Tag: online marketing

Posted on

The Facebook Story Strategies to Follow for Business

Facebook stories are short clips, pictures, videos, audio clippings, or other animations shared at the top of followers’ Facebook or Messenger app and to the top right above the newsfeed of the desktop version. All a follower needs to do is tap on the profile picture of the story content they want to watch to view the content.

 

A blue ring will appear around the profile picture of Facebook users who have new stories for you to watch. These stories give businesses a more fun and attractive way to market to their target audience, increasing their success on the platform and as a sustainable and functioning business.

 

Here are five Facebook story strategies to follow to further grow and market your business on this platform:

 

Completely Fill in Your Facebook Page

 

Don’t leave any information out that Facebook asks for when you create your new page for your business. The most active pages have the most information for their audience. You’ll want to link them to your website, your other relevant content on the net and provide any answers they need to make a buying choice.

 

Enhance Your Facebook Stories with Creative Tools and Music

 

The tools Facebook offers to upgrade your stories are filters, graphics, words, and also music. You can replace any background sounds on videos captured for Facebook Stories using your Smartphone simply by using Facebook’s own editor in your phone. It’s not hard to do at all. Click around and give it a try so you can learn your systems and tools.

 

Keep Track and Up to Date with Facebook Stories Analytics

 

Use your analytics to do better. Don’t trust your own opinions about how your stories or posts are doing. Trust the metrics captured instead. This way, you can improve with each content update by doing what your audience wants most instead of what you happen to like.

 

Link Your Account with Instagram

 

The same company owns Facebook and Instagram, so you must go ahead and connect your Facebook account with Instagram to make use of both and double your views.

 

Use Facebook Story Highlights

 

The stories you create are automatically saved in your private story archives, which you can make live again whenever you want to. In addition, you can use these stories that were captured and shared to build a highlights reel so that your audience can learn more about you easily.

 

If you want to gain the most reward out of your Facebook story content, you must implement these strategies for your business. These tips ensure you use the platform and its features correctly and wisely to gain your audience’s attention and keep them interested and active with your brand. The more interested and engaged they are with the value you provide, the more likely they will purchase your products or services.

 

Struggling With Social Media? A Calendar And System Can Help

 

Posted on

Increase Your Snapchat Story Views with These Easy Tips

While Snapchat can bring your business many benefits, it can be one of the hardest platforms to gain views. In order to gain more followers, you need more views, just like any other social media platform. Because Snapchat focuses on close friendships rather than discovery, it takes more work to find new followers and gain more views. However, as long as you make unique, fresh, and inspiring content while using other tools and tips, it can be quite easy to gain more views.

 

Here are four tips to help you attract more Snapchat story views:

 

Increase Your Snapchat Score

 

Your Snapchat score is displayed below your profile picture and username. This number increases every time you send and receive a Snap or story. In other words, this number indicates how active you are on the platform. Use this scoring feature to encourage and motivate you to be more active and show new followers that you are a real business that provides value by sharing snaps and stories.

 

Get Featured on the Discover Page

 

Use location tags and hashtags, and be sure to add your story to the “Our Story” section from your editor tool after you post your story. The Discover page is Snapchat’s version of a newsfeed that features stories from publishing partners, influencers, or other brands.

 

Use Other Platforms Too

 

Having an Instagram or YouTube to advertise your Snapchat is always a good idea. It shows others that you have more than one way to communicate with them, and they may find Snapchat a more personal tool to connect with. However, be sure the content you share on each platform is different in some way. In other words, don’t repurpose without editing the content you share on the other platform. This increases your exposure on each platform and keeps you in good standing with them as many platforms strive for original content.

 

Keep a Consistent and Frequent Posting Schedule

 

The more quality content you provide, the more likely your current followers are to share your content.  Keep this content consistent and frequent throughout your day to keep your stories at the top of your follower’s feed. However, be sure the content you share always provides value. You don’t want just to throw up anything or share the same boring sales piece. Always enhance each of your stories with stickers, including one of your Snapcode, so new viewers can instantly add you. When they take a picture of this code through Snapchat, it will add you to their follower list.

 

When developing your Snapchat story content plan, keep these tips in mind to ensure you get the most views and gain more followers. Remember, make sure the content you post on Snapchat is unique and different from any other platform. Please take advantage of their tools and features and find a way to get on their discovery page to increase your chances of success on Snapchat.

 

Be More Accountable and Consistent, Share Your Goals

 

Posted on

How to Boost Sales with the Instagram Stories Shopping Feature

Visual storytelling will always be why Instagram remains the number one platform for stories and social media marketing. If you have visual products or can easily tell your message through pictures, videos, and other visuals, Instagram must be the platform you use, especially if you sell products with the Instagram story shopping feature.

 

Nearly eight hundred thousand users use Instagram to shop every single month. In addition, almost seventy percent of their five hundred million daily active users follow a business account even beyond the shopping feature. Meaning you will have no problem getting your stories in front of your audience. To use the shopping feature, you need to have a business account and connect to your Facebook catalog that sells physical goods.

 

Here are five ways to boost sales with the Instagram stories shopping feature:

 

Use the Product Sticker

 

Add or take a picture of you the product you want to promote. Tap on the “Stickers” icon and select “Product” stickers. Select the product from your Facebook catalog, then further enhance the story as needed. Be sure the product name you want to use is the name listed in the Facebook catalog. You do not have the option to change the name from your story. Select “Send to” at the bottom right of your screen when you are ready to share.

 

Highlight Customer Testimonials

 

Add other slides that include your products in action by customers or quotes about how much they love your products. Social proof or reviews is an essential part of the selling process. In fact, according to research published by Fan & Fuel, nearly ninety-two percent of consumers have stated they hesitate to purchase if there are no reviews on the product, and ninety-seven say they use reviews to influence their decision further.

 

Add a Swipe Up Link

 

Once you reach ten thousand followers, your account will unlock the “Swipe Up” feature to your stories to further encourage your viewers to click and go to your website and make a purchase.

 

Showcase One to Two Product at A Time

 

Don’t show too many products at once as it will only overwhelm your audience. Be sure each product you share is relatable to each other. For example, a clothing store highlighting a model sunglasses and hat for sale. Each of these products is near each other and has similar purposes. Thus, making it easier to market each product and tell a cohesive story.

 

Include Hashtags and Locations

 

Always include hashtags and location tags. This way, your viewers who don’t follow you have the chance to see your content. In addition, while stories advertise to your current followers, this gives you an increased opportunity to be placed on Instagram’s Explore page and those who search public accounts.

 

Use these tips to get your first sale through Instagram right away. Instagram shoppable posts and stories have been shown to increase traffic by over one hundred thousand percent — showing you just how important developing an Instagram stories content plan is to your overall business success.

Four Ways to Make Your Social Media Stories Stand Out

 

how to boost online sales on instagram

Posted on

What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories Highlights

Instagram story highlights are a vital section of your Instagram page, especially if you run a business or share many content creations through Instagram Stories. This section of Instagram appears below your profile picture and is a collection of videos or pictures of information you shared through your Instagram stories in the past. It is then organized in a way that is more easily digested amongst your audience.

 

These videos or pictures do not disappear unless you choose to remove them from the highlight. In other words, a highlight is a story you shared that is worth saving because it is valuable to your audience. It also provides a more organized and streamlined way for your readers to take in the important information you want to share and offer them while boosting your engagement and interaction.

 

Here is what you need to know about Instagram stories highlights and a few tips to take more advantage of its benefits:

 

Use Highlights to Extend the Life of your Stories

 

Highlights allow you to extend the life of your stories that normally only last twenty-four hours. You can even use stories that have been archived, a saving feature that Instagram offers of stories older than twenty-four hours that only you can see. This feature must be turned on or added to your archives before the time limit is reached.

 

Add Branded Highlight Covers

 

The Highlights section appears on your profile, below your picture and Instagram bio. Meaning it is an important area to update with your branding. Include your colors and a title, so your followers know what information you are saving and sharing.

 

Don’t Go Over One Hundred Clips or Photos

Focus on Results

The Highlights section can save one hundred clips and photos. Going over this number will automatically take off the one you put first, one hundred videos or pictures ago. It is important to keep track of this by creating a constant rotation, so you know each section is clear and provides value to your audience.

 

Use Highlights for Big Announcements

Four Ways to Make Your Social Media Stories Stand Out

Company announcements or important information about who you are and what you do is a good section to include in your Highlights. This gives potential new followers a quick look into who you are and what you can provide them by following.

 

Use Highlights for Commonly Asked Questions

 

A frequently asked question section is another important section that saves you time and makes it easy for your new audience. Add in as many questions as you can, including ones that involve your audiences’ answers.

 

Use Highlights to Create Interactive Tutorials

 

Finally, but certainly not least, a great way to use your Highlights feature is to create an interactive how-to tutorial. Interactive tutorials are an enjoyable way to get your viewers and followers involved while providing maximum value.

 

As you can see, if you are posting Instagram stories, then you should be taking advantage of highlights to store and share important information with your readers. Highlights allow you to organize your content better to communicate, engage and interact with your audience effectively. With Instagram highlights, you can now ensure that your readers will never miss out on valuable content.

 

 

 

Posted on

Four Ways to Reduce Your Email Unsubscribe Rate

Customer retention is a top priority if you are a business owner or email marketer. It is quite well known that it can cost five to twenty times more to find new customers than to please the ones you have. Therefore, if your unsubscribe rate is below two percent, you are currently on the right track and should strive to keep it there or even lower.

 

The following are four ways to reduce your email unsubscribers and build a more sustainable list: 

 

Audit Your Email Funnels Often

Better segment your readers, be sure they have a consistent schedule, not too long or too short, watch out for spammy looking content, segment by interest, and add them to multiple lists.

 

Plan and Map Your Content

Add in value and fun content, don’t just be a salesperson. Be cautious of your titles, as they are your first impression. Don’t use click-bait or sound obnoxious. Instead, speak to them naturally and let them know exactly what they will get out of the opening and reading your email.

 

Personalize and Incentivize

Be generous to get back what you are worth. If you only focus on what you get out of each email, then the content you are providing lacks quality. Instead, it would help if you concentrate on your audience and what they need the most for it to come back around to you. Then, keep the content personalized and find ways to incentivize them to continue engaging or reading your content. Giveaways, free downloads, or discounts are a few ideas.

 

Engage and Follow-up

Don’t ignore your audience once they become a subscriber or paying customer. The point of email marketing is to grow a sustainable and active audience that you can communicate with for the long-term. It is not a one-and-done strategy.

How To Improve Your Email Marketing ROI

Keep up with your audience by sending free educational material and asking for feedback or other questions that help you improve your content and overall value as a business. The more you engage and ask questions, the more you get to know your audience to become a better information source, improving your business’s growth and suitability.

 

A Harvard Business Review report states that simply increasing your retention efforts by as little as five percent can improve your profits by 25 to 95 percent. Showing you just how valuable keeping your unsubscribe rate low can be to your email marketing efforts. If you want to maximize your revenue and keep your subscribers interested, reviewing your goals, content, and getting to know your audience more is vital to your success.

 

Posted on

Four Easy Ways to Improve Your Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is determined by how often your email ends up in your subscriber inbox. If it’s not deliverable, it will bounce back or be rejected by their email service provider. On the other hand, a bounce-rate higher than you wish may mean that subscribers are not seeing your emails and not getting the value they deserve from your email campaign.

 

There are two types of bounce-rates; hard and soft. Hard bounces indicate some permanent error, such as an outdated or nonexistent email address. Which likely means the only thing you can do is remove the lead from your list. On the other hand, a soft bounce can be fixed and is probably a temporary error such as a full inbox or some server issue or lag. Meaning you can likely resend the email once the problem is fixed.

 

It’s important to note that many people have noticed that once their bounce rate reaches higher than ten percent, it starts to affect them throughout other campaigns. This is because your subscribers’ email service provider uses this information as a security measure and will add your email straight to the spam box or reject it.

 

Here are four easy ways to improve your bounce rate:

 

Create Double and Relevant Opt-Ins

Make sure your acquisition process includes a way to evaluate the information you collect. For example, using a double opt-in form makes your subscribers verify their email addresses. Ensuring that every lead you get is viable. The fewer errors in data entry you have, the easier you can pinpoint the main culprit to increasing your bounce rate.

 

Remove Inactive Email Accounts Regularly

If emails consistently bounce or are active, remove them from your list. Inactive emails can have a major impact on all of your conversions and this can give a more accurate representation. Programs such as NeverBounce can help simplify this process with their email verification and email cleaning services.

 

Don’t Forget Proper List Segmentation

One way to avoid your subscribers’ email service provider from thinking you are spam is to implement proper list segmentation. This is using a certain set of criteria, information, or time to target certain subscribers. Getting marked as spam is less likely if you stay organized and timely.

 

Avoid Free Sender Domains

Authenticate your email address and avoid using services such as Gmail. Using your own email prevents email service providers from seeing your content as spam.

Four Tips to Writing Better Email Subject Lines

Don’t ignore your bounce rate just because you believe it is out of your control. You can and must do many things to ensure your emails end up in their inbox and improve your bounce rate.

 

Posted on

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

Posted on

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.

 

 10 Content Marketing Tips for Email Marketing Success

Posted on

Six Easy Ways to Improving Your Email Open-Rate

Email open rate determines how well your emails are getting in front of your subscribers and if your subject line or titles are doing their job to pursue them to read. Either your titles are boring and unattractive, or the timing of when the email was sent is off.

 

Whatever it may be, it is important to figure it out and improve it in order to see the return on investment you are hoping for. A low open rate means your audience is not reading or seeing your content. Meaning you won’t have the opportunity to convert them into paying customers or achieve other email marketing goals.

 

Here are six easy ways designed to help improve your email open-rate:

 

Ask A Question

Intrigue your audience with an interesting question. Spike the curiosity, but be sure it is relevant to your overall goal and message as a business.

 

Discover Optimum Delivery and Frequency Time

Sending poorly timed emails can easily destroy your open rates. In addition, email boxes can get crowded, and people are not always on them like they are on social media.

 

It’s not as likely for them to continue to scroll through for hours, especially if they just received hundreds of emails. Instead, find the time your audience is active by testing different times throughout the day for the email campaign you create. Be sure to set a short deadline to track your results to compare which time is best to get your emails synced to their schedule.

 

Be Conversational and Personable

Write all your content, including emails, as if you are talking to a friend, but use a branded tone and style that your audience understands and knows is you. A message that is coming from another human or friend is more likely to get attention and results.

Common Email Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Provide Value Every time

Even if you are doing a sales pitch, always find an opportunity to provide value. Add a fact as well as a coupon. If you are the only one who gets any value from the email, you need to start over.

 

Review and Refresh Your List

Be sure the email lists you have are new and updated. Old email lists are likely to have poor open rates. Maybe people change email accounts or interests over time, meaning no matter how hard you try, some of your lists will go stale, and it will be up to you to get them off your list. List hygiene ensures that you get a better understanding of what your real open rate is.

 

Use Short but Detailed Subject Lines

Your subject lines, like titles, are the first thing your subscribers get to see. So, make it count. Spend time crafting one that makes them want to click on it and discover what is next.

 

If you have a low open rate, one of these six areas is likely to be blamed and improved. Be sure your lists are up-to-date, your titles are attractive, and that you always find ways to add more value for optimal open rates.

 

Posted on

Five Lead Magnet Tips to Grow Your Email List

Did you know, nearly four billion people worldwide utilize email almost daily? What is even more interesting is that every second, three million emails are being sent. So that means by the time you finish this sentence, likely eighteen million emails, give or take, just ended up in people’s inboxes, which is no surprise why sixty-four percent of small business owners have reported that using email marketing has been vital to their success and is why they continually strive to grow their email lists.

 

The most common and powerful way to grow your email lists is through lead magnets. Free or low-cost material that attracts your potential customer into your buyers’ journey or email marketing campaign. Lead magnets will vary depending on your niche and are quite low cost if you can craft and complete the material yourself.

 

Here are five lead magnet tips for growing your email list:

 

Use How-To Guides or eBooks

Short guides or how-to eBooks are attractive options to many readers. Most people use the internet to ask questions to solve a common problem and gain more knowledge about their favorite things, which is why eBooks and how-to guides are so attractive. Understanding your audience and their struggles are key to creating an effective eBook or guide that piques their interest. Nearly thirty percent of marketers prefer this option.

 

Email Courses and Workbooks

Similar to eBooks, yet more direct are email courses and workbooks. These are materials that work together to help your subscriber actively solve or work through a problem. Instead of downloading all the material at once, your readers will receive their course through weekly and timed emails. Again, keeping an audience engaged for a longer period of time is the goal.

 

Develop Templates and Checklists

Easy, downloadable, and printable material that aids your subscribers in their favorite hobbies or solves their problems are affordable and easy lead magnets to produce. In addition, they can often be used with other paid products for free to incentivize a sale further.

 

Free Webinar and Trials

Invite your audience to join in on a live webinar and offer a free trial of your products and services. This can be a great way to ask for email addresses to send a link directly to the webinar or free trial. In addition, the hands-on and live material is often more attractive and easier to digest.

 

Incentivize

Host contests and giveaways and send coupons such as free shipping or birthday discounts to incentivize your subscribers. It is hard to pass up a good deal, especially one that provides so much value and excites your interest.

Putting It All Together And Developing A Routine That Will Keep You On Track

Although lead magnets are usually free, this does not mean they are not good investments. In fact, a wpforms report stated that marketers saw a 50% increase in signups after using and developing valuable lead magnets.