Skip to main content

Tag: social media marketing

Going Socials: Which KPI You Should Prioritize? Branding or Sales?

 

The social media hype for brands across the globe is real. Everyone’s jumping right into this seemingly unsinkable boat of social media and everyone’s like, let’s do this, this is the trend these days. However, before jumping into the boat of social you need to know these two things:

Is it for you?

The big question is, is social media fit for your business? Not all business is created with the same audience behavior? Some business especially B2B businesses have a highly ‘niche’ audience with a very discrimination taste for content. They respond differently and unpredictably at times. Lucky for the B2Cs as some groups of end-consumers behave in a predictive pattern. But with a high-end audience, social media isn’t always the Mecca of Digital Marketing. The key here is to determine if it is really fitting to your corporate goals.

Related Reading:  Online Duopoly: Facebook or Google?

How to Measure Success?

Now that your team has decided that social media can be an important channel to your digital growth, the next crucial step is not the content planning yet. Determining your KPI should be the next thing that your team needs to finalize. Without concrete goals and sets of Key Performing Indices, you cannot measure your initiative’s success. And if you’re battling the two sides of the coin whether to go for branding or with sales KPI, you really need to a have a perfect focus to ensure success when rolling out to social media. These two are different in some degree.

If your team is still confused about which KPI to use, you can refer to some considerations mentioned below.

  • Are you a start-up?

If social media happens to be your first digital initiative the most logical approach is branding over sales. You need to build a good brand awareness and brand recall before you make sales pitching over social media. No one wants to hear selling from a brand or a business that they barely know. And if we are talking about branding, building A FAN-BASE, CONTENT REACH and ENGAGEMENT are the best KPIs to go with.

Related Reading:  SMEs Guide to understanding their online market

  • Are you in dire need of lead acquisitions?

Some businesses live and breathe through leads. Well for most B2Bs – YES, this is the business’s bloodline. And leads, when well-nurtured becomes sales. This middle-ground is a little aggressive than branding but should be lesser than sales-driven methods. One must have a landing page inside a corporate website which will catch all of the referred traffic from social media. The landing page should be designed to be enticing enough to take an action either in the form of sign-ups of inquiries. The best KPIs for these is LINK CLIKS or WEB CLICKS.

  • Is your company already visible online?

If your company or your brand has been making buzz online, either on the search engines, display networks or in other channels like guest posting via blogs, turning to social media could be easier than the previous two.

For most companies who have established a good brand recall and reputation online, going for sales goals on social media is likely to happen.

Call-to-actions such as Buy Now, Book Now, Call Now, are the usual go-to CTAs by businesses. And KPI of CLICKS can be used to measure this.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

***

After finalizing your sets of KPIs, you can now proceed to the drawing board to kick start with your content planning.

iManila is a trusted provider of both web solutions and digital marketing services that surely covers small and medium businesses online marketing needs. Our lines are open 24/7 and our sales executives are available Mondays to Fridays to assist you with your web, IT, and digital marketing queries.

Emails: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

 

Online Duopoly: Which One Is Suitable For Your Business, Facebook or Google?

 

Facebook or Google? This could be one of the common questions business owners kept on asking themselves. One of the digital truths that you need to deal with is that a business cannot grow online on organic alone. That is true in some cases, especially when venturing into digital marketing for the first time. But with so many platforms available, from search engines, apps, websites, and to social media networks – you might be wondering which one to choose when advertising your business online.

The truth is, these overwhelming choices shouldn’t be your primary concern.

Why?

Because there are only two dominant leaders in online advertising today namely: Google and Facebook. And you should stick with them quite often when dealing with digital ads,

The Duopoly

Admit it or not, there are only two entities in so far, who have valuable profile data of online users in the world – Google and Facebook. They are the two titans who earn a lot from their ad platform businesses, thus calling them a duopoly.

Why duopoly? You probably asking yourself.

To begin with, Facebook owns Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. These four are the top social media networks and social messaging platforms in terms of numbers of active users.

In the recent quarterly report of Facebook, the flagship platform has reached a 1.9 Billion user base per month. Instagram has 700 million each month while the two leading social messaging platform – Messenger and WhatsApp – both have 1.2 billion user base.

Facebook earns a staggering 97% of its 2016 revenue from its digital advertising business.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Meanwhile, Google – a world renowned search engine brand that reached immense trust and popularity for having a spot in the Oxford dictionary is also a leader in transforming digital marketing these days. This brand has earned an accepted scholastic use of its verb variations such as “googled” and googling” making Google undeniably one of the greatest modern enterprises of the millennium.

Google owns YouTube – the world’s largest video streaming site. It also expands its services through consolidating its core businesses under the name Alphabet Inc. Alphabet is responsible for developing and reshaping its services that are linked with their core mission to improve the user experience. Alphabet Inc. from the name of the company itself covers almost the entire Roman alphabet including the Ad platform of Google for search and display networks.

Google digital ad business generates 32.8% of the total revenue of this tech conglomerate.

Which One is Right for Your Business?

A good approach to this question is to try both and see which works well with your business. But since most of the SMEs marketing budget are strictly limited, doing so is not in your priority list. To weight which one is right for your business. Below is our weigh in:

 

  • B2B and Service-oriented business

Does your business belong in this category? If YES, then Google search engine marketing (SEM) fits your business well. Why? The reason is plain and simple. A B2B model relies heavily on website transactions, and this is out of corporate custom revolving around the idea of legitimacy. When a website is your primary contact point online, Google’s search engine marketing is a go-to platform.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

  • B2C and Consumer Goods / Retail

The good thing about this category is that the risk of losing money when investing in both platforms is low compared to B2B and Service-oriented businesses. The reason is, reaching the end consumers with products (tangible trades) that they really need is one foot ahead than business offering services (which are intangible).

In this kind of business, if one looks after brand awareness, social ad via Facebook is a good avenue. With most retail business in the country relying on brick-and-mortar store than e-commerce, social ads by Facebook fits just fine. Be it engagement or web clicks (or visits), Facebooks ads can surely reach to the end consumers with ease.

***

In the Philippines, there is a preconceived notion of having comfort in purchasing tangible trades than the intangible ones. If you are in the business of providing services, you got to build a solid reputation to compete well with your competitors online. If you are dealing with consumer goods and retail, the challenge is to create a way to sift through the clutters of other consumer-centric ads online.

Be it Facebook or Google, the success of an online ad relies on understanding your audience and your business. Once you all had it in your mind and in your heart, sending the message across these two platforms won’t be too much of a pain.

If by chance that a business like yours is looking for an assistance in starting your brand presence online either through Facebook or through the search engine of Google, iManila is capable of helping you get noticed by your target audience online.

Give us a call at (02) 490-0000 / (02) 565-4064, or send your inquiries through our website portal at https://imanila.ph/lets-talk/

Why online ads are the new titan

 

We’re so used to seeing an advertisement that runs down the lengths of buildings along the most traversed roads in the Metro. Billboards. Enormous billboards towering over us in all their titan glory.

But sometimes, titans lose their strength. After all, nothing is forever.

No one can deny the seeming effectivity of these billboards that eat up the attention of anyone who lay eyes on their monstrosity. But the thing is, billboards are only as good as the next one.

Out of sight, out of mind, right?

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

But the internet; the internet is ubiquitous, which only makes it a perfect avenue for advertisement.

Online advertising is a new form of marketing which uses the internet and the world wide web to deliver promotional messages in various digital formats. These formats range from search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, mobile advertising, and display advertising.

Here are all the reasons why online advertising should be part of your marketing campaign.

Online ads let you customize your target audience. In today’s society where everyone has internet access, you can reach the world. Or at least a specific part of it. With online ads, you can “filter” out your reach based on your preference. This is an assurance that your products and services are getting to the right kind of audience who has a high chance of buying your products or availing of your services. Closing a sale? You can bet on it.

Marketing online is much cheaper than traditional advertising approaches. You don’t have to spend a generous chunk of your bank account in securing a placement on posts or buildings or printing papers that will only be considered eyesore later on. With online ads, you can reach as much engagement as your budget allows you. And the best thing about this is that you don’t just throw your advertisement for everyone to see like a town parade or a motorcade. Online ads let you know how much of the internet is seeing your ads so that you also get the idea of how much you can expect to turn into leads. Kind of leveling up your expectations, eh?

The internet is a huge place. And at present, more and more people are spending a considerable amount of their time doing their shenanigans in it. If you place your advertisements online, the chance of making your brand known is high. In fact, your brand can get by with just online advertisement alone. With numerous social media platforms getting born by the minute, how the hell can you doubt that?

One big difference that the traditional marketing and digital marketing has is the ability to have a two-way communication. In TV, radio, newspaper, and billboards, one can see and grasp your message but cannot respond to it right away – a situation that online advertisement has taken care of. The Web is such an interactive space. Information and ideas can get passed on in a matter of minutes despite a distance of miles. If you put your advertisement online, that alone eliminates the barrier that traditional marketing stumbles with. The chances of seeing a brand online can immediately stir action on the part of your audience.

 

Frankly, it’s obvious enough that utilizing the substantial number of internet users and the time they spend online is what anyone who wants to truly make his brand known should be doing.

The internet is ubiquitous. Use it to your business advantage.

After all, out of sight, out of mind, right?

Want to advertise your brand online? Help is on the way. Establish your brand online and build up a sustainable online following with iManila. We have a variety of services that cater to each and every social media needs, including Facebook ads. *winks*

See you online!

SMEs Guide: It pays to understand your market online

 

As we all know, marketing is an essential business element from small to large businesses. Marketing is both an art and science because it needs both the critical and the creative part of your brain to be executed well.

Having said that, understanding your audience and how they behave is a crucial element before starting with any marketing activities. And if you are considering digital marketing for this, you need to deepen your understanding by coming up with a buyer persona that specifically and analyze their behavior online.

WHY?iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Because digital marketing revolves greatly on timing and a strong grasp of the online behavior of your audience or market.  That makes experimentation and open-mindedness as entrepreneurial essentials to utilize digital marketing well.

To give a strong understanding of Filipino audience online, below are quick fact check to help you make your first step in digital marketing:

1) OVERVIEW

Philippne-Digital-Overview

2) TIME INVENTORY

Philippine-Online-users-time-spent

You can see in the data presented above by We are social Singapore, that more than half of the country’s population are the internet and mobile users. That is a strong signal that a large chunk of the country can potentially see your online marketing efforts.

With such staggering statistics, one must be out of his or her mind to not utilize such data to his or her market advantage. Formulate a strategic business plan centered around the searching behavior of your market’s niche and voila, watch your following increase by multiple folds. Your market is online. You just have to do an in-depth analysis of the data and from there craft a marketing concept.

Shift in Online Behavior

The truth is, your audience behave a little different online. They can transform into a different person or they completely became their true selves without holding back, and that affects how they gravitate and consume content online.

Experiment, experiment, experiment!

The best way to approach this behavior is by preparing different personas that could relate to your brand. Dissect these personas and their possible behaviors online and do experiments. Release different sets of content to a single persona and do with the other. Check which content earns a better response per persona and compared it all together. The one that emerged as the best content that attracts the majority of your potential personas is what you need to stick to.

The key to understanding your market is going beyond one’s gut feel. What you need to do is to go again the same process of content experimentation until you get the right formula that your market really likes.

***

With the advancement in the world of information technology, the audience behavior continuously evolves that it is hard sometimes for marketers and businesses to keep up.

The process could be a little tedious but the outcomes are very rewarding when done right. Always take in mind that success of your marketing campaign always lie in how well you know your market, especially online.

Jollibee Valentine Series: A content that delivers

 

The Philippine social media scene was taken by a storm of reactions as one of the most popular food chains released a series of ads in lieu of Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Jollibee has taken the heart of many once again with their all new Jollibee Valentine Series.

Some liked it, some had their hearts broken, and some even to a lighter “meme” approach to express their sentiments.

With all these mixed emotions and voices that users posted and shared in the past days, one thing is for sure – Jollibee delivered more than what it was supposed to.

This milestone in Philippine advertising proved that content truly delivered when they are done precisely and artistically. The question now is: How can other brands recreate, or maybe even top, Jollibee’s campaign?

The answer to this question varies. Here’s why:

For a brand that has witnessed generations of diners come and go, Jollibee has basically a solid foundation in terms of knowing exactly what its market profile is. The brand has been part of the different phases of a customer’s life such as parties, celebrations, meetups, dates, desperations, and probably even heartaches.

The point here is, Jollibee is few meters ahead in terms of market domination and profiling hence, their ability to pull some stories from their experiences.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

For start-up brands, breakthroughs are very rare especially in terms of marketing virality. You can start by profiling your market step by step. Know them little by little until you get the bigger picture of who they really are. Knowing them well is the initial step in creating the content that they’ll most likely engage with, the one that really appeals to them.

It’s similar to how you try to learn everything about your significant other that getting the “perfect” gift for them becomes second nature to you.

The human emotion is a complex yet beautiful side of humanity. No matter how rational a person is, a dominant emotion – in some cases – overrides the most rational thoughts.

Human emotions are like test tubes of delicate and potentially destructive chemicals in a laboratory. There are vitriols, dopamines, oxytocins, and adrenalines – of which one cannot be mixed with another one without carefully getting the right proportion.

Jollibee has carefully picked the right emotion for each of its Valentine videos. The core emotion served as the binder and reference point of the content. From words, to shot lists, and down to the acting of the cast – all of these speaks to the core emotion of the entire concept of the content.

For start-ups, this process can be achieved by creating content with different emotional inclinations. Releasing it alternately on different channels can give you data where you can draw your conclusion – as to which one works well with your market.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Admit it or not, we love something that we can fully relate to. Not just on the basis of what we felt when watching but more of the identifying ourselves as part of that content. How did Jollibee achieve that? By tackling social realities.

How many Filipinos have suffered a loss of a family member, a parent, or a spouse perhaps? And not being with the person you love in one of the most celebrated events of the year will definitely bring tears to your eyes.

How about being trapped in a “best friend zone”? How frustrating can it get for someone not to get the one he loves despite being close to her?

Oh wait, did I forget about our crushes? Every one of us has experienced a phase in our lives when we felt that piercing strike of cupid’s arrow.

These realities are what people gravitate towards. It is like speaking in behalf of those who cannot directly express themselves in their most heartbreaking, depressing, and even to the happiest times.

For start-up brands, these can be achieved by stringent observation of your market’s psyche. Frankly, this kind of approach can be achieved when the brand matures, or when the brand has identified its market and their common psyche. Because getting the right social reality to incorporate to your content takes a lot of years to perfect.

—

Content is, and always be the best marketing asset until this age. The channels may have changed but the market is resilient. The best way to make content viral and successful is to always make your audience/market the center of your communications – not your firm or the people running it.

Do you want to know how to kickstart a good social media marketing? Contact Us at (02) 490-0000 or email us at [email protected].

Why every brand should be using Snapchat right now

 

You would think that something so “24 hours” as Snapchat doesn’t and wouldn’t make a good platform to promote your business, but right now, we’re about to shove that assumption out of the door. As in, shoo, off you go.

Snapchat has been one of the fastest growing social media platforms garnering over 300 million monthly active users as of January 2017. If that statistic doesn’t want to make you go nuts, you’re going nowhere. With such a number, you, as a business should be seizing the opportunity to promote your brand in this ever-germinating social media app.

If you’re still not convinced, sit down, grab a popcorn and read on.

  1. The chance to get to a younger following

Snapchat is a highly millennial app. Most of its users belong to the younger generation. If this is your business’ target market, then you should be utilizing this app’s capabilities to reach out to that particular audience. You have no idea how many snaps are taken and viewed each day, unless you yourself try Snapchat.

  1. The ability to engage mano y mano

Snapchat has its way of making your followers feel special. Its features allow you to directly send content to them, individually, just as long as they follow you. With that, you can send them anything: fun facts about your products, perks of your services; hell, you can even send them personalized videos. These simple acts can quickly turn a follower into a loyal customer, since face to face and direct engagements are sure-fire ways of creating a powerful bond between a brand and a customer.

  1. The idea of taking followers inside for a peek

People are naturally curious. They will be thrilled with the thought of getting an inside look at what a certain brand’s snap would look like, especially if it’s something in the middle of the day or night. Or just generally, what happens inside the company on a day to day basis. Show them the culture of your brand and company. Let them know that you are full of energy and that you know when to have fun despite the stressful work that you do. Happy hours, birthday parties, company events – all of these make up a fun snap to share to your increasing following.

  1. The chance to be cool

Even if your brand is already cool as it is, it can only get more fabulous if you’re on Snapchat. Followers rave at the idea that a certain brand is taking time to do snaps. And besides, Snapchat is such a cool app that using it automatically makes your business ten times cooler on the books of anyone. And you’re crazy if you don’t want any of that.

With everything around us becoming easier and easier to grasp, all thanks to digital growth, why wouldn’t we take something that we can use for our own growth? It’s easy to start a business but it’s hard to stay in it. This cutthroat industry only has spots for those who can survive. And with the right tools and strategies, a brand and business can survive all it can. If you got a tool like Snapchat, why then wouldn’t you use it? Because we sure do.

Follow us on Snapchat: imanila.ph, and we might follow you too. *winks*

 

Sources:

forbes.com

socialmediaexaminer.com