The Rise of TikTok
While scrolling through social media, or even watching the news, it’s likely that you’ve come across a vertical video of someone you’ve never seen before with a bouncing TikTok watermark logo in the corner. When the app first launched it originally targeted dancers, singers, and artists to share their creativity and talents to a broader audience. However, don’t be fooled by the silly name and Gen Z popularity. With its addictive user interface, celebrity endorsements, and its overall rebrand to a more community-based app, TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform in history and has completely redefined the relationship between people and platforms. It now competes with Facebook as the new norm of social interaction and digital marketing, with practically every name brand using the app to share content with consumers. There are many opportunities for small businesses to grow on TikTok, so here’s an overview on why it has become so popular and how you can use it to your advantage.
Tips for Showing your Customers LOVE All Year Long
As a small business owner, you know how much you appreciate every single customer that invests in your hard work. It’s important that you show customers how much you value them because even a small consistent gesture will make customers feel that they’ve made a smart decision selecting you! Brand loyalty grows when customers know that they’re cherished, which leads to customers referring more customers. The qualities that you offer through the customer relationship will be brought back to you. This month is the season of love when businesses may choose to show their customer appreciation, however, let’s take a moment to consider some of the ways you can uplift your customers and make them feel heard all year long!
The Top Four Hottest Social Media Trends for 2022
This past year, we have witnessed some pretty remarkable social media trends such as live streaming and interactive video content like never before. This year, in 2022, there are already predictions for social media trends that will only continue to exemplify interactive and targeted connection with your consumer, all through the click of a button. Did you know? In 2021, the Baby Boomer generation had a 70% increase in online shopping. As the number of social media users continues to grow, it’s vital to stay ahead of trends to keep up with the competition. In this blog we cover what we believe are the Top Four Hottest Social Media Trends to keep front of mind as we enter 2022.
Maintaining a Social Media Presence During Your Off-Season
Are you trying to achieve consistent social media engagement with your followers even though your brand may not be considered relevant all year round? Not all brands have a product or service in demand each and every season. Brand marketing leaders must think creatively to invest more in their content during seasons when customers will respond to it the most. However, the marketing for these brands should not dwindle down during their off season. It’s important to keep content consistent to retain followers and inspire purchases all year round. Here’s some ideas to maintain your brand through all four seasons…
To Boost or Not to Boost, that is the Question
Wondering the difference between boosted posts and paid ads through Ads Manager on Facebook and Instagram? It really comes down to strategy and objectives. Before choosing to boost or create a paid ad in Ads Manager, ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish with this specific campaign and who you’re trying to reach. For example, if you want audience engagement on your page or to develop your brand awareness, boosting a post is a great way to maximize visibility and grow your audience. On the other hand, to create more advanced ad types and campaigns, utilizing Ads Manager is most helpful in creating a customized paid ad.
How Will Artificial Intelligence Affect Marketing in the Future?
Have you ever bought something very specific through an online store, then later that day you see an ad on Instagram for that exact product? It’s not just a coincidence!
Technology continues to advance to help brands personalize advertisements targeting individual customers in a meaningful way, through the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Using AI, brands can track customers’ product searching history and past purchases to recommend similar or equally popular products on their website or through social media. Companies continue to hire more and more big data professionals, like programmers and data scientists, for they will soon become the backbone of most marketing campaigns.
Artificial intelligence uses machine learning and big data analysis to gather customer profile information for companies to enhance the customer experience and remain competitive in the market. Before diving into what this means for marketing in the future, let’s take a closer look at just what makes AI so powerful.
Impactful Email Marketing Campaigns
Contrary to popular opinion, the days of email marketing are not over. As a business owner, when budgeting and coordinating your marketing strategies, it’s essential to develop effective campaigns that attract, delight, and engage your consumers. As a result, these campaigns achieve a positive return on investment, while simultaneously building the brand voice that carries out the message your brand stands for. I believe one of the most effective ways to do this and to reach existing customers is through regularly scheduled email marketing campaigns.
This means of communication outperforms all online marketing strategies including PPC, SEO, and content marketing. In fact, on average, for every $1 you spend on email campaigns, you can expect a return of about $50.
One of the main factors to consider when crafting an impactful email marketing campaign is to create personalized, targeted messages to reach your different customer segments. Let’s take a closer look at this.
Top Tips for Creating an Effective Customer Persona
As a business owner, when planning your marketing strategies, it’s only natural to have a lot of creative ideas that you envision for your brand. While this kind of creativity fosters new, positive ventures, sometimes, your customer’s ideals and values can get lost in the process. One of the most effective ways I have seen this overcome is through creating a customer persona. Essentially, a customer persona allows you to identify your target market’s core needs and wants, based around their buying behaviors. These key identifiers then drive your campaigns as you work to establish features to help your particular customer achieve their desired outcomes.
Through providing a truly unique customer experience, you’re setting yourself apart from the competition and customers will begin to become loyal to your brand. Knowing your ideal customer and identifying how you’re best able to provide them with the value they deserve will only benefit your brand and (most importantly) your customer in the long-run.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled our top tips for creating an effective customer persona.
How Leaders can Cope with Rejection in Business
Have you ever worked day in and day out to prepare for a potential business opportunity just to hear a big fat “no” in return? I’ve certainly been there before and while we all know rejection is possible, when it actually happens, we’re never fully prepared.
No matter how competitive you may be in nature, as a business person—rejection often creates an instant overwhelming feeling of loss, despite how small or big the opportunity. However, regardless of the loss, we can all learn a valuable lesson, and often, these experiences push us to self-reflect, re-visit the drawing board and realize that sometimes a loss isn’t always a bad thing! Here are a few tips that have helped me along the way, as I have coped with rejection in business.
Balancing Work Life as a Mom
Women’s history month is a time to reflect on all of the sacrifices moms in the workforce have overcome to get us to where we are today. Starting every day at 6am(or earlier!), working through the battles of getting the kids dressed, fed, and off to school before stepping foot in the office for a day full of never-ending meetings has become the normal for women in the workforce. However, being a working mom can cause overwhelming stress from the divided attention between home life and work life. I’ve walked in those shoes and can say from my own personal experience that for me, staying organized and focused have proven to be a few of the keys to balancing profession and parenthood. If you’re struggling to find that balance, here are a few of the tips that have helped me (attempt to) balance life as a working mama!
Top 5 Qualities of an Effective Leader
There are many definitions and perspectives around effectiveness when it comes to being a leader. After ample research and through my own experience as a business owner, I have come to believe that the most important quality that an effective leader must possess is the ability to adapt to their surroundings. This ability is rooted in building effective work environments and as a result, empowering a team to succeed together.
Four of the Hottest 2021 Social Media Trends!
Let’s start the year by covering all of the marketing trends that researchers say will most likely flourish in 2021. As the number of social media users grows every day, it’s more important than ever for brands to stay ahead of trends to keep up with the increasing competition. Based on experts’ analysis of the ever-evolving social media advertising tactics last year, here are some trending marketing opportunities you and your business should take advantage of this year.
Marketing Resources
For this blog, I want to focus on how you, a full-time (wearing all the hats) business owner can maximize your time and marketing strategy! There’s a few marketing resources that have been a true game changer along the way and I’m going to share those with you today! I am a firm believer in the power of utilizing the right tools for your business. That being said, these are not a one-size-fits-all. It’s simply a reference list for you to evaluate and determine which may best fit your business model and save you time and maybe even some money!
The Marketing Mix
I remember it like it was yesterday…I was sitting in my first-ever marketing class my freshman year of college and I opened up my Marketing 101 book. It was like everything inside the pages came to life for me—I loved reading about branding, strategy and how to build a marketing plan. This is also when I learned about the marketing mix and the four P’s of marketing: product, price, promotion, and place. Who knew then that those 4 little words would shape my future? Well, today I’m going to share a closer look at each of the components in the mix because identifying each of these for your brand could also shape your future marketing success!
Where it all began…
When it was time to decide on a college, I knew one thing for sure...I wanted to pursue my love of communications. Ever since I was a little girl, you could find me with a round hair brush in hand, delivering the nightly news. At first, I thought for sure I would major in broadcasting but then realized the demand and the difficulty in finding a work/life balance in the midst of all the crazy hours. That's when I started exploring my options and discovered that Nazareth had the perfect program that combined my love of writing with my deep rooted passion for communications.
My Daily “Toolkit” Essentials
When I decided to write a blog on my daily “toolkit” of essentials, I chuckled to myself because years ago, I would never even have a “toolkit”—let alone welcome the idea of talking about it! It’s amazing what changes happen between the ages of 25 and 30 and especially after having a baby! I feel like year 30 was most reflective for me. It marked 6 years of marriage with my husband, 2 years of being a mama, 1 year of running a marketing company that I built from the ground up, and most importantly the year I truly believe I started to embrace my true identity. That being said, this was only possible through placing the right tools in my kit and consistently implementing them into my life. Yes, you heard it right! It takes not only planning, but also doing to see a difference!
Maintaining your Brand Identity During a Pandemic
I never thought this would be a topic I’d be writing about, but, as the months have seemed to float by…it’s one that has become increasingly important. There’s no doubt that the past few months have been difficult for business owners and the one question that I have been getting the most is, “How do I maintain my brand identity during all of this uncertainty?”
The question that changed everything: “What’s holding you back?”
Picture this… it was the summer of 2018, I was 28, my first child was about 6 months old, post-partem hormones were at an all-time high and I was at a crossroads in my career. I remember having my phone on speaker as I changed my fifteenth diaper of the day on my bedroom floor when my mentor and business coach, Scott, asked me the question… “What’s holding you back?”
What I Love About Working With My Clients
When I first meet a client, we begin a creative process that starts at the initial meeting. First and foremost, I want to do more listening than talking as I dig deeper into who they are and what they do! I absolutely love this part of the process because it’s when I can see their passion come to life.
5 Things I have Learned as a Business Owner
As we approach b.mor’s 2 year anniversary this fall, I can’t help but reflect on the past few years and all that I have learned. Let me start by saying that I am no expert, I see each day as a fresh slate to learn even more than I knew the day before, however, coming from a family business I have some pieces of advice that I keep close to heart. Let’s take a closer look!