Monday Marketing Minute Series
The Stingray Branding Team releases a weekly Monday Marketing Minute video on our Facebook Page every week. Each month we focus on a different topic, exploring it and providing you with practical, simple, and actionable information. Tune in every Monday at 3:00 pm EST for these quick Facebook Live sessions from your team of Stingrays. In case you’re busy on Mondays though, we’ve got you covered. We recap the information from these sessions in our blog every month, as well as posting the videos on our YouTube Channel.
September saw us weather the storm of Hurricane Dorian as it passed along the South Carolina coast. We took this time to mix and match some incredible topics that can help you in your marketing. First, we talk about the lessons we learned from the storm about teamwork and having a plan for your marketing during a crisis. Then we talked about apps, and how they can be a marketing tool for you. Finally, we talked about starting a blog, something we know a lot about, with two bloggers on our team.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, or just want to see what our team can do to help you, contact us here. Our team would love to hear from you!
Lessons From Hurricane Dorian
Hurricanes, and other crises, can teach us a great deal about our businesses and ourselves. Many of us spend a great deal of time making plans, preparing for disasters, and working to ensure we make it through the best we can. But even with the best preparation, we tend to let our pride cover potential problems with our plan.
That’s why we have teams; people who can help us carry the load on a normal day or during a crisis. Ideally, teams are fully aligned on the mission of your business, and each team member handles something they are exceptional at. Often though, our teams are lacking in some supporting areas. We overlook something because we get by with it on the day-to-day tasks, but those tasks can become a real problem for your business under stress.
This is especially true for small businesses with marketing, where we often don’t have one team member, much less a whole team. We overlook our marketing because we are worried about more immediate concerns.
In a crisis, you will undoubtedly have other things you need to do with your time. You may or may not have someone to tend to your social media or communicate with customers about the impact the current situation may have. You’re busy with other things; your vision is limited. A marketing team helps you cover your blind spots and keep your clients informed. At the very least, having one team member to communicate with your customers is the bare minimum you should have.
So, take a moment. Evaluate your plan, your marketing plan for a crisis, and your team. If you need to get a team in place, do so. You won’t regret it when the time comes.
Apps for Your Business
We all love apps. Or maybe we hate them. It really depends on the app we are discussing. Apps can be a huge help, connecting us with information and capabilities that help us on a daily basis. But did you know that an app could help you with your marketing? Have you ever thought about it? And if you want to build an app for your business, how do you make one that’s actually useful, not just taking up space?
With those questions in mind, here are three questions to help you think about building an app for your business:
Why Are You Building an App?
There are a number of reasons you could be building an app. City and county governments have turned to use apps to communicate with people during times of crisis or inform them about specific emergencies directly. Apps can also create a more convenient process for your customer by simplifying it. Whatever the reason for your app, you need to know it. (And no, “just because” isn’t a good reason.)
Who Are You Building the App For?
Knowing your audience is so important. The audience, and their demographic data, will help you decide how to design the user experience, what they actually need, where they will use it, and so much more. Take the time to make a detailed sketch of who your user is. This will make certain your app does exactly what you want it to, and for whom you want to help.
What Does the App Give the Customer?
An app shouldn’t just exist to clone something. It should actually add value to the user. Those apps from city and country governments push information to you that you might miss. Apps that simplify business processes make the customer experience more pleasant and convenient. An app that doesn’t actually add any value quickly becomes an old, forgotten icon on a phone.
Taking the time to ask these questions and plan the strategy for your app will help you decide if an app is right for you, and what you want to build.
Blogging for Your Business
We all know how important keeping refreshed content is for digital marketing efforts. One of the seemingly simplest methods for this is a blog. But blogs can be very perilous for a business’ marketing efforts if they aren’t planned and executed properly.
So how do you create an engaging and effective blog? Follow these tips to plan for success!
1. Vetting Your Blog
What are you writing about? Why are you writing it? Who are you writing it for?
Make sure your topic, as well as the reason for writing about it and the audience, is in alignment with your business. There’s nothing wrong with writing a blog for personal fulfillment, but blogs for your business should be connected to it in some way. Good blogs take time, so you need to be effective, and vetting your concept is the first step.
2. Making Your Blog
Making your blog can be very difficult, but not because of the writing. Putting words on paper is pretty easy for most people, but you have to build a process. Since consistency is key, take time to plan how often and when you want your blog to come out. Reverse engineer your writing sessions, editing time, and posting time from that release schedule. Then schedule those times and hold them sacred.
3. Engage, Engage, Engage
Engaging with people is a great way to grow your influence. The most obvious way is to engage with other creators, but don’t forget to engage with your audience and customers. Acknowledge comments, answer questions, and find out what your audience finds valuable for your blog. This will help you keep the blog fresh, relevant, and real for an audience, taking it a step above most blogs out there now.
Your Stingray Branding Team
Stingray Branding is the number one source for your digital marketing needs. Our team of subject matter experts brings a vast array of knowledge and experience to drive your marketing to the next level. No matter the size of your business, or your industry, we can help you. If you have any questions or just want to see how we can help, contact us here. We’d love to hear from you!
