SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Archives - Page 6 of 10 - DBC Digital

Archive for SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING – Page 6

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May 27, 2014

How to Build Credibility and Obtain a Following

Most business leaders know their reputation means everything. At the start of a new venture, though, there’s no reputation to live or die by. Emerging from the mist to establish your presence and credibility isn’t easy, especially when you’re up against the stiff, broad competitive of online businesses from around the globe.

Building a following online isn’t easy. Some businesses never figure it out, and it proves their downfall. Not only does the technology intimidate some managers and executives, but the relatively short history of online branding and building a social following makes it tough to know which best practices to follow.

Enough businesses have found digital success, though, that we do have some understanding of the ingredients making up a successful online strategy. If you’re struggling to build a following and credibility among your target consumers, here are some key tips to implement.

Keep Posts Informative and Relevant

Every time you publish a blog, post a Facebook status or fire off a tweet, ask yourself this question: Do my target consumers care? If they do, then you’ve got a successful piece of content. If not, dispense of that idea and move on to something else. Online consumers can be very impatient when it comes to irrelevant content–not only will they decline to share the content, but they might decide you aren’t a brand they want to follow.

Useful content, by contrast, is more likely to be engaged and shared, thus reaching new consumers. A keen understanding of your target audience is vital, but the more valuable this content is to those individuals, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

Display Your Authority and Expertise

Early on, you want to create content that shows you are an expert in your field. Sharing content from other resources and offering great consumer advice are great, but you need to demonstrate the value of your own brand. Some of your content should be dedicated to the recent work you’re doing, the unique angle you are taking on a common problem, or other characteristics that make your business stand out from others. Customer service, efficiency, office culture, you name it–find a way to distinguish yourself and craft content reflecting this.

Over time, this content will explain to customers why your brand matters, and why they should entrust you with their business. Remember: You don’t want to be like every other company before you, because then you’re not bringing anything to the table. Flex your innovative powers and promote your brand’s originality.

Cultivate a Social Relationship With Consumers

You may not have a lot of online followers early on, but that’s no problem. Be thankful for the ones you have, and let them know they matter to you. Start up conversations, respond to questions and inquiries, and build a customer experience that other consumers want to be a part of. On social media, the customer experience can be a powerful influencer of consumer actions, and it could be a unique selling point for your business.

In some ways, a smaller following early on could actually be an asset because you can ensure your followers are having a great experience with your brand–and this relationship can be marketed and promoted well down the road.

Be Patient — Trust Isn’t Built Overnight

One of the biggest mistakes brands make on social media is pushing for too many results too early. A results-driven approach is always important, but some business professionals think they can strong-arm social media into yielding faster results. It’s important to keep in mind that social success is determined entirely by your consumer base–businesses can follow the best practices, but the “social” element of this platform means that users are in the steering wheel.

Trust takes time to build, and brands are not exempt from this. Consumers don’t just want to see your expertise and your interactions with customers, they also want to see your staying power. Plenty of brands pop up online only to become a flash-in-the-pan venture that is adopted before it can really set roots. It can take six months or more before a brand really establishes itself socially–sometimes this happens faster, of course, but there are no guarantees.

Establishing credibility is a long, slow process, but once your company has this foundation it can offer stability for years to come. And, remember that digital followings have the potential to grow exponentially, in addition to their value as a source of residual exposure and engagement. If you’re ready to build the best online following possible, contact DBC Digital today.

Categories : BRANDING, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Posted by DBC Digital on

May 13, 2014

Why Video is Important for Building Engagement

Facebook may have the reputation when it comes to engaging online consumers, but YouTube has hit back hard with new data suggesting its brand engagement trumps the world’s most popular social network. Consumer engagement is one of the greatest values of social marketing, not to mention digital marketing as a whole, and the ability to connect with consumers through content is often the top goal of these campaigns.

Marketers understand the impact video content can have in connecting with consumers, stirring up product appeal and driving conversions. But the challenge is often gaining mass exposure for any given piece of video content–or at least that’s been the perception. But as organic reach on Facebook continues to dwindle–with the network hinting that “organic” exposure may be killed off in the near future–YouTube is proving a more formidable competitor, and a powerful opportunity for brands looking to engage consumers online. Here’s a quick breakdown of how video is shaping online consumption.

How Facebook’s Long-Term Revenue Goals Create an Opportunity

If you’re a brand that isn’t investing heavily into paid advertising, the value of Facebook is quietly diminishing. Facebook has gradually been reducing the percentage of online followers that see any given post from a brand page. So if you have 50,000 followers for your brand on Facebook, this means you’re only reaching 3,000 followers with each post you make–assuming you aren’t paying to promote the post.

It’s widely believed that Facebook will soon eliminate all organic reach for brands in the near future, meaning your Facebook posts won’t appear in any consumer news feeds unless you pay to promote your brand. YouTube, meanwhile, features no paywalls to block your organic reach. While it’s generally seen as a video aggregator more than a social network, YouTube still features user accounts where consumers can subscribe to content and establish their own video news feed.

Many consumers have already done this, and the results are profound: According to recent data from YouTube, the video website offers 20 times the consumer engagement levels that Facebook offers organically. Not only is video more valuable on a per-consumer basis, but engagement is higher. And, because you can promote videos on Facebook, you’re not taking anything away from your marketing efforts on other social networks.

Building Successful YouTube Campaigns

For companies looking to leverage YouTube for improved performance in consumer engagement, several strategies can be employed. In fact, Google has recently been more transparent about which best practices produce the greatest results on YouTube. As is the case with most types of content, originality is key: Content must be appreciated as a standalone product if brands want to use it to drive consumer engagement. Whether the content is crafted for humor, drama, or informative purposes, it needs to be high-quality and useful in its own right.

When brands find a content strategy that works, those companies should work to serialize their videos. Serial content works wonders on YouTube because consumers can subscribe to the entire series if they like one video. Thus, a 20-video series can reach consumers many more times than 20 separate videos ever could. Even though some of the viewership will be repeat traffic, the video consumption still serves to strengthen brand familiarity and loyalty, increasing the odds of a conversion.

Finally, YouTube videos are easily embedded onto other sites, and they should be to maximize exposure. Embed these videos on your company website, in blog posts, and on social media to expand your viewership and drive brand exposure toward viral heights.

Because these video content insights are relatively new, businesses have a prime opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. If you’re ready to improve your brand’s video marketing efforts, contact DBC Digital today to start developing your video strategy.

Categories : BLOGGING, INTERNET MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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April 16, 2014

Social Ads that will Help, Not Hurt

By some measures, more than one-quarter of all social consumers feel that social advertising has worsened their user experience. To some degree, this makes sense: increased advertising dilutes the amount of organic content those users are viewing at any one time. At the same time, however, social networks need to monetize themselves to remain viable, and sponsored ads have proven to be the most lucrative method of generating revenues.

Similarly, social advertising is very important to businesses. As social ads become more prevalent, businesses are realizing that they can use these cost-effective advertising spaces to drive website traffic, promote their own social presence, expanding their digital visibility and drive sales and revenues. But social advertising can be a slippery slope because of how consumers view these social ads. It’s easy for a social ad’s presentation to appear spammy or intrusive, and if many consumers have the same reaction to a given ad, it could ultimately cause more brand damage than promotion.

It’s important to craft social ad campaigns that don’t ruffle consumer feathers. As social advertising becomes more prevalent–particularly on Facebook, which is leading the charge of monetizing through paid advertisements–a clear understanding of best practices is starting to emerge. Here are some tips to create social campaigns that will encourage your company’s growth, instead of hindering it.

Target a Highly Refined Audience

Social networks are massive. The likelihood for most businesses is that their consumer base is present in very large amounts–so large, in fact, that it doesn’t pay to target a remotely broad audience. Even an extremely refined target audience is still likely to net you tens of thousands of prospective consumers, so there’s no risk of going too small with your campaign targeting. By contrast, social ad campaigns that go too broad will result in social users seeing ads that aren’t relevant to them. That’s highly likely to upset them and damage your brand.

Play it safe by targeting a highly refined audience. By doing so, you increase your odds of having consumers engage your ad, and you’re exposing your ad only to consumers who will likely find the advertising relevant. That’s the best way to take advantage of social ad opportunities.

Keep Text Content Low

Advertising on Twitter limits your word count considerably. On Facebook and other networks, though, you have a large space in which you can write advertising text. Tempting as it may be, this is a dangerous move for most companies. Consumers won’t be willing to devote their attentions to a large block of advertising text–it could ultimately drive them away instead of pulling them in. It’s fine to use text as part of your social advertising, but keep this text clear and concise–waste no words. Consumers will appreciate this, and they’ll be more willing to read your ad content in the first place.

Embrace Engaging Visuals

As useful as text can be in crafting a social ad, most campaigns are driven by the visual elements. Pictures, infographics, even video can draw significant engagement from consumers. Visual elements are likely to be the first thing that catches a social user’s eye, so it shouldn’t be integrated as an afterthought. The most successful social campaigns will use visual content as the centerpiece and build the rest of the ad around that eye-grabbing focal point. Visual features are a significant driver of both social engagement and overall mobile engagement, so this aspect of your social ad should not be taken lightly.

Social ad campaigns can be difficult to develop and manage, but the payoff is big for those who do it right. If you’re looking to promote your business through paid social advertising, contact DBC Digital to make sure you do things the right way.

Greg Sherwood is CEO of DBC Digital, a marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado. With over 30 years of marketing experience with traditional and inbound (internet) marketing, Greg helps mid-sized businesses get a better return on their marketing dollars.

You can reach Greg at (303) 357-5757 or at dbc@dbcdigital.com

Categories : BLOGGING, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Posted by DBC Digital on

October 24, 2013

Smart Marketing: Stretch Your Budget and Maximize Your Return

The economy may be recovering, but many businesses remain leery of misstepping and falling back into financial tumult. America’s business world is coming off a confidence-rattling economic recession that showed many organizations just how volatile their good financial standing can be. This is especially true for small businesses, which already face small margins for error.

Downturns such as the recent financial crisis remind us that, even in apparently good economic times, frugality and efficient spending are always good habits. Companies looking to install or expand inbound marketing practices within their company might be leery about the up-front investment and whether or not that will produce financial gains. But one of inbound’s greatest advantages is the ability to implement it on a small scale, and with a limited budget. Even small organizations strapped for cash can find ways to leverage inbound for big results. Here are four tips to help you get the greatest marketing bang for your buck.

1. Do your research before you spend money

First off, you’ll want to get a sense of where you can go online to find your target audience. While the goal of inbound marketing is to bring those consumers directly to your website, it’s not possible to market across the entire World Wide Web. You’ll need to concentrate on certain areas and websites, and a little market research can be invaluable in that sense.

Once you’ve nailed down your target audience, you can use your newfound knowledge to develop an effective targeting strategy, especially as it relates to keywords. Keywords are what will drive traffic to specific pages and blog posts on your website, and keywords will also be used if and when you invest in a pay-per-click advertising strategy. PPC ads can make you a lot of money through increased traffic and conversions, but you can also lose a lot needlessly if you aren’t targeting consumers correctly. This is why research is so essential.

2. Develop low-cost campaign channels

Some inbound marketing is more expensive than others. A website is essential, and publishing new content is very important in today’s world of SEO. To some extent, the costs of your most essential campaigns will be fixed. But other channels offer great value at little to no cost.

When you’re looking for cost-effective inbound marketing, social media is your best bet. Major networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are free for business users, and they can create residual value by allowing you to collect and grow a body of social followers — all of which may be current or prospective customers. You can promote your original content through those channels to squeeze extra value out of your website, and partnerships forged through those networks can help you reach new clientele.

3. Start spending slowly, then increase as the results come in

When you start putting money into these inbound channels, it’s important not to go hog-wild until you get some confirmation of results in return. Some strategies take longer to develop than others — it will be months, for example, before your original content produces significant upswings in traffic, and most social media strategy requires a minimum of six months to set roots and really take hold. But others, such as banner advertisements, should start producing referrals right away.

You’ll want to get a decent sample size before you make any rash decisions — for example, five referrals that don’t produce sales won’t be representative of your overall conversion rate — but take a cautious, balanced approach toward inbound spending until you get enough information to make a decision either way.

4. Divert resources toward campaigns delivering the highest returns

Over time, some campaigns will prove to be successful, while others won’t earn back the money you spend. And among your successes, some will be far more productive than others. It’s important to remember that your inbound strategy is never set in stone — because your resources are limited, you can’t afford to keep pouring your time and money into sub-par channels. As data comes in and you analyze the results, make continual tweaks and changes to maximize your potential return-on-investment. Never put all of your eggs into one basket, but give the greatest weight — and financial support — to the campaigns offering the greatest rewards.

Remember: Inbound can always be scaled to meet your budget and your company’s needs. DBC Digital brings years of experience and innovation to its work in marketing Denver businesses in the digital age. If you’re looking to take advantage of this digital marketing opportunity, contact us today at 303-357-5757 or dbc@dbcdigital.com.

Categories : SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Posted by DBC Digital on

September 24, 2013

Developing Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

Every business needs to market itself in some form, but there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to developing these strategies. A good marketing plan is always highly customized to address the needs and strengths of an organization, and this requires a heavy dose of critical thinking and long-term planning.

The amorphous nature of inbound marketing strategy development often intimidates business owners and other professionals, particularly where online efforts are concerned. Digital marketing is evolving at such a fast rate that it’s sometimes difficult to establish the best practices that will drive a successful marketing strategy. But no matter what your circumstances, there is a linear process that you can use to develop strategy and write up a marketing plan. Here’s a step-by-step checklist to help you cover your bases and give direction to your marketing efforts.

1. Identify Your Platforms

Inbound marketing in the Internet era now takes on many different forms. In addition to business websites and online search traffic, businesses have to consider users on a variety of Web-connected devices — not just traditional computers but also smartphones and tablets. And social media is now a major driver of marketing efforts, offering value to a wide range of enterprises. The first step in developing a marketing strategy is identifying your primary channels for consumer targeting. Once you know where you plan to seek out your audience, you can better identify the marketing tactics that will be most beneficial.

2. Characterize Your Audience

Some experts will recommend you develop personality profiles to represent your audience. If your business is seeking out stay-at-home moms, for example, you might give that audience profile a name, a face, a list of hobbies and interests, and so forth. This helps characterize the type of content and marketing styles that will best appeal to those consumers.

But personality profiles aren’t a necessity, especially if you already feel familiar with your target audience. In that case, you can think more generally: How do these people go online? What types of online behaviors do they display? Where and how can they best be engaged? The answers to these questions will direct your best marketing practices.

3. Mold Your Voice

Audience is key to defining your voice. Because you want to speak directly to those individuals, the voice and tone of your content needs to reflect the interests of your audience. Whether your voice is informational and fact-driven or sassy and outspoken, it needs to resonate with your target readership. More importantly, this voice needs to be married to your brand — allow it to permeate not just your written web content, but also videos, infographics, social media and all other content.

4. Build Your Website

A range of online properties are now useful in promoting a business, but a website is still your online headquarters. Don’t start marketing your business without a fully-functional website that has been designed with your audience and voice in mind. And keep in mind the functionality you’ll need from this property, such as a mobile website to accommodate smartphone and tablet users, or widgets and plug-ins that promote your social profiles.

5. Map Out Your Content

Written content is essential to successful online marketing because it lets you target keywords while providing relevant information to consumers. It’s wise to have at least one new blog post published every week, and many businesses go beyond that to build a sizable body of relevant content.

However you choose to implement this content, you’ll want to have it mapped out at least a few weeks in advance. Come up with content topics and establish publication dates to keep you on track with your content marketing efforts.

6. Focus On Your End Goal

Campaigns don’t end when marketing materials reach prospective consumers. There’s always an end goal to keep in mind: a purchase, a conversion, a qualified lead to generate. Marketing content always needs to guide consumers back toward that end goal, whether through a call-to-action or other means. Your marketing is only valuable when it’s building toward these end goals, so keep the larger picture in focus at all times.

7. Promote, Promote, Promote

Inbound marketing is most valuable when it drives traffic to your website and creates followers for your business. Organic traffic is the most valuable form of website referrals, but you can facilitate this flow by promoting your content. Use a variety of channels, including email marketing, social media and other means of distribution, to present content to new eyes. Each time you accomplish this, your odds of reaching new customers increases.

Whether you’ve penned your own marketing strategy or need further guidance from a Denver inbound marketing firm, give yourself every opportunity to succeed. Contact DBC Digital today to find out how we can maximize your digital marketing opportunities.

Categories : INTERNET MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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