Social media has become such great platforms for companies looking to communicate and expand with their consumers, and they provide an opportunity to deliver amazing customer service experience. Social media is useful for improving people’s ideas and impressions of the brand compared to conventional means of communications because when you solve problems for your customer online, thousands may see your response.
That being said, the risk of something going wrong can still exist. We’ve outlined a few practices for providing exceptional service through social media.
Find Customers
Delivering outstanding customer service takes time and resources, and you should choose wisely by determining which social media sites your consumers use the most. For most, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the most popular, but depending on your industry, your customers might be more engaged through other platforms.
The social media sites where you are having the most success, so most shares, most likes, and other engagements, should be the platforms you focus on since your target audience is most active, and most likely your customers are more to contact you with any concerns.
Listen to Concerns
Social media has changed the way that consumers interact with brands and the same the other way. Marketing is no longer placing ads in front of people that communicate you message, product and telling what the user should feel about your brand. Social Media has created two-way communication between your customers, potential new customers, and you. It’s now a source where customer directly respond to you and express thoughts about your product or service. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to what people are saying about you and your brand, and how to know what to respond accordingly with.
Doing this will involve more than just checking your direct messages or have a set auto respond to reply. You must have a plan in place for ongoing checks of negative and positive comments left on your pages and posts, and also checking outside posting about you and or your brand, so you know what is being said.
Respond, respond, respond!
No one likes to be ignored, especially when you have a concern and need an answer. Making sure you respond to people who communicate with your brand is vital. Negative comments that go unanswered remain there for the world to see could make your brand look careless.
Also, never delete negative comments. People who are willing to go to the effort of posting a negative comment are more than willing to point out that the comment has been removed and this can screw up your social branding, big time. Responding to the negative comment and trying to make it a positive experience can and will up your social branding, because you are a problem solver for your customers, and that’s what customers want.
Responding to positive comments is always a plus as well, as it builds profitable relationships with people and makes your company appear positive and proactive.
Make Everything Efficient
Optimize your social media profiles so that communication with your company is as easy as possible for all consumers. This is vital if you receive a high number of messages.
For Facebook, enable instant replies to let consumers know that you will respond and addressing their concerns that they wrote you about. Add a “message” button to your Facebook as well as different contact buttons onto your other social media pages.
Allow your comments to be on when you post on any platform so that consumers can ask quick questions or speak to one another about the product or services.
Conclusion
Social Media isn’t a question of if, but how and what to do to make it better. Before you engage, think about what, how and when. Having a strong strategy of which platform, you are going to use to communicate which message where, and the level of activity on said platform will be all factors in your success. Especially when it comes to customer service and providing the best service you can.
We understand that social media can be overwhelming, and how they all differently effect your business. Here at Insiteful, we can help make a success plan for you and your social media success. We want to provide you with the results your business deserves on social media.
Give us a call today to start planning today!
Email Marketing
Opening rates are the most important to stay up to date with when you start tracking your marketing emails. Every aspect of this marketing strategy is important, but if your email isn’t being opened, you won’t have the stats you’re looking for.
In this present time, everyone is using emails as a part of their marketing strategy, meaning that your list of audience, has more emails sent to them now, than they ever have. It’s such a large number of companies using this strategy, that email companies have started to auto-select emails into different locations such as, Spam, Promotions, Social, and Primary. And this is what can make it extremely difficult to be seen by clients.
Luckily, there are a few ways you can make your e-marketing stand out more. We will be talking about 10 different ways to improve your email open rate.
Send Time
We would never have any issues if we knew exactly when to send the email, and when exactly the client is on their phone. This is where picking an optimal send time comes into play. You are able to investigate the open times of you emails and that can give you incredible insight, on the days you receive the most traffic on your emails, and also the time of day your audience is opening your emails.
Every email list has a unique send time and day of the week. It’s important to use the data you have at your disposal to help you discover your optimal send time. If you’re not sure where to start, think of the times of day, and when people would be on their phone the mostly, waking up, lunch time, and right before going to bed.
Absorbing Subject Lines
Subject lines are one of the most important pieces of info that your subscriber has to make the choice on whether to open the email or not. This makes it highly critical to use the space provided effectively and efficiently. Putting in an intriguing question or a special offer can increase how people look at your email, and if they decide to open it because of the interesting subject line, and would like to know more.
Personalization
With the number of emails that we receive every single day, when we get something that is more tailored to the clients needs and wants, it sets it apart from the rest of emails you receive. Adding different tags in your subject line about your client’s city or town, or even the name of the client, can give the added pop that really catches your readers eye and will persuade them to open your emails.
Mobile First
Did you know that most of your emails are read over a mobile device now? If you are not using the optimizations to work with mobile users, you are actually hurting your chances of the email being opened even before you send it.
In mobile email service provider, you may only have 50 characters to sell your subject line and preheader for your email. This means placing your keywords at the start of your subject line so you ensure that the client will notice what your email is about and want to open it.
Preheader
The preheader text is the summary text that follows the subject line in the preview in the inbox. This helps the reader have more context about the email before they decide if they want to open it or not. The preheader is the best place to put a promotional offer.
A different way to use the preheader is to help your email to appeal to a bigger audience. If your subject line only applies to certain group of clients, the preheader is the perfect time to pull in your readers that might not open your emails normally with the content mentioned in the subject line.
Segmentations
List segmentation is the best way to improve your email opening rate, while simultaneously reducing your unsubscribe rate.
If you send a lot of various emails on different topics, you may want to consider trying to spilt your email lists into distinct segments depending on demographics and your interest when finding your optimal send time and day.
Bucket Testing or A/B Testing
This testing is the same just with different names. This is a great way to see which parts of your email are working and which parts need to be enhanced. A few ways of A/B testing is understanding how your clients interact with your email, which trigger word they responded to the most, and which call of action gets the reader to open your email.
Personalize the Sender Line
Most emails people receive are mass marketing that have little to no personalization for one specific person, and they usually are strictly companies trying to sell something to you.
If you would like to connect with your readers on a more personal connection and have them know you only send high quality content for emails, then you should try to use your actual name when signing the email.
Clean your List
One important step you must always try to keep up with, is removing subscribers that do not open your emails. This will help your open rate improve over time.
It sounds super easy, but honestly many marketers are alarmed with losing a potential open from a client who hasn’t opened their emails in months. The size of the list is something that many people will hold very close to them. There comes a choice where the marketer will have to decide if they want to keep someone on their list with the possibility of them never opening their emails, and this again can affect your open rate poorly.
Schedule, Schedule, SCHEDULE!
As we spoke about in point 1, finding the ideal send time and day is a must to improve your open rate. Once you complete finding the time and day, stick to a consistent schedule This will help build acknowledgment with your readers. They will be expecting your emails at this point.
Conclusion – Email Marketing
If you already have an email marketing software account but are unsure how to use it and also pull the data for the right time and day, or an A/B test, or segment your markets… We can help you.
We believe in creating emails with stunning designs with a focus on long-term marketing. Our team can work with any database, or we can help you build a new mailing list. It doesn’t matter if it’s a one-time email blast or a long-term campaign, we’re here to help. Let’s talk and come up with an exciting email strategy. Let’s build an email plan that works for you, contact us to get started today!
Social Media Platforms
What Social Media Should Your Business Use?
Whether you are creating a new business, or have been in the business for years, you know how important social media is to your business. But do you understand the depth of importance, with everything combined that you as a business owner must do for success? There are many steps to making a successful social platform for your business.
Have you ever audited your social media accounts? Have you noticed the pattern caused by social media to your business?
Regardless of your interest, or activity levels on social media, having a plan is vital. As life changes everyday, globally, social media advances as well.
Where do you spend your time and money? What social media will bring the most success? Your answer is based off your business and what type of social media can be the best for you.
There are six platforms that we are going to talk about, that all help your business in specific but different ways.
LinkedIn
If you are in the industry of selling to other businesses (B2B), then LinkedIn is your best friend. With 303 million monthly users, LinkedIn should never be overlooked.
This platform is an amazing way to show off your business and the important knowledge you have around the brand. By building your business’s influence and sharing perceptive content, you can gain connections that lead to transactions.
Some content examples are blog posting, quick tips, updated news with statistics, and curated content.
Facebook
With over 2 billion users, Facebook is a huge asset to any business. It has the affect of turning your customers into a family.
Creating a Facebook group is free, simple and creates a place for you to post whenever you want, and your customers to exchange information and form a sense of family.
Photos and videos are what drives success on Facebook. The key is to stand out and show the unique side of your business. If you have some money set aside for social media paid ads, with Facebook’s ads manager, you get a sophisticated targeting option, which is a great way to grow your business.
Twitter
With 330 million users, it’s a great way to increase brand awareness. Twitter is all about immediate information.
The one thing to remember is that you only will have 280 characters per post to convey your message. Once you are able to write with the small text space without stress, it’s a massive asset to your business with how easy it is for current customers, and new ones, to share or like a tweet.
Instagram
With over 1 billion user, it’s hard to not use this visual platform. If you have a younger targeted audience, then Instagram is the best platform for you. 50 percent of users are 34 years older and under. This age group is very comfortable with following brands on this platform and are even purchasing products from the app.
If marketing through influencers is something that is up your alley, then Instagram is for you. Influencer marketing is a content market project that allows you to promote your business and products, by partnering with someone on the app that has a big following, that can bring you more customers and followers.
Tiktok
With over 850 million users on this apps, Tiktok has made a huge name for themselves since the launch in 2017.
Tiktok has the same feel as Instagram on the content marketing side, but it is video based. They offer you paid advertising, organic content, and influencer marketing to promote your company. Your brand can go viral within a night, and this is based off the hashtags they use.
There is so many ways for Tiktok to help your business. You can throw challenges and games for your followers, and to gain more.
Pinterest
This is one of the social media platforms where the mainstream of its clients are mainly female. If you’re in the fashion, décor, wedding, art, travel business, and or food, you may find Pinterest very helpful to your company.
Pinterest is a great way to show off your brand’s products. This platform is not for everyone and their business, but if you use it properly, you will be super surprised how many people will come into contact with your “pins”.
Contact Insiteful Social Media Experts
We understand that social media can be overwhelming with how many different types there are, and how they all differently effect your business. Here at Insiteful, we can help make a success plan for you and your social media success.
We want to provide you with the results your business deserves on social media.