Category: Marketing

With 2018 nearing its final quarter it’s important to look to the future to see what social media trends
will be popular for 2019. There are 1 million active users joining social media platforms every day
, therefore, staying on top of the social media trends is a vital practice for social media coordinators.

Here are the top 5 social media trends for 2019:

Social Listening
Social listening is the act of using a tool to listen to what is being said about a brand across social media
and the web as a whole. Social listening utilizes such things as: analytics, sentiment analysis, influencer
search and more.

Social listening is important because monitoring a brand’s social media account is more than just
monitoring @ mentions. It’s about monitoring those conversations happening outside your @ handle
and seeing what people are really saying. According to a study by Brandwatch, 96% of the people that
discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles.

Tool for Social Listening: Awario

This tool identifies mentions with a negative sentiment which assists with customer support and crisis
management. It also notes the biggest social media influencers in a particular field. The search process
can be completely customizable allowing you to set up alerts for certain keywords.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a popular trend right now and expected to continue come 2019. According to a
survey by Collective Bias, 30% of consumers are more likely to buy a product recommended by a noncelebrity
blogger. It appears people relate more towards those like themselves rather than celebrity
influencers whose opinions they may tend to value less.

It’s important to note that brands value the opinions of influencers and utilize that in their advertising
therefore, using influencer marketing in your social media strategy is a wise thing to do.

How to get started:
1. Find influencers manually or with a social media listening tool.
2. Establish a relationship with an influencer.
3. Message the influencer directly and offer to do a collaboration.

User-Generated Content
User-Generated Content is any unpaid content that was created by your audience. This is important
because word-of-mouth on the web is important to creating validity for your brand. It’s important to
note that: 57% of consumers think that less than half of brands create content that resonates as
authentic. It’s more about cultivating an authentic connection to close the sale rather than doing so with
pushy salesman tactics.

How to get started:
1. Choose which platform will best suit your campaign
2. Offer a reward for sharing their opinion
3. Be creative – use social media to your advantage
4. Be reasonable – don’t expect customers to put forth too much effort if the reward isn’t too
great.

Messenger Marketing
Messenger marketing sets itself apart from other forms of marketing like email and SMS in three ways:
1. Voluntary messages – marketers will need permission before they message you. You will also
have the option to opt out at will.
2. Short & sweet messages – messenger apps work to provide short, concise responses which
increase interaction with customers.
3. Authentic engagement with customers – connecting with customers in a relatable, non-salesy
way encourages more authentic conversation.

How to get started:
1. Find others who want to engage in conversation by integrating links into your existing marketing
channels
2. Run a campaign to bring in more engagement from customers
3. Determine a tone and writing style that matches your brand and audience. Make sure to
respond, communicate, engage and have fun when communicating with customers.

Ephemeral Content
Ephemeral content is any visual content that is not permanent. It is only visible for a certain amount of
time. Social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are good examples of ephemeral content. It
appears that between Snapchat and Instagram stories a combined 450 million daily users use the
service. It preys on the fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) and therefore makes the content shown more
urgent than the more permanent content found on Facebook. The sense of urgency created gives
viewers a knee-jerk reaction where they instinctively respond immediately. Interacting with your brand
is a pleasant experience and one where they feel seen and heard. That is the goal.

How to get started:
Getting started really depends on the platform you choose. With Instagram stories you can insert a callto-action
with links in your stories. Snapchat gives you the opportunity to show behind-the-scenes
footage of your company and allows for user-generated content to form.

It’s safe to say that 2019 will be an exciting year for social media trends. Whether you choose to
incorporate one or all of these social media trends is up to you but its guaranteed that you’ll see more
engagement from users as you do.

Content marketing will always be evolving. For 2018, content still remains to be king of all marketing strategies and continue to be inexpensive compared to paid advertising. The key to having consistent success with content marketing is to look out for future trends and embrace the changes as soon as possible.

Here are our 3 Content Marketing trends for 2018:

1. Content Production: Producing content is a very inexpensive way to acquire new customers. Google, Facebook, and Apple are investing thousands of dollars in original content for a reason. Small business owners like yourself should do the same for the same reason. Having high-quality content posted on a consistent basis will help to grow an audience and provide you with free leads in the long term.
2. Video Marketing: Although having well-written content is excellent and should continue to be implemented, the future of content marketing is video. I believe all marketers can agree that video marketing will be dominant for many years to come. When you can combine video with your content marketing strategy it will give you the best chance of gaining new customers.  Besides video, companies can do live streaming. If your business is having a special event, it would be awesome to have a live feed for your customers if they couldn’t attend to it.
3. User-Generated Content: User-generated content, especially on social media platforms, acts as proof that a business’ goods and services are what they say they are. People who are on platforms like Instagram can trust the individual promoting the product and would be very interested in learning more about it and how it can also benefit them. Testimonials also serve a similar purpose and can be posted on your website for display.

Conclusion

 

With the emergence of smartphone devices, social media marketing will be playing a major role online for many years to come. Now with over 2 billion people using Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites, it’s becoming easier for businesses to gain a huge, loyal following.

Here are the 6 advantages of social media marketing for your business:

1. Brand Exposure: If your customers have purchased your products and services and it has benefited them, the natural thing for them to do is to tell their family and friends. When they share your products and services through social media, their recommendations can spread like wildfire, having your brand exposed to a vast number of people.
2. More Traffic: Without traffic, your business will struggle and traffic is extremely crucial if want to sell your goods and services and pursue a large following. On social media, it is always best to talk to your customers and encourage them to visit your website. Another idea would be to send them a free eBook or gift to subscribe to your newsletter. This can help you gain more traffic as well.
3. Very Affordable: One of the advantages of using social media marketing is that doesn’t cost much compared to other ways of advertising. On Facebook, you can start with 5 dollars a day for a post you would like to boost and scale the bid once you see activity. Very affordable for those who have a low budget.
4. Increased Brand Loyalty: There are times where things in your business don’t go according to plan. Someone may have ordered a product and it’s taking too long to be delivered. They may have complained through social media about the long delay of delivering the product and you can respond to them stating that you’re sorry for the long wait and can offer them a free gift in addition to their order and have it delivered on time. This is an excellent way to have your customers feel confident in your brand and would want to continue doing business with you. This is brand loyalty at its finest.
5. Customers are happy: Like we previously mentioned, once you gain the confidence and trust of your customers, they will always be happy and continue to do business with you. Whenever your customers are happy, they will share the good news with their friends and family that they should buy goods and services from you for interacting with them and treating them with respect.
6. Having an insight into the marketplace: On social media sites like Facebook, it’s easy to get an insight of your marketplace. When you can narrow it down to demographics, age, work history and the like, you can target your message to that audience, without having to go through a lengthy research of who your buyer persona is.

We are over halfway through the year, and today we would like to talk about the SEO strategies for 2018 that businesses would need to watch for and implement.

When it comes to SEO, the strategies used today are tweaked and changed consistently. Even when one approach has worked in the past, it can be completely inefficient in the future. However, some strategies have been improved. Let us explain what these SEO trends are that we need to look out for:

1. Using Voice Search: Voice search is becoming the most popular way for users to search the web. Every day millions of people ask their phone for the answers to their problems. How do you get everyone’s phone to respond with your answer? This is the million dollar question that we have the answer too. Simply put, you must provide the best answer. In-depth, you must give more details, in a fast and easily understood manner. Not only should you answer the question but you should answer any questions that may arise. So if the question is, how do I tie my shoes? You should provide multiple ways to tie your shoes, provide images or videos to support it, and answer questions such as, how do I tie my shoes when I can’t see or how where do I buy new shoe strings. Providing links to answer these questions is better than having a user go back to Google to search more.
2. Think Mobile: Although using laptops, at this time, is never going out of style, almost everyone today owns a mobile device. How could this information help with SEO? Simple. Let’s say someone wants to call a plumbing service. All they would have to do is search for a plumbing service on their smartphone and call the number. With Voice Search and Call Only Extensions, it is easier for customers to contact your business on a mobile device. Also, make sure that your website is mobile-responsive. To test your website’s mobile responsiveness, you can add in your domain URL in the Mobile-Friendly Test tool from Google and find out your results.
3. Create Video Content:  Youtube is the world’s second largest search engine. This means that your potential customers will be looking for your products and services through video content. When you combine long, quality content with engaging videos, you will begin to reach more people on both platforms which will then typically lead to more conversions.
4. Writing In-Depth Content: Gone are the days where you could write thin, keyword-stuffed content and ranked on the first page of Google. In 2018, high-quality, relevant content remains and is still king. Well-written articles with infographics, images, and video to help solve your customer’s problems will always reign supreme. When a website has long, quality content, the searcher that’s looking for a solution to their problem will have everything they need in one area.

Conclusion

We hope that we’ve helped to understand some of the top SEO strategies for 2018. Using these four strategies should help to boost your websites search engines results, giving your site a higher ranking.

 

This is a really great question that all local businesses owners should be asking themselves. When it comes to applying graphic design for your business, you must understand how to use creative, original images, and designs that will make your business stand out from the competition. It may seem to you that graphic design services, in general, are trivial, but this is just simply not true. The AD Leaf Team would like to provide you with some awesome information to you why it is not trivial so that you can start using graphics to sell your product more efficiently then any amount of words can.

Graphic Design Serves As A Good Introduction

As a local business, your number one goal is to give your customers the greatest services they have ever experienced and in essence, increase your sales and revenue. Another benefit is to have your customers keep returning to be served by you. So the question you should ask is this, how can you as a business keep your customers coming back for more? The answer will be to set a good introduction and impression for them.

At this very moment, look at your logo and graphic design. When you see them, do they fully speaks volumes about your company? Does the colors and designs of the logo and images tell a story about how and why your company was started in the first place? I’m sure you know that first impressions are important to you and everyone, not just customers. If you saw another business’ graphic design that seemed ugly and unappealing, would you become a customer with them? Probably not.  Highly unlikely. And that is where graphic design comes into play. With our graphic design services, our main goal is to become the voice of your company. We do this by using all the tools in our arsenal to create eye-popping logos and images that represent your company and paint a story to share with your customers.

Graphic Design Benefits Local Businesses By Building Trust

A great example would be Starbuck’s logo and web design. When you see their designs, there’s something about it that speaks to you. The green colors, the Queen, and the star images. It just appears regal and superior. The logo just screams at you that their company serves the best coffee and merchandise around the globe compared to other coffee brands. This is how our graphic design services can build trust with your company’s brand. We make sure that when it comes to your logos, images, and your online presence, your customers know in their hearts and mind, that your brand is the absolute best in your industry.

Graphic Design Puts Your Customers First

There was a time when there was no internet and no smartphones. Customers had to go to companies to seek information and to inquire if they would a great deal for the products or services that the company provided for their money. Not any longer. Today, you, as a local business, should always put your customers first. Again, we do this by having eye-catching graphic designs. You must realize that it’s not only to make your company look good, it’s also to solve your customer’s problem and have the sales process seem effortless. A well-designed website will make it so much easier for your customers to understand how you can serve them without them even knowing it. Our graphic design team understands human psychology and we know how to implement our knowledge through our graphic design skills.

Conclusion

We’ve listed a few reasons on how graphic design benefits local businesses. We hope that you have taken the time to read this article and see how graphic design can help your customers understand your brand and what image you want to portray to them. If you are a local business that truly needs graphic design services in Melbourne Florida, contact us and we will happily serve you to have your company at the number one spot.

When it comes to designing your website, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed. Not everyone is born with a super creative mind. To be a top-notch web designer, it is a must to practice this skill on a daily basis. Having said that, what if you, as non-designer, can design a site that looks beautiful and elegant compared to well-talented web designers? Well, guess what, you can. Just follow some of the tips below.

Here, we will give you great web design tips even if you don’t have a creative bone in your body:

• Build Your Brand Identity: It all starts with your brand. The questions you need to ask yourself are, what does your brand name represent? What makes you as brand stand above your competition? When you find the answers to your questions about your brand, you start to picture images of what your brand identity should look like.
• Keep it Simple: Web design doesn’t have to be complicated. Far from it. Realize that using web design that leans towards the minimal end of the spectrum is usually the best approach. You always want your design to be simple, elegant and easy on the eyes.
• Learn Color Theory: Like we mentioned about your brand identity, you will have visuals that will pop into your mind. What are certain colors that will fit with your personality and brand image? You may have favorite colors that may resonate with your website that will have it looking very professional. Please try not to use all the colors of the rainbow for your web design. Use a few colors and again, keep it minimal.
• Use Proper Photography: Make sure that you are choosing the right quality images for your website. In addition, make sure that you are careful of using copyrighted photos. In most cases, it is best to use your own pictures to design your website, so you don’t get into legal problems.
• Be Consistent With Your Web Design: Everything from your website must be consistent at all times from your images, to the fonts, to the color schemes, and to your content. Every element must fit together when someone navigates through your pages.

Conclusion

Even though you may be a non-designer, use these web design tips for your website, which help you build your website like the professionals.

When it comes to writing content for your website, it tends to be a task that most of us want to avoid. If you’ve never written content in your life, you’ll have the natural tendency to get stuck and feel frustrated after making your first attempt. This may lead to you just giving up writing content altogether. Of course, nobody wants that to happen. When you’re starting to write content it’s important that you keep a strategy in mind. Once you have a great strategy, this should help alleviate the burden of writing content. Take the time to think about and write down your strategy prior to your next content writing.

Here are some tips that will help you write content for your website:

1. Start with the Headline For Your Content: You’re looking to travel from Florida to New Orleans on a road trip. You packed everything that you needed for your travels, but there’s one thing you may have forgotten. Do you have a roadmap or a GPS that will help you get to your destination? I’m sure you know that to get to point B, you have to start at point A. This is exactly how you should attempt to write content. When you start with a headline, it gives you ideas or the “roadmap” on what to write and how to structure it.
2. Create an Outline: Once you have your headline in place, the second tip is to create an outline. What this does is help break down your content into sub-topics that you would want to write that fits with your headline. In addition, by creating an outline, you can research your headline and subtopics which will give you even more ideas to write for your content.
3. Research Other Articles That Relates To Your Content: We’ve mentioned this briefly, but once you have a headline and outline, researching for other articles and blogs that relate to your content can definitely help you. Freewriting can be extremely difficult if you are new to writing content and finding articles online will help you by making your content writing much easier.
4. Fill In Your Outline with Content: Once you have your research materials and everything is set up nicely, fill in your outline with your content. Because you now have a blueprint for your headline and subtopics, you can now plug in words that will relate to what you will be writing about. Of course, try not to plagiarize using other people’s content. Do your best to be original.
5. Edit and Proofread Your Content: When you feel that your content is finished, go over your content to see if it flows well and there are no grammatical errors. Another good reason to edit your content is to add more words and beef up the content a bit more.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You are done! I’m sure there are other great ways to write content for your website, but we believe the tips we provided here are great first steps to take. We wish you the best in your next content writing venture!

I’m sure many us can remember a time in our lives where someone said something negative about us. It certainly doesn’t feel good when knowing the things that were said negatively about us were not true and we had to handle the situation by proving to others that the rumors were false. When it comes to promoting your business online, there are others out there that wish to put your company in danger and at risk of losing revenue, and above all, your reputation. With the emergence of social media platforms, it most certainly makes it easy for companies to have a target on their backs. Having said that, here’s the question:

What is Reputation Management and how it can help your company alleviate any bad press online?

Reputation management is a technique that incorporates marketing efforts and campaigns to bury negative reviews, information or search results and promote content that positively shows the desired image of a company.

Here’s how Reputation Management can manage your online presence:

• Increase Sales and Revenue: The internet is the primary spot for individuals to connect to when they are searching for answers to their problems. It is the best place to search and research for all kinds of topics. One of the best ways to use Reputation Management and increase your sales and revenue is to directly engage with customers through the means of social media and your website. Of course, this should be done in a positive light and you must be transparent so your customers can continue to trust you. The company who is implementing Reputation Management should make sure they find a reputable person or marketing company to take over this role.
• Build Credibility: Like we mentioned previously, gaining your customer’s trust is of the utmost importance for a business to survive online. Whether you’re in the B2C or B2B market, the internet gives your customers a voice to say whatever is on their mind online if they aren’t happy with your service or your product. One negative comment about your brand will spread much faster than a positive one. Once you have a reputation management strategy in place to alleviate negative reviews, it helps you build your credibility as a brand that deeply cares about its customers and wants to improve your services and products.
• Build a Brand Image: With Reputation Management, you can definitely build a better brand image for your company. Once you or a marketing agency can monitor the responses that are being put out by bad press comments, any attacks can be dealt with swiftly. This can be done by publishing a social media post, where positive dialogue can begin to build your brand’s image moving forward.

Conclusion

Building credibility and brand image are paramount. In the end, businesses make mistakes and it is their duty to have their loyal customers trust them again and continue to service them in the most ethical way. This is the power of Reputation Management.