Tag Archives: social media

When Your Firm Needs 3,000 Words: The Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service

This post talks about the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service, describes why your firm would elect that service over three of my other services, and explains how the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service works.

By Karl Thomas Moore – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58968347

Yes, I used the words “why” and “how” in the introduction to this post. It’s a habit (see my December 2022 e-book).

Four ways that Bredemarket provides written content

I know that the experts say that you’re NOT supposed to give your prospects a multitude of choices, and that you should keep your offerings simple. Sometimes REALLY simple.

From https://www.azquotes.com/quote/366577

But I’ve ignored the experts (again) and I’m giving Bredemarket’s prospects four options for content creation. I’ll briefly touch on three of them before describing the fourth one, the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service. Once I’m done, you’ll know when you want to elect Bredemarket 2800, and when you’ll want to elect one of the other three options:

  • Bredemarket 4000 (by the hour),
  • Bredemarket 4444 (by the month), or
  • Bredemarket 400 (by the small project).

One: by the hour (Bredemarket 4000 Long Writing Service)

By Jahobr – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58350319

Sometimes you don’t know the parameters of your project, or perhaps you may have multiple projects that require Bredemarket’s assistance. In those cases, Bredemarket bills by the hour using something I call the Bredemarket 4000 Long Writing Service.

One example of a use case for the Bredemarket 4000 Long Writing Service is proposal work. Proposals can be complex things, which is why the Shipley Business Development Method has 96 steps.

The first part of the Shipley Business Development Lifecycle. From http://sbdl.shipleywins.com/.

Whether it’s proposal work or something else, I do the work (however much work there is) and bill you for the hours that I worked.

Two: by the month (Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer)

Perhaps you have ongoing needs and just need me to be available for a certain number of hours each month, yet you’re not ready to hire a full-time person to do the work. In that case, the Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer is the package that is best for you. With this level of commitment, I am embedded as part of your organization.

By Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2407244

As I assert in the post “Three Levels of Engagement With Your Content Creator,” a retainer offers a happy middle ground between full-time employment and single project work. It gives you work flexibility, budget predictability, and consultant accessibility.

Three: by the small project (Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service)

But what if you know the scope of your project, and it is a single simple project? If you only need between 400 and 600 words of text, then the ideal package for you is the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service.

By Unknown author – postcard, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7691878

As I note in the Bredemarket 400 video and brochure (both available here), common use cases requiring between 400 and 600 words of text include:

If your project only requires 400 to 600 words (give or take), the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service is ideal for you.

But what if you need more words than that? A lot more?

Why would you need 3,000 words?

There are a few cases in which your firm may need roughly 3,000 words of text, rather than the roughtly 500 words of text described above.

  • Longer blog posts. Often blog posts are pretty short and fit well within a 400 to 600 word limit. But sometimes you need longer, more detailed blog posts that delve into a topic more deeply. If you need 3,000 words to tell your story, tell it.
  • Longer LinkedIn articles. In most cases, social media postings will not hit the 3,000 word mark. (For some social media platforms it’s near impossible to hit that limit anyway.) One notable exception is LinkedIn articles, which can enter into the same detail as a long blog post. If your audience is on LinkedIn, then place your content natively on LinkedIn (repurposing it to your blog for your non-LinkedIn prospects if you like).
  • Longer case studies. Case studies can vary in length. As it turns out, the case studies that Bredemarket has written for its clients are simple two-pagers (including graphics) and fit well within the Bredemarket 400 parameters. But perhaps your case study demands richer detail.
  • White papers. While one may debate about the semantics of what is a white paper vs. what is not a white paper, you may demand a document that requires around 3,000 words of detail.
  • The content type that you know about, but I don’t. You may require a particular piece of content that doesn’t fit into the nice neat categories above, but requires text of between 2,800 and 3,200 words.

In these cases, the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service provides the content you need.

But is Bredemarket 2800 the same as Bredemarket 400, with more words and a higher price?

No.

Longer content requires a slightly different process.

How the Bredemarket 2800 process differs from the Bredemarket 400 process

Admittedly there are some obvious similarities between Bredemarket 400 and Bredemarket 2800.

Astronaut Scott Kelly along with his brother, former Astronaut Mark Kelly. Photo Date: January 19, 2015. Location: Building 2. By Robert Markowitz – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/16335632852/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37967329
  • Both have a defined process. I don’t just start randomly writing and give you stuff.
  • Both have a kickoff.
  • Both have draft cycles where I create content drafts.
  • Both have review cycles where you review content drafts.
  • Both have a final deliverable.

But there are differences in the details.

Adult fraternal twins. By Dpulitzer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29964235

The Bredemarket 2800 kickoff

The kickoff is an important part of the content creation process, since the questions I ask during the kickoff (since expanded) ensure that I produce the right content at the end of the process.

The kickoff ensures that the final written content (a) answers the WHY/HOW/WHAT questions about you, (b) advances your GOAL, (c) communicates your BENEFITS, and (d) speaks to your TARGET AUDIENCE. It is both iterative and collaborative.

The beginning of the Bredemarket Kickoff Guide that I use. There are many, many more questions that I haven’t disclosed. Do you want to learn them? Buy the service.

The basic work during the kickoff is pretty much the same as for Bredemarket 400, although you and I will probably go in-depth on certain items, and there is a higher chance that the content specifications will be more detailed (for example, goals for each subsection of the content).

  • You and Bredemarket agree upon the topic, goal, benefits, and target audience (and, if necessary, outline, section sub-goals, relevant examples, and relevant key words/hashtags, and interim and final due dates).
  • For complex content requiring input and approval of multiple subject matter experts, you and Bredemarket agree on a preliminary list of tasks, assigned persons, and due dates.
  • For content that must be incorporated into your content management system, you and Bredemarket agree on the necessary format and other parameters. Otherwise, the final copy will be provided in Microsoft Word docx format, including (as appropriate) callout indicators, hyperlinks, key words, and/or hashtags.
  • For projects requiring multiple related pieces of content, you and Bredemarket agree upon the desired frequency of content.

The Bredemarket 2800 prework

Sometimes one or two additional things will happen before I start writing the first draft.

  • I may need to interview one of your customers or subject matter experts—for example, to obtain the facts necessary for a case study or white paper.
  • I may need to conduct additional research, as agreed upon by us during the kickoff.

The Bredemarket 2800 drafts

Once I’m ready, I start writing.

Between you and me, I create a draft 0.5, sleep on it (sometimes literally), and then create a much more succinct draft 1.0. See “Your writers (in this case me) should be succinct,” in my post “Which Words Should Your Marketers Use? My Four Suggestions.”

It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that it takes longer to write 3,000 words than it takes to write only 500 words. Therefore, I allow myself up to seven days (actual days, not working days) to produce the first draft. (Contrast this with Bredemarket 400, in which I commit to create a draft within three days.)

Then I hand the draft over to you for the first review.

After I receive your review comments, I work on the second draft (again, taking up to seven days) and hand it over for the second review.

Then (if necessary) I work on the third draft and hand it over for the third review. Unlike Bredemarket 400, which only includes two reviews, Bredemarket 2800 includes three reviews because of the higher complexity of the content.

At the end, I provide you with the final copy.

But what if you need your content much more quickly than the 1-2 months it may take to go through all three of the draft and review cycles?

  • Then we’ll mutually adjust the parameters (and the billing) accordingly.
  • However, remember that when I adjust my deliverable schedule, it also affects your deliverable schedule as described below.

The Bredemarket 2800 reviews

As decribed above, you will receive up to three review copies during the process.

Because this is a collaborative process, your participation is important to ensure that I create the proper content for your firm. So be prepared to spent the time necessary to ensure that the content is right.

I realize that you probably don’t have a lot of time to review consultant content. If you did have a lot of time, then you’d probably write the content yourself rather than asking a consultant to do it. For this reason, I give you seven days to review each draft, rather than the three days that I give to firms that elect the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service.

Of course, if you require a more rapid turnaround, then you’ll need to review the drafts much more quickly, in the same way that I’ll need to write the drafts much more quickly.

The Bredemarket 2800 end product

After the kickoffs, drafts, and reviews, I’ll provide the final copy in Microsoft Word docx format, unless we’ve agreed on some other format. This will give you the content you need to put in your blog, in an article on your LinkedIn page, or in whatever content you need.

Where can I get more details?

You can get more details on the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service page.

Or you can read the brochure, which includes the standard price.

Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service (June 2022)Download

So how can my company benefit from Bredemarket 2800?

Are you ready to move forward in creating content the Bredemarket 2800 way?

Then we need to talk.

  • If necessary, we can discuss things further before you move forward.
  • If you’re ready to move forward, we can hold the kickoff and get the process going.

Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.

Bredemarket logo

Bredemarket Work Samples, the Video Edition

I can’t share work samples that I created for Bredemarket clients, because they are ghostwritten “works for hire” that are not publicly attributed to Bredemarket.

(For the same reason, I can’t share most work samples that I created for my previous employers.)

But I CAN share work samples that I created for…Bredemarket.

The video containing this image can be found on various Bredemarket properties.

Actually, you can search through the entire Bredemarket website and social media outlets and find them.

Or you can just watch the video below, which summarizes everything.

Bredemarket Work Samples, August 2023.

How Bredemarket Works

Bredemarket logo

(Updated question count 10/23/2023)

I’m stealing an idea from Matthew Mace and adapting it to explain how Bredemarket works.

What am I stealing from Matthew Mace?

Matthew Mace is a freelance content writer who recently posted the following on LinkedIn:

Do you need a freelance content writer but don’t know what to expect?

I created a “work with me” pdf that explains what I do and how I can help you.

From https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewmace-contentmarketing_cycling-running-wellness-activity-7094675414727450624-8U_Y/

His post then explains what is included in his “work with me” PDF. If you’d like his PDF, send him a message via his LinkedIn profile.

But what if I want to know how to work with Bredemarket?

Glad you asked.

After reading Mace’s LinkedIn post, I realized that I have a bunch of different online sources that explain how to work with Bredemarket, but they’re scattered all over the place. This post groups them all the “how to work with Bredemarket” content together, following an outline similar (yet slightly different) to Mace’s.

And no, it’s not a stand-alone PDF, but as you read the content below you’ll discover two stand-alone PDFs that address critical portions of the process.

Question 1: Why would I work with Bredemarket?

As you’ll see below, “why” is a very important question, even more important than “how.” Here are some reasons to work with Bredemarket.

By Federal Bureau of Investigation – https://washingtonian.com/2016/11/24/the-fbi-opened-its-crime-lab-here-in-dc-back-in-1932, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128508441
  • You require the words to communicate the benefits of your identity/biometrics product/service. I offer 29 years of experience in the identity/biometrics industry and am a biometric content marketing expert and an identity content marketing expert. I have created multiple types of content (see below) to share critical points about identity/biometrics offerings.
  • You require the words to communicate the benefits of your technology product/service. I have also created multiple types of content to share critical points about technology offerings.
  • You require the words to communicate the benefits of a product/service you provide to California’s Inland Empire. I’ve lived in the Inland Empire for…well, for more than 29 years. I know the area—its past, its present, and its future.
  • You require one of the following types of content. Blogs, case studies / testimonials, data sheets, e-books, proposals, social media posts / Xs (or whatever tweets are called today), white papers, or anything. I’ve done these for others and can do it for you.

Question 2: Why WOULDN’T I work with Bredemarket?

This question is just as important as the prior one. If you need the following, you WON’T want to work with Bredemarket.

  • You require high quality graphics. Sorry, that’s not me.
I did not draw this myself. Originally created by Jleedev using Inkscape and GIMP. Redrawn as SVG by Ben Liblit using Inkscape. – Own work, Public Domain, link.
  • You are based outside of the United States. Foreign laws and exchange rates make my brain hurt, so I only pursue business domestically. But depending upon where you are, I may be able to recommend a content marketer for you.

Question 3: What are Bredemarket’s most popular packages? How much do they cost?

Here are the three most common packages that Bredemarket offers.

By Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2407244

Note that these are the standard packages. If your needs are different, I can adapt them, or charge you an hourly rate if the need is not well defined. (But as you will see below, I try to work with you at the outset to define the project.)

If you follow the link above for your desired package and download the first brochure on each page, you’ll get a description of the appropriate service. The pricing is at the bottom of each brochure.

Each brochure also explains how I kick off a project, but the procedure is fairly common for each package.

Question 4: What are Bredemarket’s working practices?

When I work with a client, I hold a kickoff to make sure that we have a common understanding at the beginning of the project.

The first seven questions that we address are critical. In fact, I wrote an e-book that addresses these seven questions alone.

  1. Why?
  2. How?
  3. What?
  4. Goal?
  5. Benefits?
  6. Target Audience?
  7. Emotions?
Go to https://bredemarket.com/2023/10/22/seven-questions-your-content-creator-should-ask-you-the-e-book-version/ to download this e-book.

But that’s not all that we address in the kickoff. There are some other lower-level questions that I ask you (such as the long and short form of your company name).

Once we have defined the project, I iteratively provide draft copy and you iteratively review it. The number and length of review cycles varies depending upon the content length and your needs. For example, I use up to two review cycles of up to three days each for short content.

Eventually I provide the final copy, you publish it and pay me, and both of us are happy.

Question 5: What about samples and testimonials?

Because I usually function as a ghostwriter, I cannot publicly provide samples or identity my clients. But I’ve written yet another e-book that anonymously describes some sample projects that I’ve performed for clients, including a testimonial from one of them.

Go to https://bredemarket.com/2023/04/16/four-mini-case-studies-for-one-inland-empire-business-my-own/ to download this e-book.

Question 6: What are the next steps to work with Bredemarket?

If you believe that I can help you create the content your firm needs, let’s talk.

Or if Matthew Mace’s content services better fit your needs, use him.

Which Content Should You Create First?

So you’ve decided that you are going to create some content for your business. But which content type should you create first? Audio? Blog post? Case study? Social media post? White paper? Video? Something else?

Designed by Freepik.

Now I could charge you $96.96 and present a really complex 96-step way to choose the appropriate content to create for your specific needs.

(A few of you see what I did there. That probably doesn’t help my so-called problem.)

But coming up with a complex content creation matrix is silly, because selecting a content type isn’t that hard. (This post does have a content creation matrix, but it’s easy to understand and pretty straightforward.)

The first question

What is the first question you have to answer before deciding which content to create?

First, you need to look at your online presence and see which outlets you have, and which ones you don’t have.

  • Do you have a website?
  • Do you have a blog?
  • Do you have social media accounts? If so, which ones, and which types of content do they support? (Threads, for example, supports text, image, audio, and video content.)

If you don’t have a certain outlet, then that makes your decision a lot easier.

  • For example, if you have social media outlets but don’t have a blog, then don’t worry about creating blog posts (unless you have LinkedIn and want to create LinkedIn articles). You’re not going to create blog posts on Instagram or Threads or Twitter (unless you’re a blue check person).
  • Similarly, if you’re not on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, videos are less important. (Although a lot of services support video.)

Create content for your outlet(s)

So now that you know which content outlets you have, and which you don’t, you can create content that is supported by your outlets.

Here’s a handy-dandy table that suggests the content types you can create, depending upon your online presence. These are suggestions, not hard and fast rules.

Content TypeWebsiteBlogSocial Media With AudioSocial Media With ImagesSocial Media With TextSocial Media With Video
AudioYes
BlogYes
Case StudyDownload
Social Media PostYesYesYesYes
VideoYes
White PaperDownload

Some of these are fairly obvious (yes, if you have a blog you can create blog posts), but it helps to say them.

Don’t worry about the content outlets that you don’t have. If you don’t have a blog today, don’t worry about creating one just so you can write blogs. Go with what you have.

(And if you don’t have ANYTHING right now to promote your business, then the easiest thing to do is to create some type of social media account: Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever. They’re free, and it’s easy to create content for them.)

As I said above, these are suggestions, not hard and fast rules. For example, the table above says that case studies and white papers are best if you have a website from which prospects can download documents. But some social media services allow you to embed documents (such as case studies or white papers) into your social media posts.

Think about what you’ve got, and create for it.

Repurpose

And once you’ve created the content, don’t be afraid to distribute it on other channels, or even to repurpose it on other channels.

  • Have you uploaded a great video to YouTube? Embed the video in a blog post.
  • Did you write a great blog post? Repurpose it as a downloadable document. (That’s what I did.)

You may choose to only issue a specific piece of content using a single content type. But if you feel like repurposing the material for other content types, go for it.

Don’t be afraid to fail

Finally, don’t be afraid to create content, even if it’s not perfect. I’ve (re)committed myself to video, and spent yesterday creating multiple videos for multiple outlets. Two of the videos that I created ended up having problems…but I left them up anyway, and learned in the process.

I figure that the more content that I create, the better that I will get at it.

You will find that the same holds true for you.

Do you need help with textual content?

Now when you are ready to create content, do you need someone to help you create it?

I can help you with certain types of content.

(Not video. If you need a video pro, contact Loren Feldman at 1938 Media.)

But if you need help with the text for blog posts, case studies, white papers, and the like, I can help you. Especially if your text involves biometrics, identity, or technology. Contact me!

Which Content Should You Create First? (the video version)

A Video About the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service

In case you like to consume your information in video form, here’s a video about my Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service, for text of between 400 and 600 words.

About the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service.

If you prefer to read your information rather than watch it, you can do that also.

Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service (June 2022)Download

In either case, if you are interested in the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service:

Is Bredemarket on Your Favorite Social Platform?

(This is outdated. See the May 15, 2024 update.)

If you’re starting out in business, you’ve probably heard the advice that as your business branches out into social platforms, you shouldn’t try to do everything at once. Instead you should make sure that your business offering is really solid on one platform before branching out into others.

Yes, I’ve been naughty again and didn’t listen to the expert advice.

One reason is because of my curiosity. With one notable exception, I’m intrigued with the idea of trying out a new platform and figuring out how it works. Audio? Video? Let’s try it.

And as long as I’m trying it out, why not create a Bredemarket account and put content out there?

So there’s a reasonably good chance that Bredemarket is already on one of your favorite social platforms. If so, why not subscribe to Bredemarket so that you’ll get my content?

Here’s a list of Bredemarket’s text, image, audio, and video accounts on various social platforms. Be sure to follow or subscribe!

  • Apple Podcasts (link here)
  • Google Podcasts (link here)
From https://www.tiktok.com/@bredemarket

Six methods to get your content in the hands of your customers

Whether you are an identity firm creating case studies, an Inland Empire West firm creating testimonials, or some other type of firm, creation of the content is only half the battle.

You still have to get the content into the hands of your end customers. “If you build it, they will come” is movie fiction.

By IowaPolitics.com – Field_of_Dreams, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68597747

Here are six ways to get your created content to a place where your end customers can see it and use it. Perhaps you can use one or more of these methods to distribute your important content.

Method one: titles

Unless you have some bizarre reason to obfuscate the content by choosing an innocuous title such as “About THAT Reuters article,” you need to start by choosing the appropriate title that will induce your target audience to read your content.

For example, I want to be recognized as a biometric content marketing expert, so I created a page with that very title.

And continuously publicized it (including in this post).

As a result, that page is now the first non-sponsored search term on several services, even for similar searches. I surveyed three search engines; here are incognito search results from two of these search engines for the words “biometric marketing expert” (without the word “content”).

Google incognito search for biometric marketing expert. This one even captured my Google company listing.
Bing incognito search for biometric marketing expert. Bing also shows related Bredemarket content.

Method two: tags

I intentionally saved the third set of search results to display here, since DuckDuckGo not only hit on my post, but on my collection of all posts tagged with “biometric content marketing expert.”

DuckDuckGo incognito search (not that it matters with DuckDuckGo) for biometric content marketing expert. This not only shows the page itself, but also identically named tag.

As another example, to date I have written over a dozen posts about case studies, all of which can be accessed via the link https://bredemarket.com/tag/case-study/.

Of course, I could step up my tagging work.

Not THAT tagging, although the terms are obviously related. By John H. White, 1945-, Photographer (NARA record: 4002141) – U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16914422.

I have never bothered to create a tag “testimonial,” so I still have to do that, starting with this post. (I’ll slowly work my way back through the other posts so that testimonial seekers can find that content also.)

Method three: words

Remember the post “About THAT Reuters article” that I referenced earlier? As I said, I had a specific reason for choosing that vanilla title.

I could have entitled the post “Former IDEMIA employee weighs in on Advent’s possible sale of the company.” That would have got some clicks, to be sure.

But it would have misled the reader, because the reader would have gotten the idea that I have some expertise in corporate acquisitions, and an abillity to predict them.

From https://bredemarket.com/2022/02/08/about-that-reuters-article/

But despite the boring title, this post is one of my most popular posts of 2022. Why? Because even though the title is obfuscating, the content of the post itself can’t help but use some words such as Advent, IDEMIA, IPO, Reuters, and Thales. And people found the post because it included words which interested them.

(So much for obfuscation.)

Partial Google Search Console results for the “About THAT Reuters article” page.

Method four: landing pages/doors

Often you don’t land exactly at the content, but instead land at another page that directs you to the content. Because I subscribe to Jay Clouse’s “Creative Companion” newsletter, I get to read his articles before the general LinkedIn public sees them. Unless there’s an editorial change, this week’s LinkedIn article will include the following:

…the majority of my subscriber growth today doesn’t come through my front door, it comes from the dozens of side doors that I’ve created.

Jay Clouse Sunday 3/13/2022 email, “How to grow an email newsletter.”

(UPDATE 3/16: You can read the LinkedIn version of Jay’s post here.)

Does your text need to break on through? By APA-Agency for the Performing Arts-management – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23274437

I don’t necessarily count on my readers immediately landing at the “correct” page. If I write compellingly enough, they could arrive at that page from somewhere else.

For example, I have a page called “Bredemarket and proposal services” that talks about…(drumroll)…Bredemarket’s proposal services. But there are over three dozen pages on the Bredemarket website that link to that page.

Google Search Console list of a few of the pages linking to https://bredemarket.com/bredemarket-and-proposal-services/
Link from https://bredemarket.com/2021/04/19/are-you-responding-to-the-dhs-rfi-minimum-standards-for-drivers-licenses-and-identification-cards-acceptable-by-federal-agencies-for-official-purposes-mobile-drivers-licenses/ to https://bredemarket.com/bredemarket-and-proposal-services/. And yes, it could have been better. Live and learn.

So if someone is REALLY interested in a topic, and if the content link uses text that is something better than “such responses,” the person will get to the desired content and I can help the person.

Which reminds me, I need to include my call to action. Normally I stick this at the end of a post, but let’s put it in the middle of the post just for fun. If I can help your company create content or give you some ideas on how to distribute the content:

Method five: email

I could probably do better at this one, but I do perform SOME email marketing.

For example, after I wrote my post about Alaska HB389 and its foreign ownership clause, I took the time to email it to some of my contacts whose companies are directly affected by the bill. I’ve also emailed people when I want to promote some of my various Bredemarket services.

After a year and a half in business, I have discovered that my hundreds of contacts do NOT religiously read the Bredemarket blog daily (although I do have hundreds of subscribers: click the link at the bottom of this post if you would like to join the blog subscription list). So there are times when I use email to highlight items of interest to a particular person.

But only if they’re interested. No need for Microsoft Power BI contacts to learn what happens if a driver’s license production company is only 94% U.S. owned. They probably don’t care.

Method six: social media channels

I am a little better at social media content distribution than I am at email marketing. But again, it’s important to distribute the content to the correct social media channel.

Over the weekend, I wrote two nearly identical posts that were targeted to two separate markets.

The post that was targeted to local Inland Empire West companies was reshared in my LinkedIn group Bredemarket Local Firm Services.

LinkedIn reshare of https://bredemarket.com/2022/03/12/how-inland-empire-west-businesses-can-attract-new-customers-via-testimonials/

The post that was targeted to identity/biometric companies was reshared in my LinkedIn group Bredemarket Identity Firm Services.

LinkedIn reshare of https://bredemarket.com/2022/03/12/how-identity-businesses-can-attract-new-customers-via-case-studies/

So the content of interest to the locals was shared on the local page, and the content of interest to the identity companies was shared on the identity page.

And that applies to ALL of the methods listed above. Emailing content to the right people. Linking from related content. Using the right words, tags, and titles.

All of these techniques, plus all of the other techniques that this post failed to mention, serve the purpose of getting the created content into the hands of the people who can benefit from it.

If I can help you with this, or with creating the content in the first place…oh, I already included the call to action between Methods 4 and 5. No need to be redundantly repetitive.

Shattering my assumptions by using LinkedIn for local marketing

At the same time that Bredemarket helps other firms to market themselves, Bredemarket has to market ITSELF, including social media marketing. And for the past year I’ve subscribed to the following formula:

  • Use LinkedIn for professional marketing to biometric/identity and technology clients.
  • Use Twitter as a supplement to this.
  • Use Facebook as a supplement to this, and also use Facebook as Bredemarket’s sole foray into “general business” marketing.

It sounded like a good formula at the time…but now I’m questioning the assumptions behind it. And I’m hoping that I can prove one of my assumptions wrong.

My initial assumptions about marketing to local businesses

As I write this, Bredemarket has no clients in my hometown of Ontario, California, or in any of the nearby cities. In fact, my closest clients are located in Orange County, where I worked for 25 years.

It’s no secret that I’ve been working to rectify that gap and drum up more local business.

So this was an opportune time for me to encounter Jay Clouse’s September 2021 New Client Challenge. (It’s similar to a challenge Clouse ran in August 2020. Repurposing is good.) Clouse’s first question to all participants asked which market we would be targeting, and in my case the local small business market seemed an obvious choice.

And this dialogue played in my mind…

So when I market to local businesses, I’ll want to do that via relevant Facebook Groups. Obviously I won’t market the local services via LinkedIn or Twitter, because those services are not tailored to local service marketing.

Questioning my assumptions

Then I realized that I was wrong, for two reasons.

  1. First, there are LinkedIn groups that concentrate on my local area, just as there are LinkedIn groups that concentrate on biometrics. I had already quit a number of the dormant Inland Empire LinkedIn groups, but I was still a member of two such groups and could (tastefully) market there.
  2. If LinkedIn doesn’t provide an opportunity for me to do something, why don’t I tailor my use of LinkedIn and provide myself the opportunity?

Specifically, some of you may recall that I only have two LinkedIn showcase pages, but I have three Facebook groups.

  • “Bredemarket Identity Firm Services” is present on both LinkedIn and Facebook.
  • “Bredemarket Technology Firm Services” is present on both LinkedIn and Facebook.
  • “Bredemarket General Business Services” is only present on Facebook.

I explained the rationale for the lack of a third LinkedIn showcase page in a nice neat summary:

Using myself as an example, I have segmented my customers into markets: the identity (biometrics / secure documents) specific market (my primary market), the general technology market, and the general business market. I don’t even target the general business market on LinkedIn (I do on Facebook), but I’ve created showcase pages for the other two.

If you consider that “local business services” is a subset of “general business services,” some of you can see where this is going.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

But it took a while for the thought to pound its way into my brain:

Why DON’T you target the (local) general business market on LinkedIn?

I could just create a new showcase page, a process that would only take a few minutes. I wouldn’t even have to create any new artwork, since I could simply repurpose the Facebook general business artwork and use it for a LinkedIn local business showcase page. (Repurposing is good.)

(As an aside, my approach to artwork for Bredemarket’s marketing segments was dictated by LinkedIn Stories. Which is now disappearing. Oh well.)

So anyway, LinkedIn is now the home of Bredemarket Local Firm Services.

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bredemarket-local-firm-services/

Now I just have to populate the showcase page with content (and continue to do so), invite people to follow the new showcase page, and proceed on my plan for world domination, one loft at a time.

Call to action time

And if you’re a small business in the Ontario, California area, here’s some information on the services I can provide to you.

PDF version available at https://bredemarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/bmtlocal-20210902a.pdf

And if you want more detailed information, please visit https://bredemarket.com/local/. (Read to the end.)

And if you want even more detailed information, contact me.

So which assumption will I shatter next?

I’d like to prove THIS assumption wrong:

(Still waiting for that $10,000 per hour client.)

Winding down the 28th parallel experiment

Wrapping up a few loose ends about the whole 28th parallel thingie (where I posted/shared multiple content items in a short period to see what would happen).

I just completed a podcast episode about it. (TL;DR: no huge effect.)

Yesterday, I made an observation about traffic vs. engagement on my business Twitter account.

From https://twitter.com/JEBredCal/status/1420489255718031363

Also yesterday, I posted an obscure trivia question on my personal Twitter account. (It didn’t really get traffic OR engagement.)

From https://twitter.com/empoprises/status/1420490486729433090

Conclusion? In the short term it didn’t help, but it didn’t harm either. And I may exercise the flexibility to increase my content sharing when warranted.

Tenerife. By NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Kathryn Hansen. – https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/88659/tenerife-canary-islands, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101333395

That was fun.

Well, my experiment is now complete.

By Tweenk – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10587531

If you missed the explanation of what I just did, I had a backlog of identity-related draft blog posts, and I decided to post all of them at once.

Specifically, I just posted:

And all four of those posts were also shared to my Twitter account, the Bredemarket Identity Firm Services showcase page on LinkedIn, and the Bredemarket Identity Firm Services group on Facebook.

Will my 140+ blog subscribers, 250+ Twitter followers, 120+ showcase page followers, and 9 group followers (yeah, Facebook lags the other platforms) be overwhelmed by this blast of content? Or will they like it? Or will they even notice?

Because of the way social media feeds work, it is questionable that many of the followers will even notice. Social media feeds are presented to readers in order of importance, and Bredemarket isn’t the most important thing to ANY of these followers. (Except for me. Maybe.)