We’ve partnered with Ollo Metrics to bring you a live online webinar to help you leverage Google Ads to reach more customers and grow your business while avoiding costly pitfalls!

Members $65 / Future Members $80

Register Here!

The post Whistler Chamber | Google Ads: A Practical Guide for Small Business in 2025 appeared first on WeBC.

Do you often find yourself scrambling for content ideas when you log on to Instagram in the morning? Or maybe your last launch didn’t have the results you expected on social media. 

Planning out content doesn’t have to be confusing or time intensive, you just need to know where to start. First, let’s break down things that can go wrong with content planning. 

The Three Biggest Mistakes of Content Plans for Social Media

1. Not having a plan at all. The most common mistake that business owners make is posting on the fly on social media. Being inspired by local events and trends can play a part, but you need an overarching plan to know where you’re headed with your content. 
2. Not enough lead time. If you have a launch or promotion coming up, you want to start warming up your audience about 6 weeks prior on both social media and email marketing. Before you even start talking about the offer, you want to plant seeds inside your target audience’s mind about working with you or trying your products, and start to remove any barriers they might have. This way when you launch they are ready to say YES!
3. Not enough repetition! On average, it takes 8 touchpoints with a follower or potential customer before your message even starts to sink in. This means your content on social media needs to repeat the same message over and over again for your audience to really understand your core offers. 

Ready to make a quick and easy content plan you can repeat every month?

Try this 4X3 Social Media Content Planning Method

First break down your content into 3 pillars:

Pillar #1: Awareness – High-level getting to know you and/or your products with light and fun content. 

Pillar #2: Deeper understanding – Learning more about the behind-the-scenes of your business, or going deeper with education. 

Pillar #3: Sales or consults – It’s time to get hired and make sales!

Now make a list of 4 common frequently asked questions about your business. (If you have some already on your website, you can use those!) 

Put those together in a grid like this:

Now the idea is to answer each of the FAQ’s for each of your content pillars, moving your audience along the path to conversion. Here’s an example for a mortgage broker with some sample ideas:

Now you’ve got 12 posts mapped out for the month! You can always add a few more in spur of the moment for events or as needed. 

This might seem repetitive when it comes to content planning—but remember that 8 touchpoint number to get you started. 

Watch the WeBC live replay where I share a few more details about the content plan and answer live Q&A from our audience along with WeBC. 

The post How to Plan Your Social Media Content Fast for Busy Entrepreneurs  appeared first on WeBC.

One of the biggest mistakes that new businesses make is setting up social media handles on each of the major platforms and then trying to create content for all of them at once. Unless you have a team of content creators supporting you with daily content creation, this strategy is likely to lead you to burnout fast.

A more realistic approach is to niche down and commit to one or two main social media channels to connect with your audience. How do you decide on which ones you should choose?

Here’s three questions you can ask yourself to get started: 

1. Where is your target audience hanging out online? 

Before you start posting on SnapChat, you want to make sure that the people you are trying to reach are active in that space. Every channel taps into slightly different demographics and reaches people in different ways. Research the demographics of each channel before you decide which one is best for you. 

You should also consider how your audience likes to consume content. Are they browsing Pinterest already for recipes, or do they prefer to keep things professional online and connect on LinkedIn? 

For example, if you sell highly specialized photography equipment to individuals who want to learn more about taking better photos, you might decide to launch a YouTube channel, where you create long form videos about different aspects of your equipment each week and how to use it. You know your audience is looking to learn more, and YouTube provides a powerful search engine to help you be discovered. 

If you are a service provider like a business consultant or a wellness professional where the services you sell depend on making a personal connection with other women between the ages of 40-50, Instagram is likely the place for you. You can connect with your audience 1:1, show off your behind-the-scenes, and be in a visual space with other women business owners. 

2. What kind of content can YOU create? 

There is going to be some overlap between your target audience and the channels they hang out on. To narrow down your focus further, ask yourself, “What kind of content can I commit to creating each and every single week?”

TikTok might be a great channel to tap into your audience, but if you’re not able to create daily videos, it’s unlikely to be an effective marketing strategy. Here’s a quick list of the best channels and types of content for each:

• TikTok: Short form video 
• LinkedIn: Long form writing, articles and B2B content for videos and images 
• Facebook: Video, images and articles 
• Instagram: Video and images, moving into more into short from video (Reels) 
• Pinterest: Link based posts shared from a blog 
• YouTube: Long form video 

Choose a channel (or two) that best aligns with the type of content you want to create for your business. 

3. How does this content repurpose into other places for your marketing? 

One of the most efficient ways to stay on top of content creation, is to repurpose the same content in other places. When choosing social media channels for your business, look for ones that help you in other areas of your marketing. 

Here’s a few examples:

• If you have a monthly newsletter, use the caption from your best Instagram or LinkedIn post that month as the copy for the newsletter.
• Have a company blog? Share those articles easily each week on Facebook and LinkedIn. 
• If you have a gallery on your website of images or videos, or events that you have captured, share those directly to YouTube to be found more easily. 

If you’re just starting out on social media, or looking to dive back into it, pick one channel you’re excited about and get that up and running, before you add in additional social media connections. 

The post How to Choose the Right Social Media Channel for Your Business appeared first on WeBC.

We have all heard the post-COVID19 “new-norm” hype – that the way of the future is for all businesses with a storefront to abandon it and get online. And to be fair, introducing new ways to make your business more accessible and expanding your reach to connect with new customers is never wrong.

But it’s time for a reminder that customers are why you started your business. Here are a few things to think about as we start to ramp business back up:

#1. Your ‘OLD’ Customers will always be your BEST customers

These customers already have experience with your product or service. The happy customers probably told a couple of friends. They also probably returned to your business. A few times.

Have you taken the time to reach out? An e-mail? A phone call? Something just to say Hi. To find out how they are. To let them know you made it, and perhaps to remind them that you value them (and maybe consider a small gift or discount when you see them next).

#2. Yes. Online fatigue is real.

Back-to-back Zoom meetings, online shopping, online study, and facetime with family and friends we can’t be with in person. We’ve all been through a lot over the past many months. But a familiar voice makes all the difference and genuine connections are noticed.

When you think about your customers, and you look around your shop do you see something for them? Maybe their favorite color is green. Or you know they always loved a certain style of top. Think about how you can add value to their next visit. You are here for them after all.

#3. Kindness is Key

Be good to yourself, and to your customers. If you can put yourself in their shoes…what would you like someone to do for you?

Celebrate your resilience with your customers! Know who your top 20 or 200, or 2000 customers are. And celebrate them! They deserve a medal, too.

If you are interested in learning more about how to best connect with your customers, check out our new Marketing series “Maximum Marketing, Minimum Effort: Build a Strategy Specific to Your Business.”

In this 3-part series Cathy Burrell will teach you how to use different marketing tactics to build relationships with your ideal customer. This series is designed to help you connect with the right customers and give you the building blocks to create a strong marketing strategy that will set up your business for success!

Learn more and register for the series at go.we-bc.ca/MktgSeries

The post Customer Service in the New Normal: Nothing Has Changed. appeared first on WeBC.

Sales is the engine for providing services and products, and marketing is the fuel. Here’s how to blend your marketing and sales strategies so that you can leverage them successfully in your business.

Incorporate Media and Content Creation

Content creation is one of the largest aspects of marketing. Strong content, when marketed well on social media and other digital platforms, offers a powerful medium for you to sell (and speak) directly to your customers instantly.

Incorporate content marketing and social media into your sales plan. In marketing, quality is more important than quantity. Think about where your customers “live,” especially when it comes to social media, and stick to one or two digital platforms.

Utilize a “Boots on the Ground” Approach

Face-to-face communication is another huge part of marketing. COVID-19 has created new, innovative opportunities to connect to customers. By pushing a few buttons on a computer you can reach customers all over the world instantly.

Stay connected with your clients through virtual seminars and panels or showcase new products through value-driven webinars and newsletters.

Virtual marketing puts the seller in control.

Maximize Digital Networking

Long-term sales results are based on building strong business friendships, trust, and goodwill. Digital networking helps you land client referrals, build brand awareness, and get in front of new audiences in a matter of minutes. Using tools like LinkedIn, make space to network with industry leaders, fellow executives, and of course, your customers. Include relevant sales links in your social media posts and make it easy for followers to learn more about your products.

Digital networking includes engaging on social media with relevant topics or posts or going a few steps further and attending online trade shows and conferences. Digital networking must provide value to your audience. Time is precious, and online consumers won’t engage with just anyone. Share your industry expertise giving audiences a reason to keep coming back to you and your brand.

By following these steps and to blend your marketing and sales strategies, you can leverage them successfully in your business.

The post How to Seamlessly Blend Your Marketing and Sales Strategies appeared first on WeBC.

Love them or hate them, when used properly hashtags can be a great tool to help your content be discovered by more people on Instagram.

As a social media coach, I often spend part of a session going over a hashtag strategy so that they can start to work effectively for that small businesses. Here are some of the common misconceptions around hashtags explained.

Using larger hashtags is better.

Using hashtags that have over a million uses, means that there is little to no chance that your content will be discovered in that stream. You want to pick smaller, more niche hashtags that are directly related to your content and your business so that your photos and videos will show up in one of the top squares and be discovered by more people who are following that hashtag. It’s good to have a variety of sizes, but overall, keep the huge hashtags off the list.

You should use the same 30 hashtags on each post.

Having more variety in your hashtags means that you have more ways to reach people. While some of the core hashtags in your posts might overlap, it’s better to treat each post as a fresh opportunity to reach new people.

Not using relevant hashtags to your post.

Just because something is trending or cool in the moment, doesn’t mean you should include that hashtag on your post. If you’re unsure of whether to use it or not, take a look at the top 9 posts for that hashtag and see if yours would fit in there. If the answer is no, then it’s better to skip it.

With all of these misconceptions and more around hashtags, it can be hard to know where to begin. This is why I created the hashtag workbook and webinar that launched in early November.

The 30-minute webinar covers all of these misconceptions and more including:

• Where to find hashtags for your business
• What the 5 hashtag buckets are that you need to include on each post
• What size of hashtag to use for your brand

The included workbook is an easy-to-use Google Sheet that will give you a system to keep your hashtags organized both by bucket, and by size. This will help to save you time when planning out your hashtags for each post.

If you’re tired of thinking up hashtags on the fly, this quick webinar and workbook is for you. I’ve extended my launch price of $9 CAD to Women Enterprise members. Feel free to share with a small business owner who wants to reach more people on Instagram!

The post Grow your Business on Instagram with Hashtags appeared first on WeBC.

The longer answer is that it depends on your marketing objectives, your target audience, and how much time and money you’re willing to invest.

There are dozens of free social media channels you can promote your services on from Instagram to TikTok, Facebook to Snapchat. You can spend all day creating content for an audience and reaching new people without spending a dime.

But just because something doesn’t have an upfront cost, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a trade-off. Every minute you spend posting something on Facebook is a minute you’re not spending on another aspect of your business. The time you spend creating content, learning a new system, and responding to comments, is time not spent responding to emails, working with clients, or shipping your products.

Social media is just one marketing tool that can be used to reach your audience. It works best in conjunction with an effective website, email marketing, and Google AdWords. Social media is not a replacement for these pieces, but an addition to this suite.

Often, I hear from people that they are not, “seeing results” from social media. What this usually this translates to when I dive a bit deeper is:

• Not having a content strategy for what to post (and what not to post)
• Not knowing how to use the platform(s) effectively
• Not spending enough time managing their social media channels each week
• Expecting instant results each time a piece of content is posted

Social media only works if you’re ready and willing to invest the time AND money into it, just like you would an effective website, AdWords campaign, or print ad.

If you get most of your business through in-person meetings, networking events, cold calling, or print campaigns, you might not need to add social media to your to-do list.

However, one big learning lesson that has impacted many businesses right now – if you’re a business that has relied on only in-person ways to promote your product, the pandemic has likely had a major impact on how you’re able to secure new business. Having your brand online allows you to future-proof many of the ways you find clients. As demographics shift between platforms, you may find your target demographic is now on social media. In-person meetings are a wonderful way to conduct business, but we don’t know when we will be able to resume those, and what they are going to look like in the future.

In short – do you need to have a social media presence? The better question to ask is, “Are you committed to showing up on social media to serve a purpose every day for your audience?” If the answer is YES, then everything else can be figured out.

The first step to success is creating a plan, start making your social media plan today.

The post Do I Need to Have My Brand on Social Media? appeared first on WeBC.

Just as social media can represent a huge opportunity to connect with your customers; it also has the potential to eat up a lot of your time

A social media content calendar can help you deliver content that engages your followers while saving time in the process.

Here are 4 reasons to use a content calendar to manage your social media channels:

• Social Media Strategy. A content calendar can help you plan well. What’s the purpose behind your social media channel(s)? Decide what kind of content you need to share.
• Consistency –Stay top of mind with your audience. Plan to show up 4-5 days/week for each of your channels to build an engaged following.
• Time Management:  Used effectively, a content calendar will save you time as you can plan & schedule your content in advance, letting you better focus on the day-to-day responsibilities of your business. 
• Results, Results, Results – Get the right results from your social media channels.Consistent, quality, content leads to an engaged audience!

How to set up your Content Calendar for Success.

Step 1: Look at the month ahead and plot out:

• Holidays/events/launches/sales etc. anything tied to a specific date on the calendar
• Do a work back from important launches/sales etc. Ex. One week sale on your offer
  • Last day of promotion – final offer
  • Day before – let people know it’s 24 hours the offer is over, last chance to get it
  • 3 days before – remind people why this offer will help them/change their lives
  • One week before  – announce the offer
• Create content from your business story, inspirational quotes, blog posts,  and customer testimonials
• Gather/create necessary images tied to events and launches
• Write your captions at one time in a batch.

Step 2: Schedule your Content

There are many tools (both free and paid) that will allow you to schedule to your social media platform(s) of choice. Here are a few great options to get you started:

Later – my personal choice for Instagram and other social media channels to schedule on.
Buffer  – does not have a free plan, but can integrate with every channel on social media.
Hootsuite – free and paid plans available.

Scheduling Tips:

• Post a minimum of every other day – every day is ideal!
• Check your post within one hour of it going live (when possible).
  • Respond to all comments within the first hour, this helps the algorithm to boost your post.
• Schedule your content at least one week in advance, but check in daily

I get asked frequently about the best times to post on Instagram for Photos? Based on my experience, I suggest:

• Monday and Thursday as the best days to post
• Weekdays typically perform better than weekends
• Posts do well during commute hours, lunch time and late afternoon
• Videos perform best later at night, outside of office hours

I use Google Drive to create my content calendar. I am delighted to share my content calendar template. You can get a copy here.

The post Set Up Your Content Calendar for Success appeared first on WeBC.

If so, you’re in luck. In this article, we give you a step-by-step plan for editing and assembling your videos.

1- Identify the Purpose and Key Messages

Before you do anything else it is really important to identify the goal or purpose of your video. Is it a promotional video, an educational video, or a video for entertainment? Knowing the context of what the video is supposed to accomplish helps you craft your message and story.

In addition to the message, you want to think about how you want people to feel when they watch your video. Are you trying to raise awareness, educate, or inspire? Do you want people to feel shocked, joyful, hopeful, or frustrated?

What action do you want the viewer to take after they watch your video? It is really important to identify the video’s call to action.

Do you want your viewers to buy your product or service, visit your website, like your video or subscribe? The call-to-action gives the audience a sense of direction of what you want them to do after viewing your video.

2- Create a Script or Storyboard

After you determine the purpose and key messages of the video, you’ll want to create an outline for the video. This could be in the form of a script, storyboard or a combination of both.

Your video script is the story that you want to tell in the video. In your final video, this could be done as a narration or as written text on the screen. For now, you want to write this out as it will drive the direction for the rest of your video creation. For help with this, check out our tutorial on script writing.

To expand your script in more detail, create a storyboard to help outline the visual aspect of what the audience will see in the video.

Script = Words

Storyboard = Visual Elements

3- Review and Edit Media Assets

After your video script or storyboard is created, the next step is to review all of your footage and media assets. You can see what media you currently have for your video and what you still need to collect before you begin to pull together the final video.

If you have a lot of raw video footage, you might need to trim and grab the specific bits that you want to use in the final video.

If you’re adding narration, now is also the time that would record your narration or have someone else do it for you.

You can also find free stock images, videos, and royalty-free music online to help fill in any missing media elements your video might need.

4- Assemble Your Video

You’ve found the purpose of the video, created a script, and have all your media, and now you’re ready to begin assembling the video.

This means pulling together all of the elements in the order that you want – video clips, images, narration, and background music. Depending on the software that you are using you might also want to add some motion graphics to grab your audience’s attention.

5- Publish and Share

Making a video is like creating a piece of art. After all your hard work it is time to share your masterpiece with the world! Publish your video and share it on your social media, YouTube, Vimeo, your website, or by email.

Now you have a video plan you can use to help with your next massive video editing project.

Co-authored by: Mitchell Vanlerberg – Digital Storytelling Ninja, Learn to Flourish and Lorena Klingel – Founder, Learn to Flourish

The post 5 Steps To Help Tackle Your Video Project appeared first on WeBC.

I previously shared the Four C’s of Standing Out on Instagram.

Now, here are three reasons why Instagram Stories should be at the top of your list for your social media promotions in 2019.

#1 – Free Eyeballs on Your Content

Organic reach has been declining over the past several years across both Facebook and Instagram.

One place that hasn’t seen a decline in reach (yet) is Instagram Stories.

Brands report getting as much as 37% of their total Instagram impressions from Stories. Yet, only 50% of businesses are making one Story a month or more.

Don’t miss out on those free eyeballs looking for new content, make sure your company is on board before more businesses take advantage of these free impressions.

#2 – More Authenticity

Instagram feeds are typically full of picture-perfect moments that show photoshopped products, airbrushed models, and ideal lighting.

Since Instagram Stories expire after 24 hours, it’s a great opportunity to show off the more authentic side of your product or service.

Give people the behind-the-scenes walkthrough of an event, show them the making of your next product, or what a day is really like in your business, without all the photoshopping.

Develop a more genuine connection with your followers by giving them the real deal with your business.

#3 – Drive Link Clicks

Instagram Stories offers the feature we had all been waiting for since Instagram rolled out – the ability to drive traffic to your website with a simple swipe up.

While scrolling through the main feed is a more passive activity, brands can now actively engage their users in Stories by inviting them to learn more.

You do need to have 10,000 followers to enable the swipe-up feature. However, even if your brand isn’t quite there yet, you can still invite users to take action by clicking the link in your bio.

Use a service like LinkTree to offer multiple URL destinations from the link in your Instagram profile.

If you haven’t started creating Instagram Stories for your business, there’s no time like the present.

Even if you don’t quite get it right the first, second or third time, it’s only 24 hours until the slate is wiped clean and you can try again.

The post 3 Reasons You Need to Create Instagram Stories for Your Business appeared first on WeBC.