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Author: ronwen1@gmail.com

  • Tips and Advice for Marketing your Restaurant on Social Media

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    When it comes to running your restaurant, marketing is usually not top of mind. Between hiring and training staff, running the kitchen and managing food costs, getting word out about your wonderful menu and restaurant often takes a back seat. But outside of the most popular restaurants in the area, you really HAVE to do some online and digital marketing to keep your business in the mind-map of the dining audience. I’ve pulled together a list of recommendations and tips to help you lay down a foundational program. My background with social media? About 10,000 followers on my food blog social feeds and I have managed B2B accounts with over 100k followers for a large Fortune 500 tech company. So here’s a quick primer on what to do and what NOT to do.

    Where should you be on social media to market your restaurant?

    Probably the two most important channels to be on are Instagram and Facebook. Why? Because Instagram lends itself well to food pictures and there’s already a slew of foodies and influencers on those channels to engage with. Heavily focused on imagery and simple text, Instagram is an easy way to deliver snapshots of your restaurant and business, online. Demographics for Instagram tend to be a bit younger, more heavily targeted to the 18 to 29 millennials.

    Facebook would be my next suggestion and given its seamless integration with Instagram, works well as a combination for shared social media. Content posted to Instagram is easily re-shared on Facebook given their common ownership. The main benefits of Facebook is its longer content format and more mature audience (25 to 54 age range) which I think is a better fit for a dining audience. I’ve also found that virality (re-sharing content amongst the audience) seems to be stronger on Facebook due to its large network.

    Twitter (IMO) is a bit more of a news oriented micro-blogging platform with less emphasis on visual imagery. So I’d consider it to be your third option for social media marketing. Snapchat is also another good option but tends to be geared for a younger crowd. So choose wisely for the time you have available! Also for your social media accounts, try to keep the name/handle consistent so people can find you easily.

    What skills do you need to run a social media account for a restaurant?

    Running a social-media channel is a multi-tasker’s dream (or nightmare!). They need to be part photographer, part videographer, writer, editor and Ms. Manners for what you’ll run into online. They need to have a good eye for images and the quality of images to be posted. Social is moving heavily toward video content and snippets so they’ll have to have a steady hand. They need to write up short, pithy and engaging words to keep your audience interested and also have good grammar and watch carefully for typos.

    And they’ll have to respond to occasional questions, attacks and uncouth behavior online and represent your business properly. And they need to do it all, real-time and now! While some of your social media can be scheduled, it truly is meant to be authentic and real which means sometimes you’ll need to just react to what happens in the course of the day (surprise closing/weather, daily specials, news).

    Who should manage your restaurant’s social media?

    Well there are probably several right answers here depending on your situation and how much money and time you want to spend. You can do it yourself as the owner-manager of your business who knows what he/she wants the social feeds to represent. But your time may be limited and/or social media may not be of any personal interest

    You can hand off the work to a staff member with an interest in social media and who will be onsite regularly for your business. Maybe a front of the house hostess or bartender may have a good eye and ear for social media content. Or you could hire an external PR firm who will certainly have stronger social media skills and tools but less of the intimate knowledge and content around your business. And of course you’ll have to pay them a bit to manage your social feeds and they will have to come in to your location from time to time, to grab images of your restaurant and food.

    In the end, I would recommend having at least one individual onsite who can react more quickly to what’s going with your business for your social feeds. An external social media manager is convenient but may not be as close or dedicated to your business as you’d like.

    What tools should I use to manage my social media?

    Since most of your social media will be handled off of a smartphone, I’d recommend a 1st or 2nd generation iOS or Android phone. Camera technology moves so quickly it makes having a newer phone to ensure high-quality pictures (iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel) a necessity.

    There are also a slew of social media tools to help you schedule, view and respond to social media posts and comments. Probably one of the most common is Hootsuite but this space is changing constantly. So certainly do some research and googling on what’s available out there. Often these social media tools allow you a freebie and limited version to try it out. If you’re focused on say 3 to 5 posts per week on multiple social media channels, you can see why it might be important to have a scheduling tool at your disposal.

    What type of content should you put on your social media?

    Most social media for restaurant should revolve around imagery and videos of your restaurants since they are the most easily digested and engaging types of content. And while food-ingredient pictures and the preparation of your food are probably the most popular topics, your business is so much more than that. Pictures of your staff in action, happy customers, your dining room and kitchen, details of your decor are also important.

    News and announcement around life at your restaurant (new dishes, new daily specials, changed hours, upcoming events and promotions) are also important and particularly good for longer format content on Facebook. I’d also toss out social media around your neighbors, activity in your area might also be fun. You’re part of a community and reminders of where you are and who’s around you is interesting and helpful.

    As you work and gain experience on social media, you’ll slowly develop a voice (funny, quirky, interesting) that represents your restaurant and hopefully one that engages your audience (generating likes, retweets, shares, etc). Just make sure to steer away from too much sassiness, political topics, etc which may isolate people in your audience. Words online can often get misinterpreted.

    Make sure you also use popular hashtags (#Subject/Topic) for Instagram and twitter. It helps make your posts and tweets more discoverable. And try to stay consistent with your posts, you want a regular stream of interesting content to stay top of mind. I’d say 3 to 5 posts minimum, per week. Preferably daily!

    What should I be concerned about on social media for restaurants?

    Well there’s a handful of gotchas to be concerned about. Angry customers are probably the biggest concern. Whether reasonable or not, keep the conversation civil and work to defuse and learn from the complaint. There may be a kernel of truth to it but I’d suggest responding quickly to the issue, offline and out of site to the public. There are some people who you can never please and they will be loud, please check out my Putting Poison to Pen post to see what you may run into.

    Separately, the role of influencers in social media. While you may want to invite some to a media event or invite them to try your restaurant, I would be careful here. The best social media and feedback comes from regular, paying customers so I’d focus your efforts here. There’s also been a huge increase within the influencer community around gaming. You can buy 10,000 followers for maybe $60 and even purchase likes/comments on your posts ($1 per 100) online. So it’s hard to tell who is really an influencer without knowing that person and their history, well. Gaming and cheating is particularly high on Instagram and probably the lowest on Facebook from what I’ve seen and experienced.

    So there you go, a quick overview on social media best practices for your restaurant. This business is constantly in flux with new tools and trends popping up so it certainly takes some time and effort to keep up with it all. But I can tell you that it’s absolutely WORTH the effort for the success of your business. Please check out some of my posts below which cover other topics important to social media and online marketing!

  • The Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Media and Online Marketing for Restaurants

    (Updated January 2018) Ok, so you’re a novice restaurant owner and trying to get your fledgling business off the ground. And you know it’s a challenge right? Estimates are that 50% of restaurants fail in their first three years and you don’t want to be in that statistic! And what about this social media stuff? How can I use it to market my restaurant and build my business? And how do I manage some of these online wacko’s who are out of control?! Well my friend, I know it’s not easy but here are some thoughts from somebody who’s online a lot when it comes to social media and food-restaurants. I’ve been in Marketing as a professional for over ten years and doing the online food blogging and reviews for much longer than that. Here are some tips and tricks that might help you out along the way…

    Your key online asset is of course your website! It’s the virtual and online introduction to your food, your service and your brand, don’t skimp here. Take a look at your competition because there’s a huge variety and diversity of websites and it’s worth your while to get it done right. Without the right branding and online presence you’re just creating an uphill battle. Shockingly, there are still restaurant owners who DON’T put up a website or give it to an amateur and it shows. Not a bright idea, given it may only cost $5 – $15/month for the hosting fees and platform, invest in all the content! Two very popular platforms for hosting your website are Squarespace and WordPress. Try them out to see which one fits your needs more effectively.

    Now that you’ve got a website, let’s work on the content for your restaurant! Well-edited copy, a sharp logo, well-chosen fonts and high-res photos will make all the difference for any business. Make sure up front you’ve got the address, hours and contact information front and center. A sub-page on the origins, story and people behind the business, a gallery of food and interior photos, a menu page and maybe a specials/events page, that’s it! And make sure the menu comes in an online format as well as .pdf for downloading and printing. It may take a bit more effort if your menu is changing but it’s worthwhile.

    If you’re in a busy location, add a Google or Bing map that’s been pinned with your EXACT location. A map is extremely important for businesses located in strip plazas and also for food trucks which move around. Be careful with your business names and oddball spelling, the trickier and less clearly your name is spelled, the more difficult it will be to show up reliably in online search. For example, Fugheddaboudit Pizza is way too complicated and challenging a word for most search engines.

    Once you’re online, you’ve got a presence that’s good for broadcasting what you’re about. Now it’s time for some social media to create a real-time, authentic presence. What I mean by authentic is that your website is polished and professional. It’s a first impression that’s meant to do just that, impress. I feel that social media is now about creating an emotional and personal connection to a business or person. It allows for back and forth, for real-time exchange of information along with more of an individual’s personality. Social media allows your updates and information to be shared out amongst your audience and ideally it drives them back to the mother-ship, your primary website.

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    And it’s easy since creating a business profile on Facebook is pretty simple. Share pics of the staff, daily specials, events at your restaurant along with the basic business information. It’s about having a bit of fun and personality now! While Facebook has a much stronger audience, be aware that your Google presence is getting increasingly tied to search engine results. And of course an instagram and twitter profile for short, pithy statements and pics, you can even integrate social media updates (re-use on multiple sites) but I’d try to keep the content fairly unique based on the channel. Instagram a great way to reach out to food and local bloggers. I’d also consider leveraging Pinterest and your images since it’s so easy to pin photos from a multitude of resources, simply and easily.

    And finally, online review sites! If you’re a new business, make sure you’ve got an entry on Yelp, Google and Facebook. Claim your business (or create your business entry) so you can keep up with incoming reviews and manage responses. Seed a handful of initial pictures but don’t try to over-influence the business entry, just get it started. And be careful with having friends and family write reviews. The social media savvy audience will pick up on seeded reviews and become suspicious. There are people (including myself) who spend a lot of time on these review websites and we don’t miss much. But word of mouth is a crucial piece of marketing for your restaurant.

    Let your product and service speak for itself and encourage your favorite patrons to write a review for you. Ideally they are active and prolific review writers, you may want to send an invite out inviting power reviewers to visit your place but don’t offer compensation. That’s against the rules most times. Check out the community guidelines if you have questions. If you’re a food truck, put down an address for a home-base. Even though you may move around it’ll be a lot harder to find your business entry and reviews without a “physical location”

     

    Now that you’ve got all your websites and social media running, you’ve got to manage it all. Fresh and timely content that shows off your business and your personality. Leverage all these online assets to broadcast your business but also get feedback and develop your offering. While not all opinions will be constructive or helpful you need to accept it all. There will be unreasonable and angry people online but even take their “feedback” with a grain of salt. Your goal is to develop a thriving business and while the feedback and criticism may be hard at times and maybe even a bit personal, for a business on the edge it may make all the difference in the world between succeeding and failure.

    Monitor your incoming stream of social media and reviews for any ways you can improve your business. Provide disgruntled customers a reasonable and timely response and no matter what you do, don’t lose your temper online! What you write often gets captured and re-tweeted forever. Don’t become the poster-child for an online media disaster and embarrassment. Some examples of local businesses that did not handle their social media properly would be Crumb Bakery and Downtown Sports Bar and Grill, just google them. Or the most infamous meltdown of all: Amy’s Baking Company in AZ. A perfect example of personalities gone wild and very difficult to recover from.

    So there you go, a short list of guidelines and best practices to help build your restaurant and your business from the customer perspective. Over the past six years or so of reading and writing reviews I’ve seen it all. Most people get it right but not everybody! And while most of the above advertising and marketing is mostly free, getting it wrong can be very costly. Don’t miss out when it comes to your online and social media presence because even the best food, service and restaurant can use a business boost online!

    List of Best Online Practices and Marketing for your Restaurant

    • Create a professional online presence with basic business info right up front and an online and downloadable, printable menu
    • Develop an eye for a strong visual presence with a professional logo, fonts and photos
    • Leverage social media pages to spread your business information out with multi-media and real-time postings
    • Engage with online review websites to monitor your online presence and extract constructive customer feedback
    • Use your overall online presence to cultivate your brand, tell your story and have some fun!

  • What do you say iPhone owners, time for a new relationship in 2018?

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    When it comes to your smartphone, it’s probably the most emotional device in your life. Emotional because you carry it around all the time, rely on it so much and have such a connection with that silly device. So after years of living with iPhones, I finally decided to take the plunge into the Android world in February of 2017. Why? Even though I owned four different versions of the iPhone and loved my iPhone 5S, it was just time.

    I had gotten tired of the short battery life and being tethered to a power cord all the time. I admired the thin and slim design but realized that the iPhone 6 had gone too far with multiple phone and screen breaks for me, even though I had none in the previous 7 years. The lack of a headphone jack and expensive power cables were just ugly icing on the cake for me. And my dissatisfaction came way BEFORE the recent news about slowing down the iPhone broke out.

    So after a lot of online research, I settled on the Samsung Galaxy S7 as a worthy replacement. Better specs on the camera, a battery that was nearly twice the size and a beautiful OLED screen that put the iPhone 6 to shame. And while it wasn’t as slim as the iPhone 6, who cares when you just end up slapping a protective case around your $600 investment.

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    It was with much trepidation that I clicked the “ORDER” button online to commit to my S7 and Android. And once the phone came in, a tremendous amount of angst trying to manueuver through the interface and operating system. After 8 years of learning and relying on iOS, it can be really hard. But learn you do! The extra Back button is actually cool. And the Close All Apps button on the left? Super useful, no need to keep extra apps running. Automatic backups to Google cloud is pretty awesome too. So after a hinky month or two of transferring contact information, music and apps over, it’s been pretty smooth sailing on Android for this ex-iPhone fanboy!

    I go back and occasionally use my cracked iPhone 6 and yeah, there are things I miss about it. The smooth scrolling, the stability of the apps and iTunes. But the Samsung Galaxy S7 does 90% of it as well as the iPhone and adds in the better screen, better battery and more durable build so it’s nearly a wash in a good way. They are both GREAT phones with slight advantages and disadvantages for each. But after nine months with the S7 I can assure you that the switch can be made successfully and you can start up a new relationship with Android. It won’t be exactly the same but who cares? You just gotta find what’s most important for you and appreciate it in your current partner. It’s already 9 months into my relationship with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the phone still looks brand new, the screen is as bright as ever and I still don’t have to worry about it shutting off.

    So whaddya say, iPhone lover? Time for a fresh new start in 2018? Time to consider moving to Android and a Galaxy S7? It’s probably easier than you think and I can tell you at the minimum that Apple may get jealous and start treating you, the customer, better…

    Sincerely,

    Ron W

  • Migrating TO WordPress from Squarespace

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    A while back I had posted some of the results and experience I had gotten moving my blog from WordPress to Squarespace. And it’s a painful process moving each individual post because it rarely comes over cleanly. While Squarespace definitely had a huge advantage from a design perspective, over time I realized what it could and couldn’t do, well. Flash-forward to October 2015 and I’ve decided now to move my blog BACK to WordPress. Given how much work any of these migrations are, why in the world did I feel compelled to take on this project?

    I had done my research on web hosting platforms and Squarespace had gotten good reviews online across the board as being very mobile responsive and SEO-friendly. Even Internet luminary Rand Fishkin had pimped out Squarespace as a great web platform so in I go. At $20 a month it was significantly more expensive than a good hosting account and your elbow grease but it seemed worth it. I did my migration in February of 2015 and it was pretty painful. While I was able to pull over the text content, images and pictures were tricky and I had to re-insert them after the fact. And there were some additions I needed to make around social media sharing and rich snippets to get micro-data into my posts. That being said, I was able to get 95% of my WordPress functionality and features into Squarespace which had the additional benefit of lower maintenance and expertise needed.

    But over time, I noticed the organic traffic for my blog went flat or dropped. I had expected a drop when I migrated the domain name and platform over to Squarespace but historically, my blog had increased traffic year over year for the previous three. I hoped that after a 3 month transition period, the organic traffic would pick its momentum back up and move forward as expected. Unfortunately, it never materialized even though I rebuilt all the features and tuned the blog for SEO as best I could. Can I point to any specifics that prevented my blog growth on Squarespace. Not in particular but that’s what makes SEO black magic and an art. I don’t think there are MANY people who really know EXACTLY what to do because the rules are constantly changing as is your audience (market). But in general, I do believe there are best practices and it primarily works around putting out great and relevant content.

    So in October 2015 I decided to move my blog back to WordPress after 10 months on Squarespace. And my goal is to keep it on WordPress! However for my WordPress 2.0 efforts, I did have some learning points to grow from. I purchased a professional template from Studiopress and Design Palette Pro which would give me many ease of use tools for the blog. There were definitely some learning points from Squarespace that revolve around responsive design and my goal was to have the best of both worlds: a fully customizable blog platform with a great-looking, well-designed blog framework that was relatively easy to use and maintain, phew!

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    But I am so glad to be back on WordPress! The migration process is still going on a year later and while it’s been painful, the future looks so much brighter on WordPress. I’ll be covering Squarespace to WordPress migration challenges and hurdles in a future post. But now that I’m back on WordPress, Google seems to better understand my website (see above SERP results) and I’ve added in some great features through the extensive WordPress plug-in library. Here’s to more and better moving forward!

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  • Add Balance to Your New Blog Through SEO, Design and Content!

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    Like most marketing disciplines, launching and maintaining a blog is an act of balancing different needs with limited personal resources: your time and your brain-power! Do you spend your energy on writing content, improving design and usability of your blog platform or work on SEO and search engine needs? The answer as it usually is in marketing is: all of the above! But it really depends on where you are in the blogging life-cycle.

    Over the past 8 years, I’ve probably written over 1,200 posts for my blog, my work blog and online communities. So as you can guess, I’m all about content. Without engaging, well-written and informative content, it will be hard to earn an audience. But the reality is that your focus as a blogger and marketer, will depend on where you are in the blog life-cycle!

     

    For example, when you’re launching a blog, you have to initially focus on design and usability. The goals range from choosing the proper platform (WordPress, Squarespace, WIX, Tumblr, etc) to choosing a template. And the best way to choose a template and look and feel for your blog is to go check out other blogs! Visualize and imagine the type and variety of content you would like to produce and how you would like it presented. Because in my experience, once you’ve chosen a template, it’s never quite that easy to move to different templates, something always breaks. And changing platforms? Ouch, that’s a huge undertaking even with decent migration tools.

    Now that you’ve got your platform and template, you’ll need to pick through the options for color palettes, fonts, text sizes, menus and more. You’re tuning your blog and brand presence to make it engaging and intuitively user-friendly. Think about a new reader hitting your blog, what’s the first impression they get on visit #1? And how do you encourage them to poke around and learn more about your content? It’s all about creating an engaging online brand presence that will clearly define your expertise in your chosen topic area. The goal is to give your reader an immediate understanding of your expertise and reassurance that you truly can help them learn more about that topic

    Ok, you’ve got your platform, template and you’ve established a brand presence, now you need to start organizing and/or creating content. Whether you’re talking graphic images, logos, blog posts, quotes and more, you’ve got to start producing! Keep your content topics and themes pretty narrow to begin with as you start to establish your blog voice. Create a list of potential topics to write about and to get the wheels going, start drafting some pieces. You’ll find that your writing and blogging only gets better with time and practice. Hopefully you’ll eventually get into a writing rhythm and have lots of good content drafts with supporting quality graphics and images to show your expertise to your audience. And keep them coming back!

    The next step after you’ve created a great online brand presence and started to create your content stream is to bring in organic search traffic. Most likely, a substantial portion (over 50% of your blog traffic) will come in from Google, Bing and Yahoo for users looking to learn more about your topic. The obvious goal is to rank on the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to maximize visibility and click-through traffic.

    You can create clickability by writing a pithy and catchy SEO title and description for your posts with use of engaging key words. This SEO specific meta-data is often written separately from what your reader will see ON the blog. You can also add micro-data/rich-snippets that will make your post stand out further with author information, a rating and much more. Search engines are focused on delivering the highest quality content and articles to their users. So your goal is to attract new followers and offer that helpful content once they click through. Ideally they are also sharing your content out to their friends and colleagues. Search engines are increasingly looking for social signals that your content is valuable! Social sharing, time on page, lower bounce rates and overall website traffic will help your posts rise up on SERP.

    As you can see, there is a lot of work beyond just creating content and posting. While your core responsibility is to put out great content for your readers, better design and usability will engage readers more effectively and help them get value from your content. Tweaking your content for SEO means it will become more visible on search engines and once you deliver a great content experience, you will increase the visibility of your posts.

    And that’s how you create a virtuous marketing cycle! Use SEO to maximize the visibility of your blog and content online, design a blog and website that’s easy and engaging to use, and then create great content that educates and assists readers. Ideally you’ll create a loyal readership that will help spread word about your website through social media and sharing which will improve your search engine rankings to bring in new readers.

    And that’s not the end of it. Once your website is launched, you need to continually refine all of the three elements above when time and need dictate. Question and challenge yourself. Are you keeping things interesting for your reader? Are my graphic images engaging enough? Is my writing fresh or is it getting stale? Can I improve the menus and organization of my posts and information for readers? Can I maintain or increase the visibility of my posts on search engines when they change rules and algorithms on their side? The best way to improve your online presence is to see what other bloggers and content creators are doing online, there’s always room to improve!

    I can tell you first-hand that creating great blog content and keeping your readers engaged is a never-ending commitment. And it’s a fun ride to deliver great and useful information to your audience on a regular basis. But in these days of online and digital marketing, the skills to engage your audience and influence them is a huge challenge but extremely rewarding. Respect your audience, write high quality content for them, make sure it ranks high on search and I’m sure you’ll do great with a loyal readership!

    Ron Wen

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen

  • The Marketer’s Dilemma- A Tidal Wave of Technology

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    In the world of professional marketing, time is typically one of the most limited resources. From customer meetings, sales enablement to competitive analysis, creating messaging and positioning, there’s no end to what a marketer can spend their time and energy on. But in the last 10 years, as marketing has moved to increasingly digital channels, our world has exploded into a tidal wave of technology. Platforms for marketing automation and a variety of other online marketing tools are becoming key revenue drivers for companies. Which recently prompted Gartner to make a very controversial prediction: By 2017, the CMO would out-spend the CIO on technology!

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    Regardless of which side you fall on in that discussion, there’s no doubt that digital technology and channels are disrupting the way marketers engage and qualify prospects whether you’re talking about the B2B or B2C world. And as professional marketers rely on increasingly digital campaigns, it requires a whole new skill-set that not all marketers are prepared to master. Nor do they necessarily have the time to master! Given all the day-to-day activities and full calendars marketers typically have, how in the world are we supposed to keep up with the quickly evolving technology landscape?

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    chiefmartec.com, a marketing technology blog has a fantastic graphic illustrating the diversity and breadth of vendors out there in this discipline. By Scott Brinker’s estimation (marketing technology blogger), there are over 1,800+ vendors in 43 categories, which is absolutely breath-taking. With the rapid growth of the marketing technology business (IDC estimates 12% CAGR growth and a $30 billion plus marketing technology industry by 2018), the ecosystem of companies in this technology segment range from big-hitters like Oracle, Salesforce.com, Adobe and Teradata to small start-ups.

    And how does that busy professional marketer know where to even start when evaluating or learning about today’s B2B digital marketing? Especially when they’re already up to their neck in work and meetings?! That’s a fantastic question but I do think this widening gap between marketing tools and the expertise to understand and utilize them presents vendors a fantastic opportunity to educate their future customers. Hubspot and Marketo have already jumped in heavily on content marketing initiatives to educate and train their marketing audiences on the best digital marketing practices today. It’s the right thing to do for their customers and also the right thing to do for their organizations. Without the necessary digital expertise you may wind up in a marketing dead-end, see Adobe’s take on the marketing dilemma below!

    And while this tidal wave of technology can be intimidating, professional marketers willing to get on top and ride this technology wave are positioning themselves, their careers and their organizations for the future. Even if you’re not a master of marketing automation or online marketing tools, you really need to understand the basics of how they can streamline and provide better decision-making in your marketing campaigns and strategies. And that is a requirement for everyone from the individual contributor to the CMO. Because while there are still questions as to whether the CMO will outspend the CIO in 2017, there is absolutely NO doubt that online and digital marketing will only increase its impact on the marketing profession for years to come…

    Ron Wen

    www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen

  • Squarespace versus WordPress

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    For those of you heavily invested in blogging, the natural platform of choice is WordPress.  Free and easily customizable, WordPress gives you so many options in terms of creating the look, feel and functionality of your blog and website.  But after four years of managing my SMB blog which gets about 8,500 unique visitors a month, I moved over to Squarespace in April 2015.  And for the most part it has gone well with some caveats.  My goal was to have a simpler administrative experience so I could focus on content which is what I got.  But that wasn’t without some drawbacks on Squarespace.  Here’s how I see the two platforms…

    Squarespace

    Pro’s 

    • Easy to learn and use with an elegant interface
    • Visually well-designed templates, good for high-quality images
    • Built-in content delivery network with fast page-load speeds
    • Responsive design for our mobile visitors
    • e-Commerce engine and shopping cart built-in
    • Contact forms built-in
    • Automatic software updates that have gone through QA, easy to manage

    Con’s 

    • Migration tool decent but imperfect, will require lots of hand edits to move over
    • No SEO description or title easily available for blog posts.  Impacts clickability of posts showing up on search engines
    • Social sharing limited and flat, recommend use of add-on
    • No media library, must upload image multiple times for re-use
    • Presentation of blog posts and drafts is columnar, not tabular.  Not easy to navigate with a large number of posts

    WordPress

    Pro’s 

    • Thousand’s of hosting options available at different companies, prices
    • Ton’s of template options but of varying quality
    • Huge library of plug-in’s for additional feature/functionality
    • Ability to get “under the hood” to edit your pages and posts
    • Easier to manage a large number of posts
    • Great statistics and metrics available as part of platform

    Con’s 

    • Steeper ramp-up to learn interface and capabilities of platform
    • Need to update platform regularly and potentially break parts of website
    • Great choice of plug-in’s but of varying quality
    • Getting responsive mobile version to work properly can be tricky
    • If CDN needed, must manually add for heavy traffic websites

    In the end, Squarespace is an excellent blogging platform for the price but just be aware of its limitations. If your website is image-heavy and you need an online store, Squarespace is an easy choice. However if you’re more about text content and SEO results are crucial for you to drive traffic, WordPress may still be a better choice. The ability to leverage WordPress’ vast library of plug-in’s to get exactly what you need and edit the blog post under the hood is a powerful advantage.  There’s no right answer when it comes to your website and blogging platform, just be aware of what you get and what you give up!

    Ron

    www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen

  • Content Marketing’s Soft But Firm Push to Sales

    Recently I got into an online discussion on LinkedIn about content marketing and it revolved around, what IS content marketing?  It’s a pretty simple concept and haven’t we been doing it forever?  And it’s a legitimate question so for clarity’s sake I wanted to give you my definition of content marketing:  

    Content marketing is offering customer-focused, value-add content (whitepapers, articles, webinars, videos, services) that introduces a potential customer to your organization, your expertise and indirectly, your product line.  

    Content marketing is not about a direct product pitch and serves to engage and warm up a prospect before they even start down the buy cycle. It’s also a indirect form of brand marketing because the prospect establishes a relationship and understanding of your organization without necessarily, a specific product or even brand pitch. 

    Where I think content marketing can be most effective is for purchase cycles that are long and infrequent.  You know a marketing professional may be evaluating marketing automation technology but it’s not that frequent.  So you keep them engaged with value-add content that indirectly tells your story and establishes your expertise.  Here’s an example of a content marketing email I received from marketing automation specialist, Teradata!   With a 2015 marketer survey as their content bait, they are establishing digital marketing expertise without pitching the marketing automation solution.  

    When I marketed Microsoft and Red Hat training it’s often not enough to tell prospects that you offer great training and expertise.  It’s even better to SHOW them you offer great training and expertise.  I offered up whitepapers, blog posts and webinars from industry experts to help them learn technology.  So of course when you’re ready to take a more formal training class, I would expect to be top of mind.  Content marketing is a strategy and tactic that takes some patience but it does pay off.  The periodic chart of content marketing (from eConsultancy below) is a great way to visualize the breadth and spectrum of potential content marketing and how it can drive your business!  And noticed how I shared out their valuable content creating a viral, marketing pitch?!  

    The Periodic Table of Content Marketing, by Chris Lake.

    The Periodic Table of Content Marketing

    It all goes back to my adage: do what’s right for the customer in all phases of your business: operations, marketing and sales.  All your usual product marketing (product sheets, FAQ’s, customer success stories) assets are still crucial but your overall story gets enhanced and extended with content marketing.  Content marketing fits neatly into that expectation by giving customers what they want to hear and know, not just what you want to tell them.  Establish a trusted relationship first, then the sale will follow…  

    Ron Wen

    www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen

  • Marketing Zen: When Marketing Doesn’t Even Feel Like Marketing

    When does marketing not even feel like marketing?  When it’s really well-done content marketing!  Have you ever looked at content marketing strategy from the prospect perspective? I’m talking about companies that do an exemplary job of content marketing to you or me, the professional marketer! And when I think of really effective content marketing, two companies immediately leap to mind:  Business Insider and Hubspot… 

    If you’re not familiar with Business Insider, think business website with marketing services and advertising as their revenue stream. In addition to their business news website, Business Insider runs extremely effective email newsletters and campaigns around their internal content and curated content. My Business Insider emails are a welcome reprieve in my daily activities and I’d say I open 90% of their emails. Business Insider emails are usually a mix of news and entertainment for both business and personal growth.  

    And what Business Insider does so effectively is every now and then, they slip in a sponsor message and/or offer.  Given how much value they’ve given me, I usually open up those emails too! They’re clearly marked as sponsored emails but they still get extra attention from me. Business Insider is clearly aware of effective content marketing and agrees with my content marketing mantra: educate, entertain and inform. And it doesn’t have to just be your core topic area, you can get a bit off-topic but still keep your audience engaged. The content stream from Business Insider is SO valuable, you’d nearly pay for it which is an impressive marketing accomplishment. In the end, when you’ve got a targeted and engaged audience, you can try all sorts of different content but still get the desired results. 

    Another effective example of content marketing is by no surprise, an inbound content marketing company- Hubspot! While their audience is much more targeted to professional marketers, they are a content engine and marketing machine. From webinars to templates, articles, infographics and more, Hubspot is one of my favorite resources for B2B marketing ideas and inspiration. Turn over your email address, download that .zip file, and voila, instant lead.  

    And while I’m not currently a customer, I guarantee that the next time I’m in a decision-maker or influencer role for inbound or content marketing in a future organization, Hubspot will be evaluated as a possible option. Again, given how much value they’ve provided me over the years, I’m curious to see how great a company is with their customers given what they’ve done for a non-customer, me! Their content stream establishes authority and expertise, it also shows their high service levels and raises expectations for their audience.  

    Think about the purchase cycle for a marketing automation solution. It’s probably at least a 3 month evaluation process that comes maybe every five years or so. Unless you’re a marketing consultant you are not likely evaluating marketing automation solutions regularly. So how and why does Hubspot want to stay in your mental mind map? Lots of high-value content marketing with an eye towards a potential pay-off years from now. Now that is some SERIOUS and committed content marketing, eh? 

    If you look at your own life from both a professional and personal perspective, I’m sure you’ll recognize other effective examples of content marketing and the same feelings and perspective that I have about Business Insider and Hubspot may ring true for you. So if you ever doubted the value of content marketing, think about the companies that are currently engaging you and how they do it. I think you’ll find that great content marketing barely feels like marketing. It feels like doing business with an old friend that you trust and believe in…  

    Ron Wen

    www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen

  • Buyer Personas by Adele Revella- Book Review

    (Re-posted from my LinkedIn page)  Buyer Personas continue to be a hot topic for marketing professionals and Adele Revella’s new book on Buyer Personas sheds a light for those of us looking for clarity.  While discussions with your sales reps and internet searches are a good start, a truly effective buyer persona hinges on one key action: getting in front of your customer and interviewing them.  

    Having just finished reading Adele’s Buyer Personas book, it breaks down this crucial and insightful marketing research into four very digestible sections for the busy professional.  

    1. Buyer Persona project launch- Getting organizational buy-in and recruiting individuals who have considered and/or purchased products and services in your area of interest for interviews. Who to recruit and why to recruit them is also covered.  
    2. Buyer Person interviews- The hands-on qualitative interviews that are key to developing buying insights. The goal is to have an unscripted conversation that allows customers to tell their buying journey with no judgement or bias.
    3. Buyer Persona interview mining- This key phase is all about recording the words and buyer focal points into categories and developing the key insights that your organization will act on. You will also identify how many buyer personas you will support.  
    4. Execution on Buyer Persona Insights- This final phase is all about prioritizing key buying insights, getting buy-in and acceptance through your organization on these insights and injecting them into your sales and marketing operations.  

    End goal?  Develop 5 Rings of Buying Insight for your potential customers.  These insights revolve around: Priority Initiatives, Success Factors, Perceived Barriers, the Buyers Journey and Decision Criteria.  To summarize these 5 rings, we are talking about what motivates an organization to start looking for a solution, the personal or organizational benefits of the solution, why they may not consider your solution, how and who was involved in the purchase of a solution and finally, what specific attributes moved them to that decision. 

    Adele also covers developing Buyer Personas for global organizations, new product launches and supporting product development.  All of the guidance in this Buyer Persona book has enough flexibility to accommodate the reality of your marketing organization.  

    Over the course of reading Adele’s book and re-reading it, several key themes come through clearly. The need for product marketers to listen carefully, providing valuable information and assets to customers on their buying journeys and  developing trusted relationships. In the end, it’s all about a shift for marketers to truly represent their customers at your organization’s table and in the conference room.It all just reminds me of a quote from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: ‘If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we’ll turn out all right.’ And that customer focus is key throughout all phases of your customer interactions, from product to marketing to sales.

    If you’re interested in taking a serious dive into Buyer Personas, you’d be remiss not to check out the book written by the woman who developed buyer persona curriculum for Pragmatic Marketing. Read, learn and enjoy this new take on modern marketing for the 21st century…  

    Buyer Personas by Adele Revella on Amazon.com

    www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen