Want to optimize your search engine ranking? Look at keyword research to improve your marketing strategy. Write a Topical List Begin with a keyword list that describes your business. Say you’re a dentist. Start with services you provide like “Cosmetic Dentistry,” “Dental Checkup,” “or “Dental Cleaning.” Search engines consider the searcher’s location when they display websites, so if someone nearby is typing these keywords, you have a higher chance of showing up. Use Tools of the Trade Keyword tools like SEMrush can show you how often people search for specific keywords, giving you an idea of which ones are worth including on your website. If there’s high volume on certain keywords, it means there’s lots of competition. Longer Keywords Go a Long Way Websites like 1800 Dentist will probably have a higher keyword ranking than your local dentist. To rank higher, use longer-string keywords like “Dallas Cosmetic Dentistry” or “Oral Surgery in Dallas” so your website appears in more relevant searches. What’s Your Intent? Knowing how your customers think is half the battle when you’re crafting SEO strategy. If it’s back to school time and summer is over, more people may schedule a dentist appointment. Use the intent of your customers to your advantage by providing content that will target their predicted keywords

Want to know how to build a better marketing plan and win more customers? Look at the marketing framework to see if you’re on target. Here are some tips to help you get there. Let’s talk about what it takes to improve your marketing plan framework. * Market research is more important than ever Research counts whether you do it yourself or outsource the task. Without it, you’re throwing darts at a wall. Think of it as a deep dive on your brand and your competition. It gives you insights that may be surprising. * Study the competition Invest time to research the competition from every viewpoint. What do you like about their messaging or style? What weaknesses seem obvious – and what might yours be? Write a detailed overview of your brand’s five top competitors, including apps, too. * Identify your target audience It sounds like a no-brainer, but basically, you’re on a discovery mission. What can you find out about your target audience’s behaviors and attitudes? Where do they hang out, what do they read, and what groups do they belong to? Don’t waste money or time on ineffective targeting. * Develop a marketing plan timeframe Timing is always a challenge and execution of your marketing and PR strategy requires careful scheduling and delegation of task assignments, and attention to details to hit key deadlines. * Follow your mission statement A mission statement crystalizes the purpose, motive, and vision for what your brand or company stands for. Ultimately, it gives customers an opportunity to understand who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.

Smart marketers understand that marketing and PR should be like best friends or sisters. How can you better align your marketing plan with PR?  Listen in. PR Complements a Marketing Plan If you’ve invested the time to create a marketing plan, then PR should be part of it. It’s an important part of outreach with the ultimate goal to create a buzz around your business. PR is a complementary marketing strategy because it helps meet the same business goals, only with different tactics. Getting Earned Mention Helps Meet Marketing Goals Your marketing team is probably busy looking at the results of different campaigns and how to get better results. PR can help those efforts with social PR or getting mention from influencers, or by influencing industry journalists to cover what’s new. Marketing and PR each have their own goals, but you have to learn how to evaluate your marketing plan and your PR plan, too to see that you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck. Marketing Directs Digital PR Tactics  Digital PR or social PR tactics can range from media releases, video, social media campaigns, targeted media drips, or answering HARO requests, or getting published on LinkedIn, to name a few. Both marketing and PR let your top prospects, clients, email subscribers and fans – and the media -- know what you’re up to. That ultimately separates you from your competitors and makes you more press worthy. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing consultant in Boston. If you’re wondering what a marketing plan and PR plan, plus training can do for your business, visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call. Talk soon!

With over two million podcasts, leveraging audio content is one of the fastest-growing new PR strategies. How do you start? Listen in. So how much content do you have? Why not repurpose some of your blogs, articles, and videos and leverage that content to promote your brand. Here are some marketing shortcuts. 1) Edit audio and podcasts on Audacity Even if you’re a total beginner, recording and editing a podcast on Audacity is simple. You can record, edit and publish all in one place. It’s actually the free audio tool that I use to record the #FastMarketingMinute. 2) Create and share podcasts on Anchor.fm Anchor is another podcast platform, owned by Spotify. Anchor FM is a free tool that lets you create and distribute your podcast to any listening app. Another feature is that you can create video content to go with your podcast. So then, you can distribute to even more channels. 3) Maximize cross-channel promotion Why not turn one video into ten or more pieces of different content? That lets you take your ideas as far as they can go and saves you time in the process. One of the tools that I use is Repurpose.io. Reinventing the wheel for social media can be exhausting. Don’t let it be! I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing and PR expert and write marketing and PR plans to help you increase sales and visibility. If you’re wondering what marketing can do for your business, visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call. Talk soon!

What if I told you social media marketing could be done in less time and be twice as fast? Interested? Here are a few tools. Want to save time on your social media marketing and digital PR campaigns? Here are some tools to test-drive. Make sure they’re included in your marketing and PR plan. 1) Sort your social posts with SocialBee When you simplify your social media posting with SocialBee, it lets you organize your posts into categories and schedule them when you want. Another benefit is that you can tweak each post to fit the platform, and keep posts on the same topic linked together. 2) Post new ideas with MeetEdgar MeetEdgar was created just for small businesses who are incredibly busy. It pulls your evergreen content from your website, converts it to social media posts and keeps pumping out fresh social media content. Setting it up does take time, but it saves a ton of time. 3) Post articles, photos through Crowdfire It’s always a good idea to mix up your content. If you found an article interesting that your target audience might like, your followers will probably like it too. Use Crowdfire to find articles that align with your brand or industry and automatically share them with your social channels. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing and PR expert and write marketing and PR plans to help you grow your business. If you’re wondering what marketing can do for your business, visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call. Talk soon!

Perfecting copy for social media is challenging. You need to be concise in your messaging but you’re so restricted by space. Want some tips to make your social copy better? Stay tuned. Want to make your social media pop? Here are 4 ways to improve your social content. 1) Find the right emojis Emojis will make your posts pop and be more eye-catching. They’ll also express emotion in ways that text can’t. Plus, Emojipedia makes it easy and lets you add emojis to your social copy from your laptop, not just your phone. 2) Set up a Linktree Does it drive you crazy that you can’t include links in Instagram posts? There’s a simple fix. Drive traffic right to your website through a Linktree page and unlock the ways your small business can increase sales. Just be sure to test your CTAs to make sure you’re getting results. 3) Shorten your URLs A long URL could easily eat up all the characters in your Tweet, or make your post look less appealing. Why not shorten your URL with Bitly or TinyUrl? A shortened URL condenses your link into one line, and even better, can track how many people click your specific links.  4) Get inspiration from Copy.ai Copy.ai is a cool tool that generates social media copy. Enter your keywords and subject matter and press enter. You may need to tweak a bit, but it can deliver inspiration and switch up your writing style. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing and PR expert and write marketing and PR plans to help you grow your business. If you’re wondering what marketing can do for your business, visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call. Talk soon!

Are you on the fence about creating a podcast? Here are three reasons why it can help with your marketing. Open Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other podcast hosting app and you’ll find content on just about any topic. And many are produced by brands that sponsor their own content filling hundreds of hours of listening time. Why couldn’t that be you? Should a podcast be part of your marketing plan? 3 Ways Podcasts Improve Your Marketing  1. Podcasts are cost-effective Creating a podcast doesn’t break the bank. Sure, it takes time and effort like developing any marketing channel, but you can produce content with little to no funds and there are lots of no-cost tools to help you. There’s Audacity for recording, Anchor.fm for posting podcasts, and Calendly for scheduling interviews. 2. Podcasts give your brand a voice With a podcast you can share your views on social issues or whatever’s on your mind. Ben & Jerry’s has a long history of taking a stand on racial justice and produce a number of podcasts that center on racism, a cause they’re passionate about.  Remember, podcasts are your own media channel, and a low-cost way to promote your expertise. 3. People can learn from you A podcast also helps you stand out as a thought leader. Think about podcasts as a way to share your message and engage with your target market. Connect with listeners that want to know more about what you do. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing and PR expert and write marketing and PR plans to help you grow your business. If you’re wondering what marketing can do for your business, visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call. Talk soon!

If you’re an avid Netflix watcher – and who isn’t? – some big changes might be coming soon. What could this mean for marketing? Let’s explore Netflix with ads. There’s talk that Netflix might add a subscription tier that includes ads. This could mean a major shift in the marketing industry. It’s still a bit early to tell. What do Netflix ads mean for marketing? Including ads on the Netflix platform will be a major undertaking. The company needs to hire a sales team and build the technology to make it happen. Hulu has already been doing it for its free plans for years. Disney+ and HBO Max have also added tiers with advertising. For customers, Netflix could be available for free or at a much lower price when the platform includes ads. For the company, it’s added revenue. For the consumer, it’s something they may have to put up with to pay for all the subscriptions they want. Why is Netflix turning to ads? Ads raise revenue. According to recent reports, Netflix has lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. Ads will open a new stream of revenue for Netflix, but it also opens some concerns like data privacy for customers who uploaded their information before Netflix advertising discussions. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing expert and create marketing planning solutions to help you grow your business. If you’re wondering what marketing can do for your business, visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call. Talk soon!

Hosting an event is still an important part of a company’s small business PR strategy. But how do you simplify the event marketing process with so many variables. The Reader’s Digest Version of Marketing Your Event  1. List your event Eventbrite, Facebook, Meetup. These are just a few places to list your event to reach the highest number of people in your target audience. Make sure to include tags, a detailed description of the event and links to your website and social channels. This allows you the opportunity to connect with guests before they arrive. 2. Write a description that makes you want to attend As you write your event description, think about the purpose of the event. If it’s about small business marketing, appeal to people who think it’s critical to get a leg up on the competition. Be clear in your copy who should be interested. Write to your target audience. Know what they want, why they want to come, and what they’ll get out of it. 3. Be strategic with your email list If you have an email list? Awesome. If you have a segmented email list? That’s even better. Email marketing strategy for small business should never be underestimated. And it’s powerful for event marketing. Even if you don’t have a list, start one with people who sign up, and plan to stay in touch with them. You’re building like, know, trust and believability. 4. Create the perfect hashtag Hashtags build anticipation and help the event get discovered online. Encourage anyone who plans to attend or post on social media to use your particular hashtag. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing and PR expert and write marketing and publicity plans. If you’re wondering what

What should be included in a marketing plan? Stay tuned. A marketing plan is a blueprint to connect your ideal target audience with your products or services, and turn potential prospects into buyers. What should be in your marketing plan? 5 Key Elements of a Marketing Plan 1. Market Research Market research sets the stage for what’s going on and what’s possible. What does it look like for your company and your competitors?  How big is the market and what messaging do they respond to? 2. Competition What do you admire about your competition? Do they have a leg up on you, or are you top in your industry? When you weigh up the competition you can establish realistic marketing goals. 3. Identify your target audience Zero in on your target audience. And don’t just answer the question of “who” your target audience is. What do they do? How do they feel? What do they like? Your own research and industry research will tell you. 4. Form a timeline Create key deadlines for your marketing campaigns, and pace yourself. Timing is critical as well, which makes it one of the most important elements in your marketing plan framework. Anticipate key dates and prepare everything you need in advance of those dates. ABR - Always be ready. 5. Create a mission statement A mission statement articulates what your brand is all about and talks about the why. It also gives you an outline for the rest of your marketing plan, and an easy-to-remember motto that your team can stand by. I’m Robin Samora with the Fast Marketing Minute. I‘m a small business marketing expert and specialize in small business strategies to increase sales. Wondering what marketing and PR can do for your business? Visit me at www.RobinSamora.com then schedule a call.