Copywriting
Marketing

Copywriting: Connect With Your Audience Through Words

ROI

The art of writing is a bit of a niggly one. If we could describe it simply, you’re either really good at it or it’s just not your thing. That’s not to say you don’t know what you want to communicate, it just means it’s a little harder for people who are more hands-on or technical to put their ideas down on paper. In marketing, copywriting is one of the best tools to have when it comes to gaining interest in your product or service from your target audience, keeping them there, and then convincing them that investing in what you have to offer is worthwhile. Whether you’re a start up business or a seasoned entrepreneur, if you don’t have the right messaging in your marketing, your voice is going to fall on deaf ears. 

This is tricky, because so much of business marketing relies on good copy. From the information you write on your website landing page to your social media posts, blogs, email newsletters, brochures and so on, writing is one of those things you’ve just gotta get right. Fortunately, marketing agencies like us exist for that exact reason. We get that running a business is a huge amount of work (trust us, we’ve been there), and finding the time to either teach yourself how to write for marketing or even just conjure something up when it’s needed, is often at the bottom of your list of priorities.

The good news is, we’re here to help. There is no doubt in our minds that you are good at what you do. Whether you’re a clothing designer, an accountant or an all-round handyman, if you’re a business owner, you’re going to know your stuff. We want you to focus on that, so we can focus on how to help you grow your business and get that return on your investment from your marketing efforts.

If you need an ad campaign written, a personal profile for a magazine feature, or a story about your journey as a business, we can do all the writing for you. Our process might involve re-doing something you’ve written and making it more enticing and SEO friendly, or it could be that we start from scratch by talking to you about what it is you’re wanting to say and communicating that for you. Whatever you want written in order to increase your brand awareness and convert that to sales, leave it with us.

Articles & Blogs

There’s no doubt about it, articles and blogs are not only a great way to give your customers a more in-depth look inside your brand, but they’re also a game changer for SEO. When you have the right keywords scattered throughout your website, you’re going to gain way more traction on your products and services because it drives traffic right there. Tell us what you want to write about, and we’ll do the rest for you.

Social Media

Posting consistently on your social media platforms is one of the best methods to get your target audience to turn their attention to you, engage with what you have to say, and give you a bit of control over the algorithm. Knowing how to write social media copy and how to carry out those marketing techniques is a bit of a fine art, and it’s something we’re more than happy to help you with.

Websites

Having a website and something for customers to Google search is a super important one. If your website doesn’t have the right keywords on it, the copy isn’t informative and it doesn’t show your uniqueness as a brand, it’s not going to be effective. We help to boost your website’s SEO and appeal through writing team bios, eye-catching landing page copy and can work with you to tell your story in the most impactful way.

Advertising

Whether it’s an ad campaign, an event poster or a brochure, your advertising needs to make a statement. A huge part of that is the messaging that’s on those marketing materials. We work with you to come up with the best way to communicate your story through words, so you can promote your business on every piece of collateral you have. 

Are you ready for us to lend a hand? Contact us here.

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Marketing Strategy
Marketing

Marketing: A Little Bit of Everything You Need to Know

Copywriting

Are you a start up? Maybe you’ve got a business you’ve had for 20 years that’s in desperate need of a rebrand to adjust to the digital age. Either way, marketing has become something you quite simply just can’t go without. Unfortunately, gone are the days of being able to have an ultra-successful storefront on a town street with very minimal competition. 

With the evolution of the internet, marketing has become a lot less focused on face-to-face interaction, and a lot more about how we can connect with people across a range of different time zones and landscapes. Because of this, we’ve had to adapt. Which can be a big adjustment for many. Even if you know your way around the worldwide web, marketing can feel like a whole other ball game. 

From social media to functional websites, marketing campaigns and all-round advertising, the list of things you need to be all over as a business seems to go on forever. That’s why we’re here. As a full-service marketing agency, we can either teach you how to make the most out of your business marketing, or take the pressure off entirely and do it all for you. 

Are you ready to take that step and start growing your business? 

Marketing Training

Not sure how to use social media? It could be that you’ve had a business account for a while but you don’t know how to use it to the best of its ability when it comes to marketing. We can book a session in for you or your team to spend time with us learning all about the ins and outs of how to promote your business, increase engagement and gain followers and likes. The whole point of this is to build familiarity and trust with your brand, reach your target audience better and convince them that they want what you’ve got to offer.

Copywriting

We weren’t all made to be an Ernest Hemingway. And that’s okay! Writing copy for marketing is completely different to writing an email, there’s a whole lot more to it. Your writing needs to peak curiosity, hook your audience, and then get them to purchase your product or service. Whether it’s website copy, social media posts, blogs or staff profiles, we work with you to make the most out of your marketing through words. 

Graphic Design

These days, people have a lot less patience when it comes to reading. While this is not always the case, whoever said a picture speaks a thousand words wasn’t wrong. Graphic design and visuals play such a huge role in marketing and you need a skilled designer to be able to tell your business’s story through art. The good news is, we’ve got a pretty amazing one on board. Whether it’s a logo, event poster, advertisement or website content, we do it all.  

Market Research

Before we even get started on marketing your business, we need to know everything there is to know about it, and your competition. We take our years of experience with marketing research and use it to analyse your brand and how it is positioned in the market. Once we have the full picture, we’ll come up with a plan for what our immediate steps are, as well as how we help you get to where you want to be in the future.

Marketing Strategy

Every business needs a well-thought-out marketing strategy. After all, nobody gets anywhere great without having a plan. We’ll work with you to come up with a solid framework for your brand, map out your business goals, decide which channels are going to be most effective for your marketing, and everything in between. Your marketing strategy will act as a bible for all things your business. When you feel yourself getting off track or stuck, you can refer back to it whenever you need a reset.

Implementation

This is where we put our marketing strategy into action. The implementation phase is all about taking everything you’ve learnt about marketing your business and starting to make it happen. This could be anything from content creation and social scheduling to running some Google ads, publishing some SEO friendly blogs on your website or setting up a page likes campaign. Now, this might all sound very foreign to you at this stage, but that’s exactly why we’re here — to guide you through it so you can see it through.

Read enough? Contact us here. 

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design
Marketing

Our Services: Give Your Design a Real Boost

logo design

Whether you’re an entirely new business that needs to make a strong statement with your branding and design or an existing business wanting a little freshen-up, rest assured, you’ve come to the right place. At Elm, we’re all about helping your business grow. Our slogan says it, so we sort of have to be. Our team has a whole host of groovy talents, but when it comes to design, we reckon we’re not too shabby at it.  

 

One of the first of many steps to establishing yourself as a business or re-claiming your place in the market is to have branding that sticks in people’s minds as much as a painfully tacky radio jingle. When people look at your business branding, they’re not just seeing the lines, the images, the colours and the curvature of the letter or icons — they want to know what it all means. That’s why we knock all of our heads together and pull on our individual strengths to come up with design work that not only sticks out like a sore thumb in the best way possible, but also tells a story about exactly who you are as a business.

 

We take the time to learn about your brand, the people behind it, its history and where you see it being projected in the future. It’s sort of like an interview, but with less sweat and nerves. We’ll walk and talk you through the whole process of designing your brand, step by step, to get to the guts of what it is you envisage for your business’s look, and work with you until you’re absolutely infatuated with it. Whether it’s a one-off job or you need an entire rebranding strategy, we’ve got you covered.

Logo Design

A logo is a symbol of everything and anything your business represents. When customers and potential customers see your logo printed on vehicle signage, on your building front or on any of your marketing materials, it needs to grab attention. It’s much like making a first impression when you meet someone, but the design does all the work for you. Some of the other things your logo must achieve include being memorable, standing out from your competition and fostering brand loyalty — all of which we will help to make a reality for you.

Marketing Materials

When you start your business or give it a new look, you’re going to need a whole host of marketing collateral with your brand design displayed consistently throughout it. From envelopes to notepads, brochures, business cards and letterheads, everything you send out to your customers needs to represent your business in a bold and easily recognisable way. That’s where we come in! 

Social Media

Content marketing and how that integrates with social media is a big one when it comes to connecting with and reaching out to your audience. Design for social media is one of the most handy tools for increasing engagement and making your posts more appealing to your target market. We can do this by creating social tiles, banners, events posters — the list goes on.

 

And if you’re reading this and feel like we haven’t covered an element of design that you’re looking for, just ask! We can pretty much do it all.

 

Are you ready for us to lend a hand? Contact us here.

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Marketing

Discord: It might not be “just another marketing platform”

If you’ve found yourself sifting through various media channels trying to find the right one for marketing your business — you won’t be the first or the last. While social media is such an incomparable tool when it comes to getting your brand out there and communicating your message, it can also be an incredibly overwhelming space to be in. Especially if you’re a little newer to the digital sphere. It’s pretty easy to get lost when it feels like there is a new platform popping up daily and its features are constantly changing. So while we know the information we’re about to share with you might cause you to do a bit of an eye-roll, trust us, it’s worth having a look into.

Discord — you may have never heard of it, know about it but think of it as a whole other world for tech whizzes, or it’s piqued your interest but you just don’t get it. Bare with us, but we think it does have a fair amount of potential to replace Facebook private groups as a way to connect and communicate with your audience. Let’s start with the basics.

what is it?

Since this platform hit the market, it took off. One of the fastest-growing social networks yet, it’s basically a hive of chat forums where people from all over the world can share and discuss a particular topic. From fashion to sport, business and private conversations between family and friends, if you’re interested in talking about something, you can do it on Discord. Because of its wide reach and the sole purpose of it being a place where people can be a part of a chat room, it offers huge opportunities for businesses to build communities and integrate with their audience.

How to use it?

Because no one really controls Discord, it can open spaces up to some pretty meaningful interaction, as well as some not-so-desirable things. The idea that it is a place for democracy to operate means that businesses can interact with their audience more freely and without restrictions, but it does mean there’s a responsibility placed on the business to monitor and moderate what is said in the chat room (known as a discord server). At the same time, it also gives creators of the discord server a lot more power, like being able to see some details about where the messages are coming from, which definitely comes in handy if you ever have to report bad or inappropriate content. 

You can also set rules for your discord server, which users must agree to abide by if they want to be a part of the conversation. If you’ve got multiple people in your business you want to moderate the discord server, you can give them different levels of access so you’re not having to do all the admin yourself. This also means you can determine what level of access everyone in the chat has, so for example, if they can add people to the chat or whether or not they’re allowed access to different categories within it. If you don’t want the pressure of moderating it 24/7, you can also automate messages in situations where maybe a new member joins or sends a question to the chat. The bottom line is, there are plenty of ways to control how your business’s discord server operates. 

Whether you’re an avid discord user or are just starting out, once you get your head around it, the benefits could be a real gamechanger for your business. If you’re still feeling a little lost about what it all could mean for you, do some of your own research and take your time at making sense of it. This resource is a really great one to get you started https://bit.ly/3JQXDKB.

 

Are you ready for us to lend a hand? Contact us here.

 

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Marketing

Putting Our Plan Into Action

marketing

So you’ve got your marketing strategy in place, a clearer vision of how exactly you’re going to take your business to the next level, and it’s time to start setting the wheels in motion and making some moves. First things first, you’re going to need to decide what platforms you’re going to use to market your business. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, there has to be a reason behind why you’ve chosen to market this way. 

This decision is mainly going to be based on who your target audience is, so for example, if they’re part of the millennial generation that are tech-savvy and social media focused, Instagram would make the most sense for getting your brand out to that particular audience. The same goes for if you are trying to reach a more corporate audience — LinkedIn would likely be the most suitable option in this case. You can take advantage of multiple platforms, as long as they are actually going to help you get heard by the right people.

Content

Once you’ve got that sorted, the next step would be to consider what type of content you’re going to post, as well as how frequently you need to do it in order for the messages to be effective. One of the main things we’ve learned from working with our clients is how important it is to showcase the people behind the business. Posting a stock image or a picture of a sunset is great every now and then if it’s relevant, or you find yourself getting a little desperate for time, but the real magic happens when you tell it exactly how it is. Images of staff out in the field, short videos of the process of making your product or offering your service almost always get a whole lot more engagement than a basic image that doesn’t really tell a story at all.

When do I post?

Then it comes down to how regularly you share content. If you’re just starting out or you’re not getting much engagement on your posts, maybe because of the time of year it is, there’s no point in overdoing it. What we’ve seen is that when you post too much, you can actually put people off. Having the same businesses showing up on a person’s timeline constantly can get a little annoying, and the last thing you want is for people to get tired of seeing your stuff. Start out with 1 to 2 posts a week, and then slowly build up from there to every second day or every day, mainly when your engagement begins to increase or it feels necessary.

Content marketing can take a lot of time and patience when there’s so much to do and you’re also trying to focus on managing the day-to-day tasks that come with running a business. To make sure you get results from your marketing, it is vital to have a strategy that outlines who has what job, a set of guidelines for what that involves, deadlines, and a checklist so that you can keep you and your team accountable — and then stick to it. There’s no doubt about it, to see the success of your marketing you need to have a certain amount of commitment to making it work, so following that plan is going to be crucial to getting the outcomes you want from it.

Communication

Last but not least, communication really is the key to making your marketing work for you. Not just with your team but with your audience and the people who make your business what it is. If you’re still struggling to wrap your head around it all, don’t panic. We get it, it’s a lot to take in. So if you’re needing a bit of a helping hand, you know where to find us.

Are you ready for us to lend a hand? Contact us here.

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marketing
Marketing

Introducing Elm Marketing

We’re not gonna lie, we’re just a teeny tiny little bit seriously excited to be publishing our first blog on our new and improved website. It’s finally here, and we think it looks pretty darn cool if we do say so ourselves. But more importantly, we’re even more stoked to finally be able to share it with our favourite people — our clients!

While our old website did the job, a whole lot has happened for us at Elm in the past year and a bit, so naturally, being who we are as people (some would say crazy, we say ambitiously creative), we scrapped our website and built something entirely different. Because just like our clients, our business is growing, and considering that’s our whole motto, we’re going to take that as a win.

Grow your business

Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or have come across our website thanks to our tactical marketing (cheeky plug), we want to start by saying welcome — things look a little different around here either way. When Elm was first launched by our founder Emma Lindsay, the vision was to be a tailor-made marketing agency for growing and emerging businesses. You might be wondering why we chose to make this our target audience, and the simple answer is that no other marketing company in Southland like this existed. 

There are so many innovative businesses in our region that just need a wee leg up, and we wanted to be the people to do just that. Basically, we’re here for the little guy, as well as the not-so-little guy that’s looking to grow their business but is stumped when it comes to how.

Since we emerged, we’ve built a steady flow of clients who we are super lucky to consider our friends, have celebrated our first birthday, added members to our killer team, and have done it all through a bunch of global pandemic lockdowns. It’s been a lot, but crickey have we enjoyed the ride so far.

Boost your marketing

With the inevitable uncertainty of how things will pan out while good old Covid-19 is still lurking around, we’ve chosen to just keep trucking along and doing what we do best — putting your business at front and centre stage. We want to share our expertise in research and marketing strategies with you, come up with a plan, and then implement it for long-term sustainability. Then, instead of locking you into something you can’t manage, we’d rather equip you with the tools to do what you can yourself and if you still need us, we’ll be more than happy to manage the rest.

So whether you’re looking for a total rebrand, a basic website revamp, your social media accounts managed, or want to really boost your business through all the advertising tools the digital age has to offer, let us be your go-to.

If we’ve made your ears prop up even just a little, drop us a line, a direct message, or even just pop in — you know, the “old fashioned’’ way — and we’ll sit down over coffee for half an hour or so to chat about what we can do for you.

We can’t wait to hear from you.

 

Are you ready for us to lend a hand? Contact us here.

 

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Marketing Audience
Marketing

Do You Really Know Your Audience?

quantitative research

So you’ve got a service or product that you know inside out. But for some reason, you’re not getting the traction you’d hoped for from your advertising. We totally get it, it can be incredibly frustrating for business owners when they have something to offer that they’ve put their blood, sweat and tears into and it’s just not getting enough bites. Let us introduce you to the concept of the target audience. You may have heard of it before, or it could be that you’re entirely new to the business sphere and have no clue what it actually means. Either way, that’s okay, we’re going to break it down for you. 

What is a target audience?

If we want to get all technical with it, the definition of a target audience is described as being a group of people defined by various common attributes and characteristics. In simpler, less jargony terms, target audiences are basically groups of people that are most likely to buy your services or products.  Take this for example — you’ve developed a skincare range you want to sell, so naturally, you assume everybody that has skin (so literally everyone) will want to buy your product. This is where you’ve taken a step in the wrong direction. Some people may not want to use harsh chemicals on their skin, others might want skincare that’s specifically designed to fight the signs of ageing, or it could be that there is a group of people that don’t have time for rigorous skincare routines and want something that’s easy to use. All these groups are wanting a different thing from a skincare range — they are all different target audiences.

Problem Solving

Too often businesses fall short on their marketing because they aren’t clear about who their product or service is actually speaking to from the start. Establishing what your target audience looks like is the first step to getting the most out of your marketing. In order to do this, you need to have a think about the pain point that your product or service solves or the challenge it overcomes. Ask yourself, ‘’what can it do for consumers?’’. A time tracking app is beneficial for consultants who need to charge their clients for the time they spend doing the work, just like a military-grade phone case works for people in the construction industry who may be more prone to having their phone fall off a 12-storey building.

Once you have a vague definition of who your target audience is, you need to be able to narrow it down even further if you really want to position yourself in the market and have an advantage over your competitors. This is where target audience analysis comes in. Here is where we consider the demographic, interests, consumer behaviour and product-specific criteria of your target audience.

Demographic

For your demographic, you want to think about things like the age, gender, socio-economic status, profession or even the education level of your target audience. What are their interests? Do they lead a very active lifestyle? Are they conscious of their environmental footprint when it comes to consumption? These indicators all factor into what kind of person or group your product or service is best catered to. Then there’s consumer behaviour — that’s when you take a look at things like what social media platforms they are most likely to use on a regular basis, what their payment preferences are, and how simple they want the purchasing process to be. When it comes to product-specific criteria, it’s all about what is unique about your product or service and how you can target the most probable customers. 

To put it quite frankly, there’s a whole lot of research involved in figuring out who your target audience is before you’ve even started your marketing marketing. The good news is, it’s a pretty informative and satisfying process, and there’s a bounty of resources you can use to make it easier to put your finger on.

Surveys: Put out a survey to your contacts, whether they be friends, family, work colleagues or even your Facebook followers. There’s plenty of free survey software available online like SurveyMonkey, hotjar, or even Google Workspace.

Google Analytics: This is a fantastic tool for gathering data about audience demographics and mapping online behaviour.

Facebook and Instagram Insights: These social media platforms do all the work for you. You’ll be able to see analysis on things like how many users visited your page within specific time periods and how your posts are performing.

Competitor Analysis: Take a look at your competitors’ websites and social media, or even businesses that are in a similar industry, to see how their presence is working for them.

Feedback: To really fine-tune your target audience, ask for feedback from your customers on your website or via email. You could even just ask the people in your circle what they honestly think to gain constructive feedback.

Have a crack at these and let us know how you go. If you’re still struggling to nail your target audience, Elm is always here to help!

Are you ready for us to lend a hand? Contact us here.

 

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Marketing

The Big Idea: Social Media Marketing

blogs and articles

There’s no doubt about it, the world of social media can be a vast and confusing place if you’re not totally familiar with it. Even if you are an active user, a lot of people still don’t know how to utilise it effectively when it comes to marketing their business — that’s a whole other ball game. The good news is, we’ve more than dabbled in the social media sphere and have learnt a thing or two that we want to pass on.

While there may be a whole lot of stuff you’d rather not have to see or read on these platforms, the reality is, they are an unmatchable resource in more ways than one in terms of generating interest in the products and services you have to offer. Not only can you increase your business visibility, but socials like Facebook and Instagram also act as a way for current, and more importantly, potential customers, to engage with what it is that you do and what you can do for them. Ultimately, the ability for people to easily connect with you and your brand is going to result in tangible business leads that pay off.

So how do you take full advantage of social media for marketing your business? The list of ways to do so is extensive, but instead of rattling on about every single one, we’ve come up with a handful of key things to keep in mind in order to make the most of this tool we call social media.

Actually Connect with your audience

The most successful business socials are the ones that show the people behind them. Because posting on platforms is all done behind a screen, it can often take the authenticity away from it all and make it difficult for customers to connect with. Almost every post we put on our social media that actually has us, our clients, or even our office pets in it (yes, we also run a zoo), performs substantially better than if we were to just post a stock or text image. It’s as simple as this, people want to interact with real people, even in the digital world. Not only does it let consumers put a face to the brand, but it’s also a whole lot more personable and relatable. When you can run your platforms as similar as possible to an in-person exchange, that’s when you’ll see results. 

Post Regularly

You may or may not have heard about social media algorithms — they are very much a thing. Essentially, the more you post, the more your page is going to appear on other users’ newsfeeds, which in turn, will lead to more people engaging with what you’re posting. We recommend posting a few times a week or every second day to show you’re active and available to engage with your consumers. At the same time, you don’t want to bombard people with a whole lot of irrelevant content either because that can really put them off. Post with intention, whether it’s tips, facts about your business, insights into what you’re working on, or even pictures of the team having a bit of good old bonding time. Planning your posts a month in advance can also be really beneficial when you’re time-poor, that way you can simply schedule them in Creator Studio and not have to worry about content planning until the next month, just don’t forget to engage with any comments or messages when your post goes up.

Ask and answer questions

Find out what your target audience wants to see on your socials, literally by just asking them. Maybe there’s something they want to know more about or need help with — be the solution to their problem. The same goes for answering questions, if people are taking the time to comment on your posts, always reply in a friendly and professional manner and react to it so they know you value their engagement. The more you interact with the people posting on your page, the more your overall page engagement will increase — this is the ultimate goal for social media marketing. To get results, it has to be a two-way street. You can’t expect to get if you’re not giving back! Be consistent and you’ll reap the rewards with time, and of course, that means being patient. You know what they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for your social media engagement. 

Keep it Fresh

Nobody wants to see the same thing harped on about over and over again, and the same thing goes for images and designs. In saying that, that doesn’t mean you should get too off-brand and start using colours and styles that aren’t reflective of your business’s look and tone. Get creative with what you post and alternate the copy that goes with the images. One day you might talk about something personal about you and your team, like introducing a team member, and the next could be an informative fact about your business or the industry it‘s part of. Always try to think to yourself, “What would I want to see from this business if I was looking at their social media?’’. If you’re stuck on ideas, there’s no harm in looking at other business pages for inspiration. What we find super helpful is sitting down once a week or even once a month to brainstorm as a team. That way, we end up having a whole host of new and unique ideas brought to the table to keep our socials appealing and relevant. 

If after reading this you’re still unsure about what to do to get your social media marketing off the ground, don’t stress. We’re here to help when you’re feeling a little lost or just don’t have the time to invest in your socials. The bottom line is, it’s a marketing technique that really does work, you’ve just got to give it a chance.

 

Read enough? Contact us here. 

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Marketing

Getting Seen: The World of Paid Advertising

google ads
It can be incredibly overwhelming going into the paid advertising sphere with very little understanding of how it all works. Too often, people shy away from its power because they’ve either been burned by someone who’s pocketed their advertising dollars, or they don’t know how to do it themselves and they’ve overspent. And if you’re entirely new to the concept of paid digital advertising, we want to share the benefits with you too.  So how does it work? Let’s think about the way traditional advertising works — you pay for a space in the newspaper or a slot on the radio for your ad. The same goes for online advertising, if you want to have the space for your ad on someone’s search engine, or that sponsored post on their social media newsfeed, you have to pay for that space. Essentially, paid advertising is one of the best ways to bring in new customers, get leads, increase brand awareness, and get a better return on your investment. Because organic content on social media has been on the decline for a few years now, paid advertising is really the best way to get results. Not only that, but they’re also super affordable and easy to measure — you can easily monitor how your ads are performing and see what is and isn’t working. It’s also incredibly specific, so you can narrow your target audience down to reach relevant consumers who are interested in your brand, fit the demographic of your buyer persona, and show in the exact geographic location you’re wanting to target. Plus, paid digital advertising also allows you to retarget consumers that have clicked through your ad, engaged with your business, and visited your page or website, to encourage them to complete the sales process. If you’re wondering what kind of paid ads you can use to make the most of your marketing dollars, we’ve come up with a list of the most popular ones.

Social Media Paid Ads

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Youtube allow users to pay for advertising space on their sites. Due to the advanced targeting options, and the option to retarget users on some social media sites, social media advertising can be extremely beneficial. In the third quarter of 2020, Facebook announced that 10 million advertisers were using the social networking platform to promote their products and services, the majority of which were small businesses. With apps like Facebook, which also owns Instagram, you can cross-post your ads to show up on both platforms. 

Google Paid Ads

Every time you search for something in Google, the ads that come up do so for a reason — the business has paid for its spot on the list. Your ads will display for a specific set of keywords, as well as other criteria you set when you create your ad campaign.  Search ads are also a great way to get to the top of the organic and local search results on Google, even if you’re struggling to manage the back end of your business’s Google Ads account. And because Google allows ads in the local search results, you have a pretty good chance of your ad appearing at the the top of the local search results for your industry, even if you are still figuring out how to get your ad ranking higher up in searches. This is great for businesses just starting out on their paid advertising journey, especially since their ads could show up above their competitors who are only in the local search results. However, in order to do so, you will need to have a Google search ad campaign and link your Google My Business account to your AdWords account with location extensions enabled.  Creating search ads can help you expand your customer base and will show up where they wouldn’t be able to if you were only using local search marketing.

Digital Media Paid Advertising

Paid advertising on news sites is also a great way to reach a wider audience, get the best-performing ad placements, as well as advertise on an arguably more trusted platform than social media. Media companies like Stuff and the online publication of the New Zealand Herald are often the go-to for businesses trying to position themselves in the spotlight. There are a whole host of ways digital media companies can incorporate your ads into their platforms, from putting them in between video breaks to slotting them in between articles, they’re bound to get seen. Here are our tips for optimizing the success of your ads:
  • Make it easy for people to convert a click into a sale by keeping the linking process simple.
  • Test two versions of the ad to see which performs best — ads can always be better so don’t be afraid of doing a whole lot of trial and error. 
  • Target the right audience by nailing details like the demographic, what your ideal customer’s pain points are and what problem your product can help them solve. Base this off your buyer persona.
  • Use consistent messaging and make sure the action your customer makes takes them to the right location. There’s no point putting a “find out more’’ button in that leads to a home page.
  • If the ad doesn’t perform the way you wanted it to, try something different.
If you’re still feeling lost with the concept of paid advertising, as always, the team at Elm are more than happy to lend you a helping hand!   Read enough? Contact us here. 

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Marketing

Any Successful Business Needs a Strategy

We are no strangers to the feeling of having a billion business ideas running through our minds on a regular basis. While it’s mostly fantastic to have an overly creative mind, it can also leave you feeling a bit scattered and lacking direction at times. When you’re just throwing those ideas out there and seeing what sticks, you’re likely going to be left wondering why none of your advertising is working. That’s why we are so adamant about every business needing a solid marketing strategy in order to get results. You simply just can’t start marketing effectively without knowing where you stand as a business.

Essentially, a marketing strategy is a comprehensive, in-depth plan that acts as a blueprint for the marketing objectives you want to achieve, including who your ideal customers are and how you’re going to reach them. Not only does it give you something to consistently refer to, but it also keeps you accountable. Once you’ve done your marketing research, which we discussed in our blogs on content marketing and knowing your target audience, the strategy will help you to concentrate your efforts and resources on the best possible opportunities to generate profit. 

Start your marketing strategy by outlining your business’s purpose, vision, and what makes it stand out from the competition. Then it’s about setting out who your customers are and why they would be likely to engage with your product or service. The strategy will outline how you plan to reach your target audience, what sort of content you’re going to produce and the communication methods that are going to be most effective. It could also include things like your buyer persona, where the brand is positioned with the market, a timeline for implementing those steps, and a multi-channel activity plan such as advertising the business across social media, a website, and so on. 

Here are just a few reasons why we believe a marketing strategy is a no-brainer.

Talk Directly to Your Target Audience

Gone are the days of marketing that is thrown out into the abyss in the hopes everyone will think they need what you’re selling in their lives — you’ve actually got to connect with your audience. People want to know how your product or service will solve their problem, and that they can trust your brand. In order to know how to do this, you need to have an understanding of what’s happening in the world and in the marketplace, which should all be included in your marketing strategy.

Don’t Waste Your Marketing Dollars

It can be tempting at times to put a few dollars on a marketing campaign, whether it’s on Google Ads or social media, and just “see how it goes’’. But in reality, this approach very rarely works and instead, will have you wasting a lot of money unnecessarily. Getting your brand front and centre stage is all about consistency and strategic spending. Having a marketing strategy that lays out your budget, how and on what you are going to spend your money, and then being able to monitor it is what will benefit your business short and long-term.

Keep Your Content Relevant

Without a plan in place, it’s easy for businesses to get off track and lose their target audience. When you’re able to refer back to who your audience is, check if your content is in line with your brand, as well as if it’s what people are looking for, it makes the marketing process a whole lot smoother. 

Measure Your Success

When we set marketing objectives from day one, it prevents us from wandering aimlessly and hoping good things will just happen. Unfortunately, like any other form of success, marketing success isn’t done on a whim and it most certainly doesn’t happen overnight. Setting goals, as well as expectations for your return on investment (ROI), gives you something to look back on and reassess what is and isn’t working.

And as always, if you’re still feeling a little lost when it comes to your marketing strategy, it’s what we do best. So, don’t hesitate — reach out and let us help your business grow.

 

Read enough? Contact us here. 

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