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Text message marketing (SMS marketing) has grown in popularity over time. Because other marketing methods are becoming increasingly expensive, many small and large businesses are turning to text message marketing to reach potential customers.

Here are the top five ways to optimize your text message marketing campaigns, as recommended by successful entrepreneurs, managers, and CEOs.

• Create a Target Audience
• Study Timing
• Setup Auto-Campaign
• Call-To-Action (CTA)
• Personalize it

Create a Target Audience

Any marketing campaign needs a target audience or market. Basically, you’ll need a way to categorize consumers based on demographics.

A sign-up for updates that requires more than an email and a name is highly beneficial, says Disco Founder Benjamin Smith. “Know their age, location, and other relevant demographics. However, you don’t want to ask too many questions. 3-5 questions after their name is ideal. If possible, use drop-down menus or auto-fill sections.”

Study Timing

Your product, location, and target market may dictate the best time to text. This should be treated as seriously as any other aspect of campaign planning.

“Knowing when your customers are more likely to see and respond to text messages is critical,” says Caraway CEO Jordan Nathan. It is not as effective to send a message during the workday or too early in the morning as it is to send one in the evening or mid-afternoon. Aim to send something out at the start or middle of the month, when they’ve likely just received their paycheck.

Setup Auto-Campaign

Your messaging platform can help you out! Create a rule that sends out messages when a customer buys something or follows a link in an email. Depending on the platform, you may have many options.

“Automatic campaigns streamline everything and can be more personal,” says Rym Selmi, MiiRO’s founder. “These platforms let you send a message whenever they do something. Maybe they’re logging in or adding something to their cart. It could also be sent right away after purchase.”

Call-To-Action (CTA)

This leads to our next point – in addition to keeping the message brief, include a call to action. It’s difficult to incorporate very specific details, but it’s possible.

“A call to action does more than just direct consumers to your website,” says De La Calle COO Danielle Calabrese. “It gives them something to do, which increases the likelihood that they’ll return later, even if they don’t buy anything. It also adds to the campaign’s analytics.”

Personalize it

There are platforms that allow greater text message customization. This increases the likelihood that the customer will notice the message.

Dan Potter, Managing Director and CEO of CRAFTD, advises using a platform that allows you to personalize each message. “Personalizing it increases engagement with the call to action.”

Instagram’s latest trend report claims that 1 in 4 teenagers and young adults shop directly from their feeds. Almost half of the younger generation shops on Instagram. Instagram has 130 million monthly users who tap to reveal product tags to learn more about products and make purchases.

The numbers don’t lie; if you sell online, you can’t ignore Instagram. Product photos and influencer collaborations will not suffice in 2022. Continue reading to learn about the features and practices that will help you dominate your competitors in social selling in 2022.

• Creating an Instagram Shop
• Make use of a digital thrift store
• Make Use AR Shopping
• Plan live shopping events
• In Conclusion

Creating an Instagram Shop

Create an Instagram Shop if you don’t already have one to take advantage of all the eCommerce-friendly Instagram features. Here’s a three-step plan to get your store online today.

Once set up, Instagram users will be able to directly access your product pages. Use product tags in your posts, stories, reels, and Instagram TV.

When users tap the tags, they learn more about the product, can share it with others, buy it right away, or save it to their wishlist for later.

Make use of a digital thrift store

Instagram thrift shops bloomed in 2021. People from all over the world curate collections of repurposed items to sell on Instagram.

If you’re just starting out and looking for eCommerce business ideas, consider a social media thrift shop. Sustainability is a growing trend. Brand values are important to older generations as well as Gen Z. If you care about the environment, consider starting a business that reflects your (and many customers’) values.

Make Use AR Shopping

AR is here to stay. Filters allow users to “try on” products from the comfort of their couches.

MAC Cosmetics is a great example of AR in Instagram Shopping. Using AR filters, users can try out different lipstick shades. They almost make users feel like they are shopping in a store. Moreover, the solution aids users in making informed purchases, reducing returns for the brand.

AR filters can help buyers in various niches like beauty, fashion, and home decor.

Plan live shopping events

Live shopping also reduces the distance between seller and buyer, making the online shopping experience feel more like traditional shopping. It allows you to sell products and interact with customers live on Instagram. Your Instagram followers can also save the videos to their profiles.

If you have Instagram checkout enabled, you can complete your transactions live. If you don’t have access to the checkout yet, you can still use Instagram live streams to show off new collections and answer customer questions.

In Conclusion

To increase sales on Instagram in 2022, you must keep up with the latest trends and updates. In the meantime, create an Instagram Shop to take advantage of the various features and shopping options. Humanize your brand with AR filters and live shopping sessions. If an eCommerce store is still out of reach, consider a trending niche like thrift shops.

Do you require email verification tools to clear your email list fast? Here is a selection of decent email verification programs to help you out.

• Hunter
• Email Checker
• Clearout
• NeverBounce

1. Hunter

Hunter is an email outreach tool that comes with an email verifier designed to sanitize your email list. This enhances your deliverability rate for outreach campaigns.

Its major function allows you to find email addresses for business leads based on domain searches as well as first/last name and email address searches. The email verification tool detects invalid emails, transitory emails, blacklisted emails and emails with hard bounces.

What email verification features does Hunter offer?

• Bulk email list verification – Upload your whole list for verification.
• API verifications – Use Hunter’s API to integrate it with the technologies you use to collect emails.
• Single email verification – Use the tool on Hunter’s Email Verifier page for single email verifications.

2. Email Checker

Email Checker is another popular email verification tool. The service’s clients include Seagate, Box and EE. They’ve handled over 19 billion emails to date and have averted over 1.3 billion bounces.

The tool’s verification process removes email addresses with invalid domains and grammatical issues. Temporary emails are removed as well, and errors and typos are fixed.

An example would be correcting “gmail.cm” to “gmail.com”. Its catch-all verification feature also finds emails with severe bounce rates and removes them from your list.

What can Email Checker do for your list?

• Bulk email list verification – Upload your whole list, then wait for the tool to assess it. You can download all emails, OKed emails, bad emails, unknown emails and catch-all emails.
• Automated list API – Integrate your app with Email Checker’s List API to feed lists to the tool and download clean lists everyday via an automated procedure. This feature is aimed for businesses who receive several new subscribers or customers on a daily basis.
• Real-time verification API – Integrate Email Checker’s verification API with your site’s forms to reject malicious or invalid emails in real time.
• Ecommerce integration – The aforementioned real-time verification API works with ecommerce applications as well to prevent customers from entering incorrect email addresses at checkout.

3. Clearout

Clearout detects malicious emails in different methods. It removes duplicate emails, the dots from emails, temporary emails and sub accounts. It also discovers and removes spam traps, emails with hard bounces and emails from blacklisted domains.

What does Clearout have to offer?

• Bulk email list verifications – Upload lists of up to 1 million emails at a time for bulk verifications.
• Lead finder – Clearout pinpoints crucial bits of data from your subscribers’ email addresses well enough to produce a distinct list of potential B2B prospects for outreach methods.
• REST API – Clearout employs the REST API as a method to allow developers to add its own API to forms for real-time verifications.
• Instant email verifications – These work similarly to single email verifications in that they allow you to validate a small number of emails rapidly.
• Integrations – Clearout integrates with a small handful of email marketing services. Fortunately, its interface with Zapier can help fill in the gaps. Plus, you may simply export a copy of your list and upload it.

4. NeverBounce

NeverBounce debuted in 2014, and it presently has over 100,000 clients. Its clientele includes a few famous names, such as Uber, Dell, Girl Scouts, QuickenLoans and Harvard Medical School.

NeverBounce principally offers bulk email list and single email verifications. It does this by validating mail servers and deleting duplicate emails and syntax mistakes. It even checks if domains are live and whether or not particular emails have been blocked.

What features does NeverBounce offer?

• Bulk email list verification – Upload your whole list, wait for the tool to assess it, then download a clean list with a 99.9 percent deliverability rate.
• Developer friendly – API wrappers are available for easy integration with the tools you use.
• Instant bounce analysis – All accounts come with this function free of charge. It helps you to rapidly examine if your list needs to be cleansed before you send mass broadcast emails.
• Email verification – Verify millions of emails from a variety of various sources, including contact and lead forms, registration forms, CRMs, and more. You can verify up to 1,000 emails for free every month.
• Integrations – Integrates with common email marketing platforms and support desk software. Zapier is also an option if you need to construct your own integrations. Guides on integrations are accessible in NeverBounce’s help documentation. All accounts come with 1,000 free API verifications every month as well.

In today’s competitive digital landscape, getting consumers to engage with marketing messages is difficult. Push notifications are a powerful marketing tool that can increase user traffic, engagement, conversion, and retention.

However, properly implemented push notifications can only benefit your company. Here are common marketing missteps and how to avoid them.

• Sending Non-Personalized Generic Messages
• Failure to Implement User Segmentation
• Using Push Notifications Without Scheduling and Automating
• Selecting the Incorrect Landing Pages
• Failure to Develop a Concise Call-to-Action
• Failure to Monitor Vital Metrics

Sending Non-Personalized Generic Messages

Sending generic push notifications will result in low click-through rates and engagement. Today’s consumers expect relevant marketing messages. It shows you care about them. It also saves time by attracting users’ attention with actionable updates, information, or offers.

Make recommendations based on a user’s past behavior (purchases or browsing), stage of purchase, preferences, and personal data. Using placeholder tags is a good idea. These tags allow you to replace placeholders with users’ first names and other data. Message tags allow you to extract data from your database and include it in messages.

Failure to Implement User Segmentation

Any marketing activity, including push notification campaigns, requires appropriate audience segmentation. Inability to assess, group, and segment your target audience prevents you from crafting tailored messages for different stages of the sales funnel. Unsegmented audiences lead to frequent subscriber opt-outs, especially for mobile push notifications.

It is vital that you understand your target audiences. Analyze and segment your audience based on their on-site behavior (behavioral segmentation). These actions could include reading a blog, checking out a particular product, watching a video, or subscribing to a newsletter. Other segmentation techniques include geographic, demographic, and social segmentation.

This allows you to track custom data points beyond automatic tracking. Use custom tracking, metadata filters, aliases, and tags to target audiences with relevant push notifications. Analyze brand activity and align it with your push strategies.

Using Push Notifications Without Scheduling and Automating

Scheduling and automating push notifications is a marketing campaign no-no. Timing is crucial in push notifications and any marketing communication channel. Timing is everything when it comes to push notifications.

Assemble your subscriber/consumer profile. Use analytics to learn your users’ time zones, daily routines, and peak activity times. Use this data to target your audience. This allows you to plan, schedule, and create automated push notifications using marketing automation software.

Selecting the Incorrect Landing Pages

A push notification campaign’s location is critical. Your audience must see what you want them to see on your landing page. Assume you want to inform your customers about a great deal on a particular product. It’s time to prepare the push message and launch. Customers who click on your CTA are taken to your homepage.

The above scenario clearly represents a poor user experience as they can’t find your amazing offer. So you lose traffic, sales, and even subscribers. Link your push messages to the appropriate landing pages. Your landing pages must contain relevant information to increase user retention.

Failure to Develop a Concise Call-to-Action

The average user’s attention span for notifications on their computers or mobile devices is only a few seconds. If your push notification lacks a clear CTA, it is likely to be ignored. You have a limited amount of text in notification messages, so make the most of it. A clear CTA encourages your audience to take a specific action.

Avoid jargon and filler words in your push messages. Create a sense of urgency. Avoid vague messages that your audience won’t understand. With limited text, it’s best to include images that clearly indicate a CTA. Visuals captivate users and increase response rates.

Failure to Monitor Vital Metrics

Lessons learned are a big part of web and mobile push notification campaign success. Not tracking and optimizing key metrics is a disservice to your campaign. It’s critical to closely monitor KPIs to identify campaign flaws and inform future campaigns.

Define the parameters that will be used to evaluate the campaign’s success. View rate, CTR, opt-in rate, retention rate, unsubscription rate, conversion rate, and website performance are some of the top campaign ROI metrics.

Develop data-driven push notification strategies based on visits, clicks, interactions, and overall user engagement. Make sure to A/B test wording, personalization, visuals, and timing.

Conclusion

Overall, web and mobile push notifications have become a powerful marketing tool. Push notifications, especially when automated, allow you to communicate directly with your audience throughout their purchasing journey.

Getting timely information, updates, offers, and deals to your customers via automated push messages is critical. In addition to saving time and effort, using marketing automation software to support your push notification strategy can increase conversions, foster continuous user engagement, gather valuable feedback, and retain clients.

To survive in today’s market, businesses must be at the forefront of new technologies and solutions, or risk being left behind. Market automation software solutions allowed marketers to engage with customers, set up workflows, and track results.

Marketers today have access to countless marketing automation platforms, but not all are equal. Choosing the right software can mean the difference between success and failure. Let’s get started.

• Advantages of Marketing Automation
• Marketing Automation Software: How to Choose

Advantages of Marketing Automation

For marketers, the digital age has brought vast opportunities, but also challenges. Businesses will use marketing automation tools for various reasons.

Regardless of your industry, you will benefit from the sales, service, and marketing advantages that a good platform will provide.

According to some estimates, businesses and organizations using marketing automation software will see increased lead volume, lead conversion rates, and overall ROI (Return On Investment). Marketing automation is a must-have for any organization that wants to succeed.

Marketing Automation Software: How to Choose

When choosing software for your company, consider the following factors:

1. UX

This is one of the most important features of this type of software because it affects your daily operations. Make sure the software you choose is intuitive, responsive, and easy to use. It should be simple enough to switch between tools, functions, tabs, marketing communications, and so on.

2. Forums and Reviews

Checking online reviews for any software product is a good way to see how well it performs. Experienced users can point out the product’s benefits and drawbacks, helping you make a more informed choice.

Check to see if they have an online community or forum, which every good software provider should have.

3. Specifications

To find out if a software package has the features you need, simply ask yourself a few questions. Was soll die Software tun? Does it stack up against your competitors’ software? Will it work well with your current tools?

If you want your software to automatically send out newsletters to your customers, it must have MVT (Multivariate Testing) and HTML drag-and-drop builder.

Form creation and posting capabilities will be required for customer feedback. Remember that new software should keep your business centralized and help decision-makers do their jobs better.

4. Prices

Marketing automation software costs vary depending on premium features, server type (on-premises or cloud), and capacity. Check what other developers are charging for similar services to find reasonable prices. Find out if you are eligible for any discounts or offers.

5. Learning Resources

Any software you don’t understand won’t help your company. In addition to manuals, make sure the developer provides training programs and other learning resources to help you get the most out of the software.

6. Technical Help

If you have any technical issues with the software, you should contact the marketing automation platform developer immediately. Help is usually obtained via live chat, email, or phone. They should be reliable, quick to respond, and available during business hours, if not 24/7.

7. Integration

Choosing a suitable platform for your organization will require careful consideration to ensure that it will integrate seamlessly with existing systems. For example, marketing automation for banks may require integration with your global operating system, CRM (or other customer data platforms), and any software used for personalized messages.

8. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or On-Premise

You must decide between on-premises and SaaS based on your organization’s capacity and preferences. The server location (data storage) and installation methods vary between the two.

On-site solutions are preferred in many highly regulated industries, such as banking and government, where sensitive data is processed.

On-premise solutions usually cost more because the client must pay for hardware, installation, and maintenance. Small and medium-sized businesses prefer SaaS because it is less expensive, easier to use, and requires less maintenance.

However, reduced data security and potential service disruptions offset these benefits. Before deciding which system is best for your needs, weigh the benefits and drawbacks of both.

9. Scalability

What you can achieve before needing to switch software depends on the software’s scalability. A scalable platform will grow with your company, lowering overhead costs and eliminating the need for new software onboarding and training.

Targeting expansion is a Google Ads feature that resembles Facebook’s “similar audiences” feature. It displays brief advertisements, service offers, product listings, and videos for online advertisers via a pay-per-click model. It can place ads in search results as well as non-search pages like mobile apps and videos. Expert PPC marketers use Google Ads to generate new leads and revenue. Many advertisers, especially small to medium businesses, fall victim to Google’s algorithmic targeting expansion.

Contents

• How Google Ads Affect Your Company?
• What is Google Ads Targeting Expansion Option?
• Why should you disable targeting expansion?

How Google Ads Affect Your Company?

Every second, 2.3 million people use Google, and most search results pages feature Google Ads. So, when people search for the products or services your company offers, Google Ads can be a very effective way of driving qualified traffic to your website.

The Google Ads platform has a huge reach. Google controls 90% of the market and processes 3.5 billion searches daily. It’s a great way to promote your brand and business.

This is critical for small businesses running low-budget Google Ads campaigns. According to research, 45% of small businesses use PPC. The PPC platform gives you excellent control over your budget. You can change the parameters to suit your needs. Brand awareness and recognition are free if your strategy focuses on clicks. Your Google Ads budget can be equally effective regardless of your company’s size.

What is Google Ads Targeting Expansion Option?

It is one of the most efficient methods for improving performance from Google Display Ads by automatically expanding your targeting reach. This option is available in the targeting options menu. This helps Google find more high-value traffic that can help you convert better. It allows for better forecasting and control of ad performance. If you leave automatic targeting on, your Google Display ads will reach more relevant customers. Your reach will increase and you will have more control over how widely your Display ads are served. Like Google’s Lookalike Audience, Targeting Expansion is based on interests, whereas Google’s Lookalike Audience is based on people who have already expressed an interest in your business by visiting your site or giving you their email address. No one but Google knows how Google selects interests for your ads. People who interact with your ads are likely to be interested in a mix of interests, so we can only assume that they do this.

Most PPC marketers start their Display campaigns with automatic targeting and the smallest expansion. You can maximize both reach and performance by increasing the reach setting to the maximum. Marketers use this option to increase the rate of expansion, bringing in more potential customers. They also check their weekly reach estimates, which take into account the additional traffic inventory and potential impressions.

Why should you disable targeting expansion?

For the same cost, Automatic Targeting helps you optimize your targeting across the Display Network. There are two options: conservative and aggressive. Regarding retargeting, Google states that ads will be shown to other users with similar interests. Now let’s see if this setting works.

Before disabling automatic targeting, go to the Audience tab for the desired group. Automatic Targeting is listed at the bottom of the performance summary data. Given that this type of campaign generates little to no conversions, it is in your best interest to disable it.

• Create your marketing campaign and tweak the settings until you reach the group settings. This is where you disable automation.
• Scroll down and expand the “Automated Targeting” box.
• Default should be “Conservative Automation”. Select “No automated targeting” here, so that the targeting you set up is the only one used.
• Create a bid and save it.

Now turn off this setting for all existing Display campaigns. Because this is a campaign setting, you must review each group individually.

• Go to ad group settings.
• Select “edit ad group targeting” and select “automated”.
• Toggle the slider to the left to prevent additional impressions to users outside your specified audiences.
• Save and repeat for each ad group.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to lead generation, becoming familiar with some of the industry’s best practices can help you align your strategy with your specific objectives.

Profitable results can be achieved by implementing the following expert-approved lead generation strategies:

• Consider to implement SEO
• Make Use of Good Content
• Digital PR
• Link Building
• Pay-per-click (PPC)
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Email Marketing Lead Generation

1. Consider to implement SEO

Harris says ignoring SEO can lead to wasteful spending on key strategies like content marketing and link building.

Moreover, more than any other source, people seek information about local businesses online (SEO Tribunal). With SEO, you can increase your online search visibility and attract more customers. For example, a search engine will not see the relevance of HVAC lead generation services if they do not include SEO.

2. Make Use of Good Content

Attract your target audience’s attention with content they already like. For example, a good lawyer lead generation agency would publish content about legal FAQs. Lawyers can help people who are looking for answers online.

“Prioritize the quality over quantity for your content. Tristan Harris, lead generation expert and demand generation manager at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, says creating valuable content with strong CTAs is critical.

3. Digital PR

If link building is about increasing search rankings by partnering with authoritative sites, digital PR is about gaining media-focused links to increase brand awareness. Harris says the two are intertwined because digital PR amplifies your efforts by generating coverage and links to your site.

But keep in mind that if you want a reporter to notice your request, your content must be impressive.

4. Link Building

Link building involves gaining links from authoritative or highly credible industry websites. Backlinks can be requested or earned. However, link building establishes trustworthiness by relying on the word of another website.

Inbound marketing relies on content, SEO, and link building to drive traffic to your website. “Investing in this foundation and opening your doors to leads this way reduces your cost per lead,” he said.

5. Landing Page Optimization

The landing page does the convincing, not the PPC ads. Your next page will probably leave you unimpressed if you click an insurance lead generation ad. A landing page includes information that an ad may have missed. Each page is optimized to engage your audience and collect leads.

Inefficient and ineffective PPC or email lead generation CTAs that only link to your homepage. Optimising landing pages for such campaigns is essential, according to Harris. A/B split testing your landing page elements can improve results.

6. Pay-per-click (PPC)

Paid campaigns are always a good option for quick results. The goal of PPC marketing is to stand out from the crowd with stunning visuals and compelling copy.

Warning: PPC is not for everyone. Ads that don’t stop scrolling are ineffective. Before running PPC ads, consider a number of factors. Harris suggests considering your ad capacity, current inbound leads, budget, and more. “In some industries, with high profit margins, PPC makes sense, but not always,” he said.

7. Conversion Rate Optimization

Following up on leads is still your main goal. It involves leveraging and tweaking your strategies to improve results. With CRO, you can turn traffic from social media or email lead generation into leads. A clear CTA is one of the most important CRO and landing page optimization best practices.

An overall marketing and lead generation strategy should include at least six of these strategies, according to Harris. Your campaign approach will vary depending on your goals, target audience, and digital channels.”

8. Email Marketing Lead Generation

“You can’t email a random list and expect a response. Favor curated lists over mass blasts, Harris says. “Offer value to your readers, whether through eCommerce coupons, interesting data, or market research.”

Email marketing is a great way to generate business leads. For example, a B2B lead generation agency would prioritize email as a frequently used channel. Consider email lead generation for real estate or mortgage companies – these require more information than the average offer.

Obtaining a high Google ranking for your content is vital for increasing site traffic. Obtaining those coveted spots in the search results, on the other hand, can be challenging. This is particularly true if a significant portion of your competition is also vying for rankings for your niche keywords.

Fortunately, there are a few straightforward ways to boost your Google rankings via the process of SEO. We’re going to cover six of those options briefly in this article, providing you with guidance on how to proceed with your digital marketing campaign.

Let’s begin:

• Create Content
• Make Use of External Links
• Choose the Right Keywords
• You should generate reviews
• Ascertain That Your Website Functions Properly
• Use PPC Ads

1. Create Content

Creating content is the first step towards good ranking. Creating more content increases your chances of ranking in search results.

Remember, content shouldn’t be random. It should be good for the user and good for the search engine. Google prioritizes content quality over quantity, so don’t sacrifice content quality for more keywords.

2. Make Use of External Links

All of your content should contain links to related sites. The more linked you are, the more likely Google will find you. Links also indicate that your content addresses a problem and seeks solutions from outside sources.

But don’t overdo it with links. If possible, place an outbound link every 200 words. If you can, include links to your own pages on your own site. Above all, include a link to a page on your site in the call to action.

3. Choose the Right Keywords

Choosing the right keywords to optimize your content is the next crucial step. Keyword research examines what your target demographic searches for. You can see which keyword phrases your audience uses and base your content on those.

This ensures your content is relevant to your users’ interests. You won’t have to force the keyword phrase into other content in a clunky way.

4. You should generate reviews

Google wants to find the most engaging and useful websites for users. In fact, all search engine algorithms try to determine how useful your site is compared to similar sites.

The best way to let Google know how people feel about you is through reviews. Positive reviews on your Google MyBusiness page will help you rank well in the search results. Sometimes you have to ask for a review online.

You can also offer discounts when a customer leaves a review, good or bad.

5. Ascertain That Your Website Functions Properly

Google also looks at how well your site works for users. That is, user experience is important in optimization. That includes page load times, organization, links, and aesthetics. Google scans your site, evaluates its functionality and organization, and compares it to similar sites.

Professional assistance is often required to get your site in shape. Working with a programmer or designer to convert your site to WordPress is the best option. Building a website with WordPress gives the best chance to optimize it and keep it optimized for a snappy user experience.

However, an older site may be slower and harm your rankings.

6. Use PPC Ads

Pay-per-click (PPC) ads don’t directly improve your Google rankings, but they do get a lot more people to your site. Google takes note of increased traffic and engagement on your site as a sign that you are attractive and can engage users.

Indirectly, PPC advertising can improve Google rankings.

Regardless of your rankings, these ads are simple to set up and can drive thousands of visitors to your site with little effort from you. Your advertisement could result in thousands of social media and search engine engagements if you choose the right keywords and target audience.

Also, you only pay for what you get. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, even if it appears on thousands of screens before anyone clicks.

While you can sell to anyone on social media, it is far more efficient and cost effective to target a specific market — that is, to engage in social media targeting. This article is dedicated to assisting you in identifying and implementing the steps necessary to determine your target market.

• Conduct Polls to Complement Persona Marketing Data
• Utilize Social Media Audience-Building Tools
• Make Use of Marketing Personas
• Carry out Research on the Competitors
• Leverage on Social Listening

Conduct Polls to Complement Persona Marketing Data

You probably have a mental image of your social media target demographic by now. But wait, social media audience analysis isn’t just about big data. You can also conduct surveys and polls to solicit feedback from current customers.

Include the survey in an email marketing campaign. In your email, ask them what kind of content they want on social media and which platforms they use frequently.

They should help you identify actual needs, gaps, and best social media platforms for business growth.

Utilize Social Media Audience-Building Tools

You can also use Google Analytics and Facebook or Instagram’s target audience insights tools to gather data.

You can use Google Analytics to discover existing customers’ preferred social media platforms and the content they seek, such as product demos or benefits.

Using native platform tools, you can create lookalike audiences using the first step data. This is useful for defining your Facebook ad target audience.

Make Use of Marketing Personas

To get started, analyze your social media audience. This activity has two parts: creating a social media persona based on an existing buyer persona.

Update your social media target market persona with data from your marketing, sales, and support teams. Examine age, gender, education, and income. Include their issues and concerns. Analyze your customer list if you have it. Include details like spending power.

Incorporate persona marketing, but don’t decide if it’s a Facebook, Twitter, or other persona.

Carry out Research on the Competitors

Examine your competitors’ social media activity. Can you identify their social media buyer persona? What content is working for them?

This method is called competitor research and it allows you to compare social media to gain insight or inspiration. It allows you to observe when and why your competitors are engaging with their social media target market. And it enables you to find new ideas for your strategy.

The steps to identify your target market are flexible, so you can perform social media audience analysis in any order. Experts in social media marketing say the process never peaks. You must revisit the steps periodically to keep your marketing personas and strategy current.

With sufficient resources, you can apply such an approach to achieve sustainability and longevity. Otherwise, a social media marketing firm can help you identify your target market.

Leverage on Social Listening

Now it’s time to put theory into practice by using social media. Listen to your target demographic to build a more detailed social media persona.

Also, learn the nuances of each social network. For example, brand conversations around hashtags and trending topics are part of Twitter social listening. However, comments, likes, and subscriptions provide information about a YouTube target audience. If you want to work with a social media marketing agency, find one that understands the nuances of your target platforms.

Table of Contents

• Statistics on Local Search
• Local SEO Stats for Mobile Users
• Statistics on Google My Business

Statistics on Local Search

Did you know that optimizing your local SEO strategy can reduce costs? Understanding your target market’s behavior is critical to using effective techniques. Here are some starting stats.

• A recent study on local SEO found that 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses (BrightLocal, 2020

Consumers trust online reviews more than any other type of information on the internet because they are personal referrals.

• 90% of consumers used the internet to find local businesses (BrightLocal, 2020)

In this age of information, consumers rely on search engines and the internet to find local businesses.

• Before making a purchase, the average consumer reads online reviews for 13 minutes 45 seconds (BrightLocal, 2020)

It’s no secret that customer reviews can sway purchasing decisions. Local SEO statistics 2021 show that consumers read online reviews to learn more about a business. But they don’t just read what’s in front of them. That’s why you need a great online reputation.

Local SEO Stats for Mobile Users

Globally, mobile phone users are steadily increasing. That means more customers will use their phones to find you. Here are some mobile SEO stats to help your local strategy.

• Over half of global internet users (52.94%) use mobile devices for local searches (StatCounter, 2021)

More than 30% of all mobile searches are related to location. In 54% of these searches, users are looking for local store hours.

• 67 percent of smartphone users prefer businesses with location-based mobile websites (Google, 2020)

A monthly 97 billion mobile local searches are made. Even a small percentage of those searches can help your business. To do so successfully, you must first have a mobile-friendly website.

• Around 80% of “near me” searches are mobile (Google, 2016)

With over 5.27 billion mobile users globally, it’s no surprise that most local searches are done on mobile. Between 2017 and 2019, searches for “where to buy [items] near me” increased by 200 percent, while searches for “store open near me” increased by 250 percent.

• 76% of mobile local searchers visit the business within a day (Google, 2020)

If you’re still unsure about whether or not local SEO is worthwhile, these local SEO statistics may help. 76 percent of mobile searchers are compelled to visit a store by online information. 28% of those searches result in a purchase.

Statistics on Google My Business

Building your Google My Business (GMB) profile is essential for maximum local visibility. To reap the rewards, you must know how to fully utilize its features. Here are some Google My Business stats to help you out.

• 86 percent of people use Google Maps to find a business (Backlinko, 2020)

Google Maps is a great location tool. Given its accessibility, it’s easy to see why consumers rely on it to research local businesses. Users will see an empty listing if your business listing is not claimed. Worse, Google may cache incorrect information, resulting in a negative impact on your business.

• 35% of unclaimed GMB listings are local businesses (LSA Insider, 2017)

According to Google My Business stats from LSA Insider, most businesses have yet to claim their listings. Claim your listings as a local business. Why? Because it contains vital information that potential clients must know before doing business with you. Your customers should have your address, phone number, directions, and business hours. The easier it is for them, the more likely they are to visit your store.

• From January to July 2020, Google My Business listings increased calls by 61%. (Small Business Trends, 2020)

Between January and July 2020, Small Business Trends reported a 61 percent increase in calls from business listings. This was during a time when many businesses had to close. Many of these calls were made during the pandemic, with customers checking in on their favorite stores and asking about changes. This is excellent local SEO marketing.