Our podcast of the month: Social Media Marketing Happy Hour

Keeping up with a busy schedule and staying ahead of the game at the same time, can be a little tricky for today’s marketer, and podcasts have become a popular way to get your marketing fix on-the-go. Subscribe to your favourite podcast and listen to episodes on your commute or when busy with other tasks.

This month we took a look at Social Media Happy Hour. The podcast covers everything digital, from social media, to emailers to content marketing and everything inbetween. The Social Media Happy Hour podcast episodes range from a few minutes to about half an hour and provide great insights into the current trends in social media and digital advertising, as well as how to apply them to your marketing strategy.

With 370 episodes, it’s hard to choose just one favourite! However, we have summarised two of the our favourite recent episodes so you can get an idea of what to expect.

Episode 365: 4 Components of a Solid Social Strategy

Says the podcast, “Too many businesses just launch into social without a solid strategy and that can cause frustration and limit results.”

• Understand your main business objectives. The main question here is, what are you trying to accomplish? Many brands leap into the deep end without trying to tie it back to their business objectives, or copy other

• Know who your target audience is. Who are you talking to? Says the episode, “You have to tailor your strategies to fit the specific audience you intend to reach.” This helps especially with segmentation and campaign tailoring.

• Understand your social content strategy. The crux of this point comes down to this: “If you’re not creating content, you can’t become a thought leader in your niche. And if you’re not a thought leader, it’s hard to be a leader in your marketplace. Most of us think we don’t have it in us to become a thought leader or an expert. But the truth is, we all have the capacity become that in our own space. In order for people to see and decide that you’re an expert, you just have to give them information that’s going to help them.” Strategise which content you’re going to put out, and why.

• Have a plan to measure your strategy. All platforms have some form of tools and analytics, so use them to measure your ROI, whether you’re meeting your business goals and if you’re engagement is up to scratch.

Episode 370: Email Marketing & Mistakes You Want To Avoid

Email lists

Two biggest mistakes marketers make:

• Failing to follow up on emails you send out
• Sending out the same email to the entire email list

The buyer's journey

Target the content to users in the buyer’s sales process

Be mindful of the buyer’s journey and create content aligned with each phase

Segment your lists into the following:

• Blog posts
• Email marketing
• Automation or tagging

List building

Make a list of subject lines for each stage of the buying process. You may think this is going to take forever, but once you have these bedded down, you’ll have topics and context for your content going forward.

Follow up emails are important

Follow up at least every 6 weeks

Publish good content and then email your lists to tell them about it

Cart abandon emails are another way to increase revenue - up to almost 30% of lost sales can be salvaged through follow up mails

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