Are you ready to maximize your marketing efforts online without feeling overwhelmed? You’ve landed in the right place, my friend. This is how I feel about IG marketing or, well, marketing in general most days as a web designer (I just want to design!).

There are so many moving parts. Stories, Reels, Feed, IGTV (is that still a thing?) Let alone all the other marketing platforms you should be on + be on all of them constantly, or the algorithm will punish you, Argh.😰 

TIP 1: Plan and Batch Content

One thing that I’ve found helpful for maximizing my marketing efforts is content planning and batching. It just takes the argh out of days when you have no idea what to post and helps keep everything pretty. I’m still getting the hang of this, to be honest.

But as we all know, video content is quickly becoming king, and it is here to stay. So if you don’t already utilize video in your marketing campaigns. I get bored on Social Media in general pretty quickly. It’s not an integral part of my life, so making it a consistent part of my business has always been a challenge for me.

How to Plan and Batch Content

Start by working solely on one content platform as your primary focus and create content for that style. It’s better to master one than spread your energy too far and not gain traction anywhere. There are so many different avenues for generating leads through content so pick what works for you. Are you a natural writer or videographer? In saying this, I also recommend you challenge yourself with some video creation if that’s not your thing. The algorithms love it.

• Create a list of content ideas
• Write out plans for each of these (e.g., talking points or article headlines).
• Gather all the equipment you need to create (laptop, phone, microphone, camera, lighting, cup of tea, lipgloss).
• Start creating!

Tip: Start with the most challenging content and work your way towards the easiest so that when you’re starting to get tired at the end of a long day, you’re more motivated to do one more because it’s easy.

Getting Active on Tiktok or Instagram

One thing that has helped me stay motivated and on track this year has been joining the On Video Membership by Elise Darma. She has a whole system she shares for optimizing your creation and scheduling on these platforms using Asana; it’s really helpful. Then her team researches the latest trends weekly and sends you ideas on what to create with adaptations for your niche (without dancing). You get both talking and trend ideas with audio links to both Tiktok and Instagram.

I’ve found these super helpful, and one thing that has been big for me on Tiktok is making the talking videos. Instagram, I haven’t had as much luck in general, but at the moment, for me, at least, IG seems to prefer it when I stick to trends.

Maximize Your Marketing on Pinterest

I have a love-frustration (hate’s a strong word) with this platform. For my first blog, I focused solely on Pinterest, which grew very well. That then brought in organic Google traffic because people were interacting with my content, so I ranked in the number one spot for several keywords! The dream, right?!

I then worked as a Pinterest manager for nearly two years, starting in 2020, which was unfortunately also around the time they made massive alterations to their algorithm. Bloggers around the globe were in dismay. Needless to say, it is still possible to grow on Pinterest, but it is trickier than it once was.

Pinterest is a Search Engine

Remember that Pinterest is a search engine (that want’s to be the next Tiktok), so it’s in this weird crisis teenage phase working itself out, but at the end of the day, the backbone lies on keywords, so if you’re going to use it be sure to put work into your all your titles and descriptions. It’s also very visual so prioritize creating eye-catching pins rather than purely aesthetic ones. We all want that beautiful feed, but often on Pinterest, the ugly stand-out ones get the clicks because they don’t wash away in a sea of pretty pins.

If you’re working on building your Pinterest, you also have to be in for the LONG haul and be consistent. It may take three months for a pin to start ranking, and it could take a year or so for you to get any real traction. Tailwind publisher is designed specifically for Pinterest and makes batching your content so easy (just be sure to request the original publisher from customer support after you sign up. I don’t know any Pinterest Managers who can find a benefit to their “new and improved publisher.”)

Master Pinterest

If Pinterest is the platform you want to master, you need to meet Amy from Levee Road Studio. She is a Pinterest Manager who reads the Pinterest engineering blogs to deeply understand algorithm updates and how it works. The best part is she teaches what she learns and her strategies in easy-to-understand ways.

While she is primarily focused on teaching Pinterest Managers (hence how I found her), everything she teaches will be helpful for anyone wanting to manage their account. She has some great free resources, like the Pinterest Strategy Guide, which she updates annually. Plus, all her paid courses are reasonably priced and of great value. I’d recommend starting with Pinterest Rank Boost 2.0 to learn the new algorithm updates and Scheduling Shortcuts to learn efficient Tailwind batching strategies to get the most out of your pin designs. I have studied a lot about Pinterest. She is now my primary go-to-guru as she does research, whereas many people merely repeat what others say, which is often outdated or inaccurate.

In addition to Amy, my top Pinterest resource to head to is The Simple Pin Podcast. This is hosted by Kate Ahl and her team at Simple Pin Media®, which is a Pinterest-focused marketing agency. They have been around for a while now and have ties with people at Pinterest, so they’re a great place to go too.

TIP 2: Reuse Content to Maximize Your Marketing

Another fundamental way to maximize your marketing efforts and ensure you are present on multiple platforms is by implementing a strategy to reuse your content. For example, if you write a blog post, then you could make a short video highlighting the top tips. In this case, I would make a video on these three tips to maximize your marketing efforts.

Then you can post that video as a:

• Reel or Story on IG,
• Video on Tiktok,
• Idea Pin on Pinterest,
• YouTube Short,
• Web Story on Google.

Other ways to use that one idea:

• Create a full-length video and upload it online,
• Adapt to become a podcast script
• Alter the article’s angle and re-phrase it to use in a guest post on another website,
• Turn it into a checklist or freebie for your email subscribers,
• Bundle it with other blogs on a similar topic and create an e-book

Of course, you wouldn’t have to do all of these, but just to give you some ideas on how far you can stretch one idea.

The other trick is that, especially for social media posts (less so blogs), you can reuse the same points because not everyone will see the first video, and maybe a good reminder for others. Some of my most popular Tiktoks have included the same tips but formatted differently. For example, in one, I’m talking and thoroughly explaining them; in another, I have a video of me pointing and the tips flashing up on the screen with music. You could also have another with slides and text rather than as a video of you.

I have also re-used the same pointing videos a couple of times with different text when I’m strapped for time. I’m not sure if I would recommend that but feel free to give it a go. But be sure to space them out, so you’re not always talking about the exact same thing, or it’s the same video.

TIP 3: Optimize Your Customer Journey

Have you got a customer journey map? It takes a lot of time and energy to make content for social so you want to ensure you’re leveraging the traffic the best way you can. If you’re an online business owner, you will need a website, so you have somewhere to direct people (there are a few business models that don’t, but they’re an exception, not the rule). 

For all of the content you are creating, think about:

• What do you want them to do next?
• What is the point?
• What positive impact are you trying to make in people’s lives?
• Does posting this make sense for my brand, and will it help my customers?

Optimize Your Customer Journey So Interested People Take Action!

So, once they land on your site, remember the path you want them to take. A website is a place to showcase your business and services. A polished, professional website builds a lot of trust with your customers. A good website also leads your customer through a journey. 

Questions to ask yourself when mapping your customer journey:

• Who are they?

• Where are they? 

• What happens when they fall in love with you on social and head to your website? 

Tip: When you’re creating content for your website, think, “How does this serve my audience?” And “What do I want them to do next?”

Improve Your Website Customer Journey

A great example of an easy tweak you can make to help maximize your marketing efforts by improving your customer journey is to include relevant links back to your products or services in your blog posts. I often see blog posts without any call to action (CTA), and it’s a lost opportunity. They get to the end of the post, and then what? They’ve now got all this juicy information they needed, helping them take the next step.

So, include a CTA to one of your products/services that will help them take the next step to work with you and get next-level results. For example, here, it makes sense for me to invite you to sign up for a website audit :).

Additionally, ensure the buttons on your website are consistent and easy to read and your text. A big part of making your customer journey efficient is to clearly let your customers know what step they need to take next and where they need to click. Another part is ensuring enough contrast between your text and the background color so people can actually see what you’re saying to them. To check this, use a color accessibility checker and make any necessary alterations (there’s a reason books are white on black text).

Get Someone To Check Your Site

When you’re assessing your website usability and the customer journey, it can be really useful to ask a friend, particularly someone not super web techy or a professional website designer, for an audit. First, let them have at it and get their thoughts. Then ask them questions about how they found the site’s usability and what they thought the messaging was.

Another handy tool, Hotjar, uses heat mapping to see where people who visit your site are most active and where you lose them. I recommend using a real person in conjunction with Hotjar, not instead, as they can give you direct feedback on their user experience of your site. As a website designer, I commonly see websites that are really confusing about their services and how I get them, so taking time with this step is a relatively easy way to stand out from the crowd.

Are you ready to maximize your marketing efforts?

These are my top tips for maximizing your marketing efforts as a lazy marketer. The key is to work smarter, not harder. As the saying goes, “quality over quantity.” While a lot of the search engines and social media platforms put pressure on us to churn out content like a sweatshop factory, as mindful business owners, we know this isn’t realistic, and in the long run, it doesn’t actually benefit our businesses if it takes away from essential money generating tasks.

My final tip here is to assess what’s working. Check your analytics and ask people how they found you. If you spend all your time on Instagram, but it’s not generating your business leads, and they’re coming from somewhere else, take a step back and focus on what’s working to maximize your marketing efforts easily and gracefully.

P.S. If you’re on the neurodivergent spectrum and struggle with marketing your business, here’s a great podcast episode with Viv Guy and Abi Rogers for you to relate to.