- Hey there, my friend. Adam here. And today I wanna share with you a few of the best and most promising marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and tips in order to make this your best year in business yet.
Starting with one of the most popular trends and hottest topics right now and ending with what I believe is one of the best opportunities available to you right now. So with that said, let's dive straight into marketing strategy number one, which is all about using AI, artificial intelligence, in order to get better results from your marketing and do it faster than you ever thought possible. Artificial intelligence, more commonly referred to as AI today, has been around for a while now.
But even though previous generations were told that we'd have flying cars and fully automated homes and basically robots that were gonna be able to do everything for us by this point, what we actually got was this. (lighthearted music plays) (record scratches) And it's only recently that AI has started to prove itself useful, at least in the world of business and marketing. And the one piece of technology that's making the most noise and the biggest disruptor in the space right now is a little piece of software called ChatGPT that can do, well, a whole lot of crazy things.
For example, I can ask it to come up with 15 marketing ideas, and there it is. Then, I could decide I want even more ideas. And just like that, a whole new list appears.
I can ask it to write me a Facebook ad for the Digital Marketing Academy. And while there are some tweaks and changes I would make, it's not a half bad start. But after looking it over, I think it would work better if I used the proven copywriting framework of PAS.
So I get it to rewrite the ad using that instead, and well, there it is. But it looks like it used the wrong PAS of pitch, action, subject, instead of what I actually wanted, which was problem, agitate, solve. But hey, no worries.
I'll tell it to do it again. And just like that, another entirely new ad is created. I mean, I could even ask it to tell me a bedtime story about a little marketer named Adam who wanted to make the world a better place by helping solve people's problems.
And much to my surprise, the story's actually pretty good. So it looks like ChatGPT FTW. - I got a fun fact for you, Adam.
Did you know that the GPT in ChatGPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer? - I did not know that. (gentle music plays) Now as cool as this is, there are limitations.
Some pretty big ones too. And ChatGPT comes right out and says it right there on the front page. Things like how it may occasionally generate incorrect information, which let's be honest, this is not great.
But you can and should fact check things anyway, so it's not too bad I guess. But next, and this one's kind of a big deal, it may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content. Again, this is clearly not good.
After all, the last thing that you want to do is have it give you some sketchy instructions on something like setting your phone's alarm that ends up resulting in some kind of catastrophic failure. (explosion booms) And finally, ChatGPT has limited knowledge of world and events after 2021. And this is a bit of a downer, especially when it comes to marketing where things change pretty quickly.
All that said, it's still a really powerful tool that you can use in your marketing, and it can also help you take advantage of this next marketing trend, which is a bit of a switch or pivot to how things have been in the past. You see, the secret to getting the most bang for your marketing buck now is all about prioritizing quality over quantity by creating better content. So let's talk about that now.
For as long as content marketing has been a thing, there's been a debate on which approach is better. Quantity, where the strategy is to produce as much content as is humanly possible, or quality, where the goal and focus is on creating fewer, but higher quality pieces of content. And here's the thing, the reason that you still see people advocating for both of these different approaches is because they both still work.
But at least right now for most people most of the time, focusing on creating less, but higher quality pieces of content is gonna provide a better return on your time and energy investment. For proof of this, all you need to do is look right here on YouTube where you can see the change and this trend in action with many channels switching away from a consistent upload schedule favoring, instead, for releasing a video when it's ready. All that said, I've got two warnings for you here.
First, this trend, away from quantity and more towards quality, is a perfectionist procrastinator's dream. So if that's you, be very careful not to let your perfectionism kick in and stop you from ever releasing or posting any kind of content because it's just not good enough yet. And next, if you're just getting started with content creation or marketing or posting on social media, my advice here is to still favor quantity over quality, at least in the beginning.
This is because quality often comes from quantity, and you're really going to need to put in the reps, especially in the early days, to build up that content creation muscle. Not to mention until you have some posts and some kind of content created and published, it's hard to actually know what better actually is. This is because better is subjective.
What's good for you may not be good for me, and what's good for me may not be good for you. Which is why the only thing that really matters and the only metrics that you want to take a look at and actually take into consideration is how your audience and how your customers are engaging with and responding to what you're creating. That said, to help get you started and to keep you on track in the direction of creating better content, I've got three rules for you that I want you to keep in mind.
First, better content is relevant content. This means it resonates with the person it was created for. In other words, when they see it or hear it or come across it, they think, "Hey, cool.
This is. . .
This is for me. " And the best way to do this is to make sure you understand your customers and what their pains and problems and fears and frustrations actually are. Next, better content is valuable content.
This means your content provides value to your audience in some way. Now, it could be to teach them something or to inspire them, even offer entertainment or tension relieving value. And again, the best way to make sure you're creating valuable content is by keeping your focus on your customers and the people that you want to reach.
And then asking yourself what can you do or offer or create that'll make their lives just a little bit better? And finally, better content is entertaining content. Now, I'm not suggesting you need to go out there and create a Hollywood level production, or that you start creating entertainment style only content.
Just that you put a little thought into how you can make whatever it is that you do just a little bit more engaging, and most importantly of all, not boring. And like I said before, the best way to do this is by really focusing on trying to learn and understand your customers and where they're coming from. And that kind of leads me, nicely, to this next point, which is all about tribe building.
One of the best marketing strategies that continues to deliver outstanding results and outsized returns for the effort that you have to put into it is tribe building, which has to do with creating a community or a group of like-minded people around whatever topic or business or industry or market that you're a part of. Being the one to bring a group of like-minded people together and being the source of information for that group just builds a tremendous amount of trust and authority and goodwill, and it establishes you and your business and your content as kind of a go-to resource that other people can count on. Most importantly and most powerful of all though is that focusing on tribe building can build real relationships, which extend far beyond those simple transactions that most businesses out there are trying to compete for.
Now, there are a ton of ways to build your tribe and to host it or to engage with them, including online discussion groups and forums. There's memberships or possibly hosting a Q and A, a question and answer session, maybe doing a webinar. Essentially anything that allows you to gather people together and to provide information and to help foster and encourage discussion.
But where the focus in years past used to be on the social graph, which are tribes built around personal and social connections, and more on this in just a second. Now, thanks to our largely, completely interconnected world, it's tribes that are built on the interest graph that are the strongest. So if you're not familiar with the social graph and the interest graph, these are important points, so let me break it down for you now.
Basically, the social graph is how you're connected to other people, and you have a number of different social graphs in your life, including your family, your friends, your work, and even casual acquaintances. And in the past, it was through these people that you were introduced to different ideas and concepts and content. And while the social graph is still very much real and important, there's another important graph taking over which is the interest graph.
This is where your first interaction or engagement with an idea or a piece of content comes from your interest in a certain topic or trend rather than the people. This leads to consuming content around that, which leads to discussions and conversations with other like-minded people. And then, that leads to social connection and learning more about the other people who are interested in the same things as you are.
Let me give you an example. In the social graph context, I could be chatting with a brand new friend of mine, and I just happened to find out that he's super into rollerblading. Like, crazy into rollerblading.
So he starts talking and sharing about the rollerblading lifestyle and how fun it is, and how exciting, and how it's making a comeback, and how it's a great way to stay in shape and build coordination, and how there's a lot of other people who are living this rock and roller blade lifestyle. And so, against my better judgment, I decide to dust off my old pair of roller blades and give it another shot. Hmm.
So apparently, a lot of bad things can happen. So that's the social graphic work. The interest graph, on the other hand, works in the complete opposite way.
For example, let's say that one day you get this wild and crazy idea to go out there and start your own business. Good for you, by the way. And you decide that marketing is the single most important element to your business's success, so you seek to find new and innovative marketing strategies to help you make more sales and get more customers and increase your revenue.
Again, good for you. So you head over to YouTube, and you type in "marketing" in the search bar. This brings up a video which leads you to click it and to watch it.
Hopefully, you enjoy the video and off to click the "like" button and subscribe and maybe even leave a comment, which leads you to discover an entire community of like-minded people just like you all interested in starting and building and growing successful and profitable businesses. Connections are made, relationships are built, and an entire new social circle is created and formed around a common interest that you and others share. And the beauty of this is that while the social graph is kind of limited to your personal and social and friends and family and work connections, the interest graph is essentially unlimited and allows you to connect with anyone from anywhere in the world who happens to be interested in the same kind of things as you are.
And seeing as the first step of tapping into the interest graph has to do with content discovery, well, we need to make sure that you're creating the right kind of content for the right kind of people. Which leads me perfectly to this next marketing strategy which is all about the kind of content that's working better than ever before. That kind of content is video.
If you've been following me for any length of time, then I'm really hoping this doesn't come as a surprise. But here's the cold hard truth. The future of marketing is video.
The current present of marketing is video too. Actually, the past of marketing is kind of video too, especially the last five years or so, and almost every single social media platform out there is continuing to make prioritizing video content their primary goal. From the obvious players, like YouTube and TikTok, to less obvious ones, like Instagram and LinkedIn, video is taking up more and more of the newsfeed, and every year it gets bigger and stronger.
Significantly more important. This report from Wise Owl shows 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, 87% of marketers say video has helped them increase traffic, and 81% of marketers say video has helped them directly increase sales. But where things get really exciting is from the customer's perspective with people now watching an average of, wait for it, 19 hours of online video per week.
This is an increase of just one hour per week compared to 12 months ago, but it's an almost mind blowing 8. 5 hour increase per week over the past three years. I mean, it's a lot of video.
And one of the best things about video marketing is that it makes it really easy to reformat and repurpose your content. Essentially, I want you to imagine that you just recorded a long form video for your brand new YouTube channel, and instead of just posting it to your YouTube channel, calling it a day, well, you could also get it transcribed. So you now have a text version of the video that you can post on your blog and across social media.
Use the audio from that YouTube video, and now you have a standalone podcast episode. Add video to your email marketing which could increase your clicks by 300%. And my personal favorite right now, you could take that video and splice and dice it, and then share it across all kinds of different social media platforms, including YouTube has a short, Facebook and Instagram has reels, TikTok, not to mention Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
The simple fact is that most of the businesses that I take a look at on a daily basis, if they're feeling stuck or stalled or they're just not getting the results that they were hoping from from their marketing or from their social media, it's usually just because they're not posting enough good video or they're not posting it at all. Now, I appreciate the advice to just go out there and start making videos. Can seem kind of overwhelming.
So next, let me break down a strategy that you can use to get started with and possibly even end with. That's right, this one simple thing could be your entire marketing strategy all wrapped up in one great, amazing, profitable point. And that is to start by focusing on shorts.
If I had to pick a single kind of marketing media to create, one that would work for most people most of the time with most audiences, most markets, most industries, most businesses out there, well my friend, it would have to be short form vertical video. The kind of videos that you see as YouTube shorts, as Facebook and Instagram reels, and as TikToks. Now, the length of a short form piece of content is gonna vary depending on what platform we're talking about, and they do tend to change these things all the time as they're experimenting with what that perfect length actually is.
But typically, we're talking about a video that's 60 seconds or less. So if you're already familiar with things like Instagram stories, well I want you to think of an Instagram reel or YouTube short or a TikTok as a slightly longer story. Or if you happen to already be creating longer form videos, like you do say on YouTube, well then I want you to think of a short or a reel or a TikTok as a shorter long form video.
See? Marketing's pretty easy. Anyway, the big point here is that this is the kind of content that's proving itself not only with consumers right now, but also with the algorithms, and they're giving it a little bit of an extra push in order to try to establish themselves as the short form video leader.
Plus, at least when compared to creating, say, a long form video like you would for YouTube, well creating short form vertical video takes a lot less time, a lot less energy. You can record it from your phone, you can edit it on your phone, you can publish and really upload it directly from your phone too. Now, when it comes to the best places to post your short form vertical content, well my advice here really is everywhere and anywhere.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you go out and start creating entire social media campaigns and strategies for every single different social media network. That's exhausting and overwhelming and unnecessary. But if you're already creating a short form vertical video, well there's no reason not to upload it to all of the different platforms in order to essentially help you reach more people for a lot less effort.
That said, if I had to pick one, one main driver to focus on, one main platform to create content for first, it would have to be YouTube and YouTube shorts. Now, this is due to a number of factors, including some of the struggles that other platforms have had, namely Facebook and Instagram. Also has to do with some of the algorithm challenges that TikTok has gone through as well as the leads to conversion ratio that we're seeing there and how it's less than other platforms.
But most importantly of all, it's because YouTube appears to be the best position to capitalize on this short form vertical video, both now, over the next year, and possibly over the next few years as well. So start there, and if you're looking for some other options in order to grow your business, get more leads, and make more sales, I do have a couple other strategies that I wanna share with you, and that's why I've put together some of my best marketing tips and tricks in this video right here. So make sure to check that out now, and I'll see you in there in just a second.
