1. Establish Your Company Values 

What kind of travel experience do want your company to represent? Are you exotic and adventurous or quiet and comfortable? Does any of your products or services benefit the environment and/or include fair-trade practices? Identify what your company stands for and work with a designer or marketing agency that has designers to include visual elements and persuasive body copy that accurately portray and represent what your company stands for. 

2. Identify Your Audience’s Interest

Find out what interests your target market. Is there anything specific that a lot of people in your target demographic talk about? Ask: who, what, where, when, how, and at what time? You can gather this information through user persona profiles, social media, and competitor research. Think about how you can create content from it. Examples include a FAQ section on your website, host live Q & As on social media, a how-to video, or surveys through email marketing. Once you have built an audience continue to build off that information with Google Analytics with your Website, Google Ads, Social Ads, and interactions from other digital marketing avenues. You can use data to help inform future projects. 

3. Choose Formats Popular with Your Target Market 

Short-form video is popular with young gen z and millennials, but not every piece of content must be in this format to get views. Look at different content styles on the social media platforms you are on. For example, on Instagram carousels often get high engagement rates. Your business could create a “what to bring to ______” post. Then include branded items and include “anything we missed?” statement at the end to encourage interaction. May sure to switch post types a few times a week so existing followers don’t get bored. 

4. Create Immersive Content 

With new technologies you can create or integrate exciting digital experiences on your website and social media accounts. VR, augmented reality, and Google Maps are a few ways to this. Since you are in the travel industry, this is a great way to create sneak peeks of tours, trips, or products in use. You want to entice the client to stay and interact with what your company has to offer. If create a positive and exciting experience online, they are more likely to trust and choose you over a generic company. 

5. Create a Unique Style

With competitive research you may be tempted to recreate popular layouts and slap your logo on it. At best you could lose potential clients due to brand confusion, at worst, you are accused of plagiarism and get into legal trouble. Make sure you are adding and changing up photos, videos, motion graphics, and body copy tone of voice to create something that is identifiable uniquely to your company. Not only will you stand out from the crowd, but you will create trust with your audience.  

Need help creating effective branded content? Call 248.528.3600

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1. Use PR to Facilitate Content Promotions

Reach out to relevant journalists, editors, influencers, bloggers, or other media outlets with your content. Your content should be data-focused, but emotional enough to connect with the average consumer. This should lead to more sharing among social media, increased media coverage, and a wider audience that may include merging complementary industries. A study by ON-Broadcast, a broadcast specialist agency, showed that many journalists admit to finding stories on social networks or other media outlets. This means that reporters could possibly pick up your story when you distribute your content across different channels. Consider looking out for guest posting opportunities on reputable websites. Having regular articles and press mentions will amplify your reach in the long term.

2. Use PR to Build Relationships with Influencers

PR is more than just sending a single inquiry email and hoping to get more eyes on your content pieces. It is about building and nurturing mutually beneficial relationships. The better your PR, the easiest it gets to attract new partners, which is a valuable asset when using influencer marketing. An influencer has the trust of their audience and to keep that trust, they try to work with companies that are reputable. Create an influencer strategy built on honest reviews of your product or service. Make sure your content is clear and easy to understand. If the influencer created the content, check that their work doesn’t have any misleading information. After that, enjoy a steady stream of media coverage, co-branded content, social media mentions, and product or service reviews. 

3. Use PR to Help You Become an Industry Authority 

Public relations help you increase authority through speaking engagements, interviews, media coverage, or social media presence. Keep an eye out for local tradeshows, community events, or schools hosting a career day. Allow your employees to build personal brands and share industry insights or news under the company name. Also allow individuals within your company to become thought leaders by publishing insightful content pieces, such as industry reports or expert commentaries. This not only will build the creditability of your company but will show your employees that they are valuable members of the team. Potential clients will feel more at easy if they see real people interacting with the company. 

4. Use PR to Improve Your Online Visibility 

Proactive PR and reactive PR are two ways to approach improving your online presence. Proactive PR involves sharing content with the public in the forms of research and press releases being published on high-ranking high authority websites. Press releases are usually distributed by PR specialists or via newswire services, but you can easily send them out yourself with dedicated PR tools or with the help of a digital marketing agency with SEO services. The goal is to create buzz around your brand and become “findable”. You want journalists and potential customers look for information through Google Search and have you pop up in an ad, snippet, or the first or second page of Google’s results page. 

Pair proactive PR with reactive PR which involves responding to journalists’ needs. There are all sorts of new platforms from local to international online magazines or news companies. Once you find a suitable outlet to share your content, make sure to answer fast and personalize your pitch, depending on the media outlet and its requirements. This PR tactic helps to build quality backlinks and drive traffic to your business’s website.

5. Use PR to Leverage New Communication Channels

Create an online newsroom or company blog is an important communication channel for PR specialists and content marketers. You can use it for publishing press releases, in-house announcements, messages from the founders, or other newsworthy stories your company may have. Unlike traditional media coverage, this is where brands control their own story entirely and decide what to make public. Having an online newsroom or creating a company blog via WordPress will add a sense of legitimacy to your website. It will also make it easier to nurture media relationships and help you manage your online reputation on your own. This shared desire for PR and content marketing is an excellent way to manage and improve your brand’s online reputation. A better reputation equals a higher chance a potential client will pick your business over another’s. 

Need help incorporating PR into your content strategy? Call 248.528.3600.

The post Use PR to Support Your Content Marketing Strategy   appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Your Profile is Private and Not a Business Account

The default Instagram account is a personal account, but with a personal account there is far less people able to see your products and services. If your account is private no one other than people who follow you are seeing your posts. Most people think there is nothing to see, or it is a spam account when a business account is private. Avoid creating distrust by going into your privacy settings and turning off “private account”. Then go to the account settings and the option to switch to business account should appear. Select a category that best describes your business then fill out your business info. Now you have tools and insights that help you analyze your posts, IGTV, Instagram Stories, Reels, Videos, and Carousals.  

2. Monotonous and Repetitive Content 

Only posting the same type of content is boring. It also causes you to lose user retention and loose client interest in your brand. You want a healthy mix of photos, videos, stories, and carousals on a variety of topics related to your industry. Here are a few types of posts you can fill your account with to keep it looking interesting:

• How-to-use video
• Client testimonial
• Event post
• Benefit of your product/service post
• New product/service post
• Industry tips carousal 

3. Lack of Post Regularity  

Ideally it would be great to post daily, but this can lead to burnout. Not posting consistently leads to decrease visibility and a decrease in lead generation. Have a post schedule. You want to post on days and times your audience is most active. For example, you are selling backpacks to teens. The estimated best time to post would be between 11am-1pm and 3pm -4pm when they are lunch and after school are when they are most likely to have their full attention on the platform. If you are struggling to create post designs and post it on pre-scheduled time, you may consider hiring a digital marketing firm that provides social media marketing services, even if it is just 1 post a month to lighten the load. 

4. You Avoid Collaboration      

Some businesses avoid collaboration because they think it takes away attention from people solely focusing on them, but they are wrong. Instagram influencer marketing leads to expanding your audience and lead generation, thus increasing your sales. Businesses also make the mistake that influencers are just high-end celebrities. Small town Instagram influencers are just as affective, if not more due to their ability to keep a close relationship with their audience. Some examples on type of small-town influencers are:

• A local teacher
• Small mom-and-pop shops
• Food trucks 
• A local state official 
• A travel blogger
• Hair/Makeup artist 
• Entrepreneurs 
• Podcasters 

5. Skipping Calls-to-Action and Using the Wrong Hashtags 

If you want users to buy now, then include “buy now” in the graphic or text. If you want them to call include your phone #. It is not enough to have pretty images. You must tell your audience on how to reach your business. Most Instagram users are scanning images, so you want to make your call-to-action stands out, especially if other companies are selling something similar. Also include the correct hashtags. Do keyword research and think about what your audience would search for to find a product or service like yours.  

We can help improve your business’s Instagram account. Call 248.528.3600.

The post 5 Common Instagram Marketing Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Post a customer review

2. Live Q &A with prepared questions

3. Live event or party your business hosts or is attending 

4. Share good news from different local businesses 

5. Share a post from a local charity or non-profit looking for help

6. Answer questions or comments from potential or existing customers

7. Host a customer meet-and-greet and post highlights

8. Post “Did you Know?” or a historical anniversary relevant to your market or community

9. Post seasonal picture of your business 

10. Post customer stories (with consent)

11. Post about a business challenge you overcame 

12. When a local school team or organization is having success, post about their success

13. Turn FAQ into an advice post

14.  Post good news for the business or industry 

15. Celebrate a new hire

Need more help with social media marketing? Call 248.528.3600.

The post Social Media Ideas for Your Business to Grow  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Ask what your target audience is doing around the holidays

According to data.ai, studies show mobile app usage and mobile shopping go up in November and December. Consumers are also looking for deals for gifts and holiday supplies. Create mobile-friendly web and ad content that helps your target audience find what they are looking for. Special discounts are often offered to help draw in consumers that need to spend for a lot of people in their lives. Check and secure your supply and delivery chain. Consumers are usually stressed and are looking for items that arrive quickly. Include call-to-actions that encourage urgency, especially if you are limited in supply or time. 

2. Adjust your normal social media content calendar 

Make sure you increase the frequency of your posts leading up to the holiday. Try to avoid posting the day before or the day of. People are usually finish shopping the week of and last-minute shoppers usually grab whatever closest. Remember that not all social media posts have to be direct sales. Some quick ideas are: 

• How to use video
• Customer testimonials
• Suggested gift post 
• Showcase bestsellers
• Live video asking what audiences are doing for the holidays 

3.  Keep in mind your employees’ time off

Whether you are open the day of the holiday or closed, employees are going to take time off on or around the time of the holiday to relax and be with their friends and/or family. Keep this in mind when you are creating your ads. You want to have enough breathing room for consumers to see and buy and for employees to register the purchase and do their jobs. Make your content in advance, especially if it evolves employee interaction. You want to be courteous of employee’s time because they are the one keeping your products or services moving. If possible, include ai or a social media manager that had access to software that automatically posts in advance. 

4. Keep in mind of other winter holidays besides the major ones

This is especially important is you are an international business. If you’re not selling something that is directly tied to major holiday or there is intersection of holidays that your target audience may celebrate, create content acknowledging different holidays. For example, you can create content based on Hanukkah or Kwanzaa in addition to Christmas. It can be blog post or a social media post. If there are too many holidays during the winter month and you are having trouble incorporating them in an authentic way, then just stick to “happy holidays” posts, blog articles and ads. 

5. Include sales-enablement collateral into your holiday content

This is important for b2b buyers. Web landing pages, case studies, client testimonials, and other sales aids content are still needed during the holidays. One would argue even more so due to other business’ fiscal year ending. Other businesses are deciding what to do with end of the year budgets and upcoming ones. Gather whatever content you can that make your business look like they have a smooth and positive experience. Exchange internal and team holiday news. LinkedIn is a great platform to highlight these items.

Need help preparing a marketing plan for the holidays? Call 248.528.3600.

The post Prepare for Your Holiday Content Strategy  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Photos of current staff member(s).

2. Photos of a new team member.

3. Photo of owner or boss interacting with the business.

4. Photo of new products being unboxed or stocked.

5. Photos of satisfied customers (with legal and proper consent).

6. Photo of an office pet or mascot. 

7. Photo of a holiday gathering or charity event.

8. Photo of staff members in action (meeting, helping customers, stocking shelves, etc.).

9. Short video of a happy customer’s testimonial.  

10. Photo of new equipment. 

11. Photo of staff working on location (especially if it is out in the field).

12. Photo of “behind the scenes” or “how it is made”. 

13. Memes made from your own pictures.

14. Short video of company birthday or employee birthday.

15. Video announcement of a promotion, product, or special.

16. Video tour of the business or areas you serve.  

17. Video/podcast with some helpful industry advice for the customer. 

18. Video supporting a local cause or volunteered event.

19. Video showing off use new products or services (30 seconds to a minute).

20. Video of the owner talking about the mission of the company.

21. Video/podcast interview with team members.

22. Assemble product or service photos into a collage. 

Create a content strategy for your business. Call 248.528.3600.

The post Quick Content Ideas for Small Businesses appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Build Your Mailing List

Your email must be shared by users of their own free-will. Forms such as “subscribe”, “contact”, “become a member” are good examples to have on your website. When you collect their data include name, date, email, birthday or month, and any more pieces of info tailored to benefit them. Be careful not to violate privacy policies. To not come off as a scam, it best to give something in return for the info. Examples include discount codes, free eBook, or member-exclusive video. Remember to ALWAYS have an option of unsubscribing from your email list. It is illegal to send marketing emails without the opportunity to disengage.

2. Select an Email Service Provider (ESP) 

The old-fashioned way is to collect email addresses, add them to your contacts list under a label, and send email newsletters that way. This is time-consuming, inefficient, and you could be missing out on some fantastic online services that will increase your business efficiency. Here is the top 7 ESP used according to wpbeginner:

• Constant Contact
• SendinBlue
• HubSpot
• Omnisend
• Drip
• ConvertKit
• MailChimp 

3. Create a Marketing Strategy

There needs to be goals that you aim to accomplish in your email marketing plan. First start with your audience. Who are you going to be emailing? Who are you targeting to grab details to send your emails to? Knowing your audience can help you build your customer base and make sure you aren’t sending it to people who don’t need your product or service. Once you have your list and have been emailing for a while, segment your email info into groups. Organize by who engages, who opens the emails, and who clicks through. This will allow you to tailor different campaigns to your most engaged viewers. Speaking of content and goals. Are you trying to get the people who engage less to click through more? Do you want to reward the most active people on your list? Do you have news to give or a new product or service to market? Your campaigns should focus on answering these questions and be designed to accomplish these tasks.

4. Design Your Emails

Plan text on a white background won’t cut it. These emails usually end up in someone’s spam box or worse you email is reported and banned. You must add you brand colors and imagery to the email, so you look legitimate. Most modern email software in use, will also allow you to include HTML links, embed videos, and more, making it much more desirable to the end-user. Interactivity should help the potential client through the sales process. If you are struggling hirer a graphic designer or a digital marketing agency with designers to help you. 

5. Test the Email Systems

Before you send ANYTHING, test that it works. This also includes any automation you’ve set up. Here is a checklist of items to go through before you send to customers:

 Subscribe to your service and see if your free offer works.

 Set a test list with five or so emails with different browsers or different email software systems.

 Send the emails and then read them to find spelling or grammatical errors you may have missed.

 See if the emails work on mobile devices as well.

6. Implement Email Automation

If everything is working and you are quickly gaining more emails, it is time to start automating simple tasks. Have a welcome email, thank you email, the gift, and the multi-step EDM campaign all automated. This will free you from micro-managing email marketing and open up your time schedule to work on other more productive and profitable things with your business.

Too busy for email marketing? Let us do it for you! Call 248.528.360 

The post 6 Easy Steps to Start Email Marketing  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Instructional Videos

2. Live Video Streaming 

3. Mini TV Skit

4. How It Is Made Videos

5. Preview of New Product/Service

6. Host a Webinar/Class

7. Create an Inspiration Series/Playlist 

8. Interview Industry Experts

9. Promotional Videos

10. Interview Customers/Clients

11. Thank You/Customer Appreciation Videos

12. Live Q & A 

13. Host Contest Videos

14. Conference/Event Highlights 

15. Industry News Report

16. Tour of Your Store/Office/Location

17. Appealing Static Visuals 

18. Time-Lapse Videos 

19. Holiday Special Videos 

20. Top 10 (Industry Topic) Videos 

21. FAQ Videos

22. Charity/Give Back to the Community Videos

23. Industry Tools Videos

24. History/How We Started Video

25. Unboxing New Equipment 

Incorporate video into your marketing strategy! Call 248.528.360

The post 25 Creative Video Marketing Ideas for Your Business  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

SPECIFIC: Your goal must focus on 1 clearly defined metric.

MEASURABLE: Have a way to measure the content you publish against the metric.

ATTAINABLE: Be able to realistically achieve your goal within a set timeframe with the resources that are (or will be) available. 

RELEVANT: Your goal must align with your desired goals and objectives that you set.

TIME-BOUND: Your goal must have a due date upon which you will achieve that metric.

Common Business Goals 

• Drive more sales
• Grow brand awareness
• Expand market share
• Develop stronger relationships with stakeholders
• Enter new markets or territories
• Reach new audiences or demographics
• Raise more revenue
• Secure funding
• Increase profits

Common Marketing Goals 

• Increase website traffic
• Gain more social media followers
• Grow an email list
• Improve conversion rates
• Get more website or social media engagement
• Drive more click-throughs on paid ads

Understand Your Business Goals

The value of marketing services is connected to the results it provides. You want the service you picked to help reach a key business objective. Tie your marketing goal to this business objective. For example, you want your business profile to gain more social media followers. What does it mean to want more social media followers? 

• Increased brand awareness
• Establish your business as an authority
• Reach new customers

These are objectives that will have significant impact on your business. When you set your goals, select certain goals that will drive business results, not just produce impressive sounding numbers or arbitrary measurements. 

Connect Marketing Goals to Business Goals

Sometimes businesses make too broad a statement as a goal without consulting their marketing team. Make sure to narrow down to a specific goal that is clear to understand. If it is unclear, have a discussion with your chief marketing officer or CEO or anyone who is the head of your marketing/sales department. Everyone working on a marketing project must know what the business’s main purpose and goal is. Another example might be that your company needs more customers. To achieve this, you have to generate 10 leads per weak. Your sales team has to get help from marketing to drive leads. The business objective would be to increase revenue by increasing customers, while a marketing objective would be any creative material that helps generate more leads.   

How to Set Marketing Goals 

Here is a word formula you can use to set objectives:

By {day, month, year}, the {your business’s name} marketing team will reach {number} {metric} every {time frame}.

Here is a marketing goal example using the formula: 

By June 30, 2023, the Miller Media marketing team will reach 3,000 marketing-qualified leads every month. 

This example goal is to influence marketing-qualified leads. The point of your marketing strategy is to choose, prioritize, plan, and execute projects that will influence profitable customer action. Therefore, marketing metrics closer to the final purchase are often the best goals to set. 

Here are several other marketing goals examples listed based on our marketing goal sample above:

• Increased page views
• More email subscribers
• New trial signups
• Increased completed purchases

Let us help your business develop a marketing strategy. Call 248.528.360

The post SMART Marketing Goals that Won’t Make You Feel Dumb  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Team Up with Another Brand

Your competition isn’t always your enemy. Sometimes they are the complementary brand or company you could partner up with. If you have a committed base of followers that regularly engage with your posts, a company may reach out to you to include one of their products or services post. The reverse is also true. If the company has an engaged audience reach out to them to see if they would be interested guest posting. Make sure the content benefits both parties. This can come in form of sharing industry news, swapping similar products, creating a fun game with each product or service, and more fun ideas. 

2. Instagram Live Badges

Audiences can use badges to show their support for creators during a live stream. Think of them like a tip jar for creators. Enable badges within your creator Instagram account, and the option will be presented to viewers within the comments section of a live stream. Remember to remind views occasionally to draw attention if they want to give their support. If they donate show videos of how their donation improved the product or service. This will make your audience feel like they are part of the creation process and indicate that your business listens, cares, and learns from their audience. 

3. Enable Subscriptions

While still in the trial phase, the ability for creators to allow subscribers access to unique content is available. Unlock a ‘subscribe’ button on your profile that lets you create custom, access-only content for Stories and Lives behind a paywall. This is a great way to engage more deeply with your audience. Content could be a sneak peak of a new product, a backstage look of what it takes to prepare for a product or service, or in-depth detail about your brands story that may interest your audience. 

4. Affiliate Marketing 

Instagram Affiliate brings a more direct recommendation service to Instagram. Are there any tools or services you want to recommend to your audience? Potential clients go to creators they admire for recommendations on products and brands to support. Once enabled, you can simply share a link to a product or service you want them to view. If your audience purchases something through the link, you gain a commission. Make sure whatever you recommend does not conflict with your product or service and does not conflict with why you audience follows you. For example, your business sells home-made soaps. A good affiliate product would be a soap dish by a different company. It is natural for someone shopping for soap to need something to place it in and would not be put off by that product being sold to them as well. Use Instagram Stories to showcase products and click through to other sites. 

5. Merchandising

If you are business that sells products you are already doing this, but if you sell services, it might interest you to sell products. If you have a group of committed followers with an authentic brand that they absolutely love, consider setting up your own shop. Branded merchandise like mugs, t-shirts, and books requires a bit of an initial investment, but the rewards can be significant. It can act as a bonus for your customer, and you may gain free marketing if they share it organically. Look at Starbucks for example. They sell coffee, but they also sell mugs and tumblers, and more. Make sure to choose what feels right for your brand and audience. If it feels like monetization for the sake of it, you may end up losing followers, so make sure it something they would enjoy having. 

Create an Instagram marketing plan today! Call 248.528.360

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