by Marketing Manager | Content Creation, Content Marketing, Videos, YouTube
Have you been sleeping on YouTube marketing? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. It’s easy to dismiss YouTube as the place where teenagers and young adults make silly content, whether they’re sampling weird fast food mashups or doing stunts. The truth is that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. Only Google sees more traffic. People who watch videos on YouTube are always looking for new content to watch and there’s a big opportunity for small businesses like yours to find a whole new audience with video marketing. Show Off Your Products Do your customers know how to use your products? More importantly, do they know the best ways to use your products? If they don’t and you can help them get the most out of what they buy, then YouTube is the perfect place to do it. Let’s look at an example. Luxy Hair is a company that sells a full range of hair extensions. They have attracted over three million followers on YouTube thanks to their styling videos that show customers (and potential customers) how to wear their hair extensions and style them. The videos include practical demonstrations plus recommendations of styling products to use with extensions. You can use this technique to connect with your customers on YouTube. Think about how you can help your customers get the most out of your products and then, produce a series of short videos showing them how to do it. Film and Share Customer Testimonials Insert Customer reviews and testimonials provide powerful social proof when a potential customer or client comes looking for the services...
by Marketing Manager | Content Creation, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use, Marketing, Marketing Tips, Social Media
Social media marketing isn’t the new kid on the block anymore. Things that felt fresh and exciting just a few years ago are now old hat and that means we’ve all got to find ways to take our Facebook and Instagram marketing to the next level. Fortunately, there are still lots of things you can do to “level up” your social media marketing. Here are some suggestions to help you stay ahead of the pack in 2021. Poll Your Followers Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all allow users to create polls for the followers to respond to. In most cases, we’re talking simple polls with just two or three potential responses. That said, even a simple poll can be useful as a way to collect information from your followers. Because polls are interactive, they encourage engagement. In many cases, respondents won’t even need to leave their feed. They can respond by clicking their choice. If you want to take it to the next step, you can try using a poll as a quick form of split testing. Include links to two different versions of your landing page or home page and ask people to vote on their favorite. Engage in Social Listening You’ve probably seen at least one brand make a critical mistake on social media by responding in a tone-deaf way to something in the news. Does that mean you should never respond to anything topical? No – but it does mean you need to be careful. The best way to avoid missteps is to engage in social listening. Before you post, scroll through relevant hashtags, and...
by Marketing Manager | Content Creation, Content Curation, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use, Social Media
There are only two ways to increase profitability — to increase sales, or to cut expenses. Some strategies for increasing sales are huge undertakings. A new product line or a major marketing campaign cost major time and money. But without a major investment, you can increase your sales by improving your conversion rate — the percentage of users on a website or social media platform that completes a desired action. The action could be making a purchase. Or it could lead users further into your sales funnel by signing up for an email list, creating an account, or scheduling a call. By focusing on conversion rate, you’re working with what you already have — the people who you’re currently reaching with your marketing. With decent web traffic, even a moderate increase in conversion rate can result in real dollars. So here’s how you can start optimizing your conversion rate — without spending a penny. How to Track Your Conversion Rate To improve your conversion rate, first you have to establish your baseline. Start by calculating your current conversion rate with this basic equation: # of times a user completes a goal action / your site traffic = conversion rate This could be for a PPC campaign, a Facebook ad, or your general website’s performance. For your overall website, you must decide how you plan to track certain goals. For example, you could create a specific URL that customers are redirected to after they take an action. That action could include downloading a lead magnet or signing up for your email list. Every view...
by Marketing Manager | Blog, Content Creation, Content Curation, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use
Professional copywriters are experts in sales and human psychology. They know what makes people tick and how to connect with an audience to get them to spend their hard-earned dollars on a product or service. They’re also very expensive. A top-tier copywriter can charge upper five-figures to write a website. And many small businesses aren’t prepared to make that kind of investment. Instead, they (or their head of marketing) will write the copy themselves. Fortunately, there are some quick tips that you can adopt to improve your sales copy today, whether it’s your home page, product descriptions, direct mail, or whatever else you use to communicate verbally with your customers. #1 Write Like You Talk As soon as we start writing “as our businesses,” we become stilted and formal, like we’re trying to impress our high school English teachers. We replace perfectly good words like “use” with “utilize” to try to sound more professional. But all we’re really doing is making it harder for the reader to understand. A good rule of thumb is to write your copy to a 6th to 7th grade reading level. That doesn’t mean you’re dumbing it down. The Lord of the Rings is written at a 7th grade reading level, and J.R.R. Tolkien was no slouch. To prevent falling into overly formal writing, write like you talk. Keep sentences short, and use contractions like “didn’t” instead of “did not.” Starting sentences with transition words like and, but, although, and instead can help the reader to follow your thoughts. After you’ve finished your draft, read it out loud. It...
by Marketing Manager | Content Creation, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use, Social Media
There’s no question that social media marketing is, and will continue to be, important for local businesses. That said, there are a lot of social media myths that are annoyingly persistent and believing them can hurt your business. So, let’s bust some myths! Here are 8 of the most widely believed myths that you need to stop believing if you want to grow your business with social media. #1: You Need a Presence on Every Social Media Site The notion that you need a presence on every social media site is one of the most harmful myths for business owners. It takes time, effort, and money to maintain an active presence on ANY social media site and nobody has time for all of them. What you need is an active and meaningful presence on the sites that offer you the best opportunity to connect with your target audience and engage your customers. Nothing else matters. Most local businesses should be on Facebook. B2B companies should have a presence on LinkedIn. If you’re selling an aspirational product or service, then it makes sense to be on Instagram or Pinterest. Does this mean you should never try something new? Of course not! Set up a profile and give it a try. But if the site you choose isn’t giving you the results you want, cut it loose. #2: Fans and Followers are Worthless if They Don’t Become Paying Customers You should use social media to attract new customers. That’s obvious and it makes sense. But I hear a lot of business owners who think that followers who aren’t paying customers aren’t...
by Marketing Manager | Content Creation, Marketing, Marketing Tips, Social Media, Trends
Everybody who hasn’t been in a cryogenic state for the past couple of years has heard about TikTok. It’s the newest social media platform where users create and share 15-second videos known as TikToks. While a lot of the content includes lip synching or dancing, more local businesses who target young audiences are turning to TikTok as a way of connecting with potential customers. You might be thinking, great – how do I do that? I know nothing about TikTok! Not to worry. We’re here to help, and by the time you’re finished reading this article, you’ll have the basics down and you’ll be ready to get started. Who’s Using TikTok? Let’s start with audience because honestly, TikTok isn’t for everybody. If your target audience is businesspeople, you should be focusing on LinkedIn and Facebook, not TikTok. Here are the numbers you need to know: TikTok has 800 million active users worldwide 60% of US users are between the ages of 16 and 24 The average user spends 500 minutes each month on the TikTok app Nine out of 10 TikTok users access the app more than once per day 23% of internet users in the US have seen at least one TikTok TikTok is used by twice as many women in the US as men Businesses have spent more than $50 million on TikTok We should also note that the average age of TikTok users is increasing with the age of the app, which was first launched in September of 2016. While businesses have been slow to adopt its use, we expect that to change in 2021....
