Since July we’ve doubled our team to 10 and we’re lucky to be working with some of the most talented and experienced creatives throughout Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. We’ve helped brand over 100 different businesses from the wine industry and health to manufacturing, finance and training. This year has seen We Create Brands rise to the digital challenge and evolve as a full-service branding, digital and graphic design studio with services ranging from brand strategy and brand naming to brand identity design, logo design, wine label design, web design and social media marketing.

We couldn’t be more proud to be celebrating 4 fantastic years in this fast-paced business world and ever-changing industry. Branding and digital continues to change the world we live in, every day, and we’re excited to be working with you as part of it.

Thank you to our family of amazing clients and of course to our ever-supportive family and friends. Here’s to another 4!

To mark our 4th birthday we’ve put together some facts and figures that give a flavour of what We Create Brands is like in 2013…

Cheers,
Carrie, Astrid and the We Create Brands Team

We Create Brands is a branding, digital, web design and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow We Create Brands on Twitter and LinkedIn, and ‘like’ us on Facebook.

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I’m sure most of you are receiving email marketing in your inbox daily, now what makes you read the newsletter? Is it the headline? Is it the time of day it’s sent or do you simply find the content relevant to you?

All of these factors come into play when we look at our open rates. First let me just explain what we mean by open rates.

The open rate measures how many people on your email marketing database list open your email campaign. The open rate is displayed as a percentage. For example a 30% open rate means that every 10 emails sent to an inbox 3 were opened. If your open rate between 20% – 40% then I would say this is around the average.

Need to increase your email marketing open rate?

Give these ideas some thought:

• Play around with your subject lines; try to include some keywords that are more suitable to your email-marketing list. For example if you are sending a newsletter to wineries – use this word within the subject line, let me know you are talking to them.
• Mix it up when it comes to the day and time you send out your email marketing campaign: Maybe your subscribers find Tuesdays are really busy – test your email marketing list by sending your campaign out on a Wednesday morning instead?
• Get the good stuff up the top: It’s all about good, fresh and relevant content. Make sure your best content is located at the top of your campaigns.

At the end of the day, it’s all about testing and measuring your campaigns. I hope this has given you some ideas, I would love to hear about your results and if you have any other handy tips.

Cheers,
Carrie.

Carrie Buckle is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow Carrie on Twitter

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What’s the role and branding in business?

Your branding is your business’ greatest asset. It gives your customers something they can connect with, beyond price and function. Your brand can be the start of a conversation that leads to long-term relationships with your customers.

Branding also helps create an emotional connection you have with a business, their products and/or services. Certain elements help create this perception and connection you have with a brand and it’s usually because of the brand identity; imagery, colours, typeface,  key messages, image style, positioning statement or tag lines associated with the brand.

What’s brand identity?

Brand identity design is more than a logo design or business card. A brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses. Brand identity is the visual and verbal expression of a brand. Brand identity is a business’ personality, competitive advantage, values. It starts with a brand name and a brand mark (logo design, colour palette, typeface) and continues with offline and online brand communications (stationery to web design and social media marketing), advertising campaigns, signage and public relations. Brand identity increases awareness and builds awareness.

Brand identity is a powerful tool for business and is your most important asset that needs to be managed, nourished, invested in, and leveraged.

So what’s a brand?

The word “brand” comes from an Old English word that means “to burn,” and it came from a mark that was burned into the skin in order to signify ownership. For over four thousand years, brands were used to identify cattle.

A brand is the promise, the big idea, the reputation and expectation that reside in each customer’s mind about the product, service or the business. Brand is about making an emotional connection. People fall in love with brands, they trust them, develop strong loyalties, buy them, and believe in their their superiority. The brand is shorthand: it stands for something and demonstrates it everyday. All the imagery, colours, fonts, tag lines, copywriting, marketing campaigns help build the perceptions you have of a brand. This encourages a loyal community of followers, customers and brand ambassadors. The bottom line is: good brands build companies. Ineffective brands undermine success.

As strong brand will stand out in a crowded marketplace and those businesses who’s employees and stakeholders understand and embrace the brand are more successful.

“We played our brand of footy.” If you’re a footy fan you would have heard this statement many a times. It’s also a great analogy to use for unravelling the complexity that is branding.

So what do footballers mean when they say “we played our brand of footy?” They mean they played a certain way; we played  an aggressive, fast, strong ‘brand’ of football. What they are saying is that these qualities are what make their team different, its what they stand for and want to be known for – this is the role of branding. Ideally you want to differentiate your business, product or service by standing out, being different and getting noticed, all of which branding can achieve.

Isn’t a brand a logo?

The term “logo” dates back to ancient Greece, and it literally means “name.” although it became associated with symbols and trademarks.

A logo is a brand mark, it can be a name, a symbol or a combination of both. A logo represents a brand in its most simplest or abstract form. A logo will encompass the brand’s personality and be one of the most used and seen assets of a brand and your business.

I do hope this blog today has helped you understand branding’s role in business and has empowered you to brand your business and achieve a competitive edge.

Need branding to differentiate your business? Get in touch and get set to give your business a competitive edge!

Cheers,
Astrid.

Astrid Varga is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands. 

Follow Astrid on Twitter

Brand and brand identity definions referenced from Desiging Brand Identity, by Alina Wheeler
Brand and logo definitions sourced from Designing Logos: The Process of Creating Symbols That Endure, by Jack Gernsheimer

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Brand guidelines explained

Logos – primary and secondary logos
A brands’ logo is one of the most used and recognisable part of a brand identity. Variations of a primary logo and secondary logo (horizontal and vertically stacked) are important when space is limited. Because a logo’s symbol can be displayed either on its own, with the name or with the tagline, specifying minimum sizes is important for legibility (for example, if the logo with the tagline is too small, it will be illegible). The point is to allow flexibility while maintaining consistency. It’s also important to provide colour, reversed and black and white versions for different applications.

Logo usage – do’s and don’ts
A brands’ logo is one of the most used and recognisable part of a brand identity. It’s important to understand the “do’s” and “dont’s” and minimum size requirements. Specifying minimum sizes is important for legibility (for example, if the logo with the tagline is too small, it will be illegible). Provide logos with different colours, and specify which colours are allowed. 

Twitter’s logo’s “do’s” and “dont’s”

Spacing
Don’t underestimate the need for white space. Include a spacing reference, especially for the logo. Rather than specifying centimetres or millimetres, use a portion of the logo (a letter or a shape) to set the clearance. This way, whether the logo is big or small, the space around it will be enough.

Twitter’s logo’s clear space requirements

Colours
The use of specific colours will build brand recognition when used correctly. When you ‘own’ your colour combinations so that when audiences detect them, your brand comes to mind instinctively. Listing the colour palettes and what the colours should be used for is crucial for brand consistency. Popular formats for both print and web include: CMYK, Pantones (PMS) and RGB (or HEX). Always include a CMYK alternative for Pantones because sometimes matching is hard (especially when Pantone printing is not possible). Specify primary and secondary colours and when and where to use them.

Typefaces (fonts)
Defining the typefaces to use: sizes, line height, spacing before and after, colours, headline versus body font, etc. Make sure to include web alternatives for non-web fonts. Always use the brand’s typeface family as this will ensure consistency across all our printed and digital communications.

Personality
A big component of a brand’s personality is the copy, and defining the tone is a great way to keep a brand consistent. When multiple people are writing the copy, the brand can start to sound like it has multiple personalities. The use of punctuation and correct grammar is well established and clear, but style is much more than just the correct usage of punctuation, grammar and vocabulary. Style can encompass many different aspects like:

• tone (casual, formal, etc)
• preferred sentence lengths
• manuscript layout
• depth of treatment of a subject
• spelling (UK vs. US for example)
• readership considerations
• use of abbreviations
• accepted terminology
• the use of symbols
• voice preferences (active v passive, first person v second or third)
• structure
• paragraph numbering and indentation
• the use of headings
• the use of lists
• trade mark considerations

Copywriting guide
For those of you who write your own copy but want to maintain consistency, a copy writing style guide can be helpful. Copywriting is one of those things that most people register subconsciously. When reading, your brain automatically looks for consistency and patterns, and poor copywriting can ruin the reading flow. Read our latest blog copywriting.

Imagery
The imagery used for a brand whether it be photography, illustration and diagrams should be included in the guidelines for brand consistency. A secondary graphic is an element used throughout branding communications to enhance and convey the brand personality.

Web guidelines explained

Just like branding guidelines, web guidelines keep everything consistent, from button styles to navigation structure.

Button hierarchy
This sections shows what all links do (including the buttons), the appropriate behaviour of each and when to use them (with examples of appropriate usage). If one button is dominant, it’s important to make clear the maximum number of times it should be used per page (usually once at most). Defining the hover, disabled and visited states for all buttons is also considered.

Icons
Defining size and spacing and where to use icons is another great way to promote consistency.

Navigation (Logged in/out states)
On the Web, good consistent navigation can make or break a website. New pages are often added to a website after the designer is done with it. Doing things like letting people know what to do with new navigation items and showing logged-in states make for a cleaner website.

Why use brand guidelines?

Guidelines are a great reference point to ensure your staff manage your brand internally and for any third party supplier you may engage to ensure they understands how to use your brand identity correctly, they also mean:

• you’ll have an easy guide to refer to when handing over the project
• makes you look professional. They’ll know you did everything for a reason
• you maintain control of the design. When someone does something awful, you can refer them to the document
• you avoid cheapening the design, message and branding

Brand guidelines can consist of one single, all encompassing document covering all your branding, publishing and online needs, or several different style documents catering to different audiences and needs.

References:
www.twitter.com
www.smashingmagazine.com

Don’t have brand guidelines? Not to worry, get in touch and let’s get set to give your business a competitive edge!

Cheers,
Astrid.

Astrid Varga is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands. 

Follow Astrid on Twitter

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So why should I test and measure my marketing strategies Adelaide?

As business owners and marketers we need to be able to clearly communicate the impact on bottom-line metrics in order to set budgets, measure the success of the last campaign and to plan for future marketing campaigns. Most of us may not realise that we already test and measure most things in life, for example let’s take hockey – I’m a huge hockey fan! Now each week at hockey training we practice certain drills – (marketing strategies) and then test these drills during our match on the weekend. During the match we optimise these drills against the team we are playing (campaigns). At the end of the game we gather around and measure and analyse the outcomes from the drills, were they successful, do we need to make adjustments and so on…

When it comes to measuring your efforts it doesn’t matter what business you are in, it should be one we use and think about constantly.  In today’s business world we now have so many more strategies to use to get in contact with our market – so why do we stick with the same old methods and do we really know if they are working.

I’ll leave you with some questions to get you thinking about testing and measuring your marketing.

• Do you know where your last customer came from?
• Do your customers know everything you have to offer?
• When was the last time you sent out a survey to your customers?
• Do you know how many hits/leads came from your website this week?
• What was the open rate like on the two email campaigns you sent out?
• How’s the level of social media engagement going for you?

How do I measure my marketing strategies?

To help you capture this data and compile theses metrics, we’re sharing with you a Monthly Marketing Reporting Template from our friends at HubSpot, download it here. The template will help you measure the key metrics that you and your team impacts, and help communicate those metrics back to your team, director, boss, CEO, and shareholders.  This template will help you report on the following key metrics:

• Total reach
• Reach by channel
• Total website visits
• Websites visits by source
• Total leads generated
• Leads generated by source
• Total customers driven by marketing
• Marketing-generated customers by source
• Visit-to-lead conversion rate
• Lead-to-customer conversion rate
• Visit-to-customer conversion rate

Have marketing strategies you want to implement? Feel free to give me a call on 08 8223 3301 or drop into the studio for a coffee and a chat, I’d love to help.

Cheers,
Carrie.

Carrie Buckle is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow Carrie on Twitter

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“To set the context, globally eight new people come online each second using predominantly mobile or social networks, and the value of these online exchanges is adding up, both with respect to volume and impact.”

Social media has become an integral part of everyday life according to Media Bistro, who found that every day:

1. Almost 500 million people log onto Facebook
2. 4 billion views are made on YouTube
3. 175 million tweets are sent on Twitter
4. Nearly 3.3 billion searches are done on Google
5. And, despite the existing 4.8 billion mobile users, more mobile phones are sold than babies are born

“It’s a lay down misère that companies must be where their customers are and there is increasing awareness that peer-to-peer recommendations on these platforms carry weight.”

Unsure how to use social media marketing for your business?

Social media marketing should be seen just like traditional networking, the major difference being it’s online; it’s a place where businesses and customers can interact with one another and build relationships. It’s a two-way dialogue where you have the opportunity to communicate your brands personality, values and story. It’s also a great way to connect with your customers through competitions, surveys or forums, candidly with a more relaxed and social feel.

Social media marketing programs usually centre on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. There are many social networking sites that allow individual followers to “retweet”, “like” or “repost” comments made by the product or service being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.

Want to know more about social media marketing for your business? Read more here.

Cheers,
Carrie.

Carrie Buckle is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow Carrie on Twitter

The post Social media marketing: Love it or loathe it, the ASX says you can no longer ignore it appeared first on We Create Brands.

Businesses need to address their brand and digital marketing strategy soon, or risk being left behind in a fast-moving world.

Back to basics: What is branding Adelaide?

Branding is how a business or organisation differentiates their products and services to those of their competitors. Branding can define your brand’s personality, values, and the promise and value you offer your customers.

Put simply, branding is storytelling — a series of characters and scripts (imagery and messages) developed to form a compelling story or perception of your business or organisation — played over and over and your audiences’ minds.

What is digital branding Adelaide?

Digital branding is simply using digital media to position your brand online. It’s important to consider branding fundamentals when going online including your identity, unique selling proposition, your promise and your key messages – the only real difference is the platform – it isn’t simply dropping your logo onto your website. Consumers want to experience brands as a series of seamless, connected experiences, where visiting an business’ retail store, talking to a staff member or visiting their website all look and feel the same.

Why do I need digital marketing Adelaide?

Digital is not just another channel or add-on, digital marketing is an integral part to how brands are developed and managed. When we’re creating a brand strategy for our clients we create a holistic strategy for the brand — a complete brand strategy ready for the digital world we live in today.

Depending on your business goals the reasons can differ. If you want to attract more customers and grow your business you understand you have to be found, have a competitive edge and stand out. With traditional print media rapidly declining you need to connect with your customers and play where they are playing.

Likewise, if you want to build a reputation, become a leader in your industry or organisation you have to be seen, be heard and be found. For businesses and organisations that are already influential and want to maintain, consolidate or focus their authority, grow market share and profitability having a holistic approach to digital branding is paramount.

5 ways to protect your brand online:

1. Holistic approach to brand strategy
Many businesses see a digital strategy as being a separate or a promotional tool rather than an integrated brand strategy. Digital marketing is here to stay, so you need a brand and digital strategy fit for today’s fast and ever-changing world.

2. Consistency is king
Before jumping online you need to be mindful of your branding – online and offline – it should mirror each other. Refer back to your brand guidelines on how to use your brand identity, this will outline how to use the brand’s logo correctly, colour palette, typefaces and image style and personality.

3. Digital assets
Developing your brand’s digital assets can include a website, social media channels (LinkedIn profiles and company pages, Facebook company pages, Twitter, Foursquare to name a few), e-newsletters, blogs and smartphone and tablet apps.

4. User experience
Making your website mobile responsive will improve your customer’s online experience with your brand and will increase the chances of sales, enquires or completing your call to action.

5. Know your business goals
Remember your business goals and why you’re going online. It could be to build your reputation, increase brand awareness or to sell a product through an online store.

Article first published in-business magazine Tool Box section, Issue No. 71 – June/July 2013 and online.

Carrie Buckle is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow Carrie on Twitter

The post Digital marketing and branding Adelaide: How to protect your brand online appeared first on We Create Brands.

Although we didn’t take out the title this year we are both extremely humbled and honoured to have been named a Finalist for two consecutive years. For a young business kicking goals in an extremely crowded Adelaide market place, and to be recognised in this prestigious business awards program signals We Create Brands has an exciting future ahead.

There a lot of people we would like to publicly thank so we’d like to share with you all what Carrie would have said had we won.

We Create Brands – 2013 Telstra South Australian Business Awards, News Limited Micro-Business Finalist

(I take my speech from my dress pocket)

How cool is this dress?? It has pockets!!!

Wow, one word AWESOME!! (Do our happy dance!!!)

Firstly, a massive thank you to Telstra for putting on such an amazing awards program. It has been such a wonderful experience. To our category sponsor, News Limited, thank you so much, love your work. To our fellow Finalists, congrats, it’s been great meeting some fantastic new people and amazing businesses here in Adelaide over the past two days.

Well…when Astrid and I first started We Create Brands four years ago, we knew that our passion for helping people would really make a difference in the business community. Now as all business owners know it’s bloody hard work running a small business, and especially as a micro-business, wearing multiple hats each and every day, but we wouldn’t change a thing! From our early days working from the kitchen table of a two bedroom unit, cleaning part time to keep money coming in and calling on family for some nice home cooked meals to where we stand today, we have come a long way. This award is the cherry on top, achieving one of our very first dreams of winning a Telstra Business Award, is an amazing feeling.

There has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears (literally). I have to share this story with you all, when we were setting up the home office, yes it was time to move out of the kitchen, I was putting together the filing cabinet from IKEA (thank you IKEA, love your work too) and used a little too much muscle and the filing cabinet track ended up splitting my lower lip, so yes there has been blood. I don’t think Astrid will mind me sharing her story, just this February she was waiting for a life-changing phone call from our business bank manager for our studio loan approval. She was on her way out to a meeting and she was out the back trying to put Roxy, our studio dog, inside when the phone rang. She sprinted up the back stairs and she was running so fast she stacked it up the stairs onto her knee, so yes we both have endured blood, sweat and a lot of tears but now we can look back, smile and laugh at ourselves. And yes we do have the scars to remind ourselves of these milestones.

So what does We Create Brands actually do? In a nutshell we help our clients achieve a competitive edge for their business. We Create Brands is a full-service branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Pirie Street, Adelaide. It’s our team’s focus on strategy and personalised service that sets us apart to deliver value and results to brands and businesses, big and small. Offering a wide range of services from brand strategy through to logo, graphic and web design, We Create Brands helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and grow into profitable brands.

Getting up to go to work for the past four years has been the best part of the day because we knew that we were helping businesses create a brand that they’re customers and clients could live and breathe. Seeing their businesses grow and creating a mindset that is positive is just the best feeling for us and is what keeps us going. Our Mantra of never, never, never giving up and giving it crack has for sure helped us through these years.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Astrid, my partner in crime. It’s been a great journey and as you know two heads are better than one. But seriously you have made going to work a lot of fun, so thank you for putting up with my music, laughs and crazy moments.

So once again a big thanks to Telstra, News Limited and a big shout out to our loyal customers, suppliers, family and friends as we wouldn’t be standing here right now without your love and support.

This award is going straight to the pool room!!

Check out the action from the Gala Awards Dinner below.

Cheers,
Carrie, Astrid and the We Create Brands Team

We Create Brands is a branding, digital, web design and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow We Create Brands on Twitter and LinkedIn, and ‘like’ us on Facebook.

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Your personal brand’s reflected by the way you speak, dress and behave.  It’s up to you to consciously define how you want your brand – you! – to be perceived and received.

Public speaking is a guaranteed way to develop and market your brand.  The question is: Will you enhance your brand, or damage it?

I work with a lot of people who used to be inclined to quickly say “No” whenever they were given an opportunity to speak.  They’ve since seen the benefits of saying “Yes” and have invested in working on their speaking skills to establish their value, build credibility, and increase their visibility.

Speaking opportunities – in meetings, at networking groups, in the boardroom, on the stage, and pitching for business – give you a prime chance to build awareness of your brand.  And if you’re dynamic and inspiring too, you can expect doors to open with new connections, surprising possibilities, and business.

Here’s how public speaking boosts your personal brand:

• People see you as an expert.  That’s why you’ve been asked to speak in the first place
• Your showcase your talents, abilities, skills, intelligence and wisdom.  Public speaking requires creativity, critical thinking, confidence, leadership, and poise under pressure.  When you do it well, you earn respect
• You build trust with your audience.  Seeing you in person and hearing you speak is the best way for people to engage and connect with you.  Public speaking allows you to quickly build rapport and trust
• You grow your network quickly.  You’re exposing yourself – and your brilliance – to a lot of people all at once.  You can also expect to make one-on-one connections after your talk, with whom you can follow up and build your relationship
• The members of your audience will talk about you to other people.  That kind of ‘buzz’ will open doors for you, including other speaking opportunities, business, referrals, and possibilities you may have never considered.  Every time I speak I make new connections that lead to new business
• You’re memorable – hopefully for all the right reasons

It’s just as important to consider how public speaking benefits your audiences too.  Many of my clients don’t think they have anything to say that’s of value to audiences.  Others think that public speaking is self-aggrandising. This is not true.

What can help you overcome any sense of not being important or interesting enough is considering how your expertise can benefit others:

• Your audiences gain insight and information that can be useful for them at work or in their daily lives
• Your audiences get fresh ideas, inspiration, and motivation that enrich their lives
• Your audiences become aware of your brand, and keep you in mind to help people who need what you have to offer

Ready to start seeking and creating public speaking opportunities?  The next step is ensuring that you enhance your brand when you do.

These are my secrets to public speaking success, so you can be a powerful and captivating presenter who gets results:

• Know your message.  This sits at the heart of every talk you give, no matter the topic.  It’s what you stand for, and what you’ll become known for
• Transform your relationship with fear.  Learn how to shift from stress, nervousness, anxiety and fear about public speaking so you can access genuine confidence and power as a speaker (and even enjoy the experience!)
• Craft a presentation that has a clear ‘call to action,’ is well structured and still allows plenty of room for spontaneity
• Speak in a way that’s engaging and captivating.  Be a fascinating storyteller, and use stories and lessons from your own experiences
• Make your audience care.  I don’t see this often enough.  There are so many boring presentations that are forgotten by audiences as soon as they walk out the door.  Audiences won’t be moved, and you won’t be memorable, unless you make them care
• Own your value.  Powerful public speaking – and creating a strong brand for yourself – isn’t about seeking approval.  It’s about owning the value of what you have to say, and having conviction
• Be yourself.  The best speakers know themselves very well.  They understand why what they have to say matters.  They don’t try to fit in a box of rigid techniques that dictate how a public speaker should present.  When you can really be You, you’ll start to discover freedom and excitement about speaking in front of groups.

Now, go forth and speak!  Create and seek public speaking opportunities and allow yourself to shine.  Then, watch your personal brand grow and your world open up to new possibilities.

Tricia Karp is a public speaking and communications coach at www.TriciaKarp.com. Subscribe for her free training video The 5 Secrets to Powerful Speaking.

Follow Tricia on Facebook and Twitter.

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Firstly for those of you who aren’t quite sure what social media marketing is, it’s a component of your marketing mix with the aim to gain website traffic through your social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs to name a few. Social media marketing programs usually centre on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks.

Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet”, “like” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites are a great word of mouth tool. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company. 

I’m happy to admit social media marketing isn’t a magic pill, it does take time to build your profile within the community but once your business will start to reap the benefits.

Now I bet you’re saying where do I start? Which channel should my business be utilising? How can I possibly find the time to spend on social media marketing? Well that’s where I can help. The first place to start is with a social media strategy, this will help you with most of the questions raised, it will help you understand goals & objectives and choosing the right social media platforms and identifying key influencers. It’s important to hang out where your customers hang, so you’re involved in conversations and building relationships so when they require your product/service you’re on the shopping list. If you don’t have much time to spend on social media marketing efforts pick just two platforms and test the waters there first.

It’s equally important to now test and measure your social media marketing efforts. Based on your goals and objectives you established at the beginning of the campaign you can easily measure your results using the channel’s reporting data and make  any improvements or up the anti on your next campaign. The results will also show you if you’re on the  appropriate social media platform for your business.

Why use social media marketing Adelaide? Some of the top benefits include:

• Generated more business exposure
• Increased traffic/subscribers
• Improved search rankings
• Resulted in new business partnerships
• Generated qualified leads
• Reduced overall marketing expenses
• Improved sales
• Increased communication for organisations
• Builds brand awareness
• And often, improved customer service.

Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organisations to implement marketing campaigns.

The top 5 social media networks businesses are using are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Blogs
• YouTube or other video

I recently came across this infographic demonstrating measurable benefits businesses are getting from using social media. My favourite statistic is the one that states those who spend at lest 6 hours per week utilising social media are 2 x more likely to generate leads than those who spend 5 hours or less. I did say social media marketing was a long-term investment…wow.

Infographic sourced from sarkmedia. 

I hope this post gave you a greater insight into the fast world of social media marketing. I would love to hear about the social media platforms you’re using to market your business… feel free to list them in the comments section below.

Cheers,
Carrie.

Carrie Buckle is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of We Create Brands, a branding, digital and graphic design studio based in Adelaide that helps businesses achieve a competitive edge, win more customers and ultimately grow into profitable brands.

Follow Carrie on Twitter

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