It’s officially November, so whether you’re ready or not, the holiday content season is here! Chances are you’re busy preparing for your Thanksgiving traditions. With not even a full month to get ready for Christmas after turkey day, undoubtedly Christmas planning is underway too! And let’s not forget about the increased pressures at work as you close out the year.  Raise your hand if you’re stressed out just thinking about it.

While we may not be able to ease your personal holiday anxieties, we can help lessen the burden and set you up for success when it comes to generating last-minute holiday content ideas to engage your online audience and boost your brand. So, sit back, kick your feet up, grab your favorite holiday drink and relax while we share some ideas to ensure the holidays are successful for your business.

Holiday Content Ideas to Fill Your Calendar

No matter if you’re looking to promote a product or service, engage on a deeper level with your audience, or a combination of the two, you can incorporate these suggestions into any online strategy.

• Capture the Festive Spirit of the Season

From turkeys to snowmen, mums to poinsettias and the rustling of leaves to Christmas carolers, your supporting imagery should catch the sights and sounds of the approaching holiday.

• Food, Food and More Food

What holiday festivity have you attended that food isn’t at the center of the celebration. So, why not incorporate your team’s favorite recipes for the season. You can carry this type of holiday content from Thanksgiving into the New Year. From favorite Thanksgiving dishes to holiday cookie decorating, cocktails to ring in the new year and healthy options for January 1.

• Give Back and Spread Kindness

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of the holidays and forget that others may need a hand during this time. Organize a team volunteer outing, donate to a local toy drive or spread simple acts of kindness. Share what your team has done, provide additional ideas and encourage others to join along with you.

• Holiday Destressing

You may be feeling a little on edge from all the holiday activities. Not to mention the shorter days and cooler temps. Share how you unwind this time of year as a weekly holiday content tip.  

• Personal Development

As the year comes to an end, we start to think about our resolutions or goals for the new year. Share personal or company intentions and tips on how you plan to reach your objectives.

Get Connected with Holiday Content

The holidays are all about creating meaningful interactions and these ideas will get you started on making those connections. We hope you put your own personal spin on a couple of our suggestions and then put them into action.

Mobile marketing is still a key component of successful business plans in 2024. Businesses can no longer afford to ignore the mobile audience given the rise in smartphone users. Mobile marketing is important for reaching customers where they spend most of their time, as mobile devices become more prevalent in daily life. According to EarthWeb, as of 2024, mobile devices accounted for around 58.26% of all web traffic worldwide. This change emphasizes the necessity for companies to give mobile consumers top priority in their marketing plans.  

The convenience that mobile marketing provides is one of the key factors that makes it so important. People use their phones for information gathering, shopping, and socializing, which presents businesses with plenty of chances to connect with potential clients. Personalized communication through SMS, push alerts, and mobile-friendly emails is another benefit of mobile marketing that can increase engagement.

 Optimizing Your Website for Mobile 

Businesses require a phone-optimized website to effectively reach mobile users. By guaranteeing that content adjusts for different screen sizes, responsive design improves user experience. Furthermore, since slow websites may turn off visitors, quick loading times are important. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can be used to increase performance and speed.  

SMS Mobile Marketing  

Since SMS marketing is instantaneous, it is quite successful; timely advertisements and updates have high open rates. For immediate client connection, this basic communication tool is crucial. 

Social Media Engagement 

Mobile marketing of content is a must since mobile devices are used for the majority of social media interactions. Having mobile-friendly links and clear images will greatly increase the impact of your social media approach. 

Mobile Marketing Apps 

For a more consistent and customized user experience, consider downloading a mobile app. Apps improve consumer engagement through better feature integration, such as push alerts, and frequently result in higher conversion rates. 

Mobile marketing is essential for companies hoping to succeed in 2024. Given that mobile devices already account for most website traffic, it is obvious that mobile devices should take priority in your marketing plan. Improving user experience, increasing engagement, and boosting conversions can be achieved by creating a mobile app, utilizing SMS marketing, optimizing your website for mobile users, and participating in social media efficiently. Having a mobile-first strategy can help a company stay relevant and competitive as the digital world changes.

We’re hard at work on The Porch — even though its summer — and we wanted to share some of our proven digital strategies so far this year. The summer has flown by, and our team, business and clients have enjoyed many successes balanced with time with family and friends. As we roll into back to school whether it is elementary school, first year of college or next term of an MBA program, we have big goals on our mind at home and work.

With that being said, we are sharing digital strategies and tactics resulting in business success. Here’s what is working for our clients.

We Use These Proven Digital Strategies and Tactics for Our Clients

There are a handful of proven digital strategies that we are using to help build our clients’ brands. Often these strategies work together, and build upon each other. Sometimes they even share assets, which helps marketing budgets go further.

Email Marketing

Consistent communication whether it be weekly or monthly is paramount. Open and click rates for our clients’ email marketing exceed their peers’ average performance. And, their unsubscribe rates are lower than benchmark.

Keys to email marketing success include consistent communication, compelling content and professional creative and visuals.

The results include business growth by referral from existing clients and customers as well as inquiries from prospects and connections.

Digital Advertising

Our clients are spending their ad dollars on digital advertising strategies and tactics this year. The results continue to exceed the norm. LinkedIn and Google ads, geotargeting and retargeting continue to result in business growth.

Social Media

Content calendars are king. Client connections and reach on social media for the companies we work with have been strong — above industry averages. Social continues to be a proven digital strategy YoY.

LinkedIn continues to lead on the business-to-business front. Our clients’ senior leadership are embracing the power of LinkedIn. They are consistently active. This is resulting in broader brand awareness and increased employee engagement among other things.

Hashtag strategies continue to evolve. Less is more is proving successful for our clients. Protip: Utilize free tools to evaluate the relevance of the hashtags you use. We are happy to share our go-to tools. Email us!

Blogging

At least two blog posts per month continue to engage our Clients’ key audiences, their existing customers and new prospects. Google Analytics confirms this on the monthly reports we provide to clients. In addition to this, our clients’ websites’ SEO is benefiting from this proven digital strategy.

Video

Short and long form video marketing is increasing our clients’ SEO. Videos are a proven digital marketing tactic that also provides compelling, engaging content for social media. Repurposing these videos for digital advertising has also been a hit.

Website Refresh

Continuing to add content whether it be through blogging or keeping the look and feel of your company’s website updated has been a win this year as a proven digital strategy in 2024. Have you looked at your website lately? Is it working hard for your business? If not, we can help. If you don’t know how to figure out if it is effective, we can help with that too.

Implement These Proven Digital Strategies and Tactics for Success in 2024 and Beyond

The fall time period is the perfect time to re-assess your marketing plan and add some of these proven digital strategies to your brand mix. Reach new customers. Broaden your brand’s horizons. Share new products. Build loyalty. It’s all possible by starting now, and sticking with it.

In today’s interconnected world, the boundaries between PR and Digital Marketing are increasingly blurred. Both disciplines play a crucial role in shaping a brand’s image, reaching target audiences, and driving engagement. When blended effectively, these two disciplines can create a powerful force that amplifies brand messages and achieves strategic objectives. In best practices terms, that means integrating them to maximize their combined impact.

Align the Goals and Strategies of PR and Digital Marketing

Successful integration of PR and digital marketing begins with aligning goals and strategies. Ensure that both teams or functions are working towards common objectives, whether it’s enhancing brand visibility, generating leads, or driving website traffic. Establish a unified strategy that leverages the strengths of both PR and digital marketing.

For instance, if a PR campaign is focused on increasing media coverage, digital marketing efforts can complement this by amplifying the coverage through social media channels and paid promotions.

Create Consistent Messaging

Consistency in messaging is crucial for maintaining a coherent brand voice across all platforms. Ensure that the messaging in your public relations materials — such as press releases and media pitches — aligns with the content shared through other marketing channels, including social media posts, email campaigns, and website content.

This consistency helps reinforce your brand’s key messages and creates a unified narrative that resonates with your audience. Regularly review and update messaging guidelines to ensure alignment across all communication efforts.

Leverage PR and Digital Marketing Data and Analytics

Data and analytics are invaluable tools for optimizing both of these efforts. Use insights from digital marketing analytics — such as website traffic, social media engagement, and conversion rates — to inform PR strategies.

Conversely, PR metrics, such as media coverage and sentiment analysis, can provide valuable context for digital marketing campaigns. By integrating data from both camps, you can make informed decisions, track performance, and adjust strategies to achieve better results.

Enhance Content Distribution

Content distribution is a key area where these two team players can intersect. PR efforts, such as media placements and influencer partnerships, can drive traffic to digital assets, such as blog posts, landing pages, or social media profiles.

Further, digital marketing trends can help amplify public relations content by sharing it across social media platforms, using SEO tactics to improve its visibility, and leveraging paid media to reach a broader audience. Develop a content distribution plan that outlines how these marketing efforts will work together to maximize reach and engagement.

Collaboration on Campaigns

Collaborative campaigns that integrate can lead to greater success than isolated efforts. For example, if you’re launching a new product, a coordinated campaign that includes a press release, social media announcements, influencer endorsements, and targeted digital ads can create a comprehensive promotional strategy.

Foster communication and collaboration between teams to ensure that campaigns are well-coordinated, messages are consistent, and resources are used efficiently.

Engage with Your Audience

Engagement is a critical component of both PR and digital marketing. Use PR efforts to build relationships with media, influencers, and industry thought leaders, while leveraging digital marketing channels to interact directly with your target audience. Encourage two-way communication by responding to comments, participating in conversations, and addressing feedback. Engaging with your audience in a meaningful way helps build trust, strengthen relationships, and enhance your brand’s reputation.

Harnessing the Power of PR and Digital Marketing Integration

The intersection of PR and digital marketing offers a wealth of opportunities for brands to amplify their messages and achieve strategic goals. In today’s digital age, it’s not just a best practice — it’s a strategic imperative for achieving holistic and impactful communication. As you navigate the complexities of modern marketing, remember that the partnerships in marketing can be a powerful tool for your brand’s growth and success.

With the rise of social media platforms, influencer marketing has gone through a significant transformation. Influencers have come to be key players in the marketing scene, appearing on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and more. To build more genuine and meaningful connections with their target audience, brands take advantage of the reach and power of these digital personalities. 

Evolution of Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing was simple in the early days of social media. Companies partnered with well-known bloggers and YouTubers to market products using endorsements and reviews. Influencer marketing became much broader as sites like Instagram and TikTok became popular.  

Influencers in today’s world can range in size from small influencers with fewer but very engaged audiences to large influencers with millions of followers. With this diversity, marketers can tailor their campaigns to appeal to certain groups and demographics. Influencers are becoming more than just brand ambassadors; they are content creators that include brand messaging into their own personalities and styles to relate to and de-commercialize marketing.  

The Challenges Going Forward

Influencer marketing presents challenges even with its benefits. Keeping authenticity is important because audiences can recognize fake endorsements, leading to openness on sponsored collaborations. Since influencers’ behavior might affect related brands, proper screening is important. Return-on-investment tracking can be difficult, requiring companies to use tools and set exact key performance indicators. A brand’s values consistency, popularity, and follower demographics are all important factors to consider when choosing a good influencer.  

To sum up, influencer marketing is an effective tool that helps businesses engage with their target audience by providing real and interesting content. Despite the challenges, it can still be an exciting and significant part of current marketing campaigns with proper preparation and successful execution. 

Brand storytelling has become a popular marketing strategy in recent years as companies face greater competition in the marketplace. This strategy consists of sharing personal stories and experiences to stimulate an emotional reaction from your consumers. When done thoughtfully and honestly, telling your stories can greatly benefit your brand. 

Storytelling Makes Your Brand Feel Approachable and Personable 

Whether you are just starting your company or have been established for years, your team has worked hard to develop a strong brand identity. So, you should want to capitalize off your company values and the personal values of the people that make up your team. Incorporating team testimonials and bios as part of your company presence adds life to the brand. It can make customers feel more familiar with the company when they choose to interact with and support you. 

Unique, Relevant Stories are Key to Differentiating Your Brand 

Your company should continually develop new ways to distinguish itself from competitors. Sharing anecdotes from your business and its members offers unique perspectives that consumers can benefit from. Sometimes, stories are much easier to remember then lists of facts or statistics – finding a good balance is important.  

Utilize Various Media Platforms to Attract New Audiences 

Practicing brand storytelling across media platforms is a great way to increase your company’s brand awareness. By posting on and monitoring different outlets, such as social media, newsletters, and company websites, you can expand your reach and gain insights into the customers who engage with your posts. Be sure to promote your different accounts across platforms and encourage viewers to share your content with others. Developing this relationship with consumers can build trust and loyalty, which encouraging customers to want to share your company with their friends. 

Be Sure to Include Customer Experiences 

Brand storytelling should not only include the stories of your company and its employees. You want your customers to also feel like a part of your business. By providing space for customers to share their experiences with your services, you can strengthen their loyalty to your brand and hear how your work is perceived. Effective communication between business and consumer is crucial to appearing transparent and ready to help. 

Here on the Porch, we create a lot of specialized content for our clients. Websites, social media, newsletters, videos and the like. As their marketing partner, we operate as an extension of their marketing department. We think through their branding, their voice, their business goals and more to make sure that their content is right — every single day. In other words, we work hard to make it rock! And we love what we do.

Our clients trust us to use our expertise to help them grow their businesses. They know that a smart business owner doesn’t try to do everything themselves — instead they surround themselves with other experts who can help them achieve their goals.

How Can You Best Utilize Your Marketing Partner to Make Your Content Rock?

Say you’re a business owner who doesn’t know how to — and honestly doesn’t have the time to — create your own marketing. So you do the smart thing and hire a marketing partner to help grow your business. First, realize that your marketing partner is an expert at creating smart, on-target content for your business and is also in it for the long haul like you are. They want you to succeed.

Helpful Tips for Businesses Utilizing a Marketing Partner

1. Remember: You are not your audience. What is spoken and written internally in your company, doesn’t necessarily make sense to your client or customer. Trust your marketing partner’s recommendations on brand voice, relevancy of message and content
2. Your time is a valuable asset so use it wisely. Provide big-picture counsel. Spending your valuable time giving big picture direction up front on content initiatives vs. spending your time editing every post, is time well-spent. Let your marketing partner help you focus on other important parts of running your business by taking the daily detail of marketing content off your plate.
3. Digital content lasts nanoseconds. Today’s post is forgotten by tomorrow and replaced with another one. This process builds your brand’s personality over time. Each social media post is not precious, it is simply the next stepping stone on your brand’s path.
4. Trust your content creators. The copywriters and designers on your marketing partner’s team do this day-in and day-out for multiple clients. They are experts. They know your channels better than you do and are creating content using best practices for their industry. Just like you use best practices in your industry.
5. Work ON your business, not IN your business. You can’t be everywhere at once. Surrounding yourself with experts who know how to do things that you don’t know how to do is the smart move. Marketing, copywriting, and design professionals on your marketing partner team all have expertise and knowledge that can help you grow your business in ways you couldn’t have imagined. Let them do their job, so that you can do yours better.

Our Overall Advice? Trust Your Partners.

Digital content creation is a marathon with no finish line. It is a day-in and day-out process that builds your brand, and your audience, over time. Digital content like social media, blog posts, newsletters, and websites are crafted with your audience in mind. And they’re crafted to build your brand long-term. So don’t over-think every single post. Don’t over-edit every single piece of content. Whether it’s social media, blogging, email marketing, video scripting or any piece of your digital content universe, it all works together to build your brand and make your business a success in the eyes of your audience and potential customers. 

Have you created a unified brand voice for your company? If so, kudos to you. Have you done an audit to make sure you are communicating it consistently across all internal and external channels? Your brand voice matters. In your business category, and to your customers and future customers, brand voice sits at the core of your relationships. It fosters connection, community and confidence in a brand.

What Is Your Company’s Brand Voice?

Your brand voice is the tone in which your business speaks to its audience. It’s the unique personality behind a business. Have you defined that for your company? You can get started on that process by asking yourself a few questions.

• What are the four or five adjectives that are unique to your company’s voice?
• What human traits set your brand apart?
• What other brands inside and outside your industry do you admire?
• Why did your clients and customers choose your services or products over others?

How to bring a brand voice to life and maintain it across all channels

Strong brands use their voice wisely. They include these elements in their branding and marketing toolbox when they are maintaining their brand voice across all their marketing channels.

• Brand Vision: A clear and concise articulation of the brand’s purpose, mission and values. A strong brand vision can guide a brand in everything they do, and customers recognize this. It helps guide a brands activities, messaging, associations, partnerships and all marketing efforts.
• Target Audience: A detailed understanding your target audience, including your demographics, interests and pain points can really help a brand focus their efforts efficiently and effectively to grow a brand with people who are active, engaged and already predisposed to your brand’s message.
• A Message Map: The core messages that the brand wants to convey to its audience. For the most effective branding and marketing, brands use a message map to make sure they are hitting all the most effective benefit points that their business is trying to convey.
• Tone Of Voice: This is consistent and appropriate tone of voice that aligns with the brand’s personality. The tone can be like a parent, a trusted friend, or even a peer. Maintaining consistency here means customers can recognize your brand even without your logo or name just by how the brand talks.
• Messaging Guidelines: Specific guidance on how to express the brand’s messages in a consistent and engaging manner, whether that’s in ads, social media, print materials, broadcast, or editorial.

Strong Brands Build Business

Front Porch Marketing specialized in helping brands and companies create and maintain strong brand voice to build business and ultimately, the bottom line. Let us know if we can help your business grow with clear, concise brand voice.

LinkedIn continues to be a powerful sales and marketing tool. With other social networks manipulating algorithms, LinkedIn ranks in the top two where organic social media marketing is still effective.

And the user demographics for LinkedIn are a proof point for brands and business leaders to utilize this tool now to engage their audience and grow their business.

What Works on LinkedIn

Strategy and other things are critical to maximize results for brands and personal pages on LinkedIn.

• Provide value. Heavy, brand only content isn’t effective. Audiences want value. Be engaging. Tell stories. Share advice. Use testimonials. Give perspective on industry trends. Be a storyteller. Share what your team is passionate about at work and personally.
• Posting cadence. Have a content calendar and be committed to posting frequency.
• Message and visual consistency. Make sure you are following your message map, content buckets, brand style guide and visual guidelines.
• Encourage team members to interact with your brand page. As we always say, you can’t market externally if your team isn’t educated and engaged internally. Turn each team member into a brand champion. Provide them with the knowledge on how they can market the brand. Make sure content shared on LinkedIn is engaging to them. They should want to like and share the brand’s posts.

Where to Start On LinkedIn

At a minimum, business leaders on LinkedIn should:

• Have an updated headshot.
• Upload a branded timeline cover.
• Log into LinkedIn three times a week.
• Like team members’ and brand’s post.
• Accept relevant and meaningful connections.
• Reach out and ask for connections to team members, clients and other contacts you meet at conferences, conventions, etc.
• Monitor competition’s brand pages to get a snapshot of the competitive landscape.

Interested in assistance utilizing LinkedIn for your business? For you as a business leader? The time is now. Front Porch Marketing is here to help you succeed on this important business platform.

Spring cleaning is not just for your home — now is a great time to spring clean your digital marketing too. With spring a few short weeks away, many of us are ready to shed our winter layers and embrace the beauty and change that comes with the new season. We all have probably given thought to our normal spring to-do list. From putting the finishing touches on spring break destinations to tackling home improvement projects and prepping the garden and flower beds for planting new seeds. In this spirit, take a look at the layers of your marketing plan, and optimize for the year.

Spring Clean Your Digital Marketing By Giving it a Once-Over

Have you given any thought to how you can further the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives this spring?  If not, it’s the perfect time to add spring cleaning your digital marketing initiatives to your professional to-do list.

Today, let’s focus at a high level on measuring the effectiveness of your paid digital ad campaigns. Ask yourself the following questions about your digital marketing.

1. Paid Digital Marketing Goals

What goals did you outline at the start of your campaign to measure success?

• Brand Awareness
• New Customer Acquisition
• Specific Sales Goals

2. Paid Digital Campaign Metrics

Review your analytics reports.

• Are your impressions, click-thru rates and conversions performing at or above industry average? Are they meeting your goals?
• To whom are your ads being served?
• Where are your ads being shown?
• Do you see increased website traffic or trends in overall traffic?

3. Paid Digital Creative

Take inventory of your paid digital ads and ask yourself the following questions:

• Are they on brand?
• Are they engaging?
• Does the copy easily and accurately reflect your message?
• If there is an offer, is it appealing?

Reorganize and Refresh — Spring Clean Your Digital Marketing!

Once you have answered each of these questions while spring cleaning your digital marketing, you will have valuable insights to make the necessary adjustments to optimize your digital ad campaign effectiveness. Just like organizing your closet or decluttering your garage, your refreshed digital marketing will now be more efficient and work harder for your brand the rest of the year.