By Veronica Wiley
With the boom of the digital age and the ability to acquire instant satisfaction, successful marketing strategies have also changed. Gone are the days of the successful 1-minute commercial. With paid streaming, who watches commercials anyway? Today, an ad must be successful in the first 5 seconds to get clicked. That’s if it gets seen at all. So, how do you market successfully? Thankfully, when the digital hurricane took the world by storm, it provided some neat ways to advertise. Get ready because we’re going to tackle 10 of these in this article.
Research Your Audience
Who is your target audience? These are the people you’re trying to reach. You’ll want to know their complete demographics and what social media platforms they use most. This will help you create a valuable marketing strategy. Meaning how you’re going to reach them.
Many audiences spend a large amount of time on social media. The platform used most is Facebook. Runners-up are X, Instagram, and Snapchat. There may be a difference between these audiences. So, before you start posting, figure out who you want to see your posts and what platform they use.
Get Your Name Out There
A well-known marketing mantra says people need to see an ad 20 times before they click it. However, you don’t need to pay for ads. Your name and brand count, too!
A neat feature most social media sites have is the ability to schedule posts in advance. If you know you’ll be busy or traveling, you may want to use this. Often, you can schedule up to 14 posts. Then, you can select when you want them to appear on your page. Now, when you’re enjoying your holiday, you’ll know that your audience is still seeing your content.
Keep a Schedule
Make sure you post regularly on each platform your audience uses. Make a goal and stick to it. Posting daily is a great goal, but if you can’t manage that, try a weekly post.
As your business gets more attention, people will start looking forward to your content. If you don’t keep a regular schedule, it will make it harder to find your company. Keeping a schedule also adds credibility to your business. It shows you are reliable. It also means more people will engage with your content. Algorithms on social media sites are programmed to showcase the content users engage with most. Keeping up with a schedule and acquiring engagement means your posts will be at the top of the feed.
Respond to Your Audience
The above holds true for responding to posts, too. If your audience engages with your post but you don’t answer, they’ll stop responding. Engage with your audience by responding to questions and comments. Let them know you’re available for them and ready to receive their business.
Include the Face of the Company
People identify with images, and many times, that’s what draws us back to a company. A certain green gecko comes to mind. When developing your marketing plan, be sure to include the face of your company.
- Include your face or logo as your profile image or cover photo on your page.
- If you’re using infographics, make sure your logo or picture is somewhere on the image, too.
- When posting on X, use a clear headshot as your icon.
- Blog posts should have an about the author section that features your logo or picture. This is true even if it’s on your personal website.
Make Use of Variety
When people see the same thing each day, they learn to scroll past it. You want to make sure your posts and blogs look different each time. You also want to make sure the content is professional and visually appealing. High-quality content and images say a lot about what kind of business you run. Some content audiences find engaging are:
- Infographics
- Polls
- Videos: live interviews or recorded informational
- Blog posts (share these from your website)
- Interesting statistics
Create Engaging Content
Informational posts, like your upcoming deal, are great. However, you may only get a few engagements with information. To keep your content at the top, you’ll need to get people to comment on or share your post. Some great ways to get people engaged are to make posts they respond to. For example,
- A question: Posts that ask for a favorite restaurant or brand
- Poll: Opinions on business-related content to find out what your audience would like more information on
- Recommendations: A movie to go see or a place to travel for a vacation
- Controversy: Not politics! Try something like Ford vs Chevy in your field of business
- Jokes: Dad jokes get lots of shares, and I’ll bet you can find one about your field of business
Use the results from your engaging posts to guide your next lineup of content.
Make Use of Tags
One of the newest helpful social media features is the @everyone tag. If you haven’t used this before, you should add it to your marketing toolbox. With this tag, you can make a post and write it into your post. Then, once you’ve made the most active, everyone in your friend’s list will see it. This is especially helpful if the algorithm has knocked you off some people’s feeds. Friends will only see your post if they’ve engaged with a post of yours within the last 30 days.
Another useful way to use this feature is on group posts. If you’re in a business group or marketing group, you can use this tag on a group post. This will notify everyone in the group that your post is viewable.
Re-Evaluate
Each month, review how your audience responded to your content. If a blog post only got a few views, perhaps ask your audience what they would like to see more of. Include this question in a social media feed next week. Use any information or feedback you get from your audience to improve your marketing strategy.
By the same token, you’ll also want to evaluate if you are reaching your target audience. For example, a real estate agent may need to target a certain age group for one year to increase sales. If the age group responding to their posts is not the target age group, the agent will need to ask why. The answer will guide how the agent can revamp their marketing plan.
Research Successful Businesses
Take a look at successful models in your area and how they operate. Take a look at the content they’re posting and how their audience is engaging with it. If you see a post that seems like a hit, you can use it as a scaffold for future posts of your own.
Digital advertising can be easy but also takes a lot of time. Marketing Choices has a skilled team of professionals available to help with your online marketing. We’re a group of individuals with experience ranging from developing to strategizing. We also offer services to help manage marketing content. So, if you’re a startup who’d like a head start on your net business campaign, contact us. We’d love to collaborate with you.
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