If you are debating whether or not you should pay to boost a social media campaign, or if another email blast will help your marketing strategy then this post is for you. Marketing in 2018 is anything but re-ordering business cards and sharing a post from Instagram to Facebook. It’s about creating value, building social proof, and working with the new media of the digital age.
Digital Age: The strategy for marketing in our digital age takes hard work. This approach is different from the traditional idea of marketing. Brands nowadays are people, called Influencers. This is not about regular marketing, it’s about personal brand development. It’s about knowing who you are as a person and creator and understanding how your content influences other people. Being open and honest and being truthful about your content will take you farther than pushing a sale.
If you didn’t catch this point already, traditional ways of marketing are not going to work.
Building Your Social Proof: Social proof is based on psychology. This means when someone is uncertain in situations or when they are looking online, they assume that the people who have been here before them. So experts, friends, celebrities influence behavior.
Social proof is why when we are choosing to hire a social media expert to help us, that we choose the one 100k followers than the one who is a start-up with 1000 followers. This means we trust the crowd or trust our friend’s decisions.
You want to approach your marketing strategy by building your social proof.
Working on your credibility, authenticity, and gaining true followers needs to be your goal. This is also a good reason why you should avoid buying likes: promotions and boosts. Bought followers don’t engage – they don’t comment, they don’t advocate for you, and they don’t buy your art.
Give, Give, Give, then Ask: Everyone is asking all of the time. Buy this, order now, sign up, now! You stand out by giving because nobody is giving. Stop asking. Marketing in the digital age is all about giving.
Approach your marketing strategy from a giving perspective. When the time is right, you will switch your approach from giving to asking. Through giving, you build your social proof and provide value.
After you use this approach, when its time to ask your audience to buy or sign up, they follow through and support you.
Strategy: If something is easy and takes a few minutes, you are going to end up in the bucket of 99% of people who are also choosing easy marketing. Learn strategies and spend time making quality content, good marketing materials, honest material. Anyone can click their Instagram and share it on Facebook, that’s an easy marketing strategy. But easy techniques like that are not going to add value. Every other person is also trying that strategy to “gain followers.”
Instead of focusing on numbers of likes or followers, switch your approach to good quality content with value.
Adding Value: Let’s start with a value metaphor…Think about your physical mailbox. You often shuffle through a bunch of junk mail, advertisements, credit card offers, coupons just to find that letter from a friend, item you special ordered, or check in the mail. You are looking for the mail that has the most value. Those other junk-mail items end up in the garbage.
Now apply this metaphor to your marketing strategy. What are you going to do to prevent your marketing materials (email, postcard, or item) from ending up in the trash?
Before you send something out:
- Ask who cares?
- Why would someone want to keep this content, read this, or share?
- How am I adding value?
New Media: Learn the latest marketing techniques. If everyone is on Instagram and you don’t have the skills, then you need to spend the time learning how to build that platform in an authentic way and create real content.
While Facebook, Instagram, and audio media, like podcasts, are the hot ticket digital age medias now, in the next few years it will be something else. Jump on the bandwagon and get all in when these media present them
Authenticity: Nothing is quite real online. Fake news, trolls, and altered images are everywhere, but authenticity with branding is important. People are seeking the real. Creating an artist brand around who you are and why you make art will drive more sales than the physical product. For example, it’s great if you make awesome art, but it’s you are rude and unresponsive, it shuts down that authentic thread between you and your audience. Empathy and gratitude are key ways to connect to people, so you need to create the entire package.
Work on yourself as much as you work on your product and your marketing; authenticity is important in the digital age.
Creating Your Content: Spend more time on the creative content, and spend less time on the quantity of content. You need to be pushing out quality material, (remember with a giving, not asking, approach). It’s not about how to place an ad, how much to spend on promotions, or how to make a business card. It is all about the quality imagery and messaging the ad says and adding value. Spend time taking photos, crafting the right message, and being authentic.
