10 Creative Ways to Use Reels in Your Instagram Marketing Strategy
In today’s fast-paced world, attention spans are shorter than ever, making it challenging for businesses to grab the attention of their target audience. Instagram Reels, a short-form video feature, has emerged as a game-changer in digital marketing. Reels are an engaging way to showcase products, tell a brand’s story, and connect with followers. With over a billion monthly active users, Instagram provides businesses with an excellent opportunity to reach a vast audience.Read more
Reasons Why Everyone’s Outsourcing Their Marketing
Marketing is effective, but it isn’t easy. In today’s modern environment, marketing particularly digital marketing has rapidly evolved transforming the way businesses operate. It’s safe to say most business owners aren’t exactly marketing experts. In order to run an effective and successful business, they need help creating and implementing their marketing efforts. Building an entire marketing team can prove troublesome with limited employees. This is one of the many reasons why businesses should consider the advantages of outsourcing.
To help you understand the benefits of outsourced marketing consider our eight points below.
1. Results
Outsourcing your marketing efforts and working with a marketing agency means you can and should expect the best results possible. Marketing agencies not only provide a team of experts, but they also want to please you as their client. Agencies provide you with high-quality services because they understand that keeping customers is less expensive than finding new ones. Any marketing agency knows they can be easily replaced by another agency, so they are motivated to ensure you’re satisfied with the work they produce.
2. Collaboration
When you outsource your marketing you gain access to an entire team of marketing professionals with extensive skill sets. Experts that make up the team share different thoughts and opinions on what will make your marketing success so you’re receiving a diverse wealth of experience and knowledge. Engaging marketing teams through outsourcing enables your business to collaborate in ways not previously available.
3. Strategy
Often internal marketing teams become too focused on the ‘what’ that they totally forget the ‘why’. Outsourcing your marketing efforts to a marketing agency allows you to gain an outside opinion from a range of marketing experts. A marketing agency can help identify and develop components of your marketing strategy that may have been overlooked internally.
4. Technology
Not only is the latest marketing technology expensive, but it also takes a considerable amount of time for employees to learn how to use it. Most businesses can’t afford to spend large amounts of money on software they don’t know how to use which is why outsourcing marketing is a viable option for many businesses. Marketing agencies have access to not only the latest marketing tools, platforms and technology (like Robotic Marketer) but a team of experts that know how to use it to businesses advantage.
5. An Outside Look
If you are a business owner, taking a critical look at your business can be hard which is why an outsourced marketing agency is the only option. A team of marketing professionals can analyze your business from the outside and differentiate between what is and what isn’t working. With a wealth of marketing knowledge and experience, they can help your business stand apart from your competition and attract more customers.
6. Team of Experts
There are many aspects of marketing, for example, search engine optimization, social media engagement, email campaigns and strategy analysis. Each aspect requires an entirely different skill set so it can feel overwhelming for anyone to conquer every single aspect. Engaging a team of experts, however, provides your business with an increased chance of success. An outsourced marketing team has an entire range of experts from an SEO specialist right through to a strategy analyst.
7. Saves Time
The primary goal of any business is to make sure every single aspect is running smoothly. In doing so you can focus your energy on bringing in new business. However, doing this takes time and time is something every business owner wishes they had more of. To help free up time and allow you to focus your efforts elsewhere consider hiring people with better skills than you. Outsourcing your marketing efforts to people who are better at a specific skill than you are will save time and help your business achieve greater results.
8. Optimise Spend
No business can afford to make costly marketing errors which is why outsourcing your marketing to a team of professionals will save you lots of money. Consider hiring an employee internally, you have to include their salary, benefits, personal or sick leave. Then you run the risk of hiring them only to realize they don’t fit in with your corporate culture. However, hiring an outsourced marketing agency means you not only gain access to a team of professionals but you know exactly how much you’re paying them.
10 Characteristics of a Good Marketing Consultant
Marketing is a competitive game that requires carefully planned and well-executed tactics in order to be successful. Misinformed decisions often result in wasted time, resources and energy something businesses cannot afford in the current climate. A marketing consultant has the ability to look at your business and identify where the problems lie, realize where the opportunities exist, and how to create marketing that your ideal customer will respond to.
Choosing the right consultant for your business can be challenging, so take the time to consider what really makes a good marketing consultant.
To help you and your business make the right decision here are 10 characteristics of a good marketing consultant.
1. Devotion to listening and attentiveness
Consulting is so much more than the simple process of a business acquiring advice from a consultant. A good consultant will take the time to learn everything they can about their clients, listening attentively and remaining patient as they listen to any issues, requirements and goals.
Only after listening to their client will any successful marketing consultant recommend effective changes to a business’s operations. A marketing consultant that pays attention to their client not only understands their point of view but also develops relationships based on trust
2. A willingness to learn and grow
A good marketing consultant will offer expertise in a wide variety of marketing specializations. The best consultants are continually expanding their capabilities within new areas of digital marketing, social media and public relations to deliver clients more effective marketing strategies. They understand the rapidly changing environment, and never miss the necessity to evolve or risk becoming professionally obsolete.
3. Understands value
A good marketing consultant recognizes the value of great content and understands how to leverage content marketing to grow your business. Generating relevant content for your target audience is indeed a reliable, cost-effective, and successful tactic to grow your traffic and boost conversions. For a successful content marketing strategy, you need to know who your audience is.
Good consultants are able to clearly define your target audience; helping you create more personalized content that is relevant.
4. Trustworthy
One of the biggest priorities of any marketing consultant working with a new client is establishing trust. Trust is built when someone knows they are getting what they expect, every time.
Establishing trust with your clients can be difficult as most clients are result-driven and need to see the end result before recognizing any positive outcomes. So, it’s important marketing consultants prove their contributions are worth more than their cost of hire.
A good marketing consultant will have a network of connections that promote their professional activities and achievements. Businesses’ should take the time to analyze consultants’ previous client tributes, website testimonials and LinkedIn endorsements to greater understand what they can offer.
5. A creative out of the box thinker
Good marketing consultants have the creative skills to come up with innovative campaigns and tactics that attract audiences in a new way. They work with staff to understand the business first, and then develop a marketing strategy that gains attention.
It’s hard to be creative when you’re doing the same thing every day which is why an independent marketing consultant can generate new ideas businesses may not have previously thought of. A good marketing consultant will work to weave businesses’ brand stories in a way that appeals to the market and gives an advantage over competitors in the same industry.
6. Adaptable to ever-changing circumstances
A good marketing consultant should be able to integrate new information and draw conclusions from it, switching from the detail to the big picture. Being able to respond to change with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to achieve targets is a key competency. Learning to embrace technology and live with ambiguity and uncertainty is the necessity of any marketing consultant.
7. Well presented
A good marketing consultant will present themselves with respect and dignity, demonstrating a hard-working mentality to their client.
A well-presented consultant leaves a good impression on others, which is appreciated by all. They look presentable every day, which helps demonstrate a marked difference in their confidence.
Furthermore, a well-presented marketing consultant will look at a challenge with excitement rather than apprehension, offering clients realistic timelines for completion of work, even when that timeline is contrary to what the client wants to hear.
8. Always willing to go the extra mile
Often businesses produce content without a clear picture of who they intend to target. A good marketing consultant takes the time to research your respective market and construct valuable content based on demographics and market trends. They track gaps in the market in order to create opportunities for your product or service to meet the specific needs of those gaps.
9. Goal Oriented
A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a business is achieving key business objectives. A good marketing consultant understands and applies the appropriate KPIs for your business allowing them to measure the performance of key marketing strategies and adjust them if necessary.
10. Strong Work Ethic
Part of a good work ethic is commitment and dedication to the job. A good marketing consultant knows how to focus on the task at hand with no distractions and usually work until they achieve the client’s goal successfully. Adopting a meticulous approach to their work ethic, they are reliable, professional, flexible and above all places an emphasis on quality.
There are plenty of marketing consultants on the market claiming they have the practice, means, and strategy to improve your business’ current marketing plan. But with so many consultants available, it can be overwhelming and daunting to separate the good from the bad.
If you’re considering working with a marketing consultant, they should possess a majority, if not all ten of the characteristics above. Fundamentally, a good marketing consultant has respect for your business, your time, and your point of view.