influencer marketing

Is Content Marketing Your Key to Capturing New Customers?

There is one undeniable truth about content marketing: It’s crucial to capturing new customers while retaining loyal buyers. Let’s break it down a little.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a long-term strategy to deliver quality content to your target audience that aims to build trust, boost engagement, and ultimately increase conversions through creative content delivery. By offering unique blog articles and videos on your website, you can boost your search engine ranking by including the usual keywords and phrases consumers use when researching products online.

Whether you encountered content marketing as a strategy back in the early aughts or as recently as the COVID crisis, content marketing is much older than you think. Back in 1918, Jell-O started placing ads with recipes in “Ladies Home Journal,” while the very first example was a John Deer magazine designed for farmers in 1895. And we all remember the catalogs every store sent out before e-commerce took over.

Storytelling and User Experience

As social media platforms and websites become oversaturated with ads (5.3 trillion each year!), consumers have been using ad blockers and new privacy options from Apple and Google to phase them out. Consumers want something real and want to trust the business they give their money to. The best way to create organic engagement while breaking through the monotony of digital ads is through storytelling. Stories are memorable and attention-grabbing, but they also provide a way to showcase the human element behind your brand.

To maximize the impact of your storytelling, provide a stellar user experience. Most customers will gladly pay more for better customer service, while 80% would switch to a competitor after more than one bad experience. Focusing on improved user experience can inspire brand advocates to showcase their positive experience with your brand.

Today’s Content Marketing

There are several different types of content, from written word and infographics to audio and video that can support your marketing strategy. For example, written word content can be blog posts, white papers, email newsletters, and even books. All these forms can improve your search engine ranking through search engine optimization (SEO).

Visual content like infographics, short-form video content, and humorous memes offer a unique way to quickly (and organically) engage with your target audience. Infographics can quickly convey a lot of information by utilizing bullet points and numbers rather than long-form written content. In contrast, short-form video content appeals to society’s short attention spans. Good quality video content is helpful when deciding on a purchase, with 71% of consumers purchase after watching a brand’s videos.

Benefits of Quality Content

Quality content goes beyond SEO and search engine rankings, although those are important. While some may think ads are the way to go with online marketing, 7 out of 10 consumers like learning about brands through article-type content. Consistently posting quality content can create long-term benefits like improving brand image and building trust with your consumer base.

Informative blog posts should answer important questions about your brand and products without coming off as a sales pitch. With 90% of buyers finding custom content useful, it makes sense to prioritize content in your marketing strategy.

Content for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

Like different influencers and ads target various audiences, content should also be tailored to the different stages in a buyer’s journey. The first stage, awareness, is when a buyer is experiencing a problem and is looking to solve it. The consideration stage is where they’re putting in the effort to research whether your product or service is the answer to their problem. Finally, the decision stage is where the potential customer settles on their solution.

Creating custom content to cater to each stage in a buyer’s journey can guide them through your sales funnel. In the awareness stage, blog posts, whitepapers, and ebooks are beneficial, while comparison guides, case studies, and free samples are better suited for the consideration stage. Coupons, consultation offers, and free trials can help drive home conversion in the final decision stage.

Content marketing is key to capturing new customers. If you’d like to explore content marketing strategies for your brand, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help!

3 Reasons Brands Should Be Using TikTok

Even at first glance, TikTok is a no-brainer for marketing, and brands are starting to notice. While the app does have a reputation as a social platform for younger generations—think Generation Z and even some older members of Generation Alpha—the truth is that TikTok appeals to people from all ages. Yes, that even includes Baby Boomers.

In fact, only 60% of the nearly one billion monthly TikTokers are Gen Z. Of the remaining, 30% are Generation X and Boomers. These adults are on TikTok for an average of 38 minutes per day. This alone is a great reason to use TikTok for your brand marketing. But there are a few other big reasons you may want to start using this platform. More

Granfluencers: The Latest Digital Marketing Trend

Though Baby Boomers hold more than $2.6 trillion in spending power and control 70% of all disposable income in the U.S., they are often overlooked by marketers, specifically when digital campaigns are created. That’s a lot of money that brands may be leaving on the table, and a massive cohort of shoppers left feeling ignored.

When 67% of Baby Boomers own smartphones and account for 59% of digital purchases, it’s clear that this generation is more technologically savvy than younger generations give them credit for. With brands and marketers continuing to ignore them, Baby Boomers have effectively taken matters into their own hands. That’s right; we’re now in the age of the “Granfluencer.” More

The Changing Face of TikTok

By the time TikTok burst on the U.S. scene in 2017, it already had a following due to its first iteration as an app called Musical.ly. Since then, it has overcome a long list of problems—including increased pressure from legislators and copycat features from long-standing social media giants—to become one of America’s fastest-growing social media companies. More

Influencer Marketing Strategies for All Generations

For years, well before adopting the moniker of influencer marketing, brands have sought endorsements from celebrities and people of note. Generations that came before Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alphas—notably Generation X and Baby Boomers—can also be swayed by the right message from the right person at the right time.

Influencer marketing has become the catchall term for certain types of celebrities, experts, thought leaders, bloggers, and content creators who use their online presence to affect a group of people’s purchasing choices. It is one of the fastest-growing brand-building strategies, nearly tripling in value to an estimated $9.7 billion in recent years.

To develop killer influencer marketing strategies for all generations, it’s essential to understand the formula of the message, influencer, place, and time most effective for each generation. More

The Future of Influencer Marketing Is Here

Having worked with influencers for such brands as Barnes & Noble, Proctor & Gamble, Dell Computers, and Summit Brands, as well as brands in the food & beverage and wellness categories, we understand that when done correctly, influencer marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies available.

We’ve written about various influencer topics in the past, and one thing is clear: influencer marketing has evolved, and marketing strategies must also evolve to remain relevant.

Here are some of the influencer marketing trends predicted for 2021.

The Continued Rise of Micro and Nano-Influencers

Micro-influencers will continue to be more powerful than celebrity influencers for authentic engagement with a brand’s target audiences. In 2020, more than 46% of brand mentions featuring the hashtag #ad were published by Instagram accounts with 1k-20k followers. That will undoubtedly grow at least to 50% this year, if not more. Almost one-third of Instagram channels are currently micro-influencers with fewer than 100k followers. Mega-influencers and celebrities with over 5 million followers make up less than 1% of all influencers.

Micro- and nano-influencers enjoy better engagement with their audiences because they work hard to build their brand, entertain their followers, and build relationships with their clients. Even better, because they’re part of smaller communities, they’re more relatable than celebrities, which means their followers are more likely to act on their recommendations.

influencer audience sizes

Specialized Influencers

Brands will also be looking to work with specialized influencers that have deep niches, which supports better engagement rates. For instance, instead of food & beverage influencers, brands may engage influencers who specialize in organic foods or foods for specific allergies or sensitivities. Beauty brands will connect through influencers that fit their brand’s specific niche, such as sustainability or affordability.

Employees as Influencers

One group of specialized influencers are employees. Employees are often the first—and sometimes only—true connection customers have with a brand. That is likely why content shared by company employees typically receives 8x more engagement.

Savvy brands understand the power their employees hold, and that’s why many are taking the opportunities presented. Sometimes the opportunity is surprising and sudden, like Wendy’s repost of an employee’s video that has since received upward of 3 million views. Others have been more organized, like Macy’s Style Crew, which shares employees’ modeling store products.

Whether micro, nano, specialized, or employee influencers, ultimately it’s about finding the influencer whose audience matches the brand. And for this, the more niche, the better. Influencers with large audiences who don’t match the brand typically won’t generate as good of results.

Video: Still the King of Content

We can expect to see an even greater focus on creating assets beyond posts, with video on Instagram Stories and Reels, YouTube, and Facebook. In 2020, video ads were the top wayconsumers discovered brands they later purchased.

While Facebook users watching live video increased 50%, the average Instagram engagement ratio is 29.67 per 1k followers. By comparison, Facebook posts average 16.54 interactions per 1k followers.

In the coming year, watch out for TikTok. Its audience now has nearly 850 million monthly active users and continues to grow daily. TikTok is still largely untapped as a marketing tool, with only 10% of marketers saying they’ve used it. Of that 10%, however, 66% say they experienced success. Expect to see 25% of marketers—or maybe more—approach TikTok as a new marketing channel this year.

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Performance-Based Influencer Marketing

Gone are the days of measuring the success of posts simply by how much engagement they receive. While engagement is certainly still an excellent indicator, we can expect to see a much bigger push toward measurements that mean bigger bottom lines.

To that end, expect performance-based influencer marketing to take center stage this year. Sales will be a key performance indicator, though brands may also prioritize website traffic, clicks, or other metrics. Regardless, they will be watching and measuring influencer content closely to ensure it brings real value to the brand.

SEO Comes to Influencer Marketing

Until this year, searching topics on Instagram required the use of hashtags, but this will no longer be the case. Searching with keywords will now be possible, meaning that exposure to new followers will increase exponentially. For instance, instead of searching hashtags for #organicrecipes or #crueltyfreemakeup and hoping for extensive results, users will be able to search by keywords for a larger return on accounts and posts.

With this new feature, posts that feature the keywords will appear in searches even if there is no hashtag for that keyword. This could change the way that users find content—and how influencers create their posts. Instead of rows of hashtags to maximize chances for exposure, posts can take on a more natural flow without sacrificing engagement.

How AI Is Shaping Influencer Marketing

While AI technology has made creating virtual influencers look and interact like real people, it is highly doubtful that these influencers will become the norm. Authentic influencers have a personal connection and a trusted voice with their audience. Influencers generated by computers may offer inspiration, but they will likely elicit a real feeling of betrayal when a follower or customer realizes the virtual influencer is not a real person.

So while virtual influencers won’t be replacing human influencers anytime soon, AI can certainly play a role in sifting through influencer performance data — assessing what types of brands influencers have worked with previously, and which influencers performed well by driving qualified engagement and conversions around particular products or content.

While influencer marketing is not perfect, it’s still one of the most effective ways for brands to drive online conversations and find new customers. Taking advantage of all that influencer marketing can offer in 2021 will require more than an exchange of free products for exposure. Still, the work you put into your campaigns will pay off. Avoid the known pitfalls, watch for red flags, and work with an experienced agency to develop relationships with influencers you can trust.

If you’d like to explore influencer marketing in 2021, or revamp your current influencer marketing strategies, give us a call.

The current state of the world has most of us housebound and cleaning everything in sight—especially our hands. As important as spring cleaning the house may be, now is the time to also consider spring cleaning your marketing program.

If you’re planning to do some spring cleaning for your brand, here are a few things to address. More

Influencer Marketing: 2020 Trends & Stats

Influencer marketing shows no signs of slowing down in 2020, having evolved into a core marketing strategy that is practiced by over 93% of marketers. Predicted to be a $10 billion industry by the end of 2020, the role of influencers will clearly continue to help brands connect with their consumers in highly relevant ways.

Following are some trends that will likely dominate the industry this year. More

Article Recommendation: How Fake Instagram Followers Are Impacting Social Media Marketing

There is no denying that influencer marketing is a powerful way to make the most of word-of-mouth marketing for your business. However, as with every other form of marketing that has come before, some bad actors can have a detrimental effect on this tactic for everyone involved.

Exploiting the system is nothing new. In most cases, whole business models crop up and revolve around bad marketing tactics. When direct mail marketing saw results, along came address list sales. Telemarketers turned the populace against them with unrelenting calls at all hours of the day. Email marketing was a phenomenal way to reach the right audience—until the dreaded address list sales began anew. Then there was SEO, which was an easy way for people to get found, until keyword stuffing and blackhat tactics cropped up. More

Why an Influencer Engagement Strategy Is Critical for Your Brand

Influencer marketing has never before been so powerful or effective. In the past five years, it has grown from a supplemental marketing tactic into a $10 billion industry. With influencer engagement beating out both organic search and email marketing, 65% of marketers have increased their 2019 budgets in this area.

Following are some key reasons why influencers can be your brand’s best advocates. More

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