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Social Media Marketing 101

by Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing (SMM) isn’t our primary service line, but we do get quite a few inquiries about the channel. A properly run Social Media Marketing campaign can be a wonderful secondary or tertiary option for many businesses. Allow me to explain…

We consider SMM to be a wonderful branding tool. In other words, it’s a great way to create interest and awareness in your company, and the products and services that you offer. However, we do not typically look to SMM as a primary generator of leads or sales. After all, most people do not go to Facebook and Instagram looking to purchase a product or hire a service based company. It’s the ads that they see once they’re on the platform that makes all the difference.

Unlike Google PPC and SEO (both paid and organic search marketing), where a potential customer has to pass through two separate filters, SMM doesn’t require a visitor to do anything. With a PPC ad, a searcher has to type in keywords that trigger the ad (filter # 1) and then make the choice to click through the ad to the website (filter # 2). This double filtering process removes a lot of the irrelevant traffic that a client would otherwise receive, thereby increasing their ROI significantly. It’s no wonder that PPC (paid search) is our primary and preferred channel for most of our clients.

With a Social Media Marketing campaign, Facebook and Instagram users will see a product or service in their feed, whether they want to or not. They don’t have to type in any keywords or choose to click through an ad. It’s just served up to them when they use the platform. The question is, once they see that ad, what do they do about it?

That’s why proper targeting is so crucial to any successful SMM campaign. You need to build highly relevant, specific audiences that are likely to be interested in the products and services that you are offering. Otherwise, your ads will be displayed to people who have no interest in what you’re selling. The goal of any SMM campaign is to serve those ads up to the right people, so that they choose to engage with them, post view.

Of course once you create those audiences, you need to create concise, attractive video and image ads that convey your message in a very small amount of characters. Facebook and Instagram don’t give you much space (character limits) to say what you want to say, so brevity and creativity rule the roost. You want to entice these viewers to engage with your company, and you only get one chance to make that first impression.

If all of this sounds too difficult, consider giving us a call to run your next Social Media Marketing campaign. It’s a wonderful way to augment a successful PPC and SEO strategy.

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Delivering increased value in the era of COVID-19

by with No Comment Internet AdvertisingOnline MarketingSEOSocial Media Marketing

Like most businesses these days, we’ve been hurt by the Coronavirus pandemic. We’ve lost some clients due to the forced shut downs, and others have remained with us but cut back on their marketing spend. It’s inevitable.

As a result, we’re being asked to do more with less; which I gather is a common problem that many companies are facing right now. Doing more with less requires delivering increased value to our clients. So how are we doing that?

1. Reassess your strategy

The marketing strategies that we had in place prior to arrival of the COVID pandemic were sound. They were tried and tested, and producing great results for our clients. But then the world got flipped upside down, and some of those strategies became obsolete, or at least less effective. As a result we had to go back to the drawing board, particularly with our Google PPC campaigns, and create new strategies that better reflected the current state of affairs. Flexibility and the willingness to adapt are crucial right now.

2. Check in with your clients frequently

Admittedly this is something that we do anyway, but it’s even more critical these days. Reach out to clients and ask how things are going. When calls and leads come in, find out how valuable they are and what keywords drove them. Be proactive and avoid laziness.

3. Use promotions and discounts whenever possible

Again, this is a sound strategy that we employ during “normal” times, but it’s even more important right now. You must give people a reason to buy from you, and you must stand out from the competition. Accordingly, we are proactively designing and implementing new client promotions with our PPC, SEO, and Social Media Marketing campaigns to make them as relevant and attractive as possible.

4. Constantly analyze the data as it comes in

This is tied into the first one. As data comes in from our PPC, SEO, and SMM campaigns, we are constantly evaluating what is working and what is not working. You should do that on a regular basis of course, but as cities and states open up and then shut down again, it’s vital to our clients that we stay on top of new trends. The only way to do that is to keep your finger on the pulse of the data that comes in.

 

These are tough times. No doubt about it. Unless you’re manufacturing hand sanitizer or face masks, chances are your business has been negatively affected by this global pandemic. As a result, we’ve all been forced to get leaner and meaner, and to provide more value to our customers. The above examples are just some of the things that we’re doing right now to deliver increased value. If this sounds like something your business could benefit from, give us a call at 877-924-1543 or send us a website inquiry.

Hope springs eternal for better days ahead.

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Is the customer always right?

by with No Comment Online MarketingUncategorized

We’ve all heard this saying before. “The customer is always right”. But is it true?

In short, no. The customer is not always right. No one is ALWAYS right (except my wife, just in case she’s reading this article). But there is a right way to tell a valued client, who is spending his or her hard-earned money on your services, that they are wrong.

The best way that I have found to disagree with a client is to say nothing. At first. Let them talk, and let them vent. Let them explain their rationale and why they believe what they believe. Don’t interrupt or argue with them, even if you know and can prove that what they are saying is wrong. When they’re finished, you can address each of their points with facts and well-honed opinions. But do it without emotion, and without condescension. You can prove your point and show them the error in their ways, but always in a respectful manner. And always for the betterment of the partnership.

To be clear, there are a few things I won’t put up with from clients. Verbal abuse is one of them. I have had to reprimand several clients over the years for this, and with one exception (a real gem of a human being) they all apologized and never did it again. But I never allowed it to go unchallenged, and nor should you. We all have the right to be treated with respect.

I have also had to fire clients, because they simply would not agree to let us do the job they hired us to do. These are meddlers and armchair marketing quarterbacks, and when you have a client like that, it never works out. As a business owner, you always have to be prepared to walk away from a bad deal, and if a client won’t let you do your job, then that qualifies as a bad deal. But fortunately, instances like this have been very rare.

The bottom line is that marketing is a service-based business, and your clients are the lifeblood of that business. We don’t sell products. We sell expertise, research, business acumen, and a sincere commitment to customer service. The customer isn’t always right, but just by virtue of being the customer, they do have the right to express their opinion (respectfully, of course).