READ MORE: Five Reasons Why You Should Partner with an Agency

Facebook

Facebook users almost exclusively use the platform on mobile. As a result, you have to cater to mobile-friendliness. This means that shorter, punchier copy works best. Moreover, your image sizing is really important – just because something looks good on desktop doesn’t mean it will translate successfully to mobile.

Key tip:

Post shareable content to boost your organic reach. The basics of how to make shareable posts? Know your audience; provide information or laughs (or both – score!); stay relevant; and invoke emotion.

LinkedIn

Social media best practices dictate thought-provoking, informative posts for LinkedIn. Here, you can share longer posts (up to 1300 characters) that tickle the brains of your peers and industry role-players.

Key tip:

Avoid overly pushy CTAs (calls to action) on your LinkedIn posts, as this content doesn’t do well organically. The LinkedIn audience is primarily there to learn and network (and not necessarily to ‘buy’). So, instead, teach your audience and foster engagement so that they don’t feel ‘sold to’. Do this and the deals, sales, and collaborations will follow.

Instagram

Instagram is a visual medium. Therefore, posting engaging imagery is key. While captions can be informative and value-packed, consumers will ultimately pause on images first. Once the image has been consumed, only then will your audience give your caption pause. Instead of sticking to one image per post, why not give carousels a try? They perform far better than single images.

Key tip:

Post Stories that foster engagement (think: Q&As and polls). 500+ million people use Stories daily and one-third of the most-viewed stories come from brands, according to Instagram. Creating content where people are consuming it is essential.

Twitter

Twitter is all about relevance. The key to perfecting Twitter is a fast pace – you have to respond timeously to industry-relevant announcements and events. Moreover, text performs well on this platform, so don’t get too bogged down in design. Focus on your copy instead; find your niche and join the conversation!

Key tip:

The ideal posting frequency is three times per day. It may seem like a lot, but when you consider that it is predominantly text-based and you have limited characters (280, to be exact), it’s totally doable. Also, tweets posted throughout the week generally perform better than weekend posting.

No matter the platform, the basics stay the same: always plan ahead with a schedule, use the correct image sizes for each platform, and stay consistent in your tone, imagery, and posting. As platforms evolve, social media best practices change – so be sure to keep up with the trends.

If you need more specific help, or a bespoke strategy, get in touch.

READ MORE: Marketing Trends to Look Out for in 2021

The post Social Media Best Practices: A Cheat Sheet for Businesses first appeared on Fenix Marketing.

The post Social Media Best Practices: A Cheat Sheet for Businesses appeared first on Fenix Marketing.

READ MORE: Marketing Trends to Look Out For in 2021

Internet Usage

In 2020, the average South African spent 9 hours and 22 minutes online each day. This time online is the basis of both work and social activity. So, if you’re looking to expand your business, it’s only natural that you tap into these hours of engagement.

Internet users aged 16-64 spend their time online like this:

• 90% watch online videos (YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram…)
• 70% listen to music streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube…)
• 41% listen to podcasts (Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts…)

This means that money spent advertising on these platforms will ultimately achieve great reach and ROI. Advertising on popular platforms is an effective way to drive traffic to your website, stay top-of-mind, and, in turn, convert customers.

Websites

There are 1,196,298,727 websites in the world as of September 2020. Additionally, a recent report indicated that every minute the total number of worldwide websites grew approximately by 380. This means that every 24 hours there is a 547200 increase in the total number of websites worldwide!

eCommerce

There are an estimated 12 million – 24 million eCommerce sites across the entire globe, with more and more being created every single day. With 74% of consumers who rely on their social networks to make purchasing decisions.

Google

Google is currently the most visited website in the world according to Alexa Top 500 Global Sites Rating. As a search intent platform, customers are actively looking for your products and services, a business simply cannot afford not to be on Google.

Social Media at a Glance

A recent survey showed that 97% of internet users aged 16-64 visited a social network in the past month. And what’s more – the global average of time spent on social media daily is 2 hours and 24 minutes. Moreover, the average internet user also has over 8 social media accounts.

Facebook

Facebook’s growth continues to skyrocket, especially in Africa. Central to our 2020 Digital Marketing recap is the platform’s advertising audience.

• 95 billion people can be reached by adverts on Facebook worldwide.
• Marketers can reach 32% of users with these ads.
• 56% of the ad audience is male, while 44% is female.

Instagram

Instagram’s total advertising audience is just shy of 1 billion users. So, if you are a product-driven business, you will most likely use an Instagram business account. Here are the benchmarks:

• Businesses post an average of 13 stories per month.
• The average monthly growth in account followers is 2.5%.
• 21% of a business’ feed is made up of video posts.

LinkedIn

This social media giant remains the leading professional networking platform. Advertising on LinkedIn is costly but its potential for organic reach is unparalleled.

• 3 million professionals can be reached by ads on this platform.
• Over 8 million South Africans make use of this platform on a monthly basis.
• Locally, the biggest age group using the platform is between 25 and 35.

Finally, our 2020 Digital Marketing Recap shows that now, more than ever, an engaging online presence is essential across multiple platforms. With competition rifer than ever, a well thought out strategically strong online presence could very well be the differentiating factor between you and your competitors giving your brand its own platform to communicate your products and offerings.

If you are looking for someone to guide you along the digital process and simplify the platforms and strategy based on what’s best for your business, let’s chat. We would love to help your business grow! So get in touch with info@www.fenixmarketing.co.za or speak to our digital strategist today 082 551 7997.

 READ MORE: PR and Digital Marketing: A Hybrid Approach

The post 2020 Digital Marketing Recap: What You Need to Know first appeared on Fenix Marketing.

The post 2020 Digital Marketing Recap: What You Need to Know appeared first on Fenix Marketing.

READ MORE: PR and Digital Marketing: A Hybrid Approach

More Co-marketing Partnerships

Co-marketing is on the rise, with more brands collaborating to achieve win-win campaigns within their intersecting industries.

Co-marketing partnerships bring brands together to reach new or untapped audiences, enhance brand credibility, keep up with trends, and achieve joint business objectives. When done correctly, these partnerships are hugely mutually beneficial.

Importantly, you need to ensure that the brand collaboration is a good match and that both brands have  clearly-defined target audiences and similar brand representation. Moreover, it should also feel organic. Partnerships that seem forced, or are an uncomfortable combination of products or brand tones, generally don’t get the results.

Increased Interactive Content

Users now demand more than functionality – they want engagement. While social media is key to this engagement, you can also include engagement tools in your existing online infrastructure. This includes website quizzes, games, polls, interactive videos, surveys, and competitions.

Adding interactive elements to your website or social media is a good way to provide value for visitors. It will also get them to engage with your brand, therefore allowing you to learn more about them too.

For example, many companies offer free tips, how-to videos and even online bond calculators on their websites. In this way, they’re offering value to their visitors while also learning more about their website user activity. This info, in turn, can help you refine targeting for paid ad campaigns on Google or Facebook.

Video’s Prioritisation

In 2020, we saw clearly that video content gets higher engagement than copy and still imagery. This is evidenced by the TikTok boom and multiple viral video campaigns. Video content lends itself to shareability and adds distinction to your customers’ newsfeeds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4dDs0T7sM

Databox conducted a survey to analyse this trend, specifically regarding Facebook. When asked what content drives more engagement, marketers noted that video provided 29,7% more clicks than images.

The reason? Videos force scrolling users to stop and pay attention to the post. As consumers, we’ve gotten better at digesting content while scrolling, making it easier to scroll through images without giving the posts the time of day. With videos, you have an extra second to grab users’ attention.

Experiential Marketing’s Evolution

The immediate future of in-person events remains uncertain. Instead, one key marketing trend you should capitalize on next year is virtual events. Experiential marketing, while once touted as the next big thing, relies on human interaction which, in the current climate, cannot be banked on.

2020 saw everything change, with the global health crisis largely eliminating live events & upending proven marketing techniques. With brands eager to reunite with customers, experiential marketing pivoted to help forge relationships into the future. https://t.co/5oNlmD3Ql7 pic.twitter.com/Q0S0LSKhXV

— Advertising Week (@advertisingweek) December 9, 2020

But experiential marketing has evolved. Forbes notes that it will become digitised. “People are spending more time online and using connected devices as they are mandated to stay inside, giving more opportunities for users to interact. Whether it be through VR, playing an interactive game, attending a virtual concert, or a live streaming demo, experiential marketing will move towards brands engaging audiences for experiences online.”

Expansion into Africa

Considering marketing your business in Africa? If not, you should be in 2021. If your strategy doesn’t extend into Africa, you may be left behind in the next few years – if approached correctly, the growth opportunities are immense.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “the emerging affluent African consumer is as connected as the rest of the world, smartphone always in hand. As this untapped market captures global attention, it also offers marketers a chance to leapfrog the legacy of mass marketing and reinvent the field from the ground up.”

Marketing in Africa has its challenges, with different languages and cultures being the obvious hurdle, and so brands that launch global campaigns in Africa are often unsuccessful. But you can learn from other brand’s mistakes. Crucially, marketing needs to be localised and adapted for each territory and market segment within it.

It’s no wonder that social media holds the key to marketing potential in Africa… Digital media is becoming increasingly accessible across the continent, thereby allowing targeted ad campaigns to flourish across the various platforms. This data also gives brands an opportunity to tap into, and understand, their growing market.

READ MORE: How to develop a Marketing Budget that supports Business Growth

The post Marketing Trends to Look Out For in 2021 first appeared on Fenix Marketing.

The post Marketing Trends to Look Out For in 2021 appeared first on Fenix Marketing.