Social media marketing plays a big role in making your business a success in today’s times. With social media, you can increase brand awareness, attract customers and establish a two-way communication, which more often than not may lead to an increase in sales.
The world is one, but opinions are many. For a marketer, social media is a vast platform with many options to choose from. Conflicting strategies and contradictory advice are often found floating around – and so mistakes are bound to happen.
Ensure that you are not making these 10 common social media marketing mistakes –
1. Not having a well-planned social media strategy
When you decide to market your brand in social media, the first thing that needs to be done is to have a structured and well-planned strategy. Take a cue from the successful social media campaigns run by a few top brands.
You join the social networking channels, provide detailed information about your brand, upload great content and gain attention of users and then there’s nothing else to do – so you just disappear! The followers of your page will keep wondering where you are and eventually lose interest, shifting their focus to something more interesting.
A solid, well-planned strategy will not only popularize your brand, but ensure that you do not face the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ situation.
2. Being here and there and everywhere
When a brand starts social media marketing, they often believe that they should do so on each and every social media platform that they know of. But the answer is no!
You have to see where your target audience is and keep your focus on only those channels. Even big brands are seen to limit their presence on social media to only relevant platforms.
The best approach in this regard is to handpick only those channels that will make sense for your brand, rather than trying to be everywhere. This decision must be based on the industry you belong to, your target audience and the marketing strategy that you adopt.
3. Going overboard with promotions
Undoubtedly social media is about promotions but it is not meant ONLY for promotions. Primarily, it is a platform for being social and for communicating. If you keep uploading only and only promotional content, people will start hating it, then detest it and you may lose your followers.
Promotions should always be done in a subtle manner. The fact is your business needs to be promoted, but if you do it with user engagement activities and social interaction instead of direct promotions, it will surely be more profitable.
4. Dealing with feedback
A positive feedback makes everyone happy and you thank your customers gladly. What about a negative feedback?
A negative feedback is feared by many, especially on social media platforms. Brands come up with a lame excuse, ignore it or put in an apology and forget about it. However, this can be a good chance to make improvements in your product.
It should be kept in mind that a negative feedback is nothing but an honest opinion of a user who has used your product. They expect a reply on your part (not just an apology) and see how you can make things right for them.
5. Not paying attention to your language
Using derogatory or foul language is a strict no-no, even though sometimes you may feel it it’s cool to use it and will help you connect with your audience better.
Foul language is a sign of aggressive behaviour and you are on social media to gain the trust of your audience. And even if this is a way to connect with younger audiences, it will not go a long way in helping you gain credibility. So the wise thing to do is to refrain from using such language, even if your competitors are using it.
6. Absence of CTA
Your social media page/pages are not a sales ground but that also doesn’t mean that you forget to include your CTA. Your audience need to be kept engaged and educated but at the same time they must also be prompted to do something. It can be as simple as a like, comment, share or retweet or more direct like a shop now.
CTA buttons help in increasing awareness of your brand and lead to greater conversions.
Source: LinkedIn
7. Not keeping a track of your results
You do all the hard work marketing your brand, but if you do not track the results, you will have no clue whether your strategy is working or not.
Almost every social media platform has their own analytics component. Tracking and assessing your performance not only lets you analyse your current situation but will also help you plan future marketing strategies.
8. Multiple profiles on the same site
Often, companies open several profiles on the same platform, for example Facebook or Twitter, and link all of them to its official website. You may think that having several profiles may mean greater visibility, but in reality this will only confuse the followers. They will not know which page is genuine and which one to follow – often leading you to lose your followers.
Having multiple profiles also means a loss of both time and resources. It is better to focus on a single page and build a community of real followers there.
9. #Unnecessary #Hashtags #To #Ruin #Your #Cause
Whoever introduced hashtags on social media did so to bring attention to something important. Hashtags are a convenient way of categorizing information but that does not mean that you use whatever hashtags come your way on every single post.
Overusing hashtags is a common but big error in social media marketing. It shows signs of inexperience and desperation, and moreover too many hashtags in a sentence can even give a headache to the person reading it.
You should only create hashtags that are a reflection of your brand, that serve a purpose and have meaning. Later you can also track engagement through hashtag searches.
Source: Flyte New Media
10. Not having a skilled social media team
Everyone may not be good at everything all the time. Moreover, SMM may take up most of your time leaving less time to focus on your business. So it is important that you have a dedicated and experienced social media team to meet your targets. A team of professionals will have the necessary experience and know exactly how social media works.
What other common social media marketing mistakes have you come across? Tell us in the comments section below. If you’d like to know more about our social media marketing services and how our team can help you generate awareness, build relationships and grow your business, leave us a message!
As Larry Ackerman rightly said, “Identity is cause, brand is effect & the strength of the former influences the strength of the latter.”
Corporate Identity Design is the wholesome experience of the tangible elements that represent a brand including colour, design, logotype, name, symbols,print materials, stationery, business cards, apparel and website. These elements play an essential part in corporate communication as they help in creating an impression of your brand among users.
Here are some expert tips that you should follow while creating your own Corporate Identity:
1. Use Appropriate Font, Colours, Picture
The first impression plays a very important role in portraying your brand image. The logo is often a consumer’s first interaction with a brand’s corporate identity and forms the basis of brand recall in later stages. Therefore, careful consideration of colors, fonts and styles is necessary. It is important that your logo reflects your brand’s personality and communication tonality. For example, if you want your brand to be perceived as approachable and playful, use vibrant colours, a friendly font and a more casual style. However, if you want the brand to be perceived as serious and informative, do the exact opposite. Use subtle colors and fonts. This is how Walmart has rebranded their brand identity design to form a new impression of their brand.
Walmart has rebranded their corporate image many times, but with this change, they tried to give the brand a whole new meaning. For example, they used lowercase lettering and Myriad Pro font in the current logo to showcase the friendliness of the brand. Also, the lighter shade of blue used here looks more approachable. They have also replaced the boring and stale star with a bright yellow “iconic spark”. Overall, the brand screams friendly and approachable instead of boring old-school.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Can you convince everyone to purchase an Iphone? Definitely not. Therefore, it’s important to know your target audience and create Identity designs to influence them. For instance, if your brand sells premium products, then the brand’s personality should reflect qualities that will impress and woo sophisticated rich people. Depending on your product, you can target people belonging to different age groups, social strata, age, gender, location or marital status.
Let’s take a look at how two similar products can have contrasting brand personalities and target different kinds of people :
Both Coke and ThumsUp are popular aerated beverage brands and taste very similar. However, their personalities and target audiences are very different. While Coca-Cola mainly targets the younger generation and has positioned itself as a fun and happy brand; ThumsUp has portrayed itself to be a mature, confident and masculine brand. Their logos, taglines and symbols all reflect their different brand ideologies and personalities. Coca cola has a very friendly look. The font style and colour used in the logo look vibrant and very open. Moreover, the tagline “open happiness” says a lot about the brand. But, ThumsUp’s logo and tagline give a very rugged impression of the brand that’s appealing to an entirely different audience.
3. Keep it neat and simple
It’s important to portray the brand persona in a simple yet impactful way by removing all the unnecessary things that make your brand design look cluttered. This is exactly how Vodafone revamped their logo leading to great success.
One of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, Vodafone, decided to upgrade their brand positioning and as a result, revitalized their logo and made it neat and simple. Elements such as shape and structure were kept the same, however they cleverly made use of negative space and simply reversed their use of colour. They retained the red color as it represents talking, sound and passion. This new design shifted focus to the ‘speech mark’ leading to a lighter, more sophisticated design.
A brand is nothing without the right identity design. Without a strong identity, there is no recognition and therefore no recall. To know about our design services that will define your brand in the best way possible, talk to us! Drop us a message and we’ll call you back.
Also known as word-of-mouth marketing, buzz marketing means creating a hype about a particular product, service, brand or a company among users.This kind of marketing is very effective in spreading awareness about a new product or service as it generates curiosity among people and increases brand reach.
Generating buzz is not rocket-science. You just need to use the right strategy and know how to get people talking about your brand: Mark Hughes talks about the 6 buttons brands can push to generate a buzz- Get people talking about a taboo (something controversial), something unusual (unique), something remarkable or extraordinary, something outrageous, something hilarious or a secret.
Below are 3 tips brands should remember:
1. Think out-of-the-box
Don’t follow the crowd and do what others are doing. Clichés are boring and sooner or later people will lose interest. In fact, it’s pretty simple. To get noticed you have to be different. For example, if there are 10 firms marketing furniture, your marketing strategy should be unique enough to capture and hold people’s attention. This is exactly how KFC managed to grab people’s attention with their unique marketing campaign.
In 2016, KFC launched two edible nail polishes literally bringing to life their tagline ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ in Hong Kong. As expected, the new launch raised many eyebrows and generated a lot of excitement among people. While, KFC did not mass produce the product, they managed to get a lot of social media attention through this campaign. Carrying forward from this success, they next created a scented candle that smelled like fried chicken to promote their brand in New Zealand.Needless to say, both these campaigns had people talking for weeks- not just in the countries of the launch, but worldwide.
2. Break the Stereotype
One way to compel people to talk about your brand is by sharing something controversial or debatable. Depending on the brand persona and target audience, brands can choose to either break a taboo or contradict a common perception. This will definitely make your brand stand out and start a conversation. However, in order to give a direction to the conversation and make sure it leads to something positive, it’s important that brands do sufficient research beforehand and pick a topic that is extremely relevant. For example, Fastrack aimed at breaking gender stereotypes through one of their campaigns.
The brand promoted their new range of products including watches, backpacks, sunglasses and helmet by running a bold campaign called “Sorry For What”. They captured youngsters celebrating themselves for who they are without giving a dime as to how society expects them to behave. The campaign became a huge hit and grabbed a lot of attention.
3. Use Social Media Correctly
Did you know- over 3 billion people around the world are active on various social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest? It is, therefore the best medium to reach out to people and start a conversation. However, it’s important to know what kind of post works best on which platforms, what time will get the maximum engagement etc. While an update might work on Facebook, it might not fetch enough views on other platforms. It’s important to make sure all posts and updates are engaging as well as informative. Here’s how India’s famous pet food brand “Dogsee Chew” used Facebook to make their video go viral.
On Friendship’s day , this popular dog food brand shared an everyday, emotional video on YouTube portraying the unconditional bond of friendship between a dog and his parent. The brand used Facebook to promote and share the video where it garnered over 1 million views in less than a week.
Buzz marketing definitely gets brand in the headlines, hugely affects brand awareness and increases popularity if done right. Here, “Content is king and distribution is the queen”. While content needs to be snackable, shareable and altogether exciting, utilising the right channels to disseminate information is equally important. For this, a core understanding of customers- where they are present, active and engaged is of utmost necessity. For ideas that will help your brand generate a buzz, leave us a message and we’ll be sure to call you back.
Content marketing is an integral part of marketing in present times as it is one of the most effective ways to reach out to your target audience. Therefore, every business requires quality content to achieve success when it comes to online marketing. Generating great content is not only entertaining- it also holds the attention of your audience, increases traffic on all social media platforms and ultimately brings good business.
Below are a few expert tips to create good quality content for your business-
1. Be original
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Your ideas and content should be nothing but original, else the audience will not be interested in what you are saying. Standing out in a crowd is only possible when you have something unique to share. When your content has a voice of its own, people are attracted to it and want to know more about it. Moreover, the tone of communication needs to be aligned with your brand persona and the target audience to make the right connect.
Source: Space City SEO
2. Don’t miss the catch-y headline
While 80% of people read the headline of a blog/article, only 20% actually click on the link and read the entire article. So, the importance of a headline should never be underestimated. Always take time to write an interesting headline as that is always the first thing people read and based on it, they decide whether to read the entire article or not. Along with the headline, also include a few lines of well-written content from the blog to pique your audience’s interest further.
Source: ShouterBuzz
3. Provide accurate information
When you are writing content and publishing it on a website, remember that thousands of people from all over the world are going to have access to it. With such an audience, you cannot afford to provide inaccurate information. It hampers your personal reputation and if you are writing for a company, it will negatively affect the brand and its products.
If you are providing any statistics or data, verify through a genuine source- one that is preferably not wikipedia. Providing the link of the source of your information is a good thing to do if you want to increase reliability of your article. Just make sure that it is a trusted source.
4. Add images/video
A picture can speak a 1000 words and a lot of people understand better when they see images. Using pictures, graphs, diagrams and videos can help you get across your point more clearly. Adding pictures also cuts out the monotony of only text and keeps the audience interested in what they are reading. One thing to keep in mind is that only images and videos that are relevant to the content and add value to it should be included in the article. Unwanted and irrelevant illustrations will do more harm than good.
Source: colorlib.com
5. Take care of SEO
While writing an article, you should have basic knowledge about the keywords related to your topic of choice and include them in your blogs and articles. Incorporating the right keywords will attract more readers and at the same time add Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value to your content. You can optimise the search results for your content by taking help of various strategies available for SEO. Good title tags as well as meta descriptions can further improve your blog visibility and keep it in sync with all social media interactions.
Source: Kissmetrics Blog
6. Be precise and to the point
Too many flowery words and unnecessarily long descriptions will keep your audience at bay! A brief and to-the-point article that is both interesting and informative is always a winner compared to lengthy ones filled with superfluous vocabulary. Clear and straightforward content with simple and short sentences is easy to read and comprehend.
If you are publishing content to increase brand awareness, your blog should not only provide information to your readers, but also benefit them in some way or the other. Using fluffy and flowery language will only confuse the readers, not help them.
7. View, review, edit
To err is human and so, reviewing and spell-checking content before publication is of extreme significance. When you are done with the first draft, recheck the content. Run a spell check and also use free grammar tools available on the Internet for a full-proof check. Reviewing, editing and refining your content only makes it that much better. Have someone read your article and give their opinion to be doubly sure.
8. Ensure not to over-sell
Follow a 90-10 rule – 90% of your content should be informative and educational whereas 10% should be promotional. You lose the interest and trust of your audience if your content only sings to a promotional tune. Instead provide helpful information and try and add value to your reader and then slip in a line about your services. That way, your advertising will come across as helpful and not as a promotion gimmick.
Writing content is easy, but writing great content is what matters. Be it for your personal hobby or for business purposes, it is important that you do it right. To know more about how good quality content is great for your business and how Ittisa’s content marketing services can help you in this regard, drop us a message and we will get back to you!
Web design plays a very important role in almost every consumer driven business but more so in businesses whose sales are impacted by visual representations. For hotels and guesthouses, a good web design is crucial. Today, 80% travellers prefer making their bookings over the Internet and well in advance. A well-designed website can attract customers and increase brand recall so that even if they do not book a room the minute they land on the website, your brand is at least part of their consideration basket. It is therefore important that you build a website that accurately portrays your strengths through catchy text, attractive imagery and some great web-only offers (optional).
Here are some basic points you should keep in mind while creating your hotel’s website:
1. Focus on your Selling Point:
The main USP of the hotel should be clear as soon as a visitor lands on the website. Whether that’s an infinity pool, cheap rooms, excellent service or private access to a beach- the USP needs to be highlighted.
2. Prominent & Well Placed CTAs:
Well thought out and prominently placed CTA buttons guide users through the website giving them a short preview of the experience they are bound to receive at the hotel. CTA buttons also help you capture important behavioural data. A booking phone number or email ID should be consistently displayed throughout the website.
3. Persuasive Content
Use content as a psychological motivator to attract customers and induce the ‘fear of missing out’. Use content to highlight festive offers, off-season discounts etc. Include reviews and ratings from old customers to persuade and build trust with new customers.
4. Invest in Professional Photography
For a business that depends on visuals, invest in getting professional photographs of your property. Great imagery goes a long way in attracting your target audience and reassuring them that they have taken the right decision.
5. Device Responsiveness
Make sure that your website is mobile, desktop and tablet responsive. The booking of a hotel is usually a collective effort involving a lot of back and forth on decision making. Assume that customers will share your website with others and offer a seamless experience across devices.
Below are a few examples of well designed hotel websites across the globe. Take a look to get inspired:
1. Downtown Grand Las Vegas
Downtown Grand Las Vegas uses its homepage to bring to life its USP- a sprawling golf course with packages to beat. Prominent CTA buttons with a booking call-out right at the top makes checking availability and booking a piece of cake for visitors.
2. Grand Hotel Tremezzo
Situated in Lake Como, this hotel has a variety of exciting offers that they bring to life through their website. Special offers for a romantic escape, a spa retreat etc. Their most interesting feature however, is the section called ‘Through the Instagram Lens’. This section allows visitors to scroll through pictures of other visitors at the hotel. It acts like a visual and very personal recommendation.
3. Babington House
In Somerset, UK, Babington House is a country house turned into a hotel. The photos on their website are serene, beautifully shot and capture the true essence of a country home in England. Scroll through and you’ll find simply displayed offers and a wide variety of services.
4. Aria Hotel
An interesting feature of this website, is their main banner featuring hotel photographs. Instead of an automated carousel like most other websites, this website lets you feel each photo at your pace before you move onto the next one. The website gives a lot of control to the visitor with minimal handholding. Offers are displayed neatly and a quick button at the top lets you check local weather.
5. The Taj
One ofIndia’s oldest and most famous hotel chains, The Taj stands for ultimate luxury, comfort and hospitality. This is displayed proudly throughout their website through their imagery, content and tone of communication. A minimal approach focusing on heritage and culture, this website is a must visit.
For web design that speaks a thousand words, captures the attention of your target audience and skyrockets your online bookings talk to us! Drop us a message and we’ll call you back.
Halloween or All Saints’ Eve is a celebration dedicated to remembering the dead, the saints and the martyrs. Popular culture has led to the establishment of particular activities on this holiday such as trick or treating, dressing up in costumes, playing pranks, carving pumpkins, lighting bonfires etc.
Getting into the spirit of Halloween this year there were popular brands across the globe that came up with some fun, spine-chilling campaigns designed to spook you out. Here are some of the top Halloween marketing campaigns for 2017:
ASDA- Home for All Things Haunted:
ASDA, a popular British supermarket, known for its vast and cheap Halloween range, went a step ahead this year and created this amazingly spooky advert just in time for the scariest holiday of the year.
The advert shows family and friends dancing to a song, dressed in costumes and surrounded by Halloween decorations and food- all from ASDA. It’s a clever way to showcase the range of products, while keeping the mood of the holiday alive. The video was accompanied by a well-designed Halloween themed website.
Svedka Vodka- You are Now Cursed :
This world famous Swedish liqueur brand, very creatively, used Halloween as a means to stalk and retarget consumers. As part of their campaign, the brand launched a ‘banner ad curse’ on social feeds disguised as cocktail recipes. On a click, viewers were taken to the Svedka website where the curse video awaited them.
Once users watched this video, they were ‘under the curse’ which meant banner ads would follow them everywhere on the Internet. Users had to visit the Svedka microsite and share the video link with friends in order to break free from the curse. Decidedly creepy, in keeping with the spirit of Halloween, Svedka decided to play on people’s fears of targeted ads.
Burger King- #ScaryClownNight:
Inspired by Stephen King’s hit horror movie IT and its arch rival- McDonalds, Burger King took Halloween by storm by releasing its #ScaryClownNight video. Usually one to stay away from bringing attention to its rival, this year Burger King used Halloween to troll them by creating a splendid advert with the tagline “Come as a clown, eat like a king,” They also offered free whoopers at select stores to people coming dressed as clowns!
Fanta – The 13th Floor:
Fanta’s Halloween act this year, was definitely not meant for the weak hearted. They created a brilliant marketing campaign which was about experiencing supernatural activities inside a crashing elevator. In the first phase of the campaign, they launched an outdoor virtual reality experience at Thorpe Park and Westfield Stratford, London.
People were asked to enter the “elevator” and ride it to the 13th floor, where they encountered several spooky activities. Along with this, Fanta also launched a QR code that gave users access to branded Snapchat filters and lenses related to Fanta and Halloween.
Budweiser- King of Fears :
This spooky season, Budweiser, a popular beer brand, celebrated Halloween by creating a fancy dress shop with mirror tricks and haunted clothing rails as part of a larger Halloween takeover- the Nightmare Circus Halloween Party.
The party witnessed band members Edwin Congreave and Jack Bevana from set of Foals who set the stage on fire. A spin-off was also launched in India with the ‘Join the Fearless’ campaign. The brand urged people to come forth this Halloween and face their fears on their own terms.
Another interesting take on Halloween in India this year was from East India Comedy who posted the following post on all their social media channels:
That being said, festive occasions, especially fun ones like Halloween provide ample opportunities for brands to build massive brand recall and even increase their reach and awareness levels. If you’re looking for some creative campaign ideas to boost your brand on social media- drop us a message and we’ll be sure to get back to you.
