.

For example, event hashtags can be a great way to drum up excitement about new product releases or promotions.

This excitement can translate into user interactions which will drum up even more excitement.

Yay! The perfect hashtag should be unique but easily remembered.

Most importantly, try to get others involved if possible. When creating trending tags, every little bit helps.

a view of the #ccinsider hashtag feed on Instagram

3. Allow Other People to Do the Talking

Having great content is important, but not all of it needs to come from you. Sometimes, it’s best to let others do the talking for you!

Resharing others’ posts can be a great way to build a rapport with your followers. When you reshare useful posts from brands you respect or even your own community with your followers, you become a trusted source of information.

This can lend itself well to building a relationship with potential customers.

Before you repost something, carefully consider whether it will interest and enrich your audience. If not, it probably doesn’t need to be reposted.

Another thing to bear in mind is that many people use social media on mobile. Due to the size of the average mobile screen, users will likely only be able to see your most recent 2 or 3 posts.

You don’t want these all to be reposts as your followers should also see that YOU can provide useful content. Try to interspace reposts with original content.

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A post shared by BarkBox (@barkbox)

Driving Sales and Promoting Products

Okay, you’ve gotten all that social engagement. Now. what? At the end of the day, what you really want to do is convert all those likes and shares into sales and brand recognition. In this section, we’ll tell you just how to do that.

1. Share Socials-Only Promotional Codes

Even though creating content is great for engagement, you need something that will convert those page views into sales. This is where promotional codes come in. Promotional codes provide a call to action that can catalyze potential customers into becoming actual ones.

Beyond that, promotional codes can also provide you with access to a wider range of social networks. Every time your followers share your promotional posts, your brand will pop up in front of all their contacts. In this way, you can stimulate new business with minimal effort.

Spend some time creating an online coupon strategy. As you do, try to make sure that your offers are compelling and create a sense of urgency. Some level of customization will also go a long way in promoting brand loyalty.

Who doesn’t love a birthday discount? At the same time, though, try not to offer too many deals. You don’t want consumers waiting until the next promotion to make a purchase.

2. Highlight New Products

Unless consumers know that you have something they want, they’re unlikely to purchase from you.

Even discount codes won’t make people purchase what they don’t know exists!

Showcasing your new products on your social media pages will give your consumers a better understanding of what you have to offer.

Remember, the more information your followers can ascertain about something, the more confident they will feel about buying it.

Aside from that, new products are also quite exciting. If your followers know that you’re continuously changing your catalog, they’ll check up on your pages often.

For many people, there is a sense of novelty regarding new products.

3. Use Targeted Ads

Highlighting your products can be helpful, but if they aren’t landing in front of people who want them, your sales won’t improve.

When you use targeted ads, you are increasing the likelihood that your products will meet someone who is interested in them. Plus, they can also be a great way to extend your reach.

Properly targeting your ads can save you money and increase your clicks. So, take time to carefully match demographics and interests with your products.

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Launch Your Business to Success!

Congrats! You’ve made it to the end of this guide. Hopefully, you’ve been equipped with all the tools you need to properly begin marketing your small business on social media.

Even better, Tailwind can give you a headstart with all this. From creating beautiful designs for all of your social media platforms to scheduling and publishing in just a few clicks, Tailwind is your Smart Marketing Assistant that frees you up to do more in less time. Take a look!

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Marketing your small business on social media can be daunting when you're just starting out. Here are key things to do as you get started!

10 Reasons Your Content Marketing Plan Isn’t Working

Tara Jacobsen on June 14, 2021

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Content marketing has earned a reputation as one of the most effective and least expensive ways to grow your business. Done correctly, a content marketing plan can improve your SEO rankings, establish industry authority, and help you attract new customers. However, if you’re spending countless hours on content marketing and aren’t seeing results, you’re not alone!

While most experts will tell you how important this is for your business, there’s often a disconnect between what marketers are doing and what actually works. The good news is, once you understand what you’re doing wrong, it’s fairly easy to fix.

Before you give up, make sure you’re not making one of these critical content marketing mistakes!

1. You Don’t Have a Content Calendar

Are you the type of blogger who fires off a post whenever the mood strikes? While there’s nothing wrong with writing the occasional inspired blog post, not having a solid plan for what you’re writing and why will almost always lead to sub-par performance.

Creating a content calendar will help you clarify your overall brand message. It will also allow you to think through the topics you want to cover, so you can make sure they’re both valuable and relevant to your target audience.

Planning out your calendar at least three months at a time will prevent you from scrambling for an idea at the last minute and makes it less likely you’ll skip a post just because you’re short on time.

It will also allow you to use your blog posts to support upcoming launches and promotions, so you can make the most out of your traffic and engagement.

Plus, when you get your content calendar under control, you can also get your social media marketing strategy under control at the same time. You can schedule Instagram posts, Pinterest Pins, or Facebook Stories to support your content or an upcoming promotion in advance. And it’s easier than ever with Tailwind, where you can create unique social media designs personalized to your brand in one click – and schedule to your accounts in one more!

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2. You’re Not Taking Action

Having a content plan is important, but if you’re not following through, you’re missing the boat. Maybe you’ve found that you simply don’t have time to keep up with the plan you’ve designed.

Or, maybe you’re not quite confident in your writing or designing skills. This can cause you to have a mini panic attack every time you get ready to hit that “publish” button.

Once you’ve figured out what’s keeping you from taking action, you’re one step closer to fixing it. Sometimes, it’s as easy as setting aside a specific time each week to work on your content or finding the right program to help you streamline your process.

If this doesn’t help, you may want to consider hiring a professional to take care of your content creation for you!

3. You’re Not Being Consistent

A lack of consistency is another common problem among content creators. If you put out content sporadically, you’ll have a hard time building a loyal audience. Even if they love what you’re creating, if you frequently disappear, there’s a good chance they won’t be there waiting when you return.

The ideal number of times you should publish content each month depends on a number of factors. However, the most important thing you can do is stick to a schedule. Choose a frequency you’re comfortable with and commit to it. You can always adjust your frequency after a few months of figuring out whether it works for you!

4. You Haven’t Connected with Your Audience

If you’re consistently putting out great articles but you’re still not getting results, you may not be connecting with your audience. No matter how good your content is, if the audience doesn’t care, you’re just wasting your time.

There’s a good chance you’ve spent some time learning about basic demographics for your target audience. You may have even created a buyer persona. However, this isn’t quite enough. To truly connect with your audience, you’ll need to get inside their heads.

Consider sending out surveys and conducting interviews over the phone and in person. You can also use social media platforms to learn more about your audiences’ personal challenges and the problems they face. Once you have this information, begin crafting your content around providing solutions to these problems. This is the key to creating content that’s both valuable and sharable.

5. You’re Not Promoting Your Content

Many content creators forget that their job isn’t done after they click “publish.” If you’re not already spending the bulk of your time promoting the content you create, this could be the most effective change you make.

As a general rule, you should be spending about 20% of your time creating content and 80% promoting it. After all, it’s called content marketing, not content creating.

You can easily increase your audience by sending your content out to your email marketing list. Find creative ways to share your content multiple times on your social media platforms and consider reaching out to industry influencers who may be willing to share your content with their audiences as well.

Repurposing your content will save time and help you create more engagement. For example, you may be able to turn a podcast into a blog post, then break up the blog into multiple social media posts, infographics, and short video clips. Once you’ve done this, you can give your podcast new life by marketing each of the new pieces of content you’ve created!

6. You’ve Neglected Your SEO

Nobody likes content that’s awkwardly stuffed with keywords. However, if you’re not paying attention to SEO at all, there’s a good chance nobody will ever see your content.

Spend some time doing keyword research and use SEO best practices to help your content organically rank on search engines and algorithms. Not only does SEO help you get discovered on internet search engines like Google, but Pinterest SEO can help your content get discovered on Pinterest! Likewise, relevant hashtags on Instagram help you get your content seen by new audiences interested in seeing more!

7. Your Posts are Too Pushy

Nobody likes a hard sell! Make sure your content isn’t too pushy or you’ll turn your followers off.

Instead of worrying about over-selling your products or services, focus on creating content that will help people solve problems or enrich their lives. This is the best way to build trust and credibility while also ensuring your audience will keep coming back for more.

8. You’re Not Asking for What You Want

While you definitely don’t want to be too pushy, if you’re not asking for what you want, you’ll never get it. Valuable content goes a long way toward establishing trust and credibility. Adding a call-to-action (CTA) gives you a chance to give yourself a plug without the hard sale.

After consuming a piece of content, readers want to know what they should do next. If you don’t tell them, they’ll just click away and move on to the next site. These lost opportunities can turn a great content plan into a complete waste of time.

9. You’re Up Against a Huge Competitor

Depending on your industry, you may have entered an extremely competitive landscape. It’s not easy for a fairly new content creator to go up against a huge company with a major marketing budget. However, it’s not impossible.

One of the worst things you can do is give up just because you’re facing a challenge. Instead, keep producing content and focus your attention on building a small but loyal fan base. When it comes to your audience, size doesn’t always matter! It’s often better to have an engaged and devoted group of followers than a large audience that doesn’t really care. Keep cultivating your true fans, and you’ll start to see results.

You can also spend some time carefully examining your competitors’ content. The purpose here is not to copy them, but to find some gaps in what they’re providing. Look for any forms of content that are missing or topics they’re not covering well. You can then use these gaps as opportunities to make your own content shine.

10. Your Expectations are Too High

If you’re just getting started with your content marketing efforts, you may be expecting too much, too soon. Remember, content marketing isn’t a “get-rich-quick” scheme. Instead, it’s a long-term investment. It generally takes a minimum of three to six months before a content strategy starts to get traction. You can’t expect to put out a few pieces and suddenly see a huge increase in the number of subscribers and conversions.

When measuring the return-on-investment for your content strategy, it’s important not to expect overnight success. Instead, pay attention to gradual improvements that will continue to add up over time.

Step Up Your Content Marketing Today!

If your content marketing isn’t giving you the results you’re looking for, don’t give up! There are many reasons you could be having problems. However, paying attention to the ten critical mistakes listed above will significantly increase your chances of success.

Begin by making sure you have a solid plan, connecting with your audience, and staying consistent. Once you’ve got that down, make sure you’re marketing your content like crazy, paying attention to SEO, and providing clear calls-to-action. As long as you’re producing valuable content that your audience craves, your efforts will soon pay off.

And Tailwind can help! You can start from almost done with social media designs, selecting from hundreds of unique designs for your favorite platforms personalized to your brand with one click of a button. You can then schedule your social media designs, adding thoughtful captions, CTAs, hashtags and even links to your content. Finally, schedule your posts to go out at the best time on your chosen dates. It’s even easier than it sounds – try it out today!

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