by Marketing Manager | Article Marketing, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use, Internet Marketing, Marketing Tips, Social Media
In this day and age, effective online advertising can be the difference between surviving and thriving for small businesses. With the sheer number of people that use the internet and the tools available to target them by factors like age, interests, location, and more, businesses that don’t pay much attention to advertising online risk severely limiting their growth. As a business owner who probably doesn’t have much experience running ad campaigns online, where do you start? One recommendation that you will get from just about every blog and self-proclaimed ad guru is Facebook Ads. It’s not a bad recommendation. With more than a billion users across the globe, Facebook dominates the online advertising landscape. Millions of businesses rely on Facebook to generate leads and increase sales. The company offers exceptional targeting features and related ad tools that help advertisers create powerful campaigns. However, advertising costs on Facebook have continued to rise over the years. Recent surveys have shown that many marketers are now worried that they could ultimately be priced out of Facebook Ads. Many small businesses operate on a shoestring budget as it is, so it becomes difficult for them to risk a substantial amount on expensive ads. The key to a profitable campaign is to test as many variations of the ad as possible to gather data and then optimize to scale up. This economies of scale model won’t work for businesses that only have a limited budget to spend on one single campaign. Fortunately, there are many other advertising networks that can be just as suitable for a small business....
by Marketing Manager | How To's & Info you can use, Pinterest, Social Media
If you have a business blog, driving traffic is probably your #1 issue (after creating content, that is!). A good SEO strategy is a major component to getting more website visitors, but it takes time. And competing with bigger, more established businesses can be tough. Many bloggers rely on Pinterest to drive more traffic to their blogs. This is still a good strategy, but it has grown increasingly competitive. To see the best results, you need to pin extremely frequently. Some of the most successful bloggers are pinning 4-5 times per day. Who has time for that?? Here’s the secret — most of those bloggers are not pinning manually on a daily basis. Instead, they use a tool like Tailwind to schedule pins in advance and set up automations. Tailwind is a scheduling app for both Pinterest and Instagram. But it has functionality way beyond a simple scheduling tool. They claim that their users see an average of: 9x more repins 7x more followers added 2x more pins published Here’s a quick breakdown of some of Tailwind’s best features, so you can decide if you want to give it a try. Tailwind Pinterest Scheduler First and foremost, Tailwind is an easy-to-use Pinterest scheduler. Unlike Pinterest’s internal scheduler, Tailwind will set up a “queue” for you with its suggested optimal times to pin. These times are custom designed for you, based on the topics you pin about and when your audience is most engaged. You can use the pre-set times and/or create your own. Tailwind also has a simple drag-and-drop interface that lets you...
by Marketing Manager | Content, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use, Internet Marketing, Social Media
Even if you’ve never used one in your marketing before, you’ve seen hashtags on social media. They’re the words after a post, each one starting with the # sign. They help people who see a Tweet, Instagram post, or Pinterest image to find the content and understand what it’s about. While it’s easy enough to add hashtags to your content, it requires skill and attention to do it artfully. In this article, we’ll explain how to choose and use hashtags to attract new followers and – this is what you’re here for – increase your profits. What is a Hashtag? Let’s start with the basics for those who don’t know. A hashtag is a word or phrase that appears after the # symbol on social media. There are no spaces, and the goal of a hashtag is to make it easy for people who are interested in your business and content to find you. Hashtags can be serious or whimsical. Community hashtags can crop up week after week and year after year. For example, #ThrowbackThursday (or #TBT) is a hashtag that has been making the rounds for over a decade. In fact, #ThrowbackThursday was started by Sports Illustrated all the way back in 2006! Hashtags can be related to topics or events. For example, if you’re someone who owns a landscaping business, you might follow these hashtags, all of which we found on Twitter: #Landscaping #Lawn #Lawncare #PropertyMaintenance #GroundsMaintenance We also saw examples of lawn care and landscaping companies jumping on community hashtags such as #SpringAhead because – let’s face it – spring is when a lot of...
by Marketing Manager | Customers, How To's & Info you can use, Social Media
When you’re planning a meal out for a special birthday or anniversary, how do you decide where to eat? You might go with an old favorite that you know you can rely on. But if you want to try something new, you’ll probably seek a recommendation. This recommendation could come from a friend or family member. But if you’re like most people, you’ll also check the restaurant’s online reviews. In fact, 97% of consumers say they read reviews for local businesses. Leaving your testimonials and client feedback on review aggregators like Yelp makes them a passive resource. The customer has to search for the information. And if you don’t have a brick and mortar location, you may not be on any of those sites to begin with. That’s why you need a robust customer review strategy that brings your reviews to your own turf. Put them to work in your marketing efforts and let potential customers hear from people they trust — their peers. Customer Reviews on Your Website The most obvious place to include your existing customer reviews is on your website. Major companies like Amazon and Target know how eager we are to hear about other customer experiences. That’s why they put reviews right at the bottom of each product page. Your web developer can help you add a review integration, allowing your customers to share their reviews directly to your site. For service-based businesses without product pages, you may need to add reviews and testimonials manually. Don’t make the mistake of gathering them all in one “Reviews” page that users...
by Marketing Manager | Marketing Tips, Photography, Social Media
It feels like every time we master an Instagram feature, they release a new one. Got the hang of stories? Well, now learn IGTV! Doing well with IGTV? Too bad, time to figure out Reels. The different types of accounts on Instagram — Personal, Business, and Creator — aren’t new. But as Instagram continues to roll out new features, there is still some confusion among small businesses if a Business or Creator account makes the most sense. So we’re breaking down the differences between the two to help you feel confident in your account type, whatever that may be. What is an Instagram Business Account? It might surprise you to know that Instagram was around for four whole years before they got around to creating Business tools. These have evolved over time, but here’s what they include now. Business Account Features Image Source: Later.com Access Instagram Insights View account analytics, including your weekly follow and unfollow count. Also view info about your specific posts, like impressions and post reach. See what is performing well and what isn’t. You’ll also be able to view demographic data, including age, location, and when your followers are active online. Promotional Tools A Business account includes several ways to promote your content. You can quickly promote a post as an ad, similar to “boosting” a post on Facebook. You can also run Instagram ads using Facebook’s robust targeting tools. Access Instagram Creator Studio The Facebook/Instagram Creator Studio is a desktop program with in-depth analytics and performance of your posts. It also lets you schedule your content from your...
by Marketing Manager | Blogging, Content Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, Marketing Tips, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Video Marketing
Digital marketing isn’t optional. The fact remains, though, that only 84% of businesses have a content marketing strategy as of early 2021. 16% don’t. If you’re one of the people who has put off digital marketing or done it haphazardly, it’s time to get serious about it. You may have claimed your Google My Business listing – and that counts as digital marketing. It’s also the bare minimum you can do. So, with that in mind, let’s talk about why every small business – including yours – needs digital marketing, and which marketing strategies we recommend. What is Digital Marketing? Some small business owners don’t understand what digital marketing is and that’s part of the problem, so, let’s start with a definition. Digital marketing is the sum of any efforts you make to promote your business online. It may include: Email marketing Blogging Search engine advertising (PPC) Social media posting Social media advertising Business listings SEO Video marketing The key to making the most of digital marketing is choosing the strategies that are most likely to deliver the results you want. Target Local Keywords The first thing you need to recognize is that in the world of digital marketing, everything is local. If you try to compete for the same keywords used by big corporations with huge marketing budgets, you’re going to lose. You’ll get far more bang for your buck if you think local. Local keywords should be a combination of industry-specific words that identify what your business does and local words that let people know where you are. For example, a dentist in Minneapolis might target words...
