With Postradamus you can quickly find proven viral content (others have already created and tested) in your niche in a matter of seconds / or create your own content that is easily uploaded to Postradamus via CSV, RSS or chrome extension.
Then, with just a couple of clicks, tell Postradamus when you want all of your content to be scheduled and published to various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (just to name a few). It’s really that simple.
You can use it with the Business and Agency plans you can create user accounts for your Virtual Assistants/Employees. All plans allow you to manage unlimited clients and/or personal projects. Each project can be separated into what we call Profiles, in Postradamus.
How It Works:
1. Find
Built in, powerful search engines, that help you find viral photos from places like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Imgur, books and products from Amazon (affiliate link included), interesting articles from Reddit or RSS feeds, Add YouTube videos or upload Native videos to Facebook,Mass upload your own images/videos from your hard drive
2. Edit & Schedule
Edit your posts with emojis, hashtags, links, custom text and more, Create extremely flexible schedules that let you schedule thousands of posts in mere secondsBuilt in calendar feature for quick drag and drop scheduling for when you need more fine tuned scheduling, Schedule specific types of posts at specific times
3. Publish
Publish your posts instantly to your Facebook pages, groups and personal feed, Also publish to Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and WordPress blogs, Or, export your posts to a CSV file for other purposes, No more manual posting. Postradamus handles all of it
Do you run blogs on WordPress? Posting trending & Viral content is always a challenge when it comes to blogging. But with this tool you can discover popular content across all popular websites and post them in your blog, And keep in mind, you are publishing these posts with little to NO writing.
Discover Viral content on many different Social channels
Find Amazon best selling products
Automatic Amazon affiliate links
Find latest news articles from Reddit & RSS feeds
Find top performing Youtube videos
Mass upload & schedule images from your hard drive
Export lists to FB pages, FB groups, Twitter, Pinterest and WordPress
Post viral images to your WordPress blog with a click
Powerful in-built Graphic Editor
Drag & Drop Calendar to schedule your posts
Scheduler to publish posts to match your target country
And keep in mind, you are publishing these posts with little to NO writing. This is an app that you can use to get 1000s of viral content, within seconds. And be sure to let me know that you grabbed it.
What is programmatic advertising? It means advertisers automate ad buying to target more specific audiences. This type of automation results in faster and efficient bidding. Advertisers then, have to spend less time and effort planning the ad bidding and buying.
How does programmatic advertising work?
Step 1 – a user clicks on the webpage
Step 2 – the publisher puts the ad impression for auction
Step 3 – the ad marketplace holds an auction where advertisers bid for the impression
Step 4 – the advertiser with the highest bid wins the right to display their ads
2.Marketing Personalization
If something we learned from 2020 is that to succeed at marketing in 2021 you need to personalize your marketing activities, including content, emails and ads. Great examples of personalization are Netflix and Amazon, with their tailored content and products suggestions.
This system allows Google to manage advertisers’ PPC campaigns through Google’s AI system. The system then optimizes the advertiser’s budget to maximize their ROI. Advertisers can choose many criteria for their bid optimization, including device, physical location, remarketing list, ad characteristics, interface language or browser. Anti Ad-Blockers
Many websites have ad-blockers, preventing ads to be served to users. This causes serious revenue damage, which can range up to 40% loss from adblocking. Therefore, one of the trends we are seeing for 2021, is the popularization of anti-ad-blockers.
Anti-ad blockers are useful software solutions that bypass ad blockers. Not all the solutions work for all the ad blockers. You can also opt to work with an ad network that serves ads that bypass ad-blockers. However, not all ad networks work with all the ad blockers.
4.IoT Advertising
To be connected nowadays goes beyond, smartphones, laptops and tablets. There is a world of connected devices, from smart cars to smart houses. These type of connected devices are called the Internet of Things.
Companies have tried to use the Internet of Things for advertising. For example, including ads in smart cars systems, or include sensors in spirits bottles. As more connected devices are developed, more opportunities for IoT advertisement will appear.
Social media market trends
5.Influencer Marketing
What’s an influencer? An influencer is a person that, as a referent, can carry a brand message to their market. Influencers are not only celebrities, but Instagram or YouTube personas, that have their niche of followers. Their audience can go from a few thousand to millions. Influencer marketing has become more popular recently because of the following reasons:
It’s organic
It’s authentic
Connects with the customer
Many companies are leaving traditional advertising in favor of pairing with influencers that carry the word about their products or services. For example, GoodFoods, partnered with 60 influencers to produce content and recipes using GoodFoods products online.
How do you find the right influencer for your company is another story. Luckily, there are AI solutions that allow companies to rank and score influencers by niche, followers and ROI potential.
Social messages give businesses the chance to send messages to customers directly, answer queries, and conduct direct sales. It works as a live chat for customers to reach you, then you can provide assistance, remind them of abandoned carts, send event invitations, and more.
7.Stories on Social Media
Instagram and Facebook allow users to share stories, and since their appearance, they became really popular with users. Here are some statistics:
500 million people use Instagram Stories every day
More than half of Instagram users become interested in a brand after seeing it in an Instagram Story.
Half of the users say that they are interested in purchasing a product because they saw it in an IS.
8.From Social Media to Social Marketplace
Social media platforms have added eCommerce features in 2020. The goal is to provide users with a seamless journey from discovery to purchase. We can expect the trend to grow in 2021, with brands using social media platforms as a marketplace. The next section explains what tools they will likely be using.
9.Social Commerce & Shoppable Posts
As mentioned above, social media platforms are investing in adding ecommerce features to social posts. For instance, Instagram shoppable posts:
How do you do it? You can add tags to the products on your stories or posts, the tags will take your customer to a page where they can purchase the product.
The network is showing less monthly and daily new users. Why there are less users is not clear, but the network is completing its second decade, and there are other competitors appearing.
11.Focusing on the social media channels that work
With so many social media channels available, companies can feel overwhelmed to try to keep relevant on all of them. Therefore, reducing their social media channels to focus on what it really works for their audience is likely to be a necessity for 2021.
12.The rise of UGC (user-generated content)
User-generated content will become a central part of marketer’s strategy in 2021. Advertisers are using AI to create ads that work with user-generated content. Brands like Lush cosmetics use Instagram hashtags to drive UGC to work for them.
Another example that uses user generated content is Aerie. They usually #regram — taking a post from another user account and reposting on your own — as a social media strategy.
SEO market trends
13.Content Marketing Is Still King
Content is king, we are used to hearing. The reality is that search engines like Google, prioritize well-written content and useful links when ranking sites and presenting search results to users.
In recent years, the changes in Google algorithm prioritized, even more, the relevance of content for SEO. The effects on marketers were fast to follow:
88% of marketers are realizing that creating content that is useful to their audience presents their organization as a credible source.
Moreover, investing in content marketing can be a cost-effective way to attract customers to your site and engage them.
“Content marketing has lower up-front costs & deeper long-term benefits than paid search, says @JuliaEMcCoy. “
With search engines prioritizing well-written and useful content, it is safe to say that content marketing is a trend that will continue well into 2021.
14.Branding focus
Consumers are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options they have every time they research something online. With this marketing landscape, having a distinct, unique, and recognizable brand is key for success.
As most companies moved online last year, the problem of too many options is even worse. In 2021, you’ll see more companies focusing on branding strategies than on hard selling. One of the reasons branding is so critical now for survival is that search engines prioritize ranking brands over sites. More in the following section.
15.EAT
E.A.T is one of the most important criteria Google uses to rank brands and sites. It stands for:
Expertise: your pages need to have quality content written by an expert in the subject.
Authority: you need to build your brand’s authority on the subject.
Trustworthiness: your site needs to connect with other authorities on the subject.
These criteria measure the quality of a web page. It works because all websites need to have it if they want to get ranked in a search engine. The higher they measure in these three criteria, the higher the rank. E.A.T measures how a page fulfills the purpose of helping users. As Google says in their terms:
“Websites and pages should be created to help users”
16.A/B Testing for SEO
A/B testing is used across industries, not only in marketing. But it is safe to say that currently, much of modern marketing is about testing and analytics. Long gone are the days of measuring a campaign’s success by trial and error.
By applying A/B testing to SEO, you actually test the content beforehand. Then, you can identify which version of the site is generating more results.
What can you use A/B testing for?
You can use A/B testing to experiment with:
Meta titles and descriptions
URL structures
Headlines
Calls to action
Sales pages
Product descriptions
17.Interactive Content
Interactive content is one of the trends that grew faster last year. With our lives moving online, consumers wanted to replace as much as possible personal interaction with the brands. Examples of interactive content include:
Quizzes and polls
Augmented reality solutions
VR ads
The key is engaging the user and offer an immersive experience. Online retailers, for example, let you know what is your exact size with online calculators. Beauty brands use AR to let you try hair color with a virtual assistant to check how a specific hair color will look on you. The possibilities are endless to make the experience more memorable for the user.
18.The Rise of the Featured Snippet
What is “position zero”? The term refers to the topmost position in SERP results. This position is usually occupied by the featured snippet.
What is a featured snippet?
This is the useful summary of information Google presents first on the page to answer your query.Why is it important? Well, this coveted space answers a user query without the need to click a link. If you get to rank in this space, you found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Moreover, featured snippets are used to answer voice searches. Since a third of Internet searches are done using voice search, you can get your content to answer the question.
19.SEO Is Not Dead – It Uses Structured Data
The term structured data refers to any data organized so search engines can crawl and categorize it. Structured data can give your site’s SEO a boost, since your content will be more useful and easily to categorize. Structured data can get you in the coveted position zero, as a featured snippet or a Knowledge Graph Box.
Structured data generates “rich snippet results”, the snippets with images, pricing and statistics:
Rich snippets are great for driving traffic and clicks, especially with mobile users.
20.Cumulative Layout Shift
This metric measures how visually stable your page is. To put it simple, the CLS score helps you understand how likely your page is giving an unpleasant visual experience to users.
According to Google, a good score for mobile and desktop pages is less than 0.1. A score greater than 0.25 is considered not good.
What can cause CLS?
Many different fonts in the page
Ads that shift the content
Why is it important? Unsurprisingly, a high CLS causes conversion rates to drop and bounce rates to rise. After all, few users will stay and purchase on a site that gives a rugged experience. That’s why we are likely to see more sites analyzing their CLS in 2021.
21.Pillar Content
Unlike what you may think, in 2021, the usual under 1000 posts won’t get you anywhere. According to experts like Neil Patel, posts that are around 3000 words long attract the most traffic and engage more readers. The length offers readers the opportunity to explore subjects in-depth. A content creator that produces long-form content regularly can establish itself as an authority on a subject.
A study found that long-form content helps more with SEO, as gets three times more backlinks than short articles. Want more proof? When you search a query on Google, chances are that the top 10 results are longer articles. Some benefits of pillar content include:
Longer time-on-site
Reduced bounce rate
More backlinks and social media shares
Higher Google ranking
22.Image and video SEO for visual searches
This was a game-changer. Instead of trying to describe what you want to search, you can upload an image and get more specific results.
You just upload the image of what you want to look and Google offers similar images:
Visual search is so convenient and useful that many companies jumped into the trend. One example is Pinterest Lens, a visual search tool that lets you take a picture of an item to search for similar products, view pin boards about it or find out where to buy it online.
The success of this tool shows how much visual search is engaging users. Since the beta version, Lens recognizes 2.5 billion home and fashion items and it drove Pinterest searches to skyrocket.
But not only Pinterest is taking advantage of this, Google and Bing also launched similar visual search engines.
23.Semantic Keyword Research
All content writers have heard it: Write for people, not for Google. A blurb of 4000 words won’t get the results you want if it is not matched to user intent. When Google analyzes your content to check if it matches a specific query, it doesn’t take only into account lone keywords.
The engine makes a semantic analysis to discover what exactly wanted the user to achieve with this question. When you write with the user intent in mind, these semantic keywords give Google a better idea of what your content is about and how it can help users.
24.More Investment in Analytics
As we explained before, today’s marketing is all about metrics. Therefore, more companies are investing in better analytic tools that go beyond the basics of Google Analytics. Better analytics result in better business intelligence and support decision-making.
25.Increased Security
As more people conduct activities online, the need for more security to protect the websites is greater. A secure website makes a user feel safe to hang around.
Data breaches happen to everyone, small and large websites and platforms. Therefore, most consumers think that how you manage their sensitive data can be a deal breaker when consuming your content, products or services. In 2021, increasing web security is not an option.
26.Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
You have responsive sites that work on mobile as well as on desktop and you have mobile apps. Now, this new trend, Progressive Web Apps, is basically websites that work like mobile apps. For web developers, this can be a one-in-all solution to have a website and an app all in one.
As the number of mobile users increase, more companies will leverage this type of web app.
other engines have appeared with the intention to provide users with more privacy. One such example is Privado.com. This engine focused on private searching, gives the users the possibility of searching without being tracked. The engine doesn’t store personal information, nor uses cookies or any means of tracking. The goal is to provide the user with an absolutely private search experience.
28.Artificial Intelligence
Back in 2017, Gartner predicted that AI would be in almost every software product by 2020. And they were right. The artificial intelligence market is expected to reach $190 billion by 2025.
AI can collect and analyze data from social media and customer interactions to evaluate customer’s behavior. AI searches patterns, allowing you to understand your audience preference.
29.Chatbots and Conversational Technology
Last year, conversational technology exploded as a contactless way for consumers to connect with companies. According to Gartner peer insights, the conversational platforms that are driving trends include:
strong Natural Language Processing capabilities,
supports voice and text input
Use personalization for natural conversation
Allow media and document sharing
Provide dialogue management
Multiple chatbot orchestration
Data maintenance
Why chatbots?
24 hrs service
Provide an instant response to customer queries
Allows to triage and solve simple issues.
For example, Olive, the assistant of Woolworths, Australia’s supermarket chain, lets you order and upgrade your mobile SIM card.
Brands, like Sephora, are leveraging on chatbots to provide help and product recommendations to potential customers.
30. Big Data and Deep Learning
Big Data and deep learning will continue to grow in 2021, according to a report. More importantly, more companies will use big data analysis to improve their business efficiency and drive innovation.
One downside is that while more companies are using big data, the requirements of protecting the management of consumer data increase. More regulations like the CCPA and GDPR entering effect.
Companies like Facebook are diving deep into the use of augmented reality to enhance the customer experience. Facebook Oculus gives users the opportunity to play without pushing buttons, transforming the gaming experience into an immersive virtual reality one.
Marketers can take advantage of this technology to provide immersive experiences for their customers. Some brands, like IKEA, Tom’s shoes, Patron Spirits, and even Marriott International, are already giving customers a VR experience.
Other ways you can use VR to provide meaningful experiences to your audience:
Augmented Reality ads – for gaming and consumer products
360-degree videos – for real estate, tourism.
32.`Predictive & Augmented Analytics
Predictive analytics consists of the combination of data mining, predictive modeling, and machine learning to identify patterns and come with forecasts. More digital marketing companies are using predictive analytic tools to predict consumer behavior and identify trends.
Gartner defined augmented analytics in 2017, claiming it to be the future of data analytics.
“Augmented analytics is the use of enabling technologies such as machine learning and AI to assist with data preparation, insight generation, and insight explanation to augment how people explore and analyze data in analytics and BI platforms. It also augments the expert and citizen data scientists by automating many aspects of data science, machine learning, and AI model development, management, and deployment.”(Gartner)
Putting it simply, augmented analytics use machine learning to deepen the understanding of the data and take even larger datasets.
33.Live streams (TikTok anyone?)
Streaming is every day more popular, and the explosive growth of TikTok confirms it. With Instagram adding Reels with in-video shopping capabilities and Tik Tok on the way to do the same, it won’t be longer before live streaming in social media turns into a real-time marketplace.
34.Companies pivots may stay that way
2020 changed the digital landscape for good. It is unlikely we will come back to pre-2020 conditions. Consumers are enjoying the convenience of online commerce. Hence, companies that pivoted to adapt last year, may find now their customers expect them to continue on the same line.
35.Purpose-driven campaigns
Last year marketing campaigns were tinted with a purpose: helping customers overcoming the pandemic as much as possible. Purpose-given campaigns will be still relevant in 2021. These campaigns promote social activist themes, for example, the campaigns about Black Lives Matter. The issues resonate with customers and increase engagement with relevant audiences. These campaigns are effective because customers identify with the same social issues the brand cares about.
36.Voice search
Smart speakers and voice assistants are no longer a trendy item to purchase. Statistics predict over half of American homes will own a smart speaker (Google Home, Alexa, and others) by 2022. People use the voice assistants not only for routine activities but for voice shopping. The voice shopping market is expected to reach $40 billion in 2022.
37.Virtual events are here to stay
In 2020, companies and individuals shifted to virtual events out of necessity due to the pandemic. Chances are that in 2021 many events will continue to be virtual because of the benefits it brings to companies. Virtual events can reach a wider audience and allow for higher attendance. So in 2021 we will continue seeing more virtual events.
38.Monetization marketing
If 2020 saw a growth in online activity, it also gave a lot of opportunities for companies to make money from their digital properties. Display ads, search monetization, and in-app advertising are some of the monetization trends we may see growing in 2021.
39.Growth of Geo-Fencing
Geofencing is a marketing approach where you put a geographic limit around a point of interest. If a user’s mobile enters the area, the geofence triggers an alert and delivers relevant ads. Here are some of the benefits of geofencing:
Mobile ads with geofencing have double the click-through-rate
It is compatible with most of the smartphones.
53% of consumers visited a retailer after receiving a message that is location-based
40.Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing is the use of conversational technology for marketing purposes. For example using chatbots as “sales assistants”, or SMS marketing to communicate with customers. Several big names are using this technology: Domino’s, Sephora, 1-800-Flowers.
41.Video Marketing
This is one of the most important marketing trends today. Here are some statistics that show why you should incorporate video marketing to your strategy:
86% of companies are using video as part of their marketing strategy.
93% of these marketers say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy, from a 91% in 2019.
The videos with most success are explainer videos (73%), followed by social media videos (67%)..
42.Personalized Email
Email personalization uses personal information from subscribers to produce tailored emails. It allows you to send highly targeted email marketing campaigns. Why should you use email marketing personalization?
82% of marketers report an increase in email open rates because of email personalization.
Personalized promotional mailings have 29% more open rates than non-personalized.
43.Browser Push Notifications
With the boom in online commerce, push notifications rose, with most online stores using some type of push notification. They tend to be more effective than a newsletter. You can send abandoned cart reminders, product suggestions, and more. Because of that, we’ll probably see more companies using personalized push notifications in 2021.
44.Omnichannel Marketing
You probably heard about omnichannel marketing in 2020. Is an approach of marketing that uses multiple platforms (for instance, social media, blog, email marketing) to connect with leads. It gives the benefits of providing a cohesive brand message across channels. Omnichannel marketing tends to show higher engagement rates and conversions than using a single channel. Simply put, you broaden the number of touchpoints.
4 5.Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing is not new. Back in 1999, Harvard scientists conducted the first MRI research as a marketing tool, starting the neuromarketing field. This is a research field that analyzes people’s brain activity through head scans to find out the type of content they like. The first studies were conducted for retail marketing. One of the results of neuromarketing is the eye-maps, which measure the interest of a viewer on a website according to where they look on the page. Companies use this information to optimize their content and strategies.
46.Blockchain Technology
A blockchain is a connected series of data records. The records are stored in immutable blocks, secured and connected to each other via cryptography in a neutral computer.
According to Investopedia, “the blockchain is copied and spread across a network of computers, not storing any of its information in a central location”.
Although usually associated with finances and supply chain transactions, it is starting to get implemented in digital marketing. Since Blockchain eliminates the intermediary, we may see digital marketing companies using blockchain to track media buys, verify online identities or protect personal data.
47.5G Technology
This trend, the fifth generation of mobile technology, will bring many changes to digital communications. Telecom companies aim to achieve a fully mobile connected society, bringing high-speed data transmission to far-reaching areas. Yet, it is more than that, it will give way to more integrated technology.
48.Privacy Marketing
Privacy protection is not only a way of protecting data. These days, with data breaches happening every now and then, consumers need to know they can trust companies will keep their data safe. Thus, marketing teams need to focus on gaining the trust of their audience. One of the ways is protecting the privacy of users by not saving personal data in records. This ensures that in case of a breach, an attacker won’t have sensitive data to steal.
49.Gamification
Keeping your customers engaged can be a challenge. Companies like Starbucks use gamification techniques to connect with their customers. The app uses purchase history and location data to personalize the customer experience and encourage the use of their loyalty program. The app increased their revenue to over $2 billion.
Digital Marketing Landscape
Here are the key statistics you need to know to understand where the digital marketing landscape is heading for 2021.
Spending on digital marketing decreased in 2020.
2.Spending Is Recovering
Digital spending is recovering, and it is expected to reach $389 billion in 2024, from $332 billion in 2020. The increase is driven by the market bouncing back and trying to tap into the customer’s increasing online activity. The trend doesn’t stop there, with an expected growth of $525.17 billion by 2024.
LinkedIn ads spending grew 40% during 2019-2020
LinkedIn ad spending reached $1 billion in the US, establishing the network as a solid advertising channel for B2B marketers (eMarketer).
Personalization is going strong
Most marketers would focus their personalization efforts on improving the customer experience through service and product recommendations.
From the consumer’s side: 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences. (Instapage)
Digital Marketing Basics
If you want to succeed in digital marketing, there are a few basic pillars that you need to master: digital presence, branding, and relationships. These three core concepts can help simplify what may be a multifaceted field.
Digital Presence
This is the key to any digital marketing you may start. These days, a digital presence is equal to having a presence at all. It is not enough to have a website or a social media page. You need a clear strategy that drives how and where you should build your presence.
Unsurprisingly, it all starts with your audience. Here are a couple of questions that can give you direction when building your digital presence:
Where does your audience spend their online time?
The golden rule of marketing is to know your customer. So, if you want to reach your audience, first find out where they spend their online time. What type of content do they consume? What social networks do they spend time on? What search terms do they use? This will help you define which channels are the most effective to build your presence.
What’s the purpose you want to achieve with your marketing strategy?
Ask yourself what you want to achieve with your online presence. Do you want to raise brand awareness? Here, your strategy shouldn’t focus on the hard-sell. If your goal is to increase conversions, then landing pages can help you close the deal with clear direction and calls-to-action.
Branding
Your brand encapsulates what your company stands for. It includes everything, from your company name, color scheme, mission statement, slogan, logo, and more.
To stand out on a sea of brands, your brand needs to showcase what it makes it unique. Keeping strong brand awareness is one of the most critical ways to differentiate yourself from the competition. Yet, it is not enough to stand out in the marketplace, but you need to stand out online too. So, refine your online branding strategy in a way that search engines recognize your brand instead of your site. In fact, the Google algorithm considers a strong brand one characteristic of a “good quality site”
Relationships
Your digital marketing strategy should not be limited to trying to appear on Google’s first page. Social networks, blogs, forums, social apps, and other similar platforms can help you build a relationship with customers online.
When we talk about marketing, relationships will always be the foundation of good business. Building an online presence will get you noticed, but creating a relationship with your audience will get you conversions.
To form effective relationships with customers, you need to be personable and personal. Using social media and good content, you can connect with your audience and let them know your brand message.
5 Challenges for Digital Marketing in 2021
Less spending in marketing
Marketing budgets took a hit in spending in 2020. While marketing companies are recovering, the spending is not yet at the levels we expected before 2020. Although the e-commerce ratio increased dramatically, companies have yet to catch up with the new needs in digital marketing.
Driving engagement across multiple channels
In 2021 it will become even more relevant to connect with customers where they are. Creating engagement will become more challenging, via adopting mobile messaging channels, and leverage personalized and dynamic content to improve the customer experience and customer loyalty.
Mobile-first strategy
More people are browsing and shopping from their smartphones than ever. A mobile-first approach allows your customers to consume your products/services on the go, anytime and from anywhere. So, when creating your marketing strategy for 2021, think about a mobile-first approach.
Establishing Omnichannel Marketing
Customers are active on multiple devices and platforms. Marketers need to combine online and social media strategies. This aims to make it easier for your audience to reach you wherever they are. Omnichannel marketing allows you to focus on the platform where your audience is most active. The key is to provide your customers a smooth customer experience when they change from a channel to another.
Complying with Privacy and Data Sharing Regulations
Marketers will need to adapt quickly to evolving privacy and data sharing regulations. Since many of the regulations target across frontiers, marketers need to take that into account. The phasing of third-party cookies compounds the challenge for marketers to understand a customer’s purchase intent.
The future of Digital Marketing – top 3 predictions
After analyzing the major trends for 2021, we explored the top predictions for 2021:
From digital marketing activities to experiential events
When the pandemic hit, customers pivoted to use new technologies and performing activities online. But in 2021, many people are already exhausted from living their lives online most of the time. Keeping customers engaged will depend on how rich is the customer experience they provide. Marketers should evaluate their digital experience and refine engage customers without producing “digital fatigue”.
Customer experience integrates with other functions
In the report, Gartner predicts that by 2023, a quarter of organizations will see marketing integrated with sales and CX into a single function. The goal is for customer-focused functions to work together with synergy.
Content curation and moderation become more important
By 2024, Gartner predicts a third of organizations will consider moderating user-generated content a priority. Using software and tools that allow companies to monitor, moderate and manage user-generated content to prevent impact on their brands.
The bottom line
Hopefully, these trends we have aggregated and shared at CodeFuel will help guide your marketing strategy for 2021. Partnering with an expert in monetization can maximize your marketing efforts, and increasing the ROI of your strategy. Start monetizing today with CodeFuel.
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Over the past decade, social media platforms have experienced tremendous growth in ways that not many people could have predicted. Today, these platforms have become avenues for marketers and business owners around the world to foster relationships with their audience and boost their brand exposure.
In addition to growing brand image and building relationships with customers, you can also leverage the power of social media and ecommerce to increase your online sales. So what are the best social media and ecommerce tactics that can be used to increase sales?
Why advertise on social media?
Advertising has been around for a much longer period of time than social media. It has been reaching consumers via TV, radio, even billboards for decades now. So why is advertising on social media so integral to a business’ success now?
The main factor behind the sudden growth in social media advertising is quite an obvious one. The vast growth of the platform means that more and more of a brand’s target audience are available in one place. However, this isn’t the only element pushing brand’s towards an online advertising campaign.
Another decisive factor is the specificness of social media advertising. People willingly give social media large quantities of information on their background and daily lives. This means it is easier for a business to target the exact type of person they want to reach with an advert, and tends to lead to increased success at the same time. This is especially true when you leverage social proof marketing.
In fact, social media ads are possibly some of the most refined there has ever been, reaching customers in niches never previously thought of. And with each platform offering different ways to connect with consumers, social media advertising is well worth taking advantage of.
Know the right networks to target
When social media is mentioned, most people think of Facebook. However, Facebook is not the only platform you can promote your online business on; there are other networks with high volumes of users you should consider too.
Knowing the platform where your audience spends most of their time will help you come up with a marketing strategy that suits the network. It will also help you to directly engage with your main social media audience, and improve the relationship between your brand and your customers.
Here are the main networks and their suitable audience:
Facebook
As one of the largest platforms in terms of customer base, Facebook is great for brand recognition, especially with younger generations. It is a platform that allows your ads to be seen by the most substantial numbers, whilst it also allows you to interact with customers with ease through messenger and your page.
Online businesses can benefit from Facebook by focusing on strategies that help them improve their brand exposure. In addition, you can also boost sales by using retargeting ads and advertise to those who have previously shown interest in your brand or your products.
Instagram
Instagram is ideal for brands who priotorize visual advertising, due to its focus on images, videos and other visual content. It is also the perfect platform for bridging the gap between consumer and brand, due to the interactivity of the site. You can communicate with customers through various mediums on Instagram, including stories, your page, and influencers.
Through influencers, Instagram allows you to make extensive use of celebrity endorsement. Influencers can give your products the extra boost they need during an ad campaign, to really push sales through the roof. You just have to make sure you choose an influencer that is truly representative of your brand and product, otherwise their use could end up having a detrimental effect on your brand, and campaign.
Twitter
Twitter is great for growing your brand name thanks to the popularity of hashtag usage. You can use it to run competitions such as giveaways, or simply to draw attention to your campaigns.
In addition to hashtag campaigns, you can also run standard feed advertising campaigns. These campaigns can be used alongside the hashtag campaigns to maximise their effectiveness.
Pinterest
This is a great platform for brands that sell beauty products. This is because research has shown the majority of Pinterest’s frequent users are women. Similar to Instagram, Pinterest allows brands to focus on the visual side of advertising so a detailed use of images is vital for success.
As you can see, different platforms attract a type of audience, thus requiring a different approach with your marketing strategy. Prior to deciding where to market your products, it is important that you learn where your audience is most active when online. Once you have this information, you can come up with a marketing strategy that will boost your online presence, sales, and brand recognition.
Use the right ads
There are a wide range of advertisement possibilities when it comes to social media marketing. And with each platform offering different capabilities, it is important to find the right way to reach your audience.
A good example of the variety of options on offer, is Facebook. Facebook offers extensive detail in their targeted ads, which is for finding new prospects who fit your demographics.
However, Facebook doesn’t offer this in one form. You can choose to use an ad in a video, within the users feed, or even use sponsored posts.
Instagram, which is now run by Facebook, also offers a wide range of options. Stories are a fantastic way to draw your audience closer to your brand, and allow you to use engagement techniques through video, polls, and more. If you want to show your audience what goes on behind the scenes, and the products you offer, stories are ideal.
On the other hand, Instagram also offers standard feed posts similar to that of Facebook, or sponsored content within posts, such as an influencer wearing a jacket from a brand that is then tagged.
Retargeted advertising is essential reaching back out to customers who come to your website but do not finish performing an action. For instance, a customer might have added a product to their cart, but failed to finalise that purchase.
Retargeted ads encourage your prospect to get return to a store, or website and complete their purchases. Big draws for customers tend to be limited promotional offers, or discounts.
Remember to check out how your retargeted ads are performing on each platform and make adjustments appropriately.
To create a successful social media campaign, you need to think carefully about the ads that are more likely to appeal to your prospects. Each brand will have a different audience, therefore there is no perfect strategy that covers every brand.
Use relevant hashtags
It’s with the help of hashtags that most platforms classify a wide range of posts into different sections. Using relevant hashtags will improve your website’s organic traffic as more of your target audience will come into contact with your posts.
With hashtags, the important thing to do is to spot what’s trending in your niche, and integrate those hashtags into your posts.
While this is a great way of expanding your brands reach, do not overdo it. You may incorporate a few hashtags in your posts, and they will have a largely positive effect. However, if you overdo it, you risk being labelled as spam. This will have a detrimental effect in both long term and short term.
Hashtags can also be implemented within your advertising campaigns. They can help to give your posts a clear narrative for your customers to follow. In addition, they can also draw one person into the entire campaign, even if they only come across one hashtag, and choose to click it.
All in all, hashtags can be a great way to depict your brand through social media. They can help to highlight your brand values, whilst taking up very little budget. They can also help your campaigns to increase in longevity and impact.
Use giveaways
Who doesn’t like free things? Giveaways and competitions are a fantastic way to draw in the crowds to your website. Contests can get people interested in your brand with just one short campaign, and also give you an opportunity to get people signed on to your newsletter.
By encouraging people to sign on to a newsletter, or to enter their details when joining a campaign, you can collect all important customer information. This could allow you to retarget them with offers in the future, or simply to remind them to join further initiatives that could create further interest.
Pro tip: Remember to make sure that any individual who stands to win must like or follow your page. This will expose them to the brands posts in the future.
Work with influencers
In most cases, influencers are people who have a sizable following on social media. You can use these influential people to promote your product to their audience online.
When deciding on which influencers to reach out to, it is important that you consider whether or not their following fit your target audience demographics.
For instance, if you are in the men’s clothing brand, ideally you will want to look for male influencers who discuss fashion, or similar products. Whilst you wouldn’t want to target a female gaming influencer, as her following would likely be the opposite of what you need.
It is also worth considering whether you want to work with micro-influencers, who generally do not have a mass following, or someone with a much larger group of followers.
It is worth noting that influencers with larger followings tend to have less specific demographics. You may be exposed to more engagements and clicks, but it is less likely that they will be relevant. Conversely, micro-influencers tend to have a more specific audience who share similar interests, which means they may have a better ROI.
Encourage your customers to leave reviews on social media
Social media is rapidly turning into a platform where people go to search for reviews of products and brands, prior to making a decision on a purchase.
A recent study showed that 91% of respondents were influenced to buy something by positive online reviews. This shows the importance of encouraging happy customers to post their reviews regarding your store on your social media profiles. It also highlights how a positive review could be the difference between someone buying, and someone not buying a product from you.
However, this is not an overnight task. You have to actively encourage customers to share their experience after buying from you.
Many customers will choose not to leave reviews, even with your encouragement. Therefore, it could also be worthwhile to offer something in return for a review, such as a discount on a future purchase, or early access to new products. Incentives can not only get you the review you were seeking out, they may also encourage a customer to use your brand again, especially if their review is actually positive.
You can also make reviewing easier for customers by embedding a share button on your thank you page or even a note with the delivery of their purchase. By making it easier to review the product, customer reviews will become more frequent, and brand engagement may even increase.
Final thoughts on Social Media and Ecommerce
If you are looking to improve your social media advertising, following these six tactics will help you on your way to success. By building brand recognition, trust and general awareness you will be able to bridge the gap between your brand and the customer. This will encourage purchases in both the short term, and the long term, whilst also helping you to better understand those who show interest in your brand.
Once your social media efforts are paying off, it’s time to measure your results and see how you can improve your online presence and sales even more. Jamie’s article does a great job in explaining how you can get started with tracking and measuring your social media ROI. Check it out!
Jacques van der Wilt is the founder and CEO of DataFeedWatch, a leading global feed management and optimization solution that helps online merchants optimize their product listings for 1,000+ ecommerce channels in more than 50 countries.
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The evolution of social media has given brands the opportunity to connect with their audience like never before.
For us, this means the ability to further our brand presence and voice, drive sales, and direct traffic all through utilizing our social media channels as an extension of our site.
Building a successful social media content strategy is more than just posting on every platform—it’s all about determining which platforms align best with your business.
There are so many different channels out there and more constantly popping up. (Seriously, it’s exhausting!)
Test what platform works best for you
My advice is to test out each platform and make it your goal to find a select group of social media channels that will really make an impact for your brand and drive ROI.
But when we tested it out as a new channel for AppSumo, it didn’t give us the ROI we hoped for. Because our audience demographic didn’t align as well on TikTok as it does on other channels like our Facebook Group, we decided our time was better spent focusing our efforts elsewhere.
And it was the right decision.
Here’s a graph of our Facebook Group engagement based on Posts, Comments, and Reactions from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 8, 2020. During that same time, we saw a 19.72% increase in our number of total members.
Example of progress from social media content strategy
Set realistic social media content goals
It’s so important to set realistic content goals for your brand, figure out what the top priority is, and understand how your social media content strategy can help you reach those goals.
We set specific quarterly goals.
Whether you want to convert customers to buyers, drive brand awareness, or increase community engagement, the strategy you implement should be focused on those goals you set for yourself.
I found that when I focused on working towards a specific goal, I saw a noticeable improvement in our overall social media.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach and each social media platform you use may have a different goal.
Finding a social media content strategy that works best for your brand takes time, iteration, and patience. Consistency really is key when growing your social media presence!
Have a good understanding of who your target audience is when outlining your social media strategy. I find it helpful to do some research on your followers when determining what type of content will resonate best with them.
For example, in looking at AppSumo’s Facebook and Instagram data, I found that the majority of our audience is male and in the 25-44 age range. This is incredibly helpful when planning content out and trying to reach new target audiences.
By understanding our audience demographics, it helps us to determine which platforms we want to focus on.
Based on this data, we prioritize Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube in our social media efforts.
Think quality over quantity when you’re determining which platforms you want to utilize for your brand.
Demographics can help form a social media content strategy.
In regards to the competition, I always suggest taking a look at what at least three competitors are doing on social media—this provides a great baseline for what works, what doesn’t, and which areas you can provide more value in than the competition.
To get started, find businesses that are in a similar industry, offer similar services, or what similar to what you aspire to be, and start your research from there.
What to look out for
Try to answer a few key questions:
What platforms are they using?
What type of content are they posting—videos, links, educational, photos, etc.?
How often are they posting?
What is their social media goal?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Once you have a good understanding of how your competitors are using social media, you can use this information to build out your own strategy.
Identify the gaps in their social media presence and use this to your advantage.
When you have this information under your belt, it’s easy to find ways in which you can improve and stand out among the competition.
We noticed that our competitors weren’t using video to promote their products and services. We decided to test this as a content strategy and saw a noticeable improvement in this metric.
Take a look at these results after we started creating daily videos:
Know your monthly gained subscribers to help form a winning social media content strategy.
When to Post
Consistency is key in regards to your social media presence.
When planning out content, I always do some platform-specific research to determine the best days and time to help maximize our reach with each time we publish.
At AppSumo, we make note of popular days and times, and schedule our most important content around them.
It’s an easy way to help me plan, create, and manage all of our content in one place.
Tools We Use
We wouldn’t call ourselves AppSumo (where I work) if we didn’t namedrop some of the awesome tools we use for social media.
Along with the free linked tools, here are some personal favorites for my day-to-day work:
Agorapulse. This one’s an awesome way to manage your social media and schedule it in a clean way. I don’t have to dig through comments because the Social Inbox lets me filter through important messages. Plus, Agorapulse’s one-click reports are super-helpful for me to track metrics.
Canva. Canva is a powerhouse. This one’s great for inspiration and a lifesaver when creating graphics that don’t require a ton of graphic design skills. I like to incorporate these graphics into our Instagram when I can.
Crello. An AppSumo Partner, Crello is a great alternative to Canva and helpful for ideas. I use it to create graphics for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s got awesome animations and requires no design skill.
Figma. I use this to create templates for things like our Instagram stories (blog shares, deal shares, etc.). It’s also great for quick and on-the-fly design edits for graphics.
Brand24. An internal marketing team fave, for sure. This one’s great for filtering all AppSumo content on the web. It shows you all mentions of specific keywords on your social media channels, even when you weren’t tagged.
Engage with Your Audience and Grow Your Following
Now that you’ve built out your content strategy, the goal is to continue to grow your following. (You’re not out of the woods yet!)
How often to post
The most important thing to remember when trying to grow your social media is to maintain a minimum number of posts per week based on days when your users are most active!
At AppSumo, we post about six days per week with a minimum of 2-3 posts a day.
How to create content for engagement
My advice is to create content that allows your audience to engage directly. I found that when I utilized interactive content, such as polls, we had significantly higher engagement.
Take a look at some of our recent polls, which directly ask our audience what types of content they would like to see more of. This is a super-easy way to promote engagement and actually get feedback directly from your audience.
Here’s us getting the conversation started:
The audience engagement doesn’t end with the content itself! Engage with them in the comment section, posts you are tagged in, and through direct messages.
One fun way to engage your audience is by creating a hashtag specific to your brand. That way, users can share the love when they post about your brand or products.
At AppSumo, we have a few: #AppSumo, #TacoToolsday, and #6FigureSumoling. This is a great way to get your followers talking about your brand and to see what is being said about your products, even when they don’t specifically @ you!
Understanding what your audience likes will lead to more engagement, followers, and a cohesive feed! It seems simple, but creating content your audience actually wants to see can do so much for your social media strategy.
For example, on Instagram, I dive into our insights and take note of what content has the highest ‘Reach,’ ‘Shares,’ ‘Saves,’ and ‘Comments. These metrics are really great indicators of which content has performed well based on what our audience likes. That also gives it a boost with the algorithm and helps it reach a bigger audience:
To make the most of these analytics, I dive into our insights weekly. This helps me optimize our content and understand what works for the future!
In Conclusion
Building a successful social media content strategy takes time, but all the effort is worth it when you establish an audience that actually wants to connect and engage with you. That sort of reward will build upon itself tenfold!
Remember that consistency is key when trying to grow your social media presence. You should also keep in mind that finding the right strategy for your brand involves a bit of trial and error. (Trust us—we’ve had our share of hiccups at AppSumo. It’s all part of the learning process.) Set specific but realistic goals for your social media content strategy, listen to your audience, and the growth will follow.
Now get on that social media success track! Till next time!
Get started on saving time and energy on your own social media management! Check out our free trial of Agorapulse to help you schedule, track, and measure all your social media efforts.
Video is all the rage today. It’s due to its effectiveness in driving reach and engagement. In fact, most social media platforms have started to give video content more visibility in feeds.
The introduction of Reels and IGTV on Instagram and Facebook Watch is a testament to the fact that the appeal for videos has only increased over the years.
About 85% of internet users in the US watched online videos in 2018, and a majority of internet users say that the trend of watching more online videos will continue, even after the COVID-19 outbreak ends.
With so much video content being uploaded by the minute — over 500 hours on YouTube in 2019 — it’s going to be difficult to stand out from the crowd.
To do so, you need to create stellar videos. How can you do so? You need to understand the key elements of a social media video. What are these key elements, you ask? Let’s take a look at them.
Main Elements of a Social Media Video
Here are the main elements of a social media video that can help improve engagement.
1. The Social Platform
When you’re creating any video for social media, it’s important to know which platform you’re creating it for. Why?Because each social platform has different audiences, and what may appeal to users on one platform might not on another.
TikTok and Instagram are platforms where you’d typically have millennials or Gen Z. On the other hand, on Facebook and Twitter, you can find a wider user base. So, it’s crucial to tailor your videos for each of these platforms.
Similarly, what may work on all of these platforms may not work on LinkedIn at all as it’s a professional social networking platform. And that’s not all. Each platform also has a different set of video formats that work the best on them.
Facebook vs. Instagram video formats
For instance, if you’re uploading a video to Facebook, you’d likely upload a landscape version of the video for Facebook Watch. On the other hand, if you’re creating one for Instagram, options like Reels, Stories, and IGTV prefer portrait modes.
Resizing your videos can be challenging. However, by using tools like Boosted, you can simplify this task as the tool will automatically size all the videos you create based on the dimensions that work best on the social platform of your choice.
Pro Tip: It’s equally important that you upload your videos directly to the platform instead of sharing them from one platform to another.
2. Video Length
The length of the video is an important parameter that you need to be mindful of. While scrolling through feeds, users may not devote a lot of time to your video unless it catches their attention.
That’s why you need to ensure that the most impactful parts of your video are right at the beginning. The idea is to hook the user to your video so that they watch the rest of it.
But wait, there’s more.
The platforms that you upload your videos to impact the video length as well. For instance, if you’re uploading a video to Instagram, you’ll be faced with multiple options.
How long should Instagram videos be?
If you’re posting a video on Instagram Stories, the maximum length per Story is 15 seconds. On the other hand, if you’re uploading it to Reels, the video needs to be 30 seconds long. However, IGTV videos can be as long as 60 minutes.
So, while developing your video, make sure that you know where you’re going to post it so that you can drive social engagement through it.
3. Video Graphics
The graphics that you use in your videos are equally important.These visuals can help you captivate the attention of your audience. That’s why you need to do everything that you can to ensure that they appear exactly like you want them to.
With nearly 70% of YouTube watch time coming from mobile devices, it’s clear that you need to design your videos for mobile devices.But how?For starters, you should try to use simple video graphics that can be easily viewed on mobile devices. Also, you need to ensure that the various elements within your video are spaced well enough for the viewers to be able to distinguish them.
The same applies to video thumbnails. When you create them using a tool like Canva, make sure that you check how they will look on smaller screens. In addition, mobile devices may not always be connected to WiFi. Many users may be using data to browse the internet and watch videos.
However, while people are on the move, data speeds might fluctuate. As a result, they may not be able to stream videos at the speeds that they would typically get over WiFi.
If your video file size is large, it’s likely that the video may not load well. When this happens, your viewers may move on to the next post. After all, no one likes to wait a long time for videos to load.
How can you avoid this?
You can create videos that have smaller sizes. This will make it easier for the viewers to stream them.
To ensure that all of these things are taken into consideration while creating videos, ensure that your content marketing strategy outlines the steps needed to be taken for mobile devices.
4. Video Sound
As mentioned above, most people watch videos on mobile devices. And when they do, it’s highly likely that they will be on the move or in public places too. In such a situation, not everyone uses earphones to watch the videos.
As a result, people tend to watch videos without sound. In fact, a survey found that 69% of consumers in the US watch videos on mobile devices without sound in public places. But here’s the thing — 25% of them even watch them without sound when they’re in private places.
So, if you want your video to appeal to this huge chunk of your audience, you need to ensure that it gives the same effect without audio. While you’re designing the video, try adding subtitles or text to get the message across without any sound.
Pro Tip: Before you upload the video, go through it without the audio. Try to see if it’s still equally engaging. If so, you can go ahead and upload it.
Final Thoughts
Creating social media videos can help increase your reach and drive engagement. However, to craft videos that can do so effectively, it’s critical to understand the key elements of these videos and use them to your advantage.
You need to design your videos based on the platform and also change the dimensions accordingly. Also, it’s equally important to decide on the video’s length as it’s dictated by the format in which you’re going to upload it.What’s more?
The video graphics need to be designed for mobile devices, as most videos are watched using mobile devices.Finally, a huge number of people watch videos without sound. So, you must ensure that the videos appear equally engaging without it too.
Caitlin Bacher
Market & Hustle
