Content Marketing

  • Social Media

    Why Being Too Salesy In Social Media Sucks

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    It’s easy to promote a product on social media. You can post a picture, write a few words about it, and post. There’s no rule when it comes to posting content—your brand, your choice. Seizing free exposure and possible brand visibility, you can just spam your followers to buy your product.

    But you can also maximize this opportunity and curate an effective marketing strategy. Businesses today are constantly finding ways to improve their social media presence because of its huge potential. According to the State of Social Media Report, 55% of consumers learn about brands on social media. By 2025, it is also expected that social network users in the USA alone will reach over 243 million. The numbers display potential.

    It’s quite tempting to put your product on display 24/7 with a big BUY ME sign while bombarding your audience with product menus. But we all know that sucks.

    Social Media Marketing

    Businesses are on social media for a reason. While it’s essential to have an online presence, social media marketing is vital to create a closer relationship with their clients and attract potential customers. Along with this, it is intended to promote your brand and drive sales.

    One thing to keep in mind in creating a marketing strategy is consumer behavior. According to the Sprout Social Index, in introducing your brand, only 57% of consumers will follow and try to know your product. If you manage to break the barrier and have them follow your account, 89% of the consumers will buy from your brand. However, you have to keep them well to generate those gains.

    49% of consumers will unfollow a brand’s account if they find poor customer service and product quality. But what if you’re confident about your offers? Is there anything that could go wrong?

    Being Hard Sell

    Some people consider being salesy as pushy or desperate to sell a product; some try to enumerate the products’ advantages as if it’s a dream come true. Urban Dictionary describes it as a cheesy, aggressive, and superficial salesperson who makes people uncomfortable at some point. At this moment, it’s impossible to gain potential customers.

    This kind of approach doesn’t work well. It usually ruins customer experience, and that can have a huge impact on your brand.

    Why it sucks

    Being salesy is already bad, and doing it on social media marketing will make it worse.

    Social media is a platform for engagement, even for businesses. If your brand is here to promote and interact with customers, these people are here for socialization. While no one will stop you if you choose to spam your followers with sales offers, it’s a big turn-off for them. 45% of consumers will unfollow because of irrelevant content and having too many ads (Sprout Social Index). Your goal may be established already, and your product may be the best, but how you will build your image and sell yourself matters.

    What can you do about it

    Be authentic. Engage. Monitor Trends.

    Use the essence of social media to your advantage and personalize it with your brand. Your personality will be to your advantage, and people want to see that. Sure, you want to show the world how amazing your product is, but it needs supporting details.

    The social media industry has an 80/20 rule. Your followers would like to see more of the brand as a whole than mere product offers. Thus, 80% of your content needs to be about educating and interacting with your followers. This can include the behind-the-business, tips, shareable content, and even your market analysis. This can be personalized and a great opportunity to show expertise in your field.

    Offering valuable content and willingness to educate can subconsciously build trust among your followers. More often than not, your followers already know what you offer. Posting your product menu all the time can be redundant and boring, hence, the remaining 20%. It can include your promotions, brand news, media coverage, etc. This is enough self-promotion on social media because people stay to interact, and you have to give them that.

    The 80/20 Rule of Social Media

    The rule doesn’t have to be precisely divided, it can vary among platforms. Aside from being updated on social trends, creating a brand account and exploring on your own can help. An example can be marketing on TikTok. It is the top social media platform that marketers are eyeing today. We may have mastered the content game with Facebook and Instagram, but the approach on TikTok is different.

    TikTok demands creativity, authenticity, and engagement. A common denominator in their videos is also having fun. It may show you a lot of dance challenges or Vine-like skits (depending on what TikTok side are you in). You don’t have to engage in these if you want to. But it’s important to know your target audience and learn what they’re interested in.

    Similar to FB and Gram, TikTok also has hashtags that you need to take advantage of; engaging in the current trend will boost your visibility as much. May it be a new song that everybody’s using or an inside joke within your target audience, it’s important to have your brand be involved. Also, remember to turn on your stitches, duets, comments section, and create your challenge (if you can) to show that you’re more than welcome to connect with your audience personally. With this, you can gain their attention and trust, with a higher possibility of turning them into potential customers.

    Constant experiments and research about your target market are important. How they interact and respond to your strategy may vary among social platforms. However, it will not deliver instant results. Instead, consistency is needed to establish a strong connection with your followers.

    Final Words

    Consumer behavior is constantly changing. Your brand’s marketing strategy needs to keep up with it. Selling your products doesn’t work anymore, and being pushy about it can make you annoying. In the high times of social media, offering value is key.

    There is a lot of competition on the platform. By being too technical, you can lose. By being too salesy, you can be canceled. 

    In social media marketing, having the proper knowledge and personality works just fine. It’s an organic way of creating an audience willing to stay and can drive your sales up. In these times, brand trust and loyalty go a long way. Let your customers see your account and be educated while enjoying your content. And you might find yourself enjoying curating your social media presence as well.

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  • Blog, Content Marketing

    Don’t Skip the Edit

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    Here’s the truth: editing isn’t really fun. Sometimes, it’s the worst part of the writing routine. Bloggers spend a lot of time reading about editing tips and hacks and little time actually doing the work.

    But here’s another (bitter) truth: Every written word needs to be edited.

    Let’s start with the Why

    Your blog could be a travel blog, food blog, fashion blog, or one filled with movie reviews or book reviews, or music. Whatever your niche is, your blog reflects your personality or your business. After all, blogging is a form of content marketing that is critical for growing your business. You wouldn’t want your readers to lose confidence in you or your brand because of errors in your blog post. Even an itsy-bitsy typo can affect your entire blog and your brand along with it. So no matter how tedious it is, you must always, always, always edit before you hit publish!

    Read, edit, repeat

    You’ve got the idea, you’ve thought of a catchy title, now let’s work on making your readers give a damn. If you’re doing the editing on your own, you can do this: once you’ve finished your draft, read it like a reader and not as a writer. Does the post sound interesting? Do the words go well together? Is the writing style consistent?

    Fixing typos and spelling mistakes is just the beginning. Editing goes way beyond proofreading. It’s about making sure that your written word is readable, relatable, and engaging. Even if your post is of perfect grammar and free of any spelling mistakes and typo errors, your readers will still lose interest if you can’t get your point across clearly and briefly. So, clarify and condense. Make life easy and keep everything simple.

    Editing also means fact-checking. Your reputation as a writer can be damaged in a snap because of fake news. Get your facts straight before writing them down.

    So typos, spelling, grammar, facts. These are just a few of the things you need to check while editing. The list goes on and on and on.

    Feeling the pressure yet?

    A Fresh Perspective

    Editing may be done by the writer or by an outsider. Having someone else do it for you is often more valuable, even if you’re a good editor yourself. You see, when you’re editing your own work, it’s easy to overlook errors because your brain automatically fills in the blanks of what you meant to say. If you want higher-quality content, get an editor. Editors will check everything, down to the last detail, and revise your post so that your message gets across clearly.

    You’re probably thinking, “Why can’t I just use an editing software?” Communication. A human editor can get a sense of your meaning more so than any software. You need to communicate with your editor to express your thoughts and put them on paper. Real editors, better results.

    Since we’ve already established that editing is more complicated than it seems, getting an editor means saving a lot of time and allowing you to focus on other responsibilities.

    Final Say

    If you want to improve your content, don’t skip the edit! And while you know about your topic or your brand more than anyone in the world, you might still need help getting your point across. Sometimes, it takes an outsider to make your post remarkably readable. Don’t let lousy writing wreck your reputation and that of your brand!

    “To write is human, to edit is divine.” — Stephen King, On Writing

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  • Social Media

    Top Social Media Channels of 2021 for Your Next Marketing Move

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    The rise of social media had been an unstoppable force since its conception in the early 2000s. From mySpace to Multiply to Facebook, the cyberspace population has found ways to incorporate social media into their daily life. Granted, social media platforms evolve over time too based on different needs.

    Social media platforms have even proven their relevance when 2020 happened — yes, that year. With limited human contact enforced upon most of us, social media has reached its peak use as the bridge for us socially-starved individuals. Data shows that there has been a 10.6% increase in social media usage last year, and that’s just the first half. With the pandemic still around, it is safe to say that this performance will still carry on or progress in the next few months.

    That said, it would be a travesty to leave social media behind in your marketing plan. Data has shown that your customers are indeed there, waiting to be reached at the right moment. So to help you with your planning needs, here is a list of the top social media platforms you can include in your next marketing strategy:

    1. Facebook

    It’s only fitting to begin this list with a social media titan. Facebook has 2.8 Billion monthly active users as of January 2021, 65.71% of which visit the platform on a daily basis. Given all these numbers, we understand that some marketers are a little worried that their presence may just be drowned out in a vast sea of users and noise. But rest assured Facebook started implementing some machine learning mechanisms for their platforms to reach the right users. In 2018, Facebook scored the highest in terms of market discoverability. 78% of its users reported to have discovered and purchased products through Facebook as compared to other social media platforms. Now, that’s a great marketing data to take note of.

    2. Youtube

    Yes, the popular video streaming platform is also social media. In fact, Youtube is the most popular social media platform in 2019, ranking just above Facebook across all margins. Youtube’s synergetic interface allows feedback from the viewers, thus making it a good platform to engage with your customers should you wish to involve heavy video marketing your strategy. And why won’t you? Not only is Youtube boasting a rich 2.3 Billion monthly active user base, the platform is also an important tool for ad recall. Data shows that there’s a 32% higher chance for users to get your message stuck once Youtube ads have entered the picture.

    3. WhatsApp

    The brilliant idea behind the messaging colossus is co-founder Jan Koum’s motivation to not miss a call during his gym sessions. Who would have thought that what started as a mundane motivation now resulted in a messaging app mammoth boasting 2 billion active users? Even more so, WhatApp had been acquired by Facebook, making data sharing a bit easier for those who are cross-using the platforms.

    A majority of these users are from the younger segments too, specifically those aged between 18 to 24, making it an ideal communication channel for those who wish to sell products for the up-and-coming crowd. In fact, data shows that most businesses would not want to miss out on this opportunity. There has been a significant increase in usage since WhatsApp’s business app launched, closing in at around 50 million users worldwide at the middle of 2020.

    4. Facebook Messenger

    Now that there is high demand for SMS-like services — 2.77 billion at that — it is no surprise that the tech giant would want to capitalize on as many users as they can amass for the sake of data wealth. Enter Facebook Messenger: Facebook’s flagship messaging app and second most-used chat service. With an almost-seamless integration into the main Facebook platform, users would definitely have a hard time unsyncing from Messenger’s mechanism.

    However, unlike WhatsApp’s B2B platform for marketers, Messenger ads are not standalone set-ups. Messenger ad placements are bought only through Facebook Business Manager along with the rest of its properties. But considering that you can get to reach as many users as possible realtime, then this data does not really sound as bad.

    5. Instagram

    Last but definitely not least in the top social media list is the world famous photo-sharing platform itself, Instagram. Your marketing can’t possibly go wrong with its 1 billion monthly active users. Top this with its mother company Facebook’s data, then you have a well set up engagement machine. Speaking of engagements, did you know that Instagram generates the highest media engagement rates among all popular social media?

    Final Thoughts


    Taking this into consideration, Instagram is indeed good for heavy visual marketing. Instagram is your go-to if you would like your audience to take in as much details of products. Case in point, this research proved that Instagram can influence the users’ purchasing behavior as much as Facebook can. With its visual reach, Instagram’s influence is just as strong despite having lower active user counts versus Facebook, thus increasing the ratio.

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