Tag: content

  • 4 Proven Marketing Campaigns to Maximize Revenue

    4 Proven Marketing Campaigns to Maximize Revenue

    4 Proven Marketing Campaigns for 2023

    The new year ushered in a new era for businesses. 2023 is marked with the likes of brutal inflation, energy costs at an all-time high, and mass layoffs happening frequently. It’s frightening for small business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s time to double down on some foundational marketing campaigns that will keep a steady stream of clients coming through your doors.

    In this article, we will expand on the following core marketing strategies:

    Video Content

    Written Content

    Email Marketing

    Social Media Ads

    Build your marketing strategy around these 4 marketing campaigns and execute them well to maximize your revenue even in an economic lull.

    Video Marketing

    You need to double down on your video content this year. If you haven’t started using video, it’s time to start now. Most marketers will agree that video is one of their highest ROI. Not sure how to start? Check out these 3 must-have videos for every business.

    Graph showing 88% of consumers prefer brand to be authentic and 66% of consumers prefer brands to be transparent.

    Why video?

    54% of consumers say they would prefer to view videos from businesses rather than other forms of content. And why wouldn’t they?

    Video is unlike text because it conveys emotion. This is how you humanize your marketing message. People prefer to know the brands they buy from on a personal and emotional level. Video will help you achieve that.

    66% of consumers say a transparent brand is an attractive brand.
    88% of consumers say authenticity is a major factor in purchasing from a brand.

    HubSpot

    What better way to convey transparency and authenticity than by speaking in your voice, using your personality, to introduce your brand?

    What should your video strategy include?

    When creating videos, storytelling is the most important technique. Think less about selling and more about your potential customer getting to know you. You may run a massive company, you may own a small business, but either way, you are people. People relate to people.

    Your message needs to answer questions and solve problems. If you’re empathetic to customer pains, it will resonate with your audience. Tell a story that highlights the fact that you understand their struggles. And then show them how you can help.

    As with all content, create your videos in a way that makes it easy to slice them into shorter videos for different platforms. Video takes time, but when done correctly it has incredible staying power.

    Content distribution

    More important than creating the video is your plan for distributing it. Consider these questions:

    • Where does my potential client hang out online?
    • What are their communication preferences?

    Decide where you will post your videos. How will you repurpose the long form video into multiple short form videos?

    As you prepare and plan for each video, be thinking about all the places it can be seen:

    • Website
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • TikTok
    • Email

    There are different length and style recommendations for each platform. Creating a plan for how you will use each video with regards to the above list will save time and give your campaign a clear direction.

    Once your video is completed in long-form, optimize it for distribution on social media.

    Finally, the look and feel of your videos should match your brand. This also means that the quality needs to be high. If you can’t do this yourself, schedule a call with me to see how I can create and implement your video marketing strategy.

    Written Content

    You will want a strategic mix for your written content campaign. Consider the following:

    • Blog
    • Website pages
    • Landing pages
    • Guest articles on other blogs
    • Print media

    Blog

    Blogging has stood the test of time and remains one of the best methods of reaching your audience.

    Your content strategy doesn’t have to be all about creating new content unless you’re starting from scratch. If you already have a blog full of content, go back through it and find old articles you can update and repurpose.

    Consider how you can take your long form content and pull out main points for shorter pieces like tweets and LinkedIn posts.

    Do you have posts that are out of date? Do some keyword research, refresh them, and make them relevant again.

    Your content should demonstrate your knowledge and build relationships.

    Follow these people for brilliant advice about blogging, copywriting, and SEO:

    If you haven’t started yet, check out this Ultimate Guide to Start a WordPress Website.

    Website Refresh

    Refreshing your website is something that needs to happen frequently. Google always gives credit to fresh copy and optimization that’s in line with their updates.

    Have a look at your pages. Can you add valuable content? Can you consolidate pages? Is there anything that needs to be removed?

    Web ranking algorithms are constantly evolving. Google search changes 12 times in a day. Make sure you’re following the latest advice from them regarding the changes they make.

    Here’s our advice on finding and fixing issues with your website.

    Guest Blogging

    A great way to build some backlinks to your website and boost your content is guest blogging. Backlinks will build domain authority and increase traffic on your site.

    Do some research on the products and services you use. Do they have a blog? Do they have guest posts? If so, reach out to them and ask if you can write a guest post telling your story about how you use their products and services to streamline your business.

    This is a win-win. You get a guest article, they get a testimonial.

    Email Marketing

    Your contact database is your entire business. It may contain former clients, current clients, and people who have expressed interest in your products and services but haven’t made a purchase yet. All of these people are potential clients.

    Systematic communication with your contacts through email is a great way to stay top of mind. If you’ve neglected your database for a while, use these database clean-up tips to get organized.

    Provide Value

    Sending email for the sake of action will cause a mass exodus. People are guaranteed to unsubscribe quickly if they don’t see the purpose in your emails. If you’re not sure how to do this, seek out people who are doing it at a high level. Subscribe to newsletters and see what works for you and what doesn’t.

    Here are some of my favorite newsletter creators:

    Study how these people are giving you valuable info. Be intentional about your message. Prove your worth by adding value to your readers’ day. When you give your audience something that helps them, they will remember you when it’s time to buy.

    Clean and Organize

    Go through your database and make sure it is full of relevant people with correct contact information.

    To organize your database, break it into segments according to your relationship and their interests. That way you can tailor your messages to each segment of your audience and guarantee your contacts are getting the right email for them.

    Use a CRM to stay organized and systematize your email campaigns.

    Social Media Marketing

    Last but certainly not least, your business needs a clear social media strategy. I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but you don’t need to be on every social media channel available. Your social media presence should be strategic and sustainable.

    Choose your channels according to your audience. If your client demographic is mainly men and women over 45, you can probably skip the TikTok account.

    A smartphone has social media icons hovering above it demonstrating the importance of social media for businesses.

    Planning

    Now you need a content strategy. Set goals for engagement and post frequency.

    Creating and planning the content in advance will streamline distribution and save time. Use your blog articles and videos as a way to deploy content on social media. Create a framework around what you will post.

    Example:

    • Monday – Post a video
    • Tuesday – Share a blog article
    • Wednesday – Post 3 main points from that article
    • Thursday – Post an offer
    • Friday – Post a testimonial
    • Comment on something every day

    Tweak this to make sense for the content you have and the customer you serve. Either way, stay on top of it. Consistency is the most important part of maintaining your social media profile.

    Paid Ads

    Paid ads can give you a greater reach, but it’s important to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Increasing your audience size won’t matter if your ads are going to the wrong people.

    There are very specific ways to target interests and behaviors using social media paid ads. If you’re not familiar with how this works you will end up spending money for nothing.

    Social media is a powerful tool. Your business will benefit from a proper strategy and strict implementation.

    Track Your Results

    It’s important to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and make adjustments to maximize ROI.

    • Analyze traffic statistics on your blog. If you’re using WordPress, the built-in analytics are great.
    • Analyze keyword rankings and search engine rankings in Google Search Console.
    • YouTube has brilliant viewer statistics for your videos. Pay attention to average watch time on your channel. If people are watching almost the whole video, it’s a keeper.
    • Paid social media ads will provide analytics as well. Engagement is better than “reach” or “views”. You can use this to adjust your ad creative. If it gets a lot of views with few clicks, there’s something wrong.
    • The Facebook pixel is a magical tool for tracking activity also.

    Leverage Technology

    Using tech tools can make your campaigns efficient and effective. From automation to AI, your marketing will benefit from implementing certain technology.

    • AI writing tools can
      • Give you ideas for new articles
      • Rearrange your thoughts and give you a fresh perspective
      • Organize your research
      • Write rough outlines for your blog articles.
    • Zapier is brilliant for automating redundant tasks.
    • Hootsuite helps you plan and schedule your social media posts.
    • Canva is a graphic design software that is perfect for designing your social media posts, arranging Instagram reels, and sprucing up your profiles.
    • Futurepedia is an incredible list of AI tools that is updated daily.

    Pick and choose tools that make sense for your specific business. You don’t have to use everything. Watch out for shiny object syndrome.

    2023 doesn’t have to be a scary year. With a solid marketing strategy using these foundational campaigns, you will stay ahead of the competition. Stay consistent and you’ll maximize your revenue.

    Ready to see how I can help you? Schedule a call. No strings attached.

  • Unleash your brand’s personality with these 3 dynamic marketing videos

    Unleash your brand’s personality with these 3 dynamic marketing videos

    The 3 most important marketing videos for your business

    To embark on your video marketing journey is a daunting task, and one that will cause self-doubt and insecurity to rise to the surface. Before you start the process, you need to know 2 things:

    1 | Do it anyway. There will be naysayers who tell you you’re going to fail. There will be inner thoughts and feelings that you’re creating for nobody. Shut them down and do it anyway. Video doesn’t create an overnight success story. It builds personality into your brand over time. Video connects with your audience on an emotional level, adding the human element to your brand.

    2 | Commit yourself. If you want results from your videos, you have to be intentional, create a plan, and stick to it. Set goals and set action steps to achieve those goals. Figure out how much time you’ll need to spend and block it out on your calendar. Nothing should stand in the way of you giving this your best effort. If you can’t commit, hire someone to execute for you.

    Now, let’s look at the 3 most important marketing videos for your business to produce first.

    1. Company Story / Founder Story

    Stories resonate with people. You can emphasize your own personal journey in life, your company’s journey, or both. The goal of this video is to connect to a wider audience at an emotional level.

    Talk about your ‘big why’. What made you decide to start this business? What drives you to keep going? Talk about challenges you’ve had to overcome and mistakes you’ve made.

    The days of people buying from a faceless brand are over. People want to know the humans behind the brand. This is an opportunity to highlight specific areas of your journey that will encourage your audience and help them get to know you.

    Strategies:

    • This needs to be your most professionally produced video. The look and feel should promote confidence in your brand.
    • Use this video on your website and as the trailer on your YouTube channel.
    • Keep the length under 2 minutes.
    • Good lighting and good audio are must haves.

    2. Explainer video about your products and services

    This is your chance to show people how you can help them. What do you do? What problems do you solve? How do your products and services stand out from others?

    You’re giving people a sneak peak at what they can expect from using your products and services. Give something away here. Offer some free value to make the audience want more.

    Use real examples of what your products and services have done for other people. Be empathetic to the pains that customers face and show that you understand their problem.

    Strategies:

    • The tone of this video should be exciting. This too needs to be well-produced.
    • The format should be easy to cut into shorter videos. Use the shorter videos to highlight one product or service at a time on social media.
    • Be specific using real numbers and data.
    • Again, good lighting and audio.

    3. Client testimonial videos

    Client testimonials are the best proof of what you do and how well you do it. If you already have clients singing your praises on video, put those videos together into a compilation.

    If you don’t have any video testimonials yet, now’s the time to start collecting them. Have you received any written reviews on Google or Facebook? Ask those clients if they wouldn’t mind recording a video for you.

    You should also ask your current clients to come in to the office and record a testimonial video. You can incentivize this to make it more appealing and fun. Hold a drawing and offer free entries for those who record a review for you. Buy a coffee for each person. Whatever you choose to do, create a system around it for collecting reviews from future clients.

    Strategies:

    • Cut snippets from each testimonial and put them together in a way that keeps the video interesting.
    • Mixing formats is ok since many people will use their phone to record.
    • Keep the length under 1 minute.
    • Use this video on your website and on your YouTube channel, and link to it in your cold email campaigns.

    By adding video to your marketing plan, your business will reach more people. Let people get to know the humans behind your machine, and start by using these 3 videos.

    Learn how to optimize your video for social media distribution.

    Need help? Set up a call with us to see how we can work together.

  • What’s wrong with your website? 5 free tools to help you find your SEO pitfalls.

    What’s wrong with your website? 5 free tools to help you find your SEO pitfalls.

    Find your SEO pitfalls using these 5 free tools

    Right now there are almost 2 billion active websites on the internet. That’s some stiff competition! How could you ever win the coveted spot on the first page of Google with that kind of saturation?

    In the most basic sense, using a combination of technical SEO, and content strategy, you can compete with almost anyone. If you want to improve your website’s SEO and your search engine ranking, you need to know where you’re falling short. Fortunately, there are a number of free tools available that can help you identify your SEO pitfalls.

    In this article we will look at 5 tools to do just that, but first, there are a couple of things you need to know.

    1st – Improving your SEO is NOT a magic formula to make you more money tomorrow. It involves

    • Time creating
    • Time building
    • Time waiting

    but it pays off in the long run. A strong SEO strategy is absolutely necessary for your brand to fully harness the power of the internet, but before you waste a ton of time, ask yourself this: are you sure it’s SEO you’re talking about? What do you expect it to do for you? It could be that your website performs fine and what you really need is a total marketing strategy, of which SEO is just one piece.

    2nd – Using these tools will either make you aware of problems that you can fix, or make you more confused than you already are. These tools are used by people who nerd out on this stuff. It’s OK that you don’t know everything. Often, you need to leverage other professionals to help you.

    3rd – These tools do a lot of the same things. There are many overlapping features in these products, so most of it boils down to your preference. The interfaces are drastically different, so look out for the ones that are easiest to read. You don’t need to use all of these tools to audit your website all the time. Find one or two that make the most sense to you and blast off.

    Let’s look at the 5 free tools for assessing your website in no particular order.

    1. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

    It’s not a creepy as it sounds. Screaming Frog is piece of software that scours your website and compiles a ton of data into a relatively easy-to-read format. The report points out pieces of your website that might require optimization.

    Discover your H1 and H2 tags, how many you have, how long they are, and if they’re used correctly. Screaming Frog detects images that are slowing down your loading times, non-optimized page titles, and meta information that needs tweaking. Plus, any potential security issues will be brought to light.

    This is a great place to start so you know what needs immediate technical attention on the backend of your website.

    TIP: Sort the overview tab according to the “issue type” column to view and work on the most important things first.

    2. Google Search Console

    The Google Search Console is a completely free tool from our friends at Google. Insights about your traffic, pages that are indexed (showing up in Google search results), and pages that are not indexed and why are summarized in one location.

    All you need is a Google account and access to your domain’s DNS settings in order to verify site ownership. Once you’re set up, it takes a month or so to really build analytics on traffic and other key insights. There’s plenty to do while you wait, though.

    First, upload your sitemap. This will help Google know where your pages are. You may find pages that have been crawled but not indexed. Once you fix the issues, click “request indexing”, and that page will be crawled again. You will also see mobile usability reports, page performance reports, and any unused code that is slowing down your website inside the “page speed insights” section. Fix these items to boost your speed.

    TIP: You may receive emails from Google about an indexing issue due to a redirect error. Check which version of your web address is mentioned in the email. If it says “http” (without the ‘s’), you have nothing to worry about. This is simply redirecting an un-secured version of your site to the secure version. If the email says “https”, you will need to find where the redirect is causing problems. You can do this in Screaming Frog.

    3. SEM Rush

    SEM Rush is one of the most in-depth tools for strengthening your website’s performance. It’s also the most expensive one I use. There are features within SEM Rush that are free and don’t require a subscription.

    For example, the on-page SEO checker combs through specific pages and offers suggestions for improvement. The Keyword Magic Tool tests your site against keywords that you enter, and compares how you stand up against a competitor’s keyword ranking.

    One of the best free features is the Content Audit tool. Plug in keywords, select a geographic region, and SEM Rush shows you top-ranking sites along with a list of questions people Googled to find these sites.

    The paid version adds local SEO, social media, content re-writing, and whole slew of incredible tools and insights for constant monitoring to improve your SERP (search engine results page) rankings.

    TIP: In the content marketing tab, click on “Content Research”. This is an easy way to research topics you already have in mind, and find new content ideas in line with your specified keywords. If you’re blogging on your website, this is especially advantageous.

    4. Similarweb

    The Similarweb Chrome extension gives you a free look into the demographics of your site visitors. Metrics include which age groups are likely to visit your site, what sites they like to visit, and their social media interests.

    See how your site ranks in different geographic regions, and compare your site to similar sites.

    As a browser extension, it doesn’t require much work to use it. Pin it to your extension bookmarks and click the logo after your site has loaded. There is a paid version of this, however using the extension by itself is suitable.

    TIP: After clicking the extension button to scan your website, an orange button appears at the top with “More Insights”. Typically this means, “clicking here will redirect you to our pricing plans”, but that’s not the case with Similarweb. There are loads of additional free insights when you click the orange button.

    5. Moz

    Moz.com has many of the features other tools have. Moz, however, includes a score for your domain authority and page authority.

    These terms have become a massive deal in recent years as Google is constantly updating its algorithms. Domain authority is how they describe your knowledge of the subjects that you write about on your site.

    To put it generically, “if you know what you’re talking about, and you talk about it a lot, your domain authority will increase.” There’s a ton of technical factors like link building and update frequency, which all play in to domain authority. Moz presents it in an easy-to-digest number format (your score).

    The free version provides 3 reports per day.

    TIP: If your website is less than 3 months old, there probably will not be any data on here. This is a great tool to see if what you’ve been doing is actually working once you’ve been doing it for a while.

    To wrap up, these 5 tools can help you identify your website’s shortfalls. Since there’s no magic formula for building SEO, be patient and consistent in your strategy. If you find yourself overwhelmed after auditing your website, schedule a call with me and I’m happy to take a look.

  • Reach more people on social media with optimized marketing videos

    Reach more people on social media with optimized marketing videos

    Best Practices for Marketing Videos on Social Media

    Let’s be honest, video, like so many aspects of marketing and branding, video is not a super simple thing that you can just jump right into without any knowledge or planning. You’ve made the wise decision to create some marketing videos for your small business, now it’s time to plan. Each social media platform is unique in the way that it handles and displays video. One of the first moves in creating a video marketing strategy is to build a plan based on distribution. You could be sending video emails, posting on social media, or creating a few videos to enhance your website, and the plan will look a bit different in each scenario. Let’s take a look at a few things that will save you time and headache if you sort them out before you start.

    Where will you post your video?

    This is the first question you should ask yourself. There are plenty of places where your video could shine and attract new clients to increase revenue. On the flip side, there are places where it is destined to fail. So, which platforms should you consider when creating your videos? Where you post your videos will determine a lot about the format of the video and the content of the message. Answer 2 questions:

    1.

    Who is your audience?

    2.

    Where do they hang out?

    Most likely, you have already identified the core audience that uses your products and services. For determining where your videos should go, it’s important to know the age range of your clients and the primary ways they have interacted with you. Look at analytics on your website and your social channels to find this data.

    Using the data from your audience research, you should be able to determine where your ideal client spends most of their time online, and whether or not they open and respond to emails. It’s good to assume that most people will be viewing your emails, website, and videos from a mobile device like a phone or a tablet. It’s best to optimize for mobile viewing in everything you do.

    Optimizing your video for the proper social media channels

    While there are no hard and fast rules for length and format of videos on the internet, these are some great guidelines based on data collected from thousands of profiles across 3 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

    Facebook Videos

    As of January 2022, 31% of Facebook users are between 25 and 34 years old. This is the largest segment of age demographics using the platform. You may see slightly different demographics for your own brand’s personal engagement, so it’s important to view your post insights. Videos command 136% more organic reach than posts with images, so the algorithm favors video distribution. Here are some tips for optimizing your marketing videos for distribution on Facebook.

    The Message

    • Keep it short and direct. Your videos should be one minute or less. Make your message clear.
    • “Punchline first” – cram the most interesting and important bit into the first 10 seconds.
    • Be human and not robotic. Your personality needs to be seen here. Don’t be fake.
    • Make sure there’s a clear call to action at the end. Viewers need to know what to do next.
    • Use graphics and text overlays to emphasize your main points.
    • Use captions. Viewers aren’t always in a place where they can turn up the volume. Auto-generated captions need review and editing.

    The Method

    • Shoot your video in one of two formats:
      • Square (1:1) – You can shoot square video with an iPhone. This format uses more of the screen. If you’re using DSLR, you will need to change aspect ratio in post production.
      • Landscape (16:9) – This is a wide shot from left to right. More cinematic looking, but uses less of the screen.
    • Audio – Bad audio will kill your message. Invest in a lavalier mic or a shotgun mic. They aren’t super expensive, and the benefits are incredible.
    • Use music, sound effects, and voice over in appropriate situations. Try Pixabay for music and sound effects.

    Instagram Videos

    Almost 60% of Instagram’s users are between 18 and 32 years old. That’s a telling piece of data for anyone looking to gain a following on the platform. On average, Instagram users watch 30 minutes of reels, stories, and video posts each day. In order to capture that audience, you need to know the purpose for each type of post, what it does, and how it performs. The algorithm favors reels and stories above posts. 500 million people login to look at stories each day.

    Reels & Stories

    • Reels are short videos that live inside your profile and they can be a combination of video and still photos.
    • Stories are short videos that are accessed by clicking your circle profile photo. They only remain active for 24 hours, however you can repurpose a story to create a reel.
    • Reels and Stories should be between 15 and 30 seconds long.
    • Both types of video should be shot in portrait format (tall, not wide)
    • Make sure there’s a clear call to action here again. There should be no confusion about what the viewer needs to do to get in touch, purchase, etc.
    • Graphics, text overlays, strange filters, and captions should be used when necessary.
    • Find trending audio (the little diagonal arrow by the track at the bottom of other reels) with fewer than 5,000 reels, and put it in your video.

    Posts

    • I personally would not create videos that are specifically made for posts. Posts get less organic reach than reels and stories. I would repurpose videos that you have already made for Facebook and YouTube in square or landscape format, and create Instagram posts around them.
    • THE ONLY EXCEPTION – If you are creating a paid advertising campaign… square video and animation both work very nicely as a paid ad post.
    • Audio – You need the best audio possible. First, be aware of your surroundings. If you’re outside without a lavalier mic, is there street noise, wind, or other loud noises? If you’re shooting with a phone or the built-in mic on a DSLR, make sure you are close enough to the camera. Indoors, be aware of echo from hard surfaces. You can soften this by using blankets and pillows.

    YouTube Videos

    YouTube’s viewer demographics are evenly spread across age groups because there’s literally something for everyone on the platform. 18-24 year olds make up 15% of the users, 25-34 year olds come in at 20.5%, 35-44 year olds combine for 16.5% of YouTube’s viewers, and 45-54 year olds make up 12% of users. It’s also worth noting that 19% of YouTube viewers are 55 and older (split evenly between 55-64 and 65+). So what do you do with this info? Put your videos on YouTube!

    The Purpose

    • One of the best things about uploading your videos to YouTube is that it is a search engine on it’s own. You will receive great visibility in Google searches as well.
    • YouTube is also the place to put your longer videos. 2 minute videos or 10 minute videos, and everything in between.
    • It’s the perfect platform for educational and “how-to” videos, product videos, brand awareness videos, and more.
    • Drive traffic to your website using in-video links and profile links.

    The Format

    • While you can upload video in any format, the best practice would be to keep it uniform. Videos on YouTube should be shot in landscape (16:9) orientation.
    • Live action and screen capture videos, documentary style, as well as produced and polished. All types of video are fair game.
    • Create your channel and optimize it by walking through the entire setup.
    • Use keywords and links in the video descriptions for great SEO.

    Planning ahead will save you a lot of time and effort. When you format your videos correctly for distribution on each social media channel, you will increase your chances of engagement.

    Not sure where to start? Check out these 3 must-have videos for all businesses.

    If you have questions about creating a video marketing strategy for your small business, or if you want a fresh set of eyes on your video content to discover where you could be missing opportunities, set up 30-minute call with JT Creative and see if we can help you overcome some of your video marketing challenges.

  • 5 ways you can improve your client database right now

    5 ways you can improve your client database right now

    5 Ways You Can Improve Your Client Database Right Now

    Your client contact database is the most important thing in your business. Whether you use a CRM or a notebook, consistent and systematized communication with your past clients, potential clients, and allied resources is paramount for building lasting relationships and creating repeat business. This can be difficult without a properly maintained database. In this article we will look at 5 things you can do right now to improve your client contact database and start communicating effectively.

    DEFINITIONS

    Database – Your list of clients, potential clients, former clients, friends, family, acquaintances, businesses you support, people whose services you use.

    CRM – Client Relationship Manager. Software that keeps your database organized, and can automate some communications with the contacts in your database.

    Met – A person in your database that you have met personally. This doesn’t indicate a level of relationship only that you’ve met them.

    Haven’t met – This is a person in your database that you have not personally met. It could be someone who signed up on your website, or landed in the top level of your sales funnel.

    Allied Resource – This is someone who you do business with. It could be your dentist, your mechanic, or a company that your company works directly with. They are in a unique position to refer business to you.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • Your database IS your business. It is the keeper of the most important information about people who could be doing business with you and/or referring business to you.
    • Unnecessary clutter and disorganization ruins your communication. Not all the people in your database need to be receiving the same communications. Organize and segregate your contacts to communicate effectively.
    • Your database is not simply a place to keep phone numbers and email addresses. It is a place to keep all sorts of data about people that could be creating revenue for your business. The more you know about people, the better you will communicate with them.
    • Your database is a living thing. You need to feed it every day. You should always be looking for ways to add to your database.

    1. Merge your duplicate entries

    This one kind of seems like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised at how many times you’ve taken John Smith’s information and created multiple contacts for the same person in your phone or your client database. If you have an iPhone, this is done by simply going into your contacts and looking below where it shows your information and says “My Card”, there will be a link there that says “duplicates found” if you have duplicates. Click the link and see which contacts are duplicates and which are unique. You can choose to merge contacts into one card or keep them separate. Similarly, most CRMs have a built-in function within the software that will allow you to seek out and eliminate the duplicate contacts. If you don’t have this function or your client database is in a notebook or a shoebox, you will have to go through everything manually.

    Either way you do this, a clutter-free client database will allow you to see who you’re communicating with and eliminate confusion when creating a strategic plan for delivering content.

    2. Update contacts with incomplete or incorrect information

    If your emails bounce, try to find an updated email address by finding the person on social media or by phoning the person and asking them directly. If they’re on LinkedIn, there’s a good chance you can get their most up-to-date email address. You could also use Facebook messenger. An easy script for phone, text, or messenger is this… “Hello [first name], I hope you’re doing well. I am updating my database and I want to make sure that I have your info correct, and you have my info correct. Is your email address still [email@address.com]?” That’s the gist anyway. You don’t have to sound robotic.

    Are your texts not going through? Again, try to get their new phone number. If there’s one thing social media has done for us, it’s allowed us to find people a bit easier than it used to be. You can send an email, messenger, LinkedIn, etc and double check that their phone number is the same. Here’s the thing… if you can’t do either of these, DELETE them from your database. That’s right, get rid of them. There’s no use keeping people you can’t communicate with in your database to clog it up. Don’t delete them from social media, but keep them out of your CRM.

    This process should happen on a systematic basis. Every month, 2 months, or quarter, just go through your contacts. Fire off a text to someone you haven’t heard from in a while. If it comes back undeliverable, you know you need to update their information. On the flip side, if they respond, setup a coffee or lunch with them. Stay in front of people and they won’t forget you when they need your products or services.

    3. Tag people you have communicated with in the last 6 months

    The content you create for your communication campaigns will look differently depending on how recently you’ve spoken with your contacts. It’s good to segregate contacts in a variety of different ways, but one of the best things to do is ask yourself “when was the last time I spoke with that person?”. You can create a field in your CRM or spreadsheet where you record the date of your last communication. So, every time you speak with someone, open it up and change the date. You can then filter your client database by that field to see who it is that you haven’t spoken with in a while. Come up with a special piece that is directly tailored to re-engage these people and get them back into the “recent” category.

    This is where it’s important to have a super granular content strategy. You will need a wide variety of content pieces aimed at different stages of relationships and varied interests. You need to know your client database extremely well in order to segregate it in this way. This is one reason why feeding your database new data every time you speak with some is an integral part of daily business operations.

    4. Split your client database into 2 categories

    The foundation of your client database can be broken down into 2 very generic categories:

    1. Mets – These are people you have met in person (or I suppose these days, people you have interacted with on Zoom). There is no pre-requisite for how well you know someone in your met list. It’s not an indicator of relationship status. It’s just as simple as it seems.
    2. Haven’t Mets – Ding ding ding! You’ve guessed it, these are people you have not met in person (or interacted with on Zoom). Again, not a relationship indicator, but a simple yes or no. Have you met them? Most of the time, these are people who filled in a contact form on your website or landed in the top level of a sales funnel.

    Your goal for communicating with mets is simple, keep learning about them and stay at the top of their mind as someone who knows things that can help them. Your goals for the haven’t mets is to convert them into mets. Proving your value to haven’t mets is the trick here. They will either “unsubscribe” or want more. If you give them valuable content, they will be excited to see your communication campaign in their inbox and be more likely to use your products and services. Again, the key here is making sure you know as much as you can about the people in your contact list.

    5. Add new people you have interacted with recently

    Every time you meet someone that could be a potential client or an allied resource, add them to your database. Make sure to include as much data as you know about them. Find their social profiles, input their occupation, and mention their personality type. Your database is not just a book with phone numbers and email addresses, it is full of DATA. It is a living thing and it needs to be fed. New data is gathered every single time you interact with someone, whether it’s your first meeting or your twentieth. Maybe they mention that their wife just started a new job or that their husband just celebrated his birthday. All of these data points are simple to collect and organize, but more importantly they give you a reason to follow up with that person. If someone tells you their wife is pregnant, you now have a pass to check in with them every month and ask how she’s doing. If someone mentions their vacation is coming up, set a reminder to follow up when they return and ask how it went. Other pieces of data: hobbies, civic or volunteer groups they are part of, sports teams, favorite restaurants, names of children, anniversary, and the list goes on! The more you know about people, the better your communication will be with them. But you have to have a system for this. It has to be a priority to spend time on your database every week at the very least. Create a plan for adding to and organizing your client database and you will find that it can bring you increased sales and revenue through lasting relationships.

    If you have questions about how this can look getting specific to your business niche, please message me on LinkedIn, or setup a call to chat about your challenges and how to overcome them.