Hello, I am pleased to be working with you to help your business navigate in the digital world. I would like to give you a few tips to make your digital experience easier and to look professional with or without my help.
Expectations
A Digital Marketer’s services vary and what they do and offer in terms of their own services can change. They will usually have their own price packages that they offer in terms of their abilities. A Digital Marketer is not going to make your business flourish without the owners help and or guidance and is not responsible for a business failure. We are here to perform a service that can with the owner’s help can help the business be noticed and perform better in the online digital world.
Communication
This means between your Digital Marketer and you. At first you will need to have a consultation and meet regular either in person, video conference or on the phone. This will reduce gradually as things get set up to to weekly or monthly.
Please consider the fact that it takes time to set things up for regular maintenance. Posting on social media are done on a scheduled basis so please don’t expect instant results and realize a Marketer has other clients. If you send a request in the evening it will usually get done the next day.
Photo’s can be sent via email or Facebook messenger not text. A Marketer cannot be everywhere you are, so it is your job (the business owner) to send photos and short videos. I do offer a service to come to your business and take photos and videos for your introduction video and high-quality photos of your products but that is an individual service that most Marketer’s do not offer.
If you want to do more on your own but need a little help, then please ask me as most Digital Marketers would gladly help by tutoring or giving you short info sessions.
A Bit About Branding
This includes your logo, business name, color scheme, and swag. This can be changed as your business evolves. But keep your color scheme and logo visible where at all possible, including using the same fonts and colors in your social media if you post to your own Facebook page.
I can work with you to design business cards, t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, pens, and more. I send the design to the printer then have them print it out and send it back. Or you can take the design to the printer of your choice. Not all Marketers are Graphic Artists and may suggest elsewhere to get that service done.
People should recognize your style and your logo that stands out from other businesses when you use the same style, font, and colors.
Social Media
Social Media isn’t always about selling, it is usually a 75/25 split. 75% of the time it is a social platform and the 25% is the selling part. Try quotes, and information about your products or services. Try being funny or offer information.
You can decide to sell directly from your social media account which usually directs people to your website for purchases.
Posting can include video’s, photo’s, meme’s, information, tips, introductions, and more.
When you are posting on your own page it is important to have proper grammar and punctuation.
- Use capital letters for places like Port McNeill and Port Hardy.
- Use capital letters for people’s names.
- Use periods at the end of sentences and start each sentence with a capital letter.
- Proofread your typing and if you are not sure then Google it by typing your word then check the spelling.
Keep your text short and avoid making long paragraphs in your posts. People don’t like to read long posts. Your Marketer will also use hashtags after your text and ask or look at previous posts to view which ones are used.
Posting on an average of 3-4 times a week is sufficient and don’t forget those holidays and special occasions. example “Merry Christmas Everyone!”
Remind your Marketer of a special event or occasions coming up but give them plenty of time to come up with an appropriate post to let your audience know.
Don’t double post and always check with your Digital Marketer to see what or when they have something scheduled so that you and your Marketer are not posting on the same day. Most times the postings are prescheduled for the week, so they come out at optimal times.
In Northern Vancouver Island, Facebook is used mostly and Instagram is owned by Facebook which is easily linked together so when you send a post to Facebook it can be sent to Instagram at the same time. Although, the number of followers may be less due to Facebook being more popular in this area. Instagram is known for a younger crowd and Facebook well pretty much everyone knows it.
Social Media now includes more than just a post but includes Stories and Reels. Reels are short 15 second videos and Stories show up for 24 hours for your followers to see.
Having a YouTube channel can showcase all your videos in one place. You will need a Gmail email account to have this. Youtube is owned by Google.
Tik Tok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Snap Chat are other social media platforms that can be added later but the time it takes to add posts to each one can be time consuming as well as answering text messages from these platforms and monitoring how they are doing.
Intro Videos
An intro video of your product or service is a great way to get you out there. Introduce yourself and your business to the world. This can be posted on your social media, and website.
Website
Assuming you have one, adding new photo’s keeps it fresh. Think about adding content or typed articles (blog) talking about your services and offer information. The more content you have the higher your website will rank in Google. Being seen is all about offering value and information for those searching on the internet. That is one of the best forms of advertising. It should be more than just saying what you do and your contact information. Some Marketers will blog and others will not.
A Home page, About Us, Contact Us, Gallery, Products or Services – basic header menu.
If you want your website to be seen at the top of Google when someone is searching for your product or service, then content is key and a big part of SEO (search engine optimization).
If anything changes with your business, then the Marketer should be informed to update your website.
If you don’t have a website, then consider the future of your business before you decide how you want your business to evolve. Look at other websites with the same niche to get ideas of how you want it to look. If you are on a budget, then you might want to consider a free version with no fees and upgrade to a paid version later. The cons are that the free version has limited options for editing and designing and the URL (your website address) contains the website host’s name. www.yoursite.weebly.com example.
Google Profile
This is like a free yellow page ad but on Google. It adds your business to Google so if anyone is searching for a product or service that you may do or sell then yours may pop up in a list of others in that area. This can give people your address, phone number, link to your website, social media, and photos or videos.
Advertising
As you become more established you may want to consider advertising either on social media or Google. It can be as cheap or expensive as you want. This is highly effective and can be an alternative or addition to advertising in the newspaper. Please contact your Marketer before attempting this if you are a beginner.
I would recommend an ad every few months to run for a few weeks. Consider Marketplace on Facebook, eBay, Yellow Pages, and many more online including newspaper, radio, posters, and many other ways.
Email Marketing
Once your website has some content and possibly a place where your website visitors can sign up by giving you their email address you can then have an email list. With this list you can send out a recurring newsletter, let them know what products or services you have new, or simply let them know you are still thinking about them.
This service can take time to write up a newsletter or offer and requires an email platform like Mail Chimp for example and it is law to have an unsubscribe button.
This is another way of Marketing and is very effective as you can see in your own email how many you get.
With this service your Marketer will have to work with you the owner to discuss what is to be sent, offered, or announced.
Analytics
This is what a Marketer does to measure how everything is doing. Every site and platform has a way to monitor or measure the performance. Things like how many people visit your website, how many impressions, or reach, and how many clicks on the buttons. These are referred to as insights, metrics, performance, or analytics. Regular analytic reports of how your site or social media accounts are doing can be sent to you. But the Marketer will usually let you know along the way how things are going and offer suggestions for improvement or change.
Growing With You
Your Marketer is one of your best fans and ally. As your business grows so does the confidence and integrity of the Marketer. The workload may increase and decrease with the season especially in the North Island. Other things like the economy and new upcoming opportunities can change the direction and workflow. As a business evolves take these things into account and have a plan to handle a downturn in business or an excessive increase in volume.
By Digital Markateer, November 2022
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