Understanding Common Marketing Terms

Marketing is an essential part of any business, but with so many terms and concepts to understand, it can be overwhelming. Here at Smart Marketing in Anderson, SC, we understand that navigating marketing jargon can be difficult and overwhelming. We wanted to help and talk about the most important terms you will hear in the marketing world.

Target Audience

Your target audience is the group of people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service. Defining your target audience helps you create marketing campaigns that resonate with them and increase the chances of conversion. For example, if you sell baby products, your target audience might be new parents or expectant parents. By identifying and understanding your target audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to their needs, increasing the chances of success and return on investment. 

Branding

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your company or product. This includes your logo, color scheme, tagline, and other visual and verbal elements that distinguish you from your competitors. Effective branding can help you build brand recognition and customer loyalty. Strong branding can help you stand out in a crowded market, create a memorable impression, and build trust with your audience. 

Call to Action (CTA)

A call to action is a prompt that encourages your audience to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a free guide, or making a purchase. A clear and compelling CTA can help increase conversion rates and move customers through the sales funnel. Including a strong CTA in your marketing materials can help you drive more leads and sales, and improve the overall effectiveness of your campaigns. 

Content Marketing

Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. This can include blog posts, social media updates, videos, podcasts, and more. Effective content marketing can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build trust with your audience. Content marketing can help you increase brand awareness, improve your search engine rankings, and build a loyal audience that’s more likely to convert.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages. This involves a variety of techniques, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building. Improving your SEO can help you drive more traffic to your website and improve your visibility in search results. By improving your SEO, you can increase your website’s visibility, attract more qualified leads, and ultimately drive more sales.

 

Understanding common marketing terms can help you create effective marketing campaigns and achieve your business goals. At Smart Marketing Advertising Agency, it’s our job to take care of defining your target audience, establish a strong brand, include clear CTAs, leverage content marketing, and improve your SEO to build a strong online presence and attract more customers. Give us a call today if you’re ready to optimize your marketing strategy – 864.224.6002

Highlighting Your Woman-Run Business in March

March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of women throughout history. If you are a woman who runs a business, it’s an excellent opportunity to highlight your achievements and showcase your business! We’ve put together some tips on highlighting your Woman-Run Business in March.

Share Your Story

Your story is unique, inspiring, and essential to your business. Use this month to share your story on social media and your website. You can write a blog post, create a video, or even host a live stream where you share your journey, your struggles, and your successes. Share your passion for your business and dedication to making it successful. 

Collaborate with Other Women-Run Businesses 

Collaborating with other women-run businesses can help you reach a new audience and create new opportunities for your business. You can create a joint promotion or even host an event together. Look for businesses in your industry or niche and reach out to see if they would be interested in collaborating with you. 

Offer Special Deals or Discounts

March is a great time to offer special deals or discounts to your customers. You can create a Women’s History Month promotion and offer a discount or a special package to celebrate women in business. This will attract new customers and show your current customers that you appreciate their support!

Highlight Your Customers

Your customers are the heart of your business, and Women’s History Month is an excellent opportunity to celebrate them. You can feature your customers on social media, your website, or your store. Ask your customers to share their stories and tag your business; you can feature them on your social media pages. This will create a sense of community and show that you value your customers. 

Host an Event

Hosting an event is a great way to showcase your business and connect with your customers. You can host a Women’s History Month event, such as a workshop or panel discussion, and invite other women-run businesses to participate. This will create an opportunity for you to network, showcase your business, offer advice to other business owners, and provide value to your customers.

Celebrate your accomplishments and inspire other women to follow their dreams this March! Your followers would love to hear your story and all the amazing things you have accomplished.

Maybe you don’t have time to set up a campaign this month. Don’t worry; we can help!

Smart Marketing Advertising Agency is a woman-run business in Anderson, South Carolina. We can help you set up a campaign showcasing your business and all its accomplishments this month and moving forward! Call us today if you’re ready to take your marketing to the next level – 864.224.6002

How to Market Your Business for Valentine’s Day

It’s time to love your business a little extra this February! Smart Marketing Advertising Agency is here to share some tips you will fall in LOVE with this February! 

The Valentine’s Day industry has consistently brought in over $20 billion in revenue in the past couple of years, so taking advantage of the holiday of love can be extremely beneficial to your business. Whether you offer a service or own an e-commerce business, these tips can be used!

Running a Campaign

If you are looking to either push your business, offer specials or discounts, or sell limited Valentine’s merchandise, then running a campaign for the first two weeks of February is a must for your social media! Run your campaign with curated content from designed graphics, and photos of your products, or add Valentine imagery to your feed that promotes you and your business. This can go on past Valentine’s Day since most couples celebrate well into the month!

Giveaways or Valentine’s Deals

Add to the excitement by running a giveaway for your product/service to consumers looking for a deal or a gift for their loved ones this month. This will keep your followers intrigued, draw potential customers to your page, and drive engagement with your page. This can be for a product, date night, or even a gift card!

SEO

This month is the perfect opportunity to use SEO to drive engagement, views, and clicks. Use keyword searches for what people will be searching. “February” and other Valentine’s Day words are important to implement into your blogs, hashtags, and holiday-specific promotions on your pages. 

Here are popular Valentine’s hashtags that you can implement: 

#valentine #love #valentinesday #valentines #valentineday #valentinegift #gift #valentinesgift #valentinesdaygift #happyvalentinesday #handmade #gifts

 

Be Smart this month and take advantage of the Valentine’s Day market! You will LOVE the results!

At Smart Marketing, we want to be an extension of your team in all things marketing. Everything from web design to SEO, logo design, digital, Google, and social media advertising, print, and media marketing. We do it all! We are a full-service marketing and advertising agency located in Anderson, SC serving our local area and nationwide clients. Call us today if you are ready to take the next step! 

864-224-6002 | thinksmartmarketing.net 

Keeping Up Your Instagram Insights

Billions of people around the world use Instagram every day. Most spend an average of 28 minutes on the app per day. That is plenty of time for your brand to reach them.

You may be posting on Instagram, but is your content making a difference in your engagement and reaching potential consumers? At Smart Marketing Advertising Agency, we specialize in all things social media, so we’ve put together some tips for you to keep up your Instagram insights in 2023!

Keep Track of Your Insights

If you’re interested in engagement and followers, it’s important to keep track of your insights on Instagram. To access your insights, your Instagram profile must be converted into a business account. Once complete, you’ll have full access to your account’s data.

Before we continue, there are a few keywords you will want to understand:

  • Metrics are the number of interactions on a post. Using metrics, you can start to understand the importance of other data on your insights tab.
  • Rate metrics give you a percentage figure to help understand your growth over a certain amount of time. So, for example, your interaction rate is the percentage of your followers that have interacted with your post, story, or reel.
  • Growth metrics show you the increase or decrease of a metric over a certain amount of time. For example, you can see if your followers have increased or decreased over a certain period.

Change Your Posting Day or Time

There is no “perfect time” to post on Instagram, but each account has an ideal time for posting. With Insights, you can find your ideal posting time based on your audience’s habits and your past performance. You can view the days your followers are most active, and the average times they are on Instagram per day. Using this data, you can post when a majority of your followers are online to ensure the most engagement.

Adjust Your Content

You can find your top Instagram stories and posts on Instagram Insights based on impressions, reach, and engagement. Look at your top posts and see if you notice any common trends! Usually, your audience will be able to show you 

Experiment with New Content

When all else fails – try something new! It never hurts to change up your strategy and post different content than you have in the past. You can even try different types of content such as Instagram reels and stories, or use Instagram live. 

At the end of the day, keeping track of your Instagram insights is a full-time job – that’s what we’re here for. 

At Smart Marketing Advertising Agency, we are a full-service marketing and advertising agency located in Anderson, SC serving our local area and nationwide clients. We want to be an extension of your team in all things marketing. From social media advertising, and web design to SEO, logo design, digital, Google, and print and media marketing – we do it all!

Give us a call today at 864.224.6002 or email our Director of Client Relations, Sarah Mosteller, at smosteller@smartmarketingsc.com if you’re ready to implement a new marketing strategy!

A Smart Start to the New Year

The new year is rolling around, and it is important to keep your business updated and fresh. In this day and age of the internet, marketing has become a fast-growing field, and this year is no different. The internet is the most important tool to find reliable sources and businesses. 

Having a well-designed website is a key part of keeping up your internet profile. Your website is what drives all of your traffic, and where future and present clients can learn about what you do as a business. Potential clients are able to find all your basic information from your website, so maintaining your information and having it easily digestible helps clients easily navigate your website and find your socials.

Your logo reflects your brand and is vital to your website. Your brand identity is what people know you by when they see it on signs, shirts, or any other branding. Making sure your logo is unique and stands out is important in making sure you are remembered when people need your specific type of service. Having a clean updated logo will keep your brand in the minds of clients when they need your specific service.

Digital branding is an important step in social media marketing. Exciting and interesting content that pertains to your brand and your services can create traffic for your social media platforms, and create new clients for your business. It is important your social media is tailored to your desired clientele, and maintains traction in your business. Social media is the best tool for your growth and recognition, as there are various ways you can utilize its features to reach your targeted audience.

Physical branding is essential to your business’s recognition. The use of well-made business cards, t-shirts, billboards, and other various merchandise is how everyday items will display your brand and its identity. Having a strong and consistent brand that displays your logo, coloring, and fonts will make your business stand out to potential clients through everyday merchandise. 

Be smart this year with your business strategy and branding! It can be difficult to sustain your social media savvy practices, but putting yourself on the right track is essential to the growth of your business. Implementing any of these tips this new year will be a great start to your growth.

At Smart Marketing Advertising Agency, we are a full-service marketing and advertising agency located in Anderson, SC serving our local area and nationwide clients. We want to be an extension of your team in all things marketing. From web design to SEO, logo design, digital, Google, social media advertising, and print and media marketing – we do it all! Start your new year the smart way, with Smart Marketing. 

A Smart Start to the New Year!  

Marketing and Advertising Agency located in Anderson, SC

The Lasting Impact of Quarantine on Marketing Today

When COVID -19 shut down the world as we knew it, many businesses didn’t know what this would mean for their future. They had to change the way they ran in order to meet guidelines and keep their employees safe. Many switched to curbside pickup and contactless delivery, which are still very popular today even with most of America now back up and running. 

But what did Quarantine mean for marketing? 

As people were cooped up at home to stay safe, they spent more time online leading marketing to evolve to meet them there. 

According to research, the time spent online during lockdown saw an increase from the year 2019 to 2021, from 56 minutes to 65 minutes, respectively. The amount of social media users worldwide also increased by 11% between the years 2019 and 2021, from roughly 3.4 billion to 3.78 billion, according to the same study.

What were people doing online during this extra time?

The amount of time people spent watching videos in 2020 increased by 85%, making video the most popular type of content for the past two years. Quarantine saw the rise of the popular app TikTok, where a variety of videos, ranging from educational to funny, can be found on just about any topic.

According to Forbes, YouTube was also a staple for many bored-at-home internet users, seeing an increase from 73% of Americans frequenting their site to 81%

 

When are people getting online?

The pandemic also changed peoples’ habits when it came to what time they chose to get on social media. Research shows that now the best times to post on Facebook are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10-11 AM, and the best times to post on Instagram are now Tuesday at 11 AM or 2 PM, and Friday at 11 AM. 

All of these changes resulting from the pandemic have led social media to become the number one channel for marketing. Users like to see lighthearted or inspirational content from brands relevant to their interests, and social media likes to make it easy to find these people for any brand! If you need help pivoting your business towards this new marketing strategy, we’re here to help. 

 

Smart Marketing has been successfully helping businesses market their products and services for over 10 years. We can help you with anything marketing related from logo design, social media management, website design to large media buys for professionally shot videos.

 

Smart Marketing Advertising Agency

Anderson, South Carolina

Logo Design • Website Design • Digital Marketing

 

 

 

Target Specific Markets With YouTube Ads

We’ve all taken to YouTube to find out how to make a recipe, change a tire or just to watch someone talk about their day, favorite movie or book. YouTube ads have become a great way to target very specific markets as you can easily identify what topics someone is interested in based off of their past viewing habits!

According to recent research, 42.9% of GLOBAL internet users access YouTube monthly with more than a billion hours of content being consumed every single day.

YouTube is most popular with people between the ages of 15 – 35, with the audience leaning slightly towards women. 62% of users in the United States access the site daily, over 122 million people! 

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YouTube Ads come in two options – Skippable and Non-Skippable. 

Skippable Ads

Skippable ads allow the viewer to opt to not watch the advertisement after 5 seconds.

You may be asking yourself why you would want to allow the potential customer to skip your ad, but for those who do choose to watch less than 30 seconds there is no charge! This means you do not have to pay for your advertisement to those who do not watch the full, or majority of the video. 

Skippable ads are great for those looking to optimize their ad budget to the fullest by getting their name out there to customers, but not having to pay for each ad. Youtube requires that these videos be anywhere from 12 seconds to 6 minutes in length. 

And while these ads are great for optimizing your marketing budgets, the goal is still to get people interested in your company and what you have to offer. The best way to do this is to create attention catching videos. 

You want to give the viewer a reason to stick around and watch more of your video than they are required to. 

Some ways to create attention grabbing YouTube Ads: 

  • A story of struggle to success
  • A relatable story 
  • A unpredictable humorous video 

Anything you can create that relates to your brand, keeps the customer interested, and is memorable is the go-to for this style of ad in order to maintain their attention and get your message across. 

Non-Skippable Ads

Non-Skippable Ads are just what the name implies – not able to be skipped. These ads can be up to 15 seconds in length and play before, during, or after the viewer’s selected video. 

Since the viewer is not able to skip your ad, you will be charged based on the number of impressions your video receives. 

These ads are great for those looking to create a call to action video for their campaign. Calls to actions include asking the customer to:

  • Shop your online store
  • Visit your website 
  • Call now 
  • Visit your physical location 
  • Book an appointment 

Bumper Ads are a form of non-skippable ad and are only 6 seconds long! These ads are great to show potential customers a short and memorable video to make an impression. 

Display Ads

Video Discovery Ads

Discovery ads are placed at the top of search results on YouTube, next to related YouTube videos, or on the YouTube mobile homepage for customers to “discover.”

These ads do not automatically play like Skippable and Non-Skippable ads, but include the thumbnail of your video, title and a short description. These ad types encourage people scrolling through YouTube to click and view your video in another tab, which is also when you are charged. 

With the world of advertising always changing it can be hard to keep up. That is why you should leave it to the capable and experienced team at Smart Marketing! We have been helping businesses, big and small, to increase their market share, brand recognition, and brand image for over 10 years. 

Smart Marketing Advertising Agency

Anderson, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina… Coming Soon

What are SMART goals?

When starting a new project it is always important to visualize what you want the end goal to be. We’ve all had those dreams that seem unattainable but that was only because we didn’t have a plan of attack! The same concept applies to marketing as well – if you don’t have an idea of your end goal and how to achieve it, then how will you know when you’re making progress? 

One way to track progress, set goals, and help yourself stick to them is by using SMART goals. 

What are SMART goals? 

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. Using SMART goals to help you visualize your steps to your goal will help you avoid creating plans that are too vague, aggressive, or poorly thought out. Plans that are not well fleshed out can seem daunting and lead to discouragement.. 

In marketing, SMART goals are used to achieve both an improvement in a company’s revenue and also an increase in their brand awareness with consumers. These goals for companies are usually based on what are known as Key Performance Indicators, KPIs

Companies who provide services may set goals around a specific increase in lead form entries. A product based company may set goals around an increase in a specific product sold following a campaign for it. For example, an X amount of increase in chicken wing sales after a new wing campaign is launched.

For brand awareness, a company may set a goal for engagement around their new campaign. They could also set goals around creating a higher quality email list, or a higher rank on Google following a new SEO approach. One tip for using KPIs for your company is to try and align your Revenue KPIs and Brand KPIs so that the effect your efforts are having on the company are more clear and easier to communicate. 

What does SMART mean? 

Specific – 

Be as specific as possible when setting a goal. The more narrow your focus the easier it will be to identify steps necessary for achieving it.

Measurable – 

What evidence will let you know that you are making progress towards your goal? If your focus is narrow enough then it should not be difficult to determine what you will measure success by. 

This is where those KPIs come into play. Determining KPIs for revenue goals are usually straightforward but choosing ones for brand goals can be more subjective. For example, if your goal is to create a higher quality email list then you could measure it by how many people are opening the email and clicking on the attached links. Set an increasing goal for each new email sent out and keep a record of your progress! 

Attainable – 

Is the goal you have set for your company attainable at this moment? Are there other steps to take first before you can reach this goal? Use past data to determine the possibility of reaching the goals you have set and if they seem like too big of a stretch, reevaluate. The objective is to have challenging goals but not to the point of discouragement. 

Relevant – 

Does this goal contribute to your long term goals for your company? Will achieving this goal be valuable for your broader objectives? 

Time-base – 

How much time will it take to achieve this goal even with a determined approach? Will this goal require a long research period before the actual implementation? If your goals seem to be more long-term, like 6 months to a year, then it may be beneficial to add in some shorter term goals to keep yourself and your team motivated. Setting up a realistic time frame for your goals will help you minimize time wasted and build confidence as you begin to see success. 

 

For full service marketing solutions turn to the pros of SMART Marketing! 

Serving Upstate South Carolina, Georgia and the greater United States since 2010

 

What is Retargeting?

You may have noticed that after online shopping that shirt, lawnmower, or car you’ve looked at seems to follow you everywhere you go online! Or you may have noticed that after visiting a pet store you’re seeing ads for dog food everywhere, or after visiting a bike store you’re seeing bicycles on every webpage. This is actually a type of marketing called Retargeting!

Retargeting uses consumers past actions to show them ads that are relevant to that particular activity, that is why you will notice that one particular shirt you looked at that one time online following you everywhere you go!

Retargeting, referred to by us here at Smart Marketing as Creepy Freaky Marketing, is actually a very successful form of marketing. It was found in a recent study that consumers who saw retargeted ad were up to 70% more likely to convert into paying customers.

In order to serve you ads relevant to your past searches webpages look at the “cookies” stored on your computer, phone or tablet. These “cookies” are put on your computer from every website you visit, think of them like breadcrumbs used in old books to guide characters out of the forest. By looking at the cookies, webpages can identify things that customers may be interested in and serve them an ad relevant to that activity. This is particularly helpful for businesses as it is proven that the more a potential customer is reminded of your product the more likely they are to purchase it.

It will also help you get in front of your competition’s customers! You are able to create something called a “White List” of all websites you wish to keep track of so when someone visits them they are then shown one of YOUR ads. This helps to get customers of your competition to your website and increases your chances of converting them to your product.

It was found that 3 out of 4 customers notice retargeted ads over regular display ads. Retargeted ads also have a click-thru rate of .70% while regular display ads have a click-thru rate of .07%! If you are interested in learning more about retargeting, please get in touch with us here at Smart Marketing Advertising Agency! We have been helping business owners in the Upstate of South Carolina grow their businesses for over 10 years and would love to help you get started with your strategic marketing plan!

 

Smart Marketing Advertising Agency

Anderson, SC

Charleston, SC – Coming soon!

TikTok for Business – Yes or No?

 

TikTok has been around since 2018 but it was formally known as Musical.ly, an app where people would lip sync to songs. Since its rebranding to TikTok the app has experienced exponential grow in popularity.

 

TikTok now boasts 689 million users worldwide, putting it ahead of platforms such as Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter in terms of monthly active users. Although the 689 million does not include China where the app operates under a different name, Douyin, and has 600 million DAILY users.

 

Together TikTok and Douyin have 1.29 billion active users. Users of the app spend an average of 52 minutes on the app each day, which is the same amount of time as Instagram and a little behind Facebook at 58.5 minutes.

 

These numbers are amazing considering the fact that Instagram and Facebook have been popular for much longer than TikTok, in fact it took Instagram six years to reach the amount of users TikTok gained in three. It even took Facebook, the king of social media, four!

 

Although the growing audience is always a good sign for marketers or business owners looking to explore new avenues, the demographic of the audience is very important as well.

 

The average user of TikTok is between the ages of 29 and 10 years old, skewing the audience for this app very young. While this audience may be perfect for some businesses, for others it is not ideal.

 

This younger audience takes to the app to watch engaging short videos of people making recommendations, cooking, dancing or even just talking. There are many large trends on the app people take advantage of to grow their following.

 

These trends can include dances, use of a specific sound over a personal video and/or use of a filter. The trends change rapidly but there is a tab on the app dedicated specifically to trending sounds and hashtags to keep you up to date.

 

Audiences on TikTok only respond well to authenticity. They do not want to see fakeness in videos, so advertising on TikTok would require more personable videos from business owners and their employees. Videos showcasing the process of making or packaging your product, videos of you performing a service or videos of employees being themselves.

 

For example, businesses such as dog groomers, power washers and jewelers have all found success on TikTok because people are interested in their work. Everyone loves a cute puppy, and many people find the process of grooming one relaxing. People also love to watch videos of power washers, or any other type of cleaning as well, because they find them relaxing and sometimes motivating to clean their own home. Whether they are a smaller business or quite large, jewelers find success on TikTok by showcasing breathtaking rings and their various styles, or by showing the process to make or clean their jewelry.

 

TikTok has created an editing software designed to help business owners create paid ads on their platform. These ads will appear as the first thing users see when they first open the app or as they scroll through videos and if they click on it, they will be brought to a screen with a little bio of your company and the rest of your videos.

 

Although these ads do work and help you get in front of TikTok users, posting an organic video and using popular hashtags to help it go viral will help your company find more loyal and enthusiastic customers.

 

Again, TikTok users are all about authenticity, so connecting with them on a personal level and promoting your business will make them more willing to like, comment and share your video, which in turn will help you get in front of more potential customers.

 

Overall, if you are interested in getting on to TikTok, I believe if you do some research, find out what other companies like yours are doing on the app and how successful they are, and if you are willing to put a lot of time into creating high quality content, and your target audience is between the ages of 18 to 24 or *younger….. then TikTok is a great place for you! Getting thousands of views is very easy on this quick pace app and many small businesses have found overwhelming support on the platform!

 

Smart Marketing Advertising Agency is located in Anderson, SC. We help clients with social media marketing, website design, branding, and implementing a strategic marketing plan.  Yes – we can help you with your TikTok campaign too!

 

 

 

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