SEO virtuoso, CEO @Sachs Marketing Group. Focused on being of service to business owners - helping to better position them in the eyes of their audiences.
The ultimate social media launch involves defining clear goals, understanding the target audience, and choosing the right platforms. Creating a content calendar, engaging with the audience, and consistent branding are crucial. Utilizing analytics for insights and adapting strategy based on performance is key. Integrating paid ads can also boost visibility during the launch.
When you’re a brand new company, you know social media is an essential part of your success, but getting started can be incredibly overwhelming. There are so many social media platforms out there to choose from, and there’s this idea floating around that to be successful, you must be everywhere.
The truth is, you should only be where your customers are. If you’re not targeting a primarily Millennial audience, then there’s not much point in being on Snapchat. If you don’t have the equipment to do YouTube videos right now, don’t launch that channel yet.
The most important thing to do is research and plan. Give yourself ample time to craft a strategy before you start, and then adjust as activity takes place.
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Defining Objectives and Goals: The first step involves clearly defining what you want to achieve with the social media launch. This could be increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving traffic to a website, or boosting sales. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals is essential.
Understanding Your Target Audience: Identify and understand your target audience, including their demographics, interests, and online behavior. This helps in tailoring the content and choosing the right social media platforms where your audience is most active.
Choosing the Right Platforms: Not all social media platforms will be suitable for every launch. Select platforms based on where your target audience spends their time and the nature of your product or service. For instance, LinkedIn is great for B2B, while Instagram and TikTok might be better for B2C and younger audiences.
Creating a Content Strategy: Develop a content plan that resonates with your audience. This includes deciding on the type of content (e.g., videos, blogs, infographics), tone of voice, and messaging. The content should align with your brand values and launch objectives.
Content Calendar and Scheduling: Organize your content using a calendar to ensure consistent posting. Tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social can help schedule posts in advance, saving time and maintaining a steady content flow.
Building Anticipation: Before the launch, create buzz and excitement. This can be done through teasers, countdowns, sneak peeks, and pre-launch offers. Engaging with your audience through polls, stories, or live sessions can also build anticipation.
Influencer Partnerships: Collaborating with influencers can amplify your reach. Choose influencers who align with your brand values and have an engaged following that matches your target audience.
Utilizing Paid Advertising: To extend reach beyond your existing audience, consider using paid social media advertising. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer targeted advertising options to reach specific demographics.
Engagement and Interaction: Actively engage with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and mentions. Engagement increases the visibility of your posts and helps in building a community around your brand.
Monitoring and Analytics: Use analytics tools provided by social media platforms to track the performance of your launch. Metrics like engagement rate, reach, click-through rate, and conversion rate provide insights into what works and what doesn’t, allowing for real-time adjustments.
Post-Launch Strategy: After the launch, continue to engage with your audience and keep the momentum going. Regularly post relevant content, offer post-launch promotions, and gather feedback for future improvements.
Crisis Management Plan: Be prepared to handle any negative feedback or crisis situation. Having a crisis management plan ensures you can respond quickly and appropriately to maintain your brand reputation.
The ultimate social media launch guide is about meticulous planning, understanding your audience, engaging content, and agile management of the campaign. It’s a mix of creativity, strategic planning, and data-driven decision-making.
Today’s consumer belongs to an average of 13.4 loyalty programs, but are only active in 6.7. More than half of brands (57%) say they’ll increase loyalty program budgets in 2017. Why? The simple fact is it costs more to sell to a brand new customer than it does to sell to an existing one. It makes good business sense to reward the people who are loyal to your company, to keep them coming back for more, and convert them to brand ambassadors who are out there championing for you.
But, unfortunately for marketers, it’s not just slapping together any old program and seeing results. To see a return on investment (ROI) on your program, it’s critical to lay the necessary groundwork to foster success once it launches to your customer base. Want to make sure you build a program that fits into that active 6.7?
Developing the Right Loyalty Program for Your Business
Mine Your Data
A 2014 poll revealed 67% of customers would be willing to give information to businesses in exchange for better products and services. Though it is limited to rather basic information like name and demographics, 34% are willing to provide contact information to get more personalized offerings.
Take a look at the customer data you have on hand and see if you can identify any patterns. What products are most popular? Least popular? What’s the average order value? What percentage of your customer base is new vs. returning? How many times have your most loyal customers shopped with you? How many people are using promotional codes to save money?
This information can help you decide what kind of structure you need to develop your program with, as well as provide insights into what rewards would likely perform the best with your audience.
Choose Your Goals
What do you want to accomplish with the program? Of course you want to increase your customer base and profits, but what else is there? Do you want to drive engagement? Whatever your goals may be, make sure you program aligns with it.
Also make sure you have a clear goal for your customers to shoot for – a free product or discount is usually the right answer.
Keep the Structure Simple
The more complex a loyalty program structure becomes, the harder it is for your employees to keep up with, and the less likely customers are to participate. Your program should be simple, like a punch card – buy X products, get 1 free. Or, if you want to go a bit more sophisticated, earn X points per $1 spent. Get rewards at X points. Create tiered rewards to encourage people to spend more and save their reward points.
Dell, for instance, has an incredibly simple program. Their Advantage Rewards program gives 10% of your purchase price back to you in the form of an electronic gift card, if you pay for your purchase with a Dell Preferred Financing account. You have 90 days to use the card after issuance. Plus, you’ll automatically get free two-shipping on your order just for being a member. Members get monthly discount offers, and access to partner offers from FedEx, Sprint, SocialShield, and Iolo Technologies. It doesn’t matter how you pay to get those benefits.
Kohl’s Yes to You Rewards offers a reward program to all shoppers, regardless of payment method used. Earn a point for every dollar spent over the course of a month. Every 100 points translates to $5 in Kohl’s cash. Plus, you’ll get eight offers a year, and $10 Kohl’s Cash for your birthday.
Ford’s Owner Advantage Rewards program allows customers to earn 5% back in credit on parts and service purchases, regardless of a vehicle’s make or model. When you’re ready to redeem, you can apply all, or a portion of your rewards balance to your purchase.
Each program is unique in the benefits it offers to customers, but they all keep it easy to earn and redeem rewards. And, because sign up is simple, participation is likely higher than if it required a complex process. The majority of customers (70%) will not sign up for a program if they think the registration process is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Choose Awesome Rewards (You Can Afford)
Of course the rewards should serve as an incentive for your customers to want to redeem them, but they also need to be something you can afford to give without cutting too deeply into your profit margin. This is why free product credit is usually the default reward.
The Starbucks Rewards program used to be based on the number of times you visited over the span of a year. Now, to increase participation, they’ve switched the program to earning two stars for every dollar spend. In the past, customers had to visit 12 times (transactions) to earn “Gold” status, which earned them a free food or drink item. The company said customers were asking baristas to ring up items separately to get more stars, making everything take longer. Now, customers have to earn 125 stars to hit that reward. At $5 visit, that’s still about 12 visits.
About one in six customers is a member of the program, and those members spend an average of three times more than a non-member customer.
Will There Be a Membership Fee?
This really depends on your industry, current customer base, and what the competition is doing. A lot of the time, charging a fee is not the answer. While it does do a bit to guarantee people will actually use the program, it may turn some customers off.
Amazon Prime is the perfect example of a loyalty program with a membership fee. You don’t earn rewards like you do with programs I’ve already mentioned, but the membership comes with a number of perks. For $99/year, subscribers get:
Free two-day shipping on eligible products
Free same day delivery in eligible zip codes
Free two-hour delivery or scheduled delivery on eligible items in eligible zip codes
Restaurant delivery in eligible zip codes.
Free release-date delivery on eligible pre-ordered items
Unlimited streaming in Prime Video
Unlimited ad-free streaming in Prime Music
Unlimited photo storage in Prime Photos
Access to Prime Pantry where members can get low-priced grocery and household items for a flat rate of $5.99 shipped.
Access to Amazon Elements, a line of every day products
Access to Amazon Dash buttons
Prime Early Access: 30-minute early access to lightening deals
Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
Prime Reading
Membership sharing
And more
It offers value to people who place a lot of online orders because of the free shipping, but if that’s the only benefit you’re able to use, or you don’t order much, it doesn’t make much sense to join.
2014 data suggests about 45% of Amazon’s customers are Prime members, and those members spend an average of $1,500 a year, compared to non-Prime members spending an average of $625 a year.
Barnes & Noble also charges a fee to participate in their loyalty program. For $25/year, members get more than $50 in bonus coupons when they join. Over the course of the year, members get special savings throughout the year, and free one to three-day shipping on all online orders.
Use the Program to Stay in Touch with Your Customers
Your customers are likely already signed up to receive emails from you, but there should be a segment of your list specifically for the people who are members of your program. This way you can send them exclusive offers and give extra thanks for their participation in the program. Plus, if you’re ever looking for feedback on the program, you can reach out to them direction.
Market, Market, and Market Some More
The program isn’t going to do a bit of good unless people know about it. You need to make sure your existing customers know about the program, and can sign up easily the next time the shop with you, either online or in-store.
Run ad campaigns on social media to notify your current and prospective fans about the program. Write and distribute a press release to spread the word. Include information about the program and how to join in your email newsletter sent to current subscribers.
Go With the Flow
You must be able to analyze the results of the program after launch, and see how well it’s working. If people aren’t responding the way you anticipated, conduct a survey to get feedback about it. Watch how patterns in shopping are changing. Try adjusting the program to make it more enticing based on available data insights.
Depending on what feedback indicates you could:
Simplify the signup process
Remove the need for a physical card
Lower the reward thresholds
Increase the value of the rewards
Add bonuses for referring new members to the program
Decrease membership fee
The Benefits of a Customer Loyalty Program
Increased Customer Retention
Keep your existing customer base making purchases from you longer and more often. And, a loyalty program can help you find the customers you lost, and find ways to try to win them back. You’ll over time learn who your best customers are, so you can make sure they are treated well. You’ll start to notice patterns in their buying behavior, which you can use to create better products and services and tailor your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Gather More Data
Not only do you get to see what’s selling, you can see who’s buying it. This allows you to send more personalized offers, which customers appreciate. The more data you have on your customers and how they’re interacting with your business, the better your marketing efforts can be.
Increased Sales – and Profit
When customers have incentive to shop with you more often, they usually will. As such, you should see an increase in overall sales – either in the form of additional transactions, higher AOV, or a combination of the two. And with more sales, comes more profit. Plus, your loyalty program may entice new customers to shop with you, adding to the benefit.
Why Customer Loyalty Programs Work
Rewards programs work mainly based on the psychological principles of ego, and the fact that humans are competitive by nature. One study showed people love collecting points, even when the points have no monetary value. Even though you can’t exchange points for tangible benefits, people will still spend a lot of time accumulating the points just to beat others, or to compete with themselves. If you really want to cash in on this phenomenon, add tiers to your program like Starbucks, to encourage people to keep going to get the higher level rewards.
Do you have a customer loyalty program? Why, or why not? If you do, what have you found to be the most effective? Has the ROI been worth it? Tell me all about it in the comments.
You use images online and off – for nearly everything in your business. Your business card, flyers, brochures, menus, social media graphics, blog posts… they are everywhere. And if you’re just Googling the images you want, and saving from there, you could be in serious trouble. If the licensing isn’t right – you’re stealing.
The Creative Commons licenses are a blessing for creatives and small businesses alike. Creatives often don’t want their work used for free without credit, but at the same time, small businesses don’t have the budget to be paying for expensive stock photography all the time. This set of licenses allows creatives to get their work distributed with credit, while also giving small business owners a large library of content to work with in their projects.
Even still, not all Creative Commons licenses are appropriate, and it’s important to understand the differences between them. If you misuse photos, you’re potentially opening yourself up to a world of legal trouble. For instance, if you alter a photo that has a no derives license, or use a non-commercial only photo for commercial purposes, you’re violating the terms of the license, and therefore are breaking copyright law.
It is possible to use Google to find content you can use under those licenses, so if you’re doing that, you should be okay. To do this:
Under the “usage rights” option, choose the one that is most appropriate for you to use. For instance, if you intend to use the images for commercial purposes, you’ll need to make sure you exclude non-commercial. If you want to be able to make adjustments to the image, select the “free to use, share, or modify, even commercially” option to return only results with that license.
This is the most open of the license, allowing people to distribute, edit, and build upon the original work, even for commercial purposes, so long as they credit the original creator of the work.
To attribute the work, simply include something along the lines of “Photo Credit: Author” with a link to the image or the creator’s profile.
This is the same license as the one above, with the addition of the fact that the new creation is licensed in the same way. This means any derivatives of the work will carry the same license, even for commercial use. This is the license Wikipedia uses, so creators who hope to see their works there should use the same.
This license allows for redistribution, whether commercial or non-commercial, so long as it is distributed unchanged, and includes credit to the original creator of the work. It cannot be altered in any way.
This license allows the original work to be altered and distributed for non-commercial uses, as long as credit is given to the original creator. If you’re using the images for business purposes, or anything that will help make you money, you cannot use photos under this license.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
This license allows the original work to be altered and distributed for non-commercial uses, as long as credit is given to the original creator. Any derivatives of the work must carry the same license.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
This license allows the original work to be distributed for non-commercial uses, as long as credit is given to the original creator. It cannot be used for commercial purposes, and it cannot be altered to create new works. This is the most restrictive licensing, but works for personal projects.
CC0 – Public Domain – All Rights Granted/No Rights Reserved
With this license, the creators of the original work choose to waive their interest in the work, thereby adding it to the public domain. This allows others to build upon and enhance the works, or reuse them for any purpose, either commercial or non-commercial, without restriction under copyright law.
This is the best license for you to use for projects, either commercial, or non, if you’re not sure about the restrictions on the license. If you cannot afford an enhanced or an extended license on another platform, try looking for a similar photo with CC0 licensing, to make sure you’re covered legally.
Finding License Information
Most photo repositories provide the licensing information for each photo on the download page. Pexels, for instance, provides the source of the image, along with the license type, and the basic information about the license before you download it. All photos on this site, as well as the photos and video found on Pixabay are licensed with CC0, so you can use it however you wish, without attribution.
Flickr, on the other hand, features photos with a variety of licenses, so you must be careful if you find a photo there you want to use. Businesses should always select the “Commercial use allowed” option on the search. And if you plan to add or change anything on it, make sure you choose the “Commercial use & mods allowed” option.
What About Stock Photos?
If you’re licensing photos from stock repositories like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, or Dreamstime, you are paying for the license to use the photos, so no attribution is required. But, it is important to pay attention to the details of the license to make sure you remain compliant. Some licenses only give you the right to use the image online, and not in print.
For instance, the Adobe Stock Standard license, gives you the right to create no more than 500,000 copies of the images in “print, digital documents, software, or by broadcasting to more than 500,000 viewers.” You cannot create products for resale where the main value is the image itself. This means you can’t make t-shirts and coffee mugs or similar products that feature the images. The Enhanced license, which is automatically included with videos and premium images, you get the same thing you’ll find in the standard license, but the 500,000 copy/view restriction is lifted. If you want to create products for resale, you’ll have to pay for the Extended license, as this removes the copy restriction and the resale restriction.
A Shutterstock standard image license, however, offers a bit of a difference. Beyond the same 500,000 copies/viewers limitation, it also allows images to be used in film, video, TV series, or multimedia productions, without regard to audience size, so long as the production budget does not exceed $10,000. You must have the enhanced license if you want to lift restrictions on the number of reproductions, impressions, or budget; or if you want to create merchandise, or use it for wall art in a commercial space, rather than sell the art itself.
If you purchase a photo with a standard license for one project, and want to use it again in another, you’ll need to license it again.
Where to Find Images
I’ve written a post about tools for stellar social media images, which covers a number of places you can find images with CC0 licensing, or paid licensing stock. But, beyond that, there are several Creative Commons platforms you can use to find what you need for your projects – whether images or video.
Flickr: Find thousands of images from all over the world to use in your projects.
YouTube: Find thousands of videos from all over the world to use in your projects.
Vimeo: This is another video hosting service that offers an alternative to using YouTube content.
Bandcamp: Find music to suit any project you’re working on.
500px: This is another platform for finding photos you can use in projects. Photographers can join and include their photos on the website. The 500px Marketplace includes a selection of royalty-free stock photos.
Internet Archive: This is a non-profit library of websites, music, books, audio files, movies, and software, all available for free.
Jamendo: This is a platform for finding music available under Creative Commons. You can find communities, playlists, and latest releases. It’s possible to search for music by genre. Even if you don’t want to use it for commercial purposes, it can be a great way to discover new artists and have great music to add to your multimedia projects.
Know the License Before You Do Anything
It’s absolutely imperative to know the license before you do anything to the photo, or include it in a blog post, or as part of any other materials for your business. When in doubt, use images with the CC0 license. Make sure you keep track of where the images come from, so you can prove their license if necessary.
What Can Happen if You Violate Licensing?
The original creator of the media, whether it’s a photo, video, or audio, may choose to take no action, either because he or she doesn’t notice, or is happy with the exposure. But, they also have the option to:
Get the media removed by sending a DMCA Takedown Notice. Though the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a part of U.S. Copyright law, the content doesn’t have to be copyrighted to process the takedown or request the content be taken down.
Send your company a Cease and Desist Letter. This is a document that tells you to stop doing what you’re doing, and to repair any harm you’ve caused as a result of the action. It is not legally binding, or a guarantee of a lawsuit. However, if you don’t follow it, it could result in legal action being taken against you.
Send a bill with a copy of the licensing agreement, along with a letter saying you’ve committed yourself to paying the licensing fee since you’re already using the photo.
Sue you for copyright infringement. This typically only happens when the creator has the funds to hire a lawyer. Copyright infringement suits are complex, and come with a three-year statute of limitations. This means that even if you don’t get sued right away, the creator has up to three years from the initial infringement to bring a lawsuit to court. If the court finds you guilty, you could have to pay damages, up to $150,000 to the media’s creator.
Do You Attribute Images When It’s Not Required?
You’ll see a photo credit for each of the photos I include in my blog posts. I license them from Adobe Stock, or pull them from Creative Commons sources. Though many of my images legally require no attribution, I include attribution anyway. It covers me legally, while sharing the love. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
Where do you get the images you use for your business? Did you know about all the different Creative Commons licenses?
Both guest blogging and blogger/influencer outreach help to increase exposure for your business. These tactics can help you go beyond search engine optimization and social media to help you reach a broader audience, taking advantage of audiences others have already built. Both, however, rely on developing relationships with other bloggers in your industry, which take time to cultivate properly for the best possible result.
Learn the difference between the two methods, and how you can use them both to expand your marketing backlinking strategy.
What is Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging refers to submitting a blog post that is featured on another blog besides your own. Many blogs accept guest posts to help fill their calendars so they don’t have to produce new content all of the time. It helps you get access to a new audience since the publication will promote your content to their readers.
When it comes to guest blogging, you must first know the goals you’re trying to accomplish. Guest blogging helps you to:
Get traffic back to your website
Build backlinks to your website
Position yourself as a credible authority in your industry
If the goal is just a backlink, certain blogs may not work out. However, if you are just posting for exposure, and the back line just happens to be a bonus then go for it.
You can find plenty of guest blogging opportunities online. as you research, look for sites that are relevant to your industry or niche. Not just any blog will do however. Take note only of blogs that:
Have content focused on your industry or niche with an audience that is interested in your industry
Clearly has an engaged audience – you can see this by looking at the number of times post has been shared on social media or commented on
Have an active blog owner – meaning they are promoting themselves on social media and are responsive to their readers.
A Google search is a wonderful place to start looking for guest posting opportunities. Use search queries like the ones below to help you zero in on blogs that accept guest posts in your niche.
keyword “submit a guest post”
keyword “guest post”
keyword “guest post by”
keyword “accepting guest posts”
keyword “guest post guidelines”
Using these phrases will help you find the guidelines pages, submission pages, or guest posts from other writers.
If you know of any popular guest bloggers in your industry, you can use Google to search for their names along with the phrase guest post by. This will show you all of the sites that the guest blogger it will produce sites they have posted on, so you have a good idea of places you should start too.
If you are looking for backlinks more than anything else, conduct a backlinking strategy analysis of some of your competitors. Chances are, you’ll find some of them have links coming from guest posts. Using a tool like Ahrefs, SEM Rush, or Open Site Explorer, you can look at the back link to see what blogs, if any, they have written for.
If you don’t have access to tools like that, Google once again can come to the rescue link:domain.com -domain.com “guest post” (where domain.com is your competitor’s website) which should reveal sites that a competitor has written for.
To make it a little easier for you, here are a handful of places you can connect with people looking for guest posts:
MyBlogGuest: This is a free platform that lets bloggers sign up, either to provide blog posts, or because they are looking for content for their own blog. The forum allows you to place specific requests in categories. There’s also the ability to ask for help with social promotion on published posts. With premium accounts, priced at either $30 for basic or $70/month for advanced, you can submit articles to the gallery for other bloggers to use on their sites, submit guest posts directly to blogs, submit infographics to the gallery, track published article status, and more features.
PostJoint: With PostJoint, you don’t have to search through galleries of posts. Advertisers submit the content they want published. The database matches with the best audiences from their database of blogs, and sends offers to the bloggers. Then, the advertiser chooses the offers they want to accept. Metrics are shown to assist in the decision making process, and bloggers see excerpts of related posts so there isn’t a duplicate content issue. Bloggers registered with PostJoint are screened for quality with moderators, to improve response and satisfaction rates.
Blogger LinkUp: This is a free service connecting bloggers who are looking for content with businesses and marketers who are looking to place content for links. As a business, you can submit your offer for a guest post, product review, or contest announcement. Bloggers can also request guest posts and interview sources. Emails go out to members every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If you see a request you can fulfill, or if a blogger is interested in your request, you can contact each other directly with information included in the email. Though there’s not much information on the website itself, it’s a free service, so if you’re strapped for cash, this is a great way to get started.
Once you’ve built some traction on your own blog, you can open it up to accepting guest posts, too, to help give back to the community. You’re in charge of how often you accept them and publish them, and to what standards you’ll require, so why not?
What is Outreach?
Outreach, also known as influencer outreach, or blogger outreach, helps build quality backlinks. It also exposes your business to a broader audience. Instead of you writing posts to be featured on other websites, you connect with the bloggers and ask them to write about you/cover your business in a unique way – not in an advertorial manner – on their blog or other publication they write for.
If you want to find influencers, there are a number of free and paid tools you can use to search for bloggers in any industry or niche.
BuzzSumo: The free version allows for a limited number of searches every day. With it, you can see the most poplar content on a website over the past day, week, six months, or year. You can also see the most popular authors on a website, letting you see who the influencers are.
Keyhole: This is a hashtag tracking tool to help you find content and influencers related to the hashtag. It’s great for tracking events. This is a freemium tool you can use to a limited extent without paying.
Little Bird: This tool helps you find influencers that have been validated by peers. You can find them for a variety of topics, and new topics emerge from time to time. You can also use it for content marketing, sales research across multiple social media platforms, and competitive intelligence.
If you’d rather have help facilitating the connections, here are places that can connect you with influencers for outreach purposes.
GroupHigh: This is a dashboard for larger brands who want to work an outreach campaign into their marketing strategy. With it, there are millions of blogs indexed, which are searchable by keyword, niche, location, and number of followers. It’s possible to see if the blog accepts sponsored posts, guest posts, ad networks, or supports video, and more. After you’ve compiled a list of blogs to target, the service will provide information about them, such as SEO metrics, social media profiles, contact form locations, and the author’s names so you can reach out and connect. The pricing information is not listed, and you must request a demo of the service. Other sites reviewing the service say pricing is $3,000 a year, making it an expensive investment for many small businesses.
BlogDash:This company refers to themselves as a blogger outreach dashboard. There are more than 200,000 bloggers on the network. You can find the ones you want to work with with a number of metrics, including: keyword, category, gender, and klout score, as well as several other demographics. The service allows you to interact with bloggers by sharing their tweets and blog posts, and pitching them to cover your product or service. Businesses can start with a free account to connect with bloggers, but you are limited to 30 bloggers per search. The paid plan costs $199/month, but gives you unlimited searches, and access to the entire network of bloggers when you search.
You can also use social media to find and build relationships with influencers, though this will take a bit of time. Outreach is definitely the long-game.
Choosing the Best Option for Your Backlinking Strategy
Guest blogging is best for when you want to establish yourself as a credible resource and help drive traffic back to your own blog. It can help with backlinks, too, but ultimately, it helps grow your audience.
Outreach is best for when you want to get other people talking about your company, without any mentions of you as the writer. When you guest blog, your name is used, so it helps boost authority, credibility, and trust.
There’s nothing that says you must choose one or the other, because analytics data makes it easy to see where the traffic comes from. You’ll be able to see which guest blogs are giving you the best results, and which influencers are sending the most traffic your way. Then, you can decide whether you want to invest in more campaigns with new blogs or influencers – and how you want to adjust those investments to make an even bigger impact.
Tips for Success
When you reach out to a blogger, whether you’re aiming for a guest post or outreach, don’t assume that just because they are participating in these networks, they will accept your request. To increase the likelihood they’ll accept, it’s best to connect with the blogger beforehand and build a rapport with them. Comment on their blog posts. Connect and interact with them on social media. Share their posts. Get on their radar.
If you can’t do that, at least take the time to personalize your request, showing that you care enough to go beyond the ever-so-annoying “Dear Webmaster,” especially when their name is clearly visible on the website.
Make sure your guest post fits the blog. If it doesn’t you’re just wasting time – it won’t get posted, and if by some chance it does, the people who read it likely won’t be interested in what you have to say, defeating the purpose. You wasted the time to craft the post, and it would be better suited on a different publication that attracts a better targeted audience.
Before you submit the post, make sure the topic you’ve selected hasn’t already been covered. If it’s been talked about before, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be declined, but you should at least make sure you have a different angle or new information. If it’s too similar to a post already on the blog, find a different publisher, or adjust the post a bit.
Take the time to read the guest posting/outreach guidelines. You’ll get a much better response if you’ve followed the rules. If you don’t, then you’re likely going to be ignored, or worse, blacklisted from ever getting posted. Each blogger will have their own requirements based on their preferences and style guide. Follow it, because it not only makes things easier for the blogger, but it shows you’re paying attention.
Why Not Put Both to Work?
There’s nothing that says you can’t use both tactics as part of your digital marketing strategy. If you’re not much of a writer, there are plenty of qualified freelancers out there you can connect with to help you produce the content you need.
Have you done guest blogging or outreach before? Which do you find the most effective? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.
Infographics have become one of the most popular ways to share large amounts of information in an easy to understand format. When done properly they are visually pleasing, interesting, and useful. One of the best ways to repurpose popular content is to design a new infographic using the information. Once the infographic is ready to publish, use some of the following techniques to promote your infographics and ensure as many people as possible can benefit from it.
Locate the Right Influencers
Think about the most important aspect of the infographic and who would benefit from the information. Look for social media influencers in this niche. Reach out to them via email or social media with a link to the infographic and why you think it might be of interest to them and their followers.
Influencers have received a great deal of press in niches such as beauty and food but there are relevant and active influencers in every field. Finding a big name that is in a completely different area will not provide the desired results since it does not place the infographic in front of those who will truly be interested in what it has to say. Ensure the influencer(s) chosen align with the message of the infographic and the intended marketing goals. Even if their realm of influence is not as extensive as some of the bigger names, they still have access to new people and their extended social networks, which can greatly improve the impact of your infographic.
Promote Your Infographics on Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the most obvious locations for sharing an image like an infographic. Pinterest is formatted to showcase gorgeous images, so it makes perfect sense to start there. It is a visual search engine designed for social sharing. Make sure the design is impeccable and the pin is clear and crisp.
To ensure it is found when people are searching for the topic, it is vital to write the description with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. Unlike many other social media platforms that rely on hashtags, Pinterest is primarily a search engine and content written for it should reflect this. A string of keywords may be tempting but thoughtfully written text will be far more effective.
Pinterest is also one of the few places the infographic will be visible in its entirety. Make sure the company name and website are clearly identified at the top of the infographic to help people identify who provided the content.
Get Creative With Your Infographic on Instagram
Instagram requires a different promotional approach for infographics because the format is more limited. It is possible to address this in several ways. You can create a cover image the shows only part of the infographic to be promoted on Instagram, create a video that shows the entire thing, or use SlideShare to break the infographic down into individual components.
Instagram is a site that relies heavily on hashtags to help people locate images and accounts of interest to them. Once the image is posted with a brief description and one or two hashtags, use numerous hashtags in the first comment of the image to take advantage of the most popular and relevant hashtags without cluttering up the description.
You can also tag individuals or companies that have been mentioned or quoted in the infographic. Alternatively, you may want to tag influencers or accounts who may have inspired the development of the piece.
Share Your Infographic on Facebook
Facebook has a wide variety of dimensional requirements depending upon how the image will be used. Having a cheat sheet for social media image dimensions will be useful for promotional purposes and will make it much easier to create an image that can be easily viewed and shared on Facebook.
It will usually be necessary to create a thumbnail image of the infographic with a link back to the original image. Alternatively, a cover image can be displayed or the infographic can be cropped to only show the heading or a specific portion that will make people want to see the full image.
It can be more difficult to ensure followers see content posted on Facebook due to the nearly constant changes in the news feed algorithm. One option is to create a Facebook ad and carefully select the targeting options to ensure the infographic is put in front of users who are most likely to find it interesting.
Link Back to Your Infographic on Twitter
Posting to Twitter is a mix of how to post in Instagram and Facebook. You will want to use hashtags and link back to original image. If any of the experts or companies mentioned in the infographic are active on Twitter, tagging them may help attract their followers and result in a retweet that will reach a much larger audience. This is another platform where sharing a thumbnail or cropped image may be more beneficial. However, a well written description accompanied by a link to the infographic can also work.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is an excellent way to reach a larger audience in your field or complimentary areas. Locate blogs that accept guest posts and develop ideas for a piece that is related to the infographic to be promoted. The aim is to provide added value to the blog’s readers.
It is surprising to many aspiring writers just how many blogs accept and even encourage guest bloggers to submit pitches relevant to their audience. Just remember, it isn’t enough to simply restate the information in the infographic, it is necessary to create new content that uses the infographic as one source.
Solid Content
For any promotional methods to work, the infographic must be created with well researched information. It must be clear, offer valuable insight or information to the audience. If it is visually appealing but does not offer new insights, it will quickly be dismissed by those who take the time to view it and hurt your credibility.
Optimize Your Landing Page
One of the main goals of promoting an infographic is to generate new interest in your brand or the brands featured. To do this most effectively, optimizing the landing page where the infographic is hosted is necessary. Make sure it is mobile friendly and the image is large enough to easily read as soon as visitors arrive.
The landing page needs to load quickly, be attractive, and be very user friendly with few distractions. It is a key component in successfully promoting the infographic.
Make Embedding Easy
Part of this optimization is making it easy for those who want to use your infographic. To do this, create an HTML embed code that is positioned directly underneath the image. This will allow anyone to easily put the infographic on their website or blog and will ensure it links back to your website.
Social Sharing Buttons
Word of mouth is still one of the most influential methods of promotion. The difference between people talking about a product or company thirty years ago and today is simply the way in which they talk to one another. We don’t have to be in physical proximity to suggest something to a friend. In fact, some studies suggest our tendency to interact on social media may decrease person-to-person interactions.
To better facilitate these types of online personal recommendations today, make it easy for people to share content on their preferred social media platforms. There are several strategic methods of placing these buttons and choosing the one that fits most naturally with your site design is key in encouraging visitors to share content.
At the end of the infographic make a request for readers to share with their social networks if they found the information useful. People are more likely to share when a specific request has been made for them to do so, especially if the content felt relevant to them at a personal level.
Email List
Building an email list is arguably one of the most important marketing tools today. Your subscribers have already decided your content is valuable enough to them to follow it regularly. Include a thumbnail of the infographic in an email with a link to take them to the full image. This will allow them to view it more easily and share it with others on their favorite social media platforms.
The landing page for your infographic is also an excellent opportunity to grow your email list. Include a bonus that is related to the infographic that people can receive if they sign up to receive emails from your site. This will give you a larger reach for future promotional efforts.
Self-Publish
Always host the infographic on your own website. This is content created by your brand to help others. It creates an association for peoplebetween the topic and the brand and begins to build your authority in the field. Hosting it anywhere else gives away that power and makes it impossible to ensure the link will be live should anyone else decide to share it at some point in the future. It also allows your site to build legitimate backlinks that are important for good SEO.
Strong Accompanying Article
Part of hosting the infographic on your own site is the ability to have it accompany a more detailed article. Once people arrive at the landing page to look at the infographic they are more inclined to stay and read any relevant information. When additional information is included beyond what is available on the infographic itself, people are more likely to engage with the site and share on social media.
Creating high quality content is good for readers and great for SEO and marketing purposes. It gives visitors a reason to trust your site’s content, decreases bounce rate, and ensures greater understanding of your message and brand. It has been proven to increase both leads and conversions and it’s just good business to provide the best quality product possible.
Infographic Directories
Infographic directories are a great way for people who are interested in finding images on specific topics to find your work. Every site has different submission regulations, so check out the rules before posting.
Editorial Calendar
Promoting your infographic will not quickly be checked off a to-do list. Many of the strategies require patience and persistence. Using Pinterest, guest blogging, and reaching out to industry experts who may be interested in using the infographic in an upcoming piece will require extended effort. Include promotional tactics as part of an ongoing editorial calendar. Select new influencers or bloggers to reach out to on a weekly or monthly basis and spread out tweets, retweets, and promoting the targeted pin on Pinterest to reach the greatest number of people.
Press Release
For larger companies, creating a press release to distribute can effectively promote new infographics. First, ensure the press release is well written and created with best SEO practices. Then distribute it to a press release site or send it directly to industry experts who may be interested.
Creating a powerful infographic is a labor of love. It requires extensive research, great copywriting, and creative talent to create the colors, format, and typography necessary to create a beautiful image people want to read and share. It is natural to want to see this content used and shared by others. The effort and skill it takes to create brilliant infographics makes people even more eager to share their work with the world. Be willing to stretch outside the typical blog promotion tactics to reach a wider audience.
Are there any other ways to promote your infographics that I missed? Which ones work well for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
We’ve all heard stories about people getting fired after their employer discovered something on social media. Sometimes, it’s because of something the employee said about the company or a customer; other times, it was because of something unrelated to their work, but a result of their online activity in their personal life.
Do you want to avoid these situations and bad publicity for your business? The answer is to develop a social media policy that’s shared with employees during the onboarding process. It helps to mitigate the risks for you as an employer and for them as the employee, and goes beyond the scope of a traditional confidentiality agreement, to ensure everyone knows the appropriate code of conduct. You may wish to get specific in what your policy covers, going beyond what your employees can and cannot do with company computers.
It may seem redundant or unnecessary to completely spell out a policy for each social media network, especially if your company is present on several. And while it may be time consuming to do, it’s important to consider each network individually. Depending on the nature of your business, different networks may have different implications for you.
When to Create Your Social Media Policy
Create a social media policy for your brand as soon as you have one or more people working for your company. If you have someone else managing your social media, whether they’re in-house or not, make sure there’s a policy in place to address some of the most common issues that could arise.
The rest of this blog post breaks down the various components of the ideal social media policy. It’s up to you whether you want to consider these separate documents, or include it all as part of a larger social media handbook. You may need to add more components if there are additional networks you’re using as part of your brand. I mention YouTube here, because there are many brands out there making use it of it, but naturally, if you don’t have a presence there, it doesn’t need to be part of your company policy until you choose to use it, if you choose to use it at all.
Employee Code of Conduct for Online Communications
This should outline what is okay and not okay for anyone to stay and do online, both personally and professional. It needs to cover the legal issues, along with respectful conduct for how the employee should behave anywhere when they’re online – not just when they’re representing the company.
As part of the legal issues, it should cover any applicable law, such as copyright, fair use, and financial disclosure, at least where the company is concerned. Take steps to ensure employees understand the privacy and disclosure issues so they can properly protect any confidential information, whether it be their own, the company’s, or information that belongs to a customer.
Employee Code of Conduct for Company Representation in Online Communications
This should discuss what’s okay for someone to do online, either on or off social media platforms, specifically when they are acting on behalf of, or otherwise representing the company. This is especially important for words and phrases that aren’t allowed to be used, and properly addressing negativity.
Tell your employees what’s acceptable when dealing with the negativity.
Listen to what the person is saying and correct mistakes. For instance, apologize and invite them to take the conversation to email where you can deal with matters privately.
Diffuse the situation using humor.
Ignore when appropriate – troll, rather than a customer.
Block or ban when appropriate – outline when this is acceptable.
Respond with facts.
Employee Facebook Usage Policy
Your company cannot tell its employees they can’t have a personal Facebook page. But it can dictate whether or not they are allowed to speak of the company on their personal page, how they are allowed to speak of it, and whether they are allowed to use their personal Facebook accounts while at work. It should clearly define the consequences of disregarding any of the policy, explaining when it is possible for an employee to be terminated as a result of their social media activity.
Facebook Brand Page Usage Policy
This should outline when it’s okay to use the brand page, how it’s okay to use it, and who is authorized to use it. Not everyone who works for your company will need admin access to the page, regardless of permission level.
Facebook Public Comment and Messaging Policy
Common sense is a major factor here – but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea to let employees know of the expected conduct and potential consequences. When it is okay to ignore a comment? What’s the ideal response time?
Personal Blogging Policy
Is it okay for an employee to have a personal blog? Can they talk about their work with your company there? Can they mention your company by name? Must they use a pen name if they choose to blog personally? Adidas’ social media policy, for instance, says employees are allowed to associate themselves with the company, but must clearly brand their posts as personal and completely their own. This allows them to breed employee advocacy, while also absolving them of any liability as a result of repercussions of employee conduct. They’re also not allowed to discuss any confidential information pertaining to company records or client information.
Best Buy’s social media policy follows this same guidelines, but adds that content such as “racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, and physical disability slurs are not tolerated.
Your policy should outline who to contact or what to do if an employee’s blog posts generates media coverage. Employees should know who to reach out to, and how to best reach out, if any member of the media contacts them about the blog posts relating to the company.
If an employee wants to blog about something, but isn’t sure whether the specific information has been publicly disclosed, they should also reach out to PR to get any necessary clarification, as outlined in Yahoo’s blog guidelines.
Blogging Disclosure Policy
If an employee has a personal blog, what must they disclose about their relationship with your company and any parent/sister companies?What must they disclose in their content? It’s a good idea to cover FTC regulations regarding affiliate links, sponsored posts, and product reviews, here too, so all employees know what they have to do. It’s also a good idea to discuss the consequences of noncompliance.
If you struggle with getting a disclosure policy in place, there are many templates and generators that you can direct your employees to, and even use on your corporate blog.
Corporate Blogging Policy
This should include information about the use of the corporate blog, as well as the commenting policy, and the approval process for blog posts. What channels must the post go through before it is live? Who is the person in charge of hitting the publish button? What happens if an error is caught after the fact? Is it removed completely, or is an update published at the bottom to reflect the difference between the live and original versions of the post?
What photo repositories are acceptable for use with blog posts? What is the correct way to attribute photos to remain in compliance with copyright law? Some of this information can be included in your brand and writing style guide, as well.
It’s always a good idea to respond to blog comments you get, but you should outline expectations for response time. Anything about what’s acceptable vs. what’s not should already be covered in the basic conduct policies.
Personal Social Networking Policy
How should employees behave on their personal social networking platforms, even those that the company is not currently participating in? Are they allowed to mention they work for the company? Make sure they understand that if they do mention they work for a company, how they behave online could be construed as a reflection of the company. Outline what is okay and what could potentially lead to termination.
LinkedIn Policy
Create a policy specific to the use of LinkedIn for employees and for your corporate brand page, similar to the way you’ve done for Facebook. This is especially important if you have people working in the B2B space, using the platform for lead generation and relationship nurturing.
Personal Twitter Policy
Like the blogging and Facebook policy, outline a policy regarding the personal use of Twitter accounts as they relate to your company.
Corporate Twitter Policy
What’s okay to say and do on the corporate Twitter account? Should anyone who follows the corporate account automatically be followed back? Is anyone who has access to the corporate account allowed to find new followers, or is that limited to a select person or small group of people?
Corporate YouTube Policy
What is the approval process for new videos? Who is in charge of recording and editing? What is the process after a new video goes live? Think about this the same way you do the corporate blog. If customers or employees are to be featured in the videos, make sure to have the necessary legal releases for use of the material.
Corporate YouTube Public Comment Policy
Like Facebook public comments – what’s okay and what’s not when it comes to YouTube? When should brand representatives address comments? When it is okay to ignore, block/ban? How quickly should they aim to respond to comments?
Company Password Policy
Who has access to the passwords? How of often are the passwords changed? What happens if something goes awry with an employee who has access to those passwords? Think you don’t need a plan for that? Learn from British entertainment retailer, HMV. They announced massive corporate layoffs, and if you do the same, make sure you’ve changed the social media passwords – especially Twitter. Though the tweets were deleted regularly as the struggle between exiting employees and management, screen grabs show social media manager Poppy Rose live tweets about the layoffs from the corporate account. The story goes viral while other managers are racing to reset the corporate Twitter account password.
Create a Massive Social Media Policy Now or Add Policies as You Need Them?
You have the option to create one massive social media policy now, to address all aspects of your social media usage. Or, you can create only the elements you need, adding to and adapting the policy as you bring additional networks into your corporate social media strategy. If you’re unsure of where to begin, the Social Media Governance database can help you see many examples of how companies are handling their social media policies. It’s broken down into various categories, including: academics, agencies, B2B, B2C, government, healthcare, and non-profit. You can even choose guides and templates to help you get started, and then take a look at what others in your industry are doing to mimic it.
Guidelines for Building Your Own Policies
The most effective social media policies are much more than a collection of dos and don’ts. The best policies consider company culture, the employees, and the organization as a whole. It’s not about imposing as many restrictions as possible, but rather, developing a set of rules that fit the culture well and are clearly articulated to the point that your team will follow the rules without even thinking about it. Don’t discourage social media use – you want to build a policy that allows your team members to actively be on social working as brand advocates.
Once your policy has been finalized, make sure all your employees receive it. Allow them to ask questions and address any concerns they may have with the policies you’ve developed. Take note of feedback, and consider making updates for clarity, if necessary.
Keep the policy in a central location, where employees know how to access it, so they can get to it for review whenever they have a question or want a refresher. Keep it separate from the employee handbook, to avoid information overload.
Does your company have a social media policy in place? Why or why not? How has it helped you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Many brands lack a key piece of the puzzle for consistency – a brand style guide. Why do you need one? Well, if you’re like a lot of businesses out there, you’ve got several people, some in-house, some contracted, working to produce all your collateral and assets. And if you don’t want to spend a lot of time editing to ensure everything looks like it came from the same place, the brand style guide can save the day.
You can use the guide to create anything you need for your brand – your website, advertisements, social media graphics, internal memos, or anything else your heart desires. I know you’re thinking, “If these things are such life savers, why aren’t more businesses using them?” The answer is quite simple: they take time and effort to create – and time, especially for the small business owner, is a precious commodity, often better spent on different tasks.
But, imagine this:
You hire a designer to get your logo situated. You’re happy with it – you have your colors, fonts, spacing, and all that figured out. You move on, and months down the road, you need the information again. Your original designer doesn’t have the files anymore, and can’t take on new work. You have a deadline for a new project that needs the assets, so you have no choice but to go find a second designer – and thus find yourself explaining the needs for colors, fonts, and spacing, yet again.
Your brand style guide, if you’d had it established, would cut all that craziness out – because it clearly outlines your requirements. You can hand it off with to that second designer, and anything they, or a third, or fourth designer creates, will look the same as what that first designer created, and you’re not spending time – when your business is growing and you’re busy with other tasks – rehashing all the details to get what you need.
That’s why I’ve created this handy little cheatsheet – a guide to style guides, if you will, to help you.
Determine Logo Size and Placement Requirements for the Brand Style Guide
Your logo is an essential part of your brand, and needs to be consistent as you go along. Use your style guide to dictate the ways you allow use of your logo. You should include any acceptable variations – such as black and white usage. As important as proper usage is, your brand style guide should also clearly define unacceptable logo usage.
For guideline examples, you can take a look at Google and their requirements.. They tell you exactly what you can do, and exactly what you cannot, to remain in compliance. For instance, you must distinguish the trademark from the surrounding text. You cannot use anything other than Google approved artwork, and you should not feature the brand in any way that could imply a relationship between your company and Google. For more inspiration, check out the Apple Style Guide.
Choose Your Color Palette
Orange is orange, and red is red, right? Wrong. Colors can have slight variations from program to program, and from designer to designer. This is why you must establish the color palette in the beginning, and stick to it over time.
You can choose whatever colors you want, and with the HEX color codes in the style guide, designers, regardless of who works on what design asset, will always been the same. But, beyond the HEX codes for web uses, you’ll also need the CMYK values and Pantone colors for anything that will be printed. This is because of slight differences between the RGB colors used for the web, and CMYK used in print. Sometimes, though, these differences are much more drastic than you’d think, so it’s important to check them manually to ensure accuracy to save time and money before printing.
Regardless of the fonts you choose – they should be a reflection of your corporate identity. And beyond that, the typography must remain consistent to send a professional message. In your brand style guide, you can dictate which fonts are used, the size and typeface used, and how. It’s okay to have a variety of type faces, as long as the purpose is established for each. The style guide tells designers which ones to use and where. If possible, go beyond the size, factoring in kerning and leading, for true consistency.
Choose Your Iconography
Patterns and icons can be used to set your brand apart from others, if they are used effectively. You don’t have to have iconography, or patterns of course, but they can be useful on your website or packaging. Take for instance, the pattern on the inside of the box from Game of Love, done by October Ink.
Choose Your Photography Specifications
Photography is certainly a reflection of your brand, and depending on the style, can evoke the wrong response from the audience. Photos are necessary for all brands – even if you’re not taking photos of actual products. If you routinely work with photographers, include style and specification notes to help make their job easier. As you can see from the Barnes & Noble Style Guide, there’s a page completely dedicated to photography.
Some photographers can shoot in whatever style you ask, while others shoot in their own unique style. This is why knowing what you want ahead of time, and providing the information to photographers you want to work with, can be beneficial, saving you time and money.
Factor in Your Web-Specific Elements
Your website needs to match your brand as much as anything else. Many of thing things you create for print will work for digital, but there are also elements you’ll need only for online – like Facebook and Twitter profile covers, and other social media images, that you may not have considered.
Your website will have elements like buttons, that aren’t used anywhere else, but should still match your brand. Don’t forget to consider your 404 page – an error for the user. You could design it to at least make it fun.
Remember Your Brand Voice
Your brand voice and brand style guide go hand in hand. You should sound and look a certain way – and even though it’d be nice, it’s not always possible to have the same person writing for you all the time. Even if you have the same person producing your web content, that person may not be available to write the copy for print, and so on. That’s where the brand voice comes in handy – giving anyone who writes for you some basic guidelines to follow so that everything has the same sound.
In this section, you can include words and phrases you want to appear, along with a list of words that should be avoided. Information about the target audience for your website can also be helpful.
Bonus: Writing Style Guide
As a kind of extension to the point above – I thought I would add a writing style guide as a bonus. Ideally, this document should be separate from the brand style guide, because your designers aren’t necessarily going to be your writers and your writers won’t necessarily be you designers. But, if you ever have one person who will be handling both, you could easily distribute both guides to them.
Your writing style guide is basically the same as your brand style guide, except it refers to the formatting and rules regarding the text on your website and printed brand materials. The key is to keep the document fairly short.
Being comprehensive is a good thing, but if the document gets too long, it’s hard to use on a daily basis. That’s why information about your branding, or content operations, should be kept separate.
Your writing style guide should include:
Style Manual: There are two big ones to use – AP Style or Chicago Manual of Style. Look through them to compare, and then choose which one you want to adopt. They both have online subscriptions available you can purchase for your team to reference. There may be some exceptions to the rules for your branding, tone, and style, and you’ll want to highlight those, as well. Things to consider here include: what to abbreviate, what to capitalize, and whether or not you use an Oxford comma.
Troublesome Words: ecommerce or e-commerce? Website or web site? Ebook or eBook or e-book? Internet or internet? And so on…
Style and Tone: How should the content sound to the reader? Are you okay with the use of industry jargon? Should the content be written conversationally? Academically? Is humor okay? If so, what level of humor?
Personas: We’ve already covered the importance of buyer personas, and how to create them. Anyone who’s writing content for you can benefit from seeing these, so they know they’re crafting the content in such a way that speaks to the audience.
Graphics and Formatting: This isn’t quite the same as stuff in your brand style guide, because it refers to the use of images in your content, and how it is to be formatted. What size images are acceptable? What formats? How should images be included in the content? How should they be aligned? How should images be attributed to the source? Where should attribution be? Below the image or at the end of the article? Should text wrap around the images? What headers are used and when? Are bold, italics, and underlining allowed? Under which instances? What kind of bullets should be used? How should numbered lists appear?
Acceptable Sources for Research: What sources are okay for information? What sources are not okay? Which brands (competition) are not okay to mention? What sources (Wikipedia) are not okay to use? Which sources do you prefer your writers to use?
Sourcing Protocol: Which format do you want writers to use when sourcing data? Is just linking to the information okay, or do they need to use a certain citation method? Which citation method?
Examples of Right vs. Wrong: Provide examples of the right way and the wrong way to do things – from the troublesome words and style, to the graphics and formatting, and the way the sources are cited. This way, writers can see what they’re supposed to do and how it should look, so they have something for reference.
Invest Time Now, for Smoother Operations Later
No one says your brand or writing style guides have to be done right now or even in a single sitting. In fact, it’s a good idea to involve other people in the creation of both documents, to ensure you’re not missing anything. It can be a pain in the neck to go over these details now, yes, but it can be an even bigger pain when you’ve got several assets that don’t look and sound consistent with your brand messaging.
If you’re a startup with a limited budget, Canva at Work can help you. You can save a brand kit, with colors, fonts, and a variety of templates for documents and images you’d use online and off, in the account. This can make it easier to keep track of everything as you go.
When your style guides are done, make them easy for the people who need them to find them and use them. Include them in your company’s internal wiki, a shared Dropbox or Google Drive folder, or somewhere else that makes sense. Have them readily accessible for any freelancers who may need them.
Your style guides, both brand and writing, are “living” documents. Any time new questions or issues arise regarding proper usage and you develop a solution, make sure it is included in the updated version of the guide. Date your guides with each release, so you can make sure everyone is using the most up-to-date option.
Does your company use a brand or writing style guide? Why or why not? If you haven’t created one now, is this on your list of things to do in 2017? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.
Understanding how to make your content go viral is an ongoing, uphill challenge. To make content go viral in 2017, it was essential to understand audience preferences, leverage trending topics, and create shareable, engaging content. Utilizing visual elements like videos and infographics, crafting compelling headlines, and optimizing for social sharing was crucial. Collaborating with influencers and timely promotion also played significant roles in viral content success.
Have you ever wondered what makes content go viral? While sometimes it is just the luck of the draw, there’s been research to show what makes some types of content do better than others online.
This infographic breaks down the key things you need to create viral content: sharability, emotion, readership, imagery, and usefulness.
Copy and paste the code below to share this image on your site!
Creating content that goes viral involves a deep understanding of what resonates with your audience and triggers sharing. The first step is to tap into the emotions and interests of your target audience. Content that elicits strong emotional responses, be it laughter, awe, inspiration, or even outrage, is more likely to be shared. Incorporating storytelling can amplify this effect, as stories are naturally engaging and memorable. It’s important to create content that feels authentic and relatable, as this fosters a deeper connection with the audience. Additionally, staying abreast of current trends and cultural moments can help create relevant and timely content that captures the collective interest.
The format and presentation of content are equally critical for virality. Visual elements like images, infographics, and videos tend to engage more effectively than text-only content. Videos, especially, have the power to go viral if they are short, captivating, and have a strong hook in the first few seconds. The content should be easily shareable; this means considering the platforms on which it will be shared and optimizing the content accordingly. For instance, content for Instagram should be visually appealing, while Twitter content should be concise and witty. Making content interactive, such as through polls, quizzes, or contests, can also increase engagement and shareability. Moreover, crafting catchy, intriguing headlines and descriptions can encourage clicks and shares.
Finally, the dissemination strategy is vital in determining a piece of content’s viral potential. Leveraging influencers and brand advocates to share your content can significantly increase its reach. Social media platforms are key in this regard; understanding the nuances of each platform and tailoring the content to fit can make a big difference. Timing also plays a crucial role – releasing content when your audience is most active online increases visibility. Continuous engagement with the audience post-release through comments, shares, and follow-up posts can sustain the momentum. However, it’s important to note that virality often involves an element of unpredictability and luck. While these strategies can increase the chances of content going viral, they do not guarantee it, and it’s crucial to maintain consistent quality and authenticity in all content creation efforts.
No matter the size of your business, if you want to help it grow, there needs to be at least some focus on social media. Whether you’ve already come with a streamlined social media workflow, or if you’re trying to develop one for the new year to help you accomplish your business goals, setting a few minutes aside now to plan where the next 12 months are going on a social media calendar can save lots of time later when you get busy with other aspects of running the business.
Use a Template
There are a ton of various social media calendar templates available online, and to make it easier for you, I’ve selected a few to help you get started.
Weekly Template: This Excel template allows you to fill in the title and description of the content, links to the supporting documents, the author or the writer, the deadline, and the channels it’ll be promoted on.
Social Media Content Calendar: This Excel template allows you to plan out all the social media messaging you’ll use to promote your content. It is organized by date and time. You can’t plan the engagement in advance, or course, but it can help make sure you’re not neglecting any social channels. It includes Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Additional rows can be added for more updates or other networks.
Weekly Content Calendar: This Excel template allows you to plan everything you’ll need for a social media calendar, giving you room for the content title, the copy, images, links, and lets you note click engagements. This way, you can tell which types of content or posting times are working best for your audience.
You can always customize the template to your needs, but this helps you make sure you’ve got a status update in mind for each time you plan to post every day. Some templates, like the one from Hootsuite, make batch scheduling updates easy, too.
Start with Holidays and Themes
It’s super easy to plan content for holidays your business and audience celebrates. You don’t have to plan every single word of your content for the later holidays on your social media calendar, but at least you’ll get an idea of the content you will need to create before the holidays approach.
January: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day
February: Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, Super bowl Sunday, Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras
March: International Women’s Day, Ides of March, St. Patrick’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday
April: April Fool’s Day
May: May Day, Star Wars Day, Cinco De Mayo, Mother’s Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day
June: Flag Day, Father’s Day, Junetheeth Day,
July: Independence Day
August: No federal holidays, but many brands can tie into Back to School season
September: Labor Day, 9/11 Remembrance Day, Grandparents Day
December: Festivus, Chanukah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanza, New Year’s Eve
After going through holidays, think about themes related to your niche, or any unofficial holidays you can take advantage of, like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, and Green Monday.
For instance, Holiday Insights provides a full list of strange holidays for the entire year. January 4 is National Spaghetti Day, which would be a great tie-in for an Italian restaurant. National Pasta Day comes along on October 17.
Next, think of themes you can use to your advantage every month.
January
National Bath Safety Month
National Blood Donor Month
National Braille Literacy Month
National Hobby Month
Hot Tea Month
National Oatmeal Month
National Soup Month
February
American Heart Month
An Affair to Remember Month
Black History Month
Canned Food Month
Creative Romance Month
Great American Pie Month
National Cherry Month
National Children’s Dental Health Month
National Grapefruit Month
National Weddings Month
March
Irish American Month
Music in Our Schools Month
National Craft Month
National Frozen Food Month
National Irish American Heritage Month- designated by Congress in 1995.
National Nutrition Month
National Peanut Month
National Women’s History Month
Red Cross Month
Social Workers Month
April
National Humor Month
International Guitar Month
Keep America Beautiful Month
Lawn and Garden Month
National Poetry Month
National Pecan Month
National Welding Month
Records and Information Management Month
Stress Awareness Month
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Week 1 Library Week
Week 1 Read a Road Map Week
Week 2 Garden Week
Week 3 Organize Your Files Week
Week 3 Medical Labs Week
Week 4 Administrative Assistants Week
Week 4 National Karaoke Week
May
Date Your Mate Month
Foster Care Month
National Barbecue Month
National Bike Month
National Blood Pressure Month
National Hamburger Month
National Photograph Month
National Recommitment Month
National Salad Month
Older Americans Month
Week 1 Nurses Week
Week 2 Wildflower Week
Week 3 National Bike Week
Week 3 National Police Week
Week 4 Emergency Medical Services Week
June
Aquarium Month
Candy Month
Dairy Month
Fight The Filthy Fly Month
Gay Pride Month
National Accordion Awareness Month
National Adopt a Cat Month
National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
Rose Month
Turkey Lovers Month
Week 1 Fishing Week
Week 1 National Gardening Week
Week 2 Email Week
July
National Blueberry Month
National Anti-Boredom Month
Unlucky Month for Weddings
National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month
National Picnic Month
Week 2 Nude Recreation Month
August
Admit You’re Happy Month
Family Fun Month
National Catfish Month
National Eye Exam Month
National Golf Month
Peach Month
Romance Awareness Month
Water Quality Month
National Picnic Month
Week 1 International Clown Week
Week 1 National Simplify Your Life Week
Week 2 National Smile Week
Week 3 Friendship Week
Week 4 Be Kind to Humankind Week
September
Classical Music Month
Hispanic Heritage Month
Fall Hat Month
International Square Dancing Month
National Blueberry Popsicle Month
National Courtesy Month
National Piano Month
Chicken Month
Baby Safety Month
Little League Month
Honey Month
Self Improvement Month
Better Breakfast Month
October
Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
American Pharmacist Month
Apple Jack Month
Awareness Month
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Clergy Appreciation Month
Computer Learning Month
Cookie Month
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Eat Country Ham Month
International Drum Month
Lupus Awareness Month
National Diabetes Month
National Pizza Month
National Vegetarian Month
National Popcorn Popping Month
Sarcastic Month
Seafood Month
Week 1 Get Organized Week
Week 1 Customer Service Week
Week 2 Fire Prevention Week
Week 2 Pet Peeve Week
Week 3 Pastoral Care Week
November
Aviation History Month
Child Safety Protection Month
International Drum Month
National Adoption Awareness Month
National Caregivers Appreciation Month
National Diabetes Awareness Month
National Epilepsy Month
National Model Railroad Month
National Novel Writing Month
Native American Heritage Month
Peanut Butter Lovers Month
Real Jewelry Month
National Sleep Comfort Month
Week 1 Chemistry Week
Week 3 Game and Puzzle Week
December
Bingo Month
Write a Friend Month
Move into Your Blog’s Editorial Calendar
Once you have a basic idea of the main holidays and themes you want to address with your social media accounts, take a look at your blog’s editorial calendar to see which posts you’ll promote where, and how often. Plug those in where appropriate, as they align with the calendar year and your marketing campaigns. At this point, you should at least have a general idea of the social content you’ll post over the course of the year.
If you need help with your blog’s editorial calendar, there are templates to assist with that, as well. And, you can use the holidays from above to generate new content ideas for your blog, if you want.
Move into Your Blog’s Archived Content
If you’ve got an established blog, there’s plenty of content available that you’ve written in the past that can be worth sharing again. For example, if you have a health blog, you’ve likely already written a post about National Diabetes Month in previous years. You don’t have to write an entirely new post this year – you can just edit it slightly to update it for any new events you may know of, and then share it again.
Which blog posts should you use? Hop into your Google Analytics account and look at the most popular posts for each month over the last year. Then pick the top two or three, and figure out where to schedule them. Keep in mind that you don’t want to be overly promotional, and you’ll need to leave room in the calendar for the current content, as well.
Sprinkle in Some Curated Content
Now that you’ve got the basics of what you’ll be promoting for your business throughout the year, it’s time to move on to what you’ll promote for others. You don’t want to plan too much curated content at once – because just like you, others will be producing content throughout the year.
If you don’t want to plan too much actual curated content – you can at least make sure you have the placeholders in the template, so you know when and how much content you need to pull to fill it in.
I’ve already written on this topic, so you can check out my post on 9 Content Curation Tools you can use to fill your queue with top quality content your audience will love. Since you should aim for no more than than about 20% of what you share on your social media channels being promotional or related to your business, the bulk of your content should be curated from other sources.
Leave Room for Humor and Engagement
Not every single post you share on social media for the year has to have a link to your blog, or another blog your audience finds useful. You can leave room in the calendar for sharing funny memes, (or any other meme that’s in line with your brand voice, if humor’s not really your thing) and for asking questions to help foster engagement.
Examples include:
What’s your favorite _____ and why?
What’s your most hated ______ and why?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What’s your favorite color?
How old were you when you first ______?
If you won the lottery tomorrow, the first thing you would do is ______.
Depending on the questions you ask, you can use them to get insight into your audience. For instance, if you’re planning a new product launch soon, and you want to know what colors you should make it in, asking the favorite color question may be useful so you can see what colors they’d be most likely to buy – without outright asking them.
Beyond questions, you can create polls to use right on Facebook, too.
Use a Social Scheduling Tool
Though I don’t recommend scheduling things too far out in advance, you can use something like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule your social media posts for at least a week, or even a month or two ahead of time.
As you work on building your 2017 social media calendar for the year, focus effort on getting concrete post content ready for January so you can pop it into the tool of your choice and stay ahead of the game the rest of the year.
Save Time and Rock Social Media
Okay, so maybe you won’t have your entire social calendar planned out in minutes – and you really shouldn’t want to… but at least you’ll have a general idea of everything you’ll cover over the course of the year. As you plan your updates, remember that you shouldn’t use the same exact update for each social media platform. If you’re struggling for ways to change things up, I’ve also written on foolproof ways to adapt social content so you can use the same content across all your channels, in the format that’s most conducive to the platform.
The bare bones plan for the entire year will make the actual development of the calendar each month go much faster than if you start each month with a blank canvas.
How far in advance are you trying to plan your calendar? Do you find that having a roadmap for the entire year helps?
Whether you set personal New Year’s resolutions or not – and whether you’re still sticking to them at the end of January, this is a wonderful time to reflect on where you are with your business, conduct an end of year analysis, and set some goals to help carry you through 2017.
The Power of Goal Setting
Goals give you direction – something to aim for, to keep you moving forward. It’s easy to get lost in a storm of options for your business, and when you have ideas flowing through you, you can pick one thing up and work on it – then move on to the next. As a result, nothing’s really organized, and you haven’t made clear progress on anything. By goal setting, you have a clear cut plan on what you want to do, so you can work toward getting there. Then, you get there, and move on to the next one.
Goals make it easy to climb mountains. When you’re just starting out, getting to the big dream can seem like such a task you get discouraged. Instead of wondering how you’ll get to the top of that mountain and giving up before you even start the climb, goals are like little campsites on the journey. As you move through each one, you’ll feel more energized to make it to the next one and so on, until suddenly, before you know it, you’re at the top of that mountain, and you’ve accomplished your dream.
Goal setting inspire us. It’s about more than creating a plan and keeping yourself accountable – I’ll get to that in a minute – but it’s about giving us the inspiration we need to take action and keep working toward our dreams. If you don’t make it a goal and start taking steps to reach it, why do you believe you can accomplish it? Dreams without progress, albeit slow at times, are nothing more than vague concepts in your head. Make it happen!
Goal setting hold us accountable. Writing down your goals, complete with a timeline for when you hope to achieve them can help you look back and re-evaluate if you don’t accomplish your goals. It’s humbling to look back on a goal you set yourself six months, one year, and five years ago, realizing that you were supposed to get more done than you actually did. It’s a sign that what you’re doing isn’t working, and you have to make some real changes to get where you want to.
On the other hand, it is highly gratifying to look back at those goals and realize you’ve not only accomplished them, but surpassed them. Either way, it’s a great look at how far you’ve come, whether you missed the mark or not.
More than 80% of small business owners don’t keep track of their business goals. Nearly half of the people who take the time to write their goals down (40%), don’t go back to check whether the goals were achieved.
Think About What You Want to Accomplish
Sit down with a pen and paper and think about the things you want to accomplish in business. Some example goals to get you started include:
Delegate at least X% of my work to other team members.
Increase number of clients by X% or add X clients.
Increase profit by $X or $X%.
Decrease customer churn by X%.
Give yourself concrete, measurable numbers, so you know whether or not you achieved the goal. If you don’t, you can simply delegate a single task and say you’ve reached your goal.
When Do You Want to Accomplish It?
Now, so you take action and don’t allow yourself to get lazy, add a timeline to your goal. For example:
Delegate at least 10% of my work to other team members by the end of January 2017.
Add five new clients by the end of February 2017.
Increase profit by $5,000 in the first half of 2017, or increase profits by 50% by December 31, 2017.
Decrease customer churn by 5% in the first half of 2017.
Without this timeline, it will be easy to lose sight of your goal and move onto other things. The timeline gives you a finite date to accomplish the goal, making it easier to make and stick to a plan to get it done.
Determine a reasonable amount of time it will take to complete the goal. You may need to break the goal into sub goals and determine how long each of those will take to get a better idea of how much time it will take.
When setting up your timeline, build in a buffer of extra time for each step, since most of the time, things take longer than we expect them to. Then, consider how much time you can devote each day or week to completing the goal.
Once you know how long it takes to complete the goal and how much time you can devote to it, design the schedule for starting each sub goal so you can stay on track.
For instance, if you want to lose 30 pounds, and you can reasonably only lose one pound a week, you know you’ll reach your goal in about seven months. You could lose five pounds in a bit over a month.
How Can You Make It Happen?
Here comes the fun part. How can you make your goals happen? What do you have to do to get to where you want to go?
In the case of the goal to delegate your tasks, you’ll need to first decide which tasks you can easily delegate, and then decide who you can delegate them to. If you don’t have a staff on hand already, you’ll need to first decide if you’re going to hire actual employees, or if you’re going to find freelancers to outsource the work to.
Then, you’ll need to train them to handle whatever tasks you want to delegate. This may take a few minutes, a few days, weeks, or months, depending on the complexity of the tasks you’re passing off. Though you’ll have to invest time and energy into the initial training, the time savings in the long run can help you focus on other areas of the business where only your talents and skills will suffice.
When it comes to adding clients – there are several ways you can do this, so you’ll need to decide which methods you’re going to use, and then take steps to implement them. Are you going to invest more money in advertising? Are you going to ask your current clients to send you referrals? Invest more time and effort in online marketing? Post flyers? Pass out more business cards? Attend more networking events? Run sales and discounts to entice new customers to come on board? A combination of several of these options?
If your goal is to increase profits, you can use many tactics like the ones above to bring in more customers – because more paying customers mean more money in your pocket. But, you can also tackle this from the other side, by working to reduce expenses, too.
Are there vendor service contracts you can either cut or renegotiate at a lower rate? Different vendors offering better deals for the products and services you need to run your business? Can you use less paper and ink and shift more documents to digital only?
If you want to decrease customer churn, you need a strategy. It’s not just one or two small things you can do and suddenly have better customer retention. One of the best things you can do is train your sales team to set and meet the appropriate expectations from the start. If you can’t deliver on your promises, then of course the customer’s not going to be happy.
To develop a customer retention strategy, ask yourself how you are different from the competition, and what your customers lose when they leave you for the competition. Knowing the answers to these questions helps you zero in on your competitive advantage. Once you know what this is, make some changes to highlight these advantages so customers see them as clear differentiators.
Take the time to listen to what your customers are saying, and make it easy for them to give you feedback. Use customer satisfaction surveys, because they’re easy to implement and you can send them after the sale. The information customers give you in those surveys is highly valuable. You can use their insights to help stop customer churn and improve your overall service for new customers.
For best results, keep the surveys branded and personalized. Make it responsive so customers can easily access the survey from either their desktop or their mobile devices. Keep it short – under 10 questions – so more people are likely to complete it. They don’t want to take too much time out of their day, and you should respect that. Make sure you have a clear objective with each survey, knowing the information you want before you send the first one. Track your feedback over time, so you can watch for changes in customer satisfaction levels.
Beyond using customer satisfaction surveys, you can also call your customers. You can engage them on social media, and use social listening tools to find out what people are saying about your brand. By listening to customer feedback, you can find the problems that are negatively affecting their experience – then take action to address it before the customer leaves for the competition.
Goals Aren’t Set in Stone
The beauty of a goal is that you can change it as necessary, and you can make as many smaller goals as you want along the way. Simply saying, “I want to increase profits” or “I want to lose weight” isn’t enough. While your ultimate goal may be to increase profits by 500% or lose 100 pounds, that’s a huge mountain to try to climb all at once.
Instead, start with something like, “I want to increase profits by 20% next quarter” or “I want to lose 5 pounds by one month from today.” These smaller goals are more attainable and less overwhelming, so when you reach them, you can set new mini-goals to help you get to that final goal. But, let’s say you reach that first goal before you expected to – increasing profits by 20% in the first month of the next quarter. Now, you can challenge yourself to take it further. As your business changes, your goals should change. If you find that your goal is a little too lofty, it’s okay to go backslide a bit to a more reasonable goal.
Your business goals help you measure your success. They help you make sure everyone in leadership positions is on the same page – even if it’s only you, for now. They help you understand the effects of your business decisions, and guide you in the right directions.
Since these goals are not set in stone – make a list of goals now, and work toward them. Then, when you get through the first half of the year, sit down and reassess where you are. Continually monitor your business progress against your goals, so you can decide whether or not you need to adjust course before you had originally intended. Almost half (46%) of companies review and revise their goals on a regular basis over the course of a year.
Do you set goals for yourself every year, either business or personal? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments. I’d love to hear from both sides on this one.
Your company story is a vital part of your branding and customer experience. It sets the tone for who you are, and what customers can expect from you. It’s the foundation of building connections with your customers, because when all is said and done, you’re in the business of solving problems for your customers, and doing so in a way that makes people happy. The money you get as a result, is really nothing more than a reflection of your business model and satisfied customers.
Storytelling is an incredibly powerful way to build relationships. It brings people together – think about sitting with your grandparents, listening to them talk about what life was like when they were growing up. Didn’t it make you feel closer to them? Storytelling for business remains powerful regardless of where you are, the language you speak, or how big your brand is. When done right, a compelling brand story can give small businesses an edge against the competition.
And in doing marketing well, you’ll use storytelling for business in more than just your brand story. You’ll weave it into every type of content you’re producing, whether it’s blog content, ad content, infographic content, or a video script.
Every day, customers are bombarded with advertising to the point where they often feel overwhelmed, and start ignoring it. You’re not immune to this effect, so you know what I’m talking about. As marketers, we need to remember what it’s like from the customer standpoint, and use our storytelling ability to stand out from the competition.
With that said, let’s take a closer look at what your story is telling customers – to make sure you’re not only sending the right message, but doing it in the best possible way.
Is Your Story Customer Centric?
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is crafting a story that’s about them. To connect with your customers, especially on the emotional level required to build a relationship, you have to stop thinking (and talking) about your company, and change the perspective. Customers don’t care about how awesome you are and what you’ve achieved. They care about what you can do for them.
It’s easy to make your brand story company-centric, and while you may think this is the approach that works, the truth is it risks coming off as egotistical and boring. People aren’t going to have a good impression of your business, and they most certainly aren’t going to connect with you on an emotional level.
Is Your Story Truthful?
The word “story” often connotes a sense of make-believe, but when it comes to your brand, truth is essential. Any and all marketing content should be showing, rather than telling, customers how your company is relatable. Everything should be based in real situations, helping real people, built on real emotion, and fact.
Is Your Story Original?
Unless your pioneering an industry, chances are that there’s at least one other company in your space, competing for the same customer base you are. You may have a similar brand story, but no matter how similar you are to another company, you must create originality when storytelling for business. One of the best ways to do this is to consider what’s interesting about your company, and why this is important. This is what makes you different from the rest of the businesses that are out there doing the same thing you are, even if they’re doing it for the same reasons.
How to Write a Compelling Brand Story
Start with notes about where you came from as a company, where you are now, and where you’re heading. Begin with who the founder is, and why the company was started in the first place. Don’t leave out any details – your customers want to know the inspiration behind what motivated you to start the business. Be sure to highlight the points that show why you’re in business – the true purpose of your organization.
Next, develop a statement to explain why your company exists. Keep it different from your company mission and vision statements – it does not fall into either of these categories. Instead, this statement takes the deeper purpose of the company into consideration… what matters to the customers and the stakeholders, and is driven by values.
If you’re struggling with this part, ask yourself:
Why is our company here?
How are we making the world better?
This will give you the basis for your statement, and it’s with that statement in hand that you’ll be able to craft your story. It is the starting point, and from there, you’ll aim for a one-page document that supposed it.
It should tell the narrative of your brand – where you’ve come from, and where you’re going, in an authentic and truthful manner. Write it with a conversational tone, to draw your audience in and engage them. Pretend your talking to someone new over drinks, rather than giving a professional presentation. Keep it short. Write everything you want to say, to get your thoughts out on paper. Then edit. And edit again if necessary. There’s no minimum word count required to convey your message effectively.
TOMS is the perfect example. The company story clearly tells customers the founder, Blake Mycoskie, saw the hardships Argentinean children faced growing up with out shoes, while he was traveling there in 2006. He decided he wanted to help, by building a shoe company that would send a new pair of shoes to someone in need, for every single pair customers purchase.
Today, the company has given more than 60 million pairs of shoes to children in need, across 70 countries. Since the shoes have been such a success, they also launched TOMS’ Eyewear in 2011, giving glasses and eye treatments to those who need it, with the purchase of each pair of glasses. Beyond giving eyesight to more than 400,000 people in need, it helps support community-based eye care programs, and helps create jobs to provide basic eye care.
In 2014, the company launched TOMS Roasting Co. to provide more than 335,000 weeks of safe water in six countries. With each purchase of the company’s coffee, a one week supply of water is given to someone in need.
But that wasn’t enough, either. In 2015, the company went on to start Bag Collection to help train skilled birth attendants, and sending birth kits to help women safely deliver their babies. As of 2016, the program has helped more than 25,000 mothers.
Storytelling for business tells the truth – showcasing numbers to demonstrate how purchasing their products helps those in need. Yes, there’s the charitable angle to pull at the heart strings for easier engagement compared to some other industries, but the point remains the same. Tell your story to speak to your customers, and you’ve made headway in converting those prospects into buyers.
Editing Your Existing Brand Story
Let’s say you’ve already got a brand story, but you want to make what you have more compelling for your audience. Begin with focusing on why you’re doing whatever it is you do. Ask yourself:
Why am I (are we) passionate about what we do every day?
Why do I (we) wake up in the morning?
If you’re not sure where to start with the answers to these questions, ask your customers why they’re loyal to you. Ask you employees why they work for you, and their motivation for coming into work every day. Use search engines and social listening tools to find out what people are saying about your company, and how they’re talking about you.
If you’re dealing with a company-centric story, you’ll want to scrap the whole thing, or at least look for ways you can take the current text and spin it to a customer-centric style. For instance, instead of:
We build websites and online communities.
We make dog toys.
We offer home security services.
Try:
We build websites and online communities to help our clients tell their stories and share their message with the world.
We create dog toys that help keep Spot busy for hours on end, while keeping him safe, so you can rest easy knowing he’s in good hands.
We offer home security services because we’ve been there. No one should ever feel unsafe in their own home, or violated as the result of a burglary.
You’re still saying what you do, but your delving a bit into the why of you do what you do.
What makes you different than the competition? How are your products or services better at solving your customers pain points than the other solutions out there? Rethink what you’re selling. When you’re up against a lot of competition in the same space, it becomes less about the products and services themselves, and more about the experience you give customers.
If company A and company B have the same exact product and A is priced $5 lower, that doesn’t necessarily mean company A will get all of the business. While most people think of price as the key differentiator, an average of 97% of global customers say customer service is a key differentiator in their decision to use, or step away from, a company. Since 60% of customers say they have higher expectations for customer service now than they had just 12 months ago, this can be difficult. But, what it tells us is that if you, as company B, strive to provide a better overall customer experience, making the customer feel appreciated and valued, you can keep hold on a viable piece of the market share.
The Story is Done – Now What?
Once your story is done, it must be engaging and easy to share. One study shows one of every five minutes spent online is spend on social media. Why is this a big deal? Your audience is more than likely sharing content with a significant portion of the time they spend online… and you want customers to share yours to gain exposure to new prospects.
To make your brand story sharable and more distinctive from the rest, try these ideas:
Go beyond the standard text. Include photos and video. Photos enhance your story, but videos enhance it further. You have a number of options here: showcase your office space, manufacturing space, employees, and more. In your video, feature employees that speak about why they work for you, and how they hope the company helps customers. Whatever you choose to cover in the video – make it personal and feature it along side your narrative so viewers have context. It’s okay to feature customers in photos and video, too, as long as you have their legal consent to do so.
Add quotes. Getting thoughts from customers who are out there championing your brand adds distinction from the competition. You can also include quotes from leadership and business partners, if they help tell the “why” behind your story. Highlight the words or sentences that tell or support your story, with some visual flare.
The End…?
Your story doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t remain the same over time. As you grow and expand, meet and exceed goals, and keep dreaming for the future, your brand story should change and evolve as a reflection. Does it mean changing details? Maybe, if new details become relevant. But, as long as you keep the customer in mind, along side why you are in business and what motivates you, you’re in good shape.
What does your brand story say about your company? Are you pleased with the message?
Regardless of where LinkedIn falls in your company social strategy, it’s a good idea to maintain a presence there. When used correctly, it can be a powerful tool for your business, going beyond recruiting to help engage customers, share internal information with your employees, and even generate sales leads.
If you’re already using a LinkedIn strategy to promote your business, you’re one step ahead, maybe. It’s possible that you’re not using it to its fullest potential, making one or more of these mistakes.
Incomplete LinkedIn Profiles
Check your profile for completeness, and ask your employees to do the same. If there’s something missing, fill it in. Your profiles, and those of anyone who works for your company, are an extension of your brand. If left incomplete, you’re sending a message that you’re sloppy and don’t care.
Your profiles should be a representation of your brand, as well as the products and services you provide. LinkedIn does show up in Google’s search results, but beyond results for names, you’ll see them in search results for areas of expertise and skills, too.
If a potential customer or business partner sees your profile and it’s not complete, it’s reasonable for them to believe you don’t have the right networking skills, or a professional environment. And, you never know what you could be missing out on by sending that message.
Always have your profile at 100% completeness, with a photo and background art. Individual profiles should feature a headshot, or something close to a professional headshot, while your company page should have your logo. Profiles that include a photo are viewed more frequently than those that do not. In fact, having a photo on your profile makes it seven times more likely to be found in LinkedIn search results. Adding your two most recent positions makes your profile 12 times more likely to be found. And, if that’s not enough, complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through the platform.
If you’re not sure what your profiles are missing, there’s a tool on LinkedIn that can help walk you through everything so you can get the most of it. At the least, you need:
Industry and location
Current position with description
Two past positions
Education
A minimum of three skills, though five is better
A profile photo
At least 50 connections – if you need to get started, connect your address books from Gmail and other email accounts to find people you’re already in contact with.
Profiles Built for Recruits Rather Than Prospects
This is specifically for you sales reps out there. I bet you’re excited because you know your profile is complete, and you know how to use LinkedIn… and you do it every day. But, stop reading right here, and open your profile in another tab. Look closely at it as you continue reading.
If you’re like most everyone else on LinkedIn, your profile includes your:
Job history
Professional achievements
Educational background
Endorsements from others in your network
That’s great and all – but there’s one problem with it – it’s built to advertise you to recruits… and not to prospects. As a sales person, you’re not like most people on LinkedIn, and your profile should reflect that.
You can put all kinds of impressive numbers on your profile, and if you’re looking for a job that’s where you should be going. Recruiters care about these numbers, but prospects don’t.
Your prospects only care about what you can and will do for them. Your sales numbers won’t do that. It only tells them you’re good at closing deals, which sends a vibe that you’re not helping their situation, but that you could be an untrustworthy shark who’s just in it for the numbers.
Now, because you’re not said untrustworthy shark, or at least I hope you’re not, here’s how to fix it:
Scrap your old LinkedIn content, and re-write it with a focus on how your sales numbers relate to your buyers. Tell a story about the other customers you’ve helped, your industry expertise (and in other industries, if you’re selling a product that targets any others.)
Say what you do, who you work with, and how your work helps them improve. Then, show numbers your work has helped your customers achieve.
This way, your prospects see the value in what you have to offer during a sales call – making it easier for you to show them why you and the product or service you offer is the solution they’ve been looking for.
If your employees aren’t out there networking, you’re not expanding your reach. For each person who’s using LinkedIn to connect with others, your second degree connections outside the company have the potential to grow exponentially.
Encourage your team to connect with current and past colleagues, employers, friends, and classmates. They should also participate in relevant groups to share knowledge and expertise. New connections can come of relationships built in those groups.
It’s a good idea to monitor what your employees share on the network to follow along with company chatter. Does your company have a social media policy? If not, it’s time to create one, so everyone knows the rules they’re supposed to be playing by. If you do have a policy in place, make sure it’s adequate for LinkedIn, not just Facebook and Twitter.
Not Participating in LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn has hundreds of thousands of groups, so no matter what industry you’re in, there’s at least one you could actively participate it. These group discussions are an often overlooked feature that could make a lot of difference in your overall social strategy.
You can find industry news and innovations, and share your expertise with others. It gives you a chance to interact with other people to build relationships, that could be highly useful to you in the future. The key is to genuinely participate, rather than spam the group with information about your company, products, and services. Reach out to other group members when possible, providing honest feedback and help when they ask for it. If someone is struggling with a problem you’ve dealt with before, offer your advice.
Beyond your industry, find groups related to your customers’ industries, and where your customers could be active.
Incomplete Company Profile
This is along the same lines of having an incomplete profile for yourself. Your company profile is a definite reflection of your brand, and should be filled out completely, with current information.
Beyond the basics, all your products and services should be featured. You want to present them so all your potential customers or clients know everything your offer. And instead of tooting your own horn, position the information to where they see how it can help them solve their problems. It’s not about you, even though it may feel that way. Make it about your prospects, and you’ll see a difference in the quality of leads you attract, and hopefully an increase in your conversion rate.
If you don’t have a company profile, go to LinkedIn right now and take care of it. I’ll be here when you get back. Not sure where to start? LinkedIn has an entire page dedicated to resources for Company Pages Best Practices to help you get started on the right foot.
Your company page should include at the very least:
Company description
Specialties
Industry
Website
Ideally, you need to optimize for search engines, so you should use highly descriptive language with appropriate keywords throughout.
To truly flesh out your LinkedIn company page, build out your products and services page. According to LinkedIn, those who build out that page have twice as many followers as those who don’t. But, your products and services page can be used for more than that – you can also use it to showcase white papers, tutorials, and case studies.
If you have a YouTube channel, you can embed customer testimonials, product demos, or a company story video, too.
Don’t forget to add a LinkedIn button to your website to make it easy for people to follow your company profile with a single click.
Inconsistent Company Information
It’s easy to end up with inconsistent company information, as you create your company profile and forget about it. Each time you bring on an employee, your company will likely be at a different stage, thus what’s current and correct at the time, may not be current and correct the next time someone comes on board. Over time, the information you have out there about your company becomes inconsistent.
While this may not seem like a big deal, prospects are researching companies more today than they have in the past – the internet makes it incredibly easy to do that. Think about the last time you were in the market for a big purchase. How much research did you do before you decided which companies to contact? Which vendors to shop through? And how much more research after you made your decision did you do before you actually made that purchase?
Even if you didn’t see any inconsistent information over the course of your research, imagine how you would have felt if you did. Which source of information is the right one? If the company can’t keep information consistent across all platforms, are they trustworthy? Do they deserve your business? Wouldn’t you skip that company and go to another one that has the same information available across the board? I would, and I bet you would, too.
If people see two sources of information about something and they conflict, chances are they aren’t going to take the time to investigate far enough to see which source is correct. If you want to sell your business to prospects, make sure the information is consistent across the company page, and all employee profiles. Revisit your LinkedIn profiles on a regular basis, especially when things change, so you can make sure everything is current and consistent across the board… even matching all your other social media profiles.
Not Searching for Connections
You should be using LinkedIn to search for connections on all levels of your business. Customers are an obvious choice, but dig deeper. Use it to find employees, suppliers, strategic partnerships, and more.
Take time every day to search for people that fit your target demographics. When you find someone that fits the bill, whatever group they fall into, look closer to see if there are any mutual connections you can use to get an invitation to connect. If you send invitations, send a personalized message, not just the generic one, that explains why you’d like to connect, and what you could bring to the table – putting the benefit to the connection ahead of your own motives. Remember, it’s not about you – it’s about them!
Making LinkedIn Work for You
If you’ve caught yourself in any of these mistakes, today’s the day to make a change. Start with your own profile, making sure it is not only complete, but also up to date with the most current and relevant information. As you check the profile for completeness, think about the message you’re sending with it. You’re not on LinkedIn to get hired – you’re on LinkedIn to make connections with prospects. If necessary, rewrite your profile content to reflect that.
Check employee profiles and make note of places where improvements could be made. Meet with your team to make sure everyone is aware of what changes should be made, and consider having a discussion about the ways you are currently using the platform, and how you intend to use it in the future to help your business grow.
What other tips and tricks do you have for making LinkedIn a success for you? Share them below, and be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Creating social media images that stand out from the crowd is incredibly important. If the image isn’t clear, captivating, and chosen to fit within the company brand it can have a negative impact on the viewer’s impression of the company. Alternatively, a well-chosen image that has been carefully cultivated to impart a message that resonates with branding and customer expectations has the potential to create buzz throughout the social media channels on which it is shared.
There are two important components in creating authentic and memorable social media images; finding the right picture and editing it effectively. It is possible to address both components at no cost. Doing so for free may require more time, creativity, and design flexibility. For those who have a more substantial budget the options are truly limitless.
Finding Social Media Images
The first step to creating memorable social media images is choosing the perfect image. There are numerous online sources that can be used to help bloggers and businesses find the perfect picture, graphic, or video to promote their social media efforts at an acceptable price point. Remember when searching for the background of your image not to limit yourself. Be willing to experiment with vector images and short video clips if they speak to your objective.
Pixabay– This site has free images that are available to be used with Creative Commons copyright rules. At last count there were nearly 500,000 images to choose from. These include not only photographs but also vector graphics, illustrations, and videos. They can be used for commercial or private use and can be edited and altered as desired which makes them ideal for a variety of social media purposes. Many are free to use without requiring license attribution, so you don’t have to share credit.
Freepik– This company specializes in vector graphics that are required to meet some of the highest quality standards in the industry. They have implemented a freemium policy which ensures the majority of the images they offer are available to be used for free. The only requirement is that the illustration being used is credited back to Freepik. A monthly premium subscription opens up even more vector images and allows any image selected to be used without attribution.
LibreStock – This is one of the most comprehensive image search engines available. It searches numerous stock photography sites to produce the most relevant results that all are under CCO license. It’s a great way to find a wide variety of images that can be freely used, modified, and distributed without restriction.
Unsplash – This collections features stunning high resolution photographs. Through email subscription or by visiting the site daily it is possible to receive 10 new images every ten days completely free. These can be used without crediting the source of the image in any commercial or personal project. The images are presented in the larger more visually impactful version. However, it can be easier to load and view past collections by selecting the grid format.
PicJumbo – This site has several membership tiers as well as a selection of images that are available for free. While the free options are not as extensive as some of the other websites in the list, they premium membership is reasonably priced and provides new images to members every month. Higher level membership packages provide access for entire teams with a single count.
IM Free – Not only does this site offer free images for social media purposes, it also has a variety of other design resources. Some of these include button makers, templates, and icons. This can be especially useful for those who are looking to develop brand identity with cohesive components.
Gratisography– This is one of the only sites that has work created entirely by one photographer. Ryan McGuire offers a remarkable collection of his images royalty free to be used for personal or business purposes. New high resolution images are added weekly and announced via social media channels. These definitely have a creative flare that is a bit edgier than images found in other stock sites. For those with a quirky sense of style, this is a true gem.
Adobe Stock – This is one of the most natural selections, especially for those who already use one or more of the Adobe editing products. Their stock images are easily accessible from all of their editing platforms and are moderately priced. While most well known for their high-quality images, there are also a surprising number of videos and graphics available. As an added benefit, it is possible to preview the watermarked images within one of the Adobe apps before deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
Editing Images
Once you have artwork that will work with your concept it is time to create social media images that will bring your vision to life. It is important to note that one design will not fit all platforms. Images designed to be shared on Pinterest are vastly different from those that are used on Twitter or Facebook. Be sure to choose the platform and design tools that will create a design appropriate for the social media channel you intend to distribute it on.
There are many powerful free options available that allow the average person to create images that would have only been possible for a graphic designer a few short years ago. The level of editing skills needed and options available vary widely between the following options. All have a free version which makes it easy to try various editing platforms out to find the one that works best for your skill level and design needs.
Adobe Spark – This is one of the most powerful free tools available. It allows you to create social media banners, posts, videos, and even pages completely free. As mentioned previously, it is integrated with Adobe Stock and there are numerous free image options available as well as the ability to upload your own image to work with.
For social media posts there are template options that make creating copy for a specific platform easy and intuitive. You can add a variety of tinting effects, borders, and text to create a branded message. There is also a mobile app that makes creating on the go almost instantaneous.
Canva – Canva has a free platform that is robust and user friendly. The free templates are broken down by design type, channel, or document with many options available in each category. It is also possible to create an image using individually specified dimensions. As with Adobe Spark, it is possible to search through a catalog of stock images or to upload your own image. Many of the images in the Canva library are entirely free to use while others available for purchase at only $1 each. One of the more unique features of this platform is the ability to overlay images to create something with your logo prominently featured.
Canva for Work is the subscription based service that offers more flexibility by providing far more options. It is possible to save colors, fonts, logos, templates, and transparent backgrounds. It also gives you the option of uploading your own fonts and creating custom folders and has features that promote team collaboration. The resizing feature available with the Work package makes changing social media platforms with one design much easier.
PicMonkey – PicMonkey is one of the darlings of social media aficionados. There are numerous filters, fonts, and effects that can be used in an almost endless combination. The one drawback for using PicMonkey is the lack of image integration. It is easy to upload your own images but finding one to work with needs to be done outside of the site like those listed above. The other option is to use a solid or textured background, which can be stunning in its own right. These can be further modified with a number of tools such as overlays and themes. One of the really great features of using PicMonkey is that you do not have to sign up at all and can use the basic features directly from the website. However, with this option ads are prominently displayed.
As with many of the photo editing websites, there is an upgrade available. PicMonkey Royale. With the monthly subscription there are more effects, touch-up tools, fonts, cloud storage, frames, textures, overlays, collage layouts, and no ads. Both options can be accessed with the mobile app.
Gimp– This is an open source platform that is completely free to download and works in a way comparable to Photoshop. If you have the ability to code using Perl, Python, or Scheme it is possible to create some truly impressive customization options for your social media images. You can use it to create social media icons, backgrounds, banners, gorgeous images, and posts.
The one caveat is that it is best for those with design experience. Some of the tools may be too advanced for users who want a quick and attractive social media post. However, if you want tremendous flexibility, have the ability to utilize all of the tools, and do not want to pay for one of the higher end photo editing platforms this is a fantastic option.
Pixlr– This platform has two great options; Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Express. Pixlr Editor is more like Gimp or Photoshop in that it allows you to create layered images, replace colors, and even transform objects. For those who really want to up their creative game this is a powerful options.
Pixlr Express is probably the better option for people who want to quickly make creative social media posts for a variety of different platforms. It’s possible to add borders, creative effects, text, and overlays. The templates make it look like you have years of experience even if it is your first foray into the world of image editing.
Pixteller– This hidden gem has the ability to make social media cover images, posts, and posters. Like many of the options listed, this company does not have an easy way to access images. With your own image or a willingness to work with textured colors. While not as robust as some of the other options, it does offer valuable community resources that can be useful for those new to the process.
Fotor– Another free resource that makes creating basic social media images almost effortless. The editing options are more limited, however, that can make it easier for novices to use effectively.
The Right Tool for the Job
Which one of these is the absolute best tool to create a social media post that will go viral and help spread ideas across the globe? That really depends on the individual behind the creative process. There are some image sources that are more popular than others and every blogger and social media manager has their favorite editing software. However, that is their favorite and there is no clear consensus on which would be the uncontested winner for best in show.
When it comes to finding the best image, the most useful approach is to have a variety of sources that have the style and quality you are most comfortable with. That way you are not limited by the offerings of one company. If you have a clear image of what you want to create it will be far easier to locate the right visual elements to bring that image to life no matter which curation site you use.
As for transforming an image, quote, or idea into a stunning social media masterpiece, the best editing software will be the one you are most comfortable using. The best method for finding out which one of the services will best fit within your abilities and stylistic preferences is to experiment with the free versions of a variety of options until you find the one that clicks. It is important to also note that preferences may change overtime as your editing abilities and social media design needs increase. Pick what feels most comfortable to you in the moment and be willing to revise as the need arises.
As 2016 comes to a close, it’s naturally time to focus on goals for next year. One of the best things you can do in preparation for developing a new strategy, or making adjustments to your current one is a social media audit.
Why Conduct a Social Media Audit?
A social media audit is the chance to review what’s working for your business, what’s not working, and what you can improve across all the platforms you’re using. It’s up to you how often you want to go through it the audit process – but as you wrap up other activities for the year, it’s a good time to take a look at what’s going on.
Getting Started
So you can focus your efforts on what really matters, create a spreadsheet, and make sure you’ve located all your social media profiles, both official and unofficial. A simple search of your company name in Google, along with all the social networks you’re using will help you see if anyone else is using your company name. If you find imposters, make note of this, so you can go back and handle getting those shut down.
This spreadsheet will be the “home” for your audit and all your notes. I suggest creating a new sheet for each network so you have one workbook that you can look through for each audit.When you start the next audit, duplicate the information, and make edits as necessary. Customize it to your needs, but it should at least include:
Profile information – the name and URL
How often you’re posting
Date of last activity
Follower count
Referral traffic numbers
Any channel specific metrics
It’s also a good idea to have email address/login information for each profile in a central location – whether it’s in the spreadsheet or not, to make edits easier. One way to ensure security is to have your IT department create the passwords for each account, and then use a password manager system like LastPass to store it all. Then, share access to that account on an as needed basis.
Questions to Ask During the Process – For Each Network
What is our mission statement? If you don’t already have one, write one. Ideally, it’s short – think no longer than a tweet – but inspiring and compelling. Look at it on a regular basis – use it to remind your followers why they’re following you. Want help? Look at the social media platforms themselves – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all have mission statements that serve as perfect examples.
What are the business goals and objectives we’re trying to accomplish here?
Why are we using this social account? If you don’t know why – your strategy is likely misguided and will lack cohesiveness – which could be hurting your potential.
Why do we want to use this account? The answer needs to be something more than “because the competition is doing it” or “because we want to.”
Is our target audience using this platform? If not, why are we spending time here? Does it fit with our overall strategy? Are we better suited to shut this profile down?
1. Are Profiles Complete and Consistent?
Check all profiles for completion. Are there any missing details, or anything that needs to be updated? If so, make those edits. While you’re checking for completion, check for consistency in appearance and messaging.
Open the edit profile option for each social network. Review one at a time to make sure everything is filled out completely. Check that all options, images, and text, are not only in use, but optimized. Ensure you’re using the same logo, displayed according to your brand guidelines. Make sure your backgrounds and other images follow the same theme or branding, and all your descriptions are up to date with keywords related to your business. Check that URLs are all the same, or at least go to the appropriate landing page.
It’s okay to have a different feel on various social networks, as long as the tone of your profile is right for the network. Environment should come first, and then consistency.
2. What Does Your Audience Look Like?
This step helps you see if you’re engaging the right audience on each network. To do this:
Open Google Analytics and look at the Audience report. Set the filters to adjust for demographics, location, and gender. This is what your social media audience should look like as well, since these are the people who are visiting and converting on your website.
Then, open the Channels report. Click the Acquisitions > All Traffic >Channels > Social. Here you’ll see which social platforms are bringing the most traffic to your website. More than likely, these are the channels you’ve built the most qualified audience.
Check platform specific analytics to see how well those metrics match up to the main website analytics. Look at the most popular channel from your channel report and see what the activity looks like there.
3. What Does Your Social Activity Look Like?
Look at each one of your social media networks. When was the last time you posted there? How often are you posting there? Are you taking the time to respond when fans engage with you? What types of content are you posting?
Use this time to find the most popular posts on each network. Look at when it was posted, the topic of the post, and the type of post it is. This can help you figure out what your audience likes and responds best to, as well as optimal posting times to get the best engagement.
Look at the least popular posts, too, to determine if there are issues with topics, post types, or timing. Make adjustments to your strategy so you can run tests. This will allow you to isolate issues… it may not have been the topic, or the post type – just the time of day. It may not have been the time of day, just the topic. Each test can help you fine tune the strategy you’re going to use between now and time for the next audit.
4. Is the Current Strategy Working?
Here comes the fun part – your strategy analysis. It’s time to see if what you’ve been doing is helping you reach the goals and objectives you’ve set out to accomplish, or if your tactics have hurt your social media strategy. Take a look at the goals you set, and compare the current status to the metrics you selected. Though there are likely to be some metrics specific to your business, the most common ones businesses look at are:
Followers and Fans: How many fans or followers do you have on each network? How does this number compare to the past? What kinds of campaigns have you run that have boosted these numbers? If the number has drastically declined, what could possible reasons be?
Posting Frequency: How often are you posting on each social network? Are you posting on weekends, too? What types of content are you posting?
Engagement: Are fans engaging with your content? Liking and sharing? Leaving comments? Are there any patterns in the type of content you’re sharing and the engagement level? Patterns in the time and date of your posts and engagement levels? For instance, are more people engaging when you post videos than they are photos? Are people more responsive when you post on the weekends than they are on the weekdays?
Keep track of the current levels in your spreadsheet so you can look back and use it to help you set new goals, and evaluate progress at the next audit.
Now, benchmarking. How do the numbers you see now compare to where you were at your last audit? A year ago? Two years ago? Document how important all the metrics are to you today, so that as things shift, you can place more or less importance on those metrics in the future.
Were you able to accomplish the goals and objectives you set forth? If so, how well did you do? What do you attribute to that success? If not, how close did you come to reaching them? What do you think caused you to miss the mark? Remember, nothing is a failure – everything in social is a learning experience.
5. What’s Your Monthly Return on Investment (ROI)?
To do this, we must look at how much money goes into your social media marketing efforts, and how much money your goals are worth. Your goals should be something you can attach a number to, like purchases, the number of contact form inquiries, downloads of a lead magnet, or email list signups.
Your goals should be based on actions that convert a casual visitor into a paying customer – but you should link your goals to specific campaigns. Setting up campaigns with the Campaign URL Builder will allow you to track the links you share on social media channels. (The Google URL builder migrated to the Campaign URL Builder – if you have questions, check out this complete guide to this new Google URL builder.)
Set up goals in Analytics: Acquisition > Social > Conversions.
Set Up Goals > Name, Goal Slot ID > Type and so on until the details are filled out.
For instance, if you want people to sign up to join your email list, you’ll want to set up a special (non-indexed to keep data accurate) thank you page on your website that someone can only get to after they subscribe. Set the goal type as a destination page.
Assign a goal value. You can use the customer lifetime value x the conversion rate (your average number of email subscribers that become customers), to determine the potential value of each visit. If you’d rather, you could use the average sale – if the goal of your campaign is to get sales. If you use this, your destination page should be a thank you page someone sees after making a purchase.
Now, determine your social media expenses:
Man-hours: The time you’re spending either as a solo member, or paying a team, to handle your social media marketing campaign over a period of time. Avoid using an employee’s annual salary, because they’re working of multiple campaigns. This investment should be measured for each campaign.
Content: What are you spending on professional copywriters – either in-house or outsourced?
Social media tools: Sure the networks are free, but if you’re using any kind of social media management software, you’ll need to factor the price of these in – also on a per-campaign basis. If your campaign lasts two months, only add two months worth of tool costs in.
Advertising: Are you promoting tweets or pins? Running Facebook ads? Add in those costs, too.
Now, calculate the ROI with this formula:
(Earnings – costs) x 100 / costs
Want to know how much each channel is bringing you? Segment the earnings and costs fore ach channel and use the formula again. Let the numbers tell you which channels are bringing you the most money, and focus more effort there.
6. What is the Competition Doing?
It’s a good idea to look at what the competition is doing on their social profiles, so you can get ideas on how to make improvements on your own. Go beyond the competition and look at influencers in your industry, as well.
Find at least four influencers and brands in the same space you’re in. You probably already know who they are, since they’re going after the same audience you are. If you need help, look into tools like BuzzSumo and Traackr.
After you’ve gotten your list, go through the same steps you did with your personal accounts, as best you can because you won’t have access to their analytics data, and compile another spreadsheet, or add it to your audit workbook.Adding it to your audit workbook may help later because you can also track how the influencers and competition change over time.
7. What’s Your Plan of Action?
While you’re already focused on your social media audit, it’s a great time to go ahead and think about your social media strategy. You have plenty of data in front of you to show you how you need to improve, and you can develop the plan for how you’re going to make those improvements.
You don’t need to stop the audit and create an entire strategy right now, but you can at least be thinking of the new goals and objectives you’re going to focus on, or what you can do to reach the ones you missed before.
Doing a social media audit can be grueling work – especially if data isn’t your thing. But, it will pay off by letting you see where you are, and give you data-driven insights on how to make improvements.
When’s the last time you did a social media audit? How often do you conduct them?
It happens to the best of us from time to time – writer’s block for blog content. Even if you’re on top of your strategy and you have an editorial calendar planned out month’s in advance, you’ll eventually reach a point where you’re lost for what to write about – where you feel like you’ve covered everything there is to cover, and you just can’t write one. more. word. The longer you’ve been writing on your blog, the harder you may find it to come up with fresh content for your readers, but the good news is – there’s plenty you can do to break through the plateau and keep the good stuff coming for your audience.
1. Look at Your Website Analytics
Open your Google Analytics account and look at your content. What is the most popular blog content? Are there any partners in topics? For instance, are your posts about cats more popular than your posts about dogs? Are there any angles you haven’t covered, that would allow you to expand on your most popular posts?
2. Browse Quora for Blog Content
This Q&A website can be a great way to bust through writer’s block. The content license says you can reuse all the content on the site, as long as you link back to the original post on Quora.
Simply search your topic on the website, and you’ll get a list with common topics. If we search social media, common topics include:
Social media marketing
Social media management
Social media monitoring and support
Social media club
Social media week
Choose one of the topics, and you’ll get a page with popular and open questions. The open questions are the ones without answers, and they can help you find the topics you can blog about. Chances are if it’s there – and it’s not answered, there are a lot of people who also have that question… so create blog content that provides the answer. Then go back to the question on Quora – answer it, and include a link to your blog post.
Or – answer the question on Quora first, then take your answer and expand upon it to create blog content.
3. Talk to Customers/Look Through Feedback
Ask your customers/readers what they want to see more of. Look through feedback and watch the questions they’re asking. If you notice a particular question, or group of questions that pop up frequently, dedicate a post (or series of posts) to answering those questions, in-depth. Then reach back out to those customers and let them know you’ve provided a detailed answer, with a link to the post.
4. Conduct More Keyword Research
Keyword research can get kind of boring, I know. I’m not talking about using the standard tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool or KeywordTool.io. Not that that those aren’t okay, but this one goes a bit deeper, and is an excellent option if you’re a visual learner like me.
Answer The Public is hands-down one of the most awesome tools I’ve ever seen to get those creative juices flowing. You can see from the screenshot below that a simple search for “social media” produces a ton results to work with… and that’s just a portion of what it rendered.
Source: Answer the Public
Some of the questions on the chart:
Where should social media icons be placed?
When is social media used for good?
Why social media is so important
How social media is used in the workplace
You can use any keyword, and you can search for results based on country, including UK, US, AU, and more. Looking at the questions and prepositions generated can help you come up with ideas for things to cover in your blog – and some of them can be standalone topics on their own.
Plug in all the categories and general topics you cover on your blog into the tool. The website makes it easy to export all the data, so you can keep it and go back to it whenever you need new ideas, and the tool is completely free.
5. Read, Read, and Read Some More
Anything that’s related to your industry – books, magazines, blogs, scholarly and scientific journals – whatever you can get your hands on. Search for podcasts you can listen to on your way to and from work every day. You never know when something you read will spark an idea for a post. Keep a notebook on hand, or make notes on your phone so you can remember your ideas later.
If you need help finding new publications to read – take a look at Feedly. You can search for keywords or niches and get a massive list of blogs and websites to look through – and you can add the RSS feeds to a list. Then, whenever you have a few minutes to spare, you can read through the material to see what it sparks.
Set up a Google alert for industry keywords, so when something new pops up you can see what it is. Check Google News on a regular basis. When you see what others are writing about, you can get inspiration. It’s totally okay to cover the same news and topics, as long as you’re offering value to your readers – and sometimes all it takes to do that is your perspective.
6. Watch Videos – Yes, Really!
If you’re someone who hates reading – that doesn’t mean you can’t find content to help you keep learning about what’s going on in your industry. Sit in front of YouTube for a while and watch videos related to your industry – following the channels of your favorite websites, much like you would do in Feedly. Keep notes as you go along, if that’s your thing, or bookmark the videos so you can reference them again when it’s time to start planning your content for the next phase of your editorial calendar. Thanks to the autoplay feature, you can start with one video and come out hours later wondering how you went from SEO and analytics to swimming with dolphins… so if you’re worried about going down the rabbit hole and emerging a few days later, set a timer and agree to move onto another task when time is up.
7. Create a Roundup Post
If you’ve got a basic topic idea, but you just don’t feel like writing something new, or you don’t really feel like you’ve got a lot of value to add to the topic yourself, then it’s the perfect time to pull on some egobait strings, and create a roundup of posts from other blogs and resources that are related to that single topic.
The more extensive you make it, the better – because it can easily become a permanent resource for other people looking for information on the subject. And, when you reach out to everyone you’ve mentioned on the post to let them know you’ve linked to them – you’ll likely get some publicity from it, simply because they want to share the mention with their audience.
(Nothing’s wrong with copying what’s working for others – just don’t steal stuff word for word. Give credit where credit is due. Make sure there’s new perspective or thoughts for your audience – because if not, what’s the point?)
Or – create an expert roundup post, by reaching out to people and asking for tips/tricks/quotes related to a topic in your niche… like these:
Another approach is to use the “Best Of” list. Not only will it help you get backlinks and promotion from the people you link to, but it can give you a piece of content to refresh every year, so it stays evergreen, and has a better shot at earning (and keeping) high rankings.
But, the catch is, you can’t just pick the best 5 or 10. For it to be truly valuable, go deep and find 100+ resources, like these:
What makes the way I write about any topic different from the way you’d write about the same topic? My experience. If you and I go on vacation to Disneyland together, and do the exact same things, eat the same food, even go to sleep and wake up at the same time, but how I feel about it, and what I get from the experience will be different from what you feel and what you get. Thus – the same event can produce two entirely different pieces of content, each valuable to your audience.
Just because you’ve written about something once doesn’t mean you can’t do it again. As long as you have something fresh and new to add to it, or have a different format to put it in, you’re good to go. It’s important to remember that not everyone digests content the same way – some people love reading content on the screen – some people prefer visuals, some people prefer audio…you can turn a blog post into a video, an infographic, a podcast… and you can even create e-books that compile all your blog content about a certain topic into one cohesive piece.
10. Hold a Group Brainstorming Session
Sometimes all it takes is having another person or group of people to bounce ideas around with. Even if you can’t meet face-to-face, you can chat via Skype, Google Hangouts, or even over the phone. Take notes, and keep them for reference later. You may be able to get several ideas out of a single session, and when you get stuck again, you can go back to it for more inspiration, or a refresher on what some of your ideas were.
11. Analyze Blog Comments on Previous Posts
This is similar to looking at customer feedback. Sometimes, even if a comment isn’t asking a question, their thoughts and opinions can spark ideas for future content. Maybe they’ve given you a perspective you’ve never considered before. Maybe it’s a chance to tackle a topic from the other side, or to play devil’s advocate.
12. Expand on a Short List
If you have a list of 10 tips… see if you can think of 10 more. It’s a tried-and-true tactic to drive more traffic to your website, and gives you content ideas. It also helps keep things fresh and updated, especially if a significant amount of time has passed since the original post.
13. Do a Google Search – Autocomplete is Your Friend
Start with a broad keyword, and see what Google suggests. This gives you an indication of the most popular searches around a phrase, and can give you ideas for a number of blog posts. For example, if you search “social media marketing” autocomplete returns:
Social media marketing strategy
Social media marketing jobs
Social media marketing certification
14. Do a Competitive Analysis
Look at what your competition is doing. What’s working well for them? How can you make the same thing work well for you? Look at what they’re not doing. Is there a void you can fill? Is there something they’re not doing that you’ve done, but you can improve upon it?
Whether you’ve been blogging for six weeks, six months, or six years, running out of things to blog about is going to happen – or so you think. You’ll feel like you’ve exhausted all your options – and though you may spend hours trying to figure out something new… I can promise you, there’s always something else you can write about.
What are some of your favorite ways to come up with ideas for new blog content? Tell me in the comments – and you never know – your comment just may become a future blog post here. If so, I’ll be sure to give you proper credit.
It may be easy to create a single message to share across your social media channels – but that is far from being an effective way to reach your audience. There are several social networks people use – and all of them have a different “hook” to get their attention. Simply crafting a message and keeping it the same across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others doesn’t cut it if you’re looking to expand engagement and reach. So, how can you make the same general social media content applicable to the networks where you’re trying to build traction?
Adjust the Social Media Content for Each Platform
What works on Facebook isn’t going to perform the same way on Twitter. What works on Twitter won’t work for Pinterest. What works on Pinterest won’t work on LinkedIn, and so on. Whatever the content you have to share may be, it’s best to adjust it according to the style and nature of each network.
Familiarize yourself with the best practices for each social media platform. This way, you know what kind of adjustments to your messages for each of them. When you have something to post, think of the delivery method based on these broad concepts of what each social network responds to the best.
Facebook: The most popular social network, with the most brand competition, Facebook strategies are harder to nail. Because you have a bit more freedom with text length – don’t be afraid to share more of a back story or context around a post. Facebook users want entertainment and value.
Twitter: Twitter’s audience is there to learn more about what’s going on in the world right now and to connect with others. They want news, tips, how-tos, and interesting articles. Because updates disappear quickly, it’s normal to post the same update more than once, as long as it’s spaced apart, so don’t be afraid that it won’t get seen. And because of the immediacy of the network, it makes an excellent platform for customer service. With more people turning to social media to get an answer from businesses today – it’s a good idea to make use of it.
Pinterest: This network is an audience of creatives – combining stunning images with instructions. The more content you can fit into that visual, the better. If you’re venturing into infographics, Pinterest is a great network for this. Create boards built around core topics associated with your business, and expand as you find topics your customers are interested in. Don’t write off Pinterest because you’re worried its core demographic won’t be interested in your brand; plenty of businesses are rocking Pinterest marketing in unconventional ways.
Instagram: Like Pinterest, Instagram is a visual network, but you can add video, too. Just make sure when you use it, you’re posting quality images that speak to your brand. Photos shouldn’t look overly staged, and shouldn’t be serious if you’re a funny, lighthearted brand. Use the platform to share experiences. Use hashtags to categorize content, and invite customers to share photos showcasing their experiences with your products or services. Choose the most visually pleasing part of your content, and share that. If you don’t have an image, use a tool like Canva to create one. (It’s great for those of us who lack mad Photoshop skills!)
LinkedIn: Focused on business and job listings, this network is best for the B2B market, or those in the B2C market targeting an audience of professionals. You can share articles to your newsfeed, in groups, or the LinkedIn publishing platform. When sharing articles to a group, think about what information would be valuable to that audience. For example, I share articles on digital marketing and SEO to groups of marketing and communications professionals.
General Electric (GE) is a brand that’s over 100 years old, so you’d think they wouldn’t be able to rock social media like they do, but, they’re one of the brands that always stands out. Looking across their social channels, there’s a great mix of content, customized to each network.
On Instagram, for example, GE shows off their technology by using images to create experiences – while showing their engine factories and wind farms. On Twitter, GE focuses on sharing infographics, photos, and reports, designed to educate their audience on science and technology.
On Facebook, GE is more verbose, sharing a mixture of technology, company news, their products in action, and more.
On Pinterest GE has a wide collection of boards, related to all of their technology and products. Plus, they have science information, inside looks at factories, and even funny boards like this one.
Online home goods retailer, Wayfair.com customizes their messages for social media based on network quite well. They use Twitter for the immediacy and news focus, sharing seasonal, relevant articles from their own website, as well as from other related publications, like Real Simple.
When you look at their Facebook page, you see the same kind of information, presented in a format better suited for the Facebook audience. The page also includes embedded versions of their Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Wayfair uses Instagram to showcase their products in actual use cases, and uses stunning, visually appealing content – both images and video. This not only promotes what they have to sell, but makes it easy for customers to envision how the products would look in their own homes, and provides guidance for how to style them once they’re purchased.
Wayfair uses Pinterest to organize topics their customers find interesting. And, to keep things fresh, they build promotions around themes to encourage user generated content – like Turkey Day Table Challenge.
Ultimately, GE and Wayfair want to engage and inform their audience regardless of which social platform they use – and they want to sell products. The different strategy with each network still allows them to showcase products in ways that the audience will respond to.
Simply posting the same text/photo to each network at the same time gets stale quick. and doesn’t yield the highest possible return. Match each network for the benefit to customers – use Twitter for customer contact and chatting back and forth. Use other networks for showcasing benefits, contests, and generating buzz. Change headlines and text accordingly.
Keep The Content Visual
It’s no real secret people respond to visual content better than they do plain text. After all, research shows colored visuals increase a person’s willingness to read content by 80%. (That’s why I have so many images in this piece, you know.) While networks like Instagram and Pinterest are built around visual content – don’t forget to factor it into Facebook and LinkedIn, too.
Stock photography is obvious these days, especially where people are featured. It’s okay to use it in a pinch, so long as it’s appropriate. When possible, take your own photos, or if your budget allows, have a photographer do it for you. If you don’t have products or people to feature in photos, create your own.
Avoid Posting Too Many Updates at Once
Even though you should not assume that everyone who follows you on Twitter, also is a Facebook fan, a Pinterest follower, and so on, it’s best to stagger your updates so not too many are posted at once. Posting too often is considered one of the most annoying social media habits, so do what you can to stick to a schedule that’s best for each network.
If there’s time-sensitive information, by all means, post it whenever and wherever you need to, but stick to the varying the content in accordance with the network.
Include a Call to Action
Never assume your audience knows what you want them to do, or that calls to action have no place on social media. Calls to action are helpful to increasing conversion rates. Adding calls to actions on your Facebook page can increase your click through rate by 285%. If you want your social media channel to drive traffic to your website, then tell your audience to visit for more information. You should see a burst in traffic compared to leaving the call to action off – because only a portion of visitors will visit without being “told” to do so.
Create a Social Media Content Calendar
Going into social without a plan is like going to the grocery store without a list. You can do it – but you’re either going to spend too much money, or you’re not going to have anything to show for your trip when you get home.
Planning your updates in advance has a number of benefits:
Know what you’re posting and when so you can keep on top of promotions, holidays, and other relevant themes.
Schedule updates in advance so your social media content is never quiet. Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can help accomplish this for you. Schedule Instagram posts with something like ScheduGram or Latergramme, bearing in mind the whole concept of the network is “instant.”
Allows multiple team members to have input on the social media content.
That said, you shouldn’t schedule all your updates. Be available to your customers in real-time when you can, and interact accordingly outside of your scheduled updates.
Start with a spreadsheet that details the message you want to send, with a tab for each network. Include the text of the update, and links to any photo or video assets, and any links to articles/content. It’s also helpful to include the date and time of the post so you know you’re posting at the right intervals and frequency in accordance with your strategy.
You Can Craft Unique Content Without Wasting Too Much Time
Though it may seem like a waste of time to craft individual status updates for each network, having content suited to each platform is the best strategy for your social media marketing. With these tips, the process becomes a bit easier to manage. You’ll develop a streamlined workflow for your social efforts once you determine the best course of action.
Keep an eye on the analytics built into each platform, but also pay attention to what Google Analytics tells you about your social activity. Use this information alongside what you know about your target audience and sales history. Then, when you see patterns in what’s working, stick to it as you refine your social strategy.
Which social channels do you use for your business? How are you finding that varying your content is affecting your engagement? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Photo credit: StockSnap.io, Screenshots from respective brand social media accounts.
Think about it – when you’re trying to buy the perfect anniversary gift for your spouse, or the perfect gift for your best friend, you can see them in your mind as you’re shopping. You can see what they want and what they need, the things they’d most likely be interested in, what they love, and what they hate. You may not always know what they don’t need, but what you know about them helps you make sure you’re on the right track to the gift that wows… no matter the occasion. That’s how buyer personas work.
Buyer personas, also known as customer avatars, are fictional representations of the person or group of people who are most likely to purchase your product or service. Before you begin any kind of marketing campaign, it is worth taking the time to develop a comprehensive avatar for each segment of your audience. It’s how you can better understand what those people want and need from you.
Why You Need Buyer Personas
Having a buyer persona to represent each major segment of your ideal audience will make it significantly easier to tailor your marketing messages, so they speak directly to your prospective customers.
A well-developed customer avatar comes with multiple benefits:
An increased understanding of your customer’s needs.
A better idea of prospects’ buying behavior
Insight to help you develop new (and better) products and services to suit your customer’s needs
Knowing where your customers spend their time
Higher quality leads – which usually translates to better conversion rates (and more profit in your pocket)
Who is Your Target Audience?
With knowledge about what it is you’re offering, and how you’re different from the competition, think about who your ideal customer is, and what they look like – the same way you consider the person you’re shopping for when buying a gift.
Ask yourself:
Is my audience all male? All female? Both genders? What’s the proportion of men to women? Is this a product for men that women would buy for them? Take this into consideration as you shape your marketing plans.
How old are my customers? What’s the age range I’m looking to target the most?
Where do my customers live?
What’s their relationship status? Are they married? Do they have children?
What is their annual income?
What is their educational background?
What is their career path? Job title? Daily responsibilities? (This is particularly important for B2B marketers.)
What are their hobbies and interests?
What are their biggest challenges? (This will help you figure out how your products or services will solve them)
What are their favorite websites? Blogs to read?
What language(s) do they speak?
What is their motivation to buy your products/services? Why are they buying your products/services?
What are their concerns about buying your products/services? What reservations do they have about buying your products/services?
Of course, you don’t have to have the answers to all of these questions about each one of your personas, and you may have additional questions based on your niche. No matter the question, the goal should always be to get to know your customers better through the buyer personas you create. This way, you’ll be able to communicate more effectively, and improve your ad targeting efficiency.
Putting it Together to Create Personas
If you’ve already got an established website, start looking at the analytics data to see what you can find out about the audience demographics, and fill in the details from there. Beyond your website analytics, you can look at Facebook Insights and other social media data to get an idea of what’s going on within the audience you already have, so you can better determine how to attract the audience you want – if the audience you’ve got doesn’t quite match what you’re going for.
For the most effective buyer personas, you’ll want to craft a story of sorts, an actual “person” to represent each segment of the audience. You can even go so far as to find a photo and give a name to each persona, to make communicating to that person easier… since you’ll be writing your marketing copy as if you were speaking directly to them.
Let’s say you’re marketing a weight loss supplement, specifically designed for women. Your buyer personas may look a bit like this:
Locations: United States, Canada
Age: 18-50
Gender: Female
Interests: Health and wellness, fitness, cooking, travel
Education level: College student/graduate
Relationship status: Single/Married, No Children/Children
Language: English
Buying motivation: Wants to get healthy and lose weight
Buying concerns: Worried about scams, price conscious
Sarah, in her early 30s, is a new mom, and is worried about her metabolism slowing down with age. She’s limited on time, because she’s dealing with the baby, trying to get back into the swing of working full-time. So, she doesn’t want to take the time to go to the gym every day, but likes the idea of doing exercises at home, that she can do either with the baby, or while the baby is in the swing next to her work out area. She’s interested in quick workouts, that she can fit in between chores – and she doesn’t mind spending money on healthier food, because she’s investing in her health so she’s around to see her baby grow up. She is worried, though, about spending too much money on a garbage supplement that won’t work – or something that will give her horrible side effects that many weight loss supplements cause. She is the type that will go to her doctor to discuss the safety of the supplement before she starts using it because she doesn’t want it to interact with any of her medications.
Or, you have something that looks like this:
Tonya, in her mid-40s, is a single woman, who’s always been a little overweight. She never had kids, she’s busy with a full-time job, where she works as an executive. She’s tried every diet under the sun, and even when she followed things to the letter, she didn’t get the results she’s looking for. She knows she’s up against hormonal changes with age, so she went to her doctor to make sure there’s no underlying medical reason for her difficulty for weight loss.
She’s ready to try your product, if you can show her the real science behind yours is different from the hundreds of other competing products out there. She doesn’t like the idea of an autoshipment “free” trial like so many others do – she just wants to buy a bottle, try it, and see what happens. She’s a real skeptic, but the right words can make her pull the trigger, and if you make her happy, she’ll be quite the brand advocate for you.
See how these two women both have the same core reason – wanting to get healthy and lose weight – for coming to you? But how they have different backgrounds and buying concerns? See how you’ll need to appeal to both of them in your marketing material? These are completely fictional, written off the top of my head, but fully plausible potential customers you could run into – and you need to consider how you’ll deal with them.
In Sarah’s case, and in Tonya’s, you’ll need more than the standard before and after photos that so many products are marketed with. Even with a “results not typical” legal blanket to protect you, most customers are too skeptical to really pay attention. So, what can you do? Don’t just say your product is supported by clinical studies. If you haven’t had your full product studied, at least show the actual studies on the ingredients in your product. Make it easy for your customers to get the information they need. Offer a no-strings attached free trial – don’t require autoshipment programs, but give the option for convenience. Make it easy to return the product if someone doesn’t like it – and make sure your money back guarantee beats the competition. It’s an uphill battle in the weight loss supplement world, but you can do it well, if you do it right – and that’s providing a quality product supported by quality service.
If you’re marketing an exercise bike, on the other hand, your personas will change a bit:
Locations: United States, Canada
Age: 18-50
Gender: Male and Female
Interests: Health and wellness, fitness, cooking, travel, sports and outdoors
Education level: High School grad, College student/graduate
Relationship status: Single/Married, No Children/Children
Language: English
Buying motivation: Wants to get healthy and lose weight without having to go to a gym to do it
Buying concerns: Worried about quality, size/space/storage, price conscious
We’re still in the same basic health and fitness arena, but now instead of focusing solely on women with a weight loss supplement, we’ve branched out to include men. And rather than something you add to your diet, we’re focused on exercising you can do at home. A lot of the basic information is the same – but you can see how these differences can create an entirely different persona when we dig into the details and create a story for each of them.
If we follow with Sarah – all we have to do is change the fact that she’s worried about the pill not working, to not having enough space for the bike… and needing a compact solution she can easily fold and put away when she’s done.
If we follow with Tonya, we have to play on the fact that she can workout whenever she has time – there’s no need to worry about paying for an expensive gym membership, and she can do it before or after work, or before bed.. while she’s watching TV.
Then, we’ll need to create a new persona, or two, to target the men who are also going to be interested in the bike – playing to the “macho” side of things, if necessary.
Making Your Personas Work for You
With your completed buyer personas in hand, you’ll be able to craft a full-fledged digital marketing strategy that’s designed to cater to each of the people in your audience. Though the exercise may take some time to fully develop, it’s worth the time and effort in the beginning, since it will help reduce the need to guess about what works and what doesn’t.
It’s important to remember, though, that as your business grows and evolves, the customer personas won’t always remain the same. Use the data you gather from various sources throughout your campaigns to see how well they match your personas. It’s possible you won’t get everything right on the first try, but as you get more data, you can make adjustments to fine-tune those personas.
The key is to always keep the customer’s needs at the forefront, and when you notice those needs change, adapt accordingly. Being rigid and unwilling to go with the flow, will not do your business or your customers any favors.
Get a FREE Buyer Persona Template
If you’re ready to build your own buyer personas, fill-out the form below to get a FREE instant download of a cool template we’ve built to help make the process easier for you.
I know that’s not what you wanted to hear – I see you over there, beaming from ear to ear because this month’s page views were 200% higher than they were this time last year. I’m not here to rain on your parade – but I’m here to let you know you may want to consider shifting your mindset and tracking different metrics. You’ll see a different, better picture of what’s really going on with your audience.
Sorry, guys, it’s time to stop bragging about how many people saw your video on Facebook, and how many people read your blog posts. It’s not how many people you reach, it’s how many you connect with.
Click Metrics vs. Attention Metrics
Until recently, click metrics, such as page views and sessions, have been the golden standard for success in online marketing. The more people you had clicking on your stuff, the better, right? But as we’ve continued to grow and evolve, those numbers don’t hold as much weight as we’d like for them to.
Ultimately, click metrics tell us how many people see our content, but they don’t tell us what really matters – how many people are paying attention to what you have to say. It doesn’t do your business any good if people are looking and ignoring it. You want people to take action – so that’s what attention metrics look at. While measuring attention metrics isn’t as easy as click metrics these days, you can still get insights if you analyze any of the following:
Comments: How many comments are you getting on your blog posts? On your social media posts? If people are taking the time to comment, they’ve read what you have to say, and are moved enough to reply to you. Not only this, but comments can be an excellent source to learn more about your readers and what they want from you. You can use the comment section to elaborate further on an issue, and even get inspiration for future content. Since it’s easy to share your posts with a click, some may say the blog comment doesn’t have as much value as it used to, but the other line of thought is that your content moved them enough to take the time to respond.
Shares and Mentions: How many people are sharing your content? How many people are mentioning your brand online? If people are sharing your posts – either from your website or your social media accounts – they’re interested in what you have to say, and believe their network could benefit from it in some shape or form. Many social sharing plugins like Social Warfare and SumoMe can show share counts on your posts. But tools like BuzzSumo and PostReach can help you see more information about the people who are sharing your posts on Twitter. Start monitoring your feed for a bit after each post goes live so you can see how people are responding to it.
Time Spent: Look at the time they’re spending on each page in your Google Analytics account. Generally, the longer they spend on the site, clicking around, the more attention they’re paying to what they’re looking at. It’s always possible that someone clicked on your site, and then got distracted, and looked at another tab, took a phone call, took the dog for a walk – and left your tab open, so, take this one with a grain of salt – looking at the user journey throughout your site as an indication of what they were actually doing during their session.
View-through Rate: Though this metric is exclusive to video content, it’s still a good indication of how much attention people are paying to your content. Many times, people will click and start watching a video, only to fall off somewhere before getting to the end of it. The view-through rate lets you know the percentage of your audience that’s actually watching the video from start to finish.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): This helps measure the loyalty between a brand and its customers. You can also use it to measure the value your blog is giving your readers. Calculate your score, by asking a simple question: “How likely are you, on a sale from 0 to 10, to recommend our blog to your friends or colleagues?” Anyone who scores in the 9-10 range is a promoter, or someone who will keep reading/buying and fueling your growth. Anyone in the 7-8 range is a passive, or someone who’s satisfied, but vulnerable to offers from your competition. Any in the 0-6 range is a detractor, or someone who is unhappy and can damage your brand, impeding your growth. Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get your NPS – which can range from a low of -100 (when all customers are detractors) to a high of 100 (when all customers are promoters). Tools like SurveyMonkey and io can help you conduct your own NPS survey on your blog.
Creating Attention Worthy Content
I’ve got some more disappointing news for you, too – the average human attention span is now just eight seconds, (down from 12 seconds) meaning goldfish pay attention longer than we do. Not good news for anyone who’s in the business of getting people to focus, I know, but fortunately, there are things we can do to defeat this awful statistic, and draw people into our world.
Think Before You Write: Before you spend a lot of time typing away writing about this awesome idea you’ve just come up with, make sure it is actionable, you know what makes it unique, and at least have a decent idea of the group of people who will share and amplify it for you. This way, you go into every piece you write with a plan, and you’re already aware of the value you’re giving your audience.
Make it Actionable: Don’t just talk at your audience. Show them how to do something. Teach them something. This isn’t a how-to post, but it’s still actionable because you can read it and take action based on something you’ve learned from it. Even in this article, I give you the tools you need to get started with monitoring your social reach and running your own NPS survey, so once you’re done reading, you can take action to improve your marketing efforts. Why does writing an actionable article matter? According to a New York Times study, practical, useful information gets shared online more than any other type of content.
Write In-Depth Content: This piece will be near the 2,000 to 2,500-word mark by the time I’m done with it. While you may be inclined to think it’s because I’m a long-winded guy who loves to “hear himself talk”, it’s because in-depth content correlates to higher share and link counts. Though the correlation dates back to 2012, it still rings true. Sure, correlation isn’t causation, but it could be a result of having more useful information packed into a piece.
Make it Unique: The internet makes it possible for anyone, anywhere, anytime, to write something about anything they want – and put it online for others to read. Just because it’s possible and there for everyone to read, however, doesn’t make it good. And if you’re not doing what you can to stand out from the crowd that’s writing crap, then you’ll get lost in a sea of it. Some topics are easier than others to add a unique element to, but there are several ways to put your own spin on it. Everything from timing, to depth on the topic, to your own perspective/experience, your own company data/research can make your article different than one of mine, even if it’s on the same topic.
Write a Damn Good Headline: You’ve only got a few seconds to grab their attention, and your headline’s going to be what does it. I’m not talking about garbage clickbait – there’s not much I hate more. Don’t give me something like, “She Lost Her Arm in a Car Accident… and You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!” Give me value. Entice me. Tell me what you’re going to share with me – and make me want to click it. But after I click it, give me value. Think of your headline as a promise – and if I’ve taken the time to click on it and start reading, make sure you deliver. It’s keeping your promise with the article that will make me that much more likely to keep giving you my attention. It’s the second that people feel like the article isn’t providing what the headline promises that they’re distracted by something else… and no longer giving you their attention. You may still have a window open on their screen, but what good is that doing you? None.
Use Images and/or Video: Text is still a dominant format online, but we’re seeing the rise of video. People process images and video faster than they do text, and these additions can help capture and hold attention, simply because of the increased visual interest. If you want to present your blog content in a different way, you can try formatting it into an infographic. Plus, visual content assists with information recall later – which is important when you’re aiming to increase brand awareness.
Appeal to Emotion: The best ideas have some kind of emotional hook, whether positive or negative. While it’s true content charged with positive emotion gets shared more often than negative, there are some instances where hitting the negative makes sense. If nothing else, appeal to surprise, by providing your audience with something new and interesting.
Use Language Your Audience Knows: There’s nothing wrong with teaching people new concepts, but do it in a way you know they’re familiar with. If you’re speaking a bunch of industry jargon, or talking over their heads, do you think they’re going to take the time to research it so they understand? Sure, there’s a chance a few people will, but most people will abandon ship. It’s hard to hold attention on something you don’t understand, no matter how much you want to.
Does Attention Guarantee Your Content Will Go Viral?
No – nothing you do will ever guarantee anything you write will go viral. But, if you’re producing high-quality content that holds attention, it certainly doesn’t hurt the chance that you content will spread far and wide. And, depending on what you consider viral, you could possibly hit your mark. If you’re just starting out and your content gets shared 500 times? That could feel viral to you. But, if you’ve been at this marketing thing for years, and your most popular piece was shared 5,000 times within the first couple days of going live? Those 500 shares won’t really feel viral to you, will they?
Focus less on the idea of potentially going viral, and more on giving your audience the value they seek. It will provide a much bigger pay off in the end… because going viral once doesn’t mean you’ve cracked some secret code and you’ll get that kind of success each time.
Your Mission… Should You Choose to Accept It…
You’re almost to the end, and if you’ve made it this far with me, thank you for your attention. I value it more than you know. But, now, it’s time to give you some homework. Go to your blog, your Google Analytics, and social media insights. Take a look at the data and see what your brand looks like based on attention metrics rather than clicks.
Capturing and holding attention? Great work. You’re onto something, so keep it up.
Results not so good? Okay, don’t beat yourself up too much. Get to work. You know what to do, and if you don’t, let’s talk.
Where do you stand on the metrics marketers should be watching? Do clicks still matter? Share your thoughts with me below. Let me know if and how this post helped you.
To build an effective outreach campaign, you must first look at the big picture. It can be tempting to think you know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, but moving too quickly, skipping steps, or worse, starting in the middle, can spell doom for any outreach campaign.
The Brain: A Solid Plan
At this sage, you’re focusing on building the overall plan for your outreach campaign. You’ll focus on the goals, objectives, and the driving forces behind it.
What are the Driving Forces of the Outreach Campaign?
What’s behind the marketing campaign? Why do you need to do this campaign? Why is outreach the best approach? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you in the formation of the rest of of your plan.
What are the Goals of the Outreach Campaign?
Goals are the principles that guide your decision making. These can be broad outcomes toward the efforts and actions taken in the campaign. Typically, there isn’t measurement here, just general direction, as the objectives add the specificity to the plan. Think of your objectives as subsets of your goals.
What are the Objectives of the Outreach Campaign?
You can have multiple objectives in a single campaign, but each objective should be realistic, measurable, and specific. These objectives should be designed to support the goals, and state what you hope the outcome will be.
Examples include:
Increasing consumer awareness: Either a number, or a percentage of target audience members reached through the various methods used in the campaign (websites, social media)
Behaviors you want your customers to take: Number of customers who are taking the desired action – scheduling a consultation, attending a demonstration, registering for a conference, joining your email list…
Customers showing interest: Number of responses to a call to action or click throughs on your website.
Regardless of what the objectives are, include a timeframe you expect to meet it. Ultimately, you need to be flexible and realistic when you set your objectives. As your campaign progresses, it’s entirely possible for the objectives to evolve.
As you set the objective, make sure you have a way to measure whether or not you’ve reached the objective. Most of the time, a tool like Google Analytics offers the data you need, but beyond looking at the basics, you can setup Goals to help you measure the success of those objectives, should they all be taking place on your website.
Each Goal must have an objective, a visitor action, and a success measure. For instance, if you’re looking to generate leads (objective), the visitor action could be to complete the contact form, and the success measure would be something like thankyou.php – or whatever the file name is for the page the visitor sees after they submit the form.
It’s also possible to have a Goal Funnel – or a sequence of steps that are required to successfully complete the goal.
In Google Analytics, you’ll follow these steps:
Define the funnel goal: Move through your website, taking note of all the steps required to achieve the goal, keeping track of the names of pages in the sequence. If it’s a single page, no funnel is required.
Configure the goal settings for each profile: If you’re working with a single website, define the funnel on that funnel only. If you’re working with more than one, repeat the steps for any other profiles on your Google Analytics account. Make sure your active goal is set to on. If there’s a specific dollar value associated with your goal, then you’ll need to enter it in the “goal value” box.
Define the goal funnel: Now, place the URLs in each step, and give them a meaningful name so you can know what they are on the report. If there’s a single step, there’s no need to define anything here.
Wait to analyze: Now Google Analytics will start collecting the data. You’ll need to wait a few days before you’ll start to see the results come in. You can look at the whole funnel, or look at it on a page by page basis to see how your campaign is performing.
If your outreach campaign is focused on social media goals, you can see social media information on your Google Analytics account, as well, but it’s a good idea to look at each platform’s data for comparison’s sake.
If you want to see social information in Google Analytics:
On the left side of your analytics screen, go to: Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels. Here you’ll see a high-level view of all your traffic sources, so if we want to dig deeper and see which social media networks are bringing us traffic, to go: Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals. Now you can see the traffic data for each network.
But, that’s not really enough in all cases, is it? What if we want to see the revenue of our social media posts? That’s where UTM tracking comes in to help you.
Google’s URL builder will allow you to set source parameters to tell it that your posts are coming from social media. Then, set the medium parameter to the social media network where the post will be published, and the campaign parameter for something unique for each post you want to track.
You can also use it for other outreach methods – setting the source to things like “newsletter” or “Google”, with medium changing to “email’ or “cpc” as appropriate.
Now it’s time to go back to those goals. For revenue, you’ll want a custom goal – but for a share or connection, there’s one already built in.
Choose the destination page – where someone will go on your website after they click the link from social, and assign the correct dollar value.
Once you’ve identified all of that, you’ve got one more thing to do before you can begin working on the message of the campaign: the target audience.
Want to find out how social visitors are consuming your website content? Instead of sending them to a destination page, choose a duration goal.
Who are you hoping to reach?
What does your ideal customer look like? How old are they? What is their gender? Marital status? Where do they live? Job title? What problem do they have that your products/services can solve? The more details you have about the person you’re selling to, the better you can craft your message, the better you can target them, and the higher chance you have of being successful with your campaign.
Where are they most often found online?
If you’re marketing to Millennials, you’ll find them in different places online than you will older people, so it makes sense to factor these differences into your distribution plan. Snapchat is a great for marketing to the Millennial audience, but not many other demographics spend a lot of time on the platform.
If you don’t know where to find your people, and are relying on a “spray and pray” approach, you’re wasting time and money, negatively affecting your ROI.
The Heart: The Message
Now that you know exactly what you’re aiming to do with the campaign, and exactly who you’re trying to reach, it’s time to craft the main message of the campaign. No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, focus on the reader rather than yourself.
Begin by thinking about what your solution is, and how it helps solve the problem your target customer is having. Present your solution as the cure to all their frustration and pain. Show, rather than tell the benefits of whatever it is you have to offer. This helps customers see how your solution will help improve their lives. Back it up with social proof so they see how your solution has helped others in their situation. Then, explain how you are different from the competition, while showing the perceived value in those differences.
Shy away from “what we do.” Focus on “What’s in it for me?” and you’ll be far more success in reaching your audience.
The Body: Message Distribution
You can have the greatest marketing message in the world, but if no one sees or hears it, it’s worthless. Borrowing from where you know you can find your audience online, start crafting the plan for how you’ll distribute the message to get it in front of as many of those eyes as possible.
Options for message distribution include:
Press Release: Write a press release announcing whatever it is you’re trying to bring awareness to and pay for distribution.
Influencer Marketing: Find the key influencers in your market, or reach out to existing contacts you may already have. Pitch them to share your news with their networks.
Ads: Run pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google and any social media network where your target audience can be found. If your campaign calls for and the budget is available, consider using television and radio ads, too.
Social Media: Beyond running ads across social media platforms, share the news with your existing audience.
Linkbuilding: Building links to your website increases the chance that people will find you from another source, while also helping to improve your search engine rankings, over time. There are many methods of building long-lasting, credible links to your website, but that’s another post for another day.
Google Analytics makes it possible to track offline message distribution, like TV ads and radio, too.
You’ll use that same handy URL builder tool, changing the source to “radio”/”print”/”TV”. Change the medium to the radio station, print publication, and TV network, as dictated by the details of your campaign.
You’ll end up with a nasty URL that looks something like this:
That’s definitely not going to be easy for anyone to remember, let alone someone in your target audience to remember. So, what now?
You have a few options.
Register a new domain to direct users to.
Create a subfolder for each campaign tracking, like http://yourdomain.com/christmassale
Create a subdomain for each campaign tracking, like http://christmassale.yourdomain.com
The only thing that really matters is that you use different custom URLs for each ad, and never send traffic to those URLs with other sources, to avoid skewing your results.
Then, use PHP redirects to send each custom Google code to the page with the simpler URL. In our first example, we’d create a PHP code that looks like this:
A word about using a new domains – you’d have to register a new one for each ad campaign, so it can get a little harder to manage over time. But, if you go that route, all you have to do is turn on the domain forwarding function in your hosting control panel to forward users to your tracking URL.
The Finishing Touches: Evaluation
It’s not over til it’s over. Once the campaign ends, you’ve got one more step – evaluation. Take time to look at all the campaign data to determine how well you were able to reach your goals.
Report results to any stakeholders at your company. Your Google Analytics account includes a number of reports to choose from, such as audience reports, advertising reports, acquisition reports, behavior reports, and conversion reports that you can use based on the goals and objectives of your outreach campaign.
Not all outreach campaigns are going to blow you out of the water – and that’s okay. If you miss your mark, take what you can from the data and use it to improve the next campaign. Use the insights to make adjustments to the strategy in future campaigns each time, and you’ll make progress each time.
Rinse and Repeat
After the evaluation, it’s time to start the process over again for the next outreach campaign you plan. With practice, each one will become more efficient and effective, but it’s critical to never assume two campaigns will ever be exactly alike – and to plan accordingly.
What else can you add about crafting effective outreach campaigns?
The Rule of Social Media, as varied as it may be depending on the source, always says you should never focus on tooting your own horn too much. Yes, you want to use it to share news about your company and new products or services, but ultimately, your social media channels are a platform to connect with your potential customers to provide value. This means curating relevant content from other sources, to engage, inform, and entertain your audience.
Luckily for you, you don’t have to spend hours every week scouring Google and the internet in general to find the content your audience is most likely to benefit from. There are many tools available to make the process of content curation easier for you.
Klout
What began as an influencer measurement tool, Klout has morphed into a content curation platform. After linking your social profiles and getting a klout score, it tells you what experts you are an expert in, and you can choose up to 30 topics that you’re interested in, whether you’re considered an expert or not. From within the platform, you can see various articles related to your topics of interest, and choose to add them to your social scheduling platform. The service is completely free. Beyond the content curation, there are also suggestions for the top experts to follow, so you can make the most of your networking.
Quuu
Quuu (pronounced “queue”) connects with your Buffer account. It is hand-curated content, available in a number of categories. After signing up for your account and connecting it to Buffer, simply choose the accounts you want to post the curated content to, and the number of posts to schedule. Then, you’ll be able to select the categories you want to follow. Options include things like: 3D Printing, Affiliate Marketing Strategy, Beer, Anxiety, Big Data, Business Management, Branding, and more.
The free plan allows for up to two posts per day, and up to five interest categories. You have the option to earn more posts per day through referrals. The paid plan is priced at $10/month and includes up to 10 posts per day, with unlimited interest categories.
Post Planner
Post Planner is a social scheduling and content curation tool, built specifically for Facebook and Twitter. What makes it different from the others on this list is that it’s not just about finding articles of interest to your audience. Paid plans also include a selection of engaging questions and memes you can use to break the monotony of posting articles and videos all the time, to add a bit of fun to your page. And, thanks to their algortithms, they can review the performance of your post posts, to predict the future engagement that’s specific to your audience. The algorithm will also setup the perfect posting times for your audience so you can add them to your plan, set the content for each time slot, and go. If you’d rather take charge of your social media strategy, PostPlanner allows for that, too. PostPlanner also works with Pinterest and RSS feeds, but it will be adding functionality for LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+ soon.
Plans range from $11/month to $59/month with annual discounts, to bring the price down to $9/month to $49/month. The basic plan allows for 10 profiles, 100 posts per day, and 1,000 posts planned. The top tier plan allows for 50 profiles, 500 posts per day, unlimited posts planned, and seven team members.
Scoop.it
Scoop.it is a content curation platform that allows you to discover content based on relevant keywords of your choice. You can curate the content, add your own perspective, and publish it to your own topic page, share it to your social channels, or embed it on your website. There’s a free account, which allows you to have one topic page, one keyword group for content suggestions, two connected social accounts, and 10 scoops per day. Paid plans start at $11/month when paid annually, and allow for five of 15 topic pages, with five or 15 keyword groups per topic page, and either five or unlimited scoops per day. Paid plans also include analytics and scheduling of posts. The business plan is the only portion that allows content to be embedded on your website or blog.
Feedly
Feedly is an RSS feed collection tool, which gives you a quick and easy to way to read posts from your favorite blogs, magazines, and even YouTube channels and podcasts. Once you sign up for your account, you can pick and choose publications to follow based on niche or keyword, and you can even create groups of content to separate personal interests from business ones. Then, as you read through the content, when you find something you believe will be of interest to your audience, you can add to your social schedule with Buffer or another tool.
The free plan allows for an unlimited number of feeds, along with the ability to organize those feeds into collections. It also includes Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest integration. The Pro plan, priced at $65/year, includes faster sync, power search, third party integrations, Dropbox backup, and premium support. The $145/year Team plan allows for more third party integrations, additional logins for team members, and more content curation tools.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a killer content curation tool, because it can also help you find influencers to reach out to in an effort to amplify your own content. You can find the most shared content in any topic area over the course of the last day, the last month, or the last year. You can set up content alerts for new content in any topic. You can filter content by type, so you can make sure you’re sharing a mixture of infographics, articles, videos, and more. You can choose to share content directly from within the BuzzSumo platform, or schedule it with Buffer. If you find there’s a certain author you love, you can set up alerts to notify you when the influencer or author publishers something new.
There’s a free plan that allows for five searches a day, without an account. Paid plans range from $99 to $699/month. The basic plan includes one to five users, five alerts, 10 trending feeds, and unrestricted searches. The mid-tier plan allows for 10 users, 30 alerts, and 50 trending feeds. The highest tier plan allows for 100 users, 100 alerts, and 100 trending feeds. Annual billing comes with a 20% discount.
ContentGems
ContentGems is a “content discovery engine.” It scans a variety of sources every day, to find hundreds of thousnads of articles for you to read and share with your audience. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in their massive database of sources, you can include your own custom collection of sources, which is great for microniches. It’s easy to find the kind of content you know will resonate with your audience with the filters, which include social signals, keywords, and more. Once you’ve plugged in your sources and filters, you’ll get a dynamic stream of timely and relevant content that you can use on your social media channels, your blog, email newsletters, and more.
The free plan allows for one interest with 10 keywords, basica filtering, and daily content suggestions. The business plan, priced at $99/month allows for up to 20 interests with 50 keywords per interest, with advanced filtering, and real-time content suggestions.You’ll get an RSS feed for each interest, and integration with hundreds of third-party applications like Buffer, Feedly, and Hootsuite. The Agency plan, priced at $199/month allows for up to 50 interests, with 50 keywords per interest, more sources and more custom RSS feeds. Discounts are available for annual billing, bringing the prices of the paid plans down to $74.91/month and $141.58/month respectively.
Curata
Curata is a content marketing platform with business-grade content curation software. The discovery engine learns what kind of content you’re most interested in, increasing its usefulness and targeting to your audience over time. The platform makes it easy to organize and contextualize your content with just a few clicks. The platform makes it easy to publish and promote your content across social media and any other platform. It integrates with a number of content management systems and marketing automation platforms, while also allowing you to define custom schedules, templates, and publishing rules. Pricing information is not publicly available, and interested users must schedule a demo to learn more.
Triberr
Triberr is a community of bloggers and influencers who come together to share their content. When you find the stories you want to share, the links to share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest. You can also visit these links and schedule them in Buffer, Hootsuite, or your favorite scheduling tool. You can also add your own content to the network for others to read, making it a good promotional tool as well. Just be sure that you’re sharing content for other people more than you’re using the platform to share your own.
Making Curated Content Work for You
The fact is, the majority of the content you post on your social media platforms, should be curated. The more varied your sources, the better, at least until you know what your audience is most likely to respond to. Don’t be afraid to vary types of content you’re sharing – from basic articles to infographics and videos. It’s important to realize that if you’re scheduling all of your social media content, that you need to at least take time to check in regularly every day. Your followers need to see that you’re live, and actually paying attention to what they have to say. If they notice you’re constantly running on autopilot, they’ll just stop paying attention to anything you share – curated or not.
Crafting a digital marketing strategy is difficult work, whether you’re a new or seasoned marketer. What worked in the past may not work now, and with constant market changes – the addition of new platforms, algorithm adjustments, and more competition – nothing is a guarantee of success right out of the gate. But, just because something is a “failure” doesn’t mean it’s a waste of your time and effort. Everything is a lesson in marketing – and there’s a solution for everyone. Even not-so-glamorous brands can rock digital marketing. It’s all in the plan, and knowing how to reach your audience.
The most important factor to build into your digital marketing strategy, no matter what the scope, goals, or objectives may be, is agility. Having a plan is critical, but having a back up plan, or the ability to make adjustments based on what you see happening before, during, and after each of the campaigns in your strategy begins is vital to your success. Staying the course when data indicates it is time to pivot can be absolutely detrimental, wasting time and money, and negatively affecting brand image or customer loyalty.
This infographic breaks the process of creating your digital marketing strategy down into six steps – each building on the previous to make it simpler for you to build a strategy that gets you through the next month, quarter, or year, if you’d like.
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We are Sachs Marketing Group, an award-winning SEO company. We’ve outgrown our modest 1,500 sq. ft. office and recently moved into our new 5,700 sq. ft. office in Westlake Village, CA. We absolutely love our new space and wanted to share a quick walk-through overview with our followers. Please watch the quick video below:
Are you unsure if Pinterest marketing will work for your business?
Interested in ways to make the social network help you get more exposure?
By digging a bit deeper and going beyond the obvious uses for Pinterest, you can use it to expand your social presence and attract new leads.
In this article, you’ll discover 5 examples of businesses rocking Pinterest marketing in unconventional ways. I’ll show you how you can follow their lead to do the same.
#1: Engage and Build Relationships with Group Boards and Guest Pinners
Use group boards and guest pinners to engage followers and build relationships.
Group boards are just like regular Pinterest boards, except that more than one person other than the creator can contribute pins to the board. You may also hear them referred to as contributor boards, community boards, shared boards, or collaborative boards.
The Food Network has a Let’s Cook with Giada group board. They are also contributors to a number of other group boards, like the MyPlate: Breakfast, MyPlate: Beans & Legumes, and more. These boards show up on their page because they contribute… so whether you start a group board, or join one, you’re getting some cross-promotion activity.
Group boards allow you to build a community of people pinning content to your board. This promotes engagement and keeps multiple points of view in place.
To create a group board:
Hover over your name in the right corner of your Pinterest account. Click “Your boards.”
Find or create the board you want the guest pinner to use. Click “edit.”
On the “Collaborators” line, type in the username or email address. Click invite, and they can pin to the board.
Guest pinners are people you invite to pin to your boards, to bring in more content and a new fresh, perspective for your audience.
Earmark Social uses guest pinners every week to provide a change in perspective. Take for instance the Aimee of Artsyville board. Over the course of the week, she pinned 425 pins, providing content curation for Earmark Social, increased repins, and likely helped bring in new followers. Plus, she got to promote her own brand.
To have a guest pinner, follow the steps to create a group board, but limit invitations only to the pinner or pinners you want to work with.
If you want the board to be collaborative before you push it live to your followers, create a secret board… toggling the “secret” option on when you create the new board. Then follow the steps to invite the guest pinner. They can pin to the secret board, and whenever you’re ready, you can change the setting from secret to public.
Another option is to use a guest board like Homepolish and Etsy did. Etsy created a board, “The Hottest Home Trends of 2015” and invited the Homepolish team to pin to it – creating a hybrid of the group board and guest pinning concept.
To create a guest board:
Follow the steps to create a board and invite someone to contribute to it as you would if it were a group board. Allow them to pin the content to the board, and either leave it open for them to continue contributing to, or remove group contributors when they’re finished.
To find a group board:
Use a tool like PinGroupie, where you can sort boards to find ones relevant to your niche.
#2: Highlight Your Portfolio with Boards that Wow
Designers and photographers can use Pinterest to highlight work from their portfolio.
Take for instance Jenna Loraine Chambers, a graphic designer from Aberdeen, UK. She has boards setup for articles related to graphic design, design inspiration, typography, stylish CVs, and more. Though she also has a mix of personal boards on the account for recipes, crafts, home design, and even beauty products, this is a personal Pinterest account, rather than one focused solely on her business.
Some may argue that if she’s using this platform to promote her business she’s better suited to focus solely on design, but I think the mix is a brilliant idea for her. Instead of screaming, “I’m a designer, look at me, hire me!” she’s showing her audience she’s still a person with interests outside of her career – bringing more of a personal connection to play.
Create a board for each category of work you do. For graphic designers, these could include:
Logos
Brochures
Business Cards
Flyers
Illustrations
Typography
For photographers, these could include:
Portraits
Engagements
Weddings
Maternity
Families
Flesh the boards out by pinning examples of work you’ve done, directly from your website. Use the description space to provide information about the project/client. Then, to keep the board from being nothing more than a blatant advertisement, pin work for from fellow designers or photographers, being sure to note in the description where the work came from.
Then, create additional boards for client educational purposes, so rather than a portfolio, Pinterest becomes a valuable resource. Photographers could include additional boards with pins that help people learn how to get ready for a session, with tips about how to choose what to wear, makeup advice, what to expect at the end of the session, and more. Designers could include boards featuring color schemes, design theories and principles, industry news and trends, and more.
If you skip this step because you’re not a designer or a photographer with a portfolio to display, that’s okay – but if you are and you choose to skip this step, you’re missing out on showcasing your work to potential clients. You never know when a pin of your work will take off and get repinned to other boards for inspiration.
#3: Encourage Reverse Showrooming to Bring in More Foot Traffic
Reverse showrooming is a relatively new trend, inspired by Pinterest. Rather than going to the store to try something in person before buying online to save money, reverse showrooming is a result of someone seeing something online and going into the store to look at it and (hopefully) buying it.
Lowe’s is maximizing the trend with their Pinterest account. They have boards specifically for gift guides – for foodies, for him, for her. Beyond that, they have photos with inspiration for home improvement projects and DIY crafts – all featuring products they sell.
Organize boards and pin your products. Beyond pinning the products themselves, pin images with them in use, showing your audience how they’d be used. This inspires them to come shop in your store, proving that Pinterest marketing isn’t just for e-commerce brands.
#4: Stand Out with Rich Pins to Improve User Experience
Use rich pins to automatically add extra information to the pin itself. There are six types of rich pins, and though not all are relevant to every business, you may find that some work well for you.
Take for instance, the place pin. The place pin adds a map, address, and phone number to your pin. Four Seasons was the first hotel brand to make use of place pins, which arranges pins on a map. In 2013, they launched Pin.Pack.Go, a Pinterest-based concierge program.
Or, the product pin. The product pin adds real time pricing, availability, and where to buy. Made.com is a home décor retailer, with products available all across Europe. Using Pinterest marketing, and rich pins, they were able to increase transactions by 106% and revenue by 173%.
There’s also the recipe pin. They include ingredients, cooking times, and serving information. Eatsmarter is a German-based platform for healthy recipes, making the rich pin a perfect fit for their audience.
Users can also choose between article pins, movie pins, and app pins.
Article pins include the headline, author, and a description of the story, so users can find and save articles that they want to read and share.
Movie pins include cast members, reviews, and ratings so users can learn more about new films.
App pins come with an install button, so users can download your app without leaving Pinterest. Right now, this feature only works with iOS apps, but I expect Android will be added in the future.
If you want to use rich pins, you’ll first need to prepare your website with metadata with Open Graph or Schema.org, test them out, and apply to get them on Pinterest. If you don’t have a technical background, your web developer can assist you. If you add metadata for multiple types of rich pins, it will be served in order of priority: 1. App Pins, 2. Product Pins, 3. Recipe Pins, 4. Movie Pins, 5. Article Pins and 6. Place Pins.
#5: Gain Traction with Promoted Pins to Get Your Content in Front of More Eyes
Promoted pins are useful to help you get your content in front of more users. If you don’t have many followers yet, this exposure can help you in building a more targeted following.
Adore Me, a monthly subscription service for lingerie, used promoted pins to reach new customers. They saw a 4,000% increase in Pinterest-referred revenue, and say customers from Pinterest spend about 20% more over time than customers that come from other channels.
Get started with Pinterest ads by visiting ads.pinterest.com. If you don’t have a business account, you’ll need to convert your account first. From there, you’ll set your account location to determine the currency you’re billed in, and if there are any applicable taxes. You won’t be able to change it later. You can only promote pins from your profile, so make sure you’ve already pinned whatever it is you want to promote.
Next, you’ll create your campaign. You’ll start with creating your ad, and choosing your goal. You can choose between boosting engagement with your pin, or getting traffic to your website. You’ll be charged for each engagement or click to your website.
Name your campaign and choose how long you want it to run. You don’t have to put in an end date if you want to run continuously. Enter the daily budget – or the maximum amount of money you want to spend on the campaign every day.
Now it’s time to choose the pin you want to promote. Filter the pins to see the ones that are the most clicked, or the most repinned in the last month, or choose from all the pins. If you know the pin you want to promote, search by URL or keyword. You cannot promote buyable pins, app pins, or any pins with video or GIF. You can only can promote pins that link back to a website – and should only promote content that belongs to you.
If you want, you can add more details like a name for your promoted pin, an updated destination URL if you want it to link to somewhere different. It’s possible to use UTM tracking parameters so you can get analytics data in Google Analytics.
Use interest targeting to reach people on their affinity for certain topics – like healthy recipes, or kids crafts. People will see your pin as they browse through their home and category feeds. Start with one interest, and branch out to related interests that could also have interest in your business.
Use keyword targeting to reach your audience when they are looking for specific things to do, make, or buy. Your pin will show up in search results and in related pins. You can use the search function to find specific keywords and get related keywords from Pinterest, get keywords recommended to you based on trending searches, or import your own list of keywords.
From there, you can continue adding details like the locations, languages, devices, and genders you want to target. In the maximum bid box, place the amount of money that you’d be willing to pay for a single action. This will help determine how far your daily budget goes to helping you reach your goals with your audience.
Now, your pin is ready for review, and after your first campaign, you’ll be asked to setup billing. Once the campaign goes live, you can see how it is doing and make edits as necessary.
Clearly, we know Pinterest works well for brands with lots of visual content – crafters, food brands with recipes – but with these tips, it can work well for brands outside of the e-commerce space. Even if you’re not using social media to directly make money and feel like your brand doesn’t belong on Pinterest, using these tactics can connect you with an audience you’d otherwise miss out on by assuming your brand doesn’t fit the social network’s target demographic of creative. How have you used Pinterest marketing for your brand? Let us know in the comments below!
Chances are, the majority of your blog is dedicated to text-based blog posts with images included throughout. And while that’s a good place to start – your blog can be more than that. Including other types of content, even if it’s based on the same basic topic ideas, can help you reach more people, expand your blog identity, and get more link-building opportunities. But, beyond that, there are other reasons why you should consider repurposing content.
Instead of just singing the praises of repurposing content – I’m going to show you how to identify the content on your blog that’s worthy of repurposing, and then give you actionable advice to turn that existing content into additional assets you can use to market your business.
Why Should You be Repurposing Content?
Work less. Technically, it’s more work to take a piece of content and morph it into something else, but it’s technically easier to start with something you’ve already worked on and create something else than it is to start from scratch with a new, fresh, idea. The older your blog is, and the more specific your niche is, the harder it will become will come up with those new ideas. Overall, you’ll be working less, and getting more done, since that old blog post is the jumping point. You already know the topic. You’ve done the research. You’re still a step ahead… and you’ll have that much more content ready to promote to your audience.
Strengthen your message. There’s conflicting data on the exact number of times a customer needs to hear your message before they become a buyer, but according to the Marketing Rule of Seven, your leads need to hear your message seven times before they’ll take the plunge and make a purchase. Repurposing content makes it a lot easier on you to repeat the messaging to drill it home to your audience.
Boost your SEO efforts. Producing multiple pieces of unique content around a central topic gives you the chance to target a keyword more than once. And, if you take that content to places off your website, you have the chance to build high quality backlinks to your website, with the bonus of controlling the link’s anchor text.
Earn more authority. Publishing high quality content, based around a single topic, in various places on the web helps raise your profile in the industry. It teaches others to see you as an expert in the niche/field, which goes a long way to earning customer trust.
Reach a new audience. Many people love reading blog posts, and that’s great. But, there are a number of people who’d rather listen to a podcast, watch a video, or look through an infographic. Repurposing content allows you to create multiple formats, so you can reach those people who hate reading (or just don’t have time to read) blogs, and still get your message across. After all, it’s much easier to listen to a podcast during your morning or evening commute than it is to watch a video or read an email.
Is All Content Repurposable?
The short answer is yes, but it must be evergreen. What is evergreen? If your content is evergreen, it is timeless – always relevant – and it is of high enough quality that it gets traffic.
To find content you could repurpose, start with your analytics data. Which posts are the most popular with your audience? If they were a hit once, they could be a hit again. Look at which ones were popular over the last month, and which ones were popular over the last year. Are there patterns? If your most popular posts all have a common topic they’re based on, then you definitely want to craft content around this topic as the data tells you it’s the one that resonates most with your visitors.
Before I dive into the various ways you can repurpose a single piece of content, let me be clear. Repurposing content doesn’t mean using the same piece of content over and over. It requires you to alter it each time, to ensure freshness and appeal to a new audience.
Ways to Repurpose Your Content
Craft new blog posts. Do you remember the old TV show Family Matters? Did you know it was actually a spin-off of Perfect Strangers? Harriet was their neighbor, and the show was originally meant to be centered on her and her family, until Steve Urkel, stole the show. The point is, high-quality content can spin-off more (they’re working on a The Big Bang Theory spin-off, now, too!) high-quality content. The audience can win each time. Be careful, though – we know not all spin-offs are as successful as the original – remember the Friends spin-off Joey?
Posts like this listicle are a great thing to repurpose. Each one of these points can become an individual post, fleshed out with further detail and research. Then, they can all be linked to one another and formed into a downloadable guide.
Update and republish old posts. Even though you’re aiming for evergreen content, data and research get old after a while. New information is discovered. Go back and make sure all the data you’ve linked to is still current, and no relevant new discoveries have been made. Keep the original content, but add to it in a way that lets people see you’ve updated it to be more current.
Simply adding the updated text in a different color or font style, with a note about what that means, or adding an “UPDATED (date)” at the bottom can make all the difference to visitors who are looking for the information you shared, but find the original posting to be too far back to be useful for their own research purposes.
Compile everything into an eBook. Take all of the blog posts that relate to a single topic, and expand on them with graphics and additional data. Before you know it, you could have a rather extensive library of eBook content for lead magnets or for sale – like Smashing Magazine, who has 70 ebooks in their shop – for little extra effort.
Publish an infographic. If you want to go beyond creating a slideshow presentation, you can create an infographic. It serves as a complete summary of your post contents, presented in a visual format. These are particularly beneficial if you have a lot of data in your content. If it is heavy with statistics or is centered around a relatively boring topics to demonstrate only in text, the infographic is a highly engaging format.
If hiring a graphic designer isn’t in your budget you can use tools like Piktochart or Visually to create the infographics you need. Or, you can provide the text broken down as you want it represented in the infographic and hire a professional designer to do it for you. There are several infographic distribution platforms available to help you get your new content in front of eyes. It’s also a good idea to post the infographic on your blog, with an HTML embed code to make it easier for your audience to share.
Publish an instructographic. This is a type of infographic, but instead of presenting data, it presents how to do something, step-by-step. This is a great way to convert a text-based tutorial into something more friendly for visual learners. These are great for Pinterest. Take a look at this instructographic on how to build and install raised garden beds, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Create a presentation. If you have any kind of actionable advice, meaningful quotes, or interesting statistics, you can use it to create an online presentation. You can use something like Microsoft PowerPoint or a free photo editing program like Venngage or Canva to create the slides for the presentation. Once the presentation is complete, you can upload it to a platform like SlideShare to increase your social reach potential and see more opportunity for engagement.
Record a video. Even if you don’t like the idea of getting in front of a camera and putting your face on video, you can still use the medium for your audience. Thanks to screencasting software like Camtasia Studio or ScreenFlow, you can demonstrate something on your computer by recording the screen. This is a particularly helpful format for demonstrating how to do something on your computer, but it can also be useful in other niches.
You don’t have to invest in a lot of expensive equipment to record video. Just make sure you’re in a quiet place that is well lit. you may want to invest in an inexpensive tripod so that you can keep the camera steady throughout the recording session. You can use your smartphone to get started. If you find that you like to do it and your audience responds well to it, you may want to grow into higher quality equipment.
Distribute your video with platforms like YouTube, Wistia, and Vimeo. Embed the video into a blog post, (using a code from the hosting platform of your choice) and for further amplification, allow your audience to share the video with an embed code and social sharing buttons.
You can also experiment with live broadcasting video using platforms like Facebook Live and Periscope. Facebook Live will save your videos to your page, group, or wherever they were reported so you can build an archive. You can also repurpose that content into future blog posts or social media for other platforms outside of Facebook.
Record a podcast. Podcasts are great for people who don’t mind putting their voice online, but don’t necessarily want to get in front of a video camera. You can inform, educate, and entertain with podcasts. The format is great for people who are always on the go, because it makes it possible for them to digest the content while driving, sitting in a waiting room, or waiting for their kids to get finished with soccer practice.
Just make sure that when you record your podcast, you have a decent quality microphone and are in a quiet place. You can use basic audio editing software to improve the overall quality of the podcast, or insert any necessary advertisements, should you decide to monetize it. Simply recording the podcast isn’t enough, however. Like infographics and video, you’ll want to find distribution platforms to get it to the right ears. Options include: iTunes (approval required) and SoundCloud.
Host a webinar. If you’ve got a lot of content related to the same topic, borrow from the slide presentation format, the podcast, and the video format. Compile it to a webinar event that you can host live, making yourself available for questions and answers at the end. After the live event, you can send people to the archived version.
Write guest posts. Guest posting can help you reach new audiences – while also earning a backlink to your website. Take a blog post you’ve already written – refresh it for the guest post host website, and there you go. You get the SEO boost, along with exposure to a new audience. Rinse and repeat for any high quality site in your niche that accepts guest posts.
Use Quora. Repurpose your content to provide answers for various questions on Quora. Or, post the content to your Quora user blog. And, if and when you get stuck for content ideas in the future, use Quora questions answers for inspiration for future blog posts. A question and answer session could easily become a full-blown blog post.
Re-share on social media. A great thing about finding your evergreen content is that you can share it again today, while providing nearly the same value you did when you first published it. It may sound counterintuitive to share the same content of the same audience, but reposting old content is an effective way to hit people across various time zones, reach new followers, and test headline variants to see which one does better.
Research shows that reposting can bring in 75% of the engagement of the original share. Archived content can also help you keep your social content calendar full, especially when something from the archive is relevant.
Write case studies. If your company has any kind of internal data, consider turning into a case study. Reach out to current and past clients to see how your products/services have helped them reach their goals. Or, run tests in your own website and save the data to use. Case studies can help you earn trust and credibility since they show your customers how you can help them, too. If you’ve never written a case study before, check out these tips to help you knock it out of the park.
Develop an email series. Some content can be broken down into smaller chunks, and delivered in a daily email format. Going back to this listicle as an example, you could break down each point into a daily email, and send it to subscribers as a lead magnet.
What if You’re Just Starting Out?
If you’re just starting out and don’t have an extensive content library to repurpose, you can use a single ideation session to hash out several ideas from a single topic or string of topics. How can you do that?
When you start with the core topic, you can start with the core article/blog post, and think of ways to convert it to any or all of the above suggestions. When you come up with ideas for content over the next quarter, six months, and year, think about the various ways you can turn that single blog post into other formats. Then, develop a plan for creating those assets, and sprinkle them throughout your content calendar. Even if you can’t create them all at once, you have a plan for how you can repurpose those initial blog posts later. It’s a great way to fill in gaps when you’re hitting writer’s block and feel like you’re running out of ideas.
What kinds of content do you have that you’ve repurposed? Have there been any instances where the repurposed content has outperformed the original? Share your experience in the comments below.
Part of me always wanted to go into psychology, but I decided spending 12 years in school to earn a Ph.D. was a lot – and I wasn’t sure I could handle my own issues, let alone help countless others with theirs. The mind and the way it works has always fascinated me, so it’s no real surprise I ended up in marketing. After all, the two share a lot in common. Marketing doesn’t focus on helping people solve their problems like a therapy session, but it still involves using psychological tactics to communicate brand messaging – and stellar brands develop products and services to help their audience solve problems.
When I realized how much psychology and marketing are truly related and intertwined, I decided to go back to my love of the science to see how my tactics were working with the way people are naturally wired.
Try these hacks, and you’ll see your campaigns grow faster and better than ever before.
The Scarcity Effect – Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
This all comes down to supply and demand. The rarer something is, the more people want it, and the more valuable it becomes. People don’t like to miss out on a good deal – whether it’s because it’s available for a limited time or because of limited quantity. Why do you think Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, and people line up for hours before the stores open?
Take for instance the 1975 study that shows us just how much we’re wired to avoid missing out. Researchers had two cookie jars – one with 10 cookies, and the other with two cookies. Participants were asked to rate the cookies, not knowing that they were the exact same. The cookies in the jar with only two in it received much higher ratings than the jar with 10 – demonstrating that we place more value on what we think is rarer.
To make this work for you:
“Only X copies available at this price!”
“This limited-time deal only lasts until…”
“Act now! This deal goes public in…”
Instant Gratification – Give People Rewards Immediately
Humans love instant gratification – we want what we want, and we want it now. We’re taught to practice and embrace delayed gratification with phrases like, “Be patient”, “Good things come to those who wait”, and “Hard work pays off”.
So, if we’re taught to delay gratification for better rewards, why are we driven by the seemingly constant desire to get rewards right this second? It comes down to our survival instincts – and needing food and water right now.
Fortunately for us marketers, that instant gratification wiring can apply to things outside our basic needs – applying to the desire for the latest and greatest.
Give people what they want in your content. If they do something you want them to do – say subscribe to your email list – give them a discount to your store that they can use for a limited time. It activates reciprocity, instant gratification, and the scarcity principle in one shot.
Make People Feel Good – Happy Headlines
People love to feel good – and articles that evoke positive emotion are more likely to go viral than those that are built around negative emotion. But, you have to get their attention with headlines, too. On average, 500% more people will read your headline than the copy.
Use a tool like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to test headlines before you publish your content, and see what happens to your traffic.
Create a Bit of Mystery – We’re Naturally Curious Creatures
As humans, we love to figure things out – which means teasing with a secret is a wonderful way to capture attention. Take for instance the story of Social Triggers growth. Derek Halpern launched the website in 2011, and went from a relatively unknown blog to one of the best on the Internet in no time… because he created mystery.
He wrote about his growth, but didn’t say how he was achieving it, or that he was intentionally leaving those points out as a social experiment. People began to write their own blog posts, attempting to reverse engineer his success, so they could replicate it themselves. As a result, he got even more traffic and grew his readership, helping him grow even faster.
It’s the same reason we see all kinds of sites dedicated to rumors of the next big thing from companies like Apple and Samsung. We know they’re releasing new devices and products every year, and we know they keep things under wraps, but boy do we have fun trying to figure things out before the launch day!
Want to create some mystery on your own? Try these:
“I can’t say anything yet…” used sparingly and appropriately
Build your content calendar around upcoming product/service launches.
Convert each benefit/feature coming in an updated edition into a blog post of its own, to create a series to keep people on the hook, rather than publishing a single overview post.
Use Social Proof
The theory of social proof suggests that people will follow along with the actions or recommendations of another group of people, as long as they like them or trust them. It comes from the desire to belong to a group – and can also be referred to as the “me too” effect.
The good news for you is there’s all kinds of social proof to choose from, and you can use more than one form – so long as it makes sense to do so.
Expert: This is why influencer marketing works – because of the halo effect.
Celebrity: We see it everywhere – Weight Watchers, Proactiv, Covergirl… the idea is that when a celebrity is properly matched to a brand, it can do wonders. But, if it’s not a good match, it can tarnish the brand image.
Wisdom of Your Friends: You’re more likely to trust recommendations from people you know – so that’s why social widgets show you how many of your friends like a Facebook page, or follow an account on Twitter. When you know your friend likes or uses them, you’re more apt to check them out, too.
Wisdom of the Crowd: McDonald’s and their Billions and Billions served on the sign – it’s about belonging to the crowd, and is tied to FOMO.
User: User reviews, social fan counts, social share counts… anything that shows others are interacting with your brand.
Unconscious Branding
Even though we’re dealing with a lot of ad blindness, studies show that people process advertising, even if they’re not consciously considering it. How many times do you ask yourself, “Where have I seen that before?” When you do that – you’re trying to find a memory of unconscious branding. So, how can you make that work for you?
Place your logo in your social media headers.
Add your logo to blog post images.
Use the same profile image on all social media platforms.
Add branded images to your tweets and other social media posts.
Add your logo to your email signature.
Avoid Fancy Fonts – Unless they Fit Your Message
Whether you realize it or not, the font you choose can have a dramatic effect on the number of people who are looking at your content. While it may be tempting to choose a font because it’s “different” or “looks pretty”, there are certain typefaces that work better to help you communicate your message – and matching it with your brand will help make a connection with your audience.
Use these guidelines to help you choose a font that will reinforce your message.
Look and Feel: Look at the graphic below. Read the words, and notice how you get a somewhat confused feeling. It’s because the fonts just don’t match what the words are saying.
Placement: If you’re putting text on top of an image, it’s a good idea to make a box with your text, by ensuring the beginning and end of each line starts and finishes at the same place. You do this by adjusting font sizes on each line of text.
One Font: You don’t have to use multiple fonts to create visual interest and highlight certain words. To keep your text from being a distraction on your image, use one font throughout. In the image below – which I grabbed from Canva’s template library – you can see the same font is used throughout the entire image…but it’s anything but boring.
Transparency: If you want to make the text in an image pop – instead of playing with colors and the fonts themselves, reduce the transparency on the image. It makes the background a bit lighter, without taking away from the image itself.
Kerning: See the tiny space between each character in this text? That’s kerning. And when it’s off – either because the letters are too close together, or too far apart – that negatively affects the overall design.
Yes, I know I just said you don’t have to use more than one font in you design, but it is possible to pair them, as long as you know what you’re doing.
The ambiguity effect is the bias that means people will more than likely choose the product or service they know the results of, compared to one that they don’t. It lies in the underlying fear of the unknown. If you don’t have enough product information, or your product comes off as unfamiliar, buyers are much less likely to choose it. But – you can make use of this knowledge, and make it work for you.
Make use of statistics. People trust them, and will hardly ever take the time to do their own research. Use it to your advantage by making the research easy for them.
Use metaphors: When giving customers options, do what you can to deliver it with a metaphor, too. This will help bring meaning, familiarity, and comfort to the decision-making process.
Keep it easy. Whatever option you want your audience to choose, make sure it’s simple, clear, and concise.
Attention Bias
According to the Attention Bias, our perception is affected by recurring thoughts. For instance, people who think frequently about the clothes they’re wearing, tend to pay more attention to the clothes they see others wearing. Those with eating disorders pay more attention to food stimuli, while addicts pay more attention to the drug-related stimuli. This may impact memories, because they are more focused on the stimuli, rather than the details of the overall picture. It could translate to memory distortion, inaccuracy, or incompleteness.
Use it in your marketing by making it easier for people to think of you more often. Do this using any number of tactics, such as:
Blogging regularly.
Posting on social media every day.
Re-sharing your content regularly.
Posting your articles on other sites – like Huffington Post and Medium
Guest posting original articles.
The Cheerleading Effect
The Cheerleading Effect says that seeing faces in groups makes them appear more attractive. It all comes down to belonging in a group in comparison to isolation. No one really likes to be alone all the time. The group mentality can be incredibly helpful in marketing, since naturally we’re wired to want to stay in a group where it is safe. Use this bias to your advantage in marketing by:
Clustering a bunch of testimonials together, instead of listing just one or two.
Displaying user reviews to demonstrate user engagement
You Don’t Have to be a Psych Major to Make It Work in Marketing
Though it may seem like you need to have a background in psychology to make it part of your strategy, the great thing is – the work has already been done for you. Massive amounts of research is already there to support these principles, and you’re not out to reinvent the wheel. You’re just out to effectively use human nature to get your desired result.
What kind of psychological principles do you regularly use in your marketing campaigns? How has using psychology to support your tactics improved your results? Share your experiences with me in a comment below.
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