Analyze your Business to Create Strategies
The Power of Instagram
Much analysis is involved if you want to start and run a successful business. The good news is much of this analysis can happen before your business is open or even finalized, and ideally, you're getting paid to do something else at the same time :)
The more research, analysis, and planning you can do before opening your business, the better for your wallet and your time management.
So, let's dive into what we are analyzing.
The Start of Instagram
I'm going to be completely frank. When I started creating content for Instagram, it was the year Instagram began... I'm revealing my age here :)
There was no such thing as influencers- only models, actors, musicians, professional athletes, etc. Those were the folks that I documented. They seldom took their content. I made money by taking content of them doing what they were famous for. But times have changed, and an appetite for media has changed with those times.
Instagram's Evolution and the Need for Analysis
The social media audience craves reality, transparency, and authenticity. They want to hear from real-life people who have experienced the actual service product or place. With that change and desire has come a shift in marketing strategy because the old-school ways of "seeing is believing" are no longer.
So why does this shift matter to you?
It impacts the way you showcase your business. It affects the people you work with, the content they create, how you write, where and when you post, and even the types of promotions and causes your business can and should be a part of.
But how do you know what your brand audience specifically wants?
Should you create your content based on the image you want to portray? Should you create content based on what your competitors are doing? Or maybe your role model businesses?
While this might have once been the case, it is no longer the case, and you must do research into your specific audience to know what works and what doesn't work, thus the audit. I wish we had started doing audits for our clients from the get-go, but we are also learning and evolving like you. And social media trends are changing so quickly that even a few years ago, we didn't realize how important an audit was. OK, now you're probably wondering what an audit is besides something related to my taxes and something I did poorly.
Competitive and Marketing Analysis
The audit we are talking about is an in-depth analysis of your brand. We break it into several facets and recommend all three for our clients. However, all three styles do not necessarily apply to every brand. The first audit is part of your business plan. Many of you might have started businesses without even writing a business plan, which is OK in a sense, but you might have missed some key things that are biting you in the butt right now. This process is also known as a competitive analysis. It would help if you looked at who your competition is:
1) What are they doing?
2) What are they called?
3) How are they making things?
4) How are they marketing themselves?
5) What marketing language are they using?
6) What are they doing good versus bad?
7) What can you learn from their triumphs and struggles that are visible to the naked eye?
Competitive Analysis
This competitive analysis is the research phase and ideally keeps you from making the same mistakes your competitors have made. Hopefully, it will keep you from creating the same business with a different name and allow you to differentiate your brand. It also helps you avoid choosing a name similar to your competition. This phase also includes a market analysis because your research needs to extend beyond your competition. Again, this should've been part of your business plan, but time remains.
Market Analysis
Look at other brands doing things well; what are they doing so well, and how are they doing it? Take screenshots. Write notes. The name you chose might already be used by a completely unrelated brand, which is OK, except they might have also selected the best Instagram handle and URL affiliated with that name. That causes problems for you and could confuse customers who search your brand name and find a different result. So picking a name, picking a platform on which you speak up for something, picking a logo, picking your colors, writing your mission, vision, values, writing your about me, all of this is a part of this phase. Now that you know a bit about the phase 1 audit, you can do it independently based on this email or hire us. The last option is a hybrid where you research independently but have us consult with you to make sense of that research and develop a marketing and business plan. The choice is yours; we are here to help you in whatever makes sense for you and your business.
The next type of audit should apply to everyone because Instagram is the best free marketing tool out there.
Instagram Audit and Analysis
Instagram is a way to showcase your products or services and your brand, connect with new people, direct people to where they can buy, and give information about your business to people who don't visit your website; the list goes on. Some would say that Instagram has become more of a platform for information and consumption than for sharing stories and life's moments, as it once was. So why do you need to conduct an in-depth analysis of your Instagram? So you don't blow it on your time and resources!
Content Planning
In other words, don't hire a content creator to create content at random with no set plan. It would help if you thought about:
1) The content you don't currently have
2) The content that performed the best versus the worst. What styles were those content? Were there people in them, and if so, who? What was so special about those people that made your viewers connect? Were those posts videos or photos? What was the subject of the content?
3) Is there one aspect of your business you must demonstrate through social media content? Now is the time to take note.
4) Did all your reels once do good, but now they're not?
5) Did you used to have more engagement, but now you don't?
Sadly, the answers to those last two have more to do with continuously changing algorithms. But it's still good to take note and approach this as it is a scientific experiment.
We highly recommend using scheduling software that provides detailed analytics or using Meta for its analytics to see how things performed in different categories.
Content shoots are expensive and take time, so there should be a purpose for what you pay for. You know you will also do specific promotions, celebrate certain holidays, or launch certain products. In that case, these things should be thought of well in advance so you can schedule content shoots and markers on your social media and continue with a cohesive flow.
We provide this type of audit as a complementary service to any of our year-long, monthly paying clients to wrap up a year and make plans for the following year. When we conduct an audit, it even helps us decide if certain events should be planned, where, and how.
You should assess:
What people and businesses you should collaborate with
What social causes you want to take on
What limited edition items do you want to release and where
Analysis is critical to successful social media planning and growth. Through this little intro, you can conduct your own social media analysis. Pay attention to the competitive and market analysis, including an in-depth look at your competition's Instagram, which will also influence your Instagram plan. Just like our competitive and market analysis audit, if you don't want to do this on your own, we offer a hybrid service where you can do the research, and we help you to make a plan based upon the results, or we can do the entire process for you. There's no wrong way to do this, but maximizing your time and budget and growing as a brand is essential.
The final audit is a website audit- something you might be more familiar with.
Website Audit and Analysis
Our dedicated web developer always starts her redesign contracts with a website audit
UX and SEO experts often conduct website audits to see what is going wrong with your website, why customers are not converting, and other factors that might make your website less successful. Our team can provide these in-depth UX audits and provide recommendations. We are also able to execute those recommendations. We consider these components of the website audit to be an internal audit. Because there is another aspect to the audit, the external audit. The external audit concerns visuals and the aesthetic factors that increase browsing time. The recommendations from an external audit are about putting your best foot forward and showcasing your business because first impressions are everything in today's competitive digital market. Your website and how you present your brand need to beat the competition and provide enough value that someone would buy from you instead of a knockoff or something similar based on a lower price. It's essential to create value value, trust, and faithful customers. You can choose if you want an internal or external audit or both. You can choose if you wish only to make recommendations, execution, or both. However, we realize that many of you still need websites. Hence, we are happy to make suggestions or create a simple templated site to be a place to share additional information and help you drive traffic and increase sales.
Please remember that our website audits are the most complex, time-consuming, and costly. OK, well, that's everything on audits for now. As with any of our services, we can provide a one-time or monthly consulting session for your brand about one or multiple services to help you do the work independently. We cannot do all the work for all the businesses, and we will not pretend we can nor want to. We hope to help you grow, stay up-to-date, and never lose your value system, which makes your brand unique. Unrelated to building the foundations of your business and marketing. We also offer sustainability audits, which look at what you currently do that would classify as sustainable business practices. We also look at all that your business is doing that can be altered to make it more sustainable or ethical, and we can list those in order of cost and ease of integration. These aspects might include packaging, production facility, transportation, utilities, etc.
Sustainable and Ethical Audit and Implementation
This sustainable and ethical audit is much more than simply decreasing waste, carbon footprint, and dollars spent. It's also about increasing your contribution to your immediate community and society. We will look at who your brand is and what you do and make suggestions based on where your location and your values. We will also suggest ways to incorporate your customers into that contribution plan. There are a lot of tips related to this in our handbook, which is why we are brief now. You should download a free copy of our Ecopreneur handbook and do what you can because you might not need our help.
Additionally, we are planning on releasing industry-specific Eco printer workbooks shortly, Which, for the most part, will eliminate the need for our sustainable consulting and audit services. However, we will still offer those for clients who want a completely customized and personal approach, regular check-ins, and assistance. We also still provide personalized services for those wanting waste or energy audits conducted of their businesses or individuals who wish to pursue a more plan with certifications and nonprofit partnerships.
Audit and Analysis Conclusion
It's a lot of information and a lot of work, but conducting these audits yourself or with us is worthwhile! We won't give away ALL our secrets, but if you are feeling overwhelmed by what you’ve read and don’t think you can do the necessary research on your own, you might be the perfect client for us, as strategic marketing is our specialty!!
Any questions? Let us know!
