There’s something a little scary about spending money — especially if it’s not your money — when you get that marketing budget to spend at the beginning of the new financial year you want to ensure you can show some proper return on investment for the money you’ve spent at the end of that period, because well, you don’t want to look irresponsible or get fired and end up homeless.

We believe strongly here at Ikonik that if you don’t know where you’re going you’ll probably end up going somewhere else.

So we have compiled a list of 6 top notch ways to spend that digital marketing budget on activities that will help you get the results you desire; whether they be an increase in brand visibility or engagement.

1. Content Creation
2. Influencer Marketing
3. Paid Advertising
4. Campaigns & Promotions
5. Live Coverage
6. Management

CONTENT CREATION 

 

What is it?:

Content marketing is defined as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content is the most functional form of modern advertising and according to the Content Marketing Institute the average Marketer spends 29% of their budget on content. That number is projected to increase to 39% by 2019.

Engaging Content is what captures the attention of your target market online and encourages them to take the actions you want.

Quick Tips:

Here are a few key things you should take into consideration when creating content for your brand.

• Create Buyer Personas to paint a clear picture for you and your team of who your target market is and the issues they care about the most.
• Ensure Brand Consistency is achieved by making content creators follow your corporate brand style-guide for colors, logo use, brand tone of voice etc.
• Create An Editorial Calendar detailing the different topics you’ll be addressing and when you will share & distribute them online.
• Experiment With New Content Formats such as live polls, games, 360 videos, gifs and short format video animations.

Examples:

Let’s take a look at a few examples of engaging content from local Jamaican brands you can look to for inspiration.

Lucozade Jamaica 

Honey Bun Jamaica

Rough Rider Jamaica

 

INFLUENCER MARKETING 

 

What is it?:

Influencer marketing is one of the best and most actionable ways to get your brand in front of a massive targeted audience quickly. Why? Because it works, and works brilliantly well. Leveraging the communities of popular figures online can work wonders for your brand if done correctly.

Quick Tips & Facts

• You obviously don’t want someone who doesn’t match your brand representing you, so do you research and scroll through the feeds of potential influencers and see if anything doesn’t sit well with you.
• Businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, according to research conducted by Tomoson. 59% of marketers planned to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2016. (source: Tomoson – )
• Your influencers became Influencers because people love their captivating personalities. It’s important that you let them have creative control when promoting your product or service.

KFC with One Romone

Flow Lyf with Prince Pine  

 

PAID ADVERTISING

 

What is it?:

Relying on organic reach only will guarantee you a low reach on all your content. To maximise the amount of people seeing your content you’ll have to make good use of the paid advertising options available on social media. Here’s an overview of advertising guidelines for Facebook & Instagram.

Facebook & Instagram Ad Objectives

• Awareness: Objectives that generate interest in your product or service.
  • Brand Awareness: Reach people more likely to pay attention to your ads and increase awareness for your brand.
  • Reach: Show your ad to the maximum number of people in your audience.

• Consideration: Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business and look for more information about it.
  • Traffic: Increase the number of visits to your website or get more people to use your app.
  • App Installs: Increase the number of people installing your app
  • Engagement: Get more people to see and engage with your post or Page
  • Video Views: Promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand.
  • Lead Generation: Collect lead information, such as email addresses, from people interested in your business.
• Conversions: Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service.
  • Conversions: Get more people to use your website, Facebook app, or mobile app. To track and measure conversions, use the Facebook pixel or app events
  • Product Catalog Sales: Show products from your product catalog based on your target audience
  • Store Visits: Promote multiple business locations to people who are nearby.

Facebook & Instagram Ad Types:

These platforms currently offer 5 main formats for adverts:

• Carousel: Create an advert with 2 or more scrollable images or videos (click for example)
• Single image: Create up to 6 variations of your advert using 1 image (click for example)
• Single video: Create an advert with one video (click for example)
• Slideshow: Create a looping video advert with up to 10 images (click for example)
• Canvas: Tell a more immersive story by combining images and videos (click for example)

Facebook & Instagram Ad Targeting Options:

There’s no shortage of ways to target your audience on Facebook & Instagram.

• Connections: you can target people who are either connected or not connected to your Facebook Page.
• Custom Audiences: Facebook lets you upload customer email addresses or other identifiers to build your own audience targeting.
• Lookalike Audiences: This lets you target people based on data from your Facebook Pixel, mobile app data, or from fans of your Facebook Page.

• Quick Tips:
  • Ensure images have less than 20% text to guarantee your ad gets the maximum reach.
  • Place a call-to-action in your ad copy so your customer knows exactly what you want them to do.

 

CAMPAIGNS & PROMOTIONS

 

What is it?:

Since the beginning of time brands and businesses have been running campaigns to garner consumer awareness and drive product adoption in the market. We use to do this primarily through newspapers, radio and tv; now you can also include social media as an additional platform to achieve those same goals.

Quick Tips

• Ensure your campaign Instructions are simple and easy to understand
• Ensure you put up an enticing prize that will motivate your fans to carry out the desired action whether it be filling out a form or taking a selfie.
• Use paid advertising and Influencers to get more reach on your campaign.

Example:

Check out these local Jamaican brands making use of digital platforms to promote campaigns and promotions.

NCB #StepIntoSummer Summer 2k17 Promotion:

Honey Bun #BigManTing Promotion

Rough Rider Jamaica 50 Shades Darker #RoughLove Promotion

 

LIVE & PRE-RECORDED COVERAGE 

 

What is it?:

Facebook live, Instagram Live, Snapchat, Periscope. Everyone is now getting used to inviting their friends and followers into their lives via live video on social media and your brand should be no different. Especially if you do a lot of sponsored events and On-The-Ground promotions, live and pre-recorded coverage will do a great job of keeping fans up-to-date on your brand promotions and also give your brand a very human and real element online.

Quick Tips

• Promote your live broadcast to fans a few hours before so that no one misses out on your broadcast!
• Use an influencer as an on-the-ground reporter for the day and let them engage with your social media fanbase
• Use a hashtag for your live broadcast to keep fans on board throughout the day

National Bakery @ Maxfield Park Labor Day Cleanup

Sagicor @ JTA Sagicor Champs Coverage

 

PLATFORM MANAGEMENT 

 

What is it?:

In order to execute everything listed above it’s imperative you invest in getting a team of people for on-going management of your brand’s social media presence; coming up with campaigns and reporting results to you on a periodic basis.

Daily Checklist

• Check private messages and mentions
• Curate content
• Schedule posts
• Manage social media comments
• Check the next day’s scheduled posts
• Be aware of any breaking news that might affect your posting schedule
• Engage with Influencers
• Check in on marketing campaigns

Weekly Checklist

• Review marketing campaign success
• Review social media analytics
• Find new accounts to follow
• Check in on your competition

 Monthly Checklist

• Review social media analytics from previous month
• Provide monthly progress report to client
• Plan next month’s editorial calendar
• Review current processes and tweak if needed
• Create visual content for the next month

Quick Tips

• Set clear goals and KPI’s
• Keep your team updated on new promotions and brand activities
• Have periodic strategy sessions to review how content is working and decide on a future strategy

 

CONCLUSION

Now you have a list of splendid ways to spend that digital marketing budget for optimal results.

• Content Creation
• Influencer Marketing
• Paid Advertising
• Campaigns & Promotions
• Live Coverage
• Management

Time to go off and start gaining some much needed brand reach & engagement!

If you need any help with your digital marketing efforts you can email our team of digital marketing experts at [email protected].