SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY with Catherine Langman

#004SOCIALMEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY with Catherine Langman

Social media is an ever changing topic so we encourage you to please ask questions in the group, share useful articles you find and ask for help with any of your social media challenges or ideas.

As this is such a huge topic in this module we’ve decided to narrow down and focus on the one aspect of social media that can produce the biggest results for small businesses when executed correctly. We’re focusing on Facebook but the same approach of using compelling copy, images, targeting and calls to action can be easily adapted to apply to Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterestand even Google Ads once you’ve learnt the basic principles of how to do it.

We’re going to focus on how to create compelling Facebook Posts that actually convert into increased traffic, leads and new customers!

We’ll have you identify your customer's core desires, and map out how your products or services can meet those desires. It's SUPER SIMPLE and it’s VITAL to the success of your Facebook ads!

Most people tend to focus on describing their service or product’s features at a more superficial level. What it is, what it looks like, what it does, how much it costs. But that’s not REALLY what people want.

Let’s dive deeper with a real-life example from one of my clients.

Let’s say you sell baby and kids’ sunglasses and you happen to sell the most expensive baby and kids sunglasses on the market. They’re the most expensive because they offer the highest level of UV/sun protection, and because they’re made to be pretty much indestructible. If you pitch this product in exactly the same way as all the other kids’ sunglasses on the market that are less than half the price, you’ve already lost.

Why is this?

Have a think about the Facebook ads you see in your newsfeeds. Usually they say something along the lines of, ‘Are you looking for a widget? We are proud to make quality widgets. Click here to buy yours today.”

Often, such statements are presented alongside a single product photograph (sometimes not even a good quality, professional photograph). How enticing does that statement sound? Does it even capture your attention when scrolling your Facebook newsfeed? Let alone click through?

I’ll tell you what it makes me think (this is if I actually notice it…). It makes me feel like I’m being sold to. I also have no idea what’s in it for me.

Obviously if I’d already tried the widget and loved it, I’d probably forgive the messaging and be happy to buy it.

Advertising like this allows your potential customers to assume your product or services features and benefits are EXACTLY THE SAME as the alternatives, so then their purchase decision is made purely on price.

Unless you run a deep discount business, you never want to differentiate your brand, services or products based on price. How else do you pitch your products or services then?

First of all, you need to understand HOW your customers buy.

Customer has a burning need, problem or desire and starts looking for a solution. Customer may have already tried various other solutions without much success. They are possibly feeling like a solution that works for her doesn’t exist.

Customer comes sees your ad at just the right moment. Your images show people just like this customer, happily using your product or service in situations that look very much like her real life. So far, so good. Then, they start reading your copy. They read about how your product or service was designed to solve a problem just like theirs. In fact, you can describe their situation PERFECTLY. It’s like you were just in their head!

They read about how the product or service can help the customer achieve their desired outcome (or solution). But not some generic, watered down version.

Again, the transformation is described EXACTLY how the customer imagines it. The customer sees HERSELF in your ad.

Your Facebook ad – your text, your images, your offer, heck, even your call to action – needs to attract, connect, educate and motivate action.

And the best way to do that is to inspire your ideal customers to believe that their dreams are attainable.

ASSESSMENT TASK #1 Facebook Ads

Part A/

Who Is Your Ideal Customer?

Social media advertising allows you to target your ads to your exact niche, this is much more cost effective than traditional advertising and when done correctly can bring you a powerful ROI (return on investment) because instead of targeting to everyone you can focus on the people who will really want your product or service the most!

Describe your ideal Customer:

TARGETING for your ad -

Use this information to help you select the keywords and choices you will use to target your ideal customer:

Location:

Age:

Gender:

Interests:

Demographics:

Family:

Values:

Part B:

Develop your Product or Service Value Statement

You need to articulate HOW your product or service moves your customers from their ‘before’ state (their need, want or desire) to their ‘ideal after’ state (their ‘desired end result’).

The Value Statement should describe the transformation your product or service enables, AND do it in a way that is emotionally appealing. (NOTE: this last point is incredibly important because as consumers, we all make purchase decisions based on emotion, not logic!)

How to write your Product or Service Value Statement:

First, complete this fill-in-the-blanks statement: ______(your product/service name) enables ______(describe your ideal customer) to experience ______(their desired end results).

Then, I want you to answer these two questions with a short 2-paragraph story:

1. Start by describing your customer’s “average day”

2. Describe how your product/service CHANGES their average day.

For example, ‘I think I can guess how you’re feeling right now. Your baby is fussy and only sleeps if you’re walking around and holding him. You’re absolutely exhausted, running on empty, and you’re feeling very anxious that something is wrong with your baby. Imagine if a simple change to your baby’s nursery setup could provide the same soothing effect as you cradling him? Imagine if he could confidently settle and sleep all on his own? Imagine how you would feel, knowing your baby was happy, calm and settled?’

Part C:

Make a Compelling Offer

Your Facebook ad copy (the text you use in your ad) needs to do 3 things:

1. Show that you understand your customers RIGHT NOW,

2. Make them a promise to deliver their desired TRANSFORMATION (through your product or service), and

3. Prompt them to take ACTION. That means to CLICK on your ad!

So far I've talked you through how to achieve the first two points, but to get the click you really need to have a compelling offer.

Sometimes the offer is simply to achieve the desired transformation, and sometimes it's an incentive (like free shipping for instance).

Your task is to decide what ACTION you are asking people to take and write it in a short action statement that begins with "Click here to...".

Remember your first ad should appeal to their situation right now AND demonstrate how the product/service helps them achieve that desired end result.

Be creative you could use video, written testimonials, images.

WRITE your ad here: 25 - 100 words

Don’t forget to include a call to action and the images you would use.

PART 1.ADVANCED*

*Optional activity

Observe & measure:

Boost a post for $30 and run a 7 day campaign

•Followers - how many facebook or instagram fans before you started compared to at the end,

•Engagement - how many likes or comments the post attracted

•Hits - how many click-throughs to your website happened

•Leads – how many new inquiries were generated

•Sales - how many sales were generated

•and any other things you noticed

3. Explain why you chose the images, content and call to actions or offers for this ads.

4. Explain the targeting you used for the ads

5. Explain the offer or call to action you chose and why

6. Reflect on what you learnt from this campaign and ideas for what would you do differently next time.

ASSESSMENT TASK #2 Content Marketing

Content marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. All this talk about ‘content being king’ makes out that content is some mysterious entity that we don’t know about, the truth is it’s not. Content marketing is just about sharing interesting information.

It’s simple

There’s so much noise at the moment that it can be difficult to cut through but the keys to good content are simply:

1. Connecting with people

2. Sharing relevant and interesting information

3. Being consistent

How often?

Posting to social media should happen each day but blogging doesn’t have to be as frequent and for most business owners it’s an unrealistic goal because there are so many other jobs that need to be done. A weekly blogging goal is much easier to stick to and as well as this focusing on just one post a week is an easy way to maintain a consistent blogging schedule.

But what do I write about?

Your posts need to be interesting and something that people will want to read about and hopefully even share with their friends. There are three questions to ask yourself:

1. Who is my audience and what are they interested in?

2. Is this information relevant to my business and products or services?

3. What are people who want what I’ve got searching for on google?

All 3 of these things are important but the one I want you to really focus on is what are they searching for when they’re looking for you.

What are the keywords that they’re typing in? If you sell cakes they might search for ‘Birthday party ideas’ if you sell jewelry they might search for ‘accessories to wear with red dress’ think about what the search words would be for someone who was looking for you. Write down those 3 or 4 words or phrases. This is where you should start from when thinking about what to write.

Choosing a title

Ok so now you have a great starting point – a topic. From here you need to create a title that’s going to catch attention and attract the right people to come and see you. If you found that people were finding you by searching ‘Birthday party ideas’ this is easy you can create lots of great content with a birthday party ideas series. But if they were searching for ‘silver jewelry’ you’re going to need to be a bit more creative to stand out from the crowd. ‘Silver jewelry trends’ could be a good title or ‘How to wear silver jewelry’. Play around with a few ideas until you come up with something that feels right for your audience and that they will be interested to learn more about. You get bonus points for including the search keywords in your title too.

Outline the topic

Content doesn’t have to be long to be interesting. Keep it simple and use pictures to help get the message across if you can too. Use dot points to help you to get your ideas in order and a framework like 5 ways to ______or 5 reasons why ______or 5 tips to ______can help get the words flowing faster too. There are also automated blog idea generators you can try too which can help provide inspiration for what to write about.

The purpose

Yes you want to drive traffic to your site but unless you’ve given them a really good reason to buy from you they’ll just turn up, read your post and leave. All that work for nothing! This was something I didn’t understand for a long time. They say ‘Build it and they will come’. Yes they will come, but then what? It’s not enough to just get more traffic, doubling your traffic still won’t increase your profits if you’re not giving them a reason to buy.

CALL TO ACTION

The next step is ensuring you have a compelling offer or call to action. Why do you want people to visit your site? It’s normally so that they’ll buy something. How can you entice them into buying from you? A common way is to offer a discount, but discounting prices is just one way to catch people’s attention. You could offer a package of different products together. You could feature a popular or new product.

Or maybe your objective is to get people to sign up for your newsletter or as leads so you can ring them, you could run a competition or prize giveaway or you could create a free download of some kind.

Your offer normally goes at the end of the post. Put a time limit on it and create a sense of urgency and encourage them to take action right now rather than later on when they might miss out and include a link through to the sales page.

Promote

The most important step of all is to tell people about your content! Share it to facebook, pinterest, twitter, instagram, linkedin and put it in your newsletter too. Use interesting images and include an excerpt of your text to get people interested rather than the whole post and entice them to go to your site to READ MORE >.

Let's get started!

Part A/

Answer these three questions:

Who is my audience and what are they interested in?
Is this information relevant to my business and products or services?
What are people who want what I’ve got searching for on google?

Part B/

Choosing a title and outline the topic

Brainstorm 4 titles and the topics for blogs you could write

Part C/

Call to Action:

What will you offer to turn your readers in to customers it could be a printable, special offer, competition etc, get creative

Part D/

Promote:

How will you promote this content?

SUBMIT your Assessment:

WRITE your Write one blog post from the topics you have outlined above here
Don’t forget to include a call to action and the images you would use
Explain why you chose the image, content and call to action or offer for this blog post.
Explain the ideal customer targeting you thought about when writing the content for this post

PART 2. ADVANCED*