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Instagram Location Stories and Hashtag Stories: What Marketers Need to Know http://ift.tt/2rhLwlE Want to get your Instagram stories seen by more people? Wondering how location tags and hashtags can improve your performance? These Instagram features allow you to add clickable hashtags and location stickers to your stories. In this article, you’ll discover how to add clickable location stickers and hashtags to your Instagram stories.
Why Location Stickers Are Important in Instagram StoriesYou might be surprised to learn that a lot of people use Instagram to search for local businesses, much like they might use Yelp. While there aren’t any definitive statistics available to show the number of searches on Instagram, there are countless success stories about businesses being found by Instagram users, leading to sales. This is most common for restaurants, retail, and other brick-and-mortar businesses. People may be out and about, looking for a place for dinner. They open Instagram search and type in “pizza [city name]” to find a list of places that serve pizza. Or they may look for a hashtag like “#[citynamerestaurant].” Instagram’s search algorithm will populate content that corresponds to a location-based business if that business has its address set up through Facebook or Instagram. Selecting one of the locations listed takes you to all of the Instagram content available for that location. Now with locations in Instagram Stories, some location searches will also populate with a story icon, allowing users to view recent stories using that location sticker. The story icon is the circle with the Instagram-colored ring around it at the top of the search. If you tap the story icon, you see stories from public accounts associated with that location sticker. Beyond even these targeted searches, opening Instagram’s Explore page will display the content the algorithm determines you’re likely to be interested in. Along the top is a list of people who have posted recent stories that Instagram thinks you may enjoy. And you may even see targeted story results based on your frequent searches or local area. For example, because I live in San Diego, I frequently have a San Diego location story option on my Explore page. These location stories are pulled from public content located all around the area, even if the stories aren’t specifically tagged with the San Diego location. This tactic is best for those businesses that have a physical location. But you don’t just have to use your own business location as a sticker in your stories. Consider including local landmarks or popular public locations near you so you show up in those more popular search results. Adding location stickers to your Instagram stories will help you show up in more searches and make it easier for potential customers to find you. Depending on how popular that location is or how many other people have current stories for it, you may be one of only a few stories featured, allowing you to stand out from the crowd and get the audience’s undivided attention. How to Add a Location Sticker to Instagram StoriesIt only takes a few simple steps to add a location sticker to your Instagram stories. First, start your Instagram story. You can take an image or record a video directly within the Instagram Stories app, or swipe up on the Story screen to import any image taken in the last 24 hours. To get to the location tag option, you must add a sticker to your story post. Tap on the square smiley face (sticker icon) at the top of the Story screen to reveal the list of stickers. Select the Location sticker option. Next, start typing the location you want to use in your story and a list of matching results will populate. Choose the appropriate option from the list. You can rotate, resize, and move the location sticker around the screen on your story or add other features. When you’re finished, tap Next to upload your story to Instagram. Once you’ve uploaded a story with a location sticker, anyone viewing your story can tap the location sticker to view the Instagram search results for that location. The See Location option appears first; tapping on that takes the user to the search results page. Using a location sticker for your business or location, or encouraging customers to tag your location in their stories will encourage Instagram users to view your business on the search page and learn more about you, potentially converting those users to new customers. Why Hashtags Are Important in Instagram StoriesFor location-based, service-based, or online businesses, hashtags are helpful in getting found on Instagram. You can use hashtags related to your business industry, topic, style, or another factor. Hashtag searches will populate content that includes the corresponding hashtag in their post captions or comments. Just as with location stickers, the list of hashtag search results will populate and tapping on the desired hashtag result will open a gallery of content associated with that hashtag. When you add hashtags to your Instagram stories, those stories may also appear in hashtag search results. Similar to the location-based search results, if there are stories related to a hashtag you’re searching, the round icon with the Instagram-colored ring will appear at the top of the search results page, allowing you to view those public stories. Hashtags are one of the most common ways people search for content on Instagram. If you use the right targeted hashtags related to your brand or industry, adding them to your stories will increase your chances of getting found by potential customers who are looking for that content. Using more specific and targeted hashtags will generally help you get better exposure than using overly popular hashtags that are broad in context. As with location stickers, diversifying your Instagram content to include stories featuring a key hashtag will ensure your content is visible to more people on Instagram. That exposure may help drive more Instagram followers or even more website traffic or sales to your business. How to Add a Hashtag to Instagram StoriesYou can add hashtags to Instagram stories two ways: as a sticker or as text. Keep in mind that you should stick with one hashtag (maybe two) on any one story post. Don’t clutter your stories with hashtags! Add a Hashtag as a Sticker Similarly to adding location stickers, you can add hashtags by adding a sticker to your story. After you start your story, tap the sticker icon at the top and choose #hashtag from the sticker list. The hashtag sticker will appear on your story and the keyboard will open. Begin typing your hashtag. You’ll notice that Instagram offers recommendations for popular or frequently used hashtags that you can choose from. After you choose your hashtag, you can move, rotate, and resize it on your story. When you use the sticker method, your hashtag will have the coloration and the background of a sticker. You can add other components to your story or select Next to upload it. Add a Hashtag as Text You don’t have to add hashtags as a sticker; you can simply add them as text. Tap the text icon (the letters Aa) and begin typing your hashtag, including the # in the text. Again, Instagram will offer recommended hashtags to choose from. After you select your hashtag, it will appear as a text source on the story and you can move, rotate, and resize it. You can add other components to your story or tap Next to upload it. View a Hashtag From a Story After you’ve uploaded an Instagram story with a hashtag, anyone viewing the story can tap on the hashtag in the story to view the Instagram search results for that hashtag. The See Hashtag option will appear on-screen and tapping it will take users to the search results page. If you’re using a branded hashtag for your business or encouraging customers to use your hashtag in their stories, this feature allows other Instagram users to view your business content on the search page and learn more about you, potentially converting new customers. If you’re using hashtags targeted to a niche or key topic with other content you frequently post with those hashtags, sending people to that hashtag gallery gives them the opportunity to find your other content and get additional value. Conclusion If you’re using stories as a part of your Instagram marketing, the clickable hashtags and location stickers will allow you to expand your reach to more potential customers. Using these tools strategically can help drive traffic and followers for both B2C and B2B businesses. What do you think? Are you excited to add hashtags or location stickers to your Instagram stories? Or have you already? Please share your thoughts or lessons learned in the comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 11, 2017 at 10:07PM
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Organizing your marketing tech stack http://ift.tt/2taixfQ More posts by this contributor: Figuring out how to organize your marketing stack is almost like putting together a 1,000 piece blank jigsaw puzzle — impossible. A Q1 ‘17 survey by CMO Council and RedPoint Global revealed only 3% of respondents felt all of their automation, engagement and deployment tools were fully connected, with data, metrics and insights traveling freely between different technologies. This stat was staggering to me. Rather than just sit on my hands I’ve put together this infographic, which will help marketers better make sense on how to potentially organize these tools and get closer to achieving cross-channel marketing nirvana. Organize and focus your team: You need a team that is organized and led at the level of the New England Patriots. Both your quant marketers and creative teams need systems and processes that help foster trust, harmony, commitment, accountability and orientation towards results (check out The 5 Dysfunctions of Team for more). Marketing specific collaboration tools are taking stabs at addressing these needs and should be incorporated into how you organize your teams. Know your message: It’s very easy to get lost in all the process and organization of marketing and totally lose track of the appropriate message you should be communicating to your target customer. Don’t fall into this trap! Put content first as all the effort you put into everything else will be wasted if you fail in crafting the right message. There are a lot of tools that can help you work through the content creation process. Establish an Intelligence Hub: Create one centralized view of the customer and apply analytics, data science and orchestration against it so you can enable advanced communication. This is the heart of integrating most of your tools. Create sophisticated automation orchestrating messages within and across channels. Keep in mind your approach should allow for 1 to 1, 1 to many and 1 to all forms of messaging. At Upfront, we recently invested in Cordial which aims to take this approach allowing marketers to take disparate data sources and create advanced marketing automation campaigns across all the dominant messaging channels in this type of manner. It’s something that’s been incredibly difficult to do with legacy systems until now. Master the basic channels first: While there are many exciting new types of marketing campaigns to drive growth, core channels such as email, social, web, search and offline still should be the main centers of focus for marketers. Be careful about getting distracted by next gen tactics like chatbots or VR if you haven’t even figured out the simple channels of reach. Always be testing: Invest in tools that test and optimize the performance of existing channels. You should always be searching for incremental lift in every tactic and tool you employ. If you fail in creating a test driven culture it will be very difficult to understand whether some of your new initiatives are really helping or hurting. Wow the customer: Focus on the customer experience and strive to make it a magical one. Leverage all data and insights available in order to delight the customer. However, don’t be afraid from time to time to take radical chances by throwing all customer feedback out the door and surprise them with something transformational that they never would expect. Its those types of moments that separate good marketers from great ones. Keep in mind that this survey is just that — a survey (it’s a lot in some places and over-simplified in others). How you will digest all of this information will, in part, depend upon your expertise. If you’re just starting out, take it slow and don’t get overwhelmed. If you’re an expert, send along some feedback on how this can be improved (there’s an interactive version coming!). What’s important to remember is that there has never been a more exciting time to be a marketer — and technology is playing a pivotal part in fostering better relationships with customers. Featured Image: FeelPic/Getty ImagesSocial Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com June 11, 2017 at 07:49AM
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Amber Rose's 'fire ass feminist post' too hot for Instagram http://ift.tt/2t6NLEE Amber Rose's 'fire ass feminist post' too hot for InstagramAmber Rose wanted to use a provocative Instagram post to make a point about pubic hair.Image: Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock
By Rebecca Ruiz2017-06-10 18:25:39 UTC
Amber Rose wants to #bringbackthebush. So naturally, the activist and star posted a very NSFW photo of her pubic hair to Instagram on Friday night. Wearing her signature shades, a black coat, black bikini top, and no bottoms, Rose reclined against a set of stairs and let the world glimpse her bush. But it wasn't long before the graphic image disappeared from Rose's Instagram account. She says the social media company deleted the post. Mashable reached out to Instagram to confirm her account and has yet to receive a response, but it wouldn't be surprising given that its community guidelines generally prohibit nudity, including of a person's genitals. The image, however, hasn't been deleted from a post on Rose's Twitter account (see the unblurred image below). Both her Twitter and Instagram messages promoted Rose's upcoming SlutWalk Festival in Los Angeles. That annual gathering, according to its website, is about "raising awareness about sexual injustice and gender inequality" and "aims to impact and uplift, while shifting the paradigm of rape culture." If you're confused about where pubic hair fits into all of this, consider the following statistic: a JAMA Dermatology study published last year found that half of the women it surveyed groomed their public hair because they believed it made their genitals look more attractive or because their partner preferred it. In the 2016 book Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, author Peggy Orenstein's was shocked to discover that most of the young women she interviewed shaved or waxed their pubic hair since age 14. A prime motivation, they explained, was avoiding "humiliation," because they heard boys openly mock girls with natural hair. Rose, in other words, is calling out yet another soul-crushing beauty standard. While her provocative social media tactics may not be for everyone, it's clear the star has a message worth hearing. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 10, 2017 at 06:54AM
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Facebook Live Audio, Apple Announcements, and Facebook Photo Album Updates http://ift.tt/2s7LtrL Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show with Erik Fisher and Kim Reynolds, we explore Facebook Live Audio with Joel Comm, Apple announcements with Jeff Sieh, Facebook Photo Album updates, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week! Watch the Social Media Morning Talk ShowIf you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, June 9, 2017. For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above. Facebook Rolls Out Live Audio to More Broadcasters: Facebook began testing Live Audio with select partners including the BBC World Service, LBC, and HarperCollins in December 2016. It appears that Facebook is rolling out this new broadcasting format to more publishers and individuals. (4:19) Facebook Adds Closed Captions to Facebook Live Broadcasts: In an effort to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing experience live videos, Facebook now allows publishers to include closed captions in their Facebook Live broadcasts. Facebook provides a how-to guide on enabling closed captions on Facebook Live broadcasts. (11:30) Facebook Adds Notification Options for Live Video: Facebook now allows broadcasters to “send notifications” to their friends and followers when they share a live video. (15:28) Apple Introduces Native Editing and Effects Tools to Live Photos: TechCrunch reports that “Apple’s Live Photos feature is becoming more powerful in iOS 11 with the introduction of a series of new editing tools and effects.” With the upcoming software update, users will be able to trim and select thumbnails and apply a variety of effects like loops, long exposures, and other ways to make their Live Photos more “fun and engaging.” (20:18)
Apple Debuts Business Chat: Apple introduced Business Chat, “a powerful new way for businesses to connect with customers directly from within iMessage.” According to the Apple Developer site, customers can use this new feature to “find your business and start conversations from Safari, Maps, Spotlight, and Siri.” The Verge reports that “there will be built-in features like Apple Pay and calendar integration, which will allow Business Chat to facilitate purchases without requiring the user to exit the chat.” (24:26) Apple Camera Will Natively Support QR Codes With iOS 11 Update: Apple announced that the native camera app will be able to scan QR codes by default, “no extra software necessary,” with the upcoming iOS 11 update. (27:15)
Apple Introduces the New HomePod Speaker: Apple unveiled the new HomePod, “a powerful speaker that sounds amazing, adapts to wherever it’s playing, and together with Apple Music, gives you effortless access to one of the world’s largest music catalogs. All controlled through natural voice interaction with Siri.” (30:20) Facebook Updates Photo Albums With Ability to Share, Collaborate, and More: Facebook rolled out several new updates to its Photo Album feature. These include the ability to add videos, check-ins, text posts, and more to photo albums, follow friends’ albums so you’re notified when they’ve been updated, and showcase featured albums on profiles. Facebook also made it easier for friends and family to collaborate on photo albums. These new features are currently available on Android and the web and are “coming soon” to iOS.
Instagram Rolls Out Two New Face Filters in Camera: The Instagram Camera rolled out two new face filters that “give [users] more ways to turn an ordinary selfie into something fun and entertaining.” These new face filters work with Boomerang, Rewind, and other Instagram video formats. These images and videos can also be sent to friends through Instagram Direct or added to a story. Facebook Expands Custom Photo Frames to Select Pages: Facebook extended the ability to create custom camera frames to select event administrators. Facebook confirmed that it’s making the frames available to events hosted by pages with more than 10,000 followers and plans to expand them to smaller pages “in the next few weeks.”
Skype Introduces Highlights, Support for GIFs, and More: Skype debuted new features and a “fresh design” to its service worldwide. These include Highlights, which offers “a highlight reel of your day with photos and videos, so you can share everyday moments;” add-ins and bots for group conversations; support for GIFs, stickers, and Mojis; a new “Find” panel; and more. Skype is gradually rolling out these changes to Android-powered mobile devices and then to desktop “over the coming weeks.” These will be followed by the new version for iPhone. Meanwhile, versions for Windows and Mac will be released “over the next few months.” VIDEO Vimeo Rolls Out Three New Video Interaction Tools: Vimeo released three new video interaction tools including updated end screens for Vimeo Plus, PRO, and Business members and mobile-friendly cards and email capture forms exclusively for Vimeo Business members. .Pinterest Adds New Features to Ads Manager: Pinterest rolled out several new features to Ads Manager the week of May 29. These updates include graph customizability, which allows marketers to track how two variables such as total impressions and spend trend over time; new reporting views; targeting breakdowns for ad groups; in-line editing; and archiving. Anyone with a Pinterest business account can try the most up-to-date Ads Manager features now. Facebook Rolls Out New Templates for Canvas Ads and Extends Format to Collections: Facebook launched three new templates “that make it easier” to create Canvas ads for key business objectives such as getting new customers, showcasing a business, and selling products. Facebook also announced that advertisers can now use a Canvas post as the main creative showpiece in a shoppable Collections ad. Periscope Integrates Facebook and Google Accounts: Periscope now allows users to connect their Facebook and Google accounts and locate other people they might know on the platform. Adweek reports that once an account is connected, it can be used to log into Periscope in the future and can choose to share to Facebook before going live. This new feature is currently available on iOS and on the web and is “coming soon” to Android.
LinkedIn Will No Longer Support the LinkedIn Groups API: LinkedIn recently announced that it will “no longer support the LinkedIn Groups API,” effective July 2017. All integration partners such as Hootsuite “will no longer be able to access content from, or share content to, a LinkedIn Group through external platforms.” According to Hootsuite, it will stop populating LinkedIn Groups streams with data and LinkedIn members will not be able to post or schedule messages to them after June 30. It is also no longer possible to add a LinkedIn group to the Hootsuite dashboard as of June 1, 2017. YouTube Tightens Restrictions Around Video Monetization: YouTube announced new advertiser-friendly content guidelines, which take a tougher stance on “hateful content,” “inappropriate use of family entertainment characters,” and “incendiary and demeaning content.” YouTube also released a new Creator Academy course on creating content that appeals to “a broad range of advertisers.” Snap Inc. Acquires Location-Based Analytics Company, Placed: Snap Inc. acquired location-based analytics and ad measurement startup, Placed. TechCrunch reports that “Placed will help Snap scale its measurement systems like Snap To Store so advertisers can chart how online Snapchat ads translate into offline return on investment.”
Snap Inc. Makes Spectacles Available in Europe: After debuting in the U.S. last year, Snap Inc.’s Spectacles are now available in Europe. Spectacles can be purchased on the Snap Inc. website or from a Snapbot vending machine. TechCrunch reports that “customers in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the U.K. can now buy a pair for €149.99 or £129.99.” Amazon Enables TV Provider or Streaming Service to Build Alexa-Powered Video Apps: Amazon introduced the new Video Skills API, which will allow developers to build Alexa skills for controlling video content from any TV provider or streaming service through an Echo or Alexa device. Examples of these skills include the ability to search for a TV show, play a movie or change a channel, and more. WhatsApp for iOS Gets Filters, Albums, and Reply Shortcuts: WhatsApp rolled out three new features to its iOS app. Users can now add one of five color filters to their photos, videos, or GIFs and “jazz up their imagery or correct for poor lighting” from within WhatsApp. WhatsApp will also group multiple images received at once into an album and present them in a tile layout and offer reply shortcuts that allow quick responses for “fast-moving group chats.”
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Should You Be Using Live Video to Make More Money? http://ift.tt/2r2FLUR Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope. All the major social platforms are integrating live streaming in some form. Several up-and-comers, like Meerkat and MeVee, are also creating buzz. And this all means one thing: Live video is hot. Scorching hot. It seems everyone is now using live video in some fashion to connect and interact with their audience in real time. I’ve noticed a good chunk of the YouTube channels I’ve been subscribed to for years are now taking it live. It’s definitely catching on. But does using live video make sense for you? Is it a viable means of making more money? In this post, I’m going to take a close look at the state of live video, how people are using it and what kind of results they’re getting. I’m also going to look at the benefits as well as the drawbacks that might not be very obvious. By the end, you should have a pretty good idea whether or not you should add live video to your sales and marketing repertoire. Market outlookFirst, let’s see what the live video market looks like at the moment. Of course, video in general is booming. According to eMarketers.com, “digital-video ad spending will rise from $9.9 billion in 2016 to $20.08 billion in 2020.” More than doubling over the course of five short years is pretty dramatic. But live video is what’s really blowing up. Socialbakers found that “half of all big media pages publish live video.” And the number of videos is growing. I can only imagine what the numbers will be like once 2020 rolls around. Another interesting thing I’d like to point out is the engagement level that comes along with live video. In fact, live video blows pre-recorded video out of the water. Forrester reports that “live video gets three times the amount of engagement as non-live video.” And it’s easy to see why. There’s a certain buzz that comes along with watching a video in real time. There’s a connection that isn’t there otherwise. Not to mention that viewers can directly interact with the person recording the video via live chat. It’s pretty cool and shows just how far video has come in a relatively short period of time. Remember when simply watching videos on YouTube was cutting-edge and really big deal? Live video has built upon the original concept and made it far more interactive. How live video is changing content marketingIt’s safe to say that content marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And that’s fine by me. Content marketing and inbound marketing in general have been a breath of fresh air in a world where conventional advertising mediums have become stale and quite obnoxious. But the way I look at it, live video is poised to shake up content marketing. Massive social networks, like Facebook and YouTube, could become a new form of TV big-name companies funnel more and more money into. The traditional text-based blogging format could change as well. Rather than always writing regular blog posts, people might start sprinkling in live videos here and there. As you can see, there are some far-reaching implications. The benefits of live videoNow, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. How can live video benefit you? If you’re putting in the time and energy, it’d better be worth your time. The way I see it, there are some huge advantages. It helps your audience get to know youFor starters, it allows your audience to get to know you on an incredibly deep level that’s simply not possible with any other medium. Just think about it. A live video combined with a real-time comment/Q&A session is arguably the most effective way to inject your true personality into your content. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger uses live video fairly frequently to answer questions and connect with his viewers. It adds a whole other dimension to his overall content. And, in my opinion, it makes him more personable and relatable. You feel like you know the guy. EngagementNext, there’s the increased engagement. If you’ve been blogging, active on social media, copywriting, etc. for any length of time, you know just how important engagement is. And by all accounts, live video is a natural catalyst for boosting engagement. As I mentioned earlier, live video gets triple the engagement of pre-recorded video. More specifically, “streaming videos on Facebook are viewed at much higher durations (3x) than non-live content.” And here’s the kicker. Facebook’s per-video engagement rate is a whopping 6.3%! That may not seem like a lot at first glance. But keep in mind the normal engagement rate for many industries on Facebook is less than 0.15%. That’s a massive difference! The brilliant thing about live video is that it naturally begs for engagement. It’s basically like sitting down and having a face-to-face conversation with your audience. They can ask questions, leave comments and really get to know you. Increased engagement naturally comes with the territory. Extend your reachLive video is just about everywhere these days. Scroll through your Facebook feed, it’s there. In fact, “Facebook videos have increased 360% across everyone’s news feeds.” Check out what your favorite YouTubers have been up to, and odds are someone is recording a live video. Getting in on the action is virtually guaranteed to help you extend your overall reach. It allows you to reach a larger percentage of your demographic that may have been inaccessible before. Generate massive leads and salesWhen you put it all together, it translates into more leads coming your way on a regular basis. Not only that, the quality of your leads should increase as well. They know you, trust you, and have rapport with you. Therefore, a sizable portion of your leads is already primed to buy. And it’s not unrealistic to expect repeat sales and long-term brand loyalty. The Funky Fairy, a children’s clothing store in England, ran three sales over four days on Facebook Live. Their goal was to liquidate their overstock inventory and quickly crank up sales. The owner, Vicki Stewart, displayed the items for sale, while chatting about them. Viewers, using comments, were also able to request specific items they wanted. And it totally worked! Views increased from roughly 7,000 during the first two sales to 10,000 for the last one. This enabled The Funky Fairy to quickly move stock that otherwise would have probably just sat there. Monetization strategiesThere’s one last thing I would like to point out. Increasing sales isn’t the only way to make more money through live video. There are several ways you can monetize your videos to make money directly. I came across an article from DaCast that highlights some specific ways you can make money broadcasting live video.
I suggest approaching these monetization strategies with caution (you don’t want to create a rift between you and your audience), but I felt they were worth mentioning. Under the right circumstances, they could definitely help you drive higher profits. Does it make sense for you?At this point, I think we can all agree the market outlook for live video is extremely promising. It’s also clear that using live video can be highly beneficial to your brand and help you increase revenue. But it doesn’t mean it’s right for every single brand. Not to burst your bubble, but live video may not be viable if you have a small audience. For instance, YouTube mandates that a channel must have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers in order to live-stream. This number was reduced significantly: earlier in 2017, you had to have at least 10,000 subscribers. And quite frankly, it could be embarrassing if you go live and no one shows up. Another issue is it can hurt your brand equity if you don’t nail it. You’re basically gambling on your image by live-streaming. Putting yourself out there could potentially backfire, and people may not necessarily like what they see. Or maybe it’s just not for you. It’s pretty common for people to freak out once the camera is on them. All of a sudden, your mind goes blank and the whole thing is just awkward. Remember, there’s no editing with live video. Viewers see everything in real time. I’m not trying to kill your vibe, but it’s important to look at all the angles before you decide to start using live video. ConclusionLive video is a powerful new format, changing the content marketing game. Most experts are predicting it will continue to grow and more companies will funnel big money into it. The potential is huge. If you follow the right formula and create engaging live video content, you can strengthen existing relationships, increase the size of your following, boost engagement, generate more leads and increase sales. On top of this, there are several other ways to directly monetize your live videos. But it’s important to note this medium isn’t viable for everyone. I suggest giving it careful consideration before diving in head first. If it’s something you’re seriously interested in and makes sense for your brand, give it a shot. For examples and ideas, check out this post from IMPACT. How often do you watch live videos? Social Media via Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/UU7LJr June 9, 2017 at 03:01AM Facebook Video Retargeting for Live Video and Beyond http://ift.tt/2sK9e6X Do you post videos on Facebook? Have you tried retargeting your live and uploaded videos? To explore techniques for retargeting your videos, I interview Amanda Bond. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Amanda Bond, who's known as the "Ad Strategist" specializing in Facebook ads. Amanda also advises top social pros and has taught the ADdicted Facebook Ads course. Online, she's known simply as Bond. Amanda explores Facebook video ads and retargeting. You'll discover how to use Amanda's technique to warm up your Facebook followers. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen Now Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: Facebook Video Retargeting for Live Video and Beyond Amanda's Story Before Amanda started working in social media marketing, she worked with big brands such as Pepsi and Labatt. As a salesperson for Pepsi, she went door to door to compete with Coke. After she sent two truckloads of Pepsi to a store for a large sale, Coke sent three. Looking over 110 pallets of pop, Amanda realized that the impact she was having in her sales role wasn't aligned with where she wanted to show up in the world. To move forward, Amanda decided to give back through her local Rotary service club. As the club's youngest member, she was encouraged to become their social media manager. When Amanda started working with her Rotary club in 2013, social media marketing felt like magic. Talking to people on the Internet seemed to create relationships out of thin air. However, Amanda quickly learned the impact of social when she used social media marketing for a live local Rotary event. To promote the event, the Rotary club used traditional marketing such as ads in the newspaper, and Amanda used everything she'd been learning about social media marketing. Throughout the weekend, the club expected 4,000 people to attend, but 23,000 people actually came, largely due to social media. That was Amanda's impetus to change direction in her career and she became a social media manager. As she became more versed in Facebook ads, she found that being an ad strategist was a great niche for her as a math and data nerd. Amanda now teaches and helps other businesses behind the scenes. She loves doing the deep dives into the data, helping people see the story the numbers are telling. Listen to the show to hear about Social Media Examiner's role in Amanda's early social media marketing efforts. What Retargeting Means The words retargeting and remarketing are interchangeable. Most people know about retargeting through the Facebook pixel, which is a tiny code snippet you add to your website. When someone lands on a page with this code, the Facebook pixel sends a message back to Facebook, saying something important is happening. Facebook has opened up new ways to retarget people (or show them content or ads based on prior actions), including video retargeting. Because Facebook has been emphasizing live video and video in the news feed, Amanda is especially excited about these video retargeting features. Anytime somebody sees at least three seconds of a video (recorded or live), Facebook takes note of who they are and puts them into a retargeting custom audience that you can use to retarget them again and again. I ask why you would want to retarget someone who watched a Facebook video. Amanda says it's part of getting people to know, like, and trust your brand. You want to start nurturing conversations that may lead to a sales transaction. As the Ad Strategist, she calls this framework "Connect, Convert, Close." In that connection phase, your audience may be cold (they may not know or have heard of you), Social Media via Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 8, 2017 at 10:50PM
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Facebook Video Retargeting for Live Video and Beyond http://ift.tt/2sK9e6X Do you post videos on Facebook? Have you tried retargeting your live and uploaded videos? To explore techniques for retargeting your videos, I interview Amanda Bond. More About This ShowThe Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Amanda Bond, who’s known as the “Ad Strategist” specializing in Facebook ads. Amanda also advises top social pros and has taught the ADdicted Facebook Ads course. Online, she’s known simply as Bond. Amanda explores Facebook video ads and retargeting. You’ll discover how to use Amanda’s technique to warm up your Facebook followers. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen NowListen now: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:22 — 39.2MB) Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show: Facebook Video Retargeting for Live Video and BeyondAmanda’s Story Before Amanda started working in social media marketing, she worked with big brands such as Pepsi and Labatt. As a salesperson for Pepsi, she went door to door to compete with Coke. After she sent two truckloads of Pepsi to a store for a large sale, Coke sent three. Looking over 110 pallets of pop, Amanda realized that the impact she was having in her sales role wasn’t aligned with where she wanted to show up in the world. To move forward, Amanda decided to give back through her local Rotary service club. As the club’s youngest member, she was encouraged to become their social media manager. When Amanda started working with her Rotary club in 2013, social media marketing felt like magic. Talking to people on the Internet seemed to create relationships out of thin air. However, Amanda quickly learned the impact of social when she used social media marketing for a live local Rotary event. To promote the event, the Rotary club used traditional marketing such as ads in the newspaper, and Amanda used everything she’d been learning about social media marketing. Throughout the weekend, the club expected 4,000 people to attend, but 23,000 people actually came, largely due to social media. That was Amanda’s impetus to change direction in her career and she became a social media manager. As she became more versed in Facebook ads, she found that being an ad strategist was a great niche for her as a math and data nerd. Amanda now teaches and helps other businesses behind the scenes. She loves doing the deep dives into the data, helping people see the story the numbers are telling. Listen to the show to hear about Social Media Examiner’s role in Amanda’s early social media marketing efforts. What Retargeting Means The words retargeting and remarketing are interchangeable. Most people know about retargeting through the Facebook pixel, which is a tiny code snippet you add to your website. When someone lands on a page with this code, the Facebook pixel sends a message back to Facebook, saying something important is happening. Facebook has opened up new ways to retarget people (or show them content or ads based on prior actions), including video retargeting. Because Facebook has been emphasizing live video and video in the news feed, Amanda is especially excited about these video retargeting features. Anytime somebody sees at least three seconds of a video (recorded or live), Facebook takes note of who they are and puts them into a retargeting custom audience that you can use to retarget them again and again. I ask why you would want to retarget someone who watched a Facebook video. Amanda says it’s part of getting people to know, like, and trust your brand. You want to start nurturing conversations that may lead to a sales transaction. As the Ad Strategist, she calls this framework “Connect, Convert, Close.” In that connection phase, your audience may be cold (they may not know or have heard of you), so you have to warm them up before going for the sale. Facebook is an easily consumable medium for warming up audiences because users are constantly scrolling through their timelines, seeing and interacting with videos. When you keep that entire interaction on Facebook, it’s easy to nurture those relationships and warm people up to your brand. Listen to the show to discover why Facebook’s retargeting custom audience simplifies retargeting compared to earlier methods. Video Custom Audiences To create a video custom audience, you don’t have to do anything before you go live or upload recorded video. As long as you go live or upload video to your Facebook business page, Facebook automatically creates the audience for you. (This functionality doesn’t work with videos on your Facebook groups or your personal page.) The custom audience will include anyone who watches at least three seconds of any video on your Facebook business page. From that automatically created custom audience, you’ll want to set up your desired options. You can refine the custom audience based on how long someone watched the video and which video someone watched. For example, Amanda says you can choose an individual video or create an aggregate of all of your video viewers. If you’re launching something and need a large audience, you could group viewers all together. If you’re looking to create a specific follow-up sequence, you might select one video at a time. To set up your options, open your Audience dashboard inside Facebook Ads Manager. Click Create a Custom Video Audience. Next, choose how long the person had to watch to go into that audience. It starts at 3 seconds, goes to 10 seconds, and then to 25%, 50%, 75%, and 95% of the video viewed. Then, select whether people who watched any video or a specific video see your ad. Amanda compares a three-second viewer with someone who watched 95% of your video to illustrate the applications of custom audiences. For instance, say you have a 15-minute video with excellent, actionable content that goes to a sales page that’s highly relevant to the same topic. If someone consumed 95% of the video, they’re highly engaged. So ask them to take the next step in your relationship. Send them to a lead magnet or retarget them with a sales page. You can take quicker action with someone who watched a longer portion of your video. On the flipside, you want to run retargeting ads to your three-second viewers too, because they have a branding impression of you from when they saw your video in their timeline. However, instead of asking them to share their email or sending them to a sales page, nurture that relationship. One way to do that is to show them another relevant piece of video content, something that adds more value to whatever your brand is offering. Amanda says you could also set up the retargeting like a game. For example, tell viewers they’ll see bonus content if they watch for 10 seconds and an even more valuable offer if they watch 50% of the video. (Facebook changes the predetermined increments from seconds to percentages after a certain timeframe.) Next, I ask about targeting live viewers versus people who watch the replay. Amanda says Facebook pushes live video because of the natural engagement. And it’s a great way to reach a larger audience. However, in your custom audience for retargeting, the distinction between live and replay viewers doesn’t matter. Facebook groups the metrics (who watched live and who watched the replay) together. For instance, you go live for 15 minutes and get 1,000 views. Afterwards, the news feed continues to serve your video to people who like your page and to the friends of people who have engaged with the post, and you get an extra 500 views in the next 24 hours. All 1,500 people go into the retargeting audience. To illustrate how you can combine custom audiences for retargeting, Amanda shares some exciting examples. For instance, you can retarget a specific set of video viewers by combining custom audiences of people who watched different videos. For the first video, set up an audience of people who watched 95%. For the second video, set up one audience of people who watched 3 seconds and another audience of people who watched 10 seconds. Then you can exclude anyone who watched more than 3 seconds by telling Facebook to exclude anyone in the 10-second audience. You want to exclude anyone who watched more than 10 seconds because the 3-second audience refers to people who watched 3 seconds or more. The resulting audience could be 100,000 people. After all those audiences are set up, you can retarget them creatively. For example, with the first video, you want to identify the people who are sticking around longer. They are hyper-engaged, which is a sign they’re ready to potentially take your relationship further or look at one of your sales offers. You can then say anyone who watches to the 95% mark will start seeing the second video. Those who don’t make it to 10 seconds on the second video can get a third video. Because the viewer has showed signs of engagement, you can use a cheeky tone in the timeline and say, “Hey, we started something here, but you left.” Customize the dynamic of the conversation to the different actions people are taking on Facebook. There’s also an option to target engagement in the Audience dashboard, which includes anyone who gives a reaction, likes, comments, or even clicks on your ad. You can even retarget anyone who interacts with your page. Listen to the show to hear Amanda and me discuss more retargeting features, including options Facebook may roll out soon. Applications for Retargeting Amanda shares an example from one of her clients, communications stylist Nikki Elledge Brown, who has a copywriting program. Nikki’s prospects, who may not be aware of who she is, see a short and actionable video ad that teaches something fun. Anyone who watches 25% of that video from Nikki’s Facebook page gets retargeted with a registration to jump on the Write Your Site webinar. Because the short video is educational and builds trust, viewers are more likely to opt into the webinar. This opt-in improves their relevancy score on Facebook, which will then serve the ad to more people for less cost. You can set the retargeting ad to show immediately after someone watches the video or set a delay. Amanda and Nikki tested going straight to the webinar registration and it worked wonderfully. If it hadn’t worked so well, they would have tested showing another video before showing the webinar registration or waiting a day or two between the video and the retargeting ad. The beauty is you can create a sequence that fits your results. You can also monitor and adjust retargeting by device. For example, people may sign up for an email or webinar on desktop or mobile, but purchases may lean heavily toward desktop users. In this case, when you retarget content for people who are ready for a purchase, you can show that content only to people on desktop devices. When I ask if there are any pitfalls to avoid, Amanda suggests not over-complicating retargeting off the bat. There are many ways to over-segment and it gets confusing fast. As you test things, go slowly. Isolate each variable to understand what’s working. For instance, for your first video, see if people are watching it and for how long. Then put in your retargeting ad. Then find out if people are clicking the ad, what happens when they get to the landing page, and what the conversion rate is. After you have this information, you develop a clear understanding of what’s working and what isn’t. Stop guessing and focus on the results you get, which will tell you the next step to take. As far as budgets are concerned, if you’re doing an ad campaign and set it to optimize for video views, you can get views for fractions of a cent to 10 cents. From there, starting the retargeting process is also cost-effective. Start with $5 or $10 a day on one video. Then, for $1 a day, retarget people who are taking certain actions. As long as people are indicating that they’re interested in your content, it’s valuable to take a small audience to that next step in the conversation. Amanda has some clients whose retargeting audience is zero on some days and 27 on others. However, Amanda’s clients continue running those ads because when prospects come into the pipeline, those people get the exact information the client wants them to see. In 99% of Amanda’s tests, she finds it’s economical to retarget people because they develop a brand affinity. They’ll pause because they know that face or click to register for a webinar or check out a sales page. You’re no longer a stranger in the news feed trying to sell them something. You’re at the beginning of a relationship. Listen to the show to hear Amanda discuss viewing data in Facebook Insights versus Ads Manager. Facebook Live Video Retargeting When you have Facebook Live videos, you can download and repurpose them in bite-sized snippets to get the main points across. Or you can simply amplify your Facebook Live video because it already has the social proof of reactions, comments, and shares. Amanda recommends syndication to her clients who have Facebook Live shows; that is, you broadcast from one place but invite people to tune in from several places. If you have a Facebook group and a personal page with a similar and relevant audience, you or somebody on your team can invite people in those places to join your live video stream. So in the timeline, there will be several points of entry, instead of just one. Then anyone who sees the video anywhere for three seconds or more goes into your custom audience. Also, ask your live audience to share. All that sharing gives the Facebook algorithm more cues that your content is relevant. This relevance is important with Facebook ads, because the more relevant your content, the less you pay to get in front of eyeballs. Facebook rewards relevance. I ask what retargeting ads people might use after their live video, especially regular live video. Amanda suggests setting up a retargeting ad that leads fans to some type of sales process. Try to determine if the ad delivers a positive monetary ROI. If the money you spend on the ad generates more monetary value (i.e., you spend a dollar but generate more than a dollar), that financial return suggests that spending more of your ad budget to grow your show will be worthwhile. In other words, you want the people who are watching your live video to convert to your email list, get into your sales funnel, and ultimately become customers. If that retargeting ad is working, and you’re showing positive return on your ad spend, go back and amplify the live video to a larger audience. Listen to the show to discover incentives that prompt people who are watching your videos to take action. Discovery of the WeekSwipeable is a mobile app that turns a panoramic or 360-degree photo into a carousel of images for Instagram. On Swipeable’s Instagram page, you can see how cool the images look. To use the app, upload an image, and Swipeable splits it into a series of square images. Swipeable uses your whole panorama or 360-degree photo, so if you want to crop anything, do that before you use Swipeable to create your carousel. You can have up to 10 images. Swipeable is a free app that’s currently available only for iOS; however, look for an Android version soon. Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how Swipeable works for you. Listen to the show! Listen now: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:22 — 39.2MB) Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:What do you think? What are your thoughts on Facebook video ad retargeting? Please leave your comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 8, 2017 at 10:01PM 10 Publicly Traded Companies That Hit A Home Run With Their Social Media Strategy in 2017 http://ift.tt/2sHvX3V When it comes to social media strategies, publicly traded companies are in a tricky spot. Unlike smaller start-ups, these companies are established and have an adequate marketing budget to allow them to experiment with new concepts and platforms in the hopes of progressing on a quarterly basis. When an emerging company hits a social media home run it is celebrated because it is unexpected. But when a major, well-established corporation distributes strong social content, it isn’t as lauded because it is expected. These kinds of companies are up against a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” mindset. But even though the expectations are incredibly high, many organizations are rising to the challenge. The Times are A-Changin’Five years ago social media was primarily a branch within marketing departments. Sure, organizations paid attention to Facebook and Twitter, but these platforms weren’t necessarily driving their overall strategy. Today, every brand marketer understands that performance across social media can be the determining factor between failure and success. As a result, social budgets, and teams, have grown exponentially. As each platform constantly works towards new iterations and features, major brands are constantly working to stay abreast of the latest social media updates and trends. The average person spends 76 minutes each day on social media. More specifically, individuals spend 35 minutes on Facebook, 25 minutes on Snapchat, 15 minutes on Instagram, and 1 minute on Twitter. And it’s not as if users set aside dedicated time each day to log into their social accounts; they’re constantly checking their feeds, sending snaps, and multi-tasking with social media. Staying up to date on their friends and family is never far from anyone’s minds. Knowing that users across demographics devote such a significant chunk of time each day to surveying their social feeds, brands are creating content to cut through the noise of each platform and speak to their target customers where they already live: on social platforms. Over time, brands have gotten smarter and savvier at mastering social media content creation and deployment strategies. They know that organic reach on platforms like Facebook has dropped due to increased competition, and more have become adept at using platform analytics to make more informed decisions about future content. Here are the 10 publicly traded companies that have excelled in the social media arena over the past year1. StarbucksStarbucks is a brand that knows its strength. Its products are so ingrained in the lifestyles of consumers across the world, that some of its best content comes from simply celebrating the drinks that have made it famous, like the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Posts announcing the arrival of both almond milk and it’s seasonally famous latte dominated on Facebook and Instagram. 2. Taco BellA subsidiary of Yum Brands!, Taco Bell inarguably steals the show from it’s fast-food relatives. Taco Bell was one of the early brand pioneers on Snapchat, realizing that creating playful content could forge daily connections with Millennials and Gen Z-ers. Taco Bell is still creating some of the best branded Snaps. In fact, it’s 2016 Cinco de Mayo filter was viewed over 224 million times. 3. GEOn the surface GE doesn’t seem like an organization ripe for social success. But over the years it has used social media as a vehicle for getting people interested in science. This past year, the company created content specifically for Snapchat, Facebook Live and Instagram Stories as it documented the live eruption of a Nicaraguan volcano. 4. AmExIn an effort to connect with Millennials, American Express launched a social-first Everyday Congrats campaign that featured Tina Fey congratulating people on achieving lifestyle milestones. 5. DisneyThanks to the live action remake of Beauty & the Beast, Disney has already enjoyed gigantic box office returns this year. But the company didn’t just bank on the power of nostalgia to drive viewers to the theater. Instead, they launched a massive social campaign across platforms that sparked over 987,000 conversations. This has caused consumers to think Disney as their go to brand for high price events like birthdays, graduations and weddings. 6. ChevroletSocial media was designed to be a two-way street, yet so often, brands simply talk at users. Chevrolet decided to highlight users’ own social posts by giving users overall positivity scores. Powered in tandem with Watson’s IBM, the campaign gave audiences a new way to get involved in brand initiatives. 7. LowesLowes knows that, alone, paint and plywood don’t make for the most exciting Instagram and Snapchat content. But put into use for a fun DIY project, and that paint and plywood can create a social media frenzy. Their 360 degree Facebook video series Made in a Minute shows followers easy homemade projects and attracts the views of up to 5.7 million people. 8. TargetTo celebrate the launch of a new children’s clothing line, Target enlisted the help of some of its most influential friends. Leveraging the power of six Instagram influencers, Target was able to reach 2.63 million people in the first two weeks of the campaign. 9. FordRather than simply using social media as a promotional tool, Ford has found a way to incorporate it into their product. The automotive company recently released a new patent for a vehicle patent system that allows drivers and passengers to find the best angles and shots while on the road. 10. FedExThe FedEx social team has long believed in the power of story. They know that their organization is responsible for transporting treasured items across the globe every day, and subsequently, bringing people happiness. Their content is focused on these unique stories to put a human touch on the brand. The post 10 Publicly Traded Companies That Hit A Home Run With Their Social Media Strategy in 2017 appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR June 8, 2017 at 03:13AM
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How to Build a Social Media Marketing Funnel for Bloggers http://ift.tt/2s6RXIf Are you using your blog for business? Wondering how to combine blog posts with social media content to move people through the sales cycle? In this article, you’ll discover how to use blog posts to create social media content at every stage of your marketing funnel.
#1: Define Your Marketing GoalCreating a social media marketing funnel is directly tied to your marketing goals. To begin, think of one marketing goal you want to accomplish. Beginning with a single short-term goal is much easier than tackling long-term goals. Also, choose a realistic, measurable goal so you can identify whether you’ve reached it. Here are a few examples of goals that would make a great starting point for a social media marketing funnel:
#2: Publish Six Blog Posts to Create a Funnel to Support the Customer JourneyAfter you identify your goal, you want to ensure you publish content that leads people toward that goal. To do that effectively, your content must cater to people at different stages in the funnel. For each stage, write two blog posts that support your goal at each stage: awareness, trust, and conversion. Stage 1: Blog Posts That Create Awareness To create awareness, think about blog posts that would attract new people to your brand and demonstrate what you can offer. Also, if your blog posts give people a quick-fix solution to a problem, you’ll earn enough trust for them to hang around and learn more. In this first stage of the buying process, these types of blog posts work well:
For example, Jane Friedman’s website helps writers navigate the publishing world, and this how-to post about how to publish a book explains a topic that would appeal to new authors who aren’t familiar with the process. The detailed post establishes her expertise in her field and offers an easy way to understand the traditional publishing process. Stage 2: Your Prospect Wants to Know, Like, and Trust You At this stage, the word “want” is important. Marketers often assume that loyalty is hard-won. However, when you help people, they naturally want to like and trust you. Your prospect becomes eager to learn more and figure out if you can help. The higher the price tag, the more content you’ll need at this stage. Here are five blog post types that work well for building trust, likeability, and loyalty:
For instance, One Kings Lane sells furniture, décor, and interior design services. This expert interview about how to become more confident about choosing paint colors will appeal to an audience that’s interested in home décor and help prospects with a common problem. Stage 3: Your Prospects Are Warm and Ready to Take the Relationship Further Conversion doesn’t necessarily mean asking for the sale. To illustrate, you might ask the reader to subscribe to your email newsletter so you can nurture the sale via email. However, it’s a myth that blog posts should never contain sales information. When you’re in business, you’re supposed to ask for the sale. It’s absolutely okay and necessary for you to tell your potential customers how you can help them and why they should buy from you. Focus on attracting and nurturing relationships 80% of the time, but you can focus on conversions with the other 20%. Here are three types of blog posts that work well for conversions:
For example, when Buffer launched a tool that helps users tailor social media posts to various platforms, this blog post not only announced the new feature, but also explained the feature’s value. The post walks readers through all of the details involved in customizing posts, and then explains how the Buffer tool simplifies the process and saves time. #3: Repurpose Published Blog Posts to Create Social Media Marketing CollateralAfter your six blog posts are published, break your posts down into smaller chunks you can use on social media. Create graphics, videos, and so on to support each piece of content as you roll it out. As a model, these six blog posts support the launch of a new blogging app:
Because you’ve started with blog posts, you can easily repurpose the content in other formats for use on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other channels. From content in each example blog post, you can create social media content chunks such as the following:
Notice all of the ways you can repurpose just one blog post. When Dustin Stout offered free downloadable templates based on a blog post, he not only gathered email addresses, but also created a YouTube video that explains how to use the templates. Creating the Right Amount of Content for Your Prospects Depending on your product, prospects may take their time to make a purchase, especially if what you’re selling is at a higher price point. In that case, it helps to allow a longer lead time in your marketing campaigns. Your audience’s tolerance for information frequency will determine your lead time. For instance, a lower-priced product like a book or gadget may require only a one-week lead time and three pieces of content. A higher-priced product like a house or a pool may require a longer lead time and six pieces of content. Conclusion When you build a social media marketing funnel that supports a goal, you create more targeted and relevant content on both your blog and social media. Also, you can easily repurpose your blog posts for your social media marketing. Remember to create content for each stage of the customer journey and adjust how much content you post based on your knowledge of your product and customers. What do you think? Does your content build a social media marketing funnel? Have you repurposed blog posts to create content for social media? Please share your thoughts and tips in the comments. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 7, 2017 at 10:05PM
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39 Things Every Sales Email Needs to Have http://ift.tt/2s46rZA Did you know Gmail alone has more than one billion monthly active users? That means roughly one in every seven humans on the planet has a Gmail account. And that’s what I love so much about email marketing: the fact that it’s so universal and allows you to reach such a huge audience. Just think about it. Not everyone uses Instagram. Not everyone uses Snapchat. But almost everyone uses email. I look at email as the great equalizer in marketing. It’s especially helpful if you need to reach an older demographic of baby boomers and beyond. Of course, there’s a lot that goes into a well run email marketing campaign. Not only must you get recipients to open your sales email, but you also need to drive conversions. To accomplish this, you’ve got to cover all the bases. Here are 39 things every sales email needs to have. 1. A definitive purposeBefore you do anything, you need to have a clear understanding of the specific purpose behind each and every email. One may promote a new product; another may discuss a major update to your service… This will dictate the direction you take, the content you feature, the CTA you include, and so on. Make sure you always know the precise purpose of your message before getting in too deep. 2. Specialized targetingIt’s likely your brand has multiple audience personas. Effective segmentation is critical for getting the right marketing material in front of each email subscriber. I recommend creating at least a few different personas and sending out individualized emails based on each group’s needs and preferences. Here’s a very basic example: This should ensure no one receives irrelevant content, which should have a noticeable impact on your open rate and conversions. In fact, “segmented email campaigns have an open rate that is 14.32% higher than [that of] non-segmented campaigns.” 3. A killer subject lineAlmost 75% of people don’t open emails. A big reason for that is lackluster subject lines. They’re not inspiring enough to motivate subscribers to open the email. This is why you need to understand the psychology behind a killer subject line. As a huge proponent of email marketing, I’ve done a considerable amount of experimenting with this process. Check out this post I wrote on NeilPatel.com to learn the fundamentals of creating better email subject lines. 4. A personalized messageResearch from Aberdeen found that “personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.” Other studies have seen a similar trend: So it’s really important you personalize each email. Ideally, use each recipient’s first and last name. 5. To be briefI love long-form content. Aferall, it’s long-form content that tends to rank the highest in SERPs. But a sales email isn’t the place for it. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point for maximum impact. 6. A natural voiceI would wager that the majority of email subscribers don’t want to be addressed in some hyper-corporate, formal fashion. Instead, most prefer to be spoken to like an actual person. Use a conversational tone, and approach it as if you’re speaking to your blog readers. 7. Power wordsStudies in psychology have shown that people respond better to some words than others. Utilizing power words is a simple way to connect with readers and pique their interest. Check out this list from SmartBlogger for examples of power words. 8. The word “you”At the end of the day, we all want to know what’s in it for us. If you want someone to read through your email in its entirety, you’d better darn sure appeal to them on a personal basis. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use “you” when addressing your readers. “You” is one of the most persuasive words in the English language and should help you connect with your readers. 9. To ask questionsI find asking questions to be a great way to mimic the feel of a face-to-face conversation. There’s no need to go overboard, but asking a few key questions is an effective way to create rapport and get readers interested. 10. EmpathyPeople are interested in buying a product or service for a reason. They have a problem or pain point they’re seeking a solution for. Make it clear you understand their struggles and that your goal is to help them find a resolution. 11. TrustworthinessAny semblance of sketchiness is a recipe of disaster. Be diligent about establishing your brand as a trusted source. 12. To say “thank you”I find that simply thanking readers for their time and consideration to buy my product is a perfect way to humanize my emails. Here’s a great quote from The Harvard Business Review: Saying “thank you” is a great way to close and shows you genuinely appreciate the fact that someone took the time out of their day to read your email. 13. A personalized product recommendationKeeping with the theme of personalization, I suggest including a personalized product recommendation whenever it makes sense. Take into consideration the needs, wants, and overall pain points of each targeted demographic. Then include a link to a particular product they would be interested in. 14. Educational and/or entertaining contentOne of the quickest ways to kill your subscriber’s vibe is to blast them with super salesy content. Of course, you want to be actively promoting your brand, but it shouldn’t come across as obnoxious. I suggest focusing on the two E’s: Educating and Entertaining your audience. Use these as guides for creating your email, and the rest should follow. 15. Eye appealPlatforms, such as MailChimp and Aweber, offer a boatload of design features to make your emails pop. Take advantage of these features, and place an emphasis on aesthetics. This is extremely important for getting readers to browse through your emails and ultimately work their way to your CTA. 16. A branded templateSpeaking of visuals, I can’t stress enough how important it is to create your own branded template. Achieving consistency through this medium is vital for establishing and reinforcing your brand identity. Once again, most platforms, like MailChimp and Aweber, offer everything you need to create a branded template. Be sure you’re incorporating your company’s colors, logos, style, etc. so that it sticks with readers and helps them distinguish you from competitors. 17. Standard fontOne mistake I see email marketers make is getting too cute with their designs. More specifically, they get a little crazy with their fonts, making the content difficult to read. Keep it simple, and stick with tried and true fonts, like Arial and Calibri. These are easy on readers’ eyes and encourage them to read through the entire email. 18. Font consistencyI also suggest sticking with one font. Make sure you’re not switching from font to font throughout the body of your email. This disrupts the flow of your message and can kill conversions. 19. Short paragraphsWhite space. To me (and most readers), it’s a beautiful thing. One of the easiest ways to maximize the digestibility of your emails is to use short paragraphs. I recommend shooting for an absolute maximum of four sentences per paragraph. One to two sentences is even better. 20. Sub-headersWhat’s the other key element of digestible content? Sub-headers to provide breaks and highlight main points. Never include a large mass of text without breaking it down into individual sections, using sub-headers. More specifically, it’s smart to use a variety of H1s, H2s, H3s, etc. to prioritize content. Here’s a good example of how to do this effectively: 21. Bullet listsLet’s not forget about bullet lists. They’re ideal for breaking down longer lists into concise and succinct points. 22. VisualsIt’s no secret most people respond overwhelmingly well to visuals. In 2017, “37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging (38%).” I suggest using at least one image per email to give it some pizzazz and fulfill your reader’s inherent desire for visuals. Here’s a really nice example of an email from United By Blue: It’s actually the same image they use on their opt-in page, but it works perfectly. 23. Alt tags for imagesIn the event an image isn’t properly displayed, you need to have an alt tag for that image. The alt tag will describe exactly what the image is so there’s no confusion for readers. 24. A videoOkay, you may not necessarily want to use a video in every single email you send. But they’re definitely an effective way to increase your open rate and click-through rate. According to Pardot, “Using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%.” This proves people respond favorably to video, and it is something at least worth experimenting with. 25. A clean layoutThis should go without saying. Always be sure to look over each email and eliminate any clutter or unnecessary info that’s not genuinely contributing to its value. I like to strive for a minimalist feel. 26. An enticing offerNot only should your offer be relevant to the specific person receiving an email, it should be genuinely enticing. Ask yourself whether it truly scratches an itch. If not, tweak it until it hits its mark. 27. Specific benefitsAlso be sure to mention the key benefits. Let readers know exactly how their lives will improve. 28. What they’ll miss out on if they don’t buyFor most humans, “the fear of loss trumps the desire to gain.” In other words, we’re risk averse by nature. Briefly touching on the things someone will miss out on by not buying your product or service can provide the extra incentive needed to convert. Here’s an example: 29. A clear CTAThe CTA is hands down one of the most critical elements of a sales email. Not only should it be crystal clear which action you want readers to perform, it should be visible. Netflix crushes it with this email where the readers’ eyeballs instantly gravitate to the red CTA button in the middle of the page: This one, from Cards Against Humanity, also pulls it off well, incorporating the brand’s signature humor style: 30. Social proofYou’ve probably heard me talk about the importance of social proof in other areas of marketing. It’s also quite effective in sales emails as well. Whenever you’re directly promoting a product or service, include a quick little something-something that backs up its legitimacy. Here’s a great example: 31. A link to your websiteYou’re obviously going to include a CTA. But you shouldn’t stop there. I recommend adding at least one link to your website, but three or four is completely fine. This is a simple way to increase direct traffic and help people learn more about your brand. 32. A link to your blogWhile you’re at it, why not go ahead and link to your blog as well? It’s an easy way to increase your blog readership and create more buzz around recent posts. 33. Share buttonsAnother reason I love email marketing is because it enables you to kill multiple birds with one stone. Throw in social share buttons to popular networks to increase your following with virtually no extra effort. 34. A forward linkLet’s say a reader loves one of your emails and they want to share it with someone they know. You can save them time and streamline the process by including a forward link so they can share it with a single click. This is also a great way to quickly grow the size of your subscriber base without putting in a lot of extra work. 35. SignatureDon’t forget the signature! This is another way to reinforce your brand identity, and it can drive traffic to other resources you’re trying to promote (e.g., your website). 36. Business info in the footerPeople get tons of emails. Some may literally receive hundreds on any given day. Be sure to include key business info in the footer (e.g., address, phone number, other contact information) so people know exactly who is sending it and how to contact you if necessary. It also makes it look more professional and legit in my opinion. 37. An unsubscribe buttonHere’s the scenario. You mistakenly signed up to a newsletter you have zero interest in. All of a sudden, you’re bombarded with emails and no easy way to stop it. It’s incredibly annoying and can create feelings of resentment and even hostility toward the brand. Make sure you’re not doing this to your subscribers. Give them a clear way to unsubscribe, ideally with only one click. 38. A means of feedbackSay that someone does decide to unsubscribe. It’s important you know exactly why they decided to do so. Here’s a good example of the types of questions you can ask to figure this out: This will provide you with valuable intel so that you can improve your emails moving forward and prevent making the same mistake. 39. Mobile-friendlinessThese days, over half (53%) of emails are opened on mobile devices. Just look at how much email opens on mobile grew between 2010 and 2015: It’s dramatic! If your emails aren’t fully optimized for mobile, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. A mobile-friendly UX is critical, so you should do everything you can to optimize this. I recommend reading this post from Copyblogger for advice on this topic. ConclusionThe potential is huge for brands that use email marketing effectively. Just keep in mind that the average ROI is $44 for every $1 spent. Not bad! But to get the most out of your campaign, your sales emails need to hit all the right notes. By ensuring they have all the elements I covered in this post, you can boost both your open rate and your click-through rate for epic conversions. What do you think the most important elements of a well-crafted sales email are? Social Media via Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/UU7LJr June 7, 2017 at 03:00AM |
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