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I know you are all as thrilled as I am to put 2020 behind us and focus on a new year! Are making a list of resolutions? Maybe you want to try mountain biking, paddleboarding, or save up money for a great vacation? Those are definitely worth doing, but something else you should have at the top of your list is your business marketing and how to get the most out of it.
A new year is a great time to take a look at your basic marketing elements; lead generation, social media content, and strategy as well as your SEO. You may find a quiet moment of reflection can give you a clear view of your previous year’s successes and also what can be done to improve your overall strategy.
We’ve created a list of things we think you need to know for your business marketing strategy.
Social Media
This is the ever-present, constantly changing media animal that is right at our fingertips. This is the place to stay in touch with customers, build your brand, generate leads, and keep your products and services top-of-mind. There are so many platforms out there-how do you take advantage of them and what is right for you? We know social media. 360 Marketing & Advertising started social media marketing for local businesses in 2007. Here is a breakdown of some useful social media platforms:
Facebook
2.7 billion people use Facebook every month to connect with friends and family. You read that right, 2.7 BILLION people. Facebook is the place to showcase your products, interact with stories, photos, and have a presence while keeping that local, personalized feeling. You’ll find friends, families, and businesses utilizing Facebook daily.
Instagram
This is a great way to stay on the forefront of what customers are doing; if you know what they’re looking for, you can easily target them here. Your customers are on Instagram for videos, photos, connecting to each other. Using hashtags helps draw attention to your specific page, bring customers to your page, and keeps them engaging with you. A photo is a powerful way to quickly tell a story, and Instagram offers a way to post visual “stories” which are an incredibly easy and quick method of posting a video. Instagram is a great way to express your creativity and keep your brand in the customer’s mind.
Pinterest
What could be better than a customer seeing your product and bookmarking it, saving, and sharing it? Pinterest is a way of making online groupings and collections, allowing people to store their favorites and share them publicly. As of the third quarter of 2020, it was found that 68% percent of Pinterest users accessed the social platform daily.
Snapchat
Have you tried vertical video for your business? This is where Millenials and Gen Z are spending their time; snapping photos and vertical videos back and forth. Ads on Snapchat are a quick resource for getting your brand into a customer’s hands. An average of 249 million people use Snapchat, daily!
TikTok
Is a video-sharing social media app. The mobile platform allows users to create, edit, and share short-form video clips that are jazzed up with filters and accompanied by the latest music trends. TikTok has become one of the fastest-growing apps worldwide and a global viral phenomenon. The possibilities are endless as this platform continues to rapidly grow.
LinkedIn
As of the third quarter of 2020, 40 percent of U.S. internet users aged 46 to 55 years used the professional networking platform LinkedIn. Only 19 percent of internet users aged 15 to 25 years did the same. Having a LinkedIn account is a great way to lend credibility to your brand, but it definitely has a place within a very specific audience.
Share of internet users in the United States accessing selected social networks as of 3rd quarter 2020, by age group
Lead Generation
The point of having a website is to promote your business, but it’s also important to convert your traffic to leads. Consider the following:
- Are your customers able to use your website with ease? When we build a website, we take into consideration the entire experience from the customer’s point of view. If the customer can’t navigate your website, your lead can be lost.
- Is your content current, impactful, and relevant to your business? Make sure your content is persuasive and incorporates a call to action or reason to act.
- Are you offering something of value? Don’t let your product or service’s value get lost in flowery language or excessive information. Hold their attention long enough to get the lead.
After you walk through these questions, you can then make adjustments as needed.
Content Strategy
Content is the meat and potatoes of the website. If you have a beautiful product, but don’t show it in the best light or write about it in an impactful way, you are not going to have the traffic and lead conversion you’re looking for. Content must capture the ever-shrinking attention span of the average consumer. Studies show that people have an attention span of fewer than eight seconds. Your content should captivate and dazzle your audience, immediately. Tools like vertical video, photos, and short videos can help with this.
You can also appeal to customers on different levels, for instance, by having a blog. A blog is a wonderful tool to deep-dive into your product information, uses, your services, and offer experiences and insight into your business. DIY, how-to articles, and illustrations can be great additions to your blogs. This doesn’t leave the customer scrolling through product specs, creating relatable content versus an information overload.
SEO Strategy
Search Engine Optimization is the background process driving customers to your website. Your marketing agency can help you determine what the best course of action is here, but simply put effective SEO increases your search engine rankings and gets you top-of-mind and sight to your customers.
Developing Strategies on Cross-channel Platforms
Foster the relationship you’ve created through all the other processes. This can be done via perfectly timed follow-up emails, replying to comments, posts, and questions, or simply “liking” a customer’s interaction on your social media pages.
A successful marketing plan and strategy can feel overwhelming on your own. Let’s meet and talk about how 360 Marketing & Advertising can help your business achieve its objectives and goals with a well-rounded marketing strategy online. We are here to help make 2021 your best year yet.
