Marketing is a combination of art and science. Today digital marketing offers so many ways to market your company the key is to know how to use the best platform for your best results. In order to create a profitable marketing strategy, you need to know the mistakes so you won’t fall for the mishaps and cause your marketing to suffer. Here are 4 mistakes to avoid in your marketing strategies.
1. Targeting Everyone
Most people want everyone to know about their product and end up targeting no one. When you know and target your audience, you know their needs; therefore, you can easily customize your product or service to make it a perfect fit for them.
You will boost sales by focusing on promoting it in the market to make sure it’s appealing to your customers.
2. Not Measuring Your ROI
ROI helps you recognize marketing campaigns that aren’t helping you reach your goals. Once you know this KPI, you can modify and reassess before any significant damage is done to your business.
To measure ROI, first, you need to ID the goals you deem as success. It can be click-through rates, sales, or traffic. By measuring the results, you will know how much you have earned on the total investment.
ROI is the financial gain from your investment and subtract the investment cost, divide that by number the total cost of your investment. Keep track of this, and you will know how well your marketing is performing.
3. Not Retargeting Your Abandoned Customers
Not engaging with abandoned customers is another prominent mistake marketers make in their marketing efforts. These customers are people who have already engaged with your brand, and they were on the verge of purchasing before bouncing. This means they already know about your products, company, or service. This is a huge accomplishment, but typically visitors do not convert in the first visit to your site.
With retargeting, you can quickly bring them back to your site, and it gives you another chance to convince them to accept your offer. These campaigns are easy to create and cheap to run. You can offer ads lower-in-the funnel because the customers are already brand-aware, so your ads could have a more prominent CTA.
Retargeting is an effective way to reach your goals and can be added to your marketing strategies
4. Overlooking Email Marketing
Email Marketing is one of the best ways to personally reach your customers, market your product, promote an offer, talk about an upcoming event, and announce a new launch; all these communications will help boost conversions.
Email Marketing is the one medium that offers the opportunity for you to interact one-on-one with your new and existing customers to arrive in their inboxes.
Even when you are not marketing your business, you can nurture relationships by personalizing the messages and segmenting your email list to help ensure the most effective message to the best audience. So, if you thought email marketing was dead- you are sadly mistaken.
By knowing these mistakes, you can now easily avoid them and make your marketing more effective and successful.
If you need help with your marketing strategies we can help. Email us today for 15 min free consultation.
All right, everybody, welcome back. This is your host, Shannon Maverick of the Maverick of Marketing podcast. And today, I’d like to say we have the queen of branding herself. We’re going to be talking about all things personal branding and why it’s so critical for marketers and just professionals in general. And the branding queen I’m referring to is Ms. Jamie Kernohan. She is the founder of GVC Marketing and she’s also a part-time content marketing consultant and alumni career coach for McCombs School of Business at UT Austin. So Jamie, thanks so much for being with me today.
Hi Shannon. This is great. I’m so excited to be here.
Perfect. Well, let’s kind of start simple.
If you wouldn’t mind, could you share a little bit about your background so the guests could get to know you a little bit?
Sure. I love the title queen of branding. I love that. Perfect. So I’ll get started. Just to give you a little background about me. I come from all facets of marketing. I have an undergrad in communications from the University of Texas at Arlington, and I started agency side. I’ve been around Dallas in many agencies, Tracy Locke, Bozell, some that I don’t think exists anymore, RP Alpha, True North. I’ve worked on clients from Dillard’s to Pepsi, Subway, Chevrolet, Honda, Acura. I had a lot of great exposure to all kinds of different products and how they were sold. My primary role at the agencies was as a media buyer.
Cool. Wow. So talk about some big-name brands there. I mean Acura, all of those good things. Gosh, well, I referred to you as the branding queen yourself. I see it all over your LinkedIn page where your famous quote is,
“A brand is what you’re known for, and marketing is what you do to sell it.”
Anonymous
GVC Marketing Guest on Podcast- Mavericks of Marketing
How did you come up with that, and how does that ring true for your personal brand?”
Well, I really can’t take credit for that. I would love to, but I read it somewhere. It just really resonated with me as I find it so important that that’s just the key. The brand is what you’re known for, but marketing is what you do to sell it and what are all the executions we can do to sell it?
That’s what I am always talking about, marketing because whether I am career coaching, helping someone looking for a role, or whether I’m trying to launch a product. Either way, the marketing principles still apply.
Talking about how great something is, that value proposition, whether it’s the person and the skills or the product and what it does for your consumers, either way. Yeah, the saying is just so poignant to me.
I love that. And I like how you tie it back to it’s not only for our company but also for yourself. Because that’s really what I want you to put your perspective into today is why personal brands for professionals are so, so critical. So let’s just dive right into that.
Why is building a personal brand directly tied to your career, and why should professionals invest in their personal brand?
Well, Shannon, I have a funny little story about that. I have been a marketing professor. I was an adjunct professor at Collin County Community College here in the Dallas area. I was also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I got my MBA. I love teaching. It is one of my passions. So it falls in line with career coaching as well. But I did have this lovely biology major come up to me in my marketing class. He just pretty much told me that he did not need marketing and wanted a whole different curriculum.
Interesting. Did he say what his reasonings were?
Yes, it was fascinating. He had decided because he was going to be a doctor that he did not need marketing. And I very calmly said, “Well, I think you have an interesting perspective. I would like to challenge you to consider how you will get a job at different hospitals? How will they know what you bring to their hospital is unique and different from all the other graduating doctors?”
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more because we’re more than just our resumes now. I mean, that’s the great thing and sometimes the downside of social media and the internet where you can just Google anybody and find out anything about anyone, but it’s a great, great tool for career projections for sure. Did he end up investing in his brand, or how’s he doing now? Is he a famous doctor somewhere?
I would like to think he’s a famous doctor for the personality he brought with him, but he did stick with the class, and he did do the assignments that were provided to him. So I’m hoping that he did learn some value in what we offered, but honestly, no matter what kind of career industry you’re in, marketing is critical.
“You don’t have to be in marketing to do marketing.“
Jamie Kernohan, GVC Marketing
I have coached computer scientists to market themselves with a value proposition for a role they wanted. And they certainly did not see themselves as a marketing person at all, yet it’s very crucial.
And again, back to the products.
What is your value proposition? What do you offer? How do you solve a problem? It’s very crucial.
And if you can have that message in your branding, then that’s half the battle right there, and people already know by following you, following your company, seeing what you do in your community, that kind of thing. And have your personal brand indeed speaks for you when you leave the room within your own company.
Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. Well, first of all, I hope that doctor is doing well. I love that he did his assignments, and hopefully, he took something out of that.
But when you talk about building a brand, what are some tactful ways that people can start establishing and creating a brand for themselves?
Well, I think that’s a great question because how is the crux of it, right? How do I go about doing this? So I have about three tips real quick that I can offer your audience.
The Three C’s to build you personal brand- GVC Marketing
The three C’s.
1. Let’s start with the three C’s. Super easy, right? There’s a community. Make sure that you add to the community that you’re speaking to. So what information do you want them to know? How do you communicate that? What is the value you’re going to add to that community?
2. And then secondly, consistency. This is the killer. Maybe killer should be spelled with a C because it should be one of the C’s. But consistency is crucial, crucial, crucial. Every day posting, talking, communicating, talking with other people, social media, blogs, whatever your favorite platform is, whatever you feel is the most authentic to you, you should share.
3. And then, of course, the third C is the content. Everyone can add something to their community so that they can help other people. The biggest problem I find when I offer this is people say, “Oh, I don’t have anything to add.” Oh yes, you do. You do have something to add. What is your passion? What is your passion story? And within that community, and it’s not always marketing, right? That’s my thing.
But your thing, it could be crocheting. It could be hunting and fishing and all these things that people love to do. It could be any of those things, and you can add to that community.
Three C’s real quick: community, consistency, and content;
All three are crucial to help to build your brand.
Jamie Kernohan, GVC Marketing
I love that. Consistency is the killer. I mean, you’re speaking my language because I am trying my best to invest in my personal brand with Maverick of Marketing. And it is hard on the days where you want to be able to do your regular job, or you’re working towards getting that job. And then it is a job in and of itself to run your own personal brand. Consistency, I can personally speak to how tough it can be at times, but how rewarding it can be. And to touch on your point about content.
What are the types of content that you’re seeing being engaging, and what would you recommend if people are starting out trying to invent themselves, create their personal brands?
What are the types of content that you would suggest they invest in? Well, I am a huge Gary V fan. And if you don’t know who Gary V is, you need to look him up. He is the king of content. He is the ruler for sure. And what he offers. And this is how I started too. This was just his $1.80 value that he provides. So for $1.80, and that’s offering your two cents to nine posts a day, I mean, on average, we spend over two hours on social media a day. So when people say to me, “Oh, I can’t do that. I don’t have time for that,” those kinds of things.
We are already on our phones and social media for over two hours a day.
To connect on social do these 6 things:
6 Steps to Improve Your Content on Social Media
Wow, that’s easy. Yeah, you’re so right. I mean, I find myself when I have a spare minute checking my Instagram, or I mean from my professional world, checking LinkedIn. So it’s super simple to give a like and give a quick comment. That’s a great tip. And I love that you shattered out Gary V. He totally is the King of Content. He’s a little controversial at times, but I love his messaging. And how long have you been following him?
Oh my gosh. A couple of years now. I did meet him at the ANA Conference before COVID. The year before, I went to the Association of National Advertisers. I got to go there. I have a good friend within the association, and I did some videos for her too. I got to meet Gary V. He came out into the hallway, and oh my gosh, there he was, and I turned into like a 12-year-old girl seeing my favorite rock star. Anyway, I took pictures with him. It was great fun. And again, he is controversial, but he does have excellent points.
Jamie and Gary Vee At ANA Conference Orlando, Florida 2019
I mean, that’s his shtick, though. So that’s how he cuts through all the static out there. But once you get past that, he’s just, “Hey, you just need to connect, and you need to give back, and you need to talk.” So instead of just watching everybody go by, add a comment, tell them, it’s great. Tell them you love the color or whatever it is. I mean, anything to get you started.
Jamie Kernohan, CEO of GVC Marketing, was a guest on the Mavericks of Marketing Podcast with Shannon Maverick and how personal branding and company branding come together to amplify trust. Here are some tips to build that trustworthy brand.
What is a personal brand? Everyone has one. But, do you use it to your advantage? Are you able to control what people say about you when you leave the room? Here are 3 tips to get you started.
We can help you manage your brand with personalized marketing plans. Email us today.
This can be a difficult decision, it is for me, to choose a topic that you want to be known for and be able to remind your audience that they can count on you to offer the best advice for them on that field. Try not to be everything for everyone. This where your focus comes in. Focus on a segment of information and become the subject matter expert on that piece of the puzzle. I do my best every day to have a mindset of abundance- there is enough for everyone to go around. I am happy to provide insight into my piece of the puzzle- Personal Branding.
Cooper Harris, founder and CEO of Klickly. “Her personal brand has undergone a dramatic shift—from working actress to respected tech entrepreneur and she has handled this shift by only focusing on one message at a time. Keeping your message focused for your target demographic will make it that much easier to both create content around your personal brand and have others define you.”
Goldie Chan offers this advice: “Adam Smiley Poswolsky, millennial workplace expert and author of The Breakthrough Speaker, takes it one step further when he’s advising speakers: “Carve a niche and then carve a niche within your niche. The best personal brands are very specific.” And Juan Felipe Campos, VP of tech and partner at Manos Accelerator, go one step further to focus on communities that he targets with his large-scale clients. “Keep your message and content consistent to one niche topic to become memorable within a targeted community.” The narrower and more focused your brand is, the easier it is for people to remember who you are. And when it comes time to hire a speaker or a new employee, your narrowed-down brand will be what they remember.”
Be genuine.
Don’t try to be something you are not. People can sense whether you are being true to yourself, sometimes better than you can. Staying the course for your authentic you- helps with your consistency on daily basis to promote your topic, which influences how people think of you and if they consider you as their subject matter go-to person.
When choosing your area to focus on, consider what are you an expert at? Ask yourself what do I do well that I can offer people insights to?
GVC Marketing
Tell a story.
A story is the best way for people to remember key points. Tell your brand story. One of the best ways to write your story is to use a video to show your story. “Allen Gannett, chief strategy officer at Skyword and author of The Creative Curve, explains it best:” The most effective personal branding strategy these days is to build a true narrative – single character monologues are boring in Tinseltown, and even more tedious for your personal brand.” Goldie Chan, “If your personal brand isn’t telling a story, you’ve already lost half of your potential audience.”
Be consistent.
“Ensure that your personal brand promise stays consistent, both online and offline,” explains Fiona Yong, director and millennial leadership coach (ICF ACC). Goldie Chan wrote, “Being consistent is very similar to having a narrow focus—it’s much easier to get recognized for one topic if you consistently create content and brand voice around it.”
It’s crucial to be posting every day- that’s the importance of being authentic to your passions and communicating it in your content. People often say they don’t have anything to say that anyone else wants to hear. This is not true. Find what you are passionate about, and you won’t be able to be quiet.
I am passionate about helping women negotiate their best salary. In my branding series, I talk about how to ask for money. Statistically, women don’t ask for more money when the crucial moments are presented to them. In the past, I suffered from imposter syndrome in thinking that I had to wait for someone to see the value in me before I could ask for the money. Since then, I have learned to ask for the money to help them see the value I offer. It’s been my experience that if a client perceives that the price is too low, it must not be good enough. Charge more; you are worth it.
I no longer suffer from imposter syndrome, and you shouldn’t either.
GVC Marketing- What is a Personal Brand?
Be ready to fail.
Be ready to fail and fail often. Failing is a tough one for all you perfectionists out there. As an entrepreneur, I have learned to go and perfect along the way. I have never been a perfectionist, and while in corporate life, this a detriment, it is not in owning your own business. I post, I write, I create video and put it out in the world. Do I wish it would be perfect- I do. I have to get it next time, or I don’t move forward, and you need to keep moving forward every day.
Failing is the best teacher. The immortal words of Michael Jordan- “You will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Take your shot today.
When Timothy Hoang, CEO of Stories By Tim, Inc., develops his influencer clients, he likes to tell them: “You’ll never achieve the best branding until you fail a couple of times while pushing past your comfort zone.” The very best brands always come from repeated trial and error, mistakes and failures, and not from instant perfection.
Create a positive impact.
Keep a positive attitude and the mindset of abundance. If you keep yourself in this state of mind, you are more able to help others.
Jamie Kernohan, GVC Marketing
Follow a successful example.
Goldie recommends “People interested in personal branding need to start marketing themselves like the celebrities and influential people that they look up to every day,“ explains Jason Wong, CEO of Wonghaus Ventures. His own personal brand has gone viral several times, over subjects like ice cream in Japan, inflatable pool toys, and memes, earning him the title of the “Meme King.” His success often comes from studying trends and popular individuals on different social media platforms and then implementing them with a twist. Creatively dissecting social analytics and establishing the next big trend can be within your grasp too, if you pay attention across all social media platforms and not simply focus narrowly on one of them.
Live your brand.
I believe this to be true. “Tim Salau, community builder and founder of Mentors & Mentees, who works with college students to help them build brands that will get them hired, believes in this idea as well.“Your personal brand should follow you everywhere you go. It needs to be an authentic manifestation of who you are and amplify what you believe.” With this in mind, your personal brand is not only a reflection of a series of job functions like marketing, finance, or creative but also ideals like giving back thoughtful leadership or mentorship.”
GVC Marketing -What Is Your Personal Brand?
Let other people tell your story.
“Personal branding is the story people tell about you when you’re not in the room.” Jessie Maltin, co-host of Maltin On Movies works with her father, renowned film critic Leonard Maltin and has watched him build his career over the past several decades. “All you have in your life is your name and the reputation you garner.”
Leave a legacy.
“A personal brand is a lifelong project that constantly evolves and changes. Even the experts who build or enhance the biggest brands in the business know that there are no hard-set rules for creating a personal brand. But these general guidelines help provide first steps, especially if you’re starting a new brand or rebranding.
