The digital era is here, we only needed a small push to jump 5 years into the future. We realised there aren’t two worlds, there is only one. And this world is digital first. Working from home has become our new normal and the local has become much more important than the global.

Some of us are dealing better with the changes than others, but we have all finally realised the importance of online appearance. It is no longer only a small marketing and advertising platform that can be managed by a part-time employee.

We now spend way more time using our mobile devices – during the lockdown, as much as 60% more than before.

Let me highlight 3 key aspects of business affected by the first wave of the COVID-19 and what we can learn from it.

New costumers and new target audiences

We now spend way more time using our mobile devices – during the lockdown, as much as 60% more than before. Of course, we want all the latest news on the situation we’re in. In addition, we are looking for entertainment and positive stories.

Research conducted by Global Web Index has shown that social media is becoming more popular throughout generations. More specifically, a 27%-growth was documented among the generation Z, 30% for millennials, followed by generation X with 29% and baby-boomers with 15%.

The new users of social media are, for the first time, seeing and communicating with brands digitally. So the brands have a huge responsibility to choose the content according to their costumers’ knowledge of social media and the covid-19 situation, but also according to the brands’ values. The websites are also being visited by new potential customers who have previously been sceptical about online shopping and don’t have much knowledge of it, so they need more time and guidance through the buying process.

The most important aspect of online presence is the interaction with customers, quick responses, and credible information. Communication is no longer goes just one way and should be immediate. Good user experience entails speed, helpfulness, and kindness, just like you would expect to see in a physical store, or even better.

Content

As content creators, providers, and salespeople, we have a unique responsibility to carefully monitor our content. Consumers need support from their favourite brands and social media are a great way to provide that.

Creativity, a story, and the wow-effect, as well as consistent communication are crucial for the survival of a brand.

People turn to brands they trust for guidance and content to cheer them up and inspire them for new challenges.

The fact is that the attention span of your online audience is very short. If your content is not of very high quality and you’re also not posting consistently, your content will quickly be lost in the sea of other posts.

Creativity, a story, and the wow-effect, as well as consistent communication are crucial for the survival of a brand, especially in times of increased digital activity.

You may find the following tips helpful

C is for chat:

The first step is to listen and talk to your target audience. This is the best type of content you can possibly create. Engage in dialogue and be creative. This type of content works best on social media. Don’t forget – it’s a dialogue.

O is for organization:

Organise webinars, online conversations, and live conferences, where you can engage with costumers and exchange informative or entertaining content. It’s the easiest way to gain attention and offer your audience information and inspiration, and bring it closer to your brand.

V is for values:

In these confusing times, your brand must stand for what you believe in and speak its mind. This will help you create content and a community of costumers that share these values.

I is for innovation:

The amount of online content is growing and so is the number of social media users. Do not be afraid to try out new types of content and ways to inform the audience of your brand.

D is for document:

It is an excellent way to fill the gaps in your content. Document and share the activities that your company engages in to fight the current situation, on a local or a global scale. Let the audience know how your company deals with the challenges of COVID times.

19 is for 19 posts a week:

The most important piece of the puzzle. Of course it doesn’t have to be exactly 19, but try to create as much content as possible on all of your platforms. You can post pictures, stories, videos, blog posts, instructions, GIFs … sky’s the limit.

Maybe you don’t believe these things are that necessary, but keep in mind that these are times of great changes in your costumers’ behaviour. Social media is changing and you don’t want to be left behind.

Advertising

In the past weeks, COVID-19 has again grown into a pandemic, but this time, we are better prepared. We have experienced it and analysed this before, which will help us predict the situation on the market. It is not the first time to face this situation and we have the answers on how to advertise in the times of uncertainty.

Keep in mind that everything is changing in our daily lives, and so is our behaviour. Our online activity has also changed. It is now completely different than in March, when companies had no idea what to do and how to react. COVID-19 brought about many changes in the market presence of many companies, so it is necessary to figure out how to deal with advertising.

During the first wave of the pandemic, companies chose to implement measures which decreased or completely stopped online advertising. This was seen on Google Search and Facebook, which are the main two expenses when it comes to advertising.

Even the most dominant global advertisers cut back on advertising and limited it to the products that bring the most profit. This drastically decreased the number of views in March, which allows other companies to benefit from more advertising and marketing space opportunities.

Infra-annual statistics for the months affected by the pandemic (March – June 2019, compared to 2020), revealed that both big and small advertisers lowered their online advertising budgets for an average of 20%.

What does that mean for those who kept the same budget?

Some companies have already focused on strategies and means for online activity, because that’s where consumers are in times of social distancing.

With the drop in competition, our clients saw incredible results. CPM and CPC had lowered, which allowed for a much wider reach and more clicks for the same price.

Digital marketing is currently one of the most important ways of communication between brands and consumers. With preventative measures, more and more activities are going online. The prediction is that investing into digital advertising will increase, which means that your company must keep up with the competition. It must always be a step ahead and at the right place at the right time to reach users, which might be your new potential customers.

Consumers have and will get used to online shopping, online payment, and working from home. The latter has been happening in more digitally-oriented companies for some time now.

Some companies have already focused on strategies and means for online activity, because that’s where consumers are in times of social distancing. People spend huge amounts of time on mobile devices, which offer them a way of spending their free time and following the media.

Every unexpected situation or a turbulent time leads us to wonder, what we could be doing differently, what we could improve and how to get ahead of our competitors.

Nowadays, when the digital comes first and most companies spontaneously or deliberately focus on digital strategies, it is difficult to make your offer and activities stand out.

Many companies keep blogs, use hidden content that may get a few likes, send weekly or monthly emails, and the truly competent ones offer free content in exchange for contact information.

Is that really all you can do online to grow your business? At Beglobal, we dedicated the past year to improve our performance and offer our clients more than just another basic service.

Of course, traditional marketing techniques are crucial in designing a long-term strategy, but they are not enough to beat the competition. If you want to raise your brand awareness, you must diversify your marketing platforms and go further than basic digital strategies.

The following article introduces some underrated marketing techniques that we often use for the benefit of our clients.

4 marketing techniques your competitors haven’t mastered

1. Native advertising

Native advertising is gaining in popularity and is becoming the primary form of display advertising in many countries. But according to latest research carried out by CMI and Outbrain, only 26% of companies use it to reach their target audiences. This means that the remaining 74% are still missing out on an opportunity to improve their content appearance.

Native advertising is a payed marketing and advertising service, using ads that flawlessly fit the platform on which they are displayed. As opposed to the commonly used banners, native ads are not intrusive and do not harm the user experience.

Native ads can be seen on social media platforms (yes, all those Booking.com ads that you see whenever you return from a holiday, are native ads), under articles (Can you think of something that you may like to see?) or in between items in online stores.

Native advertising requires a lot of time, knowledge of buyer psychology and ad placing skills. But results suggest that it pays off to invest in this type of marketing.

• Native ads are 18% more likely to increase sales than ordinary banners
• Consumers view native ads at a 53% higher rate than display ads (GDN)
• 70% of users say that they would prefer to discover products through content than through traditional forms of advertising

2. Surveys

Anyone with enough website traffic can conduct research. Your own research will elicit unlimited traffic on your website and give you an amazing opportunity to establish connections and build credibility fast.

What goes into research?

• An idea
• Research questions
• An audience
• A questionnaire

The other important advantage of doing research is that you can shape it in many ways. While you may want to publish your survey as an e-book to capture email from the target audience, you can also present your results in a blogpost, include them in your newsletter, and so on.

3. Quora

Marketing on the Q&A platform Quora bears a lot of potential for many companies.

There are 300 million monthly users on Quora and this can help you significantly raise your brand awareness.

What is Quora marketing like?

Quora started out as a platform where you can find answers to your questions and became the worldwide base of knowledge. Today, you can see people asking for product reviews, solutions, advice for their companies etc. Quora is now also a platform for companies to market their services to a wider audience.

Experience shows that Quora is a good choice for advertising products of a medium price range entering the American market.

If this is the case for your company, you should definitely try using Quora to market your products.

If this is the case for your company, you should definitely try using Quora to market your products.

• Create a reliable profile. Show that there is a real person behind your answers. Provide as much information as you can. Add a bio, describe your field of expertise, add pictures and details of your educational background, and link your social media accounts.
• Monitor other users and topics. This will allow you to see new relevant answers and build connections
• Answer new questions. Look for related keywords and find ongoing discussions.
• Answer questions that show up on the first page of Google search results. These answers will invite a lot more engagement. To do this, you will need a keyword research tool.
• Make sure your answers are truly valuable. Quora has a strict no-spam policy. Moreover, your audience is smart and knows when it is being cheated.

4. Gamification

This is an excellent way to gain more engagement from customers.

Competitions, tournaments, rankings, and encouragement help create loyalty to a brand, bring about more opportunities and prompt conversion.

(Maybe you never thought of buying this product, but now you can get it half the price if you set a new best time at this game.)

If you choose this form of advertising and marketing, you need to have a strategy and define its key elements.

• Your goal
• Mechanics: in what way and under what circumstances you want to achieve your goal
• Control: How to put all of this into practice, what are the consequences and how to evaluate the goals

It is important not to make it too complicated. I often see large campaigns which I would like to participate in, if it didn’t set so many rules and conditions.

“Fanta created a fun fruity game to promote its new flavour to its target audience – generation Z.”

The time has come when even the greatest sceptics have started engaging in digital marketing. Although digital marketing offers many activities that have proven to be highly efficient, many decision-makers are still sceptical. While it’s true that not all online agencies are of great quality and this causes more anxiety while choosing an online agency over TV channels or billboard locations, but it doesn’t mean that the correct kind of effort and investment doesn’t pay off. On the contrary, well thought out campaigns and online strategies will have even better results!

You don’t believe me? Your free 30-minute consultation is only a click away!

But first things first …

Before you decide to do online marketing and everything that comes with it, I encourage you to think about these three things!

1. Decide what CONVERSION means to you and its worth

It may sound straight-forward, but too often, we see undefined goals of online marketing.

Let me tell you, not all conversions are created equally and it’s not just about getting leads or closing a deal. While doing digital marketing, we also build secondary conversions, which will get us to our end goal. This includes newsletter subscriptions, likes, growing your following, website views, online catalogue downloads, car configuration …

A clear picture of a certain conversion’s worth is an excellent starting point for decision making about your budget for online activity, planning your digital strategy and ROI.

If you’re only starting out and you’re not sure what you want your conversion to be, I suggest you do calculations on how much a good lead or a catalogue download is worth in euros.

What has been your budget and the number of people involved in acquiring a new costumer?

2. Who is your target audience?

This is the key question when choosing your platforms, image, and manner of communication. If you’re targeting teens, your marketing texts will be completely different than those targeted at seniors or young mothers. Knowing your target audience is the essence of all your online activities. If you haven’t identified your target customers, do it now. Pick basic demographic categories such as age, gender, and geographical location. Then think about what issues these groups are facing and how you can help solve them. Dig deep and determine their desires, goals, and anxieties.

We’ve covered B2C marketing and it is now time to move onto B2B.

We have reached a very interesting point. Most B2B communication on online platforms is still run according to traditional principles. Companies focus mostly on sustainability, social responsibility, dimension of business, history of the company … I’m not saying this is bad, but I can assure you that we can go one step further with B2B communication on online platforms. Experience shows that the key factors in choosing a provider are open and honest dialogue and responsible behaviour throughout the supply chain. Another one being high level of expertise, which is mostly displayed through communication with an expert on the other side. And so we’ve come a full circle, back to B2C.

3. Make calculations on how successful you are at converting potential customers into final consumers

This isn’t only important for online marketing and I believe you’re already analysing all of your off-line marketing activities.

If your online advertising is based on lead generation, think of realistic goals and consider this example:

With a 10€ investment into Facebook, you will reach 1000 users. Your lead generation form will be filled in by 10 users and 1 of them will make a purchase. In this case, the lead generation conversion rate is 1% and the buyer conversion rate is 0,1%. In other words, a new lead costs 1€; marketing cost for one product/service is 10€ (these numbers are an example for easier calculation).

What has been your budget and the number of people involved in acquiring a new costumer?

If you’re selling online, count the viewers of your website as your potential customers. Anyone who chose a product or even viewed the cart, should be treated with priority until they finalise their purchase.

If you know the number of the views and how many purchases have been made, you have a certain understanding of how successful the process is. If you are unsure of the data, you should do something about it!

Do you need extra help? Click the form below, where you can book a free 30-minute phone call with us.

Join our partners:

And many others.

Be informed!

Be ready!

Be smart!

Have you disinfected your hands? Let’s go!

The Slovenian ban on all events with over 100 people ruled out all fairs, conferences and promotional events. The coronavirus brought Europe to a halt, as well as all sorts of international trade fairs. Was your company supposed to be at a business event? Are you wondering how to make up for lost business opportunities to present your product, raise brand awareness and attract new customers?

We know a great alternative!(disinfect your hands again … focus … moving on!)

A small company spends 10 000€ to participate at a trade fair in Slovenia. Preparing and producing all promotional activities and materials is estimated to demand 80 working hours of 2 people.

The goal of an average participant is recognizability, first contact with a customer and launching new products. And the biggest challenge is managing the process and converting a first contact into the final customer, but also raising awareness even after the event. What’s the end result? For most companies, it is very hard, the results are unmeasurable.

Coronavirus forced us to seek out alternatives that the digital era offers and will allow for more efficiency and reaching more customers.

Ditch the disinfectant … you only need focus from here on!

How can we help you at Beglobal and how can we make up for the loss and see even better results?

Let’s say a smaller average company invests 10 000€ into their participation at a fair. How can we transform that budget and upgrade the results?

You should follow the 2000-6000-1000-1000 model. This isn’t a matter of 3 or 4 days, but rather 4 or 5 months.

Content marketing – 2000€

Content marketing allows you to put into practice your specific knowledge of business and gain the trust of potential customers. The right text that are clear and sensible will help attract your target audience, start a dialogue with potential customers and strengthen the professional reputation of your company. High-quality content marketing can motivate an internet user to become a customer and not only a website viewer. In additional to other digital marketing tools, content marketing attracts more people interested in your brand to your website.

For 2000€, Beglobal will strategically manage your social media content, which will be just as appealing, if not more, as a beautiful girl and an experienced salesperson at a stall.

Advertising on online platforms – 6000€

Investing in social media marketing can help your company in many ways, including the following:

Reach your target audience:

An average person spends roughly 28% of their time on social media, which gives companies a great opportunity to reach their target audiences. Through ads, you can connect with users in all three parts of the purchase funnel, to create immediate as well as future income.

Create brand awareness:

Marketing campaigns on social media can boost your brand’s recognizability. A clever strategy will help you create the purchase funnel that will stimulate following and interaction with your brand.

Promotion and sale of your product or service:

With consideration of the characteristics of your company’s field, advertising on social media can help you easily and accurately promote your products to people that are interested in them.

Social media marketing offers many advantages over conventional advertising. An experienced strategist and a well-placed campaign will allow you to use social media ads to raise brand awareness, reach your target audience and increase your sales.

For 6000€, Beglobal will design and manage a strategy that fits your company and your costumers. According to previous experience and projects we’ve done, this amount will get you:

Google advertising:

• Banners on websites and Google partner networks – 2 000 000 views
• Search engine – 14 000. 20 000 clicks (website views)
• YouTube advertising – 8 000 000 seconds of viewing, meaning 800 000 views of an ad

Social media advertising:

• 400 000 clicks
• 1 000 000 ad displays

E-mailing campaign – 1000€

E-mailing future and existing costumers is still one of the most intimate forms of digital communication. A well-formed message is personal and addresses the target person with carefully chosen content and added value.

For 1000€, Beglobal will design and send out up to 15 campaigns or create an automatic marketing system. The range of the campaign depends on your costumer base, but we guarantee an increase in Open Rates after we have reviewed and optimised your contact groups.

Lead generation- 1000€

Many companies struggle with acquiring good leads and many more struggle with approaching them and turning them into customers. That’s why lead generation is the key component of digital marketing, allowing for constant acquisition of new contacts and guiding them along the convoluted paths of purchase.

For 1000€, Beglobal will design and monitor a strategy which considers your company’s experience and past projects and will get you between 600 and 900 good leads.

Are you still not convinced? Are you sceptical? Contact us and together we will design a winning digital strategy, tomorrow!

Join our partners:

And many more

Are your ads and posts not giving you the desired results? We give you 6 tricks that will help you connect with your audience and build a community of loyal followers.

My colleagues keep complaining about useless and even bothersome ads on social media. They are not what they want to see or are interested in and they greatly impede their use of Facebook or Instagram.

When I listen to these stories, I find myself surprised by how some companies still manage to completely miss their target population. We all know that technology has much improved in terms of target marketing, but these companies are wondering in the dark. There must be a better way for brands reach the customers through social media.

62% of social media users

follow at least one brand!

Allow me to touch on some statistics. Almost 2/3 of social media users are annoyed by marketing content on social media and 26% are actively ignoring them. But the good news is that as many as 62% follow at least one brand on social media.

According to GlobalWebIndex, 42% social media users use social media to keep in touch with friends, and more than a third are also interested in seeking events and entertainment. Even though 27% of users look for or explore products on social media, most of them are focused on building relationships. So it is understandable that many users are annoyed by advertisements they find intrusive, irrelevant or boring.

This might be the case for the general social media community, but it gives us some insight into users’ attitudes and their contact with brands. The Slovenian public still doesn’t seem to understand brands holistically and their long-term value, rather, it recklessly favours fast and impulse purchases.

The hyper competitive spirit of today is not limited to brands and ads. Consumers want to know about the latest trends in fashion and technology, they want to be the best at everything. That’s why they swear by the best brands and through contact with those brands, they express their feelings.

This allows consumers to connect with brands more directly and express their dissatisfaction when something goes wrong. As many as 46% of users messaged a brand on social media and 4 out of 5 believe that this had a positive effect on the brand’s sense of responsibility. The good news is that 45% of users will share a good response from the brand online and over a third will share it with their friends.

Too many Slovenian companies underestimates the power of social media, but the reality is that all of that creates a certain image of a brand, increases sales or lays off employees. Here are some tips on how to use social media to your advantage and how to benefit from this revolutionary modern era:

Your brand should reflect your personality, your company and its values. Consumers relate to a brand that stands for values and goals they strive for. Make the content on social media interesting, encouraging and useful to their lifestyle.

The content should be useful for them, not you!

Statistics shows that social media users are most interested in connections and entertainment. Brands that share news about the new trends or offer content they create themselves, are an added value to a user and it reflects on the number and the engagement of followers.

Context is key. Interactions on social media are not the same. Users may view some of your posts for fun or for news, and others for knowledge and inspiration. To meet all these needs, you need a careful plan of what to post. But with merely 2 hours a day, you will not be able to carry it out well enough for your followers or for yourself.

Your starting point should be your own values. Before creating content, ask yourself why you’re doing this and not only what purpose it serves. Avoid posting bare marketing content and don’t advertise discounts or last days of sale. Build on your brands specific value and its importance for an aspect of your follower’s life.

You need to build an audience of loyal and active followers, who will help spread your values and message. In addition to posting content that aligns with their interests and beliefs, brands can also achieve this by being more accessible for communication.

Responding immediately can be a powerful tool for answering queries, responding to complaints and building more intimate bonds with followers. With an immediate and personal response, brands can encourage users to initiate the bonding process.

ersistency is the most important factor of a brands success on social media. This means responding to feedback from costumers and actively working on improving their social media experience. As many as 60% of users require an active introduction of a brand, 2-4 times, before forming an authentic bond and trusting its added value, which results in purchase or conversion. This can be achieved by good content and consistent posting, as this is the only way to keep in touch with the user and encourage communication.

Brands are often bad at testing and evaluating their own marketing and content. We see excuses like ‘there’s no time’ or ‘we don’t have to do this, we understand our customers’.

This is a mistake. You can never be sure of your success if you don’t independently confirm that your ads are achieving your goals (behaviour).

Based on the above, as well as research, we can be certain that managing social media is very different from conventional marketing. The power lies more and more in the hands of users themselves. Interacting and adding value to users’ lives are the most important aspects of your brand, which can only be realised through persistent and relevant content and advertising.

Brands that are interested in what users have to say and respond with honesty to their needs and interests, will be able to benefit from new business opportunities. Sprout research found that more than 75% of users made a purchase after interacting with marketing content.

Here are four ways of how biggest companies in the world use social media to create an unforgettable experience for their customers, increase sales and add value to their brand.

Key aspects of Instagram appearance:

1. Short and sweet
   Instagram is a visual world, so you should focus on the picture or the video in each of your posts. Words should be only an addition. Long texts divert your followers, because they would rather scroll on to the next picture than read the entire text. Your texts should be short and simple. If you want to write more, use link in bio and guide your target audience to the desired page.

2. Have fun
   Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, where conversations and messages have more structure and are more formal, Instagram is a space for you to show your brand’s witty and modern face. Wordplays and harmless jokes are always welcome.

3. Don’t forget hashtags
   If anything in a description relates to a certain topic, use hashtags in front of a word. It can be as general as #socialmedia or #teambuilding. For more specific topics, add specific hashtags, for example #begloballife, when depicting the atmosphere in your company, or #beglobalpeople, when showing achievements of individuals in your company. In case of something special going on in your company, start by @beglobal and add a short and sweet caption.

4 excellent Instagram posts

CHIPOTLE

Caption: »More like Taco Threesday«

Why is this strategy successful?

Social media users love Taco Tuesdays. Chipotle addressed its followers with a creative wordplay: Tuesday – threesday. This way, it asserted its position on the market and reminded its customers of its pay-less-get-more tacos.

AUDI

Caption: Strictly business class. #AudiA8

Why is this strategy successful?

This short and simple caption radiates the luxury and the joy of driving an Audi. The marketing team of Audi made a smart decision to use the name of the car as a hashtag, which encourages Audi drivers to do the same.

ATLASSIAN

Naslov: »How many Atlassians does it take to spell “TEAM”?«

Why is this strategy successful?

The classic ‘How many does it take’ caption tries to list all the faces of Atlassian. The use of Instagram to recruit rather than advertise, could spark interest of those who are considering a career change, for the company that puts its employees first and in the centre of attention.

AHREFS

Caption: »Spot the CEO«

Why is this strategy successful?

Ahrefs deals with SEO and programmes of ROI improvement on websites, optimisation, etc. But the essence of this post is much simpler than their service. Challenging followers to spot the CEO shows that the company respects and appreciates all positions and is aware of every individual’s contributions. They communicate to their customers that they are dealing with a company that is trustworthy and acts responsibly towards its employees.