Facts, Stats and Tips relevant to the small business content marketer on why brand assets in the form of quality content are driving the marketplace right now.

1. THE TAG
PLAYBOOK
A GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING

2. FACTS,STATS,TIPS
CHAPTER1
C O N T E N T M A R K E T I N G
"The discipline of creating quality
branded content across media channels
and platforms to deliver engaging
relationships, consumer value and
measurable success for brands."

3. C O N T E N T M A R K E T I N G
I S H U G E R I G H T N O W
How does your company prepare
for an ever-changing, content marketing
landscape? Realize that people want
something before they buy. They want
to feel connected with your brand and
to have it reflect their lifestyle choices.
They want less steps, easier
decision-making, higher-quality and a
sense of community and experience.
These elements are only becoming
more prevalent during a consumer’s
buying journey. More importantly, they
want to learn more than they know, and
you are in a position to teach them as
an expert or player in your industry.
The percentage of small
businesses using paid advertising is
low and will remain low as long as great
free resources are available on which to
market their brands.
FACTS
METAPHOR
A car salesperson wants to sell a car with a price directly to a
customer on the dealership lot. If this lot represents Social Media,
the customer exits the lot immediately when a direct conversation
about a sale occurs. Now in order to make a sale, the salesperson
must assess:
1. How the customer feels about car dealerships
2. What the dealership is teaching the customer about cars
3. How engaged the customer is with the dealership
The salesperson needs to create something of value for the
customer in order for the customer to be retained and the sale
made. They need meaningful, quality content.

4. E N G A G I N G C O N T E N T = B R A N D I M P A C T
Customers spend 20-40% more on companies who engage with them
on Social Media
Up to 10 pieces of content are consumed before a decision on a sale
is made
78% of US Consumers (ages 18-54) say they follow a brand on social
media because they produce entertaining content that they want to
see (i.e. interesting, funny, pop culture-related)
68% of US Consumers (ages 18-54) say they follow a brand on social
media because they produce useful content (i.e. how-to’s, articles,
reviews, tips, informational)
Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and
generates about 3 times as many leads.
STATS
14%
86%
74%
26%
47%
53%
86% of
U.S. online
retailers have
Facebook Fan
Pages
74% of
consumers
rely on social
networks to
guide
purchasing
decisions
53% of Twitter
users
recommend
companies and
products in their
Tweets

5. T I P # 1 : S E L L A P R O D U C T , G E T A C U S T O M E R F O R A D A Y . H E L P S O M E O N E , G E T A C U S T O M E R F O R L I F E .
TRADITIONAL MARKETING: CONTENT MARKETING:
BRAND-FOCUSED AUDIENCE-FOCUSED
FRACTURED & CAMPAIGN-BASED COLLABORATED & CONSISTENT
INTERRUPTS ATTENTION EARNS ATTENTION
TIPS
B E N E F I T : When we deliver value through
content our audience will gladly
exchange information to get it.
This is why sign-up emails and
newsletters on "how-to's", that
are attached to or forwarded
from content, are effective
marketing tools.
C O N T E N T
ENGAGING PICTURE & VIDEO MEDIA (ALSO KNOWN AS "SNACKABLE" CONTENT)
COMPANY EXPERTISE & NEWS
HOW-TO’S AND ADVICE
AUDIENCE PAIN POINTS & INTERESTS
UNTAPPED OPPORTUNITIES – FINDING CUSTOMER NEEDS, LEVERAGING UNIQUE SERVICES
WHAT MAKES THE CUSTOMER PRODUCTIVE AND SUCCESSFUL IN THEIR LIVES?
CONTESTS AND GAMES (OVER 70% OF INSTAGRAM USERS HAVE PARTICIPATED IN A CONTEST)
COMPANY AND SHARED BLOGS
CASE STUDIES, WEBINARS AND OTHER CONTENT PRODUCED BY COMPANY
COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS CAN CREATE ENGAGING AND EDUCATIONAL CONTENT, IN THE FORM OF:

6. T I P # 2 : K E E P A F O R M I N M I N D F O R Y O U R C O N T E N T .
THE INTRODUCTION ON A CONTENT POSTING SHOULD BE KEPT SHORT AND CONCISE
70-150 CHARACTERS OR 90 CHARACTERS ON MOBILE DEVICES
LINKS, IMAGES AND VIDEOS SHOULD BE STRONG, HIGHER-QUALITY AND EYE-CATCHING
THE ENGAGER MUST UNDERSTAND YOUR “CALLTO- ACTION” OR CLEAR INTENTION OF THE POST
BE CONVERSATIONAL AND HONEST, AND USE A CONSISTENT VOICE IN ALL POSTINGS
ELEMENTS SHOULD BE: CONFIDENT, FAMILIAR, FRIENDLY, AND STRAIGHT-FORWARD
FIND YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA’S “TOP OR RELEVANT #HASHTAGS OF THE DAY”
DRIVE CONTENT-SHARING BY USING GOOD KEYWORDS AND SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)*
KEYWORDS SHOULD BE RELEVANT TO YOUR BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, PRODUCT(S) AND CUSTOMERS
TIPS
* R E F E R E N C E :
SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION):
A BREAKDOWN OF THIS SCARY-
SOUNDING THING, REFERENCE IN
CHAPTER 7: “RESOURCES - FOR THE
SMALL BUSINESS MARKETER”
REFURBISHING AND REUSING OLDER, QUALITY CONTENT FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PROGRAM IS NOT ONLY USEFUL, IT ASSISTS IN TAKING
SOME OF THE LOAD OFF YOUR CONTENT SCHEDULING, AUTOMATED OR NOT
FIND THOSE FIRST GOOD COMPANY PICTURES AND VIDEOS
IDENTIFY AND COMPILE ALL RELEVANT CONTENT YOU ALREADY HAVE PUBLISHED
PREVIOUS ARTICLES ON YOUR COMPANY, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES CAN BE REUSED, ALONG WITH PREVIOUS, SHAREABLE PRESS AND EVENT LINKS
SHARING ANOTHER ORGANIZATION OR PARTNER’S POSTINGS AND BLOGS CAN ALSO BE A USEFUL CONTENT GENERATOR
WHAT INFLUENCERS OR LEADERS IN YOUR INDUSTRY DO YOU KNOW WHO POST QUALITY CONTENT ON THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA?
IT CAN ALSO HELP BUILD STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS WITH THOSE INFLUENCERS, WHO CAN BECOME PARTNERS OR POSSIBLE SALES IN THE FUTURE
T I P # 3 : U S E W H A T Y O U H A V E .

7. T I P # 4 : A B O V E A L L E L S E , T H I N K L I K E J O U R N A L I S T .
Ask a Compelling Question
Cite a Surprising Statistic
Quote a Well-Known Leader, Executive, or Influencer
Make a Bold Argument
Tie Content With Pop Culture or Current Events
TIPS
Go through what media you have already
Think about common elements of picture and video quality on highly-engaged social media posts
Your smartphone is your most powerful business tool
Or... It might be time to hire that photographer for an hour. Find a local freelancer in your area who charges a low hourly rate or flat fee for a few on-site,
production, sales, and professional shows to put in your permanent company media. Once you have those digital copies, you can always edit them later.
T I P # 5 : P R A C T I C E H I G H - Q U A L I T Y C O N T E N T C A P T U R I N G .
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGE SIZES BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER

8. H I G H - Q U A L I T Y C O N T E N T C A P T U R I N G T I P S
PHONE
1. Keep Your Lens Clean and Watch the Light Flares
• Watch out for angled shots where the sun is hitting the lens directly or head-on at an angle
2. Keep the Light at Your Back or Behind You
• Not in front or behind the object you are shooting
• Silhouettes are ineffective images produced from smartphones
3. Don’t Use Flash. Period.
• Shoot during the day, and for outdoor shots morning time or sunset is usually a great time for light.
• Use well-lit areas instead of using the flash, which tends to distort backgrounds and washes away foreground lighting colors.
4. HDR in Low-Light is Your Friend
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode in your smartphone camera application is designed to take three consecutive pictures in low-light conditions, and
then compiles the best lighted features from the three shots into one cohesive picture.
5. No Straight-Down-From-Over-The-Top Pictures
• Angles and off-center framed object shots are best for depth, dimension and more interesting pictures.
6. Take More Than One Photo of the Same Thing
• Set yourself up with the most chances for success.
7. Crop, Don’t Zoom
• Zooming into an object before taking a picture can distort it in digital form. Whereas, if you crop the photo later during editing, you are able to view the
cropped section in the same amount of pixels as the entire picture without distortion.
8. Edit Later, Don’t Use Filters
• Filters are played out and can take elements away from the picture itself such as color, depth and dimension. TAG Marketing suggests the following
smartphone apps to assist in fine-tuning your pictures’ quality: Snapseed, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC, Pixlr, Instagram Layout

9. T H A T ' S W H A T W E C A L L A R A P I D L Y G R O W I N G I N D U S T R Y !
small businesses & the future
There are advantages in the current market for small businesses with a limited marketing budget. Less than 10% of social
media company pages pay for their advertising. Most still use the free and low-cost tools available to users to serve their
advertising needs.
The growth in demand for content marketing has been exponential and shows no signs of slowing down.
Global social media ad-spend from 2014 to 2016 was $31 billion.
Global share of businesses using social media to market was 96% in 2015. Advertising revenues from social media
for U.S. businesses averaged $10 billion in 2015 and about $23 billion in 2018.

10. N O T E S O N T H E O T H E R S I D E
COMPETITORS
You may know who your competitors are, direct
or not. You may not know who any of them are.
But we guarantee something about those
competitors of yours... ALL YOUR GOOD
COMPETITION IS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
They can be found and connected with. In fact,
one of the most disarming techniques for
expanding your networks is following the
competition and highlighting some of their
content as well. It puts you on their level, and to
their audience you’re also on their level.
"Analog" can be defined in this case as a successful
company or organization in your market or industry. They
are organizations you would like to emulate in terms of
reach, impact, influence, and maybe even sales. Once you
find these analogs, your company should follow their
company pages on social media in order to study and
engage with the content they are producing and sharing.
"Antilogs" are companies or organizations who have failed in
your market or industry. They are considered unsuccessful
and have little to no engagement and influence on their
social media. It is important to study your antilogs because
their failures will be great teachers for your content
management program as well.
We as business owners, members of society, and engagers
on social media know what is attractive and engaging to us,
and what is not. Use common sense and best judgement
when considering who’s not “cutting the mustard” on your
social media.
Your Competitors Are Doing It
How To Find Them
Analogs
Antilogs

11. N O T E S O N T H O U G H T L E A D E R S H I P
INFLUENCERS
By now, you might be regularly hearing terms like
“Thought-Leadership” and “Influencer” on or about social
media. What people are referring to are assets in the
form of people or business entities who have such a
following and credibility that they are able to influence
things like buying decisions, public opinion and brand
loyalty when they post or share content on social media.
Thought-Leadership is a new tool for brands who use the
notion to establish authority in their industry or use it as
a powerful social engagement tool. They do this because
it creates value for followers and engagers. Brands
become Thought-Leaders when they express expertise
on a subject. If they are the authority on a subject,
consumers of information will go to and engage with
those brands more.
74% of prospective customers choose the company that
was first to help them along their buyer’s journey. And
the average prospective customer performs 12 Google
searches before making a buying decision directly on a
website. So don’t you want to be their first step?
Given that millennials, the largest portion of social media
consumers on the planet, distrust and ignore advertising,
influencer marketing is an important asset of a marketing
program. Influencers are simply those thought-leaders in an
industry “making the most noise” or have a large following
on social media. Brands approach these influencers to be
their advocates because the public trusts the opinion of an
influencer.
What is considered a “large following”? Typically, these
people or companies start with 10,000 followers. However
most major influencers that actually draw compensation
from companies for their advocacy have a much larger
following, starting at around 100,000 followers. Lower
followings of around 8,000 followers or lower are called
"Micro-Influencers".
The Power of Influence The Power of Advocacy
“More and more brands are turning to these Micro-Influencers
to get a more accurate reading of their local communities, as
micro-influencers tend to have true authenticity, a unique point
of view, deeper story-telling and the potential to reach a more
specific, more loyal audience.”
- Rebeca Suhrawardi, Forbes Journalist

12. S E A R C H E S & K E Y W O R D S
RESOURCES
What common terms and keywords apply to your
industry? Type these in and find the profiles with the
highest follower and engagement counts.
Find your local competitors on social media. What is
their following and engagement like? Large enough for
you to want them to help influence your brand as well?
What are the top #hashtags and relevant topics of the
day, and what posts are they in? Are those posts highly-
engaged with a lot of likes and shares?
And who posted that highly-engaged content? Are those
people or businesses influencers? Can those influencers
help your brand?
ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS AS YOU SEARCH
FOR INFLUENCERS
What are the top #hashtags and relevant topics of the day,
and what posts are they in? Are those posts highly-engaged
with a lot of likes and shares? And who posted that highly-
engaged content? Are those people or businesses
influencers? And can those influencers help your brand?
Example: you could type in “fashion” or “distillery” and find
top profiles related to that search term. You could also
search by industry or location to narrow it down even more.
And if all else fails, just Google it! Literally type in phrases
like “top Instagram accounts for five-star restaurants in my
area” or “top Facebook company pages for yoga studios in
my area”.
Twitter’s Influencer Campaign Template allows the user to
search for relevant profiles associated with high
engagement on specific #hashtags and industry-specific
words and phrases. The user can then add those influencer
profiles to their “Influencer” Tab. They are then able to view
a full list of every potential Influencer worth reaching out to.
Each Social Media Platform
Has A Search Bar
Try An "Advanced" Search

13. F O R D E A L I N G W I T H I N F L U E N C E R S
BEST PRACTICES
SET THE PACE
Providing influencers with a clear outline and
intention of your outreach can establish trust. Giving
them multiple collaboration options can also turn
their choice more easily into a yes-yes-no-yes option
instead of a yes-no. Provide potential influencers with
pre-written social messages.
Be transparent with what you want
from them, but more importantly to them, what you
can do for them. Send influencers small, thoughtful
gifts to show your appreciation once they’re onboard,
and nurture those influencer relationships by keeping
in touch with them. And above all, offer them
increased exposure.
Provide adequate and reasonable turnaround
times and deadlines for them. Coordinate and share
your content launches and feedback with your
influencers. They may in turn be able to coordinate a
promotion effort with you to take some of the load off
your organization.
CREATE THE EXPERIENCE
When planning content launches with influencers it helps to
provide them with an activity. Create a great experience for
them in order to increase the impact, passion and focus on
your products and services. You could ask them to do a
quick 30 second video on something your sell or provide.
Maybe you and them had a great brainstorming session and
made some good points you could share with your social
audience. Or maybe it’s just a string of selfies with your
product and good #hashtags. Whatever content you and
your influencers agree to share together, also giving them a
forum to give you feedback is helpful.
Ask them what is working and what some opportunities for
improving the brand experience might be. Show them you
value their opinions and processes, ask them for their
expertise on some subjects, and be honest. Once you have
a small community of influencers it will be important to let
them all know that they are apart of a select or “exclusive”
group of influencers who are all loyal to your brand. Improve
your stance and you will increase your influence.
The Approach The Engagement

14. C O S T P E R E N G A G E M E N T
OPTIONAL CONTRACTS
Paying Influencers can have its benefits, but how are companies able to measure what an
influencer is worth to them in real figures? A good basic metric for measuring the impact
a paid influencer has on your brand is something called “Cost Per Engagement” (CPE).
The Online Advertising Guide provides the equation:
Here is a link to a great guide on how to consider contracts with major Influencers,
if your company wanted to go into a paid direction with them.

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A T T H O M A S A S S O C I A T E S G L O B A L T H E B E S T I N N O V A T O R S D O N O T T R A V E L A L O N E . I F W E H A V E A
D R E A M , I T I S N O W P O S S I B L E . W E H A V E T H E M O S T I N F O R M A T I O N A T O U R D I S P O S A L T H A N A N Y
G E N E R A T I O N B E F O R E U S . W I T H T H E R I G H T T O O L S W E C A N I N F L U E N C E O U R N E T W O R K S , A N D
S O M E O F U S W I L L C H A N G E T H E W O R L D .
A N E X P O N E N T I A L L Y C H A N G I N G D I G I T A L A N D S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E I N T I M I D A T E S S M A L L
B U S I N E S S E S A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S W H O T H I N K T H E Y D O N ’ T H A V E T H E T I M E O R T H E R E S O U R C E S
T O K E E P U P I N T H E I R M A R K E T P L A C E . W E D I F F E R E N T I A T E B Y C A L M I N G T H E S T R A I N A N D S H O W I N G
F U T U R E S U C C E S S F U L B U S I N E S S O W N E R S J U S T H O W A T T A I N A B L E T H E I R S U C C E S S I S .
T A G M A R K E T I N G P R O V I D E S B E N E F I C I A L S E R V I C E S F O R C L I E N T P A R T N E R S B Y I D E N T I F Y I N G
P O T E N T I A L R O A D B L O C K S A N D S O L U T I O N S , A N D D E L I V E R I N G V A L U A B L E I N S I G H T S A N D
P R O D U C T S . M O R E I M P O R T A N T L Y , W E ’ R E H E R E T O L I S T E N . W E A R E I N T E R E S T E D I N W H A T ’ S
I M P O R T A N T T O O U R C L I E N T P A R T N E R S I N O R D E R T O E L E V A T E T H E I R B R A N D ( S ) , G R O W T H E I R
I N F L U E N C E , A N D N A V I G A T E T H E I R C U R R E N T I N D U S T R Y T R E N D S A N D P R O C E S S E S .
D O N ’ T J U S T E L E V A T E Y O U R B U S I N E S S , T A G I T .
T A G M A R K E T I N G F O C U S E S O N I N F O R M A T I O N & S P E C I A L I Z E D S E R V I C E S .
• B R A N D I N G T A C T I C S
• C O N T E N T S T R A T E G Y
• M A R K E T I N G P R O G R A M S T R A T E G Y
• B U S I N E S S M O D E L A N D P L A N C O N S U L T A T I O N
• E X P E R I E N T I A L D E S I G N