How to Effectively Market Your Brand to Spring Break Travelers

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Each year, thousands of college students pour into the city of Chicago for spring break. Although the city is not as warm as other popular destinations, it does provide plenty of activities for spring breakers to participate in.

All of these extra people mean extra business for you. Make sure to capitalize on this huge event by optimizing your marketing efforts toward spring breakers.

Merchandising

A perfect way to attract students on spring break is to offer them free merchandise. As college students, they are very willing to accept anything that does not cost money.

This allows you an opportunity to get students interested in your brand, and to vicariously promote your brand to other spring breakers in the area. As a rule of thumb, always put your logo on every single piece of promotional material in order to maximize brand awareness. Enlarging this logo is also a good idea so you can be sure to make it stand out.

This method may seem a bit simplistic and perhaps even outdated, but we can assure you that you will see a response from travelers if you incentivise them with a cheap t-shirt or pair of sunglasses.

Facebook

During spring break, visibility is key. This does not necessarily mean to be visible physically such as with billboards and promotional merchandise. You can also generate an incredible amount of traffic to your business by utilizing online advertising strategies and platforms.

Facebook is an incredible resource for all companies that are looking to directly target a detailed group of people. The Facebook ads manager tools allow you to refine your target audience based on current and previous locations. You can also use a multitude of other keywords or phrases to put your ads in front of ideal consumers. This makes it so simple for you to precisely target college students from out of town that are now within a close proximity to your business.

The other major benefit is that Facebook ads are also highly cost effective. If you create a week-long campaign to drive people to your website, you are likely to generate conversions for mere pennies on the dollar!

Twitter

The strategy behind Twitter ads is very similar to that of Facebook ads, but Twitter is not quite as successful at generating leads. However, Twitter is absolutely ideal for achieving better brand awareness. If you do not possess a prime location that receives a lot of walk-by traffic, then you could be missing out on substantial potential profits.

With Twitter, you can make sure that students on spring break are seeing your business, even if they are not clicking on the ad. Even on a subconscious level, consumers are more likely to interact with a brand that they recognize than with one that they do not. Now go ahead and get your brand out there!

More From Onimod Global

To learn more about the digital marketing industry, please visit the Onimod blog today! Our content creation specialists regularly produce up-to-date content so that you remain current on digital marketing methods and strategies.

A few of our most recent articles include: The Importance of Google My Business for Local SEO Rankings, How to Build Customer Loyalty That Drives Search Traffic, 4 Statistics That Should Impact Your 2018 Online Marketing Strategy, and much more!

4 Social Media Predictions For 2018

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The dynamic of social media is constantly changing and 2018 has the potential to be an important year for social media. After analyzing an article from Marketing Land written by Laura Collins, there are some interesting changes that could happen in the world of social media. Listed below are some social media predictions the article points out that could have major implications on the future of the industry.

1. Instagram’s Continued Dominance
2017 was an incredible year for Instagram in terms of revenues, user engagement, and a rapidly growing user base. Instagram is continuing to innovate already in 2018 in ways that are attractive to their users and advertisers. The Marketing Land article mentions how Instagram announced last month that there is a new capability to incorporate hashtags. “Advertisers could pay to target followers of particular hashtags, or perhaps appear in the top posts section for those relevant to their business.” This hashtag integration could ultimately take the platform to new heights if utilized correctly and just like last year, 2018 could be another big year for Instagram.

2. Twitter Revamp
It’s not a surprise that Twitter has been struggling to compete in recent years with the other social media giants for ad revenue. There was very slow growth in 2017 especially and the article predicts that 2018 is “sink or swim” for Twitter’s future. It hasn’t even been a month in 2018 so far and Twitter is already making steps towards changing their ad offerings. The article mentions how new “premium video content partnerships designed to turn the platform into a destination for high-quality entertainment. Its new pre-roll and mid-roll ads will offer advertisers brand-safe inventory with high visibility standards and a chance to target people who are highly engaged and predisposed to view video content.”

3. Snapchat Revenue on the Rise
Although it was reported that 2017 was not Snapchat’s best year, there were still major strides made from the mobile based social media giant. The article points out how Snapchat is learning from their mistakes and they “recently released a pixel to address accusations of a lack of transparency or ability to measure ROI.” There is also talks of a “total redesign of the app as a response to older users reportedly struggling navigating the interface.” Ultimately, the prediction being made for 2018 is that Snapchat will become more flexible for their users and advertisers, and then see ad revenue growth from a more diverse group as a result.

4. Live Streaming Becoming the “Go-to” Option
The drastic increase of live streaming viewership has definitely caught the attention of major social media platforms. It is now a mainstream aspect of most social media channels, as brands have been utilizing live streams to capture the attention of followers. An article from Entrepreneur predicts that in 2018 “more brands will begin to realize the power of live streaming, and will incorporate it into their monthly content plans to help attract a larger following.” Moreover, the importance of live streaming can’t be overlooked by organizations and those who are not using the feature correctly or at all will fall behind.

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

5 Notable Social Media Stats So Far in 2017

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2017 has been an interesting year so far in the world of social media, with some surprising stats and trends. Facebook remains a giant, Instagram is making strides, and Snapchat is utilizing augmented reality to its advantage. Some of the social media stats listed below are from Lauren Johnson’s Article in Adweek that caught our attention.

1. Snapchat and Augmented Reality
Snapchat has recently launched its augmented reality lenses to the public, which now allows users and brands to create their own animated figures and filters. This has given Snapchat an advantage when it comes to the amount of daily content created. According to the Adweek Article, “Snapchat expects 1 trillion photos to be taken with the app this year, which equates to 31,720 snaps every second.” Over 30,000 snaps per second in the year of 2017 is a mind boggling statistic and it will be interesting to see where Snapchat goes in 2018.

2. Facebook Usage Remains Massive
Although other messaging applications such as Twitter, Kik, and Snapchat are experiencing plenty of usage, Facebook still continues to dominate the “messaging empire.” According to the article, “Facebook announced that 17 billion video chats have been sent via messenger in 2017, which doubles the number in 2016. People have also sent 1.7 billion emojis on a daily basis thus far in 2017.” Moreover, Facebook is dominating the social media industry in many aspects and this trend will most likely continue through the next year.

3. Retailers Choosing Instagram Over Snapchat
Instagram adopting the “stories” feature has greatly helped the social media channel in terms of attracting retailers. According to a study from L2 Gartner, “1,400 social posts were analyzed from retailers like TJ Maxx and Marshalls, and it was discovered that Instagram stories made up 95% of the brands social posts.” This is huge for Instagram as their story feature usage in 2016 only accounted for “39% of social posts.”

4. GIF Histeria
The use of GIFs (graphic interchange format) so far in 2017 has been astounding. The article reports that “300 million people have used 2 billion GIFs every day in 2017 thus far.” The use of GIFs is mainly seen within the social media platforms of Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pintrest, and Facebook. The use of GIFS doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon and even looks to increase in the future.

5. Instagram Reaching Millennials
It’s no surprise that Instagram’s popularity is growing, especially with millennials. According to a survey conducted by the Bustle Digital Group, “81 percent out of the 1,000 millennials interviewed claimed social media is the most effective way to reach them. From that group, 40 percent said Instagram is the best way to reach them.” Ultimately, Instagram has been making major strides in 2017 and expect the social media giant to even increase their market share in 2018.

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

Maximize the Potential of Your Social Video Marketing Strategy

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Consumers are constantly shifting toward the convenient. This is exactly why popularity of video content has soared in 2017, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Users are able to more quickly absorb information through videos, which makes them a very attractive form of advertisement and promotion.

Advertising Implications

The world of digital marketing and advertising revolves around innovation. The goal is to continually adapt to the needs/wants of the consumer in order to be better able to promote products and services to them. Video marketing is proving to be a very effective method in accomplishing this exact objective.

An infographic by Rendrfx states that over 22 billion videos are viewed daily between Facebook (8 billion), Snapchat (10 billion), and YouTube (4 billion). Another statistic that they boast is an online video ad viewer attention rate that is 18.3 times higher than that of T.V. commercials.

The numbers do not lie. What’s more is that daily use of videos is only expected to increase in the next several years. So how can marketers and advertisers best utilize and optimize this trending marketing medium?

Social Spaces Are Best

Social medias have become a wealth of opportunity for digital marketers in recent years. It is a perfect way to tap into the daily activities of target consumers, and to appear as native as possible in advertising style. The more an advertisement looks like a normal piece of news feed foder, the better.

Facebook has become the single most dominant force in social media marketing. With over 2 billion active users, and more than $40 billion made in 2017 from advertisements, according to Statista, it is clear that Facebook is running the show when it comes to paid social media marketing.

Adweek contributor Aubrie Richey wrote a great article on how to get the best value from your Facebook video marketing campaign. Her article is summed up here in the following 5 tips:

  1. Design your ad in a mobile format to best reach potential customers.
  2. Keep the length of your video between 15-30 seconds.
  3. Do not stop being adaptable and flexible with your content!
  4. Your video does not need to be perfect. A less refined video will make the ad seem much more genuine and appealing.
  5. Use video as a supportive piece of the overall customer journey.

More From Onimod Global

This article is only one of the many that has been produced by the Onimod Global content team! We are relentlessly searching to find the most accurate and up-to-date information to keep you informed of what is going on inside of the ever-evolving digital marketing industry.

To read through more of our articles, please visit our blog by clicking HERE. We hope you enjoy reading through the best that our digital marketing experts have to offer!

Paid Advertising Metrics That Matter

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There is no busier time of the year for an advertiser than the holidays. As millions of consumers are looking to purchase gifts for their loved ones, we advertisers are here competing against one another for their attention.

Digital technologies have allowed advertisers much more access into the everyday life of the consumer, which is an incredible advantage for most. However, it is not enough to simply run a digital marketing campaign unless you can accurately measure and interpret its results. So what do you need to look for?

AdWords Pay Per Click

SearchEngineLand.com has recently published an article that discusses the best measurements to analyze when assessing the value of a PPC campaign, particularly those carried out through Google AdWords. The article brings many important topics to light, and is centered around 4 major areas of concern for AdWords PPC campaigns:

  1. High Cost Per Click = low profitability
  2. Long-tail keywords are a waste of money
  3. More clicks don’t mean more conversions
  4. There is no silver bullet

Facebook

Facebook has completely dominated the market when it comes to social media advertising. With more than 2 billion active users, Facebook provides an ideal consumer base for most businesses. The platform is also equipped with many different tools to help marketers keep track of how well their campaigns are performing.

The Facebook Pixel is just such a tool. As you are setting up your campaign, you are given the option to track users with the Facebook Pixel. This allows marketers to get a more complete picture of the customer journey by embedding a tiny, pixel-sized image into the ad. A similar Onimod blog post discusses this topic a bit further with the recent debut of the Snapchat Pixel. To read the full article, please click HERE.

Another highly useful Facebook tool is their split testing option. This campaign type allows the marketer to run two of the exact same ads to two completely different audiences. This form of A/B testing helps advertisers get a better idea of who their target consumers truly are.

More From Onimod Global

At Onimod Global, our content creation team strives to consistently offer the latest industry news combined with expert insight. We have many other articles relating to this subject of paid advertising metrics, including:

For more information from the team at Onimod Global, please visit our website!

The Increasing Power of Instagram

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As marketers, we are constantly on the lookout for the latest and greatest marketing technologies. New gadgets and gizmos come and go, but few can withstand the test of time. One that has achieved this honor is Instagram.

A Brief Instagram History

Instagram’s success has been gaining ground ever since the platform launched in 2010. Only 2 months after its release, Instagram had already acquired over 1 million users. But they didn’t stop there.

Instagram continued improving and innovating itself. Users loved uploading their photos, applying all kinds of professional filters, and adding witty captions to explain their images.

The team at Facebook saw the incredible potential that Instagram possessed, and so they made a move to buy the company in April of 2012. For more information regarding the history of Instagram, please visit wersm.com.

Recent Accomplishments

Today, the social media platform boasts an enormous network of 800 million active users, according to Statista. Instagram also recently announced that more than 25 million business profiles exist through their platform.

These incredible numbers are a direct result from advertisers catching the Insta-wave. Advertisers have started to notice that there is no slowing down for the platform as it continues to increase the size of its network year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. This produces an incredible base for many different ad campaigns.

Social media marketing has been proven to be incredibly useful because it is a more native form of advertising. As consumers continue to reject pushy and annoying advertisements, platforms like Instagram become more and more attractive to them.

It is likely that businesses and marketers will continue to flock toward Instagram. As the platform goes on to increase its user base, it also increases its appeal to marketers.

Latest News From Onimod Global

Keep up to speed with the digital marketing industry by visiting our blog! Our content creation team is constantly releasing new information regarding industry trends, state of the art technologies, and expert digital marketing advice.

Is Blockchain the Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing?

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Recent use of blockchain in cryptocurrencies is leading experts to believe that its uses may go far beyond the crypto market. This technology could be utilized in many different ways, particularly in digital marketing and advertising. While it is still early, the possibilities of blockchain have caused quite a stir in the digital world.

What Is Blockchain?

As defined by Don and Alex Tapscott, “The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”

BlockGeeks released an article that breaks this definition down in many different ways. This article quotes several experts in an attempt to break down the technical jargon in a way that makes it easy for every reader to understand the concept of blockchain.

Specialist William Mougayar explains blockchain by comparing the differences between a typical Word document and a Google doc. The major difference between the two is that the Word document can only be accessed by one user at a time, while the Google doc can have multiple authors editing it simultaneously. Mougayar goes on to explain that many systems in today’s society are like that of the Word document, and the blockchain is revolutionizing this system with its Google doc qualities.

Consumer-Centric

The most notable qualities of a blockchain, as given by BlockGeeks, are:

  1. It cannot be controlled by any single entity
  2. It has no single point of failure

This means that no one can alter or corrupt the data within a blockchain. This keeps everything honest and transparent, which as we have discussed in our article, “The Importance of Transparency in Digital Marketing”, is incredibly important to consumers. The entire concept of using the blockchain in digital marketing and advertising is to create a better experience for the consumer.

Consumers are the center of the marketing world. Without them, our efforts would be meaningless. That is why blockchain is such a game changer. It provides ways in which to enrich the consumer experience, and put more power in their hands.

While this may not bode well for major digital advertising platforms like Google and Facebook, it is ultimately the consumer that we have to keep in mind when considering the future of this compelling technology.

Ending the War Between Finance and Marketing Departments in Your Company

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There are many important areas of a business. These areas are very familiar with the natural give-and-take between them, but none seem to struggle quite as much as the departments of finance and marketing.

Return on Investment

The goals that the financing department abides by are to save money for the business, and invest money into good opportunities. Most investments have a clear return on investment, but marketing gets a little more tricky than static percentages.

Marketing is a dynamic investment. This means that it is not always easy to put marketing efforts into dollars and percents. Even tools like Google Analytics can fail to express the full return on investment that marketing can bring to an organization.

While many tools like Google Analytics and the Facebook Ad Manager can measure impressions, clicks, and conversions, they still may fall short. For example, a user may see and click on your company’s Facebook ad, but not convert. They may however, convert later by going directly to your site and making a purchase.

Marketing does not get any recognition for this conversion. Instead, it appears to be a wasted impression and click, and a separate organic purchase. This is why individuals with a finance perspective can view marketing and advertising as a waste of money.

Finding a Solution

The first step to solving this problem is creating awareness within your organization. Try to bring a fresh perspective to each department. Help everyone understand that they are not competing against each other, but instead are supposed to be working together to achieve the overall goals of the business.

An article by MarketingWeek.com discussed many of these same issues. They spoke with Zoe Clapp, the CMO of UKTV, who gave great insight into how their company handles this kind of tough situation.

UKTV decided to fully integrate a member of their finance team into the marketing team. This way, the two departments could work together in meeting important objectives.

Clapp spoke positively about the experience by saying, “Rather than us coming to finance blank with this list of ‘here’s what we want to do, give us a chunk of money’, finance had been all the way through the process and we found that really helpful. That made us come to a better and more rounded decision.”

Final Observations

Of course, this solution is not one-size-fits-all. There may be other ways in which your company can overcome these kinds of interdepartmental hurdles.

The major takeaway from this is to remember to maintain good communication. Keep everyone on the same page and in the same boat. You want to absolutely avoid any kind of war between two of your biggest internal departments, and effective communication is the best way to do it.

Read on for more helpful insights by visiting the Onimod Global blog! We are constantly making updates and posting new material that we feel will help our readers become better digital marketers. To visit our blog page click HERE!

Facebook Shows Increase in Social Responsibility Efforts

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With more than 2 billion users, Facebook certainly has its finger on the pulse of the world. In light of many recent natural disasters, the platform is looking for ways in which it can help those in need.

Puerto Rico

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder and CEO, made a post announcing that a team of representatives were on their way to Puerto Rico to help victims affected by hurricanes Maria and Irma.

The team will be working to make sure that emergency telecommunications are up and running. Zuckerberg stated that, “Communication is critical during a disaster.”

Such communication will be vital for victims in need of emergency services, as well as those looking for current information on loved ones that may have been affected by the hurricanes.

An article from Adweek also reports that the social networking giant will be donating $1.5 million to NetHope and the World Food Programme. These volunteer and monetary relief efforts from Facebook are sure to have a great impact on those in Puerto Rico and others around the globe.

India

Even without major propellants like hurricanes, Facebook is spreading positivity around the world. On October 1, India will be celebrating National Voluntary Blood Donation Day.

According to Adweek, a special message promoting the event will appear to each user in the country of India. Additional tools and capabilities are being developed inside of the platform to help bring attention to events like this one.

Hema Budaraju, product manager, and Ritesh Mehta, head of programs, explained the tools in greater detail by writing, “When a request is created, Facebook will automatically notify blood donors who may be nearby to help spread the word. Donors can then review the request and, if they wish to respond, contact the requestor directly through WhatsApp, Messenger or a phone call. The person who needs blood won’t be able to see any information about the donor unless the donor explicitly provides it when he/she reaches out to the person in need of blood.”