Business Marketing, Creative Solutions, Sales Growth

5 Tips to Create an Effective Landing Page

by VYBE Marketing | Nov 16, 2020 | Our Blog

Time To Read: 3 minutes

5 TIPS TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE LANDING PAGE

Hubspot describes landing pages as a way to enable your business to direct site visitors to better-targeted pages that have the ability to capture leads at a much higher rate than forms on other web pages. Lead generation relies on landing pages and the lead-capture forms that come with it. It is an effective option to convert website visitors into leads and reconversions down the road. Due to its direct and targeted identity, capture leads occur at a much higher rate than any other web page. Here are 5 tips for creating and optimizing landing pages.

1. Select a Landing Page Goal

This tip may seem obvious, but make sure your landing page goal is chosen wisely. Whether it is newsletter signup or sale of a product or service, select one goal per landing page. Hubspot states that “landing pages focus your visitors’ attention on one particular offer, limiting the distractions of everything else on your website. Visitors are on a landing page for a single purpose: to obtain an offer by completing a lead-capture form.” Choose a desirable offer that will lead your audience to complete a lead-capture form.

2. Basic Elements Needed

Start with the basic elements of a headline. Make sure to match the landing page headline to the call-to-action. It makes it clear to the audience what they can expect. You run the risk of losing trust with your audience if your headline doesn’t match the call-to-action or lead to confusion, all hindering lead capture. Create a brief offer description with a clear statement of the value. Be sure to include at least one supporting visual element, whether graphic, photo, or video. The most important element to include in your landing page is the lead-capture form.

3. Content: A Critical Component

Keep this offer description brief and clear. Emphasize the offer’s value by highlighting the benefits it offers. You want to provide your audience with a compelling incentive to download, subscribe, buy, etc. Don’t just include produce or service specifications; your target audience will most likely have that information available on the main webpage. Direct your content to specify how the offer addresses a problem or need your target audience face.

4. Less is More

Embrace space when it comes to the layout of the landing page. As mentioned before, you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much information, visuals, and other offers. By integrating less distractions, your target audience will know exactly what you want them to do.

5. Lead-Capture Form

In your lead-capture form, only ask for the information you really need. If you’re asking for personal information, reduce anxiety with proof elements like security seals. It helps to make the form appear shorter. If it looks like it would take a long time to fill out, the user may refrain from filling it out due to a “lack of time.” Do this by reducing the spacing between fields or by aligning titles to the left of each field. Avoid using the word “Submit” on your lead-capture form. Instead, use a phrase that displays how it will benefit your audience. For example, “Get Your Free eBook” or “Download Your Coupon.”

Bottom Line

According to HubSpot’s Marketing Benchmarks Report, companies see a 55% increase in leads when increasing their number of landing pages from 10 to 15. Your business can generate leads to more offers and landing pages that are created. It is targeted content to better appeal to all the personas your business targets. Landing pages can be effective if appropriately strategized. Designate a goal for the landing page and include the basic elements for it to capture the most leads. Write copy that is descriptive and clear. Avoid product or service specifications; instead, write about how it can help them solve their problems or serve their needs. Highlight the value the offer can provide. Plan out a simple layout, embracing space and the less-is-more concept. Develop a lead-capture form that intrigues your audience to fill out. With these 5 tips, your business will have effective landing pages and ultimately generate leads.

How To Increase Click-through Rate On Emails

by VYBE Marketing | Nov 9, 2020 | Our Blog

Time To Read: 3 minutes

HOW TO INCREASE CLICK-THROUGH RATE ON EMAILS

You may have an email marketing strategy in place, but you may need to make adjustments if your click-through rate is underwhelming. The goal is to have email subscribers click your links; otherwise, it will affect your leads and sales statistics. Here are six ways to go about improving the click-through-rate of your business’ emails.

1. Write Captivating Subject Lines

Your email marketing strategy will come to a halt if you’re not able to get recipients to clink into the email. Just think about how many emails a day you get. Do you honestly read all of your emails? The email subject line determines the way most people choose to open an email. If it’s captivating, it’s opened; if it’s not, it goes in the trash. Write click-worthy subject lines for your emails that will get your audience to click. Make it personal and avoid having it sound like SPAM. Avoid yelling at them with all caps; instead, make the subject line actionable. Make it clear to your recipient what they can do in the email. Aim for the subject line to be 50 characters or less.

2. Make It A Recognizable Sender

Litmus states that 42% of people check out the sender’s name when deciding whether to open an email. If you haven’t met the recipient personally, which is typically the case, consider sending it with the name of their person that is well-known in your business. This would be the unofficial “spokesperson” of your business brand. If not, your business can make it personal by combining the sender’s name with the name of your business.

3. Include Social Sharing Options

According to Econsultancy, emails that include just one social sharing option generated 30% higher click-through rates than emails without any social sharing links. That click-through rate jumped to 55% higher with three or more social sharing options. If you provide information or an offer that your recipient can’t pass up, they will want to share it with their friends and family. Don’t rob them of the opportunity to share and possibly gain a lead.

4. Create Personalized Content

Tailor and personalize the content to the recipients. Your content must be short and sweet to keep from overwhelming them with unnecessary information. Know what part of the buying cycle your recipients are in. Learn the best way to communicate with your target audience depending if they are in the Awareness, Consideration, Decision, or Delight cycle.

5. Make Your Call-To-Action Crystal Clear

Remove distractions from your email. Resist the temptation to offer multiple offers in hopes that the audience will choose something. This creates an overwhelming experience and makes the call-to-action unclear. Think about the email’s objective and write your content around the thing you want your reader to do.

6. Make It Mobile-Optimized

We can’t stress enough how important it is to make your email template mobile-friendly. Seventy million U.S. consumers who access email through their mobile device, 43% check their email on it four or more times a day. The last thing you want is for your email to be designed for desktops and laptops only and have it look unprofessional on a mobile device. Losing credibility will impact your click-through rate.

Bottom Line

Email marketing is effective if you put the right efforts in place. It begins with getting your recipients to open your email with a captivating subject line and making it a recognizable sender. Once the email is open, the recipient will be engaged with personalized content and shareable social options. The way to finalize a click-through email is by making your call-to-action crystal clear. There shouldn’t be any misunderstandings as to what you want them to know or do. Adding these tips to your email marketing strategy will increase your click-through rate.

Prepare Your Business for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

by VYBE Marketing | Nov 2, 2020 | Our Blog

Time To Read: 3 minutes

PREPARE YOUR BUSINESS FOR BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY

Black Friday and Cyber Monday is an excellent opportunity to push products or services at the end of the year. Get started early to begin stirring interest among your prospective clients and current audience. Promotional messages flood everyone’s inbox and feed during this season. With all of this noise, finding ways to stand out is crucial. Here are a few ways to effectively prepare your business for BFCM.

Digital Engagement

Promote the deals well in advance, so your audience knows what to expect the day of the sales. Place focus on email marketing and social media, both organic and paid. Study the metrics of your social media platforms. It is helpful to look into the ads and posts that have been recently successful in formulating a plan for the days leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consider giving out exclusive discounts to the audience on your email list. Allow others to join in by promoting it on other digital platforms. It is an excellent opportunity to expand your email list for the business sales funnel. Use a catchy subject line that is not pushy for sales but creates a sense of urgency. This guides the customer to buy the product before they lose it and makes them aware that it can sell out. Place focus on your business’ gateway item, the product or service that sells the most and that customers frequently seek. Flash Sales or lightning deals keep the audience engaged, so consider using them if it makes sense for your business.

Prepare Platform-Specific Content

Create content for each platform you plan to use with your business’s social media strategy. Remember that each social media platform delivers information to your target audience differently. Twitter is geared for public relations, while Facebook is best for brand awareness. The primary for each platform also differs, so be intentional about customizing your content accordingly. Research where your target audience spends most of their time and devote target ads there. Think outside the box. Prepare visually appealing photography or graphics that display your products. In the months leading up to the holidays, people are searching for inspiration and ideas on gifts. Structure your content and graphics in that format, like “Top 10 kitchen items for your foodie” or “5 Items your hard-to-shop-for dad will enjoy.” Write content that drives your audience to it, like blog posts, emails, etc. Drive visual wishlists, recommendations, and product reviews that include your business products.

Combine Retargeting with BFCM Promotions

Retarget past visitors and customers that may be on the fence; this may be the push they need to go all in. Now is the time to use Facebook Pixel if you have it set up. According to Shopify, when you retarget previous visitors on Facebook Pixel, you’ll reach people who may have forgotten about your store and wouldn’t have checked out your sale otherwise. You can also retarget customers that have purchased from your business in the past. It is easier to reach existing customers than marketing the brand to new customers. Previous shoppers will be more likely to be receptive to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

Bottom Line

In 2019, Black Friday online shopping sales hit $7.4 billion, which is an all-time high. Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a time of sales your business should be a part of. Stand out from competitors with unique digital engagement, platform-specific content, and by combining retargeting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. Following the holidays, reflect on what worked and what didn’t work to adjust strategies for the next year.

Why Are My Facebook Ads Not Converting

by VYBE Marketing | Oct 26, 2020 | Our Blog

Time To Read: 3 minutes

WHY ARE MY FACEBOOK ADS NOT CONVERTING?

With recent pandemic months, you’ve probably put effort into Facebook, knowing it holds the social media platforms’ widest demographic. You’ve allocated and poured your marketing budget into these ads, but you aren’t getting the leads you need, so you ask yourself, “Why aren’t my Facebook ads are not converting?” There are common factors that impede the performance of Facebook ads. Here are a few tips and recommendations to consider to help your business discover impeding factors, troubleshooting tips to fix them, and generate more conversions.

Poor Targeting

The main reason business owners and marketing directors struggle to see their Facebook ads’ conversion is poor targeting. Typically, it is a failure to target ads properly. According to Neil Patel, more than 1.09 billion people use Facebook every day – it’s pretty hard to say that your ads aren’t working because your target market isn’t hanging out on the site.

Targeting the Wrong People

It is a common mistake to target an ideal persona; the ideal customer who you probably have rarely sold to. The reason this is a mistake is that you are targeting a cold audience who may not even be interested in entering your sales funnel. Fix this by re-aiming your targeting efforts to those who have already shown interest in your product/ services and are more likely to go through the funnel. These people may include your existing customers, people who have recently converted into a lead, those who have watched your videos or clicked on Facebook ads, and who have spent time on your website. These people know who you are and like what you do, meaning they’re open to your offers.
A practical way of finding and engaging these people is by creating lookalike audiences. Collect this information by installing a Facebook pixel. Facebook for Business describes the Facebook pixel as a small piece of code that goes on your website. With the pixel, you can bring back website visitors, or find new people who will likely make a purchase or become a lead.

Targeting With the Wrong Message

Now that you have started targeting the right audience, make sure your message is fit for them and their journey in the funnel. You wouldn’t want to have copy written toward an audience that is ready to purchase when the audience just learned who your business is. The way to correct this is by determining if your audience is in the awareness, consideration, and conversion stage. Once segmented, write content that according to the stage they are at. Pay attention to the type of Facebook content the target audience responds to and then use that type of ad to target them with

Pitching Sales to a Cold Audience

Avoid directing Facebook ads to those who have never heard of you nor ever engaged with your business. Instead, direct the sales pitch for retargeting ads. This allows you to show a specific ad to a very specific person, like an ad about a product because they visited a website with that product.

Low Facebook Ads Relevance Scores

Just like Google, Facebook places importance to making your ads relevant to your target audience. According to the Social Media Examiner, Facebook rewards advertisers who get it right by showing their ads to more people and charging them less. Aim for high relevance scores with direct targeting, along with images and clear call to actions.

Align Facebook Ads with Your Landing Page

See the whole Facebook ad experience through, all the way to your landing page. Make sure that the branding and content of the ad match the landing page. Note that if the landing page is not visually appealing, user friendly, or has a clear call to action, you will lose the conversion.

Bottom Line

Refrain from targeting a new audience and instead use the leads you currently have. Redirect your business Facebook ads by removing these impeding factors to begin seeing conversions. The longer you allow these factors to affect and impact your ad performance, the longer you’ll be wondering why your Facebook ads are not converting.

Finish 2020 Strong in the Fourth Quarter

by VYBE Marketing | Oct 19, 2020 | Our Blog

Time To Read: 3 minutes

FINISH 2020 STRONG IN THE FOURTH QUARTER

It is our goal to help your business finish 2020 strong in the fourth quarter. The beginning of the year is typically slow, and your business needs to set a plan in motion now to prepare for it. Use these end-of-year tips to refill the sales funnel and finish out the year strong while preparing for 2021.

Shorten Your Time-to-Market

The time-to-market period needs to be expedited in order to be effective. Your business doesn’t have enough time to allow long processes for campaign development and content production. Snapwire states that “if marketing campaigns don’t hit the market quickly enough, especially on social media, campaigns that had countless hours behind them are suddenly irrelevant, even though teams scrambled to put together marketing materials.” Make it your goal to get marketing strategies into the market as quickly as possible. It helps you stay relevant. A practical question to ask yourself as the marketing director or business owner is if there is anything you can outsource. This speeds up the development process and gives you the opportunity to focus on important marketing details.

Develop A Campaign

It’s not too late to start an end-of-year campaign. If your business is seasonal, identify what your audience needs in the wintertime versus springtime, etc. Define the fourth quarter goal and identify the gateway product of your business. Typically these can go hand-in-hand. Advertise your business product that brings in the most revenue and form the campaign around it. Emphasizing the most desirable product to spearhead the fourth quarter goal is key if there isn’t a new product or service to bring awareness to.

We recently decided to do this for GreenFox Marketing. We chose one of our gateway products, our websites, and decided to create a campaign around it to finish out the year strong while keeping next year in mind. We wanted to appeal to businesses, offering new websites for under $3,000. This appeals to those who are needing a new website or who need a refresh. Create an offer that would appeal to your business clientele. Think outside the box and make the target audience an offer that you can build a campaign around to gain momentum through the end of the year. If you don’t have a special offer or new product/service, you can turn your brand into a campaign and develop awareness.

ROI Measurement

The marketing process is digitalized to where you don’t have an excuse for not tracking which assets, channels, and markets are performing best for you. This is a great set up for 2021 and will also help in budgeting down the road. Focus on the metrics that matter most to you and how to measure them. Once you identify the important metrics, like impressions, clicks, and cost data, measure from Google, Facebook, and other channels to your CRM or revenue systems. Hubspot suggests to look beyond your lead number and start calculating the value of those leads.

Use All Your Business Channels

Take advantage of all the channels your business uses. Continue the company’s focus on trust-worthy content marketing in the following ways:

Video Content
Short Form, like TikTok
Social Stories
Shoppable Posts
Better Personalization through AI
Maximize Google Ads Smart Bidding
SERP Position Zero
Text
Text Messaging Directly to Targets

Bottom Line

This year has had unexpected changes, forcing businesses across the country to change how they interact, inform, and influence their current and future consumers. Make the last quarter of the year impactful through these intentional strategies and by adapting your digital marketing. It will fill your sales funnel to finish the year strong and prepare for 2021.

How to Build a Social Media Strategy for Your Business

by VYBE Marketing | Sep 21, 2020 | Our Blog, Podcast

Time To Read: 4 minutes

The Marketing Dept. · How to Build a Social Media Strategy for Your Business

HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

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.

It’s Not Your Personal Social Media

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.

Fill Out Your Profile and Keep It Updated

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.

Build Your Brand & Relationships

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.

Cross-promote

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.

Promote Your Social Accounts in Newsletters & Email Signatures

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 Items

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.

Use the Right Tools

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.

4 Industries that Benefit from Social Media

by VYBE Marketing | Sep 14, 2020 | Our Blog, Podcast

Time To Read: 6 minutes

The Marketing Dept. · 4 Industries that Benefit from Social Media

4 INDUSTRIES THAT BENEFIT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

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.

Industrial & Construction

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.

Strategy

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.

Frequency

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.

Notes for Success

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.

eCommerce

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.

Strategy

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.

Frequency

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.

Notes for Success

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.

Real Estate

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.

Strategy

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.

Frequency

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.

Notes for Success

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.

Healthcare & Wellness

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.

Strategy

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.”

Frequency

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.

Notes for Success

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.

The Past, Present, and Future of Social Media

by VYBE Marketing | Sep 4, 2020 | Our Blog, Podcast

Time To Read: 5 minutes

The Marketing Dept. · The Past, Present, and Future of Social Media

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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.

Social Media Throwback

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.

LinkedIn

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

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

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

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.

Currently, in Social Media…

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.

LinkedIn

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?

Facebook

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.

Twitter

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

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.

A Look Into the Future

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.

Shift in Function

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.

Online Interaction

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.

Bottom Line

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.

Adapt Your Digital Marketing Strategy for 2020

by VYBE Marketing | Aug 31, 2020 | Our Blog

Time To Read: 4 minutes

Adapt Your Digital Marketing Strategy for 2020

It’s no surprise to hear that 2020 has brought a fair share of difficulty, uncertainty, and fear for many business owners. With unexpected problems like the Coronavirus,
businesses across the country have had to change the way they interact, inform, and influence their current and future consumers. Since the digital marketing landscape has seen its fair share of changes throughout the year, your business must adapt its marketing strategy to these changes. Since we understand that not everyone stays in tune with the digital marketing world, we researched for you. Here are a few things we recommend building into your digital marketing strategy.

#1 Artificial Intelligence

It wasn’t too long ago that artificial intelligence was just an idea that sounded too much like a government conspiracy, and not something that would be accessible and beneficial to business owners. In 2020, AI allows business owners to analyze consumer behavior and search patterns, use data from social media platforms, blog posts to help businesses understand how customers discover and interact with their products and services. If you have ever asked a question in a chat box that generated responses depending on what you asked, you’ve interacted with Artificial Intelligence. Although this sounds like “big brother” is watching, using resources like ChatBots, CRM’s, or recommended product email campaigns will allow your business to understand your consumers better. This will enable you to cater to their needs in your business model.

#2 Brand Reputation

Although brand awareness has always been critical in any marketing strategy, in 2020, it’s more important than ever before. With pandemics and political movements across the country, consumers are looking to brands to see if their ethics and support align with their own. Since silence can be seen as a statement on its own, make sure you update your customers on what you are doing to support good causes and benefit the local community during these difficult times when the timing is appropriate.

Having a strong social media presence and responding to reviews and comments is essential for any brand that wants to manage its online reputation and ensure that it responds to the societal developments promptly and respectfully.

#3 Personalization

If you want to stand out in 2020, you need to personalize your marketing – and that means personalized content, products, emails, and more. Over 60% of consumers get annoyed with generic advertisements. The power of personalization can be seen clearly on Amazon, Netflix, and even Starbucks, with their recommended products and loyalty programs. Every consumer has different tastes, styles, and preferred methods of communication, so why approach your marketing with a one size fits all solution?

Deploy different customer segments, using demographics and interests, in your email marketing and advertising strategies so your business can send more relevant and tailored offers and recommendations to your customers.

#4 Video Marketing

The rise of video marketing began long before 2020. However, thanks to the pandemic and the increased focus on short, entertaining videos, it is now crucial that businesses include this tactic in their digital marketing strategy. Videos are one of the most popular ways to discover and interact with a business and their products. 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions.

Although Youtube is a dominant platform in today’s digital marketing age, its not your only option. By using live streams on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook Stories, and brand videos on your website, your business can build credibility faster and increase your brand awareness.

#5 Content Marketing

In November 2019, Google rolled out some major updates to its search algorithm. The updates included the new BERT system, which is designed to aid Google in understanding the natural language that people use in their search queries. Since Google’s algorithm is designed for the searcher, it’s a good indication that consumers desire informative, relevant content when searching online. Consumers want to be catered to and understood. By writing consistent, relevant, and well-written content across all communication channels, your business will establish trust, build audience retention, increase awareness, and improve conversions.

#6 Social Commerce

ECommerce and social media engagement has increased exponentially in 2020. So it’s no surprise that these two worlds have combined to create a faster and easier shopping experience. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest have created a custom ECommerce experience for brands to create and post interactive ads that allow users to click and shop with ease. This allows the user to stay on social media without having to open new browser windows, thus alleviating frustration and creating a faster, more pleasant shopping experience. This also benefits the businesses because these platforms have a proven track record of lowering cart abandonment rates, reflecting a higher and more consistent conversion rate.

Adapting can be difficult for your business when it comes to the ever-changing world of digital marketing. The good news is that these are simple yet practical ways to impact your business’ marketing strategy in the industry. Whether it is through artificial intelligence or refining your content, make it your goal to move towards effectively interacting, informing, and influencing your business’ current and future consumers.

The Future of Digital Marketing

by VYBE Marketing | Aug 31, 2020 | Our Blog, Podcast

Time To Read: 3 minutes

The Marketing Dept. · The Future Of Digital Marketing

THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL MARKETING

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.

Artificial Intelligence

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

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’s Gallery Ads

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

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.