Up Your Game

Do you “SOCIAL MEDIA?”

NO? We’ll boldy say now, that you are HURTING YOUR BUSINESS in today’s online marketing environment! To clarify, there is an abundance of business to be had through social media. A huge number of businesses have already found that out.

Yes? Then congratulations! You are competing. More than 50 million small and large businesses currently use Facebook to connect to people and customers. So what can make you stand out versus your competition? Well, we’re here to help guide you in the right direction.

Are we the total end all be all experts?

Nope. Do we have all the answers to every social media question possible? Nope. Is your business going to explode overnight by following our advice in this blog? Nope. Are we continuously studying statistics, analytics, and information out there to get better? Yep! Can advice in this blog help you in the long run? Absolutely! Social media is a long, consistent, and thought out game like baseball. ⚾️

Odds are that your competition is already on Facebook, or some other form of social media. What will make you shine, stand out, get attention, and grow your business? With Facebook alone you have roughly two billion active monthly users at your fingertips. However, the odds of reaching the correct audience are astronomical. How do you reach them? How do you get your business noticed?  It’s easy…one of the best ways is videos. Yep, videos! They receive the most engagements of all!

Not only just posting videos, but you need these videos to be a bit thought out.

Let us explain…only about 15% of people actually watch Facebook videos WITH SOUND on. Don’t waste those “views,” make sure to use subtitles or make the video easy to understand without sound. Over 8 billion videos are watched on Facebook every day! Thats right…8 BILLION! Make your videos creative, interesting, and beautifully shot. Show people what you are doing or making and how your business can help. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Photos Too, Please!

Don’t feel comfortable making videos? You may be shooting yourself in the foot but what you can and definitely should be posting is images. To those posts, add emoji’s and tag locations. You will receive around 30% more engagement than those without! It’s so easy, right?! Wow! Just make sure all those cute little emoticons fit your posts content. You may not always need them. 😀😛

Business Cards

Pay Attention.

Now that you posted your video or images, now what? Don’t just leave and say I did my due diligence for the day. Rather, stay tuned to it because 78% of people who complained on Twitter expected a response within one hour. So be ready to have your business look on point! Respond to messages quickly.

Heck, hire or train someone to do your social media for you! There are around 20,000 people every 20 seconds on Facebook. The average American spends roughly 50 minutes per day on Facebook. There’s about 310 million monthly active users on Twitter, and 48% of brands use Instagram. A large portion of Instagram users even take action after seeing an advertising post. Wow! Pretty crazy stuff!

So in conclusion, it will make for a big investment to really put some effort into social media, consequently it will pay off. It has definitely taken over your typical “billboard sign”! You don’t think so? How many passengers that drive by are actually looking at signs anyhow? Most of them have their face in their phone!  No waiting…go get that business!

77 CAN HELP!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

Some statistics noted from:

https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics/

https://h2omediainc.com/10-stats-social-media-essential/

 

 

Creating Content to Better Market Your Business

In the marketing world, creating content for your business may seem difficult…but it’s not! It just takes a little outside the box thinking and abandoning the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ approach. The content you post to social media, your website, or even within the printable marketing materials you hand out, should tell a unique story about what you do. Audience engagement is at an all time low. However, creative content can help!

Recently, we’ve added a local banking client. They understand and see the value in custom content (images, videos, blogs etc.) For instance, they want to show customers who they are behind the scenes. Also, they’d like people to know what they do and how they differ from other banks. We will be helping them build their brand with testimonial videos, blogs, print, and creating custom “stock” commercial photography over the next year or so. By bringing us in, they will get an outside perspective on their banking business. This is something that tremendously excites us at 77! It is also something that we feel we can help them greatly with.

Creating your own content can be inexpensive and give you a leg up on your competition. What content should you make to show others? Simple. Show the world your products, your staff, action photos of your services, or just implementing a simple blog can also suffice. There are so many ways to create engaging content and way too many ways to list within one blog. Obviously there’s more, but these are some ideas that can get you started.

*Share reviews
*Create Custom Photo/Video
*Explain Industry Problems
*Explain Industry Solutions
*Share Other Professional Stories (always cite your source though)
*Tell the Story of How You Began Your Business
*Create Custom Graphics or Infographics
*Create a YouTube Channel (share how-to’s)
*Interview Customers and Share

Below are some images and graphics we have created for content. Some of these are for certain times of the year, or for a specific market. A lot of this has been shared throughout social media, our website, and within our printed brochures but perhaps these will help give you ideas.

You can create relevant content for your business too. It only takes a bit of creativity, time, and most importantly passion. Think to yourself, ‘what do I want to do for my business today?’ As a result, you will find more engagement.

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

Marketing & Gardening-A Comparable Explanation

In Western Pa, spring is right around the corner. We couldn’t be happier about this! This weeks blog post will discuss some similarities between marketing and gardening.

Much like your garden, a business requires constant attention, maintenance, and care to result in good growth. We all want healthy, bountiful vegetables or fruits from our gardens and your business should be looked at in the same way. Due to a variety of reasons, there are many similarities to both that may be overlooked.

Attention: We must pay attention to everything about our business because troubles can occur if we don’t. Exactly like a garden, things can spiral out of control. The weeds can take over and almost always this results in a depletion of growth. Customers can get upset due to a lack of response, something an employee did, or a bad estimate. Just to name a few. Getting great reviews from your clientele base is essential. Stay on top of things. Paying attention to potential problems and ‘weeding the garden’ are crucial in order to succeed with both.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maintenance: New customers come from a range of different places. For example, word of mouth may be the main tool you use, but perhaps you started promoting your business on social media or another outlet. Customers that find you elsewhere will expect a certain level of maintenance on your platforms. They want to see and read about your business. Consistent upkeep is essential so things stay fresh. Rarely does a business thrive on social media by letting things get stagnant. Marketing and finding new leads for your business consistently is similar to watering or adding nutrients to a garden. Therefore, maintenance must be exercised regularly.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Care:  Care certainly wraps up both of the above. If your business “has been doing it this way for so long’ it may be time for a change. When you do make a change take great care in how you do it because nobody wants to spend more than they have to without the desired results. Like a garden, you should rotate. You can’t continuously plant the same seeds and plants in the same areas year after year without changing things a bit. This will hinder growth. Care will ensure that your garden stays healthy.

 

In conclusion, plant the seeds (marketing) of your business garden. Pay attention to everything happening. Maintain customer relationships, and grow new ones. Care for the new things you are trying. Then, watch your profits and business garden grow!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.   

   

Entrepreneurs-How Hectic Is Your Life?

As entrepreneurs and owners of a marketing firm, living life in the fast lane isn’t just a saying…it’s a way of life. Success requires an immense amount of work. Sometimes, we operate at a speed that we were previously unaware even existed. Our fuel? Coffee (hence the Mr. Coffee Head image.)

Run here. Run there. Do this. Do that. Call this person. Email that one, and so on. At 77 Design Co, failure is not an option and in order to continue to grow we have to be on the move pretty much non-stop. We’re sure many other entrepreneurs can sympathize with this too.

Some of the things that require our constant attention are; checking in on clients, contacting new prospective clients, production work on social media accounts and websites, photography editing, business meetings, fielding calls/emails from customers, and of course, kid’s activities. Usually the kids stuff takes place after hours (if that is really a thing) but during the day it’s all business. Hell, during the evening there’s a ton of business work done too! It almost never ends. However, we have adapted to this maniacal lifestyle. We have learned to embrace it. As the saying goes, it’s better to be busy than not at all.

So, what do we do to de-stress when we are all continuously rushing around to make ends meet or grow our company? What do you do?

At 77, there’s a few things we like to do to slow down and relax. A few of the pastimes we collectively do to unwind include, guitar playing, martial arts training, fishing, listening to music, and occasionally attending art exhibitions. There’s also a few sports we enjoy to watch or attend. We enjoy cooking, craft beers, wine, bourbon, Porsche’s and Corvette’s.

We’d love to hear from you about the daily scrambling that you face too. How do the other entrepreneurs out there relax?

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

What Do You Want to Know About Marketing Your Business?

As a local marketing firm, we are constantly seeking input from business owners that we work with, because we want to know! We want to know what issues you face on a day to day basis regarding your business.

Is it finding the best social media reach due to the ever changing algorithms? Maybe, you struggle with getting your website found online? 77 Design Co hears problems from customers regularly about failed marketing attempts, or more specifically failed web design. The overall design of your website may be a problem you’d like to know more about.

A ton of money can go into a marketing strategy and not produce the intended results. What we do to improve this, is meet with the business owner(s) and truly learn as much as possible about their business and competition, then assess a solution. Working together with someone you trust, and crafting the best message you want to get out can help produce tremendous results.

Speaking of competition, maybe that is an issue you face? If your competition is succeeding in something and you are not, what can we do to improve that? Is your competition pounding money into a market that you can’t compete in? We’ll work that out…and help you do it better!

Providing free initial marketing consultations is something we do on a daily basis at 77 Design Co. Feel free to leave a comment or shoot us an email regarding the problems and pain points you face with your business’s marketing. Let’s find a niche for your business and exploit the best way to draw attention to you. We’ll work together with you and your staff to resolve these and other issues, then truly design a marketing/advertising strategy that will work for your budget and produce new customers. We look forward to hearing from you! Let’s make this year better than last!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

Guest Blog Partnership Program

We mention it all the time, as a marketing agency we want to see others that we work with succeed when it comes to their business marketing. It’s not just something we say, it’s something we truly believe in.

This is why we have created a new Guest Blog Partnership Program! We are excited to give business owners and colleagues that we know a forum to write about and thoroughly discuss a variety of aspects about their business. The new Guest Blog Partnership Program, gives local businesses an opportunity to spread the good word about their business, no matter what industry they are in.

The program will cost only fifteen dollars per month (with a one-year contract.) This partnership agreement will include your business logo/link to your business website here on this blog page. Essentially, your business will be a sponsor of this blog page. It also includes the option to add one written blog per month about your business to this page, that will be posted here by a 77 Design Co team member. We will then share your blogs onto our social media outlets. To improve results, we encourage other business owners that are also in the program to do the same. The goal here is to create a sphere of local business owners that can cross-promote one another that will increase engagement and awareness of each others business. We believe this is a fantastic opportunity for any business owner without a blog outlet and the rate is very affordable.

The price of fifteen dollars per month simply covers the time we’ll have involved with posting and sharing of the blogs. Feel free to contact us for more info. We look forward to working with your business too!