Posted by Michelle_LeBlanc From gentle criticism to full-on trolls, every brand social media page or community sometimes faces pushback. Maybe you’ve seen it happen. Perhaps you’ve even laughed along as a corporation makes a condescending misstep or a local business publishes a glaring typo. It’s the type of thing that keeps social media and community managers up at night. Will I be by my phone to respond if someone needs customer service help? Will I know what to write if our brand comes under fire? Do we have a plan for dealing with this? Advocates are a brand’s best friendIn my years of experience developing communities and creating social media content, I’ve certainly been there. I won’t try to sell you a magic elixir that makes that anxiety go away, but I've witnessed a phenomenon that can take the pressure off. Before you can even begin to frame a response as the brand, someone comes out of the woodwork and does it for you. Defending, opening up a conversation, or perhaps deflecting with humor, these individuals bring an authenticity to the response that no brand could hope to capture. They are true advocates, and they are perhaps the most valuable assets a company could have. But how do you get them? Having strong brand advocates can help insulate your brand from crisis, lead to referring links and positive media coverage, AND help you create sustainable, authentic content for your brand. In this blog post, I’ll explore a few case studies and strategies for developing these advocates, building user-generated content programs around them, and turning negative community perceptions into open dialogue. Case study 1: Employee advocates can counter negative perceptionsTo start, let’s talk about negative community perceptions. Almost every company deals with this to one degree or another. In the trucking industry, companies deal with negative perceptions not just of their individual company, but also of the industry as a whole. You may not be aware of this, but our country needs approximately 3.5 million truck drivers to continue shipping daily supplies like food, medicine, deals from Amazon, and everything else you’ve come to expect in your local stores and on your doorstep. The industry regularly struggles to find enough drivers. Older drivers are retiring from the field, while younger individuals may be put off by a job that requires weeks away from home. Drivers that are committed to the industry may change jobs frequently, chasing the next hiring bonus or better pay rate. How does a company counter these industry-wide challenges and also stand out as an employer from every other firm in the field? Using video content, Facebook groups, and podcasts to create employee advocatesFor one such company, we looked to current employees to become brand advocates in marketing materials and on social media. The HR and internal communications team had identified areas of potential for recruitment — e.g. separating military, women — and we worked with them to identify individuals that represented these niche characteristics, as well as the values that the company wanted to align themselves with: safety, long-term tenure with the company, affinity for the profession, etc. We then looked for opportunities to tell these individuals' stories in a way that was authentic, reflected current organic social media trends, and provided opportunities for dialogue. In one instance, we developed a GoPro-shot, vlog-style video program around two female drivers that featured real-life stories and advice from the road. By working behind the scenes with these drivers, we were able to coach them into being role models for our brand advocate program, modeling company values in media/PR coverage and at live company events. One driver participated in an industry-media live video chat where she took questions from the audience, and later she participated in a Facebook Q&A on behalf of the brand as well. It was our most well-attended and most engaged Q&A to date. Other existing and potential drivers saw these individuals becoming the heroes of the brand’s stories and, feeling welcomed to the dialogue by one of their own, became more engaged with other marketing activities as a result. These activities included:
By combining these social media activities with traditional PR pitching around the same themes, we continued to grow brand awareness as a whole and build an array of positive links back to the company. When it comes to brand advocates, sometimes existing employees simply need to be invited in and engaged in a way that appeals to their own intrinsic motivations — perhaps a sense of belonging or achievement. For many employee-based audiences, social media engagement with company news or industry trends is already happening and simply needs to be harnessed and directed by the brand for better effect. But what about when it comes to individuals that have no financial motivation to promote a brand? At the other end of the brand advocate spectrum from employees are those who affiliate themselves with a cause. They may donate money or volunteer for a specific organization, but when it comes down to it, they don’t have inherent loyalty to one group and can easily go from engaged to enraged. Case study 2: UGC can turn volunteers into advocatesOne nonprofit client that we have the privilege of working with dealt with this issue on a regular basis. Beyond misunderstandings about their funding sources or operations, they occasionally faced backlash about their core mission on social media. After all, for any nonprofit or cause out there, it's easy to point to two or ten others that may be seen as "more worthy," depending on your views. In addition, the nature of their cause tended to attract a lot of attention in the holiday giving period, with times of low engagement through the rest of the year. Crowdsourcing user-generated content for better engagementTo counter this and better engage the audience year-round, we again looked for opportunities to put individual faces and stories at the forefront of marketing materials. In this case, we began crowdsourcing user-generated content through monthly contesting programs during the organization's "off" months. Photos submitted during the contests could be used as individual posts on social media or remixed across videos, blog posts, or as a starting point for further conversation and promotion development with the individuals. As Facebook was the primary promotion point for these contests, they attracted those who were already highly engaged with the organization and its page. During the initial two-month program, the Facebook page gained 16,660 new fans with no associated paid promotion, accounting for 55% of total page Likes in the first half of 2016. Perhaps even more importantly, the organization was able to save on internal labor in responding to complaints or negative commentary on posts as even more individuals began adding their own positive comments. The organization’s community manager was able to institute a policy of waiting to respond after any negative post, allowing the brand advocates time to chime in with a more authentic, volunteer-driven voice. By inviting their most passionate supporters more deeply into the fold and giving them the space and trust to communicate, the organization may have lost some measure of control over the details of the message, but they gained support and understanding on a deeper level. These individuals not only influenced others within the social media pages of the organization, but also frequently shared content and tagged friends, acting as influencers and bringing others into the fold. How you can make it work for your audienceAs you can see, regardless of industry, building a brand advocate program often starts with identifying your most passionate supporters and finding a way to appeal to their existing habits, interests, and motivations — then building content programs that put those goals at the forefront. Marketing campaigns featuring paid influencers can be fun and can certainly achieve rapid awareness and reach, but they will never be able to counter the lasting value of an authentic advocate, particularly when it comes to countering criticism or improving the perceived status of your brand or industry. To get started, you can follow a few quick tips:
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Website copywriting is in a weird place today. Even if you’re not super familiar with the field of copywriting, you’ve probably observed the three different levels. Copywriting used to be the domain of legendary advertising writers like David Ogilvy and Gary Halbert. The copy was outstanding and still stands the test of time. That makes up the top tier of copywriting. Now, a lot of copywriting is either outsourced or overlooked. As a result, it’s not always spectacular because it’s not written by people who are passionate about the subject matter. And right in the middle, there are people like you and me, trying to make awesome copy that converts well. But there are struggles. Almost every day, I ask myself, “How can I get from the middle to the very top tier of copywriting?” I bet you’ve asked yourself that too. Because you and I are nowhere close to Ogilvy or Halbert. It might surprise you, but I still study copywriting. I never had any formal training––I figured it out on my own. I don’t know everything, but I’ve learned from lots of people who are much smarter than I am, and I’ve honed some copywriting techniques that just work. And I want to share them with you. There’s no fluff here. No “hacks” that promise to make your conversion rate jump by 5% today. Just 5 proven copywriting tips that I’ve used for the last ten years to build my businesses and personal brand. 1. Obsess over benefitsIf you want your copy to convert like crazy, you have to be absolutely obsessed with benefits. Here’s the hard truth about copy: Trying to outsmart your audience just doesn’t work. They’ve seen it all before. On that same note, it’s harder than ever before to actually get anyone to listen to you. Every day, every single one of your readers is flooded with advertisements of all sorts. The average American adult sees 300 ads per day! And copy is really just another form of advertising. So why should anyone pay attention to your copy if it’s just another ad? The answer: Benefits. Today’s consumer is looking for a solution. If your copy can provide that solution, you’ll earn your audience’s attention. And while your copy needs to touch on several areas of customer concerns, it especially needs to focus on benefits. Think about it: A solution is one big benefit. And often, a solution encompasses several benefits. In short, thinking about benefits puts you in the right frame of mind to write awesome copy. So let’s get down to business and discuss how you can become more benefit-obsessed. First, create a value list. Think about the big solution you offer to your users, and then think about all of the smaller benefits you also offer. Write all of those down in a list. The idea is that by writing down every benefit, you’ll be able to communicate each benefit more clearly. It sounds simple, but it really does help to see all the benefits listed out right in front of you. You might have trouble figuring out how to put some benefits into words. That’s good because it means you’re thinking about it before you do any of the actual copywriting. Second, know the differences between benefits and features. Features are not benefits. That’s incredibly important, so let me repeat it: Features are not benefits. Features are one-sided. They only describe different aspects of your product or service. Honestly, they can be kind of boring. You’ve probably seen feature lists like this one all over the place: Sure, this is useful, but it doesn’t give you any reason to invest in the service. That’s because features don’t focus on the reader at all. In fact, they’re pretty much all about the company and not the customer. Benefits are much better than features for several reasons. For one, benefits help you actually sell your product. Benefits sell because they’re literally all about the customer. So is it really any wonder why your readers will be more attracted to benefits than features?When a customer sees all the benefits you offer, he or she is going to start thinking about those benefits in a personal way. In other words, your customers will apply the benefits to their own lives and visualize how much better off they’d be with your product. Benefits also make your product sound more appealing than features can. Take a look at this graphic: Which side do you prefer? If you’re like most people, you picked the right one. That’s because benefits give readers a specific and detailed idea of what they can accomplish. In this example, the benefit-driven copy tells you that you can carry 1,000 songs right in your pocket.That’s easy for anyone to understand, and you instantly understand why you’d want this device. But the feature-driven copy isn’t as nice. Many people don’t even know how big a gigabyte is, and some people may not use the term MP3 that much anymore. Features are what your product has or does. Benefits are how your product makes the user feel, as this image conveys. You should almost always choose benefits over features. Benefits are more detailed, persuasive, and engaging. 2. Tell a storyThere is a serious lack of story in copywriting nowadays.No, stories aren’t just for fiction writers. They belong in every piece of copy you create, no matter how big or small. All throughout human history, stories have been used to create deep connections and make sense of the world. So it’s really no surprise that they’re so powerful. Just look at how storytelling impacts the brain! Stories can evoke a variety of potent emotions in readers. A good story can change how someone looks at life and even how they view themselves. If you leverage the power of story in your copy, you’ll be able to create those strong emotional connections and make your offer irresistible. To understand how to do this, let’s take a look at exactly what makes up a story. Simply put, a story is a transformation. All of the best stories involve some sort of radical change in one of the characters. In this case, your reader is the character. (Ideally, you should have a buyer persona.) We’re dealing with a specific type of character here: a dynamic character. Dynamic characters change over the course of the story. The change happens when the character (your reader) realizes that he or she has an opportunity to have a better life (by choosing you). See what I’m talking about? Your reader learns about the change that’s possible only with you. But don’t worry. You don’t have to be a literature expert or veteran author to create a good story. In fact, it doesn’t even have to look like a traditional “story” at all. You can weave your story into all of your content by using little story snippets here and there. You don’t have to write out every little detail. Let me show you what I mean. Here’s a great use of story in a landing page: When you read that headline, you realize that there’s a better way to watch movies. That could improve your life by helping you waste less time on bad movies. It’s not a full story, but it has all the effects of one. Or how about this example: Again, when you read the headline, you realize that you can change the way you do email. The implication with this example is that you could be more efficient with your inbox. Let me show you one final example: This is a cool use of story. First, you read the headline and get a sense of the benefit you could get with Periscope. Wouldn’t it be fun to see life from someone else’s perspective? Then, you see the app, which helps you understand exactly what Periscope has to offer you. Here, it’s showing a hot air balloon. You may never get a chance to ride in a hot air balloon (or you just might not want to), but with Periscope, you can experience it right on your phone. Together, these two elements (the headline and the image of the app) create a story. Like I said, it doesn’t have to be complex. You just need to give readers a look into the change that’s possible with you. 3. Write for the reader who scansYou probably read a lot less online content than you think you do. What I mean is that you probably don’t thoroughly read much at all. If you’re like 79% of users, you scan. That’s no typo. As much as 79% of your readers aren’t actually reading your content. This phenomenon has been documented over and over again with surprising consistency. In fact, there’s been so much research on this topic that you can predict with accuracy how your visitors are going to read your content. The bottom line is that they don’t read much. So we know that people scan online content, and we know how they scan. This knowledge has major implications for copywriting. It tells you exactly where to put your focus. We can learn a few important things from all of this. First, put extra effort into your headings and subheadings. Readers tend to pay more attention to headings and subheadings more than any other content on the page. That makes sense. Headings and subheadings stand out the most. Now I’m going to throw another interesting fact at you: It’s common among scanners to read only the first sentence of each paragraph. With that in mind, you should write content so that readers can get a complete idea of what you offer just by reading the headings and subheadings. Check out this page: Even though there are lots of small paragraphs, you only need to read the subheadings to get an idea of what the services are. This is ideal for scanners, and it also makes your content more readable overall. So does all of this mean you should only care about headings? Not at all. You should still put a ton of effort into everything you write, but put even more effort into your headings and subheadings. Second, make the important sentences bold. Sometimes, you’ll have a sentence or two that you really want people to remember, and it’s not always fitting to turn a sentence into a heading or subheading. The solution: Make important sentences bold. Bold text catches the eye. It almost acts like headings because it can direct the reader’s’ attention. In this example, most readers would look at the image, then the heading, and then the bold text. Third, start your headings and main sentences with action words. Power words tend to capture people’s attention in a big way. Sure, most readers don’t actually read. They scan. But if you can start each sentence or heading with a power word, you might be able to capture their attention. That’s why you should start your headings and important sentences with action words or power words. These types of words catch people’s attention more, so you’re more likely to keep readers interested if you can hook them in the first place. 4. Tackle objectionsMost of the people who see your content won’t be ready to convert. They might be anywhere in the buyer journey. But unless they’re at that final stage, your readers are going to have some objections. It’s your job to address those objections head-on. You don’t want your readers to have a doubt in their minds about the benefits you offer. The first step is to determine the specific objections your audience might have. Sending surveys is a great way to get this information. I like to use Qualaroo. Their software gives you an easy way to get insight into customers’ fears. Once you’ve gained a good amount of feedback, you’re ready to write copy that tackles the main objections people have. Addressing objections is all about providing solutions to customer problems. You can also think of it as providing answers to questions. You want to remove as much doubt as possible by being explicit and detailed about the benefits you can offer readers. Here’s a great example of copy that covers a bunch of objections in a really compelling way: This copy leaves no stone unturned. It proves that this service is for all kinds of marketers, no matter how much or how little experience they have. Every part of your copy, including your headline, should provide your solutions to customer objections. Here’s a little video I put together to talk about this: 5. Use “you”So far in this article, I’ve used the word “you” (or variations like “you’re”) over a hundred times. “You” is a powerful word. It speaks directly to your reader. Talk about personalized language. It’s often considered one of the best power words and for good reason. It breaks down walls and makes an immediate connection with the reader. Every time you say “we” or “us,” you’re losing out on an opportunity to make that connection. “We,” “us,” and other similar words are selfish. The harsh truth is that your readers don’t care about your product. Not really. They care about how your product will help them live a better life. That’s why “you” is so powerful. It makes the reader feel special, and it makes the copy sound personal. At the end of the day, business is all about the customer. Consider this article. It sounds like I’m having a conversation with you, right? That’s the power of “you.” Of course, writing super direct and personal copy is easier if you regularly communicate with your audience and get to know them better. ConclusionCopywriting can be intimidating. There’s no doubt about it. I’ve talked with thousands of copywriters and marketers who ask me for advice on improving conversion rates. I always talk about copywriting because excellent conversion rates are the result of excellent copy. That’s where these 5 techniques come in. These are all strategies I’ve personally used to write high-converting copy. Whenever I write new copy, I use all 5 of these techniques so my writing is the best it can possibly be. You don’t need to be Shakespeare to create amazing copy. You just need to keep your users in mind. Build these techniques into your copywriting. Your copy will improve, your customers will be happier, and your conversion rates will be higher. Which of these techniques is your favorite? Did I miss any cool ones that you like to use? The post Use These 5 Copywriting Techniques to Start Converting Like a Pro appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger Use These 5 Copywriting Techniques to Start Converting Like a Pro Currently, more than 60% of marketers are using webinars as part of their content marketing strategies. Webinars have exploded in growth over the past few years. And more marketers are starting to take advantage of them. In fact, they are one of my favorite ways to convert traffic and subscribers into real customers. Why? Because consumer behavior changes. And webinars help us change with it. People love hands-on lessons and walkthroughs that can help them better build their own businesses. They buy your product or sign up for your service because it will help them. Not because it’s cool or hip. Webinars show them just how much they need what you’ve got. I’ve done countless webinars on Kissmetrics and for my own blog and have found great success with them. For example, 2-3% conversion rates are common in the industry. But I’ve been able to get that as high as a 22% conversion rate consistently. I had 74,381 attendees in 77 webinars and converted 16,394 of them. But if I’m honest, that’s not because I am a webinar wunderkind. They weren’t anything out of the ordinary. That means that you can use webinars to boost your conversions, too. I’ll show you why webinars work, what I did to increase my webinar attendance, and how you can do the same. Why webinars convert so many customersWebinars are one of the best ways to hook in new leads. They are great for teaching people the hands-on methods that you’ve used to see success. Have you driven 45% more traffic by using a specific tactic? You can easily create a webinar out of it. Have you averaged conversion rates on PPC that are 3x the industry standard? Make a webinar. It’s that simple. If you’ve done something that nets great results, people want to know and they’ll likely be very interested in what you have to say. Webinars turn you into a trusted expert and a thought leader in almost no time. It doesn’t hurt that they’re conversion machines. The best webinars can generate conversion rate averages of 19%. On top of that, 51% of people who discover your webinar’s landing page will convert on the initial sign-up. Then around 36% of those people will attend. Those are pretty solid numbers when you compare them to the average conversion rates on standard websites or PPC ads. I host webinars all the time on my own site because they work. I wouldn’t be doing them if they didn’t. And the best part of it all? The average webinar viewing time is 53 minutes! That gives you countless opportunities to push CTAs and subscriptions to grow your leads and email lists. There’s no other marketing tactic that holds people’s attention for that long! Now that we are all on Team Webinar, let’s look at the #1 tactic I use to boost my webinar attendance. How I increased my attendance by using Facebook AdsBefore we go through how to replicate my success with Facebook Ads and webinars, we need to do a simple analysis.A lot of people are hesitant to do webinars because of a lack of traffic. When I run a webinar now, it’s usually pretty easy for me to get enough sign-ups to make it worthwhile. But it wasn’t always that way. For most people who have found success in webinars, success comes after lots of failed attempts. I prefer to get it right the first time. The goal should always be to reach as many people as possible. You need as large of an audience as you can get. Why? Take a glance at those industry standards we looked at earlier. 51% of traffic to your webinar page will convert, but only 36% of that 51% will attend, and only 19% of that 36% will become leads. Your precious traffic starts to dwindle down fast. So, let’s jump into my strategy for increasing your webinar attendance fast. Step 1. Start by promoting alike content. AdWords and Facebook are vastly different platforms. That means they don’t convert customers in the same way. When someone uses Google to search for a product or service, it’s because they have a pretty high intent to purchase or are in need of more information. But that’s not why they are using or browsing Facebook. So you can’t simply push a webinar ad to the masses and expect 10% conversion rates. The best way to ease people into converting on your prized possession (the webinar) is to warm them up with content and then retarget them. The trick here is to promote content that will be relevant to your webinar. For example, I ran this webinar a few times: That content piece about marketing tactics to grow your business would perfectly resonate with people who are hoping to growth hack their online marketing. How can you do this? First, log in to your Facebook Business Manager account and navigate to your Ads Manager: Next, we’re going to set up an ad based on engagement objectives like shares, likes, and comments: By using an engagement objective rather than simply reach or traffic, we can sort out those who are highly unlikely to convert on your webinar. No one wants to waste time and money on reach ads for audiences that aren’t relevant. So, use the engagement objective to assess the targets that are interested in your content. Next, select the post that you want to use for an ad: Remember to make sure that you boost posts that will relate to your webinar. If your webinar is based on SEO tactics, run ads for posts about SEO. If your webinar is PPC-based, don’t run articles about SEO or content marketing. You get the point. Your engagement ads should relate heavily to your webinar topic so that you’ll know those people who interacted are going to be interested in the webinar. Next, confirm your ad and start running it. And then proceed to the next step. Step 2. Now, run your lead-gen ads. Once you have some quality engagement on your current ads, you’re ready to bring the people to the well and drive webinar sign-ups.Maybe you’re asking, “Why not just start out with a webinar ad? Your audience isn’t primed to convert yet. It’s much easier to convert sign-ups for your webinar if you have great audience targeting. Plus, now that you’ve run engagement ads, you can simply retarget that audience to guarantee high sign-up rates. I’ve used this strategy for nearly all my webinars, and it works. Here’s how to get started. Go to the Facebook Ads Manager and create a new custom audience: Make sure to select the custom audience option when you create your new audience: The key here is to select engagement for your custom audience: Using this type of custom audience will allow you to target people who engaged with your latest content ads on Facebook. Essentially, it will make a remarketing list for you based on people who loved your content ads so you can remarket them with your webinar ads! In this next step, you’ve got multiple options to choose from: If you’ve posted a few videos based on your webinar topic, you can select video to target them with detailed options: That way, you can run webinar ads to multiple audiences based on the time they spent watching the video. The shorter their attention spans, the less ‘qualified’ the traffic is. However, the longer the attention span, the fewer people you can usually target. So the ultimate decision is a bit of a balancing act, to be honest. You’re going to have to find that sweet spot of reaching enough people to pack your webinars while also making sure they’re still somewhat qualified. If you want to run a custom audience based on a Canvas ad, you can do that too: These are new mobile-specific ad units. They’re interactive, so they’re perfect for telling stories or getting people to engage. They’re also perfect if your own mobile site isn’t that great. Instead of risking 113% of your traffic bouncing, you can have them bypass your mobile site entirely with Canvas ads. Or, if you ran a bunch of simple post-based ads, you can then make a custom audience that retargets those people who engaged with your posts: Select “People who engaged with any post or ad” to remarket your ad to that list of people who recently engaged with your pre-webinar content. You can customize the “days” counter to limit the timeframe to your recent content. Next, click “Create Audience” to finalize it: Now, you can run simple ads for your webinar, but instead of selecting a broader audience, you can select the custom audience you just created! Try running webinar-style ads like this: The key here is to use simple ads that will direct a click back to a landing page on your website. Make sure to have an irresistible value proposition and a simple graphic to accompany it. The trick is to focus on what people are going to get.Most of your audience is busy. They can’t waste an hour in the middle of the day. So the entire ad’s message should focus on the end result or outcome that attendees will walk away with. There needs to be an ROI for the time they spend with you. Otherwise, they’ll never buy anything afterward. You can also try using CTA buttons in your ads like this: To get started running ads to your new custom audience, create an ad set based off of the “Conversions” objective: Next, under “Ad Set,” click “Audience.” Here, you can select the custom audience you just created: After you select your custom audience, create a single image-based ad: This is my favorite type of ad format. It doesn’t take up the user’s time, and it drives conversions fast with a targeted CTA. Next, scroll down to the “Links” section and optimize your ad for your webinar. Here are some of the components you need to focus on: Make sure you have a great landing page that incorporates good message match with your Facebook Ad. Consistency between ads and landing pages is crucial for driving conversions! You can also set up Facebook Messenger to nurture leads who click on your ads. Put some thought into the CTA button you put with your ads. You have tons of options: I suggest using “Learn More” or “Sign Up.” When you’re all done, your final ads should look something like this: Now, it’s time to break down the anatomy of a high-converting webinar ad to help you drive those attendance numbers even higher. Let’s jump right in. The anatomy of a high-converting webinar adSo you’ve set up two types of ads and a new custom audience or two based on those engagement factors. Congrats! All the hardest work is done, and you’re almost ready to sit back and watch your attendance skyrocket. But first, we want to squeeze the most potential out of your ads. And to do that, we need to focus on the techniques that will create the highest conversions. Here are some of my past webinar ads that I’ve found massive success with, and a few others that work great, too. Tip #1. Social Proof Social proof is one of the best ways to drive conversions on a webinar sign-up. People won’t trust you without it. And they won’t listen for an hour if you don’t have a history of success or a proven method. Have you guest posted for tons of top blogs? Then you should mention it! That also applies to big, household clients or customers you’ve worked with. Here’s an example of one of my webinar ads: Notice how I use the concept of social proof by stating my accomplishments? I show credibility and build trust with the user by illustrating my proven track record. If you don’t necessarily have a huge resume, you can still use social proof. Do you have tons of clients? Can you mention any case studies? Did you help a client grow their traffic or rankings? You get the point: Tap into any case study, review, or result to harness the power of social proof. A legitimate, up-and-to-the-right graph speaks louder than words. Here’s another great example from Ashley Stahl: Notice that giant TED Talk image in the background? That’s instant social proof without even having to say it. You may have never heard of Ashley before. But now, that doesn’t matter. That giant red sign in the background does all the talking for her. 88% of consumers trust online reviews and social proof as much as personal recommendations. So including social proof in your webinar-based ads is a necessity to driving higher attendance. Tip #2. Value proposition and CTA Another main component of your Facebook Ads should be a stellar value proposition and CTA. If you just tout your accomplishments all day, people will quickly lose interest. Social proof is meant to back up your claims and the benefits you are offering. It’s meant to be a credibility booster, but not the whole pitch. Your value proposition needs to contain great benefits for the consumer, and your CTA needs to drive clicks fast. Here’s how I did this on my ads: I communicated a clear value proposition. I will teach you how to become a master of customer acquisition so that you can increase traffic and convert visitors, all for free. Then, I provided a strong call to action: Register for the webinar now by clicking “Sign Up.” Those three components (social proof, value proposition, CTA) consistently help me get more webinar sign-ups and improve my Facebook Ads. Webinars are one of the absolute best ways to convert more people. However, nobody talks about the biggest problem: Filling them up! The only way you’re going to sell something is to make sure you’re speaking to a few thousand people at one time. And the best way to consistently get thousands of webinar attendees is through Facebook Ads. You just have to build up awareness and interest first. Then you can ‘turn on the tap’ to generate new webinar attendees as cheaply as possible. ConclusionThe majority of marketers are currently using webinars in their marketing strategies. On top of that, webinars have seen explosive growth in the past few years. Tons of professionals are starting to include them in their marketing arsenal. And webinars happen to be one of my favorite types of marketing tools to get more leads. I do them all the time because they work. They have extremely high conversion rates in comparison to ads. Why? People don’t really need your product or service until you make them realize a need for it. And webinars will drive home the idea that they need what you’re selling. In my own experience with webinars, I’ve seen conversion rates above 20%. So you can leave behind those conversion-less ads and shift your marketing tactics to webinars. Make sure to use Facebook Ads to drive more traffic to your page. Then, remarket those active users who engaged with your content. That way you know that these visitors are interested in your content. Make sure to include social proof, a great value proposition, and a clear call to action. Then, watch your audience roll in. What’s your best strategy to consistently fill up webinars? The post I Increased Webinar Attendance by Doing This One Thing appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger I Increased Webinar Attendance by Doing This One Thing Posted by Danielle_Launders MozCon may be over, but we just can’t get enough of it — and that's why our team has worked hard to bring the magic back to you with our MozCon 2017 Video Bundle. You'll have 26 sessions at your fingertips to watch over and over again — that’s over 14 hours of future-focused sessions aiming to level up your SEO and online marketing skills. Get ahead of Google and its biggest changes to organic search with Dr. Pete Meyers, prepare for the future of mobile-first indexing with Cindy Krum, and increase leads through strategic data-driven design with Oli Gardner. Ready to dive into all of the excitement? Feel free to jump ahead: Buy the MozCon 2017 Video Bundle For our friends that attended MozCon 2017, check your inbox: You should find an email from us that will navigate you to your videos. The same perk applies for next year — your ticket to MozCon 2018 includes the full video bundle. We do have a limited number of super early bird tickets (our best deal!) still available. This year's MozCon was truly special. We are honored to host some of the brightest minds in the industry and the passion and insights they bring to the stage. We know you'll enjoy all the new tactics and innovative topics just as much as we did. But don’t just take our word for it...Here’s a recap of one attendee's experience: “Attending MozCon is like a master's course in digital marketing. With so many knowledgeable speakers sharing their insights, their methods, and their tools all in the hopes of making me a better digital marketer, it seems like a waste not to take advantage of it.” The video bundleYou’ll have access to 26 full video presentations from MozCon. For $299, the MozCon 2017 video bundle gives you instant access to:
Buy the MozCon 2017 Video Bundle Want a free preview?If you haven’t been to a MozCon before, you might be a little confused by all of the buzz and excitement. To convince you that we're seriously excited, we're sharing one of our highly-rated sessions with you for free! Check out "How to Get Big Links" with Lisa Myers in the full session straight from MozCon 2017. Lisa shares how her and her team were able to earn links and coverage from big sites such as New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and BBC. I want to thank the team behind the videos and for all the hours of editing, designing, coding, processing, and more. We love being able to share this knowledge and couldn’t do it without the crew's efforts. And to the community, we wish you happy learning and hope to see you at MozCon 2018 in July! Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! Post source = http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/6610574via Blogger Relive MozCon with the 2017 Video Bundle Last May, Google introduced the ability to find out if a local retailer had specific products in stock right from the knowledge panel listing for the retailer. Now, it’s dedicating a whole lot more real estate to the feature. Glenn Gabe, digital marketing consultant at G-Squared Interactive, tweeted a look at the update. Below are a couple of examples. It’s available on both mobile and desktop and goes well beyond the simple “Search items at this store link” that Google originally showed. A large section includes a search box, product category links and large product listings. On mobile, users can swipe through a carousel of product listings. The feature is part of the Local Inventory Ads product, which enables retailers to promote products available in their locations via inventory feeds submitted to Google. The links and search results lead to Google Shopping pages. Google is also running a test to show relevant text ads in knowledge panel listings for local businesses. The post Google debuts giant new look for Local Inventory Ad product search in Knowledge Panels appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Blogger Google debuts giant new look for Local Inventory Ad product search in Knowledge Panels Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land:
Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:
Search News From Around The Web:Link Building
Searching
SEO
SEM / Paid Search
Search Marketing
The post SearchCap: Google knowledge panel ads, Google Maps videos & AMP survey appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Blogger SearchCap: Google knowledge panel ads, Google Maps videos & AMP survey B2B content marketing and B2C content marketing are not the same. I know that sounds obvious, but it’s something that most marketing professionals seem to forget when they’re giving advice. To begin, here’s a great infographic from MarketingProfs illustrating a few of the differences: Your audiences have different needs. The reasons they choose to buy are different. Even the way you choose to promote your content has the potential to be different. But despite all its differences, B2B content marketing actually has one major thing in common with B2C content marketing. The reality of content marketing is that whether you’re speaking to the typical modern consumer or to an SMB, the fundamentals of creating engaging content remain the same. With all the conflicting information about what content marketing tactics you should be using, it’s important to take a step back and identify the techniques that actually matter. Which is why today we’re going to take a look at some of the more promising B2B content marketing tactics of this year and help you get a leg up on the competition. Before we dive right into this subject, go ahead and take a look at the list of topics below. If any of them have been giving you a rough time, feel free to jump right in and get the answers to your questions. Once you’ve done that though, make sure you come back up here and read the entire article the whole way through. Every one of these tactics has the potential to help your business. Even if you’re familiar with one of the topics listed, I guarantee that you’ll learn something new by reviewing it here. 1. Sell the story before selling your productIf this one sounds a bit on the dramatic side, that’s intentional. I wanted to draw attention to this particular aspect of content marketing. Like Kickstarter shows us here, a compelling narrative can work wonders for your brand. I didn’t put it first on the list for nothing. There’s an understanding among the B2B marketing community that businesses aren’t going to spend money frivolously. That’s just not how this works. Other businesses spend money on your business for one very specific reason: It’s going to make them money somehow. Of course, the way your business ends up making them money will differ greatly based on what kind of products and services you offer. But at the end of the day, you’re either saving them money or making them money. In other words, you’re offering tangible value that an employee can take to their manager or that a manager can take to an exec. With this focus on tangible value in mind, it’s easy to see how that could bleed into the way you create content. And to be fair, there’s nothing wrong with creating content that’s centered around the concept of tangible value. Heck, I do it all the time! The problem is when you start to let that affect the quality of the content you’re creating. There are two ways that I usually see this manifest in a B2B content marketing strategy.
Again, I’ve got no problem with self-promotion. I’d be a hypocrite if I told you to cut it out. But this is where the focus on fundamentals comes into play. Content is, no matter how you look at it, a way to tell a story. Sometimes that story can be entertaining, like this Moz video on Star Wars. Sometimes it can be educational, like this video by Tim Ferriss, where he teaches the fundamentals of speed reading as a way to promote his podcast. But no matter what style of content you’re creating, it has to be engaging. Because you can’t expect people to extract value from your content if they’ve fallen asleep reading it. Of course, this brings up an important question. How do you consistently create engaging content? Simple. Focus on the story you want to tell, and then worry about selling your business within the content. Every business has a story. If you’re struggling to come up with anything, here’s a little experiment. Take a look at your audience. What industries are they a part of? Look at the impact that those industries have in the world for inspiration.Still stuck? Okay, try this one. Go straight for the employees and execs themselves. Your product/service solves a problem, right? Craft a narrative that revolves around how this will change their lives. It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare to be engaging. The narrative just has to have enough structural integrity to get people to the juicy, valuable bits. Make no mistake, your content is far from the only place you can sell your product. A high-quality call to action can do most of the heavy lifting for you there. 2. User experience mattersYou’ll notice that I spend a lot of time talking about the way your audience experiences your content. Why do I do that? Because it’s the cornerstone of effective content marketing. More specifically, it’s the place where your marketing funnel meets your sales funnel. The actual content you create isn’t just important because of the inspirational or educational message you’re promoting. The inevitable endgame is getting businesses from point A to point B to finally convert them. Essentially, it’s about moving through the sales funnel, as shown here. And that’s impossible to do if the way users experience your brand doesn’t register as compelling. While it’s a vital first step, it’s simply not enough to create content that solves problems. Your audience needs to connect with your brand in some way, and your brand has to differentiate itself from the competition through your use of content marketing. If you’re at all confused, just think of it this way. Creating a moderately valuable piece of content is good. Creating highly engaging content that a variety of different customers can identify with is great. User experience matters for the simple reason that it leads to brand loyalty. And brand loyalty matters because it’s the difference between selling a smartphone and selling an iPhone. Here’s a look at one of the lines for the iPhone 6 launch: Being the cheapest option available isn’t enough to ensure that your customers will choose you. You have to offer a unique experience that breeds customer loyalty. Having a strong product is how you make the sale today, but having a strong brand is how you make the sale tomorrow. 3. Cross-pollination and the importance of collaborationWhen you get caught up in the process of creating content, it’s easy to forget about one of the most important factors of content marketing. That is, how the heck am I going to promote this thing?!Well, there are plenty of tools at your disposal that I’ll get to later, but right now I want to focus on an undervalued resource. That’s right, I want to talk about guest posts. No, I’m serious. I’m not exactly sure when it stopped being cool to collaborate with other businesses when it came to content marketing. Sometimes it seems like business owners are unsure about whether or not they should team up with other businesses. The answer, as far as I can tell, is typically “yes.” You’re not trading company secrets here, guys. You’re sharing platforms. Here’s me hopping on Entrepreneur and contributing: Your collaborators are able to put up an article on your site and promote to your audience. You’re able to increase exposure for your content and send traffic back to your site or social media profiles. That’s about as win-win as it gets. This cross-pollination approach is essential for not just getting your content out in front of more people, but for helping establish your online authority in your industry. Let’s say I’m an exec at XYZ company. If I see your content on your site, that’s definitely going to help develop your online presence.But when I see your name and content pop up on all my favorite industry-leading sites, that signals to me that you may be an online authority. Plus, don’t forget about the benefits of hosting other people’s content on your site. It’s essentially content curation, but without having to hunt down the content yourself! Your audience sees that you’re showcasing high-quality work from other industry leaders and recognizes that you clearly have a strong understanding of what’s truly valuable. This strengthens your reputation with your audience and within your industry. And all you have to do is share some content with another business. 4. Create multi-layered contentIf you’ve been paying attention to the evolution of content marketing, this next tactic should come as no surprise to you. But even if you’re experienced in B2B content marketing, it’s worth clarifying what it actually means to create engaging, multi-layered content. Which then begs the question, what does multi-layered content look like? Typically, the best content is going to incorporate aspects of both text-based and visual content to create as engaging of an experience as possible. I like to break it up into three categories.
The text aspect is typically the part that businesses struggle with the least. More often than not, it’s the only one of the three categories that the businesses have experience marketing with. Imagine just a never-ending stream of this. Scary, right? And that’s why those other two categories are just as, if not more, important. Images can be anything from screenshots of relevant data to custom-made infographics. Here’s one of the images I used to break up the text from the blog post you just saw. Much better. There are plenty of stats showing how effective it can be to add a simple infographic to your text-based content. From there, we enter the world of video. I’ll be the first to admit that getting into video marketing with no prior experience is hardly an easy thing to do. But the reality of digital media marketing is that if you can integrate any type of compelling video into your content, it’s going to end up much stronger because of it. Notice how I said “compelling” and not “high-quality.” The content should always provide value, no matter what category it falls into. But the interesting thing about video content is that it doesn’t have to look like a Hollywood movie to communicate your message effectively. The key is to make your video content just as engaging as your text-based content to ensure that the entire piece ends up being worth your reader’s time. Of course, it’s important to acknowledge that every business is inevitably going to have their own approach to this process, so none of this is etched in stone. But if you’re looking for examples, all you have to do is look at my work. It’s not exactly light reading. Most of my articles are roughly 3,000 words. With that in mind, I make sure that my content has a strong visual media element. There are two reasons that you’ll want to try this.
5. Metrics are the key to long-term growthThroughout this process, you’re going to be doing a lot of experimenting. Okay, let’s call it what it is. You’re going to try lots of stuff that doesn’t end up working. There’s no shame in that, by the way. Even with thorough planning beforehand, there’s no way to accurately guess from the start what kind of content is going to resonate with your audience. Fortunately, that’s why we have metrics. The initial stumbling is forgivable because you’re operating under assumptions about what your audience wants, not facts. But once you’ve started trying things out and experimenting with different styles of content, it’s time to step up your game. Tracking the success or failure of your content marketing efforts lets you do two things.
This is what long-term, consistent growth is based on in the marketing world. Not only should you be able to avoid the tactics that didn’t work for you, but you also should create strategies built around tactics that have actually worked for your business. It may not seem like much at first. But the reality is that over time, those minor victories will help strengthen your business’s content marketing campaigns and make all the difference. 6. Take advantage of paid adsIt wouldn’t be a content marketing article if we didn’t take a minute to discuss the importance of paid ads. To be clear, this particular topic is dense enough to write multiple articles about (something I’ve actually done). But in the spirit of keeping things simple, we’re going to focus on specifics and keep this as straightforward as possible. If you’re B2B and you hear paid ads, your mind probably jumps to something like LinkedIn, right? I don’t blame you. LinkedIn is a great tool for B2B, and you can experience quite a bit of success marketing there. But there’s one paid ad platform that most of your competitors are ignoring. Facebook ads. I can hear it already. “But Neil, Facebook isn’t targeted enough! I’ll just be throwing money down the drain!” Fortunately, the data says otherwise. Take a look at the number of shares on a topic like demand generation, which Contently illustrated beautifully below. Gaining more shares means gaining more attention. More attention means more potential for conversion. Simple as that. Facebook ads work because you’re not just casting a bigger net, you’re engaging with a community that actually cares about B2B content. Don’t judge a book by its cover, folks. ConclusionB2B content marketing presents all sorts of unique challenges when it comes to both promotion and creation. There’s no getting around the fact that you’re in for a difficult road ahead. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to make the process as easy as possible. Make sure that you’re actually using your content to tell compelling stories and not just bombard your audience with self-promotion. Recognize the importance of the user experience and the potential for brand loyalty that exists within your content marketing efforts. Collaborate with other businesses and embrace the guest post for the wonderful promotional tool that it is. Make sure that your content has depth, incorporating both great copy and strong visuals. Track metrics and learn to create content that’s data driven to ensure your marketing efforts become more successful over time. And don’t be afraid to venture out into the world of paid ads, using sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to raise awareness for your brand. If you’re able to do all this, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to connect the dots of B2B content marketing and create something truly impactful in the process. What do you think the difference is between B2B and B2C content marketing? Have you experienced any success promoting B2B content via paid ads? The post 6 B2B Content Marketing Tactics You Need to Start Using Today appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger 6 B2B Content Marketing Tactics You Need to Start Using Today Google is testing more ad opportunities in knowledge panels. In this case, it’s testing ads on panels for local businesses. Spotted by Dr. Pete Meyers of Moz, the example below shows an ad from Groupon for the featured club. A call to action to “View Deal” links to the related offer page on Groupon.com.
“We’re currently experimenting with new ways to surface helpful and relevant local information to users on Google Maps and Search,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land when asked about the ad placement. “Maintaining a good experience for our users is our top priority and based on feedback, we’ll determine whether to roll these changes out permanently and broadly.” Google has been running various ads in knowledge panels since 2013 — for car dealers, products, movies and TV shows and music — but this is the first time ads for them have appeared in panels for local businesses. Last year, shortly after removing Maps from the Search Partners network in AdWords, Google introduced plans to expand the presence of ads and experiment with formats in Google Maps. At that time, Google said one-third of searches are local and that local searches are growing 50 percent faster than mobile search overall. The post Google is testing ads in local business knowledge panels appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Blogger Google is testing ads in local business knowledge panels As many as three-quarters of website visitors abandon their shopping carts, and nearly 50 percent bounce from your site. Wouldn’t it be great if you could read your website visitors’ body language while they are browsing — and better understand which visitors you can profitably engage with and what they need to make those purchases? On September 19, join our e-commerce and conversion optimization experts as they explain how you can read your visitors’ intent signals — accurately and instantly — to optimize website conversion. They’ll explore how live chat can increase visitor engagement and sales, and how you can determine which site visitors need a real person to give them a helping hand. You’ll learn:
Register today for “Live Chat Best Practices for Conversion Rate Optimization,” produced by Digital Marketing Depot and sponsored by MarketLinc. The post Live Chat Best Practices for Conversion Rate Optimization appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Blogger Live Chat Best Practices for Conversion Rate Optimization Business owners have a ton of options when it comes to marketing their business. Many of the options cost little more than time (like content marketing or SEO) and are still affordable even if outsourced. Despite the cost-effective option of search optimization, over 70% of business owners in a 2013 survey preferred to cast their budgets toward PPC campaigns. That’s not really surprising when you consider that 64.6% of consumers click on Google ads when they’re shopping online. Another major driver of PPC is the immediate results that can come from it. Strategically crafted PPC campaigns provide traffic, leads, and customers almost instantly once the ads start running. An immediate return can be attractive over waiting several months for organic SEO campaigns to gain traction. But PPC campaigns are a bit more complex and require careful planning. 34% of marketers believe paid search is one of the most effective marketing tactics, and nearly as many feel it’s among the most difficult to utilize effectively. To maximize your quality score — Google’s method of rating the relevance of your ads — you need a strategy. Luck won’t help you here. Use this guide to help ensure your first PPC campaign is a successful one. Let the brainstorming beginEvery successful AdWords campaign starts with research. Specifically, customer research. Before launching an AdWords campaign, you need to know what your customers want, what they’re looking for, and how they’re searching for it. You could load up a campaign with whatever keywords you like and pull the trigger. But if your customers aren’t searching for your product using the phrases you target, then your campaign will be a bust. Even worse, if you target the wrong keywords, you could wind up spending a lot of money with little to no conversions. You can draw on whatever customer data you currently have, including detailed buyer personas, to help you start brainstorming keywords. Your initial seed list of keywords will be made up of everything you think your customers would use to find your product. These are the keywords you would want your ad to appear under when your audience enters them as a search query. These include your branded keywords, which have been shown to have consistently higher conversion rates. Don’t leave anything out as you’re brainstorming. No idea is bad if it seems relevant. Use keyword tools to check the demandOnce you have your seed list, the next step is to use data to validate your keywords and find out where the gold is buried.Google AdWords Keyword Planner provides options for validating the keywords you’ve found by showing you search volume data and trends, cost per click, and competitive data. It will also provide keyword suggestions so you can expand on the most effective keywords from your seed list. Since you already have a list of keywords to check, use the middle option to get search volume data and trends. Plug your keywords into the text field, or if you have a sizable list in a spreadsheet or text file, you can upload it. Be sure to set your targeting so the location is appropriate to where you want to target (global, by country or region, state, city, county, etc.). You can also customize the date range. This is a quick method to validate all the keywords you’ve put together, providing you with data on the average monthly search volume, the suggested bid for the keyword (an estimate of cost per click in order to have your ad appear for that keyword), and the competition for that keyword. Keywords with a high competition tend to have a higher cost per click than keywords with low competition. Don’t dump any keywords from your list just yet, even if the data shows poor search volume. You can load the full list or cherry pick any of the keywords and also search for new keywords using those phrases. While some keywords may have had poor search volume, Google may be able to suggest a variation that produces favorable results. Structure and organize your PPC keywordsOnce you have data on the keywords you want to target, you want to organize those keywords into more targeted groups of keywords that are related to one another. The tighter and more relevant your ad groups are, the easier it is to measure the performance of your keywords, tweak your targeted keyword groups, and create more specific (and more relevant) ads for each group. When grouping your keywords, keep in mind how search intent changes from broad keywords to very specific long-tail terms. For example, a broad term like “tractor” has far less purchase intent than a search for “commercial electric tractor.” The above flowchart demonstrates how the search intent can change from informational to transactional based on the keyword variation. Keep that in mind when selecting and grouping your keywords for your individual ad campaigns and ad groups. Include negative keywords in your first PPC campaignThat search intent is critical when putting your ads together. Even though a keyword may seem attractive based on search volume, cost per click, and competition, it may not be ideal. In the above example of grouped keywords, the target demographic for the ad would be those interested in running and training shoes. Searches that include sneakers and high top sneakers are less likely to apply to the target audience once they land on the product page. Some keywords may have far different user intent and can invite clicks that are an immediate bounce that won’t turn into a conversion. It could also lead to ad impressions that result in no clicks. Both can weaken the quality score of your ad, which negatively impacts your ad placement and cost per click. To prevent this, flag any keywords that may attract the wrong audience as negative keywords. This will keep your ad from displaying if those keywords are used. Know your budget and work backwardsWhen researching your keywords, you’ll be able to use the data to answer a few important questions:
That will help you strip your keywords down considerably, but there’s still another question to ask. “Can I afford to advertise for this keyword?” While average cost per click varies by industry, other elements can increase CPC, so know what you can afford. This has to be answered before you finalize your list. It’s simple math, but it’s necessary. You should have a max cost per click that you’re willing to pay for any given keyword to avoid overspending on advertising.This is determined and set by you based on your conversion rates, the amount of profit you make from each conversion/customer, and your estimated profit margins from advertising. It’s okay if you don’t know for sure, but you’ll need to estimate them at the very least so you can set a max CPC. Here’s the formula you’ll use: Max CPC = (profit per customer) * (1 – profit margin) * (website conversion rate) Let’s plug in some numbers with an example. Say the profit from your average customer is $400, and out of 1,000 visits to your product page, you’re able to convert 20 people — a 2% conversion rate. With an estimated profit margin of 20%, your calculation would look like this: Max CPC = $400 * (1 – 0.20) * 2% = $6.40 In this case, if you’re targeting keywords with an estimated CPC higher than your max CPC ($6.40), you’re going to struggle with profitability. The only way to make those campaigns profitable is to improve conversions or increase the profit made from your average customer. Research the competitive landscapeIf you’re not aware of who your competitors are and what they’re doing, it’s time to get familiar.There’s a lot you can learn from analyzing their PPC campaigns if they’re running them. You’ve got more competitors than you think, going beyond the direct competitors selling products similar to yours. A little competitive research with tools like SpyFu can reveal details on how other domains are positioning ads. And if you’re seeing a lot of irrelevant domains and businesses bidding for your keywords, that should make you consider if those are really the right keywords to reach your audience. Thankfully, AdWords has a report that can readily provide this data. In your AdWords account, you can navigate to the “Auction Insights” report from your campaign dashboard. When you run your report, you want to pay attention to impression share. You’ll likely have a lot of competition for some of your top keywords, but chances are you can disregard a fair share of them by factoring in impression share. This is a good indication of how aggressively those competitors are bidding. Once you identify your main competitors, it’s time to find out which keywords they’re profiting from. After all, why should you go through the trial-and-error process of split testing keywords and ad variations if your competitors have already done the work for you? Check out this post I wrote for a complete walkthrough on finding your competitors’ best keywords and which platforms will help you spy on competitors to see the past campaigns they’ve run. Write better ad copyWith your keywords finalized, it’s time to craft some killer ads. The time you put into writing better ad copy will make all the difference when it comes to your ROI. You can throw any old text into your ad, but the more closely it targets your audience, the more likely they’ll be to click and convert. If you can get inside their heads with a personalized ad that highlights value — even better. In a survey conducted by CMO Council, 43% of marketers said that personalization increased conversions. That lines up with data shared by Autopilot, which showed that consumer respondents were 4x more likely to respond to personalized offers. Personalization doesn’t have to be so granular that you’re serving dynamic ads with each customer’s name. In the same Autopilot survey, respondents indicated that they just expect advertising to be relevant to their needs and interests. Your audience research and keyword research will help you understand the psychology of your ideal customer so you can craft ad copy that will more effectively convert them. You’ve got limited space for ad copy, so make sure it’s compelling. There are just a few key components in that limited space:
Within the confines of your ad, you need to craft an offer that is absolutely irresistible, while delivering your unique selling proposition (USP) and providing clarity on what awaits the user on the other side of the click. There are three reasons to inject your USP into your ad:
Hootsuite knows how to set themselves apart with their ads. If you don’t know what your USP is, take the time to create one. You only have to stack yourself up against your competitors and examine your business.
Remember, the key part of USP is “unique.” Find the gap in your competitor’s offers and leverage it. Beyond your USP, build your ad copy around the following elements: Make it valuable – Don’t compete on pricing in your ads. The more you can highlight the value of your offer, the more attractive your ad. Whatever you’re advertising, make it more attractive than the price. Make it believable – At all costs, avoid creating ad offers that look too good to be true. Consumers are deal hunters, but they’re careful about where they spend money. Address risk aversion – Include guarantees or some trust signal in your ad copy where possible. With all the options for purchasing, a guarantee or trust signal can help convert the risk-averse customer. Include keywords – A necessary step to get your ads to show. Make sure they fit naturally. Don’t shoehorn keywords into your ad copy just to make it pop. Now you just need to make sure you’ve got a solid call to action in your ad. Create a powerful and relevant call to actionWordStream recently analyzed hundreds of top-performing PPC campaigns and generated a list of the most popular words. Two words stand out that are very actionable words. “Get” and “now.” Other words are also powerful when tied into a CTA and can compel the user to click, including:
When crafting a call to action, you want to focus on action. Tell the user what to do. WordStream’s analysis dug into the most popular CTAs in text ads. While “Get” is the most popular, you want to make sure the action words you use in your CTA are relevant to your offer. The right CTA can dramatically improve your conversion. Enhance your ads with ad extensionsDepending on the goal of your ad, you may want to include ad extensions. Extensions don’t increase the cost of your ad, but they do enhance the presence of your ad, making it more attention grabbing and more interactive. These are completely optional, but the right extensions could boost conversions. They’re also available in both Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Extensions provide additional info to the search user, providing more reasons to do business with you. There are a number of extensions you can feature with your ad, including:
Enhancing your ad with extensions like those above can provide options to download an app. Provide click-to-call functionality. Include reviews of your products or services. List additional product or info pages relevant to the ad. And even make clickable callouts at the bottom of your ads. Create a compelling and welcoming landing pageThe traffic funneling through your PPC ad must go somewhere. Don’t make the mistake of sending ad traffic to your homepage. You should send traffic to the page most relevant to your ad and the intent, interest, and needs of the user. Relevancy between your ad and your landing page creates a seamless experience that will lead to the conversion of the customer while also improving your ad quality score to reduce your overall cost per click. Whether you send traffic to a product page or another custom page, keep these best practices in mind. Keep the landing page relevant to the keywords you’re bidding on to raise your quality score. Craft content and product descriptions specific to your target audience. Avoid writing for a general audience or using vague terms. Look to your target audience research to craft targeted benefit statements in a feature/benefit matrix that clearly communicates value. Support your text with strong visuals. Highrise ran an A/B test that found visitors responded well to landing pages that contained human imagery. Make sure that your landing page is optimized not only to load quickly but also to deliver the best mobile experience. You don’t want to pay that cost per click only to have frustrated users back out of a slow-loading landing page. And they won’t wait long. Just a 1-second delay in page speed can result in a 7% drop in conversions. The more wasted clicks you have, the greater your customer acquisition cost beyond the CPC. Tuning up your site speed can have a positive effect, as Walmart discovered in one case study. If you need help creating powerful landing pages to support your PPC campaign, you can read my guide on creating high converting landing pages. Focus on conversionsThe main focus of your PPC campaign is to get your target audience to convert. I’ve written extensively on how to tune up AdWords and PPC campaigns to increase conversions. Here are some of my favorites that can help you focus on conversions and boost the ROI of your PPC campaigns:
ConclusionOnce your campaigns are built and you’re working to improve conversions, the work doesn’t end. With your campaigns live, you need to continually monitor the performance of your ad groups and ad variations as you accumulate data. Based on that data, you can adjust keyword bidding, add new keywords, find opportunities to test new ad copy, eliminate poorly performing ads, and continue to optimize your funnel. Even with the tips above, you’ll still run into hurdles. Even professional marketers with years of PPC experience still have campaigns that don’t perform as expected. Follow this guide when you’re getting started to greatly improve your chances of success. Have you tried running any PPC campaigns yet? What’s been your experience so far? The post How to Launch a Successful PPC Campaign For The First Time appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger How to Launch a Successful PPC Campaign For The First Time |
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December 2017
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