2 Social Media Platforms To Help You Improve Your Marketing

Social media can be overwhelming from time to time. You can find a lot of information about any subject that you’d like. But sometimes it can be hard to find the right platform for what you exactly need. As a small business owner, I love to find new applications that can help me marketing wise or on social media in general. Here’s 2 platforms I found in the field of online marketing and social media.

The first one I have for you is Pinterest. I know, this platform was very popular a few years ago and maybe some of you think it is not relevant anymore. You are totally wrong. A lot of businesses are using this platform for their marketing strategies. Let me explain how it can benefit you and your businesses. A lot of people, especially women have, in the past year, been using Pinterest to create their fashion inspiration. They would search for the trends of the new season fashion wise and save the pictures they find cute. As a business, you can either pay for ads or simply post pictures under the same fashion categories. 

If we take the ads for an example, this will automatically target the right audience for you. They will show your pictures directly in their feeds: either in a fashion category or on their home page. When they will click on the picture, it will directly send them to either your profile on Pinterest or your website. There’s also now a shop category where people can buy directly the items if they want to purchase it now.

You can also decide to only post regular pictures or articles as your business account. This way is totally free but doesn’t necessarily give you the same visibility as when you pay ads. It has worked for a few businesses because they put the right hashtags. If you don’t, your post will not get any or very visibility.

The second platform that I’ve found a few months ago is TrendTok. This one is not free but if you’re trying to grow your business account on TikTok, this app will save you a lot of time. TrendTok is a platform made strictly for TikTok. They give you lists of every trending sound in every niche possible. You can choose from the country or continent of choice, niche and time. They not only give you the trendiest sounds right now but they also predict which one will raise in the upcoming weeks. TIkTok is a very tricky app. If you don’t participate in a trend right at the beginning of it, your chances of going viral is definitely lower. No need to scroll on your For You Page for hours to find the best trends to do now. 

What I like about TrendTok is that you can also get all the statistics you need under any sound. Current number of views by date, prediction of views in the next few days, number of plays, likes, shares, comments and even engagement rate. You can also see where in the world this sound is the most played. As a small business owner, myself, I don’t have a lot of free time on my hands so whenever I can find platforms or any way to save some time, I’m definitely taking it. Think about it, you could save hours that you can put on doing something else by just using TrendTok.

What platforms is, in your opinion, the best on social media especially for marketing?

Soirée Clés Event

Last week, October 28^th, I decided to attend an event where 6 Entrepreneurs came and talked about their business journey. It was called Soirée Clés. The way it worked was a really interesting concept. For the first part of this event, 2 Entrepreneurs called Serge Beauchemin and Yvan Cournoyer interviewed 6 well known Entrepreneurs here in Quebec for 2 hours. 

So, each entrepreneur talked for about 15 minutes. After that, there was the second part where 20 other entrepreneurs would have their own online room and would talk about a specific subject. Via zoom, the watchers were able to ask their questions during these special rooms. Some of them talked about Facebook, Instagram, Shopify, SEO tips, LinkedIn and even more. You were also able to jump from room to room if you wanted to attend more than one during these next 2 hours. I personally couldn’t attend the second part of the event but I wish I could’ve because I’m sure it was very useful.

The animators of the event, Yvan Cournoyer and Serge Beauchemin

I decided to attend this event because I love hearing about another successful entrepreneur’s journey. I didn’t know about this event until I received a marketing email about it. One day I was clearing those type of email and the title of it really intrigued me. It said “Did you reply no?”. I really wanted to know what it was about so I read the entire email. I knew I would like this event because I’ve attended a few like these ones in the past and it really gave me much more motivation to go forwards and work even harder on my project. Recently, I’ve been feeling a little bit motivated so I knew this would help me get back on track. When I looked through the list of the Entrepreneurs that would attend this event, I knew some of them so it is the last thing that made me attend as well. For the people who are familiar with Quebec Entrepreneurs, the ones attending the first part were Martin Latulippe, Ruth Vachon, François Lambert, Dominic Gagnon, Chantal Lacroix and Luc Poirier.

I will definitely attend other events like this one in the future. I really liked the way it was build up and the choice of the guests. I feel like from time to time every Entrepreneurs needs to attend events like this (hopefully in person in the next couple of years) to get inspiration and a new perspective on things. This can also give you a great opportunity to connect with new people. This was my first event online and I noticed that in the chat section during the first part, a lot of people already knew each other or were trying to connect with new people.

There were a few times where I really related with the entrepreneur were saying. But the quote that made me understand a lot of things was from François Lambert. He’s a business owner from Quebec that had many successful businesses. He participated in the show called “Les Dragons”, a well-known show here in Quebec that is similar to Shark Tank. He also participated to the last edition of Big Brother Quebec. Right now, he’s working on his most recent business called François Lambert where he sells body products, soya candle, Popcorn and more. He explained that with this new business, he needs to wake up at around 3:30 am every day and works all day long. He said: “Do something that will make you excited to wake up early every day”. This is totally true, when you have a business, you need to make sure that you love doing what you do every day and that you’re having fun while doing so. That even if you need to wake up really early every day, that you’re excited to wake up and go work. If you don’t love what you’re doing, it will show and people especially customers will see it.

Yvan Cournoyer and François Lambert

This event not only motivated me in my project, gave me new ideas but it also teached me a few things. You often need more than one plan to minimize risks. I don’t remember who said it but they suggested to have an A B C D plan so that if your first plan doesn’t work, you’ll have some back up. That is funny because we’ve learned this method since we were very little but a lot of us tend to forget it. As François Lambert said, you can also create an ameliorated version of your plan A if it doesn’t work out. I think that both methods could be great, but the first one can definitely remove a lot of anxiety for some entrepreneurs. 

As Ruth Vachon said, when we are having a problem, it’s also important to always see the positive side of it. Life has its ups and down but it’s easier to go through the down of it if you see it positively. As humans, we tend to see a problem as something negative. And when we are thinking negative, we also tend to give up or push it away because it is either really scary or seems impossible. That is why it is important to see a problem on a positive side. Why do I have this problem? Oh, this is because I need to learn something out of it or to get stronger. It’s like lifting weights. If it’s too heavy you might get discouraged but if you continue lifting it up every day, you’ll get stronger and one day it you’ll do it easily. 

Link of the event: https://soireecles.ca/?inf_contact_key=3b29963d224f54bba384db62cb1baa38680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1

How I Personally Developed My Social Networks Online

Social media is a really tricky world. People think that it is an easy way to get known in the entire world but it is definitely not as easy as it seems. A lot of businesses or even Influencers I’ve had strategies to develop their platforms and networks online. You can ,of course, be one of the lucky one that doesn’t need to do that to get a big platform online. But, most of the time, you need a good strategy for it to work on a long period of time.

I have a few strategies that I personally think will help me develop my professional and personal networks online. The first one that I have for you is pretty easy: be present on social media. How will people know your business, for an example, if you don’t post anything on your business accounts? The more people will see you online, the more they will remember your brand and maybe even purchase afterwards. So, my first strategy in other words is to develop my networks by posting different content on 2 main platforms: YouTube and TikTok. These platforms have been a great source for small businesses. I follow a few brands that have hundreds of orders every month and for that, thanks to TikTok. One viral video can totally change the future of your business. When it comes to in person, I would like to collaborate with YouTubers or TikTokers from Canada. I think that it is not only a great opportunity to build a bigger audience but also to get a bigger network in the business world.

Yes, it is important to have a good strategy fully written but it’s also as important to take actions. There are a few things that I will be committed to in the next 6 to 12 months to improve my professional and personal networks. The first thing I will be focused on is YouTube. I’ve been posting, for a little more than a month now, YouTube videos every week. When I first decided to create a brand a few years ago, I went and searched information on how you can create your company on there. I watched hundreds of videos not only about tips on how to start a business but also vlogs where they shared their daily work. This was definitely really helpful and made me feel guided. When you know what you want but you don’t have the knowledge to know what you need to do for it to work it is very easy to give up. So many people feel lost and don’t necessarily know how to solve a specific problem in that situation so, for them, the easiest way out seems to be the best option. For that reason, I will continue to post one YouTube video every week on my channel giving advice on how to start your own business, my experiences and some of my mistakes.

I’ve also been active in the past few months on TikTok. It is a platform where it is also strictly short videos. You can find basically any topic that you want to watch on there. What I like about the app is that they will already filter the videos for you so that you will only see the content that will interest you. I personally have 2 different accounts. My first one is a business TikTok. On there, I post videos related to my business and products. The second account I have is more of a personal account. I post French videos where I shortly explain the steps on how to create your business. I want to help and guide the younger generation that are currently where I was a few years ago. I wanted to create my own business but I didn’t have the knowledge for that so I went online and searched for what I needed to know. TikTok is a platform that is mostly used by the younger generation so it is very easy to reach my target audience on there. I’m currently trying to post one TikTok on both accounts every 2 days. It is very not easy to come up with different content in that short amount of time but I’m trying to stay consistent. I want in the next 6 to 12 months to continue to post 2 videos every 2 days. If I, can I would also like to post one video on both accounts every day. Right now, it is not possible with my schedule to create that many content but hopefully I will have more time in the next few months.

To get more experience on social media, I’ve also recently become a videographer for a TikToker here in Quebec. He currently has more than 35 000 followers on the platform and started posting videos 2 months ago. We film for normally 4-6 hours every week. This experience is really helpful because it’s helping me understand how he works. Since I’m seeing the behind de scenes, I have a better understanding on how he’s catching his audience attention and keep it so that they will come back for his next video. This also inspire me on what type of content I want to make on TikTok and what I need to do for my audience to grow, come back and watch my other videos. 

There are of course other commitments I will be making on social media and in person for the next 6 to 12 months but these are the ones I will be focusing on. I really want to grow my personal and business networks so, not only do I need to create interesting and creative content, but I also need to monitor it. 

A Social Media Strategy, Is It Really Necessary For A Brand In 2021?

It’s  hard to stay consistent on social media especially as a brand. If you are starting out, you know that you are the main employee and you don’t necessarily have time to post a few times a day on Instagram or TikTok. Maybe you don’t even know where to start. That is why it is important to create a strong social media strategy to know in what direction you are going exactly. Here’s 2 brands that I think has an amazing strategy when it comes to social media.

XXL Scrunchies & Co

The first brand that really impressed me in terms of a good social media strategy is XXL Scrunchies & Co. They are a Canadian business that sells as their main products larger scrunchies than the one we can find in stores. I think that they have an amazing strategy when it comes to their social media presence. The first thing I noticed is that they interact a lot with their audience on a daily basis. They respond to as many comments as they can under their post and even interact with them through Instagram Stories. For an example, they often ask questions through polls and sometimes they even ask name ideas for their next products. This strategy gets their audience excited not only for their next products but also as a brand in general. 

Content wise they are also killing it. They do TikTok lives on a regular basis, they post TikTok a few times a week and they are also posting weekly vlogs on YouTube. Something else that I really love about them is that the owner of the brand is not afraid to give other small businesses owner’s advice. For an example, they often post behind the scenes videos where the owner explains how everything is being made or even how she does a certain thing. She is giving a personality to her business and it is definitely what every business needs to do. People now want to connect and create a connection with a brand.

Glossier

Another brand that impresses me on social media is Glossier. Anywhere you go, you see glossier. You go on Facebook, they are there. Now you want to read funny tweets, Glossier. You decide to watch TikToks about skincare or makeup, it is from Glossier. They are known to be a brand that engage a lot with their audience and definitely know what time of content they want. They listen to their audience and it shows. What gained them success over the past few years is that they treat everyone as an Influencer. No matter how many followers you have, you have the same chance as anyone else to be a model for one of their products or even get the chance to be on a billboard. Most of the time brands will choose big influencers or even celebrities to promote their brand but not Glossier. Their main focus is their audience and customers.

Sometimes  some brands forget that it is important to evolve and change strategies overtime. What was working a few years or months ago might not be working anymore. That is why it’s important to stay up to date and listen to what your audience wants. Here’s a brand that could have a larger audience if they had a clear social media strategy but unfortunately didn’t evolve in the past few years.

Hoaka Swimwear

The brand that didn’t impress me in terms of having a social media strategy is Hoaka Swimwear. I personally am a big fan of the brand since it came out a few years ago because of the owner Elisabeth Rioux. Unfortunately, they don’t really have a good strategy when it comes to Social Medias. The main thing that triggers me is that they barely interact with their audience. Their main social media is Instagram and they don’t respond to the comments or questions under their posts.

They are focusing on paying Influencers to promote them but it is not enough. When their audience will notice that it is one sided most of them will unfollow the brand. For an example, a few months ago they did a huge Giveaway where they gave to one lucky follower $1000. During the Giveaway, more than 5000 people followed them. But a few days after they announced the winner, they all lost them and even more. Why? It was because the brand didn’t bring any value to them content wise. They only post pictures of the owner or their followers wearing their products. When they decide to post on their stories, it is only to repost a picture of their followers wearing, once again, their products. There’s nothing exciting and valuable in this type of content. This strategy might have been working a few years ago but it will die pretty soon. Now, people and especially the younger generation, wants to have a connection with a brand. They want to somewhat feel included. If they don’t change their strategies any time soon, I think that their audience will slowly detach themselves from the brand. Only because their content doesn’t benefit them in any way.

My Secret Tools To Stay On Top Of Trends On Social Media

Trends are definitely something that is hard to follow. You might want to jump on the new trend that you just saw online but by the time you do it, people have already jumped on something completely different. Social Media is a world where news go by really quickly. I mean when you think about it, it’s pretty normal. Millions of people share information with the rest of the world every minute or we could even say every second of the day. That is why you need to keep an eye open at every time when it comes to trends. The best way to be a part of them at the right time is by finding a way to know these trends right at the beginning or at least as soon as possible. This is why I’m going to share with you 2 of the best tools to listen and monitor new trends. But not only will I share these tools with you, I will also share 2 of the best sources I know when it comes to new information in the business world.

The first tool I have for you is definitely my favorite. The name of it is TrendTok. By the name of it you might really wonder what it is about. This tool is specifically to trend the trendiest sounds on the application named TikTok. What I like about this tool is that not only will you have a personalized list of the sounds that matches your niche, but you will also be able to search them by region or even by the type of content you can find on TikTok. TrendTok also show you the sounds that are starting to get popular on the app in the past 24h so that you can finally participate in a trend right at the beginning of it. You can also find the sounds that are popular but are also slowly dying in the past few days so that you know if it is worth trying or not. If you have a TikTok account and you try to grow, this tool will definitely be your best friend. After going through all of the popular sounds of the day, you can go in the saved section (If you have saved the ones you liked). Because there are so many sounds on this app, it is easy to get lost or even forget the one you wanted to use so, by having a saved section, you will always have a place to go through the ones you want the most. Let me tell you, if you have a Small Business account, this will save you so much time, especially since you already don’t have that much free time.

The second tool might sound basic but it is definitely a must when you have a business: Google Trends. Yes, you read it correctly. It might not track the newest trends on TikTok or Instagram but this tool is definitely something that is underestimated. If you have a blog or have a website of some sort you need to hop on Google trends. It gives you an idea of the trendiest words online at the moment. I personally launched my business 3 months ago and I know how hard it can be to find the right words to be able to communicate with your audience as much as possible.

Let me give you a quick example. You are a fashion blogger and you decide to write a blog today about the best female outfits in the most recent Met Gala. You title it: “10 of the Best Female’s Outfits at the 2021 MET Gala”. Note that all of the outfits you’re going to talk about in this blog are dresses. If you used Google Trends, you would’ve known that more people have been talking\using the term dress over outfit in the past 7 days. For that reason, if you would’ve used the term dress over outfit, you would’ve been able to reach even more people. This tool is really helpful to use the right term at the right moment when it comes to content.

There are many places online where you can find the newest information related to your niche. An application that a love but is also underestimated sometimes is TikTok. I’m not going to lie, you can, of course, find a lot of dumb videos on there but there are also very helpful ones hidden. Like I mentioned earlier, I launched my business 3 months ago all by myself. I didn’t have anyone to coach me and I also didn’t have a degree in business or anything like that. I learned everything mostly online by myself. So, of course I don’t know everything when it comes to business or Social Media (even if I grew up with them). TikTok not only helped me to know more about the business world but also about the fashion world. There are accounts talking about the most recent information in the fashion world or even talking about fashion trends. I also found accounts talking about business tips and of course trends on Social Media. Finally, I also found accounts that shared daily sounds or new challenges on TikTok that were starting to get really popular. All of these accounts helped me to get new information when it comes to the business and fashion world on a daily basis.

The last place where I love to find new information is on Facebook Business Groups. The beauty of it is that there are hundreds of different groups with their own goals. I’m in business groups that are international or local or just for women or just for the fashion world. There are groups for literally anyone with any goal in mind. What I love about them is that people are not scared to share information to help others even if we are all competition in some ways. With these groups,  you can see everyone’s reaction or point of view about a subject. Sometimes people think about things that have never crossed my mind and giving me a different perspective on some things. It’s also really helpful because some business owners also share their mistakes with the rest of the group to make the others learn from their mistakes. Since I created my business by myself, it has been really helpful to see other business owner’s recent mistakes because the blogs you can find online are not necessarily updated so, a strategy that was working 2 years ago might not be working now. But you also need to be careful because if something didn’t work for their businesses, it doesn’t mean it won’t work for yours, so you definitely need to take but also leave some information behind. Not every information relates to your situation or audience.

There are definitely many other useful tools out there to help you track new trends or new information when it comes to Social Media or the online world in general. These are definitely a small portion of them all. It is also important to remember that not all of these tools can be helpful to your situation either. What are the tools that works the best for you when it comes to tracking new trends or new information in your niche?

3 Reasons Why You Should Include Storytelling In Your Digital Content

People often think that you can find stories only in books. But, when you think about it, you can find them anywhere. From when we were little in books to now on the news, on social medias or with our friends and family: they follow us everywhere. Here’s 3 reasons why you should include storytelling in  your digital content.

First of all, storytelling makes the content far more interesting. Imagine if you have 2 different blogs in front of you. The first one has interested content, images and some things that the writer experienced himself. The stories you want to tell should, of course, be related to the subject and not just a random story you wanted to say for fun. The second one has an interesting subject but with no images and no stories. It goes straight to the subject from the start to the end. Which one will you read until the end? As humans, we love stories. It all started when we were kids when our parents would read us books. When we were a bit older, we would be so happy to tell our friends what happened during our last weekend. Stories are part of our nature; we wouldn’t be able to live without them. It is the same thing when it comes to digital content.

Stories also make content easier to read. When you are talking about a subject in particular, not everyone might understand the terms you are using. It is different from person to person. A person who never got any degree might not understand a specialized word but someone with one or more degree might understand it because they have a different vocabulary. An older person might not understand a slang word but the younger generation would because they created that expression. With storytelling, it is easier for everyone to understand a word, a sentence or even a situation.

The third reason why you should include storytelling in your content is because it will differentiate yourself from your competition. If you have a blog for an example, you might have the same exact content or subject as your competition. What makes it different and be the reason why the readers will read yours instead of the other ones is because of the stories you will tell. If the content feels lifeless, there’s a lot of chances that your readers won’t read it until the end. You need to put your personal touch to make it interesting and make it stand out from your competition. Your readers might have already read about this subject somewhere else but, they haven’t read your version of it.

Rêve Bodysuits: Where It All Began

People my age often want to create a business because they think that they will get money quickly. What they don’t know is that it is very hard to start one. Customers might not buy your products right away. Maybe you will even lose money at some point. It’s important to not create one to be rich but to do it for the right reason. Why did I start my business? Let me tell you the whole story.

 It was a rainy day during the summer of 2016. I was babysitting at that time and the kids were watching a movie on the TV. I decided to scroll to the We Heart It app. This was a website where you could find aesthetic pictures about anything. I loved going on this website to find outfits ideas or just look through the newest pictures. I came across this very familiar picture of these 2 girls.

Cloe & Elisabeth Picture seen on the We Heart It’s website

At that time, I was in a few Facebook groups. There was this one in particular; named IFQ I think. This was an internet friend’s group from Quebec especially where most of the people there were first of all, teenagers and second of all, were all fans of One Direction. I remembered that picture from someone’s profile (she was very popular) on this group. I was so surprised that I posted a screenshot of the picture & said something like that:

 – “Omg @thegirlsname I found you on We Heart It”.

 I remember someone replying with:

– “That is normal her sister is famous and she has a bikini brand”.

Since I’m a very curious person I decided to look her up. Her name is Elisabeth Rioux and I knew at that time that she had the lifestyle I wanted. I kept following her through the years and she kept gaining more and more success. In 2017, while I was in my last year of High School, I had to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. We had a few  months left before we needed to send our applications to the Colleges, we wanted to attend in the fall time. I was stressing a lot at the time because I wanted to do so many things but none of them were similar. I wanted to study photography, business, fashion or something related to animals. Since I couldn’t choose, I decided to visit our Career Counselor. She made me do a little quiz. I felt like it was an exam where it would decide my whole future: one wrong answer and I would have a totally different life. She did her little magic and told me that I would have the personality & strength to go in business. This is where it clicked. What if I decided to create my own clothing store with my own designs? At this moment my life flipped around: I finally knew what I wanted to do in life. 

Without even knowing it, I grew up in the business field. Since I was maybe 5 years old, my aunt and uncle owned grocery stores. My parents have been working for them as well since then so let’s say that the business world has always been a part of my life. I always looked up to them because they were so successful and were living life to the fullest. They have, of course, worked hard their way up but it definitely paid off. I’ve also always been into fashion because of my aunt. She would always buy me unique clothing and we would always go shopping. When I was about 10 years old, my dad bought me a book where I could draw my own designs on some mannequins. I would say to this day that the drawings & designs were awful but I loved doing that with my friends.

These are the reasons why I decided to create my brand named Rêve Bodysuits in the beginning of 2018. Since then, I’ve had ups and many downs but I’m happy to say that I finally launched in June 2021. People told me that it was a risky move because I didn’t have any experience but what they didn’t know was that I had the strength to learn and do everything by myself. This was a long journey but I know that it is only the start of something great.

Rêve Bodysuits official logo

How to Define Your Personal Brand

People always think that when we talk about a personal brand, it is only businesses related. When in reality, whether you are aware of it or not, we all carry our own. From our personality to our strength, all of these characteristics set us apart from the others. You’re not sure what is the image you’ve been carrying? Here’s some questions you should ask yourself to determine what exactly is your personal brand.

What sets you apart from your competitors?

You need to know what makes you unique in your own way. Personally, I’m a very creative person. Since I was a child, I always had great & unique ideas. I always wanted to be different from the others. I remember when I was 9 years old my teacher, at that time, really loved the Olympics. All of our projects were dedicated to that. We had, at one point, to draw something related to it and my teacher had to choose his favorite. He chose mine because it was really different from my classmate’s drawings. A few weeks after, me and my classmates had to reproduce my drawing on a big poster and my teacher kept it in our class. I also launched my business very recently (June 20^th) and 2 weeks ago I was watching a video on YouTube when I got an amazing idea. Unfortunately, this project is secret right now so I can’t talk too much about it at the moment. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea at first. I asked one of my very close friends what she thought of this idea. She was very impressed and even told me “How do you keep having such great ideas? I would have never thought about something like that”. 

Something else that sets me apart from my competitors is my desire & motivation to achieve great things. I know a lot of people who would have gave up right when it was getting hard. I, for sure, had many obstacles while I was creating my own business but I think it gave me even more motivation to achieve my dream. I’m the type of person that works really hard until I get what I want. I don’t want to live a life I wasn’t meant to do because I was too scared to challenge my own fears. Did I think about giving up? Of course, I did and I think it is normal to question what you do or what you want to do sometimes. But, the most important thing is that, this thought never grew into something bigger.

Even if I stress a lot when I’m about to do something big, it gives me even more motivation to do it right. For some people stress can really be an obstacle. Personally, it makes me perform even better. I went to a music competition in my last year of high school with my classmates. I was playing the flute back then and we had to play 2 different songs in front of 3 judges. In one of them, I was the only one to have 2 solos. I knew that if I missed one note, we would lose points. I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders. A few days before the competition, I was really mad at myself. I wasn’t capable to breathe at the right time because I never had enough air in my lungs. When I performed the solos, it was literally perfect. I never played this good in any of the solos I did prior that competition. I was so stressed but that stress made me perform even better. When I was 11, I also sang in front of my whole school twice. I was stressed before performing back then, but that made me perform even better as well.

What would your colleagues say about you?

This question is great because it can make you see a side of yourself you never thought you had. Personally, I think that my colleagues would say that I’m a really hard-working person. When I do something, especially work related, I always give my 100%. They will always say that I’m very sweet and hopefully funny. I always try to make people smile or laugh at work. Overall, I don’t think they would have anything negative to say about me.

Personal branding might seems hard to think about at first. But the more you dig deeper, the more confident you are about yourself and what you achieved in the past.

XXL Scrunchie & CO, A B2C Business Engaging The Correct Way With Their Audience

XXL Scrunchie & Co is a Business to customer’s brand based in Canada. They sell scrunchies in a bigger size than usual for the people who have thick hair. Some customers don’t necessarily have thick hair but will buy them mostly for the look since they have tons of different designs. They launched their business in the beginning of 2020 and grew really fast due to their success on TikTok.

XXL Scrunchie & CO Logo

XXL Scrunchie is a brand that I look up to for my business when it comes to engaging with their audience. First of all, when it comes to their Marketing strategies, they try to humanize them as much as they can. They post behind the scenes of them working on new designs (every week or every two weeks), they also post packaging videos on TikTok (a few times a week) and even more. I think that right now it is the best way to connect & engage with your audience. Especially in a pandemic, people want to feel and be connected with others. A brand that shares the upside down of owning a business, shows every step of their work and try to respond as many comments as they can will grow way faster than a brand that only make professional posts. In my opinion, that kind of content feels lifeless and I don’t feel like I can connect as much as the other businesses. XXL also engage with their audience in different other ways. Let’s start with Instagram. When they are releasing a new product, they always ask their audience through Instagram stories if they like that specific design before launching it. Not only does it create engagement with your brand but you’re also able to know what design will actually sell and which one would not. They also ask their audience what should the name be for that specific design so it creates even more engagement. People, especially the younger generation, like when a brand hear and include their suggestions.

The New Jasmine Design

I think that their approach works well on Instagram stories, YouTube and Tiktok. When it comes to their Instagram feed, I think they could use a different technique from what they are currently using right now. I noticed that only 20% of their audience engage with them under their posts. In the past month, they have only posted professional pictures of their scrunchies. I think that they should bring the kind of content they post on TikTok and YouTube to Instagram as well. People love watching short videos so I think that if they started to post that kind of content on their page, they would gain even more engagement. Something that could also help them get more engagement on Instagram is to repost some of their audience’s pictures. A lot of people are posting pictures on Instagram of them wearing XXL products. Unfortunately, it seems like the brand doesn’t really engage with them.

No brand is perfect when it comes to a marketing strategy. Some things might work for a business but won’t work for another one. All you need to do is to find the best strategy for YOUR brand at the moment. But, remember that what works right now might not work in the future.

What You Need To Know About Your Target Audience

Businesses often forget to target the right audience when it comes to their marketing strategies. Which is a big mistake because if you don’t target the right audience, no one will buy your products or services. In that case, you might lose a lot of time and money for something that could have been so beneficial for your business. Here’s what information you need to know about your audience to be able to target the right people.

First of all, you need to know the predominant gender, age & personality of your target audience. I will be launching my clothing line very soon so I’m going to use examples for that type of businesses. Our predominant gender are obviously females because we are selling clothing & accessories made for them. Since our designs are also really youthful & colorful, our customers are normally between 16 to 30 years old. When it comes to their personalities, we portray them as outgoing, bubbly and normally very girly. Our accessories have lots of sparkles on them so, our customers wear them when they go out with friends, at parties or any fun places.

The next step is to know or guess their education level & their job status (incomes). This will help you to know which communication style you need to use to capture their attention. When it comes to my business, since I’m targeting the younger generation, most of them are still in school. Some of them might have a job while studying but they are not planning to stay there forever. For that reason, I need to use a simple but catchy vocabulary to be able to get their attention. Since they are also easily distracted online, I need to prioritize pictures & videos over any kind of text that might take more than 5 minutes to read.

You also need to know their relationship status & the lifestyle they are living.  My target audience is very young so, they are not married and don’t have children yet. Of course, there are some that are married and have children by 30 but, these people are not specifically in my target audience. Since most of them still live with their families, they tend to buy more things they don’t necessary need. They don’t have any payments to make (or a few) so they normally don’t think twice before buying something. When I was 16\17 years old, I would buy clothing or accessories I didn’t necessary need because I had the money for it. My audience also tends to like trendy things because they are more self-aware of their image. 

The last 2 information you really need to know about your audience are their Ethnicity\Religion & their demography. You want to make sure that you communicate with the people you can send your product to. For my business, I don’t have any restrictions since I have an online shop and I can ship worldwide. But, for a café or a local shop, you really need to take that into consideration because someone that lives 3 000km away won’t buy from your business. Religion and Ethnicity can also play a big part into someone buying your products or not. I’m selling bodysuits, necklaces & hair accessories so, a veiled woman, because of her religion, won’t buy any of my products.

These are a few things you need to take into consideration to target the right audience. The more information you have on them, the more sales you can get. In the other hands, if you don’t target the right people, you won’t get any sales.