Struggling to find the time to manage your social media platforms on top of your business demands? We have the perfect solution with our Whistler Curated Social Media Content Package!
Did you know that poorly managed social media can actually be more damaging to your brand then having no social media presence at all? Social networks are one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. With a projected 25% annual growth in the next 5 years, proper management of your social media channels is essential.
Stimulating Content
Social media algorithms mirror that of Google. This means that content that is stimulating and gets lots of engagement will show up higher on a News Feed. We want to help you to reach your customers by producing high quality, Whistler relevant content that stands out and looks professional.
Timing is everything
Social Media gives you the opportunity to engage with customers on a new level. We understand that you may not have the time to post regular updates to reach customers at the right moments.
Here at Cloud9, we not only produce high-quality content but also feature events, and weather updates, engaging with a community who ‘wants to know.’ We post as things are happening- keeping your feed relevant so you don’t have to!
Your Competition Is Already Doing It
Today’s generation expects companies to be involved in social media. From ‘Checking In’ on Facebook to Geo Tags on Instagram, you need to show your customers that you are on top of your social media game. If your brand is not appearing in the feed of your customers on a regular basis you’re really missing a massive branding opportunity.
Posting sporadically or seemingly random content can disengage users and even cause them to believe your business has been shut down!
Don’t Have The Time To Manage This Yourself?
We know that devising an effective social media strategy may not be at the forefront of your mind. That’s why our Whistler Curated Social Media package offers you an affordable solution, ensuring your channels appear well managed, professional and timely. Curating content is the process of sharing interesting and relevant content, created by other people. It is a great time saver and really helps to diversify your content.
What It Involves:
We share Whistler photography, engaging videos, professionally designed graphics, event coverage, real time weather updates and more. This allows you to continue to post to your channel brand specific content occasionally without having to worry about it being inconsistent or irregular.
All our content is Whistler focused, sharing a joint goal of promoting all that Whistler has to offer. It is not brand specific, enabling development costs to be split between clients. You will receive the same high quality, professional content as a client who was paying several times this – but for a fraction of the cost!
Anything Else?
But that’s not all.. you also receive a monthly newsletter with photos and blogs that you can post to your website!
What’s Included:
-Regular High-Quality Whistler Content
-Facebook, Twitter & Instagram
-Blog Content & Photos
-Automated Monthly Report
What’s Not Included:
-Brand Specific Content
-Social Media Advertising
-Message or Comment Monitoring
-Strategy or Results Meetings
*Additional Services are always available for a fee.
$250 p/m + GST
Contact us today at: clientcare@cloud9marketing.ca or call: 604-398-4016
The Benefits of Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting is where you reach an audience in a specific location of benefit to your business. In today’s society, it is a great tool for reaching a more qualified audience and getting more value from your budget. Here are the reasons why you should be geo-targeting and the best way to go about it.
Spend your money in the right places
You can literally target people within a specific radius of your business. If you own a clothing store, by targeting the people within a 20-mile radius of your store, for example, you are more likely to generate in-store sales. Google Ads allows you to add a location extension to your ads so people searching can get directions right to your store.
Best and Worst areas
Google Analytics gives you the data to monitor which are the best and worst performing location areas. You can use this data to target your budget in the places that will result in the best return on investment. You may find out you have an audience in an area that you previously would not have considered. As well as finding the best places, you can also choose to exclude areas that you think won’t result in conversions. If your physical location is in Whistler, then using ad budget showing ads to people in Toronto may not be the best move.
Greater overall engagement
If you target people in the right location, your ads will have better overall engagement as they will be more relevant to your audience. By geo-targeting Facebook ads, you can showcase your service or product to someone in their area as they are browsing social media. You can target the area around your actual physical address and promote a sale or offer that is happening at the time. Stand out from your competitors by showing people in the area why they should shop at your store rather than elsewhere in real-time.
Build Loyalty
Having a business in the community can be something you can really use to your advantage. You can post about the community which will make your audience more likely to engage with your business, show testimonials and highlight local things you are proud of. Creating an emotional connection to a local audience will mean good results for your business.
Geo-targeting has multiple benefits and allows you to reach an audience who will be more invested in your brand. At Cloud9 Marketing, our specialists can help you target the audience you want to reach. Contact us for more information.
Why You Should Be Using Analytics
Google Analytics is a very valuable tool for business owners. More than just numbers, here are some ways you can enhance your campaigns by using analytics.
Get to know your web visitors
Enhance user experience by understanding who is visiting your website. By monitoring who your customers are, you can adapt your site to match their needs. If you find that most of your web visitors are visiting on mobile devices, then you can make sure your site is more mobile friendly, so these visitors are more likely to convert. You can also view reports for age and interest categories, a useful tool as you can use this data to adapt your site to make the content more relevant to these users.
Understand your best content
Viewing metrics such as bounce rate which shows how many people left your site after viewing only one page, page sessions and seeing which individual pages have been popular can really benefit the overall usability of your site. If you are finding that certain pages are less popular, you can adjust the content so they mirror the more popular pages and therefore generate a better response. Understanding how your content works will really help to improve site engagement.
Helps with SEO
Google Analytics can help you to understand where your audience is coming from. You can link your account to Google Search Console which will show you what your audience is searching to get to your site. This data will allow you to adapt your content to include these terms.
To Check you are achieving goals
Goals are something that every business owner wants to establish in order to know they are making progress. Without data, you cannot tell if you meeting those goals. You can set goals directly in Google Analytics and measure how you are performing against them. It is also possible to track conversions so you can see how many newsletter signups you have as well as the results from your e-commerce store. If you have linked your Analytics account to your Google AdWords account, you can directly measure the return on investment you are getting from your ads by comparing your ad spend to your conversions.
It’s Free
You don’t have to pay anything to use this service. Collect all kind of data which will make your business more profitable and it’s totally free to use.
Want to monitor your Google Analytics data but don’t know how? Fear not, here at Cloud9 we have experts who can help you analyze data and meet your goals. Contact us for more info.
What is Influencer Marketing (and does it really matter)?
Influencer marketing, a spin-off from celebrity endorsement, is on the rise. More and more companies are realizing its power and seeing a massive return on investment. Here’s our guide to why it’s effective and the best way to go about using influencers.
What is it?
An influencer is someone, usually with a high social media following, who has the ability to influence the purchasing decisions of others. They have a following in a particular niche and actively engage with their audience. You can use different types of influencers depending on your business needs and budget. Micro Influencers have between 2,000 and 100,000 followers but can produce significate results.
Measure
While the amount of followers plays a large part in how much influence someone will have, engagement is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Someone with 20,000 followers is likely to get more engagement than someone with 200 followers, but the idea is to be able to reach real people. Followers have to be earned not purchased, and, while bots and unqualified followers will have an impact on initial social media credibility, it is important to measure engagement. High engagement levels mean maximum results.
Get the right influencers for your product or service
There are thousands of influencers out there so how do you know which one is right for you? You need to look at how aligned a bloggers content is with your messaging. Even though they may have thousands of followers, and high engagement levels, if they are not relevant to your business, then the results will be less desirable. You want to choose an influencer who can naturally incorporate your brand into their own style. Working with an influencer who is passionate about your product or service will reflect in their posts. Find someone who you feel fits in with your brand voice.
Where can you find them
There are many sites to find influencers: Upluence, AspireIQ and Hypr are just a few. Make sure you look at metrics. These sites will show you a break down of their analytics so you can get an indication of how much of a return on investment you will receive.
The gift that keeps on giving
The beauty of influencer marketing is that it doesn’t stop with that post. Unlike other forms of marketing, posts about your product can come up months after the post. You will get the most results at the time of posting but it is not uncommon to see a second ‘spike’ especially if it is connected to an event.
Here at Cloud9 Marketing, we can help you with all your social media needs. Contact us for help on how you can use an influencer to promote your brand.
Top 2019 Trends in Digital Marketing
It is important for small businesses to keep on top of trends, especially in Digital Marketing. Here are the top things you should be doing in 2019 to get the most out of your budget and beat your competition.
Instagram
Social media is a rapidly growing industry. With over one billion active users worldwide, Instagram is an essential tool to connect with your customers. 64 percent of US adults aged 18 to 29 claim to be using the platform. Being an exclusively visual platform, users can post videos and pictures. Posting regularly on Instagram- at least twice a week – is a great way to connect with your customers. You can also use paid advertising options if you are looking to target a wider audience.
Live Video
In a survey conducted by Livestream in New York Magazine, 80% of the 1000 people surveyed said they would rather watch a live video that read a blog. In 2019, there are many live video platforms you can use, including Facebook Live, Youtube and Instagram. You are able to reach a more engaged audience as they have opted to tune into your live stream. This great tool for new product reveals, staff intros, how to videos and advertisements, is also cost effective and doesn’t take time to produce.
Chatbots
While only 15% of Americans currently claim to have used a chatbot, this is something that is predicted to grow rapidly within the next 2 years. Chat boxes pop up on web pages and answer customer’s questions, usually outside of business hours. It’s a great way to engage with your customers 24/7 and gain a better understanding of their needs. Plus once chatbots have been set up, the cost of maintaining and updating them is low.
Strong Content
The purpose of online content is to provide accurate relevant information to your customers. This will not only educate them but help to drive sales. Good content doesn’t have to be keyword heavy. It needs to help solve a problem and be useful to your customers. Make sure to add relevant, well-written content to your company’s blog and keep your website up to date.
Ever-Evolving Marketing Strategy
Staying on top of ever-changing digital marketing strategies is essential for your business to move forward. Something that is relevant now, may only be an effective strategy for half a year. Understanding Google’s rapidly changing algorithms, will help you to meet their criteria and better place your ads. Here at Cloud9 we stay up to date with fast-changing digital strategies so we can help with what will work best for you. Contact us by calling 604- 938- 4016 or email clientcare@cloud9marketing.ca.
Benefits of Pay Per Click Advertising
There are many different reasons why you should be using paid advertising. Billions of people are searching online every day. Pay per click (PPC) advertising now accounts for about 65% of clicks – compared to 35% generated organically. People who click on a pay per click ad are 50% more likely to make a purchase than organic visitors.
If you want to get your product in front of your customers, it is essential to be paying for online advertising. Here are the benefits of using paid digital adverting and why you should be doing it.
Ads are affordable and measurable
Online advertising is a billion dollar industry – but that doesn’t mean you have to spend millions or even thousands of dollars in order to see results. With Pay Per Click advertising, you have total control over your budgets. This means you can spend exactly what you can afford. Google allows you to set daily budgets and maximum cost per clicks. You can bid on keywords and decide the maximum amount you want to pay to have your ad shown when that keyword is searched.
Maximize Return On Investment
Alongside Google Adwords, you can track conversions, monitor impressions to see how many potential customers your ads have reached, in Google Analytics as well. You can instantly see the results of your ads and make changes, allowing you to effectively meet your goals. You can maximize your return on investment by monitoring your cost per click and measuring cost per acquisition. If you are selling a product that costs $100, then spending $10 on a click isn’t worth it – but if your product is $10,000 it would be worth the investment.
Only Pay For Clicks
Pay per click advertising allows you to get the best return on investment as you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad. When people see your ad but don’t click on it, this is essentially free advertising. Not only that, you can set daily budgets so you are in total control of what you spend.
Optimize
Google automatically optimizes your best performing ads. You don’t have to worry about which of your ads is the most effective. Google automatically monitors how your ads are performing and show the highest performing ads to more people.
Target a Specific Audience
Digital Marketing allows you to reach a specific audience by targeting exactly who you want to reach. You can allow your ads to reach people within a 10-mile radius of your store who are searching on mobile devices. By reaching a more qualified audience, you can ensure you are getting your message to the people who are likely to become customers.
Digital Advertising is fast evolving and it is important to keep on top of it. PPC ads can boost brand awareness by 80%. Here at Cloud9, we can help you manage your PPC account to get the best results for your business. Contact us – call 604-398-4016 or email: clientcare@cloud9marketing.ca
Our New Whistler Curated Social Media Content Package
Struggling to find the time to manage your social media platforms on top of your business demands? We have the perfect solution with our Whistler Curated Social Media Content Package!
Did you know that poorly managed social media can actually be more damaging to your brand then having no social media presence at all? Social networks are one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. With a projected 25% annual growth in the next 5 years, proper management of your social media channels is essential.
Stimulating Content
Social media algorithms mirror that of Google. This means that content that is stimulating and gets lots of engagement will show up higher on a News Feed. We want to help you to reach your customers by producing high quality, Whistler relevant content that stands out and looks professional.
Timing is everything
Social Media gives you the opportunity to engage with customers on a new level. We understand that you may not have the time to post regular updates to reach customers at the right moments.
Here at Cloud9, we not only produce high-quality content but also feature events, and weather updates, engaging with a community who ‘wants to know.’ We post as things are happening- keeping your feed relevant so you don’t have to!
Your Competition Is Already Doing It
Today’s generation expects companies to be involved in social media. From ‘Checking In’ on Facebook to Geo Tags on Instagram, you need to show your customers that you are on top of your social media game. If your brand is not appearing in the feed of your customers on a regular basis you’re really missing a massive branding opportunity.
Posting sporadically or seemingly random content can disengage users and even cause them to believe your business has been shut down!
Don’t Have The Time To Manage This Yourself?
We know that devising an effective social media strategy may not be at the forefront of your mind. That’s why our Whistler Curated Social Media package offers you an affordable solution, ensuring your channels appear well managed, professional and timely. Curating content is the process of sharing interesting and relevant content, created by other people. It is a great time saver and really helps to diversify your content.
What It Involves:
We share Whistler photography, engaging videos, professionally designed graphics, event coverage, real time weather updates and more. This allows you to continue to post to your channel brand specific content occasionally without having to worry about it being inconsistent or irregular.
All our content is Whistler focused, sharing a joint goal of promoting all that Whistler has to offer. It is not brand specific, enabling development costs to be split between clients. You will receive the same high quality, professional content as a client who was paying several times this – but for a fraction of the cost!
Anything Else?
But that’s not all.. you also receive a monthly newsletter with photos and blogs that you can post to your website!
What’s Included:
-Regular High-Quality Whistler Content
-Facebook, Twitter & Instagram
-Blog Content & Photos
-Automated Monthly Report
What’s Not Included:
-Brand Specific Content
-Social Media Advertising
-Message or Comment Monitoring
-Strategy or Results Meetings
*Additional Services are always available for a fee.
$250 p/m + GST
Contact us today at: clientcare@cloud9marketing.ca or call: 604-398-4016
E-commerce advice from Michele Romanow
Looking for e-commerce advice? Check out this 4-part video series by Michele Romanow from CBC’s Dragons Den. She shares every you should know about running an online business. Originally posted on the Canada Post website.
What you Need to Know About User Experience (UX)
Online businesses should be constantly striving to better the user experience (UX). In today’s digital world, making sure that your potential customers have a seamless and enjoyable experience on your website is key when it comes to leads, sales, and site optimization. Here’s what you need to know about UX, and why UX deserves a little more attention.
What is UX?
User experience refers to how a person feels when using your website, product or service. It focuses on improving the emotions and attitudes of your customers when they interact with your business online. By focusing on UX, you can improve the usability and visibility of your site, and drastically improve your customer satisfaction.
Why is it important ?
While Google’s algorithms are everchanging, user experience is a major player when it comes to determining how high a page should rank in search results. Not only this, but companies that prioritize UX get many more visitors to their webpage than businesses with outdated, cluttered pages. This is why businesses should make sure they have an updated user-friendly website that will allow them to convert leads into sales successfully.
Usability and UX are not the same thing
Usability is not the same as UX. Although usability will help to decide is the user has a positive or negative experience on your site, it is only a small part of the entire experience. Usability focuses purely on how your site looks and feels, and how easy it is to navigate. Big buttons, few pop-ups and clear text all help to improve the usability of your site. UX however is much broader than this, and relates more to how the user feels when they are on your page.
A good UX creates brand advocates
The process of earning loyal customers and creating genuine consumer-brand relationships cannot be bought or forced. It is something that happens over time depending on your hard work to consistently better your interactions with your consumers. When you put in the effort to create seamless and rewarding customer interactions, they will repay the favour by spreading positive opinions about your business – both online and offline.
Good content is vital to UX
Original, engaging and thought-provoking content that performs great when it comes to SEO is key to a good UX. Not only will it help your page rank well, but SEO friendly copy will deliver relevant information to your customers, and give them the answer they are looking for. This will help make their experience with your brand easy, pleasurable and (above all) useful.
A positive UX fosters a positive relationship! But focusing on UX is also one of the most effective ways you can help your business stand out against competition. If you need help improving your UX, let us help you. Cloud9 Marketing offers solutions that enhance user experience. We’ll work closely with you to incorporate UX into the design of your site in a way that will fit in with your marketing and sales objectives.
Why Content Marketing is a Long-Term Investment
We’re often asked how long it takes to see results with content marketing. Many businesses expect to see an increase in leads and sales immediately. But the truth is –no matter how great the content you put out – content marketing takes time and perseverance!
While it can be frustrating to not see the fruits of your labour straightaway, content marketing is a long-term game that allows you to deliver quality information to your customers. Seeing slow results in the first few months is nothing to worry about – here’s why.
It’s different to traditional advertising
Marketers are constantly debating how many times it takes for a consumer to see an advert before they change their behaviour. Some believe that the answer is 7, but for others the number can range anywhere from 3 to 20 times. Despite varying opinions, everyone can agree that advertising relies on showing products or services enough times in order to get a sale.
With content marketing, you need to come at it from a completely different angle. Unlike advertising, it is not meant to create immediate leads. Instead, the quality content that you put out serves to raise brand awareness – over time.
And runs on a different timeline
Often businesses start off strong with content marketing, but get tired and give up after a few months. With no immediate pay out, it’s easy to think that your efforts aren’t paying off. Because there is no instant gratification, and no guaranteed method of success, many give up on content marketing prematurely – before they are able to see improvements to their online visibility and customer interactions.
It takes a little experimentation
Learning how to write content that will rank well is a serious skill. It takes a while to understand where your audience likes to hang out online, and how they want to engage with your business. It also takes a bit of experimenting to find which type of content will work best for your business online – whether it’s blogs, articles, podcasts, videos or e-newsletters. Once you master the format, you have a way to target your audience uninterrupted, and teach them about your product or service in a way they find interesting and engaging.
And has different goals
Unlike advertising, the purpose of content marketing is all about building loyal customers and brand advocates. While an ad campaign can get you short-term sales, high-quality, engaging content has much more lasting power when it comes to gaining loyal consumers that trust your brand.
It’s complex!
SEO is changing all the time: Google changes it’s algorithm 500-600 times a year, and rarely lets everyone know of its updates. This means that there is no recipe for success with SEO. Rather, it’s a constant learning process of jumping through hoops, experimenting with content, and sticking with it!
While content marketing is a long-term game, it is something you should be investing in. Why? Because it works. Here at Cloud9, we can monitor and analyse your content marketing efforts to ensure you’re on the right track to producing great results for your business. To find out more, please get in contact.
Instagram for Businesses: Why Bother With Insta Stories?
The Instagram Story feature lets you share photos and videos with your followers for 24 hours. Although stories, filters, effects and tags may feel trivial and just another thing for you to remember in your marketing strategy, Instagram stories create easy and fast content with many benefits. Allowing you to show off your business’ personality and drive authentic customer engagements, here’s why the Insta story is an integral tool in your marketing strategy.
Tell a great story
Instagram stories are like your own personal TV channel. They’re designed for mobile users to quickly flick through, making them great for businesses who want to spark engaging, casual conversations with their customers. Your business can combine stories and live videos to open up to your followers and reveal what goes on behind the scenes.
Create easy content
What’s great about stories is that there is no set rule for how often you should post. Similar to Snapchat stories, Instagram stories are designed for continuous watching, meaning the more content you put out, the better! Plus, unlike regular Instagram posts, Insta stories are all about being in the now. Instead of curating the perfect picture and caption, you can use your story to humanize your brand and give it some personality.
Take creative risks
The temporary nature of stories makes them perfect for creative risks. You can be spontaneous and test out new content, safe in the knowledge that users are much more forgiving when it comes to stories. By testing and experimenting with new ideas, you can learn what your audience responds best to, and adapt successful stories into permanent posts.
Drive traffic and engagement
Instagram stories make it easy for you to connect with your audience. Not only can they respond to your stories with direct messages, but the poll feature allows you to hear the collective voice of your customers. You can also link to other Instagram profiles and add links to each story through the swipe up feature. This allows you to direct your audience’s attention towards specific blog posts, products, or news articles.
Boost organic reach
Due to the change in algorithm, Instagram sorts your feed by what it thinks you will like the most. Usually accounts with active stories tend to show up higher in the search results. To boost your organic reach and increase your visibility, you’ll need to post regularly to make sure that you’re staying in current feeds. You can also add hashtags and locations that will increase your reach and enable your account to pop up in different search related results.
Like any social media platform, it can take a bit of finessing to master Instagram and use it most efficiently. But don’t let that put you off! With the help of Cloud9 Marketing, we can manage your social media to boost your brand awareness, improve online credibility, and increase sales and/or customer acquisition. Please get in contact to put us to the test!