 Berry Digital Solutions' Ryan Berry continues to work closely with Google to help Congress better understand proposed legislation on small businesses across the country.
Congress has recently turned a strong focus towards technology-driven corporations Amazon, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and others with a goal of breaking these large organizations into many smaller businesses. The concept of breaking up large corporations to create a more competitive market can make sense in some industries, but lawmakers are missing the huge negative impact a forced technology break up would have on small business owners. Most small businesses have come to rely on digital products and services to operate and promote their businesses. Many of these products and services, such as Gmail, Google Business Listings, Google Maps, and more, are available at no cost to small businesses. If corporations are forced to separate these products out, they would have to charge small business owners for the products and services in order to maintain them. In addition, many of these free services rely on each other to work properly. For example, Google Maps presents your business address by verifying it in a Google Business listing. A small business owner that maintains its Google Business listing doesn't have to worry about it's web presence across several platforms that utilize the Google Business listing. If those divisions of Google are forced to break apart, small business owners will be forced to carry the financial burden, as well as the burden of managing many different accounts, turning 1 task in several every time they need to make a change. Ryan will spend another week on Capital Hill at the end of this month speaking with leaders and staff in Congress to help explain these issues and offer better support on a true solution to the issues at hand. Data privacy laws are another topic Ryan is helping D.C. better understand. Lawmakers need to understand how daunting it could be for small business owners that will be forced to keep track of multiple data privacy laws passed by individual states, as opposed to one federal law that would be upheld across the country. Reach out to Ryan if you want to be part of the conversation.
 If video marketing isn’t part of your overall marketing plan, it should be. Video is a great way to connect to your audience on a level that you can’t in any other way. It gives you a way to tell your story and show what you offer all while making your brand more relatable and recognizable. You can show your brand identity through video more quickly and efficiently than any other medium.
What is video marketing? Video marketing is using videos to promote your brand, product, services, and more. When used correctly, it can boost engagement on social media, connect you to other businesses, and educate consumers on who you are and what you do. Why is it important? Using video as a marketing strategy can help increase brand awareness, traffic to your website, and sales. With platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube - video is more powerful than ever! It has a way of reaching a much larger audience than more traditional marketing efforts. How do I get started? Once you know where you are posting your video, it is time to choose your content and create a goal to measure your success. Getting started with video marketing is as easy as owning a smartphone. While some platforms require higher quality videos to be effective, social media is a great place to post videos taken on your phone. Your website, commercials, special events/announcements, and video ads are places where you will want to invest in higher quality videography. What should I take videos of? There are so many different routes you can take when deciding what content to capture with video marketing. A few good ideas to start with are:
Hopefully this article has helped you realize how powerful video marketing can be! When you are ready to start your journey into video marketing, give us a call to see how we can help.  Social Media Management is a process of planning, creating, posting, and reviewing content for all social media platforms. Whether you use a social media management company, paid online tools, or manage it on your own, it is important to understand the process of managing social media accounts. Make the most out of your marketing by understanding the ins and outs of social marketing.
1. Planning Planning can be done weekly, monthly, or even quarterly. Looking into things like upcoming holidays, planned sales and specials, or community events will give you a good place to start with your planning. You can also make sure you are offering different types of content during this stage. While there are a lot of things you can plan for, you will want to work in some open space for current content that comes up and for sharing relevant industry content in real-time. 2. Content Creation Once you have a plan of action it is time to create your content. Content can come in many forms such as images, infographics, videos, and blogs. Some of it will be easy to create on your own and sometimes you might need to hire help to create more impactful content. 3. Writing Copy Once you have all your content created, it is time to write copy to go along with your posts. When writing your copy, you want to make it relevant to the content, but also match the tone of your brand. This is also where you will want to include any links and utilize creative hashtags. 4. Scheduling This step is straight forward but there are many ways you can get it done. There are plenty of free and paid tools out there that specialize in making the scheduling of social media content on cross platforms quick and easy. Scheduling out all your content gives you time to focus on the other aspects of your business day-to-day. 5. Interaction This part is where you get to know your customers better and learn more about how they are interacting with your brand and content. Making sure your brand is active in the comments on your social media platform is important. It gives your brand personality and a sense of humanity that won’t come from just posting content. 6. Review Once you have done all the previous steps and the content has all been shared, it is time to look at the data. Figure out what did well, what your customers enjoyed interacting with, and what you can do better next time. Social media is always evolving and making sure you know what is working and what isn’t, will help you stay relevant. If you are looking for help with your social media management, email us at [email protected] or call us at 937-404-1050. We can’t wait to work with you!  If you are a business owner and you have been following our blog, this is your sign that it is time to start a blog of your own! Often, we hear people say that they don’t have time for a blog or think that their audience might not be interested in what they have to say. There are so many great reasons to start a blog and we are going to share them with you!
1. Website Traffic and SEO Blogs are an amazing way to boost your SEO ratings. Text plays a huge role in SEO and including relevant keywords to your business in your blogs will help increase traffic. Often a blog is shared on a variety of platforms because of the type of content it provides. This increases visits to your website and many times those visitors will explore other areas of your website before leaving, giving you more of a chance to catch their attention. 2. To Share Your Expertise Sharing your voice and your experience in the field will build your customers’ trust with your brand. People will start to look to you for upcoming events, news in the field, and even just as a place of entertainment. This will get your website a lot of return visitors which helps show that your blog is a relevant place for customers to find answers to their questions or learn more about your product. 3. Blog Content Can be Repurposed One of our favorite things about blog content is how it can be repurposed for a variety of different areas. Blogs can easily be turned into social media posts, newsletter and newspaper articles, email campaigns, and press releases. Even if the content needs to be shortened you can link to your blog for access to the full article to drive website traffic and provide the best information possible to your customers. 4. It is a Place for Important News to Live on your Website How many times do you have information that you want to share or needs a place to live on your website, but it doesn’t quite fit anywhere? Your blog can be a place to host all those things and gives you links to direct traffic to from other platforms like social media. Blogs are flexible and can provide you with a little more freedom to include information you want to on your website without having to add a new page. There you have it! This list is just a few of the ways that having a blog can benefit your business. Take that leap and start your blog today.  When it comes to free marketing tools, social media is at the top of the list. This holiday season make sure you are reaching your audience in a fun and engaging way. 64% of shoppers are looking to social media for gift ideas, so make sure you are marketing what you have to offer. Whether you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or all of the above, there are many ways you can keep your followers engaged and keep your brand on their mind.
On all your platforms make sure you are updating your profile photos and cover photos to add some festive flair. You can also use your cover images to highlight some of your best-selling products or deals. Once you have your profile ready to go, you can implement some of these fun holiday themed social media ideas. 12 Days of Christmas Let’s say you sell coffee; you could post a new flavor or drink each of the 12 days of Christmas. This idea can be used on any platform or shared to all of them. Not only does it keep your followers coming back to your page each day, but it lets you highlight some of your best products for the season. If you provide a service, you could highlight something you offer each day and possibly even offer a special price for that day. Create and Share a DIY Find a trending DIY idea that fits in with your brand and share an idea of what your customers can do with it. Last year the rage was all about hot coco bombs; but what if you don’t sell food? If your store sells decorative spoons, you can share a DIY on how to dip them in chocolate and toppings to gift to friends and family. You can also print out DIY instructions to provide in store to make the experience cohesive for your customers. This idea might involve a bit more creativity but can have a big impact. Gift Ideas If you are a retail business this will be an easy thing to promote this holiday season. If you offer a service, you might have to get more creative. While you could always just offer gift cards, you could also reach out to other local businesses to collab and create a bundle that includes your service and their product and offer it at both stores. Shoppers love when they can find a grab and go type of present for those last-minute gifts they forgot to buy. Audio Content You can share your Christmas playlists with your followers on social media to get your brand on their mind. If they play it and list to it all day, they will be thinking of you and your product the whole time as well. It also lets you shine a little more light on your brands identity and gives people an idea of your personality. Contests The holiday season is a great time to run giveaway contests. A great formula when running a contest is having a call to action (like or share this post), an incentive (the prize), ending time (this gives people a sense of urgency), and rules and regulations (so people know how to participate). These types of posts give your page a lot of organic reach and you will usually end up with more followers because of them. Interactive Content People love sharing their ideas and opinions on social media. Make it easy for them by giving them content they can interact with. You can post a question asking their favorite holiday movie or song. You can share a popular “This or That” type of post where you list two things they need to choose between (e.g. coffee vs hot chocolate). You can even have a good old fashion trivia post and ask people to answer a question about the holiday season. A lot of these ideas can be adapted to use throughout the year with just a little bit of creativity. Keep your social media content fresh and exciting to attract new customers and keep your current ones engaged. If you don’t have time to handle your social media accounts, give us a call at 937-404-1050! We plan, design, and schedule social media posts taking the stress off you. That will give you more time to focus on the many other things you manage each day while running a small business.  1. Personalization
Every customer wants to feel like what you offer is just for them. Some companies make this part of their overall business model, but there are easier ways you can incorporate this into your marketing. There are many ways that brands already do this including:
2. Video Marketing It should come as no surprise that short format videos are more popular than ever. With platforms like TikTok, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Stories leading the way, these short form videos give your brand personality. Here are a few benefits behind creating video content:
3. Social Messaging Apps Having a chat service that anyone can access, and have direct contact with your business, is something everyone should consider. People trust a business they can contact quickly and receive accurate information from. Here are some reasons to consider adding this to your list of marketing resources this year:
4. Shoppable Posts Scrolling through Instagram and finding an ad that not only targets your interests, but is also easily shoppable, is the best of both worlds. Without having to leave the app, customers can buy your products. Here are some ways the newest trend of shoppable posts might help your business:
5. Virtual Events Since 2020, the world and the way we hold events has been forever changed. Now that people have experienced virtual events, more people are open to the idea of attending them. Here are some reasons why a virtual event might make more sense for your company than an in-person event:
Try including one or more of these tactics in your 2021 marketing efforts and see how your customers respond. Thinking outside of the box is a great way to be noticed in a space that is overwhelmed with content. What other creative ways are you going to market yourself this year? By Chelsea Bray: Elle A. Design
"You have thousands of people at your fingertips. And business networking within your community or your brand is a way to reach so many more you may not have reached before."
Here are a few benefits of business networking on social media:
Check out all the absolute best places we choose to make our small business dreams come true: Krugh Insurance & Sellman Insurance Group for insurance Elle • A • Design for business cards and graphic design Boldman Printing and Main Graphics for printing Streamline Design & Print for signage All About Stitches & More for shirts and embroidery Ascend Consulting for accounting Oak & Ivy for social media marketing and curation Your Hometown Techs for computer repair, videography and cybersecurity Elisabeth Ashliegh Photography for photography Spotted Cow Coffee House for meetings, conference rooms (and caffeine!) Massage on Monument Square for stress relief! Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, Logan County Chamber of Commerce, Champaign Economic Partnership, and the West Liberty Business Association for support, promotion, networking and so MUCH more! We know that personally knowing the people behind the businesses we are buying our products and services from creates a connection that no big business can compare to, and we love to relationships that we have created over the years with these awesome business owners, and many more we rely on for other day-to-day items (that we'll have to highlight later! ;) Feel free to ask us more about any of these amazing local business and organizations or leave your favorites in the comments! "Buying local has benefits beyond mere convenience. When you support local business owners, you get a better level of service, as well as helping make your community a better place to live." 
Have you rented a booth for the Champaign County Fair but don't now what to do when you get there? Or are you looking for a way to be represented without attending? The fair can be an awesome place to reach a large audience but when you're competing with other businesses it's important to standout! If you aren't sure where to start, we'd love to help you! Can't attend? No problem, we've got you covered! Let us advertise for you using one of our We Spend Local screens at the fair! Make sure your marketing strategy includes the fair! If the words "marketing strategy" has you stressed, let us handle the guess work & get you to where you want to be!
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