8 Social Media Marketing Mistakes to Avoid for Small Businesses
Businesses, both big and small, need to have a social media presence. Most companies know that social media can play a crucial role in generating leads and building brand awareness.
However, many startups and small businesses struggle to grow consistently on social media. Often, this isn’t due to lack of effort but the common social media marketing mistakes they make.
Whether it’s missing the point of social networks or oversaturating your content, small business marketers sometimes miss the mark. Before starting to advertise your business, it’s best to learn these 8 social media mistakes you’ll want to avoid when marketing your small company to customers.
1. Creating Many Social Media Accounts
Signing up for too many social media platforms─ especially when starting out─ can be a recipe for disaster. For small businesses, it’s more effective and much easier to master just a few platforms before branching out to more.
If you rush to create a presence on every social media platform out there and start publishing incoherently on all of them, you get confused. Then, you may consider abandoning some of your platforms, making things worse. This kind of behavior does nothing but boost your mistrust level with your audience, which is never good for business.
2. Not Having a Social Media Marketing Strategy
In Benjamin Franklin’s words, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” Businesses without a social media marketing plan often find it hard to provide useful content to their audiences.
Without a clear social media strategy, you’ll find it challenging to know what to post, when to post, and what your audience likes and wants. Communication with customers might start to feel disjointed and confusing. A good social media strategy includes providing useful and engaging content that inspires action.
3. Deleting Negative Comments
Do your business a favor and be transparent. One of the common social media marketing mistakes small businesses make is deleting negative feedback. You need to show your audiences that you’ve got nothing to hide to build trust in your company
It’s best not to delete any negative comments and instead respond appropriately and as soon as possible. Negative feedback online provides an opportunity for you to engage with the user who left the comment and turn everything positive. Be respectful to whoever makes a comment and address the issue head-on.
4. Failing to Create Brand Consistency
What’s so unique about your brand? Let it shine through all your content. If you care about building a powerful brand that lasts, you need to focus on the consistency of your brand.
Don’t confuse consistency with monotony—if you're going to repurpose your content make sure you do it appropriately.
You should switch up your content, test different formats, and maintain variety. All the while, your content should remain consistent with your tone of voice, brand mission, and general look and feel. Being consistent also includes keeping your promises.
5. Buying Followers
While all social media networks don’t allow users to buy followers, the urge to buy followers might become more if you don’t have the numbers. Although several thousand followers can be purchased for a few dollars, you don’t want to go that route. Instagram and Facebook algorithms hate this activity.
In the past few years, there were so many fake profiles selling followers that even official ads attracted fake likes. Due to this, platforms like Facebook was forced to deactivate more than 2 billion fake accounts. Also, remember your ultimate goal is getting conversions, not building a subscriber count.
6. Promoting Yourself Too Much
Social media is typically about socializing and communicating. Not many people like promotional content ─ most people hate being sold to. If you decide to spend most of your time promoting yourself, you could lose social media followers.
Since your business needs to sell, use promotion subtly. While it’s okay to post promotional material now and then, the more engaging your posts are, the more sales you’ll attract. Don’t forget to set aside some of your time to interact with other people’s content, add value, and not just push yours down every follower’s throat.
7. Not Connecting and Networking
If you have many random followers who have little to contribute and don’t embody your ideal audience you will not yield the expected results. You want to draw in and engage potential customers, professionals, and peers with similar views and interests. These are the kind of people who will likely contribute to the success of your marketing efforts.
Make sure that your interactions are meaningful. That’s the true meaning of networking ─ adding value to relationships. Always find time to engage in discussions and send personalized messages.
By doing this, more people will likely pay attention to the things you say.
8. Following Every Trend
It’s not that you shouldn’t publish a buzzworthy post, but there’s a specific time and place to be trendy. If you’re a tech company, for example, posting about the latest baking style and over-capitalizing on movements to appear “youthful” can confuse your audience.
Jumping on social media trends and posting irrelevant content is perceived as a gimmick. It plants you in a sea of other people who jump on the bandwagon. By blindly doing what every other business out there is doing, you’re devaluing your unique voice and pushing away prospects who followed you for your individuality.
Trends are still useful in social media. But first, know what everyone is talking about and decide whether or not it’s relevant for your small business. If the trend seems to benefit your business, use thoughtful ways to join the conversation.
Be Sure to Avoid These Social Media Marketing Mistakes
Because billions of people use social media each day, social media marketing remains one of the best ways to expose your company to a large audience. However, only a few small businesses do well when it comes to using social media in the right way.
As you can tell from the list above, all of these social media marketing mistakes can be avoided. All it takes is understanding your mistakes so you can handle them.
For assistance with mapping out an effective social media strategy for your brand, feel free to contact us today.
Small Is The New Big
If any of us remember Jerry Maguire’s late night, pizza-induced rant that he insisted was just a mission statement, well, this really isn’t that at all. It’s just the musings (hopefully not too rambling) of a creative director and writer who’s worked in the industry for too many years to remember. I’ve learned a lot, some the hard way, but I’ve also been blessed with working with many great folks and large agencies around the country.
After all of that I decided to start my own little agency. Six years in, I’ve realized why being smaller is something I love, and I believe is too often overlooked by many clients - simply because of appearances. Think about that for a second. As technology marches on, things have gotten better because they’ve gotten smaller. Computers. Devices we listen to music on. Cars. Planes. Things are becoming more efficient and faster and more responsive simply by going small. So, with that, if you’ll permit me, here’s why I think now more than ever, small is better than big for today’s advertising agency and their clients.
SMALL IS NIMBLE AND SHAPES TO THE JOB AT THE DROP OF A HAT
Small runs lean and mean. Here at EraserFarm, we are a small, experienced core group who, over many years, have developed long-standing, trusting relationships with many top-level strategists, creatives and experts. When a specific project calls for it, we are able to create a very specific, targeted and relevant group to work on that project - rather than having the same people work on every job they may not necessarily be as qualified for or experienced in. It also removes the heavy overhead clients are forced to pay to compensate for employees on staff. Conversely, small is able to scale up or down accordingly per assignment. That flexibility also allows us to change the business model when your competition changes theirs. And in the end, all of this helps small get into the tight little spaces that big can’t. And, come out with emotionally charged ideas that connect with people on a very human level. And that can turn your customers into salespeople as powerful advocates for your brand.
SMALL THINKS BIG WITHOUT BLOATING AD BUDGETS
A big idea that can survive the test of time doesn’t need to come with a big price tag. We’ve worked on TV assignments for global companies like Pacific Life and social content that’s distributed around the world for Outback Steakhouse. We’ve created work for national health organizations and restaurant chains like Arby’s and Bonefish Grill, gotten in the trenches with startups and local clients and partnered with our clients’ in-house creative departments too. We just don’t care about process or the way it used to be done. We are here to do the best work we can for clients in any shape or form that may take. It simply doesn’t matter what the size of the agency is. It’s the size of the thinking that the agency puts into each project without ever taking one for granted, regardless of what it is.
SMALL PUTS ONE FOOT ON THE NECK OF BUREAUCRACY AND KICKS AGENCY LAYERS OUT THE DOOR WITH THE OTHER.
One of the main reasons I wanted to start my own thing was being able to show our clients work I personally thought was worthy, without it being diced, sliced and minced up and left on the agency cutting room floor. Hey, if the client doesn’t like it, so be it. We have small egos and big, broad shoulders here. But at least we didn’t do them any disservice to not show them some thinking that could advance their brand message. That’s why we also think proactively on each client’s business and gather as an agency each week for creative thinktanks.
Know what else is great? Small means we can say whatever we want on our blogs like I am right now without repercussion. It means we answer our clients’ emails right away personally and answer our cell phone (which is on our business cards) any time of day or night. Trust me, I’m not kidding. And small works very closely with each client without putting B, C or D teams on it. Every job gets 100% from all of us because we all wear many hats here at EF.
If we define ourselves and our business in terms of how other agencies operate, we're living in an echo chamber. And, new ways of thinking will never surface to better serve today’s clients and the environment they exist in.
SMALL WORKS HARDER TO SURVIVE.
This is a no-brainer. We’re small, our rope is shorter and so you can bet your ass we will bust ours on every job to survive and keep chugging along. I’m convinced that when people become associated with an idea or company, the personal stakes get higher.
In the end, I truly believe an ad agency succeeds because they’re good. Not because they are big. You see, if you can look past just the size of an agency, you’ll discover a very valuable, powerful mindset like the one we adhere to every day at EraserFarm. And no matter how big we get, you can count on one thing: We will always keep rolling the way we started.
Small.
Let us prove it to you. Let’s grab some coffee, say hello and discuss a project we can work on together. Email my partner Cindy at cindy@eraserfarm.com and let’s get to it.
It's Official. EraserFarm And Valley Bank Are Partners.
We are so proud to share our new partnership with Valley Bank. For the past two years, we've been working with these fine folks on various projects helping rebrand the bank through an ongoing new logo, a big ‘ol Times Square takeover to announce their huge Nasdaq announcement and an ad campaign. Today, we've been named their official creative partner. With two main corporate offices in New Jersey and New York City, we've had the privilege of meeting so many of Valley's amazing team members and with them developing an all-new brand strategy. This sets Valley up for not just maintaining the strong relationship they have with their current customers, but opening doors for new audiences and introducing the brand as they roll into new markets and continue their expansion. "There is something to be said about working with people who understand you and understand your brand. Our friends at EraserFarm get us. They have played a key role in creating a voice for Valley that we love and truly touches our customers. We're thrilled about our new commitment to each other and look forward to continued successes," said Mark Fernandez, Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer, Valley Bank. We're looking forward to expanding on the new campaign as we move through the year and exceeding our goals for this amazing client.
The Benefits of Infographics in Conveying Statistics and Data
I'm a big fan of infographics. I know, sounds weird. But they work well and if you're curious to know why, keep reading.
The benefits of infographics are far-reaching. They can turn difficult-to-understand information, such as data and statistics, into easy-to-read graphics. They can split a complex subject into digestible chunks.
What’s more, your audience isn't just more likely to understand the information. They’re more likely to read and remember it. If you’re ready to discover the full value of using infographics for your work or business, then read on.
Benefits of Using Infographics on Complex Subjects
Infographics simplify complex ideas. They break them into digestible chunks. They use symbols that our brain understands intuitively, so it doesn’t have to work so hard.
Why use infographics? Because they display complex relationships with easy to understand graphics.
They activate more areas of our brain. When the information is distributed, the work is spread out. This increases comprehension and makes it likely your audience will remember what they’ve seen.
65% of people are visual learners. When you use pictures to represent a subject, their brains first filter the information through their image centers. Then it’s filtered through their memory center.
When you use text, their brain still needs to process that information through the image center. Then it moves through the language center. And finally, it filters through the memory center.
It turns a 2-step process into a 3-step process. It dramatically increases the work required and the risk of confusion. When you add math or numbers into the mix, the problem is further compounded.
Here’s an example:
If you show a person a picture of the aurora borealis, she gets it. But what if you show her the science behind the phenomenon?
Show her a graph of charged particle densities. Don’t forget to include a table of electron energy state distributions. Then wait for her cross-eyed reaction.
Don’t forget the effect of adding a splash of color in your data. In one study, adding color to a product guide increases readership by 80%. It turned something people found boring into something worth the read.
What kind of effects might it have on your facts and figures?
Infographics are Sharable and Linkable
Have you ever been to a convention? If you have, you’ve noticed how many booths give away free swag. Free tee-shirts, bags, pens, and stickers all proudly display the logo of the company giving them away.
The marketer who created those freebees knew the value of brand name recognition. In other words, your authority climbs each time a potential customer sees your logo. Your company is everywhere, so you must know what you’re doing.
Another of the infographic benefits is an improved trust in your company and, by extension, your products. And trust is paramount. 67% of consumers say they’ll stop buying from brands they don’t trust the company behind the brand.
Well, guess what? Infographics are sharable. When you use one on your website and make it sharable, it becomes your giveaway swag.
Other bloggers and website owners can reuse your infographic on their sites. Your logo will be plastered across thousands of sites: free advertising. It’s one of the main reasons why infographics are useful.
Don’t forget to embed a link in your infographic. When people post it on their webpage, they’re including a link back to your website. That’ll get you more audience.
These outbound links will also increase something called your domain authority. It’s one of the factors that search engines employ when calculating your page rank. An increase in your domain authority equates to an increase in your page rank.
That means that when someone runs a Google search, your webpage will rank higher in their search results.
Infographics Tell Stories
If you’re wondering how to use infographics, focus on the story.
Figures alone often miss their mark because they’re impersonal. They’re unrelatable. It’s difficult for the audience to see how they connect to their lives.
One of the best marketing strategy tips we can offer you is to use your data to build a story. Weave that information into a narrative that touches on your viewer’s lives. How and why should your statistics affect them?
Your readers understand the impact of your statistics because you made it personal.
They get your water purity tables because their children might be ingesting chemicals. They understand your atmospheric pressure predictions because they might have less food to eat. They grasp your population density predictions because they’ll be stuck in traffic every day after work.
Stories also produce strong emotions. They allow us to experience encounters that we never lived. And they leave us feeling as if we just lived the event ourselves.
These strong emotions increase our attention. In turn, increased attention improves memory retention. So not only do we relate to your data but we also better remember that data.
Stories also convey the history, values, and culture that unite people. When it comes to our families, our communities, and our countries, stories are the ties that bind us. They create a common ground.
You can use that to bolster how your audience perceives you. It will increase the trust they have in you. It’ll also make them see you as an authority figure.
Nowadays digital marketers and internet gurus know the value of stories. 74% of marketers use visuals in their social media messaging. They see the impact infographics have on their customers and followers.
What kind of an impact might it have on yours?
The Many Benefits of Infographics
Now that you better understand the benefits of infographics, how do they apply to you? What data are you finding difficult to convey? How can you paint it into a story that your audience can connect with?
If you run into roadblocks, run a quick search for “popular infographics” to give you some ideas. If you’re stuck and you’d like to have a conversation with an infographics expert, reach out to us today.
The Top 5 Best Internet Marketing Strategy Tips for Your Business in 2020
81% of consumers search online before making a purchase. Without an internet marketing strategy, it's likely you're missing out on customers.
The internet provides many opportunities for you to promote your business to potential customers. With a strong internet marketing strategy, you can boost your brand, find new customers, and grow!
Here are the top five marketing strategy tips you need for success.
With these tips, you can make the most of internet marketing in 2020. Don't let your competitors snatch up customers. Instead, get started with these five tips!
1. Give Your Site Some Love
When people search for new products, services, or brands, they start online. If you don't have an updated, well-designed website, you're already losing customers.
Your website sometimes makes your company's first impression with customers. Make the most of that opportunity! By creating an eye-catching, compelling website, you can convert those visitors into leads or sales.
First, consider updating your website using user experience (UX) design trends.
UX design will clean up your website so it's easier to use and navigate. For example, you'll want to make sure your site loads quickly. You can use Google's PageSpeed Insights to determine what's slowing your site.
Then, remove clutter and unnecessary information. Add white space to give your remaining content room to breathe. White space will make it easier for people to read your content without feeling exhausted.
Does "HTTPS" appear in front of your domain name? If not, consider looking into a security certificate.
Hackers are getting smarter. By prioritizing security, you're showing customers you can protect their personal information. This is especially important if you're selling products online.
Next, make sure your site is easy to navigate. Can customers find what they're looking for easily and quickly?
Updating your site will help you make the most of these remaining four marketing strategy tips.
2. Step Up Your SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, makes it easier for people to find your website on search engines like Google. Without SEO, your content won't appear on the first page of a Google search. Not many people look beyond that first page.
A higher ranking will also make your brand look more credible. People will trust your brand over a competitor's based on your higher ranking.
Ranking at the top of the page will help you reach more people, too. As brand awareness grows, you can become a more recognizable resource in your industry.
Here are a few SEO trends you'll need for successful internet marketing in 2020.
User Intent
What are your customers searching for? What information are they hoping to find based on their search? Before you can use SEO, you need to know who your customers are and what they need.
Separate your customers into buyer personas based on age, gender, buying behavior, and interests. Then, look into what keywords they're searching with using Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and Ahrefs.
Once you understand their search intent, you can create content that reflects their needs.
Zero-Click Search
Google now displays snippets at the top of their search pages. These snippets display website content in ways that are easy to consume. With snippets, people no longer have to click on a website to find the information they need.
Structure your content for these snippets to increase your SEO ranking.
Look at the content that appears in a snippet for a keyword you're targeting. Then, adjust your content to fit that snippet. For example, you can use lists and bullet points or summarize your post in the top paragraph as a place to start.
Voice Search
By this year, voice searches will account for 50% of all searches. Over 35.6 million Americans already own a voice-activated device. Instead of typing out their queries, more people are asking Siri, Google, and Alexa for help.
In order to optimize for voice searches, you need to know who your customers are and how they're searching online.
Look at your keyword research. Then, phrase your keywords the same way your target audience does.
Make Sure You're Mobile
Google's search algorithm prioritizes websites that are convenient and easy-to-use for all consumers. Realizing more people are using their smartphones to conduct searches, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing in March 2018. Now, Google looks at the mobile version of your website to determine your ranking.
Make sure your website is optimized for smaller screens. Otherwise, people will struggle to read your content.
You should also make sure your site loads quickly, which could also impact your SEO ranking.
In order to optimize our website for mobile devices, consider some of the UX design tips mentioned above. Make sure it's easy for people to click on your forms and navigate your site.
Otherwise, you could end up missing out on potential conversions and leads.
3. Reel in More Reviews
Reviews are a great way to boost brand awareness, credibility, and your SEO ranking.
Ask happy customers to post their reviews on your Google My Business listing. Don't forget to add these reviews to your website. Happy reviews will help you attract more local customers to your business.
This social proof will help potential customers see the benefits of choosing your business.
4. Build Up Your Brand
Who are you? What sets you apart from your competitors? The answer to those questions should appear in your brand.
Focus on the unique value you offer customers. Show them that you're there to help solve their problems. Then, create a strong vision with that concept front and center.
Next, take a look at the visual components of your brand. Your color scheme, imagery, tone, voice, and font should help you stand out. If you look like your competitors, consumers will fail to differentiate you in the industry.
Make sure your brand appears cohesive across all marketing channels. A cohesive brand will help you build brand awareness and recognition.
Branding is essential to internet marketing in 2020. Otherwise, you'll look like everyone else in the industry.
5. Consider Your Content
Strong, unique content will fuel your SEO strategy and help you reach more customers.
You can create blogs, videos, infographics, quizzes; anything to get customers engaged. However, this content should focus on helping your customers.
Take a look at your keyword research. What questions are your customers asking? Create content that focuses on providing them with information and assistance.
Then, update your blog and social media with your content.
Pages with a video are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results.
You can also great interactive content such as contests and quizzes to boost engagement. Don't forget to post your content on social media to expand our reach. With a strong content marketing strategy, you can build brand awareness, credibility, and trust with your consumers.
Make Your Mark: The Top Marketing Strategy Tips for Businesses in 2020
Ready to stand out from the crowd and make your mark? With these five marketing strategy tips, you can set your business up for success in 2020.
Don't wait to start marketing! Contact us today to get started.
What's On Our Menu For New Biz? Outback Steakhouse
We're celebrating over here. And that's because we're starting 2020 off with an announcement like this: EraserFarm is delighted to share that Outback International has named us their creative partner for social content development.
We have the pleasure of working with another one of the great concepts inside of the Bloomin' Brands family, so we couldn't be happier that Outback International came calling as well.
Our work for them began late last year as we prepared new social ideas and content for their international franchise system. Outback has a strong history in this market and across the US, so as the system continues to grow internationally they needed to ensure they had the right partner to grow along with them.
"We are excited to be working with the great team at EraserFarm. We've seen great things inside of their work for one of our sister brands, and look forward to carrying that level of creative thinking over to Outback International," said Claudia Mezzarano, International Marketing Coordinator for Bloomin' Brands International.
We look forward to continuing to make our new friends proud and deliver work that drives positive sales growth and traffic for their international business.
Growing Marketing Trends: Is Influencer Marketing Still Effective in 2020?
Have you ever approached a popular internet personality or celebrity to help you grow your brand? If yes, you’re already utilizing influencer marketing. Influencer marketing has been growing for years. Expect it to be more effective in the coming years. At the end of 2019, the industry was worth $8 billion. As per Mediakix Data, influencer marketing will soar to hit $15 billion by 2022. Well, there are many social media and internet users. But many people use online mediums to communicate and interact. As e-commerce grows and more people go digital, the role of influencers will become vital. People trust influencers more than traditional ads and old school celebrity endorsements.
Here are more reasons influencer marketing is an effective growing marketing strategy to use in 2020.
Why Influencer Marketing is Still Effective
Customers have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and lately TikTok to use. With all these options at hand, each customer chooses their ideal medium. For a business, you may struggle to target your niche across all the social sites. Influencer marketing can help you reach the spread audience faster. Brands can locate their audience through influencers and achieve their marketing goals. As mentioned earlier, customers trust influencers sometimes more than brands. It isn’t also as effective for a brand to push its selling content onto the audience. Brands hire influencers to take advantage of their trusted image.
Social media is still a growing marketing tactic. New strategies arise as more people continue to join the platforms. There are also new platforms popping in the market. For instance, TikTok, the new site in the scene, has already hit 400 million users. Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful growing marketing strategies to improve brand relevance. It takes your content to an active audience and increases interaction. More people interacting with your content means better search engine rankings. Working with trendsetters is a sign your brand is credible. If top influencers are inaccessible, you can work with micro-influencers. These influencers have a smaller and active reach. Yet, people consider them as industry experts, and they are more loyal.
What to Expect from Influencer Marketing in 2020
There are a few trends that are already happening within influencer marketing. As the years go by there will be more popping up. Here are some of those things to watch below.
The Rise and Rise of the Micro-Influencer
Top influencers might not be accessible when you have a limited budget. These influencers often charge premium prices. This is one of the reasons why many brands opt for micro-influencers. Besides cost, the influencers may have an underactive following, which may not be the most beneficial for a brand. Most marketers are not ready to pay large amounts for influencer marketing yet. Consumers trust ordinary people for referrals and recommendations. Meaning, micro-influencers have the upper hand in promoting products. From 2020 onwards, brands may look for individuals who run a social community or niche.
Tapping Into Emerging channels
Today, Instagram seems like the king of influencer marketing. Yet with the need for a different content version, you can’t ignore other platforms. Recently, TikTok has been making waves as a platform to share short videos. If you serve a younger market, TikTok may be the platform to explore. With its focus on content quality rather than followers, it is a fit for niche brands. Many micro-influencers will tap the potential of Tiktok and upcoming sites like Twitch.
In-House Influencer Marketing
In-house influencer marketing is also a growing marketing tactic. The strategy started back in 2018. Brands will probably opt for in-house influencer marketing as they gain influencer marketing experience. In-house influencer marketing is popular because of its ease of promoting products. The tactic needs no introduction of third parties to your marketing team. Nonetheless, it puts you in control of your campaigns.
Search for Wholesome Experiences
Since influencer marketing became the norm, brands opt for short term relations. Many relationships ended after a marketing campaign. To connect to customers, brands need a consistent marketing campaign. Many brands now aim to work with an influencer for long to bond with their customers. Brands also save a lot of time and the cost of scouting for new influencers often.
Shopping Posts/Branded Content
Before, influencers and brands faced a massive hurdle in their Instagram marketing efforts. Influencer posts could only reach a limited audience. Then came Instagram branded content. Influencer posts can now appear as ads and hit a broader audience. Brands can now maximize the power of influencers by targeting the ads to a specific audience.
Evolution of Influencer Tiers
Influencer marketing is now mainstream. Yet, brands haven’t taken advantage of the strategy’s full potential. Likes and followers have determined who called the shots among influencers. The good news is with customers increasing interest for value, quality content is more on-demand. Even people with the fewest followers can share their content and get conversions. Brands now opt for the smaller influencers. This is because their content seems more genuine and garners more attention. People now categorize influencers by their follower numbers. There are mega influencers with over a million followers, and they dominate marketing for the top brands.
On the lower end of the spectrum, you will come across nano influencers. Nano influencers have between 1k-10k followers. Their up and coming fame makes them more accessible.
There is now a diverse pool of influencers for all brands. Regardless of your brand’s size, you can join influencer marketing to enjoy the new trend.
Are You Using Influencers as a Growing Marketing Strategy in 2020?
Influencer marketing is becoming a must-have growing marketing strategy in 2020. Almost half of the customers rely on it to make purchasing decisions. It’s an effective strategy to target an audience, generate sales, and increase revenue.
For help with finding the right marketing and advertising strategies to promote your brand, feel free to contact us today.
Emotions: The Secret Ingredient of Video Advertising
Time marches on. And as it does, video advertising is marching ahead right along with it. It's beginning to be an essential piece of every brand. Without a focus on it, you'll have a lot more trouble succeeding than you would have previously. The key to a great video marketing campaign is capturing the right emotions and presenting them to the viewer. If you'd like to learn how to utilize the emotions of your viewers rather than just throwing videos into the void, well then, go ahead and use that emotion known as curiosity and keep on a reading.
Why Emotion Is So Important to Video Advertising
No one likes to watch a boring video. Unless you're in bed trying to fall asleep. In which case, it's a great sleep remedy. On the other hand, if you want to grab a viewer and not let go, creating a video marketing campaign is a bit of balancing act. One where you need to engage with your viewers on a basic level but also make sure that you're able to get your point across in a clear manner. Something can be overly exciting, grip the viewer tightly, but still not get the point through clearly. You can also create a video that is just a long transcript of your message but leaves viewers yawning. Not a good idea.
The happy balance, in the middle, is when you spend the time crafting a video that carefully engages the viewer's emotions. And one that will connect with them on very real and relatable level.
Build a Bond
Your brand is the face of your company and using emotions to ensure that you're able to bond with your customers is key. Don't get me wrong, there are many ways to bond with customers but video advertising is one of the best, in my humble opinion. After all, you want to speak directly to the viewer, causing them to feel like they're part of something in a way that doesn't feel like advertising. This doesn't just apply to things like making your brand stand for a cause. The bond can be much simpler than that used by larger brands where various products end up tied to various causes. You just need to make the viewer feel like their purchase makes them part of something. It needs to make a believable, truthful connection with them. That's the basis of forming a very powerful bond that can be used in your video advertising campaigns.
What Emotions Work the Best?
We're not psychologists here. We're ad folk. But we'll give it our best shot with some good old common sense. Obviously, not all emotions work well when you're trying to use them in your campaigns. Evoking anger, for instance, isn't going to help matters when you're looking to make sales. The feelings which are most often invoked in successful marketing campaigns are:
- Happiness
- Friendship
- Inspiration
These feelings are generally positive and are the easiest to use. They create a positive emotional association with your brand and can inspire people to buy what you're selling. More touchy, but still usable, are negative emotions. Think about those overly sad ASPCA ads, through the use of music and imagery they inspire a feeling bad enough even the singer can't seem to make it through them. But they've also inspired a lot of donations to the cause because of that. Anger is most often used in political campaigns, where people can be made aware of issues that they want to vote against. Even disgust is sometimes used as a manipulative emotion to discourage negative behavior like smoking.
Needless to say, the emotions you use are essential to your brand. Once you've decided on a tactic it's going to become an vital part of branding yourself and effect your campaigns for quite some time moving forward. The emotional bonds formed through the use of emotion are a lasting strategy, not a one-off.
How to Use Emotions in Your Campaigns
But how do you use emotions in your video marketing? Well, for many people, the front-end strategy revolves around hiring someone with a background in making videos to do it. But you can do a good job yourself provided you think through all the primary aspects of your videos.
The Script
The script is important, of course, but it's not going to be the sole factor in making sure that you're grasping the emotions you want the audience to feel. Indeed, it can be less important than many think as long as it's primarily on message. Overly bad writing can lead an ad to be lampooned, but a decent script is probably the easiest part of keeping things moving forward.
Music
Music is one of the big factors when you're trying to get the right emotion across. I've always been a huge proponent of deeply researching and finding that perfect piece of music. It can be so very, very powerful and moving. It's not only the music playing in the background either, but it's also the way that the music swells or fades as the script goes through its key points. Here's a few examples we did. For Intrepid, we chose music that was irreverent and motivating that captured the essence of the maverick nature of the brand. Conversely, for The Homefront Foundation, we were addressing a very serious and heartfelt emotion and that music reflected the messages that were coming across in the video.
Cinematography and Editing
The focus on your cinematography is a make-or-break element of your ad. Good cinematography can make a mediocre script evoke whatever emotion you want. Bad cuts and sloppy edits can make an ad a complete laughing stock. Which is why most people hire experienced folks to handle their video advertising. Editing is another key. While it seems obvious you'd be surprised at how many people overlook the editing process and just slouch their way through it.
The Big Picture
Always make sure that you use a focus group for an ad before running it on your website or YouTube channel. If you don't have the funds, then run it by some friends and family to see how it makes them feel. The overall picture presented should be in harmony with the feelings you're trying to invoke when they think about your brand.
Create a Brand to Remember
When it comes to video advertising the biggest key to making your campaign a win is the emotional focus. Without it, you'll be left with something bland or generic. There's a lot to be said for doing things yourself. But... there's more to be said for using a time-tested professional to handle your branding in its entirety. I hope this was helpful and please, by all means, check out some of our previous work and see if we're the right fit for you.
Overhaul Your Strategy: Social Media Trends and Strategy to Follow in 2020
If you're going to make social media work for you, then you're going to need a strategy. A darn good one at that. Whether you're a blogger, artist, or business, you need to use social media to communicate with people and raise awareness. But blindly launching a social media campaign won't get you very far. You've got to implement a strategy to achieve great things.
In this post, I'm going to talk about some of the biggest and best social media trends that will improve your overall strategy. If you've been apprehensive about leaning into social media because you're not sure how to succeed, sit back, put your feet up and let us help you figure it all out. While it may not be rocket science, you can't just expect it to work for you without putting the work in yourself.
Don't Tear Down Communities. Build Them.
As we all know, one of the best things about social media is the ability to interact with your audience. And do it virtually in real time. It doesn't matter what you're selling; when you can relate your image and your product to an audience in a meaningful way, then you're going to get more people paying attention. This goes far beyond brand building. You've got to encourage a sense of community around your brand so that even when you're not engaging with your followers, they're engaging with one another.
A community can come in many forms. Ultimately, you want it to work both online and offline so the conversation around your brand never stops. You might be asking yourself (and if you're not, then I am pretending you are!) "how do you start this from the ground up?" It's important to use insights that the major platforms give you to come up with posts that take them into account. Specifically, look at engagement. Having lots of followers is a great building block, but you'll start to see followers turn into customers when your likes and comments increase. This is where it all comes back to content. Work on putting out content that gets people talking and encourages that sense of community that you're after.
Video Is King.
Video has taken over the digital marketing landscape and it's obvious now that people like to get their information from a video rather than reading it on a blog or a post. Like this one. But hang in there because there's more juicy nuggets coming your way.
You can use social media to promote your videos and even create video content directly on some platforms. Social media companies have made video easy to produce, and it's the best way to instantly communicate with your followers. Stories and IGTV on Instagram give you a platform to say and do whatever you want. Similar features are available on Facebook, Twitter, and many newer platforms. The video content that you should be pushing on your social media platforms isn't polished or sales-oriented. It should be raw and relatable to your followers so that it better suits that sense of community that we talked about earlier.
Word of Mouth Marketing.
Word of mouth marketing is a concept that we've become accustomed to for a long time. That's how a business grows from a starting point. You provide a great service, then encourage happy customers to tell everyone they know about your business. In essence, they've become ambassadors of your brand and that is very powerful. Well, obviously social media takes this concept to a completely new level. Whereas before, a happy customer might tell their sister and a few friends about a pleasant business experience. Now, with social media, you can tell someone halfway across the world about a brand that you've fallen in love with. This isn't exactly a "new" trend anymore, but this globalization of small business has only intensified and nowadays, more people are inclined to look at reviews online and take recommendations from someone they don't know on social media than trust a friend's suggestion.
So with that said, encourage people to tell others about your products and services and you'll see the awareness spread.
Outside the Soap Box.
One of the new developments in social media marketing going into 2020 is the rise of alternative platforms. Of course, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are still at the top and should be the focus of any strong social media marketing campaign. However, things like Pinterest, LinkedIn, and now TikTok are grabbing attention. Even Instagram is launching a new feature called Reels to combat TikTok.
Choosing which platforms to put your time and effort into developing depends on what you're trying to promote. TikTok is a relatively new platform that's seen rapid growth in the last year, but mainly with a younger demographic. And as I mentioned, even Instagram will have a platform like this as well. If your aim is to sell products, Pinterest might be the best option for you. LinkedIn remains focused on B2B interactions, but it's more valuable than ever for companies that are primarily interested in that. We're seeing these "alternative" platforms rise because they've begun to hit their stride and find their niche. Now you can find an alternative platform that works for what you're trying to sell, where before it was confined to the big 3.
Build Your Brand.
Brand building is still one of the most important social media trends out there. If you don't have strong branding, then you're going to be forgettable in a world that has huge quantities of everything. The best way to stand out is to focus on consistency across all social media platforms. Consistency of voice in your content and engagement with followers is important, but so is your visual consistency. We're big on real, human connection here at the agency and we believe that providing one with your followers is a characteristic of great brands. It's all about understanding the value of personalization and a positive customer experience and coupling that with great stories. You have to believe in what you're promoting if you expect your followers to as well.
Forget Hindsight. Foresight is 20/20.
Some of these social media trends are old mainstays, while others are new ideas that have grown out of established ones. To really improve your ability to market yourself on social media, you've got to stay informed on what's happening and what's coming. What's important today might see diminishing returns in 2021. Anyway, I hope this has been helpful in understanding how important we feel putting special emphasis on branding and creating a community for your followers to engage each other in really is. You'll see positive gains in both your public perception and your digital advertising strategy.
If you'd like some help with building your brand over social media, contact us here at EraserFarm. We're a Tampa-based digital marketing firm that takes human emotion and makes it part of the DNA of your marketing strategy. Check out our portfolio to get a better idea of what we're doing for our partners and what we can do for you.