On the surface, Facebook ads seem like a great value. With startup costs as little as $5/day, most business owners jump on the opportunity to start advertising for such a minimal expenditure.  

Looking for a low cost alternative to social advertising? Maybe email marketing is the right fit for you. Learn more about it here.

The truth is that advertising on Facebook can work for almost any type of business – but the catch is that it takes a well-planned campaign, a clear objective, and an appropriate budget to make it worth the investment. Before starting your first campaign, you’ll want to:

1. Learn how to properly use the Facebook Ads Manager (or hire someone who knows how to use it)

2. Determine a clear budget 

3. Narrow down an objective for your campaign

4. Set a timeline for your campaign, including check-in points where you can retool your creative if needed

5. Design and write your ad creative (don’t forget to consider A/B testing for your creative)

6. Carefully target your ads before launching them 

How much do they cost? 

While it’s true that you can start advertising for just a few dollars, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is money well spent – or that social advertising will be more cost effective than traditional advertising in the long run. 

The real questions you should be asking here are:

• How much do I have to spend? 

• What are my goals? 

• What cost per click (CPC) do I need to make this worthwhile? 

The fact of the matter is that $5 is going to buy you nothing… in fact, if done poorly a low budget campaign may even hurt your brand. At a bare minimum, we suggest setting aside $500 -$1k for each product or service campaign you plan to do (and this doesn’t include creative development costs). The appropriate budget will be influenced by your objectives, how large of a target audience you want to reach, and the length of your campaign­­. 

Setting a goal

While direct sales goal is one clear cut way to make sure you’ll be able to measure your investment, it’s not the only metric that’s worthwhile. In addition to social media sales (for products), you can also measure:  

• New page “Likes”

• Post-level engagement

• Email opt-ins

• Website click-throughs

• On-site sales or lead generations

Picking the proper objective is going to depend on your specific business. If you’re a new business, brand awareness may be an important piece of your marketing strategy. But if you’re a tried and true brand who is looking to boost sales, you should hone in on conversions or direct sales.  

6 mistakes to avoid

1. Use little to no text on your ad creative. Facebook’s 20% text rule has been the rule of thumb for as long as any social media marketer can remember. In general, the less text means the higher the reach. 

2. Using the wrong ad format. Using the wrong ad format is typically a newbie mistake. The ad manager has numerous options and if you don’t know what you’re doing, there’s a good chance you may not be using the most effective format. Let your objective guide your ad format – and be sure to do plenty of research on the different options before even kicking off your first campaign!  

3. Boosting a post and calling it advertising. While boosting a post may get a few extra eyes on it, this is not the same thing as creating a Facebook campaign. You won’t have any of the targeting or format options available through the ads manager if you simply boost a post.

4. Not regularly monitoring and retooling. Facebook advertising isn’t a set it and forget it medium. You should plan to regularly check-in on your campaigns to measure their success. If something’s not working or performing the way you expected, don’t be afraid to rework it and try again. Live monitoring is one of the benefits of social advertising because it ensures you won’t continue to spend money on something that isn’t working… so don’t let this important feature go to waste! 

5. Only running one ad. Facebook Campaigns are based around sets of ads which are made of individual ads. Limit ad sets to no more than 5 ads so you can compare and contrast what’s working well. 

6. Targeting a wide range. Targeting a broad audience is a big mistake – by casting a wide net, you lower the chances that people are going to respond positively to your ad or engage with it at all. Facebook’s unparalleled targeting is what makes it such a successful platform – and not utilizing these features practically ensures you won’t see a return on your investment.  

The bottom line: are they worth it? 

Want to learn more about Facebook’s targeting options? Facebook has a number of valuable resources available for your use!! 

It’s important to not view Facebook as a silver bullet that will fix all your advertising woes for a minimal cost and labor investment. If done well, your Facebook campaigns will require a lot of careful planning, research, and investment. 

Social advertising should be just one part of a carefully planned and comprehensive digital marketing strategy – and they require as much care and attention as everything else that bears your brand name. 

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your digital marketing partner

Feeling overwhelmed by all the options? Don’t worry – that’s what we’re here for. We’ll help you determine how best to spend your digital marketing budget. Once we’ve decided on the right fit, we can help you take the plan from idea to reality. We’ll help you write, design, and launch everything you need to boost sales.

Should you be using Hubspot for your business? We’ll start by giving you a quick answer so that you know if this article is for you. 

We believe you’ll get a great ROI on using Hubspot for your business if you plan to spend a minimum of $2,000-$3,000 a month on digital marketing. 

Now, to back that up…what does Hubspot do?

Hubspot’s an all-encompassing marketing platform, and it provides businesses with the tools they need to optimize their inbound marketing efforts. 

In a nutshell, some of their software includes:

• Email: the ability to create custom-made email templates, tailor subject lines to your audience, and conduct A/B tests to continue making improvements.

• Blogging: helps you optimize your copy to aid with conversions and organic visibility, as well as keep your formatting consistent and clean.

• Landing pages: allows you to easily build responsive landing pages, personalize their elements (like content, CTAs and forms), and analyze, test and optimize them to keep leveraging their conversion rate.

• Marketing automation: saves you time by automating your email campaigns with the ability to tweak triggers, conditions and actions, so you’re contacting the right lead at the right time.

• Lead management: with the click of a button, it enables you to see which leads you’ve contacted, when, and how they responded, to tailor future campaigns to their behavioral patterns. 

• Analytics: with built-in analytics, reports and dashboards, it gives intelligent insights on all your inbound marketing efforts to see which channels are and aren’t working for you.

• CMS: it enables you to build a responsive, SEO-friendly site, that’s fully integrated with all your marketing funnels.

• Social media: you can seamlessly build your social presence by sharing your content from the same place you build your campaigns, and monitor how different social channels perform. 

• SEO: with content strategy tools, search data stats, SEO tips as-you-type and reporting suites, it gives you all the tools needed to easily plan, optimize, and monitor your organic efforts.

• Call to action (CTA): it provides you with a platform to design dazzling CTAs and see who’s actually clicking them. 

• Ads: it takes the guesswork out of your Facebook and AdWords adverts with reports that prove your ROI – with precision.

And that’s just some of the major draws – they also provide a suite of service and sales tools, many of which are free add-ons. 

Lead customers the right way with Hubspot!

Really good resources

Beyond their software packages, Hubspot also has a large database of free resources that will help you stay plugged in to any emerging trends or best practices.

• Blogs and videos

• E-books and guides

• Free courses/certifications

• Research and reports

Our top five reasons why

When it comes to inbound marketing, Hubspot’s one of the leaders in the pack. There are countless reasons to couple up with them, but here are our top four: 

1. It’s an intuitive tool. While Hubspot’s interface is incredibly layered – and can be a little intimidating to first time users – it’s also designed incredibly well. Once you get a basic idea of where everything is at, you’ll be able to seamlessly navigate within the interface as you learn to master their tools.

2. Great free options. Hubspot’s CRM is always free, and many of their basic marketing tools are free as well. It’s a great way to get a hang of the tool and see if it works for you before you spend a single penny.

3. Superb support. In addition to the comprehensive database we previously mentioned, HubSpot’s online and phone support team is available for Service Hub and Enterprise users. 

4. An integrated approach. By letting you control the entire sales process from start to finish, Hubspot cuts out the need for multiple tools. In the long run this will save you time and make your day-to-day digital marketing more efficient. 

5. Detailed reporting. Intensive reporting allows you to see the details on everything from who your customers are, to what they’re viewing, where your customers came from, how your  content is preforming, how you stack up to the competition, and more.

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Hue & Tone Creative: Digital Marketing for Greensboro, NC

Need to refresh your stale online ads? Give your Facebook a lift? Breathe new life into your website? We can do all that and more. We’ll rechart the course of your marketing strategy and help you increase the ROI on your digital efforts. Just give us a call to get started: 336-365-8559.

The ‘is print dead?’ debate has been going on for, well, what seems like ages. Print has been on the decline for decades, but it’s far from completely irrelevant. While demand for things like hardcopy newspapers and print advertising has been decreasing, we believe there’s still a place for print in your marketing strategy. 

The power of digital marketing

Back in the day when print was everyone’s primary marketing method, there simply weren’t other effective alternatives available. As technology has evolved, so has the way we advertise. 

Digital advertising empowers advertisers with advanced analytics, sophisticated targeting options and greater monitoring capabilities. It’s also an incredibly cost effective marketing tool. With a cheaper buy-in cost than traditional advertising, digital advertising is a great option for small businesses, new businesses, and startups. Quick results and quick set-up also make it easy for non-marketing professionals to control.  

Together, all these factors make digital marketing an attractive option – but that doesn’t mean it’s without drawbacks. 

 

Concerns over digital advertising – and the staying power of print

According to research conducted by FedEx Office, 9 in 10 consumers believe there will always be a place for print collateral, and 85% said they’re more likely to shop with a business if it has professional printed materials like flyers, banners and business cards. (And, it wasn’t just baby boomers that FedEx Office surveyed – similar results were seen among millennial survey responses as well.) 

With so many businesses fighting for attention online, it’s easy for consumers to feel bombarded -- and many are starting to push back against the monopoly our digital devices have on our time and attention. Things like digital detoxes, technology free wedding ceremonies, and giving up Facebook for Lent have all become ideas that are part of the collective dialogue on technology’s place in our day-to-day lives.  

Additionally, concerns over data privacy on Facebook and Google are fueling a push for greater transparency in digital advertising. 

With all that in mind, we don’t see digital advertising as the end all be all of modern marketing. Digital advertising is here to stay for the foreseeable future, but that doesn’t mean it’s only option in the game. Diversifying your marketing plan with both traditional and digital advertising can give you a greater reach and help insulate you against future trends.  

How to make print work for you

Don’t limit your print pieces to traditional cards and brochures – think about what kind of swag you can give to people! Things like koozies, pens, and can openers can provide a repeated reminder of your brand to potential customers.

Consider this: With digital becoming the norm, is print becoming a unique way to grab people’s attention? When working on your marketing plan, think about how you might leverage print as a way to disrupt the new norm of digital. When strategically leveraged, print can provides a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd and target your market in a less saturated environment -- giving you a greater chance of getting noticed.

In addition to the element of unexpectedness, print is a tangible leave behind. If everything you do is online, you’re relying solely on the consumer remembering your brand oryou’ll be spending more to actively and repeatedly display your ads on their mobile/desktop device. Print pieces like business cards and brochures are a great leave behind for people to hang on to. 

Putting print into context

Looking for an easy way to make combine your digital + print efforts? Make sure your social media icons are on your business cards. You’ll be connecting people with your online presence through a more traditional marketing method.

Spend around print advertising might be declining, but when you look at the big picture, is print really dead? We don’t think so – and we think the facts back us up.  

While print’s role in your marketing plan has probably changed, it still has a place. A well thought out campaign will be able to leverage print and social media in tandem to stretch advertising dollars to reach the widest (and most qualified) audience possible. 

Don’t let digital distract you from missing out on a valuable marketing opportunity. Instead of thinking “print vs. digital” we suggest thinking about how all the mediums work together – and how print advertising can support your digital efforts (and vice versa).

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Hue & Tone Creative: Print and social advertising in Greensboro, NC

Whether you're looking to create a new digital campaign -- or looking something a bit more old school -- we're here to help. Experts in all things digital and all things print, we'll get every element of your marketing plan up to speed. Shoot us an email and let's discuss how we might be able to partner together.