The Psychology of Advertising
When necessary, eat your salad with a spoon…or knife!
Are you looking to expand your business? Do you have new marketing goals? Where should you begin?
- Update Your Marketing Strategy – Did you have a marketing strategy last year? If you did, that is a good place to begin, if not, that’s ok, start from scratch. First, think about your goals, whether it is to grow your customer base, expand into a new market/product line or increase your revenue, and write them down. Next, translate those goals into actionable steps to achieve them. Once you have your goals and correlated action steps written down, determine what type of marketing each step needs in order to accomplish it. If you need help translating goals into the appropriate marketing tools, let us know, we can help.
- Website Refresh – Your website needs to reflect your business. It should include your most recent success – this can be accomplished by showcasing awards, the latest customer reviews, or pictures of your latest products and projects. In addition, be sure your web presence meets all the criteria for a successful website. More details on those requirements can be found in our blog dedicated to today’s website requirements: https://socialtrendllc.com/website-guidelines-for-your-business/
- Content Creation – With a refresh of your strategy, content creation should be your next investment. When it comes to content, video is king and easier than you probably think. Whether you make a casual video for Facebook or let us help you make a polished, professional branding video, be sure video is part of your content strategy. New and fresh content is also important for any social media platform where your business is represented. In other words, if you have a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account, be sure the content is updated regularly otherwise you risk negative exposure from these online representations of your business.
- Search Engine Visibility – Google and Bing give you the ability to be in front of a customer the moment they are looking for your service or product. However, without a Search Engine strategy, those clients are most likely finding your competition. Many businesses focus on Search Engine marketing via ads and other choose to target organic search rankings as their strategy. Both can be effective depending on your market, budget and goals. Either way, without a successful investment in Search Engine visibility, you are basically sending potential customers to your competition.
- Target your Ad Platform to Reach Your Target
Audience – every ad platform isn’t appropriate for every business. These are
the top locations for advertising digitally:
- Facebook – Simply put, Facebook has the most eyeballs every day viewing its content compared to any other social media platform. Basically, it is the biggest audience you can target, period. Combine that with Facebook’s many ad formats and ability to target audiences by geography, age, demographics and interests, you can truly narrow your audience to exactly who you want to reach.
- Instagram – If your product/service is highly visual and you want to target a younger audience, Instagram is where you need to be. Integrated with the Facebook ad tools, it is also easy to narrow your audience on Instagram to exactly who you want to get in front of.
- Email Marketing – Email marketing can be very effective for businesses that rely on continued sales from their current customer base. With promotions, referral bonuses and unique engagement methods, email marketing can be a small investment for a large return.
- Google Advertising – Most people think of Search Ads when they think of Google, but it is so much more. If your business relies on proximity to your customers, Ads on Google Maps can be highly effective. If you are marketing a new app, Google has specific ads to encourage app downloads. Google Ads is also responsible for all ads on YouTube and throughout a huge Display network of websites, blogs and other sales channels online.
- Remarketing – Remarketing is the process of re-advertising to someone that has already interacted with your business online. For example, someone came to your website to research your services, but didn’t actually purchase anything. With remarketing, you can then put custom ads back in front of that person to encourage them to reengage with your brand and finalize the sale.
How did you do on our checklist? Pick a few of the marketing suggestions on our checklist and get started today. With some incremental improvements, these strategies can have a huge impact on helping you achieve your goals and improve your bottom line.
