Showing posts tagged with: advertising agencies

December 28, 2018

11 Must Have Web Site Features For Hawaii Business Web Sites

11 Must Have Web Design Features for Hawaii Businesses

With the introduction of more and more “do it yourself” web design tools like Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, and others, you may think it’s easy to create and maintain your own web site but there’s a lot more to it than you might think. Trust us, Team Vision Marketing has been designing and programming web sites over the years for Hawaii clients, including Ke Kailani, Ainamalu, Islander Ukulele, Castle & Cooke Hawaii, Koa Ridge, Wailele Ridge and many more.

If you’re about to engage in the process of either designing your own web site or hiring someone to create a web site for you, here are eleven must-have basic web site design features your business web site needs.

If you need help with your business’s web design, let us know! We would love to help!

1. A Well Structured Menu

An organized menu is a KEY element for achieving a higher Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking because search engines want to present the best web sites on their search results page, which considers such factors as ease of navigation and content organization. A well-structured navigation will also prevent high bounce rates. New visitors should be able to instinctively know how to navigate through your web site and not waste their time digging through your menus to find the content they want.

Team Vision recommends listing what type of content or web pages you need to have on your site. Then, group the web pages into relevant categories or subcategories.

Pro Tip: Map out your web site design with all of its web pages in a flow chart and then refine that flowchart to create the most simple and organized navigation menus you can.

2. Visually Engaging, Responsive Web Site Design

There’s no excuse for a business web site to have a bad web design. If you make the effort to look your very best for face-to-face interactions with potential consumers or clients, then you should make the effort to make your site visually engaging. See TeamVision.com as an example of a well-designed, mobile-friendly business web site.

It takes less than 15 seconds for potential consumers or clients to analyze the look of your site and determine if they want to continue browsing through it. A clean layout, high-quality imagery, and well-written content make your site appear more trustworthy and give you a higher SEO ranking, which can result in increased web site conversions.

If you have the budget for it, there are many web site design companies that can help you create an aesthetically pleasing, responsive web design that’s fully customized to your needs. If your budget dictates that you need to go the less expensive route, DIY web site tools, like WordPress, also possess some decent web design templates, but your customization may be limited without an experienced web development team assisting you.

3. Call-To-Actions (CTA)

Call to actions are instructions designed to provoke an immediate response from your web audience, such as “Call XXX-XXXX Today!” or “Buy Now!” buttons. CTAs are important for conversions, so make them conspicuous and readily available throughout the site. Ideal CTA locations are on applicable sections of web pages, and within the site’s header and footer.

4. Visual Components: Images, Videos, and Infographics

Strong visual elements are a must for any web site design. Photos, graphics, and videos are much easier to comprehend than text, they increase brand awareness, and can help increase conversions.

• 46% of users take action after viewing a video ad (Geniusmonkey.com)

• Videos on landing pages can increase conversion by 80% (Forbes.com)

According to the 2018 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, three of the top six content types being prioritized by B2B marketers are visual content, such as videos, infographics, and illustrations/photos

Although photos and graphics still provide creative visual interest, videos are the fastest growing form of visual content. Videos are more engaging, helpful for testimonials, demos, and storytelling. Infographics are also growing in popularity for tutorials and sharing analytics.

5. Well Written Copy with Keywords

Copy is vital for gaining more traffic, increasing conversions, and keeping your web visitors on the site longer. For SEO purposes, your web site’s text content factors in heavily. So, your copy should be relevant, concise, and rich with keywords that relate to your business, products, and services. Bad grammar, misspellings, and poor organization will get your web site flagged by search engines as a low-quality site, negatively affecting your SEO ranking and your web traffic.

Your copy should also clearly communicate all the information your audience needs to know in a concise fashion. If your web visitors can’t find the information they’re looking for, then they will quickly leave your site and go to one of your competitors. But be mindful of not sounding too sales orientated. If the tone is too promotional, then it might deter your audience from wanting to read more.

6. Enhanced Tracking and Tracking Pixels

These little snippets of code are important for measuring the effectiveness of your online marketing programs. When someone visits and takes action on your web site through Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, the pixel’s report the action and automatically adds the web user’s information into a remarketing or lookalike audience list. Pixels also optimize conversions so Facebook and Google ads can determine how to best deliver your ads to audiences that are more likely to take action.

7. Quick Load Times

Load time speed plays a primary role in building traffic and retaining visitors on your site. Long load times can result in high bounce rates, which will negatively impact your conversions and SEO strategy. SEO algorithms heavily weigh on your web site’s bounce rates when ranking your site on search engine results pages (SERP).

There are a number of ways to improve your web site’s load time, however, most of these techniques will require some coding. There are WordPress plugins that can help but hiring someone to program these techniques might serve as a better investment for your web site.

• Visual content is the usual culprit for long load times. Try compressing and resizing your images and videos before uploading them to your website. Think about it, bigger files take more time to load.

• Use browser caching. This technique allows data to be temporarily stored on a visitor’s computer, resulting in faster load time for repeat visitors.

• Slim down your code. This includes deleting unnecessary HTML, Java script, CSS, and white space between code lines.

• HubSpot suggests adding your site’s external Javascript files to the bottom of the page before closing the body tag.

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We cannot stress this enough! It’s 2019, your web pages should already be optimized for search engines. SEO is no longer treated as a bonus in your online marketing, it’s an absolute must! This is how your web site will become more visible on search engine results pages, which will generate increased web traffic and potentially higher conversions.

Read more about key SEO strategies and how to optimize our web site for voice search in our previous blog posts.

9. SSL Certificate, Terms Of Use, And Disclaimers

Security is an increasingly important component of web site design, not just for the audience, but also for web site owners. Adding some security measures is easier than you think.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate
Buying and installing an SSL certificate is essential for your web site. This standard security technology establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser, ensuring that all the data passed between a server and a browser is kept private. Without it, Google will label your web site as “NOT SECURE”, which will negatively affect your search engine ranking and send red flags to your audience. This certificate also gives your audience some peace of mind.

Read more about SSL Certificates here.

Terms of Use
This legal document lays out the rules that users must agree to in order to use the site and use content from the site. It prevents abuses, protects your intellectual property and registered trademarks, and limits your liability if your content has been used incorrectly or inflicts damage. The Terms of Use also states your right to terminate accounts and establishes age restrictions.

Disclaimers
A Disclaimer is a legal notice that protects the company by limiting the legal liability for the outcome of your web audience using your web site. Without disclaimers, you can potentially face lawsuits.

10. XML Sitemap

Building an XML sitemap into your web site helps Google “crawl” through your web pages to determine your site’s indexing on search result pages. With some coding, you can customize which web pages you think are high quality that Google should pay more attention to and which pages Google should ignore. See Team Vision’s XML Site Map as an example.

Learn how to build an XML sitemap and view Google’s sitemap guidelines.

11. Integration With Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an essential tool for every web site. It provides insight on who your web audience is and which online marketing strategies are working best for your site. It can track how your audience found your site, which device they accessed it from, track their full interaction with your web pages, and much more.

Bonus:

Testimonials & Reviews

Testimonials are effective buying influencers. If you have consumers that have enjoyed your product or service, share that with your prospective customers. If you have the capability, video testimonials are more effective than text testimonials.  View examples of quality video testimonials here.

•HubSpot Research also found that 60% of consumers believed customer reviews were either trustworthy or very trustworthy

• According to Nielsen research, “92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer, and 70% of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know”.

Portfolios

If you’re selling a service, like advertising and marketing, you should show off your recent and past work. Give your prospective customers an idea of what they can expect from your business. Of course, include some text to give your prospective customers some context.

As an example, check out Team Vision’s extensive advertising and marketing portfolio.

Link Your Social Media Channels to Your Web Site

If you promote your web site on social media, then you should also promote your social media on your web site. Linking your social media to your site can help increase your followers and engagements. Let your audience easily discover a more personal point of view of your company.

Incorporating these 11 key basic web features can help you achieve a higher Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking , improve your web site traffic, and increase your online conversions. Are you scrolling through your web site and noticing that you are missing some of these important features? Team Vision can help you with all your web design and Search Engine Optimization needs. We’ve designed and developed many successful Hawaii web sites and SEO marketing programs for Hawaii businesses on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island of Hawaii and Lanai.

Reach out to us at (808) 536-0416 or use our website inquiry form at www.www.teamvision.com/contact.

Hear from Harry A. Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his 20 years of experience working with Team Vision.

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Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

Sources:

http://time.com/12933/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlbJKOWEPEM

https://www.godaddy.com/garage/does-your-website-really-need-terms-of-use/

https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2012/trust-in-advertising–paid-owned-and-earned.html

https://blog.hubspot.com/service/get-customer-reviews

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/80471

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-reduce-your-websites-page-speed

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2018-b2b-research-final.pdf

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/20-web-design-stats-you-need-to-know-first-infographic/524656/

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December 7, 2018

Hey Google, Why Should We Optimize Our Web Site For Voice Search?

Hey Google, Why Should We Optimize Our Web Site For Voice Search?

Voice searching technology is changing the way we browse and shop on the internet. We can look up almost anything on the web just by saying, “Hey Google…” or “Hey Siri…” We can even turn on the lights, send texts, play music, and plan our day with a quick verbal request.
Google_voice_search_trend

Image Source: KPCB/Mary Meeker’s Annual 2016 Internet Report

As voice searching continues to gain popularity among all age groups, businesses must rethink their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and how they write their web page content.

So, how can we incorporate voice searching in our SEO strategy?

1. Add Schema Markup To Your Site

Search engine algorithms are based on multiple factors that relate to your web site’s content. This is why in addition to producing quality content, it’s essential to incorporate keywords and metadata into your site.

A schema markup is essentially like metadata, which is a set of code that helps search engines organize and classify your website’s content and enables search enhancements. You can use schema markups to optimize information that voice search users will be looking for, like contact information, operational times, directions, and so on.

It may seem daunting for those who are not familiar with coding, but this is an important tactic to use. If you need assistance on any of your web-based needs, give Team Vision Marketing a call. We have extensive experience designing web sites and developing innovative digital and SEO programs for our clients. Check out our web design and marketing work in our portfolio.

2. Use Long Tail Keywords and Keep Your Content Conversational

It requires less effort to say a complete sentence than typing out one, which is why voice searches tend to be longer and more conversational than traditional search engine phrases. Thus, brands should be writing content in a natural speaking voice that includes long tail keywords, which are search phrases that are three to five words long. It might also be worthwhile to test bids on long tail keywords. For example, Team Vision would bid on keywords like “Top Hawaii Marketing Agency” or “Hawaii Advertising Agency”.

Tip: Use Google Search Console to see what voice searches you’re currently showing up on and brainstorm more voice searches your web site can relate to.

3. Anticipate For Specific and Stronger Intent

Along with general inquiries, voice search users can have stronger purchasing intent. So, it might be ideal to test full question keywords or answer questions, like “Where is the closest cafe?”.

The type of question can indicate the degree of desire. As explained on Moz.com, questions that begin with “Who” or “What” reveal interest, while questions that begin with “When” or “Where” shows more intent on an action.

How_voice_search_will_Change_Digital_Marketing_For_The_Better

Image Source: “How Voice Search Will Chance Digital Marketing – For the Better”

This also means that voice searches can have more specific inquiries, such as “Hey Google, search for mid-century furniture near me.” This is good news for brands that target a more niche audience or sell a specific product.

Take our client, Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii’s, newest residential real estate neighborhood, as an example. Their target audience for this community is people already living in or wanting to move to Waipahu, Hawaii. Thus, long tail keyword phrases like “Waipahu Real Estate” will be more valuable than just “Real Estate.”

4. Claim Your Business On Google

Although your business should already have done this, it has become even more essential to claim your business on Google, now that more local or “near me” inquiries are made on voice searches – as seen in the graph below.

“Near Me” Voice Search Usage

Near_Me_Voice_Searches_Growth

Image Source: Google Trends “Near Me” Report

Claiming the business gives you the ability to list what category it falls under, give some details about your products/services, and input the correct contact information. This will help your customers find your business easier during searches, provide accurate information, and it can help increase your ranking on the search engine results page (SERP).

5. Make Your Web Site Mobile Friendly

It’s imperative and highly recommended that your web site is converted to be responsive on all devices. Due to the fact that a majority of Google searches, including voice searches, are made on mobile, Google factors a web page’s mobile format into its search engine ranking algorithm.

It also provides your audience with a seamless and more enjoyable web experience. When a site is mobile friendly, the web site automatically formats the content to fit within the width of the screen, making it more aesthetically pleasing, easier to work with, and it keeps your bounce rates lower.

6. Optimize Your FAQS Page

Since questions are more likely to be voice search phrases, optimizing your FAQ page would be worth your while. FAQs pages are another opportunity for businesses to add in more searchable long tail keywords, which can make your web site more attractive for voice search results.

Team Vision recommends researching what common questions your audience might ask in a voice search that relates to your business and title your FAQs exactly like that. For example, a possible voice search question and FAQ for Team Vision could be: “What is a full-service marketing agency?”.

Tip: As previously mentioned, keep in mind that voice searches are more conversational, so adopt a casual tone for the FAQ title and content.

7. Update Web Content for Google Quick Answers

In 2014, Google created Quick Answers, a more convenient method of pulling up content relevant to certain inquiries, like “how to…” or “what is…” searches, from specific web sites. This Quick Answers box is featured above the first organic result of the SERP and includes the link to the page. See an example below.

Google_Quick_Answer_Example

Web pages featured in the Quick Answers box are determined by the web page’s SEO, quality, data structure, and relevance to the search inquiry.

How does this relate to voice search? Voice searches tend to be direct questions. Google will favor citing high-quality pages that are also optimized with long tail keywords.

Voice-activated technology will continue to change the way we surf and shop online. It’s a self-learning AI technology that will inevitably become more and more sophisticated, so businesses need to constantly update and adapt their digital marketing and SEO strategies.

Don’t stress about it! Team Vision can help you with all your online marketing and SEO needs. Over the years, we have developed hundreds of successful SEO and online marketing programs and created many  responsive web site designs for clients across Hawai’i. Just give us a call at (808) 536-0416, or use our website inquiry form at www.www.teamvision.com/contact.

Hear from Harry A. Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his 20 years of experience working with Team Vision.

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Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

November 22, 2018

Busting Social Media Myths #4

Busting Social Media Myths #4

It’s common knowledge among digital marketing agencies that Social Media Marketing is an essential marketing tool, but some businesses still believe in some misconceptions surrounding it. Believing in these myths can affect the quality and growth of your brand’s social media presence. Team Vision Marketing’s team feels obligated to bust some of these common myths and help guide your business in the right direction. In this edition of Busting Social Media Marketing Myths, our team will weigh in on which online advertising networks are most popular, audience targeting, and sustainable methods for growing your social media follower counts.

Make sure to read Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #1, Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #2, and Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #3 for more busts on social media marketing myths.

MYTH 1: Facebook And Instagram Are The Only Effective Social Media Platforms To Advertise On.

Although Facebook Ads, which distributes social media ads on both Facebook and Instagram, is the dominant social media advertising network, agencies and brands shouldn’t disregard advertising on other social media platforms, such as YouTube and SnapChat. In fact, these other social media advertising networks have been improving their operating systems to increase advertising effectiveness and ROI. Digital agencies recognize the potential and value of these smaller social media advertising networks, as seen in the graphic below by Clutch.

Most Valuable Social Media Advertising Platforms for B2B and B2C

Team Vision Marketing recommends that brands be open-minded and research how you can potentially utilize these smaller social media advertising networks in your digital marketing plans.  Here are some pros and cons of each.

 

YouTube:

Pros

    • YouTube is used by a wide range of age groups.

YouTube Useage by Age Groups

  • It’s a creative platform with six different ad formats. Skippable video ads (a.k.a. TrueView ads), Non-skippable video ads, 6-second Bumper ads, Overlay ads, Display ads, and Sponsored cards.
  • There are 1.5 billion monthly users that watch one billion hours of YouTube videos daily. YouTube mobile video consumptions are increasing by 100% every year, according to HubSpot.
  • Video ads are an effective form of digital marketing/advertising. A 2016 study by Google and comScore found that 48% of online video viewers prefer YouTube as their top video site. Videos provide agencies and brands the opportunity to tell their story and educate their target audiences with their products or services in a creative way. With video ads, advertising can be engaging, compelling, and entertaining.
  • Keyword targeting on YouTube can be less expensive than keyword targeting on Google with views costing an average of $0.06 per click on YouTube (HubSpot).
  • YouTube Ads and videos can improve your SEO ranking.
  • There are new audience targeting developments. In addition to the YouTube behavioral video viewing algorithm, YouTube advertisers will be able to target viewers based on their past Google search history of products or services in the near future (HubSpot).
  • Another form of YouTube Advertising can take form as a collaboration with YouTube influencers. Influencer marketing can be effective because some consumers like to watch testimonials, reviews, or product demo videos before buying a product or service (Forbes). In fact, more than 80% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, like unboxing videos (Forbes). 90% of YouTube users say that product videos are helpful in the decision process and after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online (HubSpot).

Cons

  • It can cost a company a lot of time and money to produce high-quality video ads. There are numerous case studies that show that YouTube ads successfully increased brand awareness, conversions, and web site traffic. However, a successful YouTube ad depends on the quality of the video or if the YouTube influencer has a positive review of your products or service. Now that YouTube’s Director On-Site program has been terminated, small businesses will have to rely on in-house resources, an advertising agency, or YouTube recommended third-party video creating platforms to make video ads. For businesses that want to self-produce their YouTube ads, understand that it takes time to conceptualize the storyboard, write dialogue or copy for the ad, and block out shooting days. Then, it might be expensive to hire the right people to shoot, produce, and edit the video. In addition, your team might have to hire talent, rent a space to film at, and so on. Hiring or using one of the YouTube recommended third-party video creators might be a more affordable option. But the process will still require a lot of time and coordination between you and the third party video creator to create the ad.
  • Influencer marketing could be costly and might not produce the results you are looking for.
  • YouTube ads can be annoying. YouTube ads that play before or in the middle of a YouTube video can be seen as annoying by some. It’s easy for your audience to skip right past your ad and not pay attention to the message at all. Even so, these ads can be used effectively to create brand awareness, even with minimal viewing times.

SnapChat:

Pros:

  • Agencies and brands can reach millennials and Gen Z audiences.4 million 12- to 17-year-olds will use Snapchat. Emarketer.com estimates that Snapchat will add 1.2 million new users in that age group by 2022, while Facebook will lose 2.2 million.
  • About 187 million people use SnapChat 25 times per day.
  • SnapChat has high engagements. SnapChat says that for every 1,000 followers a profile has, 900 of them will watch their story (Hootsuite.com). Taco Bell reports that 80% of their approximate 200,000 SnapChat friends saw their stories (Hootsuite.com). Not to mention that it’s one of the best platforms for User-Generated content.
  • SnapChat has cool, interactive digital ad formats. SnapChat has three interactive ad formats: Snap Ads, Sponsored Geo-Filters, and Sponsored Lenses. When SnapChat users touch a Snap Ad, the ad can expand to a full screen video with audio, link to the brand’s web site, install an app, lead you to a long form video, or download an exclusive lens for the user to interact with. Sponsored Geo-Filters are great for increasing brand awareness and expressing the brand’s creativity. Sponsored lenses are interactive face filter animations that are really great for brand awareness and collecting user-generated content.
  • SnapChat made some cool marketing upgrades. SnapChat has updated its insight features to track more valuable analytics data and improved their targeting features. According to AdWeek.com, SnapChat now offers pixels that can track web traffic, conversions, and create retargeting and lookalike audiences lists. AdWeek.com also reported that SnapChat advertisers can now upload customer email lists to match their SnapChat ads to the users.
  • Ads are seen as less disruptive. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, ads don’t pop up on SnapChat’s feed or interrupt the user’s content. Instead, ads run in the Discover tab on the SnapChat app. Also, sponsored Geo-filters, like the ones we designed for Honua Kai Resort & Spa and Dole Plantation, and Sponsored Lenses only show up if the SnapChat user is within a brand’s geo-fence.
  • Advertising costs for Sponsored Geo-Filters went down. SnapChat dropped their expensive advertising daily fees and opted to start using auction bids, like Facebook Ads and Google Ads (AdAge.com). However, according to Hootsuite, Geo-Filters can be as low as $5 to reach within the immediate location or $45 for 2 days to reach people in a city. According to AdAge.com, SnapChat is also developing a “Reach and Frequency” option for guaranteed prices according to approximate audience sizes.
  • There’s less competition on SnapChat than Facebook and Instagram. This means that, potentially, the keyword targeting bids are cheaper on SnapChat Ads than for Facebook Ads. It could also mean that there is less noise for the SnapChat audience, so viewers may be more willing to watch your brand’s ads.

Cons:

  • This digital advertising network is still new, and the audience is smaller than Facebook and Instagram’s advertising audience.
  • Audience exposure to SnapChat ads is limited to the users that browse through the app’s Discovery tab.
  • This digital advertising network is best for reaching younger people. If the target audience is older than teens and younger millennials, then it will be more effective to advertise on a different platform, like Facebook and Instagram ads.
  • Sponsored Lenses can be very expensive. This ad format is not suitable for smaller businesses due to the costs required to create and code lenses, and the ad space. This is why mainly big-name brands, like Urban Decay or Pepsi, uses Sponsored Lenses.
  • Designing custom Geo-Filters can be, potentially, expensive.
  • SnapChat Geo-Filters are best for brand awareness. These ads can be less effective for generating increases in conversions.

MYTH 2: Targeting A Broader Audience With My Social Media Ads Will Give Me The Best Results

Yes, targeting a broader audience can generate more impressions, a greater reach, and increased clicks for your brand’s digital marketing ads, which is why this targeting strategy is ideal for increasing brand awareness, lead generation, and collecting customer data. For example, using a broad audience targeting strategy, a boutique hotel on Maui might target West Coast USA markets and bid on more vague search phrases, like “Hawaii Hotels”, instead of a more targeted phrase like “West Maui boutique hotels”. However, using less targeted filters for your brand’s digital marketing campaigns also means that the ads won’t attract the highest quality audience. You’ll wind up paying more (because you’re reaching a much larger audience), but since your audience targeting is less specific to your brand, you won’t necessarily see a proportionate increase in conversions.

If your company wants to increase sales and attract a higher quality audience to your site, then consider marketing to a specific audience with targeting filters, like location, interests, income, age, groups, and likes. For a specific audience targeting to work efficiently, your brand needs to have existing customer data, a solid idea of who your customer is, or buy data from a third-party data sharing firm. For example, a local Hawaii furniture store advertising on social media will want to specifically target an audience who is at least 25 years or older and interested in home decor or home improvements. For Google Ads, this local furniture store would find that bidding on search phrases that name a specific location or product, like “Contemporary Furniture stores on Oahu” or “Where to buy couches on Oahu”, is more effective than “couches” or just “Hawaii furniture stores”. However, targeting a highly curated audience or bidding on really specific search phrases may counteract the effectiveness of the campaign by attracting too niche of an audience, or by being too expensive.

Team Vision Marketing recommends that brands first establish their marketing goals and objectives and then determine which type of targeting strategy to implement.  For our clients, we normally recommend a healthy mix of broad targeting (to attract new customers) and specific targeting (to increase conversions of existing customers) as there are benefits to both strategies.

MYTH 3: The Best Way To Gain Followers Is To Follow A Lot Of People And Then Unfollow Them.

Mass social media following, and unfollowing is an unsustainable follower growth strategy and it makes your brand seem unauthentic. And, having a lot of followers doesn’t necessarily mean that your social media profile produces great content. In fact, having a large follower base, but only receiving a small number of likes per post on Instagram, will seem strange. Brands can still follow a lot of social media profiles, but the motivation behind your follows should be that the brands you follow are somehow relevant to your business, or they produce great content of interest to you and your customers.  Our recommendation: don’t follow people and brands for the sole purpose of trying to get them to follow you back.

The best way to grow your social media followers is to produce quality posts and to interact in a meaningful manner with the pages you follow by liking and commenting on posts you enjoy.

Here are a few more suggested tips from Team Vision Marketing that will help you gain followers:

  • Create a good social media strategy.
  • Use free social media insights or social media analytics tools to determine the best times to post and what posts work for your business.
  • Use hashtags and tag a location on your posts.
  • Post high-quality content that brings value to your audience consistently.
  • Follow relevant profiles, companies, and influencers.
  • Promote your page or sponsor posts when relevant.
  • Collaborate with another profile with a bigger following, or with a social media influencer.
  • Incorporate promotions and/or incentives to encourage people to follow you. But remember, to keep them as followers long-term, you’ll have to consistently produce quality content.

It’s important to note that these social media marketing strategies and tactics will require a substantial investment of your time and energy on an ongoing basis. If your company doesn’t have an in-house social media management expert, it’s recommended that you hire a social media management team or a digital marketing agency to manage your social media accounts.

Does your business need assistance with managing your social media accounts? Give Team Vision Marketing a call and let us help you out. Be sure to check out some of our creative social media campaigns and promotions on our web site portfolio at www.www.teamvision.com/portfolio/#social-media.

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-use-youtube-ads-to-grow-your-business/

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/get-ready-to-start-seeing-more-local-ads-on-youtube/amp/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/06/26/how-small-businesses-can-leverage-influencers-when-advertising-on-youtube/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwj0z5zlsdjdAhV0CTQIHV1iDBA4ChAWMAR6BAgBEAE&usg=AOvVaw2L0rd9-od7FbNZk2fKvabj

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics#sm.0000h4rgwfoa1fouwqm23llpma557

https://www.blog.google/products/ads/six-online-video-insights-from-comscore-to-inform-your-2017-media-plan/

August 24, 2018

Advertising on Amazon

Advertising on Amazon

Already established as a revolutionary online retailer, Amazon is now becoming a major advertising network. Still comparatively small to Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, only making $1.7 billion in ad revenue last year, it’s still a unique advertising environment that could catch up to the major advertising networks in the next few years. This is because, unlike any other advertising networks, Amazon is a popular online marketplace, which attracts 180 million US visitors a month, and the company has a trove of valuable customer data.

Currently, all online marketing and advertising is supervised by Amazon Media Group (AMG). AMG has two advertising platforms: Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) and Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP). Both platforms can reach audiences on the Amazon app, web site, and on Kindle and Fire products.

 

Amazon Marketing Services (AMS)

There are three Pay-Per-Click products:

Sponsored Products

  • Keyword or product targeting
  • Appears on Search Results page

Headline Search Ads

  • Keyword or product targeting
  • Appears on Search Results page

Product Display Ads

  • Keyword or product targeting
  • Can also target specific Amazon Standard Identification Numbers
  • Available in self-service portals

Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP)

A Demand Side Platform that allows brands to reach Amazon consumers beyond the web site via:

– Desktop and Mobile Display Ads
– Mobile Banner Ads
– Mobile Interstitial
– Video Ads

AAP can break down the audience into segments based on these unique factors:

  • In Market: People who might make a purchase in the product category
  • Lifestyle: Habitual long-term buyers of a category
  • Contextual: Ability to reach the audience in real time while they browse through Amazon
  • It can also target people based on who has looked for the brand and saw its products
  • Service can be managed by Amazon Media Group or self-service
  • Recommended more for brand awareness, not to increase sales
  • Only way advertisers can buy ad space on Amazon’s own websites

Amazon is a forward-thinking company that has evolved beyond their core online retailer identity. Although their online marketing and advertising operations are fairly new, Team Vision Marketing highly recommends brands consider launching online marketing and advertising campaigns on Amazon, as we anticipate rapid growth in their offerings over the next couple years.

If your business is in need of a full-service advertising and marketing agency to help you with advertising, web site development, social media and digital marketing services, give Team Vision Marketing a call and let us help you out. In the meantime, check out some of our online marketing campaigns, social media programs and promotions in our online portfolio at www.www.teamvision.com/portfolio

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Recent Blog Posts
Contact Us for Help with Your Digital Advertising

Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

Sources:

www.adage.com/article/digital/amazon-a-plan-profitable-advertising/311992/

www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2018/34935/the-inner-workings-of-advertising-on-amazon-infographic

www.advertising.amazon.com/

www.forbes.com/sites/kirimasters/2018/06/08/a-simple-guide-to-amazons-complicated-advertising-business/#189bbb963910

July 3, 2018

Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #2

Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #2

Welcome to part two of Busting Social Media Marketing Myths. Although social media marketing has been an essential tool for marketers for years, some businesses still believe in the misconceptions surrounding it. Thus, they miss out on having a presence on social media or go about it the wrong way. We feel it’s our responsibility to dispel some of these common myths and help steer your business down the right path.

Make sure to read Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #1 for more busts on social media marketing myths.

Myth: Influencers will help boost sales

Team Vision Marketing recognizes the power behind social media influencers and their benefit as a spokesperson or promotion vehicle. But, you’ll be wasting your money if you use influencers solely to increase your sales. It’s tricky for brands to track how influencers are making them money. Also, influencer marketing can be expensive, so it’s hard to tell if your money is being well spent. According to Market Week, 38% of marketers are not sure if influencer activity actually drives sales and 86% are unsure how influencers calculate their fees, according to a survey of 200 marketers conducted by Rakuten Marketing.

Instead, we want our clients to view these unique partnerships as brand promotions. Partnering with an influencer can help your brand gain credibility, reach, and awareness. According to ShaneBarker.com, 77% of marketers use influencers to drive up engagement, 89% use influencers to create more authentic content for their brand. Influencers can also help drive traffic to your website and introduce your brand to new markets. 56% of marketers use influencers to drive traffic to their website and 43% use influencers to reach younger markets.

However, influencer marketing isn’t for every brand. Collaborations with influencers need to make sense and businesses need to be selective about who they hire. Do they reach your target market? Are they reliable? What other brands do they do collaborations with? What type of content do they post? Brands also need to realize that no matter how popular an influencer is, not all of their followers are going to fully trust their sponsored content.

Myth: It’s all about likes and followers

Many people mistake follower growth and likes as metrics for success. Don’t get us wrong, being popular on social media is great, but the metric a brand should be paying attention to is engagement. Engagement measures all the likes, comments, and retweets/shares of a post and this metric tells you how engaged your followers are. The key point to take away from this myth busting is quality over quantity. A lot of likes are still good, but the quality of the comments and the number of retweets/shares determine the quality of the post. We recommend analyzing the insights of your posts and asking your audience to weigh in on what type of content they want to see more of.

Myth: I can be my own social media manager! It’s easy!

Managing business social media accounts is not as easy as some might think. It’s not like managing your personal account. As we said in our Busting Social Media Marketing Myths – #1 blog post, it takes a lot of time and money to maintain and upkeep your brand’s social media presence, which means that you are spending less time on your primary business responsibilities. Among other things, these are some of the requirements of maintaining your brand’s social media presence:

  • Create a social media marketing plan
  • Create a content calendar
  • Create social media campaigns
  • Develop and design content
  • Copy writing
  • Schedule posts
  • Continuously engage in posting, liking and commenting on all social media networks
  • Review and respond to customer questions/comments
  • Analyze and evaluate report data, make appropriate adjustments to your campaign and content strategies

This is why successful companies on social media either have an in-house social media manager or hire a social media marketing agency to handle their accounts.

Myth: I can just post one kind of content every time.

If you scroll through other successful social media profiles, you will see how wrong this myth is. The diversity of content is key to keeping your feed feeling fresh to your followers and for attracting new leads. Your content needs to add value and connect to your followers’ lives. Plus, your brand’s posts are competing with posts from thousands of other brands, so you need to stand out.

To get some ideas on what types of content to post, read our “Social Media Marketing – Tips” blog post

See screenshots of Team Vision Marketing’s and Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii’s Instagram feeds as an example of providing a diverse array of posts. Both have a strong mixture of stories, videos, graphics, and photos.

Castle & Cooke, Social media marketing, social media feed, instagram, instagram feed, content marketing, social media marketing tips, marketing tips
Team Vision Marketing, Instagram Feed, Instagram, Social media marketing, social media marketing tips, marketing tips, marketing myths

If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with managing your business’s social media, give Team Vision Marketing a call and let us help you out.  In the meantime, check out some of our social media programs and promotions on our web site portfolio at www.www.teamvision.com/portfolio/#social-media.

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

 

Enjoy this article? Let us know below or share it!

Read More Team Vision Blog Posts on Social Media:

“Busting Social Media Marketing Myths #1”

“Social Media Marketing During Events – Tips”

“Social Media Marketing Tips”

Hear from Harry A. Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision.

Latest Posts
Contact Us for Help with Your Social Media Marketing

Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

Sources:

https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/08/30/roi-look-like-world-influencer-marketing/

https://www.adweek.com/digital/paul-johnson-lumanu-guest-post-wasting-money-on-influencer-marketing/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2017/12/21/why-influencer-marketing-is-essential-for-any-business-looking-to-grow/#691081867d48

https://medium.com/@JBBC/17-common-social-media-marketing-myths-and-how-to-bust-them-ce70a70b8674

https://shanebarker.com/blog/influencer-marketing-tactics-amplify-boost-brand-presence/

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