Maintaining your social media presence is essential in today’s online world. It can be a time-consuming task, but it’s worth it to build trust with consumers and create a consistent brand image.
You may be a business owner starting out on social media. Or, have been at it for a while and aren’t seeing the results you want. This daily checklist will help.
By following this social media cheat sheet, you’ll monitor your accounts effectively and become an asset to your customers.
Let’s get started.
Why Is Social Media Management Important?
With over 4.26 billion people on social media, it’s more important than ever to have a presence on various media platforms.
As a business owner, understanding how your brand is perceived online and what is said about it is essential. Your social media accounts represent your company’s values, so be consistent with the message you’re putting out there.
Consistency helps maintain the brand and builds trust with consumers. It’s also essential to have a strategy in place and understand your company and your target audience well. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to create content that resonates with your target audience.
If you don’t have a social media presence, you’re missing out on an opportunity to market your business for free. And if you’re not consistently active, you’re not building trust with potential customers.
The Basics of Social Media Management
Before we get into the daily checklist, let’s go over the basics of social media management.
First, you need to understand what social media platforms your target audience is using. Then, you need to create profiles on those platforms and complete your profile information.
Once your social media profiles are set up, it’s time to start posting content. When starting out, it’s important to post regularly so your audience knows you’re active and engaged. Then, as you grow your social media following, you can experiment with the frequency of your posts.
Remember, quality is better than quantity when it comes to social media. Posting one high-quality piece of content is better than several low-quality pieces.
Your audience will also engage more with interesting, informative, or entertaining content. So, ensure you’re creating appropriate content for your target audience that will resonate with them.
Lastly, you need to supervise your social media accounts. This means keeping an eye on your activity and engagement levels, as well as any negative feedback.
Now that we’ve gone over the basics, let’s get into the daily checklist.
Daily Social Media Checklist
This checklist will help you focus on the most important tasks related to social media management. By following this guide, you’ll be sure to stay on top of your content and build trust with your audience.
Here’s what you should do every day:
1. Review Your Analytics
The first thing you should do is review your social media analytics. This will provide you with a good overview of how your accounts are performing and where you can improve.
You should look at your overall engagement levels and the engagement levels for each post. This will help you identify which types of content have an impact on your audience and which ones don’t.
Lastly, look at your followership to get an idea of how well your social media marketing efforts are working. If you’re not seeing much growth, it may be time to adjust your strategy.
2. Share Engaging Content
Once you’ve reviewed your analytics, it’s time to start sharing content. Remember to mix up the content you share so your audience doesn’t get bored. Try to share a mix of text, images, videos, and infographics. And be sure to post both original and curated content.
Curation is important because it shows that you’re not just self-promoting all the time. It also helps you fill up your social media calendars if you’re struggling to come up with original content.
Just remember to provide credit to the original source when you share someone else’s content.
When you’re sharing content, be sure to use hashtags, @mentions, and geotags. This will help you reach a broader target audience and get more engagement.
If you don’t have time to post daily, you can schedule your social media content using a tool like Hootsuite. This will help you prepare your posts in advance so that you don’t have to worry about them every day.
You can also share user-generated content or repurpose content from other platforms. Just make sure the content you’re sharing is still relevant and engaging.
3. Respond to Comments and Messages
Another important task to do every day is to respond to comments and messages. This includes both positive and negative feedback.
Responding to positive comments is important and lets your audience know you appreciate their feedback. You should also reply to negative comments in a timely and professional manner. This will show your audience you’re committed to providing excellent customer service.
Use your responses as an opportunity to build relationships with your audience. Be friendly and helpful, and you’ll be sure to win over some fans.
And don’t forget to thank your fans and followers for their support! A simple “thank you” can go a long way.
4. Develop Relationships with Influencers
Finally, you should spend some time every day developing relationships with influencers. You can do this by commenting and liking their posts, sharing their content, and tagging them in your posts.
Try reaching out to influencers directly and introducing yourself. If they’re interested in what you have to say, they may be willing to collaborate with you on a future project.
Influencer marketing is an excellent way to reach a wider audience and get more engagement. And it can also help you build trust with your customers while diversifying your content.
The Bottom Line
By following this daily checklist, you’ll be sure to stay on top of your social media presence and build trust with your audience. Just remember to be consistent, engage with your followers, and monitor your analytics to see what’s working.
If you need help or are uncertain about how to do something, check out our other articles. In addition, we’ve got a ton of great resources to help you with your social media marketing.
November through to January is one of the most exciting times for anyone who does digital marketing. It's the time when budgets are drawn up and the new marketing strategy is solidified.
As a small business owner, you don't have a team of marketers working on your behalf to formulate a winning digital marketing strategy to ensure your marketing efforts are a success. Because of this, it can be intimidating to plan your marketing strategies for this year.
But don't worry, because we've spent our time looking at all the data that matters to identify key digital marketing trends for 2022.
We've identified the best digital marketing trends that are working right now to generate leads and grow your business today, and through 2022.
What Are the Trends of the Future?
Fortunately for business owners, digital marketing has never been more important and there is no shortage of strategies to choose from. This year alone we've seen content marketing become increasingly popular as well as social mediaadvertising adopt a new strategy called paid-social media advertising which enables brands not only to advertise their products but also connect with audiences on different platforms like Facebook or Instagram without paying extra fees by using an algorithm so they can target potential customers based off interests relevant just what he/she might need at any given moment!
In 2021, content marketing was one of the leading forms of marketing used by businesses. Brands with a blog generated over 67% more leads than ones without a blog, and the revenue for content marketing will exceed $300 billion in 2022.
Social media marketing has also skyrocketed, with 54% of social media users using these platforms to research products. Marketing professionals have prioritized social media in 2021 because of its high time investment. The average user spends just under 3 hours per day consuming these networks; Which makes it clear that this platform will be important for brands looking to promote themselves online going forward.
Digital marketing is especially useful for small business owners. It’s cost-effective, has an extensive reach, and is instrumental for building brand awareness and trust.
But we know it can be overwhelming to develop your digital marketing strategy as a small business owner – especially if you don’t have much experience with digital marketing.
So with that in mind, we've put together a list of key trends that you need to know about in 2022. We’re sure it will keep your business profiting all year long!
Here are some of the key digital marketing trends you need to follow in 2022:
Influencer Marketing
In 2021, influencer marketing is worth over $13 billion. We live in a time where consumers trust sales influencers' recommendations over traditional celebrities, with 49% of consumers using influencer recommendations to influence purchasing decisions this year. For teens and younger demographics, this number is even higher; Over 70% of teenagers rely on influencer recommendations for purchases.
Social commerce is more powerful than ever before thanks to the power of influencers. Social commerce allows you to use influencers and micro-influencers to sell products directly to new customers on social media networks.
Influencer marketing is a significant trend in digital marketing strategy that will continue to boom in 2022. The rise of micro and nano-influencers means that small businesses can capitalize on this exciting marketing; There is a high return on investment on influencer marketing expenditure. For each $1 invested, businesses can make up to $6.50 ROI on influencer marketing.
Conversational Marketing is “IN”
Conversational marketing refers to the use of chatbots and live chats for marketing purposes. Able to provide users with instant access to customer support, conversational marketing makes your business accessible to customers 24/7.
Conversational marketing is a powerful marketing automation tool that leading brands utilize. This aids with data collection, qualify leads and provide premier customer experience services.
The best part about conversational marketing is it’s fully automated. It literally works for you in your sleep and can be set up fairly easily.
Facebook, WordPress & Wix all offer chatbot artificial intelligence tools that small businesses can use today.
The Power of Short-Form Video
Short-form video is skyrocketing in popularity. The growth of social media channels such as TikTok and Instagram Reels has caused short-form videos to become a booming digital marketing trend. It's important to incorporate short-form video into your digital marketing strategy.
Short, snappy, and to-the-point, short-form video marketing allows you to share key marketing messages in 15 seconds. These marketing messages are memorable, engaging, and resonate with consumers. Expenditure on short-form video is predicted to rise in 2022, and many leading marketers are investing more into it this new year.
Brand Challenges & User-Generated Content
The rise in short-form video marketing gave rise to other digital marketing trends such as brand challenges and user-generated content. Both of these offer prime marketing automation opportunities and allow you to produce interactive content with existing customers.
Interactive content is key to boosting engagement with your digital marketing efforts. Many marketers incorporate brand challenges into their marketing strategy in order to boost the amount of user-generated content created by existing customers.
User-generated content is content that is created by consumers and is key for building brand trust and awareness. Consumers are more likely to trust the content that is created by other consumers, and it requires minimal marketing efforts on your behalf.
Blogs and Website Content Are Still In
Blog and website content is still popular and will continue to be popular through 2022. You can utilize AI tools like Answer the Public to find what your consumers are searching for and develop a content strategy around it.
As of 2021, over 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. Effective content marketing will help you rank higher on Google's search results, which means more targeted traffic for your business!
Your Email Copy
With an average return on investment of $36 for every $1 spent it's important to include email marketing in your digital marketing strategy.
But your email marketing results are only as good as your email copy. Create engaging email copy to compel your subscribers to click on your email offers and purchase you’re promoting. Once you have a customer email list, you can literally create sales on demand. So make sure you keep your list engaged with content that matters to them.
Wrapping up…
Digital marketing isn’t the future of marketing, it’s right now — and it's more important than ever for small businesses to capitalize on it now.
By implementing any of the digital marketing trends we mentioned above, you can take full advantage of powerful marketing strategies that will vastly improve your ROI digital reach with your audience.
Need help marketing or even creating your content? Book a time to chat with Jay of JVI Mobile Marketinghere.
By now, I think it’s safe to say that we’re all sick of talking about the pandemic. Most of us would gladly go back to a simpler time where there were no masks requirements, where businesses and restaurants were open for business as usual — and you could go about marketing your small business as usual.
But we still are living in crazy times. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in changes to advertising, marketing, and promotional campaigns for small businesses around the globe.
From brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pops to international brands, companies have needed to re-evaluate their approach to marketing to adapt to the ‘new normal.
Not to mention the minefield of policies that small businesses now face in the arena of paid promotion; The FTC, CFPB, and FDA have all honed in on unfair and deceptive business practices to protect vulnerable consumers, monitor bold marketing campaigns, and terminate COVID-19 scams from online platforms.
Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Marketing
Adapting to Change
Small businesses should be up to the challenge: thinking about innovative marketing strategies and practices that don’t alienate their customers by appearing tone-deaf.
Further, ensuring operations are seamless and campaign planning is flawless in a new commercial world of uncertainty and promoting products and services that meet your customer’s new needs & desires in a post-pandemic world.
More crucially so, with the States condemned to a rollercoaster of opens and closes, advertising spending has decreased dramatically in 2021 as physical stores shut their doors and deliveries come to a halt.
So what does marketing look like for a small business nowadays?
Social Media: More Important than ever
Your budget for marketing your small business should directly reflect the shift in the way customers shop and find you online. As restrictions were put in place across the US – public and print advertising came to a near-instantaneous halt.
In the meantime, in-home media usage went up, including:
TV viewership
Streaming services
Social platforms
And per a study by GWI, 45 percent of global consumers are devoting more time to social media, and video streaming has increased by 25 percent. Why is this data crucial to the survival of small businesses?
It’s critical that a small business now seeks to optimize its marketing practices to better reflect this rise in the online presence of its customers, digital transactions, and entertainment choices. If you know your demographic has been using Facebook more during the pandemic, you know how your Q3 & 4 2021 marketing roadmap should look. Further, the number of consumers using online food delivery services and essential goods delivery solutions has risen dramatically. Customers are online, now more than ever – because it’s essential.
Being Human has never mattered more
Consumer demand for empathy on behalf of businesses and brands is at an all-time high during the COVID-19 pandemic. The small businesses that will continue to thrive in 2021 will be those that try their best to promote in a human manner and communicate with customers on an emotional level, understanding their pain points.
Yes, if you’re like many, you may be growing tired of hearing about COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean your small business should ignore it. In a survey conducted by Kantar, 77% of consumers said they now want to see online content from businesses to show ‘how you’re helping people get used to the new everyday life.’ But how can we achieve this with our small business marketing?
Seek to build long-term trust.
Educate customers about your own struggles as a small business.
Engage with your audience through more personal means than simple ads.
Entertain your audience when they need it most!
Email at the forefront
If emails don’t currently form a part of your small business marketing strategy, now is the time to change that. If you’ve established a keen database of current/past/potential future customers, email marketing is an incredibly cost-effective, powerful tool to market your business during the pandemic. No leaving the house, no physical locations – just old-fashioned digital. Plus, email marketing historically provides some of the most asymmetrical positive returns in the business world. It’s too cheap and too effective.
As we said, we can’t ignore COVID-19. While updates are important, they shouldn’t be the only focus of your emails (especially if it’s sent to customers you want to sell to!)
Here are some COVID-19-friendly email campaigns to add to your mix in 2021.
Newsletters – Want a laid-back, friendly way of keeping your customers in the loop about your business? Newsletters are the way forward. Think: promotions, deals, one-time offers, discounts – and virtual/physical event dates to grow your business. On top of that, you can tick the ‘human’ box by doing a few simple things; Feature local news stories, share social media updates, and get customers involved in quizzes and prize surveys.
Offer help to your customers – Depending on the nature of your business, you might be able to offer your help to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Do you have connections in the business space that can help your customer? Are you running a fundraising campaign for local equipment/vaccine centers? If you can provide any support to your audience, you’ll want to set up email campaigns to reflect these plans.
Business as usual emails – Strike the balance between being COVID-friendly and Business-friendly emails! Remember: you’re running an operation here, and it’s probably your livelihood. Just exercise caution with the language you use in marketing your small business: people want empathy this year and sympathy for their current circumstances (and they still want you to sell to them!)
What’s stayed the same?
Yes, COVID-19 has caused a seismic shift in small businesses marketing. But there remain some consistencies to approach. Don’t just start over from scratch after this article!
Your Customers Still Like Your Ads
Earlier, we mentioned a study on sentiment done by Kantar. Per the same brand’s other COVID-19 Barometer survey, 8% of consumers believe that brands should stop advertising during the pandemic. As we said, it’s a minefield out there, and some businesses are concerned about offending their customers or community. But this data gives you the green light to go wild.
This will also resonate well with the market because people want normalcy back. They want the ‘old way of life back pre-COVID-19, and that means ads. It means billboards, great TV ads, and physical shopping.
Data is still King
Data hasn’t changed. If your business isn’t paying attention to data to drive decisions and establish marketing strategies, you’re missing out on a great deal of money and growth.
You can collect data in their CRMs to create better visions of your customer and create powerful marketing campaigns using social media content and ads. Using what information you generate with those campaigns, come back stronger with an even more resonant message.
The customer is still at the heart
How many emails have you received from small businesses, companies, or brands that start with ‘During these difficult times’ or something similar? It’s getting old. Business customers are blind to empty words like this and are finding it harder and harder to connect.
You still need to put the customer first. The pandemic is no longer a shock or something to transition into: it’s reality. Deliver helpful, meaningful, and engaging content. Solve the customer’s issues by talking to them and finding out how you can help.
Ultimately, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a majority of small businesses as having little-to-no marketing strategies. If you’re one of them, that’s great – you won’t have to start fresh. If you find yourself shouting at the wind with no success, it’s time to build a pandemic-friendly marketing strategy that resonates with an audience that’s gotten to grips with a new world. Finally, there’s never been a greater opportunity for small businesses to engage with customers at such an intimate level.
Do you need help marketing your small business? Fill out this form so we can reach out to you!
Small business owners are busy people. You’re running your own company, and you’re also a jack of all trades for the employees that do not have a specific skill set. Your time is valuable, and we know how difficult it can be to find the time to market your small business, or develop small business marketing strategies. That’s where JVI Mobile Marketing comes in!
We provide professional marketingservices for small businesses of all shapes and sizes. From social media management to traditional advertising, our team has experience with every industry under the sun. We work with clients from coast-to-coast who need help to get their message out in front of their target audience. When it comes to smaller companies promoting their business, it can help to understand where you can compete with the “big guys”.
Small Business Marketing Strategies #1 – Paid Ads
No one has a traffic problem. As long as you are willing to pay for the traffic. Facebook and Google are two of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to get your marketing message out. These networks have a lot of features that small businesses need for their campaigns.
In order to run a paid campaign, you need a combination of 3 elements:
Target Audience – Be crystal clear on whom you want to get in front of with your message.
– You can also target by interest or behavior with Facebook Ads Manager Predefined Audiences, Custom Audiences from your email list on Gmail or Google Analytics data in Adwords.
Pro Tip: Use the Facebook suggestions for other targeting options you might not have thought of while selecting your audience
Landing Page (Destination) – This is where you want the person to go when they click on your ad.
It can be a website, Facebook page or another type of social media site.
– Choose the landing page wisely because it will have an impact on conversion rates and your return on investment for the campaign.
Pro Tip: If using a website for a landing page, it should not be your home page. Instead, create a landing page with one focused “Call-to-action” (CTA).
There are several great landing page builders out there. Some of the ones we use are:
SwipePages
Brizy
ClickFunnels
Landingi
Instapages
## Offer – What valuable chunk of content can you offer in exchange for the user’s contact information?
This is called a lead magnet. Some great examples of lead magnets are :
– an e-book
– a free trial of your SaaS product with no credit card required and full cancellation rights
– video training course on how to use the software or service you offer in exchange for their contact information. This is also called “content marketing” or “inbound marketing”. It’s all about providing valuable content that educates people, so they will reach out to you when they need help.
Small Business Marketing Strategies #2 – Business Reviews
Write a paragraph about the importance of getting your customers to leave a review or feedback for your business and making it public on Google.
Business reviews are crucial for small businesses. Reviews have the power to make or break your reputation, which is why you need to make sure that they’re good ones! The best part about hosting a review system on Google is that it’s so easy and accessible. It’s as simple as opening up the Maps app on any internet-connected device in order to leave your feedback of a local business – and then sharing with all your social media followers at once.
There are also plenty of websites out there where customers can read others’ reviews before deciding who to buy from – these sites include Yelp, TripAdvisor, Glassdoor and Angie’s List just to name a few! Nowadays even big banks like Wells Fargo will ask their clients for reviews. We feel that reputation management is a cornerstone small business marketing strategy!
There are also software solutions that can help you collect reviews from your customers, share them with Google, and build up a library of feedback you can use on your website.
Pro Tip: Use a software program instead of doing this manually.
In all transparency, we built our own software to accomplish this for you. For more information, check out our brand new SaaS (Software as a Service) called Local 5 Stars. www.local5stars.com
Small Business Marketing Strategies #3 – Live (and recorded) Video
Video marketing is more important than ever. Take a look at the Facebook Live feeds of brands like Red Bull, GoPro, and other companies to see what we mean.
– Shoot Short Video Ads for Your Website or Social Media Pages
– Host a Webinar
– Be Creative! People love original content that they’ve never seen before!
Use video to solve you audiences problems. Don’t talk all about your products and services. Instead, show people how your services can solve their issue and speak to them.
Pro Tip: Host a webinar or use video where you are answering questions that people are already asking about online. Two great places to find out what people are asking are Quora and Answer the Public.
– Host your videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and other platforms that will help them rank high in search engines like Google.
Don’t forget about newsletters! Use videos for an installment series where they get notified every time the next one is released. And don’t forget to use calls to action at the end telling people how they can contact you if they have any further questions. It’s important not only to show information but also give viewers a way to interact with it as well.
In conclusion, there are a ton of small business marketing strategies out there. Use what you are comfortable with. This is not anywhere near a complete list.
For more tips and strategies to market your small business, follow our sister website, HowTo.Agency.
In 2018, you need a sales and marketing plan that makes the best use of digital marketing trends to create more visibility and drive revenue.
We’ve identified five major digital marketing trends that should get your focus in 2018.
The businesses that are able to best take advantage of these trends will get a huge leg up over their competitors.
To help you get you started — and to make this coming year more profitable for you — read about these five important digital marketing trends for 2018 below.
Content is what makes the web go around. Content is what makes people visit your website, it’s what encourages people to follow you on social media and it’s what eventually turns your visitors into fans rather than just followers.
Your social media strategy should largely be about sharing content. That means directly posting images, videos, and text to your social media accounts, but it also means posting to your blog or website and then sharing that on social media.
But this strategy will only work so long as the content you are providing is top quality and highly engaging. So now the question is: how do you ensure that this is the case?
For this reason, around 90% of businesses that advertise online use content marketing currently. Most are interested in shifting dollars from traditional ads to content, where they can find better returns.
You should create engaging, in-depth content with a strong visual element to attract prospects. Reach more people by learning about the content they want to consume and giving them more of it.
Now, keep in mind that there are over 2 billion active Facebook users in the world. A little bit of number crunching reveals that approximately 1 billion people watch one hour of video a week. That’s a huge embedded audience to explore!
Video holds much more attention and communicates messages more effectively than text or still images alone. Recognizing this, small businesses have been using video and finding huge returns. Whether as a type of content or a paid ad, video drives huge amounts of engagement.
Research from Wyzowl indicates that 79% percent of consumers surveyed would rather watch a video to learn about a new product then read about it.
Also, “64% of customers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.” So, people are not only watching a video but also remembering what they see and actually buying things afterward!
From there, consider repurposing some of your existing content into short, informative videos and uploading them directly to social media.
You know the audiences are there, you just have to give them something worth paying attention to.
Facebook Advertising to Reach Prospects
Billions of users reside on Facebook. The targeting is so specific, you can even turn off ads to people who have clicked on them before. It can also be inexpensive if you know what you’re doing.
No wonder it’s one of the top advertising platforms for marketers.
The results of Facebook advertising can happen very quickly. It’s not unusual to see sales start after 24 hours of running an ad. As a small business owner, you can use Facebook to your advantage.
Here’s how.
If you’ve read that boosting a post is a waste of time, I’m going to correct that thinking. As a small business owner, page boosts are perfect for you.
If you’ve got a massive audience (over 2000 fans) then it’s probably not.
But then again, if you use it the way we show you how, it may be good for any business size.
When you boost a post, you aren’t just limited to your fans. You can target certain demographics, just like an ad. Most people don’t know that. They think boosting is just for your fans.
If you’re just boosting to your fans, you may be wasting money.
If you target it like an ad, you’ll be getting the most out of your boost.
You can choose your demographics based on age, location, age, and interest. In this case, you want to target people in your local area. You can play around with the other options, but location targeting is key.
This way your post will be seen by people in your local area.
What kind of post should you boost? Try one that’s talking about a product or your latest sale. You want to entice people to come into your store or contact you. If you want them to contact you, be sure to put your contact information in a boosted post.
A boosted post is extremely inexpensive. It can cost as little as $20. You can potentially reach hundreds or thousands of people with that money.
Boosted posts can run for one to seven days. The maximum amount of days it can run is seven. I’d recommend that you run a post if you can afford to run it.
Make sure the post is applicable to at least that amount of time. You don’t want a post about a sale running after it has expired.
Make sure all your posts abide by Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines. These posts need to be approved. Sometimes they will be approved but then you’ll find out later they’ve been canceled. If they’ve been canceled, it’s usually because they violated the guidelines in some way.
Now small and local businesses have the chance to increase their audience with just a small budget. Make sure you implement at least one of these this week. Once you see your first sale, you’ll want to make it a regular part of your advertising. This is one of the easiest ways to implement the most effective digital marketing trends in existence.
When you combine video and Facebook Ads you really start to multiply the impact. Recent data highlight the fact that social video (basically any kind of branded video or advertisement) generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
Instagram & Influencers Drive Engagement
When it comes to consistent engagement, Instagram is the number one social channel out there. That’s the conclusion of a study done by Yopto, which found engagement rate on Instagram to be 45% greater than on Facebook and 40% greater than Twitter.
The key here is to let your customers do the posting as much as you do. The same Yopto study found that 77% of people are more convinced by user-generated photos of a product rather than professional photos.
Crowdsource your own content by asking loyal customers for pictures of them using your product. People love the attention, and you save on professional photography, so it’s a win-win for all.
Another key thing to know about Instagram is how powerful Instagram Influencers are.
“Influencers” refers to people with lots of followers and tons of engagement from fans. There are all types of influencers, including subject matter experts who post videos and photos related to their expertise.
Small businesses can tap into these influencers at a relatively low cost. Case studies have shown that niche experts in your industry will drive direct sales traffic without costing your company an arm and a leg.
Take the example of RESCUE, for instance. RESCUE wanted to push their range of natural products and asked a number of micro-influencers and bloggers to share their personal stories and include a “buy one, get one free” coupon with their post. The results? A 258% increase in Instagram followers — not to mention over 6,000 clicks to the coupon site.
Because of success stories like these, there is no question that leveraging micro-influencers to drive conversion rates will be a major trend in social media marketing going forward.
Businesses Not Optimized for Mobile Will Be Left Behind
Did you know that 4 out of 5 consumers now use smartphones to shop? Let’s face it, nowadays just simply having a website is no longer enough for your business to truly connect with consumers online. People are accessing the internet from desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Your customers are using mobile devices to search for businesses in their area and to shop online.
Having a mobile website can make a big difference in how many customers find and interact with your business. The use of mobile phones to browse the internet isn’t new, but it continues to rise, making a mobile website more and more important for businesses who want to stay on top of the market.
Why being Mobile Friendly Is Important for Your Business
Studies show the average consumer is spending more time browsing and utilizing the web on a mobile device vs. on a desktop or laptop. Tablets and phones can be conveniently carried around and accessed instantly. How often have you seen someone looking at their phone while waiting for a bus, sitting in a restaurant, or taking a break from work? All of those moments are opportunities for your business if you have a mobile-friendly website. Better yet, 2018 should be the year you adopt a Progressive Web App! This will be the hottest of all digital marketing trends.
In a 2014 study, ad network InMobi found that in the United States people are spending more time accessing the internet through their mobile devices than through their PCs. This means that if your business’s website is designed only for PCs, you’re missing out on over half of the market. Furthermore, about one in three online searches are now conducted through mobile devices. People use their phones when they are out and about and looking for a local service. If your website comes up in their search results and is easy to access, you might gain an immediate new customer.
A recent study by iAcquire found that 70% of mobile online searches result with an action taken within less than an hour of the search. This means that mobile searches are a more effective way of reaching customers than desktop searches, and can quickly result in new customer interactions and sales.
Take Advantage of These Five Digital Marketing Trends for 2018 to Find Success Growing Your Business
In 2018, competing online is no longer an option.
It’s a must for your business to survive.
To grow your business, you must apply a complete digital marketing strategy.
One that gets more Leads & Sales.
One that takes advantage of the shifts in Mobile, Social, Video, Reputation, Search and other digital marketing trends.
One that connects all the dots, so that people can find you on any channel but still have a consistent experience.
One that gives the information people need to make a buying decision through helpful content and a mobile-optimized experience.
This is the only way for your business to not be left behind.
If you take advantage of these digital marketing trends, you will have a distinct advantage in growing your business over your competition.
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Email marketing has come back in full force, and brands that know their way around best practices can reap huge returns.
According to a survey of marketers conducted last summer, the average ROI from email campaigns was over 100 percent! This ROI beat out other marketing channels by over four times, including social media, paid search, and direct mail.
For anyone trying to squeeze more out of their email marketing or turn around their lackluster campaign success, here are 7 pointers for increasing the effectiveness of your email efforts.
1. Segment Your List (Or Risk Being Irrelevant)
Talk to people about topics, products, and ideas they are interested in.
According to an infographic by Mailigen, using segmented, relevant messaging more than doubles your open rate while driving 18x more revenue for your campaigns.
This approach makes a lot of sense if you have ever been to a party where someone is droning on and on about something you just don’t care to hear about or have any interest in. “Have you seen how expensive jogging strollers are these days?” they ask, not bothering to remember you don’t have kids and haven’t jogged since high school.
While the person talking may feel like they aren’t being terribly rude, to the recipient it can feel a bit more personal. “I don’t care what you are actually interested in” the person communicates. “Everyone is equally interested in what I have to say.”
Not having email segments is the same thing. Ensure your list is segmented by buyer persona so that every message is as relevant as possible.
For people who self-subscribe, you can even give them a chance to customize the content they receive by interest, product category, and other choices from a pick-list. Just don’t count on them to do all the work of segmenting for you!
Using an email automation system like Constant Contact or MailChimp is critical to keeping these segments organized, but you can also potentially do-it-yourself by just separating your mailing lists into separate content buckets.
Once you have segments established, take a moment to strategize the difference between each segment based on consumer traits, progress through sales pipeline and other situations. Then, outline the type of content that would be most relevant to each segment as well as what would be least relevant and should not be sent.
Taking a moment to get to know your audience can dramatically increase your open rates while lowering the number of frustrated subscribers.
2. Use Personalization to Make Recipients Perk Up
When we hear our names — even if we know it’s someone else with the same name being called — we tend to take notice. Chances are good that your parents were pros at this technique. When they said your name before a sentence, you knew they meant business!
We have the same reaction when we see our names in an email. Personalization with a name and other details increases open rates by 26 percent, and it can even help drive brand affinity.
Note that personalization involves more than just adding the recipient’s first name to an email. The entire message should be framed as if the recipient is having a 1:1 conversation with the sender. LinkedIn has become a pro at this tactic. They use personalization in a way that makes you sit up and listen.
Looking at moi? Go on, I’m listening!
The above email marketing message not only includes a name but signals that an exciting activity has happened. It says people are looking at your profile. Think of ways to mirror this effect so people get excited or intrigued just from looking at a subject line.
Segmenting your user base by the products they have bought (or expressed interest in) is another way to connect more deeply right from the subject line. “New Jeep Anniversary Fog Lights” can be a way for a Jeep Wrangler owner to have an immediate interest, for instance.
Data shows that this type of personalization is table stakes for marketers with successful email programs. “88 percent of those that exceeded revenue expectations have personalization measurement systems in place,” says Inc.
3. Write Killer Subject Lines and Test Rigorously
A lot of marketers mess up promotional emails right from the moment they begin creating the subject line. You want to give subscribers a compelling reason to open your newsletter instead of ignoring it. For example, a local clothing store might try something like this:
April Newsletter: Spring Scarves and a Special Coupon for You!
That’s just one possibility, but you might try including a compelling line from a story, a mention of a product, or a detail about a promotion. However, make sure to stay away from clickbait headlines that have nothing to do with your newsletter. Your subscribers won’t thank you if they open your newsletter expecting something you promised in the subject line and don’t find it.
The first step is to make sure you are using some sort of subject line preview tool, like this one. Seeing your subject line visually helps you better-imagine how a recipient would react to it in their inbox.
Take special note of how the email looks on mobile devices since over half of email opens come via mobile. People tend to filter out what emails to read by the subject line alone. 69 percent of email recipients will report a message as spam based solely on the subject line.
Note that not every “common marketing knowledge” pointer like this list may work for you and your audience. Always test to be sure!
4. Keep it Short, Sweet, and Simple
The fourth thing to remember when putting together your newsletter is that you want the content to come in small, easily-digestible chunks. It should be arranged in a single column with a few attractive images. If you want to include a long piece of content, embed a link back to your blog or website rather than copying the whole text into your email.
You should also choose a few relevant and dynamic images to illustrate your content. You don’t want to overdo it with pictures and video, so keep in mind that everything you add has the potential to slow a subscriber down when they scroll through the newsletter. Make sure to use alt image tags, too, so that if the pictures don’t display your subscribers will still know what they are.
Simplicity is also key for mobile search.
When offering something non-material, like information, explain clearly how the contents of the email benefit the user. It could be something deep/important like “Want More 5 Star Reviews☆☆☆☆☆?” or even the promise that “You’ll Laugh Way Too Hard at These Marketing Puns”.
5. Use Powerful Images and Video to Get a Reaction
HTML-based email templates have transformed inboxes from a boring wall of text to a gorgeous place for showcasing compact content or well-designed advertisements.
Using human-centered images like this stock photo can invoke emotion and draw the eye to certain email sections.
Make sure you have text-only alternatives for image blockers and try not to get too overboard with the images you use. Using images in a sloppy or unappealing way can sometimes hurt rather than help.
Videos are hugely popular, and recent research shows that simply including the word “video” in the subject line of an email increases open rates by 19%. If videos are already part of your marketing mix, then you should include them in your newsletter. If not, you might think about adding them. Even a short, 30-second video can add a lot of appeal.
Tell People What to Do with a Single Call to Action
This one is simple: every email should have a call to action (CTA).
Your CTA can be nearly anything, including:
● Go buy this product
● Take advantage of a limited-time offer
● Try our tips
● Go learn/read more at this page
● Attend our event
● Upgrade your current service package
● Book a free consultation
Ensure that your CTA is crystal clear and compelling. Every recipient should know exactly what you want them to do and how to do it.
Providing a landing page after clicks to direct them more linearly to an offer can help simplify the process further. That way, your real CTA is just “Click Here,” and then you can drive more complex conversions from the landing page.
It might be tempting to include multiple calls to action, but remember that 80/20 ratio and stick with one. You might offer subscribers a chance to click your CTA (call to action) to get a special coupon or discount code.
Alternatively, you might link back to your online store, or give customers an opportunity to buy tickets to a special event. There’s really no limit to what you can do, but make sure that your call to action is relevant to your newsletter for the best results.
For local business owners, it’s also a good idea to offer customers the opportunity of downloading coupons or discount codes onto their mobile phones or mobile wallets.
6. Study Email Marketing Analytics Like You Have a Test Coming Up
Lots of email marketing strategies tend to work well across the board for a majority of industries, but there is no single set of hard-and-fast rules. Instead, every company has to study their own data in order to find what their audience seems to like/dislike about their emails.
Learn how to learn more from your email analytics, and use the lessons to optimize your approach over time. Trial-and-error is the only way to truly get better at something, and luckily email gives you plenty of lessons in the form of data.
7. Stick to Best Practices to Drive Success in Email Marketing
Mastering email marketing takes a lot of experimentation, practice, trial-and-error, and attention to detail, but by following the best practices mentioned above, you can be well on your way towards greater success.
Just to recap your keys to success:
1. Use segmentation to maximize relevance
2. Personalize emails to get attention
3. Test subject lines, mind your length and think like a recipient
4. Promise true value to the recipient through your word choice and messaging
5. Use emotional images in your layout
6. Direct people to act with a single strong CTA
7. Use analytics data to optimize your approach over time
Pay attention to what your data tells you, and keep up with the latest email marketing trends and advice on our blog to learn best practices that make you an email genius over time!
