2021 August Marketing Strategy

August is the tail end of summer. Sadly after next month, we will start up Autumn and the beach vibes will go away. However, we do have one more month of summer so let’s enjoy it. As a business owner or marketing strategist for a company, there are several holidays and awarenesses that you can get involved in. 

Month-Long Events in August 

There are several different events that are held throughout the month of August. You can appeal to all kinds of people in your marketing strategy by participating in some of these events, just make sure they are true to your company and its philosophy. This will allow you to build a closer connection with your audience. There are three of these events that almost any company can partake in: Family Fun, Black Business, and Back to School Month.

Family Fun Month

Family Fun Month is pretty explanatory, get out in August and enjoy some time with your loved ones. Depending on your type of business there are multiple ways to promote this. Of course, you have classic promos/coupons you can promote. If your company targets adults (more specifically parents) you can write a blog post regarding the best family-friendly places in town, or how to make the last days of summer count for your children. Or if you want to try and gain some foot traffic now that COVID restrictions are getting lightened up. You can try working with other businesses that are local to host a night of fun. Restaurants cater food, Photographers take photos, then distribute photos to the guests at a later time, and have information booths for businesses that can’t show off their services at the family fun night. That way no one misses out on the brand awareness, and loyalty that can be gained from it.

Black Business Month

In 2004 Black Business Month was born, which gave a great opportunity to show support to black-owned businesses. You can support this in multiple ways, first is if you give a shout out to the black business owners you know on your social media, and request your followers to go show their own support to these businesses. Another way you can support is by pledging a certain amount of money during the month of August to then donate to a black-owned business in your neighborhood. 

Back to School Month

With summer ending children start going back to school in August. So this is a great time to get creative with your marketing and create promotions based on Back to School Month. If you are a barbershop or hair salon, hold a back-to-school haircut deal. Before and after school programs should be in full swing to get children ready for their routine schedule. Dentists and nutritionists might have a discount package for children so they are set up for the beginning of the school year. Make sure if you are promoting to leverage your promotions across all platforms to reach the largest audience. Leverage Google My Business for local searches, and social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to get the most reach. Also, use Google Ads and Bing Ads to have target ads to people that are searching for your services. 

August Holidays You can Advertise During

August has multiple holidays that are prime for several businesses to promote. 

National Dollar Day

On August 8th, 1786 the US established its monetary system. It is a day in history where you can educate people on currency as well as marketing. You can make a blog post talking about the history of the US monetary system as well as teaching your audience how to save money. You can also give a sale or take off a dollar in honor of National Dollar Day.

Bowling Day

Bowling Day is always on the second Saturday of August this year on the 14th. Bowling is a family fun event great for kids and adults. Bowling alleys should be all over this day promoting discounts to try and attract the crowd on social media. Or if you're a business owner, make a company event out of it and see if you can get a couple of lanes for your employees to enjoy themselves. 

National Relaxation Day

Yes, this is a day everyone looks forward to. National Relaxation Day is on August 15th and it is all about letting people take some time off and just chill out. Spas and salons can offer big discounts for anyone who books an appointment or work out a deal with a company to come to the local office and provide their services to employees there. If you are a yoga company you can offer a free session for everyone. This is great because it allows potential customers to try out your business and can help them to convert into returning customers. Or you can close your company early or entirely for the day to help with company morale as well as show loyal customers that you show compassion for employee health.

World Humanitarian Day

August 19th is World Humanitarian Day, where we recognize those who have passed away working for humanitarian causes. If there is a humanitarian cause that your company is passionate about, this would be the time to spread awareness through social media. You can post information about the cause, you can donate to the cause, and encourage others to do the same. Or just have your audience try to do something good for the day. 

These are just a few of the holidays and observances that are happening during the month of August, each one has a vertical that can participate in it if not several. So make sure to take a look and prepare your marketing team with some of these ideas. Also, keep in mind that Labor Day in September is one of the bigger promotion holidays so start prepping for it in August as well. Below is a list of all the holidays in August

• Respect for Parents Day (Aug 1)

• National Sisters Day – First Sunday in August

• American Family Day – First Sunday in August

• Sons and Daughters Day (Aug 11)

• Middle Child Day (Aug 12)

• Shapewear Day (Aug 10)

• Secondhand Wardrobe Day (Aug 25)

• Brazilian Blowout Day (Aug 21)

• Tooth Fairy Day (Aug 22)

• Night Out Day (First Tuesday)

• Garage Sale Day – Second Saturday in August

• Senior Citizens Day (Aug 21)

• Bowling Day (Second Saturday)

• Friendship Day (First Sunday)

• Girlfriends Day (Aug 1)

• Happiness Happens Day (Aug 8)

• Global Sleep Under The Stars Night  (Aug 8)

• Be An Angel Day (Aug 22)

• Just Because Day (Aug 27)

• Nonprofit Day (Aug 17)

• Purple Heart Day (Aug 7)

• Spirit of ’45 Day (Second Sunday in August)

• Navajo Code Talkers Day

• Aviation Day (Aug 19)

• Park Service Founders Day (Aug 25)

• Ride The Wind Day (Aug 23)

• WebMistress Day (Aug 26)

• Women’s Equality Day (Aug 26)

• Grab Some Nuts Day (Aug 3)

• Underwear Day (Aug 5)

• Water Balloon Day (First Friday in August)

• Lazy Day (Aug 10)

• Tell a Joke Day (Aug 16)

• Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day (Aug 8)

• I LOVE My Feet Day! (Aug 17)

• Blame Someone Else Day (First Friday the 13th of the year (Aug 13 in 2021))

• International Beer Day (First Friday in August)

• Beach Day (Aug 30)

• Mail Order Catalog Day (Aug 18)

• Power Rangers Day (Aug 26)

• Book Lovers Day (Aug 9)

• Left-Handers Day (Aug 13)

• Work Like A Dog Day (Aug 5)

• Never Bean Better Day (Aug 22)

• Dog Day (Aug 26)

• Totally irrelevant but nostalgic

• International Mahjong Day (Aug 1)

• Relaxation Day (Aug 15)

• Thoughtful Day  (Aug 28)

• Grief Awareness Day (Aug 30)

• Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day (Aug 28)

• National Dollar Day (Aug 8)

• National Thrift Shop Day (Aug 17)

Online Brand Strategy: How to Increase Presence

The world revolves around the internet and digital activities. Most people spend around eight hours a day on their phones, computers, or tablets. Take a normal sleep schedule into account and those eight hours are more than half of someone's day spent online. People are online to be social, professionals, hobbyists, researchers, and consumers. 

If your business is online, service-based, or a storefront, it shouldn’t matter if you should have a strong online presence. Most people that are online are there to shop or find a local business that alleviates pain in their life. As the internet evolves so does the definition of an online presence. It used to be just a website, now there are dozens of ways to interact and increase your online brand strategy through your presence.

What is an Online Presence

Online presence is more than what people originally thought. You can have a website, and social media and be online, but that doesn't mean you are actually creating a presence. You would have to dive deeper than that. First, there is you, a person or company that creates content. Next is the internet, this is where your content is held through search engines and social media algorithms. Last is the public eye, this is how people perceive your business and content online and how they engage with you. So creating your online profiles and website will get you on the digital map, however, your online presence will be what gets you credibility, reputation, and visibility.

Why an Online Presence is Important

Being able to have your business in front of your target audience, and giving a quality experience will allow you more opportunities to build brand awareness and improve your reputation. There are multiple ways to build the online brand strategy of your business. 

First is to be discovered, you will need to get people to discover your business even the ones that don’t even know they need you. Next is to verify your credibility, people need to rely on sources of info before making a purchase. If you don’t explain or give credible information then you won’t be seen as reliable and be dismissed. The third is to make sure you are marketing around the clock, the more you post the more people discover your business. Google looks at your website to rank it, so make sure your website is as consistent as you can be. 

How to Increase Your Online Presence Through Your Website

People will find your company in several ways, but in the end, they will eventually head to your website. Most people will look at your website before calling, signing up, or purchasing products/services. If your website isn’t appealing, and the business doesn’t provide the right information quickly then consumers won’t consider your business viable. So let’s go over some ways to help your website retain potential customers.

Modern Attractive Website

People nowadays have high expectations so you need to have your website looking in tiptop shape otherwise it will be judged poorly by customers. You should try to have an expert web developer create your website to get the best-looking website. People that choose to DIY their websites run into several problems which can cause more issues for your business as well as countless hours fixing it. So even if you need to splash the cash in the end it will be worth it.

SEO Optimization For Your Website

Most small businesses never pursue SEO like link building, content creation, or keyword research which are all key to making your online presence increase. Having SEO is a way to climb the search list of Google allowing you to get more exposure and it's free, you just need to put in the work. 

Increasing Online Presence Through Social Media

Having social media profiles is a great way to increase your online presence. Most people think you need to be on every platform to better your odds of increasing your online presence.

However, quality is better than quantity. It is better to be fully engaged on one or two social media platforms compared to being on several platforms for a short period of time during the day. Here is a list of social media platforms you can try.

• Facebook 

• Instagram

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

• YouTube

• Pinterest

• Snapchat

• TikTok

Being active online is one of the biggest ways to create a bigger online presence. So you need to post regularly and respond to any comments from followers, answer direct messages and answer questions from customers. 

If you bring your business to the internet you're not restricted just to your storefront. You will be able to reach current and potential customers faster than you ever imagined. The way to do that is by having a strong online presence.

2021 June Marketing Ideas

June has arrived and that means the warm weather is here to stay. For most people that also means turning on the air conditioning and staying inside. But for marketers, it is time to get out of our comfort zones. With the new month, there are also several holidays and causes that your company can get behind or celebrate.

Ideas For The Month

June has several monthly themes. Here are four that you can endorse if they align with your company.

LGBTQ Pride Month

The LGBTQ community is focused on expression, creativity, and freedom. Being able to stand with this community and incorporate them into your campaigns is a great thing as long as you are a supporter.

You can start support and awareness through a Pride art contest. Show your support and encourage others to show support through social media. Reach out to your followers, community, nonprofits, and other businesses to encourage them to create their own pride flags, banners, or art. Have them use specific hashtags to continue the spread of awareness or support and one specific to you so you can track down a winner.

Safety Month

Safety month can be a flexible topic that you can apply to any audience. If you're a child care company, that sell child supplies, or toys you can make a quiz focused on keeping children safe. If you're a security business (cyber or traditional) you can create a blog post about the top ten safety precautions businesses should take. There are several ways you can twist safety around your business. You just need to be a little creative about it.

Summer Vacation / Graduation

Schools out! It is time to celebrate the end of the school year and to market to high schoolers and college students. If your company is a moving company this is a great time to offer special promotions to college students that might need help moving out, or graduated high schoolers that need help moving in. If you are a restaurant or retail shop owner you can run a promotion to customers where if they show their graduation picture or diploma that they can get a free meal or discount on products. Most college and high school graduates might be short of cash at this time of year so this promotion can help them out and create a loyal customers for you.

Holiday Marketing Ideas in June

There are several holidays or observances in June. Here are a few you can leverage during the month for promotions. 

Father’s Day

Father’s Day is on June 20th and of course, is a day to show appreciation for everyone's fathers. It’s also one of the biggest holidays in June. This is a great time for companies that provide gifts marketed toward adult males. 

You can try promoting your products by creating a blog post of your recommendations for top Father’s Day gifts. Or you can create gift baskets that have a combination of gifts perfect for a dad. If you're a restaurant you can provide a free meal for dads or give them complimentary drinks with their meal. Your busiest days might be right before Father’s Day so make sure you are reminding customers on your social media accounts of promotions. To make your products a safer choice you can offer a no return deadline so if the customer's dad isn’t too fond of the gift they can return it and purchase something else on your site, or store. 

World Environment Day

Consumers always look for businesses that do a little extra to support causes. Everyone is a big fan of environmental protection so this day can be a great way to show your support for the cause. You can offer limited edition items that are eco-friendly. You give out reusable bags or metal straws with every purchase that is made or create a visual image that shows support for the environment and spreads awareness. Or you can even donate a portion of your revenue for the day towards a charity!  World Environment Day is on June 6th.

Take Your Dog to Work Day

Everyone loves “man’s best friend” so having a day where people can show off their fur babies is always an uplifting concept. Take Your Dog to Work Day is on June 25th and there are a couple of ways people can advertise for this. If you’re a pet business, have discounts on items that are travel-specific. Or if you want to try to expand your business's reach on social media, host a giveaway for owner submissions of their dogs at work for them. Pick a random post or your favorite by using specific hashtags for those that want to participate. This allows you to track the posts and your winner. 

There are several holidays and observances that you can get creative with during June to help you gain more exposure on social media as well as bring in traffic and revenue. Below is a full list of all the holidays you can choose from. Have fun with it!

National Awareness Causes and Themes in June

• Give a Bunch of Balloons Month

• DJ Month

• Zoo and Aquarium Month

• LGBTQIA Pride Month

• Men’s Health Month

• Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month

• Camping Month

• Great Outdoors Month

• Homeownership Month

• Iced Tea Month

• PTSD Awareness Month

• Safety Month

• Accordion Awareness Month

June Holidays and Observances

• SAFE Day (June 4)

• Donut Day – First Friday in June

• Eyewear Day (June 6)

• Higher Education Day  (June 6)

• Gardening Exercise Day

• Cancer Survivor’s Day – First Sunday in June

• Best Friends Day (June 8)

• Call Your Doctor Day – Second Tuesday in June

• Making Life Beautiful Day (June 11)

• Kitchen Klutzes of America Day (June 13)

• Children’s Day – Second Sunday in June

• Flag Day (June 14)

• Garbage Man Day (June 17)

• Splurge Day (June 18)

• Juneteenth (June 19)

• Father’s Day – Third Sunday in June

• Summer solstice/first day of summer/ longest Day of the Year

• Selfie Day (June 21)

• HVAC Tech Day (June 22)

• Take Your Dog to Work Day – Friday After Father’s Day

• Beautician’s Day (June 26)

• Sunglasses Day (June 27)

• Insurance Awareness Day (June 28)

• Social Media Day (June 30)

Facebook A/B Testing Will Help You Save Money

Everyone wants to save money whenever they can and that’s equally true for Facebook ads. One thing digital marketers need to keep in mind is that even if you feel that an ad is perfect, it doesn’t mean it will work out. However, with a/b testing and data collection, you can systematically create the perfect ad for your audience.

A/B testing can help you lower your ad costs and today we are going to go over the best ways to run a/b testing on Facebook.

Why You Should Use A/B Testing For Facebook

If you have ever used Facebook ads before, you know that Facebook can be finicky, and campaigns don’t always run consistently. You should always be checking up on it to make sure you see success. Facebook is known to have frequent, sudden shifts due to algorithm changes, that are often irrational and happen without explanation. Applying an a/b testing can give you an advantage when these changes happen so your ad can be more successful. Another reason is to ensure you reach the entire audience you are targeting. One ad might strike interest in part of your audience while another attracts a different segment., so it is always a best practice to test out multiple ad copies at the same time. 

How to Run Facebook A/B Testing Properly

Know Your Goal

The basic application of a/b testing is to determine what ad variation performs the best to accomplish it. If you want to drive more website traffic at a lower cost, test link clicks and landing page views to see what gets the lowest CPC. If you want to drive more leads at a lower cost try comparing lead generation campaign objectives versus website traffic objectives. Both will get these results, but you can see what works best for your company's campaigns. If you are trying to drive more video views, you should test several video variations using the same ad copy, or vice versa under one audience. That way you can see what video or ad copy works best. Lastly, you can improve your CTR. Try using multiple ad copy variations using one creative. If any of your ads are under a 1% CTR you can come to the conclusion that your copy isn’t working with your audience, so the next step would be to test a new ad copy. Continue this process to keep growing your CTR to better levels. As you increase your tests you will be able to see more results. 

Use Both Your Data as Well as Facebook

When you are checking to see what your ads are doing, make sure that your ad sets are out of the Learning Period before making any changes. Sometimes Facebook notices fewer impressions on an ad and will shy away from it. But if you notice that it has a higher CTR and drives conversions at a lower cost than other ads, make sure you keep that running. Just because Facebook has a data collection system, it doesn’t mean that it is always right.

Turn Off Lower Performing Ads And Start The Next Test

Once your campaigns have run for enough time to make true judgments, check out the ads’ performances. If some are underperforming compared to others, start pausing them. If the ad is less successful then you should see it as an opportunity to make a new test to replace the lower performing ads. That way you can further optimize your campaign to drive down CPC. 

What to A/B test On Facebook

There are multiple ways you can a/b test your Facebook ads. However, you want to make sure you are picking the best variable to improve, and that you are testing only one variable at a time. Otherwise, you can’t tell which test is the best.

Campaign Objectives

Right now Facebook has eleven campaign objective types to choose from.

Lead Gen Vs Traffic Campaign

You can try to drive leads using a lead generation campaign and another using a traffic campaign. This technique is often used to increase sales leads or to gain email subscribers. For lead gen campaigns, you can drive more leads at a lower cost. One thing to keep in mind is that your lead quality might decrease. Traffic campaigns are the opposite. You will see fewer leads at a higher cost, but your lead qualities will be better ones in a lead gen campaign. Even though this might be the norm, try out both to see if they can achieve your goal.

Website Traffic Vs Conversion Campaigns

You can compare website traffic campaigns against conversion campaigns to see which one drives more purchases. Both achieve conversion goals but traffic campaigns typically drive conversions at a lower cost. This is mainly because this type of campaign is higher up in the marketing funnel, so make sure you compensate with a bigger budget.

Audiences

You can try testing custom audiences and native audiences in your ad sets. For example, let’s say your company sells t-shirts. You can use some audiences to test people's interest in t-shirts, some others to target interest in competitors’ t-shirt companies, and a third for lookalike audiences. 

Ad Level Elements

At an ad set level, there are several places to test. Each of these variables can affect how a campaign works. You can try ad copy length, headlines, creatives, calls to action, or landing pages. You can pick and choose what to try testing out of these five options. Just keep in mind to only test one variable at a time, unless you're running dynamic ads. 

Cost-effective Facebook A/B Testing Methods

The main objective of a/b testing is to ultimately save money as you increase your revenue. When you start campaigns it can be expensive until you can make optimizations to decrease the cost per lead or conversion. 

Dynamic Ads

Manual testing of ads is always a great option. But if you want your ads to move faster with testing, then learning and optimizing dynamic ads are the way to go. This ad type is a quick way to test various ad-level assets and save you time and money by leveraging the system to put together combinations of ad copy and creatives. This is incredibly useful for prospecting campaigns, to give you insights through the system-lead testing option.

If you use a product catalog, set up dynamic product ads in your retargeting campaigns. That way users that previously looked at products but did not purchase them, can come back efficiently and complete their purchase.

Upper Funnel Campaign Objective Tests

If you have a smaller budget, but your products or services cost more than your daily budget, you might want to try an upper-funnel campaign objective, because they are less expensive and can help your budget last.

When you have a small budget try awareness, reach or website traffic campaigns to re-engage with a warm audience. When your campaign is still optimizing for your goal, people will still convert if you add a landing page to your ad.

Use Ad Set Level Budgets

You have the option to pick between two budget options in Ads Manager. One is at the campaign level and the other is at the ad set level. Campaign budgets work best with prospecting audiences, but not as well for budgets in retargeting campaigns. When working with small budget accounts you can use ad set level budgets so you have more manual control as to how your budget is being spent. 

A/B testing on Facebook is important because it gives you insight into your campaigns. Allowing you to make optimizations to maximize your conversions, and save you money.

How to Influence Decisions With Marketing Psychology

The brain controls everything, from how your body processes things, to your emotions, even how and when you move. It is crazy to think that everything we do is flawlessly done in split seconds seemingly without thought at times. However, your brain is also always trying to find ways to streamline jobs or objectives.

This is also true for cognitive functions like problem-solving, remembering, and decision-making. When it comes to a person making a judgment or performing an act, your brain relies on past information to quickly decide what the best decision is. 

When it comes to a consumer's purchasing decision being aware of these shortcuts can help you predict and leverage their behaviors in your favor. By leveraging this you aren’t trying to manipulate a customer, just influence them to perform an action. 

Show Accreditation

The idea behind this is that people tend to follow others in situations where the “appropriate” behavior is unknown to them. Let’s go over some ways this can influence behavior.

Adding Testimonials on Landing Pages

Testimonials are the most common way to bring confidence to consumers on landing pages. Consumers will feel more comfortable getting feedback from existing customers' judgments based on reviews. Would you rather use something that has a one-star review or a five-star review? Many people use testimonials/reviews to help make judgments on products and services.

You can even create a page solely for reviews so that there is a plethora of insight for consumers to use to inform their decisions.

Highlight Endorsements From Well Known Brands

If you are servicing or providing products for big-name companies, leverage it. Use their logo, face, and name of the company (with permission of course). If people recognize these brands it provides more credibility and confidence in your products or services.

Partnerships

If you have won any awards or accreditations make sure to flaunt them. This is just another way to show your credibility as a company. Again, this delivers confidence in your products to your customers.

Anchoring

Anchoring bias occurs when people rely too much on pre-existing information or the first information they find to inform decisions. However, this is a great way to present your pricing. 

Mark-downs

A great example of this is on e-commerce websites, specifically Amazon. A consumer sees the original price and then sees the new discounted price. In most cases, consumers will see it as a deal, because of the price drop and that is it is of higher value to them. Just make sure that you understand that price drops can also affect the perceived quality of a product. If your price drop is very drastic, instead of assuming they’re getting a good deal, the consumer might think there is something wrong because the deal price drop is so large.

Amount Saving

Amount saved is typically found with subscription-based products or services. Typically you will see all rate options, monthly vs quarterly vs yearly. With this display, there will usually be some sort of discount for purchasing the longer amount of time of the description base. These discounts usually are quite large, but in the grand scheme of things, it is less expensive and gives you saving for a longer time-based subscription.

The Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion Effect, aka the Rosenthal Effect, is a psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. As an example, if a coach of a football team holds his players to a high standard and shows belief that they can achieve their goals, the team will have a higher probability of performing better. 

Create A Positive Feedback Loop

You can create the Pygmalion Effect directly on your audience or customers. If you convey a higher level of performance is possible, or that they can be the best in their field, you can encourage them to align with those beliefs.

This can be started by having consumers download your content through social media. This will build more confidence that they can achieve their goal with your help. Each time they do this, there is a higher chance of landing a customer. If the customer then achieves their goals, they will become more loyal to your brand and become returning customers.

The Mere Exposure Effect

The Mere Exposure Effect is also known as the “Familiarity Principle” and this effect is the concept that the more often people have previously been exposed to something, the more they like it. For example, the first time you hear a song you might feel indifferent about it. However, the more times you hear the song, you appreciate it more and more, and eventually, the song becomes your favorite song. 

Display Ads for Brand Awareness

Display ads are known to have lower click-through rates compared to other ad-type campaigns. But one of the main reasons to use them is to create brand awareness campaigns. This is the same basic concept as the example above: the reason behind this is to keep exposing your brand to consumers so that you raise brand awareness among them.

Retargeting Ads to Increase CTR

Another great strategy to leverage the Mere Exposure Effect is retargeting potential prospects. Retargeting ads have a 76% higher chance of being clicked on compared to regular display ads. One thing to watch out for is how often you display them. The reason being is if you are too aggressive with them, your brand might be looked at as annoying. Make sure you provide enough time in between retargeting ads so that your company's reputation doesn’t take a hit.

These psychological theories are based on cognitive functions that involve “errors in thinking” so if you use any of these you have a responsibility to uphold them. Make sure that you are not forcing a product or service on someone else if you know it isn’t a good fit for them. Make sure the customer doesn’t feel cheated or swindled and keep in mind the principle of reciprocity can also be used in a bad way. Make sure you give yourself time to achieve results and in time the data will come in.

2021 May Marketing Ideas

May is just around the corner and as people say “April showers bring May flowers” so it is time for your company to bloom with some marketing ideas. There is a vast amount of holidays your business can get behind, and can leverage to increase traffic and your brand presence. So let’s dive into some 2021 May marketing ideas.

May Marketing Ideas

These marketing ideas for May are great for social media marketing like Facebook and Instagram, as well as blog posts, hosting events, or creating promotions.

National Small Business Week

Of course, we have to start with National Small Business Week, which is held every year in the first week of May. This year it starts on May 2nd. This week is dedicated to spreading awareness about small businesses and showing appreciation for the business and owners. 

The first thing to remember is to use the hashtags #nationalsmallbusinessweek and #nationalsmallbusinessweek(location) or any other relevant national small business week hashtags that are popular on social media. 

If you're a small business yourself, you should team up to promote with other nearby small businesses or ones you collaborate with. This way you will get some cross-promotion and build better connections with businesses and possibly client businesses. If your company leverages the use of downloadables or case studies, set up a landing page and promote some tips to help small businesses that can help accelerate their workflow or work efficiency. This will demonstrate your interest and show your efforts to help out anyone that is starting out. 

Mother’s Day

Everyone knows Mother’s Day is in May. It is also a great time for companies to do business, especially flower shops, spas, or specialized gift stores. This is also an opportunity to set up promotions, whether for a brand new product, discount, or BOGO (Buy One Get One) deal. Most eCommerce businesses will see a significant spike during this time, so it is critical to ensure your promotion is out early, and that you are reminding people frequently as the day comes closer. On Mother’s Day, you can post a picture of all the moms that work at your company showing appreciation for them. You can also create a giveaway where your followers post an image on social media of their Mother’s Day festivities, use your brand name as a hashtag and tag you, and receive a gift from your store or company in return. This will help you gain more traffic on social media, help boost your brand presence, and bring your online community closer.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a great time to show some patriotism for the USA and to market your business. If you sell American-themed products or products that are red white and blue, this is your time to shine. Some of the best places to promote this would be on your Instagram or Pinterest account. If you want to build your presence locally try hosting a BBQ or picnic, and give out swag bags with your products to help with brand recognition. Or, you can even take a percentage of your revenue based on the holiday sales and donate it to a charity for troops or veterans to show your support.

Spring Cleaning

Although it isn’t a holiday, spring cleaning is in full swing during May. This is a great time for contractors, landscaping companies, and painters to gain new clients among people getting their homes and cottages ready for summer. 

Try sending out postcards and emails to past and potential new clients to drum up business in your local area. Try posting promotions for discounts for your services on Facebook and Instagram, to advocate your services. Lastly, try creating some new website content like blog posts about seasonal maintenance or tips for spring cleaning. Make sure that you are properly SEO’ing and optimizing these posts to gain the most traction possible.

Star Wars Day

Star Wars Day has taken the world by storm over the last couple of years. With Disney and Star Wars doing so much, it is a great time to grab this audience on May the 4th. You can get creative with promotions for products or webinars during this time. Be sure to use the hashtags #maythefourth and #maythefourthbewithyou. 

Women’s Health Week

Women’s Health Week is a great time to get creative and show your support for female consumers. Highlight women in your industry for their accomplishments or promote content that they are posting during the week of May 12th.

This is also also a good opportunity to post recipes on social media or promote blog posts to help people stay creative and healthy with their diets. If your company is a fitness center, try having outdoor classes, like yoga, or a group run. This is a great way to have women get fit, connect with one another, and show off how great your classes and gym are.

Overall whatever you choose to promote during May, make sure you are recapping all your promos and events in an email newsletter or blogs so that consumers don’t miss the opportunity that you are providing. If they do miss out on it,  they will be ready for next year. If you are hosting events, make sure to be active on social media, share Instagram stories, foster a little FOMO in your audience and encourage people to participate. We only covered a few holidays in this blog post so below we will add some more that might make sense for you to leverage. Have a happy May!

• Small Business Week (May 2-May 8)

• Public Service Recognition Week

• Women’s Health Week

• ALS

• Motorcycle awareness

• Stroke victims

• Celiac disease

• Mental health

• Star Wars Day – May 4th

• Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby – May 5th

• Teacher Appreciation Day – Tuesday of the first full week in May

• Mother’s Day – May 9th

• Peace Officers Memorial Day – May 15th

• Bike to Work Day – third Friday in May

• Armed Forces Day – 3rd Saturday in May

• Geek Pride day – May 25th

• National Burger Day- May 28th

• Memorial Day – May 31st

April Marketing Ideas 2021

With the spring season in full swing and April here, there are a plethora of holidays and promotion ideas that you can tap into. These observances and themes give you an opportunity to connect with your customers, have your brand's voice shine through, and make some creative content.

In this blog post, we will be going over some of the holidays and causes that you can post about in April that might align with your r business vertical. To help get your creative juices flowing.

April Marketing Holidays and Awareness Causes

First, let’s cover a list of holidays and national celebrations that occur in April that you might not be aware of. 

• April Fool’s Day

• Easter Sunday

• World Party Day

• World Health Day

• Siblings Day

• National Grilled Cheese Day

• Tax Day

• High Five Day

• Get to Know Your Customer Day

• Earth Day

• Picnic Day

• Denim Day

• Arbor Day

Here is also a list of themes and awareness campaigns that often occur during April

• Financial Literacy

• Sexual Assault

• Child Abuse

• Autism

• Volunteering

• Donate Life

Autism Awareness Month

Autism affects 2% of all children in the US. If you know someone that is affected by autism this is a great opportunity to get involved in some activities, raise awareness, or raise money through a charity dedicated to Autism. For example, if you have a jewelry business you can have a product dedicated to Autism Awareness. 

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

A blue pinwheel represents support for National Child Abuse Prevention Month. If you want to show your support for this cause, you can approach it the same way you might with  Autism Awareness. Spread awareness, give information on charities, or get involved in your community. For example, if you are a college you might plant blue pinwheels to show your support for any students or potential students that may have been affected by this. 

April Fool’s Day

Everyone likes to have a little fun and companies are more than allowed to do this on April Fool’s Day. All we recommend is that you keep it uplifting and fun. A great post in the past is gone from the McDonalds UK Twitter account. In 2019, they announced the long-awaited milkshake dipping sauces.

Make sure that your joke is related to your business. Or even share April Fool’s jokes that your employees are partaking in whether it's in the office or on a Zoom call. 

National High Five Day

National High Five Day is a little different now due to COVID-19, however, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate it still. You create a post based on giving high fives to your employees for the great job they’ve been doing through these trying times. In doing so you can reach out to your community and have them tag people that they would want to give high fives. You can also make a high-five post acknowledging your customers, vendors, or causes that you support such as the Make a Wish Foundation. The last idea for a high five day is if you're in the restaurant and host a five-dollar promotion. Just remember to use the hashtag #highfiveday.

Earth Day /  Arbor Day

Earth and Arbor Day are all about trees, nature, and mother earth. You can use these holidays as an opportunity to market your business. If you own a flower shop you can talk about the use of dried flowers for décor and events to save costs and the use of fresh flowers. If you are a fitness center try hosting classes outside or encouraging people to enjoy nature by taking a hike and appreciate nature. 

Easter

Restaurants typically benefit from Easter, by hosting an Easter brunch. Photographers can run a special promotion for families to take holiday pictures with their children. Other businesses can host a family Easter egg hunt to attract the local community, just make sure you are following the proper protocols. And lastly, bakeries can make cute Easter-themed treats for consumers to enjoy. 

Tax Day

Even though the day to file taxes has been extended, tax day still falls in April. If you are an accounting firm or a financial business this is a great time to talk about taxes or even the extension of when taxes need to be filed. All businesses can also host a tax day promotion. To really attract your customers you have the opportunity to help their wallets on a day that is stressful for most people. 

From April Fool’s to Arbor Day, there are a variety of holidays and causes that you, as a company, can create content around during the month of April. Take some time to yourself and think about which ones make the most sense for you and your business to work with. Hopefully, our suggestions also helped make some connections for some post ideas for you.

Instagram Ads 2021: How They Work & What They Cost

Instagram and Facebook ads work under the same Ads Manager. However, the advertising costs for both platforms vary. Facebook is also more robust in its data and ad placements compared to Instagram. And typically, Instagram ads are more expensive than Facebook ads. Even though it has fewer placements, costs more, and has increased competition, you will also see some of the most cost effective results on Instagram.

On Instagram paid advertising can be a strong tool especially when you use the Feeds and Explore tabs, and Stories as your main areas of focus. Right now there are no placements available on IGTVs or Reels, but as advertising grows, it will more than likely be implemented. Instagram provides advanced targeting similar to Facebook. If Instagram is one of your strongest platforms we highly recommend advertising on it. 

Instagram Ads How They Work

On Instagram there are several different campaign objectives. The platform also boasts 18 different CTAs (call to action) for your arsenal, that includes: linking your website, downloading applications or shopping online. 

To advertise on Instagram all you need is a Facebook Business Page. You don’t even need an Instagram account! But if you plan to use Instagram you should have an account to understand the platform and to help you focus on what works best for your business and target audience. 

Instagram Ads are produced on the Facebook Ads Manager, and they are done the same way as Facebook Ads. 

Why Advertising on Instagram Makes Sense

Instagram is the second most popular social media right just behind its owner, Facebook. With 1 billion + users on the platform and the amazing targeting, demographic, and geographic data of Facebook, you can also get great prospecting, retargeting and conversions in your Instagram campaigns.

Engagement Rate Increase

Instagram is well known for its increased engagement rates for organic posts and paid ads compared to other social media platforms. According to a Mention Instagram Engagement Report. image posts saw about 38% more engagement compared to video posts. As a visual platform, Instagram, is more preferred for engagement compared to other,  typically text-based social media platforms. Just make sure to keep an eye on your organic and paid growth to see which type of posts are working best for your business.

Video Formatting

There are three different types of options that you can run for ads on for Instagram. You can use the Instagram Feed, Stories, and the Explore page. With these placements you can get around two minutes of video content out. This does multiple things for you if you utilize them. One, it gives you a chance to promote features and benefits of the products/services that your business provides. And two, it also gives you a chance to show off your brand. With ads launching on three different placements at once, it give you the chance to produce mass amounts of engagement.

Factors of Instagram Ads Pricing

Just like most paid marketing platforms, pricing has numerous variables. For example starting with just the campaign objective will instantly make your price higher or lower. You also have other factors including your target audience and its relation to your campaign objective and where it is in your funnel. If your business is trying to drive brand awareness which will more than likely be cheaper. But if you are trying to push your product or promos, you will start to see a higher cost for those targeted conversion campaigns.

Another thing that can change the pricing of your Instagram ads is your audience size, and geotargeting. When you target large audiences or geotargets  you will typically see lower costs. When you narrow down your audience and more specific geotargets you will start to see your price go up as there will be more competition with specific areas and audiences. As mentioned above, closing in on your target audience typically means you are getting closer down the funnel. 

CTR (click through rate) can also increase or decrease your prices. You will see a direct correlation between the two. Low CTR equals higher prices while, high CTR equals lower prices. If your ads are capturing your audience you will see a higher CTR which means more people are clicking on your ads and are completing your campaign goals. You want to try and hit anything above 2%. Make sure to look at your CTR consistently and try to make adjustments to hit that 2% and have healthier and  cheaper ads. 

The last factor to go over is your budget. Many companies that have small budgets will take longer to get out of the learning phase of their campaigns. The learning phase is when Facebook's data collections try to collect enough data to understand what you are doing with your campaign goals, and how your audience functions with your ads. Because of this you will more than likely see that it is more expensive at the start. These expenses will begin to decrease once the learning phase is over.

Instagram will keep gaining popularity, and with that more ads will be implemented and the space for advertising will continue to increase. It is also fairly non competitive at this point for businesses. But again it is growing as a platform, more businesses will start getting into the space. If you have some extra marketing budget try throwing it into Instagram to see how it compares to Facebook. This will also allow you to get a general feel for how to execute Instagram campaigns. It can be an incredible powerful tool for your business in the marketing funnel and if executed properly, you can attract more brand awareness and engagement. Who knows, Instagram can turn into one of your more profitable sources of conversion and revenue!

2021 March Marketing Ideas

With February halfway done, marketers might be looking into marketing ideas for the month of March. Just like every other month there are a plethora of calendar based things you can build posts and marketing ideas around to connect to your audience and to attract customers.

March Holidays 

With so many holidays during March, the month allows marketers plenty of options for creative marketing campaigns or posts. Here is a list of a few of these holidays:

• Read Across America Day

• Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

• International Women’s Day

• Daylight Savings

• Girl Scout’s Day

• Pi Day

• St. Patrick’s Day

• First Day of Spring

• International Puppy Day

• National Medal of Honor Day

• Mom and Pop Business Owner Day

• MLB Opening Day (so long as the pandemic permits)

• Crayon Day

First Day of Spring

The first day of spring is officially March 20th. So why not celebrate the transition from winter to spring with a promotion. Leverage the excitement of winter finally ending and spring arriving  with a special offer. You can create promotions for Instagram and Facebook, or even leverage Google My Business to reach potential customers who are searching for you on Google. 

National Women’s History Month

March is also National Women’s History Month so take some time to pay homage to the women in your company or industry who have made an impact. If you want some inspiration or information you can check out the Women’s History Month website. You can also create a promo code that coincides with this celebration such as Women21. 

Pi Day

Everyone loves Pi Day which is March 14th (3.14). It is a great day for education programs and daycares to prompt math with a Pi Day event. It is also a great time for restaurants and bakeries to create special promotions such as having food or pastries cost $3.14 in honor of PI Day. Make sure when you are promoting your event, that you use relevant hashtags like #piday to get your posts found by more people. 

St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17th and is beloved by many. Most communities celebrate with the shamrock festivities and many also have parades. This day is the ideal day to strap on some green and post on your social media. If you have a storefront, give a discount to anyone who is obviously wearing green. Or have a giveaway where if your customers comes to your store wearing green, shares it on their social media and uses specific hashtags, they can win a discount or prizes. As we just mentioned, make sure to use the appropriate hashtags, #stpatricksday  or #stpattysday,  to increase the reach of your posts.

Hashtags for March Marketing

Using relevant hashtags for your social media posts helps you in your outreach to new potential customers as well as attracting new traffic to your posts. Here is a list of hashtags that you might be able to leverage for March in your posts.

#womenshistory #BrainInjuryawarenessmonth #MarchMadness #youthartmonth #youthart #nutritionawarenessmonth #healthyeating #healthyfood #readacrossamerica #drseuss #internationalwomensday #womensday2021 #womensdayeveryday #piday2021 #piday #314 #pinchme #gogreen #stpatricksday #stpattysday #nationalmomandpopbusinessday

Hopefully some of these celebrations in March are celebrations your business can take part in. We also hope you can leverage some of the examples we provided to guide you in optimizing your posts and promotions next month.

Benefits of Advertising on Social Media

We all know by now that social media can be a great tool for businesses to leverage for advertising. You can get a lot out of advertising on social media platforms, and you can get additional benefits beyond organic growth and traffic.

Whether you are new to social media, just considering trying it or already using it, there are multiple ways you can power up your social media efforts. 

Reaching New Customers on Social Media

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat or TikTok allow you to reach to the masses and connect with new people that can benefit by using your products or services.

SEM platforms like Google Ads are keyword focused. Social Media ads target users based on things like interests, demographic data and behavior. This type of targeting provides an advantage that allows you to extend their reach to new and additional customers who use these platforms. People who see your posts or page may not know your brand or what products and services you provide. However, by having prospecting ads, these new people may realize that your company or product can benefit them. This in turn can provide an additional  conversion for you.

Leverage Audience Insight to Enhance Social Media Success

Being able to optimize your audience by testing target audiences is a huge advantage on social media. A great example of this is Facebook. You can break down your reporting to learn about age, gender, business locations, country, region, dma region, and impressions by device or time of day. The list goes on and on.

By comparing all of these demographics you can further optimize your ads to what is most responsive to the audience that you are reaching the most. By continuously looking at your demographics, and modifying your ads based on this information, you can increase your chance of success.

You can dive even deeper into Facebook by looking at Audience Insights in Facebook Ads Manager. You can get a further breakdown of things like relationship status, gender, job titles, Education level, etc. You might find that your product or services convert better when people just get into a relationship, are recently married, or recently moved. You can alter your ads to target this audience. However, this type of reporting is limited due to privacy and transparency, Facebook is starting to make changes to this data giving you limited access to it. So start checking this out before it disappears altogether. It can be beneficial.

Audience Insights on all social media platforms can be incredibly beneficial and help you save money where you do not get the best reach or conversions. If you want to learn more about demographics check out our Instagram Demographics blog post.

Affordability of Advertising on Social Media

Advertising can get expensive online but compared to other routes, social media advertising is much more cost effective, especially if you are working off a small budget. On most digital platforms a small budget won’t get you very far, but on social media you can find some success. The more money you can spend, the faster you can get insights and learn what is working. You can then test and optimize to get better results. So having a small budget that can get you results will work faster than other digital marketing platforms. 

If your company is the type that can be marketed successfully on Pinterest, then we would highly recommend starting there. Costs per click on this platform can be incredibly low. IN fact, it can cost as little as $0.10 low. With numbers like this you can create a low cost campaign and drive a high amount of traffic to your website, that you can later use for retargeting.
Knowing how much of a budget you have to play with, what platforms you can advertise on, and which ones you can scale the fastest, can help you understand where to start. For example, if you see increased sales after launching Pinterest you can do two things: Increase your Pinterest budget, or start ad campaigns on another platform to grow your reach further. 

Ad Formats on Social Media

When it comes to ad formats on social media, there are several unique ways to deliver them across all platforms. The great part about social media is that you can let your creativity thrive here. You have options like standard image format to long form video content. One format that has been taking social media by storm is Stories. Stories are a way to increase organic growth. You can find the stories format on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Twitter and LinkedIn also recently established them as well.

You can create videos displaying your products or services in use. Making short videos of how your products work make it easy to digest for consumers. It is a pretty simple concept, creating engaging video content of your products and service which bring in a bigger audience, and providing you a stronger chance of attracting traffic, followers, and conversions. If you don’t have any video ads to leverage, it's okay. You can use static images and make them into a video. Make sure your videos catch the attention of consumers and show off your brand so you get brand recognition. Make them direct, and finally ensure you include a call to action. 

There are a wide variety of formats on social media for advertising, so make sure to experiment with all of them to find the most optimal success.

Being able to optimize your social media campaigns on such a precise level makes social media platforms incredible profitable, and great way to grow your brand audience and sales. Making sure that you take advantage of all the resources that social media platforms give you is how you will be able to make these strong optimization points.

2020 Instagram Demographics to Keep in Mind for Digital Marketing in 2021

Most of the world has been staying  at home and working remotely through 2020. That means that social media’s usage and popularity has skyrocketed as have companies' marketing efforts. With the world in lockdown, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the new normal for communication for everyone. 

When it comes to social media and successful digital marketing campaigns, you need to be strategic and leverage data and demographics. Today we will explain why Instagram is the digital marketing platform of choice for many marketers. We’ll also discuss Instagram data and why the demographics are important. 

Why Instagram is Popular

Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms in the world, with around one billion users. Due to the sheer popularity of the app you can expect your competition to promote on this platform too. 

Instagram is a social media platform that is based on taking pictures or videos to network with other users around the world. It is widely popular regardless of age, but is incredibly relevant to Gen Z. The app itself is very straightforward to use and the interface is interactive, easy to interpret and attractive. It allows users to gain popularity online and showcase their life, skills, and talents globally. Due to the amount of users of all ages it makes the perfect place to market to every age group. For many companies big, small, general or niche, it is the perfect place to secure marketing success.

Why look at 2020 Instagram Demographics for 2021 Digital Marketing

Studies reveal that 60% of people use Instagram to discover new products. There are also over 25 million business accounts on the Instagram platform. And with Instagram being the 6th most popular social media platform,  it's a great place to engage with your audience. A strong marketing strategy has creative leads, generates sales, and builds your brand which serve to increase your followers / audience. That should include Instagram. If you don’t have an account on Instagram, start one, and if you aren’t leveraging it to boost your marketing strategy you should start.

Instagram demographics will help you to better understand your users. They will also help you to figure out which posts and promotions work best with your target audience. By having demographics you will be able to further enhance your social media strategy on this platform.

Instagram General Statistics

Instagram was founded in October 2010. Since hitting the app store it has been on a continuous climb of growth in users joining and is considered one of the best social media marketing tools. Here is some general information about Instagram that shows how influential it truly is.

• Over one billion active users worldwide (monthly)

• 500 million active users (daily)

• Over 500 million accounts use Instagram stories (daily)

• In 2019 Instagram said around 90% of users follow at least one business account on the platform.

Age Demographics

When you are marketing your business, your brand and specific products can appeal to different age groups. Knowing your target audience’s age and the most prominent demographics on Instagram can help you gauge what you should be marketing on your Instagram account. Here is the demographic breakdown of adults on Instagram in the US.

• Ages 18-24  75%

• Ages 25-29  57%

• Ages 30-49  47%

• Ages 50-64  23%

• Ages 65+  8%

Geo & Location Demographics on Instagram

The United States has the most active users on Instagram with 116 million people in the U.S. using the app regularly. But the U.S. accounts for  only eleven percent of Instagram’s overall users. 

Statista pulled a report of the top twenty two countries that use Instagram in October 2020. Here are the top ten.

• United States - 140 million users

• India - 120 million users

• Brazil - 95 million users

• Indonesia - 78 million users

• Russia - 54 million users

• Turkey - 44 million users

• Japan - 37 million users

• Mexico - 31 million users

• United Kingdom - 28 million users

• Germany - 25 million users

To understand more about location demographics, Pew Research surveyed people in urban, suburban or rural areas about their Instagram use. The survey determined that 25% of people in urban areas 35% of people in suburban areas use Instagram and 21% of people in rural areas use Instagram. 

Ethnicity Demographics

Pew Research has done multiple surveys that focus on ethnicities using instagram, including two surveys published in 2015 and in 2018. The three ethnicities they surveyed are Latinos, African Americans, and Caucasians. Here are the results of those surveys.

In both surveys we can see that minorities form a higher percentage of Instagram users and that there is an increase in use for all ethnicities over the three year time period. And with the influx of users during 2020 we are sure that these numbers have continued to spike. 

Leverage Instagram Demographics to Help Increase Digital Marketing Success

Looking at Instagram demographics should be taken into consideration when creating your campaign strategies. With the right targeted audience you can enhance your brand and products appeal to the masses.

Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas

Most businesses owners are looking for ways to engage with their audience and potential customers throughout the year. Valentine’s Day is an ideal holiday to interact with your customers through your digital marketing. We realize most industries don’t have a direct correlation to the holiday, but you can still benefit from it. Today we will be going over some marketing ideas exclusive to Valentine’s Day that you can implement to help increase your relationship with customers.

Promotions

Getting gifts for your significant other for Valentine’s Day is part of the tradition so cater to gift needs and run a promotion. Start your promotion as soon as possible so you can get traction on the post as well as the most value from customers who use the promotion. If you are promoting this on social media make sure to make a creative post to get your followers’ attention on your deal. 

Gift Guide for Customers

People are indecisive when it comes to gift giving because they want to make sure it is perfect. Their loved ones or significant others are incredibly valuable to them and they want to make sure to show that with their gifts. This is the perfect opportunity to promote your products or services that would make the ideal choice for a Valentine’s Day gift.
Let’s say your company has no direct link to Valentine's Day. What can you do? Easy, create a post or a blog about gift suggestions. Does this post benefit you directly? Not really however, by giving honest and strong suggestions, you will be helping your community find the best gift possible. This helps promote trust between you and your customers.

Giveaways

A great way to get extra traction on your social media platforms is to have a giveaway. A great giveaway for Valentine’s Day is to promote a couples photo giveaway. Have your followers make a post with their significant other. Make sure to request that they use a chosen giveaway hashtag along with your brand hashtag, tag you in the post and like the original post. You will get interactions on your post this way and if they participate in the giveaway by tagging you in the photo their followers now have the opportunity to learn about your business.

Things to Keep in Mind

Be There for Last-Minute Shoppers

Last minute shopping for Valentine’s Day is very common. Approximately 60% of people purchase their gifts just five days before the holiday. So having a last-minute promotion or extended in store hours can go a long way in promoting your business to people that are in a rush to find their gift.
If you are promoting this on your social media platforms, don’t be scared away from using the phrase last-minute. Your post can be the reminder your followers need to pick up a gift and stay out of trouble and with extended hours it can make it possible for them to obtain a gift. If your store is online also make sure to have a countdown timer for the last possible time to order a gift. The reason for this is that people often forget how long shipping can take and you don’t want an upset customer who thought their gift would make it in time and doesn't. It is the worst case scenario for everyone.

Giving Love to Your Customers Through Emails

If you have an email list of past or present customers, leverage it! Send out your own Valentine’s Day card. In your email just give you thanks for using your products or services and the gift you give them can be a special promotion or discount to be used solely for Valentine’s Day. It will make them feel valued, produce brand loyalty and help you make extra sales. 

If you have products or services that are targeted for Valentine’s Day make sure you are marketing them. And if your business doesn’t directly correlate with the holiday don’t hesitate to post or market around it. Hopefully these Valentine’s Day marketing ideas will help you this year.

Tips on Low Budget & Free Marketing Ideas

Most small businesses typically have small budgets. That makes promoting your business a challenge, especially against bigger competitors. However, even if you have a small budget there are ways to market your business to customers without a big budget.

In this post we are going to go over some low budget strategies to market your business. 

Free Marketing Ideas

There are multiple things you can do for marketing that are absolutely free and typically don’t require many resources.

Google My Business

Get your local views up by creating a Google My Business Profile. It is one of the most effective free marketing strategies available now. By creating your Google My Business Profile your business will show up on Google Maps. When people are searching for your vertical and are nearby, Google will display business on the right hand side of Maps. This  gives you free real estate. 

In order to get to the top of this section to secure your business’ posting in search results, you need to optimize your Business Profile. To do that you need to just verify your Google My Business account. The process is simple and includes a few simple steps of confirming your business address and waiting for a postcard with a verification code.

Be Active on Social Media

Building a community online is always a great way to grow a small business. A strong social media presence and engagement can help you do this. By posting online you will be showing off your brand’s personality and also building trust within your community and potential audience. Make sure you have active business accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. There are also more niche social media sites, such as Pinterest or TikTok, that you can leverage if they fit your vertical.

Here are a few ways you can get your community more involved:

• Run polls to get communities’ input

• Promote your blog posts, to drive traffic to your website

• Minimize your long tail content into short, precise, informative posts

Leverage LinkedIn

LinkedIn is typically a source that never gets tapped by companies, especially small ones. There is more to do on the platform than making network connections. You can talk to the connections you make, join on contribute to forums, share your blog posts, and share other content for people to see.

Sharing what you know and helping others to learn is a great way to attract customers, build your brand and gain respect and recognition in your industry. Don’t just use your business account, encourage your employees and coworkers to get active on the platform.

More Marketing Ideas

Apply for Business Awards

Just about every industry has business awards you can win yearly. Winning  gives you an online badge you can place on your website. This helps boost your credibility, which in turn, helps increase your sales. 

If you can’t find any awards for your industry or vertical, make one! In doing so you will generate a lot of buzz, and build connections. This will also boost your credibility as a leader in the industry.

Start Blogging

Creating content regularly should always be part of your marketing strategy. A great place to start is with a blog. 

Having a blog will drive traffic to your website, increase engagement, and strengthen your SEO. Of course this is completely free for you to do online. Make sure your blog pertains to your vertical and gives information that is useful for potential clients. Keep your blogs simple and easy to read. Incorporate the specific keywords you want to target in a natural way throughout your blog post.

Almost Free Marketing Ideas

The following are ideas that won’t break the bank. You will need to throw some resources into them like a subscription or a ticket.

Run a Webinar Event

Reaching out to your audience in person might not be your company's approach to things, and that is why people host webinars. A webinar is a great way to promote your business, you can present helpful content that can potentially interest customers. The two main webinar platforms are Webex and GoToMeeting which are both easy to use. 

Before hosting a webinar make sure you promote it on social media and through your email marketing lists. Ensure your promotions are scheduled one and two weeks out and provide reminders so that your audience doesn’t miss out. 

Networking Events

Try attending trade shows and industry events. It's a great way to level up your business. Events like these have like minded individuals that are looking for new strategies to grow their business. You can even make some nice B2B contacts. These events also have exclusive seminars designed to help sharpen skills and learn how to better promote your business.

Facebook Campaigns

Even if your advertising budget is small, you can more than likely run Facebook Ads. Facebook Ad campaigns typically have a low cost per a click compared to bigger advertising sites like Google Ads. To get a more in depth analysis check out some of the blog posts we have written on Facebook Ads. 

Digital Advertising can be a tricky thing especially if you are a small business with a small budget dedicated to marketing. However, by leveraging these free marketing ideas you can have an impact in your industry and grow your sales and your business.

January Marketing Ideas

2020 was probably the crazy year we have had in a long time. Worldwide pandemics, an intense election, BLM movements, wildfires across the west coast and Australia, the controversy and rise of TikTok… it all happened this year. But, the great news is that despite the chaos, we have made it to the end of the year.  We can all see 2021 in the horizon and we’re hoping for a more cheerful time.

Everyone has been through a lot this year so let’s all just take a deep breath and give ourselves a pat on the back for being able to get through it. Let’s also create some strong positive vibes for the new year and 2021.  We're going to give you some tips to do that through your marketing strategy. 

Easy January Marketing Steps

Updating Your Google My Business Profile

Having a fully fleshed out Google My Business Profile is always important. This is especially true during this time and with so many new regulations. To get an impression when people are searching for your business vertical locally it is a must. Google my Business shows up in Google searches and in Google Maps, so having your Google My Business updated is critical. Make sure you are adding images and videos to show off your place of business. Have your Q&A question filled out so people know what’s going on, and make sure you respond to all your reviews.

If you want to learn more about Google My Business check out this blog where we discuss it in more depth.

Posts Previewing Promotions, Events, or Products

Leveraging social media has been huge in 2020. So if you are planning to have any events, promos or new product launches in the first couple of months in 2021, don’t be afraid to tease them via your social media. Creating hype around these three things gets your followers excited and talking about it beforehand. Then use boost to execute and hopefully along with it you’ll gain some sales or new clients.

Loyalty / Referral Program

Providing value to a customer is always a must. The more value you give, the more loyal your customer becomes. So building a loyalty or referral program for your customers is a great way to show value. Starting the new year with a brand new program can be a game changer.

If you are a storefront you can do the classic stamp card. After every purchase you can give out a stamp on a card and on the tenth stamp you can give either a discount, or free product to show appreciation for your customer’s return business. You can also give customers discounts or better deals for every new customer they refer. It's a win win. Or, if you want something high end, you can create a tier list rewards program based on the amount customers purchase with you over time. The higher the tier (the more money they’ve spent) the better the discount they get.
Once you have a loyalty program set up, make sure to share it periodically on your social media channels so that people who recently find you know the great deals you're providing.

Getting January Started Off On The Right Foot

Start With a New Year’s Resolution

Find a goal you want to achieve as a company and share it online. That way you can give your customers and community updates on how it's going and share milestones. You can even ask people what their new year's resolutions are to try and increase engagement on the post.

If you're looking to give to charity this upcoming year this is also a great way to announce it as a new year's resolution. Let your customers know 10% of all revenue is going to local homeless shelters or to a charity that is close to your heart. It shows that your company cares for others and that part of what people are spending is given back to the community.  

Check 2020 Game Plan

One thing to focus on in the new year is a review of the past years’[ data. Take some time to see what you accomplished and goals you set for yourself or your company over the last year. That way you can make sure to double down on success and reconsider what might have fallen short and how you can better execute in the future. 

Some things to look at are:

• What pages performed best

• What social media posts got the most engagement

• What campaigns drove the most profits and traffic

All of these can be looked at from the perspective of what underperformed. You can then compare the two and see what could have made it better. Were the images intriguing enough? Was the content you made targeted towards your audience? Or was the call to action not strong enough? There are multiple things to look at, expand upon or improve that you can take into the new year.

National Holidays & Observances in January

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 18th is the national holiday to celebrate Martin Lurther King Jr.’s birthday and acknowledges his Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in civil rights. This is a day to honor him and his legacy. It is especially important given the events of the past year to acknowledge this well-respected civil rights leaders and show support for related causes.

You can organize an event in your local area. If you do, announce it on social media.. It is a really great time to show unity in your community and demonstrate your business’ ethics and values.

Compliment Day

January 24th is Compliment Day so take some time to compliment someone. You can share a post and have your community tag someone to the post and give them a compliment. You can make the most of this day by thanking your community for their support or their loyalty. Or you can share a post complimenting your coworkers or company for doing so well or working so hard. 

There are multiple other holidays that you can partake in especially through social media to show support or awareness during this month. 

Hopefully these tips can help you get 2021 started with a bang!

Top Social Trends For 2021

As we all know 2020 has been an interesting year, especially in the digital marketing realm. We have, for instance, seen increased growth and competition in the digital marketing space. And with growth and new competition we are also detecting new trends. Social media platforms are continuing to scale due to COVID. People are at home more than ever and spending more time online, and this has provided a giant freeway for people to experiment on especially in the ecommerce world. Being able to reach your audience through organic and paid strategies is more important than ever. 

With Q4 almost over, it's time to start looking into the new year and how your socials can elevate your company to success. Today we are going to go over a couple of tips to give you the best chance to achieve this success.

Instagram Placements

With how successful paid advertising has been this year, there are bound to be new ways for these companies to capitalize on new ad placements. One of the biggest social media brands to look out for this coming year is Instagram. 

Instagram’s big brother Facebook has a plethora of ad placements on their platform. However, Instagram has only three options you can access for advertising: Feed, Stories and Explore. Something that might come into play is Reel ads. We recommend getting into reels organically to see how they function is best. You can get familiar with it by using your own brand and learning what creatives work best to attract customers. 

IGTV has become much more prevalent since its launch in 2018. Companies are now including these in their organic strategy. These are great for teaser videos on new product launches. You can combine this by adding a shorter version on your feed to attract traffic. Anyone that is interested can then check the rest of the video on your IGTV. Starting in May there will be a beta test for creators to help them monetize their IGTV channels.

There are some great techniques for short and long formatted content for you to promote. Start testing now so if the beta rolls out to everyone, you can take quick advantage in executing a new strategy. 

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Facebook Basket

A golden rule of marketing is to always diversify your digital marketing strategy. Facebook recently had a mass outage where ads were disabled without notice or valid reasoning. With 93% of social media advertisers leveraging Facebook Ads, it is rough to invest only in Facebook and have something like this happen. You don’t need to use a full scale budget on other platforms, but dipping your toes into other platforms such as TikTok, Pinterest, Linkedin, and Twitter can be useful. 

Testing these platforms and seeing how your audience interacts with you can uncover a new gold mine for you. Don’t be afraid to ask around about other people’s experience on these platforms and you might get some tips on how to navigate through them. 

For example if you are an ecommerce company and you experienced a drop in ads right before the biggest time of the year, it can be scary. At least if a situation like this happens ,having other social media platforms with ads on them you can still get the word out on your advertisements.  

Up and Coming Pinterest Ads

It is always a good idea to have multiple back up social media advertising platforms. One you should consider, especially for ecommerce, is Pinterest. Top analysts have said that Pinterest is a top pick to lead 20% growth in online advertising for the upcoming year. 

It is true that Pinterest is still considered a new platform for advertisements. However, they are doing a great job in developing opportunities to expand advertising on the platform. Average CPC (cost per click) right now is around $0.13 and is a great area for prospecting customers. So if you have some extra change in your budget we highly suggest testing it out.

If you want to learn more as to why you can check out our blog that discusses everything Pinterest.

We know that it is impossible to predict how 2021 is going to turn out.  Let's be honest, we never could have predicted this year and the next one could be equally difficult to predict. But what we do know is that paid social media is growing to the point where it can’t be ignored anymore, especially if you are advertising digitally. It is okay to have a big budget in Facebook Ads, but make sure you are testing other platforms along the way in case something happens. While testing these new platforms you can learn more about your audience and even find a strong platform to redirect your budget to. It will also help to grow your brand and bring brand awareness to your company.

Google Ads Search Term Query Results Have Decline

In September Google changed search term queries. The new reports are limited compared to the past. Search term reports are a feature in Google Ads that let you see what search terms trigger your ads. They also allow you to see what search terms closely relate to the keywords your ads are targeting. With these changes however, you are no longer able to see search terms that have lower search volume.

There are several reasons why this is such a concern to advertisers, especially ones advertising to niche markets. Google now only  shows search term queries with a  “significant number number of users”. Any business or marketer working in a vertical that has already low search volume is now going to be seeing even less data. Google does, however, update the search query system so when a search term does reach its threshold it will continue to show it from that point on. 

How Do You Maintain Your Search Query Visibility?

Continually expanding your close variant search terms is one of the best options to maintain search query visibility. It will be a challenge since we are working with a limited search query to begin with. However, being able to identify what is a poor match to your account from the search query results and negating these matches will help you see better search query results. 

It will also help you reduce potential wasted spend and expand your negative keyword list, allowing your query list to give you better results. 

Bing (Microsoft Advertising) has not followed Google’s lead in limiting search term query results, so if you are advertising in Bing it’s a great source to leverage. You will be able to fill in some of the blanks that you can’t see in Google to help you identify what is still relevant and useful to you. 

Leverage Other Skill Sets

With this low visibility for niche verticals, we suggest also prioritizing other forms of digital marketing to help you grab some of your marketing presence back. If you haven’t already started doing this we recommend optimizing your SEO first, making sure you can grab as much organic page clicks as possible. To complement your SEO, look into your web development and see what pages you can improve speed on, and how your backlinks look. This will also directly affect your SEO in addition to your Google Ads efforts.  

You can also work on leveraging your social media accounts. We recommend looking into Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. All of these platforms might not work for you depending on your vertical, so if you start seeing more success in a few of them and diminishing returns in others don’t be afraid to just expand the more successful social media platforms. 

Next you can start growing an email marketing list. Providing updates to your customer on how your business is doing, as well as any promotion you may be having such as holiday specials, can help keep you top of mind with your customers.

With the new limited search term query reports it will be a little more tedious in Google Ads for veterans and young digital marketers alike. But, by negating variant exact matches, using Bing as an additional search term query, and beefing up your other digital marketing funnels you can help insure your success in the digital marketing realm! If you want some more tips on ways to promote your business, you should check out one of our most recent blog.

Ways To Promote Your Business

In order to be a business, you need sales, and to get sales you need customers. However, in order to get customers you need to promote your business. Today, digital marketing is the most popular way to promote your business.

Many businesses have a hard time figuring out the best approach when it comes to promoting their businesses. In this blog we will be going over multiple ways to promote your business through digital marketing.

Promoting Through Google

Google should be a top priority when it comes to your business promotion effort. Google captures 90% of market share, and is an easy and effective way to get in front of customers. 

Google Business Profile

Having a Google Business Profile allows you to show up as a business in Google Maps Search results. For example, if someone searches for a doctor, they  will see doctor practices listed in the Google Maps section with both private and public practices. This is because these doctors have Google Business profiles.

If you are one of the top three ranking Google Businesses then you are essentially getting free promotion everyday in your local area. With your Google Business page you can post picture updates and promotions that go straight to your Google listing so your audience can see them.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you are a small business you should be trying to push SEO hard. It is an area that puts you on equal footing with bigger companies. As long as you put in the work, you can get some great results. SEO are a set of practices that align with Google’s ranking algorithm. Location based results get big searches and they help you rank towards the top of the page as long as you optimize properly. 

Some things to keep in mind while optimizing your website for SEO rankings are: 

• Adding relevant industry and location based keywords to specific places on your website. Maintaining high page load speed and security. 

• And finally, producing original high-quality content regularly, with tagged images. 

If you are ranking high in Google search results then Google is essentially saying you're doing a good job and promotes your business for you. 

Google Ads

SEO is a long term strategy that doesn’t happen overnight. It can take weeks or even months before you start seeing results. If you want immediate results then what you should be looking into is Google Ads. Google Ads show up at the top of the Google search engine results before Google Maps results and before organic SEO results. Google Ads is preferred for paid marketing because most people use Google for their searches and they have great ad building features and performance metrics. 

Mastering Google Ads will take some practice and understanding. You will need to optimize your campaigns frequently to get the best results. You can do Search, Display, Shopping and Video ad campaigns on this platform. 

Leveraging Social Media

Social media can be a free or paid way to promote your business. The most popular social medias right now are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter. However, there are some more up and coming platforms to promote on like Pinterest, TikTok, and Reddit. 

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social media platform online right now. It is a great way to keep in touch with current customers and reach out to new ones. Depending on your industry, Facebook can help you attract your more customers and foot traffic. Start by creating a Facebook business page with your contact information and a CTA. Next, use Facebook events to promote and maximize attendance for your events. Finally, you can leverage Facebook Live for tutorials, bts footage or sneak peeks. 

LinkedIn

When people think of LinkedIn they assume it’s about connecting with colleagues and having an online resume. However, it is also a place where you can connect with potential customers, and facilitate partnerships, and group discussions. Customers can also check out your company on LinkedIn before choosing to do business with you. Within LinkedIn they can also dig a little deeper about your business, employees and background. 

You can promote your business indirectly on LinkedIn by adding to group discussions and providing links to relevant content on your website. Just make sure you are promoting your content as well as others.

Instagram

Instagram is the third most popular social media platform being used right now. WIth Instagram’s diverse posting formats, including images, short stories, IGTV series, live sessions, and story highlights, there are a great number of ways to engage your audience and promote your business. The site allows you to advertise promotions for your sales and deals. You can also run contests with a free discount code, which can help you grab a list of possible leads to reach out to. Finally, you can offer advice or tutorials on your products. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is mainly used for photos. However, these photos can be linked back to your website, which creates an opportunity to promote your business and drive more traffic to your website. Pinterest would be in your best interest if you are an ecommerce company, especially with a strong female audience as Pinterest is heavily skewed towards the female demographic. If this fits your niche then we highly suggest becoming active on Pinterest. 

There are a vast number of options available to you to promote your business digitally and we have only gone over the most popular ones in this post. We’ve included a mix of paid and free ways to promote your business. If you implement these strategies it will help you out, just make sure to continuously test out new ideas and optimize your content.

Ideas for Marketing In October

Today marks the first day of October. October is a great month for creative marketing tactics. Using the holidays to work your content and promotions helps to get some excitement into your advertising and gives you a chance to show off your brand voice. Continue reading for some October related ideas for your blog socials, website and more!

Marketing ideas for October

Bringing awareness to a cause is a way for your business to help support that cause. At the same time, it lets your customers get satisfaction from something fulfilling, and build an even better sense of  community around you and your business. This also allows you to build local audience strength because of the more natural messaging. Let’s go over a few themes you are more than likely familiar with:

• LGBTQ History

• Anti-bullying

• Sustainable energy

• Fire Prevention

• Down Syndrome

Here are a few more themes in October you might not know, but should:

• Eat Better, Eat Together Month

• World Vegetarian Day

• Global Diversity Awareness Month

• Bilingual Child Month

• Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

• Emotional Wellness Month

• National Cake Decorating Day

• Employee Ownership Month

• Church Safety and Security Month

National Bullying Prevention Month

49% of children from the grades 4-12 have reported being bullied at least once a month and that's 49% too many. This October cause is relevant to schools and education adjacent verticals, but also businesses whose target market is made up of parents with school-aged children. There is an easy way to market towards this. Try posting stats on social media or providing links to anti-bullying resources and organizations your customers can donate to. Or you can donate a portion of your profits this month to a nonprofit that is focused on anti-bullying.

Energy Awareness Month

If you're in the energy industry you can write an article sharing statistics or your perspective and promote it on LinkedIn with takeaways in your post. Include the hashtag #sustainablenergy because it is specific to the topic and it will be searched by anyone who is interested in reading about it. Another way you can talk about this theme is to write about DIY sustainable energy ideas that can be used at someone's home, office, or classroom.

World Vegetarian Day

World Vegetarian Day is on October first, so happy World Vegetarian Day! This is a great day to celebrate restaurants or shops that cater to a vegetarian audience. It gives them a thumbs up from consumers recognizing them through social media and on their website. You can even get more creative with this as well. Try for coronavirus restaurants, offer discounts on vegetarian dishes. If cooking is applicable to your business, create  a post offering recipes, information, experiences, and resources.

National Boss’s Day

This is a Facebook and LinkedIn friendly holiday that happens on October 16th. You can give a shout-out to your boss and the great work they do for your company. And if you don’t have a boss, have some fun and choose another “boss” you know like maybe your puppy or cat that you consider the boss of the house.

Global Diversity Month

Global diversity month pays tribute to diverse minds and beliefs held by all cultures around the world. We live in a multicultural society that embraces a vast number of cultures and appreciates all culture differences and perspectives. This is a great post for you to show off your internal staff and highlight their backgrounds. This will demonstrate diversity in your company and bring a presence of unity and culture that consumers might not know about but should.

Fire Prevention Month

As we all know there have been some pretty nasty fires during the last couple of years. That is why fire prevention month is important ,especially right now. Fire prevention month is mainly used to memorialize the Great Chicago Fire that occurred in  October, 1871. This is a great time to teach parents and children how to prevent fires in their own homes and what to do when a fire happens. Similar to the tips we gave for anti-bullying month you can post stats on causes of fires, or how many we have per year. You can give information on how to prevent fires and what to do when fires occur. And finally,  you can donate to a nonprofit focused on fire prevention. If you are in a clothing or technology industry try donating product to local fire departments as a token of appreciation and always remember to use the hashtag #firepreventionmonth.

Halloween Based Marketing

Halloween is probably the biggest holiday in the USA during October. Everyone gets into the Halloween spirit so why not market around it.

Artist Dabbling

Show customers how to make Halloween inspired crafts and recipes. A blog post or DIY video showing off how to decorate you how or “scary” themed recipes for you Halloween party can be a great place to start. Also with COVID, you can provide suggestions for how you can get into the spirit of Halloween while social distance pumpkin carving or pumpkin painting.

Giveaways

To get people into the holiday spirit try doing a giveaway. You can choose an event like best decorated house, best costume, guess how many candy are in the jar, etc. In doing so you can ask contestants to like your post or page and use brand hashtags in order to win. This will help your social accounts get more followers and traction as well as increase the range of your brand's influence. Just make sure you have an amazing prize to really get some hype behind your contest.

Running an October themed marketing campaign is a great way to authenticate your brand, interact with your community, have some fun, and help out a good cause. Don’t be afraid to test it out on new platforms as well. Even though these campaigns are more lighthearted they still give great exposure and attract customers. Try out these October marketing ideas and get ready for the holidays.

Facebook and Instagram Advertising During COVID-19

Small business owners tend to build personalized relationships with their customers to keep their business growing. They do the same thing with their advertising audience. The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected daily business practices. In particular, it means that businesses need to adapt their advertising tactics.

Today we are going to be going over three strategies that you can try during these difficult  times:

• Going Live

• Remarketing 

• Leveraging Email Marketing Lists in Facebook

Going Live

Depending on your business and product, you can be highly effective by going on Facebook or Instagram Live. This is a great way to reconnect with your audience and maintain a personal connection. This will allow you to be honest and genuine with viewers. 

Facebook and Instagram Live provide you with the next best thing to a personal connection during these difficult times. You don’t necessarily have to push your product aggressively every stream. It is enough just to connect. What's so great about streaming is that your audience can write comments about their experiences or ask questions. You can get lots of ideas for content to include just by following their interactions with you during the stream.

You can also use your live streams to show off your product. For example, let's say you have a photo editing app. You can share your use of the app on live screen share. Then you can display tips and tricks for people or advertising less widely known functions of your app. You will be educating people on cool and practical ways of using the app as well as ways to use it that people might not have realized they could.

Remarketing

We all know that there is a pretty high bounce rate when it comes to company websites. Due to people being at home because of COIVD, finding ways to encourage people to come back to your site is something you need to test. A good example of doing this is to offer a special promotion like free shipping or a discount code to people who have abandoned your site in the past. Everyone loves a good deal. 

Another thing you can try applying is engagement custom audiences. These allow you to target users who have engaged with your content  in the past on Facebook and Instagram. They incorporate anyone who has commented, liked, interacted or shared on your Facebook or Instagram accounts. Make sure to be as detailed as possible in your segmenting as this will give you the best chance for success.

Leveraging Email Marketing Lists in Facebook

If you have a business where you can use a newsletter, and you feel that during COVID your business is slowing down, you should look into email marketing. This is a great way to gather more data, get leads, and promote special deals.

A Facebook Lead Ad campaign will allow you to pique the interest of your customers, increase leads and email newsletters sign ups, and create new audiences to remarket to in the future. Keep in mind when you create a Facebook Lead Ad campaign your lead generation form should be short and sweet. The more information you ask for, the less like a consumer will be to fill out your form. 

The best approach is to simply  ask for a name and email because your newsletter will serve as a further point of contact that allows you to capture more conversions.

Hopefully these tips will help your business to thrive during these times. If you want to learn more about Facebook Advertising take a look at our Facebook copywriting blog Or, if you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Getting Cross Channel Lead Generation Running

How to Get Your Cross Channel Lead Generation Started

Having cross channel marketing is a cornerstone when it comes to your lead generation. This process can be a little tricky, figuring out the relationship of each channel can be confusing, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself.

- How do I integrate Google Ads to coordinate with Facebook ads

- How do I maximize my channels

-How do I know how to budget each channel

As you start your multi platform marketing you will notice that one channel will work better than others as well as some channels work well for multiple sections of lead gen. We will go over a few things to help you set up a cross channel strategy to you the advantage. 

Figure Out Your Baseline For Cross Channel Lead Generation

You will notice the more you work in Google, Facebook and Bing that you will have good ideas for each platform to advertise. Baseline results are something that you can expect from every platform. This can get confusing with an assortment of promotions and different stages of the marketing funnel. One thing to do is map out what the cost per conversion is for each channel by using your account analytics averaging results may need to be used (and is okay).

After getting your baseline you will know what the standard cost will be throughout your funnel. This is important to help you figure out what types of promos to use in each channel. An example you might come across is that that the cost for a conversion in Bing might be lower than a conversion in Facebook. You will have two different types of funnels to work with a high-funnel promotion and a low-funnel promotion. 

High-funnel is advertising that drives traffic to your website, like a blog post, newsletter, or ads that directly relate to your brand. This funnel is used to get people into the marketing funnel a good analogy is like getting a person into shallow end of the swimming pool. In theory after getting people into the higher funnel it should be easier to cultivate them into a customer, by converting in a lower funnel. This type of strategy is a marathon not a sprint, you will have high volumes of people flow through this funnel and slowly make their way to the finish line, do not expect a conversion right away. But as you do this overtime you can manipulate it where the cost will be less than the lower funnel, and can even yield a better ROI over time.

Low-funnel is a more direct form of marketing. This will drive traffic to free trials, sales call, consultations or demos. This will be promotions that are intended to attract closing a customer than the high-funnel. You should keep in mind that the CPC of these will more likely be higher than your high-funnel promotions.

In the end you will need to determine what kind of promotions go into which funnels. It will be important to identify the level intent of each promo when placing a marketing budget. These budgets will influence your ROAS in the long run. 

Tracking & Results Cross Channel Lead Results

One of the biggest things everyone needs to do is tracking results. Being able to track all marketing channels will make your life a lot easier for decision making regarding budgets. We highly recommend installing Google analytics, but isn’t always necessary depending on your situation. Paid ad landing pages are your primary pages to track because this is where you will be getting your leads. If you can measure the performance of the landing page and be able to track it back to the channel it came from you will be in a prime spot.

Google Analytics makes viewing by channel easy with the UTM tracking that is provided. All you need to do is make sure on each landing page you use for a promotion has a UTM to attach to the URL.

Channel level conversion rates - Learn how ads convert for audiences or ad groups. By having your baseline you will be able to figure out if low conversion rates are an issue for the specific ad group or audience.

Conversion rates for landing pages- Similar to channel level conversion rates, you can determine with your recorded baseline if landing page conversion rate is an issue across all the channels. 

CPC (cost per conversion) - Keeping track of this will let you calculate new customer acquisition costs from lead effort generation.

Lead Quality - Knowing how well each channel is doing, how many leads you are getting and how many leads are converting. You can figure out the lead quality for each channel. For example if a Facebook audience is generating 30 leads a month but only 10 get converted. Where as Google Ads is getting 30 leads a month and is converting 20 of those leads. You can figure out Facebook audience is under performing compared to Google Ads, this is where you can make some judgement calls, either spend less budget in that audience because you know the lead quality isn’t as high or modify your audience, ad copy, or landing page to see if you can get better results. 

Budget Allocation Based on Intent

We all know that there is a limited budget in our marketing, especially when you are starting out. The more you test you will gain insights that will affect your business, where you can prioritize your budgets and channels. 

Push vs. Pull for Cross Channel Lead Generation

Paid search and paid social media are both different monsters and you need to understand that the nature of each channel will be different including the dollar amount to maximize your efficiency. Testing a variety of promotions at once will gain insights as to how effective each is on your business. 

Paid Social- All social media marketing platforms are considered “push” marketing. Most targeting will be towards an audience that either have or haven’t heard of your company before. Reason why it is called push marketing is because you are “pushing” your advertisements onto them.
With a limited budget your first point should be to focus on remarketing. Targeting users that have already have visited your website. This will help with your pushing strategy, because they will likely already be somewhere in your funnel or as some would say “lower hanging fruit”.

Paid Search-  Paid search is Google and Bing, which are considered “pull”marketing. They are called pulling because there is already a form of intent when someone is looking searching on these platforms, so you are pulling them into your ad. This is a more competitive platform especially on the higher search query keywords. Starting with a limited budget, you should be focusing on keywords that are the most relevant and important to do with your business. The other given is to focus on is your brand campaigns. 

Google Display Network- This is actually more of a push than a pull market. It isn’t a direct ad that you see when searching in google. It is usually on the side of the screen as a pop up, when starting out I would put this low on the totem pole.