Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya

Most businesses start out with a dream and an inspiration, but that is where it ends. Even the most innovative businesses can wind up closing their doors because a good action plan and a focused timeline were not in place at conception. There are many benefits to creating your action plan and online business timeline. When you have an action plan put into place and follow it regularly and continue to focus on your business timeline, things will run much more smoothly for your new business, your employees, and your customers. Note: An action plan and timeline are useful even if your business has been around for a little while. It is never too late for proper planning! Tune in to today's episode of "Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya" for a few tips to help you get started. Checkout the full blog on the Marketing Sparkler blog at http://bit.ly/38FcCGZ.

What holds most would-be authors back from publishing? It’s not a lack of writing talent. It’s definitely not a lack of knowledge. And for sure it’s not a lack of desire. If you asked most people why they have not finished their book, the answer is simple: time. When would you have time to write an entire book? Tune in to today's episode of "Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya" for a simple path to blog your way to a book, now streaming across your favorite podcast platforms. Checkout the full blog on the Marketing Sparkler blog at http://bit.ly/3dgKOM2.

Social media is more about engaging with your followers to generate lifelong customers. It is also a way to gather market research that is necessary for keeping your products and services new and fresh. Here are a few ways that you can use your social media accounts to gain more followers and boost your engagement on each site. Tune in to today's episode of "Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya" for 15 ways to increase your social media engagement. Checkout the full blog on the Marketing Sparkler blog at http://bit.ly/3cG9mhj.

Big brands spend an enormous amount of money on advertising and marketing, but as a solo entrepreneur or small business owner you don’t have to do the same. You can market your business just as effectively on a shoestring budget by utilizing some basic free or low-cost marketing tactics. If you engage with your audience effectively and provide high-value content, you can achieve all your business goals, just like the big companies do. Tune in to today's episode of "Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya" for 5 ways you can do your own marketing online with little or no cost! Checkout the full blog on the Marketing Sparkler blog at http://bit.ly/39vDE4w.

When you are first starting out with your brand development, it can be challenging to know whether or not you are doing everything you should be doing to make it as complete and rounded as possible. The truth is that there are a range of important qualities which you need to look out for if you are going to develop the strongest possible brand. Tune in to today's episode of "Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya" to learn about three of the major qualities of great brands - specificity, relevancy, and agility - that you should be aiming for as best as you can, to ensure the brightest possible future for your business. Read the full blog on the Marketing Sparkler blog at https://bit.ly/35JSz9x.

You don’t need a big budget to launch a successful marketing campaign. With a repertoire of online marketing tactics and some time and effort, you can do exactly what the big brands do but without the budget. One great way to make the most of your marketing efforts is to get customer recommendations. Why Do Recommendations Work? Recommendations are a type of social proof. This is a psychological phenomenon where people see others get results and naturally conclude that if they perform the same actions, they will get the same results. For example, when your customer tells people how your product or service helped them, those people will want to try it themselves. Tune in to today's episode to learn How to Boost Your Marketing with Customer Recommendations. Visit https://bit.ly/2Fh0X5C to read the full blog post!

It’s tempting to try to run your business without a plan. It may seem like you can just get up each day and do what you want to do and the business will be successful. While that sometimes does happen, it’s not likely. Don’t let these seemingly viral overnight sensations fool you! The main reason most businesses fail is due to lack of a plan and lack of follow through. It doesn’t matter how large or small your business is; you really do need a plan. If you really want to have a successful business, then you will need to go through the effort to create a marketing plan. Of course, wingin it can get you results. But do you really want to wing it with your business? Do you want to leave your revenue to chance? Of course not! Leaving your revenue to chance is not a safe or wise plan. Whether you are a solopreneur or you’re managing a team, you need to be able to see progress, forecast projections, and build your income. Why? Because this will give you the motivation to keep going. Your marketing plan is a living breathing document. It is not meant to be created and ignored. It can be updated as the business changes and your needs evolve. It should be used as a blueprint, so that you never have to ask, what am I supposed to be doing? when it comes to your marketing activities. If you are still not convinced, here are a few benefits of using a marketing plan. Visit https://marketingsparkler.com/yes-you-do-really-need-a-marketing-plan/ to read the full blog post! - - - Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya Podcast Host: Miss Kemya Website: marketingsparkler.com

When you create content for your website, it needs to attract search engines by using the right type of keywords. But, it also needs to be engaging for your audience. After all, remember that humans are reading the content, not robots. Therefore, even though you need to use keywords in the text, it doesn't mean the content should be boring and generic. Your website should be at the center of all your online marketing activities, which means the content you put on the website, and in other places, is vital to the performance of your website. Without content, you have nothing. Content is still king, and always will be king. While content types change, the value of content never changes. When you realize the value of the content that you create, you'll take the time to create it right. Check Out Your Competitors How often does your competition post? Do they write it all themselves or do they have guest authors? Do you know whether they've hired a ghost writer or if they're all self-written? How do they share and promote their content? Understanding how your competition operates can help make you better because you can find a way to make yourself different. Create Unique Content with Value Every bit of content you create for your website or blog should be unique. There is a place for curated content, if you make it original with your own words and thoughts added, but most of the content on your website/blog should be unique to your brand and provide value to your audience. This doesn't mean you can't curate content - on the contrary; if you curate content well, your content will still be valuable and unique. Answer Questions You don't have to have people emailing you questions to answer them. Go to where your audience is: forums, message boards, other blogs, and find questions that are relevant to your niche and answer them on your blog. It's a great way to find content to write, and your audience will feel like you can read their mind. Ask Questions of Your Readers If you want to be more interactive with your audience, end every post, article and video with a question to the viewer. Invite them to answer questions, even give them incentives to do so such as random prizes or a special call out on Twitter. The more you interact with your readers over the content that you provide them, the more engaging your content will be. One thing feeds off another. Don't Forget to Promote Finally, don't forget to promote your content via social media. Due to the social nature of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, you can use social media in a way to elicit engagement from your followers. You can do this by continually sharing important content that you've created with them, answering their questions, and promoting those questions and answers as hard as you promote the content that prompted the questions and answers.

Owning a business and building it from scratch can be a worthy achievement for anyone who manages to be successful from it. However, there does come the point in your business where it’s beneficial to release the reigns slightly and to give control over to others so that they can continue to build and you can continue to grow. However, as a business owner, this can be tough, so here are some tips on learning to let go in business. Click here >> http://bit.ly/2m9HRof

There are several ways in which you can attract new clients to your service-based business. One of the most effective is via community involvement. Don’t get worried that you don’t have time to go to your local community meetings. Community involvement can happen both online and offline. There are communities that exist only online and there are communities that exist only offline. You can do both for best impact, but if there is a reason you can only participate online, that is fine too. There are two types of communities you can get involved in. You can involve yourself in a community of your peers, or a community of your audience. In terms of peer groups, there are peers with whom you are in direct competition, and those who offer complementary services to yours. Both can help you get clients. However, the complementary group will be more beneficial to you because they are not direct competition. Consider that when you get involved in any particular group. Business focused groups, mastermind groups, industry focused groups and so forth all exist to help you educate yourself further and provide connections. You can get clients through word of mouth when a peer group member feels you would be right for a position because they have come to know you. Peer groups also offer opportunities for joint venture partnerships, which can widen and expand your audience. Click here >> http://bit.ly/2LdrgJa

Taking the leap into starting a business can be a scary thing for anybody. It comes with risks, stresses, and responsibility of taking on the world while being responsible for a company and workforce. Imagine taking on this responsibility, but alone. This is the life of a solopreneur. The difference between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur is when you are a solopreneur, you do it all yourself. This means doing the operational side of the business, such a contracts to managing marketing campaigns, such as advertising and literally everything in between. While the business of being a solopreneur can seem overwhelming, there are different tactics you can employ in order to run a most efficient level. On today's episode, we are going to look at some ways we can succeed and thrive on our solopreneur's journey. Click here >> http://bit.ly/2Zogiuh

We’re all constantly ‘switched on’ and distracted these days, aren’t we? Scrolling through our phones, laptop by our side, loud noise everywhere. And that makes it a real challenge to get any marketing message across effectively. Unless you understand the way people’s brains work – and form a real emotional connection. But how does an emotional connection help you rise above other distractions – in a world that’s constantly switched on? Well, I'll tell you in today's episode! Click here >> http://bit.ly/2KHRDYw

When starting out, the humble nature of your business can sometimes raise eyebrows. You might be selling an interesting product online, but how do people know they can trust you with their card information? You might be the mascot of your firm, but without good marketing around that, how are they to know? What registrations and security processes do you have? What are your plans for the future? And how might you settle those initial fears to prove that you are who you say you are? Listen to today's episode to learn easy ways to make your business look legitimate to your customers! Click here >> http://bit.ly/31SXHDr

If you're a natural introvert, there's no reason at all to shy away from social media. Don't let the word 'social' throw you. Social media sites offer a great platform for introverts to be social on their own terms. You get to interact with other, but keep control at the same time. Many people are surprised when they find out I’m an introvert. My business is marketing and social media and yes, I’m an introvert! I know, on the surface this doesn’t even seem possible, but it’s true. If given the chance, I will happily sit in the corner by myself and curl up with a book. I can attend an event and not say a single word to anyone, and enjoy myself immensely just the same. This is me, I am she. And yet I’ve embraced social media, not only as a wonderfully efficient marketing tool, but it’s also allowed me to get in touch with my inner extrovert side online. I have figured out ways to interact with people on social media that are comfortable for me. Being an introvert does not have to be a burden for your business, if you don't let it. Click here >> http://bit.ly/1JheSn6

We have come to the end of our seven-day challenge to use business planning to create explosive growth in traffic, customers, and most important, income. Much of what we’ve discussed so far has been actionable steps like writing down your goals as well as mindset pieces like the one about stepping out of your comfort zone. Today is all about putting everything we’ve discussed so far, and combining it into something that can give you that explosive growth you want. Lesson 7: How To Engineer Explosive Growth By Stacking Your Efforts You see, when you use the basic concept of exponential growth to your advantage, it doesn’t take much progress in any one area to see big results. We briefly touched on this idea back on day three when we talked about increasing traffic, subscribers, and customers to add to our bottom line. Today we expand on this whole idea in a few different ways. Then we tie it all back into setting goals and business planning in general. Leverage Progress The idea is to make progress on your goals and stack them in a way that gives you leverage. One goal builds on the next and they all work together to generate exponential growth. This can work in a myriad of different ways and will of course differ from one business to the next. My point is this… If you start to think strategically and keep one eye on your next few moves, you can start to stack your efforts and engineer that explosive growth in a lot less time than you may think. Try it! Click here >> http://bit.ly/2H1jW1V

Can you think back on a time of real growth, be it in business, in your personal life, or anywhere else? More than likely, you had to step out of your comfort zone for that growth to happen. Yes, we can make progress by doing what we’ve always done. But it will be slow and more importantly, by staying within your comfort zone, you are limiting your potential growth. It’s when we step out of that zone, try something new, take a bit of a risk, and allow for personal and professional growth that we start to see big changes for the better. The comfort zone Let’s say your goal is to grow your reach and get out in front of a larger audience. What you’ve done so far, and what feels comfortable is writing a blog post a week and then sharing it on social media. Yes, some readers will find you. Yes, if you double or triple your efforts, publishing more posts per week and sharing more often across all your social media accounts, you will see some growth and engagement. But you’re staying in your comfort zone. Stepping outside of the zone What if instead, you used the time you would have spent writing another blog post or two per week and promoting it on Facebook, you took the time to write a guest blog post for someone else’s blog with a bigger reach. What if you sat down and recorded a fun and informational video that you can then share on YouTube, embed in a blog post, and of course share via your favorite social media outlets. What if you used the time to set up and tested a Facebook ad that continually sends new leads into your funnel. If any of these things are new to you, this may seem like a pretty scary proposition. But getting uncomfortable and doing it anyway can have some huge rewards. Guest blogging Writing and submitting the guest blog post can give you a lot of added exposure by allowing you to get in front of an established audience. It also gives you the change to start a relationship with a fellow blogger that may lead to all sorts of other opportunities and collaborations. Video series Recording a series of videos gives you the opportunity to reach a completely different subset of your target audience. There are plenty of people who prefer video content to written posts and articles. There are people who spend hours each day watching YouTube videos who would never stumble across you and your blog otherwise. Spending money on ads Spending money on paid ads can sound like a scary proposition, but once you crack it and find something that converts well for you, you will get a steady stream of new leads in front of you without any added work. Bottom Line There’s something else I want to mention, just in case I don’t have you convinced yet that getting out of your comfort zone is something you should be doing regularly. You won’t stay uncomfortable for very long. After recording those first few videos, submitting a couple of blog posts, and spending those first few dollars on ads, you start to get comfortable with the processes. Before you know it, they become second nature and yet another tool in your virtual tool belt. Once that happens, you know it’s time to explore some other marketing strategies and ideas. Click here >> http://bit.ly/2Tx243K

Throughout this short little series on setting business goals, I’ve mentioned the importance of writing said goals down. That isn’t just because it’s easy to forget. There’s a lot more to it and there are some very important reasons why you have to write them down. I thought in today’s blog post, I’d share my thoughts on this and hopefully inspire you to write down your own goals going forward. By the way, this works for any type of goal, not just the business ones. The simple act of setting a goal, even if it’s just in your mind, doubles your chances of success. That’s a pretty big deal in itself, isn’t it? If you take it a step further, and actually write those goals down, you’re 10 times as likely to succeed. Read that last line again please. That’s right…you can increase your chances of making it by 1,000%. That’s mind-blowing! Click here >> http://bit.ly/33BSMbp

Today I want to share my thinking process for setting smart business goals with you. I like to work backwards from a financial goal all the way down to daily to-do lists. Every smart business goal should be quantifiable, as in have a specific number attached to it. In this way, you can measure your success rate, and see what and if you need to tweak your approach. So here’s how that works: It always starts with a money goal. Because let’s face it, business success is tied to revenue, pure and simple. It helps if that goal has a meaning beyond the dollar figure. This helps to keep us motivated on the end goal! Click here >> http://bit.ly/2JJ7K7B

We're all in business to make a profit. Making money is not a topic that's talked about ENOUGH with small business owners. After all, the spotlight is often shining on how many followers and likes you can get on social media. Or how many times you go LIVE on Facebook every week. All of this talk about social media follower counts is focused on ego-driven metrics. We need to shift the dialogue to focus on CONVERSIONS, which lead to the one thing your business needs to stay in business: INCOME. There is little reason to be in business if you are not generating an income. All of the altruistic energy in the world will not keep your refrigerator stocked and your lights on. So we're going to live in the real world and talk about growing income today, okay? Click here >> http://bit.ly/32EtzwC

Are you ready to take your online business to the next level and watch some explosive growth unfold over the coming months? Great! Before you start to plot and plan what you want to do to make that happen, it’s important to stop and look at where you are right now. Business planning for future success is all about data. You can work most efficiently and spend your time and money most effectively if you know exactly where you are starting from. By recording data, you can start to see what’s working, what isn’t, and what trends are starting to play out. And it all starts with recording where you’re at right now. First though, you should decide how you want to record this information. Now, let’s take a look at some of the things you want to record. Click here >> http://bit.ly/2XJCEW2

Do you set aside time regularly to plan what you want to do in your business? If it’s not something you currently do, I strongly encourage you to embrace it for the remainder of this year! Setting aside a business planning session to decide what I want to do and, more importantly, what growth I want to achieve in the coming year has been crucial to my own success. Sometimes I commit to (and follow through lol) planning at the end of the year for the upcoming year. Other times, life gets in the way and I don’t get to plan when I want to. IMO, it doesn’t matter when you plan, as long as you make time to plan. Click here >> http://bit.ly/2WSLEU8

We’re posting on LinkedIn, tweeting everyday, going live on Facebook and creating stories on Instagram. We’ve got ads running every which way, blogging as often as we can stand, and retargeting to everyone. In other words, in this digital era, we’re doing some of everything everywhere. We’re using multiple channels to market our businesses. There is no question that multi-channel marketing offers a high return on investment. It doesn’t matter what your product is – if you’re not sending your message to multiple channels in multiple ways, you’re going to miss a large portion of your audience. On today's episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya, we will identify the challenges that come with multi-channel marketing, and how to face these challenges. http://bit.ly/2XQ5FPb

When you experience terrible service, how often do you tell your friends? When you experience stellar service, how often do you tell your friends? According to current marketing wisdom, one unhappy customer will tell 7 other people about their bad experience with a product or business. A happy customer will only tell 1 other person about their great experience. How can you beat these odds to get more of your satisfied customers to spread the word about your products and services? Tune in to this episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya to learn easy tactics you can use to get your current network to share your content every day. http://bit.ly/2n6sI2X

To create memorable email marketing messages, it’s important to focus on your audience while also aiming to promote your products and/or services in a way that appeals to them. You want them to remember you after they close the email, especially if they choose not to click through to answer your call to action. How to create those memorable messages is as easy as following the eight tips we discuss on today's episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya.

Video has become a driving force in content marketing. One only has to look as far as YouTube's success to see that video content is a thriving entity all on its own. In fact, you can create a thriving business using mostly video as your main type of content. But, if you normally just use textual content, the thought of using video can be daunting. On today's episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya, we're going to remove all barriers to using video for your business!

Project management is very important to remember, no matter how small the project. Even when you are doing a project alone, there are many aspects that need to be organized to keep on track of the project. Every project, even when it’s one that you’re doing alone, has very similar requirements - some more and some less, but they all have things that need to be organized. The very definition of project management includes organizing as an important part. Even when you are running a project alone you’ll need to manage the project in a way that keeps you on course to meet your deadline, and that requires organizing. On today's episode, we're going to discuss common project requirements, and why being a solopreneur makes project management an important system to implement.

We all have bad habits. Some bad habits are of a personal nature, as in we eat too much, some drink too much, some of us don’t know when to shut up. I could go on forever… But I want to address one of the single most bad habits that plagues entrepreneurs. This bad habit keeps us stuck in the same lane, even though we say we want a change, is easy to succumb to and limits our life chances, is based in fear and potentially contagious, and finally, this bad habit is one of the hardest habits to identify and break. The one bad habit that requires your immediate attention is... well, you will have to tune in to today's episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya to find out! And more important, what you can do about it, starting today!

In this day of digital media, bloggers are publishers. I heard this a few years ago and it took me a minute to embrace it. I remember thinking, I am not a publisher! The publishing racket is for magazines. All the while I'm hitting "publish" every time I publish a blog post. The irony still makes me laugh. Blogging is content marketing. Content needs to be planned out in advance. If we're planning as we should be, we should be using an editorial calendar. Listen to today's episode to learn why it will make your content marketing efforts more effective. http://bit.ly/2gOgH2K

What’s the number one reason people seek help and hire a professional? They believe said professional can solve their problem. We hire people to solve problems. We buy products we believe can solve our problem. With this in mind, what do you want to be known for? I dunno about you, but I want to be known as a problem solver. On today's episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya, we are looking at how you can brand yourself as a problem solver in your industry without breaking the bank. http://bit.ly/2yCPAgO

Keeping content fresh is an important part of making content marketing work for your business. A really fast way to boost the effectiveness of the content you already have is to freshen it up, and repurpose it. Content gets old, and information becomes outdated. That doesn’t mean it needs to be deleted, though - it can be salvaged and continue to provide excellent results. Likewise, content can be reused and repurposed in other ways into new formats that help produce more traffic too. Tune it to today's episode for specific way you an repurpose and refresh your content, starting today!

While content types change, the value of content never changes. When you realize the value of the content that you create, you’ll take the time to create it right. This goes for your social media posts too. After all, remember that humans are reading the content, not robots. Therefore, even though you need to use keywords in the text, it doesn’t mean the content should be boring and generic. Levels of social media engagement largely depend on the value of the content being shared. I don’t want to read boring, generic content, do you? Take a look at the different kinds of content you’re posting. Are you providing helpful tips, insights, asking questions, making people laugh, or making them look at themselves in the mirror? Pull an emotional response out of your audience and you will get engagement. At the heart of the matter is commerce. Let’s face it, humans are buyers, not robots. Robots do not join your mailing list, or whip out credit cards. Therefore, your content must engage a human audience, and convince a human prospect to take ACTION. On today's episode of Marketing Minutes with Miss Kemya, let’s look at 5 ways to increase your social media engagement rates. To read the full blog post, visit http://bit.ly/2msL2Tm.

One of the ways you can use to free up some of your one-on-one time with clients is to create products to sell so that you can make money. The type of products you sell have everything to do with who your audience is, how they shop, how much money they have to spend, and how they prefer delivery to be handled. That's right; it's all about your customer, not you. You choose the audience and your niche after much research, then the audience and your niche chooses everything else. Whether you already have products to sell, or you're looking to create your first product to sell, you have to figure out what products to create to serve your audience. No matter what your business model is, it's great to have products that you can sell to your audience that are essentially made once, and sold many times. As you know, giving your customers personalized service can take a lot of time, and while you want them to feel as if you are giving them personal care, that personal care could in all reality be very expensive. That's where products come in. Tune in to this episode to help you figure out what products to create. http://bit.ly/2bP1FVz

Complacency and the desire to make more money aren’t compatible. If you want more money, you don’t get to be satisfied with the status quo. Since money isn’t going to rush toward you when you’re complacent, you have to do something about it. You have to be proactive. You have to do something to change your mindset so you develop a hunger for success. What this means is that you have to gain more knowledge. When you’ve reached a certain skill set, nothing is ever going to change if you don’t level up. You have to learn new things and you need to do it consistently to keep on growing and earning money. Today's episode is all about complacency, shiny object syndrome, and analysis paralysis, and most important, how to combat it all and be productive! For more small business and marketing insights, visit Miss Kemya at http://bit.ly/2BNU99U.

As a business owner, you typically want to spend the most time on activities that add to your bottom line. This should be true no matter what stage of business you're in. Are you outsourcing work yet? There will come a time when you feel the pinch of not having enough time in the day. You may be busy, but time spent on productive activities may be slipping away from. At this point, if you want to maximize your output and thus increase your profit, then there are two ways to go about it. One is to take on more work and to put yourself or your business under an increasing amount of strain. The other is to outsource work. There are aspects of your business model you can certainly outsource to outsiders and thereby start generating more profit and completing more work, without causing yourself to have a nervous breakdown. Simply stated, you cannot build a company by yourself. If you already have an assistant or two, and they are fully committed as well, it may be time to expand your team. While outsourcing work is a necessary move, it can also result in problems if you aren't careful. Here are some mistakes to avoid as you grow your business. For more details and insights, visit Miss Kemya at http://bit.ly/1WplS4W.

One of the best ways to put yourself head and shoulders above the competition, even in a crowded niche, is to partner with influencers and key companies in your industry. In this way, you can offer all new products and services, increase your authority in your niche, and earn more income all at the same time. Tune in to learn the easiest ways to partner with influencers! For more digital marketing insights, visit Miss Kemya at http://bit.ly/2n4lMa0.

There is a saying that goes like this: “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” When running a business, many people skip developing a business vision, with intentions on getting back to it later. Whether it’s being distracted by social media, getting a logo just right, or chasing a dollar to pay the bills, the critical business building planning often goes ignored. Again, you can have every intention of doing strategic planning when the time is right or when you make enough money to go on a retreat, but if you don’t make a point to stop you’ll never get the chance. Here’s the thing: as an entrepreneur you don’t have a boss to tell you to go to lunch. A boss to make you take a legally mandated day off, vacation, etc. It’s just you. Without someone there telling you to stop working, you might find yourself working all times of the day and night in your business… and not on your business. If you skip steps because you think they don’t matter (because you just have a “small” business or a sole proprietorship and it’s just you), then you’re going to kick yourself later. Tune in for 10 reasons why you need a business vision. If you don't have a written business vision, now is the time to create one! For more small business marketing insights, visit Miss Kemya at http://bit.ly/2EZnlyb.

Influencer marketing is all the rage right now. It revolves around prominent social media figures shaping public opinion and steering trends across different niches and industries. Despite what some people think, this is not some passing fad that only corporate behemoths can explore. In fact, it represents the fastest growing customer acquisition channel of all, overshadowing the likes of paid search and email marketing. This is an incredible opportunity for small businesses to make strides towards their goals. They have a chance to establish lasting customer connections and break the curse of anonymity. And they do not even have to go out of their way to make it happen. For small businesses operating on a shoestring budget, there are quite a few daunting challenges looming over. First off, they face a dilemma of how to make a name for themselves and reach potential customers. It takes a long time to get noticed and then a lengthy buyer's journey takes place. Apart from limited resources, another hurdle comes in the form of perceived bias. It is not convincing when the obscure small business is the only one raving about its product’s greatness. Besides, there are no guarantees that people will not drop off at any point of the process and switch their loyalties. Tune in to today's episode to learn how why you should work with micro influencers who can step in to bridge this gap. Getting them to endorse a brand opens up doors to new audiences and allows companies to win over people’s loyalty fast. These niche-specific influencers are versed in fostering traction, engagement, and trust: they keep the fingers on the pulse of their audience and know how to stir emotions and reactions. For more insights into digital marketing for small businesses, visit Marketing Sparkler at http://bit.ly/2BPx3ja.

Once you set up your email campaigns it's easy for time to go by and to let everything get a little stale. If you're not getting the results you used to get, it's probably because you're in an email rut. And if you want to get out of the email rut, it's best to come up with a plan to update and improve your email marketing at least once a year. Listen to today's episode for eight things you can do today to get yourself out of the email marketing rut, increase your opens and click through rates, and get excited about your email marketing again!

How to Plug Money Leaks in Your Business Periodically, if you want to boost your profit you can do so by simply plugging money leaks. It happens to all businesses eventually; they find they're wasting an enormous amount of money on something they even forgot they were spending money on in the first place. This can happen to all kinds of businesses, whether bricks and mortar or solely online. Listen to today's episode to learn about the specific leaky areas you will want to review when trying to increase your profitability. If you want a real business, and not a hobby, treat yourself as good as you expect any vendor or service provider to treat you. Pay for what you need, and use what you pay for. Make sure all oft he products and services you are paying for are actually worth it. Before you know it, your business will be a lean, mean, money-making machine that's as tight as a drum.

Content marketing consists of creating a lot of different types of content, then promoting it on all your online real estate via many means such as social sharing, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and more. Content marketing is a really great way to get the word out about your products and services in a natural, organic way. But, it’s important to figure out what your point of view is so that you can create a coherent and professional voice for your content marketing. Figure Out Your Core Values: What is it that you want to say to the world? What is it that you feel is important? Do you want your business to be a beacon of light to your audience, shining down on them, creating joy and happiness? Do you want your business to be a wake-up call and teach lessons for your audience? What do you want your audience to think about when they think of your brand? Get to Know Your Audience: Marketing is all about what’s in it for them, not what’s in it for you. If you can remember that, for every piece of content you create, you’ll be half way there. Every story you tell - be it through an article you write, a video, or a press release – should all be focused with the audience in mind. The best way to do that is truly understand who your audience is by studying them and immersing yourself in everything there is to know about them. How you speak to your audience will be directly related to how well you know them. Identify the Value You Offer Your Audience: Depending on your products or service, there is some type of value that you are offering such as more time, less worry, or another intrinsic value. Your value might be tangible as well, but usually your value lies in how you solve your audience’s problems and issues. For instance, a breath mint company isn’t selling candy; they are selling fresh breath. Differentiate Your Business from the Competition: How are you going to stand out from the crowd? One of the ways to do that is to decide how you’ll express your values to your audience. How will you deliver the goods and/or services that you’ve promised? How will you provide more time, more health, more of whatever value your company offers while also sticking to and expressing your core values? Decide If Your Voice Is Casual or Formal: Once you combine all of the above, you will need to decide if your audience will respond better to a casual or formal voice (or someplace in between). How you speak to your audience is a very important factor in determining if they will understand your message. Determine Acceptable Lingo and Terms: Once you’ve decided whether your voice is casual or formal or someplace in the middle, you can come up with the type of terms and lingo you’ll use throughout your content marketing, regardless of format. For example: Formal - “I would like to inform you about a sale we are having during Memorial Weekend.” Casual – "Hey y’all! Check out my Memorial Weekend price cuts!” Create Documentation as a Guide: Whether you’ll be creating all the content yourself, or getting help, creating documentation to guide you through the process will help. Be specific about which font to use. Write down the type of words you want to use, too. The terminology, lingo and jargon is important because it will mean something to your audience and help you get your message across in a way it will produce the results you desire. Don’t Try to Be Someone You’re Not: The worst thing you can do as you’re creating and developing your voice is to try to be someone you’re not. If you are not generally formal, don’t even try to be formal. If you’d feel fake being casual, don’t do it. Be yourself. If you’ve chosen your audience well, it will be easy for you to be who you are and market to them in a successful way using content. For more tips and insights on how to use digital marketing to grow your business, visit marketingsparkler.com

Gated content is content that is only available to readers who agree to provide some information in exchange for reading the content. This could be an email address, cell phone number or other information. To use gated content for lead generation, it’s important that you understand which content is best for using this way and which content is not. To use gated content best, it’s important that you don’t block every bit of your content to the public. If you do, you’re also blocking search engines, and you’re not giving your audience enough chance to get to know you so that they trust you with their private information. It’s a good idea to give some measure of usable, relevant and interesting content before blocking your users with a gate. Listen to this episode to learn how to make your gated content special, and ultimately create a community of people around your information. Then visit marketingsparkler.com for more ways to use digital marketing to grow your business!

A great way to promote your business is to become a local expert. Becoming a local expert in your field of expertise will boost your business in ways that you cannot imagine. It doesn't matter whether you have an online business or a bricks and mortar business; being seen as a local go-to expert will increase your share of business. How? You can: 1) Start a Locally-Inspired Blog 2) Offer to Speak at Local Events 3) Write for Your Local Paper 4) Publish a Book - Online or Print (Being a published author immediately implies "expert.") 5) Get Quoted in your local paper or on local news Finally, call yourself an expert in every bit of marketing collateral that you have. The more you demonstrate yourself as an expert, the more other people will perceive you as an expert. For more insights into using marketing to grow your business, visit marketingsparkler.com

If you ask people what they want, many of them will simply say they want to be successful. But if you ask them how they plan to achieve this success, they won’t have feasible goals. If you don’t set action-oriented goals, how are you supposed to know what to DO to achieve said goals? Listen to this episode to figure out how to break your goals down into actionable, bite-size steps so that you can achieve greater success. For more marketing and entrepreneurial insights, visit the Marketing Sparkler Blog at http://bit.ly/2L1qMp3 .

Storytelling has always been popular, particularly when it comes to marketing. However, stories have emerged as an amazing strategy to use as a part of your social media marketing. If you want to attract more business with social media stories, incorporate more visuals, interact with your target market, and meet your business goals you’re about to learn how. To read the full post on the Marketing Sparkler blog, visit http://bit.ly/2P8Cu1l.

It's hard to not get sucked into the pretty pin rabbit hole that is Pinterest. If you're already using Pinterest for business, consider the different ways you use it. Here are 3 ways businesses can use the secret board feature to get more mileage from Pinterest as a brand and content marketing tool. For more information, check out the full blog post at http://bit.ly/2FH3PZ4.

Here is content that just about everyone can include in their editorial planning: HOLIDAYS. I’m not talking about holidays like Christmas, New Year’s Day, Labor Day, etc. Almost everybody does that. Go for the unexpected! I’m referring to unusual holidays, those internet-age quirky holidays that MOST businesses do NOT take advantage of. If you’re looking for fun ways to spice up your content marketing, design some content around the quirky non-traditional holidays celebrated throughout the year. Seriously, these holidays are great for online businesses. The internet loves quirky, unusual content! And as a bonus, many of these holiday hashtags will trend on social media! What better way to get some visibility and express your brand personality than to develop content around a holiday hashtag? Again, anybody can create a campaign around Christmas or Mother’s Day. The question becomes, how can you be different? How can you develop your content to stand out in your niche? Listen in to find out! Checkout the blog post at http://bit.ly/2A2b1Jb

You’ve created a product. You love it and you think your community will, too. You even plan on launching it…as soon as you tweak it one more time. The problem is one tweak turns into two then three. Before you know it, weeks have passed and you haven’t launched. Instead, you’ve wasted time going over and over the same project. Does this feel familiar? If so, don’t keep falling into this trap. Instead, follow these tips to stop over thinking your project and actually get it launched. Check out the full blog post at http://bit.ly/2Frpkx2.

Hey 'preneur! A quick tip that makes a BIG IMPACT: spend more time on revenue generating activities and less time on administrative work. It's easier said than done because that admin stuff you "need" to do keeps piling up. For example, are you spending 10-15 hours each week on trying to create social media content? This number sounds high til you realize that's between 1-2 hours each day. Now look at your sales, emails to prospects, calls to potential partners and prospects: are you spending 10-15 hours each week trying to make money? I think we can agree you should be spending MORE time connecting and trying to make $$$ than you are adding filters to pics and tweaking your website. If you're not sure what you're spending time on, I'm gonna guess it's more busywork than not. For the next 7 days, WRITE OUT where you're spending time, and you'll have a baseline. From here you can improve your productivity, and make a bigger impact on your profits! For more insights on what it takes to grow your business, visit http://marketingsparkler.com.

As it pertains to building your authority, hosting local meetups is an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise. A “meetup” doesn’t have to be through the group “meetup” online. You can plan one through Facebook events, Eventbrite, etc., but using Meetup.com is a good idea. It’s a great way to get the word out about your event. Meeting up with people locally is a great way to make connections and increase your authority. Listen in for tips to make the most of your meetings. See the full blog post at http://bit.ly/2PNCJmS.

So many entrepreneurs get confused about dual Instagram profiles, from a branding perspective. When you're trying to build your business brand, you may want to create one Instagram profile for your personal life and one profile for your business life. If you're not sure what to do, tune in to this episode to help you decide. For more social media tips, visit http://marketingsparkler.com.

Most business want to use Facebook ads as part of a paid advertising mix. However, the options that make Facebook an excellent platform to market your business are the same options that can make it confusing. As a result, if you’re not careful, you can waste a shit ton of money on your Facebook ads and see little to no results from your efforts. The trick is to weed through the vast population of users, dig into the goldmine of Facebook data available, and tweak your ads to get optimal ROI. To get maximum results from Facebook advertising, it just takes a few key steps. Listen in to learn more! See the full blog post at http://bit.ly/2Pa5bjz.