Ismael Ruiz is a content marketing consultant and expert in management and SEO positioning for corporate blogs. We wanted to chat with him to learn the ins and outs of marketing for small businesses, and to hear his vision of what marketing is.
- Your blog and social media, and everything surrounding your personal brand, are filled with the word "unstoppable." Are you very restless?
- A little bit, yes. (Laughs). When we start working we always look for what we are passionate about, what we like, even if along the way we have to dedicate ourselves to other things that we don't like as much. In this sense, I studied to be an engineer, specifically aeronautics, but I realized right away that it didn't fulfill me completely. At first you want a permanent job in a company and you only think about that, about your stability. But little by little I started to ask myself: "Do I see myself here for life?" That conversation with myself led me to look for my passion in something related to the world of the Internet. Answering your question. Unstoppable for me arises from the moment you find your passion, because that's when you feel unstoppable.
- How do you decide to start your marketing project?
- Being a freelancer means getting used to living with uncertainty . I considered looking for a company to work for, but before that I trained, took my marketing courses and thought about it a lot. I didn't know whether to work for a company or as a freelancer. What made this decision unbalanced were two fundamental reasons. If you work for yourself you will always give 200% and you will spend all the time you need to get your work done. In addition, the economy is another important factor. How boring if you are always going to earn the same! I decided to start out knowing that I would have a hard time at the beginning, like everyone else, but with the peace of mind of knowing that if I tried harder, I would earn more. This peace of mind made up for the uncertainty that I mentioned.
Free online courses for people over 30 years old
- What does marketing bring to you that you say helps you "unite all your talents, as you explain on your website?
- I always asked myself the same question: "Will I be good at marketing?", but every time I thought about it I saw that it had all the points that I thought I would like. Marketing is partly analytical, partly psychological, because it analyses the human mind. On the other hand, marketing is pure technology.
- If you had to explain to someone who knows nothing about the digital world, how would you define what marketing is?
- If I had to explain to my grandmother what marketing is, I would tell her to imagine her fruit shop and the current and former purchasing needs. People, for convenience, instead of going to look for the product, choose it from home. That technological factor is marketing. The shop window is now a screen and now you have to be able to sell your products through it. You have to adapt to the online world and extrapolate traditional sales techniques to the Internet. Before you sold through word of mouth and now the way has changed.
- How do you think digital tools can be used in small businesses , for example?
- They have to know their target audience. As we were saying, a local fruit shop should know that its competitor is another fruit shop, the one next door. The public is different now and you can't compete with the big ones, but your real competitors are the SMEs. I think that the way they are starting to advertise their products through social networks, and SEO positioning with geographic criteria can help them a lot.
how to create an online store
Ismael Ruiz helps small entrepreneurs set up their online store.
- How should social media be used in the company?
- It depends a bit on the sector, but it is certainly a mistake to open accounts on all social networks. This is a waste of time and money, and even more so if you hire a Community Manager. You have to be where your audience is. Social networks have to be a support to reach where the end customer is.
What do you think are the keys to success for good social media management?
- The possibility of segmenting your audience. It is much more difficult than with traditional media, but you will be able to reach the audience that interests you and that may be interested in you. For me, the zero point of marketing is to analyze the client and offer them what they are looking for.
- For you, are social networks sales channels or customer service channels? This is a topic that generates some debate in our field.
- They are not for selling directly, but rather for building customer loyalty, offering after-sales service and, of course, for branding. It is very important to be in the customer's Top Of Mind , and that when they think of a product or service, they remember your brand. Another important factor is that it is very difficult to sell through social networks when you do not have a good reception for the customer. For example, if the landing page to which the ads redirect is not related or does not have the purchase button visible, is not intuitive, etc.
"Users don't like being sold things, they like buying more"
- I think it connects everything, social networks, the web... For e list of indian phone numbers xample, if you want to be a reference in your sector, let's say you sell energy drinks or soft drinks, you can't compete directly against Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but as I always say, if you can't get in through the door, get in through the window.
- I'm going to stick with that phrase, I'm a big fan of proverbs. What do you mean?
- If the keywords "buy energy drink" are very competitive words to advertise on Google, we must establish a strategy for other long tail keywords that are not as competitive. For example: what benefits does an energy drink have? It is very important to position yourself for keywords that will solve the problems of your community.
Learn how to create your blog
- What content should we strive to disseminate?
- Linking with what we talked about before, I think that social networks are not a channel for selling, but for making users fall in love and for doing Inbound Marketing . I always use the same expression: "falling in love techniques". Both the blog and social networks attract the user, although it is important to always talk about what my product or service brings to the community and not so much about its advantages. Users do not like you to sell them things, they like to buy more.
The blog serves that purpose: you attract them by reading your content and it is important that they feel that you are helping them. My recommendation is to spread content as recommendations.
Learn how to create your blog
Ismael Ruiz is an expert in blogging
- Is this channel valid for all types of companies?
- A blog can be for everyone. But it is also important to see how the blog fits with your sector and geographic area. For example, if I am limited to Vigo and I sell running shoes, I would try to give my blog strategy a twist. To make the blog successful, I could make posts related to places where you can run in Vigo, I could even create a mini guide. In this way, I am giving an outlet to this product and I am offering my users quality content.
"In marketing we help people"
- To finish, what are you reading right now?
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad. A book from which I am learning a lot. It should be required reading in schools.
- If you had to recommend a marketing book to me, which one would it be?
- Epic Content Marketing . This is a very good book for someone who is or wants to be a specialist in blogging and content. It talks about how to target your content and that it cannot be generic. It explains Google techniques, segmentation, etc.
- Complete the sentence. "I am a follower of..."