TOP SEARCH RESULTS
Gaining Your Target’s Attention Back in the day of three TV networks and a morning news- paper, the bolder headline, the catchier tune, and the snazzier commercial got your attention. A business tested ads with coupons to see if they were effective. They looked for ROI (return on investment). Now, you’re not just competing against your business competition. You’re up against everyone else that your target follows online and on social media, which includes but is not limited to: • family • friends • celebrities • entertainment • major brands • politics • the latest news or trends
So, what’s an independent self-storage owner supposed to do? 1. First and foremost, clearly define your target mar- ket personas. You can have more than one. The free workbook at https://azsocialme
diawiz.com/define- target-market-wo rk book/ is a good starting point. 2. Determine what sets you apart from the rest. What makes you different? What makes you unique? What’s your unique selling proposition (USP)?
3. Research the target(s). Get to know them. Which social media networks do they frequent the most? Do generations factor in? What are their pain points? What are their other interests? (That’s what you’ll be competing with for their attention online.)
4. What keywords are they going to enter into the search engine to find you? Use Google’s free key- word tool (
https://ads.google.com/home/tools/key- word-planner/). The keyword list will tell you which phrases are most searched for each month. It will also give you variations of keywords and phrases. You can get a list by location and try several differ- ent phrases. This list will help you write the copy for your website and social media network profile pages and give you ideas for blog articles.
5. Who’s your direct competitor? Using an incognito window, do a Google search for your major keyword phrases and questions. Who comes up on the first page? Start with the top organic (non-paid) listings. Visit their websites.
• If they have a blog, how often are they blogging? • Are they on social media? (which networks?) • How many followers do they have? • How often are they posting? • What are they posting? • If they’re not blogging weekly, then you need to blog weekly, if not daily, to bump them down and you
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up. Obviously, if they’re not active on the social net- works, then you need to be. The more active you are, the faster you’ll grab their spot in the search results. 6. Set up your website and social media networks optimized for local search. Branding must be con- sistent throughout.
7. Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goals. Based on your competitor researr
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ch, choose metrics that make sense for you. 8. Plan your strategic efforts to get your target mar- ket’s attention and meet your goals. If competition is low to medium, then organic (non-paid) market- ing should be sufficient until more competitors show up (and they will). Since location is a fac- tor, you may also get away with just doing organic marketing. Local businesses with high competition will have to budget for paid advertising or get very creative and clever.
9. Then comes the tactical plan to implement the strategy. How many blog articles or videos will you do a week? How many posts to X, Facebook, Instagram, and/or LinkedIn per day?
10. Then, just do it. Yes, it takes time to build a follow- ing on social media and even to start getting traffic to your website. Clearly, you must put in more time up- front. Figure it will take at least two to three months (depending on how competitive your market is) to start seeing results.
11. Monitor and measure at the end of each month to see what worked and what didn’t work. Plan accord- ingly for the next month. Check your website analyt- ics as well as your social media insights. Compare the results month to month. Do you see improvements? If you put in the effort, you should.
An Involved Process It’s more involved than you likely thought. Take a lesson from Master Chef : “Do your best. Just hope that your competition does a lesser job or makes a mistake.” As you can see, it’s not as simple as putting up a website and doing a few posts or ads on Facebook. It’s complex, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you take it one step at a time.
Giselle Aguiar, founder of AZ Social Media Wiz in 2011, is a social media content and digital marketing consultant and trainer. She’s been involved in internet marketing since 1995. Today, she specializes in strategic and tacti- cal planning, social media setups, 1:1 digital marketing training and coaching, SEO copywriting, and WordPress websites. She is a trainer and mentor for the Arizona Commerce Authority as a founding mentor of its Digital Academy. She is also an avid blogger. Visit her web- site,
AZSocialMediaWiz.com, for more information.
Spring 2024
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