Paid vs organic social media strategy: Your planning essentials
Both organic and paid social media landscapes are constantly evolving. New networks rise to prominence (e.g. TikTok), new technology increases user participation and real-time content (e.g. Periscope) and existing networks enhance their platform and product (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram launching ‘buy’ buttons).
In 2022, organic reach is also continuing to shrink as the leading networks ramp up their paid social media channels to monetize platform investment. Now more than ever, marketers need to research and optimize the right organic and paid media options to achieve their goals.
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If the first era of social was engagement, the new era is acquisition and conversion. Social commerce…
Learn how you can use the Product Life Cycle (PLC) marketing model to project changes in the perception and use of your products
The Product Life Cycle describes the stages of a product from launch to being discontinued. It is a strategy tool that helps companies plan for new product development and refine existing products.
What are the stages of the Product Life Cycle?
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline
New Product Development
The new product development stage occurs before the product's life-cycle begins, consisting of market research leading up to product launch. Hence this stage can include:
Reviewing demand for products
Assessing brand perception
Competitor benchmarking
Understanding consumers' preferences and behaviours
What do the PLC stages mean?
The four stages are shown in the table below, although decline can be avoided by reinventing elements of the product. It is also recognized that some products never move beyond the introduction phase whilst others move through the life…
A quick guide to different types of advertising for different purposes
This article explores different types of advertising online. Which ones are effective? Which among them actually help businesses reach their bottom line and business goals?
In Digital Marketing: Integrating strategy and tactics with values, published 2014, Ira Kaufman and Chris Horton wrote that we’re well beyond the stage in which digital media is a fad. In fact, over the last 10 years, digital media has become the means by which consumers communicate with their friends and families, especially when making purchase decisions. This is the main reason why marketers embrace and invest in digital marketing and advertising.
But, alongside these welcome developments in customer behavior and expectations, marketers are faced with increasing challenges - algorithm updates, changes in tracking, and increased noise in the digital landscape to name just three.
As Anatolii Labinskyi put it 'change is…
With every company keen to climb Google’s search rankings, it is easy to lose perspective by simply churning out fresh content that seizes on the zeitgeist or otherwise meets current demand
It is difficult to overstate the importance of evergreen content for modern content marketers. Evergreen content is, by nature, time-proof, as relevant if read in a year as it is today.
While Google does like to answer searchers’ queries with up-to-date articles, it also rewards high-quality legacy content created many months or even years ago – particularly if you update it regularly.
Some blog pages have stubbornly hung on to a number one page ranking for eight or nine years now, bringing a constant stream of traffic to the page, as well as building trust (being the number one spot in search results will help make more people trust you and your business) and, consequently, boosting your conversions.
By creating evergreen content, you…
Do you understand your Google Ads conversion journey?
As Ralph Waldo Emerson supposedly said, ‘Life is a journey, not a destination.’ When it comes to arriving at the right revenue destination for your paid media campaigns, the journey can mean everything. All your creative needs to be focused on your Google Ads conversion journey, and the associated ad copy must be clear and actionable. Otherwise, you’ll waste a good portion of your precious marketing budget.
In this post, I’ll first share an example of a typical paid ad conversion journey that misses the mark. Then I’ll share the steps you should follow to make sure your ad messaging and associated landing page have a more ‘nirvana’ flow - not edgy like the grunge rock band, but smooth like messages and calls to action (CTAs) that seem to read your mind every step along the…
How to utilise QR codes for a better marketing strategy that reaches, engages and converts your audience
In the introduction of better and faster technology, people are now using their devices more than ever. It’s all about accessing everything in a snap and getting the information across from one person to another or from a business to a consumer. One of the trending channels in the marketing industry is the QR code.
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QR (Quick Response) Codes can be read and understood by mobile devices. Marketers have used this in billboards, magazines, web pages, and any other marketing material. QR codes can provide more information about the product or service without a sweat, and the information quickly goes to the user’s device.
Basically, QR codes promote interaction and engagement through…
9 pointers for strategic marketers to implement and benefit from cross-channel marketing
What is cross-channel marketing?
Cross-channel marketing is a customer-focused digital marketing technique used by marketers globally to provide an integrated experience across all paid, owned, earned media, and digital experiences.
It is a powerful way of designing your marketing strategy and implementing data and analysis to create omnichannel customer journeys towards your goals.
Implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy can be a little intimidating. You need to take care of multiple channels while designing your campaigns.
Keeping track of every campaign and integrating their analytics is certainly not an easy task. That's where our RACE Framework comes in.
So, before we dive into cross-channel marketing, let’s take a moment to assess your business' marketing needs. Did you know you can book a free 1-2-1 membership consultation to discuss your objectives in the context of our omnichannel…
Examples of how SMEs can use Porter’s 5 Forces to assess marketplace viability
Right now, Porter's 5 Forces is the most useful tool for owners and managers to stay one step ahead of the competition in a challenging market. The Porter's 5 Forces model has always been popular with SMEs in particular, looking to invest for growth and manage risk to their limited resources.
Earmarked as the best marketing model to help small businesses analyze the competition in the marketplace, balancing these 5 forces is a must for your 2022 marketing action plan.
What are Porter’s 5 Forces?
Porter’s 5 Forces is an analytical model that helps marketers and business managers look at the ‘balance of power’ in a market between different organizations on a global level, and to analyze the attractiveness and potential profitability of an industry sector.
Competitive rivalry
Threat of substitute products
Bargaining power of buyers
Threat…
Stand out, get noticed and engage your audience with the inverted triangle principle
To attract an audience’s attention, start with the end in mind.
Brands embracing a content marketing strategy should study one of journalism’s key models: the inverted pyramid. This storytelling approach states that the most important elements of a story must come first, before tapering off into more detailed information later.
The inverted triangle also helps content creators structure stories so that the most important information reaches the widest audience, whilst the least important information goes at the bottom.
We see this all the time in newspaper articles. Consider this example:
The headline is clear, succinct and immediately captures our attention. The opening paragraph summarizes the essence of the story. Anyone who abandons the article after three or four paragraphs can still come away with…
Businesses have a tendency to make many of the same mistakes when collaborating with popular social influencers, errors that prevent them from getting the results they crave
Influencer marketing has been around for as long as marketing itself. Only in the modern age, the term influencer marketing is invariably used to describe the sort that occurs on social media, with Instagram tending to be the platform of choice. Chances are you’re already familiar with the concept of influencer marketing and, since you’ve found your way onto this blog, I’d wager that you’re not exactly thrilled with the results.
Don’t worry: you’re definitely not alone. Businesses have a tendency to make many of the same mistakes when collaborating with popular social influencers, errors that prevent them from getting the results they crave. Whether these missteps are a result of an ineffectual recruitment process or the actual campaigns is another question – but we’ll…
