What Is Display Advertising?

Display advertising is a type of paid online advertising that consists of text, image, video, audio, and motion ads. These ads display on websites, apps, and social media platforms, in several different sizes. 

To start, all display ads go through a display ad network to reach customers. The top display ad networks are Google, Facebook, and Twitter. You choose what demographics or other targeting criteria you want your audience to consist of and they take it from there. They serve your ads to users who fit that description. Those users can then click on your ad and (hopefully) convert into a paying customer.

Types Of Display Advertising

There are several types of display ads, however static, rich media, video, and interstitial ads are predominantly used by marketers.

Static – Static ads are hyperlinked, image-based ads that clearly stand out on any webpage. Often called banner ads, this format is a good place to start for branding and product placement.

Rich Media – Rich media is one type of display ad that involves using interactive elements such as video, audio, and clickable elements to make the advertisement more engaging.

Video – When comparing cost, video ads are slightly more expensive but provide a whole different experience that can definitely be worth the additional ad spend. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram have made it extremely convenient for marketers to deliver video ads and attract a lot of attention to their products or services.

Interstitial – Interstitial ads load as a separate webpage or window before you are directed to the original page you wanted to visit. They take up the entire screen and often require being closed by the users in order to continue.

Your company can take advantage of these display ad types and see which works best for your product or service with display advertising. If you came to this page for a definition then you can stop reading, but if you want to know how to start using display advertising for your company, that’s what this entire page is for.

How To Create Display Ads That Convert

If you’re beyond definitions and want to dive right in and start designing your display ads, start with these steps:

Follow Best Practices For Landing Pages

Yes, the first thing to focus on is not the ad itself. Make sure your landing page is optimized for conversion. The landing page should be where you drive traffic from an ad, and please don’t make it the homepage! A landing page should be specific to your product and offer an easy way for people to convert. Have a clear call to action (CTA) and follow these best practices:

  • Build a responsive and mobile-friendly page
  • Keep it simple, anything that is too intricate will be distracting
  • Make sure it includes company branding
  • Include company awards, certifications, testimonials or other signals that encourage trust in your brand
  • Use a CTA that stands out on the page

By following the best practices, you will have an attractive and optimized landing page for your audience.

Use A Compelling Design

Just like your landing page, using a simple and attractive design for your display ads should be a focus for your ad campaign. Too much information can be overwhelming too. Keeping it simple with some clear copy and basic visuals can effectively tell the customer what you sell and why they should be interested.

Create A Clear Message And Offer

Honing a clear message and attractive offer for your audience should be identifiable in about 3-seconds. A glance. If you don’t grab someone’s attention within that time frame you run the risk of losing their interest. Brainstorm various options before deciding on your messaging and offer. Most times, creating multiple ad variants and testing which is best creates the best ads.

Use Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising can help your business advertise to the people that matter most to your company. Programmatic offers immediate value for any display ad strategy because it utilizes user data like demographics, topics of interest, and age to deliver relevant ads.

Creating ads for display is one thing, but the experimenting and careful planning behind successful campaigns takes time. If you want to learn more about the process reach out to an AdEdge Team member today at info@adedgemarketing.com.

How To Measure Display Advertising Performance

The story is always in the numbers. No matter what kind of campaign you decide to run, continuing to do so will be determined by its performance. When you take a proactive approach to campaign monitoring, you can improve your strategy on an ongoing basis.

Impressions – An Impression is the number of times an ad is served to a user during its placement. Every time an ad is loaded and displayed on a webpage or mobile app, it counts as an impression. This metric is important when analyzing your campaign metrics. If your impressions are very high or increasing and your conversion rate is low or decreasing, you may want to reconsider your display ad management plan.

Click Through Rate – Click Through Rate is a crucial indicator of engagement as it indicates the number of people who have clicked on your ad. It is the ratio of impressions to clicks. If your ad receives 1,000 impressions and 200 clicks, the click-through rate is 10%.

Conversion Rate – A conversion is the most important metric because a conversion is the main objective of running ads. A conversion takes place when a person clicks through to your landing page and performs a definitive action such as downloading your app, signing up for a newsletter, or buying a product.

These key performance metrics are generated by the ad you choose and your target audience. 

How To Choose A Display Advertising Target Audience

There are many elements to the best targeting audience for your ads. Getting there is a process. But it can be so worth it. Perfecting a targeting audience takes time and careful planning.

Define Your Demographic – Segmenting audiences based on information like age, gender, or interests can benefit any campaign.

Identify Target Keywords – Reaching the target demographic based on selected keywords that relate to your product or service. The display ad network will match the keywords you choose with words/phrases present on the sites where your ad will be displayed.

Double-Down On Topic – Choosing a group of websites that fit a specific category will greatly focus your ads towards people within that niche. Sometimes display ad networks provide categories broken down by business type or you can upload custom audiences.

Develop The Ideal Placement – Choosing the best placement is a process that always evolves. But you should be asking the question – where would the most influential place be to see my ad? If you’re targeting customers of a specific vacuum brand, you can display the ads on articles related to that model, or even on a product review page.

Ads Based On Interest – Google collects data on its users’ behavior, and depending on what users are searching for, you can run display ads that resonate with specific interest groups. For instance, a grill enthusiast may be researching spatulas, grill baskets, etc. Interest-based display ad targeting will place your ad on all of these relevant web pages.

Retarget Based On Past Behavior – Also referred to as retargeting, this display ad targeting feature lets you target users who have already visited your website. This process reinforces brand impact and recall.

AdEdge’s Strategies Incorporate Display Advertising

If you have struggled with where to start or with other elements of an effective display advertising strategy, our team of experts is working on more content for you! Reach out to ask any additional questions at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com. Have you found other best practices that were not mentioned work well for you? Let us know!

The Best SEO Practices To Start With

Understanding the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and best practices can be challenging for people who aren’t specialists. Defining what best practices are can be an illusory and frustrating pursuit. Google is constantly updating its indexing policies and ranking scheme for search results. It can seem like a daunting task.

 

SEO Starts With On-Site Optimization

Before we hop right into some best practices, the better place to start is in website infrastructure. Some of you might cringe and think about complex coding. Nope.

When building a house, do you start with the roof or the windows because they look good? No, you start with the foundation. Building a website that is an effective marketing machine starts with the infrastructure. 

Having a blog is vital to a successful SEO strategy. It contains content that can be created easily and often. It is also one of the most effective SEO best practices. Blog posts allow you to share your knowledge not just with your industry but the entire online world. Finding inspiration on how to create content specifically for your audience can be difficult without a solid strategy – so we created an SEO guide for you. Ultimately, your content should position your brand as an expert in your industry.

Another element of your site should be an area on your website for resources. Long-form content (white papers, webinars, ebooks, guides, etc.) lives here. This content is your main source of conversions. You should feel comfortable in asking visitors to these pages for an email address. That also means that the content should be exceptionally helpful. Including promotional materials or news about yourself in this area is bad form – steer away from that. Including educational, non-promotional content is the way to go.

Here Are Best Practices For Any SEO Strategy

1. Keep Your Titles Under 60 Characters

Keeping your blog post titles short will ensure the entire title appears in search results.

SEO Best Practices For Title Descriptions

2. Add Compelling Meta Description (Under 160 Characters)

The description under the clickable title is called the meta description or page description. These descriptions directly influence your click-through rate. Since it’s the second thing people will be reading, consider meta descriptions a broader description of what the content has to offer.

3. Identify Relevant Keywords For Your Company

Your prospects are looking for solutions to problems they are having with their business. Helping them often comes in the form of education and more specifically being there when they ask questions. Most of the time, people type their questions into search engines. So be sure to learn how to do keyword research.

Sharing A Blog For The Best Results

Ensuring that your blog can be shared will help your marketing efforts. This will help create backlinks. A backlink is an incoming hyperlink from one web page to another website.

If you share your blog and others find it useful enough to link to it on their blog this increases your ranking on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). A SERP is basically what shows up when you ask a search engine something.

We wrote another blog post about how to optimize your LinkedIn Profile. One part of improving your profile is to publish content. By identifying relevant groups and sharing your content there, you are releasing your content to a much larger audience (than just the followers of your company page).

Guest blogging can also improve your searchability and relevancy in the topics you cover. However, you will do yourself a disservice if you post your guest blog on low-quality or irrelevant blogs. Your domain and page authority will plummet. Keep it relevant. Keep it genuine.

Pitching well-known publishers in your industry is a great way to enhance the reach of the content you create. Go for it!

SEO Best Practices For The Long Term

Too often, firms abandon their strategies for various reasons. Adjust along the way. Alter what or how you deliver content. But please don’t completely abandon your strategy.

Come to grips with the fact you may not see the immediate results you expect from an SEO project. That’s OK. Just change elements of the strategy and keep moving. As your strategy evolves so will your SEO best practices. We created an SEO To-Do List adhering to best practice guidelines.

If you have struggled with where to start or with other elements of an effective SEO strategy, we wrote the blog for you! Reach out to ask any additional questions at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com. Have you found that other best practices work well for you?

Manage Your Professional Brand On LinkedIn

Manage your professional brand – Whether you have your own business or work at a firm, you want to present yourself and your brand in the right light. Are you an expert in your field? Does your company provide useful information on LinkedIn? The answers to these questions are vital to increasing your LinkedIn profile strength and actively manage your professional brand on LinkedIn. You can define and develop how other members view your professional experience and qualifications. And in improving your own brand, you also improve your company’s brand as well.

You can use the profile strength meter to determine whether you’ve provided enough information and the right kind. In fact, check the meter sporadically throughout updating your profile to be sure.

Optimizing LinkedIn Search Results

Always keep Search Engine Optimization top of mind when editing your profile. You should update this information as soon as possible, but if that isn’t enough convincing here’s one of our earlier posts on How To Leverage SEO During A Crisis. To start, you are not a number. Having a LinkedIn profile URL that is something like https://www.linkedin.com/in/989898989/ does not help you or your brand in search. When actively managing your professional brand on LinkedIn, creating a personal profile URL is a highly effective way to help search engines pick up your profile easily. 

 

Claim A Unique URL For Your LinkedIn Profile

Claim A Unique URL For Your LinkedIn Profile

 

Make sure your profile shows up the right way and your personal brand is positioned well online. ‘Marketing Manager’ can be a pretty broad job title. Are you a Content Creator, Brand Strategist, and Operations Manager as well? You can use this opportunity to put those in your headline.

Updating LinkedIn Headline Step-by-Step To Manage Professional Brand

Update Your LinkedIn Headline With The Text Box Editor

Double-check the effectiveness of when you make changes to your profile when comparing against what search terms you are showing up for. If you are showing up for something irrelevant, try changing your summary or headline information.

Summarize Your Strengths With Skills

When trying to improve your LinkedIn profile strength, don’t forget about writing a succinct and to the point summary about yourself. LinkedIn published some that really stand out and we like them, too. A list of relevant skills on your profile helps you showcase your abilities to other members, like your colleagues and recruiters. It helps others understand your strengths. Once you add your skills, your connections can endorse them. If someone endorses your skills, it will increase the likelihood of you and your brand being discovered.

Not all skills are considered equally, though. There is a feature to show your expertise in a skill by passing an assessment. Some folks may say that they can do something on LinkedIn, but how qualified are they? Pass these assessments to position yourself as an expert in your field.

Don’t shy away from asking for recommendations. It can build not only your personal reputation but even the reputation of your team and company as a whole.

Manage Your Profile Privacy Settings

Lastly, to effectively manage your professional brand on LinkedIn you can use the same editing process to change information on your profile, upload portfolio projects, and request/give recommendations. Editing your privacy settings gives you full control over your LinkedIn account. Make sure your account is discoverable in search. Your customized profile will help members on LinkedIn understand your professional personality.

In the coming weeks, the AdEdge Team will be releasing our findings on a wide array of marketing topics and answering many more of your questions. If you have any questions or want to learn more about our process reach out to info@adedgemarketing.com.

How to Create Content Your Audience Wants to Share

Digital marketing has made a major turn during the last few months as the Coronavirus affected business. During this time, your content marketing has probably been altered. Don’t let that stop you from creating content that users want to read. After all, we all need to prepare for this next week and the slow transition back to a somewhat normal life. Not even sure we can say normal because things won’t be completely normal for some time. However, let’s build on what we know and keep up ways to prepare for this time. So, I want you to ask yourself these five questions when developing your content over the next few months. 

Is my content relevant?

Your audience wants to relate to the content you share. Whether they are social media posts, blogs, or video segments on Youtube, they want specific content to share to their platforms. Being able to evoke the “I feel the same way,” or “This is so me,” emotions in your posts will get those clicks and share. The more content that is relevant not only to your audience but to your brand will help them identify the two together. Your main goal with content is to obtain a type of feeling, provide them with a solution, or inspire them. You got this!

Do I have a call to action?

For emails, social posts, blogs and videos, give them a reason to want to know more information about your business. Some of the best content can miss a share if the user doesn’t think about clicking the button. Encouraging your audience to share your content by commenting with a tag of a persons’ name on social, sharing your video because it relates, or giving them a way to email or call from a blog. Although it may seem redundant and simple, this is how leads are generated. Keep that in mind!

Is my content original?

Authenticity is what sets us apart from our competition. After all, what’s the fun in having 50+ businesses with the same content? BORING. While sharing popular, trending memes to boost engagement, there are other ways. Creating content that is specific to your brand requires being innovative and creative. Why do you think some advertisements begin trending online? They are original and people want to support and be a part of that. Having an active online presence raises your brand visibility, and can directly impact retaining customers. When your audience can recognize and relate to you, they will want to share your content on their own page. 

If I were scrolling through social media, would I want to click?

Knowing what to post, at what time and on what platform can be difficult to figure out. The main thing to always remember is…KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your platform. Visual content seems to respond best for engagement, which makes sense. Most people see videos and photos first before reading the caption. Keep in mind that just because you received 100 likes on Instagram does not mean the same will happen on our Facebook page. You have to adapt your content to make it platform friendly. Also, a major thing to never forget when doing so – follow the guidelines for video and photo sizing. 

What are the current trends, and how can I keep up?

Standing out from your competition with being original is very important, but knowing trends is also important. Taking those trending topics and making them your own is another way to create content. You can visualize new ideas and adopt the trending topics on your own terms. Having a reliable audience already that supports your content helps as well. 

Ask yourself these questions to better identify your content marketing efforts and if they are headed in the right direction. Keep your brand in mind when adjusting your content strategy, even if it is temporary. Content is constantly changing and it is our job to keep up with it as digital marketers.

If you’d like to learn more about how digital marketing can help build your brand and drive a new source of business your way, feel free to contact us here at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com.

 

Online Activity Has Increased During the Coronavirus – How is Your Digital Marketing? 

We know there is a lot to see on social media about COVID-19 and how you can avoid or prevent it. However, most companies need to refrain from pulling back their marketing entirely. Here’s why. Most of our population is working remote, or have reduced hours due to the Coronavirus. What’s the result of this, you ask? Consumers and business owners are now online more than ever. They’re conducting more searches and scrolling through social media. Do you know what that means? I am glad you asked. Here are 5 tips on how to keep your digital marketing efforts going.

Content is Important

Understand what works for your business. Look for to develop a new content strategy around the Coronavirus and creating a safe place online for your clients, partners, etc. As most people have put a hold on their plans for the beginning of 2020, content is also a good way to keep them engaged. So, after you have addressed the Coronavirus and made your statement online, take that time to ramp your content for the long haul. Maybe your sales are down, or clients have cut their costs. However, this is now in your favor. Customers can read, research and consume this engaging content now. Build your brand reputation through engaging blogs, social posts, and email newsletters because they’re stuck at home. Keep in touch with them. And while building that content, make sure it is still relevant to your target audience.

Your Target Audience is Online Now More

Have you thought about better ways to connect with your target audience? You most likely already have this defined since your business hasn’t changed in that aspect. However, understanding what they want to read during this time of reduced spending is key. How can you capitalize on the research, discovery and awareness stages to convince them, when they are financially ready to buy again.

Make it Easy for Customers

I’m sure it probably sounds easy to you, but conversion rate still has an entire industry dedicated to it. Being able to drive users is partial art and partial science. Now is the time to take a deeper look into your website and identify ways to better optimize for conversion. A website audit could be beneficial during this time.

Keep an Eye on Your PPC

Many industry leaders have reported that ad spend has increased due to customers shifting to online shipping. Overall, it seems the click-through rates are dropping especially for industries like auto, retail, home improvement and real estate. Even with revenue falling during the Coronavirus crisis, marketing and advertising spend is essential to stay in front of your consumers. Keep an eye on your PPC and adjust your spending and strategy.

Local Search Still Works

Local search is still important even though everyone is staying home to quarantine. Communicating through Google My Business listings is the best way to gain traffic during this time. Google has also instituted changes in local listings that include new reviews, review replies and Q&As. Freezing reviews is a smart way to protect businesses from frustrated customers during this time while businesses are limited. So, double-check your Google My Business listings to make sure it’s accurate.

Are you keeping up with your digital marketing efforts during this time? We want you to prepare your business for what’s to come after this passes and how your business can stay in business during, and after.

If you’d like a learn more about how social media marketing and advertising can help build your brand and drive a new source of targeted prospects to your website, feel free to contact us here at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com.

How to Leverage SEO and Marketing During a Crisis

As we continue to be in this uncertain time in our business ventures, that doesn’t mean our marketing needs to end. Technology is our major source of communication, so let’s utilize it the best way we know how. Let’s not give up because our present efforts will ultimately decide the future of our business. It’s time up your marketing efforts because we will recover! How; you ask? SEO is how. Since spending money on advertising, lead generation, and other ads do not seem to be the best idea. However, businesses need a robust way to strengthen their brand’s position now and generate revenue in the future. SEO fits well into that goal so let me tell you more.

Your to-do list for SEO

Be aware of Timeliness and Relevancy

Your target audience hasn’t changed, so you know what your audience wants to read about. Be ready to leverage ways to come up with multiple communication materials to give your insights into the current situation. Don’t make the mistake of being ‘salesy’ because you don’t want to promote your business at a time like this. Come up with content that is a combination of business and current events in our world. Show them you are mindful of your surroundings and genuinely care to contribute.

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize

Your content efforts around the Coronavirus will be considered wasted if the content cannot be found in search results. Be mindful! Whatever you decide to write, make sure it is optimized for better rankings. Hello, this is where SEO comes into play. Focus your efforts on all aspects of SEO – keywords, social media, website, link backs, etc.

Follow Along with Current Search Trends

What’s trending? Do you know? If you focus your efforts on SEO and PPC campaigns on a short-term basis, know what is trending. I cannot stress this enough. For example, schools are looking for different ways to connect with their students and their families. If you are looking to target schools to use your services, running SEM campaigns can bring a boost. Having relevant content answering searches can help.

Prepare Business for the Future

I don’t want to confuse you thinking that SEO will have immediate results if you never had it. SEO does take time and is a long-term strategy. However, cutting down your CURRENT SEO budget could negatively affect your business in the future. Another way to prepare for the future is by creating new landing pages, updating your website, improving the server, etc. There are several ways to benefit your business in the long run and how you can up your marketing efforts during a time of crisis.

Pay attention to cheap SEO

We know that cutting costs is almost essential for businesses right now. With that being said, they are going to be attracted to cheap SEO services. Don’t cut the corners for an expense that is worth utilizing. Now is the time to seek experts who will work to strengthen your SEO continuously. Cheap SEO services are equal to no rankings, no traffic, and maybe even some Google penalties once this pandemic is over.

Why should SEO be a focus during the Coronavirus Crisis? Here’s a list of why.

  • Get ahead of your competition
  • Position your brand for the future
  • Implement your future SEO initiatives
  • Identify future hurdles NOW
  • People are still searching for products and services

Although we cannot predict the impact of the Coronavirus and when it will slow down, we can still prepare our business for the future. SEO = a long-term strategy. The effort put in today will impact your business in the long run. So my advice to you is to start including paid and organic SEO in your marketing plans.

If you’d like a learn more about how social media marketing and advertising can help build your brand and drive a new source of targeted prospects to your website, feel free to contact us here at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com.

The Best COVID Marketing Strategy?

Let’s look at the silver lining. During COVID-19, you have an unprecedented opportunity to assess your business in meaningful ways. Revisit your marketing strategy, connect with your audience through social media, focus on online services, engage via email, and focus on projects that have been stuck on the back burner. Whether you decide to focus on one or all of these key strategies, you will see dividends from your investment once the world returns to a “new normal.”

Just because you’re not in the office doesn’t mean your business has to come to a standstill. Do you feel your sales numbers decreasing? Your business may not be generating that ‘goal’ number you had in mind, but with a good digital marketing strategy, your business can get through this. Have an experimental approach to your business plan, change what doesn’t work for your business to get the best COVID marketing strategy possible. Your business can even come back stronger than before. How does that sound? Here are a few ways to adjust your marketing strategy for our current reality.

Revisit Your Overall Marketing Strategy

The fact that most people are now working from home instead of in an office is a pretty big shift. With it, your strategy needs to shift. Revisit your social media schedule. Communicating exactly as you had before as if nothing has changed, could be taken as insensitive or tone-deaf. Think about how to speak with clients and customers with the reality of our situation in mind, allay their fears and tell them that your business is OK …if it is. Alongside that, revisit your advertising. What ads are currently running that are no longer relevant? Let’s change those as well! Take this time to collaborate with your team to understand your customers and how their needs have changed.

Try to figure out how you can be a resource to your customers in our current environment and how they can safely interact with you …and then tell them! The best COVID marketing strategy will come from listening to your customers during this time. However, have a plan for when things begin to get back to normal. It will probably happen slowly but for certain seasonal businesses such as real estate or warm-weather industries, there will be pent up demand that could be released rather quickly. Be ready and get ready now to catch that business!

Social Media During COVID

Since we need to maintain social distancing, many people are turning to the next best thing to being there – social media! More people than ever are relying on Facebook, Instagram, and other social channels to connect. Use that to your advantage! Especially to our B2B friends out there, you have a rare and fleeting opportunity to get your brand in front of decision-makers on social media. Your messages and images will be noticed! Keep your sphere up to date on what’s going on with your company, your operations, and any products or services that are unaffected but make sure to keep the element of sensitivity in mind. In other words, don’t press for sales. Now’s not the time. After all, we are in this together and when reaching out to your customers, they should feel that as well. Save the sales pitch for later. Now is a good time to build brand and relationships.

Online Marketing Strategies Beyond COVID

As we all know, in-person events and conferences are most off-limits right now. Focusing on digital offerings right now is the best COVID marketing strategy. There is a lot of uncertainty around when brick and mortar or in-person events will be back. Double down on digital to prepare for that shift.

So, how can we connect with our business community online? Webinars are a good start, but even before going there try a live Facebook or Instagram video to start. It will feel a little off at first if you have never done one, but this could prepare you for your future online presence and can be something you continue to improve after the coronavirus. Although social media can be sudden, you still need to produce these videos that will engage your audience now and continue to benefit your business after the pandemic dissipates. The skills you learn now will be a huge asset in the post-Corona world where a virtual business is going to be far more common. Be a leader!

Engage Your Audience Via Email

Email marketing. Do you currently use it? If not, email is an inexpensive and effective tool to connect with your customers. We have all received lots of emails about the coronavirus in the last few weeks. Have you sent any emails out? If not, this could be the perfect way to begin a new customer retention program or just a good way to check in with your customers.

Since your customers and clients probably have more time to read emails than in pre-COVID, now’s a great time to reach them. When you email, instead of sending blanket emails about staying safe and keeping distance, etc., think about how your business is uniquely qualified to offer assistance with products and services that matter most right now. Not only is email marketing a great tool for now, but starting to learn how to better utilize for the future is a major plus for your business.

Work on Projects You Have Time For Now

Remember those projects that you’ve been putting off forever? Now’s the perfect time to dig in and get them done! …or cross them off the list for good. In the marketing world, this could include a webinar, a video series, updating your website, re-branding your company, creating a plan for podcasting, developing a white paper or case study, redesigning your website, developing a new product or service, or preparing for your next great marketing campaign.

One of the most overlooked projects for any brand is SEO. We released an SEO guide for anyone interested in improving how their brand shows up on search engines. Whatever the task may be, now’s a great time to revisit these big but old plans. For those of you who commute, take that time you would have spent driving, training, or walking to work and put it towards your projects!

Take some of these tips and think about how to shift your marketing to address current business needs. Shifting your business operations during this time will produce the best COVID marketing strategy.

Digital marketing is a powerful tool that can be easily adjusted to address shifting business needs and challenges and the needs and concerns of your clients. If you would like more industry-specific ideas about how to communicate with your customers and clients during our challenging times, feel free to schedule a call with us or email info@adedgemarketing.com. We’ll do our best to brighten your prospects for success …and brighten your day.

Marketing During a Health and Financial Crisis …and Grants!

Wow, what a Spring it has been! Here at AdEdge, we hope you are doing well in spite of all that’s going on – our health crisis, the economy, and the inconveniences you face of being quarantined. A friend of mine put it well, “It’s like being in a Sci-Fi movie!” I don’t know about you, but I prefer watching them, not being in them!

I wanted to let you know that here at AdEdge, we’re operating at “full strength”. In fact, being a remote company to begin with, we are fully unaffected by the “stay home” rule. Or should I say, nearly unaffected? After all, our kids and teens are home too, doing their best to get under our skin.

As with any major social or economic shifts, the Coronavirus presents various business threats and opportunities. As a highly awarded digital marketing agency, I feel it’s our job to research and share marketing strategies with our circle of SMBs. A shift in strategy and digital marketing tactics, even if temporary, is a good way to speak to clients in a way that is sensitive to, and directly addresses, our challenging business environment.

Tell me, how is Coronavirus impacting your business?

Every industry is different and the impact ranges from severe to not at all. Here at AdEdge, we are watching our accounts very carefully and optimizing accordingly. We’ve also spent time hashing out ideas to keep our clients out of trouble and their digital marketing performance strong. Here are a few ideas we’ve shared, and implemented with our clients and I wanted to share this with you as well, whether you are managing your website and digital marketing in house, through an agency, or if you are an agency yourself.

The key here is to communicate with your customers and clients in a clear, and confident way so they understand how your business is impacted by the virus and how the products or services you are providing, are impacted. Or, if they are not impacted. The unknown can lead to fear so take the mystery out of what is going on and communicate with confidence. Long story short, talk about it!
Here are some things you can do:

1) Encourage and communicate business as usual, whenever reasonable and possible. These messages should go in a callout box on your website’s home page.
2) Address concerns that your customers are likely to have and allay those fears with specific solutions and safety protocols. These messages can go on your home page, landing pages, and on product/service pages.
3) Shift your marketing efforts and communications but keep them going for three reasons.
i) Pitch products and services, or new ways of doing business that are more likely to appeal, given our current market.
ii) Lots of decision makers are at home right now paying close attention to social media, and even snail mail. Talk to them!
iii) This will pass and by June-July we will be in full recovery mode. Depending on your industry, there will be pent up demand. Be ready for it, and keep your brand out there to capture recovery business.
4) To help struggling small businesses, Google plans to offer a certain amount of free advertising to be offered as credits. So if you’ve been thinking about advertising on Google’s network, now could be a great time. To stay abreast of this opportunity, give us a call or sign up for our newsletter. Here’s what we know: https://wersm.com/google-announces-340-million-in-ads-credits-available-to-all-smbs/
5) Take a look at the new CARES act. This is the 2 Trillion dollar zero-interest small business loan program that in many cases, converts to a grant after one year. Here’s what we know: https://blueprintbenefit.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ea861735f531e60728f298427&id=2a7980b1bd&e=a522df1d45

Do you have questions about how to adjust your marketing strategies or tactics in this challenging marketscape? If you would like to talk about it, please schedule 15 minutes with us here at AdEdge, contact us or give us a call at 203-682-4585 and we’ll be happy to share some ideas specific to your industry. We can also offer an evaluation of your current digital marketing efforts because while it may not be a good time to begin throwing a bunch of money at a new campaign, it’s certainly a good time to begin planning one.

PS Stay healthy, follow the safety guidelines and most importantly, try to have some fun too. I’m encouraging our team to enjoy this rare opportunity to spend quality time with family and the great outdoors!

Very best regards,

Anthony LoFrisco, Jr.
Managing Director

Everything you need to know about social media algorithms

Moving the goal posts

In many ways, social media is a marketer’s dream. It’s a space where millions of customers and potential customers gather together, many with interest in your brand and your message.

But it’s getting harder and harder to reach those consumers.

Social media channels in recent years have introduced algorithms that determine which posts to prioritize and which to push aside.

Digital marketers often have suffered as these channels move the goal posts, changing the rules quickly, often without warning or explanation.

Algorithms can be challenging, but they don’t have to freeze your digital marketing efforts.
It might take time and trial-and-error to find the best way to work the algorithms, but there still are ways to get your message to your target audience.

Social media algorithms are computer code that sort posts in a user’s feed based on relevancy instead of publish time. The algorithms determine who sees which messages and how prominently they are displayed.

Most social media feeds initially displayed posts in chronological order, with the most recent posts at the top. But Facebook, Twitter and other channels increasingly are turning to algorithms designed to more prominently display posts that their algorithms think viewers are most likely to pay attention to. They also increasingly grant greater access to paid posts.

The use of algorithms has grown at least in part because of the sheer volume of posts and data added to social media platforms every day. For users who follow hundreds or thousands of accounts, it’s impossible to see every post. So algorithms have been created to “learn” about each user and move to the top of the list, posts they’re most likely interested in.

In 2018, Facebook changed its algorithms, promoting “meaningful conversation” over news and advertising. Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the change was designed to promote organic content and reduce the prominence of brands on the site. “We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the group of people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. … But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that led us to connect more with each other.”

Other channels have followed similar paths, introducing their own algorithms.

While algorithms vary by channel and over time, there are similarities. In general, the algorithms are designed to promote interest (how much the algorithm thinks a consumer wants to see a post), timeliness (promoting recent posts over older posts) and relationship (posts that users interact with more tend to be displayed more often).

Here are 12 tips for boosting your posts’ prominence with social media algorithms.

Be real. Authenticity is essential. People want to connect with brands they’re interested in, but they don’t want constant commercials.

Post regularly and often. Posting around the same time and day of the week can help boost interaction.

Be engaging. Algorithms encourage “meaningful conversations,” including comments or likes, reacting to a post someone else has shared, and multiple people reacting to a post someone else has shared. So write your posts in a way that encourages people to comment, respond to questions, or otherwise interact with your post and brand.

Return the favor. Like, favorite and comment on other people’s messages.

Tag, you’re it. Tagging other accounts can encourage them to look at and share your messages. If you mention a customer, partner or other brand, tag their accounts in your post.

Use hashtags. People often use hashtag terms to search for posts and brands. Make it easy for them.

Be interesting to your audience. Appeal to their interests and passions.

Post directly in the app. Algorithms encourage organic posts. Upload images and videos to your post. Don’t just link posts to YouTube or some other site or channel. Facebook doesn’t like sending users away from their site – especially from organic posts.

Encourage friendly support. Encourage employees, existing customers and other fans to promote your content. Social media algorithms reward content from friends and family over businesses. So your employees and fans’ posts will be prioritized among their friends and family.

Be original. Don’t post the same message with the same wording on multiple platforms. Each channel has its own audience and its own feel. Write your posts accordingly.

Use video. Short videos — especially live videos — can catch viewers’ attention and lead them to interact with your post and your brand.

Consider paying for advertising. The fastest and easiest way to increase your reach is to pay for it.

If you’d like a learn more about how social media marketing and advertising can help build your brand and drive a new source of targeted prospects to your website, feel free to contact us here at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com.