Are you overwhelmed by all the ways in which to market your business?

Let me simplify all of it to help you make the right choices for marketing your business.

First, and foremost, there are only two types of marketing that happen in the whole of advertising: Call to Action and Awareness.

Recently, we met with a client and he said, “I don’t know why I’m on Facebook. I never see any business come from it.” First of all, no one will say, “I called you because I saw your post on Facebook.” Most people, even if they saw your business on Facebook, will say I saw you on the internet or Google. Seldom, if ever, do they say, “I saw you on Facebook.” The flip side to that is that Google provides social tracking and should you place an ad or boost a post on Facebook, you CAN track how many people click through your links to your website with Google Analytics. There’s your proof. 

Billboards

Most billboards are Call to Action. Point blank. They have a main photo, less than 10 words on them, and the majority either have a phone number or exit number, in the case of brick and mortar buildings right off the highway. Seldom do you see a website address or email address. Why? At 60 miles an hour, you aren’t going to remember a website but you’ll remember a phone number. They are a great example of short, sweet, and to the point. Are there companies who use it for awareness? Yes. Absolutely. One right now is “I probably should call someone for a ride. We all know what that is in reference to. It has no photo at all, just those words. Powerful.

Print Advertising

Print advertising can be both Awareness ads or Call to Action. Take a moment and check out our ad in this month’s 422 Business Advisor along with many of the other ads. Determine what type of ads are being presented. If an ad provides information about the company and educates you about their products, that’s an awareness ad. If an ad happens to have an offer, a deadline, a coupon and clearly making a point to do business with them it is a call to action. If you guessed that ours in a Call to Action ad this month, you are very right. What other ads fall in the Call to Action category? Tell us on Facebook by posting the name of the business to the recent post we have mentioning this article [https://www.facebook.com/ICIConnect]. Let’s have some fun with this.

Social Media

As for social media, which is what inspired this month’s column, call to action comes in the form of ads and boosts on Facebook. Your typical posts on Facebook need to be more awareness and engagement than call to action. And, it’s ok for Facebook to be a platform for you to provide people with an awareness about your company. Think about your own experience on Facebook. It’s a typical evening, you are sitting on your sofa and scrolling through your Facebook feed seeing your family and friend’s activities and then, here comes my ad to convince you to buy my product. Will you react positively? Not likely. But what if my post is a fun video that you are curious to watch? That’s the approach you need to take with social media. Awareness creates top-of-mind marketing.

So, how do you apply this information to your own business?

As you are working on your marketing strategy think about the goal of each post you create and advertisement you design. Not all of them should be call to action or you will turn off your audience. Create a mix of types. When teaching Social Media Marketing we discuss the 5-3-2 post system. Educate them about your business, engage with them, and give them a reason to do business with you. Mix up the media as well. Do a mix of online, print, and face-to-face marketing.

Interlace Communications provides business owners with marketing support through website design and marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and blog management. Their experience in print advertising provides businesses with the ability to effectively market through direct marketing and advertising through a variety of publications. Interested in learning more about Interlace Communications? Visit our site at iciconnect.com or contact theteam@gomaava.com.