Why Clients Hire D2

Tips to Launch Successful Social Media Pages for Your Small Business

Small businesses are no longer limited to traditional print and digital advertising in order to grow and scale. With the advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, social media marketing has become more popular and commonplace than ever. When you plan to launch a new social media marketing strategy for your small business, there are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind along the way.

The Importance of Branding on Social Media

One of the key factors of social media marketing to keep in mind is that branding is key to creating a massive online presence for any type of business or brand. Social media marketing is an effective tool to build a brand’s online presence, even if you are launching a start-up or a small local business for the very first time. When you begin creating social media pages for your small business, it is important to implement logos and color schemes that are relevant to your official website or how you want your brand represented. Register social media pages for your small business using the same username to avoid confusing potential followers when they discover your presence online.

Learn About Your Target Audience and Demographics

Use services such as Google Analytics or Facebook to learn more about your followers to better serve them with relevant updates, ads, and promotions. When you have a clear understanding of the age, location, and even various interests your followers have it is much easier to deliver content that truly resonates. Track ad campaigns you launch using Facebook to learn more about which types of advertisements work best using A/B testing. Implement copy, messaging, and imagery that varies with each ad you launch to discover which methods of communication work best with your audience.

Consistency is Key When Using Social Media

Without consistency in posts and updates, social media marketing becomes increasingly difficult. Create a posting schedule with any social media pages you have created for your brand. Use a digital posting schedule to automatically share updates across multiple social networking platforms simultaneously to keep all of your followers and loyal customers genuinely interested in what you have to say along with new product and service releases. Skipping days, weeks, and even months at a time between updates is one of the quickest ways to lose the interest of your followers.

Professional Graphics and Photography Matter

Social media marketing is much more than simply sharing news, updates, and discounts using various online platforms. In order to catch the eye of new users while captivating your followers, the use of professional graphics and photography is a must. Professional graphics and other imagery draw attention to your posts whether a follower is viewing your brand in their feed or if you have launched a new social media marketing campaign using sponsored posts.

Brands who do not implement professional graphics and photography and instead opt for low-quality designs are much less likely to expand their online reach while gaining the trust of new users and potential customers.

Launch Promotions and Giveaways to Boost Followers

Launch promotions, discounts, and giveaways using your brand’s social media pages to build a sense of community while increasing engagement with all of your followers and fans. Host promotions such as contests or giveaways to encourage users to share your page and posts with their own followers, providing you with instant free exposure and advertising. Require users to comment, share, or add submissions to your page in order to qualify for prizes such as free products and services or discounts and gift cards you have to offer. Share new giveaways and contests frequently. Get creative with promotions during holidays and times of the year which are most important to your users.

Remain actively involved and engaged with your followers to maintain their interest and to increase the chances of having your brand and its page shared with new potential followers.

Launching a successful social media marketing campaign is a way to maximize your online reach while also remaining relevant in any market or industry you represent. With the right social media marketing techniques, outperform your competition while solidifying your place among followers and prospective customers of yours online.

For a complimentary 15-minute marketing consultation with D2 Branding, call us today at 918-520-8012 or visit our website at www.D2Branding.com.

Learn more about how D2 Branding marketing agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma can help your business grow!

Social Media Marketing Is Essential for Effective Promotional Strategy

Investing in an advertising or promotional strategy that is able to produce superior results can be a matter of critical importance, especially for small businesses that are struggling just to establish themselves. While there are many different marketing tools and promotional resources that may be used in order to create a successful online advertising campaign, social-media marketing can often be one of the most valuable techniques available to businesses. Marketing through a social-media site or service provides a range of potential advantages that are simply not possible through other promotional methods. The following list highlights some of the most important benefits that social-media promotional effort may be able to provide.

Brand Management

A business’s brand serves as its public identity and any opportunity to build a more positive and easily-recognizable brand would be worth pursuing. From blog posts to customer interactions, almost every activity found on social-media sites or services can provide businesses with the chance to demonstrate their values, shore-up their image or to help establish a more unique and distinctive brand. Businesses that are unable to create or maintain the brand and image that will allow them to stand out from the competition could soon find themselves struggling just to survive.

Improving Customer Relationships

Customer relationships are another concern that can make or break new businesses. While there are other online and digital promotional techniques that can allow businesses to reach out and make contact with the same audience they would expect to find on a social-media platform, such efforts are often very one-sided. Being able to actively answer the questions and address the concerns of both their existing clientele as well as new customers and prospective clients can go a long way towards ensuring that businesses are able to establish and foster the customer relationships that may lead to greater success in the future. Few other promotional strategies may be able to assist organizations in their efforts to build and maintain more positive relationships with their clientele.

Optimizing the Impact of SEO

Search rankings can count for a lot and marketing efforts like search engine optimization (SEO) which can allow businesses to benefit from a higher profile can play a key role in any marketing strategy. While SEO has a lot to offer, posting quality content to social-media services can have a number of additional benefits that businesses would do well to consider. Content-based marketing tactics that utilize social-media sites and services have the potential to reach a much larger audience than many businesses might realize. Marketing content and promotional efforts that are shared across the platform allow businesses to make contact with wider demographics and help to ensure that SEO and content-based promotional efforts are met with greater success.

Cost-effective Marketing

Promotional resources can be expensive, especially for new businesses that have limited funds at their disposal. Spending too much on an advertising campaign can rob businesses of the financial resources needed to manage other aspects of their operation and growth. Social-media marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote a business one that may only require a few hours of work in order to produce results. Cost-effective marketing techniques can go a long way towards ensuring new startups are able to get noticed without breaking the bank.

Creating the Best Promotional Strategy

Not all promotional strategies may be ideally suited for every business and situation. Social-media marketing can provide a flexible and cost-effective way to promote a business, one that could be of greater benefit than many more established and conventional techniques. A firm understanding of what the best advertising tactics and promotional techniques have to offer can be of great importance when it comes to crafting or implementing an online marketing strategy able to produce superior results. Businesses that overlook the value and potential opportunities that only social-media marketing may be able to provide could be making a very serious and costly mistake.

For a complimentary 15-minute marketing consultation with D2 Branding, call us today at 918-520-8012 or visit our website at www.D2Branding.com.

5 Ways Digital Marketing Has Made Small Businesses Grow

Unlike big corporations that commit big budgets in marketing, small businesses have to make do with small budgets. Effective use of that budget is not an option for them. The capital outlay required for direct mail, TV, radio, and newspaper ads is out of reach of most startups. Digital marketing provides an easy way out. Here are the benefits of online marketing campaigns.

Cost Effectiveness

The amount of investment does not matter much; what matters most are the returns that you get for that financial commitment. The cost of winning new business through an online ad campaign is small when compared to all other methods. The cost of planning and executing campaigns is modest, and the campaigns can last a lifetime. Once you have an online ad, such as a video on social media sites, it will stay there forever unless you delete it.

Flexibility

Sometimes your campaign may not hit the required target. In such a case, you may want to change it. Digital methods make it possible to change an entire campaign by making just a few adjustments. If you did not like the media you used, you could revamp them instantly. For a small business, this is important because every dollar matters.

If you need to cancel radio or TV adverts in the middle of the campaign, scripts have to be re-written, and the whole production process goes to waste. Further, digital media allows you to combine images, videos, texts, and audios in one campaign, something that other methods cannot accommodate.

Personalization and Targeting of Adverts

The average shopper is online. Smartphones, computers and other smart gadgets make it possible for people to stay online all the time. If someone is not online through the computer at work, he or she is online on his or her iPad or phone. Using online profiles, one can make targeted adverts that will focus exclusively on the profile that you want. You can target business, individuals, events, etc.

Taking Advantage of Social Media

About 2 billion people use Facebook every month; Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and many other sites command billions of users, too. All these users are buying items online. In fact, most of them start all their buying decisions online. It makes sense to use these free online channels to reach out to as many people as possible. A single song on YouTube has raked 5.2 billion views — “Despacito”. Some tweets have had up to 100 million impressions. All these show you just how explosive social media is when it comes to putting your business out there.

Tracking and Automation

It is common practice to study the effect of your business decisions. One way of doing that is through tracking. If you invest $100 in social media marketing, you have to study the overall effect on the sales volumes. Digital marketing allows you to automate both the marketing and tracking of results. You don’t have to look at the numbers manually. You can combine various online tools to track your progress, which makes online advertising an invaluable business tool.

Conclusion

Many other benefits of this business marketing strategy exist. It is up to you to take advantage of the various channels that digital marketing brings to you.

Contact D2 Branding today to learn more about how digital marketing can help your business grow!

The Benefits of Professional Website Design Versus Do-it-Yourself

Why You Should Hire a Professional Website Designer

Whether you own a business, have a blog, or simply have a professional website, when it comes to website design, you can’t afford to take risks on the website design options. Unless you are a website developer yourself, you should be considering hiring professional help to help you complete and publish your website with fully designed pages. Some people think that doing it yourself with those online website builders is the best way to go, but website design is more than that. In this article, we will look at several reasons why you should hire a professional as opposed to doing it yourself to make sure you get the best website design available.

Better Custom Web Designs

If you try to build your website yourself, chances are you’re going to run into issues when trying to make a custom design. This is especially true if you know nothing about writing code and designing a website for yourself. However, when you hire a professional website designer, they can take your ideas and concepts putting them into a beautiful custom website that best reflects your taste and business market. The website building options are often limited, but professionals are not limited to making custom designs that truly reflect who you are.

Implement New Web Technology

Part of the expansion is growth in technological ways. The Internet is one technology that is constantly changing, and because of this, you will need new computer codes and technologies to boost visitors to your website. Professional designers consider this, giving you room to grow and change with the constantly changing trends in technology and website design. They can provide you with RSS feeds, video capabilities, and more to allow you room for expansion. This is something that the do-it-yourself website builders do not usually allow.

Better Search Engine Optimization

Having a successful website comes down to people being able to find your website easily. Search engine optimization is a special technique the professionals use to boost views to your website. The technique employs certain characteristics that allow search engines to find your website quickly and efficiently. The website builders that people use to do it themselves do not allow for SEO compliance, which can seriously alter your chances of people finding your website. Professionals can make it easier and more efficient for clients to search for and find your website through various search engines.

Reliable Webmaster Services

Contrary to what many people believe, website design is never finished. Just like many other things in life, website design requires a continual service and maintenance that many people just don’t have time for. If you are using a DIY website builder, then you’re going to have to do the maintenance yourself. Professionals, however, have webmaster services that constantly keep your website updated and fresh. Since technology is always changing, as we mentioned earlier, you will need that constant refreshing of your website to keep clients interested and to draw new clients to your services.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if you own a business, run a blog, or need a professional profile website. When trying to build your website design, you can run into serious problems, find it is not very easy, and even lose time. Hiring a professional website builder can be a beneficial way to complete your website, get it published, and start drawing clients to your website for your products and services. Technology is always altering and changing, which is why professional website building is more efficient and helpful in the long-run. You want clients to be impressed by your website, and professional website  builders and designers can help you get the website of your dreams.

For more information about website design in Tulsa, Oklahoma contact D2 Branding today!

Is Your Small Business Missing Out On The Power Of Social Media Marketing?

How many small business owners would go to a meeting and pull out a flip phone from yesteryear? By not taking advantage of current technologies in your marketing strategy, that’s kind of what you’re doing if you haven’t made social media marketing an integral part of your marketing efforts and strategies. Ten, even five, years ago, thinking that the social media marketplace was just a passing fad or only reached select groups might’ve been an excuse, but the user numbers alone simply make social media, or digital marketing, a portal that cannot be ignored. The benefits are vast and potent, and you can guarantee that your competition is taking advantage of this pool of potential customers.

Take A Look At The Numbers

One of the top tenets of marketing is the formula of gathering the right attention, the right way, from the right people, at the right time. As the number of social media users has steadily increased every year since its inception, social media is undoubtably the ‘right place.’

• 4.021 billion – the number of worldwide internet users in 2018.
• 5.135 billion – the number of mobile phone users worldwide in 2018.
• 3.196 billion – the number of social media users worldwide in 2018.

Social Media Marketing Portal Selection

The Global Digital Report for 2018 breaks down who is using what social media where and how often. Small businesses can use such information to determine where best to apply their social media marketing efforts. Here are a few considerations to get the ball rolling:

• Facebook, at an astounding 76%, remains the social media with the most daily active users and logins.
• Social media users spend the most time on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.
• Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp are the top three in terms of registered users.
• Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, Snapchat, and Twitter saw the most growth in first quarter 2018.
• When it comes to interaction rates, Instagram dominates over Facebook and Twitter.

Social Media Marketing Is More Than Throwing Up Posts

It’s clear now that social media is an internet giant here to stay. It’s clear now that some social media portals offer a bigger and more active pool for marketing than others. So, how do all these users interact with brands on social media?

This is where ‘the right way’ of gathering attention comes into play. Posting behavior is reflective of your brand’s personality and an influencer as to whether a social media user becomes your biggest advocate, a buyer, or someone who unfollows you.

Almost 30% of social media users report that they’re prompted to make a purchase from just seeing a brand’s social media posts. But, beyond conversion rates from various applications on social media, many users are using the platform as a portal for customer service; clients and potential clients want real-time answers to their comments and questions.

Overall, here are the brand behaviors that most prompted social media users to make purchases in 2017:

• Responsiveness
• Promos
• Education posts and content
• Interesting visuals
• Humor
• Offering exclusive content
• Offering behind the scenes content

On the other hand, 51% of users report unfollowing brands and 27% report blocking brands that make irritating posts. The key is in posting interesting, engaging, relevant content to resonate with your target audience.

Keep these facets in mind as you begin to make social media posts.

Benefits Of Social Media Marketing

There are a plethora of benefits for small business of all niches, sizes, and business models in utilizing existing platforms of social media as part of marketing strategy. Let’s look at a few:

1. Drive Target Traffic

The public can find your content easily now and for future needs, and that content brings them into direct content with your website. And, those posts go on to become part of the feeds of users to attract more eyes to the content and clicks within the website. A hot topic link on Reddit can spawn five and six digit visitor numbers in a single day. Ultimately, the increased traffic also boosts your SEO efforts since the influx of traffic only helps to boost your search engine rankings.

2. Better Understand Your Audience

Through customer and potential customer interactions with your base and reading their tweets, posts, and snaps, you can gain insightful info on how they buy, why they buy, what types of content they share, what types of websites they frequent, and other such consumer behaviors that are completely raw and unfiltered by the stigma of a questionnaire. This is helpful in refining products, strategy, and fine tuning the art of conversion.

3. Relationship Building

While it’s imperative that businesses look at the business side of social media, most users still don’t see it as such. They’re there to engage – authentically engage. They want to see how brands behave, what the brand’s interests and offerings are, if the brand is stiff or has personality, if the brand cares about customers, and ultimately make a genuine connection. For the business, this translates to a long-term, meaningful relationship with loyal customers. A study by Texas Tech University recently confirmed what top-notch marketing firms have said for years – an active social media profile produces more loyal customers.

These connections extend to industry leaders and experts, media sources, independent promoters, and entire communities.

4. Targeted Ads

Facebook ads, for example, can pitch ads specifically to profiles based on age, education, search behaviors, location, etc to get your brand seen by the right people at the right time.

5. Customer Service

Countless studies have shown that prompt, accurate, and friendly customer service is rewarded by customers and vice versa. Considering the average response time through traditional on-site messaging and emails is over 10 hours and customers want real-time action, this is a caveat that can seriously impact profits.

Where do most customers go to vent frustrations and tout happiness? Social media. Having a highly interactive and engaging social media presence can help you immediately address complaints and concerns, keeping customers happy and your brand’s public image strong.

6. Cost Effective

An account is free. From there, businesses can choose in-house dedication to maintain the channel or outsourcing social media marketing. Even without the massive budget of big business, social media is the underdog’s best friend. Authenticity and quality posts will lead users to discover businesses and put them on the map.

Singer Kane Brown shows the power of Facebook users in action. A couple of years ago, he was a broke kid posting his singing videos on Facebook to a couple hundred fan followers. Fans shared and shared and more fans gathered and gathered. Before long, his Facebook followers had propelled him into a brand, a brand that you couldn’t open Facebook without seeing someone posting about and that led to a music contract and path to national success. He went from a few hundred followers to almost 3 million, and he credits his Facebook following with his success.

So, social media marketing isn’t about who has the biggest budget. It’s about who can connect with their base so that their power in numbers moots big business marketing dollars to even the playing field.

In closing, these are just a few of the benefits to social media marketing. The possibilities and applications are endless. The important thing to take away is quality. Every social media engagement a small business makes should provide quality, whether that be in customer service, entertainment, education, establishing yourself as an authority, or ad placement.

Contact D2 Branding today to learn more about how social media marketing can help your brand!