Tag Archives: Audience

Why Marketing and Tech are Better Together: The Role of a Tech & Marketing Manager

In today’s digital age, technology has become an integral part of marketing efforts. As such, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to have a Tech & Marketing Manager on their team. This is because a Tech & Marketing Manager possesses a unique set of skills that can help businesses to leverage technology to enhance their marketing efforts and drive growth. In this blog, we’ll explore why a Tech & Marketing Manager is what a company needs and why.

What is a Tech & Marketing Manager?

A Tech & Marketing Manager is a marketing professional with a strong technical background. They possess both marketing and technical skills, which allows them to develop and execute marketing strategies that incorporate digital technologies. They specialize in leveraging technology to enhance marketing efforts and create more effective campaigns. This can include managing website content, developing email marketing campaigns, and utilizing social media platforms. A Tech & Marketing Manager is responsible for driving brand awareness, generating leads, and increasing sales revenue through digital channels.

Why does a company need a Tech & Marketing Manager?

Technical expertise

One of the primary reasons why a company needs a Tech & Marketing Manager is for their technical expertise. A Tech & Marketing Manager possesses a deep understanding of technology and how it can be used to enhance marketing efforts. They are knowledgeable about various digital tools, such as marketing automation platforms, email marketing software, and social media management tools. With this expertise, they can effectively use these tools to streamline marketing processes, optimize campaigns, and generate higher returns on investment.

Improved efficiency

Another reason why a company needs a Tech & Marketing Manager is for improved efficiency. With their technical skills, a Tech & Marketing Manager can automate various marketing processes, such as email marketing campaigns, social media posting, and lead nurturing. This automation allows for greater efficiency and saves time and resources, enabling the marketing team to focus on other critical tasks, such as content creation and campaign analysis.

Targeted audience reach

Ah, the Tech & Marketing Manager – the elusive unicorn of the marketing world. With their unique blend of marketing and tech skills, they are the magical beings that can bring a company’s marketing efforts to the next level. So, why do you need one? Well, let me break it down for you.

A Tech & Marketing Manager can also help a company to reach its target audience more effectively. They are skilled in using digital tools to identify and segment audiences based on demographics, behaviors, and interests. This enables the marketing team to create targeted campaigns that resonate with specific groups of people. By using digital tools to understand the behavior of the target audience, Tech & Marketing Managers can craft campaigns that are more likely to convert prospects into customers.

Greater ROI

In addition to improved efficiency and targeted audience reach, a Tech & Marketing Manager can also help a company to generate a greater return on investment (ROI). They are able to measure and analyze marketing metrics such as website traffic, engagement rates, and conversion rates, to determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. With this information, they can adjust marketing efforts accordingly to optimize results and increase ROI.

In today’s digital landscape, businesses need to embrace technology to enhance their marketing efforts and drive growth. A Tech & Marketing Manager possesses the technical expertise, efficiency, audience reach, ROI, and innovation that a company needs to stay ahead of the competition. By leveraging digital tools and insights, a Tech & Marketing Manager can help businesses to optimize their marketing efforts, engage with target audiences more effectively, and generate higher returns on investment. Therefore, it’s clear that a Tech & Marketing Manager is an essential asset for any company that wants to succeed in the modern business landscape.

Innovation

Finally, a Tech & Marketing Manager can bring innovation to a company’s marketing efforts. By staying up-to-date with the latest technology and marketing trends, they can introduce new and creative strategies that can set a company apart from its competitors. This can include new methods for engaging with customers, innovative campaign ideas, and creative uses of data and analytics to inform marketing decisions.

Why Hire a Tech and Marketing Manager?

First and foremost, a Tech & Marketing Manager can help your company navigate the ever-changing landscape of marketing technology. Let’s face it, the marketing tech world is a bit of a circus. There are so many tools, platforms, and apps out there that it can make your head spin. But fear not, a Tech & Marketing Manager can help you cut through the noise and find the tools that will make the biggest impact on your marketing efforts.

In addition to helping you find the right tools, a Tech & Marketing Manager can also help you use them effectively. I mean, what good is a shiny new marketing tool if you don’t know how to use it? A Tech & Marketing Manager can train your team on how to use the tools properly, so you can get the most out of them. Plus, they can help you integrate the tools into your existing workflows and processes, so you can work smarter, not harder.

But wait, there’s more! A Tech & Marketing Manager can also help you measure the impact of your marketing efforts. You know that old saying, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”? Well, it’s true. And a Tech & Marketing Manager can help you measure everything. From website traffic to social media engagement to email open rates, they can help you track it all. And not only that, but they can also help you interpret the data and make informed decisions about how to optimize your marketing efforts.

But perhaps the most valuable thing a Tech & Marketing Manager can bring to the table is their ability to speak both marketing and tech fluently. Let’s face it, marketing folks and tech folks don’t always speak the same language. Marketing folks are all about the creative, while tech folks are all about the data. But a Tech & Marketing Manager can bridge that gap and help everyone get on the same page. They can translate marketing-speak into tech-speak and vice versa, so everyone can understand what’s going on.

And let’s not forget about the innovation factor. A Tech & Marketing Manager is like a mad scientist, always tinkering with new ideas and ways to make your marketing efforts more effective. They’re always on the lookout for the next big thing, whether it’s a new platform or a new way of doing things. And they’re not afraid to experiment and take risks. After all, that’s where innovation comes from – taking risks and trying new things.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Wow, a Tech & Marketing Manager sounds too good to be true. Do they really exist?” Yes, they do! But like all unicorns, they’re a rare breed. They’re not just marketers who know a little bit about tech or tech folks who know a little bit about marketing. They’re a special breed that combines the best of both worlds.

So, why should you invest in a Tech & Marketing Manager? Well, they can help you cut through the marketing tech circus, use your tools effectively, measure your impact, bridge the marketing-tech language barrier, and drive innovation. They’re like a one-stop-shop for all things marketing and tech. Plus, they’re just really cool people to have on your team.

In conclusion, if you want to take your marketing efforts to the next level, you need a Tech & Marketing Manager. They’re like the missing puzzle piece that makes everything fit together perfectly. So go ahead, take the leap, and invest in a Tech & Marketing Manager. Your marketing efforts.

If this is something you are interested in learning more about, we would be happy to chat. We have limited spots available, but go ahead and book a free no strings attached strategy call with us today while spots are still available

14 Opportunities and Ideas to Help Add Additional Income During the Pandemic

Hello loves! I wanted to share some information that may be helpful for those that recently were laid off and/or you are looking to supplement your income during and beyond the Convid-19 Pandemic. Like many online business owners, I have a unique birdseye view because of the work that I do and the business I run. None of it is a secret or a ninja trick, and much of it you already have likely heard about, so most of it is just a re-iteration.

I have compiled a list of 14 opportunities and ideas to help add additional income during the pandemic for yourself and your family in these times of uncertainty.

As we start to do more and more delivery and curbside shopping, eating and etc… we will see that we simply do not have the force to support it. Here are places that you can look into if you are looking for work.

1) Grocery stores are hiring and their services are in high demand. Check into Clicklist and Instacart shoppers particularly

2) Doordash and Uber Eat Drivers – Even Pizza Delivery as well

3) Talk to your local marijuana dispensers and liquor stores – See about helping them with their curbside services…and in some cases delivery options

4) Amazon warehouses are hiring as well as drivers and customer service agents. Amazon alone is providing over 100k jobs

5) Become a secret shopper. I know that times are different right now, but there are many online secret shopping opportunities, for instance, customer service secret shopping with Expedia. The restaurant and retail store options won’t be available (unless they pivot) is my guess, but there are other opportunities. Let me preface that this is NOT a huge moneymaker, but it is great for supplemental income. https://www.bestmark.com/ I always had fun with secret shopping and I think you could too.

If you are looking at making some extra money in the online sphere here are some pretty great options.

6) For online work look into https://jobs.sykes.com/ , these are customer service jobs that you can do from home. You must have a dedicated phone line (not a cell phone) and highspeed internet.

7) Working Solutions is another home-based customer service opportunity as well – www.workingsolutions.com/

8) United Health Care for those that work in more of a medical field, they are hiring to help with the influx of calls that are coming in.

9) If you have a special craft, like content writing, graphic design, etc… you can look into www.upwork.com or www.guru.com and if you make and sell your own goods, look at facebook market place, www.etsy.com and www.ebay.com.

10) I realize that the stock market is a pretty scary place right now, but it also offers a lot of opportunities. Stocks are at a record low right now. The market will not be this unstable forever and it is guaranteed that there will be a boom (just don’t know when). The beauty of that is if you can get in at a cheap buy-in, like now, it could provide a huge return in 6-months. Only look into this if you feel empowered to do so. You can start up through Robinhood, which is a free platform for buying and selling stocks in the stock market. It is pretty intuitive and if you use this link you can earn free stock to start your journey with. Truly investing in stock (if you have the means) now might set you up for life. It could be like buying Amazon in 1997 if you get my drift! For Robinhood, though, it doesn’t require any investment right now, just sign up, get your free stock and start dabbling. Use this link to get your free stock >>> https://bit.ly/freerobinhoodstock-jg

11) For those that are toying with taking their business or ideas to Facebook, I have a free mini-training “8 Ways to Revive your Facebook Business Page Organic Reach” that you can take. It is a tiny bit outdated, but the content is still very relevant. www.va.alpinesbsolutions.com

12) If you are looking to take your vision into an online setting and getting serious about taking this time to pivot instead of panic, I would like to offer up some of my time to help you brainstorm. While I do have limited time, I still would like to offer up my own time as a resource. I am offering free 30 minute consults for a limited amount of folks (no strings attached, just value, value, value) the rest of the month. Private message me if you are interested.

13) I am also working on some additional free training and webinars to help people with making supplemental income online or to finally start your own online business journey. If you have a topic you would like me to touch on or have someone in the community talk about, please private message me or put your request below.

14) Lastly (for now), I would love to create a container for those interested to network together and join in on the opportunity to join think tanks, masterminds, engagement circles, and other self-promotion threads so we can all build each other up, stay connected, and love one another.

Do you have things to share or add to my list, please do? The more the merrier. The more information we can put out there the better. I will continue to harvest more ideas around this as the days and weeks unfold.

For those that are in a position to help, please help people, offer your time and what resources you can. This is a time to band together, practice impeccable hygiene, be compassionate and remember we are all in this together. Do not lead in fear…keep being amazing and I am rooting for those that are having a hard time. Please share with someone that you think might benefit from this information as well. I love you!

7 Success Benefits of Adding Facebook and LinkedIn Group to your Social Media Strategy

Social media groups are an untapped goldmine of potential for marketers, which is why I’m shocked when people reveal they seldom (or never) utilize them. Think about it — groups are a free avenue for people with similar interests to share relevant information to a hypertailored audience without newsfeed algorithms minimizing their reach. The last part of the sentence is huge. Make sure you hear it again. Share relevant information to a hypertailored audience without newsfeed algorithms minimizing their reach. It’s the content marketers dream!

The benefit of groups extend far beyond more efficient content marketing. Below are some benefits of consistent group involvement, followed by tips to finding the best groups and utilizing group engagement to your advantage.

Benefits of Social Media Groups

Establish yourself as an industry leader. By regularly posting insights and great content, you’ll be seen by your peers as an industry leader. And industry leaders see their business thrive.
Reach new audiences. Posting in groups can spread your company’s name and content to an audience otherwise unfamiliar with you.
Find new professionals to network with. With professional groups, you’ll be exposed to a wide range of professionals you otherwise might not come into contact with. When they interact with your post, you can send them a friendly message to connect and discuss the topic further. It’s a more personable way to acquire new connections across cyberspace.
Drive traffic to your website. You can post (relevant) pieces of content in groups. Members who click on the post will be directed to your website, giving you the opportunity to grow website visits.
Audience insight. Join groups tailored to your target audience and get a glimpse into their interests, needs, and common questions.
Learn from your experienced peers. Group members share insights, and you can learn a lot by reading through fellow members’ posts.
Access to job postings. In many LinkedIn groups, members post job openings relevant to the group’s demographics. These posting may not be highly visible elsewhere and the job poster may remember you from your insightful posts.

Finding Social Media Groups

When it comes to group engagement, quality is more important than quantity. It’s better to engage consistently with five or so groups than infrequently with several. You can find groups in several ways:

Use the discover function. For LinkedIn, click “interests” then “groups” then “discover” to bring up suggested groups. For Facebook, go to this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/ and click “discover”. You’ll see groups joined by your friends, local groups, and groups centered around a topic.
Search based on industry related keywords (like “social media marketing”).
Search based on groups you’re a part of in the offline world (university alumni organizations, professional organizations, etc.)
Search based on location (“small business groups in Seattle”).
Search based on your job position (“small business owners,” “graphic designers,” etc.).
Search for audience tailored groups. If you sell baby products, join parenting groups. If you sell backpacking tours, join backpacking enthusiast groups. Think about where your audience is, and make sure you are there too.
Search for post-event groups. After a large networking event, it’s common for a social media group to be created to connect participants together.
Ask your connections which groups they are a part of that they’d recommend.
Sort through the Linkedin group directory https://www.linkedin.com/directory/groups/

Group Best Practices

Before you post, get to know the group’s tone. Do people post in a formal or casual style? Are successful posts often questions or pieces of advice? Are post lengths typically short, medium, or long?
When posting in audience tailored groups, provide how-to articles, guides, and other pieces of information packed content. That’s the information they are looking for in these groups, and it will build your reputation in the groups as a leader.
Focus on providing value rather than self-promotion and sales. Strive to meet the needs of those in the group, which will translate into quality connections and awareness of your organization that can lead to sales.
If someone comments on your post, you can send them a message stating you appreciated their insight and would like to discuss the subject more. It’s a more personable way to network.
Ask thought-provoking questions and reply to people’s answers.
Once you get the feel of group posting, consider starting your own group. It’ll really show off your position as industry leader.

Engagement in groups is just one of the many tactics employed in successful social media marketing. If you want an engaged social media presence, but lack the time or expertise to make that a reality, reach out to Alpine Small Business Solutions today! We’d love to assist you with social media marketing or any aspect of small business building.

8 Little Known Facebook Business Tools You Should Be Taking Advantage Of

Yes, everyone can use Facebook, which is part of the reason you should be using it for your business, but sometimes you have to up your game to make sure you are aware of all the business tools that are available to help make sure you are offering the most to your audience. Make sure you have implemented each of the following to give your users the best experience on your site.

A Call-to-Action on Your Cover Photo

A call-to-action is a crucial aspect of growing and maintaining your business, whether that’s purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter. Facebook allows you to add a call-to-action to your organization’s page.

To set up a call-to-action, go to your page’s cover photo and click “create call-to-action.” Your options for call-to-actions are book now, contact us, use app, play game, shop now, sign up, or watch video. Choose your call-to-action and enter your website URL and click “create.”

Setting a Legacy Contact.

While it’s uncomfortable to think about, it’s important to decide what you want to happen to your Facebook account when you pass away. Facebook provides two options: delete your account permanently or leave up the account and allow loved ones to share memories on it. For the latter, you’ll need to designate a legacy contact.

A legacy contact is a designated person who can write a pinned post for the profile (such as a message on your behalf or memorial service information), respond to new friend requests, and update your profile picture and cover photo. They can also download a copy of what you’ve shared on Facebook. They will not be able to remove any friends, read your messages, change or remove past posts, or actually log into your account.

To add a legacy contact, log into your settings and click “security” and then “legacy contact.” Type in your designated contact’s name and click “add.” If you later decide you want to change the contact, you’ll be able to click on the contact and click “remove.” Then you can add your new legacy contact.

Click in the top right of Facebook and select Settings

In the left menu, click Security

Click Legacy Contact

Type in a friend’s name and click Add

To let your friend know they’re now your legacy contact, click Send

It’s difficult, but important, to think about what will happen when you pass on. If you run a business, be sure to check out our post on how to prepare your business for an unexpected life crisis: here.

Audience Overlap Tool

This option allows you to compare two to five audiences to find out their percentage of overlap (essentially measuring how many individuals who fall into audience one also fall into audience two).

Facebook allows you to compare audiences who are custom audiences, lookalike audiences, or saved audiences.You can compare within categories too (a custom audience compared to a saved audience for example). Audiences must contain at least 1,000 people before Facebook will allow you to select it for comparison (this restriction is meant as a privacy safety measure for Facebook users).

You can access audience overlap from either Ads Manager or Power Editor (from ads manager click “tools” and “audiences,” from “power editor” click “audiences”).

Once you are in audience overlap, pick your audiences. Then click “actions” and “show audiences overlap.” Facebook will crunch the numbers and display Venn diagrams showcasing the overlap between the audiences.

There are a number of different ways to use audience overlap. One is to compare website visitors with your email subscribes, which will show you if you need to improve efforts to get email subscribers to visit your site and will show you if you need to improve efforts to convert website visitors into email subscribers. You can play around with other comparisons, such as seeing whether your social media marketing efforts are directing enough people from your Facebook to website and visa versa.

Audience Insights

Audience Insights is an intelligent tool that allows you to discover demographic, behavioral and social data on audiences before you ever target them with your ads. It’s a great method of gathering data and insight on your audience, and is easy to use. The insight on your audience can be used to improve your advertising and your content marketing. For an introduction to audience insights, check out our posts here: link to blog post.

Follow Competitor Growth

Keeping up with your competitors’ pages is a crucial component of a social media marketing strategy. Watching their pages allows you to gain insight on how to replicate what works for them, and avoid what doesn’t work. With Facebook Insights, you can add competitors to your “pages to watch.” You’ll be able to see at a glance their total page likes, the percentage increase in page likes from the past week, total posts, and total engagement. When you click on the page from within the “pages to watch” section, a window will pop up showing their top posts of the week.

Use Stock Images that Facebook Provides When Setting Up Facebook Ads

Images are a crucial aspect of your Facebook ads, but not every small business has eye-catching photos. Thankfully, Facebook allows marketers to use stock photos from Shutterstock at no extra cost. When selecting a photo for your ad, simply click “stock images” and search for photos that fit your ad.

Facebook Business Manager

If you manage more than one Facebook business page, you should consider Facebook business manager. It’s designed for easy managing of pages and advertising accounts. Working within the tool also gives you the option of keeping your business work separate from your personal page, since you will be accessing the page from within the business manager as opposed to from within your personal page. The tool allows users to post to the page, read messages, see notifications, check out insights, schedule posts, boost posts, and more. It’s free to use and requires a simple set up. If you work with a team, business manager also provides you the option of creating objectives and see which member is working on which project.

Add Custom Tabs

Facebook offers some helpful tabs, like “about” and “photos,” but there’s so much more potential to tabs. With a few simple steps, you can add a custom tab to your Facebook page (for a great guide on how to do so, check out this link: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/26330/How-to-Create-Custom-Tabs-for-Facebook-Business-Pages.aspx#sm.00007s6law3dnda8x8c1f2gas6ea9). Custom tabs can be used in a variety of ways, such as directing followers to your blog, providing a registration form for an event, gathering case studies or content in one easy to access location, and more.

Facebook offers so many great tools, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We can help you with Facebook marketing, or any other aspect of small business building. Just give us a call or shoot us an email today.

Comfort Zone-Where Dreams Go To Die

We have seen the inspirational quotes encouraging us to get out and do something different—something we wouldn’t normally do. One of my favorites is, “Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone,” by Neale Donald Walsch.

We know it’s important to push the boundaries of our comfort zone, and that when we do, it’s kind of a big deal. But what is the “comfort zone” exactly? Why is it that we tend to get comfortable with the familiar and our routines? What benefit do we obtain from breaking out of our comfort zone?

There’s actually a lot of science that explains why it’s so hard to break out of our comfort zone, and why it’s good for us when we do it. With a little understanding and a few adjustments, we can break away from our routines and do great things. Let’s get started!

Optimal Anxiety

The idea of the comfort zone dates back to 1908, with a classic psychology experiment by Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson. They found that a state of relative comfort created a steady level of performance.

If you’re a go-getter like me, looking to make the magic happen, you are looking to maximize performance. We need a state of relative anxiety—a space where our stress levels are slightly higher than normal. This space is called “Optimal Anxiety,” and it’s just outside our comfort zone. Can you think of a time when you operated within “optimal anxiety?”

However, too much anxiety and our performance drops off sharply! Anyone who has ever pushed themselves to get to the next level, knows that when you really challenge yourself, you can turn out amazing results. More than a few studies support this idea. However, pushing too hard can actually cause a negative effect. Reinforcing our natural tendency to return to an anxiety neutral state, the “comfort zone.” This fine line between optimal anxiety and too much anxiety is why it’s so hard to kick our brains out of the comfort zone.

Breaking Free

So we learned that optimal anxiety is that place where your mental productivity and performance reach their peak. What’s the incentive to pushing ourselves to that next level? Here is what you get once you’re able to step outside of your comfort zone:

Productivity

Comfort kills productivity because without the sense of unease that comes with deadlines and expectations, we tend to do the minimum required to get by. We lose the drive and ambition to do more and learn new things. Pushing personal boundaries helps you hit your stride sooner, get more done, and find smarter ways to work.

Flexibility

You’ll have an easier time dealing with new and unexpected changes. By taking risks in a controlled fashion and challenging yourself to things you normally wouldn’t do, you experience uncertainty in a controlled, manageable environment. Choosing to live outside your comfort zone better prepares you for when life changes force you out of it.

Creativity

Seeking new experiences, learning new skills, and opening the door to new ideas inspire us and educate us in a way that nothing else can. Trying new things can make us reflect on our old ideas and where they clash with our new knowledge, and inspire us to learn more and challenge our biases, our tendency to only seek out information we already agree with. A positive, uncomfortable experience can help us brainstorm, see old problems in a new light, and tackle the challenges we face with new energy.

The benefits you get after stepping outside of your comfort zone have a domino effect throughout your personal and professional life. There’s an overall self-improvement you get through broadening your horizons: the skills you’re learning, the new foods you’re trying and the new avenues you’re exploring.

Once you begin stepping out of your comfort zone, it does get easier. You become accustomed to that state of optimal anxiety. It becomes normal to you, and you’re willing to push farther before your performance falls off. As you challenge yourself, your comfort zone adjusts so what was difficult, and anxiety-inducing becomes easier as you repeat it.

Contact Alpine Small Business Solutions to discuss what we can take off your plate to help you reach your level of optimal anxiety.

Why Facebook Groups are Better than Your Facebook Business Page

Facebook page likes should not be a key metric of social media marketing success. Surprised? Most marketers are. Many mistakenly over value the number of page likes, and end up wasting too much time building this number when they should be focused on more effective ways of measuring marketing success.

The Problem with Facebook Page Likes

Facebook is continually decreasing organization’s organic reach, making it harder to reach a sizable audience without paying. As a result, the audience who actually sees your posts is a fraction of your total Facebook audience. Total Facebook page likes, then, provide little insight of the success of your marketing efforts.

Sure, you want as many followers as possible. But the mere total number of followers does little to reflect your relationship marketing success, which is the driving motivation behind social media marketing. Total page likes show you the number of people willing to connect with your organization, but does little to reflect your effectiveness at actually reaching and connecting with them. Growing your follower count, then, should not be a driving force behind your Facebook marketing efforts.

Granted, consistent posting on Facebook is still a necessary aspect of social media marketing. Organizations still gain marketing benefits from Facebook, but it is weakened by the limited organic reach. Posting from your business page to your followers is an important aspect of reaching your audience, but it should not be the only aspect.

The Better Tactic

Insert Facebook Groups. These see fantastic online reach since they aren’t saddled with the algorithm-driven reach reduction that business pages are. Groups are joined by individuals interested in that topic, so when you post in a group you’re posting to a great targeted audience.

You can join already established groups or create your own, and there are benefits to both.

Joining an already established group opens you up to getting your organization’s name seen by new contacts, such as leaders in your industry or potential new customers. You can showcase your value to these individuals by answering questions with your expertise or sharing valuable content from your website. Consistent quality posting can translate into new valuable connections.

When you join a group, take some time to familiarize yourself with the group’s tone first. See the general style of writing (formal? casual?), length of post (short and to the point? long and in-depth?), and topics to make sure your posts will match. Be sure to join a few groups and post consistently, rather than joining several but rarely posting. To see the benefits of groups, you’ll need to be active and consistent in them.

In addition to joining relevant groups, you can make your own. The benefit of making your own group is you can reach individuals wanting to connect with your organization more effectively than you can reach individuals from your business page. But you shouldn’t repeat posts from your page in your group since individuals in both will see their newsfeed cluttered with identical content. You can post the same content sparingly, but make sure it’s on different days and worded differently. You want to make sure there is value for individuals to be involved with both your page and your group.

Measurement of group involvement can be done through a variety of ways, including analyzing engagement on your posts or visits to your site from links posted in the group. Metrics that come from group activity paint a more holistic picture of your marketing success than just page likes, making it a more effective analytic of your social media marketing efforts.

Want to take advantage of Facebook marketing, but need some guidance? Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’d love to assist with this or any aspect of business building. Reach out with a phone call or email today!

Top 12 Benefits of Hosting Webinars & Teleseminars and How It can Boost Your Online Business

Webinars and Teleseminars are fantastic business building tools that many marketers unnecessarily hesitate to take advantage of. They aren’t as daunting as they seem, and even the shyest of us can become confident in hosting them.

Webinars vs Teleseminars: What’s the Difference?

Teleseminars came first as a way to share information between parties that are not in the same physical location. Teleseminars are fully audio based learning, with the audience listening in through a telephone or computer. Webinars, on the other hand, use audio and visual learning with the listening in through a computer. Each medium offers its own advantages and disadvantages.

The Benefits of Webinars and Teleseminars

You’re immediately seen as the expert. You are in the position of a teacher, which comes with a certain amount of credibility at the start. As you speak and share great content, your credibility will grow. When you’re seen as an expert, consumers turn to your website, follow your social media pages and blogs, and purchase your products and services.
Increase brand awareness. Some attendees of your presentation might’ve joined because of their interest in the topic without knowing about your organization. In your presentation, you can educate them on what your company does and how it can provide value to them.
Gain reusable content. No need to reinvent the wheel! The information you gathered for your presentation can be reworked into blog posts, newsletters, e-books, social media posts, audio files, etc.
A large potential audience. Traditional seminars can cost more money to attend, plus require travel hassles and costs. This can keep individuals from attending. A webinar or teleseminar can be attended from the comfort of a home, making your potential consumer base significantly larger.
Discover new contacts. Individuals who sign up for your presentation can be fellow industry experts to network with or potential customers to connect with.
Distinguish yourself from your competition. Webinars and teleseminars are especially valuable if your competitors are not offering them. You’ll be set apart as an expert who offers more value to customers than your competitors.
Direct more individuals to your site and social media profiles. In your presentation, draw attention to your website and social media profiles as a way for the audience to get more information after the presentation. If your presentation is received well, many people will want to check out your other pieces of content.
Another avenue for sales. In your presentation, you can briefly mention different products or services offered by your organization. Even if only a few people make a purchase, it’s still revenue gained in addition to the other benefits.

Is a webinar or a teleseminar better for you?

It all depends on your audience. Asking yourself some key questions will help you decide which option is the best fit.

Am I worried about audience attention span? If so, do a webinar. Webinars allow the use of visuals, which can not only improve audience learning but can help keep the audience engaged throughout your presentation.
Would I benefit from audience engagement/feedback in the presentation? Webinars offer tools, such as polls and chat rooms, to gain instant audience insight and encourage audience engagement. Not all presentations need this interaction though, and you can get feedback through post-presentation surveys.
How much time do I have to prepare? Webinars require more time to create given the need to create engaging visuals that correlate to what you are saying without detracting from it. If you’re more limited on time, a teleseminar is the way to go.
What technology does my target audience have? To access a webinar, audience members need a computer with a reliable connection. To access a teleseminar, audience members simply need a telephone or computer. Keep in mind technical difficulties are much more prevalent on webinars than teleseminars.

Worlds tend to collide. Webinars frequently offer a call in feature that will allow your audience to simply call in and listen as well. So you can experiment with what is best for your audience.

Keep in mind that sometimes when getting starting doing a webinar, it can be distracting trying to present with people chatting or trying to engage with the technology features. It might be best to have someone monitor the room while your focus on your presentation. Your monitor can interrupt at appropriate times for questions, or help read questions to give you a break in speaking.

You can try out both and see which better fits your teaching style. Remember that the different methods work better for different audiences, so by learning both you open yourself up to reaching more audiences. You’ll be most effective if you can do webinars for certain topics or audiences and teleseminars for others.

Want help crafting a webinar or teleseminar? Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you to help with any aspect of small business building. Just give us a call or shoot us an email today!

The Power of an Automated Marketing and Sales Funnel

Wouldn’t it be great if your marketing and sales could run on autopilot?

Well with an automated sales funnel, they can! After an initial set-up, you can sit back, relax, and focus your attention on other marketing tasks.

An automated marketing and sales funnel allows you to work smarter, not harder. It can skyrocket your efficiency and effectiveness. If you aren’t using one already, it’s about time you hop aboard this train to growth!

The Sales Funnel

You’ve probably heard this phrase before. Many, many, many times I imagine. Let’s quickly debrief anyway.

A sales funnel is the journey people go through from first discovering your company to paying money for your goods/services. The stages go:

People become aware of your brand
People become interested in your brand
People have desire for what your brand offers
People take action (buying a product/service)

Not everyone makes it through every stage. That is why it’s a funnel – it’s largest at the top and becomes narrower as it goes down. As a marketer, your goal is to move as many people as possible through the funnel.

Automating the Funnel

Automation, when done well, can be a marketer’s best friend. First of all, it saves you an immense amount of time. Instead of you sitting down to individually send an email to people at each stage of the funnel, these emails can be sent automatically.

Second of all, it can improve your targeting efforts without any extra efforts on your end. For example, someone who opts-in to your social media newsletter gets a follow-up email offering them a discount for your social media services. Someone who opts-in to your business management newsletter gets a follow-up email offering them a discount for your upcoming leadership webinar. These targeted pitches can happen automatically.

How to Create Your Automated Email Funnel

The most common way to automate your marketing and sales funnel is with your email.

Creating awareness: Here you are hoping to stir up awareness of your brand. Many marketers will offer a free downloadable piece of content in exchange for someone’s email. Think case studies, guides, and other similar substantial pieces of content. The focus here is to get your company name in their memory and associate yourself within the industry. Nothing sales-y at all, yet!
Creating interest: Now you’ve gotten their email. Here you are hoping to keep their attention (since that “unsubscribe button” is all too easy to press). Send a follow-up email to those who subscribed giving them more helpful information. Nothing sales-y here either! The goal is to intrigue your audience about your brand by showing you know your stuff. Send an email with a round-up of useful articles on the given topic. Share valuable resources. Prove that your emails (and your company) offer value.
Creating desire: Now you’ve got a group of people who stayed on your email list. By now, you’ve sent a few useful emails. They are still intrigued by your company. Now you can start slipping in the sales-y content. Show off what your brand can do. Maybe it’s an email with testimonials of a product. Maybe it’s case studies of how companies benefited from your service. Draw a connection between your customer’s problem and your product/service as a solution.
Creating action. Now that you got your customers desiring your product/service, you can prompt action. Send an email that provides a discount for first time customers. Direct them to the sales page. Funnel those potential customers into becoming purchasing customers.

This process can be a highly effective one at generating more leads and more sales. You will need specialized tools to accomplish this (MailChimp is a common one). Look through different service options to find the best ones for your company. The key here is finding something that offers effective automation. You want a service allowing for targeted funnel creation (such as one path for first time customers and another path for repeat customers).

It’ll take some time at first to situate your funnel. But once you do, you can reap the rewards of automation! If you want help setting up your funnel, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We specialize in sales funnel services that can get your marketing thriving. Contact us today to find out more!

Is Your Social Media in Need of a Manager or Strategist?

A social media manager and social media strategist are not the same thing. Sure the titles are often used interchangeably, but in reality they work towards different goals and results.

Ideally, your business employs both (or at least, your social media guru handles both). But tight budgets and limited time requires you to prioritize. Here’s a guide to understanding the difference.

A Quick Overview

Think of your social media as a body. Your goal is a healthy thriving body, which requires two approaches.

You need to do daily upkeep tasks. These tasks remain steady throughout your life. Whether you’re five or 105, drinking water and showering is a necessity.

With social media, these tasks are things like:

creating social media posts
responding to comments
content curation of influencers

The social media manager handles these basic tasks.

You also need to take a long-term approach, adopting and adapting new strategies based on circumstances. New health research could prompt a change in diet. Maybe you bring in outside help, like a personal trainer, to help you lose weight.

With social media, these tasks are things like:

changing your digital marketing strategy based on case study research
bringing in a virtual assistant to help with holiday marketing
adding in marketing and pixel targeting

The social media strategist handles this type of strategic work.

Which Does My Business Need to Prioritize?

Your business’s current situation will determine your focus.

Your business just launched/rebranded: social media strategist. You want a clear strategy underlying your posts. When the why behind your posting is articulated, your social media will be much stronger.
Your business is maintaining the status quo: social media manager. If your business is chugging along like normal, you can match that approach in social media. Focus on daily maintenance of creating good content and building relationships online. It’ll be the foundation you pull from when the status quo shifts (like when you launch a new service or product).
Your business budget is slashed: social media manager. The daily maintenance is crucial for your online presence. You can upkeep the basics and expand into new strategy once the budget grows.
Your social media results are plummeting: social media strategist. If you’re continually losing followers, reach, or engagement, it’s time to shake things up. A strategist can help you identify what’s hurting your social media, and how to fix it.
Your business has a short-term project: social media strategist. Holiday marketing or a product launch are unique times for your business, times when the normal social media approach does not apply. You’ll want a tailored approach to maximize your social media efforts.

We know that there are so many options out there, it can make your head spin. Which outlet to use, times to post, images to create, targeting your audience and so on. Make sure you are asking the right person and the right questions when you are planning this year’s social media.

Your business does need social media assistance, whether it’s a manager or a strategist. Consider using Alpine Small Business Solutions! We can provide the daily maintenance, strategy creation, assistance on short term projects, whatever your business needs. Simply shoot us an email or give us a call today.

An Introduction to Audience Insights

Audience Insights is an intelligent tool that allows you to discover demographic, behavioral, and social data on audiences before you ever target them with your ads. It’s a great method of gathering data and insight on your audience, and is easy to use.

How to Get There

To get there, you click on Ads Manager, click on tools, click on audience insights, and then everyone on Facebook. Your audience will be the dark blue bar graph, compared to the general Facebook user data. Once you begin selecting customizations (such as age, interests, and relationship status), you’ll be able to see how your custom audience differs from all Facebook users.

Studying Your Audience

You can study your audience as a whole, or break up your audience into segments (such as only looking at female followers, or only individuals 18 to 25). To segment the audience, enter in information (such as age bracket) on the left-hand side. How much you want to segment your audience depends on the campaign you’re gathering data for.

Once you’ve created your audience, you’ll be presented with data under six tabs. Each one offers unique information on your audience.

For example, the first tab provides you with information their lifestyle, relationship status, education level, and job titles. Another useful tool is “page likes,” which displays the pages that are most relevant to your custom audience. Once you know the pages most likely to be “liked” by your audience, you can add these pages to the interests when you create an ad.

Examining the data on your audience equips you to better tailor your advertising efforts and your content marketing efforts. You’ll want to check back into the audience data occasionally, as your audience demographics can change as you gain new followers.

Studying Your Competition

The “Page likes” data can be used for more than tailoring your ad audience. You can discover other pages that resonate with your audience, which you can study to improve your own page. When you see what types of content they post, which messages perform best, etc., you can use that information to try to replicate their success (and avoid their failures). Again, you’ll want to check back up on this section occasionally as the most common “page likes” can shift as your audience grows.

Audience insights offers a large amount of free data on your audience and its many segments, which can be used to improve your social media marketing. If you want to take advantage of this tool, but don’t have the time, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’re ready to assist with any aspect of small business building. Reach out to us with a phone call or email today.

For a more in-depth look at Audience Insights, check out this free informational webinar.