One way to spring clean your business is to spring clean your marketing plan. These plans should always be reviewed on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. Here are four ways to spring clean your marketing strategy, thus your plan.

1. Review: Goals and Social Media Analytics

Review the business goals you set out for the first three months of your business and what marketing initiatives you performed to help achieve those goals. Did you meet your goals? Why or why not? Did you fulfill all of the marketing initiatives you set out to do? What were the results?

What does your social media analytics show on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, or TikTok? How are your posts performing? Do certain posts have higher engagement? Who are you attracting with the content you are posting? Reviewing this information will help you understand what type of content to continue publishing and give you a better idea of who your audience really is.

Once you review, you can set the goals for the next quarter knowing what worked well in the past.

2. Review your sales promotions/campaigns and events

If you had any promotions over the past 3 months, how did they go? What were the results? What is considered a success? Would you do it again? If you attended any events, did any result in new business? Would you pay the same money for the same event again?

This will help you understand if you will repeat some of your promotions/campaigns or if you will try something different.

3. Review your marketing budget – A Great Way To Spring Clean Your Marketing

What is your marketing budget looking like today? Are you on track with the money you invested in your marketing? Have you overspent? Could you cut back in areas? Be sure to review your spending so that you can make the appropriate adjustments for marketing spending for the remainder of the year.

4. Plan out your content

Content planning helps eliminate guesswork, procrastination, and in some cases, pushing off the task so long that it doesn’t get done. You don’t necessarily need to plan out your content for the entire next quarter, but you can map out your content ideas for the next couple of weeks or even a month. What Holidays do you celebrate/acknowledge? What sales/promotions/events do you plan on having? How can you inspire or connect with your audience?

Bonus Tips For Spring Cleaning Your Marketing

1. Take a look at your FOLLOWING list on your social media accounts and delete the ones you don’t engage in.
2. Take a look at the Facebook groups you belong to and leave the groups you don’t engage in.
3. Take a look at what your competitors are doing and what is gaining attention and engagement on social media.
4. Check your website to ensure it is updated and all the information is still accurate, including plugin updates.

Need help with your business marketing plan? Let’s set up a time to talk about how I can support you, book your time here.

READ: What you need for social media marketing success here.

The post Spring Clean Your Marketing appeared first on Sacha Pinto Branding & Social Media Marketing Strategist & Educator.

In a world of DIY, social media apps, and a phone on your camera many businesses are neglecting a key component of their marketing. Planning a proper brand photo session.

There are many reasons why you should consider this as a necessary part of your marketing plan. The first is that professional images make you stand out and give you a competitive edge. 

Create content to attract your ideal clients

Most small businesses aren’t influencers, they love what they do and want to focus on that. As a brand photographer, I help them to create the content they need to attract their ideal clients and make their marketing easier. A photographer is not just a button pusher. They are creative visual storytellers that can bring your ideas and message together in an image that you in turn will use to market your business.

Brand photography is about connecting

Brand photography is a relatively new niche as digital marketing becomes the norm. We’ve gone from a good headshot and a handful of images to needing a lot more images for social media and our websites. Brand photography is about connecting the personal and the business through lifestyle images that share who you are and what you do. It incorporates everything from killer headshots for your profiles, environmental action images, and your own stock images for your website and social media posts.

So how do you know if you’re hiring the right photographer for the job?

First, you want to make sure you see their portfolio, that you like their style and that it matches your vision.

Then you want to talk to the photographer. You can ask them how long they’ve been doing brand photography? What is their process to create the plan for your session? Remember you want someone who understands your business and can translate your vision into reality, brand photography is more than just a pretty picture.

What does the commercial license cover? This is important because as a business you don’t want to be second-guessing how you can use your photos or incurring penalties for misuse. Knowing how you’re going to use the images or some images ahead of time will save you a ton of time and money. Don’t worry if it seems expensive upfront, these images are designed to pay for themselves and then some. If you have a particular need beyond your website and social media like a book cover or billboard be sure to discuss this with your photographer in advance. It could impact how they decide to shoot and the size of images you might need.

Can you edit the photos? Many traditional photographers don’t want you to edit their artistic work. As a brand photographer, you may need to make changes to an image based on your marketing campaign, crop, add text or add or remove people or backgrounds. Be sure you are allowed to do this.

Do I need to credit the photographer? As a photographer, I love to get credit for my work but I also understand that as a business you need to be able to use these images without having to credit someone else. A brand photographer will not require you to give credit except for specific instances where it’s industry standard.

It is important to feel a connection with the photographer you choose to work with

At the end of the day, it’s important to feel a connection with the photographer you choose to work with. No matter how much you like someone’s work, if you aren’t comfortable with the person you won’t feel comfortable in front of the camera with them. Being in front of the camera is a vulnerable experience for most people and requires a high degree of trust to get comfortable.

About the guest blogger:

Jenn Grachow is a professional photographer with over 14 years of experience. She is a formally trained professional and truly believes that every business should have great images and you should be comfortable in front of the camera.

Jenn specializes in brand photography for entrepreneurs, artists, designers, online educators, speakers, etc… She helps you take your professional image and business to the next level!

Connect with Jenn: Website | Facebook | Instagram

Related Blog: Ways to use your branding photos

The post The importance of branding your business and professional photography appeared first on Sacha Pinto Branding & Social Media Marketing Strategist & Educator.