Social Media Marketing Archives

5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Social Media Marketing

In Digital Marketing 8 Mins Read

Social media marketing is not self-promotion. Social media marketing is all about telling your story and making a connection. Before you go off thinking you don’t have time for this and you just need to make a sale, you need to think twice and continue reading to learn why simply promoting your product online is not enough.

Adidas’ viral social media campaign capitalizes on community engagement by urging them to create shareable content.

Your job is not done the moment you create your Facebook page or Instagram account. Effective social media marketing is all about building an engaged community of users and providing value. Here’s why you should be investing in your social media strategy to reap its benefits in the long term.

Whatever platform you focus on (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest), the key to success is consistency. You need to keep showing up every single day. Don’t get discouraged when you don’t see the followers growing. Instead, keep an eye on other important metrics like post impressions or engagement.

A strategy is important because social media marketing, in the long term, build brand awareness. It establishes your brand and imprints it on the minds of digital consumers.

The key to receiving the most engagement? Give the most value.

With the right team and strategy, you can churn out engaging and valuable content consistently. Remember to keep an 80-20 ratio when it comes to providing value vs self-promotion. Nobody wants to be sold off every single time. A lot of accounts already do that. Stand out from the crowd.

Eye-popping content and colors will help you stand out in the feeds of your followers

Take a look at this brand that sells hair coloring products. They provide consistent content inline with their brand. It is all about color and hair. You aren’t going to find anything else that is beyond their product and aesthetic. As a result, it leaves an imprint on the minds of consumers and aligns their brand name to what they are selling. So, the next time you hear overtonecolor, you know it is going to be about hair and color.

2. You can go viral (seriously)

Consistency beats everything. With the right social media marketing strategy, you can go viral overnight. But mind you, it will take a lot of time.

Planning a viral social media marketing campaign takes months. You either hit big or you land on a mention on the press. Either way, your team just had fun and you get the publicity you deserve.

If there is something people do on social media, that is talking. They post, share, and make comments. As a result, it is fairly easy for one topic to have widespread publicity. Before you know it, one thing can become viral. If it is your brand that generates conversations, you get attention and ultimately, a market for what you are selling.

Anything can turn into a conversation. A marketing ad that is intriguing, a song that captivates the hearts of many, or being congratulated or recognized by a celebrity. With the right opportunity, you can put your name out there. An opportunity that you can’t find anywhere else.

To emphasize on this point, take a look at the page of Humans of New York. You might have heard of it and its other variations. There is a high chance that the only reason you know them is through friends sharing their content. Why is that? They create something that is worth sharing. One story can resonate around a community, create conversations, and ultimately become viral.

3. When you have a strategy, you measure results and you improve

Let’s get more technical. You want to know if you are penetrating the right type of market. Are your marketing strategies working? Are you making an impact with all that you are doing? If there is one thing you don’t want, that is spending on something for nothing.

Gone are the days of television and radio marketing where you don’t have a way of quantifying impact. In social media marketing, you get to have that opportunity. You are able to track the reach of your social media pages, especially paid ads. If you know how many new visitors and the consistency of your page’s activity, you are able to understand what you are doing right and wrong. Therefore, you are only spending on things that actually matter and that exponentially plummets you to success.

4. You show your exceptional customer service and build loyal customers

Business is a two-way communication. You sell while they ask. Social media allows this to happen conveniently and it is a big deal. When your customers are able to reach out easily to a brand, it creates more trust. The more questions you answer and the better service you deliver, you create a more loyal customer.

While new customers are great, repeat ones are better. They are more susceptible to your products. When they need something, your brand becomes the first choice and the only choice in some cases. To say the least, you guarantee yourself that you will have customers.

Respond to all social media feedback, questions and comments | 6 Key Elements of Using Social Media for Customer Service

Look at how JetBlue turned an angry customer into an opportunity. They addressed a concern and provided comfort. While the passenger may have had a bad experience, being heard and given attention gives them a sense of value. This makes up for the shortcoming and could even get this customer to come back for more.

5. Algorithms change so you need to keep track and adapt…fast

Social media marketing didn’t happen overnight. It was developed through the years as demand grew stronger. Now, we can see where all that development went to. It created a medium that is completely catered to marketing. What this means is that you can find a lot of tools and features in social media marketing.

For example, paid ads have the option to narrow down to whom they get to appear. You want it only to those within range of your location? No problem. There are flexible payment options to ensure that you only pay what benefits you the most. Not only that, you can find software and services for scheduling and managing posts to keep your pages active with the least amount of supervision.

To say the least, everything you need to do is simplified and made more effective with social media marketing. As a result, it is the most fool-proof and cost-efficient way to market your product and service. Whether your business has long been in the market or you are still starting, this is a benefit you are always going to want.

Have you heard about Buffer? It is a social media management tool that will make your marketing campaign a lot easier. You don’t have to manual post on every social media account you have. Use Buffer and make one post that goes out to every page you handle, regardless of what platform it is (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.). If that isn’t enough, you have the opportunity to have data and analytics.

If you are one of those people that are skeptical of the future of social media marketing, don’t worry, you are not alone. It is a logical concern to ask where all of this is going. Is it already too late? Will this all blow over in the near future? Will all your investments be short-lived?

You don’t have to worry though since there is a strong guarantee that social media marketing is the marketing of the future. So, it is not bound to disappear anytime soon. A strong indication is the growing population of internet and social media users. Every year, there is always an increase in that number.

As access to internet connection also increases, the more people find it more convenient to get into social media. Faster base internet speeds and more accessible wireless data connections are strong contributing factors.

That is enough to suggest that there is no sign of social media marketing rejection. If anything, everything is pointing to acceptance and further adoption.

What if your site’s traffic dropped tomorrow…where would that leave you?

Social media marketing is a long game. There are metrics and KPIs to keep track of that do not necessarily include only revenue. You can run ads to lure your customers to buy, but you can also build a consistent long-term strategy that will bring you organic sales.

Algorithms change, even your SEO rankings can drop zero anytime. But the community and connection you build with your audience is something you control with your own hands. Isn’t that a good enough reason to start investing in your social media marketing today?

If you’re looking for the best digital marketing agency to help you do just that, contact us today for a free strategy consultation. We are happy to help out small businesses and individuals.

Holiday Marketing Digital Strategies Must Dos!

In Content Marketing 12 Mins Read

More people are flocking into stores during this month than any other day of the year. Understandable given the gift giving convention. As a matter of fact, an average person is likely going to buy three to four presents. Multiply that with the total population and you get a huge sum of potential consumer demand. To rake in the most profits, you need to find a way to point all of those people to your store. To do that, the secret lies with holiday marketing strategies.

Holiday Marketing Ideas

The hardest part about digital marketing is that it is a vague concept. You hear it not just once or twice, but a dozen times with fingers pointing to different directions. One says it works like this and then another would say otherwise. It can get overwhelming to say the least. However, you can stop scratching your head with these tested and proving holiday marketing ideas.

Starting with the most obvious, optimize your page and website for the season. For starters, redesign it with Christmas elements. Not just the format, but your product photos as well.

While it may seem something small, it actually makes a huge difference. The Christmas-y of your platforms influences buyers on whether or not to make a purchase. Put it this way, the Christmas theme reminds them of buying gifts which gives them the motivation to push through with a purchase

Though, talking about optimization doesn’t end with that. You are going to want to have everything necessary during the holiday season shopping rush. Highlight your products, emphasize on Christmas specials, discounts, and free shipping. In short, make it the shopping heaven for people who want to spend.

Social media ads are a timeless approach on marketing. Though, during the holiday season is when they get more effective. When people are desperate for answers on the best gift, the first place they go to is social media. They post, ask questions from groups, or from their collection of friends. During this time of desperation, they are more likely to be susceptible to ads.

Who wouldn’t? When you are looking for a gift, any suggestion on the side of your social media page will catch your attention.

3. Create and Use Hashtags

Hashtags work like SEO keywords, but for social media. With that being said, they can help get you seen. Spreading your digital footprint makes all the difference to generating sales. The more people that are aware of your products, the more potential customers you generate.

You can create hashtags for your products or for your store. Remember to keep them simple and easy to keep in mind. When people search for it, they are presented with the existence of your store and everything you offer.

Hashtags don’t necessarily function the same in all platforms. They work fairly well and effective for Instagram and Twitter. However, it is not as useful in Facebook. This doesn’t say that you shouldn’t. Hashtags are never bad, but you might want to concentrate your attention and effort on things that are going to matter the most.

4. Target Customer Niches

Customers are not all the same. For instance, each have different needs and preferences. Younger generations have different perspectives when purchasing gifts as opposed to older people. Culture, ethnicity, and social status are also going to be factors affecting their purchasing decisions.

With this being said, you can’t create marketing material that is right for everyone. Instead, identify your target audience for a specific ad. The sooner you understand that marketing is all about understanding and curating the right content for the right people, the faster you can convert them to customers.

5. Video Marketing for the Season

Don’t settle with photos, extend your marketing medium to videos. A short clip about the holiday season is one way to appeal to the emotions of potential customers. Everyone wants to be a part of the festivity and buying from a store showing dedication to the season is one way to do it.

Video marketing in other months are given the same amount of attention as photos. If anything, they even get skipped and ignored. The same cannot be said for the Christmas season. There is a higher chance for an individual to watch the entire Christmas spirit video, therefore, reaching the end of it where your products will be strategically placed.

Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Christmas season is the longest running holiday season in the entire year. As early as November, people are out decorating and shopping. This goes to say that a single marketing approach is not going to suffice for the impending weeks ahead. What you need is a well-planned and strategic marketing campaign.

People are very active in social media. One viral news and it spreads like wildfire, reaching far and wide within a day. In other words, social media is a fast-moving medium. If you post one thing today, it will immediately be buried deep down by other posts tomorrow. You need to be always seen and for you to do that means consistent activity.

Whether it maybe new products, curating photos and posts, or simply sharing useful articles, it helps get you seen. It shows that you are still relevant in this time when people are looking for the best stores. Your activity shows that you are an alive and thriving business. So, make it apparent that you have a social media marketing campaign at hand.

2. Content Marketing Campaign

If you really want to appeal to your audience, give them something worth giving attention to. Content is a great way to deliver information and stir curiosity. For example, if you are a clothing store, curate articles about fashion. Put in some essential facts here and there and you become the go-to store.

Content plays a huge role in making people come back to your website or social media pages. They first come for the information and usefulness, and then later, for the products. However, people are picky when it comes to content.

Not all forms of content are going to appeal to everybody. In regards to fashion, not everyone just wants shirts and pants. There are women who wants dresses and men who prefer cargo shorts. This is where the content marketing campaign gets in the picture. Make sure you provide content consistently and to a wide niche of audiences. Also, follow up previous content with something that will support and expound it.

3. Omnichannel Marketing Campaign

Omnichannel pertains to having all platforms coherently working together to provide a consistent experience to the customer. With various social media platforms, it is possible for a customer to experience something different from Twitter and Facebook.

When this happens, it makes the entire shopping experience tedious. When a customer messages on Facebook, he shouldn’t have to explain everything again when reaching out on your Instagram page. The more unified and simplified the entire experience of shopping is, the more a customer will push through with a purchase.

Holiday Marketing Emails

Another thing to put your attention on is email marketing. While creating posts and waiting for people to see them helps, targeting content to specific individuals is a lot better. Put it this way, you can target your marketing more effectively, thus, creating a loyal customer in the end.

How to Get Customer Emails

Email marketing doesn’t work if you don’t have the emails of the people you are marketing to. Though, there are different ways to get them and it doesn’t have to be that hard.

Content Offer – Every time somebody visits your website, offer them with content. Make them give their emails so you can send them your materials.
Discounts and Promos – Who can resist a discount? Give them out through email. So, customers have to give their emailing details first.
Newsletters and Updates – There are going to be people who want to stay updated. Make sure you give them this option because it is one of the most effortless way to gain their emails.

Benefits of Holiday Marketing Emails

Now, you might be wondering if this is worth the effort. To answer that question, look at the benefits and let it speak for itself.

Better Brand Recognition – When you are communicating directly to the inbox of a customer, you are able to maintain a personal relationship. You provide accurate content and service them effectively. It then reflects to what kind of brand you are.
Boost Sales – Providing specific content that will cater to the needs of your customer ensures that they are more likely to be influenced in making a purchase.
Builds Strong Relationship – Email marketing creates a strong link between seller and customer. They don’t just end up making a single purchase, but become long term and loyal customers.

Creating A Holiday Marketing Email Campaign

It may sound easy, but a holiday marketing campaign can get challenging at times. You need to know where to begin and when to end. So, here is a step-by-step guide to make the entire process a lot easier.

Start with a plan – The functional word here is “campaign”. You are not just sending one email, but a number of them. Make sure you have a plan on what to send first and the rest that follows. It should be systematic to be effective.
Create your email content – Once you have laid out your plan, it is time to start creating content. Compose your emails beforehand and use a scheduler to send them out. Make sure that you are following a schedule. Don’t just send out randomly.
Track progress – See which customers respond to which. You will be able to determine which content works and which one people have no interest in. Understanding your progress gives you an idea on what to work on next.
Repeat – If your campaign has come to an end, just repeat the entire process. While it may get tempting to take control on your own terms, resist the urge. Consistency is what makes email marketing effective. Too much and it turns to spam, too little and people forget you are even there, too random and gets tedious to follow.

Holiday Marketing Tips

Sometimes, it’s the little details that makes a holiday marketing campaign fail. Overlooking a customer niche? Failing to follow marketing frequency? It can all come spiraling down. To prevent an impending failure, remember and follow these common tips.

1. Start Marketing Early

The sooner you begin your marketing campaigns, the better. Give yourself some time to settle in the market. Don’t expect that as soon as you release your first wave of posts and initiatives, it will immediately catch on. In other words, there is a slow progression towards reaching your goal of getting seen and heard.

At least when you start early, you will be in a much better position by the time the shopping season peaks.

2. Optimize Ad Extensions and Meta Descriptions

If you are running paid ads, make the most out of it. Check your ad extensions and put all the necessary information. Don’t leave any field behind. Same goes for your meta descriptions. You might think that nobody checks them, but you’d be surprised.

When people are making a search in Google, they read the meta description before clicking the link. The meta description is what gives them the idea if the website contains what they need. If you skip it, then you are losing potential customers. The same concept applies with ad extensions.

3. Don’t Rush Your Content

With Christmas getting closer, you are left with lesser time to conduct your marketing. While you may be in a lot of pressure, don’t ever underplay the value of quality content. Good grammar and right spelling can make all the difference in ensuring that you are a trustworthy business.

If your blog or post is filled with errors like misplaced symbols and wrong spelling, it can easily raise eyebrows. It gives off the impression of a low-quality store which can urge potential customers to go somewhere else.

4. Reply to Inquiries

Make sure you have an inexhaustible amount of patience to answer inquiries. Remember, this is the Christmas season. It only happens for two months every year, it’s not a daily kind of thing. A lot of people are still going to be adjusting to the new offers and promos you are running. So, when you receive a question, answer them.

To put it simply, shoppers are going to multiple online stores at a time. They are weighing which one is better than the other. If you don’t reply to an inquiry and the rest do, you are immediately off the list of choices.

Skipping the Holiday Marketing Trend?

If you are thinking about going lowkey in online platforms, then you are making a huge mistake. Business is an everchanging industry. You find ways to appeal to your audience. In this generation, people have a higher affinity towards comfort with the help of the internet. To put it simply, everybody wants everything to be on the internet. When your competition is providing it and you are not, then you are guaranteed to lose customers.

Online marketing is the standard today and for the future. However, if you think that it is something too much that you alone can handle, then you need the help of the best online marketing agency. Contact us today for a free strategy consultation.

Social Media Marketing for Restaurants: 10 Marketing Ideas

In Content Marketing 8 Mins Read

According to a survey done by Sprout in 2016, approximately 75% of people who made a purchase done so because they saw it on social media. Around 60% of that population saw the product around 2-4 times before they were convinced. With these numbers, there is no doubt that social media presence makes a huge impact on people’s purchasing decisions. So, if you are running a restaurant, social media marketing for restaurants is not an option, it is a requirement.

With the internet being the biggest marketing medium in today’s generation, people are starting to ask if it is possible to not make the transition. While some restaurants may have survived, the general consensus is that it is unlikely. Almost everybody is on social media, let alone on the internet. Not getting seen in the social media world is a huge market lost.

In addition, most people now source their information from social media. If you aren’t in the platform, there is little to no chance that you will get seen. The logic is that, people can’t buy what they don’t know exists. With features like commenting, messaging, and sharing, social media is the most ideal place to have widespread reach. If you aren’t there, your competition is definitely outweighing you.

So, the question is not if you should be getting into social media, but rather how should you get started. You hear it again and again, but the topic is so vague that you don’t know where to start. It may sound simple, but with the wide range of possibilities, it is easy to get overwhelmed. Fortunately, here are 10 social media marketing for restaurants tips that everyone should know.

As you would know, there are more than one social media website. You need to look for the ones suited for you the most since not everything is created the same. Using more than one is ideal, allowing you to have a wider reach. However, how do you know that a social media site is the right one for you?

Understand your market

Who are your potential customers? Who are you marketing to? Knowing the marketing preferences of your audience gives you an idea which platform is more suited for them. If they are into content, then go with Facebook. Photos? Instagram. And so on.

Your Knowledge

Use a social media platform which you are knowledgeable in. If you are not able to utilize a platform’s features, you are not using it to its full potential. Facebook for example has a wide suite of post scheduling, audience reach features, and data tracking. Begin with the ones you are capable of using and then learn your way up on other platforms.

Social media marketing is not just about showing your audience what you have to offer, but to consistently engage them. If you want to keep their attention and loyalty, constantly give them something. If you don’t have any more products to advertise then write articles, post business-related photos, and so much more. The core principle is that you are becoming a part of their lives, making it hard for them to separate from your brand and restaurant.

Just like the words you use on your posts, make sure that your photos are of quality. Don’t just take mediocre images that seem they are out of an early 2000’s camera phone. Use proper lighting, angling, and color science. How appealing your photos are reflect your appeal towards your audience. If possible, hire a professional photographer. Whether it may be product photos or behind the scenes, images should be properly made.

Tip # 4: Engage with Your Audience

Remember that you are using social media, there are a lot more features than just marketing. Make use of them such as messaging, replying to comments, and so much more. If you want your followers to stay, you need to make them feel that they are a part of something more. Ignoring their engagement could potentially lose their trust. Remember to:

Reply to messages and inquires.
Answer negative comments in the comments section as best as you can. Reverse a negative impression with how you deal with it.
Conduct surveys and engage with interactive questions.

Tip # 5: Allow User-Generated Content

Your social media content shouldn’t be always about you and what you have to say. If there is something that potential customers are likely to listen to, it would be the sentiments of their co-customers. What this means is that allow people to leave a review or a feedback and make sure to highlight it as content in your page.

Remember a time when businesses used to give out printed coupons to passers-by? The problem with that is most of them end up not using them. You are marketing to a population that is not even interested in your restaurant. Now that you have a social media page, transition from that to digital promotions. It is likely to gain more engagement, have a wider reach, and your marketing penetrates the most vulnerable population.

Digital promotions are so effective that you can see them with almost every business. Discounts that can only be claimed through their social media pages, online raffle promos, and so much more.

Certain topics become trending for a reason: people are interested with them. When you get involved, you are participating in a huge potential market. Other than customers being susceptible to your marketing materials, your posts become more visible. Trending topics can range from viral videos, new trends, or seasonal events such as Christmas and Halloween.

Tip # 8: Pay For Ads

Your reach can only go so far. People will share and like your posts as much as they can, but it has its limits. If you want to further widen your reach, you need a little help with the use of paid ads. Depending on the platform you are using, you are going to have a wide array of payment options and implementations. Facebook for example allows for ads to be shown to audiences that are near and have a high susceptibility for your product.

Tip # 9: Complete Your Details

Most business don’t see the importance of a completely filled out social media page. Having your name and logo shouldn’t be where you stop. Make sure that you put in other specific details such as location, schedule, and so much more. Remember, people are going to your page to know more about your restaurant. If they can’t get the answers they are looking for, then you might as well say goodbye to a potential customer.

Keep in mind that when people are looking for a place to eat, they have a lot of considerations and questions. They wonder if it is open, the menu, is it nearby, and so on. Not having this information readily available causes a potential customer to immediately venture towards something else.

Tip # 10: Showcase What’s Behind the Scenes

If you are out of content to publish in mind, then showcase what goes behind the counter. As a restaurant, guarantying safe and quality food is going to be what you want to guarantee. Show to your audience what is happening inside the kitchen, the process of preparing dishes, and the level of sanitation you follow. All of these doesn’t just keep your social media activity going, it provides assurance to your customers of the safety and cleanliness you deliver, especially that most people would rather prefer sanitation over anything else.

In conclusion

There is no single instruction manual on how to conduct social media marketing for restaurants. There are different ways to approach it and in turn, there is no guarantee that one thing is going to work better than the other. However, these tips will get you started on the right path. Along the way, the only thing you need to do is learn and adapt according to the factors and situations that surround your industry.

If you think that all of these are too much to handle, there is a shortcut which guarantees results. You are going to want to seek the help of the best marketing agencies as a result. Contact us today for a free strategy consultation.

Social Media Marketing For Hotels: 10 Essential Tips

In Content Marketing 8 Mins Read

Demand for hotels is always there, but even then, with the market being saturated by a number of options and choices, you are going to need to be competitive to stay afloat in the industry. In today’s generation, there are a lot of things you can do. Out of all of them, the one you must first venture into is social media marketing for hotels. It is cheap and does not require any extensive technical expertise in order to implement it. The question is, what should you be doing?

The first step in social media marketing is knowing the platform you will be using. There are a lot of choices and the top three are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. One has its benefits over the other. Choosing which one to start on is going to be overwhelming. In addition, you also have more choices beyond those three. They may not be the top social media platforms but depending on your market, they can be as effective such as Pinterest and LinkedIn.

You can opt for more than one social media platform. As a matter of fact, the more the better. Increasing your digital presence is never a bad thing. The more you put your name out there, the more likely for your hotel to be found and considered as a choice. Just make sure that enough detail and attention is given to provide quality social media experience to potential customers.

2. Understand Your Market

Not all hotels are the same. One has a certain theme and aesthetic along with having specific services and amenities. You don’t have to win every potential customer, you just need to make sure that those who are in the market for you, actually find you.

Capitalize on what you have to offer as a hotel. What is your aesthetic, whom does your services specifically cater to, and so on. The sooner you understand who you should be marketing to, the easier it is for you start creating your marketing material. Mold your posts based on your target audience.

The problem with most social media marketing campaigns is that it is usually very vague. Hotels want to win as many potential customers as possible, so they market their prices and offers instead of the hotel itself. Remember that travelers look for the best experience for them, the budget is only a second consideration.

People who are looking for hotels want to know what they are getting into. The most dreaded part for every traveler is realizing that a hotel is not what they expect it to be. Most of the time they find the place too small or aesthetically unappealing. Things are a lot worse for families when they see that the place is not as family-friendly as they expect it to be.

You don’t want to create a bad experience for your new customers. In addition, you want to assure potential customers of what they are paying for. So, what you are going to want to do is show off your hotel. Post as many photos as you can. If possible, do a video walkthrough of your rooms and amenities. If you have nothing to hide, you can show off your hotel as it is.

The better the image that a customer gets about your hotel, the more confident they get. They are able to know what they are paying for. Ultimately, they make an informed decision when choosing your hotel. Creating trust and exposing the great things you have to offer is a guaranteed way to win the hearts of potential customers.

4. Use Reviews to Leverage Your Credibility

Finding things to post on your social media pages can get exhausting. There are just going to be days that there is nothing else to show off. During times like these, it is best to use the feedback of prior customers. As a matter of fact, you should make it a habit. Potential customers are likely going to trust what other people are saying about your hotel than your marketing materials. If a lot of people are saying that you have great service, that is more likely going to influence the decision of potential customers.

Your credibility is entirely based on the feedback of your customers. As a result, never underestimate whatever they have to say. Promote good ones and address the negative. Depending on how you respond to negative reviews, it can possibly turn into a positive selling point for your hotel.

The hardest part about social media marketing is always being active. When you are not creating a post for an entire month, it could mean badly on how potential customers view the business. It creates the impression that it is not prominent and is not able to cater to the needs of the customers. As a hotel owner, you should accept the fact that the activity of your social media platforms delivers a sense of luxurious and quality experience.

6. Improve Your Followers

When people see your total number of followers, it also influences their decisions. The more there are, the more credible you become in their eyes. Apparently, people associate followers with the impact of a business to a population. What this means is that if you don’t have many of them, it creates the impression that you are not prominent and not worth taking a look into.

It is common sense. The more followers you have, the more prominent you are in the hotel industry. It is something that a lot of customers look into. As a matter of fact, nobody wants to put money on a business that has not yet proven itself.

7. Be Accommodating and Reachable

Social media is a platform where people can connect and is not specifically intended for marketing. What this means is that there are a lot of uses for it. Be versatile enough to use all the avenues that are available for the platform of your choosing.

Take for example the messaging feature. Don’t ignore it. When people have concerns, message them. If they leave you a message, make sure to reach out and give them the answers they want. There are a lot of situations that potential customer just needs something. The sooner you answer, the bigger the chances that you secure their decision.

Most people look at social media pages of business as a way to reach out to them. It has been like that. If you don’t play along with the standards set by society, you are going to trail behind the competition. People expect businesses to answer inquiries, if you don’t, the next one is guaranteed to be better than you.

8. Market the Place, Not Just the Hotel

There are a lot of things you can include in your social media marketing for hotels. You can talk about the location and the different things that can be done in the city. In this way, you are appealing to a specific audience which would be travelers and adventurers. These are people who are finding places to go to and things to do.

Even the slightest features in your hotel can make a huge difference in attracting customers. Small details such as design and whether or not you have a restaurant or bar can make you stand out over the competition. When marketing in your social media platforms, you don’t necessarily have to show off only the big things. Keep in mind to value even the smallest details, even to the tightest corners of your hotel. You never know that the views and aesthetic which you thought were not a big deal, means a lot to others.

The demand for hotel accommodations is daily, but things are much busier during specific days. More people are on a vacation during the holidays such as Christmas and New Year. In addition, there is higher demand even on smaller occasions like Valentines and Halloween. If you want to stay relevant, you need to be active during these occasions. Moreover, be able to go along with it by posting related content on your social media platforms.

Final Words

Even if social media marketing for hotels is all the fad these days, it is easier said than done. Despite sounding simple, it is overwhelming. There are a lot of things you can do. There are also a lot of things that you should not do but you think is right. Nevertheless, sticking to the common approaches will at least get you started on the right track, allowing you to learn things and adapt along the way.

If you think that this is too much. If you think that social media marketing for hotels is not something that you can do on your own, we can help you. As an online marketing agency, we can guide you from start to finish. Contact us today to get a free strategy consultation.

Restaurant Marketing: 10 Guaranteed Strategies For 2021

In Digital Marketing 7 Mins Read

The restaurant business is tough. There are a lot of competition and each have their own twist to every service they provide. When you are running a typical diner, what do you have against exotic or foreign cuisines? The answer is simple, restaurant marketing. A great service can easily be toppled with the right restaurant marketing strategies.

You have always heard that the right path to marketing in today’s generation is social media marketing. It has been repeated so many times that it is starting to sound so cliché, and it is. People say that it is the cornerstone of modern marketing, but nobody talks how to use it.

Setting up your social media accounts is only the beginning. Where the real restaurant marketing starts is creating challenges or contests. If there is content that engages your customers the most, it is going to be something in which they can partake in. Remember to choose the right guidelines and criterion. The better the mechanics, the more engagement you are going to receive.

2. Advertise Locally

The greatest thing about modern online marketing is that website algorithms have become more effective. Go to Facebook and Instagram and you have the option to have your ads show only to people within the area. What this means is that you end up spending on advertisement on people who are likely going to be customers.

Don’t advertise internationally or even nationally, unless you have multiple branches. Don’t hold on to the thought that people are going to come to your city and would walk into your restaurant. That rarely happens, so you are better off advertising locally and investing in local SEO.

3. User Generated Content for Restaurant Marketing

Let your customers speak. Whether it may be on your website or your social media platforms, give your audience the chance to create content. It can come in the form of a feedback or restaurant check-in with a photo. What this does is give your business credibility. People are going to trust the satisfaction of a prior customer than the words of the business.

So, don’t limit your content to your marketing material alone. Urge customers to generate feedback, post photos, and so much more. This puts lesser burden on your side to think about content you can post as well as has a much bigger impact on your social media marketing.

4. Restaurant Marketing Involves Influencers

Online celebrities, also known as influencers, are getting more prominent. In today’s generation, most of them have much more influence over television stars. Not only that, since most of them are self-made, they don’t have a baseline on their minimum pay. Most are glad to do an endorsement with as little as getting things for free.

Invite an influencer and have them dine in for a mention in their social media platforms. It might be a small thing, but with what they are known to do: telling their fanbase what to do and not to do, it is enough to persuade a number of people to try out your restaurant.

5. Instagram is Still Alive in Restaurant Marketing

A lot of businesses flourished from the help of only one social media platform and that is Instagram. It is the most ideal place to post photos and attract customers purely from your aesthetic. It doesn’t matter how it tastes, if it looks good, people are going to surely visit.

Instagram has created a community of people who want to show off. The word “insta worthy” even became a thing which means a photo that is deemed worthy to be posted in Instagram. What we are trying to say is capitalize on this. People who post photos of your restaurant in an aesthetic standpoint are bound to create a lot of interest.

6. Loyalty Programs

Being in the business industry, you should be good at looking for cultural changes. While most people would walk into restaurants in the past, things have changed today. People would pull out their phones and either book a reservation or have food delivered. There are so many apps today that cater to the growing food industry, from food delivery to food review websites.

With so many avenues to sell your business, you also have a wide range of outlets to deliver coupons, discounts, and freebies. Make sure that you are making the best out of them by keeping your prior customers coming back for more. Think of different ways to create your loyalty programs. The more unique, the better it will be in attracting interest.

7. Improve Products and Presentation for Restaurant Marketing

Not solely a restaurant marketing approach, improving your products and how you present them is going to make a huge impact. Some people say that if it is great, don’t change it. However, times have changed. The restaurant industry is so competitive and innovative that there are new things available every day. If you are not able to cope up and provide your fair share of new things, you will be left in the dust.

You don’t have to make a new menu every now and then. It can be as simple as renaming an old dish in the menu and adding a few bells and whistles. Have specials during events and use witty naming schemes that are easy to publicize in social media. People are now susceptible to wit, being shared and engaged with more frequently than serious types of marketing content.

8. Repurpose Restaurant Marketing Material

What you have used a year ago doesn’t necessarily mean obsolete. If you are selling burgers prior and still do now, your old banner can still be used. However, why would you want to do that? Simple, for brand building. Staying true to your brand by keeping a consistent persona generates customer loyalty. While you provide something new and improve for the better, customers still feel that they are eating in the same restaurant which they have learned to love. Just make sure to do some minor changes on your restaurant marketing material.

9. Advertise Menu and Ingredients

Remember what your business is. You are selling food. If there is anything you should marketing the most, it should be that. Most people forget this, getting too occupied with formulating their aesthetic or their brand personality that they forget to mention their food. Look at a lot of restaurant social media pages, you can barely get a glimpse of their available offerings.

Always put your menu first. Make sure it is the first thing that your audience sees. People came to your social media page because they want to know more about what you have to offer. Next would be specify your ingredients. More people are now conscious with what they put into their bodies. Remember that you now have vegetarians and vegans along with lactose intolerant people.

A great additional feature to a number of social media platforms is the social media story. Upload short clips of how your business is doing on a daily basis without having to crowd your pages with unnecessary content. Also, don’t forget about the live feature. A lot of people are getting amazed by this that they are fast to click a live event as soon as it pops up in their notifications.

Final Words

Restaurant marketing strategies should differ year after year. Changes are going to happen in which you must adapt to. Listen to your market, understand your audience, and be versatile to the new opportunities that open before you. It is a continuous learning process but if you do it right, you will find yourself in the path to success.

If you think that it is too hard, don’t have enough time, need some help or simply don’t know where to start, we have the solution just for you. Contact us today for a free strategy consultation.

Social Media Marketing: Everything You Need to Know!

In Social Media Marketing 11 Mins Read

Marketing is a constantly changing concept. Years ago, it meant advertising in television, radio, and newspaper but things are completely different today. The dawn of digital technology has made a huge shift on how marketing works. One that made a huge impact is social media with it being the cornerstone of modern marketing. The question is, what is social media marketing really all about?

In its most basic concept, social media marketing is what its title suggests. It is a marketing strategy that revolves around the use of social media and everything related to it. However, looking at it much deeper, it is more than that. There are a lot of concepts that surround social media marketing that makes it the topmost choice for every business.

One of the most important fundamental concepts is connecting with your audience. Social media is a two-way marketing medium. This means that as a business, you are not just exposing what you have to offer, but also hear the feedback of your customers. This two way exchange creates loyalty and allows for consistent business improvement.

However, the greatest selling point of social media marketing would always be the fact that almost everybody is into the platform. A person is likely going to have one social media account on at least one website. What this means is that this has the highest potential for audience reach compared to any other marketing medium while being the cheapest.

Getting your social media account is not all that it takes to start your marketing campaign. It is a systematic approach in order to ensure effective and efficient results. Breaking down the entire process, there are five major steps.

Strategy

Every marketing campaign starts with having a clear strategy. What do you aim to achieve and how do you intend to accomplish it? It doesn’t need to be followed all the way through. Your strategy is bound to change along the way as you come across new factors and hurdles. Generally, it is the rough sketch of the flow of your social media marketing campaign. When coming up with one, always identify these three core aspects.

Goals

What do you aim to reach at the end of your marketing campaign? Most would think this to be an obvious answer but there can be a lot of outcome. Market growth, web traffic, brand building, and customer loyalty are just some of the goals you can aim for.

It is important to know what your main priority is because one marketing campaign cannot accommodate all possible goals. Set your sights on one instead of spreading your resources on a bunch.

As you already know, there is more than one social media platform. Just like your goals, you cannot dominate every single one of them. Concentrate your attention on ones that are the most fit for what you are trying to market. Also, choose ones that are similarly related to one another.

The challenge with using different social media platforms is that the limitations that each provides. For example, using Instagram that is dependent on photos is not going to have the same approach as using Twitter which is more on phrases and thoughts.

Type of Content

Keep your sights on what your brand is all about and focus on content that revolves around it. Social media marketing is content-based. This means that what your audience associates you with is going to affect your brand image and would make it clearer who your target market is.

The next step to strategizing is getting things done. Social media marketing is dependent on publishing content. The more posts you make, the more engaged your followers become which in turn converts your leads to customers.

Your posts should be systematic. What you should post early on should be supported by the succeeding content you share. The cohesiveness of your material will provide a step-by-step process to your audience to grasp what your business or service is all about. Therefore, keep these two crucial criteria in mind.

Publishing Timeline

Create content in uniform intervals. The first reason is to create consistent predictable activity for your social media pages. Your audience will know when to expect new content and specifically wait for it. The second is you keep your engagement consistent, especially that a window of dullness can put questions on the quality of your social media page.

User Generated Content

The performance of your social media marketing campaign is dependent on how you lead your audience. You are going to want to have full control of what you share and what they interact with. Most social media pages fail because they allow their audience to engage a little bit too much. When users start to have conversations irrelevant to the overall goal of the page, your followers are going to feel that they are in the wrong place.

Listening and Engagement

Social media marketing is a two way medium. As a business, you are not just informing them of what you have, but they also can voice out their feedback. How you listen to what they say is a very crucial component in the success of your campaign.

The more you engage with your audience, whether it may be through comments or direct messages, the more they feel closer to the brand. In turn, this creates customer loyalty in the long run. Furthermore, being able to hear what they have to say provides ideas on avenues for improvement. You now know what your audience wants and what you should be focusing on instead of having to find that out by yourself.

What differentiates social media from other types of marketing mediums is how easy it is to analyze results. Being able to see the extent of your marketing campaign gives insight on what you should be doing next. You are able to make the decision of whether to continue or make necessary revisions to your strategies. With this being said, there are three ways to analyze data.

When Things are Going Wrong

It is common in marketing to get negative results than positive ones. Most of the time you are going to see reach and engagement that are below your expectation. In the event that this does happen, understand what you are doing wrong. Try to locate the source of the problem.

Most social media marketers try to overlook a negative result and continue with their current strategy. Ultimately, this ends in the same outcome and further prolongs the progress of the campaign. Therefore, remember to use negative results as a guide to making improvements.

When Things are Going Right

Data that suggest a successful marketing campaign doesn’t just call for a celebration but analysis as well. If the outcome is surprisingly high, look for the factors that may have contributed to it and use it in future campaigns. It is important to learn what are the things that you are doing right to know which aspects you should be focusing on.

Comparing with Competition

Improving on your progress is great, but looking at how your competition is doing is much better. Unless you look at the rate of growth of competing brands, you are unable to know whether you are moving at a slow or fast pace.

Learn what your competition is doing right and wrong. Build up from their experience for a more effective and efficient social media marketing campaign. Since you don’t have to go through their downfalls, you open the possibility of overtaking their progress.

Advertising

At the start of your social media marketing campaign, things are going to be quite hard. You need to be seen in order to expand the reach of your pages. No matter how great your content and engagement may be, if nobody sees your page in the first place, you are not going to grow your followers. This is where advertising comes into play.

Different social media websites provide various options for paid advertisements. You can spend as little and as much as you want. To make things better, modern web algorithms ensure that only those with the highest affinity for your product or service get to see what you are marketing. What this means is that you are not paying for ads on people that are never going to become a customer.

Advertising is going to be a necessity in most cases. If you want to expand the reach of your social media pages as soon as possible, you need to make a little investment. While the first four steps are crucial to the success of your marketing campaign, advertising alone can make as much of an impact than all of them.

With the growth of social media came with it a new type of celebrity called social media influencers. Technically, these are people that have created a huge following through personal efforts. With their fanbase, anything that they say and do will extensively resonate throughout the online community.

So, what do they mean for your social media marketing campaign? While television celebrities are for TV ads, influencers are for social media websites. If you want to spread the reach of your product or service, making use of social media influencers can have a big and positive impact.

While most TV celebrities are social media influencers, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have as much of an influence in the online platform as the latter. Social media influencers are self-made, meaning that they don’t have a formal gauge on their value. Therefore, you can make them feature what you have to offer without breaking the bank as opposed to real celebrities.

Lastly, social media influencers are followed by people who relate closely to them. Someone who made a reputation from building desktop setups will most likely be followed by people with similar interests. So, when you are a business in the same industry, their followers are already strong potential customers.

With so many marketing strategies available right now, what differentiates social media marketing from the competition? There are many benefits of social media marketing. There is a reason why it stands out and here are the top three of them.

Brand Building

Social media marketing is very flexible. Instead of just showing your audience what you can provide, you can build up your image as well. Your social media pages are a home to your aesthetic and the theme that you want to market. The more you provide information and emphasize what you are about, the more you build your brand.

In most cases, when you are still starting out your business, you do not have an accurate image of your audience. If you are a computer shop, you might know that you are selling computers, but to whom specifically? Are older people going to find your store appealing and friendly or is it going to be the younger generations who are looking to build powerful computers?

No matter how specific your service may be, there will always be ambiguity on your target market. With social media marketing, you are able to see what your followers are more inclined to respond to. Through this, you are able to grasp what your market is composed of. You can then make the decision on whom to target.

The strongest benefit of social media marketing is creating customer loyalty. There is nothing that makes a person come back for more than being valued. Responding to comments and answering questions are just some engagements that you can do that will make a customer feel that they are a part of something bigger.

In Conclusion

It has been a while since social media marketing has been around. A lot of businesses and people have gone into it and for good reasons. It is one of the top marketing platforms of this generation. Not getting into it is surely a lost opportunity and failure to be competitive in the current market.

You might be thinking to yourself that it is too much to handle especially if you are not too well-versed with online platforms. However, you don’t have to learn everything from scratch just to start with social media marketing. Just simply acquire the services of the best social media marketing companies, contact us today for a free strategy consultation.

Social Media Manager Must-have Traits and Skills

In Content Marketing 6 Mins Read

Marketing strategies have evolved throughout the years and it should be. People’s preferences are constantly changing especially with the dawn of social media. It has become the biggest platform for marketing, both paid and free. Along with it comes a new job known as a social media manager.

What is A Social Media Manager?

The person mainly responsible for curating your social media accounts is your social media manager. Whether it may be Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, they create and design how your pages are going to look. This includes creating and choosing the right photos, themes, and aesthetic.

They come up with your social media marketing campaign. Everything from what to post and when to post it. It is their key role to keep your accounts active and engaging to cultivate an audience and positive branding.

It is also crucial for them to look into the statistics. How far was the reach? What were the hindrances that led to the results? What could be improved? How can a campaign be saved? These are going to be questions that a social media manager needs to come up with answers.

Must-have Social Media Manager Skills

When talking about skills, these are what your social media manager can do. With the vast and vague work that they have, they need to be equipped in a number of tools. We broke them down one-by-one.

Copywriting

A skill that is not just specific to social media managers, but to every profession related to marketing. If you want to catch the attention of your audience, you have to be well-equipped in forging your words. In social media, this skill is a prerequisite in aspects like making tweets, posts, and captions for your photos and products.

Check Graphic Design Skills in A Social Media Manager

Every great social media page is going to need photos. So, it is essential that your social media manager is capable of using one type of photo editing software. The most common would be Photoshop, but anything would do as long as it allows high quality graphic editing and production.

Video Editing

Videos are another way to create widespread engagement in your social media pages. In order to do so, you are going to look out for experience with at least one type of video editing software. Remember that the quality of your videos will impact your branding. The higher the production quality, the stronger your influence.

Customer Support and Engagement is An Important Social Media Manager Skill

Since this is a social media account, your audience is going to try to reach you. It could be through a message, email, mention, or comment. There are a lot of forms of engagement in social media and you are going to want to engage your audience. The question is, who answers all of those? Again, it is the social media manager, which makes customer engagement an essential skill.

Analytics

Success doesn’t immediately come in social media marketing. Therefore, it is essential to track data and progress. Analyze what material has penetration to your audience. Understand what content and quality is likely going to be shared and engaged. Create a demographic for your followers to optimize social media marketing campaigns.

Social Media Manager Must-Have Traits

What differentiates a trait from a skill is that it is an innate feature of a person that determines how efficient they are going to use a skill. Therefore, traits are as important as skills. Simply put, what are you going to do with someone who is well-versed with Photoshop but is not creative? So, here are the traits that your social media manager must have.

Hardworking

Cliche as it may sound, every social media manager should be hardworking. Audience engagement is going to come in around the clock. As a result, they are going to have to put in a lot of work hours into the profession and be at their best during those times.

Creative Social Media Manager

Everybody in the field of marketing needs to be creative. It is the most essential trait that cultivates an engaging and attention-seeking marketing campaign. From the photos to be created and used to copywriting, everything needs a vast amount of creativity to stand out from the competition.

Curious

What makes the audience tic? What do they like and how do they like it being presented? Do they want articles or would rather see more photos? A constantly questioning social media manager is going to be able to make better changes to the marketing campaign. It will allow a constantly improving effort that will provide better reach and more engagement.

A Social Media Manager that Solves Problems

Most employees would rather settle for the bare minimum of their work. However, that is not an option for social media managers. They need to understand the problem at hand and find ways to provide a solution. There will always be something to improve on as well as problems to solve. So, someone who is eager to get to the bottom of each is someone you are surely going to want.

Business Savvy

At the end of the day, you are still running a business. All those engagements and followers are not going to mean anything if they don’t make a purchase. Therefore, other than creating active social media platforms, your manager should also integrate the marketing campaign in a way that will turn your leads into customers.

Your Social Media Manager Must Be Able to Adapt

It is not possible to completely understand people. No matter how much psychological concepts you apply, your audience can still possibly act beyond what you expect. When it does happen, your social media manager must be fast to act. If one opinion no longer sells, they must be fast to have a smooth transition to another.

What Role Does A Social Manager Have in Your Success?

Social media is now the highest form of marketing. It is free in most cases and it is the most readily available platform that customers can reach out to. As a result, not having one can mean losing out on a huge customer market.

Alternatively, your social media manager makes sure that your pages are constantly found. It is an effort that creates new followers everyday which opens up the possibility for more customers. Ultimately, it is your social media manager that holds a huge role in the growth of your market.

It is not just great to have them, but a necessity. However, if you think that it might be too much of a hassle to handle, we suggest you take the easier path. That’s right, you can skip all the hard parts by looking for the best social media marketing agencies. Contact us today for a free strategy consultation.