Responsive Web Design – What It Is And How To Use It
In this day and age, there are a lot of devices that people use to access the web. Right now, it is very important to design a digital experience that is both visually appealing but is also compatible with many devices, systems, and browsers. As a popular Los Angeles digital marketing agency, we have seen how a bad website design can ruin a great company’s reputation. It is also understandable that when you cater to audiences across many devices, you are expanding your business even more. More device compatibility means a larger audience, better SEO, and successful marketing. For this purpose, responsive web design has been designed and is widely used today. If you aren’t using responsive web design, then you are behind your competitors, and you are missing out on a potential opportunity. Moving to responsive web design may seem daunting at first, but it is an essential step for successful online marketing. If you know exactly what you are planning to do, then making this jump can be easier than it seems. Our team has a lot of experience in this field, and we are here to help you figure out what responsive web design is and why you need to use it.
What is Responsive Web Design ?
Before you can start using responsive web design, you must first understand what it is.
Web Design
The market for gadgets and tools is only growing larger. To make up for this growth, web designers must be able to keep up. They must keep many new versions of websites that will be compatible with new screens and browsers. But, as you can understand, this is a very tiring and difficult process. It put extreme pressure on developers to create many custom-made products for each new device and type of user. This is right where responsive web design steps in. It is basically the solution to most problems that this extreme amount of customization created. It is a web development method that creates a flexible design that will be able to adapt on its to multiple platforms, screens, and orientations. This means the system will work whether the site is opened on a mobile phone or a large TV screen. The core idea of responsive web design is to have a single website that will work on multiple devices. The creation of responsive web design involves using cascading style sheets (CSS), and many other technologies. These lead to the creation of designs that have flexible layouts and can expand and shrink without impacting the usability of the website. For example, if one user switches from a Mac laptop to an Android phone, the site automatically adapts and adjusts to the different resolution and browser dimensions. In addition to this, responsive web design also creates adaptive web products that strive to recognize user preferences and previous settings. In fact, many people agree that responsive web design led to a complete revolution in digital design. Many websites developed and became more modern, requiring less effort and time for customization. Outdated versions of HTML were very restrictive and inadequate to fully adapt to a new digital world. Of course, these set up the path for the development of newer projects, but they are now only a part of history.
The Requirements
For successful, responsive web design, you are going to need these four tools in your toolbox.
Adjusting to different screens
Today, there are so many devices in use. When you walk around in the street, every single person is going to be using something different. Not to mention that some people also use multiple devices, depending on where they are. The more devices that are in use, the more varying screen resolutions, orientations, and color spectrums there are. This is why your website requires a responsive web design. It will allow your site to adjust to these different dimensions immediately. Most websites are tasked with fluidly adapting to transitions between mobile phones and desktop screens. Responsive web design utilizes fluid design strategies along with CSS to make the adjustment between small and large devices easier. This also applies to the transition between a landscape and portrait orientation on tablets and phones. The site must also maintain usability in both orientations. But, this step isn’t as simple as adjusting sizing. It should also involve adjusting functionality. Obviously, if you keep all options of a desktop and move them to a small phone screen, it would be burdened with all the options. But, you also want easy access to all options on a big screen. When responsive web design is used, all of these are taken into account. It will create the perfect website, which will be adaptable to both a tiny screen and a large screen. In short, functionality is also a must in this step.
Flexible pictures
When a user enters a site, the first thing that catches their eye is the images. This means it is important that image resolution isn’t too mangled. The maintenance of image resolution is always a headache for web designers everywhere. If the images on the site are optimized too small, then the low quality will be very obvious when viewed on a large screen. But if the image size and quality are way too large, then the website will function significantly slower. Both of these issues are going to impact the functionality of your website. Responsive web design utilizes creative CSS design elements, which will limit the use of images to make a beautiful layout on your website. These elements will also adapt images according to the screen resolution being used on the device. Both these processes will occur without affecting the loading time of your website.
Usability
Technology has significantly adapted today and is only getting more modern. This means that a good website must have usability, so it must be able to adapt to the capabilities of any device being used. When this is designed, many factors must be kept in mind. For example, the website will be accessed using both a touchscreen and a mouse. This means you must not assume that touchscreen users will always be people using mobile phones. Many desktop monitors are using touchscreen technology, meaning your website must be flexible enough to adapt to this format. Responsive website design understands the interface while also maintaining usability as much as possible. Usability must always also include accessibility. For example, users with bad sight or elders will be unable to read small text on small screens. Not all of your users will be able to see or hear. Usability takes into account the difficulties of your audience members and will try to give them the best experience while they consume the media on your site.
Compatibility
Browser and device incompatibility with web technologies have improved significantly over time. Now, developers can easily rely on different browsers and operating systems that read code in similar techniques. But, this does not mean the problem is solved all the way. Incompatibility between preferences, systems, and settings is still a big challenge for developers everywhere. It is ensuring that your websites will work on different operating systems and browsers are essential to reaching a wide audience. The more devices your website works on, the more people you are going to reach.
A responsive website is basically a way to change the layout of your website according to what device it is being viewed on. This design must include elements such as readable text that doesn’t require zoom, adequate space for tapping, and no horizontal scrolling. Now that you know what a responsive web design really is, it is time to move on to the reasons why it is a requirement for your website.
Benefits of Responsive Design
The Experience
Tracking
Time and Cost
This may be stating an obvious fact, but most people do not realize how much time and cost they will be saving. With a website that adapts on its own, there will be no need for constant site content management. This means you will be hiring fewer people to monitor your website, and saving a lot of money on this. The time you would use to customize a website to each version of software and browser can be used on other much more important tasks.
Competition
With a responsive web design, you are sure to be staying ahead of the competition. In fact, about half of Fortune 500 companies are not even mobile-ready currently. A client on their smartphone who needs information fast will obviously prefer the company with a great mobile website. A good website on multiple browsers, screens, and platforms signifies a professional company that knows what they are doing. One easy step and you will be miles ahead of your competition.
Now, you can clearly tell that we are in a new era of digital design. With the increased usage and functionality of all types of devices and the availability of them on the market, websites must also be able to keep up. Your website must be flexible, fluid, and compatible. As you can see, using a responsive web design is currently the best choice. Not only is it going to give your site a sleek look and functionality, but it will also put you ahead of all your competitors in the market right now. There really is no reason not to implement this web design method. If your team is not very up to date with these techniques or if you are considering selecting a new web design partner, then make sure you are choosing a team that is professional and experienced in this specific field of responsive web design and its implications!
10 Digital Marketing Ideas to Consider During the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Since the Coronavirus pandemic began in the world, people face a lot of challenges. Unfortunately, the disease takes away a lot of lives. And in many countries, the numbers are very high. Many businesses are struggling with the loss of customers, and some of these businesses are closing. Although there are businesses that are doing great during a pandemic, such as pharmacies, the hospitality industry was hit the hardests and is in one of the worst positions. Restaurants and cafes have been empty for a couple of months, which is a massive loss. Although cafes are already operating anyway, it will take some time for them to recover from all the damages.
In such situations, the business should consider different strategies in order to survive hard times. Each company should be flexible enough to be able to come up with new and creative solutions. Online marketing is one of the critical parts that every business should pay attention to. People spend most of their time at home and use the internet all the time. So you should transfer your business to an online platform. Los Angeles, digital marketing agencies are working day and night to have the right strategies for your business during COVID-19.
Why is Digital Marketing Important During Coronavirus?
Coronavirus has changed almost everyone’s life in the world. Businesses who built their company through years and with a great struggle are now closing. If you want to survive, this means you need to be present online. There are industries that are entirely dying. For example, the future of travel agents is very uncertain. But other aspects can survive if they work hard and get creative. For example, if you have a cafe or restaurant, then you can start to develop your social media accounts. So you can show the restaurant’s foods on your page and offer delivery services. People stay at home most of the time, and they may want to eat restaurants’ food. So as a CEO, you should take steps and immediately. And one of the first steps is to take your business to an online platform. Below you will find ten digital marketing ideas to consider during Coronavirus.
1. Connect with Your Customers Through Social Media Platforms
Because we spend most of our time at home, as a result, we spend more time on social media platforms. The negative information and news are too much on the internet, and people need some positivity. And in addition to this, there are people who are in a terrible situation because of the pandemic. Some lost their jobs; others are fighting for their life and the life of their loved ones. You can use this time and try to connect with your customers on a deeper level. People need more empathy nowadays, so they will appreciate it if your company shows compassion to them. For example, you can execute different campaigns that may help people who are ill with Coronavirus. Or you can connect with various businesses and help with food for the ones who need it. Then you can talk about your steps on your social media accounts. Your customers will pay attention to your actions and perceive you as an optimistic company.
2. Make Sure that People Can Find Your Business Online
Most probably, you have already understood the importance of social media platforms. Los Angeles marketing agencies are professionals who promote social media accounts. Their main job is to help your business have a strong position on online platforms. Most of the professionals have a huge amount of knowledge and information, and they learn every day. Each company has a professional who knows everything about SEO. Believe us, SEO is what you may need right now. It will help you to make your company visible and so that your potential customers can find you easily. We understand that you may not have time to explore everything connected with SEO. So we highly recommend you to not do online marketing alone and contact Los Angeles marketing agencies.
3. Start to Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Of course, during Coronavirus, every business needs to spend more wisely because the sales are decreasing. Pay-Per-Click marketing will help you to spend less on your advertising and get a better result. So we highly recommend you to examine PPC marketing and try to gain the most out of it. You can learn more about Pay-Per-Click marketing by clicking the mentioned link.
4. Be One Step Ahead of Your Competitors
In the case of the proper implementation of SEO, you will notice an increase in the traffic of your website. This will help you to win the competition. When customers search keywords connected with your business, your page will be the first one to pop up. Hence the consumers will prefer your product over others’. It takes time to be on top of the Google search results, and of course, a lot of knowledge. This is a significant part of online marketing, which needs to be carefully examined.
Not implementing SEO strategies for your business will be one of the biggest mistakes. You will lose customers because people will not be able to find you. Hence your revenue will decrease, and you will have a decline in sales. This is a critical aspect of every business, so you should hire people who will take care of SEO. Or cooperate with Los Angeles marketing agencies, which are professionals, and know everything about it.
5. Prepare Your Business for Better Times After Coronavirus
We should be positive and believe that after some time, the world will come back to an everyday life. This means that consumers will start to spend normally, and they will go back to their old habits. You should keep in mind that SEO and online marketing strategies are for a very long time. And the results that they give are long term. So all the strategies that you implement during Coronavirus will prepare your business’s strong position during better times. This means that after Coronavirus, you should not stop your campaigns. You should use this time to learn the most about online marketing, then continue implementing strategies. Los Angeles marketing agencies will help you to make a strategy for your desired period of time. To continue implementing all the online marketing strategies even after the Coronavirus.
6. Try to Provide Special Offers to Your Customers
CEOs of companies need to be very flexible and think creatively during such kinds of difficult times. During such uncertain times, you can provide special offers to your customers. This way, you will show your support to them, and they will feel that you understand their situation and want to make their lives better during hard times. For example, you can offer special discounts or different giveaways. This will not only make your revenue increase but also you will make a good connection with your customers. Many people who stay at home are all the time on the internet, and they are looking for discounts. They want to shop because they have a lot of spare time. But also they want to save money, so discounts are a great way to do so. Moreover, this is a great way to have more or less steady revenue.
7. Develop Your Local SEO
As people are staying at home, boosting local SEO is critical for your company. People are not traveling, and the movement is minimized. So they want to find convenience and find shops which are in the city and near to them. People will mostly do “near me” searches, so you need to boost your local SEO for them to easily find your website. If your business is near to customers, then they will prefer it over the competitors.
Also, don’t forget about reviews and, most importantly, positive ones. It is critical to keep your online reputation to high levels. This is important because people are reading reviews before buying something. If you provide great products and services to your target customers, then most probably people will leave a good review for your company. So work on the quality and develop your online marketing, and good reviews will come very fast.
8. Be Ready to Be Flexible and Tell Your Customers About Changes
As the situation in the world is fluid, this means that your business should be ready to be flexible and be ready for changes. This is a perfect time to explore new aspects and things. And maybe you will find something new which may open new doors for you. For example, if you are in a restaurant business, then you should consider having a delivery service. Restaurants are closed during Coronavirus, so you will have a lot of losses and a decrease in revenue. So you should have a great system of delivery service, and market it so that people want to use your service. And your customers will want to order your restaurant’s food
Another example is the gyms. All the gyms are closed, but there are different options to not lose customers and have a source of revenue. For instance, you can offer online workouts and get creative with new offers. So as you can notice, hard times can help you to find new aspects and eventually gain from the situations.
9. Don’t Panic and Get The Most Out of the Situation.
Remember to keep the situation under control and try not to panic. Every hard situation has a solution, so this means that if you work hard, then you will exit the situation in the best way. That is why you need to have a strong online marketing strategy. As a result, when others panic, you will be one step ahead from them and implement the strategy from the beginning to the end. You should not make a panic move, and you should just implement smart strategies. Panic never ends well, and it is the main reason why most businesses fail during hard situations. There are many examples when businesses don’t have enough competency to survive during different hard situations. That is why, during good times, you should collect resources in order to end well during bad times.
10. Complete Everything Connected With Your Online Marketing Strategy
This is a great time to finish everything which you couldn’t do for a long time because of the lack of time. Every business has things which seem not very important to do in the first place. During this time, you should pay a huge attention to it and finally finish everything on your to-do list. For example, if you were planning to create a website for a long time, now it is time to finally do it. As you may already know, websites are very important for sales, so it is time to finally create a dream website for your business. Or, if you already have a website, it may be the time to give a fresh look to it.
Another important aspect is that this is a perfect time to learn something new and improve your skills. As a CEO, you may always be full of tasks and not have enough time to dedicate it to your self-improvement. Try to use this time for your own good and learn something important. It is very important because every CEO should always learn new things. Otherwise, it will be hard for you to lead your team. So this is a great time to learn new skills.
Conclusion
It is not a secret that 2020 brought a lot of unexpected and difficult surprises. A lot of unpleasant things happened, which created difficult and harsh situations for many. The most essential thing is to stay strong and remember that everything will pass soon. Such times help us to value good times and work harder. Implement online marketing strategies and try to make smart moves in order to win in such hard times. Eventually, you will have a strong position and be ready for any kind of situation which happens.
How to Promote on Facebook
We all know Facebook as basically the birthplace of social media marketing. Even though many other platforms have arisen since then, there is still an overwhelmingly large amount of people who use Facebook every day. As of right now, Facebook has more than 2 billion daily active users and potential customers for you. These users range from CEOs and students to stay-at-home moms, so no matter what target audience you have, chances are they are using Facebook. Because of the popularity of this platform, there is also lots of competition for the attention of these users by brands and their ads. Here are a few tips from top marketing agencies in Los Angeles on how to successfully promote on Facebook.
What does a good ad look like?
In order to learn how to promote on Facebook, you must start by making sure your ad content is ready to be promoted. If you promote with the right placements and formats, but your content isn’t captivating enough, then you won’t get anywhere.
“Brands that ignore social media…will die. It’s that simple.” -Jeff Ragovin
Visual
Your ad has to be very visual. In the Facebook algorithm, visual content is more popular and tends to be shared more. It also tends to be more memorable and sticks in the minds of customers. Most people scroll social their Facebook page when they have time to kill or want to take a break from something, so reading a long text on an ad is not something most people will do. No matter what you are promoting, marketing agencies in Los Angeles urge you to have ads that are visually appealing. Try to create something that engages the audience, to make them feel important, and that feeling will be associated with your brand long after they scroll past the ad.
Relevance
This point relates straight to your target audience. Your ads have to be relevant to your target audience. Even if your ads are very visually engaging but lack the content that your target audience wants to see, no one will click on your ad. In order to maintain relevance, you must have a thorough analysis of your target audience. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles recommend you create a few marketing personas that include age, gender, location, budget, hobbies, and other relevant information to help you promote effectively on Facebook. This is also going to come in handy when you decide to create your ad, and Facebook asks you who your ads are made for. You must create your audience, including their location, age, sex, spoken languages, interests, and their connection to other pages, and these will be the people whoa re going to see your ads. It is critical that you know your audience and who your products are targeted at, in order to promote successfully on Facebook. Keep in mind that each second your ad is on someone’s screen is a second you are paying for, so do your research to avoid wasting your money and effort. Facebook also has a feature that will rate your ads, and you will receive a relevance score. The more times your ad gets shared or clicked on, and the more relevant it is, the higher your score is. A higher score means more favorable treatment from Facebook, which means more customers and more revenue. This is also a handy tool for analysis, to understand if you’re on the right track or not.
Value Proposition
A value proposition is primarily the reason your ads must be clicked on by those who don’t know about your company. There should be something on your ad that will tell the customer why they should discover more about your product and how it is different from anything else. Try to ask yourself why your product stands out. Place yourself in the target audience members’ members’ mind space and try to understand what catches their attention enough to click on it. It is vital that your value proposition be believable. Saying your products is the best in the world will come off arrogant and repetitive, and you can’t expect anyone to believe it. But offering 30% off new customers’ first purchase is a great value proposition. Remember that customers are ordinary people like you, and they won’t fall for an ad that you didn’t put enough effort into.
“The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” – Bill Bernbach.
Call-to-Action
Once a customer sees an ad they like, they want to be immediately led to the next step. Usually, most people don’t have the time or the attention span to remember the name of your brand, exit Facebook, open a new tab, and find your website by searching the name. Your ad should offer the opportunity to learn more about the product on the spot. Something like a “Buy now and save 15%” sign can also add a sense of urgency to your call to action. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles report that most clicks come straight from ads that lead to websites or Facebook pages of the brand.
Where should my Ad be?
Once you have your ad that matches all the points above, it is time to move on to the placement of the ad on the Facebook timeline.
Right Column
This is the type of ad you have probably already seen, as it is the most traditional and popular type of ad on Facebook. This is when the ad is placed horizontally on the right side of the news feed. Placing your ad will still get attention, but Los Angeles marketing agencies that research Facebook promotion have noticed that there are less expensive clicks and conversions on the right column. If you are planning to place your ad on these\, it has to be extra visually appealing to attract the user’s eye away from the feed itself and into the right section.
Desktop News Feed
The desktop ad shows up right in the customer’s timeline as they are scrolling on a computer, and it has a similar look to native advertising. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles specializing in social media marketing have reported that this type of ad usually has a much higher engagement rate when compared to the ads in the right column. But they are also more pricey. In order to avoid being scrolled past, your ads must be very compelling and captivating.
Mobile News Feed
This is a similar placement to the one mentioned above, but this shows up on the news feed of the user scrolling on their mobile phone. It shows up as a post from the users and pages they usually interact with, so it doesn’t stick out too much. According to top Los Angeles marketing agencies, this is the go-to ad placement for those with a younger target audience and is usually a very high engagement yielding placement.
What format should be used for ads?
Facebook offers a multitude of ad format types that you can choose from according to your target audience and brand personality.
Photo Ad: How to Promote on Facebook
A photo ad is an ad that includes an image, which is the main point of promotion for your product, event, or service. If you are hosting an event or a party, the dates and entry times on a photo of your venue will make a great center for your ad. Your ad can also consist of a photo of your product that will grab the user’s eye. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles recommend using an image resolution of at least 1080×1080 when using this ad format on Facebook.
Video Ad
The centerpiece of video ads is usually GIFS or videos. This type of ad should be used to demonstrate how to use your product or service. For event advertising, it can show clips of the venue or how to arrive there. Around 80% of all data consumption on Facebook is done through video, so using video will help you to create deeper connections with your viewers.
Stories Ad
Ads on Facebook Stories are one of the new features Facebook has put out, and it lets you post your ad as a temporary clip or image. Your story ad will be sized according to the mobile device dimension but will be displayed to desktop and mobile users. Users will see your ad in between viewing those of their friends. For this reason, Los Angeles marketing agencies suggest using ads that seem candid and less formal. Facebook stories can also be used as a looking glass into the personality and daily life of your brand, and shouldn’t be treated like traditional advertising.
Messenger Ad
This specific type of ad shows up as a message in the user’s Facebook Messenger inbox. These ads let you interact with your customers by showing them your new offers and answering their questions. You will have the opportunity to set up some auto-responses, which will apply to frequently asked questions and deals. Through this ad, you will also be able to listen to the responses of your audience, which will help you improve your marketing strategy. You can set the first question ““What product would you be interested in?”” and three vague responses, and then from whichever they pick, your ad will show them a more specific product.
Carousel Ad
Carousel ads are composed of a few images and videos that a member of your audience can rotate through, and all of this media will be describing a single product or service that the ad is for. Your Carousel Ad can be made of up to 10 images or videos and with a link to each of the websites. These ads contain a lot of media, so use this ad if you are planning on promoting multiple products or multiple features of one product. Los Angeles marketing agencies recommend using carousel ads to tell a story that will unfold in these images or videos, that will end up somehow explaining a process that has to do with your products.
Slideshow Ad
This ad format is very similar to the Carousel ad format, as it also divides your ad into individual images that your audience sees after one another. But, the slideshow format only previews images and not videos, but the images play after each other similar to a video. Slideshow ads use much less data on Facebook than similar Carousel ads, which is ideal for reaching those with slow internet connections. Facebook gives you the opportunity to choose from a whole bunch of pre-created music and images if that is what you desire. Los Angeles marketing agencies would recommend this type of ad to try to stimulate a video-like experience without breaking the bank and using it to make a complicated process simpler for your customers.
Collection Ad
With this ad, you will be able to bring your purchasing process right onto Facebook. This means your customers will be able to go from finding out about the product to immediately buying it at once. The collection ad will feature a main image or video that will promote a product, with a grouping of 4 smaller images under it that a user can click on. The instant storefront collection ad should be used to show a few products as part of one ad campaign. Another style called the Instant Lookbook is recommended to model the same product in a few contexts, such as outfits. If you want to tell more of a story as opposed to just product promotion, marketing agencies in Los Angeles would recommend using the Instant Storytelling collection ad type.
As a Conclusion | How to Promote on Facebook…
As you have seen, there are a few factors that go into effectively promoting on Facebook. For the ideal campaign, you must keep all of these in mind, and track your results. If you aren’t getting as much revenue as you predicted, maybe try a different placement or format and see how that works out. But, keep in mind that most times, promoting on Facebook only is not going to be enough, and you will need a wider social media marketing strategy, which will include other platforms your target audience uses. Facebook ads are the perfect place to start and will definitely get you going. So what are you waiting for, get started with your Facebook ad!
How to Promote your Business in 2020
Running any business is challenging, whether it be big or small. There are so many roles you have to take on and so much to calculate without knowing whether it will be effective or not. Running a business is already a big risk in itself, so you must be ready to go all out on promoting your business. As a company that runs their own business in Los Angeles, the hub of all things digital and social media-related, we have learned a few tricks on how to make things work. Read below to find out some of the tips on how to promote your business in the modern-day from some of the highest-rated marketing agencies in Los Angeles.
1. Know your audience to Promote your Business
In order to figure out where you should promote and how you must know your target audience. Your customers are what your business is based on, and they are essential to the success of your business. If you don’t know who your promotion is aimed at, it will basically become a giant waste of money. Before you decide anything, you must first find your target market.
How to find your target?
Start finding your target audience by asking yourself what problems your company’s product or service solve. Generally, this means understanding why your products exist and why people need it. Your product should have a purpose, which will be portrayed in your promotion. You must also research who your current customers are. It is important that you categorize your customers into segments according to needs, budget, age, location, and other factors. Your competition is also something you should be up to date on. Research their websites and the “About” sections to find out who your competition really is and what they are doing with their business. It is really easy to find your competitors; all it takes is a simple keyword search that has to do with your industry. Now that you have your current customers and competition down, you must try to understand what you must do so that these customers choose you and not the others. What will they gain by choosing you instead of anyone else on the market? Try to find your advantages and the features that put you above the rest and focus your promotion on that. A quick trick that top marketing agencies in Los Angeles would recommend doing is building marketing personas. These personas should include the people you hope to reach with your products, their age, location, budget, hobbies, and so on. Building a few marketing personas will help you in the future when building your promotion strategy. Try to also accept the feedback from your current customers in the form of comments or survey responses, to understand if you are achieving what you hoped you would.
2. Social Media Content Marketing
Chances are, you don’t know anyone who doesn’t use at least one social media platform. One in every two people in the entire world has at least one social media account, and many new accounts are opened every day. Many marketing agencies in Los Angeles would tell you that it is nearly impossible to have a successful online marketing campaign without the social media aspect of it. But, this does not mean you must be on every single platform out there. It is better to choose the social media platforms most used by your target audience and focus on keeping that account active, instead of having a bland and mediocre page on all platforms. Invest some time and money into market research, or find some research online on what the age and budget group of your customers tends to use more. Once you have your platforms ready, you must produce high-quality content. Content includes photos, memes, videos, blog posts, and more, depending on what platform you are using. Your content must be engaging, interesting, and should promote your product, but not too much. If every single post you make links to your products and presents like an ad, customers will get bored or annoyed and will unfollow. A tip from a top marketing agency in Los Angeles is to use the 80-20 rule. 80% of your content should be content that doesn’t directly promote your products, and 20% should be an ad and should directly link to your products. A great idea is to produce a “how-to” video that will show how to use your products but will not look like a blatant ad. Generally, opening a YouTube account for your company, where you can make instructional videos about your products, answer any frequently asked questions, and where you can hop on the latest trends while also being witty and showing your products is a great way to promote your business.
– Interactive content
In a whole world of constant content, it is important that you produce content that will engage your audience. Content that requires participation from the customer will surely have your customers stay on your page for a long time, and it will also be memorable and stay in their minds. Los Angeles marketing agencies highly recommend interactive content, as that is what stands out among everything else. On Instagram, a poll can be made on your story, where the user will get the opportunity to choose their option, or a live Q&A type option. Interactive content is new, fun, and different, so it should definitely be in your social media marketing strategy.
– Follow up
Another important step in social media marketing is the analysis that comes after. By reviewing the statistics gathered, you will start to understand whether you are going in the right direction or not. This analysis will show you whether you are reaching your target audience or not, how effective your posts are, and if you are making revenue from them or not. According to these results, you can start to tweak your strategy so that you reach the audience you want or embrace the audience you have gathered. There are many online analytics tools you can use to gather the information you need.
3. Shoppable Posts
Social media platforms are one of the biggest forms of digital marketing, and usually the most effective if done right. One marketing agency in Los Angeles reports that 72% of Instagram users have purchased at least one product from Instagram. 70% of users on Pinterest, specifically to search for new and innovative products to purchase. This means social media is a big opportunity to gain new customers. These platforms have made social media marketing very easy, with updated marketing features every day. Instagram has the “swipe up” feature on stories and posts if you are a business account with more than 10 000 followers. This means you won’t have to convince people to exit the post and click the link in the bio but will make the process of accessing your website so much quicker and easier. You can also tag your products on your own pictures, so one click will show the product name and price, and if clicked again will go straight to your website. Another cool feature on Instagram is when announcing a new launch, customers can also click on the countdown to set a reminder on their account so they will know when they can purchase these new products. Facebook, Pinterest, and other platforms all have their own social media marketing options, and you should select the one that you think best fits your brand and target audience requirements.
Call-To-Actions
Remember, people usually don’t have a lot of time on their hands. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles noted that the average person on social media only spends around 2 seconds on each post as they are scrolling. If they like something they see, they want to be led to the purchasing or related products immediately. If your links and forwarding buttons are hidden, you are going to be losing customers. No one is going to use their time to find your website or product, and the time they could be spending on your website will be taken up by a competitor. That’s why it is important that your call-to-actions are visible and easy to access. Place them in your bios, under the posts, in email signatures, and so on.
4. Make your customers feel special
Personalization
2020 is the year where personalized marketing is going to make it big. People can now easily tell that an ad is generic and doesn’t have any connection to them. So, traditional advertising formats are becoming less and less effective when it comes to promotion. According to a survey conducted by a marketing agency in Los Angeles, 90% of surveyed people found personalization highly appealing. 80% admitted they would rather spend their time and money on a business that offered them a personalized experience, as opposed to a business with a generic one size fits all ads. So you must create targeted ads that will fit your target audiences’ needs and likes, and this is where your marketing personas will really come in handy. For example, if your business sends out email lists, then try to segment these lists according to customer needs and personalize the email content being sent. This way, it will catch the attention of a customer and make them feel noticed by the company. Personalization is a great opportunity to really connect with your audience, so don’t miss out.
Customer Service
Customer service must become one of your top priorities as a company. Even if your product is the only one in the world and works perfectly, if your customer service is iffy, then customers will not come to you. You will have to do everything in your power to make your customers feel valued and special. If they have any problems, don’t ignore or block them. This can lead to them posting about it or telling all their friends, and not only will you lose potential and existing customers, but you will also earn a bad reputation. Instead, reply as quick as possible and help them through their problems. Even if they are dissatisfied with the product, they will surely come back if they are treated well, and their issues are resolved. Their comments and feedback is also a good opportunity for you to see where your business is lacking and has space to improve. Instead of spending tons of money on market research, you can just read your comments!
Answer any and all questions that you receive, even if they seem repetitive or irrelevant. When answering messages or comments, try to reply with “Dear and the name they have on social media” to make your conversation seem more personal and less formal. Your customers may indirectly become brand ambassadors because they will recommend your business to other potential customers, increasing your exposure and revenue. A trick many Los Angeles marketing agencies recommend is sending your new or loyal customers some samples of your product or coupon for your service. This will surely make them feel highly appreciated, and if they like it, they are very likely to purchase more and recommend to their friends.
Keep in mind that these are only tips to help you promote your business.
There is really no formula for a business promotion that works for everyone. Every business, target audience, and product is different, and every promotion strategy will also be different. Never be afraid to experiment with different platforms and ads to find what works best for you. It is important that you analyze the results after trying something new, to see who you are reaching and how effective your method is. If it isn’t getting the results you want, then change it up and keep moving forward. If it works, then use it as a starting point and develop and improve your strategy. Finding the perfect promotion method for your target audience is going to take some time, but once you find it, you will only need to maintain it for the long-term, and everything will become much less stressful.
Social Media Marketing Budget
One in every two people in the entire world has at least one social media account, and this number is only growing. Social media marketing is vital for any company in today’s day and age. Many marketing agencies in Los Angeles would even tell you that it is nearly impossible to have a successful online marketing campaign without the social media aspect of it. Any company needs to allocate some part of their marketing budget for social media marketing.
But, it is important to conduct all the necessary research before deciding how much money should be spent on social media marketing. Create marketing personas and customize your target audience. Based on these personas, research their social media usage and social media habits, then decide how social media will help you in achieving your marketing goals. If most of your sales and revenue come from your website, or anything internet-related, then logically, you should spend more on social media marketing than other marketing channels such as print, broadcasting, or mail. There are specifics that apply, but the general rule of thumb is that 35%-45% of the total marketing budget should be allocated for digital marketing. Additionally, 15%-25% of the online marketing budget should be dedicated to social media marketing. Of course, this number is highly variable and may be different for each company.
Now, before you ask what really goes into that budget, here are the most important components of social media marketing, according to the top marketing agencies in Los Angeles.
1. Creation of content
Content is one of the key aspects of social media marketing. It should catch the eye of the customer without being too flashy and annoying. The line between being persuasive and being off-putting is very thin, so the content must be carefully planned and executed. Because of this, content should be a significant portion of your social media marketing budget. Many companies and marketing agencies allocate more than half of their whole social media marketing budget to content creation. Here are some of the moving parts which go into this section of the budget:
Graphics and photography
Your product or service might be very high-quality, but if your visuals aren’t up to par, your marketing will be unsuccessful. Graphics and photos are what naturally catch the eye of the customer first, so they must be very well done. Therefore, it is very important that you set aside appropriate funding for hiring professional photographers and illustrators, as you can’t do these things yourself. Many professionals will be able to make your idea come to life, adding to it their own tips from past experiences of what works and what doesn’t. If your budget is considerably small, you should consider using stock photos. They are high-quality but also affordable, so you won’t be breaking the bank.
Video
Depending on the type of content you hope to produce, videos may be a one-time cost. Once you have your high-quality clip or movie, then you can promote using that many times. Videos are more costly than photographs as you need to take into account, cameras and all other equipment, videographers, editors, and any costs of renting a space to shoot. If you desire to achieve a more high-production shoot, then you must also consider the costs of hiring a director, a producer, stylists, makeup and hair artists, and any other staff that you may require.Talent
Once again, depending on the type of production you are hoping to create, you might need people such as models, extras, and actors to take part that will need to be paid. If you are hoping to get a social media influencer or a celebrity to be a part of your campaign, you must take into account their costs too.
Production costs: Social Media Marketing Budget
There are a few factors that must be considered here, such as travel expenses, locations rentals, prop rentals, meal expenses, and so on. These are usually left out of the SMM budget, so don’t make the common mistake of forgetting them.
Copywriting and Translation
Keep in mind that you must pay copywrites either by the word or by the hour. Depending on the content, you may also require hiring a proofreader and a fact-checker. If your brand is global and aims to have customers who speak different languages, then you must also budget for a translator. Translators are also paid by the word or the hour.
2. Paid advertising
Spending a lot of money on producing high-quality content will be ineffective if you don’t have a way of getting it out there. Paid advertising should also form a significant section of your SMM budget. Each social media platform is unique and has its advantages and disadvantages. Each platform also has a specific user majority and age group. In order to understand which platform is the right one for your company, you must create marketing personas and do some research. Try to understand what age range you are trying to reach and research what platform they use the most. Remember, more is not always better. It is better to spend a significant amount of money on ads on a platform you know will reach your target audience and will boost sales, then on small amounts of ads on every platform available. All social media platforms have different offers for boosting posts and running campaigns, depending on your SMM budget. Here are some of the most popular platforms according to the experience of top marketing agencies in Los Angeles.
Facebook and Facebook Messenger ads
Facebook offers a whole range of options, such as slideshow ads and Instant Experience ads. The price for these ads changes according to visibility, how long you want to run the ads, and how often. Facebook is mostly used by people ages 18–44, with the biggest demographic group being men at ages 25–34. So, if you are aiming for a different demographic, then consider some other options. Facebook messenger is more global, as it is more of a communication app and is used by many more people. It is also more often used in a day than Facebook is, as people open the app every time they receive or want to send a message. Ads on the Messenger app are placed in the inbox feed and are easily noticed. You can also create a page that will automatically answer any questions a customer may have about what you offer. It is also an easy way for interested customers to get in contact with you immediately after they see the ad.
Instagram ads
Instagram a highly trendy social media platform right now and is used by more and more people every day. It is an image and video-based platform, so your content must be vibrant and dynamic in order to get the person to stop scrolling and check out your page. Instagram has around one billion monthly active users, so your ad will surely be seen by the people you want to reach.
Twitter ads
If your content and ads are more text-based, then Twitter may be the option for you. Twitter ads can be used to drive website clicks and increase engagement with the page’s Twitter page. It can also reach more people, once customers retweeted it and put it on their followers’ pages.
YouTube ads
Youtube is the biggest video streaming platform, which provides a variety of advertising options such as non-skippable ads that play before videos and putting your videos in the recommended section of users’ home pages.
LinkedIn ads
LinkedIn is where users come to build and engage their professional network and make important connections. There is a very specific crowd that uses LinkedIn, so if your target audience is older and more professional, then this is where your ads should be. If you want to reach younger people, then consider other options. LinkedIn also offers a wide variety of advertising options such as InMail, text ads, and others.
Snapchat and TikTok ads
These platforms have recently gained popularity and are almost exclusively used by teens and young adults. Snapchats offer ad options such as branded filters and story ads, which might be right for you, depending on your content. TikTok has many advertising options, such as full-screen ad placements, hashtags, challenges, and others.
3. Paid partnerships
This is a component that may or may not match your brand, depending on your SMM budget and strategy.
Influencer campaigns – Social Media Marketing Budget
Social media influencer marketing is a $6.5 billion industry, and a lot of work goes into it. Paid posts are high-quality and have a targeted message as a caption, and the money paid is worth it considering how big the audiences that can be reached by influencers are. Options include Instagram’s partner tag feature, YouTube influencer partnerships, and many other collaboration possibilities that your company should include in their social media marketing budget.
Co-branded campaigns
Co-branded campaigns may not always require more content funding than a typical campaign, but they still demand other efforts such as organization and planning time from the appropriate personnel, which must all be included in your social media marketing budget.
4. Tools and Software
Now that you have the human part down, here are some of the other tools you must include in your social media marketing budget.
Hosting
Of course, you know that you must have a website in order to have a successful online marketing campaign. Yet, almost everyone forgets to factor in the costs of hosting providers and domain names. Make sure to check if the domain name is included in the hosting price because sometimes it must be purchased separately.
Editing tools
You will surely receive touched-up and edited photos once you hire professional photographers, but sometimes you need a quick resize or background blur. In order to save money on hiring an editor, and to save time, you might need to purchase some editing software. It is a one-time purchase that is going to last and surely makes up for its price in usefulness.
SEO and keyword research
In order to find, research, and bid on relevant keywords, marketing agencies in Los Angeles suggest using resources such as Google AdWords. You can also use this to advertise ads in the “Sponsored Links” part that is next to the search results on Google. This will help you to boost sales and website traffic and is also affordable.
Analytics tools
A strategy must be planned but must also be monitored. Without tracking your social media campaigns, you will not understand whether you’re on the right track of boosting sales or if you’re just wasting money on pointless ads. It is vital that you track analytics in order to understand if you’re reaching your target audience or what type of audience you’re attracting, how high your bounce rate is, and how fast your website loads. When you start using a new social media marketing strategy, you must analyze the results every week in order to ensure optimal results and get rid of flaws quickly.
5. Training
Of course, there are many social media training resources out there that won’t cost you a thing, but it is a long term investment to get professional training for your team. It is something that is going to pay off in the end, and you will save money by not hiring extra staff as your current staff will be trained. Depending on how much your team already knows and your campaign needs, top marketing agencies in Los Angeles would recommend using LinkedIn Learning, Blueprint Live, or Hootsuite academy. These offer a variety of certificate courses, single courses, and workshops for all social media marketing needs.
6. Management
There are many tools to help with social media management, but it is a good investment to hire someone who will be at the office and will supervise social media marketing.
The tasks a social media manager or team must do include:
- Scheduling of posts, publishing, engagement
- Target audience research
- Strategy development and updates
- Tracking of analytics
- Creation of content
- Management of customer community
- Campaigns
- Promotions
Setting up a social media marketing budget may seem confusing, but as long as you include the key components, then you are on the right track. Keep this list of important factors from top marketing agencies in Los Angeles in mind, and start budgetin
7 Signs Your Website Needs an Update: Digital Marketing
Websites are essentially your face on the internet. It is the first thing that people will find when they search your name, and it will either have them hooked or put them off. It is a marketing tool that should help you gain more business and clients, and should always be updated. Without a good website, your online marketing and advertising will be pointless. There are new features being released every day that you should take advantage of to make your site seem more professional. Here are some signs that you should update your website according to top marketing agencies in Los Angeles.
1. Your website doesn’t make a good first impression
“First impressions last.” When someone visits your website, you only have 3-4 seconds to make a good first impression. Usually, the attention span of a new customer is very short, so if they don’t stay during the first few seconds, most likely they are not going to come back. Even if your product or service is known to be the best, yet your website leaves a wrong first impression, a customer will prefer to go to the competitor. Try entering the headspace of a new website visitor and look at your website to see what it looks like. You can also try to ask friends and family what comes to mind first when they look at the homepage of your website.
2. Your website isn’t memorable
“Almost everyone will make a good first impression, but only a few will make a good lasting impression.” Once you got a good first impression, you must work towards keeping the customers interested in your website. Everyone around your area will most likely have the same type of site, so you must stand out and be memorable. A website with a fresh and new look can help you to create a good lasting impression. Nothing says “trendy, successful and professional” more than a well-made website with new features and updated content. In order to beat your competition and stay ahead of the game, you must give your clients and new visitors a reason to use your website and to talk about it later. Mix it up by using new colors, fonts, and new content.
Marketing agencies in Los Angeles always experiment with risky features and colors, so you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. Nowadays everything is the same and people are tired of it and are always on the lookout, something that’s different. Take the time to recall some websites that have had a lasting impression on you, and try to figure out which features contributed to this good impression and incorporate something similar to your website.
3. Your website doesn’t reflect your brand
As a business owner, how you see yourself and your products and how the audience sees you is your brand. Finding and building your brand may sound complicated, but it isn’t very difficult. Firstly, you must discover how you see yourself and your company and then how others see you. Gather some information from friends and family by surveys or something similar to find out how others see you. Now, combine these two descriptions and voila you have your brand. It is essential that you portray your brand through your website as it is what people should notice and think of first. Your brand should include your objectives, morals, and goals, and those should somehow come across when someone views your website.
- You have undergone a rebranding
Of course, no one expects your brand to stay the same forever. Just as people change, so do companies, and their brands should change alongside them. A rebranding can mean new logo design, tagline, new colors, and fonts, or even a completely new brand guideline. Your website should be a big part of your online marketing strategy, so just as your brand changes, so should your website. It will seem unprofessional and highly off-putting if you have changed the whole “look” of your company, yet your website still reflects your old beliefs and designs. It will also confuse any newcomers who know of your new brand and try to look up more information about you.
4. Your website is outdated
This is the point that can really make or break the experience of a visitor on your website.
The saying “Old school is cool” shouldn’t be applicable to the functionality of your website. The internet, digital media, and online marketing are ever-evolving tools and go through many changes and shifts each year. The standards for websites customers have in their heads change alongside the development of new tools and technologies. The potential clients’ likes, dislikes, and preferences change just as fast, and what was trendy and popular, may become outdated tomorrow. If you want your website to be effective and bring in revenue, you need to become agile with your strategy and website. If your website was built 1-2 years ago or even later, then it is very likely very behind in terms of design and functionality. The code is probably outdated and is slowing down the loading speed. There may also be new browsers that have requirements that your website doesn’t meet, so it is incompatible with the newer websites clients are using. Just because the content is updated and fresh, does not necessarily mean the website is. Even if you feel sentimental and attached to your old website design, it is time to upgrade it to increase clients and revenue.
- Non-mobile-friendly websites
This is one of the gravest mistakes you can make as a company when it comes to a website. 50% of internet users use their mobile phones for access. Imagine if someone is walking down the street and notices your company name and wants to check it out while they’re on the bus. Or if a friend recommended your company in a text message, and the person doesn’t want to go get their laptop. So many potential customers will be lost if your website is not mobile-friendly. Even if you have top-notch design and content, if a website isn’t responsive on the phone, many customers will turn away from your company. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles have concluded that over 60% of all website traffic is conducted by mobile devices. Chances are most of your customers are in that 60% who want to access your website on their phone. You can be very sure that at some point, the rest of the customers will want to use your website on their phone too. It is also highly likely that the first interaction a potential customer will have with your website is on a mobile phone if they discover you through social media such as Instagram or Twitter. Mobile phone traffic isn’t going away anytime soon, and your website shouldn’t either. With may new website templates, you can choose to show or hide specific page blocks only on a mobile device, to optimize and engage the user more with your site. You will be surprised how many more customers you will attract with a fresh website with al the new features and a mobile-accessible option.
5. Ineffective Pathway
When a customer enters your page, there should be a logical pathway they follow. For effective website design, you will need an effective menu. This menu should be attractive to click on and should include all your pages. Aside from the menu, all your pages should encourage the customer to stay on your website and should lead them to the next page on your website. If your website includes a whole variety of content, a great tool to include on your site is a search bar. If a customer has come onto your website searching for something specific, they should be able to find it using the search bar. But as I mentioned above, you should also find a way to make them stay, with a “recommended” section or something similar to help them find other things you offer.
- “Call to Action” missing
If you’re wondering what a call-to-action is, then this is your first mistake. Everyone knows a website should have a contact me page, but most customers do not have time to look for it or to fill out their contact details. A call-to-action is simply a button or an area of your website that encourages action such as “sign-up now” or “get started today.” This is not just a button, or you can add randomly here and there. It must be placed strategically in order to keep the customer’s interest and offer them the opportunity to see more content and keep up with your website. You must never your potential customers wondering what their next step to see more content is. It must be subtle and intuitive but easy-to-find.
6. You have a high bounce rate
This is a very important factor for your website. If you have been spending time and money on an SEO and a marketing strategy, chances are you are successively bringing a lot of traffic to your website. But, right as they access the homepage of your website, the bounce right off, that means you have a big problem. You are losing clients and potential customers.
Your bounce rate defines the percentage of visitors to your website who exit the website after only viewing one page. A high bounce rate means that something you are doing is wrong; it has to do with either the content, the navigation, or the overall design of your website. Generally, a 40-60% bounce rate is considered to be normal, but this can vary according to the industry. You can check the bounce rate of your website using Google Analytics. Log in and then access the Acquisition >> Overview tab. Your end goal of a website should be to make your bounce rate as low as possible. Having a low bounce rate shows that visitors find your website to be worth their time. So, the lower your bounce rate is, the more opportunities there are to increase sales. Experiment with new designs, fonts, colors, and content. After some time, use an analytics site to see if the bounce rate has changed. If it has lowered, this means customers are liking this new look and stick around longer on your website. If the bounce rate has stayed the same or has gone higher, then try out other new features and designs to see if those will change the rate. The bounce rate of your website is one of the key clues into how your website is doing with customers, so take advantage of this and use it to its fullest potential. Many marketing agencies in Los Angeles would consider the bounce rate one of the most important tools in a website designer toolbox.
7. Your website is too slow: website update is needed
The target loading time of your website should be under 5 seconds. If you aren’t sure how fast your website loads, you can use tools like GTmetrix or Pingdom to check how long it takes for your site to open, along with which files are causing it to be slow. Remember to test everything, as it may be fast on Internet Explorer, but slow on Google Chrome. You must always keep in mind that you only have 4 seconds to make a good impression on a potential client. If 3 of those 4 seconds are spent on loading your website, then this will cause a big problem, because the visitor will exit your website before they even see the design you spent so much time on. Don’t miss out on opportunities by making a fresh design but having no one around to see it.
A few more words about website update.
If you went through this list and found it relatable to your website, then take this as a sign from the universe that you need to update it! Remember that your website, not a liability, and it is there to promote your work and help new customers discover your brand, so treat it like an asset. Any marketing agency in Los Angeles will tell you that no harm can be done with a website update, so what are you waiting for, get to redesigning
7 Online Marketing Mistakes that Ruin the Company’s Reputation
At least once a week, the hashtags “canceled” and “___isoverparty” are trending on Twitter. The power social media has is very evident here, and a simple online marketing mistake can cost you your company. It is tough to bounce back once you are canceled,or once you get a bad reputation. I will share with you some of the most common online marketing mistakes to avoid, according to my experience and some of the top marketing agencies in Los Angeles.
1. Ignoring or Neglecting Your Customers
One of the critical parts of building a successful business or brand is the customers. Your primary aim for online marketing should be to achieve customer satisfaction, and if your customers aren’t happy, then you are getting nowhere. Marketing agencies in Los Angeles report that 80% of all customers use social media to reach out to companies. So essentially, social media is a vital part of online marketing and brand image. A lack of response leads the customer to believe that they are not essential, and most will turn away from using what you advertise after being ignored. Social media pages of airlines are usually an excellent example of online marketing. Below, this customer may have even tweeted this as a joke, but the “JetBlue Airways” twitter response is sure to have made them feel heard and appreciated. It’s things like this that get people to stay loyal and always come back to you. This is also something that is sure to get around, as people love sharing their experiences with companies, whether it be to praise them or to warn others to stay away. One bad customer experience can be fatal to a smaller brand, so be sure to avoid this common online marketing mistake.
2. Being Too Pushy
It is essential that you are not too pushy with sales. A common online marketing mistake is that people often consider social media as an advertising medium when it should be a platform to engage customers while also promoting your brand and increasing awareness. People follow a page to stay updated, so you should provide them with engaging and intriguing content to keep them coming back. If all your posts are urging customers to make a purchase or are directly promoting your product, customers will be annoyed and turn away. Not to mention, too many sales posts portray a lack of originality and professionalism. Social media is based on building relationships, and if your page fails to do that, then your followers will surely leave.
But by following this rule, you must also make sure that you do not overwhelm followers with too much unrelated content. It is great to post memes and funny posts every few posts, but if you don’t promote your products, enough followers will unfollow, deeming your page purposeless. A small tip is to use the 80/20 rule if you’re unsure what to post. 80% of posts should be of some value to the audience, and 20% should be direct promotional activity. Once you start to be more active, you will get the hang of it and realize what your audience prefers to see.
3. Being Too Formal/Informal
Just because another business is “popping off” because of the brand’s funny or sarcastic personality, doesn’t mean you will too. What may work for another brand will not always work for you. You shouldn’t be striving to be one specific adjective, such as funny. Instead, you should focus on being open and friendly while maintaining your brand personality. Try to create and keep a steady online personality, so people will always know what to expect. In order to create a brand personality, you must thoroughly understand your target audience. A witty personality may attract millennials but will usually be off-putting to older customers. Being too casual with customers may also make you seem unprofessional.
At the same time, it is crucial to remember that social media is popular because it is friendly and casual. Everyone knows there’s a person behind a brand social media and not a robot, so that is how you should come across. Using traditional media terms such as “Sir/Madam” or “To whomever it may concern” will make you seem dated and lacking. It’s essential to keep the customer feel comfortable but still give them the impression that they are speaking to someone who is a professional who knows what they’re doing. A small tip used by marketing agencies in Los Angeles is when responding to someone online is to look at their page and see what their name is listed as, and respond with “Dear Name.” This makes it more personal yet also keeps it professional. Whichever personality approach you choose, consistency is key. It is most important that you stick to one brand mindset and develop it without drastically changing it.
4. Having too much Presence
More is not always better. Being an active presence on all social media platforms is not only going to be time-consuming and difficult but also purposeless. It is much wiser to spend your time perfecting your brand personality on two or three social media platforms than it is to provide mediocre content on many. Deciding which platform to use requires knowledge of your content and target audience. Imagine what your average customer looks like, their habits, and their daily activities. Take the time to build marketing personas, which is a sketch of a segment of your audience and should include some basic details such as age, gender, salary, location, and education. Using these personas, you should be able to find research regarding which social media platform they tend to use the most. You should also consider the type of content you are going to be putting out. For example, if your content is an image- and graphics-based, then you should consider using Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. A small tip from Los Angeles marketing agencies is always to attach images, even if your content depends on the text. Pictures always catch the reader’s eye first and attract them to the content. If your content is text-based, such as offering professional advice, then considering using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
But, keeping all this in mind, it is also important to maintain a presence on the big three of social media, which are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Even if you aren’t actively posting on these pages, you should still keep it updated, and it should have all the links to your more active social media pages. These “big three” are what usually come up when a brand is searched on Google, so try to lead a new customer to your more active pages through all your more dormant ones.
5. Not Tracking your Progress
To get the most you can out of online marketing, you should always analyze the results, and this includes the negative and the positive. This will help you in many aspects. You will understand if you’re reaching your target audience or not. You might be surprised at the customers you reach with your content, and it may be the polar opposite of your expected target audience. If you can’t choose what social media platform to use most, then try keeping a few pages on different platforms active and assess the analytics. If two of your pages are getting more attention, then it is time to leave the rest and amp up the content on these platforms. Online marketing can be a tricky area at the beginning, so it is crucial that you analyze your results and make changes to your strategy every week or so. It is also important to look at the big picture. For example, lots of likes mean nothing if you aren’t getting any comment, or your engagement blade is staying low. If, after some time, your account is growing, but your revenue isn’t, then it is time to alter your online marketing strategy.
6. Not Accepting Negative Feedback
Social media is all about interactions. It is a back-and-forth conversation between a brand and a customer. Reading and responding to negative comments and criticism will give you more insight into what the customers think of you. It will show you where you can improve, and what will bring in more customers. If you respond to a customer voicing their negative opinion about an aspect of your product, it will make the customer feel heard and appreciated, ensuring that they stay loyal even after an unpleasant experience. Before the age of social media marketing, a brand would’ve spent lots of money on conducting market research with surveys and questionnaires in order to gather customer opinions. But now brands receive free reviews in the form of comments and tweets, so you should always seize this opportunity. It can also severely harm your brand if you don’t. Jeffree Star, a famous beauty Youtuber, and owner of his own cosmetic brand has recently been under fire of accusations from fans. Apparently, Jeffree Star blocks everyone who voices an unfavorable opinion or complaint about the cosmetic products. This also includes fans who have supported him for years yet aren’t satisfied with a single product; they are also immediately blocked. Jeffree even goes as far as to harshly respond to those complaining about hair in their products, which lead to him losing many fans and gaining a horrible reputation.
7. Online Marketing: Posting Inconsistently
This is a huge online marketing mistake that includes a few aspects within itself. Here are some of those.
Posting Similar Content
Posting alike content constantly will leave people with the impression that the brand is boring, and there isn’t much creativity there. You should always maintain a consistent personality, but that doesn’t mean posting similar content all the time. Instead of posting links or random quotes all the time, take the time to analyze your target audience and stay in tune with it. Posting similar content, you are sure to lose your whole following in a very short amount of time. Your page should portray a message, should advertise your products while also being fresh and exciting, and should keep your followers engaged.
If you find yourself stuck or running out of ideas, then spend some time studying pages of competitors, and compare them to yours. Pick out what their best qualities are and use it to your advantage while also giving it a personal twist.
Posting Too Much
Everyone hates those irritating brands that keep putting out content on their social media platforms, to the point where it fills up the customers’ timelines. Posting too much at once is a terrible idea, and will lead to you losing all your followers. Customers do not want to go on social media and just see posts from one brand constantly. If you keep posting, a customer will most likely unfollow or overlook all your posts. Wherein posting similar content will make a customer simply overlook the posts, posting too much will seriously annoy the customer, and this will likely stick in their mind, and they will avoid making any purchases from you.
Not Posting Enough
Updating once in a while is NOT going to do the trick. In a constantly developing world, you need to stay on your toes and watch out. If you aren’t putting content on a customer’s timeline, then that means that the slot is taken up by your competitors. There are so many brands and pages out there that if you don’t constantly remind the customer of your brand, they will most likely forget. It will also make your page seem careless and unprofessional. According to many marketing agencies from Los Angeles, if a customer goes onto a page to see that the latest post is older than two days, then they will most likely not follow.
What to avoid in Online Marketing
To avoid all the above-mentioned problems, I would recommend creating a content calendar and sticking to it. This calendar should include the types of posts, captions, dates, and times. Once your engagement grows, and you realize you’re on the right track, then you can be less strict with yourself.
Online marketing is a tough area to master, but you must understand that it holds opportunities and growth possibilities that you will not find anywhere else. By avoiding these common mistakes and staying on track you are sure to see improvement for your brand.
Social Media Marketing – Step by Step Guide
Do you remember Barney’s 16-step elaborate plan for making a girl fall in love with him from the show “How I Met Your Mother”? Watching the show, this plan seemed ridiculous and unnecessarily long. Still, as I started interacting with marketing agencies in Los Angeles, I have come to realize that similar to Barney’s plan, social media marketing strategies require the same amount of effort and many steps. The crucial part of social media marketing is having a strategy. Posting something at a random time is never going to get you to where you want to go. Scrolling through a company’s Instagram, it may seem effortless and easy to do, but everything is very carefully set up and planned down to the tiniest details. Keep in mind that a strategy is where you’re headed and not how to get there. Here are some tips with you on how to start planning for social media marketing and what you should consider before starting.
1. Why do you want to use social media?
The first step to an effective social media marketing strategy is to establish your goals. It may seem simple and straightforward, but trust me when I say it is essential for all types of things such as social media marketing, website design and development in Los Angeles, where everyone is trying to achieve an online presence. Whenever setting a goal, you must make sure it is SMART.
- Specific
- Valuable
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Setting unrealistic goals is a common mistake in any area. It may seem motivating at first but can be very damaging. If your time frame is over and you haven’t reached your goal, you are likely to get demotivated and lose hope, leading to the ruin of everything you have achieved. It is better to appreciate even the smaller steps then go for something unattainable. Your goals must also have a deadline, or else they will seem ambiguous, and you won’t realize whether you’re moving forward or falling behind. This is a list of goals I find to be relevant to most people who are planning to use social media for marketing. Increase brand awareness
- Drive traffic to the website
- Create new leads
- Grow your revenue (by increasing sales or clicks)
- Boost brand engagement
- Build a community
- Provide social customer service
- Increase mentions in the press/media
- Be aware of the conversations about your brand/site
Your goals should concern a few areas. Of course, one of the reasons to do this is to increase revenue and sales of a product or a service you’re providing. But, social media marketing should also be somewhat customer based. It should be a space where people can interact with each other concerning your product/service, let others know what they appreciate about it, and help build a community of people who have one thing in common, usage of what you offer.
2. Who is your target audience?
Marketing Personas
Take some time to imagine what an average customer will look like, imagine their habits and their consumption patterns. A fun activity to do is build marketing personas. A marketing persona is a “sketch” of a critical segment of your audience or the audience you hope to attract with what you offer. For content marketing, you will need these personas to help you provide content that will be most relevant and attractive to your audience. The personas you create should include the basics such as age, gender, salary, location (rural/suburban/urban), and education. Then you should continue by adding their primary and secondary goals and what you will do to help achieve these goals, followed by common objections and challenges during the sales process and what values will get in the way. Some additional details should also be added depending on the type of product you are going to offer, such as hobbies, real quotes from interviews, what social media they use, what blogs they read, and so on. If you get stuck, try forming questions and answering them, such as what are they interested in that you can provide? (entertainment, educational content, news), why do they consume this content? (to get better at their job, to be healthy, to stay up to date).
Now comes the hard part, forming a small elevator pitch. This should be 1-3 sentences and should focus on selling your product or service to this specific person you have created, and must be based on what you have written down.
3. What will you share?
I know that once you see this question, you might be thinking about types of content you are going to share like photos or videos, but this is more about the bigger picture. Try to research and choose a “theme” for your page that will match the message you are trying to get across. Are you going to post HD photos of your products, or are you going to opt for posting customer submitted pictures? Maybe you think it’s better if you post memes or funny content or maybe reviews. This is where a great understanding of your target audience and your marketing personas will be helpful. Look at your research and try to understand what goals and challenges your consumers have and how you can help solve them. Now, this doesn’t mean you don’t have to limit yourself to one theme or content type. Lots of marketing agencies in Los Angeles find that using a handful of themes is actually more effective and engaging. But, all must be done in moderation, as not to seem messy or overwhelming. If there are too many types of content on your page, new customers will think it unprofessional and won’t check out your products. There are a few types of strategies for handling the types of content you put out.
Numbers in Social Media Marketing
For example, posting 50% of content that will drive traffic back to you, 25% of the content from other sources, 20% of content that will support enterprise goals, and 5% about HR and the culture of the company. If you are new into social media marketing and think this is too much or sounds complicated, you can try the easy 80-20 rule, which is 80 percent of informing, educating, or entertaining posts and 20 percent direct brand promotion. You can try these out and see which you find best. A great example of mixed content and effective social media marketing is the Instagram page of the makeup brand Fenty Beauty established by Rihanna. It includes HD photos of their cosmetic products and photos of celebrities wearing Fenty makeup. But, it also includes very frequent posts of customers using the products. This not only makes the average consumer feel involved in the process and appreciated, but it also encourages other consumers to post videos or photos of themselves using the products in the hopes of being featured on the official page, which indirectly further promotes the product.
Another vital aspect is choosing the personality of the face you will be using on social media. Will you be replying to comments in a sarcastic tone or a kind tone? You must choose a specific “persona” and keep it consistent. Everyone knows about the famous Wendy’s twitter account that interacts with customers asking for free food and even competing fast food social media accounts. In fact, their sarcastic and shady comments gained so much publicity that their sales multiplied.
4. Where will you share?
Now you are going to choose which social media platform you will be using. Remember, more is not always merrier. It is not important to be everywhere, all at once. A much better strategy is choosing one or two platforms and putting out consistent, high-quality content than posting everywhere to no avail. While you keep this in mind, you should also have a presence on the big 4 of social media, which is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You should post once in a while, and keep your information updated, as these are usually what will come up first if the name of your company is searched online. Try to use this to your advantage by making the consumer end up on the social media platform you are most active on.
Choosing your platform once again depends on your marketing personas and consumer profiles. Take some time to research your target audience and their social media usage. For example, most younger people I know prefer using Instagram. Other people usually use twitter for staying up to date with the recent news and would prefer seeing targeted content on Facebook. This is highly specific, and there is no general rule, so look-up studies and analytics by age groups, genders, incomes, and so on.
5. When will you share it?
This is a commonly overlooked step in website design and social media marketing in Los Angeles. Once again, it is essential that you know your target audience and their habits. Kids and teens tend to not go on social media during school and only go on after school, which is in the afternoon and the peak time of seeing your content. Sports fans will go online right before and during a sporting event to interact with other fans and find relevant information concerning the game. Mothers go on social media in the middle of the night when their child has awakened them, and they can’t go back to sleep, or they are feeding the child. Travel enthusiasts tend to go on social media during late evenings when their hotel has wifi, or on weekends when they are planning their next trip. As you can see, it is highly variable from person to person and should be researched. Once you figure this out, set up a calendar with reminders, and stick to it with no exceptions.
6. Who else is there?
Catch up with your competitors. Try to check out comments and reviews and figure out what they are doing wrong and what they are doing right. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” There isn’t any point in starting from scratch and wasting time on obstacles that could have been non-existent if you had done a little more research. Many companies have been around for years and have mastered the art of social media marketing, and if you dig a little deep you can find all their downfalls and analysis on their mistakes if you spot any shortcomings, such as the absence of a feature that the audience demands, try to fill it. By doing this, you can also find out what to expect, so there will be no surprises once you start.
7. Are you doing social media marketing right?
This is a step that you should be doing after following this guide for a few months. Now, it is time that you take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Review all current analytics and reviews. Figure out what is working and what isn’t not. Which posts are getting higher engagement, and the reason behind it is the content or the time that it is posted at. Look at the engagements and if the comments are positive or negative. Is your target audience who you expected it to be, or do you need to tweak your settings for a new audience? Are you reaching your audience at all, or are you being met with a brick wall? These are only some of the observations you should be making, and if something isn’t working out, try looking at competitors’ sites, researching more, or redoing something to make your content ideal.
