by Marianna Muscat | Aug 12, 2020 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing
Despite the recent boycotts against it, Facebook is consistently the most popular, most visited, and most widely used of the social media platforms. The network still boasts 74% of the social media market share, so it would be foolish to turn your back on it altogether – especially with the mass disruption of COVID-19.
Christmas Marketing 2020
We don’t yet know if the upcoming festive season will be a virus-free celebration with family and friends or an isolated one for the history books. Either way, the build-up to the holidays requires a sound internet marketing strategy that will not only weather either option, but also recoup possible revenue losses.
Facebook has analysed data and created an informative guide to global shopping in 2020:
- Gen X and Baby Boomers have been forced to rely on mobile and e-commerce thanks to lockdowns. These groups dominate the growth of online shopping – increasing by 50% or more year on year.
- New products and services stand a better chance of being explored during Christmas shopping at the best of times. Add to that receptiveness fuelled by imposed disruption, and the coming shopping season is the ideal time to make new connections.
- Mega sales will appeal to shoppers more than ever in light of the economic downturn. Key factors this year will be price and avoiding crowds (i.e. online shopping). Those who shop the mega sales tend to shop on mobile, spend more, and splurge on items for themselves.
Sale dates to plan for:
Black Friday – 27 November
Cyber Monday – 30 November
Last shipping day 21-22 December
January sales 1-31 January
- Shared values have become more important to consumers now that we have come to realise what is really important to us. Along with affordability, brands need to be authentic and take action.
Award-Winning Solutions
If you need advice on your digital marketing strategy, including social media marketing for Christmas, contact the WSI South Africa team for more information.
by Marelise da Silva | Jul 27, 2020 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing
As more businesses seek to boost their online opportunities amid the COVID-19 lockdown, Facebook has launched 15 new, free Blueprint courses that cover a variety of key elements. As businesses worldwide are shifting their focus online, many do not know where to start. To help with this transition, Facebook Blueprint, which is their business education program, aims to educate you on the fundamentals. These courses are free, and the lessons are straightforward, contextualising concepts with storytelling and providing downloadable materials to assist in applying what you learn into practice. The full list of new courses can be viewed on the Blueprint platform. Have a look at some of the latest additions.
Digital marketing: Courses to Help Businesses Maximise Their Online Opportunities
Select your social media channels
This course will help you to understand the social media landscape, choose the optimal social media channels, and create a social media map for your business.
Tell your business story
The lessons explain what a brand is, why it is important to have a consistent brand, and how to create a brand for your business.
Map the customer journey
The aim is to define a customer journey, describe how the customer journey relates to your marketing efforts, and create a map for your customers’ journey.
Set marketing goals
Understand SMART goals, set and create SMART marketing goals for your business, and learn how to measure your progress against your SMART goals.
Create and manage a content calendar
The course covers the importance of a content calendar, how content calendars work, and how to create a content calendar for your business.
Facebook’s Blueprint courses offer some great insights into social media and digital marketing. Some may cater for a wider audience, so you might come across certain topics you have already mastered, but you might also gain a new perspective on things, which can cause you to reconsider or re-evaluate components of your strategy. Need help with your digital marketing and social media? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Jul 17, 2020 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing
If your social media marketing strategy does not include Facebook ads, you’re missing out on a crucial method of telling the world about your business. Because Facebook ads are becoming more complex and with new developments happening all the time, it is important to set clear goals for your Facebook ad campaigns so you can monitor your success and make the relevant changes in time.
Social Media Marketing Best Practices: Facebook Ads
Don’t aim for popularity- create objectives that drive value
With so many different advertising objectives available to your business, it can become difficult to pick the correct goals to aim for in Facebook advertising. The best plan is to determine which goals will produce the most value for your business, and aim for those objectives. Value-driving objectives no longer just include likes on your page or clicks to your website but should include conversions and brand awareness. Being popular on Facebook may help your business to reach more audience members, but if those views don’t convert into sales, they are not worth the advertising budget.
Try out Facebook’s Placement Optimisation
Placement options on Facebook include Facebook and Instagram feeds, the Audience Network, and Facebook Messenger. If you choose to activate all the placement options available to you, the Facebook Ad platform will learn which placements are the best at achieving your objectives in a cost-effective manner, enhancing your campaign performances without all the research effort from your side.
Experiment with the Campaign Budget Optimisation option
Similar to the Placement Optimisation process, the Campaign Budget Optimisation lets the Facebook Ad platform find opportunities to achieve your set goals across your ad sets and give priority in the budget allocation to the ads that are performing well. This option takes away some of the control you have over your ads but can help you to spend your budget more effectively across your Facebook Ads.
Learn when to niche down and when to target broader audiences
For a long time, Facebook Ads that targeted small, niche groups performed better than broader target groups. Due to the increase in targeting and competition, it may cost more to target a smaller group with your Facebook Ad. This aspect of the Facebook Ad platform makes it crucial to understand when targeting a broader audience may be more cost-effective. If you’re trying to make your budget go further, set your audience broader so Facebook Ads can reach different people at a lower cost.
Optimise for mobile when creating
The statistics for mobile use of social media platforms alone should indicate that mobile-first creation is key to achieving success in social media marketing. If your advertisement doesn’t load correctly on a mobile device, it won’t go down well with social media users.
If you need a strategic partner in social media marketing, SEO optimisation, and Facebook Ads, contact WSIOMS, your local SEO company and marketing agency, for more information today.
by Marianna Muscat | Apr 15, 2020 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing
According to Facebook, they have more than two billion users and more than 140 million businesses use their apps to connect with customers. Social selling via social media platforms such as Facebook is a growth opportunity for South African businesses.
Video eCommerce
As part of its on-platform purchase option strategy, Facebook acquired a video commerce start-up. A modern twist on the original home shopping network, this video commerce business is focused on enabling users to make direct product purchases via videos being broadcast live. After all, everyone with a mobile phone watches videos.
On-Platform Purchasing
Facebook has been building an on-platform cryptocurrency, aiming to facilitate fee-free fund transfers within its network. Once people are moving money around within the Facebook system, it will be so much easier for them to make on-platform purchases. Facebook is also expanding to Facebook Pay and WhatsApp Pay, with Instagram most probably the next platform for eCommerce expansion.
To expand its on-platform purchase options, Facebook also acquired an app with more than 2 million users, focused on the Indian marketplace, connecting sellers with customers through WhatsApp. Users in Thailand consider the use of live video a more effective way of presenting products and facilitating consumer queries in real-time. So, East Asian markets such as Thailand seem to be the next region for Facebook’s online shopping push.
Emerging Markets
Emerging markets have billions of users, and if Facebook can expand the utility of its platforms into shopping and payments where users pay bills or use the platform as a bank, these everyday actions can become critical for Facebook. Potentially making Facebook an essential app for many users in emerging markets within Asia, South America and Africa, including South Africa.
WSI OMS can help your business expand its social selling abilities on various social media platforms, including Facebook. Create a personal, effective social media presence to engage with customers online. Contact us if you want to change your business with social selling.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 6, 2020 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing
Holidays are a good time to boost sales for your business as consumers find it easier to justify purchases around holidays than at most other times. But, with every other business targeting the same holiday periods with offers, standing out from all the noise can prove challenging. Smart marketers are leveraging the power of social media marketing. And, Facebook Advertising, in particular, to position their brands in front of target customers. Here are the top six benefits of using Facebook Advertising to boost your holiday marketing efforts:
It Puts Your Brand and Marketing Messages in Front of More People
People are always on the look-out for great deals on gifts throughout the festive season. So, by enhancing your reach through paid advertising on Facebook, you are certain to generate a much higher number of website visitors and, hopefully, conversions.
It Helps You Target the Right People
You can ensure that your marketing budget is well-spent with Facebook’s accurate targeting options. Target by gender, age, interests and more.
It Gives You More Ad Formats to Test With
From canvas ads to slideshow ads and everything in between, the Facebook advertising platform has gone out of its way to allow marketers to really get creative.
It Enables You to Compete with the Bigger Players in Your Niche
Why should you consider running Facebook ads during the holidays? Because you can be 100% certain that your competition is! The only way to keep up is to follow suit – and do it better.
It Spreads Your Marketing Messages During a Time People Are Most Likely to Buy
At any other time of the year, people will think twice before purchasing something – even if it is offered to them at a decent price. During the holidays, however, people are ready and often looking to make a purchase. Entice them with a worthwhile offer, and you are highly likely to convert them with minimal effort or spend.
Gives You the Tools to Set Your Own Budget and Track How You’re Spending It
Facebook advertising allows you to choose your budget from the get-go, so you are always aware of what you are spending.
Facebook Advertising has some of the highest conversion rates in online marketing. If you aren’t yet, it is high time you put them to work in your business. With our expertise and years of experience with online reputation management, digital marketing, and social media marketing, at WSI OMS we are the perfect people with work if you’re looking to make ground quickly. Contact us to discuss your needs.
by Francois Muscat | Jul 8, 2019 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing
If you have a Facebook page for your business, chances are good that you need to use Facebook ads to grow your following and sell more. Here’s why:
- Your Organic Reach Is Getting Smaller
Facebook is decreasing the organic reach of your posts, in other words, they are only showing your posts to a very small percentage of your fans. To increase the number of people who see your posts, you need to consider boosted Facebook posts or promoted posts.
It is one of the most inexpensive ways to advertise. You can start with only $5 and only increase your Facebook marketing budget when you get a clear indication that you are getting the results you wanted.
Creating a Facebook ad is very simple as you only need an image and a few lines of text.
It is a great way to get instant feedback. If you are unsure about whether there is a market for your business idea or whether your product will sell, you can test your idea before you spend money. Instead of investing a considerable amount of money in product stock, for example, you can see what the interest is before you start selling.
- Detailed Targeting Options
You can target people based on their job title, marital status, the mobile device they use, the people they follow and so much more. You can target people who are your ideal customers simply by using Facebook’s targeting options.
You are now able to remarket to people who have followed a specific action and have prequalified themselves for remarketing from you.
Need help with your social media marketing or digital marketing campaigns? Then contact WSI OMS today.
