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!

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

 

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!

 

 

 

5 Reasons Your Business Should Be On Snapchat

With a user base of over 100 Million:

Why is Your Business Not on Snapchat?

We found this interesting article on Forbes.com explaining: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/04/05/5-reasons-your-business-should-be-on-snapchat/#3efb3b2b3db5

Want to know the no. 1 reason why your business can no longer afford to ignore Snapchat? Its user base has reportedly hit 100 million people. This alone should tell you all you need to know about why you can’t afford to dismiss Snapchat as something that’s not for business.

This guide is going to go into more than that, though. It’s going to show you why your business should be taking active steps to make a profit on Snapchat.

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Reach The Younger Audience

Ever since Facebook went mainstream, young people have left the network en masse. The only way to actually reach the younger audience is through Snapchat now. This is the only proven social media network where they are regularly hanging out. If you are running a business with products and services targeted towards this audience, you are going to have the most success here.

It gives you a chance to have one-on-one interactions with this younger audience.

Show A Behind The Scenes Look

It likely isn’t the first time that you’ve heard about the importance of taking people behind the scenes of your company. It’s the ultimate act of transparency and it provides some exclusive content that can encourage people to get involved with your website. This is the way to build an immensely strong following and engage your audience.

It’s easy to do this on Snapchat and it doesn’t have to be planned or polished in advance. You can show off a slice of life working in your office. It’s an opportunity to show how real you are. Furthermore, Snapchat’s expiring messages mean that you can literally pull back the curtain, then close it again.

Get Real One-On-One Engagement

Speaking to someone on a one-to-one basis. For other social media networks, it’s almost impossible to do this. But Snapchat enables you to send content directly to your individual followers. As long as they are following you, you as a business have the power to send messages directly to them.

You can send them whatever you think works, but if it goes down well you can build a deeply personal relationship with someone. It can turn them into a loyal customer faster than ever before.

So what could you send them to get them engaged?

If you have a loyal follower who has made regular purchases from you, you may decide to send them a personalized video thanking them for their support. This simple act can go a long way to building bridges and giving you a positive reputation.

Easy To Partner With Influencers

Influencer marketing is all about connecting with influential people in your industry in order to reach their audiences. It’s also something they can do for you. There are so many personalities using Snapchat these days, including Vine stars, YouTube celebrities, and well-known Twitter accounts.

It’s easy to discover big names on Snapchat. They can help you craft great content and reach audiences that you’d never before considered.

Partnering with influencers on Snapchat can also spread brand awareness among your chosen demographic. It can even help you to discover new demographics that you’d never previously considered. A simple five-day campaign can completely transform what your business can achieve.

Prove How Cool You Are

Facebook made a $3 billion offer to acquire Snapchat. This was turned down, much to the surprise of the whole tech industry. The reason why Facebook wanted the company so badly is because it wanted to be cool again. It’s the only way to grab the younger audience.

Using Snapchat, which is a cool platform, will naturally make you into a cool company as well. When organizations attempt to be cool it nearly always leads to them looking stupid. But the Snapchat frontier is a path that can pay incredible dividends.

Conclusion

Hit the ground running with Snapchat and you are going to get a long way ahead of your competitors who have yet to consider using this social media platform. At first, you should simply get used to using the platform. Work with it on a personal basis to get an idea as to how it feels from the other person’s point of view.

Once you understand the customer viewpoint you can better engage with the platform through the eyes of a business.

 

How are you going to take advantage of Snapchat today?  We would love to help you – Smart Marketing Advertising Agency

 Credits: 
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Smart Marketing Advertising Agency
Digital and Social Media Marketing – RE: Snapchat
January 14th, 2018
Anderson, SC
864-224-6002
www.thinksmartmarketing.net

 

 

Social Media Marketing: Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter and more – Anderson, SC

Social Media Marketing: Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter and more!

Do you really need to market your business on all of these social media platforms? Yes, you do and more! Social Media and Google platforms are more important today than ever.  If you’re business is not on these platforms, you are missing out!

If digital advertising and social media marketing have you confused, we would love to help you! Contact Smart Marketing Advertising Agency in Anderson, SC at 864-224-6002 or visit https://www.thinksmartmarketing.net

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#736a2bbd1f80

The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing

I demystify SEO and online marketing for business owners.  

 

 

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Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing and Digital Advertisingsocialdigitalselecttion02

Digital advertising is growing exponentially, with endless possibilities. From developing websites and engaging email campaigns, to search engine optimization and social media, the key is presence and improving your search rankings within the local market. Individuals consume media across more platforms than ever before, and at Smart Marketing, we know how to put you there. With the ongoing revolution in digital media, it takes an innovative, fully integrated marketing solution to engage customer’s and deliver results.

Our Solutions

  • Google
  • Social Media
  • Online Directories
  • Website and Landing Page Development
  • Direct Email Marketing
  • Rich Media (Video)
  • Display Advertising
  • SEO and SEM

Every Business has a Story to Tell

Marketing tells your story – EVERY Business has a Story to Tell

At Smart Marketing Advertising Agency we focus on small, local businesses and people like you, who have a story to tell. We don’t just deliver customers, we create relationships.

Our unique approach begins within; learning, teaching, and branding. We are a full-service marketing agency. We bring value to your brand, by creating a campaign that is useful, measurable, and up-to-date. You know your audience, let us help you find and engage them.

We would love to help you tell your story – Smart Marketing Ad Agency

https://www.facebook.com/smartmarketingadagency/

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