The one page marketing plan every creative needs

Very few creatives go into their field with a solid business or marketing plan. Most creatives ‘fall into’ their profession from dabbling in a skill as a passion or a side project that eventually organically evolves.

If this is you, well done on making a career out of your passion! But if you’ve got the ability to generate a higher income by charging more, attracting more clients, automating some of your processes or monetising elements of your business, why wouldn’t you?

Don’t be put off thinking you need a complex 10-page document outlining every little detail and strategy. Nobody’s got time for that. I like to keep it simple, so instead let me introduce you to the 1-Page Marketing Plan.

The one page marketing plan

It’s exactly what it sounds like - a clear understanding of what you’re offering, to who, and how you’ll get it in front of them, summarised on one page. This means you can stick it on your wall or somewhere prominent and easily remind yourself with a glance what you should be focused on.

Who it’s for

In short, anyone selling a service or product. For those of you who work under your own name, make no mistake - you are a business. If you’re not already thinking this way, this is a fundamental shift in mindset you need to make first.

If you work for someone else, this is still relevant to you too. Your employer sees value in you that they’re willing to pay for, and having a plan around how to maximise this value can be hugely beneficial for your career.

Let’s dive in with an example of one for a completely made up business running art workshops for kids:

Above: An example one page marketing plan. Download a free template PDF

As you can see, it’s made up of 10 simple boxes for you to fill out:

Product/Service

This is about what you’re selling in the simplest form. Keep it short and sharp, with only a few words maximum.

Audience

Who’s actually paying for your product or service? This might be different to who your product or service is for. In the example above, the service is for kids, but the audience is actually their parents because they’re the ones paying.

Pain Points

If you can pinpoint the deeper reasons why your audience is seeking out your product or services, you’re onto a winner. This will help you write benefit-focused copy that speaks directly to the problem they have.

Value Proposition/s

What is it that makes you and/or your business truly different? What sets you or your product apart? You might have a significant amount of experience in your field, or your product is handcrafted locally. Whatever makes your product or service special, put it here.

Influencers

I’m not talking about Instagram influencers here, although they could factor in. Consider who might influence your buyer’s decision. In the example, teachers and the kids participating in the workshops would be strong influencers on whether their parents enrol them or not.

Key Message

Think of it this way: if you were chatting to someone while ordering a coffee, what’s the one thing you’d want them to walk away knowing about what you offer? Keep this short and sweet - our human brains simply can’t retain too much information so if it’s long-winded, people don’t remember anything at all.

Free Channels

Write down every free channel you can think of that you could reach your audience or their influencers through - both online and offline. Now go back and highlight the ‘quick wins’ that are likely to have the biggest impact.

Paid Channels

This is the same as the free channels box except, you guessed it, paid. This will often refer to advertising, but it could also be things like competitions (because giving away product costs you money) or paid partnerships and collaborations. Be specific here - instead of ‘Instagram’ you might write ‘a collaborative competition with brands X and Y on Instagram’. Come up with as many ideas as you can, then highlight the channels likely to have the biggest impact.

Cost

Time is money, so consider both the financial and time implications of focusing on the free and paid channels you’ve listed. Consider whether this is something you can truly commit to.

Goal/ROI/Success Metric

How are you going to measure whether all this time, effort and potentially money has paid off? By writing a SMART goal in here of course! This could be anything from a particular number of bookings, sales, a specific return on investment (ROI) or adding people to your email list.

Whatever makes sense for you, write a maximum of three here and make sure they’re specific and timebound. I recommend not looking more than three months into the future to keep you focused

I strongly recommend reviewing this at least once every few months to keep you focused on one thing at a time. For example, your goal initially might be to increase subscribers on your email list, and the rest of the page is also focused on this. Then the following month might focus on converting a percentage of these subscribers into customers or clients.
Most of all, this is designed to be completely flexible so I encourage you to download the empty template and find what works for you.

Courtney Goes is a Melbourne-based digital marketing and brand consultant with experience across a range of industries in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Since leaving the corporate world in 2016, she’s been on a mission to help women make smarter marketing decisions to elevate their businesses and personal brands through simple, effective strategies. Working mostly with creatives, freelancers, and female-owned startups and small businesses, she provides clarity, structure and accountability to get real, tangible results. She has also launched Marketing Emporium, a resource hub designed to provide simple and straightforward marketing advice. Contact her at courtneygoes.com.

How to build a strong brand on social media

Following on from my previous post about what creatives need to know about the new Instagram algorithm, this one is all about how to build a better brand on social media beyond just Instagram.

Social media is huge these days. According to the 2017 Sensis Social Media Report, more than 59 per cent of Australians use social networking sites at least once a day and 94 per cent have used Facebook in the last year. In short, you can reach an incredible number of people on social.

But hey, we’re all busy, amiright? To make sure you’re spending your time in the best way possible, here are eight steps to build a strong brand on social media and stand out as a creative — without going crazy in the process.

Step 1: Know your goals.

I’m talking business goals. What are you actually trying to achieve by using social media? You need to know why you are even on social media in the first place and clearly understand why it's a good use of your time. Your social media goals and objectives should be in line with your business goals.

For example, if one of your business goals is to increase revenue by 20 per cent this financial year and you make some sales from Facebook, a social media objective could be to increase traffic from Facebook by 30 per cent. Note that this doesn’t have to be purely revenue related: you could instead be aiming to get more people on your email list, to attract more client enquiries or lots of other things.

Step 2: Know your customer deeply.

‘Everyone’ is not a target market. You need to get hyper-specific about who your audience is and why they're buying from you. What are their motivations, fears and pain points? What do they love doing day to day? How does your brand fit into that? Focus on who you're talking to, what you want to say and what success looks like.

Step 3: Consider your content.

Photo by Clarisse Meyer

Get clear about the type of content you're going to deliver on social media for your audience. Remember: it's about them, not you. Be generous, add value and build trust.

Generally, content will fall into one of four buckets: education, entertainment, information, or inspiration. Understand what content your audience likes and focus on that. For example, for CWC, this would be to educate, inform and inspire — and less so to entertain.

Step 3: Focus on two to three platforms, max.

Once you understand who your target customer is, take the time to figure out the two to three platforms where they hang out online and focus your energy there. It’s much better to be  present and consistent on two platforms than to spread bits of your brand all over the Internet with no love. Meaning: just because someone else killed it on Snapchat doesn't mean it's right for you.

When choosing which platforms to focus on, also consider where your content fits best, and how much time you can realistically commit. For example, shooting and editing video for YouTube will require more time than a quick video on Instagram Stories.

And here's a pro tip: if you’re already using social media, check your Google Analytics to see which platforms bring the most traffic to your website, then focus on the top two.

Step 4: Batch, schedule and automate.

One of the keys to growing a strong brand on social media is consistently showing up. This means contributing regularly and being active. It’s far more time-efficient to block out a couple of hours on a Sunday night (or whenever suits) to schedule content for a month, than to do a little bit every day.

Great scheduling tools for Instagram include Planoly and Later. For Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, try Hootsuite or Buffer. If Pinterest is where your people are, check out Tailwind.

Just make sure you’re still answering messages, responding to comments and contributing to your community. Remember, social media is a two-way street.

Step 5: Include calls to action.

A ‘call to action’, or CTA, is when you tell your audience to do something. We humans are lazy and need to be told what to do most of the time. Some examples might be to follow you, to share a post or to visit your website.

One useful CTA might be to join your mailing list. Remember, you don’t own your social media account; it can be switched off tomorrow (which has happened to brands before). To combat this, your aim should always be to get followers to your website and better yet, onto your email list. That way, you own that relationship and contact information, not Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Step 6: Make your brand cohesive.

Your brand, your profiles and the content you're putting out there should all be consistent, above and beyond your social media accounts. This is another time when focusing on just two platforms makes life a lot easier. Whether it's your website, your email newsletter or your Instagram profile, your brand aesthetic should be cohesive, consistent and recognisable.

Step 7: Be authentic.

It might sound obvious, but social media is designed to be social. Talking to your audience should feel like any good friendship or relationship: comfortable, relaxed and genuine. You should be able to laugh and tell stories and contribute to conversations. Be yourself and be true to your brand.

Step 8: Check your data.

The final step is to check your data at least once a month to see what’s working and what’s isn't — and make changes accordingly. Google Analytics offers a truckload of information to help you see what’s bringing in website traffic and making you sales.

On top of this, each platform has its own analytics tool that can provide great info about your audience, which posts are performing best, and what day and time you should be posting.

Schedule it in your calendar to dive in once a month and get familiar with reading your data.

Sadly, there’s no winning formula to growing your brand on social media, but following these steps will position you as well as possible. The most important thing is to not get overwhelmed, and stay focused. You can do it!

Courtney Goes is a Melbourne-based digital marketing and brand consultant with experience across a range of industries in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Since leaving the corporate world in 2016, she’s been on a mission to help women make smarter marketing decisions to elevate their businesses and personal brands through simple, effective strategies. Working mostly with creatives, freelancers, and female-owned startups and small businesses, she provides clarity, structure and accountability to get real, tangible results. She has also launched Marketing Emporium, a resource hub designed to provide simple and straightforward marketing advice. Contact her at courtneygoes.com.

Opening image by Jaelynn Castillo.

What creatives need to know about the new Instagram algorithm

How does the Instagram algorithm work? This is a question I get asked a lot, as if I’m the KFC colonel with the secret herbs-and-spices recipe.

It’s only April and already there have already been so many changes. Each time I can’t help but shout ‘Instaaargghhh!’ in the hopes that Insta HQ hears me and stops meddling with the recipe.

So how do you keep up when you’ve also got a business to run and people to delight? It can be tough, so I’ve distilled what every creative should know about the algorithm along with five simple actions to take your Insta presence to the next level this year.

1. Engagement matters

There’s no way around it: Instagram is still growing fast and it’s becoming more and more saturated. More than 95 million photos are posted every day, but 70 percent of them are never even seen, let alone engaged with. This can be incredibly frustrating for anyone trying to grow her business.

For a long time now, the algorithm has been based mainly on engagement. This includes numbers of likes, comments, video views, saves, shared posts, DMs and any other type of interactions with a post. In a nutshell, when a post gets a lot of engagement, Instagram deems it high quality and engaging, so shows it more. This hasn’t changed, but it now also includes all the interactions you receive on Instagram Stories as well, such as views, replies and shares. In short, the more a user interacts with your stories, the more likely it is that your individual posts will also show up in her feed.

I also have a theory (but can’t confirm it) that variation in engagement type matters, too, to combat the fact that you can now easily buy thousands of likes or views in the time it takes to order a cup of coffee.

ACTION #1: TELL STORIES
If you haven’t got on the Stories bandwagon yet, it’s time to jump on board. Instagram Stories now has more than 300 million daily active users, almost double the number on Snapchat! More importantly, it’s a great way to connect with your followers and share a behind-the-scenes, unfiltered view of your business.

Here are some simple ways to maximise engagement with Stories:

• Share progress shots of work.

• If you’re self-branded (i.e., photographers and designers), don’t be afraid to share more human moments to give insight into who you are.

• If you sell products, use it as an opportunity to be transparent about your products and supply chain.

• Take advantage of built-in engagement opportunities, like the polling feature.

• Tell followers to ‘DM us for a 10% off code!’ (or similar). This is a great way to build relationships and drive people to your inbox, boosting engagement figures through more DMs.

• Include the ‘Swipe up’ option if you have a business account with more than ten thousand followers.

• Include links (again, only available if you have a business account with more than ten thousand followers).

2. Speed matters

Not only does the algorithm factor in the amount of love your post gets, it also cares how quickly you get it. If a post gets a lot of engagement shortly after it’s posted, this signals that it’s quality content, so the post will be shown to even more of your followers.

ACTION #2: POST DURING PEAK TIMES
Take two minutes right now to find out when your followers are most active, then schedule your posts during this time, when you’re most likely to get engagement.

To find this out, click on the Insights graph for your business account. Scroll down to Followers and click ‘See more’. At the bottom you can see when your followers are online each day, and at what times. Easy!

 3. Lingering matters

Since Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, it’s been rolling out features that ‘work’ in Facebook-to-Instagram, and this is one of them. It’s not just about how many people view your post, it’s about how long they view it for. So how do you stop followers in their tracks?

ACTION #3: SLOW IT DOWN
There are two simple ways to do this: write longer captions, and use more videos and carousel images.

If your post has an in-depth caption, your followers are more likely to actually read it or click the ‘more’ button, which increases the time spent on your post. Try spending a few minutes to write your captions for the entire week when you’re feeling creative or in the zone, then schedule them using a tool like Later or Planoly.

One of the reasons why videos perform so well in the Instagram algorithm is because they take longer to view than an image. So post more videos. If videos aren’t part of your visual strategy, try carousels (multiple-image posts) every now and again.

4. Hashtags matter

Instagram recently rolled out the ability to follow hashtags, which means your posts could show up automatically in the feeds of potential new followers. The downside is that users also have the power to mark your hashtagged content as irrelevant, marking it ‘Don’t show for this hashtag’ and potentially raising a red flag on your account.

ACTION #4: STAY RELEVANT
As we learned from the Shadowban scare last year, posting the same block of hashtags over and over can have a negative impact. Instead, switch it up and use hashtags that are hands-down relevant to what you’re posting.

Tools like Planoly or Later allow you to save a library of hashtag blocks. Or you can use this amazing hack using the text replacement setting in your phone.

5. Your interaction matters

I’m (sadly) not the KFC colonel with the secret recipe so can’t confirm this for sure, but it’s believed that Instagram may also restrict exposure based on your engagement with your followers. I know, keeping track of Instagram comments can be hard if you have a lot of followers, but to get engagement, you’ve got to give.

ACTION #5: STAY ON TOP OF COMMENTS
Social media should be just that: social. Treat comments like a conversation and avoid comments like ‘Great pic!’ or ‘Nice feed!’ that can be seen as coming from a robot.

Instead, include a question or some sort of meaningful response. At the very least, show some love with an emoji. Try to respond to comments within the first hour if possible, as this is likely to lead to more comments and, in turn, increase your post’s visibility.

Keep your eye on the prize

When using Instagram for your business — whatever your industry — your end goal should be to get customers to buy your products or services, not to increase followers. Sure, your initial aim might be to grow brand recognition or do more collaborations, but the overall aim is to grow revenue.

At the end of the day, the harsh reality is that your follower count is a vanity metric. Focus instead on measuring engagement and making incremental improvements as you go, and you’ll be well on your way to a strong, highly engaged account.

Courtney Goes is a Melbourne-based digital marketing and brand consultant with experience across a range of industries in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Since leaving the corporate world in 2016, she’s been on a mission to help women make smarter marketing decisions to elevate their businesses and personal brands through simple, effective strategies. Working mostly with creatives, freelancers, and female-owned startups and small businesses, she provides clarity, structure and accountability to get real, tangible results. She has also launched Marketing Emporium, a resource hub designed to provide simple and straightforward marketing advice. Contact her at courtneygoes.com