If you are running a business, you know what a time-suck social media can be. It often feels like you are on a hamster wheel and not getting anywhere.
Your goal for any marketing is to win business, so let’s start with some strategies that allow you to generate leads without going down the ‘scroll hole’ on social. You can always try to justify why spending so much time on Facebook and Instagram is necessary but is that time spent justified on your bottom line? After all, social media should serve your business, you should not be serving it – and on that note, not all social media is equal; LinkedIn has a whole different set of rules.
Instead of wasting all that time on tactics that aren’t getting you results, let me share some practical marketing strategies that will get you the best bang for your marketing buck. You’ll find more here, too!
These simple tactics are very effective and don’t involve working out any algorithm hacks. Are you ready?
The collaboration effect
Collaborations are a hugely untapped marketing resource. Finding one to two collaborative partners that have a similar audience and are complementary to your service means you get in front of a lot of your potential customers at once. Eg: A recruiter and a resume writer
The leads generated through these collaborations will be better quality leads as you are being recommended by a trusted source. There are also many ways in which you can collaborate, such as events, webinars, blogs, shared content, and so on. If you get creative and align strategically, this can become a great source of referrals and new business.
The often misused email marketing
Email marketing is far from dead, but you need to do it right – this means not blasting your entire list with an email about jobs, which many recruiters are guilty of.
Your list is gold if you work it. Email is the first thing most people check when they wake up (and often the last thing at night). To stand out from the crowd, you should have a clearly defined content strategy and point of view – personalise your content to your audience and segment your lists so each contact only receives what’s relevant to them.
Be polarising and establish yourself as a source of information so that both clients and candidates look forward to reading your emails. There is no point in having a big database if you are not going to capture any of your audience.
Build your list through your blog
Starting a blog with SEO-friendly content shows your expertise, and is a great way to move fans from social media pages to your email list – remember you don’t own your followers, you only rent them.
Once you have your blog, share your content to your existing network first; and if you want to share on social, include a CTA for your audience to follow you directly so they don’t miss out on future juicy content. Be sure to highlight the benefits of your content and direct readers to where they can find your most high-value content, as this incentivises people to join your list and follow you long-term.
Make your website work for you, not against you
For most businesses, your top online priority should be your website. Can people easily find you? Are you capturing your visitors’ data for future marketing? Does it convert into paying clients?
Unless you can say yes to those questions, then you need to spend some time refining your website and making it work for you. I guarantee your website usually generates far more customers than your Facebook or Instagram posts. So, make sure you’ve got that nailed down first before you turn your attention to social media, running ads, or spending money on SEO.
It’s essential that your website has a point of difference, too – vanilla recruitment websites that look the same as everyone else’s do nothing to make you stand out (sorry, not sorry).
Engage in real-life conversations
If you want to engage with people, the best place to do it is not on social media – it’s in real life. In this digital world it may sound old-fashioned, but the most effective way to connect is still to strategically meet with potential clients and spend time getting to know them.
And here’s the kicker – the time you put into real-life conversations actually translates to results, unlike the time you can waste on social media trying to generate engagement. The key is to just start conversations – it might require you making some effort, but it’s where you build a relationship. A call, a coffee catch-up, a conversation at an event – all get you in front of potential clients and collaborators in a genuine way.
Create your own regular events
Events are coming back big time and more people are craving the human interaction that no Zoom can compete with. Yes, it takes effort – but nothing good happens overnight.
Your event doesn’t need to be big – in fact, smaller is better. Invite some clients, potential clients or candidates to a breakfast (your shout) and get to know them. This is a foundation you can build on easily with a little bit of effort. Just don’t make it a pitch fest or you’ll struggle to get anyone to attend.
Guesting
Similar to collaboration, guesting is focused on borrowing an audience. Using a guesting strategy, you can put yourself in front of people who don’t know you already but likely need your service. This is not an overnight tactic and there is a process to it, which involves building a relationship and some visibility with the host where you want to guest. I have used this successfully to guest on podcasts, webinars and blogs.
While these might seem like simple ideas, when it comes to marketing, simple works better every time. These tactics will outperform Facebook ads, Instagram reels and TikToks to drive new, high-quality leads every day of the week – and twice on Sunday!
Tanya Williams works with recruiters to master a reliable, consistent and repeatable way to new clients & fill candidate lists (without posting on socials 5 days a week) so they can stop chasing algorithms and start effortlessly landing dream clients on repeat.
Her tradigital approach extends much further than time-sucking social media tactics (that generate little in return) and focuses on simple marketing that is practical and proven.
She hates tech talk, fluffy words designed to bamboozle you & slow walkers. She can easily get consumed for hours coming up with clever creative and loves working with businesses that aren’t afraid of having some personality in their marketing. She will not only help you to clarify your offer to market; she’ll help you stand out in a sea of vanilla. Ask her about an Exploration Session to get started.