Me: Content batching is the best! Creating all your content in one go, ahead of time, saves so much stress.Also me: 😬Can you relate? We can have the best of intentions with our marketing, but once we get 'behind' on the content creation hamster wheel, it can feel overwhelming to get back on. Here's to a Q4 of content batching and 0% stress! 😎
Are you thinking of cutting down on marketing? 👀🤔
That is the LAST thing you should be doing right now! 🚫✋⛔
🚨 Now is NOT the time to cut down on marketing! 🚨
With the cost-of-living crisis and Christmas approaching, budgets might be tight, especially if you had a slow summer.
But rather than cutting your marketing budget, quarter four is when you need to invest in your marketing the MOST.
This is when people are actively looking to spend, and you need to ensure you get in front of them 👀 to sell effectively.
Cutting down on bringing awareness to your business is the WORST thing you can do right now. You should be doing just the opposite.
If you want to sell more stuff, you need to tell more people! 📢
Now is the time to double down on your marketing!
Your won't business will only succeed if people know your products or services exist.
So, if you want to head in 2024 in a stronger position, invest in your marketing. 💪
That doesn't mean signing up to a high-end agency or splashing out on a big-budget video.
But consistent, quality messaging is NECESSARY.
If you need help, I offer affordable marketing services customised to your needs.
And if you need help to make the most of what you're doing already, I offer consultations, too!
Just email me for a free chat at [email protected]. 📩
If you run a business, the 29th of November should be marked in your calendar! That’s right, in around 6 weeks, it’s Black Friday and right NOW, is when you need to prepare. 👇👇👇
🤔 Before deciding on an offer, take into account your capacity. How much time and resources do you realistically have to promote it and meet demand once sold?
❓ What are your reasons for your Black Friday offer? Do you want to raise awareness, get new customers, or boost sales elsewhere?
🎯 Take those goals into consideration when planning out your marketing strategy. How will you promote the offer effectively? Review past launches and look at current data to prioritise which platforms to spend time on.
🔥 Before you start trying to sell, you need to warm up your audience so they’re ready to hit buy on the big day. From now you need to show up on the platforms you hope to sell on and post valuable content that connects with your audience so they know, like and trust you.
⏰ Start promoting your offer early to avoid being lost in your audience’s inboxes. The longer your lead time, the more opportunities you’ll have to test and adapt your strategy to real-time data.
🛒 Don’t waste your time promoting the offer if you haven’t made sure it’s as easy as possible for people to buy. Start with your website and checkout process – is it user-friendly? Have you checked the tech works and that it can handle increased traffic? Is it super clear from your landing page how to buy from you?
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There’s so much to think about for any launch, but Black Friday is an opportunity you want to get right. And the above is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being ready.
If you need help with any area of your Black Friday marketing, I am available to help.
Just get in touch now for a free, no-commitment chat about where you’re at and what you need to be ready for a successful Q4.
Email me at [email protected] or send a message!
Heads up - I’ll be a bit quieter on here for the rest of October as I’m heading off on holidays. I’m incredibly excited to be doing a road trip around America - it should be the trip of a lifetime! 🤞😁
I’ll be back in the UK behind my desk from Monday 28th October, although do bear with me as I catch up with emails and get back into the swing of things again!
If you’re interested in working with me, feel free to still send me an email or direct message, and I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as I can when I’m back.
Too close to home? 😉
If you've been struggling to post content consistently lately, make a promise to yourself that you'll do better next week.
Schedule in some time to plan ahead and batch create, so you won't feel like this again next Friday!
I like to plan on Friday afternoon while the week that's just gone is still fresh in my mind.
Then I batch-create content and schedule my posts for the week ahead on a Sunday evening.
I can go into Monday knowing my content is all taken care of – definitely a great feeling! 💪
What's your content creation process?
Is there an area that needs improvement?
One of the biggest mistakes people make on social media 👀⬇️
Trying to be someone they’re not.
They see all these amazing, perfect lives on Instagram and start to feel like they need to seem like they have a perfect life, too.
But that’s not authentic.
People can see through that, and they’ll lose trust in you if all you post are the highlights.
People want to know the REAL you. 👈
This is especially the case if you are a personal brand or service provider looking for clients.
This doesn’t mean you have to post your messy kitchen or start talking about family troubles online – far from it!
But there needs to be a balance between being honest, being professional, and developing a positive image of yourself and your business.
So how can you do this?
Think about how you can put across your personality in your content.
🗨️ Write how you speak
🤳 Share pictures that aren’t heavily edited
🤥 And don’t lie or distort your messaging.
Want to learn more about creating content more authentically? Read my blog post: https://yourethicalmarketer.co.uk/authentic-content/
Hands up if you're a social media lurker? 🙋♀️
Apparently, 90% of social media users are. That's no posting, liking, commenting – just scrolling!
If it wasn't for my job, I'd be part of the lurker tribe too. 🙈
And even now it is my job, I'm not always that great at actually liking and commenting on posts – you know, the social part of social media! 😬
Today, I want to remind you (and myself!) of how important engaging on social media is.
It's not all about posting great content - which is hard enough, I know! But you really need to like and comment, too.
But do be choosy about who! When trying to build a business profile, you want to engage with your ideal customers.
And not your competitors and friends – a trap I see many fall into! Us social media managers are the worst for this 🤦♀️
If you struggle with being social and engaging, then set yourself a block of time to engage intentionally.
Think of this time as for building connections rather than scrolling. It’s a much better use of your time in the long run.
Spend those however many minutes with the intention of commenting and liking on posts that you genuinely like and resonate with.
You don’t need to force yourself to write comments if you have nothing to add, but being more intentional with your time can make all the difference – especially if you are someone who gets ‘lost in the scroll.’
📱 Want to learn more about engaging on Instagram more strategically? Read my blog post: https://yourethicalmarketer.co.uk/ethical-social-media-engagement/
What you see vs what you don’t 👉👉
Here's to what we avoid sharing on social media that comes with running your own business – the sleepless nights, the frustration and the loneliness.
And for me personally, my migraines. I thankfully don’t get these as often as I used to, but as any fellow sufferers will agree, they can be quite debilitating when they do hit!
There's a hell of a lot of pressure when YOU are your business.
My identity is definitely intertwined with my freelance work so it can be really hard sometimes to take a step back and remember - we're not alone. 🫶
My business is more than myself - otherwise, it simply wouldn't continue; I'd have given up long before now!
So today, I want to shout out to the parts of us that we don’t share or see online. And those parts are just as valid and an important part of our success!
Without the bad, you don’t get the good. 💜
#MigraineAwarenessWeek
➡️ Feeling overwhelmed with social media? Here are 3 ways to create great social media content more authentically.
📌 Don’t try to be someone you aren’t
One of the biggest mistakes people make on social media is trying to be someone they’re not. They see all these amazing, perfect lives on Instagram and feel they must show a perfect life online, too. But that’s not authentic.
📌 Stay true to your brand values always
Being authentic also means staying true to your brand and what you stand for.
📌 Be thoughtful and sincere when engaging
People can see through insincerity and flattery. Don’t do it just because you’re trying to build a relationship or network.
Instead, engage authentically by offering thoughtful feedback and genuine praise when appropriate.
👉 Follow for more info about authentic content
😵💫 Feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone! 🫣
It’s an overwhelming time at the moment for almost everyone.
Something about this time of year demands productivity after a long summer! 🙃
You may not feel ready to dive back in yet or you’re daunted by the amount of work you have to do before the end of the year.
But you don’t need to feel this way - why not ask for help to take some things off your plate? 😌
If you’re able to - outsourcing can completely change your life. Handing over the tasks you don’t enjoy or that drain you can really make or break your business’ success.
And you don’t have to be earning six figures either!
Or even four figures!
An hour here or there from a professional could really make a difference and motivate you to make even more money long-term. 💪
Where to start? If you find that marketing is the most overwhelming part of business, then I'd love to take it off your plate.
I have availability starting in November for one-off busy periods or longer-term projects.
Get in touch today for a free no-obligation discovery call where we have a chat about you and your business and how I can help.
Email me at [email protected] to get started.
📌 Want to connect with new people on social media? Here’s a great tip for you…
Follow relevant hashtags that your ideal clients or customers are using.
That way, you will always have new people in your feed to connect with!
But here’s the thing: not all hashtags are equally effective.
You don’t want to follow hashtags that are super popular or have been used millions of times. That will just clutter up your feed.
Focus on finding and following the smaller niche hashtags that your ideal audience is using to get your feed filled with your ideal audience.
📱 Want to learn more about engaging on Instagram more strategically?
Read my blog post on this here: https://yourethicalmarketer.co.uk/ethical-social-media-engagement/
Social media is 👏 everything. 👏
Still, in 2024, people are questioning how important social media is for your business. 🤯
And this may be because they haven't yet seen for themselves the difference a good or bad social media presence can make.
A good social media presence includes:
🤓 A thought-through strategy
😇 Provides value to your audience
🥰 Builds a connection with your audience
And this can lead to...
📈 increased leads
💸 increased sales/conversions
🙂 positive view and likely to recommend to others
Whereas doing social media poorly can work against you.
It can put off leads straight away and give a negative impression of your whole business.
Getting it right has never been more important!
For an audit of your social media presence, DM me or email me at [email protected] - I want to help you thrive online! 💜
How many of these mistakes are you making?
Captions are hugely important in content, but they can sometimes be the hardest to write, right? 😅
So to help you in writing your next caption, here's the top 6 mistakes I often see – so you can avoid them!
📜 Formatting is cluttered
Captions are more than words - you need to think about how they look too.
Don't write in bulky paragraphs.
Use white space to make your captions easier to skim read and to emphasise your key message.
Break up your captions with new paragraphs/line breaks - one for each sentence is ideal.
Add emojis or dashes to visually break up the text.
🚦 Not suitable for the platform.
Not only does the way a caption is presented change significantly but the actions your audience can make changes too.
Take out any hashtags when posting on Facebook.
Edit down to meet character limits and check your call to action is suitable.
🔗 Using an URL on Instagram
URLs do not work in Instagram captions - literally (they aren't clickable).
Instead, focus on posting content that doesn't take your audience away from the platform where possible and direct them to the link in the bio or links in stories when you do.
❌ No Call to action
Ask your audience to do something in every caption (e.g. to click a link, leave a comment etc).
🤷♀️ Your Calls to Action aren't clear
Perhaps you are including a CTA, but is it strong enough?
Remember, your audience has limited time or attention, so you must make it very easy for them to do – or they won't bother.
Ask them to do one thing only per post.
💡 Your caption isn't valuable enough
You need to earn that call to action by giving your audience as much value as possible.
A caption with just a quote or an emoji no longer works in 2024.
Look at your content strategy for the wider reason you're posting in the first place.
💜 Like this post if it was helpful.
Do these five things 👇 and you'll create better content and have better results. 👇
1️⃣ Create a content calendar 🗓️
Getting organised with a content calendar is so important.
This gives you a plan to follow so you know what content to create and when.
2️⃣ It's all about the audience. 👫
Make sure your content is what your audience wants to hear - not what you want to tell them! Why should they care? Will it help or entertain them? If not, you probably shouldn't post it.
3️⃣ Always be experimenting with different content formats to reach a wider audience.📹
You can reach different people by using different formats (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics). I am a huge advocate for experimenting. Without testing something out, you will never know if it works for you and your audience.
4️⃣ Don't underestimate keywords 🔍
Keywords are everywhere - not just on your website and in blogs! They're also important in your social media posts.
Include keywords and phrases in your content to help you rank higher in search engine results pages and make you more easily discoverable on social media platform search results - so audiences are more likely to find you.
5️⃣ Have a content bank at the ready 💰
Your content doesn't need to be temporary. Good content can be used again and again. Save content that does well or covers your core topics so you can easily repurpose it. Post it as-is or try a new format to turn it into something new.
Got a question - let me know.
Which tip do you like the best?
👏 “Social media is not an admin job!” 👏
It takes skill to do social media well.
It’s not just uploading content to Facebook or wherever - there is SO much more to it than that if you want it to do well!
Running a social media channel is a full-time job in itself.
It is a skilled job, and experts spend years training and perfecting their craft.
There’s a reason successful businesses invest a HUGE amount of time, energy and money into their online presence.
So, if you want your business to be successful, too, then you need to do more than post on social media (when you remember).
You need a strategy with a plan that is thoughtfully executed.
And if you don’t feel like you have time for that (I don’t blame you!), then you need to outsource to an expert.
Get in touch if you’re ready to get serious about your marketing with the help of an expert.
