Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Digital Marketing Tips
Show Notes
Digital marketing is a very broad subject and recently, I was a guest speaker where we did a Q&A session. Today, I thought I might share with you some of the questions that were asked and the answers too of course.
Question 1: Do I Need a Website in the Current Marketing Climate?
Yes, you need a website because it is your main base where you can keep all your content to help educate and inform your potential customers. Your website is also a great resource for your current customers too. A place to house your FAQ’s, downloadable check lists, helpful hints, product information. Done right, websites are much easier to search than social media both by Google and your audience.
Second reason is that your business is expected to have a website. The perception rightly or wrongly is that if you have a website then you are a real business. If you are just starting out or transitioning from a hobby to a business, this distinction can be huge.
Thirdly, you don’t own the social media platforms that many people build their entire business on. When the rules change and when it does, you may find that you have lost your whole audience or that the platform you have spent so much time and effort on is no longer popular and you are left having a wonderful conversation with yourself.
Websites also give you the opportunity to have an email option or a lead magnet that allows you to collect email addresses so that you can then have a conversation with those current customers or potential prospects that have opted into your list. Word of warning with email lists. You can’t just add your email list to your email system e.g. outlook and sent to everyone. Please use an email provider or at the very least, blind copy so no one else can see the email addresses.
Question 2: How Many Times a Week Should I Post?
In Episode #070 of Small Business Talk, I discussed this in detail so check that out for all the details. A quick recap is it depends on your audience and how often you can produce good quality content. For some of our clients, the most often the better, for others with smaller audiences, once a day is fine. Check your insights and analytics and see what your audience is looking. Then test and measure to see what works for you. Episode #072 I talked about what to post so that will help you too.
Question 3: Why Doesn’t my Business Card Colour Look Like my Logo on Screen?
Perhaps not exactly a digital marketing question but relevant all the same and something that is often asked. Basically, it is due to the colour gamut which means the ability for a device to reproduce the colour we see. The easiest way to explain this is take an apple and put it on a side plate/bread + butter plate. Then take that plate with the apple on it and put in side a square cake tin that is a little larger on at least 3 sides. Now take that cake tin with the plate and the apple on it and put them all into a baking dish which is bigger than the cake tin.
The baking dish is the amount of colours you can see with your naked eye in a normal sighted person. The cake tin is the amount of colours that the average digital monitor can reproduce. The plate is the amount of colours that you can print using a single specialty ink called a pantone colour. And the poor old apple is the fraction of the colours left that CMYK , full colour or process colours can reproduce in your printed business card. A baking dish – the visible colours has hundreds, if not thousands more colours that the colours that the apple can reproduce. That is why, some colours, especially lime greens, vibrant blues, purples and some reds are hard to reproduce on printed materials.
To overcome the colour issue, some business brand even have trademark colours like
Tiffany’s Blue
Cadbury Chocolates Purple
Coca Cola’s Red
What this means is when these brands are printed, they are printed with the 4 process colours plus their special PMS colour. You can sometimes see this in the inside of cardboard packaging boxes of aerial or biscuit where they may use 2 or 3 of these extra colours to get the exact colour effect that the brand requires.
Question 4: Can I Post Cat video?
Yes, you can but the better question is, should you?
On most occasions, I would say No. Like or views for viewing’s sake won’t help your business grow. As a Friday funny maybe but generally, if it is not related to your business, then no. Of course, there are exceptions like vets, pet stores, shopping centres having an animal baby exhibition. Things that are related to their business.
Question 5: Is Marketing a Waste of Money?
Done wrong, yes. People waste thousands of dollars sometimes a day on the wrong marketing. Other people spend more pennies and get a vast return on their investment. For most people you need to be somewhere in between.
Marketing done well should return your investment 300% so for every dollar you spend; you should be getting $3 dollars back in sales or brand awareness to be in front of your ideal customers. Not just anyone but somebody who is likely to buy within your normal buying cycle. Being top of mind is hugely important but top of mind to the wrong audience won’t get you any return on your investment.
Digital Marketing Tips
Listen to Small Business Talk Episode 076 for the full episode.
