Marketing – Page 5 – Business Plus Baby

February 29, 2016

Need to improve your business social media ad campaigns? Read this!

Everyone knows social media is a good way to increase brand awareness. It’s also a brilliant way to drive traffic to a website. As a business owner, you will no doubt be using social media on a regular basis for those reasons.

The thing is; some people don’t understand why they have little social media interest. Sure, they might be running a series of ad campaigns on popular social networks like Twitter. But, why aren’t more people responding to those ads?

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Now is the time to make some simple changes to your social media ad campaign strategies. By changing the way you do things, you will increase your conversion rates and get a better ROI. Here is what you need to do:

Make sure you are displaying ads at the best times

The thing about your target audience is they won’t be awake and looking at your content 24/7. There will be certain times when most of your social followers will be online.

There is no point paying for your ads to display all the time. That’s because you will end up paying a lot of money for your campaigns! Instead, you should find out when your audience is online the most.

If you have a Facebook page, for example, the Insights section can tell you this information. Once you know, alter your campaigns only to serve ads during those times.

Curate an email list

Believe it or not, people still use email in 2016! You should give people the opportunity to sign up to your mailing list. That way, they can receive your brand’s latest news in their inbox. They won’t need to sign into their social media accounts to learn more.

Your social media campaigns should give people the chance to sign up to your mailing list. And don’t forget to do the same on your website too!

Run A/B split tests on your social media campaigns

The golden rule of online advertising is to try different approaches and see which works best. When it comes to social media, you can run A/B split tests and use different ad groups and landing pages.

Doing so will help you determine which ads offer the best ROI. You can then fine-tune your best ads and ditch the worst performers. This is the one thing any good social media agency will tell you to do. It’s quite easy to set up such tests, so there’s no reason not to carry them out.

Use the right ways to capture the attention of your audience

Let’s face it; people don’t want to spend their spare time reading paragraphs of text. They want to look at content that captures their attention and inspires them in some way.

Many online advertisers find sharing images and videos on social media is good. In fact, such a strategy often yields a higher response rate than say linking to a blog post. Well, I hope today’s blog post has given you some ideas on how to boost your social media advertising. Thanks for checking it out!

February 29, 2016

The best marketing tips for the newly self-employed

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Perhaps you need the time to be around your kids or you’ve always wanted to chase a dream. Whatever the reason, becoming self-employed can be exciting and rewarding. There are a lot of challenges involved in it, but being a successful self-employed businessperson is an experience like no other. If you’re just beginning to start on this journey, then you need to put a lot of effort into your marketing strategy. This factor can make or break a self-employed operation, especially if you’re based online. Here are some important tips for marketing yourself.

The first, and probably most important tip, is to have a blog or a website. No matter what kind of business you’re setting up, this is an absolute necessity. Just think about the amount of time you spend browsing the web. I’m sure you can think of a time when you weren’t intending to buy anything, but ended up doing it anyway! The internet is the first place people go to find any kind of product or service, and you need to be accommodating for that. For a lot of contractors, using a free blog service will be more than enough. However, if your business exists in a competitive niche, it’s best to go with something more professional. You can get some great web design tips from Smashing Magazine. Although outsourcing this work can be very costly, the results are much better than what you’d get for free! Hiring a design service will also help you to make your site responsive.

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By Vishraval (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Once you’ve got a good-looking and functional website in place, it’s time to start letting people know about your business. You could have the best entrepreneurial tact in history, but if your marketing stinks then your business isn’t going to go very far. Luckily, promoting your small business is much easier now than it has been in the past. The moment your site goes live, you should start working to have it listed in several different directories. When your site appears on Manta, Yelp, White Pages and so forth, it will be reaching far more people than it was previously. While being listed is a great way to market yourself, it isn’t cheap! You should set a strict marketing budget when you begin, to ensure you can invest in other things as your business grows. Aside from these website directories, there are a range of other digital marketing techniques you should be using. There are a lot of free SEO techniques you could utilise, and other paid tactics which will do a lot for your traffic. Take a look at these PPC management services from CandidSky for an example. There are all kinds of methods for getting your name out there, so make sure you use them!

I also recommend setting up a referral or rewards promotion in your early days. From copywriters to dentists, every self-employed person can use and benefit from these marketing techniques. It’s not hard to understand the success in this. Offering your customers incentives for coming back will certainly help your business in its early days. Even if you’re only saving pennies, a special offer can be very enticing. Your promotions and referrals shouldn’t be totally centred on the customer, however. You might want to turn to other, non-competing businesses and offer to collaborate with them. Obviously, it should have some kind of link. For example, if you were running a local cleaning service, then you might want to incentivise with local estate agents. Or, if you’re a graphic designer, you could trade some promotional fliers with a marketing business. There are even programs like Spot On which will help with this. Make sure to get a well thought-out plan in place before jumping into this kind of marketing though. If you’re offering a free service as a promotion, and doing this costs you more than gaining a new customer, then it’s best to avoid it. However, if you figure you’re going to be making a gain from incentives, then I urge you to go ahead with it.

Running your self-employed business may feel like a daunting, difficult task at the moment. Believe me, the first few months are always the hardest. If you provide a quality service or product, they will come. I’ll leave you with one last tip: network. This can not only be great for your marketing, but can benefit every facet of your operation. Whether you use it for collaboration or to spy on your competitors, look up some networking events and start attending!

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016

Marketing concepts your company shouldn’t overlook

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Starting a company when you have a young family is always hard. You have to perform a juggling act to make sure you can complete jobs on time. Also, you often won’t have enough hours in the day to develop professional marketing strategies. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that your business will fail without adequate promotion. So, I wanted to release a post that contains everything you need to know. I won’t manage to go into much detail about these concepts today, but the text should serve to point you in the right direction. By the time you leave this website, you should know more about the areas in which you need to research.

Digital marketing suggestions

There is no getting away from the fact that you will have to invest in digital marketing. We are living in a world where most people carry smartphones in their pockets. That means they are constantly connected to the internet at all times. Social media websites are perfect for new companies because you don’t have to spend money to get started. Anyone can build a large audience by just creating a page and posting updates. Of course, there are paid advertising tools on those websites that will come in handy. It’s also critical that you learn how to use Google Adwords. That is the best banner marketing tool available, and it should drive lots of traffic to your website.

Real world marketing suggestions

Contrary to popular belief, it still makes sense to promote your brand in the real world. Posters, flyers and catalogues are great for reaching people who might not use the internet. There are also many other cool products you could purchase to help catch the eyes of consumers. You’ll find more info about the most popular items with some basic online research. Pocket-sized materials are always a good idea because people won’t throw them in the trash straight away. Research shows that business cards and similar concepts will create better results. That is because people are more likely to hang onto them.

Unusual marketing suggestions

Nothing is wrong with thinking outside of the box and trying something new when advertising your venture. Publicity stunts are some of the most entertaining ideas you might consider. However, you could try a whole range of different concepts to further your interests. Just take a moment to look at the techniques used by competing firms at the moment. If you find something unusual that seems to work, replicate it and try it out. Nobody can patent or own marketing avenues, and so nothing is stopping you from copying their ideas.

As you can see, the process of planning your marketing strategy could take a long time. However, it’s vital that you get it right if you want to attract many customers and clients. After reading this article, you should know which subjects you need to research moving forward. The basic rule of thumb is that you just need to keep your eyes open. New methods appear every single day, and jumping on the bandwagon could prove lucrative.

January 15, 2016

8 marketing trends for 2016 you should be trying today

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Few industries are as fast-paced as marketing, and it can be difficult to judge which directions it will be going in a few months time, let alone a year. That in mind, however, here are eight marketing trends to look out for in 2016, some of which you may be able to apply to your own strategy with success…

SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing has been undergoing something of a resurgence in recent years, and for good reason. Why should you use it? It’s cost-effective, often with staggered pricing packages based on the number of texts sent; with very high open rates it’s likely to get better results than many other forms of marketing such as email, and by all accounts most recipients don’t seem to find SMS messages from brands intrusive, especially when they’re relevant to them and offer them a good deal or something they need.

Relationship Marketing

The extraordinary growth rate of smartphone ownership makes it easier than ever for brands to establish meaningful two-way relationships with their customers. Marketers are very focused now on using data segmentation to make messages as personalised as possible. Relationship marketing must be built on trust, and it can increase the opportunity of creating brand advocates, so if you believe in the power of word-of-mouth advertising, this could be an area you want to look at closely.

Internet Of Things

The next few years are going to see many more types of device being connected to the internet – ikettles anyone? – and wearable tech is moving in leaps and strides, literally in the case of movement-tracking devices for sports-enthusiasts. As a result, there’s a great deal of useable data becoming available to marketers from all over the place – how much of it will actually serve a valuable purpose is yet to be determined, but there is obviously potential in it. What possibilities does the internet of things hold for your company?

Location Marketing

This is one of the most exciting developments yet to emerge from the rise of smartphone use. Just to give one instance of how it can be used – companies can place small electronic beacons around a location such as a store or a conference hall to help them communicate with smartphones in the close vicinity. So if you have someone waiting in line to pay a cashier at a busy period you can offer them the ability to pay online, or remind them of a daily discount. If someone is attending an event you can remind them your brand has a stall, or send them news via LinkedIn. Not everyone will enjoy having their location tracked by marketers of course, but it’s undeniable that there are exciting prospects for this field.

Automation

Increased automation in marketing is getting a lot of people excited. Whether it’s timing social media posts, emails or SMS marketing in advance, or segmenting and analysing data, automation is becoming easier and less expensive, and will yield better results in return for less time spent on the tasks. Will we one day have robots writing blog articles? This author hopes not, but technology is disrupting the processes of all industries nowadays and marketing is no exception.

Social Media E-Commerce

Making purchases through social media has been on the cards for years now – in fact some sites such as Pinterest and Instagram have already been experimenting with it for a while. Many experts believe that 2016 will be the year that social media e-commerce truly takes off. You may be able to buy a product you see on a brand’s Facebook page just by clicking a button, and never leaving the platform, before sharing news of your purchase with friends and family. Big and innovative retailers will be following developments on this eagerly.

Multichannel Sales

The path to purchase will become ever more complex, with research often spanning multiple platforms and devices, so it’s important for brands to have a coherent story across the web, and to track where in the pipeline customers are entering, offering payment options throughout. The need for mobile optimisation of websites has never been greater, and the fact that some three-quarters of consumers consult social media before purchasing cannot be ignored. If you’re not socially active, you’re missing out.

Content Marketing

This will continue to thrive in 2016 and beyond. Whether it’s blog articles, videos, infographics or podcasts, the number of ways that brands can get their message across is always increasing. Look at your current content strategy – can you mix things up a little? Understand what types of content work best for you, and focus on producing more of it.

December 21, 2015

Don’t be fooled by first impressions. Conversion is the only stat of importance.

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The world of digital marketing can be confusing for newcomers. There are a lot of terms thrown around that don’t mean an awful lot without context. If you’re just trying the marketing game on for size, it can leave you feeling somewhat lost. But, truthfully, once you get to grips with the jargon, the techniques are pretty simple.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, there are a lot of different methods that are used by digital marketing agencies around the world. They all have their own rhyme and reason. They each perform different results. Figuring out exactly which approach your company should be taking can be difficult. But, ultimately, it’s down to personal preference. The techniques you embrace will depend on what you’re looking to achieve.

One of the most confusing trends in digital marketing is the Pay-Per-Click phenomenon. It’s not that it’s a complex idea to get your head around. Far from it. It’s a relatively simple idea. The basic premise is that your link will appear somewhere on the internet, and you’ll pay for how many clicks you consequently receive.

So, where does the confusion begin to creep in? Quite simply, it’s that people don’t understand the key differences between impressions and clicks. A common misconception is that the number of impressions you make is relative to your success. It makes sense right? The more people that see your ad is going to make it more likely to achieve results. Not necessarily.

Before we get into the hows and whys of the matter, let’s first explore what those terms actually mean. As we touched on above, an impression counts for each time your ad is potentially seen by an end-user. It can be anything. A banner, a link, a keyword. Whatever it is you want, really. So, every time somebody visits a blog that features your ad on the page somewhere, that’s an impression.

Clicks are, obviously, a different beast. Those that have their wits about them know that click-through rate is the only measurement that really counts in PPC marketing. Why? Well, simply, what use is your ad if nobody is paying attention to it. It’s not even necessarily that your ad is poorly executed. It could simply be a matter of poor placement, or you’re targeting the wrong audience.

Any PPC agency worth their salt will charge you for your click-through rate only. Don’t be fooled into thinking that impressions are the long and short of the story. Like I said, what good is your ad if nobody is actually clicking on it? Let’s reinforce that idea before we go any further. Your goal is not to present yourself to a ton of different eyeballs. It’s to make those people click your link.

It’s not likely that you’ve taken total control of your PPC campaign. At least, not if you don’t have a good grasp on digital marketing already. The chances are that you have (or will) call in the experts. A very wise choice, indeed. In that instance, the agency is probably going to take control of all the hard work for you. By all means, you’ll certainly have some say. But, by and large, they’ll ultimately advise you on things like the placement. Hey, that’s why they’re the professionals, right?

Where this is beneficial to you is that it makes analyzing the figures a whole lot easier. Think about it like this. You’re presenting with a bunch of statistics that show your ad is reaching a bunch of people. It just so happens that nobody is following through on it. That’s the point that migraines start to develop. It’s your job to get to the bottom of why.

But that’s only if you put all of the expectation on impressions. The figure that you really need to be looking at is the click-through rate. It’s sort of like a puzzle that needs solving. Forget how many people are seeing your ad. The vital information that you really need is how many of them are clicking on it. With that knowledge, you can make a decision on how you approach the next step.

I mean, aren’t you going to embrace any concept that makes your life, as a business person, easier? Of course, you are. And that’s the point of this exercise. Your click-through rate will paint a much clearer picture than just analyzing your impressions. Don’t make the same mistake that many other business executives are making. Impressions aren’t important. Not if they aren’t making a significant difference.

So, what can you learn about your marketing strategy just from your click-through rate? More than you might think, now you mention it. Simply telling your analysis team to get to the bottom of it isn’t going to work without context. Instead, they’re going to need to know everything they can about placement, site traffic, and such. Then they can begin to make educated assumptions about what you’re doing right. Or, equally, what isn’t quite going so well.

More often than not, your marketing agency of choice will be able to help decipher this information for you. They have years of experience in this relatively new marketing technique. And make no mistake about it, it’s a trend that is evolving rapidly with each passing day. Don’t sweat it. It’s their jobs to know what to look out for.

You should always look to the professionals for guidance. This is especially the case if things aren’t going quite as well as you both hoped. Now isn’t the time for playing the blame game. It’s about fixing things before you waste any more time and money on an endeavor. Seek honest advice and be open to compromise. You may have to change your strategy. That can turn your average control freak into a drooling, incoherent mess. You didn’t plan for this! How can it be happening?

Sometimes things just don’t work out as you’d planned. That’s okay. Digital marketing is very much a game of trial and error. Don’t give up on it now. Keep pushing through until you find something that works. Then, and only then, will you see your click-through rate rise above and beyond.