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As of the year 2016, more than 25% of the people owned at least one restaurant app installed on their phone. In a survey, it was concluded that 85% of the people As per a 2016 Adweek survey, 25% of people have at least one restaurant app on their phone. As per another survey, 85% of those who search for food on their mobile phones go on to complete a purchase. Mostly, customers don’t just stop searching for the restaurant and forget it. These days, customers are buying everything online. Give them a delicious experience, and you’ll get a boost in your restaurant marketing. Modern-day consumers don’t just click on the pictures and leave the website. They take this liberty; in fact, they consider it their social responsibility to share any food that looks delicious to them from WhatsApp to Facebook and Facebook groups. It doesn’t matter if your restaurant is online or not. If your restaurant marketing is not clear, it will give your customers a chance to share any reviews online. To survive and flourish in today’s market, you must focus on an online strategic strategy to build, amplify, and drive customer engagement globally across your target customers. So, here we outline some restaurant marketing ideas and strategies that will help you come up with a restaurant marketing plan that will lead to a higher chance of success.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

What to do when you cannot see a way beyond what is in front of your eyes. You stand on something higher. This is what you need to do. One of the simplest ways to market your restaurant is to list your restaurant in Yelp or Zomato. These platforms with more than a million visitors every month have the potential to scale your restaurant name. The core idea is to grab the attention of your audience where they are already present. Platforms like Yelp and Zomato will help you to reach your target audience faster.

Learn the Essentials of SEO

Do you know that the keyword ‘restaurants near me’ gives 1,180,000 results on Google? This fact alone gives you the importance of learning a thing or two about SEO. Here are some tips which can increase the strength of your brand and make it rise high in the Google search result pages.

• Homepage Title: Ensure that your title is complete. For example, on your homepage follow the following format, ‘Double D's Pizzeria - St. Louis, 13150.’
• Google Business: List your business on Google Business. Adding your restaurant business to the Google directory will maximize your chances of getting recognized in the local directories of Google.
• Match both addresses: You must ensure that the address on your website and the address that you’ve submitted on Google Maps are the same.
• Dedicated pages for specific items: You’re running a restaurant business. The only way you can make a new customer trust you is to list every tiny detail of the product that you’re referring to. If there are customer experiences, you must share them. Your customer wants to know the description of specific items.
• Connect with websites that serve the same target audience: If you have some brands which are located near your business, you can consider doing cross-promotion with those brands.

There are many things which you can do other than these tips. You can make a blog and publish items which are related to food. It would help if you justified the ROI of your brand by taking adequate steps to strengthen your SEO.

Don’t Ignore Feedback from Customers, Handle Them

It is said that 92% of customers check and read online reviews before purchasing anything. In restaurant marketing, feedback from customers should be your top priority. What are the customers talking about? The angry customers might not share everything because they are busy being angry. You, on the other hand, must listen to those customers and understand between the lines. When you listen to a problem, don’t just hear or note down that problem. They are looking for some solution, not just some sympathy. Listen to what is troubling them and solve their problem or give them the exact time when their issue will be resolved. The good thing or bad thing about restaurant marketing is that everything is on social media. There are Facebook groups dedicated to food reviews, and if the customers share their concerns, people listen to them. Keep your reputation clear.

Go for the Website

A website is a digital representation of your brand. People see your site and make the perception of your brand. A professional digital marketing company will help you develop a website that can help your restaurant reach more customers. A website will give you a boost to restaurant marketing. It can highlight your restaurant culture to your new customers. However, don’t just develop a site just because everyone is doing it. Develop a website to build trust in the eyes of customers. When customers see videos, testimonials, and professional product photos, it will be easy for customers to enjoy a luxurious, unique experience even before they visit your restaurant.

What started from scratch has a net worth of around 2 billion dollars today. Of course, multiple variables come into motion which helped Amazon succeed, but regardless of everything else, one thing that generated the most revenue was its customer-centric approach to marketing. Everything that Jeff Bezos did was to create convenience for its customers to marketing. You can follow the same approach to get more traffic and convert them into leads. Simply. a few years down the road, Google started updating its algorithm. At that time, yearly updates were the norm. However, finally, Google came across a metric that narrated the whole story of why some websites can generate more sales than others. The one and only, customer-centric approach. This is why the latest algorithm of Google requires marketers to do everything which can cut down on the search time for the customer so that they find everything in a matter of few clicks. "We see our customers as guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better." ~Jeff Bezos

What is Customer-Centric Marketing?

It is prioritizing customers over every other thing. By using some data, intuition, and an ounce of common sense, you must gather all the information that your customer is looking for and offer it to them, so that they can come to you and share it with their friends. Here are four ways in which you can infuse customer-centric marketing into your brand.

See the World From Your Customer’s Lens

You can take a day off without informing your manager. You might be excused. If your idea fails. You might be forgiven. However, if you displease a customer, you’ll be fired. Yes. This is life at Amazon. You don’t just have to serve the customer; you must understand the world from the eyes of the customers. A marketing person might know everything about your brand, but if the customer doesn’t have a clue about your product, you can’t sell them on its merits. Your customer needs to know what your company does at a single glance. Otherwise, it is just a shiny object on the website. It is said that the angriest customers teach you the most. When customers get angry at you, you have the opportunity to either fire them or learn from their anger. The modern-day approach is to solve the problem of the customer. If the customer has a problem and you can provide a solution, they will become your loyal customer. And not just any customer; they will become your raving fans. Entrepreneurs can use psychological triggers to understand what the customers need and serve them. Some brands use urgency to attract customers, while others use simple fonts to persuade their customers.

Don’t Make Them Angry

How many times have you visited a website and left without ordering anything just because it took too much time to pass the shopping cart? Well. I had tons of experiences like these. Moreover, it was quite frustrating for me. Your customers are on your website to solve a problem or use a service. Please don’t make them second-guess what to do next on your website. Make your website so intuitive that even a simpleton can use it without facing any problem. The core of any business is to make a sale. If the customer cannot pass your front page, what is the point of developing a website in the first place?

Use Relevant Metrics To Understand Your Customers

Without the right data, it is impossible to understand your audience. Here are some ways in which you can measure the right metrics of your customers.

1. Aided Recall

How do customers recall your brand with just a little help? Can they remember it in the first few seconds of the ad or recognize the brand? Is the logo recognizable, or are there other colors which are getting more attention? The aided recall is the measure of how many people have knowledge of your brand and promote the product.

2. Unaided Recall

Does your brand come to mind without reminding customers? For instance, when people ask about buying books online, Amazon comes to mind. Is your brand the Amazon of your niche?

3. Sentiment

How does your brand make customers feel? Do they feel safe, neutral, or negative while purchasing products from your brand? You can survey your customers and ask them specific questions that relate to the feelings of your brand. This will help you recreate a brand reputation which will be loved by your audience.

Give Customers the Experience of a Lifetime

A lot has been said about generating sales for the business, but do our customers love us? If given an alternate option, will your customers leave you? What is the experience you are providing to your customers? From awareness to the final purchase, ensure that the experience you’re providing is a seamless and consistent one.

Who would have thought that a simple app for kids could become the next big thing? Now it is a no-nonsense tool for selling, marketing, driving traffic, and even generating sales for your business. With over 1 billion monthly users and 500 active daily users, Instagram is the gold-standard social media platform that created a lot of buzz in the past few years and is not aiming to stop. You cannot ignore the numbers. People are using Instagram to generate sales right from their homes. Businesses are using Instagram to generate leads. Every Entrepreneur is working hard to learn how to get more Instagram followers. How do you generate more sales? And how to outlast their competitors by using Instagram. Sure, engagement on Facebook looks great on paper. But when it comes to lead generation, Instagram is on the winning end. The goal of this blog is to turn you into an Instagram unicorn. You’ll not only learn how to increase Instagram followers, but you’ll also be able to turn visitors into raving fans. Just append these Instagram hacks to your social media strategy. These tips will help you to create attention-grabbing headlines, profiles, and post on Instagram like a star to gain visibility and engagement.

Use Dedicated Hashtags Wisely

There is no harm in creating a #tomsmechanic hashtag. Kind of gosh wow. But how will your users know about this hashtag unless you use it in every picture, campaign, and social media platform? Whether it is your social media profiles, brochures, print ads, or signage in an event. When getting help from conventional marketing mediums like TV and radio, ensure that everything is well-integrated. Anyone listening or watching your ads on TV should be able to recognize your brand with a hashtag.

Be Creative with Hashtags

Sometimes being simple can take you to unimaginable heights. While everyone was busy searching for the right hashtags, Airbnb came up with #WeAccept and took social media by storm. The goal of the brand was to showcase support for a critical ethical issue. Everything began with a small inspirational video by Airbnb. The momentum started when people from different backgrounds started sharing their pictures. The hashtag became an instant hit. When it comes to writing hashtags, it is best not to use those typical one-word hashtags. Sure, you can use them if you’re a creative Airbnb. But if you want to gain the attention of the users – be funny, outrageous, or even ironic.

Participate in Trending Conversations

For every post, you must use relevant hashtags. For instance, if you are a furniture company and want to share behind-the-scenes photos, you can use #woodworking. Success lies in simplicity. If you look at the Domino Pizza 2012 campaign, there was nothing special about the hashtag. A simple #LetsDoLunch tag went viral when Domino announced that pizza prices would go down with every tweet. This not only helped build a community around the brand. In fact, people were eager to share the tweet to earn the cheapest Pizza. It was 85,000 tweets later (in just one day). Can you really believe that? If you want to take part in popular conversations, search for trending hashtags. Once you have 3-4 tags, use these tags along with the content that you’re producing. When a toy becomes part of the bigger conversation, people stop and take notice. This is the attention which brands crave. Do some research and you will be able to optimize your content for better reach.

Detailed Descriptions Never Hurt a Bit

A picture is considered a substitute for a thousand words. But without words, the depth and meaning of the picture cannot be revealed. That’s why it’s necessary to use detailed captions for all your photos. National Geographic is great storytelling. While traditional media focuses on just photos, National Geographic on social media uses the power of captions to steal all the attention. You might be thinking that you’re not a writer, how you can write so much. The trick is to amaze the user with interesting facts or humor. Whatever you do, don’t miss the chance to astonish your users with captivating captions. In the start, it might sound difficult but as you do it more, things will get easier.

Tap into Influencer Marketing

If you’re interested in attracting more followers for your brand and learning how to get followers on Instagram, the best approach is to follow the influencers on Instagram. Visit the profiles of each influencer and see which one is relevant to your niche. Just turn on the post notification feature and see what they’re posting at different times of the day. When the influencers ask for help, move forward and help them without looking for some favor. If you help them a few times, this will bring your brand to their attention and they will mention you in their profile. Apart from this, you can use these quick tips to increase your Instagram following fast.

• Use images to which people can relate.
• Figure out the best time to post on social media and post at that time.
• Ask followers to caption your photos.
• Analyze. Repeat.
• Use relevant hashtags.
• Fill your profile with all the services.
• Use persuasive CTA with every picture.
• Use filters to create a personal touch in the photo.

Over to You

How many followers do you have on Instagram? What is the best tactic you have used to attract followers? Let us know what is working for you. Are you willing to boost your sales? Let us help you with our digital marketing strategy.

Now, I know what you must be thinking. Not again. I want to confess here that I am no fan of this SEO trends blog post myself, but when we run a business, we want our brand to feature in Google. This can be achieved by keeping up with the Joneses from time to time so that people don’t consider you too alien. Oh yes, I have this small secret. I can predict the future by looking at data. And I’ve done analyzing data from the year 2018. Now, I am ready to give away this information for free. It’s time to stop being a victim and start working smart to get featured in Google search results. If you follow these SEO trends, I am sure you’ll be able to beat your competition in the year 2019.

1. Find User Intent & Solve Their Problem

Everything that you do leaves an impact on your audience. If you want to impress your audience, meet them where they are. And if the audience seems more predisposed towards visuals, use more images in your content. If they show a proclivity for videos, make how-to videos and place them on the front page of your website. As an Entrepreneur, you must incorporate words and phrases which the audience is looking for. If the content of the website is perfectly written, but targeting the wrong audience, your business won’t grow an inch. If you look at any high-ranking website, you’ll realize that it all comes down to your audience. And if the content on the website is not enhancing the customer journey, why will the customers stick to the website? This is not just important, it is indispensable since Google is now more serious than ever about focusing on users’ intent.

2. Leap Over Google Search

No single man can achieve success. Similarly, just appearing on Google won’t do any good to the brand. The popular belief is that a rolling stone gathers no moss. But with SEO trends in 2019, you must consider other search engines too. Apart from Google, take DuckDuckGo and Bing into account, which hold a measured chunk after Google. Search is beyond the search engine itself. People are now searching on app stores. Podcasts and videos are getting more attention than simple search queries. It’s time to think beyond just driving users to your website. How to improve ranking with quality content? How to explode your website with sales just by using social media? In 2019, you must focus on optimizing for myriad devices. Responsiveness is not just a concept anymore, you need to act and follow a serious digital marketing strategy to gain maximum advantage. The entire search experience is all about expertise and control. The sweet spot occurs when we can create a point where the needs of the customer and the elements on our website overlap each other. This juncture is where the magic happens.

3. Structured Data is the Key

Now is the time to move from a mobile-only to an AI-first world. A structure is the ultimate key. Regardless of how good your AI is, if there is no structure, it will never force Google Search to move your page up in the ranking. Understand the vernacular of products and problems that people are facing and systematically arrange them. There must be contextual relationships between topics and the structures that you created. Using tags, metadata, and structured markup gives search engines the ability to link everything together.

4. Not Creating Valuable Content

Google Algorithm update for the year 2018 focuses on the quality of the content. By analyzing high-performance websites, we came to know that websites with exceptional content ranked higher than those with average content. This means there is no more sustaining your blog with average content. Think twice about publishing posts that don’t add any value to the users. What you need is to create content that is solving a problem for the customer. If you’re able to answer a question, you’ll be able to generate a lead. If there are only a few pages on your website, you must use content maps to leave an impact.

5. Showcase Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness

Keeping quality in mind, Google launched a metric to decide the ranking of the website. E-A-T also known as Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness is the key trend for the year 2019. Although the E-A-T algorithm is written for Google itself, it is an excellent medium to understand the E-A-T guidelines to know where Google is headed with its algorithm. The way an algorithm ranks a website is how much it adheres to the guidelines of Google. It turns out that the ranking algorithm is good at generalizing and if you can understand the workings of the algorithm, you can rank your website higher in the search results.

6. Invest in Technical SEO

More and more websites are popping up every day. In 2019, it will be more difficult to rank than it was in 2018. If you don’t have the pertinent skills, hire an expert SEO agency that can rank your brand in a sustainable way. However, there are some factors which you can handle yourself:

• Speed: Google is rewarding websites that take less than 1.7 sec to load.
• JavaScript: With a new year comes new JavaScript updates. If you don’t know Java, it is an appropriate time to learn.
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs): From the year 2019 on, it will be necessary to learn how to get live on PWA. How to keep users busy with experience so that they can stick to the home screen?

7. On-Page Optimization is Not Dead Yet

We have seen incredible improvements in the on-page optimization and the results they provide for brands. Links might be important, but it’s necessary to share how you can leverage the power of On-page optimization:

• Content should answer the questions of the users.
• The internal site search must be smart to analyze the search query by the user.
• Ensure that customers can get their recently purchased items available with a few clicks.
• Using ChatBots to take care of customer service

8. Voice Search is at its Full Potential

The last decade was labeled the year of mobile. It’s not safe anymore to rely on text searches. Now is the time to optimize your website with voice searches. In the year 2019, you’ll get prominent importance if the website is optimized for voice search. The effective use of voice responses will help users from various countries translate the message and help the brands provide them with the services that they are looking for.

9. Watch Out for Machine Learning

There are changes in the algorithm of search engines where machine learning is impacting the way users search for data online. Just because machine learning won’t be something to ignore in the year 2019. Brands need to adopt machine learning algorithms and develop content which is unique for SEO. The testing, analyzing, and even reporting of data must be implemented by fully understanding the data science and how users are using various mediums to search data on the internet.

10. Optimize Websites for Featured Snippets

If you are willing to get ahead in the year 2019, you must check all the boxes, figure out the most trending topics, and craft the best blog posts for it. The snippets just like in previous years will feature the websites, and blogs providing the most valuable data to their users. If you’re able to solve more problems of the users, your brand will appear in the search results more often. To conclude, we can say that creating a website and not featuring it in Google search results is the same as writing a best-seller book and not making time to publish it. If you don’t optimize the website to rank in Google, you’ll be out of business soon.

The first habit mentioned in Stephen Covey’s book is about being Proactive. It is about taking control of your situation. Regardless of how hard things get, you still draw on your inner motivation to start and finish on time. As they say, ‘What starts well, ends well.’ PPC managers are faced with so much pressure that sometimes they vent out their anger on those working alongside them. To maintain a safe and healthy workplace environment, it is best to follow some rituals every morning which can help PPC managers relax their minds in the daily grind and help them come up with more successful campaigns. Every campaign aims to drive sales or channel traffic. If the campaign is not working out, they need to change their approach and try out something else. And the only way PPC managers can achieve this is by following the morning rituals mentioned below. Here are 9-morning to-dos which can help you become a successful manager and manage your campaigns without any losses to the company.

1. Insert Negative Keywords

When you have a huge amount of money at stake, you cannot afford to take things lightly. Every click will cost you money. Therefore, every morning, the first thing you should do is sort out negative keywords and remove them from your list. Normally, on average, it is seen that people lose a lot of money on junk keywords, which results in harming your reputation. Early morning negotiations would be the perfect addition to your cup of Joe.

2. Remove Unrelated Google Display Network Websites

The second ritual you need to do is to remove all the unrelated Google Display Network (GDN) websites which are costing you unsolicited dollars. Figure out if the website is bringing relevant traffic to your website or not. If not, remove it.

3. The Daily Ad Spend

This is actually a no-brainer. When you’re spending money, you need to keep track of the budget and check what you’re spending every single day. Make the necessary adjustments daily first thing in the morning to protect yourself from incurring any surprises down the road.

4. Track the Leads

How many leads did you manage to generate the previous day? Is there something you need to adjust? Branex teams conduct a 10-minute scrum in the mornings,  discussing the impact of ads and campaigns. It is a nice way to start your morning with this amazing ritual. You can count the wins and motivate the team to achieve more.

5. Get a Bird’s-eye View

If you spot any major inconsistency, simply looking back over the day won't cut the bill; you also need to take a trip down the lane to view the bigger picture. Viewing your long-term campaign performance would help you see where the conversions started dropping off and why.

6. Follow Up with the Performance

Check if the campaign is working for a certain region or not. How is it making an impact on the target audience? Is the audience relevant and how can you improve the ad performance? Analyze the performance of every ad in the morning and improve as you get some results.

7. Keep an Eye on AdWords Alerts

Look out for AdWords account alerts, such as negated keywords or an about-to-expire credit card that can be impeding traffic. While you must be tempted to overlook most silly alerts, make sure to give them a cursory glance, perhaps while setting up shop.

8. Identify the Modifications

A PPC manager isn’t aware of all that conspires within an organization. You need to keep your ears and eyes open and be ready to improvise in a jiffy. Seeing major unexpected fluctuations in ad spend should indicate that something is cooking internally. For instance, if a new page is added, you need to make a PPC campaign for the page and check out the response it gets every day.

9. Prepare Yourself for Surprises

For newly launched campaigns and keywords, the first few days are the most crucial to survival. Do check the Google AdWords update daily so you can respond on the go.

The Final Thoughts

No two PPC managers can yield the same output. Every PPC manager will start their morning with a mix of rituals. The most successful managers will be the ones who analyze, update, and learn from their past experiences. But when the PPC managers have this habit of checking and updating the campaigns daily, they will not face any problems. As for surprises, even if there is a surprise, the PPC manager will be able to handle it without creating a fuss over it.

He came, saw, and conquered. This is not my quote, but it is relevant to my topic, so I stole it for you. The competition is lethal. If you want to scale your business, you need to start by creating robust digital marketing strategies. Every year, the digital marketing day is celebrated on the 16^th of December with gusto & enthusiasm across the globe. Everything that you do will add to and affect the digital presence of your brand. If you have nothing to do on the digital marketing day, you can stick to this blog and educate yourself with some tips that you can do to grow your online business.

User Experience

Instead of whiling away your life daydreaming, get up and study neuromarketing techniques. User experience is something that can reduce your marketing cost and generate leads without entailing much effort on your part. Humans make decisions when they’re triggered. These psychological triggers can be used to affect the buying decisions of people. The digital marketing strategies should be designed to appeal to the audience. On this digital marketing day, delve into research and understand the customer’s intent behind their buying decisions. Establish customer interest by providing a seamless user experience. Your brand recognition will increase if you’re able to engage visitors and turn them into customers. The user experience is all about making your customers feel special. If the customers must do all the thinking, your user experience needs a redesign. "We see our customers as guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better." ~Jeff Bezos What is the loading speed of your website? Can you reduce it to provide a seamless user experience? Use Pingdom to figure out the loading speed of your website accurately. Simplify your navigating menus, use chatbots when possible, and tone down your search box to know the intent of the user and give them smart suggestions. If the users find their product on the main page, they’ll surely visit again. You’ll know what customers are thinking about when they’re visiting your website. Moreover, if there are repeated questions, you can utilize the FAQs section to educate users on all the possible questions that they can ask. This digital marketing day, read the best digital marketing blogs that can help you captivate users and capture their attention.

How to Create Attention-grabbing Content

You need to spend some time revising your content marketing strategy. The content on your website should act as a magnet. If it is not attracting people, it means that there is some problem with the content. Good content can engage customers, send a brand message, and educate your potential users on how your brand can help customers. Great content can increase the organic traffic on your website & improve your search engine rankings. Your audience is looking forward to content that easily communicates your brand value. As per Jeff Bullas, follow the 80/20 rule to create content that customers love. 80% of the content should be informational and educational, while only 20% of the content should be about your product/brand. Messaging is one way to gain the attention of your customers. If you message customers, there is a greater chance that the link will be opened if the message is convincing enough. Use emails to create awareness of your brand and grow your business without nailing your customers with irksome messages.

Secrets of Growing Your Business with Social Media

Your online presence begins when you start valuing your social media strategy. Engage the audience, communicate a message, and deliver a powerful intent with the help of social media platforms. As a startup, one thing that you need to do is to devise a social media strategy leveraging your brand value to create brand awareness. Instagram surpassed Snapchat this year, which makes both the social media platforms perfect candidates for social media marketing. A good social media strategy starts with maximizing your growth, generating leads, and converting customers. Here are some killer tips to skyrocket your social media traffic:

• Target influencers to share your content. Give them a valuable piece to share and they’ll be happy to do so.
• Share behind-the-scenes videos on Instagram and Snapchat. Let your audience know how your product is made.
• Repurpose your top-performing content in a different form. For instance, take a blog and convert it into an infographic. Or make a presentation out of it.
• Create a sense of urgency to boost your sales.
• Use minimalist marketing to generate more leads.
• Keep an eye on social media trends and follow these trends vigorously.

Social Media Optimization

Most importantly, invest in a good social media marketing strategy. Don’t just spend money on social media optimization. Monitor the results and see how it affects your brand. Once you understand the outreach and impact of your brand, you can redefine the digital marketing strategy accordingly. Understand how SEO works. On digital marketing day, go through some blogs and learn as much as you can. A good digital media strategy can act as a catalyst and help you grow your business. If the conversation rates are improving, it's great news. If not, it's time to change the strategy and try something different.

Most people see LinkedIn as a job-seeking platform. They create a profile and start searching for jobs. On the other hand, recruiters use it to find the right candidates for job openings. LinkedIn can do much more than that. LinkedIn is a powerful tool for generating leads and converting those leads into paying customers. Many C-level executives and decision-makers use LinkedIn, so you can get your content in front of them by sharing it on LinkedIn. If you want to succeed at LinkedIn marketing, you need a well-thought-out strategy. How can you create a winning LinkedIn marketing strategy? Here is an infographic that highlights the 5 E’s of a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy, so you can create one for your business.

Before I share some valuable tips for boosting your traffic on social media, let me start with a real-life example. I took on TaskQue – a free task management tool as a client. When I started the project with my team, the traffic on their website was around 5,000 visits per day. After 6 months, with the things-to-do mentioned in this blog, the traffic burgeoned to 30,000 visits per day. Getting traffic on social media is not rocket science. If you stay consistent, you do the impossible, like cutting through a mountain as Manjhi -The Mountain Man - did. But the shocking news is that social media is getting harder day by day. Nowadays, it requires a lot of challenging work, skill, and innovative tactics to target the right customers and bring traffic to the website. If you Google ‘how to drive traffic on social media’, you’ll get thousands of results but most of these strategies are either outdated or tried and tested again and again. What you need is something that is new & works like a charm on your customers. Time is a virtue. No one wants to listen to an idle talk. People want something practical. So, here, I’m sharing the gold pearls with you. Nuggets of wisdom that helped me drive tons of traffic on our client’s website. Oh yes, don’t worry my boss already knows that I’m sharing these valuable tips with you, so, there is no need to worry about my job.

1. Add a Flavor of Humor to Your Posts

It’s so easy to get lost in the mundane business updates. Share a picture from your recent trip. Share a fun fact about your team. And share a motivational quote. The point here is to humanize your brand in front of the customer. The goal of this post should be to spread a smile on your customer’s face. Not every post needs to sell something. Check out this amazingly good hiring post by Zomato. Although it’s just a hiring post, look at the level of creativity they’ve used. People will not just send their CVs because this post is sharable. It will be shared because it’s fun to read. Another brand that I follow vigorously to get my daily dose of inspiration is Taco Bell. Check out the following post. A simple post. Yet worth sharing with your friends & family. If you want customers to share your posts, you need to sit down with your team and come up with some creative ideas. Or if you’re unsure where to start, talk to us. Our social media marketing tips will guide you and help you stand out from the crowd.

2. Communicate with Your Followers

For startups, it’s impossible to drive traffic in the initial stages. One strategy that I’ve used with TaskQue followers is interacting with them. Listening to them. Helping them solve their problems. And once they considered me a friend, they were happy to check out the brand offering without needing a push. Here is Gary V on how to provide the best customer service: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKghCbrR_LU[/embed] Pick and choose your followers & see what they’re interested in. If they have a problem, solve it instantly. It will only take a little time to solve the problem, but the outcome will be fascinating and lucrative for your brand. Whoever comments on your product, start a conversation with them. Thank them for taking the time to appreciate your product and reply with a pinch of humor. Interact with your customers the way you talk to your friends. Once the customer starts realizing that you’re taking care of them, they’ll love to try out your product and brag about it on social media.

3. Make Good Use of Facebook Groups

The best way to learn is to learn from others. There are business-specific groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Go and join them. You’ll get a chance to interact with people who are more successful than you. Watch what people are posting and what hashtags they’re using. You’ll have an idea about which keywords are performing best and the trending topics. Here are some tips which can help you communicate on a deeper level in Facebook groups: Here are some ways in which you can contribute to a higher level in your groups:

• Start with Live chat: This is a way to have a real-time conversation with your potential customers. You can listen to their grievances or offer them words of appreciation. Solve their problems and answer their queries.
• Communicate with Influencers: From time to time, you’ll meet influencers on the groups. Talk to them. Mention the influencers in your comments whenever there is something useful for them.
• Add Call to Action: While in the conversation, you can add a link to your posts or add to your service. Groups will bring an immense amount of genuine traffic. Use the CTA’s wisely.

4. Enliven Customers to Review on Facebook

Imagine this. It’s Saturday afternoon. You’re feeling hungry. You walk down the block to eat something. Out of ten restaurants, eight have customers in them and two are completely empty. Will you risk your lunch on two empty restaurants or will you drop in one of the thriving eight? If you’re like most people, you’ll head straight to a restaurant that seems to be teeming with customers. This is not just a coincidence. It’s social proof in action. Customers prefer to shop from stores with good Facebook reviews. How does the above review make you feel? Surely, if customers read such reviews for your product, they’ll either try the product or refer it to their friends. After every successful order, ask the customer to share their reviews on Facebook & Google.

5. Stand Out on Instagram

With 1 billion monthly users, Instagram can help brands generate enormous traffic on the website. Getting traffic on Instagram is easy if you learn the science behind hashtags. Every Instagram photo has a story behind it. If you caption that story, it will showcase the personality of your brand. And if you find an engaging caption, it means you’re on the right track. If you know the ins and outs of photography, this is a plus point for your brand. If not, hire a photographer. Check how Buffer shared this story from a user. Notice how personal it makes the customer feel. Buffer introduced #BufferStories to give users this opportunity to share stories which can engage more users.

6. Answering Questions on Quora

With 300,000 million monthly users and above 400,000 topics, Quora is a grand canyon to bring traffic to your website. People ask questions like ‘How can I increase my blog traffic?’ and experts answer those questions. Not just simple answers; sometimes, they’ll give witty answers, and at other times, they’ll give detailed answers. As an Entrepreneur, I’ve answered tons of questions and generated 90,000+ views on a single question. You can do the same. Become an expert in your field. Give a detailed answer and embed your services in the answer. If you provide a valuable answer, people will ask you more questions and you can increase traffic to your website.

The Closing Thoughts

It’s wrong to assume that only paid marketing can bring traffic. The tips mentioned above are tried and tested by me. I’ve used them on many clients and they worked like a magic spell. Try them all and if you have applied any other method to drive traffic to your website, do let me know in the comments box below.

Relationships can either help you cope with stress or get you into more stress. Social media is a medium to connect with people and establish relationships. If you’re a brand that aspires to increase your social media presence, you have two options. Either to contact a sophisticated social media agency to do it for you, or to follow the tips mentioned in this blog and beat your competitors in the first knock. You might be thinking there is no rocket science in using social media to promote your brand, but what if I tell you that you can even outsmart your competitors on social media without posting on social media? Before you think I am a downright lunatic, hear me out. When I first heard about the concept, I was just as flabbergasted. After all, with 1,500 items per day vying for the top position on a Facebook user’s News Feed, won’t posting 6 times a day instead of 1 really help you break through the noise of the social networks? But once I applied these tips, things started working out too well for my brand.

Be Consistent with Your Branding

If you want to be taken seriously, be consistent. Why do you think famous brands like Coca-Cola and Nike keep re-branding their products? When their products are already undisputed leaders, what is the point of branding at all? The best way to stay in touch with your customers is with the help of social media. Brands leverage social media to connect with their customers and put their stories out there. If the story doesn’t have a solid foundation, how will it grow? A solid foundation translates into being consistent with your branding efforts. The problem with brands these days is inconsistency in their branding on social media. They use various messages across social media platforms without thinking about the consequences. It is good to change the message with respect to the demographics of the audience. But if your colors, alignment of text, and logos are not consistent, it will drive your customers crazy. Inspect all your business profiles and scrutinize whether the message is clear from the customer’s point of view. Here are a few things that you need to look for:

• The company description.
• Website URL.
• Typography and colors should align with the overall branding.
• Consistent imagery

If you want people to connect with you, you must be there for them. Some people prefer contact by email, some by social media. It is indispensable to stay consistent so that people can contact you with whatever medium they deem convenient.

Network with People from Your Profiles

When Tony Hsieh launched Zappos.com, he wanted to connect with people directly. So, instead of hiring a social media agency, he started managing the company’s Twitter handle himself. He tweeted behind-the-scenes happenings, heeded the rants of frustrated customers, and turned those customers into raving fans with his communication and persuasion skills. Unless you’re Gary V, who doesn’t need communication lessons to lead people, you need to use all your social media profiles to entice your audience. Connect with them. Hear them out. Sometimes, even the biggest problems can be resolved simply by lending an ear. Add people to your Facebook friend list, follow them on Twitter, and connect with clients on LinkedIn. With a personal profile, people will feel relaxed and share all their concerns. If you listen to people well, they will market your brand themselves. When you start interacting with people, work on your relationship. Listen to their problems, and if possible, hang out with them. And when they’re ready, pitch them your product. People feel safe communicating with a personal account rather than an anonymous account.  Start small and cultivate a network of people. And when the time comes, turn those people into clients.

One-to-One Conversation is a Blessing

Gary V realized the potential of direct messaging in the year 2012. If you want to get more leads, you need to hustle more. Don’t just spend time reading posts. Take time and send out messages to people. Start from Twitter, use Instagram, and even LinkedIn to connect with your potential clients. Here is how you can do it: Not just clients; you can use private messages (PM) to pitch your business to potential investors. Just avoid these mistakes while pitching your product. Join LinkedIn groups for Entrepreneurs and build relationships with them. Before you even pitch your product or message your contact with your business proposal, use these tips to add value first:

• Share an interesting article with them.
• Send a personal greeting on their special occasions.
• Thank them randomly for something they shared.
• When you first connect with someone, thank them for accepting the request and hold out the olive branch by offering to answer any queries pertaining to your niche.
• If you’re working on something, solicit their help. It makes them feel special and important, and automatically creates a rapport with them.

Be Proactive

Generally, the way brands connect with their customers on social media is primarily reactive. They wait for customers to break the ice. Either complain or praise the brand so they respond to it. If you want to conquer the social media realm, you need to help your clients with their problems. How about referring your friend, who is a website developer, to a client who is looking for someone to develop their website? Or helping the client find a freelancer for their business. These small gestures might sound aimless, but once you start helping your clients without any specific reason, your clients will remember to do business with you when they need your product.

Conclusion

You can either use it or abuse it, but what you cannot do is ignore social media. Everyone is on social media. Your clients. Your competitors. And even your friends. If you’re still not active on social media, it is time to make a wise decision and start using social media to generate some solid leads. It is not a short-term investment, it will develop trust, loyalty, and transparency with your customers. What methods do you use to develop a strong relationship with your clients? Do you use one medium or all of them? Can you share some tips which helped you grow your brand?

If you want to overthrow the Goliath, you need to step into the battleground. Your choice of weapon will dictate the defeat you want to inflict on the giant of the industry. The rock-solid competition requires a mega-marketing strategy that can push your brand off the ground, and Google Ads and Facebook ads dominate the online advertising space. If you want to reach out to customers, Google’s search network or Facebook’s news feeds are the places to be right now. Facebook currently boasts over two billion monthly active users, making it a hotbed for user activity. Similarly, Google Ads encroach upon the lives of billions of people each day. The “Holier than Thou” battle between Facebook Ads and Google Ads has been raging on forever it seems. it is nearly impossible to know clearly which will fit your business. Since both mediums are producing results for brands, you cannot afford the liberty of neglecting one over the other. Before diving into any one of them, start by asking two questions:

• What is the end goal that you want to achieve?
• How will it benefit your business?

If your answer is lead generation or sales, it means that both platforms are perfect for you. If brand awareness is your end game, Facebook is the medium for you. And, if you want to sell products, both Google can Facebook can fight to be your best friends. If you’re serious about generating leads and knowing how Facebook Ads or Google Ads can help you turn visitors into leads, keep reading;  there is a lot in store for you.

How to Use Google Ads to Get More Leads?

Start by searching the network. Did you know that Google Display ad campaigns reach 80% of users across the globe? Consumers who see a brand on Google Display Ads are more likely to search for the brand to know more about it. It is not just about display ads; video-based content ads work equally well. Which means there are more chances of being noticed by the consumer. The average click-through rate on display ads is just 0.08% across the USA. So, the search network is surely the best place to start. To get started, you can locate the keywords which are relevant to your business. Learn more about the Google keyword tool and get started with the keyword planner. Just start with a keyword that rubs the right way with your niche. This will give you more ideas on the target keywords which are relevant to your business. Just hit the ‘Start Now’ button and you’ll get a lot of suggestions. By using Google Ads, you’ll be able to achieve the following:

• You’ll know how many competitors are competing on a keyword. The greater the difficulty level of the keyword, the higher the number of businesses bidding on the keyword.
• And the bid ranges will help you discover the highest and the lowest paying bids.
• This will give you an idea of what the competitors are bidding on and how much you need to invest in campaigns, which will be right for your business.

The Right Way to Advertise on Facebook

As you might have heard, Facebook advertising affords some serious targeting options. Not just that, there are tons of options for all the various campaigns. Here are a few steps which can get you started:

• Start by creating an audience based on your previous clients and sales records.
• You can do this with the help of a Facebook lookalike audience. This Facebook feature can help you replicate your current audience. The algorithm operates by checking the emails of the customers and matching them with their Facebook profiles.
• You can even integrate it with MailChimp.

Images Do Create a Strong Impact

Images are responsible for 75 – 90% success of an AD campaign on Facebook. When done correctly, images can say more than words and incite people into action. Even if you don’t want to grapple with graphic design or want to hire an expensive designer, you can make amazing designs on Canva. The ‘Facebook Ad template’ on Canvas consists of different templates which can help you create images in mere seconds.

3 Ways in Which You Can Use Google Ads with Facebook Ads

It’s not always about Facebook Ads vs Google Ads; as they say, if you cannot beat them, join them. How about using both Facebook and Google together?

1. Start with Facebook and End with Google

As mentioned earlier, Facebook is a wonderful place to build brand awareness. Get your product out there for the people to see. Create a campaign targeted towards your cold audience. In this way, you will get to people who are looking for the product but don’t know where to find it. This is when you can move on to Google Ads. In Google Ads, use your brand name as a keyword. When people recognize your brand from Facebook, they will buy your product on Google, as they are already familiar with the product. This is how you can leverage the power of both Google and Facebook concurrently to acquire more leads.

2. Use Google Ad Data to Target People on Facebook

Get to know your target audience better by looking into your Google Ad campaign. This real-time data lets you see people who are really searching for your product. Use this data to target the audience on Facebook. There are myriad options in the Facebook ad campaign, where you can sort your audience based on gender, location, household, and various demographics, to retarget your audience and glean relevant traffic on your website. Retargeting can help you cut down on ad spending.

3. The Same Audience on Both can Help

And if you’re more curious about Facebook Ads vs Google Ads, you can even try reversing the idea and seeking people on Facebook and using that data to create better campaigns on Google. One of the best features of Facebook is a lookalike audience. Dig deep into lookalike ads and see how they can help your brand grow. In a nutshell, the algorithm in Facebook lookalike works similarly to Google, which means it can work in tandem with Facebook. This will double the impact on your audience as the power of both Google and Facebook will combine to create an overall impact.

Conclusion

To wrap it all up. When it comes to Facebook Ads vs Google Ads, it is not wise to prefer one over another. There is no competition at all. You can use both and create a larger impact. Both Facebook and Google provide unique benefits for any business whatsoever. Each of the platforms can bring a diverse number of people to your website. If your goal is to create brand awareness, start with Facebook. If you want people to buy from you, use the Facebook lookalike feature to gather the audience and use that data on Google ad campaigns. Build awareness, create leads, and close them with Google Ads. The good news is that we, at Branex, are providing digital marketing services that can help you with the traffic and convert that traffic into leads.