HEY how are you? I am delighted to be a columnist for Business Times for the next 12 months. I plan to share some insights into the digital marketing world, some business development advice and even a mini rant or two.
I know what you’re thinking, what is a predominantly digital marketing gal doing writing for traditional press. I am a business development specialist, which means I work on the entire business development for/with clients. So whilst the perception and current trends may be all pointing to digital, I believe it is a mistake to dismiss traditional marketing streams.
HEY how are you? I am delighted to be a columnist for Business Times for the next 12 months. I plan to share some insights into the digital marketing world, some business development advice and even a mini rant or two.
I know what you’re thinking, what is a predominantly digital marketing gal doing writing for traditional press. I am a business development specialist, which means I work on the entire business development for/with clients. So whilst the perception and current trends may be all pointing to digital, I believe it is a mistake to dismiss traditional marketing streams. Be where your competitors are not!
And we may as well start with social media marketing and the online marketing explosion we’ve experienced for the last five years. Countless times I have been approached to provide social media marketing services for a potential client, but when I ask why (yes almost like looking a gift horse in the mouth) the answer has all too often been: ‘Oh because I suppose I better had, our competitors are doing it’. Like all business development undertaking a project without a clear idea of what you want to get from it, almost means it’s doomed before you start. Here are five things to consider before jumping into social media marketing:
Why – make sure you have a clear idea what you want to achieve from this exposure: new business, raise your profile, repeat business, customer loyalty, client engagement etc.
It is not a miracle cure – if you can’t shift those 10k widgets offline, you probably won’t online either. First figure out why they are not selling before engaging any more marketing activity.
Identify your target market – a splatter gun approach doesn’t work regardless of the medium, take some time to identify and profile your target market and then…
Be specific! Generic marketing messages simply don’t work as well as specific messages tailored to your target market. Tell them what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them, imagine that for everything you post people are thinking ‘who cares’. Make it relevant, make it engaging and do something different!
Repeat, maintain consistency and engage. You don’t see a TV advert just once do you? Repeat your messages on a not too frequent basis, the idea is to touch your market not spam them. Once you start, keep going and make sure you answer every post/query/question/comment.
That’s all from me this month, if you want to connect with me online then you’ll find me on
Twitter: @The_Last_Hurdle on Facebook: facebook.com/TheLastHurdle on LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/juleswhite
Jules White is the founder, franchisor and the Northampton franchisee for The Last Hurdle. A business development specialist with over 18 years sales and marketing experience, Jules was invited to be a panellist for Facebook, advising small businesses how to use Facebook for business, at the first ever Bootcamp in EMEA and again during the summer tour in Cardiff.