Do You Need To Measure Sales When Looking At What Marketing Works

Tell me, have you heard about branding? I feel like branding is one of those terms we hear a lot, as business owners. Branding is extremely important, but the reason why I talk about branding is because there is a question that I often get asked – is sales the only factor you need to look at when deciding whether or not a marketing channel is best for your business? 

The short answer – no. The reason why is because you have to develop brand awareness. As small business owners we’re not going to be able to put a product out into the world and expect people to start buying it without some understanding of who we are as a brand/business. As small business owners, it’s important to establish brand awareness, so our products can be easily found and identified. And, that means you’ll need to be present somewhere. Sure, you may not want to spend all of your time on TikTok, or Reels, or YouTube, but in order to establish brand awareness, you will need to show up somewhere.

Now, let’s say you’ve established a decent following on Instagram, but you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed by the thought of using video, or you’re starting to feel like you’ve plateaued and you’re not sure how to continue growing your audience, like you were able to do in the past. Does this mean you should jump ship and abandon Instagram? No, because people are still going to be looking for you on that platform. So, even if you choose to post less frequently, you will still show up on the platform and still continue to retain some relevance.Maintaining a social presence can also be beneficial when it comes to your search results. When someone searches for your brand on Google, your Instagram or Facebook account are likely to come up.

So, is sales the most important factor when it comes to determining if you should spend all of your efforts on a certain platform? No, but it does determine how much effort you want to put into that platform. If you notice you are gaining a lot of followers on a specific platform, or generating a large number of sales from a specific platform, you may want to focus more of your efforts there. This doesn’t mean throwing your other accounts in the trash. Instead, maintain those accounts. Maybe Instagram was a great platform for generating sales in the past, but has slowed down recently. Continue to post and engage with your followers, even if it’s on a less consistent basis. The platform could perform well for your brand in the future.

You can also repurpose content. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the need to produce new content on a regular basis, try repurposing content. Maybe you’re creating new content for TikTok. Take that same video, or caption and repurpose it to Instagram. Maybe you had a Facebook post that generated a great deal of engagement in the past. Try repurposing that post to engage with your Instagram followers. You don’t need to repurpose content everyday, but repurposing content 2-3 times a month can help you maintain your engagement and keep your accounts relevant.

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How Can Stock Video Help Your Small Business

This week, I want to talk to you about Styled Stock Video. Did you know, I have a stock video shop? I started creating stock video for myself out of necessity. I just didn’t have the time to play with TikTok, or focus heavily on making Reels. I began filming video clips when I had certain models, who were already in the studio working for me, and I started making video clips of various motions and things they were doing. This allowed me to create a small stock shop. I created my Styled Stock Video because I wanted a place where I could share the videos I was making for myself, so that other people who felt overwhelmed by video had another option.

1. Using Stock Video Helps You Fight Burnout

When you think about how many videos you want to post throughout the week, it can begin to feel overwhelming. If you’re a service-based business, trading time for money, or a product-based business, working to fulfill orders, it can be difficult to think about the time and energy required to create, capture, and share well-curated video content on social media, in order for your account to stay relevant. Using stock video will allow you to share your message, stay relevant, and avoid burnout.

2. Styled Stock Video Gives You an Alternative Solution

I collaborated recently with iRemix and HotStock Shops because they are also providing stock video options to their subscribers. By doing this, they are helping to identify what works best for businesses/brands. Stock video also provides an alternative option for business owners who are facing burnout, or looking to better streamline their processes.

3. Stock Video Makes It Easy To Use Video

Stock video allows you to easily plug videos into Reels, TikTok, etc., just like you would with stock photos. Stock videos also provide a fun way to create movement and share content that is appealing to viewers. As your audience is scrolling through Reels, they are looking for content that catches their eye. They want to engage with content that is interesting, or intriguing. Applying stock video allows you to promote products/services, introduce giveaways or discounts, and engage with your audience in a fun and effective way. This means you can more effectively expand your reach, engage with your current customer-base, and grow your business.

If you’re interested in my Styled Stock Video, I have created a FREE tutorial that shows you how I take graphics, photos, and stock videos in order to put together a collection of curated content. With my tutorial, I also give you 3 Styled Stock Videos for FREE. This season, I truly want to provide you with an alternative option for your business, so you can feel less overwhelmed and feel more confident about showing up online with video content that allows you to connect with your audience.

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3 Things Your Business Marketing Needs

Dealing with an account hack can be an overwhelming and tricky situation to deal with. For businesses that rely heavily on social media, experiencing an account hack can affect your business and sometimes, even result in the inability to recover your account.

It’s important to have more than 1 avenue to grow your business. If you’re reliant on 1 avenue, what happens if someone hacks your account? Where do you turn for your holiday sales? Where do you turn to connect with your audience?

Today, let’s talk about the 3 things your business marketing needs, and look at why it’s important not to rely 100% on social media for everything you are doing in your business marketing.

1. Have More Than 1 Avenue to Connect with Your Customers

If you have been turning to social media platforms to build your audience and connect with customers, but you’re now looking for a way to pick up the momentum, you need to have other channels in your sales funnel to get additional customers. That means looking at other social platforms, like Pinterest, which is now making it easier to promote your services, tag your products, and drive traffic to your website. Maybe you’ve been successful on Instagram, but are now looking to repurpose your content and begin sharing on a platform, like TikTok. 

Pro Tip: Don’t try to do 5-7 different things all at once, especially if you’re a small business owner. Instead, choose 1 or 2 other avenues that you can use to share repurposed content. This will give you an additional channel for connecting with customers and offer another outlet for funneling those customers to your website, or email list.

2. Be Focused on Seeing Results & Give it Time to Work

Growing your following or customer base on a social platform usually doesn’t happen overnight (okay, yes, there are those crazy instances where an account goes viral, or gains a massive following in a short period of time). For the majority of businesses though, growth and exposure will take time. That’s why it’s important to make sure you have an action plan in place and then give it time, so you can evaluate whether or not your plan is working for your business. It’s important to remember that in order to see results you must show up consistently, put out engaging content, and stay connected with your audience. You can experiment with the type of content you post, when you post, etc. 

Pro Tip: Make sure to measure your results in 30 day, 3 month, and 6 month increments. You can then determine what your sales look like, what your engagement looks like, and whether or not your action plan is working well for your business and generating the results you want.

3. Follow-up!

You can set up an amazing brand – I’m talking about a beautiful website, great marketing on Instagram, and professional photography. But, without followup, it’s difficult to get results and grow your business. Followup is huge! Where are your customers/audience going after they first interact with your brand? Are you capturing them? Are you giving them additional offers? 

It’s important to make sure you have a strong followup plan. You’re spending time, energy, and money, driving traffic to your website, connecting with your audience, and advertising your products/services, and that means you need to followup with them. Capturing and nurturing your audience will allow you to eventually grow your customer base, and ultimately, grow your business.

Pro Tip: The holiday season is an excellent time to capture and nurture your customer base. Make sure you are directing your audience to an email list, additional offering, etc. You can even think about offering a special discount code that can be applied to products in future months. 

Looking to optimize your marketing efforts? Not sure where to start? Let’s get started with a consult call to discuss your unique brand and how Crystal Clear Creative Studios can help you expand your reach through strategic marketing that is tailored to your business.

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