When you’re looking to create campaigns for your advertising it makes sense to look to the big boys.

After all, what better way to pattern yourself than after companies with good marketing.

You don’t even need a comparable budget to get there.

So, if you’re wondering what tried and tested methods of marketing are available then read on and we’ll show you some of the proven ways that companies have gotten ahead.

1.Brand Consistency

Delivering a repeated, consistent message across all platforms is something used by brands to get ahead.

Think of it this way: you’d know it’s a Coke commercial when you watch it even if the bottle wasn’t labeled. They’ve built an empire on repeating the same message in slightly different ways for decades.

You may not have the reach of Coke, but if you do it right then customers will think of you whenever the emotional association pops up. It’s a long road, but it’s a proven way to build something which lasts for years to come.

2. Telling Stories

Storytelling is all the rage these days. Many brands miss the mark, however, by telling a story simply for the sake of telling one.

Don’t take a page out of the book of recipe websites that tell you long, rambling stories before getting to the point.

Instead, you need to work in your brand and product naturally over the course of any given piece of marketing. Tell your viewers a story they’ll love right from the beginning and you’re well on your way to forming a lasting impression in their minds.

3. Content Marketing

Intertwined with storytelling is the idea of content marketing.

Many people make the mistake of thinking of their content as simply a means to one simple end: their search engine optimization.

That’s a huge mistake. Instead, you can use your content marketing to intertwine more high-concept ideas for your products and services.

SEO is still important but content marketing can be used across platforms to deliver your message to those reading, watching, and generally enjoying your content.

And that’s the key: content marketing should always be enjoyable to go through. It’s not about slipping a sales letter into an article and snagging higher Google ranks. It’s about people viewing your company as a content creator, in addition to selling your products.

4. Staying Mobile

A huge percentage of your viewers are going to be using phones or tablets to view your marketing.

That means a tight focus on mobile marketing is key to ensuring you’re ahead of the competition.

It’s not just about reactive web themes either. Focus on how people use their phones. Are you targeting the sorts of questions a person might actually ask their phone when making a search?

Does your website load cleanly on mobile? Are ads interfering with the user’s experience?

Design things with mobile devices in mind for the best end result.

Emulate Companies With Good Marketing

Copying companies with good marketing isn’t hard. Think about the things that you know for sure about the big brands that most of us use in our daily lives and scale them down to suit your own business model.

The sky’s the limit and you don’t need to split test every idea that comes to mind when you can just steal a page from the big boys.

So, consider, how can you modify your marketing today to bring it in line with industry titans?

For more informative reads, bookmark our site, and share this post if you found it useful.

Religion and spirituality have taken their hits in recent decades as church attendance dwindles and it becomes more difficult than ever to connect on a real and meaningful level.

Only 50% of Americans report being affiliated or belonging to a specific religion. So how do you get people into the pews and faith in people’s hearts?

Keep reading for church marketing ideas to help fill your church pews and inspire your parishioners.

Answers to Life’s Questions

Individuals usually turn to their higher power and look for God when they are searching for answers to life’s big questions.

Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Why do bad things happen if there is a God that loves us?

It is often a tragedy or a crisis in life that will have people seeking out the comfort and support of their Creator. Seeking answers after a loved one dies or a personal trial causes strife in their life.

Offering answers and comfort in times of need is a way to gain a personal and intimate connection with those who attend.

Many individuals have never stepped foot in a church or even opened the Bible, they aren’t aware of the incredible comfort and blessings that a spiritual relationship with God can bring to one’s life.

Marketing material that opens the minds and hearts to realize that God is truly their Creator and wants to empower and bless them in the lives they’ve been given will help tempt the curiosity of those looking for answers.

Children and Youth Program

Some of the most successful church programs are geared toward children and youth. Creating a strong and positive youth program can not only attract children to your church but also get parents in the door.

Aside from times of tragedy, children are often the catalyst for adults questioning their own spiritual and religious path. Those who want to provide their children and teens with a strong basis of faith and spiritual guidance will be searching for a church that focuses on and nurtures youth.

Marketing material that promotes your youth programs and speaks directly to the needs and concerns of children in the world today can help pique the interest of children and their guardians.

Children with a strong spiritual and religious understanding and belief are less likely to face many of the problems of society such as addiction, crime, and depression.

In fact, youth with strong spiritual beliefs are 60% less likely to suffer from depression and those that do struggle with it tend to go in remission and find comfort more quickly than those with no religious or spiritual belief.

Church Marketing Ideas for Community Events

There are many community events held throughout the year that you could take advantage of to connect with the people in your neighborhood.

Whether it’s a Christmas carnival or a summer festival, you can always set up a booth or even just have members handing out pamphlets and saying hello. Making a personal connection is important if you want someone to feel comfortable walking into your church for the first time.

Community events can help the members of your congregation make connections with others and personally invite individuals to church activities and Sunday services.

Church Activities and Community Service

One of the best ways to endear your church and your members to the community is to show them some love.

It used to be that the local church was the social and physical gathering place for communities. It was also where the community would turn when there was a need in the neighborhood.

A kind act of service not only improves life for the ones who receive and give the act of kindness but also anyone who witnesses it. Kindness is contagious and you can actually start a revolution of Christlike love by setting an example for the community.

Any act of service you give is an opportunity to connect with individuals and to invite them to your church services and activities.

Social Media Church Marketing Ideas

In today’s world if you want to connect with someone and attract attention, the best place to do it in cyberspace.

Taking advantage of social media and the power of the internet can give your church a worldwide audience. Social media pages for your church can help you engage with thousands of God’s children at the same time.

You can use social media as a great way to attract visitors to your church website where you can tell them about the activities and coming events at your church.

It’s not hard or expensive to create a website or to gain followers and if you are entertaining and informative enough you could even go viral and have millions heading to your website to see more.

If your church doesn’t have a website yet don’t worry it’s easy to do with a church website builder.

Compassion and Christlike Love

One of the most effective ways to get people in the pews of your church is to truly practice what you preach.

Most of the people who walk away from their religion or church do so because of the people in the pews next to them judging them, not because they all of a sudden don’t believe anymore.

If you want to fill your pews you need to do outreach and show love to those who are there every week and those who haven’t been in years. Find a way to show them Christlike love.

If your members are living the gospel and truly trying to live a Christlike life, that power of heaven will do more to get people in the doors than any marketing campaign you could ever hold.

Just look at the Christmas campaign to Light the World where members of the church are encouraged to perform acts of service and love for others in their family, church, community and world.

The internet helps them create a united and inspired effort to love others. They get people in the pews because they loved them first.

Church Marketing Ideas That Inspire

Your church marketing ideas can inspire more than just a few in your neighborhood. Done right you can inspire the world.

Be sure to bookmark our site for easy access to all our inspirational tips.

Did you know that Facebook continues to be the most cost-effective advertising investment you can make?

It is cheaper than almost every other source of advertising.

Plus, the targeting options are more precise than the rest.

But just as with every other form of advertising, there are certain dos and don’ts with which you should familiarize yourself before taking this smart step.

The Dos and Don’ts for Better Facebook Ads

Nothing challenges your credibility quite like a shoddy ad.

Obviously, you want to drive traffic to your site and not away.

So when you’re developing your Facebook ad, keep in mind a few simple actions to take (and NOT to take):

DO Include a Clear Call-to-Action

What is the purpose of your message? And what do you want your audience to do?

You need to know the answers to these two questions if you’re going to develop a concise call-to-action.

Furthermore, be sure that the overall concept and message of your ad is developed with your audience in mind. You should have a clear understanding of who your target audience is so your call-to-action will be desirable and relatable to them.

Otherwise, you probably won’t get many clicks.

DO Proofread, Then Proofread Again 

One set of eyes is never enough.

In fact, when it comes to proofreading, there can really never be too many cooks in the kitchen.

Your Facebook audience consists of hundreds, if not thousands or even millions, of viewers. So it’s absolutely crucial that you check your ad for typos, proper capitalization, grammatical/punctuation errors, and any other mistakes.

So it’s clear that incorporating a clear CTA and proofreading are two relatively basic actions to take to build the foundation of your Facebook ad.

But what are a couple of things you should avoid?

DO NOT Overstuff with Info

You don’t have the luxury of your viewer’s time.

Your Facebook ad’s message and call-to-action must be simple enough for a viewer to comprehend within seconds. You need to put it right out there.

Keep it simple. Be sure that your headline includes the name of your business and what you’re offering. Then any accompanying message needs to be consistent with your headline.

And don’t forget to add an image. Speaking of which…

DO NOT Grab Just Any Image

It should go without saying that your image must be relevant. But make it a point to select images that will catch the viewer’s eye too. Remember, you only have seconds to work with here.

Find a way to incorporate your brand through colors, or by cleverly integrating your logo.

Having the perfect image is also really helpful if you’re planning to use Facebook dynamic ads –  which are targeted Facebook ads that show one or more of your relevant products to people who have visited your website.

And finally, when it comes to choosing your ad’s image, you want something clear and with high resolution. There should also be no more than 20% text.

Boost Your Sales

We hope that this article about the dos and don’ts of Facebook ads helps you on your journey toward generating more revenue.

And for more inspiring articles about all things marketing, keep checking back with our regularly updated blog!

Being a photographer in the digital age means you’re responsible for a lot more than capturing and editing images. You’re probably also a one-person marketing department, sales team, and web designer.

If you’re working hard to fill all of these roles but are still having trouble getting your art discovered, the problem may lie in your search engine optimization strategies.

If that sounds like some web development jargon that you don’t know what to do with, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up 4 tips about SEO for photographers that can help your site climb the Google ranks.

1. Optimize Your Photos for Web

This is a rookie mistake that can have huge consequences for photographers. Whenever you upload an image to your website, resist the urge to use the full-sized, high-resolution version.

Instead, opt for a compressed image. If you don’t, people will click away from your site because they’re tired of waiting for pictures to load. This increases your bounce rate, which is bad for SEO.

2. Use Alt Titles and Tags

Did you know that you can hide important keywords in your photos that help search engines identify them? These keywords are called Alt tags and Alt titles, and they’re the things that help your photos show up in an image search results page. The process for adding them in is different for every web platform but is usually very simple.

3. Produce the Right Kind of Content

It’s fairly common knowledge at this point that putting out regular content—via a blog, podcast, or social media network—helps people to find your business online. But did you know that you need to be careful about the type of content you create? As a photographer, you need to make sure that every piece of content is relevant and showcases your work.

Want to write a blog post about taking your kids strawberry picking? Awesome! But you need to make sure it includes beautiful images of the event and keywords that will help your post show up when people search for lifestyle or family photography.

As an added bonus, when people find and enjoy your content, they’ll share it on their websites and social media profiles. This helps you build natural backlinks, making quality content production a two-for-one SEO strategy.

4. SEO for Photographers: Is It Worth Outsourcing?

If you’ve gotten to the bottom of this list and aren’t sure you want to tackle the SEO challenge by yourself, that’s okay too! Tons of small businesses and independent entrepreneurs outsource their SEO to an idea agency.

To decide if this is the option for you, take a close look at your available budget and compare it with the time and frustration it would take you to do it yourself. If you can make more money taking photos in the time you would have spent on SEO than it costs to hire someone else, the choice is clear.

Boosting Your Search Rankings Helps People Find Your Art

SEO for photographers can be the difference between business growth and stagnation. So make sure to follow these tips to help future fans of your work discover you online!

Short on time but want to get started right away? Take a look at our 15 minute SEO checklist.