4 Questions to Ask Before "Should We Use LinkedIn, SEO, Google Ads or Any Tactic?"

This year we've received a handful of consulting request from business owners that are thinking about their marketing and so often the questions I get are:

• Should we be on LinkedIn?
• Should we be using Google Ads?
• What do we need to be doing to reach our audience?

Most tactical challenges can most often be solved with strategy planning and focus so before you determine whether LinkedIn is better for your organization than Instagram or if digital advertising is an effective way to generate leads, start at the point where you will ultimately create the greatest possible impact – strategy!

After spending considerable time reviewing these request, I’ve compiled a list of questions every business owner must think about before choosing LinkedIn, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, Google Ads or any tactic to increase visibility or lift sales. 

1. Who is our ideal customer? 

 It’s simple: “If your product or service is for everyone then it’s a product or service for no one.” You must determine, exactly who wants and needs what you have to offer? The best thing about this question is there’s only one wrong answer, and that’s everyone.

I believe that most organizations are uniquely suited to serve a narrowly defined market or ideal customer. Successful marketing is almost always specific, not general. And that “almost” is close to absolute because you can no longer run a traditional ad that reaches everyone.

Now, instead of interrupting everyone you meet, you have no choice but to choose your target market and from that market choose ideal customers.

Here’s a tip: Begin by segmenting and then building a detailed profile of your most successful accounts (profitable + refer your organization). Your best customers have the following two key characteristics: they are profitable and also refer business to you. 

2. What does our ideal customer value about our company or offering?

After developing a profile of an ideal customer, it’s time to find a way to attract this group. This is achieved by discovering some aspect of your business that this ideal customer clearly values from the rest of the market.

You need to dig in and find that one special way of doing things that your customers truly value - even if that value is outside of what you're selling them.

• For example, we work with an alternative glass company whose real value is eliminating callbacks for homebuilders.
• Another example is a bookkeeping firm whose real value is decreasing the hiring and recruiting (HR) time for small business owners.

By defining the thing that your ideal customer values, you can change the context of how the market sees what you offer and in doing so eliminate your competition.

Here’s my advice: Go talk to 5-10 of your best customers, they know what you do that’s of value to them. Listen carefully and don’t be afraid to embrace the little things you do, that’s where you are different in a way that matters.

3. What type of information is our ideal customer seeking online?

Sales and marketing 101 says that you focus on the problems and desires of the prospect, and match those up with your product or service.

Doing this online with information is no different, except you're delivering independent value with content before you attempt to make the sale.

The Internet has disrupted the traditional sales process, allowing the prospective customer or client to begin on their own terms the information-seeking process via search and social media. This means savvy business owners must adapt to the information empowered prospect in a fashion that more resembles educating than it does hard selling.

Here’s my advice: Look at these three simple information structures and determine which one fits your ideal customer. It may be all three.

1. How-to. How-to information aims to teach the reader something, by taking them through a step-by-step process. It’s usually structured with numbered, sequential steps. And, where appropriate, these steps might include a screenshot or photo to show the reader what to expect at each stage.
2. List. List information offers readers a selection of ideas, tips, suggestions, or resources. These are normally numbered. The key difference between list and how-to information is that readers don’t need to follow the list from start to end: they can dip in and use those points that seem most applicable to their own situation.
3. Review. Review information offers an informed opinion about a particular product or service. These are a great way to serve your readers, who might be debating whether or not to purchase a particular item. They also help establish your own knowledge and expertise in your field.

4. What type of content can our company provide that showcases our strengths, personality, and values?

The last piece of the puzzle is about your strengths, personality, and values. But, it’s not simply about those three things. What's more important is to find the type of content that communicates and showcases those important characteristics, in a way that allows you to stand apart from everyone else that says they are in the same business as you.

Here's my tip: Carefully choose the formats you can employ with excellence.

• Blog: Blogs in video, audio or written formats can communicate expertise, news, and announcements. Blogging can stabilize SEO efforts, create a central home for social sharing, build your email list, drive your point of view, and allow for community building.
• Reviews: Ratings and reviews sites allow customers to communicate what they like (or don't like) about your service or product.
• Testimonials: Testimonials are one of the most powerful trust signals you can use in your marketing. They give prospective customers a sense of what they can expect as well. 
• eBook or Whitepaper: Every business should have a way of doing business or a set of beliefs that are documented in the form of an eBook or white paper. This must communicate what makes your business different, what's the secret behind your customer's success, how your company approaches customer service, and why your company does what it does.
• Educational Events: Today, presentations, workshops and seminars (online and off) are tremendous ways to provide education with the added punch of one-to-one engagement.
• FAQs: Go beyond the questions that routinely get asked and include those that should get asked but don’t, particularly the ones that help position your company favorably against the competition.
• Case Studies: Building rich examples of actual customers succeeding through the use of the product or service offerings is a tremendous way to help people learn from other individuals and businesses just like them.

Contact your marketing consultant at Indispensable Marketing

We have an engagement called Marketing Strategy Consulting, where we answer all these questions for our clients. As a part of this engagement, we interview your existing customers and analyze your competitors. We build ideal client personas and establish a marketing message that will speak to them. We map out your editorial calendar and determine how to make content a relationship-workhorse. And we go through the customer journey exercise and identify the gaps in your current marketing approach. This gives you a firm foundation on which to build your tactics and move your marketing forward based on a solid strategy.

Want to learn more? Schedule a consultation with us so we can talk about how to do this for your business.