By Susan Guillory
As I was cleaning my retainers this morning, grumbling about how I hated doing it each and every day, I started thinking about why we have routines. Day in, day out, we do a million things exactly like we did the day before. To what end? In my case, it’s to keep my teeth straight (believe me: I tossed my retainers as a teen and ended up with braces as an adult. I understand the benefit now!).
In marketing, there are certain routines that you need in order to keep your brand in front of potential customers over time. You can’t simply do a few tasks and be done. Here are some of the routines you need for successful marketing.
1. Consistent Blog Content
A blog is kind of like a puppy. You get one because it seems like a good idea, then you look to the unforeseeable future and realize you’ve got this thing for life. How the heck will you feed it? What will you write about?
Having a blog gives you so many options when it comes to content marketing. And it’s a great way to connect with people who wouldn’t find your brand any other way. But to provide value, you need to publish a regular cadence of content. That might be once a month or once a day, or somewhere in between. Consistency gives people expectations about the frequency they can expect informative content from you.
2. Regular Social Media Updates
Yes, social media can be a time suck if you let it. But the opposite of spending every waking moment updating your business profiles is being so sporadic that you turn people off. If someone visits your Facebook page and the last update was 8 months ago, what impetus is there for that person to follow you or come back?
You don’t have to publish every day (though I am in favor of it), but you do need to get into a schedule of publishing regularly. You can use the scheduling feature in Facebook or a social media dashboard like Hootsuite to schedule updates and shares in advance.
3. Planned Email Newsletters
If you publish an email newsletter, do you do so whenever you remember or have time? Or do you adhere to a schedule, such as the 15th of every month? Again, this is about managing expectations. If people know you send a newsletter mid-month, they will look forward to it, and they’ll be more likely to open it.
A note on email: Make sure you’re not sending too many emails. These days, daily or even weekly emails are getting ignored or sent to the Spam filter, so look at your open rate to determine whether you’ve got the right cadence. If your numbers are low, try sending emails less frequently.
A little routine and consistency in your marketing can have big results. If you have trouble keeping track of what you need to do, put it on your calendar.
