Who’s Watching?

Who’s watching you before they buy?  Here’s is the transcript of this podcast episode.

Episode Introduction

“Hi, I’m Chartered Marketer, Tracy Heatley, and I thank you for listening to my Be Better With Tracy Heatley podcast.

In this episode I’d like to focus on a question.  The question is, Who’s Watching?  The number of times that we need to be seen, either in terms of our personal brand or business branding, has increased massively over the last ten years.  Gone are the days that our brands only need to be seen seven times before a customer would decide to buy.  With the digital marketing revolution that’s occurred over the last decade, those days are long gone. I reckon it’s probably more around twenty times that people need to see or hear you.

Fighting For Attention

We’re all fighting to grab our potential customers attention, keep their attention and getting them to buy!  Ultimately, that’s what marketing is there to do. It’s to help gain new customers and keep your existing customers happy.   It’s about meeting customer requirements and exceeding expectations.

So, how do we solve the puzzle of who’s watching, who’s noticing us, and who likes what we have to say, and deliver, through the power of social media?  It’s a difficult one, isn’t it?  We live in world where most things can be traced, tracked, and measured.  However, what if interaction is low or we’re not getting enough clicks through to our website?  These are challenges that most small business face right now.  I understand the dilemma.  We now live in world where our popularity is often determined by the number of comments and likes we get. I do it too! I check my socials to see what’s happening and access engagement.  There’s a fine line between checking the success of our social media activity and using the results as popularity barometer.

Spanner In The Works

I’m going to throw a spanner in the works with this mindset. Just because they don’t celebrate your wins; doesn’t mean that they’re not watching! I’m going to pause and just let you reflect on that for a few seconds.  Just because they don’t celebrate your wins; doesn’t mean they’re not watching. Now that you’ve thought about that for a few seconds, notice how you feel?  For me, It’s quite freeing.

Yes, social media metrics are important to monitor the success of campaigns, but the number of likes and comments are not the be all and end all of life!  My point is that you never know who’s watching!  Who’s lurking and checking you out on social media.  Perhaps reading your latest blogs but not offering feedback.  May be listening to your podcasts but not leaving a review! Some of your future customers may already know everything about you, what your prices are, exactly what you offer and how they will buy from you.  It’s possible that they may know when they’re going to become a customer!  The only person who doesn’t know yet, is you!

My Advice

1. My advice is to carry on putting your posts out of social media regardless of the interaction!   I’m not being dismissive, and I recognise the need to assess your social media metrics.  Decide what metrics are important to you.   Let’s assume for a minute that you don’t need the validation of likes and comments and the number of views is important too.  Would this alter your state of mind when it comes to the importance of likes and comments?  The truth is, like with most things, it depends.  It depends on your business, circumstances, goals and what you consider a good return on investment.  Even if you’re not doing paid social media and you’re focusing on organic reach, your time is still a massive investment.
2. Another thing to consider is that because your future customers must see or hear about your business multiple times, it could be that your last social media post was what pushed them to buy from you.
3. I did an earlier podcast episode about how to monitor marketing activities , which you might find useful.  I’d like to add something else into the mix, though, which I may have excluded from that episode.  If possible, it will be useful to monitor how long someone has been following you on socials before they took action to buy.  This way, you’ll be able to create a pattern, which will help you understand your customers buyer behaviour much more.
4. Furthermore, I’d also keep an eye on your Google analytics to check the performance of your website, and assess if there is a correlation between certain types of social media posts being published and fluctuations in your website hits.
5. Don’t give up with your social media.  Carry on regardless!  Keep building your presence, expanding your share of voice. Someone will be watching, without celebrating your wins!  Most importantly, whether you’re marketing a product or your service, keep being you.  People do business with people they know, like and trust!  By continuing to post relevant content on social media, you are building likability, trust, and steadily encouraging your future customers to buy from you.
6. On another note, too, if you are writing blogs and or producing a podcast, stick to your routine.  If your blog goes out weekly, on a Monday morning, then stick to that.  Your regular readers, and you will have them, even if you don’t know it yet, will be expecting you blog.  The same with a podcast!  You may be listening to this podcast for the first time.  However, if you’re a regular listener, then you’ll know that my podcast goes out every Thursday morning, UK time!  The only time I’ve not done this was when I needed unexpected surgery.  I think I can be forgiven for that!  As humans, we form habits quickly, and there will be people in the routine of expecting your socials, blogs, and podcasts.   My point is, just because they’re not celebrating, doesn’t mean they’re not watching!  Nor does it mean that they’re not expecting you to deliver.

Sporadic Marketing Syndrome

This links back to my previous podcast episode where I coined the phrase Sporadic Marketing Syndrome.  Consistency is important, because you just never know who’s watching!

I felt compelled to talk to you about this because I know it’s something that bothers some of my marketing mentoring clients.  So, it stands to reason that it may be bothering other business owners, like you, too. I’ve got a client who read my blogs and listened to my podcasts for six months before getting in touch, so I know I’m right about this.  Don’t confuse a lack of engagement with a lack of interest, because it’s definitely not the case.

For more top business, marketing, and networking tips, check out my other podcast episodes  and make sure that you’ve subscribed. There are some useful blogs for you here too.

If you leave me a positive review on Apple, Audible or Google, I’ll add you to my monthly competition to win free one hour marketing online mentoring session with me.

My name’s Tracy Heatley and I thank you for listening to my Be Better With Tracy Heatley podcast.”

Better Business, Better You!