Somewhere along the line, every successful small business owner needs to take some chances.
This might include steps such as adopting a promising new technology, embracing an expensive employee training program or forging new relationships with potential partners.
But when it comes to creating social media marketing content for your brand, I think it’s best to take risks while still being yourself. Take risks that you feel comfortable with because they’re authentic to who you are and what your business is all about.
I’m not saying to play it safe by just going with what has worked for you in the past, or what works for the guy in the next town over. And I’m also not recommending you try to do something that you know in your heart doesn’t fit for you and your company.
Being yourself is being unique and different. It’s good to be different.
Different Stands Out
I just finished reading a great marketing book by Mike Michalowicz called, “Get Different”. In it he argues that your marketing pitch can make millions of dollars in a millisecond, if that millisecond grabs your audience’s attention, gets them engaged with the prospect of a new opportunity or benefit for them, and convinces them to act the way you want them to — by purchasing your product or service.
He calls it the D.A.D. marketing framework. Differentiate. Attract. Direct. It’s effective because the human brain notices what is different in an environment, instantly assesses whether it is a threat or a benefit, and decides to either run towards it or away from it.
If you can introduce a different marketing message than your ideal prospect has seen before, you’re on the right track. And if you can convince them it’s beneficial, you’re two thirds of the way there. The only remaining thing you need to do is tell them how to act.
In this blog I want to focus on the first part of his framework. Being different, because I built my business by being different and you can too.
Be an Expert
Having a successful company makes you an expert in something. If you own a landscaping business, your customers come to you because you know what you’re doing. You’re their landscaping expert! You should be proud to know how to install an automatic irrigation system. You should take pride in the tools you’ve accumulated that help you do your landscaping work.
In order to turn your expertise into marketing gold, just put your knowledge on display. Make videos that show you being yourself on a jobsite. Be the hedge trimmer hero. Make yourself into the drip line diva. Act as if you’re the artificial turf action star.
Making useful content doesn’t take a content expert. It just takes a subject expert and a video camera. Get a coworker to film you. Do some basic editing. Post often, and see what works. Once you can convince people you’re an expert, they’ll remember you when they need your services or product.
Make A Plan
In order to create your social media marketing content plan I want you to be yourself. Showcase your personality, your style and skillset so that people can connect with you easier on a human level.
Pick a topic you’d like to make your content about. For example, a Day in the Life of a Landscaper.
Then take a couple minutes to think about the steps that you’ve been so accustomed to doing that you don’t normally have to think about them. Write them out in a bullet list and then film each step. You could make several pieces of content by just going through your daily routine in detail and sharing your thought process.
Video 1 – How to Load Up Your Landscape Trailer Before Heading to a Jobsite
Video 2- A Landscaper’s Pick for Top Trailers
Video 3 – What I Want in My Next Landscaping Trailer
Video 4 – Don’t Do This 1 Thing When Loading Your Landscape Trailer
See, there’s four great pieces of social media content and you haven’t even pulled out of the driveway yet on your Day in the Life of a Landscaper series!
Your plan needs to include you. What makes you unique? Tap into it and stick to it.
Be Known for Being You
Actor and comedian Tim Allen has essentially built a whole career around the stand up comedy he wrote and performed about his own interests in the 1970s and ‘80s. His ‘Men Are Pigs’ routine and on stage persona plus his personal interest in DIY home improvement shows such as ‘This Old House’ exploded into an 8-season sitcom run on ABC in the ‘90s and he’s never looked back.
He was doing well as a touring comic, but ‘Home Improvement’ sent him to super stardom. He went on to play basically the same dopey, lovable father-figure character in two subsequent sitcoms, and on the big screen in several roles. You can even argue that his voice over in the Toy Story series, as Buzz Lightyear, is just a variation of the same man he’d been playing for years.
But in the 1980s he was the only one that was grunting like a caveman to solicit laughs about the differences between men and women while telling jokes about filling his garage’s pegboard with Craftsman tools from Sears. He wasn’t the first one to speak about the differences between the sexes.
It’s a topic as old as time. But he did it differently. He did it his way. If he can become rich and famous by being himself, after a stint in prison for trafficking cocaine, then whatever struggles you’re facing are certainly hurdles you can overcome!
Find Your Unique
The Las Vegas wedding industry is monstrous. It employs about 18,000 people and generates $2.5 Billion in economic impact for the city. But in 2016, when my husband and I got married on our own terms with a private outdoor ceremony at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, no one was offering all-inclusive luxury elopements or micro weddings. So we had to put it together ourselves, because it was what we wanted.
That’s how I found my unique. My Cactus Collective Weddings company now performs hundreds of all-inclusive micro weddings and luxury elopements a year.
What do you do that’s different? Once you figure it out, own it. Live it every day. Use it as the backbone for your marketing content.
If you’d like more help building your brand I encourage you to sign up for one of my monthly Content Creation Days. You’ll meet like minded small business owners looking for an edge in their marketing plan. We share ideas and help each other shoot videos and take pictures that will strengthen your brand’s identity by showcasing who you are! I can’t wait to see you at one soon.
