July 19, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Should you invest in digital marketing in 2021? Keep reading to check out the most spectacular reasons and benefits of digital marketing for small businesses.
Do you want to compete with the big brands in your industry? Here’s what you need – a level playing field that gives you equal access to the target audience. Fortunately, digital marketing delivers just that! You can get in front of tons of new faces and even lock horns with the big boys in your industry. When local businesses partner with agencies such as GiraffeMarketing and you create a targeted and defined digital campaign you can level out the playing field. But that’s not it. Here are several other crucial benefits of digital marketing that your business will relish in 2021 and beyond.
One of the advantages of using digital marketing over traditional marketing is that it is data-driven. In other words, it is the most measurable form of marketing there is. You can create online marketing campaigns that are easy to track, tweak, and grow. With the help of analytics, you can ensure that the digital marketing tactics work in your brand’s favor. It allows you to use the available resources effectively and get a higher marketing ROI. Lef Giraffe worries about ROI and CTR and CTA while you work on growing your business.
Gone are the days when brands with big marketing budgets ruled the market. With access to the Internet, it is pretty much a level playing field when it comes to promoting products and services on the world wide web. You can start promoting your products at zero costs using techniques like SEO and content marketing.
Did you know that 68 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine? SEO makes it easier to get specific with your target audience. It eliminates the guesswork and directs every marketing campaign towards people that are most likely to engage with your brand. You can successfully narrow the target audience by using insights like demographics, interests, online behavior, and more. Brands can even rank their business websites on search engines for keywords their target audience use while searching for related products and services.
A well-structured and well-tested digital marketing strategy will always produce excellent results. If you hire digital marketing professionals, they will make sure the campaigns are optimized to achieve the set marketing and business goals. Agencies have proven industry-specific strategies that will help small businesses make the most of their marketing budget. Take email marketing, for instance, which produces an ROI of 4,200 percent for every dollar spent!
Digital marketing doesn’t cost much. Why? Several digital marketing tools and channels are free to use. You can ditch paid marketing and invest heavily in organic marketing to produce long-lasting results. However, creating an in-house digital marketing team will cost more than hiring a digital marketing agency. We highly recommend you search for an agency that has experience developing industry-specific online marketing strategies. Again let Giraffe Marketing build your campaign, manage your campaign, and report back to you while you are growing your business.
The online world is transparent, and customers dig that. They want brands to be available online so that they can interact with them. When you invest in digital marketing, you give a strong message to your target audience that you care about them and are open to discussion. Since many online marketing platforms can even be used to extend your customer services, it will be easier for you to develop trust and credibility among your target audience.
Digital marketing comes with benefits that have the potential to quadruple your business growth. However, your brand will only achieve that if you hire the right team of digital marketing specialists. At Giraffe Marketing, we offer the most advanced digital marketing strategies that help brands achieve their business and marketing goals. Connect with our friendly online marketers and we will set things up for you! Loved reading this post? Don’t forget to check out other informative posts on the blog! 6 Practical Benefits to Consider When Hiring Digital Marketing Agency.
How to Reopen Your Small Business Amid the Pandemic
Having a Social Media Strategy Is the best strategy
6 Practical Benefits to Consider When Hiring Digital Marketing Agency
July 9, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Your brand needs marketing experts that can provide the best results at the minimum costs. Keep reading to find the benefits of hiring digital marketing agencies in 2021.
Digital marketing isn’t easy. And the reason is quite simple – you need special skills to market a brand, product, or service on the internet. If you run a business and want to market it online, it’s better to leave things to professionals. In other words, you should hire an agency like GiraffeMarketingLLC to enhance your online presence. We have shortlisted some of the undeniable benefits of hiring an online marketing agency in 2021. Let’s discuss them, shall we?
Compared to an in-house online marketing team, hiring an agency will cost much less over time. It’s simple math. You will be dealing with independent contractors that have full-time employees. You have nothing to do with paying these full-time employees or managing their benefits. Not just that, you also don’t have to pay for essential digital marketing tools because agencies already have them! So in some situations, that agency is able to get media buys discounted to cover the expense of the agency.
Running an online marketing campaign requires certain resources, and it can be exhausting to put a high-quality in-house team together. It is time-consuming and takes your attention off of things that matter, i.e., business growth. When you hire a digital marketing agency, you won’t need to worry about developing marketing teams, plans, testing campaigns, and in-house team training. The time can otherwise be used to grow your business. Do you want to be worried about keywords in your email campaign or taking pictures for Facebook or do you want to run your business.
We mentioned how a successful online marketing campaign demands ‘special skills.’ Here are the people you need to plan and execute a result-oriented digital marketing campaign:
Digital marketing agencies accrue top talented and qualified digital marketing experts. They are well-equipped to tackle your project since the experts have worked on similar projects in the past.
Digital marketing agencies have a firm grip on the latest trends and understand exactly how much you need to spend to achieve your marketing goals. This way, you can make sure that your money is being spent the right way. The experts at these agencies have been working on several different projects and therefore have effective budget management skills.
You can always find a digital marketing agency with significant experience working with companies just like yours. You should ask the digital marketing agencies to present their portfolios, giving you a great insight into the agency’s capability. However, if the agency hasn’t worked for a company like yours, you should dig deeper to understand what the agency can do to get you the desired results.
Digital marketing agencies are exceptional at setting up things to take on their client’s marketing challenges. It is crucial because the competition is getting fierce every day, and you cannot let your marketing strategies slow you down. Digital marketing agencies are excellent at managing their resources, and thus you will be meeting your deadlines without a problem. Let the agency worry about deadlines for your Instagram account so you can work on employee training.
Believe it or not, digital marketing is immensely powerful and can take your business to a whole new level. But, you can only leverage it if you hire the right online marketing agency. If you are looking for a digital marketing agency you can trust, always know that we are just a call away. Connect with us today, and we will set things up for your business! Loved reading this post? Don’t forget to check out other informative posts on the blog!
No matter what you do or the service you offer, you need to focus on that. So if you own a restaurant you need to be focusing on food quality and customer service. You don’t need to be worrying about keywords on your website and making adjustments or posting your lunch special. Let Giraffe Marketing help you leverage time.
Must Read:
June 30, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Finding the right person in marketing is very important. Hence mobile targeted ads are paramount to success.
Mobile targeted ads are GPS-based. This allows you to reach your consumer based on their specific location using the GPS information gathered from their device. Examples of the targeting would be serving ads to apartments to get in front of renters. Another would be targeting the home and garden section of lowes for a nursery. You as well can do a radius search around a specific address or venue. Mobile targeting is compatible with 92% of smartphones. The average consumer spends 5 hours a day on their mobile device. 3 out of 4 consumers complete an action after receiving a message when approaching a specific location. 53% of shoppers visited a retailer after receiving a location-based message. (sourced by Bussiness2Community)
The benefit to Mobile targeting ads is that you are able to put your message in front of them at a specific time and place. You can drive future shoppers to your location by being in front of them when they are doing an activity that would lend them to visiting you. An example would be Honda putting a targeted campaign together targeting Ford and Kia parking lots, to lure buyers to Honda. This is a marketing technique that can drive traffic to your site.
GPS / real-time targeting is serving ads to consumers based on a predetermined location. So you are serving ads in real-time based on their GPS location. Let’s be clear we are not talking about forced ads. We are saying that due to the location of the consumer we have the ability to serve ads if they are on their phone and are using apps or surfing the internet. Not 100% of the users in that defined area will be getting ads pushed to their phones.
Historical targeting allows you to find consumers that have been ( last 12 months) to a specific location over a predetermined time and then deliver the ads to the consumer. Using behavior that historically leads to another event is how this is used the best. For example, a Realtor might do Historical GEO on high-end jewelry stores or wedding dress boutiques to find prospective homebuyers. There are an estimated 1.3 billion unique devices that are available to serve ads on currently. There are roughly 600,000 different applications on which to serve ads.
You have the ability to track how many people saw your ad which is impressions and that is the basis of your purchase. So you can control how many times your ad appears based on your budget. Then you should be given the number of clicks that are a result of that campaign. Depending on who is managing the campaign you have the ability to see where they go on your site and how long they stay. Those two metrics are very important. Edwin at Giraffe Marketing can help you set that up so that you are utilizing all metrics to judge success. Reach out to Giraffe Marketing for more information about tracking your GEO campaign.
Another tracking and metric to use is conversion zones. Many marketing campaigns offer this if they don’t talk with Giraffe Marketing ASAP. A Conversion zone is basically the best way to judge effectiveness. So consumer X sees your ad for real estate about a new home community while at Starbucks. Consumer X drives to the new community. Now on the back in we are able to track that Consumer saw the ad and took action. With that being said, understand that if the sales manager goes to Starbucks and then to work he is counted. If the consumer sees the ad and calls the husband to go look at a home he is not counted. So take this conversion zone as you see fit. But it will show that there is a correlation between seeing the ad and not.
If you are ready to make your mobile advertising campaign even more effective, or need to add mobile to your current digital advertising, contact us today.
June 25, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Your Small Business Amid the Pandemic
Weathering the pandemic hasn’t been easy for anyone, especially those who operate small, local businesses. The pandemic forced the shutdown of small retail stores, nonessential services, and other businesses across the country, and owners are still trying to get back on their feet. So are you finally ready to reopen? Here are some tips and resources to help you prepare for a strong comeback!
But before that, make sure to reach out to Edwin of Giraffe Marketing to get a huge leg up over your competition! 803-609-7653
Protect Your Financial Health
Small businesses everywhere are struggling with the financial impact of the pandemic. If funds are tight right now, make sure you prioritize financial planning before reopening.
Is Your Business Ready to Reopen?
Your business may be ready to open to the public if your regional laws allow it and you have taken steps to protect everyone from illness.
Your customers need to know that their health and safety are your top priority, so be sure to communicate what you’re doing to protect everyone.
Build Trust With Customers
No small business owner was prepared for the pandemic. If you’re struggling to make ends meet right now, you’re not alone. Thankfully, many businesses are finally able to reopen and welcome customers back, even if things aren’t quite business as usual. Keep looking to the future and you will get through this!
May 13, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Nowadays, digital marketing is a very important aspect of business, but just like everything else in the world it keeps constantly changing and evolving, using different strategies that take advantage of all the new tools available. Digital marketing is very important, because with that; you can reach a huge audience very fast in a way that is both measurable and cost-effective.
Some benefits of using digital marketing are:
And that is where Social Media Marketing is born, becoming one of the most used and yet most important branches of the digital marketing world. Social Media Marketing is basically the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build a brand, increase sales, and if it is the case, also drive website traffic. The main social media platforms at the moment are TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
But these may change since new platforms are being launched to the market every day. A clear example of this is TikTok. Even though is a new platform, it was the most downloaded app in 2020 and it reported more than 689 million active users in January of 2021.
The list of reasons why an effective social media marketing strategy or plan is necessary is endless and keeps growing daily, but let’s mention just some of them:
The content calendar is the most common, used, and effective tool that can help you when you are creating or establishing a strategy.
This will help you plan ahead of the content and the post you will be publishing on social media. It may sound a bit overwhelming at first, but organizing your content is key when designing a social media marketing strategy, and will bring you tons of benefits. Let’s not freak out planning your content does not have to be rocket science and you can do it from the easiest way, which is through the use of templates available online or designing from scratch.
One of the benefits of using a content calendar for your brand is that it’ll help to post constantly, due there’s no other option to growing organically on social media than being constant, keeping your brand giving the customers content they can consume and interact with. As obvious as it may seem, another perk is the time you’ll be saving when defining things in advance, this will also allow you to post better content on your accounts since you’ll have the time to talk and don’t miss out on important events.
But most importantly, a content calendar will help you check the content and quality of the information you’re constantly giving to the people, so you can make sure it fits and helps your brand to accomplish the desired goal, matching with the social media strategy you’ve designed.
There are multiple reasons why you need a social media marketing plan, but it’s important to mention that, without it, you and your team will find themselves posting information with no particular order, giving a messy first impression of your business.
A huge part of designing and defining your marketing strategy on social media is to know which platforms you’re going to be using, according to the results you want for your brand. It’s important to know this because a brand can have a presence on every platform, or either you can define and select just a few of them.
Choosing a platform, or many of them will have much to do with the target you want to reach with your brand. Accordingly, to the blog HubSpot, there around 1.3 million new social media users daily around the world, yet Facebook teenagers’ user’s percentage of users dropped to 67% in 2015, since this target is moving to platforms like TikTok or Instagram. Around 61% of TikTok users age are between 16 and 24.
Whether you are just starting out your business or you want to expand and grow, you must have a plan. Your marketing calendar, digital plan, your campaign strategy are your blueprint for success. You must be willing to have a plan that is either 3 months or 6 months or 12 months. Then you need to evaluate those plan’s success. By having a plan you are creating goals that you can achieve.
A huge part of designing and defining your marketing strategy on social media is to know which platforms you’re going to be using, according to the results you want for your brand. It’s important to know this because a brand can have a presence on every platform, or either you can define and select just a few of them.
May 11, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Find it difficult to choose between SEO and SEM? Make a better decision using these six critical factors. Keep reading to solve the SEO Vs. SEM dispute
SEO or SEM – that’s the question! The dispute has intrigued the online marketing community for over a decade, and it’s time we set things straight. This post will share some of the most critical factors that will help your small business make a better decision. So without wasting any more time, let’s get cracking!
Search Engine Optimization or SEO matters because Google receives more than 66,000 searches per second every day. Small businesses should invest heavily in SEO since 93 percent of all customer journeys begin with a search engine! Most importantly, companies worldwide receive a staggering 40 percent of their revenue through organic search traffic.
Search Engine Marketing or SEM gets you what SEO can’t – instant results! 64.6 percent of customers that are looking to make a purchase will click on Google Ads. Businesses that can land their ads on the top 3 paid advertising spots enjoy 46 percent of the clicks! Now that we know why both SEM and SEO matter, let’s figure out how these two online marketing strategies differ.
SEM campaigns allow you to choose the ad placement on a search engine or a website. The placements generally have an ‘ad, sponsored’ designation mentioned over them.
When you run SEO campaigns, the website link is displayed in the organic results, i.e., in sections like featured snippets, people also ask, and regular results. SEM results are displayed along with ad extensions like CTA, phone number, site links, and more.
The results of SEM campaigns are only visible to the target audience you specified while creating the ad campaign. You get to choose the demographic and the search terms you want your ads to show against. SEO results, although can be optimized for keywords, are open to every internet user.
SEM costs more than SEO since the former is a paid advertising strategy. The ads are displayed on paid search placements, and you are charged every time an internet user clicks on the ads. You don’t need to break your bank to run an SEO campaign. But, there might be expenses related to content production and optimization.
The difference between the time taken to deliver results is massive. SEM campaigns provide results as soon as you make the campaign live. On the other hand, SEO campaigns might take up to a few weeks or months to start showing results.
SEM campaigns run only till your ad budget doesn’t run. Pull the plug off of the ad budget, and your SEM results will begin to dry up. SEO campaigns might take time to deliver, but the results will last for years on end.
Lastly, it all comes down to the CTR you get through these campaigns. To be frank, SEO can give you better CTR than SEM if you can get your website to rank on the top of the first SERP. If your SEO results are not on the first page, SEM can deliver a better CTR.
There you have it. We have shared some of the most important factors that will help you make a better decision. If you are still confused and don’t know how to approach Search Engine Marketing, our friendly marketing professionals would love to help. At Giraffe Marketing, we value our customers and offer the marketing services that your small business needs. Connect with us today!
March 22, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
Website Security Facts and Must-Have Steps for Your Small Business
You’ve just launched a brand new website for your business. It’s sleek, user-friendly, and already bringing in more traffic. Maybe you even thought about SEO to attract even more customers, but have you also thought about how to secure your new website? If not, you could be putting your entire business at risk.
You already know you can find valuable marketing resources on the Giraffe Marketing website, but you can also find guides like this to boost your website’s security.
First Some Frightening Statistics
Do you know how much the average cybersecurity breach can cost a small business just like yours? In 2019, the average was right around $200K for a single security incident. That’s a huge loss for just about any business and many of those impacted ended up going under completely.
Even more frightening is that more than 50% of all small businesses experience some sort of breach within a year. You could get lucky and end up in the other half, but why risk it? Instead, you can give yourself some peace of mind by taking simple steps to secure your website and any other source of data for your business. Keep on reading to find out how.
Now Some Practical Security Solutions
Take one look at cybersecurity reports like the one linked above and this one, and you may have trouble sleeping at night. While the reports are unsettling, you need to know that preventing attacks that could sabotage your small business doesn’t have to be complicated.
Perhaps the most practical and stress-free solution is to find a freelancer who can take charge of your website’s security and put your mind at ease. There are countless cybersecurity data protection professionals waiting on job sites, so you can find the freelance help you need. If you’re not sure where to start, try reading through reviews and comparing individual rates.
Until you can find and hire an experienced freelance cybersecurity pro, there are simple steps you can take to add basic security to your website. Add SSL certificates and web application firewalls(WAFs), and then be sure to use antimalware software for added protection.
Tips to Keep Cybersecurity Costs Low
By now, it should go without saying that budgeting to protect your small business website is a worthwhile investment. Remember, a single security instance could leave you with hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. So if you have to spend a few hundred or thousand to hire a freelancer or add security layers, that’s a small price to pay in comparison.
You should also note that hiring a freelancer (also known as a contract employee) is indeed one of the most recommended ways to save money on cybersecurity. Freelancers usually come with their own equipment and supplies, which offers quite a bit of savings. You are also paying on an as-needed basis and you won’t have to worry about potential lawsuits or costly training.
One last tip for minimizing the costs of securing your website is to keep your passwords to that site secure and to make sure any staff members with access are properly trained. These security best practices shouldn’t cost you much, but they could end up saving your business.
Triage Steps to Take After a Successful Attack
Preventing cybersecurity issues is like trying to prevent any other emergency. Your best line of defense is to be prepared and put proper security measures in place. Having said this, there is no way to fully prevent a hacker from successfully targeting your website. After all, even major corporations and government institutions have fallen victim to cybersecurity attacks.
This means if you want to be fully prepared, you need security measures and a recovery plan in place. If you suspect a breach, stop using your website ASAP. You’ll also need to let your customers and/or employees know if their information was accessed during the attack.
Securing your small business website isn’t just an option. It’s a necessity if you want to protect your business from profit losses. A cyberattack could even sink your entire business, so take the steps needed to keep it secure and keep your business going strong for years to come.
Giraffe Marketing LLC can help small businesses with their digital marketing needs. Call us today at 803-609-7653 or visit our website to schedule a digital audit.
Photo Credit: Rawpixel
March 9, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
I hope that those points help you answer the question. So is the question really is “can I afford to not have a website in the digital revolution”. If you want to have a successful business and want to generate income, then you must accept that you can’t afford not too. See below some options that make the process affordable and streamlined.
Starter Website Package
2 pages
Initial site consultation
Completed website online
Initial search engine submission and optimization
$499
$100 Free Facebook ads Included !
$50 MONTHLY HOSTING FEE
BASIC Package
3-4 pages
Initial site consultation
Completed website online
Initial search engine submission and optimization
$699
$100 Free Facebook ads Included !
$50 WEBHOSTING
MEDIUM Website Package
5-6 pages
Initial site consultation
Completed website online
Initial search engine submission and optimization
$950
$100 Free Facebook ads Included !
$50 WEBHOSTING
DELUXE BUSINESS Website Package
7-8 pages
Initial site consultation
Completed website online
Initial search engine submission and optimization
$1099
$100 Free Facebook ads Included !
$50 WEBHOSTING
CUSTOM WEBSITE PACKAGES
CUSTOM NUMBER OF PAGES
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
SITE CONSULTATION
CUSTOMIZED FEATURES
DESIGNED TO FIT THE NEEDS OF YOUR COMPANY
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February 1, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
A Group is a voluntary combination of two or more people. There are three distinct types of Groups that are relevant to the QSource: communities, organizations and teams.
F3 Q Source
We naturally want to be surrounded by people we like and trust. We gravitate to groups for security and confidence.
Community is one type that of group. Persons that live and socialize together can create communities.
Organizations is the other group. Persons that is tied to a purpose and identity and have a mutual identity.
Teams is the final group. Persons that have the benefit of a Community.
How does communities, organizations and teams apply to marketing and digital agency?
Community would apply to people in the similar industry / trade group referring business or making recommendations of talented marketing successes to each other to help each grow. Let Giraffe leverage its community resources to help grow your business.
Organizations would apply to groups / industry working together to help grow the trade / industry by sharing marketing concepts and resources. Giraffe can work with with your trade group to promote the brand or industry to the consumers.
Team with marketing means clients, marketing company, creative and digital tactics are all working in unison for a common goal of success and or ROI. Let Giraffe help your team grow with a conhesive plan for success.
To read more about Groups and Leadership
Attention men, if you are interested in growing your friendships or physical strength or growing your faith there is a solution. F3 can help you encompass all of that. F3 is a national network including 2,436 free, peer-led workouts for men. Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership. If you are in the Midlands of South Carolina visit F3 Lexington.
January 25, 2021 by Edwin Gerace
I was reading some of my F3 Q Source and came across this quote that has a lot of power.
The connection between movement and leadership is critical because it presupposes a need for action, a recognition by the leader himself that the status quo is something less advantageous than some other place, a location the leader visualizes and then articulates to his followers. Only then can the leader begin to persuade them to follow him to the new place. He must describe it to them first because people will only overcome their inertia and follow someone if they believe that he knows where he is going. They won’t leave the known for the unknown, no matter how charismatic the leader is.
F3 Qsource https://f3nation.com/
This theory of movement and leadership applies to most anything you can imagine. Just like marketing you must visualize and understand the consumers journey before you can tell the story or provide a solution. Many people look for the solution but don’t take time to plan the journey to the solution. Like you parents said you must walk before you can run.
Like the agitator in a washing machine, leadership dislodges things long embedded in people’s emotional fabric, things that are impure and do not belong there but to which they had become accustomed–like a ketchup stain on their favorite shirt.
Being both Disruptive and agitating, leadership will naturally make people uncomfortable, at least until they begin to see for themselves that they are being led to a place of advantage.
F3 Qsource https://f3nation.com/
We all as natural humans don’t like the uncomfortable or the uncertain. But what most detest the most is getting outside our comfort zone. So when someone you trust or someone in authority disrupt your norm. Many business persons have a lot of passion about their business and want to grow. When they enlist the help of a marketing professional, that can create some disruption. But they must understand the undertaking and can visualize the end result and be willing to take that journey as partners.
At Giraffe Marketing we pride ourselves that we have to several things that set us apart from others. 1st is to identify needs of the clients 2nd is to discover opportunities. See Giraffe for more steps to the process. We look too talking to you soon. Free Digital Audit here.
Attention men, if you are interested in growing your friendships or physical strength or growing your faith there is a solution. F3 can help you encompass all of that. F3 is a national network including 2,436 free, peer-led workouts for men. Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership. If you are in the Midlands of South Carolina visit F3 Lexington.
Giraffe Marketing LLC serves the Greater Columbia metro area with regional clients reaching the south east. Lexington, Columbia, Cayce, Irmo, Ballentine, Chapin, Rock Hill