March Madness is one of the most exciting sporting events of the year, bringing together 68 college basketball teams in a high-stakes, single-elimination tournament. Fans eagerly fill out brackets, root for underdogs, and celebrate thrilling moments of competition. But beyond the courts and the games, the tournament provides a masterclass in marketing strategy that businesses can use year-round. From audience engagement to creative storytelling, March Madness is packed with lessons that can help brands build strong, competitive marketing campaigns any time of the year.

Lesson 1: The Power of Storytelling

One of the biggest draws of March Madness is the compelling storylines—the Cinderella teams, the buzzer-beaters, and the dramatic comebacks. People connect with these stories on an emotional level, which keeps them invested.

Businesses can take inspiration from this by crafting strong brand narratives. For example, Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign resonated with audiences because it told the stories of everyday athletes pushing their limits, just as March Madness highlights unexpected champions. Similarly, the Always “Like a Girl” campaign stood out because it told an authentic and powerful story that challenged industry norms.

How to Apply This Lesson:

• Develop content that highlights your brand’s mission and values.
• Use real customer experiences as case studies in your marketing.
• Leverage video storytelling to create emotional connections.
• Share behind-the-scenes footage of product development or company culture.
• Create an ongoing content series featuring inspiring stories from your industry.
• Use social media to engage your audience with personal stories that resonate.
• Incorporate user-generated content into your marketing to showcase real experiences.

Lesson 2: Engage Your Audience Like a Fanbase

March Madness thrives on audience participation. Fans fill out brackets, debate predictions, and engage in the excitement together. Businesses can harness this kind of engagement by encouraging customers to actively participate in their brand experience.

Interactive content such as polls, contests, user-generated campaigns, and loyalty programs can keep customers engaged, build a sense of community, and turn casual buyers into devoted brand advocates.

Take, for example, Starbucks’ “White Cup Contest,” where customers were invited to doodle designs on their coffee cups and submit them for a chance to be featured as a limited-edition cup design. This kind of interactive marketing makes customers feel like they’re a part of something bigger—just like filling out a March Madness bracket.

How to Apply This Lesson:

• Create polls or “bracket challenges” where customers vote on products.
• Encourage social media engagement with interactive posts.
• Run exclusive loyalty programs that reward participation.
• Build an online community where customers can interact.
• Develop a referral program that incentivizes loyal customers to bring in friends.
• Host live Q&A sessions or social media takeovers to drive engagement.
• Offer interactive quizzes that help customers find the right product for them.

Lesson 3: Capitalize on FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

March Madness games are must-watch events. The single-elimination format creates urgency—if you miss a game, you miss history being made. Businesses can apply this strategy by creating limited-time offers, exclusive drops, or flash sales that drive urgency and excitement.

Brands like Amazon have mastered FOMO with events like Prime Day, where shoppers get access to limited-time deals, creating the same urgency and anticipation as March Madness matchups. Similarly, McDonald’s limited-time McRib release generates buzz every year, making customers feel like they have to act fast before it’s gone.

How to Apply This Lesson:

• Use countdown timers in emails and on landing pages.
• Offer flash sales or limited-time deals to create urgency.
• Create exclusive member-only product launches.
• Use “only a few left in stock” notifications to drive sales.
• Leverage influencer marketing to build anticipation for new product releases.
• Send personalized reminders when products are close to selling out.
• Use SMS marketing for real-time, last-minute deal notifications.

Lesson 4: The Underdog Effect—Root for the Unexpected

Every year, an underdog team captures national attention by defying expectations. People love to rally behind a brand that surprises them or challenges the industry norms.

One of the best examples of this in marketing is Dollar Shave Club. The company disrupted the shaving industry with a bold, humorous video that went viral, challenging major competitors like Gillette. This underdog approach resonated with consumers and led to massive success.

How to Apply This Lesson:

• Position your brand as an industry disruptor.
• Share stories of overcoming challenges and perseverance.
• Use grassroots marketing to build an authentic community.
• Partner with influencers or advocates who embody your brand’s spirit.
• Develop bold, humorous, or unconventional ad campaigns.
• Engage directly with consumers through social media to create a personal brand identity.
• Highlight your brand’s unique story and values to differentiate from competitors.

Final Thoughts: Take a Page from March Madness

March Madness isn’t just about basketball; it’s about passion, strategy, and resilience. Businesses that apply these same principles—storytelling, engagement, urgency, and disruption—can create marketing campaigns that stand out in any industry. Whether you’re launching a new product, revamping your brand strategy, or finding new ways to connect with your audience, these lessons provide a winning formula.

Slam Dunk Your Marketing Strategy with Liquid Creative

At Liquid Creative, we understand that great marketing is about more than just pushing a message—it’s about creating an experience. Just like the coaches of the teams in March Madness, we help businesses craft winning strategies that engage, excite, and convert.

Whether you need a bold storytelling approach like Nike, an interactive campaign like Starbucks, or a disruptive strategy like Dollar Shave Club, our team has the expertise to make your brand stand out. We specialize in crafting custom marketing playbooks that leverage the best insights from events like March Madness, ensuring your brand is always a step ahead of the competition.

Want to bring a championship-level strategy to your marketing? Let’s chat! Contact Liquid Creative today and let’s start building your game plan for success.

Did you know that Valentine’s Day and marketing have a lot in common? It’s true: Keep reading.

Valentine’s Day, celebrated annually on February 14, traces its origins to the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a pagan celebration of fertility held in mid-February. By the late 5th century, Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day, honoring St. Valentine, a martyred priest who, according to legend, secretly married couples against Emperor Claudius II’s orders. Over the centuries, this day evolved into a celebration of love and romance, popularized in part by Geoffrey Chaucer in medieval England and later cemented in Western culture with the exchange of love notes and gifts.

In the United States, Valentine’s Day is marked by the exchange of cards, flowers, chocolates, and other tokens of affection. Greeting card sales experience a significant boost, with an estimated 190 million Valentine’s cards exchanged annually, making it the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas. Flowers, particularly red roses, symbolize love and are the most common gift, with over 250 million roses produced each year specifically for the holiday. Chocolates are another favorite, with Americans purchasing around 58 million pounds of chocolate during the Valentine’s season.

Dining out is also a beloved tradition, and February 14 ranks among the top three busiest nights for restaurant reservations in the United States. Couples flock to eateries, ranging from cozy bistros to fine dining establishments, to share a romantic meal. The holiday also boosts jewelry sales, with more than $6 billion spent annually on gifts like necklaces, rings, and bracelets.

Valentine’s Day continues to be a major economic driver and a cultural staple, bringing people together to celebrate love in all its forms, whether through grand gestures or simple acts of kindness.

So, what does Valentine’s Day have to do with marketing tactics? We’re glad you asked. Keep reading to find out two top connections between this “holiday” and winning marketing strategies.

One-Size Marketing Doesn’t Fit All

Noticing a need for change and being willing to make changes are two different skills—and both are vital to successful marketing (and business, and life).

A prime example of reading the room and doing something different is “Galentine’s Day,” a non-official holiday celebrated on February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. It originated from the popular TV show Parks and Recreation, where the character Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler, coined the term during a 2010 episode. In the show, Leslie describes it as a day for “ladies celebrating ladies,” focusing on female friendship and camaraderie.

The concept quickly gained popularity in real life, and many people now observe Galentine’s Day by gathering with their female friends to enjoy brunch, exchange gifts, or simply spend quality time together.

Now, there’s also “Palentine’s Day,” derived from the word “pal,” meaning friend, to celebrate platonic relationships.

These adaptations are inclusive, fun ways for people who may not be in romantic relationships to participate in activities that strengthen bonds between friends.

If you rely on one marketing strategy to reach all of your clients or customers, you are going to miss the mark. Just a little tweak (like “val” to “gal” to “pal”) can increase your reach.

One-size beanies will help keep everyone’s head warm in the cold February weather, but there is usually more than one target audience for your company’s products and services.

The goal? Market research into demographics and psychographics, create user personas, and develop a marketing plan that addresses individual pain points and meets specific needs. How to do this? In the immortal words of Ross from Friends: Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!

Even if you have a great sketch (or plan), if you can’t pivot, it’s not going to work. Content that reaches one audience may not reach another. And a campaign that worked in one quarter may not work in the next, even for the exact same audience.

In Marketing, Presentation Matters

Listening to your customers and adapting to their interests is vital, and it’s more than just knowing the products or services they need. It’s discovering the digital places they hang out and who they will listen to the most.

For example, does your audience primarily spend time on Facebook? LinkedIn? TikTok? These are very different social media platforms, each with their own set of best practices (and rules, even).

Does your audience like to read factual information from an objective voice, or do they crave scrollable memes and 15-second videos that make them laugh?

Think about Valentine’s Day again. There’s a big difference between handing a lover a plastic grocery bag with the gift unwrapped, price tags intact and wrapping the present in a beautiful gift bag with tissue paper or bows, ribbons, and balloons.

Presentation plays a crucial role in gift-giving because it enhances the emotional impact of the gesture, shows thoughtfulness, and elevates the overall experience for the recipient.

Bottom-line: Presentation matters. Here’s why it matters:

1. First Impressions: The way a gift is presented creates the initial impression, setting the tone for how it is received. A beautifully wrapped package signals care and effort, building anticipation and making the moment more special.
2. Shows Thoughtfulness: Taking the time to wrap or package a gift thoughtfully communicates that you’ve put effort into the gesture. It shows that the recipient is valued, and the gift is more than just an item—it’s an expression of your appreciation, love, or gratitude.
3. Enhances the Experience: A well-presented gift transforms the act of giving into a memorable experience. The excitement of unwrapping a gift or discovering it hidden in an elegant box adds an element of surprise and delight, making the occasion more joyful.
4. Attention to Detail Reflects Meaning: The presentation often reflects the giver’s attention to detail and consideration of the recipient’s preferences. Whether it’s wrapping paper in their favorite color or a ribbon tied with care, these details convey a deeper connection.
5. Cultural and Social Etiquette: In many cultures, proper presentation is a sign of respect and courtesy. A carelessly presented gift may unintentionally send the message that the gesture was rushed or lacks sincerity.
6. Lasting Impact: The aesthetic of a well-presented gift can leave a lasting impression. Recipients are more likely to remember not just the gift itself but the feeling it evoked when it was received.

Now go back and read those six reasons again . . . but, this time, think about them in connection to marketing. Think about how you’re presenting your product, brand, or company.

What does presentation have to do with marketing? EVERYTHING. For now, let’s just look at how it relates to social media.

Best Practices for Social Media Posts

If you’re not partnered with a marketing agency and don’t have an in-house social media manager, here are some best practices to follow when creating posts for social media. These practices will help your presentation, the first thing a user sees, and will also help your message land. The more hearts, the better!

Research shows that marketers have approximately 3 to 7 seconds to make a strong first impression on social media. This time frame reflects how quickly users scroll through their feeds and decide whether to engage with content.

To maximize impact, marketers should focus on:

• Eye-catching visuals: Use bold colors, high-quality images, or short videos.
• Compelling headlines: Craft attention-grabbing copy that hooks the audience immediately.
• Clear value propositions: Communicate the benefit or purpose of the post right away.
• Concise content: Keep messages short and skimmable.

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are particularly fast-paced, so prioritizing immediate engagement is key.

All content should be accurate, approachable, and engaging so that your company positions itself as THE ONE people turn to. Capitalize on trends when appropriate, but be sure to always sound like yourself. Authenticity matters to people, and it helps build trust around your brand.

Make sure your words, images, colors, tone, and even music all work together in support of the brand. Think of these components as ingredients: To make a delicious cake, complementary ingredients are measured in just the right amount and are mixed together to create depth of flavor.

Word Limits for Social Media—and Use of Emojis 🔥👀🚨

There are different rules and best practices based on platform, but here are a few suggestions for a few of the most popular social media apps.

• Facebook: Personal, friends & family feel
  • Visual messaging is increasingly popular and “the algorithm” likes it
  • 50 words is a good cap for keeping readers engaged
  • Use emojis sparingly, typically at beginning or end of a line for accessibility reasons
  • Avoid hashtags and hyperlinks
• Instagram: Personal feel but often used for businesses, influencers
  • Visual messaging is a must
  • 30 words or less
  • Emojis and hashtags welcome but don’t over do it
  • No links in post but you can put a link (like your website URL) in the bio or a timely link in the first comment if needed
• LinkedIn: Professional orientation, used for business networking
  • 300 words is fine, longer copy is the norm, but still be mindful of “the scroll” and use engaging copy to get readers to click “read more”
  • Use emojis sparingly
  • Use carousel images to prevent TL;DR
  • Videos are becoming increasingly common

Liquid Creative Marketing Agency Is Your Full-Service Marketing Partner

From market research and user personas to effective strategies and tactics to social media management that increases brand awareness and creates leads, Liquid Creative does it all.

Get in touch today and see what we can do for you!

You’ve just launched a new website for your business. Now, all that’s left to do is sit back and wait for the leads to come in, right?

Not exactly.

To get the most out of your website, you need to pay attention to how people are using it. Seeing which blogs people are reading, what buttons people are clicking, and even what terms people are searching for will tell you a lot about how you can convert a new customer.

In this blog, we’ll dive into what website analytics you should keep your eye on, what insights they provide about your website, and how to make tweaks to improve your conversion rate.

Must-have Website Analytics

There are many different tools to view your website’s metrics. Although Google Analytics 4 is the most popular one, you can measure analytics with tools ranging from WordPress plugins like MonsterInsights or as part of CRM platforms like HubSpot. With these tools you get an inside look at how visitors interact with your website. While there are a ton of metrics to track, these are the most important ones for understanding how your website is performing.

Sessions

Sessions can be thought of as periods of time when someone browsed your website. From the moment someone lands on your website to the moment they navigate away counts as 1 session, as long as they remain active.

Website sessions are a good metric for understanding how busy your website is. It gives you an understanding of how many times your website is being browsed, not just how many people are visiting. This metric is helpful for understanding how your website is performing in a given time period. Check your website sessions monthly to see if any trends emerge.

Pageviews

Pageviews are the number of times that an individual page was viewed. Anytime someone opens up a page, they add another pageview to your total.

This metric is very helpful for understanding which pages of your website are popular. By seeing which pages are getting the most pageviews, you can understand what information people are looking for, which blog topics perform the best, and which pages might be difficult to find. Use these insights to lean into what works and improve navigation to pages with less views.

Most Visited Pages

The most-visited pages show you what content your audience is most interested in.

This metric can show you which services people are checking out, which of your blogs are creating the most traffic, and what pages people are looking at before they decide to contact you. A high-traffic page presents an opportunity: focus on how to impress your users and encourage action within your most-visited pages.

Session Duration

Session duration indicates how long someone is staying on your website after they arrive.

A shorter session duration could mean that people aren’t finding the content they’re looking for on your website. To improve your website’s session duration, add valuable information and don’t use “clickbait” in your ads or social media. In general, your session duration shows how long you’re keeping your visitor’s attention.

Location

Location shows you the geographic location of your website visitors.

For most businesses, traffic from outside the U.S. should be excluded from analytics results. For local or regional businesses, you may want to see what percentage of your traffic is within your service area. If you’re seeing a high percentage from outside your coverage area, you may need to adjust your marketing or more clearly state your location on your website.

Source

A source refers to where the website traffic came from. This includes if the traffic is direct, organic or paid. If you set up a way to track your campaigns (for example, using UTM codes), you can see which specific campaign brought traffic to your website. This means that you can know if the traffic source was from your social media post, a Google Search Ad, or your YouTube video ad.

This is one of our favorite metrics here at Liquid Creative. If you tie it to the conversion metric (explained in the next paragraph), you can measure which campaign brought your desired conversions and be able to evaluate the performance of each campaign.

Conversions Metrics

Some of the most common goals for business websites are leads and sales. When a visitor takes action on your website, it’s considered a conversion. Many service-oriented businesses rely on their website to generate leads, including form fills, email inquiries, and phone calls. E-commerce businesses are more likely to look for online sales.

Unlike the metrics explained before, conversions are metrics that you have to create yourself, based on your goals.

Here are three of the most common and useful conversions:

Form Fills

Form fills refer to submissions to any form on your website. These forms allow users to do things like ask general questions, requesting a quote or a free estimate, ask for a call back, and more.

Most businesses are interested in the quantity of leads they can generate through form fills. However, you should also be aware of the quality. Take note of how visitors are interacting with your form. What fields are they skipping? What common themes do you see? Making your form as fast and easy as possible is likely to increase the number of form fills you’ll receive. Optimize the experience by reducing required fields, adding dropdowns, and being clear about the information you’re requesting.

Phone Clicks

A phone click event activates whenever a user clicks on a phone number on your website. If you coded your website correctly, that click should generate a call. Although this works mostly on mobile, and only if the user clicks on the link (not if they call directly), it’s still an important conversion to evaluate.

Sales

If you are running an eCommerce website, tracking a sale conversion is probably the most important conversion metric of all.

How is your user interacting with your website

So, you designed your website following all the recommended web design trends. Now, which metrics can help you find out how the user interacts with your design? All the metrics we’ve talked about so far may give you valuable information about your user and the actions they take in your website, but they don’t show you how the users interact with each page. Are they liking the design? Are they interacting with it in the way you planned? Are they clicking in places you can’t track with other metrics?

To solve those questions you can use the following tools:

Heatmaps

Heatmaps show how users move and click around on your website.

A heatmap is a great way to evaluate user experience and interest. Pay attention to where people are clicking and where they aren’t. For least-clicked areas, make sure your language is clear and users know what to expect after they click. On the other hand, your most-clicked areas show you new opportunities for expanding your website content.

Session Recordings

Session recordings are actual video recordings of your user interacting with your website. You’ll get a screen video capture of important information like how they scroll, where they move their mouse, in what places they spend more time, and how they go back and forth in between pages.
For privacy reasons, you will not know who the person is or access important information they fill in forms, like phone numbers or credit cards.

Analyze, Strategize, and Optimize

Improving your website is a continuous process. Updating your website, adding content, and improving usability will both improve your SEO and convert more visitors into customers.

Using the metrics above to analyze your website, strategizing ways to improve it, and implementing those changes should be a cyclical process. At Liquid Creative, we develop stunning business websites while always strategizing our next step. We can improve your existing website with intentional updates, improve your SEO with monthly blogs, or even create a personality-filled site from scratch.

Our website team prioritizes strategy and usability to earn you the most calls and clicks. Learn more about how we can help you impress and convert your website visitors: Contact us today!

We invite you to check the strategy behind our award-winning work that grew CorsPaint’s sales by 60% and helped Straight Line Construction close 10 leads per week and increase their ROI x 10.

This year, we took home 12 awards from the Florida Public Relations Association for the work we’ve accomplished with our clients in Gainesville and Ocala.

We’re thrilled to be recognized, especially from an organization with such a high standard for research-based, strategic campaigns! Professional recognition from our colleagues is the icing on the cake after celebrating amazing ROIs and milestones with our clients.

So how did we do it? Here’s a quick breakdown of our two winning campaigns!

Earning Over 10x ROI for Straight Line Construction

Awards Won at the Florida Image Awards & Mid-Florida Image Awards in 2022:

• Video:
  • Florida Golden Image Award
  • Florida Judges Award
  • Mid-Florida Image Award
  • Mid-Florida Judges’ Award
  • Mid-Florida Grand Image Award
• Website:
  • Mid-Florida Image Award
  • Mid-Florida Judges’ Award
• Promotional/Marketing
  • Florida Golden Image Award
  • Florida Judges Award
  • Mid-Florida Award of Distinction

Our work for Straight Line Construction showcases our strengths as a full-service marketing agency. With everything from a new website to video work to expanding their social media presence, we helped show the world what makes SLC different.

Setting Goals and Determining Strategies

After taking the time to understand SLC and their positioning in the market, we worked with them to set goals that would grow their business. Each goal was translated into strategies and specific marketing tactics we’d use to make it happen.

To improve their online presence, we created or redesigned the digital platforms that their clients would use to find them. We did this by:

• Designing a stunning new website
• Managing a consistent social media presence across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Linkedin
• Creating Google Business Profiles for their two locations
• Showing off their amazing work with videos

To increase brand awareness we put their brand in from of their users by creating:

• Display ads on Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Pinterest
• Video ads on YouTube and Social Media

To generate high-quality leads

• We streamlined their lead generation process on their website and social media so users could contact them any way they wanted.
• We implemented search engine optimization (SEO) strategies so SLC showed up when users search for their services
• We ran search ads on Google to connect SLC with interested prospects.
• We optimized their local citation platforms like Google Business Profile, Bing Locations, and Apple Maps

Designing a UX Driven & Google Search Optimized Website

When creating a new website for SLC, we equally considered making it true to their brand and optimizing it for lead generation. The website copy increases discoverability with SEO keywords while still speaking to their unique value proposition. We took every opportunity to establish brand trust with renovation galleries, reviews, employee videos, helpful blogs, and more. At the top and bottom of every single page, users are prompted to contact SLC, encouraging high-quality leads.

Establishing Trust & Awareness Through Content Marketing

See the latest on SLC’s Pinterest!

To begin a brand relationship between SLC and prospects, we created monthly content that provides value to the target audience while encouraging website visits, phone calls, and form fills. Our content calendar included blog posts that improved SEO, engaging video content for social media, and a strategy to bring the brand to Pinterest.

Generating High-Quality Leads Across Platforms

Our paid advertising strategy improved both the quantity and quality of SLC’s leads. The newly optimized website helped us lower the cost per click of our Google search ads. To bring the brand to more people, we began running social media, display, and YouTube ads.

The Results of Strategic Digital Marketing for SLC

Our campaigns helped SLC earn at least $2 million in revenue and $600,000 in profit. We accomplished a return on investment of $532,000, or over 10 times SLC’s marketing spend.

Growing CorsPaint’s Business by 60% in 1 Year

Awards Won at the Florida Image Awards & North Florida Image Awards in 2022:

• Digital Promotion:
  • Florida Award of Distinction
  • North Florida Image Award

Throughout 2021, we worked alongside CorsPaint to showcase their brand digitally. They already had great word of mouth – it was up to us to translate that into digital presence. Through social media posts, blog content, and paid advertising, we helped CorsPaint expand their business and hire 3 new teams of painters!

Setting Goals and Determining Strategies

We worked with CorsPaint to understand how people were finding out about their business – and how they weren’t. After identifying missed opportunities to generate leads and build brand awareness, we decided on a few key digital strategies to accomplish our objectives.

To position CorsPaint as professional and reliable we created blog content and social media posts that showed their expertise and outlined their process.

To generate brand awareness we used search ads and SEO strategies to reach a larger audience.

To generate high-quality leads we created marketing funnels through digital advertising and organic search results.

Creating Consistent, Branded Social Content

To create a digital presence for CorsPaint, we first turned to social media. Consistently posting content on Facebook and Google Business Profile shows credibility and lets the audience get to know your business. This was an ideal way to begin positioning the brand as approachable experts. We highlighted customer reviews, shared industry knowledge, and highlighted the process.

Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Content

See the latest blogs on CorsPaint’s Paint Talk!

Creating search-engine-optimized blogs both provides valuable information to customers and improves your website’s ranking on Google. We answered some of the most-searched questions related to painting, creating a resource that CorsPaint could easily reference when onboarding customers.

Reaching New Customers Through Search

Google searches are essential for local service companies. We immediately identified that CorsPaint could be reaching many more customers as they were searching for painting services. We began running and optimizing search ad campaigns, which were helped along by our monthly SEO blogs. In less than a year, we lowered our cost-per-click by 59% – just $1.11 by the end of 2021. By reducing our cost per click, we were reaching more customers for the same budget.

What We Accomplished with Our Digital Campaign for CorsPaint

Our digital marketing for CorsPaint brought in 8-10 leads a week through online forms and phone calls. Customers reported finding CorsPaint through Google, a clear sign that our search ads and SEO strategies were paying off. Thanks to the increased demand, CorsPaint expanded from 5 teams to 8, expanding their business by 60% in just one year.

Let’s Start Your Award-Winning Campaign!

We’re so proud of the results you see above. Not because of the awards or the numbers, but because we helped these businesses grow! We take partnering with businesses seriously. Knowing your business inside and out makes celebrating wins like these even more rewarding.

If you’re looking to expand your business, we want to talk to you! We’re a full-service marketing agency, dedicated to propelling brands forward. Our team translates your goals into marketing strategies, delivering results like the ones you see above. To see what award-winning marketing can do for your business, contact us!

In the digital age, your business success depends on your website. It’s a huge piece of any digital marketing puzzle. Social media, digital ads, and quick Google searches will all lead your potential customers to this one place. So how do you win them over once they get there?

There are already plenty of lists detailing 2022’s hottest website design trends. But how effective are they at converting website traffic to leads? In this blog, we’re breaking down the website trends that make the most sense for today’s business owner. We’ll turn today’s trends into timeless lessons that will help you improve the functionality and experience of your site.

1. Brand Videos To Tell Your Story

Video is hands-down the most engaging medium available. Let’s face it – it’s a lot more likely your prospects will watch a 3 minute video than read through text for 3 minutes. That’s why so many businesses are choosing to tell their brand stories through video, featured on their website homepage.

Brand videos put a face to the name, show what you’re capable of, and show the personality behind your business. They let viewers get to know you before they’ve even spoken to you. And that makes them all the more likely to reach out.

Featuring a video on your website is like greeting a customer when they walk into your store. It feels personal and welcoming, more so than any positioning statement ever will.

2. Features That Enhance User Experience

Example of Florida Construction Cost Calculator for Hurd Construction

Functionality comes first in website design. Many companies have unique needs for how they’ll interact with the customers online. For example, real estate agents may want to use plugins with always up-to-date listings while a healthcare clinic may need a way for users to schedule their next appointment.

The best custom websites are the ones that make your job easier. It might be difficult to navigate plugins and integrations on your own, so we recommend hiring a web design agency to get maximum usability out of your site.

A great example is the Cost Calculator we created for Hurd Construction. This free resource is valuable to website visitors – so much so that they’re willing to enter their contact information to view the resource. With a resource like this, the customer gets a helpful tool and you get a high-quality lead who already knows your name!

3. Mini-Sites and Landing Pages

Example of mini site for GRU 2021 Year in Review

Mini-sites are all the rage nowadays. Businesses use them to build hype for events, spotlight new services, and drive specific results. Also called micro-sites, these websites can stand on their own while adding to the brand’s overall appeal. With the added effort and cost required of microsites, we’d recommend these more often for larger campaigns, national brands, and long-lasting content.

If you’d like to skip buying a new domain name and designing a whole new experience for your micro-site, a landing page is a great compromise. Landing pages can help you turn your Google ad clicks into quality leads or help you promote a specific part of your business

For example, a landing page is ideal for a limited-time promotion. You can use it as a way to draw in prospects with a specific interest, add a sense of urgency, and collect leads interested in a particular product.

4. Surprise & Entice With Scroll Effects

Example of interactive scrolling for The Ocala Mortgage Guy

Interactive scrolling effects keep the user’s interest as they continue down the page. Website designers have gotten creative with different ways to use scrolling, but most concepts fall under parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling refers to different objects on the page moving at different speeds, giving the screen multiple levels of depth.

Another common trend is using fixed elements that stay on the screen no matter how far you scroll. With a fixed website header, you can make navigation easy or keep your phone number on screen at all times.

Bonus tip: Design your website so that the next section is always visible on screen. While we concentrate on a clear and powerful message “above the fold”, showing a glimpse of the following section can encourage users to scroll down and learn more.

5. Use Motion To Enhance Text & Icons

Incorporating motion into your website helps you capture the attention – and hearts – of your audience. Whether it’s lightly animated icons, scrolling text, or even interactive hover effects, motion gives the user more incentive to look around and take in your messaging.

To take it one step further, use videos throughout your website as an engaging way to tell your story. This is ideal for your About page, to inform viewers about your process, and even to feature testimonials about your business. Video is an ever-growing opportunity to show all you have to offer and put your personality on display. There’s no better place to start than your website!

6. Testimonials & Connections To Review Sites

Example of client testimonials for The Walker Advantage Team

Customer reviews and testimonials are the most convincing way to get new customers from your website. Reviews, both on your website and on other platforms, and essential to establishing your credibility. They give your audience a clearer picture of what working with you might look like, which can sway them towards giving you a call.

You can even automate your website with plugins that automatically fetch the newest reviews! These features connect your website to ranking platforms like your Google Business Profile, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Yelp, and more. These review integrations keep your website updated and give visitors a quick way to visit your social profiles.

Modern, Engaging Websites Start Here

We’re surrounded by websites every time we hop online. Simply having a digital presence isn’t enough to earn someone’s business. Being found and being remembered both require engaging content, captivating design, and advanced technical knowledge. Luckily, we can help you with all three!

With a dedicated team well-versed in today’s website trends and best practices, Liquid Creative has everything you need for a stunning site. From copywriting to design to development, we’ll guide you towards a custom website you can’t wait to show off. We’re proud to create websites that are equally functional, engaging, and search-engine optimized. Contact us to learn more!

Adaptive marketing is a key advantage for your business. Here’s Why.

Companies live in a competitive environment that changes fast. New technologies, new trends, new competitors, and new social issues affect our businesses and the marketing landscape. With each shift, you have a choice to make: hold fast or find a way to adapt?

Each change brings an opportunity to grow your brand. If you can stay agile and open to new ideas, you’re perfectly poised to make the most of an ever-evolving landscape. This is especially true when it comes to marketing: if you listen to the analytics, setting aside your own preferences, you’ll achieve better results and optimal campaigns.

So how can you capitalize on your campaign analytics and overall marketing trends? In this blog, we’ll dive into how you can stay ahead of the curve with adaptive marketing.

What Is Adaptive Marketing?

In a nutshell, adaptive marketing is optimizing your strategy as you go. Instead of setting and forgetting a marketing campaign, an adaptive marketer takes the opportunity to learn from campaigns as they’re running.

With adaptive marketing, your campaigns should improve month by month. The result of each campaign – good or bad – should influence how you approach the next one. Each marketing campaign doubles as a fact-finding mission, telling you more about your target audience, the channel you’re using, and your ideal messaging.

The adaptive marketing approach may mix different platforms – both online and off – to create an evolving campaign ecosystem that brings insights. After launching a new strategy or marketing tactic, an adaptive marketer will tune in to the analytics, searching for ways to improve future campaigns.

What Do Adaptive Marketers Evaluate?

You can’t be an adaptive marketer without analytics. By keeping an eye on the metrics from Google and Facebook ads, website traffic, or social media engagement, marketers see what’s working and what isn’t.

There’s every opportunity to try new approaches, expand to new channels, and A/B test your creative. But you won’t know how it’s working until you begin monitoring the results. Pay attention to what the analytics tell you and use the additional information to continue optimizing your marketing strategy.

To evaluate your marketing campaign, ask the following questions:

• Are we meeting our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?
• Are campaigns working as intended?
• Which campaigns are the most successful? Why?
• Which campaigns aren’t working as we hoped? Why?
• What did we learn from the most successful campaigns?
• How can we improve less successful campaigns?

With your evaluations complete, it’s time to take action. Take the opportunity to boost or extend your successful campaigns. For less effective campaigns, decide whether to pause or hit shuffle. You can use your newfound knowledge to improve the creative, or just refocus your budget on what’s already working.

The key to adaptive marketing is acting based on the metrics you gather – whether it’s optimizing a campaign or pivoting to an entirely new direction.

Adapting Your Marketing: Short Term Game vs. The Long Term Gain

You should always be looking to improve your marketing strategies – adapting to the short-term game for long-term gain.

In the short term:

• Focus on key performance indicators and determine whether you’re meeting the goals you set.
• Play around with new ad copy, conduct A/B testing, and compare results of similar campaigns on different social media networks.
• Pay attention to your campaigns. Never let a strategy play out without checking in on it. If an issue arises, you’ll want to know about it sooner rather than later.
• Each campaign should be adjusted based on the target audience and the platform. If you’re repurposing a Facebook ad for Pinterest, make sure you optimize the graphic and rework the copy.

In the long term:

• Be on the lookout for new platforms that may serve your business.
• Stay up to date on the latest features of established platforms. Be inventive about how you use your website, your Facebook page, and more.
• Use the data and evaluations you’ve conducted to gain insights about your audience. By thinking analytically about why certain campaigns perform well, you may see an opportunity to adjust your brand voice, positioning, and future promotions.

How To Start Adaptively Marketing Your Business

With the need to regularly evaluate results and optimize your marketing campaigns, not everyone is equipped to succeed with adaptive marketing strategies. Since it requires technical skills, industry knowledge, and creative problem solving, it can be time consuming for business owners to monitor and adapt their marketing.

Partnering with a full-service marketing agency is ideal to make the most of an adaptive marketing strategy. At Liquid Creative, adaptation is essential to our process. When you partner with us, we take time to understand your business, analyze your best performing campaigns, and even dig into third party research on your industry. With constant evaluation and regular updates, you’ll know your campaigns are being effectively optimized.

Learn more about how we can grow your business! As a full-service marketing agency, Liquid Creative can offer a full suite of services tailored to your goals. Contact us today to get started!

The Perfect Posting Times & Hashtag Strategy

When you put your time and energy into crafting a content calendar, the last thing you want is to watch it fall flat. Seeing your post get a handful of likes can deflate your motivation to create organic content in the first place. But don’t give up! Organic social posts verify your brand, add value for your audience, and show the humans behind the operation.

If you’re struggling with social, here’s the latest on how to ride the algorithms to success. Try incorporating these tips, experimenting with different types of content, and reviewing your analytics monthly to see what’s working.

The Best Social Media Posting Times For 2022

With the return of Instagram’s chronological timeline, you might be revisiting when to make your social media content live. The optimal time to post has changed along with our daily routines. Sprout Social has gathered updated data on when users are engaging on social media. While every brand’s ideal posting time will vary based on their target audience, these figures show you when all users are most active on the platform – a great starting point for finding what works for your business.

The following times have been updated to Eastern/New York time.

The Best Times To Post Across All Platforms

• Tuesdays through Thursdays at 10am or 11am are the best times to post on social media.
• Sunday is the worst day to publish your social content.

The Best Times To Post On Facebook

• Weekdays at 4am, reflecting just how global Facebook’s audience is. We don’t recommend posting at this time unless you’re looking to reach an international audience.
• Tuesdays at 11am and 1pm.
• In general, the highest engagement is seen between 8am and 2pm.
• The worst day to post on Facebook is Saturday.

The Best Times To Post On Instagram

• Mondays at noon.
• Tuesdays and Wednesday from 11am to 2pm.
• Thursdays and Fridays from 11am to noon.
• Sundays are the worst days to earn engagement on Instagram.

The Best Times To Post On Twitter

• 10am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
• Avoid posting your Twitter content on Sundays.

The Best Times To Post On LinkedIn

• Tuesdays from 11am to 1pm.
• As a business platform, avoid posting on LinkedIn over the weekend.

What does this mean for Florida Businesses?

For further research into when to post, be sure to check out your insights and analytics on each social media platform. The above times are a great baseline. However, mileage may vary based on when your unique audience is active. Make a note of when you receive the most impressions or engagement and adapt accordingly.

Instagram: How To Add Value Through Hashtags

Do hashtags encourage views? According to Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri, not really.

The realization was confirmed by Social Insider’s recent analysis of 75 million Instagram posts, showing when and how hashtags influence posts. With the ever-changing algorithm and product updates, here’s the latest of how you should use hashtags on Instagram.

How Businesses Should Use Hashtags on Instagram

• Use about 5-6 hashtags per post. Though hashtags don’t have a ton of influence on your reach, accounts with under 5,000 followers saw the highest impressions when using 5-6 hashtags.
• Don’t use the same hashtags with every post. Using fewer hashtags on each post also gives you plenty of room to experiment. Remember that this feature is ideal for categorizing your content, so use hashtags that deal with the post’s specific content when possible.
• Include your location as another way of reaching your audience. Tagging your city or specific location in your posts gives users a new way to discover your business. We highly recommend this for brick-and-mortar locations and other local businesses.
• Create a unique branded hashtag to encourage user-generated content. Using your brand’s name or another fun hashtag can give people a way to easily see posts relating to your business. You can even encourage customers to share their photos with your hashtag for some online word-of-mouth.
• Interact with people using the same hashtags as you. Instagram highly values accounts that are active and engaged on the platform. Before and after you make a post, like and comment on a few posts that use similar hashtags. This lets Instagram know what kind of content you’re interested in, which helps the algorithm push your posts to interested users.

What does this mean for Florida Businesses?

Long story short, hashtags don’t meaningfully improve impressions. However, using them correctly can help you find your people and even be discovered. Don’t spend too much time fretting over your tags, but do include them in ways that make sense for your business.

Ok, now what?

Ready to shine on social media? We combine high-quality content with the strategic secrets for success – some of which you’ve just read about. Liquid Creative is a full-service marketing agency with proven experience creating consistent social content for all kinds of brands.

We’re a full service agency propelling brands strategically through inspired & adaptive marketing. That means we can turn your views into sales with a beautiful website, produce captivating video content, or brand your business from the ground up. Call, email, or leave us a message to let us know how we can help you!

You’ve got a great product. You’ve got a great business. Now, it just comes down to getting people interested.

Identifying your target audience is the first step to meaningful marketing. In this article, we’ll take a look at how business owners can expand their sales by reaching the right audience with the right message.

The Importance of A Target Audience

To speak directly to someone, you need to know who they are. And unless you’re speaking directly, your message will be lost in a sea of annoying advertisements.

We’ve gotten so good at blocking out ads everywhere they exist. People only bother to pay attention when it’s obvious the message is meant for them. To get past the filter, you need to speak to a specific segment of people based on demographics, interests, motivations, or some other deciding factor.

Start by looking at your current and past customers or your audience on social media. Who are your messages already resonating with? Who else do you want to reach? Consider these factors to help you define your target audience:

• Demographics: Start by looking at the statistics of your current audience involving location, age, and gender identity.
• B2B Demographics: If you’re selling to professionals, consider their industry, business size, and job titles.
• Interests: What hobbies, professions, and interests do your customers share? This could be directly related to your business or something adjacent.

Creating A User Persona

Now it’s time to put a face to your target audience. Pick out just one representative from your target audience and give them a name – this is your user persona or buyer persona. You can even choose a relatable celebrity with traits you’d find in your target audience. This exercise will help you step into the audience’s shoes and create more compelling messages. After deciding on a buyer persona, consider the following before creating your brand messages:

• Motivations: Why would this person buy your product? How does it align with their interests, goals, and values?
• Challenges: What would stop this person from becoming your customer? What are their hesitations, fears, or obstacles in terms of your business?
• Buying Behavior: What is their buying process? Is the purchase decision influenced by research, brand loyalty, or impulse?
• Communication Preferences: What communications does this person enjoy? What annoys them? How are brands able to reach them on a typical day?

Be Where Your Audience Is

What media does your buyer persona consume every day? You should be advertising in those places. With messages that speak to their specific hesitations, interests, and behaviors, you’ll grab their attention and deliver your most impactful message yet.

Here’s where to start to figure out where to find your audience:

• Local Audiences: You can reach individuals in your city with outdoor advertising like billboards, transportation advertising, and local sponsorships. To target a particular demographic within your area, look into buying a radio or magazine ad – they’ll have insights into the specific demographics of their audience to share.
• National Audiences: To step into the world of national advertising, try ads on streaming services, niche magazines, and satellite radio.
• Audiences By Interest: The best way to advertise to an audience based on their interests is through digital advertising. There’s just no beating Facebook and Google ads, thanks to their algorithms and information about user activity.
• B2B Audiences: Buy ads in trade publications, set up a booth at a trade show, and be present in professional organizations. You can also use LinkedIn to reach this audience online.
• Hyper-Local Audiences: Make sure your brick-and-mortar location is clear with signage that can be seen by traffic driving by. You can also target specific areas with direct mailing, such as Every Door Direct Mail.
• Other Promotions: If you can think of a brand that shares your target audience, find a way to partner with them. This can look very different, but it could include sponsoring events, appearing on podcasts, or exchanging shout-outs with another business.

Digital Tools For Selecting Your Audience

When advertising digitally, there are so many ways to define who will see your ad. You can set demographics and interests that align with your brand’s target audience. As the ad runs, algorithms will tweak who sees your ad based on how users interact with it. Optimizing your audiences will also help you lower the cost of your digital ads.

• Selecting Demographics: Each platform has their own ways of understanding demographic information of their audience. This includes location, gender, age, income bracket, education level, marital status, and more.
• Selecting Interests: We spend an increasing amount of time online, where we engage on social media, search, watch videos, read articles, and more. Every little online interaction is evaluated by algorithms to give companies like Facebook and Google a very accurate depiction of our interests. Thanks to that, we can target our audiences by interests like specific products, services, music styles, brands they follow, jobs, industries, etc.
• Platform -specific targeting: Each platform varies its offer and the accuracy of its targeting depending on its own characteristics. For example, Google knows what you are searching for, Facebook knows how you interact with brands, and LinkedIn knows what you do for a living. It’s important to understand the scope of each platform when planning your digital strategy
• Limitations: Platforms like Facebook and Google adhere to advertising laws for specific industries. You won’t be able to target housing or hiring ads by anything other than location. Ads about health must not be misleading and can’t promote negative self-perception. In all ads, you can’t assume personal attributes about the reader. You can read more about Google Ads Policies and Facebook Ads Policies.

Remarketing: How To Use A Foot In The Door

After your digital ads have run for some time, a few people have clicked through to your website. Is there any way to turn that interest into a purchase?

Platforms like Google, Facebook, AdRoll, MailChimp, LinkedIn, and more offer the option to run remarketing ads. These ads will be displayed only to the people who have interacted with your brand online in some way. These interactions include visiting your website, engaging on social media posts, watching a video, or opening an email, among others. Now you have your foot in the door and it’s time to close the deal.

With a digital remarketing campaign, you can craft your message to be more direct. The audience knows your brand name and what you offer, so tell them why they should act now. You can use time pressure, offer a discount, or directly answer your buyer persona’s main hesitation.

Want To Nail Your Message?

At Liquid Creative, we craft targeted messages that speak directly to your audience on any medium. As your full-service marketing partner, we offer everything from digital advertising to public relations work. Contact us today to get started!