Category Archives: Advertising

In search of the minimum viable audience.

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by Seth Godin

Of course everyone wants to reach the maximum audience. To be seen by millions, to maximize return on investment, to have a huge impact.

And so we fall all over ourselves to dumb it down, average it out, pleasing everyone and anyone.

You can see the problem.

When you seek to engage with everyone, you rarely delight anyone. And if you’re not the irreplaceable, essential, one-of-a-kind changemaker, you never get a chance to engage with the market.

The solution is simple but counterintuitive: Stake out the smallest market you can imagine. The smallest market that can sustain you, the smallest market you can adequately serve. This goes against everything you learned in capitalism school, but in fact, it’s the simplest way to matter.

Continue reading on Seth’s Blog…

How to make Facebook work for your business.

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According to Facebook, there are more than 50 million active business Pages, and most likely you have one as well.

Here are six ways to maximize the bene ts of a Facebook business page and help to engage with, and possibly increase, your customer base:

1. Link your Facebook page to your website, or make Facebook your main online presence

No website yet? No problem. Many businesses use Facebook as their primary online presence. But remember, you want to build your brand, not the social media site’s brand. The solution: register a domain name (or web address) and redirect it to your Facebook page. Also known as web forwarding, you create a rule that all visitors to your domain name be directed to a web location of your choice (in this case your Facebook page). Redirecting gives you a memorable and permanent company web address to use for marketing and is becoming increasingly popular. From the fourth quarter of 2014 to the fourth quarter of 2015, redirects to a Facebook page have increased by 21 percent.

If you already have a website, make sure to include social sharing buttons on prominent pages and content. That way people who nd something of interest on your site can easily like and share that content on their social media channels.  Continue reading →

Sometimes, old school marketing really works.

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Direct mail has faded dramatically as a way to reach out to new customers. That said, you can stand out in the recipient’s mail box if you keep things simple and do it right. Here’s an example of a postcard that might work for you, and it can be really cost effective.

Post card example

If you want to give it a try, go for a 5 1/2 inch by 8 1/2 inch format with a dramatic color on one side. You can use a photo to grab people’s attention but the right “grab line” will do a better job.

A little help from Ken Sethney, volunteer business mentor at Kitsap SCORE and former marketing coach for the CEOs of mid-size companies. 

How to Spy on Your Competitors’ Facebook Ads

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by Nate Mendenhall

Ever wondered what kind of Facebook Ads competitors in your space are running? Do you sometimes feel like you hit a creative wall with your ads?

You’re in luck – I have a great way to spy on your competitors’ Facebook Ads and ways to get different ideas for future campaigns. This tactic was shown to me by an amazing colleague of mine and I just had to share.

First, navigate to your home News Feed and take a peek at the second post from the top of the feed – its most likely an ad. Click the down arrow on the upper right corner of the ad and select ‘Why am I seeing this?

The next screen provides an explanation as to why you’re seeing the ad, as well as some targeting parameters that the advertiser used to target you. If you see an ad from your competitor, definitely find out why you are seeing it.

Continue reading on Social Media Today.

3 Easy Ways to Up Your Google Analytics Game

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Being able to make data-driven decisions on customer data in real time should be every business’s goal. As businesses collect data from their websites, digital analytics can give them the power to transform that data into useful knowledge they can act on.

When digital analytics is done right, it will help you and your organization improve online marketing effectiveness, generate new customer insights, drive revenue and ultimately make better business decisions.

But getting there is hard.  By now, you may have heard of Google Analytics (GA) and hopefully, you have a GA account set up for your small business. Google Analytics is a great resource for small businesses because it’s free and easy to get started. But just because you are collecting data does not mean that the data is ready to inform your business decisions.

Continue reading →

Do you need a mailing list of potential customers?

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Pull out your library card and get busy.

The Kitsap Regional Library, with none branch locations and a bookmobile, can give you access to lots of online research tools. All you need is a library card.

For example, you’ve decided what your Class A prospects look like (question #2 on the Bullet Point Marketing Plan worksheet) and you’ve decided that the best way to reach them would be by mailing a postcard.

Excellent. Go to the Library’s website at www.krl.org and select Business under the Research pull-down. Then, click referenceUSA link and sign in using your library card number. Don’t have one, visit the nearest library and get one for free.

Yes the reference USA search tools to create and download a list into a spreadsheet that can be used to create mailing labels (mail merge into Word, then labels, for example). The list can be any geographic parameters, and you can narrow it down by brackets (ranges) of household income.

If you have a problem finding your Class A prospects, ask to speak with a librarian. It will only take 15 to 20 minutes and you’ll be ready to go. If you’ve got a bit more time, ask the librarian to show you more of the helpful things you can find for free using the Library’s website.