Digital

By Todd Moskowitz

Video continues to be a winning advertising choice for local businesses, and the trend seems to only be getting stronger.  Industry experts forecast that overall video ad spending will increase 62% between 2019 and 2021, and Social Media video ad spending in the US will grow 44% from 2019 through 2021.

If we look at the history of time, television was where video really made its mark. However, today video is an asset that’s able to be leveraged across various platforms, ranging from Social Media, Programmatic TV, Video Pre-Roll, Location Based Advertising and more. Today, video truly offers the whole picture when it comes to messaging strength, with its combined chance for consumers to see and hear your message. Not to mention, more targetability is available than ever before. For instance, the precise ability to drill down to specific geographies, interests and demographics.

Here’s some good news for small & medium sized businesses that want to jump onto the video train:

These days SMB’s have more choices when it comes to video production. With equipment more portable, production costs have reduced, making video a more feasible option. This trend of affordability has enabled businesses that once had little access to video, to now have more access than ever before. I have seen a handful of local businesses embrace video over the last few months. Many of these clients are trying video for the very first time. Some have chosen to use video to introduce themselves to their target audience through various video outlets. Others are using video to run in lockstep with their AdWords strategy/geography, to help them build a brand inside the consumers mind, before a trigger moment occurs. Others are impressed with the newest targeting abilities that video advertising now offers. And others simply like to see themselves on the screen.

It has been fun watching clients make “discoveries” about all the great ways that video can be used. Here are some tips that we have shared with our clients, as they have stepped into video for the first time.

• People will always buy from people. Use video to “sell yourself.”
• Use video to build trust. Speak to the consumer as if you were having a conversation with them. Plus, it’s a great way to demonstrate your business principles.
• You don’t need Steven Spielberg to win with video: Creativity is great, but sometimes providing simple facts that are meaningful for the consumer is all it takes to win with video.

At Connoisseur Media, we specialize in helping clients tap into the appropriate video solutions that are most fitting for their business. Clients often lean on us to assess how to best leverage their video, to ensure it’s reaching the right audiences, at the right time. If you have an interest in leveraging the power of video, or if you have a video already produced and would like to learn about some of our advanced targeting capabilities through video, please reach out, so we can help! Either way, if you are running a small business or large brand, certainly consider using video to your advantage.

By Matt Renzulli

Today’s consumer is looking for an online experience that is custom and tailored to their needs and this consumer desire will only continue to grow. Generation Z and Millennial consumers are now even willing to give up personal data to receive a personalized experience to get what they are looking for.  Right now 84% of customers say the way to win their business is to treat them like a person, not just an ordinary number. Today’s consumer desire for a customized experience and relevant content has affected how businesses should brand themselves and the messaging they should be utilizing.

Adding Native Ads to your mix will allow you to brand your business and provide that personalized experience customers are looking for. Native Ads are an ad format designed to match the look and feel of content on a webpage.  These ads are formatted just like surrounding content located within the content of a webpage and are targeted using demographic and geography data.

It is important to include Native Advertising in your advertising mix because doing so will deliver your message and branding and make it personal to the consumer. Native ads also allow your business to tap into additional online inventory to expand your reach.  Today over 60% of Display ads online are Native ads. Last year, $35.24 billion dollars was spent on US Native Digital Display Ads alone! This number will continue to grow as both the internet and consumer experience continue to evolve.

We’ve gathered five best practices to keep in mind while building your successful Native Ad campaign.  These include:

1. Make headlines detailed and engaging to draw the users’ interest.
2. Craft short and catchy ad descriptions that capture the value proposition or brand messaging.
3. Keep your messaging consistent across campaigns and creatives – this includes your Programmatic Display and Mobile GeoFencing campaigns as well.
4. Choose clear, pleasing, brand/product related images.
5. Avoid placing text or call to action buttons on images.

By implementing these strategies, you can significantly increase the success of your Native Ads campaign. Combining Native Ads with other Programmatic strategies can generate up to 2x the CTR (Click Through Rate) of your advertisements.

Make sure you are asking yourself and your business the following questions:

1. Are you taking the steps necessary to increase the reach and results of your Programmatic Display campaigns?
2. Are you providing today’s consumer the custom online experience they are looking for?

If you are not sure you are achieving these two goals, please contact us today to have a conversation about incorporating Native Ads into your mix.

By Erica Chludzinski

Today’s brick and mortar stores can no longer stand alone without an online presence. Today’s customers are information-hungry researchers. They want answers to all their questions and they want them now. So how can your brand optimize it’s online presence to ensure a smooth customer experience – online and off? Read below for three tips to engage your customer online and improve your brand’s all-around customer experience.

1. Make Sure You Can Be Found

The biggest mistake a business can make is ignoring their online listings. Instead of  finding your address and phone number in the phone book, customers are turning to the Internet. They’re asking Google “Where is the best pizza place near me?” and they’re asking Siri “Where is the closest open coffee shop?”

If your business isn’t in the results, you may as well be closed for business. The fix? Make sure you are managing your listings across the Internet. This includes your business listing on Google, Yelp, Facebook and more. Having power over your listing means being found on the Internet and being able to provide customers with accurate information about your location, hours of business and more. It’s important to remember that sites can and will make a profile for your business with inaccurate information if you don’t claim and manage your information. Don’t force your possible consumers to look hard for your business – or worse, go somewhere else.

2. Optimize Your Website for Search Engine Success

It’s important to make sure that your website can also be found when customers are looking for your business. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Management are two important services to invest in if you want your business to be on the first page of search results. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine and nearly 39% of all global ecommerce traffic comes from search. Don’t lose your business to another brand that make it easier for customers to find and do business with them! Ensure that your business is front-and-center in the search results by increasing your organic ranking with SEO and by serving paid ads with SEM.

Not convinced that you need to be in the search results? According to research, there’s up to 30% brand lift for brands that appear in the search results. Customers don’t want to have to work to find your brand. They want to find your business right in Google or Bing where they can click and come right to your brand’s site.

3. Curate Your Website to Compliment Your Customer’s In-Store Experience

According to a Google study, mobile search queries that take place in a store have grown by 15% in recent years. This means that even when your customer is inside your store, they are still researching online. So what are they searching for? Studies suggest that your customers are researching your brand. Shoppers are 4 times for likely to search on Google for the brand of the store they’re currently in compared to the next highest competitor and 50% of shoppers use online video while in a store to learn about the product their looking to purchase.

So, how can this information help you to improve your customer experience? Ask yourself how you can aid your customer while they are physically shopping at your location. If you’re a hardware store, this may mean uploading videos, descriptions and inventory information about your products. If you’re a restaurant, this could mean uploading your menu and happy hour specials.

Want to improve your customer experience but not sure where to begin? Here at Connoisseur Digital, our team of professionals are dedicated to improving your brand’s online presence so you can increase your market share. Contact us today to learn more.

By Erica Chludzinski

Instagram is one of the world’s most popular social media sites. Currently, Instagram has over one billion monthly active users, and that number is only expected to grow. Social media is becoming more and more popular with businesses, as well as individuals. There are 25 million business accounts on Instagram and 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business. So, this begs the question: is your business fit for Instagram?

In order to build a successful and impactful Instagram presence for your business, you will need content for your page. Instagram content comes in the form of either photos or videos, along with powerful captions. The businesses and brands that thrive on Instagram all have one thing in common: quality content posted frequently. In order to attract – and maintain – followers, you will need to post attractive photos that are relevant to your business multiple times per week. Businesses in photo-centric industries (ex. Photography, restaurants, clothing stores) normally have the best photos on hand and, consequently, have the best content. Not sure your business has the content for an Instagram presence? Think twice about starting a page. If you don’t have original, quality photos, you won’t be able to build an effective following audience on the site.

If you are confident in your quality – and quantity – of photos and videos about your business, then it’s time to get started! 60% of Instagram’s users discover new products using the social media site and 75% of users will research the product after seeing a brand’s post. In order to take advantage of Instagram’s ever-shopping user audience, you will need to be sure to post photos of your product/service, as well as informational and entertaining content. Users don’t just want to see your brand online, they want to connect with your brand. Encouraging followers to visit your website, watch an information video or read your blog is a way to invite your audience to engage with your brand and create a relationship that will  influence a conversion.

Once you’ve gathered your content and your posting plan, you will need to designate someone in your business to get posting. 60% of Instagram users visit the site at least once a day. It is important that you post at least 3-4 times per week to ensure that your brand is staying top-of-mind for your followers.

Maintaining a business presence on Instagram is much more than snapping a photo of your storefront and posting it online; it involves cultivating an online audience and building a relationship to influence conversions and promote brand awareness. Looking for help maintaining your business presence on Instagram? Contact the professionals at Connoisseur Digital to learn more about how we can help!

By Erica Chludzinski

Facebook, the world’s most popular social media site, is home to over 2.414 billion monthly active users. Not to mention the site also welcomes 500,000 new users every day. So, what does this mean for your business? It means that your business should be taking advantage of the opportunity to build a brand presence on Facebook.

There are over 60 million active business pages on Facebook, and your business should be one of them. If not, the first step is making a Facebook business page for each of your business locations. Before you build your page, be sure to gather all the information and photos you will want to place on the main page. You will need a cover photo (which can be a photo of your business location or one of your products), as well as a profile photo (which will most likely be your brand logo). You will also need to include your website URL, location information (if applicable) and any other information you want to include in the “About” section of your page.

Once your page is built, then you can create and plan your content for posting. Facebook posts should include information about your products/services, happy customers and anything relevant that will encourage page visitors to follow your page and engage with your account. 68% of US adults use Facebook and 51% of them visit the site several times per day, meaning consistent posting is the best way to stay top-of-mind for your audience. Additionally, 49% of Facebook users like a Facebook page to support a business that they like, meaning Facebook users are open to following both their friends and their favorite business on the social media platform.

Facebook advertising can also be utilized to ensure that your content reaches users that aren’t following your brand. Facebook ads have the ability to reach over 2,375 billion users, even if those users have not yet “liked” your page. Facebook advertising can come in the form of promoted posts or separate ad content. Six million businesses are currently utilizing Facebook to advertise their company and so should you!

Building a brand presence and advertising on Facebook can be a daunting task, especially when you are managing all aspects of running a business. The professionals at Connoisseur Digital are here to help, whether you are interested in advertising on Facebook, or just simply building your brand’s online presence. Contact us today to learn more!

By Robin Faller

There are 1,000,000,000 more searches online than there were 5 years ago.   How does Google keep up and beat the competition to provide a useful product to both consumers and advertisers?

While Google faces increasing competition for Internet advertising revenue, it continues to provide new sophisticated offerings, making Google Ads so sticky it’s a must in most SMB’s marketing mix whether you are in a service business or retail sectors.  

Based on it’s own observations Google knows:

●      In a 48 hour period we are shopping online for something

●      3 out of 4 consumers who search for a local store visit it within 24 hours

●      Valuable ads satisfy intent in the micro moment that matters most to the consumer

Google Ads, renamed last July to showcase its AI upgrade brought together all Google advertising tools together.  New and improved tools and ad formats enable us to maximize your opportunity online through machine learning.   Based on more unique ad delivery, we are driving the highest level of relevancy and success through presenting a more individualized add to the ideal target customer through a few key ad formats.

Responsive Text Ads, in BETA, offer expanded headlines and descriptions, combinations served based on the user query.  These ads are driving record CTR, with lifts as high as 15% among our campaigns.    While Responsive Text Ads are still in Beta, Google’s AI presents a wide variety of combinations to the user based on intent.  The analyst provides up to 15 headlines and up to 4 descriptions.  There are hundreds of combinations that can be shown that are tailored to each individual consumer.  The additional benefit for marketers, is A/B testing is no longer an arduous task of only running two ads in a face off competition.

Expanded text ads continue to provide a benefit of expanded real estate as they have also become larger with third headline and second description.  The difference between these is you have complete control on what will be shown.  The difference is you will be guessing at result and user intent.  While Responsive Text Ads are still in BETA, Google is recommending utilizing both formats.

If you are looking for the highest level of execution, let us assess your current campaign and share how we can improve it. Contact us today.

by Sharon LaGaipa

Ninety-six percent of Americans own a mobile phone. If you’re looking to capitalize on this, Location-Based Advertising (LBA) is an approach that can drive highly relevant consumers to your business. Location-Based Advertising utilizes technology to pinpoint a consumer’s location and serve targeted advertisements to their mobile device.

GeoFencing can be an extremely effective way to tap into potential new customers. A radius is drawn around a physical location and consumers are served ads, within apps on mobile devices, in that specified radius (or geofence zone). It allows businesses the ability to get hyper targeted to relevant consumers.

There are multiple GeoFencing strategies to encourage consumers to interact with your brand/business, such as:

• GeoFence Your Own Location: If you’re looking to capitalize on foot traffic from nearby businesses, you could draw a 1/2-mile radius around your location encompassing those other businesses. Ads would be served within that 1/2-mile radius. If you’re a pizza restaurant, you could promote a weekly special to entice people at the nearby stores to order or dine at your restaurant.
• GeoFence Your Competitors’ Locations (also referred to as “GeoConquesting”): Think of how powerful it could be for a business to serve ads, in real time, to consumers while they’re physically at competitors’ locations. The right strategy should be used, however, based on the dynamics of the purchase cycle. A car dealer would be ideal, given consumers typically shop around with multiple dealers, sometimes for up to several months, prior to finalizing their car purchase. On the other hand, it might not be the best strategy for a dental practice to geofence competitive dental offices, given that majority of consumers visiting the dentist are already committed and obligated to appointments and many have long-term relationships with their dentist.
• GeoFence Relevant Businesses: Let’s say you have a Dog Grooming business. You could geofence area pet food stores to target consumers who would be ideal potential customers – or likely intenders – of your service.

GeoVideo is simply utilizing video format (versus standard display creative), to engage at a high level with consumers, by serving video ads within apps on mobile devices in the defined geofence zone.

GeoRetargeting builds on the geofence strategy by continuing to target people, who have previously been served an ad while in a geofence, with additional ads, as they go about their online journey even outside of the geofence zone. GeoRetargeting enables you to stay top of mind with consumers who align closely to your business and therefore can be a key factor in driving conversions/sales.

GeoLocation Look Back gives the unique opportunity to “look back” at where a consumer’s been based on mobile historical data and target them with ads. For example, if you’re an entertainment venue with music concerts you’re looking to promote, you could identify people who attended a previous Taylor Swift concert and serve those people with your message.

For a strategic, integrated, turnkey digital marketing strategy tailored specifically around your business’s goals, trust the highly qualified, responsive team at Connoisseur Media. Contact us today.

By Suzie Downing

Are you looking for an easy way to improve your success in business? In a fiercely competitive world, effective proposal writing is one of the most important strategies you can perfect in order to separate yourself from your industry peers. One of the most impactful ways to stand out is to build out a presentation that is highly personalized and directly tied to the clients core needs.  83% of business professionals agree that sales outreach personalized to their specific business problem is very important.  Here at Connoisseur Digital, we follow a process focused on the client’s needs and marketing challenges.  Gathering information about how consumers are learning about the client’s product or business, who the client’s competitors are, and what the current marketing strategy is, will help shape a sales pitch to meet the desired marketing goals for a business.

Once the information is gathered about the business, a salesperson will craft together a presentation that provides a solution to meet the goals discussed in the initial meeting.

Pro Tip: In addition to sharing the solution, be sure to include research to back up why this solution makes sense for the client.

Here are some guidelines to craft a detailed marketing presentation:

• The presentation should begin with a recap of the first meeting, redefining the core goals.
• The marketing objective and target consumer should be clearly defined.
• The campaign should have a meaningful name that will carry out throughout the presentation.
• Note the specific products recommended to solve the business challenges, and explain how each product will be used collectively to achieve the end goal.
• Finish the presentation with a recap for the client about why the campaign is a true solution for their core goals and challenges.

Lastly, make sure your presentation is full of captivating visuals to keep the full attention of your audience.  Research has shown that 65% of the human population are visual learners, 30% are verbal learners and the remaining 5% learn through experiences.  Including visuals throughout your presentation can help the client understand the benefits of what you are offering them.

Here at Connoisseur Digital we tailor each presentation to the specific needs for a business.  To learn more about how we can help your business grow, contact us today!

By Shannon Kinney

Event marketing is a great way to build awareness of your brand and put your business out in front of the local community, touching both new and existing clients. Each event should be looked at as an opportunity to grow your business.

Here are some tips on how to make the most out of your event marketing:

1)     Choose the right event. If you are trying to reach families, maybe don’t sign up for the craft beer festival. The local food and crafts festival, that has a children’s area, might make more sense.

2)     Add some sort of value to the attendees, beyond just information about your product or service. Offer a discount, samples, branded promotional items, an activity or a game. This will help make customers feel like they are receiving something valuable, that isn’t just information.

3)     Have some sort of “Enter to Win” promotion at your area so you can collect leads and valuable data. If you are planning on adding them to your email database, be sure to include permission in your forms. Can’t give away your product or service? That’s okay. Think about giving away a gift certificate to a local restaurant or a $100 Amazon gift card.

4)     Make sure you have the right people at your table/booth/tent that represent you well. You want to make sure you have people who are approachable and friendly. Choose representatives that aren’t scared to strike up a conversation with a stranger or walk right up to people to invite them over to your area.

5)     Partner with your local radio station. With on-site events your business has the opportunity to be out in front of potential customers and interact with the local community. Radio stations are at hundreds of events within their local community each year. Why not partner with your local radio station to showcase your company in your community?

Spring, summer and fall are all great times for events and there are a ton happening around you. Start small and grow your business!

By Suzie Downing

Is blogging currently part of your strategy for engaging with potential and existing customers?  If not, you may be missing out on an easy opportunity to win your business more attention.  Blogging has come a long way from its origin of online journaling.  A blog is defined as a digital compilation of articles and opinions accessed by anyone who visits a company’s website.  Today, 77% of internet users read blogs and 81% trust the information and advice they read from blogs.  From a consumer’s point of view, reading a blog post can teach them how to do something, solve a problem, or inform them on a topic of interest.  From a marketing point of view, blog posts can connect a business with their audience while driving more traffic to their website and increasing conversions.

Blogging on your company website can also improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy.  With over 3.5 billion Google searches per day, you’ll need to create content with search engines in mind if you want to be found on the web.

Here are some important factors to keep in mind while creating a successful blogging strategy:

Create Value for the Consumer

The goal of blogging is to give your customers ideas through inspiring them.  Content should attract consumers who are in various consumer stages including awareness, research, purchase, and brand loyalty.  If you engage them throughout all of these stages, you will be more apt to win their business.  Consider how you will engage with prospective customers through the content you are posting on your blog and website.

Post Content Frequently

By frequently posting blog pages, you are contributing to the number of indexable pages on your website.  Search engine algorithms search for keywords throughout your website and match them with popular keywords that your customers are searching for.  In addition to keywords and indexable pages, search engine algorithms also take inbound links into consideration.  An inbound link is an external link back to your website via a social media post or links on other websites.  Posting a link to your blog post on social media and encouraging followers to share the content with others can increase your chances of being discovered.  Driving more organic traffic to your website through blogging will improve your rank on the search engine results page (SERP).

Review the Analytics

Dig into the data to understand your audience.  Your website analytics, social shares and comments can tell you what topics your customers care most about and which topics they might not be interested in.  These details can impact your future blog posts and help you decide which topics to create new posts around.

Interested in improving your reach online and building a stronger relationship with your customers through blogging?  Contact Connoisseur Digital today to create quality blog strategies and content for your business!