Insights from the senior strategists at Treefrog Inc., a full-service marketing agency founded in 1989 in Newmarket, Ontario. We write about marketing strategy, pipeline, revenue operations and AI for growing companies.
One of the fundamental ways to make sure your social media posts are getting engagement is to include visuals. Images, infographics, and videos are more likely to capture a person’s attention when compared to text. If your post doesn’t include visual content, it risks getting lost in people’s timelines amidst all of the posts that do include visuals. To illustrate this point, let’s explore the facts (yay, statistics!)
According to Buffer, Tweets with images are retweeted 150% more than Tweets without.
74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing, ahead of blogs (68%) and videos (60%).
Eye tracking studies performed by Nielsen Norman Group suggested that when people find images relevant, they spend more time looking at them on a webpage than reading the text.
Bottom Line: Visuals. Use Them. Whether it’s a photo, an infographic, a video, or anything else!
But keep in mind, all visuals are not created equal, and there are things that make certain visuals more engaging than others. While these will differ depending on your industry (different audiences react differently to images), here are some general tips that are crucial when selecting visuals to include in your post:
1. Include Eyes
A tried and true method of getting people to stop at your image when scrolling through their newsfeeds is to include images where people appear to be staring at the viewer. Eye contact is a super engaging visual, and if your image draws eyes to your post, the viewer is more likely to stop, stare, and read your content.
This is a perfect example of an image where the entire visual appeal is based on eye contact.
2. Include a Lot of Colours, when Appropriate
We generally recommend sticking to a similar colour scheme (preferably your brand colours) when creating images – in order to make sure people are able to quickly connect the visuals to your brand. However, visuals that include a variety of colours are more eye-catching than those with few colours. So, whichever colour scheme you choose, at the very least, avoid images with only shades or dark colours.
Good:
Bad:
3. Design them for Easy Comprehension
Because the brain is able to quickly determine relationships between objects, people can create connections more quickly by looking at visuals than reading text. In the clever image below, Coke uses this idea to quickly teach people a new way of making iced tea – all without using a single word of text. Talk about taking advantage of the human brain!
4. Try Incorporating Humour
If you’re ever struggling to figure out how to connect with your audience, try using humour! Different types of people like different things, but a sense of humour is innate (we laugh even before we learn to talk).
Old Spice is a master at creating visuals that catch people’s eyes by using humour that’s immediately noticeable. This image is simple, creative, and effective!
5. Guide the Eyes with Lines
Using lines can help guide people’s eyes to sections of images that you want them to see. For example, try using lines to guide people’s eyes to an image labelled “call now” (or similar) – to direct their attention where you’d like it to be.
In the post below, we used arrows to encourage people to swipe left and see the next image in the post. This is perfect for Instagram, where you can include multiple photos in one post.
Treefrog Tip: When you are absolutely out of ideas for what visuals to include, or simply don’t have the resources to generate ones, use royalty-free image websites like Pixabay or PEXELS to search for images relevant to your post.
Keep in mind, you can’t always Google image search photos to include in your posts, as someone else may own the rights to them, and you may end up in trouble if you use them.
Need help creating eye-catching visuals that get noticed? Our graphic design and social media teams are made up of experts who understand the power of captivating imagery.
Successfully navigating the world of digital marketing requires a strategy, a map if you will. You need to know where you are (point A) and where you want to go (point B, and possibly points C, D, and E too). These points on the map are your goals – the reasons you’re taking this journey and the places you want to go.
And once you know where you are and where you want to go, a content campaign that involves content development, search engine optimization, and social dissemination, will plot your best route to get there.
In part one and part two of our series on digital presence analyses, we explored how to perform a SWOT analysis on your brand and how to develop consumer personas. In part three, we’ll explore how to use both tools to develop and execute a content campaign that will raise your brand awareness and revitalize your business.
So, how do you create a content campaign?
Creating A Content Campaign
A content campaign combines social media, content, and SEO to create a unified digital strategy that will leverage identified personas, as well as the information collected in a DPA, to outline actionable items that will support a common goal.
Often underrated, content is the backbone of every marketing strategy as it provides material that can be shared through social, and that will be crawled and ranked by search engines like Google – positioning your company in front of your audience.
But what does a content plan look like?
The answer? It’s different for every company, as a content campaign should be completely unique to each brand – assessing needs and providing creative branded solutions to achieve those goals.
Let’s explore an example:
Should a footwear company wish to market a new shoe each month, monthly content campaign’s could be created to reach the audience who is most likely to be interested in that specific ‘shoe of the month.’
This could include targeted:
Blog posts about the features of the shoe
Email broadcasts promoting the shoe of the month
Social posts to share blog content about the shoe
Video teasers that showcase the shoe
Keyword optimization for the shoe name and features
Targeted PPC and SPPC ads for the shoe
Print materials that show imagery of the shoe, and more.
And as each of these marketing materials would adapt each month, as the target market shifts, new content would be developed with the audience in mind.
Example:
January Featured Shoe: Women’s Pink Breast Cancer Running Shoe – Brand X
Target Audience: Women who support breast cancer research and women’s charities, are athletic, like the colour pink, like yoga and exercising, are between the ages of 18-38, etc.
VS.
February Featured Shoe: Water Resistant Hiking Shoe – Brand Y
Target Audience: Men and women, ages 25-59, who are athletic and enjoy exercising, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, camping, etc.
While some characteristics, such as athleticism and a love of exercising are constant, the other characteristics may shift each month, demanding that the advertising and content campaign remain agile and follow a strategy that can speak to those unique and more specific niche audiences.
Therefore, the content campaign, in this case, would need to project a plan that runs months into the future, including what materials will be developed and shared on the month-to-month basis.
Content Development & Social Sharing
Content should tell a story, explain a concept, and persuade readers to take action. In other words, content should always aim to educate, inspire, entertain, and convince. However, without the right strategy and tools, content can fall flat and cause potential customers to look elsewhere for information.
Content campaigns require consistency between the content being created and the content being shared, and it is always best to create content that you can own and have control over. Owning quality content will increase your SEO, position your brand as a Key Opinion Leader in your industry, and help you to connect with your audience in a more authentic way.
However, in addition to sharing content that is branded and unique, you can also share content that has been curated by other sources.
For example, if you own a boutique that sells accessories, and you’ve recently begun selling a new line of scarves that you want to create a campaign around, you could share articles, published by other writers, which discuss:
How to wear a scarf
What to wear a scarf with
Why scarves are the best accessories
The specific brand you’re selling, and more.
Though this content is not native to your brand, curated content can fill in the gaps between the unique content you’ve crafted and will keep your audience engaged on a more regular basis. Leveraging programs like HootSuite, you’ll be able to schedule these posts months in advance, saving you time and the stress of having to remember to post frequently.
For tips on social media success, check out our article “Why Social Media Works”.
Search Engine Optimization
Your SEO ranking and performance is dependent on the content that exists on your website. To improve your ranking, it is important to analyze the following items before embarking on a content campaign:
Is your current content relevant and valuable?
Is your current website user-friendly?
Do you create content that is sharable (Ex: blog)?
Has your content been optimized using proper keywords, meta descriptions, etc.?
Within a content campaign, it is critical to consider the rules of SEO, as well as to optimize content so that your material will impact your visibility to potential customers. Through Google Analytics, you may also track the success of your campaign, monitoring increases in views, time spent on page, conversions, and other measurable results.
For more insights into the value of SEO, check out our blog ‘Conversion Rate Optimization & What It Can Do For You.’
Leveraging A Digital Presence Analysis: A Checklist
So, while this all may seem overwhelming, we’ve compiled a checklist, in the most simplified way we could, to remind you of the steps covered in our three-part series:
Perform a SWOT analysis
Develop personas
Brainstorm
Create a content calendar
Write content
Optimize content
Create a social sharing promotional plan
Publish the content
Share the content
Measure your campaign success
Should you require support in navigating your digital presence analysis or content campaign, be sure to reach out to us at905-836-4442.
Our professional team of content, social media, and SEO specialists can provide you with solutions that will increase your brand recognition and overall marketing success.
Most people tend to think that social media only works for companies in industries that have a target audience of social media-motivated Millennials and Gen X-ers. It’s often believed that only “fun” and “young” industries, like Go Pro or Red Bull, can really rock social media… but this just an assumption.
While it’s true that some industries do lend themselves better to social media, there are some “boring” companies who have dared to show what makes them unique and are connecting with users as a result.
Struggling to figure out how you can make your industry, product, or service seem exciting on social media? Check out how and why these seemingly “boring” companies are truly killing it when it comes to making their content more appealing to their audience.
1. Magna International
Some companies are at a natural disadvantage when trying to leverage their products as visually appealing social media content. However, Magna International, a massive ‘behind-the-scenes’ automotive supplier, has spiced up their Instagram content by choosing to focus on the finished product they helped to make.
Why?
There’s no denying that a cherry red Lykan HyperSports car is going to get much more attention and likes than a photo of a high-pressure vacuum casting. By focusing on the beautiful cars designed using their mechanical parts, Magna’s social content becomes more visually pleasing and yet remains relevant to what they do.
2. MailChimp
Email automation platforms are exciting, right? Uh, not so much.
However, while creating quality visuals for MailChimp might seem like a challenge, the company expertly leverages social media for something other than advertising their software.
How?
MailChimp uses Instagram to show off their lighthearted company culture and to attract young talent to their team. MailChimp uses the image-based platform to meet their hiring and recruitment goals, even though an email marketing social page might not seem glamourous or “worth the follow” to most users.
3. SAS Software
Software analytics company SAS is smart about the content that they post on Facebook. Rather than strictly posting about things related to their niche market, they branch out into other topics that are fun but not entirely off base.
How?
In their Thanksgiving-themed Facebook post (see below), SAS managed to relate the hugely popular American holiday with data analytics; giving a regional breakdown of where popular holiday foods are sourced. A very clever connection!
4. Mr. Clean
Cleaning products probably don’t get you excited, but Mr. Clean is trying to change that by posting hilarious GIFS and memes on Twitter.
Why?
Mr. Clean has chosen to add a “sexy” and humourous flare to their line of cleaning products to attach some fun and youthfulness to their “tough” cleaning image. As a result of their use of funny GIFS and memes, they are able to connect with the next generation of cleaners and have earned nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter to date. Wow!
5. General Electric
General Electric has managed to breathe life into their social media content, not just for their consumer products, but for their business-to-business products as well.
How?
To make their Facebook content more engaging, General Electric avoids tech jargon in favor of staggering facts about the capabilities of their products (which acts as an attention grabber). Compliment this with edgy visuals, and you’ve got a business-to-business company that is finding success on multiple social platforms, not just LinkedIn.
Struggling to figure out how to make your social media content engaging? At Treefrog, our social media team specializes in providing out-of-the-box digital marketing solutions for companies of all types and in all industries. Leave it to us. We’ll take your social media presence from “meh” to “that’s amazing!”.
In part one of our series on digital presence analyses, we explored how to perform a ‘SWOT Analysis to Review Your Digital Presence’. This included information on how to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your brand, as well as how to identify the opportunities and risks your brand may access and face.
However, while it’s a great step to have completed a SWOT analysis, many of you may be asking: What do I do with all of that information?What’s next?
In part two of our series, we will discuss how to leverage the information collected in a SWOT analysis to create customer profiles of whom your strategic digital presence will target.
Identifying Consumer Personas
Before you can begin actioning the goals identified in your SWOT analysis, you’ll need to use the information you’ve collected to build quality and well-rounded consumer personas.
44% of the B2B marketers have already discovered the power of Personas
83% of B2B marketers expect to use Personas in the near future.
A fictional digital persona taps into the psyche of the people who are most likely to engage with your brand. Persona’s take hours of research to develop and can include details as specific as age, gender, occupation, education, where a person shops, what types of social media networks they use, how many kids they have, and so much more.
Think of the buyer journey as a story in three parts:
Persona: Defines the main character in the buyer story. Who they are, what they do, and why they do it. This includes their pain points, their fears, what brings them joy, and what stirs them.
Scenario: Where does the story take place? In a store? Online? How does the persona behave in that environment? Why did they arrive there instead of somewhere else?
Goal: What does the persona want out of their buying experience? What needs do they have? What is their motivation? What will make their experience a success?
The goal-oriented buyer persona study is important because without knowing whom your specific target market is and how they act, how will you know how to cater your marketing initiatives? How will you know which platforms and methods of advertising you should use to connect with them?
By doing the research up front, personas will save you time and money – as your marketing ventures will target the right people right off the bat, increasing your chances of sales and conversions.
How To Create A Persona
Research is always your best tool. The more you know, that more you can strategize and make informed marketing decisions. It’s therefore crucial to first identify some basic questions about your ideal customer:
Who are they?
What questions do they ask?
Why are they ideal?
If you are able to develop a persona that is based on your ideal customer (maybe even someone who is already buying from you), your persona research process will become much more realistic and informed. From there you can ask more specific questions such as:
What is their budget?
What does their daily life look like?
Where so they spend most of their time?
What they’re drawn to and why?
This data can be gathered through customer surveys, Facebook and Google Analytics, industry statistics, interviews, focus groups, and anthropological research.
Bonus Tip:Hubspot suggests that in order to recruit people to participate in your persona research interviews or surveys, it’s always a good idea to offer incentives, to be clear that your ask for participation is not a sales call, and to make it easy to say yes – by making the process simple and flexible.
Here’s an example of a persona we’ve identified for a client here at Treefrog:
Once your persona profiles have been developed, make clear and strategic decisions as to which platforms you will use to market to them, what type of language you’ll use to speak to them, and make the effort to engage your personas in the ways they’re most likely to respond.
For example, the fictional Lena Forester is most likely to engage with social media ads, is motivated by power, is analytical, wants to spend more time with her kids while also being productive at the office, and she is drawn to products that partner with trusted experts and relate to her. It’s therefore not surprising that she is a fan of family-friendly yet sophisticated brands like Fitbit, The Honest Co., and Starbucks, as each fits her lifestyle and answers to her needs and desires.
Should another company wish to market to Lena, they will have to tap into these same things – leveraging the knowledge that she likes easily accessible products, that she hates work interruptions when at home, and that she is active and protective.
However, keep in mind that the persona’s your brand appeals to can evolve and change over time as preferences and interests shift. What appeals to Lena in 2017 and 2018, may not appeal to her in the same way when her children have grown into young adults, and she’s considering retirement. It’s therefore important to update your personas over time and to consistently check the pulse of your audience.
Putting Your Personas To Work
Once you have developed your personas, you’ll be able to use the data to specify your advertising reach – especially through content development and targeted social posting.
When it comes to blogging, understanding your audience will allow you to craft topics and provide sharable content that makes your customers say, “It’s like this article was written just for me!” By connecting with your target market on a more personal and strategized way, they’re more likely to share the content, engage with your brand, and purchase your product or service.
Creating user-driven content will also benefit your SEO as valuable content improves ranking and will help connect even more potential customers to your brand.
When it comes to social advertising, platforms like Facebook allow advertisers to insert specific persona data into the Facebook Ads system, which will position your advertisement in front of people, on both Facebook and Instagram, who most meet the specifications of your targeted persona. Incredible, isn’t it?
56% of companies have created higher quality leads using Personas.
24% of companies gained more leads using Personas.
Moving Forward
Once you have verified your top priorities and have conducted your persona research; it’s time to move into brainstorming and the dissemination of tasks.
As most digital presence initiatives cannot be completed alone – you’ll need to assemble a team, communicate the information gathered in your SWOT and persona analyses, create a content campaign, and assign to-dos based on individual strengths… but those are topics for other Treefrog articles to come! *wink, wink*
Contact Treefrog Today!
Should you require assistance to identify your brand persona profiles, consult an agency that will be able to conduct deep analysis of your customers. Understanding and developing the basis for a marketing plan is no easy task – and at Treefrog, our team is here to help.
Part One: Using SWOT Analysis to Review Your Digital Presence
Having a digital presence once upon a time meant that you had a website. Today, digital presence covers so much more than just a website; it includes your brand’s targeted keywords, strategized content, analytics about your online visitors, e-commerce and lead conversions, engagement on social media, and beyond. The lines are continually blurring between what defines “marketing”, and what defines “digital marketing”. Soon enough, these will be considered the same thing, because any business who is not considering digital as part of their overall marketing mix is missing the boat.
When it comes to understanding your digital presence, it’s important to first evaluate your goals over time by asking a few questions:
How do customers research your product?
Where can customers buy your product?
What do people think about when they see your brand?
What target market are you trying to reach?
How does your digital presence measure up against your competitors?
These are just some of the questions you need to be asking. Once we’ve started to establish a clearer understanding of our digital presence, it’s helpful to conduct an assessment of a “where are we now” overview. This can be effectively done by conducting a tried-and-true method: a SWOT analysis.
Let’s dig in:
SWOT Digital Presence Analysis
There are a number of ways to approach an assessment of your digital presence, and one insightful approach is to apply SWOT to your digital presence. SWOT stands for:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
By leveraging the SWOT analysis method, you’ll be able to take a deeper look into what your brand is doing right online and what your brand is doing wrong. Below we examine some of the items you should consider when analyzing your online presence.
Strengths
What is your digital presence doing well
Odds are your digital presence isn’t completely terrible – unless it simply doesn’t exist or you haven’t touched it in months. To identify your strengths, it’s important to leverage available tools that can help you understand how people are currently using your website, such as Google Analytics. You should also be leveraging your social media account analytics to get a sense of how people perceive your brand. Make an effort to ask both your clients and those who have never interacted with your brand for feedback. It is best to remove your personal bias when examining what works and what doesn’t.
Strength Examples:
You have a social media posting schedule and you are engaging your audience.
You have a clear budget to make some improvements.
You have a marketing resource that can dedicate time to improving your digital presence, whether in-house or a third-party provider.
Weaknesses
What is your digital presence lacking?
Much like your strengths, you’ll be able to gain insight into your weaknesses by reviewing data and asking for external feedback. After years of attachment to your brand, you can become too narrow-minded when it comes to truly understanding the pain points of your presence. By asking outsiders to review your brand for the first time, you’ll have a much clearer understanding of the first impression your company is giving, and also the information that is not being articulated well.
Weakness Examples:
Your website is outdated, difficult to navigate, and possibly boring.
You can’t remember the last time you added new content to your site. Existing content has poor grammar, broken links, references to events that are years old… in other words, digital cobwebs.
You haven’t posted anything on social media in months (or years).
You don’t rank well on search engines where you should (yet your competitors do).
Opportunities
What opportunities would have a positive impact on your digital presence?
When it comes to your digital presence, there is always room for improvement. Now that we’ve looked at your weaknesses, we can use them to create a list of opportunities. Companies should never quit looking for new possibilities, even if they think things are just fine. Why be great when you can be innovative and set the bar as high as you can for all other companies in your industry? Not to mention you want to remain top of mind to your customers and be a bright, shining beacon to new prospects. Keep in mind also that digital changes quickly—what works today may just not work tomorrow.
Opportunity Examples:
Optimize calls to action on your website will create clear pathways from users to the information they need, and ultimately to you (a.k.a. leads!).
Leverage the content you have to connect with clients on social media to build long-lasting relationships and referrals (more leads!).
Create new content that answers the questions you hear from clients – let your website and social media be your 24-hour-a-day salesperson (did we mention leads?).
Technology is advancing all the time, and there are new channels and features to leverage.
Threats
What factors could threaten the success of your digital presence?
With change comes risk. However, never changing can pose even greater risks. By neglecting your digital presence, you face the threat of becoming irrelevant, stagnant, and forgotten. It is important always to stay ahead of the curve and to take risks and expand capabilities and knowledge to reduce threats.
Threat Examples
Competitors have a better online presence with better brand recognition, more followers, and higher rankings.
Your budget for improvement is limited.
Your internal team doesn’t have the time or marketing knowledge to build your online presence.
You don’t have any metrics to tell you what’s working and what isn’t.
Leveraging SWOT
Once you have identified your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, you should then be able to outline appropriate objectives to reach your goals. In other words, you need to know where you are and where you want to go before you can start determining a plan of how to get there.
To get your SWOT Analysis started, contact Treefrog Inc. today. By identifying your brand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, we’ll help you to identify the areas of your business that require the most attention. Once you have a clear understanding of where you’d like your digital presence to go, we can also help to design and implement a roadmap that will help you to achieve your goals.
Most people use only Facebook, Twitter and Instagram when developing a social media strategy and miss opportunities to have success with other platforms. YouTube is not usually thought of as a social media platform, but it is one with a lot of potential to drive success for brands.
Read on to learn why YouTube is awesome for marketers and how to best use it to achieve your goals.
Bringing epic success to companies, YouTube has proven to be effective for driving clear figures that are used to measure success, such as conversions. Trends of YouTube use are also on the rise, and as a modern business you’ll want to stay ahead of the curve:
48% of marketers plan to add YouTube to their content strategy by the end of 2017.
43% of marketers said they’d create more video content if there were no obstacles like time, resources and budget.
At Treefrog, if we are not creating and leveraging video content to meet clients’ goals, we risk putting them at a disadvantage because their competitors may do this first. However, if their competitors are among the 43% who are concerned about resources, there is an opportunity to bring them epic success by leveraging YouTube before they do.
How to be Successful on YouTube (Best Practices)
As is the case with other social media websites, some people are killing it on YouTube and others are not seeing the results that they want.
Here are qualities of incredibly successful YouTubers (measured in subscribers) that are important to consider when trying to use YouTube to achieve your goals.
1. Post consistent & relevant content:
Just like with blogging, you will attract a larger and more engaged audience if you post frequently and if your content is tailored to a specific audience.
Jenna Marbles (17.5 million subscribers) posts a new video to her channel every single week, so her viewers know when/how often to visit her channel.
2. Go for an angle:
Have something that sets you apart from YouTube channels run by other companies in your industry or niche.
Tastemade’s YouTube channel (900 thousand subscribers) is not a generic cooking channel; it combines cooking and travel by focusing on locational pieces (“Crispy Rice in Brooklyn”) that set it apart from countless other YouTube cooking channels – including the Food Network’s channel (which has 300 thousand subscribers).
3. Produce videos with good production value:
Make videos as high quality as is possible within your budget.
Nigahiga (20 million subscribers) is successful because his videos have high production value that is also unique (he can draw an entire video and often edits videos with special effects).
Resources might restrict production quality, but at the very least you should have good camera quality, sound and lighting.
4. Be entertaining:
Maintaining a certain level of professionalism is important, but consider delivering your brand’s message through some form of entertainment (gags, parodies). Entertainment is the most popular reason that people watch YouTube videos in the first place.
Super Cooper Sunday (TmarTn2) is entertaining because the hosts share the life of their dogs, even though they talk about mundane, ordinary things.
5. Be genuine & relatable:
Successful YouTubers usually appear ordinary, relatable, authentic and engaging, which is the difference between popular YouTubers and carefully created brand videos.
Try making videos that look candid and natural. Try taking risks by displaying a sense of humor that would not typically be shown by certain companies and in certain industries.
KSI (17 million subscribers) has candid looking videos that are often filmed in the first person, which creates an intimate viewing experience for people.
Getting Social on YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website and therefore a social media website (to share is to be social!). Luckily for businesses, it is possible to build and engage a relevant community on YouTube as it is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Here’s how it’s done:
Subscribe to other relevant channels and interact with their content (share, like, comment).
Interact with users using your own videos (as you would on any other social media website).
Leverage your other social media followings by directing them from other social media websites to your YouTube channel (YouTube accounts can be connected with other social media accounts. If you have video content on YouTube, why not use it on your other social media profiles to drive engagement?).
By leveraging YouTube for clients, Treefrog delivers smarter and more complete social media experiences that drive successful branding results for businesses like yours. Get in touch with us at 905.836.4442 to learn more today!
Marketing budgets vary per company and industry, but what’s true about all businesses, is that having a marketing budget, no matter what size, is necessary.
In this article, we discuss what should be included in your marketing plan, and provide an overview of the below checklist – which covers the action items you’ll need to complete as you head into 2018:
Organize your finances
Identify your needs and goals
Determine your spend
Develop a marketing plan
Decide how to allocate your budget
Action your plan
Organize Your Finances To Identify Your Needs
Before creating your marketing budget for 2018, you need to strategically organize and collect social and financial data that will allow you to:
Identify holes or ‘misses’ in past marketing campaigns
Identify 2017 gross revenue to predict 2018 gains
Reflect upon which areas (social, content, SEO) you are struggling in
Identify which areas of your business need attention and larger investment
Identifying Your Needs & Goals
Once your financial plan is in order, you will be in a better position to consider the state of your business and how much focus you will need to give social media, website building, design, SEO, or content marketing in the upcoming year. Having a clear understanding of this data will help you to identify your actionable needs and goals for 2018, such as:
Developing a social media campaign around a new fundraiser you’re hosting
Increasing SEO to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs)
Updating out-dated content on your website
Designing new marketing material to hand out at a tradeshow you’ll be attending
Starting fresh with a new website
What is your biggest priority for 2018?
Determining Your Spend & Plan
Brand New Companies
Companies that are less than a year old are likely limited to a very small marketing budget. They should, therefore, leverage predominantly free social media platforms (Ex. Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and consider attending a comprehensive Social Media Training session to begin generating buzz around their brand. By learning how to strategically publish yourself, you’ll reduce costs.
New Companies
Businesses that have been established for one to five years should consider using a healthy percentage of their gross revenue on print (Ex. brochures at tradeshows) and digital marketing (Ex. website enhancements and blog development). A larger marketing budget will help to launch awareness and boost familiarity amongst new and returning customers.
Established Companies
Companies that have been in business more than five years, and have a secure budget for marketing, should allocate a substantial amount of their gross income to brand marketing (Ex. Email marketing, PPC, and social media/content campaigns). For companies who exist in extremely competitive markets, are in need of brand reputation management, or who are promoting a new service or product, this budget should only continue to increase.
Allocating Your Budget
Branding
Graphic design can transform a boring and stagnant brand into something refreshed, relevant, and captivating. Although branding feeds into SEO, social media, content, and website integration, most branding begins in the design studio – where talented teams research and draft branding materials that reflect the vibe and intent of the company’s messaging.
If your business relies on brochure material, tradeshow booth design, or needs a complete logo and brand overhaul, your marketing budget should be catered towards branded design elements, as well as the integration of those designs – into your social media platforms, web copy, and website.
SEO Management
Companies that find they are in need of more quality leads, improved recognition, and higher visibility within search engines like Google, are in need of quality and consistent SEO management, as well as PPC advertising.
However, SEO relies heavily on quality content to rank and perform ideally. Therefore, if your business is in need of SEO, you’re also in need of new and better content – audited, identified, and strategically improved throughout your website.
61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority.
Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day. (Google, 2014)
Web content articulates your visual brand messaging in text. In other words, content backs the intent and messaging that your branding portrays. Content also goes a step further – to provide context, drive actions, present valuable information, help your company to rank well in search engines, and, in most cases, helps users make an informed consumer decision.
While writing words for a webpage may seem easy, content marketing does more than just list details about a product and tell you why it’s great. Content marketing strategically develops copy that will speak directly to a targeted market, tap into their concerns and interests, support SEO, and drive specific conversion goals. This targeted marketing is also effective for email marketing broadcasts.
53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2017)
For businesses looking to improve brand recognition and to interact with their customers and clients, a new marketing budget should shift primarily to social media engagement, management, and development. With SSPC on the rise, companies need to consider investing money in social media advertising – to convert social media engagement into a potential sale of a product or service. By allocating the rest of your budget towards content development and SEO management, your online profile will continue to flourish.
83% of all marketers actively pursue social media marketing initiatives. (Aberdeen, 2016)
Nearly one-third of the world uses social networks regularly. (eMarketer, 2016)
Website Design
If your website is out-dated, hard to navigate, and is not serving the purpose it should – it’s time to dig deep and invest in SEO, content, social media, and web design. Working together to achieve the succinct goal of driving brand recognition, leads, and success for your company, each of these marketing sectors can deliver a complete overhaul for your public and online persona.
While a full website build is a major investment, the payoff of refreshing your entire brand at once will ensure the future of your business is on-trend and prosperous.
Investing In End of Year Marketing
Is your online business holiday ready? If your company relies on online sales during the end of year season, your marketing budget should allow for an increase in spend during these months. That means more social media campaigns, a stronger PPC play, content development to drive interest, and graphics to support your initiative.
81% of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchases.
Actioning Your Plan
With so many options of where to begin, it can be hard to identify which marketing venture your company should be focused on and participating in. That’s where we come in.
Treefrog Inc. – Your Digital Marketing Solutions Specialists
At Treefrog Inc., we understand that the needs of B2B and B2C clients are sometimes different, and our Client Care Advocates are well versed in identifying client needs based on their pain points and industry sector. If you’re not sure where to begin, we can help:
Social Media Training
Content Development Workshops
SEO Training
Email Marketing
Website Programming
Graphic Design
Content Marketing
Social Media Management
SEO
As one of Treefrog’s Marketing Partner’s (MP’s), your business will receive monthly project management, support, strategizing, development, and reporting – across content, SEO, and social media departments (if required).
You wake up in the middle of the night with a fabulous new business idea. You now need a website! First things first, you look for a domain name. The domain name is an essential piece of your brand and may involve your keywords, your company’s name or is possibly is just memorable by the name itself.
As the months pass and your website is live, your business is running and you are now working 18-hour days running your business. The small little thing, like a domain name, is farthest from your mind now thinking of what’s it’s doing or how it’s working for you. Until it happens…the renewal!
Have you ever thought of what happens if you don’t renew you domain name?
If you own a domain (unless you have purchased it for 5 or 10 year increments) you will receive an annual renewal notice, they are typically sent out at 90 days, 60 days, and 30 days, depending on your registrar. The desire is that this will prompt you to renew with adequate notice. But should you miss the renew date it does expire and enters a grace period.
For 0 – 40 days, depending on the kind of domain name you have (.com, .ca, .uk etc.), past that expiry date your domain name sits waiting for you to change your mind. All in the hopes that it was possibly a mistake and you will pay the fee and return it to its former glory, housing your website!
During this grace period all services associated with your domain name stop working. That means, all of your email addresses associated with that domain name will no longer receive email, and your website on that domain name will be inaccessible.
After the grace period has come and gone the domain name finally does one of two things. It either enters a redemption period where you can still get your domain name back one more time (for an additional fee on top of the renewal), or it fully expires. Finally, it’s then publicly listed with other “to be released” domains and sold to the highest bidder. There are a lot of people out there reading those lists of domains in search of domains to purchase, but that’s a whole other subject for another time.
Can you imagine if your domain name was sold off to the highest bidder?
For an example, let’s take the current mayor of Toronto who owned robford.ca. This domain housed the website which was home of everything Rob Ford when he was city councillor before becoming mayor. He would update it with council votes, council expenses and the site held information for you to contact him. But since becoming mayor, someone along the way either forgot to renew it (possibly wherever he was hosting the domain, or they never let him know?). Or possibly just deemed robford.ca not necessary anymore and let it completely, totally expire.
It sat for the 0 – 40 day grace period and was then released back into the pool and sold off to the highest bidder. Now Mr Mayor Rob Ford’s domain name is in the hands of someone else, who’s having it re-direct to the Toronto Star, or posting “Rob Ford (January 31, 1862 – June 8, 1892) was an American outlaw best known for killing his own gang leader Jesse James in 1882” and now taking suggestions on what to do next. Who knows the eventual fate now of robford.ca, but whatever happens now isn’t controlled by Rob Ford.
The Mayor Rob Ford now uses http://www.robfordformayor.ca and http://www.toronto.ca/mayor_ford, but to let a domain he was using for years lapse is a costly move for him, and would be a costly move for any business.
If your business is online, then you have a domain name! It’s connected to your website and possibly your email. It’s how you tell prospective clients and current clients where you are, how they get in contact with you and is part of your brand. Your business is important and your domain is the most important piece to that online identity.
Ensure your domain name is renewed yearly or better yet purchase it for 10-years, show stability to the search engines and put your mind at ease.
One of the best practices at Treefrog is that we renew every domain in our account for our clients and each domain is checked over by trained staff who know the value of keeping that domain. Even if you do finally choose to let your domain go, we follow up with you personally to ensure this is what you want. So make sure your domains are with a reputable company and are renewed so, unlike Rob Ford, you will control your domain for many years to come.
Is your brand on Instagram? Your answer should be a big ‘Yes!’ Otherwise, you’re missing out on the chance to potentially reach up to 700 million monthly users!
Instagram is a photo-sharing mobile platform that allows users to share photos and videos, individually or as a set. Getting ahead on Instagram involves following some common best-practices which include posting high-quality visual content, making a list of accounts to @mention and tag that relate to your content, and creating the perfect schedule to post.
However, one aspect of Instagram that arguably isn’t being used to its full potential is hashtags.
Instagram hashtags are one of the best ways to grow your account. Did you know that posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than posts without any hashtags.
PetaPixel words it best: “Think of hashtags as a pipeline to the rest of the world.”
Using the right combination of hashtags in the captions of your Instagram posts (and Instagram Stories) can help you expose your brand to large and targeted audiences. In fact, your chances of attracting new followers, gaining more likes, and increasing engagement are massively improved by the use of hashtags! However, if you’re not choosing your hashtags strategically, your posts will not get in front of the right people.
How Instagram Hashtags Work
Every Instagram post can be accompanied by a caption and up to 30 hashtags. These hashtags help categorize photos and videos, which supports the process of content discovery and optimization.
For example, Luxy Hair, a hair extensions brand, posts images of intricate hairstyles with hashtags like #hairideas, #hairgoals, #hairtutorial, etc.
Due to these hashtags, any user searching for hashtags about #hairideas, #hairgoals, or any of the other hashtags used, may come across this post.
Branded Vs. Community Hashtags
There are two types of hashtags that are commonly used in conjunction with regular content-related hashtags: Branded Hashtags and Community Hashtags.
Having a general understanding of the different types of hashtags (and their corresponding audiences) can help you develop a more effective Instagram strategy.
Branded Hashtags
Branded hashtags are unique to a brand or campaign. It could be as simple as your company’s name, tagline, or the name of one of your products or campaign. These hashtags can also communicate your brand identity or lifestyle messaging.
For example, Herschel Supply Co. uses a few branded hashtags, including #HerschelSupply, #WellTravelled and #CityLimitless. The hashtag #WellTravelled was created for a campaign to encourage customers to share travel photos featuring Herschel products. Now tagged in more than 2.57 million posts, it is often cited as one of the most popular travel hashtags on Instagram.
Like Herschel, you can create a branded hashtag for a specific campaign, contest, or to simply showcase your company’s culture, products, or services.
If you’re running an Instagram campaign or contest, having a brand hashtag will help drive participation and engagement. It will also organize all the posts that are tagged with it on a hashtag page. This is helpful if you’re using the hashtag to collect entries for a promotion or contest submissions, or looking for content to ‘re-post’ onto your brand’s account.
Use branded hashtags to get your most loyal followers and customers to engage, and to improve your overall online brand awareness.
Community Hashtags
Community hashtags connect like-minded users around a specific topic. These hashtags are more general and don’t necessarily have anything to do with your company or brand.
Some examples include #instafood or #dogsofinstagram. These hashtags are widely used and aren’t specific to any one person or brand.
For example, the photo above from @white_coffee_cat_ uses multiple community hashtags including #catsofinstagram, #catstagram and #weeklyfluff.
The benefit of community hashtags is that people actively search for these common word sets, so, if your brand’s photos and videos show up in the search results, you’ll get instant exposure to a new audience.
However, you need to make sure the community hashtags are relevant to the content you’re posting. If @white_coffee_cat had used hashtags like #instafood or #ootd in the photo, it wouldn’t have made sense.
The best way to figure out which community-oriented hashtags are right for your brand is by researching which hashtags your audience or competitors are already using.
How to Find The Best Hashtags For Your Account
If you are not being strategic with which hashtags you are using, your posts will not get in front of the right people. The first step to figuring out which hashtags are best for your brand is to put yourself into the shoes of your ideal audience.
For example, if you are a real estate agent serving the city of Hamilton, you ideally want to target potential homebuyers looking to move into a house in the Hamilton area. Logically, some keywords that the target group may search for include #HamiltonHomes and #HamiltonLiving. It is then important to further develop this list and to investigate what else the target market may be interested in.
Next, create a list or home buying hashtags that are directly relevant to your company, brand, and include the location that you serve. For example, if your company is called ‘Hamilton House Hunters’, one of your hashtags could be #HamiltonHouseHunter.
As a real estate agent, the obvious industry hashtag is #RealEstate, but you can narrow it down further to the specific location that you are serving: #HamiltonRealEstate. Some other hashtags could include #RentalProperties, #Hamilton, #GTAHomes, and #HouseHunter.
Finally, make a list of the hashtags that your top competitors and ideal audiences are using. This involves some research, but it is well worth it if it means you’ll be attracting potential clients to your business.
Once you have your list of hashtags, do a search of each hashtag on your list to ensure that the content that pops up is relevant to your brand, is appropriate, and has a good amount of users using the hashtag.
Additional Tips
Instagram currently limits the number of hashtags you can use per post to 30. Many users avoid using more than 5-10 hashtags simply because it looks like spam. One way to avoid the unprofessional, ‘spammy’ look of using many hashtags is to post your main brand hashtags in your main caption, and the rest of the hashtags as a comment. This will ensure that your post still falls under each of your hashtags, but avoids viewers from seeing all the hashtags at first glance.
Keep your main hashtags typed out in a note on your phone, which you can easily copy and paste into your Instagram posts without having to re-type them each time. This will save you a ton of time!
Make sure you update your hashtags every 3-6 months! Hashtag trends are always changing, and some may become blocked by Instagram due to inappropriate content.
Using the tips and strategies you’ve learned here, you’ll be well on your way to growing your audience on Instagram.
Want to learn more about how your business can leverage the benefits of Instagram and other social media platforms? Give us a call at 905.836.4442 and let our social media specialists strategize your next Instagram campaign!
When executed with professionalism and flair, having a company booth at an industry-related tradeshow can take your brand presence to the next level. Tradeshows are the ideal venue to learn about new trends, scope out the competition, launch a new campaign or product, or to simply throw your name in the mix, as an industry player to watch.
However, no matter your presence, a poorly thought-out or lazy-looking booth will do harm to your brand. How? An uninteresting display makes you invisible in a sea of other more captivating booths, will cause people to go out of their way to avoid engaging with you, and in result, your participation will become a waste of time and money.
To avoid these horrors, we’ve outlined the six steps for tradeshow success:
1. Do Your Research
If your industry is big enough, odds are there’s a tradeshow out there that’s featuring your fellow competitors. Search online to determine which tradeshows are being held in your field, your geographical area, and in other areas you may want to expand your reach. Once you have determined which tradeshows you’re interested in attending, be sure to research which other brands and companies will be present, as well as what types of booths have been successful for your industry the past. Knowledge is power!
2. Determine Your Marketing Budget
Professional and engaging tradeshow booths can cost upwards of $5,000 to construct and design. And with tradeshows being all about drawing people in and putting your best foot forward (to secure a potential lead), you don’t want to cheap out. Be sure to fully understand and even readjust your marketing budget to accommodate your attendance in a tradeshow. It’s also important to research what types of costs you’ll face – by not only purchasing a spot in the show and designing your booth, but also your travel, hotel, and food costs, and more. It all adds up. Know what your marketing budget allows for before you get in too deep.
3. Identify Attendees & Connect Online
Once you’ve registered for the show, crack down on your demographics and determine what type of customers you may interact with while there. By identifying attendees, you’ll be able to begin targeting them online – through social media engagement and by sending e-broadcasts, inviting your email list to find and engage with you at the tradeshow.
4. Consult The Professionals
When in doubt, contacting a professional digital marketing agency is always your best move. The advantage of getting input from experts is that you’ll be able to express your vision, receive unique and creative feedback, and then receive guidance on the execution of a unified brand strategy. In addition to strategy and brand messaging, a digital marketing agency can also develop print materials, banners, posters, and whatever else you may need – all in one place. By outsourcing the design of your booth, you’ll ensure that you have an outsider’s opinion of what works and what doesn’t.
5. Invest Time In Your Pitch, Set-Up, & Demo
Don’t head into a tradeshow having never assembled your booth, pitched your brand to someone, or practiced your demo. The less prepared you are, the more likely something is to go wrong. The last thing you need is to forget adhesive to mount your poster, to fumble with your words while trying to explain what your company does, or to have a glitch while showing your product capabilities.
To bump up your presence, think about:
Dressing your team in bright and unified colours.
Distributing memorable marketing materials.
Putting enthusiastic people out front.
Designing a visually appealing video or PowerPoint.
Providing free giveaway merchandise (or food).
Drawing people in with interactive games and raffle prizes.
Example: Fill out a ballot with your name and email to WIN!
This will get potential clients excited, keep them at your booth longer, and help you to build your email list!
6. Capture & Pursue Leads
It’s not enough to just talk to passers-by and bring awareness to who you are and what you do. As a business, you need to capture and secure leads that can result in a sale. Be sure to offer a sign-up sheet for your newsletter and to provide a direct contact number on takeaway materials for those who are undecided. Once you’ve gained a person’s email address, be sure to follow up within 24 hours. By touching base while your brand is still fresh in someone’s mind, they’re more like to commit to purchasing.
If you need help with your tradeshow booth strategy and design, our content, social, and graphic design departments can help! Contact Treefrog today at 905.836.4442 to learn more.
