What’s the first thing people notice when they see your Facebook page? Visually, it takes up nearly a quarter of the screen on your desktop browser. This is not a trick question. It’s your cover photo. Facebook has transformed drastically throughout the years. What started as a platform to connect college students has turned into an essential marketing tool. For starters, if you are not using Facebook to promote, advertise, and represent your company – you should be. You can take a look at my guide where I explain the importance of advertising on Facebook. If you’re under the impression that Facebook is a fad from the past, think again. According to Tech Crunch, Facebook has more active users than Instagram, Twitter, and Snapcat combined. That’s right. Facebook has over 2 billion monthly users. This is a number that we simply cannot ignore. You might be wondering if these numbers are plateauing or potentially even declining. Well, it’s neither. In fact, the number of active Facebook users is on the rise. Tech Crunch continues explaining that Facebook’s user count is growing at about 17% each year. Furthermore, 66% of users are active daily. That number is 11% higher than it was in 2013 when Facebook hit the 1 billion mark. Despite popular opinions about Facebook, these numbers don’t lie. Your current and prospective customers or subscribers will visit your Facebook page. Since the first thing they’ll see is your cover, I’ll explain how to create a highly effective Facebook cover photo. Creating an Effective Facebook Cover PhotoUse an image that attracts appropriate attention. Consider the demographics of your customers and subscribers. Let’s say your company sells products for babies up to two years old. Your target demographic might be a new mother between the ages of 25 and 40. A cover photo of college girls in bikinis will certainly draw attention, but it does not draw appropriate attention. Try to come up with something that relates to your customers. Use powerful emotion as a tool to communicate with your subscribers. A mother holding her infant baby is an emotional image that the demographic in the above example can relate to. What’s the demographic of your current Facebook following? Did you know that this information is available to you from your business page? Here’s how you find out. Step #1: Select “Insights” at the top of your homepage. Step #2: Click “People” on the left side of the screen. Step #3: Select “Your Fans” From here, you can see who likes your page. It will show you the percentages of your subscribers by:
This is an important tool for you to utilize. Not only will you gain valuable information about your subscribers, but you can also use this information as a resource when you’re creating a cover photo. Here’s an example: Let’s say you discover that 80% of the people who follow your Facebook page are males.75% of these subscribers speak Spanish as their primary language. We’ll also say 90% of your followers are between the ages of 18 and 25. Based on this information, it may not be a bad idea to include a cover photo that has a young man and some text written in Spanish. Chances are good that your numbers may not be as black and white as this example, but it’s still valuable information. Here’s something else to keep in mind when you look at this data. It may not be 100% accurate. The information is based on what people put in their profile. So if someone is in the United States, but their profile says they live in Japan, your numbers will be slightly off. Here’s some information from Sprout Social about some general demographics of all Facebook users. The graph shows that 12% of Facebook users are from the United States. With that in mind, research from the Pew Research Center states that 68% of adults in America use Facebook. So as a whole, the United States has the largest percentage of Facebook users compared to other countries, and over 2/3 of American adults use Facebook.The point I’m trying to make is that you can use all of this data to help you find an image that attracts appropriate attention. Know your audience – your cover photo should represent this group. Keep it simple. Don’t go crazy trying to fit as much information as possible in your cover photo. The image should have a clear focal point to draw the visitor’s attention. See how simple this cover photo is from Lululemon? According to Laurent Potdevin, the company’s CEO, about 80% of the company’s customers are female. What do they sell? Yoga clothing. Their cover photo hits their demographic right on the mark while keeping it simple. Notice how they don’t even include their company logo on the cover photo.Instead, they put their logo as the profile picture. Use your profile picture to complement your cover photo. If Lululemon had another woman doing a yoga pose as their profile picture, it would have been redundant and not as effective. Overall, their page has a visually appealing theme because they kept things simple. Just because Lululemon didn’t put any text in their cover photo, it does not mean that’s the only option. Let’s take a look at another example on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. 3 words, 8 letters, and 11 characters – it doesn’t get simpler than that. This method is extremely effective for a global brand like Nike. They make athletic clothing and equipment for nearly every sport and for people of all ages and genders. According to Statista, Nike is the largest supplier of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment in the world. Their global revenue is over 34 billion USD annually. Nike could have gone a few different directions with this image, but ultimately they chose the right one. They could have used an image of an athlete from one particular sport, but it would have alienated the rest of their clientele. On the other hand, they could have tried to incorporate a collage with a mixture of sports, ages, genders, and geographic locations. But that’s too messy – not simple. Instead, Nike decided to use their iconic slogan in white lettering on a simple black background. Notice that they took the same approach as Lululemon and used their company logo as the profile picture. Both of these companies used their Facebook cover photo to build their personal brand. Watch my video where I explain this concept in a little more detail. You can also use your Facebook cover photo as a promotional tool. If your company is trying to a push a new product launch or get your subscribers to make a purchase, you can use your cover photo as an advertisement. Take a look at this example from a popular watch company. G-Shock is clearly promoting their GA-700 series with this cover photo. While this example may look significantly different than the others we’ve discussed, it still meets all the criteria that we outlined earlier. G-Shock’s cover photo:
Following this strategy is just one step in an in-depth process that leads to social media marketing success. Let’s analyze the Discovery Channel cover photo. This cover is by far the most text-heavy of all the examples we’ve seen. With that said, it’s still an effective approach. Discovery Channel is promoting two things in one image.
They were able to get all of this information on one image while keeping a simple design in mind. There isn’t too much clutter, and all the text flows smoothly. Notice the background. The gray background of the cover photo is the same as the profile picture. This trick keeps a uniform and pleasing look for their page. Facebook guidelinesYou also need to make sure your cover photo adheres to the Facebook guidelines. Here are some quick takeaways and points you should know about your Facebook cover photo:
If your cover photo violates any of these terms, Facebook can suspend or terminate your account. Make sure your image is sized properly. Once you select a photo, you need to make sure that it’s the correct size. On a desktop, the image has to be optimized for 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. For mobile, it’s 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall. Do you need to focus on desktop and mobile optimization? Absolutely. Take a look at this graph from Venture Beat. Nearly 900 million people used Facebook on their mobile device in the first quarter of 2016. That number continues to climb. If you upload an image that’s smaller than the dimensions mentioned above, Facebook will automatically stretch it to a minimum of 399 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall. With that said, a stretched image won’t look very professional. Before you waste time designing a cover photo that’s not optimized properly, I’ll show you how to make sure your image is the correct size. You can use a service like PicMonkey to design and size your Facebook cover photo. Step #1: Visit picmonkey.com and create an account. If you aren’t ready to commit to their service, they offer a seven-day free trial with premium access to all of their features. See if you’re comfortable with their software and take full advantage of the trial period before committing to a monthly or annual subscription. Step #2: Import your photos. You can import photos from your computer, Facebook, Dropbox, or Flickr account. It’s easier to just upload all of your images at once. That way, you’ll have everything in front of you while you’re working to create a cover photo. If you keep going back to import new images, it’s not an efficient use of your time. Step #3: Select the “FB Cover” option from the layouts tab. On the left side of your screen, you’ll see the layouts tab, as pictured above. For this purpose, we’re obviously going to select the “FB Cover” option. However, you can take advantage of the other layouts for different aspects of your Facebook page. Sometimes, it’s best to include an image of your team. Optimizing your Facebook page can go along way toward conversions. Step #4: Drag photos to the template. Now that you’re in the Facebook covers layout, go back to the photos tab on the left side of your screen. From here, you can simply drag the photos you uploaded earlier directly to the template. Mix and match these photos to see what looks best. Step #5: Edit the images. If you move your cursor over an image in the template, you’ll see an “Edit” button pop up in the top left corner of the picture. Click on the edit button to adjust the size or exposure of the image. You can also flip and rotate the image if it didn’t import properly. Drag the image around in the cell until you’re happy with size and position. Step #6: Adjust the layout. If you’re using multiple images to create your cover photo, place your mouse between each photo in the template. Two blue lines will appear between the images. Your mouse will turn into a double-headed arrow. Use the mouse to rearrange the layout of these images. Step #7: Insert a swatch for adding text. Before you can write text, you need to add a swatch. Select the swatches tab on the left side of your screen. From the swatches menu, you can select a swatch theme that fits well with your photos. Use one of their existing swatches or create one of your own. Step #8: Add text and make the final edits. Add a simple message to your cover photo. Keep it short. You don’t want the text to be the primary focus of your cover photo. Instead, let your words compliment the image. Facebook used to have regulations in place that prevented users from having more than 20% text in their cover photo. However, that rule was lifted in July 2013. Just because Facebook changed their rules about the text on cover photos does not mean that you need to include lots of words. Again, just be concise. You can adjust the font, colors, and borders from this page, as well. Step #9: Verify your dimensions. Before you save your image and upload it to Facebook, you need to make sure the dimensions are optimized for your cover photo. If you selected the “FB Cover” option back in step #3, then this should already be correct. However, it’s always best to double check. It will save you time in the long run. You don’t want to save your image and upload it to Facebook only to discover that the dimensions got changed while you were working. Then you’d have to rush to replace the image before too many people notice the error. PicMonkey is just one of the many platforms that offer this service. You can also try:
You can use Pic Stitch on your mobile device to optimize the size for your cover photo. Simply go to the “Aspect” tab at the bottom of your screen and select the “FB Cover” option. Now that you’ve created an image that’s properly sized with the optimal dimensions, it’s time to upload it to your page. How? I’ll show you. Uploading your cover photo to FacebookHere’s a quick step-by-step tutorial to upload your photo. Step #1: Go to your company’s home page. Click on your name or company’s name on the top toolbar on Facebook. You can also click on your existing profile picture. Both of these options will bring you to the home page. Step #2: Click “Update Cover Photo.” Position your mouse over your existing cover photo. You’ll see “Update Cover Photo” appear in the top left corner of your screen. If you don’t have a current cover photo, the prompt will read “Add Cover Photo” instead. Step #3: Select your new photo. Now all you need to do is select the photo that you created earlier. That photo has already been optimized with the proper dimensions, so you won’t need to worry about resizing or adjusting anything. If you want to make slight alterations, you can click “Reposition” and drag the photo so it lines up exactly how you want it to look on your page. Once you’re finished, click “Save” and your new cover photo is all set. ConclusionFacebook photos are an important part of your brand’s image. How important? Compared to your posts without photos, there is a significant difference. The graphic above shows the data from a HubSpot study. Their research concluded that photos generate 53% more likes and 104% more comments than posts without photos. With subscribers putting such an emphasis on the images on your page, it makes sense that the most important photo on your page is the first one that everyone sees. Your cover photo is the most significant. As we discussed, it’s really not complicated to create an effective Facebook cover photo. Make sure you use an image that attracts appropriate attention. Use the information about the demographics of your subscribers to your advantage. As I outlined earlier, you can find this information in a few quick steps. You can also refer to my guide for creating a profitable Facebook advertising campaign. Make sure your photo is simple and that the size is optimized properly. It’s OK to include text on your cover photo, but keep it short. Also, refer to the Facebook guidelines to make sure your photo isn’t violating any of their terms. If you follow the tips in this guide, you can easily create a highly effective Facebook cover photo. What image will you use to represent your company? The post How to Create Highly Effective Facebook Cover Photos appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger How to Create Highly Effective Facebook Cover Photos
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Every other day, it seems like big brands are launching some of the best marketing campaigns we’ve ever seen. They’re pulling in millions upon millions of views. Everyone is sharing them, and sales numbers are through the roof. But as small business owners, we often think: “Who cares? I don’t have a million-dollar marketing budget. Why does it matter to me?” I know I often feel this way. However, it’s not always that simple. No company starts with millions of dollars in their marketing budget. No company starts out as an industry giant. They grew from the ground up with similar tactics that they still use today. They were just like us once. Sure, some of these companies got lucky. Some might have had insanely large investments to kickstart the business. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying every tactic in the marketing book to continually grow their company. Small businesses and startups won’t be able to copy everything they do. We can’t always create a huge marketing splash like Red Bull, or Nike, or Chipotle. We simply don’t have the audience size and millions in spare cash to spend like they do. However, you can adapt their strategies to fit your own marketing budget on a smaller scale. Here are five lessons that million-dollar companies can teach you about online marketing. 1. Use user-generated content like Blue ApronBlue Apron might be one of the biggest startups of the last decade. Actually, make that half decade. They were only founded in 2012! Blue Apron sells ready-to-cook meal kits. They sell these meal kits online and deliver them directly to your doorstep. They include everything from the recipe to the ingredients in the exact quantities that you’ll need. That means all a customer has to do is cook those boxed ingredients based on the step-by-step instructions. No time-consuming, exhausting work required. As of 2015, they were delivering over 5 million meals per month to their customers. It’s safe to say that their growth was explosive. And according to Greg Fitzgerald, the former director of acquisition marketing at Blue Apron, user-generated content (UGC) was a massive contributor to that success. In a survey, 85% of users said that user-generated visual content was more influential than brand photos or videos. On top of that, startup Yotpo found that ads featuring UGC can lead to a 4x higher click-through rates. It’s no secret that UGC is a powerful motivating factor in building trust and credibility. Take a look at how Blue Apron creatively leveraged UGC by sharing “Love Stories” from its satisfied customers. Blue Apron credits a ton of their success to social posts like this one. To build more trust, they often feature current customers who loved their product. That also deepens the bonds of loyalty with existing buyers. They even targeted high-end celebrities on social media to post natural, native ads. Real people in a real environment are eating their food and enjoying the product! What a concept! On top of that, they launched user-generated content campaigns on YouTube to some of the most popular influencers around. Just look at all that positive engagement. How’d they do it? They showed that real human beings can benefit from using their product in a natural way. Now, as a small business, you obviously can’t afford to land most high-end influencers. But that’s not the point. The point is to share user-generated content. Show that people use your product and love it! One of my favorite examples comes from Buffer. They do this on Instagram every single day: You don’t need billions of dollars in your marketing budget to show customer appreciation and build loyalty by sharing UGC! 2. Sell without selling on social media like JetBlueHow on earth do you make something as boring as booking a flight entertaining? How can such a boring industry leverage a platform like social media to drive sales? By creating an atmosphere that lives and breathes their mission. For example, here’s JetBlue’s motto: Now look below at the other airline mottos. They’re all pretty decent. But they just communicate different outlooks for the brand. Southwest is cheap and transparent. Sure, that’s a great value proposition for tons of travelers. But it’s not very inspiring.You can’t do a whole lot to use that in your advertising or marketing creatives. JetBlue, on the other hand, is inspiring us to do more. Their motto conveys that they put the customer first. “You above all.” Most of all, they’re crafting a brand image that allows them to appeal to the deepest desires of travelers. Most people want experiences, inspiration, and adventure when they hop on a plane. JetBlue takes this to the next level. They go beyond the typical beach and scenic photos. In fact, they partnered with Localeur, a platform that connects travelers to places locals actually go in different cities. They base it on local reviews and recommendations from residents. All of that ties back perfectly into their motto of putting the customer first. They want to connect people with authentic experiences that they can take advantage of the next time they fly. It’s real, it’s authentic, and it goes deeper than the surface-level posts we see on social media every other day. JetBlue clearly cares about the customer experience from start to finish. They don’t just talk about it or plaster a slogan on banner ads. They try to live it. And that sparks adventure and wanderlust. It makes people want to explore. JetBlue owns social media because they sell without selling. They trigger your inner travel desires without actually saying “book a flight now.” They turn an otherwise boring industry into a masterpiece. And you can too. Nobody wants to see social media marketing telling them to buy a product all day. It has to be natural. Plus, you don’t need an insane budget to succeed! Just look at how Evernote does it: They create a feeling that resonates with their brand. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to own social media. You’ll never be able to spend millions flying people around the globe like rockstars. But you don’t have to. Instead, just follow the underlying path of million-dollar companies. Look at what they’re doing and scale it down to your level. 3. Keep your brand consistent like Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is one of the world’s biggest brands. They launched over a hundred years ago in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. Their products are now in nearly every country in the world. In 2010 alone, they spent $2.9 billion on advertising. That’s pretty insane if you ask me. But if we can learn anything from Coca-Cola and bring it back to the real world of small business, it’s this: Consistency is key. Let me show you an example. Here’s a Coca-Cola ad from 1939: Pretty good, right? They make the product look crisp, clean, and refreshing. Now let’s take a look at one from 2016 to see what’s changed in the last few decades. Notice those slogans?
They’re nearly identical! The message remains the same 77 years later. Coca-Cola hasn’t always excelled at consistency, though. They had to learn this lesson the hard way.Back in 1985, they attempted to rebrand themselves. They tried to change up the secret formula of their product. And they also tried to switch up taglines to reach a broader audience. Here’s what they came up with: They tried to go “edgy” or “trendy.” They were following the trends instead of blazing their own trail. And the backlash was huge. So huge, in fact, that people actually launched grassroots campaigns. They signed petitions to bring the classic branding and taste back. Although Coca-Cola spends billions of dollars every year on advertising, this lesson requires zero ad spend. You don’t need to spend any money to maintain consistency in your product and brand. It’s easy to think that switching it up is going to be your next big hit. Especially with all of the various growth hacks and a changing marketing landscape. But if we can learn anything from one of the largest companies in the world, it’s that consistency works. 4. Strategize content marketing like Whole FoodsBefore I jump into this lesson from Whole Foods, just look at their home page. “Get Our Guide” is the first thing you see. Believe it or not, Whole Foods is an absolute genius when it comes to content marketing. And who would think to view or read content from a grocery store? That’s what content marketing is for.You want to get people interested in your business by providing valuable, unbranded content. And that’s exactly what Whole Foods does. In fact, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing yet generates 3x more leads. Plus, companies that use content marketing see 6x higher conversion rates than those who don’t. However, content is just like anything else in the marketing world. It all comes down to execution. Content marketing can work awesomely. Or it can be a massive waste of money. Why? Most marketers focus only on branded content. They want to talk about why their product is the best. Even though nobody believes them or cares enough to listen. That’s not what Whole Foods does. For example: Look at all of that valuable, unbranded content! They have recipes and nutrition tips for families. They’ve put together “snack swaps” to show people what healthy ingredients to substitute. They even go into meal prep ideas that can feed your family over the course of multiple days. All of these recipes, guides, and actionable content have a few clear benefits.
They even take advantage of listicle-style posts to help simplify their customers’ lives. Most small business marketers worry about toning down their marketing budget. Most think that reading about million-dollar companies is a waste of time because all they do is spend big on the Super Bowl. But that’s not always the case! Just look at Whole Foods as the perfect example. They’re able to drive new traffic and conversions with creative content marketing pieces that make people want to come back for more: They simply provide value first. You don’t need billions of dollars to produce valuable content for users. You just need people who care deeply about helping your customers. You have to research your customers’ lives and help them relieve their pain points. Busy parents want delicious food that doesn’t take long to make and is healthy for their family. Show them how to do that. And then you can sell them the products to make it happen. 5. Go viral without paying for ads like ChipotleBefore we jump into Chipotle, I want to present you with some not-so-well-known statistics: 69% of marketing professionals say that their video marketing budget is increasing. Did you know that nearly 52% of marketing professionals say that video provides them the best ROI? Or that 43% of people want to see more videos in marketing? Why you ask? We’re visual beings. And it’s no secret that images boost your views: So this brings me to my main point of this section. Video is slowly but surely becoming the wave of the future. And that’s where Chipotle comes into play. We can learn an incredible lesson about online marketing from this food giant. Chipotle’s mantra is clearly stated on their website: “As Real As It Gets.” That’s been their motto since they were founded in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. They revolutionized the fast-casual market with real food options. They’re healthy and free of dangerous ingredients that you often find in other fast food places. They noticed that this motto was working. People seemed to like it. Heck, they felt good about themselves when eating there. And that’s when they decided to launch their hit short film, “The Scarecrow.” Check it out: Instead of wasting millions of dollars on coveted ad spend, they uploaded the video for free to YouTube and reaped the rewards. Today, they have the budget for big, splashy, television ads. And yet they continue to resist. They instead focus their attention and budget on the same free channels we have access to. Just look at the results of that video: I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty impressive for a video designed to get people to convert on their mobile apps. Why? Because they took advantage of a growing medium and helped tell their story. The video also combines several lessons from here so far. They’re using content marketing. They sell without selling. They’re trying to start a movement in what they strongly believe in. Chipotle knew that telling their story with text wouldn’t resonate like video. Even if you’re a small company, you can create a viral video. You don’t need a six-figure marketing budget to do it, either. You just need something worth talking about. You need something that your customers can believe in and get behind. ConclusionEvery year, we’re presented with incredible ads from the top brands of our time. Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and most of the top companies pump out incredible content and advertisements. We crowd around at the Super Bowl and pay more attention to the ads in between the football game. These companies have millions (if not billions) of dollars to spend on marketing efforts every year. A single Super Bowl spot is worth more than our entire marketing budgets combined! So small business marketers usually don’t even pay attention. They immediately write off what million-dollar companies are doing. Why should you care about the tactics and techniques from massive companies? You have virtually zero shot at replicating what they’re doing. However, that’s no reason to ignore it completely. Because despite not having that budget, you can still learn from what they’re doing. You can reverse engineer their thought process. The approach and idea are the important parts. Take those lessons so that you can get similar results without spending your entire budget. Most of these million-dollar companies have diverse strategies. They don’t just buy ad slots on TV. They spend hours upon hours gathering research and developing strategies that we can all learn from. Many of the strategies, at their core, aren’t new or expensive. Many are even free. Take user-generated content. Your customers are already doing the work! They often use commonplace mediums like social media or content marketing. You’re probably doing those things, too. But your strategy and execution are probably off. Million-dollar companies can teach us so much about online marketing. We just need to peel back the layers and bring it back down to reality. What lessons have you learned from the top companies of our era? The post 5 Lessons Million-Dollar Companies Can Teach You About Online Marketing appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger 5 Lessons Million-Dollar Companies Can Teach You About Online Marketing So, you want to expand your business into a new market? Nice! It means you’re doing well and you’re ready to ramp up your business. I’ll admit that growth is alluring. The possibility of more profits, more reach, and more impact is enough to get anyone excited. Expansion is also a big step that you shouldn’t take lightly. It cannot be done at the expense of your current operations. That’s why I’ll tell you straight up that the information in this blog post isn’t for everyone. You may not be in a position to expand your business just yet. How can you tell? Here are a few tell-tale signs that you’re ready to expand. 1. You have a steady stream of customers or clients. Do customers come to you or do you have to hunt them down? It goes without saying, but there’s no business without customers. That’s why the top marketing priority for businesses is to convert leads. So, ensure that you have a reliable stream of revenue before you expand. 2. You’re crushing your business goals. You’re setting specific and measurable goals for yourself. You’re constantly meeting and even surpassing these goals. Good. You’re ready for the demands of expanding into a new market. On the flip side, if you consistently fall short of your business goals, you may want to take a step back. 3. You’ve got a solid team in place. With the right team, you can crush it in a new market. By the same token, without these key players, you’ll have a difficult time executing your vision. Just look at how much some top companies make per employee. Of course, these figures don’t apply to the average business. However, they give you a sense of how important employees are to your success. So, before you take that step, audit your team to make sure that they are ready for the challenge. 4. You have the cash to expand. Is cash flow tight? It may not be the right time to expand. A cash deficit is dangerous for any business. Going into a new market will put an even bigger strain on your resources. It means your main operation will suffer. It’s been reported that 82% of small businesses fail due to poor cash-flow management. It’s also worth noting that you can be successful if you know how to leverage your existing resources. Bootstrapping can be a rock-solid strategy. Now: If you’ve considered the above and you’re ready to take that leap, I’ve got some make-or-break advice for you. By the end of this article, you’ll have some actionable strategies that you can use to expand your business into new markets. Let’s get started. 1. Determine what the impact on your business will beI want to set something straight. Expanding doesn’t mean abandoning your current operations. Your business needs to survive the additional demands of a brand new market. The only way to ensure that happens is first to assess what the full impact will be on all aspects of your business. This is known as a premortem. Make sense? Here’s how you can determine what the impact will be. First, consider what expansion would entail. Then, map out all the ways that it could affect your current business. No matter what type of business you operate, growth includes a few key things. Of course, the specifics of your business also matter, but these are some overarching ideas. Team members may have to split their time between current and new markets. Will that affect the quality of their work? Expanding almost always requires a larger team. You will need additional resources to support a new market. If not, you will be spread too thinly, and your business will take a hit. Of course, if you have the funds, this isn’t an issue.There will be greater demands on your leadership. How will your day-to-day operations suffer if you aim your focus in a different direction? Can you handle it all or will you need help? You will need to uplevel your business processes. I’m talking about better tech, more automation, and more robust systems. The effect? Well, it depends on the type of business. But those who automate their marketing, for example, have the following objectives: About 90% of respondents to one survey report that their automation strategy is somewhat or very successful in fulfilling these objectives. 2. Decide the expansion route that you’ll takeWhat exactly does expansion mean? New products and services? New location? Entirely different market? It can be any of these options.Here are some expansion routes that you can take. Take an existing product or service to a new target audience. This is perhaps one of the easiest routes to take. You don’t have to come up with an entirely different offer. Instead, you’ll be catering to a new segment of your industry. Let’s say that you have a business that only caters to women. You may decide that you want to target a male demographic. Here are some other demographic factors you can consider.
Whatever you decide, ensure that what you’re offering is something that your new demographic would find valuable. Be mindful that desire does not always equal purchase intent. Be sure that they would pay for it. What influences a customer’s willingness to pay? There are factors within your control, like customer service and pricing, which affect a customer’s buying decisions. In any event, when you target new audiences, you would have to alter your messaging. And while you’re providing an existing product or service, your offer needs to be tailored accordingly. Take a new product or service into your existing customer base. I’m a big believer in diversifying your offers. If you only have one or two products on your roster, this is an excellent opportunity to expand. Want to know the best advice I’ve ever gotten on diversifying?“Stay close to home.” It’s so simple but so crucial to success. Staying close to home means not wandering too far off from what you currently offer. It should be a seamless extension and not a complete U-turn. What new products will your customers jump at a chance to get? Again, this strategy shouldn’t be too difficult. You can brainstorm a few ideas and survey your customers to find out what they would buy. Move to a new location. This mostly applies to brick-and-mortar businesses. Online businesses are not dependent on geography. Now, moving could either mean relocating or adding a new store. Naturally, executing this expansion strategy is far more demanding than the previous two strategies. There’s a lot that comes into play here. And if you’re not careful, you can sabotage your success. Here are some prime circumstances for moving to a new location.
Explore an entirely new vertical market. First off, vertical-market entry is challenging. A vertical market is one in which you offer products or services specific to an industry. You can decide to operate in an entirely different space than you’re in right now. Remember my advice about staying close to home? This strategy violates that bit of wisdom. However, it is an option worth mentioning. Here’s an example: A business in the fitness industry can decide to go into fashion. Do you have to reinvent your business to satisfy this new vertical? Not exactly. Take the example above. There can be an overlap with fitness and fashion. This brings me to the next point. 3. Ensure that there’s alignment between your current business model and the new oneYour business model is essentially your vehicle for driving results. It’s your logic board. It’s how you operate. It’s how you create value for all stakeholders in your business. If you have to change that to be a player in a new market, it’s not the same business. Sure, you can modify the way you operate to meet the demands of a new marketplace. But there shouldn’t be a complete overhaul of the core of your business. That’s what I mean by alignment. When you’ve got an overlap between your current and new markets, you’ll have a more seamless expansion. This means that there’ll be little (if any) disruption to your current operations. So what are some specific examples of strategic alignment?
4. Don’t leap on a hunchSo, you’re convinced that you need to expand into new markets. You’ve done some of the groundwork. What now? Do you go full-throttle into market domination? Nope. It’s time to take a pause. Expansion is no small feat. You need to ensure that you have concrete data to act on. Here’s what that process looks like. Step #1: Clearly define the market that you want to enter. If you went through the first three strategies, it’s easy sailing from here. You likely have an idea of where you’re headed. State it in definite terms.
These are just a few factors to consider. Step #2: Validate your new market. There’s no point in risking your business if you’re not sure there’s a place for you in a new market. Here’s the interesting thing, though. There are at least four layers of validation. Most people only ever validate their idea on one level. Do you have to do all four? It depends on your expansion strategy. I’ll tell you the four layers, and you’ll decide. Problem: Does the problem you think you’re solving exist? Is it a big enough pain point? A simple way to know is to conduct surveys or phone interviews. Interviews are more insightful because you can have a two-way conversation. Product: Does your product effectively solve that problem? How do you know? Get a minimally viable version of your offer out as quickly as you can. Then, test it with a few of your target users. Pay attention to their feedback. The goal is to ensure your product works for the purpose for which it’s intended. Not only that, but you want to offer something that is superior to alternatives on the market. Market: There may be a problem, and you may have a viable product. But is there a large enough market worth tapping into? First, get a general overview using Google Trends. Type in your market or particular product into the search bar. You’ll get a graph giving the search volume for your keyword over a given period. You want a graph that’s steady or on the rise. You can also use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to find more precise data on keywords in your market. Profitability: This may be a shocker. A problem, product, and market do not equal profitability. Do your target customers have a readiness to pay you for a solution? That’s what matters. Here’s how you can find out. Go for the sale. This is the surest way to know if someone will pay for your solution. Collect some valuable leads from your new market, nurture a relationship with them, and sell your product on your website. Having a primary web home base is important. 34% of people are unlikely to buy from a business without a website. Another way to find out is to do competitor research. If people are paying your competitors, nothing is preventing them from investing in you. You can conduct a simple Google search to find your competitors. 5. Decide how you’ll position yourself in this new marketYou’ve validated your expansion goals. Well done. It’s time to decide how you’ll position yourself in this new market. I’ll tell you why that’s important. There are likely other players in this new space. They will be well entrenched and will have a loyal customer base. This means that you have to compete and win if you want to be profitable. The best edge you can have is to nail your positioning. The good news is that you’ve already done the groundwork for this. Here are the elements that you need to clarify your position in the marketplace.
That’s all there is to it. Of course, it’s going to take thorough research to get to the core of these elements. While you’ve already sized up your competition a bit, I recommend spending considerable time on a competitor analysis. Why? Doubling down on your differentiating factor is super important. You can’t narrow in on that without turning the competition inside out. 6. Establish your go-to-market game planIt’s time to execute. Here, you’ll create a roadmap to enter your new market successfully. It’s been reported that 64% of entrepreneurs who have a plan are more likely to grow their businesses. The first step is to set a revenue goal. While business is not all about chasing numbers, you need a measurable performance indicator. After you’ve set your goal, you can establish a plan for what your sales cycle will look like. Consider the following elements.
7. Don’t stop at entryEntering a new market is only the beginning. If you execute your plan successfully, you’ll be looking at a base of new customers. Your task now is to provide a superior customer experience. Because guess what? If you’re churning customers as fast as you’re acquiring them, that’s not exactly a slam-dunk win. In fact, it’s a loss. And it’s super easy to lose customers, especially when you’re a new player in a market. Here’s what I recommend:
There’s no shortage of ideas for keeping your customers delighted with your business. The key is to keep engaging with them in real time. For this purpose, 60% of respondents to one survey expected small businesses to have a social media presence. It will minimize churn and extend your customer lifetime value (CLV). This is crucial if you want to maintain a position of strength in both your original and new markets. In fact, 76% of businesses agree that CLV is crucial to their organizations. ConclusionExpanding your business is a thrill. I know that first-hand. For some people, diversifying isn’t a choice. It’s a necessity to survive the ever-shifting world of business. I suppose that’s part of the thrill. But here’s the thing. It can also be a daunting experience. The sheer number of pieces that need to be moved to scale a business is overbearing for many people. It’s important that you at least understand what the process entails. This way, you won’t put your current operation at risk. Fortunately, I’ve covered the most crucial details in this article. If you’re certain about moving into a new market, use these strategies. You’ll be well on your way to becoming a dominant player in whatever space that you decide to enter. What strategies will you use to scale your business? The post How to Grow Your Business by Expanding into New Markets appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger How to Grow Your Business by Expanding into New Markets It sounds crazy to spend that much money on promotion, right? What could I possibly have spent it on? And why? Most people are afraid to spend money. You worked hard for that money, so why on Earth would you go out and blow it all? But, as the old saying goes: “You have to spend money to make money.” And that’s absolutely true! It’s no different than running ads or hiring employees. You have to be willing to spend money today to bring in more money tomorrow. And it’s a strategy that I pride myself on implementing. I am extremely calculated, and I always look at the potential ROI of any investment I make. Whether it’s choosing to buy that $5 coffee or invest $252,000 into conversion-rate optimization, the question remains the same. What will my return be? Will this $5 coffee improve my work efficiency and reduce my working hours, thereby paying for the coffee itself? If yes, then I’ll buy it, because the goal with anything in business is to bring in more money. Your time is an investment, too. Everything should be seen as an investment, even if it isn’t directly related to money. Here’s how I’ve spent $1,080,126 on marketing and what you can learn from each dollar I spent. Spending $252,000 on conversion optimizationConversion-rate optimization focuses on a ton of different factors. It includes everything from the user experience to analyzing user behavior. It also addresses how the page funnels conversions. And it’s a relatively new trend over the past few years. It’s something that most marketers aren’t experienced with yet. One of the biggest problems with conversion-rate optimization is the amount of technical expertise needed to do it right. It’s hard to find industry experts who can give you a positive ROI when many have been doing it for fewer than five years. But it can pay off handsomely when you do find the right people. The average ROI on CRO tools is 223%. That’s incredibly intriguing! So over a year and a half, I spent a total of $252,000 on CRO. I hired the best of the best, including Conversion Rate Experts, Digital Telepathy, and Conversion XL. The biggest takeaway I learned was to measure ROI from both revenue and knowledge gained. Here’s what I mean by that statement. Your ROI is much more than simply how much you spent vs. how much profit you made in return. I looked at my ROI for this relatively unknown sector (to me) as the accumulation of knowledge. Just like going to college or a university, you pay to accumulate precious knowledge and the tricks of the trade. In the end, that $252,000 turned into millions of dollars of additional revenue. But it also turned into knowledge and expertise that continues to bring in money for each new website or project I work on. I now know some CRO industry secrets that I don’t need to pay for anymore. Spending $30,000 on free content guidesIt’s no secret that content marketing is king in today’s marketing landscape. 90% of online organizations use content marketing. And 78% of Chief Marketing Officers think that it’s the future of marketing. On top of that, 90% of online visitors find custom, unbranded content to be useful in making purchase decisions. Plus, the ROI of content marketing is incredibly high: Content marketing can drive insane amounts of inbound traffic to your site. That means you can capture users who have never heard of you before. And then you can use that content to convert these new visitors into leads. Content marketing works, but it’s getting tougher. Years ago, there were already 2 million blog posts published each day. That number only continues to skyrocket.That’s why I spent $30,000 creating free content guides that stand out. They are evergreen. They will drive traffic to my sites for years and years to come. I published one of my favorite $30k guides on QuickSprout in 2014, yet it still drives me more traffic than most of my standard blog posts combined. It was The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand: It has 8 in-depth chapters that cover everything from defining a vision and finding your target audience to leveraging your brand to get free press. All in all, the guide is over 30,000 words long. That’s book-length content! Meaning it isn’t your standard first-page ranking blog post: It’s actually over 12x as long as the top-ranking post and 15x as long as the 10th-position post. It packs tons of data with countless actionable tips on building your brand. The reason that these cost so much was due to the design, the immense amount of time spent writing and editing, and the collective labor needed to make it happen in just two months. It was then created as an HTML infographic so that it retained its attractive design while still allowing search engines to index the content: The custom design and development work for these are expensive and time-consuming. But it’s also worth it. My traffic exploded because of these guides. Spending $30,000 on a 30,000-word guide might seem insane to some marketers. But again, I wasn’t focused on the cost. I focused on the return. I did intense research into personal branding and found a lack of actionable content. I found relatively short pieces that weren’t satisfying my own pain points. In the end, the traffic was worth it. I’ve been successfully driving traffic for years with that post. The same amount of traffic could cost me hundreds of thousands to generate with AdWords or Facebook Ads. You have to take into account the cost of competing alternatives.How else could you have driven that traffic? What would a radio ad cost you for the same brand awareness? You’ll often see that content marketing and SEO are insanely cheap in comparison. That’s why I’ve repeated this success multiple times. I’ve created dozens of definitive guides to dominate the most competitive keywords in my niche. Some of these content guides have generated over 400,000 visits each! Compare that to AdWords. A buck or two per click would set me back over $400,000 to drive that kind of traffic. Now, the $30,000 sounds like a bargain, right? Spending $659,635 on my credit card in one monthYes, you read that number correctly. I honestly did spend $659,635 in one month on my credit card. And no, I didn’t spend it all on shoes or clothes or fancy products. I spent it all on marketing and business development. I spent it on SEO services, content marketing, research, and outsourced tasks. Then there was also travel to conferences and meetings and food for high-level business meetups. Before we dive in, here’s the proof that I spent that much money in a single month: The reason I was able to spend that much money on my card in a single month was due to my card level. I have the American Express Centurion Card. It’s better known as the “black card” that you see celebrities using. It’s not as cool as it sounds, trust me. But on a serious note, I only have the black card because of how much I’ve spent with American Express over the years. I’ve put all my business transactions on this card and always pay my bill on time. That means that my limit is nearly unlimited. Who cares if you can spend that much money unless you make a return? I sure don’t. That’s why I always track my spending on a spreadsheet: I need to know where I’m spending my dollars and whether that money is paying off. Plus, it helps me see where I am wasting money that isn’t improving my business. And my end goal in everything I do is focused on ROI, which is why I put every single expense on that card. All of my service payments, products I use to run my business daily, consulting advice, and more. Now, the expenses for this month were abnormally high. But it wasn’t like I went crazy just for the fun of it.Everything I bought served a larger purpose, and piling it on the same card helped me run the business more efficiently. For example, reward points are important. I fly all over the world for my business. I’m constantly in new cities and countries. Spending money on my black AMEX drives more points that are redeemable in other places. I spend over $100,000 every month on advertising. And the platinum concierge service helps me better spend that money. For example, If they noticed that I was spending $100,000 in advertising, they would call me and tell me that their gold card was better for advertising as it had 3x the points on advertising costs. The end goal in everything I do is to make a good return on my investment. And that’s exactly why I piled up my costs onto the same card. Spending $138,491 on business mealsThis one sounds like clickbait. However, I promise it’s not. I know what you’re thinking. “Neil, what on Earth are you eating? Caviar and Dungeness crab for every meal?” Trust me. I wish that were the case. In reality, this is how much I spent in 12 months for my personal corporation. My accountant first sent me the report at the end of the year, and I almost spat out my drink. That’s roughly $11,540 every single month. But again, my analytical mind went to work fast: Was there an ROI? If so, which client dinners turned into new business relationships? What’s their lifetime value? Can I identify the wasted spend? For example, I don’t like to cook. I’m not the best chef in the world. I want to eat healthy, delicious food. It’s often easier to have someone else prepare it so that I can focus on what I’m good at (read: not cooking). I’m able to save time by continuing to work and bring in new business. Rather than waste time making gross food. When I broke it down, I also noticed some interesting stuff: I had over 600 meetings that year, and the amount spent per meeting was over $200. That’s not terrible considering most of the time I was at higher-end restaurants with big clients. I spent the other $51,491.28 taking coworkers out to lunch. Please remember this: Never calculate the ROI of spending money on meals for coworkers. Coworkers are who make your business thrive. They aren’t commodities. They are real people with real lives that are helping your business grow. Show some darn appreciation! Here are the categories of my dinner expenses: Now, let me break it down for you. Spending nearly $100,000 on clients is a bit excessive. I don’t recommend doing it unless you have a proven track record of being able to use those meetings to your advantage. However, with these clients, I was able to nurture the existing relationship and drive lifetime-values through the roof. I cultivated a friendship with these clients that would last long into the future. And it’s no secret that selling to existing customers is much easier and more profitable: I was able to generate $520,000 in sales with existing clients from those meetings. Not bad for ~$200 a pop, right? Again, think about what this would have cost if I’d pursued other alternatives. In reality, I saved a ton of money here by not having to spend hundreds of thousands on acquisition and advertising. Instead, I focused on nurturing my clients and caring about their pain points. I focused on treating them like real human beings rather than cogs in the machine, leading me to a better ROI. I also spent $14,510.83 on lunches with entrepreneurs. Spending that much money on networking and taking out other like-minded individuals to lunch may seem a bit over-the-top. But in fact, these networking and brainstorming lunches got me the best ROI. By far. I spent just over $14,500, and after implementing some new strategies learned at those meetings, I was able to track a revenue increase of $472,000 effectively. Here’s how it happened. The meals that I had with various thought leaders in the marketing industry gave me the opportunity to discuss new tactics. And I was able to learn things that I wasn’t even aware of yet. Or they showed me how to evolve my current systems to generate a higher ROI. During one of my lunches, I got the tip to start geo-targeting my website to increase local traffic and revenue. For example, here’s how my friend Timothy Sykes mentions the visitor’s city on his site: By using this strategy, I was able to drive more traffic that yielded $187,000 more in revenue. I was easily able to measure this return, too. Using tools like Kissmetrics and Crazy Egg made it simple to see how these new ideas quickly generated returns. Not bad for a few thousand dollars in initial spend, right? That’s more than a 10X return! The point is this: Taking other entrepreneurs out to lunch shows that you care about them. You’re cultivating a real relationship with other thought leaders who have incredible ideas. You know all of those problems and challenges you’re dealing with right now? Other people have already solved them. I guarantee it. Find them and take them to lunch. Fly to them if you have to. Be courteous and pick up the tab. You won’t regret it. ConclusionSpending millions of dollars is risky. Spend it on the wrong things and you’ll go broke in a hurry. However, spend it in the right areas, and it can multiply almost as quickly. Most people would never dream of it. They’d never want to be in the position to risk that kind of money. And you may have found yourself asking: “Neil, why are you spending this much money?” Well, it’s simple. I spend money to make money. I only spend money with the intention of a positive return. Obviously, a positive return isn’t always possible, but nearly everything I spend money on is meant to give me a return. Sometimes that’s a hard cost, like a new content piece. But other times, it’s a soft cost. Client meetings and money spent on time-saving activities are harder to rationalize. My business spends countless dollars on advertising, networking, and development. And we spend that money to make more money! Spending all that money on CRO, business meetings, and content guides was risky. But in the end, it paid off because I focused on the bottom line. Create and deliver a fantastic service. Make your customers happy. And keep them coming back for more. What expensive marketing tactics have you found to deliver a positive ROI? The post I Spent $1,080,126 on Marketing Tactics (And Here’s What Happened) appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger I Spent $1,080,126 on Marketing Tactics (And Here’s What Happened) The digital media marketing landscape is always changing. It’s the reason that we’re always researching the latest strategies, trying to figure out what the next move should be on the road to content marketing success. Content marketing has never been more important for businesses, as you can tell by the MarketingProfs image below. Which is great! Except there’s just one problem. With all the information that’s constantly being shared, there are a few cases where bits and pieces of information have been less than accurate. I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a fan of misinformation. That’s why today I’ve decided to tackle some of the biggest myths that I’ve noticed in the industry today. Content marketing is difficult enough as it is without any of this misinformation floating around. If you’re curious about any particular topic, feel free to click on the links below and hop around. Of course, I strongly recommend that you come back and read this article from top to bottom once you’ve satisfied your curiosity. Whether you’re familiar with the topics or not, you’re bound to learn something new by reading through this entire article. 1. Content marketing only works for certain types of businessesThis list isn’t arranged in any particular order, but it’s worth noting that this is one of the most common myths I’ve heard over the years. To clarify, content marketing is not an industry-specific style of marketing. There’s no particular business that is “best suited” for content marketing. At the end of the day, content marketing is just a form of storytelling. And any business is capable of telling interesting stories, once you understand what that means. Airbnb, a business that could’ve easily run with the idea that they’re cheaper than hotels, instead chose to tell the story of life and travel, which you can see below. And that’s the important part. Any business can create high-quality content, whether they’ve got plenty of experience with content marketing or not. That actually brings up a good question. If any business can pull this off, how exactly would you go about doing this? If you’re looking to create top-notch content, you’ll need to make sure you’ve covered two issues. The first aspect of creating great content is making sure that it offers tangible value in some way. It doesn’t matter if the content is entertaining, inspirational, or educational. All that matters is that the content provides your audience with something that will inevitably strengthen your brand. Consider the sheer value that Buffer gives away with their articles on a weekly basis. The second aspect of creating top-notch content is your ability to make that content engaging. Listen, having a few great pieces of advice is a good place to start. But it’s 2017. The marketplace is taking no prisoners, and if you want to stand out, you’re going to have to do more than just offer the bare minimum. And what does it mean to create engaging content? Easy. The focus should be less on self-promotion and more on the way the story is being told. Think of it this way: Compelling storytelling is the bridge between your audience and the value you’d like to give them. 2. Anyone can create quality contentOkay, so remember how I just said that any business can create quality content?I say that because I truly believe that any business can tap into the needs of their audience and create content for them that actually makes a difference in their lives. But I never said anyone could create that. The reality of content creation is that it’s like fixing a car. The simpler stuff, you can probably do on your own. But once you start dealing with the more complex issues, you’re better off leaving it to the professionals. If you or someone on your team has experience creating content, then more power to you. But if neither you nor anyone you work with has any experience with this, you’re going to have a much better time hiring someone else to handle it for you. I’m sure some people are reading this right now and thinking, “It’s just writing! It can’t be that hard.” Okay, let’s forget about the fact that creating impactful stories is something that’s actually pretty challenging on its own. Even without that aspect, you still have to deal with the constant production of content. Whatever your content calendar was, you’d likely be publishing anywhere from 1-2 pieces of original content to start. And honestly? That’s going to be much harder than it sounds. There’s a reason there are agencies, like Creative Circle, offering to handle it for you for some cash. What we’re really talking about here is not whether or not you can make those pieces of original content. The question is, can you do it well? Only you and your team members know the answer to that, but it’s important to take an honest look at yourselves and avoid underestimating the difficulty of this process. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of time in the long run. If you can’t handle it, go ahead and look for an extra set of hands with experience creating content. There will be no shortage of people excited to work with you, but a word of advice. Don’t instantly go with the cheapest option. Make sure you do your due diligence before you hire someone who isn’t ready to handle your content marketing needs.Check writing samples. During the interview, get a sense of who they are and what they’re capable of. Once you’ve found the right person, you’ll be in a much better position to dominate the content marketing scene. 3. Purely text-based content is enoughThis myth is actually fairly common among first timers, which is a shame since it’s crucial to understand this early on in your marketing career. To be honest, I can understand the confusion on this one. When the average person thinks about content marketing, they’re probably imagining a blog post or an article. But the industry is changing. Just look at the statistics of Facebook posts with visuals versus those without. And let’s face facts. Most content that’s being put out today might have a cover image at the top, but that’s about it. Unfortunately, the idea that this is enough to propel you to the top is a recipe for disaster. If you’re looking to create the best kind of content possible, you’re going to need to build content with several different layers. That probably sounds a bit intimidating, especially if you’re new to all this. But there’s no need to worry. The blueprint for multi-layered content is actually pretty easy to wrap your head around. The first component is your copy, of course. That needs to have tangible value beyond leading people directly to your product or service. Beyond that, you’ll want a visual component included in the article as well.The easiest one to start with is images, and it’s what I’d recommend most businesses start with. The images don’t have to be National Geographic material. The most common images that I see used are screenshots, stock photos, and infographics. I’m not a huge fan of stock photos (I can’t really see the value in a generic image), but screenshots and infographics are great tools for anyone creating content. Just look at this statistic for infographics, provided by HubSpot. Not only do infographics help break up those giant blocks of text and keep your reader from getting bored, but they also add context to whatever topic your article is covering. Of course, that leaves everyone’s favorite type of visual content: video. To be clear, video marketing is definitely one of the most powerful tools that you have at your disposal. The growth of mobile video alone in 2016 was incredible, as you’ll see below. If you can find a way to incorporate it into your content, I strongly suggest you do. That being said, I’d definitely consider creating video content to be one of the harder things for a business to do successfully, so don’t be afraid to avoid this particular hurdle for now. 4. Content marketing must deliver sales to be considered successfulIf I had to guess, I’d say that this next topic is the reason that most businesses without a content marketing strategy aren’t interested in one. Looking at content marketing from a purely ROI perspective, it’s easy to say that since it doesn’t directly deliver sales, it’s not worth investing in. The funny thing is that content marketing can deliver sales, but it can also deliver so much more. Consider this funnel infographic that Bluewire Media put together. What I like most about content marketing is its versatility. See, different content can serve different purposes in the sales and marketing funnels. Does all of it directly lead to sales? No. But that hardly makes it worthless. Instead of fixating on sales when it comes to content marketing, determine some realistic goals that contribute to your business but go beyond the scope of sales. Are you looking to boost traffic? Conversion rates for an e-book? Signups for a newsletter? Sales are important, of course. But there are other metrics that top-notch content marketing can have an impact on. Learn to define what constitutes a meaningful conversion, and focus on creating content that encourages that. 5. Having unrealistic expectations about costEarlier, we talked about the misconception that anyone can create quality content. If we dig a little deeper, we can see that another huge point of confusion is the issue of paying content creators. There are basically two types of cost expectations that are unrealistic. The first side seems to think that hiring another team member, even for something as valuable as marketing, is just too expensive for their business to afford. Nothing could be further from the truth. The average content marketer/writer today will charge you anywhere from $20-$50 an hour. Here’s a look at some of Upwork’s top-rated writers, for instance: The idea that it’s too expensive simply isn’t true, with even a humble marketing budget being strong enough to handle one of these new team members. Then there’s the second side, which expects their writers to write for free (or close to it). This is also not a great idea since the caliber of writer you’d hope to attract is likely going to lose interest the moment they see that you’re not willing to pay much. Will you be able to find writers? Sure. And some of the content might be amazing. Who knows? Maybe they were just being undervalued. But for the most part, you’re going to get your money’s worth. And if you’re spending “good enough” money, you’re going to end up with “good enough” content. You don’t need to break the bank to end up with respectable content. But you can’t expect to get above-average content at a below-average price. 6. You can expect results quicklySeeing the results of your hard work is always a great feeling. Unfortunately, it’s a feeling that you probably won’t experience right away when it comes to content marketing. The reason is actually simple enough. It takes time to become an online authority. Google has to find your posts, and so does everyone else. There are certain things you can do to jumpstart that process. For starters, you need to make sure that your content is being promoted on social media. If your business doesn’t have a ton of money, that free social media promotion can make all the difference in the world. If you’ve got a larger marketing budget, you can promote using Facebook ads to speed up the process. You don’t even need that much to get started, according to Facebook’s business page. But no matter how much time you try to save, there’s no getting around the fact that when it comes to search engines and the industry, you’re going to have to wait to see the results. 7. Creation is all that mattersListen, I love talking about the creation of engaging, high-quality content. But I’d be lying if I said that creation was the most important piece of this puzzle. If I’m being honest, the creative process has many other aspects that give us successful content marketing. The planning stage is arguably one of the most important when it comes to content marketing. There’s no understating the importance of establishing a series of realistic, attainable goals at the beginning of your content marketing campaign. Aside from being a great tool to use when holding yourself accountable for metrics, the planning stage also gives you the opportunity to create a promotion plan. There are a variety of different ways you could approach promotion, but what really matters is that you have a plan for how to share this with the world. ConclusionLook, I get it. This is a lot to process, but it’s important that these myths stop circulating. Just remember that content marketing works for any type of business. It takes a special kind of person to write for a living, so don’t just throw that job to anyone. Your business deserves more than just text-based content. Content marketing is about more than just sales. Be ready for an investment, but you’ll definitely get what you pay for. Stop expecting instant gratification, and plan ahead. If you can do all of that, then you’ll be several steps closer to reaping the benefits of content marketing. What’s the craziest content marketing myth you’ve ever heard? What’s your opinion on quality versus quantity as it relates to content? The post Content Marketing Myths You Need to Stop Believing Immediately appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger Content Marketing Myths You Need to Stop Believing Immediately If you’re hoping to build your business, you need serious growth. But for most startups, a traditional marketer might not be the the right fit. Sure, he or she will understand that growth is key to preventing your startup from failing. But you need someone who will understand your push for scaling your business as fast as possible without the huge costs usually associated with typical marketing. To do so, you need a growth hacker. A growth hacker will provide the creative marketing and obsessive focus on scaling that every startup needs. But how do you know he or she will actually get the job done? Well, I’ve started and helped manage more than one new business. I know what you need to look for when hiring a marketing expert. In this article, I’ll give you my best advice for hiring a top-notch growth hacker. Be clear about what you needBefore you start the hiring process, you need to have a clear understanding of exactly what you’re looking for in a candidate. To get a clear picture, you need to understand the role you’d like him or her to fill as well as the capacity you have to hire this person. Understand the difference between a marketer and a growth hacker. Of course, the first thing you need to understand is what a growth hacker even is! “Growth hacking” is a term that’s a bit difficult to define. At its heart, it’s a combination of the words “growth” (which just means getting bigger) and “hacker” (which is just a buzzword). So what is a growth hacker, really? GrowthRocks defines a growth hacker as a person with a combination of two skills: marketing and engineering. Hiring a growth hacker means looking for someone who is adept at both marketing and interpreting the data that comes from the marketing. According to Ascend2, basing more decisions on analysis is the most important data-driven marketing objective today. Hiring a growth hacker means you’ll get someone who is adept at not only marketing your company and brand but also interpreting the data that results from those efforts. Even if you have a marketing plan in place, you could benefit from hiring a growth hacker. He or she will provide a level of expertise that your current staff probably doesn’t have.Know which kind of growth hacker is best. While growth hacker may seem like a simple term, it can actually encompass quite a few personality traits and skill sets. According to Melinda Bylerly, founding partner at TimeShare CMO, there are two kinds of growth hackers. She calls them “prospectors” and “miners,” and there needs to be a fit between the employee and the company for true progress to take place. Prospectors are eager to try a variety of new techniques and unconventional strategies. They’re excited by the lack of data that faces most new startups. When faced with a problem, prospectors will ask, “What can we try?” Best of all, prospectors aren’t afraid of failure and will start dozens of different methods all at the same time and see what works and what doesn’t. Not surprisingly, this type of growth hacker is best suited for a new company with little current growth. On the other side of the spectrum are the miners. This type of growth hacker is more driven by data than by experimentation. When faced with a problem, miners will ask, “What does the data say?”They base their decisions on existing results from current marketing and are looking for gradual improvement rather than massive changes and new tactics. This type of growth hacker is best suited for a company that’s already growing quickly and needs to refine its marketing rather than try new techniques. To get started, you may want to consider where most of your users are in the acquisition process. According to InnerTrends, there is an “aha” moment that converts users into loyal customers, which then count toward your growth. If you already have a defined process in place for bringing users to this moment, you’re probably best served with a miner who can slowly bring your conversion rates up. But if you’re struggling to turn visitors into prospects — and get those prospects to buy — you’re probably best partnered with a prospector who can try a variety of techniques to change things. Make sure you have the budget. It might go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Don’t hire a growth hacker unless you have the budget to make it work. Research by CMO Council showed that an inadequate budget was the biggest obstacle for marketers to start using data-driven customer strategies. Since the growth hacker you hire will have an extreme focus on data, you need to be sure you have the budget to support his or her work. Understand that this isn’t just a salary for the employee. You will also need to provide your new growth hacker with the tools for the job. Most importantly (and possibly most expensively), you’ll actually need to implement the strategies he or she recommends.No growth hacker is perfect, and it may take a series of costly marketing ventures before you start paying off that investment with the revenue spike it creates. The good news is that a growth hacker will save you money in the long run. You don’t need a large budget to build a company that gets valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Decide what your goals areBefore you hire anyone, you need to have a deep and thorough understanding of what the goals are for your company. According to Teradata, there are a few different stages in your startup’s goals. First, you need to explore your existing customer data to develop new insights. This is where you need experimentation and creativity, and is best suited for a prospecting growth hacker. Second, you need to engage with the right message in the right channel. This is best for a mining growth hacker. Understanding where you are in this process is critical for setting your sights on the right kind of growth hacker. This will give you a deeper understanding of your goals that can provide massive payback. By setting goals for their growth strategy, BuzzStream was able to launch 19 research-driven campaigns. They broke their record for sign-ups in a week. Deciding your goals beforehand can deliver these kind of results. Here’s how to do it. Understand the metric you want to improve. First, you need to have a clear understanding of what goals you’d like to meet. Look at the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business and decide which are the most important. This could include metrics like billings, customer acquisition cost, customer concentration risk, or daily active users, according to data published by Visual Capitalist. Painting a clear picture of the numbers you’d like to focus on will help ensure that you hire a growth hacker who is in tune with the goals of your startup. Have expectations for the first 90 days. Once a growth hacker starts working with you, you should expect him or her to show significant progress in the first 90 days. To do so, you need to understand what that progress would look like. Understanding where you are in the growth-hacking process is a great way to do this. According to ELearning Infographics, there are five steps in the growth-hacking funnel. Understand whether you’re looking for a growth hacker to improve one aspect of the funnel, like increasing activation, or to help shift your focus to the next step, like driving revenue. This understanding of your short-term goals will help you hire the right growth hacker. It will also provide a way to review his or her success after the first few months with your company. Be clear on your long term plan. Different startups have different long-term plans, and what you expect to do with your growth affects the type of growth hacker you’ll want to hire. If your long-term goal is to grow as fast as possible to sell to a larger company, this should guide your efforts to find a growth hacker who focuses on explosive growth in the short term. But if you want to develop a steady stream of revenue, you need to make sure your marketing focuses on growing not only a user base but also high retention rates. According to Digital Marketing Philippines, the top goal of marketers in data-driven marketing is personalizing the customer experience. With 70% of marketers hoping to develop this, you may want to clarify with a growth hacker if this isn’t your primary focus. Either way, you need to make sure that your goals are clearly communicated to your prospects before you make a final hiring decision. Speaking of hiring, where should you find qualified candidates? Let’s cover that next. Hire from the right placesBecause growth hacking is a relatively new term, it isn’t easily defined on the standard job boards you’ll find online. Even worse, it’s a relatively vague term in which nearly anyone can claim expertise. But thankfully, there are plenty of other ways to hire a growth hacker who will skyrocket your business’s revenue and conversion. Here’s where you should go to find the most qualified candidates for your startup. Your personal connections While it might sound surprising at first, the truth is that you very likely have a connection to a growth hacker already. This is a great way to get a candidate who is vetted and in line with your company’s values and goals. To get started, ask current employees for recommendations. If you don’t have a formal program in place, don’t worry. In fact, HR Tech Weekly reported that while 48% of quality hires come from employee referrals, only 39% come from employee referral programs. You can also reach out to your current customer base. While it might sound a little crazy, you may find that a current user is excited about the product or service you have to offer and would love to work for your company. To do this, you should make it known that you’re looking to hire a growth hacker. Include it on your website, send it to your email list, and promote it to current followers. Finally, ask friends in other industries. Each of those friends has a variety of connections, and you may be surprised by the number of qualified candidates who already exist in your circles. Through social networks You may struggle to find the right candidate exclusively through your current connections. If that’s the case, leverage the power of social media to expand your reach. First, post on your accounts on Twitter and Facebook. Include hashtags like #growthhacker and #growthhacking to attract the right kinds of candidates who are searching for those jobs. You can also use LinkedIn Jobs. While this isn’t a free solution, you’re more likely to get high-quality candidates with this method. You should also spend some time browsing subreddits related to growth hacking. People who are interested and knowledgeable about the topic visit these boards, many of whom have experience in the field. While this shouldn’t be your only strategy, it’s worth the few minutes it will take to post your job. The GrowthHacking subreddit is for all kinds of marketing strategies and focuses on learning the tools of the trade. It’s unlikely you’ll find a hit directly here, but the redditors who read your post will have a broad network of connections that might bring you a referral. The Growth Hacking subreddit is bigger and more geared toward the advanced growth hacker. The Traffic and Copy group features a variety of job postings and networking opportunities for advanced and up-and-coming growth hackers. Job websites Finally, you can post your job on more traditional sites. This is the typical way to go and can lead to some stellar leads. Since these sites are focused on attracting the kind of talent you’re looking for, you will get higher quality leads. Start your search at AngelList. This is where people go specifically for jobs with startups, so you’re likely to have a body of candidates familiar with the pressing needs of a new business. To get a more specific focus on growth-hacking marketers, try GrowthHackers. If you’re more interested in a freelance marketer before you hire someone full-time, you should post on Growth Engineers. And finally, you can find marketers ranging from traditional to “hacker” types on Growth Geeks. Prove they’re a good fit before you hire themI’m going to be honest. When you’re just starting to interview a possible future employee, you should only trust the concrete data they can show. Anyone can talk about their massive success, but to hire a growth hacker who does a great job for your startup, you need to make sure he or she can deliver on the promises made. If you trust a candidate at their word, you may be in for serious disappointment. And unfortunately, a bad hire isn’t an easy mistake to fix. According to Sysgen, 36% of employers said bad hires resulted in lost productivity, and 33% said it compromised the quality of work. In other words, hiring a poor candidate was worse than not hiring anyone. Here’s how you can solve the problem and make sure the candidate you hire is a bona fide expert at the job you’d like him or her to do for you. Find serious candidates in the application process. To make sure the people who apply for your job are serious, you need to make them work a little bit harder. A candidate who truly wants to work at your company will be happy to provide additional information you request. Include a few custom questions in your application, and require that they are answered in the cover letter. This ensures that you won’t have a lot of copy-and-paste candidates. (And if you do, you can easily discard the resumes of the ones who didn’t follow your instructions.) If you’re not sure what to ask, start with basic questions about the position. According to a DMA Data-Driven Marketing Report, 92% of marketers say that data management is a key priority for their business. Take advantage of this by asking the candidate to explain their strategy for managing the data they find during the growth hacking process. Another topic for questioning is asking where they get ideas for their testing. According to Econsultancy, 75% of company correspondents said that analytics was the source of their testing ideas. While there is no right answer, look for a response that involves data or analytics of some sort. Review their past work. A candidate can claim anything about their work success, but the results will speak for themselves. Before you make a hire, be sure to check on the past projects of the individual you’re considering hiring. One of the best places to start is with the customer engagement techniques published by Entrepreneur. Review the webinars, social media, and email marketing campaigns your candidate has performed in the past. It’s fine to ask for screenshots and results for proof since your goal is to get specific numbers. It’s also a good idea to ask potential hires to provide three case studies of projects or companies they’ve worked with. Carefully examine the methods used by the growth hacker and make sure they align with your priorities. According to Econsultancy, customer journey analysis, A/B testing, and website personalization are the three most valuable methods for improving conversion rates. The growth hacker you’re considering hiring doesn’t have to use these specific strategies, but you want to make sure he or she is aware of these techniques and uses at least one. Test their knowledge in an interview. Finally, you want to test the knowledge of the candidate in an interview. This is the time to ask hard questions, so don’t go too easy. Get to the facts and the numbers. During the interview, see how well they understand the principles behind the strategies and techniques they’ve used in the past. Sure, they can talk about viral growth. But do they know the formula that causes that growth? Probe their understanding of the topic and make sure they’re familiar with a variety of tools. To be clear, they don’t need to know everything. As I’ve written before, value strategy over technical skills. But you need to make sure that they’re confident in implementing a variety of strategies and tactics to make your business successful. During the interview, you also need to understand how they intend to use growth hacking to attract and retain customers. Do they put the right focus on customers? This is a tricky line for a new company to balance. Customers can’t be the sole driver of growth since they are often blind to the next step your company should take. But customer service and experience are paramount. According to OpenView Partners, 82% of customers have abandoned a company after a poor experience. Understand what their position is regarding customers. You’ll also want to ask him or her to analyze and interpret data. While data is easy to collect, it is much harder to make sense of the results of your marketing. According to Chief Marketing Technologist, crafting a narrative from the data is the most important art of data-driven decision-making. Find out how they interpret data and use it to drive growth. Finally, you need to observe their body language and presentation of numbers during the interview. Essentially, you want to find out how well they market themselves. After all, if they can’t market themselves, how can they market your business? Make sure they stick aroundOkay, so you’ve hired an effective growth hacker. He or she has demonstrated the right skills to expand your business faster than you ever thought possible. Their credentials check out, and you’re excited to add them to the team. But since growth hacking is the key to your success, you need to make sure they’ll stick around. This may seem like an easy task orf a new company, but the reality is much more sobering. According to Software Advice, the number of employees leaving their jobs by choice is the highest it’s been in a decade. And according to OfficeTeam, employees will only stay with you an average of six years, with 18-34-year-olds only staying for four years. Because of this, it’s much more important to make sure that your new growth hacker is committed to your business from the beginning. If you follow these basic tips, you’ll create a company environment that will keep your most high-value growth hacker at your startup for as long as you want. Keep your top performers engaged. If you provide your growth hacker with an exciting working environment but don’t provide a way to engage him or her, you’ll struggle to keep them around. According to YouEarnedIt, a 5% increase in employee engagement is linked to a 3% increase in revenue growth the following year. To engage your new growth hacker, ensure that he or she is fully aware of your startup’s short-term and long-term goals. Communicate the company values, and get your growth hacker excited about the future of the company (and his or her career). To really land a successful long-term employee, you should provide a level of work that is slightly challenging and provides an intrinsic reward of accomplishment. Provide exciting benefits. When you hire a great growth hacker who makes huge progress, you’re presented with a problem: He or she will have dozens of other career options besides your startup. One of the keys to making your company stand apart from the hundreds of other ventures out there is to provide fantastic benefits. According to Progressive Employer, 59% of employees say benefits are “very important” in how they feel about their jobs and their employers. While great benefits like health insurance and retirement programs will cost you more money in the short-term, they ensure that your top-performing marketers stick with the business. This means that you’ll have longer growth for an extended period of time and will make up the spending on benefits in the extra revenue you generate. Provide them with the freedom to use their strengths. One of the biggest errors startups make when hiring a high-quality candidate is gradually constricting them as the business grows. This is an easy temptation because you’ll want to direct his or her efforts toward the most high-value activities for your company. But if you hire a growth hacker who’s constantly trying new techniques and methods to expand your reach, you might find that he or she is reluctant to stay focused later on. For a prospector-type growth hacker, consider letting them have freedom over choosing tasks that help accentuate their strengths. According to Quantum Workplace, using strengths has become the #1 driver for employees younger than age 66. By allowing them to use their strengths, the growth hacker you hire is more likely to stick around for the long term. ConclusionIf you want to scale your business like never before, you’re going to need someone who knows what they’re doing. To hire an effective growth hacker, you need to have a deep understanding of your goals and a solid knowledge of what you’re looking for in a candidate. Besides that, you need to know how to go about the hiring process. While it’ll take a bit of work to get started, the results will skyrocket the success of your startup. What strategies will you use to hire a growth hacker to build your business? The post How to Hire a Growth Hacker That Will Actually Get the Job Done appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger How to Hire a Growth Hacker That Will Actually Get the Job Done Twitter hasn’t had the easiest time adjusting since going public. Facebook and messaging apps have been crushing the social media platform on paper. It seems grim to be doing anything on Twitter, right? That’s a bit of an overstatement and underestimation of what Twitter really can do. Just because it’s not growing doesn’t mean it’s anywhere near dead. Twitter isn’t a ghost town. It has over 313 million active monthly users! Those users and their tweets are being viewed 1 billion times. Participating on Twitter is a lot more fruitful than you think. It’s an audience that can’t be ignored. I regularly tweet and use my Twitter account to promote my blog posts and other content. I’m up to 266,000 followers. It’s an audience worth paying attention to, even if only a small percentage can see any given tweet. Of course, you have to build a following, and Twitter is a much different experience for those who don’t have followers. Buying followers in a common practice, but it doesn’t work the way you think. Third-party services often sell fake followers. These may look impressive, but they don’t work. You’ll also get banned from Twitter for buying fake followings. To succeed on Twitter, you’ll need an engaged following that responds and retweets your content. Here’s how to buy those followers the right way, without taking any black hat shortcuts. Why a Twitter following mattersWhen you start on Twitter, you’ll have no followers. You’ll just be sending tweets into the empty abyss. According to Pew research, 24% of online American adults use Twitter. These users come from a broad range of demographics and interests. And Twitter’s not the only social media service these users have. Over 93% of Twitter users also use Facebook, 65% use Instagram, 54% use LinkedIn, and 48% use Pinterest. Put another way, half of Instagram and LinkedIn users and a third of Facebook and Pinterest users are on Twitter. This means you can often match data between social accounts to gain a full picture of your visitors and customers. I’d go so far as to say social media is the most important digital marketing media to focus on through 2020. Usage of social media has steadily increased across the board, according to another Pew Research study. A majority of adults use social media, so it’s a great place for public outreach. Twitter is used for a variety of purposes, even to discover businesses. Hootsuite recently reported 66% of users discovered a new small- or medium-sized business through Twitter. So, while it’s not as popular as Facebook or Instagram, Twitter’s social platform can’t be ignored. Curious how to get followers on Instagram instead? Check out my post on how to gain 300 Instagram followers a day! Otherwise, understand there are only four ways people can see your tweets. 1. They follow you. Tweets are typically public, and the service will recommend tweets to you based on content, geography, and other considerations. Still, users typically only see tweets from people they follow and choose to. Remember not everyone access Twitter directly from the website or app. Some use third-party tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to filter out the noise. These app interfaces make it much more difficult to be seen unless you’re posting relevant content. 2. Someone they follow retweets or responds to you – My tweets reach much further than just my followers. Many of them retweet my content to their followers too! Each of these accounts has followers that may not follow me. For example, clicking through to @CoffeeShopBlogg’s Twitter account, we can see they have nearly 5000 followers. It’s an audience I couldn’t reach on my own, and that endorsement increases my audience. It can also increase my follower count. People are much more likely to trust your information when presented by a third party. 3. You target them with a promoted post – You can follow people for a follow-back, but that only gets you so far. Use promoted posts to reach an audience when you’re starting out (and even when you’re a large corporation with a huge following). Here’s one from GlassesUsa.com that appeared in my Twitter feed today. I’ll dive deeper into how to customize promoted posts further down in this article. There’s one last way to have your content read on Twitter. 4. You use hashtags – Although #hashtags predate Twitter, it popularized them long before Instagram and Facebook made them mainstream. The majority of the most popular trending topics around the world are hashtags.By posting about trending topics and using hashtags in general, you greatly increase your chances of being discovered through user search. If you’re interested in learning more, I have a great article about tools to increase Twitter engagement. For those still with me, we’re moving on to the scourge of fake followers. Avoid fake followersAccording to a recent audit, nearly half of Donald Trump’s 36.3 million Twitter followers are fake. He’s not alone! A site called Twitter Audit lets you check any celebrity account to find out how many are actual people. Katy Perry is the biggest account on Twitter, with over 102 million followers. Only approximately 43 million are real. Now, these numbers are debatable, but the existence of Twitter bots and fake followers is not. They’re very real and often used in very interesting ways. Microsoft, for example, created an AI bot named @TayTweets that interacted with the public for several hours before turning hilariously bigoted. Tay’s AI was eventually shut down and deactivated, highlighting one danger of bots and fake followers. Another is they can get you banned. Twitter makes a business promoting posts and connecting real users with each other. While it accepts bots used for functional purposes, its terms and conditions strictly prohibit buying or selling fake engagements of any kind. Being reported for spam while having too many fake followers increases the likelihood you’ll be banned. Fake followers don’t do anything, so they lower all your engagement numbers. Don’t let these black-hat scams bring your brand’s social media accounts down. The official way to purchase followers is through Twitter itself. Using Twitter follower campaigns and sponsored tweetsYou can’t directly pay somebody to follow you, but you can pay Twitter to recommend you to them. Through a follower campaign, you can promote your account to non-followers through their Home timeline and Who to follow panel. It’s an opportunity to reach new people. In fact, Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery increased its follower count by 3000% using a follower campaign. Much like Facebook Ads, these campaigns can be easily set up within the platform. There are four basic steps to get this done. You’ll want to repeat this process several times to create focused ads that reach the right audiences. 1. Select an audience The first step is selecting an audience for your campaign. You can target specific geographic locations, genders, languages, interests, device, followers, and more. Twitter recommends only using one segmentation at a time, but I disagree. Feel free to experiment with different combinations for the best results. For example, say I was targeting people interested in blogging in the United States.I can target the keywords blog and blogging, along with the interest of blogging. I can target the keywords blog and blogging, along with the interest of blogging.I can then specifically target female bloggers if I’m looking for mom bloggers. Different messages resonate with different audiences, so every segmentation counts. 2. Browse tailored audiences Twitter offers tailored audiences to make things easier. It’s like equalizer presets on your stereo system, optimized for specific purposes. Tailored audiences can be used to remarket to people who have visited your website, used your mobile app, or just upload your customer list. This is helpful for zeroing in on people already familiar with your brand who just haven’t followed you on Twitter yet. You’ll greatly increase the ROI of your Twitter ad campaigns using Tailored Audiences. Try one today! 3. Craft a great tweet with a CTA Once you have your audience selected, you need to craft a compelling tweet that will convince them to follow you. This is the tweet that shows up in people’s Home feed, and you only get one chance to make a first impression. Give people a reason to click the follow button.It’s also a great idea to include a link to your website. It’s also a great idea to include a link to your website. Ferguson found the increased engagement in its Twitter campaign carried over to its website, too. You can replicate this success with a Twitter campaign of your own. Just be sure to include that CTA. It’ll help optimize your budget. Here’s how. 4. Set your campaign budget and dates Once you have your campaign set up, the final step is to set a budget. The average marketing spend on social media is between $4000 and $7000 per month. This is three times the budget in 2009. Much like on Google and Facebook, the price to reach audiences depends on the criteria selected. Twitter has a great FAQ about budgeting basics on its Twitter for Business website. What’s great about followers campaigns is you’re only charged for the follows you acquire. You won’t be charged for impressions, replies, retweets, or clicks on your links. This makes a follower campaign ideal for businesses with a limited ad spend budget. It’s also why I recommended adding a link to your website in your CTA. It can save a lot of money and increase your ROI! While I’m on the subject, there’s no need to stick to Twitter for buying followers. Although you can’t explicitly pay for followers, you can use your existing web channels to “buy” real Twitter followers. Use your existing web channelsIf you have a blog, odds are you have social sharing buttons to let readers easily share your content across social media channels. Here are a few examples of tweet button styles. You can also update the tweet text when your posts are shared from other users’ Twitter accounts. Other users tweeting your content is an invaluable marketing technique. You’re “buying” followers in this case through spending on quality blog content. I have a great video about when and where to use social sharing buttons. This is the first place to start earning Twitter followers. But it’s certainly not the last. You can add Twitter follow tabs throughout your web properties to greatly increase follower counts. It allows you to run off-site follower campaigns as well.Here’s how to add Twitter follow links to a few popular web platforms. Add Twitter to Facebook – Although Facebook and Twitter are competing platforms, there are third-party apps that let you add Twitter content to Facebook. One is the Involver cloud-based app from Oracle. With your Facebook page logged in, click the free install button for the Twitter application. You’ll be taken to your Facebook page, where you can give permission to add Tweets to Pages. After authorized, enter your information in the Involver app. It’ll ask for general business contact information that’s used for internal purposes. Once Facebook and Involver are set up, you’ll be prompted to authenticate your Twitter account. You can then add your Twitter content (along with a follow button) to Facebook. For a shorter version, simply paste your Twitter profile link into your Facebook page. This lets you cross promote between both audiences to optimize your content. Provide incentives for your Facebook followers to follow on Twitter by offering a sample giveaway or sweepstakes. Add Twitter to WordPress – Every blog post I publish is promoted on my Twitter account automatically through Buffer. I do this because I blog so often, it’s necessary to schedule social posts separately. Of course, you can publicize posts directly from WordPress by linking your account. It’s also possible to embed tweets (including the promoted tweet from your follower campaign). This is done by simply copying and pasting the URL into the WordPress visual editor (without the hyperlink) like this.
There’s also a Twitter follow button you can add to your site. Add this button to your homepage or any landing pages where you’re already running Google ad campaigns to increase conversions. You’re not buying followers directly using any of these techniques. You’re adding a Twitter follow to your conversion goals while including more engaging content on your site. It’s a great way to increase your Twitter follower count. But we’re not done yet. There are two other great ways to allocate your marketing budget on gaining Twitter followers. The first is through influencer marketing. Hiring guest tweetersI’m a fan of influencer marketing. DJ Khaled is one of my favorites to watch. He’s affectionately known as the king of social media. His Twitter account alone has 3.5 million followers. Instead of buying followers, you can reach DJ Khaled’s audience directly by hiring him as a guest tweeter. Guest tweeters are commonly used to spread information and share audiences. Like any celebrity or influencer endorsement, these tweets come at a cost. On Twitter, DJ Khaled’s 3.5 million followers would cost around $30,000 to reach. You can likely negotiate half that price to have him take over your Twitter account for a few hours. The ROI could be worth it if you get enough Twitter followers. Keep in mind that while the followers gained from this type of marketing campaign are expensive, the LTV of each follower gained is potentially great. There’s one last method to buy Twitter followers I’ll discuss before sending you on your way to try it yourself. Grow your Twitter following through emailEmail is still one of the best places to get conversions. It’s an effective method of communicating in bulk to targeted lists of recipients. According to MailChimp, the average click rate for links in emails is just under 3%. One of the best places to increase those conversions (and gain Twitter followers) is in your email signature. Here’s a short video on how to increase conversions through your email signature. A Twitter follow button or even just a link to your Twitter profile account is enough to gain extra followers. You can go a step further by offering a free trial, sample, or discount in exchange for a Twitter follow. Sampling has been proven to increase conversions by up to 90%. For maximum benefit, you can gamify it by offering tiered rewards for every social account they follow you on. This way, you’re pooling all your social media spend into one campaign. Neat, huh? ConclusionTwitter is a unique social network that grew popular alongside Facebook and survived the rise of Instagram, SnapChat, and messaging apps. This microblogging site has started revolutions around the world and is one of the main sources of information in the modern world. Hollywood, marketing, and media outlets all incorporate Twitter and hashtags into their content. Even if you’re not on Twitter, millions of professionals in every industry are. If you’re not using Twitter, you’re missing out on an easy way to raise brand awareness and provide a healthy ROI for your brand. How have you increased your Twitter following and monitored your account for fake followers? The post How to Buy Real Twitter Followers appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger How to Buy Real Twitter Followers Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land:
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The post SearchCap: Google AdWords Sitelinks, phrase match & AR appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Blogger SearchCap: Google AdWords Sitelinks, phrase match & AR More of something is always better, right? That’s easy to assume if you ever buy something online, read a long-form blog post, or get coupons in the mail. “20% more chips!” “64-ounce soda for only 99 cents!” “3-million word SEO guide!” OK, that one might be a slight exaggeration. But you get the point I’m trying to make. We’re taught through “shock-and-awe” marketing that more is always better. If there are more features or more content, you’re getting a better deal. Every single time. However, that’s not necessarily the case. Have you ever eaten at a restaurant where the menu looks like a phone book? If so, I bet it took you at least twice as long to figure out what to order. Having too many choices often leads to indecision. And indecision leads to no conversions. I’ve personally made the same mistakes when growing my businesses. When I first started Crazy Egg, I thought that a long-form page including every minor detail was going to get me the most conversions. It turns out I was wrong. Here’s why and how you can “do less” to drive more conversions.
Why “doing less” can drive more conversions onlineOne of the best ways to explain how less is actually more is with the jam study. This nearly 10-year-old study proves exactly how less drives more conversions. Here’s what happened. The researchers first offered 24 different varieties of jam. It attracted more people, but only 3% of the shoppers ended up buying. Next, they tried something different. They decreased the number of available jam varieties to only six. Fewer shoppers came over, but 30% of them ended up buying! In other words, reducing the number of choices actually drove more conversions. That’s pretty incredible, right? We’re so used to thinking that more is better. Everyone wants to get more products or more content. However, that’s not what always works. Giving customers too many options can backfire. It forces them to overthink the decision. Have you ever heard of analysis paralysis? People spend so much time thinking through the choices that they end up not deciding at all. They leave without buying. That’s why it’s often better to reduce the available options. Make your website simpler. Focus your product or service on the main thing it provides. I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way several times. How I increased conversions by doing lessEarly on with Crazy Egg, I thought a content-packed homepage would drive conversions through the roof. It made sense to me. I could answer almost every objection imaginable by writing a long-form style homepage. I could compare my product to the competition and show exactly how it’s better.Every single friction point in the conversion process was answered on my homepage. Conversions were good for a while. But they weren’t excellent. So I wasn’t satisfied! I decided to run a test and remove the excess “fluff” on my homepage. I removed unnecessary marketing speak and technical points that didn’t add value. Instead of telling a long, drawn-out story, I got straight to the value proposition. After I cleaned the homepage up, it was 60% shorter than the original. I removed more than half of the content crowding my page. And the results were incredible. There was an immediate 13% increase in conversions with just the split-test group. Removing all of that fluff and useless content helped me drive more conversions! I wanted to see if these results would stick. So I even tested this out with Kimberly Snyder. She had a long-form marketing message on her homepage that was dense and cluttered. So we shortened all that text and included a video message instead. That took all of the necessary efforts off of the customer’s back. Now, instead of having to read the entire page, they could simply watch a short video and get the gist immediately. And conversion rates increased by 40%. Every time that I’ve implemented a “less-is-more” strategy, I’ve found higher conversion rates. The best part is that this is pretty easy to replicate. You can do it right now. Here are some tips to help you minimize unnecessary stuff and drive more conversions. Show your credibility instead of talking about itCredibility and trust are everything. Nobody is going to convert on your products and services if they don’t trust you. In fact, 84% of people trust online reviews for a product as much as a personal recommendation! That means you need to establish credibility without overdoing it. Nobody wants to read 1,000 words of testimonials. Then it starts to seem fake or forged. Instead, you can often cut out all of the filler content. Add in client logos or other forms of social proof. For example, Visual Website Optimizer used to have a long-form homepage like I did on Crazy Egg. We always think that homepages are the perfect spot to bombard the customer with tons of information. It’s tempting to explain every little detail to get them to convert, right? Unfortunately, that’s the wrong approach. Visual Website Optimizer also switched up their long-form homepage to an uber-simplistic one: And they saw a 16.3% increase in free trial signups. This isn’t some far-fetched outlier in the data. Short-form landing pages are known for converting!Just ask the conversion experts at ConversionXL. They worked to increase clicks to a client’s pricing and features pages. ConversionXL concluded that there was too much stuff. There was too much to read. So they cut it way down to just the bare essentials: And the result? They saw a huge increase in clicks to the pricing and features pages: ConversionXL didn’t stop there, though. The results were so promising that they decided to put their own website to the test! Their page already converted well. However, they again cut down on their content and unnecessary filler that they had thought were driving conversions. And the result was another massive boost: Email signups, clicks to the blog, and visits to the services page all increased. The lesson here is simple. Get to the point faster. Use social proof to establish credibility so your pages don’t ramble on and on. Another technique to shorten landing pages is placing the content you would have talked about in a video. Declutter your page with videosVideos are one of my favorite ways to declutter landing pages and homepages. Instead of making a customer read your entire landing page (which won’t happen), say it all in a video. That’s why I use videos all throughout my website. There is so much I want to talk about. Marketing is evolving so quickly. But I know that overwhelming my site’s visitors can only backfire. That’s why I use this proven formula to create videos that convert. Here are a few elements that all of your videos should have:
We are wired to process visuals quickly, with one MIT study suggesting the brain can process images the eye only sees for as little as 13 milliseconds! Another way you can use videos is to increase lead generation. For example, Wistia has a powerful tool called Turnstile. This allows you to capture leads after a certain portion of the video is watched. These Turnstiles work. Wistia analyzed over 15,000 videos with this software and found that some Turnstile settings had conversion rates of over 40%! Here I’ll show you how to set these up for free with Wistia and start capturing more leads with less content. First, create a free account on Wistia. Once you’ve created a free account, upload a video of your product or service. The editing and lead-capture techniques will be available after uploading. Now, head over to your newly-uploaded video and select “Customize.” Here you can customize everything from CTAs to appearance. You can even add a video index. The options are nearly limitless. But the key to collecting leads here is focusing on the Turnstile. Click on “Timeline Actions” to get started. Here you can customize things like annotations, CTA, and the lead-capture tool. Next, click “Add Turnstile.” Then customize the settings to fit your preferences. For example, you can select when you want these to show up. You can allow users to skip without converting. And you can automatically add these new people to MailChimp. For best results, make sure that the Turnstile appears in the timeline of 10-20% of your video length! Pro tip: Short videos are best. Don’t just take my word for it. Once again, Wistia’s data proves it to be true: Also, make sure to provide a compelling reason for someone to give you their email instead of simply skipping the prompt. Your final product should look like this when the video viewer hits the specified timestamp: Videos, along with Wistia’s detailed features, are a great way to declutter your page and drive more conversions at the same time. Videos allow you to summarize tons of information in a fun, interactive way. Make it easier for visitors to convertThere can be a danger in focusing on high conversions. High conversions don’t always lead to more sales. Let’s assume you are targeting the right people in the first place. Now what? When building out your landing page, it’s easy to fall into the same old trap. You feel the need to say everything about your business on that page. You include every last detail, feature, and reason for why someone should give you their money. I’ve been there before, trust me. The temptation to cram everything onto the page is tough to overcome. But, the truth is, the content doesn’t matter if it isn’t converting. So, focus on conversions. If your current long-form homepage or landing page isn’t converting, change it ASAP. If you have too many form fields, reduce them! MarketingExperiments even has a proven formula to reduce friction by simplifying content and “doing less”: That formula looks intimidating. I’ll break it down for you.
In other words, the more stuff you put on a page, the more friction you’re creating for a user. The more friction, the less likely they’ll convert. For example, the more content you put on your landing page, the more difficult it is for a user to understand what they’re supposed to do on that page. They start reading every last detail instead of simply converting. There are countless ways to make the conversion process smoother by doing less. One of the best ways is to make your page flow better. If you’ve got too many form fields, simplify them into one streamlined option. Remember that fewer choices often translate into more conversions. Do you have a bunch of unnecessary content or steps that you can eliminate? If you can remove sections that aren’t adding value, do it. You can even make forms or content feel shorter by rearranging elements to adjust the visual flow. One of my favorite techniques is to focus people’s attention. If you have a busy landing page with multiple moving parts, it becomes hard for a user to convert. They’re not sure what to do next. The opt-in form, button, or product fades into the background. Try to focus a visitor’s attention by highlighting action items, like your pricing structure. This will help you grab the user’s attention much faster. For example, just look at how Slack perfects the simple homepage to drive conversions: That’s it! That’s the entire homepage. You literally can’t scroll any further because there isn’t any more content! But it still perfectly sums up the benefits of their application and drives action with a vibrant green CTA button. Evernote is also a prime example of reducing options to focus your attention on the CTA. They jump straight to the point: signups. They use minimal text and images to give you only what you need to make the initial decision. Scale back on everything. Reduce form fields, conversion actions, CTAs, and content length. One of my favorite homepage examples comes from Mint. Here’s why: The page is pretty simple. The headline and copy explain the primary benefit of using the service. It focuses on what you’re going to get, instead of rambling on about extra stuff. The “Sign Up Free” CTA button is obvious. And they reserve a little space at the bottom to highlight the primary benefits you’ll get from the service. The page describes the entire experience perfectly without spending 1,000 words to get there. The design and white space keep people focused on the next action to take: Sign up! ConclusionYou know what people always say. The bigger, the better. The more, the merrier! That might work in some cases. No one will turn down a bigger, juicy steak. However, this approach can only backfire when it comes to conversions. When we try to explain everything about our products and services, we lose people. It’s too much, too soon. They get overwhelmed by the amount of information, and they leave without converting. People don’t want to spend 20 minutes on your landing page trying to decipher the value they’ll get. Instead, they’re making a split-second decision. It should take less than ten seconds for people to understand what they’re going to get. That’s why you should focus on reducing content. Spend more time on the results or benefits they’ll get, so it takes fewer words. I learned this lesson the hard way by going into too much detail with Crazy Egg. When I changed it to short-form, I increased conversions. Now, I put this into practice on this very website. I use videos, for example, which help you shorten landing pages. Videos convert because they’re easier to understand and digest. Last but not least, help each visitor focus on what matters most. That starts with removing unnecessary clutter. Streamline forms and use more white space on a page so people know exactly where to look. Long-form landing pages can work well in some cases. Paid, cold traffic might need the extra information. If you’re selling a product without talking to someone personally, they might need to understand all of the nuances. But for the most part, your goal is to simplify as much as possible. Focus on the most important aspects of your offer, product, or service. And get rid of everything else. What’s your best tip for driving conversions from a short, simple landing page? The post Why “Doing Less” Drives More Conversions appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger Why “Doing Less” Drives More Conversions Have you ever wondered when the best time of day to send your email is? Or even the best day of the week? With typical email click rates sitting at just a few percent, you should consider anything that can help you optimize your emails. It’s just like a social media strategy. You want the most engagement on your social post, so you look up the best days of the week and best times of day to post it. Let’s be real. Nobody wants their Instagram post to go unliked. But we’ve all been there. You put the finishing touches on an amazing post or email. However, it goes out at an obscure hour because you couldn’t wait any longer. And then you only grab half the likes or opens you got last time. There’s a reason this commonly happens. People are much more active on certain days and even within small time frames. Those time ranges also change depending on your customers. So if you want to get the most opens and clicks from your emails, you need to think through your sending strategy. If you don’t, you can expect to report those measly click and open rates at your next meeting. Here’s how to craft your email strategy around statistical data by choosing the best days and times for sending.
The best days to send emailsThere’s a limitless number of studies about emails. They span everything from the best subject lines to the best formats, best days, and of course, sending times. And many times they have conflicting information. One study tells you to send them on Saturday. But the other says you should never send on Saturday. The next says Monday, while the others say Tuesday. How on earth are you supposed to know which study is the most accurate? How do you know which data is right? Lucky for us, CoSchedule took multiple studies and cross-referenced the data. They combined all of the raw numbers and averaged out the top-performing days and times so that we would finally get a straight answer. The undisputed best day to send emails is Tuesday. That kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? I’ve heard a ton of marketers praise sending emails on Monday as it’s the “start of the week.” They think people will get the email ASAP and respond fast. But here’s the truth.That’s bogus. Why? Because the first thing most of us do on a Monday morning is to check the countless emails that piled up over the weekend. We’re too swamped with other emails to care about a newsletter or cold pitch. So we are much more likely to miss yours. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, we’ve cleared the inbox and have a lighter load. Tuesdays get the most email opens compared to any other day of the week. However, there is some conflicting data about this. For some, click and open rates are sky high. But for others, it might be the worst time to send. HubSpot also found similar data, showing that Tuesday was indeed the best day: Interestingly enough, it found that Saturday was the worst day for email opens. MailerMailer found that Tuesday was also the king and that Saturdays were lagging: And GetResponse referenced old data from Dan Zarella that showed nearly opposite results: The weekend, in this case, was far better for opens and clicks. It even out-performed Tuesday by a large margin! So how do you know? Which day should you choose? It all goes back to the aggregate data that CoSchedule collected for us. Here are their recommendations for days to send based on all of these studies combined: Generally speaking, the middle of the week remains your best bet. Test it with your audiences. But you can safely default to Tuesday through Thursday. Now, let’s take a look at the best times to send your emails! The best times to send emailsI’ve always struggled with these questions. When do I send emails? What’s the best time of day? And does it really matter? It turns out that, yes, it matters a lot.Another question I get a lot deals with time zones. Do I go by Pacific Time? Eastern? Mountain? Central? Well, considering that the Eastern Time Zone covers 50% of the entire US population, I’d stick with that. Unless you know that the majority of your email list or customers are within a specific time zone. In that case, go with that one. For example, if your business is locally based or the majority of your clients are in a specific region. So without further ado, here are the best times to send your emails according to CoSchedule’s in-depth analysis: 10 a.m. is the winner here. And for a good reason. People have been awake and working for a bit. They’ve likely cleared their inbox and weeded out the junk. That means your email is prime for sending straight to the top of their inbox! And it’s just late enough that you’re going to catch a second wind with people on the West Coast just getting going in the morning. The next best time? 8 p.m. Apparently, we’re all workaholics and can’t stop checking our emails, even right before bed. These times are hyper-specific because they work.The aggregate data found that these times are the “peak” hours for sending. But, if you’re like me, you want to see the general range of hours that work so you can run tests on your own audience. Everybody’s customer list is different. So taking a look at multiple peak hours will help you A/B test your way to the perfect times. For example, the peak range for millennials in college might shift a few hours. They’re going to be staying up later and sleeping in longer. But these numbers are good for older, white-collar professionals who are usually punching in around 9 a.m. their time. Here’s what Campaign Monitor found: Sending emails between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. gives you the best shot. But realistically, anything during the normal 9-to-5 workday would be successful. HubSpot’s data was extremely similar: They found that the best time to send emails was 11 a.m. Again, be sure to default to the Eastern Time Zone if your customer base is spread around the country. MailChimp also found supporting data for this general time frame: The optimal times to send emails by the hour of the day tend to be in the late morning. Not too early, but not too late. Make sure not to send your emails too early and risk getting lost in a junk-filled inbox. But don’t send them too late either, or people will likely be commuting home from work. MailerMailer also found that 10 a.m. was the best time to send emails: The best time of day to send your emails varies greatly in most studies. But trends still stand strong among the pool of data. So start testing the best times that were most common:
How to find your own “best” time and dayStudies and data to inform your marketing practices are great. But sometimes it doesn’t turn out as planned. Just because the top studies say Tuesday at 10 a.m. is the best time to send your emails, doesn’t mean it is for your own customer base. Here’s what I mean. The demographics of your email list should determine everything. For example, if you run a locally-based business in California, you wouldn’t want to send your emails at 10 a.m. Eastern. Instead, you should test the best times and days against your own email list. That means you might send several variations at each peak time to see what your list responds best to. For this test, we’re going to use MailChimp’s platform to A/B test multiple times and days. Here’s how to get started. First, head to MailChimp and log in to your dashboard. Then, select “Create Campaign.” Next, select “Create an Email.” In this next step, make sure to select “A/B Test.” In this A/B test, you’re going to focus on the top times and days. The goal is to figure out the real best time and day for your audience. Next, select the list you want to test. Now here’s where the important steps come into play. They give you a few new customization options right off the bat. In this case, we’re going to use “Send time” as the primary variable to test. There are tons of options here, but we need to focus on the specifics. A/B testing won’t work if we test the subject line, content, and send time all at once. You won’t know which factor ultimately drove results. Chances are, they all contributed a little bit. A/B testing often fails for these reasons:
So, for now, you’re going to focus on “Send time” only: That way, you won’t risk diluting results and will actually be able to tell what factor caused the drop or increase in your success. Next, make sure to split test the quantity at 50/50 and select 8 hours for the data. That means a winner will be declared only after eight hours, which allows time for most opens to take place. You can also select a few other options besides open rate, like click rate or revenue. If you want to focus on metrics like ROI, select revenue. If you’re more interested in which time of day drives clicks, then select click rate. This section all depends on your goals and what you’re looking to accomplish! If you want a basic test on the time and day with the highest success, you can simply stick with the open rate. Next, make sure to select only two send times. Now for the important part. You’re going to select the two times and days to test! Remember, the top two combined days and times to send emails are:
So let’s test those to start with! Enter those in your A/B test, and make sure they line up to your typical customer’s time zone. All that’s left is to make sure your campaign and content look good to go. Pro tip: Make sure all of your content is the exact same content. The only difference in this A/B test should be the send time. Once you’re done with that, you can test a bunch of different times based on this list below. I created it based on the suggested times from above:
Resend your unopened emails to close the gapThe test you just set up will stop after eight hours. “Half life” refers to the time it takes for at least half of your people to see the message. The idea is that you can’t let a test like this run forever, obviously. You can use a half life of eight hours now to capture a majority of all opens. But there’s a downside to this approach. What about the other half of your list that doesn’t open the email? Do you just ignore them completely? Of course not. There’s one final trick to test this last segment of people. Essentially, you want to resend the exact same campaign to all of the subscribers with “unopened” emails. If people don’t open the emails the first time around, you want to close that gap by trying one more time. You can filter out everyone who did open so that you can pinpoint everyone else who didn’t open it. A/B testing is all about data. You’re constantly trying to find out which small change worked the best. So closing the gap should be your obvious next step. Open rates tend to hover around 20%, depending on the industry you’re in. That means the vast majority of your list won’t ever open what you send them. That’s why you need to resend campaigns every once in a while when it’s worth it. Plus, it’s easy to do in MailChimp based on your A/B test campaign that you just created! Navigate to your Campaigns dashboard and click the drop-down list on the A/B test campaign you just started. Then, click “Replicate.” Replicating the campaign will bring you to the Recipients step. Here’s where you’ll select the people who didn’t see your earlier test. Make sure to select “Group or new segment.” Now you can customize the emails to send only to the group or segment that didn’t open your last campaign. Here’s what it should look like: Make sure contacts match “all” of the following conditions. Then, set the list to match “did not open” for your selected A/B test campaign. After selecting the criteria, hit “Update Recipient Count” to get an updated number of contacts in this new segment you created. You can get a picture of how many recipients didn’t open your email. And you’ll know how many will get retargeted with the same campaign! Using this simple strategy can help you close the potential gaps in your A/B testing data. Cross-reference the data from your original test with the new open rates to find out if any additional opens happened! You can also use this technique on other campaigns. For example, remember the scenario at the beginning? You rushed off an email at the last second during one of the low-activity time ranges. So barely anyone looked at it. Now, you can fix that common mistake! Replicate your old campaign to send a few hours or days later. And watch the new results pile up. ConclusionOptimizing your emails should be a top priority. Typical email click rates are awful. And open rates aren’t that great either. But reaching customers by email has the potential to deliver a 38x return for every dollar spent. So you can’t waste time sending emails whenever you feel like it, hoping that you’re going to land that ROI every time. You need to go off proven data and then test that data against your own customer base. Studies and statistics are great! Don’t get me wrong. But they’re not always the best fit for your audience. While Tuesday at 10 a.m. is the best time to send an email in general, you should be testing this on your own email list. It’s incredibly easy to A/B test with MailChimp. Simply select two different send times and 50/50 test them on your list, and then choose the best times to send your future campaigns! What time and day have you found provides the best email results? The post When Should You Send Emails? Here Are the Days and Times that Work Best appeared first on Neil Patel. via Blogger When Should You Send Emails? Here Are the Days and Times that Work Best |
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