Saskatoon’s Chapter of IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) held a “Lunch n’ Learn” today with a hands-on talk by local award-winning technology strategist, Katrina German.
Katrina’s talk featured digital strategies to use to “pitch your idea and yourself,” even if your boss isn’t a tech convert or believer.
She took as starting point that we can authorize company spending more effectively, if we can show that the time we spent creating the content for yesterday’s Facebook posting reached 600K readers, or that our email open rates were twice that of other governments in North America.
“This isn’t rocket science,” she said, emphasizing that we need only choose what metrics to track, plug them into spreadsheets, identify the company/organizational goal and align ourselves (and our personal goals) with that goal. So what does “our boss” want? Often it’s to reach more people and increase revenue.
Some straightforward tips she shared:
(1) Google Keyword Search: Go into Google Ads and use its Keyword Ad Planner to do free market research. Do a potentially deep-dive search by altering the order of your terms, by searching according to different locations, etc.
(2) Google Analytics: Often our “best friend,” because it provides useful stats about what’s happening on your website. You can also pull from it to compare which social media sites are performing better for you. What clickthrough rate does a platform provide to your website? Who is reading about your company and converting to sales for you? Try changing the topic of content you search by, for further insight.
When you identify a goal for your marketing work, align with that goal, do your analytic research and you’ll have the content to make visuals (presentations) that even a disbelieving boss will follow.
Other digital tools Katrina recommended:
(3) Ad Parlor—target and identify audiences similar to your existing subscriber list to ensure you’re reaching your ideal audience.
(4) Facebook Creative Hub: allows you to preview ads (in mockups) for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
(5) Photofeeler—where you can submit your photo to be judged on its likeability, credibility and expert status. (You can also judge others’ photos there).
In addition to plotting out spreadsheets with the results from the above providers, Katrina suggested these strategies for measuring and reporting success to that hard-to-convince boss or funder:
(6) Hootsuite–compare results for usage and engagement across all social platforms.
(7) Hashtags (keyhole.io)–a free version allows you to run a hashtag for a week to measure interest.
(8) Vanity Metrics—these don’t necessarily mean your reach is that wide but can be impressive to see.
(9) Visuals—ol’ fashioned spreadsheets and similar documents can display stories of your numbers for non-tech readers to appreciate.
There are also more “sketchy” strategies—such as “Nacho Analytics”—that enable you to view your competitors’ analytics. (Buyer beware.)
Some content works better in certain platforms than others. For instance, Katrina mentioned that Snapchat ads are easy but using content there can be tricky.
(10) Saskatoon’s Insightrix reports detail Saskatchewan usage rates for various social platforms that can assist you in researching and sharing your presentations.
If you’re a small business owner or CEO, do you have to convince yourself of the validity of your digital platform use? Which of these strategies will work best for you?
Please write in; I’d be delighted to hear from you.