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These 6 Classic Marketing Tactics Stand The Test Of Time

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By NisonCo

In the age of digital marketing, it seems influencers, email marketing, SEO, and social media reign supreme. Are there any classic marketing tactics that have withstood the test of time? The answer is yes — there are quite a few “old school” marketing moves that still pack a punch. Let’s look at six tried and true marketing tactics you should still consider using in the modern era.

1. Networking and Relationship-Building

Networking online or in-person is just as important in the modern-day as it was in the past. Strong networking skills are essential for any marketing professional or business owner. Successful networking generates referrals and leads, encourages steady client retention, and helps to build a positive reputation among peers and patrons, alike.

Attending conferences in your area is a great way for you to meet other people in your industry and build connections with local businesses and clients that are geographically nearby. Attending national networking events or conferences can also help you expand your network across the country and meet prospective clients and professionals that are doing similar work and perhaps can partner with your business or brand to form a mutually beneficial relationship.

2. Actual Facetime with Your Audience

No, we’re not talking about FaceTime with screens. Investing in facetime with your audience or customers is still a necessary part of doing business and can be greatly beneficial to your relationship with clients, collaborators, and partners. You will develop stronger circular regional relationships by curating interaction opportunities as well, which in turn helps to build more resilient local economies.

When you have face-to-face time with clients or business partners you’re able to pick up on things that are often missed in emails or audio calls such as facial expressions, body language, and other social queues that can get left out in written text or audio-only interactions. This can help build trust and deepen relationships which can yield fruitful business opportunities.

3. Offering Freebies and/or Discounts

People like free stuff. It’s as simple as that. This is a marketing tactic that won’t be retired any time soon because it has proven time and again to be effective. Freebies and discounts allow your target audience to interact with your brand or business and engage more actively with your services and content or sample your products.

It also offers an excellent opportunity for free advertising. When hosting a contest or free giveaway you can get entrants to repost the contest on their social media accounts, follow your brand’s account, and tag other people to spread the news — extending your reach and engaging your target audience in a fun way. Everyone wins.

 

The USPS created a guide titled

The USPS created a guide titled “Still Relevant: A Look at How Millennials Respond to Direct Mail” (PDF) to help companies understand why millennials respond to mail and how to create an appealing mail piece.

4. Direct Mail Lives!

If you think paper mail is dead, then you would be wrong. It turns out everyone really does love mail. Direct mail is still a great way to reach out with the right purpose in mind, even for younger generations.  There are several benefits to using direct mail. Direct mail campaigns give a high return on investment (ROI)—even higher than paid ad campaigns.

It is possible to reach your target audience with the right information at the right time. Direct mail campaigns can work solo or in conjunction with a digital marketing campaign such as by integrating online sales or QR codes, and it is very easy to track their progress.

5. Radio Advertising

Audio is making a significant comeback, so don’t sleep on this medium! Listen to what the founder and CEO of NisonCo Evan Nison had to say about the benefits of radio advertising in Forbes:

The resurgence of radio-based advertising has become increasingly apparent. Podcasts and web-based streaming audio ads can reach national and global platforms. Radio ads can be used to target very specific local regions and varied audience segments.

For those with a brick-and-mortar business location especially, radio advertising is the fun, affordable option of choice for hyper localized advertising. For those looking to level up their findability in the technological age, look into optimizing your local SEO performance.

6. Testimonials and Reviews

People are generally more attuned to the tactics used to get them to buy things or engage with a brand. Testimonials provide both credibility and accountability for brands and businesses because customers are naturally more likely to trust feedback from other consumers. Creating space for testimonials and reviews allows for clients to leave positive feedback or bring attention to issues that can then be addressed to help better the brand or business. In addition to these benefits, bringing them into the modern era by dedicating time to respond on social media sites and to poor reviews will aid in your local SEO strategy so your site will rank better on search engine results pages.

Conclusion Caveat: It’s a Modern World

It is imperative to examine the past for the lessons it has to offer our present, with the caveat that the world we live in exists today in the here-and-now. Each marketing strategy — old and new — has strengths and weaknesses when placed in different applications and contexts. If your brand is uncertain what blend of old-school and digital marketing strategies to employ, reach out to our team of PR, SEO, and Content Writing specialists today to begin crafting a comprehensive plan.

This article was submitted by an external contributor and may not represent the views and opinions of Benzinga.

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By NisonCo

Sourced from Benzinga

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10 shockingly easy ways to grow your mailing list

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Reach more people with these ten simple steps

Marketing your business should be one of your highest priorities, but technology has forced us to adapt the way we connect with people. It’s easy to overlook email newsletters in favour of social media, but the humble mailing list still has a very worthy place in today’s marketing strategies. Use it right, and it can even work in conjunction with your social media strategy.

Unlike social media on search engine results, there’s no need to compete with an ever-changing algorithm to ensure that your results appear first. With email marketing, you are in complete control of how much – or how little – you communicate, making it one of the most predictable tools you advertise your business.

Follow these ten steps and watch your subscriber list grow.

1. Social media

Above, we hinted at how emailing lists and social media can work hand in hand. That’s because, while mailing lists are often preferred for their dependability, it’s easy to reach not-before-reached audiences on social media, thus directing them to your newsletter.

There are of course other strategies that you can consider when using social media, such as custom hashtags and viral trends, but we’ll save those for another day. Once you have reached potential customers, give them a place to sign up to your newsletter. This can be a call to action in a post or a simple link in your bio.

2. Videos

Creating videos no longer requires expensive, high-end equipment. In fact, a short clip shot on a smartphone and shared online can be a bigger hit.

People love videos for their engaging and interactive nature. They appeal to our inner social needs, and are a great way for instant gratification (look at TikTok, for instance).

Chances are, you’re already using videos to market your company, or are at least considering using them. Add value to your videos with the option to stay in touch through a mailing list.

3. Referral programs

Starting a business can be difficult, but one of the first steps is getting out there. In the early stages, we typically rely on friends and family to spread the word, then turn to our employees’ networks. Why not consider using other parts of your network to branch out?

Entice subscribers to share with their friends and families with referral programs that reward new signups with discount codes and loyalty schemes.

4. Incentive

Off the back of the above, all potential customers should have a reason to subscribe. Most consumers want to de-clutter their inboxes, but adding value to your emails could persuade them to continue with your mailing list.

Offer customers things that they would otherwise not be able to get: insider knowledge, tips and tricks, and discount codes throughout the year. Remember, everybody loves a birthday treat.

5. Giveaways

Running a promotion on an e-commerce site is a surefire way to increase sales, but it’s an opportunity to do so much more, including shamelessly plugging your email subscription. People will willingly hand over their email addresses for product giveaways – where there is a chance to get something for free – allowing you to sign them up for your newsletter.

Returns on investments in email strategies are said to be high, and if you’re willing to give away a high-value product for free, results could be bountiful.

6. Focus on targeted lists

Using an email service provider allows you to store email addresses and generate email content, but a lot of the work will be done by you which can be both time-consuming and costly. Upgrading to a more comprehensive email marketing service brings the benefit of automation, allowing you to create a library of newsletter templates that are sent out automatically to the right people at the right time.

Subscribers like control, so giving them the option of which mailing lists they wish to be a part of can help you to deliver only the most relevant content. Integrating your mailing list with your e-commerce website can help you to identify incomplete sales, offering specific discounts rather than a company-wide promotion.

7. Gated content

We’ve discussed offering incentives to entice more consumers to sign up to your mailing list, but in more extreme cases it’s possible to restrict access to your content. So-called ‘gated content’ requires a specific key to gain access; this key can be an account with your website, or more applicable to this story, being a subscriber to your email marketing.

Remember that this is a trade – or transaction – so offering high-value content is a must in order to deliver only our promise.

8. Give users more control

Linking your email service provider to analytics software can help highlight not only the sources of new subscriptions, but unsubscriptions too. Analytics are hugely beneficial to any business, but they don’t offer a full picture. Consider why people are choosing to stop receiving marketing communications from you – it could be that they are no longer interested, but it could be that the content isn’t relevant, that they are receiving too many emails, or even that they aren’t getting enough information. Avoid unnecessary unsubscriptions by giving your customers a say.

It may seem counterintuitive, but giving people the opportunity to select exactly what they want to receive is a great idea. You may be surprised at how many boxes people will tick given the option.

9. Increase prominence

A good mailing list will have many entry points across various platforms, from your website to social media and existing emails to non-web marketing. However you’re advertising your marketing strategy, it should be prominent enough to attract attention – often more so than even the products or services customers are looking for.

10. Make it easy

Making your mailing list a prominent feature on your channels is only half of the story though. In business, we cater to the fact that ‘people are lazy’, whether that’s true or false. What this means is that it should be easy to join with minimal effort – each additional click presents another barrier that may deter potential subscribers.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Sourced from techradar.pro

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5 Tips For Growing Your Social Media Accounts Organically

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By Jerry Balworth

Social media is a great tool to help business owners expand their online presence, publish informative and authoritative content, and, most importantly, engage with their customers. Having a strong social media strategy can grow your business exponentially.

Using an organic approach to help grow your social media accounts results in authentic engagement and true consumer loyalty.

But first, to grow your social media accounts, you need to master your social media strategy.

Whether you’ve recently started your own business or work in-house, here are 5 top tips to organically grow your social media accounts.

Consistent & Captivating Content

Creating content is one of the most important aspects of growing your social media account. Users tend to gravitate towards consistency. This includes consistency in the type of content shared and the frequency with which it is posted.

You will find that social media users are more likely to engage with a post if they know the type of message or branding experience they are signing up for.

Your content has got to be consistent; it has to be exciting! Whilst consistency is key; you should remember the old age saying quality over quantity.

Planning, identifying and researching one’s target audience and keeping an eye on the competitors are just a few ways to create meaningful content.

Engage & Acknowledge Your Followers

Would you keep talking to someone who never returned your messages? Probably not. The same works for customers.

Users will not want to communicate with you or follow your brand on social media if they receive no benefit. That’s why it’s crucial to interact with your followers on social media.

If you want to create a social media presence, you must turn your accounts into a community. That isn’t to say if someone comments on one of your posts, you must respond, but at the very least, you should like it.

You may also use posts to ask and answer questions and acknowledge and share user-generated content to show your appreciation to your followers and customers. Engaging with your followers will help you develop authentic relationships and boost your social media presence.

Establish Your Niche

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none” before. This is true not only in business but also in content marketing.

Defining your niche is preferable so that even your customers know your values, which helps you stand out.

Monitor Your Competitors

Other successful competitors’ social media accounts can be great blueprints for beginners. Keep an eye on accounts that have a similar audience target as you. Have a look at what is working for them? What type of posts generates the most engagement for them?

When looking to increase growth organically, there are many challenges to getting your business off the ground. However, studying what has worked and, most importantly, why it works can help you understand the best ways to grow your account.

Choosing The Right Social Media Platform

It is very tempting to be active on all social media platforms, but do all platforms benefit your business?

Knowing which social media platform works best for your business is essential. For example, Instagram/Facebook may be a good platform if you own a clothing business or sell jewellery products. Still, if you are offering a service, it may be best to use Linkedin due to its professional audience.

Another tip is to focus on the platform that delivers the best results. Although this is not something you would necessarily know when you first start using social media, you may need to give it a few months to monitor results. But once you’ve identified the platform for you, you can determine what needs to be done to organically push your social media account.

Ultimately have fun with it; social media should be used to spread positive messages and show your brand’s personality. Using these five tips, you lay the groundwork in terms of strategy, but if you find something that works, stick with it. Don’t be afraid to get involved in the conversation.

By Jerry Balworth

Sourced from Talk Business

 

 

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5 Tips to Run Your Instagram Business Profile More Efficiently

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By Arol Wright

Instagram is a powerful tool for both established and up-and-coming businesses. Here are a few tips on how you can use it better.

For any company or business, it is of utmost importance to maintain a presence on social media, and do so in the most efficient way possible. Nailing down your internet strategy is as important as ever, and if you’re a business, it can score you a lot of points to get things right.

One of the biggest social networks around right now is Instagram. It can be a daunting platform to get into, but if you use it properly, it can be a powerful tool for your business. Here are a handful of tips on how you can boost your presence on Instagram.

1. Get the Basics Right

Phone Showing Instagram Insights

When first creating an Instagram account for your business, there are a few things that you need to do before kicking it off other than just putting a name, a profile picture, and a bio. These will be essential for your journey later on.

The first one is to switch your profile to an Instagram business account. This will allow you to access juicy metrics later on, and use some of the tools we’ve detailed later on in this post—and it will also make prospective customers take you more seriously. To do so, go to Settings, tap on Account, then tap on Switch to Professional Account and follow the steps—select the category that best suits your business, and click OK to confirm.

The second one is to put action buttons on your profile. You can add info to your profile, like a phone number or an email, and make it easily accessible via call-to-action buttons on your profile, so people can quickly reach out to you. Create a Linktree link and put it in your profile, too, as this will allow you to both add extra buttons not supported by Instagram and also link to your other social media accounts.

Also, while we’re on it—even if you do all of this, keep an eye on your DMs, because you’ll almost certainly still have people message you there, and you don’t want to lose out on them.

2. Use Facebook Creator Studio

Facebook Creator Studio

To manage both your Facebook account and your Instagram account, this is one of the best options around. It’s an official tool developed by Meta itself, first launched in 2018. A mobile app was also launched in 2020.

Facebook Creator Studio tool allows you to schedule posts on both social networks, and lets you monitor statistics on your profile to know how well your posts are performing. Being a tool developed by the parent company of both Facebook and Instagram, it stays constantly updated and relevant with the latest additions to the platform. And for Instagram, in particular, it’s a very powerful tool, allowing you to do mostly everything short of posting stories. You can post pictures/videos, schedule content, and look at stats on everything from followers to post metrics.

It can do many things, but don’t go overboard, either. If you’re just getting into this tool, in order to make it much more bearable to use, make organizing content your priority and take into account the fact that you don’t need to check out all the metrics or use all tools at your disposal. Stick strictly to what you need.

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to grow their social footprint, you should adapt to what you really need inside Creator Studio. You don’t need absolutely everything—the key is to make things easy, and for that, it is best to use only what is really necessary.

3. Feed Design is Key

photo of a phone showing an instagram feed

Keeping your post feed nice and tidy is something many businesses overlook. And quite frankly, these days, it might very well be one of the most important.

The very moment users click on your profile, they’re going to form their very first impression of your project. And it goes much further than just reading the bio, or looking at your profile pic. They’re also going to take a look at your feed without necessarily looking at each post in deep detail, so make it looks appealing and consistent.

Use websites like Unsplash to get high-quality, free-to-use resources for your content, and use tools like Figma Editor, Canva, or even Adobe Photoshop to create killer images. And while making them, remember to keep a common design language, in order for your feed to have a nice dose of visual harmony.

4. Don’t Be Afraid of Branded Content

Tablet with Social Links

Once you start getting a large social media following, and you’re looking into actually pouring money into your promotion efforts, you can look at branded content.

Instagram’s branded content is pretty much just partnering with influencers and other users for them to promote your product. It’s actually surprisingly effective—things can and often do go viral on TikTok and Instagram, resulting in sales multiplying exponentially. People see their favourite creators using things, and then want to buy those things.

To make branded content, you’ll actually need to reach out to creators. But once you’ve agreed on terms with them, Instagram makes disclosing a partnership to the public quite easy.

Darkposting on social media is another way to serve branded content seamlessly into users’ feeds.

5. Be Customer-Friendly

instagram app

Finally, no matter at which stage of the process you’re in—whether you’re still a growing brand, or if you already have a large following—it’s very important to always be customer-friendly.

Keeping attention to detail, being responsive, and listening to your users are all key parts of not only holding up your social media presence, but also your integrity as a business. If you’re a small or big store selling things, make your price tags visible and be responsive to users looking to buy from you. Keep your catalogue of products visible and easily accessible. Ideally, you only want people messaging you to either buy something or know more about a specific product—always be kind and proactive with them.

Growing on Instagram Takes Time and Effort

The tips we’ve detailed here are not a sure-fire way to grow into a world-renowned brand in a matter of days. That will actually need more dedication and effort. But they’re a good place to start from scratch, or boost things if you’re already established.

Organizing your content better and being proactive will set you apart from a big crowd.

By Arol Wright

Arol is a tech journalist and Staff Writer at MakeUseOf. He has also worked as a news/feature writer at XDA-Developers and Pixel Spot. Currently a Pharmacy student at the Central University of Venezuela, Arol has had a soft spot for everything tech-related since he was a child. When not writing, you’ll either find him nose-deep into his textbooks or playing video games.

More From Arol Wright

Sourced from MUO

 

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10 ways to build your brand on social media

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By Leesa Davis, Stacker

By Leesa Davis, Stacker

Sourced from The Pantagraph

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The Easy Technique For Staying Visible In Social Media

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By William Arruda

In the new virtual or hybrid world of work, it’s harder to remain visible among our stakeholders. This makes your presence in social media even more important than it was in the pre-Covid times. You want to avoid the “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” career trap. Yet many professionals I speak with are just not that interested in spending a lot of time creating and sharing content online every single day. It feels like a distraction from their “real work” and a giant time sink.

If that’s how you feel, here’s some really good news. There’s a way to be visible, available and valuable to the people you seek to influence without having to take on the new job title of Social Media Maven. It’s called content curation, and it should help you breathe a sigh of relief. When you share other people’s content, lots of great things happen. You:

Save time

The first benefit is the most obvious one. You save time. Lots of it. When you curate, instead of spending an hour on creating new content, you just spend a minute making others’ content visible to your audience.

Learn

When you’re curating others’ content on the topic you want to be known for, you’re learning from their experience and perspective. This gives you insights you can use to amp up your performance at work, and it helps you hone your own point of view. And this is critical to defining your thought-leadership and personal brand differentiation. Let’s face it, there are lots of people who do what you do, so it’s valuable to have your own opinions, systems and processes so you can stand out.

Connect authentically

By sharing someone else’s content, you’re helping them increase their visibility. This is a great way to start to build a relationship with an author or thought-leader in your field. We all know the best way to create a solid network is to give to others. One of the greatest gifts you can give people is acknowledgement of their hard work and the opportunity to be visible to a wider, yet targeted community. This is a powerful long-term networking strategy that doesn’t come with the slimy feeling of asking someone for something. Dorie Clark in her bestselling book The Long Game put it this way: “True networking is not about trying to get something as fast as you can. When we set out to make friends and build relationships, rather than to simply get something, it feels entirely different.”

Boost your brand

By connecting yourself with the author’s content and by putting the spotlight on the experts quoted in the article, you start to connect your brand with theirs. It’s called brand association. You link yourself with those who are known or revered or at least visible to a community you seek to impact. That brand association affects what others think about you.

Demonstrate company loyalty

When you share content that comes from your company (through your company’s LinkedIn page, for example), you become a digital brand ambassador, and a few good things happen. First, you get seen internally as someone who’s engaged in what the organization is doing. By actively pursuing content to share, you learn about what’s happening outside your job function or department, and you become visible to others in different parts of the organization. You also make your company’s content much more visible and valuable. We know from the LinkedIn Blog that only 3% of employees post or share company related content to their feed, but these posts make up 30% of social actions (likes, and shares).

So if you’re feeling like you should be more involved in social media, but the thought of the effort has been holding you back, consider consistently curating content. It’s a simple but speedy way to increase your visibility without having to work the night shift on social media.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By William Arruda

William Arruda is a keynote speaker, author, co-founder of CareerBlast.TV and creator of the LinkedIn Profile Type Indicator (LPTI) which measures your LinkedIn profile likability and credibility.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Sourced from Forbes

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‘It’s not a peanut butter spread approach’: How advertisers are adapting to a more nuanced social landscape

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By Kimeko McCoy

The days of the one-size-fits all social media approach are seemingly over. Advertisers say the way people use social media is changing, pressuring brands to abandon broad campaigns and instead create content for each individual platform.

“There’s this idea that because it’s social, [and] it’s called social, they’re all the same. And they’re not all the same,” said ​​Karen Piper, director of strategy at GROW digital agency. “It’s like this false notion that we’ve had for like the past 10 or 15 years, like digital lets us reach everyone.”

As the social media landscape becomes more competitive, it also becomes more nuanced, according to advertisers. Competition for user attention and media dollars has led platforms to roll out more individualized product features for users and advertisers. And in the digital age, people are increasingly weary of being advertised to, meaning advertisers have to fit their creative into each platform more seamlessly to reach their desired audience.

“It’s making them focus on the platforms where [customers are] experiencing the advertising instead of just the brands and what the brand has to say,” Piper said.

As Brandon Biancalani, head of paid media at social agency Modifly, put it, the ad experience has to become endemic to the platform. Meaning, users are looking for ads to be an unintrusive part of their social media experience, and advertisers will need to be more mindful of how they appear on each platform.

“That’s kind of been an ode since the beginning of internet marketing; people don’t want things shoved down their throat,” Biancalani said. “Instead, we have seen success with user-generated content snippets, entertaining product value videos, and use of relevant trends.”

For a large swath of advertisers, social media is the go-to platform to authentically get in front of a generation of shoppers who increasingly do not want to be advertised to. Historically, brands have had a set-it-and-forget-it approach, setting up social media business managers and running ads across platforms, per Biancalani. But as people’s social media habits change, advertisers will need to take a more granular approach. It’s part of the reason influencer marketing is booming right now, he added.

“There’s a lot of business integrations now on these platforms that I feel like a lot of brands aren’t fully taking advantage of,” he said. “Specifically, they just want to set up their business manager and start running ads — and there’s a lot of integrations now for businesses to be literally seen even organically in these platforms.”

It’s something that Biancalani said Pinterest and TikTok have done well. TikTok users are more likely to resonate with ad creative that is real and native to the platform. Meanwhile a hard sale, product conversion video may better resonate with Facebook audiences, he added.

“It’s not a peanut butter spread approach,” said Sennai Atsbeha, vp of brand marketing at Gymshark apparel company. “We can’t approach every community with the same strategy.”

As the nine-year-old brand looks to scale and reach new audiences, Atsbeha said the social-first company ensures an authentic partnership with each influencer it works with based on that influencer’s platform of choice.

“That content is very different from some of these other platforms,” he said. “So it’s important that we understand what makes the content different, what makes that athlete or that individual special within that space.”

It’s a similar story at State Bags company, where CMO Meghan Holzhauer said the brand works with a lot of content creators and influencers to keep the ad creative feeling native to the platform.

“This UGC style creator content has consistently been some of our best performing creative so we’re doubling down on the strategy,” Holzhauer said in an email.

With each passing generation, shoppers are getting smarter and more particular about how and where they interact with brands, according to Courtney Berry, managing director at Barbarian, a creative digital agency. Going forward, the changes are going to push advertisers to think about social media advertising in the context of a full-funnel marketing strategy — one with multiple parts, she said.

“Thinking through all of that complexity and that nuance at the beginning of the campaign is very crucial,” she added.

Feature Image Credit: Ivy Liu 

By Kimeko McCoy

Sourced from DIGIDAY

 

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How my company used social media to increase traffic and revenue — for free

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By Zapier

You know who loves to give advice? Everyone. Especially when it comes to marketing. But what do you do when that advice requires a budget—a budget you don’t have? What happens then?

I’m the founder of a small sustainable, socially responsible, and zero-waste fashion label that works with a community of women single parents in North Macedonia. Operating from a country with such limited resources can be, to put it mildly, challenging. I founded the company back in 2013. It started as a marketplace for local designers, which quickly expanded to cover international designers from all over the world.

business

Four years into it, we pivoted to become a standalone fashion label. The shift was driven by my desire to make a change in the society I lived in. At the time, I was working with a woman-run studio, and the seamstress became a single parent. I was not only impressed by her strength but also inspired by her tenacity and an iron will to provide her child with better circumstances than she was born in.

That’s when I made the decision to make Bastet Noir, a socially responsible brand. And as the business grew, so did our community of women single parents. Today, we’re proud to say that we work with five woman-owned studios, operated by either women single parents or women micro-entrepreneurs.

What used to be a small, local business has grown into—granted, still small—a global brand with customers from all over the world.

We used every tool in our toolbox to make it happen with virtually no budget—just a pipe dream and persistence and will to make it real. Here, I want to talk about what we did on social media to make it happen.

The power of social media for a local business

Even if you don’t choose to invest in social media, you should still have an up-to-date presence. One way to do this is by automating your brand’s social media, doing things like automatically sharing all new blog posts with your followers.

As a bootstrapped company operating from a country with limited resources, our marketing budget was—and still is—practically non-existent. Everything we make is reinvested back into our community of women single parents, so throughout the years, we had to think of creative ways to attract customers. Social media was one of the most successful.

Succeeding on Instagram without a budget

Ok, let’s rewind for a second. When we started out back in 2013, Instagram still wasn’t a thing. That’s why it took us a while to get to our desired target market in the United States. When we finally got on the platform two years later, it took us almost a year to decode it and figure out a way to grow and attract the right followers.

Since we weren’t located in the U.S., our first few hundred followers were based in Macedonia. The only way to target the U.S. was to pay for ads—which we, of course, didn’t have the money for. So how did we make it work? Through a lot of trial and error, yes, but most importantly, by establishing a captivating and powerful story behind the brand.

All of our posts and stories aligned with the narrative we were trying to tell. The gist: we were a sustainable, zero-waste, and socially responsible label that worked with women single parents in North Macedonia, and we helped these women earn much more than the industry average monthly income of $300. In addition to the storyline, the feed needed to have an aesthetic that would be recognizable for our brand, so we chose several color tones that best represented our label.

We planned our content a month out, which gave us time to hone the copy and research hashtags (we found that sustainability- and small business-related hashtags were our first priority). For all of this, we used the social media planning tool Later, which helped us a lot, especially with the visual part of how the feed would look.

Next, we attempted to bridge the gap between our social media strategy and our content strategy. We began by using People Map to create a list of the women we wanted to cover on our blog. The app helped us target editors, writers, social media managers for fashion magazines, and women entrepreneurs, all located in the U.S. Once we found their profiles, we found their emails—either from their Instagram profiles or using Rocket Reach.

Note: Be sure to follow all applicable rules around cold emailing prospects and give people ways to opt out of continued communication.

We composed an email to each woman, explaining our business and personalizing it to each recipient to demonstrate our interest (for example, we mentioned what had impressed us about them). Most of them didn’t respond back, but the ones that did were more than happy to extend their selfless help: we got a number of women to do interviews with us for our blog series, Cool Faces of Bastet Noir.

 

business

 

Since all of these women worked for publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Business, and Elle, this enabled us to gain credibility. And since most of them shared the stories on their social media accounts (including Instagram), we started getting engagement from their followers. We even got traction on our website, since they were sharing the links on their feeds and stories.

 

 

Since advertising wasn’t an option due to lack of funds, this was the only way for us to utilize the power of influencers. Our entire investment was the production of the piece and the shipping cost to send them the outfit—and all we asked for in return was a few photos of them wearing the pieces, so we could include them in our blog posts.

You can start small even on social. To help, here are three workflows that can help you automate your Instagram for Business account so you can focus on the more personal parts of marketing.

Using Reddit for marketing

Reddit is a bit tricky because many of the communities prohibit advertising and, of course, anything they consider spammy, like sharing discount codes, links to your own website, and even introducing your brand. That means you need to engage with the community on another level. Start a conversation, answer questions, and show that you’re an authority on the topic. Then, if they’re interested in learning more about your brand, you can share links. If you do it before someone asks, you risk being banned from one of the most engaged internet communities.

 

reddit

 

We joined a few subreddits, including r/findashion, r/ethicalfashion, and r/Etsy, but r/FemaleFashionAdvice was the most important one for us. This community has 1.7 million members that we knew would be interested in our brand. We started talking with people on various threads, mostly giving them styling advice. This gradually evolved into me posting photos of my outfits, wearing Bastet Noir of course. People started asking where I got some of the items, so I shared links to the website. And that did the trick: we saw a tremendous increase in traffic, and orders started rolling in.

How to use YouTube for free marketing

We only started working with YouTubers at the beginning of 2020. I guess you could say we arrived a bit late to the party, but in our defence, we truly believed that we weren’t able to afford their rates—which was true to a point. A YouTuber who has more than 10,000 views on a video charges at least $3,000 for a 30-60-second brand mention. And that’s just for a mention, not a dedicated brand video. For a brand like ours, it’s way too expensive.

Instead, we decided to see if anyone would like our clothes enough to promote them for free. First, we prepared a list of hundreds of YouTubers whose styles we believed matched our brand aesthetic. We found them by searching on YouTube for keywords like “minimal style,” “ethical fashion,” and “environmentally friendly fashion”—and several variations. Most of them didn’t even respond back, which makes sense. But the ones that did were so taken by our cause that they selflessly offered to cover our brand.

Here’s an example from Chloe Kian and one from Cat Creature. These reviews and their support helped us bring in more traffic to our website and create brand awareness—and as a result, we saw increased revenue.

Using Pinterest for eCommerce marketing

Pinterest is the best social media platform for discovering new things to buy. Since the platform itself is highly visual, people usually go there to organize their shopping lists—that makes it great for any eCommerce brand. And if your store is on Shopify, you can use the Pinterest app to get what they call rich pins, which means that the description and price on Pinterest will be pulled directly from your website.

The best way to increase followers and get repins is to use shared boards, community boards made usually by Pinfluencers (yes, that’s a thing). And how do you find these boards? You can do a little Google search, or you can use PinGroupie like we did. PinGroupie lets you find and filter boards according to categories, number of followers, and other criteria.

If you decide to lean into Pinterest for your marketing, here are 5 tips for using Pinterest for business.

We’re currently members of about eight boards. The most important one for us is called Fashion + Friends, and it has more than 600k followers. The beauty of these boards is that, once you’ve been approved by the admin, the things you post appear on the feed of every follower in that board. That means millions of potential customers around the world—without investing a single dime. These boards sent traffic directly to our site and also helped us rank higher on Google.

One tip: go for boards with more than 10k followers. Boards with fewer followers probably won’t do you any favours—they’ll just sit on your profile and collect dust.

And there you have it: that’s how we used our no-budget social media strategy to increase traffic and get sales.

This article by Daniela Milosheska was first published on the Zapier blog. Find the original post here.

By Zapier

Sourced from TNW

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Twitter to label all state-affiliated Russia media

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By Samuel Benson

The latest steps come as Russian disinformation spreads.

Twitter will begin labelling content from Russian state-affiliated media websites, the company announced Monday, amid a flood of Russian-backed disinformation related to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The company began labelling and de-amplifying official Russian media accounts in 2020, Twitter said. The additional action announced on Monday applies to individual Twitter accounts that share links from those state-affiliated sites.

“Since the invasion, we’ve seen more than 45,000 Tweets a day from individuals on Twitter sharing these links — meaning that now the overwhelming majority of content from state-affiliated media is coming from individuals sharing this content, rather than accounts we’ve been labelling for years as state-affiliated media,” Twitter spokesperson Elizabeth Busby told POLITICO in an email.

Twitter maintains a continually updated list of media organizations belonging to the Russian Federation and 20 other countries, and the new label will automatically apply to any tweeted URLs from a designated state-affiliated media website.

The social media company also announced it will continue to de-amplify articles from these websites by barring the URLs from the platform’s top search function. Twitter also will not “recommend” tweets that include articles from the sites.

The move comes after Russia used “false flag” operations to justify its invasion of Ukraine, including false information disseminated through social media to portray Ukraine as the aggressor. Last week, reports from state-affiliated Russian media falsely reported a Ukrainian civilian genocide, a claim that went “unchecked and unchallenged.” Similar Russian-backed falsehoods compiled millions of likes, comments and shares on Twitter and Facebook, a POLITICO review showed.

Twitter blocked advertisements from all accounts owned by Russia Today and Sputnik in 2017. In 2019, the company banned all state-backed media advertising and political advertising.

Feature Image Credit: The company began labelling and de-amplifying official Russian media accounts in 2020, Twitter said. | Matt Rourke/AP photo, file

By Samuel Benson

Sourced from POLITICO

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Customer Engagement: Improved Through Technology

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Sourced from NewsReports.com

It is more crucial than ever for businesses to use information technology to improve customer engagement as they expand and adapt.

Customers can interact with businesses in a variety of ways in the digital age. This includes chatbots, social media, and other channels. Businesses must ensure that they are utilizing the most up-to-date technologies. They must do this in order to engage with their clients in the most efficient manner possible.

Consider using the most cutting-edge technology that companies are adopting to boost customer engagement.

Make use of social media.

For businesses, social media is now more vital than ever.

Customers continue to find social media accounts to be one of the most effective ways to communicate with businesses. Many businesses have adopted social media in recent years, but not all of them are efficiently using it.

First, engage with people on your social media profiles whenever possible. Make sure that each of your social media profiles has an easy contact option so that customers can simply get in touch with you.

Keep an eye out for people who mention your brand or product in their postings, as well. As much as possible, reach out to them and engage in discussion with them. This ensures that they are aware that you are paying attention. In addition, it shows that you are aware of any knowledge they may have about your product or service.

Customer engagement is improved by providing a live chat option.

In the digital age, live chat functionality is becoming increasingly vital.

Customers desire to contact businesses as much as possible. Furthermore, many prefer live chat over other types of communication. As a result, organizations should seriously consider using an online message platform with live chat capability. This allows your consumers to interact with you as much as they want. In addition, it lets them contact you in the method that is most convenient for them.

Furthermore, having a live chat platform allows organizations to effectively address their customer support needs.

Many online messaging systems can provide users with automated responses. They can do this based on the information they provide. This ensures that each consumer receives the finest possible service from your company.

Make a user-friendly website to ensure customer engagement.

One of the most significant methods to engage with your customers is through your website.

Every day, customers are online, whether on their PCs or on their mobile devices. They will go to your online store if they wish to buy your products or services. As a result, companies must ensure that their websites are simple to navigate and use.

It all begins with the design. Every online store should have a contemporary design.

It needs to appeal to customers who are accustomed to social media sites on a daily basis. If you run an online cosmetics business, for example, your virtual storefront should resemble the virtual shops of prominent social media networks. That’s because this is what your potential clients are used to seeing.

Make sure that your online business is very easy to navigate. You can, for example, include a quick-search bar at the top of each online storefront page. That way customers can find what they’re looking for quickly.

You may also make movies to show clients what they need to do to complete a transaction. In addition, guarantee that clients have the information they need. Make sure they can use the various aspects of your online store. Therefore, focus on virtual video production while creating the video.

Use mobile channels for customer engagement.

People nowadays are constantly on their mobile gadgets. They use these gadgets to surf the web, check email, and connect to social media sites.

Businesses must ensure that they can interact with clients while on the move. This entails developing a mobile-friendly website that includes services such as live chat. This allows customers to communicate with you.

Chatbots can help you increase engagement.

Chatbots are another common means of business-to-customer communication. They enable organizations to interact with clients in real-time, 24 hours a day.

This, of course, enhances customer engagement. Virtual chatbot technology is being used by many businesses to boost customer satisfaction. In addition, it helps cut response times and improve overall service quality.

Businesses are increasingly using chatbots to connect with their customers. The finest chatbots provide virtual self-service.

In addition, they allow users to seek assistance without having to wait for a human to respond. This is especially useful if you need to contact a customer service person after work hours. Customers can get speedy service without having to contact a person.

Virtual chatbot technology is also for other applications. Chatbots, for example, can collect information from customers. In addition, it can provide verbal or written training on how to use your products or services.

The way businesses connect with their clients is changing as a result of technological advancements. As a result, businesses must ensure that they are utilizing the most up-to-date technologies. They must do this in order to engage with their customers in the most efficient manner possible.

Sourced from NewsReports.com

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