It’s important to outline your marketing goals from the outset. Some marketing goals include generating leads, increasing sales, improving customer retention, and growing your business.

Social media isn’t an isolated “thing”. It should help you accomplish all of these goals. But if you don’t have a social media strategy, then you’ll have an “active” social media account and little else to show for it.

Here are some social marketing tips you can use to help grow your business.

1. Answer the Why:  Why are you blogging? Why are you on Twitter? Why are you using social media? Here are the answers you are probably thinking of right now:
   (a) increase brand awareness by growing your reach
   (b) build customer loyalty by providing more support
   (c) increase sales by getting more people to purchase, more frequently.
   If you can’t answer the why, then don’t even start your social media activity!

2. Ignore Your Competition: Trying to benchmark other people’s amount of Fans and Followers is silly and frankly just egotistical. You’ll start making bad decisions because you’re trying to “keep up”. The best tactical ideas and campaigns haven’t happened in your industry yet. So set out your social media strategy to figure out what new, untapped opportunities you can seize and gain an early lead. Look at what businesses are doing in other industries and try to experiment with similar tactics.
3. Don’t Be on Every Social Network: Community management will drain all of your resources, especially if you don’t have marketing departments like larger companies might have. Contrary to popular belief, social media isn’t free! Each social network you manage will cost you exponentially more time, money and energy. It takes tremendous resources to do it properly, and has an enormous opportunity cost. So prioritise one or two networks and focus on strategically developing these.
4. Be Effective: Social media is wonderful, but people confuse busyness with effectiveness. Start with a goal, reverse engineer how you’re going to reach that goal, identify your highest activities, prioritise and set deadlines, be disciplined and accountable. Be effective.
5. Be a Publisher: Digital marketing can’t exist without content. No SEO. No email marketing. No social media. That means you’re in the media business. So you better start learning how to create valuable content. Create content, provide expertise, or use adverts to put yourself in front of communities of people – and give them the chance to find you.
6. Ignore Trends: Trends are like waves in the ocean, they come and they go. Pinterest might work for some businesses. But for others, it’s a waste of time. For your business, it probably has the wrong kind of traffic, not enough users, and a demographic mismatch. Instead, focus and invest in the fundamentals – like your blog, email marketing and your main social media accounts.
7. Create a voice: People don’t want to connect with faceless corporations. They want to connect with real humans. But a lot of companies still don’t understand this. No one will like, trust or respect your company in the long run if they can’t talk to a human, in a timely manner.
8. Stand out from the crowd:  Why are you in business? Why are you using social media? People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Think about the special companies that you like and admire. They start with “Why”. They tap into a bigger cause than themselves, and that emotionally connects with people. If you only sell “What” you do, then you’re going to be stuck selling commodities and you’ll always compete on price. Answer the why!
9. Send an email: Simply put… Email marketing is still the most profitable online marketing channel. 
10. People Talking About You: Facebook’s EdgeRank was designed to keep companies from spamming their “fans”. So, it only allows you to reach the fans that actively engage with your brand. “People Talking About This” is the closest metric you have to increase your “viral reach”. The higher that number goes, the better chance you have of reaching more people. And the bigger your page will grow because you’ll start reaching more “friends of fans”. Get people talking about you – get them liking, commenting and generally interacting with your Page.

Social media is much more than “engaging in the conversation”. It’s a new way of doing things, and a new set of tools to help you do it. But the same marketing fundamentals apply. You need to gain attention, build trust, and keep people engaged longer.

Because in addition to growing your “social media presence”, you’ll also be able to get more traffic, bring in more leads and create more happy customers.

Be a social business, not just a business that uses social media!

The post Ten simple but effective ways to enhance your social media marketing appeared first on Aoife Rigney Digital Marketing.

1. Plan ahead

This is number one for a reason; the first step for creating a Christmas digital campaign should be planning. Think of what you would like to include in the content, any special offers and so on. What are your key messages? Plan your website content (and blog posts) as well as a schedule of Facebook/Twitter updates. Of course, it is also very important to integrate your digital and traditional marketing campaign.

 2. Design for Christmas

Update your social media graphics (Facebook cover, Twitter header etc.) to have a Christmas theme.  Consider sending out an email newsletter to your customers this Christmas perhaps including a discount or free gift. Use the Christmas theme throughout all your marketing efforts.

3. Analyse last year’s Christmas Campaign

When planning your Christmas or seasonal marketing programme, start by taking a look at the same time period in previous years. We’re all only human after all, so learn from your previous mistakes, build upon previous successes and make this year’s seasonal period the best one yet for your organisation. Take note of any good points and any bad points from the digital marketing campaign including content, graphics and engagement on social media as well as reviewing the analytics for your website and do a keyword analysis. Look and what you did last year, then modify it to make it even better.

4. What are your competitors doing?

Subscribe to competitor newsletters to see how they are running their Christmas email marketing campaigns. Maybe go on Twitter and search for “newsletter” to get ideas from other companies running email campaigns. A good idea for the retail sector could be to run an email campaign under the theme of “12 Days of Christmas” with a different discounted product every day, or a different prize everyday on Facebook and so on. Look at your competitors blogs from last year, what did they write about? Check them out on social media. Who were they talking to? Listen to your customers. Ask them what they would like. Search for keywords on Twitter or on Hootsuite and see what people are saying. Perhaps be “different” and do an alternative Christmas.

5. Share important information

Don’t forget to let everyone know opening hours over Christmas to make everyone aware of any days that you are not operating. Also include any latest dates on ordering products to make sure they can be delivered in time for Christmas. These are important pieces of information which may have a big impact on purchases made online!

6. Don’t just sell

Make sure you have other content in your digital campaign, like any blog posts that are relevant to your products or service or any helpful content on your website or company news. Ensure that if you are running a competition on your social media that the normal everyday posts continue and don’t just get replaced with Christmas competitions and promotions.

 7. Email your market

In order to increase online sales through Email Marketing this Christmas you need a good schedule, tempting deals and optimise campaigns for mobile and social. Email marketing stills provides excellent ROI compared with other marketing tools.

8. Don’t Forget your Mobile Audience

Don’t forget about mobile users when posting to social networks, blogging and email marketing. Always analyse your web analytics to monitor mobile traffic and which devices are used most often. Remember that with one in three emails being read on a smart phone or tablet it is critical that they are optimised to be read on these devices. Remember that “register”, “sign up” and social media “follow” buttons need to be “thumb-friendly”.

10. Don’t flood your customers with too many updates

Timing is key! Planning your Christmas campaign early is essential. Executing that plan too early may annoy your customers. The first week of November is an acceptable time to start. If your Christmas promotional updates begin too early, you run the risk of a rise in unsubscribes, unfollows and unlikes, so keep your campaign short and sweet! Best thing to do is start working on engaging with your customers and building up that relationship, then when the time comes, you will have plenty of brand advocates to spread the Christmas cheer

When do you start your Christmas campaign?

PS. I can’t believe I have Christmas and Christmas pictures up on my blog in September!!!

The post Plan Your Christmas Digital Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Aoife Rigney Digital Marketing.

1. Ask Questions: Engage your reader with a question that encourages them to open the email to find the answer e.g. “Are you free on September 19th?”
2. Keep It Short and Sweet: Mixing up the length can keep people curious. They can’t simply assume to know what you’ve included in the email. Try one word subject lines where possible!  According to MailChimp, subject lines that are 28-39 characters have the highest open rate.
3. Tone: Talking to your customers in a conversational way can make your emails more relatable and less sales-pitchy!
4. Make it Personal: Including a name in the subject can help the user feel personally addressed e.g. “Mary, join us at our free training course next week.” Even better is segmenting your lists by area, such as “Mary, join us at our free training course in Cork next week.”
5. Appeal to your subscribers: There was a reason why your subscribers signed up to receive your emails – give them what they want. E.g. discounts, free resources, tips or information etc.
6. Include Action Words: Including a call to action is a great way to motivate people. Join, start, visit and meet are all ways of encouraging people to act.

As with everything, it’s a matter of trial and error so test, test, test! Also, the open rates differ depending on your industry as well as your relationship with your subscribers. The folks at MailChimp say it perfectly: “When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.”

MailChimp is brilliant at email marketing and they have a great guide to subject lines here: http://bit.ly/eHIgJf

Do you receive emails from companies? Do you open them?

The post Email Marketing Tips – Creating subject lines that get opened appeared first on Aoife Rigney Digital Marketing.

Social media can help you find passionate customers who are more than willing to spread the word about your company. Social Media offers businesses the opportunity to build and maintain relationships with your audience by interacting with them. Your audience will learn to trust you, your opinions and suggestions and more importantly your products. Essentially, the aim of your social media campaign is the same as any other marketing campaign – you want your business stuck in the minds of consumers. Social Media is the best way to achieve this!

The right social media strategy can not only improve brand visibility and recognition, but it can also have SEO benefits. The bottom line is that it’s important to have a social media presence. Once a company has accepted that fact, the next step is to decide on how that presence will be created and maintained.

I have started sending an email once a month full to the brim of FREE Social Media and Digital Marketing Tips, Advice and Resources. I promise to keep the emails short and to the point, and not push promotional content in your face. I also promise not to clog your inbox with silly emails – I will make them as useful as I possibly can.

Interested in getting this FREE Social Media and Digital Marketing Tips, Advice and Resources… just Subscribe to my newsletter  here!

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Follow these six simple tips to create and run a successful Email Marketing campaign.

# 1. Email sign up

Have a sign up form on your website which is short, simple and has a limited number of required fields. First name and email address should suffice. Information required to sign up to receive emails should be minimal. This will encourage people to complete the sign up process rather than be put off by the number of required fields. Include an explicit message simply stating that the person is signing up to receive emails from your company on a regular basis.

# 2. Build segmented and targeted lists

Email marketing will only be successful if you are sending targeted content to specific lists. For example, sending an email with “Exam Study Tips” to people who have already passed their exams is pointless. They probably won’t open it and may even mark it as spam! As Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail has pointed out; “Increasingly, the mass marketing is turning into a mass of niches”.

# 3. Create short lists and keep them updated

Create a content calendar/schedule and stick to it! In time, people will become accustomed to receiving your emails and will look forward to opening them and reading your updates. Be sure to offer an incentive to your readers; exclusive news or even money off your product/service. Consider using MailChimp to send your email campaign so that you can use the MailChimp 3^rd Party Application on Facebook to gather sign up. Always be aware of Data Protection laws when dealing with data.

 # 4. Design

 There are many platforms available for email template design however my personal favourite is MailChimp. One of the many benefits of using MailChimp (or similar service) is that managing your lists becomes much easier. Did you know that neither Outlook nor Android automatically download images in emails? Check what your email looks like without images; make sure there is clickable content.

 # 5. Content Creation

Create content which is useful and interesting for the reader.

• Ensure your subject line is inviting and intriguing.
• Keep the email short with headings and paragraphs of text. If there is a lot of text in relation to one specific topic, create a “Read More” link and direct the reader to the full article on your website.
• Your email should also contain clear calls to action; click here, read more, join today and so on.
• Remember WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) – Why are you emailing ME? Deals? Discounts? Exclusivity? News?

# 6. Analyse and Tweak

Always, always, ALWAYS analyse your Email Analytics. If using a platform like MailChimp, analytics are included and allow you to monitor who opened, clicked, unsubscribed, forwarded it on and so on. MailChimp analytics also check email addresses in your list and will highlight any which have bounced.

• Use your analytics to discover your Optimum Time to send.
• Unsubscribing is a good thing – it makes your lists more focused! You are now emailing a list of people who WANT to hear from you. (Of course, if the unsubscribe rates are high, your content needs to be reviewed!)
• Email marketing is not the best way of acquiring new prospects. It is best for communicating with customers and leads.
• Email marketing is just another element of your Digital Marketing plan, be sure to integrate it with your plan.

If you have any suggestions for, questions about or experiences of running a successful email marketing campaign please let me know in the comments below.

The post 6 Steps to a Successful Email Marketing Campaign appeared first on Aoife Rigney Digital Marketing.