30 Ways to Boost Instagram Engagement & Following

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Looking for ways to boost your social media brand presence? Knowing how to increase brand engagement on Instagram, the latest and hippest social media platform app, is a great start. People are online all day due to working from home. Virtual shopping has risen due to restrictions and pandemic fears. As we have geared toward a more online world, your brand’s presence on the web is more important now than ever.

Why Instagram?

According to Forbes, 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business or brand, and 200 million users on Instagram visit business profiles daily. 70% of users turn to Instagram to look up a brand, and 60% learn about new products using Instagram. Now is the time to catch up with the competition that is already using these trends to their advantage.

Here is a compilation of our 30 best marketing tips for businesses to grow Instagram engagement and following in 2020:

Instagram Profile and Posting Habits

  1. Get to know the Instagram app and master how to use its basic features such as uploading posts and stories.
  2. Write a compelling Instagram bio and integrate it into your brand personality.
  3. Keep posts visually consistent to meet your brand’s style guide and tone.
  4. Incorporate categorized pinned stories on your Instagram page so it is easily navigable and can be used as a resource for sharing your brand identity to consumers.
  5. Optimize captions using brand hashtags and relevant hashtags with high popularity. (Determine if a hashtag is trending by typing the hashtag in the instagram search bar to see how many posts come up with the hashtag.)
  6. Use tools such as Hashtagsforlikes to optimize hashtags to use for your business sector.
  7. Create and promote a specific branded hashtag for a campaign. Encourage others to share the hashtag with it theming around a relevant, trending topic that consumers are passionate about.
  8. Use local hashtags and geotags on posts in order to attract local users on Instagram in a similar way SEO works for the web.
  9. Post consistently with both posts and stories, including videos, polls, and other interactive elements to keep followers engaged and entertained with your content. 
  10. Start conversations using Instagram stories stickers and polls.
  11. Schedule Instagram stories to generate more views.
  12. Keep in mind that 40% of Instagram videos do not have sound on, so ensure you caption relevant verbal content.
  13. Convert instagram followers into email subscribers by making your Instagram a business account and promoting your email subscriptions in your Instagram posts and stories.
  14. Monitor your tagged photos to ensure a good reputation, and un-tag your account on posts that are irrelevant or spam, so they do not appear on your profile.
  15. Add a link to instagram stories in order to generate website traffic.
  16. Use humor through gif’s and memes to execute your brand message through a creative angle.

Increasing your Instagram following

  1. Optimize SEO on instagram by paying vital attention to your Instagram handle and name. It is very important that your handle (@…) reflects your business industry. Try to make it short, sweet, and with relevant words. The account name should reflect the account handle and industry because it is what Instagram checks its searches against when users type a word or emoji in the search bar.
  2. Partner with micro influencers.
  3. Run a contest, giveaway, or raffle entry through your account page.
  4. Invest in Instagram ads, which targets customers with personalization and buyer persona techniques.
  5. Create “savable” content, or posts that are aesthetically pleasing, informationally useful or relevant. This will entice followers to save the content to their library and increases the chances of further brand awareness. Simultaneously, creating desirable content provides people a reason to continue following your page and share your content.
  6. Participate in popular conversations on accounts with high following and public relevance in order to get your instagram handle out there and quickly generate new followers.
  7. Encourage followers to re-share your Instagram stories through incentives of discount promotion codes and/or contests.
  8. Open up about your business with a weekly featured vlog of the day in the life of an employee, an interesting biographical picture and captioned story of the founders, or inspirational quote from the CEO.
  9. Follow relevant accounts and users following competition in your industry to gain followers back.
  10. Promote your Instagram on other social media accounts. Feature your Instagram account in your Twitter and Facebook bios, and make a post promoting your Instagram page with a link.
  11. If your Facebook has many likes or followers already, consider linking your Facebook and Instagram together to boost your Instagram following.

6 Social Media Trends to Follow in 2020

Keeping Track of your Instagram Performance

  1. Ensure your account is in business mode to automatically receive valuable insights and analytics on how your posts are doing.
  2. Regularly test and analyze new content to post to your Instagram.
  3. Use a free follower tracking app to regularly unfollow accounts that do not follow yours back in order to maintain a good follower/following ratio while continuously following new accounts.

We hope these 30 tips with various resources serve you well on your journey to becoming an Instagram lead-generation powerhouse. Happy “gram-ing”!

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july 2020 marketing trends

What’s Trending in Marketing for July 2020

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During this Covid-19 summer, staying current on marketing trends is especially important to assess whether your marketing efforts are harmonious with today’s evolving world. We know the difficulty of keeping up with these trends given the abundance of information thrown at us every day. The following articles highlight current marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

Zuckerberg: Advertisers will be back to Facebook ‘soon enough’

Over 600 brands are a part of the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign boycotting Facebook advertising due to their accusation that Facebook policies are too slow at removing hateful content. A recent BBC article reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not plan to acknowledge the boycott, believing these companies will return to Facebook Ads soon enough. Read more on BBC. 

Google Adds Auto-Generated ‘Smart Replies’ to YouTube Studio

Google added automatic “smart replies” to YouTube studio to ease communication and engagement for creators. According to Google, the system is the first of its kind to have cross-lingual and character-byte based features. This new feature is currently available for English and Spanish only. The system scans comments on YouTube videos and provides suggested quick replies to each for the account owner to select. Over time, it adapts response suggestions to the user’s conversational tone and style. This new feature can allow youtube users to enhance their public relations image with fans and subscribers. Get the full story on Social Media Today. 

Enjoy this Article: Marketing Trends in April 2020

Improving Your Marketing Program

Free Digital Marketing Tools to Cope With COVID-19

During these trying times, we are seeing free and discounted digital marketing tools, being used to support sales and service professionals. This generosity has helped keep marketing teams engaged, support demand generation initiatives, and enable sales and service professionals to better meet the needs of their customers. While this list may not be comprehensive, here are some recommendations for the most valuable digital marketing tools available to sales, marketing, and customer success professionals today.

Marketing Strategies In Times of Fear and Uncertainty

Your marketing strategies must play a role in reassuring customers. Unfortunately, there is much uncertainty in the world, and that’s truer now than ever before. It’s no secret that the coronavirus has left many people in a state of fear, anxiety and grief. We know this is a great time to be marketing- but perhaps are unsure what is best for every customer during these times. While these concerns are logical, it’s important to keep a positive attitude. Your marketing strategies should be about helping your customers keep that positive attitude. Here are a few ways to help them do just that.

Blog vs. Vlog: Why Your Business Should Begin Vlogging

The blog has long been one of the preferred tactics for content marketing strategies. Using a blog, you can easily publish a variety of different content, from written articles to infographics and more. However, blogging isn’t the only content marketing tactic that works. More and more businesses are beginning to vlog as well. The concept of a vlog is simple — it’s a blog in video form. The question is how do you decide which to choose between blog vs. vlog for which type of content?

 

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trendsjuly marketing trends

Coronavirus Forces Dramatic Change in Marketing, But More Can Be Done to Adapt

The current state of uncertainty is impacting 82% of marketer’s day-to-day life. There is room for improvement in marketer’s internal communication with employees, as 60% provide regular updates to everyone on organization impact and 54% provide regular internal updates on the customer’s feelings and behavior. 72% of marketers have communicated with customers about their organization’s next steps. However, 58% of marketers report difficulty due to their organization’s reaction to the pandemic. For instance, 48% have frozen hiring, 56% have reduced marketing budgets, with the average budget reduction over 30%, mainly in creative and media spend categories. The largest cuts are in the digital channel. These drastic cuts in marketing spending are expected to hurt brand equity long-term. 40% of marketers have developed coronavirus-specific creative, 16% have increased corporate social responsibility and 34% have begun offering promotions to engage customers during the situation. More about the study is available on AMA. 

IAB U.S. 2020 Digital Video Advertising Spend Report: Putting COVID in Context

Due to connected TV, video campaigns remain stable among the cancelled campaigns due to the pandemic. IAB’s U.S. 2020 Digital Video Advertising Spend Report found that Connected TV was the least impacted by Covid-19. Key findings include that the average Connected TV spend for the year is expected to reach $16 million per advertiser, which is a 8% rise. More than half of these buyers are switching dollars from broadcast and Cable TV towards Connected TV.  The largest buyer categories are retail spending $32.2 million per advertiser, media/entertainment spending $31.9 million per advertiser and telecom spending $20.6 million per advertiser. The hardest hit in 2020 is expected to be video advertising on desktop. Download IAB’s full report here.

Homebuilder Sentiment Posts a Record Jump in June, signaling a Housing-Market Rebound from the Coronavirus Pandemic

The National Association of Homebuilders/ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index’s report of homebuilder sentiment rose to 58 in June, which was a record-high 21-point jump. According to the index, anything above 50 indicates a positive market. As mortgage rates are at all-time lows, 10.9% more people applied to purchase a home this May compared to 2019. Overall, all components of the housing market index gained in June. The positive outlook in this industry points to a notable opportunity for homebuilder marketers. Read more on the Business Insider. 

Manufacturing bounces back stronger than expected in June, ISM reading shows

For the first time since the pandemic lockdown, over half of U.S. manufactures reported better-than-expected expansion in June. According to the Institute for Supply Manufacturing survey, 52.6% of companies reported growth, which was higher than economist expectations. Only 5 out of 18 industries reported negatively. Textile mills, wood products, furniture and related products had the highest expansion. In May, employment went up 10 points, production up 33.2 points, and new orders up 31.8 points. Manufacturing companies have a marketing opportunity as business begins to rise in these industries. CNBC has the full story here.

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social media trends 1

TikTok Advertising Strategies Are Becoming More Common

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Most businesses these days are using at least one or two social media channels to market their brand. However, new social channels emerge every year, many of which are worth your attention. Take TikTok for example. Although initially dismissed by most as another social media platform for teens, more businesses are taking notice. This is because they are beginning to realize that TikTok is attracting more adult users every day. As such, TikTok advertising is well worth considering.

What is TikTok?

TikTok started off as a platform on which users could upload videos of themselves lip-synching to music videos. These videos were no more than 15 seconds long. In a way, they were like a more niche-based version of the now-defunct Vine social platform. As such, it was no surprise that the platform attracted a younger audience. However, older users began taking advantage of TikTok’s audience to showcase themselves in different ways. For example, comedians would upload short videos of stand-up routines. Another example is of skateboarders, who would upload tricks that they landed. Soon, TikTok allowed its users to upload videos up to 60 seconds long.

Who Uses TikTok?

TikTok still has a userbase that leans on the younger side with more than 66 percent of its users under the age of 30. However, if you have a younger target audience, then TikTok is very much worth your time. This is especially true when you consider the fact that more parents are using TikTok on a daily basis (it’s estimated that 41 percent of dads have used TikTok). Not to mention that TikTok currently has over six million users in the U.S. alone.

Video Marketing Ideas: Using Storytelling in Social Media

How Can You Leverage TikTok To Market Your Brand?

If your buyer personas match the target audience of TikTok, then you may be curious as to how you can use the platform to your advantage. The following are just a few effective tactics when it comes to TikTok advertising:

  • User-generated content

TikTok is a great platform for encouraging user-generated content. Instagram is the other social channel where user-generated content is incredibly effective. One of the reasons user-generated content is so successful on both of these channels is because it encourages active audience engagement. Not only will they be engaged with your brand, but they will also generate content that helps promote your brand. In a sense, you’ll be getting free advertising. Users are more likely to participate using TikTok as well due to the platform’s focus on video creation.

  • TikTok challenges

One of the reasons why TikTok’s popularity has exploded over recent years is due to the challenges that users engage in. For example, one type of challenge involves doing a specific dance move or physical challenge (such as taking off your shirt while doing a wall stand). Many of these challenges go viral organically, but businesses have begun creating their own challenges in an effort to engage more users. When creating a challenge, make sure to use a hashtag along with an appropriate title. Doing so ensures that the challenge has a better chance of being found and shared.

  • Influencer marketing

Just like Instagram, TikTok is home to users with enormous followings. As such, you should consider influencer marketing. Influencer marketing involves building a relationship with someone on the platform with a large influence (number of followers). As long as your brand is relevant to them, they will be able to influence their followers’ awareness and feelings about your brand. For example, if you create a challenge, you can get it exposure by having an influencer take part in that challenge. They can also encourage their followers to do the same.

  • TikTok’s advertising platform

Like other social platforms, TikTok does have its own advertising platform that you can use. Some of the TikTok advertising options include in-feed videos, brand takeover ads, branded AR content, and more. TikTok can even help assist with your influencer marketing campaign via its customer influence package. Additionally, you will can customize your targeting options using website traffic, ad engagement, app activity, or customer contact data.

Begin Integrating TikTok Advertising As Part Of Your Social Marketing Strategy

Although TikTok has a younger user-base, it is continuing to grow, attracting more and more older users. As such, it’s worth considering TikTok advertising, especially if any of your buyer personas match with TikTok’s current audience.

 

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Google ads credit

How the Covid-19 Relief Google Ads Credit Program Works

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Google has responded to Covid-19 globally by giving qualified small and medium sized businesses $340 million in free Google ads credit. This includes small and medium sized businesses who advertised with Google Ads directly through Google and/or a digital marketing agency (like Stevens and Tate).

google ads credit

Eligibility and Amount Given:

In order to qualify for the Google Ads Credit Program, a small or medium sized business must have spent money with a Google Ads account in 10 of 12 months in the year 2019, and in January and/or February of the year 2020.

Each eligible customer will receive one ad credit, even if that customer advertises with more than one account. The maximum U.S. Dollars the free ad would be worth is $1,000, and the amount varies by factors including: amount spent on Google Ads in the past, country billing address, and currency.

How to View your Google Ad Credit:

Google Ad credits have launched in Australia, China, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States. There is no application process; the Google ad credits are automatically applied. Additionally, qualified customers cannot transfer, split, or refund their Google ad credits. Qualified accounts will receive a notification email. The applied credit appears on the Google Ads account by clicking “Tools” > “Billing” > “Promotion”. The Google ad amount appears on the “Transactions” page. The free ad credit expires on December 31, 2020.

Helpful Resources for your Business During This Time of Uncertainty:

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What’s Trending in Marketing For February 2019

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As you begin launching any new marketing campaigns at the beginning of the year, it’s a good idea to check out some of the latest marketing trends. While some marketing trends come and go, many of them have the potential to influence your own marketing efforts for the better, not to mention that the industry certainly latches onto certain marketing trends, which means you won’t want to fall behind. The following are a few of the marketing trends that we recommend looking into this February:

Noteworthy Marketing News

Gillette Takes a Social Stance And Goes Viral

As Nike showed us last year, taking a social stance helps make your company more relatable and can have a huge effect on brand awareness. Gillette recently published a video directly addressing the Me Too movement by commentating on toxic masculinity. Consumers obviously took note as the video racked up over 11. 5 views on YouTube within three days. Watch the Gilette video and read more about it at Marketing Land.

Living Coral Named Pantone’s Color Of The Year

Every year, Pantone names a color of the year. The entire design industry takes note as Panton names the color of the year based on careful analysis of the year’s color trends. This year, living coral–a shade of pink–was named color of the year after its use by Airbnb and Apple. Read more about Pantone’s color of the year at Adweek.

Army Implements New Recruitment Strategy For Generation Z

While marketers continually focus on the Millennial generation, a new generation has already begun to mature–Generation Z. Because recruitment has dropped significantly over the past year, the Army has decided to change their strategy to connect with Generation Z more effectively–by going digital, expanding recruitment to urban centers, and by getting creative. The Washington Examiner goes into greater detail concerning what the new Army recruitment strategy entails.

Improving Your Marketing Program

Learn How to Prepare This Year’s Marketing Strategy

Now that it’s 2019, reviewing last year’s marketing campaigns and planning this year’s marketing strategy ahead of time will help ensure that you hit the ground running. We’ve outlined eight steps that will help you to prepare your 2019 marketing strategy, including reviewing last year’s strategy, reviewing your target audience, and creating new SMART goals.

Find Out What Advertising Trends Are Going to Catch On This Year

As you begin to create your new marketing strategy, you’ll want to stay ahead of the game by keeping your eye on advertising trends that are likely to catch on throughout the year. We’ve gone over a number of advertising trends that we are starting to see within the industry and that we expect will grow in popularity as the year goes on, including a bigger emphasis on voice search, the growing importance of micro-moments, the increase in visual search, and more. Head over to our site to read more about 2019 advertising trends.

Check Out How to Create a Stronger Brand By Improving Your Package Design

The design of your product’s package has a huge impact on your brand identity. Learn how to attract the eye of your target audience and how to stand out from the competition by checking out our list of package design tips by our very own Mark Beebe.

Advertising Trends That Will Catch On In 2019

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Keep an Eye on Generation Alpha

Although Generation Z is the generation that’s currently maturing, some brands are looking even further ahead by targeting kids under the age of 10 that belong to Generation Alpha. Generation Alpha is the generation of tech-savvy children of Millennials that reports have shown are having a rising influence into the purchase habits of their households. Read more about Generation Alpha’s influence at AdAge.

Mobile Users Have Better Ad Awareness While Watching TV

According to Mobile Marketer’s recent article, consumers are more receptive to mobile advertisements when they’re relaxing at home, such as in front of the TV. While this does vary based on demographics, such information can be quite helpful for marketers in identifying when to best target their audience.

Twitter’s Commitment to Ensure Brand Safety for Video Advertisers

Last year, almost half of all of Twitter’s business came from video advertising. As a result, Twitter is making a concerted effort to create a brand safe environment for its video advertisers so that they can choose which publishers they are associated with or what content genres they want to be associated with. Find out more about how Twitter is creating a brand safe environment for video advertisers at Ad Exchanger.

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Security

Advertising Trends That Will Catch On In 2019

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A lot of new–and effective–advertising trends caught on this year, many of which you should consider looking into. However, it’s always important to keep track of the latest advertising trends even if some of them come and go. Advertising trends that pop up could end up being perfect for your specific marketing needs, and they are a good way to judge which direction marketing is going in general. Keeping that in mind, the following are a few advertising trends we expect to see in 2019:

A Bigger Emphasis On Voice Search

Personal assistants, such as Alexa and Siri, are growing in popularity because they are making life much more convenient for people. The technology of voice search has also grown exponentially over the past few years. This has led to almost a third of the 3.5 billion searches being performed on Google every day being voice searches. Because of this, it’s important that you begin building your SEO strategy with voice search in mind this upcoming year.

A Return To Print Marketing

Despite what some believe, digital marketing hasn’t completely killed off print marketing. In fact, it turns out print marketing still has an important place in the marketing world. As consumer email inboxes overflow with unopened emails, savvy businesses are using print marketing (such as flyers and newsletters) to reach their audience. Using print marketing to compliment your digital marketing is the smartest way to go.

Does Direct Marketing Have A Role In Inbound Marketing?

video marketing trendsInternet Watching Will Catch Up To TV Watching

Recent studies have predicted that the number of hours of video watched per day online will catch up to TV in 2019. This means that looking for ways to reach those audiences (such as on streaming sites) should be a part of your marketing strategy.

 

Micro-Moments Will Become More Important

Micro-moments are those small moments in which a person quickly looks something up online but doesn’t spend a whole lot of time doing so. For example, looking up an actor in a movie whose name they can’t remember during a discussion, or trying to find the nearest burger joint. On average, users experience roughly 150 micro-moments a day. Businesses will be paying more attention to these micro-moments in order to fulfill the needs of their target audience.

Visual Search Will Advance

At the moment, search queries are limited to text. However, this will soon change. It won’t be long until people will be able to perform visual searches by taking pictures of things with their phones. In fact, Google presented the work its done on visual search so far just this year in the form of Google Lens. Once visual search is implemented (the technology is still being developed), consumers will be able to take a photograph of a piece of furniture in order to find something similar on sale via visual search.

These are a few of the advertising trends that we predict will catch on this upcoming year. Be sure to keep these in mind as you begin developing your 2019 marketing strategies.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

What’s Trending for January 2019

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Staying up to date with all the latest marketing trends is a great way to keep your marketing efforts fresh and to find new tactics that can help improve your overall marketing strategy. That’s why every month we like to share some of the latest marketing trends so that you can see what’s new. The following are some of the marketing trends that have been catching on lately.

Noteworthy Marketing News

YouTube Ad Campaigns Begin Targeting TV Screens

Although mobile is the dominant platform for YouTube views, more and more people are watching YouTube on their TVs. YouTube is extending their ad campaigns onto TV devices to provide advertisers with greater reach. AdWords API capabilities for TV targeting will be accessible to advertisers beginning on January 8. For more information about these new TV screen targeting capabilities, read Marketing Land’s recent article on the subject.

YouTube Phasing Out CTA Overlays In Favor Of New Ad Extensions

YouTube will begin offering their new ad extension for TrueView in-stream ads and will eventually offer them for bumper ads as well as TrueView video discover ads. Although a minor change, the CTA ad extensions will be able to be applied to new and existing overlays, whereas overlays are created as part of the ad. For more detail, read Ginny Marvin’s write-up on YouTube’s switch to CTA ad extensions at Marketing Land.

HubSpot Reorienting Itself As Platform Vendor

HubSpot has long been known as a product suite, but that’s changing soon as it realigns itself as a platform vendor. Following HubSpot’s recent partnership with AWS, HubSpot is planning to become a platform that will support an increasing population of apps that support interactions with HubSpot. Read more about HubSpot’s shift at Martech Today.

Improving Your Marketing Program

We recently published a blog post reviewing some of the most effective marketing trends of 2018, including a focus on brand, authenticity, social change, and omnichannel marketing. Learn more about these 2018 marketing trends and how you can implement them into your marketing efforts in 2019 by reading Terry Becker’s post.

Clutch.co! Names Stevens and Tate Top Ad Agency in 2018

Here at Stevens and Tate, we have earned recognition for our marketing expertise for almost three decades. In 2018, we were named the top ad agency by Clutch, a third-party company that ranks B2B service providers on a yearly basis. Find out what Clutch had to say about our services by checking out the announcement on our blog.

Top 5 Marketing Tactics You Should Use in 2019

As you review your marketing strategy and prepare for the new year, you’ll want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your efforts. In this article, we go over five marketing tactics that you should make sure to implement into your marketing campaign if you haven’t done so already, including adding chatbots, producing video content, creating user-generated content, and more.

Why TV Advertising Remains Effective

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Three View Behaviors Common On YouTube in 2018

If you’re using YouTube as part of your marketing efforts, then tracking how your users behave is an important part of figuring out how to best engage them. Three of the most common YouTube user behaviors of 2018 include viewing content exploring alternative and minimalist lifestyles, searching for inspiration, and searching for a way to connect. For more details into the behavior of YouTube users in 2018, read Gina Shalavi’s article on the subject.

The Return Of Trust In Media

Trust in media has been on the downslope since the late 1970s, reaching an all-time low in 2016. However, new studies show that the media is regaining the trust of the general public, in part due to a focus on transparency that includes attempts by journalists to defend their work, better fact-checking partnerships, and more. Learn more about how the media has become more transparent and has regained the public’s trust by checking out Sara Fischer’s article on Axios.

10 Agency Pros Explain How Their Workflow Was Improved By AIartificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence continues to develop at a rapid pace to the point where it’s starting to become commonplace. Businesses across the world are using AI to help improve the efficiency of their workflow. Find out how by reading the Forbes article in which ten agency pros describe in detail how AI has helped them to improve their workflows.

 

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

Starting 2019 Strong: A third award from Clutch

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Over the course of 2018, our partnership with Clutch has been a close one. We’ve worked with this leading ratings and reviews firm to collect client feedback and gain insight on what we do best and, more importantly, what we could do better.

So far, this close partnership and our tight client relationships have helped us earn a place on two of Clutch’s awards lists. Now, we’re finishing 2018 with a final award as the Clutch team announces the top design and branding agencies across their platform. We couldn’t be more grateful to our clients who have taken the time to speak with Clutch about our work together, giving the platform the proof they needed to rank Stevens & Tate among the top.

Your Company’s Core Values Play a Role in Developing Your Brand Story

As we look to the next year, we’re confident that our client relationships will become more close-knit than ever, and we’ll maintain the same unique approach to every client challenge that has earned us a place as one of the top advertising agencies in Chicago and beyond.

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A Year In Review: Advertising Trends of 2018

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The year is almost coming to an end, which makes it the perfect time to take a look at some of the most popular advertising trends that caught on in 2018. The following are not only some of the most popular advertising trends of the year, but also some of the most effective ones that you may want to continue implementing into the new year.

1. Focusing On The Brandbrand development process

Businesses are switching their marketing efforts to focus more on their brand than on their products and for good reason–focus on the brand will never become outdated, whereas product messaging will become outdated the moment you release a new product. Not to mention that by focusing on the brand, it will be easier to sell products and services, whereas focusing on a single product or service will not have that domino effect. By focusing on your brand, you can establish yourself as being more relatable to your customers. This is a challenge if you’re just focusing on marketing products.

2. Being Authentic

Trying to appeal to your audience by being something you’re not simply doesn’t work anymore. Audiences are smart and they can tell whether or not you’re being authentic. They can sniff out a company that’s trying way too hard to be cool and to win over an audience. Being inauthentic is going to turn off your audience, not to mention potentially make your brand look dishonest.

Content Marketing Trends to Track in 2018

3. Embracing Social Change

It wasn’t long ago that businesses shied away from any kind of social issue (or anything that could be viewed as political) in fear that they might alienate part of their customer base. However, it turns out that by taking a stand for what you believe in, you’re more likely to strengthen your relationship with your audience. And even if you lose some customers as a result, odds are you’ll gain just as many for the same reason. A great example of a company embracing social change is Nike and their Colin Kaepernick ad.

4. Omni-Channel Marketing

There are a lot of marketing channels that you can use to reach your audience. However, picking and choosing one channel and focusing on it shouldn’t be the extent of your strategy. Businesses are leveraging multiple channels of marketing and using them to compliment one another in what’s called omni-channel marketing.

Examples of this include promoting content on your website via your social media channels. These channels don’t need to be within the same type of marketing format either. Many businesses are crossing their inbound and outbound channels. For example, it’s not uncommon for a business to promote their social media presence on the commercials they’re running on TV. This kind of cross-channel promotion helps improve the effectiveness of your reach.

These were some of the biggest advertising trends of 2018. While they are called “trends” they are legitimate marketing strategies that should remain effective well into 2019, making them worth considering as a part of your future marketing campaigns.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

Stevens and Tate Named Top Ad Agency in 2018 By Clutch.co!

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Whether you’re looking for a commercial or a full on marketing campaign, our team at Stevens and Tate has been offering the best solutions to our partners since our start in 1992. As a B2B service company, we recognize that our success stems from the success of our partners, and that is why we aim to deliver exactly what our clients need in order to boost their business. It is because of our client-focused mentality that our firm has caught the attention of ratings and review firm Clutch, who has ranked us as a leading marketing agency!

What is Clutch?

Clutch is an unbiased, third party company that provides rankings for B2B service providers in order to help companies who are looking for compatible partners. The rankings they give businesses like ours are derived primarily from work they have done with their past partners. Clutch contacts their past clients directly to hear their feedback and the experience that they had. On our review page, Clutch provided our ratings and the testimonials from our partner companies!

Here are only a few of the things that they have had to say about working with us:

  • “They’re a team of professionals that know how to communicate effectively.” – Owner, Grocery Store

  • “I cannot find another agency that matches their quality and their rates in equal measure – Division President, Real Estate Firm

  • “They understand our company and they understand our brand.” – VP of Marketing, Food Production Company

In addition to being highlighted on the Clutch website, our work has also been featured on their sister-website, The Manifest, where we are ranked in the top 30 advertising and marketing companies! This database provides industry reports and trends in rising companies in their respective fields, and serves as a tool that breaks down the top companies within their industries.

marketing-make-or-breakOver the years, we have had the opportunity to work with clients of all shapes and sizes! Whether their market is retail, healthcare, or the food industry, we help companies brand themselves and engage their customers effectively. Our diverse portfolio allows us to think outside of the box for our clients. It also has given us the ability to reach any market.

When working with our partners, we offer unique solutions that are tailored to their business specifically. We offer a multitude of services from branding, SEO, PPC, web design, and basic advertising. Our speciality is forming a strategy that helps your business grow and captures the attention of your customers!

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