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Can I Afford to Hire a Marketing Firm? Understanding the Costs vs ROI

etorres@brandiversity.com (Eric Torres) — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 21:15:29 GMT

Wondering if you can afford to hire a marketing firm? Read below to gain an understanding of the costs vs ROI to fully understand the answer today.

Digital marketing has crept its way into the "essential" category for almost any small business.

It's important to be present online, but it's also key to push your content and digital presence. The nice thing about most popular platforms is that you're given the tools to market yourself.

The flip side of that coin is that your results aren't guaranteed to go anywhere if you don't put in the time. This begs the question: is a digital marketing firm worth it?

We're going to explore the value and return on investment of working with a marketing team in this article, hopefully giving you a nudge in the right direction.

Let's take a look.

The Value of Working with a Marketing Firm

Let's start out by looking at why you should be marketing your business online in the first place.

It's pretty clear that people spend a good deal of time online, whether they're on their phones or at their computers at home. You can walk down a busy street and hardly find anyone to make eye contact with.

The sites that people are most hooked to are social media sites, which make their revenue primarily from advertising. That means their interest is in creating the most effective advertising tools.

This is a huge benefit to small businesses that might not have a massive marketing budget as it is. Social media platforms and search engines are equipped with advertising that trumps any of the traditional forms of marketing like television, newspapers, or billboards.

You can literally target the types of individuals you want to market to and reach thousands of them in a matter of hours. Couple that with the fact that people use search engines and social media to do most of their product research and discovery, and digital marketing becomes a no-brainer.

The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing and Their Impact

Our most-used platforms make advertising simple, but that doesn't mean it's always easy.

Digital marketing consists of a few primary factors that work together to boost your bottom line. Generally speaking, these are SEO, SEM, social media, PPC advertisements, and content creation.

Each of these factors is composed of a web of thought out tactics to increase exposure and user engagement. Let's do a brief examination of these areas of digital marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the heaviest hitter in a great digital marketing campaign. Optimization is the challenge of making your website meet the standards of the search engine algorithms in order to rank for specific keywords.

The algorithms are always changing and so are the keywords that you're trying to rank for. Each piece of content, page on your site, link, keyword, header, and subheader should be created with optimization in mind. There's a lot involved in optimizing successfully.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads

SEM and PPC are methods of displaying content to individuals in your target demographic. Most of the sponsored posts and ads you see on your social media feeds are some form of PPC . Further, the suggested posts and products you find as you're scrolling search results are forms of SEM.

The key here is to hammer down your target audience and optimize your ads and posts for the correct keywords. Additionally, there's an art to posting at the right times, circling back to second-time users, and crafting posts in an effective way.

Social Media

We're all familiar with social media and its function. It's important to remember, though, that social media requires a different attitude when you're using it for business.

Your mind should be geared toward engagement, content schedules, successful ads, shares, and conversions. These are all metrics of success that come after a series of thought out decisions.

Your success on social media can impact your search engine optimization results and vice versa.

Content Creation

Content creation is the piece that ties all of your other efforts together. It's almost impossible to find success online without content that's well-researched and relevant to the interests of your users.

Digital material should be created in response to keyword research when your goal is optimization and increased results. Let's say you're a marketing firm, and you want to create a post that ranks well in Google.

Your cursory research might tell you that "marketing firms near me" is a trending keyword. Your response might be to create a post that details the process of finding a great marketing firm in your area.

This way, you create content in your field of expertise, you know that people are searching for your target keyword, and you know that you're giving the answers to questions that people are actually interested in.

What Does All of This Do for Business?

All of these factors work together to bring business to your door. You'll find that your website is bustling with new customers, your in-store traffic is increased, and your sales show steady improvement as things start to take off.

Those factors are the end result, but a lot of the ROI of marketing is exposure and engagement with your brand. These metrics lead people into your sales funnel and get them started on the path toward making a purchase.

Another thing to keep in mind is that absence online is just a way for your competitors to edge you out.

Why a Firm is the Way to Go

You might have noticed that all of the information above seems like a lot of work. Digital marketing is a full-time job for any company.

The cost of working with a marketing agency is far smaller than hiring a full-time employee or group of employees to take on this crucial work. An agency will give you the expertise and confidence of a full team without incurring huge costs.

Interested in Learning More?

A marketing firm can take your digital presence to the next level. Your bottom line will boost and you'll be glad that you took the risk of getting out there online.

If you're still a little uncertain about the particulars, we're here to help. Contact us for more information on how you can start moving forward with digital marketing.

10 Facebook Advertising Tips for Better Results

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 21:54:10 GMT

Have you had minimal or no results from your Facebook advertising? Check out our guide to learn 10 Facebook advertising tips to get better results.

With 2.6 billion monthly active users , Facebook is the king of social media sites. Of those 2.6 billion people, 1.73 billion will log in every day.

It’s no secret that Facebook is a goldmine when it comes to advertising. The potential reach is massive for any well-run ad campaign.

It’s very easy to get blindsided by these gigantic numbers though. Facebook ad campaigns can and do fail. However, if you follow tried and tested tips to advertise on Facebook, you’ll be more likely to score the type of results that you’re looking for.

Here are 10 Facebook advertising tips that’ll bring you better results.

1. Show off Your Products Using Carousel Ads

Facebook’s carousel ads allow advertisers to position up to ten images or videos on one ad, along with ten call-to-actions. Each of these will link to its own different landing page.

This type of ad is suitable for different types of campaigns , not just drumming up online sales.

2. Use the Facebook Pixel

Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that provides information about who is visiting your site. This allows you to create Facebook ads that are better targeted toward the right demographics.

Facebook Pixel can be used in remarketing to encourage customers to buy something else. You can use it to find out which products are more attractive to users, and find out whether your customers are buying through their computer or mobile.

3. Boost Your Reach Using Page Post Engagement Ads

If you have a lot of page likes on your Facebook page but are not really converting, it may be because of the way that Facebook’s algorithms work.

Organic reach is limited to a fraction of your following. The best way to combat this is through page post engagement ads.

When setting your marketing objective, simply select ‘engagement.’ This will include likes, shares, comments, and more.

By selecting engagement ads, you’ll be able to reach those people who like and interact with your content, as well as opening you up to anyone within any demographic you feel applies.

4. Experiment With Audience Targeting

There are several ways that you can target the right audience for your products or services via the Facebook platform. Facebook’s Custom Audiences is especially good for creating remarketing ads.

There are five segments with which you can target users.

Customer file: This matches phone numbers, email addresses, and Facebook IDs to existing accounts
Engagement: Users who engage with your content on both Facebook and Instagram
Website Traffic: Targeting previous visitors to your website
App Activity: If users have your companies app you can target them
Offline Activity: Targeting users who have interacted with your brand via phone or instore

You shouldn’t limit yourself to these segments. Using Custom Audiences, you can really hone your audience.

5. Know What Your Competition Is up To

Knowing what your competitors are up to will help you counter their ad campaigns. First, use Audience Insights to target your competitor’s followers. Simply create an audience that likes your competitor’s pages.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to build a new audience based on these demographics.

6. Use Facebook Video Ads

If you really want to capture the attention of your audience, then using video ads will do this.

A Facebook video ad can be anything up to 240 minutes long, so you can really go to town on creating Oscar-worthy ad content for your campaign. Of course, when it comes to making a significant impact, brevity is essential.

In addition to using ads, think about using captions as this will increase the chances of conversion.

7. Optimize for Mobile Devices

Over 63% of millennials buy using their smartphones every day. When you consider how often people are buying using their mobile devices, it is essential that you optimize your Facebook ads for mobile.

This means using vertical images and videos and cutting down on the amount of text you use in your ads.

8. Use Facebook Lead Ads

Facebook lead ads are mobile-only. They were brought into being so that advertisers could stop sending prospects over to mobile landing pages.

A lead form is a useful way of gathering data such as names, phone numbers, addresses, and other core demographics. Because you can get your lead form to open in the Facebook app, your prospects don’t even need to go to your website to give you all of the information.

Lead ads are cost-effective, and the user information that you collate through them can be used for remarketing.

9. Use Several Different Ad Formats at Once

We’ve already touched on the different types of ads that you can place on Facebook, but there are plenty more. Facebook will suggest different ad formats based on the type of campaign objective.

Some ad formats will work better than others for your business, and it is important to experiment to see which works best for you. By experimenting with the different formats, you’ll be able to see which ones bring you the most success.

10. Divide Retargeting From Prospecting

To make sure that you’re getting the best from your Facebook ads, you need to know the difference between prospecting and retargeting ads.

Prospecting ads are there to find you new customers. Retargeting ads are for those who have previously engaged with your brand or products, either through Facebook or by visiting your store or website.

When creating content for retargeting, think about playing on the things that the customer will already be familiar with. When prospecting, imagine your audience knows nothing about your brand at all.

Putting These Facebook Advertising Tips to the Test

While these Facebook advertising tips will help you, there is a lot of time and work that goes into creating a winning ad campaign.

Are you ready to start a social media campaign that delivers ROI or need support on your current one? We're here to help.

Get in touch today to find out what Brandiversity can do for your business.

What are "Nano-Influencers" and why you should care

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 20:13:32 GMT

With Amazon cultivating Influencers with their recently launched program and Instagram leveraging those with 1,000 to 5,000 followers, there's a power shift paradigm happening.

Not all brands have yet fully discovered the advantages of working with micro-influencers, while industry innovators are actively collaborating with nano-influencers.

Today it is commonly thought that a big number of followers means there is an actual influence on people. However, a word from a small influencer can have a much bigger impact than one who has hundreds of thousands of followers. This may sound quite surprising, right?

There is a new trend of collaborating with nano-influencers for the exact same reason: their high impact on their audience.

What are nano influencers?

Nano-influencers — are Instagram users who have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers.

Their accounts are neither glamorous nor polished, photos are neither posed nor retouched with dozens of filters. They give the feeling of being a “guy next door.”

Leading brands have learned the value of this new trend and have already included nano-influencers into their marketing strategy. Among them are Remington, Always, and Gillette Venus.

1000 followers are the starting point for most brands to start a collaboration with an influencer. However, we’ve noticed that in small countries like Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia brands and agencies may start to collaborate with an influencer who has as few as 600 followers.

Why you should work with nano-influencers

There are plenty of benefits that you can get from working with this group of creators. Let’s focus on the top six.

1. They have closer relationships with their audience

Nano-influencers have stronger connections with their audience. They have established a good dialogue with them and one-on-one communication, which is much more intimate and engaging.

Nano-influencers are more likely to answer almost every comment, moreover, they don’t just give a catchphrase but provide a quite meaningful answer or ask a question in return to understand their followers better. They really talk to their audience using comments on their posts, they know the most loyal followers and love to interact with them.

2. Their engagement rate is much higher

According to the recent State of Influencer Marketing 2019 by HypeAuditor, the engagement rate of nano-influencers is twice as high as that of other groups of influencers.

Engagement rate has a huge impact on reach, the higher the ER the more an influencer’s followers will see a sponsored post. That means that they have higher reachability, thus the cost per impression and engagement would be much lower.

3. People trust small influencers more

A nano-influencer is almost considered a friend by most of their followers. A recent study revealed, that, if a decision requires a rather small investment of time, money, or effort (retail, restaurants, travel services, etc.), we tend to trust our friends more.

These creators are more careful about choosing a product or service for advertisement because they don’t want to disappoint and lose the audience’s trust. This gives a huge advantage — your product will get an endorsement from an audience because of an established trust towards the influencer with whom you have decided to collaborate.

4. Nano-influencers are more relevant for your brand

Most nano-influencers tend to make their content more niche and category-specific. This is why the use of nano-influencers allows brands to reach different segments and better position their products.

You can make your advertisements more unique and relevant to each of these segments by targeting the right creators along with preparing original content.

Besides, it’s a good way to test your product or services in a new niche, as the audience reacts and nano-influencer can also predict potential feedback. Possibly there is a Blue Ocean out there where you can open up a new market space and create new demand.

Vivi is adept at zero waste living and in her blog, she shares insights on how to reduce the amount of waste in our lives. This topic is very niche and narrow, you probably don’t find a lot of influencers who work on this theme, especially big influencers, with hundreds of thousands of followers.

If you are an eco-friendly brand and your values are the same as Vivi’s, then she is a perfect match for you.

5. They can give you a competitive edge

Brands tend to underestimate the power of an influencer with a small audience. For you, this strategy could be a real edge over your competition.

Nano-influencers occupy an uncontested space at the moment. In most cases, you won’t find any ads from your competition on a nano-influencer’s Instagram account. Probably, your sponsored post will be the first advertisement on their account.

Keep in mind, that these influencers need more control and help from your side, they are newbies in advertising, so they need your advice. Give them a detailed brief, but do not fetter them with strict requirements regarding their way of communicating with their audience. The followers will immediately notice that their posts are false and unnatural.

On the other hand, it’s a chance for you to grow a perfect army of ambassadors for your brand. Nano-influencers are growing faster than other groups of creators. In a few months, they can become your loyal micro-influencers, and some of them macro-influencers within a few years.

6. Nano-influencers are more cost-effective

They don’t have many requests from brands and are happy to talk about you in exchange for your product or service. According to SocialPubli, only 44% of small influencers prefer monetary compensations.

This data is confirmed by our own quick research. Most of the #ad posts that we find on nano-influencer’s accounts were marked as gifted collaboration.

There is one more financial benefit, you can use content generated by nano-influencers on your own social media or website. Make sure to include this in the contract.

Nano-influencers are the best choice for startups and small businesses or for those who want to scale their presence on the market with a limited budget.

Keep in touch with site visitors and boost loyalty

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:13:32 GMT

There are so many good reasons to communicate with site visitors. Tell them about sales and new products or update them with tips and information.

Here are some reasons to make blogging part of your regular routine.

Blogging is an easy way to engage with site visitors

Writing a blog post is easy once you get the hang of it. Posts don’t need to be long or complicated. Just write about what you know, and do your best to write well.

Show customers your personality

When you write a blog post, you can really let your personality shine through. This can be a great tool for showing your distinct personality.

Blogging is a terrific form of communication

Blogs are a great communication tool. They tend to be longer than social media posts, which gives you plenty of space for sharing insights, handy tips and more.

It’s a great way to support and boost SEO

Search engines like sites that regularly post fresh content, and a blog is a great way of doing this. With relevant metadata for every post so search engines can find your content.

Drive traffic to your site

Every time you add a new post, people who have subscribed to it will have a reason to come back to your site. If the post is a good read, they’ll share it with others, bringing even more traffic!

Blogging is free

Maintaining a blog on your site is absolutely free. You can hire bloggers if you like or assign regularly blogging tasks to everyone in your company.

A natural way to build your brand

A blog is a wonderful way to build your brand’s distinct voice. Write about issues that are related to your industry and your customers.

Tips for writing great posts that increase your site traffic

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:13:31 GMT

Write about something you know. If you don’t know much about a specific topic that will interest your readers, invite an expert to write about it.

Speak to your audience

You know your audience better than anyone else, so keep them in mind as you write your blog posts. Write about things they care about. If you have a company Facebook page, look here to find topics to write about

Take a few moments to plan your post

Once you have a great idea for a post, write the first draft. Some people like to start with the title and then work on the paragraphs. Other people like to start with subtitles and go from there. Choose the method that works for you.

Don’t forget to add images

Be sure to include a few high-quality images in your blog. Images break up the text and make it more readable. They can also convey emotions or ideas that are hard to put into words.

Edit carefully before posting

Once you’re happy with the text, put it aside for a day or two, and then re-read it. You’ll probably find a few things you want to add, and a couple more that you want to remove. Have a friend or colleague look it over to make sure there are no mistakes. When your post is error-free, set it up in your blog and publish.