13 Ways To Engage Target Audiences With Visual Storytelling

18Dec

by Forbes Agency Council | Expert Panel

All successful advertising and marketing campaigns tell a story. Yet, some storytelling mediums have proven to be far more compelling to consumers than others. Visual storytelling captures both people’s eyes and their imagination, helping to quickly build narratives in the viewer’s mind through easy-to-follow cues.

Of course, haphazardly dropping a random mix of images into an advertising campaign, as striking as they might be, won’t equate to visual storytelling. A great visual advertisement engages viewers by telling a story and making them part of it.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com, on December 18, 2020. Read the rest of the article here.

How To Advertise On Streaming Video Platforms: 14 Essential Tips

By Christopher Tompkins

16Dec

Media Mentions

by Forbes Agency Council | Expert Panel

The pandemic has seen many people camping out in front of their televisions and other streaming devices. More individuals than ever before now spend large amounts of time binge-watching their favorite streaming video content. In an environment so ripe for reaching target audiences, streaming ad spend has increased this year and is still on the rise.

Advertising on streaming services, also known as over-the-top advertising, is distinct from its television counterpart in many ways. Taking the same, standard approaches to creating ads for this space may not be as effective.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com, on December 16, 2020. Read the rest of the article here.

Brand Audits—Reevaluating Your Brand for 2021

By Christopher Tompkins

15Dec

Social Media

You’re sitting there, trying to figure out why the business you’ve invested blood, sweat, and tears (and lots of money) into just doesn’t feel like it’s working anymore. Some of the shine has faded, customers are less enthused and so are you. Well, your business is probably fine; it’s your brand that needs some maintenance.

A brand audit is a detailed analysis of how your brand is performing, based on criteria that you set. Want to evaluate how your brand is doing in the marketplace? Perform an audit to measure your brand against its competition. The metrics you use to perform your audit are entirely based on what you want to know about your brand.

There are a million articles out there telling you how to conduct a brand audit: what elements to judge by, how to measure yourself against your competitors, what questions to ask your customers and what to do with their input. But once you have the results, where do you go next?

Don’t Imitate

It can be tricky to implement a brand overhaul right after conducting research on what your competitors are doing. They have a podcast and a Twitter account that’s popping off, shouldn’t you have those too? Maybe, but be careful.

To put it simply: customers shop at Walmart and Target. Unless you’re a niche company, your audience is going to have some familiarity with the competition. So, if you coincidentally start a YouTube channel just a few months after they did, it’s going to be pretty transparent about what you’re doing.

Now, should you not start a YouTube channel or podcast just because they did? No. But make sure to remember the findings of your audit and don’t do the same thing they’re doing. Even if they provide an identical service, there are multiple ways to tackle the same subject.

Stay True to Yourself

It’s unlikely that the results of your brand audit will tell you to bin your whole company and start over. Have faith that, regardless of the weaknesses you might have uncovered, the foundation of your business is solid; it’s just the brand that needs some refreshing.

If you were on social media already, you developed a digital tone for your brand—a specific way you package your posts and respond to your audience. You should keep as much of this intact as possible.

Think about this: if a brand you were following dramatically changed their logo and started posting memes, you would be put off. A brand refresh is about a series of little changes, not a sweeping overhaul. Redesign to match a modern aesthetic. Workshop a few of your posts to keep pace with a current trend. Add calls-to-action to the end of your content and spend time thinking of thoughtful replies when your audience comments.

Commit

Whatever it is you decide to do to spark interest in your brand, do one thing above all: commit to it. This means planning ahead and sticking to a schedule. If you’re starting a blog, write a month’s worth of articles in advance and commit to posting every Monday at 10am. If you’re producing a podcast, have a few episodes in the can before you announce it.

Missing video publishing dates or going weeks between blog entries works for two types of people: amateurs and those who have a million other projects going on. Having posts or videos in the bank before you announce your new venture is great two-fold: you give yourself lead time to develop the next entries and have leg room to account for burn-out or correct a post or video that just isn’t working. This is the measure you’re taking to increase the visibility and engagement of the brand; it’s an investment, not a hobby.

A brand audit is a necessary part of heading up a business, since your brand is what connects you to your most valuable resource: your customers. But the audit isn’t the end of the line, it’s the prelude to the journey.

The data you get from your audit can be used in any number of ways. You know your business, you know what you can do well and what paths might be out of your reach for right now.

Ultimately, how you decide to implement the findings of your audit are in your hands, but the information laid out in this article is invaluable no matter what avenue you decide to take. Don’t copy your competitors, find a better way to convey that information. Commit to your changes, treat your them like an investment and a crucial part of your brand. And finally, always remain true to the core of your business, a brand refresh doesn’t mean an overhaul.

A brand audit is not easy, especially if you’ve never done it before, or have no marketing experience. The Go! Agency is here to help, and elevate your brand while retaining what makes it special: you. We won’t overhaul your brand; we’ll work with you to make sure it rises above the competition. Contact us today to bring your brand into the future.

The Human Brand: How To Make Your Social Media Presence More Conversational and Drive Engagement

By Christopher Tompkins

8Dec

Social Media

How many times have you seen products from a company that you were interested in, gone to check out their social media, and found the content lacking?

Some brands might find it a good idea to keep their interactions blasé and their feeds strictly business, but those looking to stand out among the ever-expanding competition? You don’t just need an audience, you need a fanbase.

Developing a digital tone for your social media outlets is essential in attracting audiences to engage with your posts and tweets. On Instagram, a killer picture with a call-and-response caption is probably fine, but for venues like Twitter and Facebook, you’ll need to craft a personality.

Every brand has a voice

Finding a tone has been an emerging trend in social media marketing for a while that really kicked into high-gear in early 2020 with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brands took a heavy shift towards compassion and sentimentality that, while not a bad approach, was applied by too many outlets at the same time.

For about two months, every brand from Ford to Steak-Umm was publishing a steady stream of “in these trying times” posts that made social media feeds feel like the depressing section of the Hallmark card display. We were all going through the same situation, stuck inside with many Americans having suddenly lost their jobs; after a while, people were going to get annoyed at the IKEA Twitter account telling them to take a bubble bath and indulge in self-care.

However, national emergencies do present an opportunity to test out your digital voice, and perhaps take risks when it comes to developing it. Coors, diverging from the somber tone of other major food and drink brands, started their #CouldUseABeer campaign, encouraging audiences to tag someone who could use a beer right about now. By the end of the campaign, Coors had given away 500,000 beers, meaning at least 500,000 people interacted with their campaign. Funny, how when audiences are presented with something fun to engage with…they tend to do it.

How to Build Your Voice (Without Being Obnoxious)

A good way to start developing a brand voice in a way that will get attention is to start responding to other brands accounts. You can do this across all social media channels, but it’s most effective on Twitter.

It all started with SunnyD’s now infamous “I can’t do this anymore” tweet from 2019. Originally, the tweet was part of a live tweet session of the 2019 Super Bowl, but it instantly went viral and lost all context, with Twitter users and especially other brands responding as if the SunnyD account was legitimately depressed. Pop-Tarts got in on it, Little Debbie tweeted some very important self care information, and generally everyone had a pretty fun time.

Brands tweet irreverent things all the time, giving you ample opportunity to develop your brand voice in an arena where users will see your response, but your entire feed can remain largely professional and won’t be clogged with your attempts to find your tone.

The point of all this is not that you need to turn your social media into memes and comedy. You don’t have to necessarily be funny to have engaging content, but you do need to be something. Posting updates purely about your services or products might keep loyal customers following you, but it’s not going to drive the kind of engagement you’ll need to increase visibility.

Maybe you’re an empathetic brand, and apart from talking about your own services you post about semi-related topics like mental health. Maybe you’re an educational brand; hype up other educators in your industry, even if they aren’t using what you sell.

Your audience came on board for your product, but unless you’re continually innovating and developing what you sell, you’ll need to find a way to keep customers engaging with you after the initial purchase. I understand, the very concept of a brand voice might be confusing, let alone how to develop it. We’re not all gifted social media strategists or creative writers. Lucky, my team at The Go! Agency is, and we are more than ready to help your brand get established across all the right channels.

You’re Losing Money If You Aren’t Using Email Marketing

By Christopher Tompkins

1Dec

Email Marketing

It’s hard, in the midst of your daily routine of deleting a seemingly merciless influx of ads from your inbox, to think of email as a valid way to spend your marketing budget. But perhaps you’ve discounted this: what if those ads were from brands and companies that you liked?

Globally, nearly four billion people use email, with more than 293 billion emails being exchanged every day. Despite common perception—even personal experience—most emails are not banished to the depths of the spam folder; they’re being read, and they’re valuable real estate.

When polled, almost 50% of consumers said they would enjoy getting updates and promotional materials from their favorite brands. Audiences want to hear from brands they have an attachment to, and as businesses, we should know how to answer demand. And if that doesn’t convince you, let’s talk about the thing that makes the world go ‘round: money. For every dollar spent on email marketing there is an average return of $44…that’s potentially over 4,000 percent profit. The long and short of it is that if you’re not investing in some degree of email marketing, you’re making a massive financial mistake.

What are the benefits?

You did see the 4,000 percent profit part, right? The financial effectiveness of email marketing is its greatest benefit, but let’s talk a little about why it’s so successful.

Email marketing is more effective at keeping customers than social media. While your email may not get as many eyes on it as a post does, emails ask for more from your audience. Interaction with a post typically ends at liking or commenting, but email requests a higher form of engagement. You’re invited to read more, and the experience doesn’t stop at the end of the email; handy “shop now” or “read more” buttons are a stealthy, effective, and aesthetic way of leading readers from their inbox to your site.

The dip from acquisition to retention is also much lower than other forms of marketing. Customers required through email have an 81 percent track record of remaining loyal to the brand, only 44 percent for other methods like social media.

“But won’t readers delete an email when they realize it’s trying to sell them something?” Not necessarily. Experian found that transactional emails—emails that contained product advertisements and a call to action—were opened eight times more than regular reminders, updates, or announcement emails.

So why aren’t you blasting out emails?

Email marketing isn’t especially difficult. What it is is time-consuming. In order to be effective, you need to be producing beneficial content with consistency.

Effective marketing happens in the form of a campaign: a recurring and concerted effort to draw potential customers to your site, in this instance via their inbox. As the brain behind an up and coming brand, you don’t have the time to come up with marketing blasts or commit to penning a thoughtful, consistent newsletter.

I realize that as a business owner, your life is hectic and full of demands, and throwing email management on to your already towering to-do list seems unnecessary. But it is. Apart from the audience outreach, I don’t know any company that can say no to a potential profit margin of 4,000 percent.

One of the many things my team and I at The Go! Agency specializes in crafting gripping, imminently clickable emails that will lead potential customers from their inbox to your business. We have an established flow that puts your emails in front of readers with consistency and gets the results growing brands are looking for.

You can reap the results of email marketing without doing the heavy lifting. We’ll provide the content, all you have to do is say “hit send.”

Use-it or Lose-it Marketing Budget? Here Are 6 Areas Where you Can Use the Budget Wisely

By Christopher Tompkins

19Nov

Advertising, Email Marketing, SEO, Social Media

It’s hard to believe it, but this whirlwind of a year is nearly over. There is just over a month left until we have to start thinking about a new marketing plan and putting the final touches on a marketing budget for 2021.

Now, if you’re anything like the majority of businesses at the moment, you may have found that a lot of your digital marketing budget “went to waste” in 2020. You may not have been able to advertise your product or service because no one would make purchases due to the financial burden of the pandemic. And if people aren’t buying, you simply aren’t able to risk losing revenue on marketing.

With all that said, I’m here to tell you this: DO NOT let your marketing budget just sit there. You either use it, or you lose it.

If you’re completely clueless on how to use it up before year’s end, you won’t be after reading these suggestions:

IP Retargeting Ads

If you’re trying to bring website visitors back after they’ve bounced, this is the way to do it. IP retargeting often results in a positive return on investment (or in this case return on ad spend), so it’s worth it to throw some of your budget at this as it gets people back in your sales funnel.

To start, you’ll have to have a pixel installed on your website. From there, you can begin creating ads that focus on bringing people back to your website to complete a conversion, whether that’s buying a product, downloading an incentive, or filling out a form. These can be specific to a target audience and will appear only AFTER they have visited your site.

Influencer Marketing

Gone are the days when big-name celebrities were the only ones promoting brands. Now, with platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, influencer marketing has become a lane of its own. If you aren’t aware, there are three types of social media influencers you need to know: macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and brand ambassadors.

Each of these sets of influencers can be great to work with. The goal is to gain more brand exposure by working with someone who can spread the word to their hundreds, thousands, or even millions of followers. However, let’s keep one thing in mind:

More followers = More expense.

While you might be aiming to work with macro or even micro-influencers, keep in mind that they may cost you more than you expect. Rates vary from person to person, so also remember not to rule out negotiation; you may get to work with an influencer who won’t break the bank.

Also, if you’re new to the influencer marketing space and are hoping to spend the rest of your budget in this area, remember to choose your influencers wisely. A lot of influencers might love to work with your company and might even be reasonably priced, however, they need to be the right fit for your brand.

If you own a barbecue restaurant, targeting people who don’t eat meat probably won’t be your best option. Choose influencers you know would be excited to work with you.

Giveaways

Who doesn’t like free stuff? Giveaways are one of the best ways to not only increase your follower count, but also get your product (or service) in front of people who may not have purchased from you otherwise.

Classic giveaways usually go like this: You announce a giveaway on your preferred social media platform, tell your audience to like your post, and also tell them to tag someone in the comments. Keep in mind that asking them to like your post and comment is how they can actually enter the giveaway (you can choose from random likes and comments in order to pick your winner(s).

A few things happen here: When they like your post, it’s instant engagement. The same thing happens when they comment on your post, except they are ALSO exposing other people to your brand when they are tagging their friends. It is one of the best ways to build brand awareness.

Going back to influencers, you can work alongside an influencer so that they can be the ones who initially announce the giveaway on their social media accounts. For example, if you do this via Instagram, they may say in a post, “I’m working with brand XYZ to do a giveaway! Make sure to like this post and follow XYZ’s page for the rules.” This way, you get double the brand exposure.

Email Marketing

Could your email marketing campaign use a revamp? Now’s the time to put the rest of your budget to use. Investing in a new email marketing platform is one way you could go. You could also improve the design of your emails if things need to be updated.

You might also consider growing your list if you simply don’t have enough emails to start with. Of course, do this wisely and stick with your target audience.

Social Media Marketing

Are you struggling to post consistently on each of your social media channels? Do you want to boost your follower count? Whatever the case may be, consider spending your budget on your social media marketing strategy.

For example, you might want to invest in a marketing tool that can help you get your posts scheduled and ready to go ahead of time. This form of marketing automation can save you the headache of posting content the day of, which can end up being extremely time-consuming.

You also might want to spend your money boosting your posts on platforms like Facebook. You can choose different objectives for these posts, such as getting website traffic, brand awareness, engagement, and more.

SEO

Search engine optimization (or SEO) is one of the most important things you need to keep in mind as a business owner, so if this hasn’t been on your list, it’s time to include this in your budget. A big part of doing this is making updates to your website.

For example, if you want to reduce your bounce rate, consider adding some incentives to your site. These would, of course, cost you time and money, but would be free for the consumer. It might be an ebook, a free course, or simply a percentage off of their first order. Do what you think aligns with your online marketing goals.

Also, remember to update each page of your website with strong keywords, as well as updated graphic design elements. Make sure that everything works on your site and that there aren’t delays in certain areas, such as a long loading time.

How will you use up the rest of your budget?

There are a lot of options to consider, whether you’re a small business owner or the owner of a large franchise. Just don’t let your budget sit there until it expires. Do something with it!

Why Aren’t You Using LinkedIn? Read On…

By Christopher Tompkins

5Nov

LinkedIn, Social Media

LinkedIn: It is THE best social media platform to have B2B interactions. Not only are you able to share important content about your business, but you are able to garner connections that closely suit your target audience, making it one of the best channels for business owners.

Usually, many of us would be out attending networking events in order to further our reach within our industry. But the current reality is this: When is the next time you’re going to an in-person networking event? Everything is going virtual, and it’s time for you to consider how to feed this beast.

When the shutdowns began 7 months ago, many marketing strategies and sales outreach strategies were forced to a halt, which we all thought would be temporary.

Hate to burst your bubble here, but there’s no telling when things will be “normal” again, and every day that you let your team get away with this excuse, it is hurting your bottom line.

Instead, it’s time to bring your sales energy into the world of LinkedIn. And in this blog, we will give you some game-changing tips to help you navigate this social network.

Start by using the platform to increase brand awareness.

Like any other social media channel, LinkedIn allows you to share content with your connections. It is a great way to get your business out there to another side of your audience. For example, you might want to share more informational content such as blogs. This adds value and credibility for your sales prospects.

Also, don’t forget to send out posts regularly. When it comes to social media marketing, one of the best things you can do is schedule your content ahead of time to make things easier. However, there are exceptions.

If you were not aware, LinkedIn Stories are the newest addition to the platform. Similar to its Instagram sibling, it allows users to share a more “behind the scenes” look at their business. This can be a unique and effective way to build brand awareness even more on the platform if you do not always want to stick with posts that are scheduled ahead of time.

Make connections with your connections.

LinkedIn sales prospecting is all about creating a connection with the person on the other end. One of the things you’re supposed to do when on a sales call is finding a commonality. Just like when you’re marketing on any other platform, you want to aim for your target market.

While you might not be connecting with your LinkedIn leads over the phone, you can still do the same thing in your outreach messages. For instance, COVID-19 can be that commonality for your sales team. Just ask prospects how their business is doing during this time. That’ll get them talking.

Depending on the industry, it might’ve really hurt them, or business could be booming. By listening to them, you are better able to connect with them and offer further solutions within your sales pitch.

Also, make a note of this: When it comes to LinkedIn B2B marketing, try to connect with mutual connections. They are more likely to interact with you and become a potential customer if you are already connected with people they know in their industry.

Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Your sales and marketing department cannot afford to NOT be using LinkedIn Sales Navigator – which we highly recommend. Because of the search filters integrated on the platform, you are able to connect with individuals who are extremely targeted to your industry, but in a more streamlined way. Leads are also recommended to you, which makes things much easier from a sales standpoint.

While LinkedIn Sales Navigator does come with a monthly fee – remember this: You are not paying for any of the other items above. Take it from me, the investment will pay off! It’s better to get extremely targeted leads than to waste time trying to find them without LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

It’s time to get started.

LinkedIn is not just a social media platform where you can connect with your peers. It is a place where you can make business happen. For the rest of this year and beyond, try your best to amp up your LinkedIn B2B marketing plan so that you can make this platform the ultimate sales engine for your business. There’s no better time to get started than now.

What Should Be At the Top of Your To-Do List? Reinforcing Your Team

By Christopher Tompkins

22Oct

Business

If you are a business owner who has owned a company for many years, you might say that you have a strong team of individuals who do exceptional work. I would say the same thing about my team here at The Go! Agency. They take care of everything from managing social media accounts, copywriting, graphic design, and more. But, when you have a great team, it’s important to remember that not everything has to be at a constant.

You have to think: How can I make my team BETTER?

While the talent is already there, you need to make sure that you continuously have a solid group of people and that your employees are improving in everything they do. And this can all be done with some help from a few benefits. Here are just some that we have implemented here at The Go! Agency, but you can do the same thing for the employees of your business:

Enhance their skills with training.

Training is great for both individual team members and your team as a whole. Whether it’s simple YouTube videos or full-on courses within platforms like HubSpot or Udemy, this allows your employees to get a better understanding of a complex subject, or learn more about something they’re already interested in.

To make this simple, have your employees choose the training they would like to do, and then encourage them to complete at least 30 minutes of this every day. If there is a certain training course that you would like them to take at the same time (and that you think would benefit each employee), suggest it to see what they think.

And remember: Not every kind of training has to be online. A unique training experience we have done here at The Go! Agency is read the book High Performance Habits by author Brendon Burchard. All of us read chapters of the book on our own time, and then we would get together every week to discuss what we learned and how we could apply those high performance tips to our own roles.

It not only helped each of us learn more about ourselves, but it also helped us learn about each other, which helped to strengthen our abilities.

Provide them with a flexible schedule.

Something that we have recently put in motion here at our agency is flexible work schedules for each of our employees. Our employees are usually on a 9 to 5 working schedule, however, since the pandemic and the increased hours of working from home, it was brought to my attention that working a set schedule every day from home might have been hampering productivity levels.

To counter that, a more flexible schedule for each employee was put into place, which they choose themselves. Some start their day earlier, some are able to take longer lunches, and some work longer hours throughout the week so that Friday can be a lighter load for them. It has helped all of them get into a better groove of things.

To help strengthen your team, I suggest doing the same thing. If your employees do not feel productive due to a schedule that doesn’t suit them, then they will not be as productive.

Get creative with meetings.

Pre-COVID, my team and I would always go out to a local brewery to have our monthly meetings. It was a fun way to spend time with each other and discuss which goals we reached for the month and what was coming up in the next month.

While we can’t do this now, we still have our monthly meetings, just through Zoom. When having meetings with your employees, make things fun and interactive through video conferencing; always ask if they need anything, and always be open to answer their questions.

When it comes to brainstorming meetings, make sure that everyone is heard. Part of having a strong team means that employees can share their ideas and are able to discuss their thoughts with fellow team members. Encourage everyone to say something, or even explain their thoughts further through screen sharing. It is important that everyone feels included in the conversation.

A strong team = a great team.

It is crucial that you show each and every employee that you are willing to help them learn and grow, whether they have a larger role full-time, or they are helping out part-time. As discussed above, there are so many different ways to strengthen your team; just make sure that their needs are being met so that they can always produce great quality work.

If you’ve struggled to put together a strong team to execute your sales and marketing strategy, consider partnering with an agency like The Go! Agency. We’re often considered the “marketing department down the hall” for many of our clients.

Creating Your Social Media Punch List

By Christopher Tompkins

8Oct

Social Media

Creating a social media presence takes a lot of time, and sometimes, it can be tempting to cut corners. But listen – you won’t want to do that.

One of the biggest mistakes that a company can make is to neglect to formulate a cohesive strategy. This is often a result of trying to do social media marketing cheaply because memberships to the main sites are “free”.

It’s 2020, and that means that social media is no longer optional and it needs to have a dedicated and supportive portion of your overall marketing budget. Do not let it be an afterthought…it can’t be the remaining $5 of your marketing budget.

It’s imperative that you and your team take the time to formulate a strategy, execution plan, and meaningful KPIs that will help enhance your business overall. We’ve seen companies leave their social media marketing plan and execution up to interns as a way to cut costs, but this isn’t an adequate solution – and will end up costing your company more in the long run.

Another downfall of having interns handle your social media strategy is that they may not have enough tenure with your company to fully understand and execute accordingly. With the end of each semester, and the start of a new end turn, your social media presence is bound to change.

Hiring a dedicated person or marketing team to handle your social media marketing campaign is essential to success, whether you are a small business or a large business. It gives them the opportunity to develop cohesive branding across your channels, a cohesive voice, and execute meaningful outreach/platform strategies. Something you absolutely do not want is for your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to all look like they are being handled by separate people in your company. It is unprofessional and bound to cost your business in the long run.

Whether you’re marketing a product or service, this blog post can serve as a quick punch list of the barebone essential items you need to consider when creating your social strategy:

Post Consistently.

Do not post 5 days a week one week and then go dark for 2 weeks on your social media channels. Posting consistently needs to be a high priority for your company. We don’t just mean abiding by a schedule, but also making sure that the associated imagery is consistent as well.

Also, posting consistently not only keeps your current audience engaged, but it also brings in new people to your target market which helps build brand awareness. For example, if you happen to post videos on YouTube, that platform’s algorithm feeds off of having a consistent upload schedule. The more you upload, the more your videos get recommended to users who are engaging with similar content (in this case, your competitors).

As with posting on other social media platforms, when you do this consistently, you can benefit from organic reach.

Plan Your Posts.

A part of good content marketing is good planning. We often stress the importance of scheduling your posts in advance. This gives you the opportunity to not worry about figuring out what type of content to post last minute, and instead focus on meaningful actions such as responding to customers and clients and creating engagement opportunities.

There are a variety of scheduling tools out there, so make sure to do your research and see which one works for your marketing plan.

Proofread.

Posts that are full of grammatical and spelling errors will hurt your business credibility. Think about if a potential customer visits your Facebook page and your posts are full of errors, and then visits your competitor’s and their posts are extremely well-written. The probability of your business earning that customer is few and far between.

Execute Outreach.

On LinkedIn, this could mean connecting with members of your target audience and having meaningful conversations. However, do not be the person that connects and then immediately sends sales messages to every single one of your connections.

On Facebook, this could mean joining relevant groups where your peers, competitors, and potential customers are. Again, having those meaningful conversations will help push people further into your sales funnel.

Spy On Your Competitors.

When doing your marketing research, make sure not to forget about your competition. If you don’t know where to start, what to post, or when to post, we encourage you to look at what your competitors are posting.

Take a look to see which of their social media posts are earning the most engagement, what time of day they’re posting, and what their content mix includes. This should give you enough ideas to start with. Just remember to improve upon their strategy and customize it to your company, your values, and your goals.

Utilize Paid Opportunities.

If you’re going to take the time to make a well-executed post and no one sees it, what is the point? Years ago, any time that your company posted on Facebook the majority of your Facebook followers would see and engage with your post. However, that is no longer true. No matter the KPIs you’re focused on – there’s probably a paid advertising option to support your efforts.

Also, remember to budget for paid advertisements. Look at how much you are willing to spend, and what your return on investment might be. If you can spend more to get a greater ROI, this may be something you want to do for your business.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket.

Just because you post once on Instagram, and you get 5 likes, and that same post on Facebook earned you 22 … doesn’t mean Instagram isn’t the right fit for your business. Every social media network brings its own unique values to the table – take the extra few minutes to optimize each of your posts for each of the social media sites to maintain a cohesive and strong presence.

Learn What We Can Do For You.

Consistency and continuously learning and adapting is key to success with a social media marketing strategy. This is why brands who hire a marketing agency have an edge over their competition. Because of how many clients we (and other agencies) work with every day, we’re able to see overall trends, as well as site updates, and that may be rolled out to one account first – which gives our team an advantage to plan for all of our other clients.

If you’re interested in working with us, please contact us today!

The Power of Integrated Marketing: Using Social Media, Email and Online Ads to End the Year Strong

By Christopher Tompkins

24Sep

Advertising, Email Marketing, Social Media

2020 has been quite the year for most small and large businesses. In many ways, the pandemic has affected both e-commerce and brick and mortar businesses. Ecommerce stores may have found it difficult to stay on top of their supply chain and receive inventory in a timely manner. Brick and mortar businesses have had to struggle with closing their doors for months at a time and following their local guidelines in terms of what to do next.

If we look back, it was the end of the first quarter of business where things began to shift. Some companies pulled back on many marketing initiatives and spending to get a better grasp on the climate while others leaned in and invested heavily into their online channels.

Whether you held back, or you leaned in – you can still make up for lost time AND end the year strong. There are three key elements for you to inspect: social media marketing, email marketing, and online advertising. Ready? Let’s go:

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is one of the best ways to get your business out there. You have the ability to increase brand awareness and recognition with your target market. And, you’re also able to actively engage with your audience through comments, replies, and reviews.

To be on top of your game for social media marketing, you have to make sure that you cover all of your bases. That means brainstorming for and creating both written and visual content, scheduling your posts ahead of time, and engaging with activity on your social media platforms.

First, when it comes to brainstorming for the month (or months) ahead, you have to look at your analytics. What worked previously, and what didn’t? What are some of the changes you want to make with your content? What and how often are your competitors posting? Consider these ideas for your strategy.

Then, take time every day to go through each of your social media sites and respond to all engagements on your posts, and respond to messages. Of course, each platform is different and requires a different approach. You may take more time on LinkedIn responding to leads and connecting with potential clients than responding to comments on Facebook. What is important is that you are keeping your brand relevant on these sites.

Social media will help you amplify your message, position you and your company as a credible expert, drive visibility, and generate leads – all in real-time.

Email marketing

If you don’t have email marketing in place, you are missing a HUGE opportunity to connect with your audience. While social media is essential, email is still one of the best ways to stay top of mind with your current customers, and to solidify a relationship with your potential “top funnel” and “mid-funnel” leads too.

Why else do you need it, and why should it be included in the equation to end the year strong?

It delivers a strong and trackable ROI.

To put it in perspective: for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. Think about all the ways you can benefit from this by including links to your products in newsletters, and even sharing about special deals that are going on. It is worth it to invest both your time and money into this. However, you have to do it right.

If you’re really looking to increase your brands reach and traffic to your site, purchasing a list could be beneficial for you. Before you do this – make sure you know your target audience well so you don’t waste your time and money.

One more hot tip for product companies: bring customers who didn’t complete a purchase back to your site with an abandoned cart series.

Online advertisements

Advertising your business online is an absolute no-brainer if you are looking to generate more business. Many times, if you do not have a strong web presence or social media presence, all of your content and hard work falls on deaf ears…and may never actually be seen by anyone ever. Online advertising circumvents this so that your content, and offerings, are seen and engaged with by your target audience.

Social media advertisements deliver strong ROI. Of course, this depends on which platforms you choose. There is a variety, including Google PPC, geofencing and geotargeting, Facebook, IP retargeting, and more.

These advertisements are also helpful because they instantly generate results. They are also incredibly targeted. Unlike advertising in a local newspaper where anyone could see your ad, you can choose who sees your ad online based on demographics such as location, age, gender, and interests.

IP retargeting and social media retargeting ads are essential to getting users BACK to your website. It’s common knowledge that consumers rarely purchase with a business at first visit – so you need to bring them back. Make sure you’re advertising everywhere your audience is. Being top of mind is important to the customer choosing you over your competitors.

Together social media, email marketing, and online advertisements work to keep your existing audience engaged, while also gaining the attention of potential customers and driving both audiences continuously to your site where they can complete a conversion with you.

We can help you end the year strong by helping you amp up your social media marketing, email marketing, and online advertising strategy. If you want to learn more contact us today.

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