May 30, 2023 · 12:24 pm

Building Your LinkedIn Network

Having a strong network of professional connections on your LinkedIn account can work wonders in advancing your career, job searching, and conducting other outreaches. While it is easiest to connect with friends and colleagues, to truly expand your network and drive value, you’ll need to reach beyond just those people you personally know.

Decide Who Should Be In Your Network

To start growing your professional LinkedIn network, consider who would be a beneficial connection. Connecting with anyone and everyone will certainly expand your network, but not in a way that is helpful to you or supports you in achieving your goals. Develop a list of thought leaders in your industry, job titles of followers you’re targeting, specific companies, or topics of interest. Whether you have a free or paid version of LinkedIn, you can use the search bar to begin populating people who fit those descriptors. Be intentional about who you are targeting.

Use available filters to narrow or search through results. Browse through the person’s profile to see if they would be a worthwhile add before following or reaching out to connect. Finding people you already have mutual connections with can be a good place to start.

Become Active with Your Network

Now that you have started following professionals related to your industry or goals, interact with the content they share. Go beyond just giving their post a “like.” Attract their attention by making a thoughtful comment or reposting to your own feed with a caption that includes insight of your own. Spend time each day reviewing your LinkedIn feed or going directly to pages of people you’re following so you can stay engaged.

There are also a variety of groups on LinkedIn that you can join. Some are focused on general topics while others are fairly specific. Connect with individuals who have similar interests and participate in group discussions to slowly increase your followers.

Create Your Own Content

In addition to engaging with and resharing others’ content, build your presence and demonstrate thought leadership with your own posts, videos, and graphics. Share information that others will find helpful, thought-provoking, or educational. Developing a content plan will help you stick to a regular posting schedule and plan out the topics you want to cover as part of your content marketing strategy. Don’t forget to respond to people who have interacted with what you have shared too.

Be Patient

Organically growing your professional network takes time. As your follower count and connections increase, LinkedIn’s recommendations will improve and become more refined to reflect the audience you’re building. You can track your progress toward your goals and learn more about your network by using LinkedIn’s profile analytics (if you have Creator Mode enabled), content analytics, and the social selling index tool. Take a deeper dive into the demographics of your followers and use this information to tailor your approach when exploring new connections or creating content.

Optimize Your Profile

Don’t forget that as you’re expanding your network and searching profiles, other people are doing the same. Make sure your own LinkedIn profile is filled out completely, including work experience, education, professional affiliations, and skills. You want potential followers to get a positive impression of you and view you as a valuable connection for them as well.

Looking to expand your professional LinkedIn network? Make sure you’re not just connecting with anyone and don’t overlook your current connections either. Contact Grammar Chic by visiting www.grammarchic.net or by calling (803) 831-7444 to learn more about how we can help you build your LinkedIn presence the right way.

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April 3, 2023 · 11:23 am

6 Common Website Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

An effective business website helps you accomplish several sales and marketing goals at once. It provides you with SEO traction, drawing traffic and boosting brand awareness. It educates your buyers, providing them with confidence in your products and services, increasing the likelihood of conversion. It captures information that your sales team can use down the road, including names and email addresses from potential customers. It conveys your company’s professionalism and expertise. It extends meaningful calls to action.

That’s a pretty robust job description, and it should come as no surprise that some websites don’t quite measure up. The good news is that many of the most common website deficiencies are totally fixable; and often, all it really takes is a content upgrade.

Website Mistakes That Content Can Fix

1) Poor calls to action.

Let’s start with a pretty simple example. Every page of your website should have at least one clear call to action, inviting the reader to take the next step. This might mean signing up for your email newsletter, calling to set an appointment, or purchasing a product from your ecommerce store. If your site isn’t getting the results you’d like, it may be a case of low call to action quality or quantity.

2) Insufficient thought leadership.

One of the most important roles your website serves is earning the trust of your readers, something you achieve by demonstrating your expertise. If your website lacks meaningful thought leadership, it may be because you either don’t have a blog or you don’t update it as often as you should. Both are issues that a content marketing team can help you resolve.

3) No meta data.

Meta titles and meta descriptions play an important role in signifying to the search engine algorithms, and to search engine users, what your site is all about. Well-written meta data is crucial for SEO and can even help facilitate conversions. Neglecting meta data means forfeiting a valuable opportunity to improve your site’s effectiveness.

4) Poor SEO.

Meta titles and descriptions are just one example of how poor copywriting can lead to impoverished SEO. Consider also that well-written and substantive content, with naturally integrated keywords, can be essential for search engine success. It’s also critical to write and format your content in a way that recognizes the growing popularity of voice search. Again, a content marketing team can help raise the SEO value of your website’s copywriting.

5) Low quality writing.

More generally, having bad writing on your site can compromise your SEO potential while also diminishing your brand’s sense of professionalism. A good content team can help you replace lackluster content with writing that’s tight, clean, precise, engaging, and error-free.

6) Duplicate content.

This is an especially big problem for companies that have a lot of individual product or service pages. Repeating the same boilerplate copy on multiple pages hurts your SEO potential, and also makes the entire site less engaging to the reader. A good content writing team can help you think of fresh and unique ways to convey the necessary information, even when it’s a little repetitive by its very nature.

Make Your Website a Traffic-Generating, Sales-Converting Machine

A good website can fuel business growth in more ways than one. To ensure your website is performing at a peak level, consider consulting with a content writing team.

We’d love to help. To connect with Grammar Chic, call us at 803-831-7444 or visit www.grammarchic.net.

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March 22, 2023 · 5:10 pm

10 Embarrassing Grammar Mistakes Even Smart People Make

Writing is something that most people do in some form every single day. Whether you’re sending a text or email, writing a report, or creating a blog post, your words matter. The words you choose and how you string them together plays an integral role in the message you convey. Your spelling and grammar skills can influence others’ impression of you for better or for worse.

Yet even the smartest people can get tripped up by grammar from time to time. Spell check and grammar check aren’t always 100% accurate. Here are a some common – and uncommon – grammar mistakes you should be aware of in your writing.

  • Your vs. You’re

This is a big one for a lot of people. “Your” is possessive, while “you’re” is a contraction. When this word pops up, consider whether you can replace it with “you are.” If you can, use you’re. If you can’t, stick with your. For example, you wouldn’t say, “Here is you are jacket.”

  • They’re vs. There vs. Their

This one is a little trickier, but there are some simple tips for keeping these three words straight. “There” refers to a place and has the word “here” in it. “Their” refers to a person, and you can think of the i as a little person. For “they’re,” just replace it with the full phrase “they are.”

  • Unnecessary Apostrophes

Apostrophes are used to show possession, not to make a word plural. Two of the biggest offenders are last names and decades. It should be The Smiths, not The Smith’s, and the 1950s, not the 1950’s.

  • Literally

This word is regularly overused – and misused – in conversation. If something literally happened, it means it actually occurred. If you say, “I literally cried when I read that,” there should have been tears running down your face.

  • I Could Care Less

Many people misuse this phrase. Saying you could care less means you still have less care to give. The correct phrase is “I couldn’t care less,” meaning you’ve reached the end of your caring and have nothing left.

  • Of vs. Have

This common error could be a mistake in how the phrase is heard. Oftentimes people will write that they could of done something or should of done something. The correct way to state it is actually “could have” or “should have,” which tends to be abbreviated in conversation as “could’ve” or “would’ve.” The “ve” can sound like “of” and contribute to this grammar mistake.

  • Comprise vs. Compose

The word “of” should never follow comprise. A house is not comprised of five rooms, it comprises five rooms. However, the alphabet is composed of 26 letters. The whole comprises the parts or the parts compose the whole. Which word you use depends on how you phrase the sentence.

  • Then vs. Than

“Then” is used in reference to time or sequence. You did X, then did Y. “Than” is used for comparisons. The dog is larger than the cat.

  • Mute Point

If something is mute, it is silent. You’re not making a point that says nothing. You’re making a moot point. Moot means that something is doubtful or debatable.

  • i.e. vs. e.g.

A simple way to remember the difference between these two terms is to think of i.e. as “in essence” and e.g. as “example given.” If you are clarifying what you’ve said, you can use i.e., whereas if you’re giving an example, use e.g.

There, their, they’re – it happens to the best of us. What is important is catching mistakes before you send that email or submit that document. Working with a professional editor can help you polish your writing and avoid spelling or grammatical errors that change the entire meaning of what you want to say or make people question your credibility.

Worried that an embarrassing grammatical error may slip past you and show up in an important document? Reach out to Grammar Chic at www.grammarchic.net or (803) 831-7444 to have a professional editor save you from potential embarrassment.

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February 27, 2023 · 4:34 pm

Lost on LinkedIn: Essential LinkedIn Strategies for Small Businesses

When LinkedIn was launched, it was little more than an online job board, a convenient place to share resumes and hunt for new talents. Over the years, the platform has grown into an essential platform for content marketing. For most small businesses, and especially for those that offer B2B products and services, LinkedIn marketing is invaluable.

What makes it so essential? Simply put, LinkedIn is the platform where you’re most likely to gain the attention of on-the-clock professionals, folks who may be actively seeking new vendors or partners to work with. As such, LinkedIn has arisen as one of the top online lead generators, in many ways rivaling the centrality of Facebook, Twitter, and other social hubs.

But what does it actually look like to successfully market your small business on LinkedIn? Here are a few tips to get you started.

LinkedIn Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

1) Get the timing right.

Timing is important on any social platform, and it’s especially crucial for LinkedIn. That’s because LinkedIn is a professional network, and engagement tends to plummet on Saturdays and Sundays… days when most working folks are enjoying a reprieve from their vocational duties. Weekdays, and especially weekday mornings, tend to be more impactful times to post. (For whatever reason, Tuesdays tend to be the best bets, statistically speaking.)

2) Create brand guidelines.

On LinkedIn, more than any other social platform, it’s important to represent your small business as professionally as possible. That means having a clear sense of the problems you solve for your clients, the values that guide your company, and the distinctives that set you apart from the competition. Creating brand guidelines can help you stay on message, consistently articulating the reasons why customers or clients might choose you.

3) Join groups.

LinkedIn groups allow you to join smaller communities, made of like-minded professionals. These groups can be great places to share your subject-matter expertise, precisely because the members of the group have opted in, indicating a real interest in whatever the group’s principles or subject matter may be. In other words, participating in groups can be a great way to earn the trust of potential partners and collaborators, and possibly to connect with laser-targeted leads.

4) Ensure a professional profile.

This may seem like a small thing, but it’s amazing how many business owners overlook it. Spend some time developing your company profile, providing detailed content about your services while also adding logos and other professional touches. Remember, LinkedIn gives you lots of authority about how other people see your business and brand. Use that authority to your full advantage!

5) Focus on your expertise.

LinkedIn can sometimes be an appropriate venue for hard selling, but more often, it’s best to use the platform to earn trust and credibility. To do this, share a mixture of personal/branded blog posts and carefully curated content, along with brief commentary, about topics or ideas related to your niche. Basically, show that you really know what you’re talking about, and that you have the expertise needed to be a real asset to your customers, collaborators, and clients.

6) Consider LinkedIn ads.

You may not want to do this right away, but at some point, try playing around with sponsored content. LinkedIn provides a number of advertising options that can help you build your audience, focusing on targeted professionals. This can be especially useful if you have a really good, compelling company blog post that you want lots of eyes on.

Make the Most of LinkedIn

Have you forgotten about LinkedIn? It’s easy to overlook the platform when Facebook and Twitter dominate so many people’s time and attention, but your small business deserves the LinkedIn treatment. Find out more about developing and implementing a LinkedIn marketing strategy: Contact Grammar Chic, Inc. at 803-831-7444 or www.grammarchic.net.

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January 31, 2023 · 3:03 pm

6 Ways Social Media Can Boost Your SEO

Every business owner wants to see their website climb the Google rankings, gaining prominence and visibility among shoppers and potential customers. There’s no simple formula for achieving this kind of search engine success; Google’s algorithms are famously complex, fairly mysterious, and subject to frequent change.

What we do know is that the algorithms take into account a number of different “ranking factors” to determine the position of your online content. Google has offered at least some measure of clarity about what these ranking factors include, and as of right now, social media isn’t one of them. To be frank, social media does not have a direct impact on your search engine rankings.

And yet, to say that social media and search engine optimization (SEO) are unrelated would be a huge error. On the contrary, social media can be a powerful tool for boosting brand exposure, and for getting people to share and discuss your content on the Web. Indirectly, that has a huge impact on search engine position.

How Does Social Media Improve SEO?

Specifically, there are a few different ways in which social media elevates search engine rankings. Consider:

  1. Vast content distribution. Sharing your company blog posts or videos on Facebook and Twitter may not qualify as an official ranking signal, but it does signal to the search algorithms that the content you’re creating is useful to a wide audience. Creating perceived utility is always a good way to boost the SEO potential of your posts.
  2. Longer lifespan of your content. Similarly, sharing content on social media can keep it in front of readers, and even generate social shares, for a longer stretch of time, demonstrating to the algorithms that your content has “evergreen” potential.
  3. Improved organic traffic. Anything you can do to send more organic traffic to your website will ultimately help with conversions… and with SEO, as well. Again, it’s an important signal to Google, indicating that people find your site to be relevant and useful. Social media can be a powerful traffic referral tool.
  4. Increased brand recognition. Another reason to share content on social media? It makes your brand more easily identifiable among Internet users, which in turn bolsters your authority with the search engines.
  5. Enhanced reputation. An active social media presence shows your customer base that you’re ready and willing to interact with them on the Web, providing information and even customer service as needed. This can boost your brand’s reputation, another indirect way of conveying your value to search algorithms.
  6. Local search activity. If you’re able to post about local events specific to your community, that can go a long way toward signaling to Google the geographic base of your business… which may ultimately be helpful in enabling you to rank for local searches. For businesses with a brick-and-mortar location, this is invaluable.

Improve Your Social Media Presence. We’re Happy to Help.

Regular, high-quality social media activity can ultimately be a boon to your online visibility. It can also take a lot of work, to say nothing of careful strategy.

We’re here to help. We’d love to tell you more about Grammar Chic’s comprehensive social media management solutions. Reach out for a FREE consultation: Visit www.grammarchic.net or call 803-831-7444.

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January 19, 2023 · 12:54 pm

10 Email Marketing Terms Small Business Owners Should Know

Chances are, you get a high volume of marketing emails in your inbox each and every day. These emails may take different forms, from promotional offers to monthly newsletters, which hints at the breadth and diversity of email marketing as a discipline.

Indeed, email marketing is much more complicated than it might first seem, providing a range of strategic options for marketers and small business owners to choose from. A good first step, particularly for those who are new to email marketing, is to become more familiar with some of the basic terminology.

Email Marketing: 10 Terms Every Business Owner Needs to Know

Here are just a few of the terms and concepts we’d consider to be essential for properly understanding email marketing.

  1. A/B testing. The premise of A/B testing is pretty simple: You develop two unique versions of your marketing message (perhaps experimenting with different copywriting, different subject lines, images, and/or calls to action) and send each to a different segment of your audience. You then analyze the data from each campaign, determining which version of the email was more effective.
  2. Acceptance rate. The acceptance rate refers to the percentage of your emails that actually reach your audience’s inboxes (as opposed to getting shut down by spam filters, or bouncing back for any other reason). A high acceptance rate is obviously good, but keep in mind that it’s no guarantee of the email being opened, read, or even ending up in the user’s primary inbox.
  3. Click-through-rate. Most of the time, your emails are going to include a call to action, inviting the reader to visit your website, read a blog, or browse a product page. The click-through-rate, or CTR, refers to the number of readers who actually take this action, opening one of the links you’ve provided them. As such, it denotes a high level of engagement with your email.
  4. Conversion rate. The conversion rate is similar to the CTR, denoting the number of readers who take a desired action. This may be clicking a link, but it may also be calling your business to set up an appointment, or simply subscribing to receive further email correspondence. Proper A/B testing can be an effective way to improve your conversion rate!
  5. Hard bounce. A hard bounce means your emails cannot be delivered to the address in question, usually due to a technical issue (e.g., you got the email address wrong, or the address is no longer operational). A hard bounce can result in your emails getting flagged as spam, and it’s just generally a sign of inefficiency, so we recommend doing whatever you can to maintain an accurate and up-to-date subscriber list, pruning or correcting the addresses that result in a bounce.
  6. Landing page. Often, the best email marketing strategy is to send readers to a landing page, which is highly targeted to convert. A landing page will usually focus very narrowly on one product or service that you offer and will include several strong CTAs. Effective landing pages are essential to any email marketing strategy.
  7. Lead nurturing. The process of lead nurturing involves carefully building a long-term relationship with a potential customer, ultimately turning them into a sales lead. Email marketing is a good way to nurture leads, as you can provide enriching or educational content before transitioning into more of a “hard sell.”
  8. List segmentation. Just because you have 1,000 people on your email marketing list, it doesn’t mean you should send every message to the entire list. You may wish to break down your list into individual segments, based on interests or demographics, so that you can tailor your messaging accordingly. For example, you may have a list for leads and another list for loyal customers. At Grammar Chic, we might send some emails to content marketing clients, and others to resume writing clients.
  9. Open rate. The open rate denotes the percentage of people who actually open (and presumably read, or at least skim) your email message. An opener rate is a very good indication of your overall engagement level, and also attests to the quality of your subject line.
  10. Spam. Also known as junk mail, spam denotes unwanted emails that seldom make it into the user’s primary inbox. To avoid your emails getting labeled as spam, it’s critical to provide real value and high-quality content. Also make sure you’re judicious in how many emails you send. A/B testing and list segmentation are both important ways to avoid having your emails flagged as spam.

Go Deeper into Small Business Marketing

Looking to revamp your business’ email marketing campaign? Reach out to Grammar Chic today to learn more about our content and email marketing. Contact us at www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.

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December 21, 2022 · 4:05 pm

Encouraging Collaboration Between Marketing and Other Departments

One of the most important traits for your marketing team to possess is an affinity for collaboration. Simply put, marketing teams work best when they are attentive and communicative with other departments, ranging from product development to customer service to sales. It’s through careful collaboration that marketing team members can ensure they are promoting the brand precisely and effectively, ultimately helping these other departments to succeed.

But cross-department collaboration is easier said than done, especially in an era where remote and hybrid work environments encourage siloing. Here are a few tips for more fruitful collaboration between marketing and other teams.

Coordinate with the Sales Team

It’s incredibly important for marketing and sales to work hand-in-hand. After all, marketers create the content that draws in leads, and sales reps then close the deal. For this division of labor to work fluidly and efficiently, everyone needs to be on the same page.

For marketers, then, it’s helpful to know what the sales team does each day, and what processes and strategies they use when interacting with customers. Having each marketing team member shadow someone for sales, if only for a day, can be incredibly beneficial. If that’s not feasible, some other options include listening to recordings from previous sales calls; sitting in on virtual sales department meetings; or even just assessing the sales department’s workflows.

Focus on Sales Enablement

It’s also important for marketers to remember that, at the end of the day, their top priority is enabling the sales team, making it easier for them to close deals and onboard new customers or clients.

There are a few practical ways in which this can happen:

  • Marketers can request that their counterparts in the sales division provide them with frequently asked customer questions. These real-life FAQs can be invaluable when crafting educational content that boosts consumer confidence, and primes customers to keep moving down the sales funnel.
  • Marketers can also work with sales to pinpoint the moment in the sales process where customers are most likely to fall off, then to brainstorm solutions. For example, does sales tend to lose customers when pricing comes up? It may be wise to develop content addressing this, perhaps by emphasizing the cost- or time-saving potential of the product in question.

Check in with Customer Service

In addition to the sales team, your customer service division plays an important part in frontline customer interactions. It’s important to check in with them from time to time, and specifically to inquire about complaint/success patterns. Complaints are just what you’d think: Areas where customers think the company could improve its efforts. And successes are those areas where customers express their pleasure or approval, commending the company for its good labors.

What does any of this have to do with marketing? Well, often, complaints come down to messaging and expectations. For example, if a customer complains about a confusing website experience, the answer may be to provide clearer verbiage on the landing page, or to be more succinct in your messaging. That’s something marketing can help with!

Engaging with Product Development

It’s also important for marketers to have a seat at the table in product development meetings. The reason for this is simple: As a new product is being developed, marketers need to begin brainstorming ways to present that product to consumers. And that means having a clear understanding of the product’s features and amenities (as well as its limitations).

At the same time, marketing can sometimes offer valuable pushback, noting when a particular feature or amenity might be difficult to sell. In other words, marketing team members can help the product development team stay on track with actual customer pain points and concerns.

Use Product Roadmap Software

One way to unite all these disparate departments is with the use of product roadmap software, which keeps everyone on the same page with regard to timelines, product specifications, and more.

Gocious is one of the leading names in product roadmap software solutions, and it’s especially notable for its inclusion of marketing features.

With Gocious, marketing team members can stay in sync with sales, customer service, product development, and company leadership. Specifically, Gocious allows marketers to:

  • Score and rank the product against the things target customers emphasize.
  • Stay aligned with product definitions, features, and benefits, all of which are essential when drafting marketing collateral.
  • Compare product lineups with competitor products.

Work in Tandem with Cross-Disciplinary Teams

The most effective marketing teams are communicative and collaborative with other departments, reveling in a give-and-take with sales, customer service, and beyond. That often means using the best software solutions, as well as the most nimble and adaptive vendors.

Questions about creating marketing messaging that harmonizes with other departments? Reach out to Grammar Chic, Inc. at www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.

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October 26, 2022 · 10:23 am

Promoting Diversity & Inclusion in Your Marketing

Your small business marketing efforts aren’t just about promoting products and services. Ultimately, they’re about establishing your brand’s values and identity. As more and more customers (particularly younger ones) seek brands that align with their social values, this dimension of marketing is more critical than ever before.

In particular, small businesses can use their marketing channels to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion. This isn’t just about “virtue signaling.” Ultimately, it’s about making your brand as customer centric as possible.

Diversity Defined

When we talk about promoting diversity and inclusion through digital marketing, exactly what are we talking about?

Ultimately, it means evaluating your messaging, your visuals, your website accessibility and experience, and even your marketing team, seeking to provide a welcoming and affirming experience for everyone. As you consider diversity and inclusion in your digital marketing, some specific factors to evaluate include:

  • Age
  • Ethnicity, race, and nationality
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Religious affiliation

Crucially, promoting diversity doesn’t mean trying to be all things to all people, nor does it mean losing sight of your data-driven audience targeting. What it means is being aware of who’s being drawn to your marketing and your branding, then ensuring that they feel represented and included.

Valuing Diversity

But why exactly should small businesses care about diversity in their marketing? Simply put, because customers care. Studies confirm that about nine out of 10 millennials have a higher estimation of a brand if they believe it to be inclusive and diverse. Among younger customers, the numbers are even higher. Likewise, statistics show that customers from ethnic and sexual minorities are more likely to buy from a brand if they feel like the brand has made an effort to include them.

Some additional benefits to promoting diversity and inclusion in your marketing efforts:

  • You’ll reach more people, expanding brand awareness into new demographic groups.
  • You’ll build greater brand loyalty and trust, establishing shared values with your customers.
  • You’ll earn genuine respect and goodwill for your brand, which can further increase loyalty.
  • All of these things, taken together, can help increase your pool of customers, thereby boosting revenues.

How to Promote Diversity in Your Marketing

As for specific ways to promote diversity and inclusion in your marketing, there are a few guidelines we’d recommend.

  • Understand your audience. Do you remember the Jeep ad that Bruce Springsteen appeared in during last year’s Super Bowl? With its heavy reliance on all-American imagery, the ad proved divisive among viewers… some of whom loved the heartland imagery, while others thought it felt too jingoistic. The point is, it’s important to know who’s in your audience, and to consider how images, words, and branding might resonate with them.
  • Be willing to adjust. A big part of promoting diversity and inclusion is being willing to tweak your messaging. Certainly, many brands took stock of their representational values in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, while others have adjusted their advertising language to bring transgender folks into the conversation. Be sensitive to the ways in which time and culture are changing, demanding new standards of inclusivity through your marketing efforts.
  • Don’t be performative. Today’s consumers are pretty allergic to brands that talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. What do we mean by this? Simply put, adding Black faces to your marketing materials can fall flat if your hiring practices undervalue Black workers; proclaiming opposition to bigotry goes farther if you’re actually making some donations to anti-bigotry efforts. Remember to back up your marketing messaging with real-world action whenever possible.

Make Inclusivity a Hallmark of Your Marketing Efforts

Ready to make some informed, strategic adjustments to your marketing? Our team is here to help you work diversity and inclusion into your messaging. Contact the Grammar Chic, Inc. team to schedule a marketing consultation. Reach out at 803-831-7444 or www.grammarchic.net.

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October 12, 2022 · 5:10 pm

5 Tips for Marketing During a Recession

When times get tough, businesses pinch pennies… and usually, it’s the marketing budget that gets pinched first.

This is an understandable instinct: Faced with leaner profits and greater financial instability, business owners naturally may look to their marketing budget as something “extra.” That is, something non-urgent. Something of middling importance. Something cuttable.

Marketing Matters — Even During Lean Times

Actually, slashing your marketing budget is the wrong approach: The businesses that do so jeopardize their long-term market share. In fact, during periods of financial downturn, robust marketing is more necessary than ever.

There are several reasons for this:

  • If your business is pinching pennies, you can bet that your customers are, too. They’re going to be extra cautious about which products and which brands they entrust with their hard-earned money. Marketing may be just what you need to remain top of mind, and to give yourself an edge over the competition.
  • Continuing to market during a recession also conveys your strength and resolve: It shows resilience and a mind for the big picture, traits likely to appeal to customers who are grappling with their own financial uncertainties.
  • By contrast, cutting your marketing budget will leave you with a diminished online presence and a vanishing brand awareness… providing an opening for competitors to swoop in and steal your customer base.

Tips for Effective Marketing During a Downturn

The answer for small business owners, then, isn’t to cut their marketing budgets, necessarily, but to use their marketing resources effectively and judiciously. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

  1. Reach out to existing customers. Your loyal customer base is one of your most valuable assets. These customers already trust you, and already have a pretty clear idea what to expect from your products and services. Focus on maintaining contact through social media and email newsletters, gently reminding them that you’re open for business at their discretion.
  2. Be consistent. This is important no matter the economy, but it’s especially impactful during downturns. There’s likely going to be less marketing noise than usual, so you can make a big impression simply through consistency: Create a monthly schedule for blogging, social media, and email, and stick with it.
  3. Tap into the right emotions. What’s the best way to connect with consumers during a downturn? The answer isn’t to be glib and pretend like the recession isn’t happening, but neither is it to wallow in despair. Instead, convey encouragement and empowerment. The “we can do it,” problem-solving attitude is most likely to resonate with customers who are looking for some uplift.
  4. Keep an eye on your data and metrics. Pay attention to the product pages or blog posts that see heightened traction during the recession, as well as the areas of your business where interest seems to vanish. These metrics can provide clear insight into the kinds of pain points your customers wish to address. Those are naturally the areas you’ll want to focus on with your marketing budget.
  5. Emphasize your value proposition. As we noted above, consumers will be extra vigilant about where they spend their hard-earned money. To win their business, you’ll need marketing assets that clearly convey the value you offer, the benefits you provide, and the pain points you address. This is an area where professional copywriting can be invaluable.

Keep Marketing

The bottom line? Marketing isn’t a fair-weather investment. If anything, it’s even more important when times get tough. We’d love to help you get your message across, and to make smart use of your marketing capital. Reach out to the Grammar Chic team by contacting 803-831-7444, or by visiting www.grammarchic.net.

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September 20, 2022 · 3:04 pm

Is Your Social Media Content on Brand?

As a business, it is important to connect with customers. Social media has become an integral part of many people’s lives, and users are often active on more than one platform. That means that most businesses have a presence on multiple platforms as well. Keeping branding consistent across channels makes businesses more easily recognizable and builds trust.

Here are some ways to improve your brand management and make sure your content stays true to your business’ mission and vision.

Develop a Style Guide

Create a go-to resource for anyone who makes content for your business. The style guide sets the standards and expectations for the brand voice, tone, style, colors, visuals, and more. It keeps everything cohesive and consistent. It can be helpful to design templates for employees to follow and a collection of graphics, visuals, or logos that can be used.

Plan Ahead

Develop themes, topics, or pillars to guide content creation. This can keep content on track and prevent posting articles or blogs that do not align with intended messaging. It also keeps posts relevant across platforms because they all revolve around the same subjects and goals at the same time.

Stay True to Your Mission, Vision, and Values

Don’t just post about something because it is trending or interesting. If it doesn’t fit with your company’s messaging or what you stand behind, then it may confuse customers and create a disconnect. Have a review process in place to approve content before it is posted to ensure that it is serving the intended purpose and fits with the company’s style guide.

Know Your Audience

Take the time to create buyer personas and identify your target audience. That can help you decide not only what type of content to share, but also where to share it. Just because a social media platform is available does not mean that your business needs to be on it. If your audience doesn’t have a big presence on TikTok or Snapchat, or your business doesn’t it lend itself to that type of content, then don’t join. Don’t waste time, energy, and resources on social media channels that don’t benefit your business or provide a return on investment.

Be Strategic

Sit down and develop a well thought out marketing strategy and plan. Decide what defines your brand and how you want to be known. Establish key messages and core values to build your content around. Every post should serve a purpose and fit within your overall brand vision.

Reach out to Grammar Chic today to learn more about how we can assist with building your brand and keeping your social media on point.

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