best marketing blog 2018
October 23, 2018
Facebook Ads vs. Boosted Posts—Which is More Effective?
By now you probably know that Facebook Ads should be a core component of your digital marketing plan. If they aren’t, we need to talk. After all, with over two billion people using Facebook every month, why would you not want to capitalize on the reach you could have with them? There is a massive market out there just waiting to hear about your products and services.
When I make this kind of bold statement about the huge benefits of using Facebook Ads, people often come back with comments and questions about the relative merits of ads and boosted posts.
For example, they'll say:
“I’m already advertising on Facebook—I boost posts.”
I get this comment from 80% of the businesses I talk to about Facebook Ads. Obviously, there is a little confusion about what the two strategies are. I’ll start by saying that there is so much more you can do to generate attention on Facebook than simply boosting. And let me go on to be very clear about this: boosting is not advertising. Boosting, the way most businesses do it is vanity advertising.
"Boosting posts is not the same as advertising on Facebook! It only offers a fraction of the options—and wastes money." TWEET THIS
“What do you mean boosting is wasting my money?”
Yes, you can improve your post’s reach with boosting. But, that improvement is only superficial. With boosting, your targeting options are extremely limited. Yes, you can choose behaviors and interests, demographics, and geography. But, you can’t use your custom audiences.
If you take away only one point from this article, please let it be this: You should have your pixel installed. You should be building custom audiences based on your website traffic, your Facebook page and post engagement, your Instagram traffic, and your email lists. And you should be creating Lookalike Audiences. Period. This is how you get real results with Facebook Ads. And unfortunately, boosting does not allow you to use any of these audience options.
“I want to get more exposure on my post—what should I do if don’t boost it?”
You create an ad with it instead! Boosting only gives you two options for your objective—website visits and engagement. Within Ads Manager, you can pick an objective and maximize it: awareness, reach, traffic, engagement, conversions and more.
Even better, when you're building campaigns in Ads Manager, you can more directly follow the Buyer's Journey to match your campaigns to your audience's specific needs.
“What else can you do with Facebook Ads?”
In a word, plenty. Here are just a few of the features you can—and should—take advantage of:
Placement Options
Facebook can automatically place your ads where they’re likely to be most effective. However, you also have the option of choosing where your ads are shown. This includes the desktop and/or mobile News Feed, Instagram, Instant Articles, and other choices.
TIP: If your audience is large enough, split test your placements so that you control the delivery, not Facebook. Nine out of ten times, they will feed to mobile and sway your results on you.
Lookalike Audiences
One of the absolute best things about Facebook Ads is that it will help find your audiences for you. Once you create your own custom audiences based off of website engagement, email lists, Facebook Page engagement and Instagram, let Facebook do the hard work of finding more people to target.
Dayparting
Also known as Ad Scheduling, this feature allows you to turn your ads off and on automatically throughout the week on a recurring schedule.
Create Custom Conversion Tracking
The Facebook Pixel lets you track standard events that happen on your website—View Content, Complete Registration, Lead, Add to Cart, Purchase, etc. Instead of only using the 9 Standard Events, think of custom conversions as a way of enhancing your tracking. You can build up to 40 custom conversion values by combining the events with specific URLs visited to hypertarget.
Create Super Duper Custom Audiences
What if you want to be uber precise with who you are targeting? What if you want to serve a Middle of Funnel ad to an audience who has read a specific blog and viewed one of your service pages...twice? No sweat with custom conversions. (Sorry...you may be seeing some of our ads soon.)
How do Facebook Ads and Boosted Posts Compare? Simply put, there is no comparison!
If I seem overly passionate about this topic, it’s because there’s a good reason. Companies that believe they’re doing enough on Facebook by simply boosting posts are, in all likelihood, leaving money on the table...or throwing it away. The entire premise of Facebook Advertising is to be extremely strategic and precise. Maximize campaign objectives to follow the buyer's journey. Build hyper-targeted audiences. Nurture leads and builds raving, loyal fans.
Written by: Ali Parmelee
October 10, 2018
5 Ecommerce Secrets the 'Experts' Aren't Willing to Share With You
The days of everyone buying the items they need from a brick-and-mortar shop just down the street are long gone. Instead, ecommerce has continued to grow into an impressive juggernaut, experiencing 24.8 percent worldwide growth in 2017, with Amazon alone recording a net revenue of $177.87 billion.
The days of everyone buying the items they need from a brick-and-mortar shop just down the street are long gone. Instead, ecommerce has continued to grow into an impressive juggernaut, experiencing 24.8 percent worldwide growth in 2017, with Amazon alone recording a net revenue of $177.87 billion.
1. Build a pre-launch audience.
Far too many entrepreneurs make the mistake of setting up their store and only beginning their marketing after launch. The problem, however, is that digital marketing efforts often require a bit of time before they start delivering the desired sales results. In the meantime, you'll be paying web hosting fees and other expenses without the sales revenue to cover it.
Instead, you need to start your marketing early by building a pre-launch audience. We see this happen all the time with Kickstarter campaigns that collect funding and build buzz before the project is ready.
Even if you aren't creating a completely new or original product, you still need to spread the word. Social media contests, product giveaways and email list sign-ups can all help you build an audience so your store can make sales on opening day.
2. Focus on the customer lifetime value.
Converting customers is hard. In fact, most estimates put the average conversion ratearound 1 to 3 percent. Because of this, you need to make every sale count. You won't be in business long if your average customer only spends a few dollars.
To succeed in this area, you need to focus on the customer lifetime value (CLV), rather than just the initial sale. Naturally, this requires that you deliver a quality customer experience for that initial sale. But, it also means you need to do some follow-up.
One of the best ways to do this is through email marketing. A quality email campaign allows you to follow up with customers about their initial purchase, while also reaching out for holidays and other special shopping seasons. Increasing your CLV will lower your cost per conversion and help you generate lasting sales results.
3. Leverage the power of remarketing.
Most ecommerce professionals invest a fair amount of their budget into marketing, with the goal of getting new customers to visit their site and make a purchase.
But, what about the people you've already convinced? If you aren't targeting them through remarketing campaigns, you could be missing out on a significant profit.
Repeat customers aren't only more likely to buy from you again in the future -- they also tend to spend more money. Studies have found that repeat customers have a 60 to 70 percent chance of making another purchase in the future -- numbers that far outperform ecommerce's typical conversion rate.
Make sure your Facebook and AdWords campaigns specifically target those who have already visited your site to ensure a stronger marketing ROI.
4. Let your customers do the talking.
Building a strong brand identity is an absolute must because it allows you to form an emotional connection with your target audience. When you're able to cultivate strong relationships with your most passionate customers, you can then leverage their enthusiasm to spread word of mouth for your store.
As studies have consistently found, few marketing methods are more trusted or effective.
The thing is, your customers won't always do this word of mouth marketing on their own. You often need to provide some extra motivation. Don't be afraid to reach out to your top customers with personalized messages asking for a testimonial, or simply to get their input on your products and services. Use social media contests to build enthusiasm and spread the word.
The more you do to personalize these interactions, the more likely your customers are to become true "brand ambassadors" who drive new business to your store.
5. If you choose to do dropshipping, don't botch it.
Dropshipping -- the process of having your product sent directly from the manufacturer to the consumer -- has simplified sales for many ecommerce professionals. However, it isn't without its own potential pitfalls.
The most common issues I've seen with dropshipping include slow shipping times, no tracking numbers for your customers and low-quality products.
All of these can completely kill your reputation with your customers. Because of this, it is essential that you perform a quality check of your supplier's products before you begin dropshipping. This way you can have confidence that your products live up to your brand promise.
For shipping, select a quality fulfillment company that offers a trackable courier solution. This way, customers won't have to endure lengthy delays, and they'll always know when their order will arrive.
Building a successful ecommerce brand isn't always easy. I should know -- I've seen my fair share of startups fail after their initial success. But, by incorporating this knowledge that I've gained from my past efforts, I've since been able to launch several successful stores and generate real, lasting revenue -- so can you.
Written by: Steve Tan
September 25, 2018
Richard Branson's advice for creating great marketing
Behind every successful business is an element of great marketing – and no-one knows this better than Richard Branson. But how do you make sure you’re getting your marketing right? The Virgin Group founder has some advice…
“The key to great marketing is storytelling. And as Hollywood, Bollywood and the books and magazine industries demonstrate, nothing sells better than a great love story,” he says in a recent blog. “You’re wise to be careful about where you spend your profits, but reinvesting in marketing – as long as it is done smartly – is vital to the growth of any business.”
Richard says that he’s found one of the most effective forms of marketing – especially for Virgin Atlantic – has been to position himself as a visible part of the business. But he also recommends telling customers’ stories and drawing on their experiences.
“Another angle to pursue is content marketing, which is a term for sharing wonderful stories that bring a smile to people’s faces, while also highlighting your brand values and products,” he says. “The best marketing you could wish for is already at your disposal: In this age of social media overload, it’s crucial to have a differentiator.”
You may need to use some of your budget to invest in paid social boosts to make sure the right people see them. “Using the targeting available on sites like Facebook, more people who might be interested will see your brand. In turn, old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing can then come into play alongside social sharing,” he explains.
Another route you could do is to consolidate your efforts to make one ‘big splash’ like Naja, an ethical and eco-friendly lingerie, swim and activewear brand did. “When launching a campaign for a ‘nude’ lingerie suitable for women of all skin tones, I urged founder Catalina Girald to invest in one eye-catching billboard, then tell the news media that it was part of a nationwide campaign. It’s something we did successfully with Virgin Atlantic, too, and it works well if the initial billboard is clever enough,” Richard says.
“Taking my advice, Catalina created a striking visual poster campaign in one fashionable New York subway station. Social media picked it up instantly, and press interest soon followed. It worked so well that website traffic quadrupled, press coverage exploded and sales soared. Now, that’s clever advertising and budget management! Consider how a similar campaign could work for you, and think creatively about how, when and where to execute it.”
Great marketing is all well and good, but Richard notes that it’s more important to define the purpose of your business and make sure it’s at the heart of everything you do. “That’s the most effective way to begin building a long-term future for your company. Try to delegate key tasks, so you have room to think about the bigger picture (but keep your eye on the detail, too). And while it’s great that you and your husband are partners who can bounce ideas off each other, consider recruiting people with additional skillsets as your business grows.”
Written by: Natalie Clarkson
Along with hunger, fear and love, visual stimulation is deeply embedded in the human experience. Ninety percent of all information is transmitted visually, with the human brain processing an entire image after viewing it for as little as 13 milliseconds. Social media platforms have tapped into this primal inclination with tremendous success.
Unique among them, Instagram has quickly proven to be one of the most influential forces in content-driven marketing today. The image-based app is known for having amplified engagement rates over other social media networks.
Instagram success comes with quite a daunting caveat: You must stand out on a platform with 800 million active users who “like” 4.2 billion posts daily. Luckily, there are ways your brand can cut through the noise. Here are five ways to build a passionate Instagram following that sequentially leads to increased revenue.
Create A Plan Of Action
Your Instagram strategy is what separates posting for profit from just crowdsourcing self-esteem. To be effective, your plan needs to define your target audience and outline a clear direction for content.
Creating content that resonates with your followers is the result of a well-defined buyer persona. When you internalize your ideal customers’ demographics, behaviors, concerns, motivations and goals, you can tailor your message to attract them. Doing so ensures your image and message will evoke curiosity, incite action and humanize your company, all of which will expand your base of regular followers and set the baseline for your overall strategy.
Instagram tactics might target several of the following objectives: increase brand awareness, build customer loyalty, enhance and complement event experiences or drive sales. By defining your goals, you’ll be able to determine the best approach for each step.
Elicit Emotions
Emotions are at the heart of all relationships, including with brands. Logic persuades but feelings motivate, influencing a customer’s intention to purchase over anything else. According to a study, purely emotional campaigns were twice as likely to generate profit gains than those with a rational approach. Therefore, when choosing images, the intended emotion should be front and center.
However, not all types of emotions are rated equally. Research found that admiration, interest, amazement and astonishment are extremely common sentiments in highly viral content. Positive posts are more prone to be shared than negative ones, but things get complicated when it comes to dealing with specific feelings.
Anger, anxiety and other high arousal emotions drive us to take initiative. Fear is a commonly depicted emotion in marketing. This can take the form of showing the downside of not taking action, as in Allstate’s Mayhem campaign. At our agency, we often use social proof in campaigns. Happy clients touting results that prospects are not getting taps into the fear of missing out and establishes credibility.
Build A Visual Narrative
Show actual customers using your product or service so that prospective buyers can easily visualize themselves enjoying the benefits, relate to the people featured and, in turn, connect with your business.
When using images of people, show their faces since that is what best conveys emotion. Instagram photos with faces are 38% more likely to be "liked" and 32% more likely to receive comments. As such, consumers who see a user-generated picture when online shopping results in 4.5% higher propensity for conversion.
The more authentic your photos, the better you will be able to form an affinity with your customers, followers and fans. Using a real person associated with your company instead of a stock photo can increase conversions by 35%.
Create Conversations
Instagram posts should start conversations and encourage self-revelations that your social following can become a community. Participation provides a sense of connectedness, paving the way for conversions down the road.
Consider the desired response from your caption: Are you posting a statement or something that people will naturally reply to? Continue the conversation with exclusive discounts or by asking questions, using polls or hosting a live Q&A session. Dedicate time to responding to comments, liking other users' images and joining conversations where you can add value. By commenting on someone else’s profile, that person is 401% more apt to follow your brand.
Simplify The Path To Purchase
According to a survey, at least 72% of Instagram users have bought something they first discovered on Instagram.
Instagram has been continually rolling out tools that allow marketers to connect with customers in an immersive way, making shopping actionable and facilitating impulse buys.
• Stories: Include a link in your Instagram Stories that directs viewers to the product page on your website.
• Stories Highlights: These video clips appear directly under your bio and above your Instagram feed and play as a standalone story, allowing brands to showcase the content they want to be viewed first.
• Action Buttons: Fans can make reservations, buy tickets, place orders or book services through third-party partners without having to leave Instagram.
• Shopping: Transform your Instagram profile into a visual storefront with easy access to pricing and details, where shoppers can tap on a tagged post to take the next steps to purchase.
Instagram is an essential part of any holistic marketing strategy and can be a dominant force in your brand-building arsenal. To attract new followers, generate leads and sell, it is imperative to use photos that create an emotional association with your brand.
With a proper understanding of the psychology and engineering behind the platform, you’ll ultimately be able to guide fans to take the action you want: make a purchase and become a long-term customer.
Written by: Jenna Gross - Forbes Agency Council
View Article Here
Twitter has published the latest version of its monthly event calendar, highlighting all the key dates in June to be aware of.
Twitter's event calendars can be a big help in guiding your content strategy - not only do they highlight all the major events you can tap into, but Twitter also includes specific tweet volume numbers for selected topics, giving you a better idea of just how much discussion each is likely to generate (note: if you want to get specific numbers for each event, you can check Twitter's event targeting listings)
So what are the key dates to be aware of next month?
As you can see, there's a broad range of events, with Father's Day being the big one, in a general sense (though the CMA Awards is likely to generate a lot more Twitter conversation). There's also a heap of sports tie-in opportunities, along with 'National Selfie Day' and 'Social Media Day', all worth considering for your promotions.
As noted, Twitter's calendars can be a big help in keeping you on top of the latest happenings, and if you're looking to tap into the rising tweet stream, these events can be a great way to increase brand awareness and make your brand part of the surrounding conversation.
You can download Twitter's June 2018 event calendar here.
Written by: Andrew Hutchinson
May 22, 2018
How to Find Quality Micro-influencers (Even if You're Clueless About Influencer Marketing)
Social media influencers are in high demand, with household brands courting them to become advocates and promoters of their products. But high demand for these influencers also pushes up the costs of using them - as a way around that, small businesses looking to use influencer marketing are increasingly turning to micro influencers.
Like celebrities, influencers with readymade audiences are difficult to engage. Micro-influencers, however, are more approachable, and affordable. They also often have the added benefit of better engagement with their audiences than their high-profile counterparts.
Credibility and trust sway consumer buying and purchasing decisions, and often, micro influencers have more on both fronts with their individual readers or audience members.
For small business owners, the challenge of building such trust with your target audience is time-consuming, but it is also vitally important in this hyper-competitive environment.
What is a micro influencer?
A micro-influencer is someone with a following of anywhere between 1,000 to 100,000 people. This can be on any platform, and many have their own blogs and websites.
Micro-influencers are focused on a targeted niche, and as noted, often come with the advantage of high audience engagement, since their follower numbers are smaller, and thus, easier for them to engage with more often.
Having smaller audiences also means the cost to compensate them is also generally significantly lower than celebrities and high profile accounts.
Where do you look for social media micro-influencers?
The first place to look is your own “backyard.”
Sift through your social media platforms and your blog. Check and see who's commenting and sharing your content. Sometimes these people are micro-influencers.
Now, if a micro-influencer is engaging with your brand, that person is already plugged-in to your target audience. Also, it’s likely they’re already predisposed to your brand, and familiar with your products, which will save time trying to persuade them to work with you.
When you do reach out, be sure to be polite and thank them for following you and interacting with your content. Be sure to follow them on their social channels and participate there - they will appreciate your taking notice and being active.
Whatever you do, don’t begin your dialog by bluntly asking them to participate in your influencer campaign. No one appreciates being sold to, and micro-influencers are no different. Be polite, it goes a long way.
Look for quality content
Quality content and integrity are paramount.
Here’s what I mean by that - does the influencer produce quality content (video, photos and blog copy)? Think of it from the point of view of your brand - is the influencer someone you want to be associated with? Do they produce content you want your company to be associated with?
For example, if you're a family-friendly brand, look to see if the micro influencers use profanity or engage in inappropriate behavior. Do they conduct themselves well and are they a good fit?
Be mindful of congruence and engagement
If you find a micro-influencer that's a huge pastry connoisseur, for example, but your business is about following a sugar-free diet, then they’re probably not the right influencer for you, even if they are engaging with your content.
Not only should they produce the kind of content you want to be associated with your brand, but they should get good engagement with their followers - remember, engagement is far more important than reach.
Check to see how often your targeted micro-influencer posts, and how much reaction it gets in the form of shares, comments, and likes.
The more a micro-influencer engages with their audience, the more influential they are with them. Frequency is good as they are more likely to be considered credible, relevant, and up-to-date with the audience’s needs and concerns. This is what you want.
Once you weigh relevance and communication styles, you’ll want to narrow down your micro-influencers by reach.
How to find micro influencers quickly and easily
An effective strategy for finding the right kind of micro-influencer for your business is using hashtag search features, particularly branded hashtags.
If you search #YourBrandName, you’ll be able to find people who are already engaging with your brand (if they are). This is a simple and straight-forward way of finding out which micro-influencers are already talking about you - these are some of your best bets, as they're already acquainted with your business and will be easier to persuade over influencers who aren’t familiar with you.
When you’re ready to expand your search, you can try hashtags for topics relevant to your brand and products. Simply type your hashtags into the Instagram search bar and a range of choices will pop up.
Let’s say, for example, your business is in the healthy food space. You’d simply type that hashtag into the Instagram search bar:
Another way to find micro influencers is to use influencer databases - some are free, simple and easy. They also provide the added bonus of statistical data on the influencers too.
For example, Scrunch is an easy to use platform which enables you to find micro-influencers quickly. You can also filter them based on category.
In the example below, I put in a search for influencers who cover the topic of marketing:
Some of the statistics Scrunch offers includes audience size, the social platforms the influencers use, the approximate cost to have them create content for you and the topics they post about.
These are all provided with the free version - more advanced statistics are available when you subscribe to the pro version.
Another platform to try is Tinysponsor. This tool focuses on micro-influencers, and enables businesses to find and collaborate, regardless of location or social platform. You can even pay the influencers through it.
When you visit Tinysponsor simply click on the “continue” button and set up your brand profile, then start searching.
Tinysponsor even allows you to search ready-made packages, influencer by influencer or in bulk, by platform, price, city (so you can get local) and tags, so there are lots of options to choose from.
You can add the packages to your cart, define your goals, then checkout. Sponsorships are confirmed by each micro influencer, and funds are held in a protected account.
This enables you to collaborate directly with each micro-influencer on your sponsorship. Once delivered and approved by you, payment is instantly sent.
Anyone of these methods and tools is sufficient to quickly find micro influencers relevant to your business.
The hardest part is getting started, but once you do, you’ll be able to find influencers on demand.
Wrapping up
Influencer marketing is one of the most effective forms of gaining mindshare with your ideal consumers quickly and effectively.
Because of their high engagement rates and cost-effectiveness, most small businesses can leverage this strategy anytime they want - but keep in mind this critical point: The size of the audience is not as important as the engagement. You want to see an active audience.
Even influencers with very small audiences can help you boost your brand’s authenticity and standing. Now you can outmaneuver larger competitors, because you can connect with an already targeted and motivated audience which will skyrocket your brand.
Written By: Tom Augenthaler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
