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Business Digital Marketing Marketing

How to win business in a recession

How to win business in a recession

It’s no secret to anyone that the economy has been in a tough spot the last few years and it’s been tough for both consumers and business owners alike. Let us help you gain confidence and show you how to win business in a recession.

 

One of the first things our minds shift to in a pre or post recession economy is cutting extra costs. That could be from things like overhead, small business expenses that add up and even marketing costs. 

 

The thought process makes sense. You see a decline in sales and revenue so you immediately start to cut discretionary expenses like marketing. 

 

What’s interesting though is that research shows that marketers who cut their media spend risk losing up to 15% of their business. McGraw Hill did a study of companies during previous recessions and found that companies who continue to advertise during a 2 year recession saw 256% higher sales than their counterparts who saw virtually 0% growth. 

 

Why is that? Because your competitors aren’t cutting marketing and advertising costs so they get your business. 

 

It’s easy to think in the short term and just start cutting costs that you might consider to be luxury, but the reality is 55% of advertising is digital. And the ROI for email marketing alone is $36 returned for every $1 spent. 

 

These are numbers you want to capitalize on! How can you do that? Great question! 

 

The only way to get through a recession and prosper is to invest in your brand and your relationships with your customers. Why? Because if you don’t, it will undermine your growth. 

 

More than 60% of brands that increased their media spend during the last recession saw ROI improvements! 

 

Why? Because you’re keeping your brand at the forefront of your consumers’ minds, setting you up for success when the economy rebounds. The worst thing you could do is fall off the face of the earth to your consumers, then when the time comes for them to invest in your industry again, they’ve chosen to go with someone else who invested in their marketing during the lonely months. 

 

So, have we shown you the importance yet of why you want to keep that marketing budget in tact? 

 

Spectruss offers 8 different services that you can invest in on an a la carte basis to fit your specific needs. Let’s say, for example, you have a killer website, but you really need help with google ads, social media ads and daily management of those things. We can help!

 

Or maybe you have a great digital marketing employee, but they don’t know how to build a website that will increase your business. We can help with that too! You can have a custom website built and live in as little as 4 weeks. 

 

We want to make sure that you not only survive during a recession, but thrive. Contact us to get your marketing and advertising plan started today!

 

Sources: 

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/marketers-increase-media-spend-recession-gain-ROI/628712/

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/04/19/digital-marketing-statistics

https://www.wearemiq.com/blog/advertising-during-a-recession/ 

Categories
Business Design Digital Marketing eCommerce Marketing

Why Do I Need Digital Advertising?

Why do I need digital advertising?
Why do I need digital advertising?

Unless you live under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase “digital advertising”. Chances are you fall on one side of the spectrum about that topic: you understand it or you’ve just heard about it and don’t really know where to start. Hopefully by the end of this, you’ll understand why Digital Advertising is vital to your business.  

Digital advertising is a way to get your message out across multiple different digital platforms where your consumers spend most of their time. Some platforms that digital advertising are most effective on are Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Did you know that there are almost 3 billion users on Facebook? That’s more than a third of the world so that’s a great place to start digital advertising. 

What is digital advertising? 

In its simplest form, it’s creating a campaign (or ad) on one of the platforms mentioned above highlighting your product or service to potential customers with the goal being to entice them to buy your product or visit your website to learn more. 

A way to make that the most effective it can be is to put money behind those ads while targeting your specific audience. The truth is we live in a world where the market is oversaturated with messaging. So, with that in mind, we want to make sure your message gets out to the right audience so that the money you spend is actually providing results. 

The magic of digital marketing is finding your customer before they find you.

Why is it important? 

The nature of business is that you need a steady stream of customers coming in to keep your business alive and thriving. That means you need more sales, more website traffic, more leads, more brand awareness, more digital presence. 

Digital advertising is a fun and creative way to get that stream of customers coming in. It’s like you’re leaving a breadcrumb for them everytime they see an ad and each breadcrumb will ultimately lead them to make a purchase. 

It’s important to craft the perfect ad buy strategy when thinking about your business. This is where Spectruss comes in. 

How can Spectruss help? 

Glad you asked! We’ve done digital marketing for some amazing brands including: Royal Highnies, Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union, Brewski, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, RefinedLooks Plastic Surgery & Spa and Liberty Safe. 

The Mount Everest of goals when it comes to digital advertising is having a viral hit. Well, with Liberty Safe, we climbed the proverbial Mount Everest. In 2016 they approached Spectruss with a problem – Facebook announced they were banning all advertisements that included firearms. For Liberty Safe, a national gun safe company, this presented a challenge for ad buys. 

We had to think fast. Working around the parameters was a challenge, but we creatively censored a way to bypass Facebook’s ban resulting in a massive viral hit with over 6 million global views. The numbers on this ad were: 6+ million views, 35k+ shares, 10k+ engagements. 

We bring a lot of expertise to this area and we believe digital advertising can be the catalyst for your business to soar. 

How do I get started? 

The first step is a Zoom discovery session where we will go over your goals and start laying out a strategy for your ad buys. We’ll talk about budget, design, messaging, timing, correct platforms to use, and more. After we design your ads and you approve them, we can get the ads running inside of one week! 

What will this cost me? 

Well for starters, for every $1 spent on paid advertising $2 is returned. This is crucial for your business with that kind of ROI (return on investment). The pricing will vary based on the agency’s work and the ad buy itself. 

The ad buy depends on the campaign itself, what platform is going to be used, the size and audience, etc. An example package starts at $1,000 and can include: Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Linkedln Ads and YouTube Ads. We offer payment plans and financing as well. 

Here at Spectruss we believe in transparency. You will always know exactly what was spent, where it was spent and what the ROI was. We provide clear reporting and use hard numbers and data for our digital advertising campaigns. 

So, are you ready to start advertising your business online?

Categories
Design Digital Marketing eCommerce Marketing

Why do I need a custom website?

Why do I need a custom website?

In the world of web design your homepage is like a firm handshake the first time you meet someone. It’s important. It tells a lot about you without you having to “say” anything.

Building a strong online presence builds trust with your consumer. They feel like they get a glimpse into who you are as a company and what you have to offer them. A strong web presence also builds your credibility. There’s nothing more sketchy than wanting to check out a product someone offers before you make a purchase only to find they don’t have a website… or a good website. Did you know that 75% of consumers decide the credibility of a business solely based on their website? Wow! 

BRAND AWARENESS

Having a great website also helps build brand awareness. You want people to know who you are and what you can offer them without you having to spell it out everytime. Everytime they look at your logo, that leaves an imprint on their minds, so it’s imperative that your website is able to back up your brand and help solidify who you are to build consistency across the digital world.

Something else that your website is great for is what we call conversions. In the marketing world, a conversion is the moment that a potential customer takes a desired action previously decided by you. An example would be signing up for a newsletter or making an online purchase. The overall fluidity and design of your website are the most important steps to get conversions. 

This is where Spectruss comes in. Here at Spectruss we believe that first impressions can make or break a business which is why we provide web design as a service for an affordable rate and in a timely manner to ensure all your needs are met. After all, you can’t make a second first impression.

FINANCING YOUR CUSTOM WEBSITE

You can have a new custom website built in as little as 4 weeks AND we offer financing. In a post-covid world, cash flow can be hard to manage so you can choose between a 6 or 12 month plan to pay for your custom website. 

We don’t just build websites that are aesthetically pleasing, we care about the content. We care about giving you a competitive advantage in your industry which is why we strategize with you about what to say, the flow of your website, and how your custom website is going to aid in making your business the most successful it can be. 

Why do I need a custom website?

WHAT HAPPENS NOW 

So, let’s say you’ve recognized the need for our web design service and you’re interested in financing with us, the first step is a Zoom discovery session. In this first call, we’ll chat about what your goals are for the site and establish a strategy that will provide you with results. 

After this, the fun begins! We work with our specialized team to design the look of your website in Photoshop. Once we have your website checking all the design boxes, we give it to our programmers for them to begin making your website compatible for all screen sizes. Since most online traffic comes from mobile devices, it’s important your mobile site offers the same experience as the desktop version. 

So what happens to your website after it goes live? It’s all yours! You have total control of what happens to it. We will show you how to access the site through one of our hosting partners and then from that point we can be as hands on – or off – as you’d like.

If the digital world is still a little overwhelming to you, we offer ongoing support and maintenance packages after your website is live. What does that mean? That means anytime you have an update to the site, we take care of it for you. 

Spectruss boasts 10+ years of expertise in website design and development, so we’d be happy to help you maintain your website. 

LET’S DO THIS

If all this is getting you really excited to build your new site – we totally get it! We recommend scheduling a free consultation with us where we can go over those goals and strategy we talked about earlier, and you’ll also receive a quote! 

Web design is just one of the 8 services we provide on an a la carte basis, but it’s a great place to start! 

 

Categories
Marketing Uncategorized

Marketing To Gen Z

Marketing to Gen Z

Are you stumped on how to reach 20% of the population? A.K.A Gen Z. Media savvy and always on their phone, let’s talk about marketing to Gen Z. 

 

Don’t be boring.

That’s right. The old TV commercial tactics are not going to reach them. Quite frankly, they sniff out any content that is not “genuine”. Speaking of boring- they don’t have a long attention span. It’s better to give them tid bits of content at a time, and grab their attention as soon as the camera starts rolling.

 

Important Notes

  • Trustworthiness– Gen Z wants to know what your brand stands for. Think about your beliefs and values (environmentally friendly, charities you support, etc.) Know who you are and what your company stands for. Boldly remind your audience of these things.
  • Influencers– Gen Z is more likely to listen to their favorite influencers than celebrities. Invest your ad dollars into an influencer and incorporate them into your next campaign. 

 

Need help marketing to Gen Z? Contact us today!

Categories
eCommerce Events Marketing

Boost Sales With Live Streaming

Did you know that people spend 3x longer watching live videos that they do watching pre-recorded videos? Boost sales with live streaming

Did you know that people spend 3x longer watching live videos that they do watching pre-recorded videos? Boost sales with live streaming on Facebook and Instagram. Going live is a great way for marketing your business online and promoting your brand’s awareness. Whether it be a new product launch or a surprise sale, people love to shop with you online! 

Boost Sales With Live Streaming

Let’s say your business sells something other than clothing or accessories. If you sell electronics or musical instruments, your audience will more than likely need an in-depth tutorial on how to use the product. This is a great time to do a deep dive into the functionalities on your item of choice. By doing this, your customer also has the opportunity to ask questions on your live- further enhancing your engagement rate. 

 

Other Ways To Promote Live Streaming

Going live doesn’t always have to be about sales. Let’s continue with the idea that you sell guitars. Go live and show your customers how to nail the perfect guitar riff that can be difficult for some. When you take the time to educate your customers, instead of just selling to them, they take notice! 

 

The concept of live streaming on social media can also be used for events. Maybe you have a wedding venue or are a wedding planner. Live streaming a behind the scenes look of an actual wedding day can be very beneficial to your business. 

 

Remember, just because these videos are “live” doesn’t mean that you can’t use them as marketing materials in the future. You can download and save your live and use snippets of your film in the future. A win-win! 

 

How to go live on your mobile device on Facebook: Click here. 

Need further help promoting your business? We build stronger brands. Click here to contact us today!

Categories
Business

Your Business’s Tone Of Voice

Business's tone of voice

If you are reading this article, it may be because you are researching what your business’s tone of voice should be. Your tone of voice is how you communicate to your audience, and the way they recognize your voice. 

It’s important to note that before you choose your company’s tone of voice, you first need to consider what your brand’s culture and company values are. Below are a few questions to ask yourself when brainstorming ideas. 

What to consider when forming Business’s tone of voice:

  • You company’s dress code
  • Your target audience
  • Your characteristics and values
  • The location of your office
  • Is your business formal or informal?
  • What your business is NOT (who are you not targeting, or who you do not want to be as a company).

Once you’ve pondered on who you are as a brand, it’s time to start thinking about your tone selection. Are you going to be funny? Or should you be more serious? There are many different types of tones to choose from. Below we have made a list of some of the most common tones in business. 

Common Tones of Voice:

  • Formal tone
  • Informal tone
  • Absurd/Odd tone 
  • Humorous tone
  • Serious tone
  • Optimistic tone
  • Motivating tone
  • Respectful tone
  • Assertive/Aggressive tone
  • Conversational tone
  • Positive/Inspiringtone
  • Emotional tone
  • Strong tone

If you are stuck and not sure which direction to go, that’s ok! You can always outsource this work to an agency like ours who can help with your branding. Contact us today for further assistance! 

Categories
Uncategorized

Expertise.com Named Spectruss Top 15 Agencies in Atlanta

Atlanta Legal Marketing and Advertising

Voted in the top 15 Atlanta agencies for Legal Marketing and Advertising.

We are honored to be named in the Top 15 Atlanta agencies for Legal Marketing and Advertising. Our team has been serving the Atlanta area for 10+ years, and we don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon! We serve clients in every industry, and have had many success stories with past clients in the legal field. 

What was said about us, “Spectruss is a branding and marketing company that caters to commercial clients in Atlanta and nearby areas. Its virtual chief marketing officer package helps clients in the legal field establish in-house marketing teams, execute research and data analysis, and perform audits. The company implements e-commerce development, influencer marketing, SEO, technology integration, and full-stack expansion to generate more traffic. Other services include brand positioning, campaign planning and reporting, email work, and audience segmentation. Spectruss has worked with Taco Bell, Texas Roadhouse, and KFC.”

Some of the past law firms we have worked with include:

Best Hayduk Brock
Patrick Beard Schulman and Jacoway 

Read Patrick Beard Schulman and Jacoway Law Firm’s case study here: https://spectruss.com/case-studies/patrick-beard-schulman-jacoway-p-c/

Let us help your law firm excel! Contact us today to get started.

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Uncategorized

Testimonial: Lookout Wild Film Festival

increase in awareness and ticket sales

Lookout Wild Film Festival was established in 2012. During the past decade, LWFF has grown from a small gathering viewing films at the Crash Pad and moving its way to small theaters at The Chattanooga Choo Choo and The Walker Theater. Now the festival has made its home at the Tivoli Theatre, showing films at the largest screen of its type in North America. How did they do this? By implementing an increase in awareness and ticket sales with Spectruss!

Spectruss CEO, Sam Silvey, has been part of the festival’s board of directors since its establishment and has been working with the board on pushing the festival’s growth each year. Since 2012, Spectruss has managed and overseen all of Lookout Wild Film Festival’s creative content from the website design and development to all marketing and promotional collateral, including both digital and print assets for the past ten years.

In 2019, the first year the Lookout Wild Film Festival is being shown at the Tivoli, Spectruss gave the festival a brand new look with an updated festival logo, a brand new website and a complete refresh of the identity of the festival for its premiere at the Tivoli Theatre. Films were coming from all over the world and festival goers have significantly increased from the past years. With the success of the 2019 festival, Spectruss continued to deliver the same energy for the upcoming January 2020 festival.

Right after the 2020 festival, COVID-19 began to spread forcing the festival to remagine the event for the next year. Lookout Wild moved the films outdoors for the 2021 festival to coincide with the Nightfall Summer Concert Series.

For 2022, Andy Johns, Festival Director for LWFF, faced another challenge promoting the attendance for the festival at the current stage of the pandemic. Andy and the board came to the realization that it will require more help in 2022 than ever before when it came to advertising initiatives.

Prior to Spectruss stepping in with a successful advertising campaign in order to increase awareness and ticket sales within a very limited time frame, the festival was in jeopardy of being canceled due to the low volume of ticket purchases. With only two weeks left to boost ticket sales, Spectruss quickly implemented an aggressive push to the strategic marketing and advertising campaign that led to the success of the event.

The campaign included various digital advertising initiatives via social media, email marketing, as well as a highly strategic placement of billboard campaigns, all of which ran for only two weeks to increase ticket sales at a substantial rate. Upon carefully selecting the appropriate targeted audience and applicable platforms, the advertising messaging incorporated a sense-of-urgency campaign strategy to incentivize customers to buy weekend passes before ticket prices went up. We ran multiple price increases in the two weeks leading up to the festival so we could create multiple sense-of-urgency campaigns that included digital social ads and email campaigns for each price increase. The result from this strategy yielded more weekend passes sold in 2022 than before covid.

According to Andy, “I can’t suggest highly enough working with their team. It’s a creative crew, it’s a fun crew, it’s a crew that got the culture that we were after, and took our event and made it their own. It’s been a great partnership over the years, and I can’t recommend them highly enough.”

Increase awareness and ticket sales at your next event by contacting us today: https://spectruss.com/contact/

Categories
Uncategorized

Taking A Mental Health Day

Taking A Mental Health Day

It’s been a hard month for you- in the work world and in your personal life. Sometimes we try to put our heads down and “just keep going”, but when should you take some time for yourself? Have you thought about taking a mental health day? I know, how on earth could I ever take a day off from work?! Follow along to see when it might be a good time to take a mental health day.

Signs you need a break:

  1. Your stress is becoming unhealthy. Your loved ones have noticed a change in you and might even be concerned.
  2. You’ve recently gone through something really hard. Whether it be losing a loved one, a major breakup, or just a mixture of personal problems.
  3. Your health is declining- physically and mentally. Maybe you’ve noticed your anxiety is at an all time high, or your blood pressure has gone up.
  4. Your performance at work has been slipping.

If you’re considering taking a mental health day, you might be wondering, “How do I take off from work for this?” Well, hopefully you have some vacation or sick days saved up. We would recommend putting in for your day off two weeks in advance if possible. Plan your day ahead of time so you can truly unplug and enjoy your day. It’s also good to note that if you take off on a Monday or Friday, you can have an extended weekend to enjoy yourself.

 

Mental Health Day Ideas:

  • Book a massage, facial, or hair appointment. Whatever it is that you like to do to pamper yourself- do it.
  • Shop for a new work outfit (if that’s your thing). Feeling good in your new clothes can motivate you when you return to work.
  • Take your favorite exercise class or go for a walk in the park. This will help boost your mood.
  • Schedule your mental health day with a loved one. Maybe you miss connecting with your spouse or you haven’t seen your mom in a while. Spend the day with someone you love!
  • Go to your favorite restaurant or sweet shop. Treat yourself to a nice meal!

If you feel that these negative feelings are continuing for you on a consistent basis, it may be time to talk to your doctor. We hope this article helps with scheduling your mental health day!

Helpful links for mental health: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/mental-health-wellness/resources/links.aspx

https://spectruss.com/contact/

Categories
Digital Marketing

Marketing Ideas: Women’s History Month

Ways to promote Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month. As we celebrate the women who have greatly impacted American history, join your business in on the conversation. In this article, we give you some tips and tricks on ways to promote Women’s History Month.

Ideas on how to promote Women’s History Month:

  • Make an Instagram Story asking your followers who their favorite woman in history is
  • Celebrate the woman in your industry who pioneered a way for you with a social media post
  • Create an educational email campaign about which women paved the way for you
  • Have a giveaway for your followers- they must comment on your post with their favorite woman in history
  • Tell interesting stories about women in history on your Instagram stories
  • Promote a fundraiser that supports women in need

We hope the article gives you a good starting point on celebrating Women’s History Month. Do you have any suggestions? We’d love to hear from you! https://spectruss.com/contact/

Read more about Women’s History Month here: https://womenshistorymonth.gov/