OPTIMIZATION FOR BEGINNERS

Digital Marketing is a godsend for small business, but you are leaving something on the table if you don’t take the time to optimize your tactics. Optimization can be complicated but doesn’t have to be at the entry level. It really means “look at your results and see how you can do better next time.” Let’s take a simple example using social media posts to illustrate the steps to optimization.

3 EASY STEPS

Step One: Look at your recent biz social feed for the last month. Which post received the most response? Which post received the least?

Step Two: Think about why. This is the core to optimizing anything. Sometimes the answer “why” is obvious. In which case, resolve to put this new found knowledge to work when creating posts. For example, if showing a “Behind the Scenes at your business” post received three times as many interactions, plan to do this type of post at least once a month going forward. 

Step Three: Other times, it is not obvious and we need further information to reach a conclusion as to “why.” In this case, we can keep running similar posts to gather more information over time. For example: If a recent new product launch post generated little response, let’s try a follow-up. Let’s change the photo but nothing else, and run it again.  Which post performed better?. 

If that doesn’t work, let’s change the copy. If you originally focused on the products benefits, this time talk about its “easy to use” features. You get the idea. You will know you have optimized when you start to see better results. 

As you grow in your marketing skills, you can start doing actual AB testing. For now, get in the habit of constantly asking “why”. This is one example but you can try optimizing with all your marketing tactics. Wonder what your first call to action button should be on your website? Don’t belabor the decision. Try it for a while with one wording and then change it to your alternative for a similar time period. Which lead to more clicks? Wonder which photo to use on your email newsletter? Try 1/2 of your customers with one and 1/2 with the other. Which worked better? 

In general, get in the habit of asking “why” even if you don’t actually devise a test. You will be ahead of the game!