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Social Media Advertising – What To Consider Before You Start

January 11, 2019
All, IFA, GBI, MVPro, RoboPro

Be Goal-Orientated (spending your budget in the right place)

“When you’re starting out, it’s hard to pinpoint one social platform to focus on, and a lot of the time the social platform you choose is just the tool that fits best into your overall objective. When focusing my social media advertising efforts, I always start by going back and reviewing the marketing campaign I’m running, and what its objective is. If it’s designed to increase brand awareness, it’s best to ask the question ‘how can I target my audience as effectively as possible?’.  As you progress along the sales/marketing funnel, you’ll start using social media advertising to answer a very different question: ‘how can I get visitors who didn’t convert back to my site?’.”

“It’s always worth looking at where your audience spends their time before deciding where to focus your social media advertising budget. When allocating budgets, I tend to prefer a linear model across all available options and analyze it every two days. Then I have the control to shift budget across social networks once I’ve calculated the ROI and success of each channel.”

Go Where Your Audience Is (maintaining reach in a shifting landscape)

“Users these days have more choice as to where they spend their time on social media. I know very few people who have the same social media preferences/behaviours. This directly impacts brands, as the need to analyze more competing social channels is making the whole process a bit more complicated. Two years ago, it felt like most people spent their social media time on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but as the social media user evolves, it’s only natural that advertising on social media will as well.”

“To use an example, LinkedIn groups used to be a go-to in any marketer’s social media armoury, but today the results this tactic generates are poor. The users that the brands were targeting in these groups haven’t disappeared, they’ve simply gone down different social media paths. Sure, some stick around, but with Reddit, chat apps, and Facebook groups, these quality conversations have moved. Brands will need to follow them.”

Think Like a User (anticipating audience reaction)

“As a marketer, I often look at a hyper-personalized social media ad and I think ‘that’s a clever advertising campaign’. However, I know plenty of people who find such tactics annoying and intrusive. When done right, personalized automation enables relevance; when it’s overly intrusive it can be detrimental to a brand.”

“For me, it comes down to two things:

  1. How do you feel about the ad you’re displaying?
    If you think it’s too intrusive, it probably is.
  2. What will your audience’s reaction be?
    If you are targeting a group who respect their data privacy and are compliance-focused, the likelihood is that they won’t respond well.”

“For me what’s interesting about this is the targeting falls onto the social platform, not just the brand. I rarely hear people say ‘Mercedes used my name on a personalized number plate, how creepy is that?’. Instead, it’s ‘Facebook showed me an ad the other day…’  and that tends to work in advertisers’ favour IMHO.”

Tags: Social Media, Paid Advertising

How to Create Infographics People Will Actually Like

September 26, 2018
All, IFA, GBI, MVPro, RoboPro

Content strategies are an awesome idea, but implementing what you’ve put in place now needs to be followed. Any content strategy works on paper, but putting ideas into practice is where a lot of small businesses, and even elite corporates, can come up short.

Infographics are cool, hip and if they’re not implemented correctly insanely complicated. Turns out, you can make infographics like a boss with the right designer, researcher or if you’re feeling super talented, it’s something you might want to do yourself.

Where to start? Topics and themes

The age old question before you start any content venture. Why on earth would anyone want to read th?s. What problem are they trying to solve? If it doesn’t solve a problem, there’s probably no point writing it.

For example, I’m writing this about the problem in the industry currently. Most of the content currently produced by the industry is dull. And content distributed by our platforms performs best when it’s… not. So, our relationships with clients work best when their content performs well on our platform and continue to work with us.

Don’t make me do it… Research

“Oh no, not research” Yes. Research is king. Gather statistics and check sources. If you want to know emerging technology and trends, data from 2008 will be worthless. As Vic Reeves said 72% of statistics are made up on the spot, so check your sources.

After your research it’s important you look into variables and alternate metrics before you look into pulling out your own insights. I use this example a lot, but there is no link between Worldwide non-commercial space launches and sociology doctorates awarded (US) despite what the data tells us. Thank you tylervigen

Metrics, numbers and breakdowns

The next step is to find relevant numbers and charts to your topics, preferably those that b ack up your initial point. A good infographic will only need between 5 – 10, but if it’s not metrics you need and it’s more of a landscape it may be best to skip this part.

Design is essential to any content

It’s true. There are a lot of considerations with the design that are worth exploring, the layout, the structure, how you are going to communicate your story. The best infographics are clear and simple. They communicate the data in a way that is immediately apparent and eyecatching.

If design doesn’t come naturally to you, consider a template rather than starting from scratch. Try to avoid overloading your infographic with content. Keep it short and sweet

Share it with the world

The next step after you’ve created your beautiful infographic is to share it wherever you can. Send it to the industry press, share it on social media and embed it on your website.

Beyond that, upload it to Pinterest, or snippet the infographic into key chunks for easy reading.

If you have any other Infographic questions, let me know. You can reach me on Twitter @jj_stockwell.

4 Key Considerations to Measure Your Next Brand Awareness Campaign

September 12, 2018
All, IFA, GBI, MVPro, RoboPro

I’m currently rewatching Mad Men. Not for Don Draper’s attitude or for Elizabeth Moss’s transformation into one of the biggest actresses to date, but for the marketing. The show covers marketing in it’s most raw form. Utilising brand awareness campaigns to influence an audience into making a decision.

I feel like in this age of digital advertising we’re playing the same game, but with different tactics. Brand awareness campaigns are still about changing perceptions of organisations, but as brand awareness campaigns are so easy to set up we, as marketers, are guilty of rushing into them without thought, then blaming other parameters that we cannot control for their demise.

Here are the top considerations to make the most of a brand awareness campaign, that won’t take long and will make a difference.

1. What do your audience currently think of you?

You may or may not know this before the campaign. Well done if you do, but it’s definitely worth revisiting before EVERY brand awareness campaign. A goods way to get an idea is, quite simply, by asking people. Send out a survey, ask people who no longer use your service why they didn’t and incentivise them to tell you why. People may not be honest with you initially, but after open questions, they will become more honest with their feedback… this information will feed number two!

2. What perception do you want to change?

I could have phrased this better, but using the information from step one what do you want to change. Your brand awareness objective may be completely different. You might not need to change anything, but inform them about a new product or service you offer. In which case that’s what you need to communicate.

3. How are you going to measure it?

This is where Mad Men may fall a little short. Sure the marketing guys will say that their advertising campaign contributed to an increase in sales. But was it the build-up to Christmas that saw an increase in toy sales? Was it the end of the financial year that caused the IFAs to consider your investment fund? Measuring a brand awareness campaign can be a case of ‘What are the metrics! but every marketing campaign needs quality analysis (not necessarily metrics) as well as quantity.

4. What can we take out of it

“Did it work? Who knows. Let’s buy more impressions in the hope that it does.” – A painful conversation with a media buying agency.

Realistically, your brand awareness campaign won’t drive traffic to your website. It won’t generate thousands of product enquiries. What it will do is change your audience’s perception of your brand. All these steps will help you measure as long as you relate them to your overall campaign objective. Like the Mad Men of Madison Avenue, we need to focus on two things. Campaign objectives and our audience’s needs. That’s what will make your marketing cut the mustard in 2019.

Continue reading 4 Key Considerations to Measure Your Next Brand Awareness Campaign

Tags: Brand Awareness

Building a Content Marketing Campaign: Social Distribution Tactics

September 10, 2018
All, IFA, GBI, MVPro, RoboPro

All content marketing campaigns should start with a strategic, business process which focuses on distributing valuable and relevant content. Before you start with content distribution, stop and think about the wider context and your marketing goals; who are you targeting? What strategy objective are you achieving with this piece of content?

By sticking to your content strategy, you can ensure that you stay organised and give yourself the best chance of achieving your goals. Once you have outlined and identified your goals, you’ll want to make sure you distribute your content in effective ways.

How can content be distributed through social media?

Social Media is everywhere; with a phone in everyone’s hands, utilising social media is key to every marketer. Each social media platform will have its own strengths, depending on industries, target audience and objectives:

  • Facebook: marketers have the ability to place targeted ads and monitor content marketing campaigns. Facebook is also great for hosting and distributing videos and image advertisements. The targeting options on advertising are huge reasons why it’s still a popular content distribution tool.
  • Twitter: the use of hashtags will enable a marketer’s post to go further. Character limitations ensure that your headline is concise and eye-catching, whilst retweeting relevant posts will help you stay connected. Twitter also has features such as lists, moments and polls, where you can interact with your audience as well as solely use it to distribute content. This can help you gauge audience sentiment and get ideas for future content marketing campaigns.
  • LinkedIn: By sharing articles and posts in groups, a marketer’s post can engage with and subsequently connect with other professionals. Users frequently comment and interact on the content itself, and gives a personal feel behind each piece of content. LinkedIn Publisher posts are a great way to extend the reach of your content.
  • YouTube: video is becoming increasingly popular; YouTube is a very useful platform for marketers to share knowledge and insights about a brand in a captivating and easily consumable way. Add your content to playlists and embed it on your website and in blogs as a next step.
  • Instagram: starting to emerge as the ‘dark horse’ for B2B content marketing, Instagram is the social platform that users engage with most frequently. Although long form content isn’t as effective here, smaller snippets gain traction and interaction. Look at GE for example.
  • Soundcloud: maybe you don’t have the resource to design content, but you have the industry expertise to showcase internally. Podcasting through Soundcloud is a great way to communicate your leadership. All you need is a phone and a microphone to get started.

Distributing your content through these different channels will help you to effectively build brand awareness and give knowledge to your target audience. Successful content distribution will make your audience feel more empowered with the knowledge that you are giving them, making your marketing more customer centric, rather than sales centric, helping your audience to feel more connected and educated about your brand.

Continue reading Building a Content Marketing Campaign: Social Distribution Tactics

Design In Content Marketing

5 Top Tips For Design In Content Marketing

September 10, 2018
All, IFA, GBI, MVPro, RoboPro

Content design is often the forgotten element of content marketing. It infuriates me when we see a seven-page whitepaper some through from a client come through in an aged powerpoint, or worse… Microsoft Publisher. Seeing all that effort go in to the wording, the language, the tone, here are my five tips for getting the design right:

1. Give your brand an identity

Let your readers know who you are, what you do and why you do it. The first part of this is your logo. This is your visual identity, use it throughout all your content assets to help create consistency and brand recall.

2. Create and implement your brand guidelines

This is vital, readers need consistency of design in content marketing, so it is extremely important to have brand guidelines to give your organisation it’s individuality. This in turn will influence your visual presence across digital and print content. Some brand guidelines ‘musts’ include company colours, typefaces, terminology, icons, imagery, stationary and clothing.

3. Align creativity with strategy

Give your company a long-term creative strategy that aligns with your business strategy. This can be integrated through templates for content which again helps create further consistency and communicates your expert content effectively.

4. Engage with your customers with creative content to boost Brand awareness and promote growth

Use both print and digital to interact with your readers, make sure to utilise social media platforms to build relationships with your audience and communicate with your prospects.

5. Use your brand guidelines as guidelines not write of passage

Be creative. Keep your content engaging and varied. Keep up with the current trends and implement your own, and in turn, you will engage and excite your audience. Brand guidelines should be seen as enablers to your business, not a limiting factor. Use your fantastic content ideas and align them with your brand guidelines to create beautiful assets your audience will want to continually read.

I’m a big believer in consistency, and as long as your audience is able to identify your brand, the subject of the content and the tone of the document without even reading a word, the design would have been effective.

Tags: Content Marketing, Design

How To Monitor Your Brand In The Digital Age

September 8, 2018
All, IFA, GBI, MVPro, RoboPro

The digital world is a maze of metrics, reviews and searches, and quite frankly if the metrics are there should you listen… maybe not… but when it comes to marketing metrics it’s crucial to separate the wheat from the chaff. What I mean by that is know what you want to measure, then how you are going to measure, and in turn how you are going to repeat it.

Match Metrics To Objectives

If you don’t have objectives, you’ll never know what to measure, and if you turn everything you measure into an objective, you’ll end up without focus. Find a balance between what brand awareness objectives you have and what measurable metrics you can pull together. You may only care about 3 or 4, but there may deeper insight that you can investigate and other metrics that help paint the full picture.

Where To Find These Metrics

There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution with this. Every organisation has different objectives, but here are my favourite places to look:

  • Google Trends: Search your brand versus your competitors on Google Trends to get an idea of how popular your brand search term is.

    Or use it to settle important office debates:

  • Google Search Console: If you haven’t used Search Console before, it’s a very useful tool to get insight into what your website is ranking for in Google. Here you can monitor brand search terms as well as terms you’re trying to rank for and plot them over time.
  • Advnaced Social Searches: Use the search function on social media to look for links mentioning your brand term or linking to your site, here’s where you can snuff it out.
  • Google News: Going past metrics and into more of the latest news, Google News is the best place to do that. It scours the webs for articles that meet certain keyword or topic criteria.

There are more comprehensive tools out there, but if you’re investing in a tool you want to be sure you’re going to use it as effectively as possible.

Tracking it ongoing

It’#s one thing to do this once, and another to set up an ongoing campaign to ensure you stick with it. Book it in monthly to track improvements to your marketing campaigns and see exactly where you’ve been effective.