Spark Marketing Blog

4/5/2022 0 Comments

All About Brand Voice

What is Brand Voice?

Basically, a brand voice is your company's personality. It is used whenever your company is relaying a message to future or existing customers - social media, emails, newsletters, and any form of advertising. It's important to ensure this voice is consistent because it helps set you apart from your competitors and speaks to customers/clients who are most like you/your company.

Why does it matter?

Your brand voice goes right along with your logo and brand colors. It should be a part of your brand's presence. When potential customers are looking at your company, they will likely choose the brand whose values and messaging align most closely to theirs. From captions to newsletters, your words will help build brand awareness among your followers and customers. Writing to your customer's beliefs and ideals will not only grab their attention, but also makes them want to follow your brand.

A few tips on how to develop your brand voice.

1) Think of your target market and focus on their wants and needs. Think of who they are and where they come from.

2) Know what sets your brand apart and use that as part of your foundation.

3) Incorporate your brand voice into your brand strategy. This might look like witty one-liners or polished high-end images.

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1/6/2022 0 Comments

A Roundup of Instagram's New Features for 2022

Looking for a summary of all things Instagram? You got it!

Live Rooms
As of March, multiple Instagram users can participate in one Instagram Live session. Meaning users can collaborate with other brands in their industry or even allow a few loyal followers to join in on the chat.

Remix Reels
This feature showed up back in April. It allows users to recreate or respond to existing Reels side by side.

Stories Caption Stickers
Another April addition - caption stickers for Stories. This feature automatically converts audio to text, making stories more accessible for deaf and hearing impaired as well as IG users who scroll with their sound off.

Updates to Insights
Instagram updated their Insights platform to accommodate for their new features. Users can now examine analytics for Reels and IG Live.

Algorithm Changes
The algorithm experienced some needed updates this past year as well. Prioritizing fun, engaging video, and does not optimize for content recycled from other platforms.
Additionally, Instagram has become a little more transparent about the algorithm. What are they telling us? Post Reels often, use fewer hashtags, and prioritize video and shopping.

Links for All
Remember when users had to meet a minimum of 10k followers to share a link via Stories? Not anymore! Users can now add link stickers to stories no matter the size of their account.

Black-Owner Category
Instagram added a Black-owned business label to the platform to support Black-owned brands selling on the platform.

Instagram Video
So long, IGTV! Instagram Video is now taking over and being combined with Feed videos in one feature.

What to expect in 2022?

Suggested and Chronological Feeds: It has been hinted that a new Favorites feature is being tested and an option for the long-awaited chronological order is in the works. Favorites would allow users to choose whose posts they see higher in their Feed.

Follow along with Spark Marketing to stay up to date on your favorite social media platforms and marketing trends!

Sources:
Planoly
https://blog.planoly.com/instagram-marketing-tips?utm_campaign=EG.Marketing.PG.Newsletters.Free&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=199857722&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8vCvPZ7E7AIwpYf-9ubUEWgm_hRW70PpSzY5BNPgjlRREBAMXSbtz6NJgbBlSeV5ctVmGt_wMsyFEVyVqFIg_rZvrdlw&utm_content=199853508&utm_source=hs_email
Instagram

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11/16/2021 0 Comments

Preparing for Holiday Shopping - Small Business Edition

Social Media Tips to Boost Sales

Now is the time to begin your holiday social media campaigns. One thing you will want to focus on is what sets your business apart. As a small business, you are already unique - so leverage that and concentrate your efforts on reaching the right customers and not the masses.

Use Small Business Saturday to your advantage! Last year, Small Business Saturday generated $4.68 billion dollars in sales. With longer shipping times projected for this year along with increased shipping costs, shoppers will be looking for local alternatives.

If you are a product focused business, Instagram and Facebook both have options to help you highlight your holiday sales and offerings. Instagram offers Instagram Shop, a convenient way for potential customers to shop your Instagram content directly. All you need is a product, a website, or an eCommerce platform like Shopify connected. Having an online shop tied to your Instagram account also increases your customer service, something small businesses are known for.

You can also created a Catalog on Facebook. This will help you reach high-intent shoppers by optimizing the way your ads reach people across Facebook apps and the web. You can pair a catalog with different types of ads to promote your products, including dynamic ads, carousel and collection format, collaborative ads and more. You will need to create and manage your catalog in Commerce Manager, which is available on desktop only.

Content + Product Tips

November is the time to ramp up your holiday marketing strategy. Build brand awareness and promote content that leads to conversions.

1) Be sure to create holiday focused content with strong Calls to Action. Customers are looking for holiday content, deals, and ideas. Show them what you have and don't make them work for it.

2) Host giveaways or promotions that will generate demand and incentive to purchase.

3) Show your face and keep your small business as the focus. Part of why people like small businesses is because of the people behind them!

4) Partner with other local, small business to help promote each other's products or services. This helps you both reach new audiences.

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9/16/2021 0 Comments

Instagram Story Ideas: 10 Ideas to Increase Engagement

Can you remember a time when Instagram didn’t have stories? According to Planoly, these days over 500 million people use and watch Instagram stories on a daily basis. Stories are a way to connect with your audience on a more interactive, personal level. You can ask questions, chat, and post daily updates relevant to your brand. Stories disappear after 24 hours and don’t show up on your feed, so they’re a more casual, temporary, way of sharing content on Instagram.
While the concept of Stories was first introduced by Snapchat, Instagram Stories now have almost double the daily users of Snapchat. This could be because Instagram Stories act as a supplemental feed, while Snapchat Stories standalone.

How to Make an Instagram StoryMaking an Instagram story is actually easy to do, whether you’re getting creative or keeping it simple. Even beginners can make it happen! Here’s how:

In the Instagram app, tap the ‘+’ icon in the top-left corner of your screen then when the new window pops up tap ‘Story’ on the navigation bar on the bottom right.
Next, tap the white circle at the bottom of the screen to take a photo or film a video. You’ll notice more circles after the plain white circle. Those are your filters. You can also upload photos from your camera roll by clicking the photo button in the bottom-left corner.
Now, it’s time to personalize and bring your story to life. You can draw on your photo or video by hitting the pen icon, choosing a color, and choosing the pen you’d like to use. You can add sound by clicking the music icon, or add emojis/GIFs by clicking the box with a smiley face (in between the music icon and the pen icon). Finally, you can type any text you want by clicking the Aa icon in the top right corner.

10 Fun IG Story Examples to Try

#1 Q&AInstagram Stories are a great way to get to know your audience. You can ask your followers questions and answer in short videos.

#2 TakeoverHave a loyal customer or employee take over your Instagram Stories for the day! Customers can show off the shopping experience and employees can share their day-to-day activities and job highlights.

#3 Start a contest, giveaway, guessing gameThese Stories might seem like all fun and games, but they act as little building blocks that strengthen relationships between your brand and its followers.

#4 Behind the ScenesInstagram Stories allow you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. What better way to do that than by lifting the curtain and showing them what’s going on behind the scenes? You can show how your products are made, give an inside scoop on an upcoming release, or share clips of your team in action.

#5 Educate on something/share other accounts, quizzesFor an educational story, you can highlight accounts in your space, give a quiz related to your product or industry, or record a few stories discussing a relevant topic.

#6 Ask questionsUse Instagram Stories to get feedback from your followers using Instagram’s Questions Sticker. Ask your followers how they like your products and website, what they’d like to see in the future, what their favorite product is, and what they’d like to know more about. You can share their responses in the following stories (more content, yay!).

#7 Use pollsUse the Polls feature to learn more about what your followers prefer. This is super helpful for feedback in the product or service development phase and it makes your followers feel like a part of the creation process!

#8 Fill out a template or make a new oneTemplates are a fun way to engage with trending content (or start your own). Find a fun template— there are so many available by searching on the internet. If you want to get creative, design a brand-relevant template and ask your followers to fill it out on their stories.

#9 Start a seriesYou can use Stories to start a fun series on any topic of choice. Maybe it’s reviewing products in your industry, trying new workouts, or even just chatting about the daily news. Having a consistent series on your Stories will give your followers something to look forward to and keep them coming back to your account for more!

#10 Personal brand prompt For those marketing a personal brand, try answering personal prompts every now and then. You can google topic ideas or even use a book of writing prompts for inspiration. Answering these questions on stories helps your followers learn more about you and your brand, while also inspiring them to answer the questions for themselves. You can even prompt them to share their answers in a Question and post them to your stories afterward.

Instagram Stories are a casual, fun way to connect with your audience. When you start planning your Instagram Stories strategy, keep consistency and creativity at the top of your priority list. Don’t make stories for the sake of making stories— make sure every story has a purpose. When you’re consistent with your story posting schedule, your followers will get excited to watch your stories each time you post (hopefully daily). Now, go give them something to get excited about!

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11/6/2019 0 Comments