Social Media Marketing | Wieting Design

6 Ways to Market Your Business This Holiday Season

December 10, 2017 by Cindy Wieting

Are you ready to cash in on the holiday shopping craze? If so, you need to create a few holiday marketing campaigns to attract customers to your store. This time of year, there are holiday marketing campaigns everywhere. Whether the campaigns are small and involve dressing up a company’s logo, or big, expensive campaigns that manage to go viral, many businesses should ready to take advantage of the spending season and seek out ways to market their brand to enthusiastic customers.

If you want to capitalize on the holiday spirit – give these 6 marketing strategies a try to boost your holiday season.

Find your brand’s unique holiday angle – Keep It Simple Silly (K.I.S.S.), make it personal and give people a reason to pass it on. How can your business or products improve the holidays for your customers?
Get your customers involved – the power of user-generated content can is gold in the marketing world. Ask for pictures featuring your services, or how they use your products during the holidays.
Discounts, contests, giveaways – A holiday promotion can take many forms: maybe a discount code, rewards points, or a free surprise gift with a purchase. Social contests are an effective method of driving holiday sales.
Give your site a festive, holiday feel – 92% of holiday shoppers will research or buy gifts online – they can interact with your brand and product from the comfort of their fuzzy slippers and glass of eggnog. That leaves your business with an excellent opportunity to grab them by those holiday heartstrings while they browse your site this season. When customers land on your site, your business’ special holiday promotions should welcome them with festive, cheerful designs. Create holiday-themed landing pages to help direct customers to any deals you are offering, and make it an enticing, enjoyable experience to shop on your site
Social media posts Do you have an in-house designer? Perfect! If not, you might want to start thinking about your need for outside resources to plan for future holiday display campaigns. In the meantime try Canva or Snappa. Festive images on Facebook and social networks can really help create a cheerful connection between your brand and your leads. From quoting favorite holiday movies, to funny family meme’s you can be festive and entertaining all at once. Be sure to have fun with social media and get your customers excited about the holiday season. Post questions for engagement like “What’s a good hiding place for gifts?”. Post a picture of a gift-wrapped box, ask your fans to guess what’s inside, and award the fan who guesses correctly. Social media posts like these are sure to inspire engagement.
Throw a holiday party – Not the employee holiday party type – but more of an open house at your place of business. There’s no better way to build a strong relationship with prospects and customers then giving them actual face time, so why not use the holidays as an excuse to do just that. If you want to increase your foot traffic, consider incorporating a “Giving Campaign” into your open house like a food drive for your local food bank, or Toys for Tots. Tis the season for giving. Give to your customers, give to your community, and ask them to join you in giving back.

The 2017 holiday shopping season is expected to be one of the best in recent years. Don’t let your business miss out on the chance to spread your own holiday cheer to your customers. Follow these holiday marketing strategies, and you’ll be sure to make you and your customers very merry this season.

Wieting Design | Social Media Marketing Fairfield County CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

How to Make Social Media Marketing Work for You

July 8, 2017 by Cindy Wieting

How important is social media marketing to business growth? As we mentioned in our last post, according to Hubspot, 92% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses, while 80% of marketers indicated that their social media efforts increased traffic. With these types of statistics, the benefits of social media marketing can no longer be ignored. While many businesses have some level of social media involvement very few are maximizing its use. Social media is perhaps one of the best means of marketing you can have.

Here are our 5 best tips to make social media marketing work.

1 – Post when your audience is active

There isn’t a single answer for every business regarding the best times to post on social media. CoSchedule compiled a few studies on this subject that can help you get started with your timing, but you shouldn’t rely on it as fact for your business. For example, Facebook posting at 1pm on Wednesdays may work for business X, but posting at 5pm on Thursdays may work better for business Y. The single most important tip to remember is that you need to be active when your target audience is.

2- Choose The Right Platform For Your Business

Every social media platform favors certain kind of businesses more, this fact is trite. If for instance, you run a photo editing and photography business or any business that can be sold with quality pictures, then it goes without saying that Instagram is worth a million bucks in its benefits to your business.

Facebook on the other hand also has an open platform for all kinds of businesses, but it gives more room for text, Facebook Pages are beginning to show equal engagement as websites and more engagement in many cases. Basically, it gives you room to explain yourself better and with the addition of Live streaming, Facebook has stepped up in its importance for literally every business type.

Twitter limits you to 140 characters. It can be quite difficult creating something meaningful in that small space, but it can create a huge and relevant audience quickly. But without the ability to target a group of people, it sometimes feels like you are throwing a message out to a big silent world. Twitter is great at making initial connections which can lead to reliable reach on another platform like a blog or podcast.

3 – Collect Email Addresses

No, e-mails are not old school. According to a survey by Exact Target (now a part of Salesforce) 91 percent of consumers reported that they checked their email every day. Emails are still the preferred channel for customers especially if you are providing value. When you have their emails, then you can almost certainly count on being able to reach them when you need to as opposed to trying to guess when they will be available.

4 – Capitalize On Your Favorite Vocal Customers

People generally trust peer recommendations over branded messaging. When a customer raves over your product or service, ask for a reviews or for them to share their experience on your social media page. There’s a lot more credibility in peer reviews than self promotion.

5 – Connect First, Sell Second

If you truly want to get the most out of social media marketing, you need to be there to communicate in real-time. “It’s one thing to fill up your social media feed with posts, but it’s another thing to actively engage with your audience and turn them into satisfied customers. I see a lot of small business owners posting a couple times a day, thinking that they are doing the right thing when it comes to social media marketing. You can’t just post and walk away. If you do that, you are missing prime opportunities to engage with your audience and convert them. This means engaging 1-on-1 to assist with complaints or show gratitude for praise.

Social media doesn’t have to be a mystery. It’s a chance to engage with your audience and hear what they want so you can adapt your sales cycle. It’s nearly impossible — and almost always ineffective — to be active on every single social media platform. It’s better to start with two or three social media platforms where your target audience is active. Master those, and then expand your social reach as the business grows and more effort can be allocated to additional social platforms. Lastly, make sure you are tracking and measuring everything. The data you collect and analyze can then be used to make changes to your campaign. You must be willing to constantly optimize and test your efforts if you want to develop a truly successful social media marketing campaign

Need a hand getting your social media marketing strategy off the ground? Give us a call at 203 414 9692 for a free consultation or email us

How to Set Up your Facebook Business Page for Success

October 26, 2016 by Cindy Wieting

Rule #1 in business is to get in front of your market. As the largest social media site for small businesses, Facebook is still king. If you’ve been fighting the trend, you are missing out on a great opportunity. Three reasons you should have a Facebook business page is to connect with customers, it is a free way to market your business, and it brings traffic to your website and store. Now you know why you need it…

Here’s how to set up and optimize your Facebook business page for success.

Create your Facebook Business Page connected to your personal Facebook account.
Choose which category you fit into out of the following:
1. Local Business or Place
2. Company, Organization, or Institution
3. Brand or Product
4. Artist, Band or Public Figure
5. Entertainment
6. Cause or Community
Complete your business profile description in 150 characters or less so visitors know exactly who you are and what you do . Add categories that your business applies too like what type of food your restaurant serves or what services you offer, then finalize the profile with your business website link.
Upload your profile picture. Your goal with your images is to draw viewers in and show off your brand. Be sure it’s a high resolution shot.
Claim any duplicate pages. Facebook may have a user generated page about your business and during set-up they will prompt you to claim this page(s).
Choose your audience. For example, if you’re a hair stylist in Wilton, CT your audience could be women ages 13-65 that are located in Wilton. You can also target based on people’s interests, but be careful narrowing your audience or your views will be limited.
Setup a Cover Photo. This picture is different from your profile picture but is equally important as it’s the first big image of your brand viewers will see. Your cover photo should be 851 pixels by 315 pixels and visually show your services.
Create a Call to Action. Choose a button to include on your page that prompts viewers to engage with you. I.e. Book Now, Contact Us, Shop Now.
Create a posting strategy with compelling content. Start off slow and steady with a daily post. If you have a blog, pull snippets from your website and add images to your posts. Visuals and video get the most views.
Invite your Friends to like your page. It’s important to wait until you have a stream of content before going for likes. Once you have a few posts and images, go for the low hanging fruit first. Like your own page and then ask friends and family to also like your page.
Advertise on Facebook. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a month, but consider starting with a small budget to grow your audience. When you are first starting out, it can be hard to gain an audience but once you’ve established 1-3K likes, you’ll start gaining more organically.
Measure your Growth. Facebook has a built-in analytics tool to help you measure your growth and you can add a tracking code to your website to track how visitors are interacting with your website.

Creating a Facebook Business page is free and simple to do and with all of the benefits, it’s a no-brainer. Having a Facebook page also helps you with Google’s new local SEO ranking algorithm. One of the most important steps is to make sure your presence on Facebook is consistent and aligns with your brand. If you share a funny video that gains new likes, but it doesn’t pertain to your brand, you’ve earned a like, but not a customer.

If you’re ready to start marketing on social media but not sure where to start, let the social media experts at Wieting Design create a social media strategy for your business. Email us for a complimentary consultation or give us a call at 203.414.9692.

Tips for Getting Twitter Followers

April 8, 2016 by Cindy Wieting

Many of my clients are just getting into Twitter and realizing the value it has to business. Many have asked how do I get followers? Well, it takes patience. But here are 8 quick simple things to get you started and get followers.

Choose a profile name.

This is the name you’ll be known as on Twitter. You should always use your real name or business name.

Write a good solid profile, and take the time to brand Twitter so you build consistency.

Make sure you have a high-resolution photo for your profile picture don’t use a logo, people will want to connect with you on a personal level. Use a some creative in your Twitter header that is relevant to your business. You don’t want to come across as a spammer. There are thousands of spammers on Twitter and you can usually tell because they never creat their profile correctly.

Create a short informative bio about your company.

When people are deciding they want to follow you, they will scan your Twitter bio to see if it’s relevant to their business. A good formula to use is to state your business, services you offer, areas of expertise and put in your website.

Don’t over Tweet, but Tweet consistently

Being consistent will engage your followers and attract new followers because no one will want to follow someone who tweeted 8 weeks ago. Try tweeting things like product launches, new announcements, latest news relevant to your business, photos, blog posts, and so on. If there’s not much to tweet don’t force it. And don’t be a person who keeps retweeting all the time, it will show that you really have nothing to offer, and you won’t get followers. I say if you having to tweet of interest don’t. A day or two won’t matter if you don’t tweet.

Tweet with relevant hashtags

A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the hash character # in front of a word. Searching for that hashtag will then present each message that has been tagged with it. By using a hash tag with your tweets, you are making it easier for someone to find out information and find you!

Spread your Twitter URL

Advertise your Twitter account through your Facebook page, email signatures, website and any marketing material you have.

Retweet others

A retweet is a repost or a forward that you can share with your followers. When you retweet other people’s tweets, they get notified and will most likely follow you as a sign of thanks. Retweeting other posts shows your interested in what your follows are saying and sharing it with others says “you want your follows to be aware of this person as they have good solid information. But again don’t overdue it.

Follow relevant people

One of the quickest ways to start getting more Twitter followers is to follow others. This lets people know you exist. Follow people you can learn from and follow people who have interesting and funny things to say. Don’t follow hundreds of people before you start getting followers yourself. Building a large Twitter follower community takes time so be patient and be smart.

Educate your followers

Tweet something you’d be interested about if you saw it. Offer your followers engaging content that they can be excited about and learn about. No one will want to follow a brand that constantly tweets promotions about themselves.

So those are some simple tips if you decide to engage with Twitter! Thanks for reading and hopes this helps those of you who are just getting started.

AND OPTIMIZE!

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS WE RECOMMEND.

February 24, 2016 by Cindy Wieting

s, increase sales and make great connections. For many business’s, it’s indispensable. But finding the right social media platform for your business can be “a daunting task”.

The advice I give my clients is “PICK THREE to FOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND DO IT RIGHT”. It might be tempting to follow the social media trends that are considered “hot” in popular culture and jump on whatever platform is being talked about the most. But what works for another company may not have the same effects for yours. Here is a list of we consider the top four social media platforms to think about.

Facebook – Currently sits at 1.55 billion monthly active users.

Facebook users aren’t only browsing profile updates or viewing photos. Each Facebook user is connected to an average of 80 pages, groups, or events. That’s where you come in — your marketing efforts and Facebook presence. A retail shop, magazine publications, interior designers, restaurants, will have a better chance at Facebook success than a company trying to promote a legal service they are offering.

LinkedIN – They ended the third quarter of 2015 with 396 million members.

LinkedIn proudly touts their user base of professionals. Many of those professionals are connected with companies any many of these companies benefit from the extra marketing. Don’t neglect LinkedIn, especially if you’re in B2C. I think LinkedIN is good for just about everyone, it is where the professionals go. It serves as a great online resume while connecting you with other professionals. This is one social media platform I always recommend to my clients.

Twitter – As of the fourth quarter of 2015, the microblogging service averaged at 305 million monthly active users.

If used correctly, Twitter can be used by start up companies, mid size companies and individuals who want to promote. Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets”. It relies on micro-blogging for communication so whatever you have to say it has to be quick and interesting. You can add links, hashtags, and photos to lead people to more information about what you are promoting. People are looking for quick information, quick answers, helpful information on Twitter Take a look at the Twitter page it’s fun with lots of information. CLICK HERE TO GO TO TWITTER.

Google + – Officially, Google+ has more than 2.5 billion users.

“Google+ is a game changer in the social media landscape. Google is the world’s dominant search engine, and when you use it as a social media platform it integrates everything, it’s no wonder that Google+ is turning up as a dominant form of online social interaction.

Google+ is not a social network to be ignored or summarily dismissed as “just another social network.” It’s a powerful algorithmic factor and has a large audience forum. Out of all the social media platforms Google + should take top priority. Google’s search engine will index every post that your company publishes to the platform, which can help your content appear higher in the Google search results list. Using Google the right way can do wonders for you business. There are to many benefits to list here about using Google but we say use it!

Those are the big four. Whatever you’re selling, doing, being, or saying, these are the four social media platforms we recommend.

Whatever social media platform you decide on make sure it is right for you, take the time to setup your brand so it reflects your business and most important keep it up with daily postings.

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