10 reasons you need to take back your marketing

10 reasons you need to take back your marketing

Misconceptions and bad marketing experiences are common. For many businesses marketing is an afterthought. Or they are using the same channels and methods they’ve used for years. Thinking, it worked before; why wouldn’t it work now? Others have been burned in the past by marketers who sold them bogus solutions.

Here are 10 reasons you need to take back your marketing!

3 common reasons people don’t trust marketers

Most of “marketing’s” bad reputation is because some marketers are unethical. Marketing is not lying or manipulation. Not being 100% honest about what the product or service is or what it does is lying. What are three common ways unethical marketers hurt their customers?

1. Inflating expectations

3 common reasons people don’t trust marketers

Over promising a product’s effectiveness or making sweeping claims is lying. It’s can also be manipulating to use language or wording that relies on implied meaning and the consumer’s own logic.

For example, selling a cookbook by saying “the food in this cookbook will help you lose weight” is lying. It could be justified by assuming that consumers reading that phrase will understand the implied logic that other changes in their diet or lifestyle will probably be needed to lose weight.

There are always other ways to say things. It’s possible, to be honest and still use hooky and engaging language. Relying on implied meaning is just lazy.

2. Promising results they know they can’t deliver

The key here is promising a result that they know they can’t deliver when they make the promise. There are many variables in marketing and there are circumstances that can’t be accounted for sometimes. However, promising a result that isn’t doable is wrong. It is totally understandable that people who have had this experience with marketers have difficulty trusting any marketer’s promises.   

Although it may not feel like lying, not delivering on promises because of a lack of research or inexperience is still wrong. We are accountable for our actions. If we promise a result, we have an obligation to deliver it.

3. Focusing on money instead of service

This isn’t just a problem within the marketing industry. Many businesses ignore the fact that people (and therefore service) is what makes money. How has this attitude made it difficult for people to trust marketers? Not focusing on service shows a lack of concern and empathy for the customer. Customers (all of us) can feel when someone we are working with doesn’t actually care about wellbeing or success. Unfortunately, some marketers are only concerned with their own successes and not their customer’s success. The irony is that marketing in general is about building a client’s business and setting them up for success.

4 common misconceptions people have about marketing

4 common misconceptions people have about marketing

Another reason many people and businesses need to take back their marketing is that misconceptions about what marketing is abound. Many people don’t understand what marketing actually is or why their business needs marketing in general. Here are four common misconceptions.

1. Small businesses don’t need to market

Many people feel like marketing is a waste of time and/or money for small businesses. The reasoning is that many small business owners are extremely busy, and marketing isn’t a necessity. Is that true? Not at all.

For one thing, “marketing” encompasses a lot more than people think it does. Any time or way a customer interacts with your company is marketing. It’s especially important that small businesses think about their marketing. (Their brand strategy specifically.)

Small businesses do need to market differently than larger businesses. To make more effective use of time and budget, smaller businesses need to have a clear and well-thought-out marketing strategy. It’s important to think about what channels are used and how campaigns are executed. campaigns need to be rolled out slowly and methodically. It’s also super important that small businesses collect and use data and analytics from their marketing.  

2. Marketing can be done by anyone

For some reason, there is a stereotype that marketing is easy. That misconception is probably why many people try to handle marketing their business themselves. “Try” is the keyword there. And yes, Canva is free. Anyone can throw something together for their business. There’s also always a chance that a haphazardly thrown-together ad or post might work. “Pray and Spray” is a thing for a reason. The question is whether that method of marketing is the most effective or most efficient use of a marketing budget.

Marketing takes a lot of time and effort. It requires skill and dedication. Having a clear strategy and understanding the reasons why something will work takes a level of commitment and research that many don’t have the time to do. Even if someone does have time, it might not be the most efficient use of their time.

In the long run, having a professional do your marketing will give you a stronger foundation for success.

3. Marketing is only to acquire new customers

Simply, if you stop marketing as soon as you get a customer, they aren’t going to be a customer for very long. Marketing is also necessary to build relationships with customers and build loyalty. Returning customers are essential for success and growth.  

4. Quality products and services will sell themselves

Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately, having a great product isn’t enough. A product is worthless if no one knows about it. Marketing is necessary to find and retain customers.

3 common mistakes people make with their marketing

3 common mistakes people with their marketing

People also need to take back their marketing because many people lack the right information to build successful campaigns. Here are three super common marketing mistakes.

1. Starting with the wrong data

Starting with the wrong data might be a little generous. Many people don’t use data in their marketing at all. Marketing data covers a lot of different things but mostly it is about people. Using accurate data helps you know who to market to. Data informs what type of person who should be marketing to. Marketing data also encompasses specific contact information.

Using the wrong data (or no data) is like putting regular gasoline in a diesel truck, you may think you are getting somewhere, but it’s just going to blow up in your face. 💥

2. Focusing on the wrong metrics

It’s easy to get distracted by vanity metrics. Having lots of followers or views on a video is great but are they the numbers that you need to be looking at? Without clearly defined goals or targets you don’t know what matters to you.

3. Quantity over quality

Quantity of marketing efforts will probably show you quick results, but the poor quality will hurt you in the long run. The sheer amount of products, companies, and information available now is staggering. Having your product in your consumer’s face isn’t enough anymore, your brand ideals and personality also need to match with the personality of your consumers.

For example, 56% of Gen Z consumers say that having shared passions and perspectives is a major factor when it comes to their engagement with a brand. Additionally, 72% of consumers want the brands they care about to be positive contributors to society. We’ve seen in recent years that many brands (especially smaller companies) connect their core brand to a charity or cause they care about. Younger consumers are 69% more likely to buy from a brand that contributes to a cause.

If you are focusing and the amount of content you are putting out and not what the content is saying, then you are giving up control of how you are seen. Instead, you are allowing your marketing to imply who you are. Chances are that quantity of marketing over quality is implying that your company does not care about quality. What does that say about your product or service?

This is not to say that quantity of marketing is bad! Quite the contrary. However, you cannot allow your quality to suffer from quantity.

10 reasons is a lot of reasons to take back your marketing. Are you up for the challenge?

 
 

3 Things to focus your Content on in 2022

3 Things to focus your Content on in 2022 - Featured Image

The end of the year always provides such a good time to reflect on trends and the direction we’re going! After a year with so many transitions across industries, privacy laws, and marketing channels, our focuses for next year have also shifted! One area to focus on in 2022 is content marketing.

If these last few years have taught us anything, it’s that content-based marketing really is one of the most important pieces of marketing. Your approach to content informs many aspects of business, not just marketing. Content covers all the ways you communicate. It’s tied to branding and mission and purpose and your focus. The type of content you produce helps you make decisions about marketing channels and our audience.

Content Trends 2022

With the rise of content marketing, ecommerce, and digital advertising, everyone acknowledges that social media, blogs, email marketing, etc. are all effective ways to sell people. The problem is that the very nature of content marketing erases the lines between education, entertainment, and sales. We have become so inundated with ads that our brains have been conditioned to go on the defensive when we feel like we are being sold.

An often-quoted marketing research study from 2007 found that the average American saw 5,000 advertisements a day. 5,000 ads a day pre-digital billboards, pre-Farmville, pre-Instagram, and pre-iPhone. Current estimates put the average number ads seen every day closer to 10,000. The 2007 study warned that number of ads cluttering our life would push for innovation in advertising that would in turn, create more clutter.

What can we do to cut through the clutter in 2022? Content marketing is an effective way because if done well, isn’t actually an ad and will actually reach the consumer.

Here’s three trends/focuses to incorporate into your 2022 content marketing.

Storytelling

This ties into the old writing rule: show don’t tell. Telling a customer how great you are won’t make them believe you. Showing them will prove it to them. But weaving a story around your product, brand, and successes will build an emotional connection between you and your customers.

Education

This goes hand in hand with storytelling and the inundation of advertising we all deal with. We have an excessive number of options to choose from. As well as our personal connection with brands, we use things like Social Proof to help us decide what products to buy. Brands can use this to their advantage by educating customers about their product instead of selling their product. The focus on pure information takes the pressure off the consumer to purchase. In turn, an educated customer is more likely to purchase.

Personalization

Even with increased privacy and data laws, there is more access to information about customers than ever. We often talk about personalized advertising in connection with retargeting and audience segmentation. It’s easy with personalization to focus on how specific and personalized you can get your advertising. ‘If someone clicks this and this and lives in these areas then we know all of this about them and can serve an ad for this specific product.’ That type of thinking is very valuable and helps you communicate effectively with your customers.

But personalized advertising doesn’t need to be that minute; it can be as simple as thinking about what channel you are using. Are you making blog content? What type of person reads blogs? You could build out a detailed buyer persona based on analytics and write with them in mind. That is very personalized! Or you could use common sense to tell you that most people who read blogs are probably interested in educating themselves, which also gives you a lot of information to personalize. The personalization can just be the focus of the channel. ‘These consumers are here to be educated, so we are going to educate them.’

Spotlighted Marketing Channel: CTV

Many marketers are using CTV (connected TV) or OTT (over-the-top) channels to target consumers using streaming services and connected TV devices such as Hulu and Roku. Advertisers are embracing these platforms as more and more ad space becomes available. Spending for CTV advertising grew from $6.94 billion in 2019 to $8.88 billion in 2020, a 28% increase.

Advertiser spent an estimated $8.88 billion on CTV in 2020

Read more about the future of CTV here!

What things are you excited to focus on in 2022?


What is the foundation of all effective marketing?

What is the foundation of all effective marketing?

Most people’s favorite part of building a marketing campaign are the visuals. While how your marketing looks is important, who you are sending it to, and how  you are sending it should be the first step with any marketing.  Those two things inform everyone’s favorite part of marketing: results.  

 It’s like a luxury car…looks beautiful and sure makes an impression, but if there’s no gas in the tank, it won’t go anywhere.  Going (hopefully fast) is the goal!

So, how do you know what the best fuel is for your marketing campaign?   

The right fuel is determined by who your audience is, what your campaign objectives are, and the best ways to reach your audience.  

Which comes back to the two most common questions we get asked: 

  • What data do I need for marketing?  
  • How do I reach my customers?  

What data do I need for marketing?  

Really the first question is: what data is available? Viant had a great illustration about the different types of marketing data.

First Party Data - Your Cow

Data Types (Explained with Cows)

First-Party Data

You own a cow. You know the cow’s name, what it eats and where it sleeps. These are your customers; you have their contact information in your CRM. They know you have their information.

Second-Party Data

Second-Party Data - Someone else's cows you rent

You rent some cows from a friend for a fee but you don’t necessarily know the cow’s name, what it eats, or where it sleeps. You have to pay your friend each time you need some milk. Second-party data is first-party data sold to another company for a specific use. For example, say you own a company and you looking to expand into a new market. You can buy a list of first-party customer data from a company in the new market you are tapping into and market to them for an agreed-upon number of times. However, with the increased privacy and data laws using second-party data can sometimes be problematic.   

Third-Party Data

There’s a village full of cows that were bought, rented, or found. The cows with similar traits are herded together and sold to you. You don’t know where the cows came from or sometimes if this is even a real cow. Traditional list data and many digital audiences call into this category. Which is one reason it’s so important to get data from a good source! You need to be able to trust that you aren’t buying fake cows or ones that don’t match the traits you need. Another thing to remember about 3rd party data is that it is the most impacted by the cookie and privacy laws! Relying too much on traditional 3rd party data can set you up for failure in the future.

Third-Party Data - Cows you buy

Looking into the future with post cookie advertising, traditional 2nd and 3rd party data channels are going to change. The ways to gather consumer data have already changed in a lot of ways. For example, Connected TV doesn’t support cookies and instead relies on IP targeting. This is data you can use for marketing but doesn’t have the same types of information you would get with traditional list data. You are going to get demographic data and location data but probably not names or a specific address. Using IP targeting is a great way to maintain your same flow of data-driven campaigns while still working within updated privacy laws.

This is often called people-based data. When you use people-based data you know you are reaching real people in real households.

What data do you actually need?

The data you need is based on two things: What do you know about the people you are trying to reach? What is your goal with this campaign? What you know about who you are trying to reach impacts your demographics and helps informs decisions about methods and channels. Your campaign goal also helps you figure out what channels to use as well as campaign scale and message.

Questions you can ask to help learn about your customers:

  1. What are their basic demographics?
    What gender to they identify as? How old are they? Where do they live? What is their relationship status? Are they educated?
  2. What do they do for work?
    What’s their job title and description? But more than that, are they a decision maker? What do they influence at work?
  3. What are their interests?
    Do they have hobbies or interests? What do they do in their free time? Are they part of a community?
  4. What do they want and why can’t they have?
    This a big thing for figuring out what you can do to help them! What are their goals and dreams? What are their pain points? Like, what keeps them up at night?
  5. Why wouldn’t they buy from you?
    What’s stopping them from buying from you? What objections may they have?
  6. What ways would they prefer to interact with you?
    Do they use social media? Do like a particular social media? Is a phone call the best way to reach them?

Learning about your customers and the best way to communicate with them is the foundation of effective marketing! Effective marketing = results!


How A Lookalike Report Helps You Increase Sales

LookALike Main Image

LookALike audiences have been a go-to targeting tool for almost a decade. Even before digital marketing, marketers used current audience demographics to target potential customers. With a growing number of AI tools available, businesses of all sizes have access to LookALike targeting. How can you use a LookALike Report to increase sales?

What is a LookALike Report?

Pioneered by Facebook in 2013, a LookALike report uses common attributes and demographics of your current audience to find more customers who “look like” them. These attributes can be anything from age and location to interests and hobbies. The more commonalities between your audience the more accurate your LookALike report will be.

Although originally only a tool on social media, LookALike reports are now available on many different types of platforms. For example, we often build LookALike reports with raw CRM data.

LookALike Stat - 85% percent increases

How to Maximize Your Report to Increase Sales

As great as it would be to dump all your current audience information into a LookALike report and get back a list of new customers, it usually takes a more finesse than that. Here’s 5 tips and tricks to take out some of the guess work.

#1 Define Your Audience

The goals of LookALike reports can be different so it’s important to start with the right data seeds or source audience. Since LookALike reports are based on the data you input, it really important that the data you start out with is accurate and will accomplish what you want. For example, do you want to find new customers that are like all your customers or like your best current customers?  

The amount of data you can use to start with varies greatly. Facebook recommends anywhere between 1,000 and 50,000 people. Although they do say that starting with “a larger audience increases your potential reach but reduces the level of similarity between the Lookalike Audience and source audience.” Those differences between your source data and LookALike audience could be the difference between a sale or not.

Where can you get source data? Here’s three different source audiences:

LookALike Targeting
  1. CRM Data

Seeds defined by existing CRM data match lookalike audiences with information gathered from existing customers, such as email, physical addresses, and phone numbers. However, this data is usually too broad and needs to be narrowed down to create an accurate base for a LookALike report.

  1. Social Media Engagement Data

Data from social media audience can also be used as a seed that a LookALike report is based on. This data is usually based on characteristics like page views and likes.

  1. Conversion Data

Source data based on conversion data are usually your “best customer” seeds. These are customers who have already competed and action with your business.

#2 Get Used to Segmenting Your Data

Building out your LookALike report will be a lot easier when you have a specific product or audience segment in mind. Knowing what you want to use this new audience data for will help you pick the right demographics to target. This is where audience segmenting comes in. Finding the right demographics will be easier if you already have your audience data organized or tagged by demographics.

LookALike Audiences

#3 Connect Your LookALike Goals to Your Marketing Goals

Targeting using a LookALike audience can give you a higher ROI and help you reach your marketing targets. For example, if your company has found that you get higher engagements on mobile devices, you can build a LookALike report from those people. By targeting those people, you can direct your marketing efforts towards the audience most likely to help you reach your goals.  

#4 Target and Retarget and Retarget

Targeting the right audience is effective, retargeting adds even more. Using a LookALike audience in a retargeting campaign adds to specific information gathered in the initial campaign.  And since retargeting uses a lot of the same principles as building a LookALike audience, they go hand in hand.

#5 Switch Up Your Platforms

Facebook isn’t the only platform that supports LookALike reports. Many online platforms have LookALike audience builders built in. Switch up your platform to test new audiences and ways of reaching them. And as we mentioned earlier, we often use raw CRM data to build a LookALike report within our list system. The data we get from those reports can be used for any type of marketing.

Have you ever used a LookALike Report?


The Data You Need to Market To Those Under 25

Do you ever read a statistic that just messes with your head? For example, I recently read that by 2022, 41% of the world’s population will be under 25. Which is crazy!! And creates an interesting marketing challenge. How can you effectively market to a generation who has grown up online and is constantly inundated with content and advertising?

Under 25 Stat 1

People under 25 not only take up a large share of the world’s population but they also make up a disproportionate amount of online and social media users. However, those of us in this age group statistically have shorter attention spans and tend to make decisive decisions about whether or not to consumer content or ads. A study in 2019 found that 64% of 18-24 tune out content from cluttered environments. Leading to 46% of advertisers saying that they have issues getting their content to stand out! Also, a third of advertisers say that it’s a challenge to find effective ad placement sin all the online clutter. What can you do to cut through all the online noise and reach this massive market?

#1 – Find Shared Passions

The sheer amount of product, companies, and information available is staggering. It is not enough anymore to have a good product available anymore, your brand ideals and personality need to match with the personality of your consumers. 56% of Gen Z consumers say that having shared passions and perspectives is a major factor when it comes to their engagement with a brand. However, Gen Z’ers are fantastic at sniffing out inauthenticity. Your brand personality and ideals need to actually be what you say they are. Actions speak louder than words!

What are the advantages of having a well-defined brand personality and ideals? Giving your company a personality makes things like content creation a lot easier. Knowing who you are also can help you make decisions about the direction you want to go in the future.

Under 25 stat 2
And 49% of young consumers say they will evangelize a brand they feel represents their values, likes, and personality.

Don’t be afraid of incorporating causes you care about into your brands personality! 72% of consumers want the brands they care about to be positive contributors to society. We’ve seen in recent years that many brands (especially smaller companies) connect their core brand to a charity or cause they care about. Younger consumers are 69% more likely to buy from a brand that contributes to a cause.

#2 – Choose Quality Locations

Younger generations are big on authenticity, brand trust, and quality. 74% of 18–24-year-olds believe that brands are responsible for where their ads are shown. Which is true! There’s very little excuse for having your ad show up on a website that doesn’t believe in the same things as you. Programmatic advertising and digital display ads give you a lot of control over your ad placement. Nearly 40% of advertisers have faced some backlash for having ads appear near low quality content. 54% of younger consumers say that ads placed near premium content inspires more trust in the ad itself!

#3 – Use Innovative Technology

From AI and AR driven content to native and contextual ads, technologically advanced are advertisements are becoming more accessible. The stats on their effectiveness across the entire marketing journey speak for themselves!

Of the 18–34-year-old’s interviewed:

63% pay more attention to advertisements with innovative formats

70% will consider a brand more if they associate them with innovative and immersive formats

71% say innovate ad formats are more engaging

62% feel like innovative ads formats tell them more about the product or service

63% are more inclined to purchase from brands that create content with innovative tech

#4 – Personalization

Personalized ads are effective for every age group. Gen Z’ers and Millennials are less tolerant of ads that aren’t personalized. Most younger consumers have in innate understanding of how their personal data is used to create targeted ads. Being targeted (or retargeted) based on their interests and past activities are expected. Thankfully creating effective personalized ads are easier than ever to make.

  • What can you do to create effective personalized ads? Start with the information you have about your customers. It’s difficult to know what your customers want if you don’t know who they are. Look at your 1st party data. What are your most common demographics? What are their interests? How would they most like to be communicated with?
  • Use the tools available. Marketing automation platforms and CRMs can do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to segmenting data. Many of them are designed to help create simple, personalized messages.
  • Have a well thought out plan. Do you have a mapped-out customer journey? Knowing where in their journey your customers are makes a big difference in the types of personalization that will work for them. Think about nurturing. Pay attention to the details. Make sure that there aren’t little annoying things such as, getting an abandoned cart email even though you’ve already come back to purchase it. Get rid of triggers that are connected to repurchasing products commonly only purchased once.
  • Know when to walk away. Keep your data clean. If someone has never opened an email it might be a good idea to take them off your list. Their data could skew your demographics and could make understanding what personalization your active customers need difficult.

Is it effective?

Is it effective? Yes! From that survey of consumer between the ages of 18-34, 58% said that a personalized ad helped them make a purchase decision. 42% also said that they had clicked on a sponsored ad in the last 6 months!

In my experience, a lot of companies panic when thinking about marketing to young consumers. They feel like they need to be relatable or “cool.” That often comes off as disingenuous and is easy to see right through. It’s far more effective to instead focus on building a relationship with them. Make it easier for them to see who you are and what you stand for. Chances are they care about the same things you do!


All The Things You Need To Boost SEO

NLS boost SEO

SEO has proven over and over again that it is essential to growing (and maintaining) your business. However, it doesn’t often get the spotlight it deserves! So, here’s some things you need to know to boost SEO.

What is SEO?  

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engines look at look at many site elements like structure and design, visitor behavior, content, and other external factors to decide how highly ranked your site should be in the results pages. SEO has become the catch all term for all things you can do to make your site look more appealing to search engines.  

What are the advantages of good SEO?

NLS boost SEO Stat

Good SEO gives your website credibility. It makes it easier for people to find your website when they search for it. And it helps create a smoother user experience.  

The other important reason for making sure your websites SEO is up to snuff is that it helps generate organic traffic. 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from organic search. SEO is the main thing influencing how easy it is to find you online organically. Which is probably why it’s estimated that agencies and brands spent over $79.27 Billion on SEO services last year.  

SEO is also important in driving local searches. When you search for “Best Pizza Place” near me, the results you are shown are based on the pizza place’s SEO keywords.  

Where do you need to pay attention to SEO?  

Everything “online” can be indexed and therefore optimized. Google indexes websites and apps that they own. So, your YouTube video search optimization is connected and combined with your website optimization. However, some companies, like Facebook, categorize videos and posts internally, meaning that it doesn’t help general search engine SEO.  

What can you do to boost SEO?  

Personally, I would split SEO into 2 main categories: Content and Categorization. Both are super important but require different things.  

Content 

SEO post requirements
Do you fill in all the available information?

Content is all the things you put out there. Search engines look at what you are putting out there to determine your search rankings. Google likes blog articles and web pages with a lot of content. Adding pictures, videos, links, and charts shows search engines that what you are creating should be seen. They are going to rank something high in the search results if they don’t think its valuable.  

To go along with that, search engines look at user experience. Is your website/blog easy to read? Do you have paragraphs, subheadings, punctuation, and spacing? Is it super short? (Long form content, over 2,000 words, tends to rank higher.) Do your pictures and video take a long time to load? How about accessibly? Do you have alt text for your images and text readers?  

Search engines want to provide the best possible experience for its user and will rank your website accordingly.   

Categorization 

Categorization is all the “backend” stuff. Keywords, hashtags, blog categories, utm links, exerpts, and featured images all fall into this bucket. The best way to boost this type of SEO is literally just fill in every box provided. If the video you are uploading to YouTube as a field for title, description, keywords, hashtags, ect: give them that information! Search engines need to know what they are ranking, and all the backend information is how they know what it is and where it should go.   

SEO sample fields
Categories our SEO service requires

If you write an article called “How to make good pizza” the search engine will put with other information on pizza. However, if your article also has keywords like, “good pizza,” “how to,” “cooking,” “dinner for two,” “Italian food,” and so on, the search engine has a lot more places it can show the article. 

Another thing you can do to boost SEO is to repurpose content. Search engines like to see a lot of content that revolves around a single topic. It shows a consistent brand message and purpose. A consistent brand message can indicate brand value.  

What ways have you found to be effective in boosting SEO? Do you have a favorite method?    


The Best Social Media Platform For You

Social Media Platforms

There are so. many. social media platforms available. Each have their own flavor and specialty. It can be overwhelming to figure what platforms are the best fit for you and your company.

Ideally, the answer to what platform should you use is: all of them! There are many tools and social schedulers available to make it easier to post to many accounts and platforms at once. However, even if you are able to consistently post to a wide variety of platforms, it is helpful to understand what each platform excels at. And, what each platform needs.

Let’s break it down:

Facebook

Facebook has roughly 2.8 billion monthly users, and because of that, Facebook is in a lot of ways a necessary evil. Since Facebook owns some of the other platforms, having a Facebook business account is a necessity. From a content standpoint, Facebook really excels at four things.

  1. Sharing company information. Facebook (and Google my Business) are often the first place updated about hour changes, services, locations, etc.
  1. Facebook groups. Facebooks groups are an excellent way to build micro communities online. For example, we are a part of Facebook groups for specific SaaS products we use, different communities like the 10X community, as well as groups to network with like minded businesses. Because these groups are often moderated, they can provide a safe place.
  1. Live video. Facebooks live video and event scheduling feature is one of the most robust available. Because of Facebooks integrations with Instagram, it’s easy to stream to two places at once. Facebook catalogs video internally, meaning that Facebook video doesn’t help general search engine SEO, which is something to keep in mind.
  1. Ads. Facebook has its own ad platform that only works with their family of applications.

Instagram

Instagram constantly adds features, so even though it started out as a purely visual platform, its effective for all businesses. Here’s some things to keep in mind about Instagram:

Instagram posts with 11 or more hashtags get the best engagement
  1. Instagram stories have high engagement rates. They are great for creating authentic interactions with your followers. And they can be shared directly over to Facebook stories.  
  1. Instagram shop feature is very comprehensive and easy to use. If you are a business that sells physical products, having an Instagram shop set up is very beneficial.
  1. Instagram Reels take parts of TikTok and YouTube and combine them together. Unlike, TikTok they don’t have a 1-minute time limit so you can say a lot more. Live video scan be converted directly to Reels.
  1. Instagram’s user base is generally younger than Facebook. More than 50% of Instagram users are between 18-35, while more than 60% of Facebook’s user are over 35.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has started to shift away from a purely networking platform to an information sharing platform as well. They recently added a live video feature and seem to be working to towards taking some of Facebook’s power away as the B2B social.

LinkedIn posts that are not self-promotion work well. It’s a great place to pull over blog information and transcriptions/scripts from live videos.   

LinkedIn is all about connections, and interactions that are mutually beneficial. If you can find the right audience or community, chances are you will get a lot of engagement and connections.

Twitter

Tweets with 1 or 2 hashtags get the best engagement

Twitter is easy to use and easy to generate content for. The snappy text-based format pushes engagement. Twitter is great for cross promotion across platforms. Screenshots of Tweets work well on other platforms. And Twitter is great for sharing links to your own content as well as highlighting other things you care about.

Twitter is also great for building personal relationships with followers. The stream of consciousness format can feel like a personal one-on-one conversation.

Snapchat

You may be surprised that Snapchat is included on this list. Snapchat’s audience skews very young which often eliminates it from company’s marketing plans. The platforms interface also makes it difficult to brand yourself and to find new followers. (Unlike most other platforms, Snapchat’s “explore” page doesn’t usually promote accounts to follow.)

However, Snapchat recently launched a creator fund. They have made extremely easy to get money as a creator on the platform. They seem to have learned from past mistakes and are pushing creators to use the app. (Many people reported making 6 figures in their first month!)

TikTok

TikTok is not just for the kids. It has a massive user pool, extensive creator funding, and a simple structure. It’s relatively simple to leverage their algorithms to your advantage. And since it’s a few years old at this point, there are established content formats and trends you can use.

It’s short form (60 seconds max) video format is great for storytelling and building personal relationships.

Many companies use it as an almost “behind the scenes” look at their day-to-day work. That type of content is great for engagement and creating brand loyalty.

TikTok is highlighting your personality or company culture.

What social media platforms do you view as essential?

Want help with getting your social media marketing rolling? Let us know!


Should You Repurpose Content?

content

So, should you repurpose content? Yes! Recycling or repurposing content has a lot more advantages than just saving time. (Although that is very helpful. As the old adage says… Time is Money! 💰 )

What does it mean to repurpose or recycle content? There are a couple ways to do it. One way is to repost or reshare the content as is. A lot of companies do this with TBTs or just highlighting past content. Another way to repurpose content is to take old content and use it as an outline for new content.

repurpose content

For example, once a Live Video stream is over, the audio can be published as a podcast on platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. Video clips of highlights can be repurposed into social content or ads. As well as pull quotes. The transcript can be turned into a blog article.

(This article is based off an outline for a live video, that was in turn, based off another blog article, that was itself based off one of Live Roundtables. Content can generate other content.)

What’s Your Message?

If you have been making content for a while, you probably have a good idea of what your message is. So, no matter what you do, some part of everything you create will be a reiteration of something you’ve said better before. That’s a good thing! Constantly adding drastically different messaging can create a confusing overall brand message. Your brand pillars and values aren’t going to change so your general message probably won’t either.

For example, the foundation for everything we do is using accurate data to create effective marketing. All the content we create is in some way or another connected to that. Therefore, it makes sense that we reiterate ideas and messages. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything new to say because there are always new ways of approaching information. The world around us, as well as technology and industry standards are always changing. There are always new things that can be added. Adding information keeps your messages up to date. Up-to-date content is more accurate and provides for value to your followers.

Your Audience Grows and Changes

Another reason to recycle content is that it gives more people an opportunity to see it. And even if someone has been following you for a long time there’s a good chance that they didn’t see the content the first time around. Social media platforms notoriously fail to consistently promote content. And we are all busy, it’s easy to miss something. And your followers might appreciate or need a piece of content now, more than they did when it was first published. Repurposing the information is a way to help your customers get the information they need.

Know What Your Customers Need

The more times goes on, the more you know about your audience’s interests. We are all constantly learning about our followers and audience. The more time goes on the more First Party Data is available. Knowing more about who your customers are can help you to understand what content they actually need. You can then reframe the information that you know would more benefit them. 

Recycling Content Boosts SEO

One added benefit of repurposing content is that it boosts SEO. Search engines like to see a lot of content that revolves around a single topic. It shows a consistent brand message and purpose. A consistent brand message can indicate brand value.

What ways do you repurpose content?


Let’s Talk First Party Data

First Party Data

We talk about First Party Data a lot. What it is?  

First party data is data that your company has collected directly from your audience which is made up of customers, site visitors, and social media followers. “First party” refers to the party that collected the data firsthand.  

First Party Data is collected from the people you have the most to learn from: your current customers!  That makes the data as reliable as possible. 

How can you collect first party data?  

You can attain first party data from your CRM, surveys and subscription-based emails or products. This is also where Google and Social Media Analytics are important.  

Google Analytics has a massive list of capabilities and ways to track website data. Using tracking code, Analytics collects information about the way the website was used.  

Such as:  

  1. Time of visit 
  2. Pages viewed 
  3. The time spent on each page 
  4. What browser and OS are being used 
  5. Referring site details 
  6. Network location and IP address. 

This information can help you see where (and how) traffic is following to and through your website. Google Analytics also has a lot of other tools such as URL Builder that make it easier to track customer data.  

Social media analytics are helpful for flushing out the demographics are your most engaged customers.  What can you learn about customer from social media? Here’s are some things you can learn: 

  1. What platforms your customers prefer to engage on 
  2. What content do your customers enjoy most 
  3. What type of campaign or advertising works for them? 
  4. Do they have any other hobbies or interests? 
  5. More specific customer demographics, such as age or gender 

It’s also super important to connect as many touch points to your customers as possible. The more ways you have to interact with the customer the more likely they are to become a repeat loyal customer. Think about the companies you follow on social media. Have you bought from them? More than once? Are you loyal to them? Do you agree with their mission and goals? Following companies on social media feels like a personal one-on-one connection and generates loyalty.  

Organization is Key

The next step of having/using first party data is organization. Having important information about your customers and leads doesn’t do much good if you can’t find it or if it’s connected properly. No matter what size your business is, having a CRM is key. The days of using a Rolodex are long gone. Now there a lot more channels of data to connect to a contact. 

For example, in our CRM we keep track of more than just name, company, phone, and email. Our CRM keeps track of what social media we are connected on and any times the contact has engaged with us. We have it set up so that the CRM assigns a number value to actions a contact or lead can take, such as opening emails, clicking links, liking a post, and any orders.  

How does all that information benefit us?

There are many ways! For one, we can use the information we have to target or retarget contacts, leads, and prospects. We can try different channels and types of touches until we find which one they respond best to. Having more than one channel connected to each contact makes multichannel campaigns possible.  

The other advantage to First Party Data is that you can collect data and analytics about your customers from the channels you are using to constantly to learn more about your demographics and your customer’s buying habits. The more channels you use the easier it will be to learn about your customer. Then the more customers you have the more information you can learn about your potential target audience. You can use a Look-A-Like to build a list of potentials you can target based on information on your current customers.  

What ways do use First Party Data?  

Here’s how First Party Data might the key to the future cookie-less world.  


Social Media Trends – 2021

Every year, as technology and culture change, social media adapts. Here’s three things that will take the forefront on social media in 2021!

Stories take over….

Social Media - Stories

In the past couple years, one platform after another has adapted a “stories” feature. LinkedIn, Spotify, and Twitter all added stories features in 2020. (Pinterest added one the day this article came out!) Stories allow consumers to see bite sized pieces of content in a way that feels authentic. A lot of marketing automation platforms don’t have stories scheduling built in yet, so it’s a good idea to take some time and plan out your strategy and figure out what way of adding stories to your content will work best for you.

Go Live with Audrey
Have You Been On One Of Our Lives?

Go Live….

Lives have been popular on just about every platform for years. With the constant increase in content available, have that instant connection with audiences will be even more valuable in 2021.

Purpose driven brands and responsible consumerism….

2020 was defiantly a year for activism and accountability. More and more consumers expect the brands they interact with to uphold their same values. Social Media is the place where you can easily share what your company believes and what you are doing to stand up for your values.

What do you hope to see on social media in 2021?