Tag : Social Thrive

11/192018
Read More
black friday shoping cyber monday marketing

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: Your Holiday Marketing Plan

Posted by at 9:05 pmBlog
0 Like

The Holiday shopping season has kicked off! Advertising around Black Friday and special on-line deals for Cyber Monday have already hit the airways. The National Retailers Association expects consumer spending to increase by 4.1% over last year and now is the time to take action for your business to have a successful holiday season!

Last year saw a substantial increase in money being spent on-line on Black Friday with foot traffic in-stores down 2%. in 2017, overall dollars spent was up from the previous year. More money was spent on Cyber Monday in 2017 ($6.59 billion) than the $5.3 billion rung in on Black Friday indicates that retailers have to be prepared for both on-line and in-store sales this entire season. Last year, major retailers opted for steady on-line ads throughout the holiday season with spiked spending around Thanksgiving and Christmas on other media outlets. Here’s how you can prepare your business with a plan for the holidays.

Holiday Marketing Plan

  1. Have an active on-line ad campaign strategy. Retailers should have a plan mapped from mid-November (pre-holiday sales) to early January (closeout sales). Depending on the size of your operation and where your customers are located, a targeted on-line campaign can help increase website traffic and sale conversions.
  2. Ensure your website is mobile-responsive.  More than 46% of total on-line holiday sales in 2017 was done on mobile devices – so your site has to be prepared for them!
  3. Utilize email to reach your current customers early and often! A holiday email campaign can be an effective tool to drive customers to your website or location. It is also less costly to drive your current customer base than spending money on ads to acquire new customers.
  4. Optimize your social media channels. Ensure that you are encouraging customers to check out your website, highlight sales and specials with enticing social media posts.
  5. Update your website with keywords. Search engines will be crawling websites for terms that shoppers will be “looking” for over 45 days in advance. Update your website terminology, create “teasers” about what’s coming for the holidays and create content that will support your email, social media and ad campaigns.

Need help with a social media strategy for your business? Social Thrive can help you!

10/242018
Read More
On target marketing message

Is Your Online Marketing Message On-Target?

Posted by at 6:26 pmBlog
0 Like

You have a website.

You have several social media channels you post on.

You have an email list that you send out regular communications to.

But are you reaching the people your business needs to talk to in a way that they connect with?

Who is your target audience?

A well-defined target customer is essential in any marketing activities so make sure you have the follow documented;

  • Demographic details – age, gender, geographic location, work or role, economic traits, education level – focus on the factors that are going to help you hone in on your prospective customer
  • What problems are they facing that you can help solve? Your business offers solutions to your customer issues so having solid demographic information paired with what your customer is challenged with will help you hone your messaging to reach your potential audience.

After you have this defined, communicate it to your entire team and continue to confirm it through customer surveys.

How does your customer consume information?

Knowing the on-line behaviors of your target audience is a part of understanding your ideal customer and will impact where you focus your marketing efforts. You should be using Google Analytics and other means to track how customers heard about you to refine your marketing plan going forward.

Social Media

Based on your customer demographics, you will want to invest in specific social media channels vs. ALL of them. Here are a few things to think about:

Email Marketing

Sending emails to current and prospective customers is still an important part of your overall marketing strategy – even if it results in less action than 10 years ago when our Inboxes were less cluttered. Research shows that people still read emails from companies if it is relevant and interesting, so while it may not lead to direct action when you send the email out, it keeps your brand “top of mind” so that people know who to reach out to when you become relevant.

Is your messaging consistent?

Your company has all kinds of digital and printed assets – but do they look like they all come from the same company?

Ensure that your banding remains consistent across platforms (website, social media channels or brochures and business cards) with appropriate logos, naming conventions with cross-links to all of your other platforms. By referencing all of the different ways customers can interact with you, they are given a choice as to how they want to consume information about your products or services.

Marketing messaging is an important part of Social Thrive’s customer strategy and we would love to talk to you about yours!

09/292018
Read More
Restaurant Social Media Tips

4 Tips for Restaurants and Social Media

Posted by at 1:51 pmBlog
0 Like

Running a restaurant is hard work and using social media to get customers in the door is an important part of your marketing strategy. Besides posting about specials – what else should you be doing on social media if you are in the food business?

1 – People will respond to beautiful photos of food

There is a Chinese expression that says you “Eat with your eyes first”, meaning if the food looks appealing, then you are more likely to enjoy it. This means you need quality photos of plating arrangements of your menu offerings to post on social media platforms. Also, what is photographed should be an accurate depiction of what you serve to your customers everyday. NOTHING will upset a customer more than expecting the beautiful dish they saw on your Instagram feed and get a completely different plating.

2 – Remember that Social Media is a SOCIAL platform

Posting on social media is not enough – you need to engage with your customers; responding to comments, celebrate your staff, have your own #hashtag, send followers special offers and repost customer “fan” pictures! These activities will show customers that you care about them – even if they aren’t in your restaurant at that moment.

Engagement also includes responding to reviews – good or bad.It’s always important to respond professionally to negative reviews; this shows that you care about your customer base and value their input. Have a plan for how you respond to comments, messages, reviews and an assigned person to do so in a timely manner.

3 – Capitalize on what is happening in your community

Showing your customers that you are a part of their community can create a sense of loyalty – beyond having a loyalty program! Sponsoring a little league team, cross-marketing with other businesses in your area, and hosting business networking or chamber groups will demonstrate that your place of business is more than just food!

4 – Video will create excitement

Video is how more and more social media users are “consuming” their feeds. Restaurants can capitalize on video by posting content that patrons may not get to see everyday; chefs talking about the food they are prepping before opening, server team meetings tasting / talking about the specials you have planned for the night, bartenders creating something amazing – these are all examples that show the “behind the scenes” of your operation – and followers love it! Posting videos will make customers feel like they are a part of what you do, beyond just eating your food!

07/182018
Read More
Blog Writing

5 Important Tips in Writing Your Company Blog

Posted by at 5:03 pmBlog, Social Media
0 Like

Writing a blog for your company is now considered an important factor in helping customers find you.

How? People turn to the web to help them solve problems. You will want to create blog entries that will help solve your potential customer’s issues, but also help with search engine optimization (SEO) to bring you to the customer with their search query.  Here are the 5 items to keep in mind when writing:

1 – Go for Quality vs. Quantity: Before changes in search engine algorithms, writing frequent blog posts would increase the likelihood of your website being served up on internet searches. Today, Google and other major engines are rewarding content generators on the quality of the information being produced and its relevancy to what people are searching for. Whatever posting schedule you come up with (monthly or bi-weekly for instance) stick with it so your readers know what to expect and when, as consistency is important in keeping your website visible with your readers.

2 – Timely and Relevant: Writing about topics that your readership views as important (and valuable enough to share) is also critical to getting your blog noticed. It will also establish your area of expertise and been seen as a credible source of information. Brainstorm a list of items that are relevant to your customers and then look at what are “hot topics” going on in your industry or the larger marketplace that could impact your customers – then blog about it!

3 – Keep Your Audience in Mind: Search engines look at overall length, how hard or easy it is to read, type of language used and how many times you use the keyword in the post to help in relevancy ranking. While long format postings tend to do better with search engines, put yourself in your reader’s shoes; Are they super busy? Then be brief or utilize bullets to make your key points visible. Do they want in-depth explanations and technical details? Then make it longer. Writing for them will help you reach your ideal client.

4 – Continue to evaluate what is working: Look at what posts got comments, likes / shares, links or clicks through to your contact form. Conversion from information seeker to customer is an important ROI of your website’s performance, so monitoring and measuring it on an on-going basis is important.

5 – Integrate your blog into your larger marketing strategy: Include your blog in your social media strategy by posting it in your different channels, use relevant posts in printed materials for prospective customers and use your blog to announce company events or information.

Need some help with your company’s blog? Contact Social Thrive about how we can help you come up with a plan!