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Influencer Marketing: Five Strategies for Social Media Success

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Influencer Marketing: Five Strategies for Social Media Success

Social media marketing. It has been a core promotional business tactic for close to two decades. When used correctly, it can drive engagement, enhance brand awareness, and ultimately boost sales. As for getting it right with social media, there’s one tactic that has emerged as a powerful weapon: influencer marketing.

This is evidenced by the following statistic: In 2023, over 80% of marketers had a budget dedicated solely to influencer marketing. Back in 2017, it was just 37%.

Yet even if you have a budget, it’s essential you spend those dollars wisely. Here are five essential strategies to generate success through influencer marketing.

1. Identify the Right Influencers

As you would expect, the success of an influencer marketing campaign largely hinges on partnering with the right influencers. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean going for those with the highest number of followers. Micro-influencers, typically defined by having smaller but more engaged audiences, can sometimes offer higher ROI than their mega-influencer counterparts.

When identifying the right influencers, focus on these three elements: relevance, engagement rates, and alignment with your brand values. Social media analytics tools can help you to research and identify influencers that cover these elements and best resonate with your target audience.

2. Create Authentic, Relatable Content

Authenticity is necessary for influencer marketing to work. Audiences today are savvy, where they can easily distinguish between genuine endorsements and forced promotions. This is why you must encourage influencers to craft content that feels natural and follows their usual style.

As well as maintaining the influencer’s credibility, this approach ensures their content is both relatable and appealing to their followers. Authentic storytelling can significantly boost engagement and foster a genuine connection between the influencer’s audience and your brand.

3. Get Professional Help

Influencer marketing can be highly effective, but it’s not easy to pull off. This is why working with a digital PR agency is recommended. Agencies like AgilePR specialize in online brand building, where they have extensive networks of influencers across various niches.

PR agencies can assist in identifying the perfect influencer matches. They can negotiate deals and construct compelling campaigns which align with your marketing goals. Moreover, digital PR agencies are adept at crisis management. This ensures that your brand maintains a positive image online, even if unexpected challenges arise during the campaign.

4. Use Multiple Platforms

Don’t restrict your influencer marketing efforts to a single social media platform. Different platforms cater to different audience demographics and interests. By leveraging multiple channels, you can maximize your campaign’s reach.

Similarly, it’s wise to experiment with various content formats. You can use posts, stories, videos, or live sessions, and by mixing your content up, you can keep the campaign fresh and engaging.

5. Measure and Analyze Performance

Key performance indicators (KPIs) must be tracked and analyzed to gauge the success of your influencer marketing campaigns. These KPIs can include:

  • Engagement rates
  • Click-through rates
  • Conversion rates
  • Social media mentions
  • Follower growth
  • Sentiment analysis
  • ROI

With analytics tools, you can measure these metrics to gain insights into what works, and what doesn’t. Along with helping to evaluate your current campaign’s performance, it also guides future influencer collaborations and strategies.

How To Drive Your Customer Engagement Within Your Company

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Engagement|How To Drive Your Customer Engagement Within Your CompanyCustomer engagement has always been important in the business world. Not only is it a tool to drive sales, but it can also help to put your brand on the map. However, while it used to be important from a brand perspective, changing consumer trends indicate that it’s now vital for the customer, too. For example, ‘nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers want brands to connect with them’. Furthemore, consumers are more likely to support a brand they feel engaged and connected with, as it feels a little more personal than supporting a ‘faceless’ brand.

With that in mind, here are some simple ways in which you can drive customer engagement within your company.

Communicate openly.

Communication is pivotal to the development of any relationship, meaning that you have to be able to effectively communicate with your customers if you want to succeed. Thankfully, open communication has never been easier – as there are now plenty of ways in which you can reach out to your customers. For example, in addition to face-to-face conversations, you can chat over email, the phone, or through your social media channels.

However, you should also ensure that you think carefully about how you want to communicate with your customers. For example, what kind of tone will you use when liaising with clients? Do you want to appear professional and formal or chatty and friendly? Either way, being consistent in your approach to communicating will help you build a better relationship with your customers and drive engagement. You should also ensure that you are as transparent as possible when communicating with clients. Don’t hide behind complicated technical or legal jargon – show your human side and respond honestly to their messages, especially if they are complaining.

Improve your marketing strategy.

There are various different ways in which you can encourage customers to engage with your brand – but your digital marketing strategy is perhaps the most important, especially as consumers spend more time online than ever before. As a result, you should work on refining your ecommerce marketing strategy as much as possible.

For example, you should ensure that you have a clear target audience in mind so that you can tailor your digital content to their likes and dislikes. For example, if you’re marketing your brand to a younger audience, you might want to consider influencer marketing. While this is a relatively new marketing technique, younger audiences, in particular, are more likely to buy products that have been recommended to them by an authority figure or someone they look up to, such as a social media influencer.

Focus on Employee Engagement.

Employee engagement is just as important as customer engagement, especially as your employees will likely spend most of their time engaging with customers face-to-face. When they are happy and motivated, they’ll be able to create a more welcoming environment for your customers. When dissatisfied, they’ll be less committed to their work and more likely to make mistakes that could drive customers away instead of reeling them in. As a result, you should seek to invest in employee engagement strategies that will not only raise employee morale but also enhance your bottom line and improve your relationship with your customers.

Ideally, you should ensure that all staff members (particularly those in customer-facing roles) receive customer service training. This is a great way to put your best foot forward, as they’ll know exactly how to deal with customers, even those who may be complaining.

Stand Out From The Crowd.

Another way to drive customer engagement within your brand is through actually attracting customers in the first place. With thousands of new businesses being launched each day, you must be able to stand out in a saturated market if you want to succeed. For example, while you might want to provide comprehensive and varied services to your customers, honing in on a specific niche is the easiest way to achieve this goal. After all, this will enable you to optimize your products and services for your customers. This way, you’ll also be able to present your brand as an industry leader whom customers can trust, making it more likely that they’ll continue to support you.

You should also give your customers as many reasons as possible to stick around and support your brand. To do this, you could put together a unique loyalty scheme that rewards them for their continued support. For example, this could include exclusive discount codes, freebies, or early access to products before they hit the market. The more valued you make your customers feel, the more willing they will be to engage with your brand.

4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail Stores

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail StoresBrick & mortar retail stores are a vital part of the communities in which they exist. By having an established storefront, they’re able to interact with the people who pass by on a daily basis. This interaction makes it easy to improve engagement, as people can stop in when they’re walking by or once they get off of work, walking in to see what this small business is all about or to purchase a product out of support.

Yet, having just a physical location only goes so far. While some small businesses might be staunch about avoiding the digital realm, to the point of being labeled a Luddite, there is a lot to be gained by entering digital spaces. Social media has particularly changed the way that small businesses sustain themselves. In some cases, it has allowed these small brick and mortar stores to survive, as they’ve been able to develop digital audiences that support them in times where the storefront isn’t performing. The benefits are far-reaching, too, where social media marketing techniques like influencer and affiliate marketing measures help to improve the success of business. Interested in how you can start? Here is an explanation of social media platforms and four ways social media marketing can benefit your small business.

The Main Social Media Platforms Simplified

For brick and mortar establishments unfamiliar with social media, here is a basic breakdown of the major platforms and how they can be beneficial to your business:

  • Facebook – For small businesses like brick and mortar retailers, Facebook is the perfect platform for basic marketing and advertising opportunities. If you can develop a following from your local community, you can transform your business’s page into something of a blog, where you can keep local consumers in the loop about products, sales, events, and more. The platform’s “Live” feature also allows you to capture footage from around your storefront, letting you interact with customers by showing off staff and everything going on.
  • Instagram – If your company is more based on aesthetic, Instagram might be the place for you. You can curate a feed where images with a specific color scheme and look can be shared, letting consumers know what products you have to offer, all while hinting at the lifestyle your brand represents.
  • Twitter – Looking for a way to communicate with customers? Twitter can be a good avenue, where the site can be treated as a form of customer service, helping you stay in touch with customers throughout the day.
  • YouTube – If you’re looking to show off the look of your brand, it might be best to move from Instagram photography to video. Minute-long videos can make for great content, where you keep followers in the know concerning your business. You can even take it a step further and film 10-plus-minute videos where you review products or provide educational information to viewers.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail StoresKnowing which platform is right for you will involve studying your business to better understand what it wants to say to the community, and on which platform your audience is most likely to be found. But, with all of this in mind, here are some of the essential ways that marketing on these social media platforms can benefit your brick and mortar business:

1. Utilizing the Internet to Build a Digital Relationship

One of the greatest things about creating social media profiles for your business is that it allows you to develop digital relationships that can transcend to real-life transactions—if you’ve never had a website, this isn’t likely to happen, so that’s something you should do sooner rather than later.

The best part about starting out is that you don’t have to do much, in terms of marketing and advertising. Rather, work to start following other businesses and begin communicating with fellow social media users. On top of this, start posting content that is going to develop a following on its own: Post pleasing pictures to Instagram with relevant hashtags; follow other local businesses on Facebook to start growing a local community that can grow from there.

Once these relationships are established, you can begin moving onto more complicated features of the apps, all while your initial community continues to provide you with long-lasting engagement.

2. Using Referral Marketing

When starting out, one of the best ways you can get yourself up and going is through the help of referrals. Technically known as affiliate marketing, this is the establishment of relationships with other businesses, where a company/person is paid to endorse and promote a business.

This can be an essential way to get your feet on the ground as a new social media user, as you can utilize influencers and fellow businesses to your advantage, having them promote your business’s page to their own larger audiences. In turn, this will hopefully lead to new followers and potential site visitors, helping you gain traction and a digital following of your own. The best part is that this can still be done even once you have an established following, as there will always be room for growth in the digital world.

3. Posting Content That’s Relevant and Eye-Catching

One of the most important things to gaining a following online, and remaining relevant, is posting content that people want to see. Your posts shouldn’t just be pictures of your products followed by a description of what they do. Rather, a story should be told.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail StoresIf you’re a local business, you can talk about how your community’s character is a part of everything you do. If you’re promoting health and wellness products, you can craft a story related to how this product is intended to improve a person’s life by developing a healthier daily routine. The options are endless, but you want to find something that will resonate with social media users, as that’s what is going to entice them to follow your business and stick around.

Ideally, you need to make sure that your content isn’t just creative, but is also professional looking. This means building your own skills in photography through photography online courses and honing your creative writing abilities through creative writing courses and workshops or it means using the skills of a professional and expert third party, such as a professional product photographer and a professional copywriter.

4. Making an Inviting Website

As mentioned before, you need a website if you don’t currently have one. While you can rely on getting business in-store from local followers, that won’t translate to the national or global market. Instead, you need a website that is reflective of your business—a place where social media users can be directed to make purchases with your retail store. This will be essential to your business’s longevity, as it will allow you to create a profitable digital audience, giving you an extra level of protection if anything were to ever happen to your storefront.

Improve Your Business’s Security with Social Media Exposure

The methods you explore when developing a social media presence, from affiliate marketing to website development, will vary, but they’re all intended to improve the security of your business going forward. Think about the ways social media can help your business, and begin posting sooner rather than later.

 

7 Link Building Strategies To Try Today

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Link Building|7 Link Building Strategies To Try TodayLooking for the best link building strategies? Trying to develop a powerful external link building strategy?
If you’re looking for ways to boost the presence of your website in search engines, then it’s important to realize that building backlinks will be critical. Unfortunately, it can be tricky to get backlinks to your site and many website owners don’t know where to start.

Luckily, we’re here to help you out. Here are 7 easy link building strategies that you should try today.

1. Ask Directly

One of the top link building strategies you can use to get backlinks for your website is to try asking for them directly.
For example, if there is already a mention of your website elsewhere on the web but no link is included, you may want to ask the website owner to add one. You may also want to check for broken links that are directed towards online resources and offer your own content as a replacement.

2. Write a Guest Post

Guest posting is another tried-and-true way to get a backlink to your website.

With this strategy, you’ll offer to write a blog post for another website or blog. In return, they’ll often link back to your site or let you add links to your site within the article itself.

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3. Create Shareable Content

Believe it or not, simply writing great content and posting it on your site is a great way to gain backlinks.

By writing content that is incredibly sharable and provides valuable information, it will be more likely that other site owners will discover it and link to it as a resource.

4. Call Out An Influencer

One of the best ways to get links naturally is by directly calling out some of the bigger names in your industry. By mentioning an “influencer”, that person may end up checking out your site or even linking back to your original post.

To do this, you may want to write a round-up post that lists the top leaders or bloggers in your industry. Then, make sure that you let each one know about their spot on your list using social media.

5. Make a Killer Infographic

While writing great articles can be helpful for getting backlinks, sharing infographics can be even more effective.

Consider creating an infographic that showcases facts about your industry, and then share it. Infographics are typically chock-full of valuable information and many other bloggers and website owners would often be happy to link to it in a blog post of their own.

6. Post in Forums

If done in a genuine and non-spammy way, posting in forums and sometimes linking to your site can also be helpful for getting backlinks.
While some of the links you’ll post in forums will be no-follow, they can still be very valuable for boosting your backlink profile.

7. Comment on Blogs

Commenting on other blogs on the web and including a link back to your own site can also be a great strategy. Like with forum posts, however, it’s important that you only post in an authentic and down-to-earth way.

Also, ensure that the blogs you’re commenting on are actually relevant to your industry or niche.

Boosting Your SEO With These Link Building Strategies

While there is a lot to think about when attempting to boost your site’s SEO, using these link building strategies should be a big part of the puzzle. By putting in the extra effort to build quality backlinks, your website will likely reap the rewards in the months and years to come.

Looking for more SEO ideas and strategies? Start reading through our blog now to find more helpful SEO tips and advice.

6 Tips to Choose an Influencer for Your Brand

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Brand Influencer|6 Tips to Choose an Influencer for Your BrandWhen it comes to gaining new customers, word of mouth is one of the most efficient, yet ignored, marketing strategies used by businesses. Over 60% of customers search for reviews online before making a purchase, and 90% will believe a brand recommendation from someone they trust.

The trusted party could be a friend, family member, or even an influencer. In fact, trust is one reason why brands partner with influencers. You see, influencers often have a significant follower base of people who trust them. So, brands use this influence to reach their target audience. That said, here are six tips to help you choose the right influencer for your brand.

1. Do Your Research

Devote time into looking through the social media pages, especially the ones associated with your intended influencer. Understand their brand and what they represent by simply scanning through their social media pages. You need to understand what your influencer represents to ensure that their brand aligns with yours – directly or indirectly.

Going through their social media page will enable you to find out if they have ever been affiliated or partnered with a competitor at some point in time. For instance, it would be unwise for a company like Apple to contact an influencer who represented Samsung in the past.

2. Think Outside the Box

Just because you are promoting a specific item or service does not mean you have to narrow down your search for an influencer to one category.
By not making the target product obvious and focusing on other criteria, you are more likely to increase your subconscious buying chances. Professor Gerald Zaltman reveals in his book that 95% of purchase decisions are unconscious. Instead of putting yourself in a box, you can focus on their personality instead.

3. Use a Social Media/Influencer Marketing Agency

Influencers can make or break your brand, so you should carry out due diligence when picking one. If you don’t know where to start, you can choose one of the various services from dappergoat.com, which is both a social media and influencer marketing agency. Alternatively, make use of a number of social media platforms to carry out the hunt yourself. Regardless of the path, you want to follow,

4. Create a Story

The most vital part of using an influencer to market is their story. While it is okay to acknowledge that influencers are creatives, it is also essential to express and guide the way you want your brand to be represented. However, do not go overboard with your demands.

Ensure you leave enough room for the influencer’s creativity to blossom. This will enable them to accomplish the main objective, which is to tell your story through their voice. So, pick an Influencer who is capable of conveying your story and is equally comfortable with your demands.

5. Be Honest

Some influencers may be reluctant to work with brands they do not know. However, if you take the time to create a pitch, explain why you want to work with them, and how your goals align, they are more likely to have a heart change. After all, you committed a lot of hours into carrying out your research to ensure they were the right fit.

The thing is, influencers are more efficient when they work with brands whose values align with theirs. So, it’s best to aim to show and express your genuine intentions to the influencer of your choice.