Communicating your business on social media (part one)

Hello and welcome to the first Prognessa Academy training where we will talk about social media, social networks, and how these platforms can be interesting and beneficial for your business. We’re going to talk about what all can be done within social media so that it can be useful to you, so that you can present your products, what you do, and of course, so that social media can add value, help you build your customer base, attract new customers, and increase sales.

My name is Daniel Csúr and I have worked and worked in some twelve countries, from England to Kazakhstan, Denmark and Tanzania, where I have done various things. I studied in Oxford, where I did marketing, human resources, business, business stuff, and so on. Then I moved to Copenhagen Business School, where we did finance and marketing, and then finally I worked in Kazakhstan, where I also did similar things.

Then I did research for the UN, and then I decided to come back to Slovakia, where we launched Prognessa, a digital marketing agency. During my spare time, I founded and co-founded some four non-profits working on media, leadership education, regional development and various other interesting things.

I am also a co-founder of the startup center Kruháč in Rimavská Sobota, where we tried to bring together young entrepreneurs and help them to get their business off the ground. At the moment, I’m fully dedicated to Prognesse. We are a digital marketing agency and there are about 10-12 of us. We help regional businesses move forward, and we do some development projects as part of the concept. So that’s in a nutshell about me.

As for Prognessy itself, we help smaller companies grow in the online world. That’s very important because there are a lot of agencies that focus on mega-sized companies, mega-sized corporations. But we decided that even regional companies that have let’s say 5 to 100 employees, who can’t pay the big agencies, so they need marketing, they need to be visible, but a lot of times they don’t know how to start. We provide promotion for these companies on Instagram, Facebook and Google, and in this way we help them to move forward and grow in the online world. To build a customer base and create platforms so that they can be useful and add value to them.

At the same time, we are building websites and trying to make sure that companies are visible in this respect as well. We make promo videos that showcase what those companies do. We also launched a programme some time ago to help sole traders and entrepreneurs, where we took three companies and three sole traders under our wing and helped them not to close their businesses in these difficult times, but on the contrary, to be able to develop, to get back on their feet and to be able to start working again.

We also have Prognessa Academy, which is actually a digital marketing academy, where we try to help companies start building those digital channels, those directional boards, and teach them to be able to have maybe that basic overview of different digital marketing topics. Well today we’re going to talk about social media itself.

Let’s look first at the history of social networking. They started to develop not too many years ago, when there were a couple of different platforms that came into existence at that time. The first globally successful platform that grew to some level was My Space. Many of you have heard of it, many of you haven’t. It was the precursor to the things that Facebook is doing today. It was just as successful in many countries, but of course, like in 2007 when Facebook was founded and started to be popular, My Space started to gradually fade from the market until it disappeared completely. The platform still works, but it’s not as successful or popular anymore.

The first mass, large, and powerful social network that is still functioning today and is stable is Facebook. Subsequently, Instagram was founded, which tended to target visually appealing content and young people. Gradually, it is becoming popular and starting to have a larger number of users, but it is still not that popular in Slovakia.

As far as social networks in Slovakia are concerned, the first one was Pokec, founded by Azet. It was the first social network in Slovakia, which was created before Facebook. It was even quite successful in Slovakia, but as Facebook gradually started to acquire our market, Pokec was marginalised in a very strong way, and Facebook became the market leader.

As social media gradually started to emerge and people spent more time on it, it started to become a very interesting space for companies to be visible there and for the products and services they provide and create to be interesting to potential customers. It’s from that perspective that social media has become a space where companies are talking about what they’re doing, looking for customers, and where they’re trying to fight for customer attention.

People today spend a large part of their leisure and working time on social networks. That is why, where people spend some time, that is also where they make various decisions. They decide what to buy or what to do. This is what companies have started to use in a big way. In Slovakia, it was used first by big companies, then by small ones, and now even ultra-small companies are thinking about how to target their customers using social media.

The most widespread social networks

There are three social networks in Slovakia that are active in their own way. The first one is Facebook. It has some 2.6 billion people worldwide. It is the most widespread social network in Slovakia. It is the strongest and most stable, and from the experience that we have with social networks, it can have the best yield in terms of bringing in new customers.

In Slovakia, there is YouTube, which has some 2.5 million users. It cannot be said that it is a social network, but a space where they share various videos. It is also an interesting topic as well as a space. As for TikTok, it is a fast growing platform. It doesn’t have that much traction in Slovakia, but it’s gradually becoming popular, especially among young people.

Then there’s Instagram, which already has about a million users in Slovakia. Instagram is growing fast and is starting to be powerful and interesting. In terms of market share, Facebook is getting stronger. Next we have Messenger, which is Facebook’s chat platform. It is also interesting and big enough to target ads there.

Now, we’re going to talk primarily about Facebook, Instagram, and the things that are associated with them, because when you’re starting digital marketing at your company, I think Facebook and Instagram should be the first two channels that you’re going to populate and where you’re going to post content.

What can be gained by advertising on social media?

You can increase your brand awareness. Every brand wants to be in people’s awareness. You have a brand that you produce and you want them to know about you because when people know about you, they are more likely to buy something from you.

This means that when you go into a shop and you have two products in front of you, one you know, the other you don’t. Which one do you choose? The one you don’t know, or the one you saw in an advertisement? You are very likely to buy the latter.

The second thing you can get is sharing your brand message with your target audience, what you do, why you as a company came into existence, why you have the products that you have. It’s important for you to be able to move as a company, and it’s important to tell people about that.

The third thing is building loyalty between the brand and customers. That people know about you is great, but you need to move gradually towards loyalty. That means that when a person comes into a store or an eshop somewhere, that they don’t just buy an item from you once, but that they’re able to buy it on a regular basis, and become a loyal customer for your brand. This is important because a customer who buys from you regularly is the best one. Retaining a customer is cheaper for you than building a new customer base.

Another thing is to increase brand credibility. The more well-known a brand is, the more credible it is. But there are also a lot of brands that are quite well-known, but maybe not so trustworthy. What you need is for customers to trust your brand and quality. That way customers are closer to buying something from you. You are able to gain sympathy from the customer.

You can direct people to sell your products, services and tickets. That means using your Facebook as one big digital highway that an awful lot of people go to, and you need to route your services on that digital highway. That’s like you’re driving on the highway between Bratislava and Zvolen, and you’ve got a sign saying that the gas station is on the left. This means that on the digital highway you need to direct people to your products and services. If they don’t know about you, they can’t buy anything. You can direct them to come to the website and be able to buy something from you.

Let’s take a look at what can be shown through social media advertising. We tell those customers what we do and how we do it. For example, when we were doing a shoot, we took a picture of us doing the shoot and we said we’re doing a campaign to help entrepreneurs, we’re dedicated to that campaign, we’re trying to help the entrepreneurs that we’re going to pull up to some level, and we’re going to show people that through digital marketing you can climb out of the bad times, and you can move forward that way.

Then we bought some equipment that we use for production, to show our customers and partners that we have some new things. That’s how we communicate in some way. What should that communication be for your brand?

Let’s look now at very specific examples, and what are those things that you should use when you’re communicating on social media towards your customers. The first thing that is very important is creativity. This means that you need to look at things differently than your competitors are looking at it in order to be memorable with your customers, and a lot of times less is more. Don’t try to put everything into one Facebook post. Why? Because you have to realize the fact that if you write a long text unnecessarily, the customer is unlikely to read it. That customer sees the first few words on the graphic you put out. He reads maybe the first words in your copy. Don’t try to push a lot in there. Rather, make it so that you communicate with them on a regular basis.

The second thing, which is about creativity, is wordplay. It is about the way you compose words, the way you create slogans, which are very important. Those are the things that get ingrained in your head. For example, “If you love it there’s nothing to solve” – Kofola. Do you have a phrase that you can attach to a particular brand.

The other thing is that you can communicate the same content in different ways, especially when you’re starting out in this topic and you’re moving up, so communicate the same content in the same ways. Put one post, then some other post with slightly altered words or different structure, and see which ones are better or more interesting to you. Facebook can also do what’s called AB tests, meaning you delete two graphics. They can be different graphics, or you just change some small things in there and see which one of those campaigns performs better. The one that performs worse you turn off, and the one that performs better you repromote with more budget, and you can move with that over time.

The other thing that’s very necessary for you when we talk about creativity is that you still have to show your customers why you’re different, why you’re better, what you’re more unique in. Why those customers should come to you specifically, you might know that, but those customers of yours don’t always need to know that. And that’s why you need to use Facebook or Instagram to be able to communicate with them.

Advertising must be functional. That is, it must be clear at first. Let’s take a small example. We have a boilerplate with the headline “Declare a boycott of cold showers”. We automatically know that when the water is running cold, there’s probably going to be some problem with the boiler. This is just the space to advertise the fact that you have a boiler and that you are promoting it and trying to help those people who have or will have that problem in the future to solve it. People are signing up that brand to call you in the future and have you solve it for them.

With this content or content we monitor the fulfillment of some KPIs ( Key Performance Indicators). For those of you who don’t know, a campaign has indicators for the number of impressions, for the number of visits, for the turnover or new customers we want to get from it. This means that you still keep track of some goal that you set. It’s very important to track those things, but track them in a way that’s realistic, meaning when you’re doing your campaigns, set those expectations realistically.

The last thing is that you have to do it round and round. That functionality has to meet something called regularity, because the regular things are the ones that work. Once you tell a customer that if they have a problem with their boiler, come to us, you know what the customer will do? Absolutely nothing. He doesn’t care at all. If you show him something once, chances are he’s going to notice it or not even notice it at all.

You need to interact with that customer on a daily basis. You need to tell them that this is what we do and this is what we are better at. That’s the kind of value-add we do on a regular basis and all the time. If you think you’re being annoying and that it’s unengaging, it’s not. By being in a certain circle of people, you are certainly not annoying. You have so many people you can reach that you don’t have to worry about being annoying.

Communicate functionally and regularly in a way that has some pizzazz and then Facebook campaigns will work.

Trends

If you check out this post, this is how we did the campaign for the carwash. You can see that the woman who’s there has some kind of drape on, and that means that we were highlighting why our carwash is better than another carwash in these times. The handles were sanitized regularly, all those touch surfaces and so forth. That’s where our client is better than all the other clients are. That said, there was a social trend that we jumped on, and we tried to use that trend to our advantage as much as possible. Whether it was a positive trend or a negative trend you’ll find out by whether we were able to bring you customers.

Look for ways to bring in new customers and interact with your target audience. For example, when there was the Covid pandemic, simply instead of stopping all communication altogether, it was very good and beneficial to communicate with customers about the things that they wanted, needed and wanted to hear at that moment. The other thing is that social media trends are changing. They change and they shift, and so it’s very good to keep an eye on those trends. Whatever is trending, try to use that to your advantage. Try to look at how you can use that momentary wave of whatever trend that’s out there to your advantage so that those customers know more about you.

Try to react quickly to these things. It’s a thing that’s coming, that’s here. Construct some sort of Facebook post and put it out there straight away. If you’re one of the first ones, it’s going to have a very good and positive effect for you because those people, when it’s some ridiculous thing, they want to laugh at it. When it’s some topical thing, they want to know more about it. So you be the ones who are the leaders in marketing when it comes to jumping on the various waves of trends and events.

Sofia security doors have been on the market for over 15 years. Their door collections can be found in furniture stores almost all over Slovakia – but mostly in the western and north-western part of the country.

The client needed to increase brand awareness in cities where their products are within easy reach and subsequently increase sales. So he chose the most popular service from our range of services to start with – turnkey Social Media.

At the moment when the client gave us the keys to his Facebook and Instagram, no one seemed to have any idea how perfect the results of our collaboration would be. But we’ll talk about that later.

Sofia doors have many benefits, which we wanted to introduce to our target audience at the beginning. The excellent noise dampening capabilities mean that you won’t be disturbed by your neighbours’ noisy hallway chatter. In winter, you’ll be delighted by the insulation capabilities that will not let the heat of your heated dwelling escape.

After the first introduction of the audience to the brand, we also opened the door to new, more creative, and sometimes surreal concepts. We combined the speed of the assembly service with the speed of the service men from racing sports. We have demonstrated the same benefit in a graceful, aesthetic design.

The endless video with the idea that you can enjoy the doors of Sofia indefinitely also brought positive reactions. Some viewers simply couldn’t take their eyes off the post.

After a couple of weeks, we unobtrusively surveyed the knowledge of the brand and its products in the form of various puzzles. The fact that we made our audience quite uncomfortable is evidenced by the comments. When asked if you can find two identical doors in the following picture, we also received the following answer.

Not only the eyesight, but also the fingers of Facebook and Instagram users were exercised with aesthetically tuned carousels.

The client’s interest was subsequently aroused by Google advertising. It was peeking out from banners placed on web portals visited by our target.

The advertising gained momentum with this move and everything seemed to be working as it should. That’s why a few weeks later, our office received a phone call from a client who urged us to stop the campaigns immediately.

Did we make a mistake somewhere? Did our advertising offend anyone? In the end, it turned out that demand shot through the roof and Sofia couldn’t cope with the onslaught of new customers.

After the situation calmed down, we turned the campaigns back on. However, after three months we were forced to turn off the campaigns due to high customer interest.

How does the owner of the company Miroslav Léke react to our cooperation?

“We have been forced to shut down online campaigns several times so that the amount of enquiries and orders we have received does not grow beyond us. Transforming the business into digital was the right decision, and anyone who ignores this fact today is making a mistake.”

Finally, thank you for being interested in the story of our collaboration and don’t forget to lock this article when you leave. 🔑

The organiser of Balvalfest is the cultural-educational civic association Lačho Drom. It is headed by the well-known singer and musician Vladimír Sendrei, who annually confirms the quality of the event with a line-up packed with talented Roma artists and a great atmosphere. Take a look at how we have marketed one of the biggest gypsy festivals in Slovakia for two years in a row.

In order to make sure that the true Bashavel was not only held at the amphitheatre, but also on social media and in the streets, the client approached us with a request for a comprehensive visual identity, Facebook management, photo and video documentation, radio advertising and live streams.

We started by setting up an attractive visual that would convince our target audience that Balvalfest is a guarantee of endless fun and good music. We first made a poster in three different designs and colours. The client was finally convinced by the orange one.

With the freshly approved visual, we created Facebook posts, a video invitation and a radio spot in which Sandokán Lakatoš – the main star of the campaign, enticed viewers or listeners to a proper dance party held in Kokava nad Rimavicou.

The weather was fantastic and the atmosphere was indescribable. Those who didn’t enjoy it directly from under the stage were able to enjoy it through the live streams, which enjoyed a reach of almost 90 thousand people on Facebook. After sobering up from the exuberant weekend, we ended the campaign with a short recap and analysis of the results.

The number of ad impressions in 1 and a half months of the campaign reached 175 thousand. Promotional materials such as the video invitation, aftermovie, poster and the posts themselves were seen by just over 86 thousand Facebook users.

The good attendance and positive numbers meant that we kept up the rhythm of working with the client, and the following year we were entrusted with the promotion of the 20th anniversary edition.

It was to some extent marked by a global pandemic. However, the positive situation during the summer meant that the festival could finally take place with a reduced capacity and under certain conditions.

Like last year, we also made social media dance with a slightly modified visual. In addition to the usual introducing the performers, we also educated on how to purchase a ticket to the festival itself.

The video invitation was also an invitation to dance, and with it also a large print advertisement, which attracted visitors and residents of Rimavská Sobota – the new venue of the festival.

Two festival days brought laughing sun, but also an evening storm. For those who didn’t want to go into the heavy rain, we again prepared a series of short live entries, which were watched by 40 thousand people. The viewers were also very active, and during the streaming they took care of almost 2 thousand reactions, comments and shares.

The year-on-year increase in the number of fans of the festival’s Facebook page is also worth mentioning. From the beginning of our cooperation until today we have managed to increase the number of fans by 207%. This is a clear proof that the word Balvalfest is becoming more and more popular in the wider region, and we believe that this will continue to be the case in the years to come.

If you want to start your own shop and you want to have an e-shop alongside it, we offer you some tips on how to start something like this. If you want to start your own shop from scratch, Biznisweb.sk offers 5 basic steps on how to set up your own e-shop from the very beginning to its launch:

Step 1: Choosing a suitable name for your e-shop or website

Step 2: Hosting and CMS system

Step 3: Attractive and responsive web design

Step 4: Content marketing for the e-shop

Step 5: Advertising for the e-shop

Step 1: Choosing a suitable name for your e-shop or website

If you want to start your business completely from scratch, you need to choose a name for your e-shop. This should be very easy to remember and as short as possible. One tip to come up with the best name is to write down a list of keywords that describe the intent of your business. Another piece of advice to determine if your name is a good one for your e-shop is to ask interested people.

Step 2: Hosting and CMS system

Web hosting is a server host where your domain and e-shop content will be stored. Some e-shop development companies often offer the aforementioned web hosting as part of the e-shop rental price. Another important part is the Content Management System (CMS, translated into English – content management information system or content management system). In the system you can edit everything important on your website. You pay the content management system provider for the use of the CMS and other associated functions.

Step 3: Attractive and responsive web design

If you want people to shop on your store, you need to impress them right from the first impression. That’s why you should design an appealing and responsive web design. Responsive precisely so that it automatically adapts to the device on which it is displayed. Nowadays, this is very necessary because a lot of people are browsing the site via mobile phone. You can customize the web design to your liking. You can use your own photos, logo, number of products per page, change the colors.

Nowadays, the so-called flat design is often preferred. This is a type of flat website design and does not use any graphic elements that create a 3D effect. The advantage of this is higher interest from clients and the e-shop does not overwhelm them with any exaggerated visual effects, but directs their attention to where you want it.

Step 4: Content marketing for the e-shop

Content marketing for an e-commerce store is very important in terms of getting customers to stay on your site and buy what they need. Everyone will buy something that will help them solve their problem. And that’s why e-shop operators should highlight the benefits of the product with their products and show what problem the customer can solve with their help. Of course, don’t forget to describe your products and services.

To be able to do perfect content marketing for an e-shop, you need to know your products perfectly, as well as your target customer group. You should also try to sell your products on social media, blog or newsletter.

Step 5: Advertising for the e-shop

If you are a beginner entrepreneur, you need to run an ad that costs nothing. It is SEO, or search engine optimization. If you have the budget and want to be 100% sure that your business will be heading in the right direction, reach out to a marketing agency to help you set up advertising for your e-commerce store.

Methods of delivery of goods

If you have already set up an e-shop, before you decide to sell your products, you need to choose the shipping method by which the goods will be delivered to the customer. There are a number of ways, and you just have to choose the most suitable one.

The most common way of transporting goods is the Slovak Post. It has an extensive network of branches also in villages. However, it should be added that you have to deliver the goods you would like to deliver to the customer in person to the post office, which can take a lot of time. The advantage of the Slovak Post is that it can also ship goods abroad and the price is favourable when shipping parcels without cash on delivery. On the other hand, the disadvantage is the time-consuming delivery of the package and the high price for express delivery by postal courier.

Another popular method of package delivery is courier service. There are several of them in Slovakia, so you have a lot to choose from. It is a bit more expensive than the Slovak Post, but the courier will pick up the parcel directly from your home and can inform the customer of the expected delivery. Another advantage is that if the courier’s arrival time doesn’t suit you, you can negotiate with the courier and reschedule. However, not every company can offer this and so check reviews and experiences with the courier companies in question.

Today, a frequently used method of delivery of goods is the Parcel Service. It is a dispensing point. Customers often choose this method of delivery because they can pick up their package at the opening time of the establishment where the dispensing point is located. Also, they do not have to pick up their package on the day it is delivered to the dispensary. They have 7 days to collect it. However, the disadvantage is that the parcel delivery is more time-consuming and the parcel delivery service does not have a well-developed network of branches across Slovakia like the Slovak Post.

If you live in a larger city and have customers from there, you can also use your own transport. This is probably the least problematic way of transport. The deliverer has a clear view of the goods at all times and doesn’t have to worry about not delivering properly to the customer. It is also an advantage that if you offer large-sized goods, you do not have to give extra charges to the courier company. You can also agree with the customer when the goods will be delivered and if this is not convenient for either party, you can change it at any time and easily.

Method of payment for goods

The typical method of payment for goods is a bank transfer. So the customer transfers money from his account to the seller’s account. Goods are usually shipped when the seller receives the money in the account. The downside is that this transfer can take a few days, as it is not done on weekends or holidays.

Another way to pay for goods is by card payment through a payment gateway. For this payment method, the e-shop operator must link the payment gateway to his online shop. The advantages of this payment method are immediate payment after ordering without waiting for the transaction, easy refund to the customer’s account, third party credibility for the customer, and with the option to store the card, payment is fast for the customer. However, many people do not trust these payment gateways and therefore shy away from this type of payment. They may also be put off by high transaction fees or withholding of payments.

The most popular payment gateway abroad is PayPal. However, the service has high fees, but the amount decreases as the volume of payments increases. However, it is a convenient payment method for e-shops that accept payments in different currencies. However, if you get into a situation where a customer is claiming goods, PayPal has traditionally sided with the customer. Unless you can prove that the method of delivery of the goods went smoothly and without complications, PayPal will refund the customer’s money.

Less trusting people often prefer to pay on delivery. However, they also have no problem with the fact that the price may increase by a few euros for this type of payment. A frequent problem for sellers is perhaps the inability to collect the parcel or the withholding of money, especially at the post office. Another advantage nowadays is that you can pay by card on delivery if the courier has a portable payment terminal.

Marketing matters

An e-commerce store without proper marketing would not be able to function as you would imagine. That’s why you need to use a variety of ways to promote your e-shop. If you have decided to do business on the internet, you should also create social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube in addition to your online store. With social networks, you can get new potential customers, and if you can manage Facebook properly, it can also become your sales channel. If not, don’t be afraid to reach out to a marketing agency that could definitely help you with this. As for Instagram, you could use it for example to show life in the company or to publish different photos of products or services.

When running an e-shop properly, don’t forget about sales promotion. This actually means product marketing, when you offer your customers various contests, rewards, discounts, or gifts. People often want to save money on a product, and they are usually impressed by a discounted product. However, don’t forget that you want to make money in the first place, so you need to set the discount amount so that it is profitable for you.

Don’t forget the right public relations. If you want to promote your brand and e-shop, publish various articles in news sites, newspapers or websites. However, it must be useful and simple content that will attract a lot of customers.

Which sections of the e-shop should I not forget?

Although the e-shop is used to sell products, you must not forget about the other sections that must be present on the website. One of the most important ones is the About Us section. Here you should introduce your company, your goals, past and development. Thanks to this, you will be able to more easily create a trusting relationship with the customer, who also decides on the purchase thanks to his emotions.

You definitely shouldn’t forget to blog as well. It’s a way to attract new potential customers, as many e-shops focus purely on selling products, not on connecting with customers. For example, if you sell eco products, you can write about healthy lifestyle and exercise tips and advice in your blog. For example, if it’s a product for consumption, you can also add a few recipes in which your product can be used. You can basically write about almost anything your product is related to.

Don’t forget the terms and conditions, which are a mandatory part of every e-shop. This is a summary of all the important information about different areas. Be careful when drafting the terms and conditions, as it is a contract, so to speak, between the seller and the buyer. You will also appreciate the general rule “clara pacta – boni amici”, which translates as “good contracts make good friends”.

If you want to protect yourself and your customers, don’t forget in the terms and conditions:

• main characteristics of the goods
• seller’s details
• the total price of the goods of the service, including VAT, the cost of transport, delivery, postage, other costs and charges, the price for the use of means of long-distance communication
• payment terms, delivery terms, delivery time, information on handling of complaints and claims
• information on the consumer’s right to withdraw from the contract without giving a reason
• information on the cost of returning the goods to the seller in the event of withdrawal from the contract
• information about the consumer’s obligation, if any, to pay the seller the price for the performance provided
• information on when the consumer cannot withdraw from the contract
• information that the seller is responsible for defects in the goods
• information about the stricter warranty conditions
• information on relevant codes of conduct
• information on the duration of the contract
• information on the minimum duration of the consumer’s commitments
• information on the obligation to pay an advance
• information about the possibility and conditions for resolving the dispute through alternative dispute resolution and inform the customer about the processing of personal data.

Our customer – our master

If you want to have a functioning and stable e-shop, you must not forget about customer service. Buyers are sensitive to how you treat them, especially after they make a purchase. How often you interact with your customers is extremely important for the reason that they may say that you are an untrustworthy e-shop and will not recommend it to their other acquaintances. Also, be careful not to accidentally send damaged goods to a customer. However, if you do get into this situation, you should give them a refund so that they don’t think you did it on purpose and realise your mistake.

Also, try to process orders as quickly as possible. Speed is one of the key factors that puts you ahead of the competition. Remember to keep the customer informed of the status of their package throughout the order processing. If there’s a problem with fast delivery, be sure to inform the customer and explain in reasonable terms what’s behind the late arrival of the order.

Online business is a very effective and often used way nowadays. A lot of people are intimidated by it, but if you have a lot of knowledge about the workings of an e-commerce store, feel free to take the plunge. There are plenty of tips on how to start a quality e-shop and we wanted to show you a few of them.

Directional signs to your business

Imagine you have a brick-and-mortar sock shop in town and you need to direct people to your store. You print a lot of billboards, banners, posters, flyers and stick them all over the city. The goal is to get your potential customer to your sock shop from any location in the city.

It works the same way in the online world. Every piece of digital content you share with your audience is a signpost to your product or service. If you want a campaign with successful results, your advertising should be where your customer spends the most time.

How to get started?

The key to setting up communication is to identify the audience or personas with whom you are having a dialogue about your product. You may think that what you are selling is for everyone, but it is not. Even global brands like Coca-Cola have designated personas through which they communicate their universal beverage in advertising.

To make communication more natural, it is much easier to imagine a person with specific parameters:

• Gender
• Name
• age
• Location
• employment/school
• interests
• the problems that it solves on a daily basis
• why this person needs our product
• the communication channels on which they spend most of their time

There can be more defined personas, up to a maximum of 3. Of course, persona does not mean that we will target only this one type of personality. A persona is a general idealization of our end customer.

“If you want a campaign with successful results, your advertising should be where your customer spends the most time.“

Case study – Security doors Sofia

Let’s look at a specific case. When setting up an online campaign for our client, who sells security doors in brick-and-mortar stores and e-shops, we first of all defined a persona:

Lucia

• Age: 37
• Locality.
• Interests: shopping, childcare and housework

The problems it solves:

• He and his family are renovating their apartment on an ongoing basis.
• The health and safety of her children is a priority in her life.
• He can’t afford to buy more expensive household items.

Channels:

• He spends most of his time on Instagram and Facebook.
• In addition, she likes to read a few articles about cooking on the internet.

It’s much easier to communicate with Lucia when we’ve imagined her, isn’t it? We know what she cares about, what her financial possibilities are and what she would like. We even know where our advertising could work most effectively. It’s the right time to specify communication channels and create visuals focused on our persona.

More tips for a successful campaign:

1. The more channels of communication and “particles” of advertising that are launched, the greater the chance of success.
2. The higher the price of the product, the longer the decision time to purchase can be. It is important to be on the radar of the potential customer throughout the consideration period.
3. Communication with a potential customer is a regular and systematic affair. Each communication channel must have a designated time when it is the right moment to start.

With online training we will explain the principles behind online advertising and share our know-how that we have acquired during our cooperation with more than 30 clients. The nearly 2-hour lectures are designed for smaller businesses that are thinking about promoting their brand digitally, but are still just looking for ways to get started.

We offer 5 basic topics that serve as an introduction to online advertising and things related to it:

1. How to handle a crisis on the unit
2. Communicating your business on social media
3. How to build a website that sells
4. Promote your brand on Google Ads and YouTube
5. Branding and corporate identity

“Once you learn it, you’ll use it a thousand times.“

In case you are left with a few unanswered questions after the lecture, you will also have a free 40-minute consultation where we will focus on you and your specific case. For more information and all lectures, please visit www.prognessa.com/academy.

In order to get started, we need to describe in more detail what online marketing is. It is actually a large part of marketing that focuses on the visibility of one’s business on the internet. Perhaps the biggest part of online marketing is social media. These include, for example, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. These are the three most visited social networks in Slovakia, visited by millions of people per month.

In general, almost 5 million Slovaks are online. Almost 3 million actively use social media. There has been a 6.6% increase in the number of social media users between 2019 and 2020. According to Statista data from July 2020, Facebook is the most widely used social network in Slovakia, with 2.7 million people accessing it per month, which is approximately half of the population in Slovakia. The second place is taken by YouTube, where 2.4 million Slovaks come monthly. More than one million users from Slovakia are on Instagram, where 1.2 million Slovaks come monthly.

Up to 96% of Slovak users use social media via mobile. The share of web traffic generated by mobile phones is increasing, while that of laptops and computers is decreasing.

Facebook – a phenomenon of our time

There are very few people in the world who don’t know Facebook. That’s why it is extremely important to set up a business account on this social network, because you can get several hundred new clients there. In this article, we will look at some tips and advice on how to be successful on Facebook.

First and foremost, you need to have creative communication for your brand. You should follow the motto of less is sometimes more in your company, you should not tell people everything at once and all at once. Entertain people on your page with different puns, communicate the same content in different ways and what is extremely important – be unique. Show people what separates you from the competition and create different innovations that no one has had before. Be the one your competitors will buy from.

If you want to build a successful brand for your business, you need to have engaging content on your Facebook page. Your content needs to be authentic, regular and 80% useful and 20% marketable. We’ll explain what that means in the following lines.

If you want to attract as many people as possible to your Facebook page, you need something to engage them. To start with, choose three headings that you want people to be interested in. Let’s take this as an example: if you own a restaurant downtown, post various facts about food or social events. For the next, attract customers with the history of the town or restaurant in which the gastro business is located.

Interaction with the audience is also very important. For example, take a picture of a dish you’ve cooked in your restaurant in the last few days, take a picture of it and ask the audience what it is. This is how you keep in touch with people and their subconscious is whispering to them that you are good at communicating and that’s why they like to visit you. The last 20% is already sales itself, when you use a slogan that speaks about your quality.

How to make a good Facebook business profile?

To begin with, it is important to understand the difference between a personal profile and a business profile on Facebook. Personal profiles are set up by individuals who want to find out about world news or keep in touch with friends. It is these personal profiles that are the target of corporate profiles set up by companies, celebrities or various organisations. Corporate profiles include, for example, media portals or personal profiles. The advantage of a company profile is the possibility to promote your own brand through paid advertising or tracking a number of statistics.

Unfortunately, many companies are not making the most of their Facebook profiles. Neil Patel has written down some tips on how to manage a good and thriving company profile. The basics are to insert a profile and cover photo. The profile photo can be your logo, for example. The cover photo can feature company employees or various slogans.

Another important part is the about you section. This is perhaps the most important part that many companies neglect. This is where people should find out basic information about the company, such as what you do for a living.

If you want to be successful on Facebook, be sure to keep an eye on your stats. These show you what you need to improve on, what posts have been the most or least successful, and you can go from there. You can find a lot of very useful things in stats. For example, the arrivals of the like tags are worth mentioning. Facebook can evaluate whether people liked your page from your timeline or searched for you by themselves.

Facebook Ads

If you’ve been struggling with low organic follower numbers for a long time and you can’t manage your page so that they come to your page on their own, you need to pay for advertising. One of the other reasons to choose Facebook advertising is its traffic. It’s the most well-known and most visited social network in the world, with more than 2.5 billion people coming to it every month.

Another reason to choose Facebook advertising for your business is that people also spend a lot of time on this social network on a daily basis. People around the world spend an average of 38 minutes a day on Facebook. In that time, they may see several ads, which may include yours.

Since Facebook asks for your location data, this has helped sites that frequently use paid advertising on Facebook. If they only want to offer their services to one city, they tick a specific city when they set up their ad for people to see it in.

Content strategy

According to the Association of Digital Marketing Agencies (ADMA), it’s best if you don’t contribute too often or too little to your page. If you have a media portal and you’re on Facebook, posts could easily be contributed every one hour, even more frequently for hot news stories. However, if you’re building your own brand on Facebook, one post every few days, for example, is enough. The key is regularity and value. Communication is the foundation of any brand’s success, and look for topics that interest, entertain or anger your fans.

Types of organic promotion on Facebook

There are many ways to promote and increase your brand’s visibility on the California social network. As mentioned, you can increase your visibility organically, but you can also do it through paid advertising. Organically, you can increase your visibility by posting interesting content for your followers, who may in turn share it with their friends, who will also start following you. This is what business profiles depend on personal profiles for, because it helps them become more visible.

Contributions

When it comes to posts, there are different types that you can publish on your page. Either you post a photo with a description that describes the content. You can also post an engaging video instead of a photo. A short description that describes the video fits with it as well. Also new to Facebook are 3D photos, which allow you to create a panorama-style photo. You can move around in 3D photos by moving your thumb or flipping your phone.

Stories

Another useful way to get people talking about you and perceiving you is to post stories. These, colloquially, stories serve to keep you from having to clutter up your timeline with lots of photos. You add stories to your page simply: on your page profile photo there is such a plus in a little blue box. When you click on it, you choose the options to create a story, view your profile photo, and select a new profile photo just the first option. It automatically takes you to your photo gallery where you can select from the photo you’ve already created, or upload a new photo directly into the system. If you don’t want to insert any text, sticker or song, you just put the story to share and your story will be published.

Instagram – a progressive platform

Another social network that we will introduce in this article is the platform that belongs to Facebook, Instagram. Again, communication with the audience is also important here. Instagram is primarily for posting photos and videos, not extensive text. In recent years, the popularity of this social network has grown rapidly, and many people consider it to be the primary social network. However, for businesses, Instagram should be a sub-service of Facebook on which they should primarily present themselves.

To be successful on Instagram, you need to have much more regular and lively content than on Facebook. If you want to communicate properly on Instagram, you should use a lot of hashtags. Hashtags serve as an unpaid advertisement for your product. If your clothing store received new Adidas merchandise, tag the hashtag below the photo “Today our new #Adidas sweatpants arrived in the store.” If you enter this hashtag, anyone from around the world will be able to see your sweatpants if they click on #Adidas on any other profile.

Instagram’s place in digital strategy

According to a study by the Association of Digital Marketing Agencies (ADMA), Instagram’s place in digital strategy is very important and irreplaceable. Its content is divided into three parts: Storytelling, Inspiration and Motivation.

Storytelling is about telling a story with breathtaking photographs that captivate your customers. Under the word storytelling, we can also see videos that immerse you in the action.

You don’t go on Instagram to discuss political events in the country. People go there to relax, have fun and find inspiration, for example, when cooking a meal where a chef posts a video of his recipe. You can also find there various beauties of the world where you probably don’t have an easy way to get to.

People often go to Instagram to find motivation as well. Can’t get over the urge to go for a run, but you need to and don’t want to? Go on Instagram and find people who pick up their sports shoes and go for a run at sunset or sunrise. Trust that you will get overwhelmed and the results will show right away.

Advertising in search

Google offers a number of ways to make your business more visible in the browser. One of them is search advertising. This is a text-based form of advertising that can be precisely targeted to your potential customer. For example, if you’re in the interior doors business, pay for a Google search ad and a customer who types “interior doors” into a search will see your business on the first few pages thanks to the ad you paid for.

You can target this advertising based on keywords or landing pages. Let’s stay with those interior doors. When you set up your ad, you’ll enter the keywords “interior” and “doors”. As for landing pages, Google Ads will bid your landing pages when you set up your ad. By providing this list, you determine when to show your dynamic ad and where Google Ads should direct potential customers on your page.

Video advertising

Video advertising is a very popular type of business promotion nowadays. People often search for videos to familiarize themselves with a company. It is an easier way than reading some comprehensive article. You can summarise what you would like to offer a customer in a one A4 article in a one minute video. This is also why this type of advertising is coming to the fore, and can be used on YouTube or Facebook.

Video advertising on YouTube

Video advertising on YouTube takes many forms. The basic ones are divided into skippable in-stream ads and non-skippable in-stream ads. Skip-able ads are those that you can skip after five seconds before or during the video. Google support recommends using these ads if your main campaign goals include sales, leads, website traffic, brand awareness and reach, or product and brand purchase consideration.

The unskippable in-stream ads are the ones you have to watch to the end. These video ads are shorter than 15 seconds and play before or during other videos anyway. These ads are meant to increase brand awareness and reach, and viewers can’t skip them.

Video advertising on Facebook

Video advertising on Facebook is 135% more effective than static reach. Also, this type of advertising has a greater impact on the purchase of your product or service than if you had chosen, for example, a carousel ad. It’s all down to the fact that people often seek out videos if they want to learn about something new. They’re actually lazier to read an article than to watch a shorter video.

You can create up to a 2-hour video on Facebook. Here’s a question for you: could you watch one video on Facebook for that long? Most people would give up right away, or skip it outright. That’s why it’s most important that you make your video as short as possible with engaging content. The ideal video length is around 30 seconds, during which you should summarize everything essential that a customer should know. More than 80% of people watch ads without audio. That’s why it’s important that you also create a video without sound with short subtitles so that it engages as many people as possible.

SEO articles

SEO articles are important for increasing company awareness. For example, if you are a marketing agency, you can start your own blog to publish SEO articles that, when well written, will get your article to the top of Google searches.

The key to a successful SEO article is unique content and frequent use of the keywords you specify before writing the article. It’s also important to use as many links in the article as possible to other sites where you’ve drawn information from. These articles are lengthy and few people read them all the way through. Therefore, choose an engaging introduction that everyone can get through.

When you have finished the article, read it over and check for any grammatical errors. After checking and publishing, ask yourself a basic question: Is your content better than your competitors’? If it is, you’ll get to the top of the search rankings and you can be happy with your work.

Advertising on news websites

Another type of online marketing is advertising on news websites. Such advertising is divided into two parts: banner advertising or PR articles.

You can get your banner ad on news portals in different ways: either Google will automatically push you there when you’ve paid for an ad via Google Ads, or by agreement with the news portal administrator. Most of the time, these are portals that have high viewership numbers and people like to come back to their site.

If you want to advertise on a news site in the form of a PR article, you must contact the webmaster directly. You will send the finished article with photos to the editorial office, which the portal will publish on its website. Most of the time, comments are turned off on these articles so that people cannot discuss in the comments.

Advertising in online catalogues

Online catalogues are also a way to make your business more visible. It is a very simple way to present basic company information in a few lines. The most famous online catalogues of companies in Slovakia include Azet and Zlaté stránky.

The company should have a few sentences about itself, basic contact details (phone number, email, email address, website), company headquarters, billing details or opening hours in the online catalogue. Also, if the company has a social media account, there is an option to automatically link to their Facebook or Instagram.

In conclusion, online advertising is an excellent tool for effectively reaching new potential customers. In this day and age, there is no business that can say to itself that it doesn’t need to communicate online. The world is becoming more and more virtual and it is up to each of you to keep up with the times or miss the last train.

1. Do you know how many people have seen your ad

One of the advantages of digital advertising is transparency. You can accurately tell not only the amount of people that saw your ad, but also their location, gender, age, and whether they actually liked the ad. With offline advertising, you don’t have visibility into the exact numbers, you just have an average estimate of the reach and effect of the ad.

2. Know how to target by location, age and interests

No one product is right for everyone and there is a certain audience that it could appeal to. Accurate targeting also means a more effective investment in advertising. It will only be shown to who it should be shown to.

3. You can effectively find out who liked the ad

You have two billboards. How do you find out which one people liked better? Are the illustrations or the photos better perceived? With online advertising, you have an instant on-screen answer in the form of accurate statistics. This creates room for testing and analysis of the audience or the ads themselves.

4. You can quickly change the ad as needed

Making mistakes is unpleasant. Making mistakes that cannot be corrected is even more unpleasant. Correcting an error in a print ad can cost you a significant amount of money, while correcting a digital ad will cost you no more than 10 minutes of your time. Of course, it doesn’t have to be just mistakes. If you have something you urgently want to show the world, digital advertising will be on your side.

5. You know how to engage customers in advertising

Offline advertising often becomes a company’s monologue to customers. However, it is very beneficial to involve the customers themselves in your online advertising. You can gain a lot of insight into your audience’s behaviour or find out what you can improve about your product/service.

In conclusion, online advertising is an excellent tool for effectively reaching new potential customers. In this day and age, there is no business that can say it doesn’t need to communicate online. The world is becoming more and more virtual and it’s up to each of you to keep up with the times or miss the last train.

A company without values is like a house without a foundation

If someone were to name you the 10 most famous brands right now, you would surely be able to immediately answer what these brands evoke in you. But what would people say if they were asked what your brand evokes in them? Values are the face of any business. There are some people who will find you attractive, some who will find you less so, some who will love you for the way you present yourself and others who will ridicule you. But that’s cool.

The most important thing is that as a company you have a clear goal that you want to achieve, that you have your own attitudes that you stand for and your own, inimitable self. Don’t be afraid to claim that your services or products are not for everyone. Be a brand that is authentic and that carries values that your target audience will say they have something in common with your brand.

You’re not doing it for yourself, you’re doing it for the people

If you are in business, you undoubtedly put a lot of effort into making your business work and what you sell have class. Despite your dedication to your business, the main “star” of your marketing is someone other than you – it’s your customers. People naturally only like to hear positive things about themselves and are pleased when someone appreciates their existence. Also, all of us, whether we realize it or not, long to belong somewhere, to be part of something bigger.

That’s why it’s good to have values set right from the start of the business. If you have them set, it’s much easier to come up with new business activities, which, after all, don’t even have to be directly related to what you’re doing. As such, these activities and overall values work well in creating a strong long-term relationship between the company and the customer. Be creative and give people what none of your other competitors will give them – whether materially (a discount, a free product) or emotionally. If you want to get something, you have to give something first.

“People don’t read ads, they only read what interests them. And sometimes it’s also advertising. “

Even a small brand can overcome the bigger ones with emotion

You’re selling a new product and you want people to try it and like it. In order for them to try it, they have to buy it in the first place. This is exactly the moment when customer trust and emotion towards your brand is very important. In case you have a big name and a good reputation in the market, it will go a little easier for you. If not, it’s time to use a few emotional hooks in your marketing. At this point, it doesn’t matter if you are a small or large company.

Your customers are still flesh-and-blood people with desires and emotions. Show them something that makes them think, or change their perspective on something. Make the connection between what you want people to know about your product and what they are actually interested in. As Howard Gossage said, “People don’t read ads, they only read what interests them. And sometimes that’s advertising.”

Create strong customer-brand camaraderie

Imagine you are in a meeting with your friend. Would you be impressed by the fact that he would spend the whole time giving a monologue about how good he is, what he did last month and what size shoes he is? Or would he start off with a short story from the weekend, ask you about what you’re experiencing right now, compliment you on your jacket, and offer you your favorite chocolate as you leave?

It is better to communicate with your customers as mentioned in the second case. You who sell are the ones who want something from people. Give people what they want first, selflessly, and you will win their sympathy. If they don’t buy anything from you right away, they will at least have a good opinion of your brand and will subconsciously think of you as someone they will want to buy something from someday.

How do we handle our values in Progness?

Our core mission is to help smaller and medium-sized businesses transform into the digital world. Another of our values is the happiness that results from our work. We have shown that we can lend a helping hand at the time of greatest need in our Helping Entrepreneurs and Freelancers campaign. We selected 3 crisis-hit entrepreneurs and gifted them with a basic digital marketing package, which we gave them free of charge for 1 and a half months.

In addition, we don’t just keep our knowledge of online marketing to ourselves, we spread it further. Prognessa Academy training helps entrepreneurs from different industries understand social media, branding and selling on online platforms. This is just part of what makes us more than just an agency selling our services.