Social media marketing can help skyrocket your business to the top. However, it’s pertinent that your content be stunning. You can’t share just anything and expect to get great results

Most social media platforms allow for immediate insight into how consumers are reacting to your content. This can help your brand know if the content is flying or falling.

But, how do you develop great content consumers will fall in love with at first sight? Below you’ll find eleven musts for creating brilliant content for your social media marketing

Structure your posts

Skipping and scrolling past content that doesn’t interest you is easier than ever. Blocky posts with walls of text are uninviting to readers. If it looks like something out of a research paper, people are likely to pass it over altogether.

Format your content by using bullet points or numbered lists. Headers are also an excellent way to help highlight important content in your post. Plenty of brands are even using emojis in their longer posts to give structure and add color. Be careful not to go too crazy with the emojis, though

Pay attention to your visuals

Curating your feed is the easiest way to keep prospects interested. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or whatever you decide to use, your page has to look great. Sticking to certain colors and fonts is an easy way to maintain a cohesive aesthetic.

Look no further than your logo or mission statement for inspiration.

Always try to pick photos that are clear and well-composed. Your brand will benefit from putting out well-polished content. There are plenty of apps that you can use to generate eye-catching content both quickly and effectively.

Use videos

Videos are hypnotizing, and it’s a stone-cold fact. Statistics show that 82% of Twitter users watch videos while using the application. Most social media users watch at least an hour of video every week.

Consider making short videos that help get your brand’s message across. These videos can be text or image based. Sharing videos that are already made can work well, too.  However, please remember to give credit where credit is due.

Keep up with the trends

Regularly doing research to see what is trending will help you create more current content. Search hashtags or review trends on Twitter to see what people are talking about. Including hot topics in your content will ensure that it gets seen.

Of course, there should be some logic behind it. Nonsensically sharing content about trendy topics can do more harm than good. Touch on issues that are related to your product, goals or story.

Promote conversation

One great thing about social media is how easy it is to have a conversation. When consumers feel like they can reach out to your brand, it will benefit. This direct line of communication will allow consumers to feel connected and will help your brand understand their needs better.

For example, asking followers to “comment below” their favorite product can give you plenty of information. Not only will you find out what customers like, but you’ll also find out what they aren’t so big on. This information can help you redirect your strategy.

Incorporate storytelling

Meaningful marketing is all about storytelling. That’s because storytelling is the perfect way to get buyers to relate to your brand. Brands like Nike, Dove, and Lululemon are some examples of social media storytelling done right.

Storytelling can help you talk about causes your audience cares about, address pain points and show your product in action. Being creative with storytelling will be appreciated, so don’t feel restricted to these areas. Evaluate some ways in which you can include storytelling in your content

Appeal to the emotions

Do you remember those home video TV shows? Videos that make people laugh go viral. When you can get an emotional reaction from people, they will remember your content.

Happiness, joy, laughter and even sadness all work well. Creating content that tugs on people’s heartstrings will get more of a response than content that doesn’t. Regardless, do your best to avoid insincerity as it can blow up in your face.

Get nostalgic

Even the least sentimental person likes to look back on the good old days. People love to pine for yesteryear. Think about how successful Internet Explorer’s “Child of the 90s” advertisement was.

Properly analyzing your audience will help you determine what they might be nostalgic for. Choose something that will be comforting rather than isolating. Even something as simple as a #FlashBackFriday can do the trick.

Be human

Customers want to relate to the brands that they choose to support. Appearing more human to your brand will make you more attractive to your followers. Sharing more of your process can help consumers feel closer to your brand, as well.

Something as simple as sharing a team photo or a funny anecdote is enough to help your followers connect to you. When customers can put a face to a name, they will feel more at ease. Sprinkle in that personal touch.

Make it sharable

When people love something they see online, they will want to share it. Don’t make them struggle with long URLs! Incorporate share buttons as often as you can.

Also, including these buttons will allow users to see how many times the content has already been shared. The more shares you have, the more you are likely to get. Update your sharing options as soon as possible!

Creating shareable content, however, isn’t really a straightforward task. It takes experience in the field to create viral articles that will perform well on social media. Writing services like WOWGrade.net have their own tested “recipes” for content that gathers momentum on social media.

So it’s always a good idea to either invest time and A/B test all the variables that will work for you or delegate such tasks to professionals.

Share content from your audience

Nothing speaks as highly about a product’s power as someone who is actually using it. Today’s testimonials are those ubiquitous selfies. Plenty of brands today are sharing selfies from ordinary people to show just how well their product works.

Although, you don’t have to only share selfies. You can also share drawings, videos or whatever else happy customers make. The idea is to allow consumers to see what your product is truly capable of.

Conclusion

Great social media marketing doesn’t happen overnight. You need to work to find the right formula for your brand. Figure out which of these tips works best for you and make them staples in your content creation strategy

About the Author

Lori is a Master in Anthropology, but at the same time has a great passion for psychology and advertisement. She is currently a writer at Studicus.com and a contributor at Kimca.info. The texts she writes are always informative, based on qualitative research, pleasant to read every time

Further reading : 9 Ways to create an amazing social media bio –https://powersellingmom.com/9-ways-to-create-an-amazing-social-media-bio/

Your social media bio is one of the most important elements of your public image. In order to have a good social media bio, you have to be brief, interesting and informative.

Here are some tips on how to pack all of this in a small but effective package.

Be Concise

Your social media bio should be concise. Don’t go deep into your history or memories. Don’t over explain. Be direct and straightforward and let your audience know who you are and what you do – as well as what makes you interesting – in 5 sentences or less.

Be Yourself

Don’t try to sound like someone you are not. Embrace your personal style and voice and let your personality shine through. This attracts people.

Go ahead and Brag

Social media bio is all about bragging. So, make sure that you list some of your greatest, proudest achievements.

Target Your Audience

The best way to target your audience is to use good hashtags and keywords in your social media bio. This way, you get to reach a wider audience than you usually would.

Eliminate errors with online tools

Grammar and spelling, as well as proper style are crucial in your social media bio. However, it’s not always easy to get that perfect spelling and grammar and style is definitely not easy, especially for people who are not writers.

Luckily, there are some online tools that you can use to make sure that your bio is always stellar. Here are some of them:

– Academ advisor and Study demic are some of the best tools for correcting your grammar and spelling mistakes. You can also use them to learn more about proper grammar.

– Stateofwriting is a tool mentioned by UK Top Writers. It’s simple and easy to use as a proofreader and it will eliminate all of your mistakes.

– Grade on fire is a tool that will help you learn more about proper social media writing, depending on the purpose of your social media profile. It’s very simple to learn with this tool.

– Do my assignments is a tool that will help you edit out all of the fluff from your social media bio and also help you cut or expand your bio so you can use the same one on different platforms.

– Ratedwriting and Bestaustralianwriters are social media tools that will help you come up with the best keywords and phrases to use in your social media bio.

Be Funny

Being funny is one of the best things you can do for your social media bio. It will make your audience laugh and it will attract them to you. Even if your profile is professional, a little bit of funny can get through to even the strictest of cultures and get you noticed.

Just make sure that it’s appropriate and that it’s not offending anyone. That would be a very bad thing for you.

But, as long as your jokes are tasteful and genuine, you can go with it and see what happens.

Use emojis

Emojis are a great way to make you seem more approachable and fun. They also add a certain visual appeal that your audience will love. Make sure that your emojis are tasteful, just like your jokes and that they match the subject of your profile.

They should also be meaningful and reflect who you are as a person as well.

Have a CTA

You need a CTA in your bio just as much as you need it on your website. It’s necessary for you to have this because you can drive some audience to your website, your landing page or any other Web page you want your users to visit.

Just add a compelling text next to your link and invite your audience to click the link. This is one of the purposes of having a social media bio and it will result in many visits.

Avoid overused buzzwords

“Even though buzzwords seem attractive and something that everyone is writing in their bios, you should try avoiding them because they often sound fake specifically because all of those people are using them,” says Annie Grimes, a social media manager at Top Canadina Writers and Student writing services.

So, make sure that you are original with your own words in your social media bios. This will help you stand out as authentic and not just someone who follows the herd. Writing a social media bio can be a bit confusing and strange for most people.

This is especially true if you are not used to talking about yourself. But it’s necessary to attract an audience and do the job in getting you clients or employers, depending on what you need. So, make sure that you follow these rules to show your best self to your audience

Author

Nora Mork is a social media manager and marketing journalist at Revieweal. She helps businesses create better marketing strategist and shares her case studies at Resumention and Academized blogs.

People nowadays are fond of posting daily updates about their individual lives through social media. The most used social media platform is Facebook.

This app allows you to reach out to a variety of audience which is a great outlet for one’s business. Facebook has around 2 billion active users per month.

It is considered a very smart move to use Facebook as an avenue for one’s business. Facebook offers a lot of tools that aids the user in promoting one’s Facebook page. But, the question is……..

“How do you make use of Facebook to boost or grow your small business?”

Tip # 1 –CREATE Business Page

Creating one’s business page in Facebook is somehow similar with your profile but the page focuses on business and brands. It gets likes in order for posts and updates to be seen. You also get to invite people to view your page.

Your business page, once created should be equipped with all the necessary information such as, business address, contact information, website (if applicable), operating hours, and products. It must also contain a profile and cover photo that speaks about your business.

Tip #2 – POST, POST, POST

Posting is a very common feature of Facebook. We post to inform, to educate, to gather likes, to share what we learn and to build our network.

In using Facebook as a platform for your business, posting regularly is a must. But it must not be overbearing like posting every minute or posting so little information that it makes your followers lose interest.

In posting, quality over quantity matters. You need to take note of the content of your posts that would both be informative and interesting. It must be transparent and has great quality.

In posting, quality over quantity matters. You need to take note of the content of your posts that would both be informative and interesting. It must be transparent and has great quality.

Note: Posting regularly with good quality content promotes your business

Tip #3 – PROMOTE PAGE/FACEBOOK ADS

Creating content for your page and sharing is sometimes not enough. Luckily, Facebook offers ways in order to widen your business’ market scope. When you create your page, you can send invites to your potential and target customers. You can also link your website to your Facebook page. S

Also, Facebook offers a PROMOTE PAGE option where you spend a small amount as payment so your post could reach more viewers and followers

Facebook Ads

Another way to increase visibility is to make use of Facebook Ads. Promoted Facebook posts are similar to regular posts but they reach more people and targets audience that are most likely to be interested in your business.

They can target people by age, gender, location, and most importantly interests.

Another way to increase visibility is to make use of Facebook Ads. Promoted Facebook posts are similar to regular posts but they reach more people and targets audience that are most likely to be interested in your business.

They can target people by age, gender, location, and most importantly interests.

Note: To increase audience and post’ reach, engage in Facebook ads and Promoting page

Tip #4 – ENGAGE FOLLOWERS

Engaging is defined to be an interaction between people. Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes pages and posts that creates engagement between members.

Since Facebook is a social media platform, you as a Facebook business page owner needs to be social, thus, your posts should be an avenue for conversation.

It is a must for Businesses to respond to followers’ queries, comments, suggestions, and concerns. Getting to know the customers’ needs and wants can be addressed by using polls and responding to reviews.

Note: To be engaging, you must post quality content. That is friendly, conversational, and easy to understand. Updates must be timely and private messages and comments should be responded promptly and clearly.

Tip#5 – RIPPLE/SNOWBALL EFFECT

The most common attitude of human beings is imitation. Human beings have the tendency to use something that has been tried and tested by someone familiar like friends, family, relatives, and influencers. Thus, they tend to try it for themselves.

Social media especially Facebook is the new “word-of-the-mouth”, “the talk-of-the-town”. As a business owner, you would want to be mentioned or talked about by people. The satisfied customers that you have are your best tools in promoting your business.

When you treat your customers well, they are most likely to recommend your business to their own network of friends and colleagues that would create a bigger audience for your business. This creates a ripple effect.

Note:To create a wider audience for your business, start with a few customers that are satisfied by your work ethics, product quality, and good service. These few customers would then spread the word about your business, and voila! Bigger and better audience.

Visit me on Facebook!

Follow, like and comment. Visit my page at: Facebook.com/DannaCrawford1

Many eBay sellers are using Instagram as a way to market their eBay business and to share their selling tips. This is a great opportunity for you to do the same.

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Getting started is easy! Just visit Instagram.com online and create an account. Since it’s owned by Facebook, you can easily set it up and log-in using your Facebook account. Although it is not required. Either way, it’s easy-peasy to get started and create an account.

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If you created an account from a laptop or desktop computer, the next step is to download the instagram app on your smart phone. This is where all the “marketing magic” takes place.

Already have an account?

Follow and Learn from these sellers!

Just click on each Instagram name after each # and you can view their accounts live online.

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#1 casachic_store

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This lovely gal has been selling on eBay since 2000. I had the opportunity to meet her and her husband at eBay Open, 2018. She shares fantastic eBay selling tips on a regular basis and has recently launched some learning tools for all types of sellers.

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#2 mexican_picker

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Julio Rodriguez is a full time dad, eBay seller and he plays in a mariachi band! He posts great eBay photos and keeps the pace with his great humor! You will have fun while you learn from him. I love his photo style.

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#3 katyzilverberg & lvpinkpanther

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Two for One! These gals are my favorite Las Vegas Couple! They love life and especially love helping eBay sellers! They also have a fun and helpful youtube channel and facebook group.

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#4 shaunsavvy

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Shaun Chojnacki is a fierce eBay seller! His sales blow my mind! This guy is a for-sure-to-follow Instagram user. And he has nice “sexy” photos too!

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#5 amazingtastestore

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Cyndi loves sharing her eBay knowledge. Her and her husband do regular video segments showing screenshots directly from her eBay account. I had the honor to meet them both when I was a guest speaker at a Chicago meetup before managing a Treasure Hunt for WorthPoint.

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#6 bossladyresale

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With over 31,000 followers, Rebecca Black is a true inspiration! She sells on eBay and Poshmark while living with a chronicle illness. #LoveHer

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#7 yvon__thrifty.rich

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Yvon sells on eBay and Poshmark. She has a fun and informative youtube channel too. I met her at eBay Open in 2018. She is a super nice gal everyone can learn from.

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#8 ebayprincess

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This eBay princess has over 21 thousand followers! She shares awesome content. Follow the princess and learn how she makes a 7 figure income selling online!

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#9 rockstarflipper

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Casey Parish sells on eBay and Amazon. Located in Tampa FL he has fun showing off his great finds and wisdom. He has a huge following on youtube and does shows on a regular basis.

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#10 raikenprofit

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Steve Raiken is an adorable guy that loves sharing his wisdom and success. I’ve followed him since he started and have enjoyed watching him grow his business by leaps and bounds. Plus he is one heck of a nice dude! He has the largest youtube following I’ve ever seen!

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#11 sellingmama

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Jessica has been selling on eBay since 2002! I love her style of sharing screenshots from her eBay app. She enjoys sharing her packaging, storing and shipping styles too! She is a must follow!

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#12 liberatedmommy

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Alexia is a “Mom Boss” selling on eBay! I had the pleasure to spend some time with her while “Treasure Hunting” in Nashville TN with WorthPoint. She was just launching a blog and thinking to leave a very high paying job to do eBay! So proud of her! She is a fun loving MUST FOLLOW kind of gal that loves to share her journey!

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#13 robyn.yednock.haas

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Robyn Yednock-Haas is an awesome eBay seller! Her sweet smile will warm your heart when you follow her. She loves unicorns, tikki stuff and everything silly and fun! She is a gal that loves life and loves to help others too!

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#14 dropshiptyler

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I met Tyler at the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas recently. Tyler is a go-getter that has built a 7 figure business in the drop-shipping industry. He also has a youtube channel and is off to a great start on Instagram. He enjoys sharing tips and tricks of the drop-shipping trade! #NiceGuy #LoveHisDog

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#15 rjs_ebayseller

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Richard Smith is an eBay UK Seller – Although I’ve never met Richard in person, I love his enthusiasm on Instagram. He has big plans as an entrepreneur and is already killing it on eBay! Watching his progress will keep all eBay sellers inspired!

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#16 16reselling

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This sweet 16 year old is setting goals to earn at least $200.00 a day selling on eBay! Her family must be so proud of her! I know I am and you will be too. She is a MUST FOLLOW. Everyone will pick-up a few tricks of the trade from this motivated young lady!

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#17 thrift_invader

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Who is this person behind the alien mask? No clue, but I love the fact they are sharing their eBay selling journey with us. I love their style and the “mystery” vibe of this thrifter! #FollowTheAlien

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#18 hipflippinmamma

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Kelly Lee Haggard is one “Hip Flippin MaMa” and I love her style! She is getting started on youtube and has already started to build a great Instagram presence. She is fun to follow and sure to provide insider tips about eBay selling. #HipFlippinMaMaROCKS

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#19 sweetsellsny

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I found this sweet ebay seller on Instagram with a goal to pay off debt by selling on eBay. Next I visited her eBay store and YES she had a Disney hat I was actually wanting. BOOM I bought her hat! This is a great example of following, networking and learning from others online. And yes, even shopping! I look forward to watching her complete her goal! #eBayDebtReduction

Last but not least – Little old Me 🙂
#20 dannacrawford

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I enjoy posting my eBay items and photos from”Treasure Hunting” journey’s with WorthPoint. I also enjoying engaging and supporting other sellers and sharing moments from my personal life! #FollowMe I like to “Mix it up” on Instagram!

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Bonus Follow #21 WorthPoint

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The WorthPoint Instagram is still new on the site. I’m part of the team that manages it. I would appreciate your support and give them a follow while we build the account! #WhatsItWorth #WPTHunt

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Get Social on Instagram

Of course there is more to social media marketing as an eBay seller than just “sharing your wares.” It’s all about being social. This is why they call it “Social Media Marketing!” You must engage and create a bit of “buzz”, which simply means, start a conversation around a photo.

Ebay sellers like myself love to learn from others. We can all learn together by using this social media power-tool as a community on Instagram.

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Further Reading

“How To Create an Instagram Marketing Strategy“by Alecia Johnston at Sprout Social : https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-marketing-strategy-guide/

“Getting started with an Instagram Business Account” via Instagram : https://business.instagram.com/getting-started

“How much does it cost to sell on eBay?”: https://powersellingmom.com/much-cost-sell-ebay/

“16 Items I sold on eBay” https://powersellingmom.com/sold-16-items-on-ebay-shipping-show-transcripts/

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Digital Marketing Trends for 2018

Thanks to advances in technology in digital marketing over the past few years, small businesses are having an easier time reaching a wider audience and increasing traffic to their websites, which can result in more sales. If you’re a business owner and aren’t already using digital marketing as part of your sales strategies, make 2018 the year that your business gets on the map with these tips. Understanding the digital marketing trends for 2018 will help all businesses advance to the next level.

Invest in Video

Video has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to engage people with your brand. There’s something about
watching video that creates a bond between your audience and your company that can’t be accomplished as quickly or effectively through written content. Work with someone to create video that tells a story about your brand and explains to your audience how you can help them solve a problem when they use your product or service. Once you have a series of videos created, launch them into a digital campaign on your website and social media sites to bring people closer to your brand and want to get to know more. Now with the technology of smart phones, creating video content has become easier for everyone. If you can click a button on your smart phone, you can become a movie producer and jump on this trend!

Create a Personalized Experience

People love feeling a connection to a brand, and one way you can accomplish that is through creating a personalized experience that they can relate to. You can use metrics that will give you insight into their patterns and habits to help you deliver the most relevant content to them. If, for example, someone is visiting your site for the first time, you can use a gamification approach to gather information about them, then use that information to direct them to the most relevant products for their needs. People don’t mind sharing information with brands they know and trust. Create a survey and start building data which will allow you to send targeted email campaigns. Email marketing is a powerful trend year after year.

Use Quality Content

With so much information coming at a person when they’re on the internet, it can be overwhelming. How do you stand out among the noise of information so that a person chooses to visit your site out of the millions of others available on the internet? One way to make yourself stand out is by creating quality content that people will want to read. That means creating content that’s easy to read and has no spelling or grammatical errors in it, which can take away from your brand’s reliability. Most small business websites also put out content and forget to keep it fresh. Updating yours periodically keeps readers interested and coming back for more.

Targeted Ads

Thanks to digital marketing, gone are the days of paying for ads in your local paper that may or may not reach the right audience for what your business offers. Now, thanks to targeted marketing, you can create ads that will reach the exact demographic you want to sell to. You can input a variety of metrics, including age, sex, income, geographic location, and even interest to push out ads to people who are most likely to buy your product.

Voice Marketing

With the number of people who use assistive devices such as Alexa, Siri, and Google around the home and office, we will likely see a rise in the number of ads that are targeted through these devices. For example, if someone asks their assistive device where to go for a great cup of coffee and you run a cafe, you can pay for your company to pop up in the results as one of the first recommendations.

Use Algorithms

Predictive algorithms are letting businesses of all sizes to only let people see what’s relevant to them when they need to see it. If you don’t have a large marketing budget to work with, this can be a huge lifesaver and let your money go further since you’ll only be charged when people actually see and engage with your content.

If you’re ready for your business to break into digital advertising, 2018 is the year to get started. With so many exciting technological advances available and more on the horizon, your business can reach the right audience and help drive engagement and sales.

The 2018 trends are very comparable to the 2017 trends I mentioned in a previous article. “Digital Trends 2017” which was a presentation a gave at our local college.  The bottom line is to educate yourself to help advance your business on these trends.

Hello, and welcome to today’s presentation, in which I’ll talk about the latest digital marketing trends that all small businesses should be paying attention to.  I’ll discuss why these trends are important to small businesses and what they can do to start jumping on the trend and taking advantage of it to help them grow their business.

My name is Danna Crawford and I’m also known as Power Selling Mom – quick info about me … I’m an authorized local expert with Constant Contact. I’ve been using their service since 2006 and shortly after that I became a Certified business consultant, trained by eBay after being an active seller on the site since 1997 – With my experience of teaching eBay classes and workshops in partnership with the United States Postal Service, Constant Contact contacted me to go through their certification program and now I do webinars and local workshops on the topic of social media and email marketing – Next I became the Development Director for our local Foodbank (FirstStepFoodbank.org) after a meeting with the board while I was teaching them about fundraising using Constant Contact and eBay, next thing you know they offered me a part time job that I couldn’t resist since I’m passionate about the Cause of feeding America – So those are the three hats I wear, Constant Contact, eBay and the Food bank! You can learn more about me by visiting my website at PowerSellingMom.com or just google my name. (Danna Crawford)

Let me take just a minute to explain what Constant Contact is for those who may not be familiar.
Constant Contact is a do-it-yourself online marketing system. You can use it to be a marketer for your own small business or organization. The company is best known for its email marketing tools. It’s easy to create and send mass email, like newsletters or announcements and updates. You can run special promotions or offers; you can build online surveys and polls to gather feedback; and you can promote and manage your events using Constant Contact with registration tools, payment acceptance and invitations – all in one place.

You can use all the tools and tips we’ll discuss today in your own small business or nonprofit marketing. You can be a marketer. All it takes is Constant Contact.

Digital marketing is the application of technology – devices, platforms, channels and practices – to connect to audiences. They could be audiences of your current customers or members, or prospects you hope to bring into your business.

I’m not going to assume that “everyone is doing it”…but I am going to tell you that when it comes to digital marketing, everyone should be. If you’ve got your direct mail or print or other traditional marketing efforts nailed down, that’s great – digital marketing will be a fantastic complement to those efforts.

But at the end of the day technology is changing the behavior of consumers, and digital marketing is the answer for small businesses trying to reach those consumers where they are.

What is digital marketing

According to Wikipedia: Digital marketing is that makes use of electronic devices (computers) such as personal computers, smartphones, cellphones, tablets and game consoles to engage with stakeholders. Digital marketing applies technologies or platforms such as websites, e-mail, apps (classic and mobile) and social networks. Digital Marketing can be through Non-internet channels like TV, Radio, SMS, etc. or through Internet channels like Social Media, E-mails ads, Banner ads, etc.. Social Media Marketing is a component of digital marketing. Many organizations use a combination of traditional and digital marketing channels; however, digital marketing is becoming more popular with marketers as it allows them to track their Return on Investment (ROI) more accurately compared to other traditional marketing channels.

What digital tools has already done for small businesses is well known. The access to platforms and channels has allowed small businesses to take more control than ever over their own marketing and their reach to the audiences needed to drive their business.

They have also allowed small businesses to efficiently manage their marketing efforts in ways that won’t break the bank. Take Hope Hummus for example. They’re a hummus manufacturer in Colorado and they sell through distributors like grocery stores and markets. They’re easily able to manage their brand through their website and email communications.

They make excellent use of social media, posting inspiring videos that share their brand personality as well as recipes for how to enjoy their products. They’ve considered the mobile experience in the design of their communications. And above all else, they’ve recognized that while their business flows through distributors, they have to create the connection to the person who’s buying their product…and they’ve even gone so far as to make it easy through their website (on a desktop or mobile device) to “find Hope.”

Look at all of the ways in which they’ve taken advantage of what digital marketing has to offer them!! What you see here is also a great reflection of the trends we’re going to talk about today.

Ok, you may be asking…if I need to be getting set up on digital marketing channels and platforms, how do I know which one to use? It can be really hard to determine what the right channel or mix of channels could be.

First, I can tell you that you don’t have to use all of them. Ok? So you can relax a little bit.

And fortunately, there are some quick questions you can ask yourself to help figure out if you’re ready to jump onto this digital marketing adventure:
– Time – how much time can you devote to the tactic or channel, like a social network? You may not need to hire a new staff member to manage your use of Facebook, but can you devote enough time to make it worthwhile?
– Resources – or maybe you do need someone else in your business to focus on the new tactic or channel you’re considering. Do you have that resource, or can you add it?
– Will you or your team know how to get the most out of that channel? If the answer to this is “no,” you’re going to need to find training or someone who does have the skill.
– Finally…do you know where your audience is spending their time?

I encourage to keep these questions in mind as we go through each trend to determine which trend is most accessible to you. You can even use these questions to help you rank the trends in order of which ones you can do right away, in a few weeks/months, or maybe not at all.

Hottest Digital Marketing trends of 2017

– Marketing Automation
– Content Marketing
– Video Marketing
– Mobile Marketing
– Big Data

Marketing automation

describes the ability to automate repetitive tasks like email, social media, and other website actions. The intention is to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content in order to convert prospects to customers and build customer loyalty.

By learning about your audience, you can segment them into categories/demographics/interests and create customized content that speaks to them (instead of creating universal content, sending to your entire list, and hoping someone reads it).

Why is this a smart idea, you ask? [Or, “why is this a worthy trend?”]

Source:http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/08/content-marketing-trends/

Think about the world through your customers’ eyes – there are more ways for messages to be communicated than ever before.

In addition to all the digital marketing they receive, don’t forget marketing messages in magazines, on television, in the direct mail they receive.  Sometimes this can be overwhelming…for both the receivers of those messages and those (like you) trying to figure out through which channels to deliver messages.

Combine all of those channels and consider the number of marketing impressions we generally get in a day…one study found that 264 was an average per person, per day! They estimated as conservatively as they could, so the actual number may be higher.   If every channel and every message was given a voice, a person would feel like they’re standing in a full auditorium where everyone was shouting for their attention.

What’s the result?

 It’s just so much noise.

• Approximately 264 impressions per person per day (CustomerThink.com, 2015 http://customerthink.com/how-many-ads-per-day-do-you-see-fewer-than-it-seems-i-think/)

Therefore, anything that helps cut through the noise will incredibly valuable to both consumer and business.

• 40% of consumers will buy more from a business that seeks to personalize their experience, and
• Over half are more likely to shop when the experience is more personalized.

Now…in case you’ve ever felt a bit awkward when asking for information from customers, or you wanted to avoid annoying them by asking for their information, consider this:

 3 out of 4 consumers are willing to share their information if they believe they’ll have a better experience.  So what are you waiting for?

Sources
First two data points came from this post (with reference to the original source): http://www.resourceforsolutions.com/how-personalization-has-already-become-the-future-of-marketing/

76% Source: http://impress1.com/connect/blog/entry/top-3-digital-marketing-trends-for-2016-which-you-should-be-starting-in-2015.html

Last one comes from: http://www.brandanew.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/7-Digital-Marketing-Trends-For-Your-Brand-Success-in-2016-Brandanew.jpg

A critical component of marketing automation is targeting and segmenting. These are marketing terms that reflect what makes your customers, clients or volunteers unique…and then creating marketing touch points that reflect their uniqueness.

It’s dividing people into groups based on information like interests and demographics. You might already be segmenting by categorizing or grouping your contacts. It’s important because some promotions are not one-size-fits-all!

Marketing automation can apply to everything from your website, to your contact management, to your email marketing. Let’s take email marketing as the example…does it seem more effective to  send out ONE email message to everyone on your list and hope a percentage of those people like it?

Or to send a couple different emails slightly tweaked for each segment, knowing that the majority will like it? I’m guessing the second option…and that you realize that “hope” is not a strategy.

Email is one of the most accessible channels to automate your marketing. Targeting and segmenting to create personalize automated messages does not have to be difficult. Let me show you what I mean…

Take these 2 automated welcome emails from the Loveland Youth Gardeners non-profit. (shown above) These emails are almost exactly the same, except a small tweak to match the given audience. One is targeted to people who have donated or sponsored the organization. The other is targeted to those you have registered to volunteer.

You can take your targeting to any level on the spectrum, if you want to make it even more personalized than this. The point is, you can hop on the automation trend without going overboard. Some is better than none.

Email is an easy place to start. It’s more important than ever for our digital marketing strategies. But the trend is moving from “just email” into “marketing automation”. Activities such as contact management, list segmentation, lead nurturing, and reporting can all be done more efficiently through automation.
Source: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/08/content-marketing-trends/

Don’t know enough about your audience to segment? Go ahead and ask them! Sending surveys are a great way to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. There are also services (like TowerData) that will help you scan your list and pull available information about your audience.

Here’s just a short list of the kinds of information you can start collecting for individual consumers or members…[click to build]

• Demographics
• Interests
• Buying/giving behavior
• Frequency of purchase/donation
• Timing of purchase/donation
• Categories of purchase
• Specific causes/events donated to
• Events attended
• Communication behavior
• Social media – channels used
• Content preferences – text, images, video
• Frequency desired – daily, weekly, monthly
• Device Usage – phone, tablet, laptop, desktop

At the end of the day, you’re going to want as much information as you can comfortably collect….

…to help you with your overall marketing efforts. Here are just a few of the things that that information will help you with:

–Segment your lists. The information you have is what will help you target your content and efforts…and you also use that information to break down (or segment) your contact lists. You can segment those lists around just about any criteria you want, although larger buckets are a good place to start. Buying habits, donation frequency, specific interests related to your business…start with the easy ones.

In most databases now the actual act of identifying the segment or segments that someone belongs to is called “tagging” – you apply tags to the individuals, so that later the database can quickly provide just a smaller list from the whole, based on that segment.

– Autoresponders is a general name for any kind of automated marketing delivery effort you may have. It can involve the automatic sending of emails at certain time intervals to whatever audience is specified. You can use the information you’ve collected to develop targeted content and deliver it to those individuals who select (and are then tagged with) certain criteria. These are a great way to provide a consistent experience to segments of your customer base, and to save you time in doing so.

– Social media promotions and discount offers: these are just two promotional ideas that can be carried out based on your list segmentation. You can develop special promotions or offers that will appeal to different subsets of your customer or prospect base.

The topic of targeting, segmentation and personalization, like all of the trends we’re discussing today, could fill its own presentation. But you’ve now seen enough of why it’s important, what to start collection and what to do with the information to get started.

To quickly recap, here are some things you cold start doing today…

– Review your contacts list. Do you know enough about your customers or members and their interests and tendencies to start tagging and segmenting your large list into smaller lists? If not, start asking questions (a simple survey is a great place to start) to get that information, and then start segmenting.
– Find places in your marketing efforts where you could automate your efforts with that segmentation in mind. I mentioned autoresponders before…they’re a great place to start.
– Finally, think about creating some special events or offers for different segments of your audiences.

Not far from the idea of marketing automation and sending content that speaks to your audience, is the idea of content marketing. You may have heard the phrase “content is king”. As much as 88% of marketing will be done through content between 2016 and 2017. This trend has been continuously growing over the years due to the increase of “noise” we talked about earlier, in addition to the growing trend of purchasing from businesses based on trust. Source: http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/will-important-digital-marketing-trends-2016-2017-01616860#l2Y2Xlhs3MDruuf9.97

Here is the definition of content marketing.

The most important pieces here state that you need to provide valuable, relevant and consistent content that ultimately drives profitable customer action. If you’re a nonprofit, you could substitute positive member contribution.

Content is what allows you to connect with your audience. It helps you provide extra value, build relationships, and demonstrate expertise, which are cornerstones to the modern-day sales funnel. It’s no longer considered “novel” for an organization to have a blog, or to send beautiful emails about deals and sales…it’s the norm.

It’s not just about how things look, although that’s important. Content marketing is more important than ever when you look at these two statistics.

– 72% of marketers worldwide say relevant content is the most effective SEO tactic. (http://www.webpresencesolutions.net/150-digital-marketing-seo-statistics-2016/)

Search engines comb the internet for keywords to determine search relevance (which means they’re looking at your website for content). But search engine algorithms will change in 2017, as they always do. With the enormous amount of information being added to the internet every second, search engine giants will keep on updating their algorithm to decide which content should get priority and rank higher in search engine result pages. The only strategy should be to remain original, informative, and helpful to your audience by creating great content.
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/2017-digital-marketing-trends.html

– 82% of consumers feel more positive about a company after seeing custom content (https://apps.ioninteractive.com/site/iig/75stats)

Content marketing is all about building trust with your customers. Trust and authenticity are two things that people are always looking for when choosing who to believe and follow. While this is often difficult to achieve without face-to-face communication, intimate social media platforms such as Snapchat and Periscope give content marketers the ability to humanize their brand and get closer to their audience.
http://www.hashmeta.com/blog/2017-content-marketing-trends-every-marketeer-needs-know/

Traditional content is published on a blog, which absolutely has its place in content marketing. But the new trend in content publishing is social media.

The first thing to note about some social media platforms is that they predominantly attract younger users (the majority of Snapchat users are under 34), so it only makes sense to use them if your target audience lies within this user demographic. If they do, then think about how you can leverage the intimate nature of these platforms to offer your true fans content that will deepen your relationship with them. Some examples to get you going include AMAs (Ask Me Anything), behind the scenes snippets, employee introductions, quick tips, as well as coupons and giveaways.

The key is to discern which of these options are worth investing time and energy into. How you decide will depend on answering the questions that you should already be asking. Source:
http://www.hashmeta.com/blog/2017-content-marketing-trends-every-marketeer-needs-know/

– Who is my target audience?
– What do they care about?
– What media platform/s can we really excel at?

These are the questions you should answer before trying to publish every kind of content on every kind of platform. This is a game of working smarter, not harder.

Let’s start with your target audience. If you’re going to create content that resonates, you need a clear picture of who you’re trying to reach. Any decisions you make for your strategy stem from having a deep understanding of this audience.

Let me give you an example of what I mean here. Let’s say you needed to explain quantum physics to your Mom, your wife or husband, or a child. You can see how your approach is going to be a bit or even vastly different for each of these people.

Their level of knowledge is different, their point of reference is different, and the way they process information is likely different as well. Now, I’ll admit this is a somewhat silly example, but it makes the point.

The bottom line is this: If you don’t know who you’re trying to communicate with, it’s impossible to know what kind of content they want. And this really is step one. Everything builds from who it is you’re trying to reach.

You can use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and even surveys to begin understanding your audience, if you don’t already have a clear picture of demographics. You can also pool these resources to start considering what platforms will be most effective depending on who your target audience is and where they spend their time.

So again for any of this to really work toward business goals you need to know who it is you’re trying to reach because that’s going to help you determine what kind of content to create.

Make sense?

Source: http://coschedule.com/blog/how-to-find-your-target-audience

Once you know who it is you’re trying to reach, the next step is to uncover the pain points for this audience. [click to build] A key thing to keep in mind is that most people are unclear as to what the solutions to their problems are, but they are very aware of the problems themselves.

Let’s say, for example, you offer SEO services. It’s probable that a potential customer may not even know that they need SEO services. They’re not focused on the solution. But they are well aware of the problems they’re having. What they do know is that when they Google the things their customers may be looking for, their business in not on the first page and no one is finding their website.

Uncover what they want to know, what they need to know, their like and dislikes, and their wants and desires.

Also keep in mind that understanding challenges for your customers and potential customers also shows up throughout each step of the buying cycle and are often more related to things that make us people, than they are related to your product or service.

You must know what your audience cares about most. This way you can understand how to best gain their attention and help them. In doing so, you become a trusted resource and when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be the person they choose.

– Note from from Dave Charest, Senior Manager of Content and Social Media Marketing at Constant Contact

“Earlier this year my wife and I bought our first house. When we were looking for the right lender to work with regarding our loan, we put feelers out to a few recommendations. Now my particular worry in this situation, was that I wanted someone to walk me through the process and not feel like I was getting screwed.

And honestly, I was surprised by how some of them chose to respond back.

One group hunted down my work phone number and called me there when the message I left contained my personal info. Another was not very caring on the phone and seemed to push me toward filling out a form rather than answering my questions. Finally, we found someone who was extremely helpful, sent follow-up information, and even made personalized video to walk me through the different lending options available to me. This person also would check in with new info I might find useful from time to time during the process. His actions and manner helped overcome the agony I was concerned with during this process. Needless to say, that’s the lender we went with.”

One of the more important pieces of your content strategy from a business standpoint is understanding your opportunities and your limitations. In addition to getting to know your audience and where they play online, as well as developing a sense for what kind of content they are hungry for, you need to determine where you want to focus your energy to promote your content. Of course, part of knowing your audience means understanding where they spend their time. (It might also be smart to do a little research on your competitors to see where they are most active). But before you jump into a new platform (or multiple) based on that information alone, consider your organization’s ability to excel in each environment.

Think about things like:

– Your experience and knowledge with the tool. If you’ve never logged into Snapchat, you probably don’t want to build an entire content strategy around that platform, at least until you’ve had a chance to familiarize yourself. You don’t have to be an expert, but you do need to be realistic about what you will and will not keep up with in the long term.

– The man power it takes to keep it up and running. Part of your content marketing strategy will be the length of your posts and at what quality? For example, an e-book on LinkedIn would require more forethought than a 3 minutes stream at a networking event on Facebook Live.

– The amount of time you would need to dedicate to it. Some platforms are more fast-paced than others and require frequent posts, so this is something to consider when thinking about where to post your content and how to build your content marketing strategy.

Now that you understand who your audience is, what kinds of information they would care about, and where you want to promote your content, you might be wondering “what are my options for types of content anyway?”. Here are a few examples of different types of content formats based on positive ratings with consumers.

Although blog posts are still very highly esteemed in the online community, there are plenty of other formats to consider. If you’re promoting content on social media, be aware that content marketing is changing form. Longer posts seem to be on the rise in 2017, so don’t be afraid to use social media and other digital platforms to share lengthier content.

source: http://www.smartinsights.com/content-management/managing-content-marketing/competing-content-marketing-infographic/

source: http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/will-important-digital-marketing-trends-2016-2017-01616860#xPQPRS3HmYUk13r7.99

Here’s what you can do today to get started:

First, you need to figure out where your customers, members or audience is today – what social media channels do they use most often? Do they prefer to communicate via email or get their information in some other way? When are they open to receiving marketing messages? And here’s the most important piece…if you’re not sure, you have to ask them!

Now look at where you are today?

– Are you where your audience is?
– Are you trying to do too much?
– Do you need to do more?
– Finally, choose one of the channels you’re not using that your audience is, and start working to make that a part of your marketing mix. Start small, let your audience know that you’re going to be dipping your toe into that water, and build from there.

As you think about your content marketing strategy, consider adding video in 2017. Video is a top trend this year. This comes as no surprise with internet speeds and mobile usage continually rising to enable users to stream videos wherever they are, whenever they want. Smart marketers will latch onto this trend by creating relevant, high quality video content by leveraging on video-friendly social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

It doesn’t take “Chewbacca Mom” to show us how big and important using video and having a visual storytelling strategy are. But, it’s a mistake to focus your video strategy solely on viral video. You should be building a process for the ongoing creation of valuable videos specifically for your target audience.

As a small business (and not a deliriously comical mom), you can leverage the benefits of video as a part of your long-term content marketing strategy, and not just a one-time slam dunk. After all, 74 percent of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video, which means it doesn’t have to be viral to be valuable.

source: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/08/content-marketing-trends/

74%.. (source: http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/will-important-digital-marketing-trends-2016-2017-01616860#xPQPRS3HmYUk13r7.99
Keep in mind that production quality aside, the effectiveness of videos is very much platform-specific.

For example, evergreen video content works well on YouTube due to how users search and discover videos,
shareable and time-sensitive videos work well on Facebook and Twitter due to the social nature of consuming content,
(twitter says that videos and photos get the most retweets)
while short-form attention-grabbing videos are more suited to platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.

Remember to consider where YOUR target audience spends most of their time, and consider creating videos that match that platform (rather than creating multiple types of videos and trying to cover every platform). There are 2 platforms in particular that are trending in 2016 and 2017.

http://www.hashmeta.com/blog/2017-content-marketing-trends-every-marketeer-needs-know/

Twitter…most retweets…http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/will-important-digital-marketing-trends-2016-2017-01616860#xPQPRS3HmYUk13r7.99

Heard of Facebook Live?

 

If you’ve updated your Facebook app lately, you may have noticed Facebook has reorganized its appearance to draw more attention to the ability to “go live”, as well as a specific notification just for videos.

Although Facebook is not the largest video streaming platform, it does have the largest number of active users. For this reason, it’s a great option for small businesses to increase their visibility. It’s especially suited for small business because of the ability to create and share videos the don’t require excess scripting or editing, so it can be done fairly quickly and cheaply. Plus, it is accompanied by an app notification when a live stream is happening to grab your audience’s attention with minimal additional effort.

• Facebook Live is very easy-to-use and businesses of all types can use live streaming to increase engagement with their Facebook followers. To get started on Facebook Live, simply click on the Live button in your News Feed, write a short description of what your audience is going to see and start filming. http://mediakix.com/2016/08/facebook-trends-disrupting-social-media/#gs.RSA7D=s

With over 100 million daily active users and 400 million snaps per day, Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing social networks. As you might already assume, 71% of Snapchat’s U.S. users fall into the 18 to 34 age range.

It has a variety of features, including 10 second photo and video sharing, short stories that are viewable for 24 hours, a mobile messenger with live video streaming (similar to apple’s facetime), and more.

So how can you use snapchat for your business? Here are 3 ideas:

Provide Access to Live Events
Offer Contests, Perks or Promotions
Take People Behind the Curtain

Authenticity is a visual trend in 2017, so anything that can help you humanize your brand to your audience is a definite bonus.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-ways-to-use-snapchat-for-business/

http://stories.gettyimages.com/getty-images-2017-visual-trends/

What can you do today? Here are a few things:

– Can you include a video in your email? Make your own or give credit to someone else’s.
– What video platform does your audience spend the most time on? Determine which will have the biggest impact, then make videos that match.
– Develop a strategy based on your platform. Should your videos be short? Long? Time-sensitive? How frequently should you share?

Mobile Marketing

If Pokémon Go didn’t prove how quickly trends can spread on mobile, I’m not sure what will. The insanely high rate of adoption helped Pokémon Go earn as much as $14 million within 6 days of being released. Thanks to widespread ownership of smartphones, as well as ever-increasing data networks, combined with a cultural desire for mobile engagement, mobile marketing is a trend to seriously consider in 2017.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/22/12258874/pokemon-go-apple-ios-app-store-record-most-downloads

There is lots of data around us that points to the increasing role that mobile devices play in our lives, and the lives of our prospects, customers, members or clients. Over 80% of people on the internet own a smartphone. Not only do we like owning our phones, we are VERY attached to them. Many of us won’t even leave it to visit the bathroom. Which is great for business owners because 4 out of 5 of those people are using their smartphone to shop.

Many retailers are recognizing this trend and incentivizing the use of mobile phones with discounts and coupons targeted at mobile users. Many restaurants are doing the same thing by offering a free drink, appetizer or a coupon code to those that check in on Yelp or Facebook.

Source:
80%+…http://www.hashmeta.com/blog/2017-content-marketing-trends-every-marketeer-needs-know/’
75% + 4 out of 5… http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/will-important-digital-marketing-trends-2016-2017-01616860#xPQPRS3HmYUk13r7.99

As mobile devices have become central to our daily lives, they have driven changes in our [click to build] behavior. Our phones have become core tools in how we research, find, compare and even purchase from businesses.

One term you will start to hear more and more in 2017 is “mobile-centric” search. This is defined as searches that happen 75% of the time or more from a mobile device.

The reality is, people are using their smartphones to find something (everything) they need. In the example on the screen, a search for “linens” in Rockport, Massachusetts yields a top listing for La Provence, a Constant Contact customer. In seconds, a smartphone user can call the business with one touch, get directions they can use as a GPS in their car, visit the business’ website and view the contact information, such as its address and hours.

•  For example, 88% of all “near me” searches happen from a mobile device, which is not surprising. Think about the last time you were out and about and needed to find a restaurant, or a dry cleaner, or even an oil change. With the accessibility mobile provides us, we find ourselves in a cultural trend of expecting to search for something exactly when we are ready to act on it.

88%…https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-mobile-search-tips/159053/

75%…https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/build-your-mobile-centric-search-strategy.html

Identify the mobile-centric themes for your industry.
Some of the top industries for mobile-centric searches are automotive, jewelry, and hotels, to name a few. Remember, not every trend MUST apply to you and your organization. Look into mobile-centric search for your industry, and move forward with this trend if you find a need from your target audience.

Be exhaustive in your keywords
If mobile-centric search is something you choose to pursue in 2017, do everything you can to optimize your search keywords based on your industry theme. This will increase your chances of being found during mobile searches.

Create ads and content that match
Put yourself in consumers’ shoes for these mobile-centric moments. What situations is your audience in, and what are they trying to learn, do, find, or buy on their smartphone? Then ask yourself, “Does the content of my ads and the functionality of my mobile site help my customers in their moments of need?“ If not, you may need to adjust those assets. A simple and effective place to start is by optimizing your mobile email marketing strategy. source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/build-your-mobile-centric-search-strategy.html

Remember all that noise I mentioned earlier?

Well, consumers don’t need help throwing out those communications that are just part of the noise. If your email doesn’t look good on a mobile device (where most people are seeing it), 3 out of 4 of them will delete the email and never get to the message you were hoping to deliver, and almost a third of them will unsubscribe from your list…and never get any of your messages again.

Here are some of the most basic tips we can offer on how to ensure your email doesn’t end up getting deleted. Here are the 5 mistakes you most want to avoid:

1) TOO MUCH TEXT:
Don’t write too much!! Keep it short and sweet. We like to say “a picture, a paragraph and a call to action.” People don’t have the time or inclination to read through long emails on a mobile device.
2) MULTIPLE COLUMNS:
Multiple-column emails end up rendering in strange and unreliable ways on a mobile device. You run the risk of your content getting too messy for someone to easily read.
3) LARGE OFF SCREEN IMAGE SIZES
Make sure your images will work on smaller mobile screens.
4) TINY FONTS
Phone screens are small enough already…don’t make it any harder for someone to read your message…make your fonts sizes large enough for someone to comfortably read.
5) HIDDEN CALLS TO ACTION
The reason you sent the message in the first place was to get your readers to take some sort of action, right? Don’t make it hard for them to see what that action is, and to take it. Don’t bury your links in the middle of a paragraph or at the very bottom of a long email.

Those are five simple tips that will help you get your emails working on mobile devices. Check all of those things today. It’s worth the time!

Once you’ve got your messages formatted to work effectively on a mobile device, now you can start leveraging the fact that people have their phones with them almost all of the time, and are using them to do things like read email and check social media. Why not cover both bases with one message?

There are two ways you can make your email more visible on social media (and therefore mobile devices), each of which have their own unique benefits, depending on your goal:

1. Share an email to your profile, which will be viewed by your currently following. This is free and easy. And if you can nail the content that your audience finds valuable, this is a great way to encourage engagement and word of mouth referrals.
   2. Or turn your email into a Facebook ad. This is also very easy to do, if you’re using Constant Contact. There is a cost associated, but you will benefit from an increased reach beyond your current followers. Facebook has become very adept at matching your target audience to potential new customers (donors, volunteers, clients, etc), so there’s a high chance for return on investment.

Have you ever seen an ad on social media? If you’ve ever purchased an ad from social media  you’re ahead of the trend for 2017. Mobile advertising (especially on social media) is something you will probably hear about A LOT this year, if you haven’t already.

The other aspect of mobile that is maturing before our eyes is the ability to consider the mobile experience in advertising. A term you will hear more and more in 2017 (if you haven’t already), is “native ads”.

This refers to ads that blend in with the regular content on a given site, rather than standing out as a pop up or banner ad. You can barely tell the difference between a post in your feed versus a sponsored ad, which is exactly why it’s a worthy trend in marketing.

Estimates predict that native ads will account for 63% of mobile display ad revenue by 2020 for a variety of reasons. Social platforms, which many credit with popularizing ads in news feeds, are starting to draw a greater share of overall display ad spend. As mobile users continue to get more of their content on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, companies will continue to pour more ad dollars into these platforms.

And for good reason…Mobile native ads typically drive greater engagement levels than other types of mobile display ads. Clicks, shares, and other similar metrics on native ads are 20-60% greater than mobile banner ads, according to the estimates. Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-native-ads-will-take-over-mobile-by-2020-2016-4

Here are some great examples of native ads.

Google and many of the popular social media channels have created opportunities for brands to advertise through their channels, including twitter and snapchat (not shown above). Yes, you have to pay, but as we’ve seen the organic reach of social media decreasing over time, it’s becoming more important to consider spending money to get in front of those prospects you want to reach.

What can you do today? Here are a few things:

– What is your mobile experience like? Are you being found? And if you are, does it look good on a mobile device?
– Consider purchasing ads that will show up on social media and mobile devices. Native ads are a smart bet.
– Are you a marketing consultants? You could consider wrapping a service around optimizing for mobile, helping your clients ensure their communications work on mobile devices.

You’ve jumped on the digital marketing bus, you carefully developed your content and segmented your audience, and you’ve ensured that your communications will work on a mobile device. So you send your campaign, and you wait for the results.

How will you know if you were successful? Does looking at the reports help or just confuse you? How do you know if something worked or didn’t? Or if something should be working more?

We’ve been inundated with talk of big data for years…and it’s true that data is all around us. The challenge is to avoid a common pitfall with all of that data the pitfall of drawing conclusions or making comparisons just because the data was available.

Now, this is a humorous look at what could happen if you connect data from unrelated activities.

What’s important, though, is finding data that helps you ask better questions and then make better decisions.

Collecting data isn’t the hard part data is being created and collected all around us. In the demographic information that’s always being asked for, in point-of-sale transactions, event registrations and in all of the digital fingerprints that we leave in our wake, like opens, clicks, views, likes, shares, and comments.

The reality is that the more digital touch points you have with a consumer or prospect, the more data you receive on them. Some of this data arrives in real time.

Websites, email and social media are all tracking actions like opens, clicks, links referred to and from, intersections of known data with recognized behaviors, it’s all out there.

And it can be absolutely overwhelming.

So let me help you feel a little better.

I want to help you focus a bit in the face of all of that data.

I want you to think about what kinds of actions you ultimately want your customers or members or clients to take… [click to build]

These are just some of the actions that can be taken, right? But I’m sure you can narrow down the actions you want a customer to take more easily than you can sift through all of the possible data out there. Now I want to help you focus just a little bit more.

Why are any of these actions important? Are they important because you’re in the business of getting the most clicks possible, or fielding the most phone calls you can? No you want to generate revenue or donations. That is the point of your business or organization.

So, with that in mind, now you can start thinking about how you’ll approach the data you have access to. Let me take your through an example specific to email marketing data.

It’s easy to get caught up in the “low” metrics when determining whether or not we’ve achieved success. Let’s talk about what those metrics can tell us about our marketing.

What are some factors that might keep someone from opening your email? When you go through your inbox, how do you decide which emails to delete/ignore? Maybe you don’t recognize the sender. Maybe the subject line isn’t relevant to you and it doesn’t look time sensitive, so you think “I’ll come back to it later” (and of course, you never do). Maybe you just received a similar email very recently.

Based on those answers, how can we improve our open rate?

Brand recognition plays a large part in your open rate. The majority of people will not open an email from someone they don’t know. So make sure your from name is clearly recognizable and consistent with how your audience refers to your organization. You can also write your subject line in a way that creates urgency for your readers and entices them to see what’s inside. But keep it short; if it’s more than 5 to 8 words, it could get cut off by your recipients’ email services or smartphones. And finally, your timing and frequency could be off. We recommend starting with a monthly email and adapting from there. Too many emails, and your audience will ignore you or unsubscribe. Too few emails, and your audience might not remember signing up. Also consider, are you sending at the times and days that people would be most likely to read your email? Try a different day or time and compare your results.

You’re using these reports to get to know your audience better, so keep track of what’s getting the most attention in your emails. Segment your audience into different lists, and target them with relevant content based on what you know is working!

What are some factors that might keep someone from clicking on a link? When you read your email, what are some reasons you don’t click on anything?  Maybe your link was not obvious, or it was hidden between articles or at the bottom of your message. Maybe there were so many links, your audience got overwhelmed and didn’t know where to click. Maybe it simply wasn’t interesting to those particular people.

Based on those answers, how can we improve click through rates? What can we do to bring this number up?

Review the calls to action in your email. Consider the wording– is it clear? Is it urgent? Is it telling people exactly what action to take and why it matters to them? Look at your email design and consider how much content is in your email. If your email is too long, many people will give up and delete it before taking an action. Our recommendation is to have no more than 3 articles in an email. And keep those articles short! Include a sentence or two and then a link to read more. When you give people too many choices, they’re not sure what they should click on, and might not click on anything.

Let’s move on to the high metrics.

If you are getting great results, it’s easy to become complacent with your marketing. But that data is a personalized assessment of the things that work well for your audience, and therefore a great guide to the things you should keep doing and even improve.

The first is to find out what’s the best time and day to send your emails. When you look at your open rate report, you’ll see what date and time each of your readers opened your email. Start comparing that to the day and time you send your email – you should send your messages at the day and time your readers are opening them. They’ll be more likely to check their email then and see your message.

Next, take a look at your subject line – what keywords do you think were interesting to your audience? Think about the keywords you’ve used in your subject lines, in blog posts, on social media, and in your website that draw your audience’s attention. Keep using them in your subject lines.

Segment “super fans”.

The majority of email opens come from a very small group of readers. Usually, the same group of people will be opening your emails, with slight variations every time. This is an argument for smart segmentation – don’t simple send everything to everyone, but recognize that there is a core set of “superfans” who contribute the lion’s share of your opens. You should consider sending the most valuable emails to them first as an exclusive ‘sneak preview’ – make them feel special.

A high click rate is fantastic. Your audience wants to know more about the resources you’re linking to in your email. Here’s a few things you can do to make your click rate even better.

Format your links so they stand out when your readers open your email. Use buttons or put white space around them. Make sure the links are spaced out for mobile readers – if they’re too close, it’s really easy to click on the wrong link with your finger.

You’re using these reports to get to know your audience better, so keep track of what’s getting the most attention in your emails. Narrow down the links you offer to fit the topics, products and services that they want to read about.

The last thing you can do is take that knowledge of your audience and segment them. Just like you have “super fans” for opens, you have “super clickers”. These are readers who consistently engage with your messages. This is a huge opportunity to put a special offer in front of your “super clickers”, either by sending it to them ahead of the pack, or by selectively sending them something that is just for the most loyal consumers. By capitalizing on the reporting provided by Constant Contact, you have the ability via smart segmentation to do this for your consumers.

With that in mind, I’ve got three final tips on using data, and then I’ll wrap up.

1. Like the open rate that I just mentioned, beware of those “vanity stats” that might look good but don’t tell you very much. Always look deeper to find the connections of the data to actions that drive towards your actual business goals.
2. Start small…you don’t have to develop a full-blown approach to wrapping your arms around all of your data. Pick one or two tactics that you want to observe and track…focus on it and figure out how changes to your approach impact that aspect of your business. Once you feel that you have that one figured out, choose a different set of numbers that reflect another important part of your business, and so on.
3.Finally…and this is to make sure you keep it simple: DO MORE OF WHAT WORKS!! Sometimes the numbers may confuse the issue, no matter how much you try to justify them or find connections. If you seen something working, keep doing it. Pull other levers around that tactic and see what happens.

Here’s what you can do today.

1.  Determine what #’s really matter for your business. What numbers will reflect the actions that drive business results.
2. Don’t just look at a snapshot…look at those numbers over a long period of time (12 months)…determine what the cycles or seasons are for your business are and how you might think differently about your efforts around those cycles.
3. Finally, based on those important numbers and their performance over time, choose just one thing in your approach to start adjusting. Start small…and track those results.

That’s a lot of information…but I hope it’s all been helpful. You can find a lot of other trends out there, but these are some of the most important ones to be considering for your business.

Let me quickly recap.

• Marketing automation
• Content marketing
• Video marketing

– Mobile Marketing
– Big data

WEBINAR VIDEO REPLAY:

 

Let’s face it; some of us are natural  born marketers. At least, that’s how it seems to those who fall flat on their face with marketing efforts.

Some people have a knack for selling. Some don’t. But, it doesn’t mean marketing techniques are not something you can learn. It doesn’t mean you can’t embrace new and innovative means for sharing your brand with the world. In fact, one way to up the ante with marketing is to tap into your inner:

Marketing Spirit Animal.

Yes, there’s apt to be a long and awkward pause after reading that last line. But, think about it for a minute. The marketing world is a jungle where only those on top of their game can survive. There are traps and pitfalls the marketer faces in the social media marketing sector too. As a marketer, to be successful, “When in Rome, do as the Roman’s do.” You need to go a little wild!

In a moment you can take this speedy quiz to find the inner marketing animal in you. You might have a wild and aggressive spirit animal waiting to unleash itself! Or, you might discover you have a spirit animal with a poor marketing focus. When you find out who your inner marketing spirit animal is you’ll know the way to marketing success.

Before you take the quiz, you can prepare by asking yourself these types of questions:

1. What type of marketing are you using your social media resources for right now?
2. When thinking about content to post to your social media stream, how far ahead of time do you plan your posts?
3. When it comes to social media communications, what is your communication style?
4. Do you align yourself with other experts within the same industry? If so, do you share some of the expert content or comment on it?
5. Why do you use social media resources?
6. What is the amount of time you spend on social media weekly?
7. What inspires you to want success in your business?

READY? Have you read your notes?

Take  the QUICK online version :

What marketing spirit animal are you?

Leave a comment below and share your ANIMAL marketing style!

WANT MORE?

For more spirit animal marketing details, I’m offering a FUN detailed quiz you can print-out and share or save the PDF to your computer files. The printed version has more details than the short version taken above. You can keep it online or print it out. The download is only 99 cents and it can be used over and over again. I just ask you not resell it or change it. Enjoy!

•  Marketing Spirit Animal Quiz to Share – $0.99

PDF File Marketing Spirit Animal Quiz to Print Checkout Added to cart

What are you made of?

Is this you?

Your inner strength and confidence are contagious. Your personality is one of the powerful tools you have in your marketing arsenal. People respect you because you demand respect. People enjoy your company because you respect them in return.

Or could this be you?

Social skills are your forte. When you command attention, you get the attention you demand. You’re a person of few words, but those words are something you chose with care. Your attentiveness to expression ensures a concise marketing message.

What skills do you own?

You also know the importance of taking a break from the marketing madness. Exposure is a desire. Over exposure can mean the death of your marketing success. You have an innate understanding of this balance and adhere to it like a golden rule.

Are you a Lion or a Lioness?

Being out in the wild marketing jungle makes you feel vulnerable. You feel disorganized. Things distract you with ease. The demand for attention and the limited attention spans of others makes your head spin.

Download a questioner copy. Print it out and take it to the next event to share!

 See which animal your friends are.  Great ice-breakers at parties or office events!  

•  Marketing Spirit Animal Quiz to Share – $0.99

DOWNLOAD 99 cents Checkout Added to cart

 

Creating a marketing automation system will make life easier for all types of business owners. Especially those that are wearing many different hats with running a business.

As a business owner myself I am always looking for solutions to simplify my system of doing things. Marketing can be a huge time suck. And it can be expensive to outsource. The solution is to “Automate Your Marketing.”

I’m happy to share with you how I am able to wear many hats. I’ve been asked the question many times “Danna, how do you do it all?” The truth is, I live my life by what I call the “Timer Method.”  This is a system I’ve created to manage my time more effectively.

I will set my timer for an hour and spend the time setting up my marketing automation.

What is marketing automation you ask?

1st I want you to think about the world through your customers’ eyes – there are more ways for messages to be communicated than ever before.

In addition to all the digital marketing they receive, don’t forget marketing messages in magazines, on television, in the direct mail they receive.  Sometimes this can be overwhelming…for both the receivers of those messages and those (like you) trying to figure out through which channels to deliver messages.

Combine all of those channels and consider the number of marketing impressions we generally get in a day…one study found that 264 was an average per person, per day! They estimated as conservatively as they could, so the actual number may be higher.   If every channel and every message was given a voice, a person would feel like they’re standing in a full auditorium where everyone was shouting for their attention.

What’s the result?

It’s just so much noise.

Source: Approximately 264 impressions per person per day (CustomerThink.com, 2015  http://customerthink.com/how-many-ads-per-day-do-you-see-fewer-than-it-seems-i-think/)

Therefore, anything that helps cut through the noise will be incredible value to both consumer and business.

• 40% of consumers will buy more from a business that seeks to personalize their experience, and
• Over half are more likely to shop when the experience is more personalized.

Now…in case you’ve ever felt a bit awkward when asking for information from customers, or you wanted to avoid annoying them by asking for their information, consider this.

 3 out of 4 consumers are willing to share their information if they believe they’ll have a better experience.  So what are you waiting for? (You can automate your questions by sending out a survey!)

Sources
First two data points came from this post (with reference to the original source): http://www.resourceforsolutions.com/how-personalization-has-already-become-the-future-of-marketing/

76% Source: http://impress1.com/connect/blog/entry/top-3-digital-marketing-trends-for-2016-which-you-should-be-starting-in-2015.html

Last one comes from: http://www.brandanew.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/7-Digital-Marketing-Trends-For-Your-Brand-Success-in-2016-Brandanew.jpg

TIP #1 – AUTOMATE YOUR EMAILS

What are autoresponders and how do they work?

Autoresponders work while you work.

While you’re taking care of business, your autoresponders will be welcoming new subscribers into your community on your behalf and you can rest assured that they will receive the timely information they need to begin to establish a relationship with your organization.

When someone signs up for your mailing list, they’ll automatically get sent the promotional materials or messages you want potential new supporters or customers to receive. That could be a coupon or discount code, a video to watch, a downloadable asset like a guide or e-book, a survey or simply a thank you or welcome message.

LIST ADD – An autoresponder can be sent to mail to subscribers after you have added them to a list or they have subscribed to your mailing online from your signup form on your webpage, via text-to-join, QR code or through a Facebook signup form linked to your Constant Contact account. **Note: If YOU manually add a contact or group of contacts to the list assigned to your autoresponder series, that counts as a trigger and they will start to receive the series. **  Think about those welcome emails that you sometimes receive after subscribing to a business’s mailing list. Some of them offer you a coupon immediately upon signing up and some offer you a free thing like a coffee or a gift a few days or a week after subscribing.

BY DATE : Autoresponders can be triggered to send by a specific date like an anniversary or a birthday. An anniversary date  could be when a subscriber became  a member of your organization, or when they last  donated/purchased a product or service from you. CTCT will search the contact database each month for contacts with a birthday then will automatically send a pre-designed personalized birthday message that you craft to wish someone on your list a happy birthday up to 14 days in advance of their special date. It is in that message that you can try to get them to donate, purchase, or stop by.

Whatever you need them to do next for their special day.

Ex:    –  Think about when you get a reminder email about your gym  membership fee or if you’re a member of a golf club or other similar organization you may be annual reminder emails.

–  Or when your favorite salon or restaurant sends you a birthday coupon. These are all examples of automated campaigns triggered by date.

An autoresponder  not only saves you time, but it also gives you the freedom to think differently about the ways you communicate with your contacts, build relationships, and do more business or foster more support for your cause. You’ll know its there doing the talking for you at times when you can’t.

AFTER AN EMAIL TRIGGER – A specific email within a series that will go out after an email sent previously.  This allows you to set up a streamlined, successive series of emails and campaigns to achieve an objective.

What’s the difference between date-based automation tools and list join automation and what do they have in common?

• Dated Based Automation –  makes communicating certain messages on specific dates automatic and timely – less maintenance from you! Saves you from having to seek out anyone with a birthday or a membership due for example to send them something special. You design the email once and an automation tool will do the rest and get their special message to them on time every time.

For example, if you’re non-profit that collects birthdays to send special messages to big donors or if you must remind people when their monthly membership fees are due, these tools will seek out the birthday or anniversary membership date on your behalf and send a special ‘short –and –sweet’ message which you designed ahead of time to be delivered on that specific date to a specific person or group.
– List Join Automation – is a series of welcome emails which you create once and schedule to send when triggered by new subscribers joining your mailing list. Autoresponders can sometimes also be referred to as a “drip campaign” — as they engage new people multiple times in a sequence after initial interaction with your organization. It is meant to drive a specific action from the new subscriber while introducing them to your brand and the type of communications you send. Each one should have a theme or be working towards an end goal until the series concludes and that contact can then be folded into your regular communications. Welcome Emails are a good example of list join autoresponders.

• What they have in common is that they are created in advance and are intended to always be valid or ‘evergreen’ so the contents don’t become outdated. They also should be designed with only one major call-to-action or ‘thing’ that you want the recipient to do after receiving the message.

Evergreen content– is timeless content –  or another way of saying it, informational copy that doesn’t have an expiration date and which will require little if any updating over time.

You want it to be relevant and deliver all the details that someone new to your organization needs to know to continue establishing a relationship with you and want that message to work today if someone subscribe and 5 years later if someone subscribes.

Don’ts:

• Don’t refer to any specific seasons/events/dates/cultural references
• Don’t include anything you’ll stop carrying/doing
• Don’t include too many things someone new to you would have to focus on

 You want the recipient to respond to your message, so don’t confuse them with a million things to interact with because they won’t. Just give them the one thing that they expect and ask them to do what you want them to do next with what you have offered them.

You want to keep it straight to the point, short, sweet and explain to them what they can expect from your business or nonprofit going forward. If you plan to send multiple emails in an autoresponder series tell them how many emails they will receive from you initially and then how often you mail regularly.

And remember: this is the first impression someone may have of your non-profit or business. Make that interaction rewarding, uplifting, easy, and quick. Your best content should be in your automated Welcome Series. It has the greatest success at driving measurable results for you that can become lasting business.

Tip #2 Social Automation

The benefits for management tools can vary based on the platform you decide to use, but for the most part…most allow you to:

Sit down and schedule your social media content, for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

• There’s nothing that will help you save more time than the ability to respond, retweet and share social media posts all on one platform. Checking your management platform once a day puts you on top of your social media inquires, praises and engagement.
•  Know which content works and which doesn’t by looking at your analytics. Most platforms offer some form of analytics, and they’re usually pretty easy to set-up and comprehend.

Before we look a little deeper into each of these, I want to remind you that these desktop platforms are not all free. They are all low-cost and if you think back to how much money your hour in a day is worth…the low monthly fee is much less than the amount of time you’ll save by using them. So now that I’ve given you that disclaimer…let’s dive deeper into the individual ways a management tool can help you save time.

Hootsuite is a great example of a social media management tool that can help you schedule, engage with people and get analytic reports on one platform. One of the best features when using a management tool is the ability to schedule your posts in advance. This can help you for everyday posting, as well as when you’re building a campaign because one session of planning can last up to a week.

•  You can schedule for many different social media accounts, whether you’re using different messages or one message across several accounts and you can see all scheduled posts and edit the time and day of those posts in one convenient place.
• After you schedule what posts you plan to share, you also need to come back throughout the week and continue to engage with your followers. Social media is supposed to be a conversation, so you never want to only push out content…make sure you’re also having conversations. This kind of tool allows you to favorite tweets, retweet them and of course respond publically and privately to tweets that you see in the feed. If you do pay for the premium version of the product, you can assign tweets that require responses to other members of your social team for follow-up.

Social Media Management tools are also a great way to keep up with what’s happening on ALL of your social media channels, without having to sign in and go from platform-to-platform. Who wants to do that?!

•  Social media management tools like this one make curating content much easier by showing all the conversations in one easy to see place.

In this example above you’ll see that this dashboard view keeps track of a personal and business Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram accounts are all nestled onto one dashboard for this user to toggle between with just one click.

No need to remember passwords or use multiple browser tabs! This helps you monitor all networks without having to hop from channel to channel. That way, you get a birds-eye view of what people are saying about you and your brand on a daily basis!

You have many things to keep track of so using one tool for all your social media interactions can really save you time especially if you manage multiple business profiles or maintain a personal profile too. You’ll find it much easier to keep track of everything going on in your social media world once you begin using one dashboard to manage all channels.

•  Engagement is critical and can take time, but did you know you can also use Social Media marketing tools to hold conversations?

There are Facebook integrations that enable you to “comment” and “like” Dashboard tools integrate with Twitter so you can respond, retweet, reply publicly or send a private “direct message” within the platform. Those direct communications can even be scheduled if you don’t want them to happen in live time!

There are Facebook integrations too that enable you to “comment” and “like” right from the dashboard.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• WordPress
• Instagram
• Youtube

 

Tailwindapp.com is a great solution for those needing to focus on Pinterest and Instagram.

Keep in mind if you only have a need for Facebook you can schedule posts directly on the site. If this is the case, there is no need to subscribe to hootsuite or Tailwind.

Automate posts on Facebook

Create your posts in advance. Add photos and/or videos if desired. Schedule them before events or special promotions you may be running. Plan ahead and automate!

You can also end the post from showing up in a news-feed. This is valuable if the post is time sensitive.

Tip # 3 Curate and Automate

At this point, you might be feeling overwhelmed, thinking you have to think up infinite ideas to create content from scratch. That’s not the case at all! We know you don’t have any time to spare in the operation of  your small organization. The great news is that you can curate content – meaning that you can find content created by others and share it with your email contacts.

Think about a curator at an art museum. That person uses their expertise to collect and present artwork from many different sources and arrange them in a way that’s educational and organized – they’re not responsible for painting every canvas!

Your curated content could be a link to a news article related to your organization, with a brief paragraph including your perspective.  The example on your screen is of a cycling company sharing their favorite headlines in cycling news for a weekly newsletter. All they had to do was write a brief introduction and then link to the articles.

Your audience will come to rely on you as an expert in your field. Let’s say you run an animal shelter, and you come across an article about coyotes in your area. You can introduce that link by giving some helpful tips for pet owners to keep their dogs and cats safe.

Or maybe you own a restaurant, and a new food trend has been talked about in the national media – you can link to a video from a TV station and tell your contacts how you’ve added some trendy items to your menu.

This is one of my favorite tools to use for curated content.  dlvr.it does share a subscription fee just like hootsuite. Keep in mind, as the saying goes “Time is Money!” This holds true when it comes to automation. Setting up automation tools will allow you more time to manage your business.  Managing your business and marketing at the same time is a win-win.

Dlvr.it has recently launched a new tool called: Echo. This will allow us to share and/or retweet a second time. Brilliant!

Seek out an RSS feeds from your favorite site and create a feed within the system.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

What does RSS mean?

RSS (Rich Site Summary; originally RDF Site Summary; often called Really Simple Syndication) is a type of web feed[2] which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. These feeds can, for example, allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator. The news aggregator will automatically check the RSS feed for new content, allowing the content to be automatically passed from website to website or from website to user. This passing of content is called web syndication. Websites usually use RSS feeds to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, video. An RSS document (called “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, and metadata, like publishing date and author’s name.( Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS )

Another option is to search the feeds available using keywords to compliment your business. Example below shows how it works searching for the keyword: Health.

The dlvr.it system shows the most popular sites with content about health.  I can pick which one I like and add the feed to my social channels. This for me is the perfect system for content curation being sent out on a regular basis.

When each site has a post go live on their site the dlvr.it system will automatically push out content to the social sites I set-up ahead of time.  This creates LIVE, while it’s happening posts.

You want to be the GO-TO person for your followers in your industry. Claim yourself as an expert. Provide the content that matches your brand ans watch your social channels grow.

Then, when someone needs your services YOU will be the one that is top of mind. You will be the one they call!

ATTENTION EBAY SELLERS – We had a few of you attend our local workshops. Just for you, I created a page showing step-by-step how to create an RSS feed for your eBay store. The information also includes how I use it to market my eBay listings using the RSS feed and Dlvr.it. View the page ( https://powersellingmom.com/uncategorized/ebay-store-marketing-using-rss-feed/ )

Tip #4 Gather Graphics

A big part of sharing content on the social channels is adding content. This content also includes video but first I’d like to share a list of sites you can try out for editing photos.  Adding words to your photos will help keep a focuses message.

Text overlays on images are some of the easiest and most powerful pieces of content you can create easily on desktop or mobile. Pick your favorite app or desktop tool to use and get creative!

PowerPoint is one that most of you have probably already tried to create presentations. You can use PowerPoint to design larger images on a slide, and then you can save that slide as a .jpeg or .png file and upload it to your social networks.

There are a lot of great options for online desktop tools, including:

Canva – this is a free online image editor that has tons of templates – for Instagram, Pinterest pins, Facebook cover photos, Twitter & more – and you can also use it to create collages or your own original designs with overlays and text. Although Canva is free, some stock images and designs you may want to use do cost a dollar each per design. (https://www.canva.com/)

PicMonkey – PicMonkey is a free online tool that allows you to edit photos, create collages, and add overlays and text onto images too. Although PicMonkey is free, you can get more features with the paid version, which is $33 per year – totally worth it! (https://www.picmonkey.com/)

Pablo – is a free, super-simple app designed by the social dashboard app, Buffer.  (personally I prefer hootsuite. FYI Buffer is comparable to hootsuite.) It was designed specifically for creating text overlays in seconds. It gives you 3 sizes to choose from depending on the network you plan to share it to and a bunch of stock images you can pick to put text over. (https://pablo.buffer.com/)

Pixlr – is available for desktop or mobile and it’s a more robust photo editor. It functions like a user-friendly PhotoShop and you can really do a lot with it to doctor up your images for social. If you’re not interested in purchasing something as professional as PhotoShop, try Pixlr. It comes in beginner, intermediate and advanced versions – with free and premium pricing tiers. (https://pixlr.com/)

Creating compelling text images is really simple.

Simply choose a free, royalty-free image or background, or use one provided or your own. Then, add text that will stand out on top, choose your font, and voila! You are ready to share a quote, a funny meme, or tip to social media!

I used this site to purchase motivational graphics. It also included adding my logo to each graphic. Once I had the graphics I was able to schedule them to go live via my hootsuite dashboard.

Tip #5 Goal Setting

Holidays – Birthdays – Anniversaries

• Schedule – ahead of time.
• Automate – using autoresponder tools
• Graphics – add to compliment your message

Set goals to get things done and include rewards for yourself.

Example: A goal could be to create all the Holiday emails on Monday to schedule to go out for the year.  Once that task is completed then a reward could be to catch up on your favorite TV show!

 

Create a calendar and plan out an autoresponder series using email marketing. NOTE: if you missed the special announced at the workshop, the Constant Contact system may allow you to still sign up with the $5.00 offer. Give it a try at: http://EmailSpecialOffer.com And once you are set-up feel free to book a call with me and we will get started together to brainstorm ideas for an autoresponder series that will match your brand!

#Hashtags

• A hashtag is a type of metadata tag used on social network and micro–blogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the number sign or pound sign (colloquially known as the hash character # in reference to its resemblance to several slices or chops with a sharp implement) in front of a word or unspaced phrase, either in the main text of a message or at the end. Searching for that hashtag will yield each message that has been tagged with it. A hashtag archive is consequently collected into a single stream under the same hashtag. For example, on the photo-sharing service Instagram, the hashtag#bluesky allows users to find all the posts that have been tagged using that hashtag.

A tool that I used when I need help with hashtag ideas is:

Enter a keyword and watch the hashtags generate. http://www.all-hashtag.com/

Example: I search using the word workout. The system not only created a list, it added the hashtag symbol to the front of each word. This makes it super easy to copy the entire block and past it quickly into Instagram. Which is the main place I would use this.

Here are a few sample hashtags for you:

#love #instagood #photooftheday #Beautiful #fashion #like4like #picoftheday #happy #followme #art #follow #instadaily #style #instalike #cute #life #Selfie #instagram #likeforlike #fun #me #TagsForLikes #girl #nature #amazing #travel #beauty #fitness #smile #follow4follow #psMom #AskDanna #DannaeBAy

Bonus Tip “Get Social”

• Schedule time to engage
• Set the Timer – One hour on twitter to socialize.
• Visit friends, followers, people that liked you and follow back.
• Comment – say hello, socialize.
• Follow-up – On Constant Contact, view the people that clicked the link to Pinterest. Do a search for them on the site and say hello.
• Thank – Let people know you appreciate their support.

In this new marketing world, you’ll spend less time finding new customers and more time engaging your existing happy customers. Social media, in combination with email and other online marketing activities, has leveled the playing field for smaller organizations like yours to compete with the big boys. Word travels quickly on social media. And more importantly, people TRUST the reviews they see on social media.

 One major advantage of social media is that people usually have friends and family who are like them. So if a bunch of your loyal customers like you on Facebook, and they share something about your organization to their own friends, chances are you’ll be getting extended visibility among a very targeted audience for your business. The more they share about you on social media, the more their friends, family and peers will see your name…ultimately helping you get in front of potential leads without spending any extra time or money.

What’s next?

• Join the sites that will help.
• Set goals and reward yourself.
• Schedule posts.
• Plan in advance.
• Engage and connect.

Thank you!

Please know I am here for you! Feel free to schedule a call and I will be happy to discuss a plan for marketing your business.  My goal is to help small business owners take control of their business and understand how it all works.  It’s easy to book a call with me.

[button color=”juicy_pink” size=”normal” type=”3d” target=”_blank” link=” http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ee53epop79796543&llr=4iivt9cab”]  BOOK NOW![/button]

I use the tool GENBOOK. This is my automated system for online booking. It makes my life easier by allowing people like yourself to easily BOOK an appointment. There is not need to call me up or email me to ask “when can I speak with you?” The Genbook system is synced with my google calendar. If you would like to try it out for your own business use my referral link to receive a discount: https://gbk.me/r/W96DH08E6

Connect with me on twitter and watch my automation in action:

• Twitter.com/DannaCrawford
• Twitter.com/PowerSellingMom
• Twitter.com/DannaEvents

Special thanks to SCORE for reaching out to our community! Visit the SCORE website: https://midflorida.score.org/

This presentation is all about “Driving New Business using the power of Social Media!

Welcome – Thank you for joining me – My name is Danna Crawford and I’m also known as Power Selling Mom – quick info about me … I’m an authorized local expert with Constant Contact. I’ve been using their service since 2006 and shortly after that I became a Certified business consultant, trained by eBay after being an active seller on the site since 1997 – With my experience of teaching eBay classes and workshops in partnership with the United States Postal Service, Constant Contact contacted me to go through their certification program and now I do webinars and local workshops on the topic of social media and email marketing – Next I became the Development Director for our local Foodbank after a meeting with the board while I was teaching them about fundraising using Constant Contact and eBay, next thing you know they offered me a part time job that I couldn’t resist since I’m passionate about the Cause of feeding America – So those are the three hats I wear, Constant Contact, eBay and the Food bank! NOW, enough about me, lets talk about YOU and how you can gain more business using the power of social media!

How much did you rely on social media to help your marketing 10 years ago? The point I want to make is that social media wasn’t around several years ago. Marketing was completely different “back in the day.”

Here’s a typical sales funnel, using traditional marketing methods, things like print ads, radio, television, direct mail. This model is all about your reach – reaching out to FIND new customers.

It’s bigger at the top, which is where you spend a lot your time, your money and your energy in this model. And…it makes sense. You reach out to as many people as you can, convert a certain percentage into paying customers and keep even fewer of those people – mainly because so much of your time, money and energy went into the reach at the beginning. The problem with this traditional funnel is that it’s expensive – those ads cost a lot of money and it’s hard for a small company or organization to compete in this landscape.

Digital marketing tools

like social media have completely flipped the funnel – when you begin to use new marketing tools, like email marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, events, and surveys, etc.

You reach out to people you already know, and letting THEM spread the word to potential new customers…Through this new funnel, you grow your business through repeat customers and referrals – at the end of this marketing day, it turns out it costs less and takes less time and energy because you’re not relying on marketing to strangers, you’re building from the group of people who already know and love you.

In this new marketing world, you’ll spend less time finding new customers and more time engaging your existing happy customers. Social media, in combination with email and other online marketing activities, has leveled the playing field for smaller organizations like yours to compete with the big boys. Word travels quickly on social media. And more importantly, people TRUST the reviews they see on social media.

One major advantage of social media is that people usually have friends and family who are like them. So if a bunch of your loyal customers like you on Facebook, and they share something about your organization to their own friends, chances are you’ll be getting extended visibility among a very targeted audience for your business. The more they share about you on social media, the more their friends, family and peers will see your name…ultimately helping you get in front of potential leads without spending any extra time or money.

With the rise in social media use over the last several years, many businesses are seeing some great results from their efforts.

Social media interactions play an important role in their decisions as well. In fact, 73% of consumers are likely to buy from a brand that responds to them on social media. Customers tend to as a company questions using social media, so it’s a great way to interact with them.

Social media is also important for showing support to non-profits. In fact 84% share information to help further a cause.

Source: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/2015-02-23/10-stats-prove-your-work-has-social-media-roi

Source: https://www.classy.org/blog/6-facebook-statistics-and-what-they-mean-for-nonprofits/

This is all good news for you because, as a small business or non-profit, you already have strong, authentic connections with your customers, donors, or members. Big brands don’t have the resources to create personal connections with their audience like a small business can. That’s one major advantage of being local/small/etc. You are able to interact with your audience on a personal level, which is a perfect dynamic for social media.

Social media affords you the opportunity to stay in touch with current and potential customers, even when they’re not visiting your store, purchasing your services, or interacting with your non-profit. You can nurture those relationships and continue to expand new relationships. By posting and interacting regularly, you’ll increase brand awareness and stay top of mind.

The truth is, you’ve got to be where your existing and potential customers are. For the majority of small businesses, that is email and social media.

Email allows you to directly reach your audience and social media allows you to amplify your efforts. With social media, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your business by generating new leads and build and nurture relationships. All of this effort will get more people to know, like, and trust you.

All of this is important in helping you to grow your business. So let’s take a look at the topics we are going to cover today.

We’ll talk about some of the most popular social media sites and how you can decide which to use for your business and how you’ll begin to expand and grow your networks. Once you’re up and running, content will be an important aspect in engaging your audience. After that, we’ll dive into social media advertising. We’ll go over the basics of how it works and some of the different tools. We’ll also talk about utilizing social media to grow your mailing list and how you’ll use email marketing to further nurture your relationships. Last, but not least, we’ll talk about the important metrics you’ll look for in order to determine your success and further optimize your social media efforts.

– Getting Started

• Step 1: Pick a social media site
• Step 2: Set-up your networks
• Step 3: Announce your presence

-Create content
-Social media advertising
-Grow your list

Let’s start by talking about the

top social media sites.

There are dozens of social media platforms out there. Part of this seminar is about understanding the benefit of each platform, so you can determine which one is right for your organization and for your target audience. You’re likely already using email to communicate with your audience, but you’ll want to start by choosing one social media platform that best fits your business and where your audience is. Once you’re more familiar and have a strategy that’s working, you can choose another platform.

There are 4 main features or reasons a small business might choose to use social media sites. Let’s see the most popular social media sites and the features that are included in each.

 

• Social media platforms used for networking allow individuals and businesses to connect with others and share content. Some are focused on business networks, like LinkedIn. Whereas, some are best known for their personal relationship building like Facebook and Twitter. All of the networking platforms are all designed for content sharing between connections. News spreads like wildfire on these platforms because of the ability to easily connect and share with others.
• Most sites allow for photo sharing – These social media sites are highly visual with the use of images. Studies show that imagery tends to create positive emotions in people, and the rapid increase in the use of smartphones has contributed to this trend. Not only can phone users easily take quality pictures with their phones these days, but with the help of social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat, they can quickly (if not immediately) share their images with others. Plus, sometimes it’s easier to view visual content than it is to read text.
• Video is one of the most powerful online tools for businesses, but it’s often seen as a challenge because it requires more time and effort than other forms of content. However, the booming popularity of streaming makes it hard to ignore the potential of video for your business. For example, over 6 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube each month. That’s an enormous potential audience.
  Recorded video allows you to produce a video to engage your audience.
• While the live video feature on many platforms allows you to really connect with your audience and show your audience the real you, on the fly without any editing that you might do for a recorded video. Facebook Live is one of the most popular platforms with this feature.

 

It’s important to know that you don’t have to use all of these. You’ll want to determine which of these might be the best fit for your audience and your business in order to create an effective social media strategy. Let’s discuss a few of these sites in more depth.

Facebook

As one of the initial, most popular social networks, Facebook allows your business to be more discoverable and connect with your audience. You can have one-on-one conversations with your customers or members who will have the ability to like your page and read the posts you share. Another great benefit is that your customers can check-in when they visit your location which gets shared to their friends’ newsfeed.

With over 1 billion, it is the site with the most active users. Anyone looking to communicate with consumers can use this platform.

Facebook is very flexible on the type and length of the posts you can share. For best results, we recommend using 40 characters for a status update and 30-45 seconds for videos posted to Facebook. When using a text status update, it’s important to include some type of multimedia like an image, photo album, or a video.

Facebook is a low volume network. So don’t post too frequently – fans may get frustrated. Make each post count by offering something valuable or interesting to your audience. We recommend posting at least once a day but you can post once a week depending on your audience and business. For Facebook consider quality vs quantity.

One of the biggest benefits is that Facebook can help your business to reach a large audience and it also provides advertising tools.

Sources:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/
https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2016/03/optimize-social-media-time/
http://forgeandsmith.com/how-often-should-i-post-on-social-media

Twitter

Twitter is the place where people come to discover what’s happening in the world. They’re able to share information and post instantly and to make connections with other individuals and businesses.

A business in almost any industry can see results using Twitter. By looking at the most successful brands using it, some of the most popular industries using this tool are technology, food and beverage, retail, household products, and entertainment.

Twitter is what is considered a microblogging site, meaning that the information posted is very short. It also means there’s a 140 character limit when writing posts, ideally your Tweet should be 140 characters. Don’t for get to leave some room for a link as they are going to help you supplement your post with additional information. You can also share photos, and videos.

Twitter has a high volume network.

So, you can share more here because of its fast-paced nature. We recommend posting a minimum of 3 to 5 times per day to stay relevant in the newsfeed.

It’s also one of the fastest ways to reach your audience. Many businesses use twitter as a form of customer service. This is where people may find you to ask questions and get more information about your business.

Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/forbes-top-brands/list.html
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/effectively-use-twitter/
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/character-limit-social-media-blog-posts#sm.0001bywdtfchgdfkyf321dkidlpis
http://forgeandsmith.com/how-often-should-i-post-on-social-media/

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a different environment. They connect professionals from all over for networking purposes.

In a recent Social Media Marketing Industry report, LinkedIn has now surpassed Facebook as the #1 most important social media platform for B2B marketers. Another poll done by Regalix, has also shown that LinkedIn is the #1 platform by B2Bs for product launches. It is also suggested that it’s an effective platform for lead generation and referral traffic. While many B2B companies use this platform, other industries and types of businesses also use it as in the example profile we see here.

An ideal post on LinkedIn would be about 600 characters. When writing your posts, you’ll want to aim for more formal and technical content around your business and industry. With that in mind, you can share things like studies, reports, SlideShare presentations, case studies, ebooks, guides, customer testimonials, and even videos. Ensure you are sharing content that’s relevant to your industry and business.

LinkedIn is a low volume network, so make sure that your content doesn’t dominate the feed. At a minimum, you’ll want to post 3 or more times a week. On this network, you’ll want to aim to post during the business day when these users are most active.

LinkedIn is the platform where you’ll want to establish expertise in your business and network with others in your industry. Networking is a great way to improve your overall business strategy.

Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/07/22/10-reasons-your-brand-needs-to-be-on-linkedin/#50be35b37919
http://www.svmsolutions.com/resources/articles/how-use-linkedin-marketing-tool
http://forgeandsmith.com/how-often-should-i-post-on-social-media/
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/character-limit-social-media-blog-posts#sm.0001bywdtfchgdfkyf321dkidlpis

Pinterest

Pinterest is like a virtual bulletin board that allows users to find and curate images and videos. This platform allows you to use visual assets like photos or infographics as a type of social currency that supplements web pages, blog posts, or other text-based media.

Any business who has visuals to offer their followers would be a great fit for Pinterest. Some of the most popular industries are décor, wedding, fashion, food, beauty, and photography.

Pinterest is a very visual platform, so you’ll want to use interesting, beautiful – high quality images. You’ll want to use keywords to help your posts to get found, and also drive people back to your website with a link. With this platform, you want think beyond pins or information that strictly showcases your product. Think about showcasing your product in action. There is a limit of 500 characters when writing text for your pin.

In terms of posting frequency, Pinterest moves fast, so you’ll want to pin at least 5 times a week, but no more than 10.

By using Pinterest for your business, you’ll be able to increase visibility, link to your website which is going to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for people to find your website.

Sources:
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7832-social-media-for-business.html
https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2016/03/optimize-social-media-time/
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/character-limit-social-media-blog-posts#sm.0001bywdtfchgdfkyf321dkidlpis

Instagram

Instagram is a mobile photo editing and sharing app that helps you to create stunning images that can easily be used on all of your other social networks.

Many industries who work well on Pinterest also work well on Instagram. This includes the food, art, fashion, and travel industries as some of the most popular types of businesses.

With this platform, you’ll use images to tell a story and not blast your branding. Most photos on Instagram fall into one of two categories: beautiful imagery or humor. Instagram search uses hashtags to enable the discovery of your profile and images. Another great feature is to use Instagram video to create a 15 second video using filters. You might share pictures of employees, behind-the-scenes exclusives, and even your customers.

Instagram tends to be a low volume network, so we recommend posting 2-3 times a day if your industry is highly visual, and 4-5 times a week if you don’t have as many photo opportunities to share.

By using Instagram for your business, you’ll be able to provide creative context and visual inspiration to connect with customers or members.

Sources:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/instagram-for-business/
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/instagram-tips/
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/character-limit-social-media-blog-posts#sm.0001bywdtfchgdfkyf321dkidlpis
http://forgeandsmith.com/how-often-should-i-post-on-social-media/

Step 2 – Set-up your networks

Now that you’re familiar with the most popular social media sites, and the one that will work best for your organization’s goals and target audience, your next step is to set-up your page.

Once you’ve chosen a platform, you’re ready to set it up. You’ll want to complete your profile with the proper information like your company or non-profit’s name. Add a description or biography and any contact information like your website. You’ll want to add in a profile photo and some sites like Twitter and Facebook allow you to include a large “cover photo” that will really help your audience connect with your cause or business. It also makes your page recognizable with other branding assets you are using like your emails and website.

You’ll want to customize your page as much as you can. Twitter even let’s you customize the theme color for your page to match all of your other branding.

Once you’ve set-up your page, your ready to start sharing your content.

Step 3 – Announce your presence

Once you set up your profile/page, everyone starts with 0 fans and followers. What do you hope is going to happen once you activate your profile? Yes, gain millions of followers/fans/likes!

What are some of the ways you can think of to get people interested in your new social page/profile? “How are you supposed to get thousands of fans and followers if no one knows your page exists?” or “What avenues do you have of communicating this to your target audience?” (think about that)

Invite & announce your presence

You need to invite people to and tell people about your presence on social media, if you expect them to find and follow you. There are a variety of ways to do this.

First, you want to be sure to let your email subscribers know that you are on social media. This is low-hanging fruit; you already have a connection with your email contacts who know and love you, which means they’re likely to find you on social media. Plus, they’re used to communicating with you through email, so this is a natural way to spread the word to your loyal contact base.

If you want to give even more of an incentive to follow you, let them know what they’ll get by liking your page or following your profile. What information are you going to be sharing via social posts?

Finally, make it extremely easy for your email contacts to immediately follow you on social media by including clickable links. Constant Contact makes it easy to include social media icons in your email that drive traffic to your pages/profiles. After sending a primary announcement, you can(should) include these in every email as a secondary call-to-action.

Just like Olivia’s salon in this example shown above. You can create an email with the specific goal of getting people to follow you on social media. When the salon sent this email, they had a subscriber list of a little over 200 subscribers. With this email alone, they gained 46 new likes on their Facebook page! Notice how there is no other information in this email; the main focus is about announcing their presence.

Your website is another big opportunity to build your social network. Current and potential customers are visiting your website, so make sure you include clickable icons to all of your social media sites to capture that traffic. Make sure the icons are easily visible to be clicked on by site visitors.

If you have your own blog, you can build awareness and following for your social sites by announcing your presence in a post. If you don’t have your own blog, that’s ok! If you follow blogs that are relevant to your organization, it’s likely that your target audience does too. You can increase awareness and drive social traffic by commenting on other blogs with your social media info.

Don’t forget about sharing your profile link to your other social media profiles. Just because someone follows you on Facebook, doesn’t mean they are following you on Twitter, and vice versa. Equally, like with email, the people who like you on Facebook already have a vested interest in your organization, and therefore will be more likely to follow you on Twitter (or insert whatever social site here). This will help your audience connect with you on all of your social media pages, as not to miss anything important. Consider creating posts with a link to your other social media profiles and posting it to each profile. (ie, post your Facebook page in your next tweet, etc.).

Some social media profiles also allow you to modify your profile to include links to your other pages. This is a great opportunity to link all of your social pages in your profile. For example, LinkedIn allows you to publish your contact information as well as any websites that are relevant for you. This is a great place to advertise your other social profiles.

Sometimes it’s not enough to expect your audience to find you. Even for those who would LOVE what you offer on social media, they may not have the time or awareness to seek out your page. One of those most effective (although slightly more time-consuming) methods of building your network is to seek out your existing and target audience in order to engage with THEIR page.

When someone follows you on one social network and engages with you, search out those people when you begin using a new network. Think about the people who comment, or mention you, these are the people you want to be sure to seek out on new social media channels.

You can interact with these people in a variety of ways: follow or like their page, share their posts, and even comment to further engage with them.

I have a friend who runs her own calligraphy business. She uses Instagram to share images and videos of her work. Instagram (and other social platforms) provide notifications when others like, comment or share posts. My friend shared an image of her handwriting, and a couple hours later, received a notification that a stranger left a comment saying “Wow, I LOVE this!”. Naturally, my friend feels complimented and wants to know who this stranger is. Turns out it was another calligrapher. My friend began exploring the stranger’s page and realized how much she loved this stranger’s work and couldn’t help but follow the profile, in addition to liking a number of this stranger’s posts. Not to mention, once they liked each other’s posts and page, the information was able to be seen by all of their followers, really helping to extend their reach.

This is a perfect example of how this stranger is seeking out others with clearly very similar interests. And by creating interaction on others’ pages, they’re actually generating interest in their own page.

Following organizations and individuals who are like you will have a couple of benefits for building your network. First, you’ll be able to watch how they use social media. Pay attention to their activity that gets the most engagement. Do you see they get tons of likes when they share articles about industry trends? Do they get lots of shares when they post videos? It’s likely your target audience will be similar, so you’ll probably see the same success if you test it out with your own social pages.

This will also allow you to create partnerships with others who compliment your own products or services. By connecting with similar/complimentary organizations, you can create a mutually beneficial relationship. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”. You can increase awareness for each other by sharing each other’s content with your own audience. This increases visibility for your partner, as well as adding value for your followers.

For example, after I adopted my cat, I followed the shelter on Facebook. I regularly see their posts, and they often share helpful posts about pet training and tips. Many times, this was an original post from one of their sponsors, a local pet supply store. Obviously supplies and food are a huge part of owning a pet, so I was interested in what their partner, the pet store had to say. I eventually followed this business on Facebook and was interested in all of the posts they share. They share helpful tips about owning a cat.

This process can work for you also. Find other individuals or organizations who compliment what you have to offer, and work together to share each other’s information and expand your networks.

Create Content

Once even a few people follow your page, what are you going to share?

Before we get into the types of actual content, it’s important to understand the importance of engaging and shareable content. The bottom line is content that is shared is going to help spread the word about your post and your business. You’ll reach more people, so how do you make sure you content encourages people to share?

If you just share a post, just because you feel you are supposed to share something, you could be wasting your time. By posting content that is shareable by your audience you’ll get increased visibility for your business and reach more people. When one of your existing fans shares your post, they’re sharing it with their friends and followers. The more people that share your content, the more successful you will be with social media.

Here are a couple of things to consider in order to make your content shareable:

– It should be something useful to the audience. Think about content that educates with hints and tips or even DIY information.
– You’ll also want to make it engaging, which means you are asking them to take some sort of action, watch a video, click on a link etc.
– Like with your email, visuals help to break up the text or share an infographic that will really catch their attention.

One of the most common things that will get their attention is emotion. So your content should elicit some type of emotion that makes them want to share the post with all of their friends and followers.

Source: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/8-tips-shareable-content/

First, visuals are a vital aspect of content that makes your posts engaging. In fact, 67% of consumers believe that images are a very important factor when selecting and purchasing a product.

As a small business, you’ll utilize images to draw readers in to take more action.
You could share:
Client or volunteer pictures. When you have a satisfied customers, with their permission, snap a picture of them together with their new purchase and post the photo on your social media pages with a description. You could utilize this type of image to host a photo submission contest that revolves around your brand.
– Images of your products. When you get in a new style, you can share a post that encourages followers to purchase the product.
– Employee or non-profit volunteer spotlight images with a little information about them. This will help followers to make a more personal connection with your staff and organization
– Before and after shots. This is especially great if you offer some sort of service. Wow your audience and encourage others to purchase the same service.
– Behind the scenes. Your customers and followers are often curious about your business, so show them how you operate behind the scenes or how a product is made. It will help to instill credibility in what you are offering.

No matter what type of content you choose, it is important to make your posts feel human. Your business will seem more relatable and your audience will see that you understand your customers.

Links are another important aspect to include with your posts. You’ll be able to drive people exactly where you want them to go:

Maybe you:
– Want to provide a link to your website in order to drive people to see your new inventory or purchase a product or even donate to your cause.
– Maybe you just wrote a new blog post, provide a link so your social media followers can read it.
Don’t forget about sharing a link to your emails. When you provide a link to your marketing emails, your audience will be able to see the type of information you provide in your regular emails and encourage them to sign-up.
Think about other types of resources that your audience may find beneficial like helpful resources about your non-profit or products or services, and even news articles for your industry.

Most social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest allow you to add a link when creating a post.

In 2015, YouTube reported 20 billion branded video views which had doubled since 2014. Facebook alone is generating 8 billion video views per day, so definitely something you want to include in your content.

Most recently, one of the biggest trends in digital marketing is the use of live video content. Video in general, garners more attention in a newsfeed, however live video receives more engagement from their fans. In fact, Facebook reports that people are 10 times more likely to comment on a live video versus an uploaded one.

But what really is the difference between live video and regular video? Live video means there’s no delay between recording your video and sharing it with your audience. There is no time to edit, cut, or trim. It’s shared exactly the way it was made, which is the beauty and the draw for your followers! Another benefit of live video is that you’ll also be able to see live videos as they come to you, like on Snapchat. This allows you to more personally interact with your audience.

You can use any video, live or recorded to:
– Show how a product is made behind the scenes. For non-profits, you can show behind the scenes of behind the organization or even use video to kick off a fundraising campaign.
– Launch a new product. Show off it’s features, benefits, and any promotional information to get people to try your new product.
– Answer customer or member questions. Think about those questions you receive on a regular basis and use a video to answer those questions.
– Take an audience out on location to show them what you do on a daily basis. You could use this idea if you are traveling for your business or even on location at a tradeshow you are attending.

When sharing a previously recorded video, we generally see that videos under 90 seconds perform better.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Periscope, have the option for live video.

No matter what you share, you want to have fun, be authentic, educate, and know your audience in order to properly showcase your brand.

Sources:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-ways-to-use-live-video-for-small-businesses/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-ways-to-use-facebook-live-video-for-your-business/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-ways-to-use-video-for-your-social-media-marketing/
https://blog.hootsuite.com/video-social-media-trend-2016/
http://www.docurated.com/all-things-productivity/biggest-digital-marketing-trends
67% stat: http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/its-all-about-the-images-infographic/

Once you start posting content, you are going to recognize what works better for your audience. It’s still a good idea to use a variety of content to keep your audience interested in your page.

I worked with an outdoor patio furniture company a couple years ago who found great success with their social content. I helped them get on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to grow their business. They have been sharing before and after photos when a client redecorates their backyard, and even photos of products that link back to their website where people can purchase the products. They’ve also been successfully using video content to show the progress of a job site when a designer is working to create the perfect backyard for a client. Clients love it and it draws new customers in.

Facebook and Twitter have really helped them to reach a new audience and Instagram provides a perfect way for customers to visualize how they might want their backyard to look. Right now, they have over 4,000 followers combined.

Keywords and Hashtags

Part of creating great content is including keywords and hashtags that are relevant to what you’re sharing. They help catch your audiences’ attention. For example, if someone goes on Pinterest looking for a chicken recipe, any pin that has the keyword “chicken” will pull up, even if it’s an older pin. It works the same way on many social platforms.

So, what’s the difference between keywords and hashtags? They are both used to categorize people and posts to help searchers find what/who they’re looking for. Here are some small differences.
Hashtags are specific to content. You would not use a hashtag to refer to another user. Take a look at this Instagram example. When searching for “#dog”, you can see all the conversations about dogs.

HELPFUL HINT: This is also a great way to find out what topics are trending, since you can see which hashtags are being used the most. Share content that follows trends and include popular hashtags when possible. Many social media sites support the use of hashtags like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google +, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Let’s see what happens when we remove the hashtag and simply search for the key word “dog”.

Notice how the search expands to include other profiles, in addition to hashtags and posts. In the end, keywords or hashtags are equally important and both will help to increase visibility and engagement with your target audience.

Sources: https://socialpilot.co/blog/how-to-use-hashtags-effectively-in-social-media-marketing/
http://www.oktopost.com/blog/roi-social-media-keywords/
http://www.sleightadvertising.com/are-hashtags-keywords-the-same-thing/
https://www.act-on.com/blog/2015/02/tips-and-tricks-for-using-hashtags-on-social-media-sites/

Now if you’re looking to save time or a little inspiration on what you might post, you can find ideas just about anywhere. Start by looking at the content on your own website. Think about what’s new on your website, new products or services you’ve listed there, and even consider sharing a link to a blog post.

– You can share content that you’ve already shared on one site with all of your other social networks. This will ensure that your social media audience, no matter which sites they use, they’ll have the most up-to-date information from you.

– Don’t forget about your emails.

The ultimate goal of the posts you share should drive people to your website through a link or to an email sign up form.

Let’s talk more about sharing your emails on social media.

Repurpose your email content

Benefits to sharing an email on social media:

Increase visibility
By sharing your email on social media, you are able to get in front of more people rather than if you just sent it to your list.
– Grow your list
Anyone who sees your email on social media who isn’t already on your list, they can opt to subscribe so they’ll receive messages straight to their inbox in the future.
– Save time

Just how much time do you spend trying to think of content for all of your different social media channels and your email? Now all you have to do is to create your email and then posting to social media is just a click away.

One of the ways that Constant Contact helps you combine email and social is by allowing you to easily share your well-crafted email to your social media networks, making your marketing even faster and more effective.

Share Other’s Content

It can be a relief to know that you don’t have to create every piece of content you share. You can share content of others’, which not only saves you time but also helps you to build relationships and increase your following. You can do this by:

Sharing posts from your target audience. It’s one way you can interact with your followers and it will make your audience feel included.
You can also share content from similar businesses to help build credibility.
Curate content from credible sources and add your own spin. Curating content means that you find interesting content across the web and share news, articles, videos, and infographics for your social media followers.

It’s very easy to find a bunch of news articles from a credible source like CNN and retweet, but you don’t want to become simply a middle man. By sharing the article with a short blurb about your opinion, or maybe a question to your followers, you’ll become relevant in your follower’s social media news feed.

There’s one last thing I want to you think about in terms of content, as it really matters when marketing today. Whether it’s social media or even your email marketing, you’ve got to strike the right balance that will help your customers or potential customers know, like, and trust you. No one likes to be sold to all of the time, that’s why the 80/20 rule is important.

This rule means that you need to provide 80% valuable, or interesting content. This content should really cater to the interests and needs of your audience. You can curate content from influencers or those like-minded people that you’ve already searched for. You’ll want to look for content that supports your thinking, industry information, and the way you do business. It could include links to news, or maybe even questions. It’s also important to consider that your audience has a short attention span, so keep your information brief. Links can provide additional information to a full article if needed. This kind of content will help to prime your audience for your 20% of promotion information, so they’re more receptive.

Remember the sales funnel that we talked about at the beginning and how we start with the customers and fans we already know? Well, for new people to our organization, we need to build that relationship. We build it with the 80% valuable content and then we can promote to them with the 20%.

In these social media posts, you’ll want to include a call-to-action, so think about what you want your audience to do when they see your post. This call-to-action should inspire them to learn more. Learn more about your business, or a product or service you are selling.

The same thing goes for non-profits, the 20 percent is where you will mention your fundraising efforts and ask people to donate or purchase something that helps your organization.

Source: http://www.docurated.com/all-things-productivity/biggest-digital-marketing-trends

It may seem overwhelming to think about logging into each social media platform separately to create your new posts and monitor engagement of your followers. This is where you’ll want to consider a time saving tool to help you maximize your efforts. One example of this is called MySocialSuite. Or I use Hootsuite. (read my review on Hootsuite)

You’ll be able to schedule posts that automatically publish across multiple social media channels at once. You’ll also have the ability to choose from different platforms if you only want the information to post to a few channels.

It even provides some great analytics to allow you to measure your performance. You can see the cumulative details for all of the social media channels that you’ve connected and you’ll be able to dive in to see the individual page results. Therefore helping you to adjust your social media strategy to improve results in the future.

Now that you’ve got some ideas on what to post, I want to switch gears and talk about:

Social Advertising

Social media alone is great, but the truth is that organic reach or reaching people with just your posts and page is limited. In fact, one study reported that pages on Facebook have a 2% natural reach without paying.

So, seeing ads on social media is one of the top ways users learn about any type of business or non-profits. It’s one of the best ways to extend your reach, no matter what you are trying to achieve. When social media users see an ad, approximately 25% respond by visiting the location or website and about 14-16% take an action like purchasing a product or service.

Sources: https://www.streamcreative.com/blog/10-social-media-advertising-stats-marketing-professionals-cant-ignore
https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/which-social-media-platforms-offer-the-greatest-organic-reach

So how does social media advertising work?

The process for each platform may be slightly different, but there are commonly 3 main steps to customize and create your ad on a major social platform:

1. First, you’ll need to pick a relevant message or promotion that your audience will see. You’ll be able to add text, an image or add a video to support your message.

2. Then, you’ll need to define the audience you’re targeting. Who are they, what do they like, where do they live, things like that. In some cases, you’ll be able to target based on things like gender, age, location, and their specific interests. You can even upload a file and Facebook will match to the audience that is in your file. This is why it’s so important that you maintain your list even you’re not using email marketing.

3. Lastly, you’ll need to set a daily budget for your ad and choose the duration your ad will run. Most social platforms will charge you based on the reach of your post and/or the amount of engagement your post drives (how many likes, clicks, etc.).

Many of you are already using email marketing, you’re already managing your contact list and Constant Contact has a great tool that will save you time by looking at your email list without having to upload it separately into Facebook. You won’t have the hassle of logging into Facebook, you can create an ad directly from your Constant Contact account by using your email. You’ll set the parameters and make any adjustments to the ad preview and once you publish the ad you’ll be able to reach a new audience on Facebook. This tool ensures that your ad is getting in front of people that look like the existing customers on your mailing list. (Animate) The best part about this advertising feature is that the audience will be able to click to view your email and have the ability to sign-up directly to your mailing list.

Plus, if you are running short on time, Constant Contact can create your ad for you. They’ll take some time to learn about your business, history and customers, then target the right audience with great content that will catch their attention.

With that in mind, I’d like to talk to share a story about Dinebestforless.

Since 2014, they have been using Constant Contact to send weekly emails and manage their growing database. With Constant Contact’s Facebook Advertising tool, DineBestforLess.com promotes their emails on Facebook right from a Constant Contact account. The tool allows DineBestforLess.com to build their Facebook Ad within Constant Contact and select an advertising budget, based on the number of people to reach. DineBestforLess.com can also choose from different location-based targeting options to ensure that the people who see the ad on Facebook are located in areas where his restaurant clients are located. They decided to run DineBestforLess.com first ad with the Facebook Advertising tool at the start of July. That week’s email featured an inn located in Western Massachusetts, so they decided to target the ad statewide, to Facebook users that live in Mass. The ad was projected to reach 5,000 Facebook users and generate 50 clicks from Facebook to the DineBestforLess. com weekly newsletter. (Animate) In the fourteen days the ad ran it reached more than 6,400 people and received 163 clicks.

Source: https://facebookmarketingpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FB-Advertising-Case-Study-DineBestforLess.pdf

Social Platforms With Advertising Options

Many social media platforms have the ability for you to create ads. Here are the major social media platforms that include the option for paid advertising. Just like with choosing the platforms you want to use for regular posting, you’ll need to consider which platforms will help you to reach customers more effectively.

Depending on the platform, fees can be based on a number of things, like how many people saw your ad, how many people clicked the link or how many people followed you. It’s important to understand the details of your ad before you publish it.

Grow Your List

One of the benefits of being active on social media is to turn those leads into loyal customers. That’s where email marketing comes into play.

Remember the funnel? I wanted to bring this back into the conversation, because in today’s world, we utilize our existing customers and fans to connect with new customers. That’s exactly what social media marketing is doing.

When we create a social media page, we ask our existing customers to follow us on that page and when they do, their friends will see that they’ve liked the business page. Social media is almost like the new word-of-mouth for your business.

Really, we need to leverage both platforms to get the maximum exposure we are seeking. Email helps you send a communication directly to your subscribers inbox and has a 97% deliverability rate. We just talked a few minute ago that only about 2% of your fans and followers will see your posts on social media. Combining email and social media is great for gathering followers and building a reputation online. In fact, small businesses who combine email and social tend to see about:

– 73% more customer engagement
– 57% more new customers
– 39% more business referrals

Once someone has followed you on social media, ask them to sign-up to your mailing list so you can nurture the lead through email marketing. Email marketing is a more effective way to communicate directly to your potential customers because you have a 1:1 communication to their inbox (versus the 1:many communication on social media). Plus, you have more control over your marketing via email, allowing you to determine your strategy for converting potential customers/donors/etc.

This stat is surely not to downplay the use of social media, as it plays a big role in online marketing strategies. Where email lacks, social media makes up for. And where social media lacks, email makes up for. That’s exactly why we don’t recommend one or the other, we actually recommend BOTH.

Constant Contact offers several free tools that can be implemented to help you grow your list to start this process…

[Source: http://blogs.constantcontact.com/small-business-marketing-secrets/]
[SOURCE: http://blogs.forrester.com/nate_elliott/14-11-17-facebook_has_finally_killed_organic_reach_what_should_marketers_do_next]

First, we suggest adding a sign-up link to your profile. Platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn will have a spot for your website and social media links, where you’ll be able to add the sign-up link directly into your company’s bio or description.

When you post on these sites, you can even include a call-to-action to view your bio/profile in order to join. More and more businesses are posting to their social site, and then making a comment on their own post asking readers to view the link in their bio. This is especially common on Instagram due to the small amount of text space available for each post.

With Facebook as the largest social media site around, this is a great place to collect email addresses. The Constant Contact Facebook app installs directly to your page, which allows fans or visitors to opt into your list. Remember, it is never a good idea to assume everyone who likes your page wants to receive your emails. Installing this app will allow visitors to subscribe themselves, so you know you’re reaching everyone who wants to hear from you.

Facebook also allows you to add a button at the top of your page, this can easily be linked to your email sign-up form from Constant Contact. That way your visitors will have multiple opportunities to sign-up.

The best part about using the Constant Contact Facebook App is that you don’t have to manage any incoming email addresses. We’ll save you time by automatically collecting new contacts and adding them to the list of your choice. Easy peasy!

In most cases, you’ll be able to add a link to your post. Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest will automatically register the URL and pull pictures for your post. Many social media users expect that images are clickable, which is great for you because that means more traffic to your sign-up page! Take this example from Pinterest…you can edit the URL behind your pin to drive pinners directly to your form.

Some social platforms have their own nuances. For example, when using Twitter, you may need to use a link shortener like Bitly.com or tinyurl.com to shorten your link in order to fit a call-to-action like “Join Our Mailing List for Special Offers.” Instagram does not allow links in posts, which is where posting your sign-up form in your Instagram bio and driving people there is helpful.

Curious to know which of your social media networks are most popular among your target audience?

Not only can you combine forces outside of your message, Constant Contact has tools to promote social media INSIDE your message.

When you place clickable links to your social media pages inside your emails, you’ll not only drive traffic to your pages, you’ll also get valuable tracking data that will tell you which social sites your subscribers are using most.

By comparing the amount of traffic you get to each of your social pages, you’ll be able to determine where to efficiently spend your time on social media. Whichever platform is the most popular to your audience is clearly where you should be sending most of your time. You don’t have to be on every social media site to be successful. Constant Contact provides you with the tools to help you use your time more wisely.

At this point, you have all of the necessary information to get started with social media. You’re now familiar with the top social media sites and how to be successful with them. You’ll be able to choose and curate content on your social media sites to really engage your followers and you’ll be able to use social advertising to really extend your reach and grow your small business or non-profit organization. All of this work leads to helping you grow your list, which is one of the main reasons to use social media. You’ll be able to reach a greater number of people and then target them directly in their inbox with your emails to really nurture the relationship.

Three Steps to Get Started

1. – If you’re not already, start using email marketing to directly reach your audience. It has great deliverability rates and goes right to their inbox this will allow you to have an optimal target audience when setting up your social ad on Facebook. Then you’ll be able to pick one social media platform that you are going to use. Once you’ve developed a strategy and are familiar with the platform, you can choose another social site, if it fits your business. You don’t need to be on every social media site.
2. – Start a business profile. Fill out all of the profile and biography information and brand it to your business with images and colors when you can.
3. – Then you’re ready to make a post. Think of something that will be valuable for your audience and that they’ll be likely to engage with.

You might be sending email updates, running your own special offers or deals, or getting online feedback or run an online survey. No matter what you’re trying to achieve, Constant Contact has the tools, knowledge, and experts to help you get there.

It’s time to consider Constant Contact for more than just email. Constant Contact is committed to helping small businesses and nonprofits succeed in growing businesses. The tools are designed to help you get real results.

 

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