Four Keys To Having A Top-Notch Social Media Strategy

When it comes to social media, it plays a huge role in helping grow your online presence. It is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience. In fact, 78% of consumers have said that they will visit the physical retail store of a brand they follow according to Sprout. This just comes to show you the importance of having a top tier social media strategy.

Social media is not just about gaining the most followers. It is all about giving your audience an excellent experience and giving them what they’re looking for. These four tips will go a long way in helping you achieve just that. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Engage In Social Listening

One key tip that helps you have a top tier social media strategy is what we call social listening. Social listening is the practice of tracking, analyzing, and responding to conversations across the Internet. Social media is not just for posting pictures and life updates. It is also a powerful listening tool.

A great way to use social listening is to keep an eye out for mentions and conversations about all aspects of your brand. This can help you find new leads about new product ideas or features for existing products. On top of that, social listening can also help you differentiate your brand from the competition. Offering people something that is unique and gives them value is how you set yourself apart from others.

Know How To Measure Success

A key aspect of success for your brand via social media is knowing how to measure success. For that, you need to set the appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are quantifiable measures that are used to determine the success of a brand in meeting performance goals. One thing to be careful of is to not fall for vanity metrics. For example, getting likes on your Facebook page doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make more money.

Setting KPIs all depends on your business goals. There are four possible social media KPIs to use when measuring success. Here they are below:

Reach

If your goal is to increase your online presence, then setting KPIs based on reach is the way to go. Key things to watch for are follower count, impressions, mentions, and share of voice. These four things are key to measuring the success of your outreach strategy.

Engagement

If your goal is to get your audience to engage with you on social media, then you’ll need to set engagement KPIs. Things to watch out for are likes/favorites, comments, shares, retweets, ratings/reviews, and inbound website links. All these metrics are important when it comes to measuring your success with engagement strategies.

Return On Investment (ROI)

To check if your campaign is bringing you money, you’ll need to set KPIs based on Return On Investment (ROI). Key metrics to watch for are direct sales revenue, lead conversions, support costs-per-customer, and lifetime value. These things will help tell you which campaigns are earning you money and which need to be evaluated.

Retention And Loyalty

To check if you are attracting repeat customers or getting referrals, then you should set Retention & Loyalty KPIs. Key metrics to watch out for are reviews/ratings, issues resolved, service-level agreements (SLAs), time to resolution, customer satisfaction, and sentiment. All this helps you determine if you’re doing your part to satisfy customers and gaining referrals along the way.

For every type of KPI, make sure to revisit them every 6-12 months. This will help you determine whether your efforts are working or if they need to be adjusted.

Set Your Brand’s Voice And Tone To Make It Be More Human

In today’s world, people want to do business with brands that are more human as opposed to acting all boring. With that said, making your brand more human is a must. A voice and a tone are two things your brand must have in order to be more human.

A brand’s voice is the distinct personality or style of your brand. This helps give your customers a clear picture of what your brand feels like. For instance, HubSpot’s clear and inclusive voice helps them appear helpful and supportive in the minds of others.

A brand’s tone refers to the moods of specific content pieces. This can change based on the channel, situation, and audience. When choosing your brand’s tone and voice, ask yourself these questions below:

What purpose does my content bring?
Who am I addressing?
How does my audience feel?
What message should I convey to my audience?
Which tone of voice should I use?

By answering them, you’ll know what kind of content you should create for others in an appropriate tone and voice.

Provide Top-Notch Social Customer Service

A crucial aspect of having a top-notch social media strategy is providing your audience with top-notch social customer service. 49% of consumers say that they’ll unfollow brands that bring them poor customer service. 90% of consumers rate an immediate response important when they have a customer question. These reasons alone are why brands need to make social customer service a top priority in their social media plans.

Customers these days expect quick responses to their questions. Timely responses not only help problems get resolved faster, it also helps make customers more loyal to your brand. Even pointing your customers in the right direction gets your customers to think highly of your brand. All this makes it more likely for customers to stick with your brand in the long run.

A People-First Approach Leads To Success

No doubt that great social listening, great social customer service, and making your brand more human brings your brand success. It’s also crucial to set the right goals in order to help your brand get where you want to be. With these four great tips, your social media game shall lead your brand to great successes and long-lasting customer relations.

What do you feel is key in using social media to help bring your brand success? What are your thoughts on how social media helps build great customer relationships? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

Four Keys To Having A Great Mobile User Experience

How often are you on your mobile devices? More than likely, you use it often. In fact, 66% of Americans are on their phones 160 times per day according to a recent survey. Mobile devices are pretty much part of our lives. We buy things, check our social media accounts and keep in touch with others via our mobile devices. With that being said, it is crucial for brands of all sizes to provide your online users with a great mobile user experience (UX). This will make an impact on whether your target customers will go with you or with your competitors. In this blog post, we will be discussing four keys to providing your users with a great mobile UX.

Page Speed Is A Must

One of the most crucial things for users to have a great UX is for pages to be up to speed. Each second makes a huge difference on whether a consumer buys goods from you or from someone else. In fact, 46% of users strongly dislike having to wait for pages is what they dislike the most about mobile search. Let’s put it this way. Every second more that it takes to load a web page, your conversion rate drops and your bounce rate rises. That right there is money and customers walking out on your brand. That being said, there is a way to fix this. A great tool to check your page speed is GTmetrix. It checks how your page performs, why it might be slow and gives you steps on how to improve your site speed. Having your page up to speed is crucial for bringing in customers and good for your SEO.

Image Size Matters

When it comes to image size, it is important to have an image that works best for your site. What that means is to have an image that helps describe what your content is about while ensuring that your site is up to speed. It can be tempting to put up a big image on your website. At the end of the day, it can slow down your page and therefore harm your site experience. As SquareSpace recommends, use images that are between 1500 to 2500 pixels wide. You also don’t want the pixels to be too small or it may be too blurry to see. You also want to use image files that are less than 500 KB. By working to ensure appropriate image size, your site experience will be enjoyable for your site visitors.

Responsive Design For A Great User Experience Across All Devices

The best user experience is one that exists across all devices whether it be a desktop, mobile, or tablet. Responsive Design is a method in designing your website in a way that scales your content automatically to match the screen size of your device. This helps your users avoid having to pinch their screen in order to view your site content. With responsive design, you won’t have to design multiple versions of your site. You’ll save yourself work by only designing one website that scales automatically to match the device being used. With responsive design, you’ll be providing your site visitors with a pleasant UX that helps attract your ideal customers.

Keep Site Organization Simple

When it comes to the layout of your website, you want to make it simple for your users to navigate. You never want to use too many words or images to get your point across. When it comes to site navigation, it is advised that you use icons like the phone symbol or the triple bar menu symbol. This will show viewers that your site is organized and optimized for mobile. The same could be said when it comes to videos and graphics. As mentioned earlier about image size, bigger is not always better. You want images that are of reasonable size and want video content to be of reasonable bandwidth. That way, your site will be up to speed and of top quality. In conclusion, you want to ensure that your contact info and location are easy to find. Countless brands miss these smallest of details that cost them big time. In this case, you want to be transparent and accessible to users. The more accessible and organized you are, the better the UX will be.

A Great Mobile User Experience Brings Happy Customers

With people on their mobile devices now more than ever, providing them with a great UX is a must. You need an up to speed website that is organized across all devices in order to have quality UX. These four keys are essential to helping users find what they’re looking for in the easiest of ways. As Jacob Nielson once said, “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” A great UX on your website is what makes a great first impression with your online users. When you provide them a quality mobile experience, you’ll make them happy and they’ll turn into your loyal customers.

What do you feel is also essential in ensuring an excellent mobile user experience? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this blog post & share your thoughts below.

Three Tips To Improve Your Online Reputation Management

Online Consumer Searching For Products — Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

When it comes to today’s online world, consumers today are looking for brands that they can trust. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen brands both big and small make today is not paying attention to the needs and concerns of the online consumer. In other words, they’re taking them for granted, and in this competitive online world, that is a difference maker in determining whether or not consumers will do business with your competitors. A great way to combat that is with a little something that we like to call Online Reputation Management (ORM). ORM is the online practice of shaping public perception and reputation of a business online. With that being said, we will now go over three key tips that will help your ORM flourish for the better.

Respond To Reviews

One common mistake some brands make is that they ignore reviews and don’t comment on them whether they’re good or bad. This can make the impression that your brand isn’t human and could care less about their customers. No brand wants to have that happen to them so responding to reviews is crucial. In fact as ReviewTrackers has reported, 52% of customers expect a response from brands within 7 days after leaving them a review, especially reviews that are negative. When you receive a positive review, make sure to respond to it in a way that shows appreciation towards your customers. When you receive a negative review, make sure to respond to it in a way that shows that you’re taking responsibility and showing commitment to resolving their inquiries in a timely and efficient manner. By doing those things, they would be more likely to do business with you in the future and recommend others to do the same.

User-Generated Content

Another great way brands can improve their online reputation is with User-Generated Content (UGC). This strategy is a winner as 70% of consumers consider UGC when making their purchasing decisions. This just comes to show you that what consumers trust the most before making their buying decisions are their peers. A great way to make use of that UGC is to highlight those positive reviews along with testimonials in order to help your brand stand out in a big way. If you really want to go the extra step in accomplishing that, invite one of your customers to do a video testimonial like Dove did.

Molly Burke Testimonial For Dove

Video is of the most easily consumable forms of content for potential consumers. Dove sure went the extra mile in highlighting how Molly Burke had a positive customer experience with them. This type of content will help your brand stand out towards your customers in a positive way and the search engines will reward you for it. The best SEO is indeed what I like to call “People-Based Marketing”.

Influencer Marketing

When it comes to Influencer Marketing, it can help bring quality results to your ORM strategy. Influencers aren’t not necessarily celebrities but they are people who have a decent-size following on social media and are much more in line with the persona of today’s consumers. Having an influencer on board in helping get the word out about your brand can help increase your brand reputation and online presence. After all, 8 out of 10 consumers have purchased a product or service as a result of a recommendation by an influencer according to a study by Rakuten Marketing [4]. This comes as no surprise as online consumers are much more likely to believe the recommendations of their peers than they would traditional advertising. It all comes down to finding the right influencer that best resonates with your brand. By doing just that, you’ll be on your way towards success online.

Consumer-First Strategies Help Your Online Reputation

When it comes to ORM, it is similar to dating. Only difference is that you’re working towards building relationships with many people. You have to always work each day towards building that relationship and do it in a way that shows care towards the needs and inquiries of the consumer. Like in any relationship, it takes so long to build and can only take mere moments to destroy. With ORM, the importance of being proactive in ensuring that you always build trust with your consumers because without trust, you have nothing. People may think that ORM is small but in reality, it’s a big deal. These three tips that we just went over will help your brand make that next big step in improving your online reputation. By adopting a consumer-first strategy, you’ll be on your way towards success with your ORM and eventually, a loyal consumer base.

The Importance Of Influencer Marketing Today

There is no question that the nature of today’s online world is shifting towards more consumer-centered ideals. What that means is that online consumers want to hear less from brands about what they’re selling and more from brands about how they relate to them and their needs. In other words, authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to building relationships with online consumers. This is a big reason why Influencer Marketing is on the rise and is a great way to get ahead in today’s online world. In this article, we’ll go over the top reasons why Influencer Marketing is important and how one can use it to get ahead in today’s competitive online world.

It Has Become The New Norm

There’s no doubt that Influencer Marketing has basically become the new norm. In fact, 92 percent of consumers around the world have stated that they trust earned media like recommendations from friends and family over traditional corporate advertising according to a study done by Nielson. People these days can’t stand brands that attempt to shove sales jargon down their throats. What they want to hear from brands is how they can help them solve the problems that they face. In other words, online consumers are into brands that resonate with them and are caring about the ordinary people. This is a big reason why Influencer Marketing has become ever so popular today and isn’t going anywhere too soon.

Finding The Right Influencer

When it comes to trying to use Influencer Marketing to get ahead in the game, we must first know what we’re looking for in an influencer to potentially work with. We must do some research and ask these three questions:

Will they fit in with a brand and the vision that it has?
What role will they play in helping a brand accomplish their objective? Will they fit in with a brand and the vision that it has?
Will this potential influencer resonate with the brand’s target audience?

By answering these three questions, you’ll have a better picture on how to plan out your online marketing strategies. When it comes to influencers, there are three types of influencers listed below and what they’re best described as:

Mega-Influencers- Typically have at least 1 million followers and tend to be celebrities like Beyoncé, Chicharito and Alex Morgan for example.
Macro-Influencers-Typically have somewhere in between 10K to 1 million followers and tend to be journalists, bloggers and other people who share their passions with the world.
Micro-Influencers-Typically have less than 10K followers and tend to be ordinary people like you and me.

Now when it comes to selecting the appropriate influencer to reach out to, it all depends on who you are, what type and size of business you are and what you’re looking to accomplish. Corporations with room to “splash-the-cash” like Gatorade for example tend to go for those Mega-Influencers like they to Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade for example.

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For small businesses, especially those who are more limited on advertising cash, you might be better off investing in either Macro or Micro-Influencers. They’re less costly and are much more likely to resonate with your brand as they’re viewed by online consumers as a more trustworthy source. One thing that every type of influencer has in common is that they’re more likely to respond to you if you show interest in what they do and offer something of value to them. Always important to keep in mind to always reach out to them in a professional manner and ensure that it’s a win-win situation for both sides in order to lay the foundation towards long-lasting relationships with potential business partners.

Putting Your Influencer Marketing Strategies To Work

Now when it comes to actually putting your influencer strategy to work, we must work to connect with online consumers in an authentic manner. The way we go by doing that is to obviously know who your target audience is first. Once you’ve figured that out, find out what the passions and interests of your target audience are and work to tap into their passions. A great example of that is when Nike partnered up with Megan Rapinoe and the USWNT to run a commercial inspiring women to strive for their aspirations and to shatter glass ceilings in order to advance women’s rights in this country.

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Nike without a doubt built inspiration among women and all those who are passionate in wanting to see women succeed everywhere including myself. Another important note to remember is to consider the feelings of how your target audience would react. It’s always recommended that you don’t try to relate your Influencer Marketing campaigns to controversial topics. If you must, proceed with caution and analyze your target audience to ensure that your current and potential consumers don’t get offended. Strongly recommended that you always focus more on the passions of your target audience.

Another great way to up your game in Influencer Marketing is to feature your influencers in consumer testimonials. A great example of that is when Dove featured an actual consumer in Molly Burke on how their products gave her a positive new experience as she faced blindness.

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This is definitely a great way of using Micro-Influencers like Molly to showcase how their products can give them that totally new feeling that one never experienced before. As mentioned earlier, when an ordinary consumer like Molly has this kind of positive experience, they’re more likely to be trusted by potential consumers more than traditional advertising would. Without a doubt, Influencer Marketing campaigns like these two can go a long way in advancing your brand or cause in a positive way.

Influencer Marketing For The Win

With the increase of Influencer Marketing in today’s online world, there’s no question that businesses from small to big need to get onboard as the future of advertising will depend on Influencer Marketing. Always important to remember the kind of target audience you plan to reach out to, figure out which types of influencers would resonate with your target audience and work to capture their attention by tapping into their passions, interests and emotions. With this type of formula in planning out your Influencer Marketing strategies, you’ll no doubt have great successes in making your brand stand out in an authentic way and lay the foundation towards long-lasting relationships with your current and potential consumers.

What do you feel is key in using Influencer Marketing in advancing your brand and/or cause? How has Influencer Marketing influenced your decision to consider a brand? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.

The Importance Of Video Marketing Today

There’s no doubt that Digital Marketing is evolving rapidly and a big part of why that’s the case is due to Video Marketing. In today’s online world, video is more than a channel where one can watch past clips of their favorite shows like Family Guy or Game Of Thrones. It’s also a valuable method of marketing where companies can inform and showcase to their potential consumers of their products and services.It can even be useful to promote upcoming events that are happening in your area. Videos can go a long way in helping drive up engagement, and if planned out correctly, it will eventually drive up conversions. In this article, we will explore why Video Marketing is important and the proper ways you can use Video Marketing to stand out in today’s online world.

Why Video Marketing?

Video Marketing is no doubt important in 2019 as consumer demand of videos is at an all-time high. In fact, a recent study by HubSpot reported that 54% of potential consumers preferred to see video from brands more than any other type of content. On top of that, 85% of all internet users in the United States watched online video content on a monthly basis on all devices according to Statista. No doubt that video content is vital in helping online marketers and brands stand out in a positive way towards online-oriented consumers. Potential consumers are more than likely to retain the information by watching videos than they would via other marketing methods. Video is a great way to help build up your brand awareness about what you have to offer to potential consumers. With that being said, the key to success when it comes to video marketing is authenticity. In this next section, I will discuss in detail the creative ways one can use Video Marketing in helping build brand awareness and connecting with customers in an authentic way.

The DOs & DON’Ts To Video Marketing

When it comes to Video Marketing, there are many creative ways to stand out when it comes to using video. There are, however, things that we must avoid when it comes to Video Marketing so I will start by covering the DON’Ts first.

The DON’Ts

Don’t Act Salesy

Nothing turns off customers than using sales jargon in an attempt to win them over. Today’s consumers are not impressed with those tricks and will quickly tune you out in the first few seconds of a video.

2. Don’t Post Videos That Are Too Long

Reason being is that longer videos cause the speed of a website to slow down and in Digital Marketing, every second counts when it comes to consumers decided to stay or leave the page.

3. Don’t Make It All About You

Another big mistake is talking about how great you are instead of trying to connect with your audience in a unique way. Self-promotion is a big turnoff towards potential consumers and offers nothing of value towards them.

4. Don’t Use The “One Size Fits All” Approach When Posting Videos To Different Social Media Platforms

Don’t assume that the same kinds of videos that you use on Instagram will also work on LinkedIn. The target audiences are different on each social media platform so please tailor your videos to fit the needs of the target audience on each platform.

Now that we’ve covered the DON’Ts when it comes to Video Marketing. Now we move on to the DOs in how one can be creative when it comes to standing out in a positive way via Video Marketing.

The DOs

Plan Before You Film

Always plan what content you’re going to include in your video and the exact sequence it would appear on the actual video. A great way to do that would be to use storyboards which is where you would sketch out each scene like a comic strip and sketch out the story accordingly. That way you’ll be better prepared for when it comes time to actually film your video content.

2. Strive For Authenticity

As Larry Weber once said, “People don’t want to be sold. What people do want is news and information about the things they care about.” In other words, use video to talk about the needs and problems facing your target audience and how what you can do to help them. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and tailor your video campaign to fit their needs in order to give them an outstanding personalized experience they won’t forget.

3. Keep Videos On Websites Short But Sweet

The attention span of your target audience shortens the longer your video is especially if you’re new to video marketing. Putting shorter videos on your website would also help your site speed. After all, speed is everything when it comes to your audience deciding whether to stay or leave your site. That being said, if you’re a well-established brand or a well-known influencer like Neil Patel, you have the brand authority to have more lengthy videos. Should you decide on producing longer video content, make sure to include a shorter version of that video on your site and then refer your audience to a video platform like YouTube or IGTV to view the full video.

4. Strive For Creativity When Producing Videos

A great way to get the attention of your target audience is with infographic videos. Videos that contain texts and images relevant to your brand or cause you’re trying to promote with a call-to-action at the end will go a long way in increasing your brand awareness. It will also help those viewers retain the information that they see. This would especially be useful if someone is hearing impaired. Here’s a good example of that here.

In the video above, Biteable uses appropriate text to inform viewers about the workplace safety stats as well as relevant stats and a call-to-action at the end to advocate for more conversation about how to prevent workplace accidents. In the video above,

5. Keep In Mind About The Target Audience On Each Social Media Platform

Referring back to the 4th point about the DON’Ts to Video Marketing, each social media platform has different types of audiences looking for different types of content. For more formal and professional-looking content, LinkedIn would be the place for that. For informal content, places like Snapchat and Instagram would be a great fit for that type of information.

6. Strive To Use Videos To Tell A Story About Your Brand

In today’s online world, people crave success stories. Using video marketing to tell your success story about your brand while relating to the needs of your target audience would be a great way to get their attention. To really go the extra mile, include testimonials from consumers who had a great experience with your products. A great example of that is when Dove included an actual consumer in their testimonial video.

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Including an ordinary consumer like Molly in a testimonial video would be an excellent way to get your target audience engaged and they’ll eventually become interested in what you have to offer.

Recapping The Importance Of Video Marketing

“More than 150 million people view videos online every year, most of them ripe to hear your business’s pitch if you produce and market your video effectively.” – *Vern Marker*

There’s no doubt about the importance of Video Marketing in today’s fast-evolving online world. Now that you have a basic idea on how to and how to not run a video marketing campaign, always remember that the key to success is to know your target audience. Knowing every detail about them is key to success in any marketing campaign and even more important when it comes to Video Marketing. Never be afraid to ask them for feedback. Doing just that will help know which areas in your Video Marketing campaign needs work and you can use that feedback to get better with each Video Marketing campaign. Always keep them in mind and be authentic when reaching out to them via Video Marketing campaigns. If you do these things, you will no doubt increase your brand awareness and have many successes in today’s competitive online world.

What do you feel is key to success in Video Marketing? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to post your thoughts below.

Dark Social & Why We Should Embrace It

OOOO Scary! I bet that’s what many of you thought when I mentioned the words Dark Social. Some think that Dark Social is when the Night King, the Ice Dragon that he stole from Daenerys and his army are on their way to invade Winterfeil in Game Of Thrones or when Evil Emperor Zurg is planning to rule the Galactic Alliance and make Buzz Lightyear and his Space Rangers his eternal slave. No need to worry though. Dark Social isn’t when an evil person plans to bring eternal darkness to the world. What Dark Social really means is that it’s social media’s new thing and that it marks the beginning of the future of social media as we know it. In this awesome blog, I will tell you what Dark Social is and why it’s important that we embrace it.

An Overview Of Dark Social

Dark Social is a term used to describe website referrals that go through private social media platforms that are not trackable by analytics programs such as Google Analytics. That creates a challenge for digital marketers in trying to find out exactly where their referral traffic comes from. Great examples of Dark Social platforms are email, text messages and private messaging apps such as Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. In a 2012 article by The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal famously coined the phrase “Dark Social” where he discovered that over half of The Atlantic’s social traffic came from dark referrals while also finding out that other websites have an even larger percentage of social traffic coming from Dark Social. To find out how much Dark Social traffic your site has, the awesome folks at Disruptive Advertising describe three great ways to do just that with my personal favorite being the Dark Social Calculator. No doubt that dark social is on the rise and it’s important for businesses, especially small businesses, to embrace the fast-evolving world that is Dark Social. In this next section, I will tell you exactly why Dark Social is on the rise and why it’s important for businesses to embrace it.

Why We Should Embrace Dark Social

When it comes to the rise of Dark Social, a huge reason why that’s the case is that people are valuing privacy now more than ever. That’s especially the case for younger audiences like Millennials and Gen-Z. It’s no surprise that Dark Social platforms like Snapchat and WhatsApp are becoming increasingly popular with these generations. I know that for a fact since my own niece uses Dark Social platforms like Snapchat and even convinced me to get a Snapchat which I now absolutely enjoy. Not to mention that 84% of outbound sharing occurs via Dark Social channels as reported by RadiumOne and by many Digital Marketing companies. With that being said, it’s now more important than ever for businesses to get ahead of the game and embrace Dark Social while making it a big part of their marketing strategy. The way they go by doing that is by understanding the behavior of the younger generations while also knowing the effective strategies on how to properly reach out to them via Dark Social networks.

How To Effectively Communicate To Your Audience Via Dark Social

When it comes to interacting on Dark Social platforms, we must learn that these are informal settings in terms of how people communicate with each other. What we must do to capture the attention of your target audience via Dark Social is to think outside the traditional mindset when it comes to marketing your brand. One of the biggest cardinal rules when marketing your brand via Dark Social is to never go for the sale immediately right off the bat. Instead, focus on creating content that brings value to your target audience. There are many good ways to provide value and build up your Dark Social traffic. Beginning an online conversation is a great way to start. That can be done by asking a question or sharing a poll about which products would you use in a particular situation or how well do you rate a certain personal experience with a product or service. My personal favorite is sharing an interactive video showcasing a product or inviting people to a big event like a cupcake and pastry drive. In other words, share content that speaks to the mind of your target market and gets their attention. In addition to sharing quality content, you also want to make content sharing much smoother and less roomy when it comes time to share. Dark Social users are much more likely to share shorter links that take up very little space than they would larger links. You also will increase your chances of seeing more traffic on your website. A great example of how to shorten your links is to use the tool that smallseotools.com uses. If you can follow these tips when it comes to using Dark Social, then you’re on your way to success when it comes to one-upping your Dark Social game.

You’ve Reached The Dark Side

No doubt that when it comes to the future of social media, Dark Social will be a big part of it. It’s basically a must to embrace Dark Social while learning all there is to know about how to best communicate your brand via Dark Social platforms. The keys to success when it comes to Dark Social are to know your audience as is the case in any marketing situation and to communicate with them via authenticity. Each audience on Dark Social has a different mindset so it’s important to tailor your marketing strategies to capture the attention of your target audience. By doing all these things, you will have big time success in the fast-evolving world that is Dark Social. With that being said, I’d like to welcome you to the Dark Side. I promise you that we have cookies and I’ll even throw in some tacos for extra fun. 😉

I’d also like to extend a special thanks to Cydney Hatch of Disruptive Advertising and Caz Bevan of Be Impossible and NPAccel for inspiring me to write this blog about a subject they’re really big on. They really help us all be better when it comes to Digital Marketing.

What do you feel is a recipe for success when it comes to Dark Social? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.

What Makes A Successful Marketing Philosophy In Today’s Fast-Evolving World Of Digital Marketing?

Every single day, I’m curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things.
-Mickey Drexler

When it comes to today’s online world, things are always changing in a rapid manner. Some changes are small while others may hit us by surprise. If you’re a business (especially a small business), it’s always important to take a proactive stance and be on top of your game when it comes to your online advertising campaign. In this article, I will describe three good steps to a marketing philosophy that will lead to a more success in today’s fast-evolving world that is Digital Marketing.

Research Industry Trends

Being on top of industry trends is critical for every business of every size but it’s especially important for small businesses. This makes the difference between whether you’ll become an industry leader or get left behind by your competitors. A big reason why many well-known retailers have gone down under of late is failing to adjust according to industry trends. They’re late to the game when it comes to researching the external environment while also working on their weaknesses in adjusting to the changing industry trends. For example, Sears failed to get ahead of the game when it came to e-commerce. They didn’t capitalize on the opportunities the online world would have provided them whereas their competitors did. Eventually, their failure to do their research when it came to the online word eventually led to their downfall. This is just another reason why being on top of industry trends is crucial in order to be ahead of the game and remain a competitive force in your industry. Fortunately, you can get ahead of the game by doing many things such as reading business newspapers and online articles each day, hearing from industry experts, and most importantly, knowing your target market which now brings us to the next step in having a successful marketing campaign.

Know Every Detail Of Your Target Market

It’s not enough to just know who your target market is. We must also know what their behaviors, preferences and exact needs are. Otherwise, all you’ll have in your Digital Marketing playbook are Hail Mary plays and that obviously wouldn’t be an effective strategy. A great way to find out every detail about your target market is to figure out which social media platforms they hang out in and observe how they interact. From there, you can figure out what their preferences and exact needs are. If you’re marketing to a younger audience for example, you might want to try Instagram or a Dark Social platform like Snapchat. Also, don’t go immediately for a sell. Instead, show them what value you have to offer them based on their needs that may lead to a sale in the future and never be afraid to use videos to get the attention of your audience. On the contrary, today’s online consumers love videos as studies have shown just that. The name of the game when it comes to success in today’s online world is authenticity. The days of the “One Size Fits All” approach are gone. We must always learn to tailor our online advertising campaigns based on the individual needs of the customer. By going the authentic route, your campaign will see much better results.

Test Out Your Marketing Campaign

You know what industry trends that your business faces and you know everything you need to know about your target market. Now, it comes time to put your marketing campaign up for the final test before officially launching your online advertising campaign. There are various ways to test out your marketing campaign but I found out that the best way to test out your marketing campaign is by Split Testing or as many Digital Marketers call it, A/B Testing. What A/B Testing basically means is that you’re putting two elements of your campaign to the test to see which one of those two resonates better with your target audience. Just like when you’re researching your target market, you must also learn to tailor your testing based on the areas you feel where your campaign needs work. In other words, don’t be too general in your testing. Dig deep into your testing and look into the specific aspects you feel that your campaign needs feedback in. If for example you want to test out how you communicate to your audience, you might want to test out your messaging strategies and figure out which one of those two will resonate better with them. Remember to ensure that the length of your testing is not too short or too long in order to get more accurate results and better understand which elements of your campaign work and which elements need work. By investing in A/B Testing, you’ll see much improved results in your online marketing game than you would have without it.

A Recap Of A Winning Marketing Philosophy

Having a great marketing philosophy is key to planning out your online marketing campaign. It gives you an idea on how to lay out your road map to getting your audience to notice you and eventually lead you to increased sales. To recap this article, we must always be on top of industry trends each and every day, know every single detail of your target market while knowing what their exact needs are and test out key aspects of your campaign to ensure maximum success when it comes time to launch your online advertising campaign. As Maya Angelou would say, “When you know better, you do better.” A disciplined marketing philosophy like this one will go a long way in helping you stand out to the crowd in a positive way while also saving you value advertising money and eventually help increase your sales in the long run.

What do you feel is a recipe for increased success towards a successful campaign? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to post your thoughts below.