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02 Jan 2019

Rebranding Lowdown: Uncovering Your Brand

By Ash

No one ever said that rebranding was easy. In fact, your first rebranding might also be the first time anyone’s put any serious thought into your brand. The initial brand for almost any company is something meaningful or amusing to the founders during the wild days of a startup. The brand was likely thought up just to complete the launch checklist, with a favourite animal or an in-joke during one of those late startup nights.

And the first brand very likely suited that first startup team well. All 12 of them thought it was totally cool. But over time, companies grow and change. You may have a completely different (or much more diverse) audience and customer base now. You’re probably employing several times more people than when you started. And it’s time to build a brand that really works for the company that once-startup grew into.

Growing Out of Your Old Brand

The reason most companies decide to rebrand is because, like a child outgrowing shoes, your old brand just doesn’t fit anymore. Your teams aren’t a scrappy startup team. And you don’t need to break into the market anymore, you are an established brand with a growing audience of customers. There’s a good chance that a new brand could really reflect what you’ve become.

While still keeping the personality and passion of the founding brand, of course. So the question is…

What Should Your New Brand Be?

You already sort of have an idea of what a rebranding should achieve. Your brand should relate to your industry, appeal to your audience, and represent the company. But the last one most of all. In fact, if you achieve that, then you’ll have hit all your other goals right on the head as well.

The best brands are ones that somehow perfectly reflect the personality and reputation of a company. Entirely. You want a brand that makes employees proud to wear the uniform and allows customers to get exactly what they see. In other words, the best way to decide your new brand is to look inside yourself — as a company — and discover the brand that already exists inside.

You have a company culture, a set of industry-driven values, and a style of interacting with the customers. The key is to somehow capture that in your logo, brand voice and your entire brand strategy.

Let’s take a look at your brand, just waiting to be discovered in things you already know about your style, audience, and values.

Your Industry

A big part of your company is your industry-related values. Not only do you have a place on the Venn-diagram of Fast-Good-Cheap, but you also have certain methodologies that differ from competitors. These are what set you apart. How you treat your customers, the quality of your materials, the thoroughness of your safety procedures. These are an important part of your brand that many companies overlook about themselves.

Consider how your business is unique on a product and service level compared to your contemporaries and competition. What do you put an extra effort into that could become a part of your brand design? If your company has always been dedicated to fast delivery, you might incorporate an element of speediness into your brand. Like a fast creature (squirrel, cheetah, ostrich to name a few).

Or perhaps your company is meticulous about final product quality. The new brand might feature a jeweller’s glass or a notoriously careful mascot who always double-checks. The right industry-related brand elements can really appeal to your staff because they will relate to it.

Your Target Audience

Your target audience is also an important part of your brand. Your brand should include imagery and colours that your audience finds appealing. But more importantly, it should fit neatly into their lives. You want your brand to be a comfortingly familiar logo and a reliable set of features and benefits. In a way, you want audiences to know exactly what they’re getting when they see your new brand.

Part of this is keeping elements of your previous brand so returning customers can easily follow you through rebranding. Another part is thinking about what will feel right when your customers buy and use your products. Your logo will be in their cart, on their computer screen, or even displayed in their house. Your social media posts in the new brand will appear on their feeds.

And you know your audience better than anyone else. Consider your marketing personas and make sure your brand will be a welcome addition to the homes and workplaces of your customers.

Your Company Culture (Behind the Curtain)

One very important consideration is that employees represent and are represented by the brand. They wear the company shirts, work under the logo, and speak in the voice of the company to customers and vendors alike. This gives you two simultaneous goals.

You want your staff to be proud to wear the brand. They should find it funny, or feel it represents a good cause, or shows off the quality of their work. This will also help you attract candidates who would be a great addition to your team.

And second, your brand should accurately represent the company culture. How you treat employees, whether you are serious or fun, whether your animal-loving or all seem to share a passion about safety. This is where your brand personality is hiding. Believe it or not, your company culture is actually the most important part of rebranding, because it’s who your company is.

Discovering Your Company Identity

If you don’t know what your company culture really is, or how to translate into a brand, then you don’t know your company well enough to rebrand yet. The next step is to actually discover what your company identity is. And if you already have multiple locations, this can be a pretty big project.

It’s time to discover if your team is funny or hardcore. If they like to work late and order a pizza or achieve superhuman productivity to finish without overtime. If they like fuzzy animals or think of themselves as coffee-drinking robots. If they love every customer personally or design great products in spite of them. If they are a cooperative team or made up of independent rockstars who pass work around.

Learning these things will teach you a lot about what your brand should be as well. And one of the best ways to do this is to spend time walking the floors and listening. In fact, your brand might just start to form unbidden in your mind as you get a clear idea of the true overall personality of your company.

Your Brand Was Inside the Whole Time

When a company needs to rebrand, they come to designers and hope the right brand will just happen. But designers aren’t psychic. Unless you are talking to in-house designers who have spent time in every part of the company, they don’t actually know the right personality to convey in your new brand. The right symbols to use, the right colour scheme and imagery for your target audience.

But you do know. The right brand for your company is just waiting to be discovered. Because the elements you need have been there inside your company the whole time.

So when your marketing strategist or brand strategist asks what you’re looking for in a brand, don’t just say “We like dogs. Give us a dog brand”. Instead, describe the brand that already exists. Describe your industry and your values compared to competitors. Describe your audience and how they should see your brand when it’s complete. Describe your teams and how they get along, the personality they create for the brand as a group.

If you need help ironing out the process to get started our Marketing Discovery helps to develop a solid strategic foundation so you can move forward with your rebranding. Interested in learning more about you to reach inside and discover the right path for rebranding? Contact us today!

20 Dec 2018

Chamber Marketing 101: Be Local. Get Connected. Stay Awesome.

By Jonathan Berube

You’re a business owner who has an endless array of daily tasks to attend to. Your day-to-day operations depend on your attention to detail and oversight and knowing how to market your business — including chamber marketing — is just one thing of many on your plate. In other words, your time is valuable.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed and it’s important to be protective of your schedule, dropping any activities that aren’t productive. One thing you should never skip, however, is an opportunity to network and connect with other local business owners. Joining your local Chamber of Commerce and participating in meetings and other events is an investment in your business. But, this is one investment that you can see an almost immediate return on.

What Is the Chamber?

The Chamber, short for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, is an organization that helps businesses connect with one another. It’s a platform by which business owners can help influence public policies that benefit themselves, their fellow business owners and the community. It is the largest business association in the country. From 450 local chapters across Canada, they support and represent the interests of over 200,000 businesses. Those local Chambers are an incredibly rich source of valuable resources.

Why Join a Local Chamber?

Membership in a local chamber of commerce has a multitude of benefits for business owners. From networking opportunities to education and business information to advocacy and marketing opportunities, the chamber supports businesses on an individual basis. The most important benefit, however, is being connected to other business leaders within the community who seek opportunities to grow, learn, and do business together.

Networking Opportunities

Communication these days is often accomplished in the digital realm. That doesn’t mean that face-to-face meetings aren’t important. In fact, they’re more important than ever. Monthly chamber events, meetings, roundtable discussions, and other chamber activities are a great way for business leaders to meet and form beneficial relationships. In turn, they can work together to ensure the marketplace remains competitive and that no company has an unfair advantage.

Relationship Building

Local business owners have more in common with one another than profits, they’re also interesting individuals. Building relationships, at the business and personal level, is important for a person’s health and well-being. Taking part in local Chamber activities, like the Bonnyville Chamber of Commerce’s trip to India, is a fun way to make new friends, and build strong business relationships at the same time.

Regularly Scheduled Events

Every local chamber maintains a calendar of events for the coming month, making it easy to plan ahead. While attendance at all the events isn’t mandatory, they provide ample opportunity to learn and grow. For example, the St. Paul & District Chamber is offering several events in January. These events offer help for small businesses, including tax advice, customer service related information and many other business topics.

Chamber Marketing Opportunities

A fantastic way for a business owner to connect with other like-minded individuals is to attend a Chamber Connect event. There’s one held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce. It’s a meet-and-greet type event where people exchange business cards, discuss important matters, and create valuable partnerships. It’s an especially potent marketing tool for B2B businesses since the members are all business owners themselves.

There are also a number of other ways you can market through your local chamber, including:

  • Placing an ad in chamber email fanouts that go to members
  • Sponsoring an event
  • Advertising on their websites
  • Being listed in their business directory

Policy Input

Business owners are among the most influential people in our communities. They drive economic growth and have a major impact on policies that affect the affect the entire community.

Joining a chamber, like the Alberta LGBT Chamber of Commerce, gives business leaders the opportunity to impact policies and influence the chamber’s advocacy agenda. Whether it’s by participating in a committee, submitting policy change resolutions, or simply speaking out, members are a key element of the chamber’s decision-making process.

Access to Information

Keeping pace with federal legislation, new rules and regulations, and local business initiatives is a challenge, to say the least. Members of the chamber have unlimited access to information about these important topics as well as expert advice from policy experts. Whether it’s a question about local licensing requirements or a federally mandated regulation, business owners can quickly find an answer to avoid complications later. They can also share their experiences and knowledge with other members.

Tools and Resources

Business leaders have access to a wide variety of tools and other resources through their local chamber aimed at helping them to serve the community and their customers better. Small business tools, webinars, videos, podcasts, workshops, and other information is all just a click away. Chamber events and conferences not only provide valuable information but also facilitate networking between members. In addition, many chamber members are also experts in finance, marketing, and other business topics and offer advice and assistance.

Chamber Benefit Programs

Chamber membership can also help save a business money through one of the value-added benefits programs available. Programs vary from discounts on professional services and products to access to free business tools. These additional benefits can be a real benefit to new business on a limited budget as well as established companies looking for ways to maximize their profit margins by decreasing costs.

Improved Public Image

Joining the local chamber and becoming a participating member has benefits that are difficult to measure. One of those benefits has to do with public perception. When a prospect or customer sees that you’re affiliated with the chamber, they’re more likely to perceive you as a trustworthy, community-minded business. In other words, membership is like a badge of honour that sets your business apart from non-chamber members.

Conclusion

Your business needs a presence, both in real-life and digitally, and marketing is an absolute necessity in today’s world. If you’re not connecting with local business owners and leaders, you’re missing a very important part of the equation.

If you operate a B2B business, local chamber members are all prospective customers. They’re also allies who will work with you to influence policies that affect you all. In short, joining the local chamber is one of the smartest things a Canadian business owner could do.

Contact us to learn more about the benefits of chamber marketing and how we can help you with your digital marketing strategies!

12 Dec 2018

Octopuses 101: How to Create a Brand(able) Persona

By Ash

When we think about what it means to be a brand, or heck what is a brand altogether, a lot of things start to pop into our heads. There are buyer personas to build, social media strategies to brainstorm, channel strategies to implement and a bunch of meetings to have in boardrooms saturated in half-empty coffee cups and permanently-smudged whiteboards.

But, we think that a brand is more than a cool catchphrase and an overly polished logo; a brand is something that drives your company forward. It’s a vision you can all get behind. Your brand should be the way that you, and everyone else at your business, present themselves to your clients and colleagues.

Today, we’re going to talk about why you should create a brandable persona… using octopod facts as a guiding light. This isn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill, no-duh, boring listicle. Oh no! Today, we’re going to get into the critical subjects — like the fact that both octopodes and octopuses are plurals for octopus! Oh, yeah. And, just for the halibut, we’ll tie that back around to building a brandable persona.

But, really, you should be staying for the octopus stuff.

Octopuses Eat Their Own Tentacles When They’re Bored

Holy Mackerel! This one’s true. If you put an octopus in a small space with little-to-no stimulation, they’ll start munching on their tentacles. If you’ve made it to this point in the post, let us ask you a quick question. Is this more interesting than a boring-old listicle so far? If so, that’s because we’ve learned a valuable lesson from octopuses — no one likes to be bored!

When you set out to create your brand, latch onto something that has a little umph! No, you don’t have to be overly silly, and, no, you don’t have to worship our 8 armed ocean-friends. But, remember that your clients and customers are more likely to digest your content if you’re a little fun to be around.

70% of brand managers think that building an audience is more important than direct sales. It’s true! You want customers to want to read your content. You want them to come back again-and-again. Look, here’s the thing, there are 4 bazillion blogs out there, and there are probably at least (bare minimum) 10 that directly target your niche. You want to stand out from the crowd.

To do this, you really want to develop a voice — something that everyone who comes onto your blog will instantly recognize and connect with. Do this, and, before you know it, you’ll be raking in those sweet, sweet sand dollars. They might be asking, “what is a brand?” And then, they come across your blog and they’re like, “oh yeah. I get it now!”

Our customers expect us to make sophisticated underwater jokes. Sure, they may be corny, but they are a part of who we are. Find your voice. It can be serious, silly, or something in-between. But, you have to have something that makes you stand out, or you risk being another fish in the school.

Octopuses Can Camouflage Themselves

If there’s one thing an octopus is good at, it’s fitting in. These adorable ocean creatures can blend into their backgrounds seamlessly. Let’s play can you spot the octopus! Check out the image below. We’ll play reverse Jeopardy and give you the answer — you have to guess the question!

What is Tentickles

Your employees should be like an octopus. Everyone in your business should latch onto your brand and identify with it. The last thing that you want is to develop a killer brand identity and then have your employees do (or say) something that’s completely not on-brand. So what is a brand? It’s what you live day-in and day-out!

Weekly meetings, brand statements, and branding strategy sessions are all great ways to help get your employees on-board. That being said, a good brand is naturally magnetic. If you create a compelling brand, your employees want to identify with it. Remember, everyone in your business is a part of your brand, from head-to-fin.

So, when your clients communicate with any of your employees, they should be able to expect a similar experience. You betta believe everyone here at Octopus Creative is on-board with our brand persona.

Octopuses Have 3 Hearts

Talk about love! Octopuses use two of those hearts for pumping blood and one for circulating it. This is why you’ll see an octopod crawling around instead of swimming. When they swim, it actually stops their heart and wears them out quicker.

Just like octopuses, your brand should have a heart. You know what! No. It should have three hearts.

Here’s a big branding secret. Whether you have a serious, hyper-technical tone, a silly tone, or anything in-between, you really want to make sure that you put some heart into it. It’s all about authenticity. There are so many brands who have no distinguishable tone. Most of the time, it’s because they never really put their heart into it. We know! That sounds fishy err.. corny. But, if you’re not fully committed to your brand, it shows.

Also, when you’re building your brand up, be like the noble octopus — crawl, don’t swim. You don’t have to figure your whole brand out in a day. That’s crazy talk. It takes a long time to fully build a brand. It evolves over time, and it takes hold of you and your employees. Don’t force it.

It took us a while to really come to terms with who we all were. We realized that we’re serious about marketing, but, we’re also a little quirky. It’s an honest representation of who we are — not a forced identity that we’ve put on ourselves.

It will take some time to figure out who you are, but once you do, you should be leveraging it. Branding isn’t just about winning customers, it’s also about being transparent. A good brandable persona is blood deep.

Conclusion: What is a brand and what do I do?!

Building a brand persona is about more than just strategy sessions and boardroom meetings. It’s a lengthy process that starts to shape you and your company. Your brand is the space you occupy in your customer’s mind. It’s why they pick you over your competitors. Next time you think of an octopus, try telling us that our agency isn’t going to pop into your head for a minute.

Are you having trouble building that brand and creating a brand persona? Contact us!

Look, we can’t build your entire brand for you, because, well, we’re not you. But, we can put you on the right track and hold your tentacle every step of the way. So, why not dive in and see what happens? You may just find that we squidnap your heart, and we build a fantastic relationship together.

05 Dec 2018

Holy Ship! How Hiring a Local Marketing Agency Can Help Your Business!

By Jonathan Berube

Another wild day pretending you have 8 arms is behind you! Yes, you almost lost arm protecting your waters and warding off your fiercest competitors. And you were up all night again hunting down tasty opportunities. Holy ship, it’s a good thing octopuses have three hearts!

If you feel more like an octopus than a business owner at times, you’re not alone! In order to protect your waters, you have to attract and keep your audience while fighting off your competition. The key to accomplishing this goal is to prepare a strategic marketing plan that will help you become the king of the sea. To the average business owner who lacks marketing expertise, this process might seem a bit overwhelming. But by hiring a local marketing agency, you can develop a customized marketing strategy that will help your business thrive. Below are ten ways hiring a local marketing agency can help your business prosper.

1) Identify your target market

“You have put in the long hours and finally finished making that killer product or service, but your work is not yet done – now you need to introduce people to this offering. While it is relatively simple to develop general advertising for the masses, devoting time and resources to identify more targeted markets can help you maximize your marketing ROI.”

– Chuck Cohn, Founder and CEO of Varsity Tutors

Get your suckers ready! Identifying your target market is the first step to building a successful marketing strategy. Hiring a local marketing agency can help you identify your target market by helping you sharpen your focus and obtain data and uncover untapped prospects in the sea. For instance, a marketing specialist can help you clarify what needs your products fill and how to use existing data to help your product look tasty to your audience.

2) Establish your marketing budget

Rich Octopus is more than just the name of a band from Louisiana. The best path to wealth is a stellar marketing plan. But before you launch into any marketing activities, you need to set your marketing budget and resolve to stick to it!

This is a foreign concept to many new business owners who feel like a fish out of water when it comes to finance and marketing. The good news is that a local marketing firm can help you establish your budget. In most cases, marketing budgets are determined in one of two ways: by allocating a specific percentage of revenue to marketing activities or by allocating a specific dollar amount to marketing pursuits. While companies vary in terms of the amount of money they allocate to marketing expenses, the average allocation is typically 9% to 12% of revenue.

3) Identify your key competitors

If you have to hear about Lil’Ocho or Ole 8-Mile-Man one more time, you might chew off one of your own arms! Hearing buzz about your competitors is never fun. But unfortunately, competition will always be alive and well in your waters. Positioning yourself as a leader in your industry is nearly impossible unless you have the inside track on your competitors. An accomplished marketing agency can help you identify key competitors. By reviewing your competitors’ marketing materials and comparing their advertising strategies, a local marketing firm can help you maintain an edge in a sea of fierce competitors.

4) Ramp up your social media presence

Yes, their eight arms would DEFINITELY give an octopus an edge and would help them dominate social media if it existed underwater!

Unfortunately, business owners are not born with eight arms! While you may not be able to compete with an octopus in the social media realm, failure to devote sufficient time to social media marketing leaves the door open for your competitors to surpass you. And with 90% of high net worth individuals actively engaging with social media, you can hardly afford not to make time to remain active on social media. In addition to providing an excellent forum through which to advertise your products, social media continues to be a superb means of networking.

5) Give your website a facelift

Did you know that an octopus would be more likely to ignore your website if it is drab and lifeless? Yes, octopuses are attracted to colour, shapes, and vibrancy. And like octopuses, your prospects will be more attracted to your company if you have an alluring website.

Prospects searching for your products are more likely than ever to start their search online. It is therefore imperative that your website be attractive, responsive, and easy to navigate. But if you are like most entrepreneurs, you may lack the skills to update your own website. Fortunately, web design is another key task that a local marketing agency can handle for you.

6) Navigate the trade show market

Becoming king of the sea is not easy. You have to stay abreast of all of the latest developments in your waters and keep tabs on key players. Attending industry trade shows is one of the best ways to accomplish these goals. However, you may not know which trade shows are the most established or what material you need to make an impact in a sea of booths. Enter your local marketing specialist, who will be able to guide you in your selection of trade show display material.

7) Start a blog and update it regularly

Keeping the world interested and engaged is important! Fortunately, creating a blog is free and can be done in five easy steps. Within a matter of minutes, you can be on the road to attracting prospects and providing helpful, educational material to people who visit your website. If you lack the time or expertise to start a blog, a local marketing specialist can help you create a blog schedule, perform the critical keyword research and craft the content to post on your site.

8) Use virtual reality to showcase your products

“Virtual reality is the biggest change in the way media is consumed since the internet; in fact it is a paradigm shift. It is technology that has caught a lot of brands out, with many of them now scrambling to work out how virtual reality can be used in their marketing.” 

– Drew Gardner, VR360

Showing off your products is akin to an octopus showing off its funnel! And virtual reality technology is a big help in this process. Today’s most accomplished marketing specialists recognize the many ways that virtual reality technology has revolutionized global trade.

Virtual reality technology is affordable and flexible, enabling business owners to showcase their products and services from the office or from the exhibit hall of an industry trade show. If you are not comfortable with virtual reality technology, a marketing agency can quickly step in and help you design a stellar VR platform.

9) Use print collateral

Print collateral is not dead at the bottom of the sea! There is still a need for pamphlets, business cards and brochures in today’s marketplace. Some prospects enjoy the tangible nature of print collateral, especially if it is professionally prepared with a design that can be modified for digital use. Print collateral can also be featured in direct mail packages. Hiring a local marketing agency can help you assess the need for print collateral and make sure it’s perfectly on brand and targeted to your audience.

10) Track your results

How many prawns did you eat today? How many caves did you explore? Tracking an octopus’s performance is important! As a business owner, you should track your company’s performance and evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing plan at least once each year.

A local marketing agency can help you do this by monitoring the number and quality of leads generated by your strategies. Additionally, a local marketing agency can track the number of visits to your website and number of likes on your social media pages. Stagnancy in any of these key areas is a sign that it is time to consider re-evaluating underperforming elements of your marketing plan.

The Bottom Line: Hiring a Local Marketing Agency 

Maintaining a competitive edge in a sea of competitors requires a strategic marketing plan with a multi-faceted approach. By employing the ten steps above, a local marketing agency can help you position your company as an industry leader.

Want to learn about the many ways a marketing firm can help your business grow and thrive? We invite you to contact us today! With our help, you will feel like you have eight arms handling all of the tasks above. We look forward to becoming your trusty sidekick for all of your marketing needs!

30 Nov 2018

Google’s Algorithm Changes So Far This Year (2018 Edition)

By Rob

2018 has been a rollercoaster of a year for Google. We’ve seen big sites go overboard and small fish rise to the top (erm, in a non-dead way…). In our last post, we talked a ton about 7 ways to put out killer content that ranks, so, we thought we’d dive into Google algorithm updates in 2018 to show you why you should be putting energy towards high-quality original content.

Let’s take this oppor-tuna-ty to see how Google’s algorithm has changed in 2018. Sure, some of this may be a little technical, but we’re going to try to cut out all of the fancy acronyms and overused tech buzzwords. Trust us; this post will have you hooked!

March 7th, 2018 (The Brackets Update)

Let’s get one thing straight, we didn’t get to name this update. The credit for “Brackets” goes to Glenn Gabe over at GSQI. We would have picked something way better, like “The Betta Update” or “The ClickBait Update.”

This Google Algorithm update was one of the “nothing to see here” updates that Google is famous for. SEO experts were seeing shifts about a week before the update was officially announced, and Google made sure to clarify that the update was broad, not specific. Essentially, we saw another quality-emphasized update. Google wants to see unique, quality content, and websites that weren’t delivering took a ranking hit.

We can’t give you any specifics, because Google didn’t release any. But, we can tell you that the update seemed to be 99.9% quality oriented. For anyone familiar with SEM, this update isn’t surprising. There seems to a slew of these “broad” updates every year, and almost all of them are content focused.

The Brackets Update Takeaways

  • You need to be leveraging unique content if you want to stay ahead of the pack.
  • Google is dead set on releasing these broad updates yearly, and we’ll probably see another one pop-up before the year is done.

Tip: For any of you who are having issues penetrating high SERP, check out Google’s official guide on creating quality content. Be warned; it’s dense.

March 26th, 2018 (Mobile First Indexing)

It’s finally here! It seems like Google had been talking about mobile-first indexing before smartphones were invented. Ok, so really they had been toying around with the idea for 2 years, but it seemed like forever.

Google’s index is essentially its collection of web pages. So, all of the web pages that Googlebot crawls through, it indexes. Until now, Googlebot has been indexing pages through desktop crawling, which means that it was only taking into account pages that it found on desktop versions of sites. Of course, not all websites have the same content on desktop and mobile (don’t be like these websites!) Unfortunately for Google; mobile searches overtook desktop searches back in 2016 (and are dominating them in 2018.) So, this was leading to some obvious inconsistencies for all of us who use mobile search.

Now, Google is indexing via mobile. This does not mean that Google is using two indexes; it still only uses one. Now, the index is mobile-based.

The Mobile First Indexing Takeaways

  • Make sure that your mobile site matches your desktop version. Don’t publish different content to each.
  • Mobile is Google’s primary focus, which means that it should be on your radar. We aren’t saying to ditch the desktop. Just like investing, your SEO strategy needs a blended portfolio, or your risk is far too high.

June 14th, 2018 (Goodbye Video Thumbnails)

We could all sense this coming from a-mile-away. Google dropped support to video thumbnails and uses the carousel to rank content now. Of course, the carousel is a mobile-first feature, which further emphasizes Google’s love for mobile this year. Here’s where it gets a little fishy. If you’re an eCommerce site, you need to be paying careful attention to your ranking strategy.

Since Google removes anything in the carousel from the organic search results, anyone whose primary purpose is to sell product may get a negative impact due to this change. If you have a video popped up on a product page, make sure that it’s the correct one. If the thumbnail ends up looking nothing like your product and you get into the carousel, you’re going to get destroyed on ranking.

For example, let’s say that I sell pens. I have a huge page of pens that are all grouped together. I put out a video of my most expensive golden pen. People search for black pens, which I also sell. I used to be on the top 10 Google results page as an organic link (the blue links.) Now, my video is in the carousel, so Google removes me from its organic search. Suddenly, the person searching for black pens is seeing a video of a golden pen and completely skips my page.

This update may not seem significant, but it’s important to pay attention to small details like this. If you feel like you had a ranking hit (or sales have slowed down) since this time period, reach out to us. We’ll get you right back on track.

The Goodbye Video Thumbnails Takeaways

  • Webmasters need to pay careful attention to where and how they’re positioning video creatives; missteps can lead to colossal ranking hits.
  • Google really wants everyone to know that they love mobile. Make sure that you have a mobile-friendly site and start optimizing your creatives for mobile consumers.

July 24th, 2018 (HTTPS)

If you weren’t using an HTTPS website on July 24th, 2018, you were a fish-out-of-water. Starting this year, all sites that didn’t have HTTPS were displayed as unsafe on Google Chrome. We can burst through this one quick. If you aren’t using HTTPS, stop what reading this blog post right now, and go fix it. You can’t rank, and visitors aren’t going to visit your website.

The HTTPS Takeaways

  • You website has to be HTTPS secured. Period.

August 1st, 2018 (The Medic Update)

Google Medic was first discovered by a bunch of health and wellness webmasters who noticed some(fin) wrong with their rankings. Moz started to see some crazy ranking fluxes during this time period, and these rank changes seemed to disproportionately impact health and wellness websites.

This update was another quality-related rank change. Essentially, Google is starting to penalize websites based on their authority. Google’s asking “what authority do you have to make medical claims” and using that as a basis for ranking. For businesses, this means that peer-reviewed studies and consistent linking are a necessity. It’s not enough to say that Octopus Creative is the best agency on the planet, you have to prove it.

The Medic Update Takeaways

  • Make sure that you’re backing up any claims that you’re putting out.
  • If you’re in the health and wellness niche, make sure that you’re not making any claims that could be perceived as fraudulent.

The Other Google Algorithm 2018 Updates

There were a few other updates this year, but they were either A) small or B) had unknown impacts. Here they are:

  • July 21, 2018: Search Engine Round Table shows some significant inconsistencies and ranking shifts. Update unknown.
  • July 9th, 2018: Google announced that mobile speed would play a role in ranking factor. So far, it’s only penalizing super-slow sites. We expect it to start putting more emphasis on speed in the future.
  • May 23rd, 2018: Moz and Search Engine Round Table show some strange ranking patterns. Update unconfirmed.
  • May 13th, 2018: Google reduces snippet length to the previous 150-160 characters (thankfully!)
  • April 17th, 2018: Google confirms a core update after Moz and Search Engine Land find strange ranking temperatures. No one knows why, but most think it’s related to quality.
  • February 20th, 2018: Moz predicts algorithm update, Google denies it.

Conclusion

Google’s algorithm is a living breathing AI that will continue to evolve and adapt to the way that people intent searches. Quality remains a pressing issue for Google, and most changes reflect a distinct craving for quality content. Some strange situations might pop-up due to the Carousel and Medic update, which is why it’s important for SEO companies to be hyper-vigilant about staying consistent with Google.

If you’re running a business and all of this seems like way too much for you to have to think about, we get it. You have a company to run and a brand to build! Let us step up and use our SEO skills to reel you in clients and throw some bait at the bottom of your funnel. Also, don’t worry, just because our brand is an octopus doesn’t mean we’re from Finland, we’re located right here in Canada! (sorry, we had to)

24 Nov 2018

Four Savvy Cannabis Marketing Tips for Canadian Marijuana Pioneers

By Jonathan Berube

 Canada’s government passed legislation making recreational cannabis legal in October 2018. This opens the door for a nationwide cannabis industry. 

The problem is that the legislation places strict restrictions on marketing. How can the savvy businessperson get around these rules and still promote their brand? 

Read on for four cannabis marketing tips for Canadian cannabis businesses. First, let’s look at the difference in territorial law as it pertains to who can sell legal cannabis. 

Government Regulations by Province

Most provinces in Canada involve some sort of government intervention. In Yukon, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, only the government can operate storefronts and online stores. 

Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nunavut, and Manitoba allow for private ownership. All other provinces mix private and government ownership. Even in the provinces with private ownership, government rules are a concern for cannabis businesses. 

As a marketer, you must also know that each province has its own rules that it enforces. How can you market your product and stay within Canadian law? Here are four tips for you. 

Use the Media

Canada has restrictive packaging rules that make it difficult to utilize packaging as a brand building tactic.

Packaging must be one solid color, but you can’t use flashy colors that might attract the attention of children. You also have to list the health effects and relevant safety warnings on the outside of the package. You can have a small logo design, but nothing that involves animals, people, or characters.

Advertising your product through traditional methods is difficult, but there are ways to get around this. 

One of the best ways to get the word out about your product is through public relations activities. 

Create pitches for interviews through various news stations and newspapers (especially as more specific cannabis-related media pops up.) Personalize your pitch for each media outlet, and talk about larger trends in the industry. 

You can use your media exposure to work on the second tip. 

Promote Your Company as Socially Responsible 

One of the reasons Canada’s laws are so restrictive is because the government wants to protect the health of the user and keep Cannabis out of the hands of minors. Why not show that your brand represents the same values. 

Holding public education campaigns about the risks of underage use and driving while intoxicated. Run a PSA (Public Service Announcement) about how to avoid over-consumption of cannabis products. 

You’ll get your name out into the public sphere while showing the responsibility of your brand. 

You can use the growing concerns over the environment by using green energy sources to produce cannabis. Focus on water conservation. 

Remember to talk about your brand in a way that resonates with people. Are you a family run business? Are you a small company that provides a boost to the local economy? Talk about these things. Let people know that you’re serious about your responsibility to the people you serve. 

People notice these things and talk about them, providing you with the word-of-mouth marketing that is going to be so critical to your overall marketing strategy

Word of Mouth 

Word of mouth is the original Facebook. Before the Internet, satisfied customers telling their friends and families about your service was the best way to grow your business. 

Now, with social media, the same is true. People still rely on recommendations when choosing a product. If you can get your customers to share their experience with peers, you’ll grow your business organically. 

How do you achieve this without violating Candian cannabis marketing regulations? 

Have a strong social media presence that encourages others to share their experience. With some luck, you could get someone famous to promote your brand. Celebrities and influencers can talk about your product as long as you don’t compensate them. 

You can’t give them samples, as that would count as compensation. You can encourage people to leave stories and tag their friends though. Doing so spreads the word about your brand and encourages others to try your products.

One way of using this method is to place your social media information inside of your packaging. Encourage users to tweet using a certain hashtag or tag you on Facebook with their experience.  

Use SEO Strategies for Cannabis Marketing 

Online, content is king. If you produce great content and know how to use SEO strategies, you can outrank your competitors on search engines like Google. 

How important is your position in search engine results? One recent study showed that 90% percent of customers go to the websites that rank in the top ten of Google search results. 75 percent go to websites in the top five.

If you aren’t employing SEO, you’re missing out on over 90 percent of potential sales!

Ignoring the vast majority of Internet users isn’t a solid business model. Working with a professional brand and marketing agency helps you build your SEO ranking while following Canadian laws. 

Setting up a blog with information about the cannabis industry is the best place to start. Insert keywords, phrases that Google looks for to determine what your site contains, in your articles. Share these articles online and encourage your followers to share, building on your word of mouth campaign. 

The best part about SEO is that it builds upon itself. When your website makes it way to the top of Google and Bing results, more people visit. These visitors read and share your content, bringing in new viewers and customers.

A high SEO score sustains itself as long as you continue to put in the work. 

Do You Need Help with Your Marketing?

Marketing requires a lot of research and legwork. It’s not something that a company can spend a day on; it’s an ongoing process that takes time. Most cannabis businesses find that it’s better to outsource their marketing. They’ll focus on growing the green that keeps your business operating.   

Here at Octopus Creative, we’re focused on your company’s growth. Our wide range of expertise allows us to cater our services to meet your unique needs. 

If you need help reaching your cannabis marketing and branding goals, get in touch with us today!

17 Nov 2018

Can You Really Beat the Algorithm? 7 Google Search Secrets Revealed

By Rob

With the average small business spending around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, it’s hard for startups to compete. Without Google search secrets to take advantage of SEO algorithms, you could be going into the red just to get attention to your site. Search engines are valuable tools but if you don’t know how to take advantage of their inner workings, you could lose out to your competition.

Here are four ways to stay ahead of Google’s search algorithm.

1. Unique Content

If Google wants one thing from you and your site it’s for you to have lots of unique content. Because Google’s web crawler is seeking to index every single page of the internet, they’ll know if you’re reusing or rehashing content. You can’t cheat the algorithm that’s seeking out new and unique content relevant to your audience.

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, become a resource about your industry. Start a blog that’s chockful of information about what people ask you the most about your business.

Instead of leaving a boring and underwhelming FAQ page kicking around your site, create a blog where each one question has an answer in the form of a post. This way you can keep your URL constantly refreshed with exciting content for your clients while feeding the SEO beast.

Unique content will help you to set your brand apart from other brands in your industry. When you answer the most pertinent concerns that people have about products and services in your industry, you provide value. When the answer to those problems leads back to your own products and services, you can sell services in a sincere way.

2. Prioritize Linking

One of the things that Google wants to know about your URL and your pages is that they have some relationship to the rest of the internet.

The internet was started with just a small network of computers that were hardwired to one another. The originating code and ethic of the internet were to ensure that everyone was always contributing to a community. The internet isn’t a one-sided conversation like television or radio.

Take your time to populate any posts that you write with links that can help to support the information that you’re sharing. The more reputable your sources are, the higher you’ll rank. When you connect your information to highly reputable news and information sites, you’ll show that you know what you’re talking about.

Avoid connecting to sites that are purely commercial or e-commerce pages. This will lower the ranking of your pages.

When you’re sharing information, stick to the facts. Pepper the most important keywords in your texts and include information about where you’re located. This will help you get the edge when to comes to searches originating from your area.

3. Get Some Guest Posters

Having a few well-known bloggers to guest post on your site will give your page some extra clout. When you connect with a writer or blogger who is well known and has their own following, you can cross-pollinate. You can double each other’s following when you write a guest post for them and they write one for you.

Guest posters help you in search results by showing off your products and services on well-established sites. These are difficult to acquire compared to paid links and ads, so by trading guest posts with writers, you give each other a bump.

Contact other writers in your niche and see if they’ll trade articles with you. Build relationships over time so that you can continue to stay connected as you each grow your base.

Some sites need writers and will be happy to add you as a guest blogger. Your presence will help them to add content to their sites and you’ll be able to get your name out there.

This kind of network can only yield positive results as more people see your name and find links to your products and services. When you mention products and services, be sure to keep your use of keywords and links organic. Selling too hard will make you look too desperate and will lead users to pass right by.

4. Seek Reviews and Testimonials

Reviews and testimonials are vital to the survival of any brand in the contemporary internet environment. When you search for products and services on Google, you’ll often get links that lead you directly to certain brands and companies near you. Along with the names and addresses of these companies, you get reviews.

If this happens and you don’t have good reviews under your belt, you could be losing the attention of hard-won customers. Getting customers to find you is difficult and resource heavy. If you lose them before you get the chance to make your pitch, you’re tossing marketing efforts down the drain.

Reach out to your most loyal customers and ask directly for them to write testimonials or reviews. Some brands will even run in-store promotions for when you like or review them on social media. Whatever works for you, make the effort to collect more reviews.

While you can’t exactly hack the algorithm on search engines with this method, you can ensure that you get a lot more hits by showing off reviews. Without enough good reviews to buffer against a bad review, one wrong move could do serious damage to your SEO ranking. Collect positive reviews to combat this potential.

Google Search Secrets Will Save Money

A few Google search secrets will help you get ahead and stay ahead of your competitors. When you provide the kind of content that Google knows their users want to see, you’ll be able to claw your way to the top of the rankings,

If you’re struggling to get the attention you deserve on search engines, check out our guide to outsourcing SEO efforts.

10 Nov 2018

Even Santa Would Shop in Airdrie with These Christmas Events Ideas

By Jonathan Berube

Christmas accounts for as much as 30% of sales for some retail outlets.

That’s why it’s a great idea to seize the day and cash in on the holiday spirit.

While the holidays might be stressful for some people, it’s the time of year when everyone is ready to spend money, as well as quality time with their friends and family members.

In this blog post, we’ll give you some of the best Christmas events ideas, both online and off, to help boost awareness of your brand and store.

1. Host an Online Advent Calendar

Try an online advent calendar, but instead of giving away a present each day, give away a discount or free gift with purchase every day.

This one works best for users who are almost entirely web-based, or who have high volumes of web traffic.

Each day that people log on, they will be treated to 15%, 20% or a small gift like a lip balm with their purchase.

Don’t tell them ahead of time what each day has in store, but do promote your online advent calendar ahead of time. You can promote it as “25 Days of Savings,” or other such names that makes it obvious what kinds of gifts people can expect.

2. Christmas in July

Host a Christmas in July party, or a Christmas before it’s actually Christmas season. While adults might roll their eyes at the “oversaturation” of the holiday, kids will always be excited to participate in anything Christmas related.

For your Christmas in July event, roll out some of your Christmas items and let people preview some things that will be coming to your store in December.

You can even do this online, giving future customers a preview of what to expect from your store during the Christmas season.

3. Host Santa!

Hosting Santa is a fantastic way to get people into your store. This is especially the case if you run a photography studio. This also works well for pet stores or children’s stores.

While many malls and communities will host Santa, you can coordinate with them to have him in your store for one day.

Let shoppers know St. Nick is coming to town by advertising when you expect him, and his merry band of elves, to show up.

If you run a pet store, having people bring their pets to visit Santa is also a fun activity. Many national pet store chains do this, and it has become a very popular idea. It’s also a great way to ensure that you get a lot of customer traffic into your store.

4. Christmas Events Ideas: Make Christmas Cookies

If your store appeals to families, or sells any kind of homeware or home baking items, host a day to bake Christmas cookies. You can even host workshops in order to show customers how to make more intricate cookies than they might find online.

If you have people from several different countries working at your store, you might even use this time to have them introduce some new recipes to the community. Invite people to come to learn to make classic Christmas cookies and a special treat.

You can either charge for the class and have people sign up in advance, or simply just have it as a drop-in event. When participants finish, they can get a discount to use in the store. You can also show off some of the items you used in the recipe or used to bake the recipe that you have in store.

If you have ovens available at your store, bake the cookies in the store while the customers wait. Or, wrap up the batter well so that each child or family can take it home to cook on their own time.

5. Christmas Crafts

Everyone loves crafts, and parents will always treasure anything their children made with their hands. Host Christmas crafts for families or for young children to come and have fun in your store.

This event can operate similar to the cookies event, in that you can either organize it as a drop-in, or you can have people sign up for the class ahead of time.

Again, use this as an opportunity to show off items you have for sale in your store. Give out discounts to those who have participated, or a free item.

6. Christmas Hashtags

Feeling festive but your business is all online? No problem! You can stay in the holiday spirit by using a wide variety of Christmas hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They’re very popular during the holiday season, and people will definitely be clicking on them to find others talking about the holidays.

You can look at a list of the most popular Christmas hashtags here, and start getting in on it as soon as you start stocking Christmas items.

Participate in conversations organically instead of just advertising your products. If you get good engagement with potential customers, people will be more inclined to check you out rather than if you just advertise your wares.

Getting in the Christmas Mood

There are endless Christmas events ideas that you can employ to get your customers in the festive mood. You can even get special Christmas packaging or Christmas bags for your customers to give them even more of the holiday cheer.

If you’re ready to start talking about your next Christmas event and how we can help support you, reach out and contact us today! If you want a sample of our work before you dash off that first email, have a look here.

06 Nov 2018

Marketing vs Advertising: What’s the Difference?

By Jonathan Berube

Marketing and advertising are two necessary components for making your business grow and thrive. Marketing vs advertising isn’t a competition as much as a comparison. Too many businesses lump them together.

It’s best to think of marketing as a giant umbrella that covers many different divisions. One of them is advertising. It’s a very important aspect of marketing, but its only one slice of the pie. Who doesn’t like pie?

It’s important for businesses to differentiate the two. This helps create a marketing plan that is efficient and effective. Believing marketing is just advertising is like eating an omelet with just cheese and leaving the ham, bacon and sausage out. You’re missing out on a tasty meal.

Marketing Vs Advertising: Why the Confusion?

There’s a reason why marketing and advertising are often compared. Before the digital revolution, many small businesses primary method of marketing was advertising. It all started with local newspaper advertising. Radio and television ads came next, but that was all they did.

Small businesses were limited when it came to marketing options. Many didn’t realize what they were doing was marketing. When the grocery store created a float for the local parade, it was a form of marketing. The float was part of the civic pride and they didn’t even realize it was also marketing their business.

This is called public relations. It’s when you do something that makes your company look good to your customer base. Many times public relations incorporates social responsibility as well.

This is when the company does something that gives back to the community. It could be a can drive for the local food bank or building solar panels to power your factory with green energy and then releasing that news via a press release.

Advertising Isn’t Chump Change

When someone uses advertising, they’re using a paid ad in a specific medium. There are many mediums for advertising including newspapers, radio, television, online, billboard, and even bus benches and taxi cabs. It’s anything that a business pays for that’s designed for customers to see. This entices them to visit the store or website.

The cost of advertising depends on the size of the ad and how long people see it. A small ad seen once in a weekly newspaper will cost less than a full page ad seen five times at a daily newspaper.

Look Mom, I’m on “the Google”

Online ads are a little different. The primary method they’re shown is through a pay per click approach. Google, Facebook, and other agencies use this method. You bid on specific keywords, phrases and target audiences and create an ad based on these targeting measures.

Other companies also bid for these phrases and you compete for placement. Your bid and your ad score work together to get you placed. Online ads include search ads placed at the top and bottom of search pages. Mobile phones and apps show mobile ads. Websites show display ads. Video ads are videos you can show on YouTube and other sites.

There are many different types of advertising for the Internet. There is even more to marketing.

What is Marketing?

Marketing is a blanket term for anything you do to promote your business to customers. These methods could cost money or they could be free. They’re all aspects of your marketing plan. It could be word of mouth from customer to customer or search engine optimization for specific keywords on your website.

The marketing blanket includes advertising. It’s a step by step process that has many moving parts. Each of these parts acts independently. They also work together to create an overall marketing plan.

Marketing is anything you do to create an interaction between you and customers. It includes social media, advertising, market research, public relations and more. Marketing is more like a quilt than a blanket with each aspect making up a patch on the quilt.

Digital marketing is an offshoot of overall marketing. It deals with efforts on digital platforms.

Marketing Goes Digital

Anything you do to promote a business or website online is digital marketing including advertising.

SEO

Search engine optimization is the effort to make your website more visible on organic search pages, primarily Google. It includes keyword research and implementation on your site, the creation of valued content and user experience on your website. Over 50 percent of traffic comes from organic searches.

Social Media

Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms engage and interact with existing and potential customers. Everyone watches those crazy cat videos and shares with everyone and their cousin.

You don’t need cats to get social media traction… but it doesn’t hurt. Social media posting is free, but if you want to reach more people then use paid options such as paid advertising and boosted posts.

Here is an instance where two separate marketing areas interact.

Reputation Management

There are many business listing and review sites on the Internet. Many times they rank well in searches. It’s important that your listings are correct. People may get the wrong information about your site and that could keep them from your website or business. Reviews are also important as they impact how people see your business.

Negative reviews may keep people from trusting your business or visiting your site. Good responses to negative reviews can turn it into a positive. It shows your business cares about the customers and their experience.

It also shows you care about how your employees conduct themselves. Sites such as Yelp and Facebook are popular for reviews. People trust online reviews as much as opinions from friends and 90 percent of people check out reviews before buying.

Drive It Home… One Headlight Optional

It’s important all your marketing efforts work towards a common goal. This is where your marketing plan comes into play. It governs all your marketing efforts and keeps them on track for specific goals.

For example, if you have a sale and want to promote it, then social media, advertising, content marketing and more all create a buzz for it.

If you want to learn more about marketing vs advertising and how they work together to better your business, then visit our website.

03 Nov 2018

#BlackFriday or #GivingTuesday: All, One, or None? How to Choose Your on-brand Holiday Social Strategy

By Jonathan Berube

Are you ready for the holiday season?

It might feel like you have plenty of holiday prep time if you’re talking about buying gifts and planning menus. When it comes to capitalizing on the holidays with marketing, though, it’s time to get it in gear.

The days after American Thanksgiving are among the most crucial in terms of a company’s holiday sales. It seems like every year we add a new holiday, too. So far we have Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.

Chances are that you’ll be hard-pressed to come up with a good holiday social media campaign for all of these. It’s usually best to choose one or two and concentrate your efforts.

The problem is that you have to decide which one. Let’s compare the two that seem to be the farthest apart: Black Friday and Giving Tuesday.

Comparing Holiday Social Media Promotions: Black Friday vs. Giving Tuesday

Before you throw your team full-bore into a social media campaign, let’s compare two of your key options.

Pros and Cons of Black Friday Promotions

While it started in the US, Black Friday is now an international shopping phenomenon. If you’re thinking about jumping on the bandwagon, here’s what you need to know.

Pro: A Larger Holiday Social Presence

By a wide margin, Black Friday is a more well-known holiday than Giving Tuesday. As a result, you know that more consumers will be actively looking for promotions on that day rather than on Giving Tuesday.

When it comes to social media, the Black Friday shopping day is even more important. As people browse social media on their phones, they can find your promotions and click on them for a fast and impulse-driven purchase.

If you think people don’t use mobile devices for shopping, think again. Last year, 64% of shopping traffic on Black Friday came from mobile devices. That’s a huge audience for your social media campaign to capture.

Con: Hefty Competition

While the massive popularity of Black Friday means a larger consumer base, it means more competition as well.

With so much money up for grabs, countless retailers nationwide are launching Black Friday campaigns. That means even if someone is looking specifically for Black Friday sales, it will be tough for your campaign to stand out.

Pro: Market to a Captive Audience

Black Friday presents a rare opportunity for retailers. On a normal day, you have to convince consumers to do two things: first to spend money at all and second to spend it on your product in particular.

On Black Friday, that first part is already in the bag. Consumers have a shopping list, and they’re actively trying to buy as much as they can on that day to get ahead on their holiday shopping.

As a retailer, this means you’re working with a captive audience. It takes far less to convert viewers or users into paying customers, so it’s a huge opportunity you don’t want to miss.

Con: Not Everyone Is a Fan

If you jump onto the Black Friday train, be aware that not everyone thinks it’s a fun and lighthearted tradition.

To some, Black Friday and the chaos it incites are symbols of a materialism they oppose. Others see it as a time when retailers take advantage of customers by misrepresenting their sales.

Before you choose to do a Black Friday social media campaign, think about how you’ll deal with the potential backlash.

Pros and Cons of Giving Tuesday Promotions

If you want to get away from the materialistic image of Black Friday, Giving Tuesday is on the other end of the spectrum. Charities are front and center on this shopping holiday. In many cases, retailers donate a portion of the day’s proceeds to a select charity.

If you’re thinking about getting involved, here’s what you should consider.

Pro: Gain Ethics Points

If you’re looking for a great PR move, Giving Tuesday is right in your wheelhouse. It’s an opportunity for you to show your philanthropic side and appeal to your customers’ moral compasses.

It will depend on the cause you choose, though. If you promote a charity whose cause is near to many of your customers’ hearts, you gain an even better reputation in their minds.

Con: Risky for Your Bottom Line

Giving Tuesday is a bit of a gamble. Let’s say you choose to donate 10% of the day’s profits toward a charity. You’re gambling that the promotion will increase your sales to make up for that 10% hit.

While it’s a safe bet that 10% discounts will pay off, 10% donations aren’t as solid. You’re placing a bet that your customers will care enough about that charity to buy more when there’s a donation at stake. If they don’t or if they’ve blown their entire budgets on Black Friday, your bottom line will suffer.

Pro: Not as Much Competition

As we mentioned, Giving Tuesday doesn’t yet have the massive clout that Black Friday does. It gains more and more awareness each year, but the two still aren’t comparable.

In some respects, that’s an advantage for you. While the internet will be flooded with #BlackFriday, #GivingTuesday has less competition for your digital marketing.

As an added bonus, Black Friday happens first. That means you’ll have three days of solid marketing time after to the chatter about Black Friday has died down.

Con: Need to Handle with Care

As much as you stand to gain on Giving Tuesday from a PR perspective, you have a lot to lose as well. Many charities and causes have some degree of political flavour, whether they lean right or left.

To avoid alienating customers, it’s a good idea to choose a cause that’s as politically neutral as possible. If you do choose to get more political, analyze your demographic to find out if most of your consumer base aligns with what you believe.

Finding a Direction for Your Shopping Holiday Social Media Campaigns

Without a doubt, it’s smart to take advantage of the season with one or more shopping holiday social media campaigns. Choosing which ones, though, can be tricky. The pros and cons above can help.

If you prefer to leave your holiday marketing in professional hands, contact our expert marketing crew today.

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