What better way to wrap up our 2020 podcast season than to interview our very own, Zeke Dorr? We take a look at the innovative marketing strategy implemented that took his real estate presence to the next level. Take a listen as Zeke reveals big news!
We are getting practical on how to implement social media in your business successfully. More specifically, we will guide your business on building a social media strategy that will set your business apart from competitors. You will be provided with free resources for your social media, some assets GreenFox created, and others we highly recommend.
People tend to run the social media pages for their business as their personal page. They sometimes talk about what is happening with their family or post photos of their children, but it is not what your target audience is looking to see from your business page. Although providing behind-the-scenes content is helpful and may involve your personal life’s reality to overlap, make sure the main point remains about your business.
Facebook Contact Information should be just as important as your Google information because people these days gather information from Facebook. Keep it updated with recent photos and videos. Post frequently so others don’t think you’re no longer open because the last post was made eight months ago.
According to Hootsuite, more than 40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands or products. Part of that discovery is getting to know who you are as a brand and what you stand for. Not only should you create branded hashtags, but you can now include it in your Instagram bio. SproutSocial shared that Instagram recently added the ability to link other accounts and hashtags to your business bio. Now, you can use the space to promote other location-specific accounts and add hashtags. These hashtags can be your standard branded ones or special hashtags, like for a contest.
Remind followers they can follow your business on other platforms and go a step further by providing content that your audience can only get on that specific platform. There are different people on different media platforms. Update your business bio and contact information with other social media channels.
At the bottom of the newsletter, you can add your business social icons and branded hashtags. It’s a call to action for customers to share a photo, use the hashtag, and follow you on a network of their choosing.
Social media-only discounts are always a great way to engage your audience. Generate brand awareness through contests and giveaways. The giveaways with the highest engagement are the ones that easy ones that have your audience do very little to enter. If you’re just starting out on contests, we would recommend this route. We did this for a client, where it lasted a week, instructed their audience to follow the business, tag three friends who don’t already follow, and like the post to win a free product or two. This created high engagement, shares, and followers.
Keep it simple, and it will draw awareness. Go big and make it a cool one worth talking about. Consider doing it quarterly, if your budget isn’t all too big, to make it a larger win-product.
Be disciplined and systematic when it comes to applying the developed social media strategy to your business. It is all about using the right tools to produce quality assets promptly and effortlessly. Begin implementing your social media strategy by creating a posting formula and plan your content. We have provided a free Posting Formula/Content Template you can download and use. If you’re not sure where to begin, reference our Posting Formula/Content Example to see how to create it successfully.
One great way to plan out your business’ Instagram feed in a thought-out and intentional way is by using our Photoshop Instagram Grid Template. This allows you as the owner or you as the marketing director to plan out posts and save them individually to later post. If you don’t have an idea of where to begin, reference our GreenFox Instagram Grid to visualize the possibilities. If you’re not Photoshop-savvy, we recommend using the free app Preview: Planner for Instagram. This app allows you to preview what your business feed will look like and shift “posts” around to make sure it looks aesthetically pleasing.
If you need graphics to display information for your business, we recommend using a drag-and-drop, easy-to-use graphic builders, like Adobe Spark and Canva. You will be tempted to use many templates, use all different logos, and colors that will steer you away from your brand. Refrain from this! Keep your graphics on brand. To keep your graphics on brand, you can subscribe for a monthly fee to upload your brand and make branded graphics, so your pages don’t look all scattered. There may be projects where you don’t have the photography needed to complete it or rather use photos than graphics. We recommended using stock photos, like Freepik and Unsplash.
Using your Posting Formula/Content Template to plan out posts, we highly suggest scheduling out. We recommended the free posting program, Creator Studio, for Instagram and Facebook. This tool is provided with a Business Page and even offers Insights, an analytic tool for your business page. Some non-free options we recommend include AgoraPulse, Hootsuite, and Sprout.
We are going to get practical in applying social media effectively to the most common industries. It is beneficial to know how social media benefits common industries. In one of our August blogs, Social Media Marketing for Businesses, we shared an infographic for channels that are recommended for certain industries. It includes what each platform is best for, the primary audience, and what types of industries it impacts. Because not all social media channels are recommended for every industry, we have provided social media tips for a few industries, including industrial/ construction, eCommerce, real estate, and healthcare/ wellness.
The recommended social media platforms for industrial and construction companies include Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. LinkedIn allows for business development and employment marketing. YouTube is a platform that can be used for brand awareness and informational videos. It is also great to integrate videos from your business YouTube channel on your website.
The strategy for industrial or construction depends on your target audience. If your audience is residential, quality visuals should be the foundation. People want to envision the type of work you can do for their home or project. Homebuilders have the best content because they build beautiful homes and can display them on social media. If your audience is commercial or oil field, content is everything. They want to know more about the way you do things, safety, what you can provide, etc. Great photography sets you apart, but the content and presentation is the foundation.
There’s not a cut and dry amount you should post. We always encourage your business to stay away from posting just to post. Intentionality is important because the audience will notice if it is forced and ingenuine. Our COO, Zeke Dorr, states, “People attach themselves to stories easier than they do anything else. A finished product feels like you’re being sold to. A story behind the product brings engagement.” The posting frequency depends on the amount of time you have to put toward your business’ social media. Three times per week creates consistency, but doesn’t overwhelm your audience nor forces your content posting. The best time to post for this industry is Monday – Wednesday, Friday: 9 am, or 12 pm – 1 pm, 3 pm- 4 pm. Thursday is the most effective day at 9 am, or 12 pm – 1 pm, 3 pm- 4 pm.
Mix up your business content and make less than 50% self-promoting. Present your content as a solution to your target audience. If applicable, take before and after photography of your business projects. Be sure to respond to reviews and comments to create a connection with your audience and increase engagement.
Figure out what works best for your business. Set goals and include social media in your plan. Your goal should be to have your audience connect with your brand. This will make it easier for them to go to your website and purchase; effective social media will keep them coming back and create loyal customers. eCommerce social media allows flexibility for your business. You can resonate with your audience more largely because social media can adapt quickly. It’s important to adapt to what works and what doesn’t. Adapt your content to the demographics of that social media channel for the best results. The recommended social media platforms for eCommerce include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Pinterest is best for visual advertising and inspiration. Be sure to show your product in a visually pleasing way or have it hanging on a hanger. Studies show Pinterest posts do better when the audience can visualize themselves in the product. They are more likely to pin it to their board if it is just the product.
We can’t stress how high-quality photography of your products will take your business to the next level. The photography should be of your product being used, of your product in a desirable location, and it displayed as the main topic while having other things going on. Your business must provide behind-the-scenes and user-generated content to be relevant. Nothing is more engaging when your business connects with the audience by doing polls, Q&A’s, sharing the posts/stories they tag your business in, etc. With this particular demographic, be sure to provide insider-information. Processes may seem boring or mundane to you, but it is intriguing to your business audience. The content direction depends on your audience. If your target audience is millennials and Generation Z, the content should not resemble advertisements or self-promotion. Instead, it should all be about the audience and how the product would make their lives better and how they would be positively perceived. If your target audience is Generation X and younger Baby Boomers, the content should be more focused on voicing their problem and how the product can fix it.
We recommend posting three days a week, additionally if you have engaging content, and frequently on Instagram and Facebook stories. The week’s best times and days include Wednesday at 1-3 pm, and Friday at 11 am. Avoid posting on Sunday.
Encourage employees, friends, and customers to follow your business. Take it a step further and encourage them to tag the business in photos of them wearing or using your business’s products. Partner with micro-influencers to reach your target audience at a cost-effective rate. Boost or promote posts, like on Facebook, to increase engagement, views, and conversions.
Figure out what would help your business stand out. It will help your company stand out from the competition. The recommended social media platforms primarily include Facebook, along with Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Quality visuals are critical and include photography and videography. People want to see the quality of the real estate that can be theirs. Zeke Dorr, an expert at real estate, states that three great photos are better than thirty-six mediocre photos. When you have specific standards, it gives customers the comfort to know what you’ll be showing or selling is held to a certain standard. Go above and beyond with the details to set you apart. When you care, people will gravitate towards your business. Gain a large following to stand out in the saturated market. Tell stories worth telling. Don’t settle for mediocrity. When you don’t settle for mediocrity, your business will succeed.
Things change all the time. You have the benefit of having fresh content constantly with real estate. What sets you apart is how you present it to prevent repetitiveness. For LinkedIn, it is recommended to post on Wednesday from 8–10 am and noon, Thursday at 9 am and 1–2 pm, and Friday at 9 am. For Facebook, aim for Monday – Wednesday, Friday: 9 am, or 12 pm – 1 pm, 3 pm- 4 pm.
Don’t try to be everything for everyone. Focus your marketing efforts around the things you care about and connect to the clients you truly want. Go after the type of clients you want and think through what you are focusing on.
Establish trust through your business’ social media. When you educate people and allow them to ask questions, it creates a safe place to ask questions on your social media, and you set yourself up as a resource. The recommended social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Twitter is great to use as a news platform with quick updates that allow you to update your audience instantly.
Use social media to raise awareness and to provide healthy living practices. Provide the public with the latest guidelines, issues, and advisories. Use it as a platform to answer common questions. Create engagement with your business audience by providing valuable information about all kinds of health concerns. Set your business as patient support and education through social media. According to Hootsuite, “nearly 40% of young people (ages 14 to 22) have used online tools to connect with others with similar health challenges. That includes social media groups.”
The best day and time to post on Twitter for healthcare or wellness businesses is on Wednesdays from 8 am–2 pm. For Facebook, we recommend posting Monday – Wednesday, Friday: 9 am, or 12 pm – 1 pm, 3 pm- 4 pm. These are more structured days and times, but each business is different. We recommend watching your business social media and see what days generate more engagement and views. This can be done on the insights of each platform.
Be sure to include captivating yet straightforward graphics. Less is more when trying to convey professionalism and credibility. Verify all information displayed is accurate and found research. If you’re going to post something, make sure it’s fractal.
Time To Read: 5 minutes
Social media is relatively younger than other marketing processes, yet it is essential to integrate into your strategy to compete with your competitors. Social media has blown up and gained importance that we decided to dedicate this month to social media. We will get practical and guide your business to navigate through social media in an impactful way. Here we dissect where social media was, where it currently stands, and what to expect down the road.
It is easy to think knowing where a platform currently stands is the most critical information, but seeing how each has evolved over time will allow your business to understand the speed and depth of change social media goes through. It can also correct any standing knowledge of how social media may have worked to where it actually is now.
In 2002, the site was established and focused on professional members-only networking that you had to subscribe to with a membership fee. It connected people with business and school contacts. The network became free in 2011.
Facebook began in 2004 as an exclusive social media site for Harvard students that quickly spread to other Ivy League schools. The platform opened to everyone in 2006, surpassing MySpace as the most visited site in the world. Facebook Ads were announced in 2007. A 2007 press release described the Facebook Ads as a platform with three parts: “a way for businesses to build pages on Facebook to connect with their audiences; an ad system that facilitates the spread of brand messages virally through Facebook Social Ads™; and an interface to gather insights into people’s activity on Facebook that marketers care about.”
Twitter was created in 2006, distinguishing itself with limited 140 characters, striving to be a microblogging service. The character limitation is a policy that they kept until 2017, when they bumped it to 280 characters.
Instagram launched in 2010, separating itself as an app-only platform. The focus was exclusively on photo and video sharing. The restriction of only posting photos in a 1:1 ratio (square size) was lifted in 2015.
Social media’s current features are not only essential to know but also to implement within your business. Staying on top of the social media platforms your business is a part of will make an impact on awareness and engagement with its audience. Here are a few ways people use social media.
Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn has kept its primary purpose since it’s the establishment: career social networking. According to Hubspot, over 122 million people have received an interview through LinkedIn and has become a vital tool for companies as it hosts over 20 million job listings. LinkedIn has followed a similar shift as other platforms by emphasizing more photos and video content. When someone considers your business, what presence do you want to have? How is your business presenting yourself on LinkedIn?
Despite all the new and popular social media platforms that have grown over the years, Facebook is still the largest and most successful, with 2.38 billion monthly active users. It helped that their demographic expanded from college students. Facebook is adapting so they are thriving. This is a great mentality to have for your business too. Facebook Ads are viral and where most marketers spend their marketing budgets, along with Google and Amazon Ads. Along with basic audience targeting and page analytics, Facebook Ads allow you to launch ads around a handful of objectives, like website traffic or e-commerce purchases. If you’ve never dived in, it’s worth searching into what all can be done on Facebook targeting ads. Facebook also is more business-friendly now. Their Business Page offers Facebook insights for analytic information and Creator Studio to schedule posts.
The Twitter feed now emphasizes photos and videos more than its original intentions.
It has become more personalized to each user. Twitter algorithms take data into account (including who you discover, follow, and engage with) to prioritize content that users might enjoy on the feed. Twitter made the statement that “previously, all of the work was on you to figure out the best way to keep up with what’s happening by following certain accounts, searching for it, or looking in the Explore tab for the latest. Now, you have the option of seeing the most relevant and interesting Tweets about what you care about with a single tap, and the conversation will come to you.”
Instagram Stories are a great feature that allows you to post videos that tell a story about your brand. If you have a verified business account or more than ten thousand followers, you can link IG Stories to your website’s content. People want to see things as they happen and they will connect with you if they feel like they’re invited behind the curtain. The IGTV feature allows brands to upload or stream longer live content. It was a great option that has only been around for two years, especially since regular Instagram posting only allowed thirty-second to one-minute video content.
The Shoppable Posts feature allows brands to tag posts of product photos with a link to the product listing in the Facebook Marketplace catalog. This is different from Instagram Story swipe-up links because the shoppable feature can be accessed by any Instagram business account that is linked to a Facebook Marketplace catalog.
Social media is growing and evolving to provide a better user experience. Adjust your business approach to effectively reach your business’ audience, create trust, and ultimately convert prospective customers into loyal customers.
Social media is no longer solely used for peer interaction. According to Digital Marketing Institute, users want more control over what they see and seek more user-focused, less ad-focused ways of being entertained and interacting with peers. Because of this, the key to running ads is to present them in a non-advertisement way. It should flow within the feed and captivate your business audience. Facebook is also introducing a new newsfeed option (“Explore”) that separates social feed and ads. There is more video-watching and less socializing within social media platforms, so implement video content in your social media strategy.
Personal blogs, websites, and instant messaging has declined in popularity for online interaction. Your business needs to keep an eye on the shifting ways that social media platforms are choosing to incorporate explicit advertising strategies, as well as understanding new ways to collect customer information implicitly to direct their strategy.
Digital media is changing faster now. It is important to be in the know of social media platforms and how they are evolving. A successful social media strategy begins with understanding where social media is and where it is headed. From there, a strong plan can be developed to reach your target audience, engage, and create loyalty with them.
We have covered the best practices to implement for your business, and now we want to share where digital marketing is headed. Digital marketing is constantly growing and changing; the last thing we want is for your business to get behind on the current and future digital marketing strategies that will elevate your presence. It is imperative you begin adapting your digital marketing strategy for 2020. Here are a few things to begin, or at least consider, implementing into your digital marketing strategy.
We have artificial intelligence in our daily lives and may not even realize it. A great example is auto-fill when we write or text. Your phone has been learning the way you talk and write. It predicts what you’ll likely write based on your history. In digital marketing, artificial intelligence (AI) is doing a meta-analysis of broad-spectrum data sets and then using that data to make its own decisions. Techgrabyte shares that “Artificial intelligence is the biggest commercial opportunity for companies, industries, and nations over the next few decades” and “will increase global GDP by up to 14% between now and 2030,” which means that “AI latecomers will find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage within the next several years.” It is a big deal that feels far out but is actually here. We are currently in it. If you own a business you absolutely can’t miss what’s going on right now in the AI field.
Customer experience is only getting better because of AI. The whole point of artificial intelligence is to create a custom experience systematically and efficiently. AI will allow businesses to provide more interactive and personalized purchase experience through an increasingly accurate ability to analyze consumer behavior. Artificial intelligence will continue to be used in a range of up-and-coming marketing applications, including content creation, voice and face recognition, chatbots, digital assistants, and highly targeted marketing strategies.
Voice search has been around for almost ten years, but according to ComScore, 50% of the searches are from voice search and will only increase from the coming years. For business owners or marketing directors, optimizing your digital content for voice search is key to preparing for the future. AI is advancing and will one day require a voice search strategy to stay competitive. When creating digital content, write in a conversational tone. Write in the way people speak, not necessarily what they would type. Focus more on long-tail keywords and detailed search phrases. Digital Marketing Institute says that “adopting a voice search strategy isn’t just about remaining relevant — it’s also about creating a unique and optimized customer experience that will foster relationships and build brand loyalty.”
Google has upped its advertising game and launched gallery ads this past May in 2020. Similar to Facebook carousel ads, Gallery ads are a swipeable, image-based ad unit that appears at the top of search results. The ads will let you upload up to eight branded images, allowing you to use your business’ elevated photography to attract potential customers.
Social media has shifted from businesses connecting with their audience and showcasing their products or services, to using as their brand’s online store. Making shoppable posts is a game-changer for businesses this year, as it is becoming desirable not to leave the app.
With 54% of shoppers using social media to research product purchases, it only makes sense to do social commerce. Another thing to consider is influencing marketing. Influencers have been around for a while now, and because of that, it is expensive for smaller businesses to use. This brought on the development of micro-influencers. Those with around 30K followers are typically chosen for this. They are popular enough to be influential but are not loaded with sponsorships.
The best way to succeed in digital marketing is through digital campaigns. It promotes your current business initiatives through a branded strategy. This week, we want to share the success of utilizing what we’ve covered this month with digital marketing through digital campaign case studies. We will be diving into one of our favorite partners: Couto Homes and Equity Depot.
Part of building a brand should consist of keeping the brand fresh. Couto Homes was in need of some light changes to their logo and color schemes, as well as defining their brand fonts for consistency. We helped institutionalize their brand and brought it all together by making light updates and helping them determine who they are. They already had a high reputation and just needed their advertisement and digital traffic to line up with it. We came alongside them to further develop their brand. Something to learn from Couto Homes is that you need to solidify your brand by discovering your target audience and creating personas. Because we manage this brand, it has been a smooth process for Couto Homes to simply communicate what they need and receive it back, on-brand, with the quality they expect. One of the best ways for a company to portray their business is driving a moving billboard. Couto came to GreenFox with the dream of wrapping 14 brand new ford trucks to portray their new, fresh brand. The goal was to carry their brand in a way that represented who they were in a way that did not affect the integrity of their strong, bold brand. Before you put in the work for digital campaigns, you have to have a well-developed brand.
We developed an online presence that finally matched this home builder’s quality standard. Often, businesses struggle to make their online presence line up with the quality and standard their business or product actually produces. We have had the honor of helping Couto Homes match the standard online to the standard you experience when you walk into a Couto-built home. By far, the largest project we have worked on with Couto Home has been the build of their website. Couto has a lot of elements to their business that needed to be portrayed online in a beautiful way. We were able to work with their team to come up with a stunning website that showed off the captivating homes they build, who they are as a company, and a custom way to present the homes they have available to be built.
Digital marketing is the number one place to see tangible results of the work that has occurred with a brand. We are proud of the results that we have seen in our partnership with Couto Homes. The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to digital marketing. We were able to guide Couto Homes to reach the following:
We optimized Couto’s SEO by running regular technical audits of their website and we determined traffic potential with keyword discovery and maintenance. We also worked to develop strong, high-quality content written for their audience and search engine friendly. Due to a large amount of time spent by their demographic on Facebook and Instagram, we chose these social media platforms where ads would be run.
Equity Depot gives homeowners a hassle-free and stress-free option for selling their house or property for cash. It is a quick and easy solution for homeowners because Equity Depot specializes in purchasing distressed homes when the homeowner needs to move fast. GreenFox developed a partnership with Equity Depot when they needed lead generation campaign guidance. At that time, their marketing strategy was traditional, consisting of mailers and door-to-door advertisements. They didn’t have a digital marketing strategy in place to capture leads. We built their website for the purpose of lead generation, along with the development of a rebrand.
The Equity Depot team likes to spend all of their ad budgets in one week of the month, and it’s working for them. We are thinking about testing this method out with other partners. The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to digital marketing. We were able to guide Equity Depot to reach the following:
Identify what you need in this season for your business—digital marketing matters. Make sure you have a solid brand foundation to build your digital strategy. Use analytics to know what works and what doesn’t so you can be successful. It is not a “said it and forget it” deal. Digital marketing is an ongoing process that takes intentionality. If you want to know where your business stands against your competitors, take our brand assessment, so we can guide you to success.
