Over 3.7 million blog posts were written today. The market is flooded with blog articles. So how does your content have a chance of standing out?
And while blog competition increases, click-throughs on display ads have continued to decrease. In fact, the average click-through rate of display ads is a staggeringly low 0.05%. Yikes. Video marketing may be the solution to let your content shine. By 2021, video traffic will account for 82% of all consumer Internet traffic. The increasing importance of video marketing is clear. But, is it the right time to add video marketing to your content marketing strategy? Here's a list of three reasons why you need to invest in video marketing and three reasons why video marketing might not be the best fit for you. Three reasons to invest in video marketing1. Provide valuable informationIf someone lands on your page and can't figure out what it is that you do, that's when bounces happen. When Dropbox first launched, the concept was fairly foreign to most. Since Dropbox's UI wasn't a familiar idea, they decided to add a video to their landing page that explained what Dropbox is, and how it works. After adding the video, Dropbox saw their conversion rate go up 10%. Adding a video to a landing page can actually boost your conversions as much as 80%. Users need to not only understand what your brand, product or service is, but also how to use it. If someone can't connect to your product, then why would they stick around to read more about it? The problem and the solution need to be clear, concise and obvious. A landing page with crowded text will go unread. So do away with long, drawn-out explanations of a service. Instead, insert a video. Poo-Pourri is a great example of this. It's a novel product in a newer product category. At the time of its launch, there weren't many other products like it. A video on the landing page visually explains what could be a confusing concept. It details how the product works and also demonstrates where to use Poo-Pourri. Video is a useful medium for easily deconstructing a complicated theory, concept or idea. In fact, Forrester Research estimates that one minute of video equates to approximately 1.8 million written words. It visually or audibly explains the benefits of a service and lets a viewer fully comprehend in a digestible way. 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. Videos can also enforce a strong CTA. Take the landing page for Prezi, for example: The introductory video plays on the landing page, below the CTA button. The animated video demonstrates how easy Prezi is to use and how users can create dynamic presentations. The CTA button invites users to click through to 'see how it works.' 2. Reach a new audienceMany companies think of video marketing as a 'nice to have,' not necessarily a 'need to have.' And I can understand why. Video marketing is a big investment of time, effort, and money. Your competitors will all have a social media presence, email marketing, and a blog but they may not have video marketing. So, why bother? As the market becomes more and more saturated, it'll be important to separate from the pack. Video content continues to grow, as does the appetite for it. 53% of people want to see more video content from marketers. On YouTube, almost 5 billion videos are watched every day. The average mobile-viewing session on YouTube lasts more than 40 minutes. If you don't embrace video marketing, you're missing out on establishing yourself as a leader and authority on your service or industry. And you're also missing out on a large potential audience. If you aren't capitalizing on that traffic, you won't be generating those leads. Remember Dollar Shave Club? Before that viral video, had you heard of the company? Probably not. An effective video, like the one Dollar Shave Club produced, can define a brand. 80% of users can recall a video ad they viewed in the last 30 days. And enjoyment of video advertising increases purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%. More than a third of all online activity involves watching videos. The virality of Dollar Shave Club's video took the startup to a multi-million dollar company. Capitalize on consumer behavior like Dollar Shave Club did. As consumers gather their information through video, let them discover your brand with an entertaining and informative video. 85% of the U.S. audience watches videos online. And in 2019, video is forecasted to make up 80% of all Internet traffic. If you're not working to capture a slice of this pie, you'll end up hungry for leads. LSA surveyed 2,000 consumers and found that 44% of buyers viewed an online video while searching for products and services. 53% of viewers actually contacted the business after watching a video, and 51% visited the business's website. As users search for your products, services or business online, make sure they're finding your video. Adding a video to your post can increase your chances of making it to the top of Google's search results by 53%. Video content opens you up to an entirely new audience that can find you and buy your product or service. After watching a product video, viewers are 85% more likely to purchase, and they spend 100% more time on pages with videos. As Google puts more emphasis on videos and we consume more and more videos, without a strong strategy you're left with a serious case of FOMO. Get ahead of your competitors and put together a video marketing plan. 3. ConversionVideo is a great way to disperse a message and convert viewers, but if the message isn't compelling in the first place, it can fall flat. Refilling a Brita isn't a topic you would usually rap about. However, when Clorox brand Brita partnered with influencer King Bach and NBA player Stephen Curry, the outcome was a funny rap video about just that. Consumers are bored by sales-focused messages. I mean, would you want to watch a commercial just about how great something is? Content that strictly pushes a commercial agenda doesn't engage with an audience. You can have video content posted, but if it doesn't resonate, no one will watch it. Provide video content for your viewers that gives them something of value. Whether it's information on how something works, what a product does, or just pure entertainment like the Brita video above. A viewer becomes engaged and will stay to watch your video if it's of interest to them. The Brita spot led to over 2 million views and a 2,000% mobile search lift. According to Invodo, 52% of consumers say that watching a product video makes them feel more confident about making a purchase. Viewers who watch product videos are almost two times more likely to purchase a product. Clinique tested three, six-second bumper ads on YouTube. Results showed a relative ad recall lift of 69.4% and a product awareness lift of 26.1%. It's clear how effective video can be. However, before initiating your video marketing efforts, put together a well-constructed strategy for your specific audience. You should be able to answer the following questions before you develop a video marketing strategy:
So let's dive into those. Who is watching these videos?Car parts retailer Advance Auto Parts included instructional and how-to videos on its website and on its Facebook page. They found that visitors who watched a video stayed on the site twice as long and visited twice as many pages compared to those who did not watch a video. Knowing their audience played a big part in this success story. Those purchasing car parts should have tutorial videos at their fingertips as they are most likely DIYers. The videos show how consumers can make the most out of the items they have purchased. They know their audience wants this information because they engage with it through social media and on-site. Where are they watching them?Once you have an understanding of your audience, consider where they will be searching for this information or where they would want this information. Retailer Zappos added product videos to their product pages and saw an increase anywhere from 6% – 30% in sales. In this instance, a product video, wouldn't work on a channel like YouTube. They're in the purchasing funnel, looking to buy. And that's why they're on the product page. Give them the info they need to complete their purchase. Your strategy should differ for landing pages, YouTube, product pages or other areas. Why are they watching them?Do they need an intro to the company? Or a detailed tutorial on a specific product feature? Use your analytics, consumer insights, and customer feedback to determine your video content. A SaaS company might find hosting videos on how to get the most out of their product on their site successful. However, on YouTube, they may want to think about entertainment value and explore interviews with thought leaders. An e-commerce site might take advantage of product videos to increase sales but on YouTube, could consider partnerships with content creators that use products in new and innovative ways. Take this World Market makeover, for instance: When are they watching them?Your strategy should differ whether it's a landing page, product page, social channel (Facebook or YouTube) or an FAQ section. Video content should match what the consumer is after, when they're after it. Lands' End makes use of video marketing in a unique way: by having customer service agents ready to video chat within the Customer Service section. Customers can get instant access to representatives, ask questions and get the answers they need. Don't ask: “What video should I make?” but instead, “What problem am I trying to solve?” That's the key to effective video marketing when done right. Emphasis on the 'done right.' Your video content needs to be a smart strategy but also needs to be executed properly. With that said, here are three reasons why video marketing may not be right for you. Three reasons to not invest in video marketing1. You can't produce enough quality contentWhen Pinterest first came onto the scene, every brand immediately jumped onto it. I had clients asking me to develop Pinterest strategies for them. I mean, “had I heard how much traffic Pinterest drives?” Which is totally valid. But also, not so valid. Pinterest, like YouTube and video content, is all visual. Indie furniture brand 57st. Design knew that Pinterest was a visual platform where the audience would be searching for inspiration. With this in mind, they built their channel which resulted in 50% – 60% of their website traffic coming in through Pinterest. This goes to show that successful channels are quality channels. Not just in what you're showing, but how you're showing it. If you can't produce consistent, quality content on an ongoing and timely basis, then just like Pinterest, video marketing might not be for you. At least, not right now. Along with being consistent, your video content needs to provide valuable information for your users. A profitable video marketing strategy marries together good ideas with good execution. Video content with bad sound or visual quality is unprofessional and doesn't indicate that you're a thought leader in your industry. Growing your video channel also requires consistency, not just in your posting frequency but also your presentation. Check out how I do this on my channel. My YouTube channel uses consistent branding across all videos and on my channel homepage. Plus, I make sure it's regularly updated with videos uploaded every 2 – 3 days. My channel features attractive video thumbnails, high-quality video, and enriching information. It brings in new traffic, retains returning traffic and establishes thought leadership. And that lets me stand out above other channels. If your business doesn't have the manpower, time or money to invest in quality video content, consider waiting until you do to launch your video marketing. Otherwise, it's just hard work with a low return on effort. 2. You don't have a cohesive cross-channel content strategyHow will you get eyeballs on your videos? Without views, great videos are just that, a great video. The ultimate goal isn't views though, it's most likely conversions, generating new leads or driving traffic. But none of this happens without viewers. If you don't have a plan set in place to promote and leverage your content to drive traffic to gain views, then it's probably time to rethink why you're even producing videos in the first place. Once your video is complete, devise how you will leverage the content by cross-promoting it. Keep in mind that not all content is fit for all channels. Resolve how you can use your existing network to share your content. And pay attention to not just the video but all copy that goes along with it. Is your video going to be posted on YouTube or on your site? Can it be posted to both? Dollar Shave Club's video was posted to both their landing page and their YouTube channel. Not all content is created equal, and different content is best suited for different channels. But there is nothing wrong with cross-promoting your content as long as it works for all channels. Cross-promoting content, or having shareable content, can help to amplify your content and raise brand awareness. As an introductory video on the landing page, the video explains the concept of the company. The entertainment value makes it shareable, so it does well on Facebook or other social media. Use your existing audience to promote your video. One easy way of doing this is with email marketing. Videos get the point across easily and can enforce an email's CTA. Use 'video' in the subject line to increase click-throughs. In fact, inserting 'video' into the subject can increase conversions by up to 20%. Take these pointers into consideration so you can meet KPIs with your video marketing: Ensure you're using copy to your advantage. Your transcription should contain keywords so your video can be found by searchers looking for relevant material. YouTube automatically transcribes your video and uses it to rank your video. Though the transcription doesn't always match your actual content so be sure to review and revise your transcription. You can also use a transcription service. You may also want to add links to social media accounts, blog posts or an outline of the presentation. Social media videos should have subtitles included since videos on Facebook autoplay without audio. As more viewers watch on-the-go, playing audio while you commute isn't always convenient. Keep it mobile-friendly According to YouTube, mobile video consumption grows by 100% every year. If your content is more entertainment than instructional, you'll want shareable content for social media channels, so keep timing in mind. But currently, viewers watch 86% of business-related videos on desktop browsers and only 14% on mobile devices. This gives you the option of extending the video a little longer so you can add in more useful information. Capture SEO But don't forget that while social media channels (like YouTube) rank on Google search results, YouTube itself is a search engine and owned by Google. 'How-to' searches were up 70% year-over-year on YouTube. Your video content needs to focus on SEO so that you're capturing organic traffic. If you aren't using the right keywords, your video will be irrelevant and hard to find. When strategizing your video content, think about user needs and keyword intent. Then utilize your metadata. Metadata is made up of your title, description, and tags. These are optimal locations to optimize your chosen keywords. You can also group similar videos into playlists on YouTube. These playlists should consist of relevant videos and can feature a description and keyword-focused title. Playlists rank in Google and YouTube search results. By defining the subject matter, it helps to facilitate more views to your content. 3. You don't have the time to measure resultsYou know the old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” That's kind of like marketing without measuring. How can you tell it's actually worth your time and effort? How can you know how to grow your channel or business even more? 52% of marketers believe that video is effective for brand awareness. And 73% of marketers say that video gets the best ROI. Consider the product videos above. These bottom-of-the-funnel videos speed up the sales cycle so you see a higher ROI. But 29% cited a lack of effective strategy as the reason that they didn't see a larger return. A well-constructed roadmap should examine the following:
Set up and track your KPIs and course correct continually. Replace a 'ready, aim, fire!' approach with a more structured, 'hypothesis, experimentation, results' approach. If you can't do that, then video marketing isn't for you right now. ConclusionVideo marketing can be powerful. It can help you increase conversions, aid in reaching a new audience and separate you from competitors. Or, it can be used to provide your consumers with valuable information to help gain sales. Nevertheless, it's essential to share and promote your content, leverage your existing audience, produce high-quality videos on a consistent basis, and track and measure your results. If you can do those things, then it's time to jump into video marketing. But if you aren't prepared to put the work into being consistent with quality videos and then tracking the results, then you might want to hold off. When did you know it was time to invest in video marketing? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.
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Traditional marketing is getting a facelift. Not the scary kind, where you can't move your eyebrows anymore - but the kind where you look well-rested and ten years younger, and no one can put their finger on the reason why. Smart organizations recognize the need to change how they spend their time and money to increase brand exposure and cement their footprint in the market. Every strategy and every dollar spent should point toward one goal: growth. Digital consumption of information by consumers is on the rise. With that comes a prolific increase in competition for organizations of all ages and sizes. Consumers are drowning in choices. So how do companies like Slack knock it out of the park in today's competitive SaaS market? We've all witnessed their Cinderella stories and wished we were in on their secret. The truth is, it's not a secret. It's a combination of hard work and knowing where and how to meet your audience. Here are 12 growth hacking techniques you can start doing right now to see immediate results and leave the competition in your rear view. 1. Blog like your brand depends on it (because it does)Customers can't love you if they can't find you. If you haven't already started a blog, fire one up and start writing today. Blogging is one of the least expensive, simplest ways to get in front of an audience and connect with influencers. Today's consumer goes straight to the Internet for information at the outset of the buying process before they ever consider talking to a human. Meet them there. Just do everyone a favor, please: don't launch a great blog with a few weeks' worth of mindblowing content and then neglect to write another word. Once you hook your readers, they'll want to hear from you on a regular basis. The more content they read about your brand, the more likely they are to trust you, choose you and recommend you to their friends. If you disappear, so will your readers. 2. Conduct experimentsNow that you've got a blogging strategy and your website is up and running, it's time to take a close look at how consumers are responding (or not responding) to you. So dust off that Bunsen burner, growth hacker - it's time to experiment. You'll be glad you did. Whether it's A/B testing your homepage content or seeing which email subject lines resonate with readers, experimentation can uncover quick fixes that lead to big results. Here's a real-world example: InsightSquared recently evaluated their long forms and the data they asked for from readers. After removing one measly field (phone number), they saw an uptake in conversions of 112%. Simple tweak. Huge impact. Need some help getting started with your first experiment? Check out HubSpot's marketing growth experimentation template for some ideas. 3. Be a shameless self-promoterVince Lombardi said “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” Ask for guest posting opportunities and backlinks. And be gracious with linking back and cross promotion to other like-minded experts in return. It's intimidating to pitch your content to the people and brands you look up to, but remember that you are the foremost expert on your products and services. No one knows what you do like you do. Your confidence will not go unnoticed by influencers, and your pervasiveness will catch the attention of prospects. Be everywhere. It's free publicity for your brand with the added “halo effect” that comes from being in the same club with established influencers. Check out online communities and forums that relate to your business and start actively posting helpful information in them. No gratuitous selling, though. You're just there to be helpful. Trust comes first. Pitches come later. And remember, once you've made it big in the world of “digital somebodies,” don't neglect to pay it forward with others who are just getting their start. Throw them some backlinks and guest posting opportunities. Relationships are one of the most valuable currencies in growth hacking. 4. Find the low-hanging fruitPeriodically, it's wise to take a step back from your marketing strategy to check out the big picture. What areas are falling a little flat? Where could you improve engagement? Buffer recently ran a test to see which variant of a blog headline would create the most interest. By adding one data point to their original headline, they increased click-through rates by over 40%. But as you uncover tactics that aren't performing the way you'd like, don't panic. No need to torch them and start from scratch. With some incremental adjustments and a little A/B testing, you can turn those naughty little underperformers into shining stars. The key is to dig deep into the nooks and crannies of your data and use it to take action. Start by taking a look at your lead funnel.
Search for the holes in your process and start plugging them with fresh tactics. Now stop, test your results and watch for a lift in growth. Funnel hacking isn't an exact science, but the basic equation tends to follow an “identify, adjust, repeat” model. While funnel hacking and A/B testing alone may not supercharge growth immediately, they will shine a light on your weak spots to make your strategy better over time. 5. Create an email stockpileEmail marketing is the growth hacker's secret weapon, and still one of the fastest-growing marketing channels. Over 91% of consumers check their email at least once a day, and over two-thirds of those consumers will purchase as a direct result of an email they receive. Email marketing actually has an average ROI of almost $44 for each $1 spent. Crazy, right? From a revenue generation perspective, email is the monster truck of purchasing vehicles. And best of all, it's relatively simple and inexpensive to use. Here's the key: your email marketing strategy is only as good as your email list. Don't know where to start? First, are you asking for email addresses? Start asking. No one is going to offer that information. Consumers are flooded with emails they didn't ask for and won't read. They hang on to their contact information like a Kardashian clinging to youth. Your job is to coax them into giving it to you. If you don't have a clear, visible opt-in form on your website and blog, add one today. For extra “notice me” power, add a polite pop-up or exit intent form with an offer they can't refuse (like a free piece of content or a discount). This is also an easy way to test conversion points. Are you getting sign-ups on certain web pages and not others? Losing readers as soon as they hit your homepage? Dig around in the data to find out where you're weak, and then entice your audience to give you a chance. Play around with different types of content. Do your readers prefer infographics? Do they like a little more text? Have you tried embedding video? According to Hootsuite, over 72% of businesses who use video say that it has increased their website conversion rates. Again, don't be afraid to experiment a little to find your secret sauce. Another email hoarding goldmine is social media. Make it easy for readers to sign up to your subscriber list with one click. Ask for an email address in every unique place that you interact with your audience. Once you've gotten your ambitious little hands on this beautiful pile of email addresses, use them wisely. Every email you send should provide value and leave your readers wanting to hear from you again. 6. Poke your audience in the grey matterStudies have shown that when readers are asked a question, they almost feel obligated to answer. Why is that? (See what we did there?) The human brain is stimulated by questions and the desire to provide answers to them. Gamification has always been an effective marketing channel, thanks to a basic human desire to be right and to win. Use this to your advantage by pulling your audience in with quizzes and polls to spark engagement and camaraderie with your brand. Make the content entertaining, but make sure you keep the mantra of providing value in mind. This is your chance to let your particular brand freak flag fly. Show your personality. Be an actual human being with an actual sense of humor. Be memorable. And once you've hooked your audience and gathered their information, make sure your quiz or poll is shareable with others in one click. Good quizzes offer immediate gratification to your audience and give them a chance to stroke their own egos a bit. More exposure for you, fun for your readers, and a simple way to create buzz about your brand. 7. Don't hate, integrateSure, you know your product is the best thing since sliced bread. But what if you took that awesome-sauce to the next level by partnering with a company that complements yours? You get access to a new customer base, and your integration partner gets to extend what their solution can do to solve problems and draw in new buyers. More value for customers, more cross-marketing for your brand and more doors opening to potential new markets. Bonus points if you can integrate with a social platform. It not only makes your product way easier for consumers to access and use, but it opens the door for shared content, audience engagement, and faster growth. Check out this example of sleek social media integration from RevNGo. They have a strong call to action, clearly stated benefits, and a simple sign-up process: You don't need a massive marketing budget to leverage social media. Its accessibility levels the marketing budget playing field. Even the smallest of businesses have the potential to go viral with one well-timed, shareable post. If you can integrate your email marketing efforts with your social media outreach, you'll get even more bang for your marketing buck. Double the exposure and content reach. And don't forget to flaunt your social proof with inline social widgets that prove your social media popularity and point users to the friends who already love your brand. 8. Be contagious (in the best way)What's the predominant feature of a loop? It never ends. Viral loops work much the same way. One user recommends or “loops” in another; they loop in a few more people and before you know it, your user base has exploded into exponential growth. To get the ball rolling (or the loop…looping?), you might offer users an incentive to get friends or co-workers to join. For SaaS companies, a great place to start is pitching the value of your solution to decision makers within organizations. Offer a free trial to get a few teams using your solution, and then ask to be the solution of choice for the entire business. On average, six out of ten free trials convert to paid subscriptions. IT leaders and administrators are sick and tired of disparate, rogue business tools that are hard to keep track of and don't connect their employees. Your job is to become the one, “official” solution and create that viral loop of growth as new employees and business units come on board. For social or individual consumer solutions, add a layer of gamification where users “win” by inviting new users and earn online badges or free services. Take it even further by appealing to social consciences. Offer to donate to charity or some other good deed in exchange for users sharing your solution with others who sign up. It creates goodwill with your audience, and it literally makes the world a better place. Full disclosure: viral loops are hard to pull off. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try, though. Especially if you're a SaaS company with an easy sign-up process and the right incentives and referrals in place. It may take a bit of testing to see what your audience responds to, but once you get the momentum going, the sky is the limit. 9. Show your customers a good timeIt might sound basic, but each bad consumer experience is a nail in your business growth coffin. Don't let a sloppy foundation topple your growth hacking strategy.
Walk each step of your prospect and customer experience as if you're seeing the information for the first time, and take a long, hard look at the impression you're making. After you make some honest adjustments, ask an objective third party (or a helpful customer) to walk through the experience and offer candid insight. Target a few users and ask them for interviews using a tool like Survey Monkey's Website Feedback template. And thicken up that skin. You can take it. You're a growth hacker. 10. Recycle everythingYou're socially and environmentally responsible. You are aware of your carbon footprint. You reduce, reuse and recycle. Hats off to you, green friend, but there is another type of recycling that leads to quick growth: content recycling. 69% of marketers say they don't have enough time to create enough great content. Time to repurpose. Take a look at the content you've produced. What has the most engagement? What consistently gets shared and quoted and adored by the masses? Take that little piece of marketing brilliance and multiply it. Look at how Copyblogger used a great piece of content in three different ways:
If it's a blog, create an infographic out of it. If it's a customer testimonial, ask the customer if they would write a guest blog or sit for a video interview. Great content can be molded in many different ways to appeal to many types of consumers. Don't limit your great ideas to one marketing bucket. See how many times you can flavor the same great idea to keep it fresh and working hard for your brand. 11. Create community, not tyrannyOne of the most overlooked growth hacking techniques is the simple value of letting your customers promote your brand for you. Social communities are an easy way to help your users engage with your brand and each other. The trick to fostering a successful community is to stay engaged without being intrusive. You'll need to initiate conversations (especially at the outset) and respond quickly to questions, but try to stay out of the way and let your community feed itself. Take Buffer, for example. They are huge proponents of community with loyal advocates to show for it. Your job is to offer support, show community members love with periodic discounts or swag and to point new users to your thriving tribe of users. As tempting as it may be to lead the group in a certain direction, don't. When your users are invested in your brand, they will willingly engage with other users. Give them ample reason to remain invested and then back off. Delighted customers tell your story better than you ever could. 12. Bask in the glow of praiseOrganizations can talk all day about the magnificence of their own products and services. But after a point (and very quickly), it's just noise. Instead, the savviest growth hackers know the fastest way to a prospect's heart is a good customer testimonial. Here's the catch - while you want happy customers to provide these endorsements, you absolutely cannot incentivize them, bribe them, coerce them or guilt them into saying nice things they don't mean. Don't be that company. It's miserably obvious when a customer is being strong-armed into a positive review (not to mention incredibly off-putting). Instead, find the customers that you've done a great job with. The ones whose implementations and user experiences have been smooth. The ones who are comfortable coming to you when there is a bump in the road because they know you'll fix it. And then let them tell their story their way. The legitimacy will speak for itself, and the credibility you'll build with prospects will pay off far more than a cheesy infomercial testimonial ever would. ConclusionIn the words of the great Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a-changin'.” Growth hacking isn't just a fancy buzzword you can ignore while you shake your fist at the heavens and pull your pants up higher. Competition, especially among SaaS companies, is everywhere, and consumers have more choices than ever before. You can't afford to write a few whitepapers and sit back on your laurels. Make everything you do about solving problems, growing your audience and extending your brand. Great products and services certainly help sell themselves, but you need to set that growth plan in motion. Recruit customer evangelists. Partner with like-minded companies. Create content with wild abandon. Set yourself apart with world-class customer support. With so many simple ways to launch growth, there has never been a more exciting time to see what your brand can really do. What growth hacking techniques have worked for your business? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. The days of Snapchat being used solely for sending pictures between friends are over. This social media platform has evolved. Your company can't afford to ignore the impact that this marketing channel can have on your business. It's an absolute necessity if you're focusing on Generation Z as your target market. That's because 71% of Gen Z use Snapchat as part of their daily routine. Plus, 51% of this group use Snapchat roughly 11 times each day. While Snapchat definitely has a reputation for being used by teens, their market penetration is starting to hit young adults and older generations as well. So Snapchat is a viable marketing channel if your current target market falls anywhere between the ages of 12 and 34. But keep an eye on these trends as older generations may continue adapting to this platform. In Q4 of 2017 Snapchat hit 187 million active daily users. The platform has seen more than an 18% growth rate in terms of daily users in the last year. There is no sign of a slow down, and I expect these marketing trends to continue in the future. So, what exactly does this mean for your business? It's great news. You now have another viable marketing channel to engage with your customers. But this may be intimidating or confusing if you've never used Snapchat before and don't know how to apply it to your business. Fortunately, you're in luck. I'll show you the top 15 ways to use Snapchat for your business. 1. Post to your story oftenOnce you've created a Snapchat account, you need to make sure that it's active. So the best way to approach this is by adding content to your story on a daily basis. Anything you post on Snapchat will disappear after 24 hours. So posting content often will keep your brand fresh in the minds of your followers. Just don't go overboard. Posting 20 times in one day isn't effective. That's because people will just skip through your posts. Depending on how many people a user follows on Snapchat, they'll have lots of stories to view each day. But that doesn't mean that they are going to watch every single post in its entirety. According to a study conducted by Snaplytics, engagement drops by 36% once users reach the fourth snap of a story. They also discovered that roughly 80% of your followers will see your post about 4 or 5 hours after it's been added to your story. What does this mean for you? Based on these numbers, I'd recommend updating your Snapchat story about three times per day, every four or five hours. This will help keep your engagement high and prevent your followers from skipping through your content. 2. Promote your Snapchat account on other marketing channelsIn order for your Snapchat strategy to be successful, you've got to get followers first. Rather than trying to come up with followers out of thin air, try to target users who are following your business account on other platforms. Look at how People Magazine uses this strategy in their Instagram bio. This is really important for you, especially if you just created a Snapchat account for your company. Nobody is going to know that you have an account unless you tell them. In addition to Instagram, you can promote it on your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can even work this promotion into your YouTube videos as well. Tell your email subscribers to follow you on Snapchat and pitch it on your website too. The more channels that you promote it on, the greater chance you'll have of getting more followers. 3. Create a sponsored lensPeople love to use Snapchat filters and lenses. It's estimated that sponsored filters are seen by 16 million users each day. These filters are just a way for people to take creative photos. Snapchat has plenty of them built directly into their platform. So instead of just taking a basic selfie, users can make the image black and white, apply a filter to make their eyes abnormally large or even make their nose disappear. Some of these filters for video snaps can even change the pitch of your voice. All of these were created to make users have more fun. They'll send a snap to their friends with one of these filters because it's entertaining and often humorous. But now businesses can create a sponsored filter as well. Gatorade used this strategy during Super Bowl 50 and it turned into one of the most successful Snapchat campaigns on record. If you've ever watched the Super Bowl, you know it's tradition for the winning coach to get Gatorade dumped on his head by the players. So Gatorade created a sponsored filter during the game that would simulate Gatorade getting dumped on the user's head. The filter had more than 165 million views and increased their purchase intent by 8%. Here's another example from Taco Bell to show you what these filters look like. As you can see, the filters themselves are silly, but they definitely create brand awareness and help you create engagement. The only problem with this strategy is that it's expensive. If you want to create a filter during a holiday or special event, such as the Super Bowl, you've got to be ready to dish out between $100,000 and $750,000. That cost will keep your filter active for 24 hours. But if you can afford it, the return on your investment can be huge. The Taco Bell filter above was viewed 224 million times. The average user spent 24 seconds playing with the lens before sharing it with friends. 4. Let social influencers takeover your accountAnother great way to get more followers and increase engagement is through social proof of concept. Celebrities and other influencers already have a steady following on social media. Take advantage of that. If you allow someone else to takeover your Snapchat account, you can expose your brand to a much wider audience. Some of these people may not even know that your company existed until they saw an influencer talking about it. You may need to pay for an influencer to do this unless you have some kind of other mutual agreement or common interest in whatever you're promoting. Here's a great example of what I'm talking about from iHeartRadio. They allowed singer Hailee Steinfeld to takeover their account. As a result, she promoted the takeover to her fans on social media. Hailee has over 933k followers on Twitter and more than 8 million Instagram followers. This is great brand exposure for iHeartRadio, especially because she is directly related to their industry. That's important for you to keep in mind as well. You may find a professional basketball player with 10 million Instagram followers, but if sports aren't related to your industry, their followers may not be relevant to your company. 5. Feature user-generated contentAsk your followers to send you pictures and videos of them interacting with your brand or using your products. Then you can repost this content on your Snapchat story. A great way to encourage user-generated content is by running contests and similar promotions. GrubHub used this strategy on Snapchat a few years back. Their campaign was a huge success. They ran a contest called “SnapHunt,” which lasted for a week. Every day they posted a new challenge. A winner was selected for each challenge and won a $50 gift card. During this contest, GrubHub's followers grew by 20%. Furthermore, 30% of their followers participated in this contest. So it's safe to say that engagement was high. 6. Offer discounts and promo codesNot sure what to post on your story? When in doubt, give your followers something that they can actually use. Send out discounts and other promotional offers via Snapchat. This strategy will also help you drive sales and increase conversions. KIND used this strategy to offer their Snapchat followers 15% off of a purchase. When you're posting on Snapchat, you've always got to keep the overall goal of your company in mind. Don't get distracted with all of the other bells and whistles. You want sales. Offering discounts is a great way to accomplish this. 7. Takeover another accountEarlier we talked about letting someone else take over your Snapchat account. But another effective strategy is taking over another account yourself. When someone else takes over your account, you're relying on that person's followers to add you on Snapchat to view your content. But when you take over an account, the audience won't have to do anything. It will be your job to convince them that they should be following your brand. So make sure your content is engaging. Even if they don't add your Snapchat account, you'll still be able to create brand awareness with a new audience. 8. Promote a new productKeep your followers up to date with any exciting news from your brand. A new product launch is definitely worth mentioning. Even if your product hasn't launched yet, you can build hype and anticipation, so consumers are ready for it when your product finally gets released. Here's something to take into consideration. How often do people visit your website? I'm willing to bet that the average consumer isn't checking your website on a daily basis for any updates. But they are checking Snapchat every day. Just because you're promoting a new product launch on your website, it doesn't mean that people will see it. That's why you've got to take advantage of other marketing channels. Here's an example of a new product promotion via Snapchat from McDonald's. Try to follow their lead the next time you want to tell your followers about a new product or service. 9. Provide exclusive accessIt's obviously unreasonable to let your social media followers to just walk right into your office and check things out. But with Snapchat, you can give them that same exclusive feeling by providing them with behind-the-scenes content. Show your followers what it's like in your office or production facility. If you're at an event, take snaps of some of the action backstage. This type of content will keep your followers engaged because it makes them feel like they are getting VIP treatment. 10. Reply to your followersThe majority of your Snapchat strategy should be focused on uploading content to your story. However, that's not the only way to engage with your audience. Followers may reply to your story and send you direct one-on-one messages as well. On other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, everyone can see if you're responding to followers or not. But on Snapchat, only you and the person sending the message know if you're responding. So it's easy for companies to just shrug these off and ignore them. Even though everyone can't see it, you should still make an effort to reply to your followers. Getting a personal response from a brand will make the user feel special. Ignoring their message shows them that you don't care about what they have to say. 68% of customers say the reason why they stop using a particular brand is if they don't think that the company cares about them. You can easily avoid this by simply responding to those private messages. 11. Post relevant contentYour snaps shouldn't just be mindless images of your products. You can use this platform to show your audience that your brand is aware of various topics. You could talk about charities or any type of social awareness that your business is involved with. Here's an example from Dove. They used their platform to discuss self-esteem issues. Their Snapchat story featured interviews with 30 women and various psychologists. They wanted to have an open discussion about self-esteem issues to help women enhance their own self-images. As a result, the campaign had more than 130,000 views. Just make sure that you tread carefully when you're approaching something like this. It's best for businesses to say away from issues involving race, religion, politics, and other controversial topics. 12. Promote an upcoming eventIf your company is hosting or attending some kind of meeting or event, tell your audience about it. Depending on what kind of event it is, you could even try to get your followers to come and show their support. 67% of people are more likely to purchase tickets to an event after watching a similar event on a live video stream. While Snapchat technically isn't live video, it's pretty close. So you can figure that the percentage of people interested in the event will be similar. 13. Drive traffic to your websiteSnapchat recently introduced a new feature that allows you to add links to your story. To do this, simply take a photo or video using their camera as you normally would. Then click the paperclip icon before adding it to your story. Now you can add a link to your post. Users will have access to the link if they follow the prompt at the bottom of your story advising them to “swipe up.” This is a great way to increase your website traffic. 14. Inform your followers about an important milestoneKeep your Snapchat audience informed about important dates for your company. Is it your 10th anniversary? Is it your CEO's birthday? You can even talk about other milestones like getting your 10,000th follower on a certain social media platform. All of these are great excuses to post on Snapchat. It's a nice break from the same boring posts that get shared on a daily basis. 15. Mix it upThis piggybacks off of my last point. You don't want your content to be boring. Lots of the tips that we've discussed so far are definitely useful and should be applied to your Snapchat marketing strategy. But with that said, don't just pick one or two and use the same ones every day. You've got to keep things interesting. If your followers aren't entertained, then they'll stop following you. Once that happens, it won't be easy for you to market to those people again. You can avoid this by keeping your content fresh. ConclusionSnapchat is growing in popularity. If your company doesn't have a Snapchat account, you need to create one ASAP. But once your account is active, you need to get followers and keep them engaged. Overall, you want to make sure that your Snapchat marketing strategy makes your business better. In addition to creating brand awareness, you want to drive sales as well. Whether Snapchat is new for you, or you're just looking for a fresh insight to spice up your existing Snapchat marketing campaign, the tips that I've outlined above are a great place to start. Use this guide as a reference for increasing engagement on Snapchat. What tactics are you using to connect with your followers on Snapchat? We have all been there. You spend time and money creating short-and-sweet content for your targeted audience; you drink copious cups of coffee and push out all other daily noise to give it your all. When your gem is complete, you click “publish.” But your content doesn't seem to generate any leads. Even worse, it goes unnoticed. In short, “Winter is Coming” …but not for the House of Stark: for your business. The solution? Longer content. Research shows that 3,000+ word blog posts get more traffic. But if you're anything like me, you often find yourself skimming through longer articles for the next header, either due to lack of time or to a short attention span. So where's the happy medium between in-depth content and increased audience attention? The tendency is to think that audiences have a short attention span and don't want to be overwhelmed with information. Ironically, in the age of misinformation we live in, more information isn't just necessary, it is reputable. If your content isn't attracting the visitors your business deserves, you're probably missing some vital growth-hacks. Perhaps you don't know exactly which topics to expand on or how to rise above the humdrum of essentially rehashing what your company offers over and over and over again ad nauseum. That's why we've compiled this six-step cheat sheet to creating content that is proven to bring in traffic. Longer vs. shorter (the benefits and pitfalls)Let's get clear for a second. Your short content might not have gotten you where you want to be, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have its benefits. Shorter content is a great way to provide a taste of what your business can provide. Just think about how well short social media posts like tweets or Instagram videos perform. It's kind of like serving an appetizer. We all love them. They're delicious. Imagine a gorgeous 7-layer dip with corn chips. Who doesn't want to get to the bottom of that bowl? And that brings us to the pitfall. Sometimes, short content is best, like when used on a homepage. But in other cases, like blog posts, it can leave visitors wanting more. That's probably why longer blog posts get more social shares. Readers aren't left with any questions and want to share the valuable information with friends and followers. That's where more informational and data-driven content fits the bill. It gives your visitors that educational delicious full-flavored bite they're really looking for. It shows that you know what you're talking about, and most importantly, you're willing to share it so they can really enjoy that deliciously deep 7-layer bite. Ready for the down low? Let's get down to that cheat sheet. 1. Knowing what drives your audience will make you a starOn the pyramid of things to pay attention to when striving to optimize and maximize visitors who read your content, having an accurate survey of customer motivation is the foundation. Not knowing what your audience is clicking on, will pretty much make any other marketing endeavor absolutely futile. 2. Start using analytics track your general website activityAnalytics makes it simple by giving you control of what activity you want to track and providing results within just a couple of hours. There are two approaches to understanding consumer interest and behavior effectively. One is through aggregate data, like a current customer's name or order information. The other is a people-based analytics platform. Both of these are key to understanding how your business ranks and how to give audiences more of what they are looking for. If you're paying less for a more aggregate-oriented analytics solution, it will definitely help you attract visitors to your website. But eventually, this bird's eye view can only take you so far. If your goal is to create content that doesn't just attract, but also educates and retains, then getting down-and-dirty with the individual peeps. This is how you ensure that your business doesn't hit a ceiling on how high it can go. More on analytics in a bit… 3. Get high on content or find someone who canPeople are looking for verifiable information delivered in an original way. This is not fast food. You won't retain customers by delivering the same information the same way every time. Knowing what makes your services or products tick to your audience is a growth hack made up of several parts. Among these are the use of SEO tools like Moz's Open Site Explorer, backlinks, infographics, videos, and effective CTAs. Backlinks matterThink of backlinks as portals into various parts of your industry's multiverse. Except instead of Rick's portal gun (Rick and Morty reference; yes I am a dork), you're wielding what we will call the “reputable gun.” Backlinks show that you're not just blowing smoke to get the sale (like the Shamwow guy… whatever happened to that dude anyway?) You're informed, you're the expert on the product or service, and you're taking the time to educate your potential customer/client base to make an empowered decision. This speaks volumes. It's no surprise that 73% of advanced SEOs build 1 to 20 links per month. You need to do the same. The longer the content, the more backlink portals you can include to open your readership to the wondrous world of high-absorbency washrags. Or whatever product or service you're selling. Add calls to action (CTAs)“The eagle has landed,” some guy said once somewhere… Make sure your eaglet lands on an invitation to engage further with your company. This applies to downloading a free guide, signing up for the company newsletter, leading them to an exciting case study, or even an invitation to a networking event. The point is diversification. Targeted variety is the spice of content creation.Let's take a pretty easy example to understand. If you are selling essential oils, your audience might include clients who are interested in natural healing for themselves or natural healing for their loved ones. They might even be interested in learning how to become a certified aromatherapist themselves. Create a variety of landing pages to cater to these needs through more content along with corresponding CTAs. The type of landing page you need will depend on your industry. A good rule of thumb is to add high-quality images, an eye-catching CTA, and some kind of contact form. Run A/B tests on a few different versions to see which ones perform best. 4. Make analytics your best friendAnalytics can be scary. It feels like waiting to find out how you did on that dreaded Statistics test in college. Okay, so maybe you weren't a Statistics apasionado, but I would be willing to bet that the subjects you did enjoy, you pursued in greater depth. It works the same way with potential leads who need to learn more about your product before taking the leap. You can think of analytics as the barometer for what to pursue in greater depth, through longer content. Based on a recent article in Forbes, “marketers who invest more than 10% of their working media budgets in marketing performance measurement (MPM) are three times more likely to exceed their growth plans by 25%.”
Companies like Kissmetrics or CrazyEgg provide the tools you need to measure ROIs for you so you can finally throw out your great-grandma's abacus. You might not be able to count your chickens before they hatch, but with the right tool, you can more accurately predict which eggs have better chances of hatching over others. Once you have analyzed specific user behavior and narrowed down the topics that attract more views and the content that gets the most clicks, you can take them and expand them into longer content pieces. For example, compile several short articles you've already written and create an e-book, like HubSpot. Combine content to get from this… To this: Once you've written these other pieces of content, include hyperlinks in the text to your main content piece. This shows search engines that all your content is interrelated. Hubspot also offers a perfect analogy of this games. It dubs the website's main subject content as the Pillar of your entire content enterprize and other related content as the Clusters. Your pillar is like the sun around which fun and educational planet clusters of content rotate, linked by gravity. Gravity attracts and keeps things together. Similarly, your hyperlinks let search engines like Google find your cluster content and related back to your pillar, so you're more easily found in web searches. 5. Get friendly with the competitionIf only MMA champion Conor McGregor could have been a fly on the wall during Floyd Mayweather's training! But if you want to be the best at what you do, it helps to leverage what already exists and works while keeping watch for any gaps you may be able to uniquely fill with your service. Competitor analysis tools like SimilarWeb allow you to compare the traffic analytics for businesses like yours so you can find that edge. Let's say you own a burger shop, and a competing business has set up shop right across the street. They have a much cooler logo than yours, and their approach is young and hip. This competition can seriously hinder your sales; everyone is looking for the fresh and new. If you're not careful, you'll end up with a cash register full of tears and not dollars. See the issue here? How are you going to stand out against your way cooler competitor? Well, imagine that after you're done crying about it, you take a peek and see what's on their menu. To your utter surprise, you notice that their mustard comes in packets, while yours is homemade… …see where I'm going with this? Run back to your store and put out a big neon sign immediately! Market the living seeds out of that mustard! You just found your leverage. (Ex: The only burger in town serving REAL mustard!” or “Farm-to-Table Mustard. It's just how Momma made it” or “Buy Local, not imported,” etc… You get the gist.) So how does this translate into the online marketing content scene? Well, if you had a website for your burger shop, this would be the time to add a blog or an article chock-full of educated content on the value of fresh ingredients, promoting local business, and how his burger shop is saving the planet, one burger at a time. Blogging, interviews, guides, and case studies are just a few of the ways to deliver meaningful content. Here are some other ways to jump-start your content creation process, courtesy of Hubspot: Since longer content is on the rise, it benefits to find trending topics in your industry and expand on them in a way that highlights what your business can provide over other similar businesses. Once you have a hook on the right topic, it's time to write, write, write and promote it like there's no tomorrow. And if neon signs help, go for it. 6. Try and try, againCreating effective content is not just a one-time thing. The attention attracted by your long-form blog or article will likely diminish in a few weeks, if not days (as I addresses in this article). Additionally, there will always be changes or simple variations in trends to take advantage of. So based on these oscillations and the knowledge you derive from your analytical platform, your content will continue to grow and build on itself until you attract those 361,494 visitors. Does writing drawn-out content sound daunting? Well, there is good news! You can keep that content fresh by updating it! Fear not, padawan! There are so many guides on how to make that long-form content effective to yield greater ROIs through promotion and social media. That person-oriented analytics strategy will ensure you remain relevant. Remember that you're writing to help people stay informed on the aspects of your industry that benefits them on a personal level. Another great benefit of person-oriented analytics is the opportunity to send out targeted surveys based on user activity (or inactivity). Basically, if you notice that a user has not been engaging in your posts and activities, ask them why. Find out what's working for them and what isn't. Based on the results, tailor content to optimize what is working while making sure to address what isn't. Who doesn't love surveys, right? ConclusionFeeling a bit overwhelmed? Let's wrap a lasso around all this. First, take a look at your landing pages and find out what is and what isn't getting the attention it deserves. Several companies provide in-depth step-by-step guides to creating more effective landing pages, content, and promotional strategies. If you are not already attracting those 361,494 visitors, it is probably going to take a little extra work. That work involves writing more educational and more targeted copy based on the results from aggregated and person-focused analytics through tools that companies are already providing for your the benefit of your business. Ask yourself, what is it that my website visitors clearly want to learn more about? Armed with the results of your new analytics tool, you can empower your potential customers and clients with the educated information they need to make a leap into what your company offers. And don't forget to have fun! Trend analytics, landing pages with CTAs, providing a space to collect email on every single page of your website, and scattering those backlinks like dandelions in the wind are just some of the ways that you can keep ahead of the 2018 trend curve. What content creation shortcuts do you use to attract visitors? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. What the Google Chrome Ad Blocker Means for Your Website Popups (Plus 8 Really Smart Targeting Tips)2/22/2018 Last week you likely saw a ton of news about Google Chrome's Ad Blocker going into effect Feb 15, 2018. And nobody could blame you if you took one look at some of the reports and thought, “Oh no! Popups are dead. Google just outlawed them, and I have to take down the 35 I'm using across my web properties that are generating 12,000 leads per month”. Well, fortunately, after combing through the details, I'm happy to tell you that - from our early interpretation - this doesn't seem to be true. You can still confidently use popups and sticky bars on your website and landing pages, and today I'll take you through the news with a bit more nuance to explain why (and how to do so without compromising your user experience). As I wrote in Technology isn't the Problem, We Are. An Essay on Popups there's a reason why bad marketing practices exist (spoiler alert, it's bad marketers), and we all need to play a part in reversing these bad practices because frankly, we all deserve a better internet. Here at Unbounce, we welcome this defense of higher internet standards by Google. But we do need to unpack the announcement to see what the potential impact could be on your marketing activities. What is the Google Chrome Ad Blocker and Why Are We Talking About It?On February 15th 2018, Google officially introduced an ad blocker to the Google Chrome browser that will screen for (and eventually block) what they deem to be “intrusive” ad experiences. This is further to Google's partnership with the Coalition for Better Ads they announced previously with the January 10th 2017 change re: Mobile ad experiences. In short, while it seemed like news last week, it's an initiative that's been in the works for some time. The Coalition for Better Ad StandardsThe Coalition for Better Ad Standards (CBA) is a group made up of trade associations and companies involved in online media. Their mission is to improve consumers' experiences with online advertising and includes a set of global standards that address consumer expectations with online advertising. As part of this mission, they performed a research study of 25,000 consumers to identify the ad experiences most likely to make those consumers install ad blocking software. The study presents a range of user experience factors to discover which ones ranked worst. But before we get into the ads raising concerns, we should first address what constitutes an ad. What is an Ad (In the Eyes of The Better Ad Standards Coalition)?This is where things start to get a little vague. As per the Better Ads Standards website:
In our interpretation, the above refers to a paid ad (such as Google AdSense) that appears on your website, not a popup containing your own marketing materials such as an e-commerce discount, a newsletter subscription, or a time-sensitive offer. The third party being an ad network and the ad being what's delivered to the website. If this is the correct interpretation it makes sense, because ads such as this are not related to the marketing efforts of the host website. They're the result of the host website trying to generate ad revenue and presenting incongruent and somewhat random display ads. However, at this time, it's admittedly difficult to determine exactly what the coalition is considering an ad. To ensure we get you the best answer possible, we contacted Better Ad Standards directly to clarify whether our early interpretation of their definition is correct. My main question is concerned with how the two parties will be evaluating the ads. Is it the content or is it the delivery mechanism? In other words, are Chrome and the Better Ad Standards coalition concerned with the interaction method of the message delivery? Or the content of the message? Or a combination of both? My gut says it's a combination, where the content must be considered an “ad” and the delivery mechanism falls into a few specific categories of interaction that are deemed as bad experiences. Update from the Coalition for Better AdsWe got a response back from the CBA pretty quickly which was awesome. Unfortunately, the response didn't really add any extra clarity to the original definition. Here's a portion of my question:
And a portion of their response:
Based on this, I'm still not entirely sure if our interpretation is right or wrong. If we are wrong, then it's more important than ever to be creating the best possible experiences, and the easiest way for you to do that is with advanced targeting and triggers. You will find 8 examples of proactive great experience creation at the end of the post. Here are some smart ways to do the right thing if you want to skip ahead to some implementation ideas:
Which types of ad experience are raising a concern?On desktop they refer to the following four ad experiences: And mobile has an even larger set: Again, while the images above could be alarming to anyone running popups, based on our early interpretation of the definition above I don't think these are popups or sticky bars that you place on your own website with your own marketing content in them. I think we'll end up finding as time goes on that the standards are targeting at neutralizing bad behavior with respect to third-party ads. Does this mean you should ignore these guidelines if you're not using third-party ads? Not entirely, no. Conscientious targeting and triggering still reign supreme. You can continue to present popups and sticky bars to visitors on your website, but you should use the guidelines to do everything you can to deliver great experiences. To help avoid getting warnings now that the standards are in place, Google offers a tool which can help you to determine if they consider your website to be infringing on the guidelines or not. How to Check Your Website For Adherence Using The Google Ad Experience ReportThe Ad Experience Report is designed to identify ad experiences that violate the Better Ads Standards, and you can check it for both desktop and mobile inside Webmaster Tools (now simply called Web Tools). You can find the Google Ad Experience Report here. When you choose your web property from the drop-down on that page, you will see this: The video explains how it all works, and if you click desktop or mobile in the left navigation, you'll instantly get a report like this one for unbounce.com: If you receive any warnings you can make changes and request a fresh site review. From Google: What Else Can You Do to Create Better Popup Experiences?I fully embrace this news and the mission of the Coalition for Better Ads because it gives me the opportunity to broach the topic of popup misuse. As a platform offering popups, sticky bars (and landing pages of course) it's incumbent upon Unbounce to take a stance and work hard to help marketers deliver especially respectful and responsible web experiences. Popup misuse typically falls into the following categories:
To provide a method of evaluating popup experiences and to help combat bad behavior I created The Popup Delight Equation. Essentially the equation reverse engineers an excellent popup experience and allows you to generate a percentage score by analyzing seven principles: clarity, control, creativity, relevance, charm, value, and respect. I'd also recommend you read Stop Making These Common Mistakes with Your Website Popups (Includes Examples and Quick Fixes) which has some great ideas on the topic. What is Unbounce Doing to Help Customers Avoid Ad Blocker Warnings?Fabulous question! I asked Cole Derochie, one of Unbounce's product owners, to elaborate on how we're approaching the news and what it means for our customers.
As I mentioned earlier, it does seem the news pertains to third-party ads, but having said that, we are determined to help marketers adhere to great internet standards. One way we're doing that is by creating tips and warnings inside the Unbounce builder to help prevent some of the design methods that Google considers bothersome, in particular for the mobile experience. For instance, in the screenshot below, a warning appears if you try to increase the height of the sticky bar beyond 100px: Despite our belief that this announcement (and the general concerns of Google and the Coalition for Better Ads) isn't specifically directed at regular popups and sticky bars, it does still represent an opportunity to take an honest look at the ways we're all presenting our marketing, and step away from some of the more blatant behaviors mentioned in the research. One of the best ways to ensure a quality experience is to use some of the more advanced targeting, trigger, and frequency settings that Unbounce provides to give your visitors a respectful interaction that's as relevant as possible. Using Targeting, Triggers, and Frequency to Improve Popup and Sticky Bar ExperiencesFrom a high-level philosophical perspective, we should be thinking beyond surface level conversion metrics to focus on quality rather than quantity. I'm referring to tactics like showing popups on every visit, which in my mind is just a little desperate, and destined to not be delightful. Here are some ways you can deliver a better user experience and stay on Google's good side: Method #1 – Campaign SchedulingIf you're running a time-sensitive campaign, it's important to only show your offer when it's actually valid. I'm sure you've seen those “live” chat windows that tell you nobody is home. If nobody is home, don't show the live chat box dummies! Similarly, you don't want to show a discount or special offer when it's already expired. In Unbounce you can set your campaign schedule down to the minute. Method #2 – Cookie TargetingCookies are a great way to create more personalized experiences, basing the display of you offer on previous visitation or behavior tracking. But they are equally as powerful when you use them as an exclusion mechanism. Let's say you have an offer for a discount on your SaaS product to encourage people abandoning your website, but you don't want existing customers to see it (it could make them jealous or upset that they didn't get the discount). If you are able to set a cookie within your app somewhere to label a customer as a customer, you can then use the “Don't Show” cookie targeting to make sure they are not shown the offer. Bazinga! Method #3 – Referrer URL TargetingContext is king when it comes to communicating your message quickly, and if you target your popups and sticky bars using the referrer URL option you can present content that's highly relevant to where the visitor just came from. This is especially effective for co-marketing where your popup or sticky bar can showcase both brands by including the partner's logo, creating a more powerful connection between the two experiences. Here's another really interesting use case that uses the “Don't Show” setting. I'm in the middle of a reboot of our landing page course, and I'm running some popups containing Typeform surveys for the purposes of research. The problem though is that the homepage of the course is a landing page on a subdomain of the primary course domain – and I'm running the survey on both the homepage and the internal pages of the microsite. Course homepage URL: do.thelandingpagecourse.com There's a lot of organic traffic coming to the homepage and also the internal pages. But I don't want to show it to a visitor to the homepage, and then show it again when they click through to start part one of the course. To solve this problem, I set a “Don't Show” setting on the Referrer targeting like this: Which means that none of the internal course pages will show the popup if the visitor got there via the course homepage. This is a brilliantly simple way of solving what would otherwise require a bit of complex coding to resolve. Even better is the fact that you can add as many “Show” and “Don't Show” targeting rules as you like. Method #4 – Location TargetingUnbounce location targeting allows you to drill all the way down to the city level, and all the way up the the continent level. Personally, I'd be stoked if someone from the Antarctic saw one of my popups, but there are times when you do need to hide your marketing from certain locations, or target it specifically to a location or locations. Just like in #3, the great thing is that you can add as many rules in here as you like, so you could set it up like the image below to target every major city in Texas, avoiding rural areas if that so happens to not be your target audience. Or reverse it to target all rural areas and avoid the cities. YUSS! Method #5 – Click TriggerUndoubtedly the best trigger type is the click trigger. Why? Because it's entirely user-driven. A great use case for this option is two-step opt-in forms where your popup with a form only shows up when requested. The conversion rates are typically very high because the initial click declares intent making the contents of the popup desirable. With Unbounce you can set the click trigger to work on any page element by using the CSS id, or you can even apply it to a CSS class which could make multiple page elements interactive. Method #6 – Mobile Scroll Up TriggerGoogle has expressed discontent for certain types of popup that appear on entry, on mobile devices. For this reason we created the “Scroll Up” trigger. It works a little like an “Exit Trigger” on desktop as it may signal that someone is leaving the page. If you use this, and keep the size of your Sticky Bar to 100px in height or below, you can create a nice experience that's not too interruptive, doesn't prevent the visitor from leaving, and lets you notify them of something important. Method #7 – Frequency SettingsWhat's the frequency, Kenneth? If you don't get that reference then either you're really young or I'm really old. Either way, frequency matters. And when you get it wrong it hertz. << Please tell me you got that one. Pro tip – once and done When in doubt, the first option (“Show once per visitor”) is the best. Show it once, and go cry in your soup if it didn't convert. Do NOT pester people over and over again. If they want it they'll say yes. If they don't, well that's a lesson (in the form of a poor conversion rate) you can use to better understand your audience. For the other options, if you wanna be super respectful and let people check out your site without any distractions, think about using the “Show only on visit x” option. Typically the x would be the number 2. Show it the second time they are there. That way they've had the chance to get to know you and your offer will seem more relevant. For example, there's nothing more annoying on a blog than when you get an entrance popup saying “Love this content! Subscribe for more!!!!!”. No, I don't love this content cos I just got here, dammit! Whereas if you show it on the second visit, you know they liked you enough to come back. Done. Method #8 – Super Advanced Multi-Option TargetingHow about this idea for some extreme relevance! You can use all four advanced targeting rules at the same time to get hyper-personalized. In the example below I'm targeting people in Vancouver, Canada who've got a cookie called “ILikeTurtles” who are coming from my partner's site during the dates of my campaign. SICK! In Conclusion: What Should You Do Now?Well for starters I recommend that you go make 50 popups with “Every visit” targeting and a frequency of 100 times per visit. Wait. Don't do that. Do what a thoughtful marketer would do and spend some time thinking about your visitors, and about the really cool things you can do when you combine triggers, frequency, scheduling, and advanced targeting rules. The combinations are literally limitless. I'm not sure on my math there, so there may be some finite limit to what you can do, but whatever it is, it's huge! This is a hot and contentious topic, with much to discuss, particularly because of how hard it is to interpret some of the communications surrounding it, so please add comments with any intel or different perspectives you have. We're committed to staying on top of the situation as it continues to unfold, and will bring you more details and ideas as soon as they become apparent. Here's to better marketing standards, and better marketing in general. Cheers To be a successful marketer, you need to come up with ways to engage with your audience. The goal of every marketing campaign should be to get people to complete a specific action. Some examples of these actions might be:
You know what you want your audience to do, but things don't always go as planned. Sometimes these people need a little extra convincing. That's totally OK. Don't be discouraged if you don't have high conversion rates right now or if you need a boost in sales. There is always room for improvement. That's what inspired me to create this guide. I want to share with you how you can use persuasion tactics to convince your audience to do something. As a result, you'll get higher conversions and ultimately increase your profits. These are the top 10 tactics that can be used to persuade your audience. 1. Be willing to accept criticismWhile it may not initially seem like it, accepting criticism is a valid method of persuasion. You're not always right. People know that. If you're carrying yourself as though every word you write and speak is never wrong, your audience may think you're arrogant. As a result, they will be less likely to take action. Instead, show your audience you're reasonable and open-minded by accepting feedback and criticism. Here's an example from a blog post written by Ben Labay at ConversionXL: One of the readers wrote a comment that disagreed with some of the points made in the article. There's nothing wrong with that. Some people are afraid to enable comments on their blog posts because they fear criticism. I always welcome comments and respond to them even if I don't always see eye-to-eye with the writer. Make sure you digest the opposite side of every argument. You may even realize the other person has valid points. Now you can spin that criticism and re-position your argument with a positive angle that entices the person to take a specific action. Live video streaming is another great platform to utilize for this purpose. You can converse with your audience in real time through these channels and have a discussion. After watching a branded video, 64% of consumers are likely to make a purchase. Furthermore, 46% of users complete an action after viewing a video advertisement. Use this information in your marketing campaign. Next time you're writing a post or streaming a live video, be more receptive to opposing opinions, and leverage that position to persuade your audience. 2. Find ways to get your audience to agree with youOn the other hand, it's always better if your audience agrees with you. It just involves less work on your end. But if you're starting from a clean slate, the first thing you need to do is get people to start nodding their heads. Make obvious claims or statements they'll agree with. Here's a great example from an article written by Ian Blair at BuildFire: Ian's persuasion is set up perfectly in the first few lines. These opening statements get the reader nodding their head right off the bat.
Anyone reading the above statements would agree with all of them. Now that the reader is in agreement, Ian offers a solution in the third line. And the audience is hooked. They'll continue reading and follow the advice to take specific actions. This tactic isn't limited to blogging. You can do this when you're speaking to someone in person as well. For example, a car salesman may set up a pitch for a certain vehicle by discussing the rising cost of gas. In the very next breath, they'll show the consumer a hybrid vehicle with great gas mileage. It's a simple technique, but it's extremely underrated. Try to implement this into your marketing strategy. 3. Show them actual evidenceTelling people something isn't always enough to convince them. This is especially true if they don't know you personally. While your closest friends and family members know you wouldn't lie to them, consumers may be skeptical. So you'll need to show evidence to back up your claims. For example, you could tell your audience people like to use Facebook to get their news. But does that really mean anything if you don't have any proof? It's much more effective to say,
Show graphs or other data sources as a visual reference for your claims as well. If you've been following my blogs for a while, you know I use this technique all the time. Visual evidence can have a remarkable impact on someone's ability to retain information. When information is communicated orally, the listener is only likely to remember 10% of what they heard three days later. But if images are paired with that data, 65% of the information is retained three days later. You want your audience to take a specific action, but they may not do it right away. Give them some time. Visual evidence will keep your persuasive voice in their minds even days after they consumed your content. 4. Limit their choicesIf you're trying to get people to buy a product or make a selection, limit their choices. Marketers make this mistake all the time. They think offering hundreds of choices will appeal to a wider audience, leading to more sales. The reality is, it has the opposite effect. One of the best examples of this concept is referred to as the “Jam Study.” Here's what researchers discovered. A grocery store had a display table with 24 different types of jam. The table attracted 60% of people shopping in the store. On average, each shopper sampled 2 flavors of jam, but only 3% of shoppers actually made a purchase. On a different day in that same grocery store, a smaller display table offered 6 different jams. This time, 40% of shoppers were attracted to this display. While people still sampled an average only 2 flavors, 30% of shoppers purchased jam. When consumers had fewer choices, they were 10 times more likely to buy something. It's known as the paradox of choice. People are indecisive. Giving them too many options will overwhelm them. They can't make a decision, so they end up getting nothing. Consumers are also more likely to feel buyer's remorse if you offer too many options. They will constantly second-guess their choices and may end up having a negative perception of your brand. Obviously, you don't want this to happen. If you're trying to persuade someone to choose something, narrow down their options, and you'll have higher conversion rates. 5. Know what your audience wantsIt's important to make sure you know your audience so that you can properly persuade them to do something. You should know what platforms they are using and how to distribute content to the right audience. For example, research shows that men are more responsive to email, but women respond better to face-to-face interactions. Find ways to captivate your audience and get their attention. This will make it easier for you to get them to do something. Let's say you have a broad target audience of men. What gets their attention? If ads for men's products include photos and videos of attractive women, it definitely grabs their attention. 6. Focus on repetitionJust because your marketing campaign didn't work the first time doesn't mean you should completely trash it. Sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to persuade your audience. Here's an interesting psychological concept that shows the importance and relevance of repetition. Studies show that in a group setting, if one person in the group repeats an opinion, others are more likely to see it as a representation of the entire group. Still don't think repetition is important? Let's see what you think of the following phrases:
As you know, those aren't just random words. Those are recognizable company slogans. I don't even have to say the names of those companies. You knew exactly what I was referring to because these slogans have been repeated enough times to become familiar. Are you experiencing shopping cart abandonment on your ecommerce website? Use the concept of repetition to remind the consumer about your products. Here's an email that Office Max sent out after items were left in a shopper's cart: This reminder improves your chances of persuading the recipient to finalize the purchase. 7. Be clear rather than ambiguousGet right to the point. Don't speak in tongues or in terms unclear to your audience. It's shady and can make you appear untrustworthy. If you're constantly talking in circles, you will confuse people and could make them think you're trying to trick them or fool them. Don't be deceptive. Ambiguous sales techniques are not effective. All it's going to do is raise the guard of your audience, and they won't want to follow your advice. 8. Learn how to tell a great storyRather than just telling someone to take a specific action, you can entice them to do that by telling a captivating story. The story could even be about a personal experience. 92% of consumers say they want advertisements from brands to feel like a story. Your stories should trigger an emotional response from your audience. Make sure you're telling a story they can relate to. Stories can be shared through multiple distribution channels, such as blogs, social media platforms, or your YouTube channel. You can even tell stories if you're speaking to a crowd to keep them engaged. It's an effective sales technique. Take a look at this example from the Nutrisystem website: They display success stories of people who have lost weight using their products. After hearing these stories, their audience is more likely to be persuaded to try the product. This also relates back to a tactic we discussed earlier about showing evidence. Saying your products can make someone lose weight is much different than showing them actual people who were able to lose weight. 9. Control your body languageBody language says a lot about a person. Look around the next time you're out in public. It's easy to tell what kind of mood someone is in just by looking at them. Something as simple as smiling or laughing can show that someone is happy. But slouching and staring at the ground are both typical signs of being upset. This may not be applicable if you're blogging, but you need to be aware of this whenever your audience can see you. If you're trying to persuade someone to do something, you should mirror their body language. Psychologically, this strategy helps you establish a rapport with your audience. For example, let's say you're trying to make a sale. If the consumer scratches their nose, you should do the same. When they cross their legs, you should cross yours. When they lean forward, you need to lean forward as well. Get it? Just don't be obvious. Remember, you're mirroring them, not mimicking them. These subtle actions can make the consumer trust you more, allowing you to convince them to do something. Another body language trick is known as The Sullivan Nod. Whenever you're making a point or creating a sales pitch, you should subtlety nod three times when you're talking about whatever you're persuading your audience to do. So for example, let's say you're doing a video review of a few products. When you get to the review of the product you're trying to sell, nod your head when you're talking about it. Studies show this technique can have a 60% success rate. 10. Speak confidentlyConfidence goes a long way. If you sound unsure, your audience will pick up on this right away. How can they believe you if you don't even believe what you're saying? So relax and speak as if you're an expert. Speak with authority. You should also speak fast. I'm not saying you should mumble or speak so fast that you can't be heard. But speaking at a faster pace makes it more difficult for your audience to pinpoint any flaws in your argument. If they don't have anything to disagree with, they're more likely to be persuaded. ConclusionBeing persuasive is a great skill to have as a marketer, but it's also something you can use in your everyday life. The techniques I've outlined above can help you in every scenario imaginable. You'll be able to persuade people through your blog, website, and social media platforms. You can even use these tactics to persuade someone in a face-to-face conversation. Some of these tips can be applied to a setting where you are a guest speaker in front of a large audience as well. Keep these under the radar tactics in mind the next time you're trying to persuade your audience to take action. You'll be able to do this with success. What persuasion tactics are you using to convince your customers to do what you want? Organic search makes up around one-third of traffic to company websites. It accounts for more traffic than paid and social put together! What does that tell us? SEO is as relevant as ever. If you work in marketing, write a blog, or have your own business, it is vital that you at least know the basics of SEO. But here's where you might hit a stumbling block. Successful SEO requires extensive knowledge of how search engines work. It takes time and practice to get right. Plus, it's like a moving target. SEO best practices are ever-changing and developing. That's because the search engine algorithms are updated all the time. I'm talking 500 to 600 times a year. Cheers Google. And there may be 200+ ranking factors that Google looks at when analyzing your site (though it feels like 1,000 sometimes). If you get the basics down, though, you'll be off to a winning start. You can look at the more mind-boggling metrics later. SEO Basic #1: LinksWithout links, your search result is going to remain at the bottom of the pack. The thing is, links have been one of Google's key ranking factors for years. And they're still hanging on at the top of the list. They're like that old friend who has stuck with you through thick-and-thin. They're so reliable, you really can't forget about them. If it's proof you want… Not too long ago, Brian Dean and his team at Backlinko analyzed one million Google search results to see which factors correlate with first-page rankings. Here's what they found out about backlinks: Evidently, they found that as the number of links a site has decreases so does their rank. But, why are links so important? Links from high-authority sites send a trust signal to Google. It's like having somebody vouch for you. The more people that vouch for you, the more trustworthy you are. Now the question is: How do you go about getting these magical seals of trust that Google holds in such high esteem? Links can be difficult to come by, especially if you aren't well-versed in link building tactics. At times you might feel like Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls, waiting for a candy cane while Glen Coco gets four. But there are proactive methods you can use to get backlinks. And you don't need any special technical skills to use them either. 1. Publish an original study or case study.This is one of the most natural ways to get people to link back to your site. All you need to do is publish an interesting set of data from an original study carried out by your company. If it's something that makes others in your industry go 'Wow!' then they won't be able to help themselves. They'll actually want to mention your study or results in their own blog posts and link to you as the source. If you don't have data or the resources to work with, then a case study will also attract links. A case study might focus on one fantastic result (and how you came by it). Take a look at this nice example from Lean Labs: Now, tell me you wouldn't want to link to that case study in your own article about increasing leads. 2. Write testimonials for other companies you've worked with.This is a simple yet underrated technique for gaining links. You've probably seen testimonials all over the place and may even have them on your own site. In many cases, you'll also see an image, name, position and a link to their site with the testimonial. This could be you! Simply compile a list of companies you have worked with over the last year. Then send each of them an email, thanking them for their outstanding services. Mention that you would like to offer a testimonial for their site if they'd like one. There's a strong chance they'll accept. Because who wouldn't want a glowing reference for their company? Oh, and don't forget to politely ask for a link if they don't give you one automatically. Follow these tips and… Links for you. You GO Glen Coco! SEO Basic #2: ContentIf you neglect content on your site, then you're doing it wrong. Content is another ranking factor that's way up there at the top of the list. It's just chillin' with its pal backlinks and it's not going anywhere. The reason why content is so vital to SEO is common sense really… Google wants you to produce fresh content consistently so it knows that you're still active. Content keeps people on your site. This is a signal to the search engines that you're providing relevant and useful information. And let's just go ahead and state the obvious here… It's where your keywords go! Google's updates obviously changed the way we use keywords in content. What was it again? Something about keywords and stuffed Pandas? But that doesn't mean that sites don't still rank for keywords. In fact, sites rank for a lot of keywords. Ahrefs analyzed three million random search terms to see how many other keywords the top 20 pages also rank for. Take a look: The number one page ranks for 1,000 other keywords, too. You just can't miss out on an opportunity like that. So, here are some top tips for producing SEO-friendly content. 1. Create long-form content.According to Brian Dean's research, the average first-page result on Google is 1890 words. If that sounds like a lot of work… That's because it is. Your content needs to be as long as possible to give it depth. Longer content provides more utility to your site's visitors. It also gives you space to target as many keywords as possible – whether intentionally or unintentionally. 2. Try different types of content.Variety is the spice of content marketing. Different types of content or blog posts can serve different purposes. A great idea is to produce your own video content. If you're in a blog-post rut, video tutorials are a great way to provide value for your audience and spice up your content. For example, take this video on how to track your marketing campaigns: Videos are highly shareable and linkable content, which makes them beneficial for traffic and SEO. And you can still get the benefits of written blog posts (keywords etc.) Simply post the video on your blog with a transcription. 3. Repurpose old content.It's your content, and you can do what you want. That's not the only reason to repurpose content though. Sometimes, content needs repurposing to keep it fresh. In the SEO world, for instance, trends and developments move swiftly. This means content on SEO topics made a few years ago don't contain the most up-to-date advice. Or you could repurpose it by turning it into a different medium like an infographic, e-book or slideshare. Check out how Copyblogger adapted one of their strongest pieces of content to Slideshare:
Repurposing content lets you unbury old content and get more eyes on it. Plus, Google likes fresh and up-to-date content. SEO Basic #3: Meta Descriptions and HeadlinesThe headline and meta description of your post or page is displayed in the search results. It's probably the first thing a person sees. It looks like this: This is your first impression. So you want to make it a good one. And while the meta description isn't a direct ranking signal for search engines, it does carry some importance. Because it helps people decide whether to click on your result or not. The way people engage at this point is called the click-through rate (CTR). It compares the number of people who click on a result and how many people see it. And CTR is an important ranking factor. So you can and should optimize your headline and meta description to improve the click-through rate. Because if people aren't clicking on your link, Google will notice and drop your ranking. And your headline is a big factor in your CTR. For instance, a study by Contently (see how we're linking to them for their original research?) showed that longer titles (up to 90-99 characters) have a better click-through rate. Make sure your headline contains your focus keyword. If Google wants to know what your article is about, your headline is the answer. But keep in mind: A headline optimized for SEO isn't necessarily going to be the most appealing. So you need to find the sweet spot where your headline is good for the search engines and your audience. (People want to click on it and share it.) Here are some tips to do just that. 1. Place keywords close to the beginning.Place them in a natural position, but as close to the beginning as possible. That way Google will receive your signal loud and clear. 2. Make it catchy and clickable.You've probably seen a viral headline. You know the Buzzfeed-type headlines, “This Avocado Stone Will Change Your Life” and “What Happens When You Balance an Avocado Stone on Your Forehead (The Results May Surprise You).” Although, these types of headlines may seem a little intense. It turns out there's a formula for producing a successful headline in this way. Buzzsumo analyzed 100 million headlines to work out what makes a popular headline. They found that headlines containing certain phrases got more engagement on Facebook. And there was more. Emotional headlines also make for more engagement. Curiosity, too. There are even phrases to end your headlines with so that they perform better. So your best bet is to pop your keyword into a headline formula. Take this LinkedIn post for example: The keyword is 'blogging mistakes,' and it contains the number one popular phrase 'will make you.' So you may want to use a viral-style headline. But be warned… It's important that your title and meta description genuinely represent the content you have created. Otherwise, you'll create a pogo-sticking effect. That's when somebody searches for something, clicks the first result, and it doesn't contain the information they're looking for they go back and click on the next result. It isn't what they're looking for, so they go back and click on the next result and so on until they find what they're actually looking for and stay on that page. The page they stay on will go up in the rankings, and if your page is part of the pogo-sticking effect, it will go down. SEO Basic #4: User ExperienceSearch engines value user experience (UX). Google collects data on the way users behave when they get to your site. If the user experience of your site is not up to par, then it will negatively affect SEO. Which makes sense because it's Google's job to supply the searcher with the best result they can. And that's all well and good if you have an outstanding piece of content that's relevant to the search term and provides value to the visitor. But if your page doesn't load quickly enough, a user is going to smash up their laptop in frustration. Or more likely they'll just bounce. As more people up and leave, it's going to send a signal to Google that your user experience is not good enough. People expect your site to load quicker than The Flash. Maile Ohye, former Developer Programs Tech Lead at Google, explained:
Half a second! But the time it takes for your site to load is just one of many metrics that Google analyzes to assess user experience. UX is such an intricate discipline with many aspects that it has its own field of experts. So how do you, someone with little technical experience, especially in UX, improve your site for SEO? User experience is simply working with the user in mind. There are things people care about, and things they don't. The design of your website may be the Sistine Chapel of websites. But let's be honest… A user is coming to your site to find a product or information. They don't care about your cutting-edge design. They just want the whole experience to be easy. I mean, we're all basically sloths these days. We may be cute, but we're lazy. Hubspot proved this. Not that we're actually sloths in human clothing, of course. They found that what consumers value the most about web design is the level of ease: So what can you do to give users an easy experience? 1. Increase site speed.I've mentioned site speed and its impact. But how do you actually go about improving it? Well, there are some methods that require tech skills and some that don't. One thing you can do easily is crop images so they're the right size and compress them using a tool like Tiny JPG or ImageOptim (Mac only). This means they don't take ages to load on your site. You can also delete plugins that you don't use because those might be slowing your site down. 2. Keep it clean, clear and simple.Users don't want to visit a site and be confronted with an image slider or every single one of your services. It's overwhelming. You need a simple message and clear sections so users can find what they're looking for. Users shouldn't need the Marauder's Map to find secret passageways to different areas of your site. 3. Limit ads.Too many ads are going to put users off, too. Particularly on mobile. According to The Coalition for Better Ads, ads should not take up more than 30 percent of the vertical space based on user experience. Pop-ups are particularly terrible for mobile UX and should be avoided like the plague. Often they don't resize correctly to fit mobile. And it's not as easy to get rid of them as it is on a desktop. You have to locate and jab the little x with your fat finger. SEO Basic #5: MobileMobile SEO is actually more important than ever. Google will soon be using page speed as a mobile ranking factor, which they announced on their Webmaster Central Blog:
Currently, Google's algorithms analyze the desktop version of your site first. But mobile-first indexing is here. And you need to get ready. Most people search on mobile these days and the change is coming. Google has stated in the past that over 50 percent of searches come from mobile. Hitwise estimates the figure to be around 58 percent, based on analysis of hundreds of millions of search queries in key categories across PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Here's what they found: If your niche is in one of the higher percentage categories, you need to pay extra attention to mobile SEO. So how do you optimize for mobile? The simplest way is to check if your site is mobile-friendly with Google's mobile-friendly test. All you need to do is copy and paste your URL. It takes seconds to come up with the results. It will tell you if your site is mobile-friendly or not on a screen like this: If your site fails the test, Google will tell you where the errors are on your mobile site. For example, it might say 'Text is too small to read' or 'Content is wider than screen.' To fix those errors, you'll need to create a responsive website. This is Google's preferred design. So basically, you'd be silly if you didn't choose their preferred design option. Here are some additional tips for mobile SEO. 1. Optimize for local SEO.Think about how you search on your smartphone. I bet a lot of the time, you're out and about and need to find a local shop or restaurant, for instance. You're not alone. 89% of people search for a local business on their phone once a week and 58 percent do it daily. That means it's time to improve your local SEO to get the best results on mobile. 2. Optimize for voice searchLots of people use voice search on their mobile now. In fact, 20% of mobile queries are voice search. The importance of voice search is growing. So you need to start thinking about the kind of natural language people will use when performing a voice search. And add your discoveries to your keyword list. Because even though you might type “weather Seattle,” you're not going to use that with Siri or Alexa. You're probably just going to ask, “Hey, what's the weather like in Seattle?” Your content will need to reflect that. 3. Don't hide content.Don't play hide-and-seek or display content differently on the mobile version of your site. In other words, there should be no content hidden behind expandable sections, menus, or buttons. If Google is going to look at mobile first in the near future, then it needs to be able to see all of your content on mobile. ConclusionYes, SEO is like trying to hit a moving target. But putting the skills behind these basics into practice will ensure you make several hits. A key takeaway from this article is that there are proactive methods you can use to improve SEO, even if you have no technical skills. Go after the important metrics such as links or content with simple methods and tricks. Think of your audience as well as the search engines when working on your site. And don't forget to get ahead of the trends by optimizing for mobile. Anyone can do these things. What are your go-to SEO basics? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. Content is king. And content marketing in 2018 remains a brilliant and cost-effective method for engaging with leads and customers, spreading brand awareness, and getting around the increasing use of ad-blockers. Whether it's an email newsletter, social media post, or blog on your own or someone else's website, people want to see your stuff. They accept it. Approve it. Whitelist it. Because it's the user him or herself clicking on it, there are no concerns of spam complaints, or annoying the recipient, or ending up in the junk folder. It's popular, powerful, and for all intents and purposes, perfect. If you're online in any professional capacity, you're already using it. Google “content marketing” and you'll uncover millions (78,200,000 when I did it just now) of results, everything from definitions to how-to guides to case studies. You can quickly and easily pick up the how, why, when, what, and where of content marketing. Every online marketing personality and business has their own advanced guide or step-by-step guide, allowing anyone to grasp, experiment, and eventually master the subtle art of content marketing.
Strikingly, the only thing you won't see much of in those millions upon millions of links is how to know when your content marketing isn't working. Because there's a lot more to successful content marketing than just traffic and clicks, and a hell of a lot more than just likes, shares, and retweets. Those are simply vanity metrics that don't tell you anything of importance by themselves…although it sure does feel nice to see people are loving your stuff. Now, vanity metrics can be used to find actionable insight, but that's the subject of another post on another day. Suffice to say, if you're gauging the success of your content campaigns on likes and shares alone, you're doing it wrong and wasting your time and energy. Instead of focusing on the vanity metric, use it to inform your marketing decisions. Dig deeper. Find the corresponding actionable metric. Content marketing is an active endeavor, and most of the hard work starts after you hit publish. It's not about reaching people; it's about reaching the right people. How do you know when you're not doing that? Look for these five red flags before and during the push. Content Marketing 101But before we get to that, let's review some basics. If you remember only one thing about content marketing, make it this: write your strategy down. Be explicit, detailed, and clear about goals (use SMART goals and stretch goals if applicable), tactics, channels, and how you're going to measure success. What will “success” look like? How will you measure return-on-investment? Make sure you and everyone on your team knows and understands. How often will your marketing team meet? The most successful meet regularly to evaluate, tweak, and manage as necessary. Your content marketing should not be set-it-and-forget-it. Target your ideal customers. Segment your audience. A/B test. Monitor your efforts. Create evergreen content. Measure the return-on-investment to maximize your budget. Look at your competitors and industry to see what's working, what's not, and what others are and are not doing. In their 2018 annual report on content marketing, CMI discovered that only 38% of B2C businesses have a documented strategy. That's appallingly low. Document your strategy. Do that, and you're ahead of 62% of the competition. Diversify your tactics and channels. The same report found that B2C marketers:
The tricks and tips and hacks for better content marketing are many. Read some. Read many.
And that brings us back full-circle. Knowing when your content marketing isn't working is as important as knowing when it is…if not more so. How can you tell if you're on the wrong track and heading in the wrong direction? Watch for (and respond!) to these five signposts along the way. Signpost #1: The Wrong People Are Signing UpConsider this hypothetical scenario: you launch an aggressive content campaign, complete with blog and social media posts, videos, and infographics, to promote your new SaaS product launch. Everything has a rock-solid call-to-action inviting people to a free 7-day trial. They click the CTA button, are transported to a well-crafted landing page, and sign up. That's an undeniable content marketing win, right? Wrong. It could be a win…depending on who is signing up. Numbers alone don't answer that question. Even if you're looking at an insane 60% conversion rate, it's meaningless if those signing up are the wrong people. So who are the “wrong” people? Anyone that's not within your target market. They may be interested in your content for a wide variety of reasons – research, curiosity, education – but they're not necessarily interested in your product or service. Now, far be it for me to suggest that you shouldn't ever target outside your market. I'm not, and you should. Sometimes your best customers down the road are the ones you're not even considering at the moment. A portion of signups outside your target audience is not only nothing to worry about, but a positive and worthwhile goal. That said, if 50%, 60%, or 70%+ of your leads are falling outside of those you were targeting – wrong geographic location, industry, background, profession, income level, interests, or whatever – something's wrong. If the majority of those signing up for your email newsletters, gated content, or free trials are nowhere near your ideal fit, your content marketing isn't working. Before you write a single line of blog post or send a single tweet, you need to be crystal-clear on your ideal customer. Get to know him or her. You've no doubt heard about the importance of buyer or customer personas. Build and use them to guide your content efforts. Do that, and the likelihood of the “wrong” people coming to your content goes down exponentially. Why? Because a detailed persona allows you to reverse engineer your content specifically for them: their wants, needs, pain points, values, and more. That's more than half the battle. If you're just starting out, this is a bit more difficult, but not impossible. If you have existing customers and sales data to work with, though, you can zero in on the best of the best. According to Duct Tape Marketing:
That's your ideal, most profitable customer. Create content for him or her. Share it on the platforms he or she uses and spends the most time on. Social platforms typically have built-in capabilities, such as Twitter Analytics audience insights dashboard. If you're targeting English-speaking men over the age of 50, and your Analytics report shows most of your visitors are females under the age of 25 and from Italy, all those conversions – sign-ups, downloads, or otherwise – probably aren't going to amount to much with your bottom line. The sooner you know that, the sooner you can fix it. If the wrong people are signing up or downloading your lead magnets, you have to change direction. And fast. Know exactly who you're targeting, and give them exactly what they want and where they want it. Then monitor to make sure it's drawing them in. Signpost #2: Incompatible Backlink ProfileBacklinks are still important for your search engine optimization. In fact, many would argue that they're the key to your overall SEO success. Quality backlinks from respected sites is a surefire indicator to Google and the rest of the search engine overlords that your content is valuable, useful, and worth a read. It's a vote of confidence. And that can translate into a big jump on the SERPs. The closer you are to that coveted top spot, the better the chance someone will click on your link. Increased traffic means increased leads, which means increased revenue. Google is happy, the users are happy, and you're happy. Backlinks and SEO go hand-in-hand. But backlinks can also tell you if there's something amiss with your content marketing. Imagine if your backlink profile – a report on which external sites are linking to your stuff – is populated with websites you wouldn't expect your target market to visit. Good? Bad? It depends on your criteria. If those sites are quality sites, those backlinks are still going to give you a healthy SEO boost. That's good. However, it may be evidence that your content is not resonating with your ideal customers. And that's very, very bad. Your content, after all, is how you introduce yourself to them, educated them on your products and services, and persuade them to open their wallets. If it's missing that mark, you're failing at the marketing game. It's the difference between leaving a flyer on hundreds of windshields in a mall parking lot, and hand-delivering to prospects you know would benefit from what you have to offer. Luckily, generating a backlink profile and conducting a link audit is fast and easy, and there are many tools to assist with it. To get a basic list, log in to Google Search Console. Click “Search Traffic” on the left-hand menu, and then select “Links to Your Site”. You'll get a quick n' dirty report with the total number of links, and the sites who link the most. Now, you can determine if the sites linking back to your content are within your “demographic”. Some you might recognize by name, others you may have to visit and evaluate. For a more detailed analysis, you can try a dedicated backlink tool. Some of the best include: If your target is recent university graduates, and you're receiving backlinks from retirement agencies, there's a mismatch. You're not producing the right content to connect with those just entering the workforce. If you've done your homework, you should have detailed customer personas. You should know not only who they are, but also what they need, and where they are. Too many people outside those parameters linking to your content is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not going to generate massive sales and revenue. The sites linking to you are an indicator of who your content is reaching. If you're targeting professionals, but most of your links are coming from gossip sites, stop. If you're after grandparents, but Millennial Now is your biggest external source, halt. Check your link profile. Ensure most of them are coming from sites your target audience would frequent to increase your exposure with them. If not, re-evaluate. Switch tracks. Create more of what they want, need, and desire. Align your content with your customer. Signpost #3: No One Is SharingYes, I did tell you at the beginning of this post that shares and likes are a vanity metric. That's still true. But do you know what else is true? Great content gets shared. If people are reading your content but not sharing it, then you're not producing quality content and your marketing is failing. Period. This is especially true with influencers in your niche. If you create enough fantastic content, eventually some influencers in your market will share that content. If they aren't, that's trouble. Think about your own online behavior. When you read or encounter a great blog post, infographic, or video, you share it with your own fans, followers, friends, and family. It's almost automatic. Every platform has the ability built-in, and third-party tools like Hootsuite and sharing plugins make it effortless and convenient. We read or watch it, we instinctively share it. You want your content to be shared. You need your content to be shared. Every time you create something, you want it to go viral. That kind of reach and exposure is the dream. While it may not happen for you, consistent social sharing increases your exposure exponentially. One retweet puts your content in front of a whole new set of eyes. It gets people talking about you and your brand. And the cycle repeats if only one person from that new group shares it again, and so on. First, you need to track how many shares you're getting with your existing content. Tools like Hootsuite can monitor your mentions across social media, Google Alerts can notify you when your tracked keywords and phrases are used, Likealyzer analyzes your Facebook Page, Snaplytics provides data on both Snapchat and Instagram Stories, BuzzSumo shows you how content on your site is doing on social media, Google Analytics can report on how much traffic to your site is coming from social channels (under Acquisition > Social > Overview), SharesCount displays social shares based on individual URLs, and all-in-one management platforms like Sprout Social can monitor most of the major platforms from one dashboard. If you have no shares, you have some serious work to do. If you have some shares, more is always better. If you're happy with the shares you're seeing, you're selling yourself and your content short.
More shares, more exposure. More exposure, more leads. More leads, more conversions. So, do everything you can to increase the amount of social sharing you're already seeing:
Increasing your social shares should be part of your content marketing strategy regardless of how many you're currently seeing. Step 1: monitor your shares. Step 2: increase your shares. None, few, or lots, more are better. Signpost #4: Your Leads Aren't Talking About Your ContentThis one is reactive. You won't know until you start generating some quality leads. It requires asking or surveying them about where and how they heard about you, your brand, and your products. It might be a simple question in your email series or while talking to them on the phone, or a follow-up online survey, or a fill-in field on an opt-in form. “How did you hear about us?” is profitable and relevant data to collect. The answers should be varied if you've diversified your marketing efforts. Some might say it was a referral from a friend, another might mention an online review or recommendation, while others may have clicked a PPC ad, or read a newspaper feature, or googled your targeted keyword. But some of them will hopefully talk about your content. In a perfect world, they'll bring it up without any solicitation from you, choosing to mention how much they loved your blog post on X, or how helpful they found your infographic on Y. That's when you know your content marketing is crushing it. Great content with great promotion should elicit great (and unsolicited) feedback.
If none of your leads are talking about your content, that's a major red flag. If none of them mention “content” when you ask, that's a neon signpost. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Ask. And if the answer is anything and everything but content, you know you need to head back to the drawing board. Don't stop whatever is working, of course, but tidy up your content efforts at the same time. It's just too lucrative a tactic to allow it to fail so miserably. Ask yourself: what do my ideal customers most need? What do they struggle with? How can I better/simplify/improve their lives? Answer those questions and more with the content you create, and tongues will be wagging. Signpost #5: Your Leads Want What You Can't DoLead generation is a major part of any business plan. A steady stream of leads going in at the top of your sales funnel means a steady – albeit smaller – stream of customers and advocates exiting at the bottom. But all leads are not created equal. Picture this: the leads that are reaching out to you are asking about things you can't or don't do. Once or twice is an anomaly. But if it happens on a regular basis then your content is likely at fault. Leads asking for something other than what you do is often a symptom of creating content that is not directly tied to the business. If you're in the analytics business, you should write about analytics. If you produce quality content on SEO as an extension of that, don't be surprised if people contact you asking for SEO advice and solutions. If leads are asking about things you can't, don't, or won't do, you aren't creating the right content for your business. Content marketing is supposed to introduce you as an expert and authority in your field. It's supposed to initiate a discussion between you and those in need of what you have or do. In your content efforts, stick to only those topics and sub-topics that are directly related to your product or service. Write only about those subjects. Talk, share, comment, and engage only in those areas. Everything else is just noise.
ConclusionNo traffic. No clicks. No leads. No ROI. Those are a few common reasons your content marketing isn't working for you. Those are easy to recognize and relatively easy to correct. Jay Baer suggests four categories to fix a broken campaign:
But content marketing can fail in many less obvious ways. It's your job to watch, monitor, and manage those silent killers. The five discussed here are far from exhaustive. The list of potential content assassins is long. You've got to stay vigilant. It is possible to get and stay on the right track heading in the right direction. Over to you. What other ways have you found your content marketing falling short? What hiccups have you stumbled upon in your marketing? What red flags are you always on the look for? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. By now I'm sure you know how important it is to have an active presence on social media. You've been posting more often and trying to engage with your followers. This is great, but you need to make sure you're not overlooking the small stuff. Often, I see business pages with cover photos that look like they were created without much thought. This is a huge mistake. Your cover photo is the first thing your audience sees when they view your Facebook page. First impressions can make or break the public perception of your page, which is why you need to put some time and effort into your cover photo. Incorporating the right visual elements into your marketing strategy is important. You need to look at your Facebook page as a marketing channel. Marketers recognize the importance of this. That's why 74% of marketing experts use images and other visuals to enhance their social media marketing strategies. Furthermore, 37% of marketers named visual content as the most important marketing channel for their businesses. Creating more engaging content and coming up with visual content is a top priority for B2B marketers: If you're trying to improve your visual content, your Facebook cover photo is the most logical place to start. That's because Facebook has over 2 billion active monthly users. This user base is growing at roughly 17% every year. No matter what industry you're in or what your company does, it's safe to say your target market is active on Facebook. Now, it's time for you to reach them. I'll show you exactly what you need to do to create a Facebook cover photo that engages with your followers. Know your audienceThe first thing you need to do is understand who is following you on Facebook. You may think you already have some idea because you're assuming your Facebook audience is the same as your existing customer base. However, this isn't always the case, and you need to find out for sure. How do you go about this? Facebook has awesome analytics tools built right into their platform. If you've never used them before, here's how you can find out who is following your page. Step #1: Navigate to the “Insights” tab on your homepage If you're used to regular Facebook profile homepages, you're probably not familiar with this tool. Business pages and fan pages have more options than personal profile pages have. You'll notice a row of tabs at the top of your screen. Select Insights to continue. Step #2: Select the “People” option toward the bottom left corner of the Insights menu Your Insight menu has lots of options. You can check out various actions on the page and manage videos, events, page views, and more. One of those choices is the “People” menu. Select that to get one step closer to seeing your audience. Step #3: Click on the “Your Fans” tab Now you've got complete access to everyone who likes your page. You can view the numbers for these demographics based on categories like:
You can use this information to come up with a cover photo that speaks to your primary audience. For example, let's say you discover that 85% of your fans are female, 80% of your followers speak Italian, and 75% of your fans are between the ages of 45 and 55. If that's the case, you should probably create a cover photo that speaks to a middle-aged Italian woman. Simple, right? This information can definitely guide you in the right direction, but make sure you take it with a grain of salt. The data probably won't be 100% accurate. People lie on Facebook. In fact, research shows that more than 75% of people have lied in their social media profiles. That said, this shouldn't drastically skew your results. It's still a good indication of your primary audience. Simplicity is effectiveI've explained in the past why websites with simple designs have higher conversion rates. The same concept can be applied to your Facebook page. Don't overwhelm your followers. Your image should be clear and simple. If you try to fit 20 different elements into one picture, your message will be lost. Instead, try to come up with a clear point of focus. Your audience's eyes should be drawn to just one element so they don't get overwhelmed. Here's a great example from the Acura Facebook page: Acura has an entire fleet of vehicles. They sell a variety of sedans, sports cars, luxury vehicles, and SUVs. But notice that their cover photo is very simple. Instead of bombarding their followers with 20 different cars in one image, they selected one. It speaks volumes and makes the audience think. What is so special about this car? If you click on the photo, you'll learn that it's a new prototype of the Acura RDX. Users would be less likely to click to find out more if there were many cars in the picture. This is also related to the paradox of choice phenomenon. The more choices you give someone, the lower your conversion rates will be. That's why simplicity converts. Let's take a look at another well-known brand to see how they approach their cover photo. Adidas is recognized across the globe. They sell clothing, shoes, and sporting equipment. Their customer base is men and women of all ages, who participate in a wide range of sports. How can they come up with a simple cover photo that encompasses all these elements? They don't even try, which is a smart approach. If they tried to include every sport in one picture, it wouldn't be very effective. In this instance, they decided to pitch their soccer cleats. It could be related to part of their overall marketing campaign. Or maybe they used analytics to determine that the majority of their fans live in areas where soccer is the most popular sport. It might even be a combination of multiple factors. Regardless of their reason, Adidas made the smart decision to keep things simple. If their marketing goals change, I'm sure their cover photo will be adjusted accordingly. But I'll discuss this idea in greater detail shortly. Make sure you follow Facebook's guidelinesRegardless of how you decide to approach your Facebook cover photo, it needs to follow the Facebook Cover Photo Guidelines. Facebook is pretty strict when it comes to their rules and regulations. It's imperative your photo abides by these guidelines, or you'll have problems. The last thing you want to happen is to have your account suspended for a breach of their rules. That will crush your social media marketing campaign and defeat the purpose of what you're trying to accomplish here. I'll quickly summarize what you need to know. Your image should be unique and relevant to your page. For example, if you've got a restaurant, an appropriate image would be something on your menu. Cover photos must be properly sized. Here are those dimensions:
Your cover photo will load as fast as possible if it's an SRBG JPG file that's less than 100 kilobytes, 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you need help resizing your photo to meet these standards, you can use photo-editing software such as PicMonkey: Facebook's rules also state that your photo can't mislead or deceive your audience. The image also can't infringe on someone else's copyright. Your photo can't encourage or promote users to tag themselves or their friends either. It's prohibited to tell your followers to upload your cover photo to their timelines. Make sure you review all the Facebook Page Terms to ensure you're not in violation of any policies. Change it upDon't be boring. Just because you came up with an awesome cover photo that fits everything I've talked about so far doesn't mean you should use it for the rest of eternity. Changing your cover photo will help keep your audience engaged. Think back to some of the examples we looked at earlier. Acura isn't going to promote that one car forever. Adidas won't be promoting soccer cleats all year either. Your photo should change based on the goals of your company and overall marketing campaign. Try to include highly relevant images based on the season or current events. For example, you could have a red, white, and blue themed cover photo around the 4th of July. Or maybe use an image with a pumpkin and witch close to Halloween. Check out this example from Bose. They do a great job of accomplishing exactly what I'm referring to: With NFL season coming to a close, Bose changed their Facebook cover photo so that it's related to the Super Bowl. This image is perfect for this time of year, but it wouldn't be as effective in May or June. If you don't update your cover photo regularly, your followers may think you're not monitoring your page. Your cover photo should represent the overall image of your companyWhat's the goal or mission of your company? Your cover photo should tell that story. If your company works with charitable organizations or helps people in need, use an image reflecting that. Again, first impressions matter. The first thing people see on your Facebook page should tell them what you stand for. Your cover photo should also try to entice people to follow your page: Try to create brand awareness through your cover photo. If your followers like and comment on it, the image will appear on the timelines of their friends as well. This increases the exposure of your company and improves your chances of getting more followers. ConclusionYour social media marketing campaign isn't complete without an effective and engaging Facebook cover photo. Don't rush. Take your time and come up with something unique. Your cover photo needs to speak directly to your audience. Use the insights feature on Facebook to find out who follows your page. Tailor your image toward those people. Keep it simple. Your company does a lot, but your photo doesn't need to encompass it all. Pick one theme and go with it. You can always change it later. Make sure your photo follows Facebook's guidelines. Otherwise, your account could get suspended. Whatever you decide to do, keep in mind your cover photo should reflect the overall image of your company. Follow these tips, and you'll get more engagement with your audience on Facebook. What kind of Facebook cover photo do you use? |
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