When it comes to running your business, decisions are carefully planned and executed (or at least they should be) to make sure goals are achieved. Research and experience show that developing a streamlined strategy for social media advertising consistently proves to be effective in optimizing reach, exposure and aids in lead generation, regardless of what industry you’re in.
Focusing your advertising strategy towards a target audience is the first step in making sure that your business is being seen by the right people. There is truly nothing worse than putting effort and money into developing content that is not being seen by your target market.
Here are some things to consider when developing a social media advertising strategy for your business:
Start with research
Before you can decide how to attract an audience, you need to know who that audience is. To start, determine who your ideal client is – what do they need to take their business from point A to point B? What services/products do they need to maximize their business? How can you help them achieve their goals? This is called target marketing and it will be the backbone of your advertising strategy. Once you know who your ideal clients are, you can begin strategizing the best possible way to market to them.
2. Develop a marketing budget
In today’s digitally-focused market, most advertising is done online and only gives back what you put in. While there are ways to promote your business or product without spending money, you will likely find that you might not get the results you want. By investing a portion of your operational budget in advertising, you’re literally buying space on your audience’s newsfeeds and can rest assured that your ads are reaching prospects.
3. Decide where to focus your advertising
With new social media platforms being developed constantly, it can be difficult to know which outlets are best suited for your clients and prospects. Based on your target market research, you can figure out where your audience spends most of their time and then focus there; however, sticking with household-name platforms is usually a safe bet. Once you decide on an outlet, or even if you’re using multiple, you need to learn how their algorithms work. For example, sponsored ads on Facebook operate differently from Instagram, which is different from Twitter, and so on. You should have a solid understanding of how any platform you’re using works so that you can develop the most strategic advertising campaigns for your business.
4. Tailor your advertisements to the platform
While all social media serves a similar purpose, no two platforms are exactly alike. This means that an advertisement designed for Facebook might struggle on Instagram unless it’s translated to that platforms’ requirements. Setting aside the time, resources, and budget to complete these alterations to ads is a crucial aspect of developing your strategy, so be sure to account for multiple rounds of content development while planning your marketing operations.
Keeping these factors in mind while creating an advertising strategy is crucial when developing marketing plans for your business. If you need any assistance with marketing or advertising strategy, contact us today and we can help ensure your content is reaching the right audience!
Tailoring your digital marketing strategy in 2019 for growth comes down to using the latest techniques to expand your reach and keeping your current client base happy. Here are five foolproof ways you can use digital marketing to grow your business this year.
New Mediums for Posting Content– Omnichannel marketing continues to be a winning strategy for diversifying your marketing streams and ensuring that your followers feel heard. In 2019, redouble your efforts and find new mediums for posting content. Whether it’s joining a new social media platform or expanding your content creation methods to include eBooks, podcasts and live videos, there is much to be gained from exploring new ways to create and post content.
Customer Reviews and Feedback– From Facebook to Google, customer reviews and feedback posted for public view should be constantly monitored in 2019. Since Google’s latest design updates has integrated Google reviews as part of profile cards for businesses, every Google review you’ve ever received is now the first thing seen by anyone who types in your business’ name in the search bar.
Redesign Your Website for Growth– Conduct an audit of your website. Determine which pages are under performing and seek solutions. Review your transaction pages, call to actions and any other areas where customers are browsing, and upgrade your design to improve usability. A customer-friendly website is your ticket for growth.
User Generated Content– Last year user-generated content showed itself to be an invaluable resource for new content. Harness the power and creativity of your audience by having your best, most loyal customers create content for you. User-generated content as an advertising tool boasts two big benefits: it’s free, and it’s as powerful and persuasive as word of mouth advertising.
Consistent Niche Content Creation– There are so many ways audiences can consume content. From YouTube to paid streaming services like Netflix to podcasts to live streaming platforms like Twitch, there are a huge variety of ways customers can tune in your content. It’s impossible to create high-quality content for all of these channels, which is why you need to provide your customers with a consistent source of good content. Maybe it’s a weekly YouTube video, or a live stream Q and A on Twitch, or even just a biweekly podcast – it doesn’t have to be complicated. Dedicating some time, money and energy to creating consistent content loyal followers can consume at regular time intervals.
Make 2019 a year for growth with these winning strategies! If you need help incorporating these ideas or coming up with new ways to expand your business, contact us today!
Social media is always evolving. Last year’s viral trends are old news in this year’s digital world. With 2019 ahead of us, now is the time to get familiar with the social media trends that are destined to elevate your business to new heights. Here’s what to expect in 2019:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)– Experts predict AI technology will become an invaluable resource for collecting customer and audience data in the near future. Not only can AI help you master customer segmentation, it can also be used to automate certain areas of your business— chat bots, for example.
Augmented and Virtual Reality– Reality altering tools are not a gimmick. The most successful applications of this technology allow customers to “try out” products in a virtual space. With big name brands like IKEA, Gap, Marriott and more finding huge success with AR and VR marketing, it’s clear that the allure of these tools will not fizzle out.
Voice Search– Google Voice, Alexa and the Echo have changed the way households operate. Voice search technology is now an integral part of everyday life in many homes across the world. Because so much of the population has adopted voice search so easily and readily into their lives, it is a good idea that your business ensures your website and any online properties you might have are updated to be compatible with navigation via voice search.
Native Ads– When ad blockers were first popularized, the effectiveness of traditional website advertising, like pop up ads, was put into question. Deloitte Global has predicted that 80% of adults in North America use ad blockers in some capacity. That is a lot of people that are not seeing ads when they browse online. Native ads, which are ads designed to look and read like the editorial content on a webpage, are the way advertisers worked around the issue of ad blockers. This year, invest in native ads to be sure audiences are seeing your ads.
Vertical Videos– Mobile browsing is quickly gaining as the preferred way for Internet users to get online. Videos are also among the most popular type of content viewed online. Put two and two together and you have the rise of vertical video. In 2019, your videos will find the most success in a vertical format, especially when you’re posting to platforms like Instagram.
The year had just begun, which means you have everything to gain by adopting these social media trends early on. Get ahead of your competitors, expand your reach and develop lasting connections with consumers by experimenting with these social media trends.
We spend so much of our time busy with work providing for our families, that sometimes we forget why we are working so hard in the first place. Nurturing the relationships we have with our family members (immediate, extended, or even friends who are like family) can help improve overall quality of life and can serve as a much needed reminder of what is truly important. Here’s why:
Improves Your Relationships
Family bonding is an important part of forming healthy relationships inside and outside the home. Quality time spent with you children, your partner and your extended family can help strengthen those familial ties and foster a family culture of checking in and relying on one another. Showing appreciation and gratitude for the people that matter most in your life can bring on a sense of peace, calmness and stability.
Creating Happy Memories
We tend to hold on to negative experiences and memories for longer than we do happy ones. To restore the balance, go out of your way to create happy memories with your loved ones. Joyful experiences and activities that you can share with each other will give you more positive memories that you can reflect upon whenever you are having a bad day or feeling overwhelmed by negative feelings.
Stress Relief
Taking time to partake in family activities, cultivating relationships, confiding in one another and spending quality time can also aid in stress relief. Sometimes we just need that personal conversation with our partners, a lunch outing with a sister, a coffee date with a cousin or a movie date with a child to relieve some stress and have some fun.
Encourage Positive Behaviour in Your Children
Children who spend regular quality time with their families and their parents in particular are shown to be more confident, more socially-adjusted and overall happier. Spending time with your children is a chance to model good behaviour and encourage them. To feel secure and grow from a strong foundation, children look to their parents to provide that stability through close care and attention.
This family day, use your time off to reconnect with your family and the ones you love. A few hours of chatting, going to a movie, or even something as simple as staying in and cooking together is time spent investing in and nurturing some of the most important relationships in your life.
A lot has changed over the last year when it comes to social media and online marketing. While some trends were short lived fads, others took the online global community by storm and are still going strong into the New Year. Keeping up with these changes is key to making a strong impression with online consumers in 2019.
Here’s a quick look at the five biggest social media trends to catch on in 2018.
Videos Reign Supreme
If current trends hold, in a few short years most internet users will consume the vast majority of their internet content in video form. According to networking giant Cisco, by 2022 as much as 82% of internet traffic around the world will be ascribed to video content-related traffic. Seventeen percent of internet traffic will be attributed to live video content. Advertisers and businesses can hop on this trend by investing more resources into creating more video content and incorporating it into their marketing campaigns.
Paid Ads
Paying for ad space on social media sites is a fundamental part of online marketing at this point. Reaching target audiences through social media offers a lot of positives including making a direct connection with users in a way that is most convenient to them.
A quick scroll through your feed on Facebook or even Reddit will reveal plenty of ads structured like regular posts. Social media sites make it dead simple for advertisers to lock in one of these coveted spots by giving businesses access to ad creation tools and features like “boosting” right in their dashboards.
Instagram Stories
Instagram’s Stories and similar short video clip features on other social platforms are now fully integrated into our social media habits. Stories have a few benefits going for them, but the biggest one is their short length. Viewers can consume content in just a matter of seconds.
To take full advantage of Stories, businesses must offer valuable content. Clips that share tips, recipes, hacks, facts and otherwise meaningful content will gain more views. High-quality visuals and graphics are also a must for widespread success.
Filters and Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) has been around since the mid-‘90s, it but hasn’t gained true mainstream popularity until recently. With the huge success of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, and filters and stickers, we have entered a new era of AR enhancements. There are many levels to AR technology to play around with even though the current market is revolves around mobile devices. The attraction of AR is ultimately rooted in giving users the power to add something new to their current reality. Some businesses can go the L’Oréal route by creating AR apps that allow shoppers to test out their products, while others will find more success with creating AR game and activity apps.
Influencer Partnerships
As the fastest growing marketing trend, influencer partnerships have become a huge boon for small and mid-tier businesses. Influencers are typically entertainers and content creators who have the attention of a loyal following. A successful partnership with an influencer requires a natural fit between a business and its product with the influencer’s niche. In order track well with audiences, the brand or product on offer must offer real, practical value.
Will these hot social media trends carry forward into 2019? Only time will tell. Stay tuned to this space learn more about social media trends and marketing your business online!
Work-Life Balance: lately an over-used phrase that is used to explain that human beings require a stability or an equilibrium between work and their personal life. In the media, work-life balance has been portrayed as an impossible notion – workers need to be forever accessible, connected to their work for fear of losing their jobs or their clients.
In a Harvard Business School survey, it has been noted that 94% of workers reported that they worked more than 50 hours per week and nearly half said that they worked closer to 65 hours per week. The media goes on to talk about how stress and mental health issues are also arising out of the lack of work-life balance which consequently affects happiness, relationships and health.
When we turn our heads to the balancing factor in work-life balance, we are encouraged to spend time with our children, husbands, friends and of course, to practice “me” time; go to the gym, go for a walk, get a manicure, practice yoga, treat yourself to a day at the spa…and this is done with the intention that we don’t burn out.
As a wife, mother and business-owner, I often revisit this notion of work-life balance – what does it mean to me specifically and my thoughts on this overused, and in my opinion misunderstood phrase.
“Work” Has an Inherent Negative Connotation
For whatever reason, whenever used, “work” comes with a negative implication suggesting that individuals require the “life” aspect as a means to balance their “work” life. Yes, I agree it is important to spend time with your loved ones, to break away from your computer or your phone and to enjoy your surroundings. That is a practice that needs to be embedded in our everyday life…and not just as a means to balance work and life; but as a means to practice healthy habits. We are all connected to our screens, to emails and iMessages and as a result, we miss out.
When talking specifically about taking time for yourself as a way to achieve a healthy work-life balance, I have to ask: could it be possible that “work life” provides a healthy balance to one’s personal life?
As a mom of two young children, here is what evenings and weekends look like: cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, changing diapers, bottle feeding my youngest, meal preparation for my eldest, baths, approximately 2-3 outfit changes daily, nap times, activities and then about a 1-2 hour bed time fiasco involving “no”, “more water”, “another story”, “cuddle more”… and the list goes on.
When Sunday night rolls around, Monday morning isn’t looking so bad. I love my children with all of my heart, but let’s be honest – being a parent is a job in itself…sometimes two!
…this leads me to my next point.
It Takes a Village
For women who have children and also work and contribute to a two-income household (even moreso for single mothers – all the power to you!), there is an inherent desire to provide for the family, not to miss out on important events, but also to practice that “me” time – fitness, quiet time, whatever it may be. Rarely do articles mention what exactly needs to be in place in order to accomplish this.
In our home, my husband is beyond helpful, our nanny is god-sent, our parents play a vital role, half-day nursery is essential and time management is a MUST. Needless to say, there must be a method to the madness… we work hard to play an integral part of our family and we both value our work life, as well as our personal life.
Healthy Habits
More so than a push to practice a healthy work-life balance, I would stress that it is important to set healthy boundaries and implement healthy habits in your life – in whatever way works best for you.
Here are some of my top tips:
Set boundaries between work time and personal time – it is OK to disconnect
You are allowed to put family first
You are ALSO allowed to prioritize your work as well
Time block
Take time for your relationships – friendships, marriages, etc.
Consider what success looks like in your work life, personal life as well as your relationships?
Identify what specifically is important to you and take the time to practice that – whether it be a work objective or personal objective
…last but not least… try to find a job that doesn’t feel like WORK! When you truly love what you do, it doesn’t!
