Month: December 2021

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5 Tips for Marketing Your Business in the New Year

After a rough couple of years, the weary world is holding onto the promises of a new year and a fresh start in 2022. (Hopefully, it doesn’t turn into 2020 too, amiright?) As you know, more consumers are shopping online than ever before. And though the “giving season” will be over on January 1, now’s the time to get your campaigns ready for the year ahead so you don’t fall behind. Here are 5 digital marketing tips to jumpstart your business goals and marketing strategy in the new year:

 

  1. Send a New Year’s email – Your emails are more likely to be noticed around New Year’s once inboxes quiet down after the Christmas chaos. This is especially true if you’re thoughtful about your messaging and make it worthwhile for customers to open the email. One way to do this is by sending exclusive offers to select groups of your subscribers, plus email-only deals that you’re not listing on social media or your website.

    Not running a promotion? How about asking for feedback instead. We all like to feel heard, and we all have something to say. But deeper than that, to successfully meet your marketing or sales goals, you NEED to know how your customers feel—especially if there’s a problem you’re not aware of. Consider sending a survey to “Help us serve you better in 2022.” This valuable feedback can help you reshape or rethink your marketing strategy altogether. 
  2. Customize your content marketing – Because we are so inundated with noise across all social media platforms, it’s important to create material that adds value to your customers’ lives. What do we mean by this? At this time of year, most people think about “starting over,” resetting our mental health, or bettering ourselves and our bodies. Focusing your New Year’s content on self-care or offering a remedy to simplify your customers’ lives is valuable information that relates to most people. If your content doesn’t relate to your audience, your strategy won’t work. Period.

    Once you have your content nailed down, take your idea and share it consistently across all your marketing channels to extend your reach as far as possible—website, social media, email, etc. 
  3. Amp up your Social Media presence and get more traction – You can’t deny the power of social media. Encourage interaction, heighten brand awareness, and create buzz by hosting a contest on social media. Not only do people respond, they share on their pages and share with their friends via comments to maximize their chances of winning. We all like winning, no matter what the prize.

    Don’t want to run a contest? How about running a lightning promotion. There’s science behind impulse buying, and this is a great way to get your product into more hands (and increase sales). And if it’s done right, you can relatively easily expand your customer file. 
  4. Run a New Year’s promotion – There’s no better way to close out the year—and give your sales a boost for next year—than by running a festive promotion. Every person with an email account receives HUNDREDS of promotional emails around Christmas. But the influx of holiday promotional emails all start to dwindle around New Year’s day. This is the perfect time to get your customers’ attention. It’s also an opportunity to do some subject line testing to see what makes your customers click into your emails.

    Subject line testing is also called A/B testing. Basically how this works is you have two different subject lines. You send one to half of your send file, and the other to the other have of your send file. Then, you see which one performs better. Once you know what makes your customers’ click, you can formulate your subject lines going forward to yield profitable results. 
  5. Launch new products – Out with the old, in with the new. Right around the new year is a great time to promote what’s new. If you’re early enough, you can even tease that something new is coming to peak interest and hold your customers’ attention. Whatever you are promoting should include benefit-driven copy, explaining what the new product is, how it is better than past products, and how it will benefit your customers. You might also consider offering new customers a deal on their first purchase. Or, play on emotion to garner appeal—center your product marketing messaging around New Year’s resolutions to further increase your chances of success.

 

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5 Steps for Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Steps for Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns

The holiday season is upon us—the most wonderful and BUSIEST time of the year, especially for those in e-commerce. By now, your holiday marketing campaigns should be well underway. Are your campaigns not leading to conversions as expected? Are you still dragging your feet on your holiday marketing strategy and don’t know where to start? Wherever you’re at in the process, don’t stress! Believe it or not, there’s still time to develop and run successful holiday marketing campaigns. 

With more people interacting online than ever before, the opportunities (and competition) to win customers is at its peak. Couple this with the massive global supply chain challenges we’ve been battling since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, business owners and marketers have had to reimagine how they can reach customers, supply the demand, and convert first-time shoppers into repeat customers. These rather unprecedented challenges led to an expanded holiday season in terms of marketing efforts.

This year, you may have noticed that many Black Friday sales began long before the traditional day after Thanksgiving. And some Cyber Monday offers are still going on strong. It’s turned into a month-long season of “deals” to motivate customers to shop early … and keep them coming back “just in case” a popular item is suddenly available. Amazon started promoting its “Deals for Days” in early October. Nordstrom opened its in-store holiday shops on Oct. 18. Lowe’s began its “Season of Savings” kickoff on Oct. 28. Even Target cleared the Halloween shelves and turned their big box store into a winter wonderland a week before Halloween.

And with the uncertainty of the supply chain, don’t be surprised if holiday marketing campaigns extend beyond the holiday season. So while time is certainly of the essence, if you’re in a holiday-season marketing rut, all hope is not lost! Here are 5 easy steps you can take right now to create successful holiday campaigns.

 

Step 1: Analyze previous holiday campaigns and successful campaign strategies

Before you do ANYTHING, you need a baseline. Assessing past successes and failures helps you quickly determine what worked and what straight up didn’t. Have you ever run an A/B test to determine which subject lines encouraged your readers to click into an email? How did participation in past giveaways or contests compare? Looking back at offers, did your customers respond more to free gifts, discounts, or free shipping? How have your customers interacted with you most—social media, email, web forums? Gather the data and analytics and look for trends.

 

Step 2: Define your goals

What is it that you actually want to achieve? Are you trying to sell a product? Is there a sales goal you are trying to meet? Or maybe you are trying to increase brand awareness and gain supporters? Whatever you do, make sure your goals are measurable. This will help you determine successes and failures when you’re planning next year’s holiday marketing strategy (or future campaigns, in general).

 

Step 3: Determine your ideal target audience and identify omnichannel marketing strategies that fit that demographic

During this step, pinpoint who has a need for your product or service … and who is most likely to buy it. Take a look at your current customers. Which demographics bring in the most business? Which ones follow through various call to actions, interact, or convert to a sale? Any demographic trends should be noted. Demographics you should consider include:

  • Age
  • Location
  • Gender
  • Income level
  • Education level
  • Marital or family status
  • Occupation
  • Ethnic background

Keep in mind, you don’t want to segment the market too much. If you are going after a very specific, niche market, you may not reach your desired results. At the same time, don’t be afraid to go after multiple demographics within a campaign. Just be aware that different demographics may require you to deploy different marketing strategies.

Once you know WHO you are targeting, you need to determine HOW to reach them.

In 2020, 67% of global online retail traffic was generated by mobile phones. In the fashion industry, the mobile share of traffic was even higher at 76%. According to Hootsuite, the latest data shows that social media has grown by more than half a billion users over the previous 12 months. This equates to roughly 13 new users every second. 

Find out where your audience gets their information, so you can amp up your efforts. Are they active on social media? If so, which platforms? Do they click on your PPC or paid social ads? Are they swayed by influencer recommendations? Do they prefer videos, polls, or sharable content? Whatever has worked in the past, start there. In the race against time, the middle of the busy holiday season is NOT the time to take risks or test your audience.

 

Step 4: Plan your messaging timeline

Open up your calendar and map out a plan. Running an email marketing campaign? Look at your analytics. Which day/time yields your best email open rate? Do you want to send a reminder email? If so, when? Which other marketing channels will you use and when? Include PPC, paid social, social posts, polls—every piece of your messaging plan should be mapped out and delivered accordingly.

 

Step 5: Create compelling content

Creating content that builds trust, gets people talking, and sells is not always easy. Fortunately, some big-name companies have paved the way, and looking at trends in their messaging helps. Here’s what we we’ve learned:

  1. A great holiday marketing strategy pulls at the heart strings. Emotions work … especially during the holidays, and especially in the midst of an ongoing pandemic when all of the feelings are at an all-time high.
  2. Keep it simple. You have SECONDS to capture your audience’s attention. Don’t waste that time. Be clear, be concise, and provide a call to action—tell them what you want them to do.
  3. Be ready to react and adapt. This is especially true in regards to social media marketing. Consumers expect instant, real-time, direct interaction. And on social platforms where like-minded individuals unite, voices are amplified. If something in your plan goes off the rails, fix it immediately. And make sure your customer service department is up to the task, as well.
  4. Your existing customers are just as important as new customers. They’re your link to fostering brand loyalty. Most likely, the customers you interact with during your holiday marketing campaigns will be a mix of new and returning customers. It’s important to remember that the path to converting a sale for a repeat customer is often different than that of a new customer. So make a plan for both.

 

Holiday Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

While there are many ways you can go about creating your holiday marketing campaigns, there are certain tactics you should avoid altogether:

  1. Don’t copy your competitors’ strategies. This is a big NOPE. You have no idea who exactly they are going after and why. And besides, they might be winging it. For maximum reach and the best opportunities for conversion/interaction, use the information that is currently at your disposal to determine the who, how, and when of your marketing campaigns.
  2. Don’t focus on only one marketing tactic. Even amongst a very targeted demographic, people shop and interact differently. With all of the marketing mediums and vehicles available to you, limiting yourself to only one tactic shuts out an entire world of opportunity. Omnichannel marketing campaigns extend your reach.

Don’t refuse to get help if you need it. Social Link’s team of digital marketing experts have decades of experience in all aspects of digital marketing—from strategic planning and management to design and content creation. We know marketing best practices and digital marketing solutions like the back of our hands. And perhaps the best news is that help is only a click away. Fill out this form today to learn more about how Social Link can help you achieve your goals or for a free estimate.

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Why Logos Are Imperative for Businesses

Before and After Logo

Why Logos Are Imperative for Businesses

A well-designed brand logo is perhaps the most important, most under-rated advertising tool in your marketing strategy. Let me explain. Think about your favorite clothing brand, snack food, or automobile manufacturer. When you see that logo, you feel connected. In many ways, it represents you, defines you, and is something you can stand behind. But it took time, influence, and perhaps a positive customer service experience to establish that connection. 

While a good logo design not only looks appealing, professional, or fun, it often signifies something deeper.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words

People today are inundated with noise from every direction. Because of this, all of our marketing efforts need to be strategized with the realization that we have mere seconds to grab and hold a customer’s attention. How we fill those seconds is more important now than ever.

 

In 2000, Microsoft conducted a study measuring how long people can maintain focus on a single task over a specified period of time. The results showed the average person’s attention span was 12 seconds. Then, in 2015, Microsoft researchers found that the average attention span decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds—1 second shorter than a goldfish’s attention span. 

 

And while there isn’t research readily available to determine the current consumer attention span, it’s clear that it’s on the decline and strongly correlates to the adoption of smart phones and the introduction of the social media network. As marketers, we are constantly trying to scream louder than our competitors to grab the attention of our often-distracted, multi-tasking viewers who are overloaded with content on various platforms.

 

So what does all this have to do with a logo? A logo in its simplest terms is a graphic element that instantly symbolizes the name and purpose of a brand. And while you may not think that your company needs one, here are four reasons why you should have one.

Logo Marketing

 

4 Benefits of a Logo

 

  1. A well-designed logo establishes your brand’s identity. 

What is brand identity? Brand identity is what people see; it’s the visual piece of the brand marketing puzzle. A brand identity is the personality, look, and feel your brand presents to the world through visual elements and a consistent message that is communicated over and over again. How you establish your brand identity influences how your brand is perceived by potential customers. And a logo is the first thing a potential customer sees. 

 

 

  1. Logos help provide instant brand recognition.

A good logo design promotes brand awareness and allows the company to stand out from the competition. It presents the values and mission of the business … all through a simple, memorable visual image. When a customer (or potential customer) sees a company’s logo, it should conjure up the appropriate feelings about the brand, products, or services. 

 

And just as it is for you and your favorite brands, your audience will instantly recognize and associate your logo with your product or service, which helps build customer loyalty and determines how your customers will perceive your brand going forward.

 

  1. A logo builds trust.

Before a person tries your product or service, they assess your appearance. We all do it, especially now when we are bombarded with content by competing brands and knock-offs. Today’s consumers are in a vulnerable position, exchanging personal and financial information online often with unfamiliar companies. However, a strong logo can help you gain the trust of potential customers who don’t know anything about your business and inspire them to interact. In essence, a logo lets you quickly establish credibility so you can focus on content quality over quantity.

 

  1. A logo fosters brand loyalty.

Logos tell a story. Growing up, my family always stopped at McDonald’s when we headed out of town to see family. We piled into the conversion van, got settled in, and made our way to the nearest McDonald’s. We spent the next 30 minutes fighting over the light- and dark-meat chicken nuggets. (Remember when different shapes signified the different type of chicken meat? No? Just me? Okay, I digress.) The fries were hot, salty, and delicious. And my parents would spend 20 minutes at the first rest stop wiping sticky dipping sauce goo off our faces and the door handles and brushing the salt off the seats. Cleaning up the mess left behind by their children was nothing short of an Olympic sport. But I think about those road trips EVERY TIME I see those golden arches. And it’s a tradition we’ve carried on with our children. (Don’t judge.) 

 

That’s the power of a logo. Any experience we have with a brand is brought to the forefront when we see that logo. And positive experiences tend to lead to brand loyalty—a gradual process of choosing one brand over another.

 

Ultimately, people are driven by their experience with your business or feel a connection to the ideas your brand is promoting. Because of this, creating a logo is an important part of your marketing strategy—no matter how big or how small the size of your company.