The Proven Mechanics of Successful Social Media Writing
It seems like “social media engagement” is all the rage for marketers these days. You want more likes. You want more shares. You want more comments. And you want more clickthroughs. First, it’s important to know the tactics that work well to influence your followers’ engagement. Think content curation, posting at the best times, connecting to emotion, and rocking solid visuals. But after you know what to do, you need to know how to write messages that capture your followers’ attention. Because great ideas without solid execution never boost your results. Which means, if you don’t write well for social media, you won’t get more likes, or shares, or comments, or clickthroughs. Wah-wah. So let’s boost your social media engagement by writing powerful messages, shall we? 1. 55 Social Media Message Templates to End the Blinking Cursor NightmareSometimes, creative inspiration is hard to come by. So when social media writer’s block hits, it’s super nice to begin with examples and templates of social media messages you know will increase your engagement. Lucky you. I’m a huge nerd and just analyzed 6,399,322 social media messages and 11 studies to help you write engaging social media messages. Use these social media examples as templates to help you write well in a pinch. Think of this as a swipe file (so go ahead and right click + “Save As” now, or Pin it to use for inspiration when you write social messages later). Take that, writer’s block. 2. Get More Engagement by Rocking Proven Copywriting FrameworksSo those social media writing templates are a great start, but it’s handy to know the classic copywriting techniques that have been around for decades (and for good reason, because they still work) and how to apply those time-tested frameworks into writing engaging social media messages. Problem + Agitation + Solution (PAS)The PAS copywriting framework requires you to understand your followers’ challenges in order to connect the dots of how you can resolve those pain points. The jobs to be done methodology applies well here. As you plan this type of message, ask yourself, “Why do my followers hire my product or service?” Put another way, “What project do they need to complete? And how does my product or service help?” For example, CoSchedule’s audience doesn’t care about the form of the product we sell—a marketing calendar. They care about the outcome their marketing calendar produces—getting extremely organized. The PAS formula helps us write great social media messages knowing this, which you’ll see in the following example.
PAS Social Media Writing Example: Managing marketing projects is a nightmare. Despite the countless hours you spend herding cats, details keep slipping through the cracks. CoSchedule gets you completely organized so you meet every deadline. Attention + Interest + Desire + Action (AIDA)AIDA connects the dots from the initial observation to true engagement: taking action of some kind by literally asking your followers to do something. It’s a great framework for you to know because to work extremely well, you need to know why your followers would care about the message you’re sharing. So brainstorm why they’d care, then connect the dots to what you want them to do.
AIDA Social Media Writing Example: 3,150 percent higher social media engagement? It’s 100 percent possible. And you can do it. See how. Problem + Advantages + Proof + Action (PAPA)The PAPA copywriting technique combines elements from PAS and AIDA together to create a super powerful message. An important element here is the credibility booster behind proving your followers will solve their problem when they check out what you’re sharing. PAPA messages also tend to be more positive than the PAS formula. That’s important because positivity is proven to increase engagement on every major social network.
PAPA Social Media Writing Example: Managing marketing projects is a nightmare. Getting organized will help you see every project in one place, get everyone on the same page, and meet every deadline. It worked for Convince & Convert. See how you can do it, too, with CoSchedule. 3. Boost Your Engagement by Writing for Each Social Network’s Best PracticesNow you have inspiration for social media messages that have worked well in the past, and you know how to write your own with emotionally powerful copywriting frameworks. So how can you write the best social media messages for each network, taking into consideration:
Note: This is gonna be a lot to memorize. You can push the “easy” button by writing your messages with the free Social Message Optimizer. Everything you’re about to read is backed by research into nearly 6.4 million social media messages and 11 studies, so buckle up! How to Write for FacebookLink posts tend to perform best on Facebook, followed by image and text. The best Facebook posts are 111 characters long. Posts that are 119 characters long are good, and posts around 40 characters long are OK. Use zero hashtags on Facebook (even though the network does support them). Use one emoji in your Facebook post. How to Write for TwitterRock Tweets with images. Text Tweets take second place for increasing engagement, and link Tweets take third place. The best Tweet length for engagement is 103 characters long (that includes the link, too). Tweets that are 113 characters long are good, and Tweets with 93 characters are OK. The best Tweets have two hashtags. Make sure your Tweets have at least one hashtag to increase your chances of engagement. Use one emoji in your Tweet. How to Write for InstagramNo surprises here: The best Instagram posts are images, followed by video. Write posts that are 241 characters long. Posts with 200 characters also perform well, followed by 224 characters. Include about 11 hashtags in your Instagram posts. Posts with five hashtags take second place, and posts with 10 hashtags take third. Instagram thrives on emojis, so use three as much as possible. Instagram posts with two hashtags perform well, and posts with only one hashtag are alright. How to Write for PinterestAgain, no surprise here: Image Pins perform best on Pinterest. Write your Pin descriptions to be 215 characters long. Pins with 148 characters tend to perform well, followed by 141 characters. Even though Pinterest supports hashtags, Pins with zero hashtags get the most engagement. Don’t use emojis on Pinterest if you’re after engagement. How to Write for LinkedInThe best message type for LinkedIn is a link post. Text posts come in second, and image posts come in third. The most engaging LinkedIn posts are 149 characters long, followed by 125 and 95, respectively. LinkedIn does support hashtags, however, LinkedIn posts without any hashtags tend to get the most engagement. Use zero emojis in your LinkedIn posts. How to Write for Google+The most engaging Google+ posts are link posts, followed up with image posts and then text posts. Write your Google+ posts to be 65 characters long. Posts with 60 characters come in second place, and you can also try really long with 502 characters coming in third place. Include three hashtags in your Google+ posts, followed by two or at least one. Include one emoji in your Google+ post. The best way to increase your social engagement? Share content your audience is truly interested in. Now You Know How to Write for Social MediaAre you feeling like Neo in that scene in The Matrix where he learns kung fu? I want to leave you with a final thought about social media mechanics from the master himself, Jay Baer:
While it might feel easy to use the templates all the time, to write the perfect length and use the perfect number of hashtags, the best way to increase your social media engagement is to share content your audience is truly interested in. Use this resource as a guide. Ship your posts. Analyze your data. Repeat what works, and remove what doesn’t. But never let the fear of failure prevent you from starting. Good luck! Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from Jay Baer at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter. Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-proven-mechanics-of-successful.html August 17, 2017 at 08:54AM
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Own Your Errors and Do Not Fauxpologize
You can’t fix a problem that’s already happened. You don’t have a time machine. But every time you make a mistake, you have complete and total control over what happens next. Yet, time and again, when businesses mess up, their leaders blow it when it’s time to ask for forgiveness. And we WANT to forgive. We’re a forgiving society in every regard and respect. Which is why it’s puzzling and frustrating that so many people seem to have an Apology Allergy that takes a bad situation and makes it worse. Of course, in recent months, the classic apology allergy example is United Airlines. When airport police officers forcibly drag a passenger from your aircraft, you should apologize fast and without equivocation. Instead, United first blamed the passenger. Then, after they were pilloried in social media and beyond, they offered a feeble apology and admitted the flight had been overbooked. When the crowd still wasn’t buying it, United’s chief executive released a formal apology to passengers who sat through the experience. Several equally embarrassing missteps later, United executives had an epiphany (thanks to boycotting customers and partners). In a final statement, the company took “full responsibility” for a situation it admitted shouldn’t have happened in the first place. It took them days to apologize right. Don’t FauxpologizeWhen an angry mob is marching your way, the natural reaction is to either run away or fight back. It’s understandable. But shouldn’t CEOs know better? Some CEOs might avoid apologizing out of fear that their words might appear to be a legal admission of guilt, but that’s a gross oversimplification of the law. Any prosecutor worth her salt knows proving liability involves more than holding up an “I apologize wholeheartedly” tweet in front of a judge. If you or your CEO enjoys conflict, you could always decide to argue instead of apologizing. This might sound like a worse option than simply saying nothing, but it happens all the time. Denis Grisak, the founder of Garadget, decided to retaliate after a customer left negative reviews of his company online. Grisak opted to sever the angry customer’s server connection, meaning the customer was effectively unable to open his garage door. Not a good plan. A Satisfactory SorryAs bad as United’s apology was, it’s certainly not endemic to their industry, as competitor Southwest Airlines is a particularly sound example of how to apologize the right way. In 2016, a technology failure left thousands of Southwest flights—and paying customers—grounded. Instead of hiding its head in the sand or trying to deflect the blame, Southwest executives faced the complaints directly by using Facebook Live. It might seem like a gamble, but the live broadcast notched more than 800,000 views and received nearly nine times more likes than angry emojis. Elon Musk is also a great case study in how to apologize well. A Tesla driver who was upset about the wait time to charge his vehicle tweeted at Musk, and the Tesla CEO offered a direct response within 20 minutes. The apology didn’t stop there, as six days later Tesla developed a system to streamline the long lines plaguing some of its charging stations. In less than a week, Musk made a major change that benefits countless Tesla customers. He helped himself and his company come across as accountable and open to consumer feedback. Apologies Create AdvocacyCustomer service and efforts to remedy mistakes are powerful tools to create devoted brand advocates. Customers are more likely to do business with companies that can solve their problems, and they’re incredibly loyal to those companies. My research with Edison Research for my book, Hug Your Haters, found that ignoring irate customers reduces loyalty and advocacy by up to 50 percent. At the same time, addressing these issues promotes loyalty and advocacy by as much as 25 percent. Even if you aren’t able to completely solve their problems, these customers will be more faithful to your company simply because you responded and were genuinely sorry. Stop looking for ways to not apologize or to pass blame or to half-heartedly say you’re sorry. If you screwed up, own it. It’s amazing how far that goes in creating customer loyalty. Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/own-your-errors-and-do-not-fauxpologize.html August 16, 2017 at 02:53AM
These Are the PPC Metrics That Actually Matter
As we ramp up for Unbounce’s upcoming PPC week, we thought we’d revisit some of our favorite PPC posts from the archives. This post was originally published in May 2015 but is as relevant as ever. Dig in!
If you’re anything like me, you’ve participated in a couple of DIY home improvement projects. At the beginning of these projects, with YouTube training videos as my sidekick, I have an irrational sense of confidence in my handyman abilities. When I’m tracking down my supplies at the local hardware store, I often find the products priced and displayed as “good,” “better” and “best.” The frugal side of me tries to argue that “good” is good enough, but is there something about the “best” product that will secure my DIY victory? With PPC advertising, we often face the same dilemma; we need to decide which metrics are “best” to measure the success of our campaigns. There’s a wealth of content and opinions on how to measure PPC success, which can get confusing. This post will help you understand how different metrics can paint very different pictures of PPC campaign performance. I’ll show how traffic-focused metrics can be a good starting point, how conversion-focused metrics are even better and how ROI-focused metrics provide the most complete picture for making meaningful changes to your campaigns. Let’s dig in. Good PPC metrics are traffic-focusedMany advertisers will default to looking at the click-through rate or cost per click when determining the success of a campaign. AdWords provides a lot of traffic-focused metrics that are incredibly useful, including underused gems like device segmentation and impression share. And while those are definitely a good start, it’s important not to get so distracted that you lose sight of your basic business goals: generating a profit. My agency has serviced or audited over 1,000 AdWords accounts. Believe it or not, almost half of them had not set up conversion tracking. Conversion tracking allows you to measure conversion actions like a purchase or a lead submission in your ad platform, usually by placing a code snippet on a thank you or order confirmation page. Without that piece of code, the only metrics you can measure are related to traffic, such as search impressions, clicks and click-through rates. Let’s look at an example to see why this is problematic. What traffic-focused metrics tell youImagine you’re a mortgage company and each new paying customer is worth on average $3,500 in revenue with 50% in gross margin. If you haven’t set up conversion tracking, you’ll mostly end up looking at reports like this: If we’re only looking at traffic-focused metrics, our top campaign seems to be Campaign 5, which has the most clicks, the best click-through rate and the lowest cost per click. Meanwhile, Campaign 4 has expensive clicks – which looks like a red flag! But the truth is this data alone can’t really tell us whether the campaigns are successful to a company’s bottom line. For our mortgage company, we need to know whether the clicks are actually translating into useful leads. Better PPC metrics are conversion-focusedIf you’re already using conversion tracking, pat yourself on the back: you’re better off than much of the competition. If you’re not, then get conversion tracking set up immediately. It’s easy to set up on most platforms like Google AdWords and Bing Ads (and if you’re using Unbounce you can put the tracking code right on a built-in thank you page). Think beyond web conversionsConversion tracking is more than just web leads and sales: among new accounts I’ve audited or onboarded, I’ve found that approximately 75% of advertisers who take phone leads don’t track them as conversions. For many industries, phone calls are the main source of leads, so it’s critical to include calls in your conversion tracking! Many call tracking platforms have built-in ways of setting this up, and Google has a solution for AdWords advertisers here. Call leads are more valuable for some businesses than for others, so you’ll want to keep in mind that not all types of conversions are necessarily equal – but the first step is making sure everything is tracked and measured. What conversion-focused metrics tell youLet’s say our mortgage company joins the big leagues and sets up conversion and call tracking. Here’s how that report looks:
Now we can track how many people are actually signing up for the service, not just clicking our ads.
Now we can start identifying our top-performing campaigns using cost per lead data (cost per conversion in Google AdWords). You’ll notice that Campaign 5 has the best cost per conversion, so it still looks like our top performer. Campaign 4 still looks like trouble. But while conversions are great, at the end of the day what really matters is whether leads became paying customers. Conversions tell us how many leads our company got, but not how many actually signed up to refinance their homes or how much revenue they brought in. Your PPC campaigns aren’t just about clicks. Don’t lose sight of what matters: generating a profit. The best PPC metrics are ROI-focusedFor marketers who want to use the most meaningful data, let’s move to the golden metric: actual ROI! That means tracking leads from click to close and measuring revenue on a per-lead basis. When you understand which campaigns, ads and keywords are actually generating revenue, you’ll be way ahead of competitors who have no idea where they’re making or losing money. What ROI-focused metrics tell youLet’s say our mortgage company decides to figure out exactly which leads are earning revenue. We can track specific leads in our CRM back to each campaign, set up separate phone numbers for each campaign and record which calls led to sales. Using our customer value numbers from above, we can calculate the following report:
We calculated revenue by having our CRM capture the Campaign ID in Google Analytics, then created unique phone numbers for every campaign so we could track every sale back to its source. Then we calculated the revenue value of every customer attributed to a PPC campaign.
Suddenly Campaign 4, which looked so bad before, is now our hero! Not only does it have the best ROI, it brings in the most revenue and the most sales — and that’s with the fewest conversions and second-fewest clicks. Now we know something much more useful than cost per conversion — we know how valuable a conversion is. We know where to focus our marketing efforts to maximize revenue, and where we can make improvements that impact the bottom line. We could then respond by allocating more budget to Campaigns 4 and 5. Meanwhile, Campaign 3 gets a lot of traffic and conversions but has a poor ROI, so we can get to work at rewriting ads and landing pages to better qualify those leads. Those are the kinds of changes that have meaningful results! 3 simple ways to track and measure your PPC ROIThe example above mirrors what we often see in the lead generation space: more expensive leads can often be the most qualified and produce the most revenue. But without breaking down campaign ROI you never know. Costly PPC leads are often most qualified. Break down campaign ROI before you do anything drastic. So how do you move beyond conversions and start focusing on ROI? Here are a few simple ways to get started:
Every metric mattersPPC marketing leaders know that all the metrics we’ve discussed are valuable – they work to improve the three categories over time, while focusing most of their efforts on ROI to move their profitability in the right direction. Traffic data like impressions, clicks and cost per click tell you how much search demand there is for your service and how many people are responding to your ads. Better metrics like conversion data tell you how effective your ads and landing pages are at generating leads, as well as how much your leads cost. But nothing tops actual ROI data: how much conversions are worth to your company’s bottom line. As we’ve seen, that kinda of data lets you focus on making changes where you can make the biggest difference! At the end of the day, the key is to look at the right metrics for the right situations and use that data to make the most meaningful changes to your campaigns. Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/these-are-ppc-metrics-that-actually.html August 10, 2017 at 01:19AM
Are You Making the Most Common Marketing Mistake?
The irrepressible Michelle Joyce is my agent. She handles all of my events and speaking opportunities over on the JayBaer.com site. On her blog, she runs a Friday series where she interviews speakers that she represents. She interviewed me recently, and I thought I’d post it here as well, as the topics are relevant for Convince & Convert readers. What’s the most common marketing mistake companies make?Every marketer in the history of the world tells themselves the same lie, and when doing so, makes the same mistake. The lie they tell themselves is, “My customers are just too busy.” They believe customers are too busy to read the blog, watch the video, sit through the demo, or interact with the Instagram post. This is completely untrue. It’s not about busy. Are people busier now, or when there was no microwave, ATM, or Uber? We are less busy than ever. What’s changed is that there is more competition for attention. So when a customer says they are “too busy” to interact with the company, that’s a euphemism. What they really mean, but rarely say, is that what you have put in front of them is simply not RELEVANT enough. If you give a customer or prospect the information she needs, in the format she prefers, at the moment when it’s convenient, the time needed to consume and interact with that information will magically appear. Relevancy is the killer app, and relevant marketing creates attention. When a customer complaint is received, what is the best way to address it?Answering a complaint (not necessarily solving the problem, just answering) increases customer advocacy by as much as 50 percent. Not answering a complaint decreases customer advocacy by as much as 25 percent. This is because no response IS a response—a response that says, “We don’t care about your dissatisfaction enough to even acknowledge it.” This is why I recommend answering every complaint, in every channel, every time. What are the critical steps to providing an exceptional customer experience?Customer experience is how we make our customers feel. Done well, customer experience creates new customers for free, as remarkable customer experiences (I call these Talk Triggers) compel word of mouth. The best ways to create Talk Triggers are to observe how customers really use your products and services, and then find ways to consistently deliver something that’s differentiated. For example, there are many car rental services, yet only one has a Talk Trigger: Enterprise, because they’ll pick you up. How can a company benefit from your presentations?I help companies clone their customers. I combine 24 years of experience, advising 700 brands and nearly 40 FORTUNE 500 firms, with day-to-day knowledge of the real-time changes in customer expectations and technology. I identify the marketing, customer service, and customer experience shifts that create winners and losers within industries; translate those shifts to actions; and then give the success recipe away, one audience at a time. I do this with hyper-relevant examples, a big dose of humor, a hopeful message, and a crazy plaid suit. It’s why meeting planners call me the world’s most inspirational marketing and customer service keynote speaker. Why is it so important for organizations to align their sales and marketing teams?Results, plain and simple. Aligned sales and marketing teams (Smarketing, ftw!) increase revenue at rates that far exceed companies that are not aligned. If you just showed up on this planet from another galaxy, or you just finished a 40-year stint in prison, and someone told you that the way most companies run is that one division focuses on marketing, and a whole separate group focuses on sales, you would think that structure to be ridiculous. Yet, it’s the norm. It doesn’t work, and it’s one of my missions to bring the sledgehammer that breaks down the walls between the two groups. (If you haven’t visited the JayBaer.com site to peek at the four programs I offer to audiences, take a little virtual trip. There’s a nifty, free ebook over there too!) Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/are-you-making-most-common-marketing.html August 09, 2017 at 07:04AM
How Your PPC Strategy Should Differ on the AdWords Search VS Display Network
As we ramp up for Unbounce’s upcoming PPC week, we thought we’d revisit some of our favorite PPC posts from the archives. This post was originally published in June 2015 but still rings true. Enjoy!
Have you ever been kicking so much AdWords Search Network butt that it made you raise your chest and gave you instant super powers? You know, the type of confidence that makes you walk with a pep in your step and hair bouncing around?
Kinda like this mini-horse. Image source.
Feels AMAZING. But sometimes you hit a ceiling with the keywords you’re bidding on, and there’s literally no more Search Network traffic out there (since your impression shares are all around 98%). You immediately think of using the AdWords Display Network, simply because you know there’s more traffic, cheaper clicks and much more potential ROI just waiting to be grabbed.
Actually, don’t do that. It won’t get you conversions. Image source.
As you may already know, the AdWords Display Network (also known as the Google Display Network/GDN) is the biggest digital ad network in the world. It allows you to advertise on publisher properties like websites, mobile apps, Gmail, YouTube and more. Compared to the AdWords Search Network, the Display Network also houses the largest viewership of any online platform. YouTube itself has a monthly viewership equivalent to 10 Super Bowls – so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that display advertising is said to capture 34% of all online ad spend and about 10% of all marketing budgets. But with new channels come different strategies. What you’re doing on the AdWords Search Network will not perform the same way on the Display Network. If the Display Network is uncharted territory for you, here’s how you need to adjust your current PPC strategy to get the results you want. Different user behavior calls for a different strategyThe biggest difference between the AdWords Search Network and Display Network can be seen in the sweet visual I had my designer custom-make below. In the “Chuck Norris” action cycle above, you can see how the power of keyword intent in the Search Network can put people really close to taking action (AKA converting), but the Display Network typically has visitors who are a few steps behind. This is because people who are on the Display Network aren’t actively searching for what you offer. As Erin Sagin puts it, they’re rarely in “shopping mode.” Instead, Display Network visitors are most likely in the research phase when your display ads are hitting them. They’re on forums, blog posts, or watching that YouTube vid trying to gather enough information to make a decision. They don’t know what they need yet, so your job is create awareness. If you’re selling more of an “emergency” service like being a locksmith or roadside assistance, then you’ll have a hard time using the Display Network to your advantage. This is simply because ads on the Display Network are not triggered from a search engine like text ads on the Search Network are. The Search Network works as a demand harvester (your ads are grabbing the intent), while the Display Network works as a demand generator (your ads are creating awareness). So how do you change your strategy from the Search Network to also make the AdWords Display Network a money making machine? Create trust and deliver valueAs I mentioned, your Display Network ads could be interrupting someone who’s reading the news, reading a blog or watching a video. Because of that, the level of commitment it takes for someone to stop what they’re doing, click your ad, then call you or fill out your landing page form is high and much more unlikely compared to the Search Network. In other words, you can’t expect to have the same campaign conversion rates on the Display Network as you do on the Search Network. If you’re offering “Free Quotes” on the search network because people are actively searching for someone who can relieve their problem, it might actually be better for you to lead with valuable educational material (i.e. your content) on the Display Network. A perfect example of this is my crush of an email marketing company, Emma. Emma uses the AdWords Search Network to drive sign ups, but they use the Display Network to give you great, fun and actionable value. Here’s what some of their Display Ads look like (click on them to go to the accompanying landing page): I reached out to Cynthia Price (the Director of Marketing at Emma) and she gave me this golden nugget about how they use the AdWords Display Network:
You already know that content marketing’s core foundation is about adding true value. Your display ads should be no different. On the Display Network, your first goal is to establish trust by giving value, and then nurture the visitors down the road to become paying customers. Revisit your targeting optionsOnce you have a great piece of content that delivers value and educates your audience, it’s time to figure out how to target it to people who actually want it. Let’s have a look at the five targeting options that’ve been found to drive the biggest impact on the Display Network. To illustrate how each one works, let’s pretend you’re a dog walker. Your name is Lori and you live in Huntington Beach, CA. You’ve been advertising on the AdWords search network and this is your landing page: What are your best targeting options? Placement targetingPlacement targeting allows you to advertise directly on certain publisher sites. This means you could have your ad show up on Forbes or CNN if you’d like. Best practice advice: Make sure the website or page’s audience is relevant to what you’re offering. Don’t shotgun approach all of CNN – sniper shot individual placements within CNN if you can. Contextual/Keyword targetingContextual/Keyword targeting allows you to give Google your keywords and have it automatically find relevant placements for your ads. Best practice advice: Mix this with placement targeting to be even more laser focused with your targeting. Topic targetingTopic targeting allows you to go more broad than regular placement targeting. For this, you could target the topic of Pets & Animals directly and cast a wider net, with the possibility of your ads showing up on FerretLovers.com (yes, that’s a real site). Best practice advice: See what Topic targeting gives you, then exclude unwanted placements from your campaign once things are running and data is coming in. Interest targetingInterest targeting is kind of similar to topic targeting, but instead of judging the context of websites, interest targeting tracks behaviors of web users. This targeting method can be even more vague than topic targeting. Best practice advice: Every industry is different, so always test things out and see the performance. Be quick to pause and exclude irrelevant placements once data comes in. Combining targeting methodsThis is where you’ll have a lot of fun and potentially get better results. You’re not locked into using just one targeting method with the AdWords Display Network. In fact, Alistair Dent over at Search Engine Watch and many others highly recommend never going with just one targeting option, but combining multiple together. You can target certain placements with the addition of contextual/keyword targeting to tell Google that you only want your ads to show when a visitor is on CNN and reading an article about dog walking. Or you can target different interests with contextual/keyword targeting as well. Create multiple ad groups, each with their own targeting specifications, and see how they perform against each other. Once you’ve hit your stride and conversions are coming in, pause the other ad groups that aren’t working, and make variations of the ad group targetings that are working for you, so that you can squeeze more out of your PPC dollars. Wrapping upWow! Quite a bit of info huh? Now that you clearly know why your Display Network strategy has to be different from your Search Network strategy, what do you have to lose? Get started now. Try different targeting combinations, and never forget to offer true value. What have you found to be the best driver of conversions on the AdWords Display Network? How different are your strategies compared to the ones we talked about? Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/how-your-ppc-strategy-should-differ-on.html August 09, 2017 at 12:49AM
10 Essential Tips to Improve Your Content Marketing Workflow
If a big, blue genie popped out of your coffee cup, would your first wish be for more time? If so, you might be surprised when the genie granted you an improved workflow, but it would make sense. After all, an efficient workflow can be a content marketer’s gateway to more time and free nights and weekends. Right now, companies are investing in content marketing. 70 percent of B2B content marketers expect to produce more in 2017, and 39 percent of companies expect to increase spending. That means more work for you—but not less time, if you’re smart about your workflow. Content marketers are not approaching workflow the right way. The quickest path to improvement is documentation. A documented workflow will use money more efficiently and free up time, while allowing marketers to produce more content. To understand the situation, let’s look at the five stages of a content marketing workflow:
As teams work content through these stages, information often moves from spreadsheet to email to Word document and back again. Team members find themselves running around hassling each other for updates, leading to inefficiency and frustration. A well-documented workflow creates transparency and accountability. The Content Marketing Institute’s annual report shows less than half of marketers currently have a documented content marketing strategy--37 percent of B2B and 40 percent of B2C. The key word is here is “documented.” Lots of content marketers have a verbal strategy—but effectiveness increases when the strategy is both documented and communicated. Take back your time—with or without a genie—by using these 10 essential tips to improve content marketing workflow from start to finish. If you read these 10 tips and still want more, you can read this article or watch this webinar for 30 tips. Ideation/Request ProcessTip 1: Establish both a process and a person to receive work requests.When you have ideas coming in and you’re putting your work requests into place, make sure you have a process and stick to it. Whether it’s an inbox, an e-mail address, a web form, or a work management tool, make sure that all your work requests come in the same way. (Warning: Do not fall for puppy-dog eyes from work requesters hoping to veer from the process.) “Make sure to talk with your creative(s) one-to-one before letting them race off to their caves to work,” writes Amanda Farmer of Dreamtown Creative, an Austin-based B2B tech marketing firm. “It’s the best way to ensure that everyone shares the same, accurate information and expectations for the project.” Processes become inefficient and overly complex when there isn’t a specific owner. Assign a person to own this process—not to do all the work, but to act as the responsible organizer. Tip 2: Require that requesters complete a results-oriented creative brief.A creative brief is usually a one-page document that outlines the content goals, messages, format, design, and expected ROI. It may seem like a simple task to produce a creative brief, but things get a little tricky in getting people to actually fill out their creative briefs. I’ve worked in both agencies and corporate settings where employees submit only partially completed briefs. People use “ASAP” as a deadline (!), or say “stick to corporate standards” for tone. In a survey of ad agency executives, 53 percent of respondents reported creative briefs lack focus, and 27 percent reported the briefs as incomplete and inconsistent—more than half of all briefs don’t provide clear information to guide the process. The creative brief should be universal, simple, and results-oriented. Create one creative brief that works for all your request types. Balance keeping the creative brief simple with obtaining enough information to make targeted marketing decisions. Define expected measures of success for a specific request. PrioritizationTip 3: Rank all requests by priority.Not all content requests should be considered equal. “Just because someone put an exclamation point on the email they sent to request it doesn’t mean it’s as important or more important than other things,” says Matt Heinz, founder and president of Heinz Marketing. He recommends using a system to rank priorities based on the potential impact of the content. “You can’t get everything done right away. You can’t get everything done, period.” When you’re filtering requests, some requests will be urgent, but others will be both urgent and important. Don’t lose the important chasing after the urgent. Let’s look at an example. At a late-night visit to the ER, you go to triage to be admitted. Here, a medical professional takes your vitals, listens to your complaint (usually rating pain on a scale of one to 10), and evaluates your condition. If the person screaming the loudest always got in first, the guy with the stubbed toe might get treated before the heart attack patient. When you have limited resources, use the triage process to put the most urgent and important cases first. Tip 4: Create process outlines for content production.Improve overall prioritization by understanding how long content actually takes to create. If you don’t document the steps you take for content production, analyze how long each step takes (using historical data), and consider transition times (waiting for reviews, approvals, etc.), you’re not going to know what is really on your plate. Hofstadter’s Law states that projects are always going to take longer than you expect. Folks at Orbit Media found in their 2016 survey of thousands of bloggers that the average time for a blog post is 3 hours, 16 minutes, which was a 26 percent increase from the previous year. Take this article, for example. It might seem like a simple piece of content to produce. You write some words, find a picture, and publish it—done! But there’s a lot more to it, especially when you start counting the minutes. Identify clear stages and time to complete them for each type of content you produce. The average time it takes content teams to create a blog post is 3 hours, 16 minutes. Content CreationTip 5: Leverage automation and reminder tools.When it comes to content creation at any level of your workflow, the more you can automate, the better. Reminders don’t have to be e-mail reminders or pop-ups; they can be any system you use on a regular basis—even a handwritten daily checklist. Hubspot reminds us that, for tasks we do over and over, “Why not automate [those actions] so you can spend your time on new projects?” Automated reminder tools help you be more consistent, save time, and get more done—win, win, win. Tip 6: Decide when content is “done.”Content creation involves constant communication with key stakeholders and reviewers—discussion, updates, and revision--but at some point, you have to call it. Think back to how many times you’ve marked a document “final version 68.” Establish criteria to determine when a content piece is “done” to keep the content process moving forward smoothly. For example, you can designate two reviews and an approval to eliminate excessive reviews at the end of production. Content Organization and StorageTip 7: Establish a content storage process with a protocol and naming system.After content is created, how will you store it and make it available to other people? Think about how many times someone has come to you asking for your corporate logo—content that should be easily available to everyone within the organization. Make sure you have a coordinated, simple, and efficient content storage process. Use a standardized naming system. This could include the date in a consistent format (i.e., 2017.07.01) at the beginning or end of the file name. Create a naming convention that everyone both understands and uses. Tip 8: Create a hand-off process.A process to hand off content to the teams using it saves time. Whether you’re sending finished work on to sales enablement, demand generation, or your blog department, incorporate a clear hand-off so teams will know a piece is finished and ready for promotion. Publication and PromotionTip 9: Publish and promote content based on your distribution strategy.Be strategic and smart about how and when you publish and promote content. Just because you finally finished that ebook last night does not mean now is the right time to publish. You won’t get the ideal number or type of eyes on it in a haphazard push. When it’s time to publish, remember distribution best practices. Use technology to improve distribution—hashtags, links to popular posts, or automated influence-enhancement systems (think dlvr.it, GaggleAMP, or Triberr). Tip 10: Measure results.Did you meet your planned ROI? Determine whether the content you’ve built has achieved the goals you set out—maybe using some of these analytics reports. Let information about past content inform your plans for new content. Find out the topics people liked, content the sales team used, and unexpected attributes that drove demand. Circle back to measure results as often as possible. You can check out this ebook to learn more about content marketing metrics. Now, put these tips to work. Your more efficient workflow will result in fewer nights and weekends spent at work, more successful budget requests, coordination of efforts across areas, quicker content delivery—and less time spent overall. Thank you, workflow genie—looks like I didn’t have to use my wish for more time after all! This post is part of a paid sponsorship between Workfront and Convince & Convert. Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from Jay Baer at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter. Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/10-essential-tips-to-improve-your.html August 08, 2017 at 08:34AM
6 Trends in Digital Advertising That Take Us from 2017 to 2020
With the ever-changing digital landscape, paid social is changing at a fast and furious pace. Just a few weeks ago, Snapchat rolled out self-serve access to a broad range of its ad products, and we’ve seen Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest get more creative with interactive and engaging paid content that better reflects the ways in which people use their platforms. Recently, I explored the trends that will be impacting us now and in the next three to five years, at Innovation Congress from Social Fresh, an event focused on the digital marketing, media, and technology that will be impacting us in the near future. In the last year, most of the questions I’ve received from clients on social advertising have been around the form factors of paid content—the “what” and the “how.” The first three trends I share will focus on current areas. As Video Proves, Multimedia EngagesWhy is video content so dominant in 2017? We all know how easy it is to misinterpret an email or tweet or article. Text is limited in the way it conveys meaning. Humans have evolved to read faces, tone of voice, and body language; and the rich multimedia of video content allows us to reclaim some of those capabilities. A popular refrain on the Facebook campus is that “the camera is the new keyboard,” according to an article in TechCrunch. With the ease of live streams, photo sharing, and video editing on the fly, it’s no wonder why. Not only is video key for storytelling, but it’s useful in communicating a lot in a short span, which can be key in paid social campaigns, where you may only have three to five seconds to hook someone and keep them on your ad. Native Advertising Allows Marketers to Engage, Rather Than DisruptNative advertising’s aim is to be relatively unobtrusive by providing value-driven content within feeds, sites, and channels where the audience is already engaging. Companies that are spending their ad dollars in this space aren’t necessarily talking about their brands, but rather, they’re showcasing their brand’s relationship with the broader community or larger cultural trends. The benefit of this type of content is that, when executed well, it may be more share-worthy for the audience because it provides standalone value outside of talking about the brand/product. In other words, its aim is to engage with the audience on their turf. In 2017, there are a lot of media brands (Buzzfeed, Refinery29, the New York Times) and influencers who have found the right formulas to create native advertising pieces that both stay true to their audiences and highlight their advertising partners well. But there’s still room to improve. We must consider the following questions: Should these pieces be fully disconnected from the advertisers’ brands so that they’re less “ad-like”? Or does that erode their value for advertisers? Influencer Marketing Is About RelationshipsFrom employees to micro-influencers to those with one million followers, the reason that influencers are trusted by their audiences is that these audiences have relationships and trust built up with these individuals. Paid promotion that leverages influencers is best when the content shared is genuine; the influencer has to be true to their style and messaging, and the brand has to deliver upon its promises. My friend Nick Cicero, founder and CEO of Delmondo, shared a great case study at Innovation Congress: His company worked with Marriott Rewards, and a Snapchat influencer to create a video story series that was fun for the audience and showcased each influencer’s personality. Not only did they share the content organically, but they put paid dollars behind the campaign on Snapchat and other networks to get even more out of the content. So what’s next for digital advertising? Here are three trends that will drive the next few years of ad-tech and creative. Contextual Ads Get Extra ExtraYes, we’re seeing geo-fenced ads rolling out, including ads that respond to what you’ve browsed recently. But we’re still in the uncanny valley of responsive advertising. By mining big data, advertisers will be able to serve up the right ad based not only on your activities, but your motivations and desires. If you think that the recommendations on Netflix have gotten smart, think about what the possibilities might be for advertising. If you think Netflix recs have gotten smart, think about the possibilities for your advertising. Augmented Reality Makes Ads More UsefulSure, we’re having fun with Snapchat Lenses now, but the next wave of AR ads will let you see that dining table in your own home or let you try the latest piece of jewelry without leaving the couch. With the roll-out of the Apple AR kit and Google Lens, we’re seeing the possibilities for apps, but soon, we’re going to see the applications in engaging ads as well.
Mining Visual Data Unearths Powerful InsightsVisual search has arrived, benefiting advertisers on Pinterest, Google, and Bing with data about the visuals people are looking for. But with tools like MetaEyes rolling out, marketers will also be able to see what types of images their fans are posting in their social media feeds. This will allow advertisers to get even more specific and effective in terms of showing the most relevant ads for converting their customers. What unites these trends is that they’re focused on translating data on behavior and interests to create ads that respond to consumers’ actions with more nuance, accuracy, and relevancy than ever before. The better the experience is for the audience, the better the ads will perform for brands. By understanding where we’re going in the next few years, we can better plan our content to reflect the capabilities and interests of our audience. Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from Jay Baer at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter. Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/6-trends-in-digital-advertising-that.html August 08, 2017 at 08:34AM
Where to Find the Next Great Addition to Your Marketing Team
To say I’m a huge fan of digital marketing titan Jay Baer would be an understatement bordering on criminally remiss. Not a week goes by that I don’t feast my ears on the delicious audio awesomeness that is the Social Pros Podcast. On episode 266 of Social Pros (one of the better ones, which is saying something), guest LaSandra Brill made the profound statement that AI (artificial intelligence) is where social media was ten years ago. AI presents a huge headache in terms of staffing, as relatively few people have the necessary skills to play in this burgeoning space. Jay readily cosigned this sentiment, referencing an Oracle CMO Summit he recently hosted. At the summit, Jay asked 150 CMOs what their biggest challenge was. They responded, “Finding the right people for our teams, given where marketing is today and where it’s headed.” I have a message for those 150 CMOs: Stop making excuses, and put your money where your mouth is. Fixing the Shortage of Trained Digital Marketing ProfessionalsDigital marketing evolves so rapidly that people’s mindsets often don’t keep pace with reality. There’s this tendency to lean on soothing myths like, “They don’t teach this stuff in school.” (I’m looking at you, Gary Vee!) As with most myths, this one contains a nugget of truth. While I would certainly agree that the current state of digital marketing education is, on the whole, pathetic, I’ll borrow from my podcast interview with Mark Schaefer: To assert that current digital marketing isn’t taught at the collegiate level simply isn’t factual. It’s a rare and endangered species, to be sure, but it most certainly does exist. The first step in solving any problem is admitting there is one. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Internet Marketing from Full Sail University. Full Sail’s IMBS program was incepted in 2007. It’s 2017, y’all! The degree program has been around for a full decade at this point. So just how long is the industry going to hold on to the myth that degreed internet marketers don’t exist? (FTC Disclosure, a.k.a. Factually Told Candor: No one from the alumni association put me up to this. I’m not being compensated in any way by Full Sail University. I’m writing this because I genuinely believe formal education has a huge role to play in solving the personnel pipeline problem plaguing the industry, as articulated by Jay’s 150 CMOs at the Oracle Summit.) The following is an excerpt from my book Beyond Buzzwords: Social Media, Mobile & Other Marketing Buzzwords Ain’t the Half of It!. “For those who don’t know, Full Sail University is a well-respected digital media school. Its graduates run the gamut in the entertainment industry from one mixing Pharrell Williams’ platinum song Happy, to another working on popular video games franchises such as Call of Duty, Halo and Grand Theft Auto; as well as many movie blockbusters including The Avengers, X-Men and The Hunger Games. From The Emmys to American Idol, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, professional sporting events in the NBA, NFL, MLB and everywhere in between; there isn’t too much of the entertainment business a Full Sail grad doesn’t touch in some capacity.” And then you have us lowly internet marketers, by far the black sheep of Full Sail University. We may work in the entertainment industry, or we might work at a bank. Just about everyone needs internet marketing services nowadays, so we aren’t limited to one industry. We make up anywhere from three to five percent of the student body. Due to the high profile, seriously cool nature of the work Full Sail grads do in the entertainment industry, the school has no problem attracting not only top talent but corporate sponsorships as well. As of 2016, the WWE has awarded $250,000 in scholarships, $10,000 at a time, to Full Sail students. But the on-campus awesomeness doesn’t stop with being presented with a cardboard check by Triple H. You’ll also see bona fide superstars regularly making the rounds on Full Sail’s campus, everyone from hip hop artist Joell Ortiz to NFL Quarterback Cam Newton. To assert that current digital marketing isn’t taught at the collegiate level simply isn’t factual. How to Recruit Degreed Internet Marketers for Your Marketing TeamSponsor a live digital marketing conference and scholarship award on Full Sail University’s campus. Conferences and seminars are by far the predominant way the industry professionalizes itself and disseminates best-in-class practices, so you wouldn’t have to look very hard to find top-notch speakers like Carlos Gil, Brian Fanzo, Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, David Meerman Scott, etc. Full Sail University has the added benefit of coming replete with a concert-quality live venue and full production staff (students), so you wouldn’t need to rent out a hotel ballroom or meeting space—a huge way to save on cost. All your organization needs to do is bring in the speakers, cut a few cardboard checks to well-deserving students, and watch your digital marketing personnel pipeline swell. Full Sail has the venue and production staff baked in, so it wouldn’t cost that much compared to a regular conference. An event like this accomplishes several things for your organization:
Partnering with institutions such as Full Sail can directly address the shortage of trained digital marketing professionals, get enrollment in the degree program up, and be a call to action for other CMOs and institutions of higher learning to get their acts together. Think about it, then take action! Reach out to internet marketing program director (a.k.a. the Dean) Rob Croll, and tell him his favorite outspoken problem child sent you. The right people for your marketing team are out there, ready and waiting. Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from Jay Baer at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter. Via Digital Marketing http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://joshuadmeritt.blogspot.com/2017/08/where-to-find-next-great-addition-to.html August 07, 2017 at 06:19PM Copywriting has been a refined art ever since the late David Ogilvy used a talent for pairing the right phrase with the right image at the right time to build the global marketing, PR, and advertising empire we know today as Ogilvy & Mather.
As Ogilvy put it in a 1982 memo to his staff entitled, "How to Write," people who think well also write well and are more likely to be bound for greater heights in the ad business. The same rule applies on the web. Learn to write good website copy and your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—think of it as digital catnip for Google—will improve, as will your site ranking. If good copy is good business, it's a good idea to learn what makes for good website copy. Here are three SEO secrets for improving your copywriting and attracting a wider audience online: 1. How do those who visit your site find you? What terms do they search for? Connecting your site with a tool such as Google Analytics can help you find out. If they're finding you accidentally or via the wrong keywords, that's a clue your copywriting needs improvement. Read Full Article Here: SEO Secrets: 3 Ways to Improve Your Website Copy |
Joshua Meritt
Joshua Meritt is an SEO specialist. He has been working in the digital marketing agency for seven years now. Check out his blog! |