A big question our clients have is what about business social media marketing? If you currently don’t use social media at all, the plethora of different mediums can seem overwhelming. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, it can be had to decipher what exactly your company needs. Even more than that a big question we face is on which mediums do you decide to use sponsored ads. Well, it’s simple. It depends on your company and your target market.
We wouldn’t suggest twitter for people who are looking to reach an older generation. Knowing your target market is a huge part of figuring out what your company should pursue when it comes to business social media marketing. However, something that we have found with our experience and data is that Facebook and Google + are imperative to any industry and any target market. Digitally using this marketing avenue is announcing to the world that your business is open, and if your content is high-quality, it shows the world that your business is awesome.
In order to make sure that your Facebook and Google + is actually working for you though, it’s important to make sure that there are people working on your campaign that know how to read the data, and who know how to target your ads to the right audience. That’s where we come in. You do have to spend money on the ads, but it can be a waste if you don’t take the time to manage them correctly. Don’t waste your time or your money.
So, if you’re looking to impress people with your work, presentation can be almost everything. For example, if you’re a photographer here are some crucial tips for making your work look its best.
SHOOT FOR FREE OR TRADE
If you want to quickly build a portfolio of work that you can use to get paid bookings for, the fastest and easiest way to do this is to shoot for free.
ONLY SHOW YOUR VERY BEST WORK
do a strong edit. This part is going to hurt, but trust me on this. The quality of your work will be judged by your weakest image.
GET A SECOND OPINION.
Now that you’ve got some work you feel proud of, get some opinions. Ask a few trusted friends, family, and other photographers to give you honest feedback and critique.
This is actually one of the more fascinating issues. A novice would say, “charge more for your products or services” or “cut costs”. To an extent this is right, but it is far more complicated than this.
There are many different things to research here. The first thing, and as in the question above, we must research the processes. Automation, again, is something we definitely need to look for. This is not about firing employees and hiring robots. This is about fundamentally saving time out of your day. We had a client who owns a nationwide business and came to us because she felt she was putting in far too many hours a day for what she was making. We found that she was spending hours upon hours a week hand-writing individual checks to pay her employees. Among an entire platform for her business, one of the things we implemented was a way for her to do her payroll on the backend of her website. No more hand written checks. We saved her almost 8 hours a week. Time is the most valuable thing one can have. First look for ways to automate. Second, we must look into cost inefficiencies. How can you save money by looking for companies that you can partner with? Explore the age old question, should you rent or should you lease? An example of this is a photographer having to spend the exorbitant money upfront for camera lenses. Why spend $2,000 dollars and deplete your cash reserves when you can go to borrowlenses.com and rent the same lens for $15/ week? We look for smart ways to keep cash in your pocket. Lastly, maybe you are selling your products for too cheap. We will dive in and perform the competitive research on where your prices should realistically be. One of the biggest mistakes of the small business owner is selling themselves short. A more professional web presence and SEO strategy most certainly can enable you to increase your sticker price.
Here are some other questions that we are frequently asked on a regular basis. Do you have the issues with your business or profession? Let’s get to the bottom of it.
Delegate my friend. Easier said than done, and we understand that. That is why we explore all ideas in and outside of the box. We will research the client’s business processes and compare them to their competitors. We will then look for ways to automate mundane and tedious tasks. A really simple example: we have come across numerous clients who got stuck on the phone answering the same questions over and over. Especially in regards to sole proprietors, this can be very detrimental to business. We implemented an interactive contact form with drop down options helping the customer navigate through these high volume questions. Where did we put the form? Right next to the phone number on the website. This is a great and somewhat simple tip. Please take a note of it and do some of these little things to your site to make your life easier.
Creative roll out strategy is one our biggest strengths. Having launched new online stores to hard rock albums, our entrepreneurial juices are always flowing. The most important emphasis here is the initial research. To the best of your knowledge, will the dogs eat the dog food? Counterflow operates under lean business theory going through the necessary iterations and pivots to test the demand for the particular product or service at hand. It does not matter whether it is a new business or a new ice cream flavor for Ben & Jerry’s, we are the ones to rollout your out your innovations. It takes true fire and grit to try new things. This company was founded with the entrepreneurial fire at its core.
This is likely an issue of visibility, meaning your target customer is having trouble finding you at the crucial contact points. We need to dive in and find out where your customer contacts points are. An example of a contact point is appearing on a google search. For example, if you own a hairstyling store, and through our research, we discover 90 percent of your target customers search the following phrase, “haircut stores in Beverly Hills” on google, the first thing we would likely propose is for us to build a highly optimized website that pops up on google when prospective customers search for anything similar to “haircut stores in Beverly Hills”. Many times, this starts with a revamp of the client’s web presence, as the majority of businesses in today’s economy are found through the web. A solid foundation (website) where we can guide the customer is the first priority. The next phase would be to explore ways to get the customer to the ideal location through different advertising mediums.