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#3 SEO isn’t as hard as they make you think it is
Ahhh … good ol’ SEO. First and foremost, SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” The digital marketing world LOVES to throw out goofy acronyms all the time to sound smart like SEO, KPI, RFP, HIJKLMNOP … you name it and there’s an abbreviation for it.
When I first started in this industry I was someone who didn’t have a fancy marketing degree or whatever. I just happened to be a person who knew how to tell a story and reach an audience. Then all of a sudden I saw all these acronyms and thought, “OH MY GOD I AM SOOOO DUMB AND THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL WAY SMARTER THAN ME!!!” I was totally intimidated by all the terms being tossed around and wondered if I was making a huge mistake trying to get into this business.
Then I actually sat down and looked at everything and realized that a lot of these terms and metrics that sounded hard were actually very basic. So then I thought to myself, “Well why the hell did they have to make it sound so hard?”
The reason? So YOU will be super intimidated and will just fork over ungodly amounts of money to pay an “expert” to handle it for you. We don’t roll that way at the JPG Agency. Our goal is to actually empower YOU with the information. Sure … we can help you (for a reasonable price) but we also want you to understand the HOW and the WHY behind everything.
So today here’s a great read that helps simplify SEO in a way that is much easier to process
#2 Privacy changes and your ads
Things continue to evolve after Apple’s iOS privacy changes, and one is a decreased ROI (oh crap … one of those acronyms again!) on your digital ad spend. Now let’s be super clear, there are still a TON of ways to target specific audiences this way, but it has gotten a little more harder to figure out. Additionally, many are heralding this as the rise of influencer marketing as a way to combat these privacy changes.
We are on board for influencer marketing as an effective way to reach your audience, and we also encourage you to think SMALL when it comes to your strategy. You don’t need to shell out millions of dollars to get Mr. Beast to promote your product. Simply find members of your industry or local community and utilize the passionate and engaged followers that they have (and for way less money).
And just a further reminder that the single BEST way to reach your audience is to OWN YOUR AUDIENCE. We say it here all the time. When you control the engagement point, you control everything. You also don’t have to rely on somebody else’s algorthims and motives, which leads us to …
#1 The continued slow death of organic reach
Social media marketing is a beast for many many reasons. It is absolutely necessary to tell the story and create the voice of your brand, but is also an endless grind of frustration. Not to mention the constantly changing landscape where you’re seemingly at the mercy of a bunch of robots and their algorithms (side note: you are).
If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “it sure does feel like my post performance stinks and nobody is seeing it.” I’m here to let you know there’s a really good reason for why you feel that way … because it IS that way. Organic growth continues to get crushed by both Facebook and Instagram, and here’s a great analysis that highlights exactly that.
So what the heck do we do about it? First and foremost, you need to shed the concerns about any of the vanity metrics given to you by these platforms. Ultimately, what does it really matter how many likes or comments a post gets? What truly matters is your business being successful and making MONEY. So start thinking of your content with that filter … does this post tell the story of my brand and invite my audience take action? If the answer is yes, then you’ve done the right thing regardless of what some algorithm tells you.
Second, it comes back yet again to the OWN YOUR AUDIENCE mindset. Don’t sit there and rely on Instagram to arbitrarily decide how many people will see your post. Instead, figure out ways to collect direct contact information of your audience and use it to your advantage. Take control of your information!
