Choosing Your Advertising Agency Partnership

Choosing Your Advertising Agency Partnership: Key Considerations for Success

Selecting the right advertising agency can significantly influence the success of your marketing endeavors. These agencies possess exclusive proficiency, ensure cost-effectiveness, facilitate scalability, deliver industry insights, and produce quantifiable outcomes. Consequently, forging an advertising agency partnership can enable you to efficiently engage your intended audience, foster brand recognition, and generate sales. Nonetheless, with numerous agencies available, ensuring the most suitable agency partnerships for your business can be a daunting task.

In this article, we will delve into essential markers to consider when choosing an advertising agency that aligns seamlessly with your business objectives:

1. Location

When choosing an advertising agency, you should deliberate on its geographical location and relevance to your target market. While numerous agencies can operate remotely or cater to a global clientele, opting for an agency with a physical presence in your target market holds certain advantages. Firstly, a local agency exhibits an enhanced understanding of regional market dynamics, consumer behavior, and cultural subtleties. They can effectively utilize their local expertise to craft advertising campaigns that deeply resonate with your intended audience’s specific preferences and needs.

Additionally, a nearby agency allows for easier and more efficient collaboration. Engaging in in-person meetings and conducting on-site visits can foster a more profound comprehension of your business and cultivate robust collaborative partnerships. Such interactions allow the agency to immerse themselves in your brand’s ecosystem, acquiring firsthand familiarity with your offerings and effectively harmonizing their creative and strategic endeavors with your overarching goals.

Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that geographical proximity is not always a decisive factor, particularly in the current digital era. With advanced communication tools and technologies, agencies can effectively collaborate and deliver results regardless of their location. It ultimately depends on the nature of your business, target market, and the level of personal interaction and local knowledge you prioritize.

2. Expertise and Industry Knowledge

While evaluating prospective agency partnerships, thoroughly gauge their industry-specific experience and proficiency. Seek out agencies that possess a proven track record of accomplishments in collaborating with businesses like yours. Their expertise should extend to a comprehensive understanding of your target audience, prevailing market trends, and competitive landscape.

An agency equipped with extensive knowledge will contribute invaluable perspectives and aid in formulating customized advertising strategies that align with your unique objectives. Moreover, evaluate the agency’s proficiency across diverse advertising channels, encompassing digital, print, television, radio, and outdoor platforms.

3. Track Record and Portfolio

Review the agency’s track record and portfolio of past work. Reviewing the agency’s track record and portfolio allows you to assess their past performance and success. Request case studies or examples of campaigns they have executed for similar clients. Pay careful attention to the outcomes they have attained, including increased brand visibility, amplified conversions, or enhanced sales figures. By examining their portfolio, you can gain insights into their creativity, strategic acumen, and capacity to deliver results that harmonize with your objectives.

4. Range of Services

Take into account the breadth of services provided by the advertising agency and assess their compatibility with your marketing requirements. Certain agencies specialize in distinct domains, such as digital advertising, social media marketing, content creation, or traditional media buying. Evaluate your specific needs and ascertain that the agency can deliver a comprehensive range of services to fulfill your objectives. Opting for a full-service agency can guarantee a holistic approach to your marketing endeavors and maintain consistency across diverse channels.

5. Communication and Collaboration

Effective communication and collaboration are key to a successful agency partnerships. Evaluate their communication style and responsiveness during the evaluation process. Are they attentive to your ideas and concerns? Do they actively seek your input and provide feedback? Clear and open lines of communication will facilitate a productive working relationship and ensure that your objectives and feedback are understood and incorporated into the campaigns.

6. Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and innovation are crucial elements in successful advertising campaigns. Look for agencies that demonstrate a track record of creativity and innovative thinking in their work. Review their previous campaigns to gauge their ability to come up with original and impactful ideas. A creative agency will bring fresh perspectives and unique concepts to your campaigns, helping your brand stand out and capture the attention of your target audience.

7. Budget and Costs

Consider your budget and the agency’s pricing structure. Different agencies may have various fee structures, such as hourly rates, retainer fees, or project-based pricing. Have an open discussion about your budget constraints and ensure that the agency can deliver the desired results within your financial parameters. While it’s important to find a cost-effective solution, remember that quality and expertise should not be compromised solely based on cost.

8. Client References and Reviews

Gather client references or seek out reviews and testimonials from previous clients. By doing so, you can obtain invaluable insights into the agency’s standing, level of professionalism, and client contentment. Connect with present or past clients to gather firsthand insights into their experiences collaborating with the agency. Inquire about their satisfaction levels, the agency’s adherence to deadlines, and their overall impression of the agency’s performance. Client feedback serves as a valuable resource for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the agency’s capabilities, strengths, and areas for improvement.

9. Cultural Fit

Consider the cultural fit between your company and the advertising agency. Evaluate their values, work ethics, and company culture to ensure compatibility. A strong cultural fit will foster a harmonious and collaborative working environment. Establishing a shared understanding and synergy between the agency and your brand’s vision, values, and target audience facilitates the creation of campaigns that authentically embody your brand’s identity and strike a chord with your audience.

Bottom Line

Partnering with the right advertising agency carries immense weight in determining the success of your marketing efforts. By meticulously assessing these pivotal elements, you can make a well-informed decision when selecting the advertising agency that best aligns with your business.

Remember to consider the agency’s expertise, track record, range of services, communication style, creativity, budget, client references, and cultural fit to ensure a successful and productive partnership.

 

 

 

 

What’s Trending In Marketing For August 2023

Hello and welcome to our August 2023 edition of “What’s Trending,” where we bring you the most relevant marketing news and insights. This month, we dive into the revival of an infamous fast food mascot and explore current trends to watch out for in the summer of 2023. Stay informed and ahead of the game with our curated collection of marketing updates and reports.

Noteworthy Marketing News

 

Quiznos eyes comeback as they bring back Spongmonkeys mascots. 

In a new ad campaign from the famed sub sandwich company plans to bring back the creepy corporate mascots, the Spongmonkeys. After years of decline and a 2014 bankruptcy, Quiznos is making a comeback by franchising new locations. The quirky rodent-like characters aim to revive the brand’s popularity. With just over 150 locations left, Quiznos is determined to regain its place in the restaurant industry and attract customers with the nostalgic return of the Spongmonkeys. Read more here. 

Twitter loses almost half of advertising revenue since Elon Musk takeover.

Since Elon Musk’s $44bn acquisition of Twitter in October, the platform has faced a substantial 50% drop in advertising revenue. The company’s anticipated sales growth in June did not materialize, though July showed some promise. Musk’s cost-cutting measures, including laying off about half of Twitter’s staff, aim to address the platform’s struggles. Meanwhile, rival app Threads has gained traction with an estimated 150 million users, while Twitter grapples with heavy debt and negative cash flow. Despite challenges, Musk aims to turn the platform around. Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO, emphasizes video, creator, and commerce partnerships to boost ad sales. However, the road to recovery may be prolonged due to pre-Musk revenue declines and competition. Read more here.

Netflix scraps low-tier ad free plan.

Netflix’s ad-free $9.99/month basic plan is being discontinued in the US and UK, impacting both new and returning members. However, existing users have the option to keep their current plan until they decide to cancel. Alongside this move, Netflix is introducing a new $7/month plan with commercials. This decision is part of the company’s strategy to diversify its revenue streams and remain competitive in the rapidly evolving streaming market. Notably, Netflix’s recent emphasis on its ad-supported tier has yielded positive results, attracting nearly 5 million monthly users and creating an enticing opportunity for advertisers. Read more here.

Improving Your Marketing Program 

 

Core Difference Between Buyer Journey vs. Customer Journey.

Discover the core difference between the buyer journey and the customer journey in this insightful article. Uncover the stages consumers go through before making a purchase decision and how businesses can nurture relationships post-purchase to build brand loyalty and create brand ambassadors. Learn valuable strategies to engage customers and ensure the long-term success of your business. Don’t miss out on these essential insights! Click here to read the full article.

The Importance Of Lead Generation Content Marketing.

Learn the power of lead generation content marketing in boosting your business growth and attracting potential customers. Discover how to create compelling content that converts prospects into loyal leads, standing out from tough competition. Quality content with specific purposes and formats, along with consistent publication, helps build trust and credibility with your audience. Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your company’s online presence. For a consultation, visit the link below and take the first step towards a successful content marketing strategy. Click here to read more.

8 Reasons to Invest in OTT Marketing.

Discover the top 8 reasons to invest in OTT marketing. With close to 200 million streaming viewers expected in the next few years, OTT advertising reaches a massive audience. Target your audience more effectively using GPS and behavioral data. Unlike traditional TV ads, people engaged in streaming content are more likely to watch entire ads. Personalized OTT ads improve engagement and yield better data on viewers. Flexible campaigns allow real-time adjustments for improved results, and A/B testing helps fine-tune your strategy. Paying for ad views, OTT ads offer a cost-effective and high ROI approach to complement your inbound marketing efforts. Read more here. 

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

 

As we enter the peak of summer ’23, the advertising realm is abuzz with thrilling trends. Artificial intelligence continues to transform content creation with innovative and easy to use tools such as, chatGPT and Jasper.  Among Gen Z, Instagram Reels reigns supreme as the favored social medium, offering brands an avenue to showcase authenticity and engage viewers. Short-form videos dominate summer marketing campaigns, while Influencers maintain their impactful role in fostering genuine connections. These are just a few of the key trends shaping the industry this season. To discover more about these trends and beyond, explore the full article here.

How does ‘Estimated read time’ in your meta description impact SEO?

In a recent poll by Search Pilot, the impact of adding “estimated read time” to meta descriptions was examined. While many believed it wouldn’t affect organic traffic, some thought it could be positive. However, the majority’s prediction was correct, as the display of estimated read time had no noticeable impact on site traffic. This finding highlights the importance of SEO testing and being cautious when following competitors’ actions. The article showcases the significance of user polls in understanding marketing trends. Read more here. 

Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2023.

The 2023 social media marketing landscape presents challenges due to economic uncertainties. Despite this, social media marketers enjoy increased budget and autonomy, as the profession matures. Successful marketers will carefully assess opportunities and consider long-term impacts in their strategies. The 2023 social media trends report offers valuable insights to navigate this defining year in the industry. Embrace these trends to optimize marketing strategies amid the evolving social media landscape. Read more here. 

 

 

lead nurturing

Soft Sell Advertising: What it is, Why it works, and How to Execute

When it comes to advertising, businesses as a whole tend to be aggressive. They let you know exactly who they are, what they do, and why you should buy from them. Even in inbound marketing, companies will try to tie the topic of conversation in with their products or services in some way. However, this isn’t the only course of action. You can also reach your target audience and successfully engage them by advertising in a more subtle manner. Such a strategy is known as soft-sell advertising.

What Is Soft-Sell Advertising?

Soft-sell advertising is a more subtle form of advertising. The goal behind soft-sell advertising is to evoke a positive emotional response. The idea is that the customer will then subconsciously connect the response they had to the brand that invoked it. Businesses that implement soft-selling marketing will often create ads that are warm or humorous, as these tend to be the ads that invoke the most positive feelings.

The History of Soft-Selling

The idea of soft-selling first emerged in 1914, when Theodore MacManus published an ad that would become the model for the soft-sell. The ad was essentially an essay on the burden of being the best in one’s field. The ad was for Cadillac, yet Cadillac wasn’t mentioned a single time. Nor was there an illustration that ran with the ad. Yet the ad was incredibly successful.

The Benefits Of Soft-Sell Advertising

The following are some of the reasons why you should incorporate soft-selling advertising into your marketing strategy:

  • Less pressure on customers – Because soft-sell ads don’t push products or services, customers will feel less pressure to buy. The pressure is apparent in hard-sell ads, and it’s often off-putting. Using soft-selling ads, you give your audience the ability to discover your brand and make a purchasing decision on their own time.
  • Increase brand awareness – Even though you’re not pushing your brand into their faces, audiences will be more likely to share your content. The reason? People don’t share ads, they share content. When you create a soft-sell ad, you have to focus on the quality of the content and not on the sale. If you are able to create high-quality content that invokes a positive emotion, your audience will share that content. People will share content that elicits a positive reaction to their friends, thereby increasing your brand awareness.
  • Build more trust – Another result of having to focus on content quality is that you’ll build more trust. You’re basically offering your audience something of quality without asking for something in return. This shows them that you care about more than just sales. As a result, they’ll be more likely to explore your brand further. Not to mention that building trust is essential to building long-lasting relationships.

Examples of Soft Sell Advertising

Soft sell advertising has grown in popularity, both in regards to inbound marketing and outbound marketing. The following are a few examples of effective soft-selling ads:

  • Yeti – Yeti is a company that sells coolers and outdoor accessories. They filmed an entire series of videos called Hungry Life showing a well-known chef spending time in nature, where he picks plants, goes fishing, and prepares his meals outdoors. Although Yeti’s coolers do make an appearance, they are never showcased or talked about. Yeti is obviously targeting a specific audience by showcasing a specific lifestyle. That audience will then make an emotional connection between that lifestyle and the Yeti brand.
  • Burt’s Bees – Burt’s Bees uses their founder as the spokesperson. This is perfect because he essentially represents their main buyer persona. The Nature of Burt video introduces Burt, who explains who he is. He’s likable and funny, and their target audience can relate to him. What makes the video so effective is that it builds an emotional connection between the viewer and Burt, all without ever promoting the brand or its products.

Implement a Soft-Sell Advertising Strategy Today

Because many companies focus many of their marketing efforts on generating brand awareness, they tend to be overly aggressive. However, soft-sell marketing can be incredibly effective in terms of engaging your audience and building trust. As such, you should be sure to include soft-sell marketing tactics in your inbound marketing strategy.

targeted advertising

How Does Targeted Advertising Work?

Back before the Internet, it was difficult to escape ads. If you were watching TV, then you had no choice but to watch the commercials. However, because users have more control over what they view online, advertisements are easy to ignore. As a result, marketers are using targeted advertising to expose their ads to users who are more likely to show interest in their products or services. This reduces the chances that someone will ignore the ads. Let’s know more how this targeted advertising actually works.

How Does Targeted Advertising Work?

In order to target an audience that might be interested in a product or service being advertised, advertisers will use data collected on the user. This data can include demographic information as well as behavioral data. For example, if a person views a certain product on a website, their browser will submit this piece of data to third-party advertising networks. That information will be stored in a browser cookie, which is a snippet of code that shows sites that the person has viewed. When the person visits a different website that has the same advertising network, ads for the product the person viewed on the first site may show up. For example, if a person was checking out a new sofa on a furniture website and then visits a social media platform, like Facebook, they might find an ad for the sofa they were just looking at show up on their feed. This is a result of targeted advertising.

How To Create Measurable Social Media Goals?

Types of Targeted Advertising

There are several types of targeted advertising. The following are a few common examples:

  • Social media advertising – Many social media platforms will place advertisements in your feed or on the side of your pages. They have access to a lot of demographic information about its users that can help target different people.
  • Behavioral advertising – Many sites will use past purchasing decisions to advertise to their visitors. For example, Amazon often recommends different products based on the purchasing behaviors of its customers.
  • Search engine advertising – Search engine ads, such as Google AdWords, target users based on their search engine queries to match the keywords they use with those used by their ads.

5 Ways To Optimize Your Social Media

How To Use Targeted Advertising Effectively

While targeted advertising can be incredibly effective in helping you find an audience that has a need for the products or services you’re advertising, it does have one drawback: some people may be put off by the ad if it looks like you’re using personal information about them in order to target your ad. This can come off as an invasion of privacy, after all. Keeping that in mind, the following are a few tips on how to use targeted advertising:

  • Be transparent – Make sure that you let visitors know that you’re collecting data and how you are using that data. The more transparent you are, the less your audience will feel like you’re spying on them.
  • Create control – Although you’ll want to use the visitor data on your site to target your ads, you should provide users with a sense of control by implementing security features, such as SSL certificates, firewalls, DoS, and more. This lowers the chances of someone stealing user information and it helps protect visitors.
  • Don’t use sensitive information – You don’t need to use every bit of information you collect to target your ads. For example, you should avoid using information such as health conditions, race, relationship statuses, and sexual orientation to target ads.
  • Targeted advertising can be an incredibly effective way to market your products and services. This is because it helps you identify audiences that will find your ads relevant. This makes your marketing campaign much more cost-effective as a result.

How Creativity and Data Driven Marketing Help Develop Marketing Campaigns

Not long ago, businesses simply didn’t have that much information to leverage when it came to crafting marketing campaigns. They could only draw conclusions about their audience from in-store information — as in, information on who bought what. Mostly, they just advertised to the audience that their products or services were initially intended for. A lot of their marketing effort came from the instincts of their advertising agency’s creative team. These days, advertising agencies have access to a wealth of data, which has led to data driven marketing. However, knowing how to use that data properly is important as well. It’s the agencies that merge data and creative to form the foundation of their marketing campaigns that tend to be the most successful.

How Using Data Can Inspire Great Marketing Campaigns

How Data Driven Marketing Can Support Creativity

Although it’s difficult to argue that data hasn’t been hugely beneficial in terms of identifying who your audience is and how to reach them, a lot of people within the industry are scared that the use of data is restricting creativity. They believe that the increased use of data and automation is going to reduce innovation in marketing campaigns. There’s certainly some truth to this – but only if your marketing agency isn’t using your data properly. You don’t want your creative decisions to be solely based on numbers, after all.

However, you also don’t want to use your data as an afterthought either. For example, maybe you’ve produced both long-form and short-form blog content. Using analytics, you’ve found that your long-form content is performing better. You won’t want to try to take your short-form content and extend it so that it’s longer as this kind of strategy is akin to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Instead, you should keep this data in mind for future campaigns.

Data driven marketing is about creating a balance between the data you have and your creative. Take video content creation as an example. Video has become one of the most effective forms of content in the past few years as it’s become easier and cheaper to produce as well as easier for consumers to watch. According to recent stats, Facebook users are more likely to engage with your video if it draws them in within 1.7 seconds. When creating video content for Facebook, you’ll want to keep this in mind. It might seem restricting at first — but limitations are often what helps to drive creative solutions. Instead of looking at data as something that restricts the creativity of your marketing campaigns, look at it as a way to drive innovation.

While some critics fear that an over-reliance on data could ultimately hinder creative efforts, in reality, the use of data can help inform creative efforts to bolster the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. In this day and age, advertising agencies who do not leverage data to their advantage in order to influence the direction of their creative marketing decisions will quickly fall behind the competition.

innovative marketing ideas

How Data Driven Creative Is Shifting The Advertising Industry

It wasn’t that long ago that businesses had limited data to use for their creative. Marketing campaigns were often built using subjective creative instinct and little else. However, now that advertisers have access to significant amounts of data, including personal customer information as well as audience behaviors, creative decisions are being informed by their data. The use of data allows businesses to make much better use of their resources, thereby making your data driven creative efforts more successful as well as more cost-efficient. The following are just a few ways that advertising agencies use data driven creative tactics to influence your marketing campaign for the better.

1. Develop More Accurate Buyer Personas

Arguably the most important facet of any marketing strategy that you implement is the audience you’re targeting. If you’re targeting the wrong audience, your efforts will fail. This is why developing buyer personas is so important — and the most effective way to do this is through the use of customer data. You can use the data you have from previous customers as well as data from the leads you’ve captured in order to identify exactly who your audience is, which will help inform the creation of your buyer personas.

For example, you can track the behavior of your customers by viewing what pages they visited and what actions they took before making a purchase. Information like what they’ve purchased and when they purchased it will be very helpful in being able to reach your audience as well. Many businesses will also create post-sale surveys for customers to fill out that provides valuable information as well. Additionally, you can gather information from your email opt-in forms as well as from your social media followers.

2. Locate Where Your Audience Is

Knowing who your audience is won’t help much if you don’t know where they are. There are countless social media platforms on which you can target your marketing campaigns. If you choose a social channel on which your target audience isn’t present, your campaign will fall on deaf ears. Figuring out what platforms your audience uses is the first step towards reaching them, and your data can help you pinpoint where they are. For example, you can look at the social media data of similar companies to determine where they have the biggest reach, or you can add social share buttons to your content and then identify which platforms your content is being shared on most.

You can also set up business pages on several social platforms and link to them in your email campaigns and on your website. You can then track which pages receive the most follows, which will tell you which social channels you should focus your marketing efforts on.

3. Personalize Your Ads

The amount of data that you have at your fingertips should allow you to personalize the experiences of your customers, especially once you’ve created your buyer personas. For example, retargeting customers using PPC (pay per click) ads highlighting items that they added to their cart but didn’t end up purchasing can be a very effective way to close a missed sale opportunity. Personalized experiences in general, whether it’s personalized CTAs (calls-to-action) or personalized emails, have a big impact. A recent study even revealed that consumers are twice as likely to click through ads for brands they were unfamiliar with if it was tailored to their preference.

4. Create More Relevant Content

By using your buyer personas and by collecting and analyzing how your visitors engage with the content you produce, you can fine tune your content strategy to better target your audience. By tracking several metrics, including time spent on a page, engagement with the content (comments, social shares, likes, etc.), click-throughs, bounce rate, lead captures, and more, you can identify what content performs at the highest rate. You can then craft new content that’s aligned with what type of content performs well. For example, if you noticed that short-form content in list form performs well but long-form content without bullets or numbers does not, then you should have a pretty good idea of what future content should look like.

These are just a few ways that data driven creative can work and why it’s changing the way the advertising agency operates. Using the significant amount of data that you have access to in order to drive your creative marketing decisions will make it easier to successfully identify who your target audience is and how to reach them in a cost-efficient manner.

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How Using Data Can Inspire Great Marketing Campaigns

One of the biggest benefits of online marketing is that it allows you to collect valuable data about your customers as well as your target audience in general. It also gives you a chance to pinpoint what is and isn’t working as far as your marketing efforts are concerned. However, collecting all this data is useless if you don’t leverage it to your benefit. In fact, the information you have can help to inspire creative ideas to help craft great marketing campaigns.

How Data Can Spark Creativity

Data doesn’t just help you figure out what’s working and what isn’t, it can help drive creative decisions that allow you to create great marketing campaigns. A good example of this is Netflix. Everyone knows that Netflix has an absolute treasure trove of behavioural data from their subscribers. They leverage this data to inform the content that they produce.

For example, many critics were bewildered when they gave Adam Sandler a huge four-movie deal. Saying that his movies are panned across the board is putting it mildly, after all. However, according to their data, his older films were streamed an absurd amount. They knew that even if critics didn’t like his films, their subscribers certainly did — and that’s why they signed him to produce Netflix-exclusive films.

Netflix will often look at subscriber viewing habits and look at where they overlap to find a niche that they can fill with their original content. For example, the popularity of older series on Netflix has often resulted in revivals, such as Fuller House and Arrested Development.

Another good example is Equifax. Using their data, they realized that the average person’s credit score depended heavily on how old they were. They used this data to create a great marketing campaign that provided tailored benefits information to people at different stages of their lives.

How to Incorporate Email Marketing into B2B Campaigns

How To Use Your Data To Inform Your Creative Marketing Campaigns

How you use your data to influence your creativity and create great marketing campaigns depends heavily on the specifics of your business. However, the following are a few basic ways data can help you connect to your audience on a more emotional level when creating new marketing campaigns:

  • Learn what your audience connects with

    Look at how your audience engaged with previous campaigns. By looking at what worked and what didn’t work, you can figure out exactly how your audience was able to engage with you on an emotional level. For example, maybe certain types of content posted on social media were commented on and shared much more than other types of content. This will give you a better idea of what your audience is looking for, which can give you better direction on how to reach your audience on a more personal level during future campaigns.

  • Learn what your audience’s needs are

    You can figure out what your audience wants by analyzing certain sets of data. For example, you can compare two PPC ads promoting the same product in two different ways. You can then use the conversion rates of both ads. The ad that converts more leads is probably presenting a solution that fulfils a need that your audience has more effectively than the other. This information can be used to reach your audience more successfully with future ads.

  • Continually improve your campaign

    Once you launch a new campaign, don’t just stay the course if it’s obvious something isn’t working. You should continually track the results of your campaign based on your specific goals. The data you gather can help you figure out whether your creative decisions are having an impact on your audience or not. If they aren’t, you can make adjustments even as your campaign is ongoing.

When building new marketing campaigns, make sure that you make use of the data that you have. Your data can be the difference between creating great marketing campaigns and failed marketing campaigns.

Why You Should Consider Using YouTube Videos For Senior Living Marketing

When it comes to choosing what platforms to leverage in order to reach senior living audiences, you may have skipped over YouTube assuming that this particular platform is aimed at younger audiences. However, this is actually not true. You may want to give YouTube another look as it turns out YouTube videos are an excellent way to reach older audiences. The following are just a few of the reasons why you should incorporate YouTube videos into your senior living content marketing strategy:

1. Seniors Use YouTube Frequentlydigital marketing tactics

The idea that YouTube is for younger generations is a misconception that simply isn’t true. In fact, YouTube is the number one video platform of choice for the Baby Boomer generation. According to YouTube’s Trends Dashboard, more than 60 million Baby Boomers over the age of 55 view content on YouTube every month. In fact, four times as many Baby Boomers visit YouTube than people under the age of 18. This means that creating YouTube videos is actually an excellent way to reach your target demographics.

2. Seniors Are Social

By 2013, there were already 39 million people 65 and older that were using Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. At the time, this made them the fastest growing age demographic for these social channels. Considering the fact that there are more senior citizens than ever, incorporating social into your content marketing strategy is a must–and YouTube is a social platform. When you create YouTube videos, you can post them to Facebook, after all. Seniors can then comment, like, and share your YouTube videos, helping to increase brand awareness amongst their social circles, which are likely to be filled with family members as well as friends in the senior citizen age range.

marketing senior living

3. Seniors Prefer Visual Storytelling

The best way to reach senior citizens is through the use of visual storytelling (according to multiple studies on the subject). There’s no more effective way to tell a story in a visual manner than through video. For example, you could use video to tell the story of a resident and their journey to find a home at your senior living facility. By making a resident the main character in your video, you would make your content more relatable to your audience.

4. YouTube Videos Allow Pre-Roll Ads

Pre-roll ads have become quite common on YouTube videos. They are the 5 to 30-second spots that run before the video and that usually can’t be skipped until 5 seconds in. While they can be a real annoyance for a lot of viewers, they can actually be very effective if they are relevant to your video content. This is especially true if you already have video content available on your site.

Read More Related Article: 4 Senior Living Video Marketing Ideas That Will Improve Engagement

You can create effective pre-roll ads by cutting short 15 or 30-second spots out of existing video testimonials or video tours of your senior living facility. This way, when someone watches one of your YouTube videos (especially those that are instructional or informative and not promotional), your pre-roll ads will showcase your senior living facility so that they know who you are.

5. YouTube Videos Can Drive Traffic

YouTube isn’t just a platform to host videos. It can be used to help drive viewers to your website for more information. Curate your YouTube page so that you have a lot of YouTube videos audiences can go through, but make sure that it’s obvious that it’s your senior living facility’s page and include a link from your YouTube channel to your website. You should also add links to your video descriptions and clickable links embedded within the videos themselves towards the end. Doing so can help drive a significant amount of traffic to your website.

YouTube videos can be extremely effective at reaching a senior living audience, which is why you should incorporate YouTube into your content marketing strategy. It’s also worth mentioning that YouTube is owned by Google, which means that properly optimized YouTube videos can help to boost your SEO as well, thereby increasing your page rankings and helping to drive more organic traffic to your YouTube channel as well as your main website.

 

Lead Generation Strategy

The Right Lead Nurturing Strategy Can Help You Stay Top of Mind

Just as you put thoughtfully planned initiatives in place to help with new lead generation, you must also think about how you will then nurture these prospects through the sales cycle once you obtain the lead. Successful attraction marketing is having leads. A smart, strategic email and direct mail program can help you maintain a consistent connection with prospects and grow the relationships you have available to you—remaining ‘on their list’ and top of mind when they are ready to act.

Lead Nurturing Basics

It’s a proven fact: marketing needs to assist sales in order to achieve the most effective conversion results. So when you create a program that keeps prospects in touch with your thinking beyond just a salesperson’s outreach, you provide an opportunity to push the prospect through their journey faster. Utilize various outbound communications as key touch-points that complement the sales teams efforts, yet showcase your company’s thinking on a different level. Provide information contacts may be seeking out—not what you want to tell them—to build trust as they make their way to a purchase decision.

Key Considerations

The goal is to offer interesting, relevant and varied content that is not primarily self-serving in nature. Begin by creating a detailed plan for messaging and scheduling of communications. Think about common questions prospects may have, and how you can provide those answers while conveying your competitive advantages, promoting educational content you have to offer, and building trust in your abilities.

A study by DemandGen found that leads that are nurtured with targeted content produce an increase in sales opportunities of more than 20%. To ensure even greater success, target content to coincide with the behavior and mindset of your audiences at different points in their journey—naturally guiding them through the sales funnel by providing the right information at the right time in the buying process.

[Read About The Importance Of Lead Generation Content Marketing]

Fine Tuning

Set a solid foundation for your program by maintaining an up-to-date database with as much information on each prospect as possible. Determine the activity level, timing and quantity of communications that makes sense for each. Be organized, yet allow for adjustments as your program evolves. Track and score behavior and deliver content accordingly, allowing the sales team to receive better quality leads along the way to reach their goals. And remember: conversion is the ultimate objective. Always hold something back—never tell the whole story in your email—make them want to click through to your site or landing page to learn more.

How Marketing Automation Can Help

According to ChadwickMartinBailey, 56% of U.S. email users unsubscribe from a business or nonprofit email subscription because of content that is no longer relevant. Automation makes it easier to schedule emails, segment contacts, manage your content, trigger responsive emails based on actions, and track the lifecycle of prospects in your marketing funnel. By addressing their specific needs, contacts stay engaged; yet you are ultimately in control because you set the parameters for informing, interacting with and nurturing each lead. It provides you the ability to better target your contacts in a personalized way—assisting the buying decision based on their behavior—and leading to increased conversion rates. Consider investing in one of many standard marketing automation software systems to simplify your Top of Mind program initiatives.

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Food Retail is Dying to a Millennial Mind

Food Retail Marketing to Millennials

In 2021, food brands should be targeting Millennials with their advertisements, however the traditional media avenues are not as effective in reaching this younger generation of consumers.

Millennials consume advertisements through technology because it is so integrated into their lives, with 81 percent using televisions, 76 percent using laptops, 40 percent iPhones, and 48 percent using desktop computers. Read more