If you don’t want to waste time reading, you can get all the useful information at our academy. Our webinars have collected a huge amount of both basic and advanced useful information for business owners from the owners of a successful business. All of the information we’ve gathered is up-to-date and available for free.

And in this article, we’ve compiled the top 9 non-obvious but effective ways to attract more clients. So read on! But first, let’s determine whether there is a problem with agency growth at all.

Reasons why it’s not easy for agencies to find clients

Absolutely all agencies have problems with growth. During Smart Insights interviews, many agency founders said they have trouble finding new clients. Other respondents shared another problem – ranking for target keywords. And almost all of them reported tough competition.

Hubspot, in its 2018 Agency’s Growth Report, also found this problem:

Source: https://www.hubspot.com/

The study showed the following. 79% of agencies are confident they can close their clients. But only 60% are confident in their ability to attract new leads.

Source: https://www.hubspot.com/

But this data only points to the root of the problem — namely, the agencies’ inability to reach and attract the target market.

Why is this happening? Many people interviewed by Smart Insights reported relentless competition among large agencies and even freelancers. In addition, they drew attention to the oversaturation of marketing channels.

So it becomes evident that some advice is still needed. And below, we will look at some tips. Tips for people who wonder “How to get clients?” can be divided into two categories — tips for beginners and advanced ones. If your agency is still relatively new, here we’ll break down a few options you can use. 

Tips for Beginners

Use freelance marketplaces

It’s easy to find profiles of both market leaders and smaller companies on international sites. For many agencies, freelance marketplaces become the main source to get clients at the beginning of their journey. Many newbies take on almost every task, from keyword selection to setting up analytics. You can use marketplaces even when you’ve already grown noticeably as an agency. But you’ll need to choose your clients more carefully. Look at business opportunities, client history, ability to pay, communication, and many other key factors. This source has both advantages and disadvantages. You may get a quick order, but you may not notice that the client is inadequate because of the speed. They can sabotage your profile with a single review.  Even if you are 100% right, marketplaces often take the customer’s side since they are the ones bringing them money.

Marketing buzz or recommendations

This is the most grateful way to get clients. It feels damn good when your clients are happy with your results and recommend you as a professional to their community. The loyalty of an audience that comes from a recommendation is maximized. Everyone loves those customers, and to get them, you need to do your work with high quality and give your clients more than they expect from you. Satisfied clients will talk about the quality of your services, and new people will seek you out on their own.

Also, don’t forget about the feedback on your site or other platforms! However, not many agencies ask their clients for it. Most wait and hope that a satisfied client will be able to share their impressions of your work. And sometimes, it does happen. However, at the current pace of life, most of your clients are simply too busy and may not think about the fact that you also need assistance in developing your business, albeit in such a non-time-consuming way. So don’t be afraid to ask for feedback on your work right away!

Create a corporate blog

When you wonder how to get a client, do not hesitate to publish your achievements and findings on your site. Such a way will give a good increase of traffic to the site, increasing the position in the organic search results, and attract the attention of your future clients and partners. With each published article, you can get several inquiries for your services. It also builds your reputation in the market as a specialist.

For example, you can write there not only about your niche but also about your colleagues. The agency’s reputation is created by its employees, and often clients want to go to a particular specialist. On this basis, the following conclusion — demonstrate the professionalism of your team and form an image of experts.

Use contextual advertising

Advertising your own services in search engines and social networks is another very simple but quite effective method of getting clients. From the previous point, an important point to remember comes to mind. To set up your advertising, you must have a user-friendly site — with examples of your work and prices. From the pitfalls of this method, we can note the high cost per click and a rather high conversion price.

One of the cheapest and most practical options would be to choose Facebook ads. In addition, this platform allows you to research your client’s gender and geographic location. This is a significant advantage when you are building a marketing strategy for your product among potential clients.

Don’t forget LinkedIn

Update your social media profiles, especially LinkedIn. Add your agency as a new place of work, include your position, and describe exactly what you and your agency do. It’s also a good idea to build a network of over 500 contacts and ask your clients or former colleagues to leave recommendations on your profile. Potential clients often check the agency and staff’s LinkedIn profiles before they ask for a service. And if you have few contacts or a poorly designed profile, it can be a reason to choose another agency.

LinkedIn is a good place to make the right connections. The main rule is not to send spam. If you have found the right person for you, first of all, find common interests with them. Before you sell something, try to get to the heart of their business and think about how you can really be useful to them.

Want to understand how to identify good and bad clients specifically for your agency? Trying to build the proper positioning to attract more customers? Join our FREE roundtable, “User Acquisition for Digital Agencies: How To Find New Clients” and discuss these questions with our marketing experts. Best lead generation tactics are just one click away → REGISTER NOW

Advanced Tips

So, we’ve looked at a few options for beginners. Now we are going to look at some more advanced ones. If you’ve used the options above before and are looking for something more unobvious, read on!

Become an expert and prove it

Becoming an expert in your niche is a good alternative to industry rankings for smaller agencies.

Often companies, before turning to an agency, try to do everything on their own. At the same time, they look for recommendations on working with platforms on various thematic resources. Your goal is to publish articles describing your approach to setting up campaigns, little know-how, and tips for beginners. When potential clients run out of options and start looking for a contractor, they are more likely to choose a brand that has already gained their trust with expert knowledge.

You can acquire it in other ways as well. If you can find a few extra hours and a sociable employee, hold a series of webinars on the types of services you specialize in. To do this, you can:

• Arrange with educational platforms a series of educational masterclasses;
• Hold webinars yourself, using one of the online services with a free account (e.g., Zoom); in this case, it will be more challenging to get coverage of your target audience because you will have to invest in advertising.

Try to give listeners at least one non-standard piece of advice. It will help stand out among the endless repetitions of basic things.

A more complicated but more effective option is to take part in industry conferences. Quite often, at such events, you can meet business owners. The list of speakers is usually confirmed several months in advance, so announce your desire to participate in advance. You’ll need a relevant topic, a few cases to illustrate your experience, and some preparation. There may be auditions for the selection of participants. You should come there with a ready-made public speech. 

By the way, visiting conferences is also suitable for networking. Even if you are not a speaker, nothing prevents you from getting acquainted with the person sitting next to you and making new acquaintances during the coffee break.

In general, any publication of your own expertise in digital communities will be beneficial. These include discussions on Twitter, forums, groups in Slack, Telegram chats, and so on.

Participate in tenders

Usually, tenders are held by large companies when they want to buy something for a large sum. The client company announces a tender and invites several service providers to participate. The tender is held at a strictly scheduled time, during which all participants offer their prices and conditions.

Tenders are a great way to find a big client and make yourself known in the market. It is necessary to be able to offer comprehensive client solutions and a professional approach. Of course, it may be that you will not be able to work with the desired client on the first try. But that is no reason to give up. Start preparing, gathering information for the next stage, even if it will start in a year.

Of course, we would like to offer you some reliable algorithm or methodology for winning tenders. But they do not exist. Your victory will always depend on three factors:

• Your competitiveness (how much you are willing to lower your price);
• The correctness of the application (very often, participants are rejected for incorrect applications);
• The ability to find tenders in which there will be few or no competitors.

Create the right expectations and emphasize the benefits

In the eyes of future clients, every agency wants to look like the best on the market. But there is a fine line between emphasizing strengths and creating inflated expectations. For example, the phrase “we’ll get you to the top of the search in 6 months” can be fair if you specify low-frequency and low-relevance queries for this.

It pays to be specific and realistic about future results. Unlikely optimistic predictions guide clients, and then they get disappointed and terminate the contract.

Real cases from your practice are an exception. If you managed to achieve impressive results at least once, you can and should talk about it. You can’t guarantee the same return from every campaign, but you can’t argue with the facts. Case studies are the best proof of expertise. Use them to demonstrate your advantage. 

Become your own client and promote your marketing agency

This growth strategy may seem illogical, but it’s effective if you do it right. Clients know that the best way to measure your experience is through your results, not your promises.

Use your own services. When you become your client, it means you are determined and willing to deliver results for “yourself.” You will be able to promote your agency (as if another business had hired you).

In fact, you can use the results you get (perhaps an increase in rankings in organic search of your agency’s website) as proof that you’ll attract new clients. Case closed. You got clients and a great case study for your portfolio at the same time! 

The bottom line

Bringing in new clients can put a lot of pressure on your team. Make sure you’re ready to take it on. Outsourcing and automation are the main companions of a growing agency, and it pays to deal with them before the number of orders grows. Also, don’t forget to update your knowledge of all new promotion methods. For example, you can take advantage of our webinars by industry experts.

Use agency-focused advertising automation systems. They make it easy to create and import client accounts across platforms, controlling all campaigns in a single window. Mass processing tools for keywords, budgets, audiences, and ads reduce the basic chore that’s inevitable when you start a new project.

ROI (up to 35% of ad spend) helps earn money at the expense of scale and serves as an additional motivation for sales. It also provides additional opportunities for bonuses and discounts — another reason to work with you.

Summarizing the article, we can say that there is no perfect method of attracting clients to your agency. It all depends on the individual characteristics of the brand. The criteria of success even in crisis remain the same: quality work, flair, professionalism, the ability to motivate the target audience. Always remember that sales are a systematic process, especially if you aim at large orders and long-term cooperation. People buy from someone they trust, and it doesn’t matter from what source the client came to you.

The post How to Get More Clients [9 Tips to Maximize Agency Growth] appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

First of all, what is Pinterest?

Pinterest started in 2010 and has quickly grown as a leading social media platform. It has a reputation as THE platform to hit up when we need design inspiration, quick recipes, new blogs to read, cleaning checklists, or home improvement know-how.

 If we hear about this social media, we always imagine something with photos, pictures, arts, and something that makes us think about inspiration. Sounds like Instagram, does it? And also looks like a website that doesn’t need a manager, who will be responsible for the account..

But don’t fall for it. A Pinterest manager is a job of the future. People in America and Europe have highlighted this service for a long time and use it not only for promoting the place of your blog but also for making traffic to their website. Let’s discover, what does it include? 

If we compare Pinterest with other socials, we will see that it was created for people that are searching for ideas. And as we know, ideas is the most important part of every business. What social would you choose if you need references for the most comfortable and cozy house in the world? Not sure that it will be Facebook. And just imagine how many people’s wishes we can turn into traffic. 

So, let’s deal with Pinterest, how does it work? It is a kinda search engine for users, so be sure that your pins can be found easily with some tags and keywords. This is one of the main terms and traffic will mostly come from it. People can download some photos to their boards that are called “pins”. Other users can do “repins” and share with people.

Audience of Pinterest is very varied, that’s why sometimes people don’t look at this social media for advertising. And also are afraid that there are only housewives with no money. To be honest, most of Pinterest’s users are women. It’s true. But they are 18-24. Also they are interested not only in recipes and house ideas. Pinterest is a good place for internet shops, handmade, tourism etc. 

It’s good for:

• visual marketing
• inspiration
• promoting clothes, etsy shops, recipes etc 
• keeping of the ideas

Also some stats of Pinterest:

• current users of Pinterest are more than 250 mln
• 98% of people, who used Pinterest, tried the things which were found there
• 93% of users use Pinterest as a shopping list
• one of the most popular websites at the creative area
• most popular boards are at the high places at Google Search

But do any companies use Pinterest? Or is it just a social for private use? There are 2 types of accounts: private and business. Business accounts have access to the stats. There you can watch for verified company pages, рinterest аnalytics and similar pins. Every private page can be changed for business. 

A Pinterest Manager is an assistant for potential followers who begins offering Pinterest management services. You may add these onto your existing general admin services, or you may make a full-fledged leap and start calling yourself a Pinterest Manager. Sounds good and attractive. But! If you want to work with Pinterest as a manager, you need to know how to promote it. There are some talking points. 

1. Create an account with a catchy name and userpic. The user’s eye will catch it first. Also as friendly advice — use the same picture as on other socials. It will be easier to memorize you for your potential followers and customers. 
2. Use keywords. Yes, we have said about it, but it’s very important. That’s once again. keywords are all for us! It should be the same as the words that users will search for. When users are searching for something that they need, search engines show not only the pins with similar themes. Pinterest also shows accounts with these words and boards with keywords. That’s one of the main reasons to make a good and speaking name for our account. 
3. The name is good but it’s a piece of your account. Create a good description cover and link to the site which will be promoted. 
4. Boards. You can have some boards, but one of them should be main. There you can place all the information about the account. On other boards, you can share with different themes. During the design of your boards, you can analyze your audience and try to make their life easier. Every board should be with specific keywords and different avatars for easier ways of finding. Also, it can help to share the thematic boards in the head of our potential followers. 
5. Every board should have a name. You know that visual is the most important part of Pinterest. But you can make good pins without good names. Make them in English, ‘cause most of the pins are in English language and it’ll be easier to work with your content. But if you need the audience from a specific region, use the language of it. For example, in the CIS region the Russian language will work better than anything else.
6. Pin at least 10 pins by yourself, don’t use any tools. Just as advice, Pinterest’s algorithms will promote your content better. 
7. Vertical pictures. Pinterest is mostly visited by mobile users and that’s the reason for vertical pics. Horizontals are also good, but vertical and the squad will be better on mobile devices. Take care of potential users!
8. If you want to delete the board, remember that it’s not such a good idea. Deleting boards will remove their followers also. What should you do better? Just rename this board and make a new type of content. Some followers will unsub your account, but it’s better than losing all of them. 
9. Post pins as regularly as you can. People will see your content more often and followers will grow. 
10. Make research sometimes. Pinterest is a young social and it can change very fast. Don’t follow old trends, ‘cause it’s literally cringe and looks like zoomers trying to catch up with youngsters. For the money, of course.

Pinterest manager

Working with Pinterest is a good idea, ‘cause there are not lots of advertising and people are not tired of it. Just remember, how many advertising posts and stories can you notice in your Instagram feed? Pinterest is from it. We can be sure about the future, but if you speak about the present, that’s how it is.

Every person can become a Pinterest manager if he or she is good at aesthetics. This word means a lot for the current generation. There are some main points for a good Pinterest manager:

• The skill of searching for something unusual in ordinary things
• Awareness of attractive combos of photos 
• Desire and passion to create something beautiful
• Preference for creating content, not for any kind of community management and chatting with customers 

Don’t be afraid that it sounds like something easy and every person who uses the Internet can deal with it. Just do what you like and try to make people love your job. 

Don’t take themes that you are not interested in at all. Just imagine, would an account with cars be interesting if it’s managed by a person, who is crazy about animals and distinguishes automobiles just because of their colors? Hope that I’ll never see it. Sorry.

Reach for potential clients. You can find them everywhere, but let’s stop on Linkedin and Facebook. That strict socials are fool of strict business accounts that are waiting for some aesthetics. Ask if they or anyone they know might be interested in using your new service.

Remember that there are no useless socials for any business. There are different audience adt it’s absolutely awesome that we can find them in different places. And they won’t cross with each other!

It’s hard to say how long the entire process will take, but my best guess is that if you got your first Pinterest client today, you would be able to rebrand entirely as a full-time Pinterest Manager between 6-12 months from now if you put in the work.

Remember, if you do your job with passion and interest, everything will be good. ‘Cause your passion and concern is seen by followers and your future clients. Good luck, have fun and create the best pins ever!

The post How To Become A Pinterest Manager [2021] – Beginners Guide appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Undoubtedly, this situation affects digital marketing agencies as well. But don’t worry — the chances of agencies not being needed tomorrow are slim to none! Nevertheless, it’s harder for those who want to open their own digital marketing agency than ever to choose a niche. How can you be sure that another pandemic won’t cause your industry to any longer be profitable in a month? That’s why today, in this article, we decided to cover the topic of how to choose a niche and what the pros and cons are. So read on!

Reasons why you should choose a niche

Some of you may have wondered at this point — why pick a niche at all rather than working with everyone? There are a number of reasons for that. First of all, of course, it will be much easier for you to set up processes and find clients there. In addition, it is obvious that there are so many digital agencies these days, and it is impossible to take the leading position among all of them at once. But it is pretty possible to become a leader in a particular industry!

Other less obvious advantages also include:

• Roadmap. If you’re working with everyone in all niches, it’s very easy to stop understanding what you’re even doing and where your agency is going. You’ll have a more challenging time convincing clients why it’s more profitable to work with you than your competitors because you won’t have enough clear examples. Having a niche will allow you to look for specific pain points of potential clients and make your services more personalized.
• Understanding your competitors. Choosing a specific niche allows you to start really analyzing and understanding your competitors, as well as their services, advantages, and disadvantages. It will be easier for you to convince clients why your approach is unique and more profitable.
• You will be able to anticipate external risks and possible impacts. Having a niche allows you to adapt quickly to them and position yourself better.
• Having a niche gives you growth opportunities. You can better understand your target audience, your objectives, and your services. Thus, you get the chance to develop faster and more steadily while having a high ROI.

So it’s pretty obvious that choosing a niche is a very profitable and correct decision. Now let’s figure out how to choose it.

How to choose a niche

The short answer to this question is to do very meticulous research. 

In truth, however, there are simply no shortcuts in this case. Therefore, it is worth going consistently, using the following five points. 

1. Brainstorm

Start by brainstorming with a couple of trusted people you want to work with who have enough experience and knowledge. The goal of this process is to bring in new ideas. But these people will also help you conduct your research. 

First of all, determine what your strengths and weaknesses are. Then make a list of niches that you could quickly enter, given your strengths. Are you good at running PPC campaigns? Do you have a successful track record in SMM? All of this will be a plus for you!

2. Get to know your competitors 

At the end of the previous step, you already have a list of niches that suit your skills. And this has both pros and cons. The cons are that, most likely, almost all the niches you selected are already too “crowded,” and there is stiff competition. Pros are that further research will go much faster since your competitors have already conducted all possible market research. So fill your boots!

Start analyzing each selected niche and research your competitors. Compare the company’s size, staff, rates, social media, and how they position themselves in the mass media.

Carefully analyze the information you receive. A large staff and more than one office of your competitor’s agency may mean that it is indeed profitable. Audiences on social media can tell you if there is interest in this niche and how great it is. If your competitors have many good reviews, then we have bad news for you — the competition will be really tough. 

With this kind of analysis, you can cross off niches that are “overcrowded” or unsuitable for you. This will leave you with a few options for niches where you have a real chance of success.

3. Conduct an industry research

Now we’re going to contradict the previous point a bit: you shouldn’t completely trust your competitors — they may not be the best indicators of the situation in a given niche. 

It could be anything. Maybe they bought subscribers and likes from special agencies. Maybe the reviews were left by employees or the management themselves — with fake accounts. That’s why it’s a perfect time to analyze the industry at this point. Essentially, you take the information you’ve already found and check it against more reliable sources. 

Don’t forget to analyze the findings. Will you be able to keep up in a niche like this? Do you have enough budget? Will you be able to stay trendy? Discuss your findings with the group of trusted people mentioned above. At this point, your list of niches will shrink again.

4. Get to know your potential client 

“Creating avatar” is not only about James Cameron’s creative process but also about analyzing your potential client. You have to understand your market segment and its content — the people you have to deal with. So before you choose a niche, it’s worth getting to know them. This is where the avatar of your ideal client comes in handy. It’s important to remember: we’re not talking about your target audience here, but about an individual — your ideal client. And when you speak to your audience, it is in them that your words resonate in the first place. 

5. Conduct a survey among small businesses

There’s not much left to do! By now, you have undoubtedly identified the niches that will be most profitable and successful for you. You also know in person not only your competitors but also your potential customers. Now it’s just a matter of getting the feedback that will confirm or refute your decision.

Whether you succeed or your niche breaks you depends on the quality of your research, your skills, and, of course, your luck. So you have to be sure that your services are relevant, in demand, and that someone will want to buy them at all. Based on your customer avatar research, make a list of 12-15 questions for your target audience. Their purpose is to validate your niche choice. If you are going to open a digital marketing agency for social media marketing for accountants, your questions, for example, might look like this:

• Have you heard about the benefits of having a corporate social media profile?
• Have you ever considered creating one?
• Would you like to get a new influx of customers through, for example, Facebook?

Post your questions on social media or send them out to former clients. Even cold calls will work. Your goal is to get as many responses as possible from people who fit the title of your ideal customer. 

Analyze the responses. If you see that people want these services and can afford them, you’ve come to the finish line. Your niche has been found.

Pros and cons of choosing a niche

Of course, by this point, it is clear that finding your niche has many advantages. But there are also disadvantages. Let’s define them.

Pros

• Fast and confident launching in the market. After choosing a niche, you already have a marketing strategy, you know your client and their needs, and networking and attracting new clients only gets easier.
• Easier selling. When you work in one niche, it’s much easier to confirm and improve your reputation. It’s also easier for you to generate leads and prove to them why you’re their best option. 
• Targeted marketing and high conversions. You can create more personalized content for different target audiences by addressing your customers’ pain points directly.

Cons

• Smaller market capitalization. Choosing a niche means a much smaller number of potential clients, as well as the risks of oversaturation of this market.
• The need for more in-depth expertise. If you have not had experience in a particular niche, you will have to earn it very quickly. 
• Fewer leads. Choosing a niche means that even if you are doing well now and the conversion is going great, you may soon reach its limit.

We have listed all the main pros and cons and covered the main steps. Now it’s up to you. You can look for your niche or work for several industries at once. The main thing is to do quality research! If you want some more detailed instructions and help from experienced practitioners, check out our webinar on this topic. 

The post How to Choose a Niche for Your Agency. Pros and Cons appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

If you’re still here, let’s dive a little deeper and get into the details.

Recent findings confirm that third-party apps have no effect on a post’s performance, so high-quality and engaging content will perform well on social media anyway. No matter if it’s posted via an app or natively through a platform. Using social media management tools will not harm your organic reach on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social network.

Yes, it won’t improve your reach either because it’s the same as posting natively.

The key thing here is the time you save by working with several or dozens of customer accounts at once. Planning your content in advance can help your channels to be more consistent and allow you to be more strategic. Moreover, creating and scheduling your social media content in advance can lead to better quality content and improve your stats by finding the perfect time for publishing.

While using such tools as social media scheduling doesn’t mean that you don’t need to respond to comments, engage in conversations consistently, and generally nurture your following. Being reactive and implementing social media automation may sound opposite, but they both work in a very complimentary way.

So, should you be worried about third-party social media management tools hurting your stats? This myth was probably born on Facebook, on far 2011, when the platform really was limiting the reach of posts from third-party social media management tools. Many brands noticed that they got lower reach and engagement numbers because of this. But since late 2011, Facebook fixed this issue, and their algorithms started to treat posts published via third-party social media management tools the same as native posts.

Yet, the myth still lives.

By now, multiple independent sources have run a variety of social media experiments that destroy it. And now it’s safe to say that if there were a noticeable difference in reach, someone would have noticed it by now.

Brian Peters at Buffer recently did an in-depth experiment to determine whether using a social media marketing tool hurts organic reach. He compared the reach and impressions of posts published from three third-party social media tools to posts published natively. The test included over 200 posts from 35 different profiles and took place over a three-weeks.

Here are the results:

• Facebook reach
  • Average native posts – 8820
  • Average third-party posts – 9071
• Twitter impressions
  • Average native posts – 21671
  • Average third-party posts – 21108
• LinkedIn reach
  • Average native posts – 6071
  • Average third-party posts – 7024

In some tests, posts made via third-party tools had a higher reach than native posts, and in some tests, they had lower. But the fact of the matter is that none of the results in these tests were statistically significant. So, it is obvious that Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are not penalizing anyone for posting from third-party SMM platforms.

Useful Tips

• Don’t write for robots

Sure, you can schedule your content, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, but you still want your content to be interesting, useful, and relevant. So, remember that there are people on the other side, not just Google or other search engine algorithms. Post about different topics and make your content vary. Also, try not to post every hour or\and schedule your publishing exactly on the hour. And the main thing here – stay online when posting something that prompting a conversation with your audience. It’s great to post text with questions or topics to discuss, but you also need to engage with the process.

• Keep your hand on a pulse

Scheduling your content comes with a whole range of benefits. But you still need to keep your topics up to date and relevant. So, monitor interesting and fresh topics, search for new trends and get involved wherever you can. Creating content on some hot topics will make your posts more popular, engaging, and valuable to your audience. Also, you can try to predict something that can become trending and schedule your content in advance. For example, some major holidays or events. You can find it in our social media calendar and even use our library with a lot of templates for every occasion.

• Check your statistics

If you want to keep your brand successful and growing, you need to constantly check your content performance and use this information for future edits and improvements. For example, find which posts got the most likes, comments, and shares and find out why to make more of such posts in the future. Many analytical tools will be able to show you this kind of analytical information, allowing you to get the ready-to-use results for your social media marketing experiments.

The post Why Do Social Media Scheduling Tools Not Affect Reach or Engagement appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

With the incredible rise in the popularity of social media, many different trends have emerged over the years. As more consumers tap into these trends, companies are forced to keep up. When social platforms introduce new features and change their algorithms, trends undergo an evolution, too. So brands need to keep their fingers on the pulse to prevail in this fierce competition. Such rapid changes present new challenges for every company and social media marketer as they have to constantly renew their strategies to adapt and stay competitive. In this article, we’ve created a list of 11 social media trends for 2021, which are definitely worth paying attention to. 

Contents:

1. 1. Video Content
   2. Live Videos \ Streams 
   3. Ephemeral Content
   4. User-Generated Content
   5. Tech Adoption
   6. Influencers
   7. Local Targeting
   8. Social Media Communities
   9. Social Commerce
   10. Authenticity and Transparency
   11. Legal Regulations

1. Video Content

Video content is a clear winner over all other content types. Whether it is short-form videos like those on TikTok or Stories or long-form content on YouTube; videos are the future of social media content. 

According to a Cisco study, by 2022, as much as 82% of all online content will be video content. 

This clearly shows how important it is to start using video content to stay relevant and competitive in the social media domain. The time is now to include videos in your content strategy – better be on the winning end of your marketing strategy. If you are already using videos successfully, try to add some premium options to engage people even further. 

2. Live Videos \ Streams

After the global health crisis of 2020, there was no doubt that live videos on social media would be popular in 2021. It’s for this reason there are a lot of upgrades in the use of live streaming features on social media. 

Today, live videos are being broadcast on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr because almost 82% of the audiences prefer this format. 

It is a great way for brands to gain the audience’s attention and make important announcements. As the pandemic ensues, live streaming will also continue to gain popularity and should definitely be a part of your strategy.

3. Ephemeral Content

Ephemeral content is available only for a short period of time, like Instagram and Snapchat stories. Today, people like to consume short content because the global attention span is narrowing. It is so engaging and addictive that people often find themselves down the black hole of scrolling.

Study shows that the average brand regardless of the audience size is posting a story about seven days a month. A deeper analysis reveals that brands with more than 100k followers record an average of Stories every two days compared to four days for brands with at least 10k followers. 

Instagram Stories dominated this content format in 2020 and will remain on top in the current year, as well. We highly recommend Stories for publishing calendars and make it part of your regular content format. 

4. User-Generated Content

User-generated content is any kind of content created by users. Many brands using UGC as part of their content marketing, and there are several reasons for this:

1. 1. 1. 1. • Proof of the quality of the products and services.
         2. • Memes deliver great brand awareness.
            • User-generated doesn’t mean poor or even mid-quality. Sometimes it’s oh-my-God-quality content, and brands are lucky to have customers who appreciate their creations.

Moreover, such an approach helps cut the marketing budget and allows companies to bring customers to the forefront and feel valued. User-generated content is the most trustworthy source of information anybody could get about a brand or a business. It is not surprising that some companies encourage people to create this type of content for engagement boosts, which tends to become more pertinent in the future. 

5. Tech Adoption

More tech is coming our way. For example, virtual and augmented reality is becoming more common day by day as users are demanding better and more engaging experiences. Horizon by Facebook is a great example of which kind of future awaits the social media world. And if the adoption of VR is still in its early stages, AR is used a lot more, for example, in Snapchat and Instagram filters. Moreover, it can be used to improve the shopping experience or even the framework. Sephora is a beauty brand that uses AR to allow its customers to try makeup before buying it.

6. Influencers

Yes, it’s not a new thing, but working with influencers remains an effective promotional instrument for brands. First of all, the number of influencers is constantly growing, so brands can better connect with their target audience through them. Secondly, companies have a lot of options to choose from so they can spend less money. 

Influencers are more affordable than paid advertising campaigns, and the results are promising. It is a universal tool that can help with many goals, not only with leads generation. Today, brands are not just working with several influencers, but whole networks of them.

All you need to do is find a relevant niche and a company that connects to your brand and a whole bunch of famous people. And it still can be much cheaper than to find and collaborate with one celebrity. This approach will lead to more collaborations with micro-influencers, stricter screening for fake followers, and an increase in content quality. 

7. Local Targeting

Many companies use location-based targeting to reach out to and attract people from a specific area. For example, brands are using geotagging on their posts and stories that automatically draw in a local audience. This works especially well with a promoted post on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter because these platforms enable businesses to target audiences from a specific locality through their IP addresses. 

If you are a fresh brand, you should reach out to local people to build your brand awareness and gain popularity before targeting people from further away. Local targeting is the best way to reach out to people to get maximum ROI. It allows you to create personalized content, which bigger brands sometimes fail to deliver because the audience is too large and different. 

8. Social Media Communities

These are social groups created by brands to provide a networking platform for their customers. They are usually private groups or forums where brand users can talk, ask each other questions, or exchange experiences. 

Facebook groups are a perfect social media community example. Brands use them to communicate with prospective or existing customers, discuss different topics or seek solutions. Also, it is a great place to test new products, services, product features and get a lot of valuable feedback on changes or improvements. 

The thing is, businesses can no longer afford to be silent and passive about issues that their target audience passionately cares about and talks about. 

9. Social Commerce

Brands have long used social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to sell their products. Social commerce has become a new retail avenue for brands, especially in Covid times, and this trend is only going to get stronger. Social media is becoming a mainstream retail channel on par with websites and offline stores, and this trend will strengthen further with more pre-selling features like shoppable posts. Social commerce is continuously evolving; brands and marketers will inevitably leverage it in their sales strategies, and this is the right move. 

Research shows that 54% of social media users are searching for things to buy using social media, while social media referrals can influence the purchase decisions of 71% of users.

People can buy things straight from social media without going to the site. It simplifies and shortens the customer journey. So, simply having a buy button increases the likelihood of purchase and helps move transactions forward.

10. Authenticity and Transparency

If you want people to trust you, you need to be real and honest. That means maintaining authenticity and transparency about your products and services. 

Social media is the best way to do it because companies can deliver their messages about any actions, ideas, or opinions directly on their platform. 

Allowing your customers to reach you in case of any problems or questions, and instead of deleting negative comments or messages, shows them how much you care by solving their issues in a timely manner. Don’t for one second attempt to pull the wool over your customer’s eyes either because the internet sees everything!

11. Legal Regulations

We live in the era of information and the age of theft of this information, with all sorts of leaks, violations of privacy, and high-profile court cases. Social media can be used to gather tons of private information about anyone and misuse it. 

There are a lot of allegations that specific social networks sell their user data to other companies. And because of this, social networks and regulatory bodies will tighten their rules and put more policies in place. Many people consider social media unsafe, and it would be in everyone’s best interest to change that situation. So, get ready for more regulations and restrictions on all platforms.

Social media will continue to shape the lives of brands, and their customers. The only way forward is to adapt to these amazing tools and use them to your advantage. Stay innovative, stay competitive! 

The post Social Media Trends to Grow Your Business in 2021 appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

This question continues to arise, no matter how much this topic is discussed. How exactly should the cost of services be formed? What does it depend on? Is there a single format or algorithm? How to set the price high enough to stay afloat and earn money, but at the same time not too high to get outbid by others for the same job? As you can guess, it is not an easy question to answer, but still, we’ll put things into perspective. 

Contents:

1. What social media managers do
2. How to form your price
3. Steps to determine how much to charge
4. Ways to charge
5. Do’s and Don’ts.
6. Signs it’s time to change your prices.

1. What social managers do

Many people mistakenly believe that social media managers are just posting things at the right time and on their chosen social media. It may seem like the company is hiring a human-robot to automate one single, uncomplicated process.

However, the social marketing manager itself is the voice of the brand. Their work is complex and can include:

• Creating posts and tracking their effectiveness.
• Creating sales funnels and generating new leads.
• Communicating with potential or existing users.
• Increasing engagement and understanding what the buyer wants.
• Seeking to reveal why a client should interact with a business, brand, product, or service.
•  Giving insights on paid advertising, working with influencers, and elevating organic traffic.
• Ensuring that the visual representation of the business profile on social media accounts is perfect.
• Checking that the content is SEO optimized and precisely finds the right target audience.
• Bringing together a strategy for engagement with potential clients to build relationships and influence them to buy. 
• Reporting on industry, competitors, agencies, sharing case studies and the latest trends in online marketing.

When it comes to agencies; the key activities are content production, campaign management, tracking, and community management, customer service, handling customer complaints, and consultations can also be part of the job description. For example, when a brand starts to crystallize its brand’s voice or drastically changes the old one, an expert needs to rebuild the messaging style and create a whole new brand image that will drive positive engagement. An agency owner can demand more than simple media management as they may want to make the best impression on their customers. 

2. How to Form Your Price

Your education, work experience, and skill list, along with other factors, directly affect the quality of your work. Therefore, feel free to include all of these parts while determining the price.

• Education and Certification
• Industry Experience
• Remote or on Location
• Special Skills

Research what your direct competitors are charging.

To understand how much to charge for social media management, you can easily search online job boards or LinkedIn to check out the pricing in your geographical area. Thorough market research can give you a fairly accurate understanding of prices for both freelancers and agencies. Gather some numbers to see what other people and companies earn and compare your capabilities to come up with your price. 

Remember, not every competitor is a direct one. Don’t waste your time looking at freelancers if you’re a full-service agency. To make your calculations more precise, pay attention to these factors:

• Number of employees
• Client industry
• Client company size
• Services

Not all agencies will have pricing package info on their page, but some of them will, and that’s a great place to start.

Collect feedback about your existing pricing.

Pay attention to how many customers are unsatisfied with your pricing policy and what kind of objections you usually face. Or maybe people tell you that your prices are much lower than those of other agencies and your services are even too cheap.

If your prices are shown on your website, pay attention to an increase or a decrease in inbound leads. A perfect scheme is to have 50% of leads who think your services are expensive and 50% of leads thinking it is cheap. If you see a noticeable bias in one direction, perhaps your rates are higher than they should be. If everyone thinks that your services are too cheap, you’re most certainly undercharging for the value you provide and stunting your business growth. Study the market again and reconsider your pricing policy.

Consider the needs of your best-fit clients.

After you have studied the market, the prices of your closest competitors and objectively looked at the cost of your services; the next step is to brainstorm what your best-fit clients need.

First of all, think about your favorite clients. Which clients have you gotten the best results for in terms of impressions, account sales, leads, and growth? How exactly did you manage to achieve such results? Once you figure it out, you can better understand how to put similar service provisions and approaches in a monthly package for other clients.

Create your custom package pricing.

The package you created in the previous step is a perfect middle-tier. This option is the one you always see on other agencies’ sites with the “most popular” sticker on it. Consider it the most common service plan you’ll sell and create a package that is a bit smaller than this and one that is a bit larger. Make sure there is no pricing associated with these social media management packages, and you can even share the info without prices included. You can easily customize your pricing for each package if you want to. For example, instead of the price per package, why not upload a “contact us” button so that each client can discuss their terms of use.

It’s crucial to develop your prices and packages whether you put them on your site or not. This way, you can provide accurate quotes to your target audience. 

Test your pricing with prospects and clients.

The last step is the implementation of your new pricing and testing it. Showcase the packages to your users and then ask them for feedback. Help them decide which is the right one for them, or if they have unique needs, then offer to customize a package. Pay attention to the feedback you’re getting because you want to hit that ‘sweet spot’; where some people will find your services too pricey (common occurrence), but more than half of your prospects will be a definite “yes.”

When you feel good about your packages and pricing, show it to existing clients and give them a one or two-month heads up. Make sure to ask for feedback once in a while to make changes if needed.

3. Ways to Charge

There are several options of how you can charge your clients:

• Hourly
• Monthly
• Project-Based 
• Package- Based

Before considering what option would be ideal for managing social media, ask your clients for insight into what they hope to achieve. It will be easier to choose the most suitable strategy and meet the client’s expectations.

Hourly Rate

This option is best suitable for freelancers as you can talk with your clients and decide the exact or approximate amount of hours they need you to work per week or month. For example, if someone needs your services for 10 hours per month, you can charge them $30/hour and get $300 at the end. This is a great way to start. Later you can get more clients and/or increase your hourly rate. Also, with an hourly rate, a social media manager can schedule posts to do several days of work within a few hours. 

Advantages:

• You know how much time you need to work, and once the job is done, you are free.
• You clearly understand whether you have enough time to take another client or you are fully loaded.

Disadvantages: 

• It may be challenging to scale your business by building a team.
• Your previous clients may hire you again and expect you to charge the same price or finish the job at the same time.
• Conflicts with clients because if you are late with your job you will charge more and the clients will always be on the opposite side of the table.

Monthly Fees

As you build up your experience and increase your confidence as a social media expert, you can use a monthly retainer. The key benefit of choosing this option is that you get recurring income and have more time to focus on your work. Also, it is easier to get paid by one consistent client instead of constantly searching for new clients. 

Another thing about a monthly retainer is that it offers more flexibility; you can create a package that focuses on their experience while meeting the clients’ needs. 

The “con” of charging clients per month for social media marketing is that workloads can increase rapidly. Sometimes clients believe that they ‘own’ your time and therefore give you as much work as they can. Others may take advantage of ‘your time’ by consistently adding edits or rejecting work and requesting it to be done numerous times.

Advantages:

• No surprises as clients know what to expect, and you get paid every month.
• You can scale your business because you can easily plan your finances ahead of time.
• It is easier to take more clients as you can organize yourself better. 

Disadvantages:

• It is easier for customers to cancel your service after only a few months. Nothing is keeping them attached to you for more than a month, creating certain cash flow problems if you hired more people to work for an agency. 

Per Project

This pricing option is ideal when the job is lengthy. It is perfect when setting up new clients or introducing a new product into the market. Firstly you estimate the project, then you create a pricing package. Charging per project is excellent for clients who want to start something and then take over and maintain it themselves. It is also suitable for a project that has a one-off occurrence.

Advantages:

•  Flexibility in outsourcing some of the work if you want to scale.
• Project-based pricing allows you to embed all your operating expenses within the project costs more easily than it is at an hourly rate.
• You are not tied to a rate. You can calculate how much work will be needed for the client.

Disadvantages: 

• You’re not in control of the project’s speed. Some clients may drag the project that could have been done a while ago because they know you have been contracted. If you leave, it will affect the brands’ reputation.

Packages

More and more small businesses seek the services of social media consultants and managers, and there are various packages that you can offer them. 

The type of package you offer provides different price points and outcomes and dictates how much they want to accomplish. Here are some examples to help create a package: 

• Basic package: manage two social media accounts (choosing from Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Snapchat, or Instagram) with content creation and customer engagement.
• Advanced package: manage four social media accounts, including blog posts, content creation, and customer engagement.
• Pro package: manage six social media accounts, including influencer marketing, blog posts, content creation, and customer engagement.

The packages can be customized to meet the needs of the customer.

4. Signs It’s Time to Change Your Prices

You have to consider several warning signs when thinking about how much to charge for social media management. Here is the check-list:

• You can’t handle the influx of work and can’t keep up with all of your leads.
• None of your leads say “no” and all agree with the price immediately. 
• You can’t hit your financial goals. For example, to invest in your own business and grow.

Any of these signs might mean you need to raise your prices or rethink the business model. It might be time to stop charging hourly and start charging a monthly fee for a predetermined service. It might be time to grow your team, so you might need to raise your rates to protect your profit margin.

5. Do’s and Don’ts

Here is a list of valuable tips that will make your life as a freelancer or an agency owner a lot easier: 

• Do not let the client set your fees. It’s your work and your prices.
• Do not give away free consulting. It is a valuable service too.
• Do not offer to do social media marketing for free.
• Do not accept a client’s lowball counteroffer.
• Do not (ever) commit verbally to a project during a meeting.
• Do not take on a client who is demanding from the very beginning. 
• Do not tell your potential clients about extra charges not to push them away.
• Do not accept work that can be out of your experience or specialization.
• Do not talk about price before value.

Ok, but what can you do? Here you go:

• Prepare your package pricing ahead of time.
• Be confident in what you know from practice.
• Write a proposal with several package or charge options.
• Always execute a contract with the scope of work included.
• Get paid at least partly before you start working.
• If you show your prices on your site, make it clear and simple. 

To sum up, always try to think of the long-term outcome. Focus first on growing your client base to build your career and brand reputation. Then get paid based on your understanding of what works best for your clients. Finding the right price is essential when considering how to charge. Too high, and you will not get business. Too low, and clients may think you do not know what you are doing. 

Determine your clients’ core needs and if something works well, see how you can duplicate it to create a brilliant experience for another client. Check out the similar competition, those serving the same types of customers and offerings. Listen to your potential clients when you share your prices and always ask for feedback. People will let you know whether your prices are too high or low and reveal what they think you can achieve. Focus on packages so that new clients can choose something they feel is the best fit. This can help you overcome the hurdle of explaining what you can do, especially with a client who may have no experience working with digital marketing.

Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. We hope this article helps you determine how much you should charge for social media management and find the right time for changes.

The post How Much to Charge for Social Media Management appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Let’s start.

1. YouTube has more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users.

Well, 2.3 billion, to be more precise. And these are people who have a Google account and have logged in at least once a month. Considering that a Google account is not always required to watch videos on YouTube, these statistics can be even higher.

2. Youtube is the world’s second-most used social platform. 

Ranked second after Facebook, which is tailored for communication and news exchange. The statistics are mind-blowing at how many people actively share video content and fully engage themselves in the comment section.

3. Youtube is the second most popular search engine after Google. 

And the world’s second-most visited website after Google. With billions of searches per month, YouTube’s search volume is more significant than that of Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined. 

4. YouTube has its local versions in more than 100 countries.

This global phenomenon offers support in 80 different languages covering 95% of the worldwide internet population. With such a massive presence, it is easy to find a target audience for almost any content. 

5. Only 33% of popular YouTube videos are recorded in English.

According to PewResearch, the most popular YouTube channels don’t produce content in English. During the first week of 2019, 56% of popular YouTube channels uploaded at least one video. Across all of the videos these channels uploaded during the week, just 17% were entirely in English.

6. YouTube reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any broadcast or network TV station.

Yes, 37% of 18- to 34-year-olds watch YouTube daily, and 79% of them prefer watching videos uploaded by people, not brands. 

7. Two-thirds of Millennials say they can find tutorials and how-to content for anything on YouTube.

Of smartphone users, 91% turn to their devices for ideas while completing a task. We’ve all dived deep into those “how-to” videos, right?  And those plunges t brought YouTube millions of hours of watching.

8. Video will account for 82% of global traffic by 2022. 

According to Cisco, Internet video will account for 82% of global consumer internet traffic by 2022–up 15% from 2017. This stat alone can make your business a case for allocating more budget to video and YouTube B2B marketing.

9. People watch more than a billion hours of video on YouTube every day. 

YouTube users upload more than 500 hours of new video a minute. The most popular categories are unpacking products and reviews, how-to videos, gaming videos, comedy, beauty, and educational content and the list goes on and on.

10. More than 70% of all YouTube video consumption is via mobile devices.

It is important to mention that people are using their smartphones to watch YouTube, mostly during prime time hours, so it is the best time for brands and B2B businesses to start livestreaming and get maximum reach.

11. There were 4x more views of videos related to Black Lives Matter in the first 10 days of June 2020 than in all of 2019.

This is an example of how current events can cause waves in content making and statistics while encouraging people to share their personal experiences all over the internet.

12. View of videos with variations of “beginner” in the title increased more than 50% between March and July 2020.

Millions of people used YouTube to develop a new hobby and learn something new. For example, users watched self-care and beauty tutorials, bike repair videos, guitar lessons, gardening, and cooking. Videos with the “home workout” title burst with 515% increased views, and daily uploads of videos with “at home” in the title increased 700% in the same period. 

13. People watched 100 billion hours of Gaming on YouTube in 2020.

According to YouTube Blog, it was Gaming’s biggest year. More than 80,000 YouTube Gaming creators hit 100,000 subscribers. Over 350 gaming creators reached a whopping 10 million subscribers. There are more than 40m active gaming channels.

14. Daily YouTube livestreams increased 45% in the first six months of 2020.

People want to be a part of something bigger, and when almost all live events in the world are canceled or postponed – live streams are great if not the only way out. That’s why 53% of livestream viewers say watching livestreams helps them feel connected to something larger than themselves. And 56% of people say watching live streams can be as good as being at an event in person.

15. YouTube makes people buy things.

Videos can significantly help brands by driving people’s intents. According to Google Blog, 70% of people say that they bought brand products due to seeing them on YouTube. 

16. YouTube ads targeted by intent have a 100% higher lift in purchase intent than those targeted by demographics.

Moreover, they have a 32% higher lift in ad recall. Combining demographics and intent only slightly increases ad performance above targeting by intent alone. People watching YouTube ads targeted by intent also skip ads less and watch ads for longer.

17. Beauty brands bring only 39% of whole industry views, while influencers bring 60% of views.

According to Statista, influencers can be the key not only for particular brands and businesses but for whole industries pushing it forward, getting more people interested, and bringing more income.

18. Content related to viewers’ passions is 3X more attractive than content with celebrities.

Famous actors and actresses lose the battle for attention when it comes to what people really love. Also, content based on viewers’ interests is 1.6 times more popular than the one with high quality.

19. YouTube creators are more effective than celebrities at increasing brand familiarity. 

YouTube influencers are constantly changing the marketers’ rulebook. While classic celebs are helping brands be more memorable (84% vs. 73%), YouTube creators are way better at increasing brand familiarity (x4). 

20. YouTube content is the new store clerk. 

People are always interested in detailed reviews about products they are about to buy. YouTube is a perfect platform for it, and that’s why in the past several years, watchtime for videos like “shop with me”, “everything you need to know”, and “Does it work” have grown from 2 to 12 times. 

21. People are x3 times likely to watch the “how-to” video on YouTube than read the instructions. 

Well, we understand them.

22. Over 90% of people surveyed around the world discovered new brands on YouTube.

A lot of us switch between YouTube unpacking\reviewing videos and product lists on the shopping site while searching for something to buy. Over 50% of people surveyed said that online video helped them choose the exact product or brand. 

23. Webinars are one of the top-performing content types for getting and converting B2B leads.

Considering that this is usually not the primary goal of webinars; you can significantly improve brand awareness, build credibility and trust, and educate your audience. 

24. YouTube videos reduce the number of support calls.

Yep, 43% of video marketers say video has reduced the number of support calls they’ve received. It is easier to watch a short video about a product or service than to find out all the details using the support. So, it is both beneficial for customers and companies. 

25. According to Animoto, 96% of marketers have placed ad spend on video.  

Moreover, 70% of businesses say that they were creating more videos in 2020 compared to 2019. And 91% of marketers are satisfied with the ROI of video marketing. Talking about YouTube, 66% of brands upload a video once a week or more. 

26. Comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how-to” videos are the most popular videos watched on YouTube. 

Videos from these 4 categories get more views and are more engaging than others.

27. If you’re providing relevant and timely B2B video content on YouTube, you will get all the attention. 

Your brand can stand out from the crowd. And the more valuable the content, the more views, shares, and comments you will get. More views = more ROI.

28. YouTube ranks 3rd most valuable social platform for B2B marketing.

Besides, YouTube is the only network where the value of B2C or B2B marketing is the same.

29. Branded YouTube content continues to gain power.

Despite the harsh competition between millions of creators and brands, views on branded video content have increased 99% on YouTube as of June 2017. The main reason for such strong growth is that brands create better and better content for their target audiences.

30. User-generated content on YouTube has created some of the biggest internet buzzes in recent years.

User-generated videos get up to 10xmore views than content created by brands. Authentic user-generated content can be a sustainable, cost-effective, and influential source of content that brands will need to build trust, grow sales and deepen their long-term relationships with customers.

31. The average video length on YouTube’s first page is 14:50. 

According to the analysis of 1.3 million YouTube videos, the YouTube search engine puts such videos among the most popular. Another important thing is YouTube uses the average video length as a ranking signal, and you can use it. 

32. 94% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service. 

This format is becoming more and more affordable. You can create great videos in-house, without the big time and money investments. And coronavirus made it a challenge and a necessity for many brands to try a new way to approach potential customers. 

33. 89% of video marketers plan to include YouTube in their 2021 video marketing strategy.

What about you?

YouTube can help your brand improve communication with a target audience, find more customers, and get valuable feedback. This platform is an endless source of opportunities, and it will become even more beneficial for B2B in the future. We hope that this list of YouTube stats will help you improve your marketing strategy in 2021 and make your business a little more successful. 

The post 33 YouTube Stats to Boost Your Marketing Strategy in 2021 appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Facebook is showing strong dedication to helping small businesses and their customers stay aligned with the changes that are happening due to the pandemic situation. Now, with the features they recently announced, it’s even easier to share updates.

Launching Shops both on Facebook and Instagram

As soon as the pandemic caused ECommerce to explode, Facebook reacted with the launch of it’s “Shop” feature. As positioned by the company, it helps businesses adapt to the crisis while helping customers “experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying.”

Facebook Shop is easy-to-setup. You can add products one by one or export from a file, create collections, set prices, and include product descriptions. The best thing about Facebook Shop is that it’s customizable. Sellers can set a cover image for each product and highlight colors that meet their brand standards.

Shops are available both for Facebook and Instagram, and customers can get in touch with sellers via WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct. It creates a feeling of transparency and improves the shopping experience.

By promoting Facebook and Instagram shops via Stories or ads you will encourage interested customers to view your products. All they need to do to make a purchase is click on a product, add it to their cart, and place an order. It will be charged to the credit card attached to their profile.

Introducing Businesses Nearby section

In order to help businesses become more visible to potential customers and grow virtual foot traffic, Facebook is developing a section dedicated to posts made by local businesses within a preset radius (from 1 mile to 500 miles). Users will be able to see actual hours of operation, delivery options, and quickly find the products and services they need.

Adding #SupportSmallBusiness stickers and hashtags

When times are tough, your customers can volunteer to help your business not only with positive reviews, but also by using the #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag on Facebook or the sticker on Instagram. Other users see in shared Stories all the posts from people they follow, so this feature will definitely help businesses spread the word about themselves.

This type of support obviously requires good relationships with customers. As soon as the concept “we’re all in this together” is in full swing, you can ask them directly to show their support and use these hashtags or stickers.

The features announced by Facebook provide opportunities for transparent communication and improved customer experience. To learn how to maintain trust and relationships with your clients by utilizing digital marketing, subscribe to our Emergency Marketing Center and get a weekly digest of the latest updates.

The post Facebook Supporting Businesses: New Features You Can Leverage appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

As COVID-19 has given a boost to digital commerce since more and more people are moving online, digital giants like Facebook and Google have adjusted their services to support businesses and meet their needs.

The Instagram tray now offers “Gift Card” or “Food Orders” Stories stickers

Instagram has provided not only tips for businesses to reach out to potential customers by utilizing Stories, but also features that can be of service. All you need to do is choose a delivery partner and add a link to your product. After that, users can buy from you by just clicking on your Stories.

You can also add “Gift Cards,” “Order Food,” or “Donate” buttons to your Instagram profile. These features are available for business accounts only.

Messenger Rooms and Lives for online events by Facebook

In his latest Facebook Live Stream, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Facebook’s top priority is helping users stay connected with people they care about. These people can be your customers, too.

As the popularity of video content has been growing during the lockdown, Facebook has announced upgrades in functionality for video conferencing and running online events.

Very soon you’ll be able to try new forms of interaction with customers by opening Messenger Rooms. They’re similar to Zoom rooms, you just don’t have to schedule them. It’s an opportunity for genuine communication with customers—you can create kind of a virtual cafe, and instead of dropping by for a small one-on-one chat, people can now feel the atmosphere by tasting delivered coffee along with other “visitors.”

Also, Facebook has brought back the Live With option, so you can invite guests to Live events. For example, you can run a workshop with a manicure artist, chef, or yoga instructor to attract subscribers to your brand page with fresh useful content.

Facebook developers are currently working hard to make it possible to run online events live. This feature is about to be announced, so you can already start planning ways to leverage it for your business.

Google has removed Reviews and Q & A from GMB, but has enabled free selling

Google My Business asks brands affected by the crisis to label themselves as “Temporarily closed,” emphasizing this won’t lead to a decrease of local search ranking. It encourages businesses to provide credible information without taking risks.

Google is currently focusing on making information on Google Search reliable and “prioritizing critical services.” As a result, some features have been removed from Google My Business. New reviews won’t be visible on GMB pages and there were no announcements as to whether they will be after the quarantine. The Q & A feature has been removed, too.

Having said that, Google is actually aiming at helping small businesses. Starting this week, it’s free to sell on Google. Retailers can connect with millions of potential customers via free listings even if they don’t advertise. This initiative puts merchants on equal footing and makes it easier to switch to online sales.

These updates are a gold mine for getting creative and experimental and leveraging social media marketing to build relationships with customers. To get a regular digest of the opportunities for franchise and multi-location businesses during the crisis, subscribe to our Emergency Marketing Center.

The post 3 Major Social Media Platform Updates Your Business Should Utilize During Lockdown appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Let’s be straight and face the facts. COVID-19 is now changing the whole world market configuration, on both the international and local level. The COVID-19 pandemic has already provoked a new spike in digitalization. A 50% growth in online traffic was reported by American content delivery network Akamai in March. What can’t be done offline has been going online. It’s time to make marketing decisions to prevent this transformation from turning into a disadvantage for your business.

“By analyzing today’s global data, we came up with an understanding of major trends that are changing the digital world right now. One of the biggest insights we got is that personal branding on social media is becoming more crucial than ever before. By personally showing a responsible and transparent attitude to your audience, you may save the customer base you already have and become a well-known professional in your chosen niche if you don’t sell your services online yet.” – Val, Co-founder & CPO

When the economy fails, you should become one of the sharp, savvy people to follow. This will help you keep your current customers and get you noticed by new people even if you don’t have your own product and audience yet.

• Transform products and Organize online sales
• Build an online brand and organize transparent, helpful communication
• Engage existing customer base

That’s why we at PromoRepublic have developed a complete educational bundle that consists of an educational course on social media marketing for local businesses and free access to our tools.

“Our major thought here is that people should know what they need to do to keep as many of their clients as possible. That’s why we decided to combine education and product pieces and launch them together as one project” – Daria, Marketing Team Lead

Sign up now, and we will guide you by sharing best practices and tips on building your personal brand from scratch. But it’s you who will decide on a certain strategy of communication to go with to reach your audience.

The Free Social Media Academy contains the following topics:

1. Introduction to Social Media
2. Establishing a Social Media Presence
3. Building a Personal Brand on Social Media
4. Content Creation
5. Posting to Social Media
6. Social Media Engagement
7. Basic Promotion Techniques

Follow this link to start your education now.

Free to use Personal Brand pack

In order to help SMBs save revenue and help people monetize their skills online during the pandemic recession, we’re offering a new Personal Brand Pack free for 3 months right after completing the Academy Course and becoming certified.

The new Personal Brand tool provides you with:

• The opportunity to work with 2 social media profiles in one place
• An AI-based Social Media Calendar which will help determine the right time to post (yes, we handle the situative marketing needs due to pandemic)
• PDF reporting with all the essential metrics (reach, engagement) and page statistics designed in an understandable way
• A built-in Graphics Editor that allows users to get absolutely unique content in a few easy steps, + 6,000 pre-made templates to use in 35 industries
• A Post Boosting feature that will target the most relevant audience by spending only a few bucks on original Facebook campaigns
• 5 new content packages containing 120+ templates specifically made for today’s struggling industries

Our Personal Brand package is focused on saving income for today’s most struggling personas and those whose knowledge is needed in the current reality. That’s why we’ve also come up with new design and content ideas for restaurant and grocery store owners, fitness and yoga personal trainers, educational course owners, online coaches, physical and mental health therapists. – Stacy, Head of Content

Content for restaurant, bakery or grocery store owners:

View more templates

Content for physical therapists, fitness and yoga trainers:

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Content for mental health therapists:

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Content for educational course owners and online coaches:

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Sign up now, stay safe and be prepared for the dramatic changes that are coming!

The post PromoRepublic Launches the Bundle of Emergency Social Media Academy Course + Free Product to Help SMBs Survive the Crisis appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.