How To Manage Multiple Locations For Your Business On Facebook?

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Facebook Business Page Franchises

We are frequently asked by businesses with multiple locations or branches how best to structure their Facebook presence. To address their key concerns, we have compiled answers to their key questions, as follows:

  1. Whats the best strategy for managing multiple locations on Facebook?

Like any digital activity, the key is to establish which strategy will best achieve your business objectives, your company values, mission and vision and whether having individual pages for each location makes sense.

Consider questions like:

Would it benefit for your local branches to be able to

  • share relevant local information, job openings or events
  • promote deals or promotions are specific to each location
  • do location based ads just for specific local regions
  • share content from your head office and tailor it to each local area
  • roll out offers from the head office that are relevant to specific or all locations

Do you have the resources, not just time & budget resources but also the skillset to manage each location page? It takes investment on all levels to create content, to post and to build engagement across each location/multiple pages.

If all pages are centrally managed, content will need to be gathered and managed for each location, ideally with someone at each location who can post local relevant info and images/videos etc for that specific branch to the team at your headquarters. Otherwise, a lot of similar, more generic content will be posted across all pages which will reduce engagement.

You would ideally have someone based at each store, or at least in each region to manage the content going out for that location/area. This involves having trained & experienced resources available to produce high-quality content and to manage interaction and engagement on each of your pages.
You can share highly targeted content relevant to your target persona from your headquarters, and each store can build engagement individually with its local community.

When using multiple locations and different individuals for each location to manage that local page, it is vital that you have social media brand guidelines in place for each location to ensure a “one voice” approach to messaging, promotions, and online community involvement. It is also important that there is clarity on who your key target personas are and how best to communicate with them, not just tone of voice but also formats they prefer, information that is most relevant as well as to best to address the issues they are presented with.

Anyone who is to be involved in managing any social media for your brand must understand your brand guidelines, and be knowledgeable about social media and how it works.How To Manage Multi Locations On Facebook

How do we maintain a consistent brand voice and brand standards across all social media pages?

A brand is not just your logo, or your colours or look and feel, it involves everything that contributes to how you make your customers feel. Your brand is built by taking a consistent approach across every interaction your customers or potential customers have with your brand.

It is a challenge to keep brand voice and standards in place. To achieve this, it is vital that brand guidelines are provided that are aligned with business objectives, your company values, mission and vision. These guidelines should be very specific and clear with no room for misunderstanding.

Your ultimate goal is brand recognition – your posts should be recognisable without your visitors even seeing your logo. When you post, the same fonts and colours should be used across all formats whether its text, images, videos or other.

All your social profiles, location pages and posts should be audited for brand consistency and updated at least every 3 months, if not more frequently. Your brand needs to evolve with your customers and their changing needs.

 

How do we manage existing Facebook pages that already exist if we are rolling out the Facebook service for multiple locations?

If duplicate pages or random pages already exist for individual locations, these can be merged with the main brand page or they can be deleted. In any case, the key thing is to ensure that each page is updated or set up following brand guidelines to ensure consistent tone of voice and alignment with all brand elements.

Facebook Business Page Franchises

How do we manage existing local unclaimed Facebook pages?

You may have unclaimed pages for local stores, which were basically created by accident. This occurs when a Facebook user tries to “check-in” at individual locations. Sometimes a page can be created for that location that you are not aware of. These pages may even have comments or reviews. If you haven’t claimed these “place pages”, you may have no way of knowing they even exist. Its important to claim any of these you can find.

 

Does it make sense to use one individual Facebook page where you have multiple locations for your business?

Yes, there are cases where one individual page can be sufficient.

The answers to the following questions will help you establish whether a single page will work or not.

  • Its about assessing your business objectives. What are your business objectives and will a one page approach hinder you from achieving them?
  • Can your team allocate the time and resources to manage many pages. Its better to do a good job on one page than leave many without content and largely neglected.
  • How many local branches do you have? If you only have a few locations or they are only located in a few places, one page may suffice. However, if you have many across different locations then it is best to consider the multi page approach.

There are features on Facebook that enable you to target location specific content. Audience Optimisation allows you to target a segment of fans in a specific area.

Although, the above list of questions is not comprehensive, it will certainly steer you in the right direction. However, it really comes down to what makes the most sense for your business.

Click here to find out how to set up multiple locations on Facebook

Talk to us now, if you could do with some guidance on your social media approach or your overall digital marketing strategy.

If you would like to improve your Digital performance, backed with a results driven content strategy, consider our Digital Mentor Programme. We have worked with many businesses over several years to implement an effective long term Digital Marketing Strategy to drive the results they want

Download our Digital Marketing Strategy ebook and get access to our proven 5 step process that delivers results every time

The Importance Of Remarketing Audiences In Google Ads

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retargeting Google Ads

Remarketing has consistently proven to be an effective way of driving conversions and closing potential customers. In fact, according to ABTasty.com, retargetting ads typically have 10x higher click through rate than your average Display ads, and the visitors that come to your website via those ads are 70% more likely to convert.

What is remarketing?

Remarketing in Google Ads is made up of a variety of Search and Display ads across the Google Ads Network. The main difference is the targeting of the ads. Your ads are being seen by people who may have already visited your website, engaged with your ads or taken some other valuable action. Therefore, they are more inclined to respond favorably to your ads.

If your business is eCommerce, or if you are trying to generate leads through your site, remarketing is a useful and efficient strategy to help you convert those hard-earned visitors.

remarketing audiences google ads

Why remarketing is important?

As an increasing amount of digital marketers have turned to remarketing, Google has subsequently improved and fine tuned its offering and remarketing capabilities. These changes have meant remarketing generating a large click share. Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) and customer lists now play a huge part in paid search strategies and have proven very effective also.

These types of engaged audiences are high-value, given that their past interactions with the brand, increase the likelihood of a conversion at a later date. Audiences are not necessarily a one-size-fits-all, and some conversions may happen regardless of whether or not there is a paid search ad served to specific customers.

What do you need to do?

As with all things digital, it is crucial that you test. Results will vary by advertiser, but testing should be done in order to measure the incremental value of these audiences for your business.

This testing can be done by adding in variables such as ad copy, landing pages, bid modifiers, or even shutting ads off completely to specific audiences to gauge the traffic and conversion losses. This can, however, be a risky strategy, so we would only encourage you to do this, if you are in a comfortable position in relation to your targets, Return On Investment and any other KPIs you may have set for your business.

Also, measure audience performance against the brand’s KPIs to see if they align, or are significantly higher or lower.

Pay attention to your funnel

Don’t forget, the point at which the visitor has dropped off tells you whether they are cool, warm or hot in terms of lead rating. This means that you may want to vary your ads depending on your visitor’s actions. For example, if a customer has simply viewed a product (in this case, a red jumper) on your site, you might retarget them with a Display ad that shows the same jumper and perhaps other similar products. However, if somebody has Added To Cart and then left the site, you may retarget them with a message along the lines of “look what you’ve left behind”, or create a sense of urgency by putting a time limit on the price.

It is important to segment your remarketing audience for this reason. Personalising the customer touch points where possible will help your remarketing efforts and ultimately, will lead to a higher conversion rate.

In conclusion, remarketing audiences should play a huge part in your PPC strategy. Remember, you have done the hard part by getting them to your site in the first place, so remarketing to those visitors and closing those sales is an efficient way to drive your revenue. List creation, targeting and personalisation based on what stage of the funnel your visitor has reached, are all incredibly effective ways to improve your overall Return On Investment, so don’t delay. Start incorporating remarketing into your PPC strategy as soon as possible.

If you would like to talk to us on how to effectively set up or even improve your remarketing efforts, contact our PPC experts here at WebResults today.

What Have We Learned in Digital Marketing In 2020 & What Will Be Important In 2021?

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Digital Marketing 2021

After a year of complete upheaval both in the business world and our personal lives, changes in consumer behaviors, businesses and their associated digital marketing strategies will have a lasting impact. Not only has the messaging changed but also product and services and how they are delivered.

So what is important in Digital Marketing for 2021?

2021 will see even more migration to digital platforms, including e-commerce, chatbots, email, apps, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, omnichannel marketing and augmented and virtual reality. Any technologies which create a more seamless customer experience are of prime focus.

Omnichannel marketing is key, as people are engaging with your brand, now with screens from home for both consumers and working professionals. Marketing Communications and how this information is accessed has dramatically increased the importance of digital channels as part of the customer journey. E.g. Purchase rate of omnichannel campaigns is 287% higher than single-channel campaigns. Reactivation campaigns recovered 2.13% of otherwise churned customers, which not only recovers them in the moment, but potentially for the future as well. (Omnisend 2020).

 

Artificial Intelligence, SEO & Social

Artificial intelligence (AI) is really changing how people interact with online content which will continue to impact social media marketing and SEO performance. Algorithms will rely even more on interaction, engagement and video. Content is ranked based on algorithms inspecting content quality, and user interest so location history, browsing history, app usage, calendars, search history, and home and work locations are all relevant. AI has never been as influential in Digital Marketing as it is now, so it will pay dividends to understand the capabilities of these tools in 2021.


Mobile Responsiveness

Make sure that the mobile page content quality is as good as the desktop page, and this is for everything you do on the web. Build your sites for mobile, and worry about the desktop version as a second priority. Most traffic will come to your site through mobile devices, so make sure those visitors have a great user experience on the site.

Video


Online video continues to be a really important format for all digital activity. With over 1 billion users on YouTube and video projected to surpass all other content forms in terms of consumption, you need to include video as a key part of your Digital Strategy.
Optimise your video channel name and description using a user-friendly overview of what your channel is about.

Virtual events have seen significant growth and are here to stay as an impactful way of connecting with your key target personas and delivering your marketing message. Traditional events like trade shows and conferences will struggle and adapt.

 

Use your analytics to understand how your digital marketing strategy is performing

 

 


Which challenges are driving high quality traffic? Which specific activities are delivering conversions? Which content formats are getting more engagement? Which content is increasing shares of your website pages? From an SEO perspective on your website, what URLs are being crawled? What websites are referring quality traffic? How long are your pages taking to load? Are all pages being indexed? Are users engaging and staying on your pages or bouncing? Consider all these types of information in order to monitor you’re your performance.

The focus continues to be around building quality content that will engage your target personas naturally, based on their issues, motivations and where they are in the purchase process. In 2021, the same applies with more sophisticated formats, tracking and ways of drawing relevant insights.

From our years of experience working with clients on Digital Marketing activities, we have helped businesses overcome challenges of all types. Obviously the digital activities you focus on will depend on your key business objectives. A focused strategy with a robust, but creative messaging will help you build the right profile with the right personas.

Our focus is on making your Digital Marketing drive the right conversions for your business and driving ROI.

If you would like to improve your Digital performance, backed with a results driven content strategy, consider our Digital Mentor Programme. We have worked with many businesses over several years to implement an effective long term Digital Marketing Strategy to drive the results they want

Download our Digital Marketing Strategy ebook and get access to our proven 5 step process that delivers results every time

Improve Your Google Ads Visitor Quality

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improve visitor quality google ads

Google Ads, if set up correctly and aligned with your business objectives, can have a huge impact in terms of driving revenue for your business.

The key to success with Google Ads is to ensure you are getting the right kind of visitor/potential customer onto your website. To achieve this involves  research, careful planning and knowledge of Google Ads functionality and your target demographic. The foundation of a successful Google Ads is setting up the right structure in terms of Campaigns and AdGroups. The biggest mistake you can make is launching into setting up campaigns without thoroughly considering your objectives, your audience and your strategy.

The following six key points will help you improve the quality of clicks and visitors you’re getting via your Google Ads.

Identify the relevant search terms for your business and use suitable match types

Think of search terms that are most relevant to your business and industry. Consider how your potential customers are searching for your product.

Keywords and match types are key to ensuring you are bringing the right audience to your website and spending your budget efficiently. The natural impulse is to use keywords that bring in the highest number of clicks. However, with Google Ads, it’s about quality and not quantity.

Then test each keyword by asking yourself if it could be related to an unrelated business. If it could, then try and quality it more so that its only bringing in relevant clicks for your business.

If you are selling running shoes online, rather than just targeting ‘running shoes’, you may target exact keyword phrases terms like ‘buy running shoes online’. Or for a local business, it may be worth creating a separate campaign for “Near Me” searchers e.g. If you offer locksmith services you might benefit from using terms like; ‘locksmiths near me’, ‘locksmiths nearby’, ‘closest locksmiths’ and ‘local locksmiths’. 

Advertisers are not always clear on the impact of keyword match types. Google Ads allows you to designate each keyword/key phrase as broad match, broad match with modifier, phrase match, and exact match. Broad match will always bring in the highest number of clicks because it gives license to Google to interpret your keywords in many different search queries. Exact match is the opposite. It ensures that Google only shows an ad if an exact key phrase is queried.

Maximising your Google Ads campaigns relies on striking the right balance between match types, relying mostly on phrase and exact matches with a sprinkling of broad modified match terms. Be clear on the possible outcome of using each of the different match types and the impact they have in relation to displaying your ads. See examples of match types below:

Set out the structure of your campaigns

When setting up your campaigns and ad groups initially, take the time to break out your ad groups in detail. There are numerous different strategies you can use.

When you choose a strategy, understand the “why” behind it and monitor it closely, particularly during the initial “learning” stages.

One such strategy example you can use is SKAGS (Single Keyword AdGroups). With SKAGS, each search term you are targeting goes into its own ad group with different match types, e.g. modified broad match, exact match and phrase match (you wouldn’t generally use ‘broad match’ here).

SKAGS allow you to deliver relevant ads to those who are searching for your product or service, through the search terms you are targeting, resulting in lower cost per click and higher click through rates and thus improved visitor quality, all of which impact your advertising costs and results.

Constantly manage your negative keywords

Negative Keywords Visitor Quality

Each time you go into your Google Ads account, check out the search queries that generate clicks. If the clicks are not relevant, it means you are getting the wrong type of visitor to your website, and paying for the privilege of it. It’s important to:

  1. Identify why these irrelevant clicks came in. Do you need to modify your keyword match types to avoid further irrelevant clicks? Or do the additional impressions you get outweigh the negative clicks. E.g. will changing the match type of the term that allows these negatives in, block other clicks that are relevant?
  2. Add the term as a negative in all match types that are relevant. Yes, you say this is an obvious step. However, many businesses are not aware of the importance of adding the relevant match types as negatives. Match types don’t behave exactly the same as negatives, as they do as part of the search campaigns.

Each match type has a purpose, so be sure to use the match types that achieve what is relevant for your ad group or campaign, or both.

Broad Match Negatives: If you add a negative term as a broad match, it will block out where someone uses both of the terms together. However, negative broad match will not block out ads where someone searches for only one of the terms on its own. e.g. adding ‘Google Ads Agency’ as a negative will prevent searches for “Google Ads” and “Agency” used in the same search term, but it will not prevent clicks for searches where only one word is used with a different work e.g. ‘DIY Google Ads’ or ‘Property Agency’.

Phrase Match Negatives: Exclude your ad for searches that include the exact keyword phrase. If a search includes additional words, the ad won’t show as long as the keywords are included in the search in the same order. If someone searches for only one of the terms in your selected phrase, your ad will still appear. For example, if your negative is “AdWords Agency” and a user searches for DIY AdWords, your ad will still appear. This also means that if additional words are used in the search query, such as ‘AdWords Services Agency’, your ad will still appear as ‘AdWords’ and ‘Agency’ are not next to each other in the search query.

Exact Match Negatives: This adds the exact terms, without extra words. Your ad may still show for searches that include the keyword phrase with additional words. When using exact match negatives, it will only block that exact term. So adding [Google Ads Agency] as a negative does not block ‘Google Ads Agency Ireland’ or ‘Google Ads Agencies’. Close variants (any misspelling, singular or plural form, acronym, stemmings, abbreviations of the keyword) do not apply for negative keywords.

Maximise use of Bid Adjustments to customise to your audiences

Google Ads bid adjustments use manually set percentage changes, in order to increase or decrease the weight of your maximum cost per click bid amounts. The result is more control over when, where and to whom your ads are shown to. and better targeting of segments based on their likelihood of converting. With Bid Adjustment, you get greater flexibility, within the same campaign. Previously, in order to achieve this, you would have to set up individual ad groups for each segment. For example, if you know that people who live in Dublin are more likely to convert than those living in Cork, you can set negative bid adjustments for the Cork in relevant campaigns. This means that Cork will get impressions/clicks at a certain (lower in this case) bid level, thus prioritising impressions/clicks for Dublin and improving your overall visitor quality.

Use All Ad Extensions Available

google ads extensions

Ad extensions are a very powerful way of delivering a personalised ad to each user. These customised ads often deliver higher click-through rates, improve quality score and simply make your ad more prominent on search results. Use every Ad Extension available and relevant to your campaign.

It’s important to customise at ad group level, where it makes sense to do so. Rather than setting up a few top level extensions, make them specific to your ad groups and you will find they will perform far better. From text message extensions, which allow Google searchers to send you a text, to structured snippets to app downloads, there are now a great range of options to use to promote the important aspects of your business to highly targeted potential customers, and offer them a range of ways to get in touch with you, depending on what suits them (and you) best. 

Utilise Your Remarketing

Remarketing is a PPC strategy that targets people who have already visited your website and/or bought from your website. By it’s very nature, it is guaranteed to bring good quality visitors to your website through Google Ads.

In Google Ads, there are four types of remarketing. Standard Remarketing shows your static image ads to people who’ve previously visited your website via the display network. Dynamic Remarketing shows dynamic image ads for specific products and services that a visitor has previously looked at. For example, if you’re looking at a stainless steel crockpot on Amazon, Jeff Bezos can use dynamic remarketing to create an ad using the exact same model on a display ad on your favourite blog. To use dynamic remarketing you must also have a Google Merchant Centre account. Remarketing lists for Search Ads (RLSA) re-targets people who’ve visited your site and the subsequently search for a relevant term. You might target people who have already visited your website, for search terms that are more generic or broad, as you know they are relevant targets.

An outline of your typical re-marketing campaign.

Video Remarketing re-targets people who have watched your YouTube videos. You can also use YouTube ads to remarket to people who visited your site.

While businesses managing their own campaigns are familiar with the areas discussed, often Ads management isn’t an ongoing priority, resulting in campaigns not being structured to meet business objectives and poor quality visitors, thus leading to a poor Return On Investment. Functionality is often applied without understanding how best to use it for the campaigns in question.

As Google Ads becomes more automated, agencies will show their true value by ensuring business objectives are being addressed through campaign set up, structure and ongoing management and through strong communication with businesses on their markets and business objectives. If you are currently managing your own campaigns and would like a Google Ads audie to see how you are doing, please get in touch with us at WebResults.

Enterprise Ireland Online Retail Scheme

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Enterprise Ireland Online Retail Scheme

What is the Enterprise Ireland Online Retail Scheme?

The Enterprise Ireland Online Retail Scheme is a grant to businesses that meet the specified criteria to help them develop or enhance their online trading capabilities.

The grant covers 80% of the costs of the proposed activity. So for example, if your proposed activities are quoted as costing €12,500, Enterprise Ireland will cover €10,000 (which is the minimum cost and grant allowed. The maximum grant is €40,000).

So what does this mean for your business?

It means that, from as little as €2,500 investment, your business can enter into the world of eCommerce and online marketing. Activities carried out by WebResults that would be covered by the grant include:

Research:

This includes analysing your current and potential online presence and opportunities. We will explore your market and learn about your brand, target audience, products or services and more. We will also present you with options in terms of the tools, applications and platforms you can use to drive your business forward. This will help you make informed decision in regards to how you want to proceed.

Strategy development:

  • Development of a written digital strategy and a roadmap for implementation including resource and business process considerations
  • Identifying how the company’s value proposition should be demonstrated online, what aspects should be emphasised and how best to present this
  • Ensuring that your business’ online presence is being fully utilised / optimised to fulfil its overall potential, supporting the overall business strategy
  • Consideration of omni-channel offering (including marketplaces and social media)

Implementation:

  • Optimising the company’s online presence to ensure domestic and international visibility (e.g. web enhancement and localisation, associated business process enhancements, search engine optimisation etc.)
  • Enhancing related “back end” systems (e.g. product presentation, supply chain management, systems integration to improve consumer experience etc.)

How can WebResults help you?

We have been involved in the world of digital marketing for over 20 years. In that time, we have learned what methods, tools and channels work and more importantly, what does not. Put our expertise to work for your business. If you want to survive and thrive during this COVID-19 crisis, talk to us today about your application. Call us or fill out our callback form and we will reach out to you.

Bord Bia Announce Marketing Support Package

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Bord Bia Marketing Support Package

Bord Bia has announced it has released a Marketing Support Package to 250 client companies to the value of over €2million.

This Marketing Support Package has been awarded in an effort to support Irish companies experiencing difficulties in the wake of COVID-19. Eligible businesses included food, drink and horticulture (edible and amenity) producers, who are client companies of Bord Bia, with a turnover greater than €100,000 and less than €25m in 2019.

“Our goal is to ensure that the Irish food and drinks industry has ready access to every support Bord Bia can provide in order to navigate the change brought about by this crisis,” said Tara McCarthy, CEO of Bord Bia, at the openin of the grant application process.

The Marketing Support Package will cover 70% of approved expenditure for these companies, up to a specified limit and up until December 2020. The awarded companies went through an application process and have already been notified. The Marketing Support Package covers activities such as:

  • Website design
  • Development of E-Sales/Marketing and On-Line activities
  • Purchase of published reports and market information
  • Marketing consultancy costs
  • Design and origination of POS material
  • Design of packaging, labels and brochures
  • Quality Consultancy
  • Quality Training and Audit Costs
  • Nutritional analysis
  • Market research visit
  • Participation at trade fairs and exhibitions and related costs
  • In store tastings

If your business has been awarded a grant and you are looking at the best ways to maximise your Marketing Support Package, talk to our Digital Marketing experts here at WebResults. Call us for a no-obligation chat, or fill out our contact form and we will call at a time convenient to you.

Don’t let the grant go to waste and make your money work for you.

Full Press Release available at bordbia.ie.

Trading Online Voucher Scheme 2020

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The Local Enterprise Office has set up a scheme to help small businesses trade online, which is so important in this current climate.

The Trading Online Voucher Scheme offers financial assistance of 90% up to €2500, alongside training and advice to help your business grow and trade online. The training and assistance they provide will help you get your site, eCommerce platform or marketing strategy up and running, and send you on your way to selling and advertising online.

The financial support can be used for new payment systems, booking systems, developing an app, or anything you need to begin your online sales journey. If you have already applied and received a Trading Online Voucher, don’t worry! You can now apply for a second one to help with any upgrades you need.

To be eligible to apply, you must attend the online workshop ‘Trading Online Grant Information Session’ on the LEO website. If you have missed your local workshop, you can attend another workshop in a different region. If you would like to attend one of these workshops, click your local office below for information, (please look for the Trading Online Grant Information Session)

Dublin City Council

South Dublin County Council

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council

Final County Council

Wicklow County Council

Meath County Council

Kildare County Council

Louth County Council

Click here to search for your local LEO

 

If you would like some more info on this scheme, please see the Local Enterprise Office website here.

Call or email us today for your free consultation and find out how you can use this voucher to boost your online presence and sales.

Google Distributes Google Ads Credits During COVID-19 Crisis

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Google Ad Extensions

Google has pledged to support its SME advertising community worldwide by distributing $340m of Google Ads credits in the coming weeks.

The credits will be given to those who set up their Google Ads account on or before the 1st of January 2019. The search giant said:

“Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our communities. They represent about 90 percent of all businesses and more than half of employment worldwide, according to the World Bank. COVID-19 has posed a particular challenge to these businesses, who may be facing closures and declining revenue even as they find ways to support and protect their employees. Through ad credits, we hope to alleviate some of the cost to stay in touch with their customers.”  Read more here.

Ad accounts who are eligible for Google Ads credits will receive a notification within their dashboard, and the credits will remain valid for the rest of 2020.

If you have an Google Ad account that has been sitting there gathering dust, or you feel you could be getting more out of your current ads, or you want to maximise your free Google Ads credits, contact WebResults today. A no-obligation chat with us costs nothing, and we will review your existing account for free too.

Simply call us or contact us via our contact form and we will be happy to help.

Host A Successful Online Event

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host an online event

In the current COVID-19 economic climate, one industry being hit the hardest is the events industry. Large gatherings are cancelled and the timeline for these bans is unknown, which makes this even more frustrating.

Thanks to technology, there are now multiple ways you can connect with your audience and ultimately, monetise your event. Here are some of our top tips to running online events like a pro.

 

Pick A Reliable e-Ticketing Platform

It is imperative that you pick a platform to allow people to buy a ticket or register for your event. It is absolutely pointless in applying a “hit and hope” methodology to your event, which is advertising it and hoping people will turn up. It is a much better idea to have a call to action that you can advertise (in this case, a link to your ticket page).

eventbrite online events

In our opinion, the best event platform to use is Eventbrite. It is very easy to manage from an organiser point of view. It is also very powerful and integrates seamlessly with Facebook and Instagram, meaning the user does not need to leave their app to buy a ticket (thus reducing the amount of clicks it takes to convert the visitor, which is a good thing). It makes it very easy to install a tracking pixel so you can count how many conversions are coming from that channel. It also carries huge weight in SEO terms, meaning that your event page will be more likely to rank at or near the top of search results. It provides in-depth reporting and insights. It allows free ticketing options, and also requires no initial outlay of money or a subscription from you. It simply takes its cut from your gross ticket revenue (and VAT if you are VAT registered) before depositing the amount in your account or PayPal. Though their fees are a bit higher than competitors, we think it’s worth it given the level of service provided.

Other cool event platforms we’ve used include Tito and Ticketsource. Remember, it is important to thoroughly research whichever platform you are considering using to ensure it meets your needs.

Be Social

 

social media online events

It might seem obvious, but put the work in when it comes to social media. This means a few things:

a) Get a hashtag going and stick to it
b) Use at least 6-10 hashtags on your Instagram posts
c) Tag people properly in your posts. There is nothing worse than a post with a list of speakers/performers etc., and not one tag, or worse, the wrong one. It helps your reach and familiarity amongst the people connected with your performers too.
d) Reply to each and every comment. I mean every comment, even the negative ones. Be sensible in your responses too. Use them as an opportunity to demonstrate that you are willing to go above and beyond for your attendees.

Essentially, you want your event to be advertised to as many people as possible, and in the modern era, that means social media. You will not only need time and dedication to capitalise on your social media audience, you will need a budget too. Put aside some of your budget for social media advertising, including boosting content that you share on your timeline. Know who you want to attend your event and target those people. Your event pages and social presence should instill confidence in your prospective attendees, so make sure it is treated with as much care and attention as you would give your website.

Be Visual

Online events, particularly webinars, can take some time to get used to. That’s why it is important to be visual as well as getting your spoken content perfect too. We find a presentation and/or video clips are very helpful in keeping the audience engaged. If you do decide to opt for a presentation, keep the following tips in mind:

a) Don’t have too much text on slides. Infographics or images work far better.
b) Tell me as well as show me. The slides should only contain the headline points, and you should be able to elaborate on these in detail.
c) Stick to your time limit. Don’t let this turn into a wedding speech that drags on for ages.

If you have performers in your event, make sure they are easy to see with little or no distracting objects in the background.

Have A Script Ready

Of course you want to be as natural as possible when you speak to your audience, but having a script, structure or running order is imperative to ensuring the event is a success. It will help you ensure you cover all the points you want to talk about, and also will help you stick to your time limit. Remember, everyone’s attention span has a limit, and it is important to ensure your event doesn’t drag on needlessly. It is also helpful to have a script in case something unexpected does arise, as it allows you to get back on track seamlessly.

Ensure You Have Good Wi-Fi

It might seem like an obvious point, but it is crucial. Make sure you have a strong wi-fi connection on a stable network. It might be an idea to make sure other unnecessary devices, such as phones and TVs that are not in use for the event, are not connected to the network at the same time you are hosting your event. Bad connections mean the visal feed or sound can drop out, and that is not the experience you want to deliver to your attendees.

Online events can be hugely successful, particularly in the Coronavirus climate, so make sure you market them to their full potential. There are endless opportunities to create some engaging and memorable events. Get creative and use your expertise to decide what you want to deliver, how you want to deliver it and then fill those (virtual) seats. There has truly never been a better time.

To find out more about how to maximise your event, call us or fill out our short contact form for a free, no-obligation discussion. 

Drive Your Online Business Sales Revenue Remotely

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Working From Home Drive Sales

Working remotely as a result of Covid-19? Use focused digital marketing activities to drive sales and combat slumping revenue.

You may find yourself working remotely and feel restricted in terms of how to combat slumping revenue and sales and whether your job or livelihood will remain intact. 

One huge positive is the fact we are living in a world where we can work, communicate and sell online.

Consider the following ways to boost your businesses profile, sales and conversions (such as contact form completions, brochure requests, call back requests) through digital activities.

Working From Home Drive Sales

Build Your Brand Awareness

Before focusing on driving your sales, establish your business as a trusted seller/service provider in its space.

This does not just mean investing in paid ads on Google and social media. It requires you to ensure that your website is adhering to SEO best practices. It means you need to create relevant compelling content and distribute it frequently, whether that’s videos, blog posts, images, podcasts or whatever formats your customers like to consume media. It means spending time daily “social listening” to understand your potential customers’ issues, motivations & behaviours and jumping in on that conversation in an authentic way.

Having the best website in the world with the best UX is rendered null and void if nobody knows who you are. There are a range of digital tools & activities to help build brand awareness online. Invest the time and you will reap the rewards.

Email Marketing

Email has consistently proven itself to be the highest returning channel of digital marketing. A 2019 study by the DMA found that for every $1 spent on email marketing (eg. lead generation, email automation platform subscription etc.), there was an average return of $42.

On top of the massive potential for return, email marketing allows you to exert the most control. You are responsible for generating the high quality leads (in a GDPR-compliant way). This means you can build relationships with those leads. You communicate directly with your customers and can inform them of sales, discounts or some behind-the-scenes stories. You are not at the mercy of algorithms and you will always own that email list.

If you connect your email marketing automation platform (eg. Mailchimp) with your CRM and/or eCommerce platform, this means you can segment your list and send customers highly relevant content/discounts based on their purchase behaviour. This is vital to keeping your email list engaged and will lead to a lower Cost Per Acquisition too.

Email Marketing Drive Sales

Search Ads

Search ads capture your customers at a different stage in the buying process. The first of which is the “awareness” stage, the importance of which we have already discussed.

Next up is the “consideration” stage, and this is where search ads really shine. If a customer has taken to Google to search for a specific product or service, this means they have moved on to the consideration stage. Search ads will allow you to firstly appear at or near the top of the search results page. Secondly, search ads allow you to drive highly relevant traffic to highly relevant landing pages. Finally, if your website is fast, your landing pages relevant and your UX in good order, this will dramatically increase your chances of a website visitor converting there and then.

As search ads are usually charged on a Cost Per Click model, with clear adcopy, you will only pay for traffic that is interested in your product or service.

Google Shopping

If your business sells physical products online, Google Shopping will drive intent based shoppers.

Google Shopping ads now drive 76.4% of retail search ad spend, generating 85.3% of all clicks on Adwords or Google Shopping campaign ads. Long story short, you need Google Shopping if you’re an eCommerce business.

The integration of Google Shopping and your website/eComm platform is often what puts businesses off venturing into this territory, but many of these platforms provide out-of-the-box integrations. You can also hire an agency or developer to take care of this for you and to ensure that your data feed is optimised. However you decide to approach it, Google Shopping is well worth implementing.

Try a range of channels

When it comes to online shopping, it typically takes 3-5 “touchpoints” for a visitor to convert. Therefore, it is important to identify who your customers are, where they spend their time online and direct your time, money and efforts there.

Analytics and insights are crucial to be able to gauge where you are getting the most return, so you should be digging into these at least twice a week. Look at what pages have the lowest bounce rate/highest time on page, and where your traffic is coming from. Check the demographic info and also the interest category and in-market reports, all of which are available on Google Analytics and most analytics packages. Knowledge is your competitive advantage, so gather as much of it as you can and use it to build a profile of your customers.

Remember, technology can and will help you prevail in this time of uncertainty, particularly when it comes to marketing and sales. Capitalise on the resources available, and you will continue to prosper. 

If you need a helping hand along the way, contact Webresults and let us help you bring your business to the next level. Call us or fill in our contact form today.