Are you one of the many companies struggling to maximize your marketing impact? It’s a common challenge, even with strong executive leadership and talented staff.
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When I chose to leave my hometown of Decatur to attend Auburn University, I originally planned to pursue a degree in animal science. After a year of classes, I quickly decided it was not the career path for me. This left me wandering aimlessly through other potential career paths for about six months. Finally, one day, I had an epiphany. I love writing, event planning and creating – so why not study public relations? Fast forward a year and here I am, interning at Red Sage, an award-winning, full-service marketing agency in my hometown.
According to Hootsuite, 88% of Americans use social media on a daily basis, making social media marketing one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience.
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Here are three things you should be doing right now on
social media, to help offset the lack of engagement through organic reach.
It’s no longer enough to only post one-to-two times per
week. Although it varies by industry,
the optimal posting schedule is three-to-four times per week. While posting more often is important, it’s just
as important to make sure the content you’re posting is quality because of ever-changing algorithms.
On Facebook, organic reach has been on decline for sometime. The world’s largest social media platform is opting to give users more content from friends and family in their newsfeeds. At the same time, according to HootSuite, it’s showing less from publishers and business pages.
And if it’s happening on Facebook, it’s happening on other social platforms too. You just can’t count on social media posts to reaching as many people as before organically. (More on what this means for your marketing budget below.) *
Never, ever, ever post the same exact post on different platforms. This includes the creative element, post text, hashtags, etc. Your content needs to be tailored to the social media platform it’s being posted on.
For example, many businesses use Instagram as a more casual, behind-the-scenes approach to their social media postings. LinkedIn meanwhile is used more for sharing industry trends, HR announcements, or other exciting company news. Being thoughtful about content presentation and having a strong focus on high-quality differentiated content may take more time, but it’s considered a best practice for combating organic reach’s decline (along with paying more, which we’ll dive into next.)
Need some help freshening up your feed? We have the BEST ideas. Call us to learn more!
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If not, it may help to stand back and examine how different audiences connect with, and consume that content.
Content for marketing includes all information – images, text, videos, and even events – that you give your audience to use, consume, or experience. In general, content should be posted on a regular basis, and should be engaging, while soliciting an action or reaction from your audience.
For B2B content marketers, audiences are smaller, and typically include current and potential clients, along with networking connections. B2C audiences include a larger scope of potential customers. That fact alone drives differences in the way B2B audiences vs. B2C audiences utilize and react to content.
Effective business-to-consumer (B2C) content marketing is all about getting personal with a larger audience, in a shorter timeframe. Brand recognition should be a core focus. Consumer audiences are attracted to brands they recognize, so exposure on various platforms should be a priority.
Messaging for B2C content marketing should also be in a conversational tone, with quick messaging. This is in sharp contrast to B2B content marketing, where a more professional tone including industry jargon, facts, and longer-form content is often more appropriate.
B2C purchasers are often making quick decisions as an individual or family, while B2B purchasers include several stake-holding decision makers. B2B purchasers also expect products and services to add value for a longer period, and hopefully establish a long-lasting relationship with their service or product provider.
Another thing to keep in mind is that in the B2C market, consumers are bombarded with information 24/7. If you have the buyer’s attention, you must fight to keep them coming back for more. A great tool to gain insights for maintaining the audience you already have is
Facebook Pixel
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Google Ads
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Don’t believe us? Here’s a breakdown by the numbers:
(Source:
HubSpot Research
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The first of our social media trends to focus on, video! For years now, video has been paving the way for the most “engaging” content on the internet. From viral cat YouTube videos to hard-hitting news segments, video significantly outperforms all other methods of content generation.
It’s not enough to just provide video content though. Users are now wanting to participate and engage live, in real-time. As a result, businesses, organizations, and brands are shooting live video of interactive content and then streaming it for viewers. This gives consumers the ability to “join in” and which creates an immediacy that is unbeatable for engagement. Researchers from
Forbes
Too often though, websites fall by the wayside. Businesses tend to focus on “day-to-day” marketing and sales initiatives instead, because it’s just easier not to deal with web redevelopment projects. They tend to take a lot of time and resources (if done right.)
A case study (on ourselves)
We see it a lot with our clients here in Huntsville and Decatur, Alabama. From small businesses to large corporations, there’s a tendency for people to say, “Well, we know our website isn’t great… but it’s just not a priority right now.”
It’s even happened here at Red Sage. In fall of 2017, we realized our website was no longer reflective of the company’s core capabilities. It said next to nothing about our expertise in crafting strategic marketing plans, or our strengths in advertising on Google and social media, or our focus on data and ROI tracking.
So we overhauled it. After a lot of thoughtful planning,
redsageonline.com
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It’s the critical question every marketing director, specialist or consultant should be asking: How do I create marketing approaches that will lead to results?
The internet is a dangerous place.
As you set your goals for 2018, consider creating a positioning statement. It’s one of the best investments you can make in your business or organization’s future.
Have you ever logged into Google Analytics and been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information at your fingertips? Or been given an excel spreadsheet of customer data and not known what to do with it? At Red Sage, we are digging into Data Analytics and what it can mean for our clients. These 3 tips will help you use analytics for your business.
So you’ve designed a website and its perfect. It’s informative, it’s innovative, and it looks pretty spiffy on a computer screen if you do say so yourself. Yes, you’ve really outdone yourself but it’s 2016, my friend. Computers come in all shapes and sizes and in just about any electronic you can think of. Not only does your site have to look good on desktop screens, it has to look good on large screens, small screens, tablets, mobile phones, televisions, car monitors, watches- the list is ever growing and it’s important that you keep up. Not only will Google look over your site in favor of those with responsive designs, but people will too. More searches in the US take place on mobile devices than on desktop computers nowadays and 74% of people will leave an unresponsive site.
So, you’ve just launched your new website, its thoughtful and engaging and the design is absolutely on point. Now, all you have to do is sit back and watch your target audience flock in droves to this online mecca into which you have poured your time (and money). Every day you check your Google Analytics, but you start to notice a distressing trend: no one is visiting your site! You may have a few visits a day (at least one of which is yourself, or someone in your organization). Sure, there was that one day when, to your delight, you opened your Analytics report to see a spike of over a thousand visitors, only to discover they were all spam after seeing they originated from somewhere in the Russian Federation. Obviously, your website isn’t meeting the lofty goals you envisioned when you launched it.
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