Five Ways to Improve Your Social Media Profiles Today

If you’re anything like the rest of the world, we know you’re busy and don’t have the time to spend an entire day giving your social media profiles a makeover. The good news, though, is that these five tips can be taken care of in an hour or less.

Use The Same Profile Image On Every Network

In an effort to stay top of mind and achieve brand recognition, it is important to stay consistent across all platforms. Make sure that each of your profile photos are the same so that you’re easy to spot when your followers are scrolling through their news feed.

Keep Your Handles Consistent

Another way to make your brand easy to recognize is it make sure all of your handles are the same across all platforms. This way, your audience will find it easy to search you, your products, and your services.

Additionally, consistent handles will also keep you top of mind to potential consumers.

Remove Inappropriate Tags

Check all photos or posts you’ve been tagged in and make sure they all align with your brand and the persona that you’re trying to display online. Your audience will not only look at the posts that you’ve created, but will also look at the posts you’ve been tagged in, and it is imperative that they reflect your values as a business.

Built Social Proof

Ask customers and friends for reviews of your products and services. This way, you’ll have the ability to gain the trust of your audience not only through your own content, but the content that others create as well.

Pin Your Most Important Content

After publishing a piece of content, you will be able to tell within a couple of days if it performed well or not. Pinning your best content at the top of your profile will make it easy for new followers to gain information and see that others agree with and support what you are posting.

Tips To Keep in Mind When Copywriting Facebook Ads

Keep It Simple

Do your best to keep your writing simple. Because you want as many people as possible to engage with your ad, you don’t want your audience to work harder than they need to.

When your audience scrolls through their feed, you have a small window of time to gain their attention and add value. In an effort to keep your copy simple, remove any extra adjectives and replace long words with shorter ones.

Edit Edit Edit

Yes, that means three times. We know that it can get tedious, especially after you have taken the time to put together different ad formats, but it’s imperative that you make sure there are no mechanical errors or inconsistencies. It can also be beneficial to get a second set of eyes on your copy as well.

Know Your Audience

Make sure you’re writing to your audience and more specifically, your ideal client. Keep in mind the pain points and the problems that you can solve for your ideal clients and make sure you understand specific language that your target audience wants to hear.

Use A Call To Action

It is important to use language that will make it clear to the reader that your service will benefit them, and that they will receive that benefit by clicking. The call to action that you use should make the result clear, encouraging them to buy.

Converting Leads To Sales

Just because you receive a lead, doesn’t mean you’ll actually close the sale. Leads need to be nurtured, meaning it is imperative to explore the multiple ways to meet the needs of your prospective clients before they decide to purchase your product.

Evaluation

When a lead comes through, the first step is to evaluate it and decide where falls in your sales funnel. Having an effective method to score leads that come through can help you to prioritize who you follow up with, and when.

When evaluating a lead, consider the different demographic credentials to determine if it matches who your “ideal customer” might be. Then, take a look at how much time the specific lead spent on your site and what type of content they interacted with. Finally, take a look to see if you can determine if the lead has an intention to make a purchase. Did the lead come through a webinar registration, or did they just click through blog posts?

Nurturing Leads Through Email

Email marketing, which has an ROI of $4,300, is an excellent way to provide valuable and relevant content to attract and serve an audience. When putting together an email campaign, make sure it is trustworthy, relevant, and conversational that will encourage your audience to engage, and then to respond.

Make Lead Nurturing A Priority

Neglecting your leads can result in a loss of sales to competitors. But, when nurtured correctly and engaged with properly, b2b leads can and will convert into sales.

Tips to Writing and Curating Relevant and Engaging Content

When it comes to creating web content, we find that some encounter blocks when it comes to ideas for blog topics. Although the writing piece can seem challenging, it does not always have to be, which is why we’ve listed out our top ten tips when it comes to getting blog content on your website.

  1. Reach out to different staff members who have different backgrounds and experiences and ask them to write a couple of pieces for the site.
  2. Find different guest bloggers and get them to write for you. Provide them with a link to your site and have the blog post on their site as well. This is an excellent way to drive traffic from another industry.
  3. Utilize your best content. Go back to your favorite posts and rewrite them with updated information.
  4. Interview a thought leader in the industry. Getting an expert in front of your audience will gain trust and credibility by explaining new trends or insights into the business.
  5. Generate branded infographics that can convey your products in a different way.
  6. Utilize your blog post to gain feedback from your audience by asking specific questions and making it simple for them to answer.
  7. Make the customers want your top priority. When it comes to writing content, try to be more useful than creative. Strong writing skills and grammar mechanics are important, but don’t stress too much about the artistry of your work.
  8. Statistics are your best friend. Posting interesting stats will make it easy for readers to remember information. Go with statistics. Use interesting tidbits to create a tweetable fact that links back to your blog.
  9. Inspiration is everywhere. When it comes to content marketing, look for ideas in every aspect of life and keep it in the back of your mind. At the end of the day, it’s all about what your customers want to know.
  10. Try various types of content from video, to case studies, to infographics, in an effort to see what your audience likes the most.

Digital Marketing Trends for Success

In order to keep your marketing strategy relevant, and ultimately, successful, it is important to keep these few trends top of mind in an effort to attract and retain business.

  1. Provide a platform to post reviews. Regardless of whether your clients are posting Google reviews or Facebook reviews, a website testimonials, or anything else, this element of social proof will prove to be important when prospective customers see that you’ve had previous happy, loyal patrons that are eager to spread the word.
  2. Quality over quantity when it comes to content. Rushed website content, or blog posts stuffed with key words for the heck of it will never replace a well researched article or a professionally designed website. High quality content will always out-perform half-hearted blog posts.
  3. Use visuals. Although there are many who do enjoy reading articles, you have to remember that others might enjoy infographics or videos as well. Creating videos explaining your service or talking about your culture may be both more engaging and user friendly than just content.
  4. Google yourself. As a business owner, it is imperative that you know what users see when they google your company. From that search alone, they’ll be able to see your contact information, hours, and other important details. Working with an SEO professional can help you accomplish this by setting up a Google My Business profile.

How To Properly Implement Hashtags Into Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Hashtags can be very useful on social media both as part of a post, or in the comment section. When used properly, hashtags can be an extremely effective way to increase engagement and cultivate community online by serving as a tool to categorize ideas and unite like-minded people, resulting in an excellent way to build relationships with potential followers or customers.

It is all too common that many in social media marketing overuse hashtags and post as many as possible wherever they can. This, unfortunately, results in confusion and sometimes will completely change the intended message – eventually causing hashtags to work against you, not with you.

So what is the correct way to use hashtags?

Hashtags are best used with the intention to grow a conversation or to keep it going, thus, we’ve included a few tips below to help you get there:

Choose hashtags that are relevant. If you pick a hashtag that doesn’t make sense with your content, you’ll confuse your readers, almost looking like you’re spamming them. As an example, if you’re posting a photo of a meal in an effort to promote a restaurant, and you use the hashtag #kitchen, it can drop your image into a “bucket” of actual kitchens or home remodeling conversations as opposed to where you intended for it to go.

Investigate. Sometimes, you’ll find that a hashtag you were planning to use, might not mean what you think. Online, the meaning of your chosen hashtag is not always obvious just from the term you’ve chosen, which is why we always suggest taking a look before attaching your piece of content to that specific online category. A few spaces we’ve found that are especially tricky include brand names, anything to do with politics, or a hashtag related to charity.

Keep up with the trends. Different hashtags trend at different times, and knowing which ones are the most popular at the times you’re looking to engage will help you to capitalize on your hashtag usage. For example, if posting an old photo on a Thursday, you may choose to use the widely known hashtag #tbt, which stands for “Throwback Thursday.”

When used properly, hashtags can help communicate meaning and engage your followers. Used improperly, hashtags can result in mixed messaging and a confused audience, which is why we suggest keeping these tips in mind for a more streamlined social media marketing strategy.

4 Subtle Ways to Network Through Digital Marketing

Though traditional, in-person networking will always hold value, the growth of digital marketing has allowed business professionals the ability to network and nurture relationships remotely. In our fast-paced, busy world, we felt it would be important to share with you our top four ways to network and grow relationships on the internet.

Comment On Posts

Commenting on posts of your connections, showing your support, and engaging in general is an excellent way to show that you care about what your audience is doing and what they’re posting. Additionally, it creates the opportunity to spark a conversation that may result in a lead or a referral.

Follow Up Via Private Message

Following up with connections through a private message and being intentional about making an effort to network with every one of your connections will not only create relationships with your network, but it also heightens the chances of those connections becoming a referral source. Additionally, if there is no response, we suggest another follow up after the initial message in an effort to learn about the individual and strengthen that business relationship even more.

Generate Blog Content

Creating and posting engaging and relevant content on your website and sharing it across social media platforms shows your audience that you genuinely care about them and are passionate about sharing educational and resourceful information. Over time, your audience members will utilize your platforms as a hub for relevant and useful information and material.

Respond

Whether there is 1 comment, or 100 on your posts, responding to anyone and everyone will spark a discussion and show your commitment to every member of your network.

Three Reasons Your Small Business Needs Content Marketing

Marketing is a key component for both large corporations and small business alike. While many believe in traditional marketing practices, it is imperative that content marketing is taken into consideration and utilized wisely. If you haven’t pondered the importance of investing in content marketing, we invite you to read on and understand the true reasons why this element of marketing may be more important than you may have thought.

It’s What Your Competition Is Doing

Rest assured that regardless of whether or not you’ve chosen to pull the trigger on content marketing, your competitors are absolutely pushing out their message. When working to acquire new clients and establish yourself it is important to be intentional about creating informational and relevant content that may be useful to your audience members.

Brand Awareness

Taking advantage of content marketing will increase brand awareness and make you a well-rounded resource for your audience. Because many small businesses cannot afford to increase brand awareness through traditional ads, doing it yourself through something like blog content is an excellent way to gain the trust of your audience. For example, if you’re always discussing social media trends through your content, your pages will gain momentum and increase traffic to your platforms in regards to that specific topic.

Establish Credibility

Creating and publishing original content that comes directly from you helps to show your audience that you are an expert in your field. Not only are you displaying your knowledge, but you’re also providing it as a resource for your audience to learn from and utilize moving forward. Becoming a thought leader in your industry increases your credibility, ultimately helping to persuade potential referral partners or customers to want to refer business to you or to work with you.

The Lowdown On Social Media Paid Ads

If you haven’t already heard, platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have become a “pay to play” space, meaning in order to reach a large number of individuals within a specific audience, you’ve got to grab your wallet first.

While many are “all good” with utilizing a portion of their budget for social media advertising, they sometimes feel intimidated throughout the process, resulting in no social activity at all. Here we’ve broken down the process for you by profile. making the process easier to navigate.

First Things First

Before you start creating ads, it is important to define your budget, your audience, and what your goals are when it comes to advertising. Once those factors are decided, you can give yourself the green light to create and boost content on different platforms.

LinkedIn

In order to begin LinkedIn advertising, be sure that you’ve got a profile created and optimized. Then, you’ll decide whether you’d like to choose “self-service” or “managed campaigns,” depending on the type of experience you’re looking for. Next, you’ll choose your ad format, create the ad, select your audience target, and set your budget. Throughout each of these steps, LinkedIn is very self-explanatory and provides lengthy detail about each piece. Once the advertisement is posted, you’ll measure the results and make adjustments accordingly.  

Facebook

The advertising process on Facebook is very similar to LinkedIn, and is also very self-explanatory once you’re creating the ad. Right off the bat, you’ll pick from the list of choices regarding your objective, then you’ll set up your ad account and target your audience. From there you’ll enter your budget, determine your schedule, and create your posts. Facebook also gives you the opportunity to check and measure your results.

Posting organic content to social media will always be a valuable way to brand yourself as a well-rounded resource for your audience, but when trying to reach a large audience, a specific demographic, or to generate leads, paid advertising is the most effective.

Do I Really Need Email Marketing?

It is a common misconception that email is a “prehistoric” method for marketing purposes, and communication in general. While other marketing tools such as social media, paid search, and content are all imperative aspects to any overall marketing campaign, eblasts are often an untapped resource which can result in a missed opportunity for your business. Below, we’ll discuss five important reasons your business cannot go another day without email.

Simple To Track And Measure

When you send an eblast, you have the opportunity to analyze which types of content are performing well by seeing data on how many people are opening, reading, and visiting your site from each campaign. This is important when determining which topics are more popular to readers and what the ultimate return on investment is. As messaging, calls to action, and subject lines are edited, the option becomes available to see what is working and where adjustments need to be made.

Email Content Is Shareable

Not only can recipients of your eblasts forward your messaging to their family, friends, and coworkers, but there is also the option to share email content on social media. This automatically increases your reach far beyond your initial email list.

Stay Top Of Mind

There are strategic ways of not being “over the top” or “annoying,” but just staying top of mind and offering value to email recipients. Creating engaging and informative content and delivering it properly is a great way to not be forgotten by potential customers.

Target Specific Audiences

Because different audiences require different messaging, it’s not a secret that email marketing is not “cookie-cutter,” but more a tool used to segment different audiences and communicate appropriately to the right people, making it a very personal approach which can strengthen the relationship between a company and it’s public.

Drive Traffic

Not only is it important to include a link to your website in your eblast, but including a call to action can also drive traffic to your website as well. Providing your readers with a clear message on how and why they should visit your site, and making it easy for them to get there is an excellent way to increase web traffic.