If you’re actively using digital marketing, you’ll quickly learn that there are many tricks to the trade.
Just in the last year, the number of social media users has skyrocketed to 4.48 billion worldwide. That’s basically 57% of the world’s population! And users spend, on average, 145 minutes per day on social media.
From a business perspective, this is a massive opportunity to boost awareness and sales. What’s even better is that it’s by far the cheapest way to market a business.
Now you just want to get it right, but who do you trust to give you the best marketing advice? That's why this article shares with you three of the top marketing books we recommend to our clients and the tried and tested formulas we follow.
1) They Ask, You Answer - Marcus Sheridan
In the book They Ask, You Answer, Marcus Sheridan shares his
story of when he was just your average pool salesman, trying to increase his sales through digital marketing. He realised that his awareness could grow if he simply answered the questions his customers had over the years - the good, the bad and the ugly ones.
And it did! Despite worries that competitors would take advantage of the business information he was sharing, he ensured that he answered the following questions his customers had or would ask.
As he states, your online material should always answer The Big 5:
1) Price - How much does your product or service cost?
2) Problem - What is the problem with your product or service?
3) Versus and Comparisons - Product/Service versus another product/service, which is better?
4) Reviews - Is your product or service worth the money?
5) Best in Class - What are the best products or services in your industry?
Think about it this way, when you land on a website, and the questions you want answering are not there? What do you do? You abandon that page and visit the next one, right?
Remember, across all your digital platforms, such as your website and social media pages, you must answer your potential customers' questions.
Ultimately, writing your advertising material to answer the actual questions that your customers have will build brand trust and loyalty.
2) Building A Story Brand - Donald Miller
Telling your story is key to an effective social media strategy, but you need to make sure you’re telling it right.
Thanks to Donald Miller, a successful CEO of an even more successful marketing company, his book Building A Story Brand highlights the framework that every brand story should follow to get customers to listen.
It’s a 7-part framework that has been used for many years across all traditional media channels and is still effective to date:
1) A Character - Your Target Audience
2) Has a Problem
3) And Meets a Guide - Your Business
4) Who Gives Them a Plan - Your Advice / Solution
5) And Calls Them To Action - Your Product / Service
6) That Ends In a Success
7) That Helps Them Avoid Failure
Ask yourself, how can you fit your story into these 7 points? Nobody knows your business better than you do, which is why this step by step guide will shape your story to become more clear and relevant, cutting through the clutter on social media.
3) Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook - Gary Vaynerchuck
I bet you’ve watched at least one of the inspirational videos made by the famous Gary Vaynerchuk when scrolling on any social media channel. As a serial entrepreneur, his book Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook truly gives you the knock out a strategy for social media marketing through thought-provoking ideas, concepts and examples from leading brands.
He makes a chilling realisation that even as a marketer myself, I knew, but when I read it out loud in my head, all I could think about is the businesses who might not think about this. If your consumers are mobile, you need to be too. And with global mobile users reaching 5.27 billion, he could not be more correct. Social media is the biggest opportunity for brand growth.
Throughout the book, he refers to boxing strategy and how it relates to social media strategy. A boxer will never go into a ring without studying his opponent. They will analyse every move they make to understand how to beat them.
The same goes for social media marketing. We need to understand our customers before we throw our campaigns at them. Otherwise, it’s pointless.
Fortunately, we have all the information we need right at our fingertips, thanks to the internet and social media. As he mentions, “Content is king, but context is God.”
Final Thoughts
It’s clear to see that understanding your audience and delivering a story that is relevant to them is a critical social media marketing strategy across these three marketing books. Understanding social media and how your audience uses it will guide your social media marketing. Reading these books will quickly and easily boost your confidence in marketing and shape your business for success.
Book a free complimentary marketing strategy session with us today to see how we can use these principles in your business.
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