Winners of Most Innovative Strategic Marketing Agency 2023

Winners of Most Innovative Strategic Marketing Agency 2023

Irish Enterprise Awards 2023 | Most Strategic Innovated Marketing agency
We are absolutely thrilled to have won Most Innovative Strategic Marketing Agency 2023 in the Irish Enterprise Awards by EU Business News! 
This is the second year in a row that we have won an award from them, which we are absolutely delighted about. Over 2 years ago Ryan Marketing Solutions was born and we can’t wait to continue to solve businesses prpblems and build their brands for 2023! 
We don’t just offer your typical marketing services, but very bespoke services to ensure you reach your goals and full potential with tailored expertise. 

Drive your Business Forward Faster with a FREE Consultancy Call!

Build Faster, Protect your Brand and Grow your Business with Ryan Marketing Solutions

Steal This Simple Instagram Strategy To Increase Your Followers

Steal This Simple Instagram Strategy To Increase Your Followers

Instagram Strategy | Ryan Marketing Solutions | Ireland

You can either worry about things you can’t control and be miserable because of the latest Instagram changes or you can just focus on the things you can control. I think we all know that the Instagram’s algorithms sort of suck lately. The platform seems to be all over the place and growth is not just the way that it used to be. But do remember, it is actually still very much possible to grow on Instagram.

Even with all of the problems Instagram has right now it still is a pretty solid platform to build your brand.  Adapting with the platform is the only way to grow nowadays and actually some strategies require some refinements every once in a while, so let’s discuss different strategies to actively grow your Instagram with real followers and convert them into customers.

So, you know this train of posting content, throwing in a bunch of hashtags and hoping it will sort of blow up are long over. In fact,  these days we are responsible for the algorithm getting confused and messing everything up right now. Instagram obviously knows this is happening and in an attempt to save the platform they’ve sort of changed the game and you should change your strategy accordingly to that.

This is where the strategy of so-called content tree comes into play, which is basically a strategy to maximise your visibility using the algorithm while also fuelling your brand,  building customers with content that not always blows up but content actually builds those relationships and serves people in your target audience –  this is the secret thing activates the algorithm gates of hell.

How To Start

Firstly I would recommend, if you’ve been posting consistently for about three to four months without getting any traction, especially if your account is from pre-2020,  then I would start over from scratch. No matter how big your followers are it doesn’t help you anyway if you don’t reach them and if you actually swallow the hard pill and delete your old profile or you know just start from scratch you will see that this organic reach cap is sort of gone and growing outside of reels will be a lot easier again. 

Now, whether who’ve started from scratch or just haven’t had a strategy before, the first step is to actually figure out which content type gets recommended in your niche. This is the content which will actually give you the eyeballs that you need, and believe it or not there’s some niches especially in certain demographics where reels are not performing at all yet and this is the interesting thing – photos and regular feed posts seem to be doing a bit better again according to my latest research. Therefore, maybe they’re tweaking around here which seems to be good especially with accounts that didn’t confuse the algorithm at some point.  

The Cotton Tree Strategy

Now once you know which types of content are your performers, it’s time to craft the cotton tree. The first pillar obviously being content that gets you found and in 90 of the cases right now obviously it’s some sort of reel. Try post a reel 3 times per week – mix it up between a trend, and evergreen original content. Make it a priority to create reels, as that’s just how the game works right now.  

If you want to actually grow your brand on Instagram, this is where the growth pillar comes in – regular posts like educational posts, photos or carousels, or just text posts are key. In the long term, this is where Instagram could have an advantage over Tik Tok. Due to its diversification and the new algorithm main purpose with these feed posts is actually not to get the maximum reach it’s actually to build a repertoire that people can binge your content on, other than reels.

So, if you can actually pull this off it will activate the algorithm floodgates for you and  everything will sort of start to fall into place – you’re going to see your content get recommended in the explore page, as the suggested post and you’re also going to see your reels getting more recommended. Ideally, regular feed posts are scattered all over the week, try aim for 3-5 times a week. Remember, don’t be mad if you don’t get the reach that you got with reels or get with reels, because these posts are actually here for the long run to get binged on.

A typical follower journey involves majority of people coming to your profile after seeing your reels and people typically need to see multiple reels to recognise you and to get you on their radar. We are talking about the rule of 7 here, and that’s why you want to increase the post frequency to the maximum amount. Then if you’ve done this process for some time and you’re on their radar, they’ll tab on your profile and see what else you got. This is where your regular posts should start to shine, because according to our research, the time people spent visiting your profile is the most valuable indicator for Instagram. This will boost your chances of getting recommended a lot especially if you get them off the sort of fast-paced reels feet and into a different rhythm. 

Finally the leaves on the tree, including having regular stories (to connect with people and let them actually see the other side of you or your business) and having call- to -actions (CTA’s) to get more people to actually connect with you and getting them to hit the follow button. It is very important in terms of converting more of those eyeballs into followers which is by the way another trick to counter this whole algorithm issue. The more people you can get to convert into followers the more your profile will be labelled as high value high quality.

Get Creative 

 Now you know exactly how to create a simple Instagram marketing strategy that will wow your followers, grow your following, and boost your engagement. Don’t forget to get creative with the platform. If you’re prepared to get experimental and try new things, the opportunities to grow your brand via Instagram are endless.

Drive your Business Forward Faster with a FREE Consultancy Call!

Build Faster, Protect your Brand and Grow your Business with Ryan Marketing Solutions

What Is A Marketing Coach and Do You Need One?

What Is A Marketing Coach and Do You Need One?

Marketing Coach | Ryan Marketing Solutions | Tipperary

If your business is not growing, it’s dying, there’s no middle ground. The world is quickly passing by those that are standing and perhaps satisfied with simply getting by your business growth is fuelled by marketing.

Not every business is in a position to hire someone else to handle their marketing. Most businesses have to do some or all the marketing themselves. The problem is most business owners are not marketers by trade and they have limited knowledge of how to structure & implement a marketing plan. This is where a marketing coach comes in to help. 

What is a marketing coach? 

A marketing coach is an expert consultant who works closely with business owners to help you build your own marketing capabilities. With their help you can more easily identify challenges and build a fully systemized approach to marketing.

This coach has years of experience generally marketing high-growth businesses. Their job is to understand your business values, mission, and goals, and to advise strategies for success. 

Five signs that you may actually need a marketing coach in 2022

#1 YOU FEEL STUCK AND DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT

There is a lot of noise out there so having a marketing coach that has seen what works has actually implemented those strategies themselves they’re able to see what’s going to be the best move for your business. They’re going to be able to really narrow down that ROI and be able to tell you this is the right next step for your business and then hand hold you through that process, so that you don’t have to learn from the mistakes that others have made before you. Allow those marketing coaches that have made those mistakes before be able to guide you through that seamlessly.

#2 SUCCESSFULLY UTILISE THEIR SKILLS

 This because they’ve tried all the things and they just don’t know what’s working. This is different from the person who doesn’t know what the next right step is. There is definitely people out there that will try all the things and then maybe have a successful launch or quarter or maybe not and then they look back and they really don’t know what to attribute that. They are also people out there that are doing more than they probably need to and so being able to kind of look at all of those tactics that you’re doing and then be able to eliminate the ones that really aren’t going to be helpful for your business can really be valuable to the time that you’re spending on your own marketing. Therefore,  if you’re doing 10 things a week let’s narrow it down to the really the three or four that are moving the needle the most and maybe that’s really all you need to be doing. This can be extremely beneficial in giving you time back in your day

#3 REACH THEIR IDEAL CUSTOMER

Many of us will assume that we know what our customer is and as we get more customers then we can really fine-tune that down. You are think questioning where are those people hanging out online, where are they spending their time, so that I can then leverage those places and those opportunities to make them good marketing opportunities for me. Therefore, sometimes this can be getting a little creative and not just looking at your demographic and find which magazine it fits. This may work for some but for others a marketing coach is looking for a better ROI, more targeted and better analytics.. This will allow you to really see what’s working and what may need to be tweak. So that can come along with some creativity to make sure that you’re reaching those ideal customers

#4 YOU’RE DOING RANDOM ACTS OF MARKETING 

So let’s say you’re using Facebook Ads, cold calling, digital marketing, and all of that. If it’s working for you, then great. But think about it. Implementing tactics without a solid strategy leads to the “bright shiny object syndrome,” which keeps you chasing the wrong things. You need a strategy, which is the big-picture planning you do prior to the tactics. So instead of doing random acts of marketing, having a solid marketing plan that fulfils your goals and objectives.

#5 YOU NEED MORE SUPPORT 

There are several business owners that I work with that quite frankly they’re just not ready to go to the next step, so they can only reach and achieve a certain amount before they really need to employ somebody that does marketing day in and day out.

That’s when a marketing coach comes in handy, so if this is something that you think you would be interested in exploring kind of how a marketing coach can help you?

Final Thoughts

A lot like any other coach, a marketing coach is a guy that can put you on the path to achieve optimal results. A marketing coach can eliminate the guessing game that is not working for you. They will take the time to help you understand how marketing works and get you focused on the activities that really matter.

A marketing coaching is not just for busy business owners. It’s also perfect for people just starting their businesses with no marketing experience at all or for larger companies with in-house marketing personnel who need help realigning their marketing strategy & outlining actionable marketing activities. It’s perfect for someone who needs a structured plan to follow and a person to hold them accountable to getting it all done 

Some  false assumptions:

  • First, you can’t simplify coaching as a tool. 
  • Second, coaching is not only for failing businesses; it helps the good become the best.  
  • And third, coaching doesn’t provide band-aid solutions.

Do you need help to get off the ground? Are you trying to upscale your business? No matter what your definition of success is, a marketing coach will help you make that happen

Drive your Business Forward Faster with a Award Winning Marketing Coach!

Build Faster, Protect your Brand and Grow your Business with Ryan Marketing Solutions

Winners of Corporate LiveWire Innovation & Excellence Awards in 2022

Winners of Corporate LiveWire Innovation & Excellence Awards in 2022

Social Selling | Ryan Marketing Solutions | Ireland

We are absolutely thrilled to have won Boutique Marketing Consultancy Firm of the Year – Ireland in the Corporate LiveWire Innovation & Excellence awards! 

When Catherine started Ryan Marketing Solutions less then 2 years ago, she never expected that her company would be winning awards at this stage 

Thanks to the judges & organisers, thank you to all our clients and to YOU for being part of our journey!!

These awards celebrates the success and achievements of firms & individuals that have taken an innovative approach to demonstrate exceptional business performance. With more categories and an even greater international spectrum, these awards honour those who standout as consistently showing best practice in every aspect of their work 

Drive your Business Forward Faster with a FREE Consultancy Call!

Build Faster, Protect your Brand and Grow your Business with Ryan Marketing Solutions

5 Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses 2022

5 Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses 2022

Social Selling | Ryan Marketing Solutions | Ireland

Let’s say you just have started recently your business and you are very excited about things to happen. Everything is exactly how you have planned (central location, awesome products or services, etc) but you hardly get any customers in. Guess what? You’re not alone.

More than 20 percent of small, medium size businesses fail within the first year of existence. By the end of the second year, 30 percent of businesses will have failed. After 5years more than 50% have shut their doors.

This is due to different factors such as:

  • Inefficient Business Planning – before starting a business you should have a properly laid out business plan. This should include but not limited to management needs, competitor analysis, capital needs, marketing initiatives & budgets, opportunities and threats to your brand, clear purpose of your business, etc.
  • Poor management – In the first year of business the business owner is the only senior level within a company. Usually, the owner might be good at selling the product or service, accounting but he might have bad managerial skills. Overseeing other employees, looking after the marketing, hiring staff, financing is hard to do on your own therefore a dedicated person or team is required.
  • Financial Impediment – This is the primarily reason why businesses fail. Misunderstanding, mismanagement of business funds can quickly escalate and put owners into great difficulty. Every financial aspect of the business (rent, utilities, salaries, income, and vendor payments) has to be taken into consideration. Simply, you can’t spend more that you generate.

Below I am going to list 5 Digital marketing tips for small to medium sized businesses that will help increase brand awareness & reach, drive more sales and make your business more profitable.

#Tip No1 – Find out who and where your business customers are 

If a start- up business this can be achieved through research on your competition.  Find out who are their customers, their interests, needs, expectations, behaviour.  Then ask yourself, what do I bring new to the market? How do I differentiate myself from them? Is my product or service better than theirs?

One way of doing competition research is by using Social Listening Tools such as Hootsuite, TweetReach, BuzzSumo, Sprout Social, Buffer, etc. It’s a laborious process and involves some skills. (That’s why Ryan Marketing Solutions is here for to help you).

If the business is already established you can use analytics to accurately determine who, where your customers are. Google’s, Bing,  Social Media native analytics tools can show you precisely how & when your customers interact with your content, what device they are using, conversion rates, engagement rate, etc.

#Tip No2- Build up your Social Media presence 

Social media is the No1 tool that helps businesses boosts their online presence.

Did you know that there are over 3.5billion (keeps growing) active social media users, and every 6.4 seconds a new social media account has is created.

Did you know that every social media user has an average of 7.6 social media accounts? And they spend more than 145 minutes on social media every single day.

These are facts that cannot be ignored. If you want to drive awareness to your business brand there is no better way than building up your social media presence. Ideally you should do an audience research prior to creating those, to establish what channels your customers are using.

For example, 84% of digital marketers are targeting Millennials- GenY (born between 1980-2000) in their social media strategy, followed by Gen X –born between 1960- 1980 (52%), then Gen Z – born between 1997- 2012 at 22%.

There’s no right or wrong in choosing a social channel. Personally I would create channels on every social media platform available and choose to advertise my business products or services ONLY on those where my customers are.

#Tip No3 – Focus on creating unique, consistent, relevant content to your brand

There are many types of content that business owner can utilise in their digital marketing strategies. The most engaging content out there at the moment is video.

Recent conducted studies found that 54% of customers desire to see more video content from business or brand they’re interested in. Furthermore, 88% of video marketers are pleased with the ROI- Return of Investment of their video marketing accomplishment on the brand social media channels.

From above findings we can deduct that demand for video content is desirable by many consumers and there is high demand.

Video content gets more views, is more engaging and is by far the most preferred type of content. If you want to get up to 66% more qualified leads per year then focus on creating quality, original videos (Take a look at Ryanair channel on TikTok ).

To create video content might sound daunting but there are tools (free or paid) that can help you accomplish that. You can also use social media channels live video features to create content. However, producing a good quality video does not come cheap, and it might raise the cost of your digital marketing campaign.

Other type of content includes:

  • Infographics
  • Blogs
  • How To Guides
  • Live Chats
  • Photo Galleries
  • Whitepapers
  • Downloads
  • Q&A
  • Newsletters
  • Podcast
  • Gif’s
  • Images
  • Client Testimonials

As you can see there are a multitude of content types available to create. It’s up to the business management (marketer if they have one) to choose the most suitable type. As a general rule focus on creating unique, relevant to your brand content that keep your customers engaged.

 Consistency is another element that you should be aware of. For example, you can’t just simply put a blog post out there and do nothing for the next 3 months. Search engines spiders (not that scary insect that you might think of) will avoid crawling your website if there is not any new content added. In time this will affect your SEO – Search Engine Optimisation rankings.

#Tip No4 – Use Search Engine & Social Media Advertising 

 “The advertisement is the heart and the soul of the commerce”.

 If you’re just starting up or you’re an established business advertising can only bring benefits to your brand. Marketing can be divided into 2 main categories: Outbound Marketing & Inbound Marketing.

 Outbound Marketing includes TV advertising, email marketing, Flyers, Brochures, magazines, posters, radio advertising, newspapers, etc. They tend to be less used nowadays because targeting customers is difficult, cost ineffective, ROI tracking is difficult or impossible, etc.

If you choose to advertise your business through such channels, be prepared for huge charges. Not saying that is not effective way but it will incur huge marketing costs.

In contrast choosing inbound marketing (content marketing, social media, email marketing) will help you reduce your marketing costs, get recognised sooner and build long term relationship with your customers. Maintaining relationships and building trust is the key element in any digital marketing campaign.

Advertising through social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram) incurs high benefits because of its huge audience size. You can also choose your target audience (Do not go with the ad default options) and create personalised ads for each category of customers.

Also you’re in control of your spending as you choose the daily amount spent and how many days want your ads to run for.

If you opt out for Google’s PPC or Bing advertising (search or display) you’ll get almost instant results. But those results come at a price. If you’re just starting up I recommend hiring a digital marketer or marketing agency who knows how to properly configure those ads. You can’t just simply go with the default ads settings as your entire budget will be spent very fast.

As a general rule use Display & Social Media Advertising to increase brand reach and awareness or if you’re selling cheap products or services. Use Bing & Google PPC – Pay Per Click advertising only if you want to sell a premium product or service.

#Tip No5 – Use Influencer Marketing 

This type of marketing is relatively new compared to social media marketing but is one of the in vogue digital marketing trends at the minute. If done right it can increase trust, credibility of your brand, increase ROI, awareness and get more conversions. 

Did you know that 8 out of 10 consumers have made a purchase from an influencer’s suggestion? Or that 80% of Business to Consumers B2C businesses currently or intend to work with influencer marketing.

There’s no doubt that Influencer Marketing is profitable if done right. It won’t be cheap but with the right niche influencers your brand can grow to new highs.

As fresh social media platforms emerge (see TikTok, SnapChat or the new METAVERSE thing) there are more influencers marketing opportunities to avail of.

Need Inspiration? Have a look at your competition. Do they use an influencer to improve their brand awareness? Who is their brand ambassador? Or they didn’t. If not is an opportunity for you that you can’t miss.

Conclusion

Running a business in today’s market proves to be a huge challenge, especially if you’re just starting up. But with the right approach, mindset, skills you’ll succeed. A mix of social media, SEO, video & influencer marketing might be the key for unlocking your success.

 There’s not a nailed template or path you should follow. Every business is different and addresses different markets. Try to be unique, transparent, and consistent in the type of content you create. Also adapt to the new trends, don’t get stuck in the past.

If your business needs help, advice, consulting don’t hesitate to contact Ryan Marketing Solutions. We are here to help your business thrive and succeed.

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