Tag Archive for: Marketing Advice

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From Zero to Hero: How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy That Delivers Results

Creating a Content Marketing Strategy can be a daunting task, but with a little creativity and determination, it can be a lot of fun. One of the biggest challenges our clients face when it comes to marketing is knowing where to start. In this article, we will walk you through the exact process we use at Done Digital to take your business from zero to hero. So, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s get started on creating a content marketing strategy that delivers results!

Define your Target Audience

When it comes to creating a successful content marketing strategy, understanding your audience is key. After all, your content should be tailored to their interests, needs, pain points, and desires if you want to engage and convert more customers. That’s why taking the time to research your audience is a critical first step. 

Start by asking your existing customers for feedback on what they like and dislike about your brand. This can help you understand what’s working and what needs improvement. Additionally, using tools like Answer The Public are great to get into your customers’ heads. Browsing social media platforms where your target audience is active can also provide valuable insights into their interests. By understanding your audience, you’ll be able to create content that truly speaks to their needs and wants. 

Set Clear Goals

Next up, let’s talk about setting clear goals. Picture this: you’re about to embark on a road trip, but you have no idea where you’re going. How will you know when you’ve arrived? The same goes for content marketing. You need to have a destination in mind, a goal that you’re working towards. Do you want to increase website traffic? Generate leads? Boost brand awareness? We’re guessing it’s probably a combination of those. Having a clear goal in mind will help you shape your content and make sure you’re moving in the right direction.

It’s also worth noting that your goals may evolve over time as your business grows and changes. That’s why it’s important to regularly revisit your content marketing strategy and make adjustments as needed. By staying flexible and adaptable, you can ensure that your content marketing efforts continue to drive results for your business.

Create Valuable Content

Now, it’s time to get creative! Think about the type of content your audience would enjoy. Would they prefer informative blog posts, engaging social media content, or helpful how-to videos? Whatever it is, make sure your content is not all about your business but provides value to your audience. Answer their questions and solve their problems to keep them engaged with your brand.

In addition to evolving your goals and strategies, it’s also important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in content marketing. This can involve experimenting with new formats or platforms, such as video or social media, and optimising your content for search engines and user experience.

Content Marketing Strategy: Creating valuable and informative content that resonates with your target audience, increases your brand's visibility and credibility.

Content Marketing Strategy: Creating valuable and informative content that resonates with your target audience, increases your brand’s visibility and credibility.

Be Consistent

Consistency is key when it comes to content marketing. Think of it like a workout routine. You can’t expect to see results if you only exercise once a month, right? The same goes for content marketing. Develop a content calendar and stick to it. Consistently producing high-quality content will help build trust with your audience and keep them coming back for more.

Consistency can also help you build momentum over time. As you continue to produce high-quality content and engage with your audience, you’ll start to see increased traffic, engagement, and ultimately, conversions. This can help you establish a virtuous cycle of success, where each piece of content you produce drives more and more results for your business.

Optimise for Search

Optimising your content for search engines is crucial for getting your content in front of the right people. But let’s be real, SEO can be a bit of a snooze fest. So, spice it up a bit! Conduct keyword research, but don’t be afraid to throw in some fun and quirky keywords too. It will make your content stand out and keep your audience engaged.

Of course, it’s important to balance creativity with effectiveness. You still want to make sure that your content is optimised for the right keywords and is easily discoverable by search engines. But by injecting a little bit of personality and creativity into your content, you can help set it apart from the competition and keep your audience engaged, which is equally as important as the keywords you choose.

Promote your Content

Creating great content is only half the battle. You need to promote it too! One way to promote your content is by sharing it on social media. Whether you’re posting updates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, social media provides a powerful platform for promoting your content and engaging with your audience. 

But social media isn’t the only channel for content promotion. You can also leverage email newsletters, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and other channels to get your content in front of the right people. Ultimately, effective content promotion is all about finding the right mix of channels, tactics, and engagement strategies that work best for your brand and your audience.

Measure and Adjust

Finally, it’s crucial to track your content marketing efforts and measure their success over time. By monitoring key metrics like website traffic, engagement rates, and lead generation, you can identify what’s working well and what needs improvement in your content marketing strategy.

But let’s be honest, tracking metrics can be a bit dry and boring. So why not spice it up with some friendly competition among colleagues? Setting goals and seeing who can achieve them first can be a fun and effective way to keep everyone on your team motivated and engaged in the content marketing process.

To wrap things up, creating a content marketing strategy can be a bit of work, but it can also be a lot of fun and a worthwhile endeavour. By getting to know your audience, setting clear goals, creating valuable content, being consistent, optimising for search, promoting your content, and measuring your success, you can take your business from zero to hero!

Want to grow your business with a content marketing strategy that delivers results? Book a free strategy call with the team at Done Digital today. We’ll help you understand your business needs and provide personalised recommendations to grow your business faster and more effectively.

Click here to schedule your strategy call now!

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4 Smart (Not So Obvious) Ways To Grow Your Business

In essence, there are only three ways to increase your sales:

  1. Increase the number of customers
  2. Increase your customers’ purchase frequency, and
  3. Increase your average transaction value

However, there are a number of not so obvious ways to grow your business and increase profitability. Here are four ideas to help you scale without putting the focus on sales. Ready? Then let’s dive in!

1. Automate processes to increase efficiency and reduce cost

Today, there are thousands of tools out there to help you automate repetitive business processes. Simply automating a few things can help you significantly reduce wages and free up valuable time. When looking for ways to grow our business, we often overlook areas that don’t directly contribute to your profit. Here are a few things you can automate quickly and easily that could put money back in your pocket.

  • Social Media Posts
  • Invoicing
  • Email Marketing
  • Online Advertising
  • Lead Generation
  • Sales Processes & Follow Up
  • Internal Task Management
  • Review Management

Tools like Zapier and Make can help you connect various services and software platforms to make processes even more efficient. 

Some examples:

  • When you have a new lead -> automatically add a contact to a list in your email marketing software -> then send a follow-up sequence until they take the desired action
  • After a customer makes a purchase for the second time -> send them an invitation to write a Google review
  • When a purchase is made on your website -> automatically raise an invoice in Xero to match with the imported trasnaction

These are just some basic examples, but the possibilities are endless, and so is the time you will safe by automating these tasks!

2. Launch a re-targeting ad campaign

Many business owners already use ads to attract new customers and generate new business. However, if you only run direct ads, you are missing out on a huge chunk of potential customers by ignoring this simple strategy. Re-targeting ads are a powerful tool that allows you to show specific ads to people who have already interacted with your content in the past, adding continuity to your customer experience and significantly increasing the chances of turning them into customers.

Se if you can offer them something of value in relation to certain pages or blog posts they have visited on your website. 

Example: A yoga studio might show a re-targeting ad for a free yoga pass to people in their area who have read blog posts on the benefits of yoga on their website. When people see the ad, they can enter their email address to claim the free yoga pass and automatically be subscribed to an evergreen campaign. (See next point)

3. Stop focusing on once-off promos and develop an “evergreen” marketing strategy instead

The majority of business owners think of marketing and promotions in terms of once-off activities. It might look something like this:

  • January -> Promotion #1
  • February -> Promotion #2
  • March -> Promotion #3

While this might work well, it also requires you to constantly come up with new promotions, which can be exhausting and feel like you’re never quite catching up.

Instead, focus on implementing an evergreen marketing strategy that sends new leads or customers a series of pre-designed offers from the moment they join your list. Then keep adding new offers to that sequence. Over time, this strategy allows you to develop a marketing machine that continuously produces sales without ever having to worry about what your next promotion is going to be. You just need to make sure that offers in that sequence are timeless and not seasonal.

All you need is a good email automation tool, like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign, and there are many more options available. 

4. Make Partnerships evergreen, too

Partnerships and joint ventures with other businesses that complement yours is a powerful strategy. You might have already partnered with another business in the past to run a one-off campaign promoting your products or services. Maybe you’ve asked the other business to hand out vouchers to all their customers.

See if you can turn this strategy into an evergreen campaign, too, like in the previous example. Look for businesses that already have an evergreen funnel and see if they are happy to plug your offer right into it, while you can do the same for them. 

Example: One of my clients owns a massage clinic, while another owned a yoga studio. I got both of them to add an email to their existing evergreen sequences promoting the other business. Now, everyone who receives a massage at the massage clinic also receives a complimentary gift card for a yoga class, while everyone who joins the yoga studio receives a voucher for a massage a a few weeks later.

It’s a win-win and once implemented, this strategy will continue to work for years to come.

There you have it. Four (not so obvious) ways to grow your business. All four strategies are what I call “set and forget” strategies that you only have to set up once and will benefit from forever.

Have you automated any processes in your business? What marketing strategies have worked well for you? Let me know in the comments below!

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3 Things Your Business Needs BEFORE Spending A Single Cent On Ads

The biggest challenge most of my clients face is knowing what to focus on in their marketing. It can be incredibly overwhelming with all the different options and tools out there – social media platforms, advertising platforms (print and digital), search engines, autoresponders, tech tools, productivity tools – the list goes on and on. How do we know what’s right for us, and at the stage, we’re currently in?

The big mistake many business owners make is that they focus on lead generation BEFORE getting their conversions right, only to realise that they’re spending way too much money and time on marketing without getting the results they’re after.

In my 90-Day Marketing Transformation, we follow a clear marketing roadmap to help you focus on your marketing activities in the right order, so you can maximise results while minimising cost and effort. It’s divided into three pillars.

  • ATTRACTION
  • CONVERSION
  • AMPLIFICATION

 The order in which you focus on your marketing activities is crucial. As you will agree, it doesn’t make sense to launch an ad campaign (amplification pillar) before knowing that you can actually convert these people. It would be like increasing the amount of fuel you pour into a car that only has 2 wheels. More fuel won’t make it go any faster unless you have a working vehicle.

The Marketing Roadmap – 3 Ways To Grow Your Business in 2024

First things first. Most business owners would like to jump straight in and throw money at ads (either print or online) before having laid a solid marketing foundation. You wouldn’t start building a house before having a solid plan and foundation to build on. In the same way, you need to address your marketing activities in the right order. Here are 3 things you need to focus on BEFORE spending a single cent on advertising or other costly marketing activities.

1. Create a Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a tool to help you build a list of potential customers. It’s something of value to your target audience that you can send them for free but in return for their name and email address. This is a crucial part of any marketing strategy and should be the very first thing to decide on, as it gives people a way to connect with your business even before they’re ready to buy. Here are some examples of lead magnets you could use in your business.

  • Free guide or ebook
  • Free video or tutorial
  • Discount code or value voucher
  • Free checklist or time-saving template
  • Free report with information that’s highly relevant to your customers

I – for example – offer a free 17-point website checklist, as that is something most of my clients struggle with. You may also find these free downloads helpful as examples for strategic lead magnets.

2. CRM & Email Automation

Once you decided on your lead magnet, the second step is to choose a CRM (Customer Relationship Management Software) and an email marketing provider that you will use to build your list. Some CRM’s already have email automation built-in. There are loads of options out there, some very basic and some with more advanced marketing automation features that you probably won’t need at the start. The important thing is to just get started.

When starting out, a free service like Mailchimp may suffice (they offer a free plan until you reach a certain number of subscribers). Here are two options that I personally recommend for small businesses and which I have used myself.

Other popular CRM systems include:

3. Map Out Your Customer Journey

Once a potential customer opted in for your free lead magnet, what are the next steps you want them to take? What information will they be looking for before they are ready to become your customer? It’s important not to treat every person as if they are ready to buy from you right now. Instead, focus on building a relationship with them first, so that when they are ready to buy your product or service, your business becomes their natural first choice.

Here’s what that customer journey looks like in one of my other businesses (a yoga studio).

  • Step 1: Claim a FREE Yoga Pass
  • Step 2: Send Introductory Offer
  • Step 3: Upgrade to 10-Class Pass or Membership
  • Step 5: Offer Workshops & Retreats

For most people, it’s too much of a stretch to go from never having tried yoga before to committing to a membership or a yoga retreat. But a free yoga pass will help them get started and move towards that goal.

This is a natural progression that eases people into their journey of becoming long-term customers, slowly moving them from free to higher-priced products. Timing is a crucial element in marketing. Make sure that the messages you send people are relevant to the stage they’re currently in. This can be automated using email automation software (see the previous point) or using a messaging bot.

The key is – always focus on educating and connecting with your customers more than you focus on selling.

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3 Simple Metrics With The Power To Transform Your Business (And How To Track Them)

Today, it’s easier than ever to collect vast amounts of data in our business. There are many low-cost POS (point of sale) systems out there with some fantastic reporting features that you can take advantage of to help you grow your business and make better management decisions.

And if you think data and metrics are boring, I want to encourage you to reconsider. Because once we know what to look for, these numbers can become very exciting!

For small business owners, every dollar counts, which is why it’s so important to track our progress and keep an eye on various metrics. Of course, there are countless metrics we can measure, some more important than others depending on the type of business you are operating.

But let’s keep it simple for now with these three metrics that have the power to completely transform your business. If you know you could do better when it comes to numbers, they will provide a great starting point.

Average Transaction Value (ATV)

The average transaction value (ATV) is pretty self-explanatory. It gives you the average of how much your customers spent per transaction on average. Simply by focusing on increasing our ATV, we can change the entire course of our business. 

How to calculate Average Transaction Value

Simply divide your total sales on any given day by the total number of transactions on the same day.

Example:
$5000 turnover / 100 Transactions = $50 ATV

We can increase our ATV through:

  • Upsells (“Would you like to make that a large?”) and
  • Cross-sells (“Would you like a camera bag to protect your new camera?”

No matter what business you’re in, there is always something extra you can offer your customers. Let’s take the above example and assume we trade for 340 days per year. If we increased our ATV by just 5% (i.e. by $2.50), our daily turnover would go from $5000 to $5250.

Doesn’t sound like much, right? Well, by the end of 340 trading days, we would have increased our turnover by $85,000. Not a bad result with a few upsells. 

What upsells, cross-sells and package deals could you offer in your business?

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The Customer Lifetime Value indicates how much the average customer is worth to our business over the course of their patronage. It’s a simple metric with big implications and one that’s often overlooked by small business owners.

Knowing the lifetime value of a customer is a crucial part of understanding how much is reasonable to spend on acquiring a new customer. Measuring CLV is also a good way to determine whether your business is taking full advantage of its customer relationships.

In many, if not most cases, it costs less money to increase revenue from existing customers than it does to acquire new ones. Still, most business owners are more focused on acquisition than retention.

How to calculate Customer Lifetime Value

CLV = Average Transaction Value * Customer Frequency * Average Customer Lifespan

Example:
$50 Average Transaction Value * 1 purchase per month * 12 months average retention = $600 CLV

Your CLV will determine how much we can afford to spend on acquiring a new customer and subsequently, which marketing channels make sense for our business.

How much is a customer worth to you? How much do they spend each time? How often do they visit? And how long do they stay your customer? Improving each of these 3 variables will have a huge impact on your bottom line.

Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)

What does it cost you to acquire a new customer? While the importance of knowing the cost of acquiring a new customer is obvious, surprisingly a lot of business owners don’t pay as much attention to this metric as you’d expect them to. Keeping customer acquisition costs top of mind can benefit your business in numerous ways.

For starters, many companies spend more than they estimate on customer acquisition, and in many cases, they continue to invest in marketing channels that make little sense given the lifetime value of their customers.

How to calculate Cost of Customer Acquisition

CAC = Total Ad Spend / Number of New Customers

Example:
$500 Facebook Ad Spend / 50 New Customers = $10

If our Customer Lifetime Value is $600, it makes sense to spend $10 to acquire a new customer. However, if our CLV would only be $20 we might need to look for a new strategy to acquire new customers or first focus on increasing your Average Transaction Value, Purchase Frequency and Retention Rate.

What metrics have you tracked that have helped you grow your business and make better decisions in your marketing?

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5 Common Reasons Why Your Marketing isn’t Working (And How to Fix It)

Some common reasons why your marketing isn’t working are probably less obvious than you might think. Marketing, when not done right, can easily fail to produce the desired results. Many times, I have seen business owners sit down to come up with their own marketing strategy, only to end up with great disappointment. However, this is all part of being in business. When we fail, we pick ourselves up and go again.

Nevertheless, I have identified a few common mistakes when it comes to marketing and outlined some strategies for how to fix these problems.

Here are 5 common reasons why your marketing isn’t working

 

1. Trying to be everything to everyone

Many businesses fail to send out a clear message that is targeted at their ideal customer (Avatar). Instead they try to keep their message as broad as possible. This approach results in generic messaging that doesn’t work. Instead, be very clear about your purpose, what your product or service is about and who exactly it is for. Identify who your ideal customers are and craft copy that speaks directly to them. The clearer your message and targeting, the better your sales will be.

2. Competing on price

One approach many businesses take when competition moves in is to lower their price. In some industries, this has led to a war on price between competitors leaving little to none for anyone. Rather than lowering your prices, try to find ways to add more value to your customers. This won’t just leave you better off financially, but also position you as the expert amongst your competitors. Ever seen Apple run a sale?

3. Limiting Marketing to Just One Platform

Businesses have to consider more than one marketing platform. Digital marketing offers countless tools to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your campaigns and proactively increase your sales when you choose to. Social media is just one platform. Email marketing is another. Traditional forms of marketing are also worth testing, especially when targeting customers who are yet to embrace the digital era. Muti-channel marketing also allows you to identify where your best customers are coming from and where to spend most of your budget in order to get the best return.

4. Lack of Strategy

Without a strategy, marketing fails. This is one of the most common reasons why your marketing isn’t working. In marketing, strategy is everything. In fact, the right strategy produces stunning, hitherto unimagined results. Develop a marketing plan and stick to it. Test what’s working, repeat what does, discard what doesn’t. Numbers don’t lie.

5. Dead Techniques

Dead marketing techniques kill businesses faster than ever before. Don’t get stuck in the old ways. If it’s not working, change it. Replace it with something that works. Tweak it if necessary. There’s no need of staying loyal to ideas that cost a lot of money yet have nothing to show for all that investment. Even if it once was your best strategy.

Do you currently have a strategy that allows you to get new customers “on tap”? If not, I might be able to help. As an independent marketing consultant, I help business owners in the retail and hospitality industries to design and implement automated marketing strategies that take their business to a whole new level. When you’re ready, let’s have a chat about your business.

 

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