Just like a written budget, a content calendar can be liberating! When I sat down to complete my first content calendar it was overwhelming. There in front of me was a blank 30 day calendar with blank lines for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and email for each day, 120 total ideas that had to be filled in. I compare a content calendar with a budget plan because they both seem like they can be done on the fly and taking hours to fill out each one may seem like a waste of time. However, the opposite is true. Taking those 2-3 hours up front takes the pressure off for the rest of the month and not to mention that when you take the time to plan something it usually is of higher quality than when you just try to throw something out there.
It’s important not to plan your content calendar all around ME ME ME. You want to structure your topics as a 4-1 approach, meaning you give four times before asking once. No one likes to be hounded to buy something and have coupons shoved down their throat, so give (X 4), then you can ask for the sale. For May, try creating your own content calendar and see if your engagement increases and stress decreases. If you answered no, WOW are you missing out on some awesome opportunities and if you are like, “yea I do that”, are you doing all that you can to bring value to that customer and make them a fanatic of your brand?
Today, marketers utilize email as a source to send out mass coupons and just care about conversions from that campaign in terms of dollars. What should be thought about is lasting impression. With all of the noise out there that brands are creating, how can you interact with your customers in a fun way and not be so “salesy”. The marketers who win are the ones who use a large medium such as email, but instead of thinking of every email as just an input, they think of every email as a real person and what can be done to make that person take time out of their day to interact with a brand. Ideas on how to rise above the noise and create high interaction touch points with customers:
What campaign will you run next with your customers? Will you take the easy path or try something new that may have 0 return on the front end but a priceless return in the long game. When you meet someone and you learn they have authored a book or published an article, you view them as an authority figure, that's just the perception the general public has. How can you establish that credibility for your business? Do you need to go out and write a 200 page book on running a laundromat (if you are in fact a laundromat owner) or reach out to INC magazine and hope they do an article on you for no reason?
NO, but there is another option I own a resale maternity clothing store, Bellies to Babies (BelliestoB.com) for those of you looking for some stylish maternity clothing for a great price (shameless plug). I am always thinking of ways to establish credibility for our customers and provide as much value as I can without an “ask” for money each time. I thought of ways to further connect with my customers but thought blogs, direct mail, and email were not the right channel (though important channels to utilize) to really WOW our customers and leave them with something that would make us stand out from the daily noise a consumer has to swim through each day. One day I was looking through templates on Canva.com, a drag and drop online design free tool, and found a magazine template and thought, how cool would that be to have a physical magazine in our stores that we could also mail to our top customers. So BAM, the journey began. I took articles from our blog and put them in magazine format, added some high performing Facebook posts, and created a quiz that customers could email in their answer for a shot at a prize, and sent the file off to the printers. Fast forward several weeks and the response we received was priceless. Customers loved reading the magazine as they waited for their clothing offer or spouses took a read while waiting in the dressing room area. We also had customers from around the country that we had shipped to in the past ask us to send them a copy in the mail. Now we are on our 3rd issue and each time we go to print we “sell” (they are free) out and customers are interested in the articles we post and are hungry for more. Do you think this response would have come from a newsletter or email campaign...probably not. Here are the steps to creating your own magazine that will establish a new level of credibility with your customers.
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Who is this guy?Hi! I am Dan Canfield, a born marketer that thrives on pushing the boundaries in my industries. I am currently a business owner, consultant, and employee, so I have a diverse perspective in the business world. This site is an outlet for me to share what I have learned and give you a piece of my mind. |