Brentwood Visual News and Tips

The Coronavirus pandemic has plunged the entire nation into an unprecedented situation, and small business owners are struggling to keep their customers informed during a situation that seems to change moment by moment.

With as fluid as everything is right now, there is a lot of bad information and rumors floating around out there. Every few minutes someone has a new announcement about whether a business is open or closed, or will be closing soon. As a business owner or manager, you are in the best position to provide accurate information. The challenge is getting the information out there in a way that makes it easy for people to find.

Everyone wants to drive traffic to their website, and everyone wants that traffic to turn into paying customers. But sitting there waiting for that traffic to appear isn't a great approach.

Most marketing techniques fall into one of two very broad categories. Push marketing involves techniques that get your message out in front of the customer to make an impression on them. Pull marketing is creating content that is sitting there waiting for the customer to come find it. Without a well-designed strategy, we find that most business owners tend to focus on pull marketing. While this is important, without the balancing approach of push marketing you are not likely to see the results you are looking for.

Every few weeks, another doomsayer will pop up in the news announcing the imminent collapse of Facebook as a social platform. They’ll trumpet new user numbers from [insert competing platform here] and compare those to slowing percentage numbers from Facebook. They’ll cite Congressional investigations, the rise of Instagram influencers, and the #DeleteFacebook movement. They’ll compare Facebook’s stock price to the overall market, and proclaim that the collapse is soon to come.

They may be right. But then again, maybe not.

At Brentwood Visual, we’re big on blogging. The blog is the single most useful tool in our marketing strategy, and the content created there is interwoven throughout your entire marketing campaign, from social media to improved SEO.

What is content marketing, and why should quality content be at the core of your social media marketing? If you’re new to content marketing, our guide is designed to answer your questions and help you get started.

What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and sharing quality content to attract and retain an audience. Instead of constantly pitching your products or services, you provide relevant and useful content to your customers and prospects. Content marketing establishes you as the expert, and builds trust and confidence in the eyes of your reader.

One component of content marketing is blogging. Writing a blog gives you the chance to provide useful information for your customers and solve their issues, and provides you with content to share across social media platforms and create awareness for your business.

Have you claimed your local search listings? If not, you should. Claiming any online listing of your business verifies that you are the owner of a valid business and gives you control of the information shown on your listings. Here’s how to claim your Big Three listings on the web: Google, Facebook, and Yelp.

Throughout our website, you’ll see us refer to the “Digital Marketing Funnel”. Anyone who has taken a marketing class or read a good marketing book is familiar with funnels, and there’s nothing magical about ours.

What the funnel provides for us is a roadmap. It gives us a starting point, and a structure that we can come back to when we start to drift. All that glitters is not gold, and there is a lot of glitter out there in the marketing world. Everyone has new ideas on the latest and greatest thing that “every business” needs to be doing. Many of these ideas are exciting and innovative, but if they’re not incorporated with the end goals in mind they can lead us off track.

How much of your business revenue should be spent on digital marketing? This is a question we hear a lot, and the simple answer is that there’s no simple answer. The “magic number” you typically hear is 10%. The Small Business Administration recommends budgeting 7-8% of gross revenues to marketing, assuming revenue below $5 million and profit margins of 10-12%.

The reality is that it’s far more important to look at your own needs and goals to determine where you want to take your business.

Sharing quality content across your social channels is the primary way to engage and connect with your audience. To create a content strategy that actually works, consistency is key. Streamline your content process with an editorial calendar, which gives you a place to organize ideas and schedule months of quality posts ahead of time (so you have more time to create content, instead of just managing it).

Yearly Strategy
Start with the big picture, deciding on a primary topic to focus on each month. The topic you choose will shape your social media posts for the month and give you a starting point as you create your content, from writing blog posts, staff profiles or client newsletters, to creating new videos for your website.

How important are online customer reviews? Very important—more than 85% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 72% of consumers will make a purchase only after reading positive reviews. Since 91% of typical U.S. consumers regularly or occasionally read online reviews, a review process can help you receive more reviews and effectively manage your online reputation.