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.
Alysonâs passing was not something we ever imagined we would have to consider.
We donât have all of the answers — we donât know what we donât know — but hereâs what we know right now.
How We Made This Decision
Our entire team, including Alysonâs 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 Alysonâs 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 clientsâ 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 theyâve come to expect from us.
We are mourning Alysonâs 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 Alysonâs Position
Alysonâs 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 Alysonâs 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 Alysonâs 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 Lukeâs 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. Hereâs a reminder of what we will continue to offer, and whatâs 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 brandâs 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, weâre 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 Manitobaâs 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
Letâs 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 Shaneâs duties at Starling Social. But, after getting to know him, weâre confident youâll be as happy about it as we are.
âHappyâ is a strange word to use because we are all having a lot of feelings right now. Weâre figuring out itâs okay to feel a little happy mixed in with everything else. Maybe the more correct word is âright.â 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 thatâs 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 Alysonâs. 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 otherâs successes.
You may have seen Luke at one of Manitobaâs 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. Lukeâs other hobby is brewing beer and heâs a proud member of the Winnipeg Brew Bombers.
Work Life
After graduating from Red River Collegeâs 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 Lukeâs 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.
âAfter about a year I took the leap, quit my day job and started doing freelance full-time.â
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.
âOver that time, we brought a lot of that work in-house or changed our vendors to local vendors, like Starling Social. Whatever we couldnât do in-house, we wanted to at least have close to home, so thatâs when we started working with Starling.â
If you didnât know, Siloam Mission became one of Starlingâs 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 youâve interacted with our team before, youâll know weâre 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 Johnâs 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.
âIt 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.â
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
Lukeâs 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.
âI am looking forward to digging back into the work that Iâm passionate about. To meet new clients and get to know their stories and their people. Iâm a people person. Iâm an extrovert, and that gives me energy.â
Luke loves working on big-picture ideas and creating new strategies. As an âad guy", heâs 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 Lukeâs background and a new service he is proud to offer Starling clients.
âI've always been so proud of Alyson and the work sheâs done at Starling. Itâs been amazing to watch the business grow and, by extension, see her clients do well. This opportunity just feels really exciting and Iâm honoured to be able to continue that and do some of that same great work.â
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.
Iâve been publishing content online for 23 years, so Iâve seen lots of trends come and go, but there are some tactics that get results time after time - and thatâs 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 thatâs genuinely worth sharing, so donât dial it in!
Now letâs get into it:
1. Email your audience
I often say that âgetting someoneâs email is like getting the spare key to their house.â
Think about it: even if youâre promoting your content on Google or social media, youâre still just hoping that your content will be seen by the right people and that they wonât simply scroll on by.
But someone who subscribes to your email list has already shown that theyâre 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 Socialâs weekly digital marketing newsletter. Not only does our content get a traffic boost from our subscribers clicking through to read our articles, but anecdotally Iâve noticed that our blog posts often rank higher in search results because search engines recognize the boost in engagement from the traffic weâre 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 itâs 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 âbricks and feathersâ approach to content promotion.
Iâve 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 âbrickâ and the âfeathersâ are the posts and videos Iâll be creating after Iâm finished writing this to promote it (and whatâs inside) on our socials. Or, if Iâve been featured on a podcast (a âbrickâ) Iâll pull the audio and make Reels and TikToks with it (âfeathersâ).
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 âthrottleâ posts that have links in them because they have an incentive to keep users on the platform, not send them away.
- People canât 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 youâre 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 âfacelessâ 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 wonât 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 weâd 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 âhey I want to guest blog for youâ emails before - and this isnât 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 doesnât 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 thatâs relevant to what youâre 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 youâd like to expand on that topic.
That way youâre 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. Iâm 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 Socialâs 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 âgetting someoneâs email is like getting the spare key to their houseâ? Well getting featured in someone elseâs newsletter is like that, but on steroids. Hereâs why:
- People love when their content is promoted
- People tend to reciprocate when you do them a favour
If you promote someone elseâs content to your audience, theyâre 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 theyâd 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 donât share sales-driven content unless itâs 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 donât go on TikTok or Instagram when weâre thinking about work or business, whereas 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions.
So if youâre going to invest your marketing dollars in running ads to promote your content, make sure youâre promoting it to the platforms where your audience is spending time.
8. (Bonus!) Re-promote your old content
Do you have an older post thatâs still relevant? This is known as âevergreenâ content.
Evergreen content = content that focuses on a topic thatâs already relevant, regardless of the season or news cycle. The term comes from the evergreen, a plant that stays âever greenâ 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: donât just churn out content using AI and hope for the best!)
If the thought of creating high-quality content sounds overwhelming, youâre 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 youâre gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, youâre 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. Letâs 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 isnât going anywhere, especially since more brands are extending the BFCM into the following week (or even the week before).
If youâre looking to fire up your sales early, consider doing âPre-Black Fridayâ promotions and leaning into âCyber Weekâ deals for items sold through your website.
2. Offer flexible payment options at checkout
One trend weâre seeing is the rise of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options at checkout.
If youâre been on websites like Wayfair or Shein lately youâve 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 theyâre 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 customerâs 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 âFlash Salesâ
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 donât 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 âRetargetingâ to reconnect with customers
Itâs normal for customers to browse your site without buying anything, especially during BFCM when they may be comparing options across multiple websites.
âRemarketingâ is the process of reconnecting with people whoâve 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 letâs build a winning BFCM strategy together.
Meet Alyson Shane
If youâre here, you probably had some type of interaction with our Founder, Alyson Shane. Whether you read Starlingâs 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, itâs taken care of.
If youâre 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 Socialâs past, and see where weâre 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.
âI draw, paint in acrylic and gouache, and I do art journaling where I âfreeflowâ 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 itâs done wonders for my mental health.â
Sheâs 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 havenât played that last one, she canât 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 parentsâ disappointment, she quit her âsafeâ 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.
âWhile Iâm 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 wasnât any of those), as well as the kind of work/life balance I wanted to have.â
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 sheâs lucky to be able to ânerd outâ 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 âThe Marketing Agency Blueprintâ by Paul Roetzer (which she actually read while she was working for an agency, which might have been a sign in hindsight), âStart With Whyâ by Simon Sinek, âHow to Win Friends and Influence Peopleâ by Dale Carnegie, and âCrossing The Chasmâ by Geoffrey A. Moore.
In case you havenât 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.
âI 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 Iâm able to clearly articulate my thoughts and break down complicated concepts quickly and easily so the team can execute them flawlessly.â
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 weâve worked on to date.
This Place: 150 Years Retold
We partnered with Portage & Main Press/HighWater Press to develop the launch strategy for â150 Years Retoldâ 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 sheâs 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.
âTHE FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mysteryâ
This was one of the weirdest projects weâve 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 Canadaâs arts community and was able to bring what she learned through Starlingâs partnership with Adam and his team to a âFacebook Advertising for Performing Artsâ 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 sheâs very proud of, where we all feel heard, supported, and can collaborate on any kind of project. She says that isnât just because of her!
âThe hardworking people who sit down at their desks for Starlingâs 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.â
Alysonâs Four Biggest Business Changes
However, there are many things to be proud of about the companyâs 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 âvibe checkâ together.)
Refining Our Systems and Processes
My poor team hears me say, âif itâs not written down, it doesnât existâ so often that Iâm 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 clientsâ 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, itâs usually because they like writing, or have an interest in creating content - and thatâs great!
But being a business means we also have a responsibility to give back to our community and do good, which is why weâve started sponsoring events like the QNET Leadership Conference, tournaments for the Epilepsy and Seizure Association of Manitoba, and the Winnipeg Womenâs Community, among others.
Growing my team also means I have more bandwidth to give back professionally, too. Iâve been a volunteer with SPARK!, a local nonprofit who connects small NPOâs with businesses who offer their services pro-bono* since 2018, Iâve 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+, MĂ©tis and Indigenous-owned businesses.
* I was awarded Volunteer Manitobaâs âSPARK Pro Bono Consultant Awardâ 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 weâve 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 clientsâ evolving needs, but generally speaking I started looking for team members who could meet these needs because I saw that weâd be pigeonholing ourselves if we werenât proactive about growing and adapting as the industry changed.
Now, this doesnât mean Iâm 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.
âI get it! Moving from a âsolopreneurâ to a âmanagerâ can be an intimidating transition, and I definitely didnât go into this thinking that I was going to lead a team.â
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 couldnât keep executing at the level she expected of herself, she brought on others who could help her maintain it.
Learn to Write Properly
Donât rely on AI tools like ChatGPT to do your work for you!
I mean it: thereâs a lot of low-quality content being churned out right now; before that was because a lot of people entering into the industry didnât take the time to hone their craft, and now itâs 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 itâs not a good look when your content sounds hollow and doesnât 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 sheâs doing right now: running a marketing agency that does work that sheâs proud of and working with clever, passionate people.
âI love the work that I do and while there are always ups and downs, Iâm legitimately excited to sit down at my desk every day.â
As a passionate traveller, where in the world sheâs sitting at that desk might change over time. Itâs one of the reasons why Starling is, and will always be, 100% remote.
âFlipping 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.â
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 donât want to film Reels. And, we understand the hesitation. Weâre 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 itâs part of the job, and the payoff is worth it.
Thatâs straight from the horse's mouth, people! Reels do better than other content.
We Hear This All The Time…
âI donât have fancy equipment to make high-quality videosâ
You donât need it.* Period.
Instagram wants to show you what youâre interested in seeing. Nowadays, people are sick of the âpicture-perfectâ 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 doesnât matter and says, âToo often creators are worried about production value…If youâre trying to create relatable content, production value is almost like an anti-goal.â
@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 âlet them eat cake,â 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 sheâs been involved in, what sheâs doing to grow her following is working.
*This section is not for you if youâre promoting a luxury brand. In that case, you do need fancy equipment to make high-quality videos.
âI donât have a lot to sayâ
You donât 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, âInstagram will not focus on long-form video.â 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.
âI donât want to show my faceâ
Instagram posts with faces get 38% more likes than those without. Do with that information as you will, but you also donât 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.
âI donât know what to postâ
Thatâs 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 itâs a fun and easy day.
However, you might be doing your own socials, and weâre 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 âhow toâ videos. Having a visual element makes âdoing the thingâ 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 youâre 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 arenât 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. Itâs a chance to give new followers a better idea of who you are.
Meet the Team
These donât 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, weâre all impatient. Thatâs why itâs 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 sheâs learned in the last 10 years of owning a digital marketing agency.
The âMaking Ofâ 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
Youâre 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
Weâre just going to tag Molly PcPhersonâs 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
Donât hop on every trend, but if it works with your brand, definitely do it. Hereâs a current popular sound that most businesses can relate to.
Remix Reels
Trigger warning: this one is heavy. Itâs 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 itâs 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. Weâve 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 weâre 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 itâs always evolving. Itâs also a space full of creative people, so itâs 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 donât feel true to your brand, donât do it. But before we send you on our way, hereâs 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 itâs content you want your friends to see.
2. Keep experimenting
This seems to be Mosseriâs consistent tip for people who are in Viewâs jail. Keep trying new things to see what your audience engages with.
3. Donât 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 thatâs taking up a lot of your marketing time, maybe itâs 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 Audioâs 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 itâs 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 itâs a chance to be creative, indulge in your favourite treats, bond with your community — and if youâre 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 âin-the-know.â 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 âBeetlejuice Lipstick Hackâ 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 itâs a fail, but still great marketing!
Start Your Campaign Early
Halloween shopping has already started. Iâm sure youâve noticed decorations and treats lining the shelves as early as September 1. Luckily, 64% of consumers donât 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 hasnât 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 âword people,â 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 didnât. 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 âCome as a clown, eat like a kingâ 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: Reeseâs x Nextdoor.
The two companies came together to make a âTreat Mapâ 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 donât 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 doesnât love a good game? Weâll 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 doesnât 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 Kimmelâs âI Ate My Kidsâ Halloween Candyâ 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 brandâs hashtag.
For SEO, brands should add Halloween-related words like âcostumesâ or âspooky decorâ to their website. Writing blogs with fun ideas, like âTop Halloween Party Tips,â can help them show up in searches. And donât forget to use Halloween keywords in product descriptions to draw in more shoppers.
Make Memes
You better believe we âlikeâ every meme we see about Spirit Halloween. Whether itâs about taking over a failed retail space or making fun of a profession, youâll start to see these memes popping up around now.
Funnily enough, we donât think Spirit Halloween had anything to do with these jokes, but leaning into them has made them culturally relevant, and hey, who doesnât want free advertising?!
They even made a blog about their favourite fake costumes last year.
Halloween marketing can be challenging for brands who donât 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 arenât broke and have a fully developed brain.
The other thing about women with fully developed brains is that they like to use them. If thereâs one thing I know for sure about having a relationship with Hayley, you donât 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 sheâs a funny, hard-working perfectionist.
Personal Life
Hayley âlevels upâ 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.
âI'm really interested in movement as a healing modality and a path to more authentic expression.â
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 friendâs wedding — a performance the crowd will never forget.
She loves attending and running community events, and if you ever meet her at one, youâll 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 sheâs born with or the time, effort and space sheâs given to working on herself and the connection between mindfulness and creativity — sheâs 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.
âThat'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.â
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.
Itâs 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 clientsâ 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 youâre 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
Iâve 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 âblogosphereâ 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 itâs been, where it is, and where itâs going — all do you can develop a strategy that connects you with more of your target audience than ever before.
Letâs get into it:
Why Does Content Marketing Matter?
Content marketing describes a type of marketing that âinvolves 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 servicesâ (thank you, Oxford Dictionary).
Itâs also the most powerful way to continually reinforce your brandâs message, values, and convey the ways your products and services make your customerâs lives better.
But donât 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 yearâs 42%.
Itâs 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, letâs 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 itâs 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 didnât 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 âNetMeetingsâ and Webinars
Although the term âwebinarâ wouldnât be popularized until 1998, the first public âweb conferencesâ were already gaining popularity.
Since then weâve 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 websiteâs ârelevanceâ 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 itâs published.
These tools didnât become popular until the early 2000âs, 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 âdownloadable as you wishâ 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 + âInbound Marketingâ Becomes a Thing
The first YouTube video was posted by one of the platformâs founders. Called âMeet Me at The Zooâ 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 âinbound marketingâ 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 usersâ 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
Snapchatâs 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 âmobile-firstâ 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
Iâd be remiss if I didnât 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 wasnât 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 âOGâ 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 youâre 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 theyâll 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 âreputableâ website helps improve your search engine ranking.
- Repurposing blogs for social media. Youâve 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 âbricks and feathersâ 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. Letâs 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 Spiceâs âThe Man Your Man Could Smell Likeâ 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 didnât just cater to older men, but was attractive to trendy, young people, too. The campaign was so successful that Old Spiceâs 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 usersâ 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 youâre already telling with your other content.
- Use headings and subheadings to increase âreadabilityâ 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 donât 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 itâs 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 youâre âtapped inâ 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, Iâve 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 arenât novels; theyâre 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 customerâs journey from start to finish and see similar use cases in real life.
A great example from LinkedIn shows how HSBC used LinkedInâs marketing tools helped them diverse the way their marketing content is presented:
While whitepapers and eBooks are both examples of long-form content, theyâre 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 âoddly satisfying challengeâ 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 doesnât just drive immediate results; itâs a long-term investment in your companyâs 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 donât need a huge marketing budget or team to do it!
How To Do An Email Marketing Audit
If youâre a business owner, donât sleep on email marketing. 99% of consumers check their emails every day. When we say âreach your audience where they are at,â email marketing is exactly what weâre talking about.
Yes, they probably are also on their social media platforms, but did you know that only 10% of your followers will see your post on Instagram? And thatâs if your image or video caught their attention long enough for them to stop scrolling.
It's not that Facebook isn't important for your business, but if you want direct impact and reach, email marketing has no competition.
This blog will guide you through how to do an email marketing audit so you can take a close look at your strategy to maximize your return on investment.
Letâs talk about why audits are important, how to do one, and what they are.
Why an Email Marketing Audit Matters
Email marketing gets results. For every dollar spent, the average return is $40. The campaigns help you build relationships with your customers by sharing updates, offers, and valuable content, leading to greater brand loyalty and repeat business.
Your strategy shouldnât just be âsend an email.â Each newsletter should be strategically crafted to reach your marketing goals. Whether youâve been sending emails for decades or your first one is in your drafts, doing an audit will maximize the impact of your campaign.
The goal of an audit is to take an honest, unbiased look at what's working, what's not, and where you can make improvements. By reviewing your email list, content, timing, and overall strategy, you can identify areas to optimize and make data-driven decisions to increase open rates, boost CTRs, and drive better results.
Components of an Email Marketing Audit
If the word audit casts a sense of dread over your body, we feel you. Just remember, itâs not telling you what youâre doing wrong, but more guiding you in the right direction. Hereâs what you should look at when doing an email marketing audit:
Subscriber List
Make sure your subscribers have opted in. You donât want to talk to people who arenât into you anyway. Regularly clean out inactive subscribers to boost engagement and segment your list to more effectively target different audience groups.
Personalization
Identify key moments in your customers' journey to send timely messages. Automated messages like welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders can be personalized. Keep testing and refining your approach to see what works best.
Performance Metrics
Review metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. This helps you see whatâs working and where you can improve.
Compliance
Follow email marketing laws like Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation. Get explicit consent, provide clear information, and allow easy opt-outs. This helps you avoid legal issues and build trust with your subscribers.
Content
Look at your subject lines, messages, visuals, and calls to action. Confirm they are interesting and personalized to keep your audience interested. Test different elements to improve your results.
Deliverability
Currently, the best time to send an email blast is 10am on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Make sure your emails bypass the junk folder by maintaining a good sender reputation, using proper authentication, and avoiding spammy language. Monitor deliverability (like with monthly reporting — a service we provide to our clients) to catch any issues early.
How To Do An Email Marketing Audit In 6 Easy Steps
Weâve tackled the âwhatâ and the âwhy,â now for the âhow.â These six steps will make the process a bit easier.
1. Set Your Goals Decide what you want to achieve with your audit. Are you aiming to boost overall performance, improve deliverability, or refine your content? Knowing your goals will help shape the audit.
2. Choose Your KPIs
Key Performance Indicators are what measures your success. These are things like open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates. Setting clear goals will help you see whatâs working and where you need to adjust.
3. Create a Spreadsheet
If youâre not a spreadsheet girly, trust us when we say itâs for the best you become one in this case. Track details like campaign names, subject lines, audience segments, open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates. This helps you keep everything in one place and helps you spot trends.
4. Gather and Organize Data Compare your metrics with industry standards and past performance to find trends and areas for improvement.
5. Analyze What Works Look into why some emails performed better than others. What made the successful ones stand out? Figure out how to replicate that success in your next campaigns.
6. Make a Plan
For all the other creatives crying out there, weâre on the last step! Make a report with clear takeaways and then start implementing and testing your new ideas. It will work!
We like to make ourselves an email audit checklist so we can get a dopamine hit after we complete each of the 6 steps. Bonus points if you add a little treat for yourself after you complete the audit.
Conduct Regular Audits
Email marketing audits will give you valuable insights to make a clear action plan that lines up your email marketing with your business goals. Whether you're focusing on list health or doing a full audit, following this framework will make it easy. Start focusing on what works and ditch what doesnât.
If after reading this email marketing suddenly jumps to the top of your to-do list, weâre ready to help! We also happen to have an extremely high open rate on our own newsletter at 45-49%. Humble brag, but the industry average is 21.5%.
Contact us here to get started on your next email marketing campaign.
