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In today’s day and age emojis have become commonplace for most people when interacting with others in our personal lives. Whether it be through a text message, email, or social media post, emojis have become prevalent across multiple communication channels. While this fun, light-hearted form of communication seems harmless to utilize in your personal life, an important question to ask is: Are emojis a smart tool to use in my business?
A company blog may not be at the forefront of your mind when you think of a traditional marketing strategy. However, with nearly 5 billion internet users across the globe, online content has become an essential and valuable component of any effective brand strategy. Below are three reasons you should consider incorporating blogs into your marketing plan.
Businesses often focus their marketing efforts on obtaining new prospects and leads, but it’s important not to overlook the current customer base. Your current customers are one of the most important assets your business has. Because they are already familiar with your brand, product, and services, you’ve already tackled the first hurdle in marketing of making people aware of your offerings. In fact, studies have shown that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 40% more likely than converting someone who has never purchased from you before.
Now it’s just a matter of engaging those existing customers to form lasting relationships and loyal customers.
Social media marketing is a powerful way for businesses to tell their story, grow and connect with their audience and stay top of mind with consumers. With over 200 million social media users across the United States, your social media presence is an impactful extension of your brand.
Here are 6 tips for building your social media presence to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy:
With video being hyped as the new “it” marketing thing, you have probably thought about or even started to make some videos for your company. But what should you actually do with your videos?
Adding video to your website is a no brainer. Whether it’s an "About Us"-style video that can go on your team page, or a how-to video that could live in a resources section, having video on your website is important. It’s also pretty obvious that your videos should be added to your YouTube channel (or another video hosting platform).
We asked Mackenzie, one of our senior account managers, some marketing questions. Here's what she had to say...
1. What aspect of marketing do you think businesses should pay more attention to?
What the data is telling them! Every marketing campaign or strategy should have data to support its success. If you aren't analyzing the data, you could be throwing money at campaigns and strategies that aren't working for you. By looking at the data, you can refine the strategy and have a more successful outcome.
2. What do you consider to be the biggest challenge for today's businesses?
Cutting through the clutter! There is a lot of competition in the market, but with a strong and consistent marketing strategy in place you can set yourself up for success.
3. Where do most people go wrong with their marketing?
Not having solid goals in place before launching their marketing strategy. There are so many avenues you can take with marketing. Understanding your goals will help you choose which avenue makes the most sense for your brand and, ultimately, allow you to get a good ROI!
Whether you know it or not, you are telling a brand story with everything you do. From your tagline and website content to your online reviews and signage, everything works together to craft a story about your business.
While some businesses are intentional about their brand story, other businesses are telling a story without even knowing it. Some are telling the wrong story altogether.
So how do you tell the right story in the right way?
First, you need to know the definition of a brand story. A brand story is a cohesive narrative that informs consumers and inspires an emotional reaction.
Knowing which data metrics to pay attention to in order to understand which marketing efforts are working can stump even the most savvy of business owners. Are quantitative metrics like high visitor or session counts most important, or do qualitative metrics, like what pages people enter the site on and where they spend the most time, matter more? Well, the answer is both.
Quantitative metrics are always an important pulse check on how the business is doing overall. It’s a way to identify any red flags, and determine if there should be a strategy shift to drive more traffic and engagement to the site. It is also important for comparative measures and understanding the growth of a businesss over time. While specific strategies may shift based on business needs over time, these quantitative baselines give you a way to measure moment-in-time efforts, as well as month-over-month and year-over-year comparison analysis of the health of your business.
Loyalty marketing strategies aren’t new. In fact, the practice of incentivizing customers to make a purchase in exchange for a gift or discount dates back to the 1700s. In 1929, General Mills® brand Betty Crocker™ began offering Box Tops to be collected and used in exchange for discounted flatware. In the 1980s, one of the most famous loyalty programs, the frequent-flyer program, was established. By the mid-1990’s, loyalty marketing programs had become a fixture in mainstream marketing programs.
Today, loyalty marketing continues to be a successful marketing strategy utilized by small, local businesses and large, international corporations alike, offering free gifts, discounts, and exclusive access in exchange for making a purchase, referring friends and family, sharing a post on social media, and more. Here are 5 ways loyalty marketing can benefit your business:
Most marketers today are well-versed in the game of personalized marketing content. For the past decade, we've been told to customize, customize, customize. A reported 86% of consumers say that personalization influences their purchase decisions. So why are we now hearing rumors of undoing those foundations?
The answer is simple: Personalization works, but only if you do it well. The majority of consumers understand that emails, ads, and notifications are sent out automatically and en masse. They will quickly pick up on mistakes like a greeting with their name misspelled or, worse yet, with an [INSERT NAME HERE] still showing. This can have the opposite effect on your target audience and, ultimately, turn them off from your specific call-to-action (CTA).
While it is true that customization works, doing it well is a whole different ball game. Trying to fool your customer base never ends well. Instead, take the following steps to come across more genuinely with your audience.
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