#MarketingFail : Don't Hire An IT Guy To Do Your Marketing
Ever hear the expression set it and forget it? I think lots of folks think that SEO, Digital Marketing and Content Marketing are all technical. Some technician wearing a pocket protector sits behind a terminal and tweaks, makes some adjustments to your website and BAM, instant success. When I’m out speaking to organizations I often ask what they think an SEO guy or girl looks like and 9 times out of 10, they describe that tech geek.
Digital Marketing is ever evolving. It demands a strategy. It demands attention, it demands change and oftentimes, needs to rapidly be adjusted in order to work. Companies that rely on that tech geek to drive traffic to their website are failing. Why? Here’s a few reasons:
1.) The corporate web site sucks.
It doesn’t matter how much traffic you through at a bad website, it still won’t convert.
2.) Mismatch.
If you’re trying to get your tech geek to get you ranked under search terms that don’t make any sense to your consumers, when they land on your website, they are going to bounce straight off, because the search doesn’t match what they (the consumers) are after.
3.) Social Media Automation.
Scheduling a bunch of social media posts that are all about selling your products and services is a great way to fail at Digital Marketing. People on the Internet are NOT looking to be sold to. They will un-follow your business / brand quicker then crap through a goose if they feel like you’re trying to sell to them.
4.) BORING, automated content written for search engines and NOT humans.
This is probably one of the most common infractions on the web today. Search engines crave content, so do people. It is often VERY tempting to hire an off-shore company to create content in order to hyper-inflate your SEO. This MAY work for a bit, but as soon as one of your customers / prospects / website visitors reads this jumbled up nonsense, they hit the back button and move on to your competitor. Crappy content can do more harm to your brand then anything.
5.) PPC / SEM FAILS.
Believe it or not, running a successful pay per click or Gooogle Adwords campaign is NOT easy. I actually think that Google has done a disservice to small businesses by offering them the $50.00 coupons that they send out to new businesses. Business owners, hungry for their own piece of the Google real estate jump in, create a campaign and flip the switch. They often BURN through all of their money within 8 hours with oftentimes, ZERO leads, sales, results, etc.. There are many nuances of running a successful PPC campaign that experienced Digital Marketers know.
It’s like this.
The web changes daily. You need not only a strategy to reach your core demographic, you need a partner who understands how to execute, analyze, re-adjust and tweak constantly. If your digital marketing strategy isn’t changing frequently, odds are you’re doing it wrong.
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Content Strategies To DISRUPT Your Marketplace.
When is the last time you purchased something because you read a snooze fest of a blog? When’s the last time you shared a boring infographic with all of your friends on social media? Perhaps you saw a non-compelling video on youtube and decided to embed it on your website to make it that much more boring. You get the point. Life’s too short to read, share or create digital nonsense.
How is that some blogs spread like a virus? Why do some infographics get talked about and shared across the digital world? How is it that a cat video is being talked about so much on Facebook and shared on cat loving walls all across the planet? That’s easy. They are remarkable. They are NOT like the others. They are DISRUPTIVE to the digital world.
So many companies come to me and my companies asking us to create a viral video for them. Make it go viral they’ll say. We want 2 million shares on this one… This stuff simply can’t be forced. Things get shared online because they stand out like a sore thumb. They stand out because someone did something REAL and captured it on film. They weren’t trying to make something go viral, they were simply being real. People like real. People on the Internet like to see real, and share real and celebrate real.
Take the recent rant by Fox 35 anchor John Brown regarding the Kardashians. He had a bit of a Kardashian meltdown on live TV. It was humorous, it was lively, it was real… and it got shared, and shared again, and televised, and featured on Mashable and talked about by hundreds of thousands of people. He was real.
So, how can your social media, website, SEO, content and digital marketing in general stand out? Be a DISRUPTER. Do something to take your marketplace off center. Do something that no one expects or sees coming. I’ve compiled a few content strategies that can help your business DISRUPT your particular marketplace.
1.) BE REAL.
I talked about this above, but being real is oftentimes very unexpected. Share real life stories in your blog content and how they relate to your customers, products or services. Don’t be afraid to show frustration, joy and other real emotions through your content. It’s imperative that you add a personality to your brand. The bottom line, your marketplace doesn’t expect your content to be real, make it that way and you’ll stand out and shine.
2.) BE THE EXPERT.
I’ve had the great fortune and have been blessed to be featured on Fox 35, CCTV, USA TODAY, CFNEWS13, NBC and more because I constantly present myself as an expert. The media wants experts. Your customers want to buy from experts. Your social media tribe wants to follow experts. As you create your blog, infographic, video, etc., do so with authority. Create as if you and your business are the LEADERS of your industry. We don’t all like to brag about ourselves and our accomplishments, but, I encourage you to make your expertise known.
3.) BE DIFFERENT.
If you aren’t be different online, why bother? Why post that snooze fest of a blog? Is that infographic you are posting of your ordering flowchart really going to take the Internet by storm? Create the unexpected. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of not playing it safe. Sometimes it’s simple doing something no one saw coming. Sometimes it’s as simple as creating a value add for your clients, a tool, a gizmo, a new report, a weekly tweet about the office dog, a story about that one time that your factory worker rescued a bird from the warehouse. Be different and stop talking about the same ole, same ole. Be that purple cow standing out from all of the NORMAL cows.
4.) ONE LAST THING.
Proceed with some type of boundaries. I’m not encouraging you to create anything that doesn’t represent your brand well. I’m not encouraging you to go out and be a jackass. I’m simply encouraging you to start creating stuff that no one in your industry would see coming. I’m encouraging you to build value by providing your prospects, clients, website visitors, social media followers with an expert insight that no one else is sharing. I’m encouraging you to INTERRUPT the current way that your industry is doing business. If you can’t be different, why bother at all?
Now, go forth and DISRUPT.
Thanks for reading and sharing.
@TomJelneck
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Outside Marketing Reality VS. Inside Reality
I was visiting an organization the other day and meeting with the executive director. It was the first time I had ever been to their office, so wasn’t really sure what to expect. We were going to discuss an ongoing content marketing strategy in order to help connect this nonprofit with their volunteers in some neato, cool ways. I loved their website, their executive director was passionate and very hospitable, so I was excited to visit.
Until… I walked in the door. I walked into a waiting room type area with multiple chairs. There was an unmanned receptionist desk, but their were signs of life on the desk, including a really moldy coffee cup and some crumbled up, presumably used kleenex. I waited a few moments and could see some cubicle dwellers in the wings. They were busy, doing their thing and none had even looked up to see me standing there. So 3 minutes has gone by and I finally did the throat clear thing, you know, to get someone’s attention and acknowledge that their was a new human being in the office. One gentleman in a bright sweater walked by, looked at me and turned his back on me to help a cubicle dweller. He was literally 5 feet away from. He saw me standing, saw me make eye contact and chose to do nothing. No head nod, no 1 minute signal, no nothing. Cold.
Finally, I decided to walk around the corner and flag someone down to get our meeting started. Hospitality Fail. I’ve been thinking about this awkward encounter a lot. This great online presence, this shiny website that is very welcoming, this organization that serves people in such a profound way and then within their organization, their people, their team have no sense of carrying that mission out internally. Maybe this was an isolated issue, maybe it was just a crazy busy day, but maybe, just maybe, the interior culture isn’t matching the outbound messaging.
How does your business address culture? Do you hold days of retreat and reflect upon the organizations’ mission? Do you hire only certain folks that seem to fit within? Do you send them daily quotes of inspiration and instill in them the mission of the organization? Do you let Mike with the Yellow sweater ignore guests? Do you let Sally behind the cubicle not acknowledge people walking in the door? Now granted, I’m just a consultant. But what if I was a new potential community partner or donor meeting to discuss a large gift? What if I was a volunteer who had just donated weeks of their time organizing the last fundraising event?
Our outside marketing needs to match our inside reality and vice versa. That rings true for businesses, for nonprofits, for churches, for city governments. The next chance you get, reflect upon how people perceive the good work that you do and how you’ve built a culture to bolster and build that up.
Thanks for reading and sharing.
@TomJelneck