With over 1 billion users around the world, TikTok is a social media platform that has taken the marketing world by storm. If you think TikTok is only for silly challenges or prank videos, think again.

The platform’s humble beginnings as a place for cute or fun videos are no more—with each passing year, more brands are unlocking their opportunities to promote their products or services through visually appealing content.

If you aren’t sure how to get started, we’ve got you covered. In this blog, we’ll explore tips on how you can best promote and grow your small business on TikTok.

1. Explore the platform.

Before you start posting videos on TikTok, explore the platform first. Doing so helps you see what type of content engages users and how your business can fit in its community on the platform.

Now, TikTok isn’t the best place for lengthy webinars or sales pitches. Rather, it’s an app that allows users to showcase their creativity through video content. 

If you explore TikTok, you’ll find numerous silly, fun, and exciting videos about a variety of topics, usually set to popular songs. 

There’s a reason for that. According to GlobalWebIndex, around 41% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24. Creative and fun videos are what build connections on this platform so you need to ensure you develop visually appealing content that engages with your audience. 

2. Create engaging, fun content.

TikTok is riddled with endless content. It’s easy for businesses to get lost in this large sea of videos. To stand out, you need to create unique content that grabs your target audience’s attention and remains true to your brand. 

Some tips for creating engaging, fun content on TikTok include:

Identifying your audience and brand voice on the platform. 

Take time to explore your target audience on TikTok. What videos are they searching for? What creators do they like? Many videos on TikTok are fun and entertaining. 

Depending on your brand voice and personality, you need to adapt to the platform’s environment while also sticking true to your brand.

Do not create formal or scripted video content. 

Remember, TikTok is a place for fun, appealing, and authentic videos. The more formal or scripted you are, the less natural your brand will be. And most users won’t tune in to hear what your business has to offer.

Don’t overthink your process either. As long as you have creative ideas and good lighting, just shoot videos directly from your phone.

Humanize your brand. 

Don’t hide away your business from your audience—be open and honest! Rather than promoting your products and services only, take your audience on a journey behind your business operations.

Show them your employee’s day-to-day routine at the office or new projects that are underway. If you have an office pet or hold small office parties, record it for TikTok.

This content showcases a more human side to your business, allowing users to connect with it on a personal level.

Take advantage of challenges.

Developing ideas for new content is hard but TikTok makes it easy with trending challenges, hashtags, and music. If there’s a video that’s turning heads on the platform, join in by putting a branded spin!

3. Be creative with your videos.

Although it’s intimidating to see the wave of creativity and entertainment that other users display in their videos, you shouldn’t shy away from being creative with your own. 

TikTok has a variety of trendy music, overlays, effects, filters, and other features that’ll help your videos stand out from the rest. 

Most music on the platform can be accessed through its library in audio clip format. You have the option to browse through different categories and save the ones you like for later use. 

When creating your video, you can add sounds or music before or after you’ve recorded it. You can also add it to other recorded videos on file. Along with sounds, you also have the ability to apply filters, adjust the speed of your videos, apply effects, and add your video to a   template.

With filters, you can develop branded filters or effects to help you and your followers spread awareness about your business. 

4. Take advantage of TikTok’s features.

Now that we’ve gone through TikTok’s video editing and sound features, let’s take a look at the platform’s other tools to help you publish your videos.

Some of TikTok’s valuable publishing features include:

Write great descriptions.

TikTok descriptions are no more than 150 characters long so it’s important to keep them short and sweet. It should provide meaning to your audience. You can also use it to provide context for those who are visually or hearing impaired.

Use a mix of hashtags.

As in any platform, hashtags play a big role in driving brand awareness. When you add the right hashtags, you help your video show up to the right audiences. If there’s a trending hashtag that’s relevant to your business and video, use it. Hashtags are powerful in attracting the right audience for your business.

Don’t forget about tagging.

If you’ve collaborated with another creator or brand, make sure to tag them on your video. This helps generate buzz around your business. Tagging can also be used to repost user-generated content. Just use the “@” symbol and give credit to the original content creator.

Your links matter.

Create a TikTok Business account to enable the link-sharing feature. Once you do, you can add a link to your bio’s URL field. Ask users to sign up for your newsletter or browse through your website’s new products via the link. 

5. Develop a publishing schedule.

Consistency is the key to success on TikTok (and any other social media platform). From the moment you decide you want your business to be on TikTok, think about when and how often you want to post videos on the platform.

This involves researching your audience’s behavior. How often are they on TikTok? What times are they on the platform? What days are they on it? 

It’s important to pay close attention to these details. If you post a video in the afternoon on a Sunday when most of your audience is not online, you risk losing the engagement you would’ve gotten on a different day and time.

Based on your audience’s usage behavior, you can develop a consistent schedule that meets your audience’s expectations. Track and analyze your audience’s behavior so that you can post at the best possible time.

6. Be strategic with hashtags. 

We’ve already mentioned the importance of hashtags on TikTok. Along with including hashtags on videos, you can also launch a hashtag challenge to encourage your audience to create content about your business.

Many brands have launched their own hashtag challenges with successful results. For example, Chipotle created the #GuacDance challenge by encouraging their followers to choreograph their own dance for a free avocado on National Avocado Day. 

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, this challenge has amassed more than 1.1 billion views. 

Another brand that achieved success with hashtags is the makeup company, E.L.F. Cosmetics. With the launch of the #EyesLipsFace challenge, users were encouraged to show their best makeup looks using the company’s branded hashtag. The winner would receive $250 worth of E.L.F. Cosmetics products.

This challenge received more than 6 million views on TikTok.

A cool hashtag challenge can lift your business to newer heights by driving engagement to your brand and its offerings.

7. Share user-generated content.

User-generated content is the easiest way to promote your products on TikTok (as well as other social media platforms). With UGC, you can receive and share high-performing content in a cost-effective way. 

UGC is unique content that your audience creates for your brand. This content is later shared or reposted by your business or other users. Just make sure to ask permission before sharing other users’ videos.

Sharing or reposting UGC allows you to fill your TikTok with exciting content, build customer relationships, and spread the word to potential customers about your business.

The trick is getting your target audience to create content for your brand. 

Many brands encourage their users to generate UGC on TikTok by collaborating with top content creators and launching hashtag challenges. 

8. Use TikTok advertising.

Although monetization is still in its infancy on TikTok, brands are still able to run ad campaigns. TikTok ads are effective because they blend in with other video content on the platform.

Users watching another video can easily come across your ad. And if it’s relevant to their needs, they can choose to engage with your brand’s TikTok account. 

Some ads you can run on TikTok are: 

In-feed ads.

These types of ads appear on a full screen while users scroll through their feed. In-feed ads only run up to 60 seconds and can be linked to landing pages and listings on the app.

Brand takeovers.

These ads appear when users go on the TikTok app. Brand takeovers are 3 to 3.5 seconds long. They’re more expensive than in-feed ads and have special qualities on the app. For example, only one brand can run a brand takeover campaign each day.

TopView ads.

These ads build off of brand takeovers. As such, they’re even more expensive. These videos are around 5 to 60 seconds long and give users the ability to like, comment, and share the ads on their profiles.

9. Interact with your audiences. 

Talking with your customers on TikTok is a great way to build engagement and brand loyalty. It also allows you to humanize your brand so that it resonates with your target users. 

This is true for all social media platforms, not just TikTok.

On TikTok, brands thrive by interacting with their customer base, whether it’s responding to comments or reposting UGC. The platform is highly interactive so you shouldn’t shy away from being social. 

According to Wallaroo, around 83% of TikTok users have posted a video so there are many opportunities available to generate conversation.

10. Partner up with influencers.

Of course, the most popular feature of TikTok is its influencers (or top content creators). The platform has numerous active influencers of all types and levels, including mega influencers and nano influencers.

Many brands use TikTok influencers for their marketing efforts. Take a look at Red Bull as a clear example. Last year, the company partnered with popular TikTok creator, Keeoh to create a video that showcased a popular trend. 

While the video itself did not promote the energy drink, it still served as a promotional prop for a comedic video.

Working with TikTok influencers can help you promote your product to new customers and secure their trust since your brand is being mentioned by credible leaders in the community.

Influencer marketing is tricky, even on an interactive platform like TikTok. Here are some tips that can help use influencer marketing for the best results:

Find the right influencers to partner with. 

Don’t pick any influencer; find one that aligns with your brand and its values. There are more than 50,000 TikTok influencers, both small and large, that can help you. Be aware that larger influencers have a higher reach but tend to be more expensive and widespread.

Smaller influencers are cheaper and tend to have a loyal following. The influencers you engage with depend solely on your marketing goals. 

Define your goals.

Think about your short and long-term goals with influencer marketing. Why do you want to get into influencer marketing for your brand? What number of sales, followers, or views do you hope to reach with an influencer?

By defining your goals, you can make the most of your collaboration and even let the influencer know about them so that they know what to do next.

Give the influencer you pick their space. 

When you’ve discussed your goals with the influencer, avoid putting yourself in their creative space. You should never try to direct them or enforce all of your ideas on them. 

Give them an outline of what your goals are and what’s not accepted within your brand let them do what they do best-create. Creators know their audience best and therefore allowing them to create their own content increases the likelihood of a successful campaign.

This will help you build a good working relationship with the influencer and boost your brand’s credibility.

Measure and analyze your results.

Monitor and track the performance of your campaign during and after the video’s launch. Take note of what went well and what didn’t. Most importantly, note whether you met your goals or if there are any areas of improvement.

If executed correctly, influencer marketing on TikTok can be a phenomenal marketing venture for your brand. Be sure to collaborate with your influencer throughout the entire process. 

They may bring in great ideas or concerns that can help you steer your campaign in the right direction.

TikTok’s relevance isn’t going anywhere any time soon. With its growth set to increase by 40% in 2022, the platform continues to grow year over year. TikTok provides your business with an array of potential opportunities, including awareness, sales growth, and engagement. So if you haven’t joined TikTik for your business needs, what are you waiting for? Get started today!

Learn more about influencer marketing by checking out our blog, What is Influencer Marketing?

Since its launch in 2005, Google Analytics has long been a reliable tool for marketers and business owners alike to track and measure the success of their promotional efforts. As with any tool in the digital space, the software has morphed to offer higher-quality tracking and analytics for the next couple of years. 

And as the recent announcement from Google shows, this evolution isn’t stopping any time soon. Google is officially ending Universal Analytics, the previous generation of Analytics that served as the default for websites before October 2020.

On July 1, 2023, and beyond, Universal Analytics will stop processing new data. So what will serve as a replacement for Universal Analytics moving forward?

Introducing Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google’s newest measurement platform for Analytics. This software is designed to provide marketers with valuable insights about their target consumers, their behavior, and other key metrics across countless websites and apps. 

Unlike the previous Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 utilizes a unique approach to data collection. If you’ve already gotten the hang of Universal Analytics, you may be groaning at the idea of having to learn the ropes of analyzing data in a new way.

However, learning how to navigate GA4 and its advanced features can help you gain a competitive edge in the digital marketing space. 

Read on to learn more about GA4 and how you can take advantage of its benefits.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 is the updated version of Google Analytics. Launch in October 2020, it’s the current default when you create a new property on the platform. 

With its advanced capabilities, GA4 provides marketers with a powerful look into their customer’s journeys through numerous websites, apps, and devices. It no longer works as just a tool for reporting campaign results; it’s a software tool that analyzes and measures conversions. 

Like other digital softwares, GA4 inches closer to digital innovation. It utilizes the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to collect data and deliver reliable insights that drive growth—a feature that is necessary with the newer changes in privacy policies.  

Why is Google Analytics changing to GA4? 

One huge factor for Google’s transition to GA4 is the ever-changing privacy and data policies that were implemented in the past few years. Consumers have also expressed concern over the use of their data for marketing reasons, leading to stricter regulations. 

As such, Google adapted to these changes by developing newer standards in data collection and tracking so that it worked in compliance with legislation like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). 

Along with data protection and privacy, consumer behavior has also shifted, becoming more reliant on multiple devices and platforms. 

Google Analytics 4 is the perfect response to these behavior shifts since it provides a holistic, white-glove approach to reporting data. This means marketers are able to derive valuable insights without the need for cookies.

So, with all of this in mind, what exactly does this mean for the future of marketing?

How does GA4 benefit marketing? 

Although GA4 was introduced two years ago, it is still new territory for many marketers. Learning how to use the software sounds overwhelming but it’s worth reaping the benefits that come with it.

Below are a few ways GA4 can boost your digital marketing efforts to the next level:

Emphasis on the customer journey.

Google Analytics 4 collects and derives insights from all platforms, apps, and devices across the web. This provides you with an integrated view of your customer’s journey—that is, from the start of their interactions with your business to the end. 

You’ll have a clearer picture of your digital marketing efforts’ performance and their impact on your target consumers. 

GA4 also uses its AI feature to help you predict revenue from each target segment so that you can prioritize the customers with the highest value for your business.

Better data predictions.

The digital marketing space never slows down for any business to catch up. Now more than ever, marketers need to pick up on emerging trends and adjust their campaigns to meet the needs of their customers.

GA4 provides alerts on new data trends, giving you the chance to focus on potential opportunities or demands and move in the right direction.

The software’s AI tool also allows you to calculate possible future trends so that you can create strategies that reel customers back in.

Focus on privacy.

With the elimination of cookies and other identifiers, marketers will run into problems with gaps in their data. GA4 solves this problem by utilizing AI that adapts to the updates in privacy policies.

The software’s advanced features allow it to bridge gaps as data and cookie consent rules are updated, providing you with well-rounded insights about your target consumers.

Smoother integration with Google Ads.

GA4 offers marketers a smoother, easier integration with Google ads, allowing you to tweak your targeting methods and campaigns across each channel. This makes it easier to fine-tune the customer experience.

Most customers experience ad fatigue on a regular basis. In fact, 91% of customers believe ads are more intrusive now than in the past.

With GA4, you are more likely to target customers who care about your products and services so your ad dollars won’t go to waste.

New conversions feature for YouTube.

While Google is the largest search engine, it also owns the second largest search engine, YouTube. With over 5 billion hours of video watched daily, YouTube serves as a fantastic marketing tool for raising brand awareness and engaging with target consumers online. 

As part of Google’s attempt to increase its value for marketing purposes, GA4 has advanced features that make for easier integration between Google Analytics and YouTube. 

Previously, a user needed to click on your website link from a video for it to count as a conversion on YouTube. However, most users watch videos on the platform without clicking on any external links, leading to a loss of attribution from YouTube.

GA4’s solution is to provide view-through conversions from YouTube. This allows marketers to view and measure video views and how they contribute to overall revenue. 

GA4 is an advanced leap in the evolution of Google Analytics. As a significant update from its previous iteration, Google Analytics 4 is a positive and powerful change in marketing communications and interactions. 

The launch of GA4 demonstrates a shift in the way target audiences engages with the different brand throughout multiple channels, platforms, devices, and customer journey stages.

It’s important to remember that GA4’s UI is different from the previous Google Analytics platform. The data elements and definitions aren’t the same so you must take time to navigate through GA4 so that you can make the most of your marketing dollars. 

Read our blog, Why Analyzing Customer Experience is Important (And How To Do It) to learn how to create a seamless experience for your customers when they interact with your brand.

Try to remember a time when you had a positive experience with a business. What did you like about that interaction? How did it leave you feeling? Now, what about a negative experience you’ve had as a customer? Think about the things you disliked that stand out to you.

Creating a seamless, pleasant customer experience is vital to the success of a brand. If a customer has regular positive interactions with your business, they’re more likely to become loyal customers—regardless of how expensive a product or service is. 

In fact, according to Forbes, 86% of customers are willing to pay more to receive an amazing customer experience. 

Customer experience isn’t just helping your customers out about an issue with your product or service. That’s customer service, and we’ll discuss this in more detail later on in our blog. 

Customer experience encompasses all corners of what your business offers—the quality of service, product features, advertising, packaging, and transparency. The more you focus on providing and improving the interactions between customers and your business, the more likely you’ll be able to build brand loyalty (especially if you build on digital customer experiences). 

Here is an in-depth look at the customer experience, ways to analyze it, and how it’s different from customer service. 

What is customer experience? 

Customer experience, or CX, is how your target customers view their experience with your business. Essentially, it revolves around their overall feelings and perceptions surrounding your business or brand. 

You can view it as the total result of all your customer’s interactions and experiences throughout their relationship with your business. This includes short interactions like a session on your website and even interactions that don’t result in a conversion like a purchase or a newsletter subscription.

From exposure to an ad or a phone call to your business’s call center, every exchange between your customer and business impacts how they view your business and their relationship with it. 

Based on their experience with your brand, your customer will decide whether to continue interacting with your business or to find an alternative that can better meet their needs (in many cases, it’s usually a competing brand).

As such, it’s crucial to keep the customer experience in mind across every aspect of your business—and yes, this includes little details like how fast your website runs or how timely a customer’s payment is processed. 

What are the benefits of customer experience analytics?

There is never a wrong time to collect, track, and analyze data when it comes to your business. This same principle applies to customer data. 

Customer experience analytics involves the collection and analysis of all data from your target customers, such as their perspectives, needs, feedback, and experiences about your products, services, and brand as a whole.

Some essential benefits of focusing on customer experience analytics include:

Your customers aren’t the only group that benefits from having a seamless customer experience. By collecting and assessing data from your target customers, you take the first steps to building business growth. 

Your customers will feel like their needs are being met through their experiences with their brand. As you exceed their expectations, they’re likely to become loyal customers to your brand, buying your products or services over rival brands as well as recommending your business to friends and family. This is how you turn your customers into advocates.

Make sure you’re receiving and listening to feedback from your customers. According to SurveyMonkey, around 85% of customers provide feedback for positive experiences with a business while 81% of customers give feedback for any bad experiences. 

Your customers are likely providing their thoughts and feelings about their experiences with your brand online so pay attention as you enhance your customer experience. 

How do you analyze customer experience?

There are a variety of methods to effectively measure and analyze customer experience. To get started, you need to focus on three important factors: your target customers, their needs, and most importantly, their feedback or opinions about your business. 

Once you have these three things in place, you can explore internal issues and patterns within your business operations and implement actions that improve customer experience. 

Here are a few helpful tips to help you analyze the customer experience for your business. 

Identify your target customers.

Your target customers are the most important individuals in every facet of your marketing efforts. These are the individuals who derive value from your products or services, and if provided with a seamless, positive customer experience, they will return to your business for more.

However, pinpointing your target customers is easier said than done. If you’re not sure who your target customers are, don’t fret. 

You can find out who your target customers are by launching a survey on your website for your visitors to fill out, analyzing your respective market, or reviewing the results of your SEO tools. Once you have this data, you can then focus on specific customers, such as those who had higher frequencies in purchases or spent the most money.

Make sure to develop buyer personas to guide you in creating amazing customer experiences as your target customers interact with your business. 

Collect data on customer feedback. 

While you can run surveys for visitors to your website, there are plenty of other effective ways to collect your customers’ feedback—all of which can provide you with valuable insights about your business. 

Some methods you can use to collect data on customer feedback include:

There are three common customer surveys that many companies use to collect and measure data on customer feedback. These include:

When you calculate NPS, you group different customers into specific segments based on how they scored a key question. These segments are promoters (scored 9-10), passives (score 7-8), and detractors (score 0-6).

This metric is great for tracking customer loyalty over time. We highly recommended calculating CES alongside NPS for a better understanding of your customer’s experiences. 

The CSAT is one of the heavily relied upon metrics along with the NPS. This metric provides you with quantifiable results about your customer’s satisfaction with your business that is backed with valuable feedback that explains why.

Unlike setting up surveys, conducting interviews offers an intensive but personal look into your customer’s experiences, thoughts, and perceptions about your brand and its offerings.

Through interviews, you’ll be able to empathize with your customers and learn about needs, motivating factors, and obstacles you likely would’ve never known about. 

Be sure to include other members of your team to sit in and listen to the interview process so that they can have a better understanding of each customer’s pain points and overall business objectives. 

Web analytics is the process of collecting, tracking, measuring, analyzing, and reporting all of your website data. Think of it as a way to review every activity that has taken place on your website.

Although you can’t collect data on customer feedback through web analytics, you can definitely receive key insights about how your online content is exceeding customer satisfaction (or not). 

As you assess the page views, traffic source, and drop-off rates, you’ll notice key patterns occurring in specific pages on your website. For example, if one customer reports how difficult it was to check out their order on your website, you can look into your website analytics and see the drop-off rate for the order page.

Address the smaller issues first. 

Remember: always start small before going big. According to a study from Forrester, customers “are 2.4 times more likely to stick with a brand when their problems are solved quickly.”

As such, if you’ve received a complaint from a customer about your business, have a representative speak with them about their situation. Listen to their story and allow your customer to vent (if needed), then work towards helping them find a suitable solution.

In some situations, the issue is caused by an employee. They may not have sufficient training in dealing with customer support or handling work equipment. A supervisor or manager can dedicate time to training and educating their employees to improve their approaches. 

Other issues stem from internal policies within a company. If that’s the case for your business, have a manager or high-level supervisor investigate the policy and explain the rationale for keeping it. 

You and your management team shouldn’t be quick to change company policies on the spot. However, you can discuss areas for improvement and even develop alternative options that would allow customers to have a seamless experience with your brand.

Investigate issues with higher business impact. 

As soon as you’ve reviewed smaller issues, take a look at the issues that have a bigger impact on your business. Start by identifying where many complaints are coming from your target customers.

To ensure that these issues are high-impact, make sure that it’s common and serious. Does it affect the majority of your target customer base? Is it preventing them from making a purchase? 

When you’ve recognized the common, high-impact issues, you can move forward with addressing them. This may include implementing new company policies, training staff at all levels, changing your website’s design or copy, or designing methods to enhance the customer experience.

We also recommend gathering feedback from target customers who almost didn’t convert. Discussing the rationale behind their conversion will help you gain insight into what you need to do to win those target customers that didn’t convert. 

Review and track all trends.

Customer experience analytics is not just a one-time measurement. You need to ensure that the changes you’re making to your company policies and other internal processes are improving customer experiences.

Whether you want to review trends and patterns on a weekly or monthly basis is your call, but it’s important to continue analyzing customer experiences so that you can see if your efforts are paying off. 

If your efforts aren’t effective, you can explore any root causes and work towards making the necessary changes. Use all of the resources available like website analytics, survey results, and other tools to see how your efforts are faring. 

What is the difference between customer experience and customer service?

Customer experience and customer service are two words that are often used interchangeably in business circles. Although they share similarities, there are differences that are important to understand.

Investopedia defines customer service as a direct interaction between a customer making a purchase and a representative making a sale, usually for a company. To put it simply, customer service is one distinct moment where a customer is reaching out for help on a specific issue from a company.

Customer experience relates to the entire journey a customer goes through, including their awareness of your brand from exposure to an ad to the email survey they receive after making a purchase. 

Customer service is one piece of the customer experience journey. Many customers may not end up engaging with customer service representatives at all. It all depends on who initiates the process: the customer or the business. 

Businesses typically lead customer experiences by ensuring that their target customers don’t encounter any problems throughout their buying journey. It is a holistic approach to help foster great customer relationships.

Customer experience (CX) is not going away any time soon. With the advancements in technology, it is vital for a business to provide exceptional omnichannel customer experiences that fulfill customer needs. 

By identifying your target customers, their needs and pain points, analyzing trends, and maintaining a seamless experience, your company can ensure customer satisfaction and build brand loyalty. This turns your customers into advocates willing to refer their friends, families, and colleagues to your brand.

Check out our blog, How To Advertise on Instagram in 2022 to learn the best tips on advertising on Instagram.

To say podcasts are the hottest thing since sliced bread is an understatement. Since their inception in 2004, podcasts have skyrocketed in immense popularity among business owners and casual listeners alike. Even celebrities like Dua Lipa are taking a shot at producing their own podcast shows for anyone willing to listen.

And yes, even in this image-dominated world, plenty of people are willing to try podcasts.

Take a look at a recent report from Statista. According to this study, around 120 million people listen to podcasts regularly, and this number is predicted to increase to over 160 million in 2023. That’s a lot of podcast listeners in a span of a couple of years!

As podcasts continue to grow in popularity, so do the opportunities attached to them. Podcasts make it easier for businesses, large and small, to communicate with their target audiences and position their brands as authority leaders in their industries.

When you utilize podcasting for your business efforts, you can influence your listeners to see the value in your services, make purchases and promote your business to others. And all of this can be done without breaking the bank.

Here’s a detailed guide on how to start a podcast for your business.

What is podcasting?

Podcasts are a series of audio recordings centered around a specific topic or theme, just like your average radio show. However, there are key differences between podcasts and radio shows that you should know about.

Most podcasts are created with original content—that is, original talking points about a topic, title, cover art, and style. Unlike many radio shows, podcasts have more creative freedom and stylistic approaches. It can be of any length, style, format, frequency, and topic you like. Some of these shows even delve into niche topics like pop culture and unresolved mysteries.

You can subscribe to a specific podcast through an app like Spotify or Audible, download the episodes, and listen to it wherever you go. If you have a Bluetooth or wireless system in your car, you can even listen to your favorite episodes on the go.

Accessing a podcast only requires the use of a device like a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. 

What are the benefits of podcasting for your business?

There are plenty of reasons why starting a podcast would be good for your business. Today, many customers have high expectations from brands. According to Sprout Social, around 64% of customers want brands to foster a connection with them. 

The same article also reports that if a brand is able to achieve a connection with its target customers, at least 76% will make a purchase from them over a competitor.

Podcasting gives your business the chance to build relationships with your target customers. It allows you to humanize your brand and provides an intimate setting so that your customers feel like their thoughts and pain points are heard. 

Podcasts are also highly engaging. Rather than reading off a list of product benefits or issues, many businesses use storytelling in their podcasts to provide experiences that they know their target customers will understand.

When you attach a story to your product or service, you create value behind it.  

If your customers become avid listeners to your podcast, they’ll grow accustomed to associating your business with a certain style, tone, and voice. This familiarity helps to build positive brand equity. 

One of the most important podcasting benefits for your business is establishing credibility. Podcasting allows you to explore deeper issues and topics within your industry that you can’t do with other marketing channels. You can become a reliable source of information for issues in your chosen field, which elevates your brand’s exposure to target customers. 

How do you get started on podcasting for your business?

To create an engaging podcast for your business, there are several key details you need to think about first. Podcasting isn’t an activity you can rush through and expect fast results. 

Like other marketing tools and channels, you’ll need to dedicate some time to cultivating your show so that it brings value to your customers. Yes, you have creative freedom but it’s highly recommended that your podcast aligns with your business objectives.

If you aren’t sure how to get started, be sure to review a few of the podcast basics below to avoid rookie mistakes.

Decide on a niche or theme.

The first step to starting a podcast is deciding on a niche or theme. What do you want the focus of your podcast to be? What are some good industry topics you want to explore? You need to find a niche or theme that’s broad enough to explore various topics but also has a narrow focus that attracts a specific audience.

Brainstorm a list of general topics or ideas you’d like to talk about that aligns with your industry. Include all topics of interest that you think your audience would find interesting. After this, narrow your list down to your favorites. Consider any sub-topics you can discuss.

Seeking a niche that’s underserved in your industry can help you reach audiences that are hungry for such information. For example, instead of having a podcast about the video game industry, you can use your expert knowledge in psychology to discuss video games from a unique perspective.

The worst mistake newbie podcasters can do is try to be everything at once. You won’t appeal to many listeners if you’re too general. And don’t worry about your competition!

With over 2 million podcasts in existence today, chances are, you’ll face competition no matter what niche or theme you decide on.

Demonstrate quality and expertise by discussing a specific topic you know about. You can always expand beyond your chosen niche as your podcast gains traction.

Select a name.

Choosing the right name for your podcast can be a hassle. You can opt for a name that serves as a brief summary of your podcast and what it will be about. 

For example, some podcasts with descriptive names include Crime Junkie, a podcast that delves into true crime stories, The Daily, a podcast about daily news stories by The New York Times, and Stuff You Should Know, a podcast that compiles interesting facts about different topics in society and culture. 

All of these podcasts have names that let the listener know what they should expect when they listen to it.

Another option is to pick a name that’s attention-grabbing and unique but aligns well with your chosen niche. One podcast name that serves as a great example is Criticism is Dead. This show revolves around reviewing and analyzing popular TV shows and films with a more nuanced approach. Its name is clever and catchy but doesn’t deviate from its niche, film criticism. 

When choosing your podcast name, make sure you don’t include your name or even your business’s name unless you are a well-known expert in your field. 

If you’re a public figure, you’ll be able to capitalize on your own name but for lesser-known podcasters, using personal names in a podcast title may confuse potential audiences.

Choose a format. 

There are many different types of podcast formats, including solo, co-hosted, and interview shows. Currently, the most popular podcast format is interviews. This format is usually done with one host and a guest but can also be done with a co-host or multiple guests. 

It depends on the topic and interview questions that you decide to ask. To create good interview questions for your podcast, it’s important to perform significant research on the planned topic and your guest so that your show is fruitful and engaging. 

Of course, just because many podcasts are in interview-style format doesn’t mean you have to do one.

A solo show allows you to have honest conversations with your audiences. These shows are usually not scripted and sound natural to the listener. You also have the option to run a co-hosted podcast where you share your mic with another host. 

For these types of shows, each presenter should create a structure that allows for a natural, organic flow of discussion in every episode. This helps prevent the podcast from becoming cluttered with too much commentary from the two hosts.

You can also switch up the format by having a podcast that’s a solo (or co-hosted) show for the first half and an interview-style Q&A show in the second. It’s up to you to decide what format you would like to do.

Of course, the format of your podcast is just one piece of the puzzle. You’ll also need to decide whether you’d want to record additional elements that boost the appeal and professionalism of your podcast. 

This includes intros and outros, voiceovers, and music. Make sure these features align with your podcast’s tone and personality since they serve as the first impression for potential audiences.

Decide on length. 

The average podcast is around 43 minutes and 24 seconds long. This is a great starting length for many podcasts since it’s long enough for engaging discussions. If we delve deeper into different podcasts available today, many top shows fall between the 30-to-70 minute time length. 

There are also other great podcasts that are just under 10 minutes. So how long should your podcast be? Well, there are no “perfect” podcast lengths and what works as the “average” may not apply to you.

There are numerous so-called “experts” who claim that certain lengths are the best for podcasts because they’re the average time a person drives. However, you should never determine your podcast length with industry statistics or averages. 

Podcasts vary in format and style so they’ll also vary in length. What matters is how much you have to say about a specific topic without losing focus. 

There are five-hour-long podcasts that appeal to a specific audience because they involve lengthy conversations about a topic of interest. Similarly, a 6-minute podcast may attract a certain audience that needs quick information on the go.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different podcast lengths. When you’re starting out, you can vary your show’s time to see what works best for you. That way, you won’t feel pressured into meeting a specific timeframe for every episode. 

Make a consistent upload schedule.

Consistency is key with podcasting. If you’re trying to build brand awareness or leverage business credibility, you must record and post an episode each week. 

And you must maintain it. 

Infrequent posting makes it harder for your podcast to gain traction with target audiences. It also causes your listeners to tune out in favor of competing shows. 

Therefore, take time to plan and decide on the best dates to record, edit, and post your episodes every week. 

If you feel overwhelmed, produce a few episodes for yourself to have an idea of what the process is like and which days of the week work for you. 

Pick recording equipment. 

You don’t need to have the most professional recording equipment to create a podcast. Many newbie podcasters record their shows with their smartphones. If you decide to go this route, be careful with the type of audio quality your smartphone may have.

Low-quality audio can make your podcast sound amateurish—and that’s not something you want audiences to associate your brand with. Investing in a high-quality microphone and recording software is the best place to start.

A good microphone doesn’t typically cost a ton. Some quality options include a USB microphone that can be plugged into your laptop or desktop computer. You can also search the market for basic and high-quality mics like:

Many of these microphones are popular among podcasters. Depending on the format of your show, be sure to purchase microphones for any co-hosts and possible guests you may have each episode. Remember to record in a quiet area and to purchase pop filters (“popper stoppers”) for quality recording. 

Choose your editing style. 

Along with microphones, you’ll need quality audio recording software to create your podcast.  There are plenty of software options available for podcasters such as:

GarageBand is a professional audio software that’s user-friendly and contains various features to record, edit, and mix your audio the way you want it. To learn how to use this software, be sure to give YouTube tutorials a look. GarageBand is only available for Mac and iOS users.

Audacity is an easy-to-use audio recording and editing software available for podcasters to use. This software is free, open-source, and contains a variety of features for audio processing. Some key features include plugins, effects, and easy editing capabilities. Audacity is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and other operating systems.

Adobe Audition is an audio recording and editing software that allows you to create, mix and design your audio with ease. It’s a comprehensive tool with useful features such as display, recording, editing, and mixing for audio content. This software also works well with other software in the Adobe Creative Suite like After Effects and Premiere Pro. Adobe Audition is only available for Windows and Mac users. It can be purchased separately or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite.

Alitu is an audio software that makes recording and editing podcasts efficient and easy. This tool is cost-effective, flexible, and automates every aspect of the audio editing process. It automatically cleans your file so that you sound clean throughout your recording. The software also uses a drag and drop method so that you can go back to focusing on your show. It’s available for Mac and Windows users. Different pricing premiums are available on its website.

Figure out how to host.

Once you’ve edited and recorded an episode of your podcast, it’s time to export your work onto a media hosting platform. Media hosting is the only way you can submit your podcast to websites like iTunes and Spotify. 

Most media hosting platforms require a subscription fee to save your audio files. These services may also provide marketing tools and metrics to help you promote your show. Some popular media hosting sites are Buzzsprout, Libsyn, and Blubrry

After you’ve chosen your media host, the platform will provide a “URL” that you can submit to iTunes, Spotify, and other audio listening websites. You can then promote your podcast to potential listeners from your social media and other marketing channels. 

Decide how to share and promote. 

We recommend sharing and promoting your podcast after you’ve already uploaded several episodes. This will help you generate excitement and give your listeners enough content that convinces them to stick around.

Promote your podcast on your business’s social media channels. Ask your target audience what they think of your show. Encourage them to subscribe and leave a review. When you build a large following, your podcast is likely to be featured on Spotify or iTunes. 

And as you would do with other content, don’t forget to repurpose your podcast into a blog or social media post. Anything you discuss that’s relevant to your industry can be transformed into digestible content to build your online presence. 

You may have never seen it coming, but podcasting is an effective marketing tool that you (and other business owners) shouldn’t ignore. The overall process behind podcasting sounds intimidating but the opportunities it provides for businesses are endless.

And the industry is still young compared to other marketing channels! 

By creating podcast content, you can generate a significant following, engage with your target audience (who could be your potential customers), build brand awareness, and establish your brand as an authority leader.

Once you have the basics of your podcast mapped out, you can begin building close relationships with your audience and elevate your brand to another level.

Read our blog, How to Advertise on Instagram in 2022 to learn the best tips on how to leverage your brand’s advertising efforts on Instagram.

Social media advertising provides businesses with a variety of opportunities to reach new audiences, promote their products and services, and build brand loyalty. 

While there are more than 100 social media sites in existence today, the truth is, there are only a select few that dominate in advertising.

One of these top platforms is Instagram.

Instagram is a popular image-sharing social media platform that gives users the ability to create, post, and share photo and video content with their followers. 

Since Facebook purchased it in 2012, Instagram has amassed a high number of active users. Currently, more than 1 billion people use the platform every day and many more use it for advertising. 

Whether it’s celebrities or small business owners, many people use Instagram for their own personal and professional reasons.

It makes sense for businesses, small and large, to take advantage of the many opportunities that advertising on Instagram provides for its users. 

However, before you launch an Instagram advertising campaign, it’s important to understand the basics of advertising on the platform, the tools it features, and how to best use them to your advantage. 

Here’s a quick guide on how to advertise on Instagram.

What is Instagram advertising?

Instagram isn’t just a platform for taking and sharing personal photos. It’s also a tool that allows you, as a business owner, to reach potential customers, build brand awareness, and promote your products and services.

And it’s very effective at helping you achieve your marketing objectives.

Because it works as a powerful tool for discovering new brands, Instagram also helps increase conversion rates. In fact, Hootsuite reports that 50 percent of users use Instagram to discover new products, services, and brands. 

Another survey from Omnicore states that 50 percent have said they’ve purchased products and services after seeing them promoted on Instagram Stories. 

Needless to say, there’s a world of opportunities with Instagram!

What are the different types of Instagram ads?

To create an effective social media campaign on Instagram, you need to produce organic content on your page that resonates with your audience. 

You can then use Instagram ads to help your page increase its reach and engagement rate. This, in turn, can boost your conversion rates and ROI. Now, there are many different types of ads featured on Instagram. 

Take some time to review each ad option and how you can optimize them to achieve your social media goals.

Influencer advertising

Influencer advertising is a unique form of Instagram advertising that involves paying social media influencers to promote your brand and product. These influencers aren’t your average celebrity or athlete—they’re regular people with a large following who post content within a specific niche. 

Many businesses reach out to social media influencers who regularly post content, engage their audience in their posts, and have a large active following. And this number is expected to grow.

According to a report by Tinuiti, the number of marketing teams leveraging influencer marketing is expected to rise from 55% in 2019 to 72.5% in 2022. 

Influencer marketing is a great way to promote your brand or product as many users are likely to make purchases from influencers they follow and trust. It also helps if you have a specific target audience in mind. 

For example, if you own a restaurant, searching for food bloggers on Instagram will help introduce your business to hundreds of potential customers who will likely be searching for a new spot to eat.

Organic posts

Once you start running advertisements on Instagram, you will start to attract potential audiences to your page. Your organic posts make a huge difference in how you obtain and keep followers in the long run.

Your Instagram page should have fresh, original, and high-quality content that contains engaging and relevant captions that meet your target audience’s needs. 

Remember: there are many types of content you can create on Instagram, such as carousels, stories, and Reels. Organic posts are the posts that help create trust, loyalty, brand awareness, and retention from your customers. 

Introduce a mix of paid ads and organic posts as part of your strategy to maintain a sense of authenticity while you promote your brand. 

Paid advertising

Paid Instagram ads look just like other posts on the platform. However, ads usually contain a “Sponsored” label to differentiate them from other posts. Most paid ads contain a caption with a call-to-action (CTA) button to drive traffic to a post. 

If your objective is to increase conversions, improve video views, or generate leads, a sponsored post allows you to target a specific demographic to the smallest detail and achieve the results you want.

To create an effective sponsored ad campaign, you will need to use Facebook’s Ad Manager to plan out which targeting criteria you choose and placement options. We will explain the ad creation process later in this blog.

Story ads

Story ads are another unique way to advertise on Instagram. Since its launch in 2016, Instagram stories have been used by an average of 500 million people every day, giving you another opportunity to focus your advertising. 

Organic stories are also useful in increasing engagement through interactive means. What makes story ads so popular is that they often look and feel very authentic. It’s this key feature that marketers must capture when creating their story ads. 

You can also include a CTA as a swipe-up feature that takes the user’s direct to your website once you’ve reached 10K followers

How do you start advertising on Instagram?

To advertise on Instagram, there are a few steps you need to follow first to get started. Instagram does not have its own separate ad management system so the ad creation, scheduling, placement, and budgeting process is all done through Facebook Ads Manager.

You’ll need to create a Facebook business page to run ads on Instagram. If you’ve previously worked with Facebook for your business, you don’t need to create another ad account for your Instagram page.

If you’re a first-timer, here’s how to set up your ads on Instagram: 

1. Create a new ad campaign. 

On Facebook Business Suite, go with the ads manager and choose the option to create a new campaign. There are many different ways to create and run ads on Instagram but ads manager is the best tool to use for this purpose.

2. Select your campaign objective.

When you’re creating a new ad, the tool will ask you to determine what objective you want to achieve. Think carefully about your campaign goals. 

While you can choose any of the options listed on the tool, you may want to choose one that you can track and measure on Instagram like brand awareness, traffic, engagement, and more.

After you select your campaign objective, give your campaign a name and any special attributes to help you differentiate it from other campaigns.

3. Choose your target audience.

The next step is to pick the right audience for your campaign. Make sure this audience segment aligns with your chosen campaign objective. 

You can also create a Custom Audience or use Detailed Targeting to pick the best audience for your ad campaign on Instagram. 

4. Add placement. 

For this step, choose Instagram only and unselect all other options for placement. The tool will let you know what your potential reach is for your target audience on Instagram. 

5. Select your budget and ad scheduling.

There are two types of budget you can choose from the ads manager: daily budget and lifetime budget. 

Your daily budget is the average amount of daily spending for your ad. Your lifetime budget is the maximum amount of spending for the specific period your ad is run. 

After you choose your budget, select the dates you would like for your ad to run. You will be given options to optimize your ad delivery, including link clicks, impressions, and page views. Pick the option that best fits your campaign objectives.

6. Choose an ad format.

Now it’s time to choose an ad format. Your ad format is the way you would like your advertisement to look. You have 4 ad format types to choose from, such as carousel, single image, single video, and collection.

Here’s a quick rundown of each ad format:

Carousel ads allow businesses to post up to 10 images and videos that users can look through. These types of ads are an opportunity to exhibit a flair of creativity as you tell a story about your brand and product. According to Hootsuite, they also outperform other types of ads when it comes to engagement and reach.

This type of advertisement is simple and straightforward. It usually contains one image, a caption, and a call-to-action button. These types of newsfeed ads do not receive as much engagement as the others. However, you can create 6 different versions of an ad with different captions, images, and CTAs to A/B test the best performing assets.

It’s a no-brainer—videos receive more engagement than pictures on Instagram. This makes video ads one of the most effective ad options you can use in your strategy. 

On Instagram, videos can be up to 1 minute long (60 seconds) so you must be able to capture your audience’s attention and motivate them to take the desired action within that time frame. 

Creating a great video ad allows you to tell a captivating story about your brand that facilitates brand loyalty and drives engagement. 

Collection ads are a compilation of visual content like pictures and videos that exhibit your products or services to your audience. These ads also give users the chance to buy directly from the business by clicking the CTA and directing them to a page that displays products and services.

7. Connect your Facebook and Instagram pages.

Before you move forward, you need to connect your Facebook page and Instagram account. Of course, if you haven’t created an Instagram account, you can still run ads and track their performance through your Facebook page. 

After you’ve completed this step, review your ads a few times to ensure the copy is clear and concise and that you’ve included the correct links so that your audience is directed to the right page when they click your ad. 

8. Measure your performance. 

Once you have your ad up and running, don’t forget to pay close attention to its metrics and overall performance. It’s important to track the effectiveness of your campaign. 

And if you see any areas for improvement, you can tweak your ad by changing the image or updating the copy so that it performs better.

To see your ad’s performance, click on the “Columns: Performance” tab to review your ad metrics and customize reports to get a clearer picture of your campaign.

How much does it cost to advertise on Instagram?

Like all advertising, Instagram ads aren’t free of charge. It’s easy to rack up costs if you aren’t paying close attention so make sure you take note. In general, the average Instagram ad (in terms of cost-per-click) is around $0.50 – $1.00. 

AdExpresso reported that the average Instagram ad costs $0.80 (cost-per-click). Some Instagram ads can even cost up to $3.00 per click. 

Instagram ad costs vary depending on the following factors:

In some cases, you may need to pay more in highly competitive industries. Your audience demographics also play a huge role in the costs of your ads. 

For example, Instagram CPC prices vary within certain age groups, and Kicksta found that older demographics (individuals aged between 65-74) are more likely to convert compared to younger users.

That doesn’t mean you need to throw in the towel just yet. 

Older demographics with high CPC rates are 18-24, 25-34, and 35-44-year-olds. In contrast, younger demographics (13-17-year-olds) are lower-priced at 47 cents per click. 

Depending on your target audience, you may need to adjust your marketing message so that it attracts your target audience.

What are some common advertising mistakes businesses make on Instagram?

Mistakes are an everyday part of life. And Instagram mistakes are no different. If you are advertising for the first time on the platform, here are some common blunders businesses make in their ad campaigns so that you can avoid them.

1. Not knowing your target audience.

Statista found that more than half of Instagram’s user population worldwide is younger than 34 years old. In the same report, around 17.9% of users are men aged 18-24 years old. It’s pretty clear that Instagram, like many other social media platforms, attracts a young audience, particularly teenagers and young adults. 

Keep this in mind as you consider the target audience of your brand.

If your brand’s target audiences are an older demographic, think about advertising on social media platforms like Facebook, in which users aged 25–34 years are the largest demographic.

2. Using low-quality images or video.

One thing about Instagram is certain: images matter. Pictures and videos reign above everything else on Instagram. On top of this, the platform boasts over 1 billion users per month, which means there’s an incredible quantity of content that’s being created and vying for attention. 

To make an impact with your Instagram ads, you need to invest time in creating high-quality images and videos that captivate your audience. Poor-quality images will only set your campaign back. 

3. Lack of engaging captions.

You already know that Instagram is an image-heavy platform. However, that doesn’t mean that captions aren’t important. 

Many advertising campaigns don’t perform well due to bad captions. What messages are you trying to tell your audiences? What action do you want them to take?

Great captions can enhance your photo or video’s engagement. They also add some context to the post. With the right captions, you can create interesting conversations and entice target users to take action that increases your sales or website traffic.

Now, here’s a little bit of controversy for you. There’s a hot debate about the right length of captions. Some businesses use shorter captions to convey a direct message to their target audience about their brand. 

Many celebrities and influencers tend to get away with using a single emoji as their caption. For brands, however, the shift towards lengthier captions has increased.

According to Later, longer captions (but not novel-length) that champion story-telling and authenticity are usually the posts that are driving a ton of engagement. Of course, this also depends on your overall objectives and brand voice. 

4. No consistent posting schedule.

You know how the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” Well, this rings true when it comes to Instagram. If you aren’t posting often on the platforms, chances are your target audience isn’t going to remember your brand.

This doesn’t mean you need to post every single hour of each day. Posting a few times a week is usually enough to keep your Instagram page up-to-date so that target audiences can discover and explore what your business offers. 

Make sure to align your posting schedule with the times and days your target audiences are most active. You can get this information from your post analytics.

5. Ignoring the data.

Tracking your ad’s performance is exhausting but it’s essential in growing and improving your future ad campaigns. Many businesses ignore analytics and hope for the best with their ads only to have it fall flat due to poor performance.

You should be tracking and measuring your ad’s performance to analyze trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.  Having this information can help you avoid repeating mistakes and leverage the things you did right.

Instagram isn’t a platform that you ever pass up for your advertising efforts. Advertising on the platform is effective for all types of businesses (not just e-commerce!). 

Once you know your audience and brand well, you’re ready to start advertising on Instagram! Just remember that, like other advertising strategies, some ads may work better than others to promote your brand and messages to your target audience. 

Trial and error may work best to determine what engages your target audience and what doesn’t. Be ready to ask questions about your audience like what time of day they’re most active and how to best engage them with your ads.

In this current era of the digital world, data privacy is one of the biggest concerns that many consumers face while navigating the Internet. People are constantly generating data—2.5 quintillion bytes per day, to be exact! Many businesses use this data to guide their business and marketing decisions, especially when it comes to personalized ad campaigns. For instance, you may use paid ads on social media to promote your products/services and to track user activity so that you and your marketing team can refine target methods within your marketing efforts.

With the release of Apple’s new iOS 14.5 update, however, the way you collect and use data on Apple devices is likely to change. Here’s how.

What is Apple’s iOS 14.5 update?

While Apple’s prior iOS updates focused on fixing bugs and improving the UI, the new Apple iOS 14.5 Release will go a step further. It contains a new privacy feature known as App Tracking Transparency (ATT). According to Apple, this feature requires advertisers on mobile apps to gain permission from users to access their data and track their activity. 

For many users of Apple devices, this new privacy update may seem like a long-awaited milestone in data privacy since it gives them control and security over how their personal information is used on mobile apps. It may also offer users relief from targeted ads that may be considered intrusive or overkill when they use social media platforms like Facebook and other social media applications.

How does iOS 14.5 impact your business?

For Apple device users, the new update is a welcome change, but the same cannot be said for small businesses that rely on social media advertising to drive their conversions. Let’s say you own an online store that sells jewelry and drives most of its revenue through paid advertisements on Facebook. 

How will you know who to retarget your ads to if iOS users do not give the app permission to utilize their data? How will you be able to generate leads if you’re left in the dark about how your consumers are navigating through their buyer’s journey? Many marketing campaigns and efforts obtain incredible insights just from event data like product views, bounced sessions, or website navigation.

This also presents a barrier for marketers trying to reach lower funnel audiences. Lower funnel audiences mainly consist of retargeting customers, in which advertisers use first-party data to create effective campaigns that incentivize customers to make a final purchase. Apple’s iOS 14.5 Release update provides a challenge in this transition as users begin opting out of app tracking. Retargeting audiences that marketers have been accustomed to using may very likely decrease within the coming months forcing advertisers to adjust their low funnel strategies.

While we can hope that most users will choose to opt-in, there’s a higher chance that they may pick the exact opposite. Remember: the average person comes across an average of 6,000 to 10,000 ads each day, according to PPC Protect. And many of these users are likely tired of seeing ads on a regular basis, especially on social media. These factors may put the reliance on Facebook and Instagram as reliable sources of conversions into question.

How can your small business adapt?

Apple’s new privacy feature, ATT may have started a chain reaction among other devices and platforms. With 46% of consumers feeling that they’ve lost control over their own data, the rise in demand for data privacy is undeniable. It’s possible we’ll start to see other platforms start to follow Apple’s example. Search engines like DuckDuckGo go above and beyond to ensure user data isn’t collected, and have implemented certain privacy features that block third-party tracking. There are also add-ons like Privacy Badger that provide online users with similar privacy protections. It’s important to optimize your efforts and adapt to these changes so that you can reach your target audience and make the most of your campaigns. A few of your small business can adapt to Apple’s new privacy update include:

Although Apple is a big player in the digital space, it isn’t the only device system available in the market. Apple’s iOS 14.5 update only applies to those who regularly use Apple products, including iPhones and iPads. According to Statista, in 2020, there were around 129.1 million Android smartphone users in the United States, and this number is predicted to grow by over 130 million this year. This means you can still segment and target your audiences through Android users.

Apple’s iOS update affected data tracking in mobile apps, but you can still use your website’s tracking and analytics tools to find out where your traffic is coming from. Tools like Google Analytics and Hubspot can provide you with a variety of insights that can enhance your marketing efforts. These tools allow you to know your audience and their needs so you can produce marketing content based on the behavior of those users. 

Organic search is an effective marketing tool that’s often neglected by small businesses. From creating blog posts to leveraging backlinks, there are countless ways to expand your organic search efforts so that your website ranks higher on SERPs (search engine results pages) while also gaining insights about your consumers through analytics tools.

As data privacy continues to be the main concern for consumers, it’s safe to assume that there will be more changes to data tracking and privacy policies in the future. Small businesses must be ready to adapt and optimize in order to move forward in achieving key marketing objectives. Whether it’s expanding on email marketing, growing contact lists, or focusing on SEO tactics, it’s always a good idea to revisit your marketing strategies so that your small business isn’t only relying on social media for conversions. If you aren’t sure how Apple’s new privacy update will affect your small business, don’t panic. At CreativeCore, our team is well-prepared in navigating through these new obstacles, and we’re here to help. Reach out to us today to get started!

As a small business owner, there are many different sides that you likely manage while operating your business. Expenses, sales, branding—there’s clearly more to running a business than meets the eye. And in 2021, you’re looking to expand and grow your business, and you know that marketing plays a big part in achieving those goals. However, you may have one important question on your mind: how much should you budget for marketing? 

Well, there isn’t an easy, one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Your competitors likely run on varying marketing budgets that are largely based on their individual industry and revenue. Of course, you don’t have time to figure out what everyone else is doing with their marketing budget and spending. For your business to grow, you need exceptional marketing efforts that drive your target customers to your brand. 

This is easier said than done. To achieve tangible, accurate results that work towards your success, you need to invest. In this blog, we’ll break down how much of your budget you should allocate towards marketing. 

What to consider first with your marketing budget

Most businesses provide a percentage of their actual or project gross revenue towards marketing. Depending on your individual objectives, you should always take baby steps when it comes to budget allocation. At CreativeCore, we recommend preparing to invest around 10% of your annual revenue on a complete marketing strategy.

Key factors to consider include:

  1. Different marketing channels. The marketing budget should be split between brand development and business promotion costs. Marketing comes with different facets, including the channels in which you (or your marketing team) promote your brand, services, and promotional materials, and so, your marketing budget should accommodate these costs. Each part outlines the costs that will go into the methods and channels used for these brand promotions and other materials.
  2. Your business industry, size, and growth. Different industries, business sizes, and growth call for a different percentage in marketing budgets. A small business belonging to the healthcare industry, for instance, will use a larger percentage of their revenue for marketing than that of an established business in the retail industry.
  3. Business margins for expenses. Having margins lower than 10-12 percent means you must lower your overall margins and focus your allocation (additional spending) on marketing. Marketing should never be left last after all other business expenses have been paid off.

The downside of cookie-cutter marketing

Depending on your industry and audience, there are many marketing agencies out there that are willing to manage your marketing so that you can focus on your business. Unfortunately, the effectiveness and efficiency of each marketing agency vary. Some agencies will leverage different facets of marketing that do not pertain to your business and marketing needs. This usually happens when an agency isn’t tailoring to your brand or audience specifically. 

Because these agencies have many clients under their belt, they do not have time to learn about your business’s specific needs. They may briefly glance at your business’s brand identity and provide a shallow, one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. If your competitors have a team of marketing experts who specialize in marketing research, advertising, SEO, social media, email marketing, and the like, it’s safe to assume that they’ll surpass you in numerous ways.

Additionally, you may feel tempted to run your own marketing or have one person handle your marketing efforts. The problem with this method is clear-cut: what happens when you or your designated marketer are not available?  Will you have time to work on email marketing, social media marketing, and ad campaigns while also dealing with your regular business operations? All of these factors can force you to miss deadlines and push back on projects, client meetings, and other important business-related tasks. 

To choose an effective marketing agency, be sure to ask the following questions that bring value to your business:

Cheaper marketing services are a bad ingredient to the success of any business. It usually leads to wasted time, money, and little to no return on investment. To accomplish the best results from marketing efforts, you will need to invest. Remember: marketing is a necessity when it comes to business growth. Products and services don’t sell themselves. By having innovative marketing strategies from a team of marketing professionals, you will continue to build positive brand equity, which leads to higher sales and customer loyalty. 

At CreativeCore, we take the time to learn your brand inside and out so that we can deliver marketing strategies that fit the needs of your company. Book a meeting with us to learn more about how we can help you work within your budget and surpass your business goals. 

The current landscape for numerous markets looks very similar. Countless businesses are all competing for the same target customers within their markets, implementing similar tactics to gain their attention. With so much fierce competition vying for your customer’s time and attention, how do you ensure your business makes a significant impact? 

Search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is an effective method that can help enhance your business strategy by promoting your products and services and gain visibility on search engines. While SEM is a simple marketing tool, it’s important to understand the basics behind the practice and effective tips that can further boost your efforts. 

In this blog, we will explore some of the basics of search engine marketing, and some tips that can help you incorporate SEM into your business strategy.

What is search engine marketing (SEM)?

In the most basic terms, search engine marketing (SEM) is a set of marketing practices in which a business uses paid search to rank high on search engines. Like SEO, it’s an incredible tool that helps boost your business’s visibility online, allowing it to come to the attention of potential customers. 

Your marketing team can purchase listings in the “sponsored” section at the top of a search engine through paid search. They may also bid for specific keywords and keyword phrases that potential customers may enter on Google or another search engine when searching for products or services your business offers. You may have come across paid search ads during Google searches—these ads are usually reserved at the top of a search results page with the word “ad” or “sponsored” to indicate it as an ad. 

The most common paid search program is PPC (pay-per-click). With PPC, you only pay for a search listing when a user clicks on your ad. These ads come in different formats, including text ads and product ads. Depending on your business objectives, you’ll need to decide what type of ads you want to utilize to make the most of your business’s marketing efforts. The best part about SEM is that it allows you to put your business in front of customers who are likely in shopping mode. By having ads ready at the top of search results, you can ensure that your business’s products or services are the first things customers see when they’re ready to make purchases. 

What is the difference between SEM and SEO?

You’ve probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO) as it’s heralded to be one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness—among other things. SEO and SEM share various similarities but there are key differences that should be noted. For example, search engine marketing (SEM) typically involves paid advertisements that are displayed on search results. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) has a different system. Instead of using paid advertisements to increase traffic and clicks, businesses can leverage keywords and relevant content to boost their ranking on search engines…for free! Now, SEO takes longer to build than SEM, and both should play key roles in your business strategy. 

Why Your Business Needs SEM

With traditional marketing like billboards and mail becoming largely ineffective, SEM is taking its place as one of the best tools for business growth. SEM provides tangible benefits to your business such as:

1. SEM fuels traffic to your website.

According to Higher Visibility, around 27% of website traffic comes from paid search efforts. This becomes especially powerful when combined with organic search. Search engine marketing helps guide visitors to your business’s website through strong, relevant keywords. For example, if you owned a bakery that sold organic desserts in Miami, FL, you would need to essentially bid for keywords like “organic bakery”, “organic bakery in Miami, FL”, and other relevant keywords so that anyone searching for those terms could come across your ads, click, and visit your website. 

2. SEM is cost-effective.

When you combine SEM and SEO together, you can target a large audience size with your specific keywords and ads, leading to an increase in ROI for your business’s marketing efforts. The amount of times your ad appears to potential customers depends on your budget and how much you pay per click. This usually ranges from a few cents per click to a few dollars per click. If there’s fierce competition for your chosen keywords, they may be more expensive as opposed to keywords that have fewer competitors. Fortunately, you can also set a limit to the amount you want to spend on your ads. You are also able to actively measure conversions and other relevant stats that can help your team decide strengths and weaknesses in the overall strategy. In contrast, traditional marketing like TV or radio ads does not provide businesses with any type of data that can help them make informed decisions.

3. SEM is likely used by your competitors.

It’s no question that your competitors likely use SEM for their business efforts. If your competitors are investing in SEM and you are not, you risk being outshined by the competition which can essentially make your brand irrelevant to your audience. As stated by Digital Third Coast, 2 in 5 small-to-midsized businesses launch PPC campaigns to reach their marketing objectives. SEM offers a valuable solution that can boost your business’s edge in the competition by increasing its exposure.

4. SEM is highly flexible.

SEM is quite flexible as it allows you to make necessary adjustments to the budget and timing of campaigns. Any type of budget can also reach positive results. You are also able to specify locations and target consumers in each campaign, which ensures your ads are seen by the right people. These useful features are some of the numerous reasons why SEM is so successful and widely used by businesses. 

5. Search is the most popular way to gain information.

Most people use search engines to find what they want. Whether it’s information on a product or a brand, search engines are an integral part of a business’s success. As many as 3.5 billion Google searches are conducted every day and grow by 10% each year, according to Internet Live Stats. 74% of these online users perform local searches to find businesses that sell relevant products or services. Since Google is the largest search engine, it’s important to take advantage of these tools for your business’s success. 

Search engine marketing is one of the best ways to gain new customers and maximize your business efforts. SEM is also easy to scale, so it grows as your business increases. Of course, it’s important to make sure you consider your objectives, goals, and overall budget to not waste time and money on fruitless efforts. 

Contact us today to make the most of your marketing budget and create effective SEM campaigns for your business. 

In this day and age, creating and distributing content is not enough. To reach your business objectives and generate more customers, you need to produce content that’s valuable, relevant, and entertaining for your target audience. Of course, this is easier said than done. All forms of content marketing require detailed planning and time to be effective. Some of the many factors you need to consider are your business’s elements, like products and services, objectives, audience, and brand identity. 

If you’re not sure what type of content marketing fits your business’s needs, you don’t need to search too far. There are 5 effective types of content marketing that you can use to promote business growth. 

Let’s take a look at each one:

1. Blogging

Since its invention in the early 90s, blogging has been a powerful tool for businesses in several industries. Even today, blogs play a huge role in business growth, especially when it comes to increasing brand awareness. According to a study from Oberlo, businesses that produce over 16 blog posts a month achieve 3.5 times more traffic than those who publish less than four posts each month. 

Blogging can provide your business with various benefits, such as:

When writing blog posts, it’s important to focus on relevant topics. Do not simply write about your business’s products or services and how they will impact your customer’s lives. Instead, write about topics related to your products and services as well as your business’s respective industry. Try to add original expertise and experiences within your blogs so that your readers may find something valuable and unique. That way, you can separate your business from competitors and establish your brand as an industry expert that your audience can rely on. 

You can also take advantage of SEO practices and keyword research to help push your blogs towards your audience. For the best tips on creating blogs for your business, read our helpful tips on our blog post, What Is A Blog and Why You Should Create One for more information.

2. Infographics

Content marketing is often mistaken for being mainly written or text-based. However, content marketing also includes visuals. One of the visual content types that can help you achieve business growth is infographics. A good infographic is simple, straightforward, engaging, and informative. It presents complex information or data points about a specific topic in a clear manner. Most infographics take data from a study and break it down so that it’s easy for audiences to understand. When you create a compelling infographic, it can garner a lot of likes, shares, and links from audiences within a specific platform.

Of course, we don’t recommend using infographics as your main form of content or replacing other content with it. Instead, you can use infographics to supplement a blog post, video, or another content type you choose to create. Infographic content can also thrive well in social media. Just remember: do not go overboard with infographics. Always keep it simple and let the information speak for itself.

3. Video

With YouTube having 2.3 billion active users around the world along with billions of users on similar social media channels like Instagram and Facebook, you likely already know how impactful videos are. Videos tend to engage audiences more than written content. Video content can be time-consuming and expensive but it’s well worth the investment. Through video content, you can present a different side of your business’s brand, showcasing its personality, voice, and other unique elements to your audience. 

It also allows you to create content that educates audiences on certain topics or how to create something related to your industry. This can further boost your audience’s connection with your brand, increasing your business’s reputation and building brand loyalty. Like blogging, it can be an opportunity to educate and provide value for your audience so that your business becomes their go-to source for information. 

When creating and posting videos, pay close attention to the title, description, and tags you use. Each of these descriptors needs to be simple yet informative about what your videos are about. Using the right descriptors will help your videos rank on the platforms you upload them on and make it easier for your audience to find them. Once you finish creating your videos, you can post them on your website, social media channels, and use them for your email marketing efforts.

4. Photography

In today’s digital world, lifestyle images play an important role in a business’s growth and success. Images can be displayed on social media and websites, which not only provides visual stimulation that can capture a target audience’s attention but also provides a sense of trust. On social media, photography is highly reliant on direct engagement with posts. Whether its impressions, likes, or comments, one of the main goals of photography is to provide visual context for audiences about a particular topic, product, or service. 

Photography also serves a huge purpose for a business’s website. Along with defining what your business does and what products or services you offer, images also provide opportunities for SEO. By writing a brief yet detailed description for an image on a website’s settings, you can add specific keywords and phrases that help you rank on search engines like Google.

5. Carousel content

Another form of content marketing that can promote business growth is carousel content. A relatively new form of content, carousel posts on social media are popular since they provide creative opportunities for businesses to show off what their brands have to offer or even provide visually engaging content to further add context and value to their audience. Most social media posts provide a  small space so carousel posts give your brand a chance to offer more unique, detailed content. Many carousel content posts feature images with captions, headlines, explanations, and call-to-actions. These types of content are thriving on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Content marketing may require a lot of effort but the secret ingredient is knowing your audience’s needs. The more you know your audience and what interests them, the more engaging and relevant your content will be for them. Like all marketing, you may need to experiment with some trial-and-error to get a feel of the content your audience engages with. With enough persistence, effort, and adjustments, you will be able to see significant results in your business’s overall growth. 

Make sure to get in touch with us to learn how Creative Core can help you leverage marketing for your business’s growth.