03 Jul

Posted at 13:18h in Video Marketing

Video advertising campaigns evolve with ad formats, and as social media platforms increasingly prioritize videos over other types of content, it’s becoming crucial to nail your video communication. The main purpose of placing video ads is related to the promotion and sale of goods and services of the organization, promotion of brand image, increasing its recognition on the market, as well as increasing the trust and loyalty of potential customers.

The State of Video Marketing

Video advertising is one of the most popular ways to reach online audiences. Experts believe video advertising will dominate the next decade, which suggests that now is an ideal time for marketing professionals to learn more about it and investigate how it could improve their reach and overall effectiveness with campaigns.

Although marketing with videos is gaining popularity, that doesn’t make it a guaranteed win for marketers. The results of an Irish study indicated 60% of respondents felt there was too much advertising associated with on-demand video platforms. Also, 35% said they got frustrated with those ads because they prevented them from watching their desired content.

Stats like those indicate marketers must be exceptionally careful to create video ads the audience perceives as genuinely valuable and relevant. The placement of a video ad also matters, since the goal is to make any advertising content minimally disruptive. If an ad appears where there’s a natural break in the programming, such as before a presenter discusses a new topic, viewers may be more willing to tune in. More and more marketers are using advanced solutions like Outbrain Smartads Scroll-to-Watch and Click-to-Watch video ads, in which the viewer actively opts-in to watch, and regains control over the online experience they want to have. This directly contrasts with the intrusive and annoying nature of pre-roll video, and brings much better completion rates. 

Characteristics of Video Marketing

The dawn of the age of video advertising has created a paradigm shift for marketers. Video ads now make up over 35% of all ad spending online. Video enables you to say much more with less — to construct a story for your brand that’s engaging and packs a punch.

  • They appeal to the short attention spans of today – The digital media landscape is crowded. We’ve all heard that time and time again. The good news is that consumers are way more likely to watch a video than read a block of text or spend 15 seconds considering an image. Video ads consistently see higher engagement rates and time spent than other types of ads.
  • They allow you to effectively spark interest in a short amount of time – Video ads can communicate more than a tagline — they can promote a sale, build a story, outline your value proposition, or go deep into details.Importantly, they are incredibly good at driving customer action.
  • Building brand awareness through user generated content – Some of the most impressive social followings have been built using user-generated content — it’s a video strategy fosters brand advocates and makes for beautiful, human content. It’s also an excellent way to reach new audiences. Airbnb, Glossier, and GoPro are among the top users of this strategy.

 

Advantages of Video Marketing

– possibility of communication with an audience;

– very efficient way to tell a brand story;

– possibility to target an audience;

– very high audience reach and attraction of potential buyers;

– comparably low cost of advertising impressions;

– high involvement and clickability.

Disadvantages of Video Marketing

– Customers ignore ads

– Technical viewing problems

– Expensive ad prices

– Consumers get distracted

– Too many options

20 May

Posted at 17:53h in Advertising, Thought Leadership

Google Analytics is, no doubt, a fantastic product for finding out stats about your association’s audience. Out of the box, it can help you find out more about your audience, where they came from and their behaviour on your website. But there are some features worth enabling as soon as possible, ideally on a fresh install.

These can all be done at any time but may change your stats at that time so this needs to be considered when comparing dates before and after enabling features.

 

The tips

Without further ado, here are the features we tend to enable on each installation. We assume that you have Analytics installed, are collecting data and have permission to edit settings.

Remove bots and spiders

Why? It removes the fakest traffic from your stats meaning they are more genuine.

Bot and spider-related traffic don’t really help you to determine if your campaigns and efforts are working. Often, they will skew your real stats. Whilst it is not perfect, Google has a built-in option to remove them.

How? Go to Admin > View Settings and you’ll see a heading of “Bot Filtering.” Tick the option to “Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders.”

Filter out your own traffic

Why? It removes your own visits to avoid skewing genuine traffic.

This could mean filtering out your own traffic, or your whole office depending on how your organisation works. Essentially, the most common way of doing this would be to exclude IP addresses (or ranges) from being tracked.

How? Find your IP address(es) by Googling “IP” and note it down. In Analytics, go to Admin > Filters > Add filter and [exclude] [traffic from the IP addresses] [that are equal to] then pop in your address. You can check in Real-Time if your filter has worked by visiting a page on your site and seeing if it shows up. Google’s more in-depth explanation might also be helpful.

Enable demographics and interests

Why? It adds stats about your visitors’ genders and ages to Analytics.

Your marketing campaigns might target a particular ages. Or perhaps you wish to learn more about audience gender, age and interests and how it affects your website. In that case, demographics are useful to enable.

Whilst not all of your audience will have a known age or gender, a subset of it could help. More info on how Google obtains this information.

How? Go to Audience > Demographics > Overview and choose the “Enable” button.

Track website searches

Why? See what your audience searches for on your site.

Being able to see what people search for on your website means you could discover hot topics, hard-to-find content or material which you should have on your website.

How? Firstly go to Admin > View Settings and turn “Site search Tracking” on. You’ll next need to fill out a “query parameter” — usually the question mark in the web address of a search. For example, if you were to go to example.com and search for widgets then the web address might be example.com/search-results?term=widgets. In this case, you’d put “term” into Analytics as the query parameter. Try searching your own site for yours.

Integrate the Search Console

Why? See what your audience searches for to get to your site

Being able to see what people search for to get to your website means you could discover terms you rank well for or perhaps should write about more often. Or if you don’t see the terms you want to see on the report then you could work at starting to rank for them.

How? You’ll need to have set up your website with the Search Console first. Once done, go to Acquisition > Search Console > Queries and select “Set up Search Console data sharing.” Select your website from the list and it will pair with Analytics. After a while, you’ll be able to see which queries your audience has used to find your website. Disclaimer: Not all search queries are shown though.

Integrate Google Ads (Adwords)

Why? See how your Ads campaigns are fairing

Only useful if you run Ads of course. Being able to quickly check your Ads campaigns from Analytics is a nice touch from Google and it can give you more information about your audience and behaviour than Ads alone.

How? You’ll need to have set up Ads. Once done, go to Admin > Google Ads Linking and select the “New Link Group” button. Pair it with your Ads account and you’ll then see data in Analytics.

Create a goal

Why? Judge how effective your marketing activities are

One of the more useful areas of Analytics, setting up goals allows you to see the effectiveness of all your marketing campaigns. For example, measure the rate of people registering for your website or how many people contact you. While you’re here, why not read up on the importance of goals.

How? Go to Admin > Goals and select the “New Goal” button. You’re most likely looking for a destination (web address) that means the goal has been completed, so select destination. Enter your destination for the goal (e.g. /thanks-for-contacting) and then you’ll see Goal data in the Conversions section of Analytics. Goals can be any pages you like, but consider using them for end-points of key website features like above.

Have we missed anything? Over to you

If there is something you have found useful to enable, or you would like some expert advice on your Analytics account, then please get in touch — we’d love to hear from you.

19 May

Posted at 13:58h in Branding, Content Marketing

Time is precious, we all know that! And each second of an entrepreneur’s life counts. To ensure that you are not wasting your time on social media, you have to use it wisely. Over the past few years, digitalization has changed the way a business performs. There is no denying that social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram can change the whole game of your business marketing. But what is the most important thing in a business marketing campaign? Of course, it is the content as it is the backbone of successful marketing. We have heard that content is everything but what exactly is this content’? How to batch-create your marketing content (and save yourself hours of time!)

What is content marketing?

Whether you are using an offline (such as magazine or poster) or online marketing, content is everything. Content includes what you write for the campaign, the images/videos you are using, and the keywords. All these represent your brand. Producing good content can help you to change your business marketing in a good way. The key to great content is being simple, genuine, and always consistent. Creating a lot of content for your business is a great idea. So, how can you batch-create the marketing content?

What is batching?

Before we dive into how to create, let us be clear about what batching is. Batching means grouping of some similar tasks that most require the same resources for seamlessly perfect completion. In simple words, batching content means creating more content in lesser time with the least effort and stress. Batching can create a lot of backup content for your business marketing. So, you can use those contents when something really urgent comes up and you need something by the deadline which is otherwise impossible to achieve.

With these contents, you can take your audiences towards your business and land them on a page where they can purchase something to increase your sale. Definitely, batching help you in managing the time spent on creating content much efficiently. It allows maximizing the output while reducing the distraction. Now, the main question is – how to plan a successful batching?

How to batch-create content?

Starting-off:

  • Set a scene: When you are working, you will need a peaceful and quiet workspace without any interruption or distractions. These include shopping deliveries, email pings, and alerts or notifications on your phone. You need to block out all these for 3 to 5 hours and work on the content. It will take about 15 minutes to let your brain focus completely on the work.
  • Don’t set any unrealistic goals: It can be really hard for you to fall short and give up quickly if you tend to set some high goals. It is important to set some realistic goals if you are working for the first time. This can help you to work more efficiently and succeed in a better way.

Planning:

Here, you have to start by creating a complete plan for your content. Take out a year planner to be dedicated to content planning and mark out the essentials:

  • The key dates or the shows or the launches of your business
  • The main events which are relevant to the core audiences
  • Seasonal events celebrated (Youth Day, Easter and Christmas, etc.)

This will help you in having a clear idea about the contents to focus on for the next few days or weeks

Mapping

As you have the entire plan ready, you can now see all those key dates and events coming up. So, it is time for you to build the content topics related to those events. The main thing that a content writer has to do is to brainstorm some amazing and unique ideas for creating the content. Then, you have to categorize the contents into 3 main parts:

  • Content for attracting the audiences for interacting with you
  • Content for building better trust and relationship
  • Content for promoting your business’s products and services

This is the hardest part of the entire process and people often get stuck in thinking of some of the best ideas for the contents. It doesn’t have to be perfect, always. You just make sure it is present and is interesting.

Final words

Now, when you know how you can batch-create the marketing content for your business, you need to know some essential tips. First of all, you need to have a proper keyword research tool to find out the best and most relevant keywords. The next thing is that you have to use Google analytics to know how your previous content is working and what you need to do to improve them. You must keep the contents somewhere between 500 to 700 words if you are creating batch content for your business marketing.

18 May

Posted at 14:15h in Social Media

 

why-you-should-consider-pinterest-in-your-digital-marketing-strategy-part-i

 

Many people recognize Pinterest as a cool photography database, but it’s much more than that. If you are a business owner, you should start to think about Pinterest marketing in your growth and social media strategy.

It’s still less popular than Facebook and Instagram, so you can reach more users without paying a penny. Pinterest is a visual search engine in which you can acquire traffic to your website. If you get more curious right now, let’s briefly explain who can get benefit from Pinterest marketing and what are the basics you should learn.

Why Pinterest for Business?

First, you should analyze Pinterest fit your needs or not because most of the Pinterest users are female. So if your target group is only men, maybe it’s not the right platform for you. Otherwise, you are in the right place! Pinterest claims that:

“85% of women told us they use Pinterest to plan small or big life moments, compared with Facebook 53% and Instagram 44%.”

 

pinterest-vs-instagram

 

They are calling them The Deciders. It shows there is huge buyer intent, which can help your business to grow with Pinterest marketing. 

Pinterest Marketing vs. Instagram

More people are familiar with Instagram, so the first question mark for Pinterest is what’s the difference with Instagram. Both of them visual-centric social media networks. The difference is user intent and why people are using these channels. Understanding the contrast between two platforms help you to create a Pinterest marketing strategy more efficiently.  

Users are not log in their Pinterest account to like their friends’ pictures. It’s more about getting inspiration. It can be for a food recipe or DIY treehouse; there is a wide range of the spectrum. The keyword is “inspiration.” If you have the right message, your target audience waits for you there, and they are already ready to be motivated.

SEO for Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest differentiates itself from most of the social networks. Ads cost less than many other platforms, but the real potential of Pinterest marketing lies in organic reach. Even it’s not right to call it a social network. It’s more similar to Google, in which users search only visuals in the platform. There is no one-size-fits-all rule for it, but the basics of search engine optimization work in Pinterest too. Ranking factors are more relevant to social shares and engagement. So you need spectacular images to make a difference with the Pinterest marketing strategy.

There is no technical SEO except the optimal aspect ratio of your pins. Pinterest embraces vertical images more. (Optimum: 600 px wide by 900 px high) 

Descriptions need to be well-written and comprehensive. It increases your chance of getting more visibility for your pins. The only disadvantage is every search engine optimization needs time. For quick wins, brands need to spend some money on ads. 

How much Pinterest Ads Cost in 2019

There are many different types of advertising models on Pinterest. If we explain the CPC model, every country has different bid floors. Pinterest shared the minimum bids for each campaign type for every country. 

Digital Agencies for Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest still overlooked by many business owners, and it can be the right step for you with the minimum effort. If you don’t feel comfortable with the resources you have for marketing in a new platform, outsourcing it, can be one of the options to start. Many of the digital agencies have in-depth knowledge about the platform and the benefits. You can check the best digital agencies around the world to get help for your Pinterest account.

15 May

Posted at 13:54h in Digital Marketing, Photography

Hi guys. Today we’re looking at the relationship digital marketing has with photography in this modern era. Modern marketing is somewhat of a big kitchen. How well your images translate the nature of your business will determine if your clients stay or prefer the business nextdoor (that has better images). No one wants to be left behind, so today I’ll show you just how important photography is to your business.

How Will Photography Work To Your Advantage?

There are many ways how you can use photography to your advantage. Usually, people make the same mistakes and it is important to know that it is hard to get it right when it comes to photography in marketing. It is not just enough to have some images. Therefore, there are many tips on how to do it right and actually become successful because of it. Remember, photography is a means that is supposed to help you to get through a wider audience. It was supposed to work for you to your benefit and to your advantage. The first thing to do is find a good photographer. This is crucial and critical for the quality of the photos. Preferably, it should be a professional, an expert with special skills and good equipment. Since we are living in an instant age, everyone today thinks of themselves as photographers and artists because they bought a camera but the truth is, half of them do not know how to properly use it.                                 

A photographer with the right set of skills and specialized equipment should suffice. Now, the right specialist skills are a really important thing because you do not need a photographer who can only do photographing packaging solutions when you aim for the people. The skill of your photographer should correlate with your business orientation.

Why Photography is Crucial in Modern Marketing

1. Grabs Attention

One picture won’t do it, but a well curated collection that is updated to keep your audience surprised will likely get people on board with your business. Marketers have to do everything in their powers to grab attention and keep it. This doesn’t mean using really dramatic imagery, in fact sometimes subtle beauty in a shot can be more impactful. The bottom line is that your overall aesthetic is what can bring you new clients. You need to find an edge to attract attention and retain it throughout your websites and social media channels.

2. Delivers a Message With No Words

The human brain is quick to process visuals. Information that can be processed faster, in the form of an image for example, will always rise above other mediums. Your choice of photographs should align with your brand, your mission and your content. Having supporting images as opposed to distracting ones.

3. Establishes Brand Credibility

You might not think so right away, but consistently excellent photography does add your brand’s credibility. It tells clients that you care about the little details, you have great aesthetics and you’re generally a strong brand if you are mindful of the visuals you put out there. Consider the fact that the photographs can strengthen your message and quickly let you target your audience.

4. Inspire Action

A good example for this point is the photo-oriented ads on instagram. You’ve probably caught yourself clicking on sponsored content based on the image you saw. This principle works for many platforms. If you have a captivating photograph and clear CTA, you have a winner. Majority of online users will follow through with an action if it’s supported by visual content rather than plain text. 

5. More Engagement 

Including a photograph automatically generates more engagement. It’s the same for social media channels, blog posts and even websites. If you could use the medium to increase engagement, knowing full well that it works, why not get on board?

6. Builds Trust

Consistency is key. It’s not enough to have a few great images, you have to keep them coming and strive for coherence throughout all your social media channels and other online activities. People are quite quick to judge, and having professional images displaying your cause in context helps build trust. If they like what you are putting out there, they will be interested enough to see more, follow you or check out your products.

Final Thoughts

As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1000 words, and this has never been the case more than today. Photography is now an integral part of modern life and they are becoming increasingly crucial to the marketing of products and services than ever before.

Images are an important part of your business arsenal and should be considered a crucial business asset. Not only will having good images help you to win customers, but it will also give you a bargaining tool to use when collaborating with other brands and businesses.

15 May

Posted at 12:27h in Social Media

Let’s picture this. You had a meeting with a client in a beautiful hotel in the middle of Sandton city. Just after the meeting, you decide to take a picture of the city from a window. A beautiful aerial shot of the city. “Perfect for Instagram,” you say. You put your favourite preset on it and publish it on Instagram with a bunch of hashtags while going down to the lobby in the elevator.

You order your Uber back home or back to your office. Your Uber gets here, and you’re on your way to your new destination. You decide to capture a couple of stories on your way. Because a successful entrepreneur would take an Uber and not the train station right? So you better show off your fancy lifestyle!

Once you arrive at your destination, it’s the right time to see how your post performed. It has been 40 minutes. You must have a couple of hundred likes by now. Your post is probably trending. Maybe it’s on every Sandton Discover Page right now! People that don’t even know you will send you DMs so they can have the chance to work with you. Maybe an extraordinarily influential account reposted your content since it was so good and original.

But, when you open Instagram you still have 387 followers, just like the past two weeks. You have 18 likes on your picture, no comments, and no direct messages. Thirty-one people watched your story but didn’t reply or react. You’re feeling a mix of shame and disappointment. “Should I delete the post?”, “Is having that amount of likes socially acceptable?”

It’s not fair! Why is Instagram working for everyone else but not for you? You have this friend that has 4,000 followers, and his content isn’t even that good! You have that other friend that bought 15,000 followers so they can pretend to be an influencer and sometimes get a free coffee and a scone at the local coffee shop. It seems so easy for them, but you’re struggling!

You’ve been watching tons of YouTube videos about growing on Instagram, and you’re following all the tricks and techniques they’re teaching you. You’re posting daily, you’re using hashtags and locations, you’re posting great content, and you even bought an expensive iPhone and a VSCO subscription to be able to take and publish professional pictures from your phone.

So what is it? How do people make it on Instagram? How do these people get that many followers while you’re struggling?

Stop Receiving, Start Giving

If you relate to the story above, the reason why your account is not growing is probably that you’re only expecting to receive on Instagram, but you’re not giving anything.

Try to remember your last week on the platform. What have you been doing? Have you been posting daily, and that’s it? Have you just been scrolling?

Most people don’t understand the importance of interacting when you’re starting an account. When I say interacting, I’m not talking about liking your friends’ pictures. I’m talking about comments and DMs.

The first thing to do is identify users that fit in your niche and would like your content. Search through hashtags or locations. Once you’re seeing the content of these potentially interested people, start commenting on it. Give genuine and thoughtful comments. Give them your opinion and a different perspective. Come up with something that will bring value to them.

Start commenting every day, on 20 or 30 posts. Every day. These comments will drive conversations. Keep track of those comments and reply to them as long as the discussion can go on! Be social, be fun, be valuable!

Do that every day. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. You might not get results right away — it may take two or three days. But if your targeting is right, people that got engagement from you are very likely to go to your page, see your content, engage with it, and follow you.

The success rate of this method is quite high, and it gets you way more qualified followers than a follow-unfollow method. This method is exceptionally sustainable and allows you to reach a lot more people than what hashtags and location tags can do.

You’re Already Giving, but You Don’t See Results?

That could be lots of different things. Maybe your content isn’t that great. Perhaps your captions aren’t high value. Maybe they’re not relevant. Maybe your targeting isn’t on point, or maybe the people that you think might be interested in your content are not. Perhaps your potential audience is different from what you think. Perhaps you’re not giving enough, or not giving well enough. Maybe you need to bring more value in the comments you’re leaving.

Try experimenting a little. Try changing your content, being more authentic, more personal, less bragging, more descriptive, and more insightful. You can also try playing with other voices. Or, try targeting a more precise niche, or a broader one. If you’re not growing, that means there’s room for improvement somewhere. 

If you’re still not growing with this method, either you need to change your content, or maybe Instagram is not ideal for you and your business. But any hack or bot will not help you solve the problem.

Final thought

Not growing is a symptom, not a cause. If you want to grow, you need to solve the problem, not hide the symptom by buying engagement and followers.

14 May

Posted at 13:47h in Social Media

Figuring out the right social media platform for your business can lead your business to riches, or lead you down a long winding road that leaves you in the middle of nowhere.

To put it simply: You need to get it right straight away.

And there are ways that will help you work out which channel is best for you, and it is straightforward.

In this article, we’re going to help you discover which one is right for you so that you spend more time maximizing your sales and less time on social channels that give you no ROI or ROAS.

How To Work Out What The Best Social Media Platform Is For Your Business

There are a few ways you can work out what social media platform is going to give you the biggest return on your investment, such as:

  • Looking at what your competitors are focused on
  • Where your competitors aren’t focusing on
  • Social channels that work for your particular business

Looking At What Your Competitors Are Focused On

Where are your competitors focusing their attention?

You can find this out by following their accounts, and there’s a little SECRET that Facebook has given the general public which you can find here:

competitors-are-focused-on-the-good-marketer

Just click the See more button in the box highlighted and you will then be taken to a page that says:

page-transparency-for-the-good-marketer

As you can see, they were not currently running any ads at the time of writing, but if your competitor is, then you can click on Go To Ad Library, and you will see every ad they are running.

This is a huge advantage that most business owners and dare we say agencies, don’t know!

It’s there for the taking.

And it works the same for Google ads too where you can use tools to help you view competitors Google Ads, such as SEMrush.

Here’s how you find your competitors Google ads on SEMrush:

ppc-advertising-toolkit-the-good-marketer

When you type in your domain, SEMrush will then find competitors similar to your business and bring up ads like:

find-competitors-google-ads-on-semrush-the-good-marketer

Simple!

What Your Competitors Aren’t Focusing On

It’s also crucial to know what your competitors aren’t focusing on.

They will know the market better than most right?

If you don’t see your competitors using Pinterest for example, they may not be using that particular channel for a reason – it’s not spending money!

On the flip side, they may be missing out on a huge opportunity that you can take advantage of!

What if the reason they’re not using a certain social channel is that they’re not aware of it?

With the rise of new social channels that are predominantly used by children such as Tik Tok, you can quickly become an industry leader in a short space of time.

You’ll unlikely get to that stage with the likes of Facebook or Instagram, but have a look around and see if you can maximize your efforts.

Social Channels That Work For Your Business

Some social channels won’t be necessary for your business by the way…

If you are a fast-fashion eCommerce store then you will want to focus on the likes of Instagram and Pinterest.

They’re image and video-heavy so you can showcase your products and people enjoy interacting on these channels too, due to their visual nature.

Pretty soon, your customers will end up deciding it for you with their money.

That’s normal for most businesses.

Get great at one and then start branching out!

What Do We Recommend As a Digital Marketing Agency?

We, as a digital marketing agency, are not going to sit on the fence for this one and we’re going to give you a definite answer…

The majority of our clients have seen success from using Facebook advertising.

Specifically Facebook – not Instagram to make it clear by the way.

It’s becoming more effective at targeting people because it’s an algorithm and the more data an algorithm has, the more accurate it becomes.

And when you see Facebook advertising as a long-term strategy, where you’re not looking to make a quick buck off of Facebook ads but rather invest in the long-term, Facebook reciprocates by giving you higher-quality customers, lowest cost-per-result and most importantly, many more sales!

social-media-platforms-photo

Conclusion

Studies have shown that 70% of businesses in the SA are using social media and that 66% were using some form of online advertising

Then you need to be using social media as a marketing channel and investing part of your marketing budget into online advertising.

13 May

Posted at 13:40h in Social Media

Social media has become an indispensable tool for consumers online in this day and age. It’s no surprise that all kinds of businesses have turned to social media to find and connect with their target market. The figures don’t lie either: consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals.  Millennials are considered as the generation that spends most of their time online, 47% of their purchases are influenced by social media. They are also 1.6 times more likely to use digital channels to learn about new products. This puts social media platforms in a prime position for executing effective digital marketing campaigns. 
With these facts in mind, understanding how consumer buying behaviour works can help establish your best practices before investing in social media advertising and other marketing tactics.

What Is Consumer Behaviour?

Consumer buying behaviour is the study of how individuals and organisations select and use products and services. This primarily focuses on psychology, motivations, and behaviours, such as how people choose between brands, how they research and shop, and how marketing campaigns can be improved so brands can effectively influence them.
Three factors can influence consumer buying behaviour: personal, psychological, and social. Personal factors deal with an individual’s interests and opinions, which are affected by their demographics. Psychological factors are based on their perceptions and attitudes, including their ability to comprehend information and how they see their needs. Finally, social factors are made up of one’s peer groups, socioeconomic classes, and even social media influence.

Are People Buying On Social Media?

To a certain extent, it appears retailers are succeeding. According to Salesforce, 54% of millennials use social channels to research products before they buy. Similarly, Aimia says that 31% of shoppers use social to browse for new items.
But, does this mean they are actually buying through social media? Maybe not, because despite Instagram’s introduction of shoppable posts, plus shoppable features on Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest – research suggests that users are failing to actually purchase on these channels.
More and more companies see the opportunities of social media, and as a result they regard social media as a very important platform and pipeline and use it to advocate their own products and services. There is nothing wrong with this approach, of course; social media indeed helps marketing a lot, but one cannot just regard it as a sales platform.

What Influences Buying Decisions in #Social Media?

Social media has revolutionised consumer purchasing behaviour over the last few years, directly impacting the way they buy products and services. The fact that there are billions of opinions and reviews out there means marketers have to change their perception about social media from ‘fun to have’ to ‘must focus on’. The use of social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Facebook among buyers has grown considerably over the last two years. Facebook, in fact, doubled in popularity from 2010 to 2011. Although Google search still leads the way in terms of influencing online shopping behaviour, the steady growth of social media is opening up new opportunities for marketers to message and connect with customers.
According to Forrester Research, social media marketing budgets will see a 34% growth between 2009 and 2014, which is faster than any other form of online advertising. This data indicates that shopping via social media is poised for tremendous growth in the years to come, with product reviews and recommendations playing an important part. This is not to say that the role of traditional marketing channels in influencing buying decisions will decline; people watching and listening to marketing messages on TV and radio are more likely to consult their friends and followers before making a purchase. While reviews can help marketers further improve products, freebies and discounts function as powerful tools in driving sales. The current trend of consumers scouting social media for coupons holds good not just today, but will also be one of the primary factors driving online shoppers in the future.

12 May

Posted at 13:28h in Social Media

Law firms who want to make a big impact in a highly competitive market will often find it is at the marketing stage where things get toughest. For small and medium-sized firms, lacking the famous brand names or in-house marketing departments of the large players, this is particularly so.

Of course, there are many ways in which a smaller law firm can improve its marketing efforts. Ditching traditional methods, which have been highly unsuccessful in recent years, is an obvious start. Replacing them with a more modern digital strategy is undoubtedly the way forward. But the question remains: what form should this take?

In answering the question, a few key points should be noted:

  • A strong digital marketing strategy will benefit any law firm.
  • Social media is a powerful tool in this, with tens of millions of users

As well as deciding which platforms to use – since their demographics and formats vary – there is also the question of whether to focus on organic content or use paid social media. For many firms, the paid social option could turn out to be a very effective choice indeed.

Why organic and paid social media are different?

Organic social media content is generated using free tools on different social media platforms in order to build an engaging social community and interact with people. Everyone can like, comment, and share your posts with public access, and you can also respond to their comments.

For example, publishing tweets or a Facebook story is organic. There is no charge from Twitter or Facebook for publishing your content from their platform.

Paid social media involves you paying the network for displaying adverts:

  • These can include text, image, video, carousel, and other mediums.
  • The cost depends on the type of ad planned to display on a platform.
  • For example, if you choose the bidding strategy for your ad as auto CPC (cost per click) you’ll only be charged when someone clicked on your ads. 

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How does paid social media work for law firms?

For law firms who want to get noticed can go a long way towards raising their profile with a great digital marketing strategy.

However, if you want to gain more clients online in the shortest possible time, paid social advertising can help you achieve the goal. Compared with organic content, which can take several months to achieve your goal, paid social media campaigns can help SEM law firms to reach their potential clients quicker and receive key results much sooner.

What paid social media advertising channels to exist?

A wide range of channels exists for you to place your paid social media advertising on. 

  • Facebook Ads
  • Advertising on Instagram
  • Twitter Ads
  • LinkedIn Ads
  • Online Video Advertising Campaign on YouTube

When should law firms design a paid social campaign?

Before you actually start any campaigns, make sure that you’ve defined your target audiences, understood buyer persona, and had the digital marketing experts in your team to help you speed up the process.

Then you need to ask yourself what you want to achieve through the campaign.

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  • Are you trying to raise the brand awareness of your law firm?
  • Alternatively, are you trying to direct more people to visit your website and then generate the leads?

How can you use a paid social strategy to target niche markets?

The service your law firm provides may only appeal to a narrow range of people, but it doesn’t mean you pay fewer efforts to research your target market. 

Happily, there’s always a solution out there to target each market. Compared with organic social media content, you will receive the key results faster; within a few months or even weeks. We always provide unique services to our clients in order to achieve the best results.

08 May

Posted at 14:52h in Thought Leadership

Consumer engagement is becoming more important than ever as we face busier lives, shorter attention spans, and saturated markets.

The longer you can hold a conversation, the better. Marketers say that interactive content is effective at engaging with consumers, versus static content which is only 70% effective.

If you want to get ahead of the crowd, you need to interact with your audience. Here are a few easy ways to incorporate interactive marketing in your social media strategy:

Poll/Quizzes

This is a common and simple way to engage with your audience. By presenting them with a list of questions or requesting them to submit their own questions, you create a quick way for natural interaction.

polls-give-a-chance-to-create-content-for-the-desire-of-the-audiences

You can pose your questions to brand-specific requests (What do you like most about our product? What would you like to see more of?) or you can ask questions that are broader but still relevant to your brand (a grocery chain might ask what your favorite flavor of ice cream is, or an outdoor retailer might ask about your favorite season).

Polls give you a chance to create content that your audiences want to see. Plus, promoting their input makes them feel closer to your brand, which can increase consumer loyalty. Don’t forget to get creative!

Live Video

Video content has been a proven and effective tool for marketing on social media. From ephemeral content like Instagram Stories to Social TV channels like IGTV and Youtube, it’s important that you harness the world of online video marketing.

Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, and more, allow users and brands to set up channels and go live in front of their audiences. These streams allow users to like, comment, and contribute to the videos as they are rolling, with the possibility of direct responses from the streamers.

From a consumer standpoint, this is an exciting way to interact with brands or people that you admire and a way to have your voice heard by big companies. On the brand side, this information can provide great insights into what your viewers want to see and how they feel about your content, which in turn helps you create more robust marketing strategies.

Experiential Marketing

Also referred to as engagement marketing, experiential marketing allows brands to interact physically with their audiences. These immersive and exciting installations can range from conference booths to mesmerizing virtual reality experiences.

In a world that is dominated by digital media, experiential marketing can be a great way to change the pace of your tactics. Consumers are excited to see brands reach beyond the digital sphere and get creative in the real world. Experiential campaigns can leave lasting impressions on consumers that lead to long-term brand loyalty. Here’s a great example of an experiential campaign by Refinery29.

UGC

User-generated content is any content that is created by people, not by brands. Sharing this content through your brand’s social accounts is a great way of inviting interaction with your viewers and it creates organic traffic.

Marketing is all about getting-the-word out about your product. These days, word-of-mouth is a concept that has expanded into the digital world. Sure, people might mention your product to their a couple of friends or talk about it at the dinner table, but if they share it to a social channel, where their audience is in the hundreds if not thousands, then this is a significant increase in reach.

User-generated content is authentic and creates a personalized experience for your viewers. It can help humanize your brand and create a community around your products or services, which ultimately increases trust and brand loyalty.

With the introduction of eCommerce to social platforms like Instagram, UGC can also help drive sales. If you see an influencer or someone you trust using a product, you have more incentive to purchase.

Ready to choose interactive marketing?

 Interactive marketing gives brands a chance to connect personally with their audiences, which in turn increases brand loyalty. By creating regular engagement with consumers, brands can increase SEO, drive conversions, and create stronger digital strategies through collected data.

The days of delivering content and waiting for conversions are over. If you want to compete in today’s digital world, it’s time to start engaging your audience.