4 Best Practices for Social Advertising

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Todd Wasserman | October 15, 2013 | Mashable
If a tree falls in the forest, it’s debatable that anyone hears it. When your ad fails on Facebook, though, there’s no confusion. It was a dud.A lack of interaction tells the tale. Clearly you paid good money to expose lots of people to this particular piece of content, but most gave it little mind.That doesn’t have to be the case. There are people who do nothing but study the performance of social advertising all day. We talked to some and gleaned a few insights. If you want to run an ad with a halfway decent chance of getting a social lift, check out these pro tips.

1. Think About Who You Are Targeting

While we’ve established that an ad with no Likes is an embarrassing failure, it’s also true that an ad with a lot of interaction from the wrong people is a waste of pixels. Lucky for you, Twitter and Facebook both have sophisticated turnkey programs that let you target users by demographic, location and affinities, among other variables.

For instance, say you wanted to target all the feta cheese fans in New Jersey. Facebook lets you do just that.

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5 Crucial Mobile Advertising Tactics For Small Businesses

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Danny Brown | October 17, 2013 | American Express Open

The shift in advertising is moving to mobile. If you don’t have a strategy in place, try one (or all) of these five cost-effective ways to make the most of your on-the-go customers.

Seventy-two percent of small-business owners planned to increase or maintain their mobile ad spend this year, with 65 percent of these increasing their spending by up to 30 percent, according to a study by Borrell Associates of 1,300 small-business owners.

Add to that the fact that Google and Facebook are shifting more of their revenues to mobile, and it’s clear that mobile marketing, advertising and purchasing is more than just a trend—it’s a key factor in how consumers prefer to do business in today’s marketplace.

So how can your business maintain relevance and competitiveness within this new paradigm?

1. Create A Native Mobile Ad

One of the newest buzzwords currently doing the rounds in social media is “native advertising.” This form of advertising complements the website it’s running on, or the content it’s displayed beside, by being relevant to both the topic and audience.

Instead of the usual Google Ads that may or may not be related to the content on a page, a native ad by a phone accessory retailer, for example, will appear on a blog that has mobile phone reviews, which encourages a warmer lead and better click-through opportunities.

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3 of 13 Key Marketing Initiatives

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Debbie Szwast | November 06, 2013 | Stevens & Tate

In the past few years, the retail marketplace has changed significantly. New technologies are impacting consumers’ attitudes and purchasing decisions. To stay successful, businesses need to evaluate and update their marketing strategies, programs and processes on a consistent basis. As the new year approaches is an opportune time to do so.

Stevens & Tate released a white paper discussing 13 key marketing initiatives to improve success. Below are a few items you can start focusing on today to make an impact in the upcoming year.

1. Media Plans and Strategies

The media landscape is constantly changing—new technologies and trends are emerging rapidly and existing platforms continue to evolve. This is providing new opportunities to market to your target audience. To reach today’s consumers, create a strategy that not only reaches them where they are looking, but also addresses what stage they are in the buying cycle.

Remember that media planning is not one size fits all. Develop your media strategy around your core audience, focusing on mediums where they are most engaged. However, don’t overlook the value of creating integrated campaigns with related messages across multiple platforms. This allows you to significantly increase your reach and frequency to build awareness, interest and interaction among those who matter most.

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