Online sales are booming, and showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. If you aren’t in on the action, then you’re missing out. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your online marketing.
Round – ups
If people are talking about it, you can round it up and put it in one dedicated post. It can become a one-stop shop for details on what other people are talking about. It streamlines the reading process and starts to lay the foundations of your industry knowledge. In general, a round-up will receive more visits and share than any other type of post. The people in them, love to share them.
Video
Videos are hot at the moment. Vines, Snapchats, Facebook Lives, Instagram Stories and well-edited sales videos catch people’s attention. Mix it up between fun and informative, and you’re more likely to get the viral attention you want. An animated video is expected to age better and can be used more than once. Animations also hold attention better than having people talking ‘at’ them.
Blogs
Keep your blog content fresh. For two reasons, the first being you’re giving Google the signal that your website is regularly updated and therefore relevant and secondly, you’ve given people a reason to come back. Share the posts on your social media and readers will arrive. Ensure your website is clean and easy to navigate, have a chat with your web design team to make sure you get maximised ease of use and content delivery.
Get Chatty
Twitter chats are a huge deal. There are local business chats, global business chats, SME chats and so much more. In general, a twitter chat will last an hour, use the same hashtag and usually trend in the topic that they are talking about. You can double and even triple your following simply by talking with people who have an interest in your product or who work in the same field as you. Your engagement will skyrocket during these chats.
Set Your Sights a Second Time
Re-targeting. Facebook has a beautiful tool called a retargeting pixel. This allows you to track people who have visited your website once and show an interest in your services or goods. Follow the step-by-step guide on Facebook and maximise the return on investment you are likely to get with your Facebook adverts.
Go Local, Then Go Global
Have a look at your local competitors first and foremost, go and visit their stores if they have one. Fill out your Google My Business profile as thoroughly as possible and try and bump yourself into the top 3 in your sector locally. It also pays to get involved in local network meetings, boards and organisations. Growing a robust local and loyal customer base will be some of the best foundations for your business.
Don’t Slack On Social
You might think that a couple of posts a week on your social media will give you some good results, and maybe you might get lucky with the odd viral piece, but the truth is Social Media is a pedal you can’t take your foot off. Set up a scheduling platform like Buffer, Hootsuite or SocialOomph hook up all of your platforms and fill your calendar with curated stories, news pieces, articles of interest and industry news. Study the times that people show an interest in what you are doing, and slot in a couple of your products. The key is, to sell without selling. Engaging content, conversation AND relevant information and products will bring sales. If you are sending out sales link after sales link people will quickly stop following and buying.
Get Visual
Infographics are easy to build on a platform like Canva; they are engaging, bright colours and easy to digest information. Easy to share is also a key thing here. Unlike wordy articles, these can be shared directly across all of your social channels. Include interesting images; cartoon pictures work best. Look into colour psychology to help you get the result you are looking for and finally be sure to brand them and have your website on the bottom.
Be Consistent
If you have a specific colour or font in your logo, and on your website – makes sure that every piece of work, video, creative content and all of your social media have that same look and feel. Customers like to see consistency, and they quickly become familiar and associate shapes and colours with brands. A notable example here would be the very simple tick that the world associates with just one sports brands.