Lead generation is necessary for all businesses. It does not have to be hard or time-consuming to get either. I am sharing tips with you that are proven to help boost your leads and trust.

• Always include a contact number. This helps customers trust your website and gives you credibility.
• Always include forms. People are more likely to fill out forms if you are asking for less information and it gives you good, reliable leads.
• Share testimonials! This is so helpful when people are looking for a service to see positives and why they should pick you!
• Test your website. Not every business is the same, so what works for one, might not work for another. Test things and see what works best for you!
• Offer a downloadable checklist for people give you their email.
• Share what is working for your company & why! People love to hear success stories and learn from them.

These ideas should help boost your lead generation and credibility when leads are looking at your website to learn more about you and your business. 

One of the biggest problems when looking for marketing, is that some of the names can be confusing. Even if they seem self-explanatory, they can still be a difficult term. Today, I’m sharing information on virtual assisting.

A virtual assistant is someone who provides services to clients outside of their office. They typically use shared documents and calendars to help the client achieve their goals. Virtual Assistants are typically skilled in social media, content management, blog post writing, graphic design, and Internet marketing.

Virtual Assistants are becoming more necessary everyday to help small businesses stay connected on social media. Virtual Assistants can help keep costs down because you do not have to pay for a desk or office space since they work remotely. Unless you need a virtual assistant full time, you can hire them on as part time to use them only for tasks you need done. Using a virtual assistant frees time for your business to gain revenue and grow.

A Virtual Assistant is dedicated to your online presence. They will respond quickly to messages and comments which is extremely necessary in a companies digital presence. They help to provide good customer service online and keep you connected to your customers.
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Virtual Assistants can be such a helpful tool to add to your business and continue to help you grow. 

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​Instagram has over one billion monthly users and they spend an average of 53 minutes on the site. That is making it one of the best sites to use for business marketing. I am sharing tips to help you grow your personal or business Instagram.

1. Engage with your followers. Reply and like their comments and respond quickly to messages.
2. Host giveaways or contests. Make a rule of your contest that people must follow you, share it on their story or tag multiple friends. You will gain new followers just because they want to enter your giveaway or contest.
3. Use your analytics. Pay attention to what day and time you get the most engagement and use that to your advantage!
4. Post on your stories! People are always watching stories and when they watch yours frequently you will move to the front of their list and they will always see that you have a story.
5. Post consistently. People do not continue to follow a page that posts once a month unless they are family or a close friend. You want to make sure that you are posting multiple times a week.

Instagram is such a fun app that people use all the time and can be such a big help to gain customers for your business. As easy as it seems, it can take up a lot of your time, so if you are wanting to do this for your business, think of hiring someone specifically for this position or a marketing company. 

​For marketing, we use a lot of apps and websites to create all the designs, logos, and proposals that I send to businesses. I always enjoy watching or reading “My Monthly Favorites” videos and blogs, so I thought I would share mine with you!
Canva was my absolute favorite this month! I created several fun proposals and infographics to share with businesses and explain what we can do to help them and why social media is so important. Canva is free and allows you to create business cards, posters, book covers, newsletters, and even t-shirt designs! 

     ​When posting on a social media business page, you want to share the real you. People do not want to see just photos of your desk or an article related to your business. You should be sharing photos of you, projects your passionate about, and even an article that really inspired you explaining why. When I am looking at businesses to buy from, I look for ones that share genuine information and make me feel like I know who I am buying from.

• Instagram & Facebook Stories – Popping on Instagram stories everyday shows people who you are. You can use this time to show your face and talk about stuff that you are passionate about. You can talk about new products coming out or something that you are excited about with your business. When people watch your videos consistently, you move to the front of the stories bar.
• IGTV – Using IGTV to show you working on a product or project. If you make handwritten signs or calligraphy, you can use IGTV to teach people how to do it or show a time-lapse of a sign your making.
• Instagram Feed – You want to post stuff that is related to you and your business. If you sell dog clothing, share photos of you & your dog wearing some of the matching gear that you sell.
• Tik Tok – Depending on what your business is, you can post a clothing try on with one of the many clothing songs/trends on there, a how to video of one of your wood signs, or a make up challenge. Get your face out there and show off your passion! You will gain a following of people who would not normally find you.

One of the hardest things about being personal is figuring out what to post. Here are some ideas:

• Throwback photo of when you started your business or childhood
• Fun facts about you
• Introduce yourself! (If you have not already)
• Outfit of the Day
• Happy Birthday post to yourself
• Instagram vs. Reality
• You Goals
• Two Truths & a Lie

     Posting regularly on social media can be so stressful and if you do not have someone dedicated to it, growth will be a struggle. Just remember to post frequently, respond to comments within 15 minutes, and be personal!

When businesses are interested in digital marketing, the biggest question we get asked is, “What do you do?” The question is easy to answer because we understand digital marketing, but for people who do not, it can be very confusing. Digital Ads are one of the many things that we do. There are lots of different types of digital ads and I am going to help explain them to you.
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Google Ads - Google display campaigns reach 80% of global internet users. Google ads can be seen on Yahoo!, Spotify, Home Depot website, and more.
​Examples: 

Facebook Ads - 67% of marketers find Facebook to be their most important social media channel since it has a large user-base. Facebook ads can be seen on Nike, Walmart, PayPal, Instagram and more.

Example:

​Instagram Ads - Instagram’s potential advertising reach is 849.3 million users. Instagram ads can be seen on The Weather Channel, Netflix, The New York Times, Facebook, and more.

YouTube Ads - Pre-roll (skippable) video ads on YouTube are the most effective ad format. YouTube ads can be seen on Google, too!
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Example:

Pinterest Ads - Advertisers can reach more than 169 million people on Pinterest. 

Example:

Text Blasts – Text blasts use phone numbers that customers have given you to share updates, coupons, or discounts directly to their phone.

Example:

Email Blasts - You can put more information into an email than other forms of digital marketing. You can share new business information, deals, coupons, new employees, etc.

​Example:

​As you can see, there are several different types of digital ads and they can all be beneficial to your business. Digital Marketing companies do A/B testing on different platforms that work best for your company and learn what your customers want to see. 

​I talk to people almost every day who are not interested in Digital Marketing. They think it does not work, they do not want to learn about it, or they think I am scamming them and say, “Please take me off your list.” I was very defeated in the beginning of this career because of these responses, but after talking to other people, I realized why, I think, this happens.
I have heard horror stories of people paying a company, signing a yearlong contract, and never hearing about how their ads did, where they went, or if they were ever done. Would that make you want to keep working with a marketing company? I will answer for you, no!
The problem is, not all marketing companies are like this. I see marketing companies constantly emailing, answering phone calls at all hours, and making sure to help their customers get the results they want. I am not saying that every ad you post will get 600 customers, but you should see what results they get. With our clients, we send out a monthly analytic page to show them how their ads did.

While typing this, I am aware that most of you are not sure how to learn if they are a good company to work with or not, so here is my advice.

• Call them and ask if you can speak to a few of their current clients
• Read their reviews (reminder: most people only write a review when their angry about something, so do not make this your only way of deciding.
• Ask, “Can I see what you are going to post before you post it?” – This requires them to reach out to you and holds them accountable to do what they said they would.
• Ask, “Who will be working with on a regular basis?” – Will you constantly be trying to work with someone new who may not know your goals, or will it always be the same person (or 2) who knows what you want to achieve?
• Make sure you can meet in person or do a video chat with them. This one is not necessary if it does not bother you to work with someone you don’t know, but for me, I would rather having a face to put with the people I work with.
• Ask about contracts. Are you locked into a yearlong one or do they have more flexible ones to your company? You typically do not see results until 3 to 6 months because you must learn what works for your business. (Ex. Videos, photos, blogs, live Q & As, etc. A/B testing is necessary for best results!)
• Ask, “What makes you different then someone else I can use?” – Maybe the company you are talking to specializes in Digital Marketing for small boutiques or pet stores, that could be a positive if you own one of those because they could already know what works best! You want to make sure they fit in with you and your business!

 
I hope these tips help you to find the best Digital Marketing company to work with because it can be such a big help to your business. 

I want you to think about your favorite brand. Is it a clothing brand? Is it a brand of food? What makes that your favorite? What sets it apart from others?

Now, I want you to think about your business. What is your brand and why is it important? What sets it apart from others?

 In previous blogs, I have talked about figuring out why people should buy from you instead of competitors. Today, I’m sharing ways to make sure you have a strong brand that people will remember after they’ve left your website or social media.

1. You must know why you do what you do! Is it because you have a huge passion for clothing or that you have always wanted to build stuff for cheaper than what you can buy it from chain stores?
2. You want to make sure your name and logo are recognizable. No one is going to forget about Coca-Cola or McDonalds and their logo can be spotted out by anyone, even kids! You want to make sure you pick it and then stick with it! It needs to be consistent on all platforms, so you can easily be found!
3. You want to focus on who your target audience is. You do not want to focus your brand on young kids/teens if you are selling home remodeling because they will not be the ones that make that decision! You want to make sure that you are focusing on the correct audience.
4. Figure out what benefits your brand offers. A smaller clothing store would be able to only sell 6 of an item, so that not everyone has the exact same top. This is a benefit, especially in a small town, because it lets people feel like they have their own sense of style.  
5. Show your brand personality. Are you a fun, younger brand? Share that with your followers! Show your behind-the-scenes on Instagram stories and be fun and open with all of your content.
6. Be your brands biggest supporter.  You want to make sure you are open and honest with your products or service. Host a Q&A where people can ask you questions about how things fit, how their made, speed of shipping, etc. You can also post reviews on your social media sites and websites that show how people felt about what they purchased. Remember to respond quickly to all comments on social media, especially negative. It looks way better for a business to respond back with, “I’m sorry your previous item showed up damaged. Please send us your information, so we can send you a new item!” than to not respond at all. Even if people see negative reviews, they will still purchase if they see that customers are being taken care of! 

      If you have ever done research on how to gain more followers or customers, you have come across the idea of doing a giveaway. I have seen lots of business doing them lately and they are getting lots of entries and gaining lots of new followers.

      Most businesses that I have seen doing them have been sharing a post on Instagram, giving multiple ways to gain entries, but requiring that you follow the business on Instagram and sharing the post on stories. This is such a good idea because it puts your business out in front of people who might not have ever seen it. The other good thing is that people who do not know your business are now following your page to enter the giveaway and most likely will not unfollow you when the giveaway is over.

      It can be difficult to come up with ideas for a giveaway, so I wanted to share what I think can be beneficial.

• An article of clothing – Whether you own a clothing store or have shirts made for your business, you can give them away.
• A gift card – this helps get people actually looking at what you sell and most people will end up spending more than what the gift card has on it.
• Something you make that is customizable – giveaway something that your clients can choose. If you sell shirts or cups that you can add anything to, allow them to get exactly what they want.
  • i.e. a shirt that says “best mom ever” or a cup that says “mom juice”
• A service – if you sell a service (i.e. landscaping, woodworking, dog grooming, etc.) you can giveaway one of that service. Whether it’s a free lawn mow, a custom built shelf, or free grooming.