Brian Meert's Blog, page 58

How to Promote Your New Podcasts on Facebook

Feb. 17, 2021

Christina Morilla / Pexels

It’s no secret that podcasts as a medium have risen in popularity for the past few years. If you are thinking of starting your own podcast, there’s never been a better time. 

Fortunately, starting a podcast nowadays is fairly easy, and you don’t really need to be a very tech-savvy person. With all the accessible and affordable platforms (a lot of them are free), starting your podcast show also won’t typically require a lot of initial investment. 

The challenge, however, is often not about starting the podcast itself, but how to market it effectively so you can grow your listener base. Often overlooked, promoting your podcast on Facebook can still be a very effective tactic in building awareness and growing your audience. In fact, Facebook is still the biggest social media platform, with more than 2.4 billion active users every month. In 2020, more than 60% of adults in North America use Facebook, making it the broadest-reaching social network in 2020. Also, Facebook is well-known as a very versatile promotional platform. With Facebook ads, for example, you can quite easily create custom audience segments to target the ideal people that you want to listen to your podcast. 

To summarize, Facebook has a massive audience, and Facebook also offers a lot of tools to help make the most of this huge audience. Below, we will learn how.

1. Set Up a Facebook Page for Your Podcast

First things first, at the moment you can’t launch your podcast on Facebook, at least, natively. However, you can use Facebook Live to stream your podcast (Facebook now allows viewers to just listen to the audio). If you have a video version of your podcast, you can also upload the video on Facebook. To do that, however, first we’ll need a “home” for our podcast show on Facebook, and we can do it by setting up a Facebook Page. 

Facebook does offer the option to set up a Page category as “podcast,” and you can use other tags according to your podcast’s topic to help describe the page.  We can then use the page to promote the show, for example by posting trailers, promotions for new episodes, and so on.

2. Use Highly-Targeted Facebook Ads to Increase Listeners

It’s no secret that social media marketing is pay to play, and you can’t solely rely on organic Facebook reach in growing your podcast audience. Instead, we should think of organic versus paid, as the case of time versus cost: yes, organic traffic is free, but it will take some time before you’ll get the desired results. On the other hand, paid advertising will virtually guarantee quick results, but as we know, it can be very expensive when you are not careful. So, the key is finding the right balance: grow your podcast’s Facebook Page (and Group) organic followers, and you can use paid options to assist its performance. 

As discussed, Facebook ads are very versatile, and you can use it for both attracting new listeners as well as nurturing existing audiences. For example, you can use Facebook Lookalike Audiences to create a custom audience similar to those who have actively engaged with your Facebook Page’s posts to attract new listeners. You can also use your existing email list to build a lookalike audience. 

3. Remarketing with Facebook Pixel

One of the best B2B marketing strategies that is used by many marketers is remarketing or retargeting, which is essentially only showing the ad to users who’ve visited your podcast’s website. This is made possible with the Facebook Pixel, a snippet of code that you’ll place on your website, which will track your visitor’s actions. 

You can use Facebook retargeting to target website visitors who didn’t complete a specific action (i.e. hit the subscribe button). This can be a very effective and cost-efficient way to grow your listener base. On the other hand, you can also specifically target those who have signed up for something, like being subscribed to your email newsletter. Alternatively, you can use the Pixel to build custom audiences to track the performances of your existing ads placed on your site.  

4. Utilizing Facebook to Convert Potential Listeners

As we know, people don’t usually start as a loyal subscriber once they’ve stumbled upon your podcast show, but typically will go through five different stages: 

Aware: They are already aware of your podcast show. For example, they have recommended your show or have seen your ad. In this stage, you can use retargeting to make them even more curious and finally listen to your show. Trial: You can use retargeting and Facebook ads to offer low-level investment, like watching your trailer, listening to a short version of your show, etc. Listener: This type of audience has listened to your show at least once and might tune in every now and then. Leverage retargeting here and engage them with your Facebook Page. Subscriber: Regular listener of your podcast. Use mainly your Page to inform them about new episodes and keep them engaged.Advocate: Those who recommended your shows to their peers and friends. Keep them happy with your content. Conclusion

Being the most popular and widest-reaching social media platform, Facebook can be a very effective channel you can use to promote and grow your podcast show. Above, we have discussed some effective tips you can use to promote your content via Facebook, both with organic and paid efforts.

By building your organic followers consistently and utilizing the paid promotional options, you can attract new listeners and grow your podcast’s audience.

7 Ways to Boost Online Event Attendance with Social Media Marketing

FEB. 15, 2021

Events are an integral part of an organization’s brand-building efforts. Not only do they get the word out about your product or service, but they also provide a platform for many to learn, interact, and grow. The best way to market your upcoming event is to leverage social media platforms and implement strategies that’ll help you get better results.  

Let’s look at seven tips that will help you boost event attendance, create a buzz around your event, and reach your target audience.  

Leverage the Power of Facebook Events 

Although many experts believe that Facebook’s reach is dead, it is not true. Event creation on Facebook has only increased over the years, and it has been one of the biggest strengths for all organizers in grabbing attention.  

On Facebook, organizers can provide detailed information about upcoming events and share the event everywhere: on related groups, to people, to pages, and many more. Facebook also allows organizers to re-target viewers of the event page, thus providing opportunities to boost attendance.  

 

 

Events created on Facebook provide organizers with visibility and allow interested attendees to register on the go with a few clicks. 

Advertise the Event through Organic Posts 

If you are looking to leverage social media to increase event attendance, then you must advertise your event regularly. You should publish content about your event a month prior. This way, you give enough time for your posts to perform and reach a larger audience.  Don’t forget to share your content on all of your social media platforms. Don’t limit your efforts to only one! 

Also, focus on the quality of your post more than the quantity. Don’t create a post with uninteresting content. Rather, create a post highlighting the behind-the-scenes efforts, show them the fun they can have during the event, intrigue them with the learnings they can have, and many more.  

Of course, monitor your posts regularly, and if you see any of your them performing well, then strategize your upcoming marketing moves.  

Use Hashtags for Organic Posts

When you’re promoting your events through organic posts, use hashtags, which are are powerful tools featured on many social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram. They work best when you pick up the branded hashtags for your event promotion. For hashtags to work, you must regularly post on these social platforms to get the desired result. Start posting a month prior from the event, use the related hashtags, and let the content take its flow. Use more hashtags related to your event and topic, so it reaches the target audience.  

Always Start Early 

It is unrealistic to expect attendees if you promote your event on social media platforms seven days prior. For your posts to perform well on social media, allow them ample time to reach your target audience. Also, choose a virtual event platform that has all the capabilities to host the event in a successful manner.  

When you promote your event, start with a teaser. Show a glimpse of what is going to happen on the event date. After this, keep posting more engaging content around the event that keeps viewers engaged and intrigues them enough to register.  Also, promote your post on multiple social media platforms and take time to review performance.  

Schedule Posts Ahead of Time 

It is easy for a few tasks to fall between the cracks when dealing with event promotion. And that is really not a good idea when you are aggressively talking about your event on social media platforms. The times you publish content depends on when your target audience is active, and if you miss publishing content on time, then you miss a few eyeballs. To avoid such unwanted situations, it is best to schedule your content using a social media scheduler. You can upload images and videos, provide hashtags, and schedule the content at once. This practice saves you time and doesn’t let important tasks take a back seat.  

Run Ad Campaigns

If you want people to view your posts, consider running paid campaigns. Paid campaigns will always give you more traction over organic posts, but you mustn’t start promoting your event with paid campaigns. Start with organic approaches and slowly move over to paid campaigns. This will create a subsequent event profile on your social media page and let the attendees get a better vision of the event and register.  

Facebook ads and Instagram ads are the top contenders for many organizations looking to gain visibility. There are many types of paid campaigns that you can run on Facebook and Instagram depending on your stage of promotion.  

Keep track of your campaigns and look at the results closely. Give them a few days to perform, but if you don’t see any noticeable value from the campaign, then tweak your strategy and start afresh.  

Increase Word-of-Mouth 

There is nothing more sustainable and valuable than word-of-mouth marketing. Irrespective of the product, service, or event, marketing works best when the product or service is referred to by someone.  So how can you increase word-of-mouth on social media platforms? 

You can create exciting contests where the viewers have to tag other people to claim the prize or where interested attendees can get a discount if they refer one or two more people. This practice will increase word-of-mouth and also help you get new followers, increase engagement, create a hype, and increase event registration.  You can host the contest on any one platform, but you must promote the campaign on all social media channels to reach a larger audience.  

Takeaways  

Social media marketing is an effective method to boosting event attendance. To not leverage social media platforms is a disadvantage as an event organizer. If you want to reach your target audience and improve brand visibility, then social media is your best asset. 

Facebook Is Testing Topic Exclusions on News Feeds

FEB. 12, 2021

Facebook is testing a feature that allows advertisers to select a topic they don’t want their ads to appear alongside in News Feeds.

A feature like this is currently available to advertisers; however, it only applies to Audience Network ads so far. That is, ads that appear on the apps and websites of third-party partners. Now Facebook is making that same exclusion tool available for News Feeds ads. For example, advertisers can choose for their ads to no appear next to political content.

This test is a response to advertisers who have stated they worry about what content their ads appear next to on News Feeds. The concern comes from a desire to protect their brand image.

According to Facebook, the test will only apply to a small group of advertisers and will likely not roll out officially until at least a year.

How to Verify Your Domain on Facebook

FEB. 11, 2021

With iOS14 now rolling out to users, Facebook has been implementing changes to prepare for the latest Apple software. One of those changes includes a requirement that some advertisers must verify their website domain on Business Manager. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do that.

Step 1: Go to Business Manager settings and click Brand Safety > Domains > Add a New Domain.

 

Step 2: Enter your domain name then click Add Domain.

 

The domain will be added to your assets, and you will have the option to verify it either with a txt DNS verification or an HTML file upload.

Step 3: Copy the code under “Add this TXT record in your DNS configuration.”

 

Step 4: Log in to your domain registrar and go to the DNS record settings page. Select Add a Record of Type and choose TXT from the dropdown menu. 

 

Step 5: Enter your verification information.

Put an @ symbol in the host field then enter “facebook-domain-verification=” in the “txt value” field or “content field” (depending on which domain registrar you’re using. This example uses Go Daddy). Then, paste the verification code you copied from Business Manager after the = sign. Your txt value or content field should look like this: facebook-domain-verification=[enter code here].

 

Step 6: Return to Business Manager then click Verify.

 

Step 7: You’re done!

Once your domain has been verified, you should get this confirmation message.

For additional help, you can watch a video tutorial here.

5 Tips for Creating Eye-Catching Instagram Ads in 2021

FEB. 10, 2020

Claudio Schwarz / Unsplash

 

Living in the digital era, people choose social media platforms to communicate with their friends and family. Believe it or not, Instagram is one of the most popular platforms among social media users.

Back in 2018, Instagram reached 1 billion monthly active users. Most people are visual learners, so it’s no wonder Instagram has become the fastest-growing social media network with the most engaged user base.  As a result, Instagram has transformed from a photo-sharing app into a solid marketing channel. Today, 25 million businesses use Instagram for business promotion, which means competition is getting harder on the platform.

Luckily, business owners and marketers can invest time and effort into creating eye-catching Instagram ads that help cut through the noise and deliver the brand message to the right audience with ease.

Why Run Instagram Ads in 2021?

Practically every marketer who uses Instagram for business promotion aims to grow organic reach and increase user engagement without spending much money. However, the days when you could achieve business results on Instagram without running ads are long gone. If you wonder whether you should join 2 million monthly active advertisers, here are the top three reasons to run Instagram ads in 2021:

Reach a wider audience: No matter how popular your Instagram account is, chances are that not all of your fans follow your business on the platform. Instagram collects your data, so Instagram ads allow you to reach out to customers you already know based on their contact information or find new people who are similar to your existing customers.Stand out from the crowd: For a variety of reasons, just a few companies who use Instagram run ad campaigns. Moreover, the algorithm prioritizes content from friends and family, so ads offer you a new way to reach out to your target audience and therefore stand out from the crowd.Meet your business goals: Whether you want to tell more people about your product or convert Instagrammers into customers, the platform offers ad objectives for awareness, consideration, or conversion stages. This means you can meet your business goals with ease.

Still, not convinced? As a part of Facebook, Instagram ad revenue affects its growth, too. In 2020, Instagram generated nearly 70% of Facebook’s ad revenue:

Source

 

The bottom line? Running Instagram ads has many benefits. However, not every Instagram ad can deliver great results. To beat your competitors and grab the attention of your target audience, it’s important to create and run stunning ad campaigns. Here are five tips for creating eye-catching Instagram Ads in 2021:

1. Lay a Bet on Instagram Stories Ads

When it comes to running Instagram ad campaigns, the platform has a variety of ad placements to choose from: photo, video, carousel, and Stories ads. If you need to choose the right ad placement, consider using Instagram Stories ads.

With a short lifespan of 24 hours, Instagram Stories create a sense of urgency, so more and more people create or watch stories daily. In fact, 500 million people use Instagram Stories daily and 84% of Millennials and Gen X (aged between 25 and 44 years) choose Instagram Stories over the feed. 

Source

The right placement of Instagram ads for your business depends on different factors, but most marketers claim that Instagram Stories ads are the future of ads. 

If you want to deliver your brand message without interrupting the customer experience and grab the attention of your target audience, create Instagram Stories ads. What is more, you can use Lightroom presets to create a series of cohesive ads for your campaigns.

2. Tell Your Brand Story with Videos

Digital content consumption is constantly changing. Today, marketers see a shift from written content to videos. One report has found that 82% of all consumer traffic will be online video by 2022, 78% of internet users watch videos online every week, and 72% of consumers want to learn about a product or service through videos.

When creating eye-catching Instagram ads, tell your brand story with videos. Not only do dynamic videos keep your viewers engaged, but they also allow you to include all important information about your company or product. Thus, Instagram video ads are extremely popular among advertisers and users.

The good news? There’s no need to be good at video content creation to create stunning videos. Just rely on a video editing tool like Beatleap by Lightricks (available for iOS). This tool allows users to mix up visual content with music effects for a more seamless video experience.

Val Razo / AdvertiseMint

No matter what your business goal is, whether you want to tell brand stories, show off your products, or explain how to use products or services, the best way to do it is to run Instagram video ads that catch the attention of your target audience.

3. Team Up with Instagram Influencers

Ads and branded content bombard Instagrammers from all sides. For most customers, these posts sound too salesy, so the best way to draw attention to your company is to humanize your brand. Not only does it help to increase brand loyalty and trust, but it also helps catch the attention of your target audience as modern customers crave authenticity.

As a result, featuring people in your ads is a great way to put a human face on your brand. But if you want to reach a wider audience and cause a buzz around your campaign, it’s a great idea to collaborate with Instagram influencers. 

Moreover, Instagram offers a new type of ad, branded content ads, that allow companies to promote Instagram creators’ content through ad campaigns. Case in point: When Surepi launched its new products, the company teamed up with Korean beauty influencers to do product reviews. The campaign saw a 51% higher return on ad spend in comparison with other product-focused ads.

Val Razo / AdvertiseMint

The best thing? Influencers come in all sizes and shapes–macro, micro, and nano influencers with various following sizes which means every business can find an influencer who shares similar views and values.

4. Include a Time-Limited Offer

When people choose products or services, they don’t bother about your company; they want to get something that can solve their problems. This means potential customers can do research to find the best fit for their needs and wants.

For eye-catching Instagram ads, it’s important to include a time-limited offer that creates a sense of urgency and therefore motivates people to learn more about your deal as it’s one of the best Instagram growth hacks.

Here’s an example from Winc. The company ran an Instagram ad to draw attention to the promo when Winc offered four bottles for $33. The campaign was available for one week, so it encouraged viewers to take action faster: 

Val Razo / AdvertiseMint

When you include a time-limited offer in your ad, get ready for a growing number of direct messages from ad viewers. This means it’s important to build a strong social media team that can manage customer inquiries and assign the task to the right team member.

5. Make It Easy for Viewers to Take Desired Action

No matter what your ad objective is, whether you want to encourage your viewers to learn more about your product, browse the list of your products, or make a purchase, it’s important to guide your views on what action you expect them to take with a call-to-action button.

Instagram advertisers can include a call-to-action button that redirects viewers to the right landing page. For example, Doritos ran an Instagram Stories ad telling potential customers about its new flavor. The company made a creative ad campaign and included a clickable Story link so that interested people could learn more with ease.

Moreover, you can set up Instagram ads that help to track sales leads which means you can analyze your ad campaigns and see what works best for your audience.

In a Word

Instagram advertising is the future of business promotion on the platform, so both big and small brands should be ready to create ad campaigns that help reach the right audience and deliver the right brand message.

By Val Razo

 

4 Ways to Personalize Your Advertising Campaigns On Facebook

FEB. 9, 2021

Brands are combating to grab customers’ attention, and using personalization tactics could help you attract even more consumers. 

Imagine receiving a generic email about a flash sale by some brand. Now, compare it with a personalized message that addresses you by your name and highlights products that are interesting to you. Which one are you likely to open? The personalized message, most likely. The same goes for ad campaigns on Facebook. If you are planning to personalize your Facebook ad campaigns, don’t forget to follow these tips. 

1. Run Re-Engagement Campaigns 

Re-engagement is one of the best tactics for personalization. Though both are different, many people relate it with re-targeting. Let us understand the difference between the two: Re-engagement strategies generate interest in the brand again. Retargeting focuses on interacting with the users that have already interacted with the brand. Though both are somehow related, there is a slight difference between the two. Retargeting strategies use online ads for gaining consumer attention, while re-engagement tactics usually use emails. 

To personalize your re-engagement campaigns, you can simply personalize emails by looking at the audience who did not open your emails. Make a list of that audience, personalize, and send. Alternatively, create a list of those who opened the emails but did not end up in the sales funnel. Facebook ad campaigns can be personalized similarly. For instance, if prospects added your carpet cleaning products to cart but then left immediately, you can retarget such an audience specifically by offering discounts and deals. Do not forget to use online tools to get help in this process. You can use tools like Facebook Ad Manager, Qwaya, Hootsuite Ads, etc. 

2. Do Sequential Retargeting 

This process is meant to pick up an ad that looks more interesting to your audience. Here, you show various ads to your prospects and then pick the ones that get the highest clicks. Further customization is done on the selected ads. 

The basic idea is to dig out the offer that entices the target market. For instance, you can display ads related to buy-one get-one offers, flash sales, e-books, subscriptions, and so on. However, you have no clue which route will work best. Sequential targeting will help you find out the most effective tactic. It’s like picking up the best of the best. 

When you spend time and effort on digital marketing, you wish to get the best outcomes. However, irrelevancy can spoil everything in no time. Sequential retargeting helps you avoid it completely. Furthermore, it is an ideal approach for customizing ads and targeting people after thorough testing. 

If you are targeting people with multilingual background, try displaying ds in different languages. Additionally, use a different landing page for each ad. This will help you know the individual impact of every ad. 

3. Think About Non-Conversions 

When a particular group is not interested in purchasing from you, why force them? However, just like conversions, non-conversions are equally important. Here are the two main reasons for it:

This group belongs to a group of targeted customers.They provide a reason to re-plan our strategies and find out why some people visit the page but then leave without making a purchase. 

Consider a scenario where people visited your page but did not take any of your desired actions, like subscribing to the newsletter, placing an order, or getting an e-book. Now, how will you reach these customers? You need to personalize your marketing tactics on Facebook. 

However, never treat every non-conversion alike. Notice the landing pages that they used, ads they clicked, and their previous interaction with the brand. You can also consider upselling and cross-selling techniques. Try to use as many filters as you can. Through this, you can reach your objective of getting more conversions. Since you will narrow down your approach, put more effort, and invest more, your efforts will be paid off later. 

4. Implement Super Remarketing Tactics 

Instead of figuring out the ad that will work best for the audience, super re-marketing uses an opposite approach. Here, you identify which audience is correct for a particular ad on Facebook. Factors like age, location, income, demographics, and behavior help in deeply knowing the audience. 

Alternatively, you can rename super remarketing as concentrated retargeting. With this approach, you can customize the Facebook ad campaigns in a new way. Let us learn more about the factors involved in it: 

Audience: An entirely new audience cannot be included in your list. The audience must have communicated with the brand in some way. It can be a website, a page visit, or just a comment. Never select a fixed age. Instead, pick up an age range as per your product. Also, decide if the product can be used by both genders or not. Location: Again, you need to consider your product here. If it is a luxury good or any other expensive item, you should target affluent cities or households.Income: Having an idea of the average income of your audience is imperative. For instance, if you are selling high-class interior décor items, you must be targeting a high-income group. Wrapping It Up 

In short, personalizing ad campaigns on Facebook is imperative for growing brands. Tactics like re-engagement, sequential re-marketing, focusing on non-conversion, and super re-marketing are ideal. Besides this, consistency is the ultimate key to success. Fuel up your marketing plans with these tips and enjoy the fruits of hard work in no time. 

The Changes iOS14 Brings and How to Prepare for Them

FEB. 4, 2021

Facebook is currently working on features that will help prepare for the iOS14 update, which already has rolled out to several Apple users. Additionally, the social media company has listed recommendations as to how advertisers can prepare for upcoming changes.

Changes to the Attribution Window

Back in January, Facebook announced that they are making changes to the attribution window. This is the new conversions window for optimization and delivery as a result of iOS14:

7-day click-through and 1-day view-through (default)1-day click-through7-day view-through1-day click-through and 1-day view-through

When iOS 14 rolls out, the 28-day click-through and view-through will no longer be available, while the 7-day click-through and 1-day view-through will be partial.

Here’s an example of how the new conversions window affects an advertiser’s budget. If the ad set has a budget of $10 with a target CPA of $1 using the default conversion window (7-day click, 1-day view-through), after 10 conversions the total budget spent will be $10 while Facebook achieves a CPA of $1.

As Facebook prepares for the iOS14 update, advertisers will experience the following changes:

Attribution setting will move to the ad set level with the 7-day click-through and 1-day view-through as the default.The “Comparing Windows” feature will show performance across existing windows.

Advertisers should do the following before iOS14 rolls out:

Use the comparing attribution windowsExport historic 28-day dataChanges to Web Events in Events Manager

Facebook recommends that advertisers take the following action to prepare for the iOS14 update:

Confirm who has access to event configuration for optimizationSelect the eight events that will be used for optimization

Advertisers will have to choose eight events because Facebook will be enforcing an eight-event limit. The eight events will include

Standard pixel eventsCustom conversionsStandard evens with different parameters (will count as separate events)Custom conversions formed using custom eventsValue setsNon-redundant events through the API

Facebook recommends that advertisers rank their eight events according to preference.

The limitation won’t make an impact on the following:

Page view eventsLink clicksLanding page view optimizationIdentifiers such as email, phone numbersNon-configured events in website custom audience

Some advertisers will be required to confirm their domain in Business Manager. When they are prompted to do so, they must complete the following steps:

Apply the code provided by Facebook to their siteInstall the code to their domainWait for Facebook to verify the code

Advertisers can also turn on value optimization for purchase events.

If ad sets are optimized for an event not included in the eight limitation, then those ad sets will be paused. For this reason, advertisers should revisit their ad sets and optimize for the events included in the limitation.

Changes to App Events in Events Manager

Facebook recommends that advertisers take the following action to prepare for the iOS14 update:

Configure conversion schema in Events ManagerSet up and test iOS14 app campaigns

Here’s how to configure the conversion schema:

Step 1: Use Facebook’s recommendation option to automatically configure the schema

Step 2: Import from the partner app

Step 3: Customize events

Facebook will likely announce more changes as it prepares for iOS14. To track these changes, follow our iOS14 guide.

 

The iOS14 Update Is Finally Here

FEB. 2, 2021

For months advertisers have anxiously awaited the roll out of iOS14, which includes a capability that allows Apple users to disable data tracking. The update is finally here.

Joshua Hansen / AdvertiseMint

To access find this update, users need only to follow these steps:

Open the settings app.Navigate to the “Privacy” tab.Click it.Navigate to the “Tracking” tab.Click it.Click the toggle button next to “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”

Facebook has already been rolling out updates to ad targeting in anticipation of the iOS 14 update. These roll outs, which started in the middle of January, have caused a few problems in the ad system, including a momentary loss of ad data for several hours.

Facebook will likely continue to roll out more updates as the ad system adjusts to iOS14.

The Social Media Marketing Strategies You Can Learn from Beauty Brands

FEB. 2, 2021

Social media marketing and digital media have gone a long way since their conception. They have created a marketing landscape that has been proven to be highly effective, especially in times as bizarre as the present.

According to Econsultancy’s report, one in four online purchases are now made on social media for the fourth quarter of 2020. And here’s what online shoppers purchase most:

Source

 

The fact that beauty brands are highly active on social media and strive to create relatable content according to their users’ interests and likes is no secret. In fact, it seems like the marketers in charge don’t just know every trick in the book — they know how to use it as well.

But how is your brand going to enchant its audience like a beauty brand? What is it that their strategy can teach you? Well, buckle up, because if there’s one thing a beauty brand’s marketing strategy can teach you, it’s how to stand out and get your conversion going in a gigantic industry.

Be Consistent

The best way to create content is to align your marketing strategy with all of the platforms you’re going to use and the content you’re going to make for them. In other words, you need your content to have consistency. Your audience should get the same feeling when reading your blog posts as they do upon reading one of your blog posts or seeing a story on your Facebook or Instagram. To do that, you need to be very careful when studying your buyers and building your personas.

Once you decide on the type of customer that would be ideal for your brand, create a consistent tone of voice across all platforms and stick to it. Your brand’s tone should be evident in all your brand’s marketing components, digital or otherwise. Every picture on social media, the email copy you write, and every hashtag you decide to use needs to lead consumers back to you.

Here’s an example:

This is an email from the beauty brand Kevin Aucoin. It specializes in high-end and long-lasting cosmetics. The brand states that its products “[…] reflect artistic expertise and philosophies, which is deeply rooted in values of empowerment, originality, and inclusivity. It is a brand for anyone and everyone, and made accessible by way of innovative, easy-to-use and beautiful formulas.”

Let’s see if their website supports this statement:

How about their Insta feed?

Source

 

Their content is consistent across platforms. Of course, consistent content doesn’t mean unchanging. It would be best to modify your tone to fit the platform’s demographics while staying true to your brand’s values. An act like this will create trust and authority between you and your audience and make your content easily recognizable and relatable.  After all, it’s no secret that all of us beauty-brand-and-cosmetics connoisseurs can tell which post or email belongs to which brand with just a glance. At the end of the day, you really want this kind of visibility.

Connect

There is no beauty brand that doesn’t connect with its prospects on social media. This is what you need to do as well. Connect with your prospects, engage with them, and open a real dialogue that will be inclusive and interesting. Your content strategy should be clear about involving social media posts that show how your brand can interact with its followers and prospects. That’s the sheer power of social media that has turned the beauty industry into a real giant.

Source

A TV spot could never do what the example above did. Interacting with your prospects on social media gives the brand a more friendly and relatable look and makes prospects think they’re talking to a friend. Use that friendly disposition to your advantage.

Be One Step Ahead

Prospects today are more aware of how their actions impact society and the environment and how one can become an Instagram influencer and achieve growth by showing their true self when promoting products. This is mainly why social media platforms hold such power. People using them can speak up against (or in favor of)  anything, everything, and everyone, including brands and influencers. And this can influence the way they purchase things. An example of such action is the way that Rihanna markets her beauty brand, Fenty Beauty.

Source

She uses herself as an influencer, as well as people of all sizes, genders, and races. This makes for an inclusive brand image that can guarantee Instagram growth, or any social media and digital growth, for that matter.

Another example is MAC:

Source

Using its brand’s mission statement down to a tee, MAC decided to collaborate with Caitlyn Jenner as a brand ambassador, showing that its products are, indeed, accessible to all.

So, what can you steal from this? Being inclusive and having an eye for things that matter to your audience is what counts in 2021’s social media marketing and beyond.

Perfect Use of Stories, Hashtags, and Loyalty

Platforms like Instagram and Twitter are almost impossible to navigate without hashtags. They make things much easier; a branded hashtag can team up all of your posts, while the right hashtag can tweak the algorithm a little bit and help you end up on the Discover page.

Facebook, on the other hand, lacks the same extensive hashtag use. However, using hashtags on Instagram that lead to your Facebook shop via engagement and product tags on stories is a real winner.

Creating branded hashtags for giveaways or creating hashtags for Instagram posts that aim to urge users to open a dialogue with your brand can help a brand’s social media presence overall. Especially when people are “trained” to use those hashtags when referring to your brand. Similar to that is the social media stories feature that can go in a little deeper, as it can help engage your users further by allowing them to create content for you, also known as user-generated content (UGC).

Source

 

This is one of the best uses of hashtags and UGC. Their stories feature followers that use their branded hashtags, sneak peeks to new products and offers, even polls and questions.

The technique to steal from that is to use these features as much as possible. Stories engage better than almost anything else because their existence is based on fear of missing out, or FOMO. They disappear after 24 hours so, if the audience wants to interact with your brand and be in the know, it needs to be quick on its toes. 

Your audience will follow and engage with your content, making your brand unforgettable and boosting customer loyalty. Just make sure that your content is relevant. You can even break it down into parts that resonate with a popular trend or topic, a social justice issue, or something a chunk of your audience would resonate with. This tactic will give your brand a much-needed push and allow you to appeal to a broader audience as well.

The Takeaway

Beauty brands can use social media marketing like nobody’s business, and the results are evident. By pinpointing your niche and your buyer personas, staying true to your brand’s tone, and never forgetting today’s societal issues, your brand can be as successful as a beauty brand and gain the same amount of exposure. And the same amount of revenue, of course.

By Téa Liarokapi

How Branding Your Social Media Graphics Can Bring You More Business

JAN. 29, 2021

Lisa Fotios / Pexels

The current digital age has pushed forward the presence of social media graphics, and whether you’re a marketer or not, the importance of this is equally understood. After all, Instagram is the social platform with the fastest growth margin. And the reason? Well, humans simply tend to prefer imagery and are in fact hard-wired to prioritize it (half of our brain directly or indirectly processes it). 

No matter which service they’re on, social media often acts as a booster button for people to recognize and remember your brand, and there’s nothing more beneficial than creating an image that makes people go “hey, I remember!” 

Studies confirm that users are 650% more likely to participate and engage with imagery or visual post. This means branding social media graphics becomes extremely significant for your business. 

Today’s post will touch on why branding social media graphics are important and how it can bring in more business opportunities.

1. Increases Brand Exposure and Makes It Memorable 

Think of brands like Nike, Apple, KFC, Starbucks – these are some of the biggest names cherished and recognized by millions globally and this exposure has a lot to do with their logos. Much like the famed half-bitten apple or colonel sanders, every brand wants to remain memorable.

For this, a brand must stand out, especially on online platforms, and branding your social media graphics is an efficient way for people to notice and recognize your brand. 

Customers often judge a brand’s visual appearance within seconds of encountering it. In fact, a few seconds is enough for any user to decide on whether your content or profile is interesting enough and worth the follow. 

Visual contents like graphics, images, and infographics receive higher social media engagement when compared to posts that include only text. This implies just how important social media graphics can be in creating a memorable image around your brand. 

When customers remember your brand, they’ll likely come back to enquire more about your service or product. 

2. Creates a Reliable and Systemic Look

What’s the one thing successful and popular brands all have in common? Consistency. That’s right! When it comes down to displaying their business, big brands are known for keeping up with a consistent message and content. 

And graphics are just the thing that ensures this consistency. When brands find it difficult to find their voice, implementing graphics instantly changes the game. For instance, the content becomes more recognizable and anticipated. 

Creating this uniform look on all available platforms helps brands bag more recognition and subsequently, a wider audience. In simple terms, it brings forth more brand awareness and recognition while also allowing brands to appear more professional. 

As always – first impression matters, and when individuals skim through your brand profile, a compilation of inconsistent and messy posts is not something they’d want or like. 

3. Your Brand Becomes an Attraction for Ideal Customers 

According to Rachel Zoe, an American fashion designer, “Style is something that tells people who you are without verbal communication.”  The style you choose to glamour your brand across multiple social media channels will speak volumes about your business. 

When you’re working on branding, choosing elements that naturally align with the message and image of your brand as well as your target audience is extremely important. 

Even from the psychological perspective, different colors and fonts are known to associate with different thoughts, emotions, and concepts. For instance, brands like Twitter, Facebook, or HP use the color blue that symbolizes trust, intelligence and progress. 

By ensuring the use of graphics along with branding elements that pair well with your target audience, your brand will go beyond capturing their attention and hopefully form a type of positive engagement as your brand continues to work.  

4. Visual Storytelling Can Convey More than Words

A point perfectly depicted in The Arrival, a powerful wordless graphic novel by Shaun Tan about immigration – storytelling isn’t always about using big, fancy words, and at times its execution does not even require words.

In a similar aspect, social media graphics today offer brands the compelling opportunity to humanize their image and strike an emotional bond with the audience. You can utilize branded graphics to carve visual storytelling that aptly conveys the value of one’s brand. 

For instance, creating simple infographics with an improved and increased visual in an engaging way instantly pulls in more audiences to your stage. Whatever story your brand is leading on with, social media graphics allows it to convey in a way no other means can. 

5. Creates Shareable Content and Prevents Piracy 

Now, who doesn’t love seeing aesthetic visual content on social media? Everyone does, and the more attractive the content is, the more clicks and shares it’ll likely receive. Plus, when users share and recognize your content, it helps garner attention from a much wider audience. 

Unfortunately, social media is not free of piracy, and at times, people can take your content and pass it around as their work without giving any form of credit. This is exactly where branded media content fits in and becomes beneficial for your business.

As individuals on various social media sites share your content, it becomes instantly recognizable through your specific design elements. It goes beyond your brand logo and invites the inclusion of other components like your media handle, website, or a watermark. 

By including these, your content gets easily recognized as yours, and not to forget, it gets tracked to you! Even if certain users choose not to credit your work. 

Final Thoughts

Social media graphics is all about inviting engagement without overwhelming your core audience and branding social media graphics proves to be incredibly beneficial in this area, as it helps in composing a clean, crisp, and clear visualization for your business. 

Whatever your end goal is, be it brand awareness or storytelling, we hope this post makes it clear how branded graphics are extremely important for your business.