How To Drive Event Engagement With Social Media

Social media marketing can be a fantastic tool to use in a variety of campaigns, especially in event promotion. This tool has not only changed the ways people promote events, but it has also changed how influencers and consumers can engage with brands and events associated with them. Social media marketing strategies allow for an open conversation between a brand and the consumer, and this is one of the most crucial steps in ensuring a successful event with high engagement.

Whether your event is a corporate event, an influencer party, a festival or concert, social media marketing can be a driving factor in your success if used correctly. Here are several ways you can use social media to drive engagement before, during, and after your event.

 

Pre-Event

 

Content Strategy 

In the initial stages of event planning, you will want to have a rough outline of social media content for the months, weeks, or days leading up to your event. Your company may already have an existing content plan in place for event management, but it is always in your best interest to customize the strategy to your specific event.

Social media content should be centered around the concept of your event, and all of your posts should match the tone, whether that be serious or more creative. Anything you create should also drive consumers to a landing page for sign-ups, donations, or anything related to the promotion of your event. Be sure to include educational pieces about featured speakers, sponsors, and any topics the event will be covering.

 

Influencer Involvement 

Get your sponsors and speakers involved! Most times influencers will be excited to help you push your event on social media, especially if they are a featured speaker. Create graphics and other messages that are easy to share on all social platforms, and also create content specifically related to sponsors that they can easily share as well.

Sharing, in this case, is caring for the success of your event. Be sure that any social content you post and push to consumers is readily available to share among event attendees. Don’t under-estimate the power of social share, this will increase your visibility with little to no cost associated.

A great strategy would be to invite a sponsor or influencer to take over your Instagram account or do a Facebook Live feed. It’s a place for your own followers to get excited about the event that you’re hosting, and it also gives the fans or followers of the influencer a chance to be directed to your page for more information on what they are sharing.

 

The Day-of

 

Vlog

Especially if this is event is annual, creating excitement around the event for years to come will be based out of any content and footage you have from years past. Occasionally, this may not be allowed depending on the privacy or overall tone of the event. However, if your company allows you to do so and it makes sense in your content strategy to create footage for the upcoming years, we absolutely recommend filming as much as possible.

 

Live Stream or Social 

This is an example of a live Twitter feed wall shared by Social Media Today, which are typically big hits at any conference or event. Common tools that will help you build a live-feed for your event are: TweetBeam, Twitterfall, Twubs, and HootFeed from Hootsuite.

 

Live Updates On Your Social Networks

Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are perfect platforms for this strategy. A unique content idea you could do at a convention would be to interview guest attendees on your company Instagram or Snapchat story. Tweeting live updates from the event is also a great way to interact with any attendee using the event hashtag that you create. This will allow you to retweet easily, and Instagram also has the new feature of being able to share photos on Instagram stories with credit to the user.

 

Post-Event

 

Gratitude Via Social Platforms

The content strategy doesn’t end at the event, the really successful conventions and events will always take it one step farther. Here are where the opportunities to engage with your attendees with give you the maximum value of social media marketing. Starting with gratitude, it will always go a long way to thank speakers, sponsors, and guests via social media to ensure they know that their presence was appreciated by your company. This will in turn help you build bonds and gain lifetime customers.

 

Creating Promotion For Next Year

Now that you have all of this material and content, it is time for your social team to get to work on compiling a promotion video or more social content for next year’s event. This can include testimonials from this year’s attendees, quotes from speakers and sponsors, and any footage of your guests having a great time!

 

More From Onimod Global

We would love to work with you and help you optimize your social media strategy for any event your company is hosting. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Digital Synergy Reports With Google Data Studio

The most essential piece to the puzzle of measuring success: data. Often delivered to you in an excel spreadsheet or word document, data can occasionally be painfully boring or confusing to interpret. The expert digital marketers at Onimod Global, trusted Google Partners, develop custom dynamic digital dashboards with Google Studio for all of our clients.

 

No more waiting for boring static reports in your inbox on Monday mornings.

 

Google Data Studio is designed to work together – all Google products in addition to other solutions are all compatible with this platform. Google Analytics, Google Ads, and more are all on one page with high-quality visuals for you to easily see what is performing well for you and what isn’t.

The large selection choice or graphs and charts gives us the opportunity to completely customize your reports making data the most transparent and easy to interpret for you and your company.

Individuals and teams from your company can easily view, add comments, and view different versions of data based on your preferred segmentation. The digital dashboards we create with Google Data Studio allows for revolutionary collaboration abilities in real-time with all changes automatically saved.

We offer this service to our clients because our goal is to increase our efficiency while we save you time and the eye sore of looking through boring spreadsheets of numbers.

 

Onimod Global is a trusted Google Partner, assuring you that you’re working with the best in the business. A Google Partner is an online marketing company, trusted by Google. Look for the badge on our site, this recognizes companies that excel with Google’s products.

Top Automotive Digital Marketing Trends of 2018

Digital marketing is very fast-paced and is continuously changing. However, if there is an industry that has experienced revolutionary advertising changes, it is the automotive industry. Gone are the days of spending the day at the dealership shopping around; most car shopping is almost entirely digital. In fact, a study by Luth Research revealed 900-plus digital interactions a vehicle shopper had before she made the decision to lease a vehicle.

This is just one example of how your online presence as a car dealership is beyond crucial to your success. Here are the top automotive digital marketing trends of 2018 that you should be on the lookout for.

 

Video and YouTube

One of the top 2017 trends is has continued to rise in popularity. It has officially moved from an up-and-coming trend and is here to stay. Research shows that YouTube is one of the most influential platforms for vehicle shoppers. It is so prominent that 69 percent of people who used YouTube while purchasing a vehicle were influenced – over newspapers and magazines.

According to Rebixit, the top types of videos that car buyers are watching include test drives, specs and features videos, and vehicle interior and exterior walkthroughs. Basically, it goes without saying that video needs to be a part of your marketing mix.

Also, no one is watching on his or her laptops. Expect to see users watching videos on all social media platforms, and make sure your video ads are mobile-friendly.

 

 

Local Search

“Car dealerships near me.”

This is an example of a long-tail keyword phrase that you will want to rank for on a search engine. High ranking on search engines is very powerful for any brick-and-mortar business who obtain a majority of their profit from local customers. 43 percent of all searches from Google come with local intent.

The best part about that? Local searches lead to far more purchase conversions than a non-local query on a search engine. 78 percent of local-mobile searches will lead to an offline purchase, commonly within a few hours.

Just to put those percentages into perspective, there have been over 4 billion searches on Google today. This indicates over 1 billion people have had local intent included in the overall query. Local search is something you definitely must pay attention to in the automotive industry.

 

Micro-Moments

Much like Luther study mentioned above reveals, micro-moments before the sale are HUGE, especially for dealerships. Remember that though customers come to the store to buy, they research for dozens of hours online before the purchase. Reaching out to shoppers during their buying journey is critical to success in a sale conversion. If you do this well, your company will be head and shoulders over other dealerships in your area.

Investing in paid search and having an engaging customer-friendly site are two things you can focus on to make sure potential buyers are finding answers to their questions efficiently.

 

Mobile Domination

We highly encourage you to design your site to make it as easy as possible for the user, specifically from a mobile perspective. Smartphones haven’t only become a significant component of the buying journey; they are dominating it.

In a detailed study of a customer’s purchasing journey, they found that 71% of the digital interactions occurred on mobile. This includes Google, YouTube, manufacturer websites, and review websites.

 

However, having only a mobile-friendly website won’t be enough to secure a mobile-first user as a customer. Opportunities presented through video, engaging social media content, local search, and mobile apps will help you to see many more customers coming into your store ready to buy.

More From Onimod Global

We would love to work with you and help you optimize your automotive digital marketing strategy. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Facebook Is Bringing Augmented Reality Ads To The News Feed

Facebook is getting creative with advertising content that their users can engage with: augmented reality!

For those of you unfamiliar with augmented reality, and especially the use of it in advertisements, it is extremely interactive and allows you to try out a virtual version of a product in a real-world environment. The example below from Engadget is how this technology will potentially be implemented into the Facebook advertising space.

 

This advertising will be available to only U.S. users in the entry launch. You as a consumer will be able to try on clothes, accessories, cosmetics, and even try out some AR-based games and apps.

Michael Kors was the first company to try out the new AR ads, and as you can see above, consumers were able to try on sunglasses and purchase them straight from the ad they were engaging with. In addition to Michael Kors, Wayfair, Sephora, Pottery Barn, NYX Professional Makeup, Bobbi Brown and King are all companies testing out the AR ads as well.

Due to the significant increase in AR popularity, the release of AR ads was no surprise to marketers. Almost 80 million people in the U.S. engage with AR monthly, and this number is expected to rise to 120 million by 2021.

AR is already regularly used and very successful in Facebook Messenger, so incorporating it into the News Feed is a natural next step for the technology. Nike used AR in Messenger to sell exclusively their new Kyrie 4s shoe, and the shoe sold it in only one hour. Clearly there was a ton of room for opportunity in sales with this interactive form of advertising. Digiday shares an example of AR advertising being used and how revolutionary it really can be:

In May, Snapchat said more than 100 advertisers were already buying its AR ads pro-grammatically and that a Foot Locker and Jordan Brand campaign using four AR ads saw an average play time of 45 seconds and over four million impressions.

An additional tool, the Video Creation Kit, Facebook has introduced will help advertisers create video ads with existing images. More news will come in August when it will be available on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook’s Audience Network.

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

Receive Your Complimentary Digital Audit

How can you fix something if you’re not sure what’s broken? Fear not, the expert digital marketers at Onimod Global have the solution for you! Our team offers complimentary digital audits for your company to determine what areas of your current digital marketing strategy needs improvement.

 

What is included in the digital audit?

Our digital audits measure your organic, paid search and social visibility as well as identify any errors or issues with the website. The audit is to give you a solid grasp of what issues your online business may be experiencing.

The digital audit will include the following:

  • SEO Analysis
  • SEM Breakdown
  • Social Media Influence
  • Website Performance
  • Local Business Optimization

Onimod Global is a trusted Google Partner, assuring you that you’re working with the best in the business. A Google Partner is an online marketing company, trusted by Google. Look for the badge on our site, this recognizes companies that excel with Google’s products.

 

Account managers at Onimod Global work with a wide variety of clients every day, and there is not a single industry we don’t feel confident in creating a marketing strategy for. Not quite convinced? Check out the dozens of case studies on our site by clicking here!

Here you’ll see how brands and companies are innovating and driving impact with their marketing strategies using Onimod Global.

 

Ready for your digital score?

Simply visit our digital audit page, and enter your information for a complimentary digital audit. We cannot wait to work with you!

Google AdWords Is Becoming Google Ads

Google has revealed that their complex lineup of ad products is getting re-branded. AdWords launched 18 years ago with the goal of easing the process of connecting online with businesses. The most significant change since then has been the increasing use and incorporation of the mobile internet into our everyday lives. With several changes in the space came with increased complexity; therefore Google decided to simplify brands and solutions for their advertising products. The main changes Google is making with their current platforms is combining all different advertising channels to make the lives of digital marketers much easier. The three brands AdWords is breaking down into are: Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ad Manager.

Google Ads

Google Ads will be the front door for advertisers to buy on all Google surfaces. It represents the full range of advertising capabilities that Google currently offers. In this space, Google is also creating a campaign type called Smart Campaigns. Designed specifically for small business advertisers, Smart Campaigns will allow for ease into first-time online advertising. The purpose is to identify actions that are priorities to these businesses whether that be phone calls, purchases, or store visits. After recognizing these prioritized actions, Google Ads will then use machine learning to optimize ad copy and targeting to drive more of those actions.

Google Marketing Platform

Google will combine DoubleClick Digital Marketing and Google Analytics 360 into one single brand: Google Marketing Platform. The main reason for the conjunction of platforms is because feedback has told Google that there are several advantages to using ads and the technology of analytics together. According to Google’s official blog, their goal is to have this platform be a place where marketers can plan, buy, measure and optimize digital media and customer experiences in one place. In addition to uniting DoubleClick and Analytics 360, Google is also announcing a new platform called Display & Video 360. This will combine features from DoubleClick Bid Manager, Campaign Manager, Studio and Audience Center. Display & Video 360 will also enable marketing and media teams collaboration abilities in a single space.

Google Marketing Platform

Tech Crunch shares a quote from the Managing Director for Platforms, Dan Taylor:

“The Google Marketing Platform is responding to a growing need for collaboration. For example, Adidas used the platform to bring its brand and performance marketing teams together with the measurement team.”

Google Ad Manager

Google Ad Manager will combine Google’s monetization tools such as DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers. This has been a 3-year merging process, and over this time Google has been working to unify this platform. The benefit of this will be publishers being able to manage business directly and efficiently. AdSense and Admob brands are expected to continue with no consolidation.

Jonathan Bellack, Google’s director of product management for publisher platforms, says the following about the Google Ad Manager Platform:

“These categories have just been breaking down for a while — all of our publishers already log into one user interface. So the only thing that’s really changing is the logo.”

 

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

 

5 Reasons To Outsource Your Digital Marketing

Time is a precious commodity regardless of the size of your business, and time can also be very costly if spent in the wrong areas. Digital marketing is an area that requires a lot of attention and focus, and at Onimod Global we have experts that can handle any and all of your digital marketing needs. If your company is contemplating outsourcing their digital marketing to an agency, here are 5 reasons to choose an agency like Onimod Global over an internal digital marketers.

 

 1. Reduce Cost and Risk.

The cost of a new employee goes far beyond a person’s salary, and it’s very easy to forget. Investment in the wrong person for the wrong position poses a great threat to any business, especially small business that can’t afford that type of risk. Finding top talent is a very challenging task, 44% of market leaders say they can’t find the right combination of people and skills. Our full-service agency offers several integrated services that are done by a variety of experts which would be less expensive than hiring a full-time employee on salary.

2. Outside Insight and Input.

Outsourcing certain aspects of your work load, like marketing for example, allows you to gain a new perspective of how to approach advertising and marketing for your company. Determining the best ways to optimize your digital strategy and where you should be investing your marketing budget are both excellent areas for gathering outside input from a digital marketing agency like Onimod Global.

3. No Training Necessary.

Employee training takes tons of time and money, two things most companies cannot afford to waste. Training can be very challenging, it’s usually not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every person is different and needs to be trained in much different ways. What’s worse is you could spend that large amount of time and resources on one employee or a group of new employees, and they potentially could leave the company. This creates a large waste of resources that would be saved when you outsource your digital marketing.

4. Access To Technology.

There are so many different platforms that companies can choose to advertise their product or service on. The details of platforms such as Google AdWords and Facebook advertising can be challenging to maneuver for someone who is not expert in the space. At Onimod Global, we are Google Partners which ensures that we always have access to a Google representative and are always certified in all Google Ad space.

5. Experience.

Above all else, if you choose to outsource your digital marketing, you’re putting it in the hands of experts in the field. In simpler terms, we’ve been there and done that. A lot of digital marketing agencies will specialize in a certain field such as automotive advertising. At Onimod Global, we have clients in extremely diverse fields and have dozens of success stories.  We encourage you to check out our proven track record of success in our featured digital work.

 

More From Onimod Global

We would love to work with you and help you optimize your digital marketing strategy. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Brand Ambassador Marketing Strategy: Is It Worth It?

The way a company chooses to market itself can play a huge role in their success or downfall. One valuable aspect of marketing is the brand; it is so important that most large companies have entire departments dedicated to branding. With the growth of social media over recent years, brand ambassadors are at the forefront of digital marketing strategies within thousands of companies.

 

What is a brand ambassador?

A fairly self explanatory term, but by definition it is someone who represents your brand, product, service or event. Typically when we think of brand ambassadors we envision celebrities who are paid to support a brand. This is still a very popular form of influencer marketing, but a brand ambassador doesn’t have to be a celebrity. It is transforming into customers and even employees taking on roles of brand ambassadors.

Lonely Brand shares an updated version of what brand ambassador marketing has transformed into in recent years:

“In 2017 brand ambassador marketing has become, at it’s core, the employment of people with specific influence or expertise to create and participate in your brand marketing strategy, usually leveraging their own popularity on social media platforms to drive value.”

 

Where to start?

A great place to start is with the employees at your company. When you have a product, service, and brand that everyone loves, employees will be more excited to promote your company organically and get involved. A Nielsen study shows that 84 percent of people trust recommendations from friends, family, colleagues over other forms of marketing.

In addition to this, employees’ social followers are seven times more likely to convert on company content than other types of leads are.

Advertisements pose a great challenge in attempting to get people to convert, where brand ambassadors have much more trust and a larger reach across social media channels.

 

Is it worth it?

Implementing brand ambassadors in your marketing strategy is becoming more crucial in marketing strategies. Social media is growing more every day, and it is imperative your employees and customers are driving the online conversations about your brand in a positive direction.

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

 

 

A Guide To Pinterest Advertising

There’s a continuous growth pattern of different social media platforms you can choose to advertise on, and a fairly new platform entering the mix is Pinterest. Pinterest is the social media platform that doesn’t get quite as much traffic as giants like Facebook and Twitter, however it is very influential when it comes to purchasing decisions. Though Pinterest only has 200 million users, they actually beat out Instagram and have a larger influence on social media users making purchasing decisions in the U.S. The experts at Onimod Global have the inside scoop on different ads to use and what you need to know about using this platform.

Types of Ads

Promoted Pins

There are several options here, and the most basic they have is a Promoted Pin. It is their standard ad they offer that will drive traffic by simply paying for a Pin to have more consumers see it. From there, anyone that repins it or saves  your pin is considered organic traffic. If any other user sees the pin on a personal page, the promoted label won’t be included and the extra traffic you would receive doesn’t cost a thing.

Promoted Video Pins

If you’re looking to increase engagement in an awareness campaign, a great option to go with would be a Promoted Video Campaign. These will for sure stand out among other pins and capture lots of attention while scrolling through a variety of pins.

One-Tap Pins

Another option would be a One-Tap Promoted Pin, which are unique and take you straight to a landing page. Most pins require two-clicks to get to a landing page and click-through to a site, that’s where these come in handy. You will see much higher click-through rates (CTR) with these types of Promoted Pins, however it could potentially lead to higher bounce rates and also may waste money.

Promoted App Pins

You can also advertise for an app on Pinterest where you can add an app simply by clicking an “install” in the ad copy. This is extremely helpful and unique because rather than redirecting you to the app store, you can download an app without ever leaving Pinterest’s site.

Cinematic Pins

These advertisements are very similar to the Video Pins in terms of animation, however the cinematic pins move only when the user scrolls. The pin will stop moving when the user stops scrolling, and from there the user can click on the pin and watch the full video from there.

 

This is a phenomenal platform to use, especially if a demographic your business targets contains either U.S. Baby Boomers and moms. As of right now, the ads are only available in United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, but more markets should be available soon. According to Marketing Land, 61 percent of Pinners make purchases after seeing a brand’s content on Pinterest. With these odds, it’s absolutely worth it to look into and see if this platform works for your business’s marketing strategy.

More From Onimod Global

For more information on the industry of digital marketing, please visit the Onimod Global News Page. Our content creation specialists are constantly producing new and engaging articles that keep you informed of the latest and greatest trends within the digital marketing world. Enjoy!

Updates to Facebook Advertising and View Tags

Facebook is always developing new strategies for measuring the effectiveness of ads on their site. Recently, the company added several third-party solutions, 18 to be exact, to improve measurements of ads. In doing so, Facebook decided to cut back on the capabilities of what their view tags can do.

What is a Facebook view tag?

You can find this excellent tool on the ad level of Ads Manager and Power Editor, and this functions similar to the Facebook pixel due to conversion tracking. However, they differ in that the view tag tracks with cookies who viewed the ad but didn’t click on it at the moment. Facebook pixel will only track users that clicked-through your advertisement after viewing or interacted with your business on Facebook. For example, if you were to see an ad of a bathing suit on Facebook and scrolled past it, and later decided to search and buy the suit, the view tag will track that conversion through cookies on your browser. These cookies can remain on your browser for years until they are cleared or expired.

Why is this a valuable tool?

Advertisemint does a great job at explaining why view tags can be very beneficial:

“View Tags is beneficial because you can track both the people who have clicked your ad and the people who have not. If you don’t use View Tags, you will miss the largest segment of users who later acted on the offer without clicking the ad. One campaign by SocialCode found that 87 percent of conversions came from impressions, not clicks. This means 87 percent of users saw the ad, didn’t take the business’ offer straight from the ad, then later converted from the business’ website.”

What is changing?

This is currently how view tags work for Facebook advertising, but they are switching things up slightly. According to Marketing Land, Facebook commented:

“Moving forward, we’ll work with a more focused set of view tag providers to allow them to count impressions for verification purposes, but view tags will no longer be used for measurement purposes beyond counting.”

A few partners that have been added to Facebook’s marketing partner program that offer viewability metrics are Meetrics and DoubleVerify. View tags on Facebook will now be only authorized to count impressions, and tracking will no longer be available.

More From Onimod Global

As always, the digital marketing experts from Onimod Global are here to make sure that you receive the best information possible regarding the digital marketing industry. Our content specialists frequently publish new content pertaining directly to industry news and trends.

To access our full compilation of news articles, please click here. Thank you, and we look forward to providing you with more digital marketing insights soon!