Social media continues to be a powerful way for brands to reach their audiences. They can use it to create more awareness of their brand, to build customer loyalty, and to increase sales.
But just having a presence on social media is not enough to do any of that. You need to create a thoughtful social media marketing strategy that incorporates the latest best practices so you can maximize your results.
Here are a few tips for doing that:
Identify Your Goals
This should be step #1 in any marketing strategy. You can’t know what tactics to use if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish.
You must identify your goals, and you must be specific. Your goal shouldn’t be “get more followers,” but rather “get 1,000 more followers in the next month” or “increase brand exposure 30 percent this quarter.”
Your goal should also be measurable. So if your goal is “create more positive brand associations,” you have to have a way to determine if you’ve met that goal. You might look at the number of reviews you get or the number of positive brand mentions. Whatever you decide, you must choose a way to specifically measure your goal to determine if you’ve been successful.
Research the Competition
The competition provides a wealth of data that can improve your marketing strategy.
To start, you should be researching your competition to find out what those brands are doing to reach their audiences. What social networks are they on? How frequently are they posting? What kind of posts are they sharing? How many followers do they have? From where are they getting brand mentions?
With intensive research, you can identify the strategies that are having the most success with your target audience and then you can try to replicate them on your own channels.
You also need to research your competition to find opportunities that these brands are not exploring. For example, you might notice that none of your competition is sharing live video, but since you’ve had success with it, you decide to offer more of these videos to set yourself apart.
Getting as much information as you can about the competition can help you find new opportunities for growing your brand and ways to distinguish your brand.
Have a Separate Content Strategy
Most people don’t think of social media as a place to share content, except to share links to content. But you can and should create original content specifically for sharing on social media.
Many social networks are making this easier. Facebook is rolling out a new feature that displays articles instantly in the news feed. LinkedIn has a publishing platform that lets you originate content right on site. Even Twitter users are finding ways to share content through the use of images that aren’t capped by the character limit.
When you share content on social media, you are able to engage your users better and you create more opportunities for sharing. You can share more in-depth content than what the standard update allows, which lets you offer useful information, engaging stories, and more.
By sharing unique content on your social media channels, you give your followers a reason to be there. They know they aren’t going to get that same content on your website, so they follow you on social media so as not to miss anything.
Create a Team
Two heads are better than one. Ten heads are better than two. And so on.
A lot of brands put a single person in charge of handling their social media, but they would be better served by having an entire team responsible for the job. With more people on the team, a diversity of ideas can be generated. One person may become narrowly focused – a team of creative thinkers can play off each other to come up with unique ideas that get more results.
Assign each team member a specific role, such as handling all video content or researching the competition. Don’t overlook jobs like customer service or lead generation. Determine what the team members’ strengths are, and assign everyone where they will make the most impact.
Hold a weekly meeting with this team and encourage regular communication. With more people sharing responsibility for the same goals, you have to make sure that everyone is on the same page and that individual efforts are working together to achieve the same resolution.
There may well come a day that social media is obsolete, but we can’t see that day arriving any time soon (if at all). You can’t afford to treat social media like a novelty or an accessory to your marketing strategy. You need to create a dedicated strategy to your social media marketing, and these tips will help you make it a successful one.
Banner ads have been around since the 1990s, but they haven’t changed much since then.
You would think with advertisers’ insistence on using banner ads that they would be bringing in massive clicks and sales. But they’re not.
Actually, the conversion rates for banner ads are abysmal. So why do advertisers continue to invest in them?
Part of the reason is that they don’t know what else to do. Part of the reason is that they are just used to banner ads, and they don’t know how to effectively translate their strategies into other formats.
Native advertising has emerged as an excellent alternative for reaching audiences in the age of ad blockers and consumer dissatisfaction with online advertising. Yet relatively few brands have embraced this form of advertising, despite its proven effectiveness.
That is changing. The programmatic market for native advertising, especially, has been on the rise. Here’s a little more about this market and why it is growing:
Perhaps the reason why there is some confusion about native ads and how to use them is that they are designed to not look like ads.
Instead, they are designed to look like editorial content or like other elements originating on the site, such as navigational graphics. The ads are designed to have the same look and feel as elements on the rest of the site, such as having the same font or colors in them.
Most often, native ads are sponsored content, such as articles that are about a topic related to the advertiser and that include a link to the brand or a plug for one of its products. Some native ads can also be reviews or tutorials.
Native ads can also be videos, photos, and infographics. There really isn’t a limit on the format other than that it must take the same look and functionality as the items already on the site.
Why Native Ads Work
Native ads are likely to be here for a long time after banner ads are dead and gone, primarily because they are so effective.
Editorial native ads offer real content for users beyond the basic sales pitch. They give people real answers and real solutions to their problems. They tell stories. They inspire. They provoke emotion.
Therefore, users are much more likely to pay attention to native ads and to stop and read them. They are more likely to feel engaged – and as any advertiser will tell you, if you have engaged your audience, you’ve won half the battle. When your audience is engaged, they are more receptive to your message and more likely to act.
Native ads also draw people in just by virtue of not turning them away. They don’t set off most people’s radar for advertising, so people can actually give them a chance. Perhaps even more importantly, they don’t set off the radar of ad blocking software, which can make it so that users never even see ads on the page.
Growing Market Share
The rise of native advertising programs has contributed to the growing market share of native ads.
Experts have said at industry conferences and in articles that the share for programmatic native is growing rapidly as advertisers have realized its effectiveness. Some say they expect spending to double in the coming year.
In particular, programmatic native is growing in popularity. Programmatic native is the automatic placement of native ads based on user-intent signals. Not only are these programs successful because they are using native ads that are already primed to get more attention and more engagement from users, but also because they deliver ads that are highly targeted.
In-Feed from CodeFuel is the optimal solution for programmatic native. In-Feed is powered by a proprietary technology that taps into the same science driving artificial intelligence.
In-Feed is designed to quickly process reams of data about users and turn it into actionable insights for the best match between the native ads and the users seeing them. It takes into account things like browser history, device being used, language, location, and more.
In-Feed also provides solutions for mobile advertisers. Right now, the mobile market does not have many solutions, so this option provides a needed service for advertisers looking to connect with the growing mobile population.
The comprehensive services provided by In-Feed are designed to increase profits with a smaller investment. The program is designed for both advertisers and publishers. Those who use In-Feed to publish ads on their site can increase their advertising revenue by getting more clicks and conversions from the highly targeted ads.
Programmatic native is only going to become more important as the online advertising landscape becomes more challenging. Now is the time to start adopting native ads if you have not already, and then to incorporate programmatic native advertising in your outreach. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results you get.
If you are asking “What is video content?” there’s a good chance that you are either new to marketing and are unclear about the lingo or that you have been living under a rock – or at least in some community that eschews technology.
In this post
The simplest answer to the question is that video content encompasses any kind of video that you create for your marketing or advertising. Video is one of the most powerful marketing tools in your arsenal.
It comes in many forms, and it can be in any length. You can share it on your own website, on social media, in your email, and in your ads.
Understanding the different types of video content can help you figure out what might work best for your marketing strategy and learn how to adapt them for your brand. Here’s a look at some of the most popular types of video content:
Product Demonstrations
When a lot of people think of product demonstrations, they think of the infomercials of old that we now make fun of and associate with cheesy products that no one really needs.
That’s not the association you want for your product or your brand.
But online videos are not like those infomercials of old. You can create short video product demonstrations that show how your product has real-life benefits and practical applications.
For example, you sell shoe polish and you create a video about polishing shoes. You don’t have to make claims about how it rejuvenates 30-year-old shoes or gets a shine like you’ve never seen before – you can let the results in the video speak for themselves.
People appreciate these product demonstrations because they show how the product is used in real life and also gives them other useful information. That shoe shining video does more than promote shoe polish – it also gives people great tips for how to shine shoes effectively.
Tutorials
The Internet has become like the best library in the world that everyone can access without fear of late fines.
You can learn anything online, and video tutorials are one reason why.
You can create a video tutorial for anything, whether it includes your product or is just related in some way to your brand. For example, you sell shoe polish, but you can’t create dozens of videos about shining shoes. So maybe you create tutorials about getting scuff marks off white shoes or waterproofing your suede loafers.
Tutorials bring in people who may not be looking for information about your product but who have an interest in a related subject. They help you capture much more of your audience without directly marketing to them.
Testimonials
Everyone shops online these days, but just about everyone looks for reviews online before they make the purchase.
They can’t check out the product in person, so they learn what other people have to say about it before they commit to buy. They want to know the good and the bad.
By posting video testimonials, you help customers do that research and give them positive information about your product. The video also makes the information seem more personal and immediate. It puts a face behind the words, unlike a written review, so it can carry more weight.
Make sure to include the names of the people providing the testimonial and any other information that seems relevant, such as an age or location. The more information you’re able to provide, the more likely the people will appear as real people and not paid actors.
Behind-the-Scenes Look
Have you ever wondered how your shoelaces get those little plastic things on the ends that make them easier to lace? Or have you ever thought about how caramels get packaged in such neat little rows inside their plastic wrappers?
People are interested in what goes on behind the scenes, especially if you have an interesting or unusual product or service. You can create videos that show how your product is made, packaged, or shipped. Or you can create videos that show how things operate in the office, such as how people conduct research, how they package things, and so on.
Think like a viewer when you put together these videos. Some of the more technical details can seem really interesting to you, but they can be very boring to viewers. Highlight the information that is interesting or engaging, and summarize the bits that might lose the average layperson.
Video marketing can help you reach more of your audience, especially those people who are on the go and prefer to consume content when they are commuting or doing other things. Watching a video can sometimes be easier than reading an article. Watching a video can also be much more engaging.
Consider creating some of these video types for your brand marketing. You can also incorporate them into your advertising and social media strategy.
Google introduced accelerated mobile pages (AMP) back in August with limited reach. Prior to that, these results only appeared in “Top Stories.” The August move had them showing up in organic mobile search results.
Now, AMP results are moving more broadly into global mobile search results.
Google officials have clearly stated that the AMP rollout will not be accompanied by a ranking change.
Articles that are formatted for AMP will not get a boost in search results. However, if you have a version of your article for desktop search and an AMP version for mobile search, Google will choose the AMP version for display. You just won’t get a boost over pages on other sites.
AMP pages are designed to load much faster than other pages. Therefore, if you have more of your content formatted for AMP, it will load faster for visitors, which means that you will have a lower bounce rate and a faster overall speed for your site, both of which will improve your page rank.
These qualities create a positive feedback loop. The faster your content loads, the more improved your overall SEO, which moves you to the top of search and helps you get more visitors, thereby improving your SEO even more. And so on.
Types of Content
AMP isn’t just for traditional content like blog posts and articles. Google notes that AMP is being used for a great variety of content.
Google officials say that AMP is being used for news content, shopping pages, cooking pages that include recipes and videos, travel content that includes maps and other interactive elements, e-commerce pages with order forms and shopping carts, and entertainment pages, among others.
The goal, according to Google, is to make websites more accommodating for mobile users. The search giant is using its influence to make that happen by providing the tools to make it easier and rewarding those who use those tools.
Reach
So far, Google said that the use of AMP has grown quickly and officials are happy with the response to it.
This summer, there were only about 150 million AMP-enabled pages. Now, there are about 600 million pages that have AMP.
The reach of the pages is also broad. The pages represent about 230 locations and are written in more than 100 languages. Major companies like WordPress, Bing, Reddit, and eBay are even using AMP to promote their content.
Those numbers are only expected to grow with this global rollout. One day, we expect to see the majority of content formatted for AMP.
How to Get AMP
All you have to do to take advantage of AMP is to learn how to code your pages in the appropriate markup.
Google offers an extensive tutorial on this markup language that walks you through every step of creating your AMP page. You can go through each aspect of the page, including adding a photo, modifying your layout, adding your content, previewing and validating your page, and publishing it.
Google also provides guidelines about including media and iframes, including third-party content, ensuring that your page gets seen, validating your page, and configuring your analytics.
All you have to do is create the page and publish it. Google will then select that page for mobile results when crawling your site.
Mostly, the markup language just adds AMP JS library information and a boilerplate to the basic page HTML.
If you aren’t that proficient with code, you can easily test and preview your page before you publish it to ensure that everything is showing up the way it should and you have no errors in your code.
There are also numerous online forums and chat rooms where you can troubleshoot your AMP markup and get answers to your specific questions about how to accomplish something specific with the markup.
Of course, you also have the option to hire someone who can do the markup for all your pages if you are not confident in your ability to handle it yourself. The expense of hiring outside help will be well worth it with the benefits you will get having your pages available for faster loading on mobile devices.
The number of mobile users has grown significantly in recent years, and it is only expected to grow more. Finding ways to reach more of those users and to make your site load faster will only improve your online marketing strategy and help you get more brand exposure and more leads and sales.
If you haven’t already started implementing Google’s AMP, now is the time to start. Check out the tutorials or hire someone to take care of the work for you.
Content publishers face various challenges on a daily basis. CodeFuel has learnt from both internal and external studies that they face daily worries concerning social media impact, audience engagement, brand loyalty, bounce rates, traffic and mobile penetration.
It is now considered fact that publishers are not only looking to earn more revenue (obviously that’s always a priority), but a key concern is also to attract relevant users to consume their content.
Relevant Content
Users want to read relevant content. It keeps them on site for longer. The trick is to offer the ultimate experience, to deliver everything possible for an incredible user experience. When traffic comes from a social media network, the publishers needs something in place to secure that traffic and keep them on site for as long as possible. To achieve this, content publishers need to understand the end user, to create a loyalty, and to use targeted content with slick monetization units.
Moving In The Right Direction
Creating fresh and trending content is all well and good, but publishers need to take the focus away from SEO and put it more on the end use. They need to understanding his / her habits and trends. CodeFuel’s In-Feed, for example, uses intuitive technology to align ads with key habits and trends.
The right technology is essential to capture intent, to target and personalize content so the end user will stay and explore the website environment and all it has to offer. Publishers need to aggregate internal content from the website with external content such as rich video, Wikipedia snippets and knowledge graphs.
Data oriented companies try to use data to deliver the right content to the end user, but they don’t quite hit the mark. Not a lot of companies have the technology needed to address all issues needed in one solution. CodeFuel manages to achieve this in one swoop. With a simple line of code, it uses Smart Demand to capture certain site and session info to deliver powerfully accurate sponsored content and ads with strong metrics. It also comes with the HUB, a back-end system that allows full campaign control to analyze and optimize performance.
CodeFuel delivers value to the publisher and solves pains – all in one. We essentially offer one provider with multiple solutions which engage the user, monetize content and optimize data. What more could a publisher want? Learn more about CodeFuel here.
