Effective Online Marketing for Small Businesses with Crystal Vilkaitis

Unlock the secrets to optimizing your online customer service and driving sales with insights from social media expert Crystal Vilkaitis! Discover how to maintain an effective online presence by mastering search engine optimization, ensuring brand consistency, and crafting copy that speaks directly to your audience's needs. Crystal's expert tips on leveraging reviews and testimonials will help build trust, while her advice on using AI tools like ChatGPT makes engaging content creation accessible to all. Learn the importance of updating your online content regularly to keep up with evolving customer needs and preferences.

Crystal shares her expertise on using AI to identify and address common customer issues, transforming your marketing efforts into meaningful interactions that foster long-term relationships. Find out how shifting your focus from self-promotion to highlighting the customer's journey can create deeper connections. Plus, learn how to grow your email list through social media and overcome the fear of spamming, ensuring your campaigns reach the right audience. Don't miss out on Crystal's invaluable advice to maximize sales and drive website traffic through effective email marketing.

Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!

Transcript

Jennifer Johnson: 0:37

When we think of customer service, we usually think about in-store and in-person. However, with so many transactions happening online, we really need to give some serious thought about how we're showing up online. Whether it's a simple response to a Facebook or Instagram question, or maybe a DM or an email or a Google review, we send and respond to customer issues online all the time, just like in the store. Online, we also need to be at the top of our game. This week's podcast is dedicated to how we show up online and how we can translate great customer service online just as we do offline. Please join me in the conversation, so let's get started.

Jennifer Johnson: 1:18

Today, we welcome back into the studio Crystal Vilkaitis. She is the owner of Crystal Media. She's a world-class social media expert, a powerful speaker who helps small businesses shine online and bring their unique brilliance to local and global masses. Welcome back. Thank you, jennifer. I'm thrilled to be back. I am excited to talk about this topic because online is where we're at. We've been there for some time. It changes every so often as to where everybody's interest is lying or where we should be putting our interest, but ultimately, what is maybe one or two of the most important online marketing strategies that a business of any size really can have. And I know we focus a lot on small business because that's you know, I don't even know what the number is, but like 90% of our country. But what are some strategies?

Crystal Vilkaitis: 2:11

Yeah, okay, so you have to have some sort of online presence. I mean, this is where the consumer is turning to find products and services to buy. They're going to their mobile device. If you have physical goods, you're a retailer. We're searching for black boots near me. It's intent-based, it's what do I need right now, and you need to be showing up for those things. If we're searching to go out to eat, to find a chiropractor, whatever, we're going to our phones, and so we're really wanting to get that information easily.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 2:46

So, as a small business owner, you've got to make sure that you know exactly what your customers, what are they searching for? What are they putting in Google to find what you sell and are you actually optimized for those things? Are they going to find you? Define what you sell and are you actually optimized for those things? Are they going to find you? Of course, from a search engine optimization standpoint, with your keywords, your descriptions, your titles, that's kind of like the backend stuff. But you also have to have a really solid front end for your brand, a consistent brand that clearly communicates your promise. How do you help people? What can they expect working with you? Is there a transformation that they'll see? Is there a guarantee? What is your unique value proposition? And I think that a lot of small businesses can skip that step. We're just so excited to do our business and connect with people and to sell and be an entrepreneur or be a business owner that we put, put our stuff online and then you, a customer, can go to your site and be like, I'm not really sure what they do, I'm not really sure if this is right for me.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 3:51

You know so copy as frustrating for some, like I know that that's hard writing. Good copy that connects with people, that immediately they can say, yes, this is exactly what I'm looking for. Or, ooh, tell me more. Like I need to learn more about this. Um, it's going to come from your copy and you've got to be consistent across the board with the messaging and the look and the feel. So, whether that is social media, that's your, your um. If you sell online e-com if it's your online site, you don't sell online more like a brochure information. If you have local listings anywhere that has your information online, it's got to be consistent, and so that's a starting point and that's really foundational Some of these foundational things that we skip over or we haven't checked in on in a while. So I want to make sure that they've got their messaging Use.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 4:49

You know, if you're not a copywriter, if you don't have a budget to hire a copywriter, using AI can help write this for you. Chatgpt is my preferred. There's a lot of different options out there, but that can be a great tool to write this copy and you want to address pain points so people really resonate. They're like oh yeah, I'm struggling with that, and then you want to say so that you know like you want that transition, you're feeling this and so that how I'm going to help you. Now the solution on how I help you and then also copy that I really appreciate from brands is when they say who this is not for. You know like really calling out who, who is this for, who is it not for? How we help you, and then integrating reviews, testimonials. Integrating reviews, testimonials, customer proof, case studies. All of that is really important to have from an online perspective, because I haven't met you yet. I have to build the trust, and a lot of that trust comes from hearing from your customers.

Jennifer Johnson: 5:55

I love that. You said you need to check in A lot of people. You know our businesses are not crockpots. People. You know it's not a fix and forget kind of thing. You know make it a point to do it quarterly, to go back in and, okay, what do I have on my website? Is that still consistent with? Not that it's going to change every quarter, but just to do a double check because we don't see it always in the first go around.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 6:22

It's true, and the customer is changing very fast. So what they're searching for, what they need, how they say things to you, is it congruent to what's on your website? You have to speak the language that they're speaking, and that's one thing that some professional brands might do, like lawyers or doctors or dentists might have certain copy that they're using that just completely doesn't resonate. Say things how your customer would say it. Really, talk to them. I don't know the exact level, but I think that most copy is supposed to be written to where fourth grader could understand it. That's not good as well, yeah, so make sure that it is very understandable, but it's got to connect. That copy's got to connect with them.

Jennifer Johnson: 7:11

And, like you said, you could use AI to help you if you're stuck, Because I know we can all get into the lingo that we have in our businesses. Like you mentioned a doctor or a lawyer, they're going to have lingo and those of us that are not doctors or lawyers may not have a clue. If they're trying to talk to us in their lingo. We're not going to have a clue what they're saying.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 7:34

Exactly, and it's going to be a roadblock right there.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 7:36

Yeah, and sometimes we like to have catchy things, like fun kind of cutesy things, and those can work well in certain places and depending on how we're using it.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 7:51

But it could be confusing for the customer and, as Don Miller says, one of my favorite business coaches confuse you lose. Miller says one of my favorite business coaches confuse you lose. So you know, if you're like we've got this seven part framework and we call it the butterfly effect framework or so I'm making up I'm not good on the fly, I'm making this up and, uh, you know, and they're like, and we take you through the wing of this and the all this fun stuff that we do with you, and you're reading this and you're like, oh, this sounds so complex, like overwhelming. No, thanks, I don't want that. This sounds like work, you know. So just be careful with some of those things too. It should be like three steps, very easy, on how we support you, speak the language to me, connect, let me hear stories through your customers, um, so I can quickly identify if I should work with you or not.

Jennifer Johnson: 8:42

And I love that you mentioned Donald Miller, because that was going to be something that I was going to bring up, and he wrote a book Brand Story. Yeah, Story. Brand, story Brand, and it's all about you're not the hero as the business owner. You are not the hero. Your customer is the hero. You are the guide, yep, and that's all about finding those pain points that they have and then helping them. You guide them to your solution, kind of thing.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 9:11

So I'm glad you brought that up.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 9:13

Yes, it's so true. A lot of businesses are like look how amazing I am, I can help you. I am here, yep, and that's as a resident. Nobody cares. They're like, no. So one thing that I teach a lot of our retailers to do is go to AI. I use Chetchu PT and put in list the top five pain points my customers have. I am a fill in the blank.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 9:40

Whatever kind of business you are and I kind of keep it broad to begin with Don't feed it information of. Here are some of the examples of pain points. No, I want it to just see what it comes up with on its own, because it's hard to see the picture when we're in the frame. And AI could come up with some of these pain points that you are like oh, yes, I deal with this almost daily with my customers. Then you go to your website and you're like oh, we haven't even talked about it, we're not even pressing it, we're not even talking about it in our social media, our email. Like use AI to also help make sure that you're hitting those pain points, and then you could go deeper with different prompts and get more information with it. But that's a really good starting point to make sure that you are addressing the pain of your customers.

Jennifer Johnson: 10:27

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Jennifer Johnson: 11:00

All right, friends, we are back in studio with Crystal Vilkaitis and we are talking about how to market your business online. We were just talking about as the business. You are not the hero, I'm sorry to tell you. You're not the hero. Your customer is, and you're just there to guide them. So, as you're guiding them, how can we use the power of social media? Because everybody's on it? We have this every day like this. We are on our phones all the time. How can we use social media to really engage with our customers, and not always? I'm going to let you take it from there. I have an opinion, but I'm going to Totally.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 11:38

Well, okay, so I've been teaching social media for over a decade and a lot of the businesses I work with there's a lot of resistance when it comes to social media for a lot of different reasons, but ultimately it's often fear.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 11:50

We do have a fear of putting ourselves out there, of what people will think of the content, of messing up, of how we look, of how we sound, of success, of failure, of so many different things, and so we don't make social media a priority. It's back burner. And then we often say, oh, I don't have time, and it feels like it's this daunting task that I have to do. And there's a lot of frustration around social media. Not everybody. Some people love it and they do such a great job, but majority of the people I've seen for over a decade it's like, oh, it's this I have to do. Yeah, again, oh, my God, you're telling me I have to do this every day, multiple times a day, like no, and so I am very much a believer that you can do other forms of marketing and still be successful. It's not only social media is the only way for you to be successful, but the thing is, like you said, jennifer's, people are on their phones every single day. We are going to sleep with our phones. We're waking up with our phones. So now we have an opportunity to get in bed with our customers, like where they spend their time. They're scrolling when they watch TV, when they're in lines, when they're at work this is where they show up. The average person spends three hours and 16 minutes on their cell phone. Gen Z spent that's a day. Gen Z spends over six hours a day. That's crazy, crazy. It's crazy. So, but this is where the attention is right, and so, instead of the, I have to use social media. You get to use social media, like.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 13:28

You get the option, the ability to show up to your customers where they are, wherever they are, on a platform that they use every single day, multiple times a day, and so marketing all of a sudden has become so much easier to build relationships with your customers. They get to know who you are and when. We are learning about people and we keep consistently seeing them show up on our feed. We start resonating, we start liking them, we want more, we start trusting them, and this is how we can build these lifelong customers. Now you can also, especially from a product perspective. We're doing a lot of shopping here as well, and so I can be. The algorithm delivers me the right kind of information based on what it knows of me. And if you've got these, you know I'll go back to the black boots. You know awesome black boots. You're doing a TikTok live and I see I'm like, oh my gosh, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I might not even know this retailer, but I'm going and I'm hitting that buy button. Shopping is just exploding, especially through, like, social commerce is exploding, especially through TikTok shops, and so we get the ability to connect.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 14:40

I think that it's really important for businesses to keep that in mind and to again going back to the pain points. Talk about your customer's pain through social media. It's not all about you. Here's my promotion, here's my sale, here's my event, here's what we do now, like that. That is noise. People are going to scroll past. That it's gotta be about. Oh, you have a pain point. Here's how I can solve it. Talk about your customers. Give them tips. Talk about trends like give more rich information that really connects to them. The algorithms are getting so much better that they'll deliver that kind of content to the right type of people that they will actually watch that content and engage with it if it resonates to them, and the only way it's going to resonate is if it's about them, if it's for them. So I want you know I'm definitely have a goal here to help change the mindset around social media and and the other.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 15:37

The final thing I'll say about it is that it doesn't have to take a lot of time. There is definitely a misconception that social media has to take hours a day. It doesn't. Some of the best performing content right now on all the top platforms Instagram, facebook, tik TO TikTok is just talking to the camera, like do a walk and talk. You know you could sit here, just face it, and that takes you a minute or less. You know like it's so quick.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 16:04

You can add your captions. You can add, you know, if it is I, it's a video base, so I would add those auto captions so people can read it along with what you're saying. If they don't have audio turned on cause most people don't have audio turned on add your quick caption and then you've posted, you've connected, um, so it's just there's. There's scheduling tools. Ai can help write some of this for you. Ai can come up with content ideas for you. It can map out an entire 30 day, month long strategy of what to post where, and here's the picture you'll get. Here's the video you'll do. Follow that guide, schedule it. It does not take hours a day to do your social.

Jennifer Johnson: 16:40

And I will attest to that a hundred percent. And I laugh because we talked about people like I don't want to be on camera, I don't want to do this, and literally. So I full disclaimer here. I do work with Crystal Media I have for many years, and Grecia is who I work with and I was literally just having a conversation with her and we were mapping out a strategy for one of my companies and she's like you're never on video. She called me out. She's like you're never on video.

Jennifer Johnson: 17:11

And it's not for the lack of me. I don't mind being on video, it's just I have all these other things that I'm doing and I'm like, oh my gosh, you're right, I may show up on video for one company, but not the other. Why, I don't know why. So I made it a goal. Okay, I put it on my planner. It's actually on my wall, so I do it. Show up on video once a week for that company. Sometimes it takes somebody else from the outside to step in and say you're not doing this, why are you not doing this? And then you do it. And there's something about video. People like to see people on video, whether it's live or recorded.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 17:54

It's so true. Video is the name of the game. We're recording this in the beginning of 2024, and it's the name of the game for social media, and it is the way that you have the opportunity to beat out your competitors, whether it's the person down the street or it's big box, because the majority of people aren't leveraging it, they don't feel comfortable, they don't have a Gracia who's reminding you to do it. That's looking at again. It's hard to see the picture when you're in the frame. So, having that support, giving you those ideas, big boxes are just not going to be. They can't they, they can't have that person that you build that relationship with. So this is where I just feel like independence and small businesses just have a massive opportunity.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 18:40

And there's a lot of headlines right now about personal branding. You're hearing so much about personal branding. You're hearing that the brand is dead. Don't focus on a brand. It's all about the personal brand, the PR, the people or the person behind the brand, and you've got to showcase them and there's power in that. I don't necessarily feel that the brand is dead. I actually think that there's a lot of opportunity for small businesses to create a brand, to have the messaging, to create a brand people want to belong to, and so I don't necessarily believe that. But you're seeing so many of the headlines because it is true, we're seeing people sell products, people sell services, people build the relationships, and that's what video is what's going to work best on social Right, and I can attest to that for sure.

Jennifer Johnson: 19:29

And one last thing before before we close I want to talk about email marketing just briefly, Because I remember when it was huge and then everybody kind of poo-pooed it. They're like nobody reads their emails, or I'm sending too many emails and they're not opening them. I'm afraid I'm going to lose people, and so they stopped doing a lot of marketing on email sending emails and now we're seeing a resurgence of that. What's your take on the whole email marketing?

Crystal Vilkaitis: 19:54

Oh, big fan. Actually, at Crystal Media, we're testing running email marketing for our retailers. Right now we don't do their email and we're testing doing it for them because I know, again, just finding the time and getting in and sitting down and clicking the buttons and getting your email ready, like people don't want to do it or don't want to find the time. But there's so much gold in email marketing and often what we're finding is you'll sell more through email. No matter what kind of business you are, you're going to do your selling through email. You tend to not see as many sales from social media, but social media can grow your list. You just got to make sure that you have an active way that you're encouraging people to join your email list. So it grows the list, it builds the brand, it builds the relationship, it builds brand awareness. But you've got to get them on your list and this is where sales are happening. This is when they show up for the event, this is when they click over onto your website and so, um, I mean, I feel like we could take over retailers emails and with a click of a few buttons, we make them tens of thousands of dollars more because they're not using them.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 21:06

There's a misconception that, oh, I don't want to email anybody, that I don't want to be spam, I don't want to be annoyed annoying to my customers. They you know, oh, if I have their email address, maybe I'll send you once a month, and that's like they're selling. They're scared. Yes, and here's the deal. If I join your email list, it's because I want to hear from you, I want to know what's going on, and if I don't want to hear from you anymore, I can unsubscribe, and that's okay.

Crystal Vilkaitis: 21:41

If you get unsubscribes, people think like, oh, no, I sent an email and 10 people unsubscribed and it's like no, that's okay. Guess what? They may come back to you. Now's not the right time. They're binging right now. Who cares? The reason you have to keep sending for those people that want to hear from you. And one of the best ways to get through to people because there isn't an algorithm get into their email inbox. You are still competing with other marketers and their work emails and personal emails, whatever, but they have a better chance of seeing your messaging in their email inbox than they do on scrolling through the feed hoping that the algorithm will deliver it to them.

Jennifer Johnson: 22:20

Right, yeah, email marketing is definitely a really great tool to be using right now. Crystal, it has been so wonderful having you on my show today. If our listeners want to get in touch with you, how can they do so?

Crystal Vilkaitis: 22:33

Yep, best way is my email, crystal at crystalmediacocom, and I also am most active over on Instagram, so if you want to connect there, I am crystalvilkaitis, just type in crystalvilkaitis, I'll pop up, dm me and we'd love to connect there.

Jennifer Johnson: 22:51

Fabulous. Thank you so much again. Thank you, jennifer, this is so fun.