7 Ways to use Social Media Advertising to attract new Customers!

A lot of businesses in the last 5 years have found that Social Media is the best place to go to share their content. Oftentimes, a good Social Media presence can make or break many businesses, with poor Social Media presences often causing a business to stagnate and falter right out of the door. On the other hand, having a strong Social Media presence right out of the gate can help any small business grow exponentially, especially if they have a good marketing strategy in place.

So essentially, what is Social Media Marketing and how can you use it to your advantage? Well for people who are developing a brand, Social Media Marketing helps in the following ways:

-          Develops Brand Awareness via quick communication with an audience.

-          Builds engagement with a core audience

-          Advertises products, services, and more.

-          Develops a relationship with the audience by having them connect to the brand.

-          Is also a useful way for creating quick customer service

Essentially, the strength of Social Media Marketing is just how powerful of a tool it is when connecting with an audience. People like it when businesses develop a relationship with them, because it makes them feel like they’re not just another cheap purchase from them, and oftentimes people develop loyalty to a brand that they feel connected towards. If they’ve had nothing but positive communication with that brand, they’re more than likely willing to continue purchasing simply to support the business.

Sounds great! How do you get started then? In a nutshell, here are the steps you’re going to want to take to create a Social Media Marketing strategy that works for you.

1)      Create Goals. You’re going to need to define what it is that you want to do.

2)      Create an Audience persona. Who is it that you’re wanting to target and why. Not all customers overlap after all, and sometimes trying to cast a wider net will yield nothing while a smaller net will yield a bigger catch

3)      Look at what the competition is doing. Being unique and different does have its advantages, but there’s nothing wrong with seeing what your competitors are doing and developing a strategy around what they’re doing. Remember: You can tweak your strategies later.

4)      Practice Real Time Marketing. Real Time Marketing is simply where you engage an audience in real time with no discernable strategy. Being able to be contacted and talked to immediately is a powerful tool for Brands on the Social Media landscape.

5)      Schedule Posts. Aside from Real Time Marketing as a strategy, make sure that you post any relevant advertisements, promotions, or anything else ahead of time and tweak before sending out. You’ll always want to schedule something at least a week out.

6)      Be consistent. The major downside to Social Media is that people move on if you’re not consistent. You don’t have to post every day of course, but try to make a post at least once every few days; even if it is just rehashing an ad or something. If people know you’re a business they’ll forgive you for rehashing content as long as you’re not constantly spamming them.

7)      Follow Metrics. Be sure afterwards to follow the metrics, see what posts are gaining traction, which gives you more views and so on and then tweak your strategies from there.

And that’s usually all you need starting out. The best part about Social Media Marketing is how often feedback is almost instantaneously compared to most other marketing platforms. People by and large will see the post instantly, and react to it in real time and that’s what makes it one of the most fascinating ways to Market.

Three Signs that tell you if you need to improve your digital marketing strategy.

Do you really know if all your social media work is paying off? Many people strive to develop a good image for their brand and invest a lot of money in advertising, but they usually forget that their presence in the digital community is also important.

Moreover, it may also happen that they are really interested in growing their business on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, but the actions they are implementing do not lead them to obtain the number of clients they want. Do you know why this may be happening? There are signs that tell you when your company's digital marketing strategy is on the road to failure and, to help you out a bit, we have decided to explain each of them. Thus, you can quickly identify them and recover all the time you have invested in your precious project.

1.       Your results only show likes:

This is one of the most obvious signs that something is not going well with your digital marketing strategy. Likes can bring many benefits to a brand, but if your results only show good numbers in likes, then your brand or business is not achieving the objectives it should.

Your company's social network accounts can offer you much more than likes. From them, you can get sales, alliances, and much more. You must ensure that your current activity generates value for your target audience.

2.       Your audience is not to your brand or business.

How many people interact with you when you upload content to your social networks? How many of your customers buy your products or services because they trust your brand? Social networks are one of the main means by which the audience connects and communicates with your company or business.

If you have a lot of followers but you can't get them to buy what you offer or even interact with you through comments or other actions, and then your marketing strategy is pointing to the opposite extreme.

3.       You don't know what your main sources of traffic and sales are.

You have managed to maintain your sales numbers, and some new followers arrive from time to time, but do you really know where these people come from? A good marketing strategy allows you to know where the traffic of your social networks or web pages generates. This way, you will be able to identify which platforms you should invest in the most to achieve a greater conversion rate.

If you don't know where your visitors or followers are coming from, it is very likely that you are carrying a digital marketing plan aimlessly.

Some other signs you must pay attention to:

-          You do not know your target audience and their motivations.

-          You don't know what your competition and the brands you admire the most are doing.

-          You feel that your goals are impossible to reach.

Now, you know the signs that may be alerting you if you have an inadequate digital marketing strategy. Remember that this is not about being negative, but about anticipating any possibility and being ready to act correctly if our brand or business needs it!

Digital Marketing in Times of Crisis: Why Is It So Important?

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 cases in almost every country in the world has led humanity to experience one of the most difficult times of crisis in history. Since the WHO declared this disease as a pandemic, many governments began to implement containment and prevention measures that resulted in a partial paralysis of the economy.

This - in addition to the fact that we had to completely transform the way we work - led us to understand how important it is to grow our business and take advantage of all the benefits that the Internet offers us. For that reason, we want to show you how you can take advantage of digital marketing to survive such a challenging time. Do you want to know how to do it? Continue reading!

The era of digitization.

Before the term "coronavirus" reached every corner of the planet, the way in which people operate their businesses had already found a new path. The era of digitization brought with it a series of changes in consumer behavior and owners of small, medium, and large companies were forced to modify their plans to adapt their projects to new technological trends. However, the arrival of the pandemic accelerated this whole process.

Now, traditional marketing and sales methods are no longer enough. The reasons behind it are the following:

-          People spend more hours on the Internet since they have more free time.

-          Online shopping has become increasingly popular as it is more secure and does not require buyers to leave home.

-          Sellers cannot work the same way as before and must promote their services remotely.

-          There are no longer so many face-to-face events, so sellers should look for other ways to show their products.

-          Social networks have become essential in daily life, and many users use them as a reliable way to get to know a brand or business.

How can I take advantage of digital marketing?

Digital Marketing, in this way, is an excellent ally to take advantage of the challenges of this situation and turn them into opportunities to grow your business. Here are some tips based on its principles:

-          Find out who is more likely to become your customer: One of the objectives of digital marketing is to identify your ideal audience so that you can focus your efforts on the right people and increase the effectiveness of your strategies.

-          Generate quality content: If you already know who you want to target, then you have more possibilities to create good content that generates interest. Digital marketing allows you to optimize it and also helps you develop an ideal action plan to publish it and take advantage of all its benefits.

-          Facilitates interaction and proximity with the audience: Currently, the links between the brand and the user are very important. In this sense, digital marketing promotes a direct and personalized relationship with customers to encourage engagement.

And there are even many more advantages! Digital marketing also allows us to measure and analyze the results obtained after its implementation, which is why experts consider it a very complete tool. Are you determined to use it to grow your business during periods of crisis? Remember that hard times will pass and we will have experience and knowledge. We can learn something new every day thanks to them!

Updating Your Digital Marketing Strategy Post COVID-19

If you’re like most small business owners, the COVID-19 pandemic has almost certainly left you reeling.

The closure of “non-essential” shops and services, combined with widespread travel restrictions and lockdowns has brought about the perfect storm for many local brick-and-mortar establishments.

It’s been a rough few months that’s for sure…

Now we’re beginning to see a drop in new COVID-19 cases, and governments are beginning to ease lockdown measures, it’s probably a good time to start contemplating how to get your business back on its feet. One of the best ways to get the ball rolling is to implement a solid digital marketing strategy.

To that end, we’ve put together a guide that will refresh your digital marketing knowledge and lay the foundations for success in a post COVID-19 landscape:

Laying Down Some Ground Rules:

Before we get started, it’s vital that you tread cautiously and take heed of the following important advice:

1. Create a Plan of Action:

When business owners complain that digital marketing “doesn’t work”, it’s usually because they jumped in at the deep end before they were ready.

Digital marketing can be tricky to master and slow to yield results in the early stages. To avoid disappointment, always work to a strict schedule and set realistic milestones along the way.

2. Avoid Multiple Platforms and Mediums:

Many marketing experts will tell you that you need to “dominate your niche” or “be everywhere” to attract the most interest.

There’s definitely some truth to that advice, but if you’re a beginner to the world of online marketing, it makes the most sense to master just one (or two) mediums at a time.

Advertising tools like Google Ads can have a steep learning curve, and social media and content marketing require a lot of up-front time investment. Spreading yourself too thinly will yield sub-optimal results everywhere.

Take our advice: Concentrate your efforts for maximum impact.

3. Avoid “Analysis Paralysis”:

Whilst we’re big advocates of self-learning, there does come a point where you’re actually going to have to take action and do something!

There are hundreds, if not thousands of armchair experts out there that have read every morsel of information about digital marketing, but have failed to make any headway whatsoever.

It’s good to be cautious. Just make sure it’s not an excuse for inaction!

4. Steer Clear of Marketing Gurus:

All the information you need to become a digital marketing expert is both easy to find and totally free. There is absolutely no advantage to purchasing the latest $2,000 course from a so-called “Marketing Guru”. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

5. Avoid Guesswork:

Never run adverts, post social media links or write Tweets on a hunch.

Everything you implement within the scope of digital marketing should be trackable and measurable. Test, test and test again. Never use random guesswork in your campaigns.

OK, Enough of the Lecturing, Let’s Get Started!

Paid Advertising Campaigns

Paid ads are the absolute gold standard in online marketing.

Getting your product or business to the top of a Google search page is still a worthwhile marketing tactic in 2020, but it requires SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or a long term content marketing plan. Both of those disciplines take a long time to master and yield results very slowly. In addition, both require a significant financial outlay if you decide to outsource the work.

On the other hand, paid ads are getting cheaper all the time and in addition, offer a very measurable (and fast!) way of getting eyes on your brand.

So which advertising platforms perform the best?

Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram for Business and LinkedIn Ads (in that order) all have their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

Take time to consider which of the platforms is most frequented by your potential customers. Your mileage may vary greatly.

What Should I Advertise?

If you’re a local business with very low competition, then it’s perfectly fine to run ads that link directly to your website. In some instances, these types of hyper-targeted ads can be extremely cheap, and yield excellent results.

With that being said…

In more competitive niches, savvy business owners might want to play a longer game: Try using adverts to direct prospective customers to well researched blog posts and even videos. Once you’ve enticed traffic onto your landing page, you can offer free giveaways, discounts and extra information in exchange for a visitor’s email address.

Why bother capturing a visitor's email?

In spite of the rise of social media, email is still the best medium by far for converting leads into sales. In part, that’s because the vast bulk of leads will only be converted into buyers after several interactions with your brand. Timed email sequences can help you to stay relevant with your prospects.

So to Sum up:

• Use carefully crafted ads to send prospects to a landing page.

• Give away great content.

• Persuade visitors to subscribe to an email list by offering an incentive.

• Use email sequences to gradually convert leads into sales.

Get a Google My Business Listing

If you run a bricks-and-mortar business, you absolutely MUST get a “Google My Business” (GMB) listing up and running.

When your establishment is listed in GMB it will appear above all of the organic search results in a dedicated box. In smaller towns and cities, this is an absolute game-changer that in many cases can render traditional SEO completely redundant.

In addition, GMB comes with some extra features that could work well for your business: GMB listings feature a “call” button for smartphone users, a “directions” link to Google maps and a small snippet of information about opening times and user ratings. Adding your business to GMB also gives you the opportunity to link directly to your main website.

One More Game Changing Feature:

Last but not least, many business owners are unaware of the newly implemented but extremely powerful “Google Posts” feature for GMB.

Essentially “Google Posts” allows businesses to share mini blog posts which show up in the right panel on Google searches. Each Post can be up to 300 words in length and include a photo, as well as a clickable call to action button and a date range (for businesses promoting events and special offers).

These posts sit somewhere between a Tweet, a landing page and a blog post, but come with the added benefit of an instant SEO boost and very prominent placement.

Social Media Marketing

If you’ve exhausted your advertising budget and you’re willing to commit the time, social media marketing can be powerful, but needs to be treated with care and a very light touch.

Rules of the Game:

1. Keep a Strict Posting Schedule

The number one rule of social media is to keep the accounts manned, and keep them current. If your Facebook or Twitter feed looks deserted, and you rarely respond to queries, you’re doing your brand more harm than good. If you don’t think you can commit to regular social media interaction, it’s actually best to drop the idea completely and concentrate on your company website.

Stay Away From Health and Politics

This might be the most controversial piece of advice in this guide, but hear us out:

You’re probably not a virologist, so stay well clear of reposting COVID-19 health advice. If a customer directly asks you about your implementation of social distancing rules or your hygiene policy, by all means gently reassure them. Just make sure you don’t get into heated debates about COVID-19 best practice.

Whatever advice applies to COVID-19 posting applies triple to political discourse: You’ve been warned. Just stay quiet.

We live in turbulent times. It doesn’t matter what cause you do or don’t endorse, stick to the business of selling products and leave the politics at home.

Concentrate on Being Helpful

If you can’t give health advice or show political support, what can you use your Twitter or Facebook feed for?

Simple! Give great advice and answer customer queries.

Be warm, honest and caring and engage with your local community. Get back to the roots of what made social media so great in its formative years.

Handling Postponed Events

Were you using digital marketing to promote an event before the lockdowns and social distancing rules came into force?

How are you planning to bring your event back to life?

Know When to Pivot

None of us can truly gauge when life will return to normal. Especially when discussing any kind of event where a crowd will gather.

In this situation, the best advice is to keep your powder dry, keep the budget tightly constrained and learn how to read the social media queues and analytics to keep abreast of the situation.

When marketing during uncertain times, it’s important to be able to pivot on a dime. If you need to move from a national to a more regional event, so be it.

Are you worried the event will get the go-ahead just in time for bad winter weather? Don’t rush to reschedule if the event would be more successful next spring.

We’re living through unprecedented times. If all of the major international events have been cancelled for 2020, then there’s no shame in holding off your own event until next year either. Be patient, stay active on social media and think about free marketing channels like blogging until the time is right to start spending your ad budget.

Consider Taking Your Business Online

If there’s one final piece of advice we’d give to businesses looking to keep their heads above water during these crazy times, it would be this:

During the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns, some businesses saw increases in web traffic of up to 150%. That means loyal customers are more than willing to keep shopping at their favorite stores despite the logistical issues.

If you have the ability to open an online store, do it already! If you’re in a B2B niche, consider offering free Skype consultations.

COVID-19 might have been the most unprecedented event in a generation, but with a little marketing savvy and the determination to succeed, you can also uncover some of the biggest money making opportunities of your lifetime!

Social Media Marketing & Digital Marketing Trends Happening Now

In today’s digital world, it is very easy to market your services or products. Internet has brought the entire community of customers and service providers very close to each other. With the adoption of the right type of technique and marketing strategy, it is simple to reach out your product to the masses and make some decent profit.

Digital Marketing

Currently, as we all know, people just cannot live without internet and related devices such as their laptops, smart phones and tablets. Digital marketing is nothing but putting these resources to use and making the most of it. As far as phones are concerned, engaging apps related to your business can keep the consumer hooked on your product. This is possible because through the app platform, they have the ability to communicate, give feedback and suggestions and thus keep the product in consideration at all times.

Digital marketing has many advantages. The product publicity is not limited to the local market but goes global and has a wider spectrum of business. People are constantly connected to the internet, as they are always using their phone or laptop, thus keeping track of new products, services and others is easy. If the advertisement of the product is done in an effective manner, then it reaches the audience instantly and they start responding to it by either purchasing the product or hiring the service.

An effective communication method is through blogs. People love to read blogs and if they are informative and engaging, then besides getting the necessary publicity, the blogs act as front runners for your product.

Social Media Marketing

As mentioned earlier, the internet has helped bridge the gap between sellers and consumers. People like to be connected with one another, even across the globe, through Social Media platforms. It is a very powerful means of voicing your opinion, announcing new products and services, giving feedbacks about the same and giving referrals.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn are some examples of social media platforms that have many loyal followers.

Creating a webpage to announce a service/product on Facebook is a common norm that people follow. The number of clicks and likes then ascertains the popularity and success of the advertising effort.  

However, one should understand that to keep the people’s interest alive, especially through YouTube videos, the matter needs to be updated occasionally and needs to be interesting and engaging. Videos uploaded on other social networking platforms also need to be entertaining to hold consumer’s interest.

Analytics tools help to establish the popularity of the post and gives guidelines for improvement and adjustments needed to increase the traffic to the site. Be precise in your goals and put them across effectively to the customers for a genuine response. Keep track of the competitors advertising activities as it aids in driving force in your self- promotional plans and get desirable results.

 Paid social campaigns to boost brand awareness is a good idea. This prompts more people to participate and take notice of what is in offing. Getting feedbacks and testimonials is another tactic to improve customer retention. Study the consumer’s temperament and build your posts, sites on their likes and choices. This guarantees that the audience supports the promotion and responds favorably.

Conclusion

Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing are the trends of the current world we live in. If we have the ability to profit by their presence, then it is essential to understand and follow the protocol that go with establishing your presence through these two forms of media.   

3 Book Recommendations to read in 2020

Books are an incredible resource for information in the business world, there are books on any topic in business you can imagine, such as marketing tactics ranging from how influence your consumers, how to build deeper long lasting relationships with your customers, etc., there are also books you can read about former business giants, to seek out their perspective when making decisions, as well as to see the mistakes they made throughout their careers and how this can show you that even the greatest of greats fail on their way to the top, and you will not have to make the same mistakes they did.

1.      Shoe Dog: Written by the founder of Nike, Phil Knight. This book is Phil Knight’s memoir about his rise to prominence in the business world. It is an inspiring tale of a young man lost trying to find his way in the world. I feel that young adults will find his story very relatable and also inspiring. He goes through the whole evolution of Nike as a company, which was originally Blue-Ribbon Sports, which got its funding from Japanese investors. Highly recommended.

2.      Influence! The Psychology of Persuasion: Written by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. This book is incredible in learning the many different ways marketing can be used to influence your consumers to make purchasing decisions. It goes over things like price adjustment, reciprocation, authority, scarcity, and social proof among other techniques. All of these are useful additions to your marketing tool belt, not only that but it is useful information to know so you can defend yourself against such practices and be aware when they are being used against you. A must read to improve your marketing skills.

3.      How to Win Friends & Influence People: Written by Dale Carnegie. This book while not necessarily specifically for business, has many insights and techniques that can be used within a business setting. Such as remembering people’s names always, in the book he describes a person’s name as being the sweetest sound in the world to themselves. Another technique is letting the other person do most of the talking, as people love to hear themselves talk, be genuinely interested as this is one of the greatest compliments you can pay to someone. It has many recommendations that while they may seem to be common sense, we all too often forget to utilize.

We hope these recommendations will be of great use to you in your professional and personal lives! Good luck to you in all of your endeavors.

Four Digital Marketing Habits to Get into in 2020

1.      Be diligent in your research: If you’re deciding how you’re going to advertise a new product, you must look at many different variables to find out who your target market is, what demographics do they fit into, their religion, their income, their gender, their ethnicity, the amount of children they have, and that is just on the surface. What makes your potential consumer tick, what are their inner most desires. You can find these things out and much more, through research, whether that be focus groups, surveys, etc. You have a wide range of tools at your disposal, and with the ever-changing landscape of the consumer market, it is important to always fine tune your target market.

2.      Know Your Why: While consumers are going to always be interested in what your selling, they want to know who is selling it, when it is going to go on sale. The most important W out of the 5 is Why, why are you selling what you are selling, what change do you hope to see in the world from people having your product and/or service. Is it simply to just have more money in your pocket and that’s it? While not exactly what I’d call inspiring, I do commend you for your honesty. Having a powerful why is one of the best habits to create for your business, take some time to really sit down and think about why you want to do what you want to do.

3.      Be Human: In a day and age of forever increasing automation, artificial intelligence, and fake connections. We should all as marketers want to try to be as genuine and human as possible in our approach. Whether that be in our advertisements, our public relations, or even with our own staff, we need to remember that transparency and the warmth that can only be created by a true human connection, are some of things hold closet to their hearts.

4.      Pay Attention to The Competition: For our last good marketing habit to get into, is to pay attention to your competitors! See what materials they’re using, what’s their customer service like, what is about their product that consumers like more than yours. Your competitors are one of your greatest reservoirs of information. So much to learn through their mistakes and successes. Do not be too prideful to make use of this information.

I hope you’ve found this information useful, and informative, and may it assist you greatly in all of your future marketing endeavors.

Where to find inspiration when planning your Digital in 2020!

Today we’re going to discuss where we can find inspiration for new ideas on what to post, what to talk about with your customers, new ad campaigns, new video ideas, new podcasts, anything and everything that can help your business grow!

1.     See what other creatives are doing!

Contrary to popular belief it is okay to take inspiration from others. Look at your competitors’ websites, for those “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments, this will help your company to grow and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of business and social media. Another way you can do this is to read more blogs just like this one, watch YouTube videos, get in contact and discuss with other creatives.

2.     Brainstorm with your colleagues.

You can begin a brainstorming session with your coworkers! Take some time out of the work day to sit down with your employees and just discuss, pitch ideas back and forth to one another. List the pros and cons of each of your ideas and give constructive criticism. The way to do this effectively is by making everyone feel that their ideas matter and they will not be criticized for offering their ideas. Make it a weekly thing, and watch the new ideas come in abundance.

3.     Talk to your customers!

Where better to find ideas than your most important resource your customers, ask them open ended questions to find out what makes them tick, what makes them truly enjoy a product, why do they buy certain products? Is it for ethical reasons, is it because it’s innovative, do they buy the product because the company’s ads really moved them in some way? There are many different reasons why people buy things, but each reason is special and unique to that person, the main reason for this exercise is to try and find a specific trend of reasons among your targeted demographic.

5 Sure-Fire Digital Strategies for Elevating Your Brand to Next Level

Lets do THIS!

Research has shown that the average individual spends at least 5 hours online every day.  Also, 85% of people begin their product and service search online. These are compelling reasons to take your digital strategy game to new heights. 

Improve Web Loading Speed

In the world of digital, time is everything. If people load your webpage and it's taking them ages, they will swiftly move on to your competitors' website. Loading speed is everything. Maintain your website visitors' interest with the rapid response time.

Use Online Advertising

Online advertising is a no brainer when it comes to digital strategy. And with the advent of social media, you can target millions of prospective customers. Not only is social media easy to use, but it is also cheap too. By forking out a few hundred dollars, you can boost your Ad and use that Ad to also link to your website. The other online advertising entails search engine because people search for what they need online. Drive traffic to your website by the use of brilliant content marketing. This includes the use of keywords and meaningful and insightful content.

Use Mobile Marketing

Research shows that most people respond to text messages no later than three minutes after receipt. This shows that people do look at text messages. You can utilize mobile marketing by sending personalized, earnest messages about your product. People will be driven to see what solutions you have to offer. Also, it's imperative to create a web design that's compatible with all devices – this includes having a platform that's friendly for mobile users.  

Create an Email List

Having an email list is strategic since you have a pool of potential clients who you can turn into customers. The trick is curating a catchy landing page with compelling content that will demonstrate the value of the list. Then send emails a week apart. This will ensure subscribers will have the business in the back of their minds while not getting annoyed by constant emails.

Include Reviews and Testimonials

There's nothing more convincing to a potential customer than the seal of approval from a client. Your digital strategy is more successful when people know they can trust your business.

These digital strategies will help you stay ahead of the game. They're budget-friendly, and they'll help you achieve sustained growth.  Still undecided the best strategy? Contact us today and we'll assist in every way possible. 

Your New Customer-Segmentation Challenge Is Gen Z

Digital strategies are many and diverse, but fundamentals remain fundamentals. Few fundamentals are most perennially relevant than audience. Who is the audience, what appeals to them, what motivates them?

These are questions that market researchers have been posing about Gen Z, those individuals born after 1996 and now some 25-30 percent of the U.S. (and international) population. In America, by 2020, Gen Z is expected to be 40 percent of consumers.

Significant surveys have been done, such as A Generation without Borders, by OC&C Consultants, which analyzes responses of some 15,500 respondents in nine countries. Other surveys confirm their chief findings.

For digital marketing, a prime consideration is how Gen Z connects to the internet. There is a one-word answer, "mobile." Indeed, an alternate moniker for Gen Z is "iGen." It is called the first generation overwhelmingly connecting on mobile devices.

Not only that, they grew up "online" and have been described as "born cyber" and "born in the [cyber] cloud."

They know and expect a sophisticated online experience. That means websites adapted to respond to different types of user devices by rapidly and fully adjusting photo size, scrolling, text size, video. The right software can do that. It isn't rocket science, but you need it.

Some things are well known about sites that attract Gen Z (apart from strictly content). They want text brief and to the point. They want high-impact visuals. They were born and bred on videos--action. As native citizens of the web, they have developed immunity to hype, regimentation, and fluff.

The survey and analysis mentioned above were detailed, but a few things stand out (and tend to be confirmed elsewhere):

·  Gen Zers are heavily influenced by celebrities and social media peers. They seem to want to hear directly from someone, a "tip-off," not the sales pitch. "Peer-to-peer, social selling models are more powerful for this digital generation and are an increasingly important component of a brand's business model."

·  A top finding, rather specific, was that Gen Z demands that clothing be stylish and unique. They are allergic to standardization and yearn to feel individual, unique. "Technology should allow the consumer maximum product personalization and customization, to facilitate engagement with major brands while still expressing individuality."

·  They have a take on "social justice" tied up with their view of corporations, corporate ethics, and products. More than previous generations, they reportedly have taken seriously the endless rhetoric about corporate citizenship. "Businesses should take note of their increased consciousness and ethical standards, both when supplying products and services…"

There is much more, and these are by way of illustration, but they are points made repeatedly about Gen Z and exerting a strong influence on digital marketing.         

          Of course, few companies and brands can afford to target a single generation, so decisions remain: Where to direct marketing efforts specifically at Gen Z? For example, they certainly do not dominate Facebook but are heavily into Instagram. And a relatively very small percentage of Gen Z discovers brands while out shopping. It is all about digital and social media.

At Real-Time Outsource, we are driven to understand and optimize how social networking must continue to transform advertising, marketing, customer relations, and much more. It is a focus relevant for all segments of customers, but almost a definition of Gen Z's style of engagement with brands.

Ask us how we can increase your brand's engagement, likability, and fan base.