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Marketing Ideas Curation



You're familiar with content curation, right? It's basically sorting through vast amounts of content, picking out the good bits and displaying that content on your own website.


 


I'd like to do a similar thing in this month's Introduction – sharing with you what I hope are some of my best ideas and curious thoughts on marketing that I've jotted down over the past few weeks. So without further ado...


 


 


On Social Media


 


Question for you – When you're on social media, are you basically having a conversation with yourself, where you broadcast your info and hope someone notices? Or are you joining into the middle existing conversations and offering your own opinions and helpful advice? I ask because too often on social media we simply shout out what we want others to know, rather than spending time listening and joining in.


 


Let's imagine for a moment that social media is a party you're attending. In the first case (having a conversation with yourself) you're basically standing by yourself in the corner, reciting what could be the coolest info ever in the history of the world, but no one is paying much attention to you. Think about it – do you take people who talk to themselves in public seriously? Probably not. I've been guilty of this – talking to no one in particular, hoping someone notices, and then getting frustrated when no one does.


 


In the second case (joining existing conversations) you're joining a group having a great conversation, and you add in your own opinions and knowledge. Now you're not only heard, you're also appreciated and invited to share more with the group.


 


So how do you join in the conversation already in progress? Engage with your customers and the leaders in your niche. Share their posts and tweets, and add your own thoughts. The more you engage, the more others will start to engage with you.


 


 


On Facebook


 


If you want to use Facebook for marketing, it pays to pay. These days Facebook is only showing about 6 percent of your content to your fan base. Yes, it's a bummer because it wasn't very long ago that you could reach your entire fan base with a post. But times change and so has Facebook. We can either retaliate by no longer using Facebook, or we can click that 'boost' button, pay a few dollars, and get our message out to thousands of users. Painful as it may be, if you've got a profit generating message to deliver, it's time to click that button.


 


And while you're on Facebook, trying running an ad using their power editor “duplicate” tool to create hundreds of different ads, changing just one element per ad. Even on a small budget you can quickly figure out what works and what doesn't without wasting a lot of money. Obviously you keep running the ads that work and dump the ones that don't.


 


 


On Audience Engagement


 


The fastest way to grab anyone's attention isn't to talk about yourself – it's to talk about them. Think of your audience's needs first while forgetting your own self-interests and you'll never lack for business.


 


Here's an example: Let's say you're doing a press release. You could write about how your marketing business has doubled since last year and you're expanding. But does anyone – including the press and its readers – care? Not really. But what if you do a press release about a new marketing method that doubles revenue for local businesses and lowers prices for consumers? Now you've got a winner.


 


 


On Email Subject Lines


 


Two things here: First, did you know one of the subject lines with the highest open rate is, “Hey”? That's right. Of course, now that we've told you that, everyone will start using it and it's effectiveness will go down.


 


But if we can figure out what makes “hey” so powerful, we might be able to duplicate its success with other subject lines.


 


Notice that it's extremely short so it's bound to capture attention. And it's also something one friend might write to another.


 


So what one word subject lines can you think of that would get high open rates? Do they sound personal, like they're from a friend? Even better.


 


My second note on subject lines is this: I don't know if it's true in other email programs, but in Gmail if you use a whole string of === or *** as your email's first line, then nothing will be visible to the recipient except the subject line until they open the email. This means that your first sentence in your email is hidden and all they see is white space.


 


Why does this matter? Because when your recipients have a whole stack of new emails to open and yours is the only one with white space after the subject line, your email will stand apart from the others.


 


 


If Amazon Does It...


 


Should you? I guess that depends on if you want to grow as BIG as Amazon ;-) Okay, who hasn't heard of Amazon, right? If there were people living on the moon, guaranteed they would have heard about Amazon (I wonder if they could get two day delivery there?)


 


But even though Amazon is the global leader in e-commerce, Amazon still invites shoppers to share their purchases via Facebook, Twitter and Email. And if Amazon  - as big as it is – still asks customers to tell their friends about their shopping experience, shouldn't we?


 


 


Promoting Your Customers


 


If you work in a B2B (business-to-business) niche, here's a great idea for making customers loyal and learning more about what your customers need – put them in the spotlight. Several times per month, interview a customer about their business and either use it as a podcast or a blogpost. You'll get valuable insights, your audience will learn how others in their industry are meeting challenges and creating success, and your customers will love the added publicity.


 


 


Pepsi vs Coca-cola


 


Remember those taste tests that pitted #2 Pepsi against #1 Coca-cola? Pepsi won. So why is Pepsi still #2? Branding. That's it. Branding, plain and simple, made and continues to make all the difference.


 


Something for you to think about as you enjoy this month's issue of Delaveri.


 


Enjoy!


 


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