These problems can also cause issues with your team and lead to poor employee morale. The solution? Caller queue help services.

When used correctly, you can take your company’s performance to the next level. Not everyone understands how to get started, though. Let’s take a closer look at the key information you need to keep in mind.

Caller Queue Management for Customer Service

Customers spend less time waiting and get their issues resolved faster. In context, this system prioritizes calls based on urgency and directs them to the right agents.

By implementing caller queue management, businesses can ensure a more structured and organized approach to handling customer inquiries. This results in a more professional image and greater customer loyalty.

It also allows businesses to track and measure the performance of their call centers more accurately. This provides valuable insights for continuous improvement.

Call Handling Improvements

Using caller queue help services can significantly improve call handling. Real-time analytics let managers monitor call volumes, agent performance, and customer wait times. This data helps optimize call center operations.

Enhanced call handling leads to faster response times and higher customer satisfaction. By identifying bottlenecks and peak call times, managers can adjust staffing levels accordingly.

This proactive approach ensures that customers receive timely and efficient service. It also reduces frustration and increases their overall satisfaction.

Virtual Assistant Services

Virtual assistants handle routine inquiries, schedule appointments, and provide basic information. This frees up human agents to focus on more complex issues, resulting in quicker resolutions and a more efficient call center. 

These can operate 24/7, offering round-the-clock support to customers. They also reduce the workload on human agents, preventing burnout. Their use can lead to significant cost savings while maintaining high customer satisfaction.

Advanced Customer Support Solutions

Integrating advanced customer support solutions with caller queue help services ensures a seamless experience. Features like call recording, automated callbacks, and multi-channel support ensure every customer interaction is handled professionally.

These solutions provide detailed insights into customer interactions, allowing businesses to identify areas for improvement. Enhanced reporting and analytics help track performance metrics.

Improved Business Efficiency

Caller queue helps reduce wait times, optimize agent productivity, and enhance customer service. Efficient call handling also reduces operational costs by minimizing the time agents spend on each call.

Streamlined processes and improved resource allocation lead to better overall performance. Better performance, in turn, enhances the business’s reputation and helps attract and retain customers.

Finding a Caller Queue Solution

Not all software is created equal, and it’s crucial to do your due diligence. This will help you find the ideal option for your needs, such as hosted PBX. Let’s take a closer look at what to keep an eye out for.

Understand Business Needs

Before choosing a caller queue solution, it’s crucial to understand your specific business needs. Assess your current call volume, peak times, and the nature of customer inquiries.

Identify pain points in your current system that a new solution should address. This understanding will guide you in selecting the most suitable solution.

Research Available Options

Take the time to research the various caller queue solutions available in the market. Look at different vendors and the features they offer.

Consider solutions that have been well-reviewed and are used by similar businesses. Thorough research helps in creating a shortlist of potential options.

Evaluate Key Features

Focus on the key features that are essential for your business. Look for features like call prioritization, real-time analytics, and automated callbacks.

These features can significantly improve your call-handling efficiency. Evaluate how they align with your business needs and goals. This goes a long way toward narrowing down your options.

Consider Scalability

Think about your company’s future growth when selecting a caller queue solution. The system should be able to scale with your business as call volumes increase.

Assess whether the solution can be easily upgraded or expanded. Scalability ensures that the system remains effective as your business grows. The last thing you want is to have insufficient resources as you grow.

Analyze Costs

Conduct a thorough cost analysis of the caller queue solutions you are considering. Compare the initial setup costs, subscription fees, and any additional costs for upgrades/support.

Balance these costs against the expected benefits, such as improved efficiency and customer satisfaction. A clear understanding of the costs helps in making a sound decision.

Read User Reviews

User reviews provide valuable insights into the performance of caller queue solutions. Look for reviews that discuss the ease of use, reliability, and quality of customer support.

Pay attention to any recurring issues mentioned in negative reviews. User feedback can help you avoid potential pitfalls and choose a reliable solution.

Keep an eye out for fake reviews, though. These are often posted in large batches and contain many of the same keywords.

Check Customer Support

Stellar customer support is essential when implementing a new caller queue solution. Ensure that the vendor offers comprehensive support, including setup assistance and troubleshooting.

Having the right policy in place can minimize downtime and resolve issues swiftly. They should also be easy to get in touch with when you need them.

Test Software Performance

Before making a final decision, test the performance of the shortlisted caller queue solutions. Many vendors offer free trials or demo versions.

Use these to assess how well the software handles your call volumes and integrates with your existing systems. This process ensures the solution meets your expectations.

Make Your Decision Carefully

The information in this guide will help you find the ideal caller queue software for your business. From here, you’ll have no trouble taking your performance to new heights. Just be sure to do your due diligence when looking for a solution.

Are you looking for other helpful tech tips to help you grow your business? Our blog has plenty of articles like this one. Be sure to check them out today!

The post Boost Business Efficiency with Caller Queue Help Services appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Technological advancements have made remote work arrangements increasingly popular with the rise of the digital environment. As businesses adapt to this trend, virtual assistants have become a prevalent choice for remote work due to their many benefits, such as flexibility, cost savings, and improved work-life balance. Explore the different types of virtual assistants available to help you build a successful remote team for your business!

Administrative Assistant 

A virtual administrative assistant is a remote employee who supports people and companies with organizational needs. They manage email, set up appointments, handle bookkeeping, and other administrative tasks. 

Hiring a virtual administrative assistant is a cost-effective solution for businesses because they don’t have to worry about providing employee benefits or office space. Instead, businesses only pay for the hours performed while receiving administrative support. This results in time and cost savings and increased efficiency and productivity.

Customer Service Assistant

For business owners, responding to clients’ questions and concerns can take much time, detracting time from other essential business duties. Using a virtual assistant for customer support can give business owners and employees more time to concentrate on crucial responsibilities like sales, marketing, and product development.

A virtual assistant specializing in customer service can handle tasks such as processing orders, addressing client complaints, and providing product or service information. By responding promptly and efficiently, they can ensure a positive customer experience and resolve issues promptly.

Data Entry Assistant

Data entry tasks can be time-consuming and require meticulous attention to detail. Businesses can benefit from hiring a virtual assistant as they help eliminate errors and ensure accurate data entry. By entrusting this responsibility to a data entry virtual assistant, companies can make informed decisions based on reliable data, leading to increased production and efficiency.

E-commerce Assistant 

E-commerce assistants can play a vital role in helping businesses to increase their sales by managing inventory, optimizing product listings, and developing effective marketing plans. Overall, they assist in the day-to-day operations of an e-commerce company, ensuring the business runs smoothly and efficiently.

Executive Assistant

An executive assistant supports executives and senior managers by providing invaluable assistance such as schedule management, organizing priorities, and setting up meetings. With an executive assistant, they can stay focused on their primary responsibilities, meet critical deadlines, and achieve their objectives. 

 Social Media Assistant

Social media assistants play a crucial role in managing a company’s social media presence. They can help businesses achieve their social media objectives by creating and curating content, interacting with followers, and analyzing social media data.

Social media assistants can provide customized content for social media platforms, including images, videos, and blog articles, to ensure the information resonates with the intended audience. By doing so, they can help companies gain new customers and retain existing ones.

Select the Right Virtual Assistant for Your Business Needs

Employing a virtual assistant can be an excellent approach to improving productivity and optimizing your company’s operations. However, deciding which type of assistant is appropriate for your company might be challenging given the wide range of options available. 

To choose the right type of virtual assistant for your company’s needs, it is best to: 

1. Determine your company’s requirements
2. Evaluate the types of virtual assistants
3. Assess knowledge and skills
4. Determine communication and availability
5. Think about cultural fit

When selecting a virtual assistant, evaluating your company’s needs and choosing the ideal candidate to help you achieve your goals and optimize your business operations is crucial. 

Don’t let time-consuming tasks hold you back from growing your business. Check out our virtual assistant packages today and take the first step towards greater productivity and success.

The post Types of Assistants to Hire Remotely appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Without proper business support, some crucial tasks can go neglected. After all, business owners are constantly doing multiple things at once. And with so much on their plate, their bigger tasks have a tendency to overshadow others. As a consequence, these delayed tasks pile up over time; they may be accomplished with poor quality. This leaves the business vulnerable to an array of issues.

But with a Virtual Assistant, you no longer have to worry about any of that. You no longer have to waste time doing tasks outside your scope of work. All you have to do is delegate.

Here are some ways you can use your Virtual Assistant:

Admin Work 

Administrative work is, without a doubt, the backbone of any business. It collects, organizes, and communicates important information and generally keeps operations running smoothly. In short, this is the kind of work that supports everyone else, allowing the whole organization to work as efficiently and productively as possible.

Often, people underestimate how difficult administrative tasks can be, but these day-to-day tasks do take up a considerable amount of time and effort. When you have a mountain of work to do, the last thing you need to concern yourself with is how to organize your documents.

Some of the tasks you can assign to your Executive Admin VA include: email management, creating and organizing financial reports, appointment setting, document/file management, and many more.

Social Media 

As the world continues to rely on the internet to connect and interact with each other, having an online presence has become a necessity for businesses. Through a well-crafted social media strategy, we are able to connect with our audience, gain more traffic and awareness for the brand, and keep up with our competitors. In a way, using social media can help give your business the life and credibility it needs.

Of course, a Social Media VA can readily help you with such tasks, especially since social media management is time-consuming and can even require specialized skills. To maximize your Social Media VA, ask them to manage multiple accounts, set up paid ads, create and organize analysis reports, and other related tasks.

Customer Service 

Attending to your customers means bearing the responsibility of representing the brand. Whether your customers leave with a positive experience or a negative one, this doesn’t solely reflect on the person they talked to; it reflects on the business as a whole. And when you have plenty of competitors popping up left and right, great customer service can be the thing that sets you apart. 

Not only does customer service help you retain customers and grow brand loyalty, it also helps you acquire new customers. In fact, according to Hubspot, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with six or more people. So, just by providing great service, you’re able to directly drive up your revenue.

With a Customer Service VA, you won’t need to handle this alone—or at all, even. Trust them to deal with your customers’ questions and needs through chat support, emailing, processing requests and orders, etc. 

Work With Pepper

With over a decade of experience in the industry, Pepper VA can help you screen and acquire a designated virtual assistant from our roster of experienced professionals. Schedule a call with us and start your journey towards a more productive future. 

The post Virtual Assistants Can Be Your Game-Changer appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

In this article, we’ll talk about which online tools are useful for a beginner when editing a video. We’ll talk about the features of these online tools and how they are different from one another. After reading this article, you’ll know what to choose for your video.

1.   Canva

There are plenty of ways to use Canva, depending on what you want to use it for. There’s a possibility to edit photos and images, create infographics, and design slides. But, you can also edit videos.

Users are usually less familiar with Canva’s online video editor. It’s a great feature they have because it’s fairly easy to use, and you can create videos similar to a PowerPoint presentation.

It works across different platforms, and there’s a ton of royalty-free images you can use in the videos you create. Of course, you can use your photos. The downsides are that you have to pay for some features of the video editor, and it’s difficult to know which features are not free.

2.   Fastreel Video Cutter

This video editor is quite popular with bloggers because it’s easy to use, and it comes with a lot of features. It’s a browser video edit app. Apart from using templates to create a slideshow or similar video, you can also edit videos you might want to post.

It’s a great tool for beginners, especially if you’re running a video blog or posting enjoyable videos on your social media profiles. The platform allows you to upload your files and start arranging them into a video. There’s a 500MB limit, though. Also, there are two basic options:

• Templates: You can select the type of video you want to create, an intro, an outro, an advertisement video, a birthday video, a wedding video, etc. You can use their music for your videos.
• Tools: These allow you to go more in-depth when working on your video. You can choose what you wish to do with it, compress it, crop it, change the speed, merge it with another video, mute it, add a watermark, add text, etc. It’s great when you’re a beginner and want to make videos like a pro for personal use.

3.   Flixier

Flixier offers a more sophisticated video editing interface. It promises 1-min exports and a lot of storage for your video materials. It’s great for beginners because you can use all the features to look like a pro to other users. The thing is that it isn’t free. There are three pricing options:

• Creator: Comes at $8 per user per month, and it offers unlimited projects, unlimited downloads, 1080 HD resolution, automatic subtitles, 50 GB of cloud storage, etc. It’s good if you’re working alone or in a smaller team.
• Business: Comes at $20 per user per month, and it offers everything that the previous pricing package has, but you can have 4K Ultra HD res, 100 GB of cloud storage, text-to-speech, connected apps, etc. It’s great for larger teams.
• Enterprise: The price can be assessed after a consultation, and this package is suitable for larger teams of people, teams working in a large organization. It’s a great piece of software for creating a holiday marketing campaign for the company.

4.   Animatron

Animatron has a feature that allows you to publish your animation on HTML5 directly. This means that you can publish it on your vlog as soon as you’re done with it. It’s different from other online video editors because you can create animations in it.

You can try it for free, but you’ll miss out on all the royalty-free music, images, etc. Also, you don’t get commercial rights for it, and you’ll need to keep the watermark. The maximum length of the media you import must be 1 minute or less. It’s perfect if you’re a beginner working in marketing.

5.   Blender

When you just need a couple of cuts and a few imports, Blender is a good choice. You have a splicing and cutting option, and there’s a possibility to mask your videos or adjust the colors on them.

You can also adjust the speed of your video and add some great transitions to make it seem more like a slideshow. It’s good for creating birthday or wedding videos. Perfect for surprising your best friend with a friendiversary video.

6.   OpenShot

It’s not a free online video tool, but it is a good piece of editing software for beginners. A distinct feature of this video editor is that you can install it on your laptop, and you can use unlimited layers on your video.

This means that you can add as many masks as you’d like. It’s good for doing some simple tweaks, and you can remove the background in your video, invert the colors, add visuals to audio, etc.

There are also a lot of things you can do with the speed adjustment, you can add slow motion and speed up your videos, and you can reverse them if necessary. With a little imagination, this tool can be very powerful for beginners.

7.   InVideo

The most distinct feature of this online video editor is that the free online video tool doesn’t come with a deadline. You can use the free trial as long as you please. The other thing is that they have great customer support that makes the entire video editing process easier to understand.

InVideo has a storyteller feature that allows you to create infographics in video form. This means that when you post something on social media or your blog, you can use this feature to describe the post easily. It’s a great tool that goes side-by-side with social marketing trends.

When you have a lot of content in the form of text, you should use InVideo to narrow it down into a video and make it more comprehensive for your followers or readers. It’s also great for creating how-tos on products or training videos.

8.   Clipchamp

Yet another great video editor you can use in your browser. It works smoothly because it uses the resources from your device. However, everything you do in it, you do online. It’s fairly easy to learn how to use.

One of the advanced features of Clipchamp is the multi-layer video possibility, but you can also tweak videos and put them together. The pricing plans are different from other online video editors because most of them offer 1080p with the first plan.

Clipchamp offers a free basic plan, but the limit is 480p, and this is a low resolution for people who want their videos to look professional. The other three plans are quite affordable:

• Creator: At $9 a month, it comes with storage integration using Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. The resolution is limited to 720p.
• Business: At $19 a month, the resolution is 1080p, and it covers everything that the creator plan does, and it comes with a brand kit.
• Business Platinum: At $39 a month, it covers everything from the previous plans, and you have unlimited video, audio, and image stock. However, the resolution is still limited to 1080p video exports.

Final say

Every self-respecting cameraman, no matter a professional or a beginner, should understand that when filming any video, it needs to be processed. Video processing means trimming unnecessary parts, applying effects and soundtrack, and editing the video itself in the required format.

Therefore, we hope our top will be useful to you. Good luck with mastering!

The post Top 8: Best Video Editing Software & Online Tools for Beginners appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Reviews/Feedback is the best form of User-Generated Content that can work extremely well for your brand and drastically improve your brand visibility and presence. Apart from that, it can instill trust and confidence in your users and give them a reason to purchase from your brand and become your customers.

But where do you upload your reviews from? While the best platforms to collect reviews are Google and Facebook, you may be confused about which platform is better for your business?

In this blog, we will be clearing the confusion and giving you an insight about both the platforms and which one is more reliable and better.

Keep reading the blog till the end, as we shall be sharing our final verdict.

Google Reviews

Google is the most highly used search engine, and to enable Google reviews for your business, you need to have a Google My Business account and a profile.

It is a no-brainer that we instantly open our phones and ‘Google it.’ Be it about the trending shoes in the market or the best restaurant near me. We blindly rely on the search engine. In short, Google shows the ultimate answers for every small or big query.

Keeping this in mind, brands often utilize the power of Google reviews to promote their businesses and garner more attention. Displaying what your customers have experienced and say about your brand can drastically improve user engagement and build social proof about your brand.

There is no doubt that Google is the highest used search engine globally, and people blindly rely on the platform to get their answers and solve their queries. However, there is a major drawback of the platform, and that is – anyone and everyone can leave a review on Google.

It can be a major disadvantage to many brands since any person can leave behind nasty reviews of a brand and tarnish their reputation. Your competitors may play smart and convince other people to say negative things about your brand so that they get the upper hand instead.

So, even if Google is the king of search engines and using Google reviews can do wonders for your business, monitoring the reviews and having a one-to-one conversation with your customers via reviews is not quite possible on Google and can go against the brand.

Facebook Reviews

Being the most highly used social media platform, Facebook has 2.895 billion monthly active users at the end of June 2021! Due to such a large audience, brands and businesses are making full use of this social media platform to promote their products and services and collect reviews.

Ever since Facebook started the reviews features in 2013, Businesses and brands are making complete use of the platform to increase their engagement with their potential customers and improvise their brand visibility and presence.

Since Facebook is a social media platform, it has a casual and engaging vibe, and people are mostly in a mood to interact, socialize and have conversations.

Even if a person has a negative review, you can easily interact and find out what went wrong in-depth and rectify the situation in a more mature manner.

Moreover, there is a high possibility that post making amendments, you might change the mindset of the person and convince them to delete the review and give a positive review instead, and this can be a big plus point for your business!

Which One Wins?

Both!

Both Google Reviews and Facebook Reviews are equally beneficial for your business. While Google may help you rank higher on the search engine ranking page, Facebook can help you collect and change people’s mindsets through conversing and solving queries.

How to Incorporate Reviews for Marketing?

As mentioned at the blog’s starting, Reviews can surely do wonders for your business and help you maximize your brand reach and sales.

There are multiple ways of utilizing Reviews; however, the best marketing technique is to embed reviews on your website.

Displaying Reviews on your website can drastically increase your traffic and the stay time of your visitors. It makes the website more attractive and encourages users to go ahead and make a purchase. It is the most effective, powerful, and result-driven tool to boost overall user engagement.

All you require is a highly responsive aggregator tool to effortlessly collect and curate Google and Facebook reviews and embed them on your website, and you are all set to maximize your sales!

Over to You

Google reviews and Facebook reviews are crucial for any business and can significantly give growth to your profits if leveraged correctly.

While people debate which one is better amongst Google and Facebook for reviews, we have given our final verdict and hope you agree with us.

Now that you know how to utilize reviews by embedding them on your website Get going and skyrocket your sales!

The post Google Reviews vs. Facebook Reviews – How to use it in marketing appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Facebook continues to become an essential platform for businesses of all sizes and industries. As the social media landscape evolves and consumer behavior changes, this top social media site also implements necessary changes. It’s important that you keep tabs on Facebook updates so you can make the most of your entire social media marketing plan.

In the past few months, Facebook has released several great updates you should take note of when planning your strategies for the rest of the year. Here are some of them:

Video Creation Kit

Video content can now be considered as the best tool that you can use to promote your brand. With Facebook’s new Video Creation Kit, it’s easier for you to turn your existing photo and image assets into mobile-friendly video ads. The more you use this feature, the more videos your audience can consume. This supports studies revealing that videos will likely comprise over 75% of the world’s mobile data traffic by 2020.

Messenger Dark Mode and Delete Features

According to research, brands and consumers exchange 8 billion messages on Facebook messenger every month. If you use messenger as a tool to communicate with your current and potential customers, then it pays to be aware of messenger’s Dark Mode feature. If you want a new interface or view and promote interaction, then you might want to try this feature. You can now also delete a sent message using Facebook messenger’s new deletion feature. Just choose the “Remove for You” or the “Remove for Everyone” button.

Stories, Augmented Reality, and Playable Ads

Create new experiences for your viewers or followers and boost interaction through these ads updates from Facebook. With Stories ads, you can share your Instagram stories on your Facebook account and reach more people across both platforms. The Augmented Reality (AR) ad feature allows you to promote your products and enables your users to experience or try them using the ads’ AR capabilities. Meanwhile, Playable ads is another interactive feature that gives users the opportunity to try an app before buying.

New Group Features and Tools

Aside from having a Facebook page, you can also create a paid subscription group to further connect with your target market. In case you don’t know yet, Facebook has expanded the subscription group feature, implemented new guidelines for adding group members, and updated group management tools. You can optimize this feature, monetize your Facebook account, and build good relationships with your audience by offering courses and other members-only content.

From Page Reviews to Recommendations

Facebook also rolled out updates for pages, which make it better for businesses like yours to establish your reputation and build trust. Page Reviews have now been replaced with Recommendations. Instead of the simple yes or no and star rating, your previous customers can give their feedback about your brand and even include photos and tags. This way, your new visitors and other prospects will know what they can expect and experience when they do business with you.

Ad Metrics

It’s important that you determine and measure your Facebook ad campaign’s relevance score so you’ll determine how effective it is. Thus, you should be familiar with Facebook’s three new ad relevance diagnostics metrics, namely quality ranking, engagement rate ranking, and conversion rate ranking. By using these tools, you can have better and more successful Facebook ad campaigns.

These are just some of the Facebook updates that you can utilize to boost your brand on Facebook. With the help of your reliable virtual assistant, you can keep up with such changes. Stay up to date to stay competitive and increase your business success!

Our virtual assistants can help you with social media marketing. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post Facebook Updates You May Not Know About appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Gary Vaynerchuck, Ann Handley, and Neil Patel are just three of the most popular personalities we featured in 10 Social Media Experts You Need to Follow. If you’re looking for inspiration and tips like how to increase your engagement, create excellent content, and generate more leads on social media, then it’s best that you follow these experts.

We also introduced Up and Coming Social Media Influencers Worth Following. Check out the accounts of rising social media stars, including Alex Khan, Zach King, and Rebekah Radice and click the follow button to discover their golden tips and strategies.

These social media gurus have made a name and an impact in the social media world because of their experience, know-how, reputation, and a huge following. Connecting with them could help you achieve your social media marketing goals and take your business to the next level!

Take a look at this infographic summarizing our blog posts on social media gurus:

Our virtual assistants can help you with social media marketing. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post Infographic: Social Media Gurus appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

The birth and rise of social media influencers can be considered a favorable turning point for businesses. These personalities not only have a huge following. They have also already established credibility in their respective industries. This is why you can turn to them if you want to expand your reach and build more relationships with your target market.

According to research, influencer marketing is the fastest-growing, cost-effective online customer-acquisition method. Regardless of the industry your business belongs to and the social media platform you’re using, there’s an influencer that you can connect with. Let’s have a look at these up and coming social media influencers that you should start following.

1. Alex Khan

If you’re on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, be sure to check out and follow Alex Khan. He is the CEO of Attractive Media and Europe’s top social media and live video coach. He can be your go-to guy if you’re looking for innovative and effective tips and tricks on using social media. No wonder his social media following keeps growing!

2. Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is another promising social media influencer that you should follow if you want to learn more about brilliant social media content. He is an author, the founder of Social Media Examiner, and the host of Social Media Marketing podcast.

3. Goldie Chan

If big media companies and websites, such as Forbes and Huffington Post, have featured and recognized her, then she must be really worth following! Social media strategy specialist and personal branding expert, Goldie Chan, can show you valuable social media marketing hacks that could work for your business. Check out her top performing videos on LinkedIn and find out why she became LinkedIn Top Voice for 2018.

4. Zach King

Video genius and rising social media superstar, Zach King, definitely knows how to entertain and make his audience laugh through fun videos and visuals. He currently has more than 20 million followers on Instagram and over 2 million subscribers on YouTube. As a marketer or business owner, you can take inspiration and learn from Zach. You can perhaps start by posting light-hearted content on your feed or using Instagram stories to make your followers smile.

5. Rebekah Radice

Social media can help you not only to boost online visibility and engagement, but also to get results and increase your profits. And social media marketing and performance strategist and influencer, Rebekah Radice, can show you how to do that. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and learn tons of tips like why investing in videos and hiring a virtual assistant should be essential elements in your social media budget.

6. Huda Kattan

Makeup expert and beauty blogger, Huda Kattan, is the influencer you should keep an eye on especially if your business is in the cosmetics and beauty industry. With 35.5 million followers on Instagram, she is one of CBSNews’s top social media influencers of 2018. Follow her on different social media platforms to see how she makes video tutorials and shares reviews and how you can apply her strategies for your own business.

Social media and influencer marketing go hand in hand and they can ignite online growth for your business. Follow, learn from, and perhaps work with (if you have the budget) social media influencers, including the six we mentioned, to optimize your social media marketing plan and achieve the best results.

Our virtual assistants can help you with social media marketing. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post Up and Coming Social Media Influencers Worth Following appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Any business’ online marketing plan wouldn’t be solid without social media marketing. This field is constantly evolving and becoming increasingly pivotal for businesses like yours. If you want to keep up and maximize its potential, you should learn from top social media experts. Their tips and tactics could help you increase your presence online and drive business growth.

We’ve scoured the vast social media world and discovered the most influential and successful social media gurus you need to follow. Here are ten of them:

1. Gary Vaynerchuck

Gary Vee is one of the most popular names in the world of digital marketing and social media. He is the co-founder and CEO of VaynerMedia and a best-selling author. Here’s a great tip from him if you want to increase brand awareness and profits through social media, “The incredible brand awareness and bottom-line profits achievable through social media marketing require hustle, heart, sincerity, constant engagement, long-term commitment, and most of all, artful and strategic storytelling.”

2. Jay Baer

If you want to convert more of your social media followers into actual paying customers, then you should keep an eye on Jay Baer. Aside from being the founder of digital marketing consultancy firm, Convince&Convert, he is also a best-selling author, investor, and keynote speaker. Through social media, you can build a good relationship with your customers. According to Jay Baer, “Social media creates kinship between companies and customers, and kinship equals purchase intent.”

3. Ann Handley

Boost the power of your social media content with the help of writer, keynote business speaker, and marketer, Ann Handley. For her, “Quality content means content that is packed with clear utility and is brimming with inspiration, and it has relentless empathy for the audience.” Take note of this powerful quote from this MarketingProfs content chief and marketing writing expert so you can always create high-quality content that your audience will love.

4. Guy Kawasaki

Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist, author, and marketing specialist Guy Kawasaki said, “This is the beauty of social media: it helps you find people and then you can contact them fast and inexpensively.” If you agree with him and would like to learn more from this guru, then you better be one of his millions of followers on Twitter and Facebook!

5. Lilach Bullock

Social media and content marketing expert, Lilach Bullock, is the person you should follow If you’re looking for top-notch lead generation and engagement tips. Named by Forbes as a top woman social influencer, Lilach has this to say about videos as great content for online marketing, “Video Marketing solidifies your online presence whilst building deep and meaningful relationships with your customers. It adds a personal touch to your brand whilst increasing your conversions!”

6. Neil Patel

Best-selling author, digital marketing specialist, and entrepreneur, Neil Patel, is the man behind the popular blog, QuickSprout.com and website, neilpatel.com. Whether you’re a pro or a new social media marketer. you’ll find advices like this from Neil Patel very useful, “The foundation of your social media strategy is to understand who your target audience is and why they use social media. To do so, we need to utilize demographics and psychographics.”

7. Jeff Bullas

Strengthen your social media accounts by following Jeff Bullas! He is not only a renowned content marketing and social media influencer and strategist, but he is also a best-selling author and successful marketing blogger. For him, “Social media marketing refers to the use of social media platforms to identify and connect with key audiences in a meaningful way.”

8. Joe Pulizzi

Joe Pulizzi is another social media guru that you should follow, especially if you want to create excellent social media content. He is the founder of Content Marketing Institute and a renowned author, speaker, and social media thought leader. Here’s a tip from Joe Pulizzi, “The easiest way to turn off your community members is to broadcast the same message across multiple channels. Instead, determine the kind of content that interests the members of your community in a way that is useful to them.”

9. Amy Porterfield

Digital marketing expert, Amy Porterfield, shares her wealth of knowledge through her podcasts, webinars, blog posts, and tweets! Her style is perfect for you especially if you’re just getting started with social media marketing. Consider this valuable tip from Amy: “Learn from those that are getting results and model what’s already working.”

10. Rand Fishkin

Rand Fishkin is a notable author and speaker and one of the most famous names in the SEO world. If you’re looking for ways to improve your SEO and social media marketing efforts, then you should connect with him on social media. His website/business, Moz, is worth checking out, too! For Rand Fishkin, “Best way to sell something: don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, and trust of those who might buy.”

A lot of big brands work with or have tapped the expertise of these social media gurus. You, too, can connect with them on top social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Your virtual assistant can help you with this social media marketing task so you’ll stay up to date with what the experts are doing. Their nuggets of wisdom and effective strategies could help your business level up and thrive!

Our virtual assistants can help you with social media marketing. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Social media marketing continues to become an important and effective tool for businesses. You can optimize this platform to promote your brand and increase online visibility, customer engagement, and ultimately, sales. It’s great if you’re already leveraging top social media sites and strategies. But it’s best if you also explore new trends and platforms to stay competitive.

We learned the 5 Social Media Marketing Trends You Should Know About. This includes strong visual content, AI-driven customer service, and the rise of micro-influencers. Next, we introduced the Emerging Social Media Platforms You Should Start Exploring. Yes, there’s more to social media than Instagram, Snapchat, or Viber! This year, you might want to try using Vero, TikTok, and Line to reach out to your target market in new and more exciting ways.

To summarize our blogs this week, check out this infographic:

Our virtual assistants can help you explore and optimize new social media trends and platforms. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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The world of social media is expanding exponentially, and businesses should pay attention. Top social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as apps like Viber, are here to stay. However, it’s good if you take advantage of other social media platforms. They could provide you with new ways and opportunities to increase your online visibility, customer base, and sales.

Stay on top of your social media marketing goals! Whether you’re a seasoned or newbie entrepreneur or marketer, here are six emerging social media platforms you should start exploring.

1. Vero

If you like Instagram and would want to maximize your influencer marketing strategy on social media, then Vero might interest you. This social network was launched in 2015 but gained massive growth in March 2018. Because it doesn’t use any algorithm and is ad-free, you can work with more influencers and share any type of content with your target audience. Vero’s unique features can give you a chance to increase your online presence and provide your audience/followers with a great browsing and viewing experience.

2. TikTok

Social media users and consumers love to watch videos, so it’s a great idea to use this format to promote your brand. As an alternative to more established video apps and sites like Snapchat and YouTube, you can try TikTok. This short-form video platform was launched in 2016 and merged with musical.ly in 2018. It has been downloaded more than 800 million times worldwide. This proves that TikTok is an excellent platform that you can utilize to share your video content, especially if you’re targeting a younger market.

3. Google My Business

The recent shutdown of Google+ may have affected a lot of businesses, but Google was quick to come up with a solution! With Google My Business App, it’s easier for companies like yours to create a business profile and attract and connect with customers. You can even merge your then Google+ and Google My Business profiles. Optimize this platform’s features to learn how people discover your business, post and share content, engage your customers, and keep them up to date with your exciting offers.

4. Medium

Although it’s primarily an online publishing platform, Medium can also pass as a social network because of some of its features. If you want to amp up your content marketing strategy on social media, then this is the best platform for you. With Medium, you can publish original articles, repost your blog posts, and easily link your social media profiles to your articles on Medium to generate new followers and expand your reach. Your virtual assistant can help to ensure that you have a steady flow of content and keep your social media channels active.

5. Foursquare Swarm

Let more people discover your business with the help of Foursquare Swarm. All you need to do is add your place to the listing and upload your location info, photos, tips, and other details. Anyone using this app will be able to see your business, visit your place, and perhaps recommend it to others! Wouldn’t it be great to see more people “check-in” to your store and announce it on social media? With Foursquare Swamp, you can achieve that.

6. Line

Instant and social messaging apps are beneficial to businesses, especially if you have remote workers. If you’re familiar with Viber and WhatsApp and you want to try something new, then Line is the tool for you. With this app, you can send messages and make calls for free, as well as share your brand’s photos, videos, news, and promotions!

Technology and social media are undeniably essential for today’s businesses. With these emerging, innovative social media platforms, you can connect with your customers and grow your business in new and more interesting ways!

Do you want to try any of these social media platforms? Our VAs can assist you. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Social media continues to become a popular and necessary business promotion tool. With the number of global social media users expected to reach 2.77 billion this year, it’s important that you keep this platform in your marketing arsenal. It’s also best to be aware and take advantage of new social media marketing trends to stay ahead of the competition.

Keep abreast of any changes to make the most of what social media has to offer! Here are five social media marketing trends you should focus on this year.

1. Strong Visual / Video Content

Visual content has a huge impact on your brand. This is why more marketers regard visuals as an important part of their marketing strategy. To increase your social media reach, engagement, and sales, create more content with interesting images. Your social media-savvy virtual assistant can help you with this task.

It’s also a brilliant idea to start offering your viewers and followers real-time content. Utilize Facebook or Instagram live video and stories to attract more customers.

2. Personalized Customer Experience

According to research, 90% of social media users have communicated with a brand via social media. And when they connect with a brand, they look for personalized interaction and engagement. Personalization promotes transparency and builds trust. Thus, it is a key trend that you should prioritize.

Enhance your communication strategies, as well as data collection methods to provide your audience with a more personable customer experience. One of the best ways to do this is through personalized messages or by using your customers’ name when you answer their queries.

3. AI for Customer Service

While human interaction is important, you’ll gain an edge if you also leverage new technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to interact with your target market. An AI-driven customer service is a trend you might want to jump on this year. A lot of famous brands, like Spotify and Lyft, have already been optimizing chatbots and other automated messaging tools. Consider investing in this technology to grow your business.

4. Rise of Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing is a constantly growing trend. If you wish to optimize this strategy, but you find big name macro-influencers to be too expensive, there’s a better option for you! They are called micro-influencers and they hold sway on social media.

Although they have a smaller number of followers compared to celebrities or more popular online influencers, you can still count on them to promote your product or service. Tap on them as your brand ambassadors and see how you can maximize user-generated content to power up your social media marketing.

5. Increased Ad Spending

Social media users of different generations agree that social media ads are becoming more relevant. This is why social media ad spending is rising and shows no signs of stopping. If you’re looking to increase your marketing budget, you might want to use more funds on paid social ads that you can publish on multiple channels or networks. But remember to create high-quality content to have a more successful ad campaign.

The social media marketing landscape is constantly evolving. It pays to know the latest trends, like the ones we mentioned, so you can update your strategies. Identify and implement what would work best for your business to reap the benefits of social media marketing!

Our virtual assistants can help you implement your social media marketing strategies. Contact us to find out how we can work together!

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Nowadays, there are various video and social media marketing platforms that businesses can optimize for brand promotion. When we talk about videos, YouTube still reigns supreme. It has grown to become a highly-effective tool for creating video marketing campaigns. With regard to social networking, Google+ can be considered a great social media channel, as well. A lot of businesses leverage these two platforms. Let’s have a look at some of them and their YouTube and Google+ campaigns/pages that made an impact this year:

YouTube

According to research, there are now around 30 million daily active YouTube users. These viewers have most likely seen these video ads that went viral.

1. Amazon Alexa

Amazon’s “Alexa Lost Her Voice” is not only one of the most creative campaigns for 2018. It became a viral ad not only because it featured famous celebrities, including Sir Anthony Hopkins, but also because it was strategically aired during the Super Bowl.

Photo Credit: youtube.com

2. Netflix Cloverfield Paradox

Netflix continues to be the world’s leading media services provider because of their effective marketing strategy. The company’s video campaigns for promoting their shows always get the viewers talking, like their Cloverfield Paradox marketing campaign.

Photo Credit: locowise.com

3. McDonald’s Speechless Thoughts

Global fast food chain McDonald’s tapped celebrities to produce a series of video ads, including this one featuring NBA legend, Charles Barkley (“Speechless Thoughts with Charles Barkley”). The campaign was a winner because the videos are fun, entertaining, and would make viewers want to grab a McDonald’s burger.

Photo Credit: fastcompany.com

4. Doritos and Mountain Dew Ad

Doritos and Mountain Dew joined forces to create another hit Super Bowl ad.  The entertaining and star-studded  #Spitfire and #Icecold battle campaign drew over 2 million views and thousands of likes and comments.

Photo Credit: locowise.com

5. Evan Carmichael

Popular thought leader for entrepreneurship, Evan Carmichael, definitely gave his millions of subscribers a treat with his #ShaniaTwainDanceChallenge campaign.

Photo Credit: joseangelostudios.com

Google+

Google recently announced that it will shut down Google+’s consumer version due to security breach and low usage and engagement. However, there were still some notable pages and campaigns that created buzz, including the following:

1. Canva

Graphic design tool and website, Canva, has a Google+ page with a huge following. The brand uses the platform to promote templates and images, as well as events.

Photo Credit: plus.google.com/+canva

2. H&M

For H&M, maximizing social media presence means being active on Google+, as well. This multinational retail company’s campaigns and style posts always get a lot of likes and shares.

Photo Credit: plus.google.com/+HM

3. NASA

From educating followers to promoting campaigns, events, and ‘missions,’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses Google+ to stay visible and boost awareness.

Photo Credit: jeffbullas.com

4. Erno Rubik / Beyond Rubik’s Cube

The Rubik’s Cube is one of the most interesting puzzles ever invented, and that makes the pages of its inventor, Erno Rubik, and Beyond Rubik’s Cube worth exploring. Users get to see informative content and amazing #BeyondRubiksCube posts.

Photo Credit: plus.google.com

5. Pepsi

For giant beverage company, Pepsi, their Google+ page is a great avenue to interact with their customers, as well as to deliver competitions, giveaways, and high-profile campaigns.

Photo Credit: plus.google.com/+pepsi

Video marketing and social networking constantly evolves. YouTube will likely continue to grow, while Google could develop a better version of Google+ in the future. It would be good for businesses to optimize these platforms to achieve positive results from their marketing efforts.

Our virtual assistants can help you create and implement your marketing campaign! Contact us to find out how we can work together.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post Best YouTube and Google+ Marketing Campaigns of 2018 appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Most of today’s consumers are huge social media and multimedia app fans. This is why businesses innovate and include social media channels like Twitter and entertaining apps like Snapchat in their marketing strategy. By launching marketing campaigns that click, they are able to increase brand awareness and turn these fans into brand ambassadors. This year, we saw a lot of successful Twitter and Snapchat campaigns. Here are some of them:

Twitter

Statistics reveal that nearly 66% of businesses that have more than 100 employees use Twitter for marketing, including these brands. These 2018 marketing campaigns are among those that hit the mark.

1. Heineken

The mixture of humorous content, popular song, and a big football match made Heineken’s UEFA Champions League campaign very effective. Add to that a cameo of popular footballer, Andrea Pirlo, and the video campaign was guaranteed to garner tons of shares and likes. 

Photo Credit: econsultancy.com

2. KFC

Millions of KFC followers were stunned and entertained when the global fast food chain revealed the Colonel’s secret recipe in their 11 herbs and spices campaign. It’s a great example of a campaign that boosts engagement.

Photo Credit: joseangelostudios.com

3. Charmin

Toilet paper brand, Charmin, understands its audience and knows how to use toilet humor to its advantage. The company’s campaigns with witty copies and hashtags are a hit among its followers.

Photo Credit: brafton.com

4. Eggo

Thanks to Eleven from the Netflix series, Stranger Things, Eggo has gained popularity again. People who love the show also love the images and GIFs the brand shared through this Stranger Things campaign.

Photo Credit: joseangelostudios.com

5. Diet Coke

Rebranding in order to appeal to a different market could be risky. But Coca-Cola succeeded in raising awareness when they launched a campaign introducing new Diet Coke flavors.

Photo Credit: talkwalker.com

Snapchat

According to statistics, there are 10 billion daily video views on Snapchat. This means that businesses have a big chance of increasing awareness and engagement by launching Snapchat video campaigns just like these top brands.

1. Amazon

Amazon’s partnership with Snapchat to promote visual search was a success. The campaign provided fresh and innovative consumer buying experience and helped the brand increase sales.

Photo Credit: talkwalker.com

2. Toyota

Global car manufacturer, Toyota, teamed up with Snapchat to promote their new car model through an augmented reality (AR) racing game and the “Just Go” campaign. The company achieved their goal of creating a memorable experience for their target market. 

Photo Credit: Motoringresearch.com

3. Intuit

Intuit revved up their social media marketing for SuperBowl 2018. The software giant even made great use of a Snapchat filter for their campaign dubbed, “A Giant Story.”

Photo Credit: justinoberman.com

4. Bareburger

Attracting new customers is easier with the help of Snapchat AR, and Bareburger agrees! Aside from this technology, the restaurant chain also ran a contest on Snapchat and gave free burgers, fries, and shakes to their followers.

Photo Credit: digiday.com

5. Cisco

Multinational technology and networking company, Cisco, value their company culture and they want to show it to the world. Thanks to Snapchat, Cisco employees are able to share their stories and video campaigns to the company’s target market.

Photo Credit: convinceandconvert.com

Twitter and Snapchat are effective marketing tools. Like these top brands, you can also create successful Twitter and Snapchat marketing campaigns that can increase your customer engagement and brand awareness.

Our virtual assistants can help you create and implement your marketing campaign! Contact us to find out how we can work together.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Businesses nowadays recognize the importance of social media in their overall marketing plan. For most of them, Facebook and Instagram are two of the top social media networks. Creating marketing campaigns through these channels helps increase brand awareness, audience engagement, sales, and revenue. A lot of established brands from different industries have proven this. Let’s take a look at some of the best Facebook and Instagram campaigns of 2018:

Facebook

According to a Hootsuite report, 98% of B2C companies and 89% of B2B companies utilize Facebook. These brands are just five of them, and they have launched successful Facebook campaigns this year.

1. General Electric

General Electric is one of the largest multinational conglomerate companies that is brilliantly leveraging Facebook videos. Through this video campaign, they highlighted their technological innovations and educated their audience, as well. 

Photo Credit: Sproutsocial.com

2. AirAsia

Freebies and discounts are absolutely enticing and irresistible, and Air Asia pulled off their free seats promo with this campaign.

Photo Credit: phrasee.co

3. Slack

Eye-catching visuals plus clear and witty copy is the formula for the success of Slack’s “Make Work Better” campaign.

Photo Credit: phrasee.co

4. Peel

For Peel, a startup that sells functional and stylish phone cases, Facebook video ads work wonders! Their campaigns showcasing their products have helped them boost their revenue and stand out from their competition.

Photo Credit: Sproutsocial.com

5. NatureBox

Free healthy snacks, anyone? Apparently, a lot of Facebook users love it! No wonder, this free trial offer from NatureBox was a hit.

Photo Credit: connectio.io

Instagram

Statistics reveal that there are now more than 25 million Instagram business profiles. Over 200 million Instagrammers visit at least one business account everyday; and this year, they most likely came across these great campaigns.

1. ESPN

One of the goals of every brand is to increase audience engagement. Achieving that was easy for leading TV sports channel, ESPN, because of this campaign leveraging the success of Instagram polls.

Photo Credit: business2community.com

2. IBM

IBM’s Pride Month campaign on Instagram won the hearts of Instagram users. Although the ad didn’t directly promote the company’s products and services, it encouraged inclusivity and diversity and helped the brand build genuine relationships and a reliable reputation. 

Photo Credit: business2community.com

3. ASOS

Online fashion and cosmetic company, ASOS, made the best use of user-generated content strategy with their #AsSeenOnMe campaign. It encouraged brand promotion and advocacy, as well as customer engagement.

Photo Credit: Sproutsocial.com

4. Lego

The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May of this year was a worldwide trending event. Top toy company, Lego, took advantage of the event and launched a successful campaign with the hashtag, #RoyalWedding, that increased their reach.

Photo Credit: blog.hubspot.com

5. Casper

Videos are an excellent tool for boosting brand awareness, and Casper surely knows! This leading mattress and nighttime accessories company optimized videos on Instagram to promote their virtual pillow fight website.

Photo Credit: Sproutsocial.com

Maximize the power of Facebook and Instagram! Let these top marketing campaigns serve as an inspiration when you develop your future social media marketing plans.

Our virtual assistants can help you create and implement your marketing campaign! Contact us to find out how we can work together.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Social media marketing is now not only an option but a necessary strategy for businesses looking to grow and make a mark in their respective industries. With more than 2.7 billion active social media users worldwide, it is undeniably a powerful platform that you should invest in to promote your business. This is why having a budget for social media campaigns is always an excellent idea.

Whether you focus on only one social media network or you want to use multiple channels, it’s important that you look for ways to boost your social media campaigns. Here are several tips to do it without spending a lot of money:

Run Contests

Hosting or running contests on social media is a fun, effective, and low-cost way of attracting your target market and building brand awareness. Thanks to popular channels like Instagram and Facebook, setting up contests nowadays is easy. Grab the attention of your current and potential customers by running a contest with visually appealing photos or videos. Offer irresistible prizes that will make them love your brand and help you reach your marketing goals.

Give Freebies

Everybody loves freebies! To boost your campaign, offer a free product or service to your followers on social media. You can give away free ebooks, consultations, and other valuable stuff that your audience will enjoy. This strategy won’t cost you a lot of money (time and energy), but can build your list and bring in more positive results.

Team Up with Other Businesses

Social media is an effective tool for connecting with others. As a business, you can certainly do that to not just connect, but also to team up with other businesses. Why not work with a startup in exchange for your top product? You can also launch a joint project with a business related to your industry. This cheap social media strategy can help increase brand awareness and visibility.

Use Social Media Ads

According to statistics, the global social media advertising revenue will likely reach around USD$37 billion this year. More businesses probably recognize the role of advertising in expanding audience reach. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need big bucks for social media advertising. You can allot a small pay per click budget for this to boost your social media campaign and reach a lot of people on top networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Publish Great Content

Social media and content marketing can work hand in hand. Because 95% of product and service buyers trust content, you can absolutely leverage content in your social media campaigns. Optimize blogging, use infographics, and include images and videos to generate leads, customers, and sales. It’s also a good idea to reuse or repurpose your old content and use it for your campaigns. You can consider outsourcing this task. For just a minimum cost, talented professionals from an outsourcing company can help you create content that can improve your campaigns.

Keep your Accounts Active

After launching your social media campaign, it’s vital that you stay active and visible on the different social media channels. You don’t have to spend a lot for this. Keep your target market informed about your brand or campaign and post at the best day and time. While doing these, make sure that you maintain and promote a consistent brand message and representation to make your campaign more successful.

The success of your social media campaign depends not only on your financial resources. Follow the tips and strategies mentioned above and your small campaign budget can go a long way. You can achieve your goals and have a successful social media campaign.

Our virtual assistants can help you boost your social media campaigns! Contact us to find out how we can work together.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Marketing is a never-ending effort. Even if your brand is globally established, it is still in your best interest to commit to marketing campaign after marketing campaign. People buy what they see, and if they don’t see your brand often enough there is the chance that they will forget about it or, more likely, choose a competitor over you.

For small businesses, however, you don’t have the luxury of being able to make a TV ad or, for instance, having an entire ad campaign shown during the SuperBowl. Instead, you have the internet. Social media, in particular, is a very powerful tool that you can use to grow a community of repeat buyers organically. It should not, however, be your only digital marketing effort. To really make a splash and get an edge on your competition, try adding these top four marketing methods to your social media campaign today:

Create Shareable Content

The first step to double your social media campaign is to create content that will be shared on more than just your own profiles. Highly shareable content includes photos, videos, and pulled quotes. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put effort into text content as well. The more relevant and informative your content is, the further it will spread.

Collaborate with Influencers

Another great way to improve your social media campaign is to collaborate with influencers. These influencers can be on social media or bloggers, and having a variety of different types of influencers can help boost your reach and visibility. Don’t just try to partner with influencers with a huge following, either. Smaller influencers who have a strong and dedicated community can be just as valuable.

Prioritize SEO

Search engine optimization is a critical component to every digital marketing campaign. It is what encourages you to improve your website quality and performance. It is how you better your content. It is how you boost your search ranking on relevant results. Unlike PPC campaigns, SEO is beneficial in the long term, which is why you need to visit clickintelligence.co.uk to invest in either a specific SEO service like link building or a managed SEO service to boost your site’s search engine ranking and really improve your site’s traffic and reach. This is necessary, as shares on social media are considered very little by Google when determining your ranking.

Invest in PPC Advertising

Pay per click advertising is critical to social media and beyond. Social media itself is geared to offer amazing advertising options for brands of all kinds. Creating an ad and directing it towards your demographic can result in huge returns, especially on platforms like Facebook where users can specify what brands they like and what their interests are.

Social media marketing is a great way to boost reach and engagement. The only mistake you can make with it is specializing your efforts too much. By diversifying your marketing efforts, you can gain greater reach and more long-term results for your brand.

Our virtual assistants can help you with your holiday marketing campaigns! Contact us to find out how we can work together.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post The Best Marketing Methods to Compliment your Social Media Campaign appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Photo Credit: New Digital Noise

Instagram’s IGTV was only introduced a couple of months ago, and yet a lot of Instagrammers, including businesses, are already adopting and maximizing the platform. This long-form, interactive video feature has a lot to offer brands, particularly a greater opportunity to promote their product or service and increase brand awareness, conversions, and sales.

With IGTV, your brand can post tutorials, behind-the-scenes content, a sneak peek about an upcoming offer, a reality or game show, and other entertaining and informative content. You can follow the lead of these top brands with huge followings on Instagram that are maximizing IGTV. Let’s take a look at some of them:

National Geographic

With over 90 million Instagram followers, National Geographic recognizes IGTV’s benefits and utilizes the video platform to educate its followers. NatGeo’s 45-minute “One Strange Rock” video, hosted by Will Smith, explored the experience of NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in space. The video earned more than 1 million views since it was posted.

Photo Credit: blog.bufferapp.com

Netflix

Netflix, one of the most popular online streaming services today, took full advantage of IGTV’s long-form video feature. The company gave its 10.1 million followers, especially Riverdale fans, a visual treat when they uploaded an hour-long video of Cole Sprouse eating a burger! Only a month after it was posted, the video already got more than 600,000 views and over 50,000 comments.

Photo Credit: socialinsider.io

Bacardi / Les Twins

Teaming up with other brands or influencers can make a marketing campaign stronger. Famous alcoholic beverage brand Bacardi used this strategy and partnered with renowned dancers Les Twins to create a video campaign showing the twins dancing in different places.

Photo Credit: contently.com

BuzzFeed

Internet media and news and entertainment company, BuzzFeed, has been using video marketing for quite some time now. And they did not pass up the amazing chance to deliver more content by taking advantage of IGTV! The firm’s “Hamster Soccer” game show/video became a hit, garnering thousands of views.

Photo Credit: adage.com

Chipotle

Leading Mexican restaurant, Chipotle, was among the first brands to utilize IGTV for marketing. Through their video titled, “What’s for lunch?”, the company showed the viewers a variety of combinations of food they can have from the restaurant.

Photo Credit: socialinsider.io

Louis Vuitton

High-end fashion brands also use IGTV for promotion! Louis Vuitton posted their Men’s Spring Summer 2019 fashion show on their channel. This was certainly a great way to reach out to their 26.4 million followers and other fashion enthusiasts on Instagram.

Photo Credit: delmondo.co

Brands of all sizes and different industries are already reaping the benefits of IGTV. You can also take advantage of this innovative feature’s potential. When done right, it could be a key to the success of your overall social media marketing plan.

Our virtual assistants can help you plan and implement your marketing strategy on Instagram. Subscribe this August and you’ll get 5 hours FREE in your first month! Contact us and start your subscription now to avail this freebie.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

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Photo Credit: Eureka digital

The recent launch of Instagram TV or IGTV has opened new growth opportunities for B2B companies. This innovative feature goes beyond being an entertainment hub. It is also considered as a powerful and effective tool for marketing or brand promotion. Your business can optimize it to deliver behind-the-scenes videos, informational or educational content, contests, polls, and more!

The number of smartphone users worldwide is expected to reach 2.5 billion in 2019. With that, the current Instagram population and IGTV users will likely increase, as well. Thus, it’s beneficial for you to include IGTV in your business’ content and social media marketing strategies. Here are three main reasons why:

1. Boost Video Marketing

Various researches have shown that a lot of consumers prefer watching videos and that marketers think that using videos gives them good return on investment. Through IGTV, you can take advantage of the power of videos to market your brand.

Instead of going to YouTube or searching on Google, your followers and customers or other businesses on Instagram can watch your videos directly from the IGTV app or the site. You can upload vertical and long-form (up to 10 minutes or 60 minutes if you have a verified account) video content for your entertainment-oriented and information-seeking audience.

2. Expand Audience Reach

Instagram has recently reached its 1 billion active users milestone. And with more than 200 million Instagram users visiting a business profile every day, you have greater chances of increasing your audience reach through your IGTV channel.

Explore the features of IGTV to maximize its potential. You can use hashtags and add a location so your followers and other Instagram users can easily search for and discover your videos. They can also easily use the ‘For You,’ ‘Following,’ ‘Popular,’ and ‘Continue Watching’ categories.

3. Amplify Engagement

Most businesses consider customer engagement as an important tool to measure the success of their marketing efforts. According to an Instagram report, engagement rate on video posts is 38% higher than image posts.

Because IGTV allows you to post long-form videos, it helps increase your chances of reaching your goal of boosting engagement. Instagrammers can like, share, and comment on your video posts. You can post different video formats such as game shows, tutorials, full-length shows, and commentary episodes. The key is uploading interesting content, so you’ll get more interaction with your audience.

IGTV is a very promising social media and mobile feature that businesses should try. Improved video marketing, audience reach, and customer engagement through this feature can certainly lead to more leads, conversions, and revenue for your business. It’s probably best for you to take that plunge and start taking advantage of what IGTV has to offer.

Our virtual assistants can help you plan and implement your marketing strategy on Instagram. Subscribe this August and you’ll get 5 hours FREE in your first month! Contact us and start your subscription now to avail this freebie.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post 3 Main Reasons Why B2Bs Should Use IGTV appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.

Photo Credit: instagram-press.com

Social media is continuously evolving, and for Instagram co-founder and CEO, Kevin Systrom and team, keeping up with this evolution is important. They have once again proven that Instagram deserves to be a top social media network with the introduction of IGTV (Instagram Television) – a new revolutionary feature that levels up viewers’ traditional television experience by utilizing the modern mobile app platform.

IGTV is like a combination of TV and YouTube. Anyone with an Instagram profile, including businesses, can optimize it to entertain, inspire, and inform other users. It’s important to know these basic things if you wish to take advantage of this exciting feature:

Channels

Just like the television, IGTV has tons of channels. Anyone can set up a channel and be a creator by downloading the stand-alone IGTV app on your mobile device. Once you’ve downloaded the app, simply open ‘Settings’ and tap ‘Create Channel’. You’ll then see a walkthrough of the basics of the app. Just click on ‘Next’, ‘Create Channel,’ and then IGTV will automatically create your channel based on your account handle name.

You can also create a channel by clicking on the TV icon on the top right corner of your Instagram homepage or feed. All you have to do is simply tap the ‘Settings’ gear icon and click on ‘Create Channel.’ You can then start uploading videos. Aside from the IGTV app, you can also upload videos via web or your desktop computer. IGTV videos automatically play as soon as you open the app.

Video Forms and Duration

IGTV videos are full screen and vertical, so make sure you record videos in vertical or portrait mode, not in landscape mode. Take note also that videos must be in MP4 file format and should have an aspect ratio between 4:5 (minimum) and 9:16 (maximum).

With IGTV, you can upload videos as short as 15 seconds to as long as 10 minutes, with a maximum file size of 650MB. Big or verified Instagram accounts can upload videos up to 60 minutes long, with a maximum file size of 5.4GB.

Categories

You can watch IGTV videos from accounts you follow on Instagram or others you are likely interested in based on your preferences. You can switch between these three categories:

• For You – Videos based on your activity on Instagram or on your likes or interests
• Following – Collection of videos of people/accounts you follow on Instagram
• Popular – Trending public videos most likely from celebrities and ranked by popularity

Steps to Uploading an IGTV Video

Follow these simple steps to upload an IGTV video:

1. Go to your Channel.
2. Tap the + icon on the right corner of your screen.
3. Choose a vertical video from your camera roll.
4. Type in the title and add a short description.
   (If you’re using IGTV for your brand, it would be best if you add links, hashtags, and keywords, so it will be easier for people to find and view your videos.)
5. Upload a cover photo. It could either be your custom cover or a snapshot of photo from your video.
6. Click the ‘Post’ button.
7. Monitor your posts through the ‘View Insights’ feature. You’ll be able to see who viewed, liked, and commented on your post. You can also reply to the comments you receive.

It’s amazing how innovative tools like IGTV are available for free and can easily be accessed and used by the growing number of Instagram users, including businesses. It’s a simple and entertaining feature with numerous rewards and benefits for you and your brand.

Our virtual assistants can help you plan and implement your marketing strategy on Instagram. Subscribe this August and you’ll get 5 hours FREE in your first month! Contact us and start your subscription now to avail this freebie.

Pepper Virtual Assistants is a business solutions firm that specializes in virtual administrative and personal assistance, online marketing, customer support, and copywriting. We are known for reliability through our managed services, responsive client handling backed by extensive training, and rockstar virtual assistants hired for their skills and expertise.

The post Knowing the Basics of IGTV appeared first on Pepper Virtual Assistants.