by Aaryck Enriquez “I’m going to stream this live," she said. The person in front of me – probably named Becky, looked like a Becky – was sitting on the grass like me and was watching the annual Fourth of July fireworks like me. Unlike me, however, she was streaming the fireworks live on Facebook on her dinner plate-sized iPhone with the brightness settings set to supernova. It was bright and distracting. Yes, even with the fireworks going off. Personally, as a consumer, I don’t care about Becky’s live stream of the fireworks because a. It looks terrible. b. Fireworks are one of those “you had to have been there” sort of things. c. Becky doesn’t understand Facebook. Stop it, Becky, Minions™ make terrible memes. Yet, as a consumer, I am excited to see businesses livestream their content because livestreaming adds a depth to an online presence and gives the audience more content to see! Despite my distaste for Becky’s use of livestreaming, it’s actually amazing for marketing and you. Wait, what is livestreaming and how does it benefit me? Livestreaming is a video that is distributed to your choice of web applications and it’s, well, live. With a direct access to the business, consumers are given immediate engagement through live streaming which helps strengthen your brand. The content you put on there is up to you as you can use your smartphone, tablet, or even a Canon “It Costs How Much?” Mk III camera. The uses of livestreaming that are trending are webinars, how-to videos, behind-the-scene looks, interactions with the audience for those applications with user-comment functions (Facebook Live), and a live broadcast of an exclusive event. These uses give the consumers a unique, one-of-a-kind experience that isn’t felt anywhere else in marketing which may lead to a greater incentive to buy! It’s already here, so try to embrace it. Look, the older I get, the less I like new things. I don’t know what it is - maybe my spirit animal is a grumpy old man - but it’s getting harder for me to like new things. When Periscope was first introduced, I scowled at it and dismissed it. When Facebook Live was announced, I “Gran Torino’d” the news and demanded it to get off my lawn. Needless to say, I am the perfect example of what not to do. Instead, you should embrace this trending form of marketing because video is the fastest growing medium on mobile platforms, and mobile platforms are the fastest growing media in digital marketing. Be Interesting, Helpful, and/or Informative.
In order to ensure your audience sees your content, your livestream has to be interesting. Going live doesn’t mean your content is Emmy-nomination worthy. Prepare well in advance because being prepared ahead of time will help create better content, therefore, leading to your success. To create interesting, helpful, and/or informative content, I highly recommend setting some goals with your audience in mind. For instance, you may want to create more traffic to your store or you may want to show an example of how your brand is associated with great quality by showcasing it with a live stream. After your goals are set, create a plan to execute. This could be a lot of things but make sure that whatever you do, it leads to meeting (or surpassing) your goal. Don’t ever lose focus of your goals and audience! Once the plan is created, practice. Practicing before going live will help you be interesting, helpful, and/or informative because then you’re not as awkward in front of the lens and you can fix minor issues like whatever that creepy guy in the office is looking at on his computer in the background. When you’re about to go live, take a deep breath and be yourself. Going live allows consumers to see the (almost) real you and the real brand. This is an opportunity to shine with relevant content that can help create incentive to buy! It May Not Go Your Way – At First. Live streaming is the new niche of digital marketing. It’s a frontier yet to be fully explored and you may not get it right the first couple of times, and that’s okay. You’ll be forgiven if minor mistakes happen - like if some knucklehead makes inappropriate comments on your livestream. What will make a difference is how you handle those certain mishaps and respond appropriately. Remember, consumers are looking for a brand they can trust (see: previous blog post) and livestreaming is a great tool to help build that trust with your audience. -- So give live streaming a shot! Don’t be like me, embrace it! If you’re nervous, remember that a lot of other businesses are experimenting with this form of marketing, too. Don't jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late because you might’ve missed out on some great conversions to sales, or even worse, Becky could’ve learned how to livestream better than you.
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by Aaryck Enriquez Being in a band used to be cool and I used to be in a band. I am now 29 years of age with a slowing metabolism, so the definition of cool has drastically changed for me. I still secretly desire to play music for 24 people crammed in a smelly basement, but I have learned to count my losses and move on. So, yeah, adulting sucks. Alas, from the ashes, a phoenix rises and that phoenix’s name is Digital Marketing! Call it a second chance at true love but I am still calling it Digital Marketing, because I’m not a weirdo. All kidding aside, being in a death metal band taught me a lot about marketing that I never knew and I also never thought being in a death metal band would teach me anything... ------------------ • Consistency is neat! In my band, we didn’t tour. Like, at all. We might’ve made the 30 minute drive to the least populated college town in America: Laramie, Wyoming, to play in an abandoned plane hangar, but that’s it. We normally only played in one town and one town only, but here’s the thing: KIDS LOVED US. These kids knew they could rely on us because we always put on one heavy show and they could always rock out with their socks out because of us. The same is true in the digital marketing world; when your marketing is consistent, consumers will notice you and will come to you. My homies over at Forbes agree with me, “Brands are built through the consistent delivery of the brand promise.” Consumers, like the kids at our shows, are more likely to return to due to that consistent delivery of your own brand and marketing. A wonderful (and brilliant) approach to consistent marketing is that of GymIt. GymIt is a small Massachusetts-based gym with a simple idea: keep the gym simple. What sets them apart is that their social media is consistently witty, humorous, and most of all, simple. Even they like consistency. Literally: What can I say? Human beings like stability so understand your audience and your demographics and appeal to them! Let them rock out with your brand out.
• Network to Grow Your Net-worth! Bands book tours ahead of time with show promoters or booking agents they know, because it’s all about “who you know” in the music industry and in life in general. Networking is an essential part of building a business…. Or a band. “But Aaryck, didn’t you just say you didn’t tour as a band – how would you know this? Isn’t that how bands make money? Don’t they book shows and then tour? Don’t record sales (outside the first week of a new album’s release) not really matter much anymore for an income and now bands make most of their consistent income from touring and merch sales?” Well, extremely knowledgeable reader, you are correct about that but what I am saying is that I still learned that networking is crucial for marketing from observing other bands. See, when a smaller band wants to go on a tour of the country or their greater market region, they try to reach out to the few contacts they have to book a show. Then, they build upon that by making more contacts. The band makes more contacts by networking and marketing itself to grow and get these bookings for their tour. These bookings helps them get shows so they can get money. This complex algorithm I just made drives my point home: booking + playing show = money. The same goes for you because networking can help grow your digital marketing presence just like how a metal band can increase their bookings. Here’s a few networking examples for you that can lead to success:
• Being adaptable is what the cool kids do! I know I said be consistent. I am not contradicting myself here. In fact, I am being consistent at being adaptable. See what I did there? While being consistent in digital marketing is crucial, it’s also crucial to know your audience. So, what happens if your audience changes? [see: this section of the blog’s title] I won’t get into details but one night, my band opened for three somewhat “satanic” bands that will not be named. Let’s just say they were the “opposite of what we stood for.” The lineup that night brought in a different audience than what we were used to playing for, too. Classic cat v. dog fight, eh? NOPE. While we didn’t compromise our beliefs to cater to the audience, we did adapt our approach. It was a great show and I made some great friendships with dudes I never knew I would be friends with. The same goes for digital marketing: stay true to your brand but be flexible. You may never know what positive results might come of it. Look at what Wendy’s is doing to adapt to their growing younger audience: they are addressing their younger audience with funny twitter jokes, silly Instagram ads, and much more. Adapting while still staying true to their mantra of having the freshest food is paying off for them so it will pay off for you, too. • Be authentic! This has nothing to do with me being in a band other than Instagram came out at the peak of my band’s existence and we used it a lot for funsies. Anyways, you probably saw “Be Authentic” as a quote on Instagram with that cool paintbrush cursive font. Your sister probably posted it and you snickered to yourself, “ha! Becky’s the least bit authentic.” But, you see, in digital marketing, being authentic is noticed by you AND Becky. Most consumers can tell what’s real and what’s hog wash because most consumers are looking for something real, something they can trust. For example, be active in your online engagement - it’s a surefire way to build a relationship with your consumers. Comment on their comments, reply to their direct messages quickly and sincerely, interact with those who interact with you, and most of all, just be the “you” you wanted to establish with your brand. Being authentic is paramount in keeping the brand-consumer relationship alive. So do yourself a favor and don’t be a Becky; your target audience will see right through you like you did… with your sister Becky. ------------------ There are more lessons I learned about digital marketing but these are the key takeaways during my days as a front man. Obviously, you have to find what works best for you as a brand and digital marketing experience, but what’s important is to do the legwork to get to know your audience and key demographics and apply these principles. Your audience is what makes your world go ‘round and if you’re struggling with that, reach out to us here at Canopy Creative Marketing. We help with that, heck, we specialize in that. Heck, my job title is that! Lately, we have noticed that many small businesses we speak to have abandoned email marketing in favor of other forms of online marketing, like social media marketing. While Facebook and Instagram may seem like…. sexier marketing mediums, here at Canopy Creative Marketing, we like to stress to our clients the power of email marketing. Here’s why: REACH! We know you have seen stats that boast Facebook has over 1 billion active users, but worldwide email accounts are expected to reach 4.9 billion this year! Here at Canopy Creative Marketing, we like to think of email kind of like the currency of the web; anyone who is online has an active email address. So, when it comes to reaching your customers or potential new customers, there is no channel with wider reach than email. YOUR MESSAGE IS SEEN We LOVE social media marketing and it can be an important element of a business’s online marketing strategy, but if you want to ensure your message is being seen, email is the way to go. This is because unlike Facebook, where only about 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed (thanks, EdgeRank), about 90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient's inbox. That means your message is about 45 times more likely to be seen using email than an organic Facebook post. CONVERSIONS What is the ultimate goal of your marketing strategy? It’s to turn a potential customer into a paying customer, right? Well, email is more likely than your social campaign to make that conversion. One of the biggest reasons for this is that email subscribers have explicitly told you they want to hear from you when they signed up for your email list. Think about it, even though Facebook ads can be very effective (more on that later), users probably have not told you they want to see your Facebook ads. IT’S HOW PEOPLE PREFER TO HEAR FROM YOU Email is a more professional than a post on your company's social networks. For many people, social networks are a personal way to keep up with friends and family. In fact, only 17% of people say they prefer to receive promotional content via social media as compared to 72% who say they prefer email. There are many effective ways to market to customers and potential customers. However, if you have limited time and resources, you have to prioritize your efforts! Email marketing is an effective way to attract, engage and connect with you audience, and that is why Canopy Creative Marketing discourages our clients from discounting the power of email marketing. To start using email marketing to reach your audience, contact Canopy Creative Marketing today! If you haven’t already noticed, Facebook has recently started experimenting with new recruitment features, like a Jobs Tab. Apparently, because Facebook noticed companies (like us!) have been using their pages to post about their job openings. The new Jobs features allow page admins to formally share a job opening with details like job title, salary or if it’s full-time vs. part-time. The special formatting is supposed to differentiate job postings from other content to help your position posting stand out in users’ News Feeds.
The job postings will also appear on your page as Jobs tab which will send job seekers to a special landing page. Once a user applies for your open position, you will receive a notification as a Facebook Message. We love the idea of social recruiting and tapping into the networks of our fan page visitors, so the next time Canopy Creative Marketing has a job opening, you will be sure to see it as a tab on our Facebook page! |
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