As complicated and sophisticated as the online, digital marketing space is becoming, many of us still need help with the basics. That’s not a slam, but more of a reality. The reality is you are busy working your business so growing in your online marketing chops is probably not too high on your list.
Here are three guiding principles, A-B-C’s if you will, you can follow every day to win with digital marketing, no matter how busy you are or where you sit in the technical spectrum:
Add.
Read, listen, watch, explore – find any new content you can find and consume it. I like to use Feedly and subscribe to a bunch of blogs or sites (by topic) at once. What’s nice about it is that you just go to one place and you can stay up on what’s going on ‘out there’. An extension of consuming is sharing. Be the curator that people start to follow as you lead them to great articles they would have otherwise not read. Share with wherever your community is (read: don’t just blast it everywhere. Focus where you share for greater community build). Add value to the noise that is out there. Your perspective and understanding are unique and we need to hear from you.
Cost: 10 minutes / day
Build.
Create new connections. Add some value and start to set yourself apart as a thought-leader. Spend a few minutes commenting on blogs or tweeting out some good stuff. Participate in some LinkedIn groups. Treat this like you would any networking group you attend. The more time you invest consistently into the group, the more value you’ll receive over time.
Cost: 10 minutes / day
Create.
Work on something for your customers. This could be a blog post with some juicy content or a video or an e-book or an email with a special offer. Or PLEASE get way more creative than that to stand out. You’ll be surprised how much you have to give once you start producing.
Cost: 10 minutes / day
Yes, you can spend way more time than what I’m showing, but you can also see how with just 30 minutes of effort every day (we all have 30 minutes), you can emerge as a dominant player in the digital marketing space. And this is all without doing anything “techy”. Really what is required is converting what you do on a daily basis in person into those same activities online. The difference is that your online presence is available 24 x 7 x 365. You are producing a voice online that keep speaking for you. This is when the power shift exponentially.
This is not just for the intern. This is for the business owner, the mover and shakers of the business. It is no longer an issue of whether you should do this, it’s a necessity in business today.
30 minutes. A-B-C. Add-Build-Create!
Photo credit: dreamsjung
