When it comes to copywriting, it can seem simple on the surface. Just state what you’re selling and people will buy, right? Wrong. With the level of competition that your copy faces online, it now takes a curated effort to create quality content and copy that pulls consumers in. People often dive in headfirst and then wonder why it’s not working, well below are some possible mistakes you could be making that could be allowing potential customers to slip right through your fingers. Read on for our best copywriting tips on how to avoid these critical errors.

1. Adjective Overload.

Adjective stuffing is real and must be avoided at all costs. We’ve all seen it before and it comes across like you’re trying way too hard to “write well” and ironically it has the exact opposite effect. You need to communicate with your audience in their language, and not many people would use 4 adjectives to describe anything they may be talking about. Another point to remember is that adjectives are taking up valuable space when it comes to ad copy. You have a limited amount of text to work with so get rid of useless adjectives and adverbs- “basically” “just” “really”- have no place in ad copy. 

2. Too Product-Centric & Lacking Engagement.

Copy is usually selling something- products, services, information, etc. Something to remember is that consumers are self-centred, and as they scroll past ads and articles, they’re subconsciously weighing their options and thinking “what’s in it for me”. Don’t focus your content on product features but rather how your product will be of assistance to them, and how it will relieve their pain point. Give the people what they want and show them how what you’re selling can benefit them. You want to make consumers forget that they’re essentially receiving a sales pitch, and rather paint them an engaging vision of why they could use your product/ service. Make sure to engage with your reader and connect with them, be mindful of using pronouns “I” “us” and “we” and focus more on the customer with the use of “you” & “your”.

3. Overthinking Trying Too Hard To Be “Original”.

A common mistake when it comes to copywriting is overthinking and trying to be “creative” and “unique”. Don’t forget that your goal is to sell, like the legend David Ogilvy brilliantly said: “if it doesn’t sell it isn’t creative”. Seeing as most writers and digital marketers are creative individuals naturally, it can be easy to get carried away and feel like your work isn’t creative or abstract enough. But bear in mind the purpose of what you’re writing, and avoid overdoing the creativity to the point that it doesn’t sell anymore.

4. Too Long.

Keep it short, sweet and to the point. 

5. Weak Headline.

Advertising icon David Ogilvy said:

“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

Your headline is what decides whether your content, that you’ve spent valuable time crafting, is even read or seen at all, so it’s obvious information that your heading needs to be as attention-grabbing as possible. People scroll and scroll online and pass over the majority of the things they see but pause for that one article or post that pulls them in. A good tactic is placing yourself in the shoes of the reader and asking yourself what would draw you in to find out more. 

6. Use of Jargon.

For example: “Incomprehensible, convoluted parlance oftentimes corroborates as anticlimactic” – To say that in a less complex way- “fancy words do not work” with ad copy or most content. We get it, you know big words. But when it comes to copywriting- people need to be able to simply and quickly understand what you’re saying, what you’re selling and why they should be buying, with no big strain on the brain. 

7. Wrong Tone.

It’s safe to say that the way you’d address a conservative businessman and a young college student would highly differ. Certain audiences react best to enhanced, humorous copy, others react best to a simple, professional tone. Based on what you’re selling, you have a specific audience- know who they are and how to speak to them, and establish a voice for your brand in the process. 

8. Going With The First Draft.

Any writer should know to never go with the first draft. Any written content should be proofread, revised and edited more than once. Read and reread and reread and you’ll notice things you didn’t before or find a better way of phrasing something than you previously had. Check your engagement levels, grammar and spelling, and cut out unnecessary text. Go back to it with a fresh mind the next morning and always have a fresh set (or a few sets) of eyes to proofread as well to offer feedback.

These are just some of the top common copywriting tips & mistakes that we feel should be avoided. Be mindful of them, and remedy your copy if you’ve been making some of these errors, and you should more than likely see better results soon.

Influencer marketing is an effective way to reach specific audiences. In today’s day and age, where people are glued to Instagram and always looking for the latest trend or bandwagon to jump on, social media influencers are essentially the popular kids- the bloggers/vloggers/comedians of the world, people who have set themselves aside via high-quality content published on social media platforms for a specific audience. People view these people as experts in their fields of interest, they trust their opinions and admirably look up to them, so if you get the right kind to promote your product, there will be plenty of new sales leads from followers who worship these social savvy online mentors. Suddenly you’ve tapped into your audience and they have the added incentive to buy for the mere fact it’s being promoted by their favourite influencer. Read to find out how to start your influencer marketing campaign and find the right influencer for your brand.

1. Define Your Objectives & Budget

Before beginning any marketing campaign, it’s vital to make a plan and set your objectives. And so influencer marketing is no different. Before you go shake hands with an influencer and strike a deal, be sure to be clear on exactly what the plan of action is and what the compensation is (and more so what it depends on).

Are you going to pay a set rate per sponsored post? Or offer them your product/ service for free in return for a set amount of sponsored posts per month? Another option is having them promote a unique discount code, and in this case, you can measure their success by seeing how often the discount code is used in checkouts and compensate them accordingly to their effectiveness as an influencer? This all needs to be decided and based on the budget you have going forward for this campaign. Don’t go in blind and be sure to establish KPIs. 

2. Define Your Audience

This step is massively important as you need to know who your target is, what their interests are, who they’ll listen to, and essentially who they’ll be influenced by, before going ahead and picking a random social figure merely for their large following. This is how you’re going to find the influencers that can reach your specific audience. You’ll need to complete foolproof, extensive research that will show you exactly the type of people your target market is. Using tools such as facebook’s audience insights and google analytics can assist with finding the pages/people your audience follows. Research on google will also help as a lot of influencers are easily found if you know the type you’re looking for, which you should know after analyzing your brand, product, and target market. 

3. Decide On Either Micro or Macro Influencers- Look at Audience/ Reach/ Engagement

What are Micro and Macro influencers? A macro influencer is essentially a celebrity-type public figure with upwards of 10/15k followers, (some consider it’s upwards of 100k, we feel that it’s subjective to social platforms). While a micro-influencer has between 1k to 10k followers (again, subjective). Essentially, micro-influencers would not consider themselves famous and will also accept less compensation due to this fact, but will not get your product/service seen by as wide an audience as macro-influencers. Bearing that in mind, research shows that micro-influencers, while having less reach, have a much higher level of engagement and tend to have higher conversion rates when working in association with a brand. While they have a smaller following, their content is often for a niche following who are loyal to their brand. Explore their social analytics; their level of reach and engagement, and who their main target audience is, does it match your target audience? Weigh your options and your objectives and decide from here.

4. Follow and Monitor Influencers- Their Reputation & Content

Now that you know to look for a micro or macro influence, start researching who these influencers are whose branding is in line with your own. Start following them and monitoring their content to see if the activity going out is up to par, is what you’re looking for and is right for your business. 

Explore followers to engagement rates, if someone has 50k followers but is only getting around 1k likes, they likely have fake followers that they paid for and you will not be benefitting from partnering with them at all. 

Make sure the content they post is in line with your company guidelines. Explore the reputation they carry, ensure its a positive one and is in relevance to your brand. Make sure their content is of good quality and there’s an obvious way your product/service can be incorporated into their social platform.

5. Get Contacting.

You’re hopefully down to a few options and now you’re more or less in the interview stage. Get in contact with influencers to let them know you’re considering them and ask them any relevant questions you need to know as a business if they’re interested of course. Get to know them, see how they handle themselves professionally and ask about any previous partnerships. Find out if this is a person you want to enter into business with.

Arrange a deal and monitor and nurture your influencer campaign and relationship and hopefully watch your sales increase! 

Below are some helpful steps and tips that you should try implementing to achieve ad copy that converts. Be it for PPC or Facebook ad copy, these 6 tips are the essential Google & Facebook Ad copy best practises.

1- STEP INTO THE SHOES OF YOUR AUDIENCE.

When writing ad-copy that will resonate with your audience, you must first understand who your audience is. What appeals to them? What sort of tone connects with them? Research is a vital component of any Facebook or PPC campaign. Never simply do things off the bat, always have reasoning behind your actions. Ad copy will vary based on the target audience, so before writing anything- understand who you’re speaking to, how they think, what they like and what they need. Then proceed to paint your product in a light that will prove attractive and appealing to your audience. Tools such as Audience Insights and Google Analytics are essential tools to inspect your audience and create audience personas based on solid data. Use these audience personas to justify your ad copy decisions.

2- FEED THEIR NEEDS

You’ve probably heard of, or thought to yourself, the common phrase “but what would I get out of it?” This is the most natural thought of the everyday consumer, constantly comparing and looking for the best offer to whatever it is they’re looking for. When it comes to ad copy, you’re essentially creating the best sales pitch possible in just a few sentences, while not being too sales-focused and in their face. People wouldn’t respond to that behaviour face-to-face and screen-to-screen is no different. Show the reader how your product or service will benefit them, rather than focusing on the features of your product or how amazing your brand is. Have respect for your audience and prove to them how you can benefit them, not the other way around. Make your copy personal and include the word ‘you’ a lot. After all- it’s all about them since they’re the ones doing you the favour of converting. 

3- INCLUDE EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS

There’s nothing quite like an emotional response to instil a desire for change. Hamish Pringle and Peter Field conducted a study in their book “Brand Immortality: How Brands Can Live Long and Prosper” that proves that emotion spurring ads are the most effective. After examining 1400 case studies of prosperous ad campaigns, they concluded that solely emotion content performed twice as good as campaigns with purely logical content. Think about what makes your audience feel, what they fear, what they may not realise they’re missing, and manipulate these emotions. Your product or service exists to assist a certain type of person out there. This person may have a need for your product, you just need to make them realise it, by using ad copy that induces those emotions.

4- INSTIL FOMO

FOMO, or ‘Fear of missing out’ is a pretty self-explanatory term that has come to be universally recognised due to the social media age, full of acronyms and abbreviations, that we’re now living in. The psychological term for it is ‘Loss Aversion’, and it proves that, scientifically, humans are all wired to feel FOMO. Apply this concept to your ad copy and include a sense of urgency and display special-offer expiration dates in your ad copy. This will push people to feel they need your service or product simply because it’s on sale for a limited time. I’m sure we’re all familiar with impulse buying, you’re in the supermarket and you came to purchase milk, but you see a special offer running and so suddenly it’s like your arm has a mind of its own and is throwing biscuits into your basket, even though you have them at home already. Soon you’re coming out with bags of shopping that you didn’t even want in the first place, and yet you feel content as though you’ve saved in the long run. This has been proven to work just as effectively with online marketing.

5- PRIORITIZE WHAT’S IMPORTANT

We live in a world of skimming and short attention spans. The serial position effect is a theory that proves that humans tend to best recall the first and last parts of a series/list of material, and the middle tends to be forgotten. When you read a book, watch a television show, you often remember how it starts and how it ends, right? The same theory often proves correct with ad copy. So get your point across in the first couple sentences, or in the heading, as well as including some relevant stand out information at the end of your ad copy. 

6- TEST, TEST AND TEST AGAIN

If you’re experienced in digital marketing, you’ll know that testing is constantly going on. See how your initial copy performs and adjust accordingly. AB testing, or testing via dynamic creative on social media advertising, can demonstrate and show clearly what your audience is responding best to. Aim to improve daily, and constantly be improving and testing new ad-copy to find out what works best for you. People are fickle, unique and constantly changing, so remember that at the end of the day; trial and error will be a major part aspect to writing the perfect ad copy that gets you maximum click-through rates, traffic and hopefully conversions. 

The above will hopefully give you some guidance when it comes to implementing ad copy best practices, but there is no straightforward formula, it will all come down to testing and seeing what works best. It can seem frustrating to have to be constantly modifying and testing campaigns but just look at it as a constant improvement towards higher ROI and conversions. Good luck!

You may be under the impression that blogging is a thing of the past, or irrelevant for business, but we are here to tell you why this is far from the truth. Or perhaps you look around and find that few or none of your competitors are taking part in blogging for business, does this mean you shouldn’t either?; No, this should only encourage you more seeing as you will be a step ahead of the competition. 

This is going to be a blog on why blogs are great. For business, for driving sales, for marketing and for us to write and you to read!

1. Content Marketing Goldmine- Major SEO and Social Media Benefits.

Updated content is still one of the best ways to come out on top of competitors when it comes to SEO. Writing blogs is essentially one of the best, easiest and most inexpensive ways to produce content. The more you put out there, the more you can pull in. Having more optimised content on your website means people have that much more opportunity to stumble across your website, there’s much more opportunity to up your rankings and in turn; your visibility. Performing keyword research and uploading fresh content that is optimised for keywords is the key to upping your rankings. Blogging can also be a great addition to your social media platforms; adding to your online presence by sharing links to well written blog posts. In today’s day and age; social media is a major factor that comes into play on whether consumers will be interested in your product or service. Bottom line; if your content looks good; your brand looks good.

2. Drive Traffic To Your Website.

With all the extra optimised content you have been producing via blogging; this means your website is more likely to appear when keywords are searched, and so hopefully more clicks into your site. Not only that, but placing links and hyperlinks within blogs is a sure-fire way to promote traffic to your desired platform, or internal links leading to your desired landing page. Sharing your blogs via social media, again; means opportunity for web traffic. 

3. Establish Your Brand as an Industry Leader and Expert.

It’s safe to say that people are impressionable. And most of them take what they read as fact. Generating well-written and researched blogs on your industry niche will ensure that readers will; not only trust and believe what you are writing, but will be impressed enough to come back for more. Soon you’ll be their go to source for information and news regarding your industry. 

For example, if you’re a clothing brand or retailer, having a fashion blog could be the perfect opportunity to provide information about latest trends to your readers and clients, thus allowing a space where you can reference your products that are in line with these trends; encouraging sales at the same time as being informative to fashion lovers. This allows for your voice to be heard. Acquiring a loyal readership will allow you to post information on your specific product, service or brand to be seen, making for the perfect platform for shameless plugs to your business. 

4. Develop Consumer Trust and Relationships.

Creating a good relationship with consumers is vital in creating positive brand awareness. Presenting your brand as professional, informed within its industry and trustworthy is highly important in acquiring and retaining customers. Consumers don’t follow or value brands that simply promote their product all the time and offer them nothing but sales-driven content. Offering your consumers something of interest or value is a great way to earn a positive reputation and make the user experience an enjoyable and informative one. Build trust by being a reliable source of information in your industry; and make loyal customers and followers for life. 

Blogging is an underrated marketing asset that is a must for establishing online business and positive brand awareness. 

Happy blogging!

TikTok; What Is It, Who’s Using It, How To Implement It With Digital Marketing.

What Is TikTok?

Wondering what is this shiny new toy that no can seem to put down? What is it that has people in fits of laughter on public transport or on the street with their eyes glued to their phones? That’ll be TikTok for you, the latest social media craze that has won over the masses. Remember Vine and Musically? Well, the two have had a baby and it’s been named TikTok. If not; Musically was a video hosting app with content exclusive to lip synching and dance routines which was founded in 2014, while Vine was a video hosting app where people posted 6 second looping videos of anything whatsoever that got discontinued in 2016. Well, Musically was soon bought out by a Chinese tech company, Bytedance, who then improved and adapted the app and re-released it as TikTok.

TikTok holds on to the lip synching and dance routine video stylings that musically fans were so fond of, but also has re-introduced the more dynamic and varied video styles of the dearly departed Vine. People who download the app can participate and make videos of varied lengths themselves, or can merely lurk in the shadows and enjoy other people’s content without so much as a follow. You can even check out the app without signing up for an account to try it out. This is part of what makes it such a major platform for getting your content seen; you don’t need any followers. 

The “For You Page” (what is the #FYP? The FYP echoes the Instagram discovery page but is the main feed shown, and then is personalized and customized automatically to show videos that match the type of content you’ve been liking) will show any video that’s uploaded for a certain amount of time regardless of popularity, then your videos’ success will determine how long it will be featured there for the multitudes to see. 

TikTok is an online hub buzzing with content creators uploading videos of quite literally anything and everything. From song and dance routines, skill showcasing, food recipes, comedy routines of all sorts, pranks, fashion inspiration, beauty and makeup showcases to everyday musings, stories and thoughts from people worldwide. There’s something for everyone, which is what makes it so popular.

Below is a screenshot of what the app displays when opened; the For You Page.

Who Is Using TikTok?

For now, it is mainly teens and tweens that are avid TikTokers, the Gen Z population, but the audience is spilling into older crowds too. The current audience is on average 16-24 year olds, with more females than males, but you’ll also find adults and the elderly often featured on TikTok. We in fact stumbled over a video on the For You Page of an elderly woman contributing to TikTok comedy content, who has her own account with over 250 thousand followers, and so @dolly_broadway would be considered a TikTok influencer. So, while it is most popular with younger adults, TikTok’s intoxication clearly reaches all sorts of audiences.  

Ways TikTok Can Be Implemented Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy.

• Influencer Marketing Strategy

If you don’t already know; influencer marketing involves recruiting a popular online public figure (influencer) to work with you and advertise your brand on their page for their many followers to see. Nowadays, on the likes on Instagram, influencer marketing can prove difficult if you have a small budget, influencers are charging extortionate fees for a mere mention on a story or a single post. The great thing about TikTok is that there are heaps of micro influencers for heaps of niche interests, who are new to the scene and humbler than the insta-famous. Chances are, there’s someone out there suited to your company who would be happy to help. Find someone who they themselves and their following suit your product and have an interest in it. Offering them your product or service for free, or a small monetary contribution, will more than likely guarantee their cooperation. Leave the content creating up to them, since they will know what their followers want to see. Sit back and watch your brand be revealed to thousands via TikTok influencer marketing.

• Paid Advertising

Another direction you could go with TikTok marketing is paid or biddable ads on TikTok. At this moment in time, the option for paid ads is available but not as it is with standard platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube where you can personally manage paid ad campaigns and can decide on campaigns and money spent yourself. With TikTok, you must go through a TikTok ad representative who helps you set up the paid ad campaign. Even still, the settings and targeting options are quite basic. There is only one type of campaign you can run; the in-stream video; where your ad will occasionally appear in the feeds of users. This type of campaign starts at $500 per day and has no long term commitment.

Other options are on the much pricier end of the scale such as Hashtag Challenges and Brand Takeover Ads. E-Commerce Hashtag Challenges cost brands $100,000+ (Adweek, 2019), and Brand Takeover Ads can cost between $20,000 – $200,000 (Digiday, 2019). Targeting options consist of age, gender and location. To weigh your options; while it could be worth investigating further, we personally feel observing how the app progresses with paid ad options and improvements is the more affordable and safer course of action, but getting in early while there are few ads on the platform could also provide a good opportunity for less competition for your ads and brand to be seen by many.

• Brand Awareness 

The mere fact that you can upload a video and have no followers, and your video will still be shown on the For You Page and seen by a sizable portion of people for at least some amount of time, makes TikTok a gold mine for being seen and in turn for brand awareness and your digital and social media marketing strategy. You can post anything, no matter how insignificant, and still be seen. To maximise visibility and get increased brand awareness, obviously creating good content that could go viral is important, and not as hard as you think. What we would suggest is downloading TikTok and observing the trends for yourself. See what is most featured on the For You Page and what’s receiving the most likes. Joining in on established trends such as dance routines and lip-syncs is a good safe bet but always remember; humour drives virality. Dig deep and summon your inner comedian, and get the people laughing! Or if you haven’t a funny bone in your body; hire someone to do it for you! It should go without saying; utilise your brand into your content. Or try starting your own challenge that requires the use of your product. 

The possibilities are endless and you have nothing to lose since posting is free. Good luck!  

Examples Of Tik Tok Brand Marketing Success.

There are tons of examples of marketing success within TikTok, below are 3 examples of some of the best campaigns that went viral.

• Universal Music Denmark

Record labels have a massive, if not the most, opportunity to profit from TikTok. If you have the app, you’ll have noticed a soundtrack goes with almost every viral video. Via the power of influencers and hashtag challenges Universal Music Denmark managed to have one of their new songs go viral and reach over 5million users in only 3 weeks.  

• Guess

It wasn’t surprising that a huge fashion brand like Guess received immediate success with TikTok. They joined forces with TikTok and started their #InMyDenim campaign where they challenged users to show off their best guess looks. The campaign was a huge success and their hashtag received 39.8 million views so far. Something to take from this is; hashtag challenges inspire virality, and never underestimate the lengths people will go to show off their body and clothes! Feed into the vanity! 

• Chipotle 

For restaurants, TikTok can be a great way to show off the behind the scenes of the workplace. Mouth-watering videos of food being prepared, or hilarious videos of staff having fun and enjoying themselves. An example of successful marketing from a restaurant brand on TikTok is America’s beloved chipotle, who inspired a #GuacDance to go viral. They challenged users to show off their best avocado themed dances, stimulated from the Guacamole Song by Dr. Jean. (look it up)

What this all proves is that TikTok is a social media platform with massive opportunities for business and marketing and if you feel that your target audience is using this app; you should be too! Get on board with with Tiktok, integrating it within your social media marketing strategy, and in tangent with your SEO strategy and Google Ads Campaigns.

4 Advantages of Working with a small Digital Marketing Agency

Running a business and want to improve your digital visibility? But you’ve no clue how to work social media, no idea what search engine optimization is and are clueless at running ads, and you don’t have the time to learn how to master these skills? This is where our digital marketing expertise comes into play! The time has come to get outside help, to outsource and get assistance with digital marketing for your business. Now comes the fork in the road where you need to choose who to entrust your time, money and digital forefront to.

There are many options you can take in terms of freelancers, hiring someone to work directly for you, or a digital marketing agency. If you’ve narrowed it down to an agency, we’re here to advise you on why choosing a smaller, boutique agency is a better direction to take rather than a large corporate agency. People often think about investing their trust in large corporations, since they must be proclaimed and successful for a reason, and while yes, this is a fair point, large agencies may have grown for a reason, but now that they’ve scaled to such a large perimeter, means that they in fact have less time for clients and have become impersonal with them. Smaller companies like Evolution Digital offer one on one personal experiences.

We’re small but mighty and have been helping businesses with their digital needs for over 20 years. We have the knowledge and experience as well as the time and attentiveness your business needs.

1. ACCESSIBLE, FLEXIBLE, RESPONSIVE

One of the main advantages to a boutique agency is how accessible they can be. With huge corporations, it can be tough to even initiate contact, to even organise a meeting with them to join their client list. On the other hand, smaller digital marketing agencies, like Evolution Digital, are great because we’re only a simple phone call away, are ready and are excited to help you and your business. We can be flexible with our time, quick with responses to queries and efficient with implementing campaigns. Smaller companies can implement changes you need quicker, with their advantage of a shorter chain of command, employees have the flexibility and power to assist, make decisions and communicate directly with clients. In a larger business, all changes need to go through a lot of red tape before changes, no matter how small, can be made.

2. ATTENTIVE & INVESTED

Bigger companies can have hundreds and hundreds of clients that need looking after, which often forces them to provide their clientele with the bare minimum level of work. Their goal is to often get exactly what work needs to be done that’s necessary, they can’t afford to offer extra time and attention to your business because there are so many more that need their attention, many of which may have more urgent queries than yours. They need to spread themselves thinly, to give all their clients the necessary attention, but rarely more. Boutique businesses pride themselves on offering a service that goes above and beyond what is expected. We invest time and care into each of our clients and know the business intimately. We can listen to your needs and offer a personal experience, never rushing you out the door or off the phone. Basically; we care.

3.     CUSTOM, FRESH IDEAS

Bigger companies often don’t have the time to be creative with their work, the level of work they need to do for each of their many clients can frequently lead to standard, unoriginal, template content. A huge advantage to smaller companies is that we have the flexibility, time and understanding of each client of our clients that we can offer customized, unique, fresh ideas and content. With a smaller agency, you’ll be working with a team of much more skilled people, specialised in their field. A smaller team to fill means you’ll be getting the best of the best, you’ll also mostly be dealing with the same account manager for your time with the agency, whereas in larger companies your account can be passed around often. Having the same team working on your business means the people working on your account are highly familiarised with your account, and understand your business. 

4.     BETTER PRICING OPTIONS

Smaller companies have a smaller circle of more hands-on experienced workers, this and other pricing factors contribute to the company having less expenses and less overhead. This can allow for lower pricing options for digital services that are in fact of higher standard than that of a large corporate agency who will charge a much higher fee. If you have a lower budget to allocate, it’s better to choose a smaller agency who have not only lower fees, but more effective and personalised strategies, offering you a one on one experience with a team willing to go above and beyond your price tag.

We hope we helped guide your decision and while we may seem biased, all the above are valid points on why it’s better to go with a digital marketing agency that can provide for your needs and give you the attention you deserve. Don’t forget, the best gifts come in small packages…