Next Level Marketing

Social Media integrations give your audience more opportunities to engage and interact with your brand. Give them more opportunities to share your content and promote your products/services. What’s even better is it’s easy to do.

Integration is important to direct your social media audience and visitors to your website to find you on social media. It’s more important than ever for businesses to give their audiences more ways to interact. Here are some ideas on how to integrate social media onto your website.

Be sure to add social sharing links to blog posts. They increase awareness of your content and are an easy way for the reader to share your content. No need to spam your website with them, though. Displaying social posts on your website is not only a plug for your social media account but a call to action too.

It’s tempting to think that everyone needs your product or service. However, you are doing a disservice to the people who are your ideal client.  So how do you find out who they are?  Here are a few ways to find out who they are.

Ask yourself what the main problem is that you are trying to solve with your product or service.  Once you know the problem, think about the demographics of the people who might have that problem you can address.  What is their gender, age or occupation?  This will define your ideal client.

Survey your current clients using an online survey platform like Survey Monkey.  Ask them their demographics, what problems do they face and how and where they found you.

Spy on your competitors. Don’t copy their ideas or social media posts. See the type of person they are serving, who their target market is as, if they are direct competition, it is likely to be the same as you.

With this information, you can start to target your content to your ideal customer.

What has started as a platform that appealed most to the youth has greatly increased their following to now include marketers and businesses. TikTok has become an ever-increasing trend which is now being targeted for digital marketing.

Ways TikTok is Being Used in Marketing

1. Influencers- brands are using influencers to increase brand awareness and followers

2. Paid Advertising- you can utilise TikTok’s advertisement options to promote your marketing campaign

3. Brand Channels- having your own channel and uploading your own content that is relevant to your brand can be a great way to get your brand seen

4. How-to Videos- you can use TikTok’s video platform to demonstrate how-to videos for your products

5. TikTok Challenge- get creative and make up your own ‘TikTok Challenge’ to get people interacting with your brand

There are quite a few creative ways in which TikTok can be used for marketing and developing greater brand awareness. So do not be afraid to try new things.

One way to be one step ahead, in your particular industry, is by conducting a Competitive Analysis on your closest competitors. The first step is identifying your competitors and try to better understand their strengths and weaknesses. Look at what their customers say they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. You can do this by identifying what Social Media platforms they are on, any current news or reviews and any other online communities they may be associated with.

The next step would be to categorise your competition into those that are Primary Competition, Secondary Competition and Tertiary Competition. Track their basic demographics such as location, product offerings, mission statement, industry category and their marketing strengths and weaknesses. You can also visit their stores or websites to take a look at the experience they provide their customers, to help identify their marketing position. Comparing their product offering and pricing compared to yours is a great way to identify anything you may be lacking.

Finally, you would want to continue tracking these things so as to help predict the next moves of your competitors and try to stay a step ahead of them.

Prior to planning a marketing campaign, the hands down most important thing is creating an accurate visualisation of who you target market is. One incredible way to do this is by creating Buyer Personas. This is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. In short, specific details about who is most likely to need and want your product or service.

Ask Yourself These Questions to Create Buyer Personas:

• Are they Male, Female or both?
• What age are they?
• What educational level are they likely to be at?
• What is their most probable income?
• Why would they want and need your product?
• When would they most likely be viewing your content?
• What are their interests, challenges and problems?
• How would they most likely prefer to be contacted and in what ‘tone of voice’?

You should attempt to make 1-3 different personas to help you understand how your campaign material should be presented to ensure its effectiveness. Make the content relatable, authentic and personalised. People want a connection, not a hard sale. Your campaign should ‘tell a story’. The more consideration you put into potential customers the better your results.