Marketing Mastery: Your One-Stop Growth Solution

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Think of effective marketing like an engine that fuels brand awareness, customer engagement, and revenue generation. It’s all about getting the word out there in a way that connects with people and makes them excited about what you have to offer. When choosing a digital marketing agency, there are certain traits that will help your business stand out and be successful. Keep reading to learn more about the top qualities that define a successful digital marketing agency, so you can choose the right one for your needs.

 

  1. Expertise and Specialization

Successful digital marketing agencies posses a depth of expertise and specialization in various areas of digital marketing, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, content marketing, and more. These agencies have a team of pros with specialized, in-depth skills and knowledge, enabling them to come up with tailored strategies that align with companies’ goals. By leveraging their expertise and specialization, successful marketing agencies craft tailored solutions that align with clients’ objectives, target audiences, and industry dynamics, ensuring maximum impact and effectiveness in achieving marketing goals.

  1. Data-Driven Approach

By monitoring key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, engagement levels, and return on investment (ROI), successful agencies can refine and optimize their strategies for maximum impact. Analytics tools and data insights help agencies track, measure, and analyze the performance of marketing campaigns in real-time, identify areas for improvement, and allocate resources more effectively.

  1. Creativity and Innovation

Whether it’s through crafting engaging social media content, producing captivating videos, or designing eye-catching graphics, successful agencies leverage creativity to help you connect with your audience and stand out in the digital world. Creativity and innovation are powerful tools in helping create a strong, memorable brand and driving continuous growth.

  1. Client-Centered Focus

Placing clients at the center of their operations allows successful agencies to build strong, long-term relationships. They take the time to communicate and understand their clients’ needs so they can customize their strategies to deliver personalized results. By listening to and understanding clients’ challenges and objectives, marketing agencies can develop personalized strategies that address their unique needs and help them achieve their business goals.

  1. Adaptability and Agility

The most successful marketing agencies are able to adapt, enabling them to thrive in a constantly changing digital landscape. They stay up on the latest technology trends, allowing them to remain flexible and adapt to changes. Whether it’s adjusting campaign tactics, experimenting with new platforms, or responding to shifts in consumer behavior, successful agencies demonstrate a willingness to embrace change and evolve alongside the digital ecosystem.

 

Conclusion:

Continuous campaign monitoring is essential for success in today’s digital landscape. By following these steps, you can effectively implement continuous monitoring strategies to optimize campaign performance, drive better business results, and stay agile and responsive in today’s fast-paced marketing landscape. Continuous campaign monitoring empowers businesses to stay ahead of the curve, drive continuous improvement, and achieve their marketing objectives with precision and efficiency. As technology continues to evolve and data becomes increasingly accessible, the importance of continuous monitoring will only continue to grow, making it an indispensable tool for success in the modern marketing landscape.

Marketing vs. Advertising

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Knowing the Difference

How often do you mix up or get confused about the terms “marketing” and “advertising?”

No worries, these are often used interchangeably, and while both are vital components of a comprehensive brand strategy, they both serve distinct purposes and operate on different levels. Deciding to understand these differences can actually help you craft a more effective brand strategy and message. How does that sound?

To get started, the basic differentiation one should make is that marketing is the work and effort it takes to get your brand up and running while advertising is the promotion of what your brand is, does, and offers.

By the end of this read, you’ll never mix them up again!

 

1. Scope and Focus

Advertising: Advertising refers specifically to the promotional activities aimed at promoting products or services through various paid channels such as TV commercials, print ads, online banners, and social media sponsored posts. It focuses on creating awareness, generating interest, and driving sales or conversions.

Marketing: Marketing focuses on the range of activities that help a brand understand its consumer needs, identify target markets, and create value propositions that differentiate a brand from its competitors. It involves efforts like market research, product development, pricing strategies, distribution channels, branding, and customer relationship management.

 

2. Purpose

Advertising: The primary purpose of advertising is to communicate a brand’s message to a target audience and persuade them to take a specific action, like making a purchase, visiting a website, or signing up for a service. It aims to create brand awareness, drive sales, and generate leads.

Marketing: Marketing aims to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offers that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. It involves identifying and satisfying customer needs and wants through the exchange process to ultimately build long-term relationships and deliver customer satisfaction.

 

3. Control and Communication

Advertising: Advertising messages are typically controlled by the advertiser and communicated through paid channels. Advertisers have direct control over the content, placement, and timing of the ads, which allows them to tailor messages to specific target audiences.

Marketing: Marketing communication is broader in scope and encompasses both controlled (e.g., advertising, public relations, direct marketing) and uncontrolled (e.g., word-of-mouth, social media, customer reviews) channels. Marketing messages are often executed through a mix of paid, earned, and owned media, and may involve two-way communication with customers.

 

4. Duration and Frequency

Advertising: Advertising campaigns are often and usually short-term initiatives with specific start and end dates. They may be launched to coincide with product launches, seasonal promotions, or special events. These messages are repeated frequently to reinforce brand awareness and drive consumer action.

Marketing: Marketing activities are ongoing and long-term in nature, spanning the entire customer lifecycle from acquisition to retention. Marketing efforts should remain consistent in building brand equity, fostering customer loyalty, nurturing relationships, and driving repeat business.

 

5. Cost and Investment

Advertising: Advertising involves significant upfront costs since businesses must pay for their ad space, production costs, and media placement. The effectiveness of these campaigns is often measured in terms of a return on investment (ROI), which revolves around factors like reach, frequency, and conversion rates.

Marketing: Marketing can require a significant investment from product development, and market research to more cost-effective investments like content marketing, and social and media engagement. The ROI of marketing initiatives is evaluated in several areas such as customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, and overall revenue growth.

 

How They Work Together

The magic really begins when you decide to combine the power of marketing and advertising under one roof because while advertising is a subset of marketing, marketing helps inform and guide advertising efforts. 

By delving into market research, consumer behavior analysis, and trend forecasting, marketers gain valuable insights that shape their advertising campaigns and messaging. For instance, understanding current trends and consumer preferences allows marketers to tailor their advertising content to resonate with their target audiences, which as a result, increases the likelihood of further engagement and conversion.

By housing both functions within a single agency, businesses can leverage these elements’ synergies and efficiencies that drive success across all channels. For example, having marketing and advertising teams that collaborate closely ensures alignment between strategic objectives and tactical execution. When marketers and advertisers work hand in hand, effective campaigns with consistent messaging and a chance at maximized impact are more likely to be delivered. 

Consolidating your marketing and advertising efforts also streamlines general operations, creating a more unified approach to your brand promotion. This also allows for greater agility and flexibility in responding to emerging market trends and opportunities.

By leveraging insights from marketing to inform advertising efforts and combining both functions under one agency, businesses can create more effective and productive brand strategies that drive success across various channels, digital or print. So, the next time you’re pondering the difference between marketing and advertising, remember that it’s not about choosing one over the other – it can be about harnessing their combined power to propel your brand forward.

Do marketing and advertising still sound like the same thing? Let us know!

7 Step Construction Marketing Plan

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Marketing in the Construction Sector

Though marketing applies to nearly any industry, how it is applied will vary from sector to sector. The construction business is characterized by generally dominant monopolies, technological advances, and an ever-growing workload. Because of these factors, construction marketing strategies need to be modified to match. Hiring a marketing team to handle your advertising efforts will help you develop a well researched and data-driven plan that will capitalize on opportunities and grow your business. 

 

Developing a Construction Marketing Plan

A marketing plan comes to fruition through a series of steps, each playing off the previous. Dedicating time and research to developing thorough strategies can be the difference between success and staying stagnant. Generally, the development of a marketing plan follows a series of seven steps, including:

 

    • Identify objectives
    • Identify target audience 
    • Consider the budget
    • SWOT analysis
    • Competitor research 
    • Evaluate marketing channels
    • Result tracking

 

1: Identify Objectives

While this may seem obvious, identifying your objectives is a crucial first step. This doesn’t mean having a general idea of what you wish you achieve, but rather, having a concrete understanding of exactly what you want. Thoroughly outline your intentions and set specific goals. These will be the foundation upon which the rest of your marketing plan will be built on.

 

2: Identify the Target Audience

Understanding your target market early on in your marketing efforts is not just important for growth, but can help reduce the number of headaches later on. Depending on your demographics, how old they are, where do they live, etc., you will have to modify your marketing plan. Based on your identified goals, consider which audience or audiences you will need to serve. This could be dependent on where your company is located, how far you’re willing to travel, and which construction niche you are filling. Marketing and advertising efforts are most successful when properly targeted.

 

3: Consider the Budget 

When creating a marketing plan, it is necessary to be well acquainted with your budget. Different marketing channels and strategies come with varying price tags. To maximize the budget at hand, you must first understand what money you are willing to spend. From there, your marketing team can help divvy up your finances accordingly.

 

4: SWOT Analysis

The acronym SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. It is often used as a method to hash out the core advantages and disadvantages of a particular company. Through the SWOT process, the marketing plan can be honed to maximize the strengths, downplay the weakness, diminish the threats, and capitalize on the opportunities. 

 

  • Strengths. Strengths refer to what your company or service does well. Perhaps these are proven strengths from years of experience, or they have perceived strengths based on your target audience and business goals.
  • Weaknesses. Like the strengths, the weaknesses are just as they sound. Analyze where your services could potentially fall short. In which areas do you foresee vulnerabilities, and what can you do to minimize said weak points?
  • Opportunities. Opportunity areas are key to your growth. Look at the construction industry as it is, and look at where you could potentially capitalize. Is there a specific area that is underserved? Perhaps a target audience that has not yet been reached?
  • Threats. As unfortunate as they are, threats are inevitable. And often, no matter what we do, they will continue to exist. But understanding potential threats, where they come from, and their consequences, can better prepare you for minimal impact.

 

5: Competitor Research 

Competition drives nearly every industry, and construction is no different. Understanding what your competitors do well, fall short in, and where they differ all are crucial to developing a marketing plan that will position you above the rest. Just as you may conduct a SWOT analysis for your own company, it would be wise to do the same for your main competitors.

 

  • Strengths. What do your competitors do well? Pinpoint their strengths and ask yourself if this is something your service could potentially rival. If it can’t, this doesn’t mean your marketing efforts are futile. Rather, this will show you where else to direct your energy.


  • Weaknesses. Weaknesses are important to locate for two reasons. The first is it shows where your competition falls short, and where your service could potentially capitalize. The second is it potentially shows the setbacks within the industry. Especially if your competitors have been in business for a while, their weaknesses can offer insight into potential roadblocks you may face.
  • Opportunities. Of the four SWOT pinnacles, opportunity is perhaps the most important. Understand what your competition doesn’t offer and what you can do to fill that gap. Perhaps it’s different processes, better prices, or more areas of expertise. Whatever it may be, one of the best ways to grow your competitive advantage is to excel in an unrivaled aspect.
  • Threats. In any industry, there will be threats. While some come more from outside variables like the economy, supplier shortages, and lack of equipment, others originate internally, like your fellow competitors. The best way to face a threat is to be prepared for said threats. Look at the threats, both external and internal, and identify which are more likely to affect your business.

 

6: Evaluate the Marketing Channels

Marketing channels are defined as the mediums through which specific marketing efforts are pushed. These can include social media platforms, SEO, print advertisements, billboards, email marketing, paid advertising, TV commercials, and other digital efforts. Depending on your established objectives and target audience, the channels you use may vary. Your marketing team will put together a channel strategy that matches your needs. Often you’ll see an omnichannel plan that uses multiple marketing channels to cover the different bases for your service and industry.

 

7: Tracking Results

Progress, and more importantly lack of progress, is more easily identified when data tracking is present. Tracking your results can help you both measure your success and locate the areas in which your efforts are continuing to struggle. With tracking, you can test new strategies and modifications to your marketing plan and actually quantify how well or poorly your new efforts are performing. Proper data tracking ensures that you don’t waste more time than necessary on marketing options that do not produce results. 

 

Why Work With Epic?

Epic has been serving Salt Lake and Utah counties for over 16 years. We have provided expert marketing knowledge and advertising content to construction firms all around the state of Utah. Our talented team of account executives, digital marketers, designers, web developers, and copywriters have experience in working in various aspects of the construction industry from equipment rentals to concrete and hydrovac services. For a free consultation, call us today!

5 Reasons To Hire a Marketing Agency

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The marketing world is constantly in flux. From search algorithm updates to evolving website design styles, it’s getting harder and harder for businesses to stand out to their target audience. For entrepreneurs who want to ensure their business stays relevant, visible, and successful, they need to make marketing as much of a priority as any other aspect of their company.

Your business’s marketing strategy isn’t something that should be overlooked—or worse, put in the hands of an intern. All it takes is one wrong move and your company’s brand, reputation, and entire future could be in jeopardy. Make sure your marketing strategy is always in the hands of professionals. Hiring an agency will ensure your business and brand always gets the professional attention it deserves.

The choice to hire a marketing agency will come at different times for every company, but it’s a choice you shouldn’t take lightly. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you should hire a digital marketing agency to take care of your business’s marketing needs.

 

Why Should I Hire a Digital Marketing Agency?

Hiring a digital marketing agency is a cost-effective strategy for companies looking to improve sales and grow their business. Digital marketing agencies help companies attract new customers, improve brand awareness, and generate more revenue.

      1. You’ll get access to expert knowledge:
        If you’re relying on a single in-house marketing specialist, you’re extremely limited in what strategies you can focus on. Just because someone is experienced in paid ad campaigns doesn’t mean they can also shoot a quality commercial. With a full-service agency, you have access to more services and a team of experts in their respective fields. Having a suite of creative and technical professionals at your beck and call gives you more growth opportunities than a limited in-house team ever could.

     

      1. You’ll save money (and still grow):
        A lot of people think only large businesses can afford to hire a marketing agency—they’re wrong. In reality, it’s often cheaper for small businesses to outsource marketing to an agency instead of hiring a full in-house team. Hiring and retaining in-house employees is expensive. Recruiting costs, benefits, sick days, payroll taxes, health insurance, and training can quickly become too expensive for small or medium size businesses to sustain. And since one person shouldn’t handle every aspect of marketing, you’d need to hire a team—increasing costs dramatically. Instead of using that money for those internal costs, agencies put it directly back into your business so you get a better ROI.

     

      1. You’ll get precious time back:
        If you’re a small business owner or solopreneur, you’re probably used to doing everything yourself. That DIY mentality is great when you’re getting your company off the ground—but as it grows, you’re going to have to delegate. There are simply not enough hours in a day for one person to successfully run your marketing on top of the multitude of tasks that need to be accomplished for your business to thrive. Once you outsource that work to a marketing agency, you’ll be able to use your new free time to focus on other parts of your business.

     

      1. You’ll get access to better tools and data:
        There are lots of free marketing tools out there, but they often don’t provide helpful data until you upgrade to a paid version. If you’re a large company with an internal team, it’s worth it to invest in those tools yourself. But for small businesses, that might not be financially possible yet. Once you start working with an agency, you get access to those pricey analytics tools and will receive more actionable insights that move your business forward.

     

      1. You’ll get an unbiased perspective:
        Your company is like your child—it can be hard for you to see problems since you’re so close to them. Since agencies are a step removed from your business, it’s easier for them to point out concerns without personal feelings getting in the way. An in-house marketing team is going to be nose-deep in your company 24/7. That can make it hard for internal employees to look at a marketing strategy from an unbiased perspective. An agency’s outside perspective will help you see what is—and isn’t—working in your company. They can also bring up marketing concerns that in-house employees may be nervous to express.

     

    What to Look for When Hiring a Marketing Agency

    Finding the right marketing agency for your company can be a daunting task. Some things to keep in mind when hunting for the right agency partnership include:

    • Your budget. Marketing costs money to do right—but it’s an essential investment in your company. When talking with different agencies, ask yourself how transparent they are about costs and billing practices before you sign any agreement.
    • Client retention rate. Client-agency contracts end for a lot of different reasons. But if during your research you see a pattern of previous clients ending contracts early, that’s a big red flag.
    • Agency expertise. Some agencies specialize in a specific industry, and others offer more general services. If you’re only looking for SEO help, don’t look at agencies whose website only shows video production services. Most agencies today are full-service, but do your research and make sure they actually provide the work you want.

     

    When Should I Hire An Agency?

    Taking the plunge and hiring an agency is a big step for any business. Here are a few signs it’s time to bring in the marketing experts:

    • You’re not getting sales. If you’re seeing a sales plateau, it’s probably time to get a new set of eyes on your marketing strategy. Agencies provide a fresh perspective and can give you insights on how to increase sales that internal teams may have overlooked.
    • You don’t have enough time. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably doing all the marketing yourself at the beginning. But as your company grows, it can be hard to find time in your day for marketing. Agencies take that responsibility off your shoulders so you can focus on other crucial parts of your company.
    • You don’t have niche skills. There’s no way one person can be an expert in every aspect of marketing. Bringing in a team whose entire career focuses on a specific marketing discipline will ensure your business is taken care of by professionals.
    • You don’t have the budget for an in-house team. Hiring an entire internal marketing team is a big expense. Hiring a marketing agency usually ends up costing businesses considerably less than staffing an in-house team.

     

    The Bottom Line

    Hiring a marketing agency is one of the most responsible things you can do for your company. It shows you take your business’s future seriously and are willing to do what it takes to see it succeed. If you’d like to know more about how Epic Marketing can help your company grow, please fill out our form at the bottom of the page and we’ll get in touch with you right away.

What is marketing automation?

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Marketing automation is the use of a software platform to automate repetitive marketing tasks. These platforms are typically associated with email marketing but can also automate tasks within lead segmentation, lead scoring, and sales processes.

You interact with marketing automation every day. If you’ve ever left something in an online shopping cart for more than a few hours, you’ve almost certainly received an email trying to pull you back to the purchase. If you still don’t return and complete the sale you may have even started receiving offers and discounts to your inbox trying to sway you back. These marketing events were triggered by your actions and sent autonomously from an automation platform.

As you visit sites and engage with companies online, your actions are most often recorded and segmented so the company can help you along the buying process effectively. If you visit pricing pages, download eBooks, subscribe to newsletters, and more, you’re helping the company understand who you are and how they might earn you as a customer.

What does good marketing automation look like?

Good marketing automation is an organic and natural extension of the company/customer interaction.

Typically, marketing automation begins when a customer exchanges their contact information (name and email) for something that they perceive as being valuable such as an eBook or blog subscription. This process is called lead generation.

When the customer subscribes to your blog they’re expecting to receive content similar to that which led them to subscribe. They’re expecting valuable, relevant information. They didn’t give the company license to endlessly fill their inbox with deals and promotions. When you do send this valuable, relevant content, you might link to further learning about your product or service.

If the customer does start visiting pages about your product, then sending resources like FAQs, webinars or other comparable content can be helpful and timely.

Maybe, the subscriber starts visiting competitor comparison pages, perhaps even pricing pages. You might send them an email asking if they have any questions about your product. And you might send an email from one of your sales representatives with their calendar availability. Testimonials, video demonstrations, and more can be helpful and powerful content to receive when making a purchase decision.

All of these actions can take place autonomously. With little to no sales engagement. Helping your customer along the sales process naturally and empowering the customer to make decisions.

What email marketing can accomplish:
Attract and build a list of leads and potential customers
Automate repetitive tasks like rescheduling and abandoned carts
Automate CRM tasks like lead status, customer type, and buyer stage
Provide timely updates and promotions directly to interested buyers
Nurture and propel leads through the buyer’s journey
Build and nurture customer relationships through timely and helpful content

What email marketing won’t accomplish:
Email marketing doesn’t open the door to list-buying. Cold-outreach may still have a place in some sales plans. But it’s widely considered ineffective and self-damaging to buy lists and perform cold-outreach.
Email marketing won’t move customers directly to ready-to-buy stages. Only 27% of leads sent to sales are qualified to buy. Email marketing helps customers move from stage to stage in the buyer’s journey; it doesn’t move buyers straight to the ready-to-buy stage.

How does marketing automation fit into the customer journey?

Every business is different, so exactly how automation fits into your buyer’s journey will be unique. But for most businesses marketing automation is the framework that sits between almost every marketing event.

Marketing automation can help capture new leads, nurture leads, close deals, boost up customer support, and encourage customer evangelism.

What is the value of marketing automation?

Effective email and marketing automation is consistently one of the highest-return marketing actions. This is because email marketing is one of the few channels that businesses typically can access where they can go to the customer instead of waiting for the customer to come to them.

By meticulously assisting your customers through the buyer’s journey, you build trust and empower them to make purchasing decisions. According to the Direct Marketing Association, companies typically see a $42 return for every $1 spent with an effective automation strategy. With marketing automation, you can build a business that creates customers for life.

How do you get started with marketing automation?

If you’d like to learn more about how marketing automation can help you and your business, and how to get started, you can read more from our eBook on the marketing automation fundamentals.

If you’d like to speak with an Epic Marketing representative about what we could do for you, fill out the form at the bottom of the page, and we’ll get in touch!

Facebook Ads Not Delivering? Use The Ultimate Checklist

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There are so many possible reasons why your Facebook Ads are not delivering and it can be so frustrating trying to figure it out. Being a marketing agency means that we see problems like this pop up on accounts for all kinds of different clients. We are always happy to take on more work, so feel free to reach out if you’d like help from one of our specialists. However, if you would like to try fixing the delivery issue on your own, I created this checklist for you that you can go through to get your ads up and running again.

Menu:

Ads Are Disapproved
COVID-19 Ad Disapprovals
Your Ad Has Too Much Text
You Forgot To Publish Your Ads
Your Billing Method Failed
You Reached Your Spending Limit
You Reached Your Budget
Your Campaign Ended
Your Audience Is Too Small
You Recently Edited An Ad
Your Ad Is Stuck In Review
You Have Too Much Audience Overlap
Your Ad Falls In A Special Category
Your Ad Is Low Quality
You Used Accelerated Delivery
Other Reasons

Ads Are Disapproved
There are a lot of reasons why your ads might get disapproved. Facebook’s official list of ad policies is here, but I will list some of the most common reasons that ads get disapproved:

  • Too much text in your image
  • Your product is not allowed to be advertised on Facebook
  • Your ad copy is inappropriate or not allowed; Facebook doesn’t allow overly sensational copy, bad grammar, or content that assumes the viewer’s personal attributes
  • Your image or video is inappropriate or falls into the Adult Content category

Occasionally, fixing the problem is as easy as removing a question mark, but sometimes you really need to dig deep into Facebook’s Ad Policy page to find the exact reason why your ad is being disapproved.

If you’re wondering what your error is, you can hover over the red warning triangle for more information. You can also click “Edit” on the disapproved ad and you should see a specific reason listed there as well.

COVID-19 Ad Disapprovals

Businesses in all industries have been affected by COVID-19 in some way. If you are like us and are still able to run Facebook ads during this pandemic, you might have run into the same problem that we are seeing. Some ads that merely acknowledge COVID-19 are getting disapproved for “Controversial Content”. The specific Facebook policy is designed to stop price-gouging of sensitive products like hand sanitizer and medical masks, but in some cases ads are getting disapproved by mistake. That full policy from Facebook can be found here.

The main policy summary states:

“Ads must not contain content that exploits crises or controversial political or social issues for commercial purposes.”

Our ads definitely aren’t exploiting this crisis, but still some of our ads and our clients’ ads were getting disapproved for this reason. I tested removing words like “COVID-19”, “pandemic”, and “hand sanitizer” and republished them. In some cases, that worked.

You also have the option to request a manual review. As long as you are not exploiting a crisis, once an employee at Facebook views your ads they should easily be able to see that your ad is okay to run. I have been able to fix ad disapprovals for controversial content this way several times. In my experience, it has taken 24-48 hours for decisions to be made after submitting an ad for manual review.

Your Ad Has Too Much Text
Facebook wants their ads to feel more organic, so they restrict how much text can be overlaid onto your image. This is an issue that comes up fairly frequently with clients who don’t know about this rule. They want to the name of their business really large, or they want to promote a big wall of text because they want customers to know every single thing about the sale they are running.

You can fit plenty of copy into the Headline and Text portions of your ad, so follow Facebook’s rule and keep the amount of text on your image to 20% or less.

If you want to test your image to see if it follows the 20% text rule, Facebook has a text overlay tool that you can access here.

You Forgot to Publish Your Ads
If you manage Facebook campaigns long enough, this is bound to happen. Go back to Ads Manager and see if your ad is still a draft or if it has been published. You can review all current drafts by clicking “Review and Publish” in the top right corner.

Your Billing Method Failed
Sometimes a payment fails, credit cards reach their limits faster than normal, and the payment method needs to be reauthorized. Open up Ads Manager and check to see if there are any red warning messages. With that information in hand, open up the main menu, go to Settings, and click Payment Settings to manage your billing method.

You Reached Your Spending Limit
Spending limits can be useful tools, but if someone else sets them without telling you, then you might find yourself wondering why your ads aren’t running.
There are a few places in Ads Manager where you can set and edit spending limits.

  • The account level (Found in Payment Settings)
  • The campaign level (Click Edit on any campaign)

You Reached Your Budget
You can set lifetime budgets at the campaign level. If you forget to add more to the budget or to create a new campaign, then you might be surprised when your ads stop delivering at the end date you set.

Your Campaign Ended
Like the previous tip states, you can set lifetime budgets at the campaign level. If you forget to add more to the budget or to create a new campaign, then you might be surprised when your ads stop delivering at the end date you set.

Under the Delivery column you will see that your campaign says “Completed” when it has reached its end date. You can duplicate the campaign and start again or you can edit the completed campaign and add new end dates and an increased budget.

Your Audience Is Too Small
This error usually doesn’t come with its own special warning, so it can be easy to overlook. If you narrow your audience down too much by geographic area, gender, age, interest, or some other demographic, then your ad set might be too small to run at all.

Check out the Audience Definition section at the Ad Set level to see what your potential reach is. If it says your audience is too small here, then you might need to make some changes.

You Recently Edited an Ad
Facebook ads often take up to 24 hours to get approved and start delivering again after you make an edit to them. I know it can be tempting to make changes every day, but it is best to plan ahead and make edits less often.

Your Ad Is Stuck in Review
Facebook ads often take up to 24 hours to get approved and start delivering again after you make an edit, but has it been longer than that?

During busy online sales times like Black Friday, approval times for new ads can take even longer. I have seen ads take up to two or three days to get approved and start delivering during those busy times. If you have an important campaign coming up, don’t wait until the last minute to publish your ads.

If that is not the case, try duplicating your ad and often the new ad will get approved quickly.

You Have Too Much Audience Overlap
If you are running too many ad sets with very similar audiences, then your ads might not spend their full budgets. Luckily, Facebook has an audience overlap tool that will let you see how much your audiences overlap.

Open the main menu in Ads Manager and click on Audiences. From there you can select up to 5 audiences, click the three dots, and click Show Audience Overlap.

I have seen this problem mainly when advertisers are using a lot of look-alike audiences that they don’t really realize are very similar.


Your Ad Falls in a Special Category
“If you’re based in or targeting the U.S. and are creating a campaign that includes ads that offer credit, employment or housing opportunities, you must choose the category that best describes your ads.”

If your product or service falls into one of these 3 categories, then you will have to deal with some restrictions. You can find more information here, but before you can run your ads at all, you will have to designate which category you fall into or your ads might get disapproved.

You can find these settings at the campaign level.

Your Ad Is Low Quality
“Low-quality ads on Facebook, such as ones that include clickbait or direct people to unexpected content, create bad experiences for people and don’t align with our goal of creating meaningful connections between people and businesses.”

You can read more about Facebook’s policy here.

Just know that low quality ads might work for a little while, but eventually they will get disapproved and can even lead to your ad account getting suspended if the content is bad enough. Promote the best product you can and create ads that have honest, enticing copy and imagery.

You Used Accelerated Delivery
Accelerated Delivery is an option at the campaign level of your ads. If you select it then Facebook will “spend your budget and get results as quickly as possible.” It sounds pretty good, but you may be left with no budget at the end of the month if you are not careful.

Other Reasons
There are a lot of reasons why your Facebook ads might not be delivering or why they are disapproved. If you make it through this whole checklist without finding the solution to your problem, then you have found a truly unique issue and I’d love to hear about it. Fill out our contact form with your issue and we can work on it together.

DSLR Video Tips and Tricks

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Video production on a budget can be difficult, especially when you need to produce a commercial-quality video. We don’t all have access to a $60,000 RED Cinema camera, so what do we do to produce high-quality content?

Many people have access to a DSLR camera, so we’ve come up with some tips and tricks on how to make a quality video with one.

Pre-Production

Research
Learning all you can about the upcoming project you’re working on is vital. Understanding the brand you’re working for (whether it’s a company or yourself) is important to first establish before continuing a project. Think of these three questions when you’re researching and preparing for your video:

1. What is the video trying to accomplish?

2. How have other people done it?

3. How can we do it better?

In the business of content creation, it’s about being aware of your purpose and accomplishing that in a creative, innovative, different way. Take time to strategically create a concept.

Create a Shot List
The angle of your shots and the way that you frame them all matter. Create with purpose and with a vision of the end result in mind. Have specific thoughts in mind. How are you going to balance each shot? The rule of thirds applies not only to photography but also cinematography. Pay attention to where your subject is and, if they’re going to move, where you will also move in order to keep them in frame.

Depth of field is another aspect of creating a shot that is important to think about. Referring back to the first question in the previous section, what is the video trying to accomplish? In some videos you might want the subjects and background completely in focus and, for other videos you may want one subject in focus and everything else blurry.

Scout the Area
Lighting
One of the most important things to pay attention to while you’re filming is lighting. Think about it, videography and photography are all about capturing light. Having good lighting is vital, but if it’s unavailable then you may want to consider bringing your own lights.

Space
Ideally, you’ll know the location of your shoot in order to properly plan out your shots and know what space is available. This isn’t always the case. There are a lot of times when online research is your best friend. Utilize your resources to learn as much as you can about the location of your shoot beforehand. In a lot of instances, you won’t be able to find out everything until you’re actually there. Budget time to see the space before you begin the production and make adjustments as needed.

Production

Lighting
Be intentional in your choice of lighting. Lighting creates a mood. Always have the purpose of your video in mind because that will help determine what subjects you want in certain lighting at specific times. These are likely decisions you’ll have to make for every video you’re shooting.

Focus
Keeping your subjects in focus at the right time is difficult, especially if you’re shooting a video with photography lenses. Keep in mind that photo lenses are varifocal. As the focal length moves, the focus moves as well. This change in focus is called “lens breathing,” and it’s something to keep in mind during production. If you have access to cinema lenses (or parfocal lenses), then shooting video will prove to be easier. Those lenses are designed to keep moving objects in focus as you zoom in and out because of the way they’re built. PetaPixel provides a good explanation and demonstration of the differences between varifocal and parfocal lenses.

Stabilization
One of the biggest drawbacks about shooting on a DSLR is fighting camera shake. As much as we wish we could all have perfectly steady hands, it’s not possible. Luckily, there are tools available like a steadicams and glidecams. Thes are more expensive options, but if you have the funds to purchase one they’re amazing.

A more DIY and budget-friendly option is to use the strap that comes with your camera, put it around your neck and extend it until it’s tight around your neck. Use both hands and hold the camera (one on each side). This creates three points of contact (like a tripod) and it becomes easier to stabilize the camera better than if you were to hold it free-hand.

Aperture
Knowing your settings on your camera are important. As you’re capturing your images, your aperture setting determines how much light is allowed to enter into the camera. Have the subject well-lit to have a smaller aperture.

The further open the aperture is the more light is allowed to reach the sensor, however, you create a shallow depth of field which makes your plane of focus smaller. It is harder to capture moving subjects and keep them in focus when your plane of focus is narrow.

A wide open aperture can create a beautiful shot with foreground and background items blurred and softened so adjust accordingly to available light and style of shot.

Camera Movements
Don’t take moving the camera for granted. Just because you can move it, doesn’t mean you always should move it. Have a very specific purpose to move the camera because as a videographer it’s your job to know when and where to move it. Those movements need to be smooth for post-editing, which is why creating a shot list is so important in pre-production.

Post-Production

Organize Folders in Premiere Pro
We prefer using Adobe’s Premiere Pro as our video editing software and it makes organizing your clips and audio files much easier. Having organized folders will make all the difference when editing your video. Utilize bins and groups and label them in a way that is organized and clear. A good tip is to label them in a way that if an outside person needed to find a clip, it would be easy for them to find it whether it be labeled by location, date, event, etc.

Here’s a tip on how to quickly organize your footage.

Post “Warp Stabilizer”
The warp stabilizer feature in Adobe Premiere Pro is one of your best friends, especially if you’re not using a Glidecam or a DSLR stabilizer for your video. This feature stabilizes shaky footage, which should give you a little sense of relief because now you know you don’t have to be perfect! Adobe provides a great tutorial on how to use the warp stabilizer feature.

Cut to the Music
Music can make or break a video, so it’s important to choose a soundtrack that fits the purpose of the video. One of the biggest pieces of advice we can provide {which takes some planning, but is worth it), is to choose your soundtrack before you create your video. Pre-determining your soundtrack allows for you to create your shot list and plan your cuts according to the track. It’s amazing how much more professional your video will turn out just by creating your video with a soundtrack in mind.

Keeping these ideas in mind will help you on your journey to creating high quality, captivating content. Don’t worry about creating the perfect video on your first try, practice makes perfect! Remember that competing with other content creators is no easy feat. Make sure to add your own style to your videos. Do something different, dare to be unique.

10 Tips to Optimize Your Instagram Business Profile

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Businesses are taking Instagram by storm. Think about it… between mommy bloggers, foodies, travel junkies, and the hundreds of Harry Potter fan accounts, the latest updates, though fun for personal accounts, seem to benefit business profiles the most.

Since Instagram’s launch in 2010, the industry and usage have both shifted from the fun, personal account into a bigger push into business and sales. As a growing platform, good changes need to be made in order to attract new users and retain the current ones. In August of 2016, Instagram provided users with an option to create a business account that allows the businesses (and users if they desired) access to analytics and options for e-commerce.

As Instagram continues to release update after update, it’s important to optimize your profile and take advantage of those features. Here are ten ways that you can improve your business profile.

Engage with Your Followers

Engagement is a key part of IG’s algorithm. The more engagement you receive on your posts, the more likely your profile is to be seen. Instagram likes it when you, as the profile owner, engage with your audience. The quality of your followers is valued greater than the quantity of your followers. And remember, the quality will lead to more quantity.

Create Discoverable Content

An article by Rival IQ, suggests that you ask your users not to tag your photos, but instead to use a custom hashtag to make your content more discoverable to those that may not follow you. This concept makes sense due to the fact that when you’re tagged in a photo, only those who are already following your profile will see it, but hashtags make it available to a broader audience.

Strategically Share Content

What you share, when you share it, and how you share it matters. Create a content calendar and plan out your content in order to accurately tell your brand’s story. The visuals you post and the captions you use create a brand experience, and you want to make sure you’re properly conveying the right one for you.

Create Captivating Captions

Instagram shows the first two lines of your caption – choose your words very carefully. With ten or so words, you’ll have to captivate your audience quickly and get them to click the “more” to view the rest of your caption. How you’ll accomplish this completely depends on the industry you’re in, but experiment and try new things.

Utilize Instagram’s New Features

Why would IG come out with new features just for you to ignore them? The new features may not apply to every business, but it can be argued that every new feature is designed to increase engagement. Especially utilize the new features that stories have offered. Polls, Q&As, stickers, gifs, countdown timers, etc. are all there for your benefit. Take advantage of them. IGTV is an up and coming resource for your followers. It gives you the opportunity to upload up to 10-minute long vertical videos that a mommy blogger could use to showcase her latest unboxing or your company can upload a tips & tricks video that’s applicable for your business.

Go Live

Using Instagram’s Live feature is going to benefit your profile. The algorithm is set to favor a user when they go live, notifying its followers and trying to get you seen by the most amount of people.

Build a Trackable URL for Your Bio

Creating a URL that you can track will help you to get the necessary data to continue to optimize your Instagram Profile. Building your URL can help you discover where traffic is coming from, how many people click on your link, etc. This principle can also apply to other platforms, in fact, I’d suggest creating a separate URL for all different platforms to gain more insights. We use Google’s Campaign URL Builder to set up individual URLs for different platforms. We are also able to track the data in Google Analytics. Here’s a guide on how to use Campaign URL Builder and a Youtube video to teach you how to use this tool.

Fine Tune Your Bio

Use keywords. Add them in your description, use special fonts and emojis. The idea is to do something to stand out and make your purpose clear. Add a call to action to your bio. The key is not to make it too busy. Oftentimes, influencers and those similar make their bios too busy. Use fancy fonts sparingly and make it clean. Your bio is one of the first things people read about your brand, make it count.

Utilize Influencers

Partner with other brands or people. Optimize your brand and use people that would benefit your company and those that can benefit from you. Remember that they’ll be adding value to your brand and you will have to add value to them in some way. Influencer marketing is growing and Instagram is one of the best platforms to use this marketing technique.

Be Authentic

Be you. Social media has received a lot of hate the past couple of years regarding the “appearance of perfection.” This is your opportunity to change that perception. Be authentic and allow your audience to see the raw parts of your brand.

As one of the fastest growing social platforms, Instagram is constantly adding new features and changing its algorithm. Staying on top of what is happening with the social channel is one of the best things you can do for your business. Don’t fall behind! Following these tips will help your Instagram business stay fresh and visible.

The 4 C’s of Social Content Strategy

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Imagine your company is a kingdom. A kingdom needs someone (or something) to rule over it and protect it. The question stands, who (or what) controls your kingdom?

Creatives and visuals play an important role in marketing. They’re responsible for establishing a brand, evoking emotion or convincing consumers to think or act in a certain way. The influence content marketing has for a brand is substantial and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Content strategy is the thing that can make or break your company in a social media aspect.

Keep in mind these 4 principles when creating a social media content strategy.

1. Content is King

Your brand is determined by the content that you produce. The media that your brand delivers on social platforms (such as its images, videos, graphics, etc.) is an important aspect of how consumers view your company. Due to the fact that social media is such a powerful tool, having a strong presence that provides valuable content can make your company. On the flip side, having mediocre content that doesn’t pull people in may possibly break it.

Social media marketing brings a new perspective to your company. You have the ability to show others what you’re about as opposed to telling them. Many people are visual, and content provides the value that they’re looking for. Provide new and exciting original content. Engage with users and create a loyal following.

Don’t forget that your brand is determined by your content, which is why content is king.

2. Consistency

I believe that consistency is one of the key elements in creating positive content and a sense of loyalty to a brand. People rely on consistency in their life, and you have an opportunity to provide it for them. Post content on a schedule. Developing a habit of posting consistently is important for consumers and for social platforms’ algorithms.

Make sure the content you post is consistent in representing the ‘why’ of your business. There are two spectrums of posting. The first one is to just throw out content recklessly whereas, on the opposite side of the spectrum, you may not post as often, but what you do post is meaningful and intentional. Create a content calendar. Without creating one, failure is more likely to occur. Social Media Today mentions the “Consistency Pizza” consisting of volume, quality, voice, and topics.

Consistency not only in posting but also in the content itself is also vital. A ‘clean’ feed is ideal. If you’re a photographer, create a feed with similar edits so your future clients can get a ‘feel’ of your editing style. A videographer should also abide by the same principles, so why shouldn’t your brand? The images and graphic style should represent your company. Using the same color scheme for graphics and similar edits on posts with similar content will help assist in creating a great social feed.

3. Culture

Representing a culture is important in social media marketing. What sort of style and “feel” do you want to show your consumers? You may want to portray a specific culture of your company. You may even want to portray a culture from around the world. Identifying a target audience and being able to cater to their needs is an aspect of culture that should be considered. Remember that what works in one city, state or country may not work in another because social media trends are constantly changing and tend to move from region to region.

Referring to a company’s vision and goals will help to guide the social feed in order to create a culture on social media. Is your goal to advocate healthy eating because it makes you happy? Great! Use that as a guide to create content that emulates that. Keeping culture (in all aspects) in mind, will help assist in pulling people towards your brand.

4. Collaboration

Collaborations involve you and another party offering a service and working together in order to both benefit. Collaborating with other important brands, people, groups, businesses, etc. is a great way to gain more exposure for your brand and the brand you’re working with.

Consider creating a brand ambassador program where people from different locations promote your product or service to their own social following in exchange for a discount of sorts. By having brand ambassadors post content featuring your product, you receive free marketing and potentially more conversions because it’s coming from a friend as opposed to a ‘faceless’ company.

Collaborating with local influencers or celebrities (depending on your company and its purposes) will help gain momentum with content marketing. Consumers will see your brand as one that is associated with the influencer and could increase a following and assist in creating more of a loyal following on social platforms. Finding the right influencer can be difficult. Social outreach is one way to contact an influencer, but there are also great tools created to connect you to the best fitting influencer for your company.

Post driving content with the intention to pull people in. When you do this, the goal and one of the purposes of social media content strategy is met. Remember, pulling people in is only half of the battle. How will you captivate your audience and keep them wanting more? Provide value. Be intentional with your posts and promote meaningful reactions. Keep these 4 C’s in mind as you continue in your social content strategy. These efforts will help ensure your kingdom protected from competitors.