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Facebook Marketing a booming way to get connected

Facebook Marketing a booming way to get connected

by | Jan 6, 2021 | Facebook Marketing

Facebook Marketing – A New Trend after Google Marketing

Facebook was founded in Feb 2004.After it entered the marketing field a lot of changes have taken place.Its daily active users are exceeding 1.56 billion and increasing daily. Apart from the number of users, the average time spent by a user on Facebook daily is about one hour, making this platform unique.

Almost all active users know its manifold uses, and some of the most relevant ones are marketing, e-commerce, referrals, customer relations, brand awareness and many more.While marketing through this unique platform is very successful, it is used under expert’s guidance. There are several factors required to be considered for achieving the desired goals on Facebook.

The main aspects have been described below briefly, which you will find very useful in your endeavour of progress through this most popular social media platform.

Setting Up a Facebook Page –

  • Select one of the two categories – Business or Brand
  • Choose the name of your Page carefully to avoid the subsequent tedious process of changing it. Fill the requires data correctly. Add a suitable photo of prescribed size with short and relevant description, user name for the Page.
  • Add Page to short-cuts, set-up Page roles like Admin, Editor, Moderator Job Manager, Advertiser etc. Customise the notification. Add CTA, organise Page Tabs and verify your Page. The top priority is given on launching new products, building brand awareness, increasing sales turnover or consolidating leads for follow up. The ‘Likes’ are most important for all the above efforts. A ‘like’ is not just a response; it shows that the user is interested in your product or services and wants to get updates from you in their news feed

Fill up the ‘About’ section of your Page carefully. Include searchable information avoiding overstuffing the keywords.

Your business offers, proper categories and links back to your website are to be included.

You can share your Page with people you are already connected on Facebook. Avoid excess promotion as Spammy marketing does more harm than good.

Don’t forget to include Social Media Follow Button on your website and blog as the website’s limitations are taken care of on Social Media platforms where you can upload contents of various formats like images, videos etc. Another way is to use a Page plug-in to promote your Facebook Page on the website easily. Facebook builds the iframe code that shows a feed of your latest posts. The visitors need not leave your website to like and share your Facebook Page, which is essential for you.

Verify your Page –

Depending on the category, the verification badge is given by Facebook. E.g. a grey badge is provided for business or an organisation. Though it is not compulsory to have a badge, it still adds a sense of authenticity to your Page and company. This is more important in online services or e-commerce business which requires the trust of potential customers.

Getting Facebook Likes and Fans –

As it has been experienced, images have more impact than texts. The size of the image, as well as the ratio, are essential. The rate of 1:9:1 is ideal. There are fixed specs for different pictures, and the same should be followed. The quality of the image is very crucial to grab the attention of users. Try to maintain a consistent style among all photos posted.

Facebook Links-

Share the blog posts you publish. Select those blogs that are in sync with your Facebook audience’s liking and preference as they may share it further. One or two sentences about the brand should be intriguing and inspire the audience to learn more.

While using the Facebook platform for your marketing, you should be aware of the platform’s practice and system to use the same for your benefit. E.g. inclusion of a meta-description with each blog post enables the Facebook system to pull it in to describe your link.

Facebook Video –

To tell a story video is the best and most popular option. Keeping in view, the Facebook Algorithms live and longer videos with high completion rates get priority in users’ news feeds. Proper preparation is to be done under the guidance of an expert team as videos’ popularity increases. The quality has to be unique to grab attention among n number of options on Facebook. Most compatible are MP4 or MOV formats. Next, you have to add a title, tag or some text to your post and add it to your playlist. With Facebook links, use this text to attract your audience to watch the video.

One essential point to be remembered –

As Facebook auto-plays the videos, the content has to be very catchy and exciting right from the opening and the first five to ten seconds are crucial to keeping the viewer hooked.

Facebook Live –

It differs from the pre-produced videos. A compelling title grabs attention in the crowd. The viewers’ live participation is necessary; it can be done by asking questions and encouraging them to respond in the comments. At regular intervals, it’s essential to re-introduce your brand and other details in brief. To get new ideas to check out ‘the best Facebook Lives’.

Facebook Instant Articles –

This feature offers 360-degree video, which allows the marketers to tell engaging stories that share places and experiences with their followers. On mobiles, this feature is more suitable to view. Even with VR Headsets, this feature is compatible. The specific cameras have to be used to capture the videos.

Strategies For Facebook Marketing

You need to understand your audience most comprehensively then –

  •     Develop the right mix of contents to get the desired results.
  •     Schedule posts in your editorial calendar
  •     Explore Facebook’s new offerings for connecting with your audience.

 

  1. Know fully about your Facebook Audience

Your buyer personas should be studied and evaluated at large. Make the best use of Facebook helping tools in identifying your audience and learning about your buyer personas. On Facebook, you can get the detailed information regarding your customers, competitors and market trends.

What are buyers personas – They are generalised, fictional information or data of your potential customer that better relates to your target audience. Based on this information, you can determine which content would be the best to post and decide the positioning accordingly.

Interview customers of a diverse mix, referrals to know their background knowledge of your industry, their difficulties and goals and their priorities. View your competitors’ activities on Facebook Pages and analyse each for a few key factors like visual quality, Post frequency, content mix, likes, comments, shares, response time, etc.

Using Facebook Tool “Audience Insights” —

It’s a free analysis tool offered by Facebook. It enables you to obtain demographic and behavioural data about your audience as well as competitors. It also helps to determine the type of content your audience is looking for.

The “Interest” section is instrumental in getting vital information about industry and competitors.

You can add general interest or names of specific pages. The pages which do not have a substantial number of likes, will not appear here.

  1. Social Media Content Calendar for Facebook Marketing

It is like a spreadsheet where you prepare posts in advance and slots them for specific times.

It will keep you alert and help you keep tracking links organised and make it easier to evaluate the overall mix of format and topic you are posting.

A perfect social media should have –

  • Tabs for each Social Media platform
  • Daily schedule further divided into time slots
  • Columns for a message, link, campaign name, character count and image.
  • A monthly view to plan more extensive campaigns.

Scheduling Facebook Posts —

Use tools that enable schedule and automate posting. All scheduled posts can be managed through ‘Publishing Tools’. The seats can be previewed, edited and deleted for desktop and mobile viewing.

Best times for Posts On Facebook —

It depends on your region, goals, industry and how your target audience interacts with the Social Media platforms. After considering all these, the best time for posting should be determined.

Thumb Rule is for weekdays afternoon typically between 01 p.m. to 04 p.m., for weekends, the preferable time slot is between the Noon and 01 p.m.

In this practice always give priority to the quality than quantity. Better quality posts get more clicks and followers. Devote more time to creating the best engaging content.

  1. About Generating Leads on Facebook —

A lead is a person who shows interest in your company’s products or services by giving part of their information in some way. They may fill up a form for eBook or request a demo of your product. The critical question is “How to turn your Facebook fans into your paying customers?” —

You have to be strategic about posting your contents that directs to a form, e.g. you could post

  • Landing Pages with offers
  • Blog posts that you know generate a lot of leads based on historical conversion rates
  • Videos to promote lead generation offers.
  • Facebook Lives to remind people to register for an upcoming event.
  • Facebook events for upcoming webinars.

Please remember that every piece of content you post may not generate the lead, but you should experiment with a content mix that works for your business.

You can use Facebook Lead Ads to capture lead information from the Facebook platform and avoid friction of a landing page and a longer click-through path. This feature allows potential customers to access your offers without leaving the Facebook Application.

Facebook BOTS —

BOTS is a text-based programme that can communicate with humans to automate specific tasks or seek information. It has been noticed that about 48% of people are interested in buying items from a BOT. Facebook Messenger app should not be ignored; instead, it should be utilised maximum since the potential clients prefer ‘personalised’ touch than the mechanical process of interaction.

Tracking and Measuring Results through Facebook Analysis Tool –

After putting all these efforts, investing time, money, and energy in marketing on Facebook, the entire campaign’s overall performance has to be analysed and interpreted perfectly to locate the areas where scope of improvement is there and make future strategies. Otherwise, the results will be only guesswork and ultimately lead to underperformance.

Facebook has developed a comprehensive Page Insight Tool that helps you analyse your Page as a whole and amend the specific posts required.

Use Page Insights —

Read carefully the “Overview” section, which gives you a seven-day snapshot of your Page’s most important activity. To view, the different aspects of your page metrics lookout for the left vertical navigation bar. The key tabs should be read carefully to arrive at a meaningful conclusion.

“Likes” —

Daily gain and loss of likes are displayed on Facebook. The graph of “Net Likes” shows the daily movement of likes and unlikes. You can view shorter date results as well. The “Benchmark” section provides the comparison of your average performance over a while.

Reach —

It shows the number of people who have been served to your posts. The broken figures of Organic and paid traffic are also available. The more likes, comments and shares a post gets, the more it shows in the News Feed. For meaningful analysis, if you notice a spike in Reach on a particular day, click on the graph’s point to see the specific content and not how people engaged.

Page Views —

It helps you figure out how people got to your Page and where they go once they arrive. Look at the “Top Sources” graph to see what external referrers bring you the most traffic. Likely it may be your website, search or a search engine.

Posts —

It is the most useful section of all tabs in Page Insights. At the top, a graph can be found showing when your fans are online. This information is to be utilised to build your Content Calendar and schedule the posts.

Below is a record of all your published posts in reverse chronological order and their core metrics. Keep track on this chart to track your results and learn what types of posts your audience tends to engage with.

Post Details —

It is also essential to view a specific post’s performance for which you have to browse your Page. Post details can be viewed by clicking the “people reached” number directly above “Like” button. You can quickly see post details without flipping over to Page Insights. You can find more in-depth metrics for video content, including “Ten seconds Views” and average watch time.

Facebook Reactions —

Facebook introduced this feature later to enable the users to express their response specifically rather than likes and unlikes. These reactions can be anger, love, laughter and more. The reactions are counted in the same manner as Likes and their break down figures can be viewed as well on an individual post by looking at the Post Details.

Due to this feature, marketers now have more significant insights into their audience’s content. Take note of the people who love your content. They are likely to be useful for improving your brand image. Remember that an ‘angry’ may not mean they dislike the content but instead their response is to the subject matter.

Measuring Social ROI —

It is one of the essential data to know the worth of all your efforts. Before tracking ROI, you should set your goals. Key performance indicators could include views, engagement, lead generation or a combination.

Remember to use tracking links with UTM Parameters every time you post blink to Facebook. If you are using a marketing automation platform, you can create these links directly in the software, assign them to a campaign and track the number of clicks they contribute to your overall view and lead goals

Finally, the Closed Loop Reporting provided by a marketing automation software will help you know which Social Media posts impact the business’s bottom line in leads and customers. That way, you can be confident in your decisions and receive more buy-ins from your social programme executives.

How to Create a Facebook Ad Campaign—

facebook ads

Paid advertising is divided into three categories

  • Campaigns — All of your assets are included.
  • Ad Sets — These are groups of ads that target specific audiences. If multiple audiences are to be targeted, you will need separate sets for each.
  • Ads — The personal ads you will post on Facebook each with their colour, copy, images etc.

When you create your first ad, Facebook offers two editors: the Ad Manager and Power Editor. The latter is for larger advertisers who need precise control over a variety of campaigns. Most companies prefer the Ad Manager.

How to Target and Optimise Ad Sets —

Once you select an objective for your campaign, Facebook will guide you through a few steps to define the audience, budget and schedule for your Ad Set. If you have used Facebook’s advertising tool before, you can select a saved audience here. Otherwise specify demographic information like location, age, gender and language.

Next, you can make the targeting more specific in the detailed targeting box. Choose any one of Facebook’s pre-made categories or type the name of a particular business page your audience may have liked. In the “Placement” section, keep the “Automatic Placement” (Recommended)  selected.

Next, choose a budget and schedule select one of the two – Daily Budget and Life Time Budget.

Facebook Ad Formats —

You have to select the format, media, text and links to create one or multiple ads.

  • Format 1 – Carousel – two or more scrollable images or videos.
  • Format 2 – Single image or video.

Next, upload your creative contents and write a clickable headline.

For each format, Facebook will provide some design recommendations including image size, headline length and more. Facebook prefers images with minimal text. To test your image, there are tools available to decide specs.

Next, make your text and preview your ad for desktop or mobile viewing.

Next place your order.

Facebook ads manager

Measuring Results of Facebook Ads —

FB Ad Manager provides an overview of all ad campaigns which are running.

At the top, the dashboard will highlight the amount spent by you on each day on ads. The dashboard is further divided into columns to make it easy to filter by results, reach or amount spent.

There are many metrics to be considered to determine your ad’s success, like Reach, impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and more.

Pay particular attention to

  • Actions – Always consider your initial rationale when weighing the success of your campaign.
  • Cost Per Action – Look at how much each action costs and compare this between your different ads within Ad-Set.

Frequency –

How often someone saw your ad is called frequency. An ideal frequency should vary depending on the type of ad you ran. If any of your ads have a very high frequency but the low performance it may be the time to retire the ad.

The different topics elaborate above are in brief. The marketing of business on Facebook is a complicated exercise. It requires many studies, clarity in your goals, patience, and perfect planning and integration of all aspects fro start to finish. Services of an expert team are advisable.

If you need help with your Facebook Marketing and ad campaigns you can email us on [email protected] or contact us here

*Facebook is a trademark of Facebook Inc.

 

 

 

Tips for Facebook Cover Photo

Tips for Facebook Cover Photo

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

There is news that Facebook has started losing its popularity with the entry of Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest etc. It is being said that aged people mostly use Facebook and that people in business avoid branding on Facebook due to these reasons.

But is the reality? Such articles are not data-driven, and digital marketers always follow data, and that is what tell you the real story. Facebook is still super consistent and has barely seen any slowdown in the number of users.

Numbers say that Facebook has approximately 2.5 billion active monthly users. It is comfortably sitting at the top position compared to Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Reddit combined.

Now you must have got it right. Being in business, you cannot afford to ignore Facebook. It may be that it is not a favourite social media platform, but the audience is still having an active account that they are frequently checking.

You have a Facebook business page, then check it out whether it is impressive to attract the audience or not. There is a well-known saying “First Impression is the last impression”. Hence the cover page of your account becomes the face of your business. Let us go through some steps to be kept in mind.

Steps to Create an impressive and effective cover photo

One of the well-known legendary move directors states that an object’s size should be proportional to its impact on the entire story. Likewise, Facebook cover photo covers almost covers half the page of the desktop and practically full screen of your mobile. Creating a cover photo is not about just choosing an eye-catching picture, setting the right dimensions and then publishing it. Below listed are five keys considerations to drive the eyeballs of the audience.

  • Simplicity is the best policy.

Earlier there was a rule with Facebook that 20 per cent of the cover photo could be made up of text, but the said rule was dropped in 2013. So with the ample space to tinkering around and no limit on the amount of text you can include, you may end up putting a lot of information on the cover photo. But hold on !!!! Do not do that. Focus on the image to be as simple as possible so that any audience category can understand what you as a brand want to convey. Apple is the best example which usually doesn’t involve much on social media marketing. However, the company’s cover photo is still spot on anytime and every time with the launch of any new gadget by the tech giant.

  • Cover photo to compliment your brand:

It is always a challenge for brands which make multiple items in one photo. It is not possible to cover all the products in one image. The advertising team here needs to show their creativity and expertise to design so that the photo covers all the popular products together. It can be that the cover is divided into three or four parts covering the different types of products. The cover photo should encapsulate a mix of all the products and services a business offers.

  • Keep your audience in mind:

Have you noticed that most of the cover photos include humans’ images rather than abstract images or inanimate objects? It is because we as humans find it easier to connect with the people. So to communicate with your audience through the cover photo try to first understand your audience. Thanks to Facebook, which will give you the option of Audience Insights. The Audience Insight tool allows you to drill deeper into the demographics, location, pages like and an insight into the activity of Facebook. It helps you figure out which set of FB users are interested in the products sold by you. The tool gives you a demographic analysis with data and how many users clicked on the CTS (Call To Action) button or the website link and viewed your videos till the end.

Now what all this information tells us supposes you discovered that 80% of the people who follow your page men, 75% live in Sydney, and 90% are between 18 and 35. You can probably incorporate such kind of mix in your cover photo. Your page can include a picture of a man standing near the Opera house in Sydney. The idea behind is to grab the attention of the people following your account the most.

  • Pair the cover photo with your logo:

Name of the Company and the logo is advertised together on any platform. The same rule applies with a cover photo too. You must have seen the famous brand NIKE having a trendy three words JUST DO IT attached to its famous worldwide brand name.

So the cover photo of the brand on FB would be the golden words JUST DO IT with the classy ‘swoosh’ stroke. The two combined together are sufficient for anyone to recognise. Likewise, you also need to ensure that your business name and the logo and the Company slogan (which all the Companies usually has) should be highlighted attractively on the cover photo.

  • Promotion through cover photo:

Facebook gives you ample space in their cover photo; then why should not we use it to talk about things we want to promote….so here is the catch!!! Whether it’s a new product launch or a special offer or a big piece of content or event, your cover photo is a fantastic place to show it off and promote your followers. You need to be utmost careful while designing your cover photo as it should not be like having too much of text or loaded with too many pictures on the cover photo so that the viewer’s get confused as to what you want to promote. Try to be creative in your approach; make a mix of text and pictures together to make the logo attractive simple and yet easy to understand regarding the promotion you want to make.

Suggestions to make an impactful cover photo:

Now covering the above points, you have understood the steps to create a striking Facebook cover photo for your business. Now it’s time for us to make it useful for our brand too. Follow the below mentioned simple four-step process to create the Facebook cover photo vision into reality for your business.

  1. Pick a technique that works for you: There are no set rules that is the right way to design a cover photo. It depends on the brand and the business you follow. We had given you the example of NIKE which advertises in minimum words and pictures because it is so famous that writing the brand name itself will suffice. But for other businesses, you need to apply a mix of techniques:
  • Having a product launch include in your cover photo.
  • Want to connect to the specific audience include it in your advertisement campaign.
  • Make it attractive enough to make your branch recognisable in a way that your branding does the talking.
  1. Photo editing tools: You must be thinking that it won’t be easy to design the cover photo keeping above things in mind. But frankly, you do not need to be a graphic designer to create this. There are many photo editing tools available which are simple to use and can be cropped and edited as per requirement. Examples of them are Canvas, PicMonkey, Visme, Snappa, Bannersnack and many others.
  2. Selecting images: Here too, you can rely upon tools. Selection is important. Decide upon the theme you want to follow and then start looking for pictures. Like how much and what text you will include and accordingly select a suitable image. Please make sure the selection is based on the brand you are promoting and keeping in mind the above points which we have discussed.
  3. Righ Size: To start with, you need to be aware of the size of the cover photo else automatically Facebook will automatically stretch your image to fit, and your efforts for designing will not give you the desired results. Facebook is more accessed on phones than desktops or laptops, so make sure that the pic and its size fits in the mobile version and looks equally useful and attractive.

Desktop the cover photo size is 820 pixels wide and 312 pixels tall.

On mobile, it displays 640 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall.

But instead of going in all this, it is better to use 820 pixels wide by 462 pixels tall which will look good in all gadgets.

Conclusion:

Just remember that the intention here is not to use bright colours and bold themes to impress that audience. It has to relate to your branch, connect to the audience, effectively portrays the message you want to deliver and nothing like that leaves the audience scratching their heads confused.

Hope you found the post helpful in some way or the other and you got some clarity regarding the importance of a cover photo for your brand and business recognition.

If you would like to have properly developed facebook cover photo and set up your facebook business page, do contact us on [email protected] or log contact us here

 

 

Engaging audience during live streaming

Engaging audience during live streaming

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

Live streaming is becoming very popular medium to collect with the masses. It has turned out to be a blessing in the current pandemic situation where the people have found very convenient to pass on their knowledge and expertise to a mass audience at the same time: motivational streams, meditation and well-being, tutorials, fitness and whatnot. The list seems to endless. It had turned out to be a beneficial medium to keep the audience engaged. People have found it be a useful option to gain some knowledge and value addition. While the people were locked in their houses and were feeling depressed and having no clarity what the future post lockdown would be.

Live streaming became a very popular to give some form of recreation and knowledge addition for the people.

But this digital marketing area faces competition, and it is not easy to keep the audience engaged till the end. Perhaps you have been uploading videos but have not tried the live streaming option till now. You might be losing a massive section of your target audience.

The success stories behind the live streaming are quite impressive, and if you have not tried it so far, you should think of implementing it right away. Below are some points which will help you leverage live streaming to crazy levels of customer engagement.

What does it mean?

Live streaming is a medium to connect with the audience and pass on a personalised message uniquely compared to other marketing channels. Here you have an option to get live feedback immediately on any particular product or service offered. It can give you excellent results if the streaming content is planned to keep the audience connected until the end.

The growth which the marketers have noticed is phenomenal. Research says that there has been a noticeable growth of 28% of marketers ready to invest in live streaming.

Why should it be used?

It is gaining popularity due to its personalised approach as it allows the face behind the brand to come face to face. Famous brands have huge followers and when these brands come live the interest in knowing more about the Company becomes obvious. The reason why the option should be used is summarised below:

  • It has been noticed that 80% of the audience prefers to watch live streaming rather than blogs or posts.
  • In 2019 it had topped the charts with 1.1 billion hours.
  • People enjoy watching videos which have increased in the brand association.
  • Consumers tend to share more video content than pictures and posts.
  • It gives a deeper connection with the brand, and you already have a social media platform to leverage it.

Which platforms of social media give you the option of live streaming?

The best thing about social media is that live streaming can be done with a minimum set up if you already have an account. Like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and many others already have the options to live stream. However, the features and opportunity which they provide to reach the audience may differ. Some of you already must be having a significant presence on these platforms, if yes, you can immediately connect with the audience by live streaming.

Live streaming on Facebook:

Facebook has a live streaming option since 2016, and it created a significant impact on users. IT has been observed that live videos get ten times more comments and three times longer watch time than regular videos. Such is the power of live streaming.

Live streaming on Instagram

Followers on Facebook are far more than on Instagram, but it does allow your business to reach different demographics. Instagram has more followers of the age group 18-34. So if you want to cover a larger audience then Facebook is a better option as Facebook has a larger number of users.

Live streaming on YouTube

We can say that YouTube is the mother of videos in the digital marketing world. It was through YouTube that videos became a part of social media users and eventually for marketers. It is the second-largest digital platform after Facebook with 2 billion monthly users. Second most popular search engine after Google is YouTube. The best feature of both is that the live streaming videos are then saved after the stream. Hence if the live streaming is missed, you can watch in the form of videos later.

Some tools and tips to optimise engagement with live stream

Digital marketing platforms give you a lot of tools to help you optimise the live streaming session. The intention is not just madly get subscriptions but doing some research work and finding a package that best suits your business. To help you better understand below are some live streaming tools.

Restream.lo: This is an excellent tool that streams to over 30 social media platforms simultaneously. As a vlogger, you can live-stream your old recorded videos, engage the audience through live chats and bring all the analytics in one place. With the help of this tool, you can monitor the performance of all the channels together. Restream gives you an insight in-depth to know how our live streams perform in different social media forums.

Image creation tools: Images play a very crucial role in the success of your videos. Research says that posts having relevant visual content get 94% more views than content strategies. Pablo and Canva are well-known tools to create perfect images to get results on the SEO front.

Editable: The main motto of the live stream is that it is life. But you may wish to save this for your future use. Once you save it, it will be in your control like any other video. In case you want to edit any content then you can do it by using video editing tools like Lumen5, WeVideo etc.

How to make engaging content:

You have done the necessary set up to Go Live. But the success depends on the quality of the content. Next step is to drive engagement. First, try to understand the audience. If you have been live streaming from quite a time now, you must know very well what the audience demands and what holds them to remain connected to the end of the session.

Remember the points below:

  • Make a rough plan initially and ready to answer the questions are coming up once the streaming is over. Including the audience engagement is the primary key to the success of any live video.
  • Plan your content correctly with the flow of your presentation. It should not be in a haphazard manner where the content doesn’t seem to be relative in context.
  • Be responsive always. Your body language speaks it all. If you are positive and enthusiastic in your tone, speech and loud enough to make the audience feel interested, you will grab more eyeballs. The live stream’s promo plays a vital role wherein the main content is conveyed attractively. They wait for you to go live once it starts responding to the primary audience who have joined by speaking out their names aloud and thanking them for joining immediately.
  • The main goal of the streaming should not be to sell a product but to design the content so that it leads to the benefits your product or session is offering. Here the main motive is to connect with maximum audience simultaneously and leave an impact in their minds to join back and select the live streaming notification option.

Conclusion:

So friends having said almost all, live streaming is getting more and more popular is not by chance. Still, there is a fair amount of technology, research work to get the best content delivered in the minimum amount of time as it is challenging to keep people engaged for a very long time. So the streaming should be preferably for a maximum of half an hour. There is continuous development in technology taking place. More and more people from different areas are choosing this option because of its varied benefits and approach.

Not only brands but also motivational speakers, gym trainers, fitness experts, nutritionists, doctors, and beauticians are all using this option. They have been immensely successful, especially in the lockdown period. It became far more comfortable to connect with a larger audience, which would not have been possible otherwise in normal circumstances.

Finally, make sure that you are always presentable, neatly and impressively dressed, having a good quality video, excellent content, good network for uninterrupted streaming and all the necessary tools in place and handy before the video goes live. Keep it shorter initially, and then you can increase the time once you are through with the technique and engaged audience to join you.

Many people are arranging paid streamings in different sessions and have started their business online which was earlier done in huge halls and limited audience. So if you haven’t thought of doing it, then this is the right time to decide.

Happy streaming !!!!

 

Luxury Marketing

Luxury Marketing

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

Luxury items though a dream for many are not in everybody’s possession. It hardly happens that we see an advertisement for luxury items on television or social media. Why is it so?? Just try to think about the reason behind it?

It is because luxury items cannot be treated like other products because the customers buying these products are of different segment of the society and needs to be approached differently. But it does not mean that they cannot use the digital platform for marketing their brands and products.

Let us go through some marketing tips for luxury brands online:

Which products can be named as luxury Brand?

When we speak about luxury items, the brands which come to mind is BMW, Mercedes, Gucci, Rolex, Ferrari etc. But what are the features or qualities needed to be named as a luxury brand? As per me, it can be summarised in 3 E’s….Excellent, Expensive and Exclusive.

But the most common thought which comes to mind when we talk about luxury items is a high price, but it is misleading many times as one cannot predict every expensive thing to be termed as a luxury item.

It is rightly said that the luxury item cannot be named as a luxury; if it is a common item possessed by many. The products need to be exclusive either in features, looks and tagged with a brand name, and this exclusivity comes with a price.

Luxury timepieces are designed by best designer, luxury cars by best well-paid engineers and luxury fashion by designers creating exclusive clothes.

Trends in luxury marketing

Research says that it is expected that the sales of luxury items will get doubled by 2025. Thanks to the pandemic where even luxury items have reached way to the digital platform as the stores were closed, and people who were used to using luxury items had to choose the online forum to order. Likewise, the stores had to make way too from store shelves to online.

The coming era will be of the digital market with more and more companies entering the platform.

Marketing strategies for luxury brands

Still, the time hasn’t come where we can say luxury marketing is a synonym to digital marketing. Till date, the advertisements for these products were seen on luxury magazines covering full pages, on television, duty-free stores, expensive resorts or restaurants. But soon it will be said goes are the days where luxury is not everyone’s eye to see.

Competition is increasing by all the businesses, and service providers and luxury items are no exception. To survive and to meet the sales target, the industry has to make way to the digital platform, keeping in mind the requirements and preferences of their customers.

Understand the customer

Since the digital market is still new for these items, the Companies need to enter into the buyer’s persona. A luxury customer of today is a sophisticated, techno-savvy and more selective about the brand to buy and the money to spend. The digital marketers will have to include personalisation, authenticity and latest technology with the motive to maintain the traditional expectations of the audience. To keep them engaged, the marketing team will have to use Omni channel strategies to figure out customer buying temperament and how he/she covets the products they are looking for. While studying the buying persona check on which website the customer mostly prefers to buy, what is the terms of the customer mainly used while doing the shopping? Try and categorise the shopping into different items like handbags, footwear, accessories apparels, etc.

Customers are of different categories, and we cannot apply one buyer persona to every customer. It is very much essential for you to understand and analyse each buyer precisely so that the right product reaches the right customer as the right time.

Marketing strategy for luxury products

Now if you are new to the digital marketing world for marketing your luxury products, do not start with selling all the products on all the platforms together. Instead, try to focus on one word or two social media platforms. Since you have studied the customer’s temperament and the brand and the product you want to pitch them, you will be able to develop a good marketing strategy to drive profitable results.

Now the next step is to define the goals. Let us start with increasing brand awareness, which will ultimately lead to an increase in sales. Once your market digital marketing plan is set up, then the final step is to figure out how to measure your success. If the marketing strategy which you are going to apply is SEO based on increasing the revenue find out how much revenue Google and Bing are responsible for you to generate. If you already have a Google Analytics tracking account but have never set up to track your success, then now is the right time to do it.

Traditional marketing vs the Experimental

Traditional marketing techniques are excellent and useful for marketing luxury items are considered to be having their limitations now in this digital marketing. Apart from that, it is a costly medium for the marketer as full-page ads in premium magazines, or hoarding at an expensive resort increases the cost. On the other hand, the results are not satisfactory.

One of the excellent option suggested is a brand app apps which offer to speak to the customers directly through their smartphones. Apps can be made in a way that it is as responsive as a chatbot option on your website.

Loyalty and its role in the success:

It is a perception that most of the luxury items have loyal customers, the more reliable the customer, the less marketing efforts you need to do. It is often said that loyalty cannot be created; it has to be earned.

Do not worry friends, here I am not recommending to create a Loyalty program for customers neither do we intend to under value your luxury brand, which is anyways having good sales. What we mean to say here is to turn your consumers into fiercely loyal brand ambassadors. The best way to get loyalty is through the quality of your products and the second-best way to do is through the quality of your marketing.

Using influencer marketing works wonders for luxury items. It is a very cost-effective method and gives good results. Check if the influencer you have chosen anyways has followers and who already use luxury products. There are full chances of a half match already won.

The Content :

Being in this business, you are well aware that buying a luxury item is a tough decision. Every consumer purchasing doesn’t swipe his card directly. Many will be studying your product and feature before clicking the BUY NOW button. You need to tell your brand story to your customers and the craftsmanship involved in making a particular item.

Your content adds value to your product. Many luxury items once purchased requires utmost care and maintenance. Blogs, posts and mailers to your existing customer will add value to your brand and create an impression in the mind that you are a Company which is not interested only in SALES but also AFTER-SALES services and guide.

Use the keywords in your content effectively. There is some form of content for every key term. Research and time to time analysis will help you master this.

SEO results :

Search engines are underutilised tools for marketing luxury products. It has been noticed that the website of these products lack content and are not attractively designed for a visitor to crawl around the website. Search engines are massive traffic drivers for your brands and should not be ignored. They have an impact both on the purchase and research phase of your marketing journey. The time and money invested in SEO are bound to give you excellent results.

Conclusion:

Luxury marketing is at a stage of up-gradation and is not confined to TV channels. Magazines and billboards. Now it is taking the next step and is investing in digital marketing its tools and techniques. However, success depends on your marketing team and their flexibility to adapt to the changing needs and trend in the market.

Innovation is creative ideas rule this class of products. If you succeed in offering something exclusive from time to time, you will sustain in the business for decades to come.

Digital marketing is a mix of many tools and techniques, and if one option doesn’t work, there are many more to opt for. You need to be ready to accept and implement the change as today’s world is the world of the digital market, and no business can sustain in this competition without entering it.

Hope you got a clearer picture on the topic and the post will be helpful to the people in similar fields. Do contact back to us for any queries and concerns we will be more than happy to assist and serve you.

Happy Selling !!!!

 

Ecommerce Deadstock

Ecommerce Deadstock

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

In the realm of online business E-commerce, retailers face many hurdles in their business. The most common persistent issue is deadstock products.

The accumulation of Deadstock is the most significant concern area and can lead to a rise in operational and warehouse costs. The cost of storing increases with more products entering the warehouse, and if it is not controlled in time, it will lead to the financial resources to drain off soon.

It becomes difficult for the retailers dealing with seasonal items to clear off the Deadstock completely.

Let us go through some tips as a preventive measure to accumulation of Deadstock and to clear it off on time.

First, let us understock which stock falls under the definition of Deadstock?

Dead inventory in simple terms is known as the Deadstock. Every business should have a proper inventory system in place. There are items which are seasonal and not been sold and are not likely to sell shortly. Such things soon will be seen piled up in the corner of the warehouse and forgotten.

Another reason for piling up the stock is to wait for the price rise of the inventory and hence keep it stored for the right time to sell arises. But here we will not be going through this area.

Next question which comes to mind is Is Deadstock excellent or bad for business?

Any stock comes with a price, and so does Deadstock. Unwanted items will increase the cost, occupy the space in the warehouse and the longer the storage, the higher will be the cost involved. Other values of stock maintenance, insurance, rental, equipment and security cost will still add on to the overall costing.

It has an opportunity involved in case the stocks lying go for a sudden price rise and in turn, increase in demand. However, the chances of this are not quite feeble. More or less, space which the Deadstock occupies could have been utilised for a headstock or a highly profitable selling item.

How to avoid the Deadstock piling up

Deadstock should be avoided as much as possible. The business of fashion reports that dead inventory costs around $50 billion every year in the US retail industry. Similar is the case with the rest of the countries too.

Below are some tips to avoid Deadstock:

  1. Inventory Management: Improper inventory management is a significant cause of Deadstock. An effective management system can guarantee you well-monitored stock management. Some of the popular inventory management systems are
  • InFlow Inventory: It is a potent inventory software system which is capable of managing up to 100 products
  • Sortly Pro: It is a cloud based inventory management system known as a Simplest Inventory Management Software that can manage up to 100 transactional entries per month
  • Odoo; A well-known Open Source ERP and CRM solution software
  • ZhenHub: A cutting edge software which is a hassle free solution for calculating rates and tracking and getting the products delievered wherever the need be. The small and medium-sized business mostly uses them.

 

There is nothing like a good or flawed inventory system. It depends on the business, the product you are selling and the costs involved.

Once you have decided’ upon the inventory system, keep track of the products on your shelves, their expiry dates and those are at the verge to be counted under Deadstock. Compare with the products which had low or no sale last year.

The inventory system if followed strictly, can identify your best selling products, flopped products, expired products and highest selling product at a glance.

  1. Deadstock items with discount potential: A successful businessman has his best selling businesses at his fingertips. His knows when to sell which product at what price. Keep an eye on the current trend. Which products are like selling hotcakes which will empty the shelves in no time? The excitement of buying any product fades away soon. Analyse your past trends and separate the products which have the discount potential and are the chances of them to turn into Deadstock is high. Clear this stock off fast with end of season promotion. This works will work with perishable products or which have a lesser shelf life.

It may happen that the profits you earn on these discounts will be lesser than average sales, but as we say, something is always better than nothing. So instead of incurring a total loss of goods getting perished and thrown off due to expiry dates, it is better to sell them at discounted prices. In the long run, you are saving a fair amount of cost of storage, insurance, maintenance etc.

  1. Identify the target audience: Being in business, you should know what your customer needs. Which product should be launched and when if the same did not sell well, then what is the reason behind it? It many times happens that the product, despite doing excellent promotions, doesn’t work well. Then probably here you have been targeting the wrong audience or at the wrong time.

Any product launch should be done post most research. It is very crucial step for the success of any business. Other factors such as gender, location, the interest of the audience, current trend and the socioeconomic factors predict the outcome of the sales of any business.

Next effective option is conducting surveys to find out what the audience needs in the current times. The survey can be circulated both to the existing as well as your new list of customers. Having the best selling products on the shelves will give you better sales and least Deadstock.

  1. Diversify your products: Keep a check in the variety of products you are offering for sale. The chart-topping products also need a check on whether they are of the same features or varied. Selling similar items may increase the chances of Deadstock. All customers are not of the same temperament; some are brand oriented and some features. Giving complementary products along with faster selling product, will sweeten the deal. For example, if you are a phone merchant, you can provide phones cases or other accessories as a complementary deal. So in future, the customers might contact you for both the items.

How to Get Rid of Deadstock?

Do you already have a Deadstock lying in your warehouse? Its time now to clear it off as soon as possible. We have already gone through the pros and cons of having a deadstock but clearing it off is a concern for all businessmen. Below are some things which will help:

Return: If you have this option, it will be the best one. You might have to incur a cost to return the stock, but that is much less than the loss incurred on the same goods being stocked unnecessarily, expired or to dispose of as waste. So try to keep the return policy as part of the contract with your suppliers. Suppliers may charge a return fee as per their terms and conditions, but all is affordable against the headache of clearing it off in future.

Put the Deadstock for clearance sale: This option is used by many of the retailers and a very well known and a thriving chance. Whenever you visits stores you often such stocks lying in the eye catching areas and are been picked up fast by the customers due to the disocunts offered. Likewise, in online purchase, such items are shown on the home screen of the mobile app for customers view on quick login. So in case, the product is perishable and hot selling; otherwise, this is the best option to clear off the sale. For example, you can sell the winter wear collection at discounted rates when the summer is approaching.

Offer freebies and giveaways. Customers always like free items, and they will revisit your store to get the benefit or may refer others to visit your store or site to take its advantage.

Donate in charity: This is the last option with a noble cause. After all your efforts to sell the product, you are still not able to sell then the best thing is to donate the stock in charity. However, this option is not available to sellers due to their products which cannot be given charity. You can also claim this amount as a tax write off and get an advantage of doing a noble cause in front of the people.

Conclusion: Being in business, we all know how to manage the business well, but it often happens that at times the things are not in our control and all our plans go for a toss. The recent pandemic is the most prominent example wherein people in business have faced lots of challenges in terms of managing the stock and clearing it off.

So be prepared for all and keep your systems under control. Be ready with the preventive measure on hand so that the loss incurred is not beyond limits and control. Here we do not say that the above points are the most effective ones. You are the best judge of your business, and we can only suggest the best.

Happy selling now and always !!!!