 Image credit: Tracy Le Blanc Social media has become a valuable marketing platform for businesses. When used correctly, it can be a way of not just building brand exposure but generating new customers. Below are some of the tricks for building customers through social media.
Create eye-catching content Getting people to notice you on social media requires creating eye-catching content. Ideally, it needs to not just be evocative but provocative - when people see your posts they should have the urge to interact either by liking it or commenting on it. So just how do you create such content? Images and videos tend to be the best option for encouraging engagement. When it comes to images, you should consider content such as attention-grabbing photos of your product or service, fascinating infographics related to your industry or humorous original image memes. When it comes to videos, you could consider a product advertisement, an educational video that boosts your credibility or possibly even a semi-educational behind-the-scenes video of you making your product. In most cases, you’ll want to hire a professional to help you create this content such as a product photographer, graphic designer, animator or video production company. This will ensure that your content is high quality. Text content can still be eye-catching but you should generally keep it snappy so that it can be read at a glance. Consider spicing it up with emojis and hashtags. Text should always accompany images and videos. Promote events and deals Most people follow brand accounts to keep updated on events or deals. Make sure that you’re posting this type of content from time to time. When it comes to events, make sure to advertise all the necessary information such as date, time and location. It’s worth creating a hashtag for your event that people involved can share. If it’s a ticketed event, make sure to share a link to a page where people can buy tickets. Start promoting early so that people have enough time to plan ahead. When it comes to deals like discounts and 2-for-one offers, use images and emojis to help your posts stand out. Supply a link to a webpage where people can buy the discounted product or service. If it’s for a limited time or there is limited stock, make sure to make this clear. Run competitions Social media competitions are great for generating buzz around your company. In turn, they can help you to convert customers. Competitions typically involve giving away a product or service for free to a single winner. They can take the form of a raffle or lottery in which contestants are put into a random draw. Alternatively, you can challenge contestants to answer a question: you could challenge people to come up with a name for your next product and give a prize to the contestant with the best suggestion, or you could challenge customers to guess how many sweets are in a jar (or something similar and industry-relevant) and then give away a prize to the most accurate answer. It’s worth adding a link to a competition webpage where contestants can sign up opposed to relying on social media comments. As part of entering your competition, you could encourage contestants to follow you on social media or join your mailing list. All in all, use the competition as a chance to build buzz around your company - you may encourage some contestants that aren’t winners to buy your product or use your service in the future. Make use of targeted adverts Targeted adverts allow you to pay money to target posts at specific audiences. You get to set parameters such as location, sex and age. This can be great for helping your content to reach the right people, helping you to build customers and not just engagements. It’s worth keeping a budget when running adverts to avoid spending too much. Use performance reports on your advertisement campaigns in order to improve future advertisement campaigns. Respond promptly to queries Social media is one of the few publicly interactive forms of marketing. Consumers that are interested in your product have the option to comment and ask questions. A well-run social media brand account is able to respond to these queries promptly in order to convert leads while they are still hot. This involves checking your social media accounts daily. On top of responding to queries, there may be other comments worth replying to. Complaints and false statements should be diffused so that they don’t have a negative impression on other potential leads - this could include apologising for mistakes or correcting false rumours. If people show interest with comments such as ‘this is great!’ capitalize on this with a link to your product. Build recommendations Facebook has got rid of its review system but now has a recommendations feature. It’s worth asking happy customers to recommend you on Facebook. This could help improve trust in consumers looking at your Facebook page, possibly encouraging them to buy your product or use your service. Check analytics Analytics can tell you which type of content is performing well so that you can repost or replicate these types of content. When it comes to posts containing links, it’s worth looking at how many people have clicked on the link and whether this has created any customers - this is a better indicator of whether a post is successful than the amount of likes and comments. You can use social media analytics and website analytics to work out this information. Look at what your competitors are doing It could be worth checking your competitors to see what they are up to. There may be content ideas that you can take inspiration from. At the same time, there may be ways in which you can set yourself apart. Be wary of taking part in ‘brand wars’. This has become popular among large established brands and involves jokily criticising competitor brands. With local small brands it may not have the same impact and may damage your reputation.
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 Image credit: RODNAE Productions from Pexels When you own a business, reputation matters. You'll soon realise that without a large audience ready and waiting for your products and service, you won't be able to generate enough funds to cover your costs. Thankfully, growing your reputation and spreading the word about your brand doesn't have to be as difficult as you might expect, as there are in fact just a few key tips and tricks that you can make the most of to achieve your goals in no time at all. So, if you're interested in finding out more, then simply read on to uncover some of the most effective marketing techniques that you can utilize today.
Develop A Social Media Presence One of the best ways to increase your reach as a brand in the modern day involves developing a strong social media presence. Billions of people use social media platforms every single day, often for upwards of 6 hours, so failing to cash in on such an opportunity for your brand could have catastrophic consequences. It's super simple to start your own social media page, as you need nothing more than a company email address and a few key pieces of information about your brand to get started. Most if not all social media platforms allow you to create a 'business' profile, which gives you the chance to link your posts to your products or website, as well as being able to monitor the interactions that take place on your profile. You can use your page to build a network of interest individuals by utilizing handy features such as #hashtags that catapult your content onto the screens of your target audience. Always remember that aesthetics matter online, so it's a good idea to maintain an attractive theme or style through your content to visually appeal to other users. Make Your Image Memorable A boring brand name with a tired logo and a basic form of packaging is no doubt going to encourage potential customers to look the other way, as you need to make sure that your products are eye-catching and your image is memorable if you wish to become a successful brand. Begin with your logo, focusing on creating the most aesthetically pleasing graphic that can accurately represent your business and what you stand for. Next, focus on your product's packaging - does it currently focus on function over image? Though your products need to do what they say on the tin, the tin has to be attractive enough to draw them in! It's a good idea to get in touch with a skilled third party packaging company that can help you to upgrade your look. If you get the chance to secure your own retail store, then the style that you maintain on the shop floor must be suitable for your brand! Growing your brand's reputation has never been so simple when you can take the time to make the most of some of the brilliant tips and tricks carefully detailed above.  Image credit: Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Running a business can use up a lot of resources and time, this can be difficult to achieve growth. If you are a lone ranger or a small business, you will understand that you have to wear many hats and complete various tasks. It can be hard to actually state what your job role is there is that much variety. However, if you want to grow, you need to find ways of establishing structure and organisation to run successfully. This is where outsourcing comes in. Many businesses using outsourcing as a way of controlling certain tasks and freeing up time for other areas that need your focus.
Let’s have a look at some common areas you could outsource: HR It would be nice to look after every single area of your business, but this isn’t possible if you want to grow. HR is an area where expertise and experience are extremely useful, especially if you ever have to face disputes or recruitment. HR Consultant Experts will ensure your staff are looked after, and they are on hand to answer any of your questions, guiding you through recruitment and employing employees. Social Media Management Social media is one of the most commonly used areas for marketing for many businesses. With consumers using at least one form of social media on a daily basis it’s not a surprise that it’s taken the business world by storm. It’s cheap, it’s simple, it’s effective, but it takes up a huge chunk of time to maintain. This is one of the most common areas to outsource, especially considering it can sometimes take the time of a full-time employee to look after. Digital marketing agencies such as iTonic provide a whole host of full-service digital solutions. Whether it be Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing, paid social, programmatic display and SEO through to a full digital strategy and transformation, being brand new to social media or marketing doesn't need to be as scary as it may sound. Data Entry Although data entry doesn’t require much skill, it can still be a task that is tedious and lengthy. It can be frustrating to see your skilled staff and expertise spent on this sort of task when it could be completed elsewhere, freeing up copious amounts of time. There are many freelancers and data entry companies that are there if you want to outsource this sort of task. They may even complete the work quicker and more accurately. Saving you money in the long run. Accountancy A lot of businesses outsource accountancy, this is because completing the accounts and keeping them updated is time-consuming and stressful. It also requires a certain level of skill, and if you aren’t willing to learn, it can be tedious and you could make mistakes. Mistakes could be costly for your business. You may be able to atumble your way through, but if you want to keep them in the best order, an outsourced accountant is probably the best option. As you can see there are many ways you can streamline your business with outsourcing. These aren’t the only options either, there are just some of the most commonly outsourced areas for small businesses. Have you started to outsource anything in your business? Please share some of your successes in the comments section below.  Image credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Branding for a new business can be a difficult thing, and it is a process that can take a long time to nail down. When marketing for your business, there are a lot of spinning plates, and often you will need more than one set of hands to truly help you along the way.
Today we want to talk about some of the ways that you can build a successful brand this year and thrive even in an overcrowded market. Get HubSpot If you have any familiarity with sales and marketing you may be aware of HubSpot. HubSpot is an all-in-one tool that allows you to track leads, conversions, website visits, social media activity, and more in one place. If you are new to managing marketing, a tool like this will collate all the data in one place and make it easy for you to understand. Once you have HubSpot connected to your website and social media channels you will be able to do a lot of things:
Design using Canva If you are not a natural graphic design whizz - it’s ok! You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to create some great content for your brand. Canva is a free graphic design tool that allows you to create anything from leaflets and brochures to logos and social media posts. It provides hundreds of templates that you can edit from, and it will make your life so much easier when trying to create winning content. Generate your brand colours One of the most challenging aspects of building your brand is deciding on a colour scheme. You might have a colour in mind, but then finding others that work alongside it can be difficult. That’s why using Coolors.co to generate a colour palette is a must. Once you lock in a colour you like, you can randomise the selection until you find a palette that suits you. It will save you choosing colours that don’t work together and don’t look right for your brand. Try leaflets One of the best ways to generate some interest in your brand is to create leaflets that showcase a product or a selection of your products. You can create leaflets and print them with www.stressfreeprint.co.uk, and hand them out through postal drops, on the street, at trade shows, or even leave them in the foyer of your office for visitors. Leaflets add an air of professionalism to your brand and people will most likely trust you more if you have them. Hire a billboard If you really want to make an impression this year as a small brand, consider investing money in a billboard. Billboard advertising is a brilliant way to get your name in front of an audience and you can leave it for a month or a few months at a time for maximum marketability. Try a TV ad TV is a powerful marketing tool, and many people use TV ads to help sell their products or market services. If you want to try something different in terms of marketing this year, consider making a TV advert for your brand. There are so many fun ways to create TV ads to promote yourself and you can really have some fun with it. Run a blog A blog is a useful way to get content out into the world and also increase your reach as a business. When running a blog you can create articles around your subject of choice and be informative to your audience. Providing content online like this is a great way to gain some visibility for your brand and it will also likely improve your engagement. Create a video series YouTube is one of the most popular social media channels in the world, and people make videos every day. It is a great idea for you to create videos on YouTube either talking about products, creating tutorials, or sharing news from your industry. This can be a brilliant way to gain a new audience and also start earning money through ad revenue. Consider some of these different ways to help you improve your brand this year and build your business into something incredible.  Image credit: Marcus Herzberg from Pexels As a business, 2021 will hopefully be making up for the fact that this year hasn’t been the best for anyone. For businesses, it’s something to be grateful for that that they’ve even survived what is possibly the worst year in the world’s economic history. Here are four ways to promote your business in 2021.
Focus On Social Media Social media continues to thrive and be a great area to focus your marketing and advertising. It’s definitely become a lot more saturated over the past couple of years and therefore it’s a lot harder to make it successful than it used to be. Therefore, it’s a good idea to find your niche on these platforms and focus on any platforms in particular that you feel are going to be a good fit for your business. Think about what social media platforms you might be using now or if you’re not using any, what platform is best going to suit your business. Take a good look at your analytics and how they’re performing to see what you might need to change or do more of. There are so many people online nowadays that it would be the wrong move to not take advantage of what social media can offer you for the new year for your business. Revisit Your Branding Branding is an important part of your business because it can end up becoming widely recognized by your customers and those who aren’t yet your customers. Whether you look at who you’re using for digital printing services or what you outsource for your design work, think about revisiting your branding. You could consider changing it or tweaking it slightly so that it’s a more elevated and modern version of your current branding. There might be room in the branding to make it better than it already is or to perhaps make it more consistent across your platforms, whether that be your website or social media. Think about what it might be lacking and then consider what you could do to help improve it further. Make Use Of Your Loyal Customers Your customers are important and you want to continue ensuring they remain loyal to you as a business. Think about loyalty and how you can make sure your customers continue buying from you and not from your competition. Go beyond the call of duty where you can and always be active in providing the best products or services for your customers. Excellent customer service is going to get you further than just providing a bog-standard service they can get elsewhere. Better Your SEO And finally, when it comes to your SEO, try to better it where you can. There’s going to be a lot of benefit from improving your search engine optimization because the higher you rank on search engines, the more visible you’ll be to others online. This can be great for generating new leads and hopefully, more business. Use these tips to make sure your new year is the best one yet for business.  Image credit: Bedbible Instagram - a platform which, at first, was used to show others a glimpse of our daily lives online via our photos, has now turned into a channel that engages a billion users. Since its explosion in popularity, many brands have turned to the platform to build their social presence and engage with their consumers in a bid to drive their outreach and profits. With 80 percent of users following at least one business on the channel, it is easy to see why so many companies are keen to grow their accounts. If you are a small business who wants to learn how to make an online community, expand your account, and grow your following, follow these three tips and build your presence up the right way.
Post consistently You may have heard this one a million times already, but there is a reason why this gold nugget of advice keeps popping up over and over again - it really works! The more often and regularly you post, the more likes, and consequently more followers you will get, and accounts that post at least seven times or more throughout an entire week gain followers and likes faster than those who don’t. Furthermore, having a regular and steady flow of content also works in your favour when it comes to Instagram’s famous algorithm, with consistency being a key element to getting your posts up to the top of the timeline due to more shares and engagement with your followers. Therefore for your brand to see the best results, plan your posts ahead of time, and already have content to last you at least a week. This way, you won’t be rushing to get a last-minute photo, and you won’t risk the chance of not having enough material to post, causing you to be irregular, which could have a big impact on your following and engagement. Engage and converse It’s no use creating beautiful visuals and captivating captions if you aren’t going to engage with your audience. The platform is a great way to make users aware of your business through conversation, especially as more and more people are using social media as a point of contact for many brands. Be open and communicative, and supportive and allow a discussion to get going, whether it’s about serious queries, customer care, random questions, or just to chat and to thank those who are praising your brand and products. Engaging with as many comments and questions as possible will make the difference when it comes to gaining more followers, converting your audience into customers, and improving your relationship with pre-existing customers. By engaging with them, your customers will see that you care about them and feel a more personal connection with you, creating more trust. Know when to post You can have the best post in the world, but if you share it when it’s the middle of the night for most of your audience or when most of them are at work, chances are they aren’t going to see it. Use the free analytics tool that can be found under the Followers section in business accounts to figure out the best times for you to post. By using a targeted approach, if you post at optimal times for your audience, you are likely to get more engagement. Look at what has and hasn’t worked for you in the past regarding how much engagement you got at various times to allow you to plan how you share your content more effectively. Alternatively, use a scheduling tool to automatically publish your content during the times when your followers are most engaged. The subject of 'Free Followers' is one that comes up often, but spending your money on getting those 'fake followers' might well leave you both out of pocket as well as those followers, and this guide will tell you why.  Image credit: StockSnap on Pixabay As a modern business, you need to understand what brings you success, as well as how important it is to run the company more effectively. In 2020 and beyond, there are so many ideas for things you can do to help your business get better. And this means you are going to need to think about the things you have to change to help make your business better.
The key to think about when it comes to improving the way you run your business is to make connectivity a priority. There are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind if you want to achieve this, and making the right business decisions moving forward is crucial. Here are some of the best things you can do that are going to allow you to boost connectivity and make the best business decisions. Embrace Social Media Social media is the best tool your business has these days when it comes to marketing and connecting as a business, and this is something you need to make sure you get right. Try to make sure you utilise social media as much as you can, and use this opportunity to try to expand your business overseas where possible too. Social media allows anyone, anywhere to connect and communicate with your business, and this is something you need to make sure you get right. Make sure you think about what it takes to get this right, and there are so many advantages to achieving this as much as possible. Go Mobile As a business, you need to look at some of the best ways in which you can go mobile and try to make the best decisions as a business. There are so many great things you can do to make the business more mobile-oriented and achieve better connectivity as a brand. One of the key things you need to make sure you get right here is to use a QR code maker for faster and quicker connectivity to the business and your website. Be Reachable As a modern business, it is important to make sure you do as much as possible to improve how reachable your business is. This is something that all companies need to get right, and it is vital that you enhance your customer service skills, and allow plenty of ways for customers to communicate and connect with your brand. The more you can do to achieve this, the better your connectivity will be, and there are so many things that play a massive part in the process, and you need to do as much as you can to make the most of this right now. The more you can do to make the right business changes and achieve greater connectivity, the better it will be for the company. You need to think about the best ways of running a business effectively, and the different ways in which you are able to take your business to the next level. This is something that can make a huge difference to the process moving forward, and you could well get the best result out of your company as a result of this.  When you apply for a job, you actually have two CV's out there. You may well submit one CV but its also your social media that acts as the second one so knowing exactly what's on it really helps especially as recruiters will find it too! The Muse has 8 easy ways to have a clean up!
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