Nov 12, 2018 | Blog, News
Why the 80/20 rule matters
You may have heard the concept of the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle. It states that for many events, 80% of the effects come from the 20% of causes. But what is 80/20 rule when it comes to social media and why is it important?
In social media, the 80/20 rule states that 80% leads are generated by 20% marketing effort. This rule is applicable generally in marketing. Engaging your audience on social media is a very tough job; there is no definite formula on this. The basic concept of the 80/20 rule is that; 80% you should post valuable, entertaining content while the other 20% is to promoting your products or services through posts with a strong call to action.
80% – Interact. Inspire. Educate. Entertain. Connect.
This should be on the 80% of your time. Make all your posts about your audience and building that relationship. People rely on social media primarily to be entertained, if you’re not doing that then you’re not having a conversation with your target audience. Audiences always like interesting and educative content, they react to these type of posts and also have time to share this with their followers. So 80% of your social posts should be appealing and interesting, funny and informative.
Your posts should be of course shareable and have quality content. These posts can include articles, videos, photos, questions, interesting facts, news and many more.. This content should provoke your audience interest and engagement and your audience should feel the connection to your brand.
And remember – you don’t have to create all of this content yourself, you can curate it by sourcing content from others and sharing it with your social media community.
But we know that engaging your audience is also a difficult task so let me give you tips on how you can get the 80% educational content.
- check what kind of posts people are reacting to
- check what your competitors are sharing on their social media accounts
- highlight those which is “must read” and don’t just simply share content
- prioritise visual content, like images and especially video
Just remember that 80% of your posts should be in engaging your audience and not merely talking about your business.
20% – Promote
In the remaining 20%, the content should be about your brand or business. Every bit of information regarding your products, services, offers and all other information should be listed. When you promote your products or services, just make sure that your audience can benefit also from it. You can do this by promoting discount or special offers and you can also remind them about what an excellent experience they have by purchasing from you.
Tips to creating promotional content (20%)
- develop a persuasive call to action
- link back to your website
- include information that benefits your customers: special offers discounts, promos, etc
Having a persuasive call to action is very important because this leads to the growth of your target audience, and is more likely to generate traffic to your website. This is because it will inspire your audience to know more about your product or brand and they will tend to dig deeper.
There is really no universal formula to successfully building a social media presence for your brand and keeping your audience engaged to it. However, in most instances, it is ok to use the 80/20 rule as a guide to ensure that your followers would be interested and will keep coming back for more.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Aug 5, 2017 | Blog, News
How Often Should You Email Your Database?
One of the strongest ways for companies to engage and to communicate with their customers is through email marketing. By using email, they can keep in touch with their clients and inform them about their services and new products. The use of email marketing can amplify a businesses’ marketing strategy through nurturing existing contacts.
So how often do you need to send out your emails to your clients?
Based on Australian research, one possible reason why customers unsubscribe is because you send too many emails with not enough valuable content. Some people consider these emails as spam. Companies should be careful in sending emails to avoid their accounts from being reported. In Australia, there are strict rules that need to be followed to comply with the Australian spam laws. The following are the three simple steps that will help you do responsible email marketing and abide with Australia’s legislation.
- Make sure that you ask for the person’s consent before you send this type of marketing. This is mostly done through Opt-in mailing lists.
- In any email marketing, you should always remember to identify the organisation which is responsible for the sent emails.
- The customers must have an option to unsubscribe with the emails sent to them.
Although there is really no hard and fast rule on how many times you should email your database because it depends on what you are trying to accomplish, you should always err on the side of caution. Regarding on how often you should send emails, there are some guidelines that you can follow in order to make sure that you’re still on track when it comes to updating your database.
- Send email a minimum of once per month. If you blog once a month, or have monthly offers for your customers, this is the perfect frequency for you. Make sure you commit to once a month, and no less, as you still want to remain front of mind for your database
- Send email a maximum of once per week. We recommend sending emails a maximum of once per week, unless you have breaking news or something urgent or compelling to say. When you send out emails in a daily manner, your customers will simply unsubscribe you or even report the emails as spam.
Clearly, there is really no perfect answer on how often you need to email your database. But one thing is for sure, whether how many times you send out, daily, weekly, or monthly, you have to remember that the content is the key to make your email marketing strategy effective. Always make it a point that your email provides quality, valuable content.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Jul 21, 2016 | Blog, News, Reputation management
How will you respond to criticism online?
Online reputation – do you know yours?
With two in three Australians using social media regularly, there’s a good chance your business (and therefore your online reputation) is being talked about somewhere in cyberspace. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not.
Users take to the many platforms available, especially Facebook and Twitter, when they’ve had a wonderful experience. Conversely, when someone has had a bad experience with you, it’s safe to assume that it will end up on the internet somewhere, most likely on your own Facebook page or Twitter.
Criticism itself may not damage your brand. However, the way your business handles it will impact on your brand perception. This article from Croud shows how bad social media can get, if not done right.
So how do you manage you brand reputation in social spaces online? Here are my tips:
Get all the facts:
Your first reaction to a complaint could be to take it personally and to delete the comment. Avoid doing this. Instead offer to speak to them over the phone to establish the basis for their complaint. With all the facts you can address the problem and if appropriate offer compensation.
Stay calm:
People’s first reaction to a negative comment is to get defensive. Even more so if they feel the comment isn’t warranted but a defensive reaction often makes something minor major.
Keep calm, put your personal feelings aside, and manage the complaint objectively.
Keep on top of your social media:
Social media plays out in real time – a major strength for communicating with your customers. On the downside what could have started out as a small concern can blow up into a major one if it is not addressed quickly.
Who remembers the unfortunate Aldi campaign where followers were encouraged to ‘fill in the blank‘? Let’s just say it lead to a torrent of tweets that did not add any value to the company, and may have even done damage to the brand. But it was the fact that it took Aldi what seemed like an eternity, to attempt to shut the campaign down.
Then there’s this little gem from PayPal’s Director of Global Strategy, who learned the lesson – that no matter how hard you try, you can’t delete your tweets.
Monitor your social media regularly and always be proactive. If you don’t have the capacity to do it yourself – train designated employees to respond on your behalf. And always respond promptly.
Fix and follow up:
Mistakes happen. If your business was at fault, fix it. If nothing else it has given you the opportunity to improve your business.
With the issue resolved go back to the person who made the complaint to check that it has been resolved. By doing this you are demonstrating you listen and treat complaints seriously. Other followers will see how you have handled the complaint and will see firsthand how well you handle negative experiences.
Plan for the bad stuff:
Incorporate Negativity Management into your Social Media Strategy. Even the best business will have experienced an unhappy customer no matter how hard they work on delivery. By having a plan aimed at managing complaints, you won’t be left scrambling when the inevitable happens.
Share your Social Media Plan with your employees:
Share the plan and offer training to manage angry customers in a diplomatic way. This will make your social media strategy stronger and will improve your overall customer service experience.
GoDaddy provides a good example of having a crisis communication strategy in place. In 2012, their service went down effecting thousands of customers. As the dominate player in low cost hosting this was a major catastrophe.
They quickly responded via social media letting their customers know what happened and how it was being addressed this was followed with regular updates. The result was surprising, customers praised GoDaddy for their quick response and customer service.
This highlights the importance of having a sound negative management strategy in place. It means you can respond quickly and appropriately protecting the reputation of your business.
Above all else remember negative comments and your approach to them will play out in a very public forum where you can be easily judged. If people perceive you to have handled a situation badly it will be amplified as they retweet or comment on your post. Remember be genuine, don’t patronise or be sarcastic and show you are willing to listen and learn from your customers.
By adopting these techniques you address criticism and educate people on your brand. You can take control of the conversation and steer the negative experience into a positive one. The critic will focus less on the negative and more on the positive turning them into your strongest brand champion.
Over to you
What experiences have you had with social media and how could you have managed them more effectively?
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
