Category: Marketing

• How does Spectruss work with their clients? 
• What is the preferred method to work with a full service agency? 
• What is the best way to hire an agency? 
• How do you pay for advertising and marketing agencies? 

We get asked these sort of questions a lot, and we know, it can get very confusing. Over the last 10+ years, we have narrowed down the ways we work with clients to three main options. 

Before we dive into these options and why we chose them, let me explain an important piece of the puzzle. Most agencies out there are specialist, meaning they focus on one area of advertising or marketing. While this seems like a good idea to those companies looking to outsource a few areas, we have seen it cause major problems in brand identity, leading to a decrease in ROI.  

That said, Spectruss has set out to change the marketing and advertising industry by providing everything in house. This comes as no easy task, but our founder Sam Silvey is stubborn and believes in his mission of building the strongest brands in the world. Having everything in house not only strengthens brand consistency and identity, it also lowers the overall cost of labor for the client, thus providing a stronger ROI. 

Now, on to those three ways that we work with our clients:

Our preferred method of working with clients is referred to as the Virtual CMO. Basically,   it’s a retainer package that rewards our clients with lower cost per hour as they commit to more hours per month. Our goal with the Virtual CMO package is to build a mutually beneficial relationship with our clients, acting as an extension of their marketing department. We not only provide all of the technical aspects of programming, videography, photography, design, content writing and digital advertising, we also act as consultants to help brain storm and build cutting edge campaigns and high-level marketing strategy. And don’t let the name confuse you, we have no dreams of eliminating the valuable position of Chief Marketing Officer, our goal is cultivate relationships, including not biting the hand that feeds you 🙂

Many new clients come to us with individual tasks that they’d like us to do. We call these a la carte services. Typically we see clients coming to us to build their new e-commerce site, help manage their digital advertising, send out monthly email campaigns, or manage social media accounts. We are always more than happy to bid on these a la carte services, but please know, at Spectruss we get really psyched on building complex strategies that provide the largest ROI for our clients. The feeling we get when we see our strategy pay off for our clients is like a drug to us. Again, we are more than happy to start small with any client, but we love the opportunity to grow as you grow. 

Finally… we arrive at campaign based projects! This is the Mad Man approach to advertising, working on a percentage of your total advertising budget for the year. You’ve heard some people refer to this as the Agency of Record, but we avoid that work like the plague due to it’s recently obtained negative connotation. In short, we will work with companies who have already identified their total advertising budget for the year, or for an individual campaign, and take a percentage of the total budget to build and execute said campaign. The one monumental thing that we do different at Spectruss as opposed to the typical Agency of Record model, is we have everything in house. If you have questions about what I mean, check out this video where I cover the flaws in the Agency of Record. 

So there you have it, the three ways that Spectruss works with their clients. To recap, we offer the Virtual CMO Package, A La Carte Services, and Campaign Based Projects. I imagine the last question you have is “how much does it cost?” So, I’ll give you a hint, it’s not free… But seriously, all of our quotes are custom for our clients, but a typical range is from $5,000 / month to $100k+ / month. And yes, we take Amex 😉

I’m sure you are ready to sign on the dotted line, but not so quick! Before we get started, let’s setup a free 30 minute strategy consultation and discovery session so we can learn more about you and your business! All you got to do is fill out the form below and we will give you a shout immediately to set up a chat. 

Awesome! We look forward to chatting with you, and ultimately, helping you build a faster, stronger, better business!

Social Media Demographics

In order to maximize your brand’s social media presence, it is important to understand the demographics of different social platforms. You don’t want to waste time creating content on a platform where your target audience doesn’t have a large existence.

Social Media Engagement

It is important to note why consumers follow and unfollow brands. Paying attention to these indicators can help you improve your business profile and create more engaging content.

 

Build a Strong Profile

Strategy

Building a social media strategy for your business is extremely important. It will help you to pinpoint who you are as a brand and give you direction on content to post. Take the time to identify your target audience to ensure you are utilizing the best platform to reach your consumers.

Theme

Using a theme helps boost your presence by creating a visually appealing profile and adding an overall uniformed look. Theming your account is especially effective on Instagram. Using similar filters, imagery and color schemes helps set a mood that reflects your brand to your followers.

Visuals

Use strong visuals on your social media accounts by integrating high quality pictures and videos. Posting eye-catching visuals is a great way to attract a bigger following. Think outside the box with your images such as utilizing puzzle feeds or grid images on instagram.

Captions

Be informative, get creative and use humor. Captions are an important part of your social media posts because they can drastically increase engagement. Asking questions in your captions encourages your followers to comment responses on your post. When a post receives a certain amount of engagement, Instagram’s algorithm actually boosts that post so more users are likely to see it.

Content

Mix up your content and keep it interesting. Utilizing Instagram/Facebook Stories is a great way to add something different to your profile while also reaching a large audience. Over 500 million instagram users engage in instagram stories every single day. Utilizing live stories is another great way to draw in your audience. Since your followers are notified when you start a live video, its a great way to increase engagement with consumers.

 

With the virtual world constantly changing, the channels a business chooses to reach its potential customers is becoming increasingly important. Utilizing the ability to grab users’ interest with your brand even away from your site is essential for increasing online traffic.

The automated push notification is an optimal channel in the post-GDPR era, allowing growing e-commerce brands to “push” communications to target users. Email and SMS are platforms that have been used for years, but today, the trend is shifting towards push notifications. Automated push notifications have shown to have a significantly higher user engagement in comparison to both email and SMS.

High Click Through Rate

Eye-catching and difficult to ignore, automated push notifications prove to have a high click through rate. As soon as the notification appears on the user’s screen, there is usually an immediate click response. In contrast, emails have a tendency to get lost in a spam folder and left unopened. A recent study shows that push notifications have a significantly higher click through rate of 7x more than emails and a retention rate of 93% with segmentation.

One Click Subscription

Opting-in to push notifications is as simple as one click. When the notification appears on the screen, the visitor selects “allow” which then immediately adds the user to the subscriber list. This is an effective and simplified way for a business to target their audience. Studies have found that automated push notifications have an opt-in rate of around 5-15% compared with 2% for email newsletters. Because of the opt-in/opt-in option, users have more control of the content they are receiving which results in the alerts being of higher value to the consumer.

Significant Engagement

Rethinking the platforms used to engage with your potential customers is essential. Along with a higher opt-in rate, push notification also receives an average engagement rate of 21%, whereas the average email click-through rate is only 3% percent. Studies also show that the average person only spends a total of 20 minutes checking their email each day, with an average of 6.4 hours before an email notification is opened. This highly contrasts with the average 16 hours a day that a smartphone is turned on or the time a person is online. Users who opt in to push notifications are much more likely to see your business’s push notifications on their device. Visitors are also 88% more likely to engage with your brand because of push notifications compared with other channels.

 

10 Ways Businesses Can Improve Their Social Media Presence

 

1. Resize!!!

If you’re reusing an image with the same dimensions across all of your social networks then you’re doing it wrong. More than likely, one of those images will be chilling awkwardly alone and distorted. As marketers, we all know how important it is to effectively convey your brand’s image in a professional and consistent manner. So, always be aware of each social networks optimal image sizes and think about how your content will show up in people’s streams. Or How will it look on mobile compared to a desktop?

 

2. Consistent Profile Picture on Every Network

Your profile picture is a strong element of your online presence. It’s important to maintain the same identity across multiple platforms so you stay top-of-mind. This not only ensures consistent branding but also helps make it easier for people to recognize you when they see your profile image on each of the different social media platforms. If you use different photos and logos you’ll dilute your brand’s visual identity and recognizability.

 

3. Consistent Handles as Well

As mentioned above, appearing consistently increases brand recognition. Same for handles.

By having a strong and consistent handle:

-It creates a memorable handle for your business.

-Makes your company easier to find online

-Makes printed marketing materials cleaner.

-And most importantly- it shows professionalism.

Namechk is a great resource that allows you to check to see which are available and will even help you claim all the handles.

Other things to consider when choosing your social media handles

-If it’s for a personal brand, try @firstnamelastname.

-If it’s for another company, use the same as your domain if possible.

-Keep in mind that there is a limit of characters on Twitter. If you want your handle to be the same on all platforms, it needs to be 15 characters or less.

-Avoid using numbers in your handles (@mycompany1) makes you look like you’re unoriginal.

-Avoid underscores! They’re so easy to forget or mistype.

-Don’t abbreviate or misspell your name – it makes it difficult to remember.

-Keep it short! The longer the username, the harder it is to remember or write.

-If your first choice has been taken, add gravitas such as “HQ” or “I am”.

-You can also try prefixing it with friendly terms like “hello”, “this is”, “we are” or “we make”.

-If your account is being used for things such as customer service, you can add “ask” or “help”.

 

4. Untag the Bad

Photos tagging is great for interacting with more followers if used right. But if you’re tagging inappropriate photos or posts, you’ll look like an amateur, instead of a pro. You might face legal woes too.

So… two approaches to make sure you’re using tags best:

1 ) Check your photo tag settings

Make sure your settings align with your social media policy.

For your networks you can do some of the following:

-See where you’ve been tagged

-See who can see your tagged photos and posts

-Approve photos you’ve been tagged in before they appear

-Remove tags from unwanted photos and posts

-Restrict who can tag you in photos

-Check each network for what’s available for your strategy.

Review tags regularly

Create a routine to check and review the posts you’re tagged in. Then untag yourself from any bad photos or inappropriate posts.

You might ask… why not just shut down tagging?

Because:

-It’s like hearing your name called out from the crowd

-Tags elicit a response from others

-You can jump into pertinent conversations

-You’ll show up in more places

-Tags exist for those reasons, so don’t cut yourself or brand off from being seen more.

 

5. Be Discoverable in a Search

Use the right keywords in your profile to be discovered for your business, industry, or niche. When people do web searches, you want your brand logo to show up above the fold. It’s easy (and fast) to add the right words to your social profile.

Here are a couple of ways:

Identify the right keywords

Find out what people search for most when looking for professionals in your space. Look at industry trends or related phrases. Keyword tools like SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner will help identify the right words and terms.

Use those keywords

Update your social media profiles with the words and phrases identified above. For example, brands cab update their Instagram bios to link promotions and advertise their hashtags.

For: LinkedIn job title, description, experience, and skills sections. Do the same kind of thing for all your social accounts. In your bio, for photos, interests and more.

Don’t just stuff a list of keywords into these sections.

Work them in naturally, like how you talk. The search engine gods will reward and rank you higher. So you’ll show up, not down, the results page.

 

6. Fill in Every Field

While you’re adding keywords to your profile, make sure all the fields are filled in. Why?

So readers won’t perceive you as unprofessional and lazy. This adds credibility and a new level of connection you can build with people who are learning about you for the first time.

You should also ensure that you provide the right and helpful information while filling the bio. These include details about your business, such as your address, phone number, website, hours, other social media links, background story, mission statement, etc. when possible. By doing this you will be able to attract more people because they will know that you can provide the solutions that they need.

Also, check this over time. Social networks remove, add, and update fields.

 

7. Cross Promote

Don’t get this confused with cross-posting, two totally different things.

Cross Posting – the act of posting the same message across multiple social media channels (using tools like Buffer or Hootsuite) for a single piece of content.

Cross promoting – content promotion through the creation of unique messages for each social media channel. Takes a bit longer to execute than cross-posting, you’ll likely have more success connecting with each platform’s unique user base.

While cross posting shows that a brand is out of touch and irrelevant – likely to be penalized by each social network’s algorithm – cross promoting shows users that brands have made a genuine effort to meet them where they are at.

Cross Promotion Tips:

-Adapt each post so that it’s made appropriate for the network to which you’re posting on.

-Include social posts in your weekly newsletter

-Get creative with links in your profile. 

 

8. Test your links

Always make sure your links work. Sounds basic, but typos happen more often than you think. It takes just a second or two to test them, so do it. Otherwise, you’ll look lame and confuse people. Or worse…not get those cross-promotion benefits.

 

9. Build social trust

How? By asking friendlies for reviews, endorsements, and recommendations. It shows other you’ve succeeded and readers trust that more than an ad.

LinkedIn: Use LinkedIn’s endorsements section. People can click to endorse your skills. Even more powerful are LinkedIn recommendations. When you do ask for these (and you should) make it easier for them.

-What talents, abilities, & characteristics describe me?

-What successes did we experience together?

-What I’m good at?

-What can be counted on?

-Are there any other distinguishing features you think I possess?

-What was my impact on you?

-What was my impact on the company?

-How did I change what you do?

-What’s one thing you get with me that you can’t get anywhere else?

-What are five words that describe me?

Facebook: For Facebook pages, use their visitor post section. So people can highlight the good work you’ve done.

Twitter: For Twitter, pin positive tweets to the top of your stream. This allows you to control what visitors see when they first arrive.

 

10. Pin Best Content on the Top of Your Profile

Unlike other posts, pinned one’s stay put. They are the first things people see when looking you up. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all support pinning.

This is your chance to showcase your best work, so choose wisely. Maybe try a key message, cool video, a new landing page, or hot offer?

Resource: Hootsuite

 

With the drastic expansion of e-commerce, brick and mortar businesses have taken an obvious shift towards online retail. The increase in e-commerce shopping has transformed the way marketers must strategize.

E-Commerce marketing is the act of driving awareness and action toward a business that sells its product or service electronically. E-Commerce marketers can use social media, digital content, search engines, and email campaigns to attract visitors and facilitate purchases online.

 

E-Commerce is Becoming the Mainstream 

E-commerce has made the shopping experience instantly available to consumers. Studies have found that Millennials today make over 54% of their purchases online. Another recent study found that in the United States alone, over 17 million online transactions occurred on Amazon within just two days during the annual Prime Day event. In China, Singles Day shopping in 2018 shattered the previous year’s record, making $30.8 billion in one day, which is a 27% increase year over year.

As e-commerce continuously grows, it’s important that businesses utilize online shopping as part of their business strategy. With the switch to online shopping, businesses have the ability to track and measure the digital footprint left by consumers.   Collecting and examining this data helps marketers to determine the best future strategies. 

 

The Entire Customer Experience is What Matters

When it comes to tracking online shopping trends, marketers can get hung up on individual metrics such as shopping cart abandonment or bounce rates. While it is important to track individual metrics in order to increase numbers, potential customers can drop out of the buying process at any point in time. It is crucial for marketing professionals to study the entire part of the customer transaction in order to pinpoint what areas of the website may need improvement. Examining the conversion rate of each individual point of a customer’s online interaction will help marketers locate metrics for the customer’s entire experience. 

In order to analyze the impact on conversion rates, it is important to initiate tactics like A/B tests and quality assurance. This will help marketers to discover at what point in the buying process are they losing the interest of the consumer. Gathering feedback from the customer will also help with determining possible adjustments to the online shopping experience. A great example of collecting this information is by using online surveys to ask consumers why they did not want to proceed with the purchasing process. 

Nathalie Torres, the data director of Inamoto & Co, explains that “decades ago, brands were judged on product alone. Today, brands are being judged by the entire customer experience—and it takes smart design thinking to get this right.”

 

Fascinating Instagram Facts to Build Brand Presence and Grow Your Prospective Customer Base

We all know Instagram has become a major game changer for consumers and businesses globally. As Facebook refocuses on connecting people with content from family and friends, Instagram has become “the new home for brands,” where engagement is high, followers are brand-loyal, and real business goals can be achieved. Below are a few interesting facts your e-commerce brand needs to know in order to advantage of the platforms’ exploding popularity as an ad channel.

Instagram at a glance

The platform has more than 1 billion active monthly users.

More than 500 million people use Instagram daily.

400 million people use Instagram Stories daily.

Instagram has 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook.

An average user spends 53 minutes on Instagram daily.

50.7% of Instagram users worldwide are female, while 49.3% are male.

61% of Instagram users are 18 to 34 years old.

Instagram for business

More than 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily.

75% of users reportedly visited a website or made a purchase after seeing an Instagram ad

60% of people say they’ve discovered a new product on Instagram

50% of Instagram users follow at least one business

Top brands post 4.9 times per week on Instagram

Wednesdays are the most expensive days to run Instagram Ads.

(www.marketingprofs.com)

Advertising Dos and Dont’s

DO tag people in your posts

Tagging can be useful if you partner with other businesses or influencers and want to get more brand exposure through reposting or mentioning. In fact, posts that mention users see up to 56% more engagement that posts that don’t. You can use up to 30 tags on a post, but 9 is ideal.

DO tag locations in your posts

Selecting the right Instagram location for your content can play a pivotal role in helping you extend your reach. Instagram has slowly made their location feature more and more powerful and now posts with a location tag have 79% higher engagement than post without.

DO use photos with faces

People like people and a study conducted at Georgia Tech confirmed this statement is true for Instagram posts as well. They analyzed 1.1 million randomly-selected Instagram photos with faces detection software and found that those with faces receive 38% more likes.

DO feature products

Research from Gartner L2 found that Instagram users clearly enjoy seeing photos of products, with 65% of top-performing brand posts featuring a product of some kind. However, this doesn’t mean you should consistently post tons of product photos. It’s best to use to 80/20 rule which means roughly 20% of your content should be promotional and 80% should provide value for your audience as educational or entertainment.

DON’T forget your hashtags

Did you know that posts with at least one hashtag get 12.6% more engagement than those without? Hashtags are key to securing more exposure—without them, only your followers will see what you post. You can use up to 30 tags on a post, but 5–10 is ideal—including your brand name. It’s also better to post hashtags in the first comment of your post, rather than the caption, so the text looks neat and clutter-free.

DON’T underestimate the power of a great caption

DON’T post at random times

Thanks to Sprout Social’s decision to round up all the studies they could find on when to share content, marketers can now use their findings to figure out the best times to post to maximize engagement.

Augmented reality (AR) is technology that overlays digital information like images, sound, and text onto your view of the real world, creating an interactive experience. Early adopters have firmly established AR’s potential. Not only as a marketing channel but as a brand differentiator. It allows a new level of convenience, speed and can leave a lasting brand impression. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has said that AR will one day be as important in our everyday lives as “eating three meals a day.” The question is, how can your marketing strategy effectively capture an audience’s attention once AR has become commonplace?

But beware… Developing AR for the sake of having the “latest” technology will fail. Using AR to make your brand appear innovative can be viewed as forced. And, if AR is the overall marketing campaign, you’re doing it very wrong.

In augmented reality marketing, the AR element must:

Provide a meaningful and branded interaction

Play an authentic role in the communications

Be a gateway to a new reality of brand engagement

There needs to be substance to the experience, beyond just focusing on the technology factor. To understand how to best integrate AR with your brand, think about how your audience will actually interact with it. You will need to go beyond the initial wow factor and create something functional.  The augmented content must in some way enhance the physical world it is being superimposed into.

 

Let’s take a look at AR Benefits:

Helps Customers Visualize the Product

From virtually trying on clothes to placing furniture, AR showcases products in a personalized environment. In 2015, Home Depot released their Project Color app, which uses patent technology to show users what paint color will look like in their home. The AR technology takes into account lighting, objects, and shadows in the room, so you can see how that yellow shade will look in real life. In 2017, Home Depot took it a step further — now, you can also use their app to check out how objects like patio furniture, faucets, and other products look in your home.

 

Attracts Customers to Your Store

Retailers have made in-store navigation easier and quicker for shoppers with a little help from AR. One example of such technology being put to use is in Lowe’s stores. The brand’s In-Store Navigation app (powered by Google Tango) uses AR technology to create a mobile experience that guides shoppers through the store. Shoppers create a shopping list, and the app identifies the quickest route possible to check off all the items.

Increases Customer Engagement

One study found that AR apps generate nearly twice the level of engagement from customers.

AMC Theatres, understanding their audience is most interested in upcoming movie trailers when they’re at the movies, incorporated AR technology into their AMC app. When a user sees a movie poster in a theatre, they can open the AMC app on their phone, scan the poster, and receive relevant information, including a cast list and a trailer. If they’re interested in the movie after scanning, they can also purchase a ticket immediately, within the app.

 

Increases Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Fifty percent of customers say they’re more likely to shop with a brand that offers AR, MR, or AI. Sephora introduced a “Sephora Virtual Artist” iOS app that allowed customers to experiment with makeup products, finding the right tones and shades that complemented their own face. Sephora’s use of augmented reality isn’t just helpful for users — it also drives sales by appealing to Sephora’s more tech-savvy consumers and encouraging those consumers to become brand ambassadors by recording and sharing their augmented reality experiences online.

 

Boots Purchase Willingness

Forty percent of people would pay more for a product or service they could experience through AR. In their flagship store in Moscow, Topshop took a common shopping annoyance, long fitting room lines, and turned it into a genius marketing tool: a virtual fitting room. The AR Door used augmented reality to overlay Topshop dresses onto customers wishing to try them on. The AR Door was able to garner interest in Topshop’s new dress collection, converting window-shoppers into buyers.

 

Attracts a Wider Audience

For the 51% of Americans who prefer online shopping, AR brings the store to users who aren’t near a physical location.

Think about stadium seats, augmented reality enables you to both visualize and interact with a space — two critical functions when choosing how much you’re willing to pay for a seat. For Super Bowl LII, StubHub introduced an AR feature on their mobile app that allowed ticket buyers to see a virtual 3D model of the U.S. Bank Stadium, as well as nearby parking garages and concession stands. This enabled potential buyers to visualize their full experience before purchasing and minimized the risk of paying for a subpar seat.

 

Artificial Intelligence

 

Artificial Intelligence is any technology that seeks to mimic human intelligence, which covers a huge range of capabilities such as voice and image recognition, machine learning techniques and semantic search. It’s one of the biggest and most important trends in digital marketing today. AI can analyze consumer behavior and search patterns, utilizing data from social media platforms and blog posts to help businesses understand how users and customers find their products and services. Businesses adopting AI in 2019 will be able to save costs and accelerate growth, cutting an edge over their competitors.

According to Gartner, 30% of companies worldwide will be using AI in at least one of their sales processes by 2020.

How it will change marketing:

1. A more educated marketing process

The growth of AI in the marketing world will allow for more truly data-driven campaigns, where AI will allow data to be more properly used and integrated into each ad campaign.

2. A more personalized marketing process

More than ever before, AI will allow marketers to reach consumers at every stage of the process based on their interests and demographics. One example of this is by making it easier to put customers into distinct groups that will allow for added segmentation to highly targeted niches.

For a content standpoint, AI will be better to track what type of content consumers are most interested in, allowing a website to be “curated” for each individual user.

3. A broader focus

Rather than spending a significant amount of time sifting through data to come up with a strategy, marketers will spend more time applying what has been learned from the data, allowing the most creative marketers to get ahead rather than simply those who are best at crunching data.

 

Voice Search

 

“Hey, Siri, where is the closest CVS?”

Almost one-third of the 3.5 billion searches performed on Google every day are voice searches, with personal assistant devices leading the way (TheeDesign, 2017). More and more people use Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant every day. As their capacity for recognizing human speech has improved significantly, they can be incredibly helpful in both searchings for information on the Web and doing things around the house.

50% of all searches will be voice searches by the year 2020
20% of mobile queries on Google are voice searches
25% of all Bing searches are voice searches

Tip: Remember to write in a conversational tone and think about keywords that people will speak rather than type. Optimize this content into your website by incorporating questions and phrases into your blog posts or social media posts. The best way to start building this natural language is by writing an FAQ section and answer all of those questions. Think of all the questions your customers ask on the phone or email and note the phrases you hear over and over again.

 

There is More Than One Reality- AR & VR

Today’s user wants basically two things: to be engaged and to be an active participant in the brand’s messaging. Augmented and Virtual Realities (AR and VR) can fulfill both of these needs, offering brands tremendous opportunities in the field of customer experience.

Businesses are already embracing the power of this new technology in creating brand awareness, as well as in selling individual products. IKEA, for example, has been using VR gaming technology since 2016. With its shopping app, IKEA VR Experience, its customers’ can try out different IKEA solutions before buying them. Other big players that have experimented with AR include Nivea, Starbucks, and Volkswagen.

Virtual and Augmented Realities are becoming increasingly commonplace as a marketing tool for brands. The VR and AR market is supposed to be worth 27 billion dollars. It is expected that in only four years, it will reach the size of 209.2billion dollars (Statista).

Tip: VR and AR marketing are still emerging, so it’s a great time to explore your options and get ahead of the curve. It will assist many verticals in displaying what the client can expect from granite countertops to plastic surgery. An example would be  VR and AR could allow consumers to get a 360-degree view of a product before actually purchasing it.

 

Social Media

There are 3.196 billion global social media users, which equates to 42% market penetration (We are Social). With numbers like that, its significance to the society cannot be ignored — especially in the marketing world.

Influencer marketing

In today’s world, where social media is ubiquitous, people tend to gravitate toward experiences that are authentic and real. And potential customers are more likely to believe a real person over an advertisement about how good a certain product or brand is. This is where influencers come in.

When planning campaigns, consider hiring a micro-influencer to improve the quality of your outreach with more niche audiences. Unlike well-known or celebrity influencers, micro-influencers have smaller, highly engaged social media audiences. They are more affordable for brands, are viewed as more trustworthy by consumers, and often drive better results.

Tip: One of the easiest ways to find micro-influencers is through a hashtag search on Twitter or Instagram.

Social media stories

According to consulting firm Block Party, Stories—the vertical, disappearing videos invented by Snapchat—are now growing 15 times faster than feed-based sharing. An estimated four out of five major brands are already on Stories. If you aren’t creating Stories, it’s time to start. Stories can be as easy to create as you choose, so there’s a low barrier to entry for any team’s skill set. Share content weekly (and at different times of day) to see what works best with your audiences.

Facebook’s own chief product officer Chris Cox shared a chart showing that Stories are set to surpass feeds as the primary way people share things with their friends within the next year. And nearly a billion users across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat already turn to Stories to share.

Tip: Shoot your videos vertically. That’s how people watch them.

Tap your team’s full creative resources

Stories work best when they integrate video, storytelling, text, images, and more. Expecting a single social media specialist to integrate all these skills is a tall order. Instead, find ways for your video, photography, and graphic design teams to join forces to create something memorable.

Get creative with your Story structures

Stories are easy to create and allow you to produce content quickly, so you should experiment with different structures to find what works best for your brand. For example, you can create tutorials showing people how to use your product, give a behind-the-scenes look at your company culture, host a takeover, or run a Q&A on topics that interest your customers.

Add UTMs to your links to track success

Business accounts with over 10,000 followers (or verified accounts) can add a “swipe up” feature to their Stories. This lets viewers follow a link to another website or landing page.

By adding UTMs to your Story URLs, you can track where users are going and get a better understanding of what content they like. If you don’t have access to the “swipe up” feature, add a link with a UTM code to your bio.

Get in early with Facebook Stories

So far, Facebook Stories (which appear on the network’s flagship platform) haven’t really caught on. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to get Stories right on Facebook and is investing a lot in the format.

Currently, only around nine percent of major brands post to Facebook Stories, but companies that get in early may enjoy an early adopter advantage. Plus, it’s easy—the tap of a button lets you syndicate Stories straight from Instagram to Facebook.

Experiment with AR and custom GIFs in your Stories

Consider adding augmented reality features and GIFs to your storytelling. AR experiences and GIF stickers are now widely available as features of the Stories cameras on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Use GIFs to enhance your images, grab attention, and direct viewers’ attention to something like a call-to-action or “swipe-up.”

 

Visual Search

While many have been focused on the marketing potential of capturing conversational queries thrown at personal assistants, big brands such as Google, Pinterest and Microsoft have been focused on developing a stronger competitor in interactive SEO: visual search.

Visual search can take the user experience to a totally new level. With visual search, users can upload an image to conduct a search and get more specific results

As 93% of consumers consider visuals to be the key deciding factor in a purchasing decision (Kissmetrics), visual search engines are bound to revolutionize the retail industry.

Marketers can get the edge on competitors by jumping on the visual search trend in 2019 to draw customers and serve them the perfect product.

 

Pop-up shops for digital-first brands create a clear definition of success and measurement

 

Many retailers are hopping aboard the pop-up wagon. Pop-up shops offer the chance for your customers to get up close and personal with your products in a truly immersive setting. In addition to producing sales, you can also increase brand awareness and receive valuable feedback directly from your customers.

Consumers love the lure of exclusivity, and brands love the unmatched opportunity for experimentation of abstract concepts. Last month, Wayfair announced that it would open two temporary stores in empty shopping mall spaces over the holiday season. The temporary stores will test how offline customers interact with the brand, fine-tune its merchandising strategy and push traffic back to Wayfair’s online store. Some in-store sales will be an added benefit. Bob Sherwin, head of North American marketing at Wayfair said, “Physical pop-ups are a natural evolution of our test-and-learn culture.”

 

What is a pop-up event?

They are temporally retail spaces that give brands the opportunity to sell their products in an environment completely designed and controlled by them. Since they are temporary, they offer a relatively low-cost and low-commitment way for companies to take creative risks, generate buzz, and introduce their brands to new audiences.

With any marketing strategy, it’s important to measure its success in terms of ROI. Here’s how to achieve that for a pop-up approach:

Quantitatively: Brands can track foot traffic, dwell times, sales conversions, average cart size and compare it to online, increase in online engagement and impact on traffic to their website.
Qualitatively: Brands can witness/ learn customer sentiment, purchase motivation; how they respond to size, color and fit; how window design impacts foot traffic.

 

Advantages of a pop-up to the retailer:

Each brand will have different goals and outcomes that they’ll expect to accomplish through doing a pop-up. Here are some benefits to help you consider doing one:

-Builds brand awareness, brand hype, and exposure

-Test market products or services with key consumers

-Secures customer loyalty

-Creates “Get it while it lasts” urgency

-Educates new customers

-Test a new revenue stream

-Engage customers offline

-Go to where your customers are

-Provide an opportunity for experiential retail

-Learn target customer behavior patterns

-Adds credibility, especially for e-commerce retailers

 

Different types of pop-ups:

If you’re looking for shorter timeframes like a week or by the day, store within a store is a great option. These spaces typically come as a move-in ready space with some minor decorating and set up. You’ll benefit from the regulars that visit the store and the existing store benefits from the fresh new foot traffic you’re bringing them. It’s a win-win situation and works well for a cross-functional situation. Also, it delivers extra rent revenue for the existing store.

What to consider: Are you a good fit for the clientele and the brands that are already in the store? The owners will want to make sure it doesn’t disrupt their operation.

 

You’ll find these located in footfall areas such as shopping centers or local markets. These are exactly what you would expect when the retailer sets up a shop in the middle of the mall where customers are walking by. It is a great way to keep new customers walking in front of your products. These spaces have seen a huge amount of interest because it requires little setup and investment. This is ideal for e-commerce retailers going offline for the first time.

What to consider: What other retailers are going to be in your general vicinity? Do you compliment each other or compete? Does the size of the booth limit my stock?

 

These spaces have great flexibility with rental lengths, often times are move-in ready, and are even great for cocktail hours for your customers. Because they are constantly rotating brands/events in and out, they like to book up as far in advance as they can. You’ll also likely benefit from experienced space owners that have experienced pop-ups as well.

What to consider: Can you get primetime dates? Renters book important dates in advance so it’s very important to get a head start on these types of spaces.

 

Besides the big anchor stores at the entrances, these are considered in-line spaces. They are the next step up from the kiosk and still come with the built-in foot traffic. In-lines spaces are usually really cost effective as well. Another benefit is that mall owners and shopping centers already know temporary retail sp they’ll understand your needs and will help you become successful.

What to consider: Where are you going to be located in the mall and what stores will be next to? Make sure you are pleased with your location and the foot traffic that flows by.

 

Street level storefronts represent some of the most coveted and exclusive retail spaces in the world. This is because brands make large profits in these spaces. Consumers love to have an in-store experience and the results prove it. If you have the budget and you’re looking to get some new customers, this is the best option for you!

What to consider: You might not be able to book too far in advance. Many landlords are looking for long-term tenants.