AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EDUCATION

By Kathy Lane

Founder and Director, FireWorks PR & Events

Well we’re all still on this rollercoaster called life. And whilst some of us are struggling with our new realities, as a business, my team and I have taken the slower pace to get back to basics. We’ve revisited, re-educated and reviewed. Who we are, what we do and how we do what we do for our clients?

And like many others, we have taken full advantage of the generous free content available via webinars to do just that. And we engaged the incredible communicator and online expert, Tim Martin from Net:101 (https://www.digital-marketing-course.com.au/) to put together a customised workshop just for our team. Tim introduced me to social media back in the day and continues to be at the top of his game. Need a refresh and renew? He’s your man.

The webinars we have ‘attended’ over the past two weeks:
1. Social media review and strategy mapping with Jordan Lomax via General Assembly
2. Reporting and website strategy overview with Tim Martin from Net:101
3. Analytics workshop with Tim from Yo Digital via General Assembly
4. Agile Marketing: Driving growth in an age of uncertainty by Tam Al-Saad from WebProfits

All incredibly valuable and whilst some overlapping information, the big take out message for me was:

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND ENSURE ONLY THE REPORTING IS AUTOMATED – NOT YOU!

It’s no longer the time to do what we’ve always done but it’s time to revisit everything you do and look at it critically. Particularly whilst we may have a little more time.

A quick snapshot of the take home points from each session:

Social media review and strategy mapping with Jordan Lomax via General Assembly

Jordan was an amazing presenter and kept us all engaged for over two hours. Loads of generous and valuable tools and information but the big ones:

Back to Basics:
1. Who are you?
2. Who are you speaking to?
3. Why are you using social media? Get back to your business objectives.

• Revisit the different social media platforms, investigate who is using them and broaden your thinking around how they could be used more creatively and differently to get your message to your customer. Get outside the box.
• Rather than being all things to all people, do smaller numbers of things better. THINK!

It sounds obvious but I reckon we all get wound up in ourselves and often lose sight of what we’re doing. Slow down, review, start again if needs be and be clear. Get everyone on the same page. Less, better.

Reporting and website strategy overview with Tim Martin from Net:101

Tim Martin is a master communicator and makes complex matters, simple. And he was the first person I ever knew talking about social media and the power of the ‘net.
Before starting any activity, everything, EVERYTHING must relate back to your client’s business, strategic and digital objectives. This informs all activity and must be constantly reviewed.

Tim’s overarching message is this: Social media is not the cure to all ills; it is only one piece of the puzzle. Develop a niche mindset once you are really clear on who you’re speaking to on what platform because not all platforms are the same. Do less, do it well, do it comprehensively and consistently. Set up for success, not failure.

And social media will only work in converting online actions (sales, subscriptions, sign ups, bookings) if backed by a robust website and savvy digital strategy. The website (the funnel) has a big job to do. The process is this:

1. The customer journey starts with awareness via social media
2. Website landing page experience – look at it critically
3. Neutralise customer fears and concerns. Where is the pathway to completion?
4. What/where is the call to action? Did it happen?

And whilst customers are on the website, the idea is to educate, inform and entertain. So, what does this all mean in practical terms?

INVEST IN YOUR WEBSITE

- Create engaging content
- Tweak and tune – consistently
- Include different forms of media: images, blogs, videos
- Look at the analytics to inform what’s working

I spoke to a potential new client this week who told me they haven’t updated their website for FIVE YEARS! Count ‘em. How can they possibly be attracting new clients with no new content, review of key words, anything? Clearly an opportunity for a savvy operator. FireWorks to the rescue!

Analytics workshop with Tim from Yo Digital via General Assembly

This was by far the most complex and deepest dive webinar we attended, full of great information. What it taught us is that we really need to up our analytics game to maximise return. We need to connect the dots with transparency backed by facts, not anecdotes and gut feel. Analytics must have relevance and be accompanied by insight otherwise, they are meaningless.

Why do analytics?

• Report on audiences – get to know who they are and where they come from
• Report on campaigns
• Report on content and how it’s performing
• Report on conversations

At the very least we need to know our audience inside out, where they have been ‘acquired’ from and what is their behaviour – get back in touch with the CUSTOMER. That is key.

Agile Marketing: Driving growth in an age of uncertainty by Tam Al-Saad from WebProfits

There’s been a lot of talk about being ‘agile’ but what does it really mean? Harking originally from the IT industry, this webinar, whilst pitched at larger organisations than ours, delivered some very valuable take-outs that can be applied in any business, regardless of size, for instance:

• What is the new ‘normal’ because there is one? How have customers’ habits changed?
• The definition of agile marketing – change it up, try new things, assess success, change if it’s not working. Quickly.
• Know your customer – get inside their heads because their heads may now be somewhere else. They may not be who you think they are.
• Define your most important metric and focus on it
• Automate regular reporting
• Review and refresh regularly

The really good thing about all this online learning is that you realise you actually do know a lot and you can revisit and review. And you also realise what you don’t know and investigate and upskill.

So as a business, we are very rapidly reviewing, revisiting, refreshing, re-energising, re-engaging (with ourselves and our clients), re-educating and we’re going to be doing it regularly. With rigour.

It seems like the letter ‘R’ is resonating.
Now, it’s time to rest and recuperate.

Have a beautiful weekend peeps. See you up ahead.