Category: Social Marketing

Instagram remains a mysterious creature for many businesses.

While SMBs like Sweet Pure Honey and Camp Brand Goods have acquired a healthy following with some old-fashion elbow grease, others are struggling to increase their follower count. The latter is also facing stiff competition from enterprise giants who are coughing up big bucks to attract Instagram followers.

Are you among the lot whose Instagram account is looking out of place when it comes to the follower count? Don’t sweat it. Here is a handful of actionable tips that’ll help you to quickly grow your Instagram following.

1. Optimize Instagram Ads

You might already be running an ad campaign on Instagram, but there’s always the option to optimize it through social media management services that leverage all ad formats to tell your brand’s story and connect you with the right target audience. Companies that provide such services will utilize imagery and video to showcase your offerings through advertisements that appear just like organic Instagram posts. You may also get weekly analytics reports, which is convenient if an advertising specialist is running Facebook ads and Instagram ads simultaneously.

2. Repost User Generated Content

It’s important to spot good content posted by your customers, business partners, and other stakeholders and repost them on your Instagram account. Doing this will ensure you don’t come off as brand-centric, an approach that often backfires. Reposting user-generated content will also spark interest in your account, and if you manage to do it well, with the use of a custom hashtag, you can build a massive following within a matter of weeks. An easy way to do this is by using the Repost app. This app includes attribution as you repost someone’s content, allowing you to reference the original account correctly.

3. Utilize Quality Filters

The available Instagram filters are more than just fun – the right filters can actually result in more engagement and following. According to a research carried out by Yahoo Labs and Georgia Tech, which analyzed millions of images and relevant data on how many comments were given on them and the total views they received, it was found that filtered images were 45% more likely to receive comments and 21% more likely to be viewed than unfiltered images. Images with higher contrast, higher exposure, and warm temperatures will attract the most followers.

4. Geotag Images

Does your business have a physical presence? Geotag the location as soon as possible. That way, the people within your locality who use the same geotag while posting content on Instagram can see your images. Also, they may follow your account as you’re in the same neighborhood as them. You can also make an attractive offer to people who are using the same geotag such as a free drink at your office or an opportunity to stop by and see a demo of the product/service you’re selling.

5. Engage With People

Remember, Instagram is just another social media platform, so it works like any other platform. If you don’t engage with people by responding to their comments and asking questions to whoever engages with your content, your following won’t grow. That said, you should always try engage in a genuine and organic way. Instead of saying something like “I like your thought”, try to add value to the conversation. You can also encourage people to tag others on your post by being helpful. Another thing you can do is develop a particular voice when it comes to engaging with your audience. For instance, a fun and quirky tone would work if you’re in the business of selling geeky accessories.

With these tips, you’re likely to see good numbers on your Instagram account.

It’s getting harder and harder to get your subscribers to open your emails…

Let alone read and act on them!

As a result, business owners are seeing plummeting open rates for their email newsletters (ezines) … some email open rates are being reported as low as 8.6%.

With the sheer volume of other information avenues we’re constantly subjected to these days, it’s not surprising that email open rates are taking a hit. In addition to email there’s:

• Social media – Facebook & Twitter
• Mobile marketing via SMS messaging/text messages
• Constant bombardment of emails coming into our inboxes
• Radio
• Television

Is it any wonder business owners are beginning to question the value of email marketing?

However, email marketing is still a really strong marketing strategy for your business; you just have to ensure that you’re doing it right to get the maximum return.

There are some simple strategies you can put in place to ensure that your emails are opened and read.

And I’m going to share my top five with you today:

1. Do what you say you’re going to do. Not only does this build credibility, but it also shows you as being reliable and trustworthy — going back to the like, know, and trust factor. That means if you say you’re going to publish a weekly newsletter, you better make sure that you do. Because of all the different information avenues mentioned above, unless you’re top of mind for your subscriber, you’re quickly going to get lost in the masses. Sticking to a regular publication schedule means that your subscriber will come to expect your communications on time, and they’ll be looking out for it!

2. Provide valuable and useful content. Make sure your communication content is information-rich and on-topic for your subscriber. If you’re going to reuse old articles ensure that the content is still relevant and correct. Stick to the 80/20 rule —80% content; 20% pitch.

3. Keep it clear and easy to read. Don’t let your newsletter become a glob of links and “click here”s. Keep the content really clear with lots of white space and only include one or two calls to action in each publication.

4. Plan a solo mailing campaign. If you’ve got something that you really want your readers to read, then plan a series of solo emailings to draw their attention to it. This is especially great for new product and program launches and other “special announcements”. But a word of warning… don’t go overboard with your solo mailing campaign otherwise your subscribers will likely assume all you do is sell, and will very quickly unsubscribe.

It’s about maintaining a balance between useful, relevant content, and asking your subscriber to buy – which you do need to do as you’re running a business. And running a business is all about making a profit.

5. Be smart with subject lines. Make sure your subject line is relevant to your content; don’t try gimmicky subject lines that are 1) likely to be marked as spam; and 2) turn your readers off because they sound too salesy/sleazy. You want to create subject lines that relate to the content of your email, but — and this is the most important part — also piques your reader’s curiosity and makes them want to open your mailing.

Next time you put together your ezine or solo mailing keep these points in mind. Play around; experiment; and watch your stats closely to see what works and what doesn’t. And if you are using a service that provides you with Ad Trackers (such as 1ShoppingCart) set these up to track exactly who and how many people click through from the links in your email communications. And cross-reference these to your subject lines.

If you really are interested in what the publisher is sending to you, you’ll happily open their emails. There are several newsletters that land in my inbox each week that I ALWAYS open and look forward to receiving.

Finally, don’t get too hung up on open rates. They’re only intended as a ball park figure after all!

One of the key issues facing sales and marketing teams in the modern age is the need to constantly generate new leads to fill sales funnels. Though the lead generation function has been around for quite some time now, it has become a far more complex operation to effectively target and reach out to potential customers.

Of all the lead generation strategies for businesses to employ, social media has to be one of the hardest for businesses to address. Not only is the success of your efforts hard to measure, brands also have to be constantly vigilant to address and respond to brand mentions (negative or positive) within an acceptable timeframe in order to maximize results.

The hardest part about social media marketing is choosing the right platform or channel to reach your target audience effectively and in the right context. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the most prominent social media platforms for businesses to leverage for lead generation and the best ways to go about using them.

Choosing the Proper Social Media Channels for Lead Generation

Depending on what type of company you are, what products you offer and who your target audience is, there are a handful of relevant social media platforms for you to choose from. These platforms can help your brand build awareness, increase outreach, learn about your target audience and even generate qualified leads, provided you use them correctly.

Twitter

Twitter has millions of active daily users who are constantly sharing their interests, opinions and experiences. This makes it a great place to learn about your audiences and develop new ideas to enhance your targeting efforts. Frequency plays a critical role in getting favorable results due to the average user’s short attention span and continual updates from pretty much everyone on the network.

Use “Twitter Lead Generation Cards” to help increase your number of click-throughs while decreasing the cost per click. This is a highly effective tool for marketers targeting social media users. Your “Twitter Profile Page” is an opportunity to provide a Call-To-Action for users who are interested in your brand. Lastly, “Twitter Advanced Search” allows you to dig deeper into online conversations to learn more about your audience and gain insights into industry trends.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest and most active social media platform around and it can enable your brand to reach out to a huge audience base. With over a billion users, Facebook captures about 10% of all internet traffic (research by Hubspot). Though mainly used for social/entertainment purposes, a significant amount of businesses use it to showcase their organization’s products, services and most importantly, culture.

Make use of “Facebook Lead Ads” to lead users to your website or landing page, or simply direct them to an embedded lead ad that remains within the Facebook portal. Take advantage of your Facebook company page and status updates to build engagement with your followers and prospects. Remember to frequently use Calls-To-Action and post a variety of content to keep your audience entertained.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a predominantly professional network, which is why it works well for B2B companies. Out of all the social media channels, LinkedIn is the most used and most effective for targeting professionals (according to Gleanster research). There is an assortment of ways that you can use LinkedIn to enhance your brand’s sales and marketing efforts by increasing brand awareness, trust, outreach and presence.

Join “LinkedIn Groups” to connect with communities for learning and sharing purposes. Harness the targeting power of “LinkedIn Ads” to get your message out to the right audience. Boost your awareness and build a following with your “LinkedIn Company Page”. Learn about your audience and discover who the decision makers are with “LinkedIn Advanced Search”. Finally, use “Sponsored InMail” to reach individual users through their LinkedIn inbox, even if you aren’t connected with them.

Instagram

Instagram is a social media platform for the more visually-inclined. It works best for brands that have plenty of visual content to publish and share with their audiences. It can also be used as a channel to showcase your company culture, as like Facebook, it is mainly used for social/entertainment purposes. This being said, at about 300 million users and growing, it is still a great way to reach your audience.

Be sure to use “Instagram Hashtags” properly. Leverage what’s trending or even better, create your own unique hashtag that is relevant to your business and resonates with your audience. This will increase the engagement levels of people who are interacting with your brand. Post a variety of content and make use of “Instagram Videos” which can further increase engagement levels.

Other Alternatives

There are other platforms available such as Pinterest, Google+, Youtube and Snapchat that you can also use to boost your social media presence and outreach. Effectiveness is all dependent on which platforms your audience tends to be more active on and which ones they use to engage with brands. Another dependent factor of course, is what type of content they like to consume.

Takeaway

No matter what channel you choose, there are specific ways to leverage them because users on each of these platforms behave differently. There’s no hard-and-fast rule as to which ones will work best for your brand so your best bet is to test them out and see for yourself.

The most important part of generating leads on social media is to maintain an active presence. If your brand goes idle for too long, users will simply get bored and move on to the next big thing. Unfortunately, most users on social media do have a short attention span because there’s a constant battle for audience engagement by other brands, personal or commercial.

Take these points into account and you’ll be making social media waves in no time!

Author Bio

Dianne Carillo is the Marketing Communications and Brand Manager at PureB2B, a lead generation company that help accelerate on business solutions and technology sales processes. Dianne loves reading, and especially knowledgeable in both sales and lead generation techniques and trends.

Article Contributed by Nate M. Vickery

Recent years have brought a rather unexpected rise of Twitter influence, at least in the domain of socially targeted issues as well as coverage in popular and mainstream sphere of authority. At the time Twitter was at its beginning of becoming a thing nobody could have predicted it would develop into one of the main social medias for self-promotion, business and news interactions and internet-evoked opinion exchange.

And while getting noticed on Twitter seems as a rather easy and natural thing to do, getting trending on there is actually something you need to wisely plan out. Depending on your target audience and the end result of your intention, there are a few things you should consider doing (or start doing, if you haven’t already) to succeed in your goal.

Given that tailoring your content marketing strategy for Twitter is your main goal this time around, here are some of the best advice you’ll ever get on the topic:

Understand the network you are on

In order to get Twitter followers, you will need to be clever with your messaging. Depending on the network you are on you will have to act in accordance with the responsiveness of that network. The reason why Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and other networks are so individually successful is because they all operate on a similar basis but with a different approach and sensibility to them.

Twitter is a public channel for non-conservative audiences who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and indulge variety of contents. This is why humor and wit pose as essential in your tweeting – a Twitter person won’t ever go for average – you need to always be on top of your game and follow this unique crowd’s tone.

Get content ideas from Twitter… for Twitter

Twitter information influx is pretty quick so to actually get content ideas for Twitter you should be on Twitter and see what’s up.

If you have your own blog, whether you are working independently or as a company, Twitter is a great way to make use of your content in a way that you make it closer to your potential and existing clients and customers. Find influencers from the business sphere you work in, see what type of content may be trending in your niche currently and apply it to your blog. You can take advantage of link prospecting tool developed by Four Dots SEO company for finding blogs and content on the Internet where your favorite influencers publish their articles; this is a perfect chance to see which articles were most widely distributed on social networks (in this case, Twitter). This way you will know which topics to cover in your or business blog and how interested people will be in following your twitter profile and blog. If you do this mission successfully, you will bring more visitors to the site.

Engage in conversations

To get noticed, it’s important to have presence and be on the outlook for topics you may directly have a link to your business. The easiest way to this is to search topics per key words related to your niche of work and communicate with people interested in what you are offering. Although, don’t be pushy in the attempt to be interactive as you may appear as too aggressive.

Understand what kind of posts will be the most successful

Since Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters you need to be concise, to the point and interesting. Statistics show that posts which are most retweeted are around 100 characters, leaving room for the retweeter’s handle.

The best post on Twitter consists of a:
– link
– hashtag x2
– photo

Obviously, it’s important you switch it up from time to time and make your feed interesting and attractive, to both regular users and those who have just joined Twitter or heard about your channel.

Know the best time to tweet

Since Twitter never sleeps, it’s best to always have something to say. However, research confirms that the best proven time to tweet is throughout the day, actively. Since Twitter has a much faster stream than other networks you will be expected to tweet multiple times a day. The more present you are the bigger chance is you’ll get noticed.

If you are tweeting to reach audiences in different time zones there’s a plug in for setting automatic tweets which will be helpful in the mission to get trending.

Responding quickly is important too because that way you are showing you care about the people interested in your content. Such professionalism is much appreciated, regardless of the network you are on.

About the Author

Nate M. Vickery is a business consultant from Sydney, Australia. He has a degree in marketing and almost a decade of experience in company management through latest technology trends. Nate is editor-in-chief at Bizzmarkblog.com.

You’ve done all the hard work in getting your blog site up and running…

You’ve even got a sign-up box on every page of your site.

Now all you need to do is get your web site visitors to part with their name and email address so that you can start and build your database of potential clients.

But the question is … how do you get them to do this?

The answer – provide them with a very compelling reason to give you their name and email address with an irresistible free taste of your work (also known as a pink spoon or ethical bribe)!

Your free taste is simply a sampling of what it’s like to work with you, and provides the user with the outcomes they can expect to see as a result of working with you. Your free taste can take the form of:

• An e-report
• An audio file of, say, one of your teleclasses
• A mini e-course
• A tip sheet
• A worksheet or template
• A checklist

Whatever you decide you are going to offer for your free taste it has to be substantial and of great value to your subscriber.  And, most importantly, it needs to be consumed in five minutes or less — so a 20-page white paper is not going to work here!

I’m not saying you have to give away the farm, but you do need to show your new subscriber that you are an expert in your field and that what you do delivers results and can make a difference to them in their life or business.

So, once you’ve decided what you free taste is going to consist of you then need to put together the system for delivering your free taste — and it needs to be fully automated too.

The components you’ll need to put together are:

An information/sales page – you need to tell your visitor exactly what it is they’re going to get and how your free taste is going to benefit them. This isn’t a bullet point of features, but instead tells them how they’re going to benefit from downloading your free taste.

A call to action – you need to tell your visitor exactly what they need to do to get your free taste, i.e. input your name and email address in the box below.

A confirmation page – so, they’ve given you their name and email address, what happens next? Let your visitor know what to expect and when to expect it.

A delivery system – how are you going to get your free taste to your visitor? This very much depends on what it is you’re offering, but you need to let the visitor know exactly how they’re going to receive their gift, or where they need to go to get it.

A follow-up system – you never get a second chance at a first impression; mess this up and you’ve lost faith with your potential new client even before you got started.  So how you are you going to welcome your new subscriber into your community and make them feel that they’ve made the right decision in giving you their name and email address? Your follow-up system is crucial to nurturing the relationship with your new subscriber.

Use the above points to create a checklist for when you’re putting together your free taste, or, if you currently have a free taste that you offer, use these steps to review your current system and see if it can be improved upon.