Now, basically, we have to adapt to change constantly. But in 2017, it’s all interesting because 2018, it’s all going to change again.
Now, quite often, these changes in the modern era, you know, in this modern era of modern marketing and the online world and a shifting pattern of, of short attention spans, it’s…what’s happening is just an enhancement of what’s already there. But, of all the choices of what’s already there, what’s important?
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So, the first thing I would tell you in adapting to change is photography. Now, very simply, I personally don’t, it’s not, I don’t enjoy. Now I can’t say I don’t enjoy photography but I just can’t be bothered. It just doesn’t appeal to me.
I will go to places and look at something fantastic and then completely forget. I could have taken a photo of it. And because I’ve got an iPhone, I’ve got an iPhone 7, and the camera on this is better than any camera I ever had as a kid or as an adult.
No matter how much I’ve spent on them in the past, these things are brilliant.
But photography, there is no excuse now. On your website, on your social media, your images are what’s going to attract attention.
I do not have the figures, you can Google it but there are plenty of figures that on Twitter, tweets with an image get something like 30% more engagement.
On Facebook, it’s the same, on Instagram, and they will all figure… Well, Instagram, you can’t do anything else, of course. But they’ll all figure.
So, everyone else is starting to do this, so yours have got to stand out. Now, that doesn’t mean that you have to be an expert photographer, but it does mean that you got to keep up; it does mean that you need modern photographs.
You can take them yourself; you can dip in your pocket. Come on, you tight-wart, dip in your pocket and pay a photographer to do it.
Remember, photographers are professionals, they know how to do this. They can advise you. You can book them for couple of hours; they can come out to a site; they can do multiple shots in one go. All these things, right down to the website, of having the portraits, the images of your stuff, or just of you.
What does your LinkedIn image say about you? Is it professional? Is it? Is it just you, you know like this, head, or is it you and your dog or your cat, or once when you went out and got plastered one night and someone took a photo and that’s the only photo you could find? Be professional.
You don’t have to take your own, for your website, you can go to sites like UnSplash or Pexels and all these.
If you look up on, if you go to www.marketingforowners.com, in a sidebar, there is a search box, if you look for “free images”, I’ve got a couple of posts there about loads of places where you can get images – royalty free images for free that you are allowed to use.
Please, do not take images from other websites and mine. Do not take images from Google Images, that’s not what they are for. Those are owned; somebody has put some effort in, don’t steal them, you know.
Next one, I did mention social media; you do need to step up your social media, me too, all of us. We need to be getting more engagement. Social media is not just about being there, it’s about getting people engaged.
Talking to people, it’s not just for some show of figures, ‘Oh, I got ten thousand followers!’ It’s not for that. It’s to actually talk to people and to engage with your current clients, with your past clients, and with your future clients, and potential future clients. That’s where you going to do it. It’s free, so step it up.
If you don’t use social media, find someone in your company who does. Perhaps, someone younger. Someone who does. There are many people; it’s quite popular, don’t you know? But there are loads of social media.
You don’t necessarily need to be on Snapchat. I’m not on Snapchat, I don’t even know how to use it. We don’t use it for work and we’ll not be using it for my any of my businesses –Pinterest is of no real help and Instagram is no real help.
On others, LinkedIn is the best. So, you need to step up. These things change, they update, they are trying to stay ahead.
They are trying, Facebook is trying to stay ahead of the people like Snapchat or ‘Run it along’ and all these kinds of things.
So, you need to keep up with them. Make sure you know what’s doing. Get yourself on a course or get someone else on a course. These kind of things; this is change.
Quality over quantity. Years ago, when I used to set up a website, when I first started online, I used to do affiliate marketing and what I do was: Have one hundred articles written, all about every single version of a particular subject and then put it up on a website and we would attract attention through the search engines.
Well, those search engines, I mean, this is back in 2004, those search engines are smarter. Whether it’s Google or Bing, those who have noticed, Bing copies everything Google does or so it seems.
So, they are almost as clever as Google now, but all of it, they are smart, smarter than you can ever know. They are getting the closest to artificial intelligence. You think it’s all cars and robots and things, these guys, their algorithms are amazing.
They want quality and so do your readers. Instead of putting out a post a day, put out a fantastic post once every couple of weeks or once a week.
Instead of just putting posts on your latest news, put it on LinkedIn, put it on Medium and send them back to your site because they have gazillions more people looking at those sites than you will ever get. But keep up with the changes, you don’t have to post on your own site.
Seriously, look at LinkedIn, posting on LinkedIn, and look at posting on Medium. Just, If you, I’m not going to explain what Medium is, Google it, okay?
Just to let you know, the bloke who started Google, F. Williams started blogger, pretty much invented modern blogging and also started Twitter. So, safe to say, Medium’s pretty cool.
And then, another thing, in the change, think of what works online, then do it offline. Because as people cut costs, accountants of big companies are convincing companies to bin their direct mail catalogue and to put an online catalogue on because all these super bits of software. But nobody wants to read those online things, they want a real catalogue.
So, you may have notice in your post, that a lot of these catalogues have shrunk down to what we call in the U.K A5 or in America, I don’t know what you call it, half letter size?
And instead of being great big thick things, they are just sixty pages or forty pages. How about doing one of those for your own business?
How about sending out with every package, so people know what else you sell. All this kind of stuff. Just adjust to change. Fill in the holes where everyone else is leaving. Gosh, it’s windy and cold here; why is that? Oh, but anyway, there’s lots to do. Adapt, adapt, adapt!
And the other one is in changes, change and update your goals. Change and update your budgets. Change and update what you measure and yes, you should be measuring. Please, do these things. It’s really going to help. So, enough.
Drive Time Podcast
It is Thursday, it is time for a Drive-time podcast. Now, if you have never heard of Brendon Buchard.
The guy is a giant. He is like, he is like a hyped up Tony Robbins. I’ve actually seen Brendon live on stage in his earlier days, the guy really is great.
He’s got one of the most infectious smiles and he hasn’t got hundreds of teeth like, like Tony Robbins, but he’s got great story, he’s got millions of followers.
Anyway, his thing is called, ‘The Charged Life’. Brendon Buchard, you got to be listening to him and remember I said to listen to Nate Hagerty tomorrow, it’s going to be good. You’ll love it. I’ll be back soon.