social media channels

What Does It Mean to Be a Social Media Strategist?

Data from Statista shows that in 2021, nearly 4.3 billion people used social media. That number is projected to increase to almost six billion by 2027!

With easy access to so many people, it’s unsurprising why social media content is a necessary component of anyone’s digital marketing strategy. So much so that now, plenty of people work as social media strategists.

But what does it mean to be a social media strategist? Read on to learn more about this position and how a strategist can help your business with its social media marketing.

What Is a Social Media Strategist? 

A social media strategist designs campaigns over various social media channels to achieve your company’s goals. Their role focuses on the “big picture.”

Simply put, a social media strategist comes up with a strategy for your social media campaigns and hands it off to a social media manager to implement it.

While a social media strategist may help manage the day-to-day activities and help drive engagement, their most important role is to build brand awareness. In addition, they focus on bridging the gap between offline and online activities.

A social media strategist will be able to handle the following:

  • Plan and schedule content
  • Collaborate with other team members, such as graphic designers, copywriters, and content creators, to create marketing campaigns
  • Measure campaigns’ performance
  • Analyze how other channels such as search engine optimization (SEO), email, and PPC complement and interact with your social media campaigns
  • Monitor business mentions
  • Analyze competitors’ social media campaigns

If you have a social media team, the social media strategist is the backbone of that team.

What’s the Difference Between a Social Media Strategist and Social Media Manager? 

Now that we’ve answered the question, “What is a social media strategist?” you may wonder how the role is different from a social media manager. While many use the two job titles interchangeably, these creative services have some crucial distinctions.

Social media managers focus mainly on the day-to-day activities of social media. Generally speaking, a social media manager helps to implement the strategy given by the strategist by managing a team of social media specialists.

Further, social media managers are usually only thinking about executing one campaign at a time, and their focus is on the execution of the campaign.

Some of their duties include:

  • Content creation (focusing on high-quality content)
  • Engaging with customers on different social media accounts, such as

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Linkedin
    • TikTok

  • Identifying customer trends
  • Planning and implementing digital campaigns

Some social media managers will analyze engagement and web traffic metrics to help build online communities, but this is not a requirement. Strategists tend to have more skills when it comes to analyzing statistics.

Conversely, while social media strategists may also aid in daily activities related to social media, they do much more. Strategists think about the long-term goals of the company. They need to do research and create more comprehensive marketing campaigns and strategies.

However, the required skill set for both industry professionals is quite similar. They usually need the following:

  • Analytical skills
  • Communication skills
  • Copywriting skills
  • Management skills
  • Multitasking skills
  • Some graphic design skills
  • Time-management skills

Although their roles differ, managers and strategists work together to increase your business’s online presence and help achieve its goals.

What Does a Social Media Strategist Do? 

We could give you a long list of responsibilities for a social media strategist. Instead, we’ll cover what we believe to be the three most important responsibilities of any social media strategist.

Develop, Implement, & Manage Social Media Plans

A social media strategist must identify the following:

  • Potential customer demographics
  • Where the target audience engages on social media
  • How they communicate
  • What makes them tick

With this information, they can analyze social media trends and develop a social media strategy. Once fully developed, social media specialists will implement and manage it through various social media posts.

They may work with a social media manager during the implementation stage.

Define the Most Important Social Media KPIs

With the social media campaigns in place, your strategist will then track the results. Social media analytics is instrumental to the success of your campaigns and offers powerful insights. Of course, your strategist needs to be well-versed in the basic metrics, such as

  • Clicks
  • Comments
  • Likes
  • Shares

But they may also focus on even more important KPIs, like:

  • Brand mentions
  • Engagement
  • Followers
  • Impressions/views
  • Leads
  • Email signups
  • Sales
  • Website traffic

Your strategist will use these KPIs to alter the digital marketing strategy when necessary for the best results.

Build an Online Community on Social Media 

Although daily engagement is essential for a social media strategist, what matters more is building a community and cultivating influence.

Your strategist will use different tools, like storytelling, humor, and polls, to create a following of responsive and loyal customers. They will also guide your business in connecting with its target audience so that the customer relationship can go beyond sales and leads.

Do You Need a Social Media Strategist?

To know if you need to hire a social media strategist, look at who is already on your team.

A strategist is an excellent idea if you need someone to help with your big picture and create an overarching social media strategy. But if you only need someone to help with content creation, posting, and engaging with customers, you may be better off with a social media manager.

Additionally, if your current social media strategy isn’t getting the ROI you expected, a strategist can help assess why. Then, they can create a plan to reach your desired targets.

If you feel completely lost when it comes to anything social media-related, then a strategist can definitely help you.

Social Media Strategist Salary: Pricing to Expect

A strategist isn’t free, so you’ll need to add their fee to your social media marketing costs. According to Indeed.com, the average salary for a full-time social media strategist is around $52,000 per year. This is if you hire someone to join your in-house team.

However, you can also employ a strategist on a project basis. The strategist can deliver a strategy that is ready to implement. Prices will vary depending on the scope of the project and your strategist’s experience.

Grow Your Business With the Right Strategy

Growing your business’s online presence through various social media platforms is necessary to build a loyal customer base and reach your goals. Bringing a social media strategist on board can expedite achieving those goals. Want to learn more about our digital marketing services at EraserFarm? Reach out, and let’s have a chat!


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.


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 is a Creative Agency? Creative Agencies Explained

Developing long-term relationships with your clients and maintaining their interest in your brand is not easy; it requires patience and work. Marketing plays a significant role in this case: it elevates your brand’s reach and increases the potential value of your goods and services. Creative agencies are crucial in this regard, as they can enable you to implement strategies that ultimately increase profits.

Navigating the world of varying creative agencies to get this support can be tricky. Below, we will comprehensively break down how creative agencies work for you in this article, as well as introduce the major types of creative agencies.

What Is a Creative Agency?

Creative agencies typically offer a range of services that help strengthen a brand’s marketing, ad presence, and overall brand personality. If you require any innovative strategy, work, or publicity, enlisting the services of a creative agency should be your plan of action. While you know your brand and target audience best, a team of creative and marketing professionals is the key to communicating these things most effectively.

These agencies provide strategy-building, content creation, measurement and analysis, and communication services. They comprise a team of experts that can uphold your brand’s needs. This team can include an art director, a creative director, producers, videographers, writers and editors, web designers and developers, and account managers—among other specialists that may make their agency unique.

Types of Creative Agencies

There are a variety of creative agencies you can choose from to cater to your unique requirements:

1. Digital Agency

Businesses can obtain an advantage over their competitors and engage with customers much more effectively by using online methods. A digital creative agency focuses on developing the design and marketing of your products and services available online. They enhance your online presence by creating mobile and web applications that incorporate social media marketing, online ads, and campaigns.

The agency may also focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure your content ranks well in search results. Search engine optimization is a practice where search engines are studied for their algorithms to determine what causes search results to rank higher than others. When these fundamentals are applied to a marketing campaign, the visibility of your brand in searchable online spaces is front and center.

Since they also collect information regarding how well your implemented online campaign is performing, they can guide you on audience engagement, the do’s and don’ts of social media advertisement, and click-through rates.

2. Advertising Agency

This type of agency aims to promote your products and campaigns in a way that stimulates the interest of audiences. A creative advertising agency strategizes to increase your customer pool by attracting new consumers while ensuring that the existing ones remain loyal.

These experts conduct market research, obtaining data regarding the latest trends and brand perception. This allows them to effectively pinpoint placements for created ads and improve brand popularity. They also have connections with media outlets, which makes the advertisement process much smoother for their clients.

3. Design Agency

A design agency’s job is to make products and services look attractive so that they appear much more enticing than their competition in the targeted market. This entails the designs of both digital services and products.

Designers will create style layouts for mobile or web page marketing tools; for example, websites and e-newsletters. Similarly, packaging design is just as vital as your product—the packaging is the first thing that a consumer will see and collect information about the product from. Design firms provide product and packaging designs that make your product look attractive while retaining its functionality and convenience.

Endnote

Running a successful business with the proper marketing strategies requires that you put effort into crafting your content. Working with a creative agency that is friendly, responsive, and aligns with your brand image and values can get you the content you need, while most effectively spreading the word of what your business has to offer.

Investing in this type of partnership ensures your content is created carefully and makes a great impact. Start the discussion today and contact EraserFarm for a consultation with a multifaceted advertising agency dedicated to communicating your brand’s unique personality.


How to Create a Winning Brand Strategy for Your Business

I am a huge proponent of brand strategy. Shocking I know. It's a no-brainer yet many clients bypass it. Well, according to research, it takes about 5 to 7 impressions to start creating brand awareness. Every business needs a strong brand that people can easily recognize and relate to. When consumers recognize your brand immediately, they pay attention to ads, recommend your company to others, and become repeat customers if they like your products or services.

Now, with only seven seconds to make the first impression, you need to bring your A-game if you're going to create a winning brand strategy. Here are ways to create a winning brand strategy.

Define Your Brand's Purpose

Your brand's purpose is what it stands for and what it hopes to achieve. It should be something more than making money. Nike, for example, doesn't just make shoes and clothes — they inspire people to be their best selves. Harley Davidson isn't just about motorcycles, they stand for freedom and the open road. Knowing your brand's purpose makes it much easier to create marketing messages that resonate with your target audience. You can also use it as a guideline for your business decisions.

Create a Strong Brand Identity

Your brand identity is what makes your brand unique. It's what people remember about you, even when they can't remember your name or product. Apple is an excellent example of a brand with a strong identity. Their logo, colors, and marketing messages are instantly recognizable to consumers worldwide.And their work, well, it's spectacular, to say the least.

And like them, your brand identity should be consistent across all channels, from your website to your social media profiles to your print materials. Use the same fonts, colors, and logos throughout so that people know they're dealing with your brand.

Create a Strong Brand Personality

Your brand personality is what your brand sounds and feels like. It should be unique, just like your brand identity, and should be reflected in your marketing campaign. For example, Apple's brand personality is sleek, modern, and minimalistic, while Harley Davidson's brand personality is rebellious and edgy. Think about the words you would use to describe your brand and use them to create a voice for your brand.

Develop a Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is how you plan to reach and engage your target audience. It should include tactics like online advertising, PR, and content marketing. You also need a brand strategy that fits within your larger marketing strategy. It's essential to understand how you're going to reach your target audience every time, not just when it comes time for big campaigns. You can use tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to determine which ad networks are the best match for your brand.

Use Social Media Strategically

Social media is an integral part of any good brand strategy for many businesses. Customers want brands they can engage with in meaningful ways. With the right brand management in place, social media becomes a powerful tool to engage your customers and build brand awareness at the same time. There are plenty of brand management tools out there, so it's just a matter of finding one that fits your brand.

Be Consistent With Brand Messaging Across All Channels

Your brand identity is how you present your brand to the world. Whether you do it through your products, a marketing campaign, or social media. It should be consistently presented across platforms so people can identify it immediately and relate to it easily. If people see different messages on Twitter than they do on Facebook or Instagram, they might not know which brand they represent. Now, most processes are not that easy, and you may need professional help, so hire a brand strategy agency.

Build Brand Loyalty Through Brand Experience

The brand experience is what your customers feel when interacting with your brand. That's whether trying out a product or interacting with customer service online. Brands like Disney and Starbucks have built their success on providing great brand experiences that create loyal customers and raving fans. Your brand experience should be consistent across all channels, from your website to social media profiles to customer service interactions. Every touchpoint matters. Make sure everything aligns with who you are as a brand and what you stand for at every point in the journey.

Create Brand Associations

Brand associations are the images and feelings your brand evokes in consumers' minds. Associations can be positive or negative, but they have to strike a chord with your target audience if you want brand recognition. For example, Old Spice is associated with virility. Dove is associated with nurturing women's self-esteem. Both brands are successful because their brand associations are clear and resonate with their audiences.

Get Brand Reviews From Experts and Existing Customers

Getting brand reviews from experts in your industry plays a significant role in brand recognition. You see, people respect third-party endorsements. They'll be more likely to trust the authenticity of your brand if it's been recommended by an expert they respect. If you don't have any brand reviews yet, ask some of your satisfied customers for recommendations. Use these reviews in future marketing and sales materials and on your promotional channels, website, social media platforms, print materials, etc.

Analyze Your Brand Competition

It's important to know your direct brand competitors because these are the people you're competing with for brand recognition and sales. However, don't stop there. You should also study how other brands in your industry get their message across to determine what works well and what doesn't work at all. If possible, try to get a copy of an annual brand report produced by an industry association or research company. You'll see which brand strategies are working best in your business niche. Compare this data to your brand strategy to see if there are any gaps between where your brand is now and where it needs to be for success.

Measure Brand Success Using Key Performance Indicators

To know if your brand strategy is working, you must track progress and measure it against your goals. You can achieve this by setting up key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking them over time. KPIs can vary depending on your brand and business. However, common ones might include brand awareness, website traffic, leads generated, or social media engagement. By tracking these metrics regularly, you can see how well your brand strategy is working and make necessary adjustments along the way.

Creating the Best Brand Strategy: Everything You Need

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. A strong brand strategy can help you to connect with your target audience. It'll help you stand out from the competition, and achieve success in today's crowded marketplace. With the tips provided in this guide, you should be able to create a winning strategy. That said, if you need help getting a good brand strategy together, please give us a call, and we'll work together.


What Are the Common Types of Digital Marketing?

If you're like us and you run a small business, you know the importance of expanding your customer base and reaching new eyes. Marketing is everything when it comes to business growth, but not enough business owners understand how to make it work for them. While traditional marketing is still useful and you should never toss away your business cards, various types of digital marketing are the way forward.

But what is digital marketing anyway and why the heck is it so important?

Well, digital marketing is any type of marketing that uses digital means to reach customers. Most of the time this marketing comes in the form of internet-based communication and content. We're here to talk about what types of digital marketing are used for marketing a business. So pour yourself a cup of Joe and pull up a chair.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM is the first thing that most people think of when they think about digital marketing. SEM is search engine marketing and it's somewhat of an umbrella term, but in this context, we're using it to mean paid marketing, which is also often referred to as "PPC" or "pay per click" marketing.  Lots of small businesses start out with SEM while they grow the rest of their digital marketing strategy. This means that you should have room in your marketing budget to accommodate routine SEM payments.

Why is it so important? Well when you use SEM, your business's website will appear at the top of search engines by default, but potential customers will know that you've paid for this spot due to the "ad" label. That said, this is still a great way to gain more traffic.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the king of digital marketing and all business owners should include it in their digital marketing strategy. When you use search engine optimization, you're setting your website up to move up the search rankings. Because many people never venture beyond the first page of Google searches, this is crucial. SEO has many benefits that SEM just can't match. While both are useful, SEO is popular for a reason. When you invest in good SEO, you're setting your website up for a future of success instead of just success at the moment. That SEM will be the stepping stone for your business, but SEO will keep your strategy afloat.

SEO has to do with several things. You need to have an updated and accurate Google My Business page, great keyword use on your site, and valuable information. Many people make the mistake of using bad tactics like "keyword stuffing" (or overusing keywords for SEO purposes instead of useful purposes). This practice can hurt your SEO. This is one of the reasons that it pays off to have a professional. SEO ends up paying for itself over time and you don't have to pay every time you want an ad at the top of the search engine.

Local SEO

Speaking of SEO, local SEO is also important if you're a brick-and-mortar business that's trying to drum up local customers and support. You want to make sure that you're targeting the right people, right? A lot of people, 76% in fact, will visit a business within a day after searching for it on their smartphones. For you to turn up on that smartphone search, you need to utilize local SEO. Local SEO is broken down into several categories and there are several ways to make it work for you. It requires you to use local keywords and have an accurate position on Google Maps. This allows customers to recognize that your business operates out of their town or city. You can also build your local SEO by acquiring backlinks from other local businesses both in and out of your niche. This tends to be a tradeoff between businesses, so this is a great time to talk to local business owners about negotiating an arrangement.

Content Marketing

Content marketing and SEO (local and otherwise) go hand in hand. But what is content marketing? Content marketing is when you utilize blog posts and other valuable content to attract customers and build your SEO. While blog posts were once for people writing personal accounts on Livejournal or filling on food blogs, many businesses now use them as part of their digital marketing strategies. When you use content marketing, you fill your website with valuable keywords. This means that people browsing the web who are looking for a specific service, or even an answer to a question, will come across your page.

When you use content marketing, you'll come off as an expert in your niche, which will help you build customer trust.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has little to do with your website and everything to do with keeping up with social media trends. Everyone knows about social media marketing and how it can contribute to growing a business, but are you taking advantage of it? When you hire a professional for your digital marketing strategy, you'll be able to find and target your ideal audience with social media marketing. For example, if your target audience is made up of millennial women, you may end up focusing on utilizing Instagram because that's where that demographic "lives" on the internet.

While social media marketing contains traditional ads and hashtagged content to attract new people, you can also utilize influencer marketing. Younger audiences tend to prefer this marketing style as they don't respond as well to standard digital ads.

Try These Types of Digital Marketing to Grow Your Business

These are just some of the various types of digital marketing that you can use to help your business grow and thrive. Whether you're using SEM, SEO, or social media marketing (or a combination of the three), you'll discover that your business grows in record time.

So if you need of someone to help out with your digital marketing efforts, EraserFarm has a small, crackerjack team of experts ready, willing and able to help. Contact us and let's get started working together today.


Instagram Marketing for Beginners

About 3.5 billion people are active on social media. That's a crazy number, if you think about it. And because of that, over 90% of marketers use social media to boost exposure for their brands online. A few eye-catching images and witty captions aren't enough for a strong Instagram marketing strategy, though. So with that, here are 10 tips that can help you learn how to market on Instagram. With these Instagram marketing strategies, you can reach more customers online. You can build a following, engage your audience, and potentially generate fresh leads.

Ready to set your brand up for success online? Get started with these 10 easy Instagram marketing tips today! Let's roll.

1. Research Your Audience

Before anything else, take the time to gather research. Research can help you make more informed decisions with your Instagram marketing strategy. Otherwise, the assumptions you make could waste valuable time and energy in the long run. First, take the time to learn as much as you can about your target audience.

If you're targeting a broad audience, segment your customers into distinct personas. You can distinguish each group based on demographics and psychographics. For example, you might segment customers based on:

  • Age
  • Education
  • Language
  • Gender
  • Household income
  • Marital status
  • Interests
  • Buying behaviors
  • Hobbies
  • Pain points

Think of each persona as a real person. What content are they searching for while online? Understanding your target audience can help you better appeal to their interests. In fact, over 70% of people get annoyed when content has nothing to do with their interests. Over 50% of consumers will switch brands if companies don't use personalized messaging. Personalizing your content with distinct customer groups in mind could boost your ROI. In fact, 80% of people are more likely to make purchases from companies that personalize communications. Personalization can boost your ROI by eight times, too.

As you use the rest of these Instagram marketing strategies, keep your customers in mind. Speak their language to draw them in.

2. Check Out the Competition

As you gather information about your target audience, don't forget to consider your competitors. You develop a strong Instagram marketing strategy based on the mistakes your competitors are making. You can learn from their successes and failures.

Look at the posts your competitors share on their Instagram accounts. Create a spreadsheet that outlines the:

  • Types of posts your competitors create (still images, videos, IGTV, Reels, Stories, Shoppable posts, etc.)
  • Day and time each post goes up
  • Their most popular posts
  • The hashtags they use
  • How often they post

As you review their posts, check out the engagement. Which posts get the most likes and comments? Which posts tend to fall flat? Don't copy what your competitors are doing. Instead, look for ways to improve on their Instagram marketing strategies. For example, you can learn which post formats are most popular with your target audience.

3. Update Your Profile

Optimizing your Instagram profile can help more potential followers and customers find you online. First, make sure you're using a business account. Instagram's business accounts offer additional features and tools. For example, you can review your Instagram Insights to learn more about your followers. When updating your profile, try to add as much helpful information as you can. Make sure your business name is clear. Use a handle that's easy to remember and associate with your brand. Make sure to include your website, too. Use a hashtag that's relevant to your business within your description as well. These tips could help you use Instagram as part of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, too.

4. Create Engaging Content

Engaging, branded content is key for a successful Instagram marketing strategy. Make sure your content is unique and helpful. Focus on providing your customers with entertaining or helpful content. Try to avoid hard sales tactics. After all, most people aren't on Instagram to shop. Instead, help them learn more about your business. For example, you can create product demos or tutorials. You post helpful tips and tricks or schedule live Q&A sessions. Experiment with different forms of content to see what engages your audience.

5. Schedule Ahead of Time

Once you start developing your content, try to schedule your posts ahead of time. Scheduling your posts can help you remain efficient and organized. Once you start posting, look at your data. What day and time help you generate the most engagement? Schedule your posts at the right time to reach your audience.

6. Partner With Influencers

Instagram influencer marketing can help expand your reach. You can boost brand awareness and build your online credibility. Look for influencers your target audience already loves. Then, ask if they're willing to promote your brand. You can leverage the influencer's existing brand trust and loyalty to draw more people to your business.

7. Gather Your Hashtags

Create a branded hashtag for your posts. Encourage people to use your branded hashtag when they discuss your business. Then, share their user-generated content to boost brand trust and loyalty. Avoid using oversaturated hashtags like "#love." Instead, focus on hashtags that appeal to your target audience. Make sure the hashtags you use are appropriate to the post, too.

8. Keep the Conversation Going

As people begin commenting on your Instagram posts, comment back! Create a two-way conversation. Respond to questions and let your followers know you're there to help. Look for ways to boost engagement, too. For example, you can create polls and quizzes in your Stories. Consider hosting a contest as well.

9. Track Trends

Keep up with the latest trends to ensure you never fall behind. Otherwise, followers might think your business is outdated. Choose trends that suit your industry and business. In the meantime, make sure to avoid these eight social media marketing mistakes.

10. Analyze and Optimize

As you develop your Instagram marketing strategy, make sure to review your data. Reviewing your data can help you learn from your mistakes. You can also recognize the strategies that are helping you engage your target audience. Continue optimizing your Instagram marketing plans to gather more followers and leads in the future.

Like a Lot: 10 Instagram Marketing Tips for Beginners

A strong Instagram marketing strategy can put your business on the map. You can reach more people online and start building a loyal following. Develop your Instagram plans with these 10 easy tips today.

And of course, if you need help developing your digital marketing strategy, we're always here to lend a hand! Contact our team today to get started.


Latest Trends in Video Marketing

Video marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience. So, it’s imperative that you have a strong understanding of the current industry trends. So with that, I've listed some of the most notable ways below that you need to keep in mind. Let’s get started.

User-Generated Content

As time goes on, more and more companies will begin to implement user-generated content. For those who are unaware, this term refers to any type of content that is created by users as opposed to the brand itself. One of the most common examples involves a brand holding a contest or similar event that encourages members of its target audience to post their own photos or videos while following specific guidelines. These are often in the form of “challenges” that aim to increase the engagement that the brand has with its audience while also promoting a specific product or service. As you might guess, this is a highly effective marketing method due to the fact that members of your audience can easily relate to people that are similar to them. So, keep this in mind when moving forward.

Mobile Live Streaming

Live streaming has been a pillar of video marketing for the past few years. It immediately establishes a powerful connection with your audience and provides insight into certain aspects of your brand then they normally would be unaware of. For example, a business might start a live stream and then showcase what the average day is like at its facility. You may get to see what goes on behind the scenes, members of the team in action, etc. This trend will continue, except it will almost exclusively utilize mobile devices. This is simply due to the fact that mobile applications have exploded in popularity since their inception.

This is particularly true for TikTok, a short-form video app that took the world by storm and had unprecedented business applications. Keep this in mind when moving forward so that you can formulate ways to incorporate mobile live streaming into your video marketing methods.

Interactive Content

People will want to save more and more time as the years go on. After all, the average person has the attention span of a goldfish at this point. Interactive content removes the need for the user to contact a brand, visit a website, etc. So, the user is far more likely to take the company’s intended action, such as making a purchase or signing up for an email newsletter. Some brands plan on taking this a step further and integrating augmented reality/virtual reality into their video marketing. This will provide a viable alternative to the conventional in-person shopping experience, something that many consumers have gotten used to over this past year.

Shoppable Video Content

Although shoppable video is a relatively new form of video marketing, it’s expected to be highly effective. This method allows members of your target demographic to purchase a product directly from an advertisement. As previously mentioned, this completely eliminates the need to take extra steps in order to navigate to a checkout page. Making products easier to purchase will go a long way when it comes to maximizing sales performance.

In many cases, this type of video content can even outperform display ads.

Educational Videos

From a marketing standpoint, one of the most efficient ways to connect with a customer is to teach them something. More specifically, though, e-learning has been projected to grow substantially in the coming years. Educational videos also include forms of online training that professionals and students alike can benefit from. Since this industry has recently seen unprecedented growth, brands are beginning to invest more than ever before into it. That means you can expect to see a sharp increase in production value when it comes to educational video content.

Virtual Events

As more and more brands begin to recognize the utility of virtual events, they become a more practical option in many circumstances. To elaborate, more companies than ever before are beginning to host remote sessions as opposed to in-person gatherings. This is even true for types of events that have traditionally always involved traveling to the physical location, such as music festivals. We can expect to see an increase in diversity when it comes to what type of virtual events companies begin to host. Instead of celebrations, it’s highly likely that many brands will hold conferences, public announcements, etc. from a remote location and livestream them while doing so. No matter what industry you operate within, chances are that hosting virtual events is something that you can benefit from at some point in 2021.

Animated Explainer Content

Similar to educational videos, animated explainer content is projected to be on the rise this year. However, these aren't quite aligned with education in the same way. To elaborate, explainer content involves informing viewers about noneducational topics. Ongoing social issues, for example, are a common focus of explainer content. Although simple in nature, this type of video content can hold its own among the top video marketing strategies.

It’s Essential to Keep the Above Video Marketing Trends in Mind

These will help ensure that you implement the appropriate methods when it comes to targeting your audience. Moving forward, you’ll find that video marketing is far easier than you anticipated.

Want to learn more about what we have to offer? Feel free to get in touch with us today and see how we can help.


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

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.

Twitter

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

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.