Aprel Phelps Downey

Wife • Mom • Business Owner • working to keep it all together with the help of chocolate & coffee!

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The big moments. The small moments. The great moments. The not so great moments and everything in between. It all comes together to tell your story!

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Learn from failure instead of letting it defeat you!

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Actions will always speak louder than words!

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Never let anyone make you feel that you’re anything less than amazing just the way you are!

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Write your content in a way that addresses the issues your audience faces.

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Do you struggle to create marketing content? Look for my new blog post this Friday giving you 5 crucial tips to help make your content stronger.

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Celebrate and remember those who make sacrifices to keep us safe!

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7 Tips to Becoming a Content Marketing Pro

As a small business owner, you need to seize every possible opportunity to stand out in the crowd. Content marketing is one way that you can differentiate yourself from the competition. It helps you showcase the level of expertise you possess for the products or services that you provide. It helps capture the attention of potential customers and shows loyal customers why they choose to do business with you in the first place.

Creating new content to share with your audience on a consistent basis can be a daunting task to undertake. You may not have adequate resources in place or simply be able to find the time in an already jam packed day to devote to content creation. Having the right tools in place can help you stay at the top of the content marketing game in your industry.

Here are 7 tips that can you create a content marketing strategy that works for you.

1. Know Your Audience

Before you can start engaging in content creation you need to understand your reading audience. You would not attempt to drive a car without first learning how the vehicle operates or cook a new meal without consulting a recipe book first. Approaching content marketing is no different. You need to have a valid understanding of who will read each content piece you create before you write one word.

Creating a content piece that focuses on five ways to go live on social media will lose its purpose if your reading audience has no clue what social media is in the first place. For that reason, you need to take time to identify the members of your target market audience and find out the topics that interest them the most. 

Look at the issues that are weighing on their mind or the industry aspects they are struggling with and figure out how you can address those issues. Cater every piece of content you create to that audience and you will work to establish a loyal following that will begin to trust in the information that you share without question.

2. Launch a Business Blog

With a target marketing audience on board it is time to launch a business blog. That blog will serve as your initial publication platform that your audience will turn to as you begin to share the content you are creating. It also serves as an advertisement tool for your business by giving you the ability to link back to relevant blog content pieces as you engage in conversations and other promotional activities online.

By doing so the traffic your blog receives increases, which allows your brand to reach different segments of your target market audience that you could not encounter otherwise. Potential customers in that audience gain exposure to your brand and learn why you are the only viable option to solve the problems they face.

3. Strive for Quality Over Quantity

Each content piece you create needs to add value to the audience’s experience with your business. Doing so gives you an authoritative position within your industry. Your audience will start to see your expert level of knowledge on the topics they care about the most. You become their primary resource for industry information when questions arise within your industry or misunderstanding occur with your products and services.

For that reason, your content marketing practices will be more successful if you focus on providing quality content as opposed to quantity pieces. Your audience will find more benefits in receiving four new content pieces each month that furthers their knowledge on a topic or resolves an issue they are facing than they will in ten new content pieces that address irrelevant topics. When you give them quality content pieces that they find value in, they begin to trust you and want to do business with you. 

4. Revamp Older Content Pieces

As you start consistently producing new content pieces and publishing those pieces to relevant industry platforms, potential customers will start coming in contact with your content library. You will start to notice that older content pieces are getting attention alongside recently published articles. That presents you with the opportunity to breathe new life into older content and give the pieces a fresh, new look.

Find the top performing content pieces and elaborate on the information or take a different approach on the topic. Use the content as a basis for an e-book that you can make available as a free download in exchange for their email address. Your audience receives a valuable resource and you work to build your email subscription list. It’s a win-win for both parties.

5. Create a Core Content Piece

Consistently creating content can quickly become a daunting task as other business relevant issues begin to draw your attention away from writing new content. One way to prevent these interferences from getting in the way of your audience receiving new content is to have a core content piece ready as a go-to resource when you are short on time in the creative process.

The core content piece can be anything that is lengthy enough to give you the opportunity to pull smaller pieces of content from to create new articles. You may have an e-book that is currently available by email subscription only. You may also have an ultimate guide article on hand that gives in-depth information on a topic that is a common issue within your industry.

Any extensive content piece that you have in your office is suitable for use as a core content resource. The only requirement is that it be something you can use to easily create smaller content pieces that still add value to your audience’s experience with your business.

6. Identify the Right Publication Platforms

Creating valuable pieces of content is only half the battle in running an effective content marketing game. You also need to have ideal platforms from which you can share that content so that it reaches your target audience in an efficient manner. There is an overwhelming number of different social media platforms that are available as publication options for your content.

Start by picking two or three platforms where your audience is the most active. That allows you to actively engage in conversations with potential customers, industry influencers and other audience members without spending extensive amounts of time online. It also ensures that your content is getting into the hands of people who have an interest in what you are sharing. As you become more familiar with where your target market audience spends their time online, you can easily add more platforms to the mix.

 7. Add Visual Appeal

A valuable content piece expands its engagement factor with the addition of visually appealing photos or video clips. These visual aids help to capture the attention of your audience and draw then into the story at hand. As they scroll through their social media news feeds, an engaging picture is enticing enough for them to stop scrolling and open your content piece.

Giving your content piece visual appeal also works to prompt your audience to share that content with their social media audiences. That extends your reach into a market segment that would not occur if you fail to incorporate a visual aid into the content.

The only rule of thumb when giving your content piece visual appeal is to use media elements that are relevant to the topic you are covering.

A Final Thought

Engaging in content marketing can be difficult at first. You need to have patience and understand that there is a learning curve in mastering the art of sharing relevant content on a consistent basis. It will not happen overnight as it requires a significant amount of research to pinpoint where your target market audience spends the most time online. You also need to understand what topics interest them the most. Stick to the plan and before long, you will be an expert at content marketing.

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3 Keys to Building an Authoritative Online Reputation

Your small business reputation hinges on the belief or opinion that others hold about the products and services you offer or how attentive you are to the needs of your customers. A bad service review from one disgruntled customer does more damage to your reputation than 10 positive customer reviews. Potential customers gravitate to that one negative experience and wonder if they should chance engaging with your business. It could end up being a hassle for them.

You now run the risk of losing potential customers to the competition. For that reason, you need to establish a fierce online reputation for your small business. You want to create a reputation that is so strong potential customers will instantly choose you over your competitors, even if you have a bad review under your belt.

Here are 3 key ingredients that can make that happen.

1. Share Valuable Content When you create a new blog post it should do more than just be something new for you to promote. Talk to your customers, online and in person, to learn about the issues they are facing. Listen to the things they are struggling with and then see how you can help. Create content that provides your audience with options, even if those options fall outside the line of products or services that you provide.

You may think that by doing so you’re pushing customers right into the hands of the competition. It’s quite the opposite actually. Your audience will appreciate your willingness to share all available options with them. It shows you care about more than just making a sale. You become a business they can trust. Customers remain loyal to trustworthy businesses. To build that authoritative reputation, you need to consistently publish meaningful content and share it across your social media channels.

2. Actively Participate on Social Media There is more to social media than just keeping an eye on the competition. You have a greater opportunity to engage in casual conversations with your target market audience. Doing so lets you see the things that interest them as well as learn what they find frustrating or irritating. Likewise, your audience gets a chance to learn about the person behind your business.

Take off your business owner hat for a moment and chat with your social media audience like you would with an old friend over a cup of coffee. Share a funny moment from your day. Post a random thought that pops into your head as you're staring out of your office window. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through in the posts that you share. It sets customers at ease when they need to approach you and can be the starting point to the customer relationship building process.

You also need to consistently post relevant content that expands the level of knowledge customers have on industry trends or the products and services that you offer. They begin to trust in the information you provide and you become the only viable option, in their eyes, to solving issues or answering questions. Before long, your customers will share their positive experience with everyone they know. Unfortunately that also means that unhappy customers will share their experience as well.

3. Acknowledge Customer Reviews Modern technology gives customers the opportunity to share their feedback on an interaction with your business before they even leave the building. Therefore, it is essential that you keep a close eye on customers reviews and maintain a general idea of where your public perception stands at any given time.

To do this you need to acknowledge all of your customer reviews, even the bad ones. Word of mouth travels quickly in the digital world and one bad review carries more weight than 10 positive reviews combined. When a customer leaves a review on your business, that individual just wants to be heard. Maybe there was a miscommunication at some point or a sale didn’t quite go as smoothly as possible. When that happens, make an effort to address the situation and make things right.

On the other hand, another customer may feel that you exceeded expectations when delivering a product or service. Feel free to mention that customer by name in a social media post or place their positive review in a prominent place on your website. It adds value to that customer’s experience while showing that quality customer service is important to you.

Final Thought Building an authoritative online presence takes time. Work to always add value to the experience others have with your small business. Keep an active presence on social media  through engaging conversations and content sharing. Show customers that there’s more to your business than just profit margins and let your actions speak louder than words.

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How You Know It’s Time to Outsource Your Marketing

You are an expert at what you do for customers in your industry. These individuals look to you for guidance when facing issues or problems weighing on their mind. You know the products or services that you offer like the back of your hand. For the most part every aspect of your business runs like a well oiled machine. All that changes when you attempt to run a marketing campaign.

Whether you have a new product or service to announce or just want to expand your reach within a particular segment of your target market audience, trying to pull everything together opens the door for frustration to set in. You want to throw your hands up in the air and just walk away from marketing anything all together.

Don’t give up just yet as there is still one more option on the table. It will, however, require you to step outside of your comfort zone a little and hand over the reigns of your marketing to someone other than yourself. As with anything else in your business, there is an ideal time to start outsourcing your marketing needs. Knowing when it’s time to make that move is your key to success.

Here are 5 indications that it’s time for you to outsource your small business marketing practices.

1. Your Marketing Campaigns Are Ineffective When executing a marketing campaign, you can easily overlook one essential detail or another, which derails the campaign before it begins. It is not an intentional act on your part. As a small business owner you are often pulled in several different directions throughout the day. For that reason, it can make picking up a marketing campaign where you left off a difficult task to achieve. As a result, critical steps are missed while others are poorly executed and your end result is an ineffective marketing campaign.

Outsourcing your marketing ensures that every detail is accounted for and executed in the proper order. A marketing campaign starts with a brainstorming period to determine the overall objective you want to accomplish. From there it moves on to creating a plan of action, running sample tests to determine which market segment will be the most successful and finishes with taking the campaign live. The benefit you receive is having marketing campaigns that are more effective in reaching your target audience than going it alone.

2. Your Marketing Practices Are Time Consuming Running a business is time consuming. Trying to execute marketing campaign from an in-house standpoint is extremely time consuming. Your marketing team needs to come together to brainstorm ideas, pinpoint the ideas that will work and start putting everything together. Before that can happen, something draws your attention away from the project. Now the campaign is in limbo or in danger of being shelved because you just don’t have the time to give the final approval on all the decisions your team needs from you.

By outsourcing your marketing, you are able to take the time constraint pressure off of your plate. Each marketing campaign receives the necessary attention while also being able to incorporate the latest trends for your industry. Problems and issues that arise are handled without requiring any extra time on your part. Your biggest benefit is gaining the time to focus on future non-marketing projects that work to grow your overall business.

3. Your Marketing Campaigns Have a Small Scale Focus Your small business is something that is near and dear to your heart. For that reason, you tend to over-analyze everything that comes across your desk. Although that approach plays a part in making your business successful, it can be detrimental in terms of your marketing campaigns. By fixating on the smaller aspects of a campaign, you run the risk of not being able to see how the bigger picture impacts your business. Although these elements seem important at the time, they have little to no impact on the overall objectives you are looking to accomplish with your marketing efforts.

Outsourcing your marketing gives you the opportunity to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. You remain invested in the project, yet that level of involvement is not from an over-analytical point of view. You start to see how the smaller marketing aspects feed into the larger campaigns to create an end result that increases your customer base and brings potential customers in contact with your business for the first time. You learn how different marketing strategies change the direction of a campaign at any given time. In the end, you learn what it takes to make your business grow and evolve over time.

4. Your Marketing Costs Are Over Budget Running a small business is not an inexpensive adventure. At times it can seem as if everywhere you turn there is a new expense popping up or something coming in way over budget. Marketing is one of the key areas of your business where you are likely to always spend more than you anticipate. Each campaign requires you to pay for staff labor costs, printing and advertising fees and other relevant fees that are essential to bringing a campaign together.

Continuing education expenses are another essential aspect of your in-house marketing team. These courses allow your marketing staff to stay on top of the current marketing trends in your industry. Knowing these trends and having staff that can execute them is part of what makes you a competitive business. However, the cost of sending your team to these classes factors into your overall marketing budget as well.

Outsourcing your marketing helps you reduce those in-house expenses. You still carry marketing expenses on your financial records, however, the overall amount will be significantly less than electing to keep an in-house marketing team. The costs of continuing education and other relevant expenses becomes the responsibility of the marketing agency that you elect to use for your business.

5. Your Marketing Results Are Disappointing You have an image of who your ideal customer is and what it takes to make that person happy. It is easy to tailor other areas of your business in a way that appeals to your ideal customer and brings that person to your front door. Marketing certainly helps you accomplish this task, however, your efforts are disappointing to say the least.

You try different things, thinking that the overall approach you select might be the reason marketing campaigns are irritating. Nothing happens. You read about the latest marketing trends for small businesses and think one of those may be the answer. The results from these efforts are either non-existent or disappointing to say the least.

Outsourcing your marketing services will create campaigns that produce profitable results. The stress and aggravation that you feel from throwing random ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks disappears. By placing your marketing expectations into the hands of a qualified individual, you gain the assurance in knowing your ideas are coming together in a more effective manner. You start to run campaigns that see positive results and spend less money in the process.

A Final Thought Placing any aspect of your small business into someone else’s hands can be a difficult move at first.The best course of action you can take is to find the individual or agency that feels more like an extension of your business as opposed to an outsider with no clue how your business functions.

Be willing to invest the time in letting the outsourcing company get to know you, know your products or services and become familiar with your target market audience. Doing so opens the door for potential customers to come in contact with your business, which works to positively impact your bottom line in the near future.

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The Secret to Building a Small Business Brand

Facing off against the fierce competition of larger corporations when fighting to attract the attention of potential customers can be a daunting task as a small business owner. The best asset that you can bring to the battle is a strong, personable small business brand. Doing so showcases the values that your business stands on and highlights what sets you apart from the competition.

Your target marketing audience will begin to identify your brand as one they can easily approach, which makes them want to do business with you instead of the larger corporations in your industry. You become the only viable option to solve an issue or resolve a problem in the eyes of potential customers.

 Here are four essential ingredients that you need to build a strong small business brand that will having you standing out in the competitive crowd.

 1. Utilize A Quality Headshot

The lifeline of your small business begins and ends with you. As that business grows, so will your presence within your industry. Potential customers and competitors will begin to recognize your business upon hearing your name come up in a conversation or seeing your picture in an industry publication or other relevant media format. For that reason, it is essential that you have a quality headshot that will serve as the public image for your company.

You want to select an image that showcases your personality while still presenting a professional image to the community. Utilizing a personal photo taken at a social event, family gathering or other similar environment is acceptable for a headshot. However, you want to avoid using an image that may be inappropriate or gives off an impression that differs from the one you are trying to establish.

2. Find Your Competitive Edge

When potential customers search for available options to solve a problem they are facing, your company will appear alongside several other companies that offer similar solutions. At that moment, you have one chance to capture their attention and prompt them to visit your website or contact your office for additional information. Therefore, you need to have a clear idea on what exactly it is that sets you apart from the competition. When you know what that factor is you can better present your small business to potential customers needing the product or service that you offer.

 A great starting point for identifying your competitive edge is to answer the following questions:

 ·      Who is in your target market audience?

·      What problem does your product or service solve for that audience?

·      How can you set yourself apart from the competition?

 Every business offers a unique approach to a common problem that a target market audience faces. Your business is no different. There is something that you offer or an approach you take that differs from the competition. Think about what you bring to the table that no one else in your industry can offer. That will be the key to identifying what your competitive advantage is and then you can use that competitive edge to market yourself and begin to build a strong brand image for your small business.

 3. Maintain an Online Presence

Consumer research indicates that approximately 89% of consumers utilize the internet as a resource when making purchase decisions of products or services. That makes it imperative that you have an online presence for your small business. Doing so gives you the greatest potential of having potential customers interact with your business and seeking out your services to resolve a problem they are facing or fulfill a desire that they have in mind.

You may initially think that a Facebook business page is sufficient in accomplishing this task. While having that in place is a good idea, it fails to provide you with the ability to customize the information that appears. Facebook allows you to present basic details about your business such as contact information and hours of operation. Outside of that, you can’t educate potential customers on your level of industry expertise or the products and services you offer.

 A better approach is to create a professional website for your small business. Start by picking a domain name for your website. It should be unique to your business yet something that customers can easily remember as well. Customers will enter the domain name into their website browser to arrive at your homepage.

 You will find the website setup process easy and possibly even fun, regardless of your technological capabilities. There is a wide range of website development companies, such as WordPress or Go Daddy, that walk you through the setup process and provide a selection of different layout design that you can use as well. Within a matter of minutes you can have a visually appealing website in place that’s ready to attract the attention of your target market audience.

 The heart and soul of your website will be in your content creation. That content is what potential customers will read while they are determining whether to do business with you or move on to the competition. You can decide to create that content yourself or hire a freelance writer who specializes in website copy to create the content for you. Likewise, there are marketing specialists who offer web design services as well if you’d rather have someone else create your online presence for you.

 4. Be Active on Social Media

The last essential tool that you need to build a strong brand image for your small business is establishing a social media presence. As you start joining the world of social media, avoid creating a profile on every available social media channel that you come across online. You need to take some time to identify two or three channels that your target market audience uses the most and start there.

 As you are setting up each account have the same username across the board. Doing so works to build up your online credibility and makes it easy for potential customers to find you regardless of what social media channel they are using. Provide links to your accounts in a prominent location on your website and include the information on your business cards as well. When everything is in place, you want to adhere to a consistent posting schedule that keeps your accounts active. Always try to be more social than promotional on your social media accounts. It makes your business more personable as your followers can easily relate to the information that you share.

 A Final Thought

Building your small business brand will not happen overnight. You need to have patience and perseverance as you work to get your name out there. Take a genuine approach in getting to know the people who make up your target market audience and the ones who influence your industry trends. That will help establish a personable brand that customers will feel comfortable engaging in business with and competitors will begin to take seriously.

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Taking a few extra steps to protect your website content gives you peace of mind in the event someone tries to steal your content!

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Sometimes you have to do what others won't to attract the attention of potential customers!

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Consider outsourcing your marketing to make sure every detail gets the attention it deserves!

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You'll find success with social media marketing when you know who's in your audience and what they need from you!

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Knowing what not to do with your social media marketing campaigns can make the difference between success or failure!

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Knowing when to outsource your marketing is an essential part of your small business!