Tag: social media

  • 4 Proven Marketing Campaigns to Maximize Revenue

    4 Proven Marketing Campaigns to Maximize Revenue

    4 Proven Marketing Campaigns for 2023

    The new year ushered in a new era for businesses. 2023 is marked with the likes of brutal inflation, energy costs at an all-time high, and mass layoffs happening frequently. It’s frightening for small business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s time to double down on some foundational marketing campaigns that will keep a steady stream of clients coming through your doors.

    In this article, we will expand on the following core marketing strategies:

    Video Content

    Written Content

    Email Marketing

    Social Media Ads

    Build your marketing strategy around these 4 marketing campaigns and execute them well to maximize your revenue even in an economic lull.

    Video Marketing

    You need to double down on your video content this year. If you haven’t started using video, it’s time to start now. Most marketers will agree that video is one of their highest ROI. Not sure how to start? Check out these 3 must-have videos for every business.

    Graph showing 88% of consumers prefer brand to be authentic and 66% of consumers prefer brands to be transparent.

    Why video?

    54% of consumers say they would prefer to view videos from businesses rather than other forms of content. And why wouldn’t they?

    Video is unlike text because it conveys emotion. This is how you humanize your marketing message. People prefer to know the brands they buy from on a personal and emotional level. Video will help you achieve that.

    66% of consumers say a transparent brand is an attractive brand.
    88% of consumers say authenticity is a major factor in purchasing from a brand.

    HubSpot

    What better way to convey transparency and authenticity than by speaking in your voice, using your personality, to introduce your brand?

    What should your video strategy include?

    When creating videos, storytelling is the most important technique. Think less about selling and more about your potential customer getting to know you. You may run a massive company, you may own a small business, but either way, you are people. People relate to people.

    Your message needs to answer questions and solve problems. If you’re empathetic to customer pains, it will resonate with your audience. Tell a story that highlights the fact that you understand their struggles. And then show them how you can help.

    As with all content, create your videos in a way that makes it easy to slice them into shorter videos for different platforms. Video takes time, but when done correctly it has incredible staying power.

    Content distribution

    More important than creating the video is your plan for distributing it. Consider these questions:

    • Where does my potential client hang out online?
    • What are their communication preferences?

    Decide where you will post your videos. How will you repurpose the long form video into multiple short form videos?

    As you prepare and plan for each video, be thinking about all the places it can be seen:

    • Website
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • TikTok
    • Email

    There are different length and style recommendations for each platform. Creating a plan for how you will use each video with regards to the above list will save time and give your campaign a clear direction.

    Once your video is completed in long-form, optimize it for distribution on social media.

    Finally, the look and feel of your videos should match your brand. This also means that the quality needs to be high. If you can’t do this yourself, schedule a call with me to see how I can create and implement your video marketing strategy.

    Written Content

    You will want a strategic mix for your written content campaign. Consider the following:

    • Blog
    • Website pages
    • Landing pages
    • Guest articles on other blogs
    • Print media

    Blog

    Blogging has stood the test of time and remains one of the best methods of reaching your audience.

    Your content strategy doesn’t have to be all about creating new content unless you’re starting from scratch. If you already have a blog full of content, go back through it and find old articles you can update and repurpose.

    Consider how you can take your long form content and pull out main points for shorter pieces like tweets and LinkedIn posts.

    Do you have posts that are out of date? Do some keyword research, refresh them, and make them relevant again.

    Your content should demonstrate your knowledge and build relationships.

    Follow these people for brilliant advice about blogging, copywriting, and SEO:

    If you haven’t started yet, check out this Ultimate Guide to Start a WordPress Website.

    Website Refresh

    Refreshing your website is something that needs to happen frequently. Google always gives credit to fresh copy and optimization that’s in line with their updates.

    Have a look at your pages. Can you add valuable content? Can you consolidate pages? Is there anything that needs to be removed?

    Web ranking algorithms are constantly evolving. Google search changes 12 times in a day. Make sure you’re following the latest advice from them regarding the changes they make.

    Here’s our advice on finding and fixing issues with your website.

    Guest Blogging

    A great way to build some backlinks to your website and boost your content is guest blogging. Backlinks will build domain authority and increase traffic on your site.

    Do some research on the products and services you use. Do they have a blog? Do they have guest posts? If so, reach out to them and ask if you can write a guest post telling your story about how you use their products and services to streamline your business.

    This is a win-win. You get a guest article, they get a testimonial.

    Email Marketing

    Your contact database is your entire business. It may contain former clients, current clients, and people who have expressed interest in your products and services but haven’t made a purchase yet. All of these people are potential clients.

    Systematic communication with your contacts through email is a great way to stay top of mind. If you’ve neglected your database for a while, use these database clean-up tips to get organized.

    Provide Value

    Sending email for the sake of action will cause a mass exodus. People are guaranteed to unsubscribe quickly if they don’t see the purpose in your emails. If you’re not sure how to do this, seek out people who are doing it at a high level. Subscribe to newsletters and see what works for you and what doesn’t.

    Here are some of my favorite newsletter creators:

    Study how these people are giving you valuable info. Be intentional about your message. Prove your worth by adding value to your readers’ day. When you give your audience something that helps them, they will remember you when it’s time to buy.

    Clean and Organize

    Go through your database and make sure it is full of relevant people with correct contact information.

    To organize your database, break it into segments according to your relationship and their interests. That way you can tailor your messages to each segment of your audience and guarantee your contacts are getting the right email for them.

    Use a CRM to stay organized and systematize your email campaigns.

    Social Media Marketing

    Last but certainly not least, your business needs a clear social media strategy. I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but you don’t need to be on every social media channel available. Your social media presence should be strategic and sustainable.

    Choose your channels according to your audience. If your client demographic is mainly men and women over 45, you can probably skip the TikTok account.

    A smartphone has social media icons hovering above it demonstrating the importance of social media for businesses.

    Planning

    Now you need a content strategy. Set goals for engagement and post frequency.

    Creating and planning the content in advance will streamline distribution and save time. Use your blog articles and videos as a way to deploy content on social media. Create a framework around what you will post.

    Example:

    • Monday – Post a video
    • Tuesday – Share a blog article
    • Wednesday – Post 3 main points from that article
    • Thursday – Post an offer
    • Friday – Post a testimonial
    • Comment on something every day

    Tweak this to make sense for the content you have and the customer you serve. Either way, stay on top of it. Consistency is the most important part of maintaining your social media profile.

    Paid Ads

    Paid ads can give you a greater reach, but it’s important to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Increasing your audience size won’t matter if your ads are going to the wrong people.

    There are very specific ways to target interests and behaviors using social media paid ads. If you’re not familiar with how this works you will end up spending money for nothing.

    Social media is a powerful tool. Your business will benefit from a proper strategy and strict implementation.

    Track Your Results

    It’s important to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and make adjustments to maximize ROI.

    • Analyze traffic statistics on your blog. If you’re using WordPress, the built-in analytics are great.
    • Analyze keyword rankings and search engine rankings in Google Search Console.
    • YouTube has brilliant viewer statistics for your videos. Pay attention to average watch time on your channel. If people are watching almost the whole video, it’s a keeper.
    • Paid social media ads will provide analytics as well. Engagement is better than “reach” or “views”. You can use this to adjust your ad creative. If it gets a lot of views with few clicks, there’s something wrong.
    • The Facebook pixel is a magical tool for tracking activity also.

    Leverage Technology

    Using tech tools can make your campaigns efficient and effective. From automation to AI, your marketing will benefit from implementing certain technology.

    • AI writing tools can
      • Give you ideas for new articles
      • Rearrange your thoughts and give you a fresh perspective
      • Organize your research
      • Write rough outlines for your blog articles.
    • Zapier is brilliant for automating redundant tasks.
    • Hootsuite helps you plan and schedule your social media posts.
    • Canva is a graphic design software that is perfect for designing your social media posts, arranging Instagram reels, and sprucing up your profiles.
    • Futurepedia is an incredible list of AI tools that is updated daily.

    Pick and choose tools that make sense for your specific business. You don’t have to use everything. Watch out for shiny object syndrome.

    2023 doesn’t have to be a scary year. With a solid marketing strategy using these foundational campaigns, you will stay ahead of the competition. Stay consistent and you’ll maximize your revenue.

    Ready to see how I can help you? Schedule a call. No strings attached.

  • Reach more people on social media with optimized marketing videos

    Reach more people on social media with optimized marketing videos

    Best Practices for Marketing Videos on Social Media

    Let’s be honest, video, like so many aspects of marketing and branding, video is not a super simple thing that you can just jump right into without any knowledge or planning. You’ve made the wise decision to create some marketing videos for your small business, now it’s time to plan. Each social media platform is unique in the way that it handles and displays video. One of the first moves in creating a video marketing strategy is to build a plan based on distribution. You could be sending video emails, posting on social media, or creating a few videos to enhance your website, and the plan will look a bit different in each scenario. Let’s take a look at a few things that will save you time and headache if you sort them out before you start.

    Where will you post your video?

    This is the first question you should ask yourself. There are plenty of places where your video could shine and attract new clients to increase revenue. On the flip side, there are places where it is destined to fail. So, which platforms should you consider when creating your videos? Where you post your videos will determine a lot about the format of the video and the content of the message. Answer 2 questions:

    1.

    Who is your audience?

    2.

    Where do they hang out?

    Most likely, you have already identified the core audience that uses your products and services. For determining where your videos should go, it’s important to know the age range of your clients and the primary ways they have interacted with you. Look at analytics on your website and your social channels to find this data.

    Using the data from your audience research, you should be able to determine where your ideal client spends most of their time online, and whether or not they open and respond to emails. It’s good to assume that most people will be viewing your emails, website, and videos from a mobile device like a phone or a tablet. It’s best to optimize for mobile viewing in everything you do.

    Optimizing your video for the proper social media channels

    While there are no hard and fast rules for length and format of videos on the internet, these are some great guidelines based on data collected from thousands of profiles across 3 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

    Facebook Videos

    As of January 2022, 31% of Facebook users are between 25 and 34 years old. This is the largest segment of age demographics using the platform. You may see slightly different demographics for your own brand’s personal engagement, so it’s important to view your post insights. Videos command 136% more organic reach than posts with images, so the algorithm favors video distribution. Here are some tips for optimizing your marketing videos for distribution on Facebook.

    The Message

    • Keep it short and direct. Your videos should be one minute or less. Make your message clear.
    • “Punchline first” – cram the most interesting and important bit into the first 10 seconds.
    • Be human and not robotic. Your personality needs to be seen here. Don’t be fake.
    • Make sure there’s a clear call to action at the end. Viewers need to know what to do next.
    • Use graphics and text overlays to emphasize your main points.
    • Use captions. Viewers aren’t always in a place where they can turn up the volume. Auto-generated captions need review and editing.

    The Method

    • Shoot your video in one of two formats:
      • Square (1:1) – You can shoot square video with an iPhone. This format uses more of the screen. If you’re using DSLR, you will need to change aspect ratio in post production.
      • Landscape (16:9) – This is a wide shot from left to right. More cinematic looking, but uses less of the screen.
    • Audio – Bad audio will kill your message. Invest in a lavalier mic or a shotgun mic. They aren’t super expensive, and the benefits are incredible.
    • Use music, sound effects, and voice over in appropriate situations. Try Pixabay for music and sound effects.

    Instagram Videos

    Almost 60% of Instagram’s users are between 18 and 32 years old. That’s a telling piece of data for anyone looking to gain a following on the platform. On average, Instagram users watch 30 minutes of reels, stories, and video posts each day. In order to capture that audience, you need to know the purpose for each type of post, what it does, and how it performs. The algorithm favors reels and stories above posts. 500 million people login to look at stories each day.

    Reels & Stories

    • Reels are short videos that live inside your profile and they can be a combination of video and still photos.
    • Stories are short videos that are accessed by clicking your circle profile photo. They only remain active for 24 hours, however you can repurpose a story to create a reel.
    • Reels and Stories should be between 15 and 30 seconds long.
    • Both types of video should be shot in portrait format (tall, not wide)
    • Make sure there’s a clear call to action here again. There should be no confusion about what the viewer needs to do to get in touch, purchase, etc.
    • Graphics, text overlays, strange filters, and captions should be used when necessary.
    • Find trending audio (the little diagonal arrow by the track at the bottom of other reels) with fewer than 5,000 reels, and put it in your video.

    Posts

    • I personally would not create videos that are specifically made for posts. Posts get less organic reach than reels and stories. I would repurpose videos that you have already made for Facebook and YouTube in square or landscape format, and create Instagram posts around them.
    • THE ONLY EXCEPTION – If you are creating a paid advertising campaign… square video and animation both work very nicely as a paid ad post.
    • Audio – You need the best audio possible. First, be aware of your surroundings. If you’re outside without a lavalier mic, is there street noise, wind, or other loud noises? If you’re shooting with a phone or the built-in mic on a DSLR, make sure you are close enough to the camera. Indoors, be aware of echo from hard surfaces. You can soften this by using blankets and pillows.

    YouTube Videos

    YouTube’s viewer demographics are evenly spread across age groups because there’s literally something for everyone on the platform. 18-24 year olds make up 15% of the users, 25-34 year olds come in at 20.5%, 35-44 year olds combine for 16.5% of YouTube’s viewers, and 45-54 year olds make up 12% of users. It’s also worth noting that 19% of YouTube viewers are 55 and older (split evenly between 55-64 and 65+). So what do you do with this info? Put your videos on YouTube!

    The Purpose

    • One of the best things about uploading your videos to YouTube is that it is a search engine on it’s own. You will receive great visibility in Google searches as well.
    • YouTube is also the place to put your longer videos. 2 minute videos or 10 minute videos, and everything in between.
    • It’s the perfect platform for educational and “how-to” videos, product videos, brand awareness videos, and more.
    • Drive traffic to your website using in-video links and profile links.

    The Format

    • While you can upload video in any format, the best practice would be to keep it uniform. Videos on YouTube should be shot in landscape (16:9) orientation.
    • Live action and screen capture videos, documentary style, as well as produced and polished. All types of video are fair game.
    • Create your channel and optimize it by walking through the entire setup.
    • Use keywords and links in the video descriptions for great SEO.

    Planning ahead will save you a lot of time and effort. When you format your videos correctly for distribution on each social media channel, you will increase your chances of engagement.

    Not sure where to start? Check out these 3 must-have videos for all businesses.

    If you have questions about creating a video marketing strategy for your small business, or if you want a fresh set of eyes on your video content to discover where you could be missing opportunities, set up 30-minute call with JT Creative and see if we can help you overcome some of your video marketing challenges.