Make digital marketing a priority this year.

There is simply no other medium that is as effective or trackable as digital.

1. Social Media Advertising

Traditionally a $500 advertising budget could buy a small print ad or perhaps a few radio ads with limited tracking abilities. It’s always a ‘best-guess’ to determine if that method worked or not. Digital marketing is very different.

Social media campaigns are attractive for two key reasons – cost effectiveness and laser-sharp customer targeting. In essence, each cent you spend is going towards a potential customer.

You could spend $500 over a 4-6 week period on Facebook Ads and literally see results of many kinds. To name a few:

• increased traffic to your website or landing page
• increased sign ups to your newsletter
• increase in likes or follows
• increase in brand exposure
• increase in online sales
• increase in whatever your CTA is.

Nothing will ever be as good as word-of-mouth or referrals, however, social media is the closest we’ve come. Social media marketing is the new standard for building trust, loyalty and those precious reviews!

PRO-TIP: Plan out your ad campaigns well in advance. Make sure you have all your assets in place prior to execution. Also make sure your budget is aligned with your campaign.

2. Customer Service via Social

Social media allows us to serve our customers like never before.

Did you know that you can have a real-time conversation with your customers through social media? We work with businesses who literally book people in for appointments via messenger, from an ad.

You can answer questions, provide a quote, give directions or even diffuse a complaint before it inflates. In fact, about 67% of consumers have engaged a brand’s social media for customer service needs… and that number simply continues to rise.

According to a Nielson survey, 59% of consumers prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them. When you’re engaging with your customers and providing ongoing, relevant, content, your brand becomes ‘familiar’.

Any savvy business person knows the repercussions of a poor customer experience. Here’s a few stats (from ProvideSupport) to really hit that point:

• 56% of people will never use the company again
• 52% of people will tell family and friends about their negative experience
• 20% will leave a bad review
• 14% will share their poor experience on social media (don’t forget, the average Facebook user has about 300 friends)

PRO-TIP: Answer social media inquiries as quickly as you possibly can. Have a key person in-charge of this task. Be transparent and don’t hire people from another country to deal with local customers.

3. Hash out a Hashtag

With the increasing popularity of Instagram, you should have an understanding of what hashtags are and why you should use them.

Businesses that combine ‘popular’ hashtags with some that are unique to them plus what’s relevant to the content,  have a winning strategy. If you’re creating a campaign, don’t forget to assign it a hashtag – have fun with it.

In my humble opinion, hashtags only really matter on Instagram and Twitter. Facebook and LinkedIn use them too, but they don’t work the same way.

PRO-TIP: Don’t ‘share’ your instagram posts to Facebook. It’s obvious to people and shows that you don’t care to maintain your social presence to a high standard. It also shows a lack of respect to your viewers.

4. Use video

Video is the future … I’ve said it a thousand times, and I will keep saying it because it’s true!

Videos are continuing to show some of the best reach on Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn. They don’t need to be long … in fact, the shorter the better. They don’t need to be any longer than 10 seconds for maximum reach and engagement. You can include links and CTA’s on video posts and they still get great reach.

Make sure your video is relevant to your audience and sparks engagement. Try to create video that is educational or provides some other form of information that your audience WANTS to consume.

PRO-TIP: Don’t just share other videos. While sharing posts once in awhile is okay, shared posts simply do not get the kind of reach original ones do. It’s also promoting someone else’s ‘stuff’ and not necessarily your own.

5. Content Maintenance is KEY

Creating original, relevant, professional content and imagery is an absolute necessity.

Organic reach is about 1-6% these days and it’s simply the direction that social is taking. I can boast that our clients get about 9-42% average organic reach 😄

To get the most organic reach you should publish one post each and every day (yes, that’s 7 days a week and includes holidays). The Facebook algorithm kicks in with higher priority on day 31 – so the minute you miss a day, you revert back.

Combining your relevant, ongoing maintenance with an ad increases your exposure quite a bit. Allocating a very small budget such as $5 – 10/day can make a huge difference and impact your organic reach as well.

PRO-TIP: Don’t use links on every post. Link posts usually get the lowest reach and engagement. Create a plan that includes a little bit of everything and as much video as possible.

Even if you have to hire an agency such as ours, your marketing budget does not have to be huge and you can compete with bigger companies. If you do it properly, consistently and professionally, you can win.