Articles Tagged with: marketing tips

Marketing Goals 101: Know your ‘why’ for better results

The first question we always ask our clients is: what’s the goal? It might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at how often businesses pump out content, throw massive events, or take on other marketing initiatives just for the heck of it. 

“Everyone else is doing it” isn’t a good enough reason to pour money into a new initiative, and not all initiatives NEED to equal a sale. But they do need to have ROI attached, whether that be brand awareness, loyalty, monetary, or just attracting more eyeballs to your business. 

Knowing your ‘why’ will also help you narrow in on the copywriting and call-to-action that will get you there. Let’s talk through different goals for your marketing and how to achieve them. 

*TLDR? Watch the video!*

Marketing Goals 101

  1. Traffic: Basically, sending people to a website, landing page, or events page. Getting your audience to land in these places means they’re actually reading what you have to say. Increased traffic also increases your SEO.
  1. Brand awareness: This is how we introduce your brand to the world. It’s difficult to track ROI when it comes to brand awareness but that’s totally okay. The story behind what you do is just as important. 
  1. Lead capture: This is the first step in the sales process — the moment where your audience says, “Okay, tell me more.” Remember, you wouldn’t marry someone on a first date — so why expect your audience to buy as soon as they meet you?
  1. Lead nurturing: This is what happens after you capture a lead — the relationship-building with your business and its audience. Keep in mind, it takes an average 11 impressions of a brand for someone to make a purchase. At this point we want to share bits and pieces of our brand with a potential customer, and tweak as needed. Did they click through on that ad you sent them? Great, keep doing what you’re doing. Are you getting no traction at all? Maybe it’s time to pivot. 
  1. Education: This is SO important in trust-building. People are more likely to engage with a business that they’re confident knows what it’s talking about. It makes the purchase feel secure and solid. So as a business, it’s your job to equip your audience with the knowledge they need to make that jump. 
  1. Engagement: There is so much power behind shares, saves, comments, and direct messages. Not only will you build a loyal audience that will boost your message to other people in their network, but social media platforms will start to favour you in the algorithm. The goal here is ultimately relationship-building.  
  1. Re-engagement: This is when we re-open communication with people who have already purchased from you (or have thought about it). Whether it’s asking them for feedback on their experience, a product review, or shooting them an email when they abandon their cart — it’s all about keeping your brand top of mind. This gives you the opportunity to fix any blips your customer experienced along the way and build long-term loyalty. 
  1. Purchase or Hire (Conversion): Of course, a customer making a purchase or hiring your business is the ultimate goal, but everything you’ve done until this point matters! When it comes time to ask your customer to buy, we want to make sure the call to action is appropriate to their customer journey.

Marketing goals are never one-size-fits-all. While some businesses entice their audience to make a $3 coffee purchase every day, others try to sell something major like a car or a dream home. This is why your goal is so important. Your marketing strategy will COMPLETELY shift depending on your goal and the customer journey that’s needed to get there. 

So start with your goal and work backward. Need help finding your ‘why’? Reach out to us here.

For more marketing and branding tips and tutorials, visit our blog page.

Growth Hacking: Why you SHOULDN’T do it

My clients constantly forward me sales pitch emails from growth hacking companies with the promise of an overnight audience boom. Sound too good to be true? That’s because it is! The truth is, there is no such thing as overnight growth.

Growth hacking can be super detrimental to your brand as companies use bots for engagement — and Instagram knows… Let’s dive into why that is, and what you can do instead to attract the right audience.

*Scroll down to watch the video.*

Instagram wants users to spend as much time as possible in their app

It’s no surprise that Instagram wants users to get on their app and stay there. That’s why the algorithm watches closely for engagement activity like commenting, liking, saving, and sharing.

Think about user behaviour

We want to find our audience wherever they are. How are they using the app? When are they most likely to engage? Now put yourself in their shoes. What would you want to see in those moments? This is the kind of content we want to create for our following.  

So, we know Instagram’s goal is to keep us on the app. And we know what keeps our own audience in the app. How can we make this work for brand growth and engagement? Hint: growth hacking isn’t the answer.

When we approach with growth hacking run by bots and algorithms, we completely lose the humanistic touch. What the bots deliver is purchased followers, unengaging comments, and likes from people who don’t fit our target audience. This signals to Instagram that you’re not using social media in a social way, and the app responds by dropping our ratings — doxing future engagement and making it really hard to build a loyal following.

Let’s combat this.

Engage, engage, engage

The real way to ‘growth hack’ is to engage. Interact with your audience in an authentic way! Use all of Instagram’s features and get social. Check out my Instagram 101 video for more tips on boosting your followers and engagement. 

Tune into how the app responds to your actions  

Think about how you use Instagram. The people always popping up at the top of your page are the people who you naturally engage with comments, back and forth tagging, and DM-ing memes. Take that knowledge and apply it to your audience interactions. When you speak like a real human, Instagram takes note and rewards you for it.

What’s driving you nuts about Instagram these days? I’m curious to know. Drop a comment below and let’s chat about it.

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