Statistics state that there are more than 50 million businesses who have created business pages on Facebook. Additionally, it was recently estimated that there are more than 25 million businesses registered on Instagram.

There is no denying that almost every business across Australia is using social media as part of their marketing strategy. Time and time again, social platforms prove to be an excellent space for attracting both B2B and B2C interest.

Although, to achieve success on social media, it is critical that you outline a plan and purpose. Randomly chuckin’ words onto the web will not help you. But strategically targeting potential clients with tactical words and visuals can.

All marketing plans will look different, depending on how limited or extensive your resources are. However, all marketing strategies should consider the seven elements below and incorporate these into a plan moving forward. When you are building a social media plan from scratch, it is important that you dwell on the below considerations and ensure they are addressed at one point or another.

1. Overall aims with your social media.

First of all, you need to contemplate and discuss your primary and secondary intentions by engaging with social platforms. Perhaps you are trying to attract clients online to your services? Maybe you are wanting to generate brand awareness through social media? Alternatively, you might be hoping to sell products or event tickets. There could be multiple reasons you want to be on social channels.

Continually referring back to your goals will make sure that are staying on track and producing content that relates back to your ultimate intentions.

2. Goals for six, twelve and twenty four months.

Realistic and measurable goals are imperative for tracking progress and giving your content producers purpose. Your goals could be reflective of how many posts you want to strive to make over a period of time, or they may be more results-driven and indicative of how many customers/clients you want to entice.

Between different industries, goals will vary largely. Without ever using social media before, it might be difficult to understand what an attainable goal could be. Sometimes it is best to watch your success over one or two months to get an idea of your social media potential, and then make some goals based on your initial success.

3. Your budget for social media.

Majority of Australian businesses have entirely diverted their marketing budget from traditional forms of advertising, and they have placed it into digital mediums. While we strongly believe that social media and other digital advertising is the future of marketing, we understand that forcing your entire budget into the online world can be daunting.

There are a variety of ways to organically reach an audience, as well as spending money on paid advertisements.

4. The platforms you intend on using.

Popular social media platforms to consider in a social media marketing strategy are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

It is worthwhile being flexible in your approach to social media, as new trends and popular platforms are continually arising. If you are willing to adapt your marketing strategy as time progresses, you are opening yourself to optimal success.

5. The frequency you intend on posting.

As the most popular marketers in Australia say, content is king. The time and effort placed into your digital marketing strategy will largely depend on your resources. It will also vary depending on the return you are hoping to gain from your efforts. Active businesses will generally post around three times per week, but small businesses starting out on social media might only aim for once per month.

6. The style and tone of your content.

If you have gone through the process of branding your business, you will have a general idea of what tone and style your content should be. Remaining ‘on brand’ will assist with general brand awareness and consistency between all of your marketing efforts. In regards to types of content, videos are known to perform well on all social platforms. However, the power of good copy and bold images should not be underestimated.

7. What consultants you will engage with for assistance.

Unless you have a sizable in-house marketing team, the problem you will encounter is that you are too focused on your specific business niche to understand the ins and outs of social media.

Instead of wrangling your brain to understand the platforms and obtain genuine results through social media, it is sometimes best to hand the task over to social media professionals.

If you are yet to set yourself up on digital platforms, you have a lot of catching up to do. However, there is no need to panic. It is never too late to establish and grow an audience online. Especially with the help of one of Australia’s best marketing consultants, you will be digitally set up in no time.

The team at Generate Your Audience are confident in our social media strategies that attain admirable results for all of our clients. We also offer a greater range of digital marketing services, including website development and search engine optimisation. Drop a line today and find out how our service offering can be beneficial to you.

Sales. Sales. Sales.

They are everywhere. Especially during the holiday sales period, it is difficult to walk anywhere beyond the front door of your house without seeing a bright red sale sign. As many people have encountered in recent years, the sales are now creeping closer to home, as Black Friday often equals a bombardment of digital marketing emails from e-commerce businesses.

Every year, Black Friday bargains get more intense, and businesses are starting to feel the anxiety months before it all begins. The pressure on both physical retail stores and e-commerce stores to deliver unbeatable discounts is immense.

Many of our clients are often subject to the stress of Australia’s biggest retail weekend. As it is now approaching the end of October, we suggest you start thinking about your Black Friday and Cyber Weekend as soon as possible. If you are yet to begin the planning, this is something you should look into immediately.

It is true that holiday sale periods an opportunity not to be missed, but they also produce a sense of panic where brands can overreact in a haste and make poor business decisions.

What is Black Friday and Cyber Weekend?
First of all, we should address what these occasions actually are.

In 2019, Black Friday is set to take place on Friday 29^th November. The Cyber Weekend will run from this day up until Monday 2^nd December. Some businesses, however, will decide to start their sales earlier or continue them beyond these dates.

The sales holidays are predominantly celebrated by retail businesses, where discounts of up to 75% are sometimes offered entice eager customers into buying.

What digital marketing should you do for Black Friday and Cyber Weekend?
Regardless of whether you have an e-commerce store or a physical shop, a strong digital marketing plan is crucial in the lead up to the holiday sales period. Once you have decided upon what items you will be discounting, and how much you will be discounting them by, you need to establish a plan for marketing these sales.

To put it simply, your customers will not know about your bargains unless you advertise to them. In order to get a return on Cyber Weekend, you need to put in a little effort to begin with. Some marketing tactics you may like to consider include:

• Professional website redesign for the weekend and week leading up.
• Email marketing campaigns.
• Search engine optimisation strategy.
• Google Adwords campaign.
• Social media marketing campaigns.
• Content marketing

The most important focus for your Cyber Weekend sales should be having a reliable, high-performing website that will manage the influx of customers with ease. There would be nothing more disappointing than discovering your website has crashed, and you cannot obtain any sales at all. Most businesses find that it is beneficial to engage with a reputable local marketing company that specialises in e-commerce stores. With professionals on your side, you should be able to achieve anything.

Our golden tip for deciding upon your Cyber Weekend discounts.
With so many businesses heavily reducing their prices over the sales weekend, you are likely to feel the pressure to do so too. Every business wants to be providing the lowest bargains, as they believe that it is the only way to secure customers in the competitive market.

Having worked with various industries in the marketing space, we know that drastically lowering your prices will not achieve anything positive for your business in the long-term. Although it may secure a few extra customers over the weekend, it will not necessarily do any favours for your brand.

Our piece of advice is: do not get involved with the war on discounts.
It is a never-ending spiral downwards (and that is obviously not where you want your business heading).

As a business, you should be able to stabilise or raise your prices as your consumers come to terms with your quality, and your brand awareness and popularity grows. Set your focus on the uphill, rather than the downhill.

Ultimately, reducing your prices too far can result in various negative outcomes for your brand. If you drop your prices too far, you may suffer the following consequences:

• Your brand appears ‘cheap’ in the public’s eyes.
• Your customers will always expect low prices moving forward.
• In future, your customers will wait for more exorbitant sales before purchasing anything.
• You will not be making enough profit from each individual item.
• There is still a good chance that your competitors will drop their prices lower than yours.
• The ‘price hunting’ customers that you attract from sales are not reliable or idealistic customers. Instead, you should be seeking high-paying, quality-focused consumers.

Providing some form of discount during Cyber Weekend is important for drawing some attention and excitement to your brand. However, the prices should not be desperately low.

If you need assistance establishing a strategic marketing plan for Cyber Weekend, you can get in touch with an expert from our specialised marketing team. Generate Your Audience has much experience in the e-commerce space, and we have guided various businesses to sales period success.

In the world of social media and technology, controversies are constantly arising. Typically, debate will develop around the most popular apps and creatively designed platforms. In some cases, the argument will surround the core features of the app, but other times it may reflect on how society is destructively making use of or reacting to the app.

As one of your key social media marketers and analysers, it is our responsibility to stay abreast of relevant app trends and digital news. To develop the most effective and current-day digital marketing strategies, we ensure that we have a comprehensive oversight of all technological activity.

The most recent app to start a societal debacle has been TikTok. Millions of people have downloaded it, thousands of people love it, and thousands of people loathe it. In order to give a comprehensive review of the TikTok app, we are investigating what the application actually does, why it has risen so rapidly to fame, and why people are arguing against it.

What is the app TikTok?
According to its description on the App Store, TikTok is a destination for creating and sharing “short-form videos that are exciting, spontaneous and genuine.”

The chief function of the application is the ability to easily create short music and lip-sync videos of around 3 to 15 seconds in length. Within the app, a variety of popular trends have emerged, including meme creation, comedic lip-syncing and duets.

Originally, the developers (ByteDance) released the application in China and named it Douyin. It was developed within 200 days and reached 100 million users within one year of being available for download.

Once it had dominated the Chinese market, the developers re-released the app as TikTok for the Western audience. It became available for download in September 2017.

Interestingly, a similar application named Musical.ly was already existent, allowing users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos. Having been released in 2014, Musical.ly had already attracting a sizeable user base of predominantly young Americans. As a means of combatting competition, TikTok decided to purchase Musical.ly and merge the two applications together. Users of each application were amalgamated to the one app: TikTok.

Why is TikTok so popular?
There is no denying that TikTok has generated much attraction in the digital space. In late 2018, the application became one of the most downloaded apps in the United States. According to some statistics, it was the most frequently downloaded app in America in October of 2018.

Marketing professionals agree that a variety of concepts allowed the platform to obtain such popularity:

• The comedic nature of the app allowed it to become a viral trend.
  Memes being created on the app were then shared to other social media platforms, which ultimately acted as advertisements for TikTok.
• Incorporation of common social features.
  Following other social applications, TikTok included a number of typical features into its design: hashtags, content feeds, filters, profiles, sharing ability.
• Endorsement by a number of celebrities.

High-profile personnel, such as Ariana Grande, began using the application and sharing the videos. It influenced their following to also use TikTok.

• Merging of relevant competition.
  By purchasing similar applications, such as Musical.ly, TikTok effectively removed any possible competition for users.
• Short, simple and fast-paced design.
  Videos made on TikTok cannot be longer than a minute in length. Alike to the popular app, Vine, this fast-paced nature ensures no attention spans are lost.

What is the controversy over TikTok?
As should be anticipated will all far-reaching social platforms, TikTok has been subject to a range of controversy.

Notably, the app has been heavily accused of:

• Privacy issues.
  Concerns have been raised that children using the app could have communication access to strangers and potentially predators.
• Cyberbullying concerns.
  Some users have reported being cyberbullied on the platform.

• Copyrighting music.
  The platform has been criticised for not paying royalties to artists whose music is being used on the app.

In the United States, there were apprehensions that the application could be stealing and sharing data from America to China because the parent company was of Chinese background. In Indonesia, the application was banned because it was said to expose inappropriate content, such as pornography. Supposedly, the Indian government have also attempted to ban the app.

Ultimately, most social media critics agree that the controversy over TikTok is minimal when compared to that of other social media giants. Considering the popularity of the app, the criticism is actually rather insignificant. TikTok have even made admirable attempts to reduce negative feedback, including the ability to make profiles private.

Do we think you should be worried about using the app? No more than any other digital application.

Our recommendation, as one of Australia’s leading digital marketing brands, is to stop criticising the app, and start taking note. TikTok’s developers have been commendably strategic and innovative with their approach.

Ten years ago, the best marketing agencies were raving about the benefits of content marketing on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg exposed himself as a clear leader in the social media realm. In fact, Facebook was the key platform kick starting social media altogether. It managed to ignite an entire industry and breathe life into stale marketing strategies.

However, technology is constantly evolving and, as a result, marketing trends can change. Facebook has recently celebrated its fifteenth birthday and, in the technological world, that is pretty darn old. According to the opinion of some, Facebook should be starting to write its wills and book itself into a nursing home.

In 2019, the most popular marketing service providers are seen to be encouraging clients to turn to Instagram for advertising purposes, instead than Facebook.

Though, cluey clients of marketing agencies in Australia have questions and concerns about rapidly re-allocating their marketing efforts. Is Instagram really a better marketing tool and Is Instagram really more popular than Facebook?

The argument against Facebook.

According to recent statistics and reports, worldwide usage of Facebook is on the downhill. Supposedly, the platform has lost 15 million active users since 2017 in the United States. Yikes!

It is commonly believed that the decline in numbers may be a result of Facebook’s updates that place an unwanted emphasis on groups, or recent data breaches made by the company.

Whilst recent months have shown Facebook either plateau or sink, Instagram is on a steady rise. Currently, there are more than one billion people using Instagram worldwide. Majority of those users are outside of the United States, which indicates the success of the platform in locations such as Australia.

Instagram became live in 2010, making it a younger and fresher app compared to our elderly companion, Facebook.

The popularity of Instagram is impressive. Although we would be silly to ignore the potential that the application presents from a marketing perspective, we would be even more silly to permanently burn our Facebook tactics.

Our advice is not to ditch your Facebook budget.

So, where should you really be directing your marketing expenditure?

Despite the obvious attraction that the globe is taking toward Instagram, it is vital that businesses do not make a hasty decision to ditch Facebook.

As an experienced Australian social media marketing company, we can easily comprehend why Facebook is still a valuable tool.

• There are still more than 1.5 billion people logging into Facebook daily, compared to 1 billion Instagram users.
• The demographic of Facebook users is varied, so it is likely that at least a portion of your target audience are utilising the platform.
• Facebook allows for great diversity in posts, compared to Instagram where marketers must upload either an image or video.
• Facebook has proven to be an effective tool time and time again for selling services/ products, and achieving search engine optimisation.

Instead of hurriedly turning to Instagram as a solution for attracting more business, you should consider splitting or portioning your budget to include some strategic Instagram use.

Consider what type of business and customers you have.

When contemplating the most effective methods of marketing, it is crucial that you consider what platforms your target audience will actually be using.

You would not advertise bikinis in a nursing home or burgers in a gym, so why advertise your business on a platform where your clients do not exist?

Regardless of whether you are attempting B2B marketing or B2C marketing, you will gain more traction if your social media marketing strategy is being implemented on platforms where your target demographic choose to spend their time.

Generally, Instagram is being more predominantly used by a younger demographic, whereas Facebook is reaching a slightly older crowd. Particular industries, such as photography, design or ecommerce discover that Instagram’s heavy focus on imagery suits their advertising ideals better, however service-based businesses prefer Facebook’s ability to easily link to their website or blog.

There is no harm in establishing your business on both Instagram and Facebook to obtain optimal reach. After all, both applications can achieve an organic reach, as well as a more extensive paid reach.

Seeking tailored advice.

To profitably spread your marketing budget, you should get in touch with a digital marketing specialist. Getting results from social media can be a challenging minefield, so working with a professional in digital marketing services will ensure that your work is not going to waste.

Aside from Instagram marketing and Facebook marketing, there are likely to be other platforms that may be beneficial for your business.

As an example, many professional brands choose to engage with LinkedIn marketing in order to target their similarly corporate target audience. Other brands targeting a very youthful audience may find that marketing on Snapchat is the most successful.

Generate Your Audience are trusted marketing consultants in Sydney who can provide personalised advice that will make a genuine impact in your company. Get in touch today and discover how we can assist your business.

According to Hootsuite, at least one billion people across the globe are logging into Instagram each month in 2019. As the popularity of this photo-centric (or as some may argue, ego-centric) platform continues to blossom, so do the tricks that will allow your profile to gain popularity.

With more people searching and posting on Instagram than ever before, it is crucial that we source new and inventive ways to race ahead of competitors and make noise in a very busy channel.

Generate Your Audience (or GYA, our more slick name) have been providing tailored Instagram marketing advice to hundreds of Australian business, so our knowledge in the digital space is second to none. As social media marketing services providers, we are constantly up-to-date with the latest trends and technological news.

Regardless of whether you want to know how to get more followers on Instagram for a personal or business profile, there are certain tricks which may benefit you.

Below, our team have conglomerated six helpful tactics to assist with the development of your Instagram profile. If you have ever wondered how to be Instagram famous or how to get more likes on your Instagram posts, these are the answers.

1. Engage, engage, engage.
Okay – we admit, this has been the golden rule ever since the Instagram app was first downloaded. The importance of genuine and continual engagement with other profiles on Instagram cannot be denied.

Following or liking the profiles and content from other users will encourage them to pay attention to your own profile. A friendly follow will often result in a friendly follow-back. If they do not follow back, no worries, give them some time and then unfollow. Many call this the effective Instagram follow-unfollow method.

2. Get risky.
The latest Instagram update that has shaken the Australian Instagram community is the removal of like numbers on posts. It is unknown whether this update will be permanent, but while it exists, you should take advantage of the ability to post out-of-the-ordinary, whacky shots without the fear of low like numbers.

All content marketing specialists and social media marketing Australia teams know that drawing attention is a priority on IG.

3. Learn from your analytics.
If you are yet to turn your Instagram profile into a business profile, then you have some catching up to do. Never fear, the switch only takes around two minutes to complete.

With Instagram analytics engaged, you can assess which types of posts are performing better than others. You can also compare best times of the day to post on Instagram in Australia, how many people are direct messaging your photos, and the total overall reach of your content.

4. Consider joining an engagement pod.
What are Instagram pods, you may ask? Social media engagement pods are highly taboo. To explain them simply: pods are groups of people who commit to following, liking and engaging with the profiles and content of the other people in their pod.

In many cases, you may have a not-openly-acknowledged pod where you regularly engage with someone’s content and they do the same back. However, you do not have a solid agreement with that person to continually support one another.

More established pods are present too, and they usually take place within direct messaging systems (such as that on Instagram itself) or forums. The rules for each pod will vary, but generally a user will post a link to their freshly published post in the group forum, and then each member will be expected to engage or share that post. Each member will have the opportunity to ask for engagement on their content, but there may be restrictions on how often you can ask.

5. Focus wholeheartedly on a theme.
All hail the square profile grid! It is never too late to learn how to make your Instagram grid look good.

By ensuring all of your uploaded images are of the same palette or tone, your profile grid will be cohesively dynamic. In order to uphold a theme, you should only upload images that suit the already established colours and styles of your grid. There are a variety of Instagram grid planning applications that can assist with pre-organising an appealing grid.

Sometimes, it is necessary to sacrifice or edit images to match your theme. Your grid is the defining factor that will make a first impression and encourage someone to follow you, so the grid must be prioritised over individual shots.

6. Keep adjusting and learning. In most cases, seek help to do so.
If you want to learn how to grow your Instagram quickly, but you struggle to find the time or resources, chat to our knowledgeable team at GYA.

As Instagram develops, our Sydney digital marketing business continues to evolve with it. We are proudly one of the best marketing companies in Parramatta and we persistently drive sales for every client we work with.

Browse our client testimonials to discover more about our effective marketing services in Australia.