In this digital age, it is almost necessary for brands—whether businesses or individuals—to have an online presence. Not only has it become people’s instinct to look a brand up online when they first hear of it, an online presence also establishes a sort of legitimacy. Especially if you have a good following and good engagement on your page. In fact, marketing yourself or your business online has become so effective that many businesses run on social media platforms alone. Online shops on Instagram and Facebook, are some examples—pretty sure you’ve seen a lot of them. A lot of bloggers and “influencers” also rely on these two top social networking sites to network and connect with people in the same industry and, most importantly, their followers.
But how do you grow your brand online? In this era when everyone and every brand are online, how can you make people to take notice of your business? I was at the recently-held Digital Marketing Conference at Music Museum, and here are a few things I learned from the speakers:
5. Don’t underestimate the value of micro-influencers.
If you are a business owner looking at social media influencers to partner with and promote your brand, don’t overlook micro-influencers. Micro-influencers might not have hundreds of thousands of followers or be celebrity-level famous, but their followers are more niche-targeted, which is what you should want. The engagement from their followers is usually high, because they are a specific community who share the same passion. One example is pro-surfer Luke Landrigan, whom not everyone might know, but is a celebrity in his own right in the surfing community. If you are a water sports, health, or surfing brand, tapping into surfing personalities is the perfect strategy to reach your target audience.
4. Make hot topics last by mixing them with ever-green angles.
The advantage with digital content is that it’s lasting. Once you put it up online, it’s there for life (unless you deliberately delete it, of course). This is a wonderful feature to digital marketing you should be taking advantage of.
Now, we do get super hot topics every now and then on the internet, and they’re highly viral. The thing is, hot topics die out just as quickly as they explode, too. A few days to a few weeks, tops. So how can you ride on these hot topics without your content having an expiration date? Simple. You take hot topics and find an angle that will make them ever-green (without expiration).
An example: the recent news about the CHR being granted a P1,000 budget for 2018 sparked outrage among citizens. One of our writers turned that hot topic into an ever-green article by reacting to the news with a twist: Hanggang Saan Aabot Yung P1,000 Mo? Here Are 16 Things
3. People first before platforms.
In digital marketing, don’t forget that your mission is to connect with people. To do this, your content must always be relatable. Converse instead of broadcast. Know who your audience is, and use a tone, angle, and content that match their interests.
One tip in creating relatable content is to draw from personal experience. Human experience is universal, which is why going for emotional approach in commercials is always effective. One example is this article “How to Rock a Swimsuit Even When You’re Not Exactly Skinny (Like Me)”. This article got great hits and a 100% positive response on Facebook (which, let’s admit, is am achievement cos people can be cruel sometimes). Why? Because people can relate to it, and they love positive, inspiring stories.
2. Experience > Things.
Believe it or not, people are less materialistic now than compared to a decade or two ago. Most especially millennials, who are the bulk of the internet’s population n0wadays anyway. Which is why people are traveling now more than ever. They care less about money than they do for life experience.
This is a good note to remember when creating content. When marketing your brand, keep in mind that people are aspirational. When you try to sell, don’t sell the product. Sell the intangible things. The experience they can get from the product. For example: selling a condominium unit is not just selling a house, you’re selling a lifestyle. Clothes? You’re selling style and confidence. A workshop? You’re selling the skill.
This is why people love eating out and coffee shops. Think about it. It’s actually not the food and coffee people are after (frankly, don’t they just all taste the same?). It’s the experience of dining, hanging out, or sitting in a coffee shop that people love, especially when shared with good company.
1. Nothing tops great content.
Last but not the least, nothing beats the simplest but best tip of all: strive for great content. You can market your business or yourself all you want on social media, but if the content you put out aren’t of good quality, all your efforts will go to waste. Good content just naturally carries itself and delivers good engagement.
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Want to learn more about Digital Marketing? Neotrade Events has another master class coming up this Sept 28-29 at SMX Aura. For more info, log on to their website www.neotrade.co or follow them on Facebook at @NeotradeEvents
