The Guide - 2020 - 97

Marketing Best Practices
n a world where digital has become an
integral piece of every small business'
marketing strategies, there is only one
thing worse than having no strategy at
all - having a bad digital marketing plan
based in bad habits. We're taking a look at
some of the marketing trends your business
should avoid throughout 2020 and beyond.
I
SPAMMING YOUR CUSTOMERS
One of the cardinal sins that many
small business owners commit when it
comes to digital marketing is " spamming "
their customer base - continually
inundating them with emails and social
correspondence. Aside from the obvious
privacy laws and FTC compliance issues
that can arise from spamming your
customers, it's just bad business, and will
eventually drive their business elsewhere.
The
risks
of
" spamming "
can
be
eliminated by mapping out your marketing
strategies and promotions to make sure
there is very little (if any) overlap. When
sending promotional emails, for example,
make sure there is a timeline that you are
following - one that lays out specific dates
for email sends, and a tactical approach to
what's being sent. This is the perfect way
to make sure you're sharing just the right
amount of content with your audience.
POSTING TOO MUCH
Many business owners equate the
amount of times a business posts on social
media daily or weekly with the amount
of people they will reach - and they
couldn't be more wrong.
While posting multiple times is a good
way to stay engaged with your audience,
the amount of posts has no weight on the
amount of people you'll reach in a news
feed. Take Facebook, for example. The
amount of times posted has nothing to do
with your company page's ability to reach
a wide audience, but rather, the content
you are sharing.
By Joe Tacosik,
contributing
writer
When you post multiple times at once,
Facebook will show all of those posts to
your audience in one grouping - totaling
the same amount of exposure as if they
were spread out. Therefore, what your
page is sharing, and how you're engaging
with your audience on the content that is
shared, is much more important than the
amount of content being shared daily.
SHARING UNORIGINAL CONTENT
Going hand-in-hand with avoiding
posting to social channels too much,
making sure you're sharing organic,
original content is arguably one of the
most important pieces to an effective
social media marketing strategy.
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
have all announced news feed changes
in recent years that prioritize organic,
original content over articles and shares.
On Facebook and LinkedIn, for example,
native images with captions that engage
users are seeing two and three-times the
engagement rates of sharing a simple
link with a short caption. On Instagram,
the feeds are prioritizing content that is
non-sponsored and highly engaged with,
including likes and comments.
Make sure that, if you're sharing articles
and written content, you're mixing in some
pieces from your own company's website
as well. And if possible, share as much
organic content as
possible,
photos, graphics, videos or polls.
IGNORING ENGAGEMENT
Sometimes, when the focused gets
shifted to content, business owners forget
to keep up with the " social " side of social
media - and the engagements that come
with it.
Responding to comments on an image
or post, for example, is a great way to
keep the conversation going, and gain
favor with the social algorithms, like
Facebook's news feed. Keeping up on
incoming messages through Facebook
messenger and Instagram and Twitter's
" direct message " features are also vital to
keeping up your company's response rate
- especially on Facebook, where it shows
your response times directly on the page.
Social media is meant to be " social, "
and should first and foremost always be
centered around engaging with other users
- keeping up with comments, messages,
questions, concerns and more can help
your company maintain a professional,
yet positive, reputation on the various
social channels.
THE GUIDE 2020 97
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The Guide - 2020

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