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Google: Old Marketing Strategies Can Drive New Marketing Success

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be said to be one of the biggest waves in the world of business and technology, partly thanks to the advancement of technological factors referred to as “natural evolution”.

One of the most studied advancements is the large language models that now allow them to gain deeper understanding of language. The result of this is that conversations with AI become much more natural and intuitive (ChatGPT is an example).

The Google search engine, or more closely the advertising platform of Google, has taken advantage of this by making wider use of Broad Match, a type of setting in Google Ads, which helps brands reach more people with less effort than other manual forms.

In fact, while broad keyword matching has been in Google Ads since the early days, it was rarely chosen by advertisers.

The reason for its lack of usage is because it doesn’t work.

For a simple example like this, if you search with the keyword “pet treatment at home”, an ad with another unrelated keyword “pet treatment” will also be stimulated. 

However, thanks to new advances in AI and other ongoing updates, Google’s broad match is now better at recognizing contextual factors and user search intent after each iteration, keyword or query.

Today, broad match has the ability to understand search queries on a deeper level and this makes it one of the most effective solutions for Google search ads.

New advances in AI are supporting effective marketing activities

Continuing with the advertising story on Google, when an advertiser launches a broad match, Google’s algorithms will start looking for synonyms for the selected keyword and build up a real keyword network.

For example, an ad keyword that includes the word “cheap” might match searches for “cheap”, “inexpensive” or “tight”. Although “tight” can be another way of saying “thrifty” or “limited spending,” users can use this word instead.

Thanks to new machine learning capabilities, large language models are now capable of better understanding user intent. Google uses algorithms to train billions of pieces of text with many different variations, different meanings of a word or phrase, as well as meanings depending on the word arrangement.

While language technology can understand user needs, it is most effective when combined with a Smart Bidding strategy.

This automated Google bid strategy takes into account a variety of signals and data points around users — such as search history, interests, or past purchases — to build predictive models that help advertisers identify target audiences or potential customers most likely to convert.

What businesses need to understand about Google Ads broad match in 2023

According to information from Google, below are the updates that Google Ads advertisers must be aware of.

Order is important and Broad Match understands this too

Google's broad match
Property of Google

Previously, Google’s technology would match words or keywords that appeared in search queries and ads, but did not take into account the order of words in the query.

This means that, if someone is looking for a flight from Vancouver to Toronto, they may also see advertisements for a return flight from Toronto to Vancouver.

At the present, Google’s algorithm is already able to understand this and therefore only shows ads that are in the right direction that the user is looking for.

Google Ads has the ability to route traffic (traffic) to the right keywords

For most new advertisers, a question they often wonder is: “What happens when two ads from the same advertiser match the same search query or keyword”?

In the past, Google’s Broad Match would look at what’s known as an advertiser’s Ad Rank to help determine which ads to show, and this may not always be the case.

Google Ads now takes into account many other signals, such as other keywords in the ad group or landing page of the ad, to improve the relevance of keywords to ads for both advertisers and users.

In addition, thanks to the capabilities of large language models, broad match can also better understand the meaning of a search query and all its variations to improve the relevancy of the search query. 

Multi-language combination

Google’s broad match has now recognized that some users may switch between different languages ​​when searching for something online — and broad match also uses this information to deliver ads .

While advertisers set up multiple languages ​​in their ad accounts, broad match can match relevant local traffic to ads, even if search behavior is done in another language.

The role of broad match in search advertising

While broad match is not a new concept, thanks to AI, this type of advertising approach has become a much more effective tool for search advertising.

The next important thing is that advertisers and marketers need to test and monitor their advertising effectiveness.

You can start by examining your campaign’s performance on Google Analytics, choosing the right bidding strategy, or tracking down new keywords that broad match identifies as helping bring in new customers.

AI learns from you and you learn from AI. Broad match success is not based on itself but on the people using it. Therefore, you need to actively create, learn and more, the future is in your hands.

For more news and insights on marketing, check out our other featured articles here. 

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How to Leverage Mobile Marketing to Attract Customer on the Go

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing refers to the use of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches to promote products or services. Mobile marketing encompasses a wide range of tactics, including SMS marketing, mobile apps, mobile-optimized websites, location-based marketing, and social media marketing. The goal of mobile marketing is to reach customers wherever they are and provide them with a personalized and engaging experience on their mobile devices. With the increasing use of mobile devices worldwide, mobile marketing has become an essential tool for businesses to connect with their customers and grow their business. 

Why is it important?

With 6.7 billion people (and counting) carrying a smartphone with them practically everywhere, mobile content and advertising has plenty of opportunities to be discovered. 

It’s important to note that the majority of web traffic is actually from mobile devices. That trend has increased rapidly over the years, stabilizing around 52-54%for the last few years. Since 2011, mobile internet traffic has shot up dramatically from 6.09% to 53.98% in 2021.

Compared to other marketing methods, mobile marketing has the most viral potential. People generally use their phones for sharing. They share photos, videos, memes, and everything else with a few quick taps on their screen. With some testing, you are better able to create viral content that appeals to your audiences. When you strike a chord with mobile marketing, users find it easier and are more inclined to tap the “share” button or tag someone who might be interested. 

What this means for your business is that regardless of which audience you’re appealing to, you’ll need to reach them on their smartphones or mobile devices. As mobile searches grow, they’ve provided businesses with a new way to find the exact audiences they’re looking for and provide personalized communication everywhere they go.

Mobile marketing strategies

A mobile marketing strategy has to consider different regional regulations for mobile, different device and hardware types, new generations of digital cellular networks, different operating systems, and the layers of data and partners between a customer and a business. Keep this in mind and let’s dive into the strategies you can employ for your business.

Build a mobile-friendly website

The first step in leveraging mobile marketing is to have a mobile-friendly website, which is optimized for small screens and touch interfaces, making it easy for customers to navigate and interact with the website on their mobile devices. 

Having a mobile-friendly website can also improve a business’s search engine ranking, as Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search results. In other words, businesses with mobile-friendly websites are more likely to appear at the top of Google’s search results pages when people search for related products or services on their mobile devices. This can lead to increased visibility, traffic, and ultimately conversions for businesses. 

Furthermore, a mobile-friendly website enhances the user experience for customers, making it more likely that they will engage with the website and ultimately make a purchase or take another desired action. Here are some factors to consider when building a mobile-friendly website:

  • A mobile-friendly website should have fast load times and simple navigation
  • It should be optimized for touch-based interactions
  • It should be designed with mobile-specific features, such as click-to-call buttons and mobile-friendly forms, to make it easy for customers to take action on the website

If your business does not have a mobile-friendly website yet, it is essential to invest in one to stay competitive and relevant in today’s digital landscape.

Use SMS marketing

SMS marketing is the practice of sending messages by text message.

It’s a form of opt-in marketing that requires contacts to subscribe. This differentiates it from social media marketing, where the marketer posts public content that people can choose to like or follow. 

Common types of SMS marketing examples include:

  • Personalized promotions
  • Offers or discounts
  • Remarketing
  • Surveys

SMS marketing can be targeted to specific customer groups based on their location, interests, or previous purchase history, making it an effective tool for personalized marketing.

Use mobile apps

A mobile app is a software application that is designed specifically for mobile devices and offers a unique and immersive user experience. 

Businesses can use mobile apps to offer exclusive discounts, rewards, or other promotions to customers who download and use the app. This can incentivize customers to download the app and provide businesses with a new channel to reach and engage with customers.

For example, a retail business can offer customers a discount on their first purchase when they download the app or provide them with exclusive access to new products or promotions.

Furthermore, mobile apps can be used to create a community around a brand or product and increase customer loyalty, allowing businesses to connect with their customers in a more meaningful way. For that reason, a mobile app should be built after thorough market research and the development of a buyer persona in order to create a personalized experience for them.

It goes without saying that a high quality app should be built with an eye-catching user-friendly design. But worry not: Things are not as complex as they sound. Nowadays, you don’t need to hire a large development team to achieve this. Outsourcing has long been the go-to tactic in such cases. Companies hire outsourcing teams to cut costs, boost productivity, and have a team of tech specialists on hand without having to “provide” for them in-house. 

Use location-based marketing

Location-based marketing is an effective mobile marketing strategy that uses GPS technology to target customers based on their location. 

This strategy allows businesses to send targeted messages to customers who are in the vicinity of their business, offering them discounts or other promotions to encourage them to visit. This type of marketing can be particularly effective for brick-and-mortar businesses that rely on foot traffic to drive sales.

By sending targeted messages to customers who are nearby, businesses can entice them to visit and potentially make a purchase. For example, a restaurant can send a mobile message to potential customers who are in the vicinity, offering them a discount on their next meal. This can be a powerful incentive for customers to visit the restaurant and potentially become repeat customers.

Location-based marketing can also be used to gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. By tracking customer location data, businesses can gain insights into how customers move around and interact with their physical environment. The data collected will helpp improve marketing strategies and tailor messages to specific customer segments. 

It is important to incorporate obtaining customer’s consent to data sharing as part of this strategy to ensure that your business doesn’t violate user privacy. 

Use social media

Social media marketing is a critical component of mobile marketing, as it provides businesses with a powerful way to connect with customers on the go. It is researched that nearly 71% users access social media on mobile devices. 

To maximize the effectiveness of your mobile marketing strategy, you first need to choose the right social media platform. 

Let’s say you want to target 40-50-year-old males who are interested in logistics solutions, Tiktok and Snapchat are not the ideal platforms for your target audience because you won’t find many of them there.

Make sure you know who your target audience is and what social media platforms they’re on. Once you choose one or more networks to focus on, it will be much easier to create a winning mobile strategy for social media.

What’s crucial for utilizing social media in your mobile marketing campaigns is that you optimize all content you post. Not only does the content need to be mobile-friendly, but it also needs to follow format guidelines for each social media platform.

For tailored strategies for each social media platform, check out Social Media Content Optimization: Dos and Don’ts

Future proof your business with mobile marketing

With the majority of web traffic now coming from mobile devices, businesses need to have a mobile-friendly website that is optimized for small screen and touch interfaces.

By having a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy that incorporates these tactics, businesses can enhance their customer engagement, boost sales, and stay competitive.

At Advesa, we have a team of web and mobile specialists, we can help you develop a tailor mobile marketing strategy for your business that will help you connect with your customers in a more meaningful way and drive business growth. 

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business thrive in the digital landscape.

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Content Optimization on the Main Social Media Platforms: Do’s and Don’t’s

As of 2022, there are approximately 4.59B social media users around the world. That’s more than half of the world population! In the upcoming years, this number is projected to increase even more. 

Social media now becomes the standard for a business’s digital presence. People tend to engage with and buy from brands with credible and consistent social content. With millions of users on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, businesses can reach a wide audience and promote their products and services. However, with so much content on social media, it’s essential to optimize your content to stand out and engage with your audience. In this article, we’ll discuss the do’s and don’ts of content optimization on the key social media platforms.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing that involves using social media platforms to promote products or services and engage with potential customers. It involves creating and sharing content on social media platforms to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to a website, and ultimately increase conversions and sales.

Social media marketing can take many forms, including creating and sharing engaging content such as images, videos, blog posts, and other types of media. It can also involve running paid social media ads to reach a larger audience and target specific demographics or interests. Additionally, social media marketing can involve engaging with potential customers through comments, direct messages, and other forms of social interaction. 

In order to reap all the benefits of social media, you need a social media strategy, which outlines specific tactics, tools, and metrics that will be used to execute the plan effectively. Content optimization is an essential part of any social media strategy to ensure that the content created and shared on social media platforms is engaging, relevant, and valuable to the target audience.

Why do you need to optimize your content for each social media platform?

Optimizing content for each social media platform is important because each platform has its own unique audience, format, and engagement style. For example, Facebook’s algorithm favours visually appealing content, short and concise posts, and engagement with the audience through comments. On the other hand, Twitter is all about short and catchy headlines, frequent posts, and engagement with the audience through retweets and mentions. Instagram, meanwhile, is a highly visual platform where high-quality photos and videos are essential for capturing your audience’s attention.

By optimizing your content for each platform, you can tailor your message to the audience and format of each platform, increasing the chances of engagement and reaching a wider audience. 

Main Social Media Platforms: Do's and Don't's

Facebook:

Do’s:

  • Use eye-catching visuals and videos to grab your audience’s attention
  • Keep your posts short and concise
  • Use relevant hashtags to increase the reach of your posts
  • Post at peak times when your audience is most active
  • Respond to comments and engage with your audience

Don’ts:

  • Post too frequently, which can lead to audience fatigue and unfollows
  • Use clickbait headlines or spammy content
  • Use too many hashtags, which can make your posts look spammy
  • Post irrelevant content that doesn’t relate to your brand or audience
  • Ignore comments or feedback from your audience

Twitter:

Do’s:

  • Use short and catchy headlines to grab your audience’s attention
  • Use relevant hashtags to increase the reach of your tweets
  • Include images and videos in your tweets to increase engagement
  • Post frequently to stay top-of-mind with your audience
  • Respond to comments and engage with your audience

Don’ts:

  • Use too many hashtags, which can make your tweets look spammy
  • Post long, wordy tweets that are hard to read
  • Post irrelevant or controversial content that can damage your brand reputation
  • Ignore comments or feedback from your audience
  • Use automated messaging tools for direct messages, which can feel impersonal to your audience

Instagram:

Do’s:

  • Use high-quality visuals and videos to showcase your products or services
  • Use relevant hashtags to increase the reach of your posts
  • Post frequently to stay top-of-mind with your audience
  • Use Instagram stories to provide behind-the-scenes content and engage with your audience
  • Respond to comments and engage with your audience

Don’ts:

  • Post low-quality visuals or videos that don’t showcase your products or services effectively
  • Use too many hashtags, which can make your posts look spammy
  • Post irrelevant or controversial content that can damage your brand reputation
  • Ignore comments or feedback from your audience
  • Use automated messaging tools for direct messages, which can feel impersonal to your audience

Check out 5 minute Instagram growth hacks.

Grow your business with a tailored social media strategy

Content optimization is a crucial aspect of any media marketing strategy. It involves tailoring content to fit the format, style, and preferences of each social media platform to engage the target audience and achieve the desired marketing goals.

By following the do’s and don’ts of content optimization on the main social media platforms, businesses can create effective and engaging content that drives traffic to their website, increases brand awareness, and ultimately leads to conversions and sales. However, it is important to remember that social media is constantly evolving, and it is essential to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices to achieve success in social media marketing. By continuously analyzing performance and making data-driven decisions, businesses can optimize their content and stay ahead of the competition in the ever-changing world of social media. 

If you enjoy this article, check out “8 Tips to Writing Captivating Social Media Captions”.

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TikTok Launches TikTok Keyword Insights for Digital Marketers

TikTok has recently launched a new keyword research and analysis tool called TikTok Keyword Insights as part of their creative toolset, the TikTok Creative Center. This tool is aimed at helping advertisers discover keywords or phrases that perform well with TikTok ads. By using TikTok Keyword Insights, marketers can find lists of trending keywords that may appear in audio, text overlays, or ad captions.

As you can see from the screenshot above, just enter any keyword in the search bar, and you can start collecting relevant data. You can also narrow down your search results by region, industry, advertising objective, keyword type, and time frame.

TikTok Keyword Insights allows you to analyze the performance of keywords in the selected timeframe, the average CTR (click-through rate) of TikTok ads that use that keyword.

You can click the Details button at the far right of the search results page to see specific videos that contain that keyword.

TikTok Keyword Insights will also show you how advertisers include keyword phrases in their ad copy, whether in an audio narration, ad text or text overlay, and give insights into the effectiveness of those advertisements.

In addition to keyword analysis, this new tool is also another great way for TikTok advertisers to optimize ad content, edit or add some new content to increase reach and efficiency.

You can access TikTok Keyword Insights here. You can also check out our other insights and news for more updates.

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Add Google Analytics to Your WordPress Website in a Snap!

If you own a website, it’s crucial to understand how it’s performing and how your visitors are interacting with it. This is where Google Analytics comes in handy. It is a powerful and free tool that helps website owners gather important data about their website traffic, user behavior, and other metrics. In this blog post, we will guide you on how to add Google Analytics to your WordPress website in a snap!

What can you use Google Analytics for?

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service provided by Google that allows website owners and marketers to track and analyze website traffic and user behavior. It provides insights into how users interact with a website, including information such as the number of visitors, where they are coming from, what pages they are visiting, how long they are staying on the website, and much more. By tracking this information, website owners can better understand their audience and make data-driven decisions to improve their website’s performance, user experience, and ultimately achieve their business goals.

Here are the steps to adding this magic tools to your website:

Step 1: Create a Google Analytics Account

Before you can add Google Analytics to your WordPress website, you need to create a Google Analytics account. If you don’t already have one, go to the Google Analytics website and click on the “Start for free” button. Then, follow the prompts to create your account. Once you’ve completed the setup process, you’ll be provided with a unique tracking code that you’ll need to add to your WordPress website.

How to add google analytics to your website

Step 2: Install a Google Analytics Plugin

To easily add the Google Analytics tracking code to your WordPress website, you need to install a plugin. One of the most popular options is the “MonsterInsights” plugin. To install the plugin, go to your WordPress dashboard, click on “Plugins”, then “Add New”, and search for “MonsterInsights”. Once you’ve found the plugin, click on “Install Now” and then “Activate”.

How to install Google Analytics to a website

Step 3: Connect your Google Analytics Account to the Plugin

After installing the MonsterInsights plugin, you’ll need to connect it to your Google Analytics account. To do this, go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Insights” > “Settings”. From there, click on the “Authenticate with your Google account” button and follow the prompts to connect your account.

how to install google analytics to a website

Step 4: Configure the Plugin Settings

Once you’ve connected your Google Analytics account to the plugin, you can configure the plugin settings to track the data you want. This includes setting up goals and tracking events. To access the plugin settings, go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Insights” > “Settings”.

Make your marketing efforts count

Congratulations! You’ve successfully added Google Analytics to your WordPress website. From now on, you can monitor your website’s traffic, user behavior, and other important metrics using Google Analytics. By tracking this information, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions to improve your website’s performance and user experience. 

At Advesa, we understand the importance of having accurate and reliable data when it comes to digital marketing. That’s why we offer Google Analytics integration services as a part of our comprehensive suite of digital marketing solutions. Our team of experts can seamlessly integrate Google Analytics into your WordPress website, providing you with the insights you need to optimize your online presence and achieve your business goals. From setting up goals and tracking events to providing in-depth analysis and reporting, we have you covered. 

Contact us today to learn more about our Google Analytics services and how we can help your business thrive in the digital landscape.

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How to Create a Detailed Buyer Persona for Your Business

Creating a detailed buyer persona is an essential step for any business that wants to succeed in today’s competitive market. Understanding who your target customers are and what makes them want to buy from you will help you develop the appropriate communications and marketing strategies, and customer service to better meet their needs.

According to a recent survey, up to 90% of large businesses have been building buyer persona–customer portraits–to understand their behaviors and needs. 71% of them said that customer portraits help businesses grow revenue and achieve set business goals.

In this article, we will walk you through all the steps to creating a detailed buyer persona for your business that can help improve your marketing efforts.

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a detailed description of a business’s ideal customer or target audience. It is a semi-fictional representation of a specific group of people that includes demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information. The purpose of creating a buyer persona is to better understand the target audience and tailor marketing strategies, product offerings, and customer service to meet their needs and preferences. The buyer persona may include details such as age, gender, income, education, job title, interests, values, goals, challenges, and buying behavior.

Why is a buyer persona important?

Creating a buyer persona is important for several reasons:

  1. Understanding the target audience: A buyer persona provides a detailed profile of the ideal customer, including demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information. This helps businesses understand their target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points, which is essential to identifying their niche market and developing effective marketing strategies, product offerings, and customer service.
  2. Personalization: By understanding the target audience’s needs and preferences, businesses can tailor their marketing messages, product offerings, and customer service to meet their specific needs. This creates a more personalized experience for the customer, which can improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
  3. Improved communication: A buyer persona can help businesses communicate more effectively with their target audience. By understanding the target audience’s language, values, and communication preferences, businesses can create messaging that resonates with them and engages them on a deeper level.
  4. Higher conversion rates: A buyer persona can help businesses create more effective marketing campaigns and customer experiences, which can lead to higher conversion rates. By targeting the right audience with the right message at the right time, businesses can improve their chances of converting leads into customers.

How are buyer personas used in marketing?

A buyer persona helps businesses create messaging that speaks directly to their target audience. Messaging is a critical component of any marketing strategy as it is what communicates the value proposition of a business’s product or service to the customer. By creating messaging and content that resonates with the target audience, businesses can improve their chances of engaging them and converting them into customers. 

For example, if a business is targeting millennial women who value sustainability and ecofriendliness, their messaging and content might focus on the environmental benefits of their product or service. They might use language that emphasizes their commitment to sustainability and the impact of their product or service on the environment. 

By contrast, if the same business was targeting older men who are concerned with price and convenience, their messaging might focus on the affordability and ease of use of their product or service. They might use language that emphasizes the cost savings and convenience. They might use language that emphasizes the cost savings and convenience of their product or service. 

In addition, the collected information of your target customers can be used to identify their pain points, which are the problems or challenges they are facing. Pain points can be related to anything from the quality of a product to the customer service experience to the price of a service. By understanding the target audience’s pain points, businesses can develop products and services that solve their problems and meet their needs.

The guide to creating a detailed buyer persona

In order to build a detailed buyer persona, a business needs to know the right questions to ask and where to find the answers. Here are the steps to help you do so: 

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

The first step in creating a buyer persona is to conduct market research to gather information about your target audience. This includes conducting customer surveys and interviews and analyzing your website traffic, customer feedback, industry trends, and competitor research. You can also use social media analytics tools to gain insights into your audience’s interests, behavior, and demographics. 

Here are some notes on data collection in order to build an accurate persona:

  • By assessing your customer database, one of the information pieces you need to figure out is how and why your leads come to you.
  • When creating questionnaire forms, make sure to include all the necessary information to build your persona. For example: If your persona requires information about income, you should include related questions in your questionnaire.
  • Diversify the means by which you collect your customer data. It could be through surveys, phone or direct interviews or website and social media analytics. The point is to find out what they are satisfied with and not satisfied with your product or service. 

Step 2: Identify Demographics

Once you have gathered your data, it’s time to identify your target audience’s demographics. This includes their age, gender, income, location, education, and job title. Without demographic data, it’s very difficult to create a suitably complex persona or truly understand who your ideal customers really are. 

Depending on the needs of your business, demographic data can be quite broad or extremely specific. For example, many buyer personas feature an ideal age range of the perfect customer rather than a specific figure. The same principles apply to most demographic categories, such as income level. Others may be more specific, such as education level.

Demographic data is a great place to start when creating your own buyer personas. You could begin by stating that your ideal customer is:

  • Between the age of 25-45
  • Female
  • College-educated
  • Earns $50,000 per year or more

Although we have begun to develop our example buyer persona, the information gathered so far may not suffice for most businesses. To gain a more profound understanding of your target audience, we need to delve deeper into their behaviors. 

buyer persona

Step 3: Identify customer behaviors

This step may sound like a complex task but with the help of analytics data, you should be able to identify behavioral patterns of your ideal customers. Whatever behaviors you incorporate into your buyer personas, it’s vital that you base this on real data from your conversion paths. Examine conversion data from Google Analytics and really look at the various journeys your best customers take, from the education phrase right through purchasing. 

Making assumptions about how people behave can be catastrophic, because you could be spending a great deal of time and money appealing to the wrong people based on the wrong behaviors. 

Step 4: Identify consumer objectives

Once you have gathered data on your target audience’s demographics and psychographics, it’s time to identify their goals and challenges. 

At its simplest, you can think of consumer objectives as whatever your ideal customer sits down to accomplish when they click on your ad, buy something on your website, or pick up the phone to call your business. None of these actions take place accidentally – there is always an objective in mind.

Interacting with your business can serve several objectives for prospective customers, including price comparison, informational inquiry, and direct purchase. These objectives can take various forms and can change fluidly during the interaction. For instance, a prospect might initially seek price comparison but also want to gather information about your services. Alternatively, they might inquire about prices but end up making a direct purchase if impressed by your competitive rates. 

To determine consumer objectives, actual data from your conversion paths and nurture programs must be analyzed and integrated with the data you’ve already gathered for other parts of your buyer personas. Once behavior and objectives have been taken into account, your buyer personas can provide a detailed understanding of your target audience.

Step 5: Create Your Buyer Persona

Once you have gathered all the data, it’s time to create a detailed profile of your ideal customer, commonly referred to as a buyer persona. A buyer persona should include their name, age, job title, income, interests, values, and goals, among other characteristics that are relevant to your business. Creating a buyer persona template can help organize the information and ensure that you have covered all the essential details.

A typical buyer persona template may include the following sections:

  1. Introduction: This includes a summary of the buyer persona, such as their name, job title, and key characteristics.
  2. Demographics: This section includes information on the buyer persona’s age, gender, income, education, and location.
  3. Psychographics: This section includes information on the buyer persona’s interests, values, personality traits, and communication preferences.
  4. Goals: This section includes information on the buyer persona’s goals and objectives, such as what they hope to achieve by using your product or service.
  5. Challenges: This section includes information on the buyer persona’s pain points and challenges, such as what obstacles they face in achieving their goals.
  6. Buying behavior: This section includes information on the buyer persona’s buying habits, such as where they prefer to shop, what factors influence their purchasing decisions, and how they interact with your business.

Step 6: Use Your Buyer Persona

After creating your buyer persona, it’s time to put it into action and use it to inform your marketing strategies, product offerings, and customer service. The buyer persona should be a key reference point for all business decisions to ensure that they are in line with the needs and preferences of your target audience.

To use your buyer persona effectively, you should refer to it when creating your marketing messages, social media posts, blog articles, and product descriptions to ensure that they resonate with your target audience. By using the buyer persona as a guide for customer service interactions, you can ensure that your team is communicating with customers in a way that resonates with them and addresses their concerns.

What are Negative Buyer Personas

Negative buyer personas represent individuals who are not a good fit for your business and are unlikely to engage or convert into customers. Negative buyer personas are just as important as detailed, accurate buyer personas. They help businesses avoid targeting audiences that are not a good match for their products or services and instead focus on their ideal customers.

Negative buyer personas are created by analyzing data on individuals who have interacted with your business but did not convert into customers. By identifying common characteristics, pain points, and objections of these individuals, you can create negative buyer personas that represent audiences you should avoid targeting in your marketing strategies.

For example, if you’re a high-end luxury brand that targets customers with a high-income level, you may want to create a negative buyer persona for individuals who are price-sensitive and are unlikely to purchase your products at their current price point.

One thing to bear in mind when creating negative buyer personas is not to be too exclusive, as this could narrow your potential customers base too excessively, or to discount the possibility that someone who isn’t an ideal customer right now could become one in the future. A negative buyer persona that is too broad could potentially exclude individuals who are still in the consideration phase of the funnel, so try to focus on qualities that definitely exclude them from your interest, such as income level and a price-sensitive attitude as per previous example.

Unlock your business success with a comprehensive buyer persona

Creating a detailed buyer persona is a critical step in developing effective marketing strategies, product offerings, and customer service. By gathering data on your target audience’s demographics, behaviors, and objectives, you can create a comprehensive profile of your ideal customer. 

Remember that your buyer persona is not a one-time creation but a living document that should be updated regularly to reflect changes in your target audience’s behavior and preferences. By continually refining and updating your buyer persona, you can ensure that your business stays in tune with your ideal customer and remains competitive in your industry.

If you enjoy this article, check out our other insights and news on branding and marketing.

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Will Gen Z End Mall Culture?

Abdul Mannan recalls the time when business was booming and the Lakeforest mall in Gaithersburg (Maryland, USA) was packed with shoppers.

But that was before the JC Penney store closed in the summer of 2019; Lord & Taylor went dark a few months later, and not long after, Sears disappeared from the map.

“There are days when we don’t sell anything, not even a dime. What do you see in this mall? It’s empty,” a sales clerk told the Washington Post in 2019.

A sense of “post-apocalypse” clinged to Lakeforest the past few years, to the point where what was once the pride of Montgomery, is now deemed a “ghost town” for its quietness. 

During a meeting in late January, the Gaithersburg city council announced they would close the Lakeforest by the end of March 2023.

“It’s the end of an old era,” said Kevin Rogers, executive vice president of WRS Inc., which owns the mall.

The end of Lakeforest reflects the all-too-familiar story of malls. Over the past decade, as consumers massively move to online shopping, malls with lower sales and disappearing storefronts are saying goodbye to their heyday. 

Gen Z mall culture
The inside of Lakeforest mall

The closure of major shopping malls

Alexandra Lange, author of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, says people have been predicting mall meltdowns since the 1980s.

Since then, big companies have spent millions to reinvent themselves into integrated lifestyle centres – adding yoga studios, medical clinics and microbreweries – with more upscale stores. But investments only widen the “gap between rich and poor” between commercial centres.

Neil Saunders, CEO of research firm GlobalData Retail, said: “There is a big division between the ‘best’ category and the ‘rest’. Newer, nicer shopping malls have become magnets for consumers, pulling them away from struggling properties.”

According to a 2017 report by Credit Suisse, a quarter of malls in the US are expected to close by 2022.

As of November 2019, retailers have announced plans to close more than 10,600 stores across the US, according to real estate research firm Costar.

The pandemic has made this process even faster. In the UK, shopping mall giant, Intu, which had struggled with the Covid-19 lockdown due to the harsh retail environment, collapsed in 2020. 

The old commercial centres in Japan also faced a similar situation. Onuma department store in Yamagata city faced bankruptcy and closed in 2020. The Nakago store chain had to close its last store in Fukushima city after 100 years of existence.

More than 20 malls and countless world-famous brands in Singapore have also struggled in the past few years because of the epidemic and the changing habits of consumers.

Gen Z has a different way of spending

According to a 2017 report by International Business Machines (IBM) and the National Retail Federation (NRF), more than 70% of Gen Z, who were born after 1996, has significant impact on their family’s spending habits.

This leads businesses and marketers to predict that Gen Z will be the next generation of Millennials (1980-1996) to end trends and norms from previous generations, including mall culture.

“With the love for digital life, the first ‘victim’ of the young generation is the brick-and-mortar stores. US shopping malls have closed at a record rate as e-commerce becomes the preferred way of shopping for Millennials and Gen Z,” Digital Commerce 360 ​​said.

According to a 2017 survey by Adyen, 93% of Gen Z prefer to shop without the help of a salesperson. But only 19% of retailers can offer such an experience, according to an IBM survey.

However, by 2019, the concept of Gen Z “killing mall culture” began to reverse.

In The idea that Gen Z is killing malls could be a myth, Business Insider surveyed more than 1,800 Americans aged 13-21 to find out what they think of malls.

17.99% of respondents said they went to the mall on a weekly basis, while 33.92% came here on a monthly basis.

The paper concluded that the majority of Gen Z may not be “mall rats” (young people frequenting a mall), but that doesn’t mean they’ve completely turned away from this space.

Also in the article, “Millennials Tried to Kill the American Mall, But Gen Z Might Save It”, Bloomberg said that Millennials are really the ones who would end shopping malls.

The article cites research by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) stating that around 95% of Gen Zs visited a mall in a 3-month period in 2018, more than 75% of Millennials ( Gen Y).

ICSC found that three-quarters of young people say going to a brick-and-mortar store is a better shopping experience than online.

Neil Saunders, analyst at GlobalData Retail, said: “It’s always been assumed that younger consumers who grow up online, digital and very savvy for these things will tend to stay away from buying experiences. Shop at a store or mall. But it turns out that’s not the case.”

Malls and retailers need to find ways to adapt

Young people today are more likely to get inspiration for fashion styles from Instagram than the clothes on mannequins at the mall.

To survive, malls must diversify and adapt to changing consumer preferences.

With the decline of mass shopping culture, “the smartest mall owners have realized that they can’t keep doing things the way they’ve always been,” says Lange.

Some malls have introduced luxury dining rooms or invested in a Virtual Reality online shopping experience. Others have transformed into what Lange calls “ethnic markets” to serve multicultural populations.

Retail historian Matthew Bailey says the future of the mall lies in further diversification.

“We tend to think of shopping malls as purely retail, but they can include more functions. Considered ‘privately owned public space’, 21st century malls can accommodate anything from schools to entire communities,” Bailey said.

Meanwhile, Oliver Chen, managing director of retail and luxury at Cowen and Company, a financial services company, advised malls and retailers to change their approach to a mobile-driven consumer model called “3C”: Convenience (convenience), Curation (management) and Culture (culture).

The “Convenience” factor explains the growing popularity of the outdoor shopping mall model, where customers can easily drive to, park near the store, shop, and then spend the rest of their day strolling and exploring other things. This whole customer experience has become the focus of many business and marketing strategies. 

The management of visitor groups (Curation) is very important for shopping centers. These places need to be managed in accordance with the local market. According to Chen, it doesn’t make sense for closed shopping malls in Pennsylvania, Texas or California to all have the same set of stores.

For Chen, “Culture” is the crux of the biggest challenge and opportunity for malls.

“The success of future retail and malls will depend on people. Malls must understand the community they serve and allow people to interact with others,” explains Chen.

With many major department stores such as JCPenny and Sephora experimenting with different ways to improve their online shopping experiences, others must adapt with a customer-centric approach and a forward-thinking mindset in order to stay competitive and relevant in the ever evolving retail landscape. 

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Five Minute Instagram Growth Hacks for Business

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. With over one billion active users, it’s no surprise that businesses are looking to grow their presence on the platform. However, with so much competition, it can be difficult to stand out and gain followers. In this article, we’ll share five-minute Instagram growth hacks that businesses can use to increase their visibility and grow their following.

Optimize Your Profile

Your Instagram profile is often the first interaction a potential customer or follower will have with your business. Optimizing your profile can create a positive first impression, which can lead to increased engagement, followers, and potential customers.

Most importantly, having a business profile on Instagram is essential for businesses that want to use the platform to reach their target audience and achieve their marketing objectives. A business profile on Instagram gives you access to a range of business-specific features, such as Instagram Insights, which provides data on your followers’ behavior and engagement with your content. You can also create Instagram ads, add contact buttons, and use Instagram Shopping to sell products directly from your profile.

Instagram growth, grow your Instagram

 When it comes to your Instagram business profile, you want to make sure it represents your brand and appeals to your target audience. Here are some tips to optimize your profile:

  1. Choose a recognizable profile picture: Your profile picture should be on-brand and recognizable. This could be your logo, a product photo, or a high-quality headshot of the person behind the business.
  2. Write a clear and concise bio: Your bio should explain who you are, what you do, and what sets you apart from the competition. Use relevant keywords to help people find you and be creative with your language.
  3. Use relevant hashtags: Use relevant hashtags in your bio to help people discover your business when they search for related content. This can also help improve your visibility in search results.
  4. Add a link to your website or landing page: Use the link in your bio to drive traffic to your website or a specific landing page, such as a product page or sign-up form.
  5. Use Instagram Highlights: Instagram Highlights are a great way to showcase your products, services, and brand values. You can use them to highlight your best-selling products, customer reviews, or behind-the-scenes content.

By optimizing your Instagram profile, you can create a strong first impression and attract new followers who are interested in your business. Remember to keep your profile updated and relevant to your brand and target audience.

Use Hashtags Strategically

Hashtag makes it easy for users to find photos with relevant content on Instagram. Hashtags are great for connecting users around a particular subject, sparking virality around a launch or sale, and raising awareness for important issues. Attaching relevant hashtags to your post will help increase your exposure and chances of getting discovered by new audiences in your industry or niche market.

To properly utilize hashtags, you need to find and use hashtags that your target audience searches for. This means, you need a powerful tool to both find the right hashtags and ensure that these tags have a steady search on Instagram.

For example, you can use Websta to find popular hashtags that are relevant to your post. In case you search for keywords related to men’s fashion (#mensfashion), this tool will return hashtags sorted by popularity (popularity).

Here are additional tips to help you use hashtags effectively:

  • Use a mix of broad and specific hashtags to reach a larger audience.
  • Create a branded hashtag to increase brand awareness and encourage user-generated content.
  • Add hashtags to your posts in the comments section to keep your captions clean and concise.

A captivating caption that compliments your hashtag will help increase the relevancy of the overall content to your audience. Hashtags are a powerful tool for increasing your visibility on Instagram. By using relevant hashtags, you can reach people who are interested in your industry or niche. 

Check out “8 Tips to Writing Captivating Social Media Captions”

Engage With Your Audience

Engaging with your audience on Instagram is important for building relationships, increasing visibility, improving algorithm performance, and encouraging user-generated content. By taking the time to respond to comments and messages, like and comment on other users’ posts, and encourage user-generated content (UGC), you can create a more engaging and interactive experience for your followers and potentially attract new ones as well.

Here are some common ways to start interacting with your target audience:

  • Respond to comments and messages promptly.
  • Like and comment on posts from other users in your industry or niche.
  • Host giveaways or contests to encourage engagement and increase your following.
  • Use Instagram Stories to share behind-the-scenes content and show your personality.

Post Consistently

Posting consistently is essential for staying top-of-mind with your followers and increasing your visibility on Instagram. The average longevity of an Instagram post in the general feed is 48 hours, which means after the said time, your post will no longer be actively pushed by Instagram algorithm. Therefore, it is important to develop a consistent content strategy and calendar so you always have content to post in advance. 

Realistically, it may be hard for businesses to always have content to post every week. You can always use user-generated content (UGC) to fill gaps in your content calendar and build community.

For more tips on building a content calendar for your business, check out 

“The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing in 2023.”

In order to identify the best time to post for your audience, you can use Instagram Insights to deduce when your target audience is most active. To access Instagram Insights, you need to have a business profile on Instagram. Once you have access to Insights, you can go to the “Audience” section and view data on your followers’ demographics, location, and activity.

Instagram growth, grow your Instagram

By using Instagram Insights to identify the best time to post for your audience, you can increase the chances of your posts being seen, liked, and shared by your followers. This can help improve your visibility on the platform and potentially attract new followers as well.

Collaborate With Other Brands and Influencers

Collaborating with other brands and influencers can help you reach new audiences and increase your following on Instagram. A recent media report found that 81% of consumers reported that social media posts from influencers, friends, or family members drove their interest in a product or service within the past year.

Influencer marketing is a strategy where brands partner with social media users to bring awareness and engagement to a product or service that they provide. These can be regular social media users, content creators, and celebrities. This powerful marketing tactic has been predicted to become one of the leading social trends in the upcoming years. 

Check out “Strategies for Influencer Marketing”

Growing your business on Instagram doesn’t have to be a time-consuming or complicated process. By implementing these five-minute growth hacks, you can increase your visibility, engage with your audience, and grow your following on the platform.

Remember, consistency is key, so make sure to set aside time each day to implement these hacks and track your progress using Instagram Insights.

Check out our other insights and news on social media to stay up-to-date.

Want to take the next step in advancing your social media in no time? Contact Advesa on how we can help you do so.

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