Our Content Marketing Checklist for 2025
It’s the start of another new year, and for us marketing professionals, that means planning season.
Now that you’ve slept off the holiday hangover (literally or figuratively, I won’t judge), it’s time to think about the year ahead, and what that means for your content marketing.
I’ve put together this content marketing checklist for 2025, filled with ideas and insights for how to make the most of your efforts this year.
1. Develop content themes
Depending on your business or industry, this can be an easy and energizing place to start your planning, or the complete opposite – but either way, it is always one of the most important.
Do you have any big plans for the year? New products launching? A rebrand or major campaign? A key event or season that drives a lot of what you do? These are great top-level priorities for your content. Not only are they the things you’ll want to talk about most, but they can become inspiration for broader supporting themes to fill your year of content.
For instance, your new product launch can complement a broader theme of innovation or quality. Your end-of-season sale could be supported by a broader theme of providing value. Or you could pair the launch of a capital fundraising campaign with evergreen content themed around impact and community.
All of this is a lot more challenging, however, if your business or organization doesn’t have much new or exciting to talk about. Without big campaigns, sales or announcements, it can feel tough to keep things fresh and relevant.
But there’s good news – if you aren’t finding content inspiration by looking within your company, you can look outside. Even when we aren’t changing, the world around us certainly is. Look around your industry for changes and trends to respond to. Consider your customers and think about what is changing in their world. Get curious and try zooming in and out on different aspects of your business, industry, customer base, or even the broader economy and world.
2. Identify key topics and keywords
Once you have your themes outlined, it’s time to think about key topics and keywords to use in your content marketing.
Starting with the themes you’ve established, some of these can (and probably will) also be terms and phrases that are common and specific to your industry. Put on your SEO hat and think about how people might be searching for the kind of content you’re making, and use variations on those topics and keywords to try and capture that in a thorough way.
To really go above and beyond with your keywords, you should also be doing some research. Get onto the various platforms where you are publishing your content, follow some accounts within your industry doing good work, and look for things like:
- What topics or keywords are getting good engagement on other accounts?
- Is there a new trend or topic in your industry that you’ve missed?
- Are there any emerging topics within your content themes that you should include?
3. Research your audiences
A common mistake I see in marketing is people not researching their audiences often enough.
So you already defined your audience back in 2008? That don’t impress me much. (Sorry, Shania Twain…)
Like I said in our first point in this content marketing checklist – even if your organization hasn’t changed, your customers, donors or clients might have.
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This doesn’t need to be done every year, necessarily, but I do recommend keeping this on your checklist every year, and at least considering if your audience needs an update. Ask yourself (or your team, or client) the following:
- Is our audience aging?
- Do we have a new, younger cohort aging into our product/service/audience?
- If our audience has grown, who are the new people?
- If our audience has shrunk, are there people we want to win back?
- Where is our audience online, and has that changed?
That last one is probably the most important, and the one that could be changing most often. One of the best content marketing tips I can give you is to research your audience’s media diet – meaning where they are consuming content, what kind of content they’re consuming, when, and how much.
There are many ways you can learn these things about your audience, from surveying your existing customer base, to social media analytics, to research done by other firms available online.
Once you’ve answered these questions and done some research, you can better focus your content themes, and prioritize the channels and formats that best suit your content strategy.
Which leads us to…
4. Prioritize formats and channels
Hopefully you already have some idea of what platforms, content types and formats work well for you and connect with your audience. But once you’ve done the work in the checklist items above, you may find yourself wanting to shift some effort from one platform to another, or consider adding a new channel or type of content.
Remember, there are many types of media you can include in your content marketing. To name just a few:
- Blogs
- Video content
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Case studies and white papers
Something we’re thinking about this year is the value of the “Twitter alternative” platforms, Threads and Bluesky, but for you it may be something different.
We're here to help
If you’ve read this far, you clearly see the value in being proactive and intentional about your content marketing for 2025. But maybe your team doesn’t have the time, capacity or skills to really make the most of your content marketing.
We’re here to help. Book a discovery call today to see how our team of content marketing experts can help you make the most of your content and digital marketing this year!
The Future of Starling Social
TL;DR: Starling Social is carrying on.
From a group of people who write for a living, figuring out what to say in this blog post is hard. One thing we know for sure is that people have questions about what is happening with the company and our team.
Alyson’s passing was not something we ever imagined we would have to consider.
We don’t have all of the answers — we don’t know what we don’t know — but here’s what we know right now.
How We Made This Decision
Our entire team, including Alyson’s partner, came together after her passing to figure out what the next steps looked like. We unanimously agreed that continuing Starling Social was the best way to continue Alyson’s legacy.
Just like a murmuration of Starlings, Alyson Shane built a team that moves in sync, adjusts to each other's actions and stays aligned with the bigger picture.
Her bigger picture was to support good businesses and non-profits doing great work in their communities. Having a person with a big heart at the head of Starling is what made it so successful. Our team all genuinely loves what we do and wanted to continue to do great work for our clients. That part was an easy yes.
What Current Clients Need To Know
First off, we want to thank our clients for their understanding, patience, and support during this time. Our team is so grateful that our clients’ trust has remained with their account managers, and the processes and procedures that Alyson had implemented.
Our clients can rely on the same dedicated service and exceptional quality of work they’ve come to expect from us.
We are mourning Alyson’s loss, but doing this work, having a creative outlet and supporting our clients is something we can continue to feel good about moving forward.
Who Is Filling Alyson’s Position
Alyson’s strong need for clear, documented communication has kept everyone aligned, even after her passing. Together, we have been able to navigate, collaborate, and now move forward with an addition to the team who will fulfill Alyson’s duties and add services — and a new perspective — to benefit our clients.
We are welcoming a new Director to the team: Luke Thiessen. Luke is a longtime friend and collaborator who has been involved with Starling since its founding. A graduate of the Creative Communications program at Red River, he has spent more than a decade creating content, directing communications strategy and leading teams across a variety of industries and sectors. He is taking over leadership of the Starling Social team and looks forward to working with our clients as we enter this next chapter for the agency.
Our team wholeheartedly agrees that Luke is the natural fit to continue growing Starling. His skillset and experience complements our team, and as Alyson’s close friend, he knows and supports the direction and goals of the company. We feel good knowing another person with a big heart, and the same values, is continuing her legacy.
We are looking forward to adding Luke’s skillset, sense of humour, and musical acumen to our murmuration.
Honouring Alyson
Alyson used Starling Social to support women and BIPOC companies, and the LGBTQAI2S+ community where she could. Those will be the initiatives we continue to support.
The University of Winnipeg Foundation has set up the Alyson Shane Memorial Award in Rhetoric. They aim to raise $35,000 to support underrepresented students studying Rhetoric, Writing and Communications at The University of Winnipeg.
She was also nominated for the Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and they will be honouring her memory and contributions to the community at the event.
We will continue to share stories about Alyson, always be inspired by the drive and creativity she shared with her community, and produce work she would have been proud to have her name attached to.
Our Services
Our entrepreneurial crew of self starters works together to help our clients grow their businesses. Here’s a reminder of what we will continue to offer, and what’s new.
Digital Marketing Strategy
- Onboarding: This process allows us to act as an extension of your brand online.
- Transparency: Cloud-based tools keep you updated on every campaign detail.
- Monthly Reports: Detailed updates on performance, ROI, and strategic recommendations.
- Quarterly Meetings: Regular meetins to align goals and objectives.
Social Media Marketing
- Content Strategy: Data-driven insights make sure your posts reach your target audience.
- Content Publishing: Professional scheduling and promotion of your social content.
- Audience Engagement: Strategic interactions to grow awareness and connections.
- 24/7 Account Monitoring: Always stay on top of DMs and sales opportunities.
Copywriting
- Blogging: SEO-optimized blogs to drive traffic to your website.
- Email Marketing: Campaigns, newsletters, and nurture streams tailored to your needs.
- Website Copy: Refresh or overhaul your site with impactful, polished content.
- PDFs + More: Custom promotional materials for any campaign.
Social Media Ads
- Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and Pinterest Ads: Expertly managed to amplify your digital marketing efforts.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
- Search and Display Ads on Google and Bing: Drive traffic and boost sales with precision-targeted campaigns.
Web Development
- Website Development: Create or revamp your site to showcase your brand.
- Branding and UX Design: Responsive, user-friendly websites highlighting your products and services.
- Logo Design and Brand Identity: Build a memorable visual identity that reflects your brand’s values and stands out in your industry.
- Shopify Setup and Management: Optimize your online store for sales and efficiency.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Improve your search rankings and visibility.
New Offers
With our new addition to the team, we’re offering a small but beneficial expansion to our current offers.
Media Outreach & Publicity
- Press Releases: Creating newsworthy stories to gain media attention.
- Media Relations: Building relationships with journalists and influencers to boost coverage.
- Event Promotion: Generating buzz for your events through strategic media campaigns.
Grieving
Grief can be overwhelming, especially over the holiday season. The Mood Disorders Association of Canada has free resources available for people who have lost a loved one and need support.
Please take care of yourself. If you or a loved one is struggling, you can access Shared Health Manitoba’s Mental Health & Wellness Resources here.
If you have questions about our team, the future of Starling Social, or digital marketing, you can reach us here.
Meet Luke Thiessen
Let’s just start by saying the quiet part out loud: we did not expect that a straight, cis, white, Christian male would be the perfect person to take over Alyson Shane’s duties at Starling Social. But, after getting to know him, we’re confident you’ll be as happy about it as we are.
“Happy” is a strange word to use because we are all having a lot of feelings right now. We’re figuring out it’s okay to feel a little happy mixed in with everything else. Maybe the more correct word is “right.” Luke coming on board feels like the right decision for Starling Social.
Who Is Luke?
The first thing you need to know about Luke is that he is starting a Taylor Swift drag cover band with John Luxford. Okay, maybe that’s not the first thing you need to know, but it is important information, and we will be sharing show details when it becomes available.
Luke is a long-time, trusted and close friend of Alyson’s. The two met during a work placement at Direct Focus, where Alyson was working at the time, and then reconnected on Twitter — back when it was still a good place to be.
Wanting to get into similar work, the two became fast friends, bouncing ideas off of each other over a craft beer and cheering for the other’s successes.
You may have seen Luke at one of Manitoba’s many music festivals or even playing in his own band! He is drawn to folk, Americana and blues music — but he also loves a good bop. Luke’s other hobby is brewing beer and he’s a proud member of the Winnipeg Brew Bombers.
Work Life
After graduating from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2014, Luke secured a job at his second internship, Golden West Radio — a network of (mostly rural) radio stations with a couple of spots based in Winnipeg.
When you hear Luke’s voice, you immediately agree that it belongs on the radio, so it was no surprise that he was asked to start part-time and cover the news. That quickly turned into a full-time position on Classic 107 and across other Golden West radio stations.
Luke says doing the news was never his dream, so he transferred to another station and secured a spot as an afternoon drive show host. In that position, he led the content creation and the on-air team. That included things like coming up with partnerships for advertisers, delivering on-air content, running a show, and coming up with timely and entertaining things to talk about.
Interested in doing and learning more, Luke started doing freelance communications and publicity work with a local record label.
“After about a year I took the leap, quit my day job and started doing freelance full-time.”
Most of his clients were in the arts and music scene, but he also did communications work for non-profits and small businesses. In the initial years of Starling Social, Alyson hired Luke to manage some content marketing projects.
Luke made a great impression in the communications field and was offered a job at Siloam Mission as the Manager of Communications, where he spent the next 6.5 years.
At Siloam Mission, Luke helped grow the communications and marketing department from a team of one to a group of four. They handled everything from public relations to digital marketing to fundraising materials.
“Over that time, we brought a lot of that work in-house or changed our vendors to local vendors, like Starling Social. Whatever we couldn’t do in-house, we wanted to at least have close to home, so that’s when we started working with Starling.”
If you didn’t know, Siloam Mission became one of Starling’s clients in 2022.
In November 2023, Luke left Siloam Mission to take a break, do some work in the craft beer world, and start his own freelance practice. His business was just starting to come online when Alyson passed.
If you’ve interacted with our team before, you’ll know we’re a bunch of self-starters with good intentions. Through our grief, we each contributed to creating spreadsheets of outstanding tasks, making tough calls, and writing whatever needed to be written. We felt it was important not to add more to John’s plate, for our clients to have no interruptions in service, and to treat this company with the same respect Alyson showed us. After a couple of weeks and some discussion, a team member phoned Luke and pitched the idea of him coming on board.
“It never occurred to me that this was something I should think about doing. But it immediately clicked for me. We had a discussion, and I thought, as long as everyone wants this to happen and feels the same way, then this feels like such a natural fit.”
While we all mourn the circumstances that brought us here, we also feel Luke has the experience, skills, and values we want to run Starling Social — and the extroverted personality to grow it. His personal and working relationship with Alyson gave him insight into how the company is run, and we are grateful he has stepped in to fill this position so Starling Social can continue to thrive.
Joining Starling
Luke’s goal is to add to the company, not change how it's run. He wants to see what else he can bring to the table for clients to make their experience even better.
“I am looking forward to digging back into the work that I’m passionate about. To meet new clients and get to know their stories and their people. I’m a people person. I’m an extrovert, and that gives me energy.”
Luke loves working on big-picture ideas and creating new strategies. As an “ad guy", he’s driven to create campaigns that tell the story of a product, brand, project, or capital campaign. He loves getting into a brand or campaign with a great story to tell.
Publicity and media outreach is a large piece of Luke’s background and a new service he is proud to offer Starling clients.
“I've always been so proud of Alyson and the work she’s done at Starling. It’s been amazing to watch the business grow and, by extension, see her clients do well. This opportunity just feels really exciting and I’m honoured to be able to continue that and do some of that same great work.”
If you have questions for Luke, or are interested in ramping up your digital marketing game in 2025, contact us here.
7 Foolproof Content Promotion Strategies That Really Work
Spoiler alert: helping your audience find your content is harder than ever.
Search engines like Google are increasingly using tactics to keep searchers on the results page and off your site, and social media has become so crowded that whether someone sees your post or not can often feel like a shot in the dark.
And while there are other ways to get your content in front of your target audience (of course) a lot of them tend to fall into one of two categories:
- Somewhat effective, like posting a blog to your social media profiles and encouraging your followers to click through and read it.
- Too complicated, like creating detailed reports or doing interviews that might net you some traffic, but are unrealistic to do every month unless you have a dedicated team to manage it for you.
I’ve been publishing content online for 23 years, so I’ve seen lots of trends come and go, but there are some tactics that get results time after time - and that’s what this post is about.
A note before we go on: these strategies only work if your content is entertaining, informational, and valuable. People only want to read, share, and backlink to content that’s genuinely worth sharing, so don’t dial it in!
Now let’s get into it:
1. Email your audience
I often say that “getting someone’s email is like getting the spare key to their house.”
Think about it: even if you’re promoting your content on Google or social media, you’re still just hoping that your content will be seen by the right people and that they won’t simply scroll on by.
But someone who subscribes to your email list has already shown that they’re interested in what you have to say, and you can send it to them in a place that only a few can access: their inbox.
For example, when we publish a new blog post I include it in Starling Social’s weekly digital marketing newsletter. Not only does our content get a traffic boost from our subscribers clicking through to read our articles, but anecdotally I’ve noticed that our blog posts often rank higher in search results because search engines recognize the boost in engagement from the traffic we’re sending, too.
The trick here is to publish regularly and cover topics that you know your audience are interested in. We send a digital marketing-focused newsletter, so it’s easy to assume that the people who sign up to read it are interested in the topics we cover here on the blog.
We also publish regularly (two times a month, on average, but sometimes more). This gives us lots of opportunities to drive traffic back to our content.
2. Repurpose your content
This is also known as a “bricks and feathers” approach to content promotion.
I’ve gone into this tactic in more detail in an earlier post on the blog, but the idea is to take a longer piece of content (like a blog post or a longer video) and break it up into smaller chunks, like social media posts.
So this blog would be a “brick” and the “feathers” are the posts and videos I’ll be creating after I’m finished writing this to promote it (and what’s inside) on our socials. Or, if I’ve been featured on a podcast (a “brick”) I’ll pull the audio and make Reels and TikToks with it (“feathers”).
An important note: one mistake I often see people making is just resharing the original piece of content on social media - but this is a mistake for a few reasons:
- Social media algorithms “throttle” posts that have links in them because they have an incentive to keep users on the platform, not send them away.
- People can’t interact with a link, so turning it into a video they can watch, an Instagram carousel they can swipe through, or even resharing it as a LinkedIn article they can access without leaving the site is a better way to encourage them to engage with the content you’re promoting.
3. Tap your team
92% of consumers trust word of mouth and UGC (user-generated content) more than other forms of traditional brand advertising, which makes sense: our brains are hard-wired to trust other humans (compared to a “faceless” brand).
So instead of just posting to your company page and socials, ask your team or employees to re-share your content on their own timelines, too.
An important note: just blind re-sharing won’t have the same impact as when someone takes a few minutes to write a thoughtful post about why the content has value.
This is especially important for company leaders and executives to do this since they tend to have large audiences on platforms like LinkedIn. At Starling Social, our favourite approach to helping clients do this is by creating Mad Lib-like templates their team can use to take the guesswork out of what we’d like them to say.
Once the post has been shared, encourage others in the company (other executives or employees) to like, comment, and re-share it to their own profiles to boost its visibility even higher.
4. Guest blog (but with grace)
You may have been the recipient of one of those spammy “hey I want to guest blog for you” emails before - and this isn’t the right approach.
Most people only offer to guest blog in order to earn backlinks, which means the content tends to be poorly-written and often doesn’t have any original ideas of value.
Instead of cold-emailing people, look for industry publications with a large audience and only submit a guest post when you have a unique or thoughtful perspective to share. Then (and only then!) should you link back to your content that’s relevant to what you’re saying.
Another approach is to publish your own post first, then reach out to other publications in your industry and explain in your pitch how you’d like to expand on that topic.
That way you’re not just repeating yourself; you can earn a reputation as an industry thought leader and earn those valuable backlinks to your content.
5. Partner with influencers or other brands
Working with influencers or other parallel brands in your industry is an easy way to help your content get discovered by more people. There are three main ways to do this:
- Hosting webinars
- Doing podcast/video interviews
- Doing blog post interviews
You can either work with someone in your niche and invite them to be interviewed by you, or to partner with you on a project, or you can develop relationships with others who will feature you.
I can personally attest to how effective this strategy is. I’m interviewed on a podcast every 1-2 months, on average, and I deliver a workshop or webinar at least every 2 months in partnership with several nonprofits and brands in parallel niches to my own.
This not only helps me promote Starling Social’s content to a wider audience, but also positions me as a subject matter expert which reinforces the value of the content I share.
6. Cross-promote with other newsletters
Remember how I said “getting someone’s email is like getting the spare key to their house”? Well getting featured in someone else’s newsletter is like that, but on steroids. Here’s why:
- People love when their content is promoted
- People tend to reciprocate when you do them a favour
If you promote someone else’s content to your audience, they’re likely to reshare yours, too.
A few years ago I started reaching out to industry associations and nonprofits asking them if they have events or content they’d like Starling Social to feature, which has landed our blog posts in over a dozen of their monthly newsletters to their members as a result.
The trick here is to lead with offering, not asking.
6. Run paid ads
You probably knew this would be in here somewhere.
Most people don’t share sales-driven content unless it’s really valuable, so often paying to show your content to the right people is an effective way to help the right people see it - this is because ad targeting allows you to specify exactly the type of audience you think will want to see it.
An important note: knowing where to run your ads is a key part of this tactic. LinkedIn is the best place to share B2B (business-to-business) content, and Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are better for B2C (business-to-consumer content).
If you think about why people use these platforms, this makes sense: most of us don’t go on TikTok or Instagram when we’re thinking about work or business, whereas 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions.
So if you’re going to invest your marketing dollars in running ads to promote your content, make sure you’re promoting it to the platforms where your audience is spending time.
8. (Bonus!) Re-promote your old content
Do you have an older post that’s still relevant? This is known as “evergreen” content.
Evergreen content = content that focuses on a topic that’s already relevant, regardless of the season or news cycle. The term comes from the evergreen, a plant that stays “ever green” all year round (get it?)
If you have evergreen content lying around, link back to it in new content you publish or reshare it using the tactics outlined in the post above. Sometimes just the process of resharing it and sending more traffic to the page can improve your search engine rankings.
Start promoting your content today
Using these strategies can help you get more visibility for your content, but remember: your content needs to be engaging, entertaining, and valuable.
(Hint: don’t just churn out content using AI and hope for the best!)
If the thought of creating high-quality content sounds overwhelming, you’re in the right place because we can help! Starling Social is led by a seasoned content marketer (me) and made up of a team of creative and high-quality copywriters who have the experience to make your content shine. If we sound like your dream copywriting team, book a discovery call today!
Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2024: Trends, How to Prepare, and How to Sell More in 2024
If you’re gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’re not alone. According to Retail Dive, nearly 60% of consumers are already scaling back on their regular spending habits so they can take advantage of all the sweet, sweet deals this shopping season will offer up.
In fact, 76% plan to maintain or even increase their spending this season, making Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) the perfect time to sell more of your products and services.
The BFCM weekend is the biggest shopping event of the year, but a successful sales campaign is more than just adding some discounts to your website — you need to stay ahead of the curve and include the latest trends into your marketing strategy.
Below are some of the most important tips you need to know to sell more, increase customer loyalty, and attract new buyers to your brand. Let’s explore:
Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024: Trends and Predictions
From artificial intelligence to Buy Now, Pay Later options, here are three trends we anticipate will shape the holiday shopping experience this year.
1. Plan for early promotions and extended sales
According to Experian, almost one-third of holiday sales took place in October 2023.
This trend probably isn’t going anywhere, especially since more brands are extending the BFCM into the following week (or even the week before).
If you’re looking to fire up your sales early, consider doing “Pre-Black Friday” promotions and leaning into “Cyber Week” deals for items sold through your website.
2. Offer flexible payment options at checkout
One trend we’re seeing is the rise of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options at checkout.
If you’re been on websites like Wayfair or Shein lately you’ve probably already seen these options, which allow customers to pay in instalments or even defer the full payment amount to a later date.
This tactic is especially useful if you sell big-ticket items like furniture, clothing, expensive jewelry… you get the idea. You can offer these incentives by integrating tools like Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm into your e-commerce platform, and once they’re on your website, make sure to highlight that these options are available in your marketing push, too.
3. Lean into AI-driven customer support
According to research done on BFCM spending last year, AI likely contributed $51 billion to online global sales, so we can expect to see this trend of using AI-powered tools to continue this year, too.
Some ways you can integrate AI into your BFCM marketing planning include:
- Using chatbots to address customer’s questions and issues in real-time.
- Personalizing product recommendations.
- Doing pricing research against your competitors (tools like Prisync are great for this!)
- Using tools like Klayvio to create customized, AI-driven email marketing campaigns.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024: Tips for Success
Here are some of the hottest strategies to help you level-up your BFCM sales success this season:
Start building your marketing plan early
Like, right now! (We can help with this.)
Start promoting your BFCM offers on your social media and through your newsletter as soon as Halloween is over. Some ways you can build excitement include:
- Countdowns
- Previews and sneak peeks
- Early access deals for subscribers and returning customers
- New customer incentives and savings
- Referral codes to existing customers spread the word about your products
Lean into “Flash Sales”
Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective tactics to enhance conversions, both during BFCM and year-round.
Use countdown timers on your website and in your marketing emails to remind customers how much time is left for a deal.
Staggered promotions that evolve throughout the day can also encourage repeat visits and incentivize customers to add more to their cart, too.
Make your brick-and-mortar experience memorable
Lots of customers still love the feeling of an in-person shopping experience, especially when it comes with special incentives.
Host exclusive in-store events with offerings like early access to discounts or special product launches (potentially with gifts).
Even small special details, like free samples or gift-wrapping, can help get more people through your door.
Offer mobile-exclusive deals
Do you have a mobile app? Then don’t miss out on the chance to attract more downloads and purchases through it by offering app-exclusive deals.
Encouraging customers to buy through your app also allows you to establish a direct connection with them and can open up other marketing opportunities like push notifications on flash sales and limited-time offers.
Use “Retargeting” to reconnect with customers
It’s normal for customers to browse your site without buying anything, especially during BFCM when they may be comparing options across multiple websites.
“Remarketing” is the process of reconnecting with people who’ve visited your website through Google Ads and Meta Advertising, so those pants someone viewed yesterday will show up in their Instagram Stories or at the top of their Google search feed, which might bring them back to buy.
Are you ready for BFCM 2024?
BFCM 2024 is set to be another blowout shopping season, so start your planning now and use these tips to make sure this BFCM is your most successful one yet!
If you need help getting your marketing plan in order, we can help! Drop us a line and let’s build a winning BFCM strategy together.
Meet Alyson Shane
If you’re here, you probably had some type of interaction with our Founder, Alyson Shane. Whether you read Starling’s newsletter, follow our social media pages, heard her on a podcast, know her personally, or had a chance to work with her — you know this woman means business.
Not in the traditional sense, though. While she has the traits of a classic type-A person, Alyson puts her whole heart into every part of her life. When you ask her about her interests, you can expect to have at-length conversations about everything she loves, because this woman does her research and cares a lot. The belief that details matter extends through her work, hobbies, and relationships — which leaves everyone in her wake knowing whatever it is, if it involves Alyson, it’s taken care of.
If you’re considering working with our team or just want to read more about one of the marketing powerhouses in Winnipeg, stick around to find out what Alyson is all about, dive into Starling Social’s past, and see where we’re headed in the future.
Personal Life
Alyson embodies the spirit of Wolseley (Winnipeggers, iykyk). She loves to garden, read, and ride her bike around the city to visit local shops, breweries, and The Forks.
She also makes art in her spare time.
“I draw, paint in acrylic and gouache, and I do art journaling where I “freeflow” write out my thoughts, then explore whatever comes out by covering them with paint, collage, and other mixed-media materials. I picked this hobby up during the pandemic, and it’s done wonders for my mental health.”
She’s also a gamer. Alyson worked at EB Games (now GameStop) in her late teens and likes to unwind by playing the latest Zelda title or weird indie games like Night In The Woods, Boyfriend Dungeon, and Untitled Goose Game.
(If you haven’t played that last one, she can’t recommend it enough!)
Work Life
Before starting Starling Social, Alyson worked in Accounts Payable, if you can believe it. That cemented in her mind that she did NOT want to work in accounting. Much to her parents’ disappointment, she quit her “safe” government job to pursue a degree in Rhetoric, Writing & Communications from the University of Winnipeg.
After that she worked at a handful of local marketing agencies around the city (some big, some small) in various roles related to social media content creation, copywriting, and account management.
“While I’m grateful for the time I spent working those jobs, they all taught me a lot about the kind of work environment I wanted to work in (hint: it wasn’t any of those), as well as the kind of work/life balance I wanted to have.”
Starting A Business
A writer at heart, Alyson leveraged her passion and turned it into her marketing superpower.
Starling Social grew out of a handful of copywriting and social media contracts she took on in 2014, but within a year, Alyson had taken on so much work that she realized she needed to start building a team to help her manage the workload.
Fortunately, her boyfriend, (now husband) John, already had over a decade of experience running multiple businesses, so she was able to lean on him for advice and guidance — and still does! She says she’s lucky to be able to “nerd out” about her business with him.
To help with the transition, Alyson read a lot of books and articles about leadership, management, and process. Some of her biggest influences have been “The Marketing Agency Blueprint” by Paul Roetzer (which she actually read while she was working for an agency, which might have been a sign in hindsight), “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, and “Crossing The Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore.
In case you haven’t picked up on it, Alyson loves working on projects that require strategy and research. Social media audits, developing campaigns, and putting together documentation to pass along to the team are her favourite things to do.
“I had a really good manager at my last job before I founded Starling who taught me the importance of having everything written down in advance — this means I’m able to clearly articulate my thoughts and break down complicated concepts quickly and easily so the team can execute them flawlessly.”
After 23 years (and counting) of publishing content online, she still loves researching and staying at the bleeding edge of the industry, so any opportunity to dig into the latest trends, changes to social platforms, and strategies feels more like fun than work.
Favourite Projects (So Far)
What Brings Us Here
We partnered with the National Film Board on a project that featured stories behind Indigenous-led community action in Winnipeg.
WBUH was a companion piece to the award-winning short documentary film this river, created by author and filmmaker Katherena Vermette and NFB producer Alicia Smith, and featured profiles of volunteers of Drag the Red and Bear Clan Patrol, both grassroots MMIWG and MMIP movements in our city.
We developed a social media strategy, consulted on content, and managed all aspects of the social media component of the project. Reading the personal stories of participants in the project was eye-opening and sometimes gut-wrenching, and she still considers it to be one of the most important and impactful projects we’ve worked on to date.
This Place: 150 Years Retold
We partnered with Portage & Main Press/HighWater Press to develop the launch strategy for “150 Years Retold” a graphic novel anthology which features Indigenous authors and illustrators and explores Canadian history through the perspectives of Indigenous peoples.
We created a really robust campaign that included developing all assets and the strategy for social media, multiple contests organized in partnership with Indigenous creators across Canada, blog posts, interviews, and cross-promotional content with the authors and artists, email marketing campaigns, and ads for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It was a huge project and a lot of work, but not only did it lead to a multi-year partnership with the fine folks at PMP/HWP, but we also helped the book achieve #1 in Native Canadian Literature and #2 in Canadian Literature through pre-orders on Amazon.
Ad Campaigns for Siloam Mission
Alyson is a values-driven marketer and makes it a priority to work with nonprofit organizations locally and across Canada with the goal of helping our communities, so she’s really enjoyed this ongoing partnership with the folks at Siloam Mission.
She actually used to volunteer in their kitchen before Starling Social and related activities (teaching, speaking, etc.) started to take up too much of her time. Being able to give back to a nonprofit doing important work in her city by developing and managing their social media and Google Ads campaigns has a very special place in her heart.
“THE FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mystery”
This was one of the weirdest projects we’ve worked on and Alyson was over the moon to take it on!
Adam from Pucking Fuppet Co. reached out to her after she wrote a review of his one-man show for The Winnipeg Fringe. Not only did our efforts result in several sold-out shows, but the media we got to use to promote the show was super weird and quirky (aka, right up her alley).
As a former theatre kid herself, Alyson loves getting to support Canada’s arts community and was able to bring what she learned through Starling’s partnership with Adam and his team to a “Facebook Advertising for Performing Arts” course for ArtsBoost, a nonprofit who supports performers across Canada. How cool is that?!
Growing Starling Social
Looking back over the last ten years, the thing Alyson is most impressed with is her team.
Alyson never imagined herself as a person who would thrive as a manager, but her team helped her build a company culture that she’s very proud of, where we all feel heard, supported, and can collaborate on any kind of project. She says that isn’t just because of her!
“The hardworking people who sit down at their desks for Starling’s clients every day always bring 110% and I can sleep easy (okay, easier) at night knowing that I have a team of whip-smart humans behind me every step of the way.”
Alyson’s Four Biggest Business Changes
However, there are many things to be proud of about the company’s evolution over the last decade. Alyson shared the four biggest changes in her business since its inception:
Being Choosy About Our Clients
When agencies are just starting out, there can be a lot of pressure to bring every client possible through the door just to generate revenue, but finding clients who are a cultural fit is so, SO important.
If a potential client starts sending up red flags in the initial discovery call, I will talk to the team about how they feel, get their read on the situation, and if necessary, we make the decision to turn down the business together.
(Aka, we do a “vibe check” together.)
Refining Our Systems and Processes
My poor team hears me say, “if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist” so often that I’m sure I must drive them crazy, but I live and die by this mantra.
Figuring out how to communicate, operate, and collaborate as a 100% remote agency has its challenges, of course, but this approach has paid off for us in spades, especially when Starling was first starting to scale up.
Now we have a documented, repeatable, and scalable process for every type of client, project, and deliverable, which not only increases our clients’ trust in us, but helps us communicate and be more transparent with them than if we were just winging it all the time.
Honing Our Values
When someone goes into this line of work, it’s usually because they like writing, or have an interest in creating content - and that’s great!
But being a business means we also have a responsibility to give back to our community and do good, which is why we’ve started sponsoring events like the QNET Leadership Conference, tournaments for the Epilepsy and Seizure Association of Manitoba, and the Winnipeg Women’s Community, among others.
Growing my team also means I have more bandwidth to give back professionally, too. I’ve been a volunteer with SPARK!, a local nonprofit who connects small NPO’s with businesses who offer their services pro-bono* since 2018, I’ve worked with Manitoba Music as a mentor helping emerging artists, and sit on the board of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, to name a few.
My team is also dedicated to supporting our community, and makes it a priority to work with and support LGBTQ2SIA+, Métis and Indigenous-owned businesses.
* I was awarded Volunteer Manitoba’s “SPARK Pro Bono Consultant Award” in 2021 for my volunteer work, which was a real honour.
Changing With The Industry
When Starling first started out we offered a pretty narrow slate of services: copywriting, social media management, and email marketing.
We started with these because they were my biggest strengths, but as the digital marketing landscape has changed over the years we’ve expanded to include social media ads, website development, video content development, branding, and Google Ads (PPC).
Some of these new services were introduced to meet our clients’ evolving needs, but generally speaking I started looking for team members who could meet these needs because I saw that we’d be pigeonholing ourselves if we weren’t proactive about growing and adapting as the industry changed.
Now, this doesn’t mean I’m the expert in all of these fields! I can read basic HTML and CSS, and I know just enough about Photoshop, InDesign, and how to run a Google Ads campaign to be dangerous, but I prefer to work with people who are experts in their respective fields rather than under-delivering (see my point below about knowing when to scale!)
Advice for New Digital Marketers
Know When To Scale
One of the biggest mistakes that new business owners make is not recognizing when they need to scale.
“I get it! Moving from a ‘solopreneur’ to a ‘manager’ can be an intimidating transition, and I definitely didn’t go into this thinking that I was going to lead a team.”
Alyson holds her work (and that of the people who work for her) to a very, very high standard, so when she realized that she couldn’t keep executing at the level she expected of herself, she brought on others who could help her maintain it.
Learn to Write Properly
Don’t rely on AI tools like ChatGPT to do your work for you!
I mean it: there’s a lot of low-quality content being churned out right now; before that was because a lot of people entering into the industry didn’t take the time to hone their craft, and now it’s because increasing amounts of people are cutting corners by letting an AI write their content for them.
Using AI seems like a good strategy at first, but it’s not a good look when your content sounds hollow and doesn’t have the unique, creative touch that the human brain brings to the art of writing.
The Future of Starling Social
In five years, Alyson hopes to be doing exactly what she’s doing right now: running a marketing agency that does work that she’s proud of and working with clever, passionate people.
“I love the work that I do and while there are always ups and downs, I’m legitimately excited to sit down at my desk every day.”
As a passionate traveller, where in the world she’s sitting at that desk might change over time. It’s one of the reasons why Starling is, and will always be, 100% remote.
“Flipping open my laptop or turning on my computer is still an exhilarating feeling — after 10 years in this business, all I can hope for is many, many more.”
If you have questions for Alyson, or want to talk about your next digital marketing project, you can contact her here.
25 Instagram Reels Ideas to Grow Your Business
A common theme between most of our clients is that they don’t want to film Reels. And, we understand the hesitation. We’re also working from home, often in our cozy clothes, and our Reel filming days require a lot of prep. Organizing Reel days for our clients typically include a lot of poking (ok, nagging), to get it done, but it’s part of the job, and the payoff is worth it.
That’s straight from the horse's mouth, people! Reels do better than other content.
We Hear This All The Time…
“I don’t have fancy equipment to make high-quality videos”
You don’t need it.* Period.
Instagram wants to show you what you’re interested in seeing. Nowadays, people are sick of the “picture-perfect” videos and endless highlights of your business, so if you want to connect with your audience, the best way to do that is through authenticity and transparency. That means showing the messy middle.
Okay, if your lighting is truly terrible, consider grabbing a $30 ring light on Amazon and that will do just fine. Otherwise, natural light can do wonders.
Mosseri even has a recent Reel titled Production value doesn’t matter and says, “Too often creators are worried about production value…If you’re trying to create relatable content, production value is almost like an anti-goal.”
@haleyybaylee, the kind of problematic, yet hugely successful content creator (you know, the one who was dressed as Marie Antoinette at the Met Gala and told people to “let them eat cake,” among other things) was featured on this Reel and said she posts videos that she would send to her group chat.
Putting aside the few TikTok and Instagram scandals she’s been involved in, what she’s doing to grow her following is working.
*This section is not for you if you’re promoting a luxury brand. In that case, you do need fancy equipment to make high-quality videos.
“I don’t have a lot to say”
You don’t need to say a lot! Instagram wants short-form videos. Mosseri even spelled out why in another recent Reel:
When you watch long-form videos, you see less of other content. That means you spend less time liking, commenting, saving and sharing. Since Instagram wants you to spend more time on their app, and engage with more content, long-form videos would work directly against their objectives.
The head of Instagram said specifically, “Instagram will not focus on long-form video.” Their goal is to connect you with friends and help you explore your interests — usually through short-form videos.
This is a hot take from Instagram, considering TikTok is expanding into longer videos.
“I don’t want to show my face”
Instagram posts with faces get 38% more likes than those without. Do with that information as you will, but you also don’t HAVE to show your face.
There are plenty of faceless accounts, and you can show behind-the-scenes things like how your product or service works, showing processes, customer reactions, time-lapses, etc. The options are endless.
“I don’t know what to post”
That’s why you clicked on this blog post, silly! When we show up to Reel filming days with our clients, we have Reel ideas prepared, props and scripts ready, and it’s a fun and easy day.
However, you might be doing your own socials, and we’re here to help with ideas for that, too.
25 Reel Ideas
Show Your Workspace
Anyone can participate in this! From at-home desks to warehouses to restaurants. These behind-the-scenes glimpses remind your audience of the work that goes into your business.
Step By Step Videos
These are great for recipes, companies to make items, or “how to” videos. Having a visual element makes “doing the thing” more accessible.
Showcase New Products
Get creative with how you show off your new products. Search the Explore Page for inspiration — this creator has the right idea!
A Day In The Life
There are many examples of these type of Reels, but if you’re camera shy, this is a good faceless option!
Testimonials
Have your clients share short video reviews of your product. If your clients are camera shy, ask them to write a testimonial and you can share them in a similar style as this creator.
Dance
Choreographed dances aren’t really our thing, but they are never leaving the app. If you can master the moves, shake what your mama gave ya!
Introduction
Introductions and reintroductions are all over the gram. It’s a chance to give new followers a better idea of who you are.
Meet the Team
These don’t need to be complicated. Making a meet the team post into a Reel, instead of a photo, is a more engaging way for people to get to know your staff.
Time Lapse Videos
Thanks to these apps, we’re all impatient. That’s why it’s so satisfying to see a project happen from start to finish in less than 90 seconds.
Celebrate a Milestone
Always celebrate your wins! Plus, telling your audience about your significant milestones is another way to add credibility to your business. Is this post, Alyson shares some valuable lessons she’s learned in the last 10 years of owning a digital marketing agency.
The “Making Of” Videos
Jenna Rae Cakes is a great account to go to if you want to see how to make their delicious desserts. Will we ever make a fancy cake? No. Do we ever skip a video? Also no.
Share Your Favourite Products, Services, or Tools
You’re the expert in your niche. Your audience would love to know what your favourite things to use are.
Unboxing Videos
Small businesses have to order products all the time. This allows plenty of opportunities for unboxing videos, like this one from WillowPress.
Explainer Videos
We’re just going to tag Molly PcPherson’s entire account because her whole page is explaining PR crisises. However, you can explain your products or services, or even your company culture.
Educational Videos, But Make It Fun
The TSA account is hilarious, but also shares information that travellers would definitely find useful. Check out this example from a couple of years ago, but their account is awesome in general.
Copy Trends
Don’t hop on every trend, but if it works with your brand, definitely do it. Here’s a current popular sound that most businesses can relate to.
Remix Reels
Trigger warning: this one is heavy. It’s also relevant and important to women's health.
We will give a special shoutout to the KamalaHQ account because they are working at lightning speed to stay relevant on all platforms. Truly unbelievable work.
Tell A Story
The Fingernails Are Pretty account slays at keeping things genuine. Her followers love her because she shares her products in an unconventional way, and it’s relatable to a lot of people because *depression*.
Share Bloopers
Blooper Reels are so funny. If you want to make your audience laugh, consider sharing the slip-ups it took to get to the finished product.
Give Tips
We love a Canva hack, but any quick tips that an average person could benefit from are so valuable. We’ve learned so much on these apps over the years. Thanks for not gatekeeping!
Before and After
You can add two photos, put a transition between them, add audio and boom - a very satisfying before and after video is born.
Answer FAQs
This creator shares FAQs from her audience, giving some consistency in her feed, and it helps build her reputation as an industry leader.
Expectations Vs Reality Videos
You know what we’re talking about with these videos. So, we thought we would share the human version of Instagram vs reality videos with the Australian comedian Celeste Barber, who has built her page around the idea.
Share a Collage
The base of a lot of Reel templates are photos strung together to a sound. This style of Reel tends to get high views because they are short, and the photos go by quickly, forcing people to watch more than once to really see the photos.
The best, and worst part about Instagram is that it’s always evolving. It’s also a space full of creative people, so it’s a constant flow of ideas and inspiration that you can mimic in your Reels strategy.
Remember, the goal is authenticity and connection, so if any of these don’t feel true to your brand, don’t do it. But before we send you on our way, here’s a few other things to consider when posting Reels.
5 Hot Tips for Posting Reels
1. Think about making videos, and content in general, that people would want to send to their friends.
Instagram prioritizes Reels based on what it believes a viewer will be most likely to interact with, and uses a set of signals to help rank content. Sends are high on the Instagram ranking list — it means it’s content you want your friends to see.
2. Keep experimenting
This seems to be Mosseri’s consistent tip for people who are in View’s jail. Keep trying new things to see what your audience engages with.
3. Don’t post Instagram Reels that are low-res, blurry, have watermarks from other apps, or reposting others content.
These types of Reels will be deprioritized — meaning nobody will see your content.
4. Cover photos make a very minimal difference in Reels performance.
They are only seen on your feed, or on the Explore Page. Most of your reach comes from the Feed or Recommendations. So, if cover photos are something that’s taking up a lot of your marketing time, maybe it’s time to reevaluate.
5. Use Audio on your Reels
Audio makes the Reel more engaging. When your content is immersive, you are more likely to get more attention, which helps get more likes, comments, and a higher reach.
Using Audio puts your content on the Audio’s page. People go there for inspiration, where they could come across your Reel, giving you an even higher reach.
DYK 50% of people have their audio turned on when using the app?
As you can maybe tell, we love making content. Whether it’s writing copy, coming up with campaign ideas, or creating a Reels strategy tailored to your business — it brings us joy.
Let our team write, schedule, and promote your social media content for you. Contact us here for a free quote.
11 Spooky Social Media Strategies for Halloween 2024
Do you remember the feeling of scoring a full-sized chocolate bar on Halloween? What about putting together a great costume that you were excited to show your friends? If you didn't love the costumes, you surely liked missing a couple hours of school to watch a movie and eat snacks.
People love Halloween because it’s a chance to be creative, indulge in your favourite treats, bond with your community — and if you’re into scary stuff, get an adrenaline rush.
Luckily for brands, Halloween campaigns can evoke a sense of nostalgia, give people a chance to indulge in their product or service, connect with the community associated with your brand, and get a dopamine hit when they hit the purchase button.
If you want your brand to recreate these feelings, associate them with your brand, and have people hit purchase on your website, here are 11 spooky social media strategies for Halloween 2024.
Use Influencer Marketing + Hop-On Trends
People like feeling “in-the-know.” Last year, everyone was on the Wednesday Addams train for Halloween, and this year, you can expect to see a lot of Beetlejuice costumes, decorations, campaigns, etc.
Just look at the makeup brand about-face, who used influencers and trends to make the “Beetlejuice Lipstick Hack” go viral. Here are just a few of the hugely famous TikTok stars who hopped on the trend.
Jeffree Star's is definitely worth a watch because it’s a fail, but still great marketing!
Start Your Campaign Early
Halloween shopping has already started. I’m sure you’ve noticed decorations and treats lining the shelves as early as September 1. Luckily, 64% of consumers don’t start shopping until October. And when people start shopping, they really go for it. Canadians were expected to spend $1.64 billion for Halloween in 2022, up 28.4 percent year over year. Most of that is spent on costumes, candy and pumpkins.
If your Halloween campaign hasn’t started yet, now would be a good time to get going, ramp up the ads the first two weeks of October, and set an alarm for early next September to get going on Halloween 2025!
Use Previous Insights
Although we are “word people,” data has its place in your campaigns.
- Do you need to try some new strategies?
- Which platforms had the most engagement?
- What did your competitors do well last year?
- Which days had the most traffic on your website?
- Is there anything you need to advertise more this year?
Leverage what worked and toss what didn’t. Use these insights to create impactful content that resonates with your audience.
Update Your LinkTree
This might seem like an easy one, but you would be surprised how many brands have out-of-date links on their social, or website. The internet moves fast, and there is always something one click away to distract your audience. Make it simple for your potential customers to get to your order page.
Integrate Omnichannel Experiences
Omnichannel marketing is connecting your marketing experiences across platforms and offline.
Customers should be able to see the same key messages whether they visit your brick-and-mortar locations, open your app, or see your ads on social media.
Burger King has nails the omnichannel marketing each Halloween by merging their digital marketing and in-store experiences.
There are several examples, but one of our favourites is the “Come as a clown, eat like a king” campaign. Burger King combined several marketing tactics to get people talking about their brand and into their restaurants.
It was released in 2017, making Pennywise the Clown a popular costume. They took advantage of making their rival the villain and invited people dressed up as clowns for a free burger on Halloween.
They encouraged guests to tag them on social media, released a video, promoted the event in-store, and advertised on their app.
Offer a Halloween Discount
With the cost of everything skyrocketing, discounts and promo codes are a great way to attract more customers.
Discounts can create excitement, engage people, and help you stay competitive. Plus, fun Halloween promotions done well can boost brand awareness and make customers more interested in your business.
Collaborate with Other Companies
Mutually beneficial business relationships allow companies to share resources, ideas, expertise, and best of all, better products and services for the customers.
Collaboration also helps brands reach new customers by combining each other's audiences.
We love this example from last year: Reese’s x Nextdoor.
The two companies came together to make a “Treat Map” that informs neighbours who is celebrating Halloween and how. Basically, it lets parents pick the best places in the neighbourhood to go trick or treating and see spooky decorated homes.
Share Behind-The-Scenes Content
You don’t need to go crazy to capitalize on Halloween marketing. Join in the fun by letting your audience in on your company culture. It builds a connection and adds a little fun. Think of planning a day for team members to dress up, carve pumpkins, do a pet parade, or share baked goods and share it on your social channels. Add engaging features like polls and questions to boost your engagement.
Create a Game or Challenge
Who doesn’t love a good game? We’ll never say no to a bingo card — especially if there is a reward.
Hosting challenges like these is a smart way to engage your audience and get them in a Halloween mood. Find something your target would like to do, and doesn’t require a lot of work. Think: filming a Story and tagging you or dropping off a colouring sheet at your location.
This example is a little mean, but people LOVED Jimmy Kimmel’s “I Ate My Kids’ Halloween Candy” videos. At least there is a call to action to donate candy to the Ronald McDonald House at the end.
Halloween Hashtags and Keywords
Make your content easily searchable this Halloween with keywords on your website and specific hashtags on your social pages.
Join in on popular hashtags like #Halloween or #SpookySeason, and ones that match your products like #HalloweenCandy for grocery stores . Here are some tips if you create your own:
- Stay relevant to your brand
- Make it easy to remember
- Focus on one message
- Keep it short
Get people involved by encouraging them to share their own content and use your brand’s hashtag.
For SEO, brands should add Halloween-related words like “costumes” or “spooky decor” to their website. Writing blogs with fun ideas, like “Top Halloween Party Tips,” can help them show up in searches. And don’t forget to use Halloween keywords in product descriptions to draw in more shoppers.
Make Memes
You better believe we “like” every meme we see about Spirit Halloween. Whether it’s about taking over a failed retail space or making fun of a profession, you’ll start to see these memes popping up around now.
Funnily enough, we don’t think Spirit Halloween had anything to do with these jokes, but leaning into them has made them culturally relevant, and hey, who doesn’t want free advertising?!
They even made a blog about their favourite fake costumes last year.
Halloween marketing can be challenging for brands who don’t see how the celebration ties to their business objectives. It can be as simple as building your relationship with clients by sharing behind-the-scenes footage, growing brand awareness with influencer campaigns and giveaways, or seeing direct sales with promotions and discounts.
Our social media marketing service provides you with a content strategy, using data to make sure your posts are shared at the right time, and are seen by your target customers. We write, schedule, and promote your social media content for you and generate awareness about your brand by engaging strategically with your ideal customers.
Never miss a campaign opportunity again! Get in touch with us here.
Meet Hayley Dobson
Hayley Dobson is a childless cat lady. And if you know any childless cat ladies, you know that they have many interesting hobbies, take on the coveted role of fun aunt, make the best pet-sitters, and they basically live a more elevated lifestyle of someone in their twenties who can do what they want — except they aren’t broke and have a fully developed brain.
The other thing about women with fully developed brains is that they like to use them. If there’s one thing I know for sure about having a relationship with Hayley, you don’t want to get into a debate with her because you will certainly lose. This woman is informed, clever, and confident — as she should be. She can convince anyone of anything, which makes her an incredible and captivating storyteller.
When Hayley joined the Starling team, it was a blessing for us because of her personality and intelligence, and she became a great fit for our clients because she’s a funny, hard-working perfectionist.
Personal Life
Hayley “levels up” everything she is involved in. Her interest in yoga and dance led her to complete her 500-hour RYT certification, which she has been working towards for seven years.
“I'm really interested in movement as a healing modality and a path to more authentic expression.”
If you ask Hayley to do something, she gives it 110% every single time. One of the best examples of this was turning a simple bridesmaid speech into a personalized rap at a friend’s wedding — a performance the crowd will never forget.
She loves attending and running community events, and if you ever meet her at one, you’ll be able to find her because of a loud outfit (think light-up cowboy hats or eccentric costumes to fit any theme) and the gathering of people who naturally are drawn to her.
Whether you credit this to a trait she’s born with or the time, effort and space she’s given to working on herself and the connection between mindfulness and creativity — she’s that girl.
Work Life
Hayley started her marketing career over 10 years ago while she was completing her communications degree at Carleton University. During that time, she worked for the Student Association as Vice President of Student Life. She put her skills to use planning the student social calendar for the year, putting together events like orientation week, huge concerts, and homecoming. This is where she fell in love with experiential marketing and hosting events.
After graduation, Hayley started working in community at Lululemon in Vancouver.
“That's where I learned the power of meaningful experiences and how they support in building community, creating emotional impact, and driving awareness and brand resonance.”
She went on to work in sales and marketing in the cannabis industry, which taught her about working in regulated environments and building an industry from scratch.
Why is Storytelling Important for Businesses?
For many people, the ultimate decision about what product they buy or service they invest in comes down to whether the business or individual offering it aligns with their values. Storytelling allows consumers to learn more about what you believe and why you do what you do. It's the heartbeat of your marketing, and weaving the right story brings magic and life into your brand.
Storytelling helps businesses connect with their audience on a deeper level. When you are choosing a lunch spot, do you choose the sandwich shop you know nothing about, or the one where the owner went to Europe to learn culinary techniques and bring it back to your town because they have a passion for sharing good food? Having a back story just makes your purchase feel more special.
It’s about sharing values, experiences, and emotions. When you tell your brand's story—how you started, the challenges you faced, or even your quirky office culture—you make your business relatable and memorable.
Hayley is always interested in how brands show up outside their brick-and-mortar locations. She enjoys finding the stories within clients’ work and sharing them in an engaging way.
How Can Businesses Create Community Around Their Brand?
There's something special about providing people with the opportunity to have an experience with your brand - to create a memory.
Hayley says the best way to create community around your brand is to offer people meaningful ways to engage with it both within your brick-and-mortar and/or online space and outside of it.
Utilize experiential marketing in a way that works for you, whether that looks like hosting an event, going live on Instagram to answer questions or provide information, or offering surprise and delight moments in your store. Collaborate with other businesses who believe what you believe to help grow your reach. And most importantly, make people feel valued and cared for.
These actions create an emotional impact that drives awareness and brand resonace,
If you’re looking for someone to tell your stories and add personality and colour to your digital marketing strategy, reach out to us here.
How to Do Content Marketing Beyond Blogging: Podcasts, Webinars, and More
Written by Starling Social President, Alyson Shane
I’ve been publishing content online since 2002 and have watched firsthand as the world of content marketing has changed dramatically in that time.
Once upon a time we were all just a bunch of bloggers in the “blogosphere” listing our favourite sites on our blogrolls, but over the past decade-and-change the way and place we publish and share our content with our audiences has become almost unrecognizable from where I first started out.
So today I want to dig into the evolving landscape of content marketing: where it’s been, where it is, and where it’s going — all do you can develop a strategy that connects you with more of your target audience than ever before.
Let’s get into it:
Why Does Content Marketing Matter?
Content marketing describes a type of marketing that “involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services” (thank you, Oxford Dictionary).
It’s also the most powerful way to continually reinforce your brand’s message, values, and convey the ways your products and services make your customer’s lives better.
But don’t just take my word for it, according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), marketers have been seeing success with content marketing across the board.
Here are a few stats to back that up:
- 84% credited content marketing with creating more brand awareness.
- 74% said it helped generate more leads and higher demand.
- 63% cited its role in nurturing subscribers, audiences, and leads.
- 58% confirmed that content marketing directly generated sales and revenue, an increase from the previous year’s 42%.
It’s clear that finding more ways to share your content with your audience has a net positive effect on your business, but before we dive into all the avenues available to you, let’s quickly review how we got to where we are:
The Evolution of Content Marketing
1994: The First Banner Ad
All the way back in 1994, AT&T ran a banner ad on HotWired.com and earned a click-through rate (CTR) of 44%. These results have the industry completely shooketh, and established a precedent for how companies would start turning to the internet to connect with their customers.
1995: Amazon Introduces Customer Reviews
Weird to think that Amazon has been around this long, but it’s true!
Allowing customers to say whatever they wanted about the products they were buying through the site created avenues for two-way conversations with brands that didn’t exist before.
It also opened up the floodgates for new opportunities for companies to gather real-time feedback from customers before social media exploded onto the scene.
1996: Microsoft Launches “NetMeetings” and Webinars
Although the term “webinar” wouldn’t be popularized until 1998, the first public “web conferences” were already gaining popularity.
Since then we’ve seen the introduction of more sophisticated tools like Google Meet, Zoom, GoToWebinar, ClickMeeting, and more.
1998: Google Changes Everything
Google and its PageRank algorithm is arguably one of the most important developments to ever happen to the internet.
By prioritizing a website’s “relevance” it changed websites from static spots online, to places where businesses regularly began to develop and publish content to improve their digital exposure, setting the groundwork for the SEO sector and brand visibility online.
1999: RSS Feeds
RSS feeds scrape content from sites you connect it to, allowing you to access information in one handy dashboard as soon as it’s published.
These tools didn’t become popular until the early 2000’s, but stayed the dominant way people accessed content until social media essentially ate its lunch.
2000: Google Launches AdWords
Google AdWords (now Google Ads) launched in 2000 and allowed advertisers to pay to show their ads at the top of search engine results pages (SERPS).
By 2002, they were paying by click, which is where the expression pay-per-click (PPC) originates from. This technology allowed marketers to display relevant ads only to people who were searching for exactly what they were selling, making this one of the most powerful forms of online advertising.
2003: WordPress Launches
Internet veterans like me will remember sites like Geocities, LiveJournal, and Blogger.com that came before WordPress, but this tool and its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface democratized the ability for anyone, anywhere, to make a website.
2004: Podcasts Enter the Scene
In his 2004 piece for The Guardian, Ben Hammersley described this new audio format as “downloadable as you wish” with Apple launching iTunes 4.9, which had podcast support, the following year.
(Fun fact: 2005 was when I started listening to podcasts!)
2005: YouTube Launches + “Inbound Marketing” Becomes a Thing
The first YouTube video was posted by one of the platform’s founders. Called “Meet Me at The Zoo” it was a potato quality, 19-second video that would go on to revolutionize how marketers and content creators alike published and shared content.
That same year HubSpot coined the term “inbound marketing” in an effort to show that producing relevant, and helpful material was the best way to build relationships with customers.
2007: The iPhone Launches
This is arguably one of the most important developments of the internet age.
The iPhone and its groundbreaking interface allowed marketers to develop content specifically for mobile devices and paved the way for the app ecosystem we have today.
2007: Facebook Launches Business Pages
The introduction of Facebook Business Pages allowed companies to publish content on the platform that would show up in users’ feeds, giving them a whole new way to connect with their audiences on social media.
2011: BuzzFeed Explodes
BuzzFeed was ranked the 13th most popular blog in the world in 2011 and made engagement tactics like quizzes, calculators, and YouTube videos cross-posted to the site incredibly popular.
2012: Facebook Buys Instagram
Facebook paid around $1 billion for Instagram that year and changed the way social networks relied on paid advertising and influencer marketing, with Sponsored Posts being introduced in 2013 and putting a focus on collaborative content with users on the platform.
2013: Google Hangouts On Air Make Webinars More Mainstream
The introduction of this service allowed users to broadcast seminars, live sessions, and conferences to massive audiences for free, allowing the webinar industry to reach a global audience.
2013: Snapchat Introduces SnapChat Stories and Vine Launches
Snapchat’s Stories needed to be timely, relevant, and in some cases participatory because they would disappear after 24 hours, and laid the groundwork for a trend in content marketing that would eventually be copied by every single other social media platform.
That same year Vine popularized the publication of short-form content, eventually inspiring TikTok and Instagram Reels.
2016: Google Introduces Mobile-First Indexing
In response to the quickly-growing number of people using mobile devices, Google announced that it was shifting to “mobile-first” indexing, forcing marketers to focus on content that was optimized for smaller screens and adapting their SEO strategies accordingly.
2018: TikTok Launches
TikTok exploded onto the scene in 2018, paving the way for marketers to reach a global audience of yonder people and catapulting short-form video into the mainstream to be copied like platforms like Instagram (2020), YouTube (2021), and Facebook (2022).
2020: The Rise of Zoom
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the rise of Zoom as the go-to platform for businesses, schools, and regular people during the pandemic.
Webinars had been around in the pre-pandemic years, of course, but being forced to pivot to online-only events helped solidify this type of content into the mainstream.
2022/2023: AI On The Rise
AI started to become mainstream with the launch of ChatGPT 2022, but it wasn’t until 2023 when OpenAI released GPT-4 in 2023 that it really became a mainstream tool.
Now, AI tools like ChatGPT and others (we list some here) are changing the way content is created more quickly than ever before.
Types of Content Marketing
Blogging
Of course I had to start here, with the “OG” type of content marketing.
Blogs (like this one) are still among the most important types of content marketing for several reasons, including:
- Building trust in your brand. Being able to articulate what you know about your industry and educate people about it shows that you know what you’re an expert in your field.
- Increasing website traffic. Blogs are still an important part of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Not just because you can include important keywords in your content, but also because blogs engage readers for longer periods of time than landing pages, which increases SEO value.
- Driving conversions and sales. When someone lands on your website and reads your blog, it helps them learn more about you and what you offer, which increases the likelihood that they’ll reach out.
- Increasing link-building efforts. Linking to authoritative sources in your blog content, like a product manufacturer, page that has data to back up your writing, or other “reputable” website helps improve your search engine ranking.
- Repurposing blogs for social media. You’ve probably noticed that we share 2-3 posts on average per blog post to our social feeds, not to mention when I promote them on my personal LinkedIn. This is a “bricks and feathers” approach to content marketing that works really well, and reduces the burden on you to constantly come up with unique content for every social media post.
But enough about blogs. Let’s explore some of the other types of content marketing you should be leaning into:
Video Content
Vidyard found that the average video retention rate for videos across the board is 54%, making this type of content one of the most impactful kinds you can create.
Video marketing is continuing to evolve, but some of the most popular types of videos you can create are:
- Instagram Reels
- Facebook Reels
- TikTok videos
- YouTube Shorts
- Livestreams
The possibilities here are really endless. You can create tutorials on YouTube; short, snappy TikToks and Reels with trending audio and sounds; and everything in-between.
One example I really like is Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign that launched back in 2010. The videos featured actor Isaiah Mustafa (aka the "Old Spice Guy") in a variety of weird and silly situations speaking directly into the camera in an exaggerated way.
This campaign re-positioned Old Spice as a brand that didn’t just cater to older men, but was attractive to trendy, young people, too. The campaign was so successful that Old Spice’s sales skyrocketed by 107%.
Infographics
Humans have been creating infographics since the pre-internet period, but this type of content is especially useful at conveying information online since users’ attention spans sit at around 8.5 seconds.
While infographics can be effective, there are a few ground rules to keep in mind:
- Plan your infographic and use it to build on the narratives you’re already telling with your other content.
- Use headings and subheadings to increase “readability” and keep users engaged.
- Lean on tools like Canva, Piktochart, and others to easily create scroll-stopping graphics.
- Consider making infographic templates for yourself to make creating new ones fast and easy.
Podcasts
Like I said above, podcasts have been around for ages, but only recently have become one of the more popular ways for brands and marketers to get their message out there.
Podcasts can help you reach a wider engaged audience who are interested in your industry and expertise. Some of the ways you can use podcasts are:
- Interviewing guests, experts, and influencers.
- Sharing insights on trends, news, and spicy topics.
- Increasing your visibility through platforms like Apotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
- Build a loyal and active community around your brand.
Protip: If you don’t have time to host your own podcast, look for podcasts in your niche and pitch them on being a guest on the show. I do this all the time and get a lot of traction and awareness about Starling Social from my interviews!
Memes
If you follow us on social media, you know we love a good meme.
Memes are a form of cultural expression that spread through variation and imitation, and can be images, videos, text, music… you name it, these days it’s probably meme-able.
Memes are effective forms of content marketing for the following reasons:
- They showcase your brand personality, voice, and sense of humour.
- They relate to your audience and their challenges and pain points.
- They engage with your audience and encourage them to like, comment, and share your posts.
- They show you’re “tapped in” to current cultural trends and have your finger on the pulse enough to create entertaining, relevant, and engaging content.
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Webinars
Webinars are a great way to generate brand awareness because they position you as a subject matter expert and give you a platform to educate and empower your audience.
They also reinforce you as a subject matter expert who can easily talk about specific topics, ideas, or strategies related to your industry.
Because webinars are delivered digitally, they also allow you to reach a broader online audience of people who might not have heard about you otherwise.
You can host your own, or partner with other brands and organizations to develop and deliver your webinars to a specific audience. For example, I’ve delivered dozens of webinars as a facilitator with Volunteer Manitoba since 2017, which has allowed me to connect with nonprofit organizations in my community who I might not have been able to reach otherwise.
eBooks
Before you clutch your pearls at the thought of writing a whole book, think of it as long-form blog content instead.
eBooks aren’t novels; they’re multi-page ads for your business that reinforce you as a subject matter expert and empower potential clients and customers with information that builds trust.
One great example is The Experience Optimization Playbook by Optimizely, which explores optimization strategies from Fortune 500 companies.
Case Studies and Whitepapers
Case studies can be time-consuming to create, but are a great way to tell a story about how your product or service helped your customers achieve a specific outcome or goal.
With this type of content, your audience can see a customer’s journey from start to finish and see similar use cases in real life.
A great example from LinkedIn shows how HSBC used LinkedIn’s marketing tools helped them diverse the way their marketing content is presented:
While whitepapers and eBooks are both examples of long-form content, they’re not the same thing.
Whitepapers are more densely-packed with information and data than most eBooks, and are detail-oriented where eBooks are more high-level.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC is one of the easiest ways to gather content that tells a positive story about your brand, your products and services, and how they help real-life people.
People respond more positively when they hear stories told from people like them and can turn viewers into customers much more quickly than a lot of other content types out there.
One example of UGC I really like is from Doritos. They launched a site called Doritos Legion of Creators where users can create branded images and videos that Doritos shares on their social media accounts.
Users have come up with all sorts of content, from snack-centric weather forecasts, to pictures of themselves laying back in piles of nachos, and more. The company keeps creators engaged by creating challenges like the “oddly satisfying challenge” which invites creators to create oddly satisfying videos for the chance to be featured on their Instagram Stories.
Testimonials + Reviews
Like UGC, testimonials and review-based content are generated straight from your audience and their experiences with your products and services.
This type of content is especially impactful if your business is operating in a niche market, because testimonials can act as overviews of what sets you apart from the competition.
You can see examples of how bigger companies like Nike use them, too; their Instagram feed is pretty much all celebrity endorsements and reviews.
Grow Your Business with Content Marketing
Content marketing doesn’t just drive immediate results; it’s a long-term investment in your company’s future and brand awareness goals.
By creating relevant, valuable, and high-quality content, you can attract new customers to your business and keep them coming back for years to come - and the best part is that you don’t need a huge marketing budget or team to do it!
