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Pop Digital Marketing In Advertising, Blog, E-Marketing, Facebook, How to, LinkedIn, Marketing, , Tips

Marketing During the Summer Season: Maximize Your Strategies

With summer in full swing, you may have seen a slight dip in engagement and sales while consumers are in “vacation mode.” It can be difficult to capture your audience’s attention as more people are spending less time on the internet and more time outside. According to a study by Fanpage Karma, they saw 39% more reactions on rainy days in spring, autumn, and winter than on sunny days. Despite the low activity, you can get the most out of the summer season with these marketing tips to encourage more interactions.

Here are 4 recommended tactics to keep your marketing strong and your audience engaged over the summer:

Retarget Ads

With increased sunshine, people are more likely to spend less time online, making it more difficult to drive sales and gain your consumer’s attention. Luckily, there are ways you can optimize your strategy with this trend in mind. Retargeting your ads on Facebook and Google allows brands to engage with their visitors long after they have left your website. These targeted ads will keep your business at the forefront of visitors’ minds while building trust and encouraging recent visitors to return to your site.

Summer Holidays

Take advantage of the Summer Holidays and find ways to tie them into your marketing strategy. You can also incorporate National Holidays into your campaign that are interesting to your unique audiences.

Building a sense of urgency by creating timer popups for holiday sales/promotions through targeted emails is another way to capture your audience’s attention.

Time to Experiment

Test out new, various methods with your audience during the summer months. This could be expressing appreciation to your customers through email campaigns, partnering with other businesses to promote products/services, sending out company merch like coffee cups or t-shirts, or pushing loyalty programs that incentivize sales during a typically slow period.

Do not be afraid to take risks and step out of the box with your marketing strategies. Creative campaigns are a great way to connect with your audience and stand out from your competition. It’s all about differentiating your company.

Take Advantage of Social Media

You may see a decline in engagement during the summer months, but do not let that discourage you and slow down your posts. Try to incorporate that fun summer feeling into your feed and create creative content that encourages your audience to engage. This could be a call-to-action, summer-themed hashtags, seasonal videos, or hosting a contest to engage your audience.

Make sure to be posting consistently at optimal times throughout each week. Decreasing your post times can negatively affect your posting algorithm and ultimately who sees your posts. You may need to adjust your current schedule as your audience may be active at various times of day during these warmer months.

Marketing in the summer is full of potential, so make sure that your company is taking advantage of all the great opportunities available. Summer is the perfect time to be creative and discover new ways to engage your audience while creating maximum exposure during this traditionally slow time.

Robyn Ackerman In Advertising, Facebook, Instagram, , Tips

How Facebook’s Latest Change Will Significantly Impact Ad Targeting

Meta for Business and Facebook just announced that beginning Jan 19, 2022, they are removing “detailed targeting options” from the Ads Manager Tool that would be considered “sensitive topics” such as:

Health causes (e.g., “Lung cancer awareness”, “World Diabetes Day”, “Chemotherapy”)
Sexual orientation (e.g., “same-sex marriage” and “LGBTQ+ culture”)
Religious practices and groups (e.g., “Catholic Church” and “Jewish holidays”)
Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, and figures

For clients of PDM, many of which provide services in the healthcare, education or professional service industries, this can have a negative impact on personalized ad reach.

Thankfully, there are still ways to reach your audience:

5 methods your company can implement to still drive conversions through Facebook Ads in 2022

Engagement Custom Audiences: Reach people who have liked your page or people who have engaged with your posts in their News Feed. These people have already expressed a direct interest in your services or products and ads will yield a higher success rate if shown to them.
Location Targeting: If you own a brick-and-mortar or are advertising a local event, you can reach people in a specific vicinity using location targeting. For businesses that offer services in the home, or companies that ship products, you may set your radius around serviced zip codes and your ad will be shown to people in those targeted areas.
Lookalike Audiences: Similar to Engagement Custom Audiences, Lookalike audiences can be built to target Facebook/Instagram users that fall under the same user categories as a seed audience. Use this option if you want to broaden your reach to people who share interests, locations and have purchased products or services similar to yours.
Website Custom Audiences: You can build a list on Facebook Ads that retargets anyone who has previously visited your website. Using Website Custom Audiences is a powerful remarketing tactic that will increase your conversions by 56%.
Customer Lists. If you have already built customer email lists in your own CRM tool and have permission from subscribers to use their information, you can upload your lists into Facebook’s Custom Audiences. This tool will help you target, retarget, and stay top of mind with old and new customers.

Initially, once these changes take effect in January, you may experience a drop in conversions. However, if you set up your ads using any of the above approaches, you can avoid a big decline and keep your engagement and conversion numbers growing.

Looking for help getting your ads set up? Reach out to a Pop Digital Marketing specialist and Get Discovered.

Breea Cristofoli In Advertising, Marketing,

Diversity Marketing: Creating A Strategy That Works

A recent study conducted by Adobe found that “61% of Americans find diversity in advertising important”. The modern consumer wants to feel seen by brands and diversity marketing is the key to achieving your audiences’ trust and approval.

Diversity marketing allows your business to approach the market from a variety of angles and widen your reach. Brands often fail because their marketing is too narrow and doesn’t represent ‘real’ people in the present society. The present & future of marketing is now and it is diverse. Consumers are paying attention, are you?

What Is Diversity Marketing?

Diversity marketing is a marketing strategy that appeals to multiple groups of consumers. Successful diverse marketing stems from having a deep understanding of various cultures so that you can create effective and authentic content for your target audience. Brands often fail to reach these markets because their strategies are too narrow, only appealing to one or two specific groups.

If you want to create an effective diverse marketing strategy, you need to go that extra mile to research and truly understand these diverse groups. You should learn about your target audience by asking questions and experimenting. The more effort you put forth helps to ensure that your brand’s diversity marketing strategy is a success.

3 Steps in Creating a Successful Diversity Marketing Strategy:

1. Learn and Understand your Company’s Diverse Market

The first thing to do in diverse marketing is to dive deep into your consumer’s minds and learn about these different groups that exist. According to a recent report from Facebook, “most (71%) expect brands to promote diversity and inclusion in their online advertising”. Take the time to understand these groups and learn how they would want to see themselves in media, be spoken to, and discussed.

2. Add Inclusive Imagery into Your Content

People want to be able to see themselves in a brand’s advertisements and content. If a brand is only using images portraying one type of person, they are narrowing their audience. According to a report from Heat Test, “69% of brands with representative ads saw an average stock gain of 44% in a seven-quarter period ending last year”. Having a wider, more inclusive representation in your brand’s imagery is a key factor in a successful diverse marketing strategy.

3. Strategize Ways to Prevent Tokenism

Tokenism is the practice of only doing a symbolic effort to do a particular thing. This is basically when brands singularly try to appear more inclusive and diverse when they are actually doing this to just make their consumers happy. People are quick to know when a company is not authentic, and doing this can really damage your brand. Make sure you come from a place of sincerity and authenticity; this will ensure your diverse efforts will be a success.

Successful Diversity Marketing:

Creating a successful diversity marketing strategy doesn’t just benefit your brand and consumers, it influences the positive change of a more accepting cultural, inclusive, and diverse world. The team at Pop Digital Marketing aims to ensure our marketing strategies are as effective as possible for our clients. The more you understand your diverse audience, the more likely you will achieve success.

Robyn Ackerman In Blog, Marketing, News, , Tips, Training

Creating a Positive Virtual Culture for Your Company

As 2020 wrapped over 50% of the American workforce had gone remote. According to a growmotely.com survey, 74% of employees expect to continue to work remotely indefinitely. This has shifted the workforce to providing remote work from a once or twice a week perk to a full job expectation.

Organizations and companies who spent a good portion of the last 10 years building a positive in-person culture to attract and retain talent, now have to figure out how to transfer that culture online. To many, online access means more communication. To others, it leads to less interaction, less time to acquaint on a more personal level with co-workers, and ultimately less of a working relationship that generally builds comfort and positivity among staff.

One of the most underutilized marketing tactics is internal marketing. Get your team to love their work, their culture and they will organically market your company. So how do we modify our efforts of creating an in-person positive culture to that of an almost permanent positive virtual culture?

5 steps to create a positive virtual company culture:

Revisit your company values, and make sure they still align with how you now function remotely. If employees feel that their work experience is not aligned with what your values state, there will be a disconnect. If need be, rewrite your company values to support your new way of internal efforts.
Encourage open communication. Not like before. But really this time. Have an online wall of suggestions to make the company better and increase internal satisfaction. Microsoft Teams offers an excellent option for this through its “Channels”.
Change your language. The way in which you refer to simple internal terms subconsciously sets the tone for each member. Take away terms like “daily tasks” that have a negative connotation to them. Use “Daily Goals” in your morning meeting language and end your days with each member noting their “Daily Accomplishments”.
Create a positive online news board. Start progress tracking through a project management system like ASANA or Monday and share wins. This is where your employees get to share their accomplishments, co-employee gratitude, and more.
Keep planning company events. Just because your company is mostly remote now, does not mean you have to cancel all events. You can hold a slew of online team-building activities or if enough of your team is local and comfortable, you can still continue quarterly/yearly outdoor events. The goal is to keep the fun current and the excitement ongoing.

What’s great about implementing all these ideas within your culture, is that these steps are all marketing tactics to increase internal brand happiness. Once your employees become accustomed to generating positivity virtually, it will trickle to their online actions as well. Those who were once reluctant to promote their work online are now embracing it and using the steps they found rewarding internally to promote where they work externally.

Ready to Get Discovered?

Daniel Ackerman In Blog, How to, Instagram, , Tips

4 Important Ways to Improve your Instagram Feed!

There’s just something about Instagram that we, as a society, can’t seem to get enough of. Even with that frustrating change to the algorithm, Instagram seems to be everyone’s favorite! There are a ton of tips out there on how to beat the algorithm but it’s even more important to have a profile that speaks to your ideal audience and potential clients. Below you’ll find 4 important ways to improve your Instagram Feed AND exactly how to implement them!

First, Build Your Brand:

As a designer, I cannot stress enough the importance of your brand! Your brand IS NOT simply your logo – it is the entire aesthetic of your business. When it comes to Instagram this includes everything from the images you post to the captions you write. This tells your audience who you are, what your brand stands for and the type of audience you want to appeal to.

Building your brand is all about finding colors, images, and words that speak to what your business is all about! When it comes to Instagram having cohesiveness is key! Let’s take a look at some examples of businesses whose branding is on point ?.

Brands WE LOVE on Instagram:

@shopbando – Bando the brand is Colorful, Fun, & Creative – Just like their products and their Instagram shows this off perfectly!

@getawayhouse- If their feed doesn’t literally make you want to GET AWAY… Idk what will! Their Instagram reflects their rentals with a darker edit, which reflects their cozy cabins perfectly!

We know coming up with what to post on Instagram can be hard and time-consuming. Last month Pop Digital Marketing developed a 30 Days of Instagram Content. The blog became so popular that it had over 300 shares in the first hour!

Next, Update Your Bio:

You have up to 150 Characters for a bio about YOUR BRAND! One mistake I constantly come across concerns bios that talk more about the individual behind the brand as opposed to the brand itself. Consumers want to know about the products they can find in your shop or the services you offer above all else. I love that you have 2 rescue dogs but unfortunately, that isn’t going to teach me about your business.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t tell us fun information about yourself, but prioritize what you are offering and then fill in the bio with other information. Below is a little “recipe” for developing the perfect Instagram business bio.

Instagram Bio Recipe

2-3 things you offer / i.e products, services, etc.

1 personal detail (if it fits in the characters)

+ Call to action such as a promotion or a special offer – something to really grab their attention and make them click that link!!

Using this little recipe your bio may look like this:

✿ Web Design, Social Media, + SEO Expert

✿ Wife to Jeff + Mommy of 2

15% off when you Subscribe ⇣

(LINK TO WHEREVER HERE)

Bios WE LOVE on Instagram:

@girlsnightinclub – GNI Tells us exactly what they are right away and if we join we can be apart of an online community with 150,000 women!

@theslowtraveler – Carolyn tells us what she does followed by where she is located AND tips we can find on her blog! Perfection!

Then, Check Your Hashtags:

Hashtags can be tricky and there are so many places to start! The simplest way to begin is by using a hashtag Generator. Type in ONE keyword about your business then you will get results all around this one keyword!

Here is an example of results we got at Pop Digital Marketing with our Keyword being MARKETING:

You can choose to end your hashtag research here or you can take it one step further. The size, or the number of uses a hashtag has, can make or break your image in search. I’d suggest taking some time to research the number of uses a hashtag has by plugging it into Instagram.

For example, the hashtag #marketingguru has 154k users so the odds of your image being seen rapidly decrease! However, Instagram now has a “related” option for hashtags and this is where the real research comes in! Click through until you find hashtags with a lower number of uses – any with 50k or less are perfect!

Finally, Captions:

Your captions should represent the tone of your brand while talking about related topics. Use your captions to discuss new services or products, promotions, milestones, or even interests that relate to what your brand is about!

Captions can be a great way to tie an image into your brand. Let’s be real, we can’t always have the perfect image and sometimes those flowers are just too perfect not to post. This is an ideal opportunity to use the caption to tie the image into your brand!

In the end, it really comes down to your brand, not only on Instagram but for your entire business. Instagram is a great way to market your business and I hope these tips help improve your Instagram feed and even more importantly help reel in your ideal audience and potential clients! If you have any questions or need help at any point in the process feel free to contact us here or shoot us an email at info@PopDigitalMarketing.com

Robyn Ackerman In Advertising, Marketing, , Tips

How to use ‘Competitive Advantage First Language’ in your Marketing

The guidelines around how to develop effective messaging in your company’s ads have evolved considerably over the past 100 plus years. Fans of the TV show ‘Mad Men’ would be aware of the ad creation process in the 60s, which revolved heavily around storytelling via visual marketing collateral. And while that method is still well used, we now additionally rely on digital space advertising.

In the past, our ads drew on teasers, click-bait, and short descriptions in order to prompt prospects to click through to our product or service. As of the latest research, you have less than two seconds to grab the attention of a potential customer online – two seconds and they’re gone, they’ve already continued scrolling.

This means that the very first words a person sees on your posts, your ads and/or your website need to grab their attention immediately. One effective way to do this is by utilizing a competitive advantage first focused approach.

What is ‘competitive advantage first’ language’ marketing?

The competitive advantage first approach focuses on prioritizing your unique offerings, your differentiators in the very first copy of your ads – preferably at the beginning of the sentence.

If you’re unsure of what makes your company different, you’ll need to take a step back and do some hard research. Poll your current customers about what keeps them coming back, looks at what people are saying about your business in reviews, mentions on social, etc. What is it that comes up as the key defining feature that you want to be known for, and that others consistently refer to?

Why it works?

Very few businesses are entirely unique. There are likely hundreds or thousands of companies that do what you do, so you need to stand out to succeed. Catching the customer’s eye with your competitive advantage can be key to giving them a reason to click through.

Your secret sauce needs to be exactly what the customer needs, thinks he/she needs and/or doesn’t yet know they need yet. You are the answer to the question they’re asking.

Once you can adequately identify your competitive advantage, you can start working on the copy to place on your digital marketing campaigns. Your campaign language should visibly state how your service/product brings value. If you only have those two initial seconds, it’s vital that the first words people see outline a value.

Remember to try and steer with positive adjectives, and to tailor each campaign to the audience you’re targeting.

Examples of Competitive Advantage First Language Ads:

Monday.com

This ad is a prime example of presenting its value to a select audience. Their Competitive Advantage? They’ve done research on their audience and know the demographics they are targeting respond to adjectives like “new generation”. They lead with that claim.

Additionally, Monday.com claims to be the project management tool for Mac users. Visually, they fill in their logo with the Mac brand colors to connect the two even further.

Allbirds.com

Allbirds successfully uses competitive advantage first language in this ad. Look how they structure the ad copy under the video. Machine Washable is the biggest value and they placed that at the beginning of the sentence. Normally it would be phrased, “When life gets dirty, you need machine washable shoes”. But Allbirds took the value and restructured the sentence to grab the readers attention.

You can see how, by defining your key traits, you can boost your ad responsiveness. If there’s a key element you serve, it makes sense to highlight that in your copy – and with so little time to stop the scroll, you need to do so quickly.

Need help with identifying your company’s Competitive Advantage? Let Pop Digital Marketing help you Get Discovered.

Daniel Ackerman In Blog, How to, Infographic, Marketing, , Tips

30 DAYS OF INSTAGRAM CONTENT

Setting aside time to plan an entire Instagram feed can be time-consuming. One of the hardest parts is generating content that your followers are actually interested in. As an agency that curates and manages Instagram accounts for multiple clients, we’ve compiled a list of best practice posts to help ignite your company Instagram account into a highly engageable and followed brand leader. Below is a list of trending Instagram posts and topics relevant to 2019!

HINT: Don’t be afraid to ask your audience questions it helps with engagement and gives you insights to what they are looking for!

30 Days Of Post Material For Your Business Instagram Feed:

DAY 1: INTRODUCTION

Every Business (or blog, influencer, etc.) needs an introduction! Discuss who you are, where you are from, and what you are passionate about! This will help your audience connect with you and create genuine followers and future clients!

DAY 2: WORKSPACE

Show off your workspace and inspire others! I know I am a sucker for pictures of a decorated workspace! It’s always nice to tell your clients how you work and show off what motivates you (muscle emoji?)

Don’t have a workspace at home? Show off your favorite coffee shop and be sure to tag them!

DAY 3: PRODUCT / SERVICE

Start to show off your products and/or service! Start with your most popular or even a NEW service you just started offering! Describe the product or service briefly and then link to your actual website!

DAY 4: PET PICTURE

Do we even need to explain? Everyone loves a good pet pic!!

DAY 5: SELF-CARE

What do you do for self-care? We need to remember the importance of taking a moment for ourselves. Running a business is hard work and can feel like it takes over your life. R E L A X ~ give your audience some insights into how you take time for yourself!

DAY 6: BLOG POST

Show off a blog post! Resurface an old one or come up with something fresh! Blog posts are great for SEO and showing off your knowledge of the field or product!

DAY 7: LEARN ABOUT YOUR FOLLOWERS

Find out something valuable about your followers! Who are they, where are they from, and what content are they looking for? This gives you great insights about your audience and you can adjust your future posts to allow for engagement from them!

DAY 8: MILESTONES

Share a recent Milestone your business has reached! Maybe it is x amount of new clients or a completed project for a client!

DAY 9: CURRENT FAVORITE BOOK / PODCAST

What books or podcasts have you read that are currently inspiring you?! There are so many out there and people are constantly seeking out new ones to read or listen to! Make sure to tag the author/curator you are promoting!

DAY 10: SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION

Here is a great way to advertise your products while offering a discount to those who follow you on Social Media! Create a unique code (INSTAGRAM15 or FACEBOOK15) this allows you to track the number of times this code was used.

DAY 11: MORNING ROUTINE

Show off your morning routine! Do you hop out of bed and turn on the computer or enjoy a cup of coffee on the couch?!

DAY 12: FREEBIE

Who doesn’t like free items?! Create a freebie for your followers that pertains to your niche! There are hundreds of freebies online so maybe search around for some inspiration!

DAY 13: PAST CLIENT PROJECT

Show off a little with a completed project you’ve worked on in the past! Showing finished projects helps establish your business and the kind of work you do!

DAY 14: COZY SPACE

Post your favorite cozy space! This can be a space in your home or a local shop! Somewhere that inspires you!

DAY 15: FLOWERS / PLANTS

Maybe you finally planted some new flowers or just treated yourself to a bouquet! Flowers will always look pretty on your Instagram and they stand out when scrolling on Facebook!

DAY 16: FLAT LAY

Take some time to find creativity in your posts! Styling flat images are one of my favorite parts about Social Media! Find some of your favorite objects around the house (even include some past projects!) and start creating a visually pleasing flat lay!

DAY 17: CUSTOMER PHOTO

Customer photos are the best! It gives you content with little to no effort! I think it is best practice to ask the customer to use the image and make sure you tag them!

DAY 18: MINDFULNESS

Just like self-care mindfulness is so important! Take 20 minutes to meditate or do a little yoga session and share how it went with your followers!

DAY 19: SHARE A HOBBY

Share what you do on the side! You never know who may have the same interest to create a connection with!

DAY 20: #MONDAYMOTIVATION

Following trends like #MondayMotivation and #TestimonialTuesday are great for others searching through hashtags!

DAY 21: NEWSLETTER

Promote your newsletter! It’s always great to offer something for those who sign up! Maybe 15% off a service of a freebie download!

DAY 22: BEHIND THE SCENES

Take us behind the scene! This is especially great for those in the creative field! It’s refreshing to see HOW something is actually made!

DAY 23: YOUR CITY

Take us on a tour of your city! In the caption, you can provide some of your favorite places to shop, eat, and enjoy a good happy hour!

DAY 24: SUPPORT OTHERS

I am a sucker for accounts that support one another and I think businesses should do the same! Give a shout-out to another company, an Etsy shop or a local shop near you! Hey, they may even turn into a client.

DAY 25: ORGANIZATION TIP / TRICK

How do you stay organized? We are all looking for ways to better organize tasks and ourselves!

DAY 26: FAVORITE QUOTE

People can’t resist a good quote! Find something that resonates with you and your niche!

DAY 27: SHARE A RESOURCE

Share a resource! We all have them and there is nothing to be ashamed of! You can even ask your audience to share their favorites to get some more ideas for yourself!

DAY 28: CROSS PROMOTE YOUR NETWORKS

Take this time to encourage others to check out some of your other social media sites! Pinterest and Facebook are always good go-to networks!

DAY 29: #OOTD

Show off one of your favorite outfits! Maybe you just bought something new or are just bored with your same old office clothing. Take some time to dress up and show off! If you have a large company or team, show them off too!

DAY 30: SAYING THANK YOU

You should always find some time to thank your followers! They are supporting your virtually and financially! It’s always nice to show your appreciation!

Let us know below your favorite type of content to create!

If you would like help curating content specific to your industry, utilizing best practices- get in touch with our team!

Robyn Ackerman In Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, SEO, , Tips, twitter

5 Free Tools to Monitor your Competitors’ Digital Marketing Campaigns

Creating a holistic digital marketing strategy can take months. Effectively executing the strategy after tweaks, minimal fails and multiple learning curves can take up to a year. One stage often omitted from this important plan is monitoring competition. Watching your competitors online holds unparalleled benefits such as identifying market opportunities, connecting with companies you should be cross promoting, back-link insight, social listening and more.

Here are 5 Free Tools to monitor your competition:

Google Alerts: One of the most underused tools, Google Alerts allows you to monitor the internet for “interesting content”. You can set up alerts for your industry keywords or even for mentions and articles on your competition. Google alerts lets you customize the email reports you receive by how often you’d like the notifications, type of sources, the origin of source, and languages. Use alerts to drive trending content ideas and see how well your competition is doing with PR.
Facebook Pages: Facebook offers page admins the opportunity to “watch” competitor Facebook pages. To add a competitor page, simply go to your page insights, scroll to the bottom and type in the name of the business you’d like to watch. You can see the company’s follower growth, engagement and even the competitor’s top post from the past week.
HootSuite: HootSuite is a simple social media publishing tool that also offers numerous in-platform apps to increase the overall user experience. One of the free apps, TrendSpottr enables you to set up multiple “streams” in your HootSuite to watch trending topics, keywords, brand reputation and even identify industry influencers. HootSuite is also an excellent “social listening” tool for when potential customers are unhappy with the competition. Below is an example of great social listening in action. In this instance, I had tweeted dissatisfaction to Xfinity and within minutes received this tweet from their competitor:
Alexa: Alexa is a brilliant tool that my company uses prior to working with any company to analyze their overall reach. It can also be used to analytically measure competition. You can see how the competitor’s website ranks globally, what keyword searches are driving traffic to the site, which pages generate the highest engagement, and which sites link to the competitor’s site.
SEM Rush: SEM Rush offers great analytical reporting on all aspects of digital marketing performance. With a free account, you can see how your competition ranks, the keywords that generate high traffic, and even view their AdWords and video ad campaigns.

Once you have all this data at your fingertips, it is time to utilize it wisely by crafting new campaigns. Contact websites that link to your competitors to build new relationships, start focusing on keywords that drive heavy traffic to your competition’s site, avoid social media snafu’s that failed on your competitors’ platforms, and contact your competitor’s dissatisfied customers through social listening.

Robyn Ackerman In Blog, Facebook, Marketing, , Tips

Employee Brand Ambassadors | Why and How

A couple of years ago, we posted an article on Word of Mouth Marketing https://popdigitalmarketing.com/word-mouth-marketing/. The article explained the new wave of marketing tactics utilizing current “brand fans” through social media.

To reiterate, studies have shown that consumers are 65% more likely to choose a brand based on the recommendation of another customer or employee than buying from a brand based on an ad or company promotion. Customers today rely on trust. They trust other people, like them making every day decisions. They trust people, not companies.

Benefits of an Employee Brand Ambassador Program

Building your brand takes consistency, time and a strong brand strategy. It also takes a strong community of fans. Your employees play a fundamental role in promoting your brand. If your company is listed as the employee’s workplace on Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media platform, each and every time your employee engages in anything, they are representing your company. Once your brand strategy and brand promise have been developed, you must train your employees in what your brand story is. What your company represents. The problem your service or product solves.

Employee Silence is Loud

Your employees have the potential to expand your reach exponentially. Silence speaks volumes. If your employees never endorse your brand, that sends a very clear message to customers. They don’t love it. They do not believe in it. If your employees are engaged in and passionate about promoting your company, they will “sell”. It makes people excited to be a part of something everybody loves. It’s also great for recruitment.

How to Build Your Employee Ambassador Program

Develop your brand. This is the backbone of your program. You cannot continue until you have this set in stone.
Train your team. Your entire company must learn, understand and believe in your brand. If they do not, it may signal that you aren’t delivering your brand promise and need to re-evaluate either your brand promise or the process of your services/products.
Choose an Ambassador Leader. The Ambassador Leader is someone in your company that loves everything about coming to work. They already show their ambassadorship, share your company news online, have a strong following online and are an “influencer” online and off. This person does not need to be in your marketing department and can be at any level of management.
Make the program optional. You only want people participating if they choose to. If it is forced on everyone, it will show. The Ambassador Leader should assemble an Ambassador Team of employees that are excited to be a part of this new program.
Set expectations. Make sure the program has very clear and easy guidelines. The easier the program is to participate in, the more employees will want to join. If you are using an ambassador management system, provide each participant with a tutorial. If you are not using a system, make sure create your own standard process.
Don’t write scripts…..but have materials ready. Allow each team member to promote the materials in his or her own words. Again, we want to work off trust. If customers see everyone writing the exact same script, it becomes an ad, not a genuine referral. If you are not using an Ambassador system, you can use google docs to place all the types of content/materials you want promoted, and track employees’ efforts there.
Lead by example. Don’t expect employees to be passionate about your brand if your top executives are not. The leaders of your company do not necessarily need to participate in the program for rewards, but they absolutely should use the material to promote on across their various networks.
Measure and Reward. Make sure you have a measuring system set. Hashtags are an excellent tool for measuring. Choose a specific hashtag such as “PopDigitalMarketinglife” and check it on a weekly basis. Your Ambassador Program should provide rewards as well. Rewards must be attainable and set on a short term basis (people like immediate results). Rewards can range from praise and recognition, gift cards, group lunches to elaborate gifts.

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