Do you still believe you need an IT guy for your website? Do you jump on the bandwagon with every flavor-of-the-day Social Media fad? Are you still under the impression that good enough is good enough? Sorry, it is not the intention to put you on the spot for the success or failure of your digital marketing, but it breaks my heart to see entrepreneurs losing out on massive opportunities just because they did not know of any better. Hopefully, after reading this you would be able to see the trees from the forest and not wander around completely lost. (That is of course if you want to grow and prosper as an entrepreneur.)
The Dilemma for Small Business Entrepreneurs
The biggest dilemma that I have seen over the years as head of our advertising agency for entrepreneurs, is that our corporate firms are all sorted with top-ranking advertising agencies, managing their entire marketing communication campaign. Marketing plans that include target market analyses, outbound strategies, and foolproof content marketing plans are nothing new in the world of big business. Unfortunately, the typical small business entrepreneur is of the opinion that they can still survive on the tactics that have helped them through the last decade or two.
What worked last year does not work this year
The internet evolves on a constant basis. Our client’s needs change. And they are bombarded with an insane amount of information on a daily basis. The image below gives a bird’s eye view of what happens on the internet on a per-minute basis.
Pretty scary stuff. If you consider that his image hails from 2021 statistics, it makes it even more frighting.
The reality is that if we want to make an impact, we cannot rely on yesteryear’s actions. Unless we plan to go out of business. Yes, frightening enough, there are still a lot of entrepreneurs who are extremely nonchalant about the impact that their marketing communication, and specifically their digital marketing has on their business. They have a website, designed by their very clever IT guy and he knows everything there is to know. Right?
Advertising vs Content Marketing
As you can see in the diagram above, people have a huge amount of content competing for their attention every second. So how can a small brand – or, really, any brand – stand out? Quite simply, they need to connect with their consumers on a personal level and offer them real value in exchange for that attention. That value comes in a number of forms, and it is produced via content marketing.
Your consumer is sick and tired of being sold to all the time. Ever heard of NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming? In its most basic essence, NLP is all about the fact that people like people who are like themselves. If you keep on selling to them, you are talking down to them. Marketing extraordinaire Gary Vaynerchuk, describes the ideal method as a jab, jab, jab, right hook strategy. Three solid content marketing pieces for every advert that you put out.
Content marketing is all about telling a story, entertaining, or educating. Apart from the tradition of sell, sell, sell, content marketing builds brand credibility. To do this, though, you’ll need a strong idea of what content is, how to plan it, and – of course – how to create and write it. But don’t despair, help is at hand.
Traditional vs Digital Content
Digital content is not just an online version of traditional content. Just transferring print media to the web isn’t going to work. While many principles of traditional copywriting and content creation exist (grammar, tone, storytelling), more factors than this are at play. The diagram below explains most of the differences:
Seeing the Wood from the Trees
One of the main aims of addVENTURES Business Club is to help our members see the wood from the trees. We understand that you cannot always afford a one-on-one marketing communication agency, but we are appalled by the amount of material that is very far from the truth or completely wrong for your company. And yes, we are determined to educate you on the fact of not relying on the IT guy for your digital marketing.
That is why we provide group coaching sessions, as well as the digital marketing basics that you need in our online addVENTURES Academy. All in an effort to ensure that you do not miss out on all the possibilities available to you.
(You can also head over to AddVenture Business Coaching & Content for a one-on-one option.)
If you want to know more about addVENTURES Business Club for Entrepreneurs, visit our Why addVENTURES page or send us a message.
We would love to chat with you.
