What Do Advertising Agencies Do?
Perhaps you own a small business, or you've just taken charge of your startup's marketing channels. You probably figured out during the process that advertising your business and attracting new clients and customers takes a lot of work, especially in our digital world.
What do advertising agencies do to help with this?
Let’s break down why working with an ad agency is awesome and help you determine when it's time to consult with professionals to boost your sales.
The Benefits of Working with an Ad Agency
If you're already struggling to get your marketing efforts in front of your audience, you may hesitate to hire an outsider to work with you. However, consider the following points as you craft your next marketing plan. An experienced, outside eye can be just the thing that blows up your business - in a good way!
Conducting Market Research
What's working in your current ads, and what's turning your audience off to your product or service? Do you know who your target audience is? Ad agencies will conduct market research to keep abreast of any changes in trends.
Providing Creative Services To Produce Campaigns
If you're an entrepreneur, you may struggle with burnout as you juggle the many hats of business ownership. Creating eye-catching marketing campaigns is a complex task, and professional advertisers can help you think of details you might miss. They’re good at what they do, so you don’t have to do their job, too.
Planning and Budgeting
What do ad agencies do when you don't have hundreds of thousands to spend on an advertising budget? An agency can aid you in creating an overarching theme for your campaign and find the perfect graphic designers, copywriters, and data analysts to ensure that your money is well-spent.
Selecting Media
Part of constructing your ad campaigns involves deciding how you can best reach your audience. You'll work with your ad agency to select the correct type of media for the job. An ad agency has many duties when it comes to choosing media:
- Considering a wide range of media types that will best suit your campaign's purpose
- Reserving space for a print ad, social media video, or commercial
- Negotiating reasonable costs as seasoned professionals who understand the market and what the rate is for the services you need
Coordinating Multichannel Marketing Campaigns
Some of your potential clients are active users of social media, while a print ad may attract other members of your audience.
What do advertising agencies do to bridge the gap? They create strategies that include more than one mode of communication so you can best reach all members of your target audience.
Keep in mind that it often takes more than once for a customer to buy into your products or services - seeing your brand across multiple channels keeps you top of mind, reinforces trust, and builds familiarity.
Integrating Marketing Efforts
Ad agencies have the reach and the capabilities to work with different types and levels of marketing. They will work with you to review what's worked so far and integrate the various channels (perhaps social media platforms, direct email marketing, TV commercials, and print ads) into the same campaign.
Common Services Offered by Ad Agencies
So what can an advertising agency do for your company? The answer: a lot!
Consider the following services that business owners most commonly seek out.
Marketing Campaign Strategy and Research
To author a successful campaign, it's crucial to know your competition and develop a similar - and better - strategy. Your ad agency will point out what's working and what's not about your competitor's strategies as well as what your demographic is looking for.
One-Stop-Shop Campaign Creation and Management
Because ad agencies focus on attracting talent who specialize in specific areas, you have many experts at your disposal, all in one place. Take a look at how an agency might fill holes in your campaign by creating, managing, and tracking progress in the following areas:
- Digital and social media
- Direct mail
- Video
- Web, TV, and radio
Campaign Content Development
Content marketing is one of the cornerstones of a great campaign. You can think of content as articles, infographics, social media blurbs, and charts (and much more) throughout your campaign serving one purpose: to persuade your target audience to take action.
An agency will not only craft a content strategy — they'll find writers, designers, and social media specialists to add their expertise to your campaign. Plus, they’ll optimize your content so that it actually reaches your audience.
Graphic Design
When was the last time you clicked on an ad that wasn't visually compelling? Ad agencies find designers whose work adds artistry and simplicity to your company's most essential graphics.
Advantages of Working With an Advertising Agency
Consider the following reasons for outsourcing your ad campaign and making your life easier.
Save Time and Money
Inventing an ad campaign out of nothing can be pretty stressful — especially if your business's success depends on whether your latest effort works. Think about these points as you make your decision:
- Agencies have an entire team of experts in their fields dedicated to the support and growth of your business.
- Hiring an agency is less expensive than hiring internally for a full-time advertising position. Additionally, a new hire may still not have all the required skills for executing a full campaign.
- Professionals at ad agencies are constantly learning and growing. They have access to the most recent marketing software, research, trends, and data reports. And - they’re interested in what’s hot in the market, too!
Enjoy a Defined Project and an Efficient Process
When you work with an advertising agency, you won't have to worry about managing an internal team. The overall process and the entire campaign package are overseen by competent professionals who make it their business to help other businesses grow. This can be a weight off your shoulders.
Develop a Compelling Brand
Branding is a crucial part of your business identity, but it's often overlooked in the search for new customers and clients. An advertising agency can help you write your unique story that will ultimately compel potential customers to purchase your product or service.
Improve Your Brand Image
If you already have a brand, but it needs a makeover, an ad agency can help with this, too. Your agency will be able to alert you on how to tweak your image, as well as how your current brand image may be working against you.
Expand Your Company's Reach
When you hire an ad agency, you'll gain access to new ideas and develop multichannel marketing campaigns with channels you may have never considered. The more seasoned experts work with you to achieve your goal, the smoother the entire process will go.
Access Professional Expertise
Professional advertisers bring years of combined experience to your strategic arsenal. You'll work with those who specialize in campaign development and execution, competitive research, and ROI evaluation.
Let EraserFarm Help Your Company Grow
Let's chat today about your marketing strategy, and we’ll show you just how a full-service advertising agency can help you succeed. EraserFarm is a boutique ad agency that specializes in compelling content strategy, marketing campaigns, and digital trends that make your audience sit up and take notice.
We look forward to getting to know you and growing your business!
What are Creative Services | Your Guide to Creative Services
PR Newswire reports that the creative agency market will have an incremental spend of more than $320 billion between 2021 and 2026. The increased spending for creative services proves that businesses need fresh ideas to keep their customers interested and engaged.
But what are creative services exactly?
Creative services are basically creativity for hire - like writing, design, and production - that give your business some oomph. They handle the creative messaging that lets the world know your business exists. You can tap into these services at design studios, advertising agencies, and branding agencies. Creative agencies play a vital role in helping businesses stand out in their market and increase profits. So why should your business consider hiring one? Let’s see what makes them worth your while!
What Services Does A Creative Agency Offer?
A creative agency provides marketing initiatives and creative solutions to help businesses improve their marketing, ad presence, and brand identity. They can help your business with any creative strategy, work, or promotion. This includes:
- Advertising, brand, content, marketing, or social media strategy
- Measurement and analysis
- Content creation
- Communication services such as media buys, paid placement, sponsored content, influencer marketing, and PR
You’ll find the following positions in a creative services company:
- Account manager
- Art director
- Brand and content strategist
- Copywriter
- Creative director
- Campaign director
- Editor
- Graphic designer
- Producer
- Videographer
- Web designer or developer
How a full-service creative agency provides its services can vary from company to company. For example, some creative agencies work within a specific industry, such as plumbing or HVAC. Other agencies may only work in-house for a large corporation. At EraserFarm, we’ve worked with many clients in diverse industries, such as food and beverage, medical, and nonprofit sectors to invigorate the brand voice and get messaging out there to be seen and heard. We love showcasing what our teams have created - take a look at our creative work to see some of our best creative projects to date. Creative agencies can offer an extensive range of services, but we’ll focus on four of the most common services available below.
Advertising Services
Most businesses don’t have the knowledge or bandwidth to create and execute a successful advertising campaign. They also often know what they want to say, but don’t know how to say it. Thus, a creative agency will generate advertising ideation based on market research to understand the target audience and oversee the execution of the campaign. And they’ll do it in a way that sounds like your authentic brand. Depending on the campaign, the agency may need to hire out some of the services. For instance, the designers at a creative agency can create a billboard, but they may need to hire another company to print and hang it.
Consulting Services
You can hire a creative agency to consult with your business on a variety of topics. Some common examples include:
- New products or services
- How to lower marketing overhead
- New markets and demographics to target
If you require consulting services for many aspects of your business, a full-service agency in your area is your best bet.
Design Services
If your business needs to revamp its image or create new promotional materials, a creative agency can help. Whether you need a new logo, design templates, or even new signage, you’ll want the design expertise of a creative or design agency.
Digital Services
Digital marketing has increased global touchpoints, but IT demands can be intimidating unless you have experience in the field. With the growing importance of technology, many creative agencies now offer expert digital services. Using digital services can create an entirely new user experience. Even making technical advances to your website or app can go a long way with new and returning customers. Digital offerings can also give your customer an immediate answer or pathway to a solution for those with an urgent need, or even entertain them.
What’s the Difference Between a Creative Agency & Other Agencies?
A creative services company is an umbrella term that can include other agencies. Different agencies you may be familiar with include:
- Ad agencies
- Design agencies
- Digital agencies
- PR agencies
- SEO agencies
- Social media agencies
While these agencies have a specialized focus, a creative agency usually encompasses more than one of these services. For instance, when a business works with a digital agency, they are working with a company that focuses on a specific digital space instead of a company that has a more diverse list of services.
How Can a Creative Services Company Help Your Business?
There are many ways creative services can help grow your business. Below we highlight the top five benefits to consider.
Brand Strategy & Identity
Your brand identity drives every aspect of your business, such as
- Your tone
- The design of your website and business cards
- How employees speak to consumers
- Your pitch to prospective clients
A creative agency can help you craft a brand identity that aligns with your target audience. Then they will create a brand strategy that is the driving force behind your business. This includes everything from copywriting and graphic design to brand standards and competitive analysis.Having a polished brand identity and strategy can help make your business recognizable and memorable.
Brand Engagement
After implementing your brand strategy, a creative agency can help you analyze how well customers respond to it. Examining and interpreting data is crucial in driving brand engagement.Your business can use the data to take actionable steps toward increasing customer engagement.
Video Marketing
Video marketing often helps improve a business’s success on social media and search results. Data shows that video content generates leads and enhances engagement. Although anyone can do their own video production, having the professionals of a creative agency handle your production is best. They can take care of the strategy, scriptwriting, post-production, and everything in between. This will give your video marketing what’s called “high production value,” so that your messaging shines through and gets your customers interested in what you have to offer.
Social Media
Social media marketing may seem easy to handle in-house, but realistically, building a strong social media presence takes a lot of time and effort. When you join forces with a creative agency, you don’t have to worry about spending hours figuring out which platforms to join or what content to create. Instead, a creative agency can easily help your business develop a winning social media strategy.
Digital Marketing
The world of digital marketing is admittedly overwhelming, making it difficult to know where to spend your ad dollars. However, a creative agency can use data to understand where your customers are on the internet and how to reach them best.
Should you invest in SEO, content marketing, or PPC marketing? The professionals at a creative agency will be able to tell you, and they’ll craft a plan to maximize that investment.
Get Started With Creative Services in Tampa
At EraserFarm, we offer a personalized, boutique creative agency experience. Want to create brand loyalists? We know how to do it. Need help with an overall marketing strategy? We got you! Our agency is small - on purpose. Our team works closely with each client to create tailored marketing and creative solutions that build an emotional connection with your consumer.
We’d love to have a chat. Reach out to us today to book in, and find out how we can help grow your business.
What Is an Advertising Agency? | The Ultimate Ad Agency Guide
Today, quality alone is insufficient to sustain a business; you also need to portray your products and services in a manner that attracts customers. If you do not have your own marketing staff specializing in this area, it can be difficult to achieve effective results with your advertising. The solution, oftentimes, is outsourcing your advertising tasks to an ad agency.
Advertising agencies are a type of creative agency that ensure your products and services attract your target audiences while staying consistent with your brand’s image. Their aim is to create impactful, visually powerful content that captures your target market’s attention and brings customers to you. Let’s look at their work in detail:
The Objectives of an Advertising Agency
Your advertising agency’s job is not as simple as to entice people to buy your products; in addition, their focus is on generating brand awareness and putting your story out in a way that you gain loyal audiences. While their primary goal is to get viewers to respond to your call to action, their secondary role is far more intricate – and perhaps more critical – and involves influencing people’s attitudes and perceptions.
An effective advertising agency will keep your brand in the minds of your consumers, ensuring that when the consumer thinks about buying a product or service in your business niche, your business will be the first one they consider.
The Functions of an Advertising Agency
The services performed by an advertising agency can include:
Market Research
No effective advertisement can be planned without knowing your industry’s current market landscape. You may not have the best technology to stay on top of all market trends on your own, but an advertising agency makes it their job to know.
Advertising agency experts monitor trends in consumer preferences and know what elicits the right responses. More importantly, they track your competitor’s marketing strategies to design advertising campaigns that distinguish you from other companies in your niche. As a result, your campaigns are planned after carefully considering all external and internal market factors.
Design
Designing an effective advertisement is arguably the most important yet challenging aspect of marketing. It’s resource-intensive, time-consuming, and requires careful planning. It’s an advertising agency’s job to design ads that are impactful but stay true to your brand’s values and stories. They won’t make you choose between your brand’s culture and their version of a good ad; instead, they will integrate both of these into a combination that lands you customers who share your values.
Media Planning
A well-designed advertisement will be of no use if you do not use the right platforms to leverage it. Advertising agencies know the trends in electronic media consumption, so they’ll design your campaigns accordingly. This goes beyond looking at popularity statistics, including your audience’s age, demographics, geographical region, and your product’s niche. Their strategic approach will ensure that your efforts and budget are spent in the right direction.
Endnote
To a business owner, their brand means more than a source of income. The brand story and connection – and the effort that goes behind design and creation – can be hard to portray if you do not have the right talent working for you.
An advertising agency will take this burden off of you and use its expertise to create content that represents you and lets consumers build connections with you. We’ll recommend that you outsource your marketing campaigns to experts so that you can focus on what you’re best at. Contrary to popular belief, the smaller an agency, the more closely it will work with you.
Start the discussion today and contact EraserFarm for a consultation with a multifaceted advertising agency dedicated to communicating your brand’s unique personality.
The Ultimate Guide of Video Production
Video production involves the whole process of creating videos, including short films, business marketing videos, full-length movies, music videos, television commercials, and more. While the specifics for each might vary, the overall process is the same, and it includes pre-production, production, and post-production. When running a video production business, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to helping you rank.
Online presence is crucial for the growth of your business. It also makes it easier to reach a new audience while increasing your website's visibility to the right people. You can rank top on SERPs with video production SEO, expanding your organic reach. Here's the ultimate guide to video production SEO.
Key words are key
Keywords are vital because they’re the main link between what users are looking for and what you’re offering. Using a keyword research tool such as Keyword Planner, you can input your services, such as video production or video producer, to get keyword ideas and their monthly search volume.
When you use relevant keywords throughout your website and content, you'll most likely rank high when customers and prospects search for the services or content you provide. Before settling on the keywords to use on your video production website, consider their relevance, search volume, competition, ROI, and intent.
Make your website mobile-friendly
Statistics indicate that 70% of web traffic comes from mobile phones, and 80% of the highly-ranked websites are optimized for mobile. A mobile-friendly website is accessible from any device and doesn't compromise user experience. Making your video production website mobile-friendly helps you attract more clients while increasing your rankings on SERPs.
Create SEO blog content
Creating video production blog content that uses the relevant keywords is crucial to ensuring that it ranks and the right audience finds it. You can start by writing your SEO content outline, especially if you are not familiar with search engine optimization. Ensure the content you create is well-written because users and search engines value high-quality content. You should write it for the readers, ensure it's engaging and readable, consider search intent, be trustworthy, and keep your content up-to-date.
Invest in local SEO for video production
Local SEO for video production companies enables you to optimize your online presence for better rankings on search results and more local traffic, increasing revenue and sales. For your business to appear in local search results, Google considers proximity to the searcher, relevance based on the search query, and prominence, which depends on what other clients say about your services or products. Optimizing your address and city makes it easier for users to find your video production business online and offline.
Video production website audit
A website audit enables you to identify the SEO opportunities you missed and correct any SEO pitfalls, including matched anchor text links, keyword stuffing, and more throughout your website's content. It lets you focus your SEO efforts on your audience first, then the search engines later. A website audit allows you to spot issues that hurt your business's SEO and conversions, such as broken links, slow page load times, hidden content, and more. Repairing these issues helps improve your rankings and conversions.
Endnote
Video production SEO is crucial as it helps increase your business' visibility on search engine results, drive more traffic to your site, and increase conversions. Want better results with your video production SEO? Contact our team at EraserFarm today.
What'ya know, fortunes do come true.
Sometimes fortunes do come true! So while we’ve been busy making great stuff, we haven't been too busy to find some new dance partners. EraserFarm is so very pleased to announce new partnerships with 8 new clients! And in no particular order, they are Reimagine Office Furnishings, Dermeleve (Anti Itch Cream), Tailored Twig, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Grable Plumbing, Treated Lumber Outlet and Solved By Tanna (Financial Solutions).
Reimagine Office Furnishings offers a unique combination of services and grade-A furniture brands, both new and refurbished. Their products and services include new and used office furniture, office cubicles and workstations, refurbishing services and complete project management and installation.
Dermeleve is a miracle cream providing much needed relief to patients suffering from the intolerable and unrelenting itch. Created by dermatologists, Dermeleve stops itch at its source, breaks the itch-scratch-inflammation cycle, is steroid-free and formulated to heal.
Tailored Twig isn’t your ordinary florist. Far from it, in fact. Tailored Twig blends layers of floral textures with foraged architectural elements to create a style that speaks to all of the senses by combining age-old design principles and a modern, dynamic approach to floral artistry. In Tampa Bay and around the world, they customize designs for their client's personal style and the distinctive venues. Working with world-renowned event planners, international photographers, and other strong collaborative forces have opened doors for Tailored Twig's design team to expand their knowledge and explore new inspirations.
As part of the Bloomin’ Brands family, Carrabba’s all began with the idea from two Sicilian boys from Texas who love to cook and eat. Using many recipes from their mother, time-honored Italian dishes in a fun atmosphere bring people together like family. Bonefish Grill focuses on every little detail of your experience, anticipates your needs, and provides personalized service that allows you to enjoy freshly prepared seafood in a comfortable, vibrant atmosphere.
Got a plumbing problem? Then you need Grable Plumbing. They’ve served the Tampa Bay and surrounding area for over 40 years. Grable has been serving customers throughout the communities of Lutz, Brandon, Carrollwood, Tampa Bay, and beyond, fully committed to providing homes and businesses with everything they need to keep their plumbing running smoothly.
Treated Lumber Outlet supplies all things for outdoor builds. Decks, porches, whatever you can think of to build, this massive supplier has all of the exterior stuff you'll need.
And last, but not least, Solved By Tanna is a financial and accounting solutions start-up by Tanna Mock. They take the time to truly understand your business and focus recommendations allowing clients to overcome their business concerns. Using a hands-on approach ensures their partnerships are profitable and businesses are set up for success.
We’re extremely excited to create award-winning work for each one of these clients and, as always, we are very appreciative to have the confidence from them to partner with EraserFarm.
Digital Advertising Trends in 2022
Digital marketing is a dog-eat-dog world. If you don't evolve and adapt to the times, your marketing will fail and impact your business. Staying on top of trends can often be exhausting and sometimes cost a lot of money and time. However, it's pretty easy to keep up with digital advertising trends in a cost-effective way if you're smart and savvy. So if you're looking for help to up your digital marketing game, well, we've written a handy guide to the biggest 2022 digital advertising trends. Read on to learn more!
Short Videos: Hot Digital Advertising Trends
Like it or not, TikTok has changed the game for online advertising. Originally created for users to share videos under a minute long, TikTok has evolved into one of the most popular and accessible social media platforms. Brands have evolved along with TikTok to embrace its DIY, meme-ready video format. This format also works well on other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram stories. You can create one catchy, quick video and use it across all social media platforms. Using a popular song or sound byte is an easy way to hook viewers and drive your marketing home. You can also easily add a pop-up link to lead to your social media page or web store. Short videos are a quick, easy, and cost-effective marketing strategy in 2022.
Cryptocurrency
It was a novelty ten years ago, expected not to last. But it seems like cryptocurrency is here to stay. Many platforms including e-commerce and social media sites are beginning to embrace crypto for online shopping payments. As more and more people invest their earnings into crypto, it's prudent to get on board early. Marketing your brand as "hip" to cryptocurrency and NFTs will not only get you more hits but also lead to more sales. People like options for making purchases, so embracing crypto is future-proofing your business.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is sponsoring famous personalities on social media in exchange for product placements and reviews. And it continues to be a growing marketing trend. It's easy to see why. It's low-cost and extremely effective. Influencers have thousands of fans and followers who engage with their content on a constant basis. Influencers have a built-in target audience.
Even business-to-business influencer marketing is growing. Leveraging influencers who fit your business style and branding is an easy way to sell your products to other businesses and customers.
Artificial Intelligence And Chatbots
Growth in artificial intelligence capabilities means that many of the behind-the-scenes marketing processes can now be automated. Not only is this great for overhead, but it enhances the user experience as well. Artificial intelligence can analyze and interpret data way faster than human beings can. It can also learn customer behavior and preferences and suggest items and services for purchase. This means better customer targeting and more conversions. There is no "wait time" between receiving customer data and responding with targeted marketing.
Another aspect of artificial intelligence that will be huge in marketing is chatbots. Chatbots give a personalized and easy customer service experience.
Rather than waiting for emails or calling during operating hours, customers can use chatbots at any time of the day or night to answer questions and receive product suggestions.
First-Party Cookies And Privacy Issues
Many consumers are becoming more privacy-savvy. They are no longer willing to allow websites to sell their data to other companies for marketing purposes.
First-party cookies are used solely on a company website. Informing customers that their cookies will only be used for the business's own data purposes can increase trust. Transparency is key.Embracing first-party cookies and being upfront about how customers' data is being used is a digital advertising trend that is on the rise. Make sure that your business is embracing this positive change for customers.
Social Media
It's hard to escape social media. It seems to permeate almost every aspect of our lives, including how we do business.The days of simply operating a social media page are long gone. Customers expect personal connections with the brands they buy from. To keep up with digital advertising trends in social media, your business should be dedicated to engaging with customers in comments, tags, and stories.Using customer-generated marketing is a great way to up your social media game. If a customer makes a post with your product and tags your business, respond and ask if you can repost it.
This will show customers that your brand is approachable and friendly. And that always leads to more sales and positive word-of-mouth marketing.
Storytelling As Marketing
Storytelling is the next trend in digital marketing. Customers are looking for relatable and personal experiences, not faceless and nameless advertising.Your brand needs a "story." Whether it's how you started or your plans for the future, marketing your brand as an ongoing story is a successful digital marketing trend.
The story can be told in many ways. It encompasses your branding, logo, web copy, and even your social media presence (such as Instagram stories and TikTok videos).
Segmentation And Personalization
Segmentation in marketing is nothing new. Taking customer data and separating them by interests, gender, age, and other demographic points has been a cornerstone of marketing since the very beginning. However, with a digital world full of useful data, it has become even easier to segment and target your chosen audiences. This results in more clicks and conversions, as you aren't wasting marketing on uninterested audiences. Along with segmentation comes personalization. If you have extensive data on customers' preferences and interests, you can specifically tailor your marketing to match.
Focus On User Experience
As you can see from many other digital advertising trends, the user experience is becoming a major focus. From digital privacy transparency to personalized opt-in marketing and chatbots, user experience is key. Making your customers' online experience as personable, safe, and simple as possible is the best way to position yourself in the top digital marketing trends.
Professional Digital Advertising Services
Digital advertising trends are constantly evolving. It's important to stay at the top of the game in order to continue to grow your business.If you are looking for professional services, we are here to help. We have an extensive portfolio of successful marketing projects and an experienced team to cover all aspects of digital marketing.
We are available for consultations at any time! Call us at (813) 748-3854 or email me at cindy@eraserfarm.com.
EraserFarm featured in Communication Arts
To honor female aviators who flew into the history books for Woman's History Month, EraserFarm created a campaign featuring women who forged a path of greatness for LJS Aviation, a global specialist in evacuation slides and component sales with a focus on Airbus and Boeing platforms based in Great Britain. LJS Is also a women-owned business and the messaging aligned perfectly with the structure of the company and its beliefs.
The campaign included posters, print ads and also organic social posts honoring these brave and courageous pioneers.
"It’s truly impressive to see so many feats of bravery and determination performed by so many women around the world so long ago. Thinking how aircraft safety back then wasn’t, shall we say, the best, it is astonishing that these women risked so much for their love of flying and their commitment to inspiring others. Unfortunately, we also learned that many of these women did perish in aviation accidents", said James Rosene, Creative Director at Eraserfarm.
People involved in visual communication turn to Communication Arts for ideas and inspiration more than any other creative publication and have done so for 56 years. They are the leading trade journal for visual communications, and the largest creative magazine in the world using a unique combination of respected juried annuals in design, advertising, illustration, photography, interactive media as well as typography; in-depth profiles on designers, photographers, illustrators, design and advertising firms;
To learn more about EraserFarm and how, together, we can help make your brand famous, contact us today.
Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Business Be Using In 2021?
It's no question that businesses need to be using social media to market themselves in today's highly digital world. However, what may be less clear is which platforms are best for each unique business. The best platforms for you will be determined by examining certain areas of your company and your customer. Are you wondering what social media platforms will be most effective for your company? If so, keep reading. In this guide, we'll go over some tips on how to pick the best social media platforms for your business as well as the main channels companies use to market their business.
Narrow Your Choices
There are tons of social media platforms out there, but to narrow down your options you should consider the most popular options. When using social media platforms for business, you want to focus on the most widely used platforms that will allow you the most exposure. The social networks that have the most active monthly users are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
However, it may be unrealistic, and unproductive, to use all of these platforms. To chose which ones you will use, you should determine what your social media marketing goals are. This will help you figure out which platforms you will use as well as what kind of content will relate best to your customer.
You should consider what audience you are aiming to target to use the channels that they are active on. A great way to figure out where your target audience is hanging out online is to conduct a survey. Additionally, different kinds of content work better on certain platforms.
Think about the kind of content you usually create and figure out what channels work best with this content type. The kind of content you should be using to promote your business will depend on the industry you're in, your brand, and your target audience. The best content for you may be blog posts and articles, or it could be video and images.
Figuring out where your target audience is already exploring online as well as what content types work best for your brand will help you select the best social media channels for your company.
Comparing the Top Social Media Platforms
Once you've done the work above, you can go through and compare the top social media platforms to find the best one for your needs. To help you decide, we've broken down a few of the top platforms and what kind of content types work best on certain channels. Figure out what channels businesses like yours use to find a platform that is popular among your industry and audiences by looking at these very different channel options.
Facebook is the most popular social media channel and is a great tool for lead generation. With a wide audience and advanced targeting tools, you can use Facebook to customize your advertising campaigns to reach your target audience. Facebook is, at its core, a place to be social.
For this reason, it's also a great place to build connections with your audience. You can do so by humanizing your brand and sharing content that will gain loyal followers that you can turn into customers. Additionally, this channel allows for many different content types.
While this platform is incredibly popular, it also means that it's incredibly crowded. For this reason, you want to make sure your content stands out from the rest to catch the eyes of users. Instagram is similar to Facebook but is more image and video-based.
If your business is about immediacy, Twitter is a great option for you. This is a great spot for reaching audiences with updates, breaking news, announcements, and other important information. Most Twitter users are under the age of 50.
The best type of content for this platform is concise textual content that is easy to digest. You can also link articles, blogs, and listicles to this platform that others can click into to read on further. If you have a blog section of your site, you can post them on Twitter to generate leads to your website.
While images perform well on this platform, it is one in which text reigns supreme.
LinkedIn is a great platform for certain industries and is the best option for B2B businesses. This is a great option for those with the goal of generating quality leads. If your company often creates, uses, or shares editorial content, LinkedIn is a great option for you.
Many use this channel to establish themselves in their industry. By establishing your company as a thought leader in your industry, you can build great brand authority. Building this kind of authority works to boost the trust and loyalty that followers have towards your company and your product.
This is also a great platform for engagement, as you can easily converse with others on certain topics. This is a site used by professionals, and users tend to be between 30-49 years of age.
Determine the Best Social Media Platforms for Your Company Today
When it comes to determining the best social media platforms for your business, you will want to keep your audience, industry, and content types in mind. Before creating a social media marketing plan, make sure you've done the work to find the best platform options for your company.
Are you looking for professional assistance with your marketing strategy? Contact us today to get started.
The Do's and Don'ts of Advertising on Social Media
There was a time long ago when social media was strictly used for catching up on the latest gossip, sharing memes, and finding new friendships. Since its humble beginnings, social media has risen to universal heights and is now an essential part of every savvy business plan. Advertising on social media is an essential tool in every business' arsenal, but it requires a fair bit of sharpening as well. Even though social media is becoming an integral part of running a business, it is all too common to see them fail to use it time and time again.
So how do you avoid the fate of the internet collectively canceling your business? Well, here are a few do's and don'ts to help your next social campaign get off to a great start.
The Do's of Advertising on Social Media
First, we'll discuss the best and most efficient practices in social media marketing. These are the tips that you should follow closely for a successful foray into social media.
Post Regularly
This first tip may seem painfully obvious, but when you're running a business you may have a lot on your plate. It's important to make sure that your social media presence has no lag in content. The attention span of the average person has declined to an all-time low of only 8 seconds. With such a short attention span, it's essential not to lose the spotlight. Posting between 3 and 5 times a week is a good starting point.
Keep Those Captions Varied
The only thing worse than not posting for your business is posting the exact same thing over and over. Switching up the length of your posts looks more organic and is much less annoying for your followers or customers. Researching the specific social platforms you are utilizing is also a great practice in this regard. Some platforms require captions that are short and sweet while others may receive more long-winded posts better.
Interact With Your Followers
What is the point of social media if you aren't being social? Being connected with your social media followers will show potential customers that you truly care about your business's reputation. This means answering messages quickly and respectfully, interacting in the comments, and being active on your followers' posts as well. Remember that promoting your business doesn't end with hitting the send button on a post.
Write the Posts Yourself (Or Hire Someone That Can)
Social media users will sniff out lies and insincerity from a mile away. It's important to make sure that your posts are genuine. Most of the time this means having your hand in the social media advertising because you will know how to best connect with your followers or customers. In the event that you don't know how to do this effectively, make sure you hire an ad agency that can work with you closely and ensure success.
The Don'ts of Advertising on Social Media
Understanding how to advertise on social media can help keep your business in a positive light and will prevent its name from being dragged through virtual mud. Here are the biggest no-no's of social media that should be avoided at all costs.
Writing Like a Robot
Don't write like a robot. That writing is boring. No one will read it. Do you see how annoying that was? Personality is everything and posting on social media requires a certain amount of finesse Tone can be tricky, especially if you are writing in a strictly professional manner for your business. Make sure to all social media advertising in a more conversational manner to encourage discussion.
Abusing Hashtags Is #Wack
Alright, hashtags are useful tools for most social media platforms. With that being said, no one wants to read a post with 20 or even 50 hashtags hanging off the end. Using commonly searched hashtags is a great way to boost visibility on a post, but making your own hashtag is pointless. This requires a bit of research as each industry will have different effective hashtags. However, even using a whole bunch of effective hashtags will make your posts look like spam. You will most certainly lose a lot more viewers than the hashtags will bring.
Rushing and Misspelling Can Spell Death
While social media can be a great benefit to any business, one wrong move can sometimes land you in some hot water. There are plenty of cautionary tales of businesses posting something offensive or incorrect and this can seriously impact your brand's reputation. Being sure that you aren't touching on a sensitive topic shows good social awareness. Spelling is also an extremely important aspect of posting on social media. Making sure to use proper grammar and spelling exudes an air of professionalism and grace that attracts followers to your content.
Using Every Social Platform Is Too Much Work
While there are many platforms to utilize, you will find that promoting your business on every one of them is a whole bunch of work. Most of the time, the nature of your business will determine which platform will be best for you. For example, an engineering firm will probably see no need for a Pinterest account. It is a million times more effective for a business to use the platforms that make the most sense. Choosing social media platforms that aren't the right fit will most likely hurt productivity.
Grow Your Business the Right Way
For many business owners, the step into social media can cause anxiety. Knowing the do's and don'ts of advertising on social media will help you grow your business to new heights and instill some much-needed confidence.
Are you looking for some help with social media advertising from us here at EraserFarm? Drop us a line and we'll set up a time to chat!