While on vacation, I am happy to feature Wax Marketing Founder Bonnie Harris as a guest blogger. Take it away Bonnie!
I always laugh when people say the newspaper is dead and it’s “all about social media” now. If you’ve been reading Nancy Juetten’s Authentic Visibility blog, you know for small businesses in particular, print is still very much alive. So is guerilla marketing, radio, TV and the rest of traditional media. Social media is an inexpensive (free if you don’t count your time) set of additional messaging channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Social media can deliver your message , and it can also accelerate and invigorate your results from traditional media. Here’s how to do it.
If you haven’t already, pick your social media outlets to match your customers. Retail does well on Facebook, especially if you’ve got a loyal fan base. Add Twitter to help feed fans to your Facebook page. If you’re a B2B service or product, LinkedIn might be a good bet.
Write down the possible media you may use to promote your business or a particular event for your business. An event can be a sale, a discount, a new product, a new location – anything that’s NEW or SPECIAL. That list should include anything you pay for, like ads in a community paper plus anything that’s not paid for, like calendar listings, Twitter postings, etc.
Now make two lists. The first list is the set of media you REGULARLY communicate with . This should include your social media sites, regular advertising that’s working for you and anything else you’re currently doing. List the frequency you post or advertise there two, if it’s daily, weekly, etc.
This list gives you a really good picture of the ‘maintenance’ piece of your marketing. Take a look at it carefully. Are you capturing all the places your customers turn to for information about your type of product or service? Ask your friends if they would add anything. Maybe you’re not listed in all the local Yelp.com and Yahoo.com directories? Really look at this carefully. Now create a checklist to help you choose the COMBINATION of media that will give you the best results.
List all the possible media you could use, from social media to ads, to TV, to banners at the local soccer game, whatever is available. For your next “event” decide what combination of media you are going to use. For example, maybe you’re going to use your next ad in the community paper to highlight a sale coming up. Then, you’re going to communicate that the sale is coming through Twitter and offer another discount coupon on Facebook.
You’ll also have in-store signage announcing the sale and you’re letting the local shopping bloggers know about it too so maybe they’ll mention it in a blog post. Decide when you’ll start talking about the event and how often you’ll announce it in each chosen channel.
Most importantly, MEASURE your results after the event. Did you get more people than usual? Where did people say they heard about the sale? Did you get more of a “bump” from social media than you thought (or less)?
You should begin understand the right mix of new and old media to use for your business. Don’t worry, no one gets it right the first time. With each event you do, change up your mix a bit. Maybe you’ll tweet a little sooner this time. Maybe once you have more Facebook fans you won’t need such a big ad. Tweak it as you go along and measure it afterwards to find the right “recipe” for your marketing mix.
Bonnie Harris is the founder of Wax Marketing, Inc. She has over 20 years experience promoting businesses and products of all kinds. Read her blog or follow her on Twitter for more ideas!
