Whether you like it or not, social media is becoming one of the easiest ways for consumers to find brands, products, and services. Depending on how you use it, social media can be one of the best tools for developing your brand. With new apps emerging everyday and the most popular ones consistently updating their platform, social media is unique because it’s ever changing. Above all, the ability to reach customers globally is what makes social media so revolutionary. The three steps that my team and I take to provide the right kind of content are, entertain, educate, and inform.
Social Media.
Entertain.
Part of using social media is providing your consumer with something of value. While this is true, a potential customer might not be looking to get bombarded with advertisements every time they open a social media app… How often do you skip the ads before a Youtube Video? For this reason, sometimes it’s important to leave the sales pitch elsewhere and just post something that’s entertaining & fun. In this instance, I created an Instagram Carousel of things to do in the Southwest Florida Area. Not only does it lighten the mood, but who doesn’t want to get fresh-picked veggies from a local Farmer’s Market? Point being, we provided our followers with something of value (things for them to do), while also keeping it entertaining.
Educate.
While entertaining your audience is necessary, providing them with some sort of educational value is equally important. You want your target audience to come to you for any questions they may have. Chances are, if you’re providing them with some sort of educational value, they will. One thing special about a few of the brands I’ve worked with, they provide FREE educational seminars/webinars to their team and other professionals. Here are a few advertisements I’ve created to help promote these events.
Inform.
The last step in creating good content involves informing users. Normally, many consumers like facts and statistics that are easy to read, comprehend, and share. Luckily, being in the Mortgage & Real Estate world allowed us to do our fair-share of informing. Mortgage Rates, Real Estate news, statistics, and certain programs aren’t necessarily common knowledge. With a little bit of market research, knowledge, and design work, I was able to create social media content with the sole purpose of making the less-common knowledge, more common.
Social Media content can be used in a variety of different ways depending on the purpose and the brand. Even though these are only a few examples, each piece of content was strategically created, designed, and executed with a clear purpose to help achieve our goals.
Email Campaigns.
Having specific experience with Constant Contact, MailChimp, SureFire, and other CRM’s, email campaigns have remained the most consistent form of marketing across all brands. Although it may not seem like the newest form of marketing, a strong email campaign can lead to brand awareness, generate website traffic, drive sales and revenue, boost other marketing channels, keep existing customers engaged, and more! Whether the email is sent to a previous or potential customer, email marketing is here to stay and can provide some serious results. I’ve been lucky enough to develop countless campaigns for all sorts of reasons, but here are my favorites.