Ask the Experts: What Are Your Best Marketing Tips for 2016?

2016 is here, which means many of you have probably already made your New Year’s Resolutions, but did amping up your 2016 marketing efforts make the list?

We focused quite a bit on how to create the perfect website at the end of 2015. Well, for all you wedding pros who now have that perfect site, it’s time to drive some major traffic to it!

We asked some marketing experts what their best tips were to help facilitate rapid growth in 2016 via marketing so we could share them all with you.

Make 2016 your best marketing year yet with these 6 Tips and Tools to Amp Up Your Marketing Game in 2016.

1. Position yourself as an industry expert.

When couples search for a wedding vendor, they are seeking one major thing (and no, it’s not the best price!)… trust!

One of the best ways to convey a sense of trust with potential clients is to make them feel safe with you; and who wouldn’t feel safe knowing that their wedding is in the hands of an industry expert and pro?

Gert Harringh, Head of Digital Marketing at Oneclickhere suggests positioning yourself as an expert in your industry with Quora.com.

Quora is a website where people can ask questions and get answers from trusted sources (think of Wikipedia, but with correct and knowledgeable answers). Quora has the ability to drive more traffic to your website because providing valuable answers to people’s questions with relevant links to your site positions you as an expert. It’s also a great tool to enhance your brand awareness.

2. Use Facebook Video Ads

Video advertising can be costly and time consuming, but thanks to Facebook, almost everyone now has the ability to create video ads.

Using the the Power Editor of your Facebook Ads account, you can use Video Slideshow Ads to create a short video ad out of only 3-7 images that can be much more engaging than a traditional ad.

Kate Bennie, Social Media Expert at Zec Media said that when targeting is done correctly with video ads, the cost per engagement can even be much lower than when advertising with standard Facebook Ads.

3. Take advantage of retargeting

Ever notice that the same item you were just looking at on Amazon showed up in an ad on the next website that you visited? If you have, then you have been retargeted.

The concept of retargeting ads is that the ad will essentially follow a user around online, through different websites.

Nicholas Scalice of Earnworthy suggests retargeting is essential to make 2016 your best year in marketing. Retargeted ads perform better than traditional banner ads because the audience is a bit warmer (they’ve already visited your site), meaning lower costs and better conversions.

It’s easy to start a retargeting campaign with the help of Facebook Ads or AdRoll. It’s as simple as installing a snippet of code on your webpage, setting up some rules, and creating your ad!

4. Utilize Promoted Pins

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites used by brides to plan their weddings, so it only makes sense to market on Pinterest as well.

Pinterest Promoted Pins are underutilized compared to AdWords or Facebook ads, making them much cheaper than other advertising platforms, according to Tyler Banfield, Director of Marketing at Mala.

In addition, with promoted pins, you only pay per click, so any engagement actions (like repining) are free, yet they still spread the word of your business. And the icing on the cake–any repin or like will stay on Pinterest permanently, long after a traditional ad would have run its course.

5. Use Google AdWords Advertising

Brian Stumbaugh, Digital Marketing Manager at The Startup Garage has found with his clients that the best way to rapidly grow your leads is to invest in Google’s AdWords advertising. Google AdWords helps businesses create ads and accurately target them so that web users can find your sites.

Stumbaugh also recommends AdWords because as you manage your account and it becomes more efficient, you can scale your spend up continuously, as long as your campaigns are efficient and profitable.  Also, you only pay when someone clicks through to your website or calls.

6. Use Gmail Sponsored Promotions

Gmail Sponsored Promotions (GSP) is a brand new platform that allows you to show your ads within your target’s Gmail inbox. This allows you to not only target based on demographics, keywords and retargeting, but now allows you to show your ads to people who receive emails from a given website.

Target individuals who may receive emails from affiliated wedding sites, competitors and more. Learn more about this brand new, beta tested platform.

Marcus Miller, Head of Strategy and Digital marketing at BowlerHat suggests taking advantage of GSP because it’s unique, new and cheap. It allows you to get in front of qualified prospects based on their interests, all for a fraction of what you would pay for search advertisements.

These 6 tools from some awesome marketing gurus can help you get a new perspective and a new game plan for your 2016 marketing campaigns.

What marketing tools have worked best for your wedding business?