Name: The Go! Agency
Address: 1301 Seminole Blvd, Suite C128 Largo, FL, 33770
Telephone: 866.926.2636

Why You Should Release a Podcast

23Jan

I often talk with people who are surprised when I recommend that they start a podcast to develop their personal brand. And I get why: People think of podcasts as things for celebrities and comedians. But the reality is that creating a podcast is one of the smartest things you can do for yourself.

Like with anything else, though, never just take someone’s word when it comes to handling your brand. Instead, let me explain exactly why creating a podcast is a step that you should be taking immediately.

People Are Listening
Podcast listenership has been growing for years with no signs of stopping, and it isn’t just for younger audiences, either. People at every age are listening to podcasts, which means that no matter who you’re trying to impress, there’s an audience waiting for you.

I’ve found it especially useful in trying to build relationships with colleagues. 70-72% of business owners with 100 to 500 employees are listening to podcasts, according to a study from Bredin. That same study found that 38% of small business owners are listening, which makes podcasting a valuable networking strategy for professionals.

It’s not as if people are only listening to one or two podcasts, either. On average, listeners have five favorite podcasts that they tune into regularly. You’ve got people who are listening and they’re looking for more than one podcast—so why aren’t you releasing one already?

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It’s Not Impossible
The refrain I always hear is that making a podcast is just too hard. You don’t have the skills, the know-how, and you’re not sure what you’d talk about. And sure, it’s not going to be possible if you focus on how hard it’s going to be, but it isn’t that difficult when you start thinking proactively.

Equipment isn’t hard to come by, and there is no shortage of step-by-step guides to starting your own podcast. All you need to do is find something to say, and that isn’t even difficult if you’re really prepared to be an active contributor to conversations in your industry. Read about current topics to clue in on the conversations happening and give your listeners that information with your two cents added in.

Ultimately, you want to be driving these conversations, which is going to mean reading a lot of industry news and monitoring trends. Is that a lot of work? Sure, but it’s not something that’s unattainable for you, and the benefits are significant.

You Can Be a Person
When your business releases content, it indirectly reflects on you and your values. But only with something like a podcast can you show your audience exactly who you are and what matters to you. It’s your chance to build a brand outside of your business, one that is entirely contingent on what you personally bring to the table. That’s a lot of pressure, but it’s also freeing!

You get to talk solely about what interests you about your industry, and people are going to see a real person behind it instead of your business. This can go a long way in humanizing both your personal brand and your business and lends a lot of credibility to both. Audiences respond best to actual humans, so show them who you are and why you’re relevant!

Start Recording
Now that you understand why podcasts are so valuable to your personal brand, it’s time to get to work. Start investing in your podcast! I’m sure that if you put the effort in, you’ll see great results!

Do you want a little help getting your podcast started? Just schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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5 Things to Have Your Professional Writer Work On

By Christopher Tompkins

21Jan

Copywriting

Now that you know how important it is to hire a professional writer, what do you actually have them do? I hinted at a lot of writing tasks in my last blog post, but there are definitely some areas you need to have a writer work on more than others.

Based on what I’ve seen with our clients, I’ve got five areas your writer should be working on ASAP. This doesn’t mean you should limit them to just these tasks, but this list is where you’ll want to start having them work on building your brand!

1. Website
This is number one on my list for one simple reason: You’re not going to draw in any customers or make sales with a bad website. It just isn’t going to happen. If people are reading about your products and finding awkward sentences and typos, you’ll lose the sale every single time.

You’ll want them to write (or re-write) a description of your company, your products/services, and anything else that your site needs. A good strategy is to look at your competitor’s website. You don’t want to copy their formatting or ideas, but this can be a good baseline for figuring out what information your customers are expecting to find on your website.

2. Bios
This is your chance to show the personal side of your business, so don’t waste that opportunity. You want compelling snapshots of your team’s lives, and that usually requires someone with a good bit of writing experience. If your team already wrote their own bios, just have your writer massage them a bit to make them more appealing to potential customers.

If you don’t already have bios up, I’d suggest sending out a questionnaire to your employees and letting your writer use those answers to create entirely new biographies. Then all that’s left to do is get some headshots, post them, and enjoy the new personal appeal that your business has!

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3. Blogs
If you aren’t rolling out blog content, now is a great time to start! Foremost, it establishes your brand as an authority in your industry. It also gives you something to share on social media that both shows off your business and creates real value for your readers.

As a bonus, blogs are surprisingly great for SEO. Keywords come and go with frequent changes of search engine algorithms, but the thing that consistently improves ranking is thoughtful, relevant content. So if you’re looking to improve your search engine rank, set your writer to work on blog posts!

4. Ads
People focus on having a writer for social media updates, but having someone to write your ad copy is just as important. More than just choosing the right type of ad, you need to have a professional write compelling copy that works toward your business’ goals. Even if you’re sure that your ads are fine, just have your writer take a crack at it to make sure!

5. eBooks
Like blogs, ebooks are great ways to establish your business as an authority. They take in-depth looks at issues relevant to your business, so they need to be well-researched enough to bring real value to your readers.

This is also a great way to get leads for your email marketing strategy. Offer your ebook for free and let people download it, provided they give you their email address. This sets you up to keep the conversation going with your audience, and they get quality content at no cost to them!

Get Started Write Away
Now that you know how to get started, don’t be afraid to dive in! Use this list to help you guide your new writer, and you’ll see what a huge difference having a professional writer can make!

Are you still a little lost on how to direct your writer? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency and we’ll talk about it!

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How to Get Started With Facebook Ads

By Christopher Tompkins

14Jan

Advertising, Facebook, Social Media

We’ve established why Facebook ads are so effective, but what are you supposed to do now that you know? For someone who isn’t familiar, the Facebook ad interface can be a little confusing. That’s why I’m here!

My team and I have been using Facebook ads for years, and I want to use that expertise to help you get started. I’m going to break down the different types of Facebook ads and how you can find the right ad for your business!

1. Traffic Ads
Facebook Traffic Ads (AKA Link Click Ads) are ideal for getting people to visit your external website. You’ve got a headline, a visual, and 90 characters worth of ad copy. With these ads, you’ll want something quick and punchy that encourages people to visit your site while still adhering to your brand’s voice.

If you’ve got ways to sell your products on your website or want to get people reading more about your brand, this is a really simple, straightforward ad option to get your feet wet.

2. Boosted Posts
In the previous article, I talked about how your organic content can’t reach most of your audience. And that’s true—unless you’re boosting your posts.

Have a great piece of social media copy that you think could really get some attention if it landed in front of the right people? Boost it! You’ve already got the post out there, so why not put some money behind it and make sure people are actually seeing it?

Note: The quality and content of your post are very relevant here. Only boost posts that make sense to invest in. If you wrote a promotional post with a link to your online store, that’s probably worth boosting. If you wished your followers a happy Valentine’s Day, that probably isn’t worth sinking ad dollars into!

3. Carousel Ads
Do you have a variety of products you want to show off without creating a handful of individual ads? Carousel Ads showcase up to ten products and images/videos with links to the corresponding page on your website or digital store.

This ad style was literally made for eCommerce professionals who are looking to drive sales from their website. If that doesn’t sound like you, this is also a great way for marketers to test out multiple ad styles/images/headlines to see what pulls!

4. Instant Experience Ads
Instant Experience Ads, formerly known as Canvas ads, are mobile-only advertisements that fill the viewer’s screen. This interactive ad type gives viewers a comprehensive experience where they can swipe through multiple pages filled with your links, visuals, texts, or all of the above!

Instant Experience Ads are similar to Traffic Ads, except they’re a lot more involved (which often makes them more effective, too). There are elements of copywriting and graphic design that need to blend seamlessly here, so I’d recommend these ads for someone who’s looking to sell and has an experienced team behind them.

5. Leads Ads
If you’re focusing on growing your follower count or subscribers to your email list, leads ads could be a good fit. These advertisements let viewers sign up for your offer without ever leaving Facebook, which greatly increases your odds of getting sign ups. Don’t underestimate the value that people will put on convenience!

You’ll be able to view your new leads from your Facebook ads account, and from there you can transfer them wherever you need. I’d recommend Leads Ads to businesses that are starting to delve into email marketing or for new businesses that are starting to develop a following outside of Facebook.

Add Some Ads
Without Facebook ads, your social media marketing strategy is incomplete. There’s a big, wide, virtual world out there, so don’t miss out on it! Use this breakdown of the different Facebook ad types as a starting point for figuring out how Facebook ads can work for your business.

Still need some help setting up your Facebook ads? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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Why Invest in Facebook Advertising?

By Christopher Tompkins

9Jan

Advertising, Facebook, Social Media

In 2017, advertisers spent almost $300 million in Facebook ads, and I’m sure you’ve had more than a few people suggest Facebook advertising to you. But why? What makes Facebook such an appealing platform for marketers? And, more importantly, why should your business already be advertising through Facebook?

There are a number of reasons, and I’ve compiled the biggest ones to help you understand why Facebook ads are absolutely worth the investment. Let’s talk about this staple of social media marketing!

Facebook Is Kind of a Big Deal
In case you hadn’t heard, pretty much everyone is on Facebook. Your coworkers, your weird cousin, and virtually anyone else you can think of is on there. The latest numbers show that Facebook has 1.49 billion users every day. That means your target audience is definitely on there and waiting to hear from you!

Almost one and a half billion users also means that you’re definitely going to find your target audience on there. You might see that number and think, “Okay, but my local business isn’t going to be appealing to most of those people.” And while that’s true, you can set your ads to target people in your specific location with whatever identifying characteristics you want (age, gender, political views, etc.). So even if you’re only reaching out to 200 of that 1.49 billion, that’s still 200 people who are likely to love your business!

Posting Isn’t Enough
If you saw the above number and thought that your Facebook posts were already reaching those people, I’ve got some bad news for you. Most of your followers aren’t seeing your posts.

Because of recent algorithm changes, even people who have signed up to see your content aren’t going to see it on their feeds. Since Facebook is now prioritizing organic content, regular posts from your business are far less likely to actually reach your audience.

The exception? Facebook advertising. The more money you put into your content on Facebook, the more likely it’s going to be shown to your target audience! So if you’re holding out hope for getting by with just organic reach, 2019 is the time to let that dream go!

Promotion for Organic Content
Facebook ads don’t just share that specific message, either. Because more people are going to see your ads than your regular posts, you’re more likely to get shares that spread your message even further!

And yes, people do share ads on Facebook, provided they’re well-written and engaging. This way, Facebook ads are getting more people on your page in addition to the ad’s intended purpose, which will make your organic content more effective in the future!

Facebook Ads Are (Comparatively) Cheap
It may not feel like it when you’re setting up the ad, but Facebook ads are remarkably affordable. This means that small business owners have no excuse not to be using them! If you’re really strapped for cash, just set an ad budget so that your ad doesn’t go over what you can afford.

Don’t take this as an excuse to pinch pennies, though. It might feel nice to run an ad for $5, but your results are going to be much better if you put some real money into your ads. If $5 gets you 3 clicks, imagine how many more you could get with $50!

Make a Change
Just because Facebook ads are new doesn’t mean they aren’t worth starting! You know why Facebook ads are so effective and worth using, so use that knowledge to take steps forward. It’s the start of a New Year, so don’t waste time considering this marketing strategy and not acting!

It’s normal to need a little help when you get started with Facebook ads. Contact The Go! Agency and we’ll talk about your social media marketing campaign!

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The 4 Best Email Marketing Tools

By Christopher Tompkins

7Jan

Email Marketing

If you read my last blog post, then you already know what makes email marketing so important. You’ve decided that your business can benefit from email marketing in 2019, and kudos to you for making that call. Knowing why email marketing matters doesn’t give you the tools to make it happen, though, so I’m back again to share the four email marketing tools that my team swears by.

1. Constant Contact
Constant Contact has been in the email marketing game since 1995, so you’re getting a trusted name with this brand. They also have 650,000 customers and some unique features. With event management tools, surveys, and an active app marketplace, Constant Content offers something to fit virtually every business.

No tool can be perfect, though, and Constant Contact’s lack of automation makes using it more of a time investment than some of its competitors. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any stretch, but it’s worth noting when you’re shopping around.

What my team loves most about Constant Content is their high delivery rates. After they spend so much time strategizing and writing, my team wants to know that those emails will make it to people’s inboxes! On the whole, Constant Contact has definitely earned its place as one of the top email marketing tools.

2. Mail Chimp
When it comes to their advantages, there’s a big elephant (or chimp) in the room—Mail Chimp has free options. You can send 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 subscribers, and there are affordable, pay-as-you-go plans if you’re only going a bit above those numbers.

What’s worth noting is that Mail Chimp isn’t cheap for long. As you collect subscribers, your bill will skyrocket. This doesn’t mean that nobody should use it, but it’s important to compare pricing for your specific campaign before making a decision.

Beyond their lower price point, Mail Chimp also boasts some of the best analytics integration. You can accurately track all of your relevant metrics, and their platform works seamlessly with Google Analytics. This all makes it a great tool for our clients with new, low-volume email marketing plans.

3. Pardot
Pardot is, short and sweet, the go-to email marketing tool for B2B campaigns. Because B2B sales tend to take much longer and have multiple steps, Pardot is automated and optimized for these longer campaigns. This makes it popular with B2B marketers who are used to following a sale over a prolonged period of time.

Much like Mail Chimp, Pardot’s main drawback is its price. This automated platform will run you $1,250 per month. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that you do get a lot of extra features for this steep price tag.

My team has noted that Pardot comes with some built-in social media management and customer relationship management tools that make it a particularly comprehensive platform. While it is (by far) the priciest item on this list, it’s worth it for large-scale campaigns that have the resources to invest in email marketing.

4. AWeber
AWeber‘s big claim to fame is that they invented the autoresponder, which revolutionized the world of email marketing. For that reason, AWeber stresses their commitment to automizing email marketing, which makes it a great tool for anyone who can’t allocate too much time to their campaign.

My team’s biggest point against AWeber is that even when someone unsubscribes from your email list, they’re still counted toward your overall subscriber count until you individually remove their email address. This can lead to some steep billing if you’re not careful, but it hasn’t precluded my team from moving forward with this platform (with a bit of extra caution).

If you’re particularly interested in how your email marketing leads to revenue, AWeber is one of the few platforms that directly tracks sales from emails. There are a lot of other metrics worth looking at, but the ability to monitor sales has been helpful in explaining to clients how their investment in email marketing is earning them more money than they’re putting in.

Take Your Pick
The “best” email marketing tool is going to be dependent on what your business does and what your goals are. These four tools are a great place to start your search though, and my team and I can attest that each platform is one of the best out there. As you begin your research, start by looking at each of these options and evaluating their fit for your business’ email marketing campaign!

It’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed by all these options. If you’re looking for some help with your email marketing campaign, just contact The Go! Agency!

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Email Marketing—What It Is and Why You Need It

By Christopher Tompkins

2Jan

Email Marketing

You’ve probably already heard a lot of the buzz around email marketing. A lot of people are in your ear saying that it’s going to set your business up for success, but what even is email marketing? And how can everyone be so sure it’s right for your business?

Well, I believe in backing up all of my advice with facts. Email marketing should absolutely be on your “must-have” list for 2019, but don’t just take my word for it. I’m going to explain to you exactly what email marketing is and why it’s worth investing some time and resources into.

What Is It?
In your everyday life, you might know email marketing as those “LAST-MINUTE SALE BUY NOW” emails that you get every so often. As a marketer, you can think of email marketing as a way to reach out to leads and develop your relationship with them. When you consider investing in email marketing, ignore those spam emails you get. They’re wasted opportunities, and a good strategy can help you avoid that pitfall.

Instead, think of how you’ll reach out to interested individuals and encourage them to have a conversation with your brand. You’ll keep your business on your potential customers’ minds, and you’ll generate conversions from your thoughtful, strategic emails!

That all sounds nice, but I wouldn’t blame you for having some skepticism. How do you know this is going to work for your business? I’ve got some numbers that I suspect you’ll find very assuring.

Does Email Marketing Really Work?
For B2C
I want to show you some of the most compelling email marketing statistics that illustrate why it’s worth your time. First and (in my opinion) most impressively, 80% of retailers say that email marketing is their biggest asset in customer retention. Not only is email marketing keeping customers around, but it’s making them spend more with each individual purchase. Customers who bought products via email links spent 138% more than customers who never got email offers. Email marketing keeps customers around and keeps them spending money on your business!

Don’t get me wrong; not all email marketing campaigns are equal, and the quality of your strategy is going to matter a lot. For example, a lot of marketers miss out on sending “Welcome” emails when someone subscribes to your mailing list. That’s a huge mistake, since research shows that welcome emails generate 320% more sales than promotional ones! Missing opportunities like this will make your email marketing much less effective.

For B2B
One comment I’ve heard in the past is that email marketing is great for B2C business, but it just doesn’t offer much for B2B marketers. Well, nothing could be further from the truth! Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B decision-makers, falling only behind recommendations from colleagues and industry leaders. That means that email marketing is literally the best thing B2B marketers can spend money on!

This isn’t just theoretical, either—it’s already making waves throughout B2B marketing. 59% of B2B marketers reported that email marketing was their biggest revenue generator. If you’re running a B2B business and not reaching out to potential customers, you’re missing out on your best way to make sales!

Press Send
You know what it is and why it’s worth your time, so get started! Skipping email marketing means you’re missing potential revenue. If you want to take your marketing to the next level this year, then now is the time to start working toward that goal!

Do you want some individualized help with your social media marketing? Just set up a free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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How “New Year, New Me” Can Help Product Businesses

By Christopher Tompkins

19Dec

Business

You’ve probably heard “New Year, New Me” a lot over the past few years, but it isn’t just for Instagram captions from New Year’s Eve parties anymore. It’s also a viable marketing strategy for late December/early January! Well, if you do it right, anyway.

Every business could use a boost in the new year, so let’s talk about how this strategy can give you that extra attention!

Who Should Use It?
For a product-based business, you need to (as always) demonstrate how your product will improve your customers’ lives. But “New Year, New Me” brings in a potential for a fresh angle, if you’ve got the right business for it.

Let’s say that your business sells haircare products to older women. While your marketing strategy throughout most of the year might be geared toward turning back the clock, the new year is a great time to switch it up. Instead, you might say that you can give women a chance to create a new, youthful appearance to tie in the “New Year, New Me” angle.

Note, however, that this angle may not be for you if it’s going to majorly disrupt your brand’s voice. A seasonal change is nice, but a complete 180 is disorienting and will weaken your brand’s identity.

On the whole, though, this approach can work for any product-based business with enough creativity. How will your product change your buyer’s life? Will it give them more time, more money, better looks? If you can answer any of those questions, then odds are that this is going to be an effective strategy for you.

Why Should I Use It?
As a product-based business, it’s especially important that you appear to be constantly improving. If you hire a lawn mowing service, you’re not going to expect them to be constantly innovating or finding new, better ways to cut your grass. But if you were looking at buying a new lawnmower, you would certainly expect the manufacturer to have new models every year that are better or solve some new problem.

That same standard will be applied to your business, and you need to be ready for it.

It’s not always reasonable to roll out new and improved products every couple of months, though. In that situation, you only need to give the appearance of newness, and this is exactly how you can do that. You don’t say that you’ve got a new product—you highlight that it can make a new version of your customers. This gives buyers the impression that something new is going on while giving you some breathing room between the holidays and your next product launch!

“New Year, New Me” doesn’t just save you time and effort, though. It’s also a way to draw in customers for the rest of the year. If you can make a sale now, then you’ve got that buyer’s email address for marketing during all of 2019.

You’ll be able to target them with email marketing and get in touch when you have new products rolling out—just because you made a sale early in the year! How you start your 2019 social media marketing is going to impact your business for the rest of the year, so make sure you’re starting off on the right foot!

Make a Fresh Start
As you wrap up the year, start planning for how you’re going to make 2019 work for your business. The “New Year, New Me” strategy will keep you on the pulse of current events and offer an effective way to communicate with your audience at the start of the new year. Use my advice to make sure 2019 is filled with success and growth for your business!

Do you want some individualized help with your social media marketing? Just set up a free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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How “New Year, New Me” Can Help Service Businesses

By Christopher Tompkins

18Dec

Business

Are you looking to get a fresh start during the new year? “New Year, New Me” has been a popular New Year’s saying for years, and it might actually be a good angle for your New Year’s marketing.

I’m going to show you which service-based businesses can benefit most from the “New Year, New Me” mantra, and why it’s worth your time and resources. Let’s dive in!

Who Should Use It?
I’m not going to tell you that, “People in these five industries should definitely use this strategy!” There are too many variables to say that only certain types of businesses can use it. Instead, I’m going to ask you a few questions to help you figure out how effective this new angle will be for your business.

If your customer could make themselves better, how would they do it? Then ask yourself: Can your business provide them with that change?

It sounds broad, but let me show you a specific example. Let’s say you own an auto repair shop, and you decide that your ideal customer is a young adult who just started a family and wants to make sure their car is safe. For that individual, they might want to be more responsible in 2019.

How can you give them that? You encourage them to be proactive in the new year by taking their car in for that oil change they’ve been putting off or some other routine maintenance.

Take a minute to think on it. If you think you have a way that your customer can improve themselves in the new year, then you should absolutely be telling them about it! But what makes this strategy so effective?

Why Should I Use It?
People in general (but especially on social media) are primarily interested in the “new.” While it helps to be constantly reinventing and improving your business, it’s hard to have a fresh, new idea every day of the week. Sometimes, giving the impression that you’re “new and improved” can be just as good, and tying your promotions into the new year is a great way to do that!

If your business has a presence on Twitter or Instagram, you’re also going to benefit from popular hashtags like #NewYearNewMe. When advertising how your service can help people improve themselves in 2019, use the hashtag to get some extra reach! Just be sure to add in another hashtag or two that are more relevant to your industry, since #NewYearNewMe is going to be filled with a variety of people who may or may not be in your target audience.

The new year is also a time when people tend to be busy. They’re worn out from the holidays and typically starting new projects at work, so you stand to gain even more by pointing out ways that your services will save people time. For example, maybe your landscaping business can free up your customers’ evenings, or your fitness classes offer effective, quick workouts to busy professionals. Find where your business fits in the angle and tell your customers all about it!

Keep Things Fresh
Stagnation doesn’t sell even in the calmest of times, but it’s especially useless during the start of a new year. Use “New Year, New Me” to give your business a great start in 2019. Otherwise, you run the risk of missing out on this once-a-year marketing strategy!

Do you want some individualized help with your social media marketing? Just set up a free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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Giving Back as a National Business

By Christopher Tompkins

5Dec

Business

‘Tis the season for giving back! As a national business, you’ve got the advantages of a larger budget for the season, but you’ll need to work harder to make your contributions feel unique and personalized. That’s why giving back in meaningful ways is so important for your business!

I’m going to walk you through how you can give to your employees, clients, and charities. If you don’t want to be seen as cold and heartless, you need to join in the holiday spirit and show people that you care about them!

Giving Back to Clients
No matter what industry you’re in, it’s safe to say that your clients could have easily gone with one of your competitors. Show that you appreciate them choosing you!

A great way to do this is to post holiday coupon codes on social media. Not only are you giving people what they want most during the holidays—deals—but you’re rewarding your most loyal customers. The people who follow you on social media are the ones who regularly buy from your business. Reward them for that!

As an added bonus, people will buy more from you when you have a sale. This is what truly effective giving back looks like—a sincere effort to help the people around you that just so happens to benefit your business!

Giving Back to Employees
Your employees aren’t just employees. They’re real people with unique passions and interests. Prove that you understand and appreciate that about them! One great strategy is to make a competition of it. Set trackable metrics for employee success and let each employee choose a charity. Those with the best performance will have donations made in their name proportional to how well they did!

You get a few advantages from this idea. First, your employees are working harder because they want to help a cause that’s important to them. It will give them an extra push to increase productivity, which can be especially useful around the holidays when many industries get busy.

Beyond that, you’re creating the opportunity to show your brand in a positive light. Use social media! You can give the winners an employee spotlight to show off how well they did, what charity they chose, and how large a contribution you made. Your employees will feel even better about their accomplishments, and your followers get to see how well you treat your workers!

Giving to Charity
Large companies donate to charities all the time. The bad news is that the majority of them are doing it wrong. It’s easy to just write a check to a random non-profit and call it a day, but that isn’t best for your business or the charity. You’ll be better served by finding a way to donate that makes sense for your business.

For example, a national restaurant chain donating to the Make-A-Wish Foundation doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sure you’d probably get some credit for helping out people in need, but ultimately, it would be too confusing for people trying to understand your brand.

But what if you ran a promotion where you matched donations to Feeding America? You could use one-liners like, “We Feed You, Now Help Us Feed Them!” The move makes sense for your brand, you’d help raise money for charity, and encouraging people to donate would simultaneously tell them how generous and thoughtful your business is.

That’s a great plan in and of itself, but you can do better. Keeping the restaurant chain scenario, why not offer your employees paid time to work in their local soup kitchens and food pantries? Share pictures of them across social media and watch the positive buzz come rolling in. This way, you get to show how considerate you are, and the charities get publicity from a national brand along with some real chefs in the kitchen!

Get Giving
As you wrap up the year, you shouldn’t be asking yourself whether you should be generous or have a successful business. When you do it right, you don’t have to choose! Use my advice to make sure your national business is humanizing itself by giving back in December!

Do you want some individualized help with your social media marketing? Just set up a free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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The Essential Guide to Spying on Your Competitors

By Christopher Tompkins

26Nov

Business, Social Media

Competition is a great way to make yourself a better marketer. You might be satisfied with your own results, but looking at a competitor can inspire you to keep trying. And why not let your competition help you become even better?

Today I’m going to share my best tips for spying on your competitors and using their successes and failures to improve your marketing strategy!

Find Your Competition
You’ll have to locate your competitors before you can draw any comparisons. But how do you do it?

Go to your preferred search engine and put in any keywords that someone could use to find your business. The brands that come up in that search (especially the ones that are outranking you) are your competitors.

For example, if you’re marketing for a home aide service, you would look up your city and some keywords from your industry. if you’re selling a product, include words that describe that product to help you find your competition!

Start Spying
You’ve got a lot of options when it comes to checking on your competitors. Use Google Alerts to set up a regular notification when anything new is published by or about your competitor. Just to be safe, you may even want to put an alert on their CEO.

If you’re receiving a lot of notifications about them, they’re probably sending out regular press releases or email newsletters. I recommend signing up for their email marketing pieces – it’ll help you see what they’re sending and how often! This can be a great way to see what they’re telling their audience. Even better, you may find gaps in their content that you can fill!

And of course, there’s the simple method of just following their social media accounts. Take stock of what they’re posting and how their audience is responding, and you’ll be ready for the next part of your social media recon plan!

Run a Competitive Analysis
To see how you stack up to your competition, you’ll need to compare. That means looking at a few key metrics!

How many followers are they getting, and how long has it taken them to amass their following? For example, you might be intimidated by their 50,000 page likes, but if you only notice that number growing by one or two per week, then you know they aren’t doing much to expand their audience.

It’s also smart to remember that followers don’t always translate to customers. What’s their engagement like? See which of their posts are getting attention and which are being ignored. This will help you determine what should and shouldn’t go in your content mix!

Keep Tabs
This isn’t something you want to do once and ignore for the rest of the year. Compile all your information so you can check back in and update your numbers. This will let you track how effectively you’re using their own strategy against them!

Start by creating a spreadsheet. Put in the name of each competitor and links to anywhere they have an online presence. Record monthly intervals of things like their follower count. Engagement is harder to assign a hard number, but maybe set up a numerical system for yourself: a zero if they’ve had next to no engagement that month and a ten if their audience just can’t get enough in another month.

This whole process will save you time as you check your competitors’ social media channels and see how they’re stacking up to your own!

Stay Informed
One of the worst things you can do is shove your head in the sand and pretend that your competitors’ actions won’t affect you. Keep on the ball, see what your competitors are doing, and you’ll be one step closer to leaving your competition in the dust!

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Tag : business marketing