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How to get the most out of social media marketing?

How to get the most out of social media marketing?

When you first begin a social media marketing campaign, it can feel like a steep learning curve. When you’re trying to build your brand, create original content and find the perfect balance between personal and professional, it’s easy to make mistakes. If you’re new to social media marketing or have found that your current strategy isn’t working for you, then read on for some useful tips on how not to blow it when it comes to your brand visibility. Social media is an excellent way for brands to connect with their target audience in an informal and engaging space – but only if they do it right. In this blog post, we take a look at the top 10 most common social media marketing mistakes so that you can avoid them.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

Social media is constantly changing, so it’s important to keep up with the latest trends so that you can find the right platforms to suit your brand. Depending on the type of business you have, you’ll want to use different platforms – so don’t assume that one type of marketing is better than the other. Instead, find out which social media platforms are best suited to your brand and experiment with different types of content so that you get a feel for what works best for you. In addition to this, keep an eye on what your competitors are doing and try to take inspiration from what works well for them. If you notice that a certain type of content or platform works well for your competitors, don’t be afraid to try it out for yourself.

Don’t assume one platform is better than the others

As we mentioned, different types of marketing are better suited to different types of brands. You may think that a certain platform is better than the others because it’s what you’re most familiar with – but it’s important to take your competitors’ marketing strategies into account as well. For example, one of the biggest mistakes that many marketers make is assuming that Facebook is the best platform for their brand. This is a huge mistake because not all brands are suited to Facebook. Take into account your target audience and their preferred social media platform and you’re more likely to find success. Even though it’s important to experiment and find out what works best for you, you also need to keep an eye on the latest trends and changes to make sure that you’re not missing out on opportunities just because you’ve chosen the wrong platform. TikTok is the best example, and how quickly it has gained a lot of users in the last few years. For many target groups, especially young people, it is almost unmissable these days.

You shouldn’t only focus on advertising

Many brands make the mistake of only focusing on advertising their social media posts. However, this is a huge mistake because it’s important to share valuable content with your followers so that they keep coming back to your page. If you only ever advertise your posts, your followers will become bored with your page pretty quickly. Instead, mix up your posts by sharing valuable content such as blog posts, videos, and images. You can also ask your followers questions or polls, or ask them to send in their own original content so that you can share it with the rest of your followers. If you only focus on advertising, your followers are likely to unsubscribe from your page or avoid visiting your page at all. By mixing up the types of posts that you share, you make your page more interesting to your followers and they’re likely to stay subscribed to your posts.

Don’t use too many colors or shapes in your content

Many marketers make the mistake of assuming that the more colors or shapes they use in their content, the more successful it will be. This is actually the complete opposite of what happens – in fact, if you use too many colors or shapes in your content, people are likely to be put off by your posts. Again, this ties into what you should be talking about – if you’re using bright and bold colors or shapes but you’re talking about something dull, your followers are likely to ignore your posts or unsubscribe altogether. Instead, make sure that the colors and shapes that you’re using in your posts reflect the type of brand that you want to be. For example, if you’re a children’s toy shop, it makes sense to use bright, bold colors so that your brand is clearly visible to your target audience.

Don’t forget about quality writing

Many brands forget that they need to put just as much effort into the content of their posts as they do into creating them. If your posts are riddled with spelling mistakes or grammar errors, your followers are likely to be put off by your posts and unsubscribe from your page. Make sure that you’re putting just as much effort into the content of your posts as you are into the visuals by hiring a social media copywriter or investing in a grammar checker. If your followers can’t understand your posts, then they aren’t going to share them with their friends or re-post them on their own page. Instead, they’re more likely to ignore your posts or even unsubscribe from your page entirely.

Don’t be afraid to try new things

One of the most important social media tips is to experiment with new and different types of content so that you can test what your followers like best. If you’ve been using the same type of content on your posts for the past few months, your followers are likely to get bored with your posts and they’ll stop visiting your page altogether. To prevent this, you need to keep experimenting with new and different types of content so that your followers never get bored with your page. If you see that a certain type of content is going over well with your followers, try to adapt it for your next post so that you can try it out for yourself and see if it works well for you. By experimenting with new content types, you’re likely to find something that works really well for your page. Keep your eyes open, and if you see a new trend that’s attracting a lot of users, don’t hesitate to try it.

Conclusion

Social media marketing is an excellent way for brands to build their visibility and attract a new audience. However, it’s important for marketers to avoid making these common mistakes. By following these tips, you can reduce the likelihood of making mistakes and increase the likelihood of success.

Image Source: Image by syifa5610 on Freepik

6 tips to get more traffic on your website!

6 tips to get more traffic on your website!

If you’re thinking about launching a website for your business, you’ll probably be eager to get out there and find as many people as possible to visit it. But unless you’re the kind of business that thrives on word of mouth alone, that can seem like an uphill struggle. A website is an excellent way of introducing potential customers to your business, its services, and what it stands for—and in turn making them more likely to choose you when they next need a similar service. However, creating a website isn’t easy—especially if you’re not tech-savvy. If you’ve just launched your business website and want to know how to get more traffic on your site and drive up pageviews, we’ve got some tips on how to go about it!

Write compelling content

If there’s one thing that’s certain to get people clicking and reading, it’s an irresistibly written article, blog post. The content you write for your business site is likely to be the most important factor in whether or not readers stay on your site and click through to your products or services. Unfortunately, the fact is that most people barely read at all on the internet. Most internet users scan a website’s content, looking for keywords or phrases that make them want to click through. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll move on to the next site. A lot of people also use internet searches as a way to kill time when they’re bored or have a few minutes to read. If you don’t hook their attention immediately, you’ll lose them before they’ve even found what they were looking for. For more about the topic check out our post about online blogging.

Use social media marketing

Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram or TikTok are excellent channels for increasing your website traffic. Many users visit these sites regularly and click through to external websites on a daily basis. In fact, the average Facebook user spends around 33 minutes a day on the site. There are a range of different strategies you can employ to increase the amount of traffic your site gets from social media. You can boost your posts by paying for advertising, for example. You can also join groups and forums related to your website’s topic and interact with other members, building your reputation and getting your name out there. In addition, you can make sure your website has social media sharing buttons available for all visitors. This will help drive traffic to your site from social media, as people will see your posts and be able to easily share them with their friends and networks. Read more about social media marketing!

Build quality backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites linking back to your site. In theory, the more backlinks you have to your website, the more people will be clicking through to it. However, not all backlinks are created equal. If a website owner is willing to add a backlink to your site, he’s essentially vouching for you as a trustworthy site. He’s saying, “I trust this site enough to link to it. You should trust it too.” Such links are important, because they can help improve your website’s search engine rankings. They’re also a sign to Google that your site is worth visiting and is high-quality content.

https://dataanddigital.com/

Utilize SEO strategies

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This is the process of helping your website rank higher in search engine results. Nowadays, this is one of the best and most reliable ways of getting more traffic to your site. Most businesses that rely on website traffic have an SEO strategy in place. This is because ranking high in search engine results is crucial for driving traffic to your website. Although the exact ranking factors for individual search engines change over time, there are some strategies you can use to help boost your website’s rankings.

Establish a strong brand presence

Your website is likely to be where potential customers first learn about your brand. If you want people to remember your company, it’s important to make your brand presence strong. Brand awareness is what allows your site visitors to remember your name and associate it with the image your site portrays. One of the best ways to do this is by creating an engaging brand story. This is something that many businesses overlook, but it can make all the difference. A brand story gives readers an insight into the people behind your brand, and makes them feel connected to you. This can help your brand stand out from the rest and make it memorable for potential customers. Read more about it here: Brand building.

Think about where your target audience hangs out online

Just like you’re looking for ways to get traffic to your site, so are your potential customers. They’re browsing social media, reading articles, and browsing forums where your target audience hangs out. Really think about where your target market is. Where do they spend their time online? What websites do they read? What forums do they participate in? These are the places where you can get traffic to your site and build your brand name.

Summing up

Getting more traffic to your website starts with understanding how people interact with websites in general. It means thinking about what attracts readers, what makes them stay longer, and what encourages them to click through to your products or services. Achieving this is a matter of trial and error, but it’s definitely worth it. More traffic to your website will lead to more sales, and ultimately a stronger brand.

 

Image Source: Image by vectorjuice on Freepik Image by upklyak on Freepik

Online blogging

Online blogging

Many modern businesses see online blogging as a useful tool for building brand awareness, reaching new audiences and driving online traffic to their sites. However, it’s not always straightforward to get started writing blog posts that are relevant and interesting to your target audience. In this blog post, we explore the benefits of maintaining an online blog as part of your marketing strategy and give you some tips on how to get started creating one.

What is a blog?

A blog is a website that serves content in the form of articles, images and videos that are created on a regular basis by the site owner (blogger). Blogs provide an effective way for businesses to engage with their target audiences, drive awareness of their products and services and generate leads. Blogs can be hosted on your own website, on a third-party blog platform, or on a content management system (CMS). The term ‘blog’ was first coined in 1999 (previously called a weblog) by the online community that used the software application we now know as a CMS to regularly share their thoughts and opinions on a particular subject. A blog can be about pretty much anything, as long as there is a regular flow of original and engaging content created by the author.

Why maintain an online blog?

A blog is a great way to build your online brand and drive traffic to your website. It also gives you the opportunity to be more personable and build trust with your audience. You can use it to showcase your expertise in your field and provide helpful, relevant content. Having a blog on your website is one of the best ways to create content that engages potential customers and increases your search engine visibility. A blog can help you rank higher in search engines by giving search engines more to crawl and index. Your blog posts can also link back to your website, which helps drive even more traffic to your site. Additionally, blogging gives you a great opportunity to collect leads and build your email database. You can do this by including a call-to-action (CTA) in your blog posts, such as “subscribe to our mailing list” or “sign up for our newsletter.” You can also ask questions in your blog posts that require readers to leave their email address in comments.

Which blogging platform is right for your business?

There are many different blogging platforms available online, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. To choose the right blogging platform for your business, consider the following factors: Blogging platform availability: Is your blogging platform available in multiple languages? Are there any language restrictions? Blogging platform cost: What is the cost of your blogging platform? Are there any other associated costs? Blogging platform hosting: Is the hosting provided by your blogging platform reliable? How scalable is the hosting solution? Blogging platform scalability: Does your blogging platform allow you to create a sustainable model that can be scaled as your business grows? Level of support provided by your blogging platform: What level of support do you receive from your blogging platform? Is there a support team available 24/7? Blogging platform community: Is there a strong blogging community around your blogging platform? Can you connect with other bloggers using the platform? Blogging platform functionality: Is the functionality of your blogging platform easy to use? Is the user experience intuitive? Blogging platform compatibility: Does your blogging platform integrate with your other business applications? Blogging platform security: Is your blogging platform secure? Are there any security issues that need to be addressed?

Creating effective blog content

The first step towards creating effective blog content is to identify your target audience and create a persona that describes their demographics, purchasing journey, and any pain points your brand can solve. In order to attract your target audience, your blog content must be relevant, helpful and easy to consume. Here are some tips for creating effective blog content: – Define your blogging objectives: Before you start creating blog content, it is important to define your blogging objectives. Your blogging objectives should be clearly defined and measurable. Consider questions such as: Why are you blogging? What do you hope to achieve? How will you measure your success? – Create a detailed blogging strategy: Once you have identified your blogging objectives, you can create a blogging strategy to help you achieve your goals. Your blogging strategy should include topics you plan to cover, a blogging schedule and the tools you will use to create your content. – Identify your unique selling proposition (USP): Your USP can be defined as a single sentence that clearly identifies the perceived benefits of your product or service. Your USP should differentiate your brand from your competitors and show how your product or service solves a pain point for potential customers. – Create a brainstorming list: To get the creative juices flowing, it is helpful to create a brainstorming list. This can be done on paper or using a digital word processing application. Start with a basic brainstorming question such as “What should my blog post be about?” and note down anything and everything that pops into your mind. Once you have a list of potential topics, you can prioritize them based on their importance to your business.

Maintaining a blog as part of your digital marketing strategy

As we discussed earlier, blogging has many benefits for businesses, including increased website traffic. You can increase traffic to your website by creating regular blog posts that are useful and relevant to your target audience. This can be achieved by following these best practices: – Define your blogging goals: The first thing you should do is define your blogging goals. What do you hope to achieve by blogging? What are your objectives? Your blogging goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. – Create a blogging strategy: Once you have defined your blogging goals, you can create your blogging strategy. Your blogging strategy should include topics you plan to cover, a blogging schedule, and the tools you will use to create your content. – Identify your blogging topics: The next step is to identify your blogging topics. It is best to write about topics that are relevant to your brand or industry. You can also write about topics that are of interest to your target audience. – Create a content calendar: A content calendar is a great way to keep track of your content. You can use a content calendar to map out your planned blog posts and other content, such as social media posts, emails, and newsletters. A content calendar allows you to schedule the date and publish date for each blog post, as well as take note of any other related tasks that need to be completed.

The benefits of having a corporate blog

Having a corporate blog can help you achieve many things, including more website traffic and more leads. There are many benefits to having a corporate blog, including the following: – Building trust with your audience: A strong brand is built on trust. When your readers start trusting you, they are more likely to buy from you. Having a corporate blog can help you build trust with your audience. – Creating a scalable content strategy: Blogging regularly helps you create a scalable content strategy. You can create new content at any time and publish it on your blog. – Increasing website traffic: Regular blogging can lead to more website traffic. More website traffic can lead to more leads. – Generating leads: Regular blogging can help you generate leads. You can use your blog to offer helpful and valuable information to your readers. – Building up your brand’s online presence: Regular blogging can help you build up your brand’s online presence.

Summary

A blog is a great way to build your online brand, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads. To create a successful blog, you need to start by understanding your target audience and creating a persona. Next, you should create a blogging strategy, define your blogging goals, and create a brainstorming list. Finally, you should maintain a regular blogging schedule and follow best practices to create effective blog content. Once you have a blog, you can increase website traffic, generate leads, and build up your brand’s online presence.

Brand building

Brand building

Branding is the process of creating a visual identity for your company or product. The brand represents the values and personality of your business. If you’re just starting out, it can feel like an enormous task to build a brand from scratch. You might be wondering how you can get your business noticed in the cut-throat world of online shopping and brick-and-mortar stores. But there are plenty of simple ways to build your brand that don’t cost a fortune. From unique logo designs to creating memorable catchphrases, here are some tips for building your brand from scratch.

Create a unique and recognisable logo

A logo should convey the message of the product, and it should also be easily recognisable. A good logo will be a reflection of your product, and it will be able to stand on its own without any additional copy or text. There are many logo design tools available, from simple templates to more feature-rich platforms. If you have a specific design in mind, you can also hire a graphic designer to create it for you. Keep in mind that logo design services can get quite expensive, but you may be able to find an inexpensive logo design service that can deliver quality results. If you’re looking for free logo design services, you can try searching online to see if you can find any reputable logo design contests. Logo design contests are often hosted by startups and small businesses that don’t have the budget to hire a graphic designer.

Here is some example logo designer websites:

My own logo was  created with the help of a free logo design tool. But after downloading it I had modified it myself with image editing software. But as you can see, they generate pretty good logo ideas by themselves.

free-logo-design

Develop a brand voice

The brand voice is the personality of your brand. You can use the brand voice to help create a strong connection with your customers. The best way to develop a brand voice is to use some creativity. Write down some ideas on what you think your brand is all about. Brainstorm as many ideas as you can, and try to write them down in a way that is engaging and easy to read. You can use these notes to create a brand voice that resonates with your customers. As you develop your brand voice, you’ll begin to notice common themes. You’ll start to see certain words or phrases popping up again and again. These are the words that best represent your brand. Make a note of these, and use them to create a consistent brand voice for your company.

Host an event to build your brand and reach new customers

Using event marketing to create brand awareness and increase brand recognition is a smart way to get your name out there. Start by researching events happening in your city or industry. Look for events that aren’t too costly to attend. You want to make sure that the investment is worth it in the long run. Once you’ve found an event to host, create an online marketing campaign to promote it. You can create a landing page on your website, or you can use a tool like Facebook to create an event. Make sure that the event is well-planned and you know what your end goal is. What are you hoping to achieve by hosting this event? Who are you trying to reach? How will hosting this event help your business grow? These are all important questions to consider when hosting an event. The event should be tailored to your ideal client. This will help you reach new customers and help you build your brand in the process. 

Produce quality content with a video ad campaign

Video marketing is a great way to build your brand. Create a series of short videos that highlight the benefits of your product. If you have a physical store, you can also create video content that features the store and staff. You can distribute the videos to various video networks. You can also partner with video networks and exchanges that let you pay for ad space with a video rather than cash. You can also create a series of banner ads and display them on various websites. These can be simple images or videos. Another option is to create sponsored posts. Sponsor posts are a great way to build your brand by creating high-quality content that is related to your industry. This content will help your brand become more visible, while also providing value to your customers.

Build an email subscriber list

Email marketing is a great way to connect with your customers and build your brand. Start by creating a sign-up form that can be placed on your website. Ask your customers to sign up to receive updates about new products or sales. You can also create a series of emails that are sent out periodically. This can be as often as once a week or once a month depending on your business. You can also partner with other brands and send out an email to your customers letting them know about the partnership. This can be a great way to build relationships with other businesses in your industry. You can also take a more ambitious approach by hosting an email marketing contest. Create a prize for the person who signs up for your email list, and you’ll be able to connect with many new customers at once.

Conclusion

Throughout this article, we’ve discussed how to create a brand from scratch, and we’ve also discussed the importance of branding in general. When you create a brand, you’re making an investment in your future. When you start out, you have very little name recognition, but building a brand can help you to gain traction and success in the future. Building a brand isn’t an easy task, but it’s an important one. The tips we’ve discussed can help you to build your brand, and they can also help you to save money in the process.

Image Source: Image by vectorjuice on Freepik

How do I start an online business?

How do I start an online business? – (post series/ 1.)

I would like to write a more extended series of posts on how to get started online, from figuring out what you want to do to successfully selling products or services online. This is the first post, and I hope you enjoy it!

First of all, you need to figure out what you want to do in the online space. Do you simply need a website where you present yourselves, your business? Or do you like to produce text content, videos, or even audio material, or sell products through an online shop? These products can be physical or digital. For example a classic e-commerce system where we sell, e.g., electronics, TV, radio, or we sell our knowledge a PDF, ebook, or an online video course.

Once we know what we want to do, we need to think about what our business plan will be and what our strategy is going to be.
Who is the target group? How are we going to reach them? How will we get them to buy our product or service? What advertising channels will we use? How will it all pay off? Will we make a profit in the end? Or are we just doing this as a hobby?
Let’s answer these questions.

If we have figured out what we want to do, have a strategy, a business plan, we need a website. So I will write posts about strategy, business plans, and many, many more.

How do I start to create a website?

First, you need to think about the different possibilities. There are several options to choose from, depending on your needs, the size of your company, and your capabilities.
There are several solutions, ranging from entirely custom-developed websites to pre-written out-of-the-box ones.
Suppose you want to do a completely custom development, which is usually appropriate for huge companies, because of the endless possibilities. First, it is the most expensive site type. But it is customizable from design to functionality towards backend systems.
There are website engines that are pre-written, no need to custom develop them. Essentially, we can build our website on top of these with a unique design. It could also have a cms system (content management system) to edit the content, images, and text ourselves. Examples are WordPress or Wix. WordPress is one of the most popular solutions. There is a subscription version where they practically pre-install the system; we just have to customize the design and upload the content. Then, we get web hosting, where the site physically is, and we can register a domain.
Alternatively, with the help of developers, many people just use the source code of WordPress (for free) and build a completely custom website on top of it. Both have a cost; a rented WordPress site has a monthly subscription fee. In return, you get support; you don’t have to bother with installation. If you build a custom WordPress site, there is a one-time higher cost as you have to pay the developers, and there may be a monthly support cost here too. As far as I know, Wix, for example, only works on a subscription basis. WordPress is perfect for blogs or simple descriptive and presentation websites, but you can also use it as a webshop.

What about webshops?

If you are thinking about selling things online, you also have several options to create a webshop.  In most cases, there are out-of-the-box solutions, site engines explicitly designed for webshops, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and other similar products.

Also, WordPress and Wix already have a webshop module. In case of WordPress, it is called: Woocommerce. It’s important to know that you have to pay a minimum percentage or even a fixed minimum amount for each sale with these webshop engines. Still, I encourage everyone to look into the different pricing plans. While a WordPress Woocommerce system could be free, unlike the out-of-the-box solutions, we also have to use additional plugins, for example, to bring in payment methods, which are also not for free. Everyone should look at and think about the different options and decide which one is right for them. It’s essential to know for a custom site or a WordPress site, you have the responsibility of running the site, the backend systems, making sure that the site itself is up and running. Whereas with a rented system, we don’t have to do that, just upload the products, deal with the design, manage the advertising channels, and deal with customers. If we don’t choose a leased system, everything has to be done by you or your subcontractor partner.

OK, we have our website, and it is uploaded with content. What are the next steps? Of course, if you sell something online, you have to upload the products too.

How will this whole thing work?

At this point, I should mention again that this is the first post of a more extended series of explaining posts. I would like to write separate posts about the business plan, strategy, campaign options, channels, and how to measure and optimize them.

It is crucial to measure things to see what we are doing right or wrong. For this reason, we need to have some kind of analytics system in place. In many cases, this is Google Analytics because it is a free and otherwise very well-functioning tool from Google. We can use various additional analytics systems and heat-mapping solutions to understand better how users engage with our website. We can also do a deeper focus group, A/B testing, or eye-camera analysis.
In most cases, Google analytics will be just fine in the first place. It is not enough to install it as most people think. You should configure many options in Google Analytics to use it the right way. But it will be in another post where we should talk about tracking or measurement strategy.

So we have a website, it’s loaded with content, it has a product that might be for sale, it has an analytics system behind it that measures the visitors that come there. So you know what they do on your site, whether they converted, i.e., bought, registered, or downloaded the different materials or not. So it’s worth running a couple of test campaigns first to see how the site is working. Are the users clicking where we want them to click, are they spending enough time on the site, or where they stuck?
These are the questions that we will answer with the help of Google Analytics.

online-business

What are the main sources in Analytics?

Now we should talk about from what kind of sources visitors are coming to us in the first place. For example, if we are a more extensive, more well-known brand and many people know about our brand and website, many people search for it on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or other search engines.
Or they may even type the URL directly into their browser. If the user is coming from search (not paid), Google analytics will display these users as google organic, bing organic, organic yahoo traffic. If someone types the domain name into the browser, it is called direct traffic, whereas if the user comes from another site via a link, it’s usually considered as a referral source.
You should know it is possible to uniquely identify users coming from different campaigns, to assign so-called UTM parameters to the links. We can tell analytics from which source a given user came to our website, which campaign, which creative message, etc.

This is important because we know which sources, which campaign elements worked, or what users did on our site by source. If the site and the process are correctly measured, we can see who registered or bought something on the site. It means that we can optimize our future or even ongoing campaigns.
We shouldn’t get only get visitors from paid sources, so here’s what we can do about it.
First, we need to make our website search engine friendly; this is search engine optimization or SEO for short. For Google to “like” your site and show it many times in different results, we need to be relevant for specific keywords and make several adjustments. Second, it is also crucial to produce valuable, relevant, unique content because Google will rank us higher. And also, links matter a lot. I would like to write a separate post on search engine optimization; However, I am not an SEO expert.
Nevertheless, I can summarize the most critical elements. You only need to know that solutions will help you get ahead in Google search. Still, there is no guarantee because Google is constantly changing its algorithm to ensure that it is not possible to bypass, hack the system. So it’s important to them that users get the best possible experience, the most relevant results possible.
We can further strengthen our organic presence If we have various Social Network pages, Facebook pages, Instagram pages, YouTube channels, or even if we are written about in multiple articles organically or in a paid way. Of course, building a Facebook page and a YouTube channel take away extra energy and cost, but these social sites will help us drive traffic to our site.

I would like to emphasize that in the long term, it’s essential to build the brand, customer satisfaction so that more people know us, more people recommend us to their friends, and more people come back to visit us, or buy from us.

Let’s talk a little about brand building

There are a lot of interesting articles, books about brand building. I have a post about it here: Brand building.

You need to have your brand image with a logo, slogan.
You have to know yourself, your products, and your services to answer these questions:
– Who is my target group?
– Why do they want my product?
– Why this product/service is better than others? Why is it unique? (USP=Unique Selling Proposition)
– How are they going to know about my brand and product?
– What is your mission that people can identify with themselves?
– What is your story? Nowadays, everyone needs one..:)

In the long term, potential customers can go through these steps:
(It is called a brand pyramid, you can find a lot of different of it, marketers love these charts:).)

1. Brand awareness – you have to tell people your brand is exist
2. Consideration – you need to convince them your product is an alternative for a problem or need. So when they buy a product, you should be in the TOP 3 brands to choose from
3. Trial – you have to make them try your products to have (hopefully good) impressions
4. Re-purchase – if your product is excellent, then they will re-buy it
5. Loyal customer – if they are delighted with it, and you can build trust and give them a good customer experience, they could become loyal
6. Brand ambassador – and from loyal clients, you can have those who can influence others, and they will gladly promote your products to friends and family or on social media because they love, satisfied enough with your brand

OK, how can you make them go from not knowing your brand to gladly promoting it to their friends, colleagues, and family?

It is not easy, and you need a strategy. You have to start slowly and build it up step by step.

Before the first step (Brand awareness), we need to talk about the basics and research (market research).

Who is your target group, who will buy your product or services?
Sometimes it is not so obvious. And there are some cases when you make a mistake and want to sell things for those who never even intended to buy them. Until you realize it, you have spent a lot of money and effort on them. So to prevent this mistake, you need to plan and research.

Are there any competitors who sell the same or similar products? Who are their customers? Who are they aiming at with their commercials, ads? You can check the competitor’s website and see what they show about their customers. Are they old, young? Men or women? So do a little research.

If you know the target audience, you have to ask yourself why they will buy my product? What is the USP? Why is it better than the competitor’s product? Is it cheaper? Does it have better quality? What is its feature that no other solution has?

OK, now move on to brand awareness, which is only the first step. I won’t go through the whole brand pyramid now, but I will write more about this topic from brand awareness to have loyal, ambassador customers later.

OK talk a little about this first step.

How to reach your audience?

You have lots of channels to think of. You can have offline ads: TV, radio, newspaper, etc. And also a lot of online media to use. I will mainly focus on digital solutions, but you have to listen to one thing. Which tools, media are used the most by your target group? If they are young, it’s not TV, more likely Netflix, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. So you need a list of potential channels, and then you also need to think through all the possibilities on each channel.
Some systems work with video ads which are great to communicate with the audience, but you might not want to create a video (at least at first).

Also, you should compare the different pricing methods. For example, you have to pay a lot for a fixed ad in some cases, but in other systems, you pay for impressions or reach or the number of clicks you generate to your website.
If you want to build awareness, clicks are not so important, but they are crucial if you have a promotion or want to sell already.
After that, you have to plan the campaign with all the potential costs and compare the different channels based on the estimated units and unit prices to start with an optimized plan and budget.

You also have to decide what to communicate on each channel to your audience and how do you measure success.

Tracking your online business

You can track almost everything in a lot of advertising channels like Google or Facebook ads. And also, as you already have an analytical system running on your site, you have the chance to measure the complete registration or purchase process of your site. So after (or meanwhile) the campaign, you can see the cost per result of the different channels, messages, keywords, etc.

You also need to figure out the KPI (key performance indicator) for a campaign so you can optimize for it. E.g., you have a webshop, and, of course, your final and most important goal is to sell many products or increase ROI (return on investment), BUT for that, you might have to optimize another metric, which is your KPI. For example, imagine doing a little analysis and finding out that the more users put products in the basket, the more they spend in your shop. So in this scenario, you have to optimize for “add to cart” events. It is a better KPI than a purchase also because more add-to-cart events are than final purchases, so you have more data to work with.

There are a lot of advanced analytics methods, A/B testing, heatmaps to improve a sales process, and we will talk about it later.

I hope you liked this post, and thanks to anyone who managed to read till the end.:) If you have any comments, don’t hesitate to comment.