Tag: Focus

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Five Tips to Creating Your First Google Web Story

Before you publish your first Google web story, it is essential you understand the basics first. Google requires certain information and criteria to produce quality content worth sharing with its audience on its Discovery page or the Google search engine results page.

 

Google web stories offer your blog or website a new way to generate more traffic and revenue through a creative, powerful, and immersive storytelling format. They are much different from regular social media stories. You are the owner of all the content and the host – giving you more control, ownership, customization, and ways to increase your revenue than other platforms with the story feature.

 

Here are five tips to keep in mind when creating your first Google web story:

 

Think 10 to 15 Second Hooks

 

Each Web story slide lasts about ten to fifteen seconds, depending on how you set it. Meaning that the information you share in each frame, even if you create a full thirty pages, should be easily and quickly digested. It is unlikely many will go back too many times to re-read stories as it can be tedious. Of course, that should never be your goal when creating stories in the first place. The point of stories is to make it even easier for your target audience to take in your information.

 

Animate and Choose a Theme

 

Stories are more entertaining and easier to digest when they have a consistent theme and proper animations. Animations keep your viewers interested, and themes keep your brand image clear and focused.

 

Keep Titles and Story Lengths Short

 

Google stories that are between five and thirty frames perform the best. However, it highly depends on your niche and the type of content you create. Title lengths should be around ten characters long but no more than forty.

 

Include an Attractive and Compelling Cover Image

 

Before creating a valid google web story, you must add in your cover image and publisher logo. Be sure your cover image is highly attractive and makes your viewers want to click. Your cover image is no different than the image that appears before your blog post link or YouTube thumbnail. However, the more compelling it is, the more likely someone will click on it. Use images with a good resolution of 900 pixels by 1200 pixels.

Include Relevant Links

 

Always include a relevant link to your story. In fact, this needs to be done in order to create a valid web story. Again, the main function of Google web stories is to increase your website traffic. If there is no link, it’ll be hard for your viewers to reach you. They will be more likely to click off.

 

To maximize your reach and potential with Google web stories, following these tips is a must. These tips, along with the checklist the plugin provides, are required to properly communicate and build an effective story that converts to more revenue or increased traffic.

 

 

 

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How to Use Google Web Stories for Business

To reach a wider audience and market to nearly half of the internet population who uses their phone to shop online, Google web stories are a must-have business tool. It allows you to create a story through different visuals, text, and audio features that are highly engaging and shareable. Thus, making your other content more interesting to new readers or potential buyers. Not only that, but Google web stories can also add a new dynamic, creativity, and impact to your content altogether.

 

Here are the five steps to creating and setting up your first Google web story using the Google Web Stories plugin for WordPress:

 

Step One: Create a WordPress Blog

 

In order to use the Google Web Stories plugin, you need to have a WordPress blog. WordPress blogs offer more freedom and customized options, making them a great platform to create your website. It is also highly friendly to search engine optimization too.

10 Simple Steps to Building a Blog on Word Press.

Step Two: Find and Download the Web Stories Plugin for WordPress

 

Once you have established your blog, you will need to download the plugin and fill in the settings page. First, select “Plugins” from the WordPress menu to the left. Then select “Add New” next to “Plugin” when the new window appears. From there, you can search for “Web Stories” in the search bar that appears to the right. Next, select “Install Now” next to the right plugin. After it downloads, select “active.” You will then be instructed to fill in the settings page to connect your Google AdSense account and add your logo.

 

Step Three: Create a New Story or Explore Templates

 

Now you are ready to get creative and develop your first story. From the WordPress menu, look to the left of your dashboard, find “Stories.” Then select “Add New” or “Explore Templates.” If you select “Explore Templates,” this will lead you to a list of free templates you can use to create a more consistent story. Otherwise, you will be sent directly to the Web Stories builder.

 

Step Four: Fill in Required Information and Customize Your Story

 

When you get to the Stories builder, be sure to add your cover image and publisher logo in the Document panel to the right to create a valid web story first. This is where you will also develop a story description, set your page’s advance length, and add music. Then you will need to add a title no longer than forty characters long in the section labeled “title” above your story content. Once you have these set, you can add in your frames and customize them to your liking. Note that filling in the “link” section of your design after adding an image is also important.

 

Step Five: Preview, Publish and Test

 

As you customize, your frames use the preview option located at the top right of your builder next to “publish.” This way, you can get a clear view of your story as you are creating it. You even get to choose what device you want to view it from. Next, view the checklist provided in the bottom left to follow along with the suggestions provided by the application. Once happy with the results, publish the story and then test it using the Google Web Stories Test Tool to ensure you filled in all the important information required for a valid story to publish.

 

Overall, getting your first Google web story going is easy with the Web Stories plugin for WordPress. As you go along, be sure to read each tip and follow through the checklist it provides to create compelling, attractive, and quality content for Google to share.

 

 

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How to Use YouTube Stories for Business

Every single day nearly one billion hours of content is viewed on YouTube daily. With around thirty million visitors every day, there is no reason you shouldn’t be taking advantage of this platform if you run or want to own a business. YouTube and its story feature are powerful avenues to better market your products, services, values, and ideas to your target audience. It also provides you a chance to create powerful and beneficial content in order to build a community that benefits your brand. YouTube stories are short clips only viewable from a smartphone and available to your audience for seven days.

 

The following is how to use YouTube stories for your business:

 

First Understand the Requirements

 

You must have 10,000 subscribers first in order to unlock the story feature. While this can be a downside to many business owners, you need to remember that YouTube is a great marketing tool. Additionally, note that you will not have this feature if you set your audience to kids.

 

Find the Plus Icon on Your Smart Phone and Select “Add to your story.”

 

The plus icon is located near the bottom center of your screen when you open the YouTube smartphone application. After you select the plus sign, you then need to select “add to your story.” If you do not see this as an option, your channel has yet to reach the requirements or needs to wait seven more days for the feature to appear.

 

Record a Video or Snap a Photo and Enhance

 

Tap or hold down the red record button, then save, trim, add text, stickers, or polls that enhance your content and make it more engaging. There are three more important stickers to include: video stickers to help promote a video, mention stickers to mention other YouTubers, and location stickers to reach your audience in a certain location.

 

Share and Reply to Comments in a Story for Extra Engagement

 

Finally, you can share the post once you believe the quality is right for your audience. Be sure to stay engaged with your audience. Don’t just post a story and then forget about them. If they are interacting, reply or post new stories to keep it up. The more value and engagement you bring to YouTube, the more successful your business will be.

 

Be sure to reply to comments to increase your engagement. You can do this by going to your profile and selecting comments. Then below the comment, you would like to reply select “reply in story.” Finally, record or upload your reply and choose post to share.

How do YouTubers Make Money? 

Just like other platforms, the YouTube Story feature is straightforward and easy to use. Once you post your story, they are viewable from your channel for all your subscribers to see and last for a full seven days. The more you can connect to your target audience, the more you can grow and increase your success on the platform.

 

 

 

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How to Use Snapchat Stories

Snapchat stories are a fun marketing tool to use for businesses that need to advertise to a younger demographic. Around fifty-nine percent of those between twenty-four and thirty who use the internet use Snapchat. In 2019, the application had three hundred million downloads ranking them the seventh most downloaded application globally, showing you just how powerful Snapchat still is and can be to businesses. In fact, it is said that those who use Snapchat are sixty percent more likely to make an impulse buy. Meaning, if you have a product business, you should be using Snapchat.

 

Here are the four steps to using Snapchat stories:

 

Step One: Select Your Profile or Swipe to the Camera Function

 

To get to your profile, select your picture from the top left of the screen. Then select “Add to My Story” below “My Stories,” your photo, and your username. The second way to create a story is to swipe to the camera or click the camera icon currently located at the bottom center of the screen.

 

Step Two: Create Your Snap or Upload

 

From here, there are several different ways to create your story. Simply tap or hold to record or click the two small boxes located to the left of the record button. A new screen called “Memories” will appear where you will need to click “Stories” below the search box. Then click “Start a Story” to create a story with previous Snaps. The third way to create a story is to select the smile emoji next to the record button to pick a filter.

 

Step Three: Enhance with Features and Tags

 

Once you create the content, a menu to the right will appear. This menu includes adding text, stickers, choosing your font type or color, and adding popular emojis. You can also add music, links and change the time of how long each frame appears.

The most important feature from this list is the stickers that look like a post-it note. This is where you can make your stories more engaging and interactive.

 

Step Four: Select “Story” From the “Send To” Page

 

When satisfied with the way your story looks, it is time to post it. First, select “Send to”  then “My story” on the next page if you used the camera feature. If you created the story straight from your profile, select the play button that appears at the bottom right.

Top Fives Platforms for Social Media Stories 

Overall, getting used to editing and other features is what makes Snapchat different. Once you get used to adding them, you can improve your contact and engagement with your audience over time. Snapchat is a great tool for businesses that have a younger target audience and highly visual content. Follow these steps to get your first Snapchat story live in no time.

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Five Steps to Posting your First Instagram Story

By far, the number one platform to take advantage of for social media stories is Instagram. However, while Snapchat was the first, that does not make them the best. Instagram has nearly double the number of active users compared to Snapchat – making it not even a close comparison.

 

Almost eighty-seven percent of its nearly billion monthly active users post stories. Even better, a quarter of millennials and generation Z who use the platform say they use stories to find and purchase new products. So if you are a business not taking advantage of Instagram Stories, you should get right on it.

 

Here are five steps to posting your first Instagram story:

 

Step One: Plan Your Content

 

Always have a plan before you upload or record a story. You want to be sure everything you share is not only valuable but entertaining and engaging. The more you plan it out, the more likely you will have well-rounded stories to share sustainably.

 

Step Two: How to Upload or Record a Story

 

Find the plus icon from the Instagram application. The plus icon is currently located on the top right of your profile.  You can also create a story by selecting the plus icon below your profile picture where it says “Your Story” when you open the app or swipe with one finger all the way to the left for the camera to open. Then from the bottom, select “Story.”

Step Three: Upload or Record Your Content

 

Now you can either upload your previously recorded story, take a picture, record a video or go live. Select or hold down the white circle in the middle to take a picture or record your video. Select the box in the bottom left field to upload content and choose the content you would like to upload from the new window selections. Select the filters from the button next to the record or capture button to edit your content.

 

Step Four: Personalize and Enhance Your Story

 

After taking a picture or recording your story, you can enhance it with stickers, emojis, text, and music. Tap the center of the picture or video to add text, change the font style, size, and color or add motion. Select “Done” from the top right of the screen when you are finished with the text. Then you have an option to add a link, save the story, add stickers, and do other things you can do via the menu located in the top right of the story.

 

Step Five: Tap Publish and Watch Your Metrics

 

Select ” Send to ” from the bottom right corner. Then, select ” Send to ” from the bottom right corner. Next, select ” Send to ” from the bottom right corner – once you add in features that increase understanding and engagement, select “Send to” from the bottom right corner. Then select “Share” next to “Your Story” and profile picture. From here, you can even choose to share it with others.

 

Don’t neglect your Instagram stories any longer with these five easy steps. Instagram stories are a valuable resource to better market and increase your sales or engagement among your target audience. In addition, stories allow you to make your products, services, or business more interesting, personable, and trustworthy.

 

 

 

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Why You Should Take Advantage of Social Media Stories

To Increase Brand Awareness and Exposure

 

Social media stories are highly shareable content, making it easy to increase your exposure and awareness on the internet. Bringing value to your audience ensures that they want to share it with their peers, increasing your views and exposure. A vital step to the success of any business on the web. It’s simple, the more people you can get to view your content, the more likely your viewership or audience will grow. Social media stories are another creative and interactive avenue to do this.

Struggling With Social Media? A Calendar And System Can Help

To Humanize and Personalize Your Brand

 

Social media stories are powerful because they are viewed as a more personal and less informal way to communicate with your audience. Showing your human side effectively increases your reputation as a business, as many viewers see this as a more trustworthy trait. This inspires more trust and credibility required to transition your readers or viewers into loyal or paying customers. Being more personable and human also shows your relatability beyond your business responsibilities and goals. You can understand what your audience goes through daily.

 

To Increase Audience Engagement and Interaction

 

Audience engagement is how you keep them interested in your business. It also provides them value or solves a problem, further increasing your exposure and reputation as a brand or business. Again, the more value you bring, the more successful you will be. Engaging content keeps your viewers wanting more and provides you more resources to update and perfect your products or services.

 

Take advantage of these benefits by adding social media stories to your marketing plan today. The more tools you use within each platform, like stories, the easier it can be to build your awareness and exposure as a business while improving your audience engagement and participation. In other words, not taking advantage of social media stories is a poor decision and only shows your audience that you don’t care to adapt or provide them more value.

 

 

 

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Five Email Marketing Tips to Boost Sales

Email marketing is the most effective marketing strategy to date. Even compared to social media marketing by nearly 40% more. Industry or niche doesn’t really matter; you will see a high return on investment if you implement the proper email marketing tips and strategies.

 

These are the five email marketing tips you need to follow to boost your sales and increase your return on investment:

 

Enhance your Opt-Ins and Acquisition Process

You must generate leads by strengthening your acquisition process or opt-in forms. This is the content used to persuade viewers to subscribe to your email campaigns. Small eBooks, discount codes, or simple newsletters are a great place to start. Make sure the opt-in you use is what your readers want or need, and be sure to execute on that promise as soon as possible. If you know your audience struggles in a certain area, then this is the best place to start when developing opt-in or lead magnet content.

 

Value Your Subject Lines

While subject lines are short and sweet, you should take the time to craft the most compelling one. In fact, you should create at least two to three for every email you send and test them among different subscribers to pick the one with the best return eventually.

 

Perfect Your Call-To-Actions

Always include a call-to-action and be sure it is consistent between email and campaign. Don’t add more than one type per email, or you will likely split or confuse your subscribers. Instead, pick one goal and then perfect the call-to-action to optimize your chances of accomplishing it.

 

Focus on Personalization and Quality Content the Most

A huge benefit to email marketing includes how powerful it can increase your authority, credibility, and trust as a brand. The more personalized, engaging, and valuable the email content, the more likely you will convert your subscribers to paying customers. Valuable and quality content is key to gaining their trust and believing in your word. It’s simple if your target audience doesn’t know you very well, they are less likely to trust you with their money or time.

 

Create Multiple Landing Pages for Each Campaign

If boosting your sales is your email marketing goal, as it is for many, then you must create landing pages for each campaign you create. Landing pages are sales pages that further describe, entice or invite someone to join or purchase their products. Your call-to-action should lead them right to the landing page.

Work On Your Funnel Each Week And Continue To Branch Out 

Be sure to follow these email marketing tips or use them to audit your email marketing process to ensure you are doing what you need to boost your sales. Working on each part of the email marketing process is your key to success.

 

 

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Seven Tips to Optimizing Your Email Onboarding Sequence

The email onboarding sequence or acquisition process is the first and most crucial step to email marketing. Obviously, without leads or email addresses, you can’t properly communicate or market to them. However, acquiring your leads is far from the only requirement to creating an email onboarding sequence. Onboarding sequences also involve the steps between being a new subscriber to becoming a veteran or hopefully a loyal customer and, in turn, leading them down their next email sequences.

 

Here are seven tips to optimizing your email onboarding sequence

 

Always Start with A Confirmation

This is vital to ensure the deliverability of your email. Often, subscribers fill in the wrong information; however, a double-opt-in form where the reader must confirm their address reduces this chance. A confirmation is also a great way to personalize your introduction and further excite their interest.

 

Focus On Benefits Not Features

When subscribers first join, show them the benefits you promised in the opt-in. Don’t just list features. Provide real value. Give them instant satisfaction by joining your list with hardly anything in return.

 

Develop Inactive and Active Reader Sequences

Be sure to segment your list in terms of their behavior and how they respond to your emails. Especially the first few. If they don’t click them, they should be moved into different sequences or emails to persuade their interest further. This way, you know every email you send can accomplish its goal more effectively.

 

Use Call-To-Actions to Accomplish Your Goals

Lead and end every email with a call-to-action. Show and tell your subscribers what you need them to do in exchange for all the valuable content you provide through email. Make them clear and straight to the point. It is also important to note that call-to-actions with buttons and graphics convert better than those that don’t.

 

Be Fun and Engaging

Personalize and humanize your content. Speak to them as if you were talking to a friend, not a business lead. You want to focus on growing their trust and show them that you are worth the time and effort. Invite them to other platforms or ask them to reply to your email to get them to interact, engage and feel connected.

 

Keep It Short and To the Point

Your email copy length should be around 125 to 250 words or so. That’s right, and your emails should be pretty short. You don’t want to offer too much information all at once. Instead, each email should guide them along short and different journeys that all work together to share a similar message or goal.

 

Provide Generous Incentives

Make it even clearer to your new subscribers that you value their time by providing earlier and generous incentives that align with your call-to-action.

 

As you can see, the onboarding experience is more than just acquiring new subscribers. It’s about teaching them about the value you have to offer and what your company is about while also proving it. Finally, it’s about exceeding their expectations and giving them a great experience to transition into a loyal customer and subscriber.

 

 Lead Magnet Mistakes to Avoid

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Five Actionable Tips to Boost Your Email Opt-In Rate

Your email opt-in rate is the percentage of those who visit your website compared to those who become email subscribers. The higher the rate, the more email addresses you have to better market and communicate to your target audience. In other words, the imagine you had 1,000 people visit your website this month.

 

Fifty of those viewers decided to provide their email and opt-in to your campaign. Therefore, your opt-in rate would be five percent, the average that many other businesses see. An opt-in rate that is two percent or higher is said to be on the right track. To determine your opt-in rate, use the following formula:

 

(Monthly or Weekly Opt-In Subscribers/ Monthly or Weekly Website Viewers) * 100

 

(50/1000) * 100

 

0.05 * 100 = 5%

 

Opt-ins are materials that hook your audience in by providing them high-value content in exchange for their email address or cell phone number. Once you acquire their information, you lead them through your email marketing funnel to hopefully persuade them to be paying loyal customers. Therefore, improving your opt-in rate is important to running a successful email marketing campaign.

 

These five tips will help you boost your email opt-in rate:

 

Use Pop-Ups

Pop-ups can be a great reminder for your viewers as they are leaving or browsing your website. However, don’t overuse them as they can quickly become annoying and make them click off altogether. Many readers expect a few, but if they pop-up too frequently or make it too difficult for them to browse the site, they will simply get discouraged and leave.

 

Make the Opt-In Process Obvious and Easy

Be sure to optimize the signup process to the mediums your readers use the most such as smartphones. If the opt-ins or lead magnets are not optimized for their cell phones, they won’t be able to complete the process. Many readers will abandon a brand or business altogether if they refuse to learn how to adapt to their audience as well. Keep the opt-ins organized and straight to the point. Don’t overload the reader with too much information. For the most part, the opt-in should be scannable and understood in a few seconds.

Add Prominent Testimonials

Show social proof with customer testimonials. Make them obvious and near the signup button to show your readers that you are trustworthy. If others are seeing the benefit you promised they will want to participate.

 

Use the Fear of Missing Out

Urgency is a useful tactic to get your readers to act now. Discounts with deadlines or early bird tickets for hands-on classes are great examples of these. Most people can’t pass up a good deal, nor do they want to miss out.

 

Invite Them to a Call or Webinar

Humans love to feel like they are important or part of a community. Not only that, inviting them to a short one-on-one call or free webinar makes them feel more valued and that there is a real person who cares on the other side. It shows that you are there for more than just monetary gain. Increasing their trust and loyalty to the business.

 

Overall, providing value is key to increasing your opt-in rate and achieving your email marketing goals. If you don’t have valuable content to provide nor follow these six tips, it’s likely your email opt-in rates will be poor, destroying your sales and overall email marketing conversions.

How to Repurpose Your Influencer Marketing Content

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Four Tips to Enhancing your Email Call-To-Actions

Call-to-actions are vital to your email marketing campaigns. It is the material that instructs your audience to do something in order to get the conversions you need to grow and build a sustainable business. If you don’t tell or show your audience what you need them to do, you are unlikely to succeed.

 

Call-to-actions are like a guidebook that instructs your readers on where to go and what to do. In fact, you can increase your click-through rates by over 300% just by adding one single call-to-action, according to a WordStream report and further highlighting the importance of adding them to your email copy if you want to run a successful email marketing campaign.

 

The following are four tips to enhance your email call-to-actions to increase your conversions and run a more profitable email marketing campaign.

 

Use a Button and Colorful Graphics

Buttons are easy to see and obvious to most readers. They are eye-catching, clear, straight to the point, and easy to understand and use. Buttons also can improve your results by nearly 28% more than call-to-actions without them. A big red “buy now” button or “read more” is more obvious and easier for your subscribers to understand. Making it more likely for them to follow through if your products and services are what they need.

 

Use Action-Oriented Words

“Get the discount here” or “Try your free trial today” are perfect examples of action-oriented words that should be used in your call-to-actions. These words inspire your readers to do something and grab their attention.

 

Keep it Short and Urgent

Too much information or crowded images only persuade your audience to click away instead of click-through. It can also be confusing and overwhelming, allowing your readers to second guess instead of making a quick decision.

 

Using a sense of urgency and clear and direct information increases your click-through rate because people fear missing out. However, be sure to use this appropriately and not take advantage or misuse your readers. Urgency should be to inspire, not to take advantage of.

 

Highlight the Value Proposition

When deciding on what copy to use, be quick and to the point by highlighting the most valuable part. What are your readers getting out of doing the action you ask of them? Is it at a discount, more education, a chance to participate with others, and a bigger community? If you lead with this, it will be easy to get your readers to take action.

 

Don’t neglect your call-to-actions. Make sure your CTAs align with your goals and objectives to each and every email copy and campaign you create. Please keep it simple, direct, and obvious, and don’t forget the power of call-to-action buttons.

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