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It’s easy for small businesses to rely on one platform for all of their digital marketing, especially when they manage to bend the algorithm in their favor. The problem with such a strategy is that then that company is essentially at the mercy of their preferred platform, and sometimes things go wrong. Although mainly only major companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Pepsi, and Target have participated in the recent Facebook advertising boycott over the platform’s failure to censor hate speech and misinformation, the action should be a wake-up call for businesses large and small.
Whether it comes down to an issue of values, or an unexpected algorithm change that drives less business your way, you never know when you’ll need to take a break from your go-to outlet. This is a dilemma that keeps Connie Matisse, cofounder and CMO of pottery brand East Fork, up at night: “Historically, we’ve had about 80% of our web traffic come from Instagram,” she tells AD PRO. “I’ve had literal nightmares before about the app imploding.”
If you run an interior design firm and are used to finding clients online, or manage an e-commerce home goods brand that advertises on social media, now may be a good time to diversify your marketing spending. Below, we break down three ways you can do so.
Focus on your email list
Email marketing is the best way to build relationships and turn window shoppers into buyers. According to the Harvard Business Review, professionals check their email an average of 15 times per day, or every 37 minutes. Since anyone who joins your email list must have had some interest in your business when they signed up, we know this is a warm lead. Periodically popping up as a name in their inbox guarantees that they will remember that you exist, even when they don’t open the email.
Byron and Dexter Peart, twin brothers and cofounders of design marketplace Goodee, rely on emails to share engaging content and special deals with customers. “Email marketing is a great medium to connect our highly engaged audience with first access to exciting new product launches and gifting ideas for every holiday, tips for decorating a new space or upgrading a lived-in abode, and exclusive stories highlighting the artisans and trailblazers featured throughout the Goodee marketplace,” the brothers tell AD PRO.
When it comes to growing your email list, you need to be strategic. Gone are the days of asking people outright to sign up for your newsletter. Instead, offer individuals something of value in exchange for their email, such as a useful checklist or workbook, or a discount on their next purchase. Once you get them on board, engage them with relevant, valuable content. It can be tempting to send out updates about your business, but keep those emails to a minimum. Instead, put yourself in the customer’s shoes: Why will they want to open your email, and what about it will make them want to open the next one? Your goal is to get subscribers who do want to hear from you, and then delight them with content that gets them excited.
Own your content on your website
If you have been focused on Facebook marketing for a while, you have probably produced a large number of posts there. That content is yours. You did the work to make it, and now it’s time to repurpose it to bulk up your website.
Consider taking posts that you’ve shared on social media and reconfiguring them as articles on a blog on your website. This way, regardless of what happens to external platforms like Facebook, your own site will continue to be the main hub for everything that your business wants to share.
The long-term benefit of creating original content on your site is that it will improve your Google search ranking, making it easier for potential clients and customers to find you when they start hunting for what they’re looking for online. Since small businesses will have a hard time ranking highly for broad search terms like “interior design firm,” your best strategy is to create content based on specific ideas and tailored for a specific audience. Think about your firm’s specialties, whether small kitchen renovations or family-friendly backyards. When your content is specific, not only will you show up higher in search results, but anyone who finds you when searching that topic will likely be motivated to stick around on your site since it’s highly relevant to them.
Partner with like-minded brands
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The quickest and easiest way to increase your reach? Partner up with the owner of a complementary business and share your audiences with each other. It’s safe to assume many of your followers will also be interested in your partner’s offerings, and visa versa. Promote each other through a joint online event, agree to spotlight each other’s businesses in a post on Instagram, team up and design a collection together, or highlight each other on your websites. Leveraging your audiences is a fast and reliable way to increase your reach.
“I think collaborations are always more interesting from a press standpoint,” says Jessica Davis, founder and creative director of hardware brand Nest Studio, who recently partnered up with ceramic artist Jonathan Castro on a collection. “They introduce both collaborators to the audience of the other. We used our social media following, newsletters, a direct mailer to designers, and a press event at Colony to get the word out there,” she explains of how both she and Castro promoted the collaboration.
When you partner up, see if there’s a way to get your collaborator’s followers on your email list so that you can nurture them into buyers in the future. If it’s an event, set up a landing page for viewers to submit their email in the link to join, or offer them a gift in exchange for their email address.
Focus on implementing these strategies and you might find you generate more leads than you had on Facebook previously. And the best part is, no matter what happens in the politics of social media, you’ll no longer be susceptible to the latest trends.
