Have you ever experienced this: you misplace something, for example a sweatshirt, and then you spend hours looking for it? In the end, you give up and a few days later, you find it at the exact spot you checked while looking for it. Well, searching for the right idea is exactly like that. Sometimes, the best ideas are the ones we get randomly. I believe that everybody has the potential to find the right idea, so I compiled a list of a few key steps in brainstorming and tips on how to overcome a creative block. Good ideas are an important part of everyday life, as well as business, especially in marketing, as it’s constantly evolving, demands more and more novelty and is incredibly competitive. An important element in brainstorming is creativity. Not only in an artistic sense, but in every way – innovativeness and craftiness. If you’re motivated and curious, your creative energy will be limitless.

Where do we start brainstorming? In the beginning. I’m afraid there is no one right answer. But you can ask yourself 4 questions that will help you get your creative juices flowing. The answers will help you stay on track and define clear goals.

The goal of brainstorming is always to get some lightbulbs to go off – those invisible lightbulbs over our heads. But it often happens that our lightbulbs simply go out. This is called creative block, and unfortunately, no one can escape it. Because modern society demands we stay quick, inventive, productive, and efficient at all times, we have to find ways to overcome out creative blocks.

How to change the lightbulb (or how to overcome creative block)?

The purpose of the strategies below is to relax and forget about everything for a moment, as we often think of the best ideas, when our brain looks for it without our conscious participation.

Music can help us relax, fall asleep, wake up and liven up. Play your favourite music genre and take a few minutes to yourself. Music brings out feelings, which guide our thoughts. If you get a random idea or inspiration, write it down, take a picture or a video. Even the smallest idea can lead to something bigger. Many of us have spent hours surfing Pinterest, which isn’t bad at all! Just make sure not to copy the entire idea, but use it in your own unique way and develop it further. If your routine is morning brainstorming and you often face creative block, it might be time to change it up a bit. How about afternoon brainstorming?

Every idea has potential, some only need a bit more work.

I believe the secret to a good idea is in details. Start small and work your way towards something outstanding – in other words, make it snowball. At the end of the day, practice makes perfect, which means your brainstorming sessions will get easier the more you do it. As I’m sure you know, there is no such thing as a stupid question. The same applies to brainstorming – there is no such thing as a bad idea. Every idea has potential, some only need a bit more work.

Looking for inspiration can be relaxing, sometimes exhausting, but fun either way. Those tips are not only useful for dealing with creative block, but we can use them in everyday stressful situations. At Beglobal, we know that every individual plays an important part of successful and creative ideas. We believe that finding the right idea is a lot more than just reaching another goal. It’s about challenging yourself, become more independent and grow as a creator. And now, grab your earphones and pens and let your creative adventure begin!

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!

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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.

A few weeks of exploring and testing TikTok, the app proved to be an indispensable marketing tool for individuals, companies, and communities.

What is TikTok and where does it come from?

TikTok is a social media app for iOS and Android, which is used to create and share short videos. TikTok has become popular among the younger generation, as it allows for a lot of creativity.

In 2016, the Douying app (TikTok for the Chinese market) was launched. Next year, in 2017, the Chinese Company ByteDance introduced Music.ly outside of China and named it TikTok. Today, TikTok and Douyin share the same software, but they keep separate networks in accordance to Chinese censorship restrictions.

If you are sceptical about the popularity of the app, let’s take a look at the statistics.

Statistics

• There are currently 1 billion active TikTok users all over the world.
• The TikTok app in App Store and Google Play has been downloaded more than 1,5 billion times.
• TikTok ranked one of the most popular apps in iOS App Store in the first three months of 2019, with more than 33 million downloads.
• TikTok was downloaded 467 million times in India, which is almost a third of all downloads.
• TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes a day on TikTok.
• TikTok is available in 155 countries and 75 languages.
• 90% of users use TikTok every day.
• In less than 18 months, the number of adult TikTok users in the USA increased by 5,5 times.

Have you changed your mind? If you have, you’re probably wondering what makes TikTok so special.

Why is TikTok so popular?

It started out as an app for dancing and singing with so called challenges, but it has now become much more. We can see many different types of videos, such as comedy, research, acrobatics, make up and many other types of content. Individuals can express themselves in different ways, gain followers and build a community around their passions. In addition, they can add different special effects that make their videos more unique. Content can also be used on other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. TikTok is growing at lightning speed and is constantly being upgraded. But most importantly, it never fails to entertain us with content we’re interested in. But how does TikTok know what we like?

Artificial intelligence

TikTok keeps its algorithms a secret, but different experts have explained that the artificial intelligence that fuels the ‘for you’ page, uses many factors that determine what you like to see, including how long you’re watching individual videos and how soon you swipe up.

This highly personalised app is a bottomless pit. TikTok never stops learning and analysing your activities and offers videos you might like and be entertained by. This makes TikTok an addictive app, which shows you exactly what you wish to see. TikTok is not only used by individuals, companies and brands have also notices its potential.

In June 2019, the popular American entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck said this about TikTok: “I see it as much, much more that just an app for teens that dance and lip-sing songs on their phone.”

TikTok for companies and brands

Vaynerchuck’s statement has proven to be true, as the app is already being used by companies and brands in the US and other countries outside Europe. These are some of them:

• Chipotle, a Mexican food chain has been entertaining its 250 000 US followers with content and stories from their restaurants and menus.
• GUESS created its #inmydenim challenge to encourage individuals to post videos in their GUESS jeans and promote the brand. This was the first TikTok challenge by a brand that went viral.
• NBA posts content from behind the scenes and during half-time to entertain its followers.
• Loving Tan, a tanning lotion brand, collaborates with influencers to gain promotion.

A few weeks of exploring and testing TikTok, the app proved to be an indispensable marketing tool for individuals, companies, and communities. If you are one of the companies or brands who see the potential in TikTok, but you’re not sure how to go about it, we offer you:

Become a part of this popular global app and connect with us at Beglobal. Follow our TikTok @beglobalagency or contact us on info@beglobal.si.