Category Archives: 2018

7 reasons why social media marketing is more important than ever for Kiwi businesses

You’ve probably heard that Facebook has dramatically reduced the organic (unpaid) reach of Facebook pages, so that no matter how many followers you have, only a very small proportion of those will be shown your Facebook posts.

That is true, although it is still possible for many Facebook pages to enjoy remarkable viral success.

For example, the Humane Society of New Zealand‘s Facebook page scored many tens of thousands of engagements thanks to plenty of posts of animals needing TLC and the occasional meme like this:

On a more commercial basis, Wanaka wedding photographer Andy Brown Photography is achieving excellent results in social media, with hundreds of likes for many of the company’s stunning photos:

Even if yours is one of the businesses impacted by Facebook’s actions however, that does not mean that you should abandon social media. Here are 7 reasons why social media is more important than ever for your business:

1 Your customers and prospects are there

It’s more challenging than ever to market to Kiwis. They simply don’t hang out in the usual places anymore. Newspaper circulation continues to dwindle; television viewing remains high but audiences in 2018 are spread across the free-to-air networks, tens of Sky channels and the commercial-free streaming services such as Neon, Lightbox, Amazon Prime and of course Netflix.

They can however be found in large numbers on the social networks:

Facebook has more than 3 million New Zealand members and Nielsen tells us (Nielsen Online Ratings December 2017) that 2.5 million visit that social network in a typical month (a great many of them on at least a daily basis). Average time spent on Facebook per month: 9 hours and 55 minutes.
YouTube takes second place, reaching a unique Kiwi audience of 2.3 million, who average 4 hours and 31 minutes watching videos on the site.
Instagram has 1.1 million Kiwi members, around two thirds of whom are under 35.

Collectively, social network numbers are huge. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to reach out to their audiences, especially with commercial messages; but the least the numbers are there.

2 Your competitors are there

Around the world, 2 million businesses use social media marketing to promote their products and services. No, you shouldn’t just use social media because other businesses do — but if your competitors are active and successful on social media, you owe it to yourself to at least check out your options.

3 Social Media often leads to sales

Studies reveal that 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through social media. And that isn’t just sales that the businesses would have required anyway: according to ignite social media, 41% of people who discovered an item through social media and then went on to purchase it said they’d just happened upon it and hadn’t previously thought of buying it.

4 Social Media drives awareness

According to AdWeek, at least once a month, 83 per cent of survey respondents heard about a brand or product on social media before they heard about it from any other source. And yes, awareness matters: it takes time to make sales and first they have to hear about you.

5 Social Media is an ideal place to engage with your fans

As your business grows, you’ll find it’s impossible to just invite your customers over for drinkies. Even if they really, really, really like you, your customers can’t just drop in to your business and find out what’s new and what’s happening. But they can stop by your establishment on social media and get all the goss — new products, special offers, behind the scenes exclusives.

If you stop thinking of your social media properties as a place to sell to people and think instead of the networks as a way to share stories, interact and engage, then you’ll really start to tap into the potential of social media.

6 Social Media is good for SEO

Search engine algorithms do seem to smile fondly on social media links as a positive signal, to boost the authority of your website and its pages. Sure, we don’t really know how fondly — like the Colonel’s secret herbs and spices, algorithmic factors are a closely held secret. But every little helps, especially if it’s your followers who are socially sharing the links rather than just you.

7 Advertising often costs less in Social Media

Chances are, you will have to pay to boost your posts in social media and ensure that your carefully chosen words, pictures and videos are seen by as many people as possible. But, at least for now, you will probably pay less than if you advertised elsewhere (online or off-line).

If you choose your posts carefully, and primarily promote those posts that are already showing signs of success, you can also benefit by having recipients share your posts (without you paying any more). Why would they do that? Because your promoted posts were (a) relevant; (b) interesting; and (c) worth sharing. So choose carefully — the budget you save may be your own.

Want to learn more about social media marketing and how to maximise its effectiveness? Check out our online training course.

7 Social Media Marketing Facts We Learned This Month

Social Media is constantly changing and we’re always learning new things. Here are seven facts we just came across:

1 Nearly half of your social media followers expect answers within an hour

According to Finextra, studies show that about 42% of customers who make product inquiries through social media platforms expect to get answers from brands within 60 minutes.

Yeah, achievable if you’re a small business and a social media tragic who spends his/her life socially wired. Otherwise not, unless you turn to Artificial Intelligence (eg chatbots) to meet those needs.

2 Facebook Custom Audiences targeting EU/UK consumers need explicit permission

As you may be aware, you can advertising directly to specific people on Facebook by uploading their email addresses to the site as part of a Custom Audience list. Because email addresses represent personal data, however, that information falls within the scope of the new EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You now need the explicit permission of each recipient (if they are resident in the EU or the UK) — or you risk mind-numbingly large fines. See our short book “What Marketers Must Know About GDPR” (now available on Amazon) for more details.

3 Instagram Stories are surprisingly effective

Instagram Stories — which, like Snapchat, let you share photos and videos with your followers, but each post you share expires and vanishes after 24 hours — are twice as popular as Snapchat. They’re also less curated and more ‘in the now’ than content that is posted to the actual feed, according to CMSWire, which makes them ideal for communicating informally, without the polished, super calculated shots that show up in a beautifully composed Instagram profile.

4 Most marketers now use a blend of paid and organic social media

As unpaid (organic) reach continues to drop for social media, brands are getting with the new program and adopting a blend of paid and organic. Most marketers (86%) already use both organic and paid approaches to social media, according to a recent Clutch survey, and almost 60% say they believe paid is more effective. In late 2016, surveys showed that 39% only or mostly used an organic approach, while 11% only or mostly used paid, and 35% reported using an equal mix of organic and paid social marketing to achieve their goals (per DentalEconomics website).

5 Social Media is turning previously-little-known Winter Olympics athletes into hyper-valuable superstars

The power of Influencer Marketing has been amply demonstrated over the last three months, thanks to the Winter Olympics. According to Forbes, from January to March, Brazilian skateboarder Leticia Bufoni drove 22.6 million social media engagements, which translates into $2.5 million worth of marketing and audience reach for Nike. In 2016, sports analytics company Hookit determined that Bufoni “earned much more media value online than many other major-sport female sports superstars” and was the “second most valuable female athlete for Nike.”

6 Is messaging about to vanish from Instagram?

AdNews reports: Instagram has been testing a standalone app for private messages called Direct, a first step toward possibly toward removing messaging features from the core app. Direct, which opens to the camera in the same way Snapchat does, has been available since December in six countries: Chile, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Uruguay.

Although it is officially only a test, Instagram’s rationale for building the Direct app is that private messaging can never be a best-in-class experience when it lives inside an app meant for broadcasting publicly.

7 Don’t leave Influencer Marketing until the last moment

You’re not their only client: 68% of influencers surveyed say they work on three or more campaigns in a typical month. Particularly around major events or holidays (such as fashion weeks or Christmas), influencers can become fully booked. So if you decide you want to work with influencers, plan ahead.

Stay Up-To-Date with Social Media Marketing

Want to know more about Social Media Marketing? Check out our Principles & Practice of Social Media Marketing New Zealand online training course, constantly updated for 2018:

Social Media Marketing – NZ Online Training Course

** REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2018 **

Now that social media is the place where most Kiwis spend a large amount of time online, there is a very real need for NZ businesses to learn how to make more effective use of Social Media Marketing to reach existing and prospective customers.

Here are a few of the reasons why NZ businesses need to know more about Social Media Marketing:

Two out of three Kiwi Internet users visit social network sites every day. If you’re not active in their favourite forum, will they think of you when they decide to purchase the types of goods or services that you sell?
Through those sites, they talk about what they need to buy and they ask their friends for recommendations. Are you listening?
They follow brands and organisations on the social networks, so that they can be in the know about what’s new, what’s hot and what special deals are available. If they care enough about your brand to follow you on Facebook or Instagram or the like, what are you doing for them?
They share stuff with their friends — the good, the bad and the ugly. If you’re being talked about and you don’t know what is being said about you and your products & services (and customer service successes and failures) in social media, you won’t have a chance to respond and fix any problems before they go toxic.

To help meet the needs of Kiwi businesses, we have revised and updated our well-established (since 2010) online training course which covers both the principles and practices of Social Media Marketing in New Zealand.

This is a thirteen-part online training course providing a comprehensive introduction to Social Media Marketing, from the Basics to comprehensive information on the leading social media networks relevant to New Zealand marketers.

This online training course is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular online training course provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows, flash-based presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons will be provided in thirteen parts, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables. Interaction with the course tutor is enabled through the platform software tools (with telephone backup if required).

Feedback from previous Social Media Marketing online training course Participants

“this was the best professional development course I have done in many years” – Mark R, senior Agency Exec responsible for social media
“thought the information within was outstanding” – Ed P, General Manager
“What I loved was that I started with a fairly rudimentary understanding of social media but have learned a lot – including where to find more information as I need it.” – Fiona W, Marketing Manager
“I found it relevant, informative, topical, insightful and a bloody good read. It’s never evangelical, too techy, patronising, assumes that you know too much or too little about digital and has a warm sense of humour in the communication throughout which helped faciliate the learning process for me.” — Adrienne B, new media senior executive
“Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this course! It’s been extremely enlightening” — Shayne P, design agency director
“Rapt with what I have seen of the course” — Julia R, fashion editor
“I’m really enjoying the course – learning a lot – and I know the two friends I persuaded to join us are also loving it.” — Lavinia C, designer
“Am thoroughly enjoying the content!” – Kara B, magazine co-ordinator
“I completed the first lesson today and found it really interesting and love the interaction already! I am so looking forward to the second lesson already …” — Annette B, public relations director
“I was already engaging with social media and have been doing so for about 6 years or so. Remembering the days when all of my friends were on Bebo and MySpace and seeing how this has now shifted so dramatically. But, did I know how to use social media in a marketing and business sense? No, I simply did not. This course was a great way to show me how to do that.” — Sheryl K, online marketer

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This course has been created and is tutored by Michael Carney.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THE COURSE
Any Business Owner, Marketing, Advertising, PR or Communications professional who, while they may have a fair knowledge of what social media options are out there, don’t know how to use them effectively (and have a perfectly reasonable fear of doing the wrong thing in a very public arena).

WHAT YOU SHOULD LEARN AS A RESULT OF THE COURSE:

The principles of effective marketing in social media
Which social networks are strongest in New Zealand, who uses them and what works best on each network
What social media can do for your (or your clients’) business
The best tools and techniques for monitoring social networks
How to really understand and engage with the consumer
How to create relevant, informative, killer content for your social media programme
How to define and measure meaningful numbers to determine the success (or otherwise) of your social media activities
Answering those questions that (if you’re not prepared) could kill your career
How to watch for, and adapt to, the Next Big Thing in Social Media (whatever that is)

COURSE CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION:
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA SILENCE IS DEADLY

In which we put Social Media in context in the modern world; discuss the reality that the medium is a runaway success (regardless of whether marketers choose to participate or not); deal with marketers’ biggest fears about the medium; and discuss the key principles of effective marketing in social media.

LESSON ONE: THE BASICS
I’VE JUST ARRIVED FROM OUTER SPACE. TELL ME ABOUT THESE “SOCIAL NETWORKS”.

For those a little fuzzy on the basics: we introduce the concept of social networks; talk about the main players; show you how to check out and claim your digital identity at key online sites and services; and (if you’re not already there) invite you to sign yourself up to the primary social sites.

Lesson Two: Facebook

In Lesson Two, we examine what really works on Facebook for NZ businesses. We spell out the characteristics of successful Facebook posts and identify 20 different posting formats that get noticed and get shared.

We look at:

What you should talk about most of the time on Facebook (hint: it’s not endlessly flogging the products that you sell)
The 10 most important factors that consumers look for when deciding whether or not to buy from you (and how you can improve each aspect)
The four most important services you can provide that will have consumers recommending you to their friends
What you need to know about the new Facebook Marketplace (before it gets swamped)
What Facebook Remarketing is all about (and why it can almost miraculously improve your online business)

Then we review the types of posts worth sharing, accompanied by a wide range of examples, including:

Plenty of stories from local and international businesses who are using Facebook effectively
The hotel chain that has twice as many people talking about it as the chain has followers
The radio station that has truly mastered the art of Facebook
Examples of posts that really tug at the heartstrings
The Facebook page that had 247,756 Facebook likes but managed to get 775,600 people talking and 160,000 people sharing
Practical posts that get people sharing

And many many more.

Lesson Three: Online Video

Video is central to Facebook’s vision for the future of the platform. In 2014 CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying “In five years most of Facebook will be video”. we’re not quite there yet, but 2019 isn’t very far away at all — and already online video is becoming dominant.

One of the reasons why video is so important for business: after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online.

In this lesson, we discuss exactly what you need to know about online video (especially on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube), including:

How much more likely people are to watch live video (compared to video which is not live)
The dramatically-increased performance of Facebook video posts compared with photo posts
The perceived benefits (and barriers) of live-streaming video and how live streaming is currently being used by businesses
Success secrets of online video – including the exploding watermelon video that reached more than 10 million people

Along the way, we explore:

11 steps to creating an effective video content strategy
Essential tips and techniques from the YouTube Creator Playbook
Video marketing tips from the experts
30 practical tips to help you create the best live-streamed videos
The surprising legal ramifications of live content streaming (what you don’t know could cost you bigtime)

Lesson Four: Instagram

Despite the newfound popularity of social video, images continue to be a vital part of the Social Web. In Lesson Four, find out what you need to know about Instagram, including:

What we know about Kiwi Instagram users
How leading brands are winning with this image-based network
How to use Instagram to its full potential
Smart visual content strategies
What you should include in your Instagram profile
Creative ideas for using Instagram for marketing
The importance of hashtags (but how NOT to overuse them)
Using Instagram for instant feedback (for better or for worse)
How often you should post to Instagram (and what NOT to post)
The vital intelligence you can gain, just by tracking Instagram usage
Five tips for amazing visual content

Lesson Five: Social Media Advertising

As the social networks limit organic reach — the numbers of your followers who might see your social media posts just because they follow your page — organisations have turned to advertising to communicate their messages. In this lesson we examine how to make the most of your advertising options across various social media networks — and how to really take advantage of the enhanced targeting opportunities that social media provides.

We also explore:

how to take best advantage of Carousel Ads, Lead Ads and other Facebook and Instagram options
Facebook’s Canvas, full-screen mobile ad experience
using Calls to Action more effectively
how leading advertisers are using social media
using your existing customer and prospect lists to develop custom audiences

Lesson Six: Pinterest

If your target audience is female, you really should include Pinterest as one of your social media marketing tools. Here’s how Pinterest describes itself:

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

In this lesson, we explore:

The latest local and international statistics
How marketers are using Pinterest
Pinterest’s Business Pages
Pinterest case studies, best practices and inspirational guides
What you simply must know about Pinterest’s Secret Boards
how you can make the most of rich pins on Pinterest

Lesson Seven: Google Plus

Google Plus is strategically important, even though it really isn’t much of a social network (and has, not unreasonably, been described as a ghost town). Still, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it. In this lesson, we cover:

Google Plus stats and demographics
Why Google Plus is so important for SEO — and for your online credibility
The implications of Google blending Google Plus with Google Shopping
Why Google Plus matters more than ever for local businesses
The controversial Google Plus sharing policies

Lesson Eight: LinkedIn

It’s the world’s leading network for business professionals — and if you don’t know how to use LinkedIn effectively, to conduct research, get introduced to warm prospects and to close sales, you could be leaving a lot of potential B2B revenue on the table. In this lesson, we share the latest developments and strategies for LinkedIn, including:

the marketing implications of Microsoft’s US$26.2 Billion purchase of LinkedIn
the importance of LinkedIn social selling
the three simple secrets of effective LinkedIn prospecting
what you need to know to close more sales through LinkedIn
five ways in which you (if you’re not careful) can ruin your LinkedIn profile
getting the most out of LinkedIn’s sponsored content options
why your organisation should have LinkedIn guidelines for employees

Plus Action Steps for each section.

Lesson Nine: Community Management and Influencer Marketing

Great! You have an enthusiastic following on your chosen social network. But how do you engage effectively with these followers? And how do you reach out to influencers — those who have significant communities of their own?

In this lesson we explore strategies, techniques and best practice, including:

taking full advantage of Facebook Groups
Influencer marketing strategies that work
the vital importance of customer service through social media
tips and wisdom from leading community managers
foibles and failures to avoid
identifying and connecting with Kiwi influencers

Lesson Ten: Twitter

Twitter has come under fire recently, with several potential buyers of the struggling social network operator seemingly turning up their noses and declining to bid. Even so, Twitter can still be a powerful marketing medium if you use it correctly.

In Lesson Ten, we bring you up to speed with Twitter, including:

what Twitter includes (and no longer includes) in its 140-character message limit
7 tips for maximizing Twitter as a marketing and engagement tool
the best brands on Twitter (and why they’re so successful)
Twitter’s new people tagging and multiple photo sharing options
Twitter tools that will boost your productivity
Twitter and video: what you need to know

Lesson Eleven: Tools & Tips

Next, we take a look at the latest tools that will help you manage your social media needs effectively.

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

what you can and should measure as you use social media to market your products and services
the top tools recommended by leading social media experts
smart strategies for best engagement with your followers
new social media trends to watch for

Lesson Twelve: Monitoring

DON’T SAY A THING. JUST LISTEN FIRST (EVEN FOR JUST 10 MINUTES A DAY), THEN THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE HEARING. MAYBE THEN YOU CAN TALK.

We know you want to get your teeth into Social Media fast, but you need to start by just listening. And yes, you can do it for just ten minutes a day (if you’re very focussed). In this lesson, we show you where and how to listen (and where to find the mostly-free tools to do so); what to listen for; who to listen to (identifying opinion leaders); and we talk about how things can go wrong and how to react to problems when they arise. In this lesson, we also cover NZ’s Harmful Digital Communications Act and why it’s so essential to monitor your social media properties on a daily basis. Your homework will involve listening, listening, listening.

Lesson Thirteen: Metrics & ROI

OVERCOMING THOSE QUESTIONS THAT KILL MARKETING CAREERS

Social Media in its early stages avoided those awkward issues about Return on Investment and whether it really delivered value for the time and money involved. Now times are tougher, the budgets are tighter and CFOs are asking the hard questions. In this lessons we look at the metrics that are nice to have but more importantly at the ones that matter. We also identify strategies you can follow to develop useful, meaningful measures that satisfy the C-suite. You can guess what your homework is.

CONCLUSION:
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE, AND WHO’S DRIVING?

Social Media (it seemed) arrived faster than a speeding bullet. What’s next for the medium, how do you tell, and what can you do to prepare? We look at the trends and offer some advice.

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TIMING

The next course begins on Monday 30 December, 2019.

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INVESTMENT

This thirteen-part online training course is available for $697. However we offer an Early Bird Discount of $100 — pay just $597 for bookings received by Monday 23 December, 2019.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here:

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice, please send an email to [email protected] with your requirements.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

You’ll receive our emailed confirmation of your booking. Then on the first day of the course we’ll follow up with details of your Login and Password, along with an Enrolment Key for the Social Media Marketing online training course.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please email us at [email protected]

The Power & Peril of Data

Any digital marketer working with customer and prospect data has probably always known that this day would come:

legislators are cracking down on any and all dodgy data-gathering practices.

At the moment, the legislation is all about customers and prospects resident in the UK or Europe, but don’t expect it to stop there.

If you market to the UK and the European Union, or have clients anywhere in Great Britain or Europe (no matter where your own business is based), you absolutely must get yourself up to speed with the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which comes into effect on May 25, 2018. If you don’t, you are potentially liable for fines of up to €20 million or 4% of your global turnover.

What is GDPR?
Let’s cut to the chase. What exactly is GDPR, and why should marketers care?

Steven MacDonald gives us a helpful explanation:

“The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new digital privacy regulation being introduced on the 25th May, 2018. It standardizes a wide range of different privacy legislations across the EU into one central set of regulations that will protect users in all member states.

“Put simply, this means companies will now be required to build in privacy settings into their digital products and websites – and have them switched on by default.

“Companies also need to regularly conduct privacy impact assessments, strengthen the way they seek permission to use the data, document the ways they use personal data and improve the way they communicate data breaches.

“And, because it’s a regulation and not a directive, it is legally binding – meaning it cannot be opted out of, or ignored. In fact, failing to comply could lead to fines of up to €20 million or 4% of your global turnover.”

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May we recommend that you check out our short book on the topic of GDPR (and its relevance for marketers everywhere):

“What Marketers Must Know About GDPR: Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation and its Marketing Implications” is an essential guide to the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation. It’s been written and compiled by highly-experienced marketer MICHAEL CARNEY

It’s available on Amazon for the Kindle by clicking here.

New Course: Instagram for New Zealand Marketers

Instagram is now a major marketing channel for NZ businesses. It’s time to master this social medium.

1.1 million Kiwis are reached by Instagram in a typical month, according to Instagram data (March 2018). That’s a whole lot of pictures and videos being consumed — and a lot of attention grabbed that just isn’t available anywhere else.

But Instagram isn’t for everyone. Younger audiences remain the dominant players in the channel (although older audiences are definitely growing).

Source: Instagram March 2018

If your core target audience is Under 35, you need to get active on Instagram.

A word of warning, though: Instagram is getting a bit crowded, with more than 800 million users worldwide. Oh, and a torrent of content.

Over 95 million photos are shared on Instagram daily and (regrettably) 70% of Instagram posts are never seen.

So how can you beat those odds? How can you ensure that YOUR posts are seen, liked and shared?

That’s where we can help, with this (new for 2018) seven-part course covering Instagram for New Zealand Marketers.

Here’s what you can expect to learn from the course:

Lesson One: Getting Established on Instagram

In this first lesson, we discuss the ever-changing nature of social media and how important both pictures and video have become when it comes to getting noticed. We then explore the specifics of Instagram, including its background, the demographic profile of those most likely to use the social medium and how Kiwis are using Instagram.

We also look at some of the leading Kiwi Instagram practitioners (a topic which we will return to in more detail later in the course) and how they are using Instagram effectively.

Lesson One includes:

The Power of Pictures
Instagram: a History
Who Uses Instagram
Instagram in NZ
Your Ideal Instagram User Name
Your Optimised Profile Picture
What You Should Feature in Your Instagram Bio

Lesson Two: Instagram for Business

Do consumers actually connect to businesses on Instagram? Yes, according to at least one study, 80% of users follow brands on the Instagram platform.

Why? The usual reasons that consumers give:

they like the brand and want to show their support
they want deals and discounts
they like to receive insider knowledge about the brand
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

In Lesson Two we discuss how to set yourself up with a Business Account on Instagram, we show you the stats on the percentage of businesses currently using Instagram, and we reveal some of New Zealand’s most popular brands on the platform.

Lesson Two covers:

Setting Up a Business Account on Instagram
Why (and how) you should sign up to be an Alpha tester
Scheduling posts
Instagram Insights
Tracking Clicks
What you need to know about Instagram Shopping
Instagram Brand Marketing: Case Studies

Lesson Three: Posting to Instagram

Why do some Instagram posts go massively viral (effortlessly, it seems) whilst others are just meh? We’ve done the homework so you don’t have to, identifying more than a dozen secrets of powerful Instagram photos and videos.

We also discuss the best ways to attract followers, and how to really engage with them.

Lesson Three features:

The Most Effective Instagram Creative Approaches
The comparative effectiveness of photos vs. videos
The photo content types that attract 38% more likes
Posting Mistakes to Avoid
How often you should post
The strategic importance of Location Tagging
The power of emojis
How to Set Up and Use Instagram Live
What You Need to Know about Instagram Stories

Lesson Four: Hashtags

Hashtags are the lifeblood of Instagram. They’re the equivalent of keywords on Instagram, except even more so: they’re a way of getting found, a rallying point for people, brands and causes and a way to reach out to your constituency in a highly-targeted and shareable manner.

In this lesson, we examine the hashtag phenomenon, show you how brands and leading Instagrammers are using them effectively and help you to identify the best hashtags for your products and services.

Lesson Four includes:

Optimising Hashtag Usage
Choosing Hashtags
Hiding Hashtags
The ideal number of Hashtags on each post
How to Follow Hashtags (and encourage others to do so)

Lesson Five: Instagram Advertising

If you want to take full advantage of Instagram, then at some point you will find yourself buying advertising on the platform.

Lesson Five to the rescue, with the key facts you need to know about advertising on Instagram, to ensure that you achieve maximum effectiveness.

Lesson Five outlines:

The Mechanics of Instagram Advertising
Instagram Advertising Options
Best practices for using video in Instagram ads
Boosting Instagram posts
Effective Targeting
Using Facebook Ads Manager

Lesson Six: Instagram Influencers

Did you know that 78% of social influencers prefer to partner with brands through Instagram, according to recent research?

That statistic makes it more important than ever to learn how to use Instagram effectively.

In this lesson, we talk about how to use Influencer Marketing effectively (and monitor results) and also sound some alarms to ensure that your influencers comply with their legal obligations.

In Lesson Six, you’ll also learn:

Why Use Influencer Marketing
Most Effective Influencer Marketing Strategies
Finding Kiwi Influencers
Notifications and Disclaimers you MUST use
Influencer Marketing Measurement & ROI

Lesson Seven: Instagram Tips, Trends, Tools

Finally, we cover some of the key tips and techniques that you need to know about to make the most effective use of Instagram, along with some of the recent Instagram developments and new feature testing.

In Lesson Seven, we cover:

Identifying the best times to upload to Instagram
How to Remove Inappropriate Instagram Comments
What you need to know about Instagram Rights Manager
The Best Instagram Tools
Instagram Trends to Note

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WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS COURSE?
Any Kiwi marketer, or anyone who is responsible for marketing for their organisation, who is considering using Instagram to promote their products/services.

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WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING ABOUT OUR COURSES

Here’s a sampling of the feedback we’ve received from those who’ve taken our courses:

Thanks for an informative and interesting [Facebook Accelerator] course. Your presentation held a good balance of theoretical and practical information and was clear and simple enough for a non IT Facebook novice like me to follow. There are many ideas that I have gained that I will attempt to incorporate in the overall marketing plan my team is currently developing for our brand. Facebook can offer so much more than I thought as a medium for communicating with our current and prospective customers. Julie D

I found this course fantastic, i started off knowing very little about facebook (just how to run my own personal page) to now having a thorough understanding of ALL the things you can (and there is a lot). The course format was great and allowed knowledge to be built up over time. Course length was great and this will definetly be something i come back to constantly as we develop our facebook pages more within my company. Aleisha H

I have really enjoyed the course and the way it was structured. It was informative and interesting – liked the way you incorporated slide-shows, video, statistics and different forms of media to provide information. Lisa C

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TIMING

This course begins on Monday 30 December, 2019.

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INVESTMENT

This seven-part online training course is available for $597. However we offer an EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT of $100 — pay just $497 for bookings received by the end of Monday 23 December, 2019.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here:

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice, please send an email to [email protected] with your requirements.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

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What NZ Marketers Must Know About GDPR

If you market to the UK and the European Union, or have clients anywhere in Europe, you absolutely must get yourself up to speed with the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which comes into effect on May 25, 2018.

Steven MacDonald (writing on SuperOffice), gives us a heads-up:

What is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new digital privacy regulation being introduced on the 25th May, 2018. It standardizes a wide range of different privacy legislations across the EU into one central set of regulations that will protect users in all member states.

Put simply, this means companies will now be required to build in privacy settings into their digital products and websites – and have them switched on by default.

Companies also need to regularly conduct privacy impact assessments, strengthen the way they seek permission to use the data, document the ways they use personal data and improve the way they communicate data breaches.

And, because it’s a regulation and not a directive, it is legally binding – meaning it cannot be opted out of, or ignored. In fact, failing to comply could lead to fines of up to €20 million or 4% of your global turnover!

What data is affected by GDPR?

Kristen James notes:

Personal data is caught up in the GDPR catchment: anything that could be used to identify a person, such as their name, a photo, their email address, social media data, IP addresses, device ID, cookies, medical history, etc.

This essentially covers any data that you might collect through an event, lead generation, social media and other marketing/sales activities.

The major changes for marketers will occur in email marketing, lead generation/nurturing and digital advertising.

It’s no secret that almost everything we do is tracked online and used to provide targeted advertising as we move from site-to-site. With GDPR in place, any ad provider or publisher that tracks a user’s cookies for advertising purposes will need to request permission to do so. This can be done via pop-ups, subscription requirements, etc., but will likely deter traffic and click-throughs for some publishers.

Large ad providers, such as Google and Facebook, are already making changes to how they process data and advertise to consumers because of GDPR. Receiving opt-ins is more straightforward for these platforms and we’re not likely to see a huge dip on these channels.

Changes to Facebook Custom Audiences

One area to be cautious of here is with tools like Facebook’s Custom Audiences where you can upload a customer or prospect list for advertising purposes. In cases like this, you’ll need express permission to advertise to those contacts.

From an email marketing and lead generation standpoint, current databases will need to be scrubbed and landing pages and form fills must follow compliance measures.

Overall, it will be more difficult to drive new audiences to your channels and then more challenging to convert those users once they get to your site.

Will you need to throw away your existing databases?

Your current UK/EU prospecting database may well be useless, especially if it was gathered without acquiring specific permission, as Lisa Loftis points out:

Three areas of the regulation apply in particular to marketers: consent, clarity and transparency, and profiling:

Consent
The GDPR mandates consent must be “freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous,” and articulated by a “clear affirmative action.”

This means marketing can no longer rely on soft opt-in processes, lack of opt-out or simple blanket opt-in check box for all communication and analysis activities. At best communications, campaigns, web and mobile applications must ask for and store consent on a more individualized action-oriented basis.

And these consent forms must be captured, stored and auditable, so the company can prove when consent was given and for what.

At worst, companies may need to review all customer databases to understand whether the consent they have obtained meets the GDPR requirements.

Diginomica adds:

Pre-ticked opt-in boxes don’t cut it

GDPR clarifies that pre-ticked opt-in boxes are not indications of valid consent, so these will need to be exorcised from your business. You also have to make it easy for people to withdraw consent, and use clear and plain language when explaining consent. If you think your organisation might fall foul of any of these elements, any data you currently have on file must be refreshed – meaning contacting your current database to ask them to opt in again – if you want to keep in touch with them after 25th May.

Clarity and Transparency

Ensuring clear communication to customers on how personal data is collected and used presents challenges, particularly when the use involves big data, artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML).

Of particular concern is the collection of digital and IoT data with a personal identification component. At minimum, marketers will have to answer certain questions here. Do individuals know when this data is being collected? Do they understand how it is being used, especially when artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms (where the decision parameters are less transparent) are making decisions based on that data?

Profiling

Another concern raised by the guidance document involves using personal information to profile or analyze customers.

GDPR defines profiling as: “Any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of using those data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location or movements.”

Marketing will have to prove that this type of analysis meets certain criteria.

Is the resulting decision in the best interest of the customer?
Can the customer get a clear explanation of these decisions?
Is the company taking measures to prevent discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, etc.?

Privacy must be by design in IT systems

Organisations should review their IT systems and procedures to check they comply with GDPR requirements for privacy by design, ensuring only the minimum amount of personal data necessary is processed. Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) should be completed when using new technologies and the data processing is likely to result in a high risk to individuals.

The right to be forgotten

Individuals are given extended powers over the data you retain about them under the new rules. They have an automatic right to be forgotten, so your company must have processes in place to permanently delete all of an individual’s records from their systems.

Individuals can also request a copy of their data, so you need to develop a way to gather and export this data to present to users in a clear, simple format. There will not necessarily be a flurry of requests, but you need to be prepared.

Brexit doesn’t matter (to GDPR)

Even though after Brexit, the UK government would technically be able to implement its own data protection laws, the government has clearly stated that it will maintain GDPR as a national law. So don’t hold off working through the new rules in the hope that Brexit will give you a perfect excuse for non-compliance. It won’t, and you might just end up being the first GDPR breach test case.

Challenges with “refer a friend” programs

As SuperOffice points out, in most cases, refer a friend programs work when a prospect or customer enters a friend’s email address in order to claim an offer (i.e. a discount, sale, bonus, etc). Once they have entered a friend’s email address, an email is automatically sent from the company to the “friend” without gaining explicit consent to contact them. These emails are typically “notifications”, rather than promotional.

Providing this data is neither stored or processed, then it is considered GDPR-compliant.

However, if the data is stored and used for marketing communications, then you are in violation.

To be clear: NO marketing communication is to be sent out to the referee’s email address.

The cost of failing to comply

The deadline for GDPR in May 2018 isn’t that far away and many businesses have already switched into “panic mode” to make sure they’re compliant way ahead of time. The trouble with this is that this leads to mistakes. And these mistakes can be costly, especially as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) starts to clamp down even harder on the misuse of personal data.

In fact, the ICO has already reported three incidents that involve household brand names who tried to use well-known email activation strategies to reach out to their database. The campaigns, which were sent out by Flybe, Honda and Morrisons, asked customers if they wanted to be contacted by email and to update their preferences.

How did they contact their customers, you might ask?

Well, they contacted them by email – even those customers that had previously opted out.

And this is a serious breach of compliance.

Key take away: If you do not have explicit consent to email your customers, then don’t email them! Even asking for consent is classed as marketing and is in breach of the upcoming GDPR regulations.

Who is affected most by GDPR?

If you have customers in the UK or Europe, then everyone inside your company will be affected by GDPR. But, in the marketing department, there are two roles that will see the biggest change in their everyday work.

Let’s take a closer look at who this affects and how.

1. Email marketing managers
For B2B marketers, email addresses are the lifeblood of lead generation programs.

Often considered the start of the sales process, a user that willingly gives you his email address in exchange for more information, such as signing up to your mailing list or downloading a piece of content, is known as an “opt in”.

This is in stark contrast to firms that buy email lists or scrape (or copy) them from a website. Under the new GDPR regulation, buying lists (or scraping them) will be strictly forbidden.

Ensuring users opt-in to your B2B email marketing campaigns and give consent to be contacted will be a requirement, rather than automatically adding them to your email list and then waiting for them to opt out. While this is best practice today, it will be an EU law from May 2018.

2. Marketing automation specialists
Marketing automation can be an extremely powerful tool.

But, it can also land you in trouble with GDPR if not set up correctly.

If your marketing automation system sends out emails on behalf of your CRM system, then you could be facing eye-watering penalties if an email is sent automatically to someone who has opted out.

You need to make sure that every UK/European name in your CRM database and every email in your automation system has given you permission to market to them. And, if someone opts out of an automated email sequence, that the two systems are updated to ensure that no further emails are sent. And no, having the next email already scheduled is not a valid excuse.

Should Kiwi Marketers care?

All these changes are relevant to those marketing to the UK and Europe. Will they matter to the rest of us?

YES, because global players such as Google and Facebook are amending their operations to comply with GDPR (so we’ll need to adjust our own thinking accordingly, because those new rules are likely to apply down our way as well).

YES, because (per Demandbase’s new Chief Privacy Officer, Fatima Khan):

Consent is paramount – Consent rules have changed dramatically under GDPR, so marketers need to look at places where they capture data and consent to collect data and adjust their approach to support the new rules.

The definition of personal information has expanded. Now information like cookie id and IP address are included in the definition, things that marketing haven’t previously considered to be personal information.

YES, because (if you don’t market to the UK or the EU and your marketing is non-compliant, you will need to add instructions to your materials specifically excluding any citizens of the UK or the EU (otherwise you may inadvertently become exposed to the potential penalties).

And YES, because such regulations (in one form or another) are likely to spread to other countries and legislative regimes. It’s better to be ready (with GDPR-compliant best practices) sooner rather than later.

Marketing Trends Series for 2018

Following on from the success of our Marketing Insights for 2018 trends presentation, we’ve developed a Marketing Insights NZ 2018 Presentation Series which focusses in on some of the hottest and most important NZ marketing topics and trends for 2018 and beyond.

These presentations look ahead at what marketers should expect and plan for in 2018 — based on local and global trends you may not yet have had the opportunity to examine — turning those forecasts into a comprehensive report & slide deck in PowerPoint format (with accompanying notes) – information that you can easily present to your team and your clients, bringing everyone up to speed on the latest New Zealand Marketing Insights as we accelerate through 2018. All presentations are unbranded, so you can add your own branding and comments.

Each presentation consists of at least 150 slides, dealing with as many key insights.

We’ve settled on six of the most important topics of the year ahead, starting with a comprehensive look at the New Zealand marketplace:

Our NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS FOR 2018 presentation and slide deck is now available.

Some of the key topics featured in our NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS FOR 2018 presentation include:

Social Listening
Consumers, as they do, may well already be talking about you and your brand online, and if you don’t know what they’re saying, they could do significant brand damage. We consider what to listen for, how to listen and what to do next.

Influencer Marketing
The Internet in general, and social media in particular, has brought us thousands of influencers and micro-influencers, whose hustling on behalf of a product can encourage many of their followers to actually purchase said product.

Why? Because, according to a report by Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals over brands. And, let’s face it, many brands have brought that fate upon themselves by their own less-than-trustworthy behaviour.

In this report, we consider the importance of Influencer Marketing — and explore how to identify effective Kiwi micro-influencers who will be good ambassadors for your brand.

Amazon’s Arrival Down Under
What happens when the online shopping giant arrives in your neighbourhood? We look at the good, the bad and the ugly implications for NZ retailers and marketers.

Machine Learning & AI
The machines are taking over. All hail our new robot overlords. No, it’s not Skynet — but when you ask Google a question, the answers are powered by RankBrain, machine-learning algorithms that are getting smarter every day.

And then there’s chatbots, which are making a big difference for both customer service and sales conversion funnels. We bring you up to speed on this significant technology.

Google Goes Mobile-First
In early 2018, Google is expected to launch its mobile-first search algorithm, which will give priority to mobile-ready results (hardly surprising, given the high proportion of searches now conducted exclusively on mobile devices). So what does that mean for Kiwi marketers?

Dark Social
It’s a catchy name — typically describing consumers talking to each other via messaging apps, email and other non-social channels — and it’s now a major force to be reckoned with. With dark social reported to be responsible for 84% of outbound sharing it’s an area that marketers can’t afford to ignore in 2018.

But Wait, There’s More

Now let’s look at some of the other marketing trends that will impact on Kiwi marketers in 2018.

The Big Picture
This first section of the presentation takes a look at what we can expect in 2018 from an economic and political perspective, in the wake of NZ First’s decision.

Who We Are
Then we review our demographic and behavioural profile, based on the latest consumer lifestyle studies and statistics.

New Zealand Media
We delve deeply into the new breed of television offerings as the medium continues its inexorable migration online. We examine new Internet-delivered offerings from Sky and Vodafone TV and consider the potentially-far-reaching implications for marketers.
We look at up-and-coming movie blockbusters for 2018.

Then we turn our attention to Experiences, review their importance (especially for millennials) and run through upcoming major events for the year.

Then it’s time to turn our focus to digital.

We review some of the staggering statistics as a majority of New Zealand opts for unlimited data and consider the implications for NZ marketers now that Mobile dominates Internet usage.

We delve into the latest developments in Social Media, covering Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Google Plus.

We update the latest online video numbers and then dig deep into Messaging Apps.

A roundup of key marketing technology trends follows, including Personalisation, the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, AI, Programmatic, Virtual Reality, Drones, Context Brokering, Blockchain and Wearables.

And we close with a brief look at Future Technology trends that will impact in later years.

Purchase your copy today

As we mentioned, our MARKETING INSIGHTS FOR 2018 presentation (comprising several hundred slides) is now available. It’s unbranded, for you to present as you see fit to your clients.

This presentation looks ahead at what marketers should expect and plan for in 2018, across a wide variety of industries and technologies — based on local and global trends you may not yet have had the opportunity to examine — turning those forecasts into a comprehensive NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS FOR 2018 report & slide deck in PowerPoint format (with accompanying notes) – information that you can easily present to your team and your clients, bringing everyone up to speed on the latest New Zealand marketing insights as we accelerate through 2018.

The “NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS FOR 2018” report and slide deck is available for just $597. Scroll down to order.

2 Content Marketing 2018 (available NOW)

Content Marketing continues to blossom, especially in New Zealand, as more and more brands realise that consumers are doing their own homework online rather than seeking advice from salespeople (who may — how can we put this delicately? — not be entirely objective).

One of the solutions: provide helpful, relevant content online so that when consumers do their homework, you’re able to shape their thinking accordingly.

That’s why Content Marketing has earned its place as one of the topics we cover in this year’s Marketing Insights Presentation Series.

Here are some of the issues we feature:

The power of Nearby and Micro-Moment Marketing
The ubiquitous smart phone continue to change the game. Where once longform content was king, now snackable snippets — served up in answer to queries like “restaurant near me” — have become the new currency. We explore the trend and its implications.

Content Marketing as Defensive Mechanism
So many people are talking — not always positively — about brands and companies online, and organisations don’t always get the chance to present their own point of view as part of that conversation. As a result, many are turning to Content Marketing as a means to get their message out there.

Talking to Your Own
Content marketing has also seen itself become an internal PR tool, used to communicate in a planned and more effective manner with staff, dealers and suppliers. How are you ensuring that your own people know what they should about your organisation?

Overcoming “Content Shock”
Even when marketers do invest in Content Marketing, there are challenges. One of the biggest challenge: getting heard out there, in the midst of the ever-increasing cacophony of social media posts, blogs, video and all. It’s been dubbed “Content Shock” — and we look at how to deal with it.

Content Will Get useful or Get Ignored
Smart marketers will begin to invest in bigger content projects such as creating free and robust online tools, writing the go-to books in their industries, and creating environments where their customers can build a community to share knowledge

Accountability
Content marketers will be held accountable not just for how much content they create, but what it does for the business (much like demand generation teams).

Other topics that feature in this presentation include:

Personalisation
Engagement
Data-driven Insights
Interactive Experiences
Face-to-face Opportunities & Live Events
challenges of developing engaging visual content
the talent shortage
Algorithm-driven content distribution
Live video
compelling content experiences
the emergence of AI journalism
Immersive Content Formats
Science-based content marketing
The rise of the Content Librarian
The continuing rise of paid promotion and the decline of organic reach

Scroll down to order.

4 Search Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

Next: an examination of Search Marketing Trends as we head through 2018.

In this presentation, we’ll wax lyrical about a wide ranging collection of topics, including:

Mobile Really Must Be First
In May 2015, Google reported that mobile searches had surpassed desktop searches on its search engine. Since then, the company has taken many steps which signal that mobile, not desktop, should be considered as the default user experience. Google is moving towards giving priority to mobile-centric indexing, which means that your website must as well.

Three Seconds is the New Fast
According to a study Google presented in late 2016, website that gain priority in search results will be expected to load in three seconds or less. That’s simply a recognition by Google of the impatience of mobile-wielding web surfers. As you might imagine, that has direct implications for your website structure — and whether or not you opt for accelerated mobile pages (AMP) or Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which allow a website to work as if it were an app.

How Machine Learning is Revolutionising Google Search
Google CEO Sundar Pichai laid out the corporate mindset: “Machine learning is a core, transformative way by which we’re rethinking how we’re doing everything. We are thoughtfully applying it across all our products, be it search, ads, YouTube, or Play. And we’re in early days, but you will see us — in a systematic way — apply machine learning in all these areas.”

Perils of the Google Answer Box
In 2017/18, brands will need to place value on optimizing their digital content based on intent rather than specific keywords. As you have no doubt noticed, Google has become more and more likely to offer up specific answers rather than simply links to search results.

For example, here’s Google’s answer to the query “what is the height of mt egmont”:

So how do you get chosen to be the answer to such a query? We explore the options.

Google Shopping Now in NZ
Google Shopping has arrived in New Zealand and is likely to play a larger and larger role in commerce-based search queries. We look at the players so far and examine the possibilities.

Big Data + Search = Attribution Challenges
Today’s conversion paths are extremely complex and as a result, micro-moments matter more than ever. Engaging with customers’ days, weeks, and even months before they’re ready to convert is going to be the new norm.

Reconsider Bing
Bing is a big player among the new breed of digital assistants. It’s fueling the search of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, apart from being the default search engine of Microsoft’s Cortana. Ignore it at your peril.

The Move to Natural Language Queries
Why does Google have this irresistible interest in natural language? Sure, on an ideal level, it’s because Google wants “to provide the better answer to users’ needs,” and to do that, Google must:

Understand what each web document is about (semantics);
Understand what users are actually searching for, now that more and more using their voice to search

Voice Search
Already 20% of mobile queries are Voice Search (and will be 50% in 2020, according to Microsoft). Voice Search is going above and beyond voice recognition and evolving into voice understanding. This involves several changes with respect to:

previous searches
location-based context
context based on frequently used apps
personalised information
keyword research based on spoken queries

How should marketers modify their content to cope with those new search parameters?

The Search Marketing presentation also looks at:

the big challenges of cross-channel marketing
getting to know Google RankBrain
image recognition searches
Key SEO Stats
Google’s top 3 ranking signals
User Experience Optimisation
Content Marketing That Impacts SEO
and, of course, a whole lot more

3 Online Video Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

Online Video is no longer an “up-and-coming” marketing tactic — it’s here, and it’s a powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects.

And the statistics show that it’s working its socks off, especially with younger audiences:

The 2016 Nielsen New Zealand Multi-Screen Report, covering trends of Kiwi video viewing, reveals that around a quarter (26%) of New Zealanders watch TV content through other devices (not a TV set) in an average week. Besides the TV set, the most popular devices for watching video content across a week are desktops/laptops (39%), smartphones (27%) and tablets (18%).

We offer a training course covering Online Video Marketing, but the topic has become so important that we’re also creating this special report/presentation to bring you up to speed with the latest developments in Online Video.

In the presentation, we cover:

Google Loves Video
It’s not always evident down our way, but Google gives priority in search results to those that include videos. Which spells opportunity: add videos to your pages, optimised for relevant keywords, and feel the Google love.

Customers Now Expect Moving Pictures
When you realize that 25% of consumers will lose interest in your brand if you don’t have a video explaining your product or service, you’ll quickly decide the videos are really important for your brand as well.

The Transformative Nature of Live Video
Facebook and YouTube have gone all-in on live video, giving live content pride of place on their respective networks. If you can create relevant, entertaining live video for your brand, this just could be the most effective weapon in your marketing arsenal.

One Size No Longer Fits All
Gone are the days when you could make one video on Youtube and share it all over social media. Nowadays, it’s vital to create content that’s relevant to each platform.

Vertical Videos Are A Thing
The near-universal adoption of smartphones, as both capture and viewing mechanism, means that Vertical Video is now a valid — and desirable — format. But you do need to develop content that’s optimised for that format.

More Videos Will Be Designed to Play Without Sound
According to Digiday, 85 percent of Facebook video is watched without sound. Suddenly, that stark statistic underlines the necessity of providing effective captions for your videos. In this section we reveal a surprisingly easy way to create captions for Facebook.

Other topics featured in this presentation include:

the steady growth of VR and 360 degree videos
how brands have already started integrating videos into their website design
the unexpected value of video voicemail
skyrocketing Video Advertising budgets
the accelerated growth of Video Retargeting
Increase in A/B Video Testing
Crisis Management and Video
the viral ingredients of successful videos

All that and the latest breaking news and trends, in the Online Video Marketing NZ 2018 report and slide presentation, coming soon. Again, to order see the available packages below.

5 Social Media Marketing Trends 2018 (coming soon)

Now we turn the spotlight on social media trends for 2018, inspired by an infographic from Filmora (available here).

1 Video

First on the list is the least surprising of all: social goes video. Yep, all those moving pictures clamouring for attention on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram (now joined by LinkedIn, which has recently added its own native video offerings) will continue to get all the attention.

What that means for marketers: if you are not using video in social media, you are much less likely to get noticed — and even less likely to get remembered. According to data gathered by Filmora, 95% of video messages will be retained by consumers while only 10% of text-based posts will enjoy that privilege.

Oh, and if you can, make those videos live. Facebook Live videos are watched three times longer than regular videos.

2 Ephemeral is Hot

The move to short-lived content, pioneered by Snapchat and shamelessly copied by Instagram Stories, will continue to be a thing in 2018.

Why? There are a few factors at work, including:

increased concentration on the actual post content, precisely because it will disappear
fear of missing out, because the messages are limited and time-constrained
users can afford not to worry about little things like spelling, grammar or accuracy, because their messages don’t hang around long enough to be critiqued

3 Chatbots are multiplying

There are now some 12,000 active chatbots on Facebook Messenger and it is estimated that 30% of our chat conversations will be with the little creatures this year.

Why? Because, in many cases they are smarter than humans — at least when it comes to talking about what they know (are programmed) to chat about.

If you already know the most frequently asked questions about your organisation, a chatbot is the simplest, most efficient and friendliest (!) way to share that information with your prospects and customers.

4 Influencer Marketing is growing strongly

Influencer Marketing is the fastest-growing marketing channel, according to Filmora data.

That’s because, with all due respect to traditional media channels, Influencer Marketing is (or can/should be):

more targeted
more credible
more affordable

Influencer Marketing can also be more successful, according to 94% of those who use the channel.

And, since these days consumers put more trust in friends, whanau and peers, Influencer Marketing is an easy approach to gather endorsements that hopefully turn into sales.

5 Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Yeah, we may never actually arrive at the long-promised “year of the mobile“, but this is pretty darned close.

More than 90% of Kiwis under 55 now have smartphones and, guess what, we actually use them — most especially, for checking in on social media many times a day.

And yes, that means that any marketing or promotion that you do on social media needs to be mobile-friendly — and, if you are sending anybody from a social medium to your own website, that better be mobile-friendly as well.

All that and of course much more, in the Social Media Marketing NZ Trends 2018 report and slide presentation, coming out soon. Again, to order this presentation, see the available packages below.

6 Influencer Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

Our next special report/presentation deals with the fast-growing topic of Influencer Marketing.

If you’re not sure exactly what Influencer Marketing is, allow TapInfluence to explain:

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire / hire / pay Influencers to get out the word for you.

Influencer Marketing has evolved from humble origins to end up as the preferred buzzword to describe the current iteration of a well-established and familiar marketing tool: using “celebrities” to promote your products.

There’s a bit more to Influencer Marketing than just plunking a few celebrities into a TV commercial, however. Today’s definition of “celebrities” (Influencers) has broadened to encompass those who are, in the words of Andy Warhol, “famous for 15 minutes”.

At the same time, the number of celebrity followers that an Influencer might attract has shrunk from hundreds of thousands to, sometimes mere hundreds (whose celebrity leaders have been accordingly dubbed micro-influencers).

The Internet in general, and social media in particular, has brought us thousands of influencers and micro-influencers, whose hustling on behalf of a product can encourage many of their followers to actually purchase said product.

Anyway, here’s how Google Trends depicts Influencer Marketing’s growth in search popularity over the last few years:

How hot is Influencer Marketing, really?

Here’s one indicator: 84% of US marketers are planning to use Influencer Marketing this year (according to Acorn Influence).

So, to bring you up to speed with Influencer Marketing, we’re producing this special presentation, whose topics include:

The Seven Most Effective Influencer Marketing Strategies
As it turns out, there’s a bit more to Influencer Marketing than simply tracking down people who seem to have a lot of followers in social media. We share proven strategies which will help lessen potential heartache.

How to Choose the Influencers Who are Right for You
Not all Influencers are created equal (and there are more than a few pretenders to the throne out there). We discuss what to look for (and what to avoid) — and why you should proceed slowly as you assemble your Influencer team.

Best Practices on Connecting with Influencers
Once you’ve determined the most appropriate Influencers for your brand, it’s time to reach out and connect. If you’re not careful though, and haven’t thought through the right approach, you might be turned down — or end up paying too much. We share lessons from others that will help ease the way.

Where and How to Find Kiwi Influencers
There are surprising numbers of influential New Zealanders who have attracted a wide following through their efforts on YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and elsewhere. We show you how to find them — and also sound a few cautionary notes.

In the Influencer Marketing NZ Presentation, we also examine:

the top Power Words to use
creative ways to incentivize influencers
Influencer Marketing measurement, KPIs & ROI
the four Rs of effective Influencer Marketing
how to run successful Influencer Marketing campaigns
what Google’s purchase of Famebit tells us about the future of Influencer Marketing
why major players are now buying Influencers
Influencer Case Studies
Influencer Marketing Tools
why Influencer campaigns fail
the fastest way to destroy your Influencer Marketing efforts
twenty trends that will shape Influencer Marketing in the next year

All that and of course much more, in the Influencer Marketing NZ 2018 report and slide presentation, coming out soon. Again, to order this presentation, see the available packages below.

Available Marketing Insights 2018 Packages

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BILLING OPTIONS

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to [email protected] with details of your request. (The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Courses in your transaction and on your credit card statement).

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

1. Your purchase will be confirmed by email (if you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours, feel free to email [email protected]).
2. If you selected anything other than the “all presentations” option, we will email you to determine which presentation(s) you wish to purchase.
3. As each presentation is published, download instructions will be provided to you by email.

Monitor Your Competitors in Social Media

Social Media is now an essential part of everyday life in New Zealand, with at least three quarters of NZ consumers active in one or other of the social media channels (World Internet Project NZ 2015 data).

Tens of millions of advertising dollars are being spent in social media by New Zealand advertisers, according to IAB NZ reports.

But how much do you know about how your brand is faring in social media? What do you know about how your competitors are using the channels?

To fill the knowledge gap, we have developed an extensive Social Media Monitor, to report on:

Social Media activity over the most recent 12 months for your brand and its key competitors, across six key social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter)
The most engaging posts across key social media for each brand

The Social Media Monitor is intended to be both a record of what’s been happening and a way to identify opportunities for future social media usage.

The data is gathered using various software tools we’ve had developed, and then commentary and observation is added (based on our forty-plus years’ experience in advertising and marketing, working on virtually every business sector).

We’ve assembled a prototype report, which you can download here (NB this is a prototype, for demonstration purposes), so only some of the data is real; the rest is placeholding content to illustrate the concept).

Each Social Media Monitor covers:

A summary of social media performances for the key brands in your product category, across the six primary social channels:

For each brand, a month by month analysis for the preceding 12 months of Facebook posting activity and engagement:

For each brand, a month by month analysis for the preceding 12 months of Instagram posting activity and engagement:

For each brand, a month by month analysis for the preceding 12 months of Twitter posting activity and engagement:

We also provide summaries of brand activity (where appropriate) on Pinterest, Linkedin and YouTube.

In addition, we drill down into each social medium and identify the top posts that have attracted consumer engagement.

Where available, we’ll also include samples of recent Facebook and/or Instagram advertising by the brand.

All in all, each Social Media Monitor provides a comprehensive summary of the last twelve months’ social media activity by your brand and your competitors.

Social Media Monitor reports can be created for any product category in any country. A few sectors we’ve identified include:

Automotive Manufacturers
Banking
Major Retail Chains
Airlines
Fuel Companies
Power Companies
Telecommunications
Beverages (non-alcoholic)
Hardware/Home Improvement
Fast Food (Quick Service Restaurants)
Appliance Manufacturers
Health & Beauty
Clothing
Financial Services
IT providers
Charitable Organisations
Insurance Companies
Real Estate Agencies
Travel & Tourism

Social Media Monitor pricing is based on the number of brands analysed, at $250 per brand, plus $495 for industry overview and analysis.

If you would like to know more about the Social Media Monitor, email us at [email protected].

Social Media Trends for 2018

Tis (nearly) the season to be prognosticating, as we head towards the usual end of year chaos.

We have already talked about some of the marketing trends we expect to hold centre stage in 2018. Now we turn the spotlight on social media trends for 2018, inspired by an infographic from Filmora (available here).

1 Video

Oh, and if you can, make those videos live. Facebook Live videos are watched three times longer than regular videos.

2 Ephemeral is Hot

The move to short-lived content, pioneered by Snapchat and shamelessly copied by Instagram Stories, will continue to be a thing in 2018.

Why? There are a few factors at work, including:

increased concentration on the actual post content, precisely because it will disappear
fear of missing out, because the messages are limited and time-constrained
users can afford not to worry about little things like spelling, grammar or accuracy, because their messages don’t hang around long enough to be critiqued

3 Chatbots are multiplying

There are now some 12,000 active chatbots on Facebook Messenger and it is estimated that 30% of our chat conversations will be with the little creatures next year.

Why? Because, in many cases they are smarter than humans — at least when it comes to talking about what they know (are programmed) to chat about.

If you already know the most frequently asked questions about your products and services, a chatbot is the simplest, most efficient and friendliest (!) way to share that information with your prospects and customers.

4 Influencer Marketing is growing strongly

Influencer Marketing is the fastest-growing marketing channel, according to Filmora data.

That’s because, with all due respect to traditional media channels, Influencer Marketing is (or can/should be):

more targeted
more credible
more affordable

Influencer Marketing can also be more successful, according to 94% of those who use the channel.

And, since these days consumers put more trust in friends, whanau and peers, Influencer Marketing is an easy approach to gather endorsements that hopefully turn into sales.

5 Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Yeah, we may never actually arrive at the long-promised “year of the mobile“, but this is pretty darned close.

More than 90% of Kiwis under 55 now have smartphones and, guess what, we actually use them — most especially, for checking in on social media many times a day.

Want to know a whole lot more about NZ Marketing Trends for 2018? Check out our upcoming slide presentation.

Need to know more about Social Media Marketing for New Zealand? One of our online training courses might be just what you need.

Oh, and if you don’t have Mobile Marketing all figured out already, we have a course for that as well.

Revised & Updated: Social Media Marketing online training course

We’ve just revised and updated our Social Media Marketing online training course for 2018. Here are the details:

The Principles & Practice of Social Media Marketing

Here are a few of the reasons why NZ businesses need to know more about Social Media Marketing:

Two out of three Kiwi Internet users visit social network sites every day. If you’re not active in their favourite forum, will they think of you when they decide to purchase the types of goods or services that you sell?
Through those sites, they talk about what they need to buy and they ask their friends for recommendations. Are you listening?
They follow brands and organisations on the social networks, so that they can be in the know about what’s new, what’s hot and what special deals are available. If they care enough about your brand to follow you on Facebook or Instagram or the like, what are you doing for them?
They share stuff with their friends — the good, the bad and the ugly. If you’re being talked about and you don’t know what is being said about you and your products & services (and customer service successes and failures) in social media, you won’t have a chance to respond and fix any problems before they go toxic.

Feedback from previous Social Media Marketing online training course Participants

“this was the best professional development course I have done in many years” – Mark R, senior Agency Exec responsible for social media
“thought the information within was outstanding” – Ed P, General Manager
“What I loved was that I started with a fairly rudimentary understanding of social media but have learned a lot – including where to find more information as I need it.” – Fiona W, Marketing Manager
“I found it relevant, informative, topical, insightful and a bloody good read. It’s never evangelical, too techy, patronising, assumes that you know too much or too little about digital and has a warm sense of humour in the communication throughout which helped faciliate the learning process for me.” — Adrienne B, new media senior executive
“Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this course! It’s been extremely enlightening” — Shayne P, design agency director
“Rapt with what I have seen of the course” — Julia R, fashion editor
“I’m really enjoying the course – learning a lot – and I know the two friends I persuaded to join us are also loving it.” — Lavinia C, designer
“Am thoroughly enjoying the content!” – Kara B, magazine co-ordinator
“I completed the first lesson today and found it really interesting and love the interaction already! I am so looking forward to the second lesson already …” — Annette B, public relations director
“I was already engaging with social media and have been doing so for about 6 years or so. Remembering the days when all of my friends were on Bebo and MySpace and seeing how this has now shifted so dramatically. But, did I know how to use social media in a marketing and business sense? No, I simply did not. This course was a great way to show me how to do that.” — Sheryl K, online marketer

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This course has been created and is tutored by Michael Carney.

WHAT YOU SHOULD LEARN AS A RESULT OF THE COURSE:

The principles of effective marketing in social media
Which social networks are strongest in New Zealand, who uses them and what works best on each network
What social media can do for your (or your clients’) business
The best tools and techniques for monitoring social networks
How to really understand and engage with the consumer
How to create relevant, informative, killer content for your social media programme
How to define and measure meaningful numbers to determine the success (or otherwise) of your social media activities
Answering those questions that (if you’re not prepared) could kill your career
How to watch for, and adapt to, the Next Big Thing in Social Media (whatever that is)

COURSE CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION:
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA SILENCE IS DEADLY

LESSON ONE: THE BASICS
I’VE JUST ARRIVED FROM OUTER SPACE. TELL ME ABOUT THESE “SOCIAL NETWORKS”.

Lesson Two: Facebook

We look at:

What you should talk about most of the time on Facebook (hint: it’s not endlessly flogging the products that you sell)
The 10 most important factors that consumers look for when deciding whether or not to buy from you (and how you can improve each aspect)
The four most important services you can provide that will have consumers recommending you to their friends
What you need to know about the new Facebook Marketplace (before it gets swamped)
What Facebook Remarketing is all about (and why it can almost miraculously improve your online business)

Then we review the types of posts worth sharing, accompanied by a wide range of examples, including:

Plenty of stories from local and international businesses who are using Facebook effectively
The hotel chain that has twice as many people talking about it as the chain has followers
The radio station that has truly mastered the art of Facebook
Examples of posts that really tug at the heartstrings
The Facebook page that had 247,756 Facebook likes but managed to get 775,600 people talking and 160,000 people sharing
Practical posts that get people sharing

And many many more.

Lesson Three: Online Video

One of the reasons why video is so important for business: after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online.

In this lesson, we discuss exactly what you need to know about online video (especially on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube), including:

How much more likely people are to watch live video (compared to video which is not live)
The dramatically-increased performance of Facebook video posts compared with photo posts
The perceived benefits (and barriers) of live-streaming video and how live streaming is currently being used by businesses
Success secrets of online video – including the exploding watermelon video that reached more than 10 million people

Along the way, we explore:

11 steps to creating an effective video content strategy
Essential tips and techniques from the YouTube Creator Playbook
Video marketing tips from the experts
30 practical tips to help you create the best live-streamed videos
The surprising legal ramifications of live content streaming (what you don’t know could cost you bigtime)

Lesson Four: Instagram

Despite the newfound popularity of social video, images continue to be a vital part of the Social Web. In Lesson Four, find out what you need to know about Instagram, including:

What we know about Kiwi Instagram users
How leading brands are winning with this image-based network
How to use Instagram to its full potential
Smart visual content strategies
What you should include in your Instagram profile
Creative ideas for using Instagram for marketing
The importance of hashtags (but how NOT to overuse them)
Using Instagram for instant feedback (for better or for worse)
How often you should post to Instagram (and what NOT to post)
The vital intelligence you can gain, just by tracking Instagram usage
Five tips for amazing visual content

Lesson Five: Social Media Advertising

We also explore:

how to take best advantage of Carousel Ads, Lead Ads and other Facebook and Instagram options
Facebook’s Canvas, full-screen mobile ad experience
using Calls to Action more effectively
how leading advertisers are using social media
using your existing customer and prospect lists to develop custom audiences

Lesson Six: Pinterest

If your target audience is female, you really should include Pinterest as one of your social media marketing tools. Here’s how Pinterest describes itself:

In this lesson, we explore:

The latest local and international statistics
How marketers are using Pinterest
Pinterest’s Business Pages
Pinterest case studies, best practices and inspirational guides
What you simply must know about Pinterest’s Secret Boards
how you can make the most of rich pins on Pinterest

Lesson Seven: Google Plus

Google Plus stats and demographics
Why Google Plus is so important for SEO — and for your online credibility
The implications of Google blending Google Plus with Google Shopping
Why Google Plus matters more than ever for local businesses
The controversial Google Plus sharing policies

Lesson Eight: LinkedIn

the marketing implications of Microsoft’s US$26.2 Billion purchase of LinkedIn
the importance of LinkedIn social selling
the three simple secrets of effective LinkedIn prospecting
what you need to know to close more sales through LinkedIn
five ways in which you (if you’re not careful) can ruin your LinkedIn profile
getting the most out of LinkedIn’s sponsored content options
why your organisation should have LinkedIn guidelines for employees

Plus Action Steps for each section.

Lesson Nine: Community Management and Influencer Marketing

In this lesson we explore strategies, techniques and best practice, including:

taking full advantage of Facebook Groups
Influencer marketing strategies that work
the vital importance of customer service through social media
tips and wisdom from leading community managers
foibles and failures to avoid
identifying and connecting with Kiwi influencers

Lesson Ten: Twitter

In Lesson Ten, we bring you up to speed with Twitter, including:

what Twitter includes (and no longer includes) in its 140-character message limit
7 tips for maximizing Twitter as a marketing and engagement tool
the best brands on Twitter (and why they’re so successful)
Twitter’s new people tagging and multiple photo sharing options
Twitter tools that will boost your productivity
Twitter and video: what you need to know

Lesson Eleven: Tools & Tips

Next, we take a look at the latest tools that will help you manage your social media needs effectively.

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

what you can and should measure as you use social media to market your products and services
the top tools recommended by leading social media experts
smart strategies for best engagement with your followers
new social media trends to watch for

Lesson Twelve: Monitoring

DON’T SAY A THING. JUST LISTEN FIRST (EVEN FOR JUST 10 MINUTES A DAY), THEN THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE HEARING. MAYBE THEN YOU CAN TALK.

Lesson Thirteen: Metrics & ROI

OVERCOMING THOSE QUESTIONS THAT KILL MARKETING CAREERS

CONCLUSION:
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE, AND WHO’S DRIVING?

Social Media (it seemed) arrived faster than a speeding bullet. What’s next for the medium, how do you tell, and what can you do to prepare? We look at the trends and offer some advice.

————————

TIMING

The next course begins on Monday 30 December, 2019.

————————

INVESTMENT

This thirteen-part online training course is available for $697. However we offer an Early Bird Discount of $100 — pay just $597 for bookings received by Monday 23 December, 2019.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here:

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice, please send an email to [email protected] with your requirements.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please email us at [email protected]

Are You Ready for Amazon’s Arrival Down Under?

As you may have heard, the online shopping gorilla Amazon will be arriving in Australia soon (perhaps as early as February 2018, according to some sources).

According to the NZ Herald:

After much speculation on its first Australian site, online retail giant Amazon appears to have settled on Melbourne, reportedly leasing its first distribution centre in the outer southeastern suburbs.

The Australian Financial Review reported that Amazon has agreed to lease the 24,387sq m former Bunnings distribution centre from Pellicano Group, one of Melbourne’s largest privately owned construction, development and investment businesses.

The site in Dandenong South is described as “the best distribution centre available in Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs”.

The building sits on 7.7ha and became empty when Bunnings moved to a new warehouse.

At the moment, the Amazon.com.au website is minimalist, essentially offering Kindle ebooks, audio files, photos & mobile apps — i.e. just digital files and not much else.

However once the Amazon Australian warehousing and distribution facilities are operational, the shopping giant intends to offer its full range:

Amazon confirmed in 2017 that it would be launching its full offering in Australia – including Amazon MarketPlace, Amazon Prime Now and eventually Amazon Pantry and Amazon Fresh.

The online giant, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, has promised cheaper prices, faster delivery times and access to a greater range of products.

Amazon’s arrival is a big, big deal — not just for Australian retailers but for Kiwi businesses as well.

In March 2016, Richard Goyder, managing director of Wesfarmers – which owns the likes of Bunnings, Kmart and Coles among others – grimly predicted Amazon’s arrival in Australia would “eat all our [retailers’] breakfasts, lunches and dinners”.

Kiwi commentators have also warned Amazon’s arrival will affect the country’s retail sales.

What’s the big deal? Why should Kiwi retailers and online sellers be concerned?

Because more than half of New Zealanders are already comfortable buying products online. Here’s why people shop online, according to a FoamyMedia graphic:

Amazon USA already ticks most of those boxes for Kiwi consumers. The only downside is the cost of shipping products from the US to New Zealand, which for some products can outweigh the fiscal benefits of lower purchase prices.

Once Amazon is set up in Australia, however, it should be much cheaper to ship products from there to New Zealand — and it’s entirely possible that Amazon will offer its Prime membership package (free shipping on every Amazon-warehoused product for $99 a year) to New Zealanders as well as Australians.

American consumers already know the score, and visit Amazon in ever-increasing numbers. 33.8% of retail website visits during November and December 2016 were on Amazon, according to Internet Retailer. Expect similar numbers down our way once the mega-shopping-destination sets up shop in Australia.

How Can Kiwi Businesses Compete With Amazon?

We answer this question in detail in the latest version of our Mastering eCommerce course, and in our new Social Media Marketing for Retailers and Online Sellers course, but here are some suggestions:

1 Don’t Beat Them, Join Them

Amazon will actually sell your products for you, if you list them on Amazon, and will even handle the fulfilment if you sign up for their FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) program. Refer to our courses for details.

(NB You will need to have representation rights for your products in Australia as well as New Zealand, which may cause a problem for some).

2 Go Niche & Market Your Content

As Kissmetrics notes:

Amazon’s weakness is in its greatness. It has everything for sale. Amazon can’t be good at everything.

You? You don’t sell everything. You just sell a few things. (At least you should.)

You will have a much harder time trying to rank for a lot of different keywords, even if they are all sort of in the same niche. Whatever you sell, Amazon probably has a few more variations, sizes, colours, and features.

It’s extremely important to narrow your ecommerce niche and dominate it.

How do you dominate it? Through content marketing, of course.

Amazon.com doesn’t do content marketing. They buy PPC, they do conversion optimization, they do SEO, they release products, they claim more verticals, and they do a lot of other things.

But they don’t do content marketing very well at all. They don’t even do email marketing that great!

This leaves you with a huge opportunity to go into your niche, content market the heck out of it, and start to rank for all kinds of awesome keywords.

Need to know more about Content Marketing? Check out our presentation on the topic or our new Content Marketing course.

3 Focus on Speed & Convenience

Melbourne is close, but it’s not next door. Goods still take time to cross the ditch. If you’re a New Zealand retailer with bricks and mortar stores, remind your customers that they can buy online and pick up instore (which they can, right?)

VendHQ sums up this option:

Online shoppers almost always have to wait at least a couple of days for their purchases to arrive (or pay handsomely for overnight shipping).

As a brick-and-mortar merchant, you can use this to your advantage by highlighting your ability to provide instant gratification to customers. When communicating with shoppers, emphasize the fact that they can walk out of your store with their items instead of having to wait or pay for shipping.

When selling speed and convenience, the best people to market to are those who are right in your neighborhood–you know, those who are just a few minutes away from your store. Deborah Sweeney, CEO at MyCorporation.com, advises retailers to put themselves in front of local customers. “Brick and mortar stores in smaller cities and towns still have convenience on their side. Remember that even with Amazon Prime, free shipping still takes two days,” she says.

“Make yourself a visible, local presence both in real life and online. That means using whatever traditional marketing tactics work to ensure people locally know about your company and updating your online presence so customers can easily find your store during the research phase of the purchase process.”

NZ Post, not unexpectedly, has launched a special unlimited shipping offer to begin its competitive response to the imminent Amazon threat. NZ Post has just announced the offer, in an email to customers of its YouShop international shopping service:

As a YouShop customer, we know you love shopping online, so we’d like to invite you to take part in an exclusive 2-month shipping trial with NZ Post’s new service Shipmate.

For a one-off payment of $12, you’ll enjoy unlimited shipping from four great New Zealand online retailers – The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Torpedo 7 and Noel Leeming. This introductory price covers most parcels, but naturally some restrictions including weight, size and distance apply.

The trial runs from 14 August to 13 October and is only available to the first 5,000 Kiwis who sign up, so get in quick and pick up any items you’ve been saving in your online shopping cart.

It’s a start — although, in our view, if you’re already buying stuff from offshore stores and shipping them to New Zealand via YouShop, you’re probably not the best prospect for this new service.

For more tips on how to compete with Amazon, remember to check out:

our Mastering eCommerce course, which covers selling effectively online
our new Social Media Marketing for Retailers and Online Sellers course, which highlights the best ways to use social media to promote and sell your products online
our Content Marketing presentation, or our new Content Marketing course, which tell you what you need to know about using content marketing to compete

SocialMedia.org.nz

Social Media Training Courses

Category Archives: 2018

New Course: Instagram for New Zealand Marketers

Instagram is now a major marketing channel for NZ businesses. It’s time to master this social medium.

Over 95 million photos are shared on Instagram daily and (regrettably) 70% of Instagram posts are never seen.

Lesson One: Getting Established on Instagram

Lesson Two: Instagram for Business

Lesson Three: Posting to Instagram

Lesson Four: Hashtags

Lesson Five: Instagram Advertising

Lesson Six: Instagram Influencers

Lesson Seven: Instagram Tips, Trends, Tools

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here:

Marketing Trends Series for 2018

But Wait, There’s More

Purchase your copy today

2 Content Marketing 2018 (available NOW)

4 Search Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

3 Online Video Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

5 Social Media Marketing Trends 2018 (coming soon)

6 Influencer Marketing 2018 (coming soon)

How hot is Influencer Marketing, really?

Available Marketing Insights 2018 Packages

Are You Ready for Amazon’s Arrival Down Under?

How Can Kiwi Businesses Compete With Amazon?

1 Don’t Beat Them, Join Them

2 Go Niche & Market Your Content

3 Focus on Speed & Convenience