It’s Literally Free Advertising
If every day you had to print your social media posts in a newspaper or magazine, you would be spending thousands of dollars for each message your business shares. Every post you make is similar to an ad in a newspaper or magazine, but without the cost. It's even more effective because the readership is much larger than that of traditional print media. You can also post as much and as often as you like, which puts you in front of your target audience more frequently at no cost. There’s a Platform for Every Audience With so many social media platforms available, there's one for every business based on where your audience spends their time. For example, LinkedIn is great for B2B businesses, Facebook and Twitter are best for older generations, while Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat are popular with millennials and younger audiences. Businesses with visually appealing products should focus on Instagram. Snapchat is also great for visually appealing brands, though the posts disappear after a while and are not long-lasting. Video content is effective on every single platform. Where does your audience hang out? Great for Brand Awareness, Brand Building, and Lead Generation Social media is a diverse channel for any marketing objective your business may have. It allows you to create awareness of your brand, products, or services, letting your target audience know you exist. Social media is a brand-building tool where you can promote your business, share free information, and build trust in your brand. When your target market is ready to buy, you will be at the forefront of their minds. Additionally, it’s an effective lead-generating tool. With paid ads, you can target a specific audience and typically achieve at least a 1% click-through rate. Some platforms are more effective than others depending on the audience, so make sure to test the same ad on multiple platforms to determine where your audience is most responsive. So take the leap and "be" on social media. It’s effective, cheap, and enhances your reputation and online presence. Questions or suggestions? Comment below!
1 Comment
Some people feel overwhelmed when thinking about where to begin to start building a solid LinkedIn network if you haven’t already been doing it for years. But good news… for only about 10 to 20 minutes a day (or more if you are more motivated) you can easily grow your business on LinkedIn! If you own a business or are in control of LinkedIn for the business you work for, make sure that you are operating a business page and not just using your personal page as your business page. Here are some steps to take to start growing your business organically on LinkedIn.
*Note* this was not intended for a vlog as it was only a recording of a networking event while I was giving fellow business owners tips on LinkedIn. So there is no intro and it is not as smooth as it could be. But the take-away is valuable so please look past the quality. They will be more smooth in the future.... promise :) In our current world, as we have heavily shifted to digital lives, it seems as though our junk mail has decreased in these last few years. We have this misconception that direct mail is useless and ineffective and as a result, there has been a decline in marketers using direct mail to promote their products or services. When the traffic dies down on a channel there is no better time to explore that channel and get noticed! So start using the road less travelled and make a splash with the old-school direct mail method. Here are two tricks that will make your direct mail campaign more effective thanks to the One page marketing plan.
Each day we collect our mail from the mailbox and sort it into piles. We keep the things that seem interesting and important, and throw out, without opening, the things that seem redundant and unimportant. Do you ever throw out mail with random lumpy objects in the envelopes? No, I don’t either. I always at least open it to see what treasure I may find. Because of this you need to put something lumpy in your mail to ensure it stands out and gets put in the important pile when potential customers are opening it. This could be a sample of your product, magnets, some coupons or gift cards, a stress ball, or some free knickknacks with your branding on them. Give them a free book. People almost never throw out books. A branded shot glass! I know I would NEVER throw out one of those! 😜 The point is to get your brand in front of these potential customers and that means first to get them to open the mail and second to give them something to remember your brand. The second trick is for leads or prospects you already are aware of. Send them a wow factor box. A package they will absolutely have to open because the suspense is killing them and we all like random surprise packages. In the package along with your amazing marketing material give them something of high value. This could be a mug, a baseball, a hat, shirts or other apparel with your branding on it. You could send an edible arrangement, a basket of fruit, cookies or a jar of chocolate covered nuts. The possibilities are endless and try to think of something that you would almost never throw away. When people receive random gifts for no reason in the mail it gives them that wow factor and it also makes them feel obligated to eventually buy from you one day. Us humans often live by an “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” philosophy. We feel obligated to give to people who have given to us. I literally do it ALL the time! So take advantage of human nature and give a little. It will pay off in the end in revenue. Side note* I am not at all saying to stop digital marketing. Digital marketing is super effective but direct mail can be used in conjunction with other channels of marketing. As for the wow factor box and the lumpy mail idea, make sure you know the lifetime value of a customer so that you can do the math properly when deciding how much to spend on marketing campaigns such as these. Know your potential ROI. If the numbers do not make sense don’t do it. But at the same time do not be cheap and go above and beyond what your competitors would do. Questions or suggestions? Comment below! What is your go-to marketing medium? Did you know it has been reported that video marketing happens to be about 600% more effective than direct mail or print advertising? Videos are easy to digest, more memorable, engaging and entertaining all at the same time. The point is put across often within seconds and there is little investment of time from the viewers' standpoint.
Statistics show that 55% of people on social media watch videos every single day. Videos that are shared on social media generate up to more than 1200% more shares than regular posts and photos. So how long should your videos be? Depending on what you are trying to achieve with your videos (entertaining or educating), the ideal length is somewhere between 15 seconds and 2.5 minutes. When creating videos, the MPG4 format is most ideal for posting on social media because you can maintain quality while the file size stays small. Videos are easy to watch and to produce from both the viewers’ point of view and the marketers' point of view and they potentially develop a much larger ROI than other forms of advertising. So start video marketing and increase your ROI! Need help making a video? Check out these super effective and extremely affordable videos that Clairant creates! Mention this blog post and get 10% off! (PromoCode: BLOG10) https://www.clairantservices.com/video-packages.html |
AuthorDesirae Haluk is passionate about marketing for startups and small businesses. For the last 15 years she has held marketing executive positions for organizations both large and small. She realizes that her true passion is helping establish, grow and evolve startups and small businesses to make them successful and help achieve their goals. Archives
April 2025
|