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Social Media Marketing Trends for 2022

by Robert P. Dickey | Dec 16, 2022 | News Articles

Social media marketing is critical to small businesses. It continues to be a significant element in digital marketing. Social media profiles allow you to share content, drive traffic to your website, sell goods and services, and engage customers. Because it has so many roles to play, it’s constantly changing. So, what social media marketing trends are important for small businesses right now? Let’s find out.

Why Should You Care About Social Media Marketing?

You may think that social media marketing doesn’t deliver returns, or you don’t have the time to devote to it. But not participating on social media could impact your brand reach, credibility, and more.

Having an active profile on social media sites can deliver many benefits. First, you can cultivate a community and grow your following. Second, it enables you to connect with users that may not find you otherwise. Third, it acts as a content distribution channel so that your blogs, videos, and other content find a greater audience.

To reap these benefits, you have to keep up, and that’s challenging. There are so many platforms, and they evolve rapidly with new features. Here’s what we know about social media marketing trends for 2022.

Live Streaming Enables Engagement

Live streaming is a popular content format on many different social media sites. The amount of live stream content rose last year, in part due to the pandemic. Brands created how-to content or had a live Q&A to compensate for the lack of in-person interaction.

Consumers are enjoying it, with 40% wanting to see more of it. Live streaming doesn’t require you to be a Hollywood director. It should be authentic and natural. Consider what will resonate with your audience and what topic is best for this format. For example, local builders could live stream a conversation about materials and how they function.

Stories Grab Attention

Multiple social media profiles allow you to create stories, which are usually temporary. However, you can create collections of stories on Instagram.

Because they have this temporal allure, users may choose to engage with them more than other posts. A study revealed that Instagram stories have a 5.65% higher tap-forward than just regular videos.

Are stories right for you? They work well for product promotion and events. Stories are a great content format to test out new approaches to connecting via social media.

Augmented Reality Creates New Opportunities

Digital acceleration received a boost in 2020. Consumers needed new ways to experience products since they couldn’t do so in person. Enter augmented reality (AR). AR doesn’t require additional hardware like virtual reality, so it’s more accessible. Many brands are using AR filters on social media to engage with customers.

It’s creative and something most consumers will want to view and consume. When creating AR opportunities, you should keep fun in mind. Utility matters as well, including using AR to allow customers to see items in their homes.

Social Commerce Remains Dominant

Another social media marketing trend that’s not cooling is social commerce. It’s becoming easier and more seamless for customers to buy in this channel. Facebook Shops is one of the most prominent.

Social media users already use these platforms to find and research new products. If they can purchase within the same experience, it’s more convenient, and consumers love convenience. Managing this can be complex, so if you plan to experiment with social commerce, get support from a social media marketing agency.

Ready to Leverage Social Media Marketing Trends for Your Brand?

Social media marketing involves many moving pieces, but staying up to date on trends can help you attract and engage customers. If you need help with this area of digital marketing, we can help. Get in touch with our social media marketing experts today.

4 Ways Home Improvement Digital Marketing Drives Revenue

by Robert P. Dickey | Dec 9, 2022 | News Articles

The home improvement industry continues to be one full of growth. With tight real estate markets and a pandemic that left many working and staying at home more, people are eager to update their spaces. It’s also a competitive field, and those looking for your services will likely begin their search online. That means you need to be on their radar, and home improvement digital marketing can help you capture that revenue.

Here’s how!

A Modern, Mobile-Friendly Website Is a Must-Have

If your website is stuck in the past, you aren’t going to attract customers with it. It needs to have a clean style and be easy to navigate, especially on mobile. That’s likely where most people will be looking at it, so if the experience is bad, they’ll bounce and never return.

Revamping your website with high-quality imagery, copy, and layouts will keep them on your site to learn and explore. The longer they are on your site, the more likely they will get in touch.

Strong SEO Drives Traffic

If your website includes SEO best practices and you’re optimizing for keywords that consumers are searching for, you can drive a lot of traffic. And it’s organic traffic, so those clicks may be more valuable. A key way to rank well and earn the click is ensuring you have:

Service pages on your website with the right keywords (e.g., bathroom remodeling, kitchen renovations) and location-specific terms.
Fresh content on your website, including before and after images and blogs that educate homeowners about home improvement projects.
An optimized home page that again includes location content and what your capabilities are.

Social Media Marketing Attracts Users Where They’re Looking for Inspiration

Social media platforms are the second most popular area for searching after Google. So, you want to have a consistent presence here with a completed profile page. Regularly posting job photos and content can help build your following and get you noticed. You’ll also want to request reviews here because homeowners will be looking for those.

Social media marketing campaigns can be effective with the right strategy. With these ads, you can target an audience based on geography and demographics, like being a homeowner. Such social media campaigns can be a fantastic way to find leads.

Paid Search Ads

In addition to working on organic rankings on Google, paid search ads can also be fruitful for capturing revenue. Google Ads can be tricky to execute and optimize, so using a team of experts makes more sense for most home improvement companies.

What’s critical in reaping benefits from this home improvement digital marketing tactic is bidding on keywords relevant to your company and the search terms people input. You’ll also want to be location-specific and have persuasive copy to get people to click. It should include what you do, why your company meets their needs, and demonstrations of credibility (e.g., ratings, awards).

Then you’ll want to send them to a custom landing page that provides information about services with a form to complete and submit.

Home Improvement Digital Marketing That Works

Home improvement digital marketing can be complex, but you don’t have to manage it on your own. We’ve partnered with many companies in the industry, providing website design, SEO services, social media marketing, paid search, and more. Find out how we can help you generate more revenue.

Medical Practice Website Design: The Prescription for a Healthy Online Presence

by Robert P. Dickey | Dec 2, 2022 | News Articles

The customer journey is a pivotal part of marketing efforts. It maps out how your buyers make decisions along the way to choosing a solution or service. In an omnichannel world, your customers seek out information about the problem they need to fix, consider the options, and make a decision.

Understanding your business’s unique customer journey will impact your ability to attract and convert your audience.

What Is the Customer Journey?

The customer journey describes all interactions and experiences a customer has with a brand to achieve a goal (i.e., resolve their challenge). There are three key areas:

Awareness: The customer has a need and begins exploring companies with relevant solutions.
Consideration: A customer further researches the options and learns more about your company and its specific benefits.
Decision: Customer completes due diligence and comparisons and is ready to make a purchase.

Regardless of your industry or customer base, all three stages need specific tactics to ensure visibility and delivery of the right messaging to keep buyers moving toward your organization as the answer.

Aligning Digital Marketing Tactics to the Customer Journey

So, how can you ensure your company will be a contender for buyers? Let’s look at the digital marketing tactics that align with each stage.

Awareness: Attracting Attention

In the Awareness stage, customers are defining their problems and pain points and researching how to solve them. For digital tactics to be successful, you’ll need to understand the audience’s challenges and goals. You’ll also want to determine what channels they use to seek out information.

Strategies to use in awareness include:

SEO and content marketing: Create content on your website pages and blog that your buyers would search for as they begin to recognize a problem. With high-quality, consistent content, you can increase your website’s search engine ranking.
Educational or explainer videos: Develop engaging content that breaks down complex issues and informs the watcher.

Consideration: Making the Case for Your Company

At the Consideration stage, audiences have a greater understanding of how to tackle their problem and that your business has a solution. Move to the top of their list by:

Continuing to create SEO content: At the middle stage, your content should include more niche keywords and begin to showcase how your product or service is the best option.
Case studies: Publishing a case study demonstrating your company’s effectiveness can lead to trust and credibility.
Product specifications: Customers are getting into the details, and these documents can improve their understanding of features and benefits.

Determining customer preferences and how they make buying decisions are crucial to deploying these strategies.

Decision: The Conversion

The Decision stage is the culmination of research. Depending on the urgency of the need or the cost of the solution, customers can arrive here quickly or slowly. To win the business, you should know what influences their buying decisions (e.g., cost, reviews, speed) and remove any barriers to the conversion.

Launch these tactics in the Decision stage:

Paid search: Craft campaigns on paid search that include high intent to buy with terms like buy, purchase, hire, schedule, etc.
Social media ads: Target specific demographics, locations, and preferences with exclusive offers to nudge them to a decision.

Enhance the Customer Journey at Every Stage

Managing the customer journey can be a challenge, as so many factors affect it. The tactics you use must be consistent and frequent, which may seem like too much for your small business. The experts at AQ Marketing can help. Contact us today to find out how.

Defining the Customer Journey and Aligning Tactics at Every Stage

by Robert P. Dickey | Nov 27, 2022 | News Articles

Launching your own business can be a significant undertaking. There are many aspects to consider—operations, processes, labor, inventory, and marketing. Marketing for local business start-ups is critical for your company to take off and get in front of the community.

Managing the many aspects of digital marketing can be overwhelming. The most critical asset in your marketing strategy is your website. We’re sharing some essential tips that small business start-ups will appreciate.

Define Your Website Goals

First, you want to develop the objectives your website will accomplish. That varies depending on the type of business. For eCommerce options, your website has to become an online store.

For others, a website defines what services you offer and to whom. The goal for a website in this category would be to attract customers, engage them, and drive them to convert. That conversion could be a call to request service or foot traffic at your physical store.

When identifying your goals and how customers would use your website, always consider their experience and make it easy to navigate and find information.

Choose a Flexible Template

Most WordPress websites use a template. Many of its components regarding layout and styling are changeable. Your website’s purpose and how visitors will use it will influence the theme you select. Make sure it’s a template that won’t limit future growth and that adding new pages or features won’t be an issue.

Create a Design Aesthetic

If you’ve already got your branding elements—logo, color palettes, and fonts—they’ll be the start of this digital mood board. Your template will also guide this, but you should work with designers and developers to build a website with consistent branding and digital representation of your company.

Some other design features to consider are:

Photos versus illustrations (you could use both)
White space (you’ll want some for easy readability on mobile)
Breaks between sections
Spacing
Backgrounds
Headings and other formatting

Outline Navigation and Content

Once you have a design plan, you’ll need to focus on the meat of the website—the navigation and content. Navigation should be intuitive and simple on any device. Not every page on your website will be on the top navigation. Decide where you want visitors to land the most (e.g., product pages, conversion pages, shopping areas).

Content will also shape your navigation. Start by making a complete list of every page you think your website should have. Then bullet point the content you expect to go on the page. You’ll want to compare layouts with text so that you’re writing to the design. That may mean you want to limit character count in certain areas. Another aspect of this is where you’ll place button links.

Align Your Planning with Execution

Once you have these fundamental pieces in place, you should tap a professional web design firm specializing in small, local businesses. These teams have the experience and expertise to be true advisors as you build your website. They are experts at marketing for local business start-ups. They’ll let you know what’s possible and what areas you should optimize to ensure you get local traffic from search engines.

You’ll find such a team at AQ Marketing. We help local start-ups with website design, SEO, and more. Contact us today to get started.

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