Montgomery River Region Digital Marketing 6-Weeks Cohort

The local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in partnership with mutliple sponsors, held a digtal marketing course of the span of 6 weeks. The reason that I signed up for the course is to be able to learn more about marketing as this is a field that I am not great at. The goal from attending from the course, is to able to learn what I do not know and to be able to apply it to other aspects of the business and online presence. Below are the notes from each of the sessions that I took. The name of the course is called "Empower by GoDaddy".

Session 1 - Evaluating Your Brand

• Need to complete the course for this session. There is also homework that is optional to be completed.
• Brand matters because it is the perception that people have of your business
• What do people say when you are not in the same room as them?
• Does your brand make them happy, stress out, sad, etc?
• what makes your brand different than your competition (local and online)? Start with businesses that are in your area and then look at those that are online.
• Protect your brand online. Sometimes bad experiences and customers can cost you more than the good ones. Those bad experiences can lead customers to find another provider that offers the same that you offer.
• Consistency in communication, from branding, messaging, product quality. Reptition = Reputation Example of Coke when it changed its formula. After complaints and sales droppping, they had to change back.

Think about Factors

• establish your why - what makes you unique
• obsess about your customers - their needs are priority number one
• develop messaging that resonates - tell relatiablem, authentic story

• be consistent time and time again - consistency builds strong brands; same logo, color scheme, etc.

• sometimes using Reels on IG instead of posts will give you greater exposure; tagging existing brands in your post can give you greater exposure

Answer these questions to define your brand

• what's company's mission? your why?
• what are benefits of your product or service?
• is someone lese already doing what you're doing?
• what qualities do you want your customers to associate with your brand?
• what do customers nad prospects already think of your brand?

• how are you different?

• share your brand story on your website

• balch.com/business-boost - Boost program, free legal services up to 45 hours

Session 2 - Choose the Right Tools and Design A Great Website

• my business will be built on a solid foundation

Choose the Right Tools

What products do I need to build my website?

• domain name (with privacy enabled to avoid being spammed)
• hosting with SSL
• branded email address (look professional)

Which products are best for my business?

Choose domain that is:

• easy to type
• includes keywords
• available online and in real life
• right domain extension

• protects your brand

• domain name does not match registered business name

which type of hosting is best for me?

• template-based builderes
• Content Management System
• cPanel Hosting

I've chosen my hosting type. Now should I sell online?

• depends on the type of business
• having a store is not necessary to acecpt online payments

Someone is helping me with my website. How do I protect myself?

• have ownership of your domain name
• have ownership of the account that the domain name is purchased under

Build and Effective Website

Determine your site goals

• figure out what the website will do
• what information will be on the website
• give customers a way to find you - show up in search results, link from social media, domain name people can remember

• gets you taken more seriously - proves credibility, reassures people your business is legitimate

• identity my business "why?"

Identify your website goals

• broad goal; concrete goal
• attract traffic and grow and audience; sell an ebook to your audience
• show your products; sell more products
• share what you know; build authority and get speaking engagements
• advertise your business; get clients to register for a consultation

• entertain your readers; build your newsletter subscriber base

• at least yearly, do an assessment of your website; perhaps some things need to be changed or refreshed

• include a call to action on your website

• your website should reflect your company's personality which is defined by your brand

Brand personality

• colors and images
• fonts
• overall look and feel

Designing your site to reflect brand personality

• first impressions matter
• simple logo add polish
• unifed images
• balance of space, images, and text
• overall consistent and recognizable identity
• simple design, highlight call to actions (CTA)
• story telling

Takeway Tips

• first impressions matter
• keep it simple
• look and feel should match your brand identity - choose colors nad that compliement your logo and imagery
• intentionally chooses place and images - white space is your friend
• integrate your logo - simple logo adds a touch of polish and professionalism
• get feedback - invite others you trust to set out your website, especially people who represent your target customer

Let's Get Building

Session 3 - Website Content Creation

Session 4 - Content Creation

Expressing who you are through your site

• brand personality
• audience
• the purpose of your site = call to action
• unqiue value proposition
• suggested to not have a lot of pages; too many pages can make the website complicated.

Inlcude these elements on your website

• who you are? how did you get started
• what do you do? products or services; what sets you apart from others that do the same thing
• how to contact you

Home page

• include beautiful main photo
• keep it simple; "micro-content"
• link customers from home page to other pages to learn more
• use catchy tagline to summarize what your business does
• can repurpose existing content
• call to action needs to be at or near the top

About Us page

• why you started
• include photos of you or your staff
• share a biography on your expertise
• testimonials or specific quotes from your customers; try to get as many as you can get, ideally in video example: https://luxebridalstudio.com/about

Products and Services

• information - info about the product and servce; include images, payment options, return policy, delivery time frame; photos from different angles
• assurance - clear story about how customers benefit from product or service
• motivation - words, indicators that guide intersted customers to doing business with you

Checklist

• home page is simple and has catchy headline
• customers have aclear call to action on home page
• explaiend what makes your business unqiue
• customers can get in touch or find your location
• overall look and feels matches your brand identity
• there is a nice balance psace; images go together nicely
• pages are well organized and there is not to many pages
• every piece of content is vital; if not remove it

Redemption

• godaddy.com/redemption
• enter the code in the box;
• code provided is for Wordpress hosting using .com domain name; code is valid until December 2022
• enter the domain name; has to be .com name

• cost should be $0.00 when done *

• NOTE notes with how to complete the redemption process will be sent; if not request them; redemption code in email

Search Engine Optimization

• if it isnt on Google, then it doesn’t exist
• on page SEO is determined by what you have on your website
• includes content on the page, meta tags, and keywords

• plays a role in getting customers to your website

• off-apge SEO determined by where people are visiting your website and how they are reaching you

• use keywords like location as part of the meta tags

• get hosting with SSL

• make website mobile friendly
• avoid duplicate content
• showcase reviews and testimonials

• include keywords in site content and meta tags

• research keywords

• include keywords in the content, instead of having them stand out or strategically placed
• understand and use back linking
• measure success
• show case reviews and testimonials

Selling Online

• build strong home page
• prepare products
• price products
• decide on payment and shipping methods

build a strong homepage

• introduce who you are, what you do, how you can help
• benefits of your products

• clear call to action; like “Shop” or “Order Now”

• create photos that sell products for us

• at least 5 photos of each product; up to 10

• use in context, product shots; for products, use a light box with a solid background

• price your products

• look at what the competition is charging; how is your product different from theirs

• consider the payment options for your target customers; some customers may not want to pay with credit card

• generate trust

• provide product reviews; feedback about products
• policies about shipping, refunds, security

• about - post picture of you and your story

• measure your success through Google Analytics ; where is your traffic coming from; who are your visitors, where do visitors drop off; are visitors checking product pages

• test out the changes that you make and continue adjusting as need be

• research your competition and see what they are doing that you can try in your business
• there’s always ways to improve
• https://www.godaddy.com/garage/how-to-sell-on-etsy/
• https://www.onlinelabels.com/articles/a-guide-to-small-business-product-pricing#:~:text=How%20to%20Price%20A%20Product%20%5BFree%20Calculator%20%26,good%20or%20service.%203%20Add%20It%20Up.%20

Email Marketing

tips for creating emails

• start with a good usbject line
• tell them why you are emailing - use keywords that will target customers to open your message
• embrace, utilize email templates; consider reusing them to save time and make feel be consistent
• speak your customers language; use the language to connect to potentional and actual clients
• make it easy to opt out of your emails

Gaining right subscribers

• have good signup form
• avoid buying lists; those are discoruage and could get you flagged
• provide incentives and promote exclusive content

Timing is everything

• consider holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries
• seasonal changes
• proudct launch
• monthly newsletter
• sales or promotion - sned out notifications and reminders

using coupons and promotions

• weekly or monthly deals
• abandoned cart coupon
• newsletter signup offer
• referral discounts or coupons
• exit intent discount
• retargeted ads (online)
• influencer deals

• loyalty program discounts

• avoid using free; use "no cost"

Social Media

Understanding your customer

• pay attention to the things that they are show or talk about

How do your customers find you

• recommendations
• online searches

help customers to find out

• create your pages
• claim your pages - include business info, photos, etc
• fill in the details

help customers choose you

• look established
• look professional
• look trustworthy

posting on social: sharing your story

• reasons to post - build a follow; free advertisements
• when to post - vary posting times to catch individuals with different schedules
• what to post - business updates; specials; feel good posts;

post more consistent stories

• create a social media calendar

6 ways to publsh more engaging content

• user generated content
• answering cusotmer questions
• show off your team, possible to include pets
• show off products and services; before and after photos; useful tips for doing tasks
• specials and promotions

• entertaining content

• can utilize emojis in the post

compelling cpations and more context to the post

• use consistent tone
• use caption to add value to the image
• keep it short and easy to the process
• if it's not complete, you cannot compete

• encourage feedback

• use IG stories

• use hash tags

create user experience by metrics

• look at Facebook insights; only available if you have a Facebook page
• learn from Twitter metrics

Exceptional Customer Service and Sales

• decision triangle - business, client, employee
• listen more than you speak - be engaged, list for "neon words", restate what the clent has said to you in your own words; keep the conversation focused on the client
• speak intentionally - role play converseations tahre challenging; word choise shapes the conversation tone; let clients know what we can do, not what we can't do; show empathy

mindset

• mindset determines whether you will be successful or not.

• Sales is not a natural talent

• build raapport, discover needs, close the sale, overcome objections, follow up

website security

vulnerabilities allow for

• SQL injection
• XSS, cross site scripting
• RCE, remote code execution