he COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every facet of our lives, including our home and professional life. Companies continue to reevaluate how we work and from where, and both the economy and our work environments may never be the same. More people are working remotely and more technology solutions are available to help facilitate virtual, rather than in-person, interaction. Consequently, the digital ecosystem and social media universe are experiencing a major boom, so the time to invest in more efficient digital marketing practices couldn’t be better.
Regardless of industry, the last decade ushered in a digital renaissance; seven in 10 U.S. adults use Facebook, a LinkedIn profile is considered essential for nearly any business and your website requires frequent attention and technical tweaks to stand out. For companies slacking on their digital game, the pandemic has greatly accelerated the need to transfer time and resources to online marketing tactics.
The first step is to ensure that all content, logos and imagery are consistent across all platforms — confusion turns customers away. Stick to your own brand guidelines. If you don’t have brand guidelines, develop them and share with anyone who might need them, such as marketing teams, web developers, etc. Include information about what colors to use, when and how to use your logo, your preferred hashtags and so on. Secondly, remember that social media pages are meant to be communicative vehicles for you and your customers; users can typically directly message your page.
Think about using social media as a customer service tool and/or a way to reach out to prospective clients. Just be sure you have the resources to monitor your posts for quick responses.
Lastly, take the time to understand the do’s and don’ts of using hashtags. When used correctly, hashtags can help increase engagement and attract new followers.
Instagram is a visual platform and is narrow in focus; its goal is to try to inspire people with eye-catching imagery and quick-copy points, as opposed to the longer form content used elsewhere. If your business has a lot of quality images to share, this is a great place to show them off.
Owned by Google, YouTube is the most popular platform for video content in the world. In this digital age we live in, video is king: From short how-to clips, product installations, customer testimonials or company overview, videos can provide an educational, engaging vehicle for delivering content. You don’t necessarily need a professionally created video — smart phones work well, too. Your videos can be easily categorized on your YouTube page (channel) for easy access and make excellent content for your social posts. Include video links in your email signatures for added exposure.
Other social media platforms to consider using are Twitter for quick communication and Pinterest for creative imagery.
Many people may not realize that Instagram is owned by Facebook, and both have been engineered over time to work well side-by-side. For example, when you run a paid ad campaign on Facebook, you can link your Instagram account to that campaign and manage it through the Facebook Business Manager tool, making it easy to apportion your budget and use the same ads in your campaigns. Most paid advertisers use a CPC (cost-per-click) strategy, which means you’re charged by how many clicks your ad receives. You can choose from a variety of criteria to define your target audience, including:
- Geographic location, down to the very mile if desired
- Age and gender
- Job title and level of education
- Income range
- Hobbies and Interests
LinkedIn advertising campaigns look similar to Facebook campaigns. Many of the criteria used to define your audience are the same, but keep in mind that while Facebook is a more casual platform, where it may be easier to convert users or obtain their contact information, LinkedIn professionals may be more reserved, so it’s best to do some research first before testing a campaign. Be ready to adjust if necessary.
Have you ever searched for something on Google, only to see the first few results say “Ad” next to them? This is the Google Ads universe. Companies compete for and bid on certain search terms and queries to try to appear as high as possible on a page for the lowest cost. Thus, this type of advertising is very different from paid campaigns with Facebook or LinkedIn, because instead of just selecting a target audience, Google Ads are all about bidding on relevant search terms.
Figuring out how to manage paid campaigns can be difficult compared to other aspects of social media marketing. Understanding the differences between performance metrics and how to adjust budgets during campaign are all major concerns for first-time advertisers. Luckily, the different social platforms offer online training tutorials to help you navigate.
There are many proven practices to follow when creating content for email automations. Remember to target your content to your audience. Messaging to existing customers may be quite different from new prospects. Keep email copy brief yet enticing. Give extra thought to the subject line — that’s your hook. It’s a best practice to only have one CTA (call to action) in your email and a dedicated landing page (rather than a standard web page).
There’s a multitude of industry benchmarks to compare your performance metrics against, such as open rate, click through rate, bounce rate and conversion rate. Your bulk email platform should be able to show you your results so you can compare to these benchmarks. In some cases, such as Constant Contact, it will let you know the best time to send a message based on past performance.
When trying to improve your metrics, consider testing two different subject lines to help determine the language that best resonates with your audience (called “A/B testing”). Another simple way to improve email engagement is personalization, using the contact name directly in the email content or subject field. Studies have shown that emails with personalized subject lines are up to 26 percent more likely to be opened than those that lack them. More engagement is always the goal.
To help manage your contact lists and campaigns, several marketing automation tools are available, such as HubSpot, MailChimp, Constant Contact and ActiveCampaign, among others.
Most marketing teams won’t simply develop content they believe is strong, publish it and then leave it as-is forever. It’s recommended to incorporate a formal testing process — this gives you an opportunity to learn from your customers/prospects and could lead to profit-driven results. One major digital vehicle that is often overlooked when testing is your website. Fortunately, there is an easy way to get your feet wet. Google Optimize allows you to simultaneously test up to five website pages for free. You can link Optimize to your Google Analytics account for more complex tests that use your Goal and Event conversions.
For example, you may want to test two different call-to-action buttons on your homepage. One button might say “Buy Now” and one might say “Learn More.” When testing different versions with your audience, you can choose multiple metrics to ultimately decide the “winner.” Maybe you want to test which variation has a lower bounce rate (that is, the percentage of people who come to your page and leave right away without any further interaction with your website), which variation yields more eventual sales or which variation leads to more conversions. This is how marketers escape their biases to publish meaningful content changes that have been proven, rather than theorized, to positively impact business.