You’ve been at this social media gig for a while now. You have posts scheduled every day with awesome captions, and everything is published at peak times. You’ve got this.
But wait…
Why you aren’t seeing any engagement on your posts? How come your sales haven’t skyrocketed yet? Is that crickets you can hear when you open your inbox? Isn’t social media supposed to work wonders for your business?
Before you throw in the towel and give up on social media completely, allow me to introduce you to the Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule as it’s more commonly known.
The 80/20 rule has been a successful balancing strategy in the marketing world for eons. But when it comes to social media marketing for your business, it’s the cardinal rule.
Here’s the gist of it.
80% of your posts should be useful, informative, entertaining or inspiring.
20% of your posts should be promotional.
People come to social media to be just that – social. They don’t come to have the hard sell shoved in their face every time. More commonly, they’re on social media to connect with the people behind the business before they make a decision about whether to purchase from that business or not.
It’s been proven businesses on social media that focus solely on their own gain will very likely lose out in the end. If you’re only publishing “buy my thing” or “use my service” posts, your audience are going to lose interest in following you… and fast.
“Those who ignore the 80/20 principle are doomed to average returns. Those who use it must bear the burden of exceptional achievement.” – Richard Koch
Publishing content your audience is interested in, and happy to engage with, helps to build up the trust they need before they are comfortable making a purchase from you.
So, what does this type of content look like? Here’s a quick rundown of a method that has worked well for Bright Light Marketing in the past. Let’s take one working week or 5 days. 80% of that week is 4 days and 20% is one day.
Monday: Share an inspirational or motivational image.
With a landscaping client, each Monday we published a photo of a hot trend in landscaping to inspire their clients to want to recreate the same thing in their garden. The images for this type of content are usually taken from Pinterest but full credit is always given to the owner.
Tuesday: Revisit an old blog post.
If you have a blog with posts already published, you are sitting on a gold mine of content already. Once a week, do a quick update of any information that is required and re-share the post. Ask a question of your audience in relation to the post, just to see if they were paying attention!
Wednesday: Mention your product or service.
Now it’s time to get your promo on! This post could be used to highlight any special offers, discounts or current promotions you have running, or you could simply link to the Products/Services page of your website. Be sure to always include a call to action!
Thursday: Write a new blog post.
The more content you can get on to your website, the better. This not only helps with your SEO, it gives you more fodder down the road to re-share. Writing a blog post doesn’t need to be difficult. Nobody knows your products or services better than you do so why not write about them!
Friday: Share something fun.
Friday has that casual vibe about it, wouldn’t your agree? Friday is a great day to share something fun you found online, such as a viral video or meme. Don’t get too crazy though – make sure it relates in some way to your business!
Remember, the people following your business on social media want to be able to relate to you in some way and if you can create that connection, your business will greatly benefit. If you’d like to learn more about this rule or the type of content you could use, contact Bright Light Marketing today!
Objective
This client wanted a website that was…
Strategy
Execution
Results
Within the first two weeks, this website was ranking on page one of Google for terms like ‘chinese food mackay’, ‘asian food mackay’ and ‘chinese restaurants mackay’.
